The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Europe's oldest person dies in Italy at 114
- U.S. polygamist leader guilty of child sex assault
- Clinton urges al Shabaab to fight Somalia famine
| Europe's oldest person dies in Italy at 114 Posted: 04 Aug 2011 09:05 PM PDT ROME (Reuters) - Europe's oldest citizen died in Verona, Italy on Thursday at 114. Venere Pizzinato was born on Nov. 23, 1896, in Ala, a small town near the northern Italian city of Trento, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Last year, at 114 and five days, Pizzinato, who never had children, became the oldest Italian of all time and at the time of her death she was the third oldest person in the world. The world's oldest two living people, Besse Cooper of the United States and Chiyono Hasegawa from Japan, are also 114. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano expressed his condolences. (Editing by Louise Ireland) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. | ||
| U.S. polygamist leader guilty of child sex assault Posted: 04 Aug 2011 09:05 PM PDT SAN ANGELO, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who heads a breakaway Mormon sect, was found guilty on Thursday of child sexual assault for his "spiritual marriages" to two underage girls. A Texas jury convicted the 55-year-old Jeffs of child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault over his relationships with the girls, ages 12 and 14, at his sect's Texas ranch. He faces up to 119 years in prison. Jeffs is considered the spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and has argued in outbursts that the Texas court was trampling on his religious rights by trying the case. The polygamist sect, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America, has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church and is accused of promoting marriages between older men and girls. "This is taking down the head of the snake," former sect member Flora Jessop said of the verdict, handed down after about three hours of deliberations. Throughout his trial Jeffs repeatedly said that his religion was being attacked, a notion rejected by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office prosecuted the case. "What was on trial here wasn't anybody's faith, wasn't a church, wasn't a concept," Abbott told reporters after the verdict outside the county courthouse in San Angelo. "There was only one thing on trial here, and that was Warren Jeffs and his actions to sexually assault two young girls. Our job is to prosecute crimes like that, and not to engage in religious persecution." Abbott said he expected the punishment phase of Jeffs' trial to take several days. DNA EVIDENCE Assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols took seven days to put together a case against the self-proclaimed "prophet and elect of God" of his FLDS sect, which says plural marriage is the pathway to heaven. Among the evidence used to convict Jeffs was a picture of him passionately kissing the younger girl, and DNA evidence that he fathered a child with the 14-year-old. Prosecutors also presented a scratchy audio recording of what they said was Jeffs raping the younger girl. Jeffs, in what was to have been his closing argument, simply stood silently in the courtroom for more than 20 minutes before quietly saying: "I am at peace." He then sat down. Jessop, a former sect member who ran away from a forced marriage to a much older cousin, said the church would go on despite Jeffs' conviction but she hoped some followers would get out. "Maybe they will think now about the types of crimes that he (Jeffs) has committed," she said. Jeffs had represented himself after firing his attorneys. He called as a witness one of the followers of his religion and questioned him for over four hours about the Book of Mormon and FLDS beliefs concerning plural marriage. State District Judge Barbara Walther ultimately halted Jeffs' presentation, saying it was irrelevant to the charges. Jeffs' sister Elaine, who grew up in the FLDS church as the daughter of long-time "prophet" Rulon Jeffs but has left the community, said she was not surprised by her brothers' defense. "He has not said one word in defense of the assault charges," Elaine Jeffs said outside the courthouse. Jeffs is also awaiting trial on a charge of bigamy, which is a felony in Texas. That case is expected in October. (Editing by Xavier Briand) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. | ||
| Clinton urges al Shabaab to fight Somalia famine Posted: 04 Aug 2011 09:05 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday called on al Shabaab militant Islamists to allow food aid into famine-hit areas of Somalia and said aid agencies would not be penalized if some of their assistance inadvertently ends up in militant hands.
Clinton accused al Shabaab, which controls large parts of the Horn of Africa country, of deliberately blocking emergency food supplies to some of the 3.7 million people in urgent need of assistance. "It is particularly tragic that during the holy month of Ramadan, al Shabaab are preventing assistance to the most vulnerable populations in Somalia," Clinton said in remarks with the visiting Canadian foreign minister. "I call on al Shabaab to allow assistance to be delivered in an absolutely unfettered way throughout the area that they currently control so that as many lives as possible can be saved," she said. Clinton said a U.S. team lead by Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and including U.S. Agency for International Development chief Rajiv Shah would visit Kenya this weekend to assess a food crisis which affects more than 12 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti. Washington this week announced it was relaxing anti-terrorism rules that had threatened aid agencies working in areas controlled by al Shabaab, which is on the official U.S. blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations. ACCIDENTAL BENEFITS The new guidelines say agencies will not be penalized if their operations "accidentally benefit al-Shabaab." They are aimed at speeding the flow of aid into the hardest hit southern regions of Somalia. Concerns over possible diversion of relief supplies to al Shabaab prompted a number of international aid organizations to suspend programs in southern Somalia in January 2010 and continue to constrain aid work. Al Shabaab has given conflicting signals about whether aid programs will be allowed to resume, but the U.S. officials said they believed that at least in some areas it would be possible to get assistance in. The United Nations' humanitarian aid chief said on Monday the famine in the Horn of Africa is spreading and may soon engulf as many as six more regions of Somalia. "There is more than enough work for the international community to do to help save lives without even having to worry about the al Shabaab-controlled areas," Clinton said, adding that the United States had earmarked some $500 million for famine relief efforts. "We are working with a lot of the U.N. and multilateral organizations, as well as the NGOs, to try to better organize to deliver the foodstuffs that are necessary," Clinton said. Clinton said the United States had adjusted its guidelines despite evidence that al Shabaab imposes taxes on those trying to bring food assistance in and sometimes kidnaps aid workers for ransom. "Unfortunately the situation calls for us to offer some room for more maneuverability in trying to get the food in," Clinton said. "The best way to get food into those areas is for al Shabaab to actually care about the people under their control." (Editing by Mohammad Zargham) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
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