Indonesia: Military Plane Crashes In Residential Area In Medan

An Indonesian Air Force C-130 Hercules crashed today into a residential neighborhood in Medan, the country’s third largest city, killing dozens of people, authorities said.

The plane crashed into houses and buildings, including a hotel, located near the Soewondo Air Force Base, where the plane took off. Officials with Adam Malik Hospital told the news site detik.com that the hospital has received 36 bodies, with three victims saved.

None of the bodies has been identified and it's unclear how many of the victims are military personnel and how many are civilians, North Sumatra police chief Eko Hadi Sutedjo said. The plane was carrying 50 people based on its manifest, he said. 

Air force chief Air Marshall Agus Supriatna said the pilot told the control tower that the plane needed to turn back because of engine trouble.

"The plane crashed while it was turning right to return to the airport," Supriatna said. 

Witnesses reported an explosion come from above the hotel, as well as a crash. Heavy smoke and fire could be seen in the area following the crash, as hundreds of people milled about nearby.

The C-130 Hercules was built in 1964. 

The tragedy marks the second plane crash in a residential section of Medan in recent years.

Mandala Airlines Flight 091 – a Boeing 737 – crashed in a crowded residential area in Medan on Sept. 5, 2005 after taking off from Polonia International Airport, killing 100 people on board and another 49 people on the ground.

Medan, with about 3.4 million people, is the third most populous city in Indonesia after the capital, Jakarta, and Surabaya.

 

US: 2nd Escaped Murderer Captured

A three-week manhunt that began when two convicted murderers staged a brazen prison break involving stolen power tools and hacksaw blades hidden in frozen hamburger meat ended Sunday when a single state police sergeant spotted a suspicious man walking down on a rural road near the Canadian border.

David Sweat's capture came two days after his fellow escapee, Richard Matt, was killed in a confrontation with law enforcement while holding a shotgun. Sweat was unarmed when he was shot twice by Sgt. Jay Cook as the fugitive ran for a tree line.
"If you were writing a movie plot, they would say that this was overdone," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Cook, a 21-year veteran, was alone and on routine patrol when he stumbled upon Sweat in the northern New York town of Constable, about 30 miles northwest of the prison, and recognized him. He gave chase when Sweat fled and decided to fire upon fearing he would lose him in the trees, state police said.

"I can only assume he was going for the border," Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said.

The arrest ended an ordeal that sent 1,300 law enforcement officers into the thickly forested northern reaches of New York and forced residents to tolerate nerve-wracking armed checkpoints and property searches.

"The nightmare is finally over," Cuomo declared at a news conference.

Authorities said Sweat was struck in the torso and taken to a hospital in Malone before being transported to Albany Medical Center, which has a trauma center. Sweat, who was listed in critical condition, was being evaluated by a team of doctors including emergency medical physicians, trauma specialists and others who would determine whether surgery was necessary, Dr. Dennis McKenna said.

Sweat had not been formally interviewed by investigators as of late Sunday, but any information he provides could be critical to the investigation, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said.
Sweat will be charged with escape, burglary and other charges, Wylie said. He and Matt are suspected of breaking into some of the region's many cabins during their time on the lam. Wylie said prosecutors would wait for Sweat to recover before charging him.
The men had been on the loose since June 6, when they cut their way out of a maximum-security prison about 30 miles away using power tools. Two prison workers have been charged with helping them.

View gallery

Police stand over David Sweat after he was shot and captured near the Canadian border Sunday, June 2 …

D'Amico said the men may have used black pepper to throw off the scent of dogs that were tracking them; he said Sweat's DNA was recovered from pepper shakers found at one camp where the fugitives may have spent time.
Cuomo said many questions remained unanswered in the case, including whether the inmates had other accomplices.

"We have already started a full investigation," he said. "But today ends with good news. These were dangerous, dangerous men."

US: Plane Crashes Into Home, Killing 3 Aboard

A small plane crashed into a house Sunday evening, killing three people on board, police said, but residents managed to flee as fire engulfed the home.

