Archive for category: News

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard was arrested on Monday on felony ethics charges, according to Acting Attorney General Van Davis.
 
Hubbard was charged with 23 felony ethics and is accused of using his office as speaker and his previous office as chairman of the Alabama Republican Party.

The 52-year-old Republican used his office to gain personal benefits in the run-up to the general election in which he is favored for re-election.

Hubbard, whose indictment is part of an ongoing statewide corruption investigation, said he did nothing wrong, calling the charges “a political witch hunt.”

However, he is charged with securing business for his media and printing firms in Auburn. He also faces charges of misusing his legislative position to help, the Auburn Network, one of his companies benefit.

In addition, the indictment accused him of soliciting former Gov. Bob Riley for assistance in finding clients for the Auburn Network.

In 1998, the Republican was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives and then was appointed as chairman of the Alabama Republican Party in 2007 and 2009.

He is now regarded as one of the most powerful politicians in the state of Alabama.

Also in August, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, was booked on two felony charges related to his handling of a local political controversy.

In July, New York State lawmaker Sen. Thomas Libous was charged with providing false information to FBI agents investigating whether he used his influence to get his son a job.

AT/AGB

Pilots of the German carrier Lufthansa have extended their strike to include long-haul flights, canceling nearly all flight at the Frankfurt International Airport.

German pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), expanded the strike to include long-haul services from 6:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) local time to midnight (2200 GMT) on Tuesday, after announcing a 35-hour industrial action at Lufthansa’s short-haul fleet on Monday.
An estimated 200,000 passengers are to be affected by the current walkout, which marks the ninth strike by the airline’s pilots since April.

The VC, which represents nearly 5,400 of Lufthansa Group’s 9,000 pilots, called on the airline to “abandon their hard-line attitude” and “make a contribution to the resolution of the labor dispute.”

The pilots are seeking a transition payment for those choosing to take early retirement.

“If Lufthansa remains obstructive and keeps on delaying this process, we will have to consider further strikes,” said Markus Wahl, a VC board member.

The airline, however, has so far refused to accept the demand, saying the current retirement scheme is no longer needed given an increase in life expectancy and a recent court ruling that allows pilots to work until the age of 65.

The Lufthansa strike follows a massive 50-hour walkout by German train drivers over the weekend.

German train drivers’ union had called for a five-percent pay raise for its drivers and the reduction of their working hours from 39 to 37 per week.

GMA/HSN/SS

Palestinians will join over 500 international organizations if the UN Security Council fails to approve a deadline for Israel to pull out from the occupied territories, says a Palestinian official.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official and the chief Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement on Tuesday that Palestinians will apply for membership at 522 international organizations and statutes if the UN fails to set the deadline.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said in an interview with the Associated Press on October 2 that the Palestinian national unity government had asked the UN Security Council to “force Israel to negotiate in good faith the end of occupation within a time frame.”

Mansour also stated that Palestinians expect the council to adopt a draft resolution that leads to the pullout of Israelis from the occupied Palestinian territories by November 2016.

The United States, Israel’s staunch ally, is highly likely to veto such a UN resolution.

Commenting on the latest Israeli military aggression against Gaza, the Palestinian official said Tel Aviv launched the war to destroy any solution for an independent and sovereign Palestine.

“Palestinians refuse to turn the Palestinian Authority, which was created to take them from being under occupation to independence, to a national authority to pay for salaries and security coordination (with Israel),” Erekat said.

He also urged Palestinians to act more efficiently in order for European countries to recognize Palestine’s sovereignty.

On October 3, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced during his inauguration speech in parliament that his administration would formally recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

IA/HSN/SS

Tunisians prepare to take part in the first parliamentary election since the country’s revolution in 2011.

The parliamentary election is scheduled to be held on October 26 and approximately 5.2 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots.

Over 13,000 candidates started their official electoral campaigns around three weeks ago for 217 seats in the North African country’s National Assembly.

The Islamist Ennahda movement and the secular Nidaa Tounes Party are expected to win the majority of votes in the upcoming election.

The parliamentary polls will be followed by an election in November, providing Tunisians with the opportunity to directly elect a president for the first time after Tunisia’s long-serving ruler, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was ousted in 2011. Ben Ali fled Tunisia in the aftermath of the country’s revolution and currently lives in exile in Saudi Arabia.

The country is now run by a government of independents who took the office in January after the collapse of the coalition government which included the Islamist Ennahda and two secular parties.

Earlier this month, Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa said his country arrested some 1,500 militants in an attempt to secure its transition to democracy.

“We managed to clamp down on terrorism and restore the strength of the security system. This is very important in order to proceed with the elections in a relaxed manner,” Jomaa said.

FNR/KA/SS

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has heaped praise on deceased senior cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, who headed Iran’s Assembly of Experts for three years.

“This great and pious man appeared always and everywhere in the position of a religious scholar and an honest politician and a candid revolutionary,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a message of condolences following Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani’s demise on Tuesday.

The Leader said Ayatollah Kani was an influential figure in the Islamic Republic and a true companion of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini.

Ayatollah Khamenei said Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani played his role “bravely” during the years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and spared no efforts in defending the revolution and the Islamic establishment.

Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also offered his condolences on the demise of Mahdavi Kani and declared two days of national mourning on the sad occasion.

In his message, the president said the Islamic establishment has witnessed the influential and brave role of Mahdavi Kani at sensitive junctures.

Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, 83, passed away in Tehran on Tuesday after he fell into a coma on June 4 due to a major heart attack.

The 83-year-old veteran politician was elected chairman of the Assembly of Experts in March 2011. The high-ranking body of experts elects and oversees the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

The senior Iranian official was also a founder and the leader of the Combatant Clergy Association, a prominent religious, cultural and political foundation formed with the objective of protecting the achievements of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

SF/KA/SS