News in Brief

Date: 17 October 2022 - 22:29

News ID: ۱۰۷۹۱۱

LONDON (AP) — Officers in London’s Metropolitan Police force are getting away with breaking the law, and the system for investigating police misconduct is marred by racism and misogyny, a report said Monday. In the latest withering criticism of Britain’s biggest police force, Louise Casey said some officers were “getting away both with misconduct but also criminal behavior” without being fired. Casey, an experienced former government official, was asked to investigate the force after a string of controversies over alleged misogyny and racism among officers. She issued an interim report on Monday, with her full findings due next year. Last year a police officer, Wayne Couzens, was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a woman who was walking home at night in London. Sarah Everard’s slaying by a serving officer shocked the nation, and the police force’s subsequent handling of vigils and protests against Everard’s slaying — where women were detained for breaching coronavirus restrictions — drew strong criticism.

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BALLARI, India (Reuters) -- Members of India’s opposition Congress party voted on Monday to elect its first head in nearly 25 years from outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty of leaders, with a veteran loyal to the family expected to win. Results are due on Wednesday in the battered party’s bid to revamp itself after losing the last two general elections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, despite the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia. With the next general election due by 2024, Modi retains a big edge over the party, which dominated politics for decades after leading India to independence from Britain in 1947, but has recently struggled to recoup its fortunes. Party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, has the support of many members, and his 66-year-old rival and former UN diplomat, Shashi Tharoor, has already complained about big leaders openly supporting Kharge.

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BEIJING (AP) — China’s ruling Communist Party says it has investigated almost 5 million members for possible corruption over the last decade, with formal criminal cases brought against 553. The party has 96 million members and has long run its own internal system of keeping cadres in line through a mix of offering privileges and threatening severe punishment for taking bribes, selling offices or otherwise abusing authority. At a briefing Monday on the sidelines of the party’s national congress held every five years, the deputy secretary of the party’s Committee for Discipline and Inspection, Xiao Pei, said 207,000 party officials in total had been handed some form of punishment in the 10 years since party leader Xi Jinping took power. Now seeking a third term as head of the party, government and military, Xi has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his administration.

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BERLIN (AP) — Germany announced Monday that it is issuing fines of 5.125 million euros ($5 million) against the operators of the messaging app Telegram for failing to comply with German law. The Federal Office of Justice said Telegram FZ-LLC hasn’t established a lawful way for reporting illegal content or named an entity in Germany to receive official communication. Both are required under German laws that regulate large online platforms. German officials said they have repeatedly failed in their attempts to serve papers to Dubai-based Telegram, despite support from authorities in the United Arab Emirates. A Germany-based law firm has since declared that it represents Telegram, but this wasn’t enough to prevent the fines being issued, the Federal Office of Justice said. German federal police warned earlier this year that the app is becoming a “medium for radicalization,” used by some to target politicians, scientists and doctors for their role in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey and Greece on Monday exchanged more mutual recrimination over 92 migrants who were found stripped naked by Greek authorities at the two countries’ joint border, a day after the United Nations called for an investigation into the incident. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi on Saturday tweeted a photo of the naked migrants, some with bodily harm, accusing Turkey of pushing them into Greece and stripping them naked before doing so. The claim prompted Fahrettin Altun, the communications director of Turkey’s president, to accuse Greece of engaging in “fake news.” On Monday, Turkey’s foreign minister again rejected the allegation and accused Athens of “shameless and reckless” behavior. He also took aim at European Union nations, accusing them of encouraging EU-member Greece to “slander” Turkey.

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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The death toll from floods in Nigeria this year has increased to 603 as local authorities race to get relief data-x-items to hundreds of thousands being evacuated from their submerged homes. More than 1.3 million people have been displaced by the disaster, which has affected people across 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the nation’s humanitarian affairs ministry said late Sunday. At least 340,000 hectares of land also have been affected, worsening fears of food supply disruptions. Armed conflict already has threatened production in the northwest and central regions of Nigeria, which produce much of what the country eats. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari directed “all concerned to work for the restoration of normalcy,” according to a statement issued by the presidency. Nigeria experiences annual flooding especially in coastal areas but this year’s floods are the worst in more than a decade. Authorities blame the disaster this year on the release of excess water from Lagdo dam in neighboring Cameroon and on unusual rainfalls.