Missouri march seeks justice for black teen killed by police

n">(Reuters) - Activists protesting police treatment of black Americans concluded a 120-mile (190-km) march from Ferguson, Missouri to the Missouri governor's mansion on Friday, ending a 'journey for justice' tied to the police killing of an unarmed black teenager.
More than 100 protesters shouted "hands up, don't shoot" and other slogans as they rallied in the rotunda of the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
The demonstrators walked through a cold rain as they concluded a march that began Nov. 29 and was organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said in a statement Friday he had met with NAACP leaders and was "confident that together we can make meaningful change... and build a future of greater peace, opportunity and fairness for all.”
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said he would also meet with NAACP leaders later on Friday.
The civil rights group organized the march after a grand jury declined to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for shooting to death unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.
In an atmosphere at times reminiscent of the civil rights marches of the 1960s, the protesters said they encountered counter-demonstrators and hecklers along the way.
"For many, the fight has never ended," said NAACP staff member Jamiah Adams, who participated in the march.
In the small town of Rosebud, Adams said a group that included Ku Klux Klan members met the marchers with racist signs, epithets and fried chicken and watermelon, foods typically associated with racist stereotypes of black people. Someone broke a window of a bus accompanying the marchers in an incident that remains unexplained, she said.
The NAACP is calling for a number of changes, including the ouster of the Ferguson police chief, an end to racial profiling by police and the demilitarization of local police authorities.
Brown's Aug. 9 death, and the lack of charges against Wilson, have prompted expanding protests over what activists say is deeply engrained hostile treatment of African Americans by police, and an unequal justice system that refuses to hold police accountable.
In recent days, protests have spread to many major U.S. cities, after a grand jury in Staten Island decided not to indict a white police officer in the New York City borough in the death of a 43-year-old black man suspected of illegally selling cigarettes. Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold as officers tried to arrest him.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City, Mo.; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Christian Plumb)

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Ferguson police officer who killed black teen resigns from force

By Daniel Wallis and Edward McAllister
FERGUSON, Mo. Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:01pm EST

Officer Darren Wilson is pictured in this undated handout evidence photo from the August 9 Ferguson Police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, released by the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office on November 24, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office/Handout via Reuters
FERGUSON, Mo. (Reuters) - The white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in a St. Louis suburb has resigned, his lawyer said on Saturday, as activists set out on a 120-mile (193-km) march to protest the killing and a grand jury's decision not to indict him.
The resignation of Darren Wilson from the Ferguson, Missouri, police force comes nearly four months after he killed 18-year-old Michael Brown and days after the announcement that he would not face criminal charges.
The incident, which has led to months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson, has reignited a debate over race relations and the use of police force in the United States.
Neil Bruntrager, an attorney for Wilson, confirmed that the officer had submitted his resignation, a move that was long anticipated, no matter the outcome of the grand jury's deliberations.
"In terms of his safety, it is probably the best thing for him," said Cynthia Burnes, 26, a nurse's assistant from St. Louis who was among about 50 people gathered in front of the Ferguson police headquarters on Saturday evening. "He is black-listed from this moment on."
A man was arrested at the scene after he knelt in the middle of the street with his hands raised, chanting "Hands up, don't shoot," a common refrain at Ferguson protests.
In a letter published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wilson said he had been told that "my continued employment may put the residents and police officers of the City of Ferguson at risk, which is a circumstance that I cannot allow."
Wilson, who said he was acting in self-defense when he shot Brown, said he wanted to wait until after the grand jury's decision before he made his decision to resign, according to the letter.
After a night of arson and looting in Ferguson following the decision, demonstrations this week spread to other major U.S. cities, with some of the protests targeting shopping malls on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as the holiday shopping season got under way.
On Saturday, activists shifted gears by setting off on a seven-day march from Ferguson to Jefferson City, the state capital. The march, reminiscent of the civil rights marches of the 1960s, was organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The NAACP is calling for a reform of police practices, a new police chief in Ferguson and a national law to prevent racial profiling by police.
More than 150 people set out on the "Journey for Justice" from the Canfield Green Apartments, near the spot where Brown was shot and killed, with some marchers singing the decades-old protest song "We Shall Overcome."
Sandra Henry, 53, a registered nurse from St. Louis, said she was marching to press for reform of police practices.
"This isn't just about St. Louis. We are speaking for other cities, other countries too," Henry said.
All told, about 100 marchers were expected to make the entire journey, with about 1,000 expected to be part of the final leg of the march, said NAACP staff member Jamiah Adams.
By nightfall, a dozen people had gathered at the Ferguson police station, the scene of some of this week's worst riots. No police officers were standing out front but a small crew of national guard lingered in the back.
The shooting and its aftermath are taking a toll on the state's finances. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has called for the state assembly to convene for a special session to approve more funds for the Missouri Highway Patrol and the National Guard after months of protests over Brown's death.
In New York, activists rallied in Harlem on Saturday to draw parallels between Brown's death and what they see as other cases of unjustified police violence.
(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Mary Wisniewski in Chicago; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Clelia Oziel, Dan Grebler, Gunna Dickson and Clarence Fernandez)

