Prosecutors blame capsizing of migrant boat on its captain for colliding with rescue ship
CATANIA, Sicily (AP) — Prosecutors in Sicily say two actions are suspected to have caused a migrant boat to capsize in what is thought to be the Mediterranean’s worst migrant disaster.
In a statement Tuesday, Catania’s prosecutors said the smuggler captain, 27-year-old Tunisian Mohammed Ali Malek, mistakenly rammed his boat into the Portuguese-flagged merchant ship that had come to its rescue. And the prosecutors say the migrants themselves then shifted position on the boat, which was already off balance due to the collision.
The prosecutors say the death toll is still uncertain, noting that the passengers have spoken of anywhere between 400 and 950 people on board, while the crew of the rescue ship estimated some 850.
Only 24 bodies were recovered, while 28 people survived.
AP Exclusive: Bush preparing to delegate many functions of likely 2016 campaign to a super PAC
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Jeb Bush is preparing to embark on an experiment in presidential politics: delegating many of the nuts-and-bolts tasks of seeking the White House to a separate political organization that can raise unlimited amounts of campaign cash.
The concept, in development for months as the former Florida governor has raised tens of millions of dollars for his Right to Rise super PAC, would endow that organization not just with advertising on Bush’s behalf, but with many of the duties typically conducted by a campaign.
Should Bush move ahead as his team intends, it is possible that for the first time a super PAC created to support a single candidate would spend more than the candidate’s campaign itself — at least through the primaries. Some of Bush’s donors believe that to be more than likely.
The architects of the plan believe the super PAC’s ability to raise unlimited amounts of money legally outweighs its primary disadvantage, that it cannot legally coordinate its actions with Bush or his would-be campaign staff.
“Nothing like this has been done before,” said David Keating, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, which opposes limits on campaign finance donations. “It will take a high level of discipline to do it.”
Egypt court sentences ousted President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over 2012 killings
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian criminal court on Tuesday sentenced ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012, the first verdict to be issued against the country’s first freely elected leader.
The ruling, which can be appealed, reflects the dramatic downfall of Morsi and the drastic challenges facing Egypt since its 2011 uprising that forced longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power.
Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group swiftly rose to power in elections after Mubarak’s ouster, only to find themselves behind bars a year later when millions protested against them for abusing power and the military overthrew the government.
But as Mubarak and members of his government increasingly find themselves acquitted of criminal charges, Morsi and the Brotherhood are at the receiving end of heavy-handed sentences.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Ahmed Youssef issued his verdict as Morsi and other defendants in the case — mostly Muslim Brotherhood leaders — stood in a soundproof glass cage inside a makeshift courtroom at Egypt’s national police academy. Seven of the accused were tried in absentia.
Though part of China for 18 years, Hong Kongers resist mainlanders’ embrace, feel alienated
HONG KONG (AP) — All around Chow Tak-yee’s neighborhood in the working-class edges of Hong Kong, the 26-year-old can feel the spreading influence of nearby mainland China on the prosperous, open-minded city she’s always called home.
The children of mainland families now fill her neighborhood’s best schools, and she’s had to search for three months to find a classroom spot for her young son. Chow, who works as an accountant, and her electrician husband have to live at her in-laws’ cramped apartment, as a red-hot housing market flooded with Chinese investment prices out many young buyers. Sometimes, she can’t even find household goods in nearby stores, because Chinese traders buy them all up to sell at a mark-up in the adjacent mainland city of Shenzhen.
For Chow and many in this 7.2-million-person city, it all adds up to the feeling that Hong Kong is being forever changed by the 1.4-billion-strong country just a few miles to the north, where many feel life is cheaper and people are less educated.
“They’re interfering with the rules of Hong Kong society,” Chow said as her son played by her side during a visit to her childhood home, a two-bedroom apartment in a public housing estate.
Eighteen years after this world financial hub returned from colonial British control to Chinese rule, many say they feel more alienated and less trusting than ever of the central Chinese government and even the people visiting from across the border. That has presented leaders in Beijing with one of their biggest political headaches as they try to project a more unified, confident image abroad.
