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page 19 UK Britain votes in historic referendum on EU Millions of Britons began voting Thursday in a bitterly-fought, knife-edge referendum that could tear up the island nation’s EU membership and spark the greatest emergency of the bloc’s 60-year history. A record 46.5 million voters were registered to decide Britain’s future in the 28-nation European […]

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UK

Britain votes in historic referendum on EU

Millions of Britons began voting Thursday in a bitterly-fought, knife-edge referendum that could tear up the island nation’s EU membership and spark the greatest emergency of the bloc’s 60-year history.

A record 46.5 million voters were registered to decide Britain’s future in the 28-nation European Union, which was born out of a determination to unite in lasting peace after the carnage of two world wars.

Across much of southeast England, many voters braved heavy rain and thunderstorms, which flooded some London streets, to reach polling stations.

The once-in-a-generation referendum asks: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”

In one of the last opinion polls before the vote, “Remain” took a lead with 48 percent, notably ahead of “Leave” on 42 percent. The rest were undecided, said the telephone survey by ComRes for the Daily Mail and ITV News.

Two other polls published on the eve of the referendum – both conducted over the Internet – had put the “Leave” camp ahead by one or two percentage points, well within the margin of error.

S/SUDAN

UN to send peacekeepers home over S/Sudan inaction

The United Nations has said that it will send peacekeepers home over a “lack of responsiveness” during a bloody attack on a UN-run camp in South Sudan in February.

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous acknowledged on Wednesday that an investigation had found “inadequacies” in peacekeepers’ response when gunmen in military uniforms stormed the camp in the northeastern town of Malakal on February 17 and 18, firing on civilians and setting shelters ablaze.

The attack on the camp, where about 48,000 people were sheltering, left at least 40 dead and 123 wounded.

Nearly 20,000 people lost their homes after they were torched by the attackers based on the occupants’ tribal affiliation.

At the time of the attack, the peacekeeping force was made up of contingents from Ethiopia, India and Rwanda.

China

Tornado, hail storms kill at least 78

A tornado, hail storms and driving rain killed at least 78 people and injured some 500 in eastern China on Thursday, flattening power lines, overturning cars and ripping roofs off houses in Jiangsu province.

The storm struck mid-afternoon near Yancheng city, a few hours’ drive north of China’s commercial capital, Shanghai, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

Winds of 125 km per hour (78 mph) battered several townships in Funing county, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Of the roughly 500 hurt about 200 have serious injuries. Power and communications are down in some areas and emergency supplies, including 1,000 tents, have been rushed to the scene, the civil affairs ministry said in a statement.

UNITED STATES

Democrats end gun control sit-in

US Democrats have ended their sit-in protest over gun control after more than 24 hours occupying Congress.

Lawmakers spent the night refusing to yield the floor as they shared stories of how gun violence had affected their voters and posted on social media.

The protest comes in the wake of the recent shootings in Orlando, the deadliest in modern US history.

Republicans adjourned the session despite Democratic attempts to force a vote before beginning a holiday break.

Congressmen chanted “no bill, no break” and sang 1960s-era protest songs on the floor of the House of Representatives.

FRANCE

Labour dispute: Dozens arrested in Paris ahead of protest

At least 85 people were arrested in Paris as thousands took part in a protest against France’s labour reforms, police said.

Many were carrying objects that could be used as projectiles, according to police, who searched protesters as they arrived at the Place de la Bastille.

The march was initially banned but ministers reversed their decision after a public uproar.

The last protest in Paris earlier this month ended in violence.

Hundreds of masked protesters on 14 June threw paving stones and a children’s hospital in central Paris was badly damaged.

The protesters object to government reforms that make it easier for employers to hire and fire workers and relax the limit on working hours.

But French President Francois Hollande said the government would not retreat from the reform.

CONGO

Gov’t arrests politician accused of leading militia that raped children

Authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo have arrested a provincial lawmaker accused of leading a militia that raped about 30 very young girls and murdered a German engineer and local rights activist, the justice minister said on Thursday.

Repeated rapes of girls as young as 18 months near the village of Kavumu in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province since 2013 have led to an international outcry and criticism of the Congolese government for its alleged inaction.

Alexis Thambwe told reporters in the capital Kinshasa that Frederic Batumike, a deputy from South Kivu province, and 74 members of his militia were arrested this week.

“The militia that works for him recruited a fetishist who advises the militiamen to rape very young girls to be assured of having a supernatural protection,” Thambwe said.

Batumike could not be immediately reached for comment.

GERMANY

Viernheim cinema complex attacker shot dead

A masked man who reportedly fired shots in a cinema complex in western Germany has been shot dead by police, the state’s interior minister has said.

Peter Beuth told the state of Hessen’s parliament that police stormed the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim, near Frankfurt, after shots were reported.

“The police thought that the gunman was holding hostages and because of that he was shot dead,” he added.

Mr Beuth said no-one else had been hurt.

However, reports said some people were suffering the effects of tear gas released as police stormed the complex.

German media say the security sources have played down suggestions that it may have been a terror attack. They say the man appears to have been a confused individual who was acting alone.

UNITED STATES

S/Court blocks Obama migrant plan

The Supreme Court has announced it is split on President Barack Obama’s plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants living illegally in the US.

The divide comes as a blow to President Obama’s 2014 executive action, in which he bypassed Congress in order to protect immigrants from deportation.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan applauded the news, saying only Congress should write laws.

But the president said the deadlock was “heartbreaking” for millions of people.

“They are Americans in every way but on paper,” he said at the White House, adding that reform will happen, sooner or later.

“Congress is not going to be able to ignore America forever,” he said.

Texas led 26 Republican-led states in challenging the programme, which would have given the right to work to millions of people.

Its legality will now be assessed in a lower district court.

CAMEROON

Adulterous men could face jail

Men who commit adultery could be sent to jail under a new law being debated by parliament in Cameroon.

The law has the backing of President’s Paul Biya’s party and so might be approved.

Women already face being jailed for between two to six months for having sexual relations outside marriage and men would face the same punishment.

Bar Association head Ngnie Kamga said the law would “take Cameroon backwards and would send more people to prisons”.

“Men having children out of wedlock should be punished because that is evidence of adultery,” one member of parliament, Tomaino Ndam Njoya, is reported to have said during the debate.

SYRIA

Civilians killed in air strikes on Raqqa city

More than 30 civilians have been killed and 150 injured in air strikes targeting areas held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL) in Syria, an activist group has said.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently group said on Wednesday that 32 civilians were killed and 150 injured in Russian strikes on Raqqa city, the de-facto capital of ISIL.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, put the death toll at 25 civilians, including six children.

The raids came a day after ISIL, also known as ISIS, pushed government forces some 40km from the strategic city of Tabqa, an area west of Raqqa city that has Syria’s largest dam and an airbase.