Deadly Prison Riot in Northern Brazil Result Of Gang Turf War - NPR

Enlarge this image

A police officer patrols the surroundings of the Altamira Regional Recovery Centre after at least 52 inmates were killed in a prison riot, in the Brazilian northern city of Altamira, Pará state, on Monday. Bruno Santos/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Bruno Santos/AFP/Getty Images

At least 57 prisoners were killed by fellow inmates during a prison riot in northern Brazil in what authorities have described as a "targeted act" by gang members directed at a rival group.

The riot at Altamira prison began early Monday and lasted throughout the morning, according to authorities. Two prison officials were reportedly taken hostage, but later released after negotiations.

In a statement put out by Pará state, where the prison is located, officials said that the riot was triggered when members of the Comando Class A gang set fire to a cell where rival gang members from Comando Vermelho (Red Command) were kept.

Most of the inmates that died were killed in the fire, officials said, but at least 16 of them were decapitated.

"It was a targeted act," state prison director Jarbas Vasconcelos said in a statement, according to Reuters. "The aim was to show that it was a settling of accounts between two gangs."

Vasconcelos said the fire spread through an old wing of the prison where prisoners were being held while a new building was under construction. According to The Associated Press, Altamira houses more than twice as many inmates as its maximum capacity.

Vasconcelos said the fire prevented police from entering the building for several hours.

As NPR's Philip Reeves reports from Rio De Janeiro, in some penitentiaries, criminal gangs have de facto control, and can easily access weapons; however, in this case, the number of dead is unusually high.

President Jair Bolsonaro was elected last year on a campaign promise to crackdown on crime, including in the country's overcrowded and often violent prisons.

As we reported in May, violent clashes at four prisons in the same general area of Brazil killed 55 people in violence that was also blamed on gangs.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/30/746482383/prison-riot-in-northern-brazil-leaves-at-least-57-inmates-dead

2019-07-30 07:33:00Z
52780341932526

Brazil jail riot 'leaves more than 50 dead' - BBC News

At least 52 people have been killed in a prison riot in Brazil which saw rival gangs battle for five hours, officials say.

Gang members from one prison block invaded another part of Altamira jail in Pará state, local media reported.

Officials giving a news conference said 16 of the dead were decapitated. Other reports said part of the prison was set on fire, suffocating many.

Two prison officers who were taken hostage have since been freed.

The violence began at around 07:00 local time (10:00 GMT), and ended at around noon, officials said.

Video reported to be from the prison carried by Brazilian media showed smoke billowing from at least one prison building, while another clip appeared to show inmates walking around on the rooftops.

The two rival gangs involved have not been named by authorities.

The prison in Altamira where Monday's violence broke out has a capacity of 200, but was occupied by 311 prisoners, Brazilian news outlet G1 said.

• Prison without guards or weapons in Brazil
• Brazil prison riots: What's the cause?

Violence in Brazilian prisons is not uncommon. The country has the world's third-largest prison population of some 700,000 people, and overcrowding is a widespread problem.

Clashes between rival gangs are frequent, as are riots.

In May, 40 people were killed on the same day in four different prisons in Manaus in Amazonas state - a day after 15 died in prison fights in the area.

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to bring in tighter controls in prisons, while building more across the country.

But this will not be straightforward as most prisons are controlled at the state level.

What causes prison riots in Brazil?

Overcrowding

A crackdown on violent and drug-related offences has seen the country's prison population boom in recent decades.

Overcrowding makes it hard for prison authorities to keep rival factions separate. It also raises tensions inside the cells, with inmates competing for limited resources such as mattresses and food.

Gang warfare

Killings between rival gang members are common in Brazilian prisons.

This was exacerbated when a two-decade truce of sorts broke down in recent years between two of the country's most powerful gangs - the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang and Rio de Janeiro's Red Command.

Lack of resources

Many Brazilian prisons are underfunded.