The Beechcraft BE36 aircraft crashed into the house at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday, said Jim Peters of the Federal Aviation Administration. It had taken off from Lancaster Airport in Pennsylvania and was headed to Norwood Memorial Airport in Massachusetts.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze nearly three hours after the crash in Plainville, about 30 miles southwest of Boston, said Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio. He said the residents escaped and two adults and a juvenile in the plane were killed.

The plane wound up behind the two-story colonial, where a section of the tail and a charred wing rested on a hillside in the yard.

Neighbors told the Boston Globe (http://bit.ly/1LDipfe ) that a family of four lived in the home.

Others reported hearing something amiss as the plane flew over the neighborhood.

Mike Brown tells The Sun Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1HqocUB ) he was outside barbecuing when he heard the plane, looked up and saw it start to bank. He said the engine sounded like it was sputtering and then heard a crash and saw smoke.

The NTSB is expected to arrive at the crash site Monday.

The identities of the dead won't be released until the NTSB has notified their families, Peters said.

Nigerian: Sharia Court Sentences Nine People To Death

Nine people have been sentenced to death in northern Nigeria after being found guilty of blasphemy, a court clerk and the head of the religious police told AFP on Friday.

The Upper Sharia Court in the city of Kano handed down death sentences to a Sufi Muslim cleric and eight of his followers for remarks they made about the Prophet Mohammed last month.
The comments, made during a religious ceremony, sparked anger and violence in the city.
Court clerk Alhaji Nasuru said the nine, including one woman, were "sentenced to death in accordance with sections 110 and 302 of the Sharia penal code."
Four other followers of the cleric, Aminu Abdul Nyass, were acquitted, he added.
The defendants were arrested when violence broke out in the Makwarari district of Kano as they marked the birthday of the former leader of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, Ibrahim Nyass.
An angry crowd attacked the ceremony and later burnt down Abdul Nyass' home, police said at the time.
Abdul Nyass belongs to a separate branch of Tijaniyya, some of whose beliefs are considered heretical because of their different interpretation of some basic Islamic principles.
The head of the Kano state Sharia (Islamic law) police, known locally as the Hisbah, welcomed the verdicts.
"We are happy the Sharia court handed the death sentences to the nine people who made the blasphemous statements against the Holy Prophet," said Aminu Daurawa.
The trial was held in secret to avoid violence, after crowds set fire to a section of the Sharia court on the defendants' first appearance on May 22.
The judgment still has to be approved by Kano governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, added Daurawa, who warned the sentence should remind Muslims that blasphemy attracts the ultimate penalty.

He also said the risk of violence was high if the nine were released.

"The concern is mobs would take extrajudicial action if these convicts are for whatever reason released because they would certainly kill them when they see them on the streets," he said.

There was no immediate word on whether the nine would appeal.

Sharia courts in northern Nigeria have handed down death sentences for adultery, murder and homosexuality since they were set up in the early 2000s. But to date, no executions have been carried out.

Twelve states in the mainly Muslim north have the courts, which run parallel to state and federal justice system. Persons

Afghan Superhero Posters Splashed Around Kabul

He is called a superhero and feted with financial rewards from Afghan politicians, but the lionisation of the soldier who singlehandedly killed six attackers in parliament belies bubbling discontent over deteriorating security.

Essa Khan Laghmani, 28, was plucked from obscurity and catapulted to national fame this week after he shot dead the Taliban insurgents who on Monday launched a gun and grenade assault on the legislature, sending terrified lawmakers scurrying for cover.

"Taq Chapako!" -- "Bang! and down" in Dari -- meanwhile became an Internet meme after he used the phrase in television interviews to describe how he effortlessly knocked down his targets as though they were skittles in a bowling alley.

Laghmani's feat offered a rare glimmer of good news during the Taliban's annual summer offensive, which has sent civilian and military casualties soaring and threatened major cities for the first time in a decade.

President Ashraf Ghani awarded him a three-bedroom apartment, former warlord General Dostum gifted him a pickup truck and some lawmakers pledged him a month of their salaries and other cash rewards to offer their gratitude.
That's not all.

