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Prosecutors begin cross examining former Liberian President Charles Taylor at his war crimes trial. | Charles Taylor decided to leave the Liberian presidency for asylum in Nigeria because he wanted peace in his West African homeland, he today told Special Court for Sierra Leone judges in The Hague.
"I decided that I will leave for the sake of peace," the accused former Liberian president said.
In August 2003, as rebel forces advanced on the Liberian capital Monrovia with an aim of unseating Mr. Taylor, the former president agreed to step-down as president. He left Liberia in August 2003 and relocated to Nigeria, where he lived until March 2006 when he was transferred to the custody of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In his testimony today, Mr. Taylor explained the circumstances surrounding his departure from Liberia and the unsealing of the indictment against him by the Special Court's Chief Prosecutor.
His concern for the suffering of the Liberian people caused by rebel forces was the motivating factor in his decision to step down from power, Mr. Taylor said today, which he announced to other West African leaders during peace talks in Ghana in 2003.
"I told them that if I am the problem in Liberia, I'll go and tell the people that look, I will leave," he said.
Liberian Observer
After giving this assurance in the office of the Ghanaian president, an announcement was made that the then Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, David Crane, had issued an indictment against him.
"Everybody was upset. The meeting almost came to an end," Mr. Taylor said.
The accused former president said that he still kept his word. "I promised them that I will still step down," he said.
West African leaders assured Mr. Taylor that they would inform the United Nations Security Council that the indictment was "unacceptable" and that it would be "quashed," he said.
"I was informed that the UN Security Council will meet and the indictment will not stand. It was based on that assurance that I got on the plane and returned to Liberia," Mr. Taylor explained.
"Following my return to Liberia, between June and August, there are series of negotiations going on. Obasanjo [Nigerian president] finally comes to Liberia and he assures me that he had spoken to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and they had assured him that the indictment will be quashed," he said.
On the strength of this promise, Mr. Taylor said he left Liberia for Nigeria in August of 2003.
Mr. Taylor accused the United States of involvement in a covert plan with his former vice president Moses Blah to overthrow him while he was holding peace talks with West African leaders in Ghana. "My return to Monrovia that night destroyed the whole plan," he said.
Asked by his defense counsel about his impression of the indictment, Mr. Taylor said that "my own point is that the issue of regime change had been put in place."
In discussing the circumstances surrounding his indictment, Mr. Taylor reaffirmed a common position he has taken in the past: that his trial is "political" and "racist."
These themes reemerged when Mr. Taylor and his defense counsel, Courtenay Griffiths, discussed the 2006 statement delivered before the United States House of Congress sub-committee on Africa by Mr. Crane.
Mr. Crane was quoted as telling US officials that "unsealing of the indictment was a deliberate plan on my part to publicly strip this war lord of his power by my signature. My intent was to humble him and humiliate him before his peers." Testimony further centered on Mr. Crane's admission that he gave copies of Mr. Taylor's indictment to US government officials two months before unsealing it. (Both of these statements by Mr. Crane had also been raised by Mr. Griffiths as part of his opening statement back in July).
In his response to Mr. Crane's actions, Mr. Taylor today told the judges that "a decision had been taken for regime change in Liberia and this whole thing had been political, not legal. He was reporting to his bosses."
Also in his testimony today, Mr. Taylor denied prosecution allegations that he had secret bank accounts in which huge amounts of money had been kept. He challenged the prosecution to release details of the accounts.
Mr. Taylor also told the court that he played an honest-broker role in securing the release of over 500 peacekeepers who were held hostage by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone in 2000.
Mr. Taylor is accused of providing support to RUF rebels who waged an 11-year war on the government and people of Sierra Leone. It is alleged, among other things, that Mr. Taylor occupied a position of control over RUF rebels and that he could have prevented or punished rebel forces crimes against the people of Sierra Leone — including crimes of sexual violence, murder and recruitment of child soldiers. Mr. Taylor has denied all 11 charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law against him.
Mr. Taylor has been testifying as a witness in his own defense since July 14, 2009. He is expected to finish his direct-examination on Tuesday, after which the prosecution will start his cross-examination. During cross-examination, the prosecution is expected to challenge Mr. Taylor on the "accuracy, truthfulness and completeness" of his testimony.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2009 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(AllAfrica.com)'] |
The search continues for survivors of the 2011 Joplin tornado as 1,500 people are unaccounted for in the US town. | JOPLIN, Mo. — The sun shone for the first time in days on this devastated city on Tuesday, illuminating the full extent of the damage as rescue workers performed the grim task of searching for survivors and victims in buildings leveled by the United States’ deadliest tornado since modern record-keeping began. At least 122 people died, a number that seems likely to rise. An additional 1,500 people remained on the official list of those who remained unaccounted for, which ballooned in a flood of worried phone calls but is gradually shrinking as the names of the living and the dead are scratched off.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2011 | ['(New York Times)'] |
A search continues for 52 people missing from a South Korean fishing vessel, the Oriong–501, that sank early in the morning in bad weather in the Bering Sea off Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Eight people have been rescued including one person who subsequently died. | Last updated on: December 01, 2014 5:17 PM
A search-and-rescue mission continues for a South Korean fishing vessel that sank early Monday in the Bering Sea off Russia's far-eastern Chukotka region, officials said.
The Oriong-501 had a crew of 60 people. Eight crew members were pulled out of the water, including one who subsequently died, said Artur Rets, head of the maritime rescue service in Russia's port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Another 52 people are missing.
Officials said the ship began to list after taking on water in rough seas, forcing the crew to abandon it.
"When the fish were being hauled in, the vessel was hit by a wave," Rets said, adding that the ship sank at 0530 GMT.
The mission has been hampered by bad weather, with high winds and pounding waves.
The first rescuers did not arrive until more than three hours after the ship first experienced problems. Of the seven rescued, four were on a life raft together, and the rest were holding onto floating debris.
The South Korean fisheries ministry said the 36-year-old vessel, operated by Sajo Industries, had a crew including 35 Indonesians, 13 Philippine nationals, 11 South Koreans and one Russian inspector. None of the seven rescued was Korean. | Shipwreck | December 2014 | ['(Voice of America)'] |
The President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Afghanistan on the first leg of a Central Asian tour before visiting the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Bishkek. | Mr Ahmadinejad, on a visit to Kabul, said that Tehran strongly supported the political process in Afghanistan. He held talks with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, on the first leg of a tour that will also take him to Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.
This is Mr Ahmadinejad's first visit to Afghanistan since he was elected.
'Serious doubts'
Kabul's main ally, the United States, recently alleged that Iranian-made weapons were reaching the Taleban.
"The same allegations are made in Iraq. They are saying that they discover some weapons," Mr Ahmadinejad said at a press conference he addressed jointly with President Karzai.
If Afghanistan can bring them [Iran and the United States] closer, that will be a great happiness for Afghanistan
Hamid Karzai
"What is the reason? Why are they saying such things? Iran is a big country. I have serious doubts about this issue," he said.
"With all our force, we support the political process in Afghanistan," Mr Ahmadinejad said. He added that Iran's security depended on the situation in Afghanistan as the two nations shared a long border.
"For us, a secure and stable Afghanistan is the best," he said.
President Karzai said Afghanistan's ties with Tehran were excellent and addressed the Iranian president as his brother.
Mr Karzai said his country was close to Iran and also a friend and strategic partner of the United States.
"If Afghanistan can bring them [Iran and the United States] closer, that will be a great happiness for Afghanistan - but it depends on both sides," he said. Mutual interest
During his recent visit to the US, Mr Karzai said Iran had been playing a positive role in his country, putting him in dispute with President George W Bush. Tehran helped to establish an interim government in Kabul after the fall of the Taleban and since then has donated large amounts of aid to Afghanistan.
Issues of mutual interest include continuing reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Kabul's ongoing fight against Taleban insurgents, says the BBC's Pam O'Toole in Tehran.
The continuing presence of almost one million Afghan refugees in Iran and Tehran's current operation to expel other groups of Afghans who are living in Iran illegally are also key issues.
From Afghanistan Mr Ahmadinejad will travel on to Turkmenistan, where he is expected to sign a number of co-operation agreements. Mr Ahmadinejad's final port of call will be a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in Kyrgyzstan, where he is expected to bid for Iran's status to be raised from observer to full member. While there he is due to hold talks with leaders of full members of the organisation, who include Russia and China. | Diplomatic Visit | August 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A man who had pled guilty to conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister of Samoa, and was due to be sentenced today, has changed his plea from guilty to not-guilty. | A man who admitted to a charge of conspiracy to kill Samoa's Prime Minister, Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, wants to change his plea to not guilty.
Taualai Leiloa talking with his lawyer. Photo: Tipi Autagavaia
Taualai Leiloa, of Laulii and Magiagi villages, through his lawyer told the court that he wants to change to a not guilty plea.
The defense counsel has not yet filed an application for change of plea. Nor has the prosecution responded yet.
The accused was scheduled to be sentenced last week but the acting chief justice, Vui Clarence Nelson, has ordered Taualai to engage a lawyer to represent him before passing sentence.
The matter will be called again next Friday.
Meanwhile the two other men, Malele Atofu Paulo and Lema'i Faioso Sione, who are also jointly charged with conspiracy to kill the prime minister remain in custody.
They have pleaded not guilty and their trial is scheduled for next year.
The pair's bail application will be heard on 29 November in a closed court hearing.
One of three suspects facing charges of conspiring to assassinate Samoa's Prime Minister has pleaded guilty while two co-defendants have entered not guilty pleas on a charge of conspiring to commit…
Two men charged with conspiracy to assassinate Samoa's Prime Minister have pleaded not guilty to the crime. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2019 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
Josh Holt, an American held in Venezuela for allegedly stockpiling weapons and attempting to destabilize the government, is released to the United States. | Updated 0130 GMT (0930 HKT) May 27, 2018 (CNN)President Donald Trump welcomed Josh Holt, an American who had been held as a prisoner in Venezuela since the summer of 2016, back to the US on Saturday night.
Reunited.Senator Hatch has secured the release of Utahn Josh Holt from Venezuela.
I am pleased to join Senator Hatch and President Trump in announcing the release of Josh and Thamy Holt. We are on our way home.
After nearly 2 years, Josh Holt is finally coming home! Thanks to @realdonaldtrump and others who I've had the pleasure to work with to secure Josh's freedom. #justiceforjosh #utpol
.@senorrinhatch has worked tirelessly to bring this innocent young man & his bride home. It is unfortunate he had to go through this. Josh & Thamy Holt had nothing to do with internal politics in #Venezuela | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | May 2018 | ['(CNN)'] |
Ireland's Minister of State for Primary Care Róisín Shortall resigns due to a dispute with Minister for Health James Reilly. She also resigns from the Labour Party. | Roisin Shortall has resigned as junior minister for health, over what she described as a "lack of support for the reforms in the Programme for Government and the values which underpin it".
Ms Shortall has also resigned the Labour Party whip.
In a statement, Ms Shortall said the public has a right to expect that decisions on health infrastructure and staffing will be made in the public interest based on health need and not driven by other concerns.
She said that the decision comes after repeated and lengthy efforts to reach agreement on the implementation of the Programme for Government, both within the Department of Health and across Government.
Ms Shortall said: "It is with regret that I have today tendered my resignation as Minister of State at the Department of Health to An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny.
"I have also informed the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, that I am resigning the Parliamentary Labour Party whip."
She said it was "no longer possible for me to fulfil my role as Minister of State for Primary Care".
Taoiseach and Tánaiste disappointed
The Taoiseach said he regretted Ms Shortall's decision and thanked her for her work, particularly in the area of dealing with alcohol abuse.
A spokesperson for the Tánaiste said Eamon Gilmore was "very disappointed" at Ms Shortall's resignation, saying that he very much appreciated her commitment to her role as Minister of State.
Mr Gilmore is in New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
Through his spokesperson, he said the Labour Party is very much committed to the reform agenda in health and in the Programme for Government.
Labour’s Chief Whip Emmet Stagg said he regretted the resignation, saying the loss of a junior minister was a "serious matter" for the Government.
Several Labour backbenchers have also expressed regret at Ms Shortall's resignation on their Twitter accounts.
Dublin South-East's Kevin Humphreys said he was disappointed she felt she had to resign.
He said he had great respect for her and that she was leading the radical reform of health services needs.
Dominic Hannigan of Meath East said he was "very sad to see Roisin go".
Brendan Ryan, who shares the Dublin North constituency with James Reilly, said he was "so sorry" that she had resigned.
He added, that there was a lot of support for her within the party grassroots and the general public.
'Tense and difficult' meeting
Earlier this evening, Ms Shortall said she still had not received an explanation from Health Minister James Reilly as to what criteria were used to select an extra 15 sites for primary care centres, a spokesperson said.
They said yesterday's meeting between the two ministers had been "tense and difficult".
A newly released letter this evening from Minister Reilly to Ms Shortall explained the reasons for expanding the list of 20 sites for proposed primary care centres to 35. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2012 | ['(RTE)', '(The Irish Times)'] |
Donald Trump wins the Indiana Republican Primary. | INDIANAPOLIS — In a stunning triumph for a political outsider, Donald Trump all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday with a resounding victory in Indiana that knocked rival Ted Cruz out of the race and cleared Trump’s path to a likely November face-off with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Trump still needs about 200 delegates to formally secure the nomination, but Cruz’s decision to end his campaign removed his last major obstacle.
“Ted Cruz — I don’t know if he likes me or he doesn’t like me — but he is one hell of a competitor,” Trump said of his last fierce competitor whom he had dubbed “lyin’ Ted.” Trump, in a victory speech that was much lower-key than usual, promised victory in November, vowing anew to put “America first.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders eked out a victory over Clinton in Indiana, but the outcome will not slow the former secretary of state’s march to the Democratic nomination. Heading into Tuesday’s voting, Clinton had 92 percent of the delegates she needs.
“I know that the Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They’re wrong,” Sanders said defiantly in an interview Tuesday night. But Clinton already has turned her attention to the general election.
She and Trump now plunge into a six- month battle for the presidency, with the future of America’s immigration laws, health care system and military posture around the world at stake. While Clinton heads into the general election with significant advantages with minority voters and women, Democrats have vowed to not underestimate Trump as his Republican rivals did for too long.
Previewing Clinton’s general election message, top adviser John Podesta said Trump was “simply too big of a risk” to be president.
For months, Republican leaders considered him a fringe candidate and banked on voters shifting toward more traditional contenders. But Trump tapped into Republicans’ deep anger with party leaders and outlasted more than a dozen experienced political rivals.
Party Chairman Reince Priebus declared the race over, saying on Twitter that Trump would be the GOP’ s presumptive nominee.
Thank you Indiana, we were just projected to be the winner. We have won in every category. You are very special people-I will never forget!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2016
“We all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton,” he wrote.
Indeed, Trump’s first challenge will be uniting a Republican Party that has been roiled by his candidacy. While some GOP leaders have warmed to the real estate mogul, others have promised to never vote for him and see him as a threat to their party’s very existence.
Even before the Indiana results were finalized, some conservative leaders were planning a Wednesday meeting to assess the viability of launching a third party candidacy to compete with him in the fall.
One outside group trying to stop Trump suggested it would shift its attention to helping Republicans in other races. Rory Cooper, a senior adviser to the Never Trump super PAC, said the group will help protect “Republican incumbents and down-ballot candidates by distinguishing their values and principles from that of Trump and protecting them from a wave election.”
Indiana was viewed as the last gasp for Cruz, the fiery Texas conservative. He campaigned aggressively in the state, securing the support of Indiana’s governor and announcing businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his running mate.
Enlarge Image
Cruz had clung to the hope that he could keep Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination and push the race to a rare contested convention.
“I’ve said I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory; tonight I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed,” Cruz told a somber crowd in Indianapolis.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is now the only other Republican left in the race. But Kasich has won just one primary — his home state — and trails Trump by nearly 900 delegates.
Kasich pledged to stay in the race, with his campaign manager saying the governor would continue to “offer the voters a clear choice for our country.”
Only about half of Indiana’s Republican primary voters said they were excited or optimistic about any of their remaining candidates becoming president, according to exit polls. Still, most said they probably would support whoever won for the GOP.
Clinton, too, needs to win over Sanders’ enthusiastic supporters. The Vermont senator has cultivated a deeply loyal following, in particular among young people, a group Democrats count on in the general election.
Though Sanders claimed momentum, he has conceded his strategy hinges on persuading superdelegates to back him over the former secretary of state. Superdelegates are Democratic Party insiders who can support the candidate of their choice, regardless of how their states vote. And they favor Clinton by a nearly 18-1 margin.
Exit polls showed about 7 in 10 Indiana Democrats said they’d be excited or at least optimistic about either a Clinton or Sanders presidency. Most said they would support either in November.
The exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.
With Sanders’ narrow victory Tuesday, he picked up at least 42 of Indiana’s 83 delegates. Clinton now has 2,201 delegates to Sanders’ 1,399. That includes pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates.
Trump now has at least 1,041 delegates. Cruz exits the race with 565, while Kasich has 152. | Government Job change - Election | May 2016 | ['(New York Post)', '(Atlanta Journal Constitution)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects the Russian military’s request to resume airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, instead letting the humanitarian pause continue. | “The Russian president considers it inappropriate at the present time to resume airstrikes in Aleppo," Dmitry Peskov told the press.
However, Peskov added that “in case of extreme necessity to prevent provocative actions on the part of terrorist groups, the Russian side reserves the right to use all means at its disposal to provide an appropriate level of support to the Syrian armed forces.”
Russia will make a decision on further action in accordance with the events on the ground in Aleppo, the spokesman added.
The Russian president believes that the humanitarian pause should continue “to allow the withdrawal of the wounded and the militants who wish to leave the city. And, which is also significant, to allow our American partners to fulfill the obligations to separate the so-called ‘moderate’ opposition and the terrorists, which they took upon themselves,” Peskov said.
Earlier on Friday, Lt. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of operations in the Russian General Staff, said: "Due to the fact that there are still deaths among civilians and that the militants have resumed military activities against government forces, we’ve addressed Russia’s commander-in-chief, asking permission for the resumption of airstrikes targeting illegal armed groups in eastern Aleppo,”
Earlier on Friday, militants “used the moratorium of Russian and Syrian combat flights” and attempted to break into eastern Aleppo, the General Staff representative said.
“The attack was carried out by three groups [of militants]… with support of 20 tanks and 15 APCs. All this was accompanied by heavy fire from rocket launchers and artillery," he said.
The offensive was repelled, with the terrorists losing six tanks and five armored personnel carriers, Rudskoy said.
During the last three days, the terrorists have shelled western Aleppo on 62 occasions, killing 43 people and injuring 76 more, Rudskoy said.
On Thursday, a school in the Hay al-Andalus district of the city came under fire, with 12 civilians, including three school children, losing their lives and 14 others receiving injuries.
Russian air forces in Syria have not carried out combat flights in eastern Aleppo for 10 days in order to facilitate humanitarian access to the city.
Russia’s center for reconciliation in Syria is currently in talks “with representatives of the public authorities of eastern Aleppo and several armed groups on the evacuation of the civilian population and withdrawal of militants from areas under their control,” Rudskoy said. | Government Policy Changes | October 2016 | ['(RT)', '(Reuters)'] |
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin sign a massive 30-year natural gas export contract worth $400 billion. | China and Russia signed off on a huge gas deal worth as much as $400 billion Wednesday that heralds a pivot east for Russian business amid ongoing tensions with the West over Ukraine, though few details of the deal were made public.
The 30-year gas-export contract, seen as a move by Russian President Vladimir Putin to aggressively shift the country's commercial interests east amid mounting sanctions from the United States and Europe, was signed as the Russian leader has enjoyed a warm welcome in China, where the two countries have inked a raft of agreements during his ongoing, two-day visit.
The price China is paying for Russia's gas was not disclosed but the value of the agreement is thought to be somewhere near $400 billion. The deal, which will see Gazprom gas flow to China from a pipeline in Siberia, was confirmed by China's state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation.
The price is believed to be closer to what Russia wanted than what China was initially prepared to pay, said Thane Gustafson, a Georgetown University political science professor specializing in Russia. He said a prepayment for the gas, similar to what was agreed in oil deals, was dropped.
"This higher price level reflects China's willingness to pay more for cleaner fuel," Gustafson said.
The eleventh-hour deal represents "good news for both countries," said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at People's University of China, in Beijing. "The political requirements on both sides are so powerful they can overcome the concerns on price," he said. "This is a political action by both sides."
Talks for the deal had been going on for more than a decade and will see Russia export up to 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year, for 30 years, starting in 2018. The export agreement is significant because it will permit Russia to diversify the market for its gas away from Europe, which has threatened sanctions over Russia's incursion into Ukraine.
China's neutrality over Ukraine has begun "tilting" toward Russia, said Shi, but this deal will not fundamentally change a relationship he called "a convenient coalition, not an alliance." The agreement is an example of "selective cooperation, due to the situation in Eastern Europe, the Western Pacific and East Asia at this period," but on some issues their concerns remain incompatible, he said.
"It's a demonstration of the fact that Russia always has and always will have other options to develop relations elsewhere. The threat of isolation coming from the West will not be complete," said Sergei Utkin, political expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Plans already announced by the two nations include building the first railway bridge over their long border, and manufacturing Chinese cars in Russia.
The neighbors, whose relationship has long been strained by distrust, promised Tuesday to increase bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2020, up from $90 billion last year.
Ahead of his visit to Asia's largest economy, Putin told Chinese media that China is a "reliable friend." The Russian leader, now spurned in the West for his annexation of Crimea in eastern Ukraine, received reliably positive news media coverage Wednesday in China, where he enjoys personal popularity as a strong leader with a macho charisma unfamiliar in China's straitlaced political system.
Photos and comments highlighting Putin's masculine charm dominated social media sites, although some Internet users expressed pride that the portly Xi Jinping, China's leader, is at least taller than Putin.
Both countries consider the other a useful counterpoint to difficult relations with the United States.
While in China, Putin traveled to Shanghai to attend a two-day session of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, a little-known Asian security group that includes Iran and several Central Asian states but not the U.S. or Japan, China's longtime rival in East Asia, and one of several maritime neighbors currently embroiled in disputes over territory with China. | Sign Agreement | May 2014 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Typhoon Jebi kills at least 11 people in Japan, while more than 300 are injured. It is considered the strongest typhoon in the country in 25 years. | A major international airport in western Japan has been closed, with thousands of people evacuated, in the wake of deadly Typhoon Jebi.
Kansai airport, a major transport hub serving Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, was cut off when an ocean tanker hit and damaged its bridge to the mainland. Jebi, Japan's most powerful storm in 25 years, has killed at least 10 people.
In a separate incident, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake caused a landslide on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.
A number of houses in the town of Atsumi were engulfed and several people were said to be trapped. There were no reports of fatalities.
The quake came as Typhoon Jebi left a trail of damage to infrastructure, ripping off roofs, overturning vehicles and cutting power.
The tanker was unmoored by the strong winds of Typhoon Jebi and drifted into the bridge.
Kansai International Airport is built on a man-made island and is linked to the mainland by the bridge.
About 3,000 passengers were stranded overnight, some for more than 18 hours in terminals without power, before ferries and speedboats were deployed to evacuate them on Wednesday.
One passenger told broadcaster NHK: "We had a blackout so there was no air conditioning. It was hot."
Some people were able to leave on buses, using an unaffected part of the damaged bridge.
Runways were also severely hit by surging water, with some aircraft flooded up to their engines.
All flights have been cancelled and there is no confirmation of when the airport will reopen. The Kansai airport website could only say that the runways and bridge would reopen on "6 September or later". Some reports said it could take a week.
In 2016, Kansai handled some 25 million passengers, making it the third busiest in Japan.
It recorded winds of up to 216km/h (135mph) and made landfall at about noon local time on Tuesday (03:00 GMT).
It moved quickly northwards over the mainland in the west of the country.
In addition to the deaths, some 300 people were injured, officials said.
Some 400,000 households are said to be still without power.
The winds brought down part of the ceiling in the main railway station in the tourist hub of Kyoto.
Images showed containers in ports thrown about like toy bricks and vehicles scattered across roads.
Dozens of cars were engulfed in fire at a depot in Nishinomiya as water short-circuited electrics.
Some 1.2 million people had been advised to leave evacuated areas as the storm approached and local media say some 16,000 took to designated shelters overnight.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tweeted: "We continue to make utmost efforts to respond to disaster damage and restore infrastructure."
The Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka was closed again on Wednesday but should reopen on Thursday.
Footage on social media showed the 100m (328ft) tall ferris wheel in Osaka spinning rapidly in the storm despite being switched off.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United Nations reports that Somalia is experiencing its worst drought since the 1990s. | Somalia is facing its worst drought for at least a decade, says the UN. Satellite surveys of rainfall and ground research show the drought's severity, said UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden. He said many cattle were dying from the lack of water, and that this was contributing to nearly half the population suffering from malnutrition. Mr Bowden said humanitarian assistance to Somalia needed to start "increasing dramatically". He said that Somalis were not currently dying of starvation but some 3.2 million of the population needed life-saving food assistance. "We're now facing a drought in Somalia that is worse than people have seen for at least a decade," Mr Bowden said. "Roughly 45% of the [Somali] population is suffering from moderate malnutrition." In parts of central and southern Somalia, 24% of children under five suffer from acute malnutrition, he told a news briefing in Geneva. Some 1.1 million people in Somalia have been driven from their homes because of conflict in recent years. Since the weekend thousands of civilians have fled fierce fighting in the capital Mogadishu between Islamist militants and the government.
| Droughts | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
President Donald Trump disbands both the Strategic and Policy Forum and American Manufacturing Council in response to the CEO resignations. | President Trump has said he is scrapping two business councils after more bosses quit over his handling of violent clashes in Virginia. Business leaders left the White House manufacturing council after the backlash against how he reacted to the far-right rally last weekend.
The clashes culminated in a woman's death and nearly 20 wounded when a car ploughed into a crowd of anti-fascists.
Mr Trump's reaction has sparked outrage and generated global headlines.
His announcement on Twitter came as the heads of 3M, Campbell Soup, Johnson & Johnson and United Technologies announced their resignations on Wednesday.
Mr Trump said: "Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both."
Before Mr Trump's announcement, the Strategy and Policy Forum announced it was a joint decision to disband the council. Businesses have been under pressure to distance themselves from Mr Trump over his handling of the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.
On Monday, Mr Trump belatedly condemned the white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups that rallied in a small Virginia town on Sunday. But in a rancorous news conference on Tuesday he backtracked and again blamed left-wing counter-protesters for the violence too. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, a member of the Strategy and Policy Forum, released a separate statement on Wednesday saying he strongly disagreed with Mr Trump's recent statements, adding that "fanning divisiveness is not the answer". "Constructive economic and regulatory policies are not enough and will not matter if we do not address the divisions in our country. It is a leader's role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart," he said. Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup Co said she could not continue to participate in the advisory panel after Mr Trump's comments. Activists had called on Campbell Soup, among other firms, to take action.
Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter
The calculus for business leaders working with the Trump administration has changed quickly.
After the Charlottesville violence, Ken Frazier of Merck abandoned the president's manufacturing council and quickly drew the president's Twitter ire. At that point there was some media speculation - through unnamed "corporate leaders" - that the wise move would be to wait out the storm rather than pick a fight with the president.
Companies like Boeing and General Motors had tangled with the president in the past, and they (and their stock prices) generally ended up the worse for it.
This time was different. As more corporate chiefs headed to the exit, the riskier move - from a business as well as political perspective - became staying put. The president, despite further tweets and verbal swipes, was unable to staunch the bleeding. His rhetorical gymnastics on the Charlottesville situation only made matters worse.
In the corporate world, there's always talk of "leading indicators" - tell-tale signs that help predict what's to come. Is the collapse of the Trump regime's corporate entente a sign his fortunes are in a tailspin? Or is the man who ascended to the presidency without their help perfectly capable of staying there now that they've abandoned him?
For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!
The president was under pressure to explicitly condemn white supremacists who were behind Saturday's far-right rally, where violent clashes left a woman dead and nearly 20 people injured.
The rally, supported by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, was in protest of the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the US Civil War. But Mr Trump reversed course on Tuesday and instead appeared to defend the rally's organisers. He condemned the driver of the car who rammed into a crowd of counter protesters and killed a woman, but said those who had marched in defence of the statue had included "many fine people".
Mr Trump's remarks were welcomed by David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
At a memorial service in Charlottesville for Heather Heyer, who was killed in the weekend clashes, her mother delivered a powerful message.
"They killed my child to shut her up. Well guess what, you just magnified her," she said before the crowd erupted into a standing ovation. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has faced accusations of racism in the past, said the government may press hate crime charges against the man accused of driving his car and killing Ms Heyer.
Speaking in Miami about undocumented immigration, he said: "In no way can we accept or apologise for racism, bigotry, hatred, violence, and those kind of things that too often arise in our county". Vice-President Mike Pence, who has been on a diplomatic tour of South America, said he was cutting his trip short to return to the US after a visit to Panama. He told reporters travelling with him that he stands by Mr Trump's words.
Former CIA director John Brennan said in a letter to CNN that Mr Trump's words are "despicable", "dangerous" and "a national disgrace".
He added that "we will not allow the few to divide the many".
Two Republican ex-presidents also weighed in. In remarks implicitly critical of President Trump, George HW Bush and son George W Bush called on the US to "reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism and hatred in all forms".
Their joint statement adds to a growing chorus of Republicans condemning Mr Trump's opinions on race.
| Organization Closed | August 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(Business Insider)'] |
NASA's space probe OSIRIS-REx arrives at the asteroid Bennu. | The spacecraft now begins a close study of the primitive space rock, seeking clues to the early solar system.
By Kenneth Chang
[Follow the OSIRIS-REX mission’s attempt to collect samples from Bennu asteroid.]
Launched two years ago, NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft pulled alongside the asteroid Bennu on Monday. Its mission is to survey the asteroid ahead of retrieving pristine bits of the solar system from the rock’s surface and then bringing them back to Earth in the years ahead.
With a short engine burn, the spacecraft matched the speed and direction of Bennu.
A few minutes after noon, Javier Cerna, a communications systems engineer at Lockheed Martin, which built and operates the spacecraft, announced, “We have arrived.”
Osiris-Rex launched Sept. 8, 2016, on a seven-year mission to the asteroid Bennu.
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is exploring Ryugu, an asteroid thought to contain rubble from the early solar system.
| New achievements in aerospace | December 2018 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Japanese news agency Kyodo News reports that Empress Michiko is suffering from internal bleeding. | The 72-year-old empress was suffering from intestinal bleeding, nose bleeds and mouth ulcers, an agency spokesman said. Empress Michiko will take a short break from her duties to recuperate. Her daughter-in-law, Princess Masako, has been suffering from a stress-linked illness for several years.
Masako, a former diplomat, has been seen in public only rarely since late 2003 because of what the palace calls an "adjustment disorder". Her troubles have sparked debate about the lives of royal women within the confines of the very traditional and conservative Imperial Household Agency. Royal book
Empress Michiko fell ill with a cold on 19 February, the agency said, and had not felt well since then.
A spokesman for the agency outlined her symptoms at a news conference. "Her doctors believe this is due to psychological stress," the spokesman said. She will take a five-day break from her duties before receiving the Swedish king and queen. She will then spend more time recuperating outside Tokyo. Empress Michiko, who is the wife of Emperor Akihito, was the first commoner to marry an heir to the throne. But she has suffered from stress in the past and in the 1990s lost her voice for a period of several months, apparently after unflattering reports in tabloids. Earlier this month, the Japanese government complained about a book by an Australian journalist about Princess Masako and her life as a royal, saying it insulted the royal family. | Famous Person - Sick | March 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
2004 Atlantic hurricane season: Massive flooding in Haiti resulting from this weekend's passage of Hurricane Jeanne over the island of Hispaniola leaves large areas submerged and at least 556 people dead, with that number expected to increase. | PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - More than 300 people have died in Haiti from flooding and mudslides triggered by Tropical Storm Jeanne, according to aid workers who said half of the northern city of Gonaives was still underwater.
"We have counted 250 bodies at the hospital morgue in Gonaives," U.N. spokesman Toussaint Congo-Doudou said after heavy rains sent a wall of muddy water crashing through northern towns over the weekend.
U.N. peacekeepers had unconfirmed reports of another 150 dead in Gonaives, said U.N. coordinator Adama Guindo.
The northern city was the birthplace of Haiti's independence from France 200 years ago and it was where an armed revolt began this year that led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Forty-seven people were also confirmed killed in the northwest province, around the town of Port-de-Paix, said Henry Max Thelus, a government official. Eight deaths were recorded elsewhere, bringing the total confirmed toll to 305.
Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue declared three days of national mourning.
Half of Gonaives remained under water, and 80 percent of its inner urban population of over 100,000 had been affected by the floods, which at one point forced hundreds of people to take cover on the roofs of their homes, said Anne Poulsen, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Programme in Haiti.