Poorly-trained and badly-paid prison guards often face inmates who not only outnumber them but who also feel they have little to lose as they face long sentences already.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49157858

2019-07-29 17:42:21Z
52780341932526

Could Boris Johnson’s ‘no-deal’ Brexit crack up the United Kingdom? - The Washington Post

LONDON — On Boris Johnson’s first day as Britain’s head of government, the loquacious Ian Blackford stood in the House of Commons and welcomed “the last prime minister of the United Kingdom.”

Blackford, the Scottish National Party’s leader in Parliament, was not being subtle. He was suggesting that with Johnson as prime minister, the United Kingdom might soon crack up, beginning with Scotland.

Scotland voted against independence in 2014, but there is much animosity toward Johnson north of the border, and a palpable dread over leaving the European Union — especially the hard, “no-deal Brexit” that the new prime minister says Britain must prepare for.

In the country’s 2016 Brexit referendum, Scotland voted to remain in the E.U. by a wide margin, 62 percent to 38 percent.

Johnson dashed up to Scotland on Monday, making a stop at a Royal Navy base before a scheduled speech.

Johnson defended his assertion that the former Prime Minister Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement was “dead” and that a new, better deal could be struck — despite assertions by European leaders that there will be no renegotiation.

“We are not aiming for a no-deal Brexit at all,” Johnson told reporters. But he has said Britain needs to be prepared to leave without a deal to manage the transition.

The new prime minister is a divisive character — loved and very much disliked — across the United Kingdom, a political union comprising four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Or as Johnson called it on the steps of Downing Street last week, “the awesome foursome that are incarnated in that red, white and blue flag,” the Union Jack.

In more extended remarks in Scotland Monday afternoon, Johnson is expected to praise “the most successful political and economic union in history” and to assure the north that “we are a global brand, and together we are safer, stronger and more prosperous.”

It has become something of a ritual for British leaders to visit each of the nations early on as a way to demonstrate their commitment to the union — and their understanding of the devolved, power-sharing governments, which allow Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to maintain their own parliaments with some power over regional spending and decision-making.

But some are concerned that the “awesome foursome” could get wobbly, especially without an E.U. withdrawal agreement. Johnson says he wants a new better Brexit deal with Europe but has promised to leave the E.U. at the end of October “no ifs, no buts.” The current legal position is that Britain will leave without a deal, something many economists think could hurt the country.

In a rare intervention into domestic British politics, Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, warned that a hard Brexit could undermine U.K. unity. 

“One of the things, ironically, that could really undermine the union, the United Kingdom union, is a hard Brexit,” Varadkar said Friday. The leader of the Republic of Ireland, which will remain in the European Union, warned that Northern Ireland could seek to exit the United Kingdom.

“People who you might describe as moderate nationalists or moderate Catholics, who were more or less happy with the status quo, will look more towards a united Ireland,” Varadkar said.

Some in Britain have sounded similar alarm bells. May’s de facto deputy prime minister, David Lidington, told the BBC this month that the union “would be under much greater strain in the event of a no deal.”

He added: “My view comes not just from Scottish nationalism and pressure for Irish unification — it comes from indifference among English opinion to the value of the union.”

Gordon Brown, a former Labour Party prime minister, said at an event in London last week that Johnson could be remembered “not as the 55th prime minister of the UK but as the first prime minister of England.”

[Want to understand Boris Johnson? Read his incendiary journalism]

Nationalists in Scotland who want the U.K. to split are hoping that Johnson’s premiership is equivalent to Christmas coming early. Blackford has called Johnson a “recruiting tool” for the cause.

Johnson certainly attracts attention.

Within hours of his winning the Conservative Party leadership race, hundreds of protesters gathered in central Glasgow for an “anti-Boris, pro-independence” rally, some carrying placards that read “Boris No! Independence Yes!” and “Eton mess.”

Gary Kelly, 44, started planning the protest a week before when he said it became clear that Johnson was likely to be selected as Conservative leader by the party’s 160,000 dues-paying members — about 0.25 percent of the British electorate — who largely live in the southern half of England. Johnson bested his rival, drawing 92,153 votes. 

“Not exactly a stonewalled mandate, is it? It’s an English vote, an English prime minister,” said Kelly, who predicted that a Johnson government would be a boost for Scottish independence, which he supports. “Boris is a racist, a homophobe. He’s a bigot. He’s not the kind of person Scotland wants representing them.”

