UN alleges war crimes in battle for Aleppo
DOMINIQUE SOGUEL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA — A UN panel said Wednesday the evacuation of eastern Aleppo, after months of siege and aerial bombing by Russian and Syrian forces, was one of many war crimes committed by those fighting for control of Syria’s largest city.
The findings come amid openended peace talks mediated by a UN envoy, and could bolster opposition demands for a political transition in which President Bashar Assad would cede power, something the government has adamantly rejected.
The Commission of Inquiry on Syria unveiled a report looking at violations by all parties in last year’s battle for Aleppo, including the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, and the use of chemical agents and cluster munitions. The panel singled out a “particularly egregious attack” in which Syrian warplanes targeted a humanitarian aid convoy.
“The scale of what happened in
BRANDON, Fla. — Authorities say a 2-year-old boy died after his half-sister left him inside her sports utility vehicle while she worked in a daycare centre near Tampa.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokesman Larry McKinnon said in a news release that 21-year-old Fiorella Vanessa Silva-Tello left Jacob Manchego in her silver Chevy Equinox about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday when she went to work at the BFF Kidz day care centre in Brandon. She found him unresponsive about 2:30 p.m.
McKinnon says Silva-Tello took the boy to a nearby dialysis centre where first aid was administered. Fire rescue crews arrived and took the boy to a hospital where he died.
Investigators interviewed the woman and other witnesses, but no charges have been filed. Aleppo is unprecedented in the Syrian conflict,” said the commission’s chairman, Paulo Pinheiro.
Aleppo was the economic capital of Syria before becoming a major battleground after rebels swept in during the summer of 2012. The capture of eastern Aleppo in December was a huge victory for Assad and shifted the military balance in his favour.
The agreement to evacuate rebelheld eastern Aleppo gave civilians no option to remain at the end of the protracted campaign, in which daily aerial bombings killed hundreds of people and left all the hospitals in the area out of service.
The commission said the conditions of the agreement amounted to “the war crime of forced displacement.”
The report looked at violations committed between July 21, when the rebel-held part of Aleppo was besieged, and Dec. 22, when Syrian troops and allied forces assumed full control of the city.
It drew on the testimony of 291 eyewitnesses, satellite imagery and an array of material including
GRAFTON, Mass. — Veterinarians say a red-tailed hawk that got stuck in the grille of a vehicle in Massachusetts last weekend sustained such severe injuries that it had to be euthanized.
Police say the bird got stuck after swooping in front of an SUV on Interstate 495 in Milford on Saturday.
The driver pulled into a gas station and Milford firefighters used a thick blanket and gloves to free the bird.
The hawk was taken to the wildlife clinic at Tufts University’s Cummings Veterinary Medical Center in Grafton, where veterinarians determined it had suffered eye injuries, as well as fractures to both wings and tail. It was unable to stand.
Clinic director Florina Tseng says the hawk was in significant pain and medical reports, forensic evidence and information provided by UN member states.
“For months, the Syrian and Russian air forces relentlessly bombarded eastern Aleppo city as part of a strategy to force surrender,”
ROCKVILLE, Md. — A century-old statue of a Confederate soldier that stands outside a Maryland courthouse will be moved to private property.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said in a news release Tuesday that the county will cover the cost to relocate the bronze statue from the courthouse in Rockville to White’s Ferry, a docking site on the Potomac River named for a Confederate general.
Confederate symbols have come under increased public scrutiny since the June 2015 massacre of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, S.C.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy donated the statue to Pinheiro said. “The deliberate targeting of civilians has resulted in the immense loss of human life, including hundreds of children.”
The commission said it was often difficult to know whether specific
TOLEDO, Ohio — A man charged with taking off a woman’s shoe and sucking her toes without permission at a mall has been accused of massaging the feet of other women without their consent.
Joseph Jones, of Toledo, was in court Tuesday to face menacing and sexual imposition charges.
He told a judge he is being targeted after earlier pleading not guilty to sexual imposition.
“I’m actually a good person, I’m a business owner,” he said in court.
Court records show he was first accused of sucking the toes and kissing the cheek of a store employee at a Toledo mall in December.
Melissa Portala said she told her 18-year-old daughter to contact police after she said Jones asked to see her shoes and then began sucking on her toes. “She froze and didn’t know what to do,” Portala told WTOL-TV.
Two women who work at the same store then came forward to say Jones took off their shoes and began massaging their feet — the first time in July.
VIENNA — Security guards at an Austrian court might need to put up a sign at the screening gate to let the public know about another item prohibited on the premises — cockroaches.
State broadcaster ORF said Wednesday that security personnel in the western city of Linz turned away a man a day earlier after he tried to enter the court building with a sack full of the six-legged pests.
ORF did not say why the man had the roaches or what he planned to do with them. strikes were carried out by Russia or the Syrian government. But it said it had determined that Syrian warplanes targeted hospitals on at least two occasions, and deliberately attacked a humanitarian aid convoy on Sept. 19.
Boy dies after being left in SUV outside daycare Hawk stuck in vehicle grille is euthanized Confederate statue to be removed from courthouse Ohio man accused of unwanted toe-sucking, foot massaging at mall Austrian tries to enter court with bag of roaches U.K. House of Lords backs EU citizens’ rights
LONDON — Britain’s unelected House of Lords has handed the government a stinging — though likely temporary — defeat on its plans to leave the European Union, resolving that EU citizens should be promised the right to stay in the U.K. after it quits the bloc.
By a vote of 358 to 256, Parliament’s upper chamber inserted a clause protecting EU nationals’ status into a bill authorizing the government to begin EU exit talks.
The Labour Party’s Brexit spokeswoman in the Lords, Dianne Hayter, said Wednesday the amendment was crucial because “you can’t do negotiations with people’s futures.”
The promise may not turn out to be binding on the government, however. The change must go to a vote in the elected House of Commons, where there is a good chance it will be rejected.
EU slams Russia for easing domestic violence penalties
BRUSSELS — A senior European Union official is criticizing new Russian legislation decriminalizing some forms of domestic violence and urging Moscow to reverse it.
In January, Russia’s parliament gave final approval to the bill eliminating criminal liability for battery on family members that doesn’t cause bodily harm, making it punishable instead by a fine or a 15-day arrest.
The EU’s commissioner for justice and gender equality, Vera Jourova, told the European Parliament on Wednesday that “Russia’s recent actions send the wrong message about the country’s commitment to tackling violence against women and children.”
Jourova is renewing an EU call for Russia to reverse the new law. — Postmedia wire services • Indoor heated pool • Hot tub & sauna • Fitness room • Towel service • Memberships ranging from 1 month to a year • No sign up fees • Seniors discount • Open 7 days a week Peninsula Inn 7373 Niagara Square Drive Niagara Falls, ON L2H 1J2 • (905) 354-8812 www.peninsulainn.com • facebook.com/peninsulainn • instagram: peninsula.inn