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A fire on April 1 that disrupted power and internet access throughout London is now suspected to have been part of a robbery at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company. | Last Wednesday's blaze in Holborn, which knocked out power and internet access across London, could have been sparked by thieves pulling a daring heist to pocket £200m in precious stones and metals.
"I think that probably was deliberate," John O’Connor, former head of Scotland Yard's Flying Squad told capital radio station LBC.
"I've never heard of an outage of electricity like that causing a fire that lasted as long as that. That seems to me as too much of a coincidence."
The fire started in an electrical junction box buried under Kingsway near Holborn Underground Station. It burned through power and internet fiber lines, and led to the evacuation of 2,000 people from the area.
O'Connor's theory is that it was started by jewelry thieves operating under a mile away to create a distraction.
Shortly after the blaze began, the crooks, who had been hiding in a nearby office, drilled through a wall into the lift shaft of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company in London's diamond district. They abseiled down the lift shaft into the company's basement, made sure an alarm system and cameras were disabled, and cut through a series of metal security bars.
Once they reached the vaults, the crims cut through an 18-inch reinforced metal door, and spent the Easter weekend ransacking safe deposit boxes. Estimates of the haul have reached as high as £200m ($300m, AU$390m), and much of the loot may be uninsured.
"If I was a betting man, I would say they would arrest a handful of people that were involved in the actual obtaining of the diamonds – I doubt if they'll get the diamonds back," O'Connor opined on Wednesday this week.
Meanwhile, BT is apparently barred from carrying out repair work to the knackered Holborn facility: the capital's authorities have said the telco's engineers won't be able to get in until the end of the week, it's claimed.
"On Friday BT will be able to survey and assess the impact of the fire damage and then progress with restoring services," local internet service provider Exponential-E warned in an advisory.
"Our partner BT has advised they have conducted reroutes and repairs to as many services as they have been able to gain access to. Unfortunately it is the case that until they have access to the tunnel where the fire initiated, further repairs are not expected."
We'll have to wait until a full investigation reports on the case to know more, but if the robbers were behind the fire then at least they knew their physics. Watchers of the film Ocean's 11 who were of a scientific bent winced when the "EMP pinch" pulled a similar trick. ®
Microsoft has unveiled a slew of developer tools, including a preview of the 64-bit Visual Studio 2022, ahead of that developer event set for 24 June.
Preview 1 of Visual Studio 2022 comes direct from the department of never-say-never following version after version of the toolset remaining staunchly 32-bit, even as the hardware world changed around it.
The move to 64-bit was announced earlier this year and is an ambitious one considering the ecosystem and sheer size of the Visual Studio codebase.
Malware laced with racial epithets tries to block Windows-based victims from visiting file-sharing sites associated with copyright infringement, according to new Sophos research.
The malicious software amounts to a "goofy process to block people from going to the Pirate Bay," according to Sophos researcher Andrew Brandt, who stumbled across the malware after a colleague mentioned it in passing.
Rather than opening a backdoor for a ransomware gang to exploit or dropping a malicious payload, however, this malware merely sinkholes a bunch of Pirate Bay domain names by adding them to the Windows hosts file and pointing them at 127.0.0.1 – meaning they'll be inaccessible from the victim's machine.
General Fusion – the Canadian-based atomic outfit backed by Jeff Bezos and a battalion of other major investors – is to build a test facility in Oxfordshire to showcase its power-generating technology.
Following a COVID-friendly handshake, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has given General Fusion the green light to proceed with its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) at UKAEA's Centre for Fusion Energy Campus in Culham.
The campus – a Royal Navy airbase until it was handed to the UKAEA in 1960 – is home to a cluster of fusion development technologies.
The UK's financial regulator is refusing to say whether it will accept an offer by Google to pay back more than £600,000 spent on online ads warning people about the dangers of money scams.
News that Google made the offer came to light earlier this week during oral evidence [PDF] to the Treasury Committee hearing on economic crime. Among those giving evidence was Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market insight at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
He was quizzed by Rushinara Ali, Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, who wanted to know about the £600,000 the FCA is paying Google to run ads warning about online financial scams.
Ian Glover, president of infosec accreditation body CREST, is stepping down from his post, he told the organisation's annual general meeting yesterday.
Sources whispered of Glover's departure to The Register ahead of a mass mailout today to members of the organisation, which oversees some industry-recognised penetration testing exams and certifications in the UK.
"My retirement is something I have been planning for some time and, while I leave with a heavy heart, I am confident CREST will continue to move forward in the hands of an excellent team," said the man himself in a canned statement emailed round CREST member organisations, following his 13 years at the helm.
Playmobil is set to boldly go where no three-inch man has gone before with the release of a metre-long replica of the NCC-1701 USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek series.
The enormous model of the Federation Constitution-class vessel will come with standard-scale figures representing the main original series characters – Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, Dr McCoy, Chief Engineer Scott, Lieutenant Uhura, Lieutenant Sulu and Ensign Chekov – and features a removable panel on the disc section revealing "a full 1966-style bridge play environment" to allow children of all ages to recreate their favourite first-contact scenes.
The original inventor of a popular XML standard, Rick Jelliffe, who created Schematron, has protested that his open source work is now behind a paywall at standards body ISO.
Schematron is a language for validating XML, designed for processing XML documents and reporting on errors. Version 1.0 was developed in 1999, since when it has been enhanced and standardised, with the latest version being ISO/IEC 19757-3:2020.
This replaced the 2016 version: ISO/IEC 19757-3:2016.
Review Mechanical keyboard manufacturers have typically swerved Mac users. It's not personal, it's just business.
The Mac has a fraction of the traditional PC market share, and a significant proportion of mechanical keyboards are intended for competitive gamers, rather than those who type for work (be they developers or writers, or in the case of your correspondent, both).
The Vissles V84 is therefore a bit of an oddity. This compact keyboard (84 keys) ships with a Mac layout by default, although it comes bundled with standard Windows keycaps, as well as the ability to switch into a standard PC layout by pressing down a key combination.
No 10 Downing Street - the home of the UK Prime Minister - is looking to hire a big cheese at the Brexit Opportunities Unit to bring a fresh new oomph and zing to Whitehall.
The 17-page job spec (downloadable here) – with perks including hybrid working, childcare benefits, a generous pension, and a loan to buy a bike – is brief.
In a nutshell, it’s this: “The Director, Brexit Opportunities Unit is a high-profile role. It needs someone who can change existing thinking, working across all government departments, developing partnerships with senior stakeholders, including the Prime Minister, to ensure ministerial priorities are met.”
Researchers at the Ubiquitous System Security Lab of Zhejiang University and the University of Michigan's Security and Privacy Research Group say they've found a way to blind autonomous vehicles to obstacles using simple audio signals.
"Autonomous vehicles increasingly exploit computer-vision based object detection systems to perceive environments and make critical driving decisions," they explained in the abstract to a newly released paper. "To increase the quality of images, image stabilisers with inertial sensors are added to alleviate image blurring caused by camera jitter.
"However, such a trend opens a new attack surface. This paper identifies a system-level vulnerability resulting from the combination of the emerging image stabiliser hardware susceptible to acoustic manipulation and the object detection algorithms subject to adversarial examples."
Episode 8 "Eeeeeeasy does it..." I say to the PFY, "almost there..."
"What're you guys doing?" Richard asks, blundering into the Server Room without permission.
That's Richard – not Rich, not Richey, and definitely not Dick – a new consultant, engaged to make the company more "agile".
The Register - Independent news and views for the tech community. Part of Situation Publishing
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. | Fire | April 2015 | ['(The Register)'] |
Voters in Sri Lanka go to the polls for a general election with the ruling United National Party holding on to power. , | Sri Lanka's former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse told AFP Tuesday he has conceded defeat in parliamentary elections, ending his hopes of returning to power just months after he was toppled as president. "My dream of becoming prime minister has faded away," Rajapakse told AFP. "I am conceding. We have lost a good fight." Rajapakse accepted that his United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) had lost even before Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya could announce the final results. It was a major reversal for Rajapakse, who led Sri Lanka for a decade before he was dramatically ousted by President Maithripala Sirisena in January, and had expressed confidence he could return to power as prime minister. "There were some who criticised me then for conceding so early in the count, but I did it because it was the right thing to do," Rajapakse said of the January polls. "This time too we have lost." "We have won eight districts and the UNP (ruling United National Party) has 11 (out of a total of 22)," Rajapakse said. "This means we have lost. It was a difficult fight." No party appears to have secured an absolute majority of 113 seats in the 225-member parliament, which will force the new government to seek out smaller allies. Sirisena had called the election a year ahead of schedule in a bid to strengthen his numbers in the parliament so he could push through promised reforms. Deshapriya said he expected to release final party positions by midday Tuesday, while individual votes garnered by candidates would be announced later. - Referendum on Rajapakse - Rajapakse remains hugely popular among large sections of the majority Sinhalese community for presiding over the crushing defeat of Tamil guerrillas in 2009 after their 37-year war for a separate homeland. But the 69-year-old remains a polarising figure on an island still struggling to come to terms with the past. He was shunned by Western governments over the brutal end to the island's ethnic conflict, and remains deeply unpopular among its Tamil and Muslim minorities. The perception that nepotism and corruption flourished during his administration also damaged his political reputation. Rajapakse secured a seat in the parliament by standing from the north-western district of Kurunegala after ditching his home constituency of Hambantota where three of his close family members contested. His main rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, was meeting Tuesday with campaign workers as his UNP party celebrated their victory and is expected to form the next government. Wickremesinge had described Monday's vote as a referendum on a return to politics by Rajapakse, telling reporters on Monday he was confident of forming a new government that could "consolidate the January 8 revolution" -- a reference to Sirisena's victory. Rajapakse had cultivated close ties with China during his decade in power, but Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have been trying to steer Colombo away from Beijing's close embrace and have made concerted efforts to improve ties with giant neighbour India. - Peaceful vote - Defeated Rajapakse said he feared that Wickremesinghe's UNP, which is set to secure the highest number of seats in the 225-member assembly, may try to secure defections from the opposition. "They don't have 113 seats and will try to engineer defections from our side," Rajapakse said. Since his surprise victory over his former mentor, Sirisena has struggled to impose his authority over his United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) party and was powerless to prevent Rajapakse from standing as one of its candidates. He threatened to invoke his executive powers to prevent his combative predecessor from becoming prime minister, but Rajapakse was banking on a strong showing to force Sirisena to back down. Deshapriya said the vote had been one of the most peaceful in Sri Lanka's history. The mood on the streets was subdued on Tuesday, with celebrations and street processions banned for a week after the polls under Sri Lankan election laws.
| Government Job change - Election | August 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(AFP via Yaho)'] |
Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer, is sentenced 10 consecutive life sentences for 10 murders between 1974 and 1991. | Editor's Note: The following report includes graphic content that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- Self-described BTK serial killer Dennis Rader Thursday was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms after the court heard emotional statements from his victims' families and listened to Rader himself express remorse.
With a minimum sentence of 175 years, Rader, 60, will spend the rest of his life at the maximum-security El Dorado Correctional Facility near Wichita.
The state's department of corrections will decide whether he will spend his time in a 23-hour lockdown cell or in the general prison population.
"I'd vote for general population," prosecutor Nola Foulston told CNN. (CNN Access)
She noted that pedophiles "don't usually fare well" in prison and added, "I think he ought to, you know, kind of hack it out with the rest of the guys there."
The sentencing was in many ways a formality, with the only issue before Sedgwick County District Judge Gregory Waller being whether Rader would serve his life sentences consecutively or concurrently.
Rader could not face the death penalty because Kansas did not reinstate capital punishment until 1994, three years after his last killing.
The sentencing came after the state rested its case and after family members of victims spoke out in court.
The sister of victim Nancy Fox said Rader "does not deserve to live."
"This man needs to be thrown in a deep, dark hole and left to rot," said Beverly Plapp.
She predicted that, after his death, "Nancy and all of his victims will be waiting with God and watching him as he burns in hell."
Charlie Otero, who lost four relatives to Rader in 1974, said he "caused irreparable damage to the very fabric of my blood family."
Otero's sister, Carmen Otero Montoya, called Rader "such a coward."
Jeff Davis, whose mother, Delores Davis, was killed in 1991, called Rader "a walking cesspool" and "social sewage."
"There can be no justice harsh enough or revenge bitter enough," and said it would have been better had Rader's mother "aborted your demon soul."
Steve Relford fought back tears as he approached the podium. He was 6 years old when he let Rader into his home and watched him murder his mother, Shirley Vian, in 1977.
"I'd just like for him to suffer for the rest of his life," Relford said, struggling for words before walking off.
Rader, who had shown little emotion during previous court appearances, cried during the statements.
Prior to the sentencing, Rader -- dressed in a blue suit -- apologized to the victims' families in a rambling statement and wiped tears from his eyes.
He described himself as "a sexual predator" and "self-centered," and added, "I seem to crave the attention of the media."
Rader then went on to discuss each of his victims, drawing parallels between his life and theirs. Now, he said, it is time "to rebuild."
"People will say that I'm not a Christian, but I believe I am."
He said, "I know the victims' families won't ever be able to forgive me. I hope, somewhere deep down, eventually, that will happen."
Rader proceeded to offer "corrections" to the district attorney over details in her presentation.
The former dog catcher complimented the police, and said he felt a camaraderie with them, "although I wore a black hat instead of a white hat."
About his long-term plans, he said, "I expect to heal and have light and then, hopefully, someday, God will accept me."
About his deeds, he said, "I apologize to the victims' families. There is no way that I can ever repay them."
Foulston was not mollified, later calling Rader's comments "pathetic." She said in court that he talked "very proudly" about his acts in a recent TV interview.
The prosecutor said Rader had "hid under the umbrella" of being a husband, a Boy Scout leader and church official "to get away with what he was doing."
She also urged the court to keep Rader from being able to look at pictures that he might use to feed his sexual fantasies.
Rader's lawyer objected to a request that Rader not be allowed to have writing materials, calling it a First Amendment issue that the defense had not had time to study.
Waller said he would decide the terms of Rader's confinement at a future date.
Prosecutors spent a day-and-a-half presenting detailed accounts of each of the murders during the hearing, describing how Rader confessed to the killings. The testimony revealed new details of BTK's reign of terror in Wichita, which ran from 1974 to 1991. (Full story)
During morning testimony Thursday, detectives described the killer as a man who lived two separate lives. They said he kept meticulous records of his fantasies and crimes in what he called his "mother lode" collection of pornography, but managed to keep that part of his life secret from his wife and two children, the church he served as congregation president and the Boy Scout troop he helped lead.
Rader, who called himself BTK for "bind, torture and kill," pleaded guilty in June to 10 murders committed from 1974 to 1991. The killer taunted authorities as well as the media through letters and packages he sent over several years.
Rader was arrested in February after investigators discovered his identity from a computer disk he had sent police.
In his killings, he took "trophies" from victims, including jewelry and clothing. He also snapped hundreds of Polaroid photographs of his victims and chronicled the community's reaction to his killings by collecting newspaper articles.
In the office of his 900-square-foot home, he created folders and binders that documented his crimes.
He also collected hundreds of index cards on which he glued or taped pictures he had cut from newspapers and magazines showing models -- some boys, but most of them girls and young women, said Wichita police Lt. Ken Landwehr.
He would make notations on the back of each card, indicating his sexual and criminal fantasy, Landwehr said.
In a shed on his property, police found soiled lingerie and a number of sexually oriented books and magazines, carefully protected in plastic.
Rader would sometimes set up his tripod and Polaroid in hotel rooms and take pictures of himself in various stages of bondage, Landwehr said. "He was a practitioner of auto-erotic activity," Landwehr said, adding that Rader at times would cut his own supply of oxygen in search of "a heightened feeling of euphoria" during sexual release. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(CNN)'] |
Dozens of people are arrested and tear gas is used during Independence Day celebrations in Belarus after a "clapping" protest. | Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko says recent protests against his rule are an attempt to foment revolution in the former Soviet republic.
He told an Independence Day military parade in Minsk that their goal was to bring Belarus "to its knees", but this was "not going to happen".
Activists say an opposition group's page on a Russian social media site has been blocked to stop further protests.
But police arrested scores trying to disrupt the celebrations in Minsk.
Mr Lukashenko was addressing a large crowd during independence day celebrations marking the end of Nazi occupation in 1944.
He said he viewed public protests as part of a plot to overthrow him.
"(Somebody) is trying to copy a 'coloured revolution' scenario here," he said, referring to protest movements in ex-Soviet republics such as Georgia and Ukraine in 2003-2004. "We understand that the goal of these attacks is to impose uncertainty and turbulence, to destroy public consent and in the end to put us on our knees and to bring all the achievements of our independence down to zero. This is not going to happen."
Protests are rare in Belarus where the authoritarian rule of Mr Lukashenko has led to sanctions by Western governments.
Demonstrators had been urged to attend the celebrations and start clapping as soon as Mr Lukashenko began his speech.
At least one person who began clapping was quickly led away by plain-clothes police, Reuters news agency reported.
Police and special forces also pounced as about 20 people began clapping outside the central train station in Minsk, witnesses said.
The protest spread to include hundreds of other people nearby. Amid chaotic scenes, many were bundled into police vans but others resisted and blows were exchanged with police.
Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters, AFP news agency reported.
The opposition has held a series of internet-organised marches known as "Revolution by Social Networks", in which protesters do not carry signs but instead walk through the streets clapping in unison.
The group's main page on a Russian social media site was blocked on Sunday, with activists saying it was a deliberate attempt to stifle their efforts.
"The authorities are making a titanic effort to break the wave of civil protests," wrote opposition website Charter 97.
Valentin Stefanovich, from rights group Vesna, said the government had detained dozens of activists while others had been called in by the security forces and warned not to protest.
Those arrested included Stanislav Shushkevich, the first post-Soviet leader of Belarus and a strong opposition supporter, but he was later released.
"These are clearly illegal actions undertaken to prevent the protest actions called for on the internet," Mr Shushkevich told AFP news agency.
Last month, about 1,000 people gathered in Minsk to take part in a "silent protest" over the economic crisis organised via social networking sites.
In December 2010, authorities cracked down on protests against alleged vote-rigging in the general election.
International monitors said the contest, in which Mr Lukashenko officially won 80% of the vote, was deeply flawed.
| Riot | July 2011 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
President Félix Tshisekedi and the Congolese parliament, controlled by a rival party, agree to form a new government following negotiations, six months after he replaced Joseph Kabila during the 2018 DR Congo general election. Sylvestre Ilunga will be formally nominated for the post of Prime Minister in the coming week. | The two rival political camps in DR Congo Friday forged a pact on forming a government, six months after President Felix Tshisekedi took power from veteran ruler Joseph Kabila, officials said.
Tshisekedi was elected in December to replace Kabila who presided over sub-Saharan Africa's biggest country for nearly two decades. He took power at the end of January but has struggled to form a government as Kabila's Common Front for Congo (FCC) coalition won comfortable majorities in both houses of parliament as well as provincial assemblies. Kabila's supporters also dominated elections for governorships across the country. The current, outgoing government comprises ministers from the Kabila era. Tshisekedi's CACH alliance in the legislature has been holding tortuous talks with the FCC to break the stalemate.
"An agreement has just been reached on Friday between the FCC and CACH," Nehemie Mwilanya, the coordinator of the pro-Kabila alliance, announced on Twitter.
He said Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunkamba, who was proposed by Kabila and backed by Tshisekedi, could be formally nominated as early as next week.
"This will be a government of 65 members: 42 coming from the FCC and 23 from CACH," said Jean-Baudouin Mayo, a negotiator for CACH.
Mwilanya said both sides had made "reciprocal concessions" but neither provided details on who would get key ministries such as interior, defence, economy, finance and mining.
