Bits and Bites from around the World > Alcohol taskforce cop gets drunk shoots another cop; 5 Lions slip away from Zoo Containment

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'Alcohol taskforce' cop gets drunk in Swiss police station

and shoots colleague in the foot

By TOM SCOTSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 14:11 EDT, 31 October 2022 |

An alcohol taskforce cop got drunk in a Swiss police station and shot a colleague in the foot, authorities said on Monday. 

The intoxicated officer fired his gun seven times inside the taskforce office's last Friday, a spokesman for the Geneva judiciary confirmed. 

Five of the man's colleagues were there including 'one who was hit in the foot and had to undergo surgery,' he said.

The intoxicated officer fired his gun seven times inside the taskforce office's last Friday, a spokesman for the Geneva judiciary confirmed (file image of Swiss policemen on a Geneva Street)

The officer was questioned by Geneva's top prosecutor and stands accused of endangerment and causing bodily harm through negligence.

He has also been accused of resisting efforts to establish his 'capacity to drive'.

The authorities, who did not provide details on what the man's blood-alcohol level had been at the time, said the investigation was ongoing.

Methinks the fool will be reassigned to a different unit!

Five lions escape enclosure at Australian zoo, sparking emergency

By Darryl Coote

   

Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Officials at an Australian zoo have launched an investigation after five lions momentarily escaped their enclosure Wednesday, sparking an emergency situation.

The incident occurred Wednesday morning at the Taronga Zoo, located along the shores of Sydney harbor.

Park officials said that one adult lion and four cubs were found outside their main exhibit at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The lions were spotted in an area adjacent to their main exhibit and separated from the rest of the zoo by a six-foot containment fence, whose purpose is to keep the public back from the lion exhibit.

The zoo enacted an emergency response within 10 minutes of the lions exiting its enclosure, officials said.

Simon Duffy, executive director of the Taronga Zoo, told reporters during a press conference that all people on site when the incident occurred were moved to so-called designated safe zones.

"This is a significant incident. A full review is now underway to confirm exactly how the lions were able to exit their main exhibit," he said.

Four of the lions returned to their enclosure on their own, requiring zoo staff to only tranquilize one of the cubs, he said.

"All animals are now safe in their back-of-house exhibit and are being closely monitored," he added, stating the emergency lasted less than 10 minutes.

In a 5 p.m. update, the zoo said an initial review confirmed that the lions exited their enclosure due to an "integrity issue" with a containment fence.

"A full report will now be prepared for the [New South Wales] Department of Primary Industries," it said.

Kurds to Announce 'Democratic Federal' System In Controlled Syrian Territories, Turkey Rejects

PHOTO: A Syrian Kurdish flag flies during a protest against exclusion from the Geneva talks. (AFP: Delil Souleiman)

Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system imminently, Kurdish officials say, taking matters into their own hands after being excluded from talks in Geneva to resolve Syria's civil war.

The step aims to combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syria into a federal arrangement and will be sure to alarm neighbouring Turkey, which fears a growing Kurdish sway in Syria is fuelling separatism among its own minority Kurds.

Well this is certainly no surprise. The Kurds will not easily give up control of the significant area of Syria that they have fought so hard to win. Not inviting them to Geneva seems like a matter of Erdogan closing his eyes and hoping the problem would go away. It didn't!

A conference held in the Kurdish-controlled town of Rmeilan on Wednesday discussed a "Democratic Federal System for Rojava — Northern Syria", and ended with a decision to make the announcement at a news conference on Thursday.

Iraqi Kurdistan is a parliamentary democracy within Iraq with a regional assembly that consists of 111 seats. The announcement reveals the intention to create a similar government within northern Syria. Ankara is afraid that the PKK in southeastern Turkey will attempt to follow suit.

Rojava is the Kurdish name for northern Syria.

Aldar Khalil, a Kurdish official and one of the organisers, said he anticipated the approval of a new system, and "democratic federalism" was the best one.

Conference participants also forecast a failure of UN-led talks which began in Geneva this week, in the absence of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party.

Syrian Kurds effectively control an uninterrupted stretch of 400 kilometres along the Syrian-Turkish border from the Euphrates river to the frontier with Iraq, where Iraqi Kurds have enjoyed autonomy since the early 1990s.

Turkey, whose conflict with the Kurdish PKK has escalated in recent months, said such federalism was not acceptable.


Who are the Kurds? Why are they fighting Islamic State? Why is Turkey fighting them? And what do they want?

"Syria's national unity and territorial integrity is fundamental for us," a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said.

"Outside of this, unilateral decisions cannot have validity."

On Saturday, Syria's government in Damascus ruled out the idea of a federal system for the country, just days after a Russian official said that could be a possible model.

The PYD has been left out of the Geneva peace talks, in line with the wishes of Turkey, which sees it as an extension of the PKK group that is waging an insurgency in south-eastern Turkey.

The area of northern Syria controlled by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and groups fighting with it is growing with their advances against Islamic State militants over the last year.

Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies have already carved out three autonomous zones, or cantons, known as Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin.

Their capture of the town of Tel Abyad from Islamic State last year created territorial contiguity between the Jazeera and Kobani areas.

Reuters