Philippines President threatens to kill cops accused of graft
Manila, Aug 8 : Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to kill around 100 police officers accused of corruption and abuse of power, the media reported on Wednesday.
The footage of Duterte's speech, which was delivered at the Malacanang palace on Tuesday night, was aired repeatedly on Philippines television channels on Wednesday.
"You are useless to me. You are a menace to society," Duterte said.
The officers who were called to the presidential palace included three policemen who were already serving a prison sentence and were released temporarily in order to listen to Duterte, Efe news reported.
The allegations against the officers included robbery, extortion, serious unlawful detention, kidnapping, rape, abuse of power and abandoning duty without permission.
"If you stay like this, I will really kill you," Duterte said in the speech laden with expletives. The President said that agents involved in drug-trafficking and organized crime would be monitored by a special unit "for life".
"It's a good thing there are a lot of people here, there are officials present or else, I would be hitting you," he said. This is the second time that Duterte publicly admonished police personnel accused of corruption and malpractice.
In February 2017, he called around 200 policemen accused of misconduct to the Malacanang presidential palace to scold them, at a time when his war on drugs was at its peak and had led to a spotlight on police abuses of power.
The President has launched a clean-up drive of the national police and even temporarily withdrew the force from participating in his campaign against drugs due to alleged abuses by officers.
According to official figures, more than 4,500 people were killed by the police in anti-drug campaigns, although human rights groups claimed that 12,000-15,000 people were killed during the crackdown.
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Netanyahu says there is 'no way' Israel halts war in Gaza until Hamas is defeated
Tel Aviv, May 13 (AP): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza, even if a deal is reached to release more hostages.
His comments are likely to complicate talks on a new ceasefire that had seemed to gain momentum after Hamas released the last living American hostage on Monday in a gesture to US President Donald Trump, who is visiting the region but skipping Israel.
They pointed to a potentially widening rift between Netanyahu and Trump, who had expressed hope that Monday's release of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander would be a step toward ending the 19-month war.
In comments released by his office Tuesday from a visit to wounded soldiers the previous day, Netanyahu said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means destroying Hamas.”
Any ceasefire deal reached would be temporary, the prime minister said. If Hamas were to say they would release more hostages, “we'll take them, and then we'll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said. “We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we're going to the end.”
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The dispute over whether to end the conflict has been the main obstacle in negotiations going back more than a year.
Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with as many as 23 of them said to be alive, although authorities have expressed concern about the condition of three of them.
Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war were freed in ceasefire deals.
