• Home
  • Post a press-release
  • Visibility packages
  • Subscribe email updates
  • Event Calendar
  • Contact

For Immediate Release | Official News Wire for the Travel Industry

Where press releases are breaking news

  • Home
  • Post a press-release
  • Visibility packages
  • Subscribe email updates
  • Event Calendar
  • Contact

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

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With: and, Army, arrest, arrested, arresting, Assange, asylum, attempt, attorney, Attorney General, authorities, Barack, Barack Obama, Bay, Breaking Travel News, British, case, chief, cia, citizenship, compound, concern, conference, confirmed, connection, countries, country, court, Cuba, current, currently, custody, cut, cut off, day, deal, December, designed, diplomatic, documents, Ecuador, Ecuadorian Embassy, embassy, enforcement, European, Explosive, extensive, extradition, face, false, Feature, fight, filing, following, founder, founder Assange, free, general, government, Government Affairs, Grand, harsh, head, held, house, Human Rights news, in, information, inside, intelligence, International, International Travel News, Internet, Interviews, Iraq, jail, l, last, later, Latin, Latin American, law, law enforcement, legal, London, march, massive, materials, May, media, Mike, military, move, News articles, Non, November, Obama, officials, only, Operating, operation, out, over, People in Travel, political, political asylum, power, president, President Barack Obama, priority, prison, procedures, prosecution, protect, protection, publishing, rape, related, Relationship, released, religion, responsible, role, Ron, s, said, saying, Secret, service, sessions, seven, sexual, sexual abuse, site, spending, standard, State, states, stay, STEM, stop, stranded, suspicion, Sweden, Swedish, targeting, testify, thousands, time, to, Travel Destination News, Travelwire News, tried, troubles, UK, UK Travel News, ultimately, unlawful, US, US government, US military, war, were, WHO, Wikileaks, Wikileaks founder, women, World News, year, years

African Game Rangers: Key conservation tourism partners in stress

April 6, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Wildlife is the leading tourist attraction and source of tourist revenue in Africa other than rich historical and cultural heritage the continent has been endowed with.

Wildlife photographic safaris attract millions of tourists from Europe, America and Asia to visit this continent to spend their holidays in wildlife protected areas.

Despite its rich wildlife resources, Africa is still facing poaching problems which had so far, frustrated conservation of wildlife despite the efforts on place to arrest the situation. African governments in collaboration with global wildlife and nature conservation organizations are now working together to save the African wildlife from extinction, mostly the endangered species.

Wildlife rangers in Africa are the number one conservation partners who had committed their lives to protect the wild creatures from human miseries, but working at risk from humans and the wild animals which they had committed to protect.

The rangers are facing numerous psychological pressures leading to potentially serious mental health implications. They are frequently subjected to violent confrontations inside and outside their work.

Many rangers see their families as little as once a year, causing immense stress to personal relationships and the mental strain.

In Tanzania, for example, a community leader was killed by a suspected poacher in an attempt to prevent poaching in the Tarangire National Park, the famous wildlife tourist park in northern Tanzania.

The village leader Mr. Faustine Sanka had his head cut off by a suspected poacher who, disastrously ended the life of the community leader near the park in February this year.

Police said that the brutal killing of the village chairman, Mr. Faustine Sanka was done just to frustrate anti-poaching in Tarangire National Park which is rich in elephants and other big African mammals.

The suspected poachers killed the village leader by cutting off his head using a sharp instrument. After killing him, his body was wrapped in a plastic bag and his motorbike he was riding was left there, police officers said.

Early in April last year, suspected member of an armed militia gunned down five wildlife rangers and the driver in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It was the worst attack in Virunga’s bloody history, and the latest in a long line of tragic incidents in which rangers have lost their lives defending the planet’s natural heritage, conservation media reports said.

Despite a growing awareness of the vulnerability of many of the world’s most beloved and charismatic species such as elephants and rhinos, there is little awareness and virtually no research into the stress and possible mental health implications for those tasked with defending them, conservationists said.

“We have got to take care of the people that make a difference,” said Johan Jooste, head of anti-poaching forces at South Africa National Parks (SANParks).

In real fact, more research has been conducted on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among elephants following a poaching incident than on the rangers protecting them as well.

Wildlife conservation experts further said that 82 percent of rangers in Africa had faced a life-threatening situation in the line of duty.

They described challenging working conditions, community ostracism, isolation from family, poor equipment and inadequate training for many ranger, low pay and little respect as other life threats facing African rangers.

The Thin Greenline Foundation, a Melbourne-based organization dedicated to supporting rangers, has been compiling data on ranger deaths on the job for the last 10 years.

Between 50 and 70 percent of the recorded wildlife ranger deaths in Africa and other wildlife rich continents are carried by poachers. The rest percent of such deaths are due to the challenging conditions rangers face every day, such as working alongside dangerous animals and in perilous environments.

“I can categorically tell you about the 100 to 120 ranger deaths we know of each year,” said Sean Willmore, founder of the Thin Green Line Foundation and president of the International Ranger Federation, a non-profit organization overseeing 90 ranger associations worldwide.

