P10:Layout 1
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 INTERNATIONAL Spanish couple go on trial over murder of adoptive daughter MADRID: A Spanish couple accused of Santiago de Compostela. take concrete measures to ensure the date, “to deprive her of all will and their adopted daughter together. drugging and suffocating their 12-year- Porto had told police that the girl, safety as well as the legitimate rights and defence and presumably to ease the Their trial began at a court in old daughter who they adopted in China Asunta Yong Fang Basterra Porto, had interests of adopted Chinese children”. action of asphyxiation, in a plan agreed Santiago with the closed door selection went on trial yesterday in a case that has gone missing after she was left alone at The judge investigating the case with Rosario”. of the nine members of the jury. The drawn the attention of Beijing. her apartment in Santiago. A Chinese accused the couple in a summary judge- Porto, a Spanish citizen who acted as accused couple will start being ques- Rosario Porto, a 46-year-old lawyer, foreign ministry spokesman said at the ment of having drugged Asunta with the French honorary consul in Galicia from tioned in court on Thursday. The court and her ex-husband, 51-year-old journal- time that Beijing was “highly concerned sedative Orfidal for three months before 1996-2006, and Basterra have both has called 84 witnesses and 60 experts ist Alfonso Basterra, were charged with about the case” and urged Spain “to asphyxiating her on September 21, 2013. denied having killed Asunta, who they to testify. The trial is scheduled to last murder in October 2013, a month after launch an investigation at once”. He wrote in the summary that adopted in China when she was still a until October 21. If found guilty the the body of their daughter was found in He also called on Spanish authorities Basterra “administered to the child a tox- baby. At the time of the girl’s death, the couple face a prison sentence of up to a wood near the northwestern city of to “hold the perpetrators to justice and ic dose of Orfidal” at his home on that couple were separated but were raising 20 years. — AFP UK ‘fake sheikh’ reporter charged with conspiracy LONDON: Mazher Mahmood, a British said in a statement. “In the meantime I journalist whose undercover work posing have nothing further to say.” Mahmood as a “fake sheikh” led to a number of high- previously worked for Murdoch’s News of profile criminal court cases, was charged the World tabloid, which the media yesterday with conspiracy to pervert the mogul was forced to shut in 2011 when it course of justice. was disclosed journalists had hacked Mahmood, well-known for revealing voicemails on mobile phones of thou- wrongdoing amongst politicians, TV and sands of people, including that belong- film stars and even royalty, was suspend- ing to a murdered schoolgirl, to find ed by Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper exclusive stories. in July last year after the collapse of a That led to the jailing of a number of celebrity trial in which he was a main wit- senior staff from the paper including its ness. former editor Andy Coulson. Rebekah The journalist had given evidence in Brooks, who returned this month to run the drugs trial of Tulisa Contostavlos, a Murdoch’s British newspaper arm News former judge on the British version of the UK after a four-year hiatus following the “X Factor” TV talent show. hacking scandal, was acquitted of She had denied being involved in the involvement after a high-profile trial. supply of drugs to Mahmood while he She often cited Mahmood’s work dur- posed as a film producer, but her trial col- ing her defence as examples of good lapsed with the judge saying he suspect- investigative journalism. Mahmood car- ed the reporter had lied to the court. ried out the inquiry which led to the 2011 Nick Vamos, Deputy Head of Special conviction of three Pakistani cricketers Crime at Britain’s Crown Prosecution for taking bribes to fix incidents in a Service (CPS) said it was in the public match against England. PARIS: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls (R) and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker hold a joint press interest to charge Mahmood and another In his most famous exclusive in 2001, man, Alan Smith. he posed as an Arab sheikh to dupe conference at the Hotel de Matignon, yesterday in Paris, after a meeting on the migrant crisis, as thousands of people “This decision comes after it was Sophie, Countess of Wessex, who is mar- fleeing conflict and poverty continue to stream into the European Union. — AFP alleged that Mr Smith agreed with Mr ried to Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son Mahmood to change his statement to Prince Edward, into making indiscreet police as part of a trial in July 2014, and