Karen Buckley: Police Search Park And Flats

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 15 April 2015 | 20.49

We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok.

Police searching for Glasgow student Karen Buckley are scouring the area around a flat where she spent the night and a park where her handbag has been found.

Dozens of officers have been deployed to Dawsholm Park following the find - and a helicopter and dogs are aiding the search.

The 24-year-old went missing in the early hours of Sunday after leaving the flat of Alexander Pacteau, who she met on a night out.

Mr Pacteau, 21, is not a suspect but communal areas outside his flat in Dorchester Avenue have been taped off while officers look for clues.

He has told officers she left at 4am. The Irish student has not been seen since.

1/9

Gallery: Police Search Park After Handbag Of Missing Student Found

The handbag of missing student Karen Buckley has been found in a Glasgow park

Officers have been searching through undergrowth in Dawsholm Park for clues

]]>

A police helicopter has been deployed to aid the search

]]>

The scale of the search is seen with numerous police officers involved

]]>

It is believed she was planning to walk back to her flat in Hill Street.

Her parents, who have flown from Ireland to help with the search, said it was typical for her not to use taxis.

Ms Buckley spent Saturday night with friends at Glasgow's Sanctuary nightclub on Dumbarton Road.

She told them at around 1am she was going to the toilet, but failed to return and left her jacket behind.

CCTV spotted her leaving the club with Mr Pacteau, who then drove her to his flat.

Detective Superintendent Jim Kerr said: "He believes he was intimate with her at his flat consensually in the early hours of Sunday.

"From what we can see, she does not appear to be under duress, there's no signs of a struggle or reluctance on her part to leave the club."

Police, who have increased patrols in the west end, Kelvindale and Anniesland areas of the city, say they are now "gravely concerned" for the student's wellbeing.

The parents of Ms Buckley, who studies occupational therapy and is originally from Cork, said they were "desperate" for the public's help.

"We just want Karen home safely, we are desperate. She is our only daughter, we love her dearly," said her mother, Marian.

"If anybody has any information please come forward, we would dearly appreciate it."

Ms Buckley's father, John, said: "If anybody is holding Karen, if anybody knows anything of her, please return her. Please let's have her back. We love her to bits."

Det Supt Kerr said Ms Buckley was widely travelled and was "aware of how to take care of herself".

Police also want to find out more about a grey car seen on the roads between Milngavie and Drymen, north of Glasgow, between 11am and 3pm on Monday.

Det Supt Kerr said: "The activity of this grey car on the Monday is something that we're a wee bit concerned about.

"This car has been seen at various locations on these roads and I want to know why."

Ms Buckley is between 5ft and 5ft 2in with brown eyes and dark hair which has long black curly extensions in it.

She was last seen wearing a black jumpsuit, red high-heeled shoes and carrying a black handbag.

Recommended by Outbrain Recommended by Outbrain

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 14 April 2015 | 20.48

The Green Party has pledged to end privatisation in the NHS and re-nationalise the railways in its manifesto.

The party also vowed to ban fracking, stop airport expansion and halt major road schemes, while promising cash for energy efficiency measures and flood defences.

:: Full Coverage Of General Election 2015

Party leader Natalie Bennett told activists at the heart of the manifesto was "a vision for a fair economy".

She said: "That fair economy demands the end to austerity.

"It demands we restore and enhance the essential public services to all, but particularly the most vulnerable.

"That fair economy is paid for by the rebalancing that we so desperately need, to see multinational companies and rich individuals paying their fair share in taxes as they are simply not paying now."

Ms Bennet added that a fair economy meant every worker should be paid a living wage.

"It is really not a radical statement to say that if you work full time you should earn enough money to live on," she said.

"And yet we are the only UK party who is saying the minimum wage should immediately be lifted to a living wage and should reach £10 an hour by 2020."

:: All You Need To Know About Party Manifestos

Ms Bennett also underlined the party's commitment to safeguarding the NHS, and pledged to remove all private operators from the service.

