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Bomb

Sri Lanka church bomber caught on CCTV


RT
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 19:46 UTC
Sri Lanka bomber
© Ada Derana
CCTV footage from Sri Lankan media shows the man suspected of bombing a Catholic Church in Negombo arriving at the scene shortly before the deadly explosion - one of a string of attacks that left hundreds dead on Easter Sunday.

In the video, a bearded man carrying a seemingly heavy backpack is seen making his way towards the crowded Easter service in Negombo, a city on the country's west coast. As he crosses a courtyard, he stops to gently pat a little girl on the head.

Comment:

From PM Ranil Wickremesinghe via RT:
There are "some links" between the deadly Easter bombings and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), Sri Lanka's prime minister has said, warning that new attacks are possible.

The country's authorities are monitoring Islamic State recruits who have returned to the country, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Tuesday.

So far, only Sri Lankan citizens have been arrested in connection with the attacks, the PM said. However, some of the suspected bombers had traveled abroad and returned home before carrying out the massacre.

The bombings of Christian churches and luxury hotels, which killed over 300 people, might have been in retaliation to the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, the official added. A fourth hotel was also a terrorist target, yet the attack failed, according to the PM.

Shortly before Wickremasinghe held the press conference, IS claimed responsibility for the attacks through its propaganda mouthpiece Amaq. While the group did not provide any evidence to back up the claims, Sri Lankan authorities are taking the statement seriously.

"We will be following up on IS claims, we believe there may be links," Wickremasinghe stated.

Wickremasinghe revealed that the country's intelligence units received information about the bombing plot beforehand and that a specific tip-off came from India. The investigation into the blasts is receiving international support as well. The FBI revealed that it is assisting Sri Lankan authorities.
See also: Sri Lanka Terror: Multiple explosions target Catholic churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday - Death toll hits 290 - UPDATES

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Newspaper

'IRA group' responsible for the murder of journalist Lyra McKee apologizes

Kevin Mullan
Derry Journal
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 19:27 UTC
Lyra McKee

The late Lyra McKee.
The group responsible for the murder of Lyra McKee in Derry on Thursday has apologised to her family and friends.

In a statement that was issued to The Irish News in Belfast the group said: "In the course of attacking the enemy Lyra McKee was tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces.

"The IRA offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death."

The organisation however, claimed that the gunman who shot Miss McKee had been deployed only after an "incursion on the Creggan by heavily armed British Crown Forces which provoked rioting."

It continued: "We have instructed out volunteers to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy and put in place measures to help ensure this."

Comment: More data:
Three people were arrested in connection with the case but released.

Today a 57-year-old woman was arrested in the Creggan area of Londonderry under the Terrorism Act. She was taken to Musgrave Serious Crime Suite for questioning, although it was not clear what she had been accused of.

Shortly after 7pm the Police Service of Northern Ireland announced she has been released without charge.

In a tweet the force said: 'A 57 year old woman arrested this morning by detectives investigating the murder of Lyra McKee has now been released unconditionally.

'Detectives from PSNI Major Investigation Team continue to appeal for help from the local community in Creggan or anyone with information. [...]

Two teenagers arrested over the murder of the talented young journalist and published author were released without charge on Sunday night.

The pair, aged 18 and 19, were released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland as officers appealed to anyone with information to contact them.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said the investigation to find her killer is continuing at a 'rapid pace'.
See also: Young journalist shot and killed during riot in Derry, Northern Ireland

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Bad Guys

Mexican police detain hundreds of new Central American migrants in Chiapas

Sonia Perez D.
Fox News
Mon, 22 Apr 2019 19:12 UTC
migrant detained mexico
© Associated Press/Moises Castillo
A Central American migrant is detained by Mexican immigration agents on the highway to Pijijiapan, Mexico, Monday, April 22, 2019.
Mexican police and immigration agents detained hundreds of Central American migrants Monday in the largest single raid on a migrant caravan since the groups started moving through the country last year.

Police targeted isolated groups at the tail end of a caravan of about 3,000 migrants who were making their way through the southern state of Chiapas with hopes of reaching the U.S. border.

As migrants gathered under spots of shade in the burning heat outside the city of Pijijiapan, federal police and agents passed by in patrol trucks and vans and forcibly wrestled women, men and children into the vehicles.
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Fire

Arson investigation opened in the Easter Sunday Notre-Dame de Grâce fire

Thomas D. Williams, PH.D.
Breitbart
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 19:13 UTC
Notre Dame de Grace

Notre Dame de Grace
Police have confirmed that a fire in the French church of Notre-Dame de Grâce on Easter Sunday appears to have been intentionally set, making it the latest in a string of desecrations of Christian churches in the country.

The fire was started in a large, wooden confessional around 4:30pm and proceeded to consume a dais in the presbytery of the eighteenth-century church located in the southern French town of Eyguières, near Provence.

"Flames several meters high were coming out of the church," said the mayor of Eyguières, Henri Pons, before a team of 30 firefighters with six vehicles arrived and managed to contain the blaze.

An area of some 20 square meters in the church was destroyed but observers have noted that the damage would have been far worse had it not been it not for the bold intervention of a local inhabitant.

Comment:

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Pistol

Two Lynchburg, Va. cops charged after entering a man's home and shooting him in the leg

Colin Schwager
ABC 13 News
Fri, 12 Apr 2019 19:00 UTC
Officers Edward Ferron and Savannah Simmons

Officers Edward Ferron and Savannah Simmons
New video footage released following the Link Road incident where two Lynchburg officer's shot a man in the leg.

Below is the footage released by the special prosecutor.

Two Lynchburg Police officers were charged in that officer-involved shooting.

Walker Sigler was shot in the leg after police said they were investigating an open door at his home on Link Road around 1:15 a.m. Saturday, February 17, 2018.