"Now we are going to join forces. That is to say we will be of the same political family," Tshisekedi said a month ago.
The opposition views Tshisekedi as a puppet of Kabila.
Tshisekedi emerged victorious in elections that marked the Democratic Republic of Congo's first peaceful transition of power since the vast mineral-rich country gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
But the vote was marred by allegations of rigging, and Tshisekedi is struggling to push ahead with pledges of reform.
The unstable country's politics remain overshadowed by Kabila, who amassed extensive clout after 18 years in power.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2019 | ['(News24)'] |
Equatorial Guinean voters go to the polls with incumbent Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo expected to win as the opposition boycotts the election. | Citizens of Equatorial Guinea go to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president. It is expected that long time President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo will win re-election.
Exiled opposition leaders say Sunday’s general election is unlikely to be free fair or transparent. President Mbasogo has ruled Equatorial Guinea for nearly 37 years after overthrowing his uncle Francisco Macías Nguema.
Mbasogo is currently the longest serving African head of state and could serve another seven years in office if he wins the vote Sunday.
In an interview with VOA, John Bennett, a former US Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea says Sunday’s vote will not be credible.
“These are not elections in any meaningful fashion as to selection of a country’s leader in the West, United States or virtually anywhere else. This is the re-imposition of dictatorship that existed since the late 1960s, specifically since August 3 1979,” said Bennett.
Human rights issues
Opposition and international civil society groups have often accused the government in Malabo of gross human rights violations and the use of state security agencies to harass and intimidate opponents — accusations the government sharply denies.
Supporters of the government say Mbasogo has led the country’s economic transformation and has ensured peace and stability despite repeated criticisms. They also said accusations of human rights violations are inconsistent after accusing outside groups of plotting to create tension and seeking a regime change through violence. The supporters say it is clear the opposition can’t win the presidential vote so they are coming up with excuses to tarnish the credibility of the poll.
Exiled opposition leader Severo Moto, of the Progress Party told VOA he has been prevented from participating in Sunday’s vote because the government uses a constitutional provision that demands a candidate lives in the country continuously for five years to be eligible. That, he says, effectively guarantees incumbent President Mbasogo win the vote with a wide margin.
Motto also said the president tightly controls everything from organizing the elections, to the control of the media as well as the entire government machinery. Supporters of the administration deny the allegations as without merit.
No significant challenge
Ambassador Bennett says there is no credible opposition leader to pose a significant challenge to Mbasogo in the poll.
“If there are individuals and groups who have opposed him for many years, decades, however he has managed to neutralize them put them in jail or otherwise discouraged them, he has co-opted many, but there is no meaningful opposition in a sense that he would allow an opposition party to oppose him. No,” said Bennett.
Asked why the international community has yet to take action against the government in Malabo, despite repeated reports of human rights violations, Bennett said “Sadly to a great extent it has been a get along go along international community that one, needs the oil and also for example with respect to the United States, the oil companies facilitated very powerful very effective press campaign through professional image managers so that he was acceptable enough to come and go as he wished.” | Government Job change - Election | April 2016 | ['(Voice of America)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
A rocket is fired from the Gaza Strip, exploding in an open field in southern Israel. The IDF retaliates by launching strikes against two Hamas military posts. | JERUSALEM, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Israel's army said it fired artillery on Thursday night at two Hamas posts in Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave at southern Israel.
"An IDF (Israel Defense Forces) tank and an IDF aircraft targeted two Hamas military posts in the northern Gaza Strip," a spokesperson with the Israeli army said in a statement.
The statement added it was a retaliation for a rocket that Palestinian militants in Gaza fired earlier on Thursday night at southern Israel.
The rocket exploded in an open field and triggered sirens in several southern communities in Israel. No damage or injuries were reported.
Palestinian militants in Gaza occasionally fire rockets at southern Israel and the Israeli military usually retaliates with bombing of the posts of Hamas, which runs Gaza.
Israel has been imposing a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took over the enclave in 2007. 19th CPC Central Committee concludes fourth plenary session, releases communique | Armed Conflict | October 2019 | ['(The Jewish Press)', '(Xinhua News Agency)'] |
The Oklahoma legislature passes a bill that would make it a felony for doctors to perform abortions and revokes the medical license of assisting physicians. The governor then vetoes the bill. | Lawmakers in Oklahoma approved a bill Thursday that would make performing abortions a felony and revoke the medical licenses of most physicians who assist in such procedures.
This sweeping measure, which opponents described as unconstitutional and unprecedented, now heads to Gov. Mary Fallin (R). She will have five days — not including Sunday — to decide whether to sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature, according to a spokesman.
“The governor will withhold comment on that bill, as she does on most bills, until she and her staff have had a chance to review it,” Michael McNutt, a spokesman for Fallin, said in an email.
The Oklahoma bill is the first such measure of its kind, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which says that other states seeking to ban abortion have simply banned the procedure rather than attaching penalties like this.
According to the measure, known as SB1552, a person who performs or induces an abortion will be guilty of a felony and punished with between one and three years in the state penitentiary.
This legislation also says that any physician who participates in an abortion — deemed “unprofessional conduct” in the bill — will be “prohibited from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in this state.” However, medical licenses will not be stripped from doctors who perform abortions deemed necessary to save the mother’s life.
Yes, hospitals perform abortions. This D.C. doctor says her hospital won’t let her talk about it
The bill passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives with a vote of 59-to-9 last month. On Thursday, the state’s senate passed it with a vote of 33-to-12.
“Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it’s a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception,” State Sen. Nathan Dahm, a Republican who represents Tulsa County, told the Associated Press.
Dahm said he hopes the Oklahoma measure could eventually lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s right to an abortion. Dahm did not respond to messages seeking comment Thursday and Friday.
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said last month that the Oklahoma bill is “a ban on abortion, plain and simple.” The legislation sent to Fallin on Thursday “is reckless and dangerous,” according to Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
“This bill puts doctors in the cross hairs for providing women with the option of exercising our fundamental right to decide how and when to start a family,” Hogue said in a statement. “And it creates penalties for doctors doing their jobs: performing a safe and legal medical procedure.”
Liberty Counsel, a group that rose to national prominence last year defending the Kentucky clerk who refused to sign same-sex marriage licenses, said Friday that it had helped support the legislation in Oklahoma. The organization also vowed to defend it in court.
“This particular bill puts a target on Roe v. Wade,” Mat Staver, the group’s founder and chairman, said in an interview Friday. “It is Oklahoma’s line in the sand on the sanctity of human life, as standing on the side of protecting innocent children.”
Staver said that his group met with Oklahoma lawmakers before the legislation was filed, offering legal analysis after discussions had begun in the state about proposing such a measure.
The Oklahoma bill is “the first of its kind,” Staver said, though he said it was possible other states may follow Oklahoma’s lead.
“This is a bolt step in the right direction, in my view,” Staver said. “It will be challenged and we’re prepared to defend it.”
Oklahoma isn’t the only state taking big steps to limit abortions
The Oklahoma State Medical Association, which has called the measure “troubling,” has said it would not take a position on the legality of abortion as long as the practice remains legal. However, the group said it was opposed to “legislation that is designed to intimidate physicians or override their medical judgment.”
On Thursday, the group reiterated that opposition, calling it “one more insulting slap in the face of our state’s medical providers” and urging Fallin to veto the legislation.
“We are extremely disappointed in today’s vote,” Sherri Baker, president of the medical association, said in a statement Thursday. “It is simply unconscionable that, at a time when our state already faces a severe physician shortage, the senate would waste its time on a bill that is patently unconstitutional and whose only purposes are to score political points and intimidate physicians across this state.”
When the measure was debated in the state’s House of Representatives, a legislator who ultimately voted against the bill pointed to the group’s opposition and voiced concerns that the law could lead to doctors abandoning Oklahoma. But one of the bill’s co-sponsors said he did not think it would have an impact.
Since taking office in 2011, Fallin has signed more than a dozen bills restricting access to reproductive health care, the Center for Reproductive Rights, a nonprofit legal group, said Thursday.
The new bill “is blatantly unconstitutional and, if it takes effect, it will be the most extreme abortion law in this country” since the Roe v. Wade decision, Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel at the center, wrote in a letter to Fallin on Thursday.
Allen said her group was urging Fallin to veto the legislation, which she said was part of a larger pattern of lawmakers in the state chipping away at abortion rights.
“Policymakers in Oklahoma should focus on advancing policies that will truly promote women’s health and safety, not abortion restrictions that do just the opposite,” Allen wrote. “Anti-choice politicians in the state have methodically restricted access to abortion and neglected to advance policies that truly address the challenges women and families face every day.”
Allen also said that the bill would “almost certainly lead to expensive court challenges that the state of Oklahoma simply cannot defend in light of longstanding Supreme Court precedent.”
Fallin has until next week to make a decision on the bill. If this measure does become law, it would go into effect on Nov. 1.
| Government Policy Changes | May 2016 | ['(NY Times)', '(Washington Post)', '(CNN)'] |
A court in Baden-Wurttemberg overturns the nighttime curfew imposed since mid-December to stop the spread of COVID-19 following an emergency application. It means that the 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew will be scrapped on February 11. |
A court in the German region of Baden-Wurttemberg has overturned the nighttime curfew imposed to stop the spread of COVID-19 following an emergency application.
The ruling comes as the federal government is mulling extending the lockdown restrictions in place.
The Administrative Court in Mannheim — halfway between Frankfurt and Stuttgart — ruled in favour of a woman from Tübingen who had filed an emergency application.
It means the nationwide curfew running from 20:00 to 05:00, which was imposed in mid-December, will be lifted in the state on Thursday.
The court said that it was no longer warranted because the country's epidemiological situation has improved with the seven-day incidence rate now at 76 cases per 100,000 population compared to 163 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants on December 12.
The southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg, as well as Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein, currently have the lowest incidence rate of the country's 16 states with 61 cases per 100,000, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The court also flagged that in the majority of the region's districts, the seven-day incidence rate is below 50 per 100,000, which is the threshold for nationwide coordinated measures.
It also rejected the state's argument that the "premature" lifting of the curfew could increase the risk of renewed exponential growth, describing it as "too generalized and undifferentiated".
It pointed out that local authorities have the power to impose containment measures, including curfews in districts with a particularly high incidence.
The state government has accepted the ruling, adding that the curfew "has certainly contributed to the fact that the number of new infections in Baden-Württemberg has fallen more than in other landers".
It said it had already been considering "overriding the nationwide regulation" to introduce "an incidence-based regional regulation for a night curfew" that would apply to districts with high incidence rates.
"We will now examine the decision and the reasoning in detail and then determine the conditions under which we can implement the said regional regulation," it added.
The current lockdown is meant to be eased on February 14 but Chancellor Angela Merkel is reportedly in favour of extending restrictions by a further two weeks.
"We have nothing to gain from a premature exit now from the partial lockdown," she told her party's MPs during a meeting on Tuesday, a participant told AFP.
Easing measures now would risk "causing the number of infections to rise again very quickly," she added.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Germany has recorded 61,675 deaths and over 2 million confirmed cases.
Nearly 2.3 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 981,914 also receiving a second dose.
| Government Policy Changes | February 2021 | ['(Euronews)'] |
At least three houses are damaged after an Indonesian Air Force Hawk 209 crashes into a residential area of Kampar, Riau. There are no fatalities in the incident. | At least three houses were damaged after an Indonesian Air Force Hawk 209 jet fighter crashed and burned in a residential area of Kampar regency, Riau, on Monday morning.
In a statement obtained by The Jakarta Post, Air Force spokesman Air Commodore Fajar Adriyanto confirmed that the British-built aircraft, registered as TT-0209, had departed from Rusmin Nuryadin Air Base in Pekanbaru on Monday before crashing about 4 kilometers away in Kubang Jaya village, Siak Hulu subdistrict.
“The crash occurred at 8:13 a.m. when the aircraft was about to land from its routine drill,” Fajar said.
According to a preliminary investigation by the authorities, when the aircraft was approaching runway 36 of the airbase, the jet fighter had lost its power and fell onto two houses in the area. Although the houses were vacant at the time of the accident, the aircraft was totally destroyed, Fajar added.
The pilot, First Lt. Apriyanto, was able to eject himself and survived the accident, Fajar said. Apriyanto is being examined at Dr. Soekirman Air Force Hospital in Pekanbaru.
Residents who live at Sialang Indah residential complex around the crash site said Apriyanto landed about 500 meters away from the aircraft, while his ejection seat fell onto the roof of a house, 250 meters away from the aircraft.
“The pilot landed in the bushes. He was immediately helped by the residents and later taken to the ambulance with bruises around his face,” said Reni, a resident, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
“There were no fatalities in the incident,” Fajar said, adding that his institution would further investigate it.
Read also: Commentary: Military aircraft accidents and the vulnerability of state defense
Kubang Jaya village head Tarmizi said he was informed of the crash at 7:30 a.m. and that the accident took place behind Siak Hulu 1 state junior high school.
“It crashed in the residential area,” he said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.
Before it crashed, some of the residents of Kubang Jaya village said they heard explosions in the sky.
Anto, 43, said he heard them twice.
“They were pretty loud, and afterward I saw the aircraft fell onto the houses and burned,” he said as quoted by kompas.com.
Rahmat, 60, said he heard three explosions, one much louder than the others.
At the time of the incident, Rahmat and the other residents ran out of their houses immediately after hearing the explosions and later found that the aircraft had burnt down on the ground after hitting houses that belong to other residents.
The aircraft was one of 34 Hawk 209 aircraft that were purchased by the Indonesian Air Force in 1993, making Indonesia one of the largest users of this type of military jet.
The accident on Monday occurred days after an Indonesian Army Mi-17 helicopter crashed in Kendal, Central Java. Four out of the nine passengers died at the location of the crash, while five others were taken to the hospital for treatment.
The fatalities from the crash increased to five after one of the survivors died on Saturday. First Lieutenant Vira Yudha died after being hospitalized for a week at Dr. Kariadi General Hospital in Semarang, kompas.com reported.
The remaining survivors, on the other hand, have shown improvement and continue to receive treatment at Dr. Kariadi Hospital and Gatot Subroto Army Hospital in Jakarta. | Air crash | June 2020 | ['(The Jakarta Post)'] |
An American man is sentenced to between five and ten years in prison for the murder of Irish tourist Nicola Furlong in Japan. |
Andrew and Angela Furlong and their daughter Andrea leave the Tokyo District Court following the third day of proceedings in the case of Richard Hinds, who is accused of murdering Nicola last May, in Tokyo, Japan on 06 March 2013.
Photo shows Judge Seiji Ashizawa inside court room 416 at the Tokyo District Court where the trial of American Richard Hinds, who is standing trial for the murder of Nicola Furlong, is taking place in Tokyo, Japan on 13 March 2013. Judge Ahizawa is the presiding judge in the case. Photographer: Robert Gilhooly
Nicola Furlong's family pictured in Tokyo: Andrew Furlong, Andrea Furlong (sister) and Angie Furlong. Photo shows the inside of court room 416 at the Tokyo District Court where the trial of American Richard Hinds, who is standing trial for the murder of Nicola Furlong, is taking place in Tokyo, Japan on 13 March 2013. On the right of the picture can be the prosecution bench, where Nicola's mother Angela and father Andrew can be seen waiting for the commencement of the eighth day of the trial, during which defense and prosecuting lawyers gave their closing arguments. Photographer: Robert Gilhooly
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Nicola Furlong's father Andrew, mother Angela (R) and sister Andrea (C), leave Tokyo's District Court. Inset: Richard Hinds
Paul Murphy in Tokyo March 19 2013 07:22 AM
The family of Nicola Furlong have said they don't feel they got justice for the murdered student, after Richard Hinds, a 19-year-old American musician, was sentenced to 5-10 years jail with with labour for her murder
A Tokyo court today found Richard Hinds, a 19-year-old American musician, guilty of the murder of Nicola Furlong and sentenced him to 5-10 years in jail with labour.
Mr Hinds was tried before a panel of six lay judges and three professional judges at Tokyo District Court. The presiding judge, Masayuki Ashizawa, described the crime as "atrocious and vicious" and said that the fact that Ms Furlong was "strangled with force for several minutes" showed murderous "intent."
While harsher sentencing options were available, Judge Ashizawa said that “the tendency of sentencing in juvenile cases [means that] we can’t choose the death penalty or life imprisonment.”
Speaking outside the court after the verdict, Andrea Furlong, the 19-year-old sister of the victim criticised the sentence as too short. “I am so angry and I am so hurt, we had so much faith in the Japanese doing justice for us and I don’t feel we got it, I am disgusted.”
Her father Andrew Furlong said, “We hope it’s more than five and up to ten. If he is is good in jail he will be out in five, it is only two years more than the other fella,” he said, referring to a 3-year prison sentence given last week to Mr Hinds’ friend James Blackston for assaulting Nicola Furlong’s friend in May and another woman the previous month.
The judge said in his judgement that it was “very understandable that the grieving family wishes graver punishment,” but the fact that Mr Hinds had no previous criminal record and that he was 19 when he murdered Nicola, an age considered legally a minor in Japan, were factors in deciding sentencing.
The 5-10 year sentence delivered today is the same as that requested by prosecutor Kenji Horikoshi in his closing argument last Wednesday. The judge took off 120 days from Mr Hinds’ sentence for time already served in detention.
Mr Hinds strangled the 21-year-old student from County Wexford in the Keio Plaza hotel last May 24th.
He had denied the charge. During two days of testimony last week he told a complex story aimed at offering an innocent explanation for various pieces of key evidence against him, from the vicim’s blood stains on the sheets of both beds in the hotel room, to the 5cm wide strangle mark around her neck.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2013 | ['(The Irish Times)', '(Irish Independent)'] |
IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is remanded in custody at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail after being dragged from a plane, charged with trying to rape a hotel maid and denied bail. | IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been remanded in custody at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail on charges of sexual assault.
The judge said Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, was a flight risk. He was arrested on Saturday after boarding a plane and accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.
He faces seven charges and could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. Mr Strauss-Kahn, who had been seen as a favourite in France's 2012 presidential elections, denies the charges. His lawyer expressed disappointment at bail being denied, but said his client would be exonerated.
"This battle has just begun," defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman told the court.
Mr Strauss-Kahn had been due to attend an EU finance ministers' meeting in Brussels to discuss financial bail-outs.
The IMF has played a central role in organising rescue packages for the troubled economies of Portugal and Greece.
The BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says the IMF chief has gained the trust of countries in Europe which are giving financial assistance, and those which are receiving it.
The European Union says the scandal should not affect bail-outs for eurozone countries.
Jean-Claude Junker, the Luxembourg prime minister said: "I am very sad and upset. He is a friend of mine... Mr Strauss-Kahn is in the hands of American justice, it's not up to us to comment on this, but it makes me deeply, deeply sad."
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde described Mr Strauss-Kahn's predicament was "crushing and painful". The IMF said in a statement that it had been briefed on the charges against its managing director, and that it would "continue to monitor developments".
Prosecutors told the court it was not the first time Mr Strauss-Kahn had been involved in such an incident and argued he had been arrested attempting to flee the country.
Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Benjamin Brafman contested this, saying the defendant had not tried to flee the scene and was actually rushing for a lunch appointment. He added that Mr Strauss-Kahn later called the hotel to say he was at the airport and had left a mobile phone in his room.
The defence offered to post $1m (617,000) bail, with Mr Strauss-Kahn to stay at his daughter's address in New York until the next hearing on Friday.
However, Judge Melissa Jackson rejected the application. "When I hear your client was at JFK airport about to board a flight, that raises some concerns," Ms Jackson said.
The charges relate to an alleged assault at the Times Square Sofitel hotel in New York.
According to the New York Police Department, a 32-year-old maid told officers that when she entered his suite on Saturday afternoon, Mr Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her and sexually assaulted her.