Twelve trucks carrying 40 metric tons of food would leave the capital Port-au-Prince Monday and head to Gonaives, said Poulsen.
The World Health Organisation planned to deliver medicine, and 15 trucks from the Brazilian-led U.N. force had gone to reinforce a detachment of Argentine peacekeepers stationed in the city.
"It's not just people's houses, it's also crops and livestock that have been washed away. So it will take quite some months before people will be able to cope by themselves again," Poulsen said. "Nature is tough on Haiti."
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is frequently lashed by flash floods and mudslides because of extensive deforestation. Around 2,000 Haitians died when extensive floods washed away villages near the Dominican-Haitian border in May.
Congo-Doudou said that at the height of the flooding, the water was 9 feet (3 metres) deep in Gonaives and the current was so strong it swept away heavy military trucks. U.N. helicopters were used to pluck people from their rooftops.
A woman who was about to give birth in the street as muddy waters swirled around her legs was rescued by U.N. police.
The fresh blow from nature came on top of bloody political conflict that saw Aristide flee into exile on February 29. A Brazilian-led U.N. force is trying to keep the peace.
Jeanne, which last Thursday briefly became a hurricane with winds in excess of 75 mph (122 kph), also killed 11 people in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and two in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
The latest cyclone in an unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season, the storm was moving slowly northward to the east of the Bahamas on Monday, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph).
It presented no immediate threat to land, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said, and was expected to swing to the northeast. That would spare Florida, hit by three big hurricanes in the past five weeks.
Likewise, powerful Hurricane Karl presented no immediate threat to land as it swirled in the open Atlantic, 1,010 miles (1,620 km) east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles, with winds of 120 mph (195 kph).
Meanwhile, a new tropical storm formed in the Atlantic on Monday. Tropical Storm Lisa was 810 miles (1,305 km) west of the Cape Verde islands by 11 a.m., with 60 mph (95 kph) as it began to take a westerly track that would move it through the Caribbean toward the Gulf of Mexico. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2004 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Albania signs a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, a first step toward joining the European Union. |
Albania has signed a pre-membership agreement with the European Union.
The deal, signed Monday in Luxembourg, sets the framework for detailed political and economic negotiations required for Albania's eventual entry into the 25-nation European trading bloc. In a statement, the EU urged Albania to use the so-called Stabilization and Association agreement to "push ahead with its reform agenda."
The statement points to what it says are needed Albanian improvements in property restitution, minority rights, press freedoms and governance. It also acknowledges what it calls "encouraging steps" by the Tirana government to combat corruption and organized crime.
The EU signed similar pre-membership deals with the Balkan nations of Croatia and Macedonia in 2001. | Sign Agreement | June 2006 | ['(VOA)'] |
Eight police officers and two Islamist militants are killed in clashes near Sidi Bouzid in the southern part of Tunisia. | Agence France-Presse GlobalPost October 23, 2013 10:33 PM UTC At least eight Tunisian police officers and two Islamist militants were killed Wednesday when they clashed during a raid by security forces in Sidi Bouzid.
Fighting erupted in the central region when members of the National Guard entered a house where the militants were located, leading to the gunfire that killed the officers and the militants. | Armed Conflict | October 2013 | ['(Global Post)'] |
Iran started a 5–day air defense drill, claimed by its government to be the biggest drill of its kind ever. The drills are held near its nuclear facilities. | TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran began what it said was its biggest ever air defense drill on Tuesday to test its ability to deter air strikes, which the United States and Israel have not ruled out to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
The website of Iran’s English-language Press TV said the five-day war games were being held near nuclear facilities and included tests of long-range missiles.
On Sunday, a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards said land forces had carried out military drills near Iran’s nuclear facilities “exactly like real combat.”
Western countries suspect Iran’s atomic work is a cover for a nuclear weapons programme. Tehran denies this, saying it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.
Israel, which says a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence, and its ally the United States have refused to rule out pre-emptive strikes against Iran, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates argued strongly against the military option on Tuesday.
“The large-scale military maneuvers ... will improve readiness to confront possible threats to Iran’s air space and the very populated, vital and nuclear centers,” Ahmad Mighani, head of an air force unit that responds to threats to Iran’s air space, was quoted by state TV as saying.
Iran has repeatedly announced advances in its military capability to show it is ready to respond to military aggression.
Some Western officials suspect Iran is developing more sophisticated missiles and carrying out well-publicized missile tests so that it can deliver a nuclear weapon.
The Islamic Republic denies this, saying its missile development efforts are for defensive purposes only.
Iran said earlier this month that it had developed a home-made version of the Russian S-300 missile system and would soon test-fire it.
Moscow supported a fresh round of U.N. sanctions against Iran in June, and then refused to deliver an order of S-300s to Iran after persistent lobbying by Israel and the United States.
The S-300 is a mobile, long-range air defense system that can detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and low-flying aircraft.
Tehran has been hit by various international sanctions for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment activities. Uranium can be enriched to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or, if enriched to a higher level, to make atomic bombs.
Editing by Tim Pearce
| Military Exercise | November 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
John Bercow announces his resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons, effective October 31. | The speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow has announced that he is to stand down as speaker and as an MP at the end of the current parliament, Bercow has served as speaker since June 2009. Video: UK Parliament TV
Speaker John Bercow announce that he will stand down during an impassioned speech in the House of Commons, London on Monday. Photograph: House of Commons/PA Wire
John Bercow has announced that he will stand down as Commons Speaker at the end of next month unless an election is called beforehand.
In an impassioned speech Mr Bercow, who has held the influential post for just over 10 years, also said he would step down as MP for Buckingham.
The speaker told the Commons he would resign on Monday night in the unlikely event MPs vote for an early general election, but said if they did not he would stand aside on October 31st.
As his wife Sally looked on from the gallery, Mr Bercow said: “At the 2017 election, I promised my wife and children that it would be my last.
“This is a pledge that I intend to keep. If the House votes tonight for an early general election, my tenure as Speaker and MP will end when this Parliament ends.
“If the House does not so vote, I have concluded that the least disruptive and most democratic course of action would be for me to stand down at the close of business on Thursday October 31st.”
The Speaker added that he has “sought to be the backbenchers’ backstop”, and thanked his team in the Speaker’s House for their work behind the scenes.
Mr Bercow entered Parliament in 1997 and held several shadow ministerial positions before taking the Speaker’s chair on June 22nd 2009, promising to serve “no more than nine years in total”.
He abandoned that commitment ahead of the 2017 snap election, but allegations of bullying by former members of his staff, denied by the Speaker, led to fresh calls for him to quit.
In recent months he has also come under fire for a series of controversial rulings in the chamber which were widely considered to favour Remain supporters.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn praised Mr Bercow for being a “superb” Speaker, and said he had “totally changed the way in which the job has been done”.
“This Parliament is stronger for your being Speaker. Our democracy is the stronger for your being the Speaker.
“And whatever you do when you finally step down from Parliament, you do so with the thanks of a very large number of people,” Mr Corbyn said.
For the Government, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove said it was clear Mr Bercow loved the House of Commons and democracy, adding: “Your commitment to your principles and to your constituents is unwavering and an example to others.”
Mr Gove joked that he hoped Mr Bercow would not take it personally when he votes for an early general election, adding: “It is the case that however controversial the role of the backstop may be in other areas, your role as the backbenchers’ backstop has certainly been one that’s been appreciated by individuals across this House.”
However Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage tweeted “good riddance” in response to Mr Bercow’s announcement.
Deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle confirmed he would stand to replace Mr Bercow.
In another development in Westminster on Monday, Boris Johnson’s government has been told to publish communications connected to prorogation and no-deal Brexit planning after MPs supported an emergency Commons motion.
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve’s demand for all written and electronic contact about the temporary suspension of Parliament and Operation Yellowhammer documents since July 23rd to be released was approved by 311 votes to 302.
He used the parliamentary device of a humble address to the Queen to ask for the documents to be put before the Commons by ministers by no later than 11pm on Wednesday.
Mr Grieve, now sitting as an independent MP after losing his place in the Tories, said public officials had given him information relating to prorogation that informed him “they believed the handling of this matter smacked of scandal”.
He told MPs: “That places me in a difficulty because it is simply the information that I’ve been given and I want to make absolutely clear that I’m not in a position any more than I think any member in this House is to be able to ascertain if that information is mistaken or not.
Mr Grieve’s motion asked for all correspondence and communications, whether formal or informal, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Facebook messenger, private email accounts, text messages, iMessage and official and personal mobile phones connected to the present Government since July 23 relating to prorogation, to be handed over.
It lists key individuals of Mr Johnson’s Government, including senior adviser Dominic Cummings and director of legislative affairs Nikki da Costa.
The demand came after documents released in a Scottish court showed Mr Johnson appeared to have approved the prorogation on August 15, despite subsequent official denials and the public announcement being made nearly two weeks later, on August 28th.
Elsewhere, the British parliament will be prorogued at the close of business on Monday, Downing Street has confirmed.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said that while the government would obey the law, Mr Johnson would not be requesting another extension of the Article 50 EU withdrawal process.
“The prime minister is not going to seek an extension,” the spokesman said.
“If MPs want to resolve this there is an easy way – vote for an election today and let the public decide.”
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth gave final approval to a piece of legislation which seeks to prevent prime minister Boris Johnson from taking the country out of the European Union without a deal on October 31st.
The step, known as Royal Assent, is effectively a rubber-stamp from the monarch for the law which passed through parliament last week despite opposition from the government.
The Royal Assent was announced in parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords. – | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2019 | ['(The Irish Times)'] |
League One team Leeds United defeats Manchester United, 1–0 at Old Trafford, thanks to a goal by Jermaine Beckford, scored at the Stretford End to knock Manchester United out of the FA Cup in the Third Round. | There will be Leeds United supporters who take issue with the description of this once mighty club as "giant-killers" but, when you consider that their last league game was at Stockport County and the next is Wycombe Wanderers, nobody could dispute this was a victory that has grabbed the FA Cup by its shirt collar and reminded us all about the improbability of football. How, you wonder, can the FA Cup possibly produce anything more stunning in the next rounds?
Manchester United, the 11-time winners, had not been knocked out of the third round since losing at Bournemouth in 1984 and yet the team from League One played with not a hint of trepidation. They were strong in the challenge, quick to the ball, and the most remarkable result of a weekend otherwise devoid of upsets felt like a defining moment for a club that will want to forget the last decade in a hurry.
What we can say for certain is that Leeds look like a team that have finally found their feet and rediscovered some pride. Jermaine Beckford's winning goal, 19 minutes into a wretched day for Manchester United, can automatically be added to the annals of great FA Cup moments, a goal that will be replayed a thousand times but never too often for those 9,000 supporters who had come across the M62 maybe hoping, at best, to get a replay.
Beckford was outstanding as Leeds inflicted the kind of embarrassment on Manchester United that few could ever have envisaged. Sir Alex Ferguson would later complain that every one of his players had a bad day and it was difficult to argue considering they did not subject their opponents to any sustained pressure until the five minutes of stoppage time.
Ferguson likes to boast that no other team conjures up as much late drama but every time a player in red got a sight of goal someone in white, or some part of the goalkeeper Casper Ankergren's anatomy, somehow got in the way. At one point Bradley Johnson went into a tackle with a diving header. The sight of Patrick Kisnorbo, bandaged head, blood pouring from his nose, epitomised the Leeds spirit of togetherness. It felt like a trick of the mind that this, indeed, was a side belonging to the third tier.
This, however, was not just a victory for hard toil and organisation. There was inspiration to go with the perspiration. Beckford, fast and lithe, was a constant menace, causing as many problems as any Premier League striker to visit Old Trafford this season. Robert Snodgrass, a substitute, curled a free-kick against the crossbar and even if the home side had marginally more chances there was a sense of desperation attached to their play. It is always a sign that Ferguson's men are not playing well when he leaves his electrically heated dug-out, and his eyes were burning holes in his players from the first moment he appeared in the technical area.
By then Leeds were in front, Jonathan Howson's long pass releasing Beckford in the knowledge the striker has the pace and movement to trouble the most accomplished defence and a player who was working as an RAC repair man three years ago supplying the rest. Wes Brown, Nemanja Vidic's replacement, had let his opponent get a yard away and, even though Beckford's first touch took him away from goal, Tomasz Kuszczak was slow to leave his goal-line when quicker reactions meant the ball could have been gathered. Beckford got there ahead of the goalkeeper and clipped a left-foot shot just inside the post.
If we are going to be generous, Ferguson could cite the fact he lost Vidic in the warm-up and that three-quarters of his defenders were coming back from other injury problems. There were seven changes in total but, even so, it was astonishing to see the lack of cohesion and fluidity in Ferguson's side. Wayne Rooney never stopped trying but his finishing was erratic. Dimitar Berbatov flickered only sporadically and by the end the substitute Michael Owen had resorted to throwing himself to the floor to try to win a penalty.
Those were frantic moments but nobody should think it was an onslaught. Leeds could also reflect on Beckford shooting wide when clear on goal 10 minutes from the end and there were long spells when they out-passed their opponents. The victory was no fluke and that, perhaps, was the most shocking aspect. | Sports Competition | January 2010 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Interior Ministry of Belarus grants the police the authority to use lethal weapons against anti-Lukashenko protesters if needed. | Police in Belarus have been authorised to use lethal force if necessary against anti-government protesters, a senior government official says.
The move was in response to increasingly radicalised, violent anti-Lukashenko groups, he said. Separately, EU foreign ministers have said they are ready to impose sanctions against President Alexander Lukashenko.
Protests have swept the country since Mr Lukashenko claimed victory in an August poll widely viewed as rigged.
Belarusian authorities have been accused of brutality and torture in their suppression of the mass street protests that followed.
On Monday, the interior ministry confirmed police fired stun grenades and tear gas during an unauthorised rally in the capital, Minsk, which involved a large number of pension-age protesters.
A spokesperson said action was taken after "citizens started to show aggression". An unconfirmed number of demonstrators were also arrested.
Referring to protests in the city on Sunday, First Deputy Interior Minister Gennady Kazakevich said they had "become organised and extremely radical", adding they now mainly centred on Minsk and were less widespread. Whereas protesters hurled stones and bottles in the afternoon, as well as wielding knives, by nightfall they had moved on to building barricades and burning tyres, he said.
"This has nothing to do with civil protests. We're confronted not just by aggression, but by groups of militants, radicals, anarchists and football hooligans," he said in a video statement.
"On behalf of the interior ministry, I say that we will not leave the streets and will guarantee the law in the country. Law enforcement personnel and interior troops will use special equipment and lethal weapons if need be."
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg said they were ready to expand sanctions to take in Mr Lukashenko, according to a statement.
Mr Lukashenko was not on the EU's sanctions list of 40 Belarusian officials agreed on earlier this month.
But the ministers say the president's refusal to consider new elections as a way out of the crisis leaves the bloc with no choice.
"This is an answer to the evolving situation in Belarus," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters. "There has not been any kind of signal from the Belarus authorities to engage in any kind of conversation."
On Sunday, demonstrators turned out across the country for the ninth successive weekend in protest at the disputed re-election of Mr Lukashenko. Critics of Mr Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, said Sunday saw police use some of the most brutal tactics against protesters since the immediate aftermath of the election. Riot police again used water cannon and stun grenades to break up the latest rally in Minsk, and many protesters were beaten with police batons.
More than 700 people were arrested on Sunday, the interior ministry said. Protesters are demanding the release of all political prisoners and a free and fair re-run of the election.
International observers including the European Union have characterised the demonstrations as peaceful.
The EU, the UK and the US have refused to recognise Mr Lukashenko's new term. Mr Lukashenko denies fixing the poll and has received support from Russia, his country's closest ally.
President Vladimir Putin has said he is prepared to send Russian police to help Mr Lukashenko if the protests get "out of control". | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Enele Sopoaga, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, estimates that 45% of the population has been displaced by the cyclone. | The Prime Minister of Tuvalu says nearly half of the population has been displaced by Cyclone Pam.
Enele Sopoaga said most people living on the outer islands had been severely affected, with houses and crops being washed away and at least one island being entirely flooded.
Tuvalu has a population of 9876 at the last census in 2013.
He said there was a health and safety concern following some cemeteries being destroyed.
"Forty five percent of the population of Tuvalu, most of whom are on the outer islands, have been affected, badly, severly affected. We are worried about the aftermath in terms of hygeine and supplies of essential materials like food, medicine and water."
Enele Sopoaga said government boats would travel to the outer islands this afternoon to assess the extent of the damage and hand out emergency supplies.
Tuvalu has been battered by Cyclone Pam's storm surge over the last four days Photo: Supplied | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | March 2015 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
Two United States drone missiles kill 14 people in Pakistani Taliban compounds near Wana in South Waziristan. . | PESHAWAR: US missiles killed 18 militants in Pakistan’s tribal district of South Waziristan on Monday, destroying compounds and a vehicle in the deadliest drone strikes for months, officials said.
Three strikes were reported just days after Pakistani officials said they believed senior al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri had died in a similar attack late Friday, also in South Waziristan which borders Afghanistan.
Washington has called Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwest tribal region the most dangerous place on Earth and the global headquarters of al Qaeda.
The first strike killed seven militants in the early hours in Shalam Raghzai, 10 kilometres northwest of Wana, the district’s main town.
A second slammed two missiles into a compound in Wacha Dana, 12 kilometres northwest of Wana, killing eight militants, Pakistani officials said.
The third struck the Bray Nishtar area, which lies on the border with North Waziristan at 10:45 am, about 30 kilometres from the site of the other two raids and about eight hours later.
“A US drone fired two missiles on a militant vehicle killing three rebels,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP of the third attack.
Another official warned the death toll could rise further. The combined toll of 18 made Monday’s drone strikes the deadliest reported in Pakistan since a salvo of US missiles killed at least 35 people on March 17.
Initial reports suggested that some foreign militants may have been killed and that Pakistani Taliban were also targeted on Monday.
One of the demolished compounds was near a madrassa and just south of the Ghwakhwa area, where Kashmiri, one of al Qaeda’s most feared operational leaders, was reportedly killed days earlier.
Monday’s attacks bring to 12 the number of strikes reported in Pakistan’s tribal areas since US commandos killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in a raid in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2.
A barrage of US missiles killed 18 militants in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan, destroying a vehicle and compouds Monday in attacks just hours apart, local officials said. | Armed Conflict | June 2011 | ['(Dawn)', '(AAP via Herald Sun)'] |
Twelve South American and 22 Arab countries begin a summit in Brazil. | The Arab states are discussing with their Latin American peers during a summit in Brazil on Tuesday and Wednesday means of enhancing joint trade and economic relations, especially continued sustainable development and the work to achieve social justice and eliminating poverty and hunger and preserving the environment.
The two sides will also discuss in the field of biological technologies in order to enhance agricultures in arid and semi arid areas which cover most of the Arab states lands.
The official at the Brazilian ministry of sciences and technology Avirtor Loshero said that his country is an expert in this regard, considering that biotechnology might constitute an area for closeness in order to achieve joint projects.
Loshero said that drought resisting agricultures will be the joint basic projects to be discussed.
However, Arab and Latin American scientists held in September 2004 a conference in Brazil on water resources in which they assessed the potentials in the two sides and the possibility of conducting joint venture projects.
Fighting drought in Brazil's northern areas is one of the Brazilian's President objective as he lived in that area before he left with his family to the industrial Saint Paolo area.
This summit, the first of its kind, will be attended by several Arab leaders and Latin American countries. The foreign ministers of the Arab states and Latin American states will start today, Monday, morning meetings in preparations for the summit which will highlight several political issues.
Meantime, The Brazil summit that will bring together 33 Arab and south American countries on May 10-11 will help improve exchanges between the two sub-regions and develop south-south relations, said Moroccan Industry Minister, Salaheddine Mezouar.
The minister is part of the Moroccan delegation that arrived Sunday in Brasilia to take part in the summit that is held at the initiative of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva whose government makes enormous efforts to bring closer South America and the Arab states.
Mezouar said the development of south-south relations has become a must to bring balance to international trade and to avoid disparities in the level of growth. Countries of the south, he said, have to reinforce their relations to create contacts and exchanges.
Arab and south American countries have long focused on traditional markets, but in this time of globalization, approaches should change both in terms of investment and economic exchanges, he pointed out. Brasilia summit will examine means to strengthen political, economic, trade and cultural relations between south America and the Arab states.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2005 | ['(Agencia Estado Brazil)', '(Arabic News)', '(Bloomberg)', '(Reuters)'] |
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signs into law a bill banning the display and sale of the Confederate battle flag, swastikas and other 'symbols of hate' on state-owned property. Cuomo has promised to address concerns that this law could violate freedom of speech. | An Exterior view of the New York State Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, in Albany, N.Y.
The sale or display of Confederate flags, swastikas and other “symbols of hate” on state property is banned in New York under a law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo despite concerns it may violate free speech protection under the U.S. Constitution.
“This country faces a pervasive, growing attitude of intolerance and hate — what I have referred to in the body politic as an American cancer,” Cuomo said in his bill-signing memo on Tuesday.
“By limiting the display and sale of the Confederate flag, Nazi swastika and other symbols of hatred from being displayed or sold on state property, including the state fairgrounds, this bill will help safeguard New Yorkers from the fear-instilling effects of these abhorrent symbols,” he said.
Exceptions are made for images used in books, museum services or materials used for educational or historical purposes.
The display of Confederate flags has come under fire as part of the national reckoning over racial injustice. The rebel flag has been used by Ku Klux Klan groups and is widely condemned as racist.
But New York’s new law raises free speech issues.
“The First Amendment generally protects the expression of even hateful speech, and a statute banning the sale of materials expressing those views on state-owned land is highly likely to be held unconstitutional,” said attorney Floyd Abrams, who has argued frequently before the Supreme Court in First Amendment cases.
Cuomo acknowledged in his signing memo that certain “technical changes” will be needed in the law to make sure free speech protections aren’t violated. He said he has agreed with the Legislature to address the concerns.
In November, voters in Mississippi approved a new state flag with a magnolia design, replacing the last state banner in the U.S. with the Confederate battle emblem. | Government Policy Changes | December 2020 | ['(WNBC-TV)'] |
French transport and energy workers' strike against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform broadens, disrupting especially rail services. | Rail services were severely disrupted and energy production reduced in the open-ended action over cuts affecting some 500,000 public sector workers.
Unions have vowed to extend the strike into Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, Mr Sarkozy urged a speedy end to the action, saying conditions for talks had been met.
"The president of the republic has always considered that there is more to be gained for all parties in negotiation than in conflict," said Mr Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon. The strikes "must stop as quickly as possible in the interest of passengers", he said.
There are fears the stoppage, which began on Tuesday evening, could last for several days.
The latest disruption comes on the heels of crippling transport strikes on 18 October.
The BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris says that with students, teachers, civil servants and even magistrates also threatening strike action in the coming weeks, the fear for the government is that this becomes a general wave of protest against economic hardship. Contingency plans
'SPECIAL' PENSIONS
Benefits 1.6m workers, including 1.1m retirees
Applies in 16 sectors, of which rail and utilities employees make up 360,000 people
Account for 6% of total state pension payments
Shortfall costs state 5bn euros (£3.5bn; $6.9bn) a year
Some workers can retire on full pensions aged 50
Awarded to Paris Opera House workers in 1698 by Louis XIV
In pictures: French strikes
Can street protests succeed?
Predicting a "hellish day for travellers", Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand met Mr Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon and also held talks with unions to seek a resolution.
Nationwide, fewer than a quarter of trains ran normally and only 90 of the country's 700 high-speed TGV trains were operating.
Just one in five subway trains on the Paris metro were in service and only 15% of bus services were running.
Transport managers promised marginal improvements on Thursday but warned of more severe disruption.
HAVE YOUR SAY
How can the French possibly justify this strike? Giving train drivers the mere possibility to work over 55, not the obligation, provokes widespread strikes
Robert Marsh, Lyon
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Across France, commuters were forced to find other ways to get to work - driving in earlier than usual, car sharing, cycling or roller blading.
More than 300km (190 miles) of traffic jams, twice the daily average, reportedly clogged roads into Paris.
In other developments:
Sarkozy 'no Thatcher'
Xavier Michel, 25, who skated 8km to his advertising job, told the AP news agency: "I support the idea of strikes, but not this strike. It hurts the little guys like us who are basically taken hostage."
STRIKE SPREADS
RAIL: Seven of eight unions at the state-owned SNCF rail company began an open-ended strike on 13 November
PARIS METRO/BUS: Five of eight unions joined an open-ended strike on 14 November
ENERGY: Seven unions at state-owned EDF and GDF utilities strike on 14 November
PARIS OPERA HOUSE: Four unions representing staff join strike on 14 November. Open-ended strike by La Comedie Francaise, the state theatre
Solidarity amid French crisis
Economic tensions
While polls broadly supported Mr Sarkozy, some commuters criticised him for trying to push through change too quickly.
The last time a government tried to overhaul "special" pensions was in 1995 and it sparked three weeks of strikes that forced then-president Jacques Chirac to climb down.
But Mr Sarkozy insists France can no longer afford to allow some public service employees to retire on a full pension as early as 50 and he has vowed to stay the course.
"I will carry out these reforms right to the end. Nothing will put me off my goal," he told the European Parliament during a visit to Strasbourg.
"The French people approved these reforms. I told them all about it before the elections so that I would be able to do what was necessary afterwards," he said.
Bosses from the CGT and CFTC unions said French workers did not want to work longer for less pension but hoped ministers might offer concessions to end the strike.
Economist Xavier Tambo said he doubted if the French president possessed the iron will of a figure like the former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
He told the BBC: "I don't think Nicolas Sarkozy is ready to apply a few years of Margaret Thatcher-like politics in France. What he wants is negotiation in the end." | Strike | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Wimbledon announced that the prize money will be raised by 40% in the 2013 tournament, marking the largest payout in tennis history. | LONDON (AP) — This year's singles champions at Wimbledon will each receive $2.4 million (1.6 million pounds) after the All England Club increased overall prize money by a record 40 percent for the biggest total payout in tennis history.
Wimbledon also announced Tuesday that it plans to build a retractable roof on Court No. 1 in the latest move to combat the rain delays that affected the tournament over the years.
Prize money will total $34.4 million (22.6 million pounds), an increase of $9.9 million (6.5 million pounds) from last year. The club called it the largest single increase and biggest total prize fund in the history of professional tennis.
The singles winners will get a 39 percent increase over the $1.75 million (1.15 million pounds) that Roger Federer and Serena Williams picked up last year.
The focus of the money increase will be for players who lose in the early rounds or in qualifying of the grass-court championships, which will be played from June 24 to July 7.
Prize money will go up 60 percent for singles players who exit in the first three rounds. A first-round loser will earn $35,800 (23,500 pounds), up from $22,100 (14,500 pounds) in 2012.
The purse for qualifying is going up by 41 percent, while doubles players will receive a 22 percent increase.
Wimbledon chief executive Richard Lewis said he wants to prevent players feeling "less satisfied with the compensation."
"The risk you run eventually by failing to invest is you get into a downward spiral — the championships at the moment are in an upward spiral," Lewis said. "That's why we have a track record of investing and we will continue to invest.
"One of the reasons (players) feel like it's a fantastic event is because we treat them very well."
The soaring payout comes amid wider economic problems in Britain.
"We absolutely understand we are not immune to what's going on in this country — quite the opposite — we fully understand that," Lewis told The Associated Press. "But equally it's important that we invest in the event and we invest based upon the success of the championships.
"We get a good income from our commercial partners, our corporate hospitality, our TV, broadcast contracts, as well as the fans who come and support on the grounds."
Meanwhile, the club said it intends to have a roof installed over Court No. 1 in time for the 2019 tournament. A retractable roof has been in place on Centre Court since 2009 to cope with rain, with indoor matches sometimes stretching late into the night.
"We are not going to go to being a night event," Lewis said. "We are not going to have two sessions. There is no imperative to have more than two roofs." | Sports Competition | April 2013 | ['(AP via USA Today)'] |
Large crowds gather in Cairo, Egypt to protest against the presidency of Mohammed Morsi | Huge protests across Egypt calling for the resignation of President Mohammed Morsi have taken place through the night, with some outbreaks of violence.
In the capital, Cairo, tens of thousands of people massed in Tahrir Square and outside the presidential palace in the biggest demonstration there since the 2011 revolution.
At least one person was killed in clashes at Cairo's headquarters of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Four others died in clashes elsewhere.
Millions of protesters across the country accuse the country's first Islamist president of failing to tackle economic and security problems since taking power a year ago.
The demonstration was largely peaceful, but some protesters later threw stones and petrol bombs at the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
At least one person was killed when shooting broke out near the political office, activists and a hospital official said.
Meanwhile, thousands of Mr Morsi supporters staged a rally in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City.
A presidential spokesman later urged the protesters to respect the democratic process, referring to Mr Morsi's victory in last year's elections which were widely seen as free and fair.
One clear achievement of President Morsi's opponents has been to get so many people out on to the streets, BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reports from Cairo.
The last time such numbers were seen on the square was during the revolution in 2011 which saw the removal of President Hosni Mubarak from power.
The question they face now is how to fashion a political strategy that can rival the organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood, he says.
Another big question, he adds, is what the army will do. The defence minister has warned that the military may intervene if Egypt becomes ungovernable. On Sunday, one man was killed and at least 24 injured in Beni Suef, 115km (71 miles) south of Cairo, security sources said.
According to a report on the Ahram news website, Morsi supporters attacked an opposition rally and unidentified gunmen opened fire. The report could not be confirmed independently.
"Political diversity necessitates on all parties to abide by the democratic process," he said.
In the southern city of Assiut, three people died and several were injured when shots were fired at protesters, reportedly by attackers on a motorcycle.
According to the health ministry, 253 people were injured across the country during Sunday's protests. In Cairo, unidentified persons attacked the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters, which had been fortified with sandbags earlier. Staff inside said they had not broken in, Reuters news agency reports.
Demonstrations were also held in Alexandria, Port Said, Suez and other cities.
Presidential spokesman Ihab Fahmi called on all Egyptians to "unite and listen to the sound of wisdom". "Political diversity necessitates on all parties to abide by the democratic process," he said.
And he reiterated that President Morsi was open to a "real and serious national dialogue".
As darkness fell, the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF) released what it called "Revolution Statement 1", calling on protesters across Egypt to "maintain their peaceful [rallies] in all the squares and streets and villages and hamlets of the country... until the last of this dictatorial regime falls".
The NSF is among liberal and secular opposition groups which have endorsed a petition organised by the grassroots movement Tamarod (Rebellion), which calls for a snap election. Opposition activists say more than 22 million people have signed it.
There was also some evidence of anti-American and anti-Israeli feeling among the protesters, with one flag portraying President Morsi inside a Star of David.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Cairo says many ordinary Egyptians - angered by Mr Morsi's political and economic policies - have been taking part in the rally in Tahrir Square.
At one point, army helicopters flew over Tahrir Square and dropped Egyptian flags, to cheers from the anti-Morsi crowd, he says. Mr Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, became president on 30 June 2012. His first year as president has been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Dozens of people die in heavy fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels in eastern Ukraine. | DONETSK, Ukraine: Fierce fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels left dozens of civilians dead on Wednesday as Ukrainian troops pushed on with a bloody offensive to break the insurgency in the east of the country.Deadly battles to crush the ailing rebellion appeared to intensify ahead of a fresh round of diplomatic haggling that will see the presidents of Russia and Ukraine sit down next week for their first meeting in months.Clashes in Donetsk region, one of the two separatist areas, have killed 34 civilians since Tuesday, regional authorities said, as troops reclaimed another town from the rebels.In the city of Makiyivka, adjoining the main rebel bastion Donetsk, residents were woken up by shelling in the early hours of Wednesday.The renewed offensive comes as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gears up for talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin next week over how to end the conflict, which has killed about 2,200 people over the past four months.In Geneva the UN said at least 415,800 people have fled their homes due to fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.According to the latest UNHCR estimates, at least 190,000 have been displaced within Ukraine, while 197,400 have fled to Russia. A further 14,600 have travelled to Poland and 13,883 to Belarus. Poroshenko this week said the army was regrouping to continue its push on the separatist hubs of Donetsk and Lugansk and to fragment the rebel-held territory to stop the flow of weapons from Russia.“Both (Kiev and Moscow) are trying to improve their starting positions,” said political analyst Oleksiy Golubutskyi. “If Ukraine manages to gain control over Lugansk or even Donetsk before these talks, then the issue of demilitarising them disappears.”Ukraine’s National Guard said it had wrested back control over on the town of Ilovaysk, a key railway hub some 45 kilometers east of Donetsk.In besieged Donetsk, authorities said water supplies had been restored after fighting cut power to a filtering station over the weekend.Kiev claims Moscow is ratcheting up arms flows to help the separatists as Ukrainian forces have pushed deeper into dwindling rebel territory.Western powers also fear Putin could be preparing to send in the 20,000 troops NATO says he has massed on the border as a last role of the dice.A Ukrainian military spokesman could not confirm claims from a commander in the field Tuesday that a massive convoy of Russian armor entered the second-largest insurgent city of Lugansk.