She said: "Behind that is an understanding of what privatisation has really meant for so many of our public services.

"It's meant the cutting of the pay and conditions of workers, it's meant the cutting of the quality of services and it has meant the shovelling of public money into private hands."

Caroline Lucas, the party's former leader and the only Green MP in the last parliament, also spoke at the manifesto launch and argued tackling climate change was not "some luxury that is only possible when there are good economic times".

She said the environment was not something that could be ditched during tough times "like that extra cappuccino on the way to work".

Green Party plans for a free nationwide retro-fit insulation programme would tackle both the "scandal of cold homes" while creating more than 100,000 jobs, she said.

Ms Lucas told the audience the money was there but it came down to political choice.

"It's nonsense to say we can waste billions on new roads or on HS2 but we can't afford to keep people warm in their own homes," she said.

For every £1 spent on energy efficiency measures, £1.27 was returned to the economy, and Ms Lucas insisted it was the only way of reducing energy bills while also helping the environment.

She also argued that the prospect of a hung parliament and a minority Labour government opened the way for the Greens to realise its manifesto goals.

She said: "That would give us a real opportunity to push Labour on the policies we know the public wants and which are at the heart of our manifesto - whether that's scrapping nuclear weapons or reversing the privatisation in our NHS, whether that's returning local schools to local control or bringing rail back into public ownership."

:: Click Here To Make Your Own Government With Our Shaker Maker

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

PM Promises 'Good Life' For 'Working People'

David Cameron has claimed the Conservatives are the "party of the working people" as he made pledges on homeownership, £5,000 of free childcare and an income tax-free minimum wage.

Launching the Tory manifesto, Mr Cameron repeatedly made offers to voters who worked hard and wanted to get on the "good life".

The manifesto set out measures for families from cradle to grave - identifying measures to help people over six stages of their lives.

Mr Cameron opened his speech by saying: "At the heart of this manifesto is a simple proposition. We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life."

He promised 30 hours of childcare for three and four-year-olds - five hours more than promised in Labour's manifesto yesterday - to help working parents.

He said if the party is returned to power, it will give 1.3 million families the chance to buy their housing association home at least a 20% discount.

Speaking at a university technical college in Swindon, Mr Cameron laid out his vision for a "property-owning democracy" echoing the phrases used in Margaret Thatcher's 1983 manifesto.

And he said the Conservatives would introduce a tax-free minimum wage, linking the minimum wage to the income tax personal allowance so the lowest paid would never have to pay tax.

He urged voters not to "waste the last five years" and let "Labour drag us back" to the past, and asked to be allowed to "finish the job".

Mr Cameron promised: "This buccaneering, world-beating, can-do country - we can do it all over again."

:: Full Coverage Of General Election 2015

:: All You Need To Know About Party Manifestos

:: Sky's Anushka Asthana On Five Things We've Learned From The Tory Manifesto

Among other measures included in the manifesto, which has the phrase "strong leadership, a clear economic plan, a better more secure future" on the cover, are:

:: Raising the personal allowance for tax to £12,500

:: Increasing the starting salary for the 40p rate to £50,000

:: No increase in income tax, VAT, National Insurance

:: Raising the inheritance tax threshold for family homes to £1m

:: Seven-day access to GP service

:: An annual £8bn boost for NHS funding

:: Repeal the Hunting Act

:: Increase state pension by at least 2.5% with a triple lock

:: 200,000 starter homes built

:: Committed to four-boat Trident nuclear deterrent

Mr Cameron's repeated pledges on a "good life" available to people in the UK prompted a question on whether he saw himself as the impoverished Tom and Barbara characters from the BBC sitcom, played by Felicity Kendal and Richard Briers, or the rich Margot and Jerry characters played by Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington.

To fund Right to Buy, the Conservatives would force councils to sell their most expensive properties when vacant - estimated to raise £4.5bn a year - and replace the properties sold.