The woman was able to break free and alert the authorities, a NYPD spokesman added.
Later on Saturday Mr Strauss-Kahn was detained on board an Air France flight at New York's John F Kennedy airport minutes before take-off.
The IMF chief underwent medical examinations on Sunday. Police were looking for scratches or any other evidence of his alleged assault.
He was later charged with a "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape". Police say the maid formally identified him in a line-up.
Until he was arrested, Mr Strauss-Kahn was considered a favourite to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency next year.
Opinion polls gave him a good chance of defeating President Nicolas Sarkozy. Socialist party president Martine Aubry described his arrest as a "thunderbolt" but called for Mr Strauss-Kahn to be presumed innocent. Mr Strauss-Kahn's wife, French TV personality Anne Sinclair, has also protested his innocence.
Meanwhile, another allegation against Mr Strauss-Kahn has emerged. A French writer says she may file a complaint for an alleged sexual assault in 2002.
Tristane Banon, 31, says Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she went to interview him for a book she was writing. "We're planning to make a complaint," Ms Banon's lawyer told AFP news agency. Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have so far not responded to the allegation.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 209 people die in a mining disaster in Fuxin City, in China's north–eastern Liaoning province. During the first nine months of 2004, an average of 15 people died every day in China's mines. | The accident, in China's north-eastern city of Fuxin, is the most deadly reported mining disaster since the communist party took power in 1949.
It left a further 22 people injured, one seriously, and 13 trapped.
A BBC correspondent in Beijing says the disaster again underlines the government's inability to ensure safety in its overstretched mining industry.
Rescue operations began immediately after Monday's blast 242m (794 feet) underground at the Sunjiawan mine in Fuxin, Liaoning province. "We have never seen such a big accident before," a local mining official told the Reuters news agency. President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called for local officials to take "all possible measures" to rescue trapped workers, state television reported.
CHINA'S MINING DISASTERS
World's most deadly mining industry - 6000 killed in 2004
Demand for energy jeopardises safety
Government did not disclose details of accidents until recently
World's most deadly mining accident took place in China in 1942 - 1,549 people died in Japanese-occupied Manchuria
China's miners pay for growth
An inquiry is under way into the cause of the accident. Underground explosions are often blamed on a lack of ventilation equipment to remove gas that seeps from the coal bed. Fuxin, as one of China's oldest coal mining regions, could be a particularly risky place to work as miners must tunnel far underground to reach coal seams.
Workers reported feeling something shake the mine 10 minutes before the blast, Xinhua said, quoting Zhang Yunfu, vice general manager of Fuxin Coal.
Moments later, gas detectors lost their signals and one of the mine's main pits filled with smoke, it said.
A Fuxin resident said many of her neighbours worked for the mine.
"We are of course very shocked and feel very sad about it because people are still enjoying the Lunar New Year," she told state media.
Another local, doctor Zhao Yunfu, said: "I really can't believe it, I thought the mine had stopped production [for the holidays]."
According to official figures, more than 5,000 people died in explosions, floods and fires in China's mines in 2004. The toll was 8% lower than in 2003, the government said. Nevertheless, Beijing admits China's fatality rate per ton of coal mined is still 100 times that of the US.
China last year produced 35% of the world's coal but reported 80% of global deaths in colliery accidents. The industry cost the lives of 15 miners a day in the first nine months of 2004, according to the official figures.
Monday's blast was the deadliest since 166 miners were killed in a gas explosion at the Chenjiashan mine in Shaanxi province in November.
Following that accident, the State Council ordered an inquiry and newspaper editorials called for a more humane and balanced view of economic progress.
China has two kinds of mines: big, state-run operations, which are generally thought to be safer, and smaller private mines where the majority of deaths occur. Correspondents say energy shortages mean the price of coal has gone up, leading some unscrupulous mine operators to cut corners to increase production.
Others have been accused of re-opening mines which had been shut down because of poor safety standards. | Mine Collapses | February 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
The World Health Organization states that the spread of polio is an international public health emergency. | Alarmed by the spread of polio to several fragile countries, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on Monday for only the second time since regulations permitting it to do so were adopted in 2007.
Just two years ago after a 25-year campaign that vaccinated billions of children the paralyzing virus was near eradication; now health officials say that goal could evaporate if swift action is not taken.
Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon have recently allowed the virus to spread to Afghanistan, Iraq and Equatorial Guinea, respectively and should take extraordinary measures to stop it, the health organization said.
Things are going in the wrong direction and have to get back on track before something terrible happens, said Gregory Hartl, a W.H.O. spokesman. So were saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, Youve really got to get your acts together.'
Do you have a question about the polio vaccine? Ask Well. Your question may be answered by our reporter, Donald G. McNeil, Jr.
The declaration, which effectively imposes travel restrictions on the three countries, represented a newly aggressive stance by the health organization. In the past, it has often bent to pressure from member states demanding no consequences even as epidemics raged inside their borders and sometimes slipped over them.
This is a fundamental shift in the program, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the organizations chief of polio eradication. This is the countries of the world signaling that they will no longer tolerate the spread of the virus from the countries that arent finished.
The emergency was declared though the total number of known cases this year is still relatively small: 68 as of April 30, compared with 24 by that date last year.
What most alarmed experts, Mr. Hartl said, was that the virus was on the move during what is normally the low transmission season from January to April.
What we dont want is cases moving into places like the Central African Republic, South Sudan or the Ukraine, said Rebecca M. Martin, director of global immunization for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has provided money and expertise to the eradication campaign since it began in 1988.
Fighting the virus normally includes several rounds of vaccination of all young children in a target country. But, in an unusual step, the agency also said that all residents of Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon, of all ages, should be vaccinated before traveling abroad, and that this restriction should be retained until one year after the last exported case.
It also said another seven countries should encourage all their would-be travelers to get vaccinated. Those are Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Nigeria and Somalia.
Israel has had no confirmed human cases of the disease, but a Pakistan strain of the virus has been detected in sewage in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
While the W.H.O. has no enforcement power, the regulations are part of a 2007 global health treaty saying all parties should ensure that steps it recommends are taken. That applies to Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon. The other seven only need to encourage those steps.
But countries could use the document to refuse to admit migrants, visitors or even business travelers who lack vaccination cards.
Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a highly contagious virus spread in feces; although only one case in 200 causes symptoms, the hardest-hit victims can be paralyzed or killed. With so many silent carriers, even one confirmed case is considered a serious outbreak. There is no cure.
Unlike influenza or other winter viruses, polio thrives in hot weather. Cases start rising in the summer and often explode when the monsoon rains break the summer heat, flooding sewage-choked gutters and bathing the feet of romping children with virus, which they pick up by touching their feet or a ball and then putting a finger in a mouth.
Though the disease primarily strikes children, evidence has mounted that it also crosses borders in adult carriers, such as traders, smugglers and migrant workers.
With 54 of this years 68 new infections, Pakistan is by far the riskiest country, Dr. Aylward said. Polio has never been eliminated there, Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in North Waziristan for years, and those elsewhere have murdered vaccine teams.
Syria has had only one confirmed case of polio this year, but it had 13 cases last October, the first in the country since 1999.
Before the uprising began in 2011, Syria had a 90 percent vaccination rate, but it fell rapidly in war-torn areas. About 300,000 children are in areas blocked off by the government or too dangerous to reach, according to the United Nations Childrens Fund.
The Syrian cases from last year were of the Pakistan strain, which was found in Egypt last year, then moved into Israel, first in a largely Bedouin desert town, then elsewhere. How it reached Syria is unclear, but in April it was found in a Syrian refugee camp in Iraq, despite extensive vaccination campaigns in camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere.
Fortunately, its pretty easy to do in refugee camps, Mr. Hartl said.
With Syrians fleeing massacres and bombings, it seems absurd to make them stop and produce vaccination cards, critics said.
Cameroons outbreak is of a strain from Nigeria, which previously had more cases than any country in the world but which has had only two so far this year. As in Pakistan, Islamic terrorist groups in Nigeria have killed vaccinators. Nonetheless, multiple vaccination rounds have reduced the problem.
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and other African countries are all vulnerable because their routine immunization rates are so low; in Equatorial Guinea, only 26 percent of all children are protected, Dr. Martin said
It is unclear whether the new travel restrictions will hurt the economies of the affected countries. Pakistan already has vaccination booths where its highways enter Afghanistan, China and Iran.
Pakistans health minister, Saira Afzal Tarar, said her office had recommended vaccinating travelers at the countrys five international airports before they board. (The W.H.O. calls for vaccination at least four weeks before traveling, except in emergencies.)
She expressed her disappointment at the restrictions, saying, We have been doing whatever we can, but due to the law and order situation in our country, especially in the two tribal regions, we are facing extraordinary challenges.
Until 2012, the world was making enormous progress toward eliminating polio. India, which once had millions of cases, had its last three years ago. Mondays emergency was declared both to alert donors and to pressure the affected countries to organize vaccination drives, Mr. Hartl said.
That means recruiting and training hundreds of thousands of vaccinators, and sending them into the field with millions of doses of vaccine, which must be kept cold, usually by packing them on ice in a foam plastic box each vaccinator carries on a shoulder strap.
It is a huge logistical undertaking. Vaccinators go door to door in villages and cities, approach passengers at railway stations and on buses, and walk up to cars at toll plazas and in traffic circles. The ideal is to vaccinate every child in the country several times, with a month or so between each round.
It also entails many conflicts. Even when there is no local opposition, there are struggles over issues including who gets the vaccinator jobs, which usually pay $2 to $5 a day, and who controls the gas money for minibuses taking teams to villages. | Disease Outbreaks | May 2014 | ['(BBC)', '(New York Times)'] |
Israel approves plans to withdraw IDF troops from the northern half of Ghajar, a village on the Israeli–Lebanese border. | Israel's cabinet has approved the withdrawal of its troops from the northern half of a village deemed by the UN to be inside Lebanon.
Ghajar is split by the UN blue line, the de-facto border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Details of the plan will be worked out with UN peacekeepers in the next month, the prime minister's office says.
Pulling out of the village will fulfil Israel's obligations to the UN, but will cut the village in two.
About 2,000 people live in Ghajar, a picturesque hillside village which is partly in Lebanon and party in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel captured Ghajar, along with the Golan Heights, from Syria in the 1967 Six Day war. A later UN demarcation of Lebanese territory took in northern Ghajar, leaving the southern part under Israeli control. Even when Israel's military occupation of southern Lebanon ended in 2000, its troops remained in Ghajar, citing security concerns.
Families are spread out on either side of the UN blue line, and the school and municipal buildings are in the Israeli area, says the BBC's Wyre Davies from the border town.
Most of the villagers still consider themselves Syrian, although many have taken Israeli citizenship during the long years of occupation. The majority are opposed to being under Lebanese control.
Following Wednesday's vote by Israel's security cabinet, control of northern Ghajar will be handed over to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), whose mandate is to keep peace in the tense border region.
Israeli sources have told the BBC that a final deal will likely see Unifil troops stationed along the village's northern edge, while Israeli soldiers will deploy along its south. Residents will be able to move freely inside the village, they said.
The details of the plan will be worked out by Israel's foreign ministry and the Unifil commander, Gen Alberto Asarta, over the coming weeks. Israel's security cabinet will then approve the final agreement, the sources said.
Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war and earlier this year, just a few miles from Ghajar, Israeli and Lebanese soldiers were killed in a gun battle.
| Government Policy Changes | November 2010 | ['(BBC News)'] |
French and Spanish police foil an ETA car bomb plot and arrest the man who is alleged to be the organisations top bombmaker and his accomplices. | French and Spanish police foiled a car bomb plot by Basque separatist group ETA, netting its alleged top bomb maker and three colleagues in what analysts termed a major blow for ETA.
Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters in Madrid the arrests in south-western France, during which police also seized explosives and detonators, were of "enormous importance".
They were the culmination of an operation begun when three other ETA suspects were arrested on the French side of the border in July in a vehicle carrying 165 kilograms of explosives, he said.
Mr Rubalcaba added the suspects had played key roles in a bomb attack at Madrid's Barajas airport last December that killed two people.
"To the question 'Were they preparing an attack?' the answer is yes, they were preparing a car bomb," Mr Rubalcaba said.
The quartet arrested in the joint Spanish-French swoop on a house in the town of Cahors included Luis Ignacio Iruretagoyena, who French and Spanish officials said was ETA's chief explosives expert.
French deputy prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourles, said the house in Cahors, rented by the suspects, contained a workshop capable of making bombs "able to make enormous explosions."
Mr Bourles added some 30 detonators had also been unearthed along with an explosive device packed with some 500 grams of pentrite, a powerful explosive, and other bomb-making equipment, including 200 kilograms of aluminium powder and 150 of ammonium nitrate.
He added police also seized two cars stolen in France.
Mr Bourles warned that despite the arrests "it is evident ETA has a habit of very rapidly preparing people for this kind of mission" in their place.
The arrests came barely a week after ETA carried out its first attack since officially ending a 15-month ceasefire on June 5 with operatives on August 26 blowing up a van outside a police barracks in Durango in the Basque region, slightly injuring two policemen.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2007 | ['(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
Democratic state Representative John Bel Edwards, the surprise winner of the October 24 open primary, is elected governor of Louisiana over Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter. Edwards' margin is 140,931 votes , all 3,945 precincts reporting. Edwards will replace former Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal, who was not eligible to seek another term. | State Rep. John Bel Edwards, a relatively unknown Democrat from a rural Amite, will be the state's next governor after toppling Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in one of the biggest political upsets in the state's history.
No state in the Deep South has had a Democratic governor since Kathleen Blanco left office eight years ago. A Democrat hasn't even come within spitting distance of statewide office in Louisiana since 2008, when former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu won reelection.
That all changed Saturday (Nov. 21) as Edwards came out of nowhere to take down a Republican candidate once seen as unbeatable in a solidly Red State. Preliminary election results show Edwards topped Vitter by 12 points, a resounding victory.
"This election shows us that the people of Louisiana in a time of deep cynicism about our politics, and also about our future, that the people have chosen hope over scorn, over negativity," Edwards told a crowd of supporters at his victory party at the Monteleone Hotel. "I did not create this breeze of hope that's rolling across our beautiful and blessed state. But I did catch it.
"This breeze has its roots in the songs of the Louisiana Hayride, the food of our cajun ancestors, the spirituals of our African-American churches and the faith of our Italian ... strawberry farmers, and the energy of Native Americans and our Hispanic immigrants. No I didn't start the breeze of hope, but I did catch it. And so did you.
We all caught that breeze. The people of Louisiana have chosen to believe we can do better, and by doing better we will be better. And I commit to you we will be better as a result of tonight."
Edwards election day efforts focused on New Orleans. He met up with U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond in the afternoon at Spears & Spears law firm in St. Roch to make phone calls and send encouraging texts to supporters. Several people in "John Bel Edwards for Governor" T-shirts could also be seen boarding a school bus outside the law firm's building, presumably to help the Democrat turn out the vote in other parts of the city.
An Edwards administration is expected to be a marked shift from Gov. Bobby Jindal's approach to public policy over the past eight years. The Democrat is expected to bring Medicaid expansion to Louisiana shortly after taking office, meaning thousands of more Louisiana residents could have access to health insurance in a couple of months. Teachers unions and other organized labor groups will also have more of a voice with Edwards than they ever had with Jindal.
It wasn't thought a Democrat had a decent shot at winning a statewide race in 2015, let alone the governor's race. A few rising stars in the party, like New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, choose not to run for higher office this election cycle because their prospects of winning looked so weak.
But Edwards proved them wrong. A West Point graduate who served in the Legislature for eight years, Edwards led the primary with 40 percent of the vote, built up big leads in the polls and bulked up his fundraising during the runoff. The Democrat emphasized his conservative views on topics like abortion and guns throughout the campaign, in order to stave off concerns that he was too liberal for Louisiana.
"John Bel, as much as possible, attempted to identify with Republicans," said U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.
Edwards attracted a surprising number of endorsements from law enforcement groups, such as the Louisiana Sheriffs Association, that are more inclined to favor Republicans. The Louisiana State Troopers Association, which rarely endorses gubernatorial candidates, backed Edwards.
The outcome of the election, however, may have turned more on Vitter's weaknesses than Edwards' appeal. The senator's years-old prostitution scandal and difficult relationships with several Republicans in the state proved to be too much to overcome. Vitter has had "high negatives" in political polling for years -- meaning many voters have an unfavorable view of him -- but that hadn't kept him from winning campaigns -- until now.
After winning re-election to his Senate seat in 2010, Vitter had been regarded nationally as one of those rare politicians able to survive an embarrassing sex scandal. But Louisiana voters apparently care more about the personal history of the next governor than a member of Congress. His connection to prostitution dampened enthusiasm for him, particularly among Christian conservatives, once his most ardent supporters.
The senator was also never fully able to unite the Republican party behind his candidacy following the primary. One of Vitter's Republican primary opponents, Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne, ended up endorsing Edwards. The other major Republican primary candidate, Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, refused to endorse anyone, which was seen as a rejection of Vitter's candidacy.
"I came up short," said Vitter, before announcing he wouldn't even seek re-election to his Senate seat next year.
Dardenne and Angelle have both complained that Vitter unfairly attacked them during the primary election. The candidates used words like "vicious" and "liar" to describe Vitter during primary debates. Many of those bitter soundbites from the GOP officials wound up being used in anti-Vitter commercials and direct mail pieces during the runoff campaign.
Vitter's frosty relationships with other Republican elected officials also caught up with him. A day before the primary, a private investigator hired by Vitter was arrested for spying on Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand and state Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, among others. The incident gave Normand, a longtime political foe of Vitter's, a platform to highlight his disagreements with the senator.
But some of Vitter's problems may not have had much to do with him at all. Gov. Bobby Jindal's unpopularity in Louisiana may have hurt Vitter's campaign. Recent polling shows Louisiana voters are tired of Jindal, and could be looking for a big change in the Governor's Mansion. Vitter and Jindal don't get along, but they share many of the same views on public policy.
"Clearly, the voters wanted a change," said state Treasurer John Kennedy, a Republican who campaigned relentlessly for Vitter.
Democrats may paint Edwards' victory as the resurgence of the party in Louisiana, but experts warn against jumping to that conclusion. Vitter may have lost, but that doesn't mean most other Republicans would have.
"A Republican ought to win automatically," said Charlie Cook, a Louisiana native and well-regarded election prognosticator in Washington D.C. "If Vitter's name had never come up in the D.C Madam case, we would be looking at a 10 to 15 point win" for the Republican.
Edwards appears to recognize that the Republican brand hasn't necessarily been permanently tarnished in Louisiana. The Democrat has promised to govern from the middle and is expected to appoint Democrats and Republicans alike to cabinet positions. For example, Dardenne is likely on a short list to fill a high-profile position in the Edwards administration.
Edwards may have to govern in a bipartisan manner, not just by choice. The governor-elect has a serious budget crisis on his hands, and will need a two-thirds vote of the GOP-controlled Legislature for many of his proposals to fix Louisiana's finances.
"I think that the Legislature and executive branch should cooperate fully," said Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, who is likely to remain atop the state senate in 2016.
But not everyone is excited to see Edwards head up the executive office. The Democrat makes many of the state's leading business groups nervous. Edwards has not been supportive of the school choice movement, including charter schools and the state voucher program. Business leaders also believe he is more inclined to roll back their tax credits and incentive programs to fix the state's budget problems than a Republican would be.
