Machete attacker shot at Louvre in Paris…Read full details

Policemen of the GSO 93 special unit arrive at the Louvre museum on February 3, 2017 in Paris after a soldier has shot and gravely injured a man who tried to attack him. "Serious public security incident under way in Paris in the Louvre area," the interior ministry tweeted on February 3 as streets in the area were cordoned off to traffic and pedestrians. / AFP PHOTO / ALAIN JOCARD

A machete-wielding man who yelled “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) was shot and injured as he attacked security forces at the Louvre museum in Paris on Friday, police said.

One soldier was injured in the assault by the knifeman who was shot five times and is alive despite his serious injuries.

Two backpacks he was carrying did not contain explosives, city police chief Michel Cadot said.

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called the attack “terrorist in nature” after the incident which led streets around the world-famous museum to be sealed off.

The shooting comes with France on its highest state of alert with thousands of troops patrolling the capital following a string of attacks in the last few years.

Soldiers in uniform carrying automatic rifles are regularly seen walking in the area around the Louvre, which is one of the main tourist attractions in Paris, drawing millions of visitors every year.

The huge former royal palace in the heart of the city is home to the Mona Lisa and other renowned works of art but also a shopping complex and numerous exhibition spaces.

“The people who were in the museum — there were about 250 of them — were held at a distance and confined in secure areas of the Louvre,” Cadot said.

“We will start taking them out in small groups.”

France has suffered a string of attacks in recent years, beginning in January 2015 when jihadist gunmen killed journalists at the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris in revenge for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Another attacker went on to kill shoppers in a Jewish supermarket, with a total of 17 people dead in three days of bloodshed.

Ten months later, gunmen and suicide bombers from the Islamic State jihadist group attacked bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the national stadium in Paris on November 13, 2015, killing 130 people.

And last July, a Tunisian extremist rammed a lorry through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice on France’s south coast, crushing 86 people to death.

In November, French police broke up an alleged jihadist terror ring which was thought to be planning to attack Paris.

The Louvre was already suffering from a fall in visitor numbers after the series of attacks in France.

Over the last two years, numbers are down about two million, casting doubt on its claim to be the most visited museum in the world.

Last year, there was a 15-percent slump in visitors compared to 2015, to around 7.3 million.

Philippines’ Duterte vows to kill more in drug war, use military…Read full details

Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte / AFP PHOTO / KAZUHIRO NOGI

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced Thursday the military would take a leading role in his deadly drug war, while vowing to kill more traffickers and addicts.

“I’m taking in the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and raising the issue of drugs as a national security threat so that I will call on all the armed forces to assist,” Duterte said, while promising to kill more “son of a bitch” drug addicts.

His comments were the first following a report from Amnesty International that the killings in the drug war, in which more than 6,500 people have died in seven months, may amount to crimes against humanity.

They were also the clearest signal of Duterte’s plans for the drug war, after he admitted this week the police force that had taken the leading role was “corrupt to the core” and said they would no longer be allowed to take part.

Duterte’s moves against the police he had entrusted as his frontline troops came after series of scandals emerged over the past month in which police were caught committing murder, kidnapping, extortion and robbery using the drug war as cover.

In one of the highest-profile cases, anti-drug officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman then murdered him inside the national police headquarters as part of an extortion racket, according to an official investigation.

Then Amnesty on Wednesday accused police of systemic human rights abuses in the drug war, including shooting dead defenceless people, fabricating evidence, paying assassins to murder drug addicts and stealing from those they killed.

It also said police were being paid by their superiors to kill, and documented victims as young as eight years old.

“The police are behaving like the criminal underworld that they are supposed to be enforcing the law against,” Amnesty said as it warned of possible crimes against humanity and that the International Criminal Court may need to investigate.

However Duterte was unrepentant on Thursday as he launched a profanity-laced tirade against his critics and rejected charges of human rights abuses.

He gave a lengthy explanation of the problems for people who used the highly addictive methamphetamine known locally as shabu.

