Dad killed 'peadophile after seeing video of him raping daughter' - Metro.co.uk

Vyacheslav M (inset right) is said to have killed Oleg Sviridov (inset left) in rvenege (Picture: east2westnews)

A father accused of stabbing his friend to death in Russia should not face a murder charge because the victim allegedly raped his eight-year-old daughter, locals have said.

The man, identified as 34-year-old Vyacheslav M, was held after the body of Oleg Sviridov, 32, was found in woodland near the village of Vintai in Samara on Thursday, September 2.

Local reports say the two men were drinking together after work and eventually fell asleep, before Vyacheslav woke up and began scrolling through the Sviridov’s phone.

He reportedly attacked his friend after seeing a video of him forcing his daughter to perform a sex act.

The victim managed to stumble out of the house, but Vyacheslav is said to have gone after him again the following day finding out he was accused of raping someone else’s daughter in the same village.

He later handed himself in to police saying the dead man ‘ran into his knife during an argument’.

Vyacheslav remains in custody while a murder probe is underway.

Criminal investigations have also been launched into the clips filmed on the victim’s phone. They are said to include sex attacks on other young girls dating back five years.

Sviridov (left) pictured with his former friend Vyacheslav (right) (Picture: east2west news)

Russian law enforcement are working near the Vintai village (Picture: east2west news)

Villagers and social media users said Vyacheslav should not be charged with murder.

One said: ‘He is not a murderer- he protected his daughter and our children too. Everyone is on his side.’

Prominent TV journalist and former Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak told her followers: ‘All parents are standing up for the paedophile’s killer.’

Another commenter, Anna Plekhanova, said: ‘If the crime is proven by video facts, then is the girl’s father wrong?

‘Any normal parent, mother or father, would have torn apart such a paedophile right on the spot.

‘Protecting children is the direct responsibility of parents.’

The village is in the Samara region of Russia (Picture: east2west news)

Police are investigating the clips found on Sviridov’s phone (Picture: east2west news)

Yulia Salinder added: ‘It’s good that he killed the bastard because our law would have put him in jail for only eight years – or even less – and he would be out again.’

Sviridov’s mother said her son had often been a babysitter for Vyacheslav’s children.

The two men had been long-time friends, she added, saying: ‘I don’t know how it got to this.

‘He must have been drunk. Most likely he was drunk. They left their children with him all the time.

‘When he was baby-sat these girls, he came back home as normal, in a good mood.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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2021-09-04 14:23:00Z
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US cash funded Wuhan virus lab's research to make diseases more deadly, new book says - Daily Mail

US cash funded controversial Wuhan virus lab where research to make diseases more deadly was backed by Dr Anthony Fauci, new book says

• Wuhan Institute of Virology was 'creating a database of potentially lethal viruses'
• Shi Zhengli, aka the 'batwoman', collected thousands of coronavirus samples 
• The lab had funding from National Institutes of Health, led by Dr Anthony Fauci 
• Revelations feature in What Really Happened in Wuhan: the Cover-Ups, the Conspiracies and the Classified Research, by Sharri Markson

By Laurence Dollimore For Mailonline

Published: 11:59 BST, 4 September 2021 | Updated: 12:58 BST, 4 September 2021

The US was funding China's controversial Wuhan laboratory as it embarked on a secretive project to identify deadly viruses with pandemic potential, a new book has claimed. 

According to What Really Happened in Wuhan: the Cover-Ups, the Conspiracies and the Classified Research, by Sharri Markson, the Wuhan Institute of Virology was creating a database of potentially lethal viruses with the help of Shi Zhengli - aka 'batwoman'. 

Ms Zhengli, who earned her nickname sampling thousands of bats in remote caves, collected 19,000 samples while at Wuhan, with 2,481 of those containing coronaviruses. 

Her work was all part of China's own version of the Global Virome Project (GVP). 

The GVP was supposed to be an international collaborative effort to identify within 10 years all of the planet's viruses which have pandemic or epidemic potential in humans. 

In a cable sent to the State Department in April, diplomat Rick Switzer made clear how the National Institutes of Health (NIH), headed by Dr Anthony Fauci (pictured), was funding research at the Wuhan lab - which included experimenting with coronaviruses

But during a visit to the Wuhan institute in March 2018, US career diplomat Rick Switzer - alongside US consul-general Jamie Fouss - found that China had launched its own version - in a lab with poor safety practices and no US oversight. 

And in a cable sent to the State Department in April, Mr Switzer made clear how the National Institutes of Health (NIH), headed by Dr Anthony Fauci, was funding the research at the lab - which included experimenting with coronaviruses. 

