Tag Archives: Death

North Korea sentences South Korean reporters to death over review of book about country

SEOUL (Reuters) – A North Korean court sentenced two South Korean journalists and their publishers to death for “seriously insulting the dignity” of the country by reviewing and interviewing the British authors of a book about life in the North, its state media said on Thursday.

North Korea has previously issued harshly worded accusations against South Korean entities and individuals for allegedly violating its dignity, by slandering its leadership and its political system.

The book in English titled “North Korea Confidential” was authored by James Pearson, a Seoul-based correspondent for Reuters, and Daniel Tudor, former correspondent in South Korea for the Economist magazine.

The book, based on interviews with North Korean defectors, diplomats and traders, depicts a growing market economy where ordinary North Koreans enjoy access to South Korea music and TV dramas, fashion and smuggled Chinese and American films. Pearson wrote the book, published in 2015, before joining Reuters.

The Korean-language edition, published earlier this month with the title translated as “Capitalist Republic of Korea”, was reviewed by South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo newspapers.

A spokesman for the North’s Central Court said in a statement carried by the country’s official KCNA news agency that the book “viciously slandered the reality of the DPRK”, the initials for North Korea’s official name of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The book painted life in the country as increasingly capitalistic where money can buy power and influence, the spokesman said.

The South Korean journalists who reviewed the book “committed a hideous crime of seriously insulting the dignity of the DPRK with the use of dishonest contents” carried by “North Korea Confidential”, the court spokesman said.

The Central Court has ordered the execution of the journalists, Son Hyo-rim of the Dong-A Ilbo and Yang Ji-ho of the Chosun Ilbo, and the publishers of the newspapers. It also demanded the South Korean government investigate their crimes and punish them, the state media said.

The court statement did not make any mention of punishment for the book’s authors.

A Dong-A Ilbo representative said the newspaper declined to comment and its reporter Son did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chosun Ilbo reporter Yang declined to comment while a newspaper representative could not be immediately reached for comment. Tudor, the co-author of the book, declined to comment.

A Reuters spokeswoman declined to comment.

“Dong-A Ilbo, Chosun Ilbo and other conservative media in South Korea have so far committed smear campaign against the DPRK nonstop,” KCNA quoted the court as saying. “The criminals hold no right to appeal and the execution will be carried out any moment and at any place without going through any additional procedures.”

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Soyoung Kim; Editing by Neil Fullick)

‘We’ve got work to do’: Houston policeman’s last words to family

By Ruthy Munoz

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Houston police officer Steve Perez told his wife and family he had no choice but to drive through the torrential rains from Tropical Storm Harvey to get to his job, despite their worries about his safety.

“We’ve got work to do,” he told them before leaving.

He never made it.

Perez, a 60-year-old sergeant with more than three decades on the Houston police force, died in the flood waters after leaving his home on Sunday morning – making him one of at least 12 people killed since Harvey crashed into the Texas coast on Friday as a major hurricane.

City officials were preparing to shelter some 19,000 people as the slow-moving storm lingers over the state, with thousands more expected to flee the area as the flooding entered its fourth day.

“We have 6,500 employees and I’ve only been here nine months,” said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Tuesday in a news conference confirming Perez’s death. “But I knew who Steve Perez was because Steve was a sweet, gentle public servant,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

According to Acevedo, Perez left home Sunday morning over the objections of his wife and father-in-law, and tried for hours to find a safe path to work as heavy rains made many roads impassable. At one point he called his colleagues, suggesting he would try to work from another station.

But by roll call on Monday morning, when police noticed his continued absence, they launched a search, using divers and members of the volunteer Louisiana Cajun Navy who had helped with rescues in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

His body was found Tuesday morning, Acevedo said. An investigation determined he had driven off an overpass that was 16.5 feet (5 meters) high, and drowned in the waters below.

“I’ll simply say our hearts our saddened. We grieve for this family. We extend to them our prayers from the entire Houston community and, quite frankly, even beyond,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Tuesday.

Perez is survived by his wife Cheryl, a son, a daughter and his father-in-law, a Korean War veteran.

