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WORLD NEWSFriday 4 March 2016
Italy: 2 Italians kidnapped in Libya may have been killed
RAMI MUSA
NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) —
Two Italian construction
workers who were kid-
napped in Libya last July
may have been killed in
the North African country
during a clash between
militants from the Islamic
State group and local mi-
litias fighting them, Italian
authorities and Libyan offi-
cials said Thursday.
Online video suggests Syria motive in Moscow child murder
N. VASILYEVA
Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — A nanny
accused of decapitating
a 4-year-old girl and bran-
dishing her head outside
a Moscow subway station
said during an apparent
interrogation captured on
video that the killing was
an act of revenge against
President Vladimir Putin for
Russian airstrikes in Syria.
Asked about the video,
which was released Thurs-
day, Putin’s spokesman
said it was difficult to
judge the testimony of a
woman he called “clearly
deranged.”Gulchekhra
Bobokulova, 38, was de-
tained in Moscow on Mon-
day after the child in her
care was killed. Video foot-
age posted online Thurs-
day appeared to show
police interrogating her. It
was not clear where the
video originated, and The
Associated Press could not
verify its authenticity or the
circumstances in which it
was taken. She appeared
to be wearing the same
Palestinian girl stabs, lightly wounds Israel policeman
JERUSALEM (AP) — A
14-year-old Palestinian
girl stabbed and lightly
wounded an Israeli police-
man in a West Bank village
on Thursday while gunshots
fired elsewhere in the terri-
tory wounded another Is-
raeli officer, according to
Israeli authorities.
Police spokeswoman Luba
Samri said the stabbing
incident took place as of-
ficers were redirecting traf-
fic around a fallen tree on
Photographs of the nine
killed in the clash, including The ministry said it couldn’t government in the capi-
the two possible Italians,
were posted online after
the gunfight, which took
place on Wednesday near
the Libyan city of Sabratha.
Their identity has not been
definitively confirmed yet.
The Italian Foreign Ministry
said in a statement Thurs-
day that the families of
Fausto Piano and Salvatore
Failla have been informed
that their loved ones
In this frame grab made from the APTN footage, Gulchekhra Bobokulova from Uzbekistan ap-
pears in a court room in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 2, 2016. The 38 year old nanny is
accused of killing a 4-year-old girl and then waving the child’s severed head outside a Moscow
subway station. A Moscow court on Wednesday sanctioned her arrest for two months.
clothes she wore during
a court appearance on
Wednesday. In the video,
she says the killing of the
child was done in revenge.
Asked who it was revenge
a highway in the Palestin-
ian village of Al-Auja, in the dents were the latest in
Jordan Valley of the West
Bank.
The teen stabbed the offi-
cer in the shoulder, and he
ran after her and arrested
her without firing any shots,
Samri said.
Earlier, gunshots were fired
at a police car near a
Jewish settlement in the
West Bank, lightly wound-
ing another officer. Troops
searched the area for the
“could” be the two victims.
confirm the identities be-
cause officials do not have
access to the bodies.
The contested western Lib-
yan city of Sabratha has
been the scene of heavy
clashes recently.
Last month, the U.S. car-
ried out airstrikes against
an IS position there, killing bratha Media Center” said
dozens of militants as well
as two Serbian hostages.
Later in February, a militia
against, she says “the one
who has spilled the blood.”
Asked who that was, she
replies: “Who spilled it?
Putin has been dropping
bombs.” Russia has been
shooter. Thursday’s inci-
more than five months of
Israeli-Palestinian violence
that have resulted in the
deaths of 28 Israelis and at
least 170 on the Palestinian
side, the majority of whom
Israel says were attackers.
Also Thursday, the armed
wing of Islamic Hamas
movement said one of its
militants died accidentally
while working in an attack
tunnel in Khan Younis in the
loyal to the Islamist-backed way, 35 kilometers (22 miles)
south of Sabratha, killing all
tal of Tripoli said it arrested nine people in the vehicles.
the leader of the Islamic The bodies of the two Ital-
State branch for Sabratha, ians were later found, with
after the IS tried to take weapons in their hands,
over the city, storming its said the head of the media
security headquarters and center, Esam Krair.
beheading at least 12 mi- At first the militiamen
litiamen. On Thursday, the thought the two were from
head of the so-called “Sa- Syria because of their fair
skin — the others in the
the local militia fighting the convoy were from North
Islamic State ambushed African or had sub-Saharan
two IS cars in a desert high- African origins, said Krair.q
ous reports by international
aid groups that accuse it
of killing not only Islamic
State fighters but also Syr-
ian civilians. The Investiga-
(Vladimir Kondrashov/APTN via AP) tive Committee, Russia’s
top investigative agency,
carrying out airstrikes in would not confirm or deny
Syria for five months to sup- the authenticity of the vid-
port Syrian President Bashar eo, but spokesman Vladi-
Assad’s offensive against mir Markin warned that
rebels. Russian officials Bobokulova’s words should
have flatly denied numer- be treated with caution.
“The motive for a crime
committed by a person
who was diagnosed with
schizophrenia often does
not coincide with the ex-
planations that they give
later,” he said, adding that
investigators will look into
all possible theories.
Russian officials seem to be
sending mixed messages
about the suspect, focus-
ing on her mental record
but also suggesting that
she probably did not act
alone. Prosecutors told the
court Wednesday that in-
dividuals who may have
“incited” Bobokulova to
kill the child may still be at
large. q
southern Gaza Strip. destroyed more than 30
The Qassam Brigades iden- tunnels Hamas had dug
tified the dead as Moham- across the border to carry
med Astal, 31. It gave no out attacks against soldiers
further details. Fourteen and civilians. More than
Hamas militants have died 2,200 Palestinians, about
in tunnel collapses so far in two-thirds of them civilians,
2016. were killed in the 50-day
In the 2014 Israeli war with summer war. In Israel, 66
Hamas, attack tunnels soldiers and seven civilians
from the Gaza Strip into Is- were killed.
rael proved to be a greater The border area has since
threat than rockets fired remained largely quiet, but
from the coastal enclave. Hamas has boasted it has
Israel sent in troops who rebuilt its tunnel network.q