Edwards will have to find an enormous amount of money somewhere to shore up the state's finances. Louisiana is wrestling with a $500 million shortfall in its current budget cycle and a projected $1 billion budget gap in the next fiscal year. And Edwards isn't looking to just maintain state services, he is also seeking to double funding to higher education over the next four years -- which will require even more resources.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2015 | ['(56.11 percent)', '(NOLA.com)', '(Washington Post)'] |
Jean–Pierre Bemba, leader of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, and a former Congolese vice president, is sentenced to 18 years in prison by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, and for sexual violence crimes against humanity in neighboring Central African Republic during 2002 and 2003. | Congolese ex-rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba has been jailed for 18 years following a landmark conviction at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and sexual violence.
Bemba, a former vice-president of DR Congo, was convicted in March of crimes committed in the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002-2003.
He was accused of failing to stop his rebels from killing and raping people.
Bemba's lawyers have already said they will appeal against his conviction.
Judges announced sentences of between 16 and 18 years for five counts of rape, murder and pillaging, with the jail terms running concurrently. The eight years Bemba has already spent in custody will be deducted from his term.
His conviction was the first time the ICC had focused on rape as a weapon of war, and the first time a suspect had been convicted for crimes committed by others under his command.
Passing sentence at the ICC in The Hague, Judge Sylvia Steiner said Bemba had failed to exercise control over his private militia sent into CAR, where they carried out "sadistic" rapes, murders and pillaging of "particular cruelty".
The BBC's Anna Holligan, who is in The Hague, says two key issues remain - where Bemba will serve his sentence and the amount of compensation to be awarded to his victims.
Bemba was "extremely disappointed" with the sentence, his lawyer, Kate Gibson, told AFP news agency.
"Today's sentence is by no means the end of the road for Mr Bemba, it merely signals that we are now moving to the next phase of the process which is the appeal," she said.
In 2002 Bemba had sent more than 1,000 fighters to the CAR to help then president Ange Felix Patasse put down an attempted coup.
The court heard that his troops committed acts of extreme violence against civilians - crimes which the judge said Bemba was made aware of but did nothing to stop.
He had led the MLC (Movement for the Liberation of Congo) rebel group during DR Congo's brutal civil war and after a 2003 peace deal he laid down his arms and joined an interim government.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the sentence offered "a measure of justice" for the victims.
"Other commanders should take notice that they, too, can be held accountable for rapes and other serious abuses committed by troops under their control," said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, HRW's international justice advocacy director.
The MLC is now a major opposition party in DR Congo and Secretary General Eve Bazaiba criticised the ICC ruling and sentence.
"We will never cease denouncing the selective justice of the ICC," she told supporters in the capital Kinshasa | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(The Times)'] |
In cricket, England defeat the West Indies by nine wickets to win the three-match series. England bowler Jimmy Anderson takes 7–42 and becomes only the third fast bowler in history to take 500 Test wickets. | Last updated on 9 September 20179 September 2017.From the section Cricketcomments226
James Anderson took a career-best 7-42 to lead England to a series-clinching nine-wicket victory over West Indies in the third and deciding Test at Lord's.
Anderson, who took his 500th Test wicket on Friday, claimed five more on day three as West Indies were bowled out for 177, despite 62 from Shai Hope.
Set 107, England were taken to their target by an unbroken stand of 72 between Mark Stoneman and Tom Westley.
The 2-1 series win follows a 3-1 success against South Africa.
Not only does it extend an unbeaten home record against West Indies that dates back to 1988, but also sends England off on their defence of the Ashes on the back of two Test series wins in Joe Root's first summer as captain.
England play one Twenty20 and five one-day internationals against the Windies to conclude the home summer before travelling to Australia in October.
When England hammered a woeful West Indies in the day-night Test at Edgbaston, the series looked likely to be neither a spectacle nor decent preparation for a trip down under.
However, a wonderful display by the tourists in the second Test at Headingley not only restored some faith in the Caribbean side as a Test force, but also set up the pressure situation of a series decider at Lord's.
In the end, the low-scoring affair in bowler-friendly conditions has seen England prove themselves as the superior team, even if the scarcity of runs has done little to help the hosts further their search for top-order batsmen.
Opener Stoneman and number five Dawid Malan have probably done enough to ensure their places in an Ashes squad that is due to be announced when the domestic season finishes at the end of September.
The place of number three Westley is less certain, with the likes of Haseeb Hameed, Keaton Jennings and Alex Hales looking for runs in the final weeks of the County Championship in order to press their claims.
After the celebrations of becoming only the sixth bowler to reach 500 Test wickets on the second evening, Anderson found himself in trouble with umpire Marais Erasmus for encroaching on to the pitch in his follow-through.
Two warnings left him on the brink or being removed from the attack and necessitated a switch from the Pavilion End to the Nursery End.
However, that only helped the 35-year-old Lancastrian move the ball down the slope and he found the edge of Roston Chase's bat with the fourth delivery of the morning.
Jermaine Blackwood fell in similar fashion, leaving the impressive Shai Hope, the leading runscorer in the series and the last of the recognised batsmen to defy England almost single-handedly.
It took a special delivery to remove the 23-year-old, angled in and nipping away to give a third catch of the day to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow and, after that, West Indies were as good as beaten.
Devendra Bishoo and Kemar Roach were both bowled as Anderson bettered the 7-43 he took against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 2008. The 39 Test wickets he took this season are the most he has taken in a home Test summer.
If England are looking for improvements to make for their defence of the Ashes, catching would probably be included on the list.
Punished for drops at Headingley, their victory here may have come sooner had they not spilled three chances of varying difficulty in the morning session.
Stuart Broad put down the most straightforward at mid-off and missed a tough, diving caught-and-bowled opportunity, while Alastair Cook shelled a sharp one at gully off Moeen Ali. Both sides dropped 26 catches between them in the series.
That, though, is a less of a concern when compared to England's batting, even if Stoneman and Westley were assured in navigating England to their target.
Left-hander Stoneman was strong square of the wicket on both sides to follow up the maiden half-century he made in the second Test with an unbeaten 40 that included the winning runs.
Westley arrived after Cook was pinned lbw by the spin of Bishoo and characteristically favoured mid-wicket as well as playing attractive cover drives in 44 not out, his first double-figure score in six attempts.
This was the last match behind the microphone for BBC Test Match Special's Henry Blofeld, who ended his career by thanking the listeners.
As he completed his final commentary stint, he was given a standing ovation by the Lord's crowd.
He later embarked on a lap of honour at the end of play and was even invited to join the celebrations in the England dressing room.
England captain Joe Root: "I'm very pleased. It's been a great week. It was a challenging wicket. We're really pleased that we came out on top.
"It's important we enjoy this, enjoy tonight and enjoy what a summer it's been. It's a great opportunity for this group of players to do something special in Australia."
England coach Trevor Bayliss on the Ashes squad: "There are two or three positions that will take more time than the others. I can't see us going outside the people we have played in the last 12-18 months.
"The guys that have come in in the last series or two have been in tough conditions. They have had to do some hard yards. They would have liked to have scored a few more runs, but they've shown something also."
Former England captain Michael Vaughan: "This series has surprised us. None of us gave West Indies any chance after Edgbaston.
"Full credit to them, and we're going to see Shai Hope for many, many years. It's been a good series to watch, even though it's finished quickly."
West Indies captain Jason Holder: "I'm really proud of the guys. I've seen a lot of fight, which I haven't seen for a long time. Hopefully we can carry on putting in some good performances.
"In recent series, we've won a game away from home and we've really competed. We're not too far away from clinching a series win."
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How to get into cricket - the thrill of the big hit, the rush of taking the catch, the skill of bowling. It's time to get into cricket. | Sports Competition | September 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
The National Congress of Brazil elects new leaders for the 56th Legislature. Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Pacheco, candidates supported by President Jair Bolsonaro, are elected President of the Chamber of Deputies and President of the Federal Senate respectively. | writer: AFP BRASíLIA - Brazil's Congress on Monday elected Rodrigo Pacheco as Senate speaker, an ally of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose political future could hang in the balance ahead of the lower house's vote.
Pacheco, of the Democrats (DEM) party, won by 57 votes. The 44-year-old achieved the feat of receiving backing from Bolsonaro, as well as the Workers Party (PT), and former leftist presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016).
Bolsonaro got personally involved in the leadership battles in both houses of the legislature, looking to improve his troubled relations with Congress and stave off the 61 impeachment requests he is facing.
The speakers of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, who are elected for two-year terms by their colleagues, are key gate-keepers in Brazilian politics, with the power to decide which legislation comes up for a vote.
The lower-house speaker also has the power to accept or shelve motions to impeach the president -- no small matter for the leader dubbed the "Tropical Trump," who has racked up dozens of such requests halfway into his four-year term.
Bolsonaro, who currently has no political party, has struggled to get legislation passed in Congress, and is increasingly unpopular amid a raging second wave of Covid-19 in Brazil.
He won election in 2018 with support from the business sector vowing to push through a long-delayed program of privatizations and austerity reforms.
But he has made virtually no progress on that agenda. Instead, the economy has taken a beating from the pandemic, which Bolsonaro has insistently downplayed.
Seeking to use the leadership votes to bolster his clout with Congress, Bolsonaro struck an alliance with a coalition known as the "Centrao," or "big center," a loose coalition of parties whose priority has traditionally been gaining access to pork and government posts.
In the Senate, he got a bit of good news soon after the voting began when lawmakers elected Pacheco, his candidate for speaker.
But the real test will be in the lower house, where there has been a hard-fought battle pitting Bolsonaro's candidate, Arthur Lira of the Progressives (PP), against seven other candidates.
- Bolsonaro 'held hostage'? -
The main challenge to Lira comes from Baleia Rossi of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the candidate backed by current lower-house speaker Rodrigo Maia (DEM).
Maia has a strained relationship with Bolsonaro, and reacted furiously when other lawmakers from his party defied him to back Lira.
He reportedly threatened to use his last day in the speaker's seat to open impeachment proceedings against Bolsonaro, before backtracking.
Bolsonaro faces some 20 impeachment motions over his chaotic handling of the pandemic, plus dozens more over alleged anti-democratic actions, environmental crimes and hate speech.
The voting process in the lower house could stretch into the early hours of Tuesday.
Even if Bolsonaro gets his candidate elected, he could still struggle to get things done in Brasilia before he comes up for reelection next year.
The "Centrao" is a demanding and fickle ally, whose betrayal played a key role in the impeachment and downfall of former president Rousseff in 2016, political analysts warn.
"The 'Centrao' is loyal when conditions are right. And currently, that's far from a given, with an extremely fragile economy and Bolsonaro's popularity falling," said political scientist Thiago Vidal of the consulting firm Prospectiva.
"They're going to hold his government hostage." | Government Job change - Election | February 2021 | ['(AFP via Bangkok Post)'] |
Citizens of the city of Daraa, a focal point of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, report being fired on by government soldiers and tanks. | Syrian soldiers and tanks have been firing in the city of Deraa, a centre of protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, residents say.
They say soldiers have made arrests and fired to keep people indoors.
Opposition websites are showing footage purportedly of a soldier who says he deserted after being ordered to fire on unarmed protesters in Damascus.
Activists say nearly 600 people have died in the crackdown on protests, which began in mid-March.
At least 66 protesters were reported to have been killed, most of them in Deraa, on Friday.
Activists said another six were killed on Saturday when the army seized control of a mosque which had become a centre for anti-government protests in the city.
Deraa has been the focus of government action against the protesters for the last week. Water, electricity and phone lines to the city have been cut.
State television said security forces came under attack on Saturday by "armed terrorists" in Deraa and Homs, Syria's third city.
President Assad's government blames militants and "external forces" for the unrest, which it says have left nearly 80 security personnel dead.
Foreign journalists are not being allowed into the country, and the exact picture of what is happening remains unclear. | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
A collision between a hotel shuttle bus and a tractor–trailer occurs near the Atlanta airport, injuring eighteen people. | says the accident happened around 10:30 on Friday. She says it's not immediately clear what caused the
accident.
Ward says there were 18 people on the bus at the time of
the accident. Nine were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, including one
who was in critical condition. The other nine were taken to Atlanta Medical Centre.
Ward says the bus served Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn and
Hilton hotels and was headed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport,
one of the world's busiest airports.
The Weekly
Newsletter editor Alet Law guides you through our most interesting and insightful stories to give you a well-rounded view of the week that was. | Road Crash | May 2013 | ['(AP via News24)'] |
Steve Jobs takes a six–month medical leave of absence as CEO of Apple Inc. | Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said Wednesday he will take a leave of absence from the computer and music-player maker because of health issues.
Jobs, who announced last week that he suffered from a hormone imbalance that caused him to lose weight, said he will be away from the job until the end of June. "In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June," Jobs said in a statement.
Jobs said curiosity over his personal health was a distraction and that his health-related issues have become "more complex" during the past week. Tim Cook, the company's chief operating officer, will be responsible for Apple's day-to-day operations, according to the statement. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) shares fell 8% to $78.40 in after-hours trading. They were halted after closing down $2.38 to $85.33 in Wednesday regular-hours trading.
Jobs, a co-founder of Apple, returned as chief executive more than a decade ago and has become closely associated with the company's overall identity. Speculation about his health has been widespread for months, reaching a crescendo when it was announced he would not appear at Apple's annual Macworld product showcase in San Francisco last week. Just as Macworld opened, Apple released a letter from Jobs to employees describing his illness, in which he said he would take a less active role in the company while recuperating.
"It's clearly a negative development but not a complete shock," said Shebly Seyrafi, an analyst at Calyon Securities in New York. The timing of Wednesday's announcement is "frustrating" for investors because it comes so soon after Jobs disclosed that his health problems were treatable with "a simple change in diet," according to Seyrafi. Still, Apple has a "deep bench" of executive talent, and Cook is certainly a capable leader, he added. Jobs is the "soul of apple," said Seyrafi. "But founders move on and Apple is a bit larger than Steve Jobs."
Meanwhile, Apple is set to report fiscal first-quarter results next week. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $1.39 per share, down 21% from earnings of $1.76 per share a year ago. "Apple's business is suffering," said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research in San Francisco. "They haven't had any home runs recently, and they're suffering from macro conditions too," he said. In October, Apple said sales of Macintosh computers in the fourth quarter rose 21%, while iPod sales were 8% higher than year-ago levels. In the third quarter, however, Mac sales were nearly twice as high and iPod sales were up 12% year over year. Many analysts are concerned that Apple's reluctance to cut prices could drive sales down even further as the weak economy has undermined many consumers' purchasing power. On Wednesday, the National Retail Federation said holiday sales for the combined November-December months fell 2.8%. The trade group had originally forecast holiday sales for that period to grow 2.2%.
Separately, the Commerce Department said retail sales tumbled 2.7% last month, compared with a revised 2.1% drop in November. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com on average had forecast a decrease of 1.2% for December.
Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. | Famous Person - Sick | January 2009 | ['(CNN)'] |
Voters in Cape Verde go to the polls to elect new members of the National Assembly. | Voters in Cape Verde, a bastion of democracy in Africa, go to the polls Sunday after a campaign dominated by the Covid pandemic and its impact on an economy dependent on tourism.
In a continent marked by political unrest, coups and monolithic leaders in power for decades, the tiny Atlantic archipelago stands out.
It ranks just behind Mauritius as the most democratic country in sub-Saharan Africa in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2020 Democracy Index.
"Cape Verde is a model of political and democratic stability in Africa," said Alioune Tine, founder of the Afrikajom Center think tank.
It is "practically the only one that has not experienced an electoral or democratic crisis."
Sunday's vote could result in something many other Africans can only dream of: a peaceful change of government.
Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva's Movement for Democracy (MpD) is closely challenged by the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), a socialist party led by Janira Hopffer Almada.
Ms. Almada, 42, is running to become the first female prime minister of Cape Verde, a group of tropical islands with a population of some 550,000 and located about 600 kilometers (375 miles) from Senegal.
In 1990, Cape Verde's one-party rule was swept away, leading to the first multiparty elections the following year.
In 2016, the MpD ended PAICV's 15-year reign with a historic victory, winning 40 of the 72 seats in the unicameral parliament, the National Assembly.
After a campaign marked by festive rallies, where candidates danced to music -- another of Cape Verde's internationally recognized riches -- Sunday's result has every chance of being accepted calmly.
"Stability... is our oil, our diamonds," Silva told AFP on the sidelines of a rally in the capital Praia, where, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, he chatted with voters.
"For us, freedom, institutions and having checks on power are a priority... that's why we have an opposition."
Silva is a 58-year-old former bank executive and ex-mayor of Praia, who was educated in Portugal, the colonial power until independence in 1975.
During his tenure, Cape Verde was hit by a three-year drought, followed by the catastrophic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on foreign tourism, which accounts for about a quarter of the economy.
Both major parties are advocating measures to provide broad access to vaccinations and diversify the economy.
PAICV believes that the government did not provide sufficient and timely assistance when the pandemic began.
"Many measures were not implemented when they would have been useful...and many others did not reach the intended target," Almada told the Portuguese news agency LUSA.
The slim lawyer, like Silva a former minister, became in 2014 the first woman and youngest person to head the PAICV.
Four smaller parties are also in the running for the election, with results expected Sunday night.
Cape Verde has a semi-parliamentary system in which the prime minister exercises executive power while the president acts as an arbitrator in case of unresolvable disputes. | Government Job change - Election | April 2021 | ['(Africanews)'] |
The United States embassy in Manama warns American citizens in Bahrain of the "need for caution", days after the gulf kingdom signed a U.S.-backed deal with Israel. (AFP via Barron's) |
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates last week signed deals to normalise ties with Israel at the White House, breaking with decades of Arab consensus that there would be no relations with the Jewish state until it had made peace with the Palestinians.
Small sporadic protests took place in Bahrain on Friday against the deals, a rare display of dissent in the oil-rich island nation.
Since 2011, protests have been extremely rare in the kingdom and are met harshly by security forces.
The embassy encouraged citizens to "keep a low profile" and to "avoid crowds and demonstrations".
Bahrain is a key US ally in the Gulf and hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet.
Bahrain's King, Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa, said on Monday that the deal with Israel was "not directed against anyone", state media reported.
Sunni-ruled Bahrain has faced unrest among its large Shiite community, which it has consistently blamed on Iran.
Both Manama and Dubai share with Israel a vehemently anti-Iran foreign policy stance and Tehran has slammed the normalisation moves.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday took the first tentative steps to eventual normalization of its ultra-accommodative monetary policy: It started to talk about it.
Except for the anodyne observation about the progress of vaccination in controlling Covid-19, the Federal Open Market Committee’s policy statement released at the end of its two-day meeting made few changes from its late-April get-together. The panel’s Summary of Economic Projections essentially brought the 2021 numbers up to date with the stronger-than-expected...
The United States Embassy in Bahrain on Monday warned American citizens in the Gulf kingdom of the "need for caution", days after Manama signed a US-backed deal with Israel. | Sign Agreement | September 2020 | [] |
Giant pandas Xi Mei and Lu Lu break the record for the longest mating session ever recorded at the Sichuan Giant Panda Research Center, lasting 18 minutes and three seconds. |
Kai Kai and Jia Jia - a pair of giant pandas in Singapore on a 10-year loan from China - may want to take some notes.
Passionate pandas Lu Lu and Xi Mei set a record for the longest panda mating session ever recorded this week - and their marathon 18 min 3 sec session was broadcast on the Internet via a website that monitors pandas.
The typical panda mating session can last for less than a minute.
'Live' videos showing the daily activities (including mating) of giant pandas from the Sichuan Bifengxia Giant Panda Research Centre in Ya'an is available via China Network Television's iPanda website.
Pandas are notoriously slow breeders, and their sex life usually makes the news for its lack of action. In September last year, male panda Kai Kai was reportedly "slightly more" interested in his female compatriot Jia Jia. No progress has been reported since.
This difficulty when it comes to making panda cubs is one reason that giant pandas are an endangered species. There are thought to be only 1,600 left in the wild.
They have a short reproductive window of 48 to 72 hours from March to May each year, according to the iPanda website.
Lu Lu has surprised panda keepers with his amorous behaviour. He also held the previous record of seven minutes and 45 seconds, with a different female - Zhen Zhen.
The latest video on the iPanda website however is a little anti-climactic, as pandas Wu Gang and Lin Bing fail to hit it off in a 50-minute video that claims to demystify the panda mating process.
"Male pandas can be picky about their mates, and when they don't like the partner, they will show symptoms similar to sexual apathy," breeder Luo Bo told news agency Xinhua.
It will take another two months before panda researchers can ascertain if the female pandas are pregnant. | Break historical records | April 2015 | ['(The Telegraph)', '(The Strait Times)'] |
Oculudentavis khaungraae, the world's smallest dinosaur, is discovered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. | . The world's smallest known species of dinosaur has been discovered trapped inside a 99 million-year-old piece of amber. The fossilized tree resin was found to contain the tiny skull of a previously unknown dinosaur, which scientists have named Oculudentavis khaungraae.
The team, from the U.S., Canada, and China, came across the amber in 2016. "You can see the skull easily by holding up the amber to the light so as soon as I was shown a picture I knew it was something special," Jingmai O'Connor, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, told Newsweek.
O'Connor and colleagues have now described the new species in a study published in Nature. In it, they show how this non-avian dinosaur had a skull measuring just 0.2 inches in length. They estimate it would have been around the size of a bee-hummingbird, the world's smallest species of bird. It is also believed to be the smallest species of dinosaur from the Mesozoic era, between 250 and 65 million years ago.
The amber was found in Myanmar, which, 99 million years ago, would have been a mangrove swamp or part of an island arc. This environment, the team believes, is why O. khaungraae became so small. Species can become miniaturized in isolated environments, as being smaller has a number of benefits, such as being better for thermoregulation and requiring fewer resources.
O. khaungraae, the researchers discovered, had a number of unusual traits. It had a bird-like beak that was full of teeth, with 29 or 30 teeth identified. It was also found to have a large eye socket similar to a lizard, with a narrow socket that only let a small amount of light in, indicating it would likely have been active during the day. They believe it was a predator, feeding on small arthropods or invertebrates.
O'Connor said its strange features suggest it is a bird, and that it may have flown. "But there are no features of the skull that define birds or dinosaurs, so it's possible it's a non-avian dinosaur and not a bird, or even something else," she added. "It's so hard to say with something so weird and so incomplete.
"There is no bird alive or fossil that would have behaved like this one, which of course makes it really hard to understand what it's lifestyle was really like. It has eyes indicative of acute visual abilities, numerous teeth and a reinforced skull. Based on these morphologies, it appears it was a tiny, predatory bird, most likely an aerial insectivore feeding on very tiny insects."
The team says this discovery opens up a new world of previously unknown creatures, with new technologies allowing scientists to identify species trapped in amber millions of years earlier. "We are only just at the very beginning of what we can discover about small animals from this amber locality," O'Connor said.
Study author Luis Chiappe, from the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, added, "Amber deposits tend to trap very small organisms and our new discovery is an example of that. There's no reason why you could not imagine very small vertebrate animals living in this ancient tropical forest.
In a related News & Views article, Roger Benson, from the U.K.'s University of Oxford, and was not involved in the study, said the "bizarre features" of O. khaungraae means its place in the evolutionary tree is unclear. The past decade has generated much data on the dinosaur–bird transition, greatly advancing our understanding of this major evolutionary event," he wrote. "In the past few years, Burmese amber has yielded surprising insights, including previously unseen feather and skeletal structures in other extinct birds.
"The study of small vertebrates preserved in amber, their ecosystems and their evolutionary relationships with one another is in a nascent phase. But Oculudentavis suggests that the potential for continued discovery remains large—especially for animals of diminutive sizes."
| New archeological discoveries | March 2020 | ['(Newsweek)'] |
Egyptian authorities arrest Mahmoud Ezzat, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was serving a sentence in absentia and was detained in a hideout in Cairo. | Egyptian authorities have arrested the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahmoud Ezzat, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry on Friday.
Ezzat was serving as one of the leaders of the organization's military wing in absentia and was arrested in a hideout in Cairo, said the ministry.
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The ministry said that it had discovered Ezzat in a fifth floor apartment in New Cairo as part of its wider operation to track down dissident Brotherhood leaders.
In a statement, the ministry listed the alleged crimes committed and roles played by Ezzat.
"The terrorist leader is primarily responsible for establishing the armed wing of the terrorist Brotherhood organization and supervising the management of terrorist and sabotage operations committed by the organization in the country after the June 30, 2013 revolution until its arrest, which was most notable:
According to Al Arabiya sources, Ezzat had been moving between a series of underground hideouts in the Egyptian capital and using technology to avoid being tracked.
After being arrested, Ezzat was moved to a security headquarters where he will be interrogated.
A security team from the National Security Agency and the Ministry of Interior is currently unloading several computers and mobile phones found with Ezzat, added the source, saying that the authorities are collecting data from the devices.
Authorities are also reportedly looking into a number of people who frequented the hideout where Ezzat was caught.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2020 | ['(Al Arabiya)'] |
Blackpool Football Club beat Cardiff City Football Club 3–2 in the 2010 Final of the Football League Championship play–offs to be guaranteed "the biggest windfall in global sport from the outcome of a single event". | Blackpool twice came from behind to defeat Cardiff and reach the Premier League for the first time after an engaging and, at times, breathtaking final at a sun-soaked Wembley.
The Tangerines won 3-2, with all the goals coming during an opening half of unbelievable excitement and occasionally awful defending. Michael Chopra and Joe Ledley twice put Cardiff ahead with crisp strikes but a Charlie Adam free-kick and a close-range finish from Gary Taylor-Fletcher drew the Lancashire side level on each occasion - before Brett Ormerod struck the winner shortly before the interval with a low strike. The result completes a remarkable season for Blackpool, who can now plan for the top-flight for the first time since the 1970-71 campaign. It also caps a sensational first season in charge for Seasiders boss Ian Holloway, who has stuck to his attacking principles all year and did so again at Wembley by sending his team out in a bold 4-3-3 formation.
Holloway defends attacking philosophy
Blackpool will arguably be the smallest club to have played in the Premier League, but they can now look forward to rubbing shoulders with English football's elite after beating Cardiff in a match estimated to be worth £90m to the winners. The result was perhaps a little harsh on the Bluebirds, who struck the woodwork twice through Michael Chopra. Manager Dave Jones saw his Cardiff side have the better of the second half but, after one of the most scintillating opening periods in play-off history, they could not find an equaliser. The Bluebirds' aim of becoming the first Welsh club to play Premier League football is on hold for at least one more season and rather than celebrating promotion they instead have financial issues to address over the summer.
They have survived several High Court winding-up orders over the season and have estimated debts of £15m as a Malaysian consortium prepares to invest in the club with Peter Ridsdale standing down as chairman. The match could not have started much better for the Welsh side, who laid down an early marker of intent when Chopra got across Alex Baptiste to toe-poke a cross from Peter Whittingham that smashed against the crossbar after just four minutes. Chopra, a lively and industrious presence throughout, had Jones's men in front five minutes later when he timed his run perfectly to stay onside before collecting Whittingham's threaded through ball and drilling his angled shot into the bottom corner. Cardiff looked capable of taking a firm stranglehold on the final but the inspirational Adam quickly restored parity with his left-foot free-kick over the Cardiff wall.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Downbeat Jones pinpoints Cardiff errors
And the match took another twist when the influential Jay Bothroyd, who had already found plenty of space in wide areas, limped off to be replaced by Kelvin Etuhu. Pool enjoyed a period of dominance as the Bluebirds tried to come to terms with their double blow, but Stephen Crainey shot wide and DJ Campbell, who scored a hat-trick in the play-off semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest, failed to connect with a precise low cross. It was developing into a pulsating encounter and Chopra might have restored Cardiff's lead from Whittingham's floated cross but the striker scuffed his volley. Ledley, out of contract this summer, had been relatively anonymous but he collected a delicious return pass from Whittingham before striking the ball beyond Matt Gilks, who got his angles wrong as he advanced out of goal. Cardiff's joy was again short-lived. Taylor-Fletcher struck the post from 20 yards after 39 minutes but a minute later he stabbed home from a corner after Mark Kennedy had cleared Ian Evatt's initial effort off the line.
And in first-half injury-time Campbell slipped as he attempted to shoot but the ball ran to Ormerod, who shot beyond David Marshall to put Holloway's men 3-2 up at the end of a breathtaking half. Cardiff defender Darcy Blake had the ball in the net before the interval but his effort was quite correctly ruled out for offside. Blackpool, fearless to the last, continued to attack after the break and should perhaps have made more from an early promising position but Taylor-Fletcher delayed his pass and Campbell's eventual shot was blocked. Taylor-Fletcher was replaced by striker Ben Burgess after 53 minutes and shortly afterwards Holloway brought on another forward, Stephen Dobbie, for Ormerod. There were signs of frustration from the Cardiff players, a feeling that only increased after Chopra collected a pass from Chris Burke and drilled another strike against the woodwork. Ledley went close after beating the unsure Gilks to a corner at the near post but his header flew narrowly wide, while Etuhu drew a save from the Tangerines keeper as the Bluebirds mounted a sustained period of pressure.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Cardiff backer upbeat after loss
The second half lacked the you-score, we-score, theatre of the opening 45 minutes but as the match moved into the final 20 minutes of normal time, the players started to tire in the heat and there was an increasing sense of anxiety emanating from the stands. Gilks dropped a cross under pressure from Chopra, with the ball almost running into his own net, but it was Pool who had the better of the late chances as they tried to hit their opponents on the break. Poor decision making prevented Holloway's team from scoring a fourth but they closed out the match to seal their place in the top flight. | Sports Competition | May 2010 | ['(The Sunday Times)', '(BBC)', '(The Independent)'] |
In San Bernardino, California, Charles "Chase" Merritt is found guilty of four counts of murder in the 2013 deaths of the McStay family. | Nearly a decade later, so much remains unknown about the murders of Joseph and Summer McStay and their two young boys.
They vanished from their Fallbrook home in 2010 and, more than three years later, their bodies were found buried in shallow graves in the Mojave Desert. But without a bloody crime scene, exactly when they died — and where — remains a mystery.
“What exactly happened in that house?” a prosecutor said in court late last month. “Only one person knows: the killer.”
A jury has concluded that person is Charles “Chase” Merritt, a business partner whom they convicted of bludgeoning the family of four before burying their bodies in the desert roughly 100 miles away.
The panel found Merritt guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, reaching their verdict on Friday morning after about a week of deliberating. Their verdict forms were sealed through the weekend and read publicly by a clerk in a packed San Bernardino courtroom on Monday morning.
Merritt, 62, sat at the defense table, staring ahead with his hands clasped together in front of him. When the clerk announced the outcome, he closed his eyes and inhaled slightly. He held his posture for several seconds, then dropped his head. Seated beside him, his attorney reached over and, for a moment, set his hand on Merritt’s arm.
“Oh, God,” someone in the audience shrieked. A woman on Merritt’s side ran out of the courtroom in tears. Members of the McStay family wept, one wiping her eyes with a tissue.
It was an emotional end to more than nine years of tragedy in a case that drew national attention, serving as the subject of documentaries and a book. Merritt’s five-month trial was streamed live by the website Law & Crime.
Proceedings are set to continue this week. The jury found Merritt responsible for multiple murders, making him eligible for the death penalty. Jurors will begin hearing testimony on Tuesday to decide his punishment. They were ordered by a judge not to speak to reporters until after the trial’s penalty phase.
Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict, saying the trial was ongoing. Defense attorneys could not be reached.
From the start, the family’s disappearance baffled detectives, who initially believed they may have ventured out on their own and planned to return.
The home showed signs of a swift departure: uneaten bowls of popcorn on the futon, vegetables left out to rot. There were no signs of a struggle or forced entry.
A check of the family’s computer revealed searches suggesting an international trip, including “What documents do children need for traveling to Mexico?” Within days, their Isuzu Trooper was towed from the parking lot of a strip mall near the border.
San Diego County sheriff’s detectives handed the investigation over to the FBI, saying they believed the family was out of the country.
It wasn’t until more than three years later that there was a break in the case. An off-road motorcyclist stumbled upon parts of a skull in the desert off Interstate 15 in Victorville.
Investigators unearthed two shallow graves. One contained the remains of Joseph McStay, 40, and Joey Jr., 3. The second had the remains of Summer McStay, 43, and Gianni, 4, along with a rusty sledgehammer.
Joseph McStay’s skull was shattered; his wife sustained a blow to the jaw. Both boys, killed presumably because they could have identified the attacker, had skull fractures.
Prosecutors said Merritt, of Rancho Cucamonga, was motivated by greed and self-interest in a case they acknowledged was built on circumstantial evidence.
Days before the disappearance, Joseph McStay accused Merritt — a welder who helped build custom water fountains for McStay’s company — of owing him thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors said Merritt then forged checks to himself from McStay’s QuickBooks account and tried to erase the paper trail. When speaking with detectives, Merritt referred to McStay in the past tense.
Prosecutors played video and audio clips for jurors of Merritt’s interviews with CNN and with investigators. In one, a reporter asks Merritt if he was the last person to see Joseph McStay.
“I’m definitely the last person he saw,” he replies.
In another, an investigator questions Merritt on why he refers to McStay in the past tense.
“Oh,” he said. “I did … I don’t know why.”
For several days after the family’s disappearance, they said, Merritt’s phone went dark for hours at a time. The shadow of a truck consistent with one driven by Merritt was captured on a home security camera in the McStay’s Fallbrook neighborhood, and Merritt’s cellphone records showed that his phone was in the vicinity of the desert grave sites two days after the disappearance.
A San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigator had testified that a DNA mixture, including a sample that matched Merritt’s genetic profile, was found on the gearshift and steering wheel of the Isuzu.
The defense team argued that Merritt was wrongfully accused in a case based entirely on motive.
“They’ve spun a lot of tales to you,” defense attorney Rajan Maline told jurors during closing arguments. “They’ve given you half truths.”
Defense attorneys pointed to another of McStay’s business associates, who they said siphoned money from McStay’s accounts after he went missing. They argued that no boarding pass or ticket verified the prosecution’s assertion that the associate had traveled to Hawaii at the time.
In an interview with The Times before the trial, Joseph McStay’s father said he had been living in a fog for nine years. Patrick McStay, who lives in Texas and launched an online fundraiser to pay for trips to California for the trial, had investigated the family’s disappearance and chronicled his findings in a book, “McStays, Taken Too Soon: A True Story.”
After Monday’s proceeding, he and more than a dozen other loved ones walked out of the courthouse flanked by news cameras. They declined to be interviewed.
But in the middle of the crowd, Joseph McStay’s mother, Susan Blake, turned to a woman exiting next to her and smiled. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2019 | ['(The Los Angeles Times)'] |
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurs at Kīlauea. | A 4.4-magnitude earthquake struck Hawaii's Big Island Friday near the summit of Kilauea voclano, the U.S. Geological Survey said, the largest of several quakes that struck Friday. The tremor did not generate a tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center told CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB.
The agency says the island doesn't face a tsunami threat after the temblor struck around 12:44 p.m. Friday. County officials have warned of aftershocks.
An earthquake at 6 p.m. Thursday sent an ash cloud 10,000 feet into the air, the USGS said.
The Kilauea volcano has been erupting for three weeks, spewing lava from cracks that emerged in neighborhoods and sending ash sky-high from its summit. Earthquakes also have been occurring.
Hawaii County officials say the number of structures lava has destroyed on the Big Island is now 82. So far, lava has covered 3.4 square miles of land in lower Puna, cutting off access to at least 37 homes, KGMB reports. About 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate from the rural communities where the lava fissures opened.
On Thursday night, resident Isaac Krakauer took to Facebook Live to document lava flows claiming several homes in the Leilani Estates subdivision.
"This is insane. This lava is advancing at about two feet more minute and we're seeing this river move across this lawn taking that house in a matter of minutes," Krakauer said in the video, as he documents a landscape on fire — a field of lava over lawns, covering trees and advancing on homes.
"This thing is moving so fast. It's hard to even look at it, it's so bright and hot," Krakauer said.
| Earthquakes | May 2018 | ['(CBS News)'] |
Egyptian security forces clash with militants in the town of Kerdasah on the outskirts of Cairo with one member of the security forces dead. | At least 1,000 people - including about 100 police officers - have died in unrest following President Morsi's removal from power.
The deadliest incidents took place when security forces moved in to disperse two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo last month. Hundreds of members of the security forces backed by helicopters entered Kerdasa at about 05:30 local time (03:30 GMT). In the fighting that followed grenades were hurled at police, injuring 10 officers, according to General Medhat El Menshawy, head of special security forces.
Thousands of people had attended a pro-Morsi rally in the town on Wednesday night amid shouts of "Down with Sisi", referring to the head of the army.
One of those arrested on Thursday is said to be Ahmad Uways, the man accused of killing the head of Kerdasa police station on 14 August.
Gen Menshawy said the detainees included people suspected of burning churches in the town and parading the bodies of the police officers killed last month. | Armed Conflict | September 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
A fire at the Sindika Trade Center, a construction materials shopping center in the northwestern edge of Moscow, Russia, forces the evacuation of at least 3000 people. , | (This version of the story from 8th October has been refiled to fix a typo in the headline)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian firefighters on Sunday used specially equipped helicopters to dump water on a construction goods market on the northwestern edge of Moscow that caught fire.
The fire at the market sent a thick cloud of gray smoke billowing into the air, footage broadcast on Russian television showed. The fire was causing tailbacks on the nearby Moscow orbital highway, according to live traffic data.
Three thousand shoppers and staff have been evacuated from the market, Russian media quoted emergency services officials as saying. There were no reports of any casualties.
Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Alison Williams | Fire | October 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper appoints a five–member advisory committee on Afghanistan to be chaired by John Manley of the opposition Liberal Party of Canada. | The Prime Minister of Canada has appointed a member of the opposition Liberal Party to set up an advisory committee on Afghanistan.
Canada's military commitment to Afghanistan ends in February, 2009.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is trying to create an advisory body that is apolitical, so he chose former Liberal Party deputy prime minister John Manley to head the five-person committee.
While Mr Manley is considered hawkish on Afghanistan, he remains no friend of the Prime Minister.
Afghanistan remains one of the most important political issues in Canada today.
The current commitment to keep 2,500 soldiers in the country expires in just 16 months.
Right now all three of the opposition political parties are calling for Canada's role to be reduced, if not eliminated.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2007 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
Per Section 24 of the Constitution, Thailand formally confirms as the Regent pro tempore Prem Tinsulanonda, the President of the Privy Council and the former confidant of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. , | updated:
14 Oct 2016 at 23:30
writer: Online Reporters
Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda has been named Regent pro tempore following the passing of His Majesty the King on Thursday, NLA vice-president Peerasak Porjit said on Friday.
Gen Prem's appointment is in line with the constitution, which states that the council president is acting regent when the throne is vacant, according to Section 24.
"Pending the proclamation of the name of the Heir or the Successor to the Throne under Article 23, the President of the Privy Council shall be Regent pro tempore," the constitution says.
The duty of the Regent pro tempore ends when a meeting of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) invites the heir to ascend the throne, according to Section 23.
The NLA vice-president said the NLA meeting on Thursday evening was held under Section 2 of the interim constitution which the cabinet should have submitted the heir name for acknowledgment. Then the NLA chairman would invite the heir to step on the throne.
However, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha informed the NLA on Thursday that the heir, HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, would like to take some time to grieve with the nation before accepting the invitation to become the new king.
Therefore, a regent pro tempore is needed during this transition period. Mr Peerasak said the Privy Council president would automatically take that position.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam also confirmed on Friday night that the Privy Council president has been named the regent.
Gen Prem, 96, was appointed council president in 1988, succeeding former prime minister Sanya Dharmasakti.
Gen Prem was prime minister for eight years from 1980.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2016 | ['(The Bangkok Post)', '(The Irrawaddy)'] |
At least 1,347 people are now known to have died in the aftermath of the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami. | The number of people known to have died in Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has risen to 1,347, disaster response officials say.
The death toll jumped on Tuesday from a previously confirmed figure of 844.
The 7.5-magnitude quake struck just off the central island of Sulawesi, setting off a tsunami that engulfed the coastal city of Palu.
Aid supplies are beginning to arrive in the city, where survivors have no access to running water or electricity.
As tensions and need run high, police have begun guarding shops against looters.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Palu saw police firing warning shots and tear gas on Tuesday as people tried to take supplies from one shop.
Officers initially took a lenient approach to survivors seizing basic goods, deputy national police chief Ari Dono Sukmanto said, but some people have since been arrested for stealing computers and cash.
"After day two the food supply started to come in, it only needed to be distributed," he said. "We are now re-enforcing the law."
Humanitarian relief convoys entering the city are also being escorted by soldiers and police.
In a separate incident, a volcano began erupting on the same island, Sulawesi, on Wednesday.
Mount Soputan is about 1,000km (600 miles) away from Palu, and it was not immediately seen as a threat to the aid operation. | Tsunamis | October 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
82–year–old General Reynaldo Bignone, former military ruler of Argentina, is imprisoned for 25 years for abductions and tortures committed between 1978 and 1979. | Argentina's former military ruler Reynaldo Bignone has been sentenced to 25 years for human rights abuses committed almost three decades ago.
Gen Bignone, 82, ordered abductions and torture while second in command of the country's largest torture centre between 1976 and 1978. Relatives of victims held up photos of their loved ones and cheered at the end of the trial in Buenos Aires. Six officials from the same era were also handed jail terms. Gen Bignone, who served as de facto president between 1982-83, was found guilty of involvement in 56 cases of murder, torture and kidnappings. His charges were for crimes committed before becoming leader, when he was in charge of the notorious Campo de Mayo military base.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Houston Chronicle)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
The Scottish National Party wins an absolute majority in the Scottish elections with a referendum on independence likely. , | The SNP could be on course for an historic victory at Holyrood, should early results be replicated across the country.
The earliest calls have shown a significant swing to the SNP from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The party has already taken two seats in Labour’s Lanarkshire heartlands, with Linda Fabiani taking East Kilbride from former Health Minister Andy Kerr and Christina McKelvie taking Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse from Tom McCabe.
In East Kilbride, the SNP achieved a 6.5% swing – increasing its share of the vote by 10.3%.
Commenting on his shock defeat, Mr Kerr, one of Labour’s most high-profile candidates, said the party would have to “deal with this terrible situation we find ourselves in” and added: “The SNP has had a very fair run for the media.”
The result in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse saw a 6.6% swing to the SNP, with the party taking 48.1% of the vote, an increase of 17.7% from their 2007 result.
Ms McKelvie credited the campaigners who had worked with her throughout the election and declared: “This victory is not mine, this victory is my teams.”
She added: "We took forward a message of aspiration and hope, and people listened to us.
"If the swing that I took to win this seat is replicated across the country, it bodes well for the SNP."
Although Labour’s James Kelly held on to Rutherglen seat, the result in the constituency showed an 8.9% swing to the SNP. Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray held his East Lothian seat by just 151 votes.
If the results were repeated across Scotland, the SNP could take 59 seats.
SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon told STV the party was "already on course" for an historic night.
| Government Job change - Election | May 2011 | ['(STV)', '(BBC)'] |
27 people were killed by a suicide car bomb in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border during a tribal meeting planning the eviction of the Taliban from the area. | Twenty-seven people have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack at a meeting of tribal elders in a restive region of Pakistan near the Afghan border.
Eighty-one people were injured, many of them critically, in the blast in the Orakzai semi-autonomous tribal region.
The bomber struck as some 600 people held an open-air meeting to raise a militia to evict Taleban from the area.
In recent weeks, tribesmen in the north-west have taken up arms to fight the Taleban alongside Pakistani troops.
Orakzai, near the main north-west city of Peshawar, has been relatively calm in recent months.
But other parts of the north-west have seen sustained military operations by Pakistani troops against militants in the regions of Bajaur and Swat.
There has also been an upsurge in cross-border attacks against suspected militant targets in Pakistan by US forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistan says these are undermining its efforts in the "war on terror".
'Revenge'
Those present at Friday's meeting in Orakzai said the suicide bomber drove his car into the gathering and blew himself up.
"We were busy raising a lashkar [tribal militia] to evict Taleban from the region when this attack took place," Qeemat Khan Orakzai, a member of the council, told Reuters news agency.
"I fell down unconscious. When I woke up, I saw dead and wounded around me."
A security official told AFP news agency: "The tribesmen blew up two hideouts of the militants a day earlier and it is possible this attack was in revenge for their actions."
The attack also comes a day after the Taleban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing of a building belonging to an anti-terror squad in the capital Islamabad's main police complex.
They are also suspected to have been behind a roadside bombing in Dir in North West Frontier Province which killed at least 10 people, four of them schoolgirls.
Pro-Taleban militants on the Pakistan side of the border have been blamed for a rise in attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.
The Taleban has killed dozens of tribal elders they accuse of backing the government in recent years.
America has increased strikes in Bajaur and other tribal areas on the Afghan border, targeting suspected militants.
The Pakistani army has denounced the raids. It fears they will make the tribes switch sides, and turn the emerging anti-Taleban sentiment into an anti-American one.
"We want them [the US] to realise that these attacks are destabilising the situation, and they are not helping them or Pakistan," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said on Friday. | Armed Conflict | October 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Amor Ftouhi is found guilty of three federal charges in the stabbing of an airport police officer last year in Flint, Michigan. | Follow NBC News FLINT, Mich. — A Montreal man who told investigators that his "mission was to kill and be killed" was convicted of terrorism and other crimes Tuesday in the stabbing of a Michigan airport officer.
It was a slam dunk for federal prosecutors: Witnesses saw Amor Ftouhi attack Lt. Jeff Neville at the Flint airport in June 2017 and wrestled him to the ground.
Ftouhi, 53, was convicted of three crimes. He's a native of Tunisia who was living in Montreal at the time of the stabbing.
"This isn't a mystery. He was caught right there. He has the knife in his hand," Assistant U.S. Attorney Cathleen Corken told jurors.
Investigators say Ftouhi wanted to stab Neville , take his gun and start shooting people in the airport. He legally drove into the U.S. at Champlain, New York, and arrived in Flint five days later. He tried but failed to buy a gun at a gun show and instead bought a large knife.
Witnesses said he yelled, "Allahu akbar" — God is great — during the attack.
Neville survived but has lost feeling in part of his face as a result of being stabbed in the neck.
"This is what a Muslim is born for," Ftouhi said in a handwritten note to his wife that was found in his apartment.
FBI agent Shadi Elreda told jurors about his interview with Ftouhi after his arrest. He said Ftouhi was upset that Neville might survive.
"His mission was to kill and be killed. He said his mission was not over," Elreda testified.
Ftouhi's lawyers didn't offer an opening statement at trial and didn't call any witnesses. In her closing argument, attorney Joan Morgan said Ftouhi was unstable and believed it would be easier to be killed by police in the U.S. than in Canada. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2018 | ['(NBC News)'] |
In association football, Germany defeats Spain 1–0 in the final to win the 2017 edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship. | Last updated on 30 June 201730 June 2017.From the section European Football
Germany won their second European Under-21 Championship with victory over four-time champions Spain in Poland.
Mitchell Weiser's superb, looping first-half header was enough to give the Germans a first title since 2009.
Spain, looking to win the competition for the third time in its past four stagings, went closest to an equaliser when Saul Niguez's effort was saved.
But Germany, who beat England on penalties in the semi-final, easily withstood late Spanish pressure.
Germany's 2009 winning side, who beat England in that final, included current senior regulars Manuel Neuer, Mesut Ozil, Jerome Boateng, Sami Khedira and Mats Hummels, and there will certainly be future stars from this crop of youngsters.
Former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry, who has moved from Werder Bremen to Bayern Munich this summer, already has two senior caps and he put in a standout performance characterised by pace and creativity.
And the match-winning header from Hertha Berlin wideman Weiser was of international quality, as he met Jeremy Toljan's cross to flick the ball into the far corner of the net from a tight angle.
Spain, captained by Barcelona-bound Gerard Deulofeu, came into the final as strong favourites and had momentum, having beaten Italy 3-1 in the semi-finals.
But their hat-trick hero from that game - Saul - was presented with few chances as Germany, managed by former international Stefan Kuntz, were able to make the Spaniards' superior possession count for little.
Several of Germany's usual under-21 internationals are in Russia for the Confederations Cup after Joachim Low named a youthful squad for the tournament. They face Chile in Sunday's final.
Formation 4-1-4-1
Formation 4-3-3
Match ends, Germany U21 1, Spain U21 0.
Second Half ends, Germany U21 1, Spain U21 0.
Attempt missed. Maximilian Arnold (Germany U21) left footed shot from more than 35 yards misses to the left.
Dani Ceballos (Spain U21) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Levin Öztunali (Germany U21).
Foul by Iñaki Williams (Spain U21).
Maximilian Arnold (Germany U21) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
José Gayá (Spain U21) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Levin Öztunali (Germany U21).
Jesús Vallejo (Spain U21) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Jesús Vallejo (Spain U21).
Mitchell Weiser (Germany U21) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Saúl Ñíguez (Spain U21) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by José Gayá. | Sports Competition | June 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Robert Mugabe proposes a run-off election to determine the outcome. | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe accepted that he had lost the country’s presidential elections and will contest a run-off vote, his election agent said on Friday.
“The presidential result as announced do not reflect the genuine expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people given the many anomalies, malpractices, deflation of figures relating to ZANU-PF candidates,” chief election agent Emmerson Mnangagwa told reporters.
| Government Job change - Election | May 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Moon Jae-in pledges to make South Korea "a just, united country." | SEOUL (Reuters) - Liberal politician Moon Jae-in decisively won South Korea’s presidential election on Tuesday, television networks declared, an expected victory ending nearly a decade of conservative rule and bringing a more conciliatory approach toward North Korea.
Moon’s victory will end months of political turmoil that led to parliament’s impeachment of conservative former President Park Geun-hye over an extensive corruption scandal, which a court upheld in March. Park became the first democratically elected leader in South Korea to be removed from office, triggering a snap election to choose her successor.
Climbing a temporary stage set up in the main square in downtown Seoul, a beaming Moon surrounded by his Democratic Party leaders, vowed to usher in a new era for a country badly bruised by the scandal in a midnight victory speech.
“I will make a just, united country,” he told a crowd gathered to see the former human rights lawyer who entered politics just five years ago. “I will be a president who also serves all the people who did not support me.”
With 80 percent of the votes counted at 1705 GMT, Moon was ahead with 40 percent, according to the National Election Commission. A conservative challenger, former prosecutor Hong Joon-pyo, was next with 25.5 percent followed by centrist candidate Ahn Cheol-soo with 21.4 percent.
A plurality of votes is enough for victory.
The results were in line with an exit poll by South Korea’s three biggest broadcasters, which showed Moon, 64, capturing 41.4 percent of the votes in a field of 13 candidates.
“If exit polls are true, I will accept the results and just be satisfied with the fact that the Liberty Korea Party will be restored,” a downcast Hong told members of his conservative party.
Ahn said he would “humbly accept” the result.
Voter turnout was 77.2 percent, the highest in 20 years, but short of the expected 80 percent mark, as voters headed to the polls in drizzly weather.
The White House congratulated Moon on his election win, saying it looked forward to working with him to strengthen the longstanding U.S.-South Korea alliance.
A U.S. official said Moon’s election could add “volatility” to ties with Washington, given his questioning of deployment of a U.S. missile defense there and his advocacy of engagement with North Korea when the Trump administration seeks to step up pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.
But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Moon may moderate his stance on installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system once he is in office and is not expected to significantly alter the alliance.
Moon is expected to be sworn in for a five-year term later on Wednesday. He has said he would skip a lavish inauguration ceremony and start work straight away.
He is likely to quickly name a prime minister, who will need parliamentary approval. The main cabinet posts, including national security and finance ministers, do not need parliamentary confirmation.
Moon, who narrowly lost to Park in the last presidential election in 2012, favours dialogue with North Korea to ease tension over its accelerating nuclear and missile program. He also wants to reform powerful family-run conglomerates, such as Samsung and Hyundai, and boost fiscal spending to create jobs.
Moon has criticized the two previous conservative governments for failing to stop North Korea’s weapons development. He advocates a two-track policy of seeking dialogue with the North while maintaining pressure and sanctions to encourage change.
His Democratic Party holds 40 percent of the single-chamber, 299-seat assembly, which means he will have to build coalitions to pass legislation.
His victory was bolstered by strong support from younger people, according to the exit polls. Many of his supporters participated in big, peaceful weekend rallies over the last few months of 2016 and early this year, demanding Park step down.
Only 22-25 percent of people in their 60s and 70s voted for Moon, exit polls showed, underscoring a long-standing generation gap. Many older people are wary of Moon’s less confrontational stance on North Korea.
The election is being closely watched abroad at a time of high tension with North Korea, which is believed to be preparing for a sixth nuclear test and has vowed to test an intercontinental missile.
Britain’s Sky News quoted North Korea’s ambassador to the Britain, Choe Il, as saying in an interview that Pyongyang would go ahead with a nuclear test “at the place and time as decided by our supreme leader, Kim Jong Un,” despite international warnings not to do so.
Moon, whose campaign promises include a “National Interest First” policy, has struck a chord with people who want the country to stand up to powerful allies and neighbors.
He wrote in a book published in January South Korea should learn to say “no to America”.
Moon said in a YouTube live stream on Tuesday that South Korea should take on a more active diplomatic role to curb North Korea’s nuclear threat and not watch idly as the United States and China talk to each other.
Moon was a close friend and confidant of late president Roh Moo-hyun, who served from 2003 to 2008 and advocated a “Sunshine Policy” of engaging North Korea through aid and exchanges.
Moon believes better inter-Korean relations is the best way to provide security. But Washington is worried his moderate stance could undercut efforts to increase pressure and sanctions, senior South Korean officials said.
“Things are not right to resume the so-called Sunshine Policy, as the U.S. and China turned more hostile toward North Korea,” said Koh Yu-hwan, Dongguk University professor of North Korean studies, who is serving as a foreign policy adviser to Moon.
“Still, Moon is expected to engage in discussions, which could improve North-South relations.”
Moon’s election could also complicate the deployment of the THAAD system, which the former government in Seoul and the U.S. military agreed to last year and which U.S. officials said last week had reached initial operating capability.
Moon has said the decision was made too quickly and the next administration should have the final say on whether to deploy the system.
For graphic on South Korea's presidential election, click tmsnrt.rs/2p0AyLf
For graphic on election demographics, click tmsnrt.rs/2pGD25v
Additional reporting by Se Young Lee in Seoul and Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Soyoung Kim and Jack Kim; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Sandra Maler
| Famous Person - Give a speech | May 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Wang Huning, a senior official of the Communist Party of China, meets with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé in Beijing, China. | Wang Huning (R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, meets with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Wang Huning on Wednesday met with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on Sept. 3-4.
Wang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, said China stands ready to work with Togo to implement the outcomes of the summit, align the Belt and Road Initiative with Togo's vision to become an emerging country in 2030, and expand pragmatic cooperation to benefit the peoples of the two countries.
Faure Gnassingbe congratulated China on the success of the Beijing summit which signified the strong friendship between Africa and China. He said the negative comments concerning the Africa-China cooperation are unacceptable in Africa.
He expressed Togo's willingness to work with China to implement the outcomes of the summit and advance the bilateral relations and Africa-China friendship. | Diplomatic Visit | September 2018 | ['(Xinhua)'] |
In speed skating, Sven Kramer wins the men's 2013 World Allround Speed Skating Championships for a record sixth time. Ireen Wüst wins the women's title. | Kramer, sacré le mois dernier champion d'Europe pour la sixième fois de sa carrière a devancé le Norvégien Havard Boekko et le Belge Bart Swings. Il s'est classé 9e du 500 m et 1er du 5000 m samedi, 4e du 1500 m et 1er du 10.000 m Kramer, 26 ans, avait déjà été sacré en 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 et 2012 et devance désormais le Norvégien Oscar Mathisen et le Finlandais Clas Thunberg, cinq fois sacrés respectivement dans les années 1910 et 1930. Le Néerlandais qui avait fait l'impasse sur la saison 2010-11 en raison d'une blessure à une cuisse, affiche à son palmarès 17 titres mondiaux et seulement un titre olympique, sur 5000 m en 2010. Chez les dames, le titre est revenu à la Néerlandaise Ireen Wüst, son quatrième après 2007, 2011 et 2012, le 10e de sa carrière. MESSIEURS 1500 m: 1. Havard Boekko (NOR) 1:46.34 2. Zbigniew Brodka (POL) 1:46.49 3. Bart Swings (BEL) 1:46.51 4. Sven Kramer (NED) 1:46.75 5. Denis Yuskov (RUS) 1:46.77 10.000 m 1. Sven Kramer (NED) 13:11.86 2. Bart Swings (BEL) 13:11.91 3. Havard Boekko (NOR) 13:15.83 4. Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR) 13:25.65 5. Renz Rotteveel (NED) 13:35.84 Classement final (après les quatre épreuves): 1. Sven Kramer (NED) 149,228 pts 2. Havard Boekko (NOR) 149,447 3. Bart Swings (BEL) 149,800 Disputés samedi 500 m 1. Zbigniew Brodka (POL) 35.80 2. Havard Boekko (NOR) 36.01 3. Haralds Silovs (LAT) 36.20 4. Jan Szymanski (POL) 36.39 5. Sun Longjiang (CHN) 36.50 ... 9. Sven Kramer (NED) 36.71 5000 m 1. Sven Kramer (NED) 6:13.42 2. Ivan Skobrev (RUS) 6:19.06 3. Bart Swings (BEL) 6:19.72 4. Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR) 6:20.06 5. Havard Boekko (NOR) 6:22.0 DAMES 1500 m: 1. Ireen Wüst (NED) 1:56.30 2. Yekaterina Shikhhova (RUS) 1:56.31 3. Linda de Vries (NED) 1:57.46 4. Christine Nesbitt (CAN) 1:57.47 5. Diane Valkenburg (NED) 1:57.87 5000 m: 1. Ireen Wüst (NED) 7:05.13 2. Diane Valkenburg (NED) 7:07.07 3. Linda de Vries (NED) 7:09.23 4. Masako Hozumi (JPN) 7:10.19 5. Yekaterina Shikhhova (RUS) 7:16.48 Classement final (après les quatre épreuves): 1. Ireen Wüst (NED) 161,350 pts 2. Diane Valkenburg (NED) 163,120 3. Yekaterina Shikhhova (RUS) 163,444 Disputés samedi 500 m: 1. Christine Nesbitt (CAN) 38.60 2. Ireen Wüst (NED) 39.35 3. Lotte Van Beek (NED) 39.44 4. Miho Takagi (JPN) 39.53 5. Yekaterina Shikhhova (RUS) 39.57 3000 m: 1. Ireen Wüst (NED) 4:05.41 2. Diane Valkenburg (NED) 4:08.12 3. Ida Njåtun (NOR) 4:08.64 4. Yekaterina Shikhova (RUS) 4:08,74 5. Linda De Vries (NED) 4:10.20 ./jr/alh
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The Salesman directed by Asghar Farhadi won Best Foreign Language Film. Farhadi and other film crew did not attend the ceremony in protest of Donald Trump's visa ban. First Iranian in space Anousheh Ansari and scienist Firouz Naderi attended in place of Farhadi. | Protest vote against Donald Trump’s travel ban suspected to be partly behind Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s surprise victory
Follow the Oscars action – live!
