Month: April 2019

An American airline has apologised after a member of staff was accused of ridiculing five-year-old Abcde Redford’s name.

Traci Redmond was travelling with her daughter, who pronounces her name “ab-si-dee”, when she said a Southwest Airlines boarding gate employee at at California’s John Wayne Airport began laughing and took a photograph of the child’s boarding pass, before posting it online.

“The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees. So I turned around and said, ‘Hey if I can hear you, my daughter can hear you, so I’d appreciate if you’d just stop,’” she told ABC7 News.

They were travelling to their home in El Paso, Texas, and were boarding early as Abcde has epilepsy.

"While I was sitting there, she took a picture of my boarding pass and chose to post it on social media, mocking my daughter,” said Ms Redmond.

“It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines. And after two weeks of doing a formal complaint, Southwest hadn’t done anything.”

The airline apologised to the family in a statement.

“We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our Customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online. The post is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our employees,” it said, although it declined to say what action it had taken against its member of staff.

The name Abcde may be rare but it is not unique.

In 2014, seven-year-old Abcde Santos, who has autism, made headlines when she was turned away from a shopping centre Santa’s grotto because of the pit bull service dog

Dozens of suspected members of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia were arrested on Wednesday in co-ordinated raids as part of what is being hailed as the biggest ever EU operation against organised crime.

A total of 84 suspects were arrested as police in Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg raided the homes of suspected mafia bosses and searched restaurants and other businesses in the early hours of the morning. Italian authorities say that further raids were conducted in South America.

The ‘Ndrangheta, a mafia organisation that operates out of the Calabria region of southern Italy, is one of the largest crime syndicates in the world, and is thought to make billions of pounds through cocaine trafficking every year.  

Operation Pollino was co-ordinated by Eurojust, the EU’s cross-border justice authority, which described it as a “decisive” intervention against organised crime. 

“Today, we send a clear message to organised crime groups across Europe. They are not the only ones able to operate across borders; so are Europe’s judiciary and law enforcement communities,” said Filippo Spiezia, vice president of Eurojust.

Just under half of the suspects were detained in Italy. In Germany, the raids constituted the country’s greatest strike against the mafia, as several hundred officers searched over 60 properties and arrested 14 suspects.

The raids are the culmination for two years of co-operation between justice authorities in the five countries, which have led to the seizure of four tonnes of cocaine and large quantities of ecstasy. Investigators in Germany say that they expect roughly €2million (£1.78 million) in cash to have been seized during the operation.

The ‘Ndrangheta are believed to have aggressively expanded their territory in Europe in recent years. Money earned in the narcotics trade is re-invested in property and businesses such as restaurants, cafes and ice cream parlours where the crime families launder their illicit revenues.

According to Eurojust, the ‘Ndrangheta have deliberately exploited a lack of cross-border co-ordination between judicial authorities. Mr Spiezia said the raids were a sign that this weakness in European justice had been tackled.

“By working together and using the unique tools at our disposal in the EU, such as the possibility to form a joint investigation team and with the practical support through EU agencies such as Eurojust and Europol, we are able to detect, investigate and prosecute this kind of serious organised crime,” he said.

In Germany, the public has been aware of the rising power of the ‘Ndrangheta ever since a power struggle between two mafia families spilled out onto the streets of Duisburg in 2007. 

On that occasion six members of a family operating under the ‘Ndrangheta umbrella were shot dead outside an Italian restaurant by members of a rival family who hail from the same tiny mountain village in Calabria.

One expert warned last year that “the mafia in Germany is invisible, but represented almost everywhere.”

Archaeologists in Algeria have discovered stone tools and cut animal bones that may be up to 2.4 million years old, bringing into question East Africa’s title as the cradle of humanity, according to research published Thursday in the journal Science.

The artifacts – more ancient than those discovered in the region until now – were found in Setif, some 200 miles (300 kilometres) east of Algiers, by a team of international researchers, including Algerians.

The tools closely resemble those called Oldowan, found until now mainly in East Africa.

The tools were unearthed near dozens of fossilised animal bones which contained cut marks, as if relics of prehistoric butchers.

The bones came from animals including the ancestors of crocodiles, elephants and hippopotamuses.

"East Africa is widely considered to be the birthplace of stone tool use by our ancient hominid ancestors – the earliest examples of which date as far back as about 2.6 million years ago," said the report in Science.

"The new findings make Ain Boucherit the oldest site in northern Africa with in situ evidence of hominin meat use with associated stone tools and they suggest that other similarly early sites could be found outside of the Eastern Africa Rift."

