Caribbean Times 75th issue - Wednesday 23rd March 2016

22 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Wednesday 23rd March 2016
Deadly explosions rock Brussels airport and subway
Rob Ford dies after
fight with cancer
TORONTO — Rob Ford, the
pugnacious, populist former mayor
of Toronto whose career crashed in a
drug-driven, obscenity-laced debacle,
died Tuesday after fighting cancer,
his family says. He was 46. Ford rode
into office on a backlash against urban
elites. He cast an image sharply
at odds with Canada’s reputation for
sedate, unpretentious politics.
His tenure as mayor of the country’s
largest city was marred by revelations
about his drinking problems and
illegal drug use. He was repeatedly
videotaped and photographed while
intoxicated in public. His statements
and actions became nightly fodder for
TV comedians and an embarrassment
to many of the suburbanites he championed.
Nevertheless, he was later
elected by a landslide to a city council
seat. (Politico).
BRUSSELS - Bombs tore through
the main airport for the Belgian capital
and a subway station in central Brussels
on Tuesday, a day after authorities said a
suspect in the Nov. 13, 2015 Paris terror
attacks possibly the bomb-maker was
likely loose in the city.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attacks,
saying its extremists opened fire
in the airport and “several of them” detonated
suicide belts. The posting in the
group’s Amaq news agency said another
suicide attacker detonated in the metro.
It claimed the attack was in response
to Belgium’s support of the international
coalition arrayed against it. At least 36
people were killed in what Belgian federal
prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said
were “terrorist attacks” in the city, which
has been on high alert since the Paris carnage
last year.
At least one suicide bomber was behind
the two explosions at the airport. A
U.S. official told CBS News that at least
16 people were killed and dozens injured
in the blasts in the departure hall at Brussels
Airport. Belgian media reported that
gunshots were heard, and shouting in Arabic,
before the explosions.
Two sources confirmed to CBS News
KIEV - A Ukrainian pilot
has been found guilty in
Russia of charges relating
to the deaths of two Russian
journalists. Nadiya
Savchenko was sentenced
to 22 years in jail after being
convicted of directing
artillery fire which killed
them in eastern Ukraine in
June 2014.
She burst into a folk
style protest song in the
courtroom as she was finally
pronounced guilty after
the judge’s two day reading
of the verdict.
She denied all the
charges and her case has
become internationally
notorious. Ukraine would
never recognise the “so
called” verdict, President
Petro Poroshenko said,
describing the trial as “infamous”.
In a statement he
added that he was ready to
exchange Savchenko for
two Russian soldiers detained
in Ukraine for “their
participation in the armed
aggression” against the
country.
Savchenko has become
a national hero elected
as a Ukrainian MP while
in detention and scuffles
were reported in the courtroom
after members of a
that a Kalashnikov assault rifle was found
in the terminal, and there were reports
that an unexploded explosive device was
also found in the airport. About an hour
after the explosions at the airport, there
was a blast at the Maelbeek Metro station
in central Brussels, very near the U.S.
Embassy and European Union headquarters.
The Metro system was shut down.
All flights in and out of Brussels Airport
were cancelled, and all public transport
in the Belgian capital was also shutdown.
Eurostar trains in and out of Brussels
from the rest of Europe were also cancelled
Tuesday. Belgian Interior Minister
Jan Jambon raised the nation’s terror
alert to its maximum level in the wake of
explosions at the airport, indicating authorities
believed a terrorist attack to be
imminent. (CBS News).
Ukrainian pilot given 22-year sentence
Ukrainian delegation unfurled
a national flag.
Her lawyer, Nikolai
Polozov, told journalists
that she would “not appeal
against this illegal verdict”,
in which Savchenko was
also found guilty of illegally
crossing the border into
Russia and the attempted
murder of civilians. “She
is an iron person, she has
an iron will,” Mr Polozov
said, according to AFP
news agency. (BBC).