His posters are splashed around Kabul, a provincial governor has named a major thoroughfare after him and Afghanistan's starstruck youth have posted poems on social media to extol his "heroism".

Afghan soldier Essa Khan Laghmani explains how he shot and killed six Taliban inside the Afghan Parl …

"He killed six terrorists with six bullets. He saved the lives of MPs," defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP. "His bravery deserves to be celebrated."
But the celebration of Laghmani -- or unnecessary glorification, depending on who you ask -- glosses over growing public angst over a 13-year war that is inflicting a heavy toll on ordinary Afghans.
"By hyping Essa Khan, the Afghan government (is trying) to hide its inability to prevent attacks on such a high-profile target in the capital," said one Afghan user on Facebook.

"Khan has become a rich man. We saw MPs donating cash and their salaries to him. This assistance is not to honour his patriotism but to reward him for saving their own lives."

War-weary Afghans are in for the bloodiest fighting season in a decade, experts say, with the stubborn Taliban insurgency spreading inexorably northwards beyond its traditional southern and eastern strongholds.
Afghan security forces, stretched on multiple fronts and facing record casualties, are struggling to rein in the militants even as the government makes repeated efforts to jump-start peace negotiations.

Afghan soldier Essa Khan Laghmani (L) explains how he shot and killed six Taliban inside the Afghan  …

"The Afghan government is desperate for something to cheer about -- and perhaps something to distract people from how frightening the situation is," said Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch.
"They are also desperate to bolster the morale -- and the perceptions -- of the security forces," she told AFP.
- 'Hungry for heroes' -
Laghmani, a slender but well-built army sergeant wearing a slanted beret, recalled the moment he turned into a national sensation.
"I pointed my gun at the terrorists and said Bismillah (in the name of god), and then 'Taq Chapako!'," he told AFP in the parliament complex.
"My friends say if the enemy ever catches me they will skin me alive, but I feel no fear. I am only concerned that these cowards might try to harm my family," said the father-of-three.

Afghan soldier Essa Khan Laghmani (3rd L) talks to his colleagues inside the Afghan Parliament compo …

Since the attack, "Taq Chapako" has even appeared on car bumper stickers and inspired online poetry.
One ode posted on Facebook reads:
"Suicide bombers came oblivious and unaware;
But Essa Khan was there to greet them;
Reaching for his M-16, he vanquished them instantly;
Taq Chapako! Taq Chapako!"
Observers say Laghmani's rise reflects the strong public desire for "superhero" figures in strife-torn Afghan society.
"Afghanistan is hungry for heroes, and this soldier has been wholeheartedly embraced for that very reason," said Michael Kugelman, Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Through Laghmani, Afghanistan is trying to convey a message to sceptical international donors, he said.

"In essence, Afghanistan is saying: 'It's still worth funding us because we have the personnel to get things done'," Kugelman told AFP.

But Laghmani's popularity has stirred resentment among his peers, leaving many quietly seething over the lack of recognition for hundreds of soldiers whose sacrifices go unnoticed.

"I was in the same room as Laghmani, shooting multiple rounds at the enemy and protecting the parliament," one soldier told AFP.

"Afghan soldiers die every day, performing bigger heroic acts. Most of them don't get gifts and cash rewards.

World Black Friday: 28 killed At Tunisia Hotel Terrorist Attack

Gunmen killed at least 28 people at a beachfront Tunisian hotel on Friday, the same day terrorists lashed out brutally in France and bombed a mosque in Kuwait.

Tunisia's health ministry reported those deaths as well as 36 injuries in and around the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in the coastal Tunisian city of Sousse. At least one gunman was also reportedly killed, according to the state-run TAP news agency.

An eyewitness who was close to the scene said that she saw bloodied bodies lying in the sand and people from neighboring hotels jumping over to fences to get to her hotel. She said she is staying about a mile from the main attack scene, but visitors there still took precautions by putting mattresses up against the door to slow any gunmen who might try to barge in.

