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Latest in the Sri Lanka wave of terror: Holy Sites must be respected

April 22, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

The latest from Sri Lanka in regards to eight deadly terror attacks on Easter Sunday leaves 290 dead and more than 500 people injured.

Among the dead are also foreign tourists including 3 from India, 1 from Portugal, 2 from Turkey, 3 from the UK, and 2 with both a U.S. and U.K. citizenship
9 foreigners are missing, 25 unidentified bodies are also believed to be foreigners.

The German embassy is working on identifying possible German tourists among the victims.

Bombs explosions were reported yesterday in eight locations

  • Katuwapitiya Church
  • Kochikade Church
  • Church in Batticaloa
  • Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo
  • Cinnamon Grand hotel
  • Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo
  • Dehiwala
  • Dematagoda

An improvised explosive device (IED) was discovered in close proximity to the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo last night. The IED was successfully diffused and detonated by the members of the Sri Lanka Air Force.  The bomb was discovered along the Adiambalama road, in close proximity to the BIA hours before President Maithripala Sirisena returned to the country.

According to the Crime Division of the Sri Lanka Police (CCD) 13 individuals linked to the attack last night were arrested and 10 of them were later transferred into the custody for further investigations.

Officers of the Wellwatte police late last night managed to take into custody a van and a driver believed to have been used to transport the attackers. 24 people have been arrested thus far in relation to the incidents.

Schools and Universities remain closed, scheduled government examinations have been postponed. The Colombo Stock Exchange last night announced that they would not be open for trading until further notice.

The United States of America and the United Kingdom have issued travel advisories for Sri Lanka.

In the meantime, curfews and social media and instant message shut down are in effect in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka had planned to double tourist arrivals next year. This may be a big test to achieve such numbers.

The attacks that took place yesterday has also drawn international condemnation.

Here are some of their messages:

POPE FRANCIS

“I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka,” he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square to hear his Easter Sunday message.

“I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence.”

WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS PRESIDENT RONALD S. LAUDER

“World Jewry – in fact all civilized people – denounce this heinous outrage and appeal for zero tolerance of those who use terror to advance their objectives. This truly barbarous assault on peaceful worshippers on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar serves as a painful reminder that the war against terror must be at the top of the international agenda and pursued relentlessly,” he said in a statement.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, JUSTIN WELBY, SPIRITUAL LEADER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

“The will to power leads to the murder of innocents in Sri Lanka. The utterly despicable destruction that on this holiest of days seeks to challenge the reality of the risen Christ. To say that darkness will conquer, that our choice is surrender or death. Jesus chose to defy this darkness and he is risen indeed.”

U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

“The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!,” he tweeted.

INDIAN PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI

“Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured,” he said on Twitter.

PAKISTAN’S PRIME MINISTER IMRAN KHAN

“Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost and hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief,” he tweeted.

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN

“Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena in connection with tragic consequences of terrorist acts,” his English Twitter account said.

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

“It is shocking that people who had gathered to celebrate Easter were the deliberate target of vicious attacks,” she wrote in a letter of condolence to Sri Lanka’s president.

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON

“Deep sorrow following the terrorist attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. We firmly condemn these heinous acts. All our solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka and our thoughts go out to all victims’ relatives on this Easter Day,” he said on Twitter.

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF

“Terribly saddened by terrorist attacks on Sri Lankan worshippers during Easter. Condolences to friendly govt & people of Sri Lanka. Our thoughts & prayers with the victims & their families. Terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally,” he said on Twitter.

NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN

“New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating,” she said in a written statement.

“New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence.”

SRI LANKA EMBASSY

It was with horror and sadness we heard of the bombings in Sri Lanka costing the lives of so many people. We condemn the horrendous attacks targetting innocent civilians. Our sympathies go out to all the victims. Maldives stands in solidarity with people & Govt. of Sri Lanka.