One hypothesis is that early ancestors of modern day humans quickly carried stone tools with them out of East Africa and into other regions of the continent.

Another is a "multiple origin scenario," in which early hominids made and used tools in both East and North Africa.

"The site of Ain Lahnech is the second oldest in the world after Gona in Ethiopia, which goes back to 2.6 million years ago and is widely considered the cradle of humanity," lead author Mohamed Sahouni told AFP.

The discoveries were made in two layers – one dating to 2.4 million years ago and the second dating to 1.9 million years old.

The findings suggest that the ancestors of modern people were present in north Africa at least 600,000 years earlier than scientists thought.

Until now, the oldest known tools from northern Africa were 1.8 million years old, and were found at a nearby site.

No humans remains were found. Therefore, scientists don’t know what species of hominids were at the site, or what ancient cousin of homo sapiens (who appeared much later), used these tools.

The dig was undertaken by experts from research institutions in Spain, Algeria, Australia and France.

"Now that Ain Boucherit has yielded Oldowan archeology estimated to 2.4 million years ago, Northern Africa and the Sahara may be a repository of further archaeological materials," the study said.

"Based on the potential of Ain Boucherit and the adjacent sedimentary basins, we suggest that hominin fossils and Oldowan artifacts as old as those documented in East Africa could be discovered in North Africa as well."

President Donald Trump has cancelled his planned meeting with Vladimir Putin less than an hour after insisting he would hold talks with the Russian president.

It comes after Mr Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, claimed in court on Thursday that the president’s business ties with Russia continued for months after he had previously claimed.

Mr Trump denied the claims as he spoke to reporters outside the White House before boarding a plane to attend the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Shortly afterwards Mr Trump tweeted from on board Air Force One that he was cancelling the talks due to talk place this weekend. Mr Trump said the decision was taken because Russia had not returned Ukrainian ships and sailors captured during a recent naval clash. 

"Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin. I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!" Mr Trump tweeted. 

Mr Trump’s tweet was a sudden turnaround. Roughly an hour earlier, he had told reporters he would probably meet with Mr Putin at the summit and said it was "a very good time to have the meeting."

The Kremlin appeared to be caught short by the news. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Mr Putin, said he had only learnt about the cancellation through Mr Trump’s tweets.

Mr Peskov said the Russian delegation was already on its way to the G-20 summit in Argentina and had received no official confirmation of the change in schedule.

He added that Mr Putin will now have "a couple of more hours" for "useful meetings" with other leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies.

Mr Trump also downgraded formal bilateral meetings with the leaders of Turkey and South Korea to informal meetings on the margins of the summit. 

The wreck of an Argentine submarine has been located a year after it vanished into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean with 44 crew members, in the country’s worst naval disaster in decades.

The Seabed Constructor, a ship owned by US search firm Ocean Infinity, made the discovery Friday, one day after the first anniversary of the disappearance of the San Juan.

The ship had set out in September on the latest attempt to find the San Juan, whose disappearance cost the navy’s top officer his job.

There has been "positive identification of the ARA San Juan," at a depth of 800 metres (2,600 feet), the navy said on Twitter, confirming the vessel had imploded.

The navy lost contact with the submarine on November 15, 2017, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) from the Argentine coast while it was traveling northward from the country’s southern tip.

Admiral Jose Villan, the navy’s new head, said that the rough terrain on the ocean floor made it difficult for search vessels, which had already trawled the site, to find the sub.

Pieces of the submarine that were 11, 13 and 30 metres long were spotted in "an irregular, moon-like zone with craters and canyons" naval Captain Enrique Balbi said at a conference, adding that the hull had been "crushed inwards."

"I still had hopes that they could be alive," Luis Niz, the father of a missing sailor, told reporters, even though President Mauricio Macri’s government had already declared there were no survivors.

"We are with the other relatives. They are going to show us the photos. They say that our youngsters are inside," said Yolanda Mendiola, the mother of crewman Leandro Cisneros, 28. "We are all destroyed here."

Relatives are now asking for authorities to extract the submarine, though whether such an operation will be undertaken remains unclear.

"Raising the submarine to the surface is not impossible, but it is a very complex operation, and therefore very expensive," a naval officer told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The discovery came the day after a somber ceremony, which Macri attended, at the San Juan’s Mar del Plata base on the first anniversary of its disappearance.

It also came just before the Seabed Constructor was to leave for maintenance in South Africa. Before setting off, the searchers decided to check an area which bad weather had previously prevented them from examining.

The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group said on Monday that it had killed a senior jihadist involved in the executions of an American aid worker and other Western hostages.