comments about other members of the Germany beefs up asylum rules that Mr Mahmood then misled the court,” royal family and senior politicians. Vamos said. Mahmood, who will appear News UK said it noted the decision to at London’s Westminster Magistrates prosecute Mahmood and would await as half a million cross Med court on Oct. 30, said he denied the the outcome of the criminal trial. “He charge. remains suspended from The Sun,” a Conservative bloc criticise Merkel’s approach “I will vigorously contest it at court,” he spokeswoman said. — Reuters BERLIN: Germany toughened rules yesterday for asy- ed by profit-hungry people traffickers. Highlighting been transferring them back to its border with lum seekers from the Balkans as Europe struggled to the dangers, the Italian coastguard said late Monday Hungary. cope with a record surge in migrants, with those cross- that it had coordinated the rescue Monday of 1,151 But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who ing the Mediterranean exceeding the half a million migrants in 11 separate operations off the coast of has come in for major criticism in recent months, said mark. Libya in north Africa. last week that he also intended to seal his country’s Berlin added Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro to a “Many are suffering from shock,” the Medecins Sans border with Croatia. list of so-called safe origin countries, which will result Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) charity, Orban said however that he plans first to consult in swifter deportations for asylum seekers from those whose ship Dignity 1 saved 373 people, said on Twitter UN chief Ban Ki-moon, whom he intends to meet in conflict-free states, in a bid to free up resources to deal with a photograph of a distressed six-year-old boy. New York this week. Hungary’s use of fences and its with claims from citizens of war-torn countries like The Libyan coastguard too reported that it rescued treatment of migrants-there were serious clashes on Syria. Germany’s open-door policy to Syrians has 346 migrants on Tuesday, almost 100 of them women September 16 between police and migrants-has been sparked clashes with eastern EU member states, in and children, found adrift on rubber boats off the sharply criticised, including by Ban. particular Hungary, which has adopted the opposite country’s coast. Reacting to those disturbances, Ban said he was strategy of sealing off its borders to migrants. The risks taken by migrants extended beyond the “shocked to see how these refugees and migrants It is also starting to affect Chancellor Angela sea to the road. A 20-year-old Iraqi was found dead were treated”. Hungary’s foreign minister rejected the Merkel’s popularity according to recent opinion polls, yesterday in a lorry near the French port of Calais, criticism by Ban and others as “shocking”. with members of her own conservative bloc among crushed by pallets as he tried to reach Britain. Hungary has also made it a crime punishable by up those criticising her approach. Hungary’s prime minis- to five years in prison to cross the border illegally, ter was preparing to defend his hard line at the UN Hardline Hungary while giving the army the right to patrol the border General Assembly, as the number of migrants arriving From Greece, many of the migrants then travel up and use rubber bullets. via the Mediterranean reached nearly 515,000, accord- through the western Balkans and into EU member Hungary is also building a barrier along its border ing to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). Some 54 per- Hungary, bound for northern Europe, particularly with Romania, and last week briefly put in place cent of the arrivals were men, women and children Sweden and Germany. barbed wire along its frontier with Slovenia, the first escaping the four-year civil war in Syria, also a hot top- Hungary, which has seen close to 300,000 migrants such measure inside the passport-free Schengen zone. ic among world leaders meeting in New York this cross its borders this year, on September 15 sealed its Orban, who opposes an EU scheme approved week. border with Serbia, the main entry point to the last week to share out some 160,000 migrants via At the same time, some 2,980 people have per- European Union. mandatory quotas, plans to use his speech at the ished or disappeared trying to make the perilous jour- The move has diverted the flow of migrants to UN to call for “global quotas”, the government said ney in often packed and unseaworthy vessels operat- Croatia, overwhelming authorities there who have yesterday. — AFP BRIGHTON: Britain’s Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn is pictured as he delivers a keynote speech on the third day of the annual Labour Party Former Congo VP, aides tried Conference in Brighton, south east England, yesterday.