Panama Papers: Government announces creation of 'panel of experts'
- 7 April 2016
- Latin America & Caribbean
Panama is creating an international panel to help improve transparency in its offshore financial industry.
The move follows the leak of millions of documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca, showing it helped some clients evade tax and avoid sanctions.
Several countries are probing possible financial crimes by the rich and powerful in the aftermath of the leak.
President Juan Carlos Varela said Panama would work with other countries over the revelations.
"The Panamanian government, via our foreign ministry, will create an independent commission of domestic and international experts," he said in a televised address.
Secular activist who criticised Islamism hacked to death in Bangladesh
Nazimuddin Samad, whose family live in London, was killed by at least four assailants in Dhaka after posting anti-Islamism messages on Facebook
A Bangladeshi law student who criticised Islamism on his Facebook page has been murdered, police said on Thursday, the latest in a series of killings of secular activists and bloggers in the country.
Nazimuddin Samad, 28, had been on a hit list of 84 atheist bloggers that a group of radical Islamists drew up and sent to Bangladesh’s interior ministry.
“At least four assailants hacked Nazimuddin Samad’s head with a machete on Wednesday night. As he fell down, one of them shot him with a pistol from close range. He died on the spot,” deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan police Syed Nurul Islam told AFP.
EU wants to centralize its asylum process
Europe's refugee crisis won't be resolved by the EU Commission's proposals. They want to reflect further and develop asylum law in the EU. But just how and when will this happen? Bernd Riegert reports from Brussels.
Is the EU Commission afraid of its own courage? Confidential papers from the Commission that were recently leaked to media sources in Brussels reveal that the EU Commission wants to propose to member states a centralization of the asylum process. Decisions concerning asylum applications would go through European authorities, which is seen as a further development in immigration policy.
That was no longer the case after the weekly meeting of the EU Commission in Brussels Wednesday. Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the Commission, appeared before the press, delayed by consultation with the 28 Commissioners from all member states. The most sensitive parts in the asylum documents would be eliminated, declared Timmermans.
"Long-term, there are other options, including a centralized European system with European decisions taken regarding individual asylum applications. But from a political perspective, it isn't realistic to speak of that today. For that reason, we also didn't propose that today."
Facebook groups act as weapons market for terrorists
- New York Times
A terrorist hoping to buy an anti-aircraft weapon in recent years needed to look no further than Facebook, which has been hosting sprawling online arms bazaars
Some Facebook posts suggest evidence of large-scale efforts to sell military weapons coveted by terrorists and militants. The weapons include many distributed by the United States to security forces and their proxies in the Middle East. These online bazaars, which violate Facebook’s recent ban on the private sales of weapons, have been appearing in regions where the Islamic State has its strongest presence.
This week, after The New York Times provided Facebook with seven examples of suspicious groups, the company shut down six of them.
The findings were based on a study by a private consultancy, Armament Research Services, or ARES, about arms trafficking on social media in Libya, along with reporting by The Times on similar trafficking in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
'Younger Games': Hong Kong's Joshua Wong launches new political party
Updated 0701 GMT (1401 HKT) April 7, 2016
One of Hong Kong's most famous democracy activists has announced the formation of a new political party amid heightened tensions in the city over the alleged kidnapping of several booksellers and perceived interference by Beijing in official affairs.
Joshua Wong says that his new party -- Demosistō -- "will demand self-determination" for Hong Kong.
"This is our most important policy," he told CNN. "If we do not fight for self-determination the Chinese Communist Party will determine our future."
The party accompanied its announcement with a striking poster of co-founder Agnes Chow as Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games," with the slogan "the people will surround the city."
Libya's Tripoli authority rejects UN-backed government
Contrary to earlier reports, Tripoli-based PM Khalifa Ghweil refuses to cede power to UN-backed unity government.
| Politics, Middle East, Libya
Libya's new unity government has been thrown into chaos, as the head of its rival Tripoli-based authority apparently refused to cede power.
Contradicting an earlier announcement that his National Salvation Government was ready to step aside, Tripoli's unrecognised Prime Minister Khalifa Ghweil urged his ministers not to stand down in a statement on Wednesday.
"Given the requirements of public interest... you are requested to continue your mission in accordance with the law," he said, threatening to prosecute anyone working with the new government.
The reason for the U-turn was not immediately clear, but suggests a split within the Tripoli authority that seized the city two years ago forcing out the internationally recognised government.
Smuggler of Stolen Artifacts From Palmyra Speaks Out About ISIS' Illicit Operation
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A man with a long black scarf wrapped tightly around his face sat down in an apartment in southern Turkey and placed a plastic shopping bag on a table. He reached inside to reveal a 20-inch-tall relief.
The sculpture depicting a sun god, he said, was the last in a series of artifacts he had been selling in the country on behalf of ISIS.
"They destroy those large statues for the cameras," said the 38-year-old man, who asked only to be identified as Abu Mustafa, referring to thepropaganda videos of ISIS fighters smashing larger, life-sized sculptures with hammers in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra.
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