Willmore believes that the true global figure could be much higher, since the organization lacks data from a number of countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Rangers in Tanzania and rest of East Africa are facing the same, life threatening situations while on duty in protecting the wildlife, mostly in national parks, game reserves and forest conserved areas.

Selous Game Reserve, Africa’s largest wildlife protected area has not been spared from such ugly incidents facing the rangers. They work in harsh conditions, traversing hundreds of kilometers on patrol to protect the wildlife, mostly elephants.

Full with stress and psychological problems, the rangers conduct their duties with full commitment to ensure the survival of wildlife in Tanzania and Africa.

In Selous Game Reserve, rangers live far away from their families; succumb to life risks including attacks by wildlife and poachers from neighboring villages, mostly those killing the wild animals for bush meat.

Communities neighboring this park (Selous) have no other source of protein more than bush meat. There is no livestock, poultry and fishing in this part of Africa, a situation which drives villagers to hunt for bush meat.

Rangers in this park as well, suffer from psychological stress from work. Most of them have left their families in towns or other localities in Tanzania to protect the wildlife in the Selous Game Reserve.

“We have our children living alone. I don’t know if my children are doing well in school or not. Sometimes we don’t communicate with our families far away taking into account that no communication services available in this area”, a ranger told eTN.

Mobile phone communication, now the leading source of inter-personal contact in Tanzania, is no longer available in some areas of the Selous Game Reserve due to geographical locations.

“Every everyone is like an enemy here. Local communities are looking for game meat, poachers are looking for trophies for business, the government is looking for revenue, tourists are looking for protection against robbers and all like that. This burden is our backs,” the ranger told eTN.

Politicians and wildlife managers are driving posh cars in big cities enjoying high class lifestyles, banking on hardships the rangers are currently facing.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With: and, animals, Anti-poaching, April, area, areas, arrest, Asia, associations, attack, attacks, attempt, attract, attraction, Awareness, bag, based, big, bloody, body, Breaking Travel News, Burden, bush, Business, cars, Chairman, children, cities, class, collaboration, commitment, Communication, communities, community, conditions, Congo, conservation, conservationists, contact, continent, countries, cultural, cultural heritage, currently, cut, cut off, cutting, dangerous, Data, day, deaths, defending, Democratic, Democratic Republic of Congo, doing, down, driver, driving, due, duty, early, East, East Africa, efforts, elephants, endangered, endangered species, equipment, eTN, Europe, experts, face, families, Family, famous, far, federation, fishing, following, Forces, forest, foundation, founder, full, game, game reserve, Global, Got, government, governments, green, Growing, harsh, head, head cut off, HEALTH, heritage, high, higher, historical, history, holidays, Human, hunt, in, In February, incident, incidents, including, inside, Inter, International, isolation, IT, job, just, key, killed, killing, kilometers, largest, last, LATEST, leader, leading, life, like, line, live, Livestock, Living, local, locations, looking, lost, low, Make, managers, meat, media, media reports, Melbourne, member, mental health, Middle, Middle East, militia, millions, mobile, mobile phone, most, motorbike, Mr, national, national park, national parks, natural, nature, neighboring, News articles, Non, Northern, number, number one, numerous, officers, organization, organizations, outside, park, parks, partners, pay, People, percent, personal, phone, Place, planet, plastic, poachers, poaching, police, politicians, poor, POST, president, problems, profit, protect, protected, protected areas, protecting, protection, Ranger, rangers, real, recorded, relationships, reports, republic, Republic of Congo, research, reserve, reserves, resources, respect, Revenue, rhinos, rich, Risk, risks, s, safaris, said, save, school, see, selous, Selous Game Reserve, serious, services, situation, Source, South, South Africa, spared, species, stress, suffer, supporting, survival, taking, Tanzania, Tanzania travel news, Tarangire, Tarangire National Park, The World, threats, to, told, tourism, tourism partners, tourist, tourist attraction, tourist park, tourist revenue, tourists, towns, Tragic, training, Travel Destination News, Travelwire News, ugly, using, village, villagers, villages, violent, virunga, Virunga National Park, visit, We, WHO, wild, wild animals, wildlife, wildlife conservation, wildlife rangers, work, working, World, worldwide, worst, year, years

Search



Recent Articles

  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in Thailand as of 16 January 2021, 11.30 Hrs.
  • Redefining the way the world goes on vacation
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in Thailand as of 15 January 2021, 11.30 Hrs.
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in Thailand as of 15 January 2021, 11.30 Hrs.
  • Quick-witted Wheel of Fortune contestant wins featured trip to Nevis
  • American Airlines Group Announces Webcast of Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2020 Financial Results
  • American Airlines Is First US Airline to Introduce Health Passport for All International Travel to US
  • Amazing Thailand SHA committee conducts post-audit of Don Mueang International Airport
  • Amazing Thailand SHA committee conducts post-audit of Don Mueang International Airport
  • Bangkok transportation maintains vigilance in COVID-19 control measures

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in