Submariners World News SitRep

Italian students hold anti-austerity protests

Thousands of university students and schoolchildren took to the streets of Italy's cities on Friday to protest against austerity measures imposed by the government. Some scuffles broke out in Milan, Rome and Turin between the protesters and riot police. Four officers were slightly injured in Rome and five students injured in Milan, where 15 protesters were briefly detained. The protests were staged against cuts in the education budget by the previous government, recent reductions in local government finances and the freeze on public sector hiring.

Merkel to visit Greece next week

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Greece next week for the first time since the debt crisis erupted. She is to meet on Tuesday with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who said Athens will “receive her as befits the leader of a great power and a friendly country.” He also warned on Friday that Greece will run out of money at the end of November if it does not receive the next tranche of its bailout loans, AP reports. Greece's main labor unions call a protest rally outside Parliament on Tuesday against “the neo-liberal policies” of Merkel and the European Union's leadership. Unions say people in Greece “can take no more of the EU's punitive policies.”

Turkish families file lawsuit of compensation over 2010 Israeli raid

Relatives of the Turkish citizens who were killed in an Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship off Gaza in 2010 have filed a lawsuit against Israel. The families of Furkan Dogan, Cevdet Kılıclar and Necdet Yıldırım, who were killed in the attack, filed a petition seeking financial and moral compensation, Hurriyet daily said. Some 30 other people who have suffered due to the attack supported the lawsuit. A Turkish court in May demanded nine consecutive life terms for four Israeli commanders of the raid against the Gaza-bound Turkish aid flotilla.

High Court allows UK to extradite Abu Hamza to US

Britain’s High Court ruled on Friday that radical preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri and four other terror suspects can be extradited to the US. These were the final proceedings in the suspects' years-long battles to avoid going to the US, AP quoted Judge John Thomas as saying. Britain has warned it would act immediately to remove the suspects. The US charges against Al-Masri include attempt to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

Pakistan police arrest 7 in terror plots

Pakistani police on Friday arrested seven suspects from a feared Al-Qaeda-linked group for allegedly plotting to attack school buses and prisons in Karachi. Seven explosive-filled jackets, rockets and detonators were also seized, senior police official Aslam Khan said, as cited by AFP. The suspects were detained in the western neighborhood of Manghopir of Pakistan’s largest city. Khan described them as members of banned sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, linked to strings of attacks on minority Shiite Muslims.

Germany charges dual national with espionage for Syria

German prosecutors have filed espionage charges against a German-Lebanese dual national, accusing him of spying on exiled Syrian dissidents. The charges against the 48-year-old Mahmoud El A. were filed at a Berlin court on September 25, the federal prosecutors’ office said on Friday. Prosecutors say he worked for Syrian intelligence between April 2007 and his arrest in February 2012, and broke German privacy rules, AP reports. The contact between the suspect and his handler allegedly intensified at the beginning of 2011 after the Arab Spring revolts and the suspect reported on Syrian opposition protests in Germany. In July, another suspected Syrian spy arrested along with Mahmoud El A. was charged.

Five killed in double bombing near Baghdad Shiite mosque

A double bombing near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad has killed five people, including four worshippers, Iraqi officials said. At least 26 worshippers were wounded in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad. The bombs went off outside the al-Sadrein mosque and at a nearby police checkpoint as Friday noon prayers ended, AP reports.

Russian military base presence in Tajikistan extended until 2042

Moscow and Dushanbe agreed on Friday to extend the presence of Russian military base 201 in Tajikistan until 2042. The move “will ensure reliable protection of our common strategic interests, strengthen security, and stabilize the situation in the entire Central Asia region,” President Vladimir Putin said during his visit to Dushanbe. The agreement on status and conditions of presence envisions virtually free stay of the base, Interfax quoted the Russian president’s aide Yury Ushakov as saying.

