Chileans bang empty pots to protest hunger and war in Gaza
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CNN
13 minutes ago
- CNN
Guatemala judge convicts 6 ex-officials in deaths of 41 girls in 2017 fire at state facility
South AmericaFacebookTweetLink Follow A Guatemalan judge convicted six people of various crimes Tuesday in connection with the deaths of 41 girls in a 2017 fire at a facility for at-risk youth that had a history of abuse. They had all declared their innocence Tuesday. Judge Ingrid Cifuentes handed down cumulative sentences of six years to 25 years for charges ranging from manslaughter to abuse of authority. She also ordered the investigation of former President Jimmy Morales for his role in ordering police to work at a facility where minors who had not committed crimes were held. Prosecutors had earlier requested sentences up to 131 years for some of those convicted, who were all former government workers, including several whose duties included protecting children. Former Social Welfare Secretary Carlos Rodas was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Earlier, Rodas told those gathered in the courtroom, including relatives of the victims, that he had not caused 'any harm to their daughters and the survivors.' Also among those convicted was ex-police officer Lucinda Marroquín, who held the key to the room where the girls were locked up and didn't open it when the fire started. She was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The judge said that through phone records, investigators were able to establish that at the time of the fire Marroquín was talking on her phone. The judge said a witness had testified that when told about the fire, Marroquín responded with profanity and said 'let them burn.' A former government prosecutor assigned to the protection of children was acquitted. On March 8, 2017, a girl at the Virgen de la Asuncion Safe Home – located 14 miles east of Guatemala City – lit a foam mattress on fire in the room where a group of girls had been locked up for hours without access to a bathroom. Smoke and flames quickly filled the room killing 41 girls and injuring 15. About 700 children – nobody knew exactly how many – lived in a home with a maximum capacity for 500. The majority had committed no crime. They were sent there by the courts for various reasons – they had run away, they were abused, they were migrants. The night before the fire, a group of girls had escaped. Hours later, the police returned them to the home. They were locked in a room that had no access to a bathroom and guarded by police. They were given foam mattresses to sleep on. After hours of demanding to be let out, one girl lit the fire. Cifuentes said that the fire was the culmination of a series of abuses, some of which had been reported to authorities, but not acted on. She said autopsies confirmed the presence of drugs in some of the girls that supported their complaints that they were given sleeping pills that were among the reasons they had tried to escape the facility.
Boston Globe
14 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Israel is in talks to possibly resettle Palestinians from Gaza in South Sudan
Advertisement 'I think that the right thing to do, even according to the laws of war as I know them, is to allow the population to leave, and then you go in with all your might against the enemy who remains there,' Netanyahu said Tuesday in an interview with i24, an Israeli TV station. He did not make reference to South Sudan. Palestinians, rights groups, and much of the international community have rejected the proposals as a blueprint for forcible expulsion in violation of international law. For South Sudan, such a deal could help it build closer ties to Israel, now the almost unchallenged military power in the Middle East. It is also a potential inroad to Trump, who broached the idea of resettling Gaza's population in February but appears to have backed away in recent months. Advertisement Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment, and South Sudan's foreign minister did not respond to questions about the talks. A US State Department spokesperson said it doesn't comment on private diplomatic conversations. Joe Szlavik, the founder of a US lobbying firm working with South Sudan, said he was briefed by South Sudanese officials on the talks. He said an Israeli delegation plans to visit the country to look into the possibility of setting up camps for Palestinians there. No known date has been set for the visit. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the visit. Szlavik said Israel would likely pay for makeshift camps. Edmund Yakani, who heads a South Sudanese civil society group, said he had also spoken to South Sudanese officials about the talks. Four additional officials with knowledge of the discussions confirmed talks were taking place on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly. Two of the officials, both from Egypt, told AP they've known for months about Israel's efforts to find a country to accept Palestinians, including its contact with South Sudan. They said they've been lobbying South Sudan against taking the Palestinians. Egypt The AP previously reported on similar talks initiated by Israel and the US with Sudan and Somalia, countries that are also grappling with war and hunger, and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland. The status of those discussions is not known. Szlavik, who's been hired by South Sudan to improve its relations with the United States, said the US is aware of the discussions with Israel but is not directly involved. Advertisement South Sudan wants the Trump administration to lift a travel ban on the country and remove sanctions from some South Sudanese elites, said Szlavik. It has already accepted eight individuals swept up in the administration's mass deportations, in what may have been an effort to curry favor. The Trump administration has pressured a number of countries to help facilitate deportations. 'Cash-strapped South Sudan needs any ally, financial gain and diplomatic security it can get,' said Peter Martell, a journalist and author of a book about the country, 'First Raise a Flag.' Israel's Mossad spy agency provided aid to the South Sudanese during their decades-long civil war against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum ahead of independence in 2011, according to the book. The State Department, asked if there was any quid pro quo with South Sudan, said decisions on the issuing of visas are made 'in a way that prioritizes upholding the highest standards for US national security, public safety, and the enforcement of our immigration laws.' Many Palestinians might want to leave Gaza, at least temporarily, to escape the war and a hunger crisis bordering on famine. But they have roundly rejected any permanent resettlement from what they see as an integral part of their national homeland. They fear that Israel will never allow them to return, and that a mass departure would allow it to annex Gaza and reestablish Jewish settlements there, as called for by far-right ministers in the Israeli government. Still, even those Palestinians who want to leave are unlikely to take their chances in South Sudan, among the world's most unstable and conflict-ridden countries. Advertisement South Sudan has struggled to recover from a civil war that broke out after independence, and which killed nearly 400,000 people and plunged pockets of the country into famine. The oil-rich country is plagued by corruption and relies on international aid to help feed its 11 million people — a challenge that has only grown since the Trump administration made sweeping cuts to foreign assistance. A peace deal reached seven years ago has been fragile and incomplete, and the threat of war returned when the main opposition leader was placed under house arrest this year. Palestinians in particular could find themselves unwelcome. The long war for independence from Sudan pitted the mostly Christian and animist south against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north. Yakani, of the civil society group, said South Sudanese would need to know who is coming and how long they plan to stay, or there could be hostilities due to the 'historical issues with Muslims and Arabs.' 'South Sudan should not become a dumping ground for people,' he said. 'And it should not accept to take people as negotiating chips to improve relations.'
Bloomberg
15 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Rare China Protest Reveals Resistance to Xi's Frontline Officers
President Xi Jinping relies on legions of local officials to govern China's 1.4 billion people. A rare protest over the brutal attack of a schoolgirl has inflamed concerns over their credibility. Hundreds poured onto streets in Jiangyou, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, one night last week accusing authorities of being too lenient on the attackers. Within hours, videos of residents clashing with baton-wielding police dominated Chinese social media, as the incident neared the top of Weibo's trending chart and circulated in private WeChat groups before state censors finally swept in.
