Inmates have seized control of the largest prison in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Natal.
Police say at least 10 prisoners have been killed at the Alcacuz jail.
Many others are thought to have been killed in fighting between rival gangs at the prison in Rio Grande Do Norte state.
This is the third major riot in Brazil this year. Nearly 100 inmates died in riots earlier this month in prisons in the states of Amazonas and Roraima.
The violence inside Alcacuz jail began on Saturday afternoon, when members of one of the powerful criminal organisations present in most Brazilian jails attacked rivals in a separate wing.
«We could see the heads ripped off» three of the killed prisoners, said Zemilton Silva, coordinator of the prison system.
Explosions and gunshots could be heard from outside.
Major Wellington Camilo, commander of the Rio Grande do Norte state prison system, said police would wait until the morning to enter the compound.
«Many people have died. But we simply cannot get into the prison now,» he said.
No prisoners had escaped, he added.
Dozens of relatives have gathered outside, waiting for information.
Riots are not uncommon in Brazil’s overcrowded jails, which are largely controlled by powerful criminal gangs.
But the scale of the violence this year has put pressure on President Michel Temer to address the problem.
After the Amazonas prison riot, the government announced plans to build five more high security jails and to create new intelligence units to try to curb the power of the gangs behind bars.

Similarity rank: 4.2

Sentiment rank: -45.4

© Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38626821
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

It won’t come as a surprise to most that Democrats are now raising money off of Donald Trump’s response to criticism from Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who said this week that the Republican is not a “legitimate president.”
“Today, Donald Trump attacked me on Twitter,” reads a DNC fundraising email signed by Lewis, a Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement.
On Friday, Lewis made news by telling NBC News’ Chuck Todd, “I don’t see this President-elect as a legitimate president.”
Trump responded as he often does to criticism from his opponents. (RELATED: Trump Strikes Back After House Dem Says He’s Not ‘A Legitimate President’ [VIDEO])
“Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!”
Lewis (or the DNC staffers who wrote the fundraising email) seized on Trump’s “all talk, no action” remark.
“I’ve been beaten bloody, tear-gassed, fighting for what’s right for America. I’ve marched at Selma with Dr. King,” reads the email.
“Are you with us?” it continues.
“Join me and chip in whatever you can today to help Democrats stand up to injustice.”
Proceeds from the pitch will be split evenly between the DNC and Lewis’ congressional committee.
Lewis’ civil rights credentials are not overstated. He was one of the original Freedom Riders and co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the groups at the forefront of the civil rights movement.
Social media erupted in debate, first over Lewis’ astonishing rebuke of Trump, then over Trump’s response. Lewis’ defenders said that Trump crossed a line by going after a civil rights hero, especially at the onset of Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend.
Trump’s defenders argued that Lewis’ civil rights pedigree does not put him above criticism for remarks they believe are out of line.
Follow Chuck on Twitter

Similarity rank: 5.4

Sentiment rank: 0

© Source: http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/14/rep-john-lewis-and-dnc-cash-in-off-of-donald-trump-exchange/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

WASHINGTON, United States — President-elect Donald Trump lashed out Saturday at a prominent civil rights icon and lawmaker who said he is skipping next week’s inauguration ceremony because he sees the New York businessman’s election as illegitimate.
Trump aimed his latest Twitter blast at longtime congressman John Lewis and the majority-black district in Georgia he represents, drawing widespread criticism just days before the holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
A park near the monument to King was the endpoint Saturday of the first major protest in Washington ahead of Trump’s January 20 inauguration: nearly 2,000 people rallied both in honor of King and against the president-elect.
READ: Jennifer Holliday backs out of Trump inauguration gig
Lewis, whose district includes Atlanta and surrounding areas, on Friday became the most high-profile Democratic lawmaker to boycott Trump’s inauguration.
“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president,” Lewis told NBC’s “Meet the Press” talk show in an interview on Friday.
Early Saturday, Trump fired back at him.
“Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results,” Trump said on Twitter.
“All talk, talk — no action or results. Sad!”
Lewis, 76, is known for his decades of work in the civil rights movement, and marched with King at the August 1963 rally in Washington at which King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.
The son of sharecroppers, Lewis took part in so-called Freedom Rides — challenges to segregated facilities at bus terminals in the South.
On March 7, 1965, he led a march in Selma, Alabama that ended in an attack by state troopers on the protesters that later became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
At least 16 House Democrats have publicly stated they will not be attending Trump’s swearing-in at the US Capitol next Friday, with several indicating their absence will be an act of political protest — but Lewis is the most prominent.
In his interview with NBC, Lewis cited what he called Russian interference in the November 8 election as his reason for skipping the presidential inauguration for the first time since becoming a member of Congress in 1987.
“I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” he told the network, in the interview which will air in full on Sunday.
“You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong.”
US intelligence organizations have accused Russia of cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and distributing hacked emails from senior Clinton aides in an effort to influence the US election.
Trump has acknowledged that Moscow likely meddled in the election, but has refuted any notion that it helped him defeat Clinton.
On Twitter, Lewis earned support from Democratic colleagues — and a few Republicans.
“Ahead of #MLKDay2017, let us remember that many have tried to silence @repjohnlewis over the years. All have failed,” said House Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi.
“Rep. John Lewis was beaten, bloodied & arrested 40+ times marching for civil rights,” wrote Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.
“He is a true American hero and represents the best of us.”
Without directly denouncing Trump’s comments, Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska linked to a photo of Lewis at a civil rights march, with the message, “John Lewis and his ‘talk’ have changed the world.”
On Saturday, some 2,000 demonstrators, the majority of them black, marched along the National Mall — the grassy esplanade that is home to major museums and monuments — to the park near the Martin Luther King Memorial.
Some chanted, “We will not be Trumped.”
“We won’t go back,” said civil rights leader Al Sharpton, calling on marchers to fight to defend the accomplishments of Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House.
“We want this nation to understand what has been fought for and gained,” he added. “You are going to need more than one election to turn it around.”
Many of those gathered expressed pessimism about the incoming Trump administration.
Valerie Williams, a black woman who traveled to the nation’s capital from New York for the march, told AFP she fears that for the next four years, “nobody in the government is going to have my concerns at heart.”
“Unfortunately when they elected Obama president, black people mistakenly thought that meant that this country was more tolerant of different races,” she said.
“But we saw over the past eight years that it just made some people that were probably inherently racist upset, and all those people came bubbling to the top.”
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are preparing to demonstrate nationwide as Trump prepares to take office, most notably at the Women’s March on Washington the day after the inauguration.
Organizers say that event could attract some 200,000 people. CBB/rga

Similarity rank: 4.2

Sentiment rank: 0.8

© Source: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/862317/trump-unleashes-attack-on-us-civil-rights-icon
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.