Live: Breaking news, traffic and travel across Teesside

The Evening Gazette's live breaking news blog brings you regular updates, pictures, video, tweets and comments covering the latest Teesside and North Yorkshire traffic, travel, weather, crime and council news for today, Monday 24 February, 2014.

You can contribute to the live blog by posting your comment below, and you can also tweet us @EveningGazette to share breaking news stories, pictures and opinions.

Our Teesside breaking news live blog begins at 07:00am every weekday and is updated throughout the day and into the evening.

Israeli settlers attack homes of villagers east of Qalqilya

Dozens of extremist Israeli settlers attacked on Saturday evening houses of residents of the village of Jit east of Qalqilya in the North of occupied West Bank.

According to human rights activist Zakariah al-Saddah, more than 30 settlers from “Havat Gelad” settlement, including gunmen, attacked houses in the village, pelted them with stones, and terrorised women and children, threatening to break into the houses while its residents were inside.

Al-Saddah pointed out that masked settlers smashed two vehicles owned by citizens who came from outside the village. A number of young men confronted the assailants with stones, in the presence of the army.

Al-Saddah explained that “Havat Gilad” is inhabited by extremely radical and terrorist settlers. It dispatches paid gangsters to vandalise Palestinian villages.

Movie review: Only Lovers Left Alive (15)

23 Feb 2014 20:23

Set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangier, an underground musician, deeply depressed by the direction of human activities, reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover.

Only Lovers Left Alive starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston

There's regrettably little room for imagination or humour in today’s failing breed of ‘found footage’ horror films.

But don’t despair. Veteran writer-director Jim Jarmusch has an old-fashioned antidote – a lovingly-constructed vampire saga set against a backdrop of Detroit’s decay.

Two chaps are gently discussing a guitar, but could one of them really have seen Eddie Cochrane play?

The answer is a very neat joke discussed between reclusive multi-instrumentalist, vampire and technophobe Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and his sole zombie (human) friend Ian (Anton Yelchin) who is asked to source a wooden bullet.

Meanwhile, the enigmatic Tilda Swinton, as pale and white haired as you might expect Adam’s wife Eve to be, is in Tangiers.

She’s set to meet the long-haired, bearded John Hurt – a man who can’t disguise his famous voice in the quite the same way when greeting ‘Mistress Mine’ an hour before sunrise.

“How is the fabulous Christopher Marlowe tonight? says Eve.

“I’ve told you a thousand times, never call me that name in public,” replies the man who was given his waistcoat in 1586.

“Are you saying we can never let the cat out of the bag?” Eve asks before flying back to Detroit. “It would cause such thrilling chaos...”

Trouble ensues when Eve’s sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) arrives to disturb Ian’s mind when he’s already worried that scientists have contaminated their blood.

“I’ve been living in LA,” Ava tells Ian. “Great!” he replies. “Zombie central.”

A touch mannered at times but blessed with lovely lines like ‘We don’t want to stay up all day!’, Only Lovers Left Alive was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year.

Its filmic style, quirks and humour make this the best vampire movie for five years since Tomas Alfredson’s original Swedish thriller Let The Right One In.

Al-Azhar Sheikh Mazhar Shaheen: Cutt off hands of Ikhwan and crucify them, ban students from studying who opposes coup

The pro-coup Al-Azhar Sheikh Mazhar Shaheen demanded the application of Sharia against the Muslim Brotherhood by “cutting off their hands, crucifying them, and sending them to exile.”

In an interview with the military-controlled Tahrir channel, Shaheen called for including the punishments of “crucifying and cutting off hands and legs” among criminal punishments in the “Anti-terrorism law.”

Shaheen also called for banning students affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood from continuing college, because of their role in instigating protests.

Morsi tells Sisi: You shall be brought to account and severely punished

President Mohammed Morsi was today permitted to make a statement from within the detention cage inside the court, which is presided over by Judge Sha’ban Al-Shami, the head of Cairo criminal court – which is looking into the case of the storming of Wadi Al-Natroon Prison. He said: “Abdul fattah Al-Sisi, who presides over the military coup d’etat that took place in the country will be called to account before God and will also be tried before the entire people who will show in mercy to him. He will be punished several for what he did to the country. He mobiles the military, the army, inside the country without permission from the supreme commander of the armed forces. This is considered an abhorrent crime committed against this people.”

The president sent his greetings to the Egyptian people saying: “My greetings to the entire people. I would like to say to you continue your peaceful demonstrations. I am with you. We shall prevail despite the conspirators who are allied with the Zionists.” This is what the Middle News Agency reported.

Source: Rassd, MEMO

Christian mob kills 3 Muslims in C. African Republic

Three Muslim civilians have been shot dead by a group of angry Christians in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The three were travelling in the Combattant neighborhood near the airport in the capital Bangui when an angry mob stopped their taxi and killed them brutally on Saturday.

“It was extraordinarily violent. They were executed in cold blood,” a witness said.

A Spokesman for the French army, headquartered in the Bangui M’Poko International Airport along with forces of the African Union (AU), confirmed that three bodies were found in the area.

He also said the French soldiers fired warning shots to force the crowd away from the corpses.

Many believe the French troops, known as the Sangaris, turn a blind eye on Christian militia, an accusation Paris rejects.

France invaded its former colony on December 5 after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution giving the AU and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.

There are many mineral resources, including gold and diamond, in the Central African Republic. However, the country is extremely poor and has faced a series of rebellions and coups since it gained independence in 1960.

