At least 26 people died overnight in police operations in the Philippines capital Manila, authorities said on Thursday, a second night of heavy bloodshed this week in an intensification of President Rodrigo Duterte&#39;s fierce war on drugs and crime.

The killings across Manila followed 32 deaths in police raids on Monday night in Bulacan province, which borders the capital. Together, they mark the deadliest period of a drugs-focused crackdown that has killed thousands of Filipinos, and caused international alarm, since Duterte took office over a year ago.

Colonel Erwin Margarejo, spokesman for Manila police, described the raids that started late Wednesday in Manila as &quot;one-time, big-time&quot; operations, the same term used by police in Bulacan, who said the victims died because they chose to put up a fight.

The term has been used by Philippines police to describe a coordinated anti-crime drive in crime-prone districts, usually, slums or low-income neighbourhoods, often with additional police deployed.

It was however not immediately clear what was behind the step-up in the number of coordinated police operations this week.

According to police reports, a total of 179 people were arrested in Manila and Bulacan. The reports said police launched 84 operations in the two regions, the majority of which were &quot;buy-bust&quot; stings, in which plain-clothes officers attempt to trap drug peddlers.

&quot;This is &#39;one-time, big-time&#39; operations, so it is not focused only on drugs, we are operating also against other street crimes, like robbery, but these people could also be under the influence of drugs,&quot; Margarejo said.

&quot;If they resisted violently, our police have to defend themselves.&quot;

Duterte unleashed his crackdown the day he took office on June 30 last year after a convincing win in an election in which he campaigned heavily on a promise to use deadly force to wipe out crime and drugs.

On Wednesday, he indicated the latest operations had his blessing.

Duterte said it was good that 32 criminals had been killed in Bulacan, then added: &quot;Let&#39;s kill another 32 every day. Maybe we can reduce what ails this country.&quot;

Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said there had been no instruction to change or increase the scale and scope of the anti-drugs campaign.

&quot;This is just part of our &#39;one-time, big-time&#39; operations against illegal drugs,&quot; he told Reuters.

Duterte also chided human rights groups on Wednesday for getting in the way of his anti-drugs campaign and said police should shoot them if they obstructed justice, a remark the New York-based Human Rights Watch said puts activists &quot;in grave danger&quot;.

Its deputy Asia director, Phelim Kine, described the comments as &quot;like painting a target on the backs of courageous people working to protect the rights and upholding the dignity of all Filipinos.&quot;

The exact number of people killed during the war on drugs is difficult to quantify, with no independent statistics available and police providing comprehensive data only for deaths during anti-drugs operations, where official accounts typically say suspects resisted arrest.

From the start of the drugs war to the end of July, police said over 3,400 people were killed in their operations. Police said about 2,100 deaths among some 13,500 murders over the same period were drugs-related, attributed to turf wars, informants being silenced, or vigilantes killing drug users.

A total of 65 policemen have been killed on the job during this time.

Critics maintain that members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) are executing suspects and say it is likely they have a hand in thousands of unsolved murders of drug users by mysterious vigilantes. The PNP and government reject that.

Although the violence has been criticised by much of the international community, Filipinos largely support the campaign and domestic opposition to it has been muted.

Several Senate hearings into allegations that Duterte operated a death squad when he was a city mayor and was now using the same approach on a national scale have been inconclusive, while an impeachment complaint filed earlier this year was dismissed by Congress.

National police chief Ronald dela Rosa told reporters there would be no let-up in the war on drugs.

&quot;This is unrelenting, we will continue to operate until the end,&quot; he said.

President Duterte also chided human rights groups for getting in the way of his anti-drugs campaign and said police should shoot them if they obstructed justice

At least 26 people died overnight in police operations in the Philippines capital Manila, authorities said on Thursday, a second night of heavy bloodshed this week in an intensification of President Rodrigo Duterte's fierce war on drugs and crime. The killings across Manila followed 32 deaths in police raids on Monday night in Bulacan province, which borders the capital. Together, they mark the deadliest period of a drugs-focused crackdown that has killed thousands of Filipinos, and caused international alarm, since Duterte took office over a year ago. Colonel Erwin Margarejo, spokesman for Manila police, described the raids that started late Wednesday in Manila as "one-time, big-time" operations, the same term used by police in Bulacan, who said the victims died because they chose to put up a fight. The term has been used by Philippines police to describe a coordinated anti-crime drive in crime-prone districts, usually, slums or low-income neighbourhoods, often with additional police deployed. It was however not immediately clear what was behind the step-up in the number of coordinated police operations this week. According to police reports, a total of 179 people were arrested in Manila and Bulacan. The reports said police launched 84 operations in the two regions, the majority of which were "buy-bust" stings, in which plain-clothes officers attempt to trap drug peddlers. "This is 'one-time, big-time' operations, so it is not focused only on drugs, we are operating also against other street crimes, like robbery, but these people could also be under the influence of drugs," Margarejo said. "If they resisted violently, our police have to defend themselves." Duterte unleashed his crackdown the day he took office on June 30 last year after a convincing win in an election in which he campaigned heavily on a promise to use deadly force to wipe out crime and drugs. On Wednesday, he indicated the latest operations had his blessing. Duterte said it was good that 32 criminals had been killed in Bulacan, then added: "Let's kill another 32 every day. Maybe we can reduce what ails this country." Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said there had been no instruction to change or increase the scale and scope of the anti-drugs campaign. "This is just part of our 'one-time, big-time' operations against illegal drugs," he told Reuters. Duterte also chided human rights groups on Wednesday for getting in the way of his anti-drugs campaign and said police should shoot them if they obstructed justice, a remark the New York-based Human Rights Watch said puts activists "in grave danger". Its deputy Asia director, Phelim Kine, described the comments as "like painting a target on the backs of courageous people working to protect the rights and upholding the dignity of all Filipinos." The exact number of people killed during the war on drugs is difficult to quantify, with no independent statistics available and police providing comprehensive data only for deaths during anti-drugs operations, where official accounts typically say suspects resisted arrest. From the start of the drugs war to the end of July, police said over 3,400 people were killed in their operations. Police said about 2,100 deaths among some 13,500 murders over the same period were drugs-related, attributed to turf wars, informants being silenced, or vigilantes killing drug users. A total of 65 policemen have been killed on the job during this time. Critics maintain that members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) are executing suspects and say it is likely they have a hand in thousands of unsolved murders of drug users by mysterious vigilantes. The PNP and government reject that. Although the violence has been criticised by much of the international community, Filipinos largely support the campaign and domestic opposition to it has been muted. Several Senate hearings into allegations that Duterte operated a death squad when he was a city mayor and was now using the same approach on a national scale have been inconclusive, while an impeachment complaint filed earlier this year was dismissed by Congress. National police chief Ronald dela Rosa told reporters there would be no let-up in the war on drugs. "This is unrelenting, we will continue to operate until the end," he said.

At least 58 killed as Philippines authorities declare war on drugs and crime

By Deepali Mittal

&#39;Haseena Parkar&#39; starring&nbsp;Shraddha Kapoor has been in the limelight ever since the first look of the film was released in February. On Monday, the actor shared the latest look of the film through a poster with the new name of the biopic on her social media accounts.&nbsp;

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Haseena Parkar is directed by Apoorva Lakhia and features Shraddha Kapoor, Siddhant Kapoor, and Ankit Bhatia. (Facebook)
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The movie is a biopic on Haseena Parkar -- who had a dubious claim to fame. She was the sister of underworld don Dawood&nbsp;Ibrahim&nbsp;who is wanted for the 1993 Mumbai blasts. Parkar was believed to manage Dawood&#39;s &quot;business interests&quot; in Mumbai since he is based in Pakistan to avoid arrest. &nbsp;

Parkar, who died in July 2014 due to a cardiac arrest, entered the world of crime when the Arun Gawli gang killed her husband, Ismail Parkar, in 1991.

