Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Monday, February 29, 2016

Woman held for Moscow child 'beheading'


  • 3 minutes ago

by Maria Ogryzlo and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Moscow
A policeman stands guards near the Moscow metro station where the beheading suspect was arrested, 29 FebruaryImage copyright Reuters
Image caption A policeman stands guards near the Moscow metro station where the beheading suspect was arrested
Police in the Russian capital Moscow have arrested a woman on suspicion of murdering a child after she was found apparently carrying a severed head.
The woman, believed to be the victim's nanny, is suspected of killing the child before setting fire to its parents' apartment.
CCTV appears to show the woman, dressed in a hijab, walking near a metro station with a head in her hands.
A police officer then intercepts her and wrestles her to the ground.
The suspect has been placed in psychiatric care to determine whether she is capable of understanding her actions, the Moscow Investigative Committee said in a statement (in Russian).
A criminal investigation was launched after the discovery of the remains of a child aged three to four, whose body bore traces of a violent death, in a charred flat on Narodnoye Opolcheniye Street in north-western Moscow, it added.
"According to preliminary information, the child's nanny, a citizen of one of the Central Asian states born in 1977, waited for the parents and elder child to leave the flat and then, for reasons not established, murdered the infant, set fire to the flat and left the scene," it added in the statement.
Police sources told Russian news agencies that the victim had been decapitated and the head removed from the scene by the nanny.

'I am your death'

The suspect has been named by Russian media as Gyulchekhra Bobokulova, from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.
Russia's tabloid news website Life News, which specialises in crime coverage, reports that the victim was a little girl.
According to Life News, a policeman asked to see her identity documents outside Oktyabrskoye Polye metro station, at which point she pulled the head of the child out of a bag and began screaming that she would blow herself up.
BBC map
No traces of explosives were found on the suspect after her arrest, the site adds.
Amateur video posted online shows a black-clad woman, apparently the suspect, outside a metro station shouting the Islamic phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great).
"I am a terrorist," she cries. "I am your death."
Russian journalist Polina Nikolskaya witnessed the incident. She told Reuters: "I was on my way to the metro station from home. She was standing near the metro entrance and caught my attention because she was screaming Allahu Akbar.
"I saw that she had a bloodied head in her arms but I thought it was not real. People in the crowd said it was real."
Other witnesses says the woman walked up and down outside the metro station for some 20 minutes, shouting and brandishing the head.
The phrase "Allahu Akbar" has been trending on Russian social media, in a country with a recent history of violent Islamist militancy.
In 2010, a twin bombing by women suicide attackers on the Moscow metro killed at least 38 people while in 2011, a bomb at Domodedovo airport killed 37 people.
Islamist groups from restive parts of Russia's North Caucasus region such as Dagestan and Chechnya have been behind most of the attacks.
Uzbekistan, which like other Central Asian states has a Muslim majority, has long supplied migrant labour for the Russian capital.

Related Topics

More on this story

Europe

Migrants using battering ram on border, 29 Feb 16

Migrants charge through Macedonia fence

  • 29 February 2016
  • From the section Europe
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

BREAKING NEWS: Somalia's al-Shabab claims Baidoa attack killing 30


  • 2 minutes ago

by Natalie Duval and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Djibouti
An ambulance is seen on 28 February, 2016 in Baidoa after twin explosions in the Somali city killed at least 30 peopleImage copyright AFP
Image caption This is the fourth major al-Shabab attack in Somalia this year
Islamist militant group al-Shabab has said it carried out Sunday's attack in Somalia's southern city of Baidoa that killed at least 30 people.
A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant as people were watching the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Arsenal.
In a second explosion, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a busy junction.
This is the fourth major al-Shabab attack in Somalia since the beginning of the year.
It came on the same day as countries which contribute to the African Union force in Somalia, Amisom, pledged "to reinforce military operations in Somalia, to effectively counter threats from al-Shabab".
Africa Live: BBC news updates
New questions for African force in Somalia
Who are al-Shabab?
Map of Somalia
People and soldiers search in the rubble of a destroyed building on 28 February, 2016 in BaidoaImage copyright AFP
Image caption The attack targeted people watching a football match on television
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud held an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday evening in response to the Baidoa attack, and Security Minister Abdirizak Mohamed Omar called for extra laws to help the government fight the militant group.
AU representative in Somalia Francisco Madeira condemned the attack saying he was "saddened by the loss of innocent lives through acts of terror committed by ruthless individuals who have no value for life".
In addition to the 30 deaths, the attacks injured 60 people who are being treated in hospital, a local journalist told the BBC.

Al-Shabab attacks in 2016

Residents help a man wounded during an attack in the center of Mogadishu on February 26, 2016Image copyright AFP
Image caption Al-Shabab targeted a heavily-fortified hotel in Mogadishu on Friday
15 January - on a Kenyan base in el-Ade that Somalia's president said killed at least 180 soldiers
21 January - on a restaurant at Mogadishu's Lido beach killing 20 people
26 February - on Mogadishu's SYL hotel killing nine people
28 February - on a restaurant and busy junction in Baidoa killing at least 30 people
Baidoa is being protected by Ethiopian soldiers, who make up part of the 22,000-strong Amisom force.
Troops from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Djibouti are also part of the force that supports the Somali government in its attempt to gain control over the country.

