How the police's body-worn camera technology is changing the justice system
By the end of 2016, the majority of front-line police will be equipped with body-worn cameras. It will have a large effect on the officers using it, as Paul Peachey reports
Just before 10am on a rainy Thursday in southeast London, a small group of men gather in a pokey corridor inside Bexley magistrates court to await their punishment. They don't chat much and they have little in common – one is in his 70s, another is a self-employed T-shirt seller, while a third is just out of prison – but they share the status of convicted domestic abusers.
As they trail one by one into court for a morning of sentencing, common themes emerge: alcohol, anger and then remorse and sometimes a promise that it will never happen again. But a major change in the working of the criminal justice system only becomes obvious when Karl Langridge, 41, takes his turn.
He accepts that he had too much to drink in the pub before heading to the home of his business partner and brief short-term partner. He refused to leave the house when asked, then hurt her wrist when he wrenched a phone from her. So she called the police.
Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killing 1m people
Iraqis who built dam say structure is increasingly precarious and describe government response as ‘ridiculous’
Iraqi engineers involved in building the Mosul dam 30 years ago have warned that the risk of its imminent collapse and the consequent death toll could be even worse than reported.
They pointed out on Tuesday that pressure on the dam’s compromised structure was building up rapidly as winter snows melted and more water flowed into the reservoir, bringing it up to its maximum capacity, while the sluice gates normally used to relieve that pressure were jammed shut.
The Iraqi engineers also said the failure to replace machinery or assemble a full workforce more than a year after Islamic State temporarily held the dam means that the chasms in the porous rock under the dam were getting bigger and more dangerous every day. A contract with an Italian construction firm for carrying out urgent repairs has yet to be signed, but behind-the-scenes negotiations with Baghdad continue.
China may have seized islands claimed by Phillipines
The Philippine government is investigating whether China has taken control of a disputed atoll and pushed fishermen away. International tensions are high over the South China Sea.
Relying on local officials and fishermen sources, the Philippine "Star" newspaper reported on Wednesday that Chinese ships have been stationed for a month at Jackson Atoll, also known as Quirino Atoll, in waters claimed by the Philippines.
Local fishermen reported gray and white Chinese ships blocked them from fishing in traditional waters. The ring-shaped coral reefs lie between Lawak Island, claimed by the Philippines, and the Chinese-occupied Mischief Reef.
If the report is verified, the move would add to already heightened tensions in the South China Sea, where Beijing claims sovereignty.
Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam have overlapping sovereignty claims over parts of the South China Sea, a major global shipping lane rich in minerals and fisheries.
KKK rally: ‘I, a Jewish man, protected a Klansman’
When a violent fight broke out between members of the Anaheim, California chapter of the Klu Klux Klan and counter-protesters, our Observer, who researches hate groups, had to step in to protect one of the Klansmen. He filmed the whole scene, including the stabbing of one of the protesters and the police’s intervention.
On February 27, a few members of the White Nights of the Klu Klux Klan attempted to hold an anti-immigration rally in the southern Californian town of Anaheim, home of Disneyland. Wearing their insignia and carrying flags that read “White Lives Do Matter, Leave Our Jobs to Americans”, they showed up at their chosen location, a park, to find that counter-protesters were already there waiting for them.
“I won’t forget the terror in his eyes”
Dr. Brian Levin is a professor of criminal justice at California State University, San Bernardino and the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
Syrian refugees changing the economic face of a Turkish port town
on in
MERSIN – Located on the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, Mersin is one of the busiest port towns in this part of the country.
Travelers approaching the town center from the east, where the nearest airport is located, are greeted by mountains of containers waiting for their turn to be loaded into a ship in a gigantic facility combining the port with a special economic zone.
Mersin is located at the crossroads of land and sea trade routes, which made the town a destination for traders and adventurers throughout history. Mark Antony was here to make a pact with Cleopatra. Romans named it Hadrianopolis after their traveling emperor.
Branch by branch, a look at N. Korea's massive military
By ERIC TALMADGE
With tensions high and the United States and South Korea ready to hold their massive annual war games next week, which North Korea sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion, Pyongyang is warning it will respond to any violations of its territory with "merciless" retaliation, including strikes on Seoul and the U.S. mainland.
"Military First" is the national motto of North Korea, which is ever wary of threats to its ruling regime and still technically at war with Washington and Seoul. Nuclear-armed and boasting the world's fourth-largest military, it is persistently seen as the biggest challenge to the security status quo in East Asia, an image it loves to promote and showcased in an elaborate military parade last October.
The joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises are to begin March 7 and last more than a month. Tensions always go up when they do.
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