The movie&#39;s name has been recently changed to &#39;Haseena Parkar&#39; as opposed to the earlier &#39;The Queen of Mumbai: Haseena&#39;. The release date has also been postponed, and the movie will hit the theaters on August 18.&nbsp;

That Shraddha is playing a tough-cookie can be gauged from her&nbsp;look in the posters of the film.&nbsp;A Hijab sporting Shraddha wears a no-make-up look. Her brother, Siddhant Kapoor, is playing Dawood Ibrahim, and Ankit Bhatia is playing her husband and love interest.&nbsp;

The film is being directed by Apoorva Lakhia and produced by Nahid Khan as a production of Swiss Entertainment.&nbsp;

Shraddha Kapoor will play Haseena Parkar, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's sister, in her upcoming film

By Deepali Mittal 'Haseena Parkar' starring Shraddha Kapoor has been in the limelight ever since the first look of the film was released in February. On Monday, the actor shared the latest look of the film through a poster with the new name of the biopic on her social media accounts. Haseena Parkar is directed by Apoorva Lakhia and features Shraddha Kapoor, Siddhant Kapoor, and Ankit Bhatia. (Facebook) × The movie is a biopic on Haseena Parkar -- who had a dubious claim to fame. She was the sister of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who is wanted for the 1993 Mumbai blasts. Parkar was believed to manage Dawood's "business interests" in Mumbai since he is based in Pakistan to avoid arrest. Parkar, who died in July 2014 due to a cardiac arrest, entered the world of crime when the Arun Gawli gang killed her husband, Ismail Parkar, in 1991. The movie's name has been recently changed to 'Haseena Parkar' as opposed to the earlier 'The Queen of Mumbai: Haseena'. The release date has also been postponed, and the movie will hit the theaters on August 18. That Shraddha is playing a tough-cookie can be gauged from her look in the posters of the film. A Hijab sporting Shraddha wears a no-make-up look. Her brother, Siddhant Kapoor, is playing Dawood Ibrahim, and Ankit Bhatia is playing her husband and love interest. The film is being directed by Apoorva Lakhia and produced by Nahid Khan as a production of Swiss Entertainment.

Haseena Parkar will now rule the cinemas, not just Mumbai

(This interview is a joint work of Sahil Maniktala and Ankit Tuteja.)

Terrorism is a menace that needs to be rooted out and in today&rsquo;s world, data analytics might be the first line of defence in the fight against terrorism. WION speaks to Hexagon Geospatial President Mladen Stojic at the recently-concluded Geospatial World Forum 2017, to get insights into how geospatial technology and big data are used to combat terrorism.

WION: Any terror attack has a planned cycle. It has certain trends, it has certain patterns. So our question to you is what is the role of GIS, and what is the role of geospatial technologies when it comes to identifying these trends. And once these trends are identified, can it actually predict terror?

Mladen Stojic: Absolutely. So, GIS and geospatial technologies are really at the core of understanding activities as they occur in real time. Everything has a location. So, when it comes to fighting crime and providing security solutions, it&rsquo;s imperative that crime analysts and intelligence agencies have an ability to understand, and look back at trends to understand what was or what occurred to model what is happening by getting real time data - whether it be through social media, whether it be through phone calls, whether it be through other inputs - and lastly, to model what should be or what can be. So that&rsquo;s when we start getting into analysis, particularly spatial analysis. So, we start looking at spatial trends, crime trends incidents as they come in, let&rsquo;s say, from computer-aided dispatch system and/or from police systems. All of these come together and location is core because everything that comes in has a location. And by understanding the location of activities, you can then start making smart decisions.

WION: Can you give us some examples of when geospatial technologies have actually helped in predicting terror?

Stojic: I can&rsquo;t mention specific examples because some of our customers are classifieds. They have our software solutions, but I can say this public information we have. Global organisations, police departments use our technologies ranging from let&rsquo;s say, computer-aided dispatch systems where call centres that receive incoming calls regarding an event or an incident occurring. They log those calls, they record an incident. Those incidents then get fed into, let&rsquo;s say dispatched to police officers in the field. And then that police officer goes to respond to an event occurring. That&rsquo;s very common. And once again, location is at the core and and at the centre of making all that possible because you have to know where you are in order to determine where to go and what needs to happen from there.

WION: So what are the areas of GIS applications in counterterrorism? Can you walk us through that?

Stojic: Some of the common applications involve let&rsquo;s say, crime and analysis. So we have many agencies that look at historical trends. They look at let&rsquo;s say, on a given 7-day week, when do crimes occur. Typically, they occur late in the evenings. Okay. Where do they occur. Is there some frequency in which they occur? What types of crime occur? All of these inputs basically are used as a foundation to better determine where to place police officers so that you can actually prevent crimes from happening. So that is where we start getting into predictive analytics where we get business intelligence from historical data so we c

an actually shape smart change and actually influence a positive outcome looking forward.

WION: India has seen its fair share of terror acts, fair share of terrorism and the Indian government has always maintained that Pakistan harbours terrorism, they are exporting terrorism. Have you worked with any Indian authority in dealing with the fight against terrorism?

Stojic: So most recently, Hexagon has been working on two Dial 100 projects in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. These are two very recent activities that Hexagon has been involved with - particularly around these dial centres. So when calls come in they can be logged, they can be organised and ultimately dispatched, meaning officers can be dispatched in the field.

We also work heavily in supporting the general mapping. So, a lot of our software applications are used to produce mapping data - data that can ultimately be used to help fight terrorism. And that is largely used by defence and intelligence agencies.

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<h5>India is on that cusp right now in its history of making decisions regarding data availability and data privacy,</h5>
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WION: You spoke about geospatial technology and crime analysis, tell us about some of the products that Hexagon is working on when it comes to identifying crimes, when it comes to analysing crimes. Tell us a little bit about that.

Stojic: One product that we just recently introduced is called Incident Analyser. It is an application that allows you to do two things. You can look at just data coming in from multiple sources, you can look at that data in relation to where those policers officers are, and you can start breaking down incidents in terms of trends. You can look at heat maps, you can look at different visuals, representations of crime data, of incident data, thereby allowing you to make more intelligent decisions on where to let&rsquo;s say, place police officers or security officials. Because if you know what happened and if you know what was, then you understand what is and what can be and what should be.

So, we are really focused, particularly with this new product Incident Analyser, in giving the crime analysts tools to not only understand what occurred, but ultimately influence what can be. So, that involves analysis, visualising the data in different ways, looking at even things like the response time - how long did it take from a phone call being made to a police office actually being deployed in field - in order to respond to a crime. And every police department&rsquo;s effort is to reduce that average response time so that officers can, in fact, be deployed much sooner and ultimately save lives and protect lives.

WION: Also, we believe Hexagon is focusing on smart city projects in India. What more can you tell us on that front?

Stojic: There is a lot of activity with regards to smart cities. Smart cities is a very broad topic. If you look at smart cities, you can focus on several things, at least things worth focused on - safe city. So that is what we look at - public safety and security. You could look at smart transportation. How to manage traffic. And that is where you start getting a sense of fusion with video surveillance, with traffic lights, road network management, infrastructure management, asset management, bridges, roads, pipes, utilities. Then you start looking at smart metre, utility networks, how is power used.

So, smart city is a very broad topic. We are involved in every aspect of that topic because we believe that the software is needed to map a city in three dimensions and then analyse pretty solutions to leverage that 3D data in order to build smart applications. &nbsp;

And we recently launched a new platform called smart map which is M.App. It delivers apps for smart cities so that citizens with e-governance and software can be engaged in a smart city because that is effectively the goal of a smart city - to support citizen engagement to improve the lives of citizens within that city.

WION: India is a very dynamic country, infrastructure is always being changed. There are new roads, new highways being constructed. From a data perspective, do you think that is a challenge or an opportunity?

Stojic: I think it is an opportunity. With a lot of change, you require a lot of data. With a lot of data, you then have the big data problem. You have so much data. How do you know what data to use for what particular application or use case. We see that as an opportunity because you know to use that data, that data has got to be managed. Hence, the cloud, where we have the ability to manage a lot of data and ultimately the ability to serve that data or at least, deliver that data through analytics to different users who have different needs with that data. We definitely see that as an opportunity, and a country like India is experiencing so much positive change, new data is always being collected. From the space, from the air, from the ground. All that data needs to come together. And we see that as an opportunity - not only the collective data, but to alsodeliver applications and solutions that use that data to support different solutions. 
&nbsp; 
WION: Big data is a catch-all term. From the perspective of its partnership with GIS, what can you tell us on that? Is that a bright future we are looking at? Do they both complement each other?

Stojic: Absolutely, I think big data is much bigger than GIS. When we talk about big data, it is let&rsquo;s say, satellites continuously flying over India and collecting new data. These data are huge. We are talking about petabytes, terabytes of content being collected. And on top of that, all the social media data, utility data - when you put it all together, that&rsquo;s really big data and analytics is really critical because with analytics, you have the ability to pull the necessary data needed in order to run processing capabilities and downstream information services. Big data, for us, is more than just GIS or geospatial. Anything that has to do with location, we see that as an opportunity.

WION: India has released the first draft of the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016. How do you think - if it gets passed - will impact India&rsquo;s national security? Should we be concerned?

Stojic: India is on that cusp right now in its history of making decisions regarding data availability, data privacy, how is data used. We look at data as an opportunity. And when you make decisions regarding the usage of data, particularly with privacy associated with it, you can err on the side of caution and have fear to direct decisions, or you look at opportunities. I am more of an optimist, I look at opportunities.

If we look at other countries around the world, open data standards have been deployed. Certainly, not all data is open. There certainly has to be some level of scrutiny and caution, but I think, moving towards society where data can be made available to the public to support citizen engagement will open up many more opportunities to bolster an economy, to have new companies, and to bolster a society where citizens become engaged in the use of that data, and experience and participate not only in the city, but also in growing that nation. And I think open data and using data is a very critical step towards that path.