However, the Housing Federation claims the cost to the taxpayer would be £5.8bn and 40 years of failure on house-building means the UK still does not have the homes needed.

Since Baroness Thatcher introduced Right to Buy in 1980, 1.88 million council properties have been sold - only 345,000 new social housing properties have been built.

As well as extending Right to Buy at a discount to housing association tenants, the party has promised a £1bn fund for building 400,000 new properties on brownfield sites.

Mr Cameron's claim that the Conservatives are the party for workers comes after Labour said it wanted to be seen as the fiscally responsible option for government.

:: Right To Buy: Your Questions Answered

:: Labour's Manifesto At A Glance

Conservative activists gathered for the manifesto launch were shown a video called The Note.

The video refers to the missive left for the coalition by the outgoing Labour treasury minister Liam Byrne after the 2010 election. It said: "There is no money."

But Labour has claimed the Conservatives have failed to explain properly how their measures will be funded.

The Tories say some £1.4bn a year of the funding will come from reducing the tax relief on pensions for those earning more than £150,000. Mr Cameron said their track record showed they could deliver on their pledges.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the Conservatives were "trying to fund Right to Buy on a bounced cheque".

:: Click Here To Make Your Own Government With Our Shaker Maker

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Right To Buy: What Is It And How Does It Work?

David Cameron has announced a future Tory government would give 1.3 million housing association tenants the chance to buy their homes.

:: So what is Right to Buy?

The existing scheme allows council tenants to buy their home at a discount of up to 70% - a maximum of £102,700 in London and £77,000 across the rest of of the country.

:: Full Coverage Of General Election 2015

The Conservatives have made extending this to 1.3 million housing association tenants a centrepiece of their manifesto for the May election.

:: This all seems familiar?

It is indeed. The scheme was trailblazed by Margaret Thatcher on coming to power in 1979 with the Tories hailing it "the biggest step towards a home-owning democracy ever taken" in their 1983 manifesto.

And in extending the scheme to housing tenants, David Cameron is hoping to recapture that aspirational spirit in the face of criticism of the negative tone of the Tory campaign to date.

Unveiling the plan, the PM echoed the words of the Thatcher-era by talking of "building a property-owning democracy for generations".

:: So that's the background, how will it work?

It will be funded by requiring councils to sell off the most expensive properties when they become empty, and replacing them with more affordable social homes.

:: LIVE BLOG: General Election 2015

Around 15,000 houses and flats are expected to become available in this way each year, but the Conservatives stress no one will be forced out of their home.

It has been claimed the sales would raise an estimated £4.5bn which could then be used to build between 80,000 to 170,000 new properties a year.

:: Do I hear a "but" coming here?

You do indeed. The move, unsurprisingly, is not without its critics and has been branded "deeply unfair" by housing associations.

The National Housing Federation warns it would mean using £5.8bn of taxpayers' cash to "gift" up to £100,000 to people already living in good secure homes, on some of the country's cheapest rents.

Meanwhile, the group argues it would do nothing to help the millions in private rented properties desperate to buy, or those forced to live at home with their parents because they cannot afford to rent or buy.

It points out the £5.8bn would be enough to finance 300,000 new shared ownership homes "open to everyone, not just the lucky few".

Political opponents have also waded in with Labour dismissing it as "yet another uncosted, unfunded and unbelievable announcement".

And the Tories' Lib Dem coalition partners claim the scheme would would result in longer waiting lists for homes and fewer social houses.

:: Click Here To Make Your Own Government With Our Shaker Maker

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Glasgow Student: Family 'Desperate'

The mother of a student who vanished two days ago has said her family are "desperate" to find her and they want her home "safely".

Karen Buckley, 24, was last seen on the footage outside the Sanctuary nightclub in Glasgow in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Marion Buckley appealed for help in finding her at a news conference saying: "We just want Karen home safely. We are desperate. She's our only daughter."