KAMPALA: Ethiopians will vote on Monday in a landmark election overshadowed by reports of famine in the country’s war-hit Tigray region and beset by logistical problems that mean some people won’t be able to vote until September.
The election is the centerpiece of a reform drive by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose rise to power in 2018 seemed to signal a break with decades of authoritarian rule and led to his Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
He has described the poll as “the nation’s first attempt at free and fair elections.”
Abiy’s ruling Prosperity Party, formed in 2019 by merging groups who made up the previous ruling coalition, is widely expected to cement its hold on power.
The party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Peoples’ Representatives will form the next government.
“We will secure Ethiopia’s unity,” Abiy said ahead of his final campaign rally on Wednesday, repeating his vow of a free and fair election after past votes were marred by allegations of fraud.
But opposition groups have accused Ethiopia’s ruling party of harassment, manipulation and threats of violence that echo abuses of the past.
And Abiy is facing growing international criticism over the war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and more than 2 million people have been displaced since fighting broke out in November between Ethiopian forces, backed by ones from neighboring Eritrea, and those supporting the now-fugitive Tigray leaders.
Last week, humanitarian agencies warned that 350,000 people in Tigray are on the brink of famine, a crisis that several diplomats have described as “manmade” amid allegations of forced starvation.
Ethiopia’s government has rejected the figure and says food aid has reached 5.2 million in the region of 6 million.
No date has been set for voting in Tigray’s 38 constituencies, where military personnel who usually play a key role in transporting election materials across Africa’s second-most populous country are busy with the conflict.
Meanwhile, voting has been postponed until September in 64 out of 547 constituencies throughout Ethiopia because of insecurity, defective ballot papers and opposition allegations of irregularities.
Outbreaks of ethnic violence have also killed hundreds of people in the Amhara, Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz regions in recent months.
Some prominent opposition parties are boycotting the election. Others say they have been prevented from campaigning in several parts of the country.
“There have been gross violations,” Yusef Ibrahim, vice president of the National Movement of Amhara, said earlier this month.
He said his party had been “effectively banned” from campaigning in several regions, with some party members arrested and banners destroyed.
Neither officials with the Prosperity Party nor Abiy’s office responded to requests for comment on such allegations.
Ethiopia last year postponed the election, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, adding to the tensions with Tigray’s former leaders.
Recently, the vote was delayed again by several weeks amid technical problems involving ballot papers and a lack of polling station officials.
Abiy’s Prosperity Party has registered 2,432 candidates in the election, which will see Ethiopians voting for both national and regional representatives.
The next largest party, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice, is fielding 1,385 candidates. A total of 47 parties are contesting the election.
But on Sunday, five opposition parties released a joint statement saying that campaigning outside the capital, Addis Ababa, “has been marred by serious problems, including killings, attempted killings and beatings of candidates.”
Two prominent opposition parties, the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo Federalist Congress, are boycotting the vote.
“It’s going to be a sham election,” OFC chairman Merera Gudina said earlier this month.
That means the Prosperity Party will face little competition in Oromia, Ethiopia’s most populous state.
Several prominent OFC members remain behind bars after a wave of unrest last year sparked by the killing of a popular Oromo musician, and the OLF’s leader is under house arrest.
The leader of the Balderas Party for True Democracy, Eskinder Nega, was also detained and is contesting the election from prison.
Getnet Worku, secretary-general of the newly established ENAT party, said earlier this month it is not standing candidates in several constituencies because the threat of violence is too high, asserting that armed militias organized by local officials frequently broke up rallies.
There are growing international concerns over whether the elections will be fair.
The EU has said it will not observe the vote after its requests to import communications equipment were denied.
In response, Ethiopia said external observers “are neither essential nor necessary to certify the credibility of an election,” although it has since welcomed observers deployed by the African Union.
Last week the US State Department said it is “gravely concerned about the environment under which these upcoming elections are to be held,” citing “detention of opposition politicians, harassment of independent media, partisan activities by local and regional governments, and the many interethnic and inter-communal conflicts across Ethiopia.”
Abiy’s appointment as prime minister in 2018 was initially greeted by an outburst of optimism both at home and abroad.
Shortly after taking office, he freed tens of thousands of political prisoners, allowed the return of exiled opposition groups and rolled back punitive laws that targeted civil society.
In 2019 he won the Nobel Peace Prize in part for those reforms and for making peace with Eritrea by ending a long-running border standoff.
But critics say Ethiopia’s political space has started to shrink again. The government denies the accusation.
Several prominent opposition figures accused of inciting unrest are behind bars.
While opening a sugar factory earlier this month, Abiy accused “traitors” and “outsiders” of working to undermine Ethiopia.
This week his spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, described the election as a chance for citizens to “exercise their democratic rights” and accused international media of mounting a “character assassination of the prime minister.”
AMSTERDAM: Face masks will mostly no longer be required across the Netherlands and other restrictions will ease from next week, after a drop in COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.
Most limits on group sizes will also be lifted from June 26, as long as people can keep at least 1.5 meters (5 ft) apart, he told a news conference.
“This is a special moment,” Rutte said. “Many times I have stood here to tell you what you can’t do. But now we can focus on what is possible.”
No new limits will be set on the number of guests allowed in stores, bars and restaurants, Rutte said, as long as they keep their distance, or show that they have been vaccinated or have a negative test.
“We can expect a beautiful summer,” Rutte said. “But we need to remain cautious. There are many uncertainties toward the autumn. You can always be stabbed in the back by a new variant.”
People will still need to wear masks on public transport and in airports, where distancing is not possible.
Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands have dropped to their lowest levels in nine months in recent weeks as the rollout of vaccinations has gathered pace.
Earlier this month authorities let bars and restaurants reopen.
Around 13 vaccinations have been administered in the country of 17.5 million people as of Friday. The government has said it is aiming to offer each Dutch adult at least one shot by mid-July.
Almost 1.7 million coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the Netherlands, and more than 27,000 deaths.
PEMBA, Mozambique: Several beheadings, including of teenagers, have been reported around the restive northern Mozambique town of Palma since it was attacked by militants in March, a charity and local sources said on Friday.
Palma and surrounding areas have been on tenterhooks since militants linked to Daesh launched a raid of unprecedented scale on the town, killing dozens and forcing tens of thousands to flee.
Many sought refuge in nearby Quitunda, a resettlement village next to a heavily guarded gas exploration site operated by French oil giant Total and abandoned days after the raid.
Several bouts of low-key violence have been reported since the militants retreated.
British charity Save the Children on Friday said it was “shocked and appalled” by news this week of two 15-year-old boys being beheaded in Palma on Sunday.
The teenagers were among a group of 15 adults who had left Quitunda in search of food, according to the independent news outlet Carta de Mocambique, which reported the incident.
Two adults were also killed, it added.
“We are appalled and disgusted at this senseless crime,” Save the Children Mozambique country director Chance Briggs said in a statement.
The insurgency is “having a continual, horrific, deadly impact on children,” he said.
“They are being killed, they are being abducted, they are being recruited for use by armed groups.”
One local source in the provincial capital Pemba said relatives in Quitunda had heard of “insurgents” beheading several people on Saturday.
Momade Bachir, who is regularly in touch with family members still stranded around Palma, told AFP that four residents were attacked after they left the town to pick manioc in surrounding fields.
Another three beheaded bodies were found near Pemba that evening, according to Bachir.
Finding food has been difficult since the March 24 attack on Palma and aid agencies have struggled to take in supplies due to security concerns.
The World Food Programme has warned that almost one million people, mostly displaced, faced severe hunger.
Insurgents have been wreaking havoc in Cabo Delgado since 2017.
The fighting has claimed more than 2,800 lives, half of them civilians, according to conflict data tracker ACLED, and displaced around 800,000.
LONDON: A schoolgirl who left Britain to join Daesh and had her British citizenship revoked was a victim of human trafficking, a court heard on Friday.
Shamima Begum was 15 when she traveled from London to Syria with two fellow pupils in February 2015.
Britain’s interior ministry revoked her citizenship on national security grounds after she was discovered heavily pregnant in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019, amid an outcry led by right-wing newspapers.
The Court of Appeal ruled last July that Begum could return to Britain to challenge the decision.
But the Supreme Court in February overturned the lower court ruling, and prevented her from doing so on national security grounds.
Begum, now 21, is challenging the interior ministry’s decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) that deals with deportations on national security grounds and the revocation of citizenship.
Her lawyer, Samantha Knights, claimed Begum was “a child trafficked to and remaining in Syria for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced marriage.”
She also argued that revoking Begum’s citizenship left her stateless and the decision was procedurally unfair.
The court was told Begum was living in a “dire” and “fundamentally unsafe environment in which violence is endemic” in the Al-Roj refugee camp in northern Syria.
Knights added there was a “serious and present danger” to Begum after the media located her whereabouts and due to her engagement with Western legal processes.
The lawyer argued against delaying her appeal until the conclusion of a separate case in March 2022.
Lawyer David Blundell, representing Britain’s interior ministry, said Begum should not be allowed to change the grounds of her appeal.
“The absence of a claim that she has been trafficked means this ground proceeds on an uncertain factual basis. It is entirely speculative,” he said.
Begum is of Bangladeshi heritage but the country’s foreign minister has said he will not consider granting her citizenship.
An estimated 900 Britons traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Daesh. The government has prosecuted returnees and revoked more than 150 people’s citizenship, with unconfirmed numbers stuck in Syria.
Rights group Reprieve in April said the government was “systematically failing” vulnerable young women who were trafficked to Syria for sexual and other forms of exploitation.
SIAC judge Robert Jay said he would give a ruling by the end of June.
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly unanimously elected Antonio Guterres to a second term as secretary-general on Friday.
Guterres was given another five years at the helm of the 193-member organization at a time a deeply divided world faces numerous conflicts, the growing impact of climate change, and a pandemic still circling the globe.
Ambassadors in the assembly chamber burst into applause as Assembly President Volkan Bozkir announced Guterres’ re-election by “acclamation,” without a vote. Just before the announcement, Estonia’s UN Ambassador Sven Jurgenson, the current Security Council president, read a resolution adopted by the 15-member council recommending Guterres for a second term.
Under the UN Charter, the General Assembly appoints the secretary-general on the recommendation of the Security Council.
Guterres was the only candidate nominated by a UN member state, his home country Portugal where he previously served as prime minister, and the country’s current president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was in the assembly chamber to watch the event.
Immediately after his re-election, Guterres took the oath of office and delivered an address urging UN member nations “to do everything we can to overcome current geostrategic divides and dysfunctional power relations.”
“There are too many asymmetrics and paradoxes,” he said. “They need to be addressed head on.”
Guterres expressed hope that “what we are living through today in terms of mistrust is, I hope, an aberration but it cannot become the norm.”
He pledged to “give it my all to ensure the blossoming of trust between and among nations, large and small, to build bridges and to engage relentlessly in confidence building” and to “seek to inspire hope that we can turn things around, that the impossible is possible.”
Traditionally, candidates for the UN’s top job have been nominated by a UN member state, but that is not a requirement in the UN Charter or in a resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 2015.
That measure made the previously largely secretive selection of the secretary-general more open and transparent, allowing member states for the first time to see basic information about all candidates, including their resumes, and to question them at open sessions.
Guterres, a former UN refugee chief, was elected by the assembly to succeed Ban Ki-moon after a hotly contested and transparent race in October 2016 that initially included 13 candidates seven women and six men. Guterres took office on Jan. 1, 2017.
This year, seven individuals submitted applications to be secretary-general without backing from any government, including most recently former Ecuadorian President Rosalia Arteaga. | Armed Conflict | August 2014 | ['(AFP via Arab News)'] |
Indonesia makes the practice of the Ahmadiyya form of Islam in Indonesia a crime punishable by five years in prison. | In the decree, the Ahmadiyah are warned they risk five years in jail if they do not stop spreading unorthodox beliefs and return to mainstream Islam. The Indonesian constitution guarantees freedom of religion. This latest move is widely seen as bowing to Islamic hardliners, who have stepped up a sometimes violent campaign against the nation's 200,000 Ahmadiyah. Last week dozens of pro-tolerance demonstrators were attacked by members of a militant Islamic group - and on Monday several thousand hardline Muslims again took to the streets in support of banning the sect. The Ahmadiyah have views that are seen as controversial by mainstream Islamic society.
A widespread belief among sect members is that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the final prophet of Islam - and not Muhammad. 'Deviant interpretation'
The religious affairs minister made the long-awaited announcement in a joint decree with the country's interior minister and attorney general. The text of the decree orders the sect to "stop spreading interpretations and activities which deviate from the principal teachings of Islam," reported the news agency AFP. Such activities included "the spreading of the belief that there is another prophet with his own teachings after Prophet Muhammad". There has been fierce debate in Indonesia over whether the country's constitution allows the banning of religious practices, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta. The preamble to the decree insists that the decision is in line with Indonesia's constitutional guarantees on freedom of religion, and with domestic and international laws on human rights, she says. But many Indonesians are likely to disagree. | Government Policy Changes | June 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating 14 cases where the Zika virus may have been sexually transmitted. | Follow NBC News Fourteen more people may have caught the Zika virus in the U.S. without traveling to affected zones, federal health officials said Tuesday strong evidence that the virus is sexually transmitted fairly often.
Some of those suspected of having been infected sexually have been pregnant women, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
"CDC and state public health departments are now investigating 14 new reports of possible sexual transmission of Zika virus, including several involving pregnant women," the CDC said in a statement.
"In two of the new suspected sexual transmission events, Zika virus infection has been confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner who had recently traveled to an area with local Zika virus transmission; testing for the male partners is still pending."
Evidence is growing that Zika can cause serious birth defects, especially microcephaly, which results from a damaged brain that stops developing in the womb. There are also suspicions that Zika is causing a paralyzing condition called Guillan-Barre syndrome.
"We thought it was important to get the word out to people to remind them that we think pregnant women should avoid traveling to Zika-affected areas."
The CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat said only two cases are confirmed, but all of the suspected cases involved men who had traveled potentially infecting women who had not.
"In each of the episodes, a man was traveling to a Zika affected area, developed symptoms that were consistent with Zika, and within two weeksa female partner developed symptoms consistent with the virus," Schuchat told NBC News.
Earlier this month, Dallas health officials reported the first known case of sexual transmission of Zika in the current epidemic.
Doctors had known Zika could be spread by sexual transmission. In 2008 a U.S. researcher was infected in Africa and infected his wife back in Colorado. Zika has been found in semen.
"Although this is an investigation in progress, we thought it was important to get the word out to people to remind them that we think pregnant women should avoid traveling to Zika-affected areas," Schuchat said. And women who are pregnant and whose sex partners have been to affected areas should abstain from sex or use a condom throughout their entire pregnancy, just to be safe, she said.
Zika's spreading fast across the Americas and the Caribbean and the World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern. The virus itself is relatively harmless to most people, but what's worrying is the potential that it causes severe birth defects.
Related: What is the Zika Virus? Your Questions Answered
The CDCs already advised travelers to be aware of the risk, recommending that men who have traveled to Zika-affected zones should use a condom if they want to be absolutely sure they don't infect sex partners.
"We are not changing the guidance today but we are really reinforcing it," Schuchat said. "For the time being we are telling women to avoid sex or to be careful during sex with a partner who is coming back from an area where Zika is."
CDC issued a travel advisory last month telling pregnant women to stay away from countries where Zika is circulating.
The Zika epidemic is a real-life science experiment. The virus is infecting millions of people who have never had it before and its giving doctors a chance to use modern tests and techniques to see how new infections move across a population.
Zikas clearly a mosquito-borne virus, spread as female Aedes mosquitos sip blood from one person after another, often in the same room. Other viruses are spread this way, too: yellow fever, dengue, West Nile and chikungunya. And the malaria parasite is also spread by mosquitoes.
"It's not likely that sexual transmission is anywhere close to the frequency of mosquito-borne transmission. The mosquito is the most dangerous animal on the planet," said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
"For the time being we are telling women to avoid sex or to be careful during sex with a partner who is coming back from an area where Zika is."
Common wisdom has been that these viruses dont usually spread sexually, but since sex partners generally live together, it has been impossible to tell whether, say, a married couple both get infected by mosquito bites or through sex. And because most people will have been infected by mosquitoes, it hasnt mattered much.
But with Zika, right now the only way the virus is getting to unaffected countries like the U.S. is in the bodies of travelers. So the cases of sexual transmission stand out. CDC says 30 million to 40 million Americans fly to Latin America and the Caribbean every year and even more go by land.
One big question is how long men might be able to transmit Zika in semen. "The science is not clear on how long the risk should be avoided. Research is now underway to answer this question as soon as possible," the CDC said.
Tests have found evidence of Zika in saliva and urine as well. But Schuchat says there is little evidence the virus spreads that way. "While we dont have specific information that proves this was sexual transmission, we know that some other viruses are found in semen as well as in saliva and we know that the sexual route is the clear route of spread," she said. "We are learning more every single day about this virus and its effects in people."
Experts almost all agree that Zika is unlikely to spread much in the U.S., in part because the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries it isn't common except in parts of the far south and Hawaii, and also because Americans live indoors mostly, with air conditioning and little chance for the mosquitoes to live and breed inside homes.
"I think its a balance. The average person is really at very low risk of developing Zika infection or getting really sick from it," Schuchat said. "But pregnant women, we believe, are at a very substantial risk of complications. It can be really scary to have something new."
Zika is actively spreading in more than two dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries. CDC added two more destinations to its caution list | Disease Outbreaks | February 2016 | ['(NBC News)'] |
In baseball, the Toros de Herrera become the first Panamanian team since 1950 to win the Caribbean Series as they defeat the Leñadores de Las Tunas of Cuba 3-1 in the final. | PANAMA CITY -- With a team that wasn't even supposed to be in the tournament, Panama beat Cuba 3-1 on Sunday to win its second ever Caribbean Series and first since 1950.
Panama was represented in the tournament for the first time since 1960 only after the Caribbean Professional Baseball Leagues moved the series out of Venezuela because of security concerns shortly before it began. With Panama hosting, the Toros de Herrera were invited to play as a guest.
The only previous Panamanian team to win the tournament was the Carta Vieja Yankees, who did it in 1950 with a roster full of American players.
This win adds to what already has been a big year for Panamanian baseball -- countryman Mariano Rivera became baseball's first unanimous Hall of Fame selection in January. Rivera was in attendance for the first night of the tournament.
Despite winning this year's tournament, it's still uncertain whether Panama will play next year in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Allen Cordona and Elmer Reyes drove in runs in the bottom of the first inning against Freddy Asiel Alvarez and added a run in the seventh on Rodrigo Vigil's hit.
Carlos Benitez produced the Cubans' only run of the game in the fifth inning.
"There are no secrets. I had 29 warriors with a lot of talent and every day they gave me their best," Panama manager Manuel Rodriguez said. "When you play baseball in this way, you are going to get the titles and this win will help the baseball in Panama."
Javy Guerra, a shortstop in the minor leagues with the San Diego Padres, was named the most valuable player of the tournament.
The Cubans won their last title in 2015 and were looking to add a fourth championship on Panamanian soil, where they were the champions in 1952, 1956 and 1960. | Sports Competition | February 2019 | ['(Associated Press via ESPN)'] |
A mass shooting in Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, leaves four people dead and another injured at five different locations. The 45-year-old suspect, who had been on parole since January, is arrested. Authorities say the shooting was not terrorism-related. | Four men are dead and a woman is injured after a gunman went on a rampage across Darwin's CBD before being arrested by Northern Territory police.
The 45-year-old suspect, who witnesses said was armed with a pump-action shotgun, started his shooting spree at a motel in the CBD about 5:45pm before travelling in a ute to four other locations, including to the outskirts of the city and back again.
He was arrested after calling NT Police and trying to enter police headquarters in what Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said may have been an attempt to hand himself in.
The man was known to police, having been released on parole in January, and was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner told a media conference the incident was not believed to be terror-related.
"This is not the Darwin we know," he said.
"On behalf of Territorians, our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims and everybody else who has been impacted.
"I understand when an event like this occurs, especially considering recent global events, people's fears turn to terrorism. We can confirm this is not a terrorism event."
The alleged gunman is being held at Royal Darwin Hospital.
"I believe he may have some sort of injury," Commissioner Kershaw said.
NT Health confirmed two people were at the Royal Darwin Hospital in a stable condition.
Multiple witnesses said the man walked into the Palms Motel on McMinn Street at about 5:45pm while holding a pump-action shotgun, and fired at multiple doors.
They said he was looking for someone called "Alex".
"He shot up every room in that place," one man said.
"He got what he wanted and then he left in his pick-up. We watched him walk from room to room, shooting every room."
He said the victims said "they had no idea why he was there, why he was shooting at them, it appeared to be a random attack".
ABC News
Another witness said he saw the shooter walking calmly though the motel.
"Cops went straight past him, didn't know who he was, he was that calm," he said.
The gunman then fled the scene and remained at large for approximately an hour, with road blocks in place around the city.
More than 100 police were involved in the operation.
Police listed four other crime scenes including the Buffalo Club at Stuart Park and Gardens Crescent Road at The Gardens.
Witnesses described a fight breaking out at the Buffalo Club carpark, where a man was believed to have died after a fight involving a knife and gun.
Other witnesses said a man was shot in the head at Gardens Crescent Road, however this has not yet been confirmed by authorities.
A man was also believed to have been killed at an industrial block on Jolly Street in Woolner.
Another crime scene is the Peter Macauley Centre, which is NT Police headquarters in the outer Darwin suburb of Berrimah.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is in London ahead of D-Day commemorations, condemned the "terrible act of violence" and said he had spoken on the phone with Mr Gunner.
"I want to extend my deep condolences and sympathy to all the people in the Territory, particularly in Darwin," Mr Morrison said.
"This is a very tight community and I know they will be rocked by these events."
Commissioner Kershaw said police were investigating whether the man was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and whether the attack was premeditated.
"The safety of our community comes first for our officers, we're here to serve and protect and that's what they did this evening," he said.
ABC News: Clara Latter
ABC News: Jano Gibson
Jasmine Kielly and her partner Brendon Ozanne moved to Darwin a week ago from Brisbane and were staying at the Palms Motel.
"I heard some loud banging, silly me went out the front to check," she told the ABC.
"As I've gone down towards the stairs, I saw a man in a high-vis shirt walk out with a rifle.
"He's turned to look at me and I've run to the bedroom and locked the door and we hid in the bathroom and we called the police and just heard shot after shot after shot."
She and her partner hid in the shower for about 40 minutes.
"We heard him walk up the stairs at one point and I kind of just thought that was it," Ms Kielly said.
"He had a pretty good shot if he wanted to hit me and he didn't even aim the gun at me; he was there for a reason."
She said the gunman had apparently been staying at the motel but had recently been kicked out by the owners.
AAP: Michael Franchi
Witness Leah Potter said a woman was shot in the legs at the Palms Motel before being taken away by an ambulance.
"I was in the carpark [of a neighbouring hotel] when I heard what I thought were fireworks going off, really loud cracking, banging fireworks," she said.
"And then a man came running with a woman in his arms from next door, which is the Palms Motel, and he just dropped her on the footpath right in front of us.
"I ran and got some towels and wrapped up her legs, she had little holes all in her skin on both her legs and she was bleeding everywhere."
Ms Potter said police were across the road at a Coles Express service station for another matter, "so the boyfriend dropped the bleeding woman in front of us and he ran over to the Coles Express to get the police".
She said the gunman had a pump-action shotgun and ran off down Finniss St towards The Gardens.
Witness Matt James said the woman's boyfriend "told me he opened his door and there was this random gunman standing there who proceeded to unload his rounds on her".
ABC News: Jano Gibson
Another witness said he spoke to a resident of the motel who was "pretty shaken up".
"He was asleep, heard all the banging and opened the door and the guy was there with his gun, and he just said 'where's Alex?' and he said 'I don't know where he is'," the man said.
"And he [the gunman] said, 'no worries,' and turned around and started shooting the place up again."
The alleged gunman visited six locations across the city. Here's what else we know.
Another witness, John Rose, said he saw the gunman walk into the Palms Motel with "a sawn-off shotgun".
"He shot up all the rooms and he went to every room looking for somebody and he shot them all up, then we saw him rush out, jump into his Toyota pick-up, and rush off," he said.
He said the gunman was calm as he shot up the motel.
"Once he left we went in and found one gentleman, he's over there, we pulled him out," Mr Rose said.
"This lady turned up and started screaming, and we didn't realise there was another person in there… apparently he's dead, he's been shot." | Armed Conflict | June 2019 | ['(ABC News)', '(BBC)'] |
A powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake hits Ecuador near the town of Muisne, one person is killed. | QUITO (Reuters) - Two earthquakes struck Ecuador’s coast on Wednesday, leading to one death and light damage in the same region where a magnitude 7.8 tremor killed more than 650 people last month.
Wednesday’s tremors, measuring 6.7 and 6.8 in magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, cut electricity in some coastal areas and sent people running into the streets as far away as the highland capital of Quito, witnesses said.
President Rafael Correa said the epicenter of the first one overnight was the fishing village of Mompiche on the Pacific coast, about 368 km (229 miles) from Quito.
He said the tremors led to light injuries due to people bumping into the things as they ran out of buildings, adding that one person died in circumstances that are still not clear.
“We lament the death, which was caused either directly or indirectly by the earthquake, of a senior citizen in the city of Tosagua,” he said, referring to a city in the coastal province of Manabi.
According to one version, the person hit their head on concrete, while a second held that a beam fell on their head.
School was canceled until Monday in Manabi and in the province of Esmeraldas, Correa said.
The tremors caused minor damage, mainly to infrastructure already hit by the April disaster. There was no tsunami warning.
The second tremor struck just before midday, according to the U.S. Geological survey.
“We were scared, we left the building because it started moving,” said Pilar Guacho, 39, a municipal employee in Quito. “We were worried about my daughter because we couldn’t make phone calls. We’re tense and worried about this situation.”
The April 16 earthquake, Ecuador’s worst in decades, flattened buildings along the coast.
As well as the fatalities, the tremor also injured more than 6,000 people, made nearly 29,000 homeless, and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, according to the government’s latest tally.
Correa on Wednesday said he was asking the United States, an ideological adversary of his leftist government, to grant Ecuador “Temporary Protected Status.”
That designation, which the United States can provide in situations of environmental disasters, would allow nationals from those countries to remain in the United States and in some cases obtain authorization to work.
Ecuador’s 110,000-barrel-per-day Esmeraldas refinery was working at 77 percent capacity after some operations were halted due to the first quake on Wednesday. Operations were not affected by the second tremor, an official said.
| Earthquakes | May 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(AP)'] |
The Chadian army says that 300 rebels have been killed and 150 more arrested during military operations in northern Chad. Five soldiers are also killed and 36 others wounded in the operation. | Chad military says five government soldiers were also killed as it put down an armed rebellion in the country’s northwest.
The Chadian army said on Monday it had killed 300 rebels who waged a major incursion into the north of the country eight days ago, adding that it had lost five of its soldiers.
A heavily armed rebel group launched a raid from its rear base in Libya on April 11, the same day as Chad’s presidential election that is expected to see the incumbent Idriss Deby Itno poised to extend his 30-year rule.
The raid by the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) saw “more than 300 rebels neutralised” and claimed the lives of “five martyrs” or government troops, army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna told AFP on Monday.
Bermandoa said 36 soldiers had been wounded in Saturday’s fighting and 150 rebels taken prisoner, including three senior officials.
The government has said that the rebel offensive in the provinces of Tibesti and Kanem was over.
Deby, who seized power in 1990 as the head of an armed rebellion, is a staunch ally of France and the United States in the fight against armed groups in the arid Sahel region.
One of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, Deby has successfully put down a string of rebellions since taking power, sometimes with military assistance from France.
Longtime president looking to extend three-decade rule as several opposition leaders urged supporters to boycott poll.
Election takes place amid mounting popular discontent and opposition criticism against incumbent Deby.
Partial results announced as US orders some diplomats to leave Chad amid reports of a rebel convoy nearing Ndjamena. | Armed Conflict | April 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
A riot over food shortages at the overcrowded Los Llanos prison in Guanare, Portuguesa, Venezuela, leaves at least 46 people dead and dozens more injured, including the prison's director, according to the military. | CARACAS, Venezuela — At least 17 inmates were killed Friday in a riot at a prison in western Venezuela, military authorities reported.
Inmates at the Los Llanos prison in Guanare staged “a disturbance of public order … resulting in 17 deaths and nine injuries” according to a military report.
The prison’s director was among the wounded, it said.
The military gave no reason for the riot, saying inmates had attacked prison officials during an attempt to mediate with their leader, wounding the prison director in the back.
A prisoners rights group said the Los Llanos Penitentiary was massively overcrowded.
It was built to house 750 inmates but currently holds 2,500, said Carolina Giron of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP).
“The prisoners are upset that they are not allowed visits and they do not have water or food,” because of coronavirus quarantine measures in force since March 16, Giron told AFP.
“The vast majority of the prisoners are malnourished and have tuberculosis,” she said.
| Riot | May 2020 | ['(BBC)', '(Inquirer)'] |
Former Polly Peck tycoon Asil Nadir is jailed for 10 years for stealing £29m ($46m) from the company. | Former fugitive Asil Nadir has been jailed for 10 years for the theft of nearly £29m ($46m) from his Polly Peck empire more than 20 years ago.
Nadir, 71, stole from Polly Peck International, a major UK conglomerate until 1990 when it collapsed after a Serious Fraud Office investigation.
He fled the UK in 1993 while awaiting trial and went to northern Cyprus but returned in 2010.
A statement issued on behalf of Nadir said he was "most disappointed". Bark & Co solicitors said: "He maintains that he is totally innocent of all charges and will be lodging an appeal."
Outside the Old Bailey, Nadir's wife, Nur, also said: "My husband is innocent."
She added: "Having great faith in the British legal justice system we will continue with our efforts to rectify the wrongs."
The seven-month trial, which ended on Wednesday, saw Nadir convicted of 10 of the sample charges he faced and acquitted of three.
Nadir was given five years' imprisonment for seven thefts committed between August 1987 and June 1989 and five years for three offences which took place between December 1989 and August 1990.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Holroyde said Nadir had continued to steal from PPI after the company's accounts were queried by auditors.
The judge said the two sets of sentences would therefore run consecutive to each other "to mark your persistence in offending repeatedly over a lengthy period".
He said Nadir would be eligible for release after serving half his sentence.
After sentencing, Nadir thanked the judge and BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani said the tycoon had been "unfailingly polite" throughout the trial.
Our correspondent said it was unclear what had happened to the stolen money and there will be a further court hearing next month in an attempt to confirm Nadir's assets and agree compensation for PPI creditors. In his sentencing remarks, the judge said Nadir had "outstanding business skills" and brought employment and financial benefit to many people around the world.
But Mr Justice Holroyde said: "You were a wealthy man who stole out of pure greed."
The judge said Nadir blamed everyone but himself - especially the Serious Fraud Office - when PPI collapsed, and had failed to show any remorse since returning to Britain. He said: "The company's success was in many ways your success. But the company's money was not your money. You knew that. You nonetheless helped yourself to it and committed theft on a grand scale."
Earlier his lawyer, Philip Hackett QC, said that Nadir had coronary heart disease and high blood pressure.
But the judge said Nadir's ill health was a matter for the prison service and not a reason to reduce his sentence although he had reduced the term he would have passed by two years to take into account the fact that the tycoon voluntarily returned and was of previous good character.
Seven of the 10 jurors - two stood down during the trial because of illness - returned to hear Nadir being sentenced and Nur, 28, sat by herself near the dock.
The SFO's Clare Whitaker said a claim would be made for compensation from Nadir to the administrators of PPI. This will be decided at a hearing on 27 September.
A judge will also decide if Nadir should be ordered to pay prosecution and legal aid costs.
A Financial Circumstances Order requires him to provide details of his finances and assets before the hearing. PPI began as a small fashion company but expanded into the food, leisure and electronics industries under Nadir's ownership, growing into a business empire with more than 200 subsidiaries worldwide. In 1989 PPI bought the fresh fruit giant Del Monte for $875m.
By 1990 it was on the FTSE 100 index and was one of the stock exchange's best performing companies but the share price collapsed after the Serious Fraud Office raided PPI's offices.
Thousands of British investors lost money when the company crashed.
After fleeing the UK, Nadir remained a fugitive in northern Cyprus until two years ago. The Turkish-controlled territory is not recognised as a state and has no extradition treaty with the UK.
Nadir has been convicted of stealing:
Nadir, a UK citizen born in northern Cyprus, claimed during his trial that his friends and relatives paid Turkish lire in cash into bank accounts in on the island to offset the money which had been taken out.
The director of the SFO, David Green, said on Wednesday: "The conviction of Asil Nadir of theft on a grand scale from a public company 19 years after he fled the jurisdiction is a remarkable achievement."