Acevedo said the department and the city will give Perez full honors. He is the 85th police officer to die in the line of duty in the United States this year, according to the Officer Down memorial page which keeps track of all law enforcement casualties across the United States.

(Reporting by Ruthy Munoz; Additional reporting by Brice Makini; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

More than a thousand turn Philippine funeral to protest against war on drugs

The flower-decked hearse of Kian delos Santos, a 17-year-old student who was shot during anti-drug operations, stops in front of a police station during the funeral march in Caloocan, Metro Manila, Philippines August 26, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Erik De Castro and Andrew R.C. Marshall

MANILA (Reuters) – More than a thousand people attended a funeral procession on Saturday for a Philippine teenager slain by police last week, turning the march into one of the biggest protests yet against President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

The death of Kian Loyd delos Santos has drawn widespread attention to allegations that police have been systematically executing suspected users and dealers – a charge the authorities deny.

Nuns, priests and hundreds of children, chanting “justice for Kian, justice for all” joined the funeral cortege as it made its way from a church to the cemetery where the 17-year-old was buried.

Delos Santos’ father, Saldy, spoke briefly during a mass to defend his son’s innocence and express anger over the police.

“Don’t they have a heart? I’m not sure they do. There’s a lot of churches, they should go there,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

Delos Santos was dragged by plain-clothes policemen to a dark, trash-filled alley in northern Manila, before he was shot in the head and left next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage.

Police say they acted in self defense after delos Santos opened fire on them.

The parents and lawyers of delos Santos filed a murder complaint against the three anti-narcotics policemen on Friday.

If accepted, the complaint would follow at least two cases filed last year against police over Duterte’s war on drugs, which has killed thousands of Filipinos, outraged human rights groups and alarmed Western governments.

Delos Santos’ flower-draped coffin passed through a major highway on a small truck decorated with tarpaulins reading “Run, Kian, Run” and “Stop the killings” displayed on each side. Passing motorists honked in support.

“This is a sign that the people have had enough and are indignant over the impunity that prevails today,” Renato Reyes, secretary general of left-wing activist group Bayan (Nation), said in a statement. “The people protest the utter lack of accountability in the police force.”

Mourners, some of them wearing white shirts, held flowers and small flags, and placards denouncing the killing.

A member of Rise Up, a Manila-based coalition of church-related groups opposing the drug war, told Reuters that families of about 20 victims joined the procession.

“I came to support the family. I want justice for Kian and all victims – including my son,” said Katherine David, 35, whose 21-year-old son was shot dead by police with two other men in January.

Department of Justice personnel armed with assault rifles were on guard during the procession and outside the church.

Most people in the Philippines support the anti-drug campaign, and Duterte remains a popular leader but questions have begun to be asked since the death of delos Santos, which came during a spike in killings across the Philippines’ main island, Luzon, last week.

(Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/2ixnYFu)

The president’s communication office reiterated on Saturday he will not tolerate wrongdoing by law enforcers and called on the public to “trust the justice system under the Duterte presidency.”

But bereaved mother David believes the response to Kian’s killing marks a turning point in opposition to the drug war.

“There’s been a big change. Before, police could kill and nobody paid attention. Now people are starting to show support and sympathy,” she said.

 

(Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

 

Suspected Boko Haram militants kill 15 in Cameroon

DOUALA, Cameroon (Reuters) – Suspected Boko Haram militants sprayed a village in remote Cameroon with automatic fire, killing 15 people and kidnapping eight others in an overnight raid near the Nigerian border, several officials said on Friday.

The attackers burned down around 30 houses in Gakara village, just outside the town of Kolofata, which has been a frequent target of suicide bombings by the Islamist group.

A government source on the ground said that 15 people had been killed, all shot dead except one who was burned alive, while another 30 had suffered bullet wounds. The mayor of Kolofata and a senior military source confirmed that an attack had taken place but did not know the death toll.

Boko Haram attacks have killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 2.7 million during the group’s eight-year insurgency to carve out an Islamic caliphate in the Lake Chad region.

“The attack happened around midnight. The Boko Haram assailants arrived. They set 32 houses on fire … killed, pillaged, and traumatized the population,” said a district official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak.