Detectives searching for a student who vanished two days ago have tracked down a man she was seen speaking to on CCTV.

The CCTV shows her talking to a man outside the club and then walking away, heading west.

Officers say that man has now been traced and is "helping police with inquiries".

Ms Buckley, a Glasgow Caledonian University student from Cork in Ireland, got to the Sanctuary just before midnight.

At around 1am told friends she was going to the toilet.

But she did not go back to her friends, nor did she take her jacket.

Her friends later raised the alarm, saying it was "very out of character" for her not to return home.

A major search is under way in the west end of Glasgow, with police carrying out door-to-door inquiries.

Her family has also flown to Scotland from Ireland to help with the search and a Facebook page has been set up.

Ms Buckley is between 5ft and 5ft 2in with brown eyes and dark hair which had long black curly extensions in it.

She was last seen wearing a black jumpsuit, red high-heeled shoes and carrying a black handbag.

She speaks with an Irish accent.

Inspector Gavin Smith, of Police Scotland, said: "Friends reported Karen missing on Sunday 12 April after feeling her behaviour to not return home was very out of character.

"Her friends say she would always contact them by text or phone to let them know where she was and she doesn't appear to have contacted anyone.

"We are interested in speaking to anyone who may have seen Karen in the early hours of Sunday morning in the west end of Glasgow in order to help with our inquiries to locate her.

"Karen had been drinking alcohol with her friends but they say she was not drunk and are very worried about her.

"Her parents have also flown over from Ireland as they believe this behaviour is very unusual and not like Karen at all.

"I would urge anyone who may have seen Karen at all on Saturday night into Sunday morning to get in touch with police on 101 with any information at all."

Ms Buckley lives with three other students in a flat in Hill Street, Garnethill, Glasgow.

Before going to the nightclub, she had drinks with friends in the flat.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rail Firm Urges Legal Action Against Cyclists

Written By Unknown on Senin, 13 April 2015 | 20.49

Rail Firm Urges Legal Action Against Cyclists

We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok.

French state railway company SNCF has called for legal action against cyclist in the famous Paris-Roubaix race who cheated death when they ignored barriers to cross tracks.

A number of riders in the peloton rode through the level crossing - which clipped several riders as it came down - seconds before a high-speed train passed.

Some even ignored a police motorcyclist who ordered a large group of competitors to stop as the TGV train approached.

SNCF has filed an official complaint with police.

"Several riders deliberately crossed a level crossing, which is against all safety regulations," the company said in a statement.

"Millions of TV viewers were able to watch this unauthorised crossing which was extremely serious and irresponsible, that could have ended in tragedy.

1/17

Gallery: Bradley Wiggins' Tour In Pictures

Wiggins rounds the arc d'triomphe in Paris.

In the overall leader's yellow jersey, he heads up the Champs-Elysees.

]]>

Chris Froome, Wiggins, Richie Porte and Edvald Boasson Hagen ride together in the final stage of the Tour.

]]>

Wiggins congratulated by teammate Michael Rogers after winning.

]]>

Team Sky help to celebrate the win.

]]>

"SNCF has decided to lodge a legal complaint and will leave it up to the investigation to determine who was responsible and we regret that such foolhardiness took place."

The group of around 30 riders crossed the tracks in the Wallers region, around 87km (54 miles) from the end of the race.

Race organisers said the leading riders did not have enough time to stop and there no plans to take action against any of the cyclists.

"The peloton was 10m away when the barrier started to close. By neutralising the race for a few moments to not penalise those who stopped, we respected the spirit of the rule," Guy Dobbelaere, president of the jury of race commissioners, said.

1/10

Gallery: Rise And Rise Of Bradley Wiggins

Wiggins celebrates on the finish line after the final 20th stage of the 99th Tour de France.

Celebrating his overall victory Tour on the Champs Elysees in front of the Arc de Triomphe.

