Tag Archives: woman

Woman climbs base of Statue of Liberty, forcing evacuation

A protester is seen on the Statue of Liberty in New York, New York, U.S., July 4, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Danny Owens/via REUTERS

By Frank McGurty

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A woman climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday afternoon, forcing an evacuation of the New York Harbor island where the monument stands hours before Independence Day fireworks displays were scheduled to begin nearby.

The National Park Service was evacuating Liberty Island because of the standoff. The historic statue, a symbol of American freedom, is typically crowded with visitors on the July 4 holiday.

Television images showed a woman seated just above the stone pedestal on which the colossal, green-tarnished statue stands. Officers, using ladders, had climbed within a few feet of her and were negotiating with her.

“She is refusing to cooperate and our efforts to engage her are ongoing at this minute,” Sgt. David Somma, a spokesman for the National Park Service, told Reuters.

Emergency responders are seen as a protester climbs on the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York, New York, U.S., July 4, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Twitter/@sarah_eyebrows/via REUTERS

Emergency responders are seen as a protester climbs on the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York, New York, U.S., July 4, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Twitter/@sarah_eyebrows/via REUTERS

The parks service, which operates the Statue of Liberty National Park, could not confirm whether the woman was part of a protest, Somma said. Earlier, seven protesters were arrested on the island, he said without providing further details.

Those who were arrested had dropped a banner that read “Abolish ICE” from the statue’s base, a reference to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to media reports.

The agency is at the center of the Trump administration’s shelved policy of separating some immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexican border, leading to calls for its disbanding.

The New York Police Department said NYPD hostage negotiators were assisting the park service in attempting to persuade the woman to surrender.

The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, has become a worldwide symbol of the American values of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

It stands at the mouth of New York Harbor off lower Manhattan, in view of a spectacular fireworks show over the East River, presented every July 4 after nightfall.

At the same time, Jersey City will present a fireworks display at Liberty State Park along the Hudson River near the statue.

(Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Chris Reese)

Rape used as wide-scale weapon of war in Syria: U.N. report

Paulo Pinheiro, Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria (R), arrives with Karen Abuzayd, member of the Commission before the launch of their report on sexual and gender-based violence in Syria at the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland March 15, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – Syrian government forces and allied militias have raped and sexually assaulted women, girls and men in a campaign of war to punish opposition communities – acts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, U.N. investigators said on Thursday.

In a major report, they found that opposition groups in Syria’s protracted civil war had also committed crimes of sexual violence and torture although these were “considerably less common”.

The report also said Islamic State (IS) and other armed extremist groups have executed women, men and children on charges of adultery, forced girls into marriage and persecuted homosexuals.

The 29-page report by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, issued as Syria enters its eighth year of war, is based on 454 interviews with survivors, relatives, eyewitnesses, defectors, lawyers and medical staff.

Government forces raped civilians of both sexes during house searches and ground operations in the early stages of the conflict, and later at checkpoints and detention facilities, it said. The youngest known victim was a nine-year-old girl.

“Rape of women and girls was documented in 20 government political and military intelligence branches, and rape of men and boys was documented in 15 branches,” the report by the U.N. war crimes investigators said.

The independent experts led by Paulo Pinheiro – who have compiled confidential lists of suspects since 2011 – did not name individual perpetrators but said they had documented “numerous” cases of rapes by high-level officers.

Branches where rapes took place included Aleppo, Deraa, Homs, Hama and Damascus, as well as Sednaya military prison and the air force intelligence branch at Mezzeh military airport, both near the capital, the report said.

“Sexual violence against females and males is used to force confessions, to extract information, as punishment as well as to terrorize opposition communities,” the report said.

Victims suffered shame, depression, incontinence, impotence and miscarriages, and rejection by their families, it said.

The investigators found “no evidence of a systematic practice” on the part of armed groups to use sexual and gender-based violence to instill fear, but said that incidents had occurred in the context of sectarianism or revenge attacks.

Throughout Syria’s conflict, U.N. investigators had received allegations of extremist and terrorist groups imposing “mediaeval punishments on men accused of homosexuality”.

Women accused of adultery have been killed by stoning by the Islamist Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group, while homosexual men were thrown off a building by Jabhat al-Nusra jihadists, according to the report.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Heinrich)