(WION)

In this interview with WION, Hexagon Geospatial President Mladen Stojic gives insights into how technology is used to combat terrorism

(This interview is a joint work of Sahil Maniktala and Ankit Tuteja.) Terrorism is a menace that needs to be rooted out and in today’s world, data analytics might be the first line of defence in the fight against terrorism. WION speaks to Hexagon Geospatial President Mladen Stojic at the recently-concluded Geospatial World Forum 2017, to get insights into how geospatial technology and big data are used to combat terrorism. WION: Any terror attack has a planned cycle. It has certain trends, it has certain patterns. So our question to you is what is the role of GIS, and what is the role of geospatial technologies when it comes to identifying these trends. And once these trends are identified, can it actually predict terror? Mladen Stojic: Absolutely. So, GIS and geospatial technologies are really at the core of understanding activities as they occur in real time. Everything has a location. So, when it comes to fighting crime and providing security solutions, it’s imperative that crime analysts and intelligence agencies have an ability to understand, and look back at trends to understand what was or what occurred to model what is happening by getting real time data - whether it be through social media, whether it be through phone calls, whether it be through other inputs - and lastly, to model what should be or what can be. So that’s when we start getting into analysis, particularly spatial analysis. So, we start looking at spatial trends, crime trends incidents as they come in, let’s say, from computer-aided dispatch system and/or from police systems. All of these come together and location is core because everything that comes in has a location. And by understanding the location of activities, you can then start making smart decisions. WION: Can you give us some examples of when geospatial technologies have actually helped in predicting terror? Stojic: I can’t mention specific examples because some of our customers are classifieds. They have our software solutions, but I can say this public information we have. Global organisations, police departments use our technologies ranging from let’s say, computer-aided dispatch systems where call centres that receive incoming calls regarding an event or an incident occurring. They log those calls, they record an incident. Those incidents then get fed into, let’s say dispatched to police officers in the field. And then that police officer goes to respond to an event occurring. That’s very common. And once again, location is at the core and and at the centre of making all that possible because you have to know where you are in order to determine where to go and what needs to happen from there. WION: So what are the areas of GIS applications in counterterrorism? Can you walk us through that? Stojic: Some of the common applications involve let’s say, crime and analysis. So we have many agencies that look at historical trends. They look at let’s say, on a given 7-day week, when do crimes occur. Typically, they occur late in the evenings. Okay. Where do they occur. Is there some frequency in which they occur? What types of crime occur? All of these inputs basically are used as a foundation to better determine where to place police officers so that you can actually prevent crimes from happening. So that is where we start getting into predictive analytics where we get business intelligence from historical data so we c an actually shape smart change and actually influence a positive outcome looking forward. WION: India has seen its fair share of terror acts, fair share of terrorism and the Indian government has always maintained that Pakistan harbours terrorism, they are exporting terrorism. Have you worked with any Indian authority in dealing with the fight against terrorism? Stojic: So most recently, Hexagon has been working on two Dial 100 projects in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. These are two very recent activities that Hexagon has been involved with - particularly around these dial centres. So when calls come in they can be logged, they can be organised and ultimately dispatched, meaning officers can be dispatched in the field. We also work heavily in supporting the general mapping. So, a lot of our software applications are used to produce mapping data - data that can ultimately be used to help fight terrorism. And that is largely used by defence and intelligence agencies. India is on that cusp right now in its history of making decisions regarding data availability and data privacy, × WION: You spoke about geospatial technology and crime analysis, tell us about some of the products that Hexagon is working on when it comes to identifying crimes, when it comes to analysing crimes. Tell us a little bit about that. Stojic: One product that we just recently introduced is called Incident Analyser. It is an application that allows you to do two things. You can look at just data coming in from multiple sources, you can look at that data in relation to where those policers officers are, and you can start breaking down incidents in terms of trends. You can look at heat maps, you can look at different visuals, representations of crime data, of incident data, thereby allowing you to make more intelligent decisions on where to let’s say, place police officers or security officials. Because if you know what happened and if you know what was, then you understand what is and what can be and what should be. So, we are really focused, particularly with this new product Incident Analyser, in giving the crime analysts tools to not only understand what occurred, but ultimately influence what can be. So, that involves analysis, visualising the data in different ways, looking at even things like the response time - how long did it take from a phone call being made to a police office actually being deployed in field - in order to respond to a crime. And every police department’s effort is to reduce that average response time so that officers can, in fact, be deployed much sooner and ultimately save lives and protect lives. WION: Also, we believe Hexagon is focusing on smart city projects in India. What more can you tell us on that front? Stojic: There is a lot of activity with regards to smart cities. Smart cities is a very broad topic. If you look at smart cities, you can focus on several things, at least things worth focused on - safe city. So that is what we look at - public safety and security. You could look at smart transportation. How to manage traffic. And that is where you start getting a sense of fusion with video surveillance, with traffic lights, road network management, infrastructure management, asset management, bridges, roads, pipes, utilities. Then you start looking at smart metre, utility networks, how is power used. So, smart city is a very broad topic. We are involved in every aspect of that topic because we believe that the software is needed to map a city in three dimensions and then analyse pretty solutions to leverage that 3D data in order to build smart applications. And we recently launched a new platform called smart map which is M.App. It delivers apps for smart cities so that citizens with e-governance and software can be engaged in a smart city because that is effectively the goal of a smart city - to support citizen engagement to improve the lives of citizens within that city. WION: India is a very dynamic country, infrastructure is always being changed. There are new roads, new highways being constructed. From a data perspective, do you think that is a challenge or an opportunity? Stojic: I think it is an opportunity. With a lot of change, you require a lot of data. With a lot of data, you then have the big data problem. You have so much data. How do you know what data to use for what particular application or use case. We see that as an opportunity because you know to use that data, that data has got to be managed. Hence, the cloud, where we have the ability to manage a lot of data and ultimately the ability to serve that data or at least, deliver that data through analytics to different users who have different needs with that data. We definitely see that as an opportunity, and a country like India is experiencing so much positive change, new data is always being collected. From the space, from the air, from the ground. All that data needs to come together. And we see that as an opportunity - not only the collective data, but to alsodeliver applications and solutions that use that data to support different solutions. WION: Big data is a catch-all term. From the perspective of its partnership with GIS, what can you tell us on that? Is that a bright future we are looking at? Do they both complement each other? Stojic: Absolutely, I think big data is much bigger than GIS. When we talk about big data, it is let’s say, satellites continuously flying over India and collecting new data. These data are huge. We are talking about petabytes, terabytes of content being collected. And on top of that, all the social media data, utility data - when you put it all together, that’s really big data and analytics is really critical because with analytics, you have the ability to pull the necessary data needed in order to run processing capabilities and downstream information services. Big data, for us, is more than just GIS or geospatial. Anything that has to do with location, we see that as an opportunity. WION: India has released the first draft of the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016. How do you think - if it gets passed - will impact India’s national security? Should we be concerned? Stojic: India is on that cusp right now in its history of making decisions regarding data availability, data privacy, how is data used. We look at data as an opportunity. And when you make decisions regarding the usage of data, particularly with privacy associated with it, you can err on the side of caution and have fear to direct decisions, or you look at opportunities. I am more of an optimist, I look at opportunities. If we look at other countries around the world, open data standards have been deployed. Certainly, not all data is open. There certainly has to be some level of scrutiny and caution, but I think, moving towards society where data can be made available to the public to support citizen engagement will open up many more opportunities to bolster an economy, to have new companies, and to bolster a society where citizens become engaged in the use of that data, and experience and participate not only in the city, but also in growing that nation. And I think open data and using data is a very critical step towards that path. (WION)

Exclusive: How technology is used to predict and prevent terror attacks

India&#39;s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken into its custody three accused in the case of rape of a woman and her minor girl in northern India&#39;s Bulandshahr city last month. 
 
CBI sources refused to disclose the identity of the accused who were taken into custody by it but said they would be produced in the fast-track court of Bulandshahr on August 23. 
 
North India&#39;s Uttar Pradesh state police had arrested six persons, including the prime suspect, in connection with the rape of the woman and her 13-year-old daughter while they were travelling from Noida to Shahjahanpur on the intervening night of July 29-30. 
 
The case was transferred to CBI on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court. The agency had registered a case yesterday and sent a team of forensic experts and deputy inspector general-ranked officer to the crime scene. 
 
UP police, which received flak from the Allahabad High Court, had claimed to have solved the blind case within nine days of the incident with arrest of Salim Bawariya, the head of a gang from &nbsp;north-western state of Rajasthan. 
 
On the basis of his interrogation, two other gang members - Zubair and Sajid - were arrested by the Special Task Force of UP police. Later, three more accused - Naresh (25), Bablu (22) and Rais (28) - were arrested. 
 