“And you bleed for those son of a bitch(s),” he said, adding that roughly 3,000 had been killed so far.

“I will kill more. If only to get rid of drugs.”

Police have reported killing 2,555 people in the drug war, while nearly 4,000 others have died in unexplained circumstances, according to official figures.

Bangladesh treats first case of ‘tree girl’ syndrome…Read full details

In this photograph taken on January 30, 2017, Bangladeshi patient Sahana Khatun, 10, poses for a photograph at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. A young Bangladeshi girl with bark-like warts growing on her face could be the first female ever afflicted by so-called "tree man syndrome", doctors studying the rare condition said January 31. Ten-year-old Sahana Khatun has the tell-tale gnarled growths sprouting from her chin, ear and nose, but doctors at Dhaka's Medical College Hospital are still conducting tests to establish if she has the unusual skin disorder. / AFP PHOTO / STR

A young Bangladeshi girl with bark-like warts growing on her face could be the first female ever afflicted by so-called “tree man syndrome”, doctors studying the rare condition said Tuesday.

Ten-year-old Sahana Khatun has the tell-tale gnarled growths sprouting from her chin, ear and nose, but doctors at Dhaka’s Medical College Hospital are still conducting tests to establish if she has the unusual skin disorder.

Less than half a dozen people worldwide have epidermodysplasia verruciformis but none so far have been women, said Samanta Lal Sen, the head of the hospital’s burn and plastic surgery unit.

“We believe she is the first woman,” Sen told AFP.

Her father, a poor labourer from Bangladesh’s rural north, said he didn’t worry too much when the first warts appeared on his daughter’s face about four months ago.

But as the growths spread rapidly he grew concerned and brought Khatun from their village to the capital Dhaka for treatment.

“We are very poor. My daughter lost her mother when she was only six. I really hope that the doctors will remove the barks from my beautiful daughter’s face,” her father Mohammad Shahjahan told AFP.

Another of Khatun’s doctors said the young patient was displaying a milder form of the disease, and it was hoped she would make a quicker recovery than those in the more advanced stages.

The hospital has been treating one man with a serious case of the disease for the better part of a year, conducting 16 surgical procedures to remove giant warts from his hands and legs.

Huge growths weighing five kilogrammes (11 pounds) each had consumed the hands of 27-year-old Abul Bajandar, the first recorded Bangladeshi to be suffering from the disease.

His plight has captured national attention and the interest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who promised the patient would receive treatment free of charge.

Doctors told AFP last month that for the first time in a decade, Bajandar had been able to touch his wife and daughter, and was almost ready to leave the ward.

Army training exercises, operations help to curb criminality in 2016 – Buratai (Read full details)

Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, said the training exercises conducted by the Nigerian Army in 2016 helped to curb criminality and other nefarious activities during the period.

Buratai made the remark on Saturday at the West African Social Activities, WASA, organized by the Army Headquarters Garrison at the Mogadishu Cantonment in the FCT.

He said the climax of the exercises and operations was the “Operation Rescue Finale” in the North East.

According to Buratai, that operation led to the fall of Sambisa forest and capture of Camp Zero, the last stronghold of the terrorists in the forest.

“As we commence another training cycle, I urge you all to remain committed in the discharge of our collective responsibility of ensuring peace and stability across the country.

“We must remain focused, dedicated and resilient in order to consolidate on the achievement so far recorded, ” he said.

Also speaking, the FCT Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, who was the special guest at the occasion described the army as “one of the pillars which continue to give hope to the citizens in our collective aspirations to be a stable, peaceful and developed country. ”

Bello noted that in spite of internal security challenges, the commitment of the army to regional and international peace and stability remained unshakable.

“I salute the courage and gallantry exploits of the personnel of the Nigerian army, ” he said.

Earlier, the Commander of the Garrison, Maj.-Gen. John Malu recalled that WASA was usually observed by the army to mark the end of each training year.

Malu said that it was introduced during the colonial era of the “Royal West African Frontier Forces (RWAFF)” to take officers and soldiers away from their regimented life to an atmosphere where they relax freely.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event featured various cultural display by soldiers, reflecting the Nigerian setting.

