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WANICA — Chifany S. is wegens verduistering ingesloten. Ze heeft op verschillende momenten tussen april en oktober een groot bedrag
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ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called the attack that damaged the huge bridge connecting Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea “a terrorist act” masterminded by Ukrainian special services.
The Kerch Bridge, which holds important strategic and symbolic value to Russia in its faltering war in Ukraine, was hit a day earlier by what Moscow has said was a truck bomb. Road and rail traffic on the bridge were temporarily halted, damaging a vital supply route for the Kremlin’s forces.
“There’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation,” Putin said during a meeting with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. “And the authors, perpetrators, and those who ordered it are the special services of Ukraine.”
Bastrykin said Ukrainian special services and citizens of Russia and other countries took part in the attack. He said a criminal investigation had been launched into an act of terror.
“We have already established the route of the truck,” he said, saying it had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar, a region in southern Russia.
In Kyiv, presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak called Putin’s accusation “too cynical even for Russia.”
“Putin accuses Ukraine of terrorism?” he said. “It has not even been 24 hours since Russian planes fired 12 rockets into a residential area of Zaporizhzhia, killing 13 people and injuring more than 50. No, there is only one state terrorist and the whole world knows who he is.”
Podolyak referred to missile strikes on the city of Zaporizhzhia overnight that brought down part of a large apartment building. The six missiles were launched from Russian-occupied areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian air force said.
The region is one of four Russia claimed as its own this month, though its capital of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.
Russia has suffered a series of setbacks nearly eight months after invading Ukraine in a campaign many thought would be short-lived. In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have staged a counteroffensive, retaking areas in the south and east, while Moscow’s decision to call up more troops has led to protests and an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russians.
Recent fighting has focused on the regions just north of Crimea, including Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lamented the latest attack.
“Again, Zaporizhzhia. Again, merciless attacks on civilians, targeting residential buildings, in the middle of the night,” he wrote. At least 19 people died in Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings in the city on Thursday.
“From the one who gave this order, to everyone who carried out this order: They will answer,” he added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attacks on civilians in Zaporizhzhia a war crime and urged an international investigation.
Stunned residents watched from behind police tape as emergency crews tried to reach the upper floors of a building that took a direct hit. A chasm at least 12 meters (40-feet) wide smoldered where apartments had once stood. In an adjacent apartment building, the missile barrage blew windows and doors out of their frames in a radius of hundreds of feet. At least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings were damaged, a local official said.
Regional police reported Sunday afternoon that 13 people had been killed and more than 60 wounded in the latest Zaporizhzhia attack, at least 10 of them children.
Tetyana Lazunko, 73, and her husband, Oleksii, took shelter in the hallway of their top-floor apartment after hearing air raid sirens. The explosion shook the building and sent their possessions flying. Lazunko wept as the couple surveyed the damage to their home of nearly five decades.
“Why are they bombing us? Why?” she said.
Others called the missile attack relentless.
“There was one explosion, then another one,” 76-year-old Mucola Markovich said. In a flash, the fourth-floor apartment he shared with his wife was gone.
“When it will be rebuilt, I don’t know,” Markovich said. “I am left without an apartment at the end of my life.”
In another nearby neighborhood ravaged by a missile, three volunteers dug a shallow grave for a German shepherd killed in the strike.
Abbas Gallyamov, an independent Russian political analyst and a former speechwriter for Putin, said prior to his declaration that it was a terror attack, the Russian president had not responded forcefully enough to satisfy angry war hawks. The attack and response, he said, has “inspired the opposition, while the loyalists are demoralized.”
“Because once again, they see that when the authorities say that everything is going according to plan and we’re winning, that they’re lying, and it demoralizes them,” he said.
Putin personally opened the Kerch Bridge in May 2018 by driving a truck across it as a symbol of Moscow’s claims on Crimea. No one has claimed responsibility for damaging the 12-mile (19-kilometer) bridge, the longest in Europe.
Traffic over the bridge was temporarily suspended after the blast, but both automobiles and trains were crossing again on Sunday. Russia also restarted a car ferry service.
