At least 10 killed in Afghan suicide bombing

At least 10 people were killed and 23 wounded on Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew up his car near the house of a pro-government militia commander in the province of Nangarhar, a provincial official said.

The car drew up in front of the house of the commander in the Nazian district of Nangarhar, in eastern Afghanistan, according to Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. It was unclear whether the militia leader, whose name was given only as Dehqan, was injured in the attack.

"The commander was leading fighting against Taliban and Daeah insurgents in Nazian district," Khogyani said. "The bomber was in front of his house and as soon as people from the village came together, he detonated himself."

The commander belonged to a volunteer pro-government militia movement known as Public Uprising.

A statement from the governor's office said 10 people had been killed, including three children, and another 23 wounded in the explosion.

Nangarhar province has been the main base for militants from Islamic State, generally known in Afghanistan as Daesh, where they have battled both government forces and the Taliban.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

(Anti-) Corruption experts? Who’s who at Cameron’s post-Panama Papers transparency summit

Prime Minister David Cameron’s anti-corruption summit will bring together a bevy of political leaders, officials from the financial world and sports representatives of FIFA and UEFA. RT takes a closer look at exactly who’s coming.
Cameron has pledged to use Thursday’s summit in London, organized before the Panama Papers leaks, to clinch an agreement committing world leaders to tackling corruption and ensuring greater

Muhammuda Buhari 
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, the self-described “people’s president,” will be among those in attendance. Since taking office last May, Buhari has embarked on a sweeping anti-corruption crusade. Critics, however, have slammed the campaign as politically motivated witch-hunt, accusing Buhari of using corruption as a pretext to weed out opposition politicians.

Despite having the highest paid public officials in the world and Africa’s biggest economy, oil-rich Nigeria is one of the largest beneficiaries of UK aid. Britain has committed to spending £860 million in foreign aid to the country.

The Mail Online reports that Buhari’s youngest daughter, 16-year-old Hanan, who attends a £26,000-a-year English school, was flown first-class from London to Nigeria in April in violation of Buhari’s own ban on premium travel for officials.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
Afghanistan’s President Ghani will also be among the politicians at the summit. Ghani took office in 2014 amid rampant allegations of fraud, pledging to eradicate corruption. The contested election was settled with a controversial power sharing agreement between Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, who assumed the newly created role of chief executive officer, similar to the position of prime minister.

Corruption across the country is widely believed to have worsened during his tenure. Transparency International (TI) downgraded Afghanistan to third from the bottom on in its corruption ranking in 2015.

The US, European Union and other foreign donors have all cited corruption as the greatest threat to rebuilding Afghanistan. Ghani announced last month the launch of a new anti-corruption body to coordinate work against graft throughout government agencies and push forward corruption cases which have stalled.

Christine Lagarde
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde is scheduled to be a panelist at the conference. Lagarde is embroiled in a scandal of her own and will stand trial in France for failing to prevent a multimillion euro fraud when she was French finance minister in 2008. Lagarde was cleared in 2014 of any direct role in a €403 million settlement paid by the government to tycoon Bernard Tapie, but will now face charges of negligence for failing to block the payment.

PM David Cameron
After coming under intense scrutiny in the wake of the Panama Papers when it emerged his late father Ian ran an offshore fund, British Prime Minister David Cameron admitted he too had owned shares in a Panama incorporated fund.

Between 1997 and 2010, he and his wife Samantha Cameron owned shares in Blairmore Investment Trust, a multimillion-pound offshore trust fund.

Man ‘shoots and kills’ brother in row over cheeseburger

  A Florida man has been charged with the murder of his brother following an alleged argument over a cheeseburger.

Benjamin Middendorf, 25, is accused of shooting and killing his older brother, Nicholas Middendorf, at their family home in the city of St Cloud, located around 30 miles south of Orlando.

The 28-year-old victim was shot in the chest with a 9mm handgun on May 5, police say, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to police, the argument began when the victim returned home with his mother and a third man following a night out.

Both brothers wanted to eat the cheeseburger, investigators say, with the verbal argument then escalating into a fight.

In a call to police, a distraught man explains: “I just shot my brother by accident.”

He continues: “We were in a fight and I grabbed the gun and I shot him. Oh God. I’m so sorry.”

A woman can be heard in the background of the call saying: “I hope you go to jail.”

St Cloud Police Department spokesperson Denise Roberts said: “This is an impulsive incident that happened. Maybe anger, rage. But it was definitely over a verbal dispute that sadly … was over a cheeseburger.

“It’s something that could have possibly been prevented, if he had held back those emotions.”

She added: “You know, it is Mother's Day weekend [in America] and in this particular case, the mum has lost two sons. One who is deceased, and then the other son who's now incarcerated and facing homicide charges.”

The suspect has appeared in court charged with first-degree premeditated murder.

The police department said in a statement: “On May 5, 2016 at approximately 2205 hours, the St. Cloud Police Department received a 911 phone call in reference to a shooting that occurred at 601 6th Street.  

“The investigation revealed, Benjamin A. Middendorf shot his brother on the chest with a 9mm handgun after a verbal dispute between them. Nicholas Middendorf was pronounced deceased on scene.  

“Middendorf was transported to the Osceola County Jail, where he is being held with no bond.”

Indian restaurant owner accused of killing customer with curry

Adebt ridden owner of an Indian restaurant killed a customer by serving him a meal that he knew contained potentially lethal peanut powder, a court heard.

Mohammed Zaman, 53, who was employing illegal workers in his takeaway, substituted almond powder with cheaper ground nut mix, which contained peanuts, as a way of cutting costs, a jury heard.

However he allegedly failed to warn customers and pub manager Paul Wilson, 38, who suffered a severe peanut allergy, died at his home after eating a curry made with the cheaper ingredient.

The waiter who took his order and the chef who prepared the meal were both in breach of immigration laws and working illegally.

Less than a month earlier, on January 3rd 2014, student Ruby Scott, 17, who suffered the same allergy, had already fallen seriously ill after suffering anaphylaxis - a severe allergic reaction - having eaten a chicken korma from another of Zaman's restaurants. She was saved after being rushed to hospital and injected with an epi-pen.

Her mother later rang the restaurant, The Jaipur in Easingwold, North Yorks, to ask whether it contained peanuts but she was assured it did not and had been safe for allergy sufferers.

Zaman failed to act, continuing to sell meals containing peanuts whilst assuring customers they were safe for nut-allergy sufferers, it is alleged.

Paul Wilson was killed by the curry he bought at The Indian Garden restaurant, also in Easingwold, on January 30th 2014, despite clearly stating "no nuts" - an order that was written on the lid of his takeaway meal, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Richard Wright, QC, told the court Zaman cut corners to save cash.

After Ruby fell ill trading standards investigators bought a meal from one of Zaman's restaurants and discovered potentially lethal doses of peanuts.

Even the day after Paul Wilson died Zaman was still selling meals containing peanuts that purported to be safe for allergy sufferers, the court was told.

Mr Wright said: "We say Paul Wilson did what he always did and ordered no nuts in clear and simple terms.

"There was no confusion here. Instead there was a business in which corners were being cut for the sake of profits, systems were non-existent and the customer was constantly exposed to danger.

"There is no doubt at all that the curry he ate, the lid of which bore the legend "no nuts," contained peanuts and that the peanuts caused his death by way of an allergic reaction to eating them.

"An analysis of the curry recovered from the plate in the kitchen of Paul Wilson's home also demonstrated that peanut had killed him. Less than three grammes of the sauce from the curry would have been sufficient to give rise to the level of peanut in the stomach."

Mr Wilson, who discovered he had a peanut allergy aged seven after eating a Marathon bar, was found by his house-mate slumped in the bathroom of his home in Helperby, North Yorks, with fresh blood around his nose and mouth.

Mr Wright said Zaman deliberately cut corners because he was desperately needed to save cash, running his businesses at their overdraft limits.

With debts mounting Zaman met with his Blackburn-based food supplier Fakir Chilwan in June 2013 and asked him to replace almond power with ground nut powder, which was half the price, the prosecution alleged.

Mr Wright said: "He was told by Mr Chilwan that ground nut was in fact about half the price of almond. On being told that Mr Zaman instructed Chilwan to stop sending him almond and instead to send him ground nut powder.

"Mr Chilwan noted the request but also stressed that the change in ingredient was significant. He told Mr Zaman that if he changed product he would have to change his menu to ensure that customers knew he was using peanut ingredients in the preparation of food."

Allegedly Zaman said he would but in fact ignored the warning.

Mr Wright added: "The prosecution say therefore that the defendant had been given clear warning by his supplier as early as June 2013 that the product he had ordered for use in his kitchens posed a serious risk to the health, and potentially life, of any customer who might have a nut allergy."

In what is thought to be the first prosecution of its kind, Zaman denies the manslaughter of Mr Wilson.

He also denied contravening EU food safety regulations on January 3, 2014 and selling food not of the substance demanded on January 23 and 30.

Zaman pleaded not guilty to falsely describing food on a menu on January 23 that year, and contravening food safety regulations on January 23 and 30 by placing food described as nut-free on the market that was unsafe for nut allergy sufferers.

The trial, expected to last three weeks, continues.

