Charity in Haiti scandal draws U.K. ire
LONDON — The British government is reviewing its relationship with Oxfam during a deepening sexual-misconduct scandal involving some of the charity’s employees working in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The U.K.’s Department for International Development sharply criticized the charity for its lack of transparency as questions swirled about how much detail Oxfam provided when it first reported the allegations. The agency, which gave $43.8 million to Oxfam last year, demanded that Oxfam’s senior officials meet with it to explain their actions.
The Times of London reported Friday that misconduct allegations against seven former Oxfam staff members in Haiti included the hiring of prostitutes — some of whom may have been under 18 — and downloading pornography. It said Oxfam’s investigation into the charges was hampered by a “determination to keep it out of the public eye.”
Oxfam says it investigated the allegations in 2011. The charity confirmed it had dismissed four people and allowed three others to resign in the case after an investigation uncovered offenses including sexual misconduct, bullying, intimidation and failure to protect personnel.
Egypt says ISIS weapons, hideouts hit
CAIRO — Egypt said its warplanes struck militant targets Friday night in North Sinai, destroying weapons depots as ground forces raided militant hideouts, as part of a major offensive against the Islamic State in one of the group’s most enduring Middle East strongholds.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is running for re-election next month, ordered the offensive after Islamic State militants killed at least 311 people in a ruthless gun-and-bomb assault on a mosque in North Sinai on Nov. 24, in Egypt’s deadliest terrorist attack. Soon after, el-Sissi set a three-month deadline for the army to defeat the militants. The operation began Friday morning.
Although the military sought to prepare the Egyptian public for large-scale casualties, it provided scant detail on the operation. The main news release, issued in video form by the military, featured dramatic imagery and music but no information on the scale or the goals of the operation.
Those images — tanks firing shells, warplanes dropping bombs and armed boats sweeping through the seas — represent the kind of conventional warfare that Egypt’s U.S. allies have discouraged for years.
2 bodies found in quake-toppled hotel
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Search-and-rescue workers on Saturday found the bodies of two people believed to be members of a Chinese family trapped in a partially collapsed hotel in Taiwan, raising the death toll from last week’s earthquake to 14.
Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operation Center announced that rescuers found the bodies at the Beauty Inn.
The bodies were not identified, but Taiwanese state media outlets reported that they are believed to be members of a family of five Chinese tourists. Rescuers had been searching for the family since a magnitude-6.4 quake struck Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hualien county, a popular holiday destination.
The family included a couple, their 12-year old son, and two grandparents.
The death toll as of Saturday has risen to 14, with 280 people injured and three others still missing. Hopes of survivors have all but gone during the time that has passed since the earthquake.
Bus fall off Indonesia hill kills 27 riders
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A bus plunged from a hill while traveling on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Saturday, killing at least 27 people, police said.
Police Chief Muhammad Joni said 16 other people were hospitalized with injuries, some in critical condition, from the accident, which occurred on a winding slope in Subang district of West Java province.
He said the vehicle apparently lost power while going up a hill and rolled backward and hit a motorbike before falling into a grass field.
Television footage showed police, soldiers and medical personnel evacuating the victims from the upside-down bus, which was carrying more than 40 tourists. The bus was headed for Tangerang, a satellite city just south of the capital, Jakarta, from West Java’s Tangkuban Perahu, a popular mountainous resort.
Accidents are common on Indonesia’s poorly maintained roads.