]]>

In 2006, three riders were disqualified for going through a closed railway crossing.

SNCF says it spends 30 million euros (£21.6m) a year trying to reduce accidents of level crossings.

After the latest incident the peloton regrouped, allowing riders left behind to catch up as they neared the finish of the 151-mile race.

Sir Bradley Wiggins finished 18th in his final race for Team Sky, 31 seconds behind winner John Degenkolb, from Germany.

Recommended by Outbrain Recommended by Outbrain

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 12 April 2015 | 20.49

A British boy who died in a skiing accident while on a family holiday in the French Alps was skiing alone at his own request, according to reports.

The seven-year-old, who has been named in reports as Carwyn Scott-Howell from Talybont-on-Usk in Powys, fell around 160ft from a cliff to his death in the alpine resort of Flaine on Friday.

He had been skiing with his mother, brother and sister but is understood to have asked to ski the day's final descent on his own.

His family became worried after he failed to reach the bottom of the slopes, prompting a search which ended when his body was discovered around three-and-a-half hours later.

The circumstances around the incident are still being investigated by the authorities, with some reports suggesting the boy was instead somehow separated from his family.

There have been reports that the boy was not skiing on his own, and had instead gotten lost from the group he was with.

Michel Ollagnon, an officer with the Bonneville mountain rescue service, said the boy's body was spotted off his expected course by rescuers in a helicopter on Friday evening.

Police chief Patrick Poirot, the head of the mountain rescue division in the nearby town of Annecy, was quoted in the Daily Mirror saying: "Specialists are at the scene to try and determine exactly what happened and understand every element that led to this tragedy.

"Hypothetically we think that, after losing his parents, the little boy didn't know where to go and skied in the wrong direction.

"He's just seven-years-old.

"He left the marked ski slope and probably skied to the top of a cliff.

"He then stopped, removed his skis, walked a little way and then fell.

"He fell 50 metres."

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said they were aware of the death and are providing consular assistance.

20.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

Conservatives Promise To Cut Inheritance Tax

The Conservatives have said they will take family homes out of inheritance tax by introducing a new allowance which effectively increases the threshold for tax to £1m.

David Cameron said that if his party wins the 7 May election, parents will be offered a new £175,000 allowance to enable them to pass property on to children tax-free after they die.

For properties worth more than £2m, the allowance will be gradually tapered away so that those worth more than £2.35m do not benefit.

Full coverage: General Election 2015

Inheritance tax is currently payable at a rate of 40% on the value of an estate above the £325,000 threshold - or £650,000 if a couple takes advantage of the existing allowance.

It is thought around 22,000 families will benefit from the move by 2020 and Mr Cameron said the costs would be paid for by a £1bn raid on pension tax relief for people earning more than £150,000.

Mr Cameron said: "We will take the family home out of inheritance tax.

"That home that you have worked and saved for belongs to you and your family.

"You should be able to pass it on to your children. And with the Conservatives, the taxman will not get his hands on it."

The Conservatives promised a £1m inheritance tax threshold in the 2010 election, but were blocked by Liberal Democrats from implementing it when in coalition.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky's Murnaghan programme it is the "wrong priority" and "won't affect 90% of estates".

She said: "They are talking about a £140,000 tax cut for properties that are worth around £2m at a time when you've got families still losing their homes because of the bedroom tax, at a time when pensioners and families have had to pay more VAT."

Meanwhile, Labour has revealed its plans to crackdown on tax-dodgers if it wins the election, hoping to cut avoidance and evasion by at least £7.5bn a year by the middle of the next Parliament.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said it would take a Labour government to "call time" on the Tories' "lax approach", adding that Labour would set targets for HMRC to reduce tax avoidance by at least £7.5bn a year.

He said: "We will close the loopholes the Tories won't act on, increase transparency, toughen up penalties and abolish the non-dom rules.