The Philippines’ likely new president has pledged to execute 100,000 people, and jokes about gang rape

The next president of the Philippines is likely to be a pugnacious lawyer-turned-politician who has pledged to execute 100,000 criminals and dump them into Manila Bay—and has confessed to killing several people himself.
Rodrigo Duterte, known as “the Punisher” and “Duterte Harry” among other nicknames, took such a commanding lead in the general election today (May 9) that one challenger, Grace Poe, has already conceded, even though an official count of the votes isn’t expected until June.

With 76% of precincts reporting unofficial results, he has a more than five million vote lead over his closest competitor, in a winner-take-all contest between five candidates.

As the mayor of Davao City, Duterte empowered “death squads” that are believed to have killed about 1,000 people without trial, according to Human Rights Watch, including hundreds of children. After a female missionary was gang-raped in the city jail while he was mayor, Duterte said it was a “waste” that the mayor could not have “been first,” because she was so beautiful.
Comedian John Oliver bestowed yet another nickname:

Duterte’s rise has taken place amid widespread frustration against president Benigno Aquino III, who belongs to the country’s dominant political dynasty. The country’s rapid economic growth hasn’t eliminated widespread corruption, inequality, or dangerous working conditions.
In the tense South China Sea, where China is feuding with its neighbors over contested territorial clais, Duterte has pledged to ride a jet ski to a disputed island. But he also said he’d “shut up” about his country’s long-standing claims there if China promises to build infrastructure in the Philippines while he is president.

Boris Johnson: Cameron can't cut immigration and stay in EU

Boris Johnson accused the prime minister of undermining trust in democracy by repeatedly promising to cut net immigration to the tens of thousands, despite it being impossible to achieve that as long as Britain is in the EU.

The former London mayor used a speech designed to make the “liberal, cosmopolitan” case for Brexit to launch an attack on David Cameron, who he said had failed to achieve any significant reforms in Brussels.

Johnson’s comments came just hours after the prime minister used his own speech to make the controversial claim that leaving the EU could increase the risk of war.

Johnson said: “It is deeply corrosive of popular trust in democracy that every year UK politicians tell the public that they can cut immigration to the tens of thousands – and then find that they miss their targets by hundreds of thousands.”

The Tory MP, one of the leading figures campaigning for an out vote in the EU referendum, cited a speech given by Cameron in 2013 at Bloomberg in which he said the EU needed “fundamental, far-reaching change”.

He highlighted the fact that Cameron said he was willing to campaign to leave if he failed to achieve fundamental reform and full-on treaty change.

“And that is frankly what the government should now be doing. If you look at what we were promised, and what we got, the government should logically be campaigning on our side today,” added Johnson, arguing that it was “bizarre” for the remain camp to claim that we were living in a reformed EU.

“There has been not a single change to EU competences, not a single change to the treaty, nothing on agriculture, nothing on the role of the court, nothing of any substance on borders – nothing remotely resembling the agenda for change that was promised in the 2013 Bloomberg speech.”

He joked that calling it a “reformed EU” might be an offence against the Trades Descriptions Act, “or rather the EU unfair commercial practices directive that of course replaced the Trades Descriptions Act in 2008”.

Johnson also directly took on Cameron’s earlier speech, saying: “I think it is very, very curious that the prime minister is now calling this referendum and warning us that world war three is about to break out unless we vote to remain. I think that is not the most powerful argument I’ve heard.”

Johnson then added: “If you want an example of EU policymaking on the hoof and EU pretensions to running defence policy that have caused real trouble, then look at what has happened in the Ukraine.’’

Cameron had said: “Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt? Is that a risk worth taking? I would never be so rash as to make that assumption.”

The prime minister added: “As I sit around that table with 27 other prime ministers and presidents, we remember that it is pretty extraordinary that countries are working together to solve disputes and problems. We should listen to the voices that say Europe had a violent history, we’ve managed to avoid that and so why put at risk the things that achieve that?”

Johnson’s remarks about Ukraine were pounced upon by sources at the Stronger In campaign, who said that the Conservative MP had aligned himself with Ukip leader Nigel Farage, Russian president Vladimir Putin and the leader of France’s National Front, Marine Le Pen.

Johnson rejected the claim that Brexit campaigners were anti-Europe. “I can read novels in French and I can sing the Ode to Joy in German and if they keep accusing me of being a Little Englander, I will,” said Johnson, before offering reporters a verse in the language.

“Both as editor of the Spectator and mayor of London I have promoted the teaching of modern European languages in our schools. I have dedicated much of my life to the study of the origins of our common – our common - European culture and civilisation in ancient Greece and Rome.”

He said it was “offensive, insulting, irrelevant and positively cretinous to be told – sometimes by people who can barely speak a foreign language – that I belong to a group of small-minded xenophobes”.

Instead, Johnson claimed that Brexit was the “great project of European liberalism”.

“And I am afraid that it is the European Union – for all the high ideals with which it began, that now represents the ancient regime.”

Asked if he would serve in a Cameron cabinet following such a vociferous attack on his Conservative colleague, Johnson swerved the question. He responded that he was a “humble ex-municipal toenail” who was now determined to serve only one cause – his desire for Britain to vote to leave the EU on 23 June.

Former British spy bosses say nation's exit from EU would pose threat

A British vote to leave the European Union next month could make the country more vulnerable to militant attacks and cause instability across the continent, two former senior British intelligence officials said.

John Sawers, who stepped down as head of the MI6 foreign intelligence service in 2014, and Jonathan Evans, who led the MI5 domestic spy agency until three years ago, warned that a British exit, or Brexit, could weaken intelligence-sharing between Britain and neighboring countries.

"Counterterrorism is a team game, and the EU is the best framework available — no country can succeed on its own," they said in an article for the Sunday Times newspaper.

National security has become a key area of contention between rival campaigners ahead of the June 23 vote, particularly in the light of Islamic State attacks in Paris and Brussels.

Those wanting Britain to leave the 28-member bloc say an exit would enable the nation to have greater control over its borders. Those backing membership, including Prime Minister David Cameron, say the EU helps to coordinate intelligence-sharing.

Sawers and Evans said modern intelligence work relied on the sharing of large data-sets and that Britain could be restricted in the information it received if it was no longer part of the bloc.

The two men, who do not often speak out on national matters, said their concerns about the vote went beyond Britain's security and that the removal of one of Europe's main military powers could unsettle the EU itself.

"If the UK were to withdraw from the EU, the destabilizing effect on the EU itself — already beset with economic difficulties, the migration crisis and a resurgent Russia — could be profound," they said.

"Those who are enemies of democracy would rejoice. In our judgment, there is a real risk that such a detribalization could, in time, lead to the fragmentation of the EU and the return of instability on the continent."

SOURCE: REUTERS

Nigeria spends $370m to combat piracy

Nigeria’s maritime industry in 2015 spent about $370m to combat piracy and provide security services, a report by Oceans beyond Piracy has revealed.

The amount is said to include costs spent by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency at $218m; and public-private partnership which operate security escorts at $7.29m, patrol vessels at $136.8m and secure zones at $8.2m.

The amount included $218m spent by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and $152.29m incurred by private security firms on security escorts ($7.29m), patrol vessels ($136.8m) and guarding the secure zones ($8.2m).

The OBP, an independent non-profit organisation, said, “While most regional navies serve a dual naval and coastguard functions, NIMASA is tasked with working alongside the Nigerian Navy to combat piracy.

“In fact, NIMASA’s 2015 budget of $726m was nearly double the Navy’s $379m. It is estimated that about 30 per cent of those funds are dedicated to maritime safety and security, implying around $218m spent on counter-piracy efforts.”

It said several small fleets of escort vessels run by private companies bolstered the Navy and NIMASA’s capacity. These escort vessels were said to provide security to ships in transit to and from Nigeria, between secure zones and ports, and to riverine ports such as Warri, Onne and Port Harcourt.

The vessels were said to provide a near-constant security presence, particularly around oil production infrastructure.

About 32 vessels were reportedly active in providing escorts, conducting patrols and protecting secure areas. The operational cost for these privately-run vessels was estimated at $136.8m for 2015.

In addition, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria have established secure zones near major ports.

The report said, “These are clearly demarcated areas where vessels can safely anchor to wait for a berth or conduct ship-to-ship cargo transfers.

“In Nigeria, a private company provides the physical ships, maintenance, and logistics, and performs all scheduling and billing of clients, while the armed forces supply the security personnel and weaponry. The estimated cost of operating these zones in 2015 has been put at $8.2m.”

SOURCE: PUNCH

NIGERIA: I’ve lost count of those I killed – Suspected cultist, kidnapper

A suspected cultist and kidnapper shocked newsmen on Friday when he confessed that he had lost count of the number of persons he had killed before his arrest by men of the Rivers State Police Command.

The suspect identified as Mitchel Tamuno, the leader of a cult group, was apprehended by the police in connection with the alleged kidnap on April 14 of a 14-old-old girl.

The girl (name withheld) was said to have been raped by her captors, including Mitchel before she eventually escaped from them.

Narrating why he was arrested by the police, Mitchel explained that he was only involved in killing of members of rival cult groups and did not shed “innocent blood”.