Many people fled the village for a camp near Kolofata that houses thousands displaced by Boko Haram violence, he said.

(Reporting by Josiane Kouagheu; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Shot and dumped by a pigsty: a schoolboy killed in Philippines drugs war

Neighbours play cards at the wake of Kian delos Santos, a 17-year-old student who was shot during anti-drug operations in Caloocan, Metro Manila, Philippines August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao

By Andrew R.C. Marshall and Neil Jerome Morales

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine teenager Kian Loyd delos Santos told friends he dreamed of becoming a policeman after graduating from high school.

Last week, plain-clothes policemen dragged the 17-year-old to a dark, trash-filled alley in northern Manila, shot him in the head and left his body next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage.

The killing has electrified the Philippines, sparked multiple investigations and galvanized what had previously been limited opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Thousands of people have been killed since he took office 14 months ago.

Police said they shot delos Santos in self-defense after he opened fire on officers during an anti-drugs operation. But there was outrage when the CCTV footage emerged showing two officers marching a figure, subdued and apparently unarmed, toward the spot where the youth’s body was later found.

Three officers, who police say have been confined to quarters in a Manila police camp, are now defending their actions in a Senate inquiry that began on Thursday. They maintain delos Santos fired at them.

The teenager’s parents and the Philippines Public Attorney’s Office, a government legal aid agency, have filed murder charges against the policemen at the justice department.

“Let us allow the formal criminal investigation to proceed and not rush into conclusion or judgment. Let us allow the personnel involved to have their day in court and defend themselves,” Philippines National Police spokesman Dionardo Carlos said when asked about the case.

Reuters journalists spoke to at least two dozen witnesses, friends and neighbors of delos Santos in Manila’s Caloocan area about his killing.

They said he was a kind, popular teenager who liked to joke around and didn’t drink or do drugs. He was too poor to own a gun, they said.

“We no longer have our joker,” said one of his friends, Sharmaine Joy Adante, 15.

She said delos Santos had wanted to join the police so that his mother, who works in Saudi Arabia, could afford to live in her own country.

Nearby, at the entrance to his family’s tiny home, delos Santos lay in an open coffin. Among the tributes placed on its lid was a crumpled playing card – a joker – and a live chick to symbolically peck away at the conscience of his killers.

Some locals said they feared reprisals from the police for speaking out and asked Reuters to withhold their second names.

SLAPPED, PUNCHED, PUT IN A HEADLOCK

It was after 8 p.m. on August 16 when Erwin Lachica, 37, a welder, said he saw three men in civilian clothes enter the area on two motorbikes. All three had handguns tucked into their waistbands, he said.

Lachica recognized them as officers from previous police operations in the neighborhood. They were later identified as Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz.

According to a police report issued a day after the killing, when the teenager saw officers approaching, he immediately drew a weapon and shot at them. Oares, who led the operation, returned fire and killed him, it said.

“It was dark, he fired at us,” Pereda told the Senate inquiry this week. “We knew it was a gun, there was a loud sound. We saw a gleam of light.”

Police have cited self-defense as the pretext for killing more than 3,500 people in drug-war operations since Duterte came to power.

Lachica had a different version of events. He said delos Santos was standing outside a shop when the men grabbed him, and then slapped and punched him until he started crying. No gunbattle took place, he said.

“He was saying he was innocent, he was not a drug addict,” added Lachica, who said the men put delos Santos in a headlock and dragged him away.

CCTV footage from a neighborhood security camera shows two men marching someone, his head bowed, through a nearby basketball court. A third man follows.

The officers told the Senate that they were indeed in the video but were bundling away an informant, not delos Santos. Multiple witnesses, however, told Reuters they recognized the youth.

One of those witnesses was Victor, a teenage student, who said he knew delos Santos because he lived in the neighborhood. He said the men hustled delos Santos across the basketball court and down a path to the filthy, flood-prone Tullahan River.

Victor dared not follow. “We were very scared,” he recalled, his eyes filling with tears.

Delos Santos’ life ended in a dark nook next to a disused pigsty by the river. A few paces away, a 39-year-old construction worker called Rene was eating dinner with his two daughters in his home.