The cable read: 'NIH was a major funder, along with the National Science Foundation of China, of Sars research by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.' 

It added: 'In the last year, the institute has also hosted visits from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation and experts from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.' 

The Galveston branch also trained Wuhan lab technicians while the US National Science Foundation had just finished a workshop with the Wuhan Institute in Shenzhen involving 40 scientists from the US and China.

But despite the US's help in funding and training the lab and its technicians, few international researchers were welcome to work inside the facility.

'Institute officials said there would be "limited availability" for international and domestic scientists who had gone through the necessary approval process to do research at the lab,' Switzer's cable stated. 

In his book, Markson commented: 'So a laboratory working with the most lethal pathogens known to humankind had effectively cut off collaboration with the international community.'  

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was creating a database of potentially lethal viruses with the help of Shi Zhengli - aka 'batwoman' (pictured) 

Despite the US's help in funding and training the lab and its technicians, few international researchers were welcome to work inside the facility (Pictured: Aerial shot of Wuhan lab)

When the coronavirus pandemic emerged in late 2019, the work of the lab and Zhengli in particular came under intense scrutiny - with many, including US President Donald Trump, suggesting the institute was the source of the Covid-19 outbreak. 

Zhengli would address the claims in February 2020, saying: 'Those who believe and spread rumours, shut your dirty mouth.' 

China 'kicked French partners' out of controversial Wuhan virus lab 

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was built in conjunction with the Jean Mérieux BSL-4 Laboratory in Lyons, France, and billed as a beacon of international scientific collaboration. 

It was to be China's first high-containment laboratory.  

Construction began in 2004 and took 11 years and $44million to complete. 

Spread out over 3,000sqm and covering four floors, it was accredited in February 2017 by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment, and began working on live viruses by 2018.

There were 'intense clashes' between the French and Chinese during construction - and strong objections among the French to France's involvement in the project. 

After the lab was up and running, the French were quickly kicked out.

A cable sent to the US State Department in April 2018 by diplomat Rick Switzer read: 'It is entirely China-funded and has been completely China-run since a "handover" ceremony in 2016'.

Source: What Really Happened in Wuhan: the Cover-Ups, the Conspiracies and the Classified Research

In a post on WeChat, China's version of Twitter, she added that Covid-19 was 'nature’s punishment for uncivilised living habits of human beings.'

She added: 'I, Shi Zhengli, use my life to guarantee that it has nothing to do with our lab.'

Zhengli had been conducting controversial 'gain-of-function' research, which attempts to make viruses more infectious and deadly, often to humans. 

It has been carried out by researchers across the world, who say it helps predict pandemics by identifying viruses which can become infectious to human beings - allowing them to pre-emptively start work on vaccines and medicines.

But the Cambridge Working Group, made up of 200 scientists, released a letter in 2014 warning of the risks involved in the work. 

They wrote: 'Laboratory creation of highly transmissible, novel strains of dangerous viruses, especially but not limited to influenza, poses substantially increased risks. 

'An accidental infection in such a setting could trigger outbreaks that would be difficult or impossible to control. 

'Historically, new strains of influenza, once they establish transmission in the human population, have infected a quarter or more of the world’s population within two years.' 

The US even halted such research in 22 fields in 2014, with the White House saying in a statement on October 17 of that year: 'During this pause, the US government will not fund any new projects involving these experiments and encourages those currently conducting this type of work — whether federally funded or not — to voluntarily pause their research while risks and benefits are being reassessed.'

Dr Fauci supported the move at the time, but argued: 'The benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks. 

'It is more likely that a pandemic would occur in nature [than as a result of a laboratory accident or leak], and the need to stay ahead of such a threat is a primary reason for performing an experiment that might appear to be risky.'

The pause on the research in the US was lifted in 2017. 

A year later, the Wuhan lab started working with live viruses. 

Prior to the pandemic, only two labs in the world were carrying out gain-of-function experiments on coronaviruses, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.  

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2021-09-04 10:59:37Z
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New Zealand supermarket stabbing: Government to toughen anti-terror laws - BBC News

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has vowed to toughen anti-terror laws following Friday's knife attack in Auckland by a man who was under police surveillance.

"We must be willing to make the changes that we know may not necessarily have changed history, but could change the future," she said at a news briefing.

The man, a Sri Lankan national, stabbed seven people in a supermarket. Three of them are in a critical condition.

The attacker, a known supporter of Islamic State, was shot dead by police.

Ms Ardern, who described the stabbings as a "terrorist attack", said she expected that changes to the country's counter-terrorism legislation would be backed by parliament by the end of September.

