July 2018

July 31, 2018

Firefighters gain on sprawling California wildfire, six deadBy Bob Strong REDDING, Calif. (Reuters) - California firefighters on Monday gained ground on a massive wildfire that has killed six people and destroyed hundreds of homes, while rescuers searched for at least seven missing people. The Carr Fire ignited a week ago outside Redding, about 150 miles (240 km) north of Sacramento, and doubled in size over the weekend, charring an area half the size of New York City and forcing 38,000 people to flee their homes. Two firefighters, a 70-year-old woman and her two young great-grandchildren were among the dead.




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July 31, 2018

MH370 investigators say they can't rule out 'unlawful interference' as final report leaves relatives disappointedInvestigators released a report on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Monday, saying the Boeing 777's controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course but they were not able to determine who was responsible. The 495-page report draws no conclusion about what happened aboard the plane that vanished with 239 people on board en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014, leaving one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries unsolved. "The answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found," Kok Soo Chon, head of the MH370 safety investigation team, told reporters. On May 29, Malaysia called off a three-month search by US firm Ocean Infinity, which spanned 112,000 sq km (43,243 sq miles) in the southern Indian Ocean and ended with no significant findings. It was the second major search after Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless A$200 million (£112.06 million) search across an area of 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq miles) last year. Sarah Nor, the mother of Norliakmar Hamid, a passenger on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, cries as she arrives for the final investigation report Credit:  MOHD RASFAN/ AFP Malaysian and international investigators have been looking into why the jet veered thousands of miles off course from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean. The last communication from the plane was from the Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah who signed off with “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero”, as the plane left the Malaysian airspace and later turned off course. A 440-page final report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) last year showed that Zaharie had flown a route on his home flight simulator six weeks earlier that was "initially similar" to the one actually taken by MH370. The Malaysian police previously concluded there were no unusual activity on the home simulator. Kok said the investigators examined the history of the pilot and the first officer, and they were satisfied with their background and training and mental health. "We are not of the opinion it could have been an event committed by the pilots," he said, but added they were not ruling out any possibility since the in-air turn back was done manually and the systems in the plane were also manually turned off. "We cannot exclude that there was an unlawful interference by a third party," Kok said. He added all the passengers of the 15 countries had their backgrounds checked by their respective countries and all came back with a clean bill of health. Conspiracy theories The inability to locate MH370's crash site has fuelled conspiracy theories and online debates over the last four years. Theories range from mechanical error or a remote-controlled crash, to more bizarre explanations like alien abduction and a Russian plot. Kok said they looked into each theory and rumour raised on social media. "We had over 60 allegations...we removed them one-by-one and saw what remained behind," Kok said. Rayan Gharazeddine scans the water in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia from a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion during a search for the missing plane in 2014 Credit: Rob Griffith/AP The report said there was no sign the plane was evading radar detection or that it was taken over by remote control. No irregularities were found in the on-board cargo, which included items like lithium batteries and about 2,500 kgs of mangosteen. Mistakes made In all, 27 pieces of aircraft debris have been collected from various places around the world but only three wing fragments that washed up along the Indian Ocean coast have been confirmed to be from MH370. Malaysia's newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said Malaysia would consider resuming the search only if new clues come to light. Investigators highlighted some mistakes made by the Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City air traffic control centres and made safety recommendations to ensure such incidents do not occur again. Transport Minister Antony Loke said in a statement that the Malaysia would investigate any misconduct committed based on the findings. Families of passengers on board the flight said on Monday that the report failed to give closure Credit:  Joshua Paul/AP The next-of-kin of the passengers were briefed on the final report by investigators earlier on Monday. "We hope that these mistakes will not be repeated and that measures are put in place to prevent them in the future," said Grace Nathan, a lawyer whose mother, Anne Daisy, was on the plane. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing had paid close attention to the MH370 investigation. "We hope that all sides can continue to remain in close contact and coordination, to properly carry out relevant follow-up work," he told a daily news briefing, without elaborating. The majority of passengers on board were Chinese.




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July 31, 2018

Mugabe hopes his former party will lose Zimbabwe electionZimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe, who was ousted by the military in November, made a surprise intervention Sunday on the eve of key elections, calling for voters to throw his old party out of office. In his first live appearance since being forced to resign by his generals, Mugabe, 94, spoke slowly but appeared in good health sitting in a pagoda in the grounds of "Blue Roof", his sprawling mansion in Harare. In the country's first election since Mugabe was ousted after 37 years in power, Zimbabwe goes to the polls on Monday amid mounting allegations of voter fraud and predictions of a disputed result.




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July 31, 2018

Missouri duck boat crash: Family of victims from boat capsizing sue operator for $100mA duck boat operator has been sued for $100m in damages after a ship of theirs capsized in a lake, killing 17 passengers. The wrongful death lawsuit follows after one of the duck boats sank July 19 on a lake near Branson, Missouri. "The canopy of the Duck Boat entrapped passengers and dragged them to the bottom of the lake," the lawsuit says.




