While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 2
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Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban after their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow.
PHOTO: AFP
Defiant Putin says West has ignored Russia's security concerns
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Tuesday of ignoring Russia's security concerns and deliberately creating a scenario designed to lure it into war.
In his first direct public comments on the Ukraine crisis for nearly six weeks, a defiant Putin showed no sign of backing down from security demands that Western countries have called non-starters and a possible excuse to launch an invasion.
"It's already clear now... that fundamental Russian concerns were ignored," Putin said at a news conference with the visiting prime minister of Hungary, one of several Nato leaders trying to intercede with him as the crisis has escalated.
Putin described a potential future scenario in which Ukraine was admitted to Nato and then attempted to recapture the Crimea peninsula, territory Russia seized in 2014.
22 dead, dozens injured as flooding hits Ecuador's capital
Firefighter rescue crews carry a body as they continue searching homes and streets covered by mud in Quito. PHOTO: REUTERS
PHOTO: REUTERS
The heaviest flooding to hit Ecuador in two decades has killed at least 22 people in Quito, inundating homes, swamping cars and sweeping away athletes and spectators on a sports field, officials said on Tuesday.
Twenty people are missing and 47 injured, Ecuador’s SNGRE emergency service said on Twitter.
Video footage showed torrents of water carrying stones, mud and debris down streets in the Ecuadoran capital, as rescuers helped inhabitants wade through the fast-running currents to safety.
UK police apologise for messages about rape, racist slurs
An investigation by Britain's police watchdog at one London station found a culture of bullying, racial discrimination, "toxic masculinity, misogyny and sexual harassment".
PHOTO: AFP
British police apologised on Tuesday after an investigation found that officers had discussed beating women and made racist and homophobic slurs and that one officer had messaged a female colleague to say he would rape her.
Confidence in London's police service has been shaken by a series of revelations in recent years, including that one of its officers stopped a woman, Sarah Everard, before abducting, raping and murdering her.
An investigation by the police watchdog into Charing Cross Police Station, less than a mile from London police headquarters, found a culture of bullying, racial discrimination, "toxic masculinity, misogyny and sexual harassment".
US university moves classes online after mass shooting threat
A major US university moved its classes online on Tuesday after a former philosophy lecturer posted a video apparently threatening a mass shooting on campus.
UCLA in Los Angeles told its 44,500-strong student body that classes would be held remotely after Matthew Harris put an 800-page screed and video on the Internet.
Harris was arrested in Boulder, Colorado, police chief Maris Herold told reporters.
Football: Aubameyang leaves Arsenal by mutual consent
Aubameyang's career with Arsenal has unravelled this season.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s sometimes tumultuous Arsenal career is over after the club confirmed on Tuesday that he had left by mutual consent, paving the way for an expected move to Spanish giants Barcelona on a free transfer.
The 32-year-old striker has not played for Arsenal since December after manager Mikel Arteta stripped him of the captaincy due to a “disciplinary breach”.
The Gabon international was also sent home early from their Africa Cup of Nations campaign after the Gabonese Football Federation said cardiac lesions were found in tests conducted in Cameroon following a positive Covid-19 test.