The attacker had been arrested a number of times before Friday's incident. But Ms Ardern said that every legal avenue to keep him out of the community had been exhausted.

How did the attack unfold?

It happened at the Countdown supermarket at LynnMall in the Auckland district of New Lynn on Friday afternoon.

A surveillance team and a specialist tactics group had followed the man from his home to the supermarket. But while there were concerns about the him, officials said they had no reason to think he was planning an attack on Friday, and the team believed he was going to do his grocery shopping.

After entering the store, however, the attacker got hold of a knife and went on a stabbing spree.

Reuters

Shopper Michelle Miller told local news outlet Stuff that the man was "running around like a lunatic" and attacking people.

"All I heard was a lot of screaming," she said.

"[People were] running out, hysterically, just screaming, yelling, scared," another witness said, adding that he saw an elderly man lying on the ground with a stab wound.

Witnesses also said the attacker had shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest).

Police commissioner Andrew Coster said said police rushed over upon hearing the commotion and shot and killed the attacker when he charged at the officers with the knife. This happened within 60 seconds of the attack.

What do we know about the attacker?

The man, whose identity cannot be revealed due to court suppression orders, arrived in New Zealand on a student visa in 2011. He became a person of national security interest in 2016.

He had been under round-the-clock monitoring and heavy surveillance due to concerns about his ideology. He was known to multiple agencies, and was also on a terror watchlist.

Local media reports said the attacker was 32 years old and had recently been sentenced to one year of supervision for possessing IS propaganda.

Prosecutors had accused him of plotting a "lone wolf" terror attack using knives, but the judge ruled that planning a terror attack was not in itself an offence under existing laws, the reports said.

His internet search history and bookmarks included heroes of Islamic State, Islamic State dress, and New Zealand prison clothes and food, according to Stuff.

Questions have been raised about why action against the attacker was not taken before the stabbings - especially since he was under close surveillance.

The attacker's family were "shocked and grieving", lawyer Davoud Mansouri-Rad, who represented the man in relation to his immigration matters, told Stuff.

Were you in the area? Did you witness the incident? If it is safe to do so please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

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If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

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2021-09-04 07:12:21Z
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Afghanistan: Despair of Brits and UK allies stuck behind Taliban lines - BBC News

Anadolu Agency

Hundreds of UK nationals are stuck in Afghanistan days after the last evacuation flight left Kabul airport. It is feared that hundreds more who are eligible for relocation to Britain are also trapped in the country, which is now in the hands of the hardline Islamist group.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has taken part in meetings in Qatar and Pakistan this week to discuss how some of the people could be helped to safety, said Kabul airport might reopen "in the near future". He also signalled that Britain was looking for co-operation with the Taliban on crossings.

Here, British nationals and at-risk Afghans share what has happened since the final evacuation flight - and what they plan to do now. The BBC has changed some names to protect the identities of those we spoke to.

Halima - parents stranded after funeral

Halima's parents, who both have British passports, went to Afghanistan for a family funeral in July, before the Taliban's rapid surge to power. Their flights back to London were cancelled and days later the country fell to the Taliban. In an email, the UK government told them to go to Kabul airport to be put on an evacuation flight but they turned back after warnings of an attack.

Subject's own

Since the final UK evacuation, they have had no communication from the government. "We are running out of money here. Banks are closed, there is a shortage of food," they explain. Their only plan is to try to survive until it's possible to come home.

In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week, Halima, who is in her early 20s, asked: "Have you got any idea what my family and I are going through?" She has so far received only an automated reply.

Wahid - NHS worker stuck in Kabul

After working in a London hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic, Wahid went to visit family in Afghanistan in early August. After the Taliban seized power, he was advised by the Foreign Office to go to the Baron Hotel, near Kabul airport, where British troops were processing UK nationals for evacuation.

Wahid

At the gates, Taliban guards tried to tear up his British passport. Photos show the bruises from the humiliating beating they gave him in front of his wife.

• Afghan evacuations could resume soon, says Raab
• How many Afghan refugees are fleeing?
• Taliban are back - what next for Afghanistan?

"Now I'm moving from house to house. It's not safe to stay still. I have nightmares," he explains, adding that his brother was captured by the Taliban last week.

"It's too scary to try to leave through a neighbouring country. We heard a group of Afghans were killed at the border last week," said Wahid, who is in his 20s.

"All I can do is wait. All day I look at my phone hoping for an email - but nothing," he says.

Abdul - worked for the British Council

Abdul was an English language trainer for the British Council, working all over Afghanistan. The council told him he was eligible for the Arap (Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy) scheme, which gives Afghans who worked for the British government the right to resettle in the UK.