First, said Rene, he heard shouting – a man ordering residents to stay inside their houses – then two bursts of gunfire, perhaps 10 shots in all.

“We hid under the table,” he said. “We didn’t even peek out the window.”

Three other residents told Reuters they heard between seven and nine shots. Others said they heard nothing at all: Manila slums are seething, raucous places, where even gunfire can be drowned out.

KILLING STRIKES A CHORD

Autopsies by the police and the Public Attorney’s Office disagreed on the number of gunshot wounds delos Santos sustained, but pathologists for both told the Senate that he was kneeling when shot.

“You are not allowed to kill a person that is kneeling down begging for his life. That is murder,” Duterte said in a speech on Wednesday.

Duterte’s supporters have taken to blogs and social media to express support for the police and raise doubts about delos Santos’ innocence.

But the killing appears to have kindled grave concerns among the public because of the age of the victim and because the video supported witness accounts of his killing.

It has also fueled longstanding public anxiety about the drug war’s brutal methods, and could generate wider opposition to a campaign whose critics have so far been largely limited to priests, activists, lawyers and a handful of prominent politicians.

Still, Duterte remains popular, said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Manila-based Institute for Political and Electoral Reform.

“It’s not really a tipping point,” he said. “But Duterte is vulnerable. His popularity will take a hit.”

Delos Santos’ death was the culmination of a spike in killings across the Philippines’ main island, Luzon.

That same night, police shot dead at least 28 people in Manila during multiple operations to crack down on drugs and crime. Two nights before that, in Bulacan province, just north of the capital, police killed 32 people.

Some rights activists saw the upsurge as a government bid to regain credibility lost after Duterte’s recent admission that no president could solve the drug problem in a single term. He had originally vowed to end it within six months of taking office.

Many critics question the drug war’s focus on killing petty users and dealers from poor communities, rather than nabbing the kingpins who supply them with crystal meth, a highly addictive stimulant known locally as ‘shabu’ that officials blame for high crime rates and other social ills.

In a speech this week, Duterte said he had told his police chief to jail the officers involved in the delos Santos killing until an inquiry was conducted. He also vowed to continue the drug war.

“If you want, shoot me. But I will not change my policy,” he said later.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told Reuters that there were lessons to be learned from the events.

“Kian’s case is a wake-up call for the need to reform government institutions, even law enforcement agencies,” he said.

For a graphic on death of a schoolboy, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/PHILIPPINES-DRUGS/010050JX18M/index.html

(Additional reporting by Karen Lema, Manuel Mogato and Chin Samson; Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Yemen air strike kills 12, including six children, witnesses say

People carry the body of a woman they recovered from under the rubble of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Yemen August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

DUBAI (Reuters) – An air raid struck a building in Yemen’s capital on Friday, killing 12 people, six of them children, when an adjacent apartment block collapsed, residents said.

Residents and rescuers dug frantically through debris after the attack on the Faj Attan area of Sanaa, retrieving the bloodied, dust-covered bodies of several children, some of whom appeared to be less than 10 years old.

Chunks of masonry lay strewn beside gaping fissures in walls that revealed the apartments’ shattered interiors.

People at the scene told Reuters the warplanes were from a Saudi-led Arab coalition, which has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in a war that has lasted more than two years and killed at least 10,000 people.

“The air force of the countries of the American-Saudi aggression carried out a hideous massacre against the citizens in Faj Attan,” an official Houthi movement website said.

Residents said the strike did not target the apartment house where people were killed, but instead hit a vacant building next to it. The apartment house contained eight flats and appeared to have wooden ceilings, a witness said.

The buildings are in the vicinity of a military base housing missiles that has been a frequent target of air raids since the war began in 2015.

The Houthis and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control much of the north of the country, including Sanaa. Yemen’s internationally recognized government is backed by the Saudi-led military alliance and is based in the south.

The United States and Britain provide arms and logistical assistance to the alliance for its campaign. The issue has caused controversy in Britain over the toll on civilians.

In addition to striking military targets, air strikes have hit hospitals, infrastructure and port facilities, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for an independent investigation into air strikes by the coalition on a hotel near Sanaa on Wednesday. Those attacks killed more than 30 people.