(PTI)

The agency refused to disclose the identity of the accused but said they would be produced in a fast-track court on August 23

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken into its custody three accused in the case of rape of a woman and her minor girl in northern India's Bulandshahr city last month. CBI sources refused to disclose the identity of the accused who were taken into custody by it but said they would be produced in the fast-track court of Bulandshahr on August 23. North India's Uttar Pradesh state police had arrested six persons, including the prime suspect, in connection with the rape of the woman and her 13-year-old daughter while they were travelling from Noida to Shahjahanpur on the intervening night of July 29-30. The case was transferred to CBI on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court. The agency had registered a case yesterday and sent a team of forensic experts and deputy inspector general-ranked officer to the crime scene. UP police, which received flak from the Allahabad High Court, had claimed to have solved the blind case within nine days of the incident with arrest of Salim Bawariya, the head of a gang from north-western state of Rajasthan. On the basis of his interrogation, two other gang members - Zubair and Sajid - were arrested by the Special Task Force of UP police. Later, three more accused - Naresh (25), Bablu (22) and Rais (28) - were arrested. (PTI)

Bulandshahr gang rape case: India's investigative agency takes custody of three accused

The Cuban men&#39;s volleyball team will compete in the Rio Olympics despite the detention of six of its players in Finland over a suspected aggravated rape, said an official at the National Sports Institute (INDER), according to website Cubadebate and other state-run news outlets on Wednesday. 
 
The island nation will be sending 120 athletes to the games in Rio de Janeiro to compete in 18 disciplines, said Jos? Antonio Miranda, INDER director of high performance sports, the media outlets reported. 
 
&quot;After not qualifying in volleyball for 16 years, we had 18 athletes in our preselection and we are going to be there with 12 in the Olympic games,&quot; Miranda was quoted as saying. 
 
Police detained eight players earlier this month in the Finnish city of Tampere, where the Cuban team was playing in a World League tournament. The suspected rape occurred at the hotel where the team was staying. 
 
Two of the men were then released and are no longer suspects. The other six will remain in custody while the investigation continues. 
 
&quot;Preliminary information suggests that (these players) are linked to acts completely unrelated to the discipline, sense of integrity and respect that govern our sport,&quot; Cuba&#39;s Volleyball Federation said in a statement. 
 
Cuba performed better than any other Latin American country at the 2012 Olympic games, earning sixteenth place in the medals table. 
 
(Reuters)

Police detained 8 players in Tampere over suspected aggravated rape. Two were released, 6 are in custody while the investigation continues

The Cuban men's volleyball team will compete in the Rio Olympics despite the detention of six of its players in Finland over a suspected aggravated rape, said an official at the National Sports Institute (INDER), according to website Cubadebate and other state-run news outlets on Wednesday. The island nation will be sending 120 athletes to the games in Rio de Janeiro to compete in 18 disciplines, said Jos? Antonio Miranda, INDER director of high performance sports, the media outlets reported. "After not qualifying in volleyball for 16 years, we had 18 athletes in our preselection and we are going to be there with 12 in the Olympic games," Miranda was quoted as saying. Police detained eight players earlier this month in the Finnish city of Tampere, where the Cuban team was playing in a World League tournament. The suspected rape occurred at the hotel where the team was staying. Two of the men were then released and are no longer suspects. The other six will remain in custody while the investigation continues. "Preliminary information suggests that (these players) are linked to acts completely unrelated to the discipline, sense of integrity and respect that govern our sport," Cuba's Volleyball Federation said in a statement. Cuba performed better than any other Latin American country at the 2012 Olympic games, earning sixteenth place in the medals table. (Reuters)

Cuba's volleyball team to compete at Olympics despite rape probe

Security at Rio&#39;s Olympic Village was handed a further blow on Wednesday when Danish athletes revealed they have had items stolen while organisers issued a public apology to competitors who have fallen victim to crime. 
 
Denmark&#39;s chef de mission Morten Rodtwitt told broadcaster TV 2 that mobile phones, clothing and an iPad had gone missing. 
 
&quot;In connection with the many extra workers, cleaners and housekeepers who have been squeezed into the Olympic village because of our requirements and requests, we have been subjected to a series of thefts,&quot; he said, adding that he himself had his iPad stolen. 
 
&quot;It&#39;s everything from phones, iPads and clothes to something as trivial as bed sheets.&quot; 
 
Since July 18 the Danish delegation has lodged around 150 complaints over problems in its 36 apartments in the Olympic village. 
 
&quot;The buildings are simply not in order,&quot; Ulrik Wilbek, sports director of the Danish Handball Federation, told TV 2. 
 
The news follows the theft of a laptop and team shirts from the Australian delegation during a fire evacuation on Friday. 
 
Australia chef de mission Kitty Chiller said during the evacuation she had noticed three fire marshals apparently stealing the Australia team shirts. 
 
&quot;When I arrived, which was halfway through the evacuation, I saw three fire marshals -- I don&#39;t know who they were -- walking out with team shirts,&quot; she said. 
 
&quot;I thought maybe they have helped evacuate people and we&#39;ve given them a shirt. It doesn&#39;t seem to be what happened. 
 
&quot;We don&#39;t know how many team shirts were taken and, yes, that&#39;s concerning.&quot; 
 
After the fire, Chiller said Rio 2016 organizers had increased security throughout the Olympic village. 
 
Rio&#39;s crime rate has been one of the biggest concerns heading into the Olympics. 
 
China revealed on Friday members of its Olympic delegation had already fallen victim to theft. 
 
Mario Andrada, spokesman of Rio 2016, apologised to the tourists and athletes who have been victims. 
 
&quot;They are our guests in Brazil. We feel very sorry. I hope they understand that we are very sorry about this,&quot; he told China&#39;s Xinhua news agency. 
 
&quot;We will communicate with the security to make sure we find quickly an answer about why they were robbed, where they were robbed and by whom to see if something could be recovered.&quot; 
 
Rio Olympics overall security personnel is around 88,000 - the figure is more than double that used for the the London Olympics in 2012. 
 
&quot;Don&#39;t count money in the street. If you have a nice camera, put it into a bag and only use when you have to take pictures,&quot; advised Andrada. 
 
&quot;If you are alert, if you are looking around and paying attention, your chance of being a victim will be decreased. The bad guys usually look for people who are not paying attention.&quot; 
 
Chiller said the vast size of the Olympic Village, which houses thousands of athletes and support staff, theft was &quot;inevitable&quot;. 
 
(AFP)

Denmark's chef de mission Morten Rodtwitt told broadcaster TV 2 that mobile phones, clothing and an iPad had gone missing

Security at Rio's Olympic Village was handed a further blow on Wednesday when Danish athletes revealed they have had items stolen while organisers issued a public apology to competitors who have fallen victim to crime. Denmark's chef de mission Morten Rodtwitt told broadcaster TV 2 that mobile phones, clothing and an iPad had gone missing. "In connection with the many extra workers, cleaners and housekeepers who have been squeezed into the Olympic village because of our requirements and requests, we have been subjected to a series of thefts," he said, adding that he himself had his iPad stolen. "It's everything from phones, iPads and clothes to something as trivial as bed sheets." Since July 18 the Danish delegation has lodged around 150 complaints over problems in its 36 apartments in the Olympic village. "The buildings are simply not in order," Ulrik Wilbek, sports director of the Danish Handball Federation, told TV 2. The news follows the theft of a laptop and team shirts from the Australian delegation during a fire evacuation on Friday. Australia chef de mission Kitty Chiller said during the evacuation she had noticed three fire marshals apparently stealing the Australia team shirts. "When I arrived, which was halfway through the evacuation, I saw three fire marshals -- I don't know who they were -- walking out with team shirts," she said. "I thought maybe they have helped evacuate people and we've given them a shirt. It doesn't seem to be what happened. "We don't know how many team shirts were taken and, yes, that's concerning." After the fire, Chiller said Rio 2016 organizers had increased security throughout the Olympic village. Rio's crime rate has been one of the biggest concerns heading into the Olympics. China revealed on Friday members of its Olympic delegation had already fallen victim to theft. Mario Andrada, spokesman of Rio 2016, apologised to the tourists and athletes who have been victims. "They are our guests in Brazil. We feel very sorry. I hope they understand that we are very sorry about this," he told China's Xinhua news agency. "We will communicate with the security to make sure we find quickly an answer about why they were robbed, where they were robbed and by whom to see if something could be recovered." Rio Olympics overall security personnel is around 88,000 - the figure is more than double that used for the the London Olympics in 2012. "Don't count money in the street. If you have a nice camera, put it into a bag and only use when you have to take pictures," advised Andrada. "If you are alert, if you are looking around and paying attention, your chance of being a victim will be decreased. The bad guys usually look for people who are not paying attention." Chiller said the vast size of the Olympic Village, which houses thousands of athletes and support staff, theft was "inevitable". (AFP)

Olympics: Rio sorry as Village suffers new theft

Israeli lawmakers approved jailing children as young as 12 convicted of &quot;terrorist offences&quot; in the wake of repeated attacks by young Palestinians, parliament said today. 
 
