Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Thursday.
Police Accused Of Using Pepper Spray And Tasers At Student Protest In Warwick | ||
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A video of violence between police officers and students at a top English university has been posted on YouTube. The footage captures officers from West Midlands Police attending a protest at the University of Warwick on Wednesday. (See the video below.) The force has been accused of using "excessive force" at the national student protest, the Guardian says, which was arranged to fight rising tuition fees. It's been claimed that officers used CS (pepper) spray on the protesters and a taser was drawn but not fired. Postgraduate student Lawrence Green posted this photo: “The police came in and started pushing people around. They grabbed my friend by the scarf, and I tried to help her. “The police shouted: ‘Get back, get back or we’ll pepper-spray you’. I was then pushed back while they sprayed my face. They got me directly in the eyes. They also had Tasers and had their batons out. “They stood on my phone and I think that was to prevent me from filming and to damage any film I already had.” The police say officers were called after an alleged assault on a member of university staff. The suspect was arrested, alongside two others for obstructing police. The students were part of the Warwick For Free Education group. Its members say the sit-in was "peaceful". Helena Dunnett-Orridge describes: “They pushed people to the ground and grabbed a girl by the throat using her scarf. They also used CS spray in my friend’s face and had Tasers. They started physically pushing and carrying people out. They dragged me out with them.” The university has released a statement. It says security staff, who had been supervising the protest, were subjected to an "unprovoked act of violence" — which is why the police got called in. Warwick students had joined others around the country for the protest. Here's the footage:Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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European Markets Are Flat Ahead Of The ECB's Big Decision | ||
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European stocks are mostly flat ahead of the European Central Bank's announcement today at 12.45 p.m. GMT, followed by a press conference at 1:30 p.m. Here's the scorecard: France's CAC 40: +0.06% Germany's DAX is the best performer, +0.33% UK's FTSE 100: -0.01% Spain's IBEX: +0.12% Italy's FTSE MIB: +0.16% Asian markets rallied before close. Japan's Nikkei closed up 0.94%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 1.72%, and the surging Shanghai Composite Index closed up 4.31%. US futures are flat: The S&P 500 is down by 0.25 points, and the Dow is up 5 points. Today, the ECB meeting in Frankfurt is the biggest economic event. Analysts are expecting a lot of dovish noises, and hints at more easing, but less concrete action. At 1:30 p.m. GMT, we've also got initial jobless numbers from the US, for the week ending on Nov. 29. Analysts are expecting fewer than 300,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Poland unearths one of WWII's darkest secrets | ||
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Przemysl (Poland) (AFP) - Anastasia carefully digs through the earth with her trowel. Bit by bit, a human skeleton emerges, piled on top of more bones. She removes them with care, slipping them gently into a plastic container. Was it an Italian soldier? Or a Soviet? Identifying the bodies, while possible, is tricky. What is known is the man died in one of numerous stalags (German prisoner-of-war camps) where Red Army and Allied troops -- including Italians after Italy switched sides from the fascist camp -- were interned. The fate of the Italians who had been fighting alongside the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front is one of the war's many dark secrets. Treated as traitors by the Nazis after Rome surrendered, thousands were shot, worked or starved to death in the camps. Now, 70 years after the end of World War II, thanks to the excavations in eastern Poland, these unknown soldiers are getting a proper burial. Wearing white flu masks and jumpsuits, the dozen crew members sort the remains: shinbones to one side; vertebrae, ribs and small bones to the other. The skulls go elsewhere, packed in individual plastic bags. "It's the only way to count the exact number of victims," archaeologist Przemyslaw Kolosowski told AFP. He is in charge of the dig near former stalag number 327 of Przemysl-Pikulice, near the southeastern Polish city of Przemysl. The bones have ossified over the years, making it difficult to unearth victims one by one. In six weeks, the crew has dug up the remains of around 3,000 Italian and Soviet prisoners from eight mass graves in the area. - Italians seen as traitors - The remains are then moved to nearby Nehrybka, the site of a new military cemetery scheduled to open next year. Already buried there are the bodies of the 1,500 victims unearthed by the Polish branch of the Red Cross in 1963. "We don't know why they didn't check all the mass graves then. Maybe they didn't have the funds," says Adam Siwek from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, the state agency behind the excavations. "Today we're finishing up what should have been done long ago," he said. Most of the soldiers died of hunger or diseases brought on by the inhumane conditions in the stalag, according to Kolosowski. The din of metal rings out from the depths of the three-metre (10-foot) hole. Anastasia, a 23-year-old museology student from the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, has unearthed a tablespoon. Crudely etched into