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page 39 UNITED STATES Orlando shootings: ‘No clear evidence’ of IS link There is no clear evidence that the Orlando shooter was directed by the so-called Islamic State group (IS), US President Barack Obama has said. The inquiry into Sunday morning’s attack, in which 49 people were killed, was being treated as a terrorist investigation, […]
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UNITED STATES
Orlando shootings: ‘No clear evidence’ of IS link
There is no clear evidence that the Orlando shooter was directed by the so-called Islamic State group (IS), US President Barack Obama has said.
The inquiry into Sunday morning’s attack, in which 49 people were killed, was being treated as a terrorist investigation, he said.
US authorities say gunman Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to IS shortly before the attack.
However, the extent of his links to IS remains unclear.
Speaking in Washington, the president said: “It does appear that at the last minute he [gunman Omar Mateen] announced allegiance to Isil [IS].
“But there is no evidence so far that he was in fact directed.
“This is certainly an example of the kind of home-grown extremism that all of us have been concerned about for a very long time,” Mr Obama said.
The deadliest mass shooting in recent US history ended when police shot Mateen dead. The attack also left 53 people injured.
S/AFRICA
Oscar Pistorius has ‘major depression’ – psychologist
Oscar Pistorius is a “broken” man and should not be sent to jail, a psychologist has said at the South African athlete’s sentencing hearing.
Defence witness Dr Jonathan Scholtz said Pistorius was suffering from “major depression”.
Pistorius was convicted at the end of last year of the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
He faces a jail term of 15 years but it may be reduced due to time already spent in prison and mitigating factors.
The hearing is expected to last all week with a sentence by Friday.
Dr Scholtz explained to the court why he felt a jail term would not be “constructive”.
“Since the offence he has developed a serious psychiatric condition which has become worse over the past two years,” he told the court.
CONGO
Opposition Unites Against President Kabila
Leading opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) say they have organized themselves under one umbrella called “Rassemblement” or “Rally” to force President Joseph Kabila to leave power.
Kabila’s second term concludes at the end of this year.
The new coalition was formed last week in Belgium and includes the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) led by veteran opposition figure Etienne Tshisekedi; the Dynamic Opposition, and the G7, which recently chose the governor of Katanga Province, Moise Katumbi, as its presidential candidate.
Vidiye Tshimanga is Vice President of Alternative 2016, one of the groups making up the new coalition. He said the new alliance will be led by veteran politician Tshisekedi.
Bangladesh
Police arrest thousands after series of murders
Police in Bangladesh have arrested 3,245 people in the past 24 hours, as security forces continue their crackdown on those suspected to involve in the slayings of secular activists and religious minorities.
The total number of suspects arrested since the campaign began on Friday stands at 8,192, police spokesman Kamrul Ahsan said on Monday.
At least 103 of those arrested were tied to the spate of killings targeting religious minorities and secular activists, with about 6,000 on other charges related to firearms, drugs, and other offences, police said.
Over the past week, an elderly Hindu priest, a Hindu monastery worker, and a Christian shopkeeper were hacked to death in attacks for which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility.
ERITREA/ETHIOPIA
Eritrea, Ethiopia trade blame for border clashes
Eritrea and Ethiopia accused each other of starting clashes on Sunday between their soldiers in a border region, highlighting persistent tension over a boundary dispute that triggered war in 1998-2000.
Ethiopia said the situation was calm on Monday, after a resident on the Ethiopian side reported the sound of explosions all day on Sunday and lasting into the early morning of Monday.
Eritrea, a Horn of Africa country that won independence from Ethiopia in 1991, fought border wars with its larger neighbour in 1998-2000 that killed about 70,000 people.
Eritrea’s Information Ministry said in a statement late on Sunday night that the Ethiopian government had “unleashed an attack against Eritrea on the Tsorona Central Front.”
Tsorona is a town south of the Eritrean capital Asmara and close to the frontier. The area saw intense fighting during the earlier border war.
Ethiopia disputed this account, saying Eritrea started the fight. “Their forces were promptly repulsed. They were given a proper response,” government spokesman Getachew Reda said, adding that the situation was quiet on Monday.
KENYA
More time needed to send Somali refugees home – U.N
Kenya must relax its November deadline for sending some 350,000 Somalis home from the world’s largest refugee complex as parts of their war-torn nation are unsafe, the United Nations refugee chief said on Monday.
He called on donors to provide funding to create jobs and build infrastructure in Somalia to allow refugees in the Dabaab camp who wish to return home to nine areas regarded as safe by the U.N. to do so.
“The places of origin of many of the refugees in Dadaab are still very insecure,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, told a news conference in Nairobi on Monday.
Kenya announced in May that it planned to close Dadaab camp in the east of the country, home to 350,000 mainly Somali refugees, due to fears the sprawling complex had been infiltrated by militants.
RWANDA
Rwanda expels Burundians who say they were accused of spying
Rwanda has expelled about 400 Burundians back to their country accusing some of them of espionage and fuelling tensions between the two small neighbours whose relations have been strained by Burundi’s political crisis, an official said on Sunday.
It’s the second such expulsion in about a month and brings the total number of Burundians deported over the period to at least 1,700.
One of those expelled, a young man who did not wish to be named for fear he might be targeted, said Rwandan officials accused some of them of spying for Burundi.
Renée Mukandori, a Burundi local government official, confirmed the expulsion said it occurred on Thursday and Friday. Those deported mostly came from the Bugabira district of northern Burundi.
Burundi has accused Rwanda of interfering in its political crisis – which has seen Burundian government forces clash with protesters and rebels who say the president violated the constitution by standing for a third term last year.
Rwanda has denied Burundi’s accusations.
SYRIA
224 killed in first week of Ramadan
At least 224 people were killed in the first week of Ramadan in Syria, with the majority of the deaths resulting from bombings by Syrian and Russian warplanes, according to a monitor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said on Monday that between 6 and 12 June – the first week of the Islamic holy month of fasting, at least 148 civilian casualties were killed as helicopters dropped “explosive barrel” bombs – including 50 children and 15 women.
It added that at least 12 people were killed in shelling by rebels and fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group. At least one man was executed by ISIL in the same period, the Observatory said.
QATAR
Gov’t convicts Dutch woman held ‘after being raped’
A court in Qatar has convicted a Dutch woman of having sex outside marriage after she told police she was raped.
The 22-year-old was handed a suspended sentence and fined $824 (£580). She will also be deported.
Her lawyer said her drink had been spiked at a Doha hotel in March and she had woken up in a stranger’s flat, where she realised she had been raped.
Her alleged attacker, who said the sex was consensual, was sentenced to 100 lashes for having sex outside marriage.
He will be given a further 40 lashes for consuming alcohol.
IRAQ
Thousands flee Fallujah as army secures safe exit
Thousands of refugees are pouring out of Fallujah through a safe exit corridor secured by the Iraqi army as the fight to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) extremists rages into its third week.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), about 4,000 civilians have used the new route to escape the fighting. Thousands more are expected to make the journey in the coming days.
The NRC said 27,500 civilians have managed to escape the fighting, but thousands more are still trapped in the city center.
Some have been trying to escape by leaving at night and making their way to the Euphrates river, and paying IS roughly $130 to allow them to take small boats across.