US police under fire for racist text messages and emails

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• US police have come under fire after authorities uncovered racist text messages and emails. The messages were exchanged between four officers in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. They referred to minorities as wild animals, used the N-word for African-Americans and described Arabs as rag heads.
• A French court has charged the main suspect behind the Paris terror attacks, Salah Abdeslam shortly after his extradition from Belgium. He has been charged with murder, association with a terrorist group, possession of weapons and explosives as well as sequestration. Abdeslam is believed to be the last surviving suspect of the attacks.
• Palestine’s envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour has condemned Israel for branding Palestinians opposing Tel Aviv as terrorists. He likened Israel to the Nazi Germany adding that Israel tries to paint Palestinians as terrorists only because they stand up to the its occupation.
• Iraqi authorities have canceled the operating license of Qatari-based satellite network Al Jazeera for violation of government guidelines. The offices of the channel in Baghdad have been shut down. Back in 2013, the Iraqi government accused Al-Jazeera of fostering sectarian sentiment that was fuelling violence. The channel has criticized the move.
• Bahrain has sentenced three more people to life imprisonment over alleged involvement in possessing explosives and damaging police vehicles in a case dating back to 2015. The move comes just a day after the regime imprisoned five others including four members of one family to life terms.
• At least five civilians, including a child, have been killed in a terrorist attack on the Syrian city of Aleppo. The Nusra Front terrorist group staged two mortar attacks on the north-western city. 35 people, including six children and four women, were also injured in the attacks.
• British lawmaker Naz Shah has been suspended from the Labour Party over her anti-Israel comments before being a member of parliament. On a 2014 Facebook post, Shah suggested that Israel be relocated into the US to solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
• UN Security Council has blacklisted an Indian-flagged cargo ship for illegally transporting crude oil from a Libyan port. UN said that the vessel was loaded with oil at a terminal in Tobruk on Monday. There were earlier reports that the tanker had been prevented from sailing to Malta by the Maltese authorities.

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