Thursday, June 15, 2017

Six In The Morning Thursday June 15

Trump-Russia inquiry: President's 'possible obstruction to be probed'


US President Donald Trump is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reports.
Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper says three senior intelligence officials have agreed to be interviewed by Mr Mueller's investigators.
Mr Trump's lawyer said the FBI's leak to the newspaper was "outrageous".
Mr Mueller is overseeing an FBI inquiry into Russia's alleged meddling the 2016 US election and any Trump links to it.
President Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia, describing the ongoing inquiry as a "witch hunt".






'Conspiracy' law enacted to punish planning of crimes

 (Mainichi Japan)

Japan's parliament enacted Thursday contentious legislation to criminalize the planning of serious crimes, which the government says will help thwart terrorism but opponents claim could lead to the suppression of civil liberties and excessive state surveillance.

The amendment to the law on organized crime cleared a vote in a plenary session of the House of Councillors, or upper house, after the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito took the unorthodox step on Wednesday of bypassing an upper house committee vote.
The choice to circumvent the normal legislative process effectively allowed the coalition to avoid having to extend the current Diet session, set to end on Sunday, at a time when corruption allegations against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have prompted heightened scrutiny of the Abe administration.

Flint water crisis: Officials charged with manslaughter over contaminated supply

They are all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires' disease

Five people, including the head of Michigan’s health department, were charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint’s lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires’ disease.
Nick Lyon is the highest-ranking member of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration to be snagged in a criminal investigation of how the city’s water system became poisoned after officials tapped the Flint River in 2014.
Lyon, 48, the director of the Health and Human Services Department, is accused of failing to alert the majority-black population about an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15.

Why Iran approaches Qatar crisis with caution

The Qatar crisis has infected the country's relations with Iran. Despite a recent rapprochement between the two Gulf states, Iran is noticeably taking a back seat in the diplomatic tussle.
"The situation in the Gulf region is very unpredictable. We don't need any more turmoil," said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif on Monday, adding that extra tension could lead to disaster.
Iranian media have been reporting very carefully on the Qatar crisis, likely an indication of widespread concern in Tehran about the possibility of a new war in the Persian Gulf.
In the middle of Muslim holy month of Ramadan, several Arab countries, under Saudi leadership, decided at the start of last week to impose a blockade on Qatar. They accused the country of financially supporting terrorist groups. The Qatari peninsula's land border was closed, and flights from Arab states to the capital, Doha, were suspended, effectively cutting off supply routes to a country that is almost completely dependent on imported food and drinking water.

China probes academic fraud by cancer researchers


China is investigating claims of academic fraud involving mostly Chinese cancer researchers after more than 100 articles were withdrawn from a foreign medical journal.
German publisher Springer announced in April the retraction of 107 articles from Tumor Biology after finding evidence the "peer review process was compromised".
The papers had been produced by Chinese medical institutions and universities and published between 2012 and 2016.
It is standard practise for scholars to submit their research to peers for scrutiny before publishing to ensure the integrity of their work, but fraud is a growing problem.
China's Ministry of Science and Technology said it had "zero tolerance" for such behaviour and pledged to investigate "each and every paper retracted".

London Fire: 12 Grenfell Tower residents dead as blaze rips through 24-storey block

Twelve fatalities confirmed as 78 people also treated in six hospitals across the capital, with 18 in critical care



A west London community has been left reeling and searching for answers after an “unprecedented” blaze ripped through a tower block, killing at least a dozen people and injuring scores more.
Emergency services worked through Tuesday night and the following day to rescue survivors and extinguish the large flames, which were still alight in parts of the building 18 hours later.
Firefighters were called to the 24-storey block in Latimer Road, near Notting Hill, at 12:54am and arrived to find the blaze spreading at a rate “greater than expected”, prompting early calls of a major incident, which saw 250 firefighters tackling the flames at the height of the inferno and the rescue of 65 people.









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