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Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked US Muslim community reaches plea agreement

Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked US Muslim community reaches plea agreement
Muhammad Syed takes his seat before opening statements at the Bernalillo County Courthouse in Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 12, 2024. (The Albuquerque Journal via AP/File)
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Updated 30 August 2024
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Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked US Muslim community reaches plea agreement

Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked US Muslim community reaches plea agreement
  • Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked US Muslim community reaches plea agreement
Updated 30 August 2024
AP
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ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico: An Afghan refugee who was convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder in one of three fatal shootings that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim community in the US has reached a plea agreement that could resolve criminal charges stemming from the other two killings.
Muhammad Syed’s attorneys confirmed Thursday that the agreement will be considered by a state district judge during a hearing Tuesday. Details of the agreement have not been made public.
Syed already faces life in prison for killing 41-year-old Aftab Hussein in July 2022. He was set to stand trial in the second case beginning Tuesday, but those proceedings were canceled amid the discussion about changing his plea.
The three ambush-style killings happened over the course of several days, leaving authorities scrambling to determine if race or religion might have been behind the crimes. It was not long before the investigation shifted away from possible hate crimes to what prosecutors described to jurors during the first trial as the “willful and very deliberate” actions of another member of the Muslim community.
Prosecutors described Syed as having a violent history. His public defenders had argued that previous allegations of domestic violence never resulted in convictions.
The first trial uncovered little about motive, leaving victims’ families hoping that the subsequent trials might shed more light on why the men were targeted.
The other victims included Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who was gunned down Aug. 1, 2022, while taking his evening walk, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city’s south side.
With the conviction in the case of Aftab Hussein, Syed must serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

Topics: Afghan refugees Albuquerque Muslim community

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India’s Modi campaigns in Kashmir polls after latest soldier deaths

India’s Modi campaigns in Kashmir polls after latest soldier deaths
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP
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India’s Modi campaigns in Kashmir polls after latest soldier deaths

India’s Modi campaigns in Kashmir polls after latest soldier deaths
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Narendra Modi said “terrorism is on its last legs” in Kashmir while campaigning in the disputed territory on Saturday, a day after two soldiers were killed in a gunfight with suspected militants.
Indian-administered Kashmir has seen a rise in clashes between rebels and security forces ahead of the region’s first local assembly polls in a decade, which begin next week.
The Himalayan region in India has been without an elected local government since 2019, when Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government canceled the region’s semi-autonomy.
“The changes in the region in the last decade are nothing short of a dream,” Modi told thousands of supporters at the rally in Doda, part of Kashmir’s Hindu-majority southern region of Jammu.
“The stones that were picked up earlier to attack the police and the army are now being used to construct a new Jammu and Kashmir. This is a new era of progress, terrorism is on its last leg here,” he said.
Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claim that the government’s changes to the territory’s governance have brought a new era of peace to Kashmir and rapid economic growth.
The implementation of those changes in 2019 was accompanied by mass arrests and a months-long Internet and communications blackout to forestall protests.
Many Kashmiris are resentful of chafing restrictions on civil liberties that followed, and the BJP is only fielding candidates in a minority of seats concentrated in Hindu-majority areas.
Modi pledged at Saturday’s rally that his party would “build a secure and prosperous” Kashmir “that is free of terrorism and a haven for tourists.”
But this year’s local polls, which begin on Wednesday before results are announced next month, follow a spike in gunfights between security forces and rebels.
In the past two years, more than 50 soldiers were killed in clashes with rebels, mostly in the Jammu region.
The Indian army on Friday said that another two soldiers had died Friday during a firefight in the Kishtwar region, paying tribute to the “supreme sacrifice of the bravehearts” in a post on social media platform X.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947 and is claimed in full by both countries.
Rebels have fought Indian forces for decades, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
About 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in the region, battling a 35-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels since 1989.
India accuses Pakistan of backing the region’s militants and cross-border attacks inside its territory, claims Islamabad denies.
The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought several conflicts for control of the region since 1947.

