Baghdad protests: Demonstrators try to storm US embassy following strikes - CNN

Two sources at the demonstration witnessed the attempt to break into the embassy, adding that security personnel fired tear gas to repel the attack. Video and photos on social media show demonstrators smashing the windows of the embassy and burning items outside its walls.

The pro-Iranian demonstrators were mostly from Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a coalition of predominantly Shiite militias. Three leaders of powerful militia groups were also seen at the protest, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who heads the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah, which was targeted by the American strikes on Sunday.

The US carried out five airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on facilities controlled by Kataib Hezbollah. At least 25 people were killed and 51 wounded in the strikes, the first significant US military response to Kataib Hezbollah's deadly rocket attacks on US-Iraqi targets in recent weeks.

US officials said the strikes were carried out with F-15 Strike Eagle fighter planes and targeted weapons storage facilities and command and control locations used by Kataib Hezbollah, among others. The Pentagon said the locations had been used "to plan and execute attacks" on joint US-Iraq forces.

The airstrikes and protests have created new tensions between allies Washington and Baghdad, with Iraqi police and soldiers among the killed and wounded. They come at a time of unrest as mass protests across Iraq challenge the nation's precarious government.

Baghdad warned Monday that its relations with the US were at risk following the strikes.

Questions have also been raised as to whether Iraqi forces allowed the protesters to reach the US embassy, a highly fortified building in a ares that is usually restricted.

The strikes and protests also come at a time of high tensions between the US and Iran, and have stoked fears of a new proxy war in the Middle East.

Washington has tightened the economic squeeze on Tehran this year through its "maximum pressure" campaign, while Iran has responded with what it calls for "maximum resistance," including reducing its compliance to the international nuclear deal.

The Trump administration pulled the US out of that deal in May 2018, sparking a campaign of provocation between the two nations.

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2019-12-31 12:14:00Z
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Baghdad protests: Demonstrators try to storm US embassy following strikes - CNN

Two sources at the demonstration witnessed the attempt to break into the embassy, adding that security personnel fired tear gas to repel the attack. Video and photos on social media show demonstrators smashing the windows of the embassy and burning items outside its walls.

The pro-Iranian demonstrators were mostly from Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a coalition of predominantly Shiite militias. Three leaders of powerful militia groups were also seen at the protest, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who heads the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah, which was targeted by the American strikes on Sunday.

The US carried out five airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on facilities controlled by Kataib Hezbollah. At least 25 people were killed and 51 wounded in the strikes, the first significant US military response to Kataib Hezbollah's deadly rocket attacks on US-Iraqi targets in recent weeks.

US officials said the strikes were carried out with F-15 Strike Eagle fighter planes and targeted weapons storage facilities and command and control locations used by Kataib Hezbollah, among others. The Pentagon said the locations had been used "to plan and execute attacks" on joint US-Iraq forces.

The airstrikes and protests have created new tensions between allies Washington and Baghdad, with Iraqi police and soldiers among the killed and wounded. They come at a time of unrest as mass protests across Iraq challenge the nation's precarious government.

Baghdad warned Monday that its relations with the US were at risk following the strikes.

Questions have also been raised as to whether Iraqi forces allowed the protesters to reach the US embassy, a highly fortified building in a ares that is usually restricted.

The strikes and protests also come at a time of high tensions between the US and Iran, and have stoked fears of a new proxy war in the Middle East.

Washington has tightened the economic squeeze on Tehran this year through its "maximum pressure" campaign, while Iran has responded with what it calls for "maximum resistance," including reducing its compliance to the international nuclear deal.

The Trump administration pulled the US out of that deal in May 2018, sparking a campaign of provocation between the two nations.

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2019-12-31 11:59:00Z
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Thousands Flee to Shore as Australia Fires Turn Skies Blood Red - The New York Times

SYDNEY, Australia — As the fire stalked toward the coastal town of Mallacoota, the daytime sky turned inky black, then blood red. Emergency sirens wailed, replaced later by the thunder of gas explosions. Thousands of residents fled their homes and huddled near the shore. There was nowhere else to go.

On the last day of the warmest decade on record in Australia, the country’s east coast was dotted on Tuesday with apocalyptic scenes like the ones in Mallacoota, a vacation destination between Sydney and Melbourne.

Australia is in the grip of a devastating fire season, with months of summer still to go, as record-breaking temperatures, strong winds and prolonged drought have ignited huge blazes across the country.

In Mallacoota, residents in boats shared footage of themselves on social media wearing masks and life vests as they waited in the eerie light. Others opted to stay and defend homes, likening burning trees to “exploding infernos” and describing the roar of the blazes.

In Batemans Bay, four hours north, residents sat on folding chairs along the beach, life rafts at the ready, as a fire encircled the town and burned homes. To the south, in Cobargo, a father and son died in a blaze as they tried to protect the family home, bringing the death toll to at least 11 in this season’s fires.