In 1993 Michael Mates, then a Conservative minister and friend of the businessman, attacked the SFO's handling of the case in a speech in the Commons. Mr Mates, who is now 78, quit his junior minister job in the Northern Ireland Office in 1993 after it emerged he had bought Nadir a watch inscribed: "Don't let the buggers get you down." Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has rejected calls to repay donations made by PPI in the 1990s.
A Labour MP had called for the party to pay back the money but the Tories says there is no evidence to suggest the money was stolen and the cash had come from a publicly owned company not Nadir personally. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty. | Invoking the suffering of the Russian people and a narrative of constant betrayals by the West, President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Russia was within its rights to reclaim Crimea, then signed a treaty that did just that.
Putin, defiant in the face of U.S. and European pressure, dispensed with legal deliberation and announced a swift annexation of Crimea, as if to put Europe’s most serious crisis in decades beyond the point where the results could be turned back.
In a speech to a joint session of the Russian parliament, he compared the move to the independence declaration of Kosovo in 2008 and the reunification of Germany in 1990 — but, in reality, this is the first time that one European nation has seized territory from another since the end of World War II.
“Crimea is our common legacy,” Putin said. “It can only be Russian today.”
In Kiev, Ukrainian officials said they would never recognize or accept the loss of Crimea. Western leaders, including Vice President Biden during a visit to Poland and Lithuania, talked about further sanctions against Russia on top of those announced in the past two days. Russia is also facing expulsion from the Group of Eight leading industrial nations as relations between Moscow and the West reach their lowest level since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In Crimea, where celebrations were held to mark the Russian annexation, a Ukrainian lieutenant was fatally shot in an incident that immediately set nerves on edge.
Putin declared that Russia has no interest in expanding its hold within Ukraine. “Don’t believe those who say Russia will take other regions after Crimea. We don’t need that,” he said.
But Putin also said that Russia would always be ready to stand up for the rights of fellow Russians living in other countries. He mentioned, seemingly in passing, that Russians in eastern Ukraine, in the cities of Kharkiv and Donetsk, had been subject to the same sort of abuse at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists that he said had led him to act on Crimea.
Putin’s speech, nearly 50 minutes long, catalogued 20 years of Russian complaints about the West. He touched on the Soviet Union’s downfall, Kosovo, NATO expansion, missile defense, Libya, Iraq and Syria. He said the West has been backing Ukrainians responsible for “terror, murder and riots,” including neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and Russophobes.
“Our Western partners have crossed a line,” Putin said. “We have every reason to think that the notorious policy of confining Russia, pursued in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, continues today.”
He said the challenge presented to Russia by the Ukrainian crisis couldn’t be ducked.
“We have to admit one thing — Russia is an active participant in international affairs,” he said. “At these critical times, we see the maturity of nations, the strength of nations.”
One factor that forced Russia to act, he said, was the threat that Ukraine, under its new leaders, might join NATO — which would have left Russia’s Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol, Crimea, in an untenable position.
Putin insisted that Russia is acting within international law. He complained that leaders in the West, led by the Americans, “believe they’ve been entrusted by God to decide the fate of other people.”
The sanctions already announced by the United States, the European Union and Canada were treated with derision by the members of the Russian parliament Tuesday. They passed a unanimous resolution calling on the West to include every member of the Russian legislature on the sanctions list.
The speaker of the upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, who is on the U.S. sanctions list, was defiant.
“These days we are feeling a huge amount of pressure — pressure from the so-called authorities in Kiev and pressure from the West,” she said as she met with Crimean leaders. “Threats, announcement of sanctions, banned entry — all this comes from the helplessness when there is no legal argument.”
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian armaments industry, said Moscow needs to take up the cause of ethnic Russians in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, which has been outside Moldova’s control since the early 1990s. Now that Moldova is moving to sign an agreement with the E.U., Rogozin said, it is time for Russia to act. Rogozin is one of 11 Russians and Ukrainians named on the U.S. sanctions list announced Monday.
Putin traced Russian roots in Crimea to the baptism there of Vladimir, who converted the Russian people to Christianity just over 1,000 years ago. Putin mentioned that the bones of Russian soldiers who fought the British and French in the 19th century, and of Soviet soldiers who fought the Germans in World War II, are buried all across the Crimean Peninsula. “All these places are sacred to us,” he said. After noting that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev assigned Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, Putin argued that Russia by rights should have gotten back the peninsula in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved.
Russia was not “simply robbed, it was plundered,” he said.
He also touched on Russians’ roots in the Ukrainian heartland, in a way that many Ukrainians may not have found reassuring. “We sympathize with the people of Ukraine,” he said. “We’re one nation. Kiev is the mother of all Russian cities.”
He described today’s Kiev as a city where a legitimate protest was overtaken by those plotting a coup, backed by “foreign sponsors,” and where government ministers cannot act without getting permission “from the gunmen on the Maidan” — a reference to Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. “We have no one to negotiate with,” Putin said.
Ecstatic Russian lawmakers watched as Putin and Crimean leaders signed a treaty of accession as soon as the Russian leader was done speaking, and the Kremlin said afterward that it considers the treaty to be in force though it awaits ratification by parliament.
The city of Sevastopol also entered the Russian Federation, as a separate entity — a status it traditionally enjoyed as an important military center.
In the early evening, Putin addressed a large celebratory rally on Moscow’s Red Square. “After a difficult, long and exhausting journey, Crimea and Sevastopol have returned to Russia — to their home harbor, their home shores, their home port,” he said.
In Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk gave a nationally televised address Tuesday — pointedly using the Russian language — in which he seemed to recognize the limits of the situation. He pledged that Ukraine would not join NATO and sought to reassure ethnic Russians and the government in Moscow.
Putin’s words were freighted with a sense of betrayal, said Samuel Charap, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. Putin portrayed the United States and the West as using Ukraine and other countries as a battlefield on which they could prevail over Russia — and he got two standing ovations for doing so.
“I think it’s a trap we’ve gotten ourselves into about whether the sense of betrayal is rational or not,” Charap said. “The question is: Do they believe it or not? I think we underestimate the power of the grievance narrative by narrowly attributing it to a propaganda campaign or paranoid fantasies of a ruthless dictator. If this is what influences the decision-making climate, we have to deal with it.”
Kathy Lally and Anthony Faiola in Kiev, Scott Wilson in Warsaw and Carol Morello in Sevastopol contributed to this report. | Sign Agreement | March 2014 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Authorities in Ukraine announce the arrest of a suspected terrorist in connection with a 2017 Kiev attack that killed two and wounded three including MP Ihor Mosiychuk. | Chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak has said that law enforcers have detained a suspect in a terrorist attack committed in Kyiv in October 2017, in which two people were killed and three more, including Ukrainian MP Ihor Mosiychuk, were injured.
"Just a few days ago, we detained one of those who took part in organizing and committing this terrorist attack... I can say that we have solved this terrorist attack in cooperation with the prosecutor's office," Hrytsak said in Odesa on Tuesday, April 3.
He specified that one person had been detained and that two more were "in another territory, we understand where they are."
According to Hrytsak, during the searches law enforcers had seized several kilograms of TNT, an RPG-26 grenade launcher, grenades, other items and documents that could point to the person's involvement in committing this crime.
"I do not want to disclose the details," he said, adding that a briefing on this crime will be held in the near future.
As reported, two people were killed and three more, including Radical Party MP Ihor Mosiychuk and political analyst Bala, were injured in an explosion outside the building of the Espresso TV channel late on October 25, 2017. Both of them were hospitalized and underwent surgery. Those who were killed are two police officers - Mosiychuk's security guard, Ruslan Kushnir, who died on his way to hospital, and 36-year-old local resident Mykhailo Mormil.
The explosion was qualified as a terrorist attack. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is overseeing the investigation.
Mosiychuk said late in February 2018 that several terror suspects were in Chechnya and that the perpetrators of the crime had been identified.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2018 | ['(Interfax)'] |
Chinese authorities arrest 21 people involved in the Ezubao online finance scheme accused of allegedly defrauding 900,000 people of 50bn yuan ($7.6bn; 5.3bn) in a Ponzi scheme. | Chinese authorities have arrested 21 people involved in an online finance scheme which is suspected of defrauding 900,000 investors of about 50bn yuan ($7.6bn; 5.3bn).
The 21 people worked for Ezubao, a peer-to-peer lender widely described in Chinese state media as a Ponzi scheme. Ezubao is believed to be China's largest such online financing business. State media said investigations had found more than 95% of the investment offerings on the site were fake. Chinese television broadcast apparent confessions by two former employees of the company, that was based in Anhui province. Ezubao was launched in 2014 by Ding Ning, the chairman of holding firm Yucheng Group. He was among those arrested, reports said. China's growing middle class has increasingly been attracted to online investment schemes as people seek to quickly increase their wealth. But authorities have been struggling to regulate the wealth management industry, estimated to be worth more than $2.5tn.
A Ponzi scheme is much like a pyramid scheme and is viewed as a fraudulent investment operation that offers unusually high returns on short term investments. Some of that money pays fake returns to other investors.
They are named after Boston fraudster Charles Ponzi who set up schemes in the US in the 1920s.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hurricane force winds claim at least 40 lives in Western Europe including 10 lives in Britain and 11 in Germany, and other victims in The Netherlands , Poland , Czech Republic and France . | At least six people were reported killed in Poland as winds of more than 200km/h (124mph) were recorded.
Germany, the UK, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were picking themselves up on Friday after the storm passed.
Some services returned to normal, but thousands of travellers were still stranded and homes left without power.
Late on Friday, high winds reached Russia and Ukraine, with a pipeline carrying Russian oil to the EU via Ukraine being temporarily shut down after power was knocked out.
'Hurricane force'
Roads, rail lines and electricity pylons have been taken out of action across northern Europe by falling trees, collapsing walls and flying wreckage.
Chart the storm's progress
In maps
In Germany, the 11 dead included an 18-month-old baby killed by a door that was ripped off its hinges in Munich, while a 73-year-old man died in Augsburg when a barn door fell on him.
Eleven people were killed in Britain, including a two-year-old boy who was crushed by a wall, and the managing director of Birmingham Airport, whose car was hit by a tree.
Meteorologists said the winds reached severe gale force in Britain and were the strongest there since January 1990.
They hit hurricane force in Germany, the worst in nearly a decade.
STORM DEATHS
Britain: 11
Germany: 11
The Netherlands: 6
Poland: 6
Czech Republic: 4
France: 3
Belgium: 2
In the Netherlands, an 11-year-old boy was killed in the town of Riel when he was blown into a car, AFP reported.
As the storm moved east, a Polish crane operator in the southern town of Katowice was reported killed when his machinery collapsed, and another died in Zaborow, near Warsaw, when the roof of his house fell in.
At one point, in the Czech Republic a million people faced power cuts. A million households in Germany also suffered blackouts and tens of thousands of homes in Poland, Austria, northern France and the UK were also hit.
Normal rail operations were resuming in Germany after the entire network was closed down as a precautionary measure for the first time in its history.
The disruption came after Berlin's new central station, the biggest rail hub in Europe, was evacuated after the winds tore off a two-tonne steel girder, which crashed 40m (130ft) onto a stairway.
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If you have any pictures of the storms you can send them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk Please do not endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | January 2007 | ['(6)', '(6)', '(3)', '(3)', '(BBC)', '(CBS News)', '(CNN)'] |
One person is dead, four people are missing, after a fire at the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall. | A man died and five people were hurt in the blaze at the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall, on Saturday morning.
Police said they believed the dead man, who was 43, had fallen from a second-floor window of the hotel.
Two other people who were reported missing after the fire have presented themselves to police in Newquay.
Supt John Green said the fire was still smouldering and no-one could begin searching until it was completely out.
"There's still smoke issuing from what remains of the Penhallow Hotel and therefore it is still a fire," he told BBC News 24.
He said search teams hoped to gain access to the scene by Sunday afternoon.
More than 80 people safely escaped from the building, but there are fears for those still missing.
HOTEL FIRE HELPLINE
Holdsworth Hotels has set up a helpline for anyone concerned about a friend or relative on 01254 889 900
In pictures: Fire aftermath
Family's shock after fire
Chief Constable Stephen Otter said: "The longer we go on the more concerned we become for the welfare of those people."
Four people are still in hospital and one, an elderly woman, is critical, but her condition is improving.
Clearing debris
John McMillan, a director at Holdsworth Hotels which owns the Penhallow, said the company was "shocked and saddened" at what had happened. He said the health and safety of guests was of "paramount concern" and that he was confident the evacuation of the hotel had gone "to plan".
"A fire marshal was appointed for each floor and I am confident the staff did their job and it worked as well as possible," Mr McMillan added.
On Sunday morning, Supt Green said teams were beginning to clear rubble from the road beside the hotel.
Hotel demolished
"We will then start pulling debris from the scene. We hope to have screens up and to get in by early afternoon," he continued.
"There will be two teams of fire and police investigators. The fire investigators will look for the cause of the fire and the police will look for evidence linked to any cause of death and any bodies that may be in there."
Anyone who was in the building at the time of collapse was unlikely to have survived, Supt Green added. Earlier, specialist demolition crews pulled down the precarious upper floors of the four-storey hotel.
Wooden fire escape
Cornwall Fire Brigade chief officer Matt Littmoden said there had been a timber fire escape at the rear of the hotel. He said there had been issues over the "structural integrity" of the fire escape, but no concerns over the fact it was made of wood.
The fire escape had last passed a safety inspection in 2006. The hotel's owners said smoke detectors and fire doors had been checked two weeks ago.
Police said a burglary took place the evening before the fire, but they were not currently linking the two events.
Your photos: Hotel blaze
Blaze causes disruption
They are keen to talk to any potential witnesses of the burglary which happened shortly after 1900 BST on Friday.
Devon and Cornwall emergency services said that when the fire broke out at 0015 BST, the hotel was close to capacity with 86 guests, three members of staff and a coach driver in the building.
And Supt Green said assistance was drawn from a wide area to tackle the blaze.
"We live in a very rural part of the world. With its own beauty comes the fact that resources can be dispersed across the 1,400 square miles of Cornwall," Mr Green said. Some guests from the hotel were cared for at the nearby Reef Surf Lodge and a sports hall while more than 70 are returning to their homes in north-west England.
Floral tributes have been placed near the hotel. One read: "In tragic circumstances such as these all I can offer is my personal sympathy and condolences for everyone who is affected by this terrible event."
The Penhallow is used regularly by Robinsons Holidays, a family-run tour operator based in Lancashire. Robinsons and Holdsworth Hotels are owned by the same parent company, O&C Holdsworth. | Fire | August 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Norway legalises same–sex marriage. | Members of Parliament in Norway today approved a bill that will allow same-sex couples to marry.
The new law, which passed by 84 votes to 41, will make marriage gender neutral.
The Scandinavian country already allows gay and lesbian couples to enter into civil partnerships, but LGBT rights groups had long complained the law does not go far enough.
In 2004 a similar law, which proposed to abolish the system of civil partnerships and replace it with one single gender neutral marriage law for all citizens, was rejected by the Norwegian parliament.
The new legislation will replace a 1993 law that gives gays the right to enter civil unions similar to marriage, but refuses them the right to church weddings or to be considered as adoptive parents.
As well as more equal partnership rights, it would expand the provision of parenting rights.
Family Issues minister Anniken Huitfeldt, introducing the bill in March, called it "an historic step towards equality."
She also had a message for some members of Parliament who claimed the bill would weaken tradition marriage.
"The new law won't weaken marriage as an institution," Huitfeldt told Parliament.
"Rather, it will strengthen it. Marriage won't be worth less because more can take part in it."
About 85 percent of Norway's 4.7 million people are registered as members of the state Lutheran Church of Norway, although far fewer are active.
Norway has historically had a tolerant attitude towards the LGBT community and has championed LGBT rights on the international stage.
Representatives from Norway delivered a short oral statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006 in support of a resolution condemning human rights abuses involving LGBT victims.
The statement dealt with the most severe human rights abuses , such as violence, torture and death, directed against people because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Norway, which is not a member of the EU, joins Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa and Canada in granting gay people full marriage rights. | Government Policy Changes | June 2008 | ['(Pink News)'] |
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets Russian President Vladimir Putin and warns Russia to not interfere in the 2020 United States presidential election. | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shake hands during their meeting in Sochi Tuesday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shake hands during their meeting in Sochi Tuesday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Sochi Tuesday, holding talks that are aimed at improving relations between Washington and Moscow. But the discussions also allowed them to air their disagreements — and they took advantage of that, diverging on topics from Russia's attempts to destabilize other countries to how to resolve crises in Venezuela, Iran and other complicated issues.
At a wide-ranging news conference, Pompeo said the two spoke about "the question of interference in our domestic affairs," adding that Russia now has a chance to prove "that these types of activities are a thing of the past."
Pompeo later said, "I made clear to Foreign Minister Lavrov... that interference in American elections is unacceptable. If the Russians were to engage in that in 2020, it would put our relationship in an even worse place than it has been." "We would not tolerate that," he added.
Pompeo is also slated to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Sochi, the Black Sea resort that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Describing talks that went on for well over an hour, Lavrov said they held "negotiations" on a variety of pressing global issues, from Venezuela, the Korean peninsula and Iran, as well as Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan.
Both of the diplomats said they had "frank" discussions on those issues. He and Pompeo have decided to rebuild channels of communication between the U.S. and Russia, Lavrov said.
"Lately these channels were frozen," Lavrov said, citing what he called "baseless accusations against us" regarding Russia's attempts to influence American elections and "certain collusion of high-ranking officials."
Saying that "such insinuations are absolutely fake," Lavrov added that with the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, "we hope that this tumultuous situation will die down."
To improve relations, Lavrov recommended creating a "nongovernmental expert council of famous political analysts, ex-military and diplomats" who could offer a "fresh take" on overcoming mistrust.
On Venezuela — the country where the Trump administration has backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó's bid to become president — Pompeo said, "We have disagreement." Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has "brought nothing but misery to the Venezuelan people," Pompeo said, "and we hope that Russia's support for Maduro will end."
Despite being at odds on that issue, Pompeo added, the U.S. and Russia should work to ease the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. He later called on "every country that's interfering in Venezuela to cease doing that. We want the Venezuelan people to get their democracy back."
Showing the depths of the disagreement over Venezuela, Lavrov countered, "Democracy cannot be done by force." He cited threats against Maduro's government that have come from both U.S. officials and from Guaidó himself.
"This has nothing in common with democracy," Lavrov said. And to drive home his point, he mentioned America's intervention in Iraq, and its long-running attempts to install democracy there.
Pompeo also said he "raised the issue of U.S. citizens who have been detained in Russia" — U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, an ex-Marine has been held since his arrest in late December.
Both officials said that while they noted their differences, they are intent on working through them. As Pompeo said at the start of his meeting with Lavrov, "I'm here today because President Trump is committed to improving this relationship."
Today a former CIA chief will meet a former FSB chief in Russia’s resort town of Sochi. Pompeo and Putin have studied each other’s files. Tuesday's trip to Russia is the latest leg of Pompeo's journey that included meetings with EU officials in Brussels Monday — a surprise visit that displaced what had been a scheduled visit to the U.S. embassy in Moscow. While in Belgium, Pompeo discussed another high-profile part of the Trump administration's foreign policy, its sanctions against Iran.
When he was asked about the U.S. withdrawal from an international agreement on Iran's nuclear program in Sochi — and recent reports that the U.S. may be planning to mass some 120,000 troops to the Persian Gulf — Pompeo said the Trump administration is pressuring Iran's leaders because "we're looking for Iran to behave like a normal country."
"We fundamentally do not seek a war with Iran," Pompeo said.
As for reports that more U.S. troops could be moved to the Middle East, Pompeo said he would defer to the Defense Department. He added, "We've also made clear to the Iranians that if American interests are attacked, we will most certainly respond in an appropriate fashion."
At the start of the sessions between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats, Lavrov told Pompeo, "I believe that it is time to build a new, more constructive and responsible matrix of our relationship, of our mutual perception. We are prepared to do that, if our U.S. colleagues and counterparts are ready to reciprocate that."
Lavrov added that the two countries must now rebuild trust, concluding, "Let's try, and see what happens."
In reply, Pompeo noted that they have met twice in the past two weeks, with more chances to come. And he said that despite their differences, the two countries might work together better.
"It's not destined that we're adversaries on every issue, and I hope that we can find places where we have a set of overlapping interests and can truly begin to build out strong relationships — at least on those particular issues." | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2019 | ['(NPR)', '(Miami Herald)'] |
The autonomous Aceh province in Indonesia is to ban women from wearing tight trousers under a new law, while a law authorising the stoning to death of adulterers and the whipping of homosexuals will be reviewed. | BANDA ACEH (Indonesia) - AN ISLAMIC law authorising the stoning to death of adulterers and the whipping of homosexuals in Indonesia's Aceh province will be reviewed, officials said.
The law enacted by the former Aceh Legislative Council on September 14 would be reconsidered by the newly elected council and has not been signed into effect by the governor of the conservative Muslim province.
Human rights activists and officials in Jakarta have expressed concern that lawmakers in Aceh are out of step with the rest of the mainly moderate Muslim country, and have asked for the law to be withdrawn.
'The governor has refused to sign the by-law because of the stoning (provision), which is identical to a death sentence,' Aceh government spokesman Abdul Hamid Zein told AFP, adding: 'From the beginning the Acehnese government hasn't agreed with the stoning law. We hope the parliament will discuss the law again.'
The new regulations - which allow punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape, 100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling - were unanimously passed by lawmakers in the final weeks of the outgoing parliament.
They are supposed to replace elements of Indonesia's secular criminal code, causing umbrage in Jakarta which wants to portray Indonesia as a developing, modernising democracy with a moderate Muslim majority. -- AFP | Government Policy Changes | October 2009 | ['(Jakarta Globe)', '(Straits Times)', '(Reuters South Africa)'] |
Three members of the Oath Keepers far-right militia group are arrested by federal prosecutors for conspiring to breach the United States Capitol. | Three giddy members of a right-wing paramilitary group celebrated after storming the U.S. Capitol in a premeditated riot, with one encouraged by supporters to gas the members of Congress barricaded inside, court documents charged Tuesday.
Oath Keepers members Thomas Caldwell, a 65-year-old Virginia man, along with bartender Jessica Watkins, 38, of Ohio, and former Marine Donovan Crowl, 50, also of Ohio, were part of an organized 30-to-40 member crew involved in the breach as Vice President Pence held a congressional hearing on President Trump’s challenge of the November election results, the federal court documents alleged.
“All members are in the tunnels under Capitol,” read a Facebook message sent to Caldwell, identified by authorities as holding a leadership role in the organization. “Seal them in turn on gas.”
“Tom take that b---- over,” read another.
Social media posts and photos confirmed the presence of all three during the incursion that sent members of Congress scurrying for safety as the horde overran the building. A subsequent search of Watkins’ home uncovered “directions for making explosives” credited to “The Jolly Roger” the name of the suspect’s bar, officials said.
Authorities also released communications between the three suspects discussing their plans for the raid in advance, including hotel arrangements and other prep work.
“Us storming the castle,” read a Facebook post by Caldwell after joining the insurrection following a Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally outside the White House. “Please share ... I am such an instigator! Didn’t even mind the tear gas.”
Caldwell later described the rioting as “a good time,” suggesting a similar attack on the Ohio statehouse. And another video captured Crowl and Watkins celebrating the attack.
“We took on the Capitol!” shouted Crowl, who served as a helicopter mechanic on an amphibious assault ship in the Persian Gulf. “We overran the Capitol!”
Watkins and Crowl returned to Ohio and turned themselves in Sunday after laying low for several days at the Berryville, Va., home of Caldwell known to his co-conspirators as “Commander Tom,” court papers showed.
“I look forward to the opportunity to, in D.C., prove that every single charge is false,” said Caldwell after a Tuesday court appearance.
The Oath Keepers were described in federal court documents as a “large but loosely organized” militia convinced that a bogus conspiracy was intent on stripping U.S. citizens of their rights. The group’s name comes from an oath sworn by members to defend the Constitution.
Video captured Oath Keepers members “wearing helmets (and) reinforced vests ... moving in an organized and practiced fashion and forcing their way to the front of the crowd gathered around a door to the U.S. Capitol,” according to federal court papers from the District of Columbia.
The documents also included photos of Watkins and Crowl at the Capitol, and one rioter’s vest bore the Oath Keepers motto: “Not on our watch.”
Watkins posted a video boasting of her part in the “Historical Events” of the rioting: “Yeah. We stormed the Capitol today. Pushed our way into the Rotonda.”
Crowl, in a New Yorker magazine piece published last week, boasted of “patriots (who) dragged this f---ing maggot off the wall and started beating his ass.” Photos of the defendant inside the building were matched with his Ohio driver’s license, court papers indicated.
Prior arrests involving members of the Oath Keepers covered a wide range of criminal activities, including firearms violations, conspiracy to impede federal workers, possession of explosives and threatening public officials.
Transmissions of audio chats between the rioters and off-site Oath Keepers included an exchange where an unidentified man urges Watkins to keep going: “Get it, Jess. Do your f---ing thing.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2021 | ['(New York Daily News)', '(CNN)'] |
Two people are killed and 35 injured when a United States Amtrak passenger train on the Palmetto route traveling from New York City to Savannah, Georgia, with 341 passengers and seven crew on board, derails in Chester, Pennsylvania, after striking a backhoe that was on the track. Local media reports the deceased are veteran Amtrak workers. Area hospitals are treating the injured; none in life-threatening condition. | A train has derailed south of the US city of Philadelphia, leaving two people dead and more than 30 others injured.
Amtrak's Train 89 was heading from New York City to Savannah in Georgia when it struck a mechanical digger - known in the US as a backhoe - that was on the track at Chester.
Some 341 passengers and seven crew members were on board.
All Amtrak services between New York and Philadelphia have been suspended.
An Amtrak statement said the impact with the backhoe had derailed the lead engine of the Palmetto train in Chester, 15 miles (24km) from Philadelphia.
The two people killed are believed to have been construction workers who were unable to get off the track in time.
The statement said local emergency responders were at the scene and an investigation was ongoing.
Chester fire department commissioner Travis Thomas provided the figures on casualties.
Amtrak released an emergency hotline number - 800 532 9101.
In May last year, seven carriages of an Amtrak train derailed on the Philadelphia-New York line, killing seven people and injuring more than 200.
And about 20 people were injured when an Amtrak train derailed 20 miles west of Dodge City, Kansas, last month. Amtrak crash kills seven in 2015
Amtrak train derails in Kansas
| Train collisions | April 2016 | ['(CNN)', '(NBC Philadelphia)', '(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Liberal Democratic Party in Japan is set to pick the next Prime Minister around September 15 after the sudden resignation of current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba and former foreign minister Fumio Kishida announce they intend to run but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and defense minister Taro Kono are considered the potential candidates. Environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi is also a candidate but deemed "too young" by party's veterans. | TOKYO (Reuters) - Yoshihide Suga, a longtime lieutenant of Japan’s Shinzo Abe, has emerged as a strong contender to succeed him as prime minister, an outcome that would extend the fiscal and monetary stimulus that defined Abe’s nearly eight years in office.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving premier, said on Friday he was stepping down due to a worsening of a chronic illness, setting the stage for a leadership election within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
While some other would-be successors have declared their intention to run, the 71-year-old Suga has said he doesn’t want the job. But such comments have been called into question by an aggressive media push in recent days that put him squarely in the public eye.
“They are really going to try to get Suga to replace Abe and continue the Abe government without Abe,” said Sophia University political science professor Koichi Nakano.
In an interview with Reuters this week, Suga stressed the need to spur economic growth over tightening restrictions to contain the virus, pointing to the need to promote tourism.
“We need to consider what we can do to prevent the economy from falling off a cliff,” Suga said at his parliamentary office, where a large photograph of him standing next to U.S. President Donald Trump was on display.
The interview, in which Suga again denied he wanted the job, was part of the publicity blitz before Abe announced his resignation, in which he gave interviews to at least four major news organisations.
A self-made politician, Suga was chosen by Abe in 2012 for the pivotal role of chief cabinet secretary, acting as top government spokesman, coordinating policies and riding herd on bureaucrats.
The winner of the LDP vote, which domestic media said could be held around Sept. 15, is virtually ensured the premiership because of the party’s majority in parliament. The victor will serve out Abe’s remaining term as LDP chief, which ends in September 2021.
Former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, 63, a soft-spoken security hawk who aims to revive Japan’s regional economies, is also expected to run. A long-time Abe critic, Ishiba is popular with the public but less so among party members of parliament.
Ex-foreign minister Fumio Kishida, 63, long seen as Abe’s favoured heir, said on Friday he would run in the party poll, but the dovish lawmaker from Hiroshima has struggled to gain traction with voters.
Related Coverage
Dark-horse potential candidates include Defence Minster Taro Kono, 56, who has an image as a maverick but has toed the line on key Abe policies, and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, 64, who has a reputation as a tough negotiator.
Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is popular but at 39 seen by many as too young.
What format party executives pick to choose their next leader will have a big impact on the outcome. A decision is expected on Tuesday.
Usually, a leadership vote is held by LDP MPs along with grassroots party members.
In case of a sudden resignation, however, an extraordinary vote can be called with participants narrowed to MPs and representatives of the party’s local chapters.
“A regular election gives Ishiba a better chance,” said Steven Reed, professor emeritus at Chuo University.
In 2012, Ishiba beat Abe in a first-round party poll that included rank-and-file members but he failed to win a majority and lost in a run-off, when only MPs voted.
Ishiba could also have an edge if LDP lawmakers put priority on a leader who would help the party keep its huge majority in a lower house election that must be held by late October 2021.
Talk of Suga as a contender bubbled up in April 2019 after he unveiled the new imperial era name, “Reiwa”, for use on Japanese calendars after the enthronement of the new emperor.
Still, the veteran lawmaker has an image more as a behind-the-scenes operator than a frontline leader.
“The stamp of approval will come through dealmaking in smoky backrooms in the LDP, but whoever wins will have to prove themselves by winning the next general election,” said Jesper Koll, senior adviser to asset manager Wisdom Tree Investments.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An earthquake of 6.4 preliminary magnitude occurs off the coast of Okinawa in Japan. | TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck off the shore of Japan’s southern Okinawa island on Tuesday, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.
There was no risk of injuries or damage from the quake, which hit at 9:02 a.m. (0002 GMT), the agency said.
The focus of the tremor was close to the surface of the earth and 140 km (90 miles) off the northwestern coast of Okinawa.
Exxon Mobil Japan group refiner Nansei Sekiyu KK’s Nishihara refinery in the area was unaffected by the quake and was operating as usual, an official at the refiner said.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
| Earthquakes | August 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The prison sentence of Sabbar Kashur, a married Arab man convicted by Israel of "rape by deception" after telling the accuser that he's Jewish and single, is delayed as he attempts an appeal. | The Palestinian man convicted of raping an Israeli woman who believed he was Jewish has been released from house arrest pending his appeal.
Saber Kushour, who was sentenced to 18 months in jail last month for "rape by deception", was free to leave his home for the first time for almost two years after Israel's high court yesterday ordered a delay in implementing the prison term.
Since being released from prison two months after being charged with rape, Kushour has worn an electronic tag on his ankle which set off an alarm if he strayed beyond a tight boundary around his home in East Jerusalem.
In granting Kushour's release, the court said the circumstances of the case were unusual. "The possibility should not be ruled out that a higher court may reduce the petitioner's sentence."
Kushour yesterday took his two children shopping in a Jerusalem mall.
The case has attracted global attention. Kushour and the woman had consensual sex within 15 minutes of meeting in a West Jerusalem street around midday. Kushour told the woman his name was Dudu, a common Israeli nickname, although one that Kushour has answered to since being a small child.
The woman later realised he was an Arab and went to the police.
In convicting him, the judges said: "If the woman had not believed that the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a significant romantic relationship, she would not have co-operated."
Kushour admits to having claimed he was single.
The petition against his conviction states that Kushour's conduct could be considered immoral, but it is not criminal.
Kushour claims to have had messages of support from around the world. Critics of the conviction said the case was an example of racism against Arabs in Israel, and that if it had been a Jewish man passing himself off as Arab, a complaint would never have reached court. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Haaretz)'] |
Tens of thousands of people again protest across the country, amid a government crackdown. | Tens of thousands of people have protested across Syria, days after the bloody crackdown on the city of Hama where the opposition had taken control.
Video said to be of Damascus showed crowds in a central district chanting: "Hama, we are with you until death" and "[President] Bashar [al-Assad] leave". Security forces shot dead at least 13 protesters on Friday, reports say.
The US, German and French leaders have accused Mr Assad of "indiscriminate" violence against civilians. The White House said President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had spoken in separate telephone calls, and warned of unspecified new measures against the Syrian leader. In a broadcast from Hama, Syrian state TV said the city was under government control. Hama residents and human rights groups accuse the army of killing more than 100 civilians in a bombardment of the city, which has become a focus of the protests against Mr Assad's rule.
As many as 2,000 people may have been killed by security forces since opponents of President Assad's autocratic rule took to the streets in March.