Topics: India Election Indian PM Narendra Modi

Russian forces take over village in eastern Ukraine, TASS says

Russian forces take over village in eastern Ukraine, TASS says
Updated 7 min 9 sec ago
Reuters
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Russian forces take over village in eastern Ukraine, TASS says

Russian forces take over village in eastern Ukraine, TASS says
Updated 7 min 9 sec ago
Reuters

Russia said on Saturday it had recaptured another village in eastern Ukraine, where it has made a string of advances.
“The locality of Jelannoe Pervoe (Jelanne Perche in Ukrainian) was freed thanks to the active and decisive operations of the southern units,” the defense ministry said.
The village is located in the Pokrovsk district, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army.
Russian forces has advanced rapidly in the eastern region of Donetsk in recent weeks, putting pressure on a Ukrainian army that is short of both soldiers and weapons.

Topics: Russia Ukraine

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Uganda holds funeral for murdered Olympian Cheptegei

Uganda holds funeral for murdered Olympian Cheptegei
Updated 31 min 3 sec ago
AFP
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Uganda holds funeral for murdered Olympian Cheptegei

Uganda holds funeral for murdered Olympian Cheptegei
Updated 31 min 3 sec ago
AFP

BUKWO: Ugandans on Saturday paid tributes to Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after her partner set her on fire in Kenya, ahead of her funeral in her family village.
The 33-year-old, who debuted this summer in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, succumbed to severe burns last week after being attacked by Kenyan Dickson Ndiema Marangach.
The brutal assault shocked the East African region and prompted a global outpouring of tributes, with activists condemning another act of gender-based violence in Kenya.
On Saturday morning, residents, officials and relatives waited in the cold morning light to pay their respects in the village of Bukwo, some 380 kilometers (240 miles) northeast of Uganda’s capital Kampala.
“We are extremely saddened,” said her estranged husband Simon Ayeko, with whom she had two daughters.
“As a father it has been very difficult,” he told AFP, explaining he had not been able to break the news to their children.
“Slowly we will tell them the truth.”
The service to honor Cheptegei, a sergeant in the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces, started around 10:00 am (0700 GMT), with officials and relatives gathering at the local council office.
The athlete was a “heroine” Bessie Modest Ajilong, the local presidential representative, told AFP.
Cheptegei’s body would move from local council headquarters, organizers said, to a nearby sports stadium so that the public could pay their respects. She will then be formally laid to rest at around 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT).
Scores of athletes have traveled to the small village to attend the ceremonies.
“She greatly contributed to the promotion of athletics until her last days,” coach Alex Malinga, who trained her as a teenager, told AFP.
Local media say Cheptegei’s daughters witnessed the attack. Police said Marangach snuck into her home while she was at church with her children.
Her family say the couple had argued over ownership of the property where she lived with her sister Dorcas Cherop and daughters.
Her attacker later died from injuries sustained in the assault.
“I think at that time, their relationship had become sour,” Cheptegei’s brother-in-law, Moses Kipsiro, told AFP.
“I didn’t know then something was wrong,” said Kipsiro, who previously trained with Cheptegei and also hails from Bukwo.
The vicious assault has thrown yet another spotlight on what activists have called a femicide epidemic.
Kenya reported 725 femicide cases in 2022 alone, according to the latest UN figures.
A report the following year by Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics found 34 percent of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
At least two other athletes, Agnes Tirop and Damaris Mutua, have lost their lives in domestic violence incidents since 2021.