Mitchel, who insisted that he could no longer remember the number of persons he had killed, stated that he purchased the four AK 47 rifles used for operation by members of his cult group (Icelander) from one Ifeanyi in Aba, Abia State.

He added that the guns were used to kill some members of rival cult group (Greenlanders) so as to avenge the killing of  members of his own group.

Mitche, who promised to go back to his fish farming business if freed, said, “I have never shed innocent blood. We only kill people that come to kill us because we know the people we are fighting. The AK 47 rifles that were recovered belong to us as a group. I bought them from one Mr. Ifeanyi in Aba, Abia State. He sold the first two to us at N250,000 each and the second batch of two for N280,000 each.

“We only have four guns in our possession. We use the guns to fight our opponents. Our opponents are the Greenlanders and we fight for supremacy. I have never killed anybody and cut the head. Those who behead do so because they want the other group to feel the pain.

“When you come, you see your friend dead and without a head, you feel the pain. The fight is not on a daily basis. When we get information about them, we go after them and when they (rival cult group) get information about us, they come after us too. I have lost count of how many people I have killed because they all happened on different occasions.”

A member of the gang, who gets information for the kidnap gang, Godwin Pina, denied being a member of any cult group, but only gave information on how to kidnap the 14-year-old girl.

Pina, a 23-year-old labourer, disclosed that the girl that was kidnapped was her neighbour, adding that he became worried when he learnt from the gang members that their victim had escaped.

“They (gang members) called me that the girl had run away. One of my friends, who is at large (Bobo mi) informed me that the girl ran away. I regret my action. Francis, Bobomi and Collins also kidnapped Madam Lizzy.

“I am only involved in the kidnap of the girl, but I did not take part in raping her. Mitchel is our number one man in our group,” Pina added while appealing to the police for forgiveness.

Speaking on the arrested men, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ahmad Muhammad, said Pina was arrested while he went to the bank to withdraw the N50,000 their victim’s father paid into their (kidnappers) account.

Muhammad explained that Pina was able to give the police information that led to the arrest of Mitchel and other gang members, adding that four AK 47 rifles were recovered in the course of investigation.

He pointed out that the command would not relent in its determination to arrest criminals in the state and bring them to book, adding that the command in the month of April arrested 70 suspected kidnappers, cultists and armed robbers.

Muhammad added that 25 suspects were killed during a shootout with policemen while 11 AK 47 rifles and 17 assorted illicit firearms, 480 different calibres of ammunition were recovered from the suspected criminals.

On how Mitchel’s gang’s victim was able to escape, he said the girl escaped with a ladder she sighted within an uncompleted building where she was held hostage, recalling that four of the kidnappers, who raped her, were fast asleep when the victim escaped.

He said, “She (victim) then followed the sound of vehicles she was hearing from the road and got to the main road, saw a man driving a car, waved the car down and told the driver that she escaped from kidnappers’ den.

“She appealed to the driver of the car to help her call her father, who is a pastor in Bayelsa State. The Good Samaritan called the father of the victim and told him the development and the father directed the man to take her daughter to any nearby police station.

“Before then, the kidnappers had already put a call across to the father of their victim, demanding for ransom of N10m. They equally forwarded an account number detail to the victim’s father.

“One of the kidnapers (Godwin Pina) went to the bank immediately he noticed that the sum of N50,000 had been paid into the account for the upkeep of their victim, pending when the ransom demanded would be raised.

When the suspected was arrested, he then opened up that their boss, Mitchel, was staying in Okrika. Then the Anti-kidnapping unit moved to Abam in Okrika and arrested Mitchel and 10 other boys in his house.

“Two AK 47 rifles were recovered from him. On interrogation, he (Mitchel) said he had other two AK 47 rifles with one Iyalla Appolos somewhere in Azubokwe. We moved in there and Iyalla was arrested and the two AK 47 rifles were recovered from him,” Muhammad added.

SOURCE: PUNCH

NIGERIA: Boko Haram landmine kills seven IDPs in Yobe

A landmine reportedly planted by fleeing Boko Haram insurgents has killed seven returning internally displaced persons in Goniri town of Gujba Local Government Area, Yobe State.

The victims were said to have returned to their homes after Nigerian troops had recaptured the area.

The Yobe State Commissioner of Home Affairs, Information and Culture, Aji Bularafa, who confirmed the incident to Channels Television, said that the returnees were clearing their farmlands in preparation for the cropping season when they met their untimely death due to the explosive devices buried in the farmland, killing seven of them.

The state government said it was embarking on a sensitisation campaign to educate residents of Gujba, Gulani, Damaturu, Geidam and Yunusari Local Government Areas, which have been ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency, to be careful while farming.

According to Bularafa, the insurgents may have planted explosives across several farmlands in their previously controlled territory.

He said security reports suggested that the detonated explosive device might have been buried in the farmland by the terrorist group, since Boko Haram members had lived in the area over the years.

The commissioner urged residents to be cautious, not only on farmlands, but around their houses as similar explosive devices might have been buried by the fleeing insurgents during their stay in the areas.

SOURCE: PUNCH

Seven held over fatal Somerset caravan park shooting

Police investigating the fatal shooting of a man at a caravan park have now arrested seven people.

John Broadway was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and firearms offences, Avon and Somerset police said.

Broadway was arrested in Lichfield, Staffordshire, in connection with the inquiry into the murder of Wilfred Isaacs, 50. Two women who were at the same location have been held on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Isaacs was shot dead at Chubbards Cross caravan park, near Ilton in Ilminster, Somerset, on Thursday night in an incident that left another man in his 20s injured.

Broadway’s younger brother Charlie, 23, is already in police custody having been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, having handed himself in to police on Friday afternoon.

A total of seven people are now in custody in connection with the double shooting.

Charlie Broadway’s wife Donna, 26, was arrested on Saturday evening on suspicion of assisting an offender, having handed herself in to police.

Det Supt Andy Bevan, who is leading the investigation, said: “We’re working round-the-clock to ensure we carry out a thorough and professional investigation into this horrific crime.

“We’ll continue to leave no stone unturned in our quest to establish the full circumstances.

“A vast amount of work is still taking place at the scene of the shooting as we’re carrying out a large-scale forensic examination in conjunction with ballistic experts, as well as other searches.

“The site remains closed off and these significant inquiries are likely to last several days.

“We’re also continuing to look for the weapon used in this crime, which we believe to be a shotgun. If anyone knows where this weapon is they should call us immediately.”

A postmortem examination found that Isaacs died of a gunshot wound to the body.

Sadiq Khan’s Victory Over Zac Goldsmith In London Mayoral Election Shows The Tories Still Don’t Get BME Voters

After an election battle deemed racist and divisive, London has elected its first Muslim mayor. Sadiq Khan comfortably defeated Zac Goldsmith in what was otherwise a difficult night for Labour in Scottish, Welsh and English council elections.

Goldsmith’s campaign sent letters to voters that were apparently tailored to their ethnic group while white voters received more generic literature. In it, Goldsmith emphasised Khan’s supposed links to Muslim extremists and stressed the fact the Labour candidate shared a platform with Tooting imam Suliman Gani, who has been accused of supporting Islamic State.

This was despite the fact Gani had also attended an event with Goldsmith and backed Khan’s Conservative opponent in the General Election.

It was a campaign slammed by one senior London Tory as “outrageous” after the polls closed on Thursday night.

Andrew Boff, the former leader of the London Assembly’s Conservative group, said that he and many other Tories in the capital were “really troubled” by the Goldsmith tactic of painting Labour’s candidate as an extremist.

After the polls closed on Thursday, Boff told Newsnight that he had told his colleague that it was “a mistake” to attack Khan with such allegations as it undermined the party’s hard work in appealing to the Muslim community.

“I don’t think it was dog whistle, because you can’t hear a dog whistle. Everybody could hear this,” he said.

“It was effectively saying that people of conservative religious views are not to be trusted and you shouldn’t share a platform with them and that’s outrageous.”

“I was really troubled by one particular aspect [of the campaign] and that’s when he started equating people with conservative religious views with sympathising with terrorism. That sent a message out to many of the communities in London that’s very difficult to justify,” Boff added.

Boff’s views are shared by many London Tory activists contacted by The Huffington Post UK, who fear that Downing Street and Conservative Party HQ’s strategy has set them back years in the capital.

According to one expert, a campaign like this might have succeeded in London just eight years ago, but shifting demographics, including the influx of younger, more liberal people and the decline in the conservative white vote, have made the city much less receptive to it.

“London is not likely to respond positively to forms of politics that look xenophobic and racist,” Matthew Goodwin, a professor of politics at The University of Kent and expert in Britain’s radical right, tells HuffPost UK. He says the demographic changes in the capital were a key reason the Goldsmith campaign style had not worked.

“In 2004 and 2008, there was still an opportunity for the Conservatives to mobilise opposition to a Labour movement and mobilise a whiter vote, particular in the outer boroughs of London - areas where there was less diversity and where there were more socially conservative voters,” Goodwin says.

“I would argue that, fast forward almost 10 years, that those areas in turn have become less receptive to that style of politics. They’ve become more diverse, some groups have moved in and some have moved out and other groups have moved in.

“As a consequence, I just don’t think the same amount of electoral potential was there for the Conservative Party that was there in the earlier years,” Goodwin adds.

