Skip to main content

Posts

Bosnia and Croatia crack down on human smuggling into EU

Police in Bosnia and Croatia have arrested 38 people accused of smuggling illegal migrants into the European Union in a coordinated crackdown on human trafficking in the region. _0"> The so-called "Balkan smuggling route" is used to ferry contraband drugs and people from Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Police in Croatia, which joins the European Union on July 1, arrested 25 people and were looking for eight more suspects, while 13 were arrested in Bosnia, said Dean Savic, head of the Croatian police unit for corruption and organized crime. "This is a message to the smugglers - rest assured we'll come knocking on your door," Savic told a news conference. In preparation for EU entry, Croatia has almost tripled the number of border police to around 6,000. They will patrol its 1,400-km land border with non-EU neighbors Serbia and Bosnia, equipped with thermal vision cameras and infrared binoculars that can spot illegal migrants at night.

Nigerian troops on new offensive against Islamists

Nigeria launched a military campaign on Wednesday to flush Islamist militants out of their bases in remote border areas, after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast. Nigerian troops deployed in large numbers, part of a plan to rout an insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamist group that has seized control of parts of the region. "The operations, which will involve massive deployment of men and resources, are aimed at asserting the nation's territorial integrity," a Defense Headquarters statement said. The campaign targets semi-desert areas of three states in which Jonathan declared an emergency on Tuesday - Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, three of the country's poorest and most remote. The Islamist insurgency has cost thousands of lives and destabilized Africa's top energy producer since it began in 2009, but it has mostly happened far from economic centers such as Lagos. The capital Abuja was, however, bombed in 2011 and 2012. It

Thousands of Palestinians mark 65 years since displacement

Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday during demonstrations to mark 65 years since what they call the Nakba (Catastrophe) when the creation of Israel's caused many to lose their homes and become refugees. A shell fired from Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist movement Hamas, exploded in an open area of Israel but caused no injuries, according to an Israeli military spokesman. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.   U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is to return to the region on Tuesday in another bid to revive peace talks frozen since 2010. But a resolution remains elusive and many Palestinians want refugees and their descendants to return to lands now in Israel - an idea Israel rejects, saying it would spell the end of the Jewish state. Protesters skirmished with Israeli forces outside a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Hebron and at a prison near Ramallah. Several Palestinians were injured. Israeli police in Jer

Bankrupt Alabama county has deal on $105 million of bonds

As Alabama's Jefferson County readies a workout proposal for its landmark $4.2 billion bankruptcy, officials on Tuesday announced an agreement with creditors JPMorgan Chase and Bayerische Landesbank covering $105 million of defaulted debt. The deal, one of a series the county has reached since filing the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in late 2011, covers the county's 2001b general obligation warrants and was expected to be approved on Thursday by the Jefferson County Commission.   The Jefferson County case is seen as a testing ground for how bondholders fare when a local issuer breaks under excessive financial pressure. The bankruptcy is the result of debts taken on in a costly overhaul of the county's sewer system. The agreement announced on Tuesday saves the county $2 million in fees and interest payments and shifts its variable rate payments on the bonds issued for infrastructure projects to a 4.9 percent fixed interest rate, officials said. The deal will end

Bankrupt Alabama county has deal on $105 million of bonds

As Alabama's Jefferson County readies a workout proposal for its landmark $4.2 billion bankruptcy, officials on Tuesday announced an agreement with creditors JPMorgan Chase and Bayerische Landesbank covering $105 million of defaulted debt. The deal, one of a series the county has reached since filing the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in late 2011, covers the county's 2001b general obligation warrants and was expected to be approved on Thursday by the Jefferson County Commission.   The Jefferson County case is seen as a testing ground for how bondholders fare when a local issuer breaks under excessive financial pressure. The bankruptcy is the result of debts taken on in a costly overhaul of the county's sewer system. The agreement announced on Tuesday saves the county $2 million in fees and interest payments and shifts its variable rate payments on the bonds issued for infrastructure projects to a 4.9 percent fixed interest rate, officials said. The deal will end

DNA evidence may clear Honduran man sentenced to death in Florida

Lawyers seeking to overturn the murder conviction of a Honduran man who has been on Florida's death row since 2006 presented new DNA and blood stain evidence in a Florida court on Tuesday. Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, 33, was convicted in the 2004 murders of his neighbors at a Seminole County trailer park. Cheryl Williams, 47, was stabbed 129 times, and her mother, Carol Bareis, 69, was stabbed twice.   Blood stain expert Barie Goetz testified Tuesday that the killer would have been splattered with blood spurting from 131 stab wounds from a 10-inch knife at close range. Goetz said the blood found on the thigh area of Aguirre's shorts were contact stains and matched Aguirre's claim that he found the bodies and rolled them over to check for a pulse. "The wearer of those shorts did not inflict the injuries to Cheryl Williams," said Goetz, a Pennsylvania-based forensic consultant. Goetz also testified that Aguirre's bloody shoe prints at the scene indicated car

U.S. Defense Department civilians to go on unpaid leave for 11 days

The Pentagon told its civilian workforce on Tuesday that it will put most of them on unpaid leave for one day a week starting in July, a deeply unpopular move that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel blamed on sweeping budget cuts imposed by Congress. The U.S. defense budget has taken the single biggest hit from automatic spending cuts, known in Washington as the "sequester," and Hagel said he had tried to spare civilians the financial hardship ahead by first cutting elsewhere.   "We did everything we could not to get to this day, this way," Hagel told an audience of Defense Department employees. "But that's it. That's where we are ... And I'm sorry about that." For those of the more than 600,000 civilian defense employees affected, the decision translates to a salary cut of roughly 20 percent during the furlough period - which runs from July 8 until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Although the total will vary, most civilian emplo