He has not yet heard the outcome of his application. "We are left behind. They've given us to the Taliban," he said as the final evacuation flight left.

Abdul

Fearing for their safety, Abdul and his family have now abandoned their home. With no job, he has sold his wife's jewellery to make ends meet.

He says he has no plans and no options. "It's hard for me to return to normal life," he says. "Even if the borders to neighbouring countries open, I don't know how to safely get out. No-one is answering my question - how long should we wait to hear from the government?"

Zahra - family fought the Taliban

"There's no sleep - just worrying," says British-Afghan Zahra. She is in Leeds. Her family, some of whom fought the Taliban or prosecuted militants under the Western-backed Afghan government, are in Afghanistan.

She registered their details with the UK government but was told this week there were no updates and not to call the government hotline again. "They have provided no solutions," she says.

Zahra

The family are in hiding and waiting. One relative, tired of being scared, is considering the dangerous crossing into neighbouring Iran.

"There needs to be some kind of confirmation from the government. That's what they're waiting for. If they go to another country, will there be help?" says Zahra, who is in her 20s. "I'm 100% sure my family would take the risk if there was clarity and hope."

Farwad - trapped with young baby

Farwad went to the Baron Hotel three times to join the evacuation by British soldiers. In one attempt he says he waited for 24 hours in the dust and heat. An Afghan-British national, he had gone back to Afghanistan in 2019 and was living with his wife and young baby, neither of whom have British passports.

He was so certain they would be able to leave the country after the Taliban took power that he left their home.

He says he sent numerous emails and called embassy staff. "I told them our passport says the Queen 'will afford the bearer such assistance and protection as necessary' but they didn't care," he says.

Farwad is now staying with neighbours. "I don't have any options. My wife and child don't have British passports and I cannot leave them. It's dangerous to go to neighbouring countries. The embassies are closed. We don't know what to do."

Sayyid - brother threatened by Taliban

"I've dialled the helpline more than 2,000 times," Sayyid, who lives in Edinburgh with his Scottish wife and children, tells the BBC.

"It's a waste of time."

His brother, who worked for a British charity in Afghanistan, has already been threatened by the Taliban, he says. With his mother, he left their home and joined the crowds at Kabul Airport trying to leave. But after missing out on the evacuation, they are left waiting in hope that flights will soon resume.

"I want them to get on one of those flights. They are eligible," Sayyid says. "My mother is asking for my help and I'm helpless. She said 'I don't care about my life, but please take your brother'."

• THE FATE OF A NATION: Lyse Doucet on how the past 20 years have shaped Afghans and their hopes and fears for the future

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2021-09-04 00:25:16Z
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New Zealand terror attack: 'Violent extremist' carried out stabbings in supermarket, says PM Jacinda Ardern - Sky News

A man, inspired by ISIS ideology, who stabbed at least six people in a supermarket was a "violent extremist" known to the police, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said.

The man was shot and killed by police within 60 seconds of beginning his attack at a Countdown store in Auckland.

The man was a Sri Lankan national and had been living in New Zealand since 2011.

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NZ PM on 'known threat' attacker

"A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders," Jacinda Ardern told a briefing on Friday.

The man cannot be named due to a suppression order currently in place.

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He had been known to multiple agencies since 2016, with Ms Ardern confirming she had been personally aware of the individual - adding that she was gutted to hear what had happened.

She said: "This was someone who was known to our national security agencies and was of concern and was being monitored constantly. There are very few that fall into this category."

More on Jacinda Ardern

Police following the man thought he had gone into the New Lynn supermarket to do some shopping, but he pulled out what one witness described as a large knife and started stabbing people.

Image: The attacker was known to police

"There's someone here with a knife ... he's got a knife," a woman is heard saying in one video, posted online after the attack.

Another recorded the sound of ten shots being fired in rapid succession.

Image: An injured woman is led away from the supermarket following the attack

"We were doing absolutely everything possible to monitor him and indeed the fact that we were able to intervene so quickly, in roughly 60 seconds, shows just how closely we were watching him," Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said.

Described as a "lone wolf", Ms Ardern said the attacker was a "supporter of ISIS" and inspired by extremist ideology.

The man was not allowed to be kept in prison by law, she said.

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NZ police patrol site of terror attack

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NZ terror attack witness 'lucky to even be here'

Of the six wounded people, three were in critical condition, one in serious condition and another in moderate condition, the St John Ambulance Service said in a statement to Reuters.