TORONTO

The Toronto sign has been dimmed in solidarity with Sri Lanka following today’s tragic attacks. We join our Sri Lankan community and our Christian community in mourning those killed and pray for the recovery of those injured.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, U.S. and British Authorities warn in response to terror attacks

April 21, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority in a statement released urges hotels in Sri Lanka to take maximum measures to strengthen security as Hotels have been one of the main targets. Please assist us in spreading the word and let us not forget to help tourists who are currently in Sri Lanka.”

The Sri Lanka travel industry is bracing for the impact of the horrific attack Easter Sunday in the nation’s capital Colombo and in Negombo, where the airport is located.

Sri Lanka received 2.1 million tourists in 2017 and had set a target to double that number this year. Free visas to visitors from 30 countries including the U.S.,UK, EU and Thailand are part of this strategy.

Currently, Sri Lanka is quiet. It’s a curfew and all roads are closed.

The U.S. embassy raised the level of travel advisory for Sri Lanka to level 2: The embassy warned terrorist groups to continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, and other public areas.

The White House issued a statement, that the United States condemns in the strongest terms the outrageous terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka that have claimed so many precious lives on this Easter Sunday. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the more than 200 killed and hundreds of others wounded. We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they bring to justice the perpetrators of these despicable and senseless acts.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka arrested 13 alleged suspects. Another attack on the airport was prevented. 215 people including foreign tourists were killed, more than 500 injured in a series of planned and coordinated attacks on Easter Sunday.

The UK Foreign Department is telling British Citizens:

On 21 April 2019 bombs were used to attack three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka, in central Colombo; in the northern suburb of Colombo Kochchikade, and in Negombo roughly twenty miles north of Colombo; and in the east of the country in Batticaloa. There have been significant casualties. If you are in Sri Lanka and you are safe, we advise that you contact family and friends to let them know that you are safe.

If you are in Sri Lanka and have been directly affected by the attacks, please call the British High Commission in Colombo: +94 11 5390639, and select the emergency option from where you will be connected to one of our consular staff. If you’re in the UK and worried about British friends or family in Sri Lanka caught up in the incidents, please call the FCO switchboard number: 020 7008 1500 and follow the same steps.

Security has been stepped up across the island and there are reports of ongoing security operations. if you are in Sri Lanka, please follow the advice of local security authorities, hotel security staff or your tour company. The airport is operating, but with increased security checks. Some airlines are advising their passengers to arrive early for check-in, in light of increased security screening.

The Sri Lankan authorities have declared a nationwide curfew. You should limit movements until this has been lifted, following the instructions of the local authorities and your hotel/tour operator.

The Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed that, if you need to catch a flight from Colombo airport, you are able to travel to the airport provided you have both passport and ticket valid for travel that day. They have also confirmed that arrangements have been put in place for arriving passengers.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Four Sri Lankan nationals arrested at London Luton Airport by counter-terrorism police

April 13, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

British counter-terror police have arrested four men on suspicion of being members of a banned organization hours after they flew into United Kingdom.

The four Sri Lankan nationals arrived at London Luton Airport on 10 April and were arrested by police the next day.

A Met Police spokesman said: “Detectives from the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command are investigating after four men at Luton Airport were arrested on suspicion of membership of a proscribed organization.

“The men, who are all Sri Lankan nationals, arrived on an international flight on the evening of Wednesday, 10 April.

“All four men are currently in custody at a police station in Bedfordshire. Enquiries are ongoing.”

The four remain in custody at a police station in Bedfordshire.

Membership of a proscribed organization is contrary to section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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WikiLeaks founder Assange arrested in London after Ecuador axes asylum deal

April 11, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has spent the last seven years. That’s after Ecuador’s president Moreno withdrew asylum.

That’s only a day after WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson claimed that an extensive spying operation was conducted against Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy. During an explosive media conference Hrafnsson alleged that the operation was designed to get Assange extradited.

