Jakarta attacks: Convicted militant named as attacker
- 15 January 2016
- Asia
Police in Indonesia have identified four out of five of the Jakarta attackers, naming one of two who were previously convicted militants.
Afif Sunakim, seen carrying a gun and rucksack, served seven years in prison for attending a militant camp in Aceh, police chief Gen Badrodin Haiti said.
All five were killed in Thursday's gun and bomb attacks in the Indonesian capital, which left two civilians dead.
The Islamic State (IS) militant group has said it was behind the violence.
Security forces battled militants for hours in the busy commercial district where the militants struck.
A Canadian and an Indonesian national died, and at least 20 people were injured.
The assault ended when two attackers died in a suicide bombing, police say, with the other three killed in gun battles.
Why Nigerian protesters still march to Radio Biafra's explosive beat
Fifty years after a coup triggered civil war, broadcasts out of south London have spurred new support for an independent Biafran state
Kodiliniye Obiagwu’s prevailing memory of the Biafran civil war – the bloodiest chapter in Nigeria’s history – is listening to the radio.
Obiagwu, the south-eastern bureau chief of the Guardian Nigeria, said: “I remember that we listened to Radio Biafra often. I was only 10 but for my parents and other relatives, you could see what it meant to them. It gave you hope and lifted you. That’s not the feeling I get listening to it now.”
Nearly 50 years after a coup that sparked the quest for a breakaway Biafran state in the south-east of the country, an unprecedented wave of protest has erupted across the region once again, spurred on by the return of Radio Biafra and its increasingly incendiary broadcasts
Civilian defense groups on the rise in Germany
In the wake of the New Year's Eve attacks on women in Cologne, small groups of civilian vigilantes have emerged. But some security experts warn that, in some cases, they're a cover for right-wing extremism.
The initiatives range from neighborhood watch groups to far-right groups that aren't afraid to use violence. They don't always call themselves civilian defense corps - perhaps because it sounds too militaristic and would soon rouse the authorities. After all, the police are responsible for maintaining security in Germany; civilians aren't allowed to start playing sheriff when they feel like it.
But the Cologne attacks seem to have created a new, threatening atmosphere. Some civilian defense groups, such as a Düsseldorf initiative, even reference the attacks directly. Thousands of people have joined the Facebook group "One for all, all for one… Düsseldorf keeping watch." According to the information on its page, the group says its mission is to watch out for "our women" in places where danger might lurk. The group plans to patrol together on weekends or at special events. "I don't think that free people should have to be intimidated because they're scared," organizer Tofigh Hamid told German broadcaster Sat.1, adding that the group is non-violent and non-racist.
Turkey detains 21 academics over pro-Kurdish petition: media
ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkish police on Friday detained 21 academics for "terror propaganda" over a petition denouncing military operations against Kurdish rebels in the southeast that was severely criticised by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the state media said.
Police detained the academics from the University of Kocaeli, near Istanbul, in an early morning raid on their homes, the official Anatolia news agency said.
The move came after prosecutors launched a vast investigation into over 1,200 academics from 90 Turkish universities for "insulting the state" and engaging in "terrorist propaganda" by signing the declaration.
Entitled "We won't be a party to this crime", the petition urged Ankara to halt "its deliberate massacres and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region."Ebola milestone: As outbreak officially ends, Africa weighs lessons for future (+video)
PROGRESS ON WORLD EPIDEMICS
Liberia was declared free of Ebola by world health experts on Thursday, signaling an end to an epidemic that has killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa.
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE AND JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Since early December, public health officials around the world held their breath as the days quietly stacked up: first a week without a new Ebola case in West Africa, then another, then another. But their optimism remained guarded in case the disease suddenly resurfaced.
Thursday, however, marked a new and momentous threshold – 42 days, or twice the disease’s incubation period, without an active case anywhere. That was enough for the global health community to make a long-awaited declaration: Two years, ten countries, and 11,000 deaths later, the world’s worst Ebola outbreak was officially over.
“We don’t want to say ‘Ebola is gone,’” says Dr. Alex Gasasira, director for the World Health Organization office in Liberia, the last country to have an active Ebola case. “Rather, we are declaring that this particular epidemic appears to be over. But that doesn’t mean it won’t come back, so we must continue to be prepared and to be vigilant.”#DStrong: Chinese Internet users help dying U.S. boy realize wish
Updated 0716 GMT (1516 HKT) January 15, 2016
Like many 8-year-olds, Dorian Murray wants to become famous.
Specifically, he told his father that he wants to become famous in China, land of the Great Wall -- that "bridge" that people walk on, as he put it.
Unfortunately, he doesn't have much time for that.
The Westerly, Rhode Island native has been battling rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a rare form of pediatric cancer, ever since he was four.
When doctors told him and his parents that his terminal cancer had spread and become untreatable, he decided to cease treatment and go home.
Ten days later, his mother wrote about his very special wish on the Facebook page "Praying for Dorian."
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