Jordon premier to withdraw draft tax law
AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan's newly appointed prime minister on Thursday said he will cancel a controversial tax bill and reconsider the legislation in consultation with groups and political parties.
Omar Razzaz made the announcement after days of large public protests against the bill. Opponents had said the bill was unfair to the poor and middle class.
"The government will withdraw the draft tax law, after the formation of the government," Razzaz said at a meeting with union leaders.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting at his office, Razzaz said the economy has been hit hard by an influx of some 1.3 million refugees fleeing the war in neighboring Syria in recent years. He said the refugees have overwhelmed public services and inflated the ranks of unemployed.
"To also increase the tax bill in a way that did not involve enough consultation with the segments of society was a little bit hard to take," he said.
He praised both protesters and police for handling the protests without violence. He called on the international community to help Jordan cope with the refugee crisis.
King Abdullah II appointed Razzaz on Tuesday, replacing Hani Mulki, who quit amid the mounting protests against the tax plan.
Justices dismiss abortion law challenge
LONDON -- Britain's Supreme Court on Thursday criticized Northern Ireland's strict anti-abortion laws but dismissed a legal challenge.
A majority of the court decided that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which initiated the case, did not have the standing to bring the challenge to the abortion law. The court dismissed the case without taking action.
The justices went on to say, however, that a majority finds Northern Ireland's abortion prohibitions "disproportionate" and that they violate European human rights laws.
That part of the ruling gave hope to abortion rights activists seeking to liberalize Northern Ireland's laws.
Strict Northern Ireland laws that prohibit abortions in cases of pregnancy as a result of incest or rape, and in cases when the fetus has a likely fatal abnormality, have drawn scrutiny since the Republic of Ireland voted overwhelmingly in May to repeal its own strict laws.
When Ireland replaces the constitutional ban with more liberal legislation after a debate in parliament, Northern Ireland will be the only remaining region in Britain and Ireland to outlaw the procedure.
Germany arrests suspected militants
BERLIN -- German authorities have arrested four Iraqis suspected of membership in the Islamic State group, including one who is alleged to have carried out attacks that killed and wounded U.S. troops, officials said Thursday.
The men were arrested Wednesday in the western cities of Dortmund and Bottrop, and Amberg-Sulzbach county in Bavaria, the federal prosecutors' office said in a statement.
Among those arrested was Mohammed Rafea Yaseen Y., who is suspected of joining the Islamic State of Iraq group in his western hometown of Rutba in 2006. The 27-year-old Iraqi, whose surname wasn't provided due to German privacy rules, allegedly helped make improvised explosive devices and used them to carry out 12 attacks around Rutba between 2006 and 2008, prosecutors said.
U.S. troops were killed or wounded in the first 10 attacks, while Iraqi security forces and civilians were killed in the other two, according to the prosecutors' statement.
Markus Schmitt, a spokesman for the prosecutors' office, said Y., who was under 18 at the time of the bombings, would be tried as a minor for those attacks if the case goes to trial.
Uzbek convicted in truck death of 5
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- An Uzbek man who drove a stolen truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing five people and wounding 14 others, was convicted Thursday of terror-related murder and given a life sentence.
Rakmat Akilov had said he wanted to punish Sweden for joining a coalition against the Islamic State group. In January, he was charged with terror-related murder and attempted murder for the attack with a beer truck on April 7, 2017.
Those killed were a British man, a Belgian woman and three Swedes, including an 11-year-old girl.
Judge Ragnar Palmkvist said Akilov, 40, was the only suspect in the attack. Prosecutor Hans Ihrman called him a "security risk to society" during his trial at the Stockholm District Court.
Ihrman said he was satisfied with the ruling. Akilov's defense lawyer, Johan Eriksson, said he had talked with his client who was "disappointed" by the decision. Eriksson said Akilov didn't immediately decide whether to appeal and needed to read the 145-page verdict thoroughly first.
A Section on 06/08/2018