Philippine Senate probes police killing of Delos Santos
Committee investigates police accountability in Duterte's drug war, with a focus on the fatal shooting of teenager.
A Senate committee in the Philippines is addressing the police killing of a 17-year-old student - a case that has drawn widespread condemnation at home and internationally.
Senate President Koko Pimentel and Senator Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, led Thursday's investigation into the accountability of the Philippine National Police during a nationwide "war on drugs".
The probe is broad and will examine a recent increase in police killings, with a focus on the high-profile death of the teenager.
Police fatally shot Kian Loyd Delos Santos on August 17 in the capital Manila amid allegations that he was framed by three officers.
Witnesses said police forced the teenager to hold a gun, fire and run.
The school beneath the wave: the unimaginable tragedy of Japan’s tsunami
In 2011 a tsunami engulfed Japan’s north-east coast. More than 18,000 people were killed. Six years later, in one community, survivors are still tormented by a catastrophic split-second decision. By Richard Lloyd Parry
Thursday 24 August 2017 06.00 BST
The earthquake that struck Japan on Friday 11 March 2011 was the fourth most powerful in the history of seismology. It knocked the Earth six and a half inches off its axis; it moved Japan four metres closer to America. In the tsunami that followed, more than 18,000 people were killed. At its peak, the water was 40 metres high. Half a million people were driven out of their homes. Three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi power station melted down, spilling their radioactivity across the countryside, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The earthquake and tsunami caused more than $210bn of damage, making it the most costly natural disaster ever.
Pain and anxiety proliferated in ways that are still difficult to measure, even among people remote from the destructive events. Farmers, suddenly unable to sell their produce, killed themselves. Blameless workers in electricity companies found themselves the object of abuse and discrimination. A generalised dread took hold, the fear of an invisible poison spread through air, through water – even, it was said, through mothers’ milk.
I was detained for protesting against Donald Trump. Here’s what the US Secret Service asked me
In the end, I couldn’t stop wondering why they were devoting so much time to a non-violent protestor with a banner when they could be pursuing neo-Nazis
Like many events that end up with a person in handcuffs, my story begins in a bar. I was in Atlanta earlier this month for Netroots Nation, the annual meeting of progressive organisers and writers, when I overheard friends discussing how to resist President Trump’s first visit to Trump Tower.
I jumped into the conversation: “Well, you call me, of course.” Twenty minutes later, we had a rough plan that we would unfurl a banner inside Trump Tower the following week. I have been to many protests since the inauguration, and I was proud to do my part.
Amnesty urges: Protect civilians trapped in IS-held Raqqa
More than 25,000 people trapped by the Islamic State in Raqqa must be helped to flee, Amnesty International has urged. The group called on "all sides" - including US-backed forces - to stop indiscriminate bombing.
Senior Amnesty adviser Donatella Rovera said US-backed forces nearing Raqqa's central neighborhoods must "redouble” efforts to avoid disproportionate shelling and create safe civilian exits.
Islamic State (IS), which seized Raqqa as its northern Syrian hub in 2014, was using civilians as human shields and targeting those trying to escape with sniper fire and landmines, Amnesty reported in an assessment published Thursday.
"Violations by the IS do not lessen the international legal obligations of other warring parties to protect civilians,” said Rovera, referring to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has Kurdish and Arabic militias on the front line.
Fugitive Venezuela prosecutor says she has proof of Maduro graft
Venezuela's recently ousted chief prosecutor accused President Nicolas Maduro and several allies on Wednesday of participating in acts of corruption, saying she would turn over proof that would help other countries prosecute.
Venezuela's government quickly fired back, accusing Luisa Ortega Diaz of "grave moral and ethical infractions."
Ortega spoke during a meeting of Mercosur trade bloc prosecutors in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia. Ortega was removed by a new, pro-government constitutional assembly in early August after breaking with Venezuela's socialist government.
She fled abroad with her husband, whose arrest was ordered by the country's supreme court.
His greatest hope at freedom is escaping the US and being arrested
Updated 0655 GMT (1455 HKT) August 24, 2017
Jean-Enice Frederic is looking to get arrested.
"I have lots of family in Haiti and wanted to bring them to the United States, but I don't have residency," Frederic says. "I thought about them every day, my wife and kids."
At a dead end called Roxham Road, Frederic is crossing a narrow ditch that separates the United States and Canada.
Canadian police wait patiently on the other side. They warn anyone who approaches that what they're about to do is illegal, that they'll be arrested.
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