A poll last month found that 49 percent of Scots favored independence but that the number would rise to 53 percent in the event Johnson became prime minister. 

It’s far from clear whether a Johnson administration could continue to tip the scales in favor of independence, or whether the new prime minister may yet win over Scots with his shiny optimism and numerous public-spending pledges. But a chaotic no-deal Brexit could help the Scottish National Party (SNP) to make its case. 

John Curtice, a politics professor at the University of Strathclyde, said that if a Johnson government leaves the bloc without a deal, “and if it’s as bad as some claim it will be, then obviously it’s easier for the SNP to pursue the independence argument.” 

Since the independence referendum five years ago, support for independence has generally hovered around the mid-40 percent range.

He also added that Johnson — who was a leader of Brexit campaign in 2016 — is deeply unpopular across the United Kingdom with people who voted against Brexit. Of the four nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against Brexit; England and Wales voted for it. 

Johnson has dismissed accusations that he is unpopular in Scotland. When asked about it in Parliament last week, he responded by explaining “why I seem to get a good reception in Scotland.”

“It may be because the people of Scotland recognize that they have a common-sensical Conservative approach, which would not hand back control of their fisheries to Brussels just as Scotland has regained control of its fantastic fish,” he said.

A YouGov survey last week showed that 65 percent of Scots thought that Johnson would be a “poor” or “terrible” prime minister.

Leafing through different regional editions of the same newspaper does seem to suggest that there are varying views on Johnson across the British Isles.

Roy Greenslade, a media commentator, said in an interview with The Washington Post that the news coverage of Johnson has been negative in Scotland, where Johnson’s background — he studied at the elite Eton College before going on to Oxford — does him no favors.

“Boris embodies all that the average working-class Scots person finds disagreeable,” he said. “Eton, Oxford, being a Westminster person — it all conjures up for the Scots English privilege.”

And it’s not just Johnson. Scotland is largely an anti-Conservative part of the world. The Scottish National Party has dominated the landscape for about a decade. For half a century before that, Scotland was a Labour Party stronghold.

But Ruth Davidson, the charismatic leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has helped to transform her party’s fortunes north of the border, winning 13 seats in Parliament in the last election — not an insignificant number for the Tories, who have a paper-thin working majority of just two.

Davidson has been notably lukewarm on Johnson.

“He’s a disaster for her,” said Thomas Lundberg, a lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow. Johnson, he told The Post, represents the “quintessentially English posh person who has made it through privilege and contacts, rather than merit.”

Davidson is not Johnson’s biggest fan. She reportedly banned him from attending the recent Scottish Tory conference. She backed his rivals in the leadership contest. During the 2016 E.U. referendum, she fired up the pro-E.U. side during a televised debate by saying that Johnson’s side had told a series of lies.

After Johnson became prime minister, Davidson told BBC Scotland, “I’ve been a critic of Boris Johnson when our ideas have differed and when I thought he merited it, and I will continue to be so.”

But now that he is leader, she said, she would judge him “by his actions in office.”

Read more

Scotland dreads Brexit. But is it enough to boost sentiment for Scottish independence?

Trump to stay at Doonbeg, his money-losing golf course threatened by climate change

This U.K. hike is sublime. Just avoid the bombs, tides and quicksand.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/could-boris-johnsons-no-deal-brexit-crack-up-the-united-kingdom/2019/07/29/b871ebac-b1e6-11e9-acc8-1d847bacca73_story.html

2019-07-29 13:19:53Z
52780341715437

US Teens Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth, Finnegan Lee Elder, Accused of Killing Police Officer Mario Cerciello Rega in Rome, Italy, Blamed Each Other: Police - Newser

(Newser) – On June 19, Italian military officer Mario Cerciello Rega was married in his hometown of Somma Vesuviana. Now, his widow will attend his funeral Monday, at the same church where they were wed, after he was allegedly killed by two American teens, per ABC News. Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth, 18, and Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, both from San Francisco, are in police custody in Rome on charges of murder and attempted extortion, with Elder accused of carrying out the stabbing of the 35-year-old Carabinieri officer, per the New York Times. The killing took place after an alleged drug deal gone wrong, after which the suspects are said to have tried to extort a man involved in the deal. Rega, who had just returned from his honeymoon, went with his partner to confront the two suspects after the man allegedly being extorted calling the cops. Rega was stabbed eight times, police say.

