U.S. warns of threat to Uganda airport
KAMPALA, Uganda -- The U.S. Embassy in Uganda warned Thursday of a specific threat by an unknown terrorist group to attack the country's only international airport.
The embassy warned on its website of a possible attack Thursday at Entebbe International Airport south of Kampala, the Ugandan capital, between 9 and 11 p.m. local time, citing information obtained from Ugandan police.
The statement urged U.S. citizens traveling through Entebbe around that time to "review their plans in light of this information." There is a "continued threat of potential terrorist attacks in the country," with targets such as nightclubs and government offices, the statement said.
The warning from the embassy came the day after the U.S. government called for tighter security measures at foreign airports that have direct flights to the U.S. There are no direct flights from Uganda to the U.S. Most flights connect through Europe.
Dutch court says Black Pete offensive
AMSTERDAM -- An Amsterdam court ruled Thursday that the traditional figure known as Black Pete -- the sidekick to the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus -- is a negative stereotype of black people and the city must rethink its involvement in holiday celebrations involving him.
Black Pete is usually portrayed by white people in blackface makeup, with thick red lips and a frizzy Afro hairstyle. Opponents say that's a discriminatory caricature. Most Dutch people -- about 80 percent of whom are white -- are loyal to their holiday tradition, saying he is a harmless fantasy figure and that no insult is intended.
The court said Thursday that Black Pete's appearance, combined with the fact that he often is portrayed as dumb and servile, makes it "a negative stereotype of black people."
It also cited a publication by the country's national human-rights commission this week that found that white Dutch leaders frequently react with "irritation and dismissal" when questions of racial discrimination are raised, even though workplace discrimination is well documented in the Netherlands.
Amsterdam has begun discussing possible solutions, including using different colors of face paint for Pete, or merely smudging his cheeks with soot.
5 in U.K. sex-trafficking gang sentenced
LONDON -- An international trafficking network forced more than 120 eastern European women into prostitution, using violence and intimidation to operate brothels across London "on a commercial scale," police said Thursday.
Five members of the gang were sentenced Wednesday to between three and 12 years in prison for luring victims to Britain with false promises of legitimate work. The organizer, a 35-year-old Indian named Vishal Chaudhary, received 12 years. The women were forced to have sex with as many as 20 men a day.
"There was a high level of violence and a high level of sexual exploitation," said Detective Chief Inspector Mick Forteath. He said one woman was forced to perform "violent sex acts as a punishment" because she had left the brothel to get food.
The gang confiscated the victims' passports after they arrived in Britain, where they thought they would be working as baby sitters or in administrative or cleaning jobs after responding to online job postings.
Most of the women were from Hungary. Others were from Poland and the Czech Republic.
Protests mark year since Morsi's ouster
CAIRO -- A series of demonstrations and small bombings marked the anniversary Thursday of the ouster of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi, and authorities responded by arresting nearly 200 people as part of their crackdown against Islamists.
One of the bombs went off accidentally inside an apartment outside Cairo, killing two suspected militants who were handling the explosives, the Interior Ministry said. It said the men were in the apartment with two friends who fled after the blast in the Islamist stronghold of Kirdasah.
Morsi's supporters had called for mass protests a year after he was toppled by the military and detained, but the number of demonstrators at most places was in the hundreds -- or dozens -- evidence of the reluctance by Islamists to take on the security forces after a months-long crackdown that has killed hundreds and jailed at least 22,000.
Despite relatively small numbers, the protesters blocked some roads and chanted slogans against the military and President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former military chief who ousted Morsi after mass protests.
Several other bombs went off around Cairo, but no injuries were reported.
A Section on 07/04/2014