The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- U.S. Marine convicted of urinating on corpses of Taliban insurgents
- More funerals in Newtown, White House gun task force meets
- Four men accused of trying to sell weapons of Saddam's family
| U.S. Marine convicted of urinating on corpses of Taliban insurgents Posted: 20 Dec 2012 06:40 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine staff sergeant who urinated on dead Taliban insurgents and posed for photographs with the bodies has pleaded guilty to two charges in a military court, the Marine Corps said on Thursday. His sentence was a reduction in rank and forfeiture of $500 (307.5 pounds) in pay. Staff Sergeant Joseph Chamblin pleaded guilty at a special court martial at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to dereliction of duty for failing to properly supervise junior Marines. He also pleaded guilty to wrongfully urinating on a deceased enemy combatant. The incident occurred during a counter-insurgency operation in Helmand Province in Afghanistan in July 2011. It came to light in January this year when a videotape of the incident was posted on YouTube and other websites. The video showed four men in camouflage Marine combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them joked, "Have a nice day, buddy," while another made a lewd joke. The video was one of a series of offensive incidents involving U.S. service members that roused Afghan ire and led to heightened tensions between Washington and Kabul earlier this year. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the actions in the video as "inhuman" and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta telephoned him to denounce the incident as "deplorable" and promise an investigation. Chamblin was charged with failing to properly supervise junior Marines, failing to require junior Marines to wear protective equipment, failing to report the misconduct of junior Marines, failing to report the negligent discharge of a grenade launcher, and failing to stop the indiscriminate firing of weapons, the Marine Corps said in a statement. Chamblin waived his right to a jury and pleaded guilty to two counts before a military judge, the statement said. The judge levied a penalty that including 30 days in jail and a $2,000 fine, but because of a pre-trial agreement Chamblin received a lesser sentence. The maximum penalty under the agreement was a reduction in rank to sergeant and a forfeiture of $500 in pay for one month, the statement said. The Marine Corps declined to release details about the evidence or the findings of the investigation because, it said, cases were still pending related to the urination video incident. (Reporting By David Alexander; editing by Philip Barbara) Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| More funerals in Newtown, White House gun task force meets Posted: 20 Dec 2012 06:22 PM PST NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - As residents of Newtown, Connecticut, buried more victims of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden convened a White House task force to search for ways to quell gun violence in the United States.
With funerals for a half-dozen victims on Thursday, services have now been held for more than half of the 27 people shot and killed last Friday by a heavily armed, 20-year-old man who attacked an elementary school with an assault rifle. Hundreds of mourners packed into a funeral for Benjamin Wheeler, 6, filing into the gray stone Trinity Episcopal Church past two rows of Boy Scouts who lined up outside as a flag-bearing honour guard. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy called for residents of his state to observe a moment of silence at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, a week after the shootings, and his fellow governors from Maine to Kansas followed suit. The rampage, in which 28 people died, including 20 children and the gunman, has sparked new discussion on tightening gun laws, a thorny political issue in the United States, which has a strong culture of individual gun ownership. Biden brought together cabinet members, police officials and others in a 90-minute first meeting of the new White House task force charged by President Barack Obama with drawing up a plan to tackle gun violence in the United States. "We have to have a comprehensive way in which to respond to the mass murder of our children that we saw in Connecticut," Biden told the group, which included Attorney General Eric Holder, Thomas Nee, president of the National Association of Police Organizations, and other officials. "The president is absolutely committed to keeping the promise that he will act," said Biden, who as a senator authored a crime bill in 1994 that included a temporary ban on assault weapons. WAITING ON THE NRA The National Rifle Association, the powerful firearms lobby that has long resisted any effort to restrict gun ownership, said this week that it would offer "meaningful contributions" to prevent future such massacres at an event in Washington on Friday. The group, which kept silent for five days after the shooting, plans to continue its media push over the weekend with its chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, due to appear on NBC television's talk show "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, formerly Obama's chief of staff, worried publicly that the NRA would not break its past patterns. "I expect the Washington gun lobby and the gun lobbies around to do exactly what they always do, which is to try to apply political pressure so you ignore the overwhelming public opinion," Emanuel said at Chicago City Hall, where he called for a ban on assault weapons of the kind used in Newtown. In Newtown, a few dozen residents met at the town library on Wednesday night to discuss ways they could influence the national debate. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal told the group it was time for a "seismic change" in gun policies. "This horrific tragedy has changed America, in the way that it is ready to stop the spread of gun violence," he said. The shooter, Adam Lanza, used guns that were legally purchased and registered to his mother Nancy, his first victim in Friday's attack. A memorial service for Nancy Lanza was held on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing an official source in New Hampshire. It probably took place near Kingston, where Lanza grew up, the paper said. "The family of Nancy Lanza share the grief of a community and the nation as we struggle to comprehend the tremendous loss that we all share," said a statement from Lanza's family, the Times reported. ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN? Democrats in Congress who favour gun control have called for quick votes on measures to ban assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, hoping that the slaying of the 6- and 7-year olds in Newtown might be a tipping point to win over more lawmakers. The backlash against guns has not been limited to lawmakers. Retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc took down a website about Bushmaster rifles, the sort used in the attack. Dick's Sporting Goods pulled all guns from its store closest to the massacre in Newtown, about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of New York City. Newtown schools, with the exception of Sandy Hook Elementary, the site of the shooting, re-opened to students on Tuesday. On Thursday, school officials said Friday, the last day before the Christmas break, would be a shortened day. Reflecting a heightened state of alert at schools across the United States, a school district near Boise, Idaho, cancelled planned assemblies at a number of its 50 schools after receiving a rash of threats that suggested "something bad" would happen on Friday, Meridian school district spokesman Eric Exline said. Exline said the school system was working with police to respond to trouble, if needed. "The event last Friday in Connecticut has unnerved people in a lot of ways," he said. Authorities in Phoenix said a 16-year-old girl was arrested on Thursday after making online threats to kill herself and other students at a suburban high school. Sergeant Brandon Jones, a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said the girl, a student at Red Mountain High School, admitted to making the threat on a YouTube channel. It was not clear whether the teen had the means to act on the threat. Authorities said part of the post read: "I now literally have a plan of seriously hurting ... killing ... murdering people in my high school. And a playlist to do it." (Additional reporting by Eric Thayer in Newtown, James B. Kelleher in Chicago, David Schwartz in Phoenix, Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho, and David Ingram and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Scott Malone and Jim Loney; Editing by Mohammad Zargham, Vicki Allen and Jackie Frank)
"Smart guns" show promise, but not readily available on U.S. market Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Four men accused of trying to sell weapons of Saddam's family Posted: 20 Dec 2012 05:27 PM PST (Reuters) - Four men were arrested on Thursday and accused of conspiring to sell stolen firearms believed to have belonged to the family of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, officials said. The pistols, shotguns and revolvers are estimated to be worth $250,000 to $350,000, according to a statement issued by the office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in Newark, New Jersey. The four men are accused of trying to find a buyer in New Jersey for the weapons, which were believed stored in Florida, the prosecutor said. Law enforcement officials received a tip in April that the firearms were up for sale, according to a criminal complaint filed against the four men. Authorities used undercover agents who posed as interested buyers in New Jersey to break up the alleged scheme, the prosecutor's statement said. In October, Iraq's Ambassador to the United States, Jabir Habeb, confirmed that the weapons belonged to the Republic of Iraq, according to the complaint, which did not include any details of where the guns had come from or how they came to be stolen. Officials said the weapons included a Coonan Arms .357 semi-automatic nickel-finish pistol with gold inlay and a medallion "QS" on the side of the grip believed to be the initials of Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti, one of Hussein's sons. The other weapons were two Korth .357 magnum revolvers, a Chinese State Factories type semi-automatic pistol with a Yemen flag icon on each side and Arabic writing on the slide, two Cosmi 12-gauge shotguns and a Llama semi-automatic .45 ACP pistol with gold leaf and gold inlays, also bearing the initials "Q.S.," they said. The accused men were identified as David Ryan, 48, of Miami; Karlo Sauer, 42, of Pittsburgh; Howard Blumenthal, 74, of Fort Lee, New Jersey; and Carola Quirola, also known as Carlos Quirola-Ordonez, 55, of New Milford, New Jersey. They were charged with conspiracy to transport stolen firearms and conspiracy to sell and receive stolen property. Ryan also was charged with unlawful mailing of firearms. If convicted of conspiracy, they could each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The unlawful mailing count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Blumenthal and Quirola appeared on Thursday before a U.S. Magistrate in Newark, Ryan appeared in federal court in the Southern District of Florida and Sauer appeared in the Western District of Pennsylvania, the prosecutor's statement said. (Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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