Army training exercises, operations help to curb criminality in 2016 – Buratai

Muslim world’s shock, outrage at Donald Trump’s visa ban

Protesters gather to denounce President Donald Trump's executive order that bans certain immigration, at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on January 28, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. G. Morty Ortega/Getty Images/AFP<br />G. Morty Ortega / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

Families split, a father unable to reach his son’s wedding and officials warning of a “gift to extremists” — President Donald Trump’s visa ban on seven Muslim countries has triggered shock and confusion among those affected.
“There is mass hysteria among the Iranian-American community — that’s no exaggeration,” said Saam Borhani, an attorney in Los Angeles.
He said clients were bombarding him with questions since Trump passed an executive order on Friday, suspending refugee arrivals and imposing tough controls on travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

With more than one million Iranians living in the United States, the restrictions have already caused chaos for students, businessmen and families.
“I have several clients impacted by the executive order — married couples whose spousal visas have been stopped, causing them to be separated. A father living in Iran who is unable to come to his son’s wedding in California,” said Borhani, who was himself born in the US to Iranian parents.
US State Department figures show Iran accounted for around a quarter of the 31,804 visas granted to citizens from the seven countries last year.
Among thousands facing difficulties, an Iraqi family was barred in Cairo from taking their connecting flight to New York on Saturday.
“I had sold my house, my car, my furniture. I resigned from work and so did my wife. I took my children out of school,” Fuad Sharef, 51, told AFP.
“Donald Trump destroyed my life. My family’s life. I used to think America was a state of institutions but it’s as though it’s a dictatorship,” he said.
An Iranian woman blocked from boarding at Tehran airport on Sunday said she had waited 14 years for her green card.
“Even during the hostage crisis at the US embassy (in 1980), the US government didn’t issue such an order. They say the US is the cradle of liberty. I don’t see freedom in that country,” she said, asking not to be named.
– ‘Gift to extremists’ –
The US embassy in Baghdad said on Facebook that dual nationals from the seven countries would be barred from entering the United States, excluding those with American passports.
“Daeshi decision,” Baghdad resident Nibal Athed wrote in response to the post, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
He asked why the list excluded Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which he described as the “biggest sponsors of terrorism”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday that Trump’s move “will be recorded in history as a great gift to extremists and their supporters.
“Collective discrimination aids terrorist recruitment by deepening fault-lines exploited by extremist demagogues to swell their ranks,” he tweeted.
His ministry said earlier that it would reciprocate with a ban on Americans entering the country, though it will not apply to those who already have a valid visa.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa, also criticised the ban, stating: “All attempts to classify Yemen and its citizens as a probable source for terrorism and extremism is illegal and illegitimate.”
Yemenis made up the largest contingent — 12,998 — of immigrants to the US last year from the seven countries.
– ‘Trump’s wall reaches Iran’ –
The situation has been complicated by a US federal judge, who ordered authorities on Saturday to stop deporting refugees and other travellers stuck at US airports.
“Uncertainty is the key word. Things are changing quickly and we’re trying to keep people updated,” said Borhani, the lawyer in LA.
Getting a visa was already tough for Iranians, who had to travel to Turkey or the United Arab Emirates for the nearest US embassy.
BBC Persian reported that 9,000 Iranian asylum seekers were now blocked in Turkey.
After rising hopes under former president Barack Obama that relations between Iran and the US were improving, Trump has thrown everything back up in the air, Borhani said.

“I don’t know what the future is going to hold, whether people here will be cut off permanently from their families in Iran. It’s very stressful.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s leading daily Hamshahri was headlined: “The United States has cut its relations with the Iranian people.”
Top reformist paper Shahrvand led with: “Trump’s wall has reached Iran”.