London may have a reputation as more left wing and socially liberal than the rest of the country, but white voters from poorer backgrounds are just as drawn to anti-immigration rhetoric as anywhere else, Goodwin says.

But many of these voters have moved from outer London to places like Essex, meaning the arrival of people from ethnic minorities in the capital has further diluted the political clout of the white working class people, he adds.

“We know white working class people in London who haven’t got a degree are just as likely to vote for Ukip as white working class people in other parts of the country,” Goodwin says. “The issue is those voters have become less influential, less decisive as the electorate has become ethnically and culturally diverse.”

Shazia Awan, a former Tory parliamentary candidate who recently came out against the party, accusing it of racism, tells HuffPost UK that she found the campaign was worse because it happened under David Cameron’s leadership, who sought move the Tories away from Theresa May’s famous description: “The nasty party”.

Brazil meat packer JBS denies making undeclared payments for Rousseff campaign

The report did not say how much money JBS allegedly paid to Focal, but said the payment was not declared to electoral authorities.

Moura's accusations come as part of a massive probe into graft at state-run oil company Petrobras, which has ensnared dozens of politicians and CEOs of top construction firms who prosecutors say paid billions in bribes for bloated contracts.

JBS said in an emailed statement it had already "audited all its archives from 2012 to the present" and found no payment to or receipt from Focal.

The company said all its campaign donations were legal and declared to electoral authorities.

Rousseff's office did not return calls and emails seeking comment. At Focal's Sao Paulo office, the phone rang unanswered and an email request for comment bounced back.

The beleaguered Rousseff is expected to be suspended from office within days, as the Senate is expected to vote to continue impeachment proceedings against her related to separate accusations of illegal budgetary maneuvering.

Under Brazil's constitution, Rousseff must be suspended for up to six months while the Senate holds a trial on the matter.

SOURCE: REUTERS

Factions trade blame after Gaza children burn to death

Palestinian political factions have traded accusations of blame over three siblings who were burned alive after their home was set ablaze by candles the family was using due to the ongoing electricity crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip. 

Officials in the Gaza-based Hamas movement and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority have traded barbs over the deaths, with each accusing the other of bearing the responsibility.

More than 600 Palestinians came out on Saturday for the funeral of the three children, whose home was engulfed in flames a day earlier in the al-Shati refugee camp in the north of the coastal enclave.

With leaders of the Hamas political organisation and local armed factions in attendance, the mourners decried the deaths of Rahaf, Yousra and Nasser al-Hendi, who were between one and four years old.

Mohammed al-Hendi, the 30-year-old father of the children, recalled his last day with his children.

"We were at the beach and came home to find there was no electricity again," he told Al Jazeera at the funeral.

"They were sleeping, and I went out to bring dinner. When I came home, they told me my children were burned alive."

Dozens of relatives and neighbours came to the Hendi family's charred home in al-Shati after the funeral to express their condolences.

Standing in the blackened remains of the half-collapsed home, their grandmother Umm Fadi sobbed heavily as she recollected the last time she saw the late children at her nearby home a day before they died.

"They were so happy because we bought them clothes for Ramadan, and I cooked for them," she told Al Jazeera.

"Then they were burned to death in those clothes."

'Tragedy'

With the assistance of Egypt, Israel has imposed a tight siege on Gaza since Hamas took control of the region in 2007. The blockade severely restricts residents' access to electricity, fuel, medicine, food and humanitarian goods.

Since late 2009, Israel has launched three major military offensives in Gaza, leaving much of the region in ruins.

"The whole world is aware of the suffering of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is the one who is responsible for this," said Hamas member Ehab al-Badrasawi in an interview with Al Jazeera at the Hendi family home.

Many Gaza residents blame the Fatah-led PA for the Blue Tax, a tariff which significantly increased the price of fuel that makes operations possible for Gaza's sole power plant. In April, the PA announced a summer-long exemption from the tax.

Despite grants from the Qatari government, internal Palestinian political divisions and Israel's ongoing siege of the strip have rendered any solution to the electricity crisis unlikely.

PA 'complicity'

In March, PA President Mahmoud Abbas spiked a proposal to build additional electricity lines to support Gaza, where electricity outages have reached up to 18 to 20 hours a day in some districts.

Alluding to Israeli air strikes in Gaza in recent days, Hamas senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday that the PA is complicit in the electricity crisis due to the latter's cooperation with Israel.

"The enemy's planes burn the land and the homes, and the crippling siege and its accomplices burn our children… and the lights of our future," Haniyeh said.

"Who has been taking $70m a month in taxes from Gaza? Who has been collecting fuel taxes? Who refused to enlarge the power supply from Egypt to the Gaza Strip and refused to build a pipeline to provide Gaza's power station with gas to increase its capacity?"

President Abbas telephoned the grieving family on Saturday to express his condolences, and the PA has offered to rebuild the Hendi family's home, according to local media reports.

In a statement released on Saturday, PA spokesperson Yousef Mahmoud decried Hamas for "false accusations", insisting that the deaths were "a tragedy for the whole Palestinian people".

The PA's press office did not respond to Al Jazeera's requests to comment further.

'Rage and anger'

Talal Abu Zareefa, a representative of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's political bureau, called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its siege of the strip and demanded that Palestinian factions unite to solve Gaza's many humanitarian crises.

"The world should apply the necessary pressure on the Israeli occupation to lift the siege of Gaza and let the Palestinian people live like any other nation in the world," he told Al Jazeera at the Hendi home.

Mukhaimer Abu Saada, a political analyst and professor at Gaza's Al Azhar University, explained that the death of the tragic incident highlights the ongoing political divides between Hamas and the PA, but it is "not a new type of incident" in Gaza.

"The mood among Palestinians in Gaza is rage and anger at both the Hamas movement and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah," he told Al Jazeera.

"But Palestinians are also very angry at Hamas because they have been here nine years without being able to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians here in their daily lives," Abu Saada said.

"The house is being rebuilt, but there is no solution for the two million Palestinians in Gaza in the foreseeable future."

Back in al-Shati, grieving father Mohammed al-Hendi said: "The world should come to Gaza and see how we are living. Look at what is happening to the people of Gaza; see our situation here."

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA

Gunmen clad in Afghan military uniforms kill two NATO troops

Two people dressed in Afghan military uniforms killed two NATO service members on Saturday, according to the NATO-led mission there.

The incident occurred in southern Afghanistan.
The service members died after the pair opened fire on a compound.
Forces of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission returned fire and killed the shooters.

The killed NATO troops were Romanian. That country's president, Klaus Iohannis, issued a statement of condolence on his Facebook page. Another Romanian soldier was wounded.

CNN is trying to confirm reports that the Taliban claimed responsibility.
The attackers wore Afghan National Defense and Security Forces uniforms.
Afghan and NATO officials are conducting an investigation into the incident.

SOURCE: CNN

MEXICO DRUG LORD 'EL CHAPO' GUZMAN MOVED TO JUAREZ PRISON

Convicted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks and is fighting to avoid extradition to the United States, was abruptly transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early Saturday.

Lawyers for Guzman, who was recaptured in January, have filed multiple appeals against their client being sent to the U.S., and Mexican officials have said it could take as long as a year to reach a final ruling. There was no immediate indication that the transfer could be a sign that the process is nearing conclusion.

Mexican government officials said the Sinaloa cartel boss was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup near Mexico City to the Cefereso No. 9 prison in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas. The Interior Department said the move was due to work being done to reinforce security at Altiplano.

Mexico's National Security Commission said in a statement that the transfer was in line with security protocols, and it has rotated more than 7,400 inmates nationwide as part of a strategy implemented last September.

Michael Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Guzman was moved because of security concerns. Vigil, who said he had been briefed by Mexican officials, did not specify those concerns or say whether Mexican officials had information about possible new escape plots. He also did not specify the officials with whom he spoke.

Jose Refugio Rodriguez, an attorney for Guzman, said defense lawyers had not been notified beforehand and one of them was traveling to Juarez to try to meet with their client.

"I don't know what the strategy is," Refugio told The Associated Press. "I can't say what the government is thinking."

Canada wildfire explodes in size, more evacuees reaching south

A raging Canadian wildfire grew explosively on Saturday as hot, dry winds pushed the blaze across the energy heartland of Alberta and smoke forced the shutdown of a major oil sands project.

The fire that has already prompted the evacuation of 88,000 people from the city of Fort McMurray was on its way to doubling in size on Saturday, the seventh day of what is expected to be the costliest natural disaster in Canada's history.

With temperatures on Saturday expected to rise as high as 28 Celsius (82 Fahrenheit), the weather was hindering efforts to fight the wildfire. Officials said it was still burning out of control and expected to keep pushing to the northeast.

"In these conditions officials tell us the fire may double in size in the forested areas today. As well, they may actually reach the Saskatchewan border. In no way is this fire under control," Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told a media briefing.

She said it was clear Fort McMurray residents would not be able to return anytime soon, noting the city's gas has been turned off, its power grid was damaged and the water is not drinkable.

The fire had scorched at least 156,000 hectares (385,000 acres) by Saturday morning, the Alberta government said.

The full extent of property losses in Fort McMurray has yet to be determined, but one analyst estimated insurance losses could exceed C$9 billion ($7 billion).