Crimea is a popular vacation resort for Russians and people trying to drive to the bridge and back onto the Russian mainland encountered hours-long traffic jams Sunday.
“We were a bit unprepared for such a turn,” said one driver, Kirill Suslov, sitting in traffic. “That’s why the mood is a bit gloomy.”
The Institute for the Study of War said videos of the bridge indicated that damage from the explosion “is likely to increase friction in Russian logistics for some time” but not cripple Russia’s ability to equip its troops in Ukraine.
In other news:
— In the devastated Ukrainian city of Lyman, which was recently recaptured after a months-long Russian occupation, Ukrainian national police said authorities have exhumed the first 20 bodies from a mass burial site. Initial indications are that around 200 civilians are buried in one location, and that another grave contains the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. The civilians, including children, were buried in single graves, while members of the military were buried in a 40-metre-long trench, according to police.
— The Ukrainian military said Sunday that fierce clashes were taking place around the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have claimed some gains. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not acknowledge any loss of territory but said “the most tense situation” has been observed around those two cities.
— The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, said that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, had been reconnected to the power grid after losing its last external power source early Saturday following shelling. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi tweeted that the reconnection was “a temporary relief in a still-untenable situation.”
___
By JUSTIN SPIKE and ADAM SCHRECK, Associated Press
Schreck reported from Kyiv.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — It’s possible Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz talked himself into a death sentence.
Prosecutors played video last week at Cruz’s penalty trial of jailhouse interviews he did this year with two of their mental health experts. In frank and sometimes graphic detail, he answered their questions about his massacre of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 — his planning, his motivation, the shootings.
While it can’t be known what the 12 jurors are thinking, if any are wavering between voting for death or life without parole, his statements to Dr. Charles Scott, a forensic psychiatrist, and Robert Denney, a neuropsychologist, did not help his cause.
“All of this made Cruz himself perhaps one of the state’s best witnesses,” said David S. Weinstein, a Miami defense attorney and former prosecutor who has been monitoring the trial.
The jury will likely decide Cruz’s fate this week. For the 24-year-old to get a death sentence, the jury must be unanimous on at least one victim. But if all 17 counts come back with at least one vote in favor of life in prison, then that would be his sentence. Closing arguments are scheduled Tuesday, with deliberations beginning Wednesday.
Because Cruz’s defence is that his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy left him brain damaged, prosecutors could have experts examine him for their rebuttal case.
Scott and Denney interviewed him separately for several hours. In each, Cruz sat across the table, handcuffed, a sweater draped over his chest. He sometimes asked for a pen and paper to add diagrams and drawings to his explanations.
“The question is: What will the jury take away from the interviews? Cold-blooded killer who was vengeful and excited about the murders, or a person so hopelessly deranged that he can’t be anything but crazy?” said Bob Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeastern University’s law school.
The thoughts would return when he watched violent videos, particularly documentaries about mass shootings at Colorado’s Columbine High School, Virginia Tech and elsewhere, he said.
HOW DID CRUZ PLAN THE MASSACRE?
“I did my own research,” Cruz told Scott. “I studied mass murderers and how they did it, their plans, what they got and what they used.”
He detailed the lessons he learned: Watch for would-be rescuers coming around corners, keep some distance from your targeted victims, attack as fast as possible — and “the police didn’t do anything.”
“I have a small opportunity to shoot people for maybe 20 minutes,” Cruz said.
HOW DID CRUZ PREPARE?
He told Scott he put his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in a bag the night before and slipped its magazines into a shooting vest. He adjusted the gun’s sights and imagined what the recoil would feel like.
“I didn’t get any sleep,” Cruz said.
He donned the burgundy polo shirt he received when he was a member of the Stoneman Douglas Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program so he could escape by mingling with fleeing students.
“If I had all my (shooting) gear on, they would have called the cops,” Cruz said.
When he set out at 2 p.m., he told the Uber driver he was in the school orchestra and the bag carried his instrument.
WHAT DID CRUZ DO WHEN HE ARRIVED?
“I walked through the gates. Hopefully, there would be no security guards, but I was wrong,” Cruz told Scott. “I was looking at the guy and he was watching me.”