Muslim world’s shock, outrage at Trump’s visa ban

Gangs’ car bombs rattle Montenegro’s capital (Read full details)

Montenegran police officers investigate a crime scene in the capital Podgorica on January 19, 2017. Heavily-armed police are guarding the streets of Montenegro's capital after a spike in gangland violence rattled the Balkan country, which is on the brink of joining NATO. Drug mafia feuds began in the coastal towns of Bar and Kotor, hotbeds of organised crime, where anti-terrorist police swooped in to tackle the deadly rivalries last summer as tourists came and went on cruise ships. But the troubles have come to the streets of the capital Podgorica in the past few weeks, with two people killed and two others seriously injured in three explosives.<br />SAVO PRELEVIC / AFP

Heavily-armed police are guarding the streets of Montenegro’s capital after a spike in gangland violence rattled the Balkan country, which is on the brink of joining NATO.

Drug mafia feuds began in the coastal towns of Bar and Kotor, hotbeds of organised crime, where anti-terrorist police swooped in to tackle the deadly rivalries last summer as tourists came and went on cruise ships.

But the troubles have come to the streets of the capital Podgorica in the past few weeks, with two people killed and two others seriously injured in three explosions.

“Recent events in Podgorica and events that preceded them in other towns have understandably provoked the anxiety of citizens, who expect the authorities to do all they can in a merciless struggle against organised crime,” said Interior Minister Mevludin Nuhodzic.

He admitted that “in some way, order is threatened”.

Twelve people were killed last year as a result of gang feuds in the country of 620,000 people, whose tourism sector is growing under the threat of powerful organised crime.

In one incident in September, a sniper shot a prisoner dead in broad daylight in a yard in Montenegro’s highest-security jail in Podgorica. The man had been jailed for extortion.

The recent spike in attacks has resulted in dismissals and resignations at the top of the police force and an intensified presence on the streets.

After nightfall for the past several days, heavily-armed officers have patrolled the squares of the capital, closely monitored customers in bars and cafes and carried out tight security checks on cars.

So far they have seized several guns, drugs and one vehicle, but no arrests over the Podgorica blasts have been announced.

Residents of the capital fear becoming collateral damage of the warring gangs.

“This has crossed all limits… the whole society is descending into the underworld. I am afraid of innocent people being killed,” said Milos, 45, an economist who witnessed the latest blast in the centre of Podgorica on January 19.

A young man with a criminal record was killed in the explosion and the passenger in his car had to have her leg amputated.

– ‘Unbearable’ –
Another resident in the capital, 47-year-old lawyer Ana, described the situation as “unbearable” and wondered “what has prevented the authorities from strengthening their fight against crime?”

Local people who spoke to AFP were reluctant to give their family names for security reasons.

Nuhodzic insisted the government was “taking permanent action. Our goal is to create insecurity for criminals”.

But Nebojsa Medojevic, a leader of the main opposition Democratic Front alliance, said the security situation was “worrying” and that there was a “political character” to Montenegro’s organised crime.

“There are no boundaries between the state and crime,” he told reporters on Friday.

NATO signed an accession agreement with Montenegro last year, paving the way for the country to become the 29th member of the Western military alliance.

So far more than 20 of the 28 NATO allies have ratified the accession of the former Yugoslav republic, which is also a candidate for European Union membership.

But mountainous Montenegro, which declared independence from Serbia in 2006, has struggled to contain the widespread scourge of organised crime and related violence. The EU regularly urges authorities to do more.

– Political links? –
Last summer, dozens of anti-terrorist police descended on the medieval fortress town of Kotor, a popular tourist destination on the Adriatic coast, after a string of public shootouts between rival drug-trafficking gangs.

Nine men were later arrested over the violence.

Montenegro’s veteran leader Milo Djukanovic stepped down after his party only narrowly topped an election in October, handing the prime ministership to a close ally. But many Montenegrins still see Djukanovic as the real boss.

The former PM, who led the country towards closer ties with the West, is accused by critics of links to organised crime, which he denies.

On election day authorities arrested of a group of Serbians whom they accuse of plotting to seize parliament and assassinate Djukanovic.

Gangs’ car bombs rattle Montenegro’s capital