More than 500 firefighters are battling the blaze in and around Fort McMurray, along with 15 helicopters and 14 air tankers, the Alberta government said.

Within Fort McMurray, visibility is often less than 30 feet (9 meters) due to the smoke, making it still very dangerous to circulate in the city, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Kevin Kunetzki told reporters at a highway checkpoint.

Syncrude oil sands project said Saturday it will shut down its northern Alberta operation and remove all personnel from the site due to smoke. There was no imminent threat from the fire.

Notley said it appeared the fire could burn to the edge of a project operated by Suncor Energy Inc , but noted the site was highly resilient to fire damage.

An official said CNOOC Nexen's Long Lake oil sands facility appeared to have escaped damage, but was still obscured by smoke.

At least 10 oil sand operators have cut production due to evacuations and other emergency measures that complicated delivery of petroleum by rail, pipeline and highway. [CRU/CA]

About half of Canada's oil sands production capacity, or one million barrels per day (bpd), had been taken offline by the conflagration as of Friday, according to a Reuters estimate.

FLEEING CAMPS

Police escorted another convoy of evacuees out of the oil sands region north of Fort McMurray, taking them on a harrowing journey through burned out parts of the city and billowing smoke. Some 1,600 structures are believed to have been lost.

Earlier in the week most evacuees headed south by car on Alberta Highway 63, the only land route out of the area, in a slow-moving exodus that left many temporarily stranded on the roadside as they ran out of gasoline.

But about 25,000 residents who initially sought shelter in oil camps and settlements north of the city found themselves cut off in overcrowded conditions. They were forced on Friday and Saturday to retrace their route back through Fort McMurray on Highway 63.

Notley said in the past two days about 12,000 of those evacuees had been airlifted out, and in the past 24 hours 7,000 had traveled south by road. She said the goal was to have all the evacuees south by the end of Saturday.

Entire neighborhoods were reduced to ruins, but most evacuees fled without knowing the fate of their own homes. The majority got away with few possessions, some forced to leave pets behind.

Stephane Dumais, thumbing through his insurance documents at an evacuation center at Lac La Biche, said he has thought about moving away. But the idea does not sit well with the heavy equipment operator for a logging company.

"To me that's like giving up on my city," he said. "As long as it takes to rebuild it, let's work together. It's not going to be the same as it used to be."

SOURCE: REUTERS

Sadiq Khan accuses PM of taking tactics ‘from Trump playbook’

Sadiq Khan, the new Labour mayor of London, has launched an extraordinary attack on David Cameron and his defeated opponent, Zac Goldsmith, accusing them of trying to turn different ethnic communities against each other to stop him winning in the capital.

Writing in the Observer after becoming the most powerful Muslim politician in Europe, Khan says the prime minister and Goldsmith deployed tactics “straight out of the Donald Trump playbook” – a reference to the anti-Muslim campaign of the Republican hopeful in the US.

Khan wrested control of the capital from the Tories after eight years under Boris Johnson, in what turned out to be a comfortable win. He said he had hoped the campaign would focus on issues such as housing, transport and air pollution. “But David Cameron and Zac Goldsmith chose to set out to divide London’s communities in an attempt to win votes in some areas and suppress voters in other parts of the city,” he said.

“They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other – something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. Londoners deserved better and I hope it’s something the Conservative party will never try to repeat.”

His remarks came as senior Tories, including Mohammed Amin, chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, broke cover to criticise their own party’s campaign as divisive and deeply unpleasant.

Khan chose Southwark Cathedral for his signing-in as mayor, where he said he was determined to govern for all Londoners and “every single community”.

His savage remarks about Cameron will infuriate the prime minister and stoke tension between the two, who will have to work together on security and other issues in the months and years ahead.

During the campaign, run by Cameron’s election strategist Lynton Crosby, the Tories tried to paint Khan as a radical, suggesting he had questions to answer because he had shared platforms with extremists in the past and defended them in his time as a human rights lawyer.

Khan later said it was a matter for Cameron whether he wished to apologise for the content and tone of the Tory campaign, but vowed to work with the him in the interest of Londoners.

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, who described Khan during the mayoral election campaign as a “Labour lackey who speaks alongside extremists”, repeatedly refused to say whether he was worried about Khan’s election and the safety of Londoners during an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme. Finally, under pressure from interviewer Sarah Montague, Fallon conceded that “London is safe with a Conservative government working with the new mayor of London”.

In his Observer article, Khan, whose team were not keen on Jeremy Corbyn attending Saturday’s ceremony, according to reports, also delivers a clear message to the Labour leader on how to win elections after a set of local, Scottish and Welsh results that left some Labour MPs questioning Corbyn’s future. Labour suffered disastrous losses in Scotland, where it slipped to third place behind Ruth Davidson’s Scottish Conservatives. In English local elections, however, the party avoided predicted losses in key strongholds in the south.

“I learnt a great deal throughout the course of the campaign – about myself, about London and about the importance of reaching out to all sections of society. But there are two lessons in particular,” Khan writes. “First, Labour only wins when we face outwards and focus on the issues that the people actually care about. And secondly, we will never be trusted to govern unless we reach out and engage with all voters – regardless of their background, where they live or where they work.

“Squabbles over internal party structures might be important for some in the party, but it is clear they mean little or nothing to the huge majority of voters. As tempting as it might be, we must always resist focusing in on ourselves and ignoring what people really want.”

Khan suggests Corbyn is failing to appeal to a wide enough electorate, including middle-class and disaffected Tory voters.

“Labour has to be a big tent that appeals to everyone – not just its own activists. Campaigns that deliberately turn their back on particular groups are doomed to fail.

“Just like in London, so-called natural Labour voters alone will never be enough to win a general election. We must be able to persuade people who previously voted Conservative that Labour can be trusted with the economy and security as well as improving public services and creating a fairer society.”

Khan, the Tooting MP, secured 57% of votes in the mayoral contest once second preferences were taken into account. Sources close to Corbyn said he was planning a public event with Khan in the next few days. The Labour leader is also expected to address his MPs at what could prove a difficult meeting of the parliamentary Labour party on Monday.

Spanish journalists kidnapped in Syria freed

Three Spanish journalists kidnapped in Syria some 10 months ago have been freed, the Spanish Press Federation (FAPE) and government said on Saturday.

The trio, who had been working for various Spanish media around the time of their disappearance, were last seen in July 2015 in the northwestern city of Aleppo where they had been reporting on fighting.

"All three have been released, Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre, and are on their way (to Spain)," added FAPE president Elsa Gonzalez.

A government spokeswoman in a statement confirmed the release "a few hours ago", adding that "all three are well".

Their release had been "possible thanks to the collaboration of allies and friends especially in the final phase from Turkey and Qatar", the statement added.

After the men disappeared, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said officials were working with members of Spain's National Intelligence Centre who were in Syria to try and secure their release.

Pampliega, a freelance war reporter born in 1982, contributed to AFP's text coverage of the civil war in Syria for a period up to 2013.

A passionate reporter who tended to focus on human interest stories, he also contributed to AFP's coverage in Iraq.

Lopez, born in 1971, is a prize-winning photographer who contributed images to AFP from several war zones, including from the Syrian conflict up until 2013 and Iraq in 2014.

Sastre, 35, had also worked in trouble spots around the world for Spanish television, radio and press.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders in 2015 ranked Syria as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists along with Iraq.

It says 10 journalists died in 2015 in Syria, where various armed factions are battling President Bashar Al-Assad's regime and each other.

The release of the three follows the freeing in 2013 of three other Spanish journalists.

El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa, freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova and Marc Marginedas of El Periodico newspaper were all released after being seized by the Islamic State group.

In August 2014, the group decapitated US journalist James Foley, who was seized in northern Syria in 2012.

The following month, the group murdered fellow US journalist Steven Sotloff.

In 2015, militants from the group beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto.

Last month a video emerged of another Japanese journalist, Jumpei Yasuda, apparently asking for Tokyo's help in securing his release.

A British journalist, John Cantlie, who was kidnapped alongside James Foley, has appeared in a series of propaganda videos released by IS, in which he speaks to the camera in the style of a news report.

The last such video, supposedly filmed in the jihadists' Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, was released by the group in March.

RSF has condemned IS for its "cowardly" use of a hostage in a forced role to push the jihadists' propaganda

SOURCE: FRANCE24

Egyptian court seeks death penalty against three journalists

An Egyptian court has recommended the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets to Qatar, in a ruling condemned by the Doha-based al-Jazeera channel as shocking.

Jordanian national Alaa Omar Sablan and Ibrahim Mohammed Helal, who both work for al-Jazeera, and Asmaa al-Khateeb, a reporter for Rassd – a pro-Muslim Brotherhood news network, were sentenced in absentia. They can appeal.

The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped former president Mohamed Morsi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

Al-Jazeera said the ruling provoked “shock and anger” and called for international action to safeguard journalists’ rights to report news freely.

“The death sentence against journalists is unprecedented in the history of world media and amounts to a real stab against freedom of expression around the world,” the satellite channel said in a statement posted on its website.

Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in prison.

Following Saturday’s ruling, a final decision is expected on 18 June after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

Judge Mohammed Shireen Fahmy, who announced the verdict, also said that a ruling against Morsi and several others charged in the same case would be postponed to the same date.