Topics: Uganda Kenya athelete crime Funeral

Comoros president ‘slightly injured’ in a knife attack, his office says

Comoros president ‘slightly injured’ in a knife attack, his office says
Updated 14 September 2024
AP
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Comoros president ‘slightly injured’ in a knife attack, his office says

Comoros president ‘slightly injured’ in a knife attack, his office says
  • President Azali Assoumani’s injuries were not serious and he had returned to his home
  • Assoumani was reelected as president of Comoros in January in a vote denounced by opposition parties as fraudulent
Updated 14 September 2024
AP

MORONI, Comoros: The president of the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros was “slightly injured” in a knife attack while attending the funeral of a religious leader on Friday, his office said.
President Azali Assoumani’s injuries were not serious and he had returned to his home, his office said in a statement. It said the attacker was arrested by security forces and is in their custody, but gave no details on the attacker’s identity or any more information on the circumstances of the attack.
Government minister Aboubacar Said Anli said Saturday that a civilian was also injured during the attack while attempting to protect the president.
Assoumani was reelected as president of Comoros in January in a vote denounced by opposition parties as fraudulent. At least one person died in unrest following the election. Assoumani, 65, is a former military leader who first came to power in Comoros in a coup in 1999.
The country, which is made up of an archipelago of islands off the east coast of Africa, has experienced more than a dozen coups or attempted coups since its independence from France in 1975.

Topics: comoros

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WHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox, sets up access scheme

WHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox, sets up access scheme
Updated 14 September 2024
Reuters
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WHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox, sets up access scheme

WHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox, sets up access scheme
  • WHO has faced criticism for moving too slowly on mpox vaccines
  • Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine has been used worldwide since 2022
Updated 14 September 2024
Reuters

LONDON: The World Health Organization and partners on Friday set up a scheme to help bring mpox vaccines, tests and treatments to the most vulnerable people in the world’s poorest countries, similar to efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, after earlier approving the first shot for the fast-spreading disease.
Both steps should make it easier for badly-hit African countries to access the vaccine, as a new type of the mpox virus spreads from the Democratic Republic of Congo to its neighbors. The WHO has declared the outbreak a global public health emergency.
“Alongside other public health interventions, vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics are powerful tools for bringing the mpox outbreaks in Africa under control,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He said COVID-19 had shown the need for international collaboration to make access fairer. During the pandemic, many low-income countries were left behind in the global scramble for medical resources, particularly vaccines.
European countries, the United States and Japan have already pledged to donate 3.6 million doses of the two main vaccines used against mpox, the WHO said on Friday. Vaccinations are due to start from Oct. 2 with the first tranches of donations.
The WHO urged more countries to donate shots that were originally developed and stockpiled by rich nations for smallpox, and said it would work with affected countries to get them to the people at highest risk.
Earlier on Friday, the WHO said it had approved Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine, known as Jynneos in the United States. It is also considering LC16, made by the Japanese manufacturer KM Biologics.
The approval, known as prequalification, means UN agencies can now buy the vaccines as well as help co-ordinate donations. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, co-funds vaccine purchases for low-income countries in this way and has up to $500 million to spend on mpox.
DELAYS
The WHO has faced criticism for moving too slowly on mpox vaccines.
Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine has been used worldwide since 2022, after US and European regulators backed it for use against a different strain of mpox that spread globally in 2022.
The WHO only formally began the process in August this year. Other factors, including the roughly $100 price tag for the vaccine, competing disease outbreaks, and sluggish processes in badly-hit countries like Congo have also played a role.
“The evidence we have now is... it is important we take advantage of it (the vaccine) to protect our population,” Dimie Ogoina, chair of the WHO’s mpox emergency committee, had said before the approval.
He however stressed that vaccines were not a “magic bullet” and other public health measures were also important.
‘OFF-LABEL’ USE IN CHILDREN
Bavarian Nordic said the vaccine was cleared for immunization against smallpox, mpox, and related orthopoxvirus in those who are 18 and older, but it could be used “off-label” for children and pregnant and immunocompromised people in outbreak conditions, where the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks. LC16 can already be given to children, according to the Japanese regulator, although it requires a special kind of needle.
Children are particularly vulnerable to mpox, a viral infection that typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions, as well as people with immune system conditions, such as HIV.

Topics: WHO World Health Organization (WHO) Mpox vaccine

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