HK protesters attempt parliament break-in
Hong Kong, November 19
The Hong Kong Police clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators today after a small group attempted to break into the city’s legislature, with tensions spiking as court-ordered clearances of protest sites get under way.

A lake-effect snow storm with freezing temperatures produces a wall of snow travelling over Lake Erie into Buffalo on Wednesday. AP/PTI, Reuters

Washington, November 19
A massive snowstorm stranded motorists, canceled flights and left at least eight people dead in the northeastern United States, officials said today.

Areas east and southeast of Buffalo, in northern New York state, could receive a year's accumulation of snow or even more in just two days, Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said. The deadly storm may see as much as another three feet (90 cm) of snowfall tomorrow, which could prompt a federal disaster declaration, Poloncarz said.

US media reported two other deaths in the states of New Hampshire and Michigan.

Temperatures will remain below normal from the Midwest to the East Coast until the weekend. A state of emergency and travel bans are in effect across Buffalo's Erie County and authorities ordered people to stay at home to allow crews to clear roads, repair power lines and provide emergency assistance to the most vulnerable.

The National Guard was called in to assist military Humvee vehicles after New York's transportation department worked through the night to rescue stranded motorists and take people to shelters. "Many communities are still in a very difficult, sometimes paralysed situation,” Poloncarz said.

Three of those who died suffered heart attacks while shoveling snow and another person died while using a snowplow. "We've had six deaths in the area, five of which have been preventable," said a health official. — AFP

All 50 US states freezing

Temperatures in all 50 US states dipped to freezing or below as an unseasonably cold blast of weather moved across the country, while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York. In the US South, states were bracing for a record chill from the Arctic-born cold that swept the Rocky Mountains last week. Hawaii was bitten by temperatures at the freezing point or below, the National Weather Service said. Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano, had low temperatures of 30 F (-1 C) to 32 F. The morning was the coldest overall across the country in November since 1976. Reuters

Arbil, November 19
A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives blew himself up in the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Wednesday, killing at least five people in the first big attack there in more than a year.

Mayor Nihad Latif Koja said the assailant had detonated himself as he tried to enter the governor’s compound, which is protected by blast walls, in the centre of Arbil.

Explosions are a regular occurrence in the federal capital Baghdad and other cities outside Kurdistan but the autonomous region has largely managed to insulate itself from the violence convulsing the rest of the country.

Islamic State militants who overran swathes of northern Iraq this summer have repeatedly threatened to launch attacks against the Kurds, who are fighting them along a front line stretching more than 1,000 km (600 miles).

Footage from the scene in Arbil after the mid-morning attack showed charred vehicles and blood smeared on the cobbles outside the governor’s office. Windows on the opposite side of the street had been shattered by the force of the blast. —Reuters

Jerusalem, November 19
On edge but faithful to their religious routine, worshippers returned on Wednesday to the Jerusalem synagogue where four rabbis and a policeman were killed in a Palestinian attack a day earlier.

The bloodstains had been washed away. But four memorial candles burned as about a dozen men chanted their daily prayers and police newly stationed outside guarded the Kehillat Bnei Torah congregation.

“It’s a little scary, but we’re going to have to go on with our lives. We’re staying here, we’re not moving anywhere ...this terrorist attack is not going to change anything,” said Avraham Burkei, a member of the synagogue in Jewish West Jerusalem.

Palestinians in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem also voiced concern about their safety amid the surge in violence, as police set up checkpoints in their neighbourhoods and tethered surveillance balloons floated overhead. In the dead of night, a large explosion rattled windows in the city as Israel blew up the home of a Palestinian who last month ran over and killed two people at a Jerusalem tram stop before police fatally shot him.

Pointing to armed police checking cars and pedestrians on a road leading to the centre of town, Imram Abu al-Hawa, a 40-year-old Palestinian, spoke of humiliation and concern about revenge attacks. “They (police) say, ‘do you have a knife, where are you going?’” he said. “They can go to hell. I used to work among Jews, now I’m afraid I’ll get stabbed or attacked (by them).” — Reuters

Hong Kong, November 19
The Hong Kong Police clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators today after a small group attempted to break into the city’s legislature, with tensions spiking as court-ordered clearances of protest sites get under way.

Around 100 police personnel used pepper spray and batons as they battled hundreds of protesters, some in helmets and waving umbrellas — a symbol of their movement — in an angry confrontation that broke out in the early hours. Officers made four arrests.

“The police strongly condemn such acts by the protesters, which disrupted public order,” the police force said in a statement.

The clashes were sparked when a group of around a dozen protesters smashed their way through a side entrance to the southern Chinese city’s Legislative Council using metal barricades as improvised battering rams.

“Smash it open then get inside,” one protester was heard saying in footage aired by the local TVB channel.

A regular session of the chamber was cancelled today and visitor tours of the complex were suspended, the government said in a statement. Demonstrators have been camped on three major Hong Kong thoroughfares for seven weeks, demanding free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous city, but public support has ebbed as the weeks pass with little progress.

The authorities moved in for the first time to take down some barricades at the main protest camp Tuesday after a court granted an order to remove obstruction at the area, which is close to the legislative building.

“We want to escalate our protest,” a masked protester told TVB. “The government has not responded to the demands of protesters and residents.” — AFP

Bonne Terre, November 19
A man who killed a suburban Kansas City gas station attendant in front of the worker’s young stepdaughter in 1994 was put to death early today, the ninth execution in the US state of Missouri this year.

Leon Taylor, 56, was pronounced dead at 12.22 am at the state prison in Bonne Terre, minutes after receiving a lethal injection. With Taylor’s death, 2014 ties 1999 for having the most executions in a year in Missouri.

Taylor shot worker Robert Newton to death in front of Newton’s 8-year-old stepdaughter during a gas station robbery in Independence, Missouri. Taylor tried to kill the girl, too, but the gun jammed. Taylor’s fate was sealed yesterday when Gov Jay Nixon declined to grant clemency and the US Supreme Court turned down his appeal.

Taylor, his body covered by a white sheet, could be seen in the execution chamber talking to family members through the glass in an adjacent room. Once the state started injecting 5 grams of pentobarbital, Taylor’s chest heaved for several seconds then stopped. His jaw went slack and he displayed no other movement for the rest of the process.

Four of Taylor’s family members sat in a room to his left and looked on without reaction as the drug killed Taylor in about eight minutes. At a time when executions have gone awry in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona and taking an extended period to kill an inmate, Taylor’s execution went off without any visible hitches or complications with the drug or equipment.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Taylor “coldly murdered” Newton.

“Those who knew and loved Robert Newton waited two decades for the imposition of justice that finally came early this morning,” Koster said.

Court records reveal that Taylor, his half brother and half sister decided to rob a gas station on April 14, 1994. Newton was at the station with his stepdaughter.

Taylor entered the store, drew a gun and told Newton to put USD 400 in a money bag. Newton complied and the half brother, Willie Owens, took the money to the car. Taylor then ordered Newton and the child to a back room. Newton pleaded with Taylor not to shoot him in front of the little girl, but Taylor shot him in the head. He tried to kill the girl but the gun jammed, so he locked her in the room and drove away. — Agencies