Battle to rebuild Somalia

Two decades of anarchy

Watch/Listen

Personal Stories

Background

Around the BBC

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

BREAKING NEWS: Migrants charge through Macedonia fence on Greek border


  • 11 minutes ago

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Skopje, Macedonia
Breaking News image
A crowd of migrants has burst through a barbed-wire fence on the Macedonia-Greece border using a steel pole as a battering ram.
TV footage showed migrants pushing against the fence at Idomeni, ripping away barbed wire, as Macedonian police let off tear gas to force them away.
A section of fence was smashed open with the battering ram. It is not clear how many migrants got through.
Many of those trying to reach northern Europe are Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
Map locatorImage copyright AFP

Related Topics

Migrant crisis

Features and analysis


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Salman Taseer murder: Pakistan hangs Mumtaz Qadri


  • 1 hour ago


by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Islamabad
  • From the section Asia
Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a bodyguard who killed Punjab governor Salman Taseer, is photographed after being detained at the site of Taseer's shooting in Islamabad, in this 4 January 2011 file pictureImage copyright Reuters
Image caption Mumtaz Qadri was hailed as a hero by some Islamist groups
Pakistan has hanged the former police bodyguard who shot dead Punjab's governor over his opposition to blasphemy laws, officials say.
Mumtaz Qadri killed Salman Taseer in Islamabad in 2011, a high profile murder that shocked the country.
He was hailed as a hero by some Islamist groups, and thousands of hard-line activists protested to show their support for Qadri at the time.
After news of his execution, crowds again took to the streets in protest.
Security forces have been put on high alert and a heavy police presence, including riot police, are in place in the area around Qadri's home in Islamabad, the AFP news agency reports.
Prison officials said Qadri was executed at 04:30 local time (23:30 GMT) at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad.
What are Pakistan's blasphemy laws?

'Religious duty'

Qadri, who had trained as an elite police commando and was assigned to Taseer as his bodyguard, shot the politician in broad daylight at an Islamabad market in January 2011. He was sentenced to death later that year.
He claimed it was his religious duty to kill the minister, who was an outspoken critic of Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws and supported liberal reforms.
Pakistani police escort an armoured vehicle carrying arrested Pakistani bodyguard Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the alleged killer of Punjab's governor Salman Taseer, as they leave the anti-terrorist court after a hearing in Rawalpindi on 6 January 2011.Image copyright AFP/Getty Images
Image caption Supporters in 2011 threw the rose petals on the armoured vehicle carrying Qadri away from the court
Pakistan has seen Islamist groups grow in influence in recent years and several high profile blasphemy cases.
Qadri was lauded by religious conservatives, and in his first court appearance was showered with rose petals by supporters. He never expressed any regret for the killing. His brother appeared to reassert that when he told the AFP news agency about his final meeting with Qadri.
"I have no regrets," Malik Abid told AFP. "We started crying, but he hugged us and chanted 'God is great,'" he added.
In May, just months after Taseer was gunned down, Pakistan's Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, the cabinet's only Christian, was shot dead by gunmen who ambushed his car.
That August, Salman Taseer's son, Shahbaz Taseer, was abducted in Lahore. His whereabouts are still unclear.
Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan and critics argue that blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal scores and unfairly target minorities.

Who was Salman Taseer?

This file photo taken on 28 March 2009 shows governor of Pakistan's Punjab Province Salman Taseer speaking to the media after a national assembly session in Islamabad.Image copyright AFP/Getty Images
  • The 2011 murder of Taseer, who was the governor of Punjab, was one of Pakistan's most high-profile assassinations.
  • He was one of the most prominent liberal politicians in the country and a close associate of Asif Ali Zardari, who was then the president.
  • Known to be an outspoken critic of the country's harsh blasphemy laws, arguing that they discriminated against religious minorities, and sought liberal reforms.
  • He had called for a pardon for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was sentenced to death in 2010 for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
Read more: Death of a liberal

Related Topics

More on this story

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Iran elections: Reformists make gains in Assembly of Experts


  • 10 minutes ago

by Sunita Kureishi and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Tehran
headline reading "Decisive victory for the reformist" outside a kiosk in Tehran, Iran, 28 February 2016Image copyright EPA
Image caption The headline in Shargh newspaper read: 'Decisive victory for reformists'
Moderates and reformists have made further gains in elections to Iran's Assembly of Experts, which appoints Iran's supreme leader.
President Hassan Rouhani and his allies won 15 of 16 seats allocated to Tehran, although votes for the rest of the country were still being counted.
However, prominent hardliner Ahmad Jannati was re-elected to the assembly.
The vote is seen as significant given that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is 76 and has suffered ill-health.
In elections to Iran's parliament that took place at the same time, allies of Mr Rouhani won all 30 seats allocated to the capital.
Supporters of the president had sought to prevent hardliners from being re-elected to the Assembly of Experts.
The assembly's current chairman, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, and another prominent figure, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi - seen as the mentor to conservative former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - both lost their seats.
However, Mr Jannati retained his seat, finishing in 16th place in the capital. He is chairman of Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body that vets election candidates.
Ahead of the elections, the Guardian Council disqualified almost all the well-known reformist candidates and many moderate ones.
BBC Persian's Amir Azimi says this made reformist leaders resort to the uncharted territory of backing a coalition list, asking their supporters to vote tactically.

