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Showing posts from April 17, 2022

Somalia: Blast kills 6 people, wounds several others

  Source:  Somalia: Blast kills 6 people, wounds several others | Africanews Six people were killed Friday in a blast at a beachside Mogadishu restaurant, which was hosting Somalia's police chief and legislators when the explosion occurred, an ambulance service said. The government officials were unharmed in the blast which sparked a fire inside the building, sending smoke into the sky as diners scrambled to safety. "There was a blast in the restaurant presumably caused by a suicide bomber, but we are not sure so far (about)... the cause," police officer Mohamed Ali said. "The police commissioner was inside the restaurant when the blast occurred but he is safe (as are) several legislators who stayed there," he told AFP. "Six people died and seven others were wounded in the blast," Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of the Aamin Ambulance service, told reporters. The explosion was followed by sporadic gunfire, said Farah Dahir, a diner at a nearby restauran

Gunman takes own life after wounding 4 near elite Washington prep school, police say

WASHINGTON: A gunman opened fire on random victims from a sniper's nest on the upper floor of an apartment building near an elite prep school in the nation's capital on Friday, wounding four people, before taking his own life as police burst into his dwelling, officials said. Police said the suspect, Raymond  Spencer , 23, of suburban Fairfax, Virginia, was initially identified from video he had posted on social media that appeared to show gunshots fired from the vantage point of an upper-floor window, with the misspelled label: "Shool shooting!"   Washington   Metropolitan Police Chief   Robert Contee   told a late-night news conference the video "looks very much to be authentic," but it remained uncertain whether the footage was streamed live or had been posted after it was recorded. Police had issued a bulletin with photographs of Spencer hours earlier saying they were seeking him as a "person of interest" in their investigation. Spencer killed

SOCIAL MEDIA, CHILDREN AND THE STRUGGLES OF FINDING JUSTICE FOR CYBER CRIMES

  Source:  Social media, children and the struggles of finding justice for cyber crimes (ewn.co.za) In a recent case, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly being groomed on Snapchat, only to have the police captain at the station where the mother reported the crime saying that he didn’t know what the app was. Social media law expert, Emma Sadleir Berkowitz, speaks to John Perlman about the difficulty of monitoring cyber crimes in the age of social media. In this fast-evolving world, Sadleir highlights that in many cases, the police are not equipped to deal with these cyber issues and are often not even aware of these social media platforms or the crimes taking place on them. Even in cases where a clear law does exist, the ill-equipped justice system and the trauma that it exposes victims to makes it almost impossible for victims to seek justice, especially the children who are on social media. To expose a child to a criminal justice system, which is just riddled with victim blaming and dela

'Act to Sabotage PM Modi's Visit': J&K Alert as Security Personnel Killed, 9 Injured in Encounter

  ne security force personnel was killed and nine more suffered injuries in a gunfight with terrorists in a locality near an Army camp on the outskirts of Jammu early Friday, officials said. Two militants were later killed in the ongoing operation, and two guns and a satellite phone were also recovered by security forces. The encounter in Sunjwan took place amid heightened security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir, two days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Samba district. Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh, commenting on the incident, told CNN-News18 that the act was an attempt to sabotage PM Modi’s visit. “The operation is on and we are likely to get another terrorist. Couple of our jawans are injured, one we have lost too," he said. He said the purpose was to create disturbance, as ‘these incidents have not happened in Jammu since long’. “A few days back some labourers were also attacked. But the forces are on it. We are trying our best to encounter th

Dozen of people killed and injured in four explosions across Afghanistan

At least 31 people were killed, and 87 wounded, in four explosions across Afghanistan yesterday, local officials have said. The first explosion tore through a Shia Muslim mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif. The attack on the mosque was carried out using a remotely detonated booby-trapped bag when it was packed with worshippers, according to officials. The Islamic State group (IS) have claimed responsibility for the blasts and admitted carrying out the attacks. The group called the attack part of an ongoing global campaign to avenge the deaths of its former leader and spokesman. IS has also claimed responsibility for another blast yesterday which saw a vehicle blown up near a police station in Kunduz, leaving four dead and 18 injured. There were also reports of a Taliban vehicle being hit by a roadside mine in eastern Nangarhar province, killing four Taliban members and wounding a fifth.   Source:  Dozen of people killed and injured in four explosions across Afghanistan – Epilogue

UN Body Coordinator Calls For Greater Focus On North Korea's Cyber Crimes

The coordinator for the UN body monitoring enforcement of sanctions on North Korea said on Wednesday a stepped up focus was needed on cybercrime, which had become fundamental to Pyongyang's ability to finance its banned weapons programs. Eric Penton-Voak, of the UN Security Council's Panel of Experts on North Korea, noted that despite the widest sanctions regime ever imposed by the United Nations on a nation state, North Korea had markedly accelerated its missile testing, particularly over the past six months. "It may be no coincidence that the words cyber and crypto-currency do not actually appear in the UN sanctions resolutions," he told a discussion hosted by Washington's Center for a New American Security think tank. Mr Penton-Voak said he believed cyber activity had become "absolutely fundamental" to North Korea's ability to evade UN sanctions to raise money for its nuclear and missile programs, but biannual reports of the experts' panel had