The hotel guest said she heard at least 30 seconds of sustained gunfire, though things have become relatively quiet by early afternoon.

The full extent of the horror there, including who died and how, was still not known as of Friday afternoon.

But what was clear, even then, is that this was another dark day for Tunisia, and further proof of terrorists' savagery -- not just in war-torn regions like Iraq and Syria, but also in far different places where people expect to relax, not fear for their lives.

One person was beheaded and two injured at a gas factory near Lyon in southeastern France, according to French President Francois Hollande. And ISIS has claimed responsibility for an apparent bomb blast at the Shiite-affiliated Al-Sadiq mosque in Kuwait's capital during Friday prayers, leading to a number of death and injuries.

"I am sickened by the attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait," British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted. "Our countries stand together in combating the horrors of terrorism."

France: One Decapitated In Gas Factory Terrorist Attack

French President Francois Hollande said on Friday that an attack that morning in southeast France was of "a terrorist nature" and that a suspect had been arrested and identified.

"The attack was of a terrorist nature since a body was discovered, decapitated and with inscriptions. As I speak, there is one fatality and two injured," Hollande told a news conference in Brussels, where he was attending an EU summit.

He added that a considerable police force had been deployed in the region and other industrial sites protected to avoid any further incidents.

Two assailants rammed a car into the premises of a U.S. gas company in southeast France on Friday, exploding gas containers. A decapitated head covered in Arab writing was found at the site.

Kurdish fighters battle IS militants in northern Syrian town

Kurdish fighters have besieged Islamic State members who entered the northern Syrian town of Kobani, activists said Friday adding that two days of fighting have left more than 100 civilians dead.

Kobani-based Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali said small groups of jihadis are still in the town and have taken civilians hostage in at least three locations. He added that a fourth location, a restaurant, was stormed by Kurdish fighters who freed the hostages and killed several IS fighters.

The attack on Kobani came after the Islamic State group suffered setbacks over the past two weeks, including the loss of the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad — one of the main points for the jihadis to bring in foreign fighters.
Kobani on Syria's border with Turkey had become a proud symbol of Kurdish resistance after the town and its defenders, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes repelled an extended IS assault.

The town was besieged by the Islamic State group for months earlier this year, but the IS forces were driven out by Kurdish militiamen six months ago. According to Kurdish officials, the IS militants infiltrated the town on Thursday by wearing Syrian rebel uniforms and carrying flags of the mainstream Free Syrian Army to deceive Kobani's Kurdish defenders. They then launched their attack by setting off three car bombs and taking up positions inside Kobani, the officials said.

"Fighting is still ongoing in the city. It was quiet overnight but fighting resumed Friday morning," said Bali. He added that IS fighters are now holding hostages in a house near the Mashta Nour hospital, a house near the town's cultural center and a home close to the Mahdathe school.

Family members of a wounded person from the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab or Kobani wait outside a hosp …

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the attack on Kobani and its suburbs left 120 civilians dead. Bali said more than 100 civilians were killed in Kobani as well as 40 IS fighters whose bodies are still lying in the streets.

He added that 54 civilians have been buried in Kobani since Thursday.

A Facebook page that posts IS statements said a group of "inghimasiyoun," a term that the group uses to refer to infiltrators who enter areas behind their enemies' lines, entered Kobani and are fighting street battles inside the town.

Bali said some IS snipers took up positions on the roofs of buildings and opened fire on people in the streets.

After the clashes in Kobani broke out, the main Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units, or YPG, closed the primary border crossing point between Turkey and Tal Abyad for security reasons, said YPG spokesman Redur Khalil.

Mom and Baby Rescued Alive Four Days After Plane Crash

A mother and her infant son who disappeared in a plane crash in the dense jungles of northwestern Colombia several days ago were found alive and well in what authorities called a “miracle.”

Nelly Murillo, 18, and her son Yudier Moreno, not yet one year old, were discovered near the site where the Cessna 303 crashed on Saturday in thick brush. They were found four days later. 

"It’s a miracle. It is a very wild area and it was a catastrophic accident,” Colonel Hector Carrascal, commander of the Colombian Air Force in Antioquia department, told AFP.

“His mother’s spirit must have given him strength to survive,” he said of the baby.

Murillo and her son were taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital with minor injuries, said Carrascal, adding that he was stunned they were alive.

“The lady has wounds and minor burns and apparently the child is unharmed,” the Colombian Air Force said in a statement.

The plane’s pilot, Captain Carlos Mario Ceballos, died in the crash and rescuers found his body in the aircraft.

They discovered the doors of the plane ajar and suspected that survivors may have climbed out.

A 14-person search-and-rescue team scoured the dense forest for several days before finding the mother and child.

The rescue team was on the last day of its work when the mother and child appeared near the site of the crash, Carrascal said.

The plane offered air taxi services between remote areas in northwest Colombia. It was traveling between Nuqui and Quibdo when it was declared missing, authorities said.

Japan Finally Lifts Its 67-Year-Old Ban On Dancing

Japan has lifted a 67-year-old ban on dancing, to the delight of the nation's clubbers.

The ban forbids public dancing unless the venue has a license, and even licensed premises have to stop all dancing by midnight.

The Footloose-esque law was put into place after the Second World War, in an effort to crack down on dancehalls that were often a hotbed for prostitution.

Since then, Japan has developed into a thriving and highly developed nation - yet the archaic dancing ban remained on the books for decades.

Despite the law, dancing, even after midnight, was tolerated in the second half of the 20th Century, with police turning a blind eye to the hard-to-enforce law that was routinely being broken.

 

However, into the 21st Century, a string of celebrity drug scandals and nightclub brawls led to a crackdown, with club raids once again becoming common.

Fortunately, Japan's night owls will soon be able to party without fear. A campaign led by world-famous Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, calling for the abolition of the ban, gained 150,000 signatures.

The new law was finally ratified last week, and will come into force next year. Until then, late-night dancing will remain illegal.

The lifting of the ban was partly due to the upcoming 2020 Olympics, with the government taking the neccessary steps to make sure visitors have as much fun (and spend as much money) as they can during their stay.

Japan may finally be catching up with the rest of the world, but that other highly-developed democracy, Sweden, is still sticking to its own dancing ban.

'Spontaneous dancing' is illegal in Sweden, and owners of bars, clubs and pubs without a special dancing license face fines if their patrons decide to take to the floor.

In March this year, politicians voted in the Riksdag to lift the bizarre ban - but it failed to pass, and Swedes still need government permission if they fancy a dance.

Illegal Sand Mining Trade Claims Hundreds Of lives In India

Like many natural resources the amount of sand around is finite but, despite this, the illegal mining of the unremarkable material has been booming in India.

Indian police have recently arrested two men suspected of kidnapping and killing a journalist in the country. Sandeep Kothari was abducted and beaten to death by a group of men, with alleged links to a "sand mafia," who then burned his body and left it beside railway tracks, earlier this month.

According to members of the Mr Kothari’s family, the journalist had filed a court case against the owners of mining companies to stop sand mining.

Sand mining allegedly destroys ecosystems and in the US it is blamed for the erosion of beaches, water, and air pollution. Since 2005, over 20 Indonesian islands have been lost due to the effects of sand mining, Wired reported.

On 22 June, authorities in Mune, close to Mumbai, confiscated 65 vehicles involved in the illegal transportation of sand. Only days before, the chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, had ordered authorities to wipe out the sand mafia in the state.

In many cases, the authorities “Have to travel to remote spots at night to bust illegal mining activities,” a senior official told The Times of India.

“They often face stiff opposition from people involved in illegal mining. There have been cases of physical assaults during raids,” he added.

India’s Supreme Court has this year warned that sand mining is undermining bridges and disrupting ecosystems all over the country, killing wildlife in the process. Regulations, however, are not rigorous enough, nor enforced to prevent its occurrence.

Battles between sand mafias have reportedly killed hundreds of people in the past few years, a death toll which includes the likes of police officers and government officials.