Protesters were inspired by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Mr Assad has promised reforms, but blames the violence on "armed criminal gangs" backed by unspecified foreign powers.
Access to events in Syria has been severely restricted for international journalists and it is rarely possible to verify accounts by witnesses and opposition activists.
Activists had called for more protests after prayers on Friday, with one web user posting a message saying: "God is with us, are you?" Video posted by activists purports to show protesters marching through the Midan district of the Syrian capital, close to the Old City.
Clapping their hands, they chanted: "We don't want you Bashar."
In another district of the capital, Qadam, protesters carried a banner reading: "Bashar is slaughtering the people and the international community is silent."
Security forces opened fire with live ammunition and tear gas in several cities, activists said.
At least 10 people were killed in the Damascus suburbs of Irbin, Moaddamia and Dumeir, and three in the city of Homs.
Abdel Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, told AFP news agency that 30,000 people had marched in the city of Deir al-Zour despite extreme heat.
Numbers were down on previous Fridays, when hundreds of thousands turned out for protests. Correspondents say this is probably because it was the first Friday in the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn until dusk and go outside less.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused security forces of killing some 2,000 people since March.
Residents of Hama, which has become a focal point of protests, told reporters that there had been more gunfire and shelling early on Friday.
Snipers and tanks have been firing on civilians and food and medicine supplies are running low, witnesses say.
But the Syrian TV report showed pictures of armed men hiding behind cars and claimed the army had quelled a rebellion.
The report showed deserted streets with flimsy barricades and piles of rubble. Later, the reporter went into buildings that appeared to have been destroyed in an explosion.
The UN Security Council issued a statement this week condemning the crackdown.
Russia, traditionally an ally of Syria, also joined the criticism, with President Dmitry Medvedev saying Mr Assad would "face a sad fate" unless he urgently carried out reforms and reconciled with the opposition. The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says Mr Medvedev's statement may give the government pause for thought, but there has been no change in the attitude on the ground.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Delegates arrive in Beijing for the resumption of six party talks on Wednesday involving North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States to discuss the second phase of a deal on North Korean nuclear disarmament. | He said both sides were "in the same ballpark" and held good discussions. The meeting took place in Beijing on the eve of another round of six-nation talks, aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor on Saturday. Mr Hill said his talks with Mr Kim focused on setting a timetable for the next stage.
Such a phase would involve the listing of all of North Korea's nuclear facilities and eventually disabling the Yongbyon reactor completely.
"My idea is that we try to wrap this up" by the end of the year, he told reporters after meeting Mr Kim.
It is a little like one of those video games - every level becomes more difficult than the previous level
Christopher Hill,US nuclear envoy
Before leaving for Beijing, Mr Kim said the six-party talks would address "obligations and actions" to be taken by all sides now that Pyongyang has shut down its reactor at Yongbyon.
The shutdown was the first step in a deal agreed in February, under which Pyongyang agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for aid. 'More difficult'
On Monday, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed that a 10-man team of monitors at Yongbyon had verified the shutdown of the plutonium-making reactor. He said it was "a good step in the right direction", but warned that there was still a long way to go. N KOREA NUCLEAR DEAL
N Korea to "shut down and seal" Yongbyon reactor, then disable all nuclear facilities
In return, will be given 1m tons of heavy fuel oil
N Korea to invite IAEA back to monitor deal
Under earlier 2005 deal, N Korea agreed to end nuclear programme and return to non-proliferation treaty
N Korea's demand for light water reactor to be discussed at "appropriate time"
Q&A: N Korea stand-off
Timeline: Nuclear crisis
Under the February deal, North Korea is to receive 50,000 tons of energy aid in return for shutting Yongbyon down. Two shipments of aid have already been sent. North Korea will then receive a further 950,000 tons of aid if it disables all its nuclear facilities.
But experts say that persuading North Korea to come clean about all of its nuclear activities and agree to their being disabled is likely to be a far more complicated process. "I think you have to look at each stage as more difficult than the previous stage," Mr Hill said on Monday in the South Korean capital, Seoul. "It is a little like one of those video games - every level becomes more difficult than the previous level."
North Korea - which carried out its first nuclear test in October 2006 - continues to deny US allegations that it has a secret uranium enrichment programme. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A shooting at a motel in Sacramento County, California, leaves a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department deputy dead and two California Highway Patrol officers injured. The suspect is later arrested. | SACRAMENTO, Calif. One law-enforcement officer was killed and two others wounded when a gunman carrying a high-powered rifle shot through the door of his hotel room, then jumped over a balcony and led police on a brief chase.
He was captured minutes later when he crashed and was wounded by responding officers Wednesday.
Hotel guests were trapped in their rooms for most of the day as police methodically cleared the area and confirmed no other gunmen stayed behind in the hotel room.
Deputy Robert French, a 21-year veteran of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, died from a gunshot wound to his side, Sheriff Scott Jones said.
"It was an extremely dynamic, horrific series of events," Jones said.
The day began with a routine investigation by a car-theft task force involving officers from multiple agencies. Investigators suspected a car-theft ring was being run out of a Ramada Inn in an unincorporated neighborhood of Sacramento.
Two women who got into a stolen vehicle were chased for 20 miles before being apprehended in Elk Grove, south of Sacramento. Arresting officers learned they were staying at a room in the Ramada Inn.
When officers knocked on the door, a gunman opened fire through the door and walls, striking two California Highway Patrol officers before turning to the balcony, shooting French, who was outside monitoring the back door, and fleeing.
He was found with a rifle and high-capacity magazine, which are illegal to purchase in California, sheriff's Sgt. Tony Turnbull said.
The names of the wounded officers were not released. Jones said they were taken to a hospital and expected to survive.
Dozens of heavily armed officers from around the region searched the hotel for hours before determining that there were no other suspects inside.
It's unclear why the suspects responded so aggressively when police arrived, Turnbull said.
"Maybe that will come out in the investigation. Maybe we'll never know," Turnbull said. "Either way, it's irrational."
Jeff Marshall, who lives near the hotel, said he heard gunshots and then tires squealing and saw a gray Dodge speed by his home, going the wrong way down a busy street as vehicles and pedestrians scrambled to get out of the way.
"It was like the wild West," Marshall said.
The sheriff described French, 52, as a well-known, well-respected officer assigned to patrol the county's northern areas. He trained new officers and was a "go-to guy for advice and counsel, not just career advice but tactical advice and things like that," Jones said.
French is survived by his live-in girlfriend, adult children and grandchildren and a sister.
"Words aren't going to make an appropriate appreciation of him as a man or his career," Jones said. | Armed Conflict | August 2017 | ['(NBC News)', '(The Sacramento Bee)'] |
In football, Germany beat England 6–2 in the UEFA Women's Euro 2009 final, claiming their seventh European title. | England's hearts were left broken after a valiant display as Germany were crowned European champions in Helsinki.
The World Cup holders scored the opener with Birgit Prinz slotting in a clever Inka Grings pass and Melanie Behringer then struck a stunner from 41 yards. Karen Carney pulled one back before Kim Kulig added a third after the interval. Kelly Smith gave England hope with a fine strike but the Germans ran riot with two goals from the dazzling Grings and a long-range effort from Prinz. It was always going to be a huge mountain to climb for England on a balmy night in Finland, facing a German team who had won the last four editions of this tournament, and six of the last seven.
But it was a bright start from manager Hope Powell's ladies, led brilliantly throughout by skipper Faye White, wearing a face mask after dislocating and fracturing a cheekbone in the quarter-finals. Eniola Aluko proved a real menace down the left wing in the opening exchanges but after 19 minutes, not even White could prevent the opening goal from Germany's prolific striker. Prinz, who amazingly had no goals to her name in this tournament before this clash, burst into the box and after collecting a clever pull-back from Grings she blasted the ball into the net. The English women looked rattled and worse was to come when Behringer picked the ball up just past the half-way line and fired in the second to sting goalkeeper Rachel Brown's fingertips.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Powell predicts bright future for England
Memories of England's comeback from being 2-0 down against Russia last week flooded back as winger Carney poked the ball in at the back post after brilliant work from Smith, who had dinked her way past three defenders. Jill Scott almost nodded in the equaliser but the Germans struck back five minutes into the second period. Annike Krahn's shot rebounded off the post and with the ball bobbling along the line, it fell to 19-year-old Kulig who poked in from 10 yards. Still the English women, looking for a first win over the Germans in 19 meetings and in their first European final since 1984, would not lie down and it was another slice of Smith innovation that carved open the defence.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. White proud despite final defeat
The Boston Breakers striker brought the ball down instantly from a Carney pass and the German keeper Nadine Angere was soon picking the ball out of the net after a fine strike from Smith. Germany increased the tempo and grabbed their fourth with Grings heading in a smart cross from Kerstin Garefrekes. England's heads went down and Grings was on target again after 73 minutes as she linked up well with Prinz to finish from the edge of the box. It was cruel on the English as Germany turned on the style to fire in a sixth with Prinz crashing in her second. But the defeat should not take away from England's achievement in reaching a first final in 25 years - an achievement that Fabio Capello's men's side will hope to emulate in South Africa after securing qualification to the World Cup. Replay - Behringer's 40-yard screamer (UK users only) | Sports Competition | September 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Siege of Bani Walid : Militias loyal to the Libyan government capture the town of Bani Walid after days of battle, with locals claiming that 130 civilians have died under artillery shelling attacks from militia forces. | After weeks of fighting, militias loyal to the new Libyan government took over the town of Bani Walid.
One of the last Libyan towns to surrender to rebels who toppled Col. Muammar Gaddafi last year, and which had been at odds with the country’s new government ever since, was overrun on Wednesday morning by pro-government militiamen after nearly three weeks of fighting.
Militiamen in pickup trucks poured into the wrecked and smoke-filled center of the desert hilltop town of Bani Walid, home to one of the country’s biggest tribes, the Warfalla, amid cries of “Free Libya” and “Allah Akbar” in scenes reminiscent of the uprising against Col. Gaddafi.
They waved the post-Gaddafi tricolor flag of red, black, and green and claimed they had routed the late dictator’s diehard followers and saved the revolution. But they admitted many hardcore Bani Walid fighters had slipped away during the night.
Bani Walid’s leaders argue that Misrata was engaged in an exercise in collective punishment with their assault as punishment for the town having sided with Col. Gaddafi during the uprising.
On Saturday, the president of the country’s parliament appeared to egg on the militiamen from the towns of Misrata, Zliten, Homs and Tajoura by warning that Libya had not yet been completely liberated from the rule of Col. Gaddafi and he singled out Bani Walid, claiming that it was harboring large numbers of “anti-revolutionaries and mercenaries.” Within hours of his broadcast remarks militiamen intensified their assault and started indiscriminately shelling the town, killing at least 130 civilians, including women and children, according to one of Bani Walid’s elders, 62-year-old Ali Mohamed Ali. The state news agency, LAN, put the death toll on both sides at only 22 with hundreds injured.
Speaking with The Daily Beast in the neighboring town of Tarhuna, Ali said he had escaped Bani Walid overnight “under fierce bombardment after my house had been destroyed.” At a checkpoint, militiamen seized his brother, a doctor. “About 60 civilians were killed on Tuesday alone and there are still people under the rubble,” he said. He claims that a majority of the town’s population of 70,000 had fled over the past few days. Families in Tarhuna and neighboring villages have taken in many of the refugees, who seem to want to avoid a camp set up by the government half an hour from Bani Walid.
During the fighting, pro-government militiamen turned back journalists seeking to enter the besieged town, claiming it was for their own safety. Militiamen also blocked humanitarian relief and International Red Cross workers eager to supply Bani Walid with medical supplies and food. The town ran out of basic medicines days ago as well as milk and gas. The hospital closed after being shelled. Earlier this week the government withheld its permission for a United Nations mission to enter the besieged town on the grounds that it could not guarantee safe passage.
Bani Walid was deserted of civilians yesterday, although many could well have been hiding indoors from pro-government militiamen, who hadn’t yet commenced a house-to-house search for men on their wanted list.
Gesturing to a brown door mat depicting Col. Gaddafi, which militiamen had discovered in a house, a young fighter from Misrata, 27-year-old Mustafa el-Ramarlli, said: “As you see they are still keeping Gaddafi pictures.” He added: “On their local radio station they said they would kick our asses. The young men here were Gaddafi guys but this morning we showed them and now it is all fine.”
Nearby, militiamen celebrated by letting off rounds from anti-aircraft guns, which were mounted on the back of pickup trucks. Others fired into buildings already wrecked either by NATO airstrikes last year or by the bombardment of recent days.
Some young fighters spray painted references to a historic falling out between Misrata and the Warfalla tribe during the Italian occupation of the early 20th century and erected a poster of Misrata’s then leader, Ramadan Al-Swehli, on a government building in the center of Bani Walid.
The already existent ill will between the two tribes increased last year when Bani Walid sided with Gaddafi during the uprising. Since then Misrata and Bani Walid have accused each other of dozens of kidnappings of young men who had ventured into each other’s territory. Misrata is believed to be holding 150 men, who have been captured since the uprising ended. When Bani Walid was overrun on Wednesday, militiamen freed a dozen Misratans being held hostage, according to one of their commanders.
The Misrata militiamen moved against Bani Walid this month after Omran Shaban, the rebel who found Gaddafi hiding in a drain in Sirte last year, died following two months of detention in the town. Libya’s congress ordered its defense and interior ministries to find those responsible for abducting Shaaban and suspected of torturing him; the leaders of Bani Walid were given a deadline to hand over the alleged culprits.
On October 13, tribal elders from eastern Libya mounted a reconciliation effort and in an all-day meeting with Bani Walid’s leaders a deal was reached. But the next day Misrata turned it down.
“The military act is now finished. We now are working to make the city stable and more secure,” Army Chief of Staff, Youssef al-Mangoush, told reporters on Wednesday. “That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some resistance here or there. Now the government is in charge.”
For how long remains the question. As dusk fell, the town’s conquerors made a hasty exit amid the din of gunshots and cheering soldiers. “You should get out of here,” shouted a fighter perched on the back of a truck. “The snipers will be back.”
Many militiamen headed back to their hometowns to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha, the second most important festival in the Muslim calendar, which celebrates the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son when ordered to by God. “This year the biggest sacrifice has been Bani Walid,” says a civil society leader, who declined to be named for this article for fear of his safety. “The government chose violence over reconciliation. The buildings in the town can be repaired. The real damage will be in the form of continuing bad blood.”
Government spokesman Nasser al-Mana'a insisted the government had no choice but to attack and had used proportionate violence. “Bani Walid had become a center for fugitives from justice.” | Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(2012)', '(The Daily Beast)', '(Reuters)'] |
The UK Airprox Board reveals a Red Arrows jet came within 100ft of collision with a civilian plane last year. |
A Red Arrows jet missed a civilian plane by just 100 feet after taking off - sparking an investigation by officials.
The pilot did not see the civilian aircraft until he was flying over it, the UK Airprox Board ruled.
The incident happened on August 20, 2017, at 4.49pm, as the Red Arrow jet left Biggin Hill, near London.
The civilian aircraft was flying from Farnborough, Hampshire.
The information has been released by the Airprox board from a meeting held earlier this year.
It was ruled that the two pilots saw each other at the same time.
The report states: "This incident occurred in a busy area of airspace during a particularly high workload portion of the mission – departure and rejoin of multiple Hawks for onward transit.
"Without a surveillance-based Air Traffic Service, the Hawk pilot was relying on his own lookout to avoid other aircraft."
The civilian aircraft was first seen slightly left of the nose.
The report added that both pilots felt no avoiding action was necessary after seeing each other as the hawk jet, used by the Red Arrows, was in a left hand turn and the pilot of the civilian plane judged that "adequate separation already existed".
The report added: "The Board quickly agreed that it had effectively been a non-sighting by the Hawk pilot in that he had only seen the C172 as he passed over it, and then too late to take avoiding action.
"The Board spent some time assessing the risk.
"The radar replay indicated that the two aircraft were in very close proximity, but both pilots estimated the separation to be more than the 100ft shown."
There was a debate among the board as to whether the event was a Category B risk rating - where the safety had been compromised - but it was eventually agreed the event was a Category C rating. This meant there was no risk of collision because the risk was averted or there was no risk in the first place.
| Air crash | April 2018 | ['(Lincolnshire Live)'] |
Malcolm Turnbull launches a challenge for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Australia against incumbent Prime Minister Tony Abbott and wins 54–44. , | Malcolm Turnbull has defeated Tony Abbott 54-44 in a Liberal Party leadership ballot and will become the nation's 29th prime minister.
Julie Bishop beat Kevin Andrews 70-30 in the ballot for the Deputy Liberal leadership.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2015 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(ABC News)'] |
The United States refuses to recognize the results, describing the election as a "charade". The European Union also rejects the legitimacy of the election. | CARACAS (Reuters) -The United States, the European Union and more than a dozen Latin American countries said on Monday they would not recognize the results of a parliamentary election in Venezuela, which saw allies of President Nicolas Maduro win a majority.
Just 31% of 20 million eligible voters participated in Sunday’s election, the electoral council said early on Monday, less than half the turnout rate in the previous congressional elections in 2015. The opposition had boycotted the vote, calling it a farce meant to consolidate a dictatorship.
The results nonetheless return the congress to Maduro’s control, despite an economy in tatters, an aggressive U.S. sanctions program, and a mass migration exodus. An alliance of parties called the Great Patriotic Pole that backs Maduro won 68.9% of the votes cast, according to figures published on Monday.
“The United States, along with numerous other democracies around the world, condemns this charade which failed to meet any minimum standard of credibility,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said the election “failed to comply with the minimum international standards,” while a group of Latin American countries including Brazil and Colombia issued a statement saying the vote “lacks legality and legitimacy.”
Earlier in the year, the Supreme Court had put several opposition parties in the hands of politicians expelled from those same parties for alleged links to Maduro - one of the major reasons the opposition had called the vote a sham.
The elections council was also named without the opposition’s participation, and Maduro refused to allow meaningful electoral observation. Maduro allies have said the electoral conditions were the same as a 2015 parliamentary vote the opposition won, and the government paid no heed to foreign criticism.
“Venezuela already has a new National Assembly,” Maduro said early on Monday, in televised remarks that were muted in comparison with his frequent triumphalism. “A great victory, without a doubt.”
The opposition in 2015 won control of the National Assembly in a landslide, but the pro-Maduro Supreme Court blocked even the most basic legislation. In 2017, Maduro supplanted parliament with the creation of an all-powerful parallel body known as the National Constituent Assembly.
Opposition legislators nonetheless used the platform to denounce Maduro around the world for human rights abuses, corruption, and economic mismanagement, proving a constant thorn in the side of the Socialist Party.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido last year also used his role as speaker of the National Assembly to stake a claim to be Venezuela’s legitimate president, on the basis Maduro’s 2018 re-election was rigged, earning the recognition of more than 50 countries including the United States.
Pompeo said on Monday that Washington “will continue to recognize Interim President Guaidó and the legitimate National Assembly.”
Retaking control of the congress will give Maduro few meaningful tools to restart an economy where a monthly salary or pension is often less than the cost of a kilo of meat or a carton of eggs.
It may lend his government more legitimacy to offer oil industry deals to companies willing to risk U.S. sanctions to tap the OPEC nation’s huge oil reserves.
But even traditional allies such as Russia and China, typically the most likely to challenge U.S. sanctions, have shown scant interest in an oil industry hollowed out by years of decay and the emigration of its most talented professionals.
The opposition is calling on sympathizers to participate in a Dec. 12 consultation that will ask citizens whether they reject the results and want a change of government.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(VOA)'] |
The United States Senate confirms Michael Mukasey as the Attorney General of the United States. | Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey smiles during a meeting with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy at Leahy's office on Capitol Hill, October 16, 2007. A divided Senate confirmed Mukasey on Thursday, setting aside concerns he might support interrogation methods decried worldwide as torture.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michael Mukasey took office as attorney general on Friday, the Justice Department said, after the Senate confirmed him despite concerns about his stance on torture.
Mukasey, 66, takes over as chief U.S. law enforcement officer and succeeds Alberto Gonzales, who was resigned under bipartisan pressure in September with critics questioning his competency and honesty.
Senate lawmakers initially praised Mukasey, predicting the retired judge and former prosecutor would renew confidence in a scandal-rocked Justice Department.
But many Democrats turned against him after he declined to denounce as illegal torture an interrogation technique that involves simulated drowning, known as waterboarding.
Enough Democrats joined Republicans to approve Mukasey’s nomination Thursday night by a vote of 53-40.
Mukasey took the oath of office after flying down from New York, Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. He was expected to receive briefings on national security and wiretapping before heading home for the weekend.
He will start full-time next Tuesday, Roehrkasse said.
A District Court judge in New York for 18 years, Mukasey presided over a number of high-profile cases, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
In a more recent case, Mukasey found that the government had a right to hold U.S. citizen Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant without charging him with a crime, but ordered the administration to allow Padilla to meet with a lawyer.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | November 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Super Typhoon Mangkhut , one of the strongest in the history of the Philippines, kills at least 59 people. The typhoon struck also Hong Kong, injuring more than 200 people while four persons died in China. A woman died in Taiwan after being swept out to sea. | Rescuers in the Philippines are digging through mud to retrieve bodies buried by a landslide that hit as Typhoon Mangkhut battered the country.
At least 32 people in the mining town of Itogon, in Benguet province, were crushed in a single shelter. Teams are raking through the rubble with their bare hands, passing blocks of concrete and pieces of wood down a 50ft line to clear the area. Typhoon Mangkhut is now weakening over southern China. Four people were killed in the province of Guangdong - three by falling trees.
The storm ploughed across the main Philippine island of Luzon over the weekend. More than 60 people have been killed, mostly in landslides triggered by heavy rains, with the majority in Benguet province.
A group of artisanal goldminers in the village of Ucab, which lies in a valley in Itogon municipality, had huddled with their families in a two-storey shelter, Conrad Navidad of the International Organization for Migration told the BBC. The building was crushed, and 29 people remain missing.
"It was used as a worship area for the church group of the mine workers and their families," said Mr Navidad, who was at the scene earlier on Monday. "Before the typhoon hit, their pastor invited them to take refuge in that bunkhouse - and then the disaster happened and they were buried by the landslide.
"They are not hoping for survivors anymore - just for the retrieval of the bodies buried."
The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines said mining operators had been told to leave, but that a mine near the shelter had been operating illegally.
The Philippine government on Monday said it was deploying security forces to put a stop to illegal small-scale mining in the vast Cordillera mountain region, a practice which is credited with increasing the likelihood of landslides in communities like Itogon.
The BBC's Howard Johnson, who has been covering the storm, described a trail of destruction along the northern coast of Luzon, with forests ripped to shreds and electricity poles felled.
There is also concern over the economic cost of the typhoon, which has caused extensive damage to farmland in Cagayan, a key agricultural province.
Francis Tolentino, a political adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte, told the BBC he estimated only a fifth of produce there had been harvested in advance - threatening staples like rice and corn. Preparation and evacuation procedures have nonetheless improved since Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which killed more than 7,000 people.
Warnings were issued, travel was restricted, schools closed, and the army was put on standby in advance. Typhoon Mangkhut is one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in decades. It made landfall on the Chinese coast near Jiangmen city on Sunday afternoon.
It is now weakening as it makes its way across southern China and has been downgraded to a tropical storm.
More than 2.5 million people have been evacuated in Guangdong and on Hainan island.
In Hong Kong, which was hit hard over the weekend, videos on social media showed apartments swaying in the wind, scaffolding crashing to the ground and commercial buildings with windows shattered.
Transport services were suspended, with flights cancelled, trains stopped, and major roads closed. Officials put the number of injured at more than 200.
The city managed to avoid serious casualties but now faces a difficult recovery as thousands remain affected by flooding and travel disruptions.
While it avoided a direct hit, winds there reached more than 110mph and water levels surged by almost 3.5m (12ft) in places.
Authorities had issued their maximum alert, warning residents to stay indoors and away from windows to avoid flying debris. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2018 | ['(Ompong)', '(BBC)', '(Taiwan News)'] |
Riots break out in a prison in central Colombo, Sri Lanka, injuring 31 inmates and guards. | COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Riots broke out at a high-security prison in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, leaving 31 inmates and guards injured, authorities said.
The inmates were protesting poor living conditions when they and the guards clashed Tuesday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The injured, including four guards and 27 inmates, were hospitalized with some in critical condition, PTI reported.
The violence at the Welikada prison was sparked by drug lords who had been stopped from smuggling drugs and cellphone cards into the prison, Prisons Commissioner K. Kodippili was quoted as telling the Sri Lankan Daily News. He said one of the four guards injured was in critical at the Colombo National Hospital.
Kodippili was quoted as saying the inmates had set fire to prison stores and the administrative building.
PTI said the prison has about 1,800 inmates. The news agency said the inmates had complained about the poor quality of food and overcrowding.
"The situation was caused due to certain administrative decisions taken to eradicate illegal activities among inmates," PTI quoted Prison Reforms Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera as saying. | Riot | January 2012 | ['(UPI)'] |
President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf meets the president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, in Manila. | MANILA (Philippines): Setting off magnificent vistas for close cooperation in multiple arenas—both of bilateral and global significance—the top leaders of Pakistan and the Philippines Tuesday resolved to expand friendship via joint collaboration vis-à-vis the issues—posing perils to the universal peace. With this perception, President General Pervez Musharraf and the Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have had extensive talks with focus on the elimination of the menace of terrorism by utilizing the best possible and optimal means. The two leaders also exchanged views on the UN affairs, OIC as well as the volatile issue of Kashmir. ‘Pakistan Times’ understands that an absolute consensus in cooperation was reached as the leaders of the Philippines and Pakistan sought closer relations between the two countries in diverse spheres, with defense, economy, culture and politics—atop. Both Pakistan and the Philippines have been waging high-profile U.S.-backed offensives against extremist groups. Arroyo briefed Musharraf on Malaysian-brokered peace talks between her government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines. Pakistan is a key member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which has played a major role in brokering the peace talks and a two-year cease-fire. Philippine Muslim guerrillas also have appealed to Musharraf to send a Pakistani contingent to join Malaysian-led truce monitors. Call by Musharraf
"I urge the Muslims of the Philippines, my brothers and sisters in faith, to shun the path of confrontation, suppress extremism," Musharraf said in his congressional speech, which drew loud applause from lawmakers. But he called on the government to respect Muslims' rights, tradition and culture to allow them to live in harmony in society. During their closed-door talks, Arroyo sought Pakistan's support for a Philippine bid to gain observer status in the OIC. Musharraf said the Philippine bid could be taken up in an ongoing restructuring of the OIC. She also congratulated Musharraf for his efforts to strike a peace deal with India, which has a decades-old territorial dispute with Pakistan over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. Musharraf vowed to reach a final settlement of the dispute in talks early this week with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He informed President Arroyo that in June 2005, the OIC would hold a special ministerial meeting in Yemen to resolve technical problems within the organization, and settle certain divergences among the OIC member nations.
President Arroyo informed President Musharraf that the Philippines need to be part of the OIC so that "our Muslim brothers here in the Philippines can feel that they are also important in the Muslim countries." Tonight, President Gloria hosted a state banquet in honor of the visiting Pakistani leader. "As far as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are concerned, let me assure you, President (Arroyo), that you will find Pakistan on your side. We believe in harmony. We believe in the peaceful resolution" of conflicts, Musharraf told the President during their bilateral talks. He also told Arroyo that he would support the Philippines' policy of continuing the implementation of the 1976 and 1996 peace accords signed between the government and MNLF, and possibly, the peace agreement to be signed with the MILF. Musharraf assured Pakistan's support for the Philippines' bid for a permanent observer status in the influential Organization of Islamic Conference [OIC], of which, Pakistan is an apex member.
Musharraf, who started Monday his three-day state visit to Manila, is the first Pakistani President to visit the Philippines since diplomatic ties between the two countries were established in September 1949. Accords & Agreements
Four agreements were also signed in the presence of President General Pervez Musharraf and his Philippine counterpart Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at a ceremony, held at the Presidential Palace. The first document, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on combating terrorism and certain other crimes, is envisioned to facilitate sustained security and intelligence coordination as well as practical, comprehensive and forward-looking collaboration in disrupting terrorist and transnational concerns and global crimes, the government said in a statement. The second agreement is on the abolition of Visa requirements for holders of diplomatic passports and the facilitation of issuance of entry visas to holders of official passports. The two countries also signed a program of cultural exchanges from 2005 to 2009, calling for the implementation of various exchanges in the cultural information materials, performing arts and the promotion, conservation, restoration of historical and cultural patrimony. Bilateral Trade
To enhance bilateral trade, the two countries also signed a MoU formalizing the business agreements between the Philippine International Trading Corp [PITC. and United Marketing of Pakistan for the supply of pharmaceuticals from Pakistan to support the low-cost medicines program of the Philippine government. The Philippine government said that since 2000, the PITC has been implementing the government's parallel importation program for pharmaceuticals, which involves the purchase of medicines of guaranteed quality from original manufacturers in countries where they can be sourced cheaper than in the Philippines. Apart from the four agreements, President Musharraf also assured Pakistan's full support for the Philippine government's efforts to end the decades old rebellion in the southern islands of Mindanao. Perspective An earlier report said that President Pervez Musharraf who arrived in Manila to a state welcome late on Monday evening would be holding parleys on significant topics with the Philippines President—with focus on boosting security cooperation between two frontline states in the US-led war on terrorism.
Philippine, the Far Eastern country sympathizes with the sufferings of the people of Indian occupied Kashmir and continues to view developments in Kashmir and Pakistan-India relations with consistent interest.
At the same time, Pakistan looks forward to deepening trade relations with ASEAN members as part of its endeavors to diversify access for its products to world markets. Both Pakistan and the Philippines are growing economies with growth rate of over 6 per cent of the GDP. The Pakistan-Philippines trade has tremendous potential but the two-way annual trade has been hovering around US $ 40 to 50 million. Pakistani exports to the Philippines stood at US $ 32.362 million in the year 2003-04.
The Southeast Asian country has been enjoying a modest surplus in bilateral trade, with main exports to the Philippines including cotton, textiles, rice and pharmaceutical products. The Philippines' exports to Pakistan include semi-conductors, electronics, chemicals and some agricultural products.
State Welcome with 21-Gun Salute President General Pervez Musharraf was accorded a state welcome here Tuesday at the Philippine Presidential Malacanan Palace where his counterpart Gloria Macapagal Arroyo received the visiting leader amid a 21-gun salute boom.
The national anthems of the two countries were played. President Musharraf reviewed the guard of honor presented by Philippine Presidential Guard. President Musharraf is in the Philippines for a three-day state visit, during which he held in-depth talks on deepening trade and economic ties with the Far Eastern country, an expanding economy of ASEAN region.
At the ceremony, the host leader introduced the members of her cabinet to the Pakistani leader. President Musharraf also introduced the members of his delegation to the Philippine leader.
Tributes to Jose Rizal
Earlier, the President paid his respects to the Filipino national hero, Jose Rizal, a 19th century writer, poet and leader who championed the cause of human rights of the oppressed people. | Diplomatic Visit | April 2005 | ['(Pakistan Times)', '(Manila Bulletin)', '(Sun Star)', '(BBC)'] |
Swedish prosecutors decide to reopen a rape case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange; Assange denies the allegations. | (CNN) -- The rape case involving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being reopened, Swedish prosecutors said Wednesday.
"There is reason to believe that a crime has been committed," read a statement from Marianne Ny, Sweden's director of public prosecutions. "Considering information available at present, my judgment is that the classification of the crime is rape."
She said more investigation is necessary before she can make a final decision.
An ongoing investigation about a separate charge of molestation will be extended, she added, but the charge will also be escalated to include a sexual component.
The molestation charge was previously equivalent to a non-sexual charge of harassment, but it will now come under the heading of sexual coercion and sexual molestation, which are both crimes, she said.
Assange's lawyer, Leif Silbersky, said he and his client were "very surprised" at the decisions.
"It's unbelievable," he told CNN. "We thought that this circus had ended. Now it's happening all over again."
Prosecutors questioned Assange for about an hour on Monday, though only about the complaint of molestation, Silbersky told CNN. He said police never mentioned the rape allegation during that questioning.
"He maintains that he is completely innocent," Silbersky said.
Silbersky said he has not been shown anything about the rape allegation and is not sure what the next step is.
Swedish authorities arrested Assange "in absentia" last month on charges of rape and molestation. The chief prosecutor later revoked the arrest warrant and dropped the rape charge. The charges came from two separate women.
The lawyer for both women appealed, asking for the rape charge to be reinstated and the molestation charge to be upgraded to include a sexual component.
Before he was questioned, Assange told CNN he had no idea what the case was about.
Assange told the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera August 22 the accusations are "clearly a smear campaign." The only question, he said, is who is behind it.
The allegations follow WikiLeaks' release last month of 76,000 pages of U.S. documents related to the war in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has criticized the leak, saying it would have a significant negative impact on troops and allies, revealing techniques and procedures. Assange has defended the leak, saying it can help shape the public's understanding of the war. He said the material was of no operational significance and that WikiLeaks tried to ensure the material did not put innocent people at risk.
