20.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has revealed that his late father subjected family members to emotional, physical and sexual abuse over many years.
In a statement, Mr Adams said the family made the discovery about Gerry Snr in the 1990s and were still coming to terms with what had happened.
“This discovery and the abuse which preceded it have had a devastating impact on our entire family,” he said.
“We live with the consequences every single day.”
In the statement,
Mr Adams said the family members who had been abused were still recovering from the trauma.
“Our family have debated for some time whether we should publicise our father’s abusive behaviour,” he added.
“We do so now in the hope that, in time, this will assist the victims and survivors to come to terms with what happened and help them to move on from these dreadful events.
“All citizens need to be educated and children need to be listened to, empowered and protected.”
‘Denial’
Speaking in an interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE on Sunday, Mr Adams said he was 50 when he found out about his father’s abuse.
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams pictured with his father Gerry Adams Snr
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The Sinn Fein president said his father, who died six years ago, was in denial for many years about his actions and he “had died a lonely old man”.
He said the police were not involved because his father’s victims did not want to contact them.
Mr Adams also said all of the abuse was “historic” and no children were at risk when the abuse was eventually revealed.
On Friday, Mr Adams appealed for his brother, Liam, to hand himself over to the police to answer allegations of sexual abuse.
It is understood that an arrest warrant was issued for Liam Adams a year ago.
It was issued for failing to appear at a preliminary court hearing to answer questions about alleged sexual offences against his daughter, Aine Tyrell.
Ms Tyrell, who has waived her right to anonymity, spoke publicly of her allegations against her father on UTV’s Insight programme on Friday night.
20.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The US has transferred 12 detainees from its Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region, the Justice Department says.
Six Yemenis, four Afghans and two Somali detainees were sent to their homelands over the weekend, it said.
President Barack Obama acknowledged in November that he would miss his January deadline to close down the camp.
The US plans to send 116 detainees to their home countries or to third countries willing to accept them.
Security fears
“These transfers were carried out under individual arrangements between the United States and relevant foreign authorities to ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.
“Consultations with foreign authorities regarding these individuals will continue.”
Yemenis account for almost half of the 198 detainees who remain at the US military base in Cuba. But officials fear many could re-join militant groups if sent back to Yemen.
The Washington Post reported last week that the Yemeni transfers were the result of months of high-level talks with the government in Sanaa.
It said US officials are prepared to repatriate more Yemenis if the transfer goes well.
President Obama has pledged to shut the controversial detention centre in 2010, and announced last week that many of the detainees would be sent to a prison in the US state of Illinois.
Some will face trials in US criminal or military courts, while others are expected to be transferred abroad.
20.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Dutch police say teenage sailor Laura Dekker – who seeks to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world -has been missing since Friday.
Police say the 14-year-old’s boat is moored at its berth and she appears to have left her father’s home on her own.
Spokesman Bernhard Jens told the Associated Press news agency no criminal activity was suspected – but the authorities were concerned.
She was placed under state care after a Dutch court blocked her sailing bid.
Miss Dekker had planned to set off on her solo voyage in September, but the Utrecht District Court said concerns for her safety were too grave.
It placed her under state supervision until July 2010, but allowed Miss Dekker to continue living with her father.
Dutch police say they have issued an alert to airports in neighbouring countries for the missing teenager.
Sailing dreams
At the time of the court ruling in October, Miss Dekker’s spokeswoman said she was disappointed, but that the teen could still set the record if she were to sail next year.
Miss Dekker is a seasoned sailor who was born on a yacht off the coast of New Zealand during a seven-year world trip.
She had a yacht by the age of six and began sailing solo when she was 10.
Her father, Dick Dekker, supports her attempt at the record, while her mother has expressed some concerns.
Miss Dekker had planned to spend about two years aboard her 26ft (8m) boat, Guppy, to break the record set in August by a 17-year-old UK boy.
Mike Perham tackled 50ft waves, gale force winds and technical problems during the 28,000 mile (45,000km) circumnavigation, which took him nine months.
20.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Four rare Northern White rhinos have been flown from a Czech zoo to Kenya, in a desperate attempt to save the species from extinction.
Animal experts hope the rhinos – two males and two females – will breed in their natural habitat in Africa.
Only eight Northern White rhinos are known to survive worldwide, all of them in captivity: six in the Czech Republic and two in the US.
The last four living in the wild in Africa have not been seen since 2006.
‘Dangerous’ plan
On Sunday, the four rhinos from the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic were packed into crates and loaded onto a Boeing 747 bound for the Ol Pejeta reserve in central Kenya as part of the “Last Chance to Survive” project.
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Moving them [the rhinos] now is a last-bid effort to save them and their gene pool from total extinction
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“We plan to give the remaining individuals with breeding potential their last chance of normal and regular reproduction in a secure location in the wild,” said zoo director Dana Holeckova.
Rob Brett, member of the African Rhino Specialist group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said: “Moving them now is a last-bid effort to save them and their gene pool from total extinction.”
“They are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and are thought to be extinct in the wild,” he added.
Attempts at Dvur Kralove to breed the animals have produced just one offspring in 10 years: a female rhino was born in 2000 and later dubbed the zoo’s “millennium child”.
It is now hoped that returning the rhinos to their natural habitat in Kenya will make the females more fertile and the males more interested.
However, the European Association of Zoos (EAZA) has expressed concerns that years in captivity makes the undertaking dangerous and unpredictable, the BBC’s Rob Cameron in Prague says.
Defenders of the plan reject that, saying they believe the animals’ genetic memory will quickly take over, our correspondent adds.
20.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Up to 100 people have been killed after a runaway truck ploughed into a crowded market in Nigeria.
Officials said 55 people died, but a BBC reporter at the scene, in Kogi state, counted at least 100 corpses.
Kogi state police said the lorry hurtled down a hill at speed, smashing cars and motorcycles then crashing into the market, injuring up to 40 people.
Traffic accidents are common in Nigeria because vehicles and roads are badly maintained.
“I can only confirm that 55 people were killed. The driver of the truck lost control and ran into a group of people moving in a procession along the road,” a senior police officer told AFP news agency.
Burned beyond recognition
Kogi state commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Yomi Asaniyan, said brake failure was the cause.
Declaring three days of mourning, Ibrahim Idris, the governor of Kogi state, expressed his sadness and offered to pay the medical bills of those injured.
Eyewitnesses told Nigeria’s Sunday Trust newspaper that the market in Allo village in the Dekina area was filled to capacity when it was rammed by the lorry.
A number of vehicles caught fire, burning people beyond recognition. It is not yet clear whether the accident happened on Friday or Saturday.
Last week, more than 20 people burned to death when a bus carrying mourners to a funeral collided with a truck on a road in Oyo state, south-west Nigeria.