The hotel was a guest house usually used by farm workers, said William Spindler, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. Among those killed were five people displaced from elsewhere in Yemen, he said.

The coalition said that its review of Wednesday’s attack showed that those killed at the hotel were Houthi fighters, not civilians.

Some two million people have been displaced by the war, according to the UN.

“We remind all parties to the conflict, including the Coalition, of their duty to ensure full respect for international humanitarian law,” U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell said.

In the week to Thursday Aug. 24, 58 civilians were killed in Yemen, “including 42 by the Saudi-led coalition,” with the rest attributed to unknown armed men and to the Popular Committees affiliated with the Houthi rebels, she said.

There was no immediate word from the coalition on Friday’s raid.

(Reporting by Reuters, additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva,; Writing by Reem Shamseddine and William Maclean; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Larry King)

Finns want tougher immigration policy after knife attack, poll shows

FILE PHOTO: People attend a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of Friday's stabbings at the Turku Market Square in Turku, Finland August 20, 2017. Lehtikuva/Vesa Moilanen via REUTERS

HELSINKI (Reuters) – An increasing number of Finns want the government to get tougher on immigration after last week’s knife attack by a Moroccan asylum seeker that killed two women and wounded eight other people, an opinion poll showed on Thursday.

Friday’s stabbings in the city of Turku have been treated as the first suspected Islamist militant attack in Finland, which boasts one of the lowest crime rates in the world. However, the main suspected has denied terrorism was a motive.

Some 58 percent of Finns want the government to tighten immigration policy and give police and other officials extra powers to prevent future attacks, according to the poll, which was taken after the attack and published by the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti.

A similar poll in April showed only 40 percent supported stricter policies.

Finnish police have detained four men and arrested two in connection with the Turku killings. An international arrest warrant has been issued for a fifth.

The main suspect, who is in custody, has been named as Abderrahman Mechkah, an 18-year-old Moroccan. He told a court he was responsible for the attack but denied his motive was terrorism.

At the time of the attack, Mechkah was appealing against a decision on his application for asylum, which apparently was denied.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila has urged the parliament to fast-track a bill that would give authorities new powers to monitor citizens online.

Some officials have also promoted establishing better-controlled “return centers” to monitor more closely those who had been denied asylum.

The poll showed 80 percent of Finns supporting both proposals.

(Reporting by Tuomas Forsell, editing by Larry King)

U.S. Navy relieves Seventh Fleet commander in wake of collisions in Asia

FILE PHOTO: Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, U.S. 7th Fleet Commander, speaks to media on the status of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald, damaged by colliding with a Philippine-flagged merchant vessel, and the seven missing Fitzgerald crew members, at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan June 18, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File photo

By Phil Stewart and Tim Kelly

WASHINGTON/TOKYO (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy on Wednesday said it had removed Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin after a series of collisions involving its warships in Asia as the search goes on for 10 sailors missing since the latest mishap.

Aucoin’s removal comes after a pre-dawn collision between a guided-missile destroyer and a merchant vessel east of Singapore and Malaysia on Monday, the fourth major incident in the U.S. Pacific Fleet this year.

“Admiral Scott Swift, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, today relieved the commander of Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the U.S. Navy said in a press release.

Swift, who traveled to Japan to relieve Aucoin, ordered his deputy Pacific Fleet commander, Rear Admiral Phil Sawyer, to immediately take command of the powerful U.S. force.

Aucoin was due to step down next month, with Sawyer, a submariner by trade, already slated to succeed him. Aucoin came up through the Navy’s air wing as an F-14 navigator.

“I support Admiral Swift’s decision to bring in new leadership. The new Seventh Fleet Commander must help move his team forward, focusing efforts on safe and effective operations,” U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said in a statement.

The Seventh Fleet, headquartered in Japan, operates as many as 70 ships, including the U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, and has around 140 aircraft and 20,000 sailors.

It operates over an area of 124 million square km (48 million square miles) from bases in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

TENSE TIMES

The accident involving the USS John S. McCain and the tanker Alnic MC in the Singapore Strait came at a tense time for the U.S. Navy in Asia.