Assange’s relationship with Ecuadorian officials appeared increasingly strained since the current president came to power in the Latin American country in 2017. His internet connection was cut off in March of last year, with officials saying the move was to stop Assange from “interfering in the affairs of other sovereign states.”

Assange garnered massive international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks released classified US military footage.

The footage, as well as US war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 200,000 diplomatic cables, were leaked to the site by US Army soldier Chelsea Manning. She was tried by a US tribunal and sentenced to 35 years in jail for disclosing the materials.

Manning was pardoned by outgoing President Barack Obama in 2017 after spending seven years in US custody. She is currently being held again in a US jail for refusing to testify before a secret grand jury in a case apparently related to WikiLeaks.

Assange’s seven-year stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy was motivated by his concern that he may face similarly harsh prosecution by the US for his role in publishing troves of classified US documents over the years.

His legal troubles stem from an accusation by two women in Sweden, with both claiming they had a sexual encounter with Assange that was not fully consensual. Assange said the allegations were false. Nevertheless, they yielded to the Swedish authorities who sought his extradition from the UK on “suspicion of rape, three cases of sexual abuse and unlawful compulsion.”

In December 2010, he was arrested in the UK under a European Arrest Warrant and spent time in Wandsworth Prison before being released on bail and put under house arrest.

His attempt to fight extradition ultimately failed. In 2012, he skipped bail and fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy, which extended him protection from arrest by the British authorities. Quito gave him political asylum and later Ecuadorian citizenship.

Assange spent the following years stranded at the diplomatic compound, only making sporadic appearances at the embassy window and in interviews conducted inside.

Assange argued that his avoidance of European law enforcement was necessary to protect him from extradition to the US, where then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that arresting him is a “priority.” WikiLeaks was branded a “non-state hostile intelligence service” by then-CIA head Mike Pompeo in 2017.

The US government has been tight-lipped on whether Assange would face indictment over the dissemination of classified material. In November 2018, the existence of a secret indictment targeting Assange was seemingly unintentionally confirmed in a US court filing for an unrelated case.

WikiLeaks is responsible for publishing thousands of documents with sensitive information from many countries. Those include the 2003 Standard Operating Procedures manual for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The agency has also released documents on Scientology, one tranche referred to as “secret bibles” from the religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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U.S. State Department tells tourists Brunei is safe, except for death by stoning

April 2, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

The U.S. State Department is telling American travelers, Brunei is one of the safest countries in the world to visit. Brunei safer than the Bahamas, Germany or Indonesia, and way safer then Turkey.

The U.S. embassy, however, states: Criminal penalties for some offenses are harsher than in the United States. This is a clear and misleading understatement:  When traveling to Brunei the State Department wants travelers to read through a 1767 page document provided by the Brunei government outlining all details of the Syariah Penal Code. This law will be implemented as of April 3, 2019. Regardless the State Department tells U.S. Citizens, the country remains a level one “no threat.” visitors destination.

Why is the U.S. Embassy not telling American tourists, that Brunei actually is ready to stone American travelers to death if they are part of the LGBT community? Is this part of the harsher penalty for the crime of sexual orientation?

The embassy website states:

  • Non-Muslims may be arrested for khalwat (close proximity between the sexes) under the Sharia Penal Code provided that the other accused party is Muslim. Khalwat may include activities from holding hands or public displays of affection to sexual activity. U.S. citizens are also subject to khalwat laws.
  • Extramarital relations between a Muslim and non-Muslim may be considered a crime in Brunei.

eTurboNews asked the State Department and received this response:

The U.S. Department of State has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.  We are committed to providing U.S. citizens with clear, timely, and reliable information about every country in the world so they can make informed travel decisions.  We routinely update our Travel Advisories and country-specific information for all countries based on a comprehensive review of all available safety information and ongoing developments. At a minimum, we review Level 1 and 2 Travel Advisories every 12 months, and Level 3 and 4 Travel Advisories every six months.  We also review and update Travel Advisories and country-specific information on an as-needed basis, based on developing security and safety information.