When Cruz attended Stoneman Douglas, guards frequently checked him for weapons because of his erratic and sometimes violent behavior. When he was expelled a year before the shooting, a guard predicted he would eventually return and shoot people.
Fearing he’d been discovered, Cruz sprinted into a three-story classroom building and quickly assembled his weapon. He told a student who happened upon him to flee because something bad was about to happen.
He then went floor to floor, shooting down hallways and into classrooms, firing 140 shots in all.
“I thought they would scream,” Cruz said about his first three victims. He shot them point-blank outside a locked classroom door. “It was more like they passed out and blood came pouring out of their head. It was really nasty and sad to see.”
But he continued.
“I think I showed mercy to three girls. I was going to walk away, but they showed nasty faces and I went back,” Cruz said. “I thought they were going to attack me.”
Cruz shot several of his victims a second time after they fell, including his final one — a student writhing from a leg wound. He said the boy “gave me a nasty look. A look of anger.”
“His head blew up like a water balloon,” Cruz said.
WHY DID CRUZ STOP SHOOTING?
Students and teachers fled the building or locked themselves in classrooms. The third-floor hallway was now empty except for victims.
“I couldn’t find anyone to kill,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it anymore and I didn’t think there was anyone else in the building.”
He dropped his gun and vest on the stairwell and fled. He was captured an hour later — the police officer had been looking for a young male in a Stoneman Douglas ROTC polo.
CRUZ’S FINAL SAY
As Denney was finishing the final interview, he asked Cruz if there was anything else he should know. Cruz thought for 10 seconds before responding: “Why I chose Valentine’s Day.”
“Because I thought no one would love me,” Cruz explained. “I didn’t like Valentine’s Day and I wanted to ruin it for everyone.”
“Do you mean for the family members of the kids that were killed?” Denney asked.
“No, for the school,” Cruz replied.
The holiday will never be celebrated there again, he said.
By TERRY SPENCER, Associated Press
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In branding the state of interpersonal violence locally as a pandemic, Police Commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson, has declared that the situation is also indicative of a public health matter because so many persons are being affected.
Anderson, in pointing to recent incidents of violence in schools, said children are among those being affected by the perceived pandemic.
“The pandemic of interpersonal violence is a public health matter and is infecting and affecting several demographics in our society, including our children,” he posited.
“We must teach our children to deal with these conflicts,” said Anderson at a recent police press conference in St Andrew
Since the ending of the COVID-19 protocols and the return to face-to-face classes in schools, the commissioner said the constabulary has taken note of some violent encounters in schools that have become the subject of viral videos.
Among those videos were the moments before and after 16-year-old Kingston Technical High School student, Michion Campbell, was stabbed by a 17-year-old schoolmate of hers.
The latter child has since been charged with murder, and she will remain in police custody until at least November 9.
“We also recall the national conversation in March this year when a student in Trelawny was stabbed to death by another student during a dispute over a ‘guard ring’,” Anderson recounted.
The victim in that incident was 16-year-old Kamal Hall, a fifth form student of William Knibb Memorial High School in Trelawny, who was allegedly killed by another male student after he accused Kamal of stealing his guard ring, something which is usually used by criminals as a perceived form of protection.
Anderson said: “These encounters have been the source of discussions in various quarters, but for us (the police), we have not only been intervening in, but also seeking to prevent these acts of violence.”
He said since the start of the last academic year in schools, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), through its Community Safety and Security Branch (CSSB), has deployed 245 school resource officers (SROs) in institutions that were identified as potential flash points under the Safe Schools Programme.
“However, this once again underscores a problem that I have sought to shed light on many times; the problem of our culture of violence in the resolution of interpersonal conflicts.
“Over 15 per cent of the murders committed so far this year are attributed to poorly managed interpersonal conflicts,” said Anderson.
He outlined two such violent interpersonal incidents that resulted in deaths.
One was the murder of 52-year-old female pastor, Michelle Roache, who was reportedly stabbed to death by her brother in Content Gardens, Ocho Rios, St Ann on Monday night.
An argument over the lack of electrical supply to Roache’s portion of a house she shared with her brother reportedly led to her death.