This month, the John S. McCain sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built by China in the disputed South China Sea, the latest “freedom of navigation” operation to counter what the United States sees as China’s efforts to control the contested waters.

An official Chinese newspaper said on Tuesday the U.S. navy’s latest collision shows it is becoming an increasing risk to shipping in Asia despite its claims of helping to protect freedom of navigation.

Also this month, North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles towards the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam in a standoff over its nuclear and missile programs.

“Losing another ship now is bad timing. It may raise concern over America’s defensive capabilities and it could send the wrong signal to North Korea and China,” a senior Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force officer said, asking not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

An international search-and-rescue operation involving aircraft, divers and vessels from the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia is looking for the 10 U.S. sailors missing since Monday’s collision.

On Tuesday, U.S. Navy and Marine Divers found human remains inside sealed sections of the damaged hull of the USS John S McCain, which is moored at Singapore’s Changi Naval Base. The Navy has not yet announced the identities of the bodies discovered.

The U.S. Navy is also working to identify a body found by the Malaysian navy about eight nautical miles northwest of the collision site. Photos posted on the Twitter account of a Malaysian navy frigate on Wednesday showed crew carrying what appeared to be a body to a U.S. Navy helicopter.

The latest collision has already prompted a fleet-wide investigation and plans for temporary halts in U.S. Navy operations.

The John S. McCain’s sister ship, the USS Fitzgerald, almost sank off the coast of Japan after colliding with a Philippine container ship on June 17. The bodies of seven U.S. sailors were found in a flooded berthing area after that collision.

(Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO, writing by Sam Holmes and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait and Himani Sarkar)

Journalist killed by gunmen in Mexican state of Veracruz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Gunmen shot dead a reporter in the violent Mexican state of Veracruz on Tuesday, authorities said, bringing to at least nine the number of journalists killed in the country this year.

Reporter Candido Rios and two other men died after being shot by the unknown assailants in the municipality of Hueyapan in the south of Veracruz, local police said in a statement.

Murders have risen significantly in Mexico during the past couple of years, and 2017 is on course to be the bloodiest year on record, underlining the failure of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government to tame the violence.

Aggravating the problem for Pena Nieto have been attacks on journalists, which have prompted some world leaders to express concerns about the matter during visits to Mexico.

Rios, who worked at the newspaper Diario Acayucan, had reported threats against his life and was registered on a national program to protect journalists, said Jorge Morales, head of a local media protection group known as the CEAPP.

According to a tally kept by Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group, eight journalists had been killed in Mexico during 2017 before the death of Rios.

A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office in Veracruz said it was investigating the killing of Rios but declined to give details over what motivated the attack.

Veracruz, a state in the Gulf of Mexico with important trafficking routes fought over by drug gangs, has become notorious for the murder of journalists in the past few years.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Tamara Corro; Editing by Michael Perry)

Spain to review police response to Barcelona attack amid questions

Spain to review police response to Barcelona attack amid questions

By Angus Berwick and Julien Toyer

BARCELONA (Reuters) – Regional police in Spain may have missed an opportunity to uncover a militant plot ahead of last week’s deadly Barcelona attack due to procedural errors and a lack of communication among investigators, two police sources and two individuals close to the investigation said.

The errors and miscommunication centered around a major blast on Aug 16, the eve of the attack, at a house where suspected Islamist militants were making explosives, the sources said.

For several hours, Catalan police did not link the explosion to militancy and so no public alarm was raised, before an accomplice drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13 people in Spain’s deadliest attack in more than a decade.

Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, also took 10 hours to send bomb experts to the scene of the explosion in a town about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Barcelona, the region’s capital, delaying the discovery of the militant cell, the sources added.

The sources declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue or because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

A judicial source said that, as part of the investigation into the attacks, police would look at whether a lack of coordination or information-sharing had contributed to the delay in discovering links between militancy and the explosion.

The source said police needed to complete the investigation before reaching any conclusions about possible errors.

Mossos chief Josep Lluis Trapero told reporters on Monday that it was unfair to criticize his force with the benefit of hindsight.