The attorney for the alleged victims has told CNN that rumors of possible Pentagon or CIA involvement in the sex crime accusations against Assange are "complete nonsense." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(The Guardian)', '(CNN)', '(The New Zealand Herald)'] |
At a Palm Sunday mass in Saint Peter's Square, Rome, Pope Benedict XVI tells tens of thousands of people about the recent "petty gossip" he has been subjected to, thought to mean the child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, though he fails to directly mention the scandal. | Pope Benedict today risked inflaming opinion as he appeared to round on critics of the Catholic church over the widening sexual abuse scandal, saying he would not "be intimidated by ... petty gossip".
The 82-year-old pontiff led tens of thousands of people in a Palm Sunday service in St Peter's square. He did not mention the scandal engulfing the church directly, but parts of his sermon alluded to it.
The pope said that faith in God helped lead one "towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion".
He also spoke of how man can sometimes "fall to the lowest, vulgar levels" and "sink into the swamp of sin and dishonesty".
One prayer read during the mass asked God to help "the young and those who work to educate and protect them". Vatican Radio said it was intended to "sum up the feelings of the church at this difficult time when it confronts the plague of paedophilia".
In the face of one of the gravest scandals in the Catholic church's recent history, the Vatican has chosen to attack the media for what it called an "ignoble attempt" to smear Pope Benedict and his top advisers "at any cost".
The Vatican is facing a barrage of questions about the pope's handling of sex abuse cases both when he was archbishop of Munich and when he headed the Vatican's doctrinal office.
The then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the archbishop of Munich when a priest was allowed to resume pastoral work with children even while receiving therapy for paedophilia. He was subsequently convicted of abusing minors. In addition, a case has come to light in which Ratzinger's deputy at the Vatican doctrinal office told Wisconsin bishops to quash a church trial for a priest alleged to have abused up to 200 deaf boys.
The Vatican insists the pope was unaware of the Munich priest's move to the pastoral job and has defended its handling of the Wisconsin case.
Benedict has only spoken out publicly about the scandal in Ireland, writing a letter to the Irish faithful last week in which he chastised Irish bishops for leadership shortcomings and errors in judgment for failing to apply church law to stop abusive priests.
Yesterday, the Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, acknowledged that the way the church responded to the abuse scandal was "crucial for its moral credibility".
He noted that most of the cases that had come to light recently occurred decades ago. "But recognising them, and making amends to the victims, is the price of re-establishing justice and 'purifying memories' that will let us look with renewed commitment together with humility and trust in the future," Lombardi said in a statement on Vatican Radio.
The head of the German bishops' conference has said the Vatican was compiling information from various bishops' conferences around the world with the possible aim of setting out new guidelines for dealing with the problem.
Separately, a retired Italian cardinal and one-time candidate for the papacy said in comments published in the Austrian newspaper Die Presse that celibacy for priests should be reconsidered.
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a former archbishop of Milan considered one of the more liberal leaders of the church, was quoted as saying that mandatory chastity should be rethought to prevent further abuse cases by clergy and to help the church regain lost trust.
The Vatican has rejected suggestions that celibacy caused the abuse and the pope has reaffirmed it as a gift to God as recently as this month. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Observer)', '(National Post)'] |
The United States and Chile sign a nuclear accord. | The United States has signed a long-awaited nuclear accord with Chile despite growing misgivings about the safety of nuclear power in Chile. The Chilean government has stressed the deal was about training nuclear engineers and not building a reactor.
But it comes amid fears over a radiation leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan following last week's huge earthquake. Chile suffered its own devastating earthquake last year.
Many environmental groups in Chile have criticised the decision to invest more in nuclear energy as other countries are scaling back their nuclear plans. The deal was due to be signed by President Barack Obama in a high profile ceremony with his Chilean counterpart, Sebastian Pinera, on his visit to Chile early next week. But the agreement was signed behind closed doors by Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno and US ambassador to Chile Alejandro Wolff.
Mr Moreno reiterated that Chile is not able to produce nuclear energy.
"Chile is not in a condition to have nuclear energy and what has happened in Japan has done nothing more than underline that situation," he said.
But it comes after Chile signed a similar nuclear agreement with France last month. Environmental groups in Chile are concerned that the government appears to be pursuing a nuclear agenda despite moves elsewhere in the world to review nuclear plans. Earlier this week, Germany ordered its oldest nuclear plants to be shut down for urgent safety checks. The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, also announced he was suspending a nuclear deal with Russia following the disaster in Japan.
| Sign Agreement | March 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Usain Bolt triumphs in the 100m in Oslo in a time of 9.79 seconds. | Last updated on 7 June 20127 June 2012.From the section Olympics
Usain Bolt was pushed all the way in the 100m before powering home to take victory at the Diamond League in Oslo in a time of 9.79 seconds.
The world record holder finished clear of Asafa Powell, who came second in 9.85 seconds, his best time of 2012.
Team GB's Marlon Devonish finished sixth but Mark Lewis-Francis was disqualified following a false start.
Jessica Ennis, who was taking part in the 100m hurdles, also missed out after false-starting.
The men's 100m was the race everyone was waiting for and it did not disappoint.
Jamaican Powell has history in Oslo after setting the stadium record of 9.72 seconds two years ago. Neither he nor Bolt could emulate that time but Powell did enjoy his best time of the year so far, as the compatriots head into form at the right time.
Powell started the better, as he burst out of the blocks and must have thought, for a split second at least, he had got the better of his countryman, only for Bolt to power through to pip him at the post.
Such was his surge at the end, his momentum almost saw a flower girl sent flying but, still beaming from victory, the Jamaican showed some neat footwork to keep the girl on her feet.
It was a night of mixed emotions for the Britons in action with Lewis-Francis and Ennis disqualified.
Ennis, who was making a rare appearance at the Diamond League, qualified for the final of the 100m hurdles in third place, behind world champion Sally Pearson.
But as she lined up for the final she was too eager to get out of the blocks and was shown a red card.
The race got under way without the heptathlete and as expected Australia's Pearson won in some style, with a time of 12.49 seconds, with Great Britain's Tiffany Porter in third place.
Britain's world 400m hurdles champion Dai Greene was making his first Diamond League appearance of the season and admitted he struggled to keep the pace set by winner Javier Culson. The Puerto Rican cruised to victory in a time of 47.82 seconds, with Greene in fourth with 48.98.
"I think I went off too fast for where my fitness levels are at the moment," said a disappointed Greene, who has been suffering with a virus.
Nicola Sanders was another who was left disappointed after she came eighth in the women's 400m, some three seconds behind Botswana's Amantel Montsho who made easy work of the field in a time of 49.68.
"I'm really disappointed," said the 29-year-old Brit. "I felt really good in warm-up. It's a shocking time, just wasn't good enough." Abi Oyepitan finished second in the women's 200m behind Murielle Ahoure, who ran the fifth fastest time in the world this year.
Oyepitan also competed in the 100m but finished in last place, in a time of 11.70. Fellow Brit Montell Douglas finished fifth, while Norwegian Ezinne Okparaebo took first place on home turf. There was better news in the 800m where Britain took first and second place.
Gareth Warburton set a new Welsh record as he won the race in one minute 44.98 seconds, which is also an Olympic 'A' standard. Guy Learmonth came second, with a personal best of 1:47.14. | Sports Competition | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls for North Korea to follow Vietnam's path in overcoming past hostilities with the United States. | Appeal comes after Pyongyang accused US of ‘gangster-like behavior’ over demands for denuclearization Last modified on Thu 7 Jan 2021 00.01 GMT
Mike Pompeo has appealed for North Korea’s leadership to follow Vietnam’s path in overcoming past hostilities with the United States following Pyongyang’s blistering rebuke of his efforts to forge a denuclearisation deal. The US secretary of state called on the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to replicate Vietnam’s “miracle” of economic growth by improving ties with the US, vowing that America keeps its promises with former foes.
His comments follow a statement issued by Pyongyang on Saturday, which made clear it had no intention of carrying out the comprehensive unilateral disarmament Donald Trump has claimed was the outcome of his 12 June summit in Singapore with Kim, and accusing the US of “gangster-like behavior” in its demands for denuclearisation.
The long, detailed statement from the North Korean foreign ministry gave an assessment of Friday and Saturday’s talks between US and North Korean delegations in Pyongyang, describing them as “regrettable”. The statement flatly contradicted the upbeat assessment from Pompeo, who headed the US delegation.
Speaking to members of the US-Vietnamese business community in Hanoi on Sunday, Pompeo appeared undeterred, and said Vietnam’s experience since the normalisation of relations with the US in 1995 should be proof for North Korea that prosperity and partnership with the US is possible after decades of conflict and mistrust. “The fact that we are cooperating – and not fighting – is proof that when a country decides to create a brighter future for itself alongside the United States, we follow through on American promises,” he said, repeating Trump’s pledge to help improve North Korea’s economy and provide it with security assurances in return for Kim giving up nuclear weapons. “In light of the once-unimaginable prosperity and partnership we have with Vietnam today, I have a message for Chairman Kim Jong-un: President Trump believes your country can replicate this path.
“It’s yours if you’ll you seize the moment. This miracle can be yours. It can be your miracle in North Korea as well,” Pompeo said.
Earlier on Sunday during a brief stop in Tokyo, Pompeo had downplayed North Korea’s accusations. After meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo, Pompeo said his two days of talks in Pyongyang had produced results. But he also said that sanctions would remain until Pyongyang gets rid of its nuclear weapons.
“If those requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster,” Pompeo said, noting that numerous UN security council resolutions have demanded that the North rid itself of nuclear weapons and end its ballistic missile program.
Asked how he could think the North Koreans had been negotiating in good faith, Pompeo replied: “Because they were.”
The North Korean foreign ministry statement, by contrast, adopted a wounded tone, saying hopes of progress raised by the Singapore summit between Kim and Trump, had been dashed by the one-sided approach taken by Pompeo’s delegation.
In particular, the statement to took the Americans to task for insisting on complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament (CVID).
“The US side came up only with its unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearisation just calling for CVID, declaration and verification, all of which run counter to the spirit of the Singapore summit meeting and talks,” the statement said.
While rebuffing the US approach to talks, however, the regime also laid out its most detailed negotiating position to date, suggesting confidence-building measures each side could take, including a proposal to freeze production of intercontinental ballistic missiles and a call for a formal declaration ending the Korean war.
It said Pyongyang would dismantle a “high thrust engine” testing site as a concrete measure towards “the suspension of ICBM production as part of denuclearisation steps” while making a start of “working level talks” on repatriation of remains.
In return the US would make “public a declaration on the end of war” on the 65th anniversary of the Korean war armistice, which falls on 27 July.
If the talks on such confidence-building measures failed, the North Korean statement warned “this will finally make each side seek for another choice and there is no guarantee that this will not result into yet another tragedy”.
Pompeo sought to dispel suggestions that the Trump administration has backed down from demanding the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North’s nuclear weapons. He said North Korea understood that denuclearisation must be “fully verified” and “final”.
The talks, however, appeared to have exposed a wide gap between the way the Trump administration and Pyongyang interpreted the outcome of the Singapore summit. In a joint statement with Trump, Kim committed his regime to move towards “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
Trump took it to mean total and unilateral nuclear disarmament. He returned to the US claiming North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat”. Last week in Montana, he told a crowd: “But we signed a wonderful paper saying they’re going to denuclearise their whole thing. It’s going to all happen.”
However, since 1992, the regime has used the phrase, “complete denuclearisation” to mean a drawn-out, phased process of mutual demilitarisation of the peninsula.
In Singapore, Trump and Kim also agreed verbally on mutual confidence-building measures, in which Trump would suspend military exercises with South Korea, while Kim would dismantle a missile engine testing site and repatriate the remains of some US soldiers killed in the Korean war.
Trump immediately ordered the suspension of what he called US-South Korea “war games”, dismissing them as too expensive. However, three weeks after the summit, Pyongyang has yet to deliver on its side of the bargain – destroying the test site and sending back the soldiers’ remains.
It remains unclear how Trump will respond to the withering North Korean rhetoric. So far he has ignored suggestions that he achieved little of substance in Singapore.
“[Pyongyang] made some threats but it’s clear they’re not walking away from talks because they basically appealed to Trump,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior research fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul. “The [North Korean] reaction just shows that these negotiations will be a very long and complicated process before we get to an even more difficult process of actual denuclearisation.” | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake strikes off Atka Island, southwest Alaska. There are no reports of a tsunami. | A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 has struck off Atka Island in the Andreanof Islands, which are part of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska, seismologists say. No tsunami alerts have been issued. (more) The earthquake, which struck at 9:06 a.m. local time on Saturday, was centered about 51 miles (82 km) south of Atka, which is a small town located on the eastern side of Atka Island. It struck about 19.9 miles (32 km) deep, making it a shallow earthquake.
The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake was not strong enough to generate a tsunami, and no tsunami alerts have been issued, though the earthquake was likely felt on islands across the region.
The tsunami warning center initially measured the earthquake at 6.4, but the United States Geological Survey (USGS) later downgraded the magnitude to 6.3.
Other details about Saturday's earthquake were not immediately available, and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the sparsely-populated region. | Earthquakes | March 2016 | ['(BNO News)'] |
At least 45 people are killed and another 34 hospitalized following heavy rains and flash floods in the northwestern Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. | PESHAWAR/MUZAFFARABAD: At least 45 people were killed and more than 30 injured as heavy rains inundated various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir on Sunday, government officials said. KP government spokesman Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani confirmed 37 casualties in the province and said "most of the damage was caused by land sliding and incidents of roof collapse".
Deputy Commissioner Neelam District Abdul Majeed Kiyani said that rescue teams recovered eight bodies buried under the rubble.
See more: Rains, flash floods cause havoc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
“Rescue officials, with the help of locals, recovered five women and three children buried under the rubble,” said Kiyani.
Ghani said that KP government has initiated relief work and the government machinery is working round the clock to carry out rescue and relief activities.
The worst-hit area was Kohistan where 12 deaths were reported, followed by Shangla district where rains and landslides killed 10 people, The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) official said.
Two people died in Swat while one person each in Malakand, Mansehra, Upper Dir, Charsadda and Chitral. The district administration reported 16 injuries, the PDMA said, adding that the authority is in constant contact with district administrations and is exercising vigilance regarding the situation.
Rainfall and flooding in the Peshawar valley caused the Bara Khowar lake to overflow. Over 70 shops near the Batta Thal Pull were washed away, while several others were partially damaged. A number of homes, crops and orchards were also destroyed in the province as a result of rainfall and flooding. | Floods | April 2016 | ['(Dawn)', '(AP)'] |
John Terry is found not guilty of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. | The former captain of the England football team, John Terry, has been found not guilty of racially abusing the QPR defender Anton Ferdinand during a vigorous exchange of insults in a match last year.
At the end of a four-day trial, the chief magistrate, Howard Riddle, cleared the 31-year-old Chelsea captain of a racially aggravated public order offence.
Terry left the court shortly after the verdict, making no comment. He was cheered by a small group of Chelsea supporters. Speaking outside the court, his lawyer, Dan Morrison, said: "[John Terry] did not racially abuse Mr Ferdinand and the court has accepted this.
"John would like to thank his legal team for their hard work and his family, friends and Chelsea Football Club for their support."
The Chelsea chairman, Bruce Buck, said: "We are pleased that John can now put his mind to football and go back to training and do what he's done for many years."
Ferdinand's parents, who had attended every day of the trial, made no comment.
The trial focused on words spoken by the centre-back during a heated altercation with Ferdinand, 27, after a penalty appeal.
In his verdict, Riddle said there was "no doubt" that Terry had uttered the words "fucking black cunt" during the final stages of the match at Loftus Road last autumn. He had done so in anger, he said.
But it was "impossible to be sure" both of what Terry said and what Ferdinand had said to him.
Riddle concluded: "It is therefore possible that what he [Terry] said was not intended as an insult, but rather as a challenge to what he believed had been said to him. In those circumstances, there being a doubt, the only verdict the court can record is one of not guilty."
Defending the decision to bring the case to court, Alison Saunders, the chief crown prosecutor for London, said: "The very serious allegation at the heart of this case was one of racial abuse. It was our view that this was not 'banter' on the football pitch and that the allegation should be judged by a court. The chief magistrate agreed that Mr Terry had a case to answer, but having heard all of the evidence he acquitted Mr Terry of a racially aggravated offence. That is justice being done and we respect the chief magistrate's decision."
But fans criticised the fact that the trial had taken place. "What a waste of time. What a waste of taxpayers' money. The case should never have been brought," David Johnson of the Chelsea fanzine CFCUK told the BBC.
Lord Ouseley, chair of the Kick It Out campaign against racism in football, said it would now see if the Football Association would investigate the allegations. "Kick It Out notes the decision reached and now awaits the pronouncements from the Football Association to any subsequent investigation into the matter. It will be interesting to hear from other organisations this will impact on, from governing bodies to leagues and clubs, and how they deem matters like this to be dealt with in the future," he said.
Footage of the exchange in the 84th minute of the match on 23 October last year was seen by more than 2 million Sky viewers, and uploaded to YouTube.
Unbroadcast video taken for Chelsea FC training purposes was also examined as part of the case.
During the crucial eight seconds that cameras were on Terry, his mouth is obscured at times by his Chelsea team-mate John Obi Mikel. The prosecution alleged Terry used the words "Fuck off, fuck off", "yeah, yeah", "and", "you fucking black cunt, fucking knobhead".
The prosecutor Duncan Penny suggested this was Terry responding to a "slow fist pump" gesture by Ferdinand, relating to an alleged affair between Terry and the ex-girlfriend of Terry's former team-mate Wayne Bridge, Vanessa Perroncel. Penny told Riddle the "and" could have been Terry saying "and yours", referring to Ferdinand's girlfriend.
Terry had "snapped", when his "blood was up" after being "goaded" by Ferdinand over the alleged affair, Penny had argued.
George Carter-Stephenson QC, for Terry, said the words were uttered because Terry was repeating "by way of sarcastic exclamation" an accusation he perceived Ferdinand had made on the pitch to him that he had called the QPR player "a black cunt".
Ferdinand denied saying that on the pitch to Terry. His account was: "He called me a cunt, and I called him a cunt back. And he gave me a gesture as if to say my breath smelled. I said to him: "How can you call me a cunt? You shagged your team-mate's missus, you're a cunt."
The case was unusual in that the chief prosecution witness, Ferdinand, had not himself complained of racial abuse. Police proceedings were initiated as a result of a single complaint made by an off-duty police officer watching the game on television. The prosecution said it was "straightforward racial abuse" and the words had been uttered by way of insult. Ferdinand had not heard the words spoken by Terry, and only saw footage about one hour after the game, at 7pm in the QPR players' lounge when his then girlfriend showed him a YouTube video that had been posted. Even then, despite telling the court he would have been "livid" if he had heard it on the pitch, he did nothing.
The remarks were "very hurtful", he said, though he believed the matter should have been handled by the Football Association.
Ashley Cole, Terry's Chelsea and England team-mate, said he believed the case should never have come to court. "I think we shouldn't be sitting here," he said, in the witness box.
Cole was called as a "reluctant" witness, and admitted the case had caused him conflict. He said he was a close friend of Terry's, but also close to Ferdinand's brother, Rio, and had known the Ferdinand family "for a long time". He said he had not clearly heard comments made by Ferdinand, but believed he saw him say "Bridgey or black".
The 31-year-old left-back told the court that, during the final few minutes of the game, which QPR won 1-0, Terry had spoken to him about Ferdinand. "He said: 'He thinks I'm being racist', or something along them lines."
The defence said nobody on the pitch had heard Terry's words, and he was the only witness to what he had said. Neither was there footage of what Ferdinand had said. It was possible, the defence said, that Terry had misinterpreted Ferdinand saying "Bridge" or "black", or he had heard a voice in the crowd say "black" simultaneously with Ferdinand moving his lips.
After the game, Terry asked Ferdinand to the Chelsea dressing room. Terry said he asked him: "'What happened out there, geez? Was you accusing me of calling you a black cunt?' – my exact words – and he said: 'No, not at all.'" Terry then said "good" and the two agreed it was "just handbags, innit".
The timing of the dressing room meeting was a crucial part of the case. Ferdinand believed it to have been 45 minutes after the whistle. Terry thought 15 minutes, just enough time for him to have a quick shower and "do my hair". Cole estimated it to be between 25-30 minutes. It was crucial because of the suggestion that Terry may have seen the YouTube footage before calling in Ferdinand to "smooth it over" and "put it to bed".
Evidence from the driver of the Chelsea team coach seemed to put the time of the team leaving at around 6.30pm. The defence dismissed the YouTube evidence, saying it was not possible to determine when exactly the video would have been available to view.
During an FA interview five days after the match, Terry agreed: "If you watch the video and me, watching the video, you can quite easily say that that doesn't look good." But, he said, it had to be viewed "in the context of what I thought Anton accused me of".
At his trial Terry stressed he had issued his statement, giving his version of events, before seeing any footage "because I had nothing to hide" and he knew "there was nothing out there that would show that I had done anything wrong". As to "snapping", it was "almost two years on" [after the affair allegation] "and I'd heard it a million times before", said Terry, who was "shocked and angry" at what he believed Ferdinand had accused him of.
At times, it was difficult to remember who was on trial. Ferdinand's parents, Janice Lavender and Julian Ferdinand, sat in the public gallery as Carter-Stephenson attacked their son's testimony, claiming: "Ferdinand is fundamentally unreliable in terms of conversations and events".
Reminding the court Ferdinand "did not wish to be here", Penny said the case would "follow him for the rest of his career". What was in it for him? Penny asked. "You may wish to ask the question whether he was brave in choosing to give evidence". | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2012 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Romania and Georgia report their first cases. | BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania confirmed its first case of coronavirus in a man from the southern county of Gorj on Wednesday, Health Minister Victor Costache said.
The man had been in direct contact with an Italian citizen who traveled to Romania earlier this month, Costache told reporters. He is in a good condition and will be transferred to a Bucharest infectious hospital.
Costache said all seven members of the mans family tested negative.
The coronavirus outbreak has already killed more than 2,700 people, most of them in China, and spread to about 29 other countries, according to a Reuters tally. The number of confirmed cases has risen above 80,000.
Europes biggest outbreak is in Italy, which has reported more than 400 cases, while the death toll there has risen to 12 since last Friday. There are around 1.3 million Romanians living and working in Italy.
| Disease Outbreaks | February 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(Reuters)'] |
Hundreds of people demonstrate in Malawi against a pension bill that would raise the retirement age of women to 55, and 60 for men. | Hundreds of workers have marched in the Malawi capital, Lilongwe, against a bill which seeks to set the retirement age at 55 for women and 60 for men.
If passed, it would become compulsory for workers to have a pension fund.
But unions say the fund would not benefit Malawians, who have an average life expectancy of about 50.
The Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) wants pensions to be paid at 45 or after a set number of years employment at a company. Some 300 workers marched to parliament to hand over a petition demanding changes to the current bill. "If someone has been working for a company for 20 years they should be able to access their pension," the union's general-secretary Robert Mkwezalamba told the BBC's Network Africa.
But Labour Minister Yunus Mussa says the pension package is mainly aimed at instilling a culture of saving among Malawians. "Right now people work for years and they only get a token of appreciation - a radio, a blanket or bicycle. We are saying people should contribute to that so that when they retire they do not suffer."
Mr Mussa dismissed the union's claims that no one would benefit from the scheme. "It will be a law and everybody should comply… those people who do not comply will face heavy penalties." "There are people in Malawi older than 50, 70. They are still productive citizens of the country," he said.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(African Press Agency)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
The mass annual vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests at Victoria Park, Hong Kong, is banned by the city police for the first time, citing concerns of local COVID-19 transmissions. Local commemorations are held across the city. | Hong Kong will on Thursday lead global remembrance of China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown, with people lighting candles in neighbourhoods across the restless city after authorities banned a mass vigil because of the coronavirus.
Open discussion of the brutal suppression is forbidden inside China, where hundreds – by some estimates more than a thousand – died when the Communist Party sent tanks on June 4, 1989 to crush a student-led demonstration in Beijing calling for democratic reforms.
But Hong Kongers have kept memories alive for the last three decades by holding a huge annual vigil in a park, the only place inside China were such mass displays of remembrance are possible.
This year’s vigil was forbidden on public health grounds with restrictions placed on more than eight people gathering in public, to combat the coronavirus.
Organisers have instead called for residents to light candles at 8:00 pm (1200 GMT) wherever they happen to be.
“If we are not allowed to light a candle at a rally, we will let the candles be lit across the city,” Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of vigil organisers Hong Kong Alliance, told reporters.
Crowds have swelled at Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigils whenever fears spike that Beijing is prematurely stamping out the semi-autonomous city’s own cherished freedoms, an issue that has dominated the finance hub for the last 12 months.
The business hub was engulfed by seven straight months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests last year – rallies that kicked off five days after the last annual vigil.
In response to those protests last month Beijing announced plans to introduce a sweeping national security law covering secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and foreign interference.
China says the law – which will bypass Hong Kong’s legislature – is needed to tackle “terrorism” and “separatism” in a restless city it now regards as a direct national security threat.
But opponents, including many Western nations, fear it will bring mainland-style political oppression to a business hub that was supposedly guaranteed freedoms and autonomy for 50 years after its 1997 handover to China from Britain.
Hong Kong’s lawmakers are also expected to sign off on another controversial law on Thursday — one punishing insults towards China’s national anthem with up to three years in jail.
With the Victoria Park vigil banned, Hong Kongers are organising locally and getting creative.
“We are expecting white candles to be distributed at 100 to 200 spots across Hong Kong,” Chiu Yan-loy, a district councillor and alliance member told AFP.
Online groups have sent out maps and lists of more than a dozen districts calling for people to gather for small vigils.
Seven Catholic churches have also announced plans to host a commemorative mass on Thursday evening.
Riot police have moved swiftly against protests forming in recent weeks, citing the coronavirus measures.
Vigils are also planned in neighbouring Taiwan and among the Chinese diaspora in many western countries.
But in mainland China, Tiananmen is greeted by an information blackout, with censors scrubbing mentions of protests and dissidents often visited by police in the days leading up to June 4.
The candle emoji has been unavailable in recent days on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.
On Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry described calls by Taiwan for Beijing to apologise for the crackdown as “complete nonsense”.
“The great achievements since the founding of new China over the past 70 or so years fully demonstrates that the developmental path China has chosen is completely correct,” spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters. | Government Policy Changes | June 2020 | ['(Hong Kong Free Press)'] |
The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5–4 vote, rules law enforcement are required to obtain a search warrant to gather location data from cell phone companies. | On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in a five-to-four decision that law enforcement generally must obtain a warrant to gather cellphone location data from network providers. In an age where virtually everyone is carrying a location-tracking device, the decision is a huge win for privacy advocates.
The case of Carpenter v. United States was expected to set new standards for the application of the Third Party Doctrine, a precedent set in the ‘70s and ‘80s that maintains a suspect gives up their expectation of privacy if they share information with a third party. When it comes to the location data an individual shares with a telecom, the ACLU argued that police should have to go through the usual standards of demonstrating probable cause when getting a warrant to collect location data. Nathaniel Wessler, a staff attorney for the ACLU, told Gizmodo last November, “The court four decades ago could not possibly have imagined the world we live in today, where it’s really impossible to go through our daily lives without records of our most private activities being saved on the servers of companies we have relationships with.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion in which he insisted today’s decision is narrow. “We hold only that a warrant is required in the rare case where the suspect has a legitimate privacy interest in records held by a third party,” he wrote. Roberts specifically said the ruling does not weigh-in on the legality of real-time cell site location information (CSLI) or “a download of information on all the devices that connected to a particular cell site during a particular.”
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All the court is saying today is that in the case of obtaining location records from a cellphone company, police will need to demonstrate probable cause. Previously, the Stored Communications Act set the precedent that law enforcement need only go to court and demonstrate “specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe” what could be found in the records might be relevant and material to a criminal investigation. Probable cause carries more strict and codified standards in its application. The court did give the exception that a warrant does not necessarily have to be obtained in cases in which there could be an immediate threat or danger to life.
The case began with a man named Timothy Ivory Carpenter who was sentenced to 116 years in prison for his role in a string of robberies at various RadioShack stores in Michigan and Ohio. Police had witnesses and surveillance footage placing Carpenter at the locations at which the robberies took place, but they also used 186 pages of documents obtained from cell carrier that outlined his call history and location data. The records comprised data over the course of 127 days and included unrelated information about Carpenter’s movements including where he slept at night and how often he attended church.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “because location information is continually logged for all of the 400 million devices in the United States—not just those belonging to persons who might happen to come under investigation— this newfound tracking capacity runs against everyone.” The Justice worried that “police need not even know in advance whether they want to follow a particular individual, or when,” and argued this violated the Fourth Amendment’s privacy protections. “Only the few without cell phones could escape this tireless and absolute surveillance,” the Justice said.
There’s still reason to believe that further debate on the issue will be hashed out in the courts. Roberts’ pronouncement that the court holds only that “a warrant is required in the rare case where the suspect has a legitimate privacy interest in records held by a third party,” is vague enough that it could be contentious.
The ACLU appears to be more than pleased with the ruling. In a press release it quoted Harold Gurewitz, an attorney who worked alongside the civil liberties organization on the Carpenter case, as saying, “The court’s decision is a vindication of the arguments we have persistently made on behalf of Timothy Carpenter throughout this litigation — that the Constitution’s privacy protections fully apply to the digital location data created by using cell phones.” | Government Policy Changes | June 2018 | ['(Gizmodo)'] |
At least 75 people are killed in flash floods in eastern Indonesia. | TELUK WONDAMA (Indonesia) - A navy warship arrived in a remote corner of eastern Indonesia carrying tents and medical supplies on Wednesday after flash floods and mudslides tore through mountainside villages, killing at least 75 people and leaving thousands homeless. The disaster in West Papua province - triggered by days of torrential downpours - submerged hundreds of houses in thigh-high water and destroyed roads and bridges, hampering already difficult rescue efforts. Worst hit was the village of Wasior, where a landslide early on Monday was followed minutes later by a river that burst its banks, sweeping away residents in a fast-moving deluge of water, heavy logs and debris. 'Many people didn't have time to save themselves,' stammered Ira Wanoni, adding that at least 30 homes were completely flattened. The death toll continued to spiral even as rescue efforts picked up steam with the arrival of security forces, together with 13 tons of supplies, from tents and sleeping mats to instant noodles and clean water. 'We hope this is enough for now,' said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency. -- AP | Floods | October 2010 | ['(Straits Times)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Morelia Bomb Attacks: Eight people are killed and 100 injured in a presumed terrorist attack at El Grito Independence Day celebrations in the main square of Morelia, Michoacán. | At least seven people were killed and more than 70 hurt when blasts tore through crowds celebrating independence day, Mexican authorities have said.
The explosions happened shortly before midnight, as people gathered in the centre of the western city of Morelia.
Local media reports suggest they may have been caused by grenades.
The city is the capital of Michoacan, a state hit by a wave of drug gang violence in recent years. It is not known who was behind Monday's blasts.
The governor of Michocoan, Leonel Godoy, said "organised crime" - a term often used by Mexican officials to denote drug cartels - was behind the latest attack.
Drug-related violence in Mexico has claimed the lives of more than 2,700 people so far this year.
"Without doubt we are faced with a terrorist attack," the governor added.
Shoot-out
The explosions went off in the main square of Morelia as the crowds celebrated the beginning of the traditional re-enactment of Mexico's cry for independence, known as El Grito, or The Shout.
"The dead and wounded... were the poorest people, who have no other form of entertainment," Reuters news agency quoted Mr Godoy as saying.
Dozens of police officers were involved in a shoot-out after chasing suspects near the scene, the local El Sol de Morelia newspaper reported.
It said soldiers were deployed to control routes in and out of the city, which lies some 250km (155 miles) west of the capital, Mexico City.
President Felipe Calderon's office said in a statement that it condemned the violence "in the strongest terms" and would redouble its efforts to support the state and its investigation.
Mr Calderon, whose home state is Michoacan, had taken part in independence day celebrations with tens of thousands of people in Mexico City's central Zocalo square. | Armed Conflict | September 2008 | ['(BBC News)', '(El Universal)'] |
The United Kingdom opens all combat roles in the British Armed Forces, including special forces, to women for the first time. | LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Britain will open all combat roles to women - including elite units and special forces - in a landmark for gender equality in the military, the government said on Thursday.
“For the first time in its history, our armed forces will be determined by ability alone and not gender,” defense minister Gavin Williamson said in a statement.
Women already serve in combat roles for the armed forces of a few developed nations, including the United States, Canada and Israel.
Britain lifted a ban on women serving on the frontline in 2016, but some fighting roles stayed out of reach, the ministry said. Now all jobs, including the elite Royal Marines and the Special Air Service (SAS) would be up for grabs, it added.