“In Port Royal in Kingston East on Tuesday morning, a 41-year-old fisherman was mowed down with a vehicle during another dispute,” outlined Anderson, who repeated his call for better conflict resolution strategies.
The motorist who was involved in the Port Royal incident has since been detained in relation to that matter.
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A team from Antigua and Barbuda’s Medicinal Cannabis Authority consisting of Ms. Joy-Marie King, Director of Commercial Diplomacy and Compliance, and Mr. Veldon Ragguette, Operations Manager, participated in a recently concluded mission to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to engage with their Authority counterpart.
This mission, which commenced on 26th September 2022, was peer learning focused and involved the sharing of best practices and explored opportunities for Authority-to-Authority and Industry-to-Industry cooperation.
Highlights of the mission included high-level engagements with the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Hon. Saboto Ceasar, visits to several medicinal cannabis cultivation sites, processing facilities, dispensaries, lounges, and lab facilities.
The technical team from Antigua and Barbuda also engaged with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Medicinal Cannabis Authority staff and its Board.
According to King, “the mission was a resounding success as the opportunity was taken to discuss successes, potential challenges and formulating solutions all towards building a sustainable and resilient industry both domestic and regionally.”
Ragguette indicated that “the opportunities for cooperation are numerous and should be pursued and operationalized soonest.”
One of the key outcomes of the mission is that both nations expressed the desire to cooperate and pledged that steps would be taken to formalize the collaboration.
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NOW leader and Laventille West candidate Kirk Waithe makes his case to Beetham residents to elect him as their MP. – SUREASH CHOLAI
THREE former members of the NOW political party’s creative team have filed a lawsuit against the defunct party’s leader, Kirk Waithe, seeking outstanding payments owed to them for work done since February 2020.
The lawsuit was filed on August 2, 2022, and served on Waithe, last week, by attorneys Darryl Heeralal and Nerisa Bala, for Nicole Martin, Quincy Ross and Richard Lewis.
The lawsuit, which has been assigned to Justice Kevin Ramcharan, says Martin was contracted to do work for Waithe’s NOW in December 2019 in the run up to the 2020 general election.
Martin put together the team, comprising herself, Ross and Lewis, making it clear “they were not volunteers.”
The claim said at all times Martin negotiated directly with Waithe and at no time were negotiations done with NOW nor were they told they were hired by the party.
The lawsuit contends Waithe agreed to pay each of them a fixed monthly fee and never suggested these payments would be based on donations to the party or that they were obliged to provide detailed invoices of work done in order to be paid. The three also said the work done was for NOW’s advertising campaign.
They were paid for January 2020 while partial cash payments were made in February for April.
They say they are owed a total of $66,750 for February-May 2020.
“As a result of the defendant’s refusal to pay the sums owed, the claimants have suffered loss and damage.
“The acts of the defendant were calculated by him to make a profit at the expense of the claimants and the claimants say the defendant is liable to them for exemplary damages,” their lawsuit contends.
Before filing the lawsuit, attorneys for the three sent pre-action protocol letters seeking payment. However, the lawsuit said although being asked to hold off on any legal action, they received no response up to June 2022.
“To date, the claimants have not received any of their outstanding payments and they continue to suffer severe hardship and distress as a result of the defendant’s failure and/or refusal to honour the contractual debt.”
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Police and crime scene investigators process the crime scene of a murder and attempted robbery at Pennywise Plaza, La Romain. Photo by Marvin Hamilton
CRIMINOLOGY lecturer and author Wendell Wallace says the justice system in this country has to adapt and make changes, particularly through legislation, to fulfil its mandate in order to deal with the ever increasing scourge of gun violence.
The establishment of gun courts, denying bail for those charged with gun offences, and implementing a “three-strike” rule via legislation, he suggested, are among the numerous tangible solutions.
Wallace, a lecturer in the Criminology and Criminal Justice Unit at the University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine Campus, was speaking at a forum recently hosted by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies on the topic of gun-related violence and homicide in Caribbean societies, which offered expert insights into data and reflected on potential action to improve the worsening statistics.
“What can we do? Because we don’t only want to highlight these problems? We want that we look for some solutions.”
He said the the justice system “can do a lot.”