According to a leading environmental lawyer in India, Ritwitck Dutta, the scale on which sand is required, means it is extremely difficult to control or prevent illegal mining.

“The fundamental problem is the massive use of cement-based construction,” Mr Dutta told Wired.

“That’s why the sand mafia has become so huge. Sand is everywhere.”

U.S. Sending Tanks And Armor To Europe

The U.S. military will be sending dozens of tanks, Bradley armored fighting vehicles and self-propelled howitzers to allied countries in the Baltics and Eastern Europe in response to Russian actions in the Ukraine, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday.

The equipment, enough to arm one combat brigade, will be positioned in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland, Carter announced at a press conference with U.S. allies in Estonia.

Carter said the equipment will be moved around Europe for training and exercises.

The U.S. defense chief also said Washington and its NATO allies will be boosting cyber defense efforts.

"We must prepare NATO and our allies for cyber challenges, particularly from Russia," Carter said in prepared remarks.

Carter's announcement comes during a week-long tour of Europe.

"We need to explain to those who doubt the value of our NATO commitments that the security of Europe is vital to everything else we hold dear," Carter said at a press event with his German counterpart Monday.

While Carter won't be visiting Russia on this trip, Russian President Vladimir Putin's influence looms over the tour's discussions.

"One of [Putin's] stated views is a longing for the past and that's where we have a different perspective on the world and even on Russia's future," he told reporters en route to Germany, in response to a question about whether Putin is a rational actor. "We'd like to see us all moving forward, Europe moving forward, and that does not seem to be his stated perspective."

Carter also addressed comments Putin made last week, announcing the addition of 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles to Russia's nuclear arsenal, a move Carter said reflected "posturing" on the Russian leader's part.

"Nuclear weapons are not something that should be the subject of loose rhetoric by world leadership," Carter said. "We all understand the gravity of nuclear dangers. We all understand that Russia is a long established nuclear power. There is no need for Vladimir Putin to make that point."

Carter's comments are just the latest in an escalating war of words between U.S. and Russian officials.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, Putin denied his government is behaving aggressively.

"We are not aggressive," Putin said. "We are persistent in pursuing our interests."

Last week U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah James addressed Russian actions.

"The biggest threat on my mind is what's happening with Russia and the activities of Russia," James said during a visit to the Paris Air Show. "It's extremely worrisome on what's going on in the Ukraine."

Like what Carter said is planned for the U.S. Army's tanks, U.S. Air Force planes have been rotating through Europe under Operation Atlantic Resolve.

Participating in those exercises and rotations have been B-2 and B-52 bombers, F-15Cs and A-10 attack planes.

James said the F-22 Raptor, the Pentagon's premier fighter, could join that list.

"I could easily see the day -- though I couldn't tell you the day exactly -- when the F-22, for example, rotates in is a possibility. I don't see why that couldn't happen in the future," James said,

The Army, too, has been active in these exercises. In March, the Army sent a convoy of armored vehicles on an1,100-mile trek from the Baltics through Poland and the Czech Republic to Germany.

Analysts said the size of the armor deployment Carter announced Tuesday was showed it was more symbolic than strategic.

During the Cold War, the U.S. had the same amount of armor, a brigade, stationed in just one small part of what was then West Germany, said retired Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit, the former military assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

"We are now talking about taking one brigade combat team and splitting it among these six countries. That should hardly be seen as a threat to Russia," Kimmit said.

But the symbolism was important, he said.

"We're sending a message of assurance to our NATO allies. We have obligations, under the NATO treaty, to defend those countries if attacked. I think those countries in the region are going to be welcoming the positioning of these - this equipment into their countries," Kimmit said.

Orysia Lutsevych, an analyst with the Chatham House think tank in London, said the U.S. and its NATO allies should have been making these kind of statement to Moscow sooner.

The Obama administration "should have pushed the Kremlin before reaching to the kind of moment of escalation we are having right now," Lutsevych said. "By trying to appease the Kremlin too long, we will be facing with a higher cost every day."