&quot;The &#39;Youth Bill&#39; which will allow the authorities to imprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter, even if he or she is under the age of 14, passed its second and third readings Tuesday night,&quot; an English-language statement said. 
 
It added that the seriousness of attacks in recent months &quot;demands a more aggressive approach, including toward minors&quot;. 
 
The statement quoted Anat Berko, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#39;s right-wing Likud party and the bill&#39;s sponsor, as saying &quot;to those who are murdered with a knife in the heart, it does not matter if the child is 12 or 15&quot;. 
 
Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since October has killed at least 218 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count. 
 
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.&nbsp;Many of the assailants were young people, including teenagers. Other youths have been shot dead during protests and clashes with security forces.&nbsp;Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked gave the bill full backing when it came before a ministerial committee last year. 
 
&quot;Youths, such as Ahmed Manasra, who engage in terror and seek the death of Jewish civilians will not be shown mercy by the law,&quot; media quoted her as saying. 
 
Manasra, a 14-year-old Palestinian, was convicted in May of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October. He was 13 when he carried out the attack and is yet to be sentenced. 
 
Along with a 15-year-old cousin, he stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish settlement neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev in annexed east Jerusalem.&nbsp;The cousin was shot dead by security forces, while Manasra was hit by a car as they fled. 
 
Manasra, an east Jerusalem resident, was the youngest Palestinian to be convicted by an Israeli civilian court in the current round of violence.&nbsp;Israeli rights group B&#39;Tselem criticised the bill and Israel&#39;s treatment of Palestinian youths. 
 
&quot;Rather than sending them to prison, Israel would be better off sending them to school where they could grow up in dignity and freedom, not under occupation,&quot; it said in a statement today.&nbsp;&quot;Imprisoning such young minors denies them the chance of a better future.&quot; 
 
Military law, applied to Palestinian residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, already allows imprisonment of 12-year-olds. 
 
A 12-year-old Palestinian girl from the West Bank, convicted of attempted murder by a military court as part of a plea bargain and sentenced to four months, was released from prison in April. 
 
(AFP)

In the wake of repeated attacks by young Palestinians, 'Youth Bill' will allow a minor convicted of crimes like murder to be imprisoned

Israeli lawmakers approved jailing children as young as 12 convicted of "terrorist offences" in the wake of repeated attacks by young Palestinians, parliament said today. "The 'Youth Bill' which will allow the authorities to imprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter, even if he or she is under the age of 14, passed its second and third readings Tuesday night," an English-language statement said. It added that the seriousness of attacks in recent months "demands a more aggressive approach, including toward minors". The statement quoted Anat Berko, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and the bill's sponsor, as saying "to those who are murdered with a knife in the heart, it does not matter if the child is 12 or 15". Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since October has killed at least 218 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities. Many of the assailants were young people, including teenagers. Other youths have been shot dead during protests and clashes with security forces. Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked gave the bill full backing when it came before a ministerial committee last year. "Youths, such as Ahmed Manasra, who engage in terror and seek the death of Jewish civilians will not be shown mercy by the law," media quoted her as saying. Manasra, a 14-year-old Palestinian, was convicted in May of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October. He was 13 when he carried out the attack and is yet to be sentenced. Along with a 15-year-old cousin, he stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish settlement neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev in annexed east Jerusalem. The cousin was shot dead by security forces, while Manasra was hit by a car as they fled. Manasra, an east Jerusalem resident, was the youngest Palestinian to be convicted by an Israeli civilian court in the current round of violence. Israeli rights group B'Tselem criticised the bill and Israel's treatment of Palestinian youths. "Rather than sending them to prison, Israel would be better off sending them to school where they could grow up in dignity and freedom, not under occupation," it said in a statement today. "Imprisoning such young minors denies them the chance of a better future." Military law, applied to Palestinian residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, already allows imprisonment of 12-year-olds. A 12-year-old Palestinian girl from the West Bank, convicted of attempted murder by a military court as part of a plea bargain and sentenced to four months, was released from prison in April. (AFP)

Israel approves law jailing terrorists aged 12

Around six assailants sprayed teargas on Chinese tourists outside a hotel near Paris&#39;s Charles de Gaulle airport today and made off with their luggage, police and rescue services said. 
 
Two tourists and an interpreter were slightly injured and taken to the&nbsp;hospital, rescue workers said. The attack occurred around 8:00 am (0600 GMT) as the tourists were loading their luggage onto a tour bus, police told AFP. 
 
&quot;Several bags and personal effects were taken,&quot; a police official said, adding that the thieves fled the scene and &quot;several passengers were in shock&quot;. 
 
Rescue workers said there were 27 Chinese tourists on a tour run by an Italian company and that the coach driver was Italian. 
 
China has the world&#39;s second-largest economy, and its burgeoning and increasingly solvent middle class is travelling abroad in numbers greater than ever before. 
 
But in many countries, particularly France, their reputation for carrying large amounts of cash has made them a target for thieves. 
 
French authorities tightened security around Chinese tourist groups in 2013 after Beijing expressed concern about the increasing number of incidents. 
 
In September last year, a Chinese tourist guide was robbed of 25,000 Euros ($28,300) in cash and his new Rolex watch after he had prevented two of his group from being robbed themselves outside a hotel in a Paris suburb. 
 
(AFP)

Rescue workers said there were 27 Chinese tourists on a tour run by an Italian company and that the coach driver was Italian

Around six assailants sprayed teargas on Chinese tourists outside a hotel near Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport today and made off with their luggage, police and rescue services said. Two tourists and an interpreter were slightly injured and taken to the hospital, rescue workers said. The attack occurred around 8:00 am (0600 GMT) as the tourists were loading their luggage onto a tour bus, police told AFP. "Several bags and personal effects were taken," a police official said, adding that the thieves fled the scene and "several passengers were in shock". Rescue workers said there were 27 Chinese tourists on a tour run by an Italian company and that the coach driver was Italian. China has the world's second-largest economy, and its burgeoning and increasingly solvent middle class is travelling abroad in numbers greater than ever before. But in many countries, particularly France, their reputation for carrying large amounts of cash has made them a target for thieves. French authorities tightened security around Chinese tourist groups in 2013 after Beijing expressed concern about the increasing number of incidents. In September last year, a Chinese tourist guide was robbed of 25,000 Euros ($28,300) in cash and his new Rolex watch after he had prevented two of his group from being robbed themselves outside a hotel in a Paris suburb. (AFP)

Assailants spray teargas to rob Chinese tourists in Paris

Brazilian police said on Sunday they had rescued the kidnapped mother-in-law of British Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone unharmed after more than a month in captivity. 
 
Aparecida Schunck Flosi Palmeira -- the 67-year-old mother of Ecclestone&#39;s Brazilian wife Fabiana Flosi -- had been missing since she was kidnapped on June 22. 
 
Authorities said in a short statement she had been &quot;liberated&quot; and was &quot;unharmed,&quot; adding that they had arrested two suspects. 
 
Local Globo TV showed the woman hugging waiting relatives as she arrived at a Sao Paulo police station under police escort. 
 
A demand for a 168-million-Euro ($188 million) ransom, made to the family via e-mail, had not been paid, the O Estado de Sao Paulo daily reported. 
 
Police did not respond to AFP requests for information. 
 
Kidnappers posing as delivery men abducted her from her home in the Jardin Santa Helena area of southern Sao Paulo, neighbours told AFP last week. 
 
She is the mother of Ecclestone&#39;s 38-year-old Brazilian wife Fabiana Flosi, who met the 85-year-old billionaire while working for the Interlagos Grand Prix in 2009. 
 
The couple married in Switzerland and now live in London. 
 
Kidnappings were common in Brazil in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, but dropped with more intensive policing and the creation of a specialised anti-kidnapping department. 
 
Relatives of footballers were particularly targeted, including the mother of Brazilian international star Robinho in 2004. She was held for 41 days in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. 
 
(AFP)

Two suspects have been arrested, police said. A demand for a 168-million-Euro ransom had not been paid

Brazilian police said on Sunday they had rescued the kidnapped mother-in-law of British Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone unharmed after more than a month in captivity. Aparecida Schunck Flosi Palmeira -- the 67-year-old mother of Ecclestone's Brazilian wife Fabiana Flosi -- had been missing since she was kidnapped on June 22. Authorities said in a short statement she had been "liberated" and was "unharmed," adding that they had arrested two suspects. Local Globo TV showed the woman hugging waiting relatives as she arrived at a Sao Paulo police station under police escort. A demand for a 168-million-Euro ($188 million) ransom, made to the family via e-mail, had not been paid, the O Estado de Sao Paulo daily reported. Police did not respond to AFP requests for information. Kidnappers posing as delivery men abducted her from her home in the Jardin Santa Helena area of southern Sao Paulo, neighbours told AFP last week. She is the mother of Ecclestone's 38-year-old Brazilian wife Fabiana Flosi, who met the 85-year-old billionaire while working for the Interlagos Grand Prix in 2009. The couple married in Switzerland and now live in London. Kidnappings were common in Brazil in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, but dropped with more intensive policing and the creation of a specialised anti-kidnapping department. Relatives of footballers were particularly targeted, including the mother of Brazilian international star Robinho in 2004. She was held for 41 days in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. (AFP)

British Formula 1 boss Ecclestone's mother-in-law rescued after month-long captivity

British police said today there had been almost 6,200 hate crimes reported in the last month following the vote to leave the European Union in a referendum where immigration had been a key issue. In the four weeks from June 16, police forces across the country said 6,193 offences had been reported, with the most common crimes being harassment, assault and other violence such as verbal abuse or spitting. 
 