Officers with the Lynchburg Police Department said they approached the home and announced that they were there to investigate suspicious activity. One of the officers attorney's, Chuck Felmlee, said the officers then heard yelling and heavy foot steps as though someone was running toward them. They say it was Sigler who then slammed the door which made a loud clanging sound they believed to be a gun shot at the time. The officers fired four shots. One bullet hit Sigler and shattered his leg.

Comment:



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Fire

Massive blaze erupts in French city of Versailles


Sputnik International
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:54 UTC
Versailles fire
© Twitter/jodorlando
A massive fire broke out at the Rue du Parc in the French city of Versailles, the city Commissariat announced.

According to videos emerging on social media, a huge column of smoke can be seen rising from the area. Police have cordoned off the perimeter and urged passersby to avoid the area.

The fire started at "a car dealership," a local fire brigade said, releasing photos of the street engulfed in thick grey smoke on Twitter.

A total of 86 firefighters and 24 vehicles have been deployed to battle the blaze, the prefecture of Yvelines department, where Versailles is located, said.


Comment: Paris' Legendary Notre Dame Cathedral Destroyed by Fire

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Attention

Famous German bodyguard: Arab street gangs are 'godfathers' now


RT
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:23 UTC
berlin muchael kuhr police
© REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch; RT
Famed bodyguard, who protected the likes of Hollywood A-lister Sean Penn, took RT Deutsch on a tour of Berlin neighborhoods plagued by powerful Arab street gangs that pull off daring heists in broad daylight.

The ruthless Arab street gangs gained momentum in the 1990s, "pushing aside local German groups and taking Berlin's nightlife under control," Michael Kuhr told RT Deutsch as he strolled down a working-class neighborhood with many migrant residents.
They're godfathers now, totally controlling [crime in Berlin], including drugs, prostitution, and shadow money.
The Arab clans are extremely dangerous and, given their close-knit nature, they "can bring together 40 to 50 people in just half an hour," he stated.

A former world kickboxing champion and one of the most well-known bodyguards in Germany, Kuhr said he is a "fan" of multiculturalism. However, many migrants resorted to crime because the government failed to integrate them into society, and later made the grave mistake of underestimating the threat posed by the clans, he said.

Currently, law enforcement in Berlin has a separate investigative team that deals primarily with "organized crime among the families of Arab origin," police spokesperson Thilo Cablitz told RT.
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Stock Down

Samsung retrieves all Galaxy Fold samples after multiple reviewers report defects

Ju-min Park
Associated Press
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:52 UTC
samsung folding phone damage

Screen problems in Samsung's Galaxy folding phone
Samsung Electronics is retrieving all Galaxy Fold samples distributed to reviewers, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, as the firm smarts from the reputational blow of postponing the launch of its first foldable smartphone.

The South Korean tech giant met with embarrassment ahead of the device's U.S. release on April 26, with a handful of technology journalists reporting breaks, bulges and blinking screens after just a day's use.

However, the setback for the $1,980 niche device is trivial compared to the Galaxy Note 7 debacle of 2016, when exploding batteries forced Samsung to scrap the flagship model at huge cost. Galaxy Fold shipments this year are likely to make up less than half a percent of Samsung's annual total, analysts and investors said.
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Black Cat

Disney heiress says CEO Bob Iger's $65 million pay package is 'insane'

Mike Murphy
Market Watch
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:46 UTC
Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger
© Bloomberg
Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger rings the opening bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in November 2017.
Abigail Disney says company's lowest-paid workers should get a fat raise instead

Last year, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger made $65.6 million - about 1,424 times the median Disney employee's salary, an amount that heiress Abigail Disney is calling "insane."

Disney, a philanthropist and filmmaker whose grandfather, Roy Disney, co-founded the entertainment giant, spoke against income inequality at a Fast Company event Friday, and reiterated her thoughts Sunday on Twitter, saying the company is making so much money that it has no excuse not to give its lowest-paid employees significant pay raises, as opposed to a $15 minimum wage, or one-time bonuses.
"We all know the Federal Minimum is too low to live on. So why must we, at a company that's more profitable than it's ever been, be paying anything so close to least the law allows at all???" Abigail Disney, on Twitter
"When [Iger] got his bonus last year, I did the math, and I figured out that he could have given personally, out of pocket, a 15% raise to everyone who worked at Disneyland, and still walked away with $10 million," she said Friday, according to Fast Company. "So there's a point at which there's just too much going around the top of the system into this class of people who - I'm sorry this is radical - have too much money. There is such a thing."

Comment: While its easy to agree to that guys like Eiger probably do not deserve the kind of money they're making - and employees of much lower rank should should not be living out of their cars while they're gainfully employed, the following video by James Corbett adds a much more nuanced approach to the whole debate on minimum wage that some may find pretty surprising:



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Star of David

Backlash finally has Jerusalem promising to 'fix' 18-month-old rule banning minorities from entering preschools


RT
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:39 UTC
jewish kindergarten
© Reuters / Ronen Zvulun /File
Jerusalem's municipality said it will "fix" racist fliers forbidding "minorities" from entering their grounds, following a wave of backlash over the exclusionary practice.

The fliers were published by the emergency and security department of the Jerusalem municipality and distributed to kindergartens and preschools in the city. They state that "as a rule, entrance is not permitted to minority groups," and that "outsiders may not enter kindergarten premises," Haaretz reported. The term 'minority' is generally used to describe Arabs or non-Jews in Israel.

The publication says that the local security officer has to be notified if minorities want to enter the school grounds.


Comment: Nothing racist here.


Comment: But will 'fixing the language' actually change the policy? Don't hold your breath. There is what Israel says, and then there is what it does.

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