World AM News Briefs For Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Good Morning Australia!! - Fire races uncontrolled through a teeming refugee camp - Is the government letting China off the hook for an environmental disaster on the Great Barrier Reef? - US Police catch a suspect in the weekend bombings - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
Authorities on the Greek island of Lesbos have evacuated thousands of refugees after fire swept through a tent city. Images on social media show huge flames tearing through the Moria Camp, reducing it to ashes. It's not clear if anyone was injured or killed. Investigators are already considering the possibility of arson as a cause for this terrible fire. According to the UN Refugee Agency, some 5,600 refugees currently live on Lesbos, but the island only has capacity for 3,600. Some 150 minors housed at the camp were evacuated to a children's village on the island. The problem remains that many Eastern European members of the European Union have closed their borders to migrants, making it impossible for them to transit to Germany and other northern countries to claim asylum.
Environmentalists are blasting as paltry the settlement reached by the government over a Chinese tanker that damaged the Great Barrier Reef six years ago. The owners of the "Shen Neng 1" ship will pay just shy of AU$40 Million, which is about a third of what it will cost to clean up the damage from the ship running aground over a kilometer and spreading oil over four kilometers of the reef in April 2010. The clean-up effort won't even begin until mid next year.
Hours after the Syrian military declared the US-Russian brokered cease fire to be over, an air strike hit an aid convoy heading towards Aleppo. The number of casualties is not clear, but the US called it an "outrage". There's been no claim of responsibility, but a UK-based groups that monitors the Syrian Civil war claims it was either the government or Russian warplanes. Not even a week into the cease-fire, the deal appeared to have come apart after the US and Australia accidentally targeted Syrian government troops in an operation that was supposed to be against Islamic State.
Big developments in the New York/New Jersey bombings:
US authorities caught the suspect in a series of bombing incidents after a shoot out with cops in Linden, New Jersey, which is right outside New York City. Authorities identified 28-year old Ahmad Khan Rahami as a person of interest in the case early on Monday morning. Within a few hours, a bar owner spotted Rahami sleeping in the hallway of a tavern and alerted authorities. Rahami had a weapon and shot at police, hitting one officer in his body armor. Police returned fire, wounding Rahami and taking him into custody.
The first explosive, a pipe bomb, went off on Saturday morning along the route of a marathon in New Jersey dedicated to the US military; no one was hurt. The second was the pressure cooker bomb that exploded in New York City's trendy Chelsea district, wounding more than 25 people on the same day; no fatalities. Another pressure cooker bomb was found a few blocks away, and more pipe bombs found on Sunday detonated as a police robot handled them; again, no injuries. If it is proven that Rahami is the bomber, he sure as hell wasn't very good at it. That incompetence may have extended to doing "virtually nothing to cover his tracks," according to a law enforcement source: NBC New York reports that he left a fingerprint on one of the devices.
Rahami was not on any terrorist watch-lists and had no serious criminal record, but he was no stranger to law enforcement. He was born in Afghanistan and came to the US with his family in 2000. There are questions about his assimilation into US culture - some who knew him claim he was angry; others say he loved to hoon up and race Honda Civics. Rahami's family had legal difficulties stemming from their fast food fried chicken joint in New Jersey that was the bane of its neighbors, who complained of it staying open all night. At one point the Rahami family accused officers responding to noise complaints of demonstrating anti-Muslim bias. Authorities say they don't believe Rahami is part of a terrorist cell of network.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) applauded Rahami's quick apprehension. "We welcome the arrest of the suspect in this case and hope this ends the series of potentially-deadly incidents," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. "American Muslims, like all Americans reject extremism and violence, and seek a safe and secure nation. Our nation is most secure when we remain united and reject the fear-mongering and guilt by association often utilized following such attacks." The Muslim Community Network, meanwhile, released a statement urging politicians not to politicize the attacks.
Unfortunately, scumbag bigot loser Donald Trump had already pissed in that well. After mouthing off about "getting tough" over the weekend, Trump also ignored the dozens of people hurt in Saturday's explosion in Chelsea to take a bow for somehow "predicting" that the weekend explosions were terrorism. Trump also insulted New York Police by saying that investigators "know" who all of the terrorists are but are too politically correct to arrest them - allowing terrorist attacks to happen. Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton lambasted her vulgar and amateurish fascist rival: "We've heard that from former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who made it a very clear point when he said Donald Trump is being used as a recruiting sergeant in and for the terrorists," Hillary said, "We know from the former head of the Counterterrorism Center Mike Olsen, that the language that Mr. Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries."