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A fire at an overcrowded refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos kills an Afghan woman living in a shipping container. A local official claims "aggressive" residents at the camp prevented firefighters from accessing the blaze, and that thrown stones and other missiles injured first responders and damaged their vehicles. | Greek authorities are scrambling to deal with unrest at a heavily overcrowded migrant camp on Lesbos after a fire there left at least one person dead.
Officials said they had found the charred remains of an Afghan woman after the blaze erupted inside a container used to house refugees at the Moria reception centre on Sunday. The fire was eventually extinguished by plane.
More than 13,000 people are now crammed into tents and shipping containers with facilities for just 3,000 at Moria, a disused military barracks outside Mytilene, the island’s capital, where tensions are rising.
“A charred body was found, causing foreign [migrants] to rebel,” said Lefteris Economou, Greece’s deputy minister for citizen protection. “Stones and other objects were hurled, damaging three fire engines and slightly injuring four policemen and a fireman.”
The health ministry said 19 people including four children were injured, most of them in the clashes. There were separate claims that a child died with the Afghan woman.
Greece’s centre-right government said it would immediately step up transfers to the mainland. The camp is four times over capacity. “By the end of Monday 250 people will have been moved,” Economou said.
Like other Aegean isles near the Turkish coast, Lesbos has witnessed a sharp rise in arrivals of asylum seekers desperate to reach Europe in recent months.
“The situation was totally out of control,” said the local police chief, Vasillis Rodopoulos, describing the melee sparked by the fire. “Their behaviour was very aggressive, they wouldn’t let the fire engines pass to put out the blaze, and for the first time they were shouting: kill police.”
But NGO workers on Lesbos said the chaos reflected growing frustration among the camp’s occupants. There have been several fires at the facility since the EU struck a deal with Turkey in 2016 to stem the flow of migrants. A woman and child died in a similar blaze three years ago.
“No one can call the fire and these deaths an accident,” said Marco Sandrone, a field officer with Médecins Sans Frontières. “This tragedy is the direct result of a brutal policy that is trapping 13,000 people in a camp made for 3,000.
“European and Greek authorities who continue to contain these people in these conditions have a responsibility in the repetition of these dramatic episodes. It is high time to stop the EU-Turkey deal and this inhumane policy of containment. People must be urgently evacuated out of the hell that Moria has become.”
Greece currently hosts around 85,000 refugees, mostly from Syria although recent arrivals have also been from Afghanistan and Africa. Close to 35,000 have arrived this year, outstripping the numbers in Italy and Spain.
It is a critical issue for the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who won office two months ago promising to crack down on migration.
Mitsotakis raised the matter with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York last week, and Greece’s migration minister and the head of the coastguard will fly to Turkey for talks this week.
Ministers admit the island camps can no longer deal with the rise in numbers.
Government spokesman Stelios Petsas announced that a cabinet meeting called to debate emergency measures had on Monday decided to radically increase the number of deportations of asylum seekers whose requests are rejected.
“There will be an increase in returns [to Turkey],” he said. “From 1,806 returned in 4.5 years under the previous Syriza government, 10,000 will be returned by the end of 2020.”
Closed detention centres would also be established for those who had illegally entered the EU member state and did not qualify for asylum, he added.
However, Spyros Galinos, until recently the mayor of Lesbos, who held the post when close to a million Syrian refugees landed on the island, told the Guardian: “This is a bomb that will explode. Decongestion efforts aren’t enough. You move more to the mainland and others come. It’s a cycle that will continue repeating itself with devastating effect until the big explosion comes.”
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| Fire | September 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
2010 strikes in France: Further, larger strikes are planned against government attempts to increase the age of retirement for the country's workers. | A flurry of polls revealed yesterday that France is bitterly divided over continuing industrial action as the country braced itself for a further round of strikes, protests and blockades.
On Friday, the upper house of the French parliament voted in favour of a pension reform raising the retirement age to 62. Union leaders have called for two more general strikes and French schoolchildren have threatened continued protests through the holidays. As the authorities struggled to restore petrol supplies across the country following the blockading of France's 12 oil refineries, opinion polls gave a confused and contradictory picture of the level of support for more industrial action.
In an IFOP survey, 63% declared the two new days of strikes to be "justified", while a similar poll by Opinion Way found that, although around half of all French people sympathised with the strikes, 56% believed the parliamentary vote should be respected and the unions should stop industrial action.
The IFOP poll also found that 53% believed the raising of the pension age from 60 to 62 was acceptable, and Opinion Way declared that 59% disapproved of the action against petrol refineries and 63% believed the government was right to smash the blockades.
Friday evening's vote by the Senate was a vital step in the government's reforms and came after three weeks of deliberations and the use of a controversial emergency constitutional measure to speed the bill through the upper house.
The move brought anger from the Socialist party opposition. "You have not finished with pensions. You have ignored the French people. You have not listened to our proposals. Your reform is unfair," Jean-Pierre Bel, head of the Socialist Senate group, said. Another opposition senator, Pierre Mauroy, 82, said he was "dismayed" by the vote but added: "I don't consider myself beaten because this business is not finished."
Dominique Moisi, of the French Institute for International Relations, said it was impossible to predict what happens next. "I'm fascinated to know myself," he said. "I believe [President Nicolas] Sarkozy will win the pension battle but he risks losing the presidential war. People want things to return to normal. Everyone is aware our system of social protection will have to change, but what will remain in the public opinion is the image of an authoritarian, arrogant president who is reluctant to [engage in] dialogue and is very nervy."
Sarkozy, who has made pension reform the central measure of his first term in office, is determined that the final vote will take place on Tuesday after which the changes become law.
On the other side, union leaders have called for a massive mobilisation for two more days of strikes and protests, the first on Thursday, then on 6 November. Students have vowed to step up demonstrations that have already seen clashes with riot police, looting and arrests.
Anger has been fuelled because in the runup to the presidential elections in France in the spring of 2007 and after his election, Sarkozy insisted: "The right to retire at 60 years must remain."
The views of Robert Piot, a 58-year-old unemployed man, are typical of those determined to continue the protests. "To me it's a simple question of balance and mathematics: there is a pot of jobs in France and either you make older people work longer or you let young people have those jobs." | Strike | October 2010 | ['(The Observer)'] |
A total of 342 people have been arrested for attacking Hindi-speaking migrants in the Indian state of Gujarat. The new wave of violence was prompted by the arrest of a non-Gujarati for the alleged rape of a 14-month-old baby a week prior. | Non-Gujaratis were targeted and hate messages circulated against them on social media after a native of Bihar was arrested for allegedly raping a toddler.
Ahmedabad: The police have so far arrested 342 people from various parts of Gujarat for allegedly attacking non-Gujaratis, especially those hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, following the rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district, a senior officer said on Sunday.
Non-Gujaratis were targeted and hate messages circulated against them on social media after a native of Bihar was arrested for allegedly raping the toddler on 28 September.
"Six districts have mainly been affected (by the violence), with Mehsana and Sabarkantha being the worst hit. In these districts, 42 cases have been lodged and so far we have arrested 342 accused.
File image of Gujarat Police personnel. AFP
"More arrests will be made as names of the accused come up during investigation," Director General of Police Shivanand Jha told reporters.
He said 17 companies of State Reserve Police (SRP) have been deployed in the affected areas. "Security of areas inhabited by non-Gujaratis and the factories where they work has been increased. Police have also increased patrolling in these areas," he added.
Two cases have been lodged for spreading rumours on social media which led to violence, the DGP said.
Responding to a question about the exodus of non-Gujaratis following the attacks, Jha said they may be leaving for their native states in view of the upcoming festive season.
"If people are leaving for home for a festival, it should not be seen otherwise. I have told my officers to visit residential areas, and if required, visit bus stands and railway stations and if people are found leaving due to fear, (then to) persuade them to come back," he said.
Police officials in Gandhinagar, the worst-affected district, have been directed to organise camps and communicate with local leaders to convince the people to stay, he said.
Additional forces and vehicles are being provided in districts which have asked for them to ensure safety of the non-Gujarati residents, he added.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor announced that he will go on a 'sadbhavna' (goodwill) fast from 11 October if the government does not withdraw "false cases" registered against his supporters in the wake of the attacks.
He said the fast will be held to protest the "government's attempt to malign him and his supporters" over the violence.
Last week, Thakor had raked up the issue of non-Gujaratis while demanding "justice" for the rape survivor. He had demanded that local people be given preference in jobs in industries in Gujarat.
| Riot | October 2018 | ['(First Post)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill extending the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States until 2026, ahead of its expiration date next week, following talks with U.S. President Joe Biden. | Russian president spoke to Joe Biden earlier in the week about arms control pact due to lapse in February
Vladimir Putin has signed a bill extending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States a week before the pact was due to expire.
Both houses of the Russian parliament voted unanimously on Wednesday to extend the New Start treaty for five years. Putin and the US president, Joe Biden, had discussed the nuclear accord a day earlier, and the Kremlin said they agreed to complete the necessary extension procedures in the next few days.
New Start expires on 5 February. The pact’s extension doesn’t require congressional approval in the US but Russian lawmakers had to ratify the move. Russian diplomats said the extension will be validated by exchanging diplomatic notes once all the procedures are completed.
The treaty, signed in 2010 by the US president Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, who was president of Russia at the time, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.
Biden indicated during the US presidential campaign that he favoured the preservation of New Start, which was negotiated during his tenure as vice-president under Obama.
Russia had long proposed prolonging the pact without any conditions or changes, but the administration of former president Donald Trump waited until last year to start talks and made the extension contingent on a set of demands. The talks stalled, and months of bargaining failed to narrow differences.
After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New Start is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries.
Earlier this month, Russia announced that it would follow the US in pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty, which allowed surveillance flights over military facilities to help build trust and transparency between Russia and the west.
Arms control advocates hailed New Start’s extension as a boost to global security and urged Russia and the US to start negotiating follow-up agreements.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, the country’s lead negotiator on New Start, said earlier this week that Russia was ready to sit down for talks on prospective arms cuts, which he indicated should also involve non-nuclear precision weapons with strategic range.
Russia had offered to extend New Start for five years before Biden took office – a possibility that was envisaged by the pact at the time it was signed.
Trump argued that the treaty put the US at a disadvantage, and he initially insisted on adding China as a party to the pact. Beijing bluntly rejected the idea. The Trump administration then proposed extending New Start for one year and sought to expand it to include limits on battlefield nuclear weapons and other changes, and the talks stalled. | Sign Agreement | January 2021 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Further clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in East Jerusalem's Old City injure at least 90 Palestinians. | The latest violence comes on Islam’s holy night of Laylat al-Qadr, a day after Israeli police stormed Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and injured 205 Palestinians.
Dozens of Palestinians have been injured in Israeli police crackdown on protesters outside the Old City of Jerusalem as tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers prayed at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque on Islam’s holy night of Laylat al-Qadr.
At least 90 people were injured on Saturday, the Palestine Red Crescent said, a day after Israeli forces stormed Al-Aqsa and injured more than 200 Palestinians. Israeli police said at least one officer was hurt.
Israeli security forces on horseback and in riot gear deployed stun grenades and water cannon against Palestinian youth who threw stones, lit fires and tore down police barricades in the streets leading to the walled Old City gates.
Tensions have mounted in the city, the occupied West Bank and Gaza throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, amid growing anger about the potential eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers.
Israeli border guards have, during the past few days, used skunk water, tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and shock grenades to disperse sit-ins held in support of the families facing eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
At least 205 Palestinians and 18 Israeli officers were injured in Friday’s confrontations, which drew international condemnations and calls for calm.
The four members of the Middle East Quartet – the US, Russia, the EU and the UN – have expressed “deep concern” over the violence in Jerusalem.
“We are alarmed by the provocative statements made by some political groups, as well as the launching of rockets and the resumption of incendiary balloons from Gaza towards Israel, and attacks on Palestinian farmland in the West Bank,” the envoys said in a statement on Saturday.
“The Envoys noted with serious concern the possible evictions of Palestinian families from homes they have lived in for generations… and voice opposition to unilateral actions, which will only escalate the already tense environment.
“We call upon Israeli authorities to exercise restraint and to avoid measures that would further escalate the situation during this period of Muslim Holy Days.”
Medics reported that at least 64 Palestinians have now been wounded in the latest confrontations with Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem – mostly by rubber bullets, stun grenades or beatings.
The wounded include minors and a one-year-old, and 11 people were taken to hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Israeli police said at least one officer was hurt.
An estimated 90,000 people gathered for nighttime Laylat al-Qadr prayers at Al-Aqsa, the third-holiest site in Islam.
Laylat al-Qadr or the “Night of Destiny”, prayers are considered the most sacred.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says 53 Palestinians have been injured in East Jerusalem on Saturday night., said there had been a “repeated cycle of clashes and calm” in the area between Palestinian protesters throwing plastic bottles and Israeli security forces deploying stun grenades and foul-smelling skunk water.
“We have also seen some running scuffles, with people being dragged to the ground and beaten [by police] – not being arrested, but sent on their way.”
Mohammed el-Kurd, a Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah, has shared footage of Israeli police violently dispersing a sit-in by Palestinian protesters in the neighbourhood.
In one video, a group of policemen is seen destroying tents and pushing people away from the protest site. Another clip showed an officer violently dragging a Palestinian woman along the road.
An emergency Arab League meeting scheduled for Monday is unlikely to produce any change in Israel’s behaviour unless Arab states, notably those that have normalised relations with Israel, decide to take meaningful action, said Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst.
“Unless the Arab League does take some serious initiative, including putting some of those states that normalise relations with Israel on notice, unless some of those Arab countries use their leverage, whether it’s diplomatic or other, with Israel, I think we will see simply more statements,” Bishara said.
“Statements that are perhaps loud in denunciations and condemnation, but very short or low on actionable leverage in terms of forcing Israel, or its allies, not only the United States, to act in order to stop the repressions of Palestinians in Jerusalem.”
Israeli police have used rubber-coated bullets and skunk water to disperse protesters in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, an Al Jazeera correspondent said.
Hundreds of protesters are currently gathered in the vicinity of Othman bin Afan street, where Palestinian families threatened with evictions live, the correspondent added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the raid by Israeli police on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday.
“We strongly condemn Israel’s heinous attacks against our first qibla #AlAqsaMosque, that are unfortunately being carried out every Ramadan,” Erdogan wrote on Twitter.
US Senator Bernie Sanders in a tweet on Saturday called on the US government to make clear its stance against the eviction of Palestinian families in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
Although Sheikh Jarrah makes up just a tiny part of occupied East Jerusalem, the area is a major source of tension between Palestinians and Israelis.
A recent order to evict Palestinian families has triggered days of protests.
Despite international calls for restraint, the protests are intensifying. So why is the Sheikh Jarrah dispute so contentious?
Click here to learn more.
An Arab Israeli NGO has called on senior Israeli officials to order security forces to halt their “violent incursions” into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and refrain from using excessive force against Palestinian worshippers and medical personnel.
In a letter to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, lawyer Wesam Sharaf of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said the incursions endangered the lives of worshippers, and violated their right to freedom of worship.
“The [Israeli police’s] dispersal of prayer sessions using excessive force and disproportionate and abusive means constitutes a grave violation of the constitutional right of worshippers to freedom of worship, in a manifestly disproportionate manner,” Sharaf said.
During the past several years, US Congresswoman Betty McCollum has tried to spur a debate in the US about the billions of dollars Washington sends to Israel each year.
The Democrat from Minnesota wants to know more about where the money is going, and to ensure that Israel is not using US military assistance to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Last month, McCollum introduced her latest bill, which aims to get guarantees that US aid is not used in abuses against Palestinian children, the destruction of Palestinian property, the removal of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, or Israel’s attempts to further annex Palestinian land.
.
| Riot | May 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Tropical Storm Fung-wong heads towards Taiwan after leaving five people dead and 200,000 displaced in the Philippines. | Storm Fung-Wong is churning towards Taiwan after killing at least five people in the Philippines and forcing some 200,000 people into temporary shelter, including in the capital Manila, to escape massive flooding.
Most schools on the main island of Luzon remained closed for a second day as a huge mopping-up operation began. Some public offices have reopened.
"Some of our things are buried in mud, it will take awhile to clean up," a resident in Marikina City said while clearing up layers of mud and debris inside their residence.
Fung-Wong, with winds of 95kph and gusts of 120kph, slammed in the northern tip of the Philippines on Friday, cutting power in many areas and soaking rice and corn farms and bringing the capital to a near standstill.
The storm, travelling north at 15kph, is expected to hit the Taiwan on Monday, according to the state weather bureau.
Fung-Wong, locally known as "Mario" centre, is currently around 137km northeast of Laoag City in the Ilocos province in the north. It was expected to be at 647kms north of Batanes on Monday, outside the Philippine area of responsibility.
Alexander Pama, executive-director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said five people died, including a two-year-old girl who drowned in the capital. Two were electrocuted while wading in flood waters.
Mr Pama said seven people were injured and one more was still missing in floods.
A boat capsized in the central Philippines but all 53 crew and passengers were rescued by the navy, Mr Pama said.
Officials have declared a state of calamity in some areas in the capital and in Cebu City in the central Philippines due to floods, that have left some parts of the city 2 metres underwater.
Trading on the city's stock exchange and local currency market was suspended on Friday and will resume on Monday. At least 40 domestic flights were grounded and six international flights were diverted by civil aviation authorities.
More than 700,000 people were affected by the storm and about 200,000 people were forced out from their homes and staying in shelter areas, disaster officials said.
Mr Pama said some residents were rescued perching on their roofs or trapped inside their homes in Marikina and Quezon City. More than 300 areas in seven regions in the country were flooded.
Tropical storms regularly hit the Philippines, with Fung-Wong the second to hit in two weeks.
Last year, typhoon Haiyan struck in the central Philippines, killing more 6,300 people. An average of 20 typhoons hit the country every year. Reuters
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2014 | ['(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
In bicycle racing, the 71st edition of the Vuelta a España concludes with Nairo Quintana of Colombia winning the general classification. | Nairo Quintana won the Vuelta a España on Sunday, adding the title to the 2014 Giro d’Italia on his Grand Tour list of honours.
The Movistar climbing expert had cemented his commanding lead over Team Sky’s Chris Froome in Saturday’s decisive mountain stage.
Following custom, Froome did not challenge Quintana on the traditional ride into the Spanish capital on the 21st and final stage. The Colombian finished 1min 23sec in front of the Tour de France winner.
“It’s been tough, I won’t lie, especially on the back of the Tour de France and then going to Rio for the road race and time trial at the Olympics,” Froome told Eurosport. “Coming here, it means I haven’t had much time at home for the last three months. I’ve had a lot time away from the family.”
Quintana completed the gruelling three-week race that covered 3,315.5km in 83hr 31min 28sec.
Esteban Chaves finished in third place and more than four minutes off the pace. He was followed by the three-times Vuelta winner Alberto Contador in fourth.
“I woke up this morning feeling like the winner but I couldn’t raise my arms in celebration until I crossed the finish line,” Quintana said. “This is probably the most important win for me, considering the scenario and who I was racing against. Froome is a great rival.”
Magnus Cort Nielsen of Denmark won the flat 105km ride starting in Las Rozas before making loops through Madrid’s centre. It was his second stage win of this race.
At 26 Quintana has established himself as one of the top riders in the world and the main rival to the three-times Tour de France winner Froome. Quintana has twice finished runner-up to Froome at the Tour, most recently in July when he could not mount a serious challenge to the dominant Sky team.
Froome finished second at the Vuelta for a third time, after also coming close in 2011 and 2014. “Nairo was great this Vuelta. Team Movistar was great this Vuelta ... they really rode well and deserve the victory,” Froome said.
Quintana, who became the second Colombian to win this race after Luis Herrera in 1987, said winning the Tour remained his main goal. “It’s a dream that is still with me and I hope one day I can make it come true,” he said. “I will keep working toward it.”
… as you’re joining us today from Korea, we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s high-impact journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5 million readers, from 180 countries, have recently taken the step to support us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.
With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.
Unlike many others, Guardian journalism is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of global events, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action.
We aim to offer readers a comprehensive, international perspective on critical events shaping our world – from the Black Lives Matter movement, to the new American administration, Brexit, and the world's slow emergence from a global pandemic. We are committed to upholding our reputation for urgent, powerful reporting on the climate emergency, and made the decision to reject advertising from fossil fuel companies, divest from the oil and gas industries, and set a course to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.
If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers our journalism and sustains our future. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – it only takes a minute. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you. | Sports Competition | September 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Voters in the Dominican Republic go to the polls to elect a new president; with 79% of the vote counted, former president Leonel Fernández is declared the winner. | His statement confirmed early results showing that former head of state Leonel Fernandez had won about 51% of the vote.
A decisive factor seems to have been the economic crisis which is afflicting the country.
After a bitter election campaign with allegation of dirty tricks, voting was marred by several violent incidents.
Three people were shot dead outside a polling station in the town of Barahona, about 180km (110 miles) south-west of the capital, Santo Domingo.
In a separate event on the outskirts of the capital, witnesses saw armed men fire in the air in an attempt to raid a voting booth to steal ballot boxes.
Violence claimed 13 lives during the 2000 election
However, the BBC's Claire Marshall in Santo Domingo says widespread fears of electoral fraud did not prove correct, with only minor irregularities reported.
The country - which shares the same island as Haiti - has been hit by rampant inflation and high unemployment.
Analysts say there is nostalgia for the relative prosperity under Mr Fernandez in the late 1990s, when the country's economy grew more than 7% annually. President Mejia had blamed a world recession and a bank fraud scandal for the country's economic woes. | Government Job change - Election | May 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
Three ISIS supporters stab a 56-year-old French Jew and history teacher in Marseille, France. The attackers are interrupted and flee. The teacher's wounds are not life-threatening. , | PARIS -- Tziyon Saadon, a 56-year-old French Jew and history teacher, was walking down a street Wednesday in Marseille, the second-largest city in France, when three men who reportedly sympathize with the Islamic State group repeatedly stabbed him. Saadon, who teaches at a Jewish school in Paris’ 19th district, was expected to make a full recovery.
"They told him they were going to torture him before they killed him," Michele Teboul, a resident of Marseille province, told BFMTV, a local news channel.
The three men approached the teacher on two motorcycles and proceeded to question him about his religion. After the victim told them he was Jewish, they began to stab him while shouting racial slurs, according to a police report.
The attack stopped when police officers approached the scene and the attackers fled, according to French news outlet Liberation.
"The three people insulted, threatened and then stabbed their victim in the arm and leg,” Marseilles Prosecutor Brice Robin told Reuters.
One of the attackers was wearing a shirt bearing “symbols” of the group also known as ISIS, Robin said. A second attacker reportedly used his cell phone to show the teacher a photo of French-Algerian terrorist Mohamed Merah, dubbed the “motorcycle killer.” Merah was aligned with al Qaeda, and claimed responsibility for killing three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, in 2012.
The third attacker filmed the entire incident on his phone, Teboul said.
“Anti-Semitism is a core tenet of Islamic extremist ideology, so attacks on Jews by ISIS sympathizers should come as no surprise,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. “Attacks on French Jews have been paired with attacks on France as a whole several times.”
In January, a day after the deadly attacks at French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, an ISIS supporter took more than a dozen hostages in kosher supermarket Hyper Cacher in Paris before killing five people.
Wednesday’s attack followed one of the deadliest terror attacks France has seen in decades. Seven attackers allegedly aligned with ISIS carried out six separate targets across Paris on Friday night, killing at least 129 people and injuring hundreds more. | Riot | November 2015 | ['(The International Business Times)', '(Time)'] |
Gloria Stuart, the oldest–ever nominee for an Academy award, specifically the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the elder Rose in the 1997 film Titanic, dies in Los Angeles, aged 100. | As Old Rose, the survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, she was nominated for supporting actress for the 1997 blockbuster as well as a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award, which she shared with Kim Basinger.
In July, Stuart was feted for her centennial year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences with an evening hosted by film historian Leonard Maltin. "In an industry that tends not to be sentimental, she really was the comeback kid of the 20th century," said Maltin. Maltin noted that Stuart had returned to TV and film work long before "Titanic," but it wasn't until she was given the meaty role of Old Rose that the biz took notice of her again.
"She played it so well -- that is the crucial point about her return in 'Titanic.' She didn't just show up," Maltin said. "She was wryly funny and appealing."
As a blond ingenue, Stuart began her career at the Pasadena Playhouse. She was soon signed by Universal, and made her film debut in Kay Francis starrer "Street of Women" in 1932.
Stuart was remembered as an early "scream queen" for her work in "Frankenstein," "The Old Dark House," "The Invisible Man" and "The Kiss Before the Mirror."
Other films included "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," "Time Out for Murder," "The Prisoner of Shark Island" and "Gold Diggers of 1935."
Stuart was also a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, which honored her in June with its Ralph Morgan Award. At the time, Frances Fisher noted that Stuart had been part of the first SAG board meeting in June 1937, 23 days after the guild signed its first contract with the studios.
Stuart told Daily Variety that she became involved with SAG for two reasons -- she'd attended UC Berkeley, where she'd been impressed with Robert Oppenheimer's leftist politics, and and she became distressed by what she saw as unfair working conditions on film sets. "I was a contract player at Universal, so you had to be ready at 8 a.m. promptly -- which meant you'd have to be in hair and makeup at 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.," Stuart said. "Then you worked 'til 7 or 8 at night, so actors like me were being taken advantage of."
Born in Santa Monica in 1910, Stuart was married twice, first to sculptor Blair Gordon Newell and then to Marx Brothers screenwriter Arthur Sheekman, with whom she had a daughter.
Stuart had an eventful and multifaceted life of which acting was just one part. She had several showings of her painting and exhibited her handmade artists' books in 2009 in Venice, Calif. While living at the famed Garden of Allah apartments, she was part of a community of L.A. intellectuals including writers M.F.K. Fisher, Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker.
After working on several films into the 1940s, she retired from the screen, opening a furniture boutique, raising her daughter and taking up painting. On her return to acting, she appeared in shows including "The Waltons," the TV movie "Flood" and the film "My Favorite Year."
In 1997, she was cast at Rose Calvert in James Cameron's "Titanic," and she served as narrator for the blockbuster film. At the time Cameron said he was looking for someone who had been out of the public eye for some decades.
"I had to have someone who'd play the latter part of the life of someone we'd recognize, Kate Winslet, so it couldn't be someone like Katharine Hepburn," Cameron told the Los Angeles Times in 1997. "Gloria had just enough distance, and she gave this fantastic reading."
The helmer, his wife, Suzy Amis, and a host of Stuart's friends helped celebrate her 100th birthday in July.
After "Titanic," she appeared in shows including "Murder She Wrote," "Touched by an Angel" and "General Hospital" plus Wim Wenders' "Land of Plenty." | Famous Person - Death | September 2010 | ['(Variety)'] |
The government of Myanmar announces that it has reached a repatriation agreement with the United Nations regarding Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, saying it will assure that refugees "can return voluntarily in safety and dignity." Members of the UNHCR and the UNDP will be allowed to work in Rakhine State to monitor the process. | Refugees in Bangladesh who fled violence at hands of the military express concerns over details of the plan Last modified on Mon 11 Jun 2018 08.56 BST
Myanmar’s government has announced an agreement with two UN agencies for the return of refugees who fled violence in Rakhine state, but Rohingya have expressed concerns that it does not do enough to guarantee their safety.
Over 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled to squalid camps in neighbouring Bangladesh since last August, when Myanmar’s army led a brutal crackdown, which saw tens of thousands tortured and killed, villages razed to the ground and women raped, following insurgent attacks on security posts. The memorandum is a key step forward in the slow and halting process of repatriation. Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to begin repatriating the Rohingya, but the refugees expressed concern that they would be forced to return and would face unsafe conditions in Myanmar if the process was not monitored by aid groups. This was a view echoed by the international community. The UN has been denied access to Rakhine since August last year, but UNHCR and UNDP staff will be able to enter the region and properly assess the conditions. Knut Ostby, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, said there were “hundreds of thousands of people living in totally unsustainable conditions on the Bangladesh side. They cannot stay where they are and so it’s important we try to do our best to bring them back home, but in a way that is voluntary, dignified and safe and gives them a chance to rebuild their lives.”
In a statement, the Myanmar government said they had made the agreement with the UN so that verified displaced people “can return voluntarily in safety and dignity”.
However, the details of the memorandum were sparse and left many concerned that it would not address some of the key issues of repatriation, such as whether the UN supported the Myanmar government’s plans to temporarily house those Rohingya who have been accepted back to Myanmar in a 124-acre “transit camp” in Hla Po Khaung, northern Rakhine, before they are sent to one of 11 designated settlement areas to live. Many Rohingya believe these settlements will simply be “open air prisons”.
Bangladesh-based Rohingya political activist Ko Ko Linn alleged that incidents of violence were still being carried out against Rohingya in Myanmar, making safe repatriation seem impossible at this stage. “While the situation for the Rohingya still remains so hostile, we cannot believe that Myanmar has been sincere in the process to repatriate them,” he said.
Another issue is that while the Myanmar government statement specified that the memorandum applied to Rohingya who had been “duly verified”, many lack the necessary paperwork and documentation having fled the violence with few, if any, possessions. The memorandum also does not spell out the UN’s role in Rakhine post-repatriation, and the role the UN agencies would play in ensuring the Rohingya community were not subject to the same violence, which was described by the US and the UN as ethnic cleansing. Mohammad Umor, a 48-year-old Rohingya refugee who lives in Balukhali camp since he fled Myanmar in August, told the Guardian that the Rohingya wanted the UN to promise to keep peacekeepers in Rakhine after repatriation. “They must facilitate our return to our original villages and our confiscated lands and other properties must be returned to us,” said Umor. “We cannot live with those police and soldiers – who raped and killed so many Rohingya people – around us. The UN and Burma [Myanmar] government must keep UN peacekeeping forces for our safety in Rakhine.”
However, Ostby emphasised that “once the conditions are in place for the return, then we will deal with protection issues when that repatriation happens”.
The UN said in a separate statement that conditions in Myanmar were still not yet appropriate for the return, but that they would be working with the government to make progress. Ostby said the two key conditions that the Myanmar government had to demonstrate for the UN to green light repatriation were assured citizenship for the Rohingya – ensuring they were “able to have an identity, to be able to exist as normal persons in society” – and also an assurance that they would not be at risk of being attacked or subject to any local violence.
Rohingya Muslims face official and social discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, which denies most of them citizenship and basic rights by not recognising them as one of the country’s indigenous ethnic groups. Ensuring that the Rohingya are no longer considered a “stateless people” is a key condition of the memorandum, though so far the Myanmar government has not shown any willingness to accept the Rohingya as citizens, and in official statements often still refers to them derogatorily as “Bengalis”.
The official timeline given for repatriation by the Bangladesh government is two years but Ostby admitted that was optimistic. “It’s more important to make sure we are not bringing people back into an unstable situation,” he said. “It’s an enormous job and obviously this is not a final agreement where everybody will magically be returned. It’s now that the work starts.”
Shaikh Azizur Rahman contributed to this report
… | Sign Agreement | June 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Israeli Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi resigns after a Government commission finds that he ignored links between senior officers and underworld figures and failed to ensure a proper investigation of a 1999 killing of an alleged crime boss. | JERUSALEM --Israel's police commander resigned Sunday after a government commission said he ignored ties between senior officers and underworld figures and failed to ensure a thorough investigation into the 1999 killing of a suspected crime boss.
The resignation of Moshe Karadi was the latest in a series of public scandals and controversies involving Israel's top leadership -- including rape allegations against the president and questions over the prime minister's role in a bank sale.
Earlier Sunday, commission chairman Vardi Zeiler, a retired judge, said Karadi should lose his job for the incomplete investigation and for ignoring ties between senior police officers and top organized crime figures. Karadi was not police commissioner at the time of the killing, but a departmental head.
Terminating Karadi's appointment would "highlight a clear norm for generations to come that someone who behaves like Karadi would be unable to complete his term as police commissioner," Zeiler told reporters.
The commission was formed to examine whether police properly closed the case of the murder, in which a rogue police officer confessed to shooting a suspected crime boss hospitalized under police guard after an assassination attempt.
The officer, who said he operated at the behest of a well-known Israeli crime family, was later murdered in Mexico, allegedly by members of the crime family angered by his confession. The case was later closed after police concluded there was not enough evidence.
Karadi insisted that the allegations against him were untrue, but said he was resigning to "set a personal example" and spare the police the harm of a scandal.
Karadi was a top official in southern Israel at the time of the 1999 killing, and the commission rebuked him for promoting a police commander suspected in hushing up the case on behalf of the crime family that allegedly hired the murdered officer.
Israelis have become increasingly disheartened by their leadership.
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz recently resigned as the military chief of staff after coming under withering criticism for the flawed summer war against Lebanese guerrillas.
President Moshe Katsav, now on a leave of absence, has been accused of preying on women who worked for him, and faces allegations of rape, sexual assault and abuse of power.
Former Justice Minister Haim Ramon was recently convicted in a separate sexual misconduct case, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under investigation for his role in the sale of a government-controlled bank, and accused of improprieties in a string of real estate deals.
Top tax officials, along with a long-standing Olmert aide, are embroiled in an influence-peddling investigation, and the finance minister has come under scrutiny for his earlier conduct in connection with an embezzlement scheme at a not-for-profit organization.
Just two hours after Karadi resigned, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter announced that the new police commander would be Yaakov Ganot, commander of the prisons service. The government has not said when he would take office. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2007 | ['(AP via Boston Globe)'] |
China National Space Administration's robotic lander Chang'e 4 successfully lands at the Von Kármán lunar crater on the far side of the Moon. | China says it has successfully landed a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, the first ever such attempt and landing.
At 10:26 Beijing time (02:26 GMT), the un-crewed Chang'e-4 probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, state media said.
It is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region's geology, as well to conduct biological experiments.
The landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration.
There have been numerous missions to the Moon in recent years, but the vast majority have been to orbit, fly by or impact. The last crewed landing was Apollo 17 in 1972.
Why China has its eye on the stars
The Chang'e-4 probe has already sent back its first pictures from the surface, which were shared by state media.
With no direct communication link possible, all pictures and data have to be bounced off a separate satellite before being relayed to Earth.
Previous Moon missions have landed on the Earth-facing side, but this is the first time any craft has landed successfully on the unexplored and rugged far side.
Some spacecraft have crashed into the far side, either after system failures, or after they had completed their mission.
Ye Quanzhi, an astronomer at Caltech, told the BBC this was the first time China had "attempted something that other space powers have not attempted before".
The Chang'e-4 was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China on 7 December; it arrived in lunar orbit on 12 December.
It was then directed to lower itself toward the Moon, being careful to identify and avoid obstacles, Chinese state media say. The Chang'e-4 probe is aiming to explore a place called the Von Kármán crater, located within the much larger South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin - thought to have been formed by a giant impact early in the Moon's history.
"This huge structure is over 2,500km (1,550 miles) in diameter and 13km deep, one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System and the largest, deepest and oldest basin on the Moon," Andrew Coates, professor of physics at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, told the BBC. The event responsible for carving out the SPA basin is thought to have been so powerful, it punched through the Moon's crust and down into the zone called the mantle. Researchers will want to train the instruments on any mantle rocks exposed by the calamity. The science team also hopes to study parts of the sheet of melted rock that would have filled the newly formed South Pole-Aitken Basin, allowing them to identify variations in its composition.
A third objective is to study the far-side regolith, the broken up rocks and dust that make up the surface, which will help us understand the formation of the Moon.
Chang'e-4's static lander is carrying two cameras; a German-built radiation experiment called LND; and a spectrometer that will perform low-frequency radio astronomy observations.
Scientists believe the far side could be an excellent place to perform radio astronomy, because it is shielded from the radio noise of Earth. The spectrometer work will aim to test this idea.
The lander also carried a container with six live species from Earth - cotton, rapeseed, potato, fruit fly, yeast and arabidopsis (a flowering plant) - to try to form a mini biosphere.
The arabidopsis plant may produce the first flower on the Moon, Chinese state media say.
Other equipment/experiments include:
The mission is part of a larger Chinese programme of lunar exploration. The first and second Chang'e missions were designed to gather data from orbit, while the third and fourth were built for surface operations. Chang'e-5 and 6 are sample return missions, delivering lunar rock and soil to laboratories on Earth.
The lunar far side is often referred to as the "dark side", though "dark" in this case means "unseen" rather than "lacking light". In fact, both the near and far sides of the Moon experience daytime and nighttime.
But because of a phenomenon called "tidal locking", we see only one face of the Moon from Earth. This is because the Moon takes just as long to rotate on its own axis as it takes to complete one orbit of Earth.
The far side has a thicker, older crust that is pocked with more craters. There are also very few of the "maria" - dark basaltic "seas" created by lava flows - that are evident on the near side.
In an article for the US-based Planetary Society in September, Dr Long Xiao from the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), said: "The challenge faced by a far side mission is communications. With no view of Earth, there is no way to establish a direct radio link."
So the landers must communicate with Earth using a relay satellite named Queqiao - or Magpie Bridge - launched by China last May.
Queqiao orbits 65,000km beyond the Moon, around a Lagrange point - a kind of gravitational parking spot in space where it will remain visible to ground stations in China and other countries such as Argentina.
China wants to become a leading power in space exploration, alongside the United States and Russia.
In 2017 it announced it was planning to send astronauts to the Moon.
It will also begin building its own space station next year, with the hope it will be operating by 2022.
The chief designer of China's lunar exploration programme, Wu Weiren, has described Thursday's landing as "an important milestone" for the country's space effort, state media report. The BBC's John Sudworth in Beijing says the propaganda value of China's leaps forward in its space programme has been tempered by careful media management. There was very little news of the Chang'e 4 landing attempt before the official announcement it had been a success.
But Fred Watson, who promotes Australia's astronomy endeavours as its astronomer-at-large, says the secrecy could simply be down to caution, similar to that shown by the Soviet Union in the early days of its competition with Nasa.
"The Chinese space agency is a young organisation, but perhaps in years to come, it will catch up," he told the BBC.
Ye Quanzhi says China has made efforts to be more open.
"They live-streamed the launch of Chang'e 2 and 3, as well as the landing of Chang'e 3. PR skills take time to develop but I think China will get there," he said.
China has been a late starter when it comes to space exploration. Only in 2003, it sent its first astronaut into orbit, making it the third country to do so, after the Soviet Union and the US.
The far side landing has already been heralded by experts at Nasa as "a first for humanity and an impressive accomplishment".
| New achievements in aerospace | January 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Saudi Arabia sentences seven ISIL militants to death over a 2014 mass shooting that killed eight Shiite Muslims near the city of al-Ahsa. Three other convicts were given 25-year jail sentences. | RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi court has sentenced seven Islamic State militants to death over a 2014 shooting attack that killed eight Shi’ite Muslims near the eastern city of al-Ahsa, state television reported on Wednesday.
In November 2014, three suspected members of the Sunni Muslim jihadist group opened fire on Shi’ites who were celebrating Ashura, a holy festival in their calendar, in the village of Dalwa, killing eight people there.
Seven defendants were sentenced to death after their conviction while three others were handed 25-year jail terms each, the Ekhbariya channel said on Twitter.
Sunni militants have carried out many shootings and bombings in Saudi Arabia since 2014, soon after the then-Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, summoned Saudi supporters to mount attacks at home instead of abroad in wars in Syria and Iraq.
Most of the attacks targeted minority Saudi Shi’ites or state security officers, and were carried out by people who had sworn allegiance to Islamic State or were claimed by the militant group in online postings, Saudi authorities said.
Saudi Arabia had earlier barred its citizens from going to wage jihad (holy war) abroad, used its Sunni clergy to denounce Islamic State, imposed prison terms for supporting the group and joined U.S.-led air strikes against IS in Syria.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
According to sources familiar with his decision, former U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn invokes his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and declines to comply with a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. | WASHINGTON Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, misled Pentagon investigators about his income from companies in Russia and contacts with officials there when he applied for a renewal of his top-secret security clearance last year, according to a letter released Monday by the top Democrat on the House oversight committee.
Mr. Flynn, who resigned 24 days into the Trump administration, told investigators in February 2016 that he had received no income from foreign companies and had only “insubstantial contact” with foreign nationals, according to the letter. In fact, Mr. Flynn had sat two months earlier beside President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at a Moscow gala for RT, the Kremlin-financed television network, which paid him more than $45,000 to attend the event and give a separate speech.
His failure to make those disclosures and his apparent attempt to mislead the Pentagon could put Mr. Flynn in further legal jeopardy. Intentionally lying to federal investigators is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Separately, he also faces legal questions over failing to properly register as a foreign agent for lobbying he did last year on behalf of Turkey while advising the Trump campaign, which is also a felony.
The House letter, written by Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, was made public hours after Mr. Flynn formally rejected a subpoena from senators investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and chose to instead invoke his right against self-incrimination, a person familiar with his decision said.
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Mr. Flynn had been ordered by the Senate Intelligence Committee to hand over emails and other records related to any dealings with Russians as part of that panel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. His decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right puts him at risk of being held in contempt of Congress, which can also result in a criminal charge.
In a letter to the heads of the Intelligence Committee, Mr. Flynn’s lawyers said that the accusations against him, as well as the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department investigation into Russian election interference, gave him “reasonable cause to apprehend danger” should he comply with the subpoena.
“He is the target on a nearly daily basis of outrageous allegations, often attributed to anonymous sources in Congress or elsewhere in the United States government, which, however fanciful on their face and unsubstantiated by evidence, feed the escalating public frenzy against him,” his lawyers wrote.
They also reiterated his willingness to testify in exchange for immunity. A lawyer for Mr. Flynn, Robert Kelner, did not respond to a request for comment about Mr. Cummings’s letter.
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The controversies surrounding the Trump White House’s ties to Russia have overshadowed the early months of the new administration, and Mr. Flynn has been at the center of the maelstrom. He is under scrutiny both by congressional committees and by federal law enforcement agencies for his ties to Russia and his business dealings with Turkey.
In a letter to Representative Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the ranking minority member, requested a subpoena for documents related to any connections between Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, and Russia. In the request, Mr. Cummings highlights an encounter between Mr. Flynn and high-level Russian officials that he failed to disclose for a security clearance check as reasoning for the subpoena.
In February, Mr. Trump asked James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, to end the bureau’s investigation into Mr. Flynn, a request some legal experts have said amounts to obstruction of justice.
Lawmakers previously said that Mr. Flynn had failed to disclose the income he received for the Moscow trip when he was seeking clearance to work in the White House. The letter released Monday showed that he had misled investigators during a previous attempt to renew his clearance, months before Mr. Trump was elected.
Mr. Cummings’s letter indicated that Mr. Flynn misled Pentagon investigators during the clearance process, including during an in-person interview in February 2016. Mr. Cummings quoted directly from the Pentagon report detailing Mr. Flynn’s clearance process. The document itself was not included with his letter, sent to Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who is the chairman of the oversight committee.
As Mr. Flynn’s legal problems have accumulated, White House officials have tried to distance themselves from him. They have also tried to shift blame, pointing out that it was during the Obama administration that his security clearance was renewed. Mr. Flynn, a former three-star general, ran the Defense Intelligence Agency from mid-2012 until 2014.
The House committee has asked the White House to turn over all documents used by Mr. Trump’s transition team to vet Mr. Flynn, as well as any communications among Mr. Trump’s top aides about Mr. Flynn’s contacts with foreign officials.
The White House has thus far refused to comply with the request. Mr. Cummings has been pushing Mr. Chaffetz to issue a subpoena demanding the documents.
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“In refusing our requests for a subpoena, you have made the same argument as President Trump that you believe the White House bears no responsibility for vetting General Flynn for the position of national security adviser because he received his latest security clearance renewal under the Obama administration in early 2016,” Mr. Cummings wrote to Mr. Chaffetz.
Previous documents released by the oversight committee revealed that Mr. Flynn was paid more than $65,000 by companies linked to Russia in 2015. In addition to RT, he received $11,250 from a Russian cargo airline, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which had been implicated in a bribery scheme involving Russian officials at the United Nations. In October 2015, he was paid another $11,250 by Kaspersky Government Security Solutions, the American branch of a Russian cybersecurity firm.
Retired generals are ordinarily allowed to keep a clearance as a courtesy, but they must report all income from foreign sources to the Pentagon. Possessing a security clearance opens up potentially lucrative jobs with government contractors, who prize contacts and insider knowledge.
In a letter to Congress last month, the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, said his office had opened an investigation into whether Mr. Flynn failed to properly report income from foreign governments.
As for his refusal to comply with the Senate’s subpoena, it is up to lawmakers to decide whether to hold him in contempt of Congress. Mr. Flynn said in March that he would talk to congressional investigators in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Lawmakers declined his offer, though they did not rule out the possibility of revisiting the issue.
Senators Richard M. Burr of North Carolina and Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee’s Republican chairman and Democratic vice chairman, vowed in a statement to continue seeking the documents, as well as Mr. Flynn’s testimony.
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Two other people in Mr. Trump’s orbit during the campaign Roger Stone, a longtime adviser, and Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman have provided some documents requested by the Senate Intelligence Committee, a person close to the investigation said Monday.
Mr. Flynn’s decision was first reported by The Associated Press.
His assertion of the Fifth Amendment may not hold up in court. Raymond Granger, a New York-based lawyer and former state and federal prosecutor, said it was “a common mistake” for witnesses to try to apply their right to protect themselves against self-incrimination to documents.
“However, if they try to litigate this, they would lose quickly and badly,” Mr. Granger said of Mr. Flynn’s lawyers. He said the Fifth Amendment generally does not apply to documents because it is intended to shield Americans from having their compelled statements used against them not statements made voluntarily, such as on a document, or supplied by a third party.
Mr. Flynn’s lawyers disputed that notion in their letter, referring to producing the documents as “a testimonial act” that would be protected by the Fifth Amendment.
Should he testify before the committee, Mr. Flynn could invoke his Fifth Amendment right at that time.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who ran Mr. Trump’s transition team until a few days after the election, said publicly for the first time Monday that he had advised Mr. Trump against selecting Mr. Flynn for a White House position.
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“It’s safe to say that General Flynn and I didn’t see eye to eye,” Mr. Christie told reporters during a news conference in Trenton. “And that I didn’t think that he was someone who would bring benefit to the president or to the administration. And I made that very clear to candidate Trump, and I made it very clear to President-elect Trump.”
Separately, Mr. Chaffetz said he had decided to postpone a potential oversight committee hearing with testimony from Mr. Comey after the two spoke Monday.
“He wants to speak with special counsel prior to public testimony,” Mr. Chaffetz said on Twitter, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, who was appointed last week to lead the federal investigation into Russian election meddling. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)'] |
The death toll rises to 7 from a pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California, near the U.S. city of San Francisco. | 2010-09-11 23:18:00 PDT -- At least seven are dead and six missing following a massive explosion in San Bruno Thursday evening, according to police.
Specially trained dogs this evening found three victims, bringing the total to seven fatalities of the explosion, which happened at about 6:15 p.m. Thursday evening near Skyline Boulevard and San Bruno Avenue.
"Our hearts go out to the victims of this tragedy," San Bruno police Chief Neil Telford said in a statement.
A press conference will be held at 8 a.m. Sunday morning to discuss how displaced residents may return to their homes.
Homes that have been completely destroyed will remain off-limits, while other residents whose houses have sustained moderate damage may only be allowed back to collect some belongings, said City Manager Connie Jackson. | Gas explosion | September 2010 | ['(Bay City News via San Francisco Chronicle)'] |
The Lebanese Army states that 14 soldiers have been killed and 22 are missing after alleged clashes with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters on the Syrian border. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese army said on Monday 22 of its soldiers were missing and another 14 had been killed following clashes with Islamist militants at the Syrian border. In a statement, the army said another 86 soldiers had been injured in the fighting in Arsal, where militant Islamists launched an attack on security forces on Saturday
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese army said on Monday 22 of its soldiers were missing and another 14 had been killed following clashes with Islamist militants at the Syrian border.
In a statement, the army said another 86 soldiers had been injured in the fighting in Arsal, where militant Islamists launched an attack on security forces on Saturday. | Armed Conflict | August 2014 | ['(First Post)'] |
British–born American Oliver Hart and Finnish Bengt Holmström win the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work on the science of contracts. | UK-born Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom of Finland have won the Nobel economics prize for work on contract theory.
Judges said their work laid "an intellectual foundation" for policies in areas such as bankruptcy legislation and political constitutions.
The pair will receive 8 million Swedish krona (£744,652) from the committee.
Mr Hart, who was woken with the news at 4.40am, said his first reaction had been to hug his wife and wake his younger son. Mr Holmstrom said he felt "very lucky" and "grateful".
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that Mr Hart and Mr Holmstrom's work was "valuable to the understanding of real-life contracts and institutions".
It also said it could identify "potential pitfalls in contract design."
Working separately, the two created tools to help determine whether public sector workers should receive fixed salaries or performance-based pay, and whether providers of public services should be publicly or privately owned.
Mr Holmstrom in particular is known for his research into how contracts and incentives affect corporate behaviour.
The former Nokia board member declined to say whether he thought executive pay was too high these days, but commented: "My personal view is that [top executives' contracts] are too complicated today."
Mr Holmstrom, aged 67, is a professor of economics and management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while Mr Hart, born in 1948, is an economics professor at Harvard University in the US.
The pair saw off competition from the World Bank's new chief economist Paul Romer, who was widely tipped to win.
New York University's Stern Business School, where Prof Romer teaches, sparked controversy last Thursday when it accidently published a press release naming him as the winner.
It quickly took down the release, saying it was only preparing for a possible win.
Others believed to be the running included Olivier Blanchard, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, and Edward Lazear, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
The economics prize is the only Nobel not created by Alfred Nobel, and was instead launched in 1968, long after the philanthropist's death.
To date Americans have dominated the award, with 55 of the 76 laureates holding US citizenship, including those with dual nationalities.
Last year Scottish-born economist Angus Deaton won the prize for his use of data to investigate income inequality and inform economic policy. It is the fifth Nobel to be announced this year, after prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and peace were awarded last week.
The Nobel prize for literature will be awarded on Thursday.
| Awards ceremony | October 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
The skeletons of 200 mammoths, 25 camels, and five horses are unearthed at a construction site for the Mexico City Santa Lucía Airport. It surpasses Mammoth Site, Hot Springs, South Dakota, United States as the largest find of mammoth bones, which had 61 skeletons. | The number of mammoth skeletons recovered at an airport construction site north of Mexico City has risen to at least 200, with a large number still to be excavated, experts said Thursday. Archeologists hope the site that has become “mammoth central” — the shores of an ancient lake bed that both attracted and trapped mammoths in its marshy soil — may help solve the riddle of their extinction. Experts said that finds are still being made at the site, including signs that humans may have made tools from the bones of the lumbering animals that died somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. There are so many mammoths at the site of the new Santa Lucia airport that observers have to accompany each bulldozer that digs into the soil to make sure work is halted when mammoth bones are uncovered. “We have about 200 mammoths, about 25 camels, five horses,” said archeologist Rubén Manzanilla López of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, referring to animals that went extinct in the Americas. The site is only about 12 miles from artificial pits, essentially shallow mammoth traps, that were dug by early inhabitants to trap and kill dozens of mammoths. World & Nation
Mexico City was once the realm of the mammoth
World & Nation
Mexico City was once the realm of the mammoth
The giant pachyderms once roamed the Valley of Mexico.
July 12, 2020
Manzanilla López said evidence is beginning to emerge suggesting that even if the mammoths at the airport died natural deaths after becoming stuck in the mud of the ancient lake bed, their remains may have been carved up by humans. Something similar happened at the mammoth-trap site in the hamlet of San Antonio Xahuento, in the nearby township of Tultepec.
While tests are still being carried out on the mammoth bones to try to find possible butchering marks, archeologists have found dozens of mammoth-bone tools — usually shafts used to hold other tools or cutting implements — like ones in Tultepec.
“Here we have found evidence that we have the same kind of tools, but until we can do the laboratory studies to see marks of these tools or possible tools, we can’t say we have evidence that is well-founded,” Manzanilla López said.
Paleontologist Joaquin Arroyo Cabrales said the airport site “will be a very important site to test hypotheses” about the mass extinction of mammoths.
Science
Scientists ‘resurrect’ gene believed to have helped woolly mammoths tolerate cold
Science
Scientists ‘resurrect’ gene believed to have helped woolly mammoths tolerate cold
No one has brought a woolly mammoth back from extinction, but a team of scientists has brought back a woolly mammoth gene, discovering that it and others unique to the long-vanished elephant-like beasts probably helped the animals withstand the harsh cold of the Arctic tundra. July 2, 2015
“What caused these animals’ extinction, everywhere there is a debate, whether it was climate change or the presence of humans,” Arroyo Cabrales said. “I think in the end the decision will be that there was a synergy effect between climate change and human presence.”
Ashley Leger, a paleontologist at the California-based Cogstone Resource Management company, who was not involved in the dig, noted that such natural death groupings “are rare. A very specific set of conditions that allow for a collection of remains in an area but also be preserved as fossils must be met. There needs to be a means for them to be buried rapidly and experience low oxygen levels.”
The site near Mexico City now appears to have outstripped the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, S.D. — which has about 61 sets of remains — as the world’s largest find of mammoth bones. Large concentrations have also been found in Siberia and at Los Angeles’ La Brea tar pits.
For now, the mammoths seem to be everywhere at the site and the finds may slow down, but not stop, work on the new airport.
Entertainment & Arts
Mammoth news! La Brea Tar Pits chooses its design team Entertainment & Arts
Mammoth news! La Brea Tar Pits chooses its design team The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles had narrowed the choice down to three architectural teams: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Weiss/Manfredi and Dorte Mandrup.
Dec. 11, 2019
Mexican Army Capt. Jesus Cantoral, who oversees efforts to preserve remains at the army-led construction site, said “a large number of excavation sites” are still pending detailed study, and that observers have to accompany backhoes and bulldozers every time they break ground at a new spot.
The airport project is so huge, he noted, that the machines can just go work somewhere else while archeologists study a specific area.
The airport project is scheduled for completion in 2022, at which point the dig will end. | New archeological discoveries | September 2020 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
The United States is to limit military support to Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Yemen amid concerns over rising civilian casualties. | The United States has decided to limit military support to Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen because of concerns over widespread civilian casualties and will halt a planned arms sale to the kingdom, U.S. officials told Reuters.
The United States will also revamp future training of the kingdom’s air force to focus on improving Saudi targeting practices, a persistent source of concern for Washington.
The decision reflects deep frustration within President Barack Obama’s government over Saudi Arabia’s practices in Yemen’s 20-month-old war, which has killed more than 10,000 people and sparked humanitarian crises, including chronic food shortages, in the poorest country in the Middle East.
It could also further strain ties between Washington and Riyadh in the remaining days of Obama’s administration and put the question of Saudi-U.S. relations squarely before the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20.
Still, the decision was not the cut-off in support that Saudi Arabia’s biggest critics had hoped for and much of the U.S. military relationship will remain intact.
For example, the United States will keep refueling Saudi-led coalition aircraft involved in the campaign, and it is not cutting off all arms sales to the kingdom. And, in a nod to Saudi Arabia’s security concerns, Washington will share more intelligence on the Saudi border with Yemen.
The kingdom has been subject to cross-border attacks by the Iran-allied Houthi movement. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March 2015 and has launched thousands of air strikes against the Houthis.
Rights groups say Saudi-led coalition attacks on clinics, schools, markets and factories may amount to war crimes. Saudi Arabia has either denied the attacks or cited the presence of fighters in the targeted areas and has said it has tried to reduce civilian casualties.
“I think it’s a signal but too weak of a signal,” said William Hartung of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, responding to the U.S. decision. “As long as they’re going to refueling aircraft which is central to the bombing campaign, it’s hard to see that they’re using all the leverage they have,” said Hartung, who authored a report earlier this year on U.S. arms offers to Saudi Arabia during Obama’s tenure.
An Obama administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “systemic, endemic” problems in Saudi Arabia’s targeting drove the U.S. decision to halt a future weapons sale involving precision-guided munitions.
“We’ve decided not to move forward with some foreign military sales cases for air-dropped munitions, PGMs (precision-guided munitions),” the official said.
“That’s obviously a direct reflection of the concerns that we have about Saudi strikes that have resulted in civilian casualties,” the official said. A second official confirmed the decision to suspend the sale of certain weaponry.
The officials declined to offer details. But a specific case put on hold appeared to involve the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of guidance systems manufactured by Raytheon Co that convert dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions that can more accurately hit their targets.
A Raytheon spokesman referred questions to the Pentagon and State Department. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told a news briefing he was unaware of the Reuters report.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials.
REFUELING TO CONTINUE
The White House launched a review of U.S. assistance for the Saudi-led coalition after planes struck mourners at a funeral in the capital, Sanaa, in October, killing 140 people, according to one U.N. estimate.
The United Nations human rights office said in August that the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for roughly 60 percent of the 3,800 civilians killed since March 2015.
Human rights groups, which have criticized the United States for supporting the Saudi war effort by selling the kingdom arms and refueling coalition jets, said the move by Washington was not enough. “This move falls far short of what is needed to end civilian bloodshed and alleviate suffering in Yemen,” said Amnesty International’s Samah Hadid in Beirut.
The rights groups pointed to the continued refueling of coalition planes, which the Obama administration official said for now was “not going to be touched.”
Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California and a leading advocate in Congress for a suspension of U.S. cooperation with the Saudi-led coalition, said he was pleased the Obama administration had moved to cut off some arms sales, but he also felt the administration had not gone far enough.
“It is completely bizarre that they are continuing to refuel Saudi jets that drop bombs on civilians in Yemen,” Lieu said.
SMART VERSUS DUMB BOMBS
The decision to suspend the arms sale to the Saudis marks a reversal for the administration. Officials have long argued that supplying so-called “smart weapons” helped in reducing civilian casualties.
But that argument ultimately failed to convince the Obama administration during its review, which the first official said was still ongoing.
“It’s not a matter of how smart or dumb the bombs are, it’s that they’re not picking the right targets. The case in point ... is the one on the funeral,” the official said.
The airstrikes on the funeral took place after the Saudi-led coalition received incorrect information from Yemeni military figures that armed Houthi leaders were in the area, an investigative body set up by the coalition said in October.
Earlier this year, the U.S. military reduced the number of U.S. military personnel coordinating with the Saudi-led coalition’s air campaign, slashing it to six people from a peak of 45 personnel.
“Their responsibilities are being adjusted and limited so that they are less enmeshed in some of the offensive operations in Yemen,” the official said.
Reuters reported earlier on concerns by some U.S. officials that the United States could be implicated in possible Saudi violations of the laws of war.
In May, Washington suspended sales to Riyadh of cluster munitions, which release dozens of bomblets and are considered particularly dangerous to civilians.
Last week, the State Department announced plans to sell Saudi Arabia CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopters and related equipment, training and support worth $3.51 billion. U.S. officials said the weaponry would help Saudi defend its border, not conduct offensive operations in Yemen. | Government Policy Changes | December 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Huffington Post)'] |
Singer Barbara Weldens, whose recently released first album had won several awards, collapses and dies on stage while singing in Festival Léo Ferré in Gourdon in southwestern France. The 35–year–old singer and poet apparently was electrocuted. | She had been performing at a church in the picturesque village of Gourdon, in the Lot region of the south-west, when she collapsed. Storms were reported in the area at the time.
Weldens, 35, suffered an apparent cardiac arrest and emergency services were unable to revive her.
She had released her first album this year and had won several awards.
She had become a singer after growing up in the circus, according to her website. Among her biggest influences was the singer-songwriter Jacques Brel. In 2016, she won the young talent award at the Jacques Brel festival.
She collapsed at about midnight on Wednesday while singing in a local festival. Investigators were looking at electrical equipment on the stage to find out what caused the apparent electrical fault. Weldens regularly performed with a pianist and acoustic guitarist and was in the middle of a tour. She was due to give further concerts in France and Belgium in the coming months.
Although little known, her February 2017 album Le grand H de l'homme (Man with a capital M) had brought national acclaim. A review on the Mediapart website praised the "softness of the melodies" and "the femininity and masculinity" of her work.
She told Midi Libre newspaper last year: "I've always written poems, even when I was little. Then I took piano lessons as a teen. All I wanted to do was compose". | Famous Person - Death | July 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(The Quebec Times)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
A 6.2 earthquake, 100 miles from the Oregon coast, rocks the Western States of America. | A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 has hit off the coast of Oregon. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake occurred just after 1:30 a.m. local time over 170 miles west of Coos Bay and nearly 220 miles southwest of Portland. Still, residents of the city reported feeling the tremor. according to Robert Sanders of the USGS. There are no reports of damage or injury and a tsunami warning has not been issued for the surrounding areas. The quake was located at a depth of about six miles. About two hours after the initial quake occurred, an aftershock with a preliminary magnitude of 3.5 struck the area. The area where the quake occurred on Wednesday morning is considered a seismically active zone. Local residents in British Columbia and the west coast of North America have long feared of "the Big One" — a potential natural disaster in which an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 or greater strikes the region. Oregon residents posted videos to social media showing the impact the earthquake had, causing lights and infrastructure to shake in the town of Bandon. AFP/Getty Images
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Meanwhile, international agencies were alerting people to the massive earthquake on Wednesday, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, which did not issue a tsunami threat for the nation. | Earthquakes | August 2018 | ['(Independent)'] |
In Sudan, an ammunition depot explodes near the town of Juba; at least 18 are dead and the toll continues to rise | Exploding shells rained down on Juba, killing at least 24 people and injuring many more. The shelling lasted for about an hour, destroying large parts of a residential area close to the barracks.
The Red Cross is helping transport wounded residents to hospital. Juba's deputy governor, Simon Wani Ramba, said the shells reached as far as 1km away.
Cloud
"There is damage all over the town," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa.
A journalist in the city said that the initial blast occurred at about 0930 GMT on Wednesday.
"There was a huge mushroom cloud in the sky and everyone fell on the floor. Explosions were going off every second for about an hour," Gemma Mortensen told the BBC. The military has cordoned off a large area including the barracks, a military hospital and a market in the west of the city - making it difficult to establish casualty figures.
One resident, called Paul, told the BBC that many houses had burnt down including his neighbour's house.
"Explosions are still going on now," he said, several hours later.
A peace deal signed earlier this year ended a 21-year civil war between the north and south. Many southern Sudanese who fled during the conflict are now starting to return home - although many towns in the south have little infrastructure. | Armed Conflict | February 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(ABC)'] |
Typhoon Chan-hom strengthens as it heads towards the Pacific island of Guam. | After blowing through Guam over the weekend with up to 304.8 mm (12 inches) of rain, Chan-hom has its eye set on intensification as it tracks toward Japan's Ryukyu Islands and eventually east-central China.
After achieving typhoon status, Chan-hom dramatically weakened last Friday due to disruptive wind shear. As that shear gradually lessens, Chan-hom will strengthen once again as it tracks to the northwest this week.
Conditions across Guam deteriorated Saturday night as Chan-hom crossed the island into early Sunday. Rainfall over the weekend averaged around 150 mm (6 inches), but some places received as much as 304.8 mm (12 inches). Wind gusts also reached up to 100 kph (65 mph) near Chan-hom's center.
Western Pacific Typhoon and Tropical Storm CenterInteractive Satellite in Western PacificDetailed Forecast for Guam
Heading into this week, Chan-hom will continue tracking to the northwest as the strengthening tropical system moves over the open Pacific Ocean between Guam and Japan.
The combination of very warm ocean waters and relatively low wind shear will provide a conducive environment for Chan-hom to strengthen with the potential for rapid intensification into a super typhoon during the first part of the week.
Strengthening into a very large and dangerous cyclone is expected regardless of whether or not super typhoon status is reached.
Due to the large size and expected strengthening, this system will be capable of producing life-threatening conditions within several hundred kilometers (miles) of its track.
Anyone from Shanghai to Taipei and Okinowa should continue to monitor the progress of Chan-hom for updates to potential impacts, as the latest indications point toward the Ryukyu Islands and eastern China facing the greatest risk for destructive winds, flooding rain and an inundating storm surge from Chan-hom later next week.
AccuWeather meteorologists will continue to provide more precise details in the upcoming days to help residents make necessary precautions to protect lives and property.
On the heels of Chan-hom is newly-formed Tropical Storm Nangka. This system will also track northwestward through the western Pacific Ocean, slightly more to the north of Chan-hom and strengthen in the process. Interests in the Northern Mariana Islands should be on alert for potential impacts around the middle of next week.
Meteorologists Adam Douty, Eric Leister and Anthony Sagliani contributed to this story.
After blowing through Guam over the weekend with up to 304.8 mm (12 inches) of rain, Chan-hom has its eye set on intensification as it tracks toward Japan's Ryukyu Islands and eventually east-central China.
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| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | July 2015 | ['(Accuweather)'] |
The MT New Diamond is towed out of sea off the coast of Sri Lanka amid major fears of a massive oil spill after the ship caught fire yesterday, killing one Filipino crewman. The Panamanian–registered ship carries about 270,000 tonnes of crude oil. The government of the Maldives has expressed worry, with a presidential minister saying that the country needs to take all precautions to prevent oil from reaching its shores. | A massive oil tanker on fire off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka is being towed out to sea amid fears of a major new oil spill in the Indian Ocean.
The Panamanian-registered vessel, which began burning on Thursday, is carrying about 270,000 tonnes of crude oil.
Sri Lanka's navy and India's coastguard have attempted to douse the blaze with water cannon and helicopter drops.
One Filipino crew member died in an engine room explosion that sparked the fire, the Sri Lankan navy said.
The remaining 22 crew, consisting of five Greeks and 17 Filipinos, were taken off the ship, officials said.
The 330-metre (1,080-foot) vessel - the New Diamond - is owned by Liberia-based Porto Emporios Shipping Inc.
A spokesperson for the Navy said on Friday there was no immediate threat of an oil spill, but that in the event of a spill Sri Lanka would "definitely need international support".
The navy also said that the Indian coast guard had observed a 2m crack in the New Diamond's hull about 10m above the water line.
Dharshani Lahandapura, the chair of Sri Lanka's Marine Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA), warned that an oil spill from the ship would be "one of the biggest environmental disasters not only in the region but in the world".
She said the MEPA would take legal action against the owners of the ship in the event of a spill. "We have lodged a complaint with the area police and sought the attorney general's advice on the matter," she said.
Sudantha Ranasinghe, the head of Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre, said the situation was "not as bad as it seems".
"The fire has not spread to the cargo. Once the fire is put out, the vessel will be towed further away into deeper waters," he told the AFP news agency.
The New Diamond issued a distress call from about 60km (38 miles) off Sri Lanka's east coast, after the fire began. The ship was on its way from Kuwait to the eastern Indian port of Paradip.
The stricken vessel began drifting towards the shore, prompting navy vessels to begin towing it further out.
The Maldives, about 1,000km (625 miles) southwest of Sri Lanka, has a large coral eco-system in its waters and expressed concern over a potential spill.
"Maldives needs to watch this oil spill carefully and take all precautions to prevent it from reaching her shores," Ahmed Naseem, Maldivian minister at the president's office, wrote on Twitter.
A Japanese carrier, MV Wakashio, crashed into a reef in Mauritius in July, eventually leaking more than 1,000 tonnes of oil into surrounding waters.
| Fire | September 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Men at Work are forced to give away 5% of their "Down Under" royalties after a Sydney court rules they plagiarised a flute solo from "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree". | A judge has ordered Men At Work to hand over royalties from the 1983 hit single Down Under after earlier ruling they had plagiarised a children's song.
The Australian band must pay 5% of money earned from the song since 2002 as well as future royalties.
Larrikin Music, which owns the copyright to Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, had sought 60% of royalties.
The company argued successfully that Down Under's flute riff was stolen from Marion Sinclair's original song.
Sinclair, an Australian teacher, wrote Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree more than 70 years ago. It has since been sung by generations of Australian school children.
Larrikin Music, which is owned by London's Music Sales Group, bought the rights to the classic folk song in 1990, following Sinclair's death in 1988.
"I consider the figures put forward by Larrikin to be excessive, overreaching and unrealistic," Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson said in his ruling.
The court did not specify what 5% of the royalties would represent in Australian dollars.
Down Under - the story of an Australian backpacker touring the world - reached number one in Australia, the US and the UK, and remains a popular favourite at national events.
Colin Hay, who co-wrote the song with fellow bandmate Ron Strykert, has said any reference to Sinclair's folk song was "inadvertent, naive, unconscious". | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2010 | ['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(Sky News)'] |
Investigators find a suicide note from the two men accused of involvement in the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack. | LONDON, England (CNN) -- Two men accused of terror attacks in Britain planned to kill themselves in a suicide bombing, sources told CNN Wednesday after police found an apparent suicide note.
Images from Glasgow Airport show the vehicle ablaze next to the terminal building.
Investigators found a suicide note linked to the Glasgow, Scotland, attack, sources close to the investigation told CNN Wednesday. The letter indicates the men intended to detonate an explosive device in the the sport-utility vehicle while still inside the vehicle, the sources said. Police also say they believe the men -- identified as doctors Khalid Ahmed and Bilal Abdulla -- were behind two car bombing attempts in London a day earlier, the sources said.
They allege the men parked two cars packed with explosives in Central London then drove six hours north to Scotland. Watch as police probe alleged sleeper cell
Britain lowered its threat level from its highest level "critical" to "severe" Wednesday, saying the threat of a terrorist attack was no longer imminent. British authorities have detained eight people in connection with the terror probe and believe they have all of those responsible for the attacks in custody.
It is unclear whether the attack at Glasgow Airport -- which happened a day after the first car bomb in London was discovered -- was a last-minute decision or designed to follow the London car bombs.
One of the suspects, identified by sources as Dr. Khalid Ahmed, was hospitalized for critical burns from the attempted suicide bombing at the airport.
Another suspect, identified as Bilal Abdulla, a 27-year-old Iraqi doctor, is in police custody along with six other suspects. All eight have links to the medical profession, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. British Police have not named any of the suspects in their custody, citing the ongoing investigation, but sources close to the investigation have confirmed the identity of the suspects. See who the suspects are
Investigators believe the plot may have been hatched before the suspects arrived in Britain in recent years.
U.S. officials told CNN they believe some of the suspects were recruited by al Qaeda while they were living in the Middle East.
A British Anglican cleric working in Baghdad said a man he met in Jordan in April issued a disturbing threat that may have been a portent of the bombing attempts. "Those who cure you will kill you," the man told Canon Andrew White, who spoke to CNN on Wednesday. And according to a report in a British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, some of the suspects had been tracked by MI5, the British intelligence service, before the attempted attacks.
In his first question-and-answer session since he took office, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday vowed to take measures to increase security in the wake of the attempted bombings, which happened days after he became prime minister.
In addition to expanding the watch list of potential terrorists, Brown said background checks will be stepped up and British authorities will keep a closer eye on how it recruits doctors from other countries.
"I've asked Lord [Alan] West, the new terrorism minister, to conduct an immediate review as to what arrangements we must make in relation to recruitment to the NHS [National Health Service] because of what we know has happened over the last few days," Brown told the House of Commons.
Brown, who was born in Glasgow, took office just two days before the London bombs were found. See timeline of investigation
Australian connection alleged
Australian authorities picked up one of the suspects, an Indian national and doctor, on Monday trying to leave Brisbane, Australia, reportedly on a one-way flight to India. He has been identified by sources close to the investigation as Dr. Mohammed Haneef, 27.
Prime Minister John Howard denied there was any evidence the terror plot extended to Australian soil.
"There is nothing that has happened in the UK in and of itself that suggests there is a greater danger of there being any terrorist incident in Australia," Howard said.
Haneef had a temporary visa and worked at a hospital in the Brisbane area, where his office was searched by police, authorities said.
Haneef had previously worked at Halton General Hospital near Liverpool, England, where another doctor in custody -- identified by British media as Sabeel Ahmed -- was employed, according to hospital and police officials.
Both Ahmed and Haneef graduated from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Services in India, British media reported.
Haneef and another doctor had been recruited to work in Brisbane last year through an ad in the British Medical Journal, according to Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2007 | ['(CNN)'] |
At least 5 people are killed in an attack on the Lahore hospital in Pakistan where many of the injured in Friday's attack on members of the Ahmadis sect, as well as one of the captured militants, are undergoing treatment. | (CNN) -- Four gunmen opened fire in a hospital in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, killing five people in an attempt to get to a suspect in last week's attacks on a religious minority, authorities said.
The goal of the hospital attack was to either rescue or kill the suspect, who was wounded in the Friday attacks that left 98 dead, Tariq Saleem Dogar, the Punjab provincial police chief, told local television. At the time of the shooting, the suspect was being treated in the intensive care unit at Jinnah Hospital, hospital chief Javed Akram said. He has since been moved to a safe place, Dogar said.
Hospital officials originally put the death toll at 12. But Khusro Pervez, the city's top civilian commissioner, and Dogar later said four police officers and a security guard were killed.
The black-clad gunmen fled the scene after the shooting, said Sajjad Bhutta, a senior government official in Lahore. Pakistani authorities are blaming Friday's bloodbath on militants with ties to the Pakistani Taliban. The group Punjabi Taliban has claimed responsibility for that attack on the worship places of the Ahmedi community in Lahore, a senior Punjabi Taliban leader told CNN Saturday, and threatened to strike the Ahmedis' place of worship again.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said there had been intelligence earlier in the month that an attack could happen in Lahore and that Punjab police did take some steps to react prior to the Friday incident.
Then on Friday morning, attackers with bombs and firearms targeted houses of worship in Lahore belonging to the Ahmadi sect, a persecuted religious group.
The scenario jibes with Malik's belief that the country will endure more sectarian and ethnic violence. He said he believes "hostile elements" like the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups "are trying to destablize Pakistan."
Most of the dead in Friday's attack -- 75 -- were killed at the place of worship in the Model Town neighborhood. The remaining 23 were killed in the Garhi Shahu neighborhood, he said.
Witnesses and officials said the attackers tossed hand grenades and fired weapons, including AK-47s. In the Model Town attack, one of the gunmen was critically injured and another was detained, police said.
Ahmadis regard themselves as Muslim, but the government says they aren't, and many Muslim extremists have targeted them. Sunni and Shiite Muslims say Ahmadis are not Muslim because they do not regard Mohammed as the last prophet sent by God.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a nongovernmental organization, deplored the attacks and said it had warned the Punjab provincial government about threats to the Ahmadi community center in Model Town for more than a year. Lahore is the capital of Punjab province.
The Ahmadi movement was founded in 1889. Its followers believe that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who lived between 1835 and 1908, was sent by God as a prophet "to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and reinstitute morality, justice and peace, "the worldwide Ahmadi group says.
The group, which is thought to number between 3 million and 4 million people in the country, endures "the most severe legal restrictions andofficially sanctioned discrimination" among Pakistan's religious minorities, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The religious freedom commission, an independent, bipartisan U.S. government body, said in its latest annual report that "Ahmadis may not call their places of worship 'mosques,' worship in non-Ahmadi mosques or public prayer rooms which are otherwise open to all Muslims, perform the Muslim call to prayer, use the traditional Islamic greeting in public, publicly quote from the Quran or display the basic affirmation of the Muslim faith."
The agency says it's illegal for the group to preach publicly, pursueconverts or pass out religious material, and adherents are restricted from holding public conferences and traveling to Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage.
While the greatest number of its followers are in Pakistan and India, Ahmadis have a presence in many European countries, such as Britain, where the religion's fifth and current spiritual head, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, resides. | Armed Conflict | June 2010 | ['(Geotv)', '(The Hindu)', '(USA Today)', '(CNN)'] |
Around 1.8 million people are affected, and the Kaziranga National Park is submerged, due to heavy rains causing flooding in Assam. | Outlook grim for state of Assam, with heavy rain that has buried hundreds of villages and displaced wildlife set to continue for two days
Last modified on Tue 28 Nov 2017 17.21 GMT
Heavy rains and floods in India have affected more than 1.6 million people in the tea-growing north-eastern state of Assam, with officials scrambling to shift hundreds of thousands of people into 300 makeshift relief camps.
The death toll in Assam rose to at least 12 on Wednesday, according to police and rescue workers. Heavy monsoon rains are forecast for at least another 48 hours.
Hundreds of thousands of villagers have abandoned their homes and livestock. Some used homemade rafts made from banana trees to flee; others were rescued by soldiers from the rooftops of their waterlogged homes.
In neighbouring Nepal, flash floods and landslides have swept through villages, killing at least 58 people over two days. The Brahmaputra river and its tributaries have burst their banks, flooding roads, highways and villages in more than half of the region’s 32 districts. Mobile phone signal is down in many parts of the state, and power transmission towers have been toppled.
“The situation has turned from bad to worse since Tuesday, and over a million people have been shifted to relief camps,” Assam’s water resources minister, Keshab Mahanta, told Reuters.
The Kaziranga national park in Assam – home to two-thirds of the world’s one-horned rhino population – is 80% under water, and wild animals are seeking shelter on roads. At least one rhino was killed in the rains, according to forest officials.
Despite the scale of the disaster, the Assam floods have received relatively little attention in national newspapers or on TV channels.
Floods in the state have become an annual event, particularly during the June-September rains. The worst occurred four years ago, killing 124 people and displacing 6 million. Hundreds of people are killed, and thousands of acres of fertile land lost, to floods every year.
The government in Assam has said that flood relief and rescue measures are a priority, and that disaster-response forces are doing everything they can to help. A minister from prime minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet promised their support in the state’s relief efforts.
With extreme weather becoming increasingly common, the government is under pressure to find long-term solutions to India’s water woes. Earlier this year, a drought hit many parts of India, affecting more than 300 million people. Last year, floods in the southern city of Chennai killed more than 280 people.
This article was amended on 28 July 2016 because an earlier version referred to Chennai as a state. This has been corrected. | Floods | July 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
An Israeli couple are murdered in a shooting attack on their car in the northern West Bank; four of the couple's children are in the vehicle at the time but are not hit by the gunfire. Hamas praises the "heroic attack" and calls for "more highquality attacks." , , , | An Israeli mother and father were killed in a shooting attack on their vehicle Thursday night in the northern West Bank.
The couple, identified late Thursday as Eitam and Naama Henkin of the settlement of Neria north of Ramallah, leaves behind four children aged 4 months, 4, 7 and 9 who were in the vehicle at the time of the attack, but were not hit by the gunfire.
The terror attack took place shortly before 9 p.m. between the settlements of Itamar and Elon Moreh, near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik.
The security services were hunting for the perpetrators.
The Israeli family came under fire when they slowed down before making a turn. At that moment, a Palestinian vehicle accelerated toward the family. Two attackers opened fire on the family with a handgun and a rifle. | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(The Times of Israel)', '(Israel National News)', '(Breaking Israel News)', '(VOA News)'] |
President John Magufuli dies of heart complications, which are believed to have resulted from COVID-19. Vice President Samia Suluhu is expected to succeed him and become Tanzania's first female president. | Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan announces death of 61-year-old after weeks of uncertainty over his health and whereabouts.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli has died, the country’s vice president announced, after weeks of uncertainty over his health and whereabouts.
In a televised address to the nation late on Wednesday, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the 61-year-old president had died of a “heart condition”, which he had suffered for 10 years at a hospital in Dar-Es-Salaam.
Flags flew at half-mast in Tanzania, as the country began a 14-day mourning period.
Magufuli had first been briefly admitted to the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute on March 6, but was subsequently discharged, Hassan said on state television. But he was rushed to hospital again on March 14 after feeling unwell.
After the death was announced, opposition leader Zitto Kabwe said he had spoken to Hassan to offer condolences for Magufuli’s death.
“The nation will remember him for his contribution to the development of our country,” Kabwe said in a statement published on Twitter.
According to Tanzania’s Constitution, Hassan, 61, should assume the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli began serving last year after winning a second term. She is set to become the country’s first female leader.
The announcement of the president’s death came after government denials that the president was ill. Pressure mounted to explain his almost three-week absence from public view, which sparked panic and rumours he was seeking treatment abroad for COVID-19.
Main opposition leader Tundu Lissu, shot 16 times in a 2017 assassination attempt and exiled in Belgium, described Magufuli’s death as “poetic justice”, insisting his sources said he had succumbed to COVID-19.
“Magufuli died of corona. That is one. Number two, Magufuli did not die this evening. I have information from basically the same sources which told me he was gravely ill, I have information that Magufuli has been dead since Wednesday of last week,” he told Kenya’s KTN News, using local slang for the virus.
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A vocal COVID-19 sceptic, Magufuli had last appeared in public on February 27 and top government officials had denied that he was in ill health, even as speculation swirled online that he was sick and possibly incapacitated from the disease.
Magufuli had long downplayed the severity of COVID-19, urging Tanzanians to pray, use steam inhalation and embrace local remedies to protect themselves from the respiratory disease.
Tanzania stopped releasing infection numbers in April 2020, weeks before Magufuli declared in June that the country was coronavirus-free due to divine intervention.
He refused to wear a face-mask or take lockdown measures. But a week before he was last seen, Magufuli conceded the virus was still circulating, after the vice president of semi-autonomous Zanzibar was revealed to have died of COVID-19.
Nicknamed the “Bulldozer”, Magufuli was elected in 2015 on promises to tackle corruption and boost infrastructure development.
However, a slide into authoritarianism, which saw a crackdown on the media, civil society and opposition, raised alarm among foreign allies and rights groups.
His re-election last October was dismissed by the opposition and some diplomats as a sham due to alleged rigging, the blocking of foreign media and observer teams and an oppressive military presence.
Some analysts said that Magufuli had dealt a crushing blow to democracy in one of Africa’s most stable nations.
However he also won plaudits for expanding free education, rural electrification and investing in infrastructure projects such as railways, a hydropower dam set to double electricity output and the revival of the national airline.
His government passed a raft of laws to increase Tanzania’s stake in its mineral resources and demanded millions in back taxes from foreign mining companies.
But it was Magufuli’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic which cast his leadership style into sharp relief.
Critics said that Magufuli’s dismissal of the threat from COVID-19, as well as his refusal to lock down the country, may have contributed to many unknown deaths.
Magufuli was born in Tanzania’s northwestern Chato district, on the shores of Lake Victoria, where he grew up in a grass-thatched home, herding cattle and selling milk and fish to support his family.
“I know what it means to be poor,” he often said.
He was awarded a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Dar es Salaam and also spent some time studying at Britain’s University of Salford.
Magufuli was a member of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power since independence from Britain in the early 1960s.
A member of parliament since 1995, he held various cabinet portfolios, including livestock, fisheries and public works, where he earned the “Bulldozer” moniker.
Magufuli was married with five children.
Opposition party says it knows ‘for sure the president is ill’, even as government calls on citizens to ignore rumours.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa says President John Magufuli is ‘around, healthy, working hard’ amid COVID allegations.
After months of downplaying deadly disease, government officials have urged people to take precautions and wear masks.
President John Magufuli has not been seen in public for about two weeks, raising suspicion he is receiving medical care.
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We understand that your online privacy is very important and consenting to our collection of some personal information takes great trust. We ask for this consent because it allows Al Jazeera to provide an experience that truly gives a voice to the voiceless. | Famous Person - Death | March 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
According to a coroner's inquest report, ten people shot dead in the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre in Belfast were innocent civilians and their killings were unjustified. Nine of the people had been shot by the British Armed Forces. | Report says killings during British army operations in Belfast in 1971 were unjustified First published on Tue 11 May 2021 10.50 BST
Ten people killed in Belfast during a British army operation in 1971 were unarmed, innocent civilians and posed no threat to soldiers, an inquest in Northern Ireland has found.
The damning findings in a long-awaited coroner’s report implicated the army in an atrocity to rival Bloody Sunday, potentially galvanising a new push to prosecute army veterans.
Nine of the dead were killed by soldiers using unjustified force but the inquest could not establish who killed the 10th victim, John McKerr, during a blood-soaked incursion in Ballymurphy, a west Belfast Catholic neighbourhood, in August 1971.
“All of the deceased in the series of inquests were entirely innocent of wrongdoing on the day in question,” said the coroner, Mrs Justice Keegan, dismissing claims by soldiers that some of the victims had been armed and shooting.
Families of the dead wept and applauded after the findings were read out in court, saying the truth had come out after half a century.
“We have corrected history today. The inquest confirmed that the soldiers who came to the area supposedly to protect us … turned their guns on us,” said John Teggart, whose father, Daniel, was among the dead.
“It hasn’t actually sank in, it’s like a dream,” said Joan Connolly, holding a framed portrait of her mother, Joan Connolly, a mother of eight whom soldiers had branded an IRA gunwoman. “The joy and the peace and the mixed emotions that my mummy has been declared an innocent woman.”
Her father had not been able to identify his wife in the morgue because her face was mangled, said Connolly. “Her name has been cleared. We have got justice after 50 years. My daddy died a broken man.”
The coroner’s blistering indictment of the army’s actions and state-backed efforts to depict most of the dead as IRA members prompted agreement across the political spectrum that a profound injustice had been committed.
Brandon Lewis, the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary, acknowledged the “terrible hurt” caused to the families and said they “should not have had to wait this long”, but did not apologise for the state’s role in the killings or delayed justice. “The government will carefully consider the extensive findings set out by the coroner, but it is clear that those who died were entirely innocent of wrongdoing,” he said. Lewis’s Labour shadow, Louise Haigh, said: “The conclusions of Justice Keegan are clear and irrefutable. Those who lost their lives were innocent and posing no threat.
“Their deaths were without justification. The fundamental right to life violated. That families have had to fight for so long for the truth is a profound failure of justice.”
The inquest findings coincided with a promise by the UK government to introduce legislation to turn the page on Northern Ireland’s so-called legacy cases, which some victims’ rights groups believe could grant a blanket amnesty for crimes. The former armed forces minister Johnny Mercer said the Queen’s speech on Tuesday contained no explicit pledge to shield army veterans from prosecution.
Leaked proposals had suggested a statute of limitations would be introduced to prevent charges being brought for incidents before the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998. Any time limit is expected to apply to former paramilitaries as well as ex-forces personnel, with plans under discussion by the UK government and politicians in Dublin and Belfast.
Lewis said the current system for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles was not working for anyone, adding: “This government wants to deliver a way forward that will provide information about what happened during the Troubles in a way that helps families get the answers they want and lays the foundation for greater reconciliation and a shared future for all communities.” Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, said the Ballymurphy inquest had cast light on a dark page of the Troubles. In a veiled message to the UK government, he said: “Every family bereaved in the conflict must have access to an effective investigation and to a process of justice regardless of the perpetrator.”
Naomi Long, leader of the Alliance party and Northern Ireland’s justice minister, said the families had to battle too hard and too long for truth.
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, the deputy first minister, said: “What happened in Ballymurphy was state murder and for decades the British government have covered it up. Now the truth has been laid bare for all to see.”
What survivors have long called the Ballymurphy massacre began on 9 August 1971 when the army swept through republican districts across Northern Ireland to round up suspects for internment without trial. Violent street protests erupted.
The Parachute Regiment spent several chaotic days detaining and shooting people in Ballymurphy from 9 to 11 August. There were no TV crews or newspaper photographers to document what happened unlike in Derry five months later when the same regiment massacred protesters, triggering worldwide condemnation.
Outsiders largely overlooked events in Ballymurphy until relatives campaigned for an inquest. It began in November 2018 under Keegan, a high court judge, and heard from more than 100 witnesses including experts in ballistics and pathology, the former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and more than 60 former soldiers, among them Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the British army and chief of the general staff.
Lawyers for the soldiers said the troops opened fire only when they perceived they were under threat. The coroner’s findings eviscerated that narrative. Applying the civil standard of proof on the balance of probabilities, the report found all of the 10 dead were innocent civilians and that nine were shot by soldiers.
Father Hugh Mullan, a parish priest, was hit by at least two bullets as he read the last rites to an injured man. “Lacerations to the right lung, liver, stomach and intestines would have resulted in fairly rapid but not necessarily immediate death,” according to the coroner’s report.
The priest died alongside Francis Quinn, 19, in what the coroner called “clearly disproportionate” use of force.
Joan Connolly, 44, was the only woman killed. “She died as a result of blood loss from gunshot wounds after a period of initial survival, likely to be measured in tens of minutes.”
The coroner found that the other fatalities - Daniel Teggart, 44, Noel Phillips, 19, Joseph Murphy, 41, Edward Doherty, 31, Joseph Corr, 43, and John Laverty, 20, were also innocent.
She acknowledged it was a difficult environment for soldiers and that they had come under fire from gunmen but said the state had failed to establish that the shootings were justified. Adams, who is from Ballymurphy, told the inquest two masked IRA members were in the area during the violence. | Armed Conflict | May 2021 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Israeli Police send seven hundred officers to the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm ahead of a march by right wing activists on the twentieth anniversary of the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane and use tear gas to stop violent clashes between the activists and Arabs. | Jerusalem (CNN) -- Palestinian residents of Israel threw stones and police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them Wednesday as right-wing Israeli activists marched in the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm.
Several hundred police officers were deployed in northern Israel ahead of the march, according to police.
The activists, led by Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir, are marching to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the murder of the radical Rabbi Meir Kahane and to call for the outlaw of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Ben Gvir shouted into a megaphone, "We demand to outlaw the Islamic Movement. Only in Israel can Raed Salah [leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement] come and say that Israel needs to be erased ... and nothing is done to stop it. We demand that those who are responsible outlaw the Islamic Movement. Our message is to treat the Islamic Movement with a tough hand."
Police had denied requests for the right-wing activists to hold the protest, citing security concerns. But an Israeli court overruled, saying the march could take place. "This march is a provocative march," Hasan Sanallah of the Islamic Movement told CNN. "This is a march for inciting violence. They are coming here to show that the Arab minorities in Israel are barbaric, and we want to prove them the other way."
Sanallah described the activists as "trying to incite violence in Arab towns."
Kahane was an Israeli-American rabbi who founded the Jewish Defense League. He started a political party called Kach, which advocated the imposition of Jewish law in Israel and the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel.
The Israeli government banned Kach in 1988 for inciting racism.
Kahane was murdered in 1990 in New York by El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-American terrorist convicted of involvement in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.
A similar right-wing march took place in Umm al-Fahm in March 2009 and led to clashes between Palestinian Arab residents of the town and Israeli security personnel. About 100 far-rightists marched in the predominantly Muslim town, and Arab demonstrations that erupted after the march left dozens of people injured and at least 10 people detained, police said at the time.
Marchers disseminated a particularly hot-button message in Umm al-Fahm that had been setting people off: They demanded that Israeli Arabs be loyal to the Jewish state, a stance considered insulting by many Israeli Arabs.
About 20 percent of Israel's population is comprised of Arabs. CNN's Shira Medding, Kareem Khadder and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
In darts, Gary Anderson of Scotland defeats Phil Taylor of England 7–6 to win his first PDC World Darts Championship. | Gary Anderson beat Phil 'The Power' Taylor 7-6 in a thrilling final to take the PDC world darts championship for the first time on Monday morning (AEDT) in London.
With the lively Alexandra Palace crowd on tenterhooks as the score see-sawed between the two, 16-times champion Taylor came back from 6-4 down to level 6-6 in a classic showdown with the 44-year-old 'Flying Scotsman'.
Anderson then took the first two legs of the deciding set before finishing the match with a double 12 to take the title.
Anderson's previous best performance in the tournament was in 2011 when he lost in the final to Adrian Lewis 7-5.
"There was a set where I played well and went 6-4 up and then after the break Phil took the next two sets and I felt it was gone," Anderson told Sky Sports after two and a half hours of throwing.
"He's the best and always will be, even in 100 years time. That makes this a wee bit more special," added the Scot, who beat Dutch reigning champion Michael van Gerwen in the semi-finals.
Reuters / ABC
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Sports Competition | January 2015 | ['(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
The High Court of Australia disqualifies Senator Katy Gallagher because she held dual citizenship with the United Kingdom when elected, not renouncing it in time. Four MPs in similar situations have also resigned, setting up four by-elections. | There will be five by-elections in four states following a string of resignations from Federal Parliament on Wednesday.
Four federal MPs have announced their resignation from Parliament after the High Court ruled Labor senator Katy Gallagher ineligible because she did not renounce her British citizenship in time.
Rebekha Sharkie, Josh Wilson, Susan Lamb and Justine Keay announced they were quitting Parliament in the wake of the Gallagher ruling.
There will be a fifth by-election because Labor's Tim Hammond is also resigning, for family reasons.
It is not clear yet when the elections will be held, but there is an expectation of a "Super Saturday" of polls all on the one day — potentially in late June.
All of the five MPs to quit are from non-Government parties, so unlike previous by-elections in Bennelong and New England late last year, the Government could not lose its one-seat majority.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has repeatedly said that Labor's candidates had been through a thorough vetting process to ensure their eligibility.
After his MPs quit in the wake of the High Court ruling, he defended his previous statements, arguing Labor had acted in good faith.
No Coalition MPs have been caught by this High Court ruling, but the Opposition insists that questions remain about the eligibility of some Government MPs, in particular the member for Mackellar, Jason Falinski.
"We are not saying he should leave the Parliament tomorrow, but that one should be referred to the High Court," Labor frontbencher Tony Burke argued.
Mr Falinski has recently received advice from the Polish Ambassador to Australia, Michal Kolodziejski, following questions about his Polish ancestry.
In a letter dated April 27, 2018, the ambassador sets out three ways in which Polish citizenship can be established: with a passport, an identity card or on confirmation by Polish authorities.
"I can confirm that according to our records you have never had a Polish passport, a Polish identity card, and you have never applied through our embassy to relevant Polish authorities to confirm the possession of Polish citizenship or to be bestowed Polish citizenship," the letter reads.
"Unless you submit at least one of the above mentioned documents you are not entitled to the rights or privileges of Polish citizenship, including a Polish passport."
The most marginal seat among the pending by-elections is Longman, held by Labor's Susan Lamb.
ABC News: Matthew Roberts
Ms Lamb won the seat on Queensland's Sunshine Coast by a margin of less than 1 per cent.
She insisted in Parliament she would stand again.
The ABC understands the Labor party has submitted an application for Ms Lamb to renounce her citizenship.
She had said she could not renounce her citizenship because she did not have a copy of her parents' marriage certificate as she is estranged from her mother.
But the British Home Office has agreed to process the renunciation without it.
The LNP has not yet pre-selected a candidate for Longman, but said it hoped to have pre-selection organised by the end of next week. Former member Wyatt Roy has confirmed he will not be a candidate.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has confirmed her party will run a candidate for the seat. Voters will also be sent back to the polls in Braddon in north-western Tasmania, which Labor's Justine Keay won from Liberal Brett Whiteley in 2016.
Ms Keay had argued she took all the steps she could to renounce her British citizenship, but she has now accepted the High Court decision.
Ms Sharkie, from the Centre Alliance Party — formerly the Nick Xenophon Team — won the seat of Mayo from Liberal Jamie Briggs in 2016.
Her victory in the previously safe Liberal seat was the only Lower House win for the Xenophon Team at the last election.
There will be two by-elections in Western Australia.
Josh Wilson, who won the safe Labor seat of Fremantle in 2016, has also resigned because of the High Court's Gallagher decision. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2018 | ['(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(ABC)'] |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports at that least 270 pregnant women in the United States are infected with the Zika virus. | Over 150 pregnant women in the United States appear to have been infected with Zika virus. That's in addition to more than 120 women affected by Zika in U.S. territories, mainly Puerto Rico.
Those are the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which has been keeping track of all pregnant women in the U.S. and its territories who have lab tests suggestive of Zika virus infections.
So far, officials say they are aware of fewer than a dozen pregnancies that have had complications, although many of the pregnancies are ongoing. "We don't have full information yet on all of the outcomes," says Margaret Honein, chief of the CDC's birth defects branch.
Zika virus infection has been associated with miscarriage as well as birth defects like unusually small brains, called microcephaly. The exact risk posed by the virus remains unclear, and figuring that out is one reason the CDC is keeping track of affected pregnancies.
In the past, the CDC publicly reported on only those women who had both positive lab tests as well as symptoms. But officials say recent research suggests that women do not necessarily have to have symptoms to have their pregnancies affected. So the CDC is expanding its reporting to include women who didn't have symptoms.
"As the data accumulated about the risk of asymptomatic infections, it seemed more and more important to be very transparent and share publicly the numbers, the full number of pregnant women at risk of adverse outcomes associated with Zika," said Honein in a press briefing Friday.
Among the 157 pregnant women from U.S. states and the District of Columbia who are being monitored, only 49 percent reported symptoms consistent with Zika mostly rash and fever.
Right now, CDC officials say they have no evidence that anyone has gotten Zika from being bitten by a mosquito in the continental United States. But public officials worry that this may eventually occur in places that have seen local transmission of other mosquito-borne disease, such as dengue. | Disease Outbreaks | May 2016 | ['(NBC News)', '(NPR)'] |
The President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf appoints General Ashfaq Kiyani to succeed him as the head of the Pakistan Army after Saturday's election. | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 2 -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday picked his trusted former spy chief to succeed him as leader of the army, and signaled that exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto would be able to return to Pakistan this month without facing charges.
Taken together, the moves bring greater focus to an emerging political arrangement in which Musharraf will have to share power with others, rather than wield it almost single-handedly as he has for eight years. They also indicate that Musharraf is increasingly confident he will win a new term in elections Saturday, despite a tumultuous year in which his popularity has sunk to new lows and his ability to hang on to the presidency has often been in doubt.
Musharraf, who has long been reluctant to shed a uniform he considers his "second skin," announced Tuesday that a close confidant, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, would take over the critical job of army chief when Musharraf retires from active duty after the election.
Kiyani, who most recently served as head of the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, is considered moderate and pro-Western. He has been at the forefront of Pakistani efforts to battle Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents and is expected to come up with a new strategy for turning around a war that has been going badly.
"It's a very challenging assignment," said military analyst Talat Masood, a retired lieutenant general. "Pakistan is faced with a very serious insurgency. For him, it will be a major task to prepare the army to counter that insurgency."
One senior military official said Kiyani is likely to change course given that two cease-fires in the restive tribal regions have fallen apart.
"We will see some crucial changes in tactics," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "General Kiyani was never an enthusiastic supporter of peace deals in the tribal belt."
Before running the spy agency, Kiyani had commanded troops in Rawalpindi, home of the military's headquarters. A graduate of military training courses in the United States, Kiyani had also investigated two assassination attempts against Musharraf in 2003. Colleagues say he is more knowledgeable about al-Qaeda than any other army general.
While Kiyani is loyal to Musharraf, he will have significant independence as army chief. The nation has been under military rule for more than half of its 60 years, but even when the country is governed by civilians, the army chief is part of a power troika that also includes the president and prime minister.
Kiyani is said to have good relations with some of the country's civilian political leaders, including Bhutto. He served as a go-between during power-sharing negotiations between the president and Bhutto this summer, and was once her deputy military secretary.
Bhutto, who was prime minister twice in the 1980s and 1990s, is to fly from London to Pakistan on Oct. 18 and has made no secret of her ambition to win back her job.
On Tuesday, Musharraf's government indicated that it will set aside corruption cases against her, a move that opens the door for her to come back and compete in parliamentary elections slated for January.
The decision comes as part of plans for a broader amnesty for politicians facing corruption charges that are at least eight years old and that have not been proved. Such an amnesty was one of Bhutto's major demands in her negotiations with Musharraf.
"We are working on bringing about a national reconciliation," said government spokesman Tariq Azim Khan. "The biggest hurdles have been these cases that everyone claims are politically motivated."
Apparently in return for the cases being dropped, Bhutto's party has not tried to block Musharraf's reelection. "They have lent a huge helping hand to Musharraf," said political analyst Ayaz Amir.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party issued a statement Tuesday night denying that any deal had been reached.
Left out of the amnesty is former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has refused to negotiate with Musharraf and who returned last month from seven years in exile only to be immediately deported.
On Tuesday, Sharif's party led a coalition of Musharraf opponents who resigned from the national and provincial assemblies in protest over the president's election plans. They argue that the election is invalid because the assemblies are weeks away from expiring and that Musharraf should not be able to run because of his job as army chief.
"We think this process is illegal and unconstitutional," said Javed Hashmi, acting president of Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League. "We don't want to be part of it."
The move was largely symbolic, however, since Musharraf has the support he needs to win another term. Out of a national assembly of 342 members, just 85 stepped down. Members of Bhutto's party were not among them.
Despite deep disaffection with Musharraf, the opposition parties have had trouble mobilizing against him in recent months. On Tuesday, only about 300 flag-waving party activists showed up at the Parliament building to show support for the lawmakers who had resigned. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2007 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
About 40 suspected Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters are killed as Yemeni forces, aided by Saudi-led airstrikes, fight their way into Zinjibar and Jaār in eastern Yemen. | ADEN (Reuters) - Yemeni army forces backed by Arab coalition aircraft killed about 40 suspected al Qaeda fighters on Sunday as they fought their way into two militant strongholds in eastern Yemen, a local official and residents said.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited a 16-month-old civil war between the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Iran-allied Houthis to capture a 600-km (370-mile) stretch of Arabian Sea coastline in eastern Yemen.
Hadi’s troops and forces from the Saudi-led Arab coalition drove out AQAP - widely considered the most dangerous branch of the global militant group - from the Hadramout provincial capital of Mukalla in April.
The militants have since repeatedly withdrawn from and then returned to Zinjibar and Jaar, the capital of Abyan and the province’s second largest city.
Abyan Governor Al-Khader Mohammed al-Saidi, speaking by telephone from Jaar, told Reuters that three brigades took part in the operation and that troops have “taken complete control of both cities”.
Saidi said that 40 AQAP members were killed in both cities, while the rest fled. He said three soldiers were killed and several were wounded in the operation.
“We met with citizens and fighters and both were happy to be free under government authority,” the governor said.
Residents said an AQAP suicide bomber blew himself up in a car trying to attack troops in Zinjibar, a city of some 100,000 people, but no one else was hurt.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies intervened in the civil war in Yemen in March last year after the Houthis advanced on his headquarters in the southern port city of Aden and forced him to flee to Riyadh.
The war has killed more than 6,500 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Coalition bombing had mostly focused on the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but began turning their attention to AQAP earlier this year when forces funded and trained by the United Arab Emirates launched a surprise attack to win Mukalla.
But an armed push toward Qaeda-held towns in Abyan and neighboring Lahj province proved more difficult, and militants launched repeated suicide attacks against Yemeni forces.
| Armed Conflict | August 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Daily Mail)'] |
The United States Senate, in a 52 to 47 vote, confirms the nomination of Jeff Sessions as United States Attorney General. | Senator had come under fire for his views on race and civil rights in a tempestuous confirmation process that strained the upper chamber’s norms
First published on Thu 9 Feb 2017 00.23 GMT
A closely divided Senate confirmed the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general on Wednesday after a historically tumultuous confirmation process that saw the senator from Alabama come under fire for his views on race and civil rights.
All but one Democrat voted against confirming Sessions, while his Republican colleagues unanimously backed him. The final tally of senators was 52 to 47.
Many senators broke into applause after the vote over one of the chamber’s own members being elevated to the cabinet. But they were almost all Republicans. A handful of Democrats, including Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Bill Nelson of Florida, gave a few polite claps. The confirmation process for Sessions, a four-term senator, tested the Senate’s norms of treating colleagues with deference.
Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey became the first sitting senator ever to testify against the nomination of a colleague, and growing tensions on the floor led to the rare use of Senate procedure on Tuesday to silence Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for quoting a 30-year-old letter attacking Sessions written by Coretta Scott King, the late widow of Martin Luther King Jr.
Sessions came under scrutiny for his record on civil rights. He had previously been nominated to be a federal district judge in 1986 by the then president, Ronald Reagan, but allegations of racism torpedoed his nomination, which was voted down in committee.
Sessions rebounded politically to become Alabama attorney general and then win election in 1996 to the Senate, where he became one of the leading immigration hawks in the Republican caucus. Sessions helped lead the effort to derail comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 and formed a close alliance with the far-right website Breitbart in the process. Breitbart’s editor at the time, Steve Bannon, is now a top White House aide. The Alabama senator became the first federal elected official to endorse Donald Trump’s campaign, in February 2016, not long after his longtime aide, Stephen Miller, joined Trump’s campaign as a speechwriter and warm-up speaker at rallies. His close ties to Trump raised concern from Democrats, who worried that he would be insufficiently independent of the White House as attorney general. With his confirmation, Sessions takes over a justice department that has already seen significant drama since Trump took the oath of office. The new president fired the acting attorney general, Sally Yates, last week after the Obama holdover announced that she would not defend his executive order banning entry to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. ConfirmedJames Mattis (Defense), John Kelly (Homeland Security), Rex Tillerson (State), Elaine Chao (Transportation), Nikki Haley (United Nations), Betsy DeVos (Education), Jeff Sessions (Attorney General), Tom Price (Health and Human Services), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury), David Shulkin (Veterans Affairs), Scott Pruitt (Environmental Protection Agency), Wilbur Ross (Commerce), Ryan Zinke (Interior), Rick Perry (Energy), Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development), Sonny Perdue (Agriculture), Alexander Acosta (Labor)
Awaiting Senate approvalLinda McMahon (Small Business Association), Mick Mulvaney (Office of Management and Budget director), Robert Lighthizer (US trade representative)
WithdrawnAndrew Puzder (Labor)
Not yet announcedCouncil of Economic Advisers chair
The outgoing Republican senator also leaves a Senate ferociously divided as it continues through a series of bruising, partisan confirmation fights over Trump’s nominees. Democrats are planning on keeping the chamber in session through Saturday and dragging out the debate on the nominations of Tom Price to be health and human services secretary and Steven Mnuchin to be secretary of the treasury. Both are expected to be confirmed on party lines.
Sessions gave a conciliatory speech from the floor after his vote where he expressed his hope for reduced tensions and more civil debate after the hard-fought battle over his nomination. He amplified this on his way out, expressing his appreciation for “the friendship of my colleagues, even those who, many of them, didn’t feel able to vote for me. They were cordial, so we’ve continued to have good relations.”
The one Democrat to vote for Sessions, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, explained his decision to reporters after the vote. “You know, in West Virginia, we basically build on a relationship if we have a relationship, and Jeff Sessions and I have had a relationship for over six years. And everything he was accused of, I’ve never seen, so I am basing on what my knowledge of Jeff Sessions is and I think he’ll be fair and very deliberate in what he does [as attorney general].” Manchin, who threw Sessions a thumbs-up on Wednesday night as he headed to place his vote, added that he was confident that when he addressed his constituents, “I can explain my relationship with Jeff Sessions and I’m proud to vote for him.”
Sessions’ confirmation leaves his Senate seat vacant. Once Sessions formally resigns later Wednesday night, Alabama governor Robert Bentley will appoint his successor, who will run in a special election in 2018 for the remainder of Sessions’ term. The favorite is state attorney general Luther Strange, who is currently investigating Bentley’s relationship with a former aide, with whom he allegedly had an extramarital affair. By appointing Strange to the Senate seat, Bentley would delay the investigation into his conduct and be responsible for appointing Strange’s replacement. Once Sessions leaves the Senate and until his replacement is appointed, the GOP will be left with a 51-seat majority as they vote on Trump’s remaining nominees, many of whom are controversial in their own right. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | February 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Ghanaians vote in the presidential election run–off between Nana Akufo–Addo and John Atta Mills. | . People in Ghana take to the streets to call for change
Ghana poll monitors are probing claims of fraud as partial unofficial results suggest an extremely close race in Sunday's presidential run-off.
Local media report the opposition's John Atta Mills has a slender lead over the governing party's Nana Akufo-Addo.
The two parties are predicting victory despite claims by both of intimidation and voting irregularities.
Mr Akufo-Addo was narrowly ahead of his rival in the first round on 7 December but not by enough to avoid the run-off.
According to partial unofficial results, the opposition's Mr Atta Mills has 4.35 million votes against 4.24 million for Mr Akufo-Addo, from 222 out of a total 230 constituencies, reports the website of privately-owned Joy FM radio.
However John Atta Mills has urged his supporters to wait for the official electoral commission result before celebrating.
Across town people at the headquarters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) were still confident that Nana Akufo Addo would become the next president.
"We believe in figures. Now we know, we are sure that we have won," one supporter told the BBC.
The final official outcome is expected on Tuesday.
Both men hope to succeed President John Kufuor, who has served two terms.
The stakes are high as Ghana has just found oil.
Rumours
The BBC's Will Ross in Accra says the possibility of the result being disputed is high, as there were some irregularities on polling day and both parties are claiming foul play.
The ruling NPP said its polling agents were intimidated in the opposition stronghold of Volta Region.
NPP campaign chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey said:
"In these circumstances where our agents have been unable to monitor the voting process they will not be able to endorse the declared results."
The opposition has similar complaints in the governing party stronghold of the Ashanti region.
NDC officials have told the BBC that half of its polling agents there were harassed, had to flee and were not able to endorse the results.
But our correspondent says some may view this as an excuse by both sides in case the final result does not go their way and there is a danger this vote could be heading for acrimony.
The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers said it would investigate dozens of cases of irregularities reported at polling stations in various parts of the country.
It said it was "concerned with the rising number of incidents in the run-off compared to the December 7 election," reported AFP news agency.
Ghana is seen as one of Africa's most democratic countries and is hoping to restore the continent's faith in elections after flawed polls and violence in Kenya and Zimbabwe this year.
Some 12.5 million people were eligible to vote in the election - the fifth since the country's return to democracy in 1992.
The US envoy to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, urged both parties not to spread rumours.
"Some of the statements by the political parties' officials have been irresponsible and there are a number of rumours that have been going on that are being repeated by some of the radio stations that are associated with the parties," she said.
In Accra and across the West African state during Sunday's vote, queues formed outside schools and other public buildings where polling stations were operating, guarded by armed soldiers and police.
Mr Akufo-Addo won the first round with 49% of the vote.
President Kufuor, who has to stand down having served two consecutive terms, urged Ghanaians to "keep cool" on the eve of the poll. | Government Job change - Election | December 2008 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ballot Measure 110 goes into effect in Oregon, making it the first state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of specified Schedule I and Schedule II drugs. | Police in Oregon can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs
On Location: June 17, 2021
SALEM, Ore. -- Police in Oregon can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs as a ballot measure that decriminalized them took effect on Monday.
Instead, those found in possession would face a $100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counseling. Backers of the ballot measure, which Oregon voters passed by a wide margin in November, hailed it as a revolutionary move for the United States.
“Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallen, setting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centering health over criminalization,” said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which spearheaded the ballot initiative.
Ballot Measure 110’s backers said treatment needs to be the priority and that criminalizing drug possession was not working. Besides facing the prospect of being locked up, having a criminal record makes it difficult to find housing and jobs and can haunt a person for a lifetime.
Two dozen district attorneys had opposed the measure, saying it was reckless and would lead to an increase in the acceptability of dangerous drugs.
Instead of facing arrest, those found by law enforcement with personal-use amounts of drugs would face a civil citation, “like a traffic ticket,” and not a criminal citation, said Matt Sutton, spokesman for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Under the new system, addiction recovery centers will be tasked with “triaging the acute needs of people who use drugs and assessing and addressing any on-going needs thorough intensive case management and linkage to care and services.”
The addiction recovery centers will be funded by millions of dollars of tax revenue from Oregon’s legalized marijuana industry. That diverts some funds from other programs and entities that already receive it, like schools.
The ballot measure capped the amount of pot tax revenue that schools; mental health alcoholism and drug services; the state police; and cities and counties receive at $45 million annually, with the rest going to a “Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Fund.”
The fund will be awash in money if the sales trend for marijuana continues as expected.
In the 2020 fiscal year, marijuana tax revenues peaked at $133 million, a 30% increase over the previous year, and a 545% increase over 2016, when pot taxes began being collected from legal, registered recreational marijuana enterprises around the state.
The other recipients of pot tax revenues are now saying that, after assessment and related treatment options are set up, the distribution of those revenues will deserve another look. A leading lawmaker agrees.
“In the future, as Oregon’s treatment programs reach full funding, the state should evaluate what other services would benefit from our continually growing marijuana tax revenues,” Oregon Education Association President John Larson said in an email.
Larson said a “balanced approach to budgeting” will support communities and students. The OEA union represents about 44,000 educators.
State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, chair of the Senate Committee On Judiciary and Ballot Measure 110 Implementation, said he expects Oregon's cannabis tax revenues to increase exponentially if recreational marijuana in the United States is legalized. He expects that to happen within four years.
That would make the Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Fund “oversaturated with revenue” as out-of-state consumers legally buy Oregon's potent marijuana, Prozanski said in a telephone interview.
“It would be foolish for us as a Legislature to think that the voters would want us to put hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars into a program that would be, at that point, I would think, having a gold standard" in addiction recovery services, the Democrat said.
But Sutton noted that besides traditional treatment services, the fund would also be spent on housing and job assistance to provide long-term stability for people struggling with addiction.
“I can’t imagine a situation where this fund becomes oversaturated anytime soon,” Sutton said.
Oregon is a pioneer in liberalizing drug laws. It was the first state, in 1973, to decriminalize marijuana possession. In 2014, Oregon voters passed a ballot measure legalizing recreational use of marijuana. But Sutton said there are no plans to pursue legalization and a regulated market of hard drugs in Oregon.
Addiction recovery centers must be available by Oct. 1. One center must be established within each existing coordinated care organization service area.
After decriminalization, about 3,700 fewer Oregonians per year will be convicted of felony or misdemeanor possession of controlled substances, according to estimates by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. The measure will also likely lead to significant reductions in racial and ethnic disparities in convictions and arrests, the state commission said.
Drugs specified by the measure include LSD, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, methadone, oxycodone, and MDMA — commonly known as ecstasy.
While this approach is new in the United States, several countries, including Portugal, the Netherlands and Switzerland, have already decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs, according to the United Nations.
Portugal’s 2000 decriminalization brought no surge in drug use. Drug deaths fell while the number of people treated for drug addiction in the country rose 20% from 2001 to 2008 and then stabilized, Portuguese officials have said. | Government Policy Changes | February 2021 | ['(ABC News)'] |
An Islamic Jihad rocket commander and five relatives are killed in an Israeli airstrike. | The Israel Defense Forces claimed it targeted a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist in an airstrike on a house in the central Gaza Strip that killed a Palestinian family of eight on Thursday morning, in what later emerged to have been a false statement.
IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the strike targeted the head of the Islamic Jihad’s rocket unit, whom he identified as Rasmi Abu Malhous, including a photograph purporting to show him.
However, no such figure exists in the Islamic Jihad organization, IDF officials later told the Haaretz newspaper, and Adraee’s claim appeared to have been based off false rumors that were spread on civilian channels on the Telegram application.
AFP reported on Friday that Islamic Jihad said Malhous was “known as a person affiliated with Islamic Jihad but he was not a commander”.
According to Haaretz, which broke the story, the home that was targeted in the overnight strike had been identified in the past as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad-controlled site, but this information had not been confirmed recently and appeared to be out of date. Neighbors of the family killed in the strike said they were not involved with the terror group. | Armed Conflict | November 2019 | ['(The Times of Israel)'] |
Hurricane Irene approaches the east coast of the United States ahead of making landfall on Saturday with 50 million people in its path. |
Raleigh, N.C. — Hurricane Irene was bearing down on North Carolina Thursday on track to make landfall in the Outer Banks Saturday afternoon, WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said.
The National Weather Service issued a hurricane warning Thursday for the North Carolina coast, indicating that Hurricane Irene is expected to impact the state in the next 48 hours. The warning extends from north of Surf City to the Virginia border.
Gov. Bev Perdue pressed residents and vacationers to act with caution over the next few days. "We can always rebuild, but we cannot replace lost lives," she said Thursday night. "It’s time for all of us to take very seriously these warnings."
The first signs of the storm could be felt in North Carolina Friday night as tropical storm force winds and heavy rain. By 8 a.m. Saturday, forecasts show heavy surf off the coasts of South Carolina and Wilmington. A vast band of tropical storm strength wind – up to 90 mph – will build inland from the state's southeast corner. Winds could reach 105 mph across the northeastern corner of the state as the storm makes landfall Saturday evening.
"It is going to be an incredibly long two days around here," WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel said.
Perdue issued a state of emergency Thursday morning for all counties east of Interstate 95 as mandatory evacuations forced thousands of people to flee the coast ahead of Hurricane Irene.
The emergency declaration activated North Carolina's price-gouging law, and Perdue also asked President Barack Obama to declare a pre-landfall emergency declaration to provide federal assistance for response efforts.
The counties listed in the emergency declaration are: Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Halifax, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Nash, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell and Wilson.
"By noon tomorrow, we’ll have 180 national guard troops with boots on the ground in eastern North Carolina, and we’ll have 2,300 more on standby," the governor said.
The National Weather Service said winds at Wrightsville Beach could be close to hurricane force at about 70 mph with a storm surge of four to six feet. New Hanover County could see six to nine inches of rain. The first hurricane of the Atlantic season had maximum sustained winds swirling at 115 mph and was moving northwest at 14 mph Thursday night.
Irene "is packing a strong wind," Perdue said, adding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is standing by, the National Guard is deployed, the Red Cross is on the ground and volunteers are in position to help with disaster relief as needed.
Perdue said she was disappointed to see how slowly the evacuation of Ocracoke Island began Wednesday.
"I understand that folks don't take it seriously, but Ocracoke is sitting out there in the middle of the water, and if you have a 115 mph wind – it may not be that much, I'm not trying to over-exaggerate – you just don't know," she said. Federal officials have warned that Irene could cause erosion, flooding, power outages or worse all along the coast even if it stays offshore.
It's been more than seven years since a major hurricane, considered a Category 3 with winds of at least 111 mph, hit the East Coast. Hurricane Jeanne came ashore on Florida's east coast in 2004.
The last hurricane to hit the U.S. was Ike in 2008. The last Category 3 or higher to hit the Carolinas was Bonnie in 1998, but caused less damage than other memorable hurricanes: Hugo in 1989, Fran in 1996, Floyd in 1999 and Isabel in 2003.
Copyright 2018 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2011 | ['(WRAL)', '(Reuters)'] |
The last surviving member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition George Lowe dies at the age of 89 after a long illness. | The last surviving member of the team which was the first to conquer Everest 60 years ago has died.
George Lowe, 89, died at a nursing home in Ripley, Derbyshire on Wednesday after a long illness.
The New Zealand-born mountaineer was part of the team which helped Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to become the first to reach the top of the world's highest peak on 29 May, 1953.
He helped set up the final camp 300 metres (1,000ft) below the summit which allowed Hillary and Norgay to reach the 8,850 metre peak and mark their place in history.
Lowe was the first to meet the duo as they descended the summit and Hillary, a close friend and countryman, greeted him with the words: "Well George, we knocked the bastard off."
Family friend and historian Dr Huw Lewis-Jones described Lowe as a '"gentle soul and a fine climber" whose achievements deserved wider recognition.
"George is a hero of mine. I don't often use that word but then it is not very often that you get to meet one," he said.
Lowe was born in Hastings, New Zealand and became a schoolteacher. He spent his holidays climbing in the country's southern alps, where he met Hillary.
The pair were members of the first New Zealand expedition to the Himalayas in 1951 before joining the British Everest expedition to conquer the mountain just days before the Queen's coronation.
Following his Everest climb, Lowe went on to take part in the trans-Antarctic expedition of 1957-58, which made the first successful overland crossing of Antarctica via the south pole.
He later made expeditions to Greenland, Greece and Ethiopia, before settling in England and becoming a schools inspector with the Department of Education. He retired in 1984.
Lowe made a documentary about his experiences called The Conquest of Everest. It was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary feature.
Over recent years, he had been working with Lewis-Jones on putting together his memoirs featuring photographs from the climb. This will be published in May.
"Lowe was a brilliant, kind fellow who never sought the limelight," said Lewis-Jones.
"An unsung hero, if you like, and 60 years on from Everest his achievements deserve wider recognition.
"It has been an honour to have spent the last few years working with George's family on his memoirs and photographs.
"He was a gentle soul, a gentleman, generous with his time and modest despite all his success.
"He was involved in two of the most important explorations of the 20th century – Everest, and the first crossing of Antarctica – yet remained a humble, happy man right to the end. That's an inspirational lesson to us all."
This article was corrected on 22 March 2013 because the original headline said Lowe was part of "Edmund Hillary's Everest team". | Famous Person - Death | March 2013 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Voice of America)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Huffington Post)'] |
A 7.7–magnitude earthquake hits northern Chile, near the town of Calama. Two deaths and over a hundred injuries are reported. | A powerful 7.7-magnitude quake has hit north Chile, cracking roads, bringing down buildings and knocking out power.
The quake hit at 1243 local time (1543 GMT), centring on Quillahua village, about 100km north-west of Calama town. At least two people were killed and more than 100 injured in the city of Tocopilla, the authorities said. The quake - lasting about 50 seconds - sent panicked residents out into the streets. It could even be felt in the capital Santiago, 1,260km to the south. Chile's National Emergency Office director, Carmen Fernandez, described it as a "major quake". "One of the most affected zones could be Tocopilla," Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said on television. Both of the deaths caused by the earthquake happened in Tocopilla. At least 100 of the city's houses were destroyed and another 2,500, or 40% of the city's total, sustained some damage, said a presidential spokesman. "Today, the people of Tocopilla are going to have to sleep in the streets," said the city's mayor. The Chilean government is sending 500 emergency shelters to Tocopilla to help those left homeless by the earthquake. Tunnel collapse
In Maria Elena, a small town some 60km south-east of Tocopilla, 20 people were hurt reported the Chilean news site La Tercera, and 70% of the town's houses were destroyed. At least fifty people were trapped when the Galleguillos road tunnel collapsed, Navy Captain Ignacio Rojas told reporters. In the city of Antofagasta, 45 people were injured, according to police spokesman Javier Carmona. TV pictures showed cars crushed by the concrete awning of a hotel in the city. A reporter for local Radio Cooperativa said she saw cracks in the tarmac at the airport there. "It was horribly strong. It was very long and there was a lot of underground noise," Andrea Riveros, a hotel worker in Calama, told news agency AP. Another worker at a hotel close to Calama told AP the hotel felt "like a floating island" during the quake, which took down power lines, cracked windows and knocked masonry off nearby houses. "I was very frightened. It was very strong. I've never felt one that strong," Paola Barria said. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet will visit the region on Thursday and the government is sending a plane loaded with humanitarian supplies to the affected areas. A 5.7-magnitude aftershock struck the region two hours later, Reuters news agency reported. As well as in the distant capital Santiago, the quake was felt in neighbouring Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. In the Bolivian administrative capital La Paz buildings were temporarily evacuated but no damage was reported. The quake happened relatively deep underground, diminishing its destructiveness, says the BBC's Daniel Schweimler in the Argentine capital. Warning cancelled
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii cancelled a regional tsunami alert issued shortly after the earthquake, as no damaging waves had been recorded. But it cautioned that coastal areas in Hawaii could experience "small non-destructive sea level changes and strong or unusual currents lasting up to several hours". Two tectonic plates - the Nazca and the South American - clash in this region. In August more than 500 people died when an 8.0 magnitude quake struck neighbouring Peru just south of the capital, Lima. | Earthquakes | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Band singer and drummer Levon Helm dies of throat cancer at the age of 71. | Levon Helm, who helped to forge a deep-rooted American music as the drummer and singer for the Band, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71 and lived in Woodstock, N.Y.
His death, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was from complications of cancer, a spokeswoman for Vanguard Records said. He had recorded several albums for the label.
| Famous Person - Death | April 2012 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
The United States releases Lakhdar Boumediene from Guantánamo Bay Naval Base's detention center. | An Algerian man held for seven years by the US has arrived in France after being set free from Guantanamo Bay.
Lakhdar Boumediene was held in Bosnia in 2001, but was cleared last year of any wrongdoing and cleared for release. He won a landmark Supreme Court case granting Guantanamo inmates the right to challenge their confinement. The release comes on the same day that US President Barack Obama announced that he was reviving military trials for some detainees. Earlier this month, France offered to accept Mr Boumediene, 42, after he was cleared of any wrongdoing in November by a US judge who ruled he had been illegally detained. Mr Boumediene was flown from the US naval base in south-eastern Cuba to waiting relatives in France. He had been on hunger strike since December 2006 and was force-fed twice a day through a nose-drip, the AFP news agency reported. His wife and two daughters, who went to Algeria after his arrest, will also be taken in by France, it said. Landmark case
Mr Boumediene was among six men arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and charged with plotting to attack the US embassy in Sarajevo. They were formally exonerated by Bosnian prosecutors in 2004. All six said they were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques at Guantanamo, which involved prolonged isolation, forced nudity, and sleep deprivation. Mr Boumediene was one of two detainees who won a case before the US Supreme Court last June on behalf of 37 foreign nationals at the US-run prison camp. The ruling gave Guantanamo prisoners the long-standing habeas corpus right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts. Since then, federal judges have ordered the release of 25 prisoners, including three of Mr Boumediene's fellow Algerian nationals. The men were transferred to their adoptive home of Bosnia in December, becoming the first Guantanamo inmates to be released by the former Bush administration under a judge's orders. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The World Health Organization elects former Ethiopian Foreign Minister and Health Minister Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the international organization's new Director–General succeeding Dr. Margaret Chan, who has been in office since 2006. Tedros is the first African Director–General and the first non–medical doctor; he has a PhD in Community Health from the University of Nottingham. | Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was nominated by the Government of Ethiopia, and will begin his five-year term on 1 July 2017.
Prior to his election as WHO’s next Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia from 2012–2016 and as Minister of Health, Ethiopia from 2005–2012. He has also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board; and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
As Minister of Health, Ethiopia, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus led a comprehensive reform effort of the country's health system, including the expansion of the country’s health infrastructure, creating 3500 health centres and 16 000 health posts; expanded the health workforce by 38 000 health extension workers; and initiated financing mechanisms to expand health insurance coverage. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he led the effort to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
As Chair of the Global Fund and of RBM, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus secured record funding for the two organizations and created the Global Malaria Action Plan, which expanded RBM’s reach beyond Africa to Asia and Latin America.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will succeed Dr Margaret Chan, who has been WHO’s Director-General since 1 January 2007. | Government Job change - Election | May 2017 | ['(WHO)', '(The Washington Post)', '(Time)', '(World Health Organization)'] |
German police arrest two Algerian men suspected of having links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and planning terror attacks in the country. One of the men detained, reported to be aged 35, had been living in a refugee shelter in the town of Attendorn, east of Cologne. Police say "investigations show that he has been trained militarily in Syria". | German police have arrested two Algerians suspected of planning an attack and having links to the militant group, Islamic State (IS). One of the men was arrested in the capital Berlin and the other in a town close to Cologne, in west Germany. Police seized computers, mobile phones and sketches in the raids but did not find a "smoking gun", prosecutors' spokesman Martin Steltner said.
About 450 officers were involved in the raids.
One of the men detained, reported to be aged 35, had been living in a refugee shelter in the town of Attendorn, east of Cologne, and is wanted by the Algerian authorities for alleged links to IS. Police said "investigations show that he has been trained militarily in Syria". The man's wife, also wanted by Algeria, was detained at the same time but prosecutors said she was not a suspect in the German case. The suspect held in Berlin was arrested on suspicion of falsifying identity documents, police said.
Two other Algerians in Germany, said by police to be "from the jihadist scene", were tracked down but not arrested.
"Our understanding is that the four men accused could have planned to carry out an attack together," Mr Steltner said.
German media said the possible targets included central Berlin tourist sites Checkpoint Charlie and Alexanderplatz.
Since January, the suspects had changed their mobile phones multiple times and communicated using instant messaging services, reports said.
Germany's security concerns have risen since the Paris attacks last year. Officials declined to comment on a report in the Tagesspiegel newspaper, citing security sources, which said senior IS figures had ordered an attack on Germany.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Metropolitan Police arrest 6 people in London in connection to an alleged potential threat to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom. (RTÉ) | A sixth man has been arrested in London by police in relation to a potential threat to Pope Benedict XVI's visit. His arrest, at 1345 BST, came after five men were seized at 0545 BST after counter-terrorism officers received intelligence of a potential threat.
All six, who were street cleaners, have been taken to a London police station. The BBC's Danny Shaw said the arrests were carried out as a precaution. Police are searching a number of premises. At least five of the men were not British nationals.
The cleaners worked for Veolia Environment Services, a major contract cleaning company that works for Westminster Council. Armed officers arrested the first five men at the company's Chiltern Street depot, Paddington, as they were preparing to go on shift. In a statement from Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police said that the men had been arrested in a Terrorism Act 2000 operation, launched by officers from the force's Counter-Terrorism Command. All six men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. They are 26, 27, 29, 36, 40 and 50 years old and most are understood to be Algerian. Police are continuing to search eight residential premises in north and east London and two business premises in central London. Officers have not found any hazardous items. In the statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Today's arrests were made after police received information following initial inquiries by detectives. "Following today's arrests policing arrangements for the papal visit were reviewed and we are satisfied our current policing plan remains appropriate. The itinerary has not changed. There is no change to the UK threat level."
The current official threat level in the UK is "severe", which means that security chiefs believe a terror attack is "highly likely".
The BBC understands that the information acted on by the police was received by Scotland Yard and did not involve intelligence gathered by MI5, the domestic security service. Andrew Redhead, former national police firearms tactical adviser, told the BBC that "every allegation, every bit of information that comes to light will be vetted and taken seriously".
He added: "Obviously it would appear that the concerns are such [in this case] that persons have been arrested, and it is being taken seriously.
"Is this just a group of people speaking loudly and someone has overheard, or is it something more sinister? Obviously the police authorities and the specialists will have to work through that in due course."
Reacting to the first five arrests, Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's press spokesman, said the Vatican was "totally confident" in Scotland Yard and the ability of its officers. The papal team had no direct information about the police operation, he said, adding that the Pope remained calm and had been welcomed warmly everywhere he had gone. "The police have already said that the information demonstrated that there is no need to change the programme," he said.
In a statement, Dr Leith Penny of Westminster City Council, said: "Veolia and Westminster City Council work closely with the relevant authorities to constantly ensure that all the people working on their behalf are subject to right to work checks as prescribed by the Home Office to assess their eligibility to work in the country.
"We are confident that these checks are robust and we will continue to work with the police and other authorities during this investigation."
The UK's top police officers from England and Scotland spent months planning the security arrangements for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the UK. Those plans included threat assessments, standard arrangements covering the safe transport of significant public figures and the potential need to control crowds during the visit's major events. In all, the policing bill for the visit is expected to top £1m. The BBC's Emily Buchanan, who was with the Pope at his visit to an assembly of children at a Catholic college in west London, described the security around the Pope as "extremely high... with no lapses". Policing Pope's visit to top £1m
Pope visit security 'draconian'
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Franz Josef Jung resigns as Germany's Minister of Labour and Social Affairs following allegations of covering up the Kunduz airstrike, during which he served as Minister of Defence. | Germany's former defense minister Franz Josef Jung has stepped down from his cabinet position over an alleged cover-up regarding civilian deaths during a NATO airstrike in Afghanistan in September.
Many argued that Jung was no longer tenable as a minister
Announcing his resignation to reporters in Berlin on Friday, Jung said he would take responsibility for any policy mistakes.
"I told Chancellor Merkel this morning that I am vacating my position as labor minister," Jung said. "I hereby assumed political responsibility for the internal communication policy of the defense ministry," he said.
Jung said he still believed he had acted in good faith in the airstrike aftermath. "I have correctly informed the public as well as the parliament about what I knew," he said
Germany's top soldier, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, stepped down one day before Jung
On Thursday, two senior defense ministry officials, military Chief of Staff General Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Deputy Defense Minister Peter Wichert, pre-empted Jung by resigning. Those resignations followed a report by Germany’s Bild newspaper that said aerial videos and a secret military report clearly indicated civilians had been killed in the airstrike, even though the then-defense minister was denying it. In parliament on Thursday, Jung admitted that the report did point to civilian deaths but said he had had no "concrete knowledge" of its contents.
Deadly airstrike
On September 4, the German colonel in charge of German troops at Kunduz, Georg Klein, called in a US fighter plane to strike two fuel tanker trucks said to have been stuck in a river bed after being hijacked by suspected Taliban militants a short distance from the German base. A confidential NATO report said the ensuing fireball caused up to 142 deaths, which would make it the highest death toll related to German forces since World War II. Local Afghan government sources said between 30 and 40 civilians died alongside 69 Taliban fighters in the airstrike. Germany’s new Defense Minister Karl-Theodore zu Guttenberg said he had been unaware of the report until Wednesday. Next week, the Bundestag parliament is expected to vote on a new mandate for Afghanistan which could allow up to 4,500 troops. Germany has NATO's third-largest contingent in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain.
Cabinet shuffle
The airstrike took place just weeks before Germany’s federal election. After her election victory, Chancellor Angela Merkel switched her Christian Democrat ally from defense to labor amid mounting voter disquiet over the role of Germany’s 4,250 NATO troops in northern Afghanistan. Opinion surveys show that a majority of Germans have become critical of Berlin's involvement amid surges of insurgency, especially since a date for a complete withdrawal remains elusive. In Germany opposition to military conflict still runs deep, more than 60 years after the Nazi defeat. Next Tuesday, US President Barack Obama, whose administration has been re-examining the international troop presence in Afghanistan, is expected to announce the deployment of thousands of additional US troops.
New minister named Ursula von der Leyen
Chancellor Merkel announced on Friday that current Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen is to succeed Jung as labor minister.
Von der Leyen, who is a member of Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, is a popular politician and mother of seven who previously introduced generous state child-benefit payments. Kristina Koehler, 32, succeeds von der Leyen at the family ministry.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2009 | ['(Deutsche Welle)', '(BBC)'] |
Bilal Abdullah is convicted for his roles in the 2007 attack on Glasgow International Airport and an attempted bombing of London's West End. | An NHS doctor has been convicted of plotting to bring chaos and murder to London and Glasgow Airport by setting off massive car bombs.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court found Bilal Abdulla guilty of plotting the home-made bomb attacks in 2007.
Another NHS doctor, Mohammed Asha, was cleared of helping Abdulla and a second attacker, Kafeel Ahmed.
Ahmed died following the Glasgow attack on 30 June 2007, a day after he and Abdulla had attacked London's West End.
Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told the jury the men had been intent on "committing murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale" in attacks that would occur without warning, spreading panic among the public.
Abdulla will be sentenced on Wednesday. Meanwhile, lawyers for Dr Asha said he had been served with deportation papers - but would fight to remain in the UK and rebuild his medical career. 'Kill and maim'
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was "pleased" with the conviction.
"The attack on Glasgow Airport and the planned bomb in central London sought to kill and maim through attacks of an indiscriminate nature," she said.
"This conviction underlines again the serious and sustained threat we face in the UK from terrorism - which is a threat we must face and deal with together."
The first attack involved two failed car bombs left in London's West End. Then a burning Jeep filled with gas canisters was driven into Glasgow Airport on its busiest day of the year.
In each case, said prosecutors, it was good fortune alone that there had been no loss of innocent life.
Abdulla, an Iraqi who was born in the UK, was one of two bombers along with Kafeel Ahmed. The 29-year-old was arrested near the Jeep at Glasgow Airport terminal building.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. CCTV footage of a car bomb attack at Glasgow airport
Indian-born PhD aeronautical engineering student Ahmed, 28, suffered serious burns and died five weeks later.
Detectives believe the Glasgow attack was a suicide bomb attempt on holidaymakers in the wake of the two botched attacks on London.
Abdulla admitted in court that he was "a terrorist" as defined by English law. He went on to say he believed the British government and Army could equally be accused of terrorism for their actions in Iraq.
But he added he had wanted to frighten people rather than murder them.
At the time of the attacks he was a junior doctor at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.
The jury at Woolwich Crown Court found Abdulla guilty of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. He faces a life sentence but showed no reaction as the jury's verdict was read out.
Investigators said they had been shocked to learn of Abdulla's responsible, health sector background.
One senior detective added: "Just the whole idea of people who take the Hippocratic oath who then go on to wantonly seek to destroy human life in the most horrific way imaginable, that is what I find shocking."
Dr Asha, 28, a neurologist at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, admitted knowing the two bombers but denied any knowledge of their attacks. He was found not guilty of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.
He leaned back in his seat, his hands clasped behind his neck in apparent relief as the verdict was read out. Before Dr Asha left the dock the two men embraced and shook hands.
Jim Sturman QC, for Abdulla, said his crimes were motivated by politics, not religion.
"This is not a case where his intention was driven by religious faith but by his frustration with what he saw as an unjust war," he said.
The barrister said his client needed time "to allow the consequences of conviction to sink in".
Speaking after the trial, Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Karen Jones said: "If you are planning to scare people you do not pack cars with petrol, gas and nails.
"If the cars had blown up those nails would not only have killed people but maimed others for life."
Tory MP and security expert Patrick Mercer said it was wrong to call the attacks "amateurish" and said Britain was vulnerable to similar incidents.
"These sort of attacks are relatively easily put together. The materials are relatively easily obtained.
'Highly vulnerable'
"Whilst we have seen highly sophisticated attacks in places like Mumbai in recent weeks, we are still highly vulnerable to the lower end of the lower scale of these sort of attacks being put together without very much central guidance from core al-Qaeda operatives."
Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, a national counter terrorism co-ordinator at the Metropolitan Police, said he believed the London bombs were to have been the first in a series of similar attacks.
"Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed had at least two other vehicles and further supplies of gas, petrol and other items for constructing bombs," he said.
"It was more luck than judgement that their repeated attempts to detonate the two car bombs by mobile phone failed."
Strathclyde Police Chief Constable Stephen House said he was "delighted" with the result and grateful for the "solid ties" between the force, community leaders and the area's ethnic minority communities.
Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, paid tribute to the bravery of airport workers, passengers and the emergency services. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2008 | ['(BBC)'] |
In ice hockey, the Las Vegas Golden Knights became the first NHL franchise to complete a 4-game sweep in the postseason during their inaugural season after their victory over the Los Angeles Kings. | LOS ANGELES -- One year ago, the Vegas Golden Knights had no players on their roster, and Gerard Gallant was four days into his new job as the first head coach of the expansion team.
On Tuesday, Vegas became the first franchise in NHL history to sweep a postseason series in its inaugural season when it defeated the Los Angeles Kings 1-0.
The Golden Knights will face the winner of the San Jose Sharks-Anaheim Ducks series in the next round. San Jose leads the series 3-0.
It already has been a historic season for the Golden Knights, after they took the Pacific Division to become the first modern-era expansion team in the NHL, NBA, NFL or MLB to win its division in its inaugural season, excluding mergers and all-expansion divisions.
The Golden Knights are now continuing to rewrite the record books in the postseason. With Tuesday's sweep, they became just the third team in the NHL, NBA or MLB to complete a four-game sweep in its first playoff series. The Pittsburgh Penguins did so in 1970 against the Oakland Seals, and MLB's Boston Braves pulled off the feat in 1914 against the Philadelphia Athletics.
A big reason for Vegas' success this season and in the playoffs so far has been the play of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who was selected by Vegas in the expansion draft after he helped the Penguins win the Stanley Cup three times. Fleury now has 66 career postseason victories, and he passed Dominik Hasek (65) for 11th in NHL history among goaltenders. Tuesday's effort was Fleury's 12th career postseason shutout, tied with Terry Sawchuk for 10th-most in NHL history.
"You guys remind us or tell us about those records, but it's not something that we talk about or shoot for," Fleury said. "All season long, I didn't know any records about expansion teams. We just do what a regular team would. We just play the game and try to win. That's it."
Few expected much from Vegas coming into this season. Many had the Golden Knights pegged as the worst team in the league following the expansion draft that netted them the likes of Fleury, James Neal, Jonathan Marchessault, Deryk Engelland, David Perron, William Karlsson, Nate Schmidt, Erik Haula, Cody Eakin, William Carrier and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
The star and the face of the franchise was always going to be Fleury, but no one thought he would become the catalyst for another Stanley Cup contender so soon in the process.
"He had experience winning three Stanley Cups being with the Pittsburgh Penguins all those years. We knew when we got him we got a superstar goaltender. We knew that," Gallant said. "He has carried our team a lot. He makes our team better and confident, and it all started with the first 10 games of the season, when we were 8-2. He's a big part of our group."
The Golden Knights swept the Kings despite scoring seven total goals in the series and by allowing only three goals from Los Angeles. Vegas' seven goals are two fewer than any other team has scored in a best-of-seven sweep in NHL history.
"It feels great," Marchessault said. "All of us, we came in with a chip on our shoulder, and we're just looking at the next game ahead of us. When we play right away, I think we can go far, but we cannot look too far right now. We've got to look at the next game and be able to cash in the rest that we're going to have here and be ready when the second round starts."
The game-winning goal on Tuesday came from Brayden McNabb, who played the previous three seasons for the Kings before being selected by Vegas in the expansion draft. It was McNabb's first postseason goal.
"I'm not a huge offensive guy, but to get a goal and get our team going felt pretty good. I was just happy to get the team going," he said.
As Vegas prepared to leave Staples Center after the franchise's first playoff series win and sweep Tuesday night, Gallant couldn't help but recall the incredible journey of his first year as the team's first head coach.
"It's unreal," Gallant said. "When you think back to early October when the season started, we were thinking about competing and playing hard, and now all of a sudden, we're moving on to the second round of the playoffs. We're playing good hockey, and we got experienced guys and a good hockey team, so we're pretty proud of it and real happy.
"We'll have a week off here to get ready for the next one. It's awesome. It's been a great feeling." | Sports Competition | April 2018 | ['(ESPN)'] |
Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Odinga undergoes brain surgery in Nairobi. | Nairobi — Prime Minister Raila Odinga checked into Nairobi Hospital on Monday evening still hoping to watch the World Cup match between Brazil and Chile.
Since it was a feeling of discomfort that prompted him to see a doctor, he never thought it would take a long time -- leave alone admission to hospital. "In fact, he released us knowing that he would not stay long at the hospital," said his press secretary, Mr Dennis Onyango.
The doctors, however, had a different idea and admitted him at 6pm even as he resisted, officials at his office said on Tuesday. Mr Odinga had just declined a tea offer from the organisers of the Nairobi Dam clean-up exercise, the last function he had attended, and was driven to the hospital in his official car.
It was the end of a busy day, which started at his office at 8.30am, said the PM's chief of staff Caroli Omondi and Mr Onyango. They said the PM's first meeting was with Medical Services minister Anyang' Nyong'o at 9am.
Prof Nyong'o briefed the PM on the strategies the 'Yes' campaign team was using to sell the proposed constitution to Kenyans. The minister and his Energy counterpart, Mr Kiraitu Murungi, are the co-conveners of the 'Yes' campaign.
Prof Nyong'o briefed the PM on strategies he and Mr Murungi had developed to bolster the campaign. Mr Odinga then met officials of the Geothermal Development Corporation, who gave him a report on the green energy initiative.
He rounded off the office meetings with organisers of the Nairobi Dam clean-up initiative. At 10.45am, Mr Odinga left for the 'Yes' parliamentary group meeting at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, which he co-chaired with President Kibaki.
After the PG meeting, Mr Odinga and the President had lunch with the MPs. The PM then left the function as President Kibaki prepared to brief journalists on the meeting's deliberations.
He then went to the Nairobi Dam, where he launched the clean-up drive. It is after this meeting that he was driven to hospital and admitted after complaining of discomfort.
| Famous Person - Sick | June 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(Daily Nation)', '(AllAfrica.com)', '(Times LIVE)'] |
NATO raises concerns about an increase in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan and raises concern that it is partly due to agreements between Pakistan and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO announced a sharp increase in insurgent attacks in east Afghanistan on Wednesday and raised concerns that it was partly due to pacts between Pakistan and militants in tribal areas on its side of the border.
The number of violent incidents in the Afghan east, overseen by U.S. NATO troops, stood last month at 50 percent above the same time last year, an alliance spokesman said. The violence there was close to a peak reached last August, he added.
“The concern is that the deals struck by the Pakistan government and extremist groups in tribal areas may be allowing them to have a safe haven,” spokesman James Appathurai told a regular briefing after a meeting of alliance ambassadors.
“This has been communicated to Pakistani authorities. We do not want to interfere in internal affairs but we have every right to communicate our concerns,” he said, noting that NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer would travel there soon.
He did not allude to specific deals and he declined to give the absolute number of attacks by insurgents in April.
Existing pacts, including one struck in North Waziristan in late 2006, are widely regarded by Western officials as having failed to end violence and even given insurgents a safe launchpad for attacks within Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s new government has begun shifting troops from parts of the South Waziristan region in an effort to make peace with a militant commander allied to al Qaeda, Pakistani officials said on Wednesday.
Baituallah Mehsud, who leads the Taliban in Pakistan, has been blamed for suicide attacks across the country including the one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December. Mehsud has denied involvement in Bhutto’s murder.
NATO had until recently hailed the improving security conditions in east Afghanistan as signs that its 47,000-strong force was winning. The area was viewed as a success for U.S. efforts to combine military clout with reconstruction efforts.
The alliance has begun internal discussions about the possibility of the United States in future taking over leadership of military operations in violent south Afghanistan and applying a similar model there.
| Armed Conflict | May 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev visits the disputed Kuril Islands prompting a protest from Japan. | TOKYO/ITURUP (Reuters) - Japan on Saturday lodged a protest over Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to one of four disputed Pacific islands which have strained ties between the two countries since the end of World War Two. The decades-old argument over the territory, claimed by both states, could set back Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to court resource-rich Russia and keep the door open to dialogue, despite the Ukraine crisis. The islands are known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles and referred to as the Northern Territories in Japan. Russia seized them in the last days of World War Two and the dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty since. After Medvedev visited Iturup island on Saturday, senior Japanese foreign ministry official Hajime Hayashi lodged the protest with the Russian ambassador to Japan, Evgeny Afanasiev, by telephone, the ministry said. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will delay a visit to Russia planned for the end of August, the Nikkei business daily said, but did not elaborate. Japan had been hoping for a visit this year by Russian President Vladimir Putin for summit talks with Abe, Kyodo news agency said. While on the island, Medvedev said Japan's attitude would not stop more such visits. "Our position is simple: We want to be friends with Japan, Japan is our neighbor. We have a good attitude towards Japan, but this shouldn't be linked in any way with the Kurile islands, which are part of the Russian Federation," he said. "Therefore we have made visits, we are visiting and we will make visits to the Kuriles." Medvedev emphasized economic development plans for a region potentially rich in oil and gas and invited foreign investors. "If it will be our neighbors the Japanese that's not bad. If it will be Korean or Chinese friends, that's also not bad," he said. "Whoever comes first will get benefits." Russia ordered a quicker buildup of military facilities in the disputed islands in June, following comments by Putin in April that he was ready to discuss the issue, while blaming Japan for a lack of dialogue. On Saturday, Russia also published a government resolution affirming the country's claim to the seabed and natural resources in the central part of the Okhotsk Sea between the Kuriles and the Russian mainland, adding more than 50,000 square km (19,000 square miles) to Russia's territory. The resolution said the claim had been approved by a United Nations commission last year and followed consultations with Japan. Russia plans to at least double oil and gas flows to Asia in the next 20 years and Japan has been forced to resort to huge fuel imports to replace lost nuclear energy, after its reactors were shut down because of the 2011 Fukushima disaster. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo and Denis Dyomkin in Iturup; additional reporting by Jason Bush in Moscow; editing by Andrew Roche)
The stars of 'Black Widow' assembled Friday to discuss the thrice-postponed film — and wound up pitching another Marvel movie concept entirely.
The couple went to the cliff to watch the sunrise.
Information like Social Security and passport numbers, addresses, and health data may have been accessed, the Associated Press reported.
The pro-democracy newspaper printed a bumper 500,000 copies after police arrested five senior staff.
A man accused in a fatal crash that claimed the life of a Lawrence woman in April has been arrested, police said Thursday.
When Bruce Springsteen returns to the stage in New York next week, fans won’t have to have been born in the USA to get in - but it will help if they’ve been vaccinated there. The first Broadway show to reopen since last March will require attendees to show proof of their inoculations. However, only vaccines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration will be accepted. So far, that list is limited to Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson, meaning any prospective concert-goers who hav
Alun Cairns, the ex-Secretary of State for Wales, will earn nearly £360 an hour to provide advice to a Singaporean firm that owns over 120 jobcentres.
The House vote on Juneteenth passed by 415-14 for a new federal holiday, but 14 GOP members of Congress voted no. Who are they? Why did they vote no?
Where does the recent baffling slaying of two prominent residents rank among these 15 unforgettable crimes? You decide.
It was put on the market by Zak Bagans, a paranormal investigator, who bought the home in 2019.
NBCNow that President Joe Biden is back from his big summit with Vladimir Putin, Seth Meyers used his final “A Closer Look” segment of the week on Thursday to dig into the blatant, if not shocking, hypocrisy that Fox News has displayed in its coverage.“The very same people who approve of Donald Trump’s friendly attitude towards Putin are claiming Biden wasn’t tough enough,” the Late Night host said, noting that “even Putin was willing to admit that he was dealing with a more experienced statesma
PM Abiy Ahmed swept to power after mass protests, but his Oromo community still feel like outsiders.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Thursday released a full list of investigations into crashes involving Tesla Autopilot.
Comedy CentralUnlike Jimmy Kimmel, The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper couldn’t get the MyPillow guy to come to him. So he did what he does best and went to the MyPillow guy.In his latest field piece from MAGA world, the long-serving correspondent traveled to Mike Lindell’s “free speech Woodstock” in Wisconsin with the hope of interviewing some of the election truthers who are still holding out hope that Donald Trump will return to the White House this summer. He likely never could have imagined tha
We’re getting more Bennifer intel as the days wear on. Paps have been flashing away so we know that JLo and Ben Affleck are officially together.
The loudest voices, a minority of voters, are drowning everyone else out.
Theater chain AMC is observing Juneteenth by showing movies ("Moonlight," "Do the Right Thing") directed by Black filmmakers for $5 at select theaters.
The boat the state Department of Transportation ordered is three years behind schedule.
Alieu Kosiah is the first Liberian to be convicted for acts committed during the country's civil war.
【标题：August_2015 The Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev visits the disputed Kuril Islands prompting a protest from Japan. (Reuters via Yahoo)】 | Diplomatic Visit | August 2015 | ['(Reuters via Yahoo)'] |
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremasinghe is replaced by Mahinda Rajapakse. | Sri Lanka’s president has issued a formal notice for Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down as prime minister and recognise his shock dismissal, in an unfolding constitutional crisis.
Hours after sacking his former ally, President Maithripala Sirisena issued gazettes formalising the dramatic move, and the installation of one-time strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse as the new prime minister.
However, Wickremesinghe continued to occupy Temple Trees, the official residence of the prime minister, and insisted in a letter to Sirisena that he was still in office.
He has said that he can be removed only by parliament where his party enjoys a majority, and also vowed to seek legal action against what he condemned as an unconstitutional move against him. “I am addressing you as the prime minister of Sri Lanka,” Wickremesinghe told reporters at a nationally televised press conference on Friday night. “I remain as prime minister and I will function as the prime minister.”
Since his rushed swearing in, Rajapakse is yet to announce the formation of a cabinet - which under the constitution is automatically dissolved when a prime minister is removed.
The parliamentary speaker, Karu Jayasuriya, has said that he will decide on Saturday whether to recognise Rajapakse or not, after seeking legal advice.
Parliament is not due to meet until 5 November when the 2019 national budget is due to be presented. The supreme court, which is empowered to resolve constitutional disputes, is shut for the weekend and reopens on Monday.
The president’s United People’s Freedom Alliance party had earlier Friday quit the coalition that had governed with Wickremesinghe’s party.
Speaking to jubilant supporters outside his Colombo home late Friday, Rajapakse also called on Wickremesinghe to step down.
Members of his party must “respect democracy, respect the country and respect the law”, the former president said through a loudhailer from a balcony.
Rajapakse loyalists stormed two state-owned television networks overnight – which they regard as loyal to the outgoing government – and forced them off the air.
Video footage from private networks showed police overwhelmed by mobs at the Rupavahini national TV station but elsewhere in the capital streets remained calm.
As president for nine years beginning in 2005, Rajapakse crushed the Tamil Tigers in 2009, ending a 25-year conflict, but refused to acknowledge abuses committed during the bloody civil war. The United States called on all sides in Sri Lanka to operate within the constitution and refrain from violence, and urged the island to move forward on post-war reconciliation.
“We call on all parties to act in accordance with Sri Lanka’s constitution, refrain from violence and follow due process,” the State Department said. Constitutional lawyers, political activists and pundits have debated on social media and Sri Lankan TV whether Wickremesinghe’s ouster was legitimate. The constitution says the president has the right to appoint someone he thinks has a majority in parliament.
But the 19th amendment, added in 2015, says a prime minister can only be removed when he or she ceases to be a member of parliament such as for failing to meet criteria to be an elector or candidate, when a vote of no-confidence is passed, or when he or she chooses to resign.
“At the moment, there is a constitutional crisis – two persons each claiming to be the prime minister,” said Jehan Perera, executive director of the nonpartisan National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
“What the president now should do immediately is to summon Parliament and have a vote. That’s the democratic way to resolve this crisis,” Perera said.
Rajapaksa lost a bid for re-election in 2015 amid mounting allegations of corruption and nepotism. Under his former government, dozens of journalists were killed, abducted and tortured and some fled the country fearing for their lives.
His return to power as prime minister could signal that Sri Lanka is sliding back to an era of violence against political opponents, critics and journalists, observers said. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Japan to announce US assistance for the recovery effort following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. | US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Japan on an official visit to show solidarity five weeks after the devastating quake and tsunami. She announced in Tokyo that the US and Japan had agreed on a "public-private partnership for reconstruction" under the guidance of Japan's government.Japan unveils nuclear crisis plan
Japan, she said, was "indispensable to global problem-solving". America has won Japanese admiration for lending its navy to help in relief efforts and offering nuclear expertise.
Before the quake, ties had been strained by a US military base dispute. But, in a view shared by many survivors of the disaster, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said in an editorial last week that Japanese people had "nothing but the highest praise for the assistance provided by US personnel".
US assistance would, it predicted, "be an important contribution toward strengthening the alliance" between the two countries.
"It is a great honour to be here and to demonstrate our very strong bonds of friendship that go very deep into the hearts of both our people," Mrs Clinton told Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto on arrival.
"There has been an outpouring of concern, sympathy and admiration for the great resilience and spirit the Japanese people have shown."
She is expected to spend half a day in the Japanese capital Tokyo, during which she will also meet Prime Minister Naoto Kan and attend a tea party hosted by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.
US assistance to Japan has included the dispatch of nuclear experts to tackle the crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It has supplied fire engines, pumps and radiation protective suits, as well as barges to carry fresh water to cool the reactors. As part of its Operation Tomodachi, named after the Japanese word for friend, the US has mobilised more than 20,000 personnel, about 160 aircraft and 20 ships.
However, US military bases on the south Japanese island of Okinawa have long been a sore point between the two countries.
Mr Kan's predecessor as prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, resigned after being accused of back-tracking on promises to remove at least one of them.
The current prime minister has been facing criticism at home for his handling of the disaster, with some US officials reportedly voicing dissatisfaction with the information shared by Japan about the situation at the nuclear plant.
Levels of radioactivity in seawater near the plant rose sharply on Friday, raising the possibility of new leaks.
In a commentary published in US newspapers, Mr Kan said his top priority was bringing the nuclear crisis under control.
"I pledge that the Japanese government will promptly and thoroughly verify the cause of this incident, as well as share information and the lessons learned with the rest of the world to help prevent such accidents in the future," he added.
Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Waseda University, believes the real aim of Mrs Clinton's visit is to see "whether the Kan government is really capable of handling this crisis".
"I think the conclusion will be that it is not," he told AFP.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
US Department of State
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.
The ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters. | Diplomatic Visit | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Lobsang Sangay, the leader of the exiled Central Tibetan Administration, visits the White House, marking their first meeting in 60 years. | The leader of Tibet’s government in exile has visited the White House, the first head of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) to do so in six decades.
The CTA announced in a Friday press release that the visit by President Lobsang Sangay followed an invite from the State Department last month to meet the newly appointed U.S. special coordinator for Tibetan issues, Robert Destro.
“Today’s visit amounts to an acknowledgement of both the democratic system of the CTA and its political head,” the press release said. “This unprecedented meeting perhaps will set an optimistic tone for CTA participation with U.S. officials and be more formalized in the coming years.”
The visit could exacerbate existing tensions between the U.S. and China over Tibet, which Beijing has asserted control over since 1950, following what the Chinese government called “a peaceful liberation” that helped Tibet throw off its “feudalist past,” according to Reuters.
However, exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and other critics have said that China’s control is “cultural genocide.”
In July, Secretary of State Mike PompeoMike PompeoThe Hill's Morning Report - After high-stakes Biden-Putin summit, what now? Nikki Haley warns Republicans on China: 'If they take Taiwan, it's all over' The Hill's Morning Report - Dems to go-it-alone on infrastructure as bipartisan plan falters MORE accused China of violating Tibetan human rights and said the U.S. supported “meaningful autonomy” for the region.
That same month, Pompeo announced visa bans targeting Chinese officials involved in restricting foreign access to Tibet.
Beijing officials have since accused the United States of using Tibet to try to promote “splittism” in China.
Following Pompeo’s October appointment of Destro to oversee relations with Tibet, China accused the U.S. of attempting to destabilize the region.
"Xizang's affairs are China's internal affairs that allow no foreign interference," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at the time, using the Chinese term for Tibet.
"The U.S. appointment of so-called 'special coordinator for Tibetan issues' is a political manipulation to interfere in China's domestic affairs and undermine Xizang's development and stability," he added. "China firmly opposes it and has never acknowledged it."
Zhao warned of possible diplomatic retaliation, saying, “China will take all necessary measures to safeguard our interests.”
| Diplomatic Visit | November 2020 | ['(The Hill)'] |
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fines Altaba US$35 million for failing to disclose its 2014 data breach in a timely manner. | Altaba, called Yahoo before the Verizon buyout, will have to pay for a failure to disclose a giant data breach from 2014.
Yahoo waited up to two years to disclose a huge data breach. Now Altaba must pay.
Yahoo's cybersecurity failures continue to haunt the company -- now to the tune of $35 million.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that Altaba, the company formed from the ashes of Yahoo's sale to Verizon, has agreed to pay a penalty of that amount to settle charges that Yahoo failed to disclose a massive data breach from December 2014.
That breach, a state-sponsored attack, affected at least 500 million users and was considered the largest data breach in history until Yahoo announced that all 3 billion accounts on the website had been hit in a separate, 2013 hack. | Organization Fine | April 2018 | ['(CNET)'] |
Israel Defense Forces special forces raid a missile launch site in the Gaza Strip and destroy it. |
A Saturday night airstrike kills 15
Medical sources describe overcrowded emergency rooms in Gaza The language of war leaves something lost in translation. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Saturday spoke of “achievements” and the destruction of “significant targets” in his country’s airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza.
But on the ground in Gaza, sources talked with CNN not about military targets, but about hospitals pushed to the brink, dead or distressed children, and airstrikes that struck water infrastructure. “No one is talking about the Palestinian civilians. When you bring up this story, no one is ready to listen,” a Hamas spokesman, Osama Hamdan, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “But when it came to Israelis, everyone is taking care and everyone is talking.” Though a full-scale invasion has not occurred, Israeli military forces went into Gaza for half an hour early Sunday and raided a long-range missile launching site, an Israeli military source told CNN.
Gunfire was exchanged and four Israeli soldiers were “lightly injured,” the source said, adding that the mission was accomplished.
The death toll from the airstrikes on Gaza this week has topped 160, Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said early Sunday. More than 1,100 people have been injured.
On Saturday, at least 23 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, said security and medical sources in Gaza. An official at Shifa Hospital told CNN that the morgue there was now full. One airstrike targeted the house of the head of the Gaza police, Tayseer al-Batsh, and killed at least 15 people and injured an unknown number of others, security sources in Gaza told CNN. Aqsa TV showed rescuers frantically digging for survivors. The airstrikes hit the house, which is next to a mosque. The sources say that some of the casualties had been in evening prayers at the mosque.
And, an Israeli airstrike hit a facility housing the disabled, killing two women, the health ministry said Saturday. Israel Defense Forces said it was looking into that claim. Four Israeli airstrikes hit the Arafat Police complex in Gaza city early Sunday, shaking nearby buildings, including the offices of CNN and other media. The Israeli military is telling residents of northern Gaza to evacuate their homes for their own safety, CNN correspondent Ben Wedemen reported Saturday. Israel Defense Forces says it uses phone calls and drops empty shells on roofs what it calls “roof knocking” to warn civilians that airstrikes are imminent. Concerns about a ground invasion by Israeli forces are growing. The U.N. Security Council on Saturday called for a de-escalation and cease-fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, the 15-member group said in a statement. Israel’s stated mission is to get Hamas militants to stop firing rockets into Israel, something that has not happened. Even after days of bombardments from Israeli jets, more than 36 rockets were fired from Gaza on Saturday, and the sun had not even set.
Two of those rockets were intercepted by Israeli air defense, and 34 struck Israel. The IDF said at least two rockets fired from Lebanon hit open areas north of coastal Nahariya, but no damage or injuries were reported.
Israel asserts its right to defend itself, and so far the Hamas rockets have caused no deaths.
“Achievements are accumulating in terms of the price that Hamas is paying, and we are continuing to destroy significant targets belonging to Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” Ya’alon said. “Hamas is suffering from severe blows and is causing severe damage to its people.”
Hamas frames the current conflict as a defensive fight. “What about the right for the Palestinians to protect themselves to protect their people?” Hamdan said. “The international solution is asking Israel to leave but they’re not doing that.”
Electricity and water sources affected
More than 500 homes in Gaza have been destroyed or severely damaged, more than 3,000 Palestinians are displaced and hundreds of thousands have been affected by damage to water infrastructure, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) told CNN. Electricity is knocked out in major areas of Gaza City, and at least one major line was struck, repaired and promptly struck again, spokesman Chris Gunness said. Nine UNRWA schools have been damaged, he said. (On Saturday, some UMRWA warehouses caught on fire, but the cause was a militant rocket that fell short and struck on Palestinian territory.)
At least 28 Palestinian children have lost their lives in the recent fighting, and others are beginning to show signs of mental distress, said Catherine Weibel, communications chief for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Israel says, as of Saturday, its military has attacked 1,220 “terror targets,” including 632 launchers, 130 military camps, 106 “terror infrastructure” and 220 tunnels. That level of specificity has little meaning in Gaza, where a public utility official told CNN that water, not terror, infrastructure has been hit. Two Gaza water wells took direct hits Saturday, Gaza director of public water Maher Salem said. These water sources, which supply water to 27,000 people, “no longer exist,” he said. No de-escalation
Though some Israelis have been wounded, none have been killed by the hundreds of rockets fired by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has intercepted dozens of rockets, helping keep fatalities at bay. Hostilities between the two sides escalated this month after the killing of three Israeli teenagers and a Palestinian teen. Neither Hamas nor Israel appear to be backing down, prompting fears of a ground invasion by the latter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left all possibilities open, saying the international community will not influence his actions against Hamas. He reiterated that there is one path to a cease-fire: the cessation of attacks from Gaza. The language seems clear each side demands the other to stop but it seems the two sides can’t hear each other while they have their hands pressed on the “launch” button. In another incident Saturday, an Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinians in Gaza City, according to local medical sources. An Israeli airstrike hit a group of people near Khan Younis, killing a young girl and injuring five others, according to medical and security sources in Gaza. Attackers in Gaza opened fire and damaged an IDF vehicle patrolling the security fence in northern Gaza, the IDF said.
What’s next?
On Saturday, not all of the rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel. At least two rockets hit open areas in the West Bank. The IDF reported that it has called up more than 35,600 reservists. They are authorized to call up to 40,000. As concerns of a ground invasion by Israeli forces grow, foreigners in Gaza are planning their exit. One of the only crossing points between Israel and Gaza, at Erez, has received about 800 requests by civilians with foreign citizenship to leave, officials there told CNN. The 800 requests have come in over the past three days and have been approved, a crossing official said. That figure includes about 300 Americans, though that number is unofficial, the source said. Medical sources described overcrowded emergency rooms in Gaza and dwindling stocks of medicine, a situation that mirrored Syrian hospitals at the height of its civil war. At one damaged hospital, eight activists formed a human shield in an attempt to protect it. The activists who formed a human shield are from various countries, including the United States, Venezuela, Belgium, Britain and Switzerland, said Dr. Basman Al-Ashi, executive director of the Al-Wafa hospital. He said the hospital caters to patients who need 24-hour care, and thus cannot evacuate them. Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are believed to have about 10,000 rockets of varying ranges, according to the Israeli military. Israel has said some 3.5 million residents live in areas within reach of the rockets. | Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(CNN)'] |
The Driehaus Architecture Prize for New Classical architecture is awarded to Robert Adam in Chicago. (The Architect's Newspaper) | Architect Robert Adam has been announced as the winner of the 2017 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. The annual award is given “to honor lifetime contributions to traditional, classical and sustainable architecture and urbanism in the modern world.” Founded in 2003, the prize includes $200,000 and a bronze miniature of the of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates.
Robert Adam, a Rome Scholar, is the founder of ADAM Architecture, as well as of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU). The organization works to connect those interested in traditional architecture and urbanism.
“Throughout his career, Robert Adam has engaged the critical issues of our time, challenging contemporary attitudes toward architecture and urban design. He has written extensively on the tensions between globalism and regionalism as we shape our built environment,” said Michael Lykoudis, Driehaus Prize jury chair and Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture. “Sustainability is at the foundation of his work, achieved through urbanism and architecture that is respectful of local climate, culture and building customs.”
Along with his design practice, Adam has written many publications on classical and historic architecture, including Classical Architecture: A Complete Handbook and Classic Columns: 40 years of writing on architecture. Adam is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an academician at the Academy of Urbanism, and a senior fellow at the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.
The Driehaus Prize statuette is modeled after the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates, built in the 4th century BCE in Athens, Greece. (Courtesy messier/Wikimedia Commons)
In conjunction with the Driehaus Prize, the late James S. Ackerman was announced as the recipient of the Henry Hope Reed Award. The annual Henry Hope Reed Award recognizes those working outside of the practice of architecture who have “supported the cultivation of the traditional city.”
“James Ackerman’s immense contributions to contemporary understanding of Renaissance architecture have greatly influenced not only the field of architectural history but the practice of architecture today,” said Richard H. Driehaus, founder, chairman and chief investment officer of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management LLC. “His work brought the past to life, allowing generations of architects to learn from the early masters of the craft.”
An additional award was also announced to recognized the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU).
“We live in an age that often privileges the private realm over the public, and the Congress for the New Urbanism has worked tirelessly to promote the interests of the public realm. Initially through the design of new communities like Seaside, Florida, and later through education outreach that expanded demand for the improvement of established towns and cities,” stated Dean Lykoudis. “For over two decades, CNU has shown how it is possible to meet the needs of diverse communities with a basic set of principles that can be adapted for different cultures and traditions to create vibrant, beautiful places.”
This year’s jury included Adele Chatfield-Taylor, president emerita of the American Academy in Rome; Robert Davis, developer and founder of Seaside, Florida; Paul Goldberger, contributing editor at Vanity Fair; Léon Krier, architect and urban planner; and Demetri Porphyrios, principal of Porphyrios Associates. | Awards ceremony | March 2017 | [] |
A glacier breaks off in Joshimath, India, in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district resulting in flash floods along the Alaknanda River and Dhauliganga River. Eighteen people are found dead and 200 more are feared dead. | LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - Indian rescuers searched on Monday for more than 200 people missing after part of a remote Himalayan glacier broke away, sweeping away bridges, breaking dams and sending a torrent of water, rocks and construction debris down a mountain valley.
Sunday’s disaster below Nanda Devi, India’s second-highest peak, swept away the small Rishiganga hydro-electric project and damaged a bigger one further down the Dhauliganga river being built by state firm NTPC.
Eighteen bodies had been recovered so far, officials said.
Most of the missing were people working on the two projects, part of the many the government has been building deep in the mountains of Uttarakhand state as part of a development push.
“As of now, around 203 people are missing,” state chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said.
Mohd Farooq Azam, assistant professor, glaciology & hydrology at the Indian Institute of Technology in Indore, said a hanging glacier fractured.
“Our current hypothesis is that the water accumulated and locked in the debris-snow below the glacier was released when the glacier-rock mass fell,” he said.
Related Coverage
Videos on social media showed water surging through a small dam site, washing away construction equipment and bringing down small bridges.
“Everything was swept away, people, cattle and trees,” Sangram Singh Rawat, a former village council member of Raini, the site closest to the Rishiganga project, told media.
Experts said it had snowed heavily last week in the Nanda Devi area and it was possible that some of the snow had started melting and may have led to an avalanche.
Rescue squads were focused on drilling their way through a 2.5 km (1.5 miles) long tunnel at the Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project site that NTPC was building 5 km (3 miles) downstream where about 30 workers were believed trapped.
“We are trying to break open the tunnel, it’s a long one, about 2.5 km,” said Ashok Kumar, the state police chief. He said rescuers had gone 150 metres (yards) into the tunnel but debris and slush were slowing progress.
There had been no voice contact yet with anyone in the tunnel, another official said. Heavy equipment has been employed and a dog squad flown to the site.
On Sunday, 12 people were rescued from another much smaller tunnel.
Uttarakhand is prone to flash floods and landslides and the disaster prompted calls by environmentalists for a review of power projects in the ecologically sensitive mountains. In June 2013, record monsoon rains there caused devastating floods that killed nearly 6,000 people.
Environmental groups have blamed construction activity in the mountains.
Himanshu Thakkar, co-ordinator of the South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers and People, said that there were clear government recommendations against the use of explosives for construction purposes. “There have been violations.”
The disaster also raises questions about the strength of the dams.
“The dams are supposed to withstand much greater force. This was not a monsoon flood, it was much smaller.”
Additional reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Neha Arora; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Michael Perry, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Giles Elgood and Nick Macfie
| Floods | February 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Niger River bursts its banks forcing 5,000 people to lose their homes and crops. | Some five thousand people in Niger lost their homes and crops after the River Niger burst its banks at the weekend.
The West African country is already suffering from severe food shortages caused by recent drought.
Another 20,000 people are at risk of displacement in the event of further heavy rains, UN officials have warned.
Heavy rainfall has also caused flooding across other parts of West and Central Africa and threatens to worsen the food crisis in the region, the UN said.
Millions of people are without food in the region after droughts over the last year depleted stocks, the UN World Food Programme warned. "Rain in the Sahel is much welcome but it needs to be properly distributed over time and over space which is the major issue now," the WFP's Naouar Labidi told Reuters news agency.
The BBC's Idy Baraou in Niger's capital, Niamey, says many more houses in and around the city are in danger of collapsing and residents fear that more heavy rain is still to come.
The UN said that 30,000 animals had died in the flooding and carcasses could be seen floating near water points, spreading further fears of outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
Meanwhile, on Monday the authorities in Ghana issued a flood warning for three northern regions because of rising water levels at two dams in neighbouring Burkina Faso.
According to the UN's Irin news agency, 40 people have already died in flooding in Ghana in June and July.
In Burkina Faso, the agency reported that 14 people had died last month in floods and many people were sleeping in schools and other public buildings.
Northern Chad in the Sahara desert has recently recorded the heaviest rain in 50 years and hail stones the size of eggs destroyed crops in central Guinea in July, Irin said.
The International Federation of the Red Cross says it is providing aid to flood victims in the Central African Republic and in Ivory Coast, where there have been mudslides.
On Monday, at least 13 people died - most of them children - in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, when a building collapsed during a mudslide, following torrential rain.
World Service Africa
UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Irin
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
World Food Programme Niger | Floods | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are convicted of the murder of British Army soldier Lee Rigby. | Two men have been found guilty of murdering soldier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks in south-east London in May.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, struck Fusilier Rigby with a car before hacking him to death.
Adebolajo had claimed he was a "soldier of Allah" and the killing was an act of war.
The men were found not guilty of attempting to murder a police officer at the scene.
The Old Bailey jury of eight women and four men took approximately 90 minutes to reach its verdicts.
They had heard that Adebolajo and Adebowale drove a car into Fusilier Rigby at 30-40mph, before dragging him into the road and attacking him with knives and attempting to decapitate him with a meat cleaver.
Mr Justice Sweeney ordered that the verdicts be heard in silence. He said he would pass sentence after a key appeal court ruling on the use of whole life terms in January.
He expressed his "gratitude and admiration" for the soldier's family, saying they had "sat in court with great dignity throughout what must have been the most harrowing of evidence".
As the defendants were taken out of the courtroom, Adebolajo kissed his Koran and raised it in the air.
Relatives of Fusilier Rigby broke down in tears as the verdicts were given.
His wife said the family was satisfied that justice had been done, adding: "This has been the toughest time of our lives. No-one should have to go through what we have been through as a family." Rebecca Rigby said: "These people have taken away my baby's dad but Lee's memory lives on through our son and we will never forget him.
"I now want to build a future for Jack and make him proud of his dad like we all are."
Prime Minister David Cameron said: "The whole country was completely shocked by the murder of Lee Rigby and the whole country united in condemnation of what happened and I'm sure everyone will welcome these verdicts.
"We have to redouble our efforts to confront the poisonous narrative of extremism and violence that lay behind this and make sure we do everything to beat it in our country."
Home Secretary Theresa May said the "sickening and barbaric" murder of Fusilier Rigby "united the entire nation in condemnation".
Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, the head of the Met's specialist operations, said justice had been done.
"This horrific attack, which took place in broad daylight on the streets of London, shocked the country and was intended to divide communities. It had largely the opposite effect and has, in fact, brought people together," she said.
Lt Col Jim Taylor described the 25-year-old, who was with Second Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, as "a true warrior" and called his death "a cruel tragedy".
"Fusilier Rigby was a highly dedicated and professional soldier. He was one of the true characters within the Second Fusiliers and he is missed greatly," he said.
Farooq Murad, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Muslim communities then, as now, were united in their condemnation of this crime. This was a dishonourable act and no cause justifies cold-blooded murder."
The jury heard the men chose their victim because he was "the soldier that was spotted first".
In a police interview Adebolajo said he and Adebowale decided to lie in wait near the barracks and targeted Fusilier Rigby because he was wearing a Help for Heroes hooded top and carrying a camouflage rucksack.
The attack occurred on a busy street, witnessed by shocked onlookers. A number of women - such as Amanda Donnelly-Martin - approached Fusilier Rigby, who was lying in the road, and attempted to comfort him, but he was already dead.
Adebolajo handed Ms Donnelly-Martin a handwritten letter containing a speech about fighting "Allah's enemies" and bringing "carnage" to London's streets.
The murderers were also armed with a gun - 90 years old and unloaded - which they used to frighten off members of the public before armed police arrived at the scene.
As a police vehicle approached, both men rushed towards it, with Adebolajo raising the meat cleaver above his head and Adebowale waving the firearm.
Both men were shot by police in scenes captured by CCTV. Officers then administered first aid on the two men before they were taken to hospitals in south London.
The two men denied attempting to kill police, saying they had wanted armed officers to shoot them dead so they could "achieve martyrdom".
Meanwhile, an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has concluded the police officers who shot the men "acted appropriately to the immediate threat" posed.
After studying CCTV footage and mobile footage filmed by a witness "frame by frame, it is incontrovertible that these officers found themselves in an extremely volatile situation confronted by two men, who had just killed someone, armed with knives, a meat cleaver and a firearm in a public place," the IPCC said in a statement.
It added: "It is a testament to the officers' professionalism that once the men were incapacitated they immediately set about providing first aid to them."
The IPCC's findings could not be made public until the conclusion of the trial.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Four men from Xinjiang in western China are to be executed following convictions for terrorism in the region last year. | Four men have been sentenced to death for a series of deadly attacks in Xinjiang, China's state-controlled media has reported.
The attacks, which occurred between August and November last year, killed nine people and wounded 15.
The Xinjiang Daily website said the sentences had been approved by China's highest court, meaning they could be carried out at any time.
Xinjiang, in China's north-west, hosts an ethnic Uighur separatist movement.
The worst attack, on the outskirts of Aksu near China's border with Kyrgyzstan, took place on 19 August last year.
A vehicle crammed with explosives was driven into a crowd, killing seven people and wounding others.
This incident has been attributed to two of those facing the death sentence, named as Tuerhong Tuerdi and Abudula Tueryacun.
Akeneyacun Nuer has been convicted of killing a policeman in the city of Khotan in November. Abudukaiyoumu Abudureheman was found guilty of killing two people in Xinjiang's Hami region late last year with a home-made gun, the Xinjiang Daily said.
The four men are assumed to be Uighur separatists seeking independence from Chinese rule.
In 2009, deadly ethnic riots erupted in Xinjiang after tensions flared between the Muslim Uighur minority and the Han Chinese. There have also been a number of blasts in Xinjiang in the past, which the government blames on Uighur separatists.
But Uighur activists and human rights groups accuse Beijing of using the issue to crack down on Uighur dissidents, who have complained that waves of Han Chinese migrants have marginalised the Uighur culture. China has poured troops into Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia, since the unrest in July 2009 in Urumqi which left about 200 people dead.
Rights group Amnesty International says more than 1,000 people have been detained in the wake of the violence. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(The Times of India)'] |
A senior foreign commander is killed in a drone strike south of the Somali capital Mogadishu. | MOGADISHU, Somalia — A senior foreign commander fighting with Shabab Islamic militants was killed in an American drone strike a few miles south of the capital over the weekend, according to Shabab officials.
The Shabab officials held a news conference to publicize the attack, identifying the commander as Bilal al-Barjawi, 27, a close associate of a Qaeda leader killed last year in Somalia. They said he was of Lebanese descent and had grown up in West London. British authorities denied that he was a British citizen.
Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about the death of a Shabab militant leader in an American drone strike misidentified the foreign forces that have made incursions into Somalia to try to keep the militants from expanding the territory they control. The forces are Kenyan and Ethiopian, not Kenyan and Eritrean.
John F. Burns contributed reporting from Cambridge, England.
| Famous Person - Death | January 2012 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is reelected with 60.7% of the vote in Sunday's election. | Record virus deaths could affect vote turnout in the presidential election. Center-right incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is expected to win another term.
Portugal's presidents have the power to dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections
Portugal's presidential election will still go forward on Sunday despite surging coronavirus cases and record fatalities.
Polls indicate center-right incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will win another term, although observers are watching how a far-right challenger could perform.
Portugal remains under a strict national lockdown after the country of 10.8 million recorded its worst daily coronavirus death toll and number of new infections on Saturday. Fatalities now stand over 10,000.
In his final campaign speech, Rebelo de Sousa urged voters to back him to avoid a second round of elections.
This, he said, would "spare the Portuguese people from the election being stretched out over three crucial weeks" — time that could be better spent slowing the pandemic, said the former minister and co-founder of the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD).
Though current opinion polls predict the 72-year-old president will win up to 70% of the vote, lower turnout could impact those assumptions. However, the other seven candidates are all polling in the single-digit percentage range.
While not the head of state, Portugal's presidents have the power to dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections — a pivotal constitutional role with a minority government in power.
Historically all four presidents since the end of Portugal's dictatorship in 1976 have been re-elected for a second term. | Government Job change - Election | January 2021 | ['(ABC News)', '(DW)'] |
Solar–powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 lands in Mountain View, California after a 62–hour flight across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii. | Follow NBC News MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — A solar-powered airplane landed in California on Saturday, completing a risky, three-day flight across the Pacific Ocean as part of its journey around the world.
Pilot Bertrand Piccard landed the Solar Impulse 2 in Mountain View, in the Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, at 11:45 p.m. following a 62-hour, nonstop solo flight without fuel. The plane taxied into a huge tent erected on Moffett Airfield where Piccard was greeted by project's team.
The landing came several hours after the Piccard performed a fly-by over the Golden Gate Bridge as spectators watched the narrow aircraft with extra wide wings from below.
"I crossed the bridge. I am officially in America," he declared as he took in spectacular views of San Francisco Bay.
Piccard and fellow Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg have been taking turns flying the plane on an around-the-world trip since taking off from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in March 2015. It made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China, Japan and Hawaii.
The trans-Pacific leg was the riskiest part of the plane's global travels because of the lack of emergency landing sites.
The aircraft faced a few bumps along the way.
The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Hawaii in July and was forced to stay in the islands after the plane's battery system sustained heat damage on its trip from Japan. The team was delayed in Asia, as well. When first attempting to fly from Nanjing, China, to Hawaii, the crew had to divert to Japan because of unfavorable weather and a damaged wing.
Celebration time for the Pacific is crossed, #America let's Go
A month later, when weather conditions were right, the plane departed from Nagoya in central Japan for Hawaii.
The plane's ideal flight speed is about 28 mph, though that can double during the day when the sun's rays are strongest. The carbon-fiber aircraft weighs more than 5,000 pounds, or about as much as a midsize truck.
The plane's wings, which stretch wider than those of a Boeing 747, are equipped with 17,000 solar cells that power propellers and charge batteries. The plane runs on stored energy at night.
Related: Solar Impulse Plane Prepares for Flight from Hawaii to California
Solar Impulse 2 will make three more stops in the United States before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe or Northern Africa, according to the website documenting the journey.
The project, which began in 2002 and is estimated to cost more than $100 million, is meant to highlight the importance of renewable energy and the spirit of innovation. Solar-powered air travel is not yet commercially practical, however, given the slow travel time, weather and weight constraints of the aircraft. | New achievements in aerospace | April 2016 | ['(NBC News)', '(BBC)'] |
Another ceasefire deal brokered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas, several hours later Israel commences a ground offensive. | The Israeli military has begun a ground offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, stepping up its 11-day-old military operation.
Troops and tanks were sent into Gaza to deal "a significant blow to Hamas", Israel said.
A Hamas spokesman said Israel would "pay a high price" for its actions.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the invasion after days of intensive rocket fire and air strikes between the two sides.
Gaza's health ministry said 24 Palestinians had been killed and 200 injured since the ground offensive began on Thursday night. A five-month-old child was among the dead, Palestinian medics told AFP news agency. Israel said it had killed 14 "terrorists" overnight.
Israel meanwhile suffered its first military fatality, with the death of a soldier during the invasion, it said.
Some 258 Palestinians - three-quarters of them civilians - have died since the start of the wider Israeli operation on 8 July, officials in Gaza say.
An Israeli civilian was killed from mortar fire, and several Israelis have been seriously injured, Israeli medics say.
Announcing the ground offensive, the Israeli military said: "Following 10 days of Hamas attacks by land, air and sea, and after repeated rejections of offers to de-escalate the situation, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has initiated a ground operation within the Gaza Strip."
It said the goal was to "establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continuous indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas' terror infrastructure".
In Gaza City overnight, plumes of black smoke could be seen from the border area where Israeli troops were operating, AP news agency reported.
It's hard to get a detailed picture, since the main focus of Israeli activity is some distance from downtown Gaza. But it's clear this is not yet a full-scale ground invasion. Areas in the north and south of the Gaza Strip came under heavy bombardment overnight, but ground operations are so far limited. An Israeli military spokesman told us that troops had destroyed tunnels along the border. He also confirmed that troops and armour remain just inside a largely unpopulated area in the north. The Israeli military is testing the water, gauging the level of opposition before deciding whether or not to move deeper inside the Gaza Strip. The death of one of its own soldiers, at this early stage, will have come as a warning of the dangers ahead. But Prime Minister Netanyahu seems determined to inflict greater damage on Hamas and that could mean sending his troops into densely populated areas. This will be dangerous for them, and potentially devastating for any Palestinian civilians in the way. Israel said the initial phase was aimed at targeting tunnels Hamas has dug under the border with Israel to use in attacks.
On Wednesday 13 militants infiltrated into Israel through a tunnel aiming to attack a kibbutz, Israeli officials said. The Israeli military said it killed at least one of the militants, while the others retreated through the tunnel.
Reuters news agency said Palestinians reported heavy clashes along the length of the eastern border, as well as in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Military spokesman Gen Moti Almoz warned residents of Gaza to evacuate areas in which the army was operating. "This operation will be extended as much as necessary," he said.
Israel approved the drafting of 18,000 more reservists on Thursday evening, bringing the total of extra troops called up since 8 July to 65,000.
Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that the Israeli ground operation was "destined to failure".
"What the occupier Israel failed to achieve through its air and sea raids, it will not be able to achieve with a ground offensive", he said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the ground operation would lead to "more bloodshed" and called on Israel to stop.
Mr Abbas, whose Fatah party recently agreed to a unity government with Hamas, was meeting Egyptian officials in Cairo amid efforts to negotiate a truce.
The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says it is possible that with the ground invasion Israel is seeking to improve its military position in advance of any deal, but that more probably it has concluded that a ceasefire at the moment in unlikely.
Israel says it has carried out more than 1,960 attacks on Gaza since 8 July, while militants have fired some 1,380 rockets at Israel. It says more than 50 rockets have been fired at Israel since the ground operation began.
The UN says at least 1,370 homes have been destroyed in Gaza and more than 18,000 people displaced in recent hostilities.
The ground offensive follows attempts in Cairo to negotiate a new ceasefire.
There was a temporary ceasefire on Thursday to allow Palestinians to stock up on supplies and aid workers to distribute water, food and hygiene kits.
The truce lasted for five hours, although both sides reported violations.
| Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(BBC)', '(Times of Israel)'] |
Tropical storm Ana forms near the states of North and South Carolina weeks before the official start of the hurricane season. | Note: Select a region before finding a country. Subtropical Storm Ana has formed off the southern Atlantic coast of the United States, making it the first named tropical system of the 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
A subtropical or hybrid storm has some warm, tropical features and some cool, non-tropical features.
Hurricane hunter aircraft began flights into the storm on Thursday morning. Ana, which formed late Thursday night, will affect part of the southeastern United States with rain, wind and rough surf through the Mother's Day weekend as it reaches the Carolina coast.
Ana could gain full tropical storm designation with slight increase in strength by this weekend.
On Thursday, rain arrived well ahead of the storm along the Carolina coast. The rain will continue on and off into early next week. Winds and surf will increase from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Daytona Beach, Florida, through the weekend.
Winds guiding the storm along are very weak. The center of Ana will wander close to the coast of the Carolinas with landfall likely later this weekend.
"The mostly likely area for the storm to wander onshore is between northern South Carolina and the southern tip of North Carolina on Sunday," AccuWeather.com Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.
Since winds and rain extend well ahead of the storm, exactly where the center of circulation tracks will have little bearing on impacts.
Slow movement of the system will mean long-duration impacts. Rounds of drenching rain, gusty winds and rough seas will pester part of the coast, with the most significant conditions focusing on the Carolinas.
The risk to lives and property will be low for land areas, due to Ana forecast to remain a subtropical or tropical storm. However, there are some risks for people remaining on land and significant danger for those venturing in the surf or heading to sea.
"The slow movement of the storm will bring several straight days of periods of rain to portions of the Carolinas and perhaps southeastern Georgia, with the heaviest rain falling during the afternoon and evening hours," Kottlowski said.
Rainfall averaging 2-4 inches in the coastal Carolinas will raise the risk of flooding on roadways and low-lying areas. Persistent onshore winds will also bring the potential for coastal flooding in portions of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, particularly at times of high tide.
The constant bombardment of rough surf will lead to beach erosion focusing on North Carolina. The rough surf will cause frequent and strong rip currents, which will pose dangers to bathers.
While winds are not likely to become strong enough to cause widespread damage, there could be downed tree limbs, especially where locally gusty thunderstorms occur. A couple of brief tornadoes and waterspouts could be spawned by the storm. If and where these occur, damage could be more severe.
Since some strengthening of Ana is possible this weekend, prior to making landfall, winds will increase into Saturday along the Carolina coast. Winds will reach average an speed of 30-40 mph with gusts frequenting 50 mph and occasionally reaching 60 mph along the Carolina coast for a time this weekend. Gusts can be significantly higher in thunderstorms.
"Seas were averaging 8-12 feet offshore during early Friday and will translate to the coast in the form of very rough and dangerous surf into the weekend, before subsiding early next week," Kottlowski said.
Seas will increase as the storm strengthens a bit.
Rough seas and squalls associated with the storm will make for dangerous conditions for small craft outside of protected coastal waters. Cruise ships will want to avoid the area of rough seas, which will extend from off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to near the northern part of the Bahamas and eastern Florida.
"While people should stay out of the water along the Carolina and Georgia coasts in this situation, this will be a storm for people to think of what they need to do for hurricane preparation for the upcoming season," Kottlowski said.
Ana will help to strengthen an area of high pressure that will pump building warmth and sunshine in much of the East.
Direct impact from Ana as a subtropical storm is not likely to occur in the Northeast or penetrate hundreds of miles inland in the South this weekend.
Ana, in diminished form, will be pulled northeastward ahead of an approaching cool front across part of the mid-Atlantic and southeastern New England Monday into Tuesday. Ana's moisture will become embedded with moisture from the front in the form of showers and thunderstorms.
The atmospheric roadblock will keep rounds of severe weather focused on the Plains this week, and the threat could ramp up even more over the weekend.
AccuWeather.com Chief Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok is monitoring the Atlantic Basin for additional development later in May.
"It is possible a tropical system slowly takes shape in the Gulf of Mexico during the third week of May along the tail end of a front with high pressure to the north," Pastelok said.
AccuWeather has released its summer forecast for the U.S. and will release its Atlantic Hurricane Season Forecast for 2015 on May 13.
The combination of a cool front swinging in from the Midwest and moisture from a diminishing Ana will bring an end to the summerlike weather in the Northeast early next week.
An outbreak of severe weather spawned dozens of tornadoes across the southern Plains this week, leaving behind extensive damage across portions of Oklahoma and Nebraska.
The threat of severe weather will continue over the southern Plains on Friday evening with an elevated risk of storms continuing into the weekend.
Subtropical Storm Ana will approach the Carolina coast with rounds of rain, wind and rough surf through Mother's Day weekend.
The worst thing that people who live along coastlines can do is not to prepare for tropical storms and hurricanes.
The persistent drought in California and other parts of the country continues to be a drag on the agricultural sector of the U.S. economy, according to the Federal Reserve. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2015 | ['(Accuweather)'] |
An outbreak of jiggers, a rotting disease, kills 20 people in Uganda and sickens a further 20,000. | KAMPALA (Uganda) - A DISEASE whose progression and symptoms seem straight out of a horror movie but which can be treated has killed at least 20 Ugandans and sickened more than 20,000 in just two months. Jiggers, small insects which look like fleas, are the culprits in the epidemic which causes parts of the body to rot. They often enter through the feet. Once inside a person's body, they suck the blood, grow and breed, multiplying by the hundreds. Affected body parts - buttocks, lips, even eyelids - rot away. James Kakooza, Uganda's minister of state for primary health care, said jiggers can easily kill young children by sucking their blood and can cause early deaths in grown-ups who have other diseases. Most of those infected, especially the elderly, cannot walk or work. 'It is an epidemic which we are fighting against and I am sure over time we will eradicate the jiggers,' Mr Kakooza said. The insects breed in dirty, dusty places. The medical name for the parasitic disease is tungiasis, which is caused by the female sand fly burrowing into the skin. It exists in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, besides sub-Saharan Africa. Mr Kakooza said health workers are telling residents of the 12 affected districts in Uganda that jiggers thrive amid poor hygienic conditions. 'We are also telling them to use medicated soap. They can apply petrol and paraffin in places infested by jiggers and they die,' he said. -- AP | Disease Outbreaks | October 2010 | ['(CBC)', '(Straits Times)'] |
The Green Bay Packers won a game down 17 or more in the fourth quarter for the first time in their history with a 24-23 win over the Chicago Bears after Aaron Rodgers returned from an injury that caused him to temporarily leave the game. This win was the “fourth-largest” comeback in their team history. | Aaron Rodgers has pulled off a number of miracles on the football field, but his comeback against the Bears on Sunday night will go down as one of the most impressive of his career.
Rodgers was carted off the field in the first half of the Packers home opener, and the Bears opened up a 20-0 lead in his absence. He was announced as questionable to return with a knee injury, but with the Packers first possession of the second half, Rodgers took to the field again to lead Green Bay on a drive for a field goal for their first points of the game.
It was only the beginning.
Rodgers, normally one of the most mobile quarterbacks in the NFL, was clearly keeping weight off his left leg. But even on one leg, Rodgers is still one of the best quarterbacks in the world, as he proved on Sunday night.
On the Packers next drive, Rodgers found receiver Geronimo Allison on a beautiful 41-yard touchdown pass to cut the Bears lead to 20-10.
After a Packers stop on defense, Rodgers struck again, this time leading a methodical drive down the field before finding Davante Adams for another score.
The Bears would then mount a time-consuming drive that resulted in a field goal, giving Chicago a 23-17 lead and leaving the Packers to drive the length of the field with just under three minutes left and no timeouts.
It would only take the Packers three plays.
Rodgers threw two quick incompletions, but on third down, he found Randall Cobb wide open in the middle of the field. Cobb sped past every pursuing defender and scored the tying touchdown. One Mason Crosby extra point later, and the Packers had their first lead of the game.
The Packers would get one more stop to seal the game. According to Al Michaels, who was calling the game, the Packers' erasing of a 17-point deficit was the largest fourth quarter comeback in Packers history.
After Rodgers left the game in the first half, football fans were worried he might be gone for the game, if not weeks.
Instead, he returned to lead the Packers on four straight scoring drives to complete a 24-23 comeback win over their division rivals.
Rodgers is the highest-paid player in NFL history, and on Sunday night, he once again showed the world why.
After the game, NBC's Michele Tafoya asked Rodgers how confident he was that he'd be ready to go against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2. | Sports Competition | September 2018 | ['(Sports Yahoo)', '(Business Insider)'] |
Argentine prosecutors announce that the home and offices of Diego Maradona's doctor have been raided as part of an investigation following his death. | Argentine prosecutors are investigating Diego Maradona's doctor for possible manslaughter following the footballing legend's death four days ago.
Police in Buenos Aires have searched the house and private clinic of Leopoldo Luque as they try to establish if there was negligence in Maradona's treatment following surgery.
The 60-year-old died of a heart attack at his home where he was recuperating.
Dr Luque has not been charged. He denies any wrongdoing. Maradona had a successful operation on a brain blood clot earlier in November and had been due to be treated for alcohol dependency.
His daughters have pressed for details about their father's medication.
Some 30 police officers raided 39-year-old Dr Luque's house on Sunday morning - with another 20 going into his clinic in the capital Buenos Aires.
The raids were ordered by prosecutors trying to build a picture of Maradona's last days at home.
They retrieved computers, mobile phones and medical notes, officials say.
There are suspicions that the star's convalescence at home might not have met the conditions of his discharge from the clinic, such as a 24-hour team of nurses "specialised in substance abuse", the on-call presence of doctors and a stand-by ambulance equipped with a defibrillator.
Officials want to know about Dr Luque's involvement in Maradona's recovery arrangements at the late star's house. In an emotional press conference on Sunday, Dr Luque - who has been described as the footballer's personal physician - cried, saying he had done all he could to save the life of a friend. He said Maradona had been very sad lately.
At one point, the doctor shot back at reporters: "You want to know what I am responsible for? For having loved him, for having taken care of him, for having extended his life, for having improved it to the end." The doctor said he had done "everything he could, up to the impossible". Then addressing some of the concerns authorities are looking into, Dr Luque cast doubt on what his role actually was. ''If you ask me, I'm a neurosurgeon and my job ended. I was done with him," he said referring to November's surgery - and insisting Maradona's convalescence at home was not his responsibility.
"He [Maradona] should have gone to a rehabilitation centre. He didn't want to," Dr Luque said, calling the late star "unmanageable".
He also said he did not know why there was no defibrillator or who was responsible for the fact that there was no ambulance outside Maradona's house. And he added: Diego "was very sad, he wanted to be alone, and it's not because he didn't love his daughters, his family, or those around him".
Diego Maradona was captain when Argentina won the 1986 World Cup, scoring the famous "Hand of God" goal against England in the quarter-finals.
Maradona played for Barcelona and Napoli during his club career, winning two Serie A titles with the Italian side. He started his career with Argentinos Juniors, also playing for Sevilla, and Boca Juniors and Newell's Old Boys in his homeland.
He scored 34 goals in 91 appearances for Argentina, representing them in four World Cups.
Maradona led his country to the 1990 final in Italy, where they were beaten by West Germany, before captaining them again in the United States in 1994, but was sent home after failing a drugs test for ephedrine.
During the second half of his career, Maradona struggled with cocaine addiction and was banned for 15 months after testing positive for the drug in 1991.
He retired from professional football in 1997, on his 37th birthday, during his second stint at Argentine giants Boca Juniors.
Having briefly managed two sides in Argentina during his playing career, Maradona was appointed head coach of the national team in 2008 and left after the 2010 World Cup, where his side were beaten by Germany in the quarter-finals.
He subsequently managed teams in the United Arab Emirates and Mexico and was in charge of Gimnasia y Esgrima in Argentina's top flight at the time of his death.
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Voters in India start going to the polls in a six-week General Election which will end on May 12. | DIBRUGARH: Indians began voting in the world's biggest election Monday which is set to sweep the Hindu nationalist opposition to power at a time of low growth, anger about corruption and warnings about religious unrest.
Voting began at 7:00 am (0130 GMT) in six constituencies in tea-growing and insurgency-wracked areas of the northeast, an often neglected part of the country wedged between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar.
"I want the government to reduce poverty and do something for the future of my children," said 30-year-old tea plantation worker Santoshi Bhumej at a polling station in Dibrugarh in the state of Assam.
The marathon contest, to be held over nine phases until May 12, got under way after a bad-tempered campaign which reached new levels of bitterness at the weekend.
Religious tensions, an undercurrent to the contest which has mostly focused on development until now, burst into the open on Friday when the closest aide of Modi was accused of inciting sentiments.
Amit Shah faces a judicial investigation after he reportedly told supporters to see the election as "revenge" against a "government that protects and gives compensation to those who killed Hindus".
Rahul Gandhi, leading Congress into his first national election as scion of the famous dynasty, used the comments to underline his message that a victory for Modi threatens India's religious fabric.
"Wherever these people (the opposition BJP) go they create fights. They'll pit Hindus and Muslims against each other," he warned on Sunday.
The BJP said talk of "revenge" was normal ahead of an election and said the other remarks were taken out of context.
Prime ministerial front-runner Modi, the hawkish son of a tea seller whose rise has split his party, is a polarising figure due to his links to anti-Muslim religious riots in 2002.
He urged voters on Sunday to give him a majority in the 543-seat parliament in defiance of surveys which repeatedly show the BJP are likely to need coalition partners when results are published on May 16.
"I need your blessings for a strong government and strong government means not less than 300 Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) seats," he said.
The party released its delayed manifesto later on Monday which included core Hindu nationalist policies such as building a temple for the god Ram on a disputed religious site in northern India and protecting cows.
In Assam, a Congress stronghold, some disgruntled voters told AFP they had been swayed by Modi's promises of better infrastructure, strong leadership, jobs and a clean administration.
"The current Congress government is corrupt. They have not been able to control rising prices in the country. I believe that Modi will give us a corruption-free government," local voter Deepa Borgohain told AFP.
Despite a decade under Congress when growth has averaged 7.6 per cent per year, a sharp slowdown since 2012 has crippled the public finances and led investment to crash.
Coupled with a widespread perception that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's second term was largely lost to indecision and scandal, Modi has been able to tap into a groundswell of discontent.
The election will be the biggest in history and is a mind-boggling feat of organisation as voters travel to nearly a million polling stations.
In 2009, officials walked for four days through snow to deliver voting machines in the Himalayas, while yaks, camels and even elephants were pressed into action elsewhere in the vast country.
Such is India's population growth that 100 million people have joined the electoral rolls since the last vote five years ago. More than half of the country is aged under 25.
Modi, 20 years older than Gandhi at 63, is expected to score strongly among the young thanks to his message of aspiration and skills over the left-leaning Congress's pitch of welfare and equitable development.
But in an editorial on Monday, the Hindustan Times said that the aggressive and highly personalised campaign meant "voters were left with a lot of sound and fury but little content".
India under Modi, an unabashed nationalist, would likely result in a more muscular foreign policy at a time when the country is emerging as a defender of the developing world on issues from climate change to global trade.
But many observers worry about his domestic impact in an officially secular country.
Modi is steeped in the ideology of Hindu nationalism, which is often antagonistic towards Muslims, and he remains tainted by religious riots in Gujarat in 2002.
More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in a spasm of violence shortly after he became chief minister, leading the United States and European powers to boycott him for more than a decade.
He has never been found guilty of wrong-doing despite multiple investigations, but a woman he appointed as a minister was jailed for life in 2012 for orchestrating some of the worst of the killings. | Government Job change - Election | April 2014 | ['(AFP via Dawn)'] |
At least four people are killed in Chittagong, Bangladesh, when police open fire at protesters during a demonstration against a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. | Protesters were killed in Chittagong as Modi begins a tour for Golden Jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh’s independence.
At least four people were killed in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong after police fired at protesters during a demonstration against a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, police officials said.
“We had to fire teargas and rubber bullets to disperse them as they entered a police station and carried out extensive vandalism,” Rafiqul Islam, a police official, told Reuters news agency, referring to protesters.
Modi is in Bangladesh to attend its Golden Jubilee celebrations of independence and the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s founder and father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The protesters in Chittagong were from the Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, an Islamist group opposed to the visit of Modi, who critics say has been pushing a Hindu-first agenda in India.
Mohammad Alauddin, another police official in Chittagong, said that eight people were brought to a hospital in the city with gunshot wounds, of which four succumbed to their injuries
Protests at the main mosque in the city of Dhaka were dispersed by police using tear gas and rubber bullets – injuring scores of people – after clashes broke out between groups of demonstrators, officials and witnesses said on Friday.
Local media said the protesters who tried to stop the shoe-waving are aligned with the governing Awami League party, which criticised the other protest faction for attempting to create chaos during Modi’s visit.
Local TV showed protesters throwing stones at the police, who were heavily present on the streets near the mosque. Somoy TV reported that at least 40 people were injured, including journalists, and were taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.
Modi’s two-day tour – his first abroad since the coronavirus pandemic began last year – will cap Dhaka’s 10-day celebrations already attended by leaders from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.
Prime Minister Hasina, a key partner for India in maintaining regional stability, welcomed Modi at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Friday morning.
Friday’s was the latest in a series of protests held across Bangladesh to oppose the visit by Modi, who many Bangladeshis accuse of stoking religious tensions and persecuting Muslims in India.
On Thursday, police in Dhaka fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of mainly student demonstrators protesting against the Hindu nationalist leader’s visit and criticising the government for inviting him.
Sheikh Mujib fought for a secular nation whereas Modi is inherently communal.
Imtiaz Ahmed, Dhaka University professor
Police said the protest got out of hand as nearly 2,000 demonstrators marched in Dhaka, with many throwing rocks and stones at officers. Dozens were wounded, with at least 18 sent to hospitals in the city.
“We fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them… We have also arrested 33 people for violence,” police official Syed Nurul Islam told AFP news agency on Thursday.
“His government has passed several laws which make Muslims a second-class citizen in India. We don’t want him here in Bangladesh,” Maulana Mamunul Haque, secretary-general of Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamist political organisation, told Al Jazeera.
“A leader like him should not be allowed to attend the 50th Independence Day event.”
Even though Hefazat-e-Islam calls itself “non-political”, the Islamist organisation has gained eminence after the fall of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist political party.
At the protest outside Baitul Mukarram mosque, Hefazat supporters slammed Modi for “killing Muslims in Gujarat, Kashmir, Delhi and other parts of India”. They took their shoes in their hands to show disrespect to the Indian leader.
“Inviting India’s riotous, communal prime minister Narendra Modi to the golden jubilee of independence is against the spirit of the liberation war,” the group said in a statement.
His government has passed several laws which make Muslims a second-class citizen in India.
Maulana Mamunul Haque, Islamist leader
Protesters also criticised the killings of Bangladeshis by Indian border guards. India says such casualties happen when Bangladeshis are involved in cross-border smuggling and attempt to cross the border “illegally”.
Many Bangladeshis are also unhappy with India’s unwillingness to sign a water-sharing treaty for the Teesta river, one of many common rivers.
“Our rulers in Bangladesh call India as our friend but the BSF (India’s Border Security Force) is often shooting and killing our people on Bangladesh-India border,” Foez Ullah told Al Jazeera.
“Bangladesh has not yet received its fair share of Teesta water. Our rivers, ports, the Sundarbans are all victims of Indian aggression. India is interfering in internal affairs of Bangladesh politics.”
“Our partnership with Bangladesh is an important pillar of our Neighbourhood First policy, and we are committed to further deepen and diversify it. We will continue to support Bangladesh’s remarkable development journey, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s dynamic leadership,” Modi said in a tweet late on Thursday ahead of his trip.
Earlier this week, Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Minister AK Abdul Momen told Al Jazeera that since India helped Bangladesh achieve its independence, “so it is very natural that the Indian prime minister will be asked to become Bangladesh’s Golden Jubilee celebration’s main guest”.
“We are not concerned what the fundamentalists are saying about Modi’s visit. They do not represent the voice of the country’s people,” he said, adding that “only a small fraction of people” were protesting.
“They are making an issue out of it without any valid reason,” he told Al Jazeera.
But Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, feels inviting Modi for the celebrations was “not a good choice”.
Ali Riaz, distinguished professor of politics and government at the Illinois State University in the United States, told Al Jazeera there was widespread discontent among a large number of Bangladeshis about the unequal relationship between India and Bangladesh.
“It is generally understood that India has enormous influence on the domestic politics of Bangladesh. BJP leaders’ derogatory statements about Bangladeshis and discriminatory policies of the Modi government have also compounded the situation,” he said.
Faisal Mahmud contributed to this report from Dhaka, Bangladesh
We challenge BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam on India’s crackdown on dissent, and discuss the crisis in Lebanon.
Modi broke ground on a long-awaited temple of Hindu God Ram at the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque.
Only strong pressure from the US can stop the Indian government from further eroding religious freedom in the country.
In recent years, numerous scholars have fallen victim to a witch hunt against government critics in Indian academia.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
A band of rain sweeping the United Kingdom brings fresh flooding and disrupted rail services to south–west England and Scotland. | Rain has returned to south-west England, bringing flooding and high river levels to areas already saturated by heavy downpours.
Christmas Eve was wet in parts of England, Wales and Scotland, with Wales and the South East of England set for a very wet Christmas Day. The rail network in the South West of England suffered major disruption. Operator First Great Western advised customers not to attempt to travel west of Taunton in either direction.
The Environment Agency has issued about 160 flood warnings and more than 260 flood alerts for all regions in England and in Wales, with most in place across the Midlands and south-west England.
Up to 30mm of rain was expected on Monday in south-west England, where some 57 of the flood warnings remained in place into the evening.
In Scotland, 15 flood warnings are in place affecting Aberdeenshire, Caithness and Sutherland, Dundee and Angus, Tayside and the Borders.
Advanced weather warnings have already been issued for 26 and 27 December, advising that heavy showers on saturated ground across the UK could lead to localised flooding.
Christmas Eve on the rail network saw services from London Paddington towards Exeter and the West of England terminating at Tiverton, with limited road transport continuing to Newton Abbot via Exeter St Davids.
First Great Western said trains were unable to operate between Tiverton Parkway Station and Exeter St Davids, and between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot.
Services from Penzance and Plymouth, towards Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington, are terminating at Newton Abbot, again with limited road transport on to Tiverton via Exeter.
It says the road replacement service is limited "as this is being hampered by flooded roads and only a reduced number of vehicles being available".
The closed section of line is not expected to reopen until Friday. There are delays to journeys between London and south Wales, with a diversion to avoid flooding at Swindon adding about 45 minutes to travel times.
Flooding Minister Richard Benyon told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: "I'm really impressed with the way the emergency services, the Environment Agency, the local authorities are working together, and humbled by the incredible community spirit in places like Braunton (in Devon).
"There are going to be houses flooded in the future, we have just got to be better at warning people, we have got to be smarter at how we build defences (and) what defences we build.
"Government is doing a lot better, we have always got to learn from every single flood and realise it's the most miserable experience for people to have their homes flooded, and it's very damaging to the economy as well," he added.
Professor David Balmforth, a flooding specialist at the Institution of Civil Engineers, told the programme: "We know in the future global warming will make the sorts of flood events we have seen here become much more frequent and much more severe so some of the older (flood) defences which might have been fit for purpose at the time may not be quite so effective in the present day."
Environment Agency director of operations David Jordan said: "Flooding is devastating at any time of year, but it is particularly hard at Christmas time, and our thoughts are with those who will be out of their homes over the festive period.
"Although the rain is set to ease a little in the coming days, the ground is still very wet and river levels remain high, so we would ask people to keep up to date with the latest warnings and stay prepared for flooding."
He also reminded people not to walk or drive through floodwater.
A number of other key routes - including the A1(M) in Hertfordshire, the M6 in Cumbria and Staffordshire and the M5 near Bristol - were also struck by weather-related delays.
Reduced train services were operating on the West Coast line, and flooding had also disrupted CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains, First Great Western (FGW), First TransPennine Express and ScotRail services.
To access more information, from your mobile, visit the BBC Weather and BBC Travel News sites.
In pictures: Flooding damage
| Floods | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
President Barack Obama nominates Jeffrey DeLaurentis as the first United States Ambassador to Cuba since 1961. | President Obama on Tuesday nominated the first U.S. ambassador to Cuba in more than 55 years, setting up a battle with Republicans in Congress who oppose renewed relations with the communist island.
Obama picked Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who already is the chief diplomat in Havana, a job he's held since 2014. But now that diplomatic relations have been re-established, DeLaurentis can be promoted to full ambassador. The new post requires confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate, which could produce a partisan fight.
Cuban-American Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, both Republicans, tried to limit funding for the U.S. Embassy in Havana and said they would oppose any ambassador named by Obama.
DeLaurentis, a career diplomat, has served in Havana during the major transition of one-time Cold War foes to a new relationship that includes re-opening embassies in Washington and Havana and resuming travel and trade on a limited basis so far.
"Jeff's leadership has been vital throughout the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, and the appointment of an ambassador is a common-sense step forward toward a more normal and productive relationship between our two countries," Obama said in a statement.
Obama, Cuba announce embassy openings
The choice of DeLaurentis is the latest move by the Obama administration to increase ties between the two countries. Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced in December 2014 that they would end the 50-year diplomatic freeze.
Obama said DeLaurentis is perfectly positioned to continue overseeing that transition.
"He is exactly the type of person we want to represent the United States in Cuba, and we only hurt ourselves by not being represented by an ambassador," Obama said. "If confirmed by the Senate, I know Jeff will build on the changes he helped bring about to better support the Cuban people and advance America's interests."
Rubio has said the U.S. shouldn't "reward" Cuba with an ambassador until Havana makes significant political reforms, improves human rights, returns U.S. fugitives living in Cuba and compensates U.S. citizens and businesses for property seized when Fidel Castro rose to power.
"President' Obama's appeasement of the region's only totalitarian regime has been a complete disaster," Rubio said Tuesday. "A U.S. ambassador is not going to influence the Cuban government, which is a dictatorial and closed regime. This nomination should go nowhere."
Ambassadors need a simple majority to win Senate confirmation. But senators have traditionally been allowed to impose a “hold” that can end the confirmation process, or Republican leadership can refuse to schedule a vote. Obama currently faces a similar battle to fill a Supreme Court vacancy with Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who attended last year's opening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, said DeLaurentis is "universally respected" by members of both political parties and is the "obvious choice" to become the next ambassador.
"We need an ambassador who knows Cuba, who is respected by the Cuban government, and who will stand up for U.S. interests and values. Jeff is that person," Leahy said Tuesday. "The Cuban people have their ambassador in Washington. The American people need their ambassador in Havana." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2016 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Kadima leader Ehud Olmert declares victory in the 17th Israeli legislative election, ahead of main opponents Labor and Likud. | His Kadima party, founded barely four months ago by now coma-stricken Ariel Sharon, won but by less than predicted.
It looks set to take 28 of the 120 seats in parliament. Likud, winner of the last election, was beaten into fifth place with just 11 seats.
Palestinians urged Mr Olmert not to set Israel's borders unilaterally.
The Kadima leader told his party he was prepared to hold peace talks with the Palestinians but would act alone if he had to, to establish permanent borders for Israel by 2010.
But with his margin of victory much less decisive than the party had hoped, he could have trouble forming and maintaining a stable coalition, say correspondents.
Kadima is expected to enter into coalition talks with second-placed Labour and other smaller parties.
Israel's President Moshe Katsav said he would start talking to party leaders next week. A Kadima official told the Haaretz newspaper he expected a coalition to emerge after the Passover holiday, in about three weeks' time.
RESULTS - 99% COUNTED
Winning party:1. Kadima: 28 seats, centristProbable partner:2. Labour: 20 seats, centre-leftPossible partners:3. Shas: 13 seats, ultra-orthodox4. Pensioners: 7 seats, single-issue5. Torah Judaism: 6 seats, ultra-orthodox6. Meretz: 4 seats, left-wingUnlikely partners:7. Israel Beitenu: 12 seats, Russian emigres, far-right8. Likud: 11 seats, right-wing9. Arab parties: 10 seats10. National Union/Religious: 9 seats, far-right, settlers
In pictures: Poll results
Profile: Ehud Olmert
Standing in front of a massive picture of Ariel Sharon, Mr Olmert paid tribute to his stricken predecessor before laying out his plans for his four-year term in office.
"In the coming period we will move to set the final borders of the state of Israel, a Jewish state with a Jewish majority," Mr Olmert told Kadima members in what was effectively his victory speech.
"We will try to achieve this in an agreement with the Palestinians. This is our hope and prayer."
He told the Palestinian leadership: "We are ready to compromise, to give up parts of the beloved Land of Israel... and evacuate, under great pain, Jews living there, in order to create the conditions that will enable you to fulfil your dream and live alongside us."
But he said it was time for the Palestinians to "relate to the existence of the state of Israel, to accept only part of their dream, to stop terror, to accept democracy and accept compromise and peace with us".
Palestinian protests
The BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Jerusalem says Mr Olmert's task will not be easy.
We have no doubt the Likud has suffered a tough blow
Benjamin NetanyahuLikud leader
Likud's fall from grace
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He will face stiff opposition from Israel's settler movement, will have to convince the US to back his plan, and will not be able to ignore a Hamas-led Palestinian government, our correspondent says.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the "result was expected", but that Mr Olmert should return to the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan and "abandon his unilateral plans to fix the borders".
The new Palestinian cabinet, led by Islamic militant group Hamas, will be sworn in on Wednesday afternoon. It may not be long after that that the Palestinians' relationship with Israel sinks to new lows, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza.
Voter turnout in the Israeli election was 62.3%, a record low. With 99% of ballots counted, Kadima has won 21.8% or 28 seats, with the centre-left Labour party coming second with 20 seats, a 15.1% share.
Under Israel's complex proportional representation, the exact number of seats may change as the final votes are redistributed.
Likud blow
The right-wing former ruling party, Likud, is trailing with just 11 seats - behind the ultra-Orthodox Shas, with 13, and the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party, which proposes forcibly transferring Arab populations inside Israel to Palestinian territory, with 12. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu admitted they had "suffered a tough blow" but vowed to rebuild the party.
Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the country has been governed either by the Labour or Likud parties, so a Kadima victory is historic. Kadima, which means "forward" in Hebrew, was founded by Mr Sharon last year after he left Likud amid bitter rows over his withdrawal of settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip.
Mr Sharon suffered a stroke and fell into a coma in January.
Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Its settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel rejects that. | Government Job change - Election | March 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Palestinian man wearing camouflaged clothing is shot dead at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate after charging at Israeli police with a knife; another Palestinian attacker stabs a 70-year old woman near Jerusalem's Central Bus Station before being shot dead by police. | Ilan Ben Zion, a reporter at the Associated Press, is a former news editor at The Times of Israel. He holds a Masters degree in Diplomacy from Tel Aviv University and an Honors Bachelors degree from the University of Toronto in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, Jewish Studies, and English.
A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli woman outside Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station Wednesday evening.
The attacker was shot dead by security forces at the scene.
The attack was the second of the day, after a Palestinian man attempted to stab police officers before being shot dead. Palestinian media identified him as Ahmed Fathi Abu Sha’aban, 26, of Ras al-Amoud, East Jerusalem. He was reportedly recently released from Israeli prison after serving three years on terror charges.
Police said the attacker stabbed a woman, 70, on Jaffa Street and then attempted to board a city bus outside the station, which is in a busy commercial area.
The victim suffered moderate injuries to her upper body and received medical treatment on site, paramedics said. She was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment. | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(Jerusalem Post)', '(The Times of Israel)'] |
American Pulitzer Prize–winning film reviewer Roger Ebert dies at the age of 70 following a battle with cancer which initially cost him his voice. | Film critic Roger Ebert arrives at the 25th Film Independent's Spirit Awards held at Nokia Event Deck at L.A. Live on March 5, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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Film critic Roger Ebert arrives at the 25th Film Independent's Spirit Awards held at Nokia Event Deck at L.A. Live on March 5, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.
Roger Ebert, the legendary film critic, died today, his long-time employer, The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Ebert had been wrestling with cancer for years. Over his life, he was treated for salivary gland cancer, thyroid cancer and cancer of the jawbone. In 2006, Ebert lost his jaw and with it, his ability to talk, but he still kept up an unrelenting pace, reviewing more than 200 movies a year for the paper and keeping up an admired digital presence. On his blog and on twitter, he chronicled his struggle with cancer and just two days ago, he penned a post saying he was taking a "leave of presence."
Ebert was 70.
"At this point in my life, in addition to writing about movies, I may write about what it's like to cope with health challenges and the limitations they can force upon you," he wrote. "It really stinks that the cancer has returned and that I have spent too many days in the hospital. So on bad days I may write about the vulnerability that accompanies illness. On good days, I may wax ecstatic about a movie so good it transports me beyond illness."
Back in 2011, Ebert spoke with NPR's Melissa Block. He had just written a memoir titled Life Itself. Ebert spoke through a digital voice on his computer.
Melissa asked him about what most people will remember him by: His television show with Gene Siskel, in which the two of them would give films thumbs up and thumbs down.
"We were often angry with one another," he told Melissa. "At other times we were very warm. I think we shared a strong sense of morality about films that offended us, either by their content or their general stupidity."
Perhaps Ebert's greatest accomplishment was his 1975 Pulitzer Prize. He was the first film critic to win one.
He reviewed films for the Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31. The Chicago Sun-Times' obit says Ebert was not only "widely popular" but "professionally respected."
They point out that the critic gig came out of nowhere. He was offered the job at the Sun-Times when "the previous critic, Eleanor Keen, retired."
"I didn't know the job was open until the day I was given it," the paper quotes Ebert as saying. "I had no idea. Bob Zonka, the features editor, called me into the conference room and said, 'We're gonna make you the movie critic.' It fell out of the sky."
Update at 4:50 p.m. ET. Reactions: Reaction to Ebert's death is streaming in:
-- "Roger was the movies," President Obama said about Ebert in a statement. "When he didn't like a film, he was honest; when he did, he was effusive - capturing the unique power of the movies to take us somewhere magical. Even amidst his own battles with cancer, Roger was as productive as he was resilient - continuing to share his passion and perspective with the world. The movies won't be the same without Roger, and our thoughts and prayers are with Chaz and the rest of the Ebert family."
-- The New York Times film critic, A.O. Scott tweeted a link to a 2008 piece he wrote about Ebert. Scott was smitten, writing:
"It is this print corpus that will sustain Mr. Ebert's reputation as one of the few authentic giants in a field in which self-importance frequently overshadows accomplishment. His writing may lack the polemical dazzle and theoretical muscle of Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, whose names must dutifully be invoked in any consideration of American film criticism. In their heyday those two were warriors, system-builders and intellectual adventurers on a grand scale. But the plain-spoken Midwestern clarity of Mr. Ebert's prose and his genial, conversational presence on the page may, in the end, make him a more useful and reliable companion for the dedicated moviegoer."
Scott also tweeted: "Ebert was singular. We are all in his shadow and his debt."
-- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel said in a statement: "The final reel of his life may have run through to the end, but his memory will never fade."
-- The writer Greg Mitchell used Ebert's own writing to reflect on the film critic. he pointed to a 2011 piece Ebert wrote for Salon. It was titled, "I do not fear death."
Ebert wrote:
"I have no desire to live forever. The concept frightens me. I am 69, have had cancer, will die sooner than most of those reading this. That is in the nature of things. In my plans for life after death, I say, again with Whitman:
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. | Famous Person - Death | April 2013 | ['(NPR)', '(Chicago Sun–Times)'] |
A Boko Haram attack near Lake Chad kills at least 11 Chadian troops while 17 Boko Haram militants are also reportedly killed in the fighting following the pre-dawn strike on Chadian army positions. | N'Djamena (AFP) - Boko Haram Islamists attacked Chadian soldiers on Tuesday, killing 11 and wounding 13, the Chadian army said, in the latest deadly raid by the militants despite a regional offensive against them.
"The enemy infiltrated (Chad) from the Nigerian side (of the border) to attack positions of the Chadian forces," Chad's army chief said in a statement read by his deputy spokesman, lieutenant-colonel Adjani Djibrine.
"The army deplores the 11 deaths and 13 wounded," it said.
The army also said 17 Boko Haram fighters died in the fighting following the pre-dawn strike.
"Boko Haram members attacked our positions at 4:30 am (0330 GMT) in Kaiga Ngouboua about two kilometres (about a mile) from the Nigerian border" in the area of Lake Chad, a security source who requested anonymity told AFP.
"The attackers were pushed back and the army is continuing search operations in the zone," the source said.
Since the start of the year, the Chadian army has been on the front line of a regional military operation against Boko Haram whose attacks have spread from northeast Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, to the neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Boko Haram, which is affiliated with the Islamic State group operating in Syria and Iraq, has been hit hard by the offensive, losing territory, but has launched attacks and bombings in response.
Cameroon is regularly targeted by suicide bombers.
Attacks also continue unabated in Nigeria, where at least 18 people were killed and 41 injured in twin bombings on Friday on the outskirts of the capital Abuja.
Niger was hit on Sunday in suicide attacks by Boko Haram militants that killed a gendarme and five civilians in the city of Diffa, in the southeast of the country close to the border with Nigeria.
Chad has joined a regional military alliance, alongside Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria, to fight Boko Haram, which has waged a bloody insurgency since 2009 marked by mass abductions, village massacres and suicide bombings sometimes by women and teenagers.
Lake Chad is shared between the four countries. Climate change has reduced its surface in recent years, but it contains many islands and islets used by fishermen and its banks have dense vegetation, which makes infiltrations by Boko Haram Islamists into Chad much easier.
At least 17,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million made homeless since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009.
Former White House doctor Rep. Ronny Jackson and 13 other Republicans want President Joe Biden to take a mental cognition test and share the results.
During more than five years of harassment, about 30 pieces of mail with homophobic names on them were sent to the couple’s home in Massachusetts.
Using perplexing language and trying to confuse their constituents is just the latest strategy issued by Republicans attempting to enact policy.
BILLINGS, Mont. From the moment Silver Little Eagle decided to run for Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council, people dismissed her as too young, too green. But she was determined. Wooing voters with coffee, doughnuts and vows of bringing new energy to tribal issues, she won as a write-in candidate, becoming her tribe’s youngest councilwoman at age 23. Then last month, Little Eagle was beaten and robbed inside a Billings hotel room by two other women. News of the assault of a young Native American l
Rep. Ronny Jackson on Thursday said he's circulating a letter among House GOP colleagues calling on President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test.
Anna Kern, who got a breakthrough infection in April, said she was struggling to return to work and was dealing with extreme fatigue.
The European Union is recommending its 27 member states gradually welcome back all U.S. tourists, including those who aren't vaccinated.
The pro-democracy newspaper printed a bumper 500,000 copies after police arrested five senior staff.
If Gov. Ron DeSantis really cared about the meth-addiction problem in Florida, he would not be looking for solutions among immigrants at the Texas or Arizona borders, where he has no jurisdiction to enforce immigration law or run drug stings.
The suspect charged with killing Aiden Leos, 6, in a suspected road rage incident told police he shot at the car, according to prosecutors.
After Putin meeting, White House now looking to 'engage' with China's Xi Jinping
GettyTwo teenage brothers from New Jersey are facing a murder charge after a Pennsylvania state trooper stumbled upon them trying to dump the body of a murder victim in an isolated area in the middle of the night, authorities said Thursday. Joshua Gamble, 17, and Anthony Gamble, 19, are said to have left their hazard lights on when they parked their two vehicles along the side of a road in a rural area of Bucks County, about 55 miles from their home in Somerset, New Jersey. The hazard lights led
Biden suspends Trump's 25 percent tariff on Scotch whisky, but U.K. tariffs on U.S. bourbon remain
Schmidt, known for dancing before her races, did choreography to songs from K-pop girl group Twice, including "Cheer Up" and "Likey."
The Mavs fired GM Donnie Nelson, then lost head coach Rick Carlisle in one week amid reports of tension in the organization over Haralabos Voulgaris.
Michael Wayne Sherrill was convicted of Cynthia’s Dotson’s 1984 rape and murder in Charlotte. Here’s why a judge vacated his sentence.
Dallas Mavericks hell week continues; coach Rick Carlisle quits 10 days after saying he wants to return
"I'd do it again," vows Mark McCloskey outside court as he and his wife walk free with a fine.
The singer's relationship and breakup with Brandon Adams, whose stage name is 7:AMP, was revealed in her recent documentary.
Esther Andrews, of Esther Andrews Bridal, hand-knit her wedding dress. It had over 4 miles of mohair lace yarn and was covered in tomatoes. | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(AFP via Yahoo)'] |
The Chinese Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announces that current Politburo member Sun Zhengcai is under investigation for violating party discipline. Sun is the fourth sitting Politburo member since 1990 to fall from power. | BEIJING — The Chinese Communist Party said on Monday that Sun Zhengcai, a high-flying politician who had been seen as a potential future premier, was under investigation over suspected “grave violations of discipline,” ending his career and raising the stakes of a national leadership shake-up that is just months away.
Mr. Sun, 53, is the most senior serving politician purged so far in a five-year drive against corruption, disloyalty and abuse of power that President Xi Jinping began soon after taking control of the Communist Party in late 2012. The terse party announcement about the investigation issued through Xinhua, the state news agency, did not specify the allegations against Mr. Sun. “Violations of discipline” is a vague term that can include corruption, abuses of power and disloyalty to the party.
But by removing Mr. Sun, Mr. Xi has eliminated a potential obstacle to his efforts to consolidate power later this year, when a Communist Party congress will appoint a new leadership team to serve under him for his second five-year stint as party leader and as president.
Mr. Sun had been party secretary of Chongqing, a riverside city in southwestern China, since late 2012, when he was sent there to help clean up a previous political scandal. His abrupt dismissal was announced on July 15, initially without explanation. Since then, he has not appeared in public, and his name had not appeared in state media until the official confirmation on Monday that he was under investigation.
Mr. Sun was also a member of the Politburo, an elite 25-member council of central and provincial leaders; by rank, experience and age, he had appeared well placed to rise into the Politburo Standing Committee, an even more powerful body.
The removal of Mr. Sun allowed Mr. Xi to place an acolyte, Chen Miner, in charge of Chongqing. The official investigation against Mr. Sun opens the way for his eventual expulsion from the Politburo and replacement by Mr. Chen, who worked closely under Mr. Xi when they were both officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
After the investigation was announced, the Chongqing Communist Party leadership under Mr. Chen praised the decision as “very timely and very correct,” and said it demonstrated Mr. Xi’s strong leadership, the Chongqing news media reported. In a hint of the accusations Mr. Sun may face, the Chongqing leadership also said the decision showed that the “struggle against corruption” would never stop.
At the party congress this fall, at least 11 of the 25 members must retire, unless an unwritten rule on the age of retirement is relaxed. They include five of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the core chamber of power.
The announcement on Monday did not say whether Mr. Sun would be expelled from the Politburo. But that appears to be a formality once the official party inquiry ends. If investigators find grounds for criminal charges, they may also hand Mr. Sun over to prosecutors for investigation and prosecution.
The same fate befell Mr. Sun’s predecessor in Chongqing, Bo Xilai. Mr. Bo was dismissed in 2012 and arrested after investigators found that his wife, Gu Kailai, had murdered a British businessman. Mr. Bo was sentenced to life in prison for graft and abuse of power.
Speculation has circulated that Mr. Sun or his family may have been implicated in corruption, but party outlets have said nothing. Mr. Sun also came under political pressure this year after party inspectors accused him and other Chongqing officials of not doing enough to root out the “toxic residue” of Mr. Bo’s influence. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | July 2017 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Dollar Tree announces it will close 390 Family Dollar stores, and rebrand a further 200 Family Dollar stores as Dollar Tree. | Discount retailer Dollar Tree plans to close 390 Family Dollar stores this year while renovating 1,000 other locations, the company said in releasing its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday.
“We are confident we are taking the appropriate steps to reposition our Family Dollar brand for increasing profitability as business initiatives gain traction in the back half of fiscal 2019,” CEO Gary Philbin said in announcing the results.
Its renovated Family Dollar locations will sell alcohol and include a $1 Dollar Tree merchandise section. About 400 stores will get expanded freezer and cooler sections, and it will also rebrand about 200 Family Dollar stores to the Dollar Tree brand. It had 7,001 Dollar Tree locations and 8,236 Family Dollar stores as of Feb. 2.
The company’s earnings beat Wall Street estimates, which were heavily adjusted to exclude a $2.73 billion write-down against its Family Dollar business, among other charges.
On an adjusted basis, the Dollar Tree reported a profit of $1.93 per share during the 13 weeks ended Feb. 2 compared with average estimates of $1.92 a share compiled by Refinitiv. Sales at stores open for at least a year rose 2.4 percent versus an estimate of 1.5 percent. It generated $6.21 billion in revenue, better than the $6.19 billion expected by Wall Street but down slightly from $6.36 billion a year earlier.
On an unadjusted basis, the company had a loss of $2.31 billion, or a loss of $9.66 a share, compared with a profit of $1.04 billion, or $4.37 a share, during the same quarter last year, which included an extra week.
Shares of the company rose more than 4 percent in intraday trading Wednesday.
The report comes after activist investor Starboard Value, which has a 1.7 percent stake in the company, pressured Dollar Tree this January to change its pricing and sell the store.
The company opened 143 stores in the fourth quarter, closed 84 Family Dollar stores and 10 Dollar Tree stores and expanded or relocated 14 stores. It currently operates 15,237 stores across the U.S. and Canada. | Organization Closed | March 2019 | ['(CNBC)'] |
Voters in Saudi Arabia go to the polls for municipal elections, with women voting and standing for election for the first time. Seventeen women are elected to office. , | Communication staff members for the campaign of a female candidate in the Saudi municipal elections contact voters in Jidda.
On a recent night in the Saudi capital, municipal council candidate Amal Badredin Alsnari wooed potential voters with heaping plates of hors d’oeuvres and a pledge to bring more public services to neighborhoods in need.
Looking glamorous in a black head scarf and red pantsuit, Alsnari spoke passionately to about two dozen women gathered in a banquet room at a downtown Riyadh hotel. Next door, in a separate room, men snacked on their own appetizers and listened as Alsnari’s speech played on loudspeakers.
It was politicking, Saudi-style.
As this wealthy desert kingdom prepares for a historic election Saturday, in which women will compete and vote for the first time, Saudi Arabia’s strict gender laws are coloring the political process even as they’re being challenged.
Like all women in Saudi Arabia, Alsnari, 60, a doctor and a grandmother of nine, will not be allowed to drive herself to the polls Saturday.
Even if she wins a spot on the municipal council representing central Riyadh, she will still face scorn by the religious police if she walks the streets alone, and she will still be unable to travel abroad without the permission of a male relative.
According to election rules, female candidates can be fined if they’re caught speaking directly to male voters. Men and women will cast ballots at separate voting centers.
In a country dominated by a strict form of Islam, some clerics have demanded women sit out the elections. Fearing reprisals, many candidates have forgone public campaigning, opting instead to reach out to voters through social media.
With so many restrictions in place, many women view their entry into the democratic process with tempered enthusiasm, even as Saudi officials hail it as a great advancement.
“It’s a good beginning,” said Alsnari’s daughter, Arij Abanomi, 43. “We will see how good.”
Except for Vatican City, where male cardinals elect the pope, Saudi Arabia is the last country in the world to bar women from elections. Women have had the right to vote in other Persian Gulf states for years.
In Saudi Arabia, the seeds of change were planted after the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, when King Abdullah decreed women should be included in municipal elections.
It was one of several gestures Abdullah made toward female equality before his death in January. He also appointed women to a national advisory body and allowed them to practice law and work as sales clerks in clothing and lingerie shops.
David Ottaway, a Middle East specialist at the Wilson Center, said the kingdom’s slow but steady flow of concessions comes as the demands of pro-democracy activists have largely been silenced.
“They’re not a challenge to the system,” Ottaway said of women activists. “Their issues are women’s rights. They’re not threats to the government.”
The election changes went into effect this year, with nearly 1,000 women joining 7,000 men seeking seats on 284 municipal councils.
Compared with local elected officials in the United States, Saudi council members have little power. They oversee a range of local issues, including budgets for maintaining and improving public facilities, but all major decisions are made by the king and his appointees.
Perhaps because of that, Saudis don’t typically vote in large numbers. Of the estimated 6 million to 7 million Saudis eligible to vote, only 1.5 million are registered.
That number includes 130,000 women who signed up this year, said Salma Rashid, a project manager at the Al-Nahda Philanthropic Society for Women, which led a nationwide voter education campaign. Because women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, her organization has partnered with Uber to offer women free rides to polling places Saturday.
Rashid said the biggest challenge in registering women was not misogyny but apathy. The most common question from would-be candidates and voters was: What do these councils do?
Some activists have complained that the voter registration process was not well-publicized and was too onerous for women. Registrants were required to prove residency in their district by bringing documents, such as house deeds or bills, that matched their name to their address. But in Saudi Arabia, men own most houses, and men pay most of the bills.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, praised the inclusion of women in the electoral process but said “the government should fix the problems that are making it hard for women to participate.” Whitson said she hoped the elections would “create momentum for further women’s rights reforms.”
That is what Dana Albushi would like to see.
Albushi and her daughter were sharing chicken tenders on a recent afternoon on the women’s-only floor of Riyadh’s soaring Kingdom Center mall, where behind frosted glass barriers women shed the veils and long black robes they are expected to wear in public to take tea and shop at high-end stores such as Chanel, Givenchy and Valentino.
Albushi, 49, said she hopes the election leads to more advancements for women, like the right to drive and travel without a male relative.
“I would like to be able to walk anywhere by myself and just breathe the air,” said Albushi, a former teacher. The election, she said, “is a first step.”
“It’s going to be a long journey, though,” said Nouf, her 14-year-old.
Not all women are embracing their new rights.
Some conservatives have led Twitter campaigns against the elections and other recent changes. Hatoon Ajward Fassi, a university professor and a leader of the women’s rights campaign known as the Baladi initiative, said there are religious and geopolitical overtones to such resistance. “Feminism is linked to Westernization,” she said. “There’s a lot of baggage around it.”
Nassina Sada, who lives in the country’s Eastern Province, said she believes women’s status as second-class citizens will fade as more Saudis go abroad.
“Nobody can stop the change,” she said.
Sada registered as a candidate but was disqualified by the government. She suspects it has to do with her past activism, including a recent protest in which she posted an online video of herself driving a car.
She said women must continue to press Saudi leaders.
“We need to ask for more,” she said. “I think it is my responsibility for my daughter’s generation.”
| Government Job change - Election | December 2015 | ['(Los Angeles Times)', '(NBC News)'] |
A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 strikes in the Maluku Islands north of Ambon Island. | Updated: Apr 24, 2010 15:04
SINGAPORE: A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck in the Moluccas about 200 km (120
miles) north of the Indonesian island of Ambon, the US Geological Survey said on Saturday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The quake was measured at a depth of about 33 miles (53 km).
| Earthquakes | April 2010 | ['(Arab News)'] |
The Turkish government arrests at least ten former admirals under suspicion of initiating a coup d'état, after 104 retired admirals issued an open letter opposing the proposed Istanbul Canal. | Turkey on Monday detained 10 retired admirals after a letter signed by more than 100 of them warned against a possible threat to a treaty governing the use of Turkey's key waterways.
Turkey's approval last month of plans to develop a shipping canal in Istanbul comparable to the Panama or Suez canals has opened up debate about the 1936 Montreux Convention.
In their letter, 104 retired admirals said it was "worrying" to open the Montreux treaty up to debate, calling it an agreement that "best protects Turkish interests".
The Ankara chief public prosecutor's office said arrest warrants were issued for the 10 and ordered four other suspects to report to Ankara police within three days, opting not to detain them because of their age.
They are accused of "using force and violence to get rid of the constitutional order", NTV broadcaster reported.
The prosecutor launched a probe on Sunday into the retired admirals on suspicion of an "agreement to commit a crime against the state's security and constitutional order".
One of the 10 suspects detained was Cem Gurdeniz, described as the father of Turkey's controversial new maritime doctrine known as "Blue Homeland".
The doctrine has grown in prominence, especially during tensions last year between Greece and Turkey over Ankara's gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
It argues Turkey has rights to substantial maritime borders including the water surrounding some Greek islands, much to Athens' chagrin.
Turkish officials have reacted angrily to the letter, claiming it appears to be a call for a coup.
"Stating one's thoughts is one thing, preparing a declaration evoking a coup is another," parliament speaker Mustafa Sentop said on Sunday.
Coups are a sensitive subject in Turkey since the military, which has long seen itself as the guarantor of the country's secular constitution, staged three coups between 1960 and 1980.
There was also an attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016, blamed on followers of US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen in the military.
The Montreux Convention ensures the free passage through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits of civilian vessels in times of both peace and war. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2021 | ['(The News International)'] |
One person is killed and several injured in an apparent failed coup attempt in Guinea–Bissau, hours after the controversial results of the parliamentary election were announced where the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde won 67 of 100 seats. | Joao Bernardo Vieira escaped unharmed in the overnight attack, which the BBC's West Africa correspondent says appears to be a failed coup.
The soldiers stormed Mr Vieira's compound during a three-hour battle, in which one presidential guard died.
Guinea-Bissau, which has a history of military coups, recently held parliamentary elections.
Mr Vieira told a televised news conference later on Sunday that the soldiers stormed his compound intending to "liquidate" him.
Assuring people the situation was "under control", the president said: "No-one has the right to massacre the people of Guinea-Bissau in order to steal power by means of the gun."
Guinea-Bissau's interior ministry said one soldier loyal to the president had been killed in the assault, and several other guards had been wounded.
The African Union warned against any "attempt to seize power by force".
AU spokesman El-Ghassim Wane told French radio that the body was "very concerned about the situation", stressing that it rejected "all unlawful change of government".
Describing the situation as "very serious", the United Nations representative in Guinea-Bissau, Shola Omeregie, confirmed there had been a military attack on the president's home.
According to the National Electoral Commission, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) won 67 of the 100 National Assembly seats.
The PAIGC ruled Guinea-Bissau as a one-party state for a quarter century after independence in 1974.
The party allied to the president, the Republican Party for Independence and Development (PRID), won just three seats in the ballot, which was held last weekend.
The leader of the party which officially finished second with 28 seats contested the result.
Koumba Yala, leader of the Social Renewal Party (PRS) and a former president of Guinea-Bissau, said he would "never accept fabricated results". | Regime Change | November 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
The United States Department of Defense's inspector general launches an investigation into the United States military's inability to account for weapons sent to Iraq after reports that Kurdish militants were using US weapons to attack Turkey. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon’s independent watchdog has launched a probe into the military’s inability to account for weapons in Iraq after reports that Kurdish militants were using U.S. arms to attack Turkey, the Defense Department said on Wednesday.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the department’s inspector general will go to Iraq next week with an 18-member assessment team to investigate the problem.
“Since January, the inspector general’s office has been thoroughly investigating reports of unaccounted-for weapons as well as allegations of arms ending up in the wrong hands,” Morrell said.
“Secretary Gates, who since May has twice received lengthy briefings on the progress of the probe, is deeply troubled by the reports and the allegations.”
Turkey, an important ally for Washington in the Muslim world, has repeatedly said the U.S. government has not done enough to clamp down on Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq. In July, Turkey’s ambassador said Kurdish leaders were diverting weapons meant for local Iraqi security forces to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
Morrell said he did not know if evidence existed to show U.S. weapons were being used by insurgents in Iraq.
“It is unclear, and that’s why there’s an investigation taking place.”
Separately, the Army has launched two investigations into possible fraud involving thousands of contracts for services in Iraq and Kuwait after 20 civilian and military Army employees were indicted on charges that included bribery.
The scope of the fraud remains unknown, but Army Secretary Pete Geren called the problem significant.
More than 18,000 contracts valued at about $3 billion have been awarded by the Army to support the Iraq war since 2003. As of August 28, there were 76 ongoing criminal investigations involving possible contract fraud, the Army said.
A U.S. Army major, his wife and sister were indicted this month in a suspected scheme to accept $9.6 million in exchange for contracts for bottled water and other goods and services for troops in Kuwait and Iraq.
An Army captain also has been charged with accepting a $50,000 bribe to steer military contracts in Iraq, according to prosecutors.
“The reports suggest that we’ve got serious issues in this area, particularly coming out of the Kuwait contracting community,” Geren told reporters. “I don’t know how to describe the scale, but it’s significant.”
The first Army investigation will examine the overall contracting organization, which Army officials say lacks the resources needed to handle the sharp rise in contracts following the start of the Iraq war. A commission appointed to investigate the operation will deliver a report in 45 days.
The Army also charged a new task force with examining all 18,000 contracts awarded by its contracting office in Kuwait. Most of those covered support services at Army facilities in Kuwait, like laundry and dining services.
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All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | August 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Hundreds of Romanian families protest at the University Square in Bucharest against the government's new mandate on social distancing and the wearing of face masks in schools. Many compare the measures to the country's communist regime. | Several hundred Romanians, including many families with young children, have protested in the Bucharest against measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, especially social distancing and the mandatory use of masks in schools
Like other countries in Europe, the number of new virus cases has spiked in recent days in Romania, with a record 1,713 cases earlier this week and 1,333 more on Saturday. In all, Romania has registered 111,550 cases of COVID-19, with 4,402 confirmed deaths.
Some 2.8 million Romanian schoolchildren began their academic year on Monday, with classes being held in classrooms, online or a combination of the two, depending on the intensity of the pandemic in a given region. Desks have to be at least one meter apart, masks must be worn by students and teachers at the primary school level or higher and classrooms are disinfected daily.
Protesters at Bucharest’s University Square chanted against President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and drew parallels between the protective measures against the pandemic and the communist and Nazi regimes. One of the speakers at the rally compared the measures to the torture of dissidents during communism.
A large sign carried by a protester included a recent quote from Iohannis about the safety measures — “Kids easily get used to unpleasant things” — above a photograph of children behind barbed-wire fences at a concentration camp
Protesters also highlighted the symbolism of holding the rally at University Square, where protests in 1989 against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu led to the fall of his communist regime.
Only police and members of the media wore masks at the event, where participants, many carrying Romanian flags, did not respect social distancing rules, either.
Local elections initially slated to be held in June but postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic will be held Sept. 27 to vote for mayors and city councilors across the country. Romania is also scheduled to hold a parliamentary election near the end of the year. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2020 | ['(AP via ABC News)'] |
The World Cup semi-final in Mohali between India and Pakistan is watched by over 1 billion people as both countries come to a standstill and both prime ministers attend. | More than a billion people are thought to have watched India beat Pakistan by 29 runs in the World Cup cricket semi-final in the Indian city of Mohali.
Both countries largely ground to a halt during the match, which was attended by their respective prime ministers. It was the first time the two sides had played on each other's soil since the 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks.
The nuclear-armed neighbours' ties hit a low after the attacks, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants. India now play Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai on Saturday and celebrations have erupted around the country. The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says the skies are alight with fireworks and it's like a rerun of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.
Relations between the two have been frosty and precarious for long, and it is unfair to expect the cricketers to improve them”
Wednesday's semi was one of most keenly anticipated contests between the countries for years. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was invited by his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, in what is being described as "cricket diplomacy".
The two leaders shook hands with both sets of players before sitting down together to watch the game. Midway through, Mr Singh hosted a dinner in honour of his guest. After the game, they were due to return to their respective capitals, Delhi and Islamabad. Indian Foreign Secretary Nirumpama Rao hailed what she called "the spirit of Mohali".
"An extremely positive and encouraging spirit... has been generated as a result of today's meeting. I would like to emphasise this is re-engagement between India and Pakistan," she told a news conference during the match. Beforehand, Mr Gilani had said he hoped his visit would improve ties. "I am going to watch the match. It is too early to expect anything else," he told reporters. The meeting comes a day after India and Pakistan agreed to let their officials visit each others' countries to investigate the Mumbai attacks.
The breakthrough followed talks between the two sides in Delhi. The attacks killed at least 174 people, nine of whom were the gunmen. One attacker was caught alive and has been sentenced to death.
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Mohali says that with only half of the stadium's 28,000 tickets open to the public, there were none to be had except on the black market. .
The BBC's Joe Wilson joined fans as they entered the stadium
Tickets were apparently selling for up to 10 times their original value, our correspondent says. Other reports put the figure much higher.
Pakistan declared a half-day holiday to allow fans to watch the match, while many offices in both countries said they would shut for the occasion. The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and home of cricket captain and key player Shahid Afridi, says giant screens were set up at various venues across the city. Before the match, fans hurriedly gathered at shops across the city to stock up on snacks. Everybody seemed to be bedecked in green shirts and cloaks - the colour of the Pakistani flag. Cars were also draped with flags and posters of national team members, our correspondent reports. "This is a more important event than any other event in Pakistan this year," one fan, Karachi-based fund manager Omar Ehtisham Anwar, told Reuters news agency.
"There is no way I would miss even a second of this match - I will try to not even blink during the game."
In India, many returned home early as well. Giant television screens were installed in markets and restaurants for people to watch the match.
"We do not have any animosity towards the Pakistan team," Indian cricket fan Ravi Ansal told the AFP news agency before play began. "They are a fine team and if India go on to lose the semi-final, I will cheer for Pakistan in the final."
The match was held amid tight security and authorities imposed a ban on flights over the stadium. Thousands of police and paramilitary forces were deployed around the venue. "We are leaving nothing to chance. The security will be multi-layered," local police chief GPS Bhullar told reporters.
In February, the two countries agreed to resume peace talks "on all issues". Peace moves were put on hold after the 2008 attacks, although the sides have met a number of times in the past year.
Pakistan's foreign minister will visit India by July to review progress in the dialogue. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites
The top UN court rejects claims by Serbia and Croatia of genocide against each other during the war which saw the break-up of Yugoslavia.
Tuesday's devastating attacks in Brussels show IS's European network is still at large, despite a year of intensive efforts by security forces to close it down.
Scientists are debating whether it's possible to harness the power of gravity for interstellar space travel.
The four-year-old boy who has become the centre of a controversy between India and Pakistan - and between his father and mother.
Why, almost 60 years after he first appeared in the Daily Mirror, is a layabout lout from north-east England still so loved around the world? | Sports Competition | March 2011 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Asafa Powell breaks the world record in the 100 meters (328 feet, 1 inch) Tuesday with a 9.77 clocking at the Athens, Greece Olympic Stadium, making him the world's fastest human at 36.85 km/h . | Powell shaved one hundredth of a second off Tim Montgomery's record of 9.78 set in Paris in 2002 — a mark that already was at risk because Montgomery faces doping charges. During the Olympics, Powell finished fifth in 9.94. But nearly a year later, during the Tsiklitiria Super Grand Prix meeting on the same track, he was unbeatable. "I'm very happy that ... I achieved this performance," Powell said. "I knew I could break the world record and I am very happy I succeeded." The 22-year-old sprinter already had the world's fastest time this year, a run of 9.84 seconds at the Jamaica International Invitational on May 8. He also ran a 9.85 on June 9 in the Czech Republic. His run Tuesday came with a tailwind of 1.6 meters per second, well below the legal limit of 2.0. Before Montgomery's effort, the previous record was 9.79 set by Maurice Greene on the Athens track in 1999. "It's amazing that, after Maurice Greene, I also achieved a world record in this stadium," Powell said. "If you ask me what I can do more this year, you will just have to wait until the end of this year's season to see." Powell is only the fourth non-American to hold the 100 world record since 1912. Donovan Bailey of Canada (1996), Armin Hary of West Germany (1960) and Percy Williams of Canada (1930) are the others. (Related item: Follow the 93-year run of the 100m record)
Powell's run removed controversy from the world record. Montgomery's time of 9.78 could be wiped out if the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules that Montgomery was guilty of doping. Montgomery was charged by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency with using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Aziz Zakari of Ghana finished second in 9.99, and Jamaica's Michael Frater was third in 10.03. In the women's 100 at the Tsiklitiria meet, Jamaica's Sherone Simpson won in 11.5. Arend Watkins of the United States won the men's 110 hurdles in 13.23. Australian world champion Jana Pittman won the women's 400 hurdles in 53.44. She said it was a good result in the lead-up to the world meet this August in Finland. "It was very good training for the world championships in Helsinki," Pittman said. "I am very satisfied that I won the race. I am in very good shape." It was the first major sporting event in Athens since the Aug. 13-29 Olympics. | Break historical records | June 2005 | ['(22.9 mi/h)', '(AP)'] |
The FBI arrests Mohammed Nafis for plotting to detonate a 1,000 lb car bomb in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. | US officials have arrested a man for plotting to detonate what he thought was a massive bomb in front of the Federal Reserve building in New York.
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, of Bangladesh, travelled to the US with the intent of planning a terrorist attack, the FBI said.
Mr Nafis was arrested after he allegedly attempted to detonate what he thought was a 1,000lb (454kg) bomb.
There was never a threat, the FBI said, as Mr Nafis had been closely watched.
Mr Nafis is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda.
He entered no plea when brought before a federal court on Wednesday.
Mr Nafis travelled to the US in January 2012 and sought out contacts to help him with the attack, officials said in a complaint filed in New York on Wednesday.
One of the people he contacted turned out to be a source working for the FBI, US federal prosecutors said.
Mr Nafis was placed under surveillance, and the undercover FBI agent sold him 20 bags of what he said were 50lb of explosives. The suspect then bought and assembled detonators and timing devices.
Officials said there had never been any actual threat.
The arrest is the latest in a series of so-called "sting" operations run by the FBI and anti-terror authorities in the US.
"We have to be vigilant and I can assure you we're going to remain vigilant," New York police commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters, adding the city had not seen a successful attack in 11 years.
Mr Kelly said that Mr Nafis had entered the US on a student visa by purporting to be a college student in Missouri. He also said he had been at least partly motivated by an English-language al-Qaeda magazine called Inspire.
The head of the NYPD said the incident was likely to put the Federal Reserve building on the police department's list of "iconic targets".
The building, housing the US central banking organisation, is located in downtown Manhattan in New York City, just a few blocks from the World Trade Center complex in the city's financial district.
Federal officials say Mr Nafis proposed several targets, including a high-ranking US official and the New York Stock Exchange.
In a statement intended to claim responsibility for the would-be attack, he allegedly said he believed the most efficient way of destroying America was to target the US economy.
Prior to the attempt, Mr Nafis allegedly recorded a video in which he said "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom", according to the complaint against him.
"The defendant thought he was striking a blow to the American economy. He thought he was directing confederates and fellow believers," Loretta Lynch, US Attorney for the eastern district of New York said in a statement. "At every turn, he was wrong, and his extensive efforts to strike at the heart of the nation's financial system were foiled by effective law enforcement."
The Bangladeshi, who was living in Queens, New York, reportedly told undercover FBI officials that he had overseas connections to al-Qaeda.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | October 2012 | ['(454 kg)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
The United Nations launches a major appeal for assistance dealing with the ongoing floods that have devastated Pakistan. | Pakistan's floods have caused "huge losses" to its crops, the country's food minister has told the BBC. Nazar Muhammad Gondal said significant amounts of the grain, sugarcane and rice harvests had been washed away. Meanwhile a senior religious scholar has said that flood victims living in difficult conditions should not have to fast over the Muslim Ramadan period.
And Pakistan's UK envoy has denied that most of the money given for flood defences has been lost to corruption.
High Commissioner to London Wajid Hasan dismissed the allegation by pressure group Transparency International, and insisted his government was doing all it could to help people in need.
Floodwater triggered by heavy monsoon rains is still surging south along the Indus River, forcing people from their homes.
Food Minister Gondal said grain stocks had been destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North West Frontier) province, but some remained in southern Punjab province.
"We have losses in cotton, in sugarcane, in rice, in pulses and in tobacco - these are huge losses for the future," he told the BBC's World Today programme. "These are the nation's cash crops which will really affect the economy of Pakistan."
Mohsin Leghari, a member of the Punjab regional assembly, told the World Today aid workers were being attacked by desperate, starving people.
"Their crops have gone, their livestock has gone, the infrastructure, the roads are gone," he said. "Right now our land link with the rest of the country is gone."
Mufti Muneebur Rehman, one of the country's top religious scholars, told the AP news agency that flood victims can perform their Ramadan fast later in the year.
The Ramadan period began on Thursday. Muslims throughout the country go without food from dawn to dusk each day for a month to control their desires and show empathy for the poor.
Meanwhile, a senior Islamabad envoy said recent comments by UK Prime Minister David Cameron about Pakistan "exporting terror" could deter the public from donating to the flood relief appeal.
Mr Cameron angered Islamabad during his visit last month to regional rival India, when he accused elements in Pakistan of looking both ways on militancy.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, told BBC's Radio 4: "Yes, indeed Pakistan has suffered because of what Mr Cameron has said, because the British people will listen to their prime minister."
Pakistan's meteorological service warned of floods in Hyderabad, Sindh province, and Kalabagh and Chashma in Punjab.
But forecasters also said the monsoon system should ease over the next three days.
The UN has launched an appeal for more than $450m (£290m) to help the 14 million Pakistanis affected by the floods. At least 1,600 people have died and many more are missing.
The US, which has already committed $55m to relief efforts, announced it was contributing another $16.2m to the UN refugee agency and the International Red Cross.
But in a statement this week, the Pakistani Taliban described the floods as God's punishment on the country for accepting secular leaders. They urged Pakistanis to boycott foreign aid.
BBC Urdu will transmit six daily bulletins in Urdu and Pashto providing vital information including how to stay safe, avoid disease and access aid. Special programmes will be broadcast each day in Urdu at 12.30, 15.30 and 18.30 and in Pashto at 12.45, 15.45 and 18.45 (local times).
BBC Urdu
FAO-Pakistan
UK Disasters Emergency Committee | Floods | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
French unions continue mass strikes for a second day with over one million people protesting on Tuesday against pension reform. | Paris, France (CNN) -- French unions held a second straight day of strikes Wednesday, a day after more than 1 million people walked out to protest government pension reforms -- and at least some of them will stay off the job on Thursday.
French workers are fighting government plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. Ten out of 12 French oil refineries were hit by the strikes Wednesday, with eight of them fully or partially stopped, according to the French Union of Petroleum Industries.
About half of Paris Metro workers were on strike, and will stay off the job Thursday, a Metro-transport union spokesman said. About a quarter of French train operator SNCF's staff were on strike Wednesday, down from 40 percent on Tuesday, a company spokesman said. Tuesday's demonstrations were the biggest yet in a series of rolling strikes against the reforms -- specifically, plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
The Ministry of the Interior said as many as 1.2 million people walked out of work Tuesday, while unions put the figure at 3.5 million.
There were about 250 demonstrations across the country, the government said.
About 89,000 people took to the streets of the capital Paris, police said, while unions said it was 330,000.
Either way, the numbers are bigger than the last protest in Paris, which police estimated to be 65,000 marchers.
Vehicle traffic on the streets of Paris seemed to flow as normal and businesses were open, but more disruption loomed.
Unions have said this strike -- the fourth in the past month -- is open-ended, and that workers will vote each day whether to continue the strike the following day. Previous strikes have lasted for a 24-hour period.
The support for the strike from workers in French refineries -- for the first time -- raises the specter of fuel and gas shortages if the strikes continue.
About a quarter of education workers were on strike, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday -- very slightly below the percentage who walked off the job September 23. Just over 14 percent of public hospital workers took to the picket lines, slightly higher than last month.
Raising the retirement age is a key part of the government's pension reform plans, currently in the hands of the Senate after passing the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The Senate may vote on the full spate of reforms by the end of the week.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has a majority in both houses of Parliament, meaning the measures are expected to pass.
Nearly 70 percent of the French public back the unions standing up to the reforms, according to polls published in French newspapers Sunday. | Strike | October 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
The Japanese Government agrees to set up a compensation fund for 300 survivors of the atomic bombings. | The Japanese Government has agreed to set up a compensation fund for 300 survivors of the atomic bombings.
The settlement coincides with the 64th anniversary of the United States's atomic attack on Hiroshima.
The 300 people in their 70s and 80s had taken the government to court in a bid to have their claims as survivors of the attacks recognised.
Speaking at today's memorial service in Hiroshima, Prime Minister Taro Aso said he had decided to stop fighting the case because the plaintiffs were getting old.
It is believed the government will now set up a compensation fund.
Survivors of the atomic attacks are entitled to free medical treatment and a $1,700 monthly health allowance.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Financial Aid | August 2009 | ['(ABC)'] |
Pakistan announces a successful first flight test of its Hatf VI / Shaheen II long–range nuclear–capable ballistic missile. The missile has a range of 2,000 km (1,200 mi) and can carry a payload of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's defense ministry says it has conducted its first test of a new long-range nuclear-capable missile.
"Pakistan today successfully carried out the maiden test fire of Hatf VI (Shaheen II), long-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile," a military statement said on Tuesday.
Last October, Pakistan's military test-fired the medium range Hatf-4 missile, also known as the Shaheen I.
In each case, the planned missile launches were announced in advance.
At the time, Islamabad said the Haft-4 missile was capable of reaching targets up to 700 kilometers (435 miles) away, meaning it could hit most major targets in neighboring India.
The Pakistan military said the new missle had a range of up to 2,000 km (1,250 miles).
In March of 2003, Pakistan and India conducted a series of missile tests, raising fears of a heightened arms race between the two South Asian rivals.
But since then tensions have eased between the nuclear neighbors.
Since achieving independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
In mid-2002 the two countries stood on the brink of a fourth war amid tensions over what India said was Pakistani support for Islamic militants carrying out terrorist attacks on Indian soil.
Pakistan denies the Indian charges, saying it only gives moral support to groups advocating the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination.
In recent months, the two sides have taken steps towards easing tensions, re-establishing full diplomatic ties and reconnecting transport links. | Military Exercise | March 2004 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
An Airbus AS350 helicopter crashes in northern Norway, killing all five Norwegian passengers and the Swedish pilot. | All six people on board the civilian helicopter that crashed in northern Norway on Saturday afternoon have died, the police said on Sunday.
There were five passengers from Norway, all in their early twenties, plus a Swedish pilot. One survivor found at the crash site southwest of Alta has since died in hospital.
The rescue service said the Airbus AS350 helicopter was operated by Norwegian company Helitrans, which said on its website that it could not comment on the circumstances of the accident. Norwegian authorities launched an investigation on Sunday into the cause of the crash, which was not immediately clear.
An official from the country’s Accident Investigation Board (AIBN) told Norwegian daily paper VG that investigators from France and Airbus were expected to arrive to Norway on Monday. | Air crash | August 2019 | ['(Standard Media)'] |
The Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Calgary Flames in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals 2–1, their first Stanley Cup victory. | TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The Tampa Bay Lightning became one of the most unlikely Stanley Cup winners ever and kept the Calgary Flames from an even more improbable championship.
How they did it was no surprise at all.
Ruslan Fedotenko scored twice, including the critical first goal just as he did in the conference finals, and the resilient Lightning held off the Calgary Flames 2-1 in Game 7 Monday night to win their first Stanley Cup.
The Lightning did it with a very reliable formula in so big a game: Getting exceptional efforts from their best players and a big night from their goalie.
The Flames, threatening to become one of the most unexpected champions in NHL history, were held to only seven shots in a dismal first two periods before making a frantic late surge started by Craig Conroy's power-play goal midway through the third.
"We just tried to get through it, and we found a way," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "It's unbelievable. It's a great feeling."
Now the question is how long the Lightning will rule after winning the Stanley Cup in only their 12th season. The NHL's labor agreement runs out Sept. 15, and all signs point to a lengthy lockout that will significantly delay or shut down the 2004-05 season.
"We're going to walk forever together [as champions], no matter what happens from now on," Martin St. Louis said.
Tortorella insisted throughout the finals his team would win only if his best players outplayed Calgary's, and they did exactly that.
Fedotenko scored on goals created by Conn Smythe Award winner Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier and goalie Nikolai Khabibulin held off Calgary's late flurry while stopping 16 shots, including a remarkable save on Jordan Leopold when the net appeared wide open.
"We knew they were going to surge sooner or later, and Nik was great," Tortorella said.
The Flames' Jarome Iginla, the impact player of the first five games, all but disappeared in the final two, going the last six periods without a shot. Iginla scored a playoff-leading 13 goals, but had only one in the final four games.
"It's the toughest loss by a thousand times," said Iginla, who couldn't deliver Canada's first Cup champion in its national sport since the 1993 Canadiens. "It's a very good season and I'm so proud of everybody but that hurts more than anything else I've been a part of."
Tampa Bay, an expansion franchise in 1992 and one of the league's worst teams for much of the time since, joined the 2001 Avalanche as the only teams to overcome a 3-2 deficit in the finals in 33 years.
Maybe it's only coincidence, but in each series a 22-season veteran who had never won the Cup finally did so. Colorado's Ray Bourque did it in 2001, and 40-year-old Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk finally lifted the Stanley Cup after playing a record 1,758 games before Monday without winning it.
Bourque called the Lightning's Tim Taylor on Saturday to offer advice in overcoming the 3-2 disadvantage, and he also offered encouragement to Andreychuk.
"It's awesome," Andreychuk said. "It took me 29 years [of hockey] to get here, and I'm so proud of our guys because we got a Game 7 at home because we worked hard all year long."
Tampa Bay didn't reach even the second round of the playoffs until last season, then overcame a midseason slump this season before peaking at the right time. After starting 7-0-1, they lost seven of nine and were only 15-14-6-1 at Christmas time.
Now, Lightning owner Bill Davidson can pull off a previously unseen single-season sweep of the NBA and NHL titles. His Detroit Pistons lead the Lakers 1-0 in the NBA Finals.
"I still can't believe how quickly it happened for us," Tortorella said. "To do this in three years [since his hiring], that wasn't in the plan."
The Flames, going for a 11th road victory in 14 playoff games, were convinced that failing to close out the finals Saturday in hockey-obsessed Calgary wouldn't cost them the Cup, since the home team had won only twice in the series. But home ice did matter -- just as it usually does in Game 7.
Home teams are 11-2 in finals Game 7s and 10-1 since 1950, with only the 1971 Montreal Canadiens winning on the road in the last 54 years.
Once again, there's no place like home ice in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. And the Stanley Cup still can't find its way back home to Canada.
The team scoring first won every game in the series, so Tampa Bay got a huge confidence boost when Fedotenko scored on a power play 13:31 into the first -- much like he scored the go-ahead goal in a 2-1 victory over Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference finals.
SI.com's Darren Eliot
Ultimately, the Flames had little left to make this game a true test of anything more than wills. The Lightning won because their focus was undeniable and their depth of skill was superior. They won because they deserved to -- they were the better team.
FULL STORY
Richards' shot from the point was kicked away by Miikka Kiprusoff to Fedotenko in the slot, and he lined a shot past the goalie, who stopped 13 of 15 shots.
That goal was one of several uncharacteristic Calgary defensive breakdowns as the Lightning forced the play from the start, limiting the Flames to only three shots in the first period and four in the second.
Robyn Regehr, Calgary's most dependable defenseman, played despite apparently injuring an ankle or foot in Game 6 and was on the ice for Fedotenko's goal. Flames RW Shean Donovan missed his second straight game with an undisclosed leg injury.
"In the end, they just had more legs than we did. We were beaten by a great team," Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. "I thought our guys played great."
Fedotenko's second of the game and third of the finals was created by a dazzling bit of stickhandling by Lecavalier, who hadn't figured in any scoring since Game 2. Lecavalier took Cory Stillman's pass in the left corner, spun around to shed Steve Montador and another defender and put a perfect pass on Fedotenko's stick in the slot with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the second period. Notes: The Lightning missed the playoffs for six straight seasons before making them last season. ... The Flames would have been the first Stanley Cup champion with a losing home record (5-7). ... The 1995 Devils remain the only team to win the Cup without having home-ice advantage in a four-round playoffs. Sixth-seeded Calgary could have been the second. The Flames also failed to become the first team to eliminate four division champions. ... No Stanley Cup finals Game 7 has gone to overtime since 1954. ... The team scoring first won each of Calgary's last 16 games. ... Tampa Bay is 14-2 when scoring first. ... The Flames tied a record by playing their 26th playoff game. ... Khabibulin is the first Russian-born goalie to win the Cup. ... The Lightning also ended their record 13-game streak of alternating winning and losing. | Sports Competition | June 2004 | ['(ESPN)', '(SI.com)', '(TSN)'] |
Nine people are killed in Cairo, Egypt, as fighting between supporters and opponents of former President Mohamed Morsi continues. | Nine people have died in Cairo in overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, officials say.
Most of the victims were killed at a sit-in held by pro-Morsi demonstrators near Cairo University.
Mr Morsi's family earlier accused the military of abducting him.
He has been held at an undisclosed location without charge since army chief General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced his removal on 3 July.
Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement has refused to recognise the new military-backed administration and continues to hold almost daily street protests.
Demonstrators, many of them from the Muslim Brotherhood, have been staging large rallies across Egypt.
The violence has claimed at least 100 lives since Mr Morsi was deposed.
Pro-Morsi supporters claimed they had been shot at by snipers on rooftops during the clashes at the sit-in, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Cairo, reports.
They alleged the gunmen had received protection from security forces, our correspondent adds.
Meanwhile, one protester was killed at Cairo's Tahrir Square, while two more people died outside the capital.
On Monday, at least one person died and dozens of protesters were wounded during the unrest in central Cairo, medical officials said. Egyptian state TV reported that seven pro-Morsi protesters had been arrested for possession of illegal weapons.
More deaths were reported in separate clashes in Qalyubiya province, north of Cairo.
On Monday, Mr Morsi's family said they had had no contact with him and confirmed they were appealing to the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation into the events leading up to his overthrow.
"We are taking local and international legal measures against Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the leader of the bloody military coup, and his putschist group," his daughter, Shaimaa Morsi, told reporters.
Earlier this month, the Egyptian public prosecutor's office said it had launched an investigation into complaints against ousted Mr Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
These complaints included allegations of spying, inciting violence, attacking military barracks and damaging the economy. The prosecutor did not specify who had filed the complaints.
Several countries, including the United States, have called for Mr Morsi's release.
But Egypt's caretaker authorities insist he is being held in a "safe place".
Interim President Adly Mansour repeated calls for reconciliation in a nationally televised speech on Monday evening.
"We want to turn a new page in the nation's book of history, without rancour, hatred or confrontation," he said.
Mr Mansour has appointed a panel of experts tasked with amending the constitution, which was suspended when Mr Morsi was deposed. The interim leader plans to hold fresh parliamentary elections by early 2014.
But the Muslim Brotherhood has rejected any "national dialogue" with the army unless Mr Morsi is reinstated, along with the now-dissolved upper house of parliament and the suspended constitution.
O | Riot | July 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
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