Wallace said a multifaceted, evidence-based approach to is needed to address the complex problem of gun violence and the justice system.
He highlighted data showing that between 2010-2016, there were 2,212 victims of homicide by firearms, 95 per cent of them being male. He said this is comparable with Jamaica where approximately 90 per cent of the victims are male.
Recently, acting Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob announced that 7,000 guns had been recovered by police over the last ten years.
On Saturday, the police issued another statement saying the number of guns seized for the year had crossed 500.
Jacob also noted that 87 per cent of all murders in TT over the past decade were committed using guns.
These statistics are particularly noteworthy, he said, since no English-speaking country in the Caribbean manufactures firearms. Most are believed to be imported from the US and Brazil and slip through the borders.
“That begs the question,” he said. “Are we suffering from a gun-violence crisis as it relates to TT?”
Wallace noted the drastic increase of guns being used in homicides around the year 2000.
He highlighted the statistics from 2010-2016, showing the Port of Spain Police Division leading the nine divisions with 593 murders involving guns, followed by the Northern Police Division with 463 and the Western Police Division in third with 260 murders.
The Tobago Police Division saw the least number of murders involving guns, totalling 13 for the seven-year period.
As Wallace, noted, however, Tobago experienced three murders involving firearms in only three days, last month.
“If we were to use some conjecture here, we will suggest that the numbers for the Tobago Police Division will certainly increase.
He spoke further on potential ways the justice system can address gun-related violence.
Wallace noted that Jacob expressed regret about TT’s gun culture, and former Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith’s suggestion that those charged with gun possession not be allowed bail.
Griffith also called for the court to increase penalties for firearm offences.
“We need a multifaceted approach; a uni-dimensional approach will not work. And the justice system can either use a prevention approach or an intervention approach or a combination of both.”
Among Wallace’s solutions offered included gun amnesties, which he admitted “tend not to work for criminals (because) that’s their tool of trade.”
Establishing gun courts is another potential part solution.
“The research has shown that this tends to work in that you are able to process these criminals faster.
“We must also have enhanced reporting mechanisms and protection for witnesses in gun-related crimes,” Wallace said.
“We can use focus deterrents. We can use outreach activities, public education campaigns. We can also use intervention strategies.
“We need to use some awareness campaigns so that all juveniles and others can be aware of the dangers of using fire.”
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File photo: Port of Spain General Hospital.
A 30-year-old Beetham man is in the hospital after he was shot by police for pointing an assault rifle at officers early on Sunday morning.
Police said officers of the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) were on patrol on Ninth Street, Beetham Gardnes, just after 12 am, when they saw several men with guns running along the street.
Police chased the men. One of them was armed with an AR 15 and pointed it at police from a nearby back street.
Officers shot the man and took him to the hospital.
The machine gun and 22 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition were also seized.
As of midday on Sunday, the man received emergency surgery and was warded at the hospital in serious condition.
Police from the Port of Spain Division, Inter Agency Task Force and the Guard and Emergency Branch also visited the scene.
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File photo –
Three men were held shortly after they robbed a Valencia doubles vendor at his home early on Sunday morning.
Police said at around 1.55 am, the vendor was at home at La Platta Gardens with his workers preparing for the day’s sale when they saw three men walking through the yard.
The bandits stormed the house and ordered the vendor and workers to lie on the ground.
The workers were beaten and robbed of their jewellery, cellphone and a total of $7,000 in cash.
The bandits then escaped in a black Nissan Almera which was parked nearby.
The police were called and officers from the Valencia CID saw a car matching the description of the bandits’ car and stopped it at KP Lands, Valencia.
They searched the car and found several of the items that were reported stolen in the backseat.
The 18-year-old driver and 21-year-old passenger were arrested and interviewed.
Investigators also visited a house in Valencia where they found more stolen items and arrested a 23-year-old man who was inside at the time.
The three men were taken to the Sangre Grande police station and are expected to be interviewed on Sunday.
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Another person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health today.
Consequently, active COVID-19 cases in Guyana have gone up to 63, that is, 62 persons in home isolation and the remaining one person in institutional isolation.
There is one other person also in institutional quarantine.
Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 1281, while some 70,036 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date.
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