Police say both Americans confessed to their roles in the slaying. Per the AP, Italian law says anyone who takes part in a murder can be charged. Court documents show the suspects were interrogated separately and each initially blamed the other for the stabbing, but Elder eventually noted the knife was his and IDed it as the murder weapon, NBC News reports. Meanwhile, Carabinieri officials say they've launched a probe into a leaked photo showing Natale Hjorth at a police station in handcuffs and a blindfold after his arrest, Reuters reports. An Italian police commander, who notes blindfolding suspects is illegal, tells the AP that Natale Hjorth had it on "for a very few minutes, four or five" and that the officer who blindfolded him made the "mistake" while trying to keep the teen from seeing documents about his case. The offending officer has reportedly been transferred to a different unit. (Read more murder stories.)

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.newser.com/story/278416/pic-of-us-teen-accused-of-killing-italian-cop-raises-eyebrows.html

2019-07-29 12:37:00Z
52780341617798

Could Boris Johnson’s ‘no-deal’ Brexit crack up the United Kingdom? - The Washington Post

LONDON — In the House of Commons on Boris Johnson’s first day as Britain’s head of government, the loquacious Ian Blackford stood in the chamber and welcomed “the last prime minister of the United Kingdom.”

Blackford, the Scottish National Party’s leader in Parliament, was not being subtle. He was suggesting that with Johnson as prime minister, the United Kingdom might soon crack up, beginning with Scotland.

Scotland voted against independence in 2014, but there is much animosity toward Johnson north of the border, and a palpable dread over leaving the European Union — especially the hard, “no-deal Brexit” that the new prime minister says Britain must prepare for.

In the country’s 2016 Brexit referendum, Scotland voted to remain in the E.U. by a wide margin, 62 percent to 38 percent.

Johnson dashed up to Scotland on Monday, with a scheduled stop at a military base and a speech in the afternoon. 

The new prime minister is a divisive character — loved and very much disliked — across the United Kingdom, a political union comprising four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Or as Johnson called it on the steps of Downing Street last week, “the awesome foursome that are incarnated in that red, white and blue flag,” the Union Jack.

In Scotland, Johnson is expected to praise “the most successful political and economic union in history” and to assure the north that “we are a global brand, and together we are safer, stronger and more prosperous.”

It has become something of a ritual for British leaders to visit each of the nations early on as a way to demonstrate their commitment to the union — and their understanding of the devolved, power-sharing governments, which allow Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to maintain their own parliaments with some power over regional spending and decision-making.

But some are concerned that the “awesome foursome” could get wobbly, especially without an E.U. withdrawal agreement. Johnson says he wants a new better Brexit deal with Europe but has promised to leave the E.U. at the end of October “no ifs, no buts.” The current legal position is that Britain will leave without a deal, something many economists think could hurt the country.

In a rare intervention into domestic British politics, Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, recently warned that a hard Brexit could undermine U.K. unity. 

“One of the things, ironically, that could really undermine the union, the United Kingdom union, is a hard Brexit,” Varadkar said Friday. The leader of the Republic of Ireland, which will remain in the European Union, warned that Northern Ireland could seek to exit the United Kingdom.

“People who you might describe as moderate nationalists or moderate Catholics, who were more or less happy with the status quo, will look more towards a united Ireland,” Varadkar said.

Some in government sounded similar alarm bells. Theresa May’s de facto deputy prime minister, David Lidington, told the BBC earlier this month that the union “would be under much greater strain in the event of a no deal.”

He added: “My view comes not just from Scottish nationalism and pressure for Irish unification — it comes from indifference among English opinion to the value of the union.”