Analysis: Lyse Doucet, BBC News international correspondent

Iranian journalists follow the preliminary results of parliamentary and Experts Assembly elections at the Interior Ministry, in Tehran, Iran, 28 February 2016Image copyright EPA
This stunning election result will make a difference in Iran's engagement with the wider world.
President Rouhani's hand has been strengthened in parliament to help open his country to greater trade and investment. That will help him, and others in his reformist camp, to deepen the dialogue with the West, which began with negotiations on a landmark nuclear deal.
But much of this opening will continue to be with Europe, rather than the US. Iran's relationship with America is still complex and controversial.
Iran's ambitions in the region are also deeply rooted - it has strategic interests in countries like Syria, Iraq and Lebanon as well as Afghanistan, and a strong sense of its right to remain engaged. These are areas where Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and its conservative Supreme leader hold sway.
But Iran wants to be regarded as an equal partner, able to sit at the world's top tables to work on common threats like the so-called Islamic State. President Rouhani's team may now feel empowered to engage a bit more, more often.
Hardliners have responded by accusing reformists of colluding with the West to block conservative appointments to the country's Assembly of Experts.
Sadeq Larijani said reformists had worked with "American and English media outlets" during the poll.
"Is this type of co-ordination with foreigners in order to push out these figures from the Assembly of Experts in the interests of the regime?" he said in a statement.
Media captionYoung people tell the BBC what they want for their future
It is the first time Iranians have gone to the poll since last year's landmark nuclear deal and the lifting of international sanctions.
The parliamentary result in Tehran is significant because lawmakers from the capital usually determine the political direction of the house, analysts say.
But with a mixed vote outside the capital neither the reformist or hardliners are likely to have overall control of parliament.
Mr Rouhani said on Saturday that the election was an endorsement of his efforts to end Iran's international isolation.
"The competition is over. It's time to open a new chapter in Iran's economic development based on domestic abilities and international opportunities," the official Irna news agency quoted him as saying.
graphic
Despite securing the nuclear deal he has faced resistance at home to domestic reform.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the turnout, at 60%, showed "the brilliant face of religious democracy to the world", Iran's conservative Tasnim news agency reported.
But he also urged "vigilance" against what the agency called "foreign meddling".
BBC Persian's Ali Hamedani says the economy was a key issue in the process.
With sanctions lifted and Western investors beginning to return to Iran, there are high hopes for an improvement in daily life, he says.

Related Topics

Rouhani's Iran

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Migrant crisis: Greece needs EU help to avoid chaos, says Merkel


  • 17 minutes ago

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Berlin
Migrants near the Greece-Macedonia borderImage copyright AFP
Image caption Greece has warned that the number of migrants on its soil could triple next month due to the restrictions
Europe cannot allow Greece to fall into "chaos", German Chancellor Angela Merkel says, amid sharp divisions among members over the migrant crisis.
Austria and several Balkan countries have introduced restrictions stranding migrants in Greece.
Mrs Merkel said EU nations had not battled to keep Greece in the euro just to leave it "in the lurch".
She also defended her decision to open German borders to migrants, despite a resulting slump in her popularity.
More than one million people arrived to claim asylum last year, sparking opposition within her governing coalition and a rise in far-right extremism.
Why central Europe says 'No'
EU migration: Crisis in graphics
Migrant stories: The pull of Europe
But speaking on Germany's ARD television, Mrs Merkel said she had no "Plan B" and would not change course, rejecting a proposed limit on migration.
In the coming weeks she faces a major test when voters go to the polls in three German states.
On Greece she said: "Do you seriously believe that all the euro states that last year fought all the way to keep Greece in the eurozone, and we were the strictest, can one year later allow Greece to, in a way, plunge into chaos?"
Greece is the main entry point for migrants arriving in Europe, and was infuriated after a group of countries led by Austria installed controls.
It recalled its ambassador to Austria after the group held talks but did not invite Greece.
A key meeting is scheduled on 7 March between EU members and Turkey and a further summit due later that month.
With more migrants expected to take advantage of warming weather to travel to Europe, it will be a chance for the EU to agree the common response that has so far eluded them.
Map locatorImage copyright AFP

Related Topics

Migrant crisis

Features and analysis

Video

In depth

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)