Nine killed in South Carolina 'hate crime' shooting
Police say a white gunman killed at least nine people at historic African-American church in city of Charleston.
18 Jun 2015 08:31 GMT
An unknown gunman has killed at least nine people at a historic African-American church in the US city of Charleston, in what police called a hate crime.
Several people were reported to have also been injured in the shooting on Wednesday evening, and police said the suspect remained at large.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley called the shooting "an unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy".
The suspect was described as a 21-year-old white man wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and boots, Charleston police said in a message on Twitter.
Hong Kong parliament defies Beijing's insistence and rejects 'democracy' plan
Proposal that would have allowed election of leaders, but only from candidates vetted by Communist party hierarchy, is defeated in key vote
Pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong have defeated attempts to bring “fake democracy” to the former British colony by voting down a controversial Beijing-backed plan that sparked mass demonstrations in 2014.
The proposal – which China insisted represented true universal suffrage – would have seen Hong Kong’s five million voters granted the right to directly elect their future leaders – but only after candidates had been screened by a pro-Beijing committee.
The “political reform package” was rejected on Thursday with 28 legislators in Hong Kong’s parliament voting against it. Eight lawmakers voted for the proposal. There are 70 members in all but more than two dozen pro-government politicians walked out of the session without voting in an apparent attempt to halt proceedings.
Hungary to erect fence on Serbian border
European Parliament and right groups have denounced Budapest’s handling of migration question
Daniel McLaughlin
Hungary plans to build a security fence along its entire border with Serbia to halt the flow of illegal migrants, despite domestic and international criticism of its handling of the issue.
Officials say more than 53,000 people – mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans – have lodged asylum requests in Hungary this year, compared with 43,000 last year and 2,157 in 2012. Most file a request before moving west, however, and prime minister Viktor Orban has been accused of taking a harsh line against refugees to counter the rise in popularity of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party.
Mr Orban’s office said yesterday the government had ordered the interior ministry to “prepare for closure of the Hungarian-Serbian border by next Wednesday; this will be achieved by erecting a four-metre-high fence” along its 175km length.
Legal Highs: Welcome to the Cannabis Revolution
By Marco Evers and Laura HöflingerA new consensus is emerging that bans on cannabis are counterproductive. Across the world, countries are legalizing its use for pleasure and medical treatment -- but Germany still lags behind.
Ms. Zeng speaks quietly, almost in a whisper, with a strong Chinese accent. How long have you been having trouble sleeping, she asks her customer.
A prescription issued by Ms. Zeng allows a patient to obtain medical cannabis in any form at the Canna Clinic. Behind the counter are jars filled with dark-green bundles of various strains of marijuana, from "B52" to "Afghan Kush" and "BC Bud." Cannabis cookies are also on display, along with cannabis-infused honey. Today's special is pre-rolled joints and cannabis chocolates for $2 (€1.8) apiece.
Who are redefining womanhood in India?
Gita would be in her mid-50s, she is a mother to a married son and a married daughter and she is also a grandmother to her daughter’s sons. She has been working as a maid in our house for the last 14 years. From the village, where she lives, it takes her an hour-long train ride to reach the city of Kolkata, and then she walks for 20 minutes to reach our home. She usually wakes up at 5am, cooks, cleans, although now she is helped in her household chores by her daughter-in-law, who married and came to their home when she was not even 18.
Then Gita leaves home at 7am for the railway station, once again traversing the distance on foot because she prefers to save the Rs-10 she would have to pay as auto-rickshaw fare every day.
Her son, who is working as a photographer clicking photos at weddings and special occasions, earns enough to run their family of four – Gita and her husband, her son and his wife – and often insists that his mom should retire. But Gita doesn’t want to.
Will pope's encyclical change the climate conversation?
On Thursday, Pope Francis is set to read his encyclical, Laudato Si, which focuses on climate change.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, on the eve of the most contested papal writing in half a century, said on Wednesday that all should help to save "our ruined" planet and asked critics to read his encyclical with an open spirit.
In the highly personal and eloquently written 192-page "Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home," Francis dives head on into the climate change controversy, which has won him the wrath of skeptical conservatives, including two Catholic U.S. Republican presidential candidates.
On Tuesday, Jeb Bush, a convert to Roman Catholicism, said: "I don't get my economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope."
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