"And our first Budget will make sure that, following an immediate review of HMRC, it has all the powers and resources it needs to come down hard on tax avoidance and evasion."

Conservative Treasury minister David Gauke said: "Ed Miliband and Ed Balls turned a blind eye to aggressive tax avoiding and evading for 13 years when they were in charge - they were the tax avoiders' friends."

The Lib Dems have also set out their tax plans, promising "light at the end of the tunnel" with moves to eliminate Britain's deficit by 2017/18.

Nick Clegg said his plan has "a heart as well as a brain", trying to drive home his claim that his party will cut less than the Conservatives and borrow less than Labour.

Spelling out plans for a consolidation totaling £27bn by 2017/18, made up of £12bn in additional tax, £12bn in public spending reductions and £3bn in welfare cuts, Mr Clegg challenged the other parties to spell out in similar detail how they would balance the nation's books.

He said: "We are going to spread the burden of finishing the job of fixing the economy fairly across society.

"Yes that means more cuts, but it also means asking the wealthiest to pay their fare share too."

:: Click here to make your own government with our Shaker Maker

20.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

Islamic State's Trail Of Historical Oblivion

The ancient city of Nimrud is just the latest piece of history to be wiped from the map as Islamic State fighters continue their trail of destruction through Syria and Iraq.

The Sunni extremist group has released a video appearing to show black-clad militants smashing up artefacts before razing the 3,000-year-old Assyrian site in a mushroom cloud of dust and destroyed treasures.

Their mission is made clear with one fighter saying: "God has honoured us to remove all of these idols and statues."

IS, which holds a third of Iraq and Syria, has been destroying Christian, Jewish and Islamic shrines in its self-declared caliphate because it says they promote idolatry and violate its interpretation of Islamic law.

But with these acts of cultural cleansing, apparently in the name of religion, IS is accused of hypocrisy with authorities claiming its fighters are looting archaeological sites to fund their atrocities.

:: Nimrud

Many relics from Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century BC and was one of Iraq's most famous archaeological sites, are in foreign museums.

But a number of giant statues, depicting winged beasts with human heads, and stones friezes have now seemingly been turned into fragments by IS explosives.

The militants are believed to hold around 15% of the 12,000 registered archaeological sites in Iraq - a country dubbed the "cradle of civilisation" for its ancient historical importance.

And historians fear none of them are safe, and similar destruction may be taking place in IS-controlled areas of neighbouring Syria.

:: Hatra

A week ago, IS released another video apparently showing the bulldozing of 2,000-year old Hatra, some 70 miles southwest of Mosul, in northern Iraq.

Hatra like Nimrud, 20 miles away, is a UNESCO world heritage site, and their destruction was condemned as a "war crime" by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

The footage shows jihadists apparently destroying artefacts with sledgehammers and rifles at the fortress city, dating back to the Seleucid empire, which controlled a large part of the world conquered by Alexander the Great.

:: Khorsabad

Last month, IS reportedly pillaged the ancient archaeological site of Khorsabad, some 10 miles northeast of Mosul.

Khorsabad was built as a new capital of Assyria by King Sargon II shortly after he came to power in 721 BC and abandoned after his death in 705 BC.

With an 80ft-thick wall and seven gates, it was renowned for shedding light on Assyrian art and architecture.

:: Mosul

In February, IS released a video of fighters smashing statues in Mosul's city museum.

It also shows a man in black drilling through a winged bull, an Assyrian protective deity dating back to the 7th century BC, at a nearby archaeological site.

A caption says the artefacts did not exist in the time of the Prophet Mohammed, and were put on display by "devil worshippers" - a term used by IS to describe the Yazidi minority in Iraq.

The same month, IS reportedly destroyed more Iraqi history by torching thousands of books and rare manuscripts in the Mosul Library.

UNESCO said burning the tomes, which included 18th-century manuscripts and Ottoman-era books, could be "one of the most devastating acts of destruction of library collections in human history".