“Opening all combat roles to women will not only make the armed forces a more modern employer, but will ensure we recruit the right person for the right role,” Williamson said.
| Government Policy Changes | October 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Panathinaikos BC beats Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. 78-70 in Barcelona to claim their sixth Euroleague Basketball championship. | BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Panathinaikos won the Euroleague basketball final Sunday, beating Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 78-70 behind 16 points and nine assists from Dimitris Diamantidis.
This was the sixth European title and third in five years for the Greek club. Italy's Montepaschi Siena beat Real Madrid 80-62 for third place.
Former Arizona State center Mike Batiste, who also won the title with Panathinaikos in 2007 and '09, scored 18 points and Drew Nicholas added 14. Maccabi's Chuck Eidson had 17.
The Israelis were within three points at halftime, but their outside shooting faltered in the second half when it made just 1-of-9 from beyond the arc. Panathinaikos used a strong third quarter to build a double-digit lead, then withstood a late run from Maccabi.
"I think we played well and all that matters is that we managed to win it in the end," Diamantidis said. "This is why you practice hard and why you play basketball."
Lior Eliyahu pulled Maccabi within five points with 1:20 to play before Diamantidis found Batiste for a layup. The Greeks then sealed the outcome from the foul line as thousands of green-clad Panathinaikos fans began to celebrate.
Diamantidis, the regular-season MVP, was also the MVP of the Final Four. The only others to win Final Four MVP awards more than once are Toni Kukoc (four) and Dejan Bodiroga (two). Diamantidis won the championship for the third time with the Greens.
"Every trophy you win is great," he said.
Panathinaikos joins CSKA Moscow at six titles, two behind leader Real Madrid. Coach Zeljko Obradovic won his eighth European crown and fourth with Panathinaikos.
The tip-off was moved up several hours to accommodate fans in Israel, which marked its Memorial Day on Sunday. The country largely comes to a standstill after sundown on the day it honors its fallen soldiers. Maccabi officials had said the team would not play while Israel paid respects.
More than 5,000 Maccabi fans traveled with the team to Barcelona, making up a sea of yellow shirts and flags across half the stands. | Sports Competition | May 2011 | ['(Sports Illustrated)'] |
Admiral William Fallon resigns as Commander of the U.S. Central Command due to reports in Esquire Magazine of disagreement with President George W. Bush over the administration's policy with Iran. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. commander for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars said on Tuesday he would quit after a magazine reported he was pushing President George W. Bush to avoid war with Iran.
Commander of the U.S. Central Command Navy Adm. William Fallon testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington March 4, 2008. REUTERS/Larry Downing
Adm. William “Fox” Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command headquarters responsible for the Middle East, insisted he did not disagree with the Bush administration over Iran but perceptions of a rift made it difficult for him to do his job.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates dismissed suggestions that Fallon’s departure made war with Iran more likely.
“The notion that this decision portends anything in terms of a change in Iran policy is ... ridiculous,” Gates said.
“Admiral Fallon reached this difficult decision entirely on his own,” Gates said at the Pentagon.
“I believe it was the right thing to do, even though I do not believe there are, in fact, significant differences between his views and administration policy.”
The Bush administration says its policy is to use diplomacy to resolve differences with Iran, particularly over Tehran’s nuclear program, but it will not rule out military action.
Washington and other Western nations say Iran is trying to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is to produce energy.
Fallon’s headquarters in Tampa, Florida, oversees U.S. operations in 27 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
The first Navy officer to serve as Central Command chief, 63-year-old Fallon has been in the post for just under a year. Gates accepted his request to retire at the end of the month.
Fallon is known as a tough, plain-speaking commander but also has a reputation for favoring dialogue. He pursued good relations with China when he headed U.S. Pacific Command.
Related Coverage
“BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE”
Titled “The Man Between War And Peace,” the Esquire article that led to his resignation described him as challenging the White House and urging restraint on Iran.
Fallon cooperated with the author during the article’s preparation but strongly criticized the story after it appeared, describing it as “poison pen stuff.”
Gates said the perception that Fallon was at odds with the administration was not linked just to the article.
“We have tried between us to put this misperception behind us over a period of months and, frankly, just have not been successful in doing so,” he said.
“I think this is a cumulative kind of thing.”
Fallon has also denied reports he has a testy relationship with Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Democrats in the U.S. Congress charged that Fallon’s departure was another sign the Bush administration did not tolerate military commanders who spoke their mind.
The Pentagon rejected that, saying Gates had encouraged openness since taking over from Donald Rumsfeld in December 2006.
Fallon’s deputy, Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, will run Central Command until a long-term successor is found, Gates said.
Fallon said in a statement: “Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the CENTCOM region.”
He said he had concluded that it “would be best to step aside and allow the Secretary and our military leaders to move beyond this distraction.”
Both Gates and Bush praised Fallon’s military service.
“Admiral William Fallon has served our nation with great distinction for forty years,” Bush said in a statement.
“During his tenure at CENTCOM, Admiral Fallon’s job has been to help ensure that America’s military forces are ready to meet the threats of an often troubled region of the world, and he deserves considerable credit for progress that has been made there, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Bush said. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Two trains collide in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India with at least 50 people feared dead. | A train crash in eastern India has killed at least 60 people and injured another 120, officials say. A speeding passenger express hit another train waiting at a station in the town of Sainthia, West Bengal state, early on Monday. The impact sent the roof of a coach into a footbridge above the tracks.
Residents climbed through the mangled trains looking for survivors. It was the second major railway accident in West Bengal this year.
In May, nearly 150 people died when a Bombay-bound passenger train derailed and was hit by a goods train. Police accused Maoist rebels of sabotaging the track, but Maoists denied the charge. The cause of the latest crash is not yet clear. A number of trapped passengers were freed from the wreckage by emergency workers using gas cutters and other tools. Local officials say the accident occurred at about 0200 local time on Monday (2030 GMT Sunday) when the Uttar Banga Express crashed into the stationary Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express at the station in the Birbhum district, about 200km (125 miles) north of Calcutta.
One witness described to the BBC his narrow escape.
"At the station my train was just about to pull out when I heard a big scream, 'There's going to be a crash,'" said the man.
"So I clung on to a bar by my feet. Then there was a massive bang. Most of the people in my carriage died in front of me."
Emergency officials said all the passengers trapped in the wreckage had been rescued and all the injured taken to hospitals.
Officials believe the trains were packed with commuters heading to work.
There is speculation that faulty signalling may have been the cause of the crash. A police investigation is now under way.
Accidents are common on the state-owned Indian railway, an immense network connecting every corner of the vast country. It operates 9,000 passenger trains and carries some 18 million passengers every day. | Train collisions | July 2010 | ['(Times of India)', '(AFP)', '(BBC)', '(Aljazeera)'] |
Indonesia evacuates thousands of people living near Mount Gamkonora as it appears likely to explode. | An official in Indonesia says Mount Gamkonora, in the east of the country, has started spitting out flaming rocks and sending showers of sparks into the air, indicating the volcano is likely to erupt.
Thousands of people living close to the volcano have been evacuated since it started sending out towering columns of ash and smoke on Saturday (local time).
Saut Simatupang, head of Indonesia's Vulcanological Survey says although less smoke and ash have been spotted today, flaming material started to appear on Tuesday evening, indicating magma was approaching the crater's surface.
"The volcano spit flaming rock as high as 15 metres ... this indicates magma is now close to the crater's surface," Mr Simatupang said.
The official says an eruption has become more likely.
"We may see lava spillages soon. An eruption is likely... However, pressure has lessened, so it won't be a massive one."
No casualties or damages have been reported, but authorities have placed the highest alert level on the forest-clad volcano since Sunday.
Kalbi Rasid, a local government spokesman, says some 8,600 people have already been moved away from the mountain's slopes into three government shelters, but about 1,000 remained to guard their houses.
"We have urged people to stay in shelters for another two days. There's less smoke, but it doesn't mean the volcano is safe," Mr Rasid said.
He says many of the displaced are suffering from breathing problems and diarrhoea.
The 1,635-metre volcano, about 2,400 kilometres east of the capital Jakarta in North Maluku province, is the highest peak on the island of Halmahera.
The last time ash and smoke streamed out of the volcano was in 1987, when no casualties were reported, although a major eruption is said to have taken place in 1673.
Indonesia has the highest number of active volcanoes of any country, sitting on a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity known as the "Pacific Ring of Fire".
-Reuters
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Volcano Eruption | July 2007 | ['(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
Sepp Blatter is to be elected unopposed as the Head of FIFA at its 61st Congress despite an ongoing bribery scandal and calls by the English Football Association to delay the election. |
With only a solitary name on the ballot paper, it was the kind of election that would do a banana republic proud.
And to the surprise of no one, Sepp Blatter triumphantly regained the crown of world football last night in a humiliating snub to England and Prince William.
Their attempt to derail Blatter’s re-election was overwhelmingly slapped down despite the corruption claims swirling around him.
Re-elected: Sepp Blatter rises his arms in celebration after the vote confirmed he will be Fifa's president for another four years
Hugs: Blatter is congratulated following the result by his daughter Corinne and granddaughter Selena
Delegates at Fifa’s congress in Zurich were presented with a blue ballot paper bearing only Blatter’s name for president. Yet they still took two hours to elect him winner of the one-horse race.
England’s misery was complete when Blatter’s victory was officially declared by Argentina’s delegate to the congress of world football’s governing body.
Earlier, he had branded England ‘pirates’ and revealed how he had told the team bidding to get England to host the 2018 World Cup that he would only support their bid if the Falkland Islands were handed to Argentina.
All smiles: Blatter smirks after his victory
Julio Grondona told delegates: ‘We always have attacks from England which are mostly lies with the support of journalism which is more busy lying than telling the truth. This upsets the Fifa family.’
Of the 206 football associations who took part in the ballot, 186 voted for Blatter, with three papers spoiled and 17 associations abstaining.
Congratulations: A member of the congress shakes hands with Mr Blatter following his re-election to the post
One horse race: An usher shows off the ballot paper for the election - which only had Mr Blatter's name on it
Clutching a bouquet, the rotund 75-year-old Swiss took to the stage to accept the result and told the congress: ‘I thank you for your trust and confidence. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
‘Together we will have four years, provided the Lord gives me life, the energy and the force to continue on our path and to do our job.’
A good read: Mr Blatter holds a copy of Fifa's Code of Ethics
Blatter likened himself to a ship’s captain ‘weathering the storm’ and admitted: ‘We have made mistakes and we will learn from this. 'We are going to put Fifa’s ship back on the right course, in clear, transparent waters.’
The ballot went ahead after England lost a principled attempt to have the election postponed. Football Association chairman David Bernstein – with backing from FA president Prince William and David Cameron – had called on the congress to abort the vote until a corruption-free candidate could be found.
Speaking from the heart: Mr Blatter delivering a speech during the Fifa congress
But the world’s football associations overwhelmingly rejected the FA’s proposal by 178 votes to 17, with even Wales and Northern Ireland snubbing it, though the Scottish FA gave its support. The humiliation continued with the leaders of associations from Haiti, the Congo, Benin, Fiji and Cyprus all speaking out against England’s ‘lies’.
In a speech before his coronation, Blatter piled insult on injury to England’s failed bid last year to host the World Cup by belatedly vowing, if elected, to fix the corrupt voting system over which he has presided. But his promise to reform comes too late for England, which lost out to Russia on hosting the 2018 tournament.
England’s bid team – headed by Prince William, the Prime Minister and football star David Beckham – was humiliated last December by winning only two votes amid suspicions that other nations may have been willing to engage in bribery.
The prince remains ‘bitterly disappointed’ by the rejection and last night Mr Cameron backed him by joining calls for reform.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘The most important thing in all of this is that the public have confidence in Fifa and, in order for that to happen, we need Fifa to reform. Fifa needs to get its house in order.’
Blatter declared that in future, World Cup host countries would be chosen differently. The overhaul would mean that instead of a vote of 24 executive members – nine of whom are presently mired in corruption claims – there would be a ballot of the 208 football associations.
At the World Cup vote: Prince William with David Beckham and David Cameron. He backed calls for Fifa to postpone the election
Earlier this week it was alleged that 25 Caribbean officials were each offered a $40,000 (£24,000) bribe three weeks ago to vote for Mohamed Bin Hammam from Qatar in Fifa’s presidential election.
Bin Hammam, Blatter’s only challenger, withdrew his candidacy hours before he was suspended by Fifa’s ethics committee over the bribery allegations along with another executive committee member, Jack Warner of Trinidad, and two other Caribbean officials.
Handed back: The cash which fell out of an envelope marked 'Bahamas'
At the same time, an email was revealed in which Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke hinted that Qatar had ‘bought’ the right to stage the 2022 World Cup.
The bungs scandal has damaged trust in the World Cup, but Blatter only responded when big-money sponsors Coca Cola, Adidas and Visa voiced ‘distress’ at the claims.
Last night, FA chief Mr Bernstein said: ‘While we did not succeed in deferring the Fifa presidential election, we are confident the FA has played a significant role as a catalyst for change in the way World Cup hosts will be selected in the future.’
Fifa; Mohamed Bin Hammam (left) and Jack Warner (right) have both been suspended after the bribery claims emerged
| Government Job change - Election | June 2011 | ['(The New York Times)', '(Daily Mail)', '(The Guardian)', '(BBC Sport)'] |
Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast, is acquitted of crimes against humanity charges by the International Criminal Court. | He had been charged with crimes against humanity in connection with violence following a disputed 2010 election that left 3,000 dead and 500,000 displaced.
Mr Gbagbo was captured in 2011 in a presidential palace bunker by UN and French-backed forces supporting his rival, Alassane Ouattara.
He was the first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
The violence in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, came after Mr Gbagbo refused to accept that he had lost a disputed election run-off to Mr Ouattara in 2010.
The five months of violence that followed were described as some of the most brutal clashes the country had ever seen. During the political stand-off there were bloody clashes and targeted killings in Abidjan in the south, and several hundred were massacred in the western town of Duekoue.
Prosecutors said Mr Gbagbo clung to power "by all means" and charged him with four counts of crimes against humanity, murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and "other inhuman acts". He denied the charges, which he said were politically motivated.
ICC judges ruled on Tuesday that he had no case to answer and ordered his immediate release.
Prosecutors had failed to demonstrate "the existence of a 'common plan' to keep Mr Gbagbo in power" which included crimes against civilians, or a "policy to attack a civilian population", the ICC said. Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said the prosecution had also "failed to demonstrate that public speeches by Gbagbo constituted ordering or inducing the alleged crimes".
Prosecutors can appeal after the court files its decision in writing. Mr Gbagbo's supporters whooped, cheered and threw their firsts in the air in the public gallery following the announcement, the BBC's Anna Holligan reports from the court.
One of his supporters, Gragbayou Yves, who had travelled to the court from Paris, told AFP news agency: "I am very, very happy. Finally there is some justice."
However, victims of the violence are opposed to his release.
"If Laurent Gbagbo is released, we victims will not see justice," Karim Coulibaly, who was shot in the violence and had to have his arm amputated, told AFP earlier.
"I was a driver but now I am unemployed. I'm not against reconciliation but first you have to look after the victims."
Paolina Massidda, a lawyer representing the victims said she "deeply regrets" the decision.
"The victims participated in this trial in the hope that an impartial tribunal could one day give them justice. That hope is today in vain," she added. "Whenever a case involving mass atrocities essentially collapses at the ICC, it does damage to the perception of the court as a credible and effective institution of international justice," Mark Kersten, author of Justice in Conflict, told the BBC's Anna Holligan.
"Many are concerned that the court is emerging as an institution where only rebels can be successfully prosecuted," he added.
The prosecution at the ICC has also failed in its attempts to build successful cases against former DR Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On the other hand, the ruling demonstrates the judges' independence and impartiality and makes it harder to push the narrative, popular among those who fear the long arm of the ICC, that the court is a biased weapon of neo-colonial justice used purely to convict African leaders, our correspondent says. Janet Anderson, a writer for the Justice Tribune, told the BBC: "It's important also to find people not guilty or to find there isn't a case to answer if there isn't one."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | January 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Rebekah Brooks resigns as chief executive of News International as a result of the News International phone hacking scandal. | News International chief Rebekah Brooks resigned Friday morning amidst the ongoing controversy over phone hacking and allegations of police bribery at former British tabloid News of the World.
AP - Rebekah Brooks, a loyal lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch, resigned Friday as chief executive of his embattled British newspapers, becoming the biggest casualty so far in the phone hacking scandal at a now-defunct Sunday tabloid.
That allegation last week provoked outrage far beyond previous revelations of snooping on celebrities, politicians and top athletes, knocking billions off the value of News Corp.
He said News Corp. had set up an independent Management & Standards Committee to establish and enforce clear standards of operation.
James Murdoch praised Brooks as “one of the outstanding editors of her generation and she can be proud of many accomplishments as an executive.” | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2011 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(AFP via France24)', '(The New York Times)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Sudan formally signs the Abraham Accords as part of an agreement to normalize relations with Israel. | Sudan on Wednesday quietly signed on to the Abraham Accords, U.S.-brokered agreements which have ushered in public rapprochements between Israel and several Arab states.
While Sudan and Israel announced they would normalize ties in October, Khartoum’s government had said a final decision would rest with a transitional parliament, which is yet to be formed.
The UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco have already signed the accords, hailing the prospect of more immediate economic and diplomatic ties with Israel as groundbreaking.
U.S. officials say they hope they will encourage the Palestinian Authority to return to negotiations with Israel but Palestinians say there can be no resolution of the core Israeli-Palestinian conflict unless they are involved.
Senior U.S. officials had told Reuters in October that a signing ceremony was expected to be held at the White House. Just over two months later, the accords were signed quietly in Khartoum on Wednesday by Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdelbari and visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
“The declaration stipulates the necessity to consolidate the meanings of tolerance, dialogue and coexistence between different peoples and religions in the Middle East region and the world, in a way that serves the promotion of a culture of peace,” the Sudanese cabinet said.
As part of the initial agreement in October, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would remove Sudan from a U.S. government list of countries promoting terrorism, a process that was completed last month.
Mnuchin also signed a memorandum of understanding to provide Sudan with a previously announced bridge loan to help Sudan clear its arrears to the World Bank and access $1 billion in annual funding, Sudan’s finance ministry said.
“Sudan’s signing of the Abraham Accords is an important step in advancing regional normalization agreements in the Middle East,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said in a tweet.
| Sign Agreement | January 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Tropical Storm Beryl makes landfall near the US city of Jacksonville with northern Florida and southern Georgia. | Beaches along the southern Atlantic coast were closed on Sunday, and visitors and residents in some low-lying regions were told to seek higher ground as Tropical Storm Beryl threatened to upset holiday weekend plans for thousands of beachgoers.
By Sunday afternoon, the waves had picked up and sharp winds had begun to lash northern Florida and southern Georgia. Chris Souby, a lifeguard on duty in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., said that officials were keeping swimmers out of the water and preparing for the worst. “The storm is expected to make landfall around high tide, so we’re expecting some flooding,” Mr. Souby said. The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported late Sunday that the storm was making landfall along the northeastern coast of Florida, according to The Associated Press. It was an inauspicious start for a region that traditionally inaugurates the summer tourist season on Memorial Day weekend. Though meteorologists classified it as a weak tropical storm, it forced some to rethink their plans. Campers on Cumberland Island, Ga., a tourist destination of pristine beaches and forests, were told to leave on Sunday afternoon, said Fred Boyles, superintendent of the Cumberland Island National Seashore. Those heady enough to flout a ban on entering the water have not been able to stay in the surf for long. “There was a kite surfer out there earlier,” said Lisa Schultz, a manager at the Marriott Courtyard hotel in Jacksonville Beach. “But he was getting tossed around pretty well.” The National Hurricane Center upgraded Beryl to a tropical storm on Sunday. The A.P. reported maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. After reaching Florida and Georgia on Sunday, the storm was expected to move up the coast before heading back into the Atlantic. A tropical storm warning was in effect from Central Florida to Edisto Beach in South Carolina. Lisa Janak, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, tried to put a positive spin on the storm, saying it could counter the drought and the wildfires there. “My holiday weekend has been messed up by a lot worse,” she said. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2012 | ['(New York Times)', '(Florida Times Union)'] |
Brazilian police clash with protestors angry over the cost of hosting the World Cup in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. | Riot police in Brazil have fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro who marched against the cost of hosting the football World Cup.
Some demonstrators hurled stones while other burned tyres and blocked roads.
They say they are angry that billions of dollars are being spent on next month's football tournament, rather than social projects and housing. Protests also took place in many other cities, including the capital Brasilia.
Teachers and civil servants, among others, were also on strike across Brazil.
In Rio, aerial images showed hundreds of people marching in rush-hour traffic on a main thoroughfare. The city will host the final match of the World Cup on 13 July.
Protesters there and in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, clashed with police before beginning to disperse.
The number of people on the streets was much lower than during similar protests last year.
Some of those taking part, however, promised the demonstrations would get bigger and more frequent as the World Cup gets closer. Last June, more than a million people took to the street over poor public services, corruption and the high cost of hosting the World Cup.
The tournament is due to kick off on 12 June.
The BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo says that the scale of the protests will be watched closely by the government as an indication of the security challenges they may face during the tournament.
He adds that, with both the World Cup and a presidential election this year, many groups have spotted an opportunity to exert maximum pressure on the government. The demonstrations began earlier in the day in Sao Paulo, with one of the biggest protests in the city's Itaquera district near the Arena Corinthians stadium, which will host the tournament's opening match.
Protesters there demanded housing, and not stadiums, be built in accordance with Fifa standards, in reference to world football's governing body.
"Our goal is symbolic," said Guilherme Boulos, the head of Homeless Workers Movement.
"We don't want to destroy or damage the stadium. What we want is more rights for workers to have access to housing and to show the effects the Cup has brought to the poor."
The government has tried to downplay the scale of Thursday's unrest, arguing it was not related to the World Cup.
"From what I've seen, these are specific claims by workers. I've seen nothing that is related to the (World) Cup," Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo said.
"There's no reason to panic ahead of receiving three million Brazilian tourists and 600,000 foreign tourists (for the tournament)."
The planned protests coincide with a range of strikes, including one by the police force in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco.
The army was deployed there to provide additional support after some robberies and looting, before the strike ended on its third day.
Local media reported that, in the last 24 hours alone, 234 people were arrested. Recife, the state capital, is due to host five matches during the World Cup.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Trump says he wants to lower the U.S. trade deficit with Thailand. | President Donald Trump wants to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with Thailand, he told the country’s prime minister on Monday in a meeting that marked another sign of warming ties between Washington and Bangkok.
Trump, who has sought to improve U.S. trade ties with a variety of countries since taking office in January, put Thailand in the spotlight when he sat down with Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in the Oval Office.
“Our relationship on trade is becoming more important and it’s a great country to trade with,” Trump told the Thai official before reporters. “I think we’re going to try to sell a little bit more to you, if that’s possible.”
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office reported that the U.S. trade deficit with Thailand was $18.9 billion last year, the 11th largest faced by the United States.
The meeting was a sign of improved ties between the United States and Thailand after the relationship cooled when the Thai military took power in a 2014 coup.
Human rights groups had strongly opposed the meeting, seeing it as a reward for an authoritarian leader who has cracked down on opposition and rolled back democratic freedoms.
Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai hailed the meeting between the leaders as “special”.
“It shows special attention for the Thai prime minister,” Don told official Thai media traveling with the delegation.
Don used the visit as an opportunity to praise his government’s achievements. “If we weren’t good, they probably wouldn’t invite us,” he said.
The junta has promised to hold a general election in 2018 but has yet to set a firm date.
Prayuth raised the issue again on Monday.
“I told him (Trump) ... next year we will announce a general election date,” Prayuth told reporters.
The Obama administration was deeply critical of the Thai junta and refused to extend an invitation to Prayuth to the White House.
Human Rights Watch in a statement given to Reuters in Bangkok called on members of the U.S. Congress to demand that the Trump administration pressure Thailand to restore democracy and called on the Pentagon to “cool their engagement” with Thai leaders.
“They should be demanding that the Trump administration not give the junta a free pass,” John Sifton, Human Rights Watch’s Asia Advocacy director in Washington, told Reuters.
“They should publicly reaffirm that U.S. law bars direct military assistance to Thailand and outline key benchmarks Thailand needs to meet to restore the bilateral relationship to its prior condition.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Bangkok in August in what was the highest level visit to Thailand by a U.S. official since the coup.
Prayuth and members of his cabinet will also meet with representatives of Thai businesses in the United States during the three-day visit.
Thailand is often cited as the oldest U.S. ally in Southeast Asia and Washington has been urging the region to do more to cut funding streams to North Korea over its nuclear program.
Prior to the 2014 coup, Thailand agreed to buy four Black Hawk helicopters from the United States.
But Thai deputy prime minister Prawit Wongsuwan said on Tuesday that the leaders did not discuss the sale of U.S. defense equipment.
“They haven’t allowed us to buy weapons from them for a while now,” Prawit told reporters.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Gunmen attack the Paris office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing twelve people and injuring ten. Some witnesses report that the gunmen identified themselves as belonging to al-Qaeda in Yemen. A 2011 issue had depicted a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammed. | Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.
Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.
A major police operation is under way to find three gunmen who fled by car.
President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity". It is believed to be the deadliest attack in France since 1961, when right-wingers who wanted to keep Algeria French bombed a train, killing 28 people.
The masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car. They later abandoned the car in Rue de Meaux, northern Paris, where they hijacked a second car.
Witnesses said they heard the gunmen shouting "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" in Arabic ("Allahu Akbar").
The number of attackers was initially reported to be two, but French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve later said security services were hunting three "criminals". He said that Paris had been placed on the highest alert.
Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, 47, had received death threats in the past and was living under police protection.
French media have named the three other cartoonists killed in the attack as Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski, as well as Charlie Hebdo contributor and French economist Bernard Maris.
The attack took place during the magazine's daily editorial meeting.
At least four people were critically wounded in the attack. The satirical weekly has courted controversy in the past with its irreverent take on news and current affairs. It was firebombed in November 2011 a day after it carried a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
The latest tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Charlie Hebdo's website, which went offline during the attack, is showing the single image of "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie) on a black banner, referring to a hashtag that is trending on Twitter in solidarity with the victims.
People had been "murdered in a cowardly manner", President Hollande told reporters at the scene. "We are threatened because we are a country of liberty," he added, appealing for national unity.
French government officials are holding an emergency meeting, and President Hollande is due to give a televised address later.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the "horrific shooting", offering to provide any assistance needed "to help bring these terrorists to justice".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "It was a horrendous, unjustifiable and cold-blooded crime. It was also a direct assault on a cornerstone of democracy, on the media and on freedom of expression." UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a tweet: "The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press."
The Arab League and Al-Azhar mosque, Egypt's top Islamic institution, have also condemned the attack.
Charlie Hebdo is part of a venerable tradition in French journalism going back to the scandal sheets that denounced Marie-Antoinette in the run-up to the French Revolution.
The tradition combines left-wing radicalism with a provocative scurrility that often borders on the obscene. Its decision to mock the Prophet Muhammad in 2011 was entirely consistent with its historic raison d'etre.
The paper has never sold in enormous numbers - and for 10 years from 1981, it ceased publication for lack of resources.
But with its garish front-page cartoons and incendiary headlines, it is an unmissable staple of newspaper kiosks and railway station booksellers.
Charlie Hebdo and its satirical role
Live updates
Footage shot by an eyewitness outside the magazine's office shows two armed men dressed in black approach a wounded police officer lying on a pavement. One of the men shoots the officer in the head, before both men are seen running back towards a black vehicle and driving away.
Eyewitnesses described seeing two black-hooded men entering the building carrying Kalashnikovs, with reports of up to 50 shots fired. Gilles Boulanger, who works in the same building as the office, told French TV channel Itele: "There were several shots heard in the building from automatic weapons firing in all directions. So then we looked out of the window and saw the shooting was on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, with the police. It was really upsetting. You'd think it was a war zone." Wandrille Lanos, a TV reporter who works across the road, was one of the first people to enter the Charlie Hebdo office after the attack. "As we progressed into the office, we saw that the number of casualties was very high. There was a lot of people dead on the floor, and there was blood everywhere," he told the BBC.
After the attack, which occurred at about 10:30 GMT, police warned French media outlets to be on alert and pay attention to security.
The country was already on the alert for Islamist militant attacks after several incidents just before Christmas. Cars were driven at shoppers in two cities, Dijon and Nantes, and police were attacked by a man wielding a knife in Tours.
While the French government denied the attacks were linked, it announced plans to further raise security in public spaces, including the deployment of about 300 soldiers.
Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 sparking riots in Muslim countries, says it has stepped up security in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
| Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Another group of asylum seekers starts a new protest at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, Australia, while other detainees continue a hunger strike. | Nine people, including a pregnant woman, have climbed on to the roof of a building at Sydney's Villawood detention centre, just 13 hours after 11 other detainees ended their 30-hour protest on another roof.
The Chinese nationals, four of whom are women, climbed on to the roofs of one of the centre's buildings about 8am today, an Immigration Department spokesman said.
Nine on the roof ... fresh rooftop protest breaks out at Villawood detention centre.Credit:AFP
Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition said the Chinese nationals were held in the same area as Fijian detainee Josefa Rauluni, 36, who fell to his death on Monday.
The Herald understands today's protest is because the detainees believe their visa applications are taking too long to process.
The group want their applications looked at before they come down, although they have not set a deadline for their demand to be met.
An interpreter told reporters the protesters, who were aged between 20 and 27 and came from Fujian province, wanted refugee protection visas. They had been in Australia about six months and entered the country on student and tourist visas.
How they climb on to the roofs
The detainees get on to the roofs from within the buildings, Mr Rintoul said.
He said they would climb into the roof cavity above the second-floor rooms and remove the tiles to get access to the roofs.
The Immigration Department spokesman said the latest protesters were not "illegal maritime arrivals" but he would not comment on their immigration status.
He reiterated that their protest would not alter the department's processing of their cases and said that, if they engaged in criminal activity, they would be referred to the police.
But the spokesman added the contract between the Immigration Department and private security company Serco "provides for sanctions and fines if it is established that these sorts of incidents resulted from lax work practices or incompetence".
Yesterday, eight Sri Lankan Tamils came off the roof just after 7.15pm following an agreement that they would get to speak to representatives of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
Earlier, three other protesters - an Iraqi, an Iranian and another Tamil - climbed down after negotiations with the Immigration Department.
They have been placed in isolation, despite assurances they would not be punished, Jamal Daoud of the Social Justice Network said.
Hunger strike
Sixteen Iranian and Kurdish asylum seekers are also staging a hunger strike at the centre to protest against their possible deportation.
A spokeswoman for Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital said three of the men, who were admitted four days after they stopped eating, were in a stable condition this morning.
This morning, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told ABC Radio he had "absolutely not" cut a deal with yesterday's rooftop protesters.
He conceded Australian detention centres were under pressure, however, he stressed that protests were not about conditions inside the facilities, but rather the claims process itself.
"I'd like to see claims processed more quickly," he said.
"There are a number of matters which have led to the pressure on our detention centres: it's not only the increased number of boat arrivals, it's also the increased rejection rate."
More rejections means people stay in detention longer as they try to appeal against the decisions.
The government has also suspended the processing of refugee claims from Afghan asylum seekers, meaning they have to languish in centres until that changes.
Mr Bowen defended the claims assessment processes in place.
"I understand that emotions run very high when it comes to asylum claims, but it is down to our officials and our tribunals to determine the cases on all the facts before them."
| Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2010 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
The Metropolitan Police in London publish a long suppressed report on the 1979 death of Blair Peach which concludes that a police officer was probably responsible for his killing. | A police officer is likely to have "struck the fatal blow" which killed a protester in west London 31 years ago, a Scotland Yard report reveals.
Anti-racism activist Blair Peach died after he was hit during a protest in Southall in April 1979. The previously secret report attaches "grave suspicion" to an officer, who it says may also have been involved in a cover-up along with two colleagues. But the Metropolitan Police said no officers would face further action. Mr Peach's family have long campaigned for the report - written by Commander John Cass - to be released. His partner, Celia Stubbs, said the report "totally vindicated" what the family had always believed.
The Cass report into the death of Blair Peach is not a dry internal police review document.
But we may never discover which one of the unnamed officers struck the fatal blow - and Blair Peach's family say they have never expected a prosecution.
What they wanted, at the very least, was openness and recognition that an officer killed the teacher. Police chiefs say modern policing is accountable and the release of the Cass report is a symbolic moment to that end.
The death will remain a key point in a political battle over police reforms - but campaigners are now looking at the death at last year's G20 protests of Ian Tomlinson. Prosecutors have spent more than six months looking at the evidence - but are yet to make a decision on any charges.