With several blazes burning out of control, thousands were stranded in evacuation centers in other towns along the coast as firefighters told people to stay put. Tens of thousands of people were without power, the Australian military was authorized to deploy aircraft and naval vessels, and the government requested firefighting help from Canada and the United States.

In Sydney, where heavy smoke from fires has obscured the sun many days this summer, officials rejected calls to cancel the city’s signature New Year’s Eve fireworks display after the Rural Fire Service in New South Wales approved the celebration.

Still, the service’s commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said on Tuesday that this fire season was one of the worst ever, with more than 900 homes destroyed in New South Wales and millions of acres burned. One blaze has reached the western part of Sydney.

The fires have been so fierce that they have created their own weather systems and forced volunteer firefighters to work around the clock. On Monday night, a volunteer firefighter died after a phenomenon called a fire tornado — turbulence caused by extreme rising heat — in New South Wales caused a 10-ton fire truck to roll over.

The firefighter, Samuel McPaul, 28, was due to become a father in May. He was the third volunteer firefighter to die this fire season; the other two were fathers of young children.

In Mallacoota, just over the border in the state of Victoria, residents had spent Monday night preparing to evacuate. As the fire approached, some gathered at a community center, while others climbed into boats in bodies of water.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said one man filming his escape on a boat.

Ida Dempsey of Melbourne, who spends Christmas every year in the area with her family, also took refuge on the water.

“We couldn’t see a thing. It was pitch black,” Ms. Dempsey said. “We had face masks; the smoke was very bad.”

She commended fire officials for keeping people calm. “If we didn’t have a plan, I would have panicked a bit more,” she said.

In Batemans Bay, said James Findlay, who grew up there, the fire came so quickly that there was no hope to save his family home.

“Everything’s gone,” he said.

His parents, Mr. Findlay said, were in shock.

“People have lost their homes, their farms, and people have lost their lives,” he said.

“If this isn’t some kind of a sign that more should be done, then I don’t know what is.”

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2019-12-31 09:42:00Z
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Crowd shouting 'down USA' attempts to storm US Embassy in Baghdad, report says - Fox News

Hundreds of Iraqis attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday after holding funerals for the 25 fighters from an Iran-backed Shiite militia killed in U.S. airstrikes earlier this week, the Associated Press reported.

Reporters for the AP described a chaotic scene on the ground and reported that the crowd shouted,  “Down, down USA!”

Security guards were seen retreating to the inside of the embassy as the protesters hurled water bottles and smashed security cameras outside the embassies, the report said.

The U.S. military carried out airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on Sunday — days after a U.S. defense contractor was killed in a rocket attack.

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Military jet fighters conducted "precision defensive strikes" on five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, Jonathan Hoffman, a spokesperson for the Pentagon told Fox News. Two defense officials added that Air Force F-15 jet fighters carried out the strikes.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the U.S. will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardize American lives.

Fox News'  Nicole Darrah and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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2019-12-31 09:24:58Z
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Carlos Ghosn: Ex-Nissan boss flees Japan for Lebanon - The - The Washington Post

Issei Kato Reuters Former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn in Tokyo on April 25, 2019. Ghosn said he had escaped “injustice” in Japan, where he faced accusations of financial misconduct, and is now in Lebanon.

TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn, the former boss of the Nissan-Renault car alliance, said on Tuesday he had left Japan where he was awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct and arrived in Lebanon.

It was not clear how Ghosn, who is of Lebanese descent and holds Lebanese, French and Brazilian citizenship, had departed Japan. The 65-year-old was released on bail in Tokyo in April but placed under close surveillance and ordered to surrender his passports.

“I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan’s legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold,” Ghosn said in a statement.

“I have not fled justice — I have escaped injustice and political persecution. I can now finally communicate freely with the media, and look forward to starting next week.”

One of Ghosn’s Japanese lawyers said they were still holding his Lebanese, French and Brazilian passports, as required by the terms of his bail, and called his actions “inexcusable.”

“We don’t know any more than has been reported,” Junichiro Hironaka told reporters, in remarks broadcast by NHK. “It was like a bolt from the blue. We are surprised and puzzled.”

Ghosn’s treatment since his arrest in November 2018 has thrown an unflattering spotlight on Japan’s justice system, and prompted concerns in boardrooms around the world. Sympathy was high among the general public in Lebanon, and its government had complained publicly about Ghosn’s humiliating treatment behind bars.

Ghosn, one of the world’s most successful and charismatic auto executives, was accused of financial misconduct and underreporting his income. But his initial 23-day detention was extended to 108 days as prosecutors rearrested him several times while he was still behind bars, a common tactic used in Japan to extract confessions and widely criticized as amounting to “hostage justice.”

