Tag Archives: fresh

South African police patrolled central Johannesburg on Tuesday after the financial capital was hit by a new wave of anti-foreigner violence. Rocks, bricks and rubber bullets strewed the empty streets of Alexandra after mobs plundered the township overnight, burning and looting the shops in their path. AFP photographers in Alexandra said police presence remained heavy and that rubber bullets were still being fired to disperse the crowds.

Protesters gathered at a sports stadium Sunday as Hong Kong braced for more anti-government rallies, a day after clashes returned to the city’s streets following several days of relative calm. Hong Kong has been gripped by three months of street demonstrations that started against a proposed extradition bill to China, but have spun out into a wider pro-democracy movement. The MTR — the city’s metro — is the latest Hong Kong business to be rebuked by the public, after appearing to bend to Chinese state-media attacks accusing the transport system of being an “exclusive” service to ferry protesters to rallies.

Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide Saturday morning in a federal jail launched new conspiracy theories online in a saga that has provided fodder for them for years, fueled by Epstein’s ties to princes, politicians and other famous and powerful people. Online theorists Saturday quickly offered unsubstantiated speculation — including some retweeted by President Donald Trump — that Epstein’s death wasn’t a suicide, or it was faked. The combination created fertile ground for theories and misinformation to breed on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Hong Kong police said on Sunday they arrested more than 20 people after violent clashes with anti-government protesters overnight, as the Chinese-controlled territory braced for more protests and a general strike aimed to bring the city to a halt. On Saturday police fired multiple tear gas rounds in confrontations with black-clad activists in the city’s Kowloon area, the latest escalation after more than two months of protests against a proposed bill to allow people to be extradited to stand trial in mainland China. Protesters had set fires in the streets, outside a police station and in rubbish bins, and blocked the entrance to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, cutting a major artery linking Hong Kong island and the Kowloon peninsula.

Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein found out he was facing further legal peril last week, the day before he was found unconscious in his cell with neck injuries. Epstein, 66, was presented with court documents relating to accusations made by Jennifer Araoz, who claimed he raped her when she was 15. Miss Araoz, now 32, made her accusations on July 10 – shortly after Epstein was arrested by police on charges filed by New York prosecutors. She claimed that, in the autumn of 2002, when she had been visiting his New York home for a year, he raped her after she gave him a massage. Last week, on July 22, Qin Zhang, deputy sheriff, handed Epstein the documents in his cell in the Manhattan Correctional Center, where he is awaiting trial. Jeffrey Epstein awaiting his bail decision on July 15. The judge ultimately denied bail. Miss Araoz’s documents sought to depose Epstein, to learn the identity of the young woman who allegedly recruited her outside the Talent Unlimited High School and took part in his “grooming” of her “to be sexually assaulted by Epstein.” Miss Araoz has described the woman as a brunette in her 20s. Daniel Kaiser, Miss Araoz’s lawyer, said that Epstein or his lawyer will have to appear before a judge on August 27, to fight her wish to have him deposed and produce all evidence. Miss Araoz plans to sue both Epstein and the recruiter, Mr Kaiser said, but has to wait until August 14 under terms of the state Child Victims Act. The law, which Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York state, signed in February, lifted a statute of limitations that barred victims of childhood sexual abuse from suing their attackers more than three years after turning 18. The new law allows for criminal charges against sexual abusers of children to be filed until their victims turn 28 for felony cases. Jeffrey Epstein, 66, is facing up to 45 years in prison on charges of sex trafficking of minors It also allows for civil charges to be brought against their abusers – and institutions that enabled them – until they turn 55. Finally, it enacted a one-year, one-off period of grace, allowing all victims to seek civil action, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. That period begins on August 14. The day after the court papers were served, Epstein – who’s being held without bail on conspiracy and child sex trafficking charges – was found nearly unconscious on the floor of his cell, law enforcement sources have said. Based on the appearance of the marks on his neck, investigators suspect he was choked by someone else, The New York Post reported, and they questioned his cellmate, a former policeman awaiting a death penalty trial in four drug-related killings.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that would impose fresh sanctions on Iran, amid increased tensions between the long-time foes. Trump initially told reporters the sanctions, which will target Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his office, were in response to Tehran’s downing of a U.S. drone last week. Tehran has said the drone was flying in its airspace, which Washington has denied.

Record floods that submerged parts of three Midwestern states have started retreating, but more inclement weather continues to threaten Montana and the Dakotas for weeks to come. High flood waters have already returned in the western Dakotas, northwest Nebraska and central and eastern Montana, along smaller rivers that feed into the Missouri. Once the weather warms up, river ice breaks up into giant chunks, which float down the river stream and can cause a jam, which in turn induces flooding, David Roth, a meteorologist with the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, told Reuters on Monday.

Donald Trump has yet again attacked John McCain in an interview with Fox Business, calling out the late senator’s “very evil purposes” in handing the FBI the Steele Dossier, which, he told host Maria Bartiromo, was “paid for by Hillary Clinton”.

While experts say it is too soon to know what brought down the Boeing 737 MAX 8 on March 10, aviation authorities worldwide have grounded Boeing’s 737 MAXs, as concerns over the plane caused the company’s share price to tumble. In Addis Ababa, a source who has listened to the air traffic control recording of the plane’s communications said flight 302 had an unusually high speed after take-off before the plane reported problems and asked permission to climb quickly. A voice from the cockpit of the Boeing BA.N 737 MAX requested to climb to 14,000 feet above sea level – about 6,400 feet above the airport – before urgently asking to return, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the recording is part of an ongoing investigation.