Britons voted on June 23 to exit the EU following bitter and deeply divisive campaigning in which the control of immigration was one of the main arguments of those who supported leaving the bloc. 
 
Since the result was declared, Muslims and Eastern Europeans say they have been particularly targeted. The latest figures showed there were 3001 offences in the first two weeks of July, down six per cent compared to the previous fortnight, but still 20 per cent higher than the same period last year.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;Following increases in hate crime seen after the EU referendum, police forces have been taking a robust approach to these crimes and we are pleased to see the numbers of incidents have begun to fall,&quot; said Mark Hamilton, the National Police Chiefs&#39; Council spokesman on hate crimes. &quot;Clearly any hate crime is unacceptable and these numbers are still far too high.&quot; 
 
Critics of the &quot;Leave&quot; campaign say its focus on immigration helped stoke xenophobia and racism, an accusation its leaders reject. A week before the vote, opposition Labour lawmaker Jo Cox, a strong supporter of remaining in the EU, was shot and stabbed to death in her constituency in northern England. 
 
(Reuters)

Since the result was declared, Muslims and Eastern Europeans say they have been particularly targeted

British police said today there had been almost 6,200 hate crimes reported in the last month following the vote to leave the European Union in a referendum where immigration had been a key issue. In the four weeks from June 16, police forces across the country said 6,193 offences had been reported, with the most common crimes being harassment, assault and other violence such as verbal abuse or spitting. Britons voted on June 23 to exit the EU following bitter and deeply divisive campaigning in which the control of immigration was one of the main arguments of those who supported leaving the bloc. Since the result was declared, Muslims and Eastern Europeans say they have been particularly targeted. The latest figures showed there were 3001 offences in the first two weeks of July, down six per cent compared to the previous fortnight, but still 20 per cent higher than the same period last year. "Following increases in hate crime seen after the EU referendum, police forces have been taking a robust approach to these crimes and we are pleased to see the numbers of incidents have begun to fall," said Mark Hamilton, the National Police Chiefs' Council spokesman on hate crimes. "Clearly any hate crime is unacceptable and these numbers are still far too high." Critics of the "Leave" campaign say its focus on immigration helped stoke xenophobia and racism, an accusation its leaders reject. A week before the vote, opposition Labour lawmaker Jo Cox, a strong supporter of remaining in the EU, was shot and stabbed to death in her constituency in northern England. (Reuters)

UK police report almost 6,200 hate crimes in month after Brexit vote

The parents of an American student who went missing in Rome only to be found dead in the Tiber River met with Pope Francis on Wednesday, as video evidence emerged of the last moments of his life. 
 
The Argentine expressed his &quot;profound emotion&quot; over the death of Beau Solomon, 19, who Italian police believe was killed during a late-night drunken skirmish with a homeless man, who pushed him into the river. 
 
The pontiff, who met Solomon&#39;s parents at the start of an audience with French pilgrims, assured them of his &quot;compassion and spiritual closeness through prayer&quot;, Vatican Spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a note. 
 
The teenager&#39;s body was found on Monday after he disappeared in the early hours of Friday following an evening out in the hip Trastevere district near the Tiber with fellow foreign students. 
 
Investigators believe Solomon, in Rome for a five-week summer course at the John Cabot University, was robbed before his death, forced to hand over his wallet and mobile phone. 
 
He is then thought to have chased after the thieves, following them to the river. 
 
It is there he apparently ran into and brawled with 40-year-old homeless Italian Massimo Galioto, who was arrested on Tuesday for manslaughter. 
 
After witnesses told police they had seen a man being thrown into the water following a drunken altercation, a grainy video emerged, filmed by the owner of a summer festival stall still open on the opposite bank, which showed Galioto and Solomon. 
 
And footage recovered from a security camera in the area captures the moment the Wisconsin youngster fell in the river. 
 
Solomon&#39;s bank card was used in the days he went missing 
 
Galioto&#39;s companion, with whom he shared a tent on the embankment, told journalists he had not meant to hurt the student. 
 
&quot;They began to argue. They were pushing each other. Massimo pushed him, the boy pushed back, and then he fell in,&quot; she said. 
 
The young sports fan, who reportedly survived a rare form of cancer as a child and hoped to enter politics after university, suffered a wound to the head and his shirt was bloodied. 
 
Police suspect he may have hit his head on a rock when he fell. 
 
Galioto was detained for questioning over the weekend with seven fellow homeless people from the area, but was initially released, before being arrested after he was implicated by the rest of the group. 
 
The Repubblica daily said prosecutor Marcello Monteleone was investigating whether Solomon had been a victim of a criminal gang specialised in robbing tourists before his death. 
 
His bank card was used in the days he was missing by someone who withdrew over 1,500 euros ($1,675) in Milan. 
 
The Repubblica also carried an interview it had done last year with Galioto, on being a homeless man in Rome, in which he described life in his tent with his companion and their mongrel dogs. 
 
The self-declared former fishmonger said his world fell apart when he caught his wife in bed with another man. 
 
He severed all ties with his family, including his now 17-year old son, and was making what money he could through street juggling, before the arrest warrant fell. 
 
(AFP)

Italian police believe the student was killed during a late-night drunken skirmish with a homeless man

The parents of an American student who went missing in Rome only to be found dead in the Tiber River met with Pope Francis on Wednesday, as video evidence emerged of the last moments of his life. The Argentine expressed his "profound emotion" over the death of Beau Solomon, 19, who Italian police believe was killed during a late-night drunken skirmish with a homeless man, who pushed him into the river. The pontiff, who met Solomon's parents at the start of an audience with French pilgrims, assured them of his "compassion and spiritual closeness through prayer", Vatican Spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a note. The teenager's body was found on Monday after he disappeared in the early hours of Friday following an evening out in the hip Trastevere district near the Tiber with fellow foreign students. Investigators believe Solomon, in Rome for a five-week summer course at the John Cabot University, was robbed before his death, forced to hand over his wallet and mobile phone. He is then thought to have chased after the thieves, following them to the river. It is there he apparently ran into and brawled with 40-year-old homeless Italian Massimo Galioto, who was arrested on Tuesday for manslaughter. After witnesses told police they had seen a man being thrown into the water following a drunken altercation, a grainy video emerged, filmed by the owner of a summer festival stall still open on the opposite bank, which showed Galioto and Solomon. And footage recovered from a security camera in the area captures the moment the Wisconsin youngster fell in the river. Solomon's bank card was used in the days he went missing Galioto's companion, with whom he shared a tent on the embankment, told journalists he had not meant to hurt the student. "They began to argue. They were pushing each other. Massimo pushed him, the boy pushed back, and then he fell in," she said. The young sports fan, who reportedly survived a rare form of cancer as a child and hoped to enter politics after university, suffered a wound to the head and his shirt was bloodied. Police suspect he may have hit his head on a rock when he fell. Galioto was detained for questioning over the weekend with seven fellow homeless people from the area, but was initially released, before being arrested after he was implicated by the rest of the group. The Repubblica daily said prosecutor Marcello Monteleone was investigating whether Solomon had been a victim of a criminal gang specialised in robbing tourists before his death. His bank card was used in the days he was missing by someone who withdrew over 1,500 euros ($1,675) in Milan. The Repubblica also carried an interview it had done last year with Galioto, on being a homeless man in Rome, in which he described life in his tent with his companion and their mongrel dogs. The self-declared former fishmonger said his world fell apart when he caught his wife in bed with another man. He severed all ties with his family, including his now 17-year old son, and was making what money he could through street juggling, before the arrest warrant fell. (AFP)

Pope meets parents of US student killed in Rome

Two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a New York City mosque by an attacker who shouted slurs at them, a rights group said on Monday, calling for police to investigate the incident as a bias crime. 
 
The attack early on Sunday was at least the third involving Muslims in the United States over the weekend. A law enforcement source said investigators had ruled out the incident as a bias crime. 
 
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said in a statement that a 16-year-old boy was attacked outside Brooklyn&#39;s Muslim Community Center as he took a break from prayers.&nbsp; 
 
A surveillance video released by CAIR showed a man punching, kicking and stomping the youth as he lay in the street. Another teenager on a bicycle was chased and attacked when he rode past the boy. 
 