Gordon Brown, a former Labour Party prime minister, said at an event in London last week that Johnson could be remembered “not as the 55th prime minister of the UK but as the first prime minister of England.”

Nationalists in Scotland who want the U.K. to split are hoping that Johnson’s premiership is equivalent to Christmas coming early. Blackford has called Johnson a “recruiting tool” for the cause.

Johnson certainly attracts attention.

Within hours of his winning the Conservative Party leadership race, hundreds of protesters gathered in central Glasgow for an “anti-Boris, pro-independence” rally, some carrying placards that read “Boris No! Independence Yes!” and “Eton mess.”

Gary Kelly, 44, started planning the protest a week before when he said it became clear that Johnson was likely to be selected as Conservative leader by the party’s 160,000 dues-paying members — about 0.25 percent of the British electorate — who largely live in the southern half of England. Johnson bested his rival, drawing 92,153 votes.

“Not exactly a stonewalled mandate, is it? It’s an English vote, an English prime minister,” said Kelly, who predicted that a Johnson government would be a boost for Scottish independence, which he supports. “Boris is a racist, a homophobe. He’s a bigot. He’s not the kind of person Scotland wants representing them.”

A poll last month found that 49 percent of Scots favored independence but that the number would rise to 53 percent in the event Johnson became prime minister. 

It's far from clear whether a Johnson administration could continue to tip the scales in favor of independence, or whether the new prime minister may yet win over Scots with his shiny optimism and numerous public-spending pledges. But a chaotic no-deal Brexit could help the Scottish National Party (SNP) to make its case. 

John Curtice, a politics professor at the University of Strathclyde, said that if a Johnson government leaves the bloc without a deal, “and if it’s as bad as some claim it will be, then obviously it’s easier for the SNP to pursue the independence argument.” 

Since the independence referendum five years ago, support for independence has generally hovered around the mid-40 percent range.

He also added that Johnson — who was the leader of Brexit campaign in 2016 — is deeply unpopular across the United Kingdom with people who voted against Brexit. Of the four nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against Brexit; England and Wales voted for it. 

Johnson has dismissed accusations that he is unpopular in Scotland. When asked about it in Parliament last week, he responded by explaining “why I seem to get a good reception in Scotland.”

“It may be because the people of Scotland recognize that they have a common-sensical Conservative approach, which would not hand back control of their fisheries to Brussels just as Scotland has regained control of its fantastic fish,” he said.

A YouGov survey last week showed that 65 percent of Scots thought that Johnson would be a “poor” or “terrible” prime minister.

Leafing through different regional editions of the same newspaper does seem to suggest that there are varying views on Johnson across the British Isles.

Roy Greenslade, a media commentator, said in an interview with The Washington Post that the news coverage of Johnson has been negative in Scotland, where Johnson’s background — he studied at the elite Eton College before going on to Oxford — does him no favors.

“Boris embodies all that the average working-class Scots person finds disagreeable,” he said. “Eton, Oxford, being a Westminster person — it all conjures up for the Scots English privilege.”

And it’s not just Johnson. Scotland is largely an anti-Conservative part of the world. The Scottish National Party has dominated the landscape for about a decade. For half a century before that, Scotland was a Labour Party stronghold.

But Ruth Davidson, the charismatic leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has helped to transform her party’s fortunes north of the border, winning 13 seats in Parliament in the last election — not an insignificant number for the Tories, who have a paper-thin working majority of just two.

Davidson has been notably lukewarm on Johnson.

“He’s a disaster for her,” said Thomas Lundberg, a lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow. Johnson, he told The Post, represents the “quintessentially English posh person who has made it through privilege and contacts, rather than merit.”

Davidson is not Johnson’s biggest fan. She reportedly banned him from attending the recent Scottish Tory conference. She backed his rivals in the leadership contest. During the 2016 E.U. referendum, she fired up the pro-E.U. side during a televised debate by saying that Johnson’s side had told a series of lies.

After Johnson became prime minister, Davidson told BBC Scotland, “I’ve been a critic of Boris Johnson when our ideas have differed and when I thought he merited it, and I will continue to be so.”