Georgian Dream gets almost 55% of vote in parliamentary poll

The Georgian Central Elections Commission on Friday announced the results of the parliamentary elections after 100 per cent of the ballots were counted. Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili won with 54.85 per cent of the votes. United National Movement led by Mikhail Saakashvili received 40.43 per cent of the votes. Saakashvili’s government on Friday commenced negotiations on handing over power to the coalition. Ivanishvili is likely to head the incoming government.

Syrian rebels claim captured air defense base near Damascus

Syrian rebels said on Friday that they captured an air defense base with a cache of missiles outside Damascus, posting a video on YouTube. It showed rebels dressed in army fatigues celebrating in front of a military installation. Rebels say the operation happened on Thursday, but the video was not independently verified, Reuters reports. The attack in the Eastern Ghouta area was reportedly carried out by a rebel battalion from the town of Douma.

Jordan police make arrests ahead of pro-reform rally

Jordanian police reportedly arrested eight people on Friday as the Muslim Brotherhood was preparing to hold a pro-reform rally in central Amman. Police said they had found guns and batons in three minibuses heading to the venue, AFP reported. At least 2,000 police has been deployed for the rally which was due to follow the main weekly Muslim prayers. The Islamists predicted a turnout of 50,000 demanding democratic electoral law, constitutional changes, parliamentary governments and preventing security services from interfering in political life.

Three Kenyans win UK court battle over 1950s torture compensation

London’s High Court ruled on Friday that three elderly Kenyans who were tortured under British rule in the 1950s could pursue their claim for damages from the UK government. The claimants suffered in detention during a crackdown by British forces and their Kenyan allies on rebels from the Mau Mau movement fighting for land and freedom, Reuters reported. The three want Britain to apologize and to fund welfare benefits for Kenyan victims of torture. The British government had tried to block the legal action, arguing that responsibility had passed to Kenya upon independence in 1963 and citing the legal time limit.

India successfully tests Dhanush ballistic missile

India tested its nuclear-capable ballistic missile Dhanush from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal in Odisha on Friday, officials said. The missile was fired from a naval ship between Puri and Visakhapatnam as part of the training exercise of the Indian Navy, Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) spokesperson Ravi Kumar Gupta told IANS news agency. He said the test was successful. Dhanush, a naval version of the nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi, has a range of 350km.

South African police kill another miner - strikers

South African police shot and killed a striking miner when they tried to break up a crowd of demonstrators, miners said on Friday. Police reportedly used teargas and rubber bullets against strikers gathered overnight on a hill near a Rustenburg-area platinum mine. One of the miners was shot in the stomach by a rubber bullet, Reuters said, citing Mbubhu Lolo, a striker from Anglo American Platinum. Police said they were investigating the incident near the shanty-town 120km northwest of Johannesburg. Police officers shot dead 34 strikers at Lonmin's nearby Marikana platinum mine on August 16.

US tourist opens fire at Israel hotel, kills 1 – police

An American tourist has opened gunfire at a hotel in the resort city of Eilat, killing one person, Israeli police said on Friday. The tourist fired shots on Friday morning at the Leonardo Club hotel in the Red Sea resort city, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, as cited by AP. The suspect’s identity and the motives of the attack were not immediately clear.

Uganda says deadly Ebola epidemic over

Uganda is now free from Ebola, the Health Ministry said. It declared late on Thursday “an end of the Ebola outbreak that broke out in Kibaale district in July,” Reuters reports. The decision was taken after 42 days of the post-Ebola surveillance countdown period. The deadly virus killed at least 16 people. Uganda first confirmed the Ebola outbreak on July 28 in Kibaale district, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo where the virus first emerged in 1976, and took its name from the Ebola River.

Australia unveils giant radio telescope

Australia on Friday unveiled a colossal radio telescope at the remote Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory in the Western Australian desert, allowing astronomers to explore the universe with unprecedented precision. The Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope is made up of 36 antennas, each 12 meters in diameter, AFP said. The US$140 million facility can survey the sky much faster than existing telescopes. The antennae are sensitive to faint radiation from the Milky Way, allowing it to detect distant galaxies. “It will be the world's most powerful radio-astronomy telescope and has huge capabilities way beyond anything that currently exists,” Science Minister Chris Evans said.