[Former Nissan, Renault boss Carlos Ghosn rearrested on fresh charges in Japan]

He was released in March, then rearrested again in April just after announcing plans to hold a news conference, before finally being granted bail under strict conditions, including that he not speak to his wife. Writing in The Washington Post in April, Carole Ghosn said her husband had been kept in solitary confinement, with the lights on around the clock, and subjected to interrogation at all hours of the night and day without access to his lawyers.

The case prompted questions about whether a Japanese executive would have faced the same treatment, and why Ghosn and U.S. citizen Greg Kelly were the only Nissan board members arrested, when the company’s Japanese executives should also have known about Ghosn’s compensation arrangements.

Mark Lennihan

AP

Carlos Ghosn at the New York International Auto Show in April 2015.

Ghosn and his lawyers say the allegations were trumped up as part of a conspiracy among Nissan, government officials and prosecutors to oust Ghosn and block his plans to force through a closer merger between the Japanese automaker and its alliance partner, Renault.

Equally, though, there have been concerns raised about Ghosn’s management.

In dismissing Ghosn in 2018, Nissan said its investigations revealed misconduct ranging from understating his salary to transferring $5 million of company funds to an account in which he had an interest.

Renault, initially supportive of its former boss, announced in April after an internal investigation that it had found evidence of “questionable and concealed practices and violations of the group’s ethical principles.” At the time, Renault said it would halt Ghosn’s pension and reserved the right to bring action against him in the courts.

[Japanese court grants bail to former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn after nearly four months in jail]

Ghosn earned a reputation as one of the auto industry’s top executives after turning around the fortunes of Renault and Nissan and bringing the two companies together in a three-way alliance with Mitsubishi.

But his efforts to forge closer links between Renault and Nissan ran into opposition from within the Japanese company, and many experts say that may have been a factor in his downfall.

His reputation for streamlining Renault’s operations won him the nickname “Le Cost Killer,” while his success in turning Nissan around from near bankruptcy earned him the moniker “Mr. Fix It.” His efforts made him enormously popular in Japan, with blanket media coverage and even a manga comic produced about his life. However, his lavish lifestyle and relatively high pay were sources of controversy.

Inevitably, there was intense speculation about how Ghosn could have left the country without the authorities’ knowledge.

Japanese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Keisuke Suzuki visited Beirut earlier this month where he met with the Lebanese president and foreign minister.

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was still “looking into the matter to ascertain the status of affairs” and could not comment at the moment. A senior official told NHK that the ministry was not aware of Ghosn’s departure.

“Had we known about it prior to his departure, we would have reported that to the legal authorities,” the official was quoted as saying.

Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with Japan, and given public support for Ghosn there it is unlikely any attempt to extradite him would be successful.

Akiko Kashiwagi contributed to this report.

simon.denyer@washpost.com

Read more

Former Nissan, Renault boss Carlos Ghosn rearrested on fresh charges in Japan

Japanese court grants bail to former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn after nearly four months in jail

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2019-12-31 07:09:00Z
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Ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn flees Japan - CNN

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2019-12-31 06:44:08Z
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British woman, 19, could face prison after Cyprus court finds her guilty of lying about gang rape - Fox News

A 19-year-old British woman who had accused a dozen young Israelis of gang-raping her at a hotel in Cyprus is now facing up to a year in prison after a court found her guilty of lying about the entire ordeal.

The woman, who was convicted Monday on a charge of causing public mischief, could also face a $2,000 fine, according to the BBC. But she is now arguing that police in the island country coerced her into making a false confession — a claim they are pushing back against.

Her lawyers plan to appeal the verdict, telling the BBC that the court violated European human rights laws by basing their conviction in part on a retraction statement the woman gave while she had no attorney present.

A 19-year-old British woman, center, covers her face as she leaves from the Famagusta court after her trial, in Paralimni, Cyprus, on Monday. (AP)

POLICE INVESTIGATING CYPRUS SERIAL KILLER RECOVER THIRD SUITCASE CONTAINING HUMAN REMAINS

The legal saga began in July when the woman alleged that 12 young Israelis gang-raped her at a hotel in Ayia Napa, a resort town in Cyprus. Her mother told the BBC last month that her daughter was visiting the country for work and started suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following the alleged incident.

During the investigation, police in Cyprus arrested all of the men accused in the attack – but they later were released and allowed to return home.

Prosecutors reportedly told the court that 10 days after the woman made the gang-rape claims, she willingly wrote and signed a statement retracting them.

The judge presiding over the case said the woman initially falsely reported being raped because she was “embarrassed” that some of the men had used their phones to record her having sex, according to the BBC.

Yet her lawyers said the videos show her having consensual sex with one individual from the group while telling others who were trying to enter her room to leave, the station adds.

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The woman was arrested and spent around a month in prison prior to the start of the trial, before being released on bail.

She has not been allowed to leave the island since and her family spent Christmas there with her, the BBC reports. Her sentencing is scheduled for early January.

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2019-12-30 13:55:39Z
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