But now that he is leader, she said, she would judge him “by his actions in office.”

Read more

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/could-boris-johnsons-no-deal-brexit-crack-up-the-united-kingdom/2019/07/29/b871ebac-b1e6-11e9-acc8-1d847bacca73_story.html

2019-07-29 12:35:53Z
52780341715437

Italian officer allegedly killed by American teens was stabbed with knife brought from US, say police - CNN

General Francesco Gargaro, of the Provincial Carabinieri Command, said the weapon was brought to the country by the 19-year-old suspect, Finnegan Lee Elder.

Gargaro added that some of the wounds sustained by the fallen officer, Mario Cerciello Rega, were "very big, 17 centimeters (7 inches) deep, the length of the blade."

Rega was killed Friday in Rome shortly after returning to work from his honeymoon. The 35-year-old was attempting to recover a backpack allegedly stolen by Elder and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, 18, after a botched drug deal, say officers. Police said that Elder confessed in the early hours of the interrogation on Friday to murder.

Meanwhile, Rega's funeral was being held in his hometown of Somma Vesuviana, near Naples, on Monday. His casket was draped with the Italian flag as it was carried into the same church where he was married less than two months ago.

Deputy Italian Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who has called for life-long prison sentences for the accused teens, attended the service.

The officer's death has gripped Italy -- the story is leading many of its newspaper headlines -- and hundreds of people gathered outside the church to pay their respects.

Botched deal

The incident unfolded after the two US citizens approached a man about buying drugs, according to police. After being sold crushed aspirin instead of cocaine, officers allege that the Americans stole a backpack off the man.

The teenagers subsequently answered the owner's cellphone, which they had also taken, and told him "they would not return the backpack without 100 euros ($111) and 1 gram of cocaine," police added.

The owner of the stolen bag then contacted the police and two unarmed plainclothes officers met the American suspects under the guise of retrieving it, police said.

Both Americans are accused of assaulting the policemen, who reportedly identified themselves as law enforcement officers during the meeting early on Friday morning. Elder is accused of stabbing Rega 11 times before fleeing the scene.

The two Americans were arrested Friday evening inside their hotel room, close to the scene of the stabbing. They are accused of aggravated murder and attempted extortion, police said.

At the hotel room, police said they found the weapon hidden in a ceiling panel as well as the clothes worn during the crime.

Elder recognized the knife police say is the murder weapon "as his own," according to court documents seen by CNN.

'Contrasting' statements

The two suspects have turned on each other, according to those documents. The teenagers accuse each other "reciprocally" and their stories are "absolutely in contrast" with one another, the documents said.

They also add that Hjorth's testimony is closer to the police's version of events. Elder is accused of the stabbing, though both are being held on suspicion of murder.

Over the weekend, the police alleged that both Americans confessed to taking part in the assault, and say Elder confessed in the early hours of the interrogation on Friday to murder.

Elder's appointed public prosecutor, Francesco Codini, said that during his court appearance Saturday his client "maintained his right to remain silent" in front of a judge.

Elder's family said in a statement that they haven't been able to have any communication with their son and appealed to the public to respect their privacy. "We are working with the US State Department, but they have not been granted access to Finn," it added.

The family plans on going to Rome as soon as the State Department says they can see Finnegan.

"We are also aware of the funeral plans for Officer Rega, and wish to be respectful of his family and friends at this devastating time," the statement added.

Elder's father, Ethan Elder, spoke briefly with CNN outside his San Francisco home Sunday and called his son's case a "precarious situation." Ethan Elder says he wants people to know his son is "a good man."

Italian police can legally hold suspects for an entire year without official charges.

Suspect blindfolded

The arrests have also raised questions over a leaked photo that appears to show one of the American suspects blindfolded at a police station in Rome. The photograph was leaked to the respected Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Suspect Hjorth's lawyer, Emiliano Sisini, confirmed to CNN that his client was the blindfolded suspect in the picture. He does not know how long Hjorth was blindfolded for, but said the incident took place before his interrogation.

Italian police have confirmed the authenticity of the photo, and told CNN that a two-pronged investigation has been launched into why the suspect was blindfolded and who leaked the photo to the press.

