Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla's killer pleads guilty to hate crimes

A US Navy veteran who yelled "Get out of my country!" before killing Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla and injuring two others at a bar in Kansas City last year, has pleaded guilty to three federal hate-crime charges.

Adam Purinton, 53, who is already serving life in prison on a state murder charge, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Kansas City on Monday to three federal hate-crime charges alleging that he targeted the men because of their actual and perceived race, colour, religion and national origin.

He had earlier in March pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of 32-year-old Kuchibhotla and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in state court in the shootings of the Indian tech worker's friend Madasani and a bystander.

The US Attorney's Office in Kansas had filed hate crime charges against Purinton last June.

Far-right extremists preparing civil war on Islam in UK: Report

Far-right extremists are moving increasingly online as they prepare for what they believe is a "civil war on Islam" in Britain, according to a new report released today by a UK-based anti-racism group.
Hope Not Hate, a campaign group which investigates neo-Nazi groups to combat far-right extremism, warns that the UK must be prepared for more terrorist plots and use of extreme violence from the far-right for the foreseeable future.
"We are facing a surging threat from far-right terrorism and violent extremism.

We fear further violence from the extreme right in the months to come," saidNick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate.
"This rising terrorist threat is the consequence of the increasingly confrontational tone of online far-right rhetoric, combined with the almost universal extreme-right belief that a civil war between Islam and the West is coming," he added.

Facebook allowed housing ads that are racist, exclude minorities

In February, Facebook said it would step up enforcement of its prohibition against discrimination in advertising for housing, employment or credit.

But our tests showed a significant lapse in the company’s monitoring of the rental market.

Last week, ProPublica bought dozens of rental housing ads on Facebook, but asked that they not be shown to certain categories of users, such as African Americans, mothers of high school kids, people interested in wheelchair ramps, Jews, expats from Argentina and Spanish speakers.

All of these groups are protected under the federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to publish any advertisement “with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.” Violators can face tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

Every single ad was approved within minutes.

The only ad that took longer than three minutes to be approved by Facebook sought to exclude potential renters “interested in Islam, Sunni Islam and Shia Islam.” It was approved after 22 minutes.

Under its own policies, Facebook should have flagged these ads, and prevented the posting of some of them. Its failure to do so revives questions about whether the company is in compliance with federal fair housing rules, as well as about its ability and commitment to police discriminatory advertising on the world’s largest social network.
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Trump's comments on violence includes white supremacists: White House

The US President Donald Trump's condemnation of the hatred this weekend in Virginia, also included the white supremacists who organised the "Unite the Right" rally, the White House said on Sunday.

"The president said very strongly in his statement (on Saturday) that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred," Efe quoted a statement issued by the White House.

"Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups," the White House added.

Trump has come under fire from Democrats and even members of his own Republican party for blaming "many sides" for Saturday's violence in Charlottesville and not explicitly pointing the finger at white supremacist groups.

Those organisations had organised a rally on Saturday in that university city of 50,000 inhabitants to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that had been considered a symbol of slavery and racism.

The planned midday Saturday rally was cancelled but clashes broke out with counter-protesters, one of whom -- a 32-year-old woman -- was killed when a car ploughed into a crowd of people.

Two Virginia state troopers who were monitoring the situation in the city also died when their helicopter crashed.
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Charlottesville violence: Hundreds rally against white supremacists in LA

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, protesting white supremacists violence in Virginia the day before.

Holding black placards with slogans like "White Silence White Consent", the demonstrators gathered outside city hall to condemn racism and violent incidents occurred in Charlottesville on Saturday, Xinhua reported.

The violent incidents that occurred in Charlottesville claimed the lives of three people while around twenty were injured.

The rally was launched by Refuse Fascism Organisation, a New York-based activist group who has dozens of offices all around the country.

Michael, a young African-American girl of the organisation, delivered a speech on stairs to the front door of city hall, calling on people to take action fighting against KKK and fascism in the US.

"We are standing against fascism, we are standing with people all of the world, we should give our hands to ourselves," Michael said.
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