Prosecutors in Saturday’s case argued that Morsi’s aides were involved in leaking sensitive documents to Qatari intelligence that exposed the location of weapons held by the Egyptian armed forces.

Defence lawyers said that documents had been moved out of the presidential palace to protect them during growing protests against Morsi’s rule, but this process was not the responsibility of the president and the documents presented in the case showed no signs of spying.

“The case’s documents are devoid of any type of espionage or participation in it,” a defence lawyer told Reuters.

Morsi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.

Qatar had supported Morsi, who is in prison along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges.

Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt’s then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Morsi.

Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypt’s most organised political group.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN

Migrant domestic workers march in Beirut in protest against human rights abuses

Hundreds of migrant workers have taken to the streets in Lebanon to protest about their working conditions. Around 200,000 migrants, mainly from Philippines, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, are employed in the country, working mainly as live-in maids.

The workers, who are mostly women, are vulnerable to exploitation because they cannot leave or enter the country without asking written permission from their employers. The demonstrators are seeking for the implementation of International Labour Organization's (ILO) Convention 189, which states that domestic workers are entitled to a minimum wage and have at least one day's holiday per week.

Currently, migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are working under the kafala system – in which they are sponsored by their Lebanese employers, and may not work for anyone else – and are excluded from the country's labour laws.

There have been reports of terrible treatment of migrant domestic workers such as beatings, sexual abuse, withholding of their passports and working extremely long hours. Suicides and suicide attempts have been reported among the migrant domestic workers, including a maid who hanged herself at her employer's apartment in Tripoli. She had been on hunger strike for three days previously, Lebanon's Labour Ministry said, because she had not been allowed to return to Bangladesh to see her children.

In 2015, workers in Lebanon set up the Arab world's first labour union. "We want to be treated like human beings, like real workers," said Leticia, a Filipina who was assaulted and raped by her employer several years ago. "With this union, I will no longer feel alone in the face of abuse," she said in an Al Jazeera report.

The union was rejected by the Lebanese Labour Ministry, who have called it "illegal", according to Al-Akhbar.

The National Federation of Workers' Unions in Lebanon (Fenasol), states that the country has a quarter of a million migrant domestic workers, but they do not have adequate protection or recognition from the government. Lebanon's Labour Minister Sejaane Azzi admitted that the law does not allow foreigners to set up a union, but recognised that "new laws are needed to improve the situation for housemaids".

Human Rights Watch has said that Lebanese authorities were refusing to renew the residence permits of children born to migrant domestic workers and authorities were deporting children, often separating them from their mothers, according to AFP.

The abuse of workers under the kafala system has come to world's attention after the poor treatment of migrants building facilities in Qatar for the World Cup 2022 was revealed.

Egypt sentences six to death in espionage case

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced six people to death, including two Al Jazeera journalists, who were accused of leaking state secrets to Qatar.

The case of jailed former President Mohamed Morsi, who is also charged for espionage for Qatar, was however, adjourned.

The judgement will either be approved or reduced in June after consultations with Egypt's mufti, the highest Sunni religious leader in the country. The court may or may not consider the mufti's feedback.

The defendants have the right to appeal the verdict. Morsi has already been sentenced in three other separate trials.

Al Jazeera rejects Egypt's allegations that the network was collaborating with Morsi's elected government.

Morsi was overthrown by the military in July 2013 after mass protests a year after he took office as the first democratically elected leader.

Source: Al Jazeera

Trump: Hillary Clinton a 'nasty, mean enabler'

Donald Trump on Friday accused Hillary Clinton of being "an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler" of her husband's alleged affairs and accused her of destroying the lives of his accusers.

The remarks are the first time that Trump has raised the former president's alleged affairs and Hillary Clinton's behavior amidst a flurry of accusations since becoming the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. Trump had previously accused Clinton of being an "enabler" to her husband's behavior, but he ramped up his rhetoric on Friday.
"She's been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives," Trump said, adding, "She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful."

Trump did not expand upon what he believes Clinton did to "destroy" the lives of those women. A message left with the Clinton campaign Friday night was not immediately returned.

The brash billionaire on Friday sought to get ahead of what he believes will be an onslaught of attack ads against him, focusing specifically on sexist remarks he has made.

"So what they're doing is $90 million of ads on Donald Trump and it has to do a lot with the women's issue. But I'm saying to myself, nobody in this country and maybe in the history of this country politically was worse than Bill Clinton with women," Trump said to cheers at a rally here.

Trump predicted the Clinton campaign would use crude comments he has made about women and sex in interviews with talk radio host Howard Stern against him in attack ads.

Trump has used a range of words to describe women he's disagreed with, such as Rosie O'Donnell and Arianna Huffington, including "fat pig," "slob" and "dog."

"Don't forget, I was never going to run for office," Trump said in his defense.

He also retweeted a tweet calling Megyn Kelly a "bimbo" earlier this year, and in the first GOP debate, suggested that Kelly was on her period as the Fox News anchor asked him a prodding question.
And he suggested that then-GOP presidential rival Carly Fiorina was too ugly to be elected last fall: "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?" Trump said during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Trump defiantly defended himself Friday: "Nobody respects women more than me."

Israel launches retaliatory airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza strip

In response to rocket fire toward Israel, the country's military aircraft has hit two Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. The airstrikes marked the fourth day in the worst flare-up of violence since the 2014 50-day war.

Sirens were heard early on Saturday morning in southern Israel after a rocket was fired from the Gaza strip, prompting Israeli retaliation.

"In response... aircraft targeted two Hamas terror infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip," the Israeli army said in a statement.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket launch, but most such fire since 2014 has been carried out by fringe Islamist groups. Israel, however, holds Gaza's Hamas rulers responsible for all such attacks.

Hamas security sources said the retaliatory raid hit two brickworks in the southern city of Khan Yunis, causing damage but no casualties.

Witnesses, however, said two missiles hit a base of Hamas's military wing east of the city, causing significant damage.

Worst violence since 2014

Since Wednesday, Hamas and other militant groups have fired at least 12 mortar rounds at Israeli forces who were searching along the border and short distances inside Gaza for infiltration tunnels leading into Israel - one of which was discovered on Thursday.

Sadiq Khan's London mayoral win gives Jeremy Corbyn reason to be cheerful

Sadiq Khan’s election as London mayor in the early hours of Saturday handed a boost to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the end of a difficult day in which Labour held ground in England but endured a disastrous defeat in its former heartland of Scotland.

Khan’s landslide victory over his rival, Conservative Zac Goldsmith, in which he secured more than 1.3m votes made him the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital, and gave Labour the keys to City Hall after eight years of Conservative control, following a bitterly fought and controversial campaign.

As the votes were being counted, senior Tories and even Goldsmith’s own sister criticised his team’s strategy, which included repeated claims from the candidate himself and David Cameron that Khan had shown bad judgment by sharing platforms with alleged extremists.

The former Conservative party chairman Sayeeda Warsi attacked the Goldsmith campaign on Twitter, claiming: “Our appalling dog whistle campaign for #LondonMayor2016 lost us the election, our reputation & credibility on issues of race and religion.”

Steve Hilton, Cameron’s former director of strategy who was part of an effort to “detoxify” the Tories, told BBC Newsnight that Goldsmith had brought back the “nasty party label to the Conservative party”.

Speaking after finally being declared winner after midnight, Khan said that he grew up on a council estate and “never dreamt that someone like me could be elected as mayor of London”.

He highlighted his positive campaign before making a pointed attack on Goldsmith. “I am so glad that London has chosen hope over fear and unity over division. The politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city.”

Goldsmith thanked his team and admitted he was disappointed but failed to address the accusations.

The row could be uncomfortable for the prime minister, who used the line of attack more than once in the House of Commons.

Jemima Goldsmith questioned the tactics, saying they did not reflect the “eco-friendly, independent-minded politician with integrity” she knew her brother to be.

But underlining the hostility the new mayor could face once he takes up office, the candidate for Britain First, Paul Golding, turned his back in protest as Khan made his acceptance speech at City Hall. “Britain has an extremist mayor!” shouted a member of Golding’s team.

Corbyn congratulated Khan at the end of a day of results across the UK that were not bad enough to trigger a coup against the Labour leader. He said he had defied the critics to hang on across England, where the party retained councils such as Crawley and Plymouth and had suffered a lower net loss than expected, of two dozen councillors.

“All across England last night we were getting predictions that Labour was going to lose councils. We didn’t, we hung on and we grew support in a lot of places,” Corbyn said in a defiant speech to activists in Sheffield.

In Scotland, however, Labour was pushed into third place by the Conservatives in a crushing defeat for a party that once dominated the political landscape north of the border. Corbyn said: “We are going to walk hand-in-hand with our party in Scotland to build that support once again.”

The leader’s positive take on the election results contrasted with a more cautious response from a series of shadow cabinet members who said that Labour had a long way to go before it was on track for a 2020 majority.

The shadow leader of the House, Chris Bryant, said Labour was not “match ready”, while the shadow Scottish secretary, Ian Murray, claimed that people did not see Corbyn’s Labour as a “credible party of future government”.