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Friday's mosque attack killed 100, wounded 135 in Nigeria's Kano: state governor

KANO, Nigeria Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:27pm EST

Security and emergency agency staff investigate the Kano Central Mosque bombing scene in Kano November 29, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - A total of 100 people were killed in Friday's coordinated attack on the central mosque of north Nigeria's biggest city of Kano and 135 people were wounded, the governor of Kano state said on Saturday.
Rabiu Musa Kwankaso was speaking to reporters after visiting one of the hospitals treating the victims. Officials had said on Friday that 81 people had been killed in the attack.
Gunmen set off three bombs and opened fire on worshippers at the main mosque in Kano in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants, although the attack has not yet been claimed.
Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement fighting to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, regards the traditional Islamic religious authorities in Nigeria with disdain.
The targeted mosque is next to the palace of the emir of Kano, who is the second highest Islamic authority in Africa's most populous country and a vocal critic of Boko Haram.
In a bloody campaign of nearly six years the group has also targeted churches, schools, police stations, military bases and government buildings.
After Friday's attack President Goodluck Jonathan said the perpetrators would be tracked down.
(Reporting by Nnekule Ikemfuna; Writing by Julia Payne; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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Friday's mosque attack killed 100, wounded 135 in Nigeria's Kano: state governor

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KANO, Nigeria Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:27pm EST

Security and emergency agency staff investigate the Kano Central Mosque bombing scene in Kano November 29, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - A total of 100 people were killed in Friday's coordinated attack on the central mosque of north Nigeria's biggest city of Kano and 135 people were wounded, the governor of Kano state said on Saturday.
Rabiu Musa Kwankaso was speaking to reporters after visiting one of the hospitals treating the victims. Officials had said on Friday that 81 people had been killed in the attack.
Gunmen set off three bombs and opened fire on worshippers at the main mosque in Kano in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants, although the attack has not yet been claimed.
Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement fighting to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, regards the traditional Islamic religious authorities in Nigeria with disdain.
The targeted mosque is next to the palace of the emir of Kano, who is the second highest Islamic authority in Africa's most populous country and a vocal critic of Boko Haram.
In a bloody campaign of nearly six years the group has also targeted churches, schools, police stations, military bases and government buildings.
After Friday's attack President Goodluck Jonathan said the perpetrators would be tracked down.
(Reporting by Nnekule Ikemfuna; Writing by Julia Payne; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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About 400 killed in past six weeks of fighting in Libya's Benghazi: medics

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BENGHAZI, Libya Sat Nov 29, 2014 3:01pm EST

Black smoke billows in the sky above areas where clashes are taking place between pro-government forces, who are backed by the locals, and the Shura Council of Libyan Revolutionaries, an alliance of former anti-Gaddafi rebels, who have joined forces with the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, in Benghazi November 26, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Esam Omran Al-Fetori
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - About 400 people have been killed in six weeks of heavy fighting between Libyan pro-government forces and Islamist groups in Libya's second-largest city Benghazi, medical staff said on Saturday.
Backed by forces led by a former general, the newly formed government army launched in mid-October an offensive against Islamists in Benghazi, expelling them from the airport area and from several camps the army had lost during the summer.
In the past three weeks the fighting has centered around Benghazi's commercial port where pro-government forces say Islamists are holed up. The port has had to close, disrupting food supplies in the eastern city.
"The death toll has risen to 400," a source at a Benghazi hospital said, declining to be identified for security reasons. Medics at other hospitals in the city confirmed the estimated death toll.
The fighting in Benghazi is part of wider turmoil in the North African country. Two governments, each with their own parliament and army chief of staff are vying for legitimacy, three years after the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.
In August, Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and his cabinet were forced to leave Tripoli for the east of Libya when group called Libya Dawn seized the capital.
The new rulers set up their own government and parliament, but these have not been recognized by the United Nations and world powers.
The situation has been complicated by the Benghazi fighting where former general Khalifa Haftar has merged his force with the army under a mandate from the elected parliament, which is allied to Thinni and also operates out of the east.
Haftar's spokesman Mohamed El Hejazi said his forces had surrounded the Islamists in the port area. "All types of weapons including aircraft supporting the infantry are being used to deal with them," he said.
Western powers and Libya's neighbors fear the conflict is dragging the major oil producer towards civil war.
Haftar's forces have planes from Libya's outdated air force though his opponents say he is backed by Egypt which is worried about the spread of militants. Haftar denies this.
(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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