Thursday, March 12, 2015

Dozens dead in Tanzania bus crash





Two lorries and a bus have collided in Tanzania's highland region of Iringa, killing 41 people, police say.
The accident happened after a lorry driver swerved to avoid a pothole, the regional commander told the BBC.
One of the lorries' containers fell on to the bus that had been heading to Dar es Salaam, crushing many passengers to death, he said.
Traffic accidents are common in Tanzania, where the state of the roads and the vehicles is often poor.
a pot hole near the crash  
The crash happened next to this pot hole

President Jakaya Kikwete released a statement saying: "This gives cause for great mourning. The entire country has been shaken," the AFP news agency reports.

Iringa regional police commander Ramadhan Mungi said a further 23 passengers had been seriously injured and had been taken to Mafinga hospital. All the bodies trapped between the lorries had been removed, he said.
The bus had been travelling from the south-western town of Mbeya to the commercial capital.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Who is "Jihadi John?"




Emwazi was born in Kuwait but moved to London when he was a child and attended school and university in the capital.
The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that he went to high school with two other boys who went onto become militants - Choukri Ellekhlifi, who was killed fighting in Syria, and Mohammed Sakr, killed fighting in Somalia.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said Saturday that it had launched a review into how Quintin Kynaston school in north London dealt with radicalisation "to see if there are any lessons we can learn".
It was also reported that Emwazi had contacts with the men responsible for failed attacks on London's public transport system in 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings killed 52 people in the capital.

'Jihadi John' contemplated suicide in 2010: Report



LONDON - The London man believed to be Islamic State executioner "Jihadi John" told a journalist four years ago that surveillance by British security services had left him contemplating suicide, it emerged Saturday.
Mohammed Emwazi, named by media and experts as the militant thought to have beheaded at least five Western hostages held by the IS group, told the Mail on Sunday reporter that he felt like a "dead man walking".
A British civil rights group that was in contact with Emwazi, Cage, claims that domestic spy agency MI5 had been tracking him since at least 2009, and blamed his radicalisation on their "harassment".
Prime Minister David Cameron and a former head of foreign spy agency MI6 strongly rejected the idea, while London mayor Boris Johnson accused Cage of an "apology for terror".
In an email to Mail on Sunday reporter Robert Verkaik, dated December 14, 2010, Emwazi described how he sold his laptop to someone he met online who he subsequently came to believe was with the security services.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm a dead man walking, not fearing they may kill me. Rather, fearing that one day, I'll take as many pills as I can that I can sleep forever!! I just want to get away from these people!!!" Emwazi wrote.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait but moved to London when he was a child and attended school and university in the capital.
The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that he went to high school with two other boys who went onto become militants - Choukri Ellekhlifi, who was killed fighting in Syria, and Mohammed Sakr, killed fighting in Somalia.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said Saturday that it had launched a review into how Quintin Kynaston school in north London dealt with radicalisation "to see if there are any lessons we can learn".
It was also reported that Emwazi had contacts with the men responsible for failed attacks on London's public transport system in 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings killed 52 people in the capital.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/world/jihadi-john-contemplated-suicide-2010-report#sthash.PnYdqvGI.dpuf