World

Truck attacker in Nice had accomplices, planned for months

Published on Thu, 07/21/2016 - 4:54pm
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PARIS — The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five people facing terror charges.
 
Prosecutor Francois Molins said the five suspects in custody faced preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack in the southern French city.
 

Turkish lawmakers give leader Erdogan sweeping new powers

Published on Thu, 07/21/2016 - 4:44pm
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey will be able to extend detention times for suspects and issue decrees without parliamentary approval under a three-month state of emergency approved Thursday by lawmakers following last week's attempted military coup.
 

Refugee teen in German train attack seemed to be adjusting

Published on Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:45pm
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OCHSENFURT, Germany (AP) — By all accounts, the 17-year-old Afghan behind an ax-and-knife rampage aboard a commuter train in Germany seemed to be quickly integrating and adapting to life in Germany — until something, possibly the death of a friend back home, prompted him to radicalize and turn on the country that took him in.

Turkey declares 3-month state of emergency after failed coup

Published on Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:16pm
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's president on Wednesday declared a three-month state of emergency following a failed coup.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the measure was being taken to counter threats to Turkish democracy and wasn't intended to curb basic freedoms. He spoke after a meeting with Cabinet ministers and top security advisers.

"The aim is to rapidly and effectively take all steps needed to eliminate the threat against democracy, the rule of law and the people's rights and freedoms," Erdogan said.

Turkey fires tens of thousands in coup plotters hunt

Published on Tue, 07/19/2016 - 5:17pm
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ISTANBUL — Asserting that "all the evidence" points to a U.S.-based Muslim cleric as the mastermind of last week's failed coup, Turkey's government on Tuesday fired tens of thousands of teachers, university deans and others accused of ties to the plot and demanded the cleric's extradition.

UK Parliament votes to renew submarine-based nuclear arsenal

Published on Mon, 07/18/2016 - 4:56pm
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LONDON — British lawmakers voted Monday to replace the country's aging fleet of nuclear-armed submarines with new vessels, heeding Prime Minister Theresa May's warning that relinquishing atomic weapons would be a "reckless gamble."

May's Conservative government is committed to keeping the country's nuclear arsenal, a powerful but costly symbol of the country's military status that consists of four Royal Navy submarines armed with Trident missiles.

84 dead, 202 hurt as truck hits Bastille Day crowd in Nice

Published on Fri, 07/15/2016 - 1:15pm
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NICE, France— French leaders extended the country's 8-month-old state of emergency Friday and vowed to deploy thousands of police reservists on the streets after a Tunisian man drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people and wounding 202 others.

Thursday night's massacre of pedestrians leaving a fireworks display along the southern city's famed boulevard ended only after police killed the armed attacker in a hail of bullets.

British PM May: Willing to listen to Scotland's EU proposals

Published on Fri, 07/15/2016 - 1:06pm
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LONDON— British Prime Minister Theresa May sought Friday to dampen speculation about another Scottish vote for independence, while insisting she is willing to listen to proposals about Scotland's future relationship with the European Union.

The two issues have become intertwined since Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the EU in the June 23 referendum while Britain as a whole decided to leave.

France's truck attack marks deadly twist in Europe

Published on Fri, 07/15/2016 - 12:55pm
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LONDON — France's deadly truck attack marks a frightening new reality in Europe: assailants turning to an ever-expanding arsenal to carry out violence that is becoming harder to predict or prevent.

Europe is no stranger to such bloodshed, but Thursday's death toll of at least 84 people represented one of the deadliest vehicle attacks in recent years.

Egypt standardizes sermons, tightening grip on mosques

Published on Fri, 07/15/2016 - 12:50pm
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CAIRO— In a move to tighten state control over religious discourse, Egypt has launched a campaign to force Muslim clerics to read standardized government-written sermons at Friday prayers.

Minister for Religious Endowments, Mokhtar Gomaa, gave the first-such scripted sermon Friday at Cairo's Amr ibn al-As Mosque. Reading from a batch of notecards, Gomaa recited a sermon against corruption titled, "Bad money is a lethal poison."

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