Buenos Aires: Jorge Rafael Videla, an austere former army commander who led Argentina during the bloodiest period of a "dirty war" dictatorship and was unrepentant about kidnappings and murders ordered by the state, died on Friday at age 87.
Videla was the first president to head the military junta that "disappeared" thousands of suspected leftists from 1976 to 1983, and he spent his final years behind bars for human rights crimes including the systematic theft of babies born to political prisoners in secret torture centers. He died of natural causes in his jail cell in a prison outside the capital, Buenos Aires, a government spokesman said.
"Videla presided over a government that engaged in one of the most cruel repressions that we have seen in Latin America in modern times," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of Latin America for US-based Human Rights Watch. "He was arrogant to the end and unwilling to acknowledge his responsibility for the massive atrocities committed in Argentina," Vivanco added.
"Many of the secrets of the repression will die with him. "Rights groups say up to 30,000 people were "disappeared" - a euphemism for kidnapped and murdered - during the dictatorship, which began in March 1976 when Videla and two other military leaders staged a coup against President Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, the widow of former leader Juan Domingo Peron....
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Washington: Indian-American Srikanth Srinivasan inched closer to scripting history as the first South Asian judge after a key Senate committee confirmed his nomination to the DC Circuit Court, America's second highest. Described as "trailblazer" by US President Barack Obama, Chandigarh-born Srinivasan's nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was unanimously approved by the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. He was first nominated to...
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Boston: The lone-surviving Boston bombings suspect has claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attack in a note written on the wall of the boat he hid in, saying it was retribution for US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Boston bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, left a note in the boat he hid during a massive manhunt for the April 15 attack on the Boston Marathon that killed three people and...
10:50 PM, May 16, 2013
Washington: US President Barack Obama has forced the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service to resign amid furor over the tax agency's handling of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. "It's inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and...
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Tata Communications Ltd said on Wednesday it will delist from the New York Stock Exchange and terminate its American Depositary Receipts (ADR) programme. "Our decision to delist, deregister and terminate our ADR program was the result of several factors, including the fact that our ADR program had not developed the trading volumes we had initially hoped when we listed," Chief Executive Vinod Kumar said in a statement. Kumar said a...
05:45 PM, May 15, 2013
Moscow: Russia expelled a US diplomat on Tuesday after saying he had been caught red-handed with disguises, special equipment and wads of cash as he tried to recruit a Russian intelligence agent to work for the CIA. Apparently detained in an incongruous-looking blond wig, with props reminiscent of a schoolboy's spy kit, US Embassy Third Secretary Ryan Fogle hardly looked like a Cold War secret agent. But the announcement still...
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Washington: A professional US body of engineers has asked the Senators to reject any move to increase the number of H-1B visas, popular among Indian professionals, arguing that it has a damaging effect on American economy. In a statement issued on Monday, IEEE-USA - the largest American body of professional engineers asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject amendments to the comprehensive immigration bill that would increase H-1B temporary visa...
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Washington: A passenger was booted off an American Airlines flight en route from Los Angeles to New York Monday when she would not stop singing Whitney Houston's hit 'I Will Always Love You'. The plane's pilot made an unscheduled stop in Kansas City about halfway through the six-hour flight after passengers and crew complained about the woman's incessant singing. American Airlines spokesman Joe McBride told local Kansas City KCTV that...
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Washington: A US Marine officer will be court martialed for his alleged role in the scandal sparked by a 2011 video that showed American soldiers urinating on the corpse of a Taliban fighter. Captain James V Clement will be tried at a special court-martial for his alleged misconduct during a counter-insurgency operation in the vicinity of Sandala, Musa Qala District in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on or about July 27, 2011,...
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Pramerica spirit of community awards seeks to identify and recognize school children who are doing social service in their free time and making meaningful contributions. ...
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07:42 AM, May 03, 2013