"I never really expected a prosecution. I don't regret that, I am just pleased that we have the report so we can see what happened on the day," she said. A Met statement said: "We have gone to great lengths to ensure that all investigative options currently available have been exhausted. "To this extent the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has provided us with independent advice stating that there is nothing which would currently justify carrying out a further investigation." Mr Peach, a 33-year-old teacher from New Zealand, was taking part in a demonstration against the National Front. The protest led to clashes with the police and he was later found with fatal head injuries. A police radio or truncheon is thought to have delivered the fatal blow. The Cass report does not name any of the implicated officers, but said six were on board a van belonging to the now disbanded Special Patrol Group identified as carrier U.11. It said there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone over the death but recommended action for perverting the course of justice for three officers, and there was "grave suspicion" over one of them, only identified as "Officer E".
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Cdr Mark Simmons: "One can't read the report without a sense of deep discomfort"
The 1979 report said: "Whilst it can reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow, and that that officer came from carrier U.11, I am sure that it will be agreed that the present situation is far from satisfactory and disturbing." It went on: "The attitude and untruthfulness of some of the officers involved is a contributory factor. "It is understandable that because of the events of the day officers were confused, or made mistakes, but one would expect better recall of events by trained police officers. "However, there are cases where the evidence shows that certain officers have clearly not told the truth." Officer E, Officer F and Officer H "clearly obstructed" police officers carrying out investigations, it added. The Met said the names of the officers had been removed from the report for legal reasons.
A spokeswoman said: "Some of the information has been redacted to prevent the identification of members of the public and police officers who contributed to the investigations into Blair Peach's death." One of the officers on duty that day, Alan Murray, told BBC News he believed he was Officer E. But he denied the allegations in the report, describing them as a "total distortion and a disgrace". The former Scotland Yard inspector, 59, who led a unit of the Special Patrol Group at the demonstration and is now a Sheffield University lecturer, says none of his officers was involved. 'Uncomfortable reading'
Last year, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said the report should be published after being reviewed by lawyers. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) completed that review and advised Scotland Yard that charges could only be brought if there was sufficient new evidence, such as a confession. Sir Paul said the report made "uncomfortable reading" and it was a matter of "deep regret" the police had been unable to provide Mr Peach's family with a "definitive answer".
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Ms Stubbs said she was pleased the report had been released
"As a police officer with over 34 years service reading and being briefed on the investigation reports leaves me feeling deeply uncomfortable," he said. Following a death in the course of police work, forces these days are required to immediately refer the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for investigation. Deborah Coles, of campaign group Inquest, called upon Sir Paul to publicly acknowledge that a Metropolitan Police officer was responsible for the fatal blow on Mr Peach. At an inquest at the time, the jury returned a verdict of "death by misadventure". Mr Peach's family felt sure the Met investigation, conducted by a team of 30 detectives under Commander Cass in the force's Complaints Investigation Bureau, held the key to the truth behind his death. | Famous Person - Death | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Report)'] |
United States National Security Advisor John R. Bolton is dismissed by President Donald Trump, citing strong disagreements. Bolton insists he resigned. The interim replacement is to be Deputy Charles Kupperman, says the White House. | US President Donald Trump has announced he fired his hard-line national security adviser, John Bolton, saying he disagreed "strongly" with him.
"I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning," Mr Trump tweeted, adding he would appoint a replacement next week. But Mr Bolton insisted he had quit and vowed to have his say "in due course".
He had disagreed with the president on a number of foreign policy challenges, from Afghanistan to Iran. I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore....
Mr Bolton, who had served since April 2018, was Mr Trump's third national security adviser after Michael Flynn and HR McMaster.
Moments after Mr Trump's tweet, Mr Bolton took to Twitter to offer a different version of events.
He maintained he had actually offered his resignation but Mr Trump told him, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."
As the news broke, Mr Bolton texted a Fox News host live on TV to insist he had resigned as national security adviser.
He also texted Washington Post reporter Robert Costa to say, "I will have my say in due course" and "My sole concern is US national security".
The dismissal came as a surprise. Just two hours before his departure was announced, Mr Bolton had been due to host a White House briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The new acting national security adviser will be Charles Kupperman, who was a deputy to Mr Bolton, the White House told the BBC.
Sources said the National Security Council, which advises the president, had become a separate entity within the White House under Mr Bolton.
A former senior Trump administration official, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC: "He [Bolton] operates separately from the rest of the White House." According to the official, Mr Bolton did not attend meetings and followed his own initiatives. A White House official told the BBC's US partner, CBS News, "Bolton has his priorities. He didn't ask the president 'What are your priorities?' They're Bolton's priorities."
A former senior administration official told CBS Mr Bolton's "his way or the highway" approach had infuriated many people inside the White House, including the president.
In the lead-up to Mr Bolton's firing, Mr Trump reportedly approached his predecessor, HR McMaster, NBC News reports. The president told the retired general he missed him and asked his advice on national security issues, two anonymous sources familiar with the conversations told NBC.
John Bolton was always an unusual fit in the Trump White House. While he was an animated personality on Fox News - clearly endearing him to the president - he was also an outspoken foreign policy hawk working for a man who campaigned against international adventurism.
Mr Bolton was a strong supporter of the Iraq War, for instance, while the president has called the conflict one of the greatest US military blunders.
On topics like North Korea and Russia, the president's conciliatory position when Mr Bolton arrived in April 2018 was clear - and clearly contrary to the long-time foreign policy hand. Add disagreements on Afghanistan negotiations and Iran confrontation, and it created an untenable situation. Mr Trump's third national security adviser in as many years has been on the outs for some time. He did not join the president at a key meeting with Kim Jong-un, and phoned in his objections to a Camp David event with the Taliban while in Poland last week.
There appears to be disagreement over whether Mr Bolton was fired or resigned. One way or another, a change was coming - even if just yesterday, Mr Trump had tweeted that reports of "turmoil in the White House" were created by the "Dishonest Media".
Mr Bolton, a leading foreign policy hawk, was the chief architect of Mr Trump's hard-line stance on Iran.
He had reportedly opposed the president's recent suggestion that he was willing to talk to Tehran's leaders.
The former national security adviser had also advocated for a much tougher stance on North Korea, Russia and Afghanistan.
Mr Bolton was blamed by US officials for the collapse of a summit in February between Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam by putting forward a list of uncompromising demands that Pyongyang rejected.
Mr Bolton opposed peace talks with the Taliban, which Mr Trump scrapped at the weekend after inviting the group to the US.
According to Foreign Policy magazine, Mr Bolton had argued that inviting a US-designated terror group to Camp David - the presidential retreat outside Washington - would "set a terrible precedent".
Mr Bolton had a reputation as a warmonger, and Mr Trump once reportedly joked in an Oval Office meeting that "John has never seen a war he doesn't like".
Earlier this year, Mr Trump was reportedly angry with the failure of US policy in Venezuela, complaining that Mr Bolton had misled him about how easy it would be to replace President Nicolás Maduro, who has clung to power.
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UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
In a rare move, the UN condemns the overthrowing of Aung San Suu Kyi and calls for an arms embargo.
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How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The U.S. Secretary of State has flown to Tbilisi for urgent talks to try to bring the Georgia's conflict with South Ossetia and Russia to an end. | TBILISI, Georgia The United States pressed on Friday for the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces in Georgia, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came here, not far from the front lines, to win the Georgian president’s approval for a redefined cease-fire. She pushed to close a loophole that Russia could use to justify its advance deep into Georgia. As Ms. Rice spoke at a news conference, a Russian column of at least a dozen armored vehicles moved to within roughly 25 miles of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, by far the Russians’ closest approach to the city. The battle of angry words sharpened as well: the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, accused the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, of harboring “idiotic ideas” that had provoked the war. Mr. Saakashvili, emotive and hyperbolic compared with the measured Ms. Rice at his side, in turn referred to the Russians as “21st-century barbarians” who had essentially raped Georgia. A top Russian general said that Poland, which the day before agreed to house an American antimissile system in its territory, had “100 percent” exposed itself to possible Russian retaliation. Polish officials agreed to the pact with the United States soon after the Russian attacks on Georgia, after months of expressing doubts on the issue.
On the ground, Georgia remained tense after several days of fighting left tens of thousands of people homeless and thrust the United States and Russia into a cold-war-like confrontation. In Washington, Mr. Bush warned of repercussions from events in a “small country halfway around the world.”
The humanitarian situation in Georgian villages in Russian-controlled areas continued to worsen on Friday. Georgia’s minister of health, Alexander Kvitashvili, estimated in an interview that as many as 3,000 people were trapped in Georgian villages, unable to come out for fear that marauding South Ossetians would kill them.
Bodies of Georgian soldiers still lay sprawled on streets in areas controlled by Russian forces, witnesses said, creating a horrible stench. The number of Georgian deaths since the beginning of the conflict is 175, Mr. Kvitashvili said, including 115 soldiers. That number is expected to grow, as Georgian villages start to become accessible, and bodies are brought to morgues.
Besides offering vocal support for Georgia, Ms. Rice, after about five hours of talks with Mr. Saakashvili, persuaded him to sign a revised version of the cease-fire framework that had originally been hammered out on Wednesday.
The six-point arrangement had been negotiated by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, but a dispute soon followed over one of its provisions, which the Russians had interpreted as allowing them to maintain a military presence on Georgian territory outside the two disputed enclaves, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Ms. Rice brought with her a letter from Mr. Sarkozy clarifying that this provision would not apply to populated areas or the main east-west highway that is the country’s lifeline, said Giga Bokeria, Georgia’s deputy foreign minister. That would mean, Ms. Rice argued, that the Russians would have to withdraw from Gori, a strategically important city 40 miles west of Tbilisi.
“With the signing of this accord, all Russian troops, and any paramilitary and irregular troops that entered with them, must leave immediately,” she said at the news conference. The vagueness of the original provision appeared to have allowed the Russians to justify their occupation of Gori even after the two countries had agreed to the cease-fire framework. A senior Western diplomat in Tbilisi, speaking on the condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules, contended that the Russian military maneuvers near the capital on Friday around the time of the Rice visit were deliberate. The diplomat said troops were “moving around to weaken the civilian administration and perhaps create the conditions for political upheaval down the line.”
American officials said Friday that Mr. Sarkozy had signed the original six-point agreement and attached the letter. Next, French diplomats will present the six-point plan with the signatures of Mr. Saakashvili and Mr. Sarkozy to the Kremlin.
Russia announced late Friday night that Mr. Sarkozy had called Mr. Medvedev, and that the two had spoken about the cease-fire agreement, though it did not specifically indicate whether that meant that Mr. Medvedev had agreed to the revised provision.
Later, The Associated Press quoted an anonymous American official as saying that Russia had assured Ms. Rice that it would sign the document. At the news conference here in Tbilisi, Mr. Saakashvili, who has not shied in recent days from criticizing Russia with provocative language, offered a host of historical analogies in his effort to portray Georgia’s plight, comparing it to the Eastern European nations that had been vassals of the Soviet Union. It was a remarkable scene, with Mr. Saakashvili fulminating about Russia’s determination to destroy even swimming pools while European leaders were trying to secure Russia’s agreement to the cease-fire framework. “There can be no negotiated capitulations and negotiated dismemberment of smaller countries by bigger ones,” Mr. Saakashvili said.
He said that even though he was signing the cease-fire framework, he was not giving up Georgia’s claim to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are close allies of Moscow. The fighting between Georgia and Russia erupted last week over South Ossetia.
Ms. Rice used more diplomatic and terse language, reiterating the White House’s view that if Russia wanted to be considered a respected member of the international community, it needed to honor its commitment to a peaceful settlement. A few hours earlier, at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Mr. Medvedev met with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has often sought to act as a bridge between the United States and Russia. At a joint news conference after their meeting, Mrs. Merkel trod a careful line, saying that Russia’s military action was “not proportionate” but that “both sides are probably to blame for the conflict.” She repeated demands from the United States and other European leaders that Russia pull its troops from Georgia. She also left open the possibility that Georgia could still join NATO, a prospect that has infuriated Russia, though analysts have suggested that the likelihood of Georgia being admitted is now very slim.
Mr. Medvedev, for his part, hewed to the Kremlin’s position that Georgia can never again have sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia has said Georgia instigated the hostilities, and called Mr. Saakashvili a war criminal.
“The entire responsibility for the conflict, for the cruel actions committed, rests upon the shoulders of the Georgian leadership,” Mr. Medvedev said.
Georgia was not the only strain on relations between the United States and Russia.
Earlier on Friday, a top Russian defense official rebuked Washington over the deal it had reached with Poland on Thursday on an American antimissile system. The Russian official, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, indicated that Poland was making itself a target by agreeing to serve as host for the antimissile system, which Washington said was intended to ward off threats from countries like Iran, not Russia. Such an action “cannot go unpunished,” he said.
He also raised the question of whether the United States might be sending military aid into Georgia as part of the humanitarian airlift that began this week.
“We would like to know whether it is humanitarian or military,” he said.
He said Georgians had exaggerated the damage their country sustained during the war, and denied that the Russian side used cluster bombs against Georgians. Human Rights Watch said Friday that Russian aircraft had dropped cluster bombs on Tuesday in two raids on the towns of Ruisi and Gori, killing at least 11 civilians. There were no reports of hostilities in the eastern part of Georgia on Friday, but Georgian troops in the western city of Kutaisi, about 50 miles from the Black Sea coast, said they were bracing as a Russian armored patrol advanced from the west. Farther east, refugees emerging from the conflict zone in the separatist territory of South Ossetia told of looters roaming through villages. Russians retained control of the central Georgian city of Gori on Friday. In the west of the country, an armed Russian patrol traveled inland to the town of Abasha, which is about 23 miles from the Black Sea, then later returned to a temporary base at Senaki. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2008 | ['(Sky News)', '(Delfi)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Mount Sinabung in Sumatra, Indonesia erupts, spewing 16,000 feet of ash into the air. | Indonesia's Mount Sinabung was erupting Tuesday, sending volcanic materials as high as 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky and depositing ash on nearby villages. Activity at the volcano in North Sumatra province increased over the past week, with authorities recording 13 times when it released ash clouds.
Dramatic video from the Volcanological Survey of Indonesia shows the plume of ash reaching high into the sky.
WATCH: Indonesia's Mount Sinabung spewed hot ash up to nearly two miles in the air on Tuesday. No casualties has been reported, though the alert for the volcano in northern Sumatra province has been placed at the second-highest level. pic.twitter.com/oTnbbJ0JXT
There have been no fresh evacuations due to the activity and no reports of disruptions to flights in the region.
The 2,600-metre (8,530-foot) Sinabung was dormant for four centuries before erupting in 2010, killing two people. Another eruption in 2014 killed 17 people, while seven died in a 2016 eruption.
The volcano, one of two currently erupting in Indonesia, has sporadically come to life since then.
Some 30,000 people have been forced to leave homes around Sinabung in the past few years.
Sinabung is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is located on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Ocean. In total, the ring also encompasses about 450 volcanoes, including all of the most active volcanoes in the U.S.
First published on March 2, 2021 / 10:34 AM
© 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | Volcano Eruption | March 2021 | ['(CBS News)'] |
The Republicans hold a primary election to select a candidate for next year's election. Partial results indicate that a second round of voting will occur with François Fillon and Alain Juppé as the two candidates in the second round. | PARIS (Reuters) - French voters defied expectations on Sunday by throwing ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy out of the race to be the conservatives’ nominee for the presidential election and propelling his ex-prime minister Francois Fillon to top spot.
A social conservative with economically liberal ideas, Fillon will face Alain Juppe, another ex-prime minister, in a runoff on Nov. 27 which is likely to produce France’s next president in May.
Long trailing his rivals in opinion polls, Fillon goes into the conservative primaries’ run-off with a strong lead, the backing of defeated candidates including Sarkozy and a fresh poll that already tips him to win that second round.
“I’m telling all the French, no matter who they voted for, that change is on its way to lift France up,” Fillon, an admirer of late British prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, told supporters.
“My fellow Frenchmen have told me, everywhere, they want to break away from a bureaucratic system which saps their energy; everywhere they told me their desire for authority,” said 62-year-old Fillon, who is a rare economic liberal in largely statist France.
Juppe, a moderate 71-year-old conservative campaigning on an inclusive, “happy identity” platform, had for months been ahead in polls for both the primaries and the presidential election.
But he struggled to fire up voters as the election neared and seems to have suffered from constant attacks by Sarkozy calling him soft and branding him as being “hostage” to centrist allies.
Once Fillon, long considered a political has-been, saw his ratings improve just over a week ago after good performances in televised debates, Juppe lost some of the “anti-Sarkozy” tactical vote to him.
Sounding downcast late on Sunday, Juppe told supporters he would “carry on fighting” and billed himself as the best option to defeat far-right party leader Marine Le Pen, whom polls predict will make it to the second round of the presidential elections.
With the Left very divided and a majority of voters telling pollsters they are opposed to seeing the far-right National Front in power, the chosen center-right nominee is likely to defeat Le Pen in an expected election run-off next May.
But while polls have consistently shown Juppe would easily beat Le Pen, there are far fewer surveys on how Fillon would fare in such a match, in further evidence of how unexpected his top spot on Sunday was.
Polls have shown that Fillon, who had received backing by opponents of France’s gay marriage laws, is much less popular than Juppe amid left-wing voters, which could make it harder for him to get their vote versus Le Pen.
A BVA poll in September did however show him beating Le Pen with 61 percent of votes compared with 39 percent for Le Pen were they to fight off in the presidentials’ runoff, while Juppe would score 66 percent vs the far-right leader.
Sarkozy, who was president in 2007-2012, was long considered a safe bet for the second round after campaigning on a hardline law-and-order platform that sought to tap into concerns over migration and security.
But that strategy, though popular among grassroots voters of Les Republicains party, alienated the centrist and leftwing voters who took part in the primaries and massively backed Juppe, a Harris Interactive poll showed.
Sarkozy conceded defeat and said he would now back Fillon in the runoff.
“It’s time for me to try a life with more private passions than public ones,” he said.
According to results based on 9,437 polling stations out of a total 10,229, Fillon was seen garnering 44.2 percent of the votes, Juppe 28.5 percent and Sarkozy 20.6 percent, with close to 4 million votes counted.
Fillon is seen winning next Sunday’s primaries’ runoff with 56 percent of the votes vs 44 percent for Juppe, according to the OpinionWay poll carried out amid 3,095 voters who took part in the first round of the primaries this Sunday.
The ruling Socialists and their allies are holding their own primaries in January. Socialist President Francois Hollande, who is deeply unpopular, has yet to announce whether he himself will stand again.
Additional reporting by Richard Lough, Andrew Callus, Marine Pennetier, Sophie Louet and Simon Carraud; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Sandra Maler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Government Job change - Election | November 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Australian Defence Force Academy sex scandal: 2 cadets are charged with misusing an electronic communications service and an indecent act after the secret filming of a woman engaging in sexual intercourse is broadcast on the internet. | Two men have been charged over a sex scandal at an Australian defence academy, in a row which led to a review of the military's treatment of women. The cadets from the Australian Defence Force Academy are accused of secretly filming a female cadet having sex and broadcasting it on the internet. They have been charged with misusing an electronic communications service. One has been charged with an indecent act. The government has set up a number of inquiries in response to the scandal. The 18-year old female cadet said that she had consensual sex with a fellow first-year cadet, which was then transmitted via webcam to six other cadets watching on a computer in another room. Photographs of the encounter were also said to have been circulated around the academy. The two men, aged 18 and 19, face possible jail terms if convicted. The commander of the academy was ordered to take leave in the wake of the incident and at least two inquiries were initiated. Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick was asked to conduct a review into the treatment of women both at the academy and in the wider military. Reviews were also ordered into the use of alcohol and social media in the military. The scandal followed another relating to the navy. In February, the defence department released a report chronicling what it called a culture of predatory sexual behaviour on board the naval supply ship, HMAS Success. It revealed a fiercely tribal culture in which women sailors were treated with disdain, alcohol was badly misused and discipline had broken down. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
A general strike in Nepal called by political parties opposed to King Gyanendra enters its 12th day, with food shortages and price rises triggering panic buying in some areas. Security forces fatally shot a protester and wounded five in Nijgadh, 75 miles south of Katmandu. | Witnesses said troops opened fire on protesters in the town of Nijgadh, 200km (125 miles) south of Kathmandu.
Meanwhile the army has been deployed to ensure food reaches the capital.
Nepal is experiencing food shortages and price rises because of the strike called by the opposition which has led protests against King Gyanendra.
We will provide armed escorts to trucks transporting essential goods to Kathmandu
Dipendra ThapaMinistry of works and transport
Eyewitness: 'I was shot'
Nepalis on protest chaos
The strike coincides with an intensive campaign of anti-royal demonstrations around the country.
Opposition parties have ordered shops and businesses, schools, colleges and motor transport to cease operations.
Reports from eastern Nepal say there are shortages of rice as mills close and people resort to panic buying.
Rush for goods
In the capital, Kathmandu, people are queuing for hours to buy petrol from the few pumps still open. "Petrol supply has completely stopped," Harendra Bahadur Shreshtha, the head of a private consumers' forum, is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Delivery trucks have been obstructed, resulting in price rises for staples like rice and vegetables. Reports say vegetable markets across the country were crowded as people rushed to stock up.
Separately, the government said it would offer security to truckers and incentives to those who defy the strike.
"We will provide armed escorts to trucks transporting essential goods to Kathmandu," Dipendra Thapa, secretary at the ministry of works and transport, told the Associated Press news agency.
Clashes with police
On Monday, staff of Nepal's Supreme Court joined the protest against the king.
The BBC's Sushil Sharma in Kathmandu says the last time Supreme Court staff joined such a protest was in 1990, when the then monarch, King Birendra, was forced to give up absolute power and restore democracy.
The parties, which the king sacked from government last year, say the shutdown will continue and are now calling on people to withhold all tax and bill payments until what they call democratic government is ushered in. People around the country demonstrated against the monarch on Sunday. In one western town, scores were reported injured in police firing. In Kathmandu, a crowd of 10,000 threw stones when attempts were made to stop them advancing. Police responded with rubber bullets, injuring several. The king says he needs direct powers to tackle the Maoist insurgency, but rebel violence has increased under his rule. | Strike | April 2006 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
South Australia finalizes a deal with Tesla, spearheaded by tweets originating from CEO of Tesla Elon Musk, to install a battery system in the state. Tesla said in a statement that upon completion by December 2017, the system would be the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in the world, overtaking an 80 megawatt-hour power station at Mira Loma in California also built using Tesla batteries. | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Tesla Inc TSLA.O has won an Australian contract to install the world's biggest grid-scale battery, in what experts say will be a litmus test for the reliability of large-scale renewable energy.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, known for his bold approach to cars, clean energy and space exploration, trumped dozens of competing proposals to build the gigantic lithium-ion battery that will serve as emergency back-up power for South Australia - a state racked by outages.
But under the agreement, Tesla must deliver the 100-MW battery within 100 days of the contract being signed or it will be free - a commitment Musk made in a Tweet in March.
“There will be a lot of people that will look at this -‘Did they get it done within 100 days? Did it work?’” Musk told reporters in South Australia’s capital city of Adelaide.
“We are going to make sure it does.”
The battery, designed to light up 30,000 homes if there is a blackout, will be built on a wind farm operated by France’s Neoen - parts of which are still under construction.
Musk said failing to deliver the project in time would cost his company “$50 million or more”, without elaborating.
It will be the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in the world, overtaking an 80 megawatt-hour facility in California, also built using Tesla batteries.
Over the last three years, South Australia has decided to shut down its coal-fired power stations and instead rely on wind, solar and gas. In particular it has raced ahead of the rest of the country in turning to wind power, which supplies 40 percent of its energy.
The move has been applauded by environmentalists but left the state prone to outages as there is no way to store enough energy when the wind doesn’t blow. In September, South Australia’s 1.7 million residents were left without power, some of them for up to two weeks, when the grid overloaded and collapsed.
The battery is aimed at getting around the problem of inadequate storage.
“Cost-effective storage of electrical energy is the only problem holding us back from getting all of our power from wind and solar,” said Ian Lowe a professor of science at Australia’s Griffith University.
“This project is a significant innovation to demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale storage.”
Dozens of companies from 10 countries, including privately owned Lyon Group, working with U.S. power company AES Corp AES.N, expressed interest in the project.
Now the sector is waiting to see if Musk can make good on his promise.
“Tesla has been telling the world that it can and will finish the project within three months, said a source at a Korean competitor to Tesla, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“It seems that confidence helped Tesla win, but typically this kind of project takes six months so we have to wait and see whether or not Tesla can do it,” the source said.
Lithium-ion batteries have been in widespread use since about 1991, but mostly on a small scale, such as in laptops and cell phones. A typical lithium-ion battery can store 150 watt-hours of electricity in 1 kilogram of battery, representing more than double the capacity of nickel batteries.
For their proponents who have long been pushing for grander use, the success of Musk’s big South Australian experiment will be key to greater acceptance.
“For lithium technology to take off on a global scale, they clearly need the storage capacity to make sure renewables can deliver 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Adrian Griffin, a geologist who specializes in lithium extraction.
| Sign Agreement | July 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Fifteen teams that qualified for the DARPA Grand Challenge start on a 150–200 mile robotic race to Las Vegas, Nevada, for a $1 million prize. All of the teams break down within seven miles of the start line; none collect the prize. | Fifteen teams have shown their mettle and their metal in DARPA's $1 million Grand Challenge event, receiving approval to compete in the contest tomorrow.
Only seven teams this week actually made it all the way through a 1.36 mile test course. DARPA, however, will let another eight teams that showed promise compete in Saturday's race from Barstow, California to just outside of Las Vegas. This course should be between 150 miles to 200 miles and will require the fifteen robot vehicles to steer themselves across the entire length with no human intervention.
The troubles teams had in completing the test course point to just how hard the Grand Challenge is expected to be. DARPA will award $1 million to the team that makes it first all the way to Vegas, if it can get there in under 10 hours. At this point, it's looking less and less likely that a team will be able to complete the run.
DARPA plans to hold a Grand Challenge-like event every 18 to 24 months until a team wins the $1 million.
California has dominated the contest despite entries coming in from all over the country. DARPA will be sending off the teams in a time-trial format based on their performance in test runs. The list is as follows:
1. Red Team Pittsburgh, PA
2. SciAutonics II Thousand Oaks, CA
3. Team Caltech Pasadena, CA
4. Digital Auto Drive (DAD) Morgan Hill, CA
5. Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA
6. Axion Racing Westlake Village, CA
7. Team CajunBot Lafayette, LA
8. Team ENSCO Falls Church, VA
9. Team CIMAR – Gainesville, FL and Logan, UT
10. Palos Verdes High School RoadWarriors Palos Verdes Estates, CA
11. SciAutonics I Thousand Oaks, CA
12. Team TerraMax Oshkosh, WI
13. Team TerraHawk Gardena, CA
14. The Golem Group Santa Monica, CA
15. The Blue Team Berkeley, CA
The Red Team from Carnegie Mellon University will run a Hummer outfitted with more than $3 million in equipment. Compare this to the Blue Team, which will run a motorcycle funded out-of-the-pocket by a graduate student.
Race coverage will be available here, and El Reg will provide updates tomorrow. ®
Robot grunts tumble in race for $1m prize
$1 million Grand Challenge map leaked on Web
DARPA quells robot road rage
DARPA chisels little guy out of $1 million race
DARPA's indecision threatens integrity of $1 million race
Review Mechanical keyboard manufacturers have typically swerved Mac users. It's not personal, it's just business.
The Mac has a fraction of the traditional PC market share, and a significant proportion of mechanical keyboards are intended for competitive gamers, rather than those who type for work (be they developers or writers, or in the case of your correspondent, both).
The Vissles V84 is therefore a bit of an oddity. This compact keyboard (84 keys) ships with a Mac layout by default, although it comes bundled with standard Windows keycaps, as well as the ability to switch into a standard PC layout by pressing down a key combination.
No 10 Downing Street - the home of the UK Prime Minister - is looking to hire a big cheese at the Brexit Opportunities Unit to bring a fresh new oomph and zing to Whitehall.
The 17-page job spec (downloadable here) – with perks including hybrid working, childcare benefits, a generous pension, and a loan to buy a bike – is brief.
In a nutshell, it’s this: “The Director, Brexit Opportunities Unit is a high-profile role. It needs someone who can change existing thinking, working across all government departments, developing partnerships with senior stakeholders, including the Prime Minister, to ensure ministerial priorities are met.”
Researchers at the Ubiquitous System Security Lab of Zhejiang University and the University of Michigan's Security and Privacy Research Group say they've found a way to blind autonomous vehicles to obstacles using simple audio signals.
"Autonomous vehicles increasingly exploit computer-vision based object detection systems to perceive environments and make critical driving decisions," they explained in the abstract to a newly released paper. "To increase the quality of images, image stabilisers with inertial sensors are added to alleviate image blurring caused by camera jitter.
"However, such a trend opens a new attack surface. This paper identifies a system-level vulnerability resulting from the combination of the emerging image stabiliser hardware susceptible to acoustic manipulation and the object detection algorithms subject to adversarial examples."
Episode 8 "Eeeeeeasy does it..." I say to the PFY, "almost there..."
"What're you guys doing?" Richard asks, blundering into the Server Room without permission.
That's Richard – not Rich, not Richey, and definitely not Dick – a new consultant, engaged to make the company more "agile".
Something for the Weekend, Sir? How many websites do I have? Go on, take a guess. Well done! You might be correct… or perhaps not. Honestly, I have no idea.
As the weeks slip into summer, a recurring half-yearly to-do item pops up in my calendar to remind me it's time to get out the digital pruning shears and cut back my online overgrowth.
My calendar does that sort of thing. Other people's agenda apps are full of meetings and birthdays, or weekly prompts to upload another blatant virtue-signalling post to LinkedIn. If you use Calendly, you may notice it now also works as a subliminal aide memoire to take regular toilet breaks.
Cisco has announced industrial routers and internet gateways with baked in 5G as it tries to extend the enterprise network and SD-WAN to the edge.
Three new modular routers run Cisco IOS XE and have built-in edge compute capabilities.
The Catalyst IR1800 Rugged Series is for mobile and remote use cases, like the tricked out vehicles used by first responders or out on oil and gas pipelines. The shock and vibration resistant devices offer dead reckoning GPS, LTE, private LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi, CBRS, SSD, and advanced global navigation satellite system. FirstNet certification is in progress.
On Call You can never be sure who is on the other end of the on-call phone. It might be a minion... but sometimes it might be the master. Or maybe not.
Today's story is another from Register reader Alessandro (not his name) and takes us back to the glory days before Microsoft Exchange, when Microsoft Mail was all the rage (sort of).
Alessandro worked for a small European company beta testing Microsoft Mail. The team was ace at finding bugs in Microsoft's code, so much so that a member of the development team passed on his direct dial number so the gang could file issues directly, "bypassing the (painful) Microsoft system," explained Alessandro.
VMware has shipped Tanzu Basic for service providers, making it possible to run Kubernetes on over 4000 clouds, and thereby given itself a better chance at having its containerised stack succeed.
When Virtzilla talks about its cloud presence, it focuses on its deals with hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, Google, Oracle, and Alibaba.
But the company’s cloud strategy has long had a critical second strand, in the form of the VMware Cloud Provider Program (VCPP) and its 4000-plus members that run VMware-powered clouds. Some VCPP members are whales like IBM and NTT, or significant clouds like OVH. But plenty more are the kind of smaller players that medium-sized businesses see as peers and gravitate towards. And even though they may run just a few racks, they’re trusted advisors to their clients.
Chinese tech giant Baidu and state-owned BAIC Group's ARCFOX Brand have teamed to build 1000 autonomous electric vehicles (EVs) for use as taxis over the next three years — and claim they’ve cut manufacturing costs to just $75,000 apiece.
The announcement claims the reasonable price is due to maturation in technology and mass production capabilities and makes the vehicle, called the Apollo Moon, only one third of the cost of average L4 autonomous vehicles.
Apollo Moon has a projected operating cycle of over five years and is built on the fully electric midsize crossover SUV, Arcfox α-T. As for the tech, it uses the ANP-Robotaxi navigation platform, which is currently in pilot. Baidu claims the architecture can “reduce the weight of autonomous vehicle kits while sharing intelligent driving vehicle data to create a closed-loop information ecosystem.”
PUBG, one of the highest-profile China-linked apps India banned in 2020, has been allowed back into Google’s Indian Play store despite India's previous insistence its bans are permanent.
While PUBG is owned by a South Korean company called Krafton, in India the game was previously operated by Chinese web giant Tencent. Indian authorities worried that some user data ended up behind The Great Firewall and therefore within view of the Chinese government.
The massively popular massively multiplayer shooting game was therefore banned along with 117 other apps that India deemed “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order."
South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT has revoked safety certification for 1696 communications products after discovering that test results attesting to their safety were misrepresented.
A Ministry annnouncement explains that it received a tip-off that numerous test reports for telecoms and broadcast tech had not been conducted in labs covered by international reciprocity agreements.
The tests are routine affairs to ensure that devices don’t emit harmful radiation, and several nations have signed up to a mutual recognition agreement that allows tests conducted in one nation to be widely accepted elsewhere.
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