"The general command of the Carabinieri police strongly distances itself from the photo and the distribution of the photo of the people detained for the homicide of the Officer Mario Cerciello Rega. The provincial Carabinieri command of Rome is quickly carrying out investigations to locate who is responsible," police said in a statement Sunday.

Salvini commented on the blindfold photo Sunday, saying in a statement: "To those complaining about the blindfolding of the arrested, remember that the only victim to cry for is the man, the son, the husband who is 35 years old, a Carabinieri officer, a servant of the homeland who died in service at the hands of the people who, if guilty, deserve only life imprisonment."

The day before, Salvini had called for life-long prison sentences for the accused teens, despite them not having been put on trial.

"Hoping that the murderers of our poor policeman will never get out of prison, I remind the do-gooders that in the United States whoever kills risks the death penalty. I'm not saying we should go that far, but life in prison (obviously working), this, yes!" Salvini wrote in a message on Twitter on Saturday.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla, Barbie Latza Nadeau, Karen Smith and Sarah Dean contributed to this report.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/europe/italy-police-killing-funeral-intl/index.html

2019-07-29 12:10:00Z
52780341617798

China accuses Hong Kong protesters of committing 'evil and criminal acts' - CNN

At a press conference in Beijing on Monday, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office spokesman Yang Guang called the situation in Hong Kong "grave," adding that Beijing would not allow any challenge to the Chinese government's authority or threats to national security.

"No civilization or society under the rule of law would ever allow acts of violence to take place. We call on the general public of Hong Kong to be aware of the grave nature of the current situation," Yang said, calling on Hong Kong citizens to condemn protester violence.

"Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong. Hong Kong's affairs are China's domestic affairs," he added. Hong Kong has been governed under a "one country, two systems" model since the city transferred from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

It was the first time China's top Hong Kong policy office had given a briefing on the mass demonstrations that began in early June in opposition to a controversial -- and now-shelved -- bill that would have allowed extradition from the city to mainland China.

Yang also used the event as an opportunity to reaffirm China's strong support for Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and the city's police force, which has been the target of many protesters' ire for deploying what they believe to be heavy-handed tactics.

Jimmy Shum, of the Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized many official protests in recent weeks, called the press conference "disappointing":

"As an agency with the power to dismiss Carrie Lam, it did not call for her to step down. So the press conference wasted Hong Kong people 40 minutes of their time," Shum said.

Eight weeks of unrest

Mass protests have now been happening in Hong Kong, a major global financial hub, for eight consecutive weeks.

Protesters' demands over that period have broadened to encompass issues such as greater democracy for the city, an inquiry into alleged police brutality and the resignation of Lam.

The demonstrations have also steadily escalated in terms of violence and rhetoric.

On July 1, protesters trashed the Hong Kong Legislative Council offices, the city's seat of government. On July 21, an armed mob at Yuen Long train station, in the north of the city, attacked people in a subway station, many of whom were protesters returning from a march police had broken up in the central Hong Kong. The mob was wearing white, while most of the demonstrators were clad in black, the color of the protest movement.

Last Saturday, protesters staged a march in the small town of Yuen Long, near Hong Kong's border with China, where they clashed with riot police. On Sunday night, much of downtown came to a standstill after riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who had defied a police ban to march through the city.

Beijing has previously denounced the protesters in state media, including their decision to target the Chinese government's headquarters in the city on July 21. State-run news agency Xinhua called the demonstrators "radical protesters" and said their actions were an "open challenge to the central government's authority."

"If this can be tolerated, what can not?" Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily said in an editorial.

At a Ministry of Defense briefing last week, spokesperson Wu Qian said the Chinese military was watching the situation in Hong Kong closely.

When asked if the Chinese military would intervene, Wu referenced a law that allows the Hong Kong government to request assistance to maintain public order from Beijing's military garrison in the city -- a point Yang repeated at Monday's press conference when asked by CNN.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/asia/china-hong-kong-protests-intl-hnk/index.html

2019-07-29 11:04:00Z
52780337830224