Officials fear more than 112,000 manuscripts and books, some of which were registered on a UNESCO rarities list, may have been lost.

In July last year, IS apparently razed a Muslim shrine in Mosul, said to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah, who in the Bible and Koran is swallowed by a whale.

Residents said militants ordered everyone out of the Mosque of the Prophet Younis, or Jonah, then blew it up.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

IS Blows Up Ancient City As 'Propaganda Tool'

We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok.

Islamic State militants have continued their "cultural cleansing" of Iraq and Syria - this time blowing up the ancient city of Nimrud.

A video posted online appears to show the terror group's fighters smashing artefacts at the 3,000-year-old site near Mosul in northern Iraq.

Militants are seen with large barrels of powder in a room lined with gypsum slabs, beautifully carved with representations of Assyrian figures.

The explosion sends a huge mushroom cloud into the sky and turns yet another important part of history to dust and fragments.

Fighters hack away at statues with sledgehammers and carve them up with angle grinders, claiming God had "honoured" them by "removing and destroying everything that was held to be equal to him and worshipped without him".

1/9

Gallery: Images Of The 3,000-Year-Old Assyrian Site

The 3,000-year-old site on the banks of the Tigris river was once the capital of the world's most powerful empire, the Assyrians. European archeologists first excavated the site in the 1840s

Statues, sections of palaces and gold items were unearthed at the site. Some of its best-known monuments include these winged bulls with human faces, known as lamassus

]]>

Many of its artefacts were on display in the Baghdad Museum, but disappeared during the Gulf War in the 1990s. It was presumed they had been looted

]]>

However, after the 2003 Iraq invasion by allied forces, the items were found safe. They had been locked away in a secret vault in the city, submerged in sewage water

]]>

The collection includes hundreds of gold and gem-studded jewellery items

]]>

A militant speaking at the end of the destruction says: "Whenever we are able in a piece of land to remove the signs of idolatry and spread monotheism, we will do it."

:: Islamic State's Trail Of Historical Oblivion

Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and contains one of the most famous archaeological sites in a country dubbed the cradle of civilisation.

It was such an important city that it was on UNESCO's tentative list of world heritage sites.

The attacks, which follow similar destruction of archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria earlier this year and in 2014, have been widely criticised.

Middle East expert Professor Fawaz Gerges, from the London School of Economics, described IS as a "social epidemic" that is "culturally cleansing" an area the size of the UK.

He told Sky News that militants had caused "catastrophic" damage to Iraq's - and the world's - cultural heritage.

"(They have) been systematically destroying ancient relics and cultural artefacts both in Iraq and Syria," he said. "The United Nations has called what IS are trying to do 'war crimes'.

"They have a puritanical sense of an ideology that believes in cultural cleansing - not just people, but even art and culture. They want to purify the land - to establish a totalitarian ideology."

He said the jihadists are using the video as a "powerful propaganda tool" to counter set-backs on the battlefield.

"They believe that ancient relics, museums, are basically idols. Idols that basically substitute idols for God," he said.

"These particular videos are designed for the hardcore, for the ... jihadists who believe in this particular ideology ... It's part of a propaganda, part of their ideological nightmare, it's part of a puritanical, severe interpretation of Islam."

Abdulamir Hamdani, an archaeologist from Stony Brook University in New York, said of Nimrud: "It's really a very important site in the history of Mesopotamia.

"Many of Assyria's greatest artistic treasures came from this site."

Nimrud is the later Arab name given to a settlement originally called Kalhu, and was plundered by Western explorers.

It was also looted and damaged during the 2003 US invasion.

Most of Nimrud's most valuable artefacts were moved long ago to museums in Mosul, Baghdad, Paris and London.

But giant "lamassu" statues - winged bulls with human heads - and sculptures were still on site.

Recommended by Outbrain Recommended by Outbrain

Terjun Bebas

Mengenai Saya

Popular Posts Today