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World News June 21,2013

21062013

Several injured by heavy storm in Switzerland


A heavy storm with winds of up to 130 kilometres an hour, with hail and heavy rain ravaged the western part Switzerland uprooting trees, disrupting transport, sparking flash floods and injuring at least 6 people, local media reported. Police fear more people have been injured. The storm hit the cities of Vaud, Bern, Neuchâtel, Jura and Basel. Traffic at Geneva’s airport was disrupted and streets were flooded from the heavy rain, the ATS news agency reported. Vehicle and building windows were broken and hail also caused damage to vineyards.


Obama picks Republican to head FBI


President Obama has announced James Comey, who will officially be nominated on Friday, as the next director of the FBI. Comey will be succeeding Robert Mueller, a Republican who served as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, and who has been FBI director since just prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Civil liberties groups took news of the appointment cautiously, with the ACLU releasing a statement emphasizing Comey’s connection to the torture and indefinite detention policies that began during the Bush administration. News of Comey’s nomination is likely to be well received by Democrats in Congress, however, as he was lauded for urging former attorney general John Ashcroft not to authorize a classified domestic wiretapping program.


All-female jury chosen for Zimmerman trial


A jury of six women will decide the fate of George Zimmerman accused of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida last year. “This is probably as critical, if not more critical than the evidence,” Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s attorney, said. Neighborhood watch Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, saying he killed the teen in self-defense. The prosecutors say Zimmerman confronted Martin because he was an African American.


Bank of Tokyo to pay NY state $250 million


New York State is set to receive $250 million from the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ after deleting information from $100 billion in wire transfers that authorities would have been able to use to monitor transactions with sanctioned-imposed countries like Iran. The bank moved some 28,000 transactions through New York between 2002 and 2007 intended to end up with countries including Iran and Sudan, or institutions linked to them, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told Reuters. Wire transfers usually flag transactions for sanctioned countries, but the bank stripped the transfers of the details. The bank said that it discovered and reported the activities in 2007, and ceased to allow the stripping of the information.


Two die in fireworks plant explosions and fire in Montreal, Canada


Two people have been killed after a series of explosions at a fireworks plant near Montreal. The two dead are believed to be employees of fireworks maker BEM. Dozens of people have been evacuated from nearby areas as a precaution after the fire erupted. A highway connecting Montreal and Toronto was also closed as well as a train line between Montreal and Ottawa 
Iran seizes two UAE fishing boats, detains 13

Twelve UAE nationals and one Indian have been detained by Iran, as they tried to cross into what the country claims was its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, the Press TV reported Thursday. The UAE vessels have been detected by the Iranian forces at Abu Musa Marine Patrol Base while fishing in the Gulf. The arrested people were transferred to a military dock, but no further details were given. The disputed islands of Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunb are claimed by both countries but have been held by Iran since 1971.


Palestinian PM resigns after two weeks in the office – source


Recently appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has offered his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas, a government source said. It is unclear if the acting president accepted Hamdallah’s resignation, and the reasons for the move are unknown. Hamdallah, a senior academic, was sworn in on June 6 to replace Salam Fayyad, who resigned in April.


Kuwait to hold more snap elections in July


Kuwait will hold another round of snap parliamentary elections on July 25, state news agency Kuna said. The current Kuwaiti legislature has been in office for seven months following the most recent early elections inDecember 2012 – three months shorter than the term of the previous national assembly, which was voted in by snap elections in February 2012. This is the fifth time since 2006 that Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, a member of the Al-Sabah family that has ruled Kuwait for 250 years, has disbanded parliament.

10 sentenced to death in Bangladesh for assisting suicide bomber


A court in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka has sentenced 10 Islamist militants to death after they were found guilty of helping a suicide bomber. “They assisted the suicide bomber in making the bomb, providing information, planning and carrying out the attack,” special public prosecutor Rafiqul Islam told AFP. The attack on the office of a lawyers’ association in the town of Gazipur in November 2005 was carried out by the outlawed Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh movement, killing eight people including the bomber and injuring at least 100 others.


N. Korean cyber-espionage must be tackled ‘urgently’ – Seoul

North Korean cyber-attacks against the South pose an urgent national security threat, South Korean Defense chief Kim Kwan-jin said during a press conference, adding that Seoul will now work to counter the North’s capabilities. The official stressed that the North boasts one of the best-trained cyber-espionage services in the world, with a dedicated team of roughly 3,000 highly trained hackers.



Israel ‘ready for renewal of border talks’ – PM Netanyahu


Israel is ready to renew peace talks with the Palestinians without preconditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments came during a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. He said that Israel is ready to renew negotiations “today, yesterday, tomorrow,” expressing hopes that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would do the same and that Europe would support the joint effort. Abbas maintains that in order for the talks to proceed, Israel must withdraw to its pre-1967 borders and cease building settlements in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.


Magnitude-5.0 quake hits China


A 5.0-magnitude quake rattled the junction zone between the city of Hulunbuir in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Nenjiang county of Heilongjiang Province, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported. The epicenter was recorded at a depth of 6km, at 49.8 degrees north latitude and 125.2 degrees east longitude, according to Xinhua news agency. No reports have emerged on injuries or property damage caused by the tremor. 

China restaurant blasts kills one, injures over 150


A series of explosions tore through a restaurant in China’s Shanxi province on Wednesday night, killing one person and injuring over 150 others, authorities said. The incident occurred in a two-storey building housing the restaurant in Shuozhou city, Xinhua reported. Among the 156 injured are dozens of firefighters who were at the scene when the final blast took place. Witnesses said they heard the first explosion around 9:20 pm, and that they also smelled gas. The cause of the explosions has not been confirmed.


Monsoon flooding kills 182 in India, rescue operations ongoing


Thousands of people are still stranded by flash floods in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, where the death toll has risen to 182. It is believed that over 62,000 pilgrims are stranded in the hilly state. Over 10,000 army personnel, 18 helicopters and an Air Force transport plane have been deployed for relief and rescue operations, as residents across the region are stranded at tourist spots and pilgrim centers, the Hindustan Times reported. With the weather set to improve, the government is moving to supply additional emergency food to the flood-stricken region.

19 Uighurs jailed in China for religious extremism



China has sentenced 19 ethnic Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang to up to six years in jail for promoting racial hatred and religious extremism online, Reuters reported, citing official newspaper Legal Daily. Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people who mainly reside in Xinjiang, and many complain they lack cultural, language and religious freedoms. China maintains that many Uighur groups are linked to Central Asian and Pakistani Islamist militants. One of the suspects was jailed for publishing religious and extremist materials from overseas via the Internet. Another suspect visited banned websites to download material that “whipped up religious fervor and preached ‘holy war’” and “whipped up ethnic enmity,” Legal Daily wrote on their website.“This created a despicable effect on society,” it said, citing the court ruling.



Nearly 200,000 construction workers strike in Quebec


Over 175,000 construction workers across Quebec, Canada’s second-largest province, walked off the job this week, beginning the first province-wide strike in nearly 20 years. Organizers said the strike was approved by a 95 per cent union vote, with workers attempting to preserve their wages and fend off steep cuts to overtime pay. The show of solidarity froze billions of dollars’ worth of building projects, including two hospitals and condominium developments in Montreal, where business owners can usually count on millions of dollars in profit over the summer. The Quebec government put a two-week deadline on the demonstration, with lawmakers saying they will attempt to arbitrate a solution if an agreement is not met in that time.

Media agencies

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