Ms Ardern said any backlash against the Muslim community "would be wrong", and said the attacker "is who is responsible, no one else".

"What happened today was despicable, it was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith," she added.

The security in the country will remain at a medium level.

Image: Jacinda Ardern said she had personally known of the attacker. Pic: AP

New Zealand has been on alert for attacks since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch on March 15, 2019. In May, four people were stabbed in a supermarket in Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island.

Auckland is on a strict lockdown as it battles an outbreak of the coronavirus. Most businesses are shut and people are generally only allowed to leave their homes to buy groceries, for medical needs, or to exercise.

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2021-09-04 00:02:01Z
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Will Hurricane Ida cause a spike in Covid-19? - BBC News

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Problems caused by Hurricane Ida in southern US states are being compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fortune has not been kind to Joey Cirilo of late.

In March 2020, his girlfriend - who has a pre-existing heart condition - was left immobilised for weeks with a "really bad" case of Covid-19.

Then this year Mr Cirilo, 36, lost his job at a local charity, leaving him without a steady source of income.

And now, his life has been "completely changed" again, he said, this time because of Hurricane Ida.

The most powerful Atlantic storm of the 2021 hurricane season has forced the evacuation of thousands from Louisiana, Mr Cirilo among them.

The Navy veteran knows of the destruction of hurricanes. Even before he moved to New Orleans years ago, he deployed to nearby Mississippi as a young sailor to help in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

But this time, he and others fear that the damage wrought by floods and winds will be compounded by another scourge, the pandemic.

Only a little over 40% of Louisiana's population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus - one of the lowest rates in the US - and hospitals are already overburdened.

On 2 September alone, the state's department of public health reported 2,099 new cases and 74 new deaths. The new cases bring the total to over 694,000, with a death toll of over 12,600 in the state.

Now, concerns are mounting that the combination of the storm and the virus may result in Covid-19 outbreaks spreading far beyond areas hit by Ida.

"I don't want to be displaced and also get sick," Mr Cirilo said. "The last thing I want to do is catch Covid and start spreading it to other people. I already have enough that I'm dealing with."

Courtesy of Joey Cirilo

During his visit to Louisiana on Friday, US President Joe Biden promised no community would be left behind in recovery efforts. The government has provided $100m (£72m) in direct assistance to Louisiana, with $500 being given to people to help with immediate needs.

But many of the strategies used to control pandemics are "incompatible" with the requirements of a mass evacuation, said Dr Irwin Redlener of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.

"In an area that has a high degree of community spread and low vaccination rates, that's a formula for a secondary disaster," he said. "That would turn a shelter into a super-spreader venue."

Such a concern was starkly highlighted on Thursday following reports that approximately 800 residents from seven Louisiana nursing homes had been evacuated to a nearby warehouse.

"These are the most vulnerable people already, sleeping on cots in a warehouse without ventilation. I'm completely speechless," said April Lopes, a Louisiana nursing home staff agency employee.

"There's no way that all of these people aren't going to be impacted by Covid while sharing that space," she predicted.

"There's also families that are staying with each other or other people. There's no way that Covid is not going to blow up again, even worse than it already was."

Cases of Covid-19 - particularly the highly infectious Delta variant - have been spiking across the southern US. Seven of the 10 states in the country with the highest seven-day daily new infection averages are in the region.

Louisiana and Florida are each experiencing their highest rate of deaths per capita since the pandemic began. Nearby Alabama this week reported a record number of new cases, hitting a daily average of 1,500 each day.

Milly Holder, a healthcare worker who was forced to evacuate there last week because her family members in other states, Georgia and Texas, were ill with Covid and she could not stay with them.

"So many people have evacuated to places like Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama. I know for a fact that Mississippi already has an overwhelmed hospital system," said Ms Holder. "If somebody were to come down with [Covid], it would create a potentially horrible snowball effect."

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Much of the work stopping the virus from spreading will have to fall to individuals, said Harley Jones, an emergency manager who has been deployed to New Orleans.

"As best as possible, people need to wear masks, avoid crowds, maintain social distance and find ways to wash hands and sanitise," he said.

He acknowledged that it will not be easy with power and water outages and many in need of urgent basic care.

Speaking from a hotel room in Tennessee, Mr Cirilo agreed. He was worried about the virus, he said, "but my mind is kind of now just consumed with thoughts of people back home, how my house is doing, and when I will return".

"It's hard to even think about, even if we're still living in a pandemic."

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2021-09-03 21:06:47Z
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New Zealand supermarket stabbing was 'terrorist attack' says PM Ardern - BBC News - BBC News

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2021-09-03 16:02:22Z
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