Last modified on Fri 9 Feb 2018 18.49 GMT
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has won the best foreign language Oscar in Los Angeles, for a second time, for domestic drama The Salesman. Farhadi, 44, did not attend the ceremony because he said that the conditions that would be attached to a potential entry visa were unacceptable.
The director had originally planned to travel to Hollywood for the prize-giving to highlight “the unjust circumstances that have arisen for the immigrants and travellers of several countries to the United States”.
The surge in votes for his film was thought by some to be a registration by Oscar voters of a protest against Donald Trump’s travel ban, which aimed to prevent people coming to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries. On Sunday evening in London, a free screening of The Salesman was introduced by London mayor Sadiq Khan. Until the ramifications of the ban for film-makers such as Farhadi became clear, Germany’s Toni Erdmann had been the strong favourite to take the prize. The other nominees were Land of Mine (Denmark), Tanna (Australia) and A Man Called Ove (Sweden). The Salesman premiered at Cannes last May, where it won best actor for Shahab Hosseini and best screenplay for Farhadi – despite moderate notices from critics. The film follows a couple in Tehran involved in an amateur dramatic production of Arthur Miller’s The Salesman, who are forced to move apartments following an earthquake. But the flat into which they move has an unhappy history, compounded by an unwelcome intruder. Farhadi won Iran’s first Oscar for his film A Separation in 2012. This second award puts him in an elite category of double-winners in the category, including Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman. Iran’s first person in space, Anousheh Ansari, read out a statement from Farhadi at the podium: “ My absence is out of respect for the people of my country, and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the US.” | Awards ceremony | February 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Unrest in Uzbekistan: Various governments, including that of the United States, demand further investigation into the events. Uzbek government troops report that they have retaken the town of Qorasuv. President Islom Karimov rejects calls for international inquiry. Oppositions group fear that state will begin active oppression against them | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration on Wednesday called for an international investigation into last week's violence in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, and said it was becoming increasingly clear that Uzbek forces deliberately fired on protesters.
"Reports being compiled paint a very disturbing picture of the events and the government of Uzbekistan's reaction to them," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The U.S. move follows an earlier call by the United Nations for an independent investigation into the killings and an assessment of reports of excessive use of force by authorities.
In a statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour urged the Uzbek government "to guarantee the rights Uzbekistan has pledged to uphold under international law, including the freedoms of assembly and expression." The violence began last Thursday when a group of citizens -- angered by the arrest of several prominent business owners -- stormed the prison where they were being held on charges of religious extremism.
At one point, about 10,000 protesters gathered in the city center to demand the resignation of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, a U.S. ally.
Boucher voiced concern about reports of hostage-taking and the release of members of the terrorist group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, after the armed assault on the prison.
Still, he said, it was becoming apparent that "very large numbers of civilians were killed by the indiscriminate use of force by Uzbek forces."
A senior State Department official said although Uzbekistan was battling a difficult problem with terrorists, the attack on the square was "certainly an overreaction to the kind of threat they are faced with."
Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, met this week with officials from countries belonging to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe about the concerns.
In addition, the U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan officially toured the area with other diplomats.
But Boucher said the Uzbek government had to do "much more" to produce a thorough and transparent investigation.
"We do think there needs to be an open and credible transparent inquiry into this, and the international community would stand ready to assist in that," he said.
Accounts of the death toll in Andijan have varied greatly. The Uzbek government has said 169 died, but an opposition leader said her party had compiled a list of 745 people allegedly killed by government troops in the former Soviet state. The country's top prosecutor Rashid Kadyrov said 32 of those who died were government troops and indicated the others were militants.
"Only terrorists were liquidated by government forces," he told a news conference, with President Karimov at his side -- contradicting the accounts of witnesses to the violence. Meanwhile Wednesday, U.N. officials, foreign diplomats and journalists were taken for the first time to the city of Andijan where witnesses said troops shot dead hundreds of people. However the visitors were not allowed to see School No. 15 where witnesses said the killings took place. "Write that down in your story that they never took us to the school," Reuters news agency quoted one diplomat as shouting to reporters from a bus taking the envoys and foreign journalists back to the airport. The group included diplomats from a number of European countries, including Britain, Romania and the Czech Republic, and China and South Korea. | Riot | May 2005 | ['(Reuters Alertnet)', '(Mosnews)', '(ReliefWeb)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(Moscow Times)', '(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, leader of Hamas, is killed by an Israeli missile attack. | GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the leader of the militant group Hamas in Gaza, was killed Saturday in Gaza City by an Israeli missile strike, Israeli officials and Palestinian security sources said.
An Israeli helicopter launched the strike on Rantisi's car, the sources said, also killing two others -- one of them a bodyguard. Rantisi was taken to a hospital, where he died shortly afterward.
Rantisi was one of Hamas' most high profile figures, often speaking to international journalists, but he only assumed the mantle of the leader of Hamas in Gaza last month -- after Israel killed the group's founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry official confirmed that the missile strike was a targeted killing. "This evening, in a security forces operation in the Northern Gaza Strip, the IDF targeted a car carrying the leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who is directly responsible for the killing of scores of Israelis in numerous terror attacks," a statement from the Israel Defense Forces said.
A huge explosion was heard in Gaza City, and half of the city lost electricity.
Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir said this was not the first time Israel has targeted Rantisi.
"We tried to do it a few months ago. At that time, he managed to run away. This time we got him," Meir said.
"Somebody who is sending suicide bombers to kill innocent Israelis is a legitimate target for the government of Israel," he told CNN.
Ten other people were injured, Palestinian medical sources said.
When news of the killing swept through the territory, thousands of Hamas activists spilled into the streets.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned the killing, saying: "We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the consequences of such actions.
"At the end of the day, violence will breed more violence, hatred will breed more hatred." Rantisi was appointed to head Hamas in Gaza after the group's founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was killed last month in an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City.
The military wing of Hamas vowed to deliver 100 "unique" responses in retailiation and called all of its cells to be ready for the promised responses. The statement said the Palestinian people should not worry about there being a response but that it would take time to prepare it well. The strike came hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber launched an attack in the Erez industrial zone Saturday, killing a border police officer and wounding three others.
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack.
An Al Aqsa spokesman identified the bomber as Fadi al-Amudi of Beit Lahaya, in northern Gaza near Erez. An Israeli army official said the bomber had worked in the zone for the past two years. He died at the scene.
A second attacker, from Hamas, tried but failed to enter the industrial zone, an Al Aqsa source said. The military said it knew nothing about a second bomber.
Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization whose military wing has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. Al Aqsa is a military offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement that has attacked military and civilian targets in Israel, and in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Both are considered terrorist organizations by Israel and teh United States.
There is heavy security around the busy industrial area, where the bomber detonated explosives at an entrance where the workers are checked before they can go to their jobs.
At least 2,900 entered Erez on Saturday. The zone was closed as a result of the bombing, and it is not known when it will reopen. Many Palestinians work there.
The Erez industrial zone was closed for several days in January after a female suicide bomber killed four Israelis at a checkpoint there. Ten other people were wounded in that blast.
The attack came three days after President Bush met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington.
In that meeting, Bush endorsed Sharon's plan to withdraw all Jewish settlements and troops from Gaza and all but six blocs of Jewish settlements from the West Bank. (Full story) | Famous Person - Death | April 2004 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
A road accident kills 15 members of the Nigerian Football Federation's FC Jimeta. | Police in Nigeria say 15 members of a local government football team have been killed in a road accident in central Plateau state.
The Nigeria Football Federation head, Mohamed Sanusi, said the team had been on their way to play a match in Abuja.
A similar incident in the same area last month killed at least nine female football players.
Correspondents say Nigeria's roads are among the most dangerous in the world, killing thousands of people every year.
Mr Sanusi said the team, FC Jimeta from north-east Adamawa state, had been heading to the capital for a professional league match when their bus was involved in an accident.
He told AFP news agency that 11 players had died at the scene while four others died in hospital. Two other injured players were said to be "on the danger list". | Road Crash | January 2009 | ['(BBC News)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order freezing all assets and interests of the Venezuelan government as contained within the United States, a severe escalation from recent industry sanctions and verbal rhetoric. Twenty-one exceptions are issued, for companies providing services including oil, aid, and telecommunications. The expanded sanctions are widely criticized as likely to worsen the conditions for people in Venezuela. | LIMA (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday said Washington was ready to impose sanctions on any international company doing business with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a sharp escalation of U.S. pressure on the leftist leader.
Bolton, addressing a summit on Venezuela in the Peruvian capital Lima, emphasized that tougher international action was needed to speed up a transition of power in the country, where more than four million Venezuelans have fled economic collapse.
“We are sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with the Maduro regime: proceed with extreme caution,” Bolton said.
His speech came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that freezes the assets of the Venezuelan government and bans any transactions with it, an act that could ensnare its dealings with Russia and China as well as with Western companies.
Bolton, one of the Trump administration’s most influential hawks on Venezuela, told reporters the move forces companies around the world to choose whether to risk access to the United States and its financial system for business with Maduro.
Asked by a reporter how Venezuela would respond to the executive order, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said: “I’m going to paraphrase Donald Trump ... All options are on the table.”
Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council on Tuesday to intervene.
“This is an act of war by the United States,” Moncada told reporters. “Venezuela is not a threat to anyone and the United States is fabricating this aggression just to take the oil.”
The 15-member U.N. Security Council will be unable to take any action as the United States is one of the body’s five veto powers, along with Russia, China, Britain and France.
It was the first U.S. asset freeze against an entire government in the Western Hemisphere in more than 30 years. But it was also a reminder that successive rounds of U.S. sanctions have so far failed to peel away the crucial support of Venezuela’s military for Maduro, who took office in 2013 following the death of his political mentor President Hugo Chavez.
Continuing the state controls started under Chavez, Maduro has overseen one of the worst economic collapses in recent world history, leaving his nation of 30 million people with severe shortages of food and medicine despite sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves.
In private, Bolton had told Peruvian officials the measure would have the effect of about tripling current sanctions related to Venezuela, a Peruvian government source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The executive order stopped short, however, of a full U.S. trade embargo of the kind imposed on Cuba, experts said, by excluding Venezuela’s still sizeable private sector.
The order maintains some exemptions for companies that do business with state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], and licenses published on Tuesday reiterated that companies like Chevron and Halliburton can continue to do business with PDVSA in Venezuela through Oct. 25.
Some experts said the move could lead to pushback from other countries, and would require a lot of time and money to prove foreign companies are undermining sanctions.
“How much is the U.S. government willing to spend in diplomatic capital in economic costs in the United States, in order to further its Venezuela policy? said David Murray of the Washington-based firm Financial Integrity Network, an expert on sanctions compliance.
RUSSIA: ‘ECONOMIC TERROR’
Most Western and Latin American democracies accuse Maduro of rigging elections last year and are calling for him to step down so the country can hold a fresh presidential ballot.
The summit, organized by Peru, a regional leader on demanding democratic reforms in Venezuela, had aimed to build support for new elections with Maduro’s allies. Yet Russia, China, Cuba, Turkey, Bolivia and Iran all boycotted the summit.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Washington’s asset freeze was illegal and amounted to “economic terror”, the RIA news agency reported.
The order also could inflame the U.S.-China trade war if it hits Beijing hard, with Venezuela owing China oil deliveries as repayment for loans through 2021, said Fernando Cutz, a former top aide to Trump on the National Security Council.
Bolton warned Russia against doubling down on its support for Caracas, and urged China to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader if it wanted to recoup debt owed by Caracas, since a new government in Venezuela might not want to honor agreements made with countries that helped Maduro hang onto power.
Bolton said Washington had taken steps to ensure the sanctions did not hurt Guaido and his allies, nor prevent access to humanitarian goods.
Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also spoke to the Lima summit, promising U.S. support and cooperation to help Venezuela rebuild its oil sector, institutions and economy once Maduro leaves office, without giving details.
The plan has a goal of reversing Venezuela’s decline in oil production within a year, and calls for a long-term deal with the International Monetary Fund, Ross said.
Reporting By Mitra Taj in Lima, Additional Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington, Brian Ellsworth and Luc Cohen in Caracas and Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Government Policy Changes | August 2019 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Nouri al–Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, calls for emergency talks with Iraq's political leaders to try to save his national unity government. | Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called for the senior leaders from Iraq's bitterly divided communities to hold crisis talks aimed at saving his beleaguered national unity government.
"I have invited major political leaders to a meeting to discuss substantial matters," Mr Maliki said in a televised speech.
"Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow could be the first meeting for these leaders to discuss the political program and important strategic problems."
Seventeen ministerial posts in Mr Maliki's government are empty or filled by members boycotting cabinet meetings, amid protests by many parties at Mr Maliki's faltering program of national reconciliation.
Hopes that his so-called unity coalition can be saved now depends on the senior leadership of the rival parties cutting a new power-sharing deal that can convince the bitter Sunni minority to return to the fold.
Mr Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Adil Abdel Mehdi, another Shiite, are expected to attend the crisis summit.
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the senior Sunni Arab in the Government and a critic of Mr Maliki's alleged sectarian bias whose presence would be considered crucial, has not yet made it clear whether he will attend.
Mr Talabani's office has also said that contacts with political blocs would take place in the next few days, without giving any details, following his talks in Baghdad with Iraqi Kurdistan President Massud Barzani.
Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has plunged into an abyss of overlapping civil conflicts that have divided its rival religious and ethnic communities and left tens of thousands of civilians dead.
Washington has warned Iraq's leaders to work harder on unity, concerned that the political stalemate could torpedo efforts to reconcile the warring factions and undermine the work of 155,000 American troops to end the conflict.
Shiite parties are suspicious of Sunni leaders whose minority sect dominated political power under executed former dictator Saddam Hussein and accuse them of supporting violent insurgent groups. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2007 | ['(AFP via ABC News Australia)'] |
People in the U.S. state of Arizona protest the introduction of state immigration laws with demonstrators being arrested outside the office of Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio. | Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Opponents of Arizona's new immigration law clashed with police Thursday in downtown Phoenix in a massive display of civil disobedience over the controversial legislation's enactment.
Police in riot gear arrested more than two dozen people outside municipal offices as more than a hundred protesters blocked streets and snarled traffic, Phoenix Police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said.
Demonstrators from political and faith-based groups began to converge on Cesar Chavez Plaza about 8:30 a.m. Thursday to swap posters, T-shirts and opinions on the new law, which took effect Thursday in a limited form.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton granted a temporary injunction Wednesday against some of the most controversial provisions of the bill, including the requirement that officers check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday filed an expedited appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals asking for the lifting of that injunction. To some, the injunction had the effect of tempering the demonstration.
"I think it calmed a lot of things down and made it easier to breathe in this atmosphere today. I think there is more hope today, a greater sense of hope, here today because of the ruling. There's less anger," said 21-year-old Nicole Ramos, who drove from San Diego, California, to attend the demonstration.
As the crowd grew, so did the volume of the chants of "ole, ole, ole, ole... si se puede" and "hey ho, hey ho, SB 1070 has got to go." The crowd began to spill onto the streets and block traffic, prompting swarms of police officers to form flanks in an effort to direct them to the sidewalk.
Some attending the demonstration had indicated that they would not mind being arrested to demonstrate their dislike for the law.
"I'll show them what non-compliance means," Tomas Carrillo, 28, said earlier in the day. It was unknown whether he was among those arrested.
By the time the law officially took effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, the first demonstrators had taken to the streets to voice their opposition to SB 1070, which was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer in April.
In the small community of Guadalupe, about 10 miles outside Phoenix, residents of all ages formed a human blockade of the town's main artery, preventing cars and public buses from passing.
"This is a symbolic gesture to show that we will not give our community over to the sheriff's office. For years, people in this town have been subjected to the kind of racial profiling that SB 1070 essentially gives legal sanction to, and we are not going stand by and let it happen," said Andrew Sanchez, a lifelong resident of Guadalupe and community activist who orchestrated the blockade.
Dressed in T-shirts that said "Brown and Proud to be an American" and waving signs that read, "We will not comply," the crowd of about 50 remained for about an hour, until deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office showed up and asked the protesters to leave.
"I consider it a success because we stood together as a community in front of the sheriff and didn't even have to get arrested," Sanchez said. "We are starting to get good at this."
About 4:30 a.m., an interfaith procession left the Arizona Capitol, chanting hymns and carrying religious icons bound for the Trinity Cathedral about two miles away.
In a prayer before the march, one of the participants said she viewed the activity as an opportunity to express gratitude for Bolton's ruling.
"We're using this opportunity to give thanks and prayer for what happened yesterday," said Isabel Galindo, who was born and raised in Phoenix.
Wearing a rosary made of red, white and blue stations of the cross, Galindo showed up at the state Capitol about 4 a.m., while others slept overnight at the Capitol in makeshift tents made from children's playpens and under tables.
"I think it's wonderful what the judge did. I was totally surprised, because so many people seem to support it. But now I hope we can stop it altogether." | Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
U.S. President Barack Obama gives a speech in Indonesia during which he says more needs to be done to repair the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. | JAKARTA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama held up his boyhood home of Indonesia as an example to the Muslim world in a speech on Wednesday in which he said America was not at war with Islam but acknowledged it was hard to eradicate “years of mistrust.”
“Relations between the United States and Muslim communities have frayed over many years ... I have made it a priority to begin to repair these relations,” he told a crowd of thousands in Jakarta, capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
“I have made it clear that America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. Instead, all of us must defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion -- certainly not a great, world religion like Islam.”
Obama said Indonesia served as a powerful example as an emerging democracy working to develop its economy and a Muslim nation that is tolerant of other religions.
“Your achievements demonstrate that democracy and development reinforce one another,” he said.
His speech was an update to an address he gave 17 months ago in Cairo where he declared a “new beginning” in U.S.-Muslim relations after the tensions over the September 11, 2001, attacks and Washington’s response.
But since his Cairo address, much of the goodwill Obama generated in the Muslim world has been lost. U.S. troops remain in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his promise to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center has not been fulfilled.
Muslim countries including Indonesia also say he has not done enough to rein in Israeli settlement building and act as an impartial broker to press for peace with the Palestinians.
In his Jakarta speech before departing for a G20 summit in Seoul, Obama conceded that Middle East peace remains elusive:
“There should be no illusions that peace and security will come easy. But let there be no doubt: we will spare no effort in working for the outcome that is just, and that is in the interest of all the parties involved: two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”
“MUSLIMS WILL JUDGE HIS ACTIONS, NOT HIS PROMISES”
Indonesian religious leaders and analysts welcomed Obama’s words, but said the problem was that he has yet to match his rhetoric with concrete action to address Muslim concerns.
“If there is real action to go with what he said then that’s what we wish for. But often there’s not a 100 percent correlation between what he says and what he does,” said Cholil Ridwan, head of the Ulemas Council, Indonesia’s highest Islamic authority.
“Hopefully in future he can change that and implement a different attitude. If he really believes Israel is not being helpful toward the peace process then he should stop giving them so much aid,” Cholil said. “If he can put into practice what he said in Jakarta, only then will we be satisfied.”
Obama was forced to cut short his twice-postponed visit to Indonesia by concern that an ash cloud from the deadly Mount Merapi volcano would prevent Air Force One from taking off in time to attend the G20 summit.
But his curtailed schedule still allowed time for a visit to Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in southeast Asia, and his speech at the University of Indonesia.
Obama has been greeted as a returning hero in Indonesia, where he moved with his mother in 1967, a sharp contrast after the mauling he received at home in mid-term elections on November 2, when Republicans scored big victories over his fellow Democrats.