South Korea resumes Iranian oil imports

South Korean companies have reportedly resumed imports of Iranian crude oil after halting them in July due to Western sanctions. SK Energy received a shipment of 2 million barrels in an Iranian tanker earlier this week, AFP said. Another refiner, Hyundai Oilbank, will receive a shipment of 2 million barrels later this month. The refiners had stopped imports of crude oil from Iran when European sanctions effectively cut off access to insurance on Iranian shipments. Tehran later offered to insure the shipments itself. Last year, Seoul bought 9.4 per cent of its crude oil from Iran.

Three New Jersey teachers charged in high school sex scandal

Three teachers of Triton High School in New Jersey have been charged with having improper sexual relationships with female students. Camden County authorities announced the charges on Thursday, AP reported. Teachers Dan Michielli, Nick Martinelli and Jeff Logandro face charges including sexual assault, child endangerment and criminal sexual contact. Principal Catherine DePaul and Assistant Principal Jernee Kollock also face official misconduct charges for allegedly failing to report the relationships to authorities.

South Korean tourists rescued as boat sinks off Thailand’s Pattaya

A speed boat sank Friday as it returned from an island near Thailand's resort town of Pattaya. All 27 South Korean tourists and crew were rescued by authorities and crew from nearby boats, police said. One of the tourists was slightly injured and taken to a hospital, AP reported. The boat started to sink about 100 meters from a pier in Pattaya due to a leak in its floor.

Clinton congratulates Georgian opposition on victory

­US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has congratulated Georgia’s opposition leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream party, after their recent victory in the country's parliamentary elections, RIA Novosti reports. In a telephone conversation with Ivanishvili on Thursday Clinton underlined “the importance of strategic partnership and future cooperation between the two countries”, according to a statement posted on Ivanishvili’s official page on Facebook. Georgian Dream won the October 1 elections with 54.87 per cent of the vote, beating incumbent President Mikhail Saakashvili’s United National Movement party.

Landslide kills 18 children in southwest China

At least 18 primary school children have been killed after a landslide hit a village in China’s Yunnan province earlier on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reports citing local officials. One villager remains missing following the disaster, which took place in Zhenhe, Yilang county. The landslide hit Tiantou Primary School Thursday morning, as the children were preparing for classes.

Tunisia seeks death penalty over attacks on US sites

Several suspects thought to be involved in last month’s attacks on the US Embassy and American school in Tunisia, may face the death penalty, AP reports. Defendants' lawyers have said an unspecified number of the 87 people arrested after the September 14 attacks may be executed on charges including, attacks against state security. The violence was sparked by an amateur US-produced film ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed. Several thousand demonstrators stormed the US Embassy compound, tore down the American flag and looted and burned buildings. Police fired tear gas and gunshots killing four protesters and injuring many others.

Toyota hit by South African strikes

Toyota Motor Corp had been forced to shut down its South African car factory for four days over an illegal wage strike. Reuters reports. Trade Union leaders at the Japanese plant said the workers would return to work on Friday after securing 5.4 per cent pay rise. The strike was inspired by the ongoing Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine strike, which turned violent last August after a police crackdown left 34 miners dead.

South Africa police fire rubber bullets, teargas at strikers

South African police fired rubber bullets and teargas to break up a crowd of striking workers at the world's top platinum miner Anglo Platinum Limited on Thursday, AFP reports. The strikers had blockaded roads with rocks and burning tires to stop operations near a Rustenburg mine northwest of Johannesburg. Around 15 per cent of South Africa's miners are currently on strike. The action turned violent after police shot and killed 34 miners during a violent confrontation at the Lonmim platinum mine in August.