Other seized on the predictions of psephologists who said it was extremely unusual for a party in opposition to lose council seats at this stage of the electoral cycle.

Jo Cox and Neil Coyle, two new MPs who nominated Corbyn, wrote in the Guardian that they regretted their decision, warning that “weak leadership” risked keeping their party out of power until 2030.

Cameron hailed the Scottish result, saying he would not have believed it possible two years ago. He accused Labour of losing touch with working people by being “obsessed with their leftwing causes and unworkable economic policies”.

Officials fear massive Canada wildfire could double in size

Thousands of people have been airlifted to safety from the wildfires raging through Canada’s Alberta province after the flames threatened to engulf the makeshift camps opened to house them,  as officials warned that the blaze could soon double in size.

The emergency measure was ordered after the inferno that has already devastated the city of Fort McMurray and forced its 80,000 residents to flee spread north, encroaching on an area where 25,000 evacuees had set up camp.

As more than 1,100 firefighters battled to douse 49 separate fires, a mass vehicle convoy of evacuees - overseen by a phalanx of police helicopters - passed through Fort McMurray, large sections of which resembled a war zone.

Police and military will oversee another procession of hundreds of vehicles, and the mass airlift of evacuees will also resume. A day after 8,000 people were flown out, authorities said 5,500 more were expected to be evacuated by the end of Friday and another 4,000 on Saturday.

Chad Morrison, an official with the Alberta government wildfire unit, told reporters in the provincial capital Edmonton, about 270 miles (430 km) to the south, the blaze was likely to double in size by late on Saturday, the end of its first week.

The road convoy operation, involving an estimated 1,500 vehicles, was authorised after firefighters judged that the blaze in the immediate area of Fort McMurray had been bought under control.

The flames have spread a much wider area than when the evacuation of Fort McMurray began on Tuesday. Seven of the fires still burning were said to be out of control, aided by high winds and warm, dry conditions.

"Things have calmed down in the city a little bit but … the beast is still up, it’s surrounding the city,” Darby Allen, the local fire chief, said in a video message to residents.

Chad Morrison, Alberta's manager of wildfire prevention, said only rain could stop the inferno.

"Let me be clear: air tankers are not going to stop this fire," he said. "It is going to continue to push through these dry conditions until we actually get some significant rain.”

Weather forecasters said there was a 40 per cent chance of rain over the weekend.

Officials have said there is little chance of Fort McMurray residents being able to return soon. Some 1,600 homes and buildings in the city are believed to have been destroyed.

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, said the area looked “like a war-torn corner of the world instead of our own backyard”.

'We know what they're going through,' say Canada's Syrian refugees helping fire victims

Rita Khanchet is among a group of Syrian refugees who are pitching in to help those affected by the fire.

They have been using the Syrian Refugee Support Group page on Facebook a rallying point for Syrians to offer donations of clothing and good.

The group has also appealed for a donation of five Canadian dollars from every Syrian refugee in Canada who can spare the money, with a view to buy hygiene products for those who have been displaced by the fire and are now living in camps.

“It’s not easy to lose everything. We can understand them more than anyone in Canada. We were in the same situation,” Ms Khanchet told the Calgary Herald.

“Me and my family wanted to do something for these people. Canadian society helped us when we came to Canada.”

Man charged with murder of missing Natalie Hemming

A 42-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Natalie Hemming, who has been missing for four days.

Paul Hemming, of Newton Leys, Milton Keynes, was charged with murder on Friday night, having been arrested two days earlier.

He was remanded in custody and was due to appear at Milton Keynes magistrates court on Saturday.

Natalie Hemming, 31 and a mother of three, was reported missing from her home in Newton Leys by a family member on Tuesday.

Shots fired on University of Missouri campus: university

Two gunshots were fired on University of Missouri's flagship campus on Friday though no one was injured, the school said.

Police were investigating the shooting near a plaza on the campus, and were searching for a suspect, the university said.

"There is no indication of a current threat to campus," the school added.

About 35,000 students attend the University of Missouri in Columbia, 125 miles (200 km) west of St. Louis.

SOURCE: REUTER

Cameroon footballer Ekeng dies during Romanian league game

Cameroon international Patrick Ekeng has died after collapsing on the pitch playing a first division match on Friday with his Romanian side Dinamo Bucharest.

The 26-year-old midfielder fell to the ground without any contact with another player in the 70th minute of the game against Viitorul, just seven minutes after coming on as a substitute.

Ekeng, who joined the Romanian club in January, was rushed to hospital where staff were unable to resuscitate him.

"Resuscitation attempts were made for an hour and half without success," Dinamo team doctor Liviu Batineanu told journalists.

Fans of the Bucharest club gathered outside the hospital late into the night to express their grief at the player's death.

Club executive director Ionel Danciulescu expressed his shock after a death which recalled that of another club player Catalin Haldan who died playing a friendly in October 2000.

"I can't believe it. It's a nightmare. For me, for the team and for all Dinamo supporters. It's too much," said Danciulescu.

"It's as if we are cursed."

Before arriving in Romania, Ekeng played for several European clubs, spending four seasons with French Ligue 2 side Le Mans from 2009 to 2013.

The player from Yaounde then transferred to Lausanne in Switzerland from 2013-2014 and Spanish side Córdoba from 2014-2015 before joing Dinamo.

"We will love you forever, Patrick Ekeng!" the Bucharest club wrote on Facebook, adding the player had " gone to a better world wearing the white-red shirt to join Catalin Haldan and other players who have written the history" of the club.

Ekeng made his debut for Cameroon in January 2015 and was named in the squad for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations from which Indomitable Lions' were eliminated in the group stage.

His death also echoed that of his countryman Marc-Vivien Foe, who died of a heart attack in 2003 playing an Confederations Cup match against Colombia at the Gerland Stadium in Lyon, France.

More recently defender Gregory Mertens died three days after suffering a heart attack playing for his Belgian side Lokeren in April 2015.

Cameroon international midfielder and captain Stephane Mbia tweeted his shock.

"Our cameroon football family has lost a brother. I cannot believe this. Condolences to his family. RIP Patrick Ekeng."

Spanish club Cordoba also tweeted: "There are no words to express our sorrow over the death of Patrick Ekeng. We mourn your loss. We will never forget you friend. RIP."

The Spanish La Liga also took to Twitter to express their condolences alongside a photo of the player in his Cordoba shirt, who last season played in the first division.

"La Liga expresses its regret at the death of Patrick Ekeng and sends its condolences to his loved ones."

SOURCE: AFP

Dozens of ISIL mass graves found in Iraq, says UN envoy

More than 50 mass graves have been discovered in territory formerly controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq, including three burial pits in a football field, the UN envoy has said.

Jan Kubis, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, told the Security Council on Friday that evidence of the "heinous crimes" committed by the group in Iraq were being uncovered as territory is retaken from ISIL.

"More than 50 mass graves have been discovered so far in several areas of Iraq," he said.

Iraqi forces, with backing from the US-led coalition that carries out daily air strikes against ISIL, also known as ISIS, have retaken significant ground in recent months.

In the city of Ramadi, three graves containing a total of up to 40 sets of remains were found in a football field on April 19, said Kubis.

Ramadi was retaken from ISIL when Iraqi forces seized the main government compound late last year, but the city was completely retaken only in February.

The envoy said that the humanitarian crisis was worsening in Iraq, with nearly a third of the population, or over 10 million people, now requiring urgent aid - double the number from last year.

He projected that a further two million people could be displaced by the end of the year by new military campaigns aimed at driving out ISIL.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched an offensive in March in the province of Nineveh, of which ISIL-controlled Mosul is the capital. ISIL have held Mosul since June 2014.

Kubis urged Iraqi leaders to resolve differences that have led to street protests in Baghdad, saying that the turmoil will only help ISIL maintain its foothold.

"They are the ones who stand to benefit from political instability and lack of reforms," the UN envoy said.

Last week, protesters in Baghdad stormed parliament after MPs again failed to approve nominees for a cabinet of technocrats to replace the government of party-affiliated ministers.

SOURCE AFC

LABOUR'S SADIQ KHAN ELECTED 1ST MUSLIM LONDON MAYOR

Sadiq Khan became London's first Muslim mayor Saturday, as voters rejected attempts to taint him with links to extremism and handed a decisive victory to the bus driver's son from south London.