Cybersecurity Roundup: New Alert Warns of Increased Russia Cyber Crime Coming

A new  joint advisory  warns of potential increased malicious cyber activity from Russian state-sponsored cyber actors or Russia-aligned cyber crime groups. The cybersecurity authorities of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom issued the advisory. Organizations within and beyond the region could be at risk of Russia cyber crime. This activity may occur in response to the unprecedented  economic costs imposed on Russia , as well as material support provided by the United States and its allies and partners. The alert warns network defenders to prepare for potential malicious activity. Recent Russian state-sponsored cyber operations have included distributed denial of service ( DDoS ) attacks. In addition, older operations have included deployment of destructive malware against Ukrainian government and critical infrastructure organizations. “Evolving intelligence indicates that the Russian government is exploring options for  potential cyberattacks ,” t

Hundreds of Rohingya Escape Malaysia Detention, Six Dead

Hundreds of Rohingya migrants from Myanmar broke out of a detention centre in northern Malaysia on Wednesday with six killed on a highway as they escaped, authorities said. Many Rohingya arrive in Malaysia by boat after enduring harrowing, months-long sea journeys. Those that are caught are often sent to detention centres, which rights groups say are typically overcrowded and filthy. A total of 528 people from the Muslim minority group fled a centre in Kedah state at 4:30 am (2030 GMT Tuesday), the country’s immigration chief Khairul Dzaimee Daud said. “A total of 362 detainees have been re-arrested. The search for the remaining detainees is continuing," he said in a statement. They broke through a door and barriers at the temporary immigration centre, he added. Six of the detainees were killed as they sought to cross a highway after escaping, said Penang state police chief Mohamad Shuhaily Mohamad Zain. Those killed were two adult men, two adult women, one girl and one boy, he sa

Why America overlooks those most hurt by gun violence: ‘Black people are seen as expendable’

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Henrika McCoy, an expert on victimization, says timeworn stereotypes prevent real understanding of violent crime in the US In the first year of the pandemic, homicides throughout the US increased by 30%, the most dramatic  one-year rise  since the FBI began keeping crime data. The increase was driven by a significant rise in gun violence, with shootings ticking up in cities big and small, in states led by Republicans and Democrats alike. Since then, curbing the rise in shootings has become a central topic among candidates vying for midterm election success. It has also prompted policy shifts from mayors across the country and recall challenges for progressive prosecutors in  San Francisco  and  Los Angeles . As in previous decades, the impact of the rise in violence has been most felt in America’s Black and brown communities. Homicides in 2020 were concentrated among Black Americans who, despite making up 14% of the population, represented more than half of the 2020 victims, according

Weekend of mass shootings highlights rise in gun deaths

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  Over the holiday weekend, 12 people were shot at a Columbia, South Carolina, mall. In nearby Hampton County, nine people were shot outside a nightclub. And in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two juveniles were killed and eight were injured after a shooting at a birthday party. ABC News, Gun Violence Archive Gun Violence Trends The recent incidents are just the latest examples of mass shootings that have been occurring at a sustained pace across the United States for the past two years and counting and which coincide with an increase in fatal shootings overall. Fatal shootings, not including suicides, jumped by more than 4,000 from 2019 to 2020 -- a 26% increase in one year, according to statistics compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit which identifies mass shootings as cases in which four or more people are shot and tracks them through public data, news reports and other sources. MORE: America has a gun violence problem. What do we do about it? "These two devastating shoot

US Records Over 140 Mass Shootings So Far In 2022 As Biden Moves To Tackle Gun Violence

The United States has witnessed more than 140 mass shootings so far in 2022, according to the data published by the research group Gun Violence Archive on Monday. The Gun Violence Archive said that there were 144 mass shootings and at least five mass murders so far this year. The organisation has explained that it has been collecting data daily from about 7,500 sources and the number of incidents has been “reported and verified”.  Gun Violence Archive published its 2022 statistics collected till now amid recently reignited debate in the United States over gun control measures due to the increase of mass shootings across the nation. Critics of gun control measures have said that there are just enough laws that control the sale and use of firearms. According to the opponents of additional laws for gun control, the main problem is not the guns but the socio-economic policies of US President Joe Biden’s administration which have triggered poverty, homelessness and overall social crisis.  R

Blasts near Kabul schools kill at least 6 civilians, hurt 11

Medical staff move a wounded youth on a stretcher outside a hospital in Kabul, after two bomb blasts rocked a boys' school in a Shiite Hazara neighbourhood killing at least 6 people. KABUL, Afghanstan: Explosions targeting educational institutions killed at least six people, including students, and injured 11 Tuesday in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of Afghanistan's capital city, police said. The blasts, which occurred in rapid succession, were being investigated and more casualties were feared, according to  Kabul police  spokesman Khalid Zadran and the city's Emergency Hospital. Several of the wounded were in critical condition. The explosions occurred inside the Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School and near the Mumtaz Education Center several kilometers (miles) away, both in the predominately Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. There were no immediate reports of casualties at the Mumtaz Center. Guards in the narrow street leading to the two-story high school said the

Sweden Unrest: Who is the mastermind behind Sweden riots? Demonstration enters day 5

  Source:  Sweden Unrest: Who is the mastermind behind Sweden riots? Demonstration enters day 5 | Zee News (india.com)