On March 29 the State Department issued  the following paragraph linked from the page categorizing Brunei as a safe country:

“The Government of Brunei Darussalam will commence full implementation of the Syariah Penal Code (SPC) on April 3, 2019. The full SPC introduces new judicial procedures and punishments, including, for certain offenses and under certain evidentiary circumstances, amputation of hands or feet and death by stoning. The SPC applies regardless of an individual’s religion or nationality, although some sections of the law have specific applicability to Muslims. Brunei’s existing civil penal code and civil courts will continue to function in parallel with the SPC and Syariah Court.”

Scott Foster, president of LGBT Hawaii told eTurboNews:

“The response by the U.S. State Department is insulting and is putting LGBT traveler in danger. It should be the obligation for the U.S. government to protect Americans and not put them in harm’s way.
Death by stoning for LGBT travelers should be clearly visible alert on the State Department Brunei page and not hidden in a 1767 document. In no word is the State Department spelling out this danger to LGBT travelers.
The United States should immediately issue a travel warning to protect our LGBT travelers and citizens. The alert level for Brunei should be raised to 4, what means “DO NOT TRAVEL, or at a minimum to a level 3: “Reconsider Travel.”

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Uganda travel and trafficking

March 23, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Sub-Saharan Africa has enormous tourism potential: leopards lounging in acacia trees, elephant herds drifting across vast savannah plains, gorillas and chimps rioting in deep forests, the earliest traces of human beings and their works. But according to the World Bank, the region receives a mere 3% of global tourism arrivals.

What scares tourists off may have something to do with an unfair, continent-wide reputation for lawlessness. There is a way around this. During the 1970s, entrepreneurs created the idea of eco-tourism as an alternative to the sun and sand package tours that wreaked havoc on the environment and local communities. Perhaps the eco-tourism concept could be expanded to encompass human rights more broadly, focusing not just on the ethical conduct of companies but on governments as well. Thus, travelers could be assured that their fees, taxes and entertainment dollars aren’t being used to support regimes engaged in grand corruption, human rights abuses, wildlife trafficking and the persecution of minorities.

Uganda’s new tourism push is a case in point. The government hopes to welcome four million visitors in 2020, more than double the current number. The Uganda Investment Authority is expediting bids from eco-tourism companies to develop ten sites in the nation’s national parks, including Queen Elizabeth, Masindi and Kidepo Valley. The World Bank has lent Uganda $25 million dollars to build a new hotel and tourism school, purchase equipment such as buses, game drive trucks, boats and binoculars and hire public relations firms to market Uganda in US, Europe, the Middle East and China. In October, Kanye West boosted the publicity effort by recording a music video in one of Uganda’s fine resorts and also visited Statehouse where he presented President Yoweri Museveni with a pair of his patented sneakers. Then in January, Tourism Minister Godfrey Kiwanda launched a beauty contest to identify Miss “Curvy” Uganda, whose zaftig figure will appear in tourism brochures.

The downside of Uganda’s tourism campaign is that every safari-goer it attracts will pay fees to government agencies such as the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which is currently engaged in a program of violent evictions that have left thousands of people in northern Uganda’s Acholi region destitute, and has also been implicated in trafficking in ivory, pangolin scales and other illegal wildlife products, both inside Uganda and in neighboring countries.

Since 2010, thousands of huts in Apaa, northern Uganda have been burned to the ground, and animals and belongings stolen by UWA officials and members of other security agencies. The government claims the area is gazetted for a game reserve, but residents say their families have lived in the area for generations and have nowhere else to go. Sixteen people have been killed and thousands, mainly women and children are now homeless. Some of the raids appear to have been carried out by members of the neighboring Madi ethnic group, and government officials have characterized them as ethnically motivated. However, the Madi and Acholi have lived in peace for generations and some suspect that senior government officials may be inciting the attackers.

