Titles:

 

• 'Criminals' aged just 3: Children responsible for hidden crimewave, including rape and vandalism... and there's nothing police can do

• Libya: Muammar Gaddafi subject to ICC arrest warrant

• Sadr supporters ready for attacks on US troops
  

• Anti-government protesters in Yemen have held rallies, urging the departure of Ali Abdullah Saleh's sons and aides from the country
  

• Afghan Central Bank Chief Flees To US
  

•  Pakistan must prove it wants end to Afghanistan war: US

 

News Details:

 

'Criminals' aged just 3: Children responsible for hidden crimewave, including rape and vandalism... and there's nothing police can do

As many as 3,000 criminals, including rapists, robbers and burglars, escaped punishment last year because they were too young to be prosecuted. Children as young as three were identified by police as being responsible for a hidden crimewave across Britain.But they avoided criminal proceedings because they were aged below ten, when the Government says they become ‘responsible' for their actions.A survey of 30 of the 52 forces in Britain using Freedom of Information laws revealed 1,605 crimes were blamed on someone aged under ten in the last financial year. If the remaining 22 forces are added, including the Met where more than a sixth of all offences take place, the total is likely to reach more than 3,000.The catalogue of crimes included:
*Greater Manchester Police dealt with eight-year-olds suspected of sex assaults on other children in Tameside and Salford, as well as one allegedly behind a kidnapping in Rochdale.
*Police in Fife recorded 143 cases, including two eight-year-olds behind a rape in Levenmouth.
*Avon and Somerset Police logged crimes against five six-year-old boys, including a sex attack, vandalism and an assault.

 

Libya: Muammar Gaddafi subject to ICC arrest warrant
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of crimes against humanity. The court had grounds to believe he had ordered attacks on civilians during Libya's four-month uprising, it said. The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi's top aides - his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict. Anti-Gaddafi forces said on Monday they had launched a new push towards Tripoli, with heavy fighting near the strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam, to the south-west of capital.  The rebel defence minister told the BBC that forces opposed to Col Gaddafi may also make a move on the capital from the east.

 

Sadr supporters ready for attacks on US troops
Supporters of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr have offered to carry out suicide attacks against US troops in Iraq, his office said Saturday, as a year-end deadline for a US pullout looms. "Thank you, my dear friends, and God bless you," Sadr wrote in reply to the offer from loyalists of his disbanded Mahdi Army militia, a statement from his office in the central shrine city of Najaf said. The message came from "a group from the Mahdi Army who say they are ready to place themselves under his command to carry out suicide attacks to defend Islam and Iraq, targeting the occupying infidels without hitting civilians or public institutions," Sadr's office said.

 

Anti-government protesters in Yemen have held rallies, urging the departure of Ali Abdullah Saleh's sons and aides from the country
The protests were held across the country's cities, including in the capital Sana'a and cities of Ibb and Taizz, on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. The demonstrators also repeated their call for the resignation of Saleh, who fled to Saudi Arabia for treatment after a June 3 rocket attack on the presidential palace. In the form of a popular revolution, the rallies have been held in Yemen's major cities since late January, demanding Saleh's ouster besides calling for an end to corruption and unemployment.  The country has been facing months of political crisis triggered by Saleh's refusal to step down. "Saleh's orphans have to leave the country," demonstrators said, referring to Salah's sons Ahmed and Khaled.  Ahmed, who was widely suspected of inheriting presidency from his father, before the popular uprising started, heads Yemen's elite Presidential Guard. The force leads a brutal crackdown on the anti-regime protesters.  Khaled also enjoys sway over military units. They both greatly contributed to the survival of the unpopular regime during Saleh's absence.

 

Afghan Central Bank Chief Flees To US
Afghanistan's central bank governor has fled to the U.S. and is not expected to return because he fears for his safety after investigating allegations of mass fraud against the country's largest lender, according to two western officials.  Abdul Qadir Fitrat fled from Kabul to the U.S. about 10 days ago, one of these people said, after launching an investigation into Kabul Bank, which brought the nation's financial industry to its knees last fall. The lender's politically connected insiders, including shareholders, are suspected of borrowing some $850 million from the bank, or about 94% of its total loans.  Mr. Fitrat's departure is a blow to the International Monetary Fund's attempts to reform Afghanistan's financial and regulatory system, which center around dissolving Kabul Bank. The IMF submitted a package of financial reforms in April which have yet to be approved by Afghanistan, potentially putting billions of dollars of international donor money in jeopardy. The IMF suspended its financial assistance package to Afghanistan last year and many countries cannot donate to Afghanistan in its absence.  Mr. Fitrat didn't respond to repeated requests for comment. He was quoted Monday by Reuters news agency in an interview in suburban Virginia saying: "The reason I was not able to resign in Kabul was because my life was completely in danger." Mr. Fitrat's family lives in suburban Washington.

 

Pakistan must prove it wants end to Afghanistan war: US
Pakistan must prove that it wants an end to the war in Afghanistan by preventing militants from hiding out on its soil and attacking on the Afghan side of the border, the US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, has said.  Grossman said at a news conference in Kabul that discussions among Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States being held this week in the Afghan capital are important to coordinate efforts to find a political resolution to the nearly decade-long war, the Dawn reports. They also are an opportunity to clearly convey to Pakistani officials that part of their responsibility for bringing peace is to stop supporting insurgent safe havens and those who attack Afghans and international forces in Afghanistan, he added. The United States wants the Pakistan Government to participate positively in the reconciliation process, and Islamabad now has important choices to make in this regard, a foreign news agency quoted Grossman, as saying at the news conference.