NT/NN/AS

Zionism to end up in dustbin of history: Barrett

The Israeli regime’s enormous sway over the US government has inadvertently caused a backlash that will eventually send Zionism into the “proverbial dustbin of history,” says an analyst, Press TV reports.

“The expression ‘Israeli-occupied territories’ normally refers to Palestine. But more and more Americans are speaking out about the ‘Israelification’ of the USA – and wondering whether their country, too, is occupied,” wrote Kevin Barrett in a column on Press TV’s website on Monday.

Barrett then referred to an upcoming annual event by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), due on March 2 to 4 in the US, to celebrate the “Zionist domination of American politics and media.”

He noted, however, that, “Anti-AIPAC sentiment is spreading throughout all segments of American society.”

“Even the American Jewish community, once a bastion of near-monolithic support for Israel, now includes a rising chorus of anti-Zionist voices,” he wrote.

Barrett went on to point to several alleged reactions by Israeli officials to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, in which over 3,000 people were killed.

“Israeli’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated 9/11 with the ecstatic outburst: ‘It’s very good!’ Then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon crowed: ‘We… control America, and the Americans know it!’ Mossad kingpin Mike Harari allegedly boasted of orchestrating 9/11 at the celebratory party he threw in Bangkok, Thailand, immediately after the attack on America, according to eyewitness Dmitri Khalezov.”

“But these and other Zionist celebrations of the 9/11 coup d’état were premature,” said Barrett.

“While the Zionists achieved their near-term goals – beginning with a US attempt to destroy ‘seven countries in five years’ on behalf of (the so-called) Greater Israel (scheme) – they inadvertently provoked a backlash that will eventually sweep Zionism into the proverbial dustbin of history,” Barrett concluded.

Intelligence analyst Gordon Duff has also pointed to alleged Israeli involvement in the 9/11 attacks in the US, saying that AIPAC has been trying to “suppress” a revealing 28-page section of a classified Congressional report on the attacks that reportedly points to Israeli involvement.

The 9/11 incident involved a series of coordinated attacks in the United States, primarily targeting the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

According to the official account by the US, during the 9/11 attacks, 19 “al-Qaeda terrorists” hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and crashed two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others in the buildings.

The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC.

The United States, under former President George W. Bush, attacked Afghanistan to remove the Taliban regime, which Washington accused of harboring the “al-Qaeda” terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks.

HJL/HJL

Denmark bans halal slaughter

Denmark is likely to lose millions of dollars in trade and tourism revenues following its ban Monday on slaughtering animals in accordance with Islamic standards.

Halal (Islamically slaughtered) beef and poultry products are imported in large quantities by Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf countries. In fact, around 55 percent of Danish exports to the Kingdom are food-based. The controversial decision is poised to have a drastic effect on the Danish market since the country is likely to come under a comprehensive boycott as it has on more than one occasion in the past.

The Danish government has already come under fire by religious rights groups in Denmark. Danish Halal, a nonprofit group, has described the ban as a “clear infringement of religious freedom.” The ban has also been branded “anti-Semitic” by Jewish leaders.

Dan Jorgensen, Danish food minister, responded to the criticism on Denmark’s TV2, saying “Animal rights come before religion.”

The decision effectively ends the sale of halal products, much to the anger of residents across the Kingdom.

Sources at the the media department of the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) have said that the ban should be lifted with immediate effect, saying that it would strain bilateral trade between the two countries, estimated at SR6 billion. Fahd Mohammed Al-Hammady, chairman of the National Committee for Contractors at the CSC, told Arab News that he staunchly opposes the ban on halal stuff.

“This is sheer hypocrisy on their part. They slaughter giraffes in public to feed lions, yet they ban the slaughter of meat in accordance with religious standards, which is a clear infringement of religious freedom,” said Taha bin Saeed, a Saudi citizen. A tour operator at the Fursan Group said that Denmark could have received a large number of tourists thanks to the Schengen visa, which enables non-EU nationals to travel freely to 25 European countries. The ban, however, will definitely make Saudi and Arab tourists reluctant to visit the country and will have a negative effect on tourism, said one agent.

Source; Arab News

Ukraine crisis exposed West’s double standards: Egypt MB

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has criticized the West for its double standards in dealing with the political crisis that has erupted in Ukraine and the crisis in the African country.

In a statement posted on its website on Friday, the group compared Western countries’ swift response on Ukraine to their failure to end the bloodshed in Egypt.

The statement pointed to the threat of sanctions by the US and European Union against Ukraine, and a warning by the White House to the Ukrainian army to remain neutral, saying it was frustrated with the lack of focus on Egypt.

“This reveals the West’s double standards when dealing with the Ukrainian crisis and the Egyptian crisis,” the statement said.

The Muslim Brotherhood has also criticized Western officials for supporting the military-installed government in Egypt.

Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since last July, when the army ousted the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament. It also appointed head of the Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mahmoud Mansour as the new interim president.

Earlier in the day, Egyption security forces fired tear gas and birdshot at anti-government protesters during nationwide demonstrations in many cities across the country.

Protesters denounced what they called the comic trial of Morsi. They also protested against Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s possible bid to run for president.

At least one student was killed in clashes between the riot police and anti-government protesters in the city of Deir Mawas in Minya province.

The interim government has launched a bloody crackdown on Morsi’s supporters and arrested thousands of Brotherhood members, including the party’s senior leaders.

PG/MHB/MAM