CAIR said the man was reportedly heard shouting: &quot;You Muslims are the cause of all the problems of the world&quot; and calling the youths &quot;terrorists.&quot; 
 
The 16-year-old suffered a concussion, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye, and was taken to a hospital. The second teenager had a black eye, CAIR said. 
 
Afaf Nasher, the executive director of CAIR in New York, said the slurs warranted an investigation into a possible bias motive. 
 
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the 16-year-old suffered bruises to the head and was treated at a hospital. The second teenager refused medical attention. The spokesman gave his age as 17. 
 
The law enforcement source said the police hate crimes unit had rejected the incident as a bias crime. He said the two youths were harassing a 40-year-old woman in a car and her 37-year-old boyfriend assaulted them. 
 
The man has been identified and a search for him is underway, the source said. 
 
In Houston, on Sunday, a Muslim doctor headed for morning prayers at a mosque was shot in an attack by three men. The motive was unclear, but came a day after another Muslim man was beaten outside a Florida mosque. 
 
(Reuters)&nbsp;

The attack early on Sunday was at least the third involving Muslims in the United States over the weekend

Two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a New York City mosque by an attacker who shouted slurs at them, a rights group said on Monday, calling for police to investigate the incident as a bias crime. The attack early on Sunday was at least the third involving Muslims in the United States over the weekend. A law enforcement source said investigators had ruled out the incident as a bias crime. The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said in a statement that a 16-year-old boy was attacked outside Brooklyn's Muslim Community Center as he took a break from prayers. A surveillance video released by CAIR showed a man punching, kicking and stomping the youth as he lay in the street. Another teenager on a bicycle was chased and attacked when he rode past the boy. CAIR said the man was reportedly heard shouting: "You Muslims are the cause of all the problems of the world" and calling the youths "terrorists." The 16-year-old suffered a concussion, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye, and was taken to a hospital. The second teenager had a black eye, CAIR said. Afaf Nasher, the executive director of CAIR in New York, said the slurs warranted an investigation into a possible bias motive. A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the 16-year-old suffered bruises to the head and was treated at a hospital. The second teenager refused medical attention. The spokesman gave his age as 17. The law enforcement source said the police hate crimes unit had rejected the incident as a bias crime. He said the two youths were harassing a 40-year-old woman in a car and her 37-year-old boyfriend assaulted them. The man has been identified and a search for him is underway, the source said. In Houston, on Sunday, a Muslim doctor headed for morning prayers at a mosque was shot in an attack by three men. The motive was unclear, but came a day after another Muslim man was beaten outside a Florida mosque. (Reuters)

Two Muslim teens attacked outside mosque in New York

Philippine police have killed 10 people with suspected links to drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, authorities said Saturday, in a brutal start to his controversial war on crime. 
 
Duterte was sworn into office on Thursday after a landslide win built largely on a pledge to kill thousands of suspected criminals in a relentless law-and-order crackdown he said was needed to stop the Philippines becoming a narco-state. 
 
Police in Bulacan province neighbouring Manila said they launched an anti-drug trafficking blitz on Thursday, the day Duterte took office, that claimed nine lives. 
 
&quot;We are just following the marching orders of our new chief of the Philippine National Police,&quot; Bulacan police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Linel Solomon said. 
 
She said the nine died in seven encounters, insisting police were forced to kill them because the suspects fought back. 
 
Another drug suspect was also shot dead after he used a gun during a raid on his home in the central city of Dumaguete on Friday, local police desk officer Mark Tikling told AFP. 
 
With Duterte encouraging them, police had already killed dozens of suspected criminals between his election victory and being sworn into office. 
 
Duterte, who has been accused of links to vigilante death squads that killed more than 1,000 people during his nearly two decades as mayor of southern Davao city, insisted during his inauguration speech that he would not break the law during his war on crime. 
 
But in a series of speeches afterwards he urged communist rebels and ordinary citizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. 
He also promised to use his presidential powers to protect police who faced legal charges for mass killings. 
 
&quot;If in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty, then I will protect you,&quot; he said in a speech to install the country&#39;s new chief of police, Ronald Dela Rosa. 
 
Dela Rosa also warned on Friday that police officers linked to drug trafficking to surrender by Sunday or be killed. 
 
Spokesmen for the new president could not be contacted for comment on the new killings. 
 
Wilnor Papa, the local coordinator for human rights group Amnesty International, warned Duterte was inciting extrajudicial killings. 
 
&quot;When you have the highest ranking person, the president, saying this is the way he wants it to happen, you are emboldening the members of law enforcement to go beyond what the law requires,&quot; he told AFP. 
 
&quot;It is not sustainable, it will create more problems.&quot; 
 
Papa warned there would be an &quot;erosion of due process&quot;, with ordinary people using violence to solve disputes. 
 
In a sign of possible vigilante activity, a bullet-riddled body was found in a Manila slum on Friday with a sign on it that read: &quot;I am a Chinese drug lord&quot;. 
 
(AFP)

Duterte urged citizens to kill suspected drug addicts and promised to protect police from legal charges that may result from mass killings

Philippine police have killed 10 people with suspected links to drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, authorities said Saturday, in a brutal start to his controversial war on crime. Duterte was sworn into office on Thursday after a landslide win built largely on a pledge to kill thousands of suspected criminals in a relentless law-and-order crackdown he said was needed to stop the Philippines becoming a narco-state. Police in Bulacan province neighbouring Manila said they launched an anti-drug trafficking blitz on Thursday, the day Duterte took office, that claimed nine lives. "We are just following the marching orders of our new chief of the Philippine National Police," Bulacan police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Linel Solomon said. She said the nine died in seven encounters, insisting police were forced to kill them because the suspects fought back. Another drug suspect was also shot dead after he used a gun during a raid on his home in the central city of Dumaguete on Friday, local police desk officer Mark Tikling told AFP. With Duterte encouraging them, police had already killed dozens of suspected criminals between his election victory and being sworn into office. Duterte, who has been accused of links to vigilante death squads that killed more than 1,000 people during his nearly two decades as mayor of southern Davao city, insisted during his inauguration speech that he would not break the law during his war on crime. But in a series of speeches afterwards he urged communist rebels and ordinary citizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. He also promised to use his presidential powers to protect police who faced legal charges for mass killings. "If in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty, then I will protect you," he said in a speech to install the country's new chief of police, Ronald Dela Rosa. Dela Rosa also warned on Friday that police officers linked to drug trafficking to surrender by Sunday or be killed. Spokesmen for the new president could not be contacted for comment on the new killings. Wilnor Papa, the local coordinator for human rights group Amnesty International, warned Duterte was inciting extrajudicial killings. "When you have the highest ranking person, the president, saying this is the way he wants it to happen, you are emboldening the members of law enforcement to go beyond what the law requires," he told AFP. "It is not sustainable, it will create more problems." Papa warned there would be an "erosion of due process", with ordinary people using violence to solve disputes. In a sign of possible vigilante activity, a bullet-riddled body was found in a Manila slum on Friday with a sign on it that read: "I am a Chinese drug lord". (AFP)

Philippine police kill 10 with suspected drug links under new President

India&#39;s minister for women and children unveiled a draft of the country&#39;s first-ever comprehensive anti-human trafficking law, which would treat survivors as victims in need of assistance and protection rather than as criminals.

South Asia, with India at its centre, is the fastest-growing and second-largest region for human trafficking in the world, after East Asia, says the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime.

There are no accurate figures on the number of people trafficked within South Asia, but activists say thousands of them--&nbsp;mostly women and children--&nbsp;are trafficked within India as well as from its poorer neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh.

Many are sold into forced marriage or bonded labour to work in middle class homes as domestic servants, in small shops and hotels or confined to brothels where they are repeatedly raped.

Women&#39;s Minister Maneka Gandhi said the draft bill aims to unify existing anti-trafficking laws, prioritise survivors&#39; needs, and prevent victims such as those found in brothel raids from being arrested and jailed like traffickers.

&quot;The bill shows far more compassion and makes a very clear distinction between the trafficked and the trafficker, which is a nuance that should have been made 60 years ago,&quot; Gandhi said on Monday as she unveiled the draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016.

The draft legislation provides for special courts to expedite trafficking cases, more shelters and a rehabilitation fund to help victims rebuild their lives.

It also provides for anti-trafficking committees - at district, state and central levels - that will oversee prevention, protection and victim rehabilitation.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 5,466 human trafficking cases registered in 2014, an increase of 90 percent over the past five years, though activists say this is a gross underestimate.

Thousands of Indians &ndash; largely poor, rural women and children &ndash; are lured to big cities each year by traffickers who promise good jobs but sell them into domestic or sex work or to industries such as textile workshops.

In many cases, they are unpaid or held in debt bondage. Some go missing, and their families cannot trace them.

