The eruption severed Tonga’s single fiber-optic cable, rendering the entire Pacific archipelago offline and unable to communicate with the rest of the world.
(Image credit: HOGP/AP)
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Arrests in UK over Texas synagogue hostage situation
The men were detained as part of an ongoing probe into the Colleyville attack
Police in Birmingham and Manchester arrested two men on Thursday as the authorities continue their investigation into last week’s Texas synagogue hostage incident.
“As a result of this ongoing investigation, two men have been arrested this morning in Birmingham and Manchester. They remain in custody for questioning,” Greater Manchester Police said, announcing the development.
“Officers from Counter-Terror Policing (CTP) North West continue to support US authorities with their investigation into the events in Texas,” it added.
The police also encouraged members of the public to come forward if they had any information and urged citizens to “remain vigilant.”
READ MORE: Macron slammed for turning EU into ‘Africa’s hotel’ & ‘Beijing’s prey’
The arrests come after the hostage situation at the weekend in Colleyville, Texas. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was shot dead by police after bursting in on a service at a synagogue on Saturday and holding people hostage during a 10-hour standoff. All four hostages escaped unharmed.
Two teens arrested following the incident were released on Tuesday without charge.
Akram, who was from Blackburn in the north of England, was known to MI5, Britain’s internal intelligence service, and had been under investigation for four weeks, according to British media, citing government sources.
It was decided that there was no jihadist terrorist risk and no need to prevent him from traveling.
Count Me in: Working Together for Disability Inclusion in Guatemala
GUATEMALA CITY, Jan 20 (IPS) – “Persons with disabilities are capable and equal. It is time the world understands that,” says Antonio Palma, a UN Volunteer at the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Guatemala. Antonio, who has a visual impairment, expresses what many other persons with disabilities feel. Ignored, mistreated, misunderstood, underestimated, condescended to.
Jan 19 (IPS) – Not
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In Kyiv, Secretary Blinken vowed to stand with Ukraine as Russia tensions continue
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in Kyiv, assuring Ukrainian officials of American support in the face of a threatened Russian invasion.
Declassified video shows US drone strike on civilians
The botched US air raid killed 10 civilians in Kabul, most of them children
The Pentagon has released surveillance videos showing a US air strike that killed 10 civilians in the Afghan capital last year, one of the final American combat missions in the country as Washington ended its two-decade war.
Published by the New York Times on Wednesday, the declassified 25-minute video shows the moment an Afghan aid worker and nine other non-combatants, including seven children, were killed in the US strike, all captured by two drones flying over Kabul during the August 29, 2021 bombing raid.
While the military initially claimed the strike targeted members of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) who were transporting explosives – with one senior official deeming the operation “righteous” – it was later forced to backtrack and acknowledge that only civilians were killed in the attack.
Ahead of the strike, two MQ-9 Reaper drones trailed a white Toyota Corolla driven by a man later identified as Zemari Ahmadi, an aid worker with the US-based Nutrition and Education International. After following him for some time, Ahmadi’s car was struck as he pulled into the driveway of his home, seen around eight minutes into the footage. The blast engulfed the property, instantly killing Ahmadi and several children who rushed out to greet him, as well as other family members nearby.
A probe by the Air Force concluded that the operation did not violate any laws and recommended no disciplinary action. Though the investigation did find that surveillance footage showed the presence of at least one child near the site of the strike about two minutes before it was launched, the Pentagon said that would have been easy to miss in real-time.
“[In] two independent reviews that I conducted, the physical evidence of a child was apparent at the two-minute point. But it is 100 percent not obvious; you have to be looking for it,” Air Force Inspector General Sami Said told reporters in November following the inquiry, insisting the massacre was a “mistake” and not an act of “negligence.”
The declassified footage was obtained in a months-long Freedom of Information Act suit led by the Times, which was the first to uncover evidence the drone strike may not have killed any IS terrorists as the military initially claimed. The Pentagon also attempted to pin the loss of innocent life on a “secondary explosion” near Ahmadi’s home – suggesting he was indeed carrying a bomb in his car – but later said the fireball was likely caused by a propane tank, effectively abandoning any notion that he was a militant.