He peppered his speech with Indonesian phrases, drawing frequent applause and cheers from the mostly young audience. But others in Indonesia and beyond were less impressed.
“Muslims will judge his actions, not his promises,” said Noor Huda Ismail, a former student of radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bahir who later renounced militancy and became a security analyst for Sekurindo Global Consulting.
In Cairo, many Egyptians were similarly skeptical.
“It’s all speeches -- in the end the same American politics, and Jewish politics, continues,” said Cairo retiree Mohamed Abdel. “This is why nothing since Obama’s Cairo speech has translated into action with Arab nations.”
Saad Zaki Khalil, 56, selling cigarette lighters in central Cairo, said: “”As soon as Obama took over, he said he would do this and that -- a lot of things. But he still hasn’t met a single goal.”
Indonesia was the second stop on Obama’s four-country tour of Asia, which ends on November 15.
Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Alister Bull and Sunanda Creagh in Jakarta, Alexander Dziadosz and Sarah Mikhail in Cairo and Tom Heneghan in Paris; Writing by David Fox and Andrew Marshall; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall
| Famous Person - Give a speech | November 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Thousands of "red shirt" anti–government protesters rally in the Thai capital Bangkok demanding new elections. | DEFIANT: Red Shirt supporters of the ousted Premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, during an anti-government protest in Bangkok on Saturday. Photo: AFP
| Photo Credit: Athit Perawongmetha Amid the escalating anti-government protest in Bangkok, an official spokesman on Saturday said “massive disruption of traffic and road blockages may not be considered a peaceful demonstration as permissible under Constitution”.
The authorities might, therefore, adopt a step-by-step approach. And, the spokesman said “the subsequent impact is predicted to be many [-folded], be it [on the] political atmosphere or business mood”.
Without spelling out the government's options, he said, “one impact [of the three-week-long protest] is clear: the ongoing talks between the government and the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) is likely to be more or less affected”.
On the political front, it was made clear on behalf of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that he would not budge from his recent offer to dissolve the House of Representatives in nine months' time, a year ahead of schedule, and hold a general election. A referendum on constitutional amendments was also offered as a possible topic for negotiations with the protest leaders.
Mr. Abhisit and the UDD leaders held two sessions of talks aimed at defusing the tensions.
There has been no agreement on carrying the dialogue forward, with the UDD insisting on a quick dissolution of the House.
The protesters, whose numbers have varied from 60,000 to 1,00,000 in most unofficial estimates, have been demanding genuine democracy and arguing that Mr. Abhisit, portrayed as a proxy of the military bloc, had come to power without a popular mandate.
The UDD is being encouraged by the former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, now a fugitive abroad, through exhortations over video links from his bases in self-imposed exile.
He was overthrown in a bloodless military coup in 2006, and Thailand has experienced varying degrees of political crisis since then. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2010 | ['(Thai News Agency)', '(CBC)', '(The Hindu)'] |
At least 58 people are killed at a large opposition rally in Guinea against Moussa Dadis Camara who seized power in a coup last year. | State television aired pictures of scattered debris
At least 87 people have been killed after troops in Guinea opened fire on a huge opposition rally in the capital Conakry, reports say.
An earlier death toll of 58 rose by nearly 30 late on Monday, according to unnamed police sources. Some 50,000 people rallied against Capt Moussa Dadis Camara who seized power in Guinea in a bloodless coup last year. The rally was triggered by indications he is to reverse a pledge not to run in a presidential vote set for January. "There are 87 bodies that were collected in and around the stadium after the military came through," a police source told the AFP news agency. Four women are among the dead. There has been no independent confirmation of the casualty figures, and the Guinean authorities have made no public comment. Meanwhile, France issued a statement strongly condemning the "violent repression" of opposition demonstrators in its former colony. Eyewitness' account
The BBC's Alhassan Sillah says a doctor at government hospital in Conakry said his wards looked like "a butchery". Reports also say at least two opposition leaders have been arrested. "They just started to shoot people directly... They tried to kill us," Sidya Toure, former prime minister and now an opposition leader, told the BBC's Focus on Africa from a hospital. He said he had been badly injured in the head, and was speaking secretly from the hospital's toilet as the military was not allowing opposition members any contacts with the media. Our correspondent says the demonstrators later dispersed, but the military is out in force mounting checkpoints on many roads. Driving through the capital, our correspondent says he saw burnt-out vehicles around the roads and a burnt-out police station. The atmosphere was "very strange and fearful", with very few cars on the road, our correspondent adds. Eccentric displays
Capt Camara staged a coup hours after the death of President Lansana Conte, who had ruled for more than two decades. The military takeover initially had some popular support, but in recent weeks there have been several anti-government protests. They appear to have been sparked by hints from Capt Camara that he may stand for president in January. In Conakry, demonstrators gathered outside the capital's largest stadium, carrying placards reading "No to Dadis" and "Down with the army in power", according to the AFP news agency. But the demonstration had already been banned and the stadium was closed and guarded by large numbers of police. Clashes between police and demonstrators followed, with officers charging the crowds and firing live ammunition. Guinea expert Gilles Yabi told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the rally was not a surprise. "This is only the beginning of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations we can expect in the next few months," he said. Should Capt Camara stand for president, he said, it would be a violation of the tacit agreement between military and civil forces which has kept him in power. And it would mark a perpetuation of the kind of rule that Guinea has seen for the past decade - which the military had promised to sweep away. Capt Camara's rule has been characterised by eccentric displays of power - such as forcing members of the elite presidential guard to beg for forgiveness on national TV after they roughed up a veteran officer. Former aides and officials have been accused of corruption and links to the drugs trade, including the son of former President Lansana Conte, who was shown confessing on TV to smuggling cocaine. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Xinhua)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Botswanan President Ian Khama steps down and hands power over to Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi. | Botswana’s president Ian Khama has officially stepped down. The retired army general exited on Saturday handing the diamond-rich country to vice-president, Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Khama, a 65-year old bachelor, is known as a straight talker having publicly criticised leaders including US President Donald Trump for an alleged slur against African countries and former Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe as well DRC’s Joseph Kabila for overstaying their welcome.
55 year-old Masisi inherits a country that has for decades been heralded as a beacon of African democracy and sound economic management but faces a huge task of reducing the country’s dependence on diamonds. Masisi, a trained teacher who has also worked for the United Nations Children’s Fund as an education project officer for eight years until 2003, was elected lawmaker in 2009.
He served in the president’s office as a minister of public affairs from 2011 until 2014 when Khama named him minister of education, a post he held until appointed Vice President last year.
He becomes only the third leader to take charge of the southern African nation outside the Khama political dynasty. The dynasty dominated national politics since independence from Britain in 1966.
Botswana law restricts the president to serving two five-year terms, and provides for the vice president to automatically fill the post should it become vacant. The National Assembly will elect a new president after elections scheduled for October 2019. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | March 2018 | ['(Africa News)'] |
British actor Eddie Redmayne wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. | Eddie Redmayne has won the best actor Oscar for his performance as Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
The British actor came to the Oscars the favourite after claiming the Screen Actors’ Guild’s best actor award last month. The winner of that award has gone on to pick up the best actor Oscar every year since 2003. Collecting the award, Redmayne said: “Thank you. Thank you. I don’t think I’m capable of articulating quite how I feel right now. I’m fully aware that I am a lucky, lucky man. This Oscar belongs to all of those people around the world battling ALS. It belongs to one exceptional family – Stephen, Jane and the Hawking children. I will be his custodian. I will be at his beck and call. I wait on him hand and foot. Thank you to Hannah, my wife. I love you – we have a new fella coming to share our apartment.”
The Theory of Everything tells Hawking’s story from his early years as a astrophysics student at Cambridge university. It follows the celebrated physicist as he develops his theory of relativity, while experiencing the early symptoms of motor neurone disease. Redmayne plays Hawking as he gradually loses use of much of his body and learns to use a wheelchair and speak through a computer. The 33-year-old actor beat Michael Keaton to the prize, after a close-run awards race. Keaton, who plays a washed-up Hollywood star in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, won the Critics’ Choice award for best actor last month, while both Redmayne and Keaton won a best actor Golden Globe earlier this year. The awards ceremony divides their prizes into Comedy or Musical (Keaton) and Drama (Redmayne) strands.
The 87th Academy Awards are taking place at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles and are being hosted by Gone Girl star Neil Patrick Harris. | Awards ceremony | February 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The United Kingdom and the European Union start post–Brexit trade talks. Last week, each side publicly set its negotiating mandate. | ON MARCH 2ND post-Brexit trade talks between Britain and the European Union formally begin in Brussels. Both sides have now published their negotiating mandates. Unfortunately, though they share the goal of a free-trade agreement (FTA) like the EU’s with Canada, with no tariffs and no quotas, there are huge differences over how to reach it. And, because Boris Johnson’s government insists it will not extend the transition period (during which pre-Brexit arrangements continue) beyond December 31st, little time is left to resolve differences.
The biggest fight will be over “level playing-field” requirements meant to prevent unfair competition, which the EU insists are a condition for a generous FTA. Other contentious matters include access to British fishing grounds, trade in financial services, data protection and security co-operation. Overlying all are questions of trust and enforcement action in cases of dispute.On the level playing-field, Britain says it has no intention of exploiting Brexit to undercut EU labour, social, environmental or state-subsidy rules. Indeed, it often has higher standards than those set by Brussels. Yet the ability to diverge from EU rules is a main justification for Brexit. So it cannot accept legal requirements to align with EU rules or be subject in any way to the European Court of Justice. Other countries like Canada, Japan and South Korea, with which the EU has FTAs, do not have to abide by EU laws, so why should Britain?The EU’s response is that Britain is not like other countries. Its economy is deeply entwined with Europe’s, it is next door and it will be the EU’s second-biggest trade partner (after America). To allow such a close neighbour unfettered trade access without rules to prevent unfair competition would, says Brussels, undermine the EU’s single market. The EU’s negotiating mandate offers some wiggle-room, talking of using EU regulations only as a reference-point to assess common high standards. But on subsidies, it is demanding the full enforcement of EU rules against excessive state aid.
It does not help that trust in Mr Johnson is lacking. The EU notes that he accepted the political declaration with the withdrawal treaty, which promised “robust commitments to ensure a level playing-field”, but now seems to be resiling from it. It hears ministers repeatedly insisting there will be no customs checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, even though these may be required because, under the withdrawal treaty, Northern Ireland will remain in the EU’s customs union.
Fisheries will be an early source of tension since a deal on them is due to be agreed by June 30th. The EU wants to keep today’s system, which gives continental fishermen generous access to British waters. Britain insists on taking back control from January 1st, allowing others to catch fish only after an annual haggle, creating uncertainty for politically influential fishermen in France, Denmark and elsewhere.
For financial services and data, it is Britain that craves greater certainty. The EU says it is willing to recognise “equivalence” for financial services and “adequacy” for Britain’s data regime. But it insists that both decisions are autonomous and can be revoked unilaterally at only 30 days’ notice. Security co-operation is another headache: the British no longer wish to be party to the European arrest warrant, but want an equally robust extradition arrangement that the EU may not be legally able to offer.What next? Most diplomats expect weeks of posturing with little movement towards compromise. Yet a deal ought to be achievable, if only because both sides want one. Mr Johnson is trying to raise the pressure by threatening to walk out of the talks in June if they are not making enough progress. This may overestimate the EU’s readiness to give ground so as to avoid no deal. But the EU may also underestimate Mr Johnson’s willingness to embrace precisely this outcome. That is why some seasoned observers are now putting the chances of no trade deal at all close to 50%. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | March 2020 | ['(The Economist)', '(The Irish Times)'] |
Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change sign an agreement to start talks on a powersharing arrangement in Zimbabwe. | Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, centre, holds the hands of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition party, right, and Arthur Mutambara, leader of the other faction of the opposition party, at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties in Harare, Monday, July 21, 2008. Zimbabwe's embattled president and his bitter rival from the opposition have signed an agreement to hold talks to resolve the country's political and economic woes within two weeks. (AP Photo)
Jul 21, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's president and his opposition rival agree to immediate talks about sharing power to resolve the country's political crisis.
President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader are signing an agreement saying they "have an obligation" to establish a framework of "working together in an inclusive government."
The deal — which comes nearly three months after Zimbabwe's disputed March presidential election — also calls for preventing "all forms of political violence." More than 120 people have been killed, thousands injured and tens of thousands forced from their homes since the campaign began, rights groups say. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
The Parliament of Chechnya appoints Ramzan Kadyrov as the President of Chechnya after his nomination by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin. | Ramzan Kadyrov, 30, was endorsed by the Chechen parliament after being nominated by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Thursday.
Mr Kadyrov told parliament his priority would be to rebuild Chechnya's economy.
He is a highly controversial character, accused of widespread human rights abuses from his time as prime minister.
Rights groups 'aghast'
Raman Kadyrov is the son of the pro-Moscow ex-president Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in 2004.
Aged 16, he led a group of fierce rebels fighting Russian control of Chechnya. By his mid-20s he had switched sides, soon to become the republic's prime minister. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow says now, five months after his 30th birthday, he is Chechnya's new president and human rights groups are aghast. Men under Mr Kadyrov's command during his time as Chechen prime minister are accused of widespread kidnappings and systematic torture in Chechnya's prisons.
Mr Putin is thought to have backed Mr Kadyrov because he believes he is the only man who can keep thousands of former rebel fighters in line and prevent Chechnya's return to the chaos of the 1990s, our correspondent says.
He succeeds Alu Alkhanov who was dismissed by Mr Putin on Thursday. Mr Alkhanov has been made a Russian deputy justice minister. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | March 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former pop star Gary Glitter is arrested on suspicion of sex offences by police investigating the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. | Former pop star Gary Glitter has been arrested on suspicion of sex offences by police investigating Jimmy Savile abuse claims. He was released on bail until mid-December, after being questioned at a London police station.
Glitter, 68, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was jailed in Vietnam in 2006 for child sex offences.
Police are investigating allegations TV star Savile sexually abused some 300 young people over a 40-year period.
Met Police confirmed officers from Operation Yewtree had "arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation".
"The man, from London, was arrested at approximately 0715 on suspicion of sexual offences. The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed 'Savile and others'."
Scotland Yard has said it is following about 400 lines of inquiry as part of the operation - which is looking into claims Savile, who died last year aged 84, abused hundreds of young girls and some boys.
Police described former BBC DJ Savile as a "predatory sex offender".
Karin Ward - a former pupil at Duncroft approved school for girls in Surrey - told the BBC she had once seen singer Glitter having sex with a schoolgirl in Savile's dressing room at the BBC. Glitter has denied the allegations.
Glitter is the first person to be arrested in connection with the Met's Savile abuse inquiry. The glam rock star rose to fame during the 70s, selling 18 million records by 1975.
Elsewhere the deputy leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman has called for a judge-led inquiry into the Savile abuse claims.
She told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "The trouble is that there are a multiplicity of inquiries. What we need is one over-arching inquiry.
"It should be independent because there are big lessons to be learned here, not just for the BBC, although the epicentre of it was at the BBC."
Savile is also alleged to have carried out abuse at a number of institutions, such as the high security psychiatric hospital Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling told the same programme while what had happened was "horrendous" it was important not to "rush into a judge-led inquiry," arguing it would take "much longer to get to the truth".
The BBC Trust's chairman Lord Patten, writing in the Mail On Sunday, said the corporation must face up to the truth, warning it "risks squandering public trust". Alleged victim Ms Ward was interviewed for the BBC's Newsnight programme last November in which she made abuse claims, but the interview was only shown on Panorama this week as the Newsnight investigation was shelved.
Mr Patten told the paper: "Like many who work for the BBC, I feel a sense of particular remorse that abused women spoke to Newsnight, presumably at great personal pain, yet did not have their stories told as they expected."
It also emerged on Sunday that Savile's former house in the Scottish Highlands has been vandalised and painted with abusive slogans. The BBC has already announced inquiries into the Savile abuse claims. The first, led by former Sky News head Nick Pollard, is examining whether there were any failings in the BBC's management of the Newsnight investigation into Savile abuse claims.
On Monday, former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith will begin a review into the culture and practices of the corporation during Savile's time at the BBC. A further review will examine sexual harassment policies at the BBC. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ernesto Fazzalari, Italy's second most-wanted fugitive and member of 'Ndrangheta, is arrested by the Carabinieri near Molochio in Calabria, Southern Italy, after two decades on the run. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano described Fazzalari as "one of the most important fugitives and a leading underworld figure". | Ernesto Fazzalari of Calabrian ’Ndrangheta faces life sentence having been found guilty of murder and drug trafficking
Last modified on Sun 4 Mar 2018 12.46 GMT
Italy’s second most wanted mafia boss, Ernesto Fazzalari, was arrested on Sunday after almost two decades on the run, apprehended by the paramilitary carabinieri police.
Fazzalari, of the notorious Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s richest and most powerful criminal organisation, had been a fugitive since June 1996. He was the country’s second most wanted mafia boss in terms of influence and danger to society behind Matteo Messina Denaro, of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia, a police statement said. Fazzalari, 46, faces a life sentence, having already been tried in absentia and found guilty of murder, mafia crimes, drug trafficking, robbery and illegal possession of weapons. He was found in the early hours of Sunday in a house in a remote and mountainous area of the Calabria region on the southern tip of mainland Italy and did not resist arrest, the police said.
Fazzalari was at the head of one of the many family-based groups that control much of Calabrian society and make vast profits through the import and sale of drugs. Federico Cafiero de Raho, of the DDA national organisation of anti-mafia prosecutors, described the arrest as historic. He said Fazzalari was found close to his last known home, indicating that he relied on an extensive network of local contacts to protect him.
The prime minister, Matteo Renzi, thanked the police and prosecutors involved, tweeting: “Hurrah for Italy. Happy Sunday.” The interior minister, Angelino Alfano, said: “These are the victories that comfort and support us in the difficult path against organised crime ... There is no fleeing from justice.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | June 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Voters in Tanzania, including Tanganyika and semi-autonomous Zanzibar, which also elects its own government, go to the polls for an election with the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi facing the greatest challenge to its dominance in over 50 years. | Kim Yi Dionne: Continuing our series of Monkey Cage Election Reports, we are pleased to present the following pre-election report on the Oct. 25 election in Tanzania from Keith Weghorst and Sterling Roop.
On Sunday, Tanzanians will head to the polls for the country’s fifth multiparty elections. Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, in English: Party of the Revolution) is Africa’s longest ruling party and through its 50 plus years in power has engineered transitions from single-party rule to multiparty competition; from a collapsing socialist economy to sustained growth under capitalism; and from “Donor Darling” status to having endemic corruption. CCM has never been more vulnerable as it faces a unified opposition front backing a popular candidate. In this post, we highlight six important things to know about the upcoming elections in this East African nation.
1. Tanzania’s elections are actually two sets of elections
Tanzania is a union made up of Tanganyika, a former British and German colony, and Zanzibar, an archipelago that gained independence first from Britain ending its protectorate status in December 1963, followed by the overthrow of the Omani sultan in January 1964. Zanzibar has maintained some autonomy and, in addition to voting on the Tanzanian president and parliament, it also elects its own president and legislature, the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Zanzibar’s push for further autonomy has dominated contemporary politics in both parts of the union (more on this later) and represents a major political fault line between the ruling party and the opposition. CCM has held a super-majority in the Tanzanian parliament and a majority in Zanzibar since the 1995 multiparty elections. The distributions of seats in the two legislatures from 1995-2015, however, shows that CCM is not as dominant in Zanzibar as it is in mainland Tanzania.
2. The opposition is unified
Candidates must be nominated by an officially registered political party to be on the ballot in Tanzania. This