Gandhi said the draft bill would strengthen prosecutions and boost the number of convictions by setting up a special investigative agency to coordinate work between states and collect intelligence on trafficking offences.

There is also a provision for the recovery of fines from the convicted in the draft bill, officials said, and victims who are not paid wages while in servitude will be reimbursed.

The draft bill makes providing narcotic drugs or alcohol for the purpose of trafficking, and using chemical substances or hormones for purposes of exploitation offences.

Gandhi said her ministry would be accepting suggestions until June 30 on how to further improve the proposed bill.

It would then go to all the ministries for their feedback. The final bill could be brought before the Indian parliament by the end of the year, she added.

Problem of human trafficking has been on the rise in the South Asian countries. As economies continue to expand, the demand for labor in industries and sex tourism is at an all-time high.

India's minister for women and children unveiled a draft of the country's first-ever comprehensive anti-human trafficking law, which would treat survivors as victims in need of assistance and protection rather than as criminals. South Asia, with India at its centre, is the fastest-growing and second-largest region for human trafficking in the world, after East Asia, says the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime. There are no accurate figures on the number of people trafficked within South Asia, but activists say thousands of them-- mostly women and children-- are trafficked within India as well as from its poorer neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh. Many are sold into forced marriage or bonded labour to work in middle class homes as domestic servants, in small shops and hotels or confined to brothels where they are repeatedly raped. Women's Minister Maneka Gandhi said the draft bill aims to unify existing anti-trafficking laws, prioritise survivors' needs, and prevent victims such as those found in brothel raids from being arrested and jailed like traffickers. "The bill shows far more compassion and makes a very clear distinction between the trafficked and the trafficker, which is a nuance that should have been made 60 years ago," Gandhi said on Monday as she unveiled the draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016. The draft legislation provides for special courts to expedite trafficking cases, more shelters and a rehabilitation fund to help victims rebuild their lives. It also provides for anti-trafficking committees - at district, state and central levels - that will oversee prevention, protection and victim rehabilitation. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 5,466 human trafficking cases registered in 2014, an increase of 90 percent over the past five years, though activists say this is a gross underestimate. Thousands of Indians – largely poor, rural women and children – are lured to big cities each year by traffickers who promise good jobs but sell them into domestic or sex work or to industries such as textile workshops. In many cases, they are unpaid or held in debt bondage. Some go missing, and their families cannot trace them. Gandhi said the draft bill would strengthen prosecutions and boost the number of convictions by setting up a special investigative agency to coordinate work between states and collect intelligence on trafficking offences. There is also a provision for the recovery of fines from the convicted in the draft bill, officials said, and victims who are not paid wages while in servitude will be reimbursed. The draft bill makes providing narcotic drugs or alcohol for the purpose of trafficking, and using chemical substances or hormones for purposes of exploitation offences. Gandhi said her ministry would be accepting suggestions until June 30 on how to further improve the proposed bill. It would then go to all the ministries for their feedback. The final bill could be brought before the Indian parliament by the end of the year, she added.

India unveils first-ever comprehensive draft law on human trafficking

Rio de Janeiro police swarmed two slums on Sunday searching for suspects in the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old Brazilian girl who siad more than 30 men assaulted her, a case that shocked the nation set to host the Olympics in August. 
 
More than 70&nbsp;Officers&nbsp;&nbsp;used helicoptors,armored vehicles and dogs to enter the slums,&nbsp;but there was no&nbsp;word if the suspects had&nbsp;been captured in the operation.&nbsp; 
 
In the five days since&nbsp;a video of the rape was posted by an alleged perpetrator on Twitter and set&nbsp;off a wave of outrage, police have brought in five people for questioning and made no arrests.&nbsp; 
 
Police said there are indications the gang rape occured on May 21, but they could not confirm how&nbsp;many took part. 
 
Over the weekend, women and men&nbsp;marched in several cities to demand justice and&nbsp;decry sexism in Brazilian culture. A woman who sits on the Supreme Court lashed out at a pervasive macho culture that permits such&nbsp;barbaric acts. 
 
&quot;&nbsp;Each and every woman is a victim,&quot; Justice Carmen Lucia said in a written statement.&quot; Our bodies are tormented, our souls are trashed. That is what these criminals think and do, and they must be quickly held accountable.&quot; 
 
The case added to the concerns about security in Rio and the political breakdown in Brazil as the city and the country prepare for South America&#39;s first Olympics starting August 5. 
 
?rime has fallen in recent years, but&nbsp;there has been an increase in homicides in recent months as Rio&#39;s police department had its budget slashed during an economic downturn.&nbsp; 
 
The country&#39;s elected President, Dilma Rousseff, has been suspended on allegations she broke budget laws, and her impeachment trials in the Senate will likely play out as the&nbsp;Games are held.&nbsp; 
 
Brazil&#39;s worst economic crisis since the 1930s&nbsp; has compounded political chaos. 
 
In addition, an outbreak of the Zika virus has prompted health warnings and led top&nbsp;global health experts to advise the Games be postponed or moved. 
 
The reported&nbsp;rape came to light in&nbsp;a video of the nude, semi-conscious youth, with a few men brazenly insulting the girl, showing their faces and, one man heard saying:&quot; More than&nbsp; 30 impregnated her!&quot; The Twitter account where the video had been posted has been suspended. 
 
Both,&nbsp;Rousseff, the first woman to be elected President in&nbsp;Brazil and interim President Michel temer condemned the act.&nbsp; 
 
&#39;FEEL LIKE A PIECE OF TRASH&#39;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 
In an interview with Rio&#39;s O&nbsp;Globo newspaper, the alleged victim said she&nbsp;wanted&nbsp; to &nbsp;see justice done so that&nbsp;no other person would have to go through the brutal assault like the one she said she suffered. 
 
&quot; Today, I feel like a piece of trash, she told the newspaper.&quot; I hope that no other person ever feels this way.&quot; 
 
Late on Sunday, the police siad in an emailed statement tehy removed the original lead investigator fromt he case. 
 
That was in response to a formal request made by the alleged victim&#39;s lawyer, Eloisa Samy, to have investigator Alessandro Thiers taken off the case because she said he made the girl feel uncomfortable during questioning. 
 
Samy told TV Globo in an interview that Thiers asked the girl if she participated in group sex parties. 
 
Samy was not immidiately available to provide further details. 
 
&nbsp;

 
 
 
 
&nbsp;

Police brought in five people for questioning but no arrests made.

Rio de Janeiro police swarmed two slums on Sunday searching for suspects in the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old Brazilian girl who siad more than 30 men assaulted her, a case that shocked the nation set to host the Olympics in August. More than 70 Officers used helicoptors,armored vehicles and dogs to enter the slums, but there was no word if the suspects had been captured in the operation. In the five days since a video of the rape was posted by an alleged perpetrator on Twitter and set off a wave of outrage, police have brought in five people for questioning and made no arrests. Police said there are indications the gang rape occured on May 21, but they could not confirm how many took part. Over the weekend, women and men marched in several cities to demand justice and decry sexism in Brazilian culture. A woman who sits on the Supreme Court lashed out at a pervasive macho culture that permits such barbaric acts. " Each and every woman is a victim," Justice Carmen Lucia said in a written statement." Our bodies are tormented, our souls are trashed. That is what these criminals think and do, and they must be quickly held accountable." The case added to the concerns about security in Rio and the political breakdown in Brazil as the city and the country prepare for South America's first Olympics starting August 5. ?rime has fallen in recent years, but there has been an increase in homicides in recent months as Rio's police department had its budget slashed during an economic downturn. The country's elected President, Dilma Rousseff, has been suspended on allegations she broke budget laws, and her impeachment trials in the Senate will likely play out as the Games are held. Brazil's worst economic crisis since the 1930s has compounded political chaos. In addition, an outbreak of the Zika virus has prompted health warnings and led top global health experts to advise the Games be postponed or moved. The reported rape came to light in a video of the nude, semi-conscious youth, with a few men brazenly insulting the girl, showing their faces and, one man heard saying:" More than 30 impregnated her!" The Twitter account where the video had been posted has been suspended. Both, Rousseff, the first woman to be elected President in Brazil and interim President Michel temer condemned the act. 'FEEL LIKE A PIECE OF TRASH' In an interview with Rio's O Globo newspaper, the alleged victim said she wanted to see justice done so that no other person would have to go through the brutal assault like the one she said she suffered. " Today, I feel like a piece of trash, she told the newspaper." I hope that no other person ever feels this way." Late on Sunday, the police siad in an emailed statement tehy removed the original lead investigator fromt he case. That was in response to a formal request made by the alleged victim's lawyer, Eloisa Samy, to have investigator Alessandro Thiers taken off the case because she said he made the girl feel uncomfortable during questioning. Samy told TV Globo in an interview that Thiers asked the girl if she participated in group sex parties. Samy was not immidiately available to provide further details.

Rio de Janeiro police search slums for gang rape suspects

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