Abu al-Umarayn was accused of involvement in the November 2014 beheading of Peter Kassig, a former US ranger who was doing volunteer humanitarian work when captured in 2013.

"He was killed and more information will be available after a full assessment," Sean Ryan, spokesman for the US-led coalition, said in a statement issued after the Sunday strikes.

"Al Umarayn had given indications of posing an imminent threat to coalition forces and he was involved in the killing of American citizen and former US Army Ranger, Peter Kassig," he said.

The spokesman said the jihadist had also been involved in the execution of several other prisoners.

It is the first time the coalition, which has been hunting down Isil fighters in Iraq and Syria since 2014, has announced the killing of a jihadist leader linked to Kassig’s death.

At the time of the execution, Isil released a video showing Kassig’s severed head but did not publish footage of the decapitation, as it had done for other hostages.

Syria’s official SANA news agency had on Sunday accused the US-led coalition of firing on Syrian army positions in remote eastern regions.

"The American coalition forces launched around 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) this evening several missiles against some positions of our forces in the Ghorab mountains south of Sukhna," causing only "damage to equipment," Sana said, citing a military source.

According to the monitoring Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, coalition forces positioned in the Al-Tanf region fired "more than 14 missiles" at a Syrian army convoy as it was passing through the desert in the far east of Homs province.

"The group was lost in the middle of the desert around 35 kilometres from the Al-Tanf base" of US and British troops, the Observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP.

The United States generally uses this base to launch its strikes against Isil jihadists. It has also been used in the past to train Syrian opposition fighters.

Peter Kassig founded a humanitarian organisation in 2012 that trained some 150 civilians to provide medical aid to people in Syria. His group also gave food, cooking supplies, clothing and medicine to the needy.

He took the name Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam.

Before Kassig’s death, his life had been threatened in an earlier video showing the beheading of another aid worker, Briton Alan Henning.

Kassig’s mother Paula reached out directly to Isil militants to plead for her son’s life.

The international coalition intervened in Syria and Iraq in 2014 to fight the expansion of Isil after it had taken control of vast swathes of territory straddling the two countries.

Defeated in Iraq, the group still retains territory in some parts of the Syrian desert, particularly in the east of the country, where the coalition continues to fight the jihadists with the support of an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Tuesday overruled President Maithripala Sirisena’s dissolution of parliament in a major boost to sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s fight to reclaim the post from an arch-rival.

The heavily guarded court also halted preparations for a snap election in the latest twist in a power struggle that began when Sirisena dismissed Wickremesinghe on 26 October and replaced him with former strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse.

The 225-member parliament could meet as early as Wednesday to decide which of the duelling pair it backs.

Amid mounting international concern, Wickremesinghe has refused to accept his sacking and has remained in his official residence while Rajapakse has sought to build a parallel administration.

Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) is the largest single party in the assembly. He told reporters that he expected the legislature to meet Wednesday, as was scheduled before Sirisena dissolved the body to prevent a majority test.

"I will go to parliament tomorrow and we will show we are the legitimate government of Sri Lanka," Wickremesinghe said at the Temple Trees residence that has become the opposition headquarters.

Wickremesinghe called the court ruling a "a victory for the people and a victory for decent politics in this country."

Parliamentary officials said Speaker Karu Jayasuriya called a meeting of political party leaders on Wednesday morning ahead of a formal meeting of legislators who could vote between Wickremesinghe and Rajapakse.

There was no immediate comment from Sirisena or Rajapakse after the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision.

The UNP led petitions against the dissolution of parliament and the three-judge bench, headed by the Chief Justice Nalin Perera, gave the landmark decision to a packed court guarded by hundreds of heavily armed police and commandos.

The court said it would give a final verdict on the petition on December 7, after three more days of hearings.

The judges ordered the independent Elections Commission to halt preparations for the January 5 vote, which Sirisena had announced on Friday.

Tight security

Security at the courtroom had been beefed up ahead of the hearing as authorities feared clashes between rival supporters.

However, there was no trouble and supporters of Sirisena melted away when it was known that parliament had been restored.

The United States, European Union and other nations have raised concerns over the crisis in the strategically important island nation of 21 million people.

Only China has recognised the appointment of Rajapakse, who during his decade as president until 2015 relied heavily on Beijing for diplomatic and financial support.

As president from 2005 until 2015, Rajapakse ended Sri Lanka’s four-decade civil war in 2009 by crushing the Tamil Tigers.

But 40,000 ethnic Tamils were allegedly massacred in the process.

During his time in office from 2001 until 2004, Wickremesinghe is credited with pulling Sri Lanka out of its first ever recession, in part with reforms that have endeared him to the West.