Meanwhile, CITES, the international body that tracks endangered species has named Uganda as a global hub for the illegal wildlife trade. After damning reports about the scale of poaching in Kenya and Tanzania revealed that elephant populations were plummeting in both countries, stricter laws and better enforcement resulted in a nearly 80 percent decline in poaching in Kenya since 2013. Tougher enforcement has also resulted in steep declines in poaching in Tanzania. But between 2009 and 2016 an estimated 20 tons of ivory were trafficked via Uganda, along with over 3000 kilograms of pangolin scales.

The trade in wildlife products appears to be organized by senior officers of the army and UWA. Ivory traffickers working along the Uganda-Congo border told Belgian political scientist Kristof Titeca that much of their loot came from Congo and the Central African Republic, where the Ugandan Army, with US support, unsuccessfully tried to track down the notorious warlord Joseph Kony between 2012 and 2017. Thus, US taxpayers may have inadvertently facilitated Uganda’s wildlife crimes.

Uganda’s recently established Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court, which is supposed to deal with trafficking crimes has begun prosecuting and convicting low level traffickers—the men who transport the goods to Kampala for export – but as yet there have been no prosecutions of those suspected of organizing the trade. When 1.35 metric tons of confiscated ivory disappeared from a Uganda Wildlife Authority storehouse in 2014, the director was suspended for two months and then reinstated. According to a 2017 Enough Project report, two senior Uganda Wildlife Authority officials quit the force in despair after apprehending traffickers and then being ordered by officials in President Yoweri Museveni’s office to drop the cases.

Uganda’s own elephants have largely been spared, and their numbers may even have increased in recent years. But other animals have not been so lucky. In 2014, the UWA granted a local company a license to collect thousands of pounds of scales from the shy, aardvark-like creatures known as pangolins. While officials claimed that the intention was to purchase the scales from people who’d collected them from animals who had died of natural causes, there’s little doubt that huge numbers of pangolins were killed as a result.

Unfortunately, the World Bank’s assistance to Uganda could be making things worse. It’s $25 million Tourism Sector Competitiveness and Labor Force Development loan, approved in 2013, is part of a larger $100 million Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project which, according to project documents, allocates 21% – or $21 million, to government agencies, including the Uganda Wildlife Authority. World Bank spokespersons declined say how much of that will go to the UWA, and what the money will spent on, other than “systems strengthening and procuring tourism assets.”

Before the World Bank launches any project, it commissions an environmental impact assessment, as well as a review of safeguards to protect habitats and indigenous people who might be affected by it. In this case, the safeguards and Impact Assessment documents don’t consider the risk that Ugandan security agencies, including the army and UWA, might use funds raised from the project to engage in human rights abuses and trafficking.

This matters because countless development groups, including the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the Red Cross and the World Bank itself– have seen millions of dollars in funding sink into Uganda’s swamp of corruption. Billions more have been siphoned out of the Treasury and the workers’ pension fund and or in inflated bids for infrastructure projects such as roads and dams.

In power for 33 years, Uganda’s leader Yoweri Museveni has hung on in part by spending funds looted from various development projects on voter bribery and harsh repression. In 2017, he sent Special Forces troops into Parliament to beat up MPs who were trying to block debate about a bill that would enable him to rule for life. One of the victims, MP Betty Nambooze, may never walk unaided again. Then in August, the same Special Forces arrested and tortured four other MPs and dozens of their supporters, including the famous pop star-politician Bobi Wine

Some of Museveni’s opposition-politician-victims, if allowed to govern, might – like the leaders of Tanzania and Kenya–do a better job of protecting Uganda’s people and its wildlife than he has. But as long as the World Bank and other donors keep allowing Museveni’s government to get away with corruption, human rights abuses and wildlife trafficking, these activities will only continue. While the World Bank continues to ignore this reality, Uganda’s prospective investors and tourists should steer their dollars towards less odious regimes.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Brazil’s former president Michel Temer arrested

March 21, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Brazil’s former president Michel Temer has been arrested as part of a sweeping anti-corruption probe, media reports say. Temer took the office in 2016 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff – also on allegations of corruption.