“Now, with all the information that we have, yes, it is easier to make the link, but that’s playing dirty and it deceives people,” Trapero told a news conference.

In response to Reuters questions about the agency’s handling of the attack, a spokesman for the Mossos declined to comment and referred to Trapero’s comments at the press briefing.

INITIAL CONFUSION

According to the Mossos, another suspected member of the bomb-makers’ militant cell, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, had begun to mow down pedestrians in the central walkway of Barcelona’s most famous avenue, Las Ramblas, at around the time bomb experts determined the real cause of the blast.

A bomb squad should be called immediately to the scene of such an incident given the possibility it could be linked to terrorism, a judicial source said.

The Mossos also did not promptly pass information on the blast to the national police and to Madrid’s Civil Guard, viewed as Spain’s most experienced anti-terrorism force, said sources from both police forces.

Despite the criticism, Spanish and Catalan authorities have publicly praised the Mossos for its response to the attacks.

All of the known suspects are now arrested or dead, with police on Monday killing the van’s driver, Abouyaaqoub, after four days on the run.

“Great job Mossos!” Spain’s national police said on its Twitter account.

The head of Catalonia’s regional government also praised the service.

“I want to thank the Mossos d’Esquadra for their efficiency. They’ve shown great professionalism, in close coordination with the rest of Catalonia and the state’s security forces,” Carles Puigdemont said after Abouyaaqoub was killed.

A Civil Guard spokesman declined to comment on coordination with the Mossos and the investigation. The Civil Guard’s main union said in a statement on Tuesday that they had been excluded from the investigation. The spokesman declined to comment on this.

LOCAL PRIDE IN THE MOSSOS

The sources said the Mossos normally coordinated efficiently with the national police, barring occasional minor problems, and could not explain why these procedures had not been followed.

The Mossos has said it first suspected a gas leak or narcotics laboratory was to blame for the blast, which tore through the house near midnight. Police had noticed butane gas cylinders and acetone, a compound used in laboratories to produce drugs.

Some terrorism experts have speculated that if the Mossos had discovered the presence of militants at the house in Alcanar more quickly, it might have had time to raise the alarm and perhaps even foil the van attack in Barcelona.

Salvador Burguet, chief executive of Spanish intelligence firm AICS, which works with anti-terrorism authorities in several countries, said police “could have linked the explosion with an Islamist terrorist cell.

“But that didn’t happen, and they lost a lot of time,” said Madrid-based Burguet, adding that his remarks were based on information he gathered from his own police sources.

Had police immediately sent the bomb squad to the Alcanar house, Burguet said, they would have quickly detected signs of Islamic State’s signature explosive, TATP, and the coffee filters used to strain the solution.

The Mossos says it now believes explosives accidentally ignited, killing two of the three militants inside the house.

They belonged to what police have said was a 12-member cell which decided after the explosion on a less elaborate attack than the one they were apparently planning: drive a rented van into the Las Ramblas crowds and stage a similar attack in the coastal resort of Cambrils, south of Barcelona.

On Tuesday, a Spanish judge ruled that one of the four arrested suspects be released on certain conditions, while another remain in police custody pending further investigation. The judge jailed the other two.

In Cambrils, a car rammed passers-by and its occupants got out and tried to stab people. The five assailants, who were wearing what turned out to be fake explosive belts, were shot dead by police. A Spanish woman was killed in that attack.

Islamic State, the militant group under siege in Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility for both attacks, although its direct involvement has yet to be established.

Catalonia’s government, which plans to hold a referendum on independence in October, says the Mossos are capable of acting effectively without the central government’s help.

In the past, Catalonia’s government and police have bristled at the fact that the Mossos has been excluded from international meetings on terrorism because they are not a national force.

Since the attack, the Catalan and national governments have sought to put aside the issue of independence to present a united front, although a day after the attack, national and Catalan authorities held separate crisis meetings.

Barcelona residents have expressed pride in the Mossos, sometimes applauding uniformed officers spontaneously in the street. The Mossos officers will lead an anti-terrorism demonstration on Saturday in place of Catalan politicians.

(Editing by Mark Bendeich and Mike Collett-White)