it is the camp arrival date: 30 IX 41 g. The date and the g for "god" -- or year in Russian -- show that the spoon belonged to one of the Soviet soldiers imprisoned after the Nazis attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941. "Personal items are extremely rare," says archeology student Mariusz Dziekonski. "The Germans buried most of the soldiers without any clothes." He points to a couple of small Orthodox crosses, a toothbrush, part of a Soviet-made comb, a few buttons and kopecks (Russian coins), plus the most precious objects: Italian and Soviet dog tags -- all but illegible. For now, only two names have been deciphered: those of Red Army soldiers Chernienko (no first name) and Vasily Bunko. The Italian troops arrived at the stalag in 1943, after Nazi Germany's ally, Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was deposed. He had sent around 230,000 soldiers to the Eastern Front to fight alongside the Germans. "The soldiers who refused to keep fighting for Hitler were sent to camps, where they suffered particularly cruel treatment at the hands of their former allies, who saw them as traitors," Kolosowski said. Farmer Stanislaw Hanczuk was surprised to learn of the mass grave in his field. "For years, we worked the land and planted wheat. Now it turns out we were doing it on buried bodies. Who could have known?" he asked. "At last we'll be able to live in peace and won't be asking ourselves whether any bodies are still down there." But 85-year-old villager Tadeusz Lelek is not convinced: "What's the use?" he said. "We should just let them rest in peace, right where they are." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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70 rebel attacks in east Ukraine: military | ||
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Kiev (AFP) - The Ukraine military reported Thursday more than 70 rebel attacks on its positions in the past 24 hours. The attacks took place across several parts of the frontline in eastern Ukraine, a military spokesman said, including in Lugansk and the airport in Donetsk, where the two sides have this week tried to put ceasefires in place. The claims could not be independently verified, but an AFP reporter in Donetsk city said there had been heavy fire, including the use of Grad rockets, throughout the night. A ceasefire agreed at the weekend is due to come into force on Friday in the Lugansk region -- one of two provinces under rebel control -- although local rebel leaders have said they are not happy with the terms. A truce at Donetsk airport was also agreed on Tuesday after negotiations between a visiting deputy head of Russia's ground forces and a senior Ukrainian general, but sporadic attacks have continued. The attacks come as US Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are due to come face to face at a meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Basel, Switzerland on Thursday, where Ukriane is set to dominate the agenda. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things You Need To Know In Markets This Morning | ||
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Good morning! Here's what you need to know. Toyota Is Recalling Another 190,000 Cars In Japan And China. Toyota will recall 190,000 vehicles in Japan and China to replace potentially defective front passenger-side air bags made by Takata Corp, the latest in a long line of recalls for the embattled auto safety parts supplier. Get Ready For The European Central Bank. At 12.45 p.m. GMT, the latest decisions from the ECB will be announced, followed 45 minutes later by an hour-long press conference with Mario Draghi. Analysts are expecting more dovish noises but less firm action from Frankfurt. Asian Markets Are Up. Japan's Nikkei closed 0.94% higher on Thursday, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng is currently climbing, up 1.39% from Wednesday's close. Several Samsung Mobile Executives Are Reportedly Quitting. Three deputies to the head of Samsung Electronics' mobile division are leaving, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as the world's largest smartphone maker faces a rapid decline in profit. Europe Will Struggle To Reform, But China Will Manage, According To Jamie Dimon. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon spoke in Washington Wednesday, saying that growth would be "sub-optimal" and reforms would be hard. Dimon added that Chinese authorities "can macro-manage and they can meet their short-term growth objectives, which is good for everybody else," according to Bloomberg. Yet Another Airline Is Getting Hit By Industrial Action. Pilots of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific were due to start work-to-rule action Thursday after long-running pay talks broke down, raising the prospect of delays and cancellations in the run-up to Christmas. The Fed's Contacts Suggest Shale Drilling Isn't Slowing, Despite The Oil Price Drop. The economy isn't yet seeing much response to the falling price of oil, but everyone is on the lookout for it. Drilling activity certainly doesn't seem to be slowing, according to the Fed's Beige Book. Brazil Hiked Interest Rates. The central bank lifted Brazil's benchmark interest rate to 11.75%, as investors expected, in an attempt to control inflation, according to the Financial Times. SoftBank Is Betting On An Uber-Style Taxi Service In Asia. Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank Corp has pumped in $250 million (£159.50 million) to become the top investor in Southeast Asian mobile taxi-booking application GrabTaxi, its biggest investment in a Southeast Asian Internet firm. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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