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July 31, 2018

Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa accuses rival Chamisa of striking deal with MugabeHARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa accused his main rival Nelson Chamisa on Sunday of striking a deal with former leader Robert Mugabe on the eve of an election and cast doubt on Chamisa's intentions of rebuilding the country. Mnangagwa, who did not provide any evidence of his accusations, said in a Facebook post that voting for 40-year-old Chamisa was tantamount to bringing back Mugabe in disguise. He made the comments after Mugabe said he would vote for the opposition in Monday's election. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Adrian Croft)




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July 31, 2018

Paul Manafort earned more than $60 million from Ukraine, Robert Mueller says ahead of trialDonald Trump's former campaign manager made $60 million from Ukrainian lobbyists to fund a lavish lifestyle of antiques and tailored suits, prosecutors claimed on the eve of his trial. The figures emerged in court filings ahead of Paul Manafort's trial on Tuesday on tax and bank fraud charges. It is the first full tally provided by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, of Mr Manafort's income from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. Prosecutors claim that Mr Manafort, who ran the US president's election campaign for five months, hid more than $30 million of that sum in offshore accounts to evade taxes. During his three-week trial, prosecutors plan to lay out Mr Manafort’s extensive dealings with the pro-Russian Ukrainian political party of Viktor Yanukovych, who was deposed as Ukraine's president in 2014. They claim that when Mr Manafort's income from consulting and foreign lobbying dried up, he lied to banks to get loans to maintain his lavish spending. Jurors will be shown photographs illustrating how he spent $6.4 million on properties in New York and Virginia, a further $7.3 million on renovating his homes and $820,000 on landscaping. In addition, he sent $2 million for rugs and antiques and almost $1.4 million on Beverly Hills tailored suits and designer clothes. In total $75 million flowed through his offshore accounts, according to court documents filed on Monday. It is the first trial to stem from Mr Mueller's extensive investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and will give the American public its most detailed glimpse of what his team has found in the last year. Adding to the intrigue, Mr Manafort's deputy, Rick Gates, is expected to testify against him after cutting a plea deal with prosecutors. While the trial does not touch directly on Russian links to the Trump campaign, the outcome of the trial will be closely followed in Washington. An acquittal will boost the Trump administration's calls to have the Russia investigation - which they frequently refer to as a witch hunt - to be wound down. A conviction for Mr Manafort will add to Mr Mueller's credibility. Former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, is now on Mr Trump's legal team Credit: Getty Ahead of the trial, Mr Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, sought to distance Mr Manafort from the president, saying he "was not involved with intimate business relationships". "He has no information incriminating of the president. I know that for a fact. They can squeeze him - he doesn't know anything. He was with him for four months," he told CNN on Monday. Mr Giuliani went on to question whether collusion - the crux of Mr Mueller's investigation - is in fact a crime. "[Mr Trump's team are] not going to be colluding with Russia, which I don't even know if that's a crime, colluding about Russians," he said. "You start analysing the crime - the hacking is the crime. ... The President didn't hack." Russia investigation Legal experts have suggested that anyone found collaborating with Russia on the presidential election could be charged with crimes such as conspiracy or being an accessory to hacking. Since Mr Mueller took over the investigation last May, the special counsel has charged 32 people, including 26 Russians and several people linked to the Trump campaign. Five people, including Mr Gates, have pleaded guilty. Mr Manafort faces a second trial in Washington DC on related charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and lying to the government in September. The most serious charges against him carry prison sentences of up to 30 years each.  




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July 31, 2018
Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence. Gangrape of a girl under 12 years of age will invite punishment of jail term for the rest of life or death.

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July 31, 2018
'The central and Assamese governments want to get 35 lakh to 40 lakh Bangladeshis (Hindus) to come to Assam and make the Assamese people a minority.''They want to make Assam a Bengali state.''Bengalis by nature are BJP supporters whereas Assamese people don't support the BJP.'

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July 31, 2018

UN delays troop reduction in Somalia force



The Security Council voted Monday to delay the reduction of troops in the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia from October to February and its target date for Somali forces to take the lead in the country's security to December 2021.

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July 31, 2018

Northern California wildfire forces thousands to evacuateCalifornia firefighters on Monday were gaining ground on a massive blaze that has killed six people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, while rescuers searched for seven people unaccounted for in the wildfire. The Carr Fire, outside Redding, California, ignited a week ago and doubled in size over the weekend, charring an area the size of Detroit, forcing 38,000 people to flee their homes and claiming lives of two firefighters and another person, as well as a woman and her two young great-grandchildren. Centered 150 miles (240 km) north of Sacramento, it is the deadliest of the 90 wildfires burning across the United States.




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July 31, 2018

Anger as MH370 report offers no new clues to aviation's greatest mysteryInvestigators said Monday they still do not know why Malaysia's Flight MH370 vanished four years ago in aviation's greatest mystery, sparking anger and disappointment among relatives of those on board. In a long-awaited report the official investigation team pointed to failings by air traffic controllers, said the course of the Malaysia Airlines plane was changed manually, and refused to rule out that someone other than the pilots had diverted the jet. "The team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370," concluded the largely technical 400-page report, noting that investigators were hindered in their probe as neither the plane's wreckage nor its black boxes had been found.




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