Khan hailed his victory as the triumph of "hope over fear and unity over division."
His win was the most dramatic result in local and regional elections that produced few big changes but underscored Britain's political divisions ahead of a referendum on whether to remain in the European Union.
Labour Party candidate Khan received more than 1.3 million votes — 57 percent of the total — to Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith's 43 percent, after voters' first and second preferences were allocated.
Turnout was a relatively high 45.6 percent, up from 38 percent in 2012.
Khan's victory seemed certain for hours from partial results, but the official announcement came past midnight — more than 24 hours after polls closed — after delays due to what officials called "small discrepancies" in the count.
Khan was elected to replace Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson after a campaign marked — and many said marred — by U.S.-style negative campaigning. Goldsmith, a wealthy environmentalist, called Khan divisive and accused him of sharing platforms with Islamic extremists — a charge repeated by Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior Conservatives.
Khan, who calls himself "the British Muslim who will take the fight to the extremists," accused Goldsmith of trying to scare and divide voters in a proudly multicultural city of 8.6 million people — more than 1 million of them Muslim.
The attacks, criticized by some senior Conservatives, appear not to have deterred voters from backing Khan. London has seen attacks by Islamic extremists, including July 2005 suicide bombings that killed 52 bus and subway commuters, but has avoided the level of racial and religious tensions seen in some European cities.
"Fear does not make us safer — it only makes us weaker," Khan said in his victory speech. "And the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."
Former Conservative strategist Steve Hilton told the BBC that Goldsmith's campaign had brought back "the 'nasty party' label to the Conservative party" — and said Khan's victory sent a "positive and powerful message about London."
Even Goldsmith's sister criticized his tactics. Journalist and socialite Jemima Goldsmith tweeted: "Sad that Zac's campaign did not reflect who I know him to be - an eco-friendly, independent-minded politician with integrity."
Labour, Britain's main opposition party, performed strongly in the capital, taking more than 40 percent of Londoners' votes. That and Khan's victory were bright spots for Labour, which was pushed into third place in Scotland, where it was once dominant.
The Conservatives under popular Scottish leader Ruth Davidson became the main opposition in Scotland's Edinburgh-based parliament — an unprecedented situation in a region that shunned the party for decades.
The pro-independence Scottish National Party secured a third term in government in the county's parliamentary elections, but failed by two seats to retain a majority. That may lessen the party's appetite to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence.
SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon said the party had "won a clear and unequivocal mandate" and would form a minority government rather than seek a coalition.
While Labour's losses in Scotland were humiliating, the party fared less badly overall than many had predicted. It lost only a handful of council seats and held on to control of major English cities including Birmingham, Newcastle and Sunderland.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the party had "a lot of building to do" in Scotland, but had "hung on" in England. But the results will do little to soothe restive Labour lawmakers who think Corbyn's left-wing policies are a turn-off for many voters.
In Wales, which has traditionally been pro-Europe, the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party gained seven Welsh Assembly seats, and the party also won two London Assembly seats, their first ever.
Votes were also being counted in the contest for Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing assembly. Full results there were not expected until later Saturday, but the major British Protestant party, the Democratic Unionists, appeared on course to retain its leading role in power.
Britons will vote on June 23 on whether the country should leave the European Union. Andrew Blick, a constitutional expert at King's College London, said the results underscore how difficult the referendum campaign will be, as attitudes nationally seem to be so complex.
"We don't know where the mood is," he said. "There are lots of different moods. What message do you push ahead with in the campaign when you have so many different opinions?"

Autistic boy, 3, dies after punishing exercise at China centre

A three-year-old boy has died at a controversial Chinese centre for autistic children which uses punishing exercise regimes to treat what it regards a disease of the "rich and lazy".

Police have opened an investigation into the rehabilitation centre in the southern city of Guangzhou, which makes children walk up to 12 miles a day and reportedly forces them to lie in makeshift incubators to "cure" them through sweating.

The facility is run by self-taught medical practitioner Xia Dejun, who believes the condition is a result of wealthy families spoiling their children and allowing them to become lazy.

His centre provides programmes which focus on building up physical endurance through rigorous exercise as a means of helping children "recover" from what he calls the “rich man’s disease”.

The death last week of Lai Rijia, also known as Jia, sparked anger in China, where it is being seen as the latest tragic case relating to the country’s ‘alternative therapies’ industry.

It also highlights the lack of specialist care for desperate parents in the country’s public health system.

Initial tests said there was no ‘unnatural’ cause of death, but police are continuing to investigate the centre.

Jia’s mother Zhang Wei told The Telegraph she is suing Mr Xia and wants other parents to wake up to the dangers of his style of treatment.

She said other autism centres told her they had a two-year waiting list.

“We had no other choice but to send Jia to this centre, as there was nothing else available,” said Mrs Zhang, who is from the north-eastern city of Dandong, the other side of China to where the centre is located.

“For us, at least it provided a glimmer of hope.”

Mrs Zhang said her son died two months into a 21-month course at the centre, which opened in 2013. She did not disclose how much she had paid, but Chinese media said it cost 31,200 yuan (£3,300) for a three-month programme.

The centre’s website said that the children are required to walk 6-12 miles every day while wearing heavy clothing. 

Ms Zhang said she saw a report saying her son had walked such distances, but that could not be verified by The Telegraph.

She emailed pictures of her son in his winter coat, scarf and thick wooly hat being pulled along the street by a worker wearing a sun hat.

The children are also understood to have trained with weights.

The centre has a strict diet of non-processed foods, including rice, vegatables and fruit. The children also drink plenty of water to ensure they urinate at least once every hour.

The facility was reported to have the correct business license, however there was little scrutiny of its practices as there is no official regulator for privately run rehabilitation agencies in China, the state run People’s Daily said.

Mrs Zhang first became familiar with the work of Mr Xia through his book Notes on the Rehabilitation of Children with Autism.

“There are more and more autistic children because we are better off than before and we treat children as ‘little emperors,’” a passage says, referring to a commonly used expression for spoiled children.

“Parents become the slaves of children. Children from this kind of family become sick easily, and can easily become autistic.”

The book said more than 99 percent of autistic families surveyed by Mr Xia were from white collar or rich families.

“Ask other parents. They will say my training works,” Mr Xia told Shanghai-based media outlet, Sixth Tone.

“The child died at a hospital from an illness,” he said. “It has nothing to do with my rehab centre.”

Autistic children are commonly taught behavioural programmes which are aimed at boosting social and educational skills.

There are up to nine million children with autism in China, local reports say.

Fury erupted in Chinese media earlier this week when it emerged that a 23-year-old student had died after he spent huge sums of cash on experimental cancer treatment from a hospital that was promoted by Internet search giant Baidu.

Turkish journalists sentenced for revealing state secrets

Prominent Turkish opposition journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul have been sentenced to five years and ten months and five years respectively for revealing state secrets.

Dundar, the Editor-in-Chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper and Gul, the daily’s Ankara bureau chief, were convicted for publishing footage purporting to show Turkish state intelligence transporting weapons into Syria in 2014.

Both were acquitted of trying to overthrow the government.

“This sentence was not only passed to suppress and silence us. Those bullets were not only fired to prevent our newspaper from reporting. But this was also an assassination attempt aiming to intimidate the Turkish media and make us scared of writing,” Dunbar declared following the verdict.

Tory funding in 2015 election campaign investigated by eight police forces

The Conservatives face a series of police investigations into allegations they breached election spending rules.

Eight forces are reported to be investigating the claims surrounding the 2015 general election campaign, but senior Tories have insisted the party did nothing wrong.

They face claims that the costs of activists transported by bus into key constituencies around the country should have been recorded under individual candidates’ limits, rather than as part of the national campaign.

The Electoral Commission met police and prosecutors on Wednesday in a bid to ensure they did not run out of time to launch possible criminal investigations.

The commission believes its ongoing investigation into the alleged breaches of reporting obligations will take at least another month, potentially taking it past the one-year time limit for launching criminal proceedings.

A number of police forces have said they will now consider applying for an extension to the time limit.

Gloucestershire police said an investigation had been launched into an allegation of electoral fraud and “we are considering an application for extension on time to investigate”.

A Devon and Cornwall police spokesman said: “We are fully aware that there is a 12-month limitation of proceedings for certain offences, which would mean that no criminal action could be taken in relation to these offences past this point without the police applying for an extension – the limitation period expires in Devon and Cornwall in early June 2016.

“Devon and Cornwall police are awaiting further guidance and legal advice in relation to the specific points relevant to election legislation.”

A Cheshire police spokeswoman said: “As a result of media interest, some members of the public have contacted us to raise their concerns in relation to this matter. Officers are investigating these reports and following lines of inquiry.

“Based on the information we receive, we will consider the appropriate course of action and if an application to the extension of the time limit is required.”

A West Yorkshire police spokeswoman said: “The force has received allegations of electoral fraud in relation to one West Yorkshire constituency in 2015. We will be seeking a time limit extension to investigate these allegations.”

The BBC reported that Derbyshire police, Greater Manchester police, Northamptonshire police and Staffordshire police were also actively investigating allegations.

Cabinet minister Greg Clark claimed investigations into elections were a regular occurrence. The communities secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “For elections, there are often investigations as to how things have been conducted. I have every reason to suppose that the arrangements that we had and all parties had with national battle buses, they get reported in the required way.

“The Electoral Commission oversee these matters, it’s right for them to make their own assessment.”

The claims relating to Conservative spending covering the general election and three parliamentary byelections were first raised by the Daily Mirror and Channel 4 News.

The party has blamed an “administrative error” for failing to register some accommodation costs, but David Cameron has insisted it was right to include such expenditure as part of the national campaign.

Eric Pickles, a former party chairman, said the Conservatives were confident that everything during the 2015 election was “above board” and said he had complete confidence in the team who organised the submission of expenses.

“I’m told that the party is confident that it will be able to successfully demonstrate that everything was above board but I have no inside knowledge inside the party on this,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One.

“These are matters that are quite normal in politics, I don’t have any inside knowledge, I don’t know, I haven’t seen how the forms were filled in, but I know the people that did this and they are very professional and I’ve got complete confidence in them.”