Temer was detained at his house in Sao Paulo on Thursday morning and then transferred to federal police headquarters in Rio de Janeiro by the police task force, Brazilian news portal Globo reports. An arrest warrant has also allegedly been issued against the former energy minister Moreira Franco as well as Eliseu Padilha, who served as a civil aeronautics minister under ex-president Rousseff and later worked as a minister of labor and the chief of staff of the presidency under Temer, according to Globo.

The arrest is related to charges over alleged graft involving the construction of the Angra 3 nuclear plant, according to Brazilian Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

Meanwhile, Brazilian media reports that the ex-president faces investigation on ten separate cases. At least some of inquiries into his affairs are part of the ongoing large-scale criminal investigation known as Operation Car Wash in Brazil.

Initially launched as a money laundering probe, it was expanded to cover allegations of corruption at the state-controlled oil company Petrobras. Former presidents Luiz Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff were also indicted under it.

The ex-president’s lawyer confirmed his arrest. Temer came to power following Rousseff’s impeachment back in 2018 and stayed in office until December 31, 2018.

Brazil’s former leader was accused of corruption during his presidency in 2017 but the charges were blocked by the lower house of the Brazilian parliament at that time. Temer himself repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Senegalese migrant sets school bus full of children on fire in Italy

March 20, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

The driver of a school bus filled with children has been arrested by Italian police for setting fire to the vehicle near Milan. The Senegalese man reportedly called for an end to “deaths in the Mediterranean” during the incident.

Miraculously all 51 schoolboys managed to escape the fire without injuries, although 12 children and two adults were sent to hospital for smoke inhalation.

The 46-year-old Senegal-born driver reportedly spilled gasoline down the aisle of the bus while shouting that he wants to stop deaths in the Mediterranean Sea before igniting the blaze.

“I want to end it, the deaths in the Mediterranean must be stopped,” he said according to the Italian news outlet.

The children were students of Vailati middle school in the Italian city of Cremona, and raised the alarm by calling their parents after the driver announced that he wanted to kill himself.

The Carabinieri, Italy’s national police service, stopped the vehicle by erecting a series of checkpoints that the driver attempted to break through.

The man eventually lost control of the vehicle and attempted to set the bus alight before the military rescued the students by breaking the windows.

Footage of the blaze show firefighters at the scene and the remains of the completely burned vehicle on the side of a busy road. The driver was reportedly known to police and has been arrested for the arson attack.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Turkish suspect in Utrecht terrorist attack arrested

March 18, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Utrecht’s police chief has confirmed that the 37-year-old Turkish suspect in the deadly shooting on a tram in the Netherlands has been arrested.

Gökmen Tanis was arrested after a major manhunt following the shooting which authorities have confirmed killed three people and injured nine more. The terror threat level for Utrecht was reduced after the suspect’s arrest.

A police spokesperson said Tanis was arrested on Oudenoord street near where a red Renault Clio which he was believed to have been driving was found.

The attack prompted Dutch police to be put on high alert, with military police sent to national airports, railways stations and major roads as citizens were advised to stay indoors. Schools were also closed while the hunt was underway.

Dutch Prime Minister Rutte said during a press conference that the suspect’s motive is still unclear and that there are “many questions and rumors.” Earlier the Dutch counter-terror agency said it appears to be a terror attack.

Utrecht police had warned citizens to watch out for Tanis but not to approach him. Sources told BBC Turkish that the 37-year-old had previously been arrested over “suspected links” to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) a few years ago, but was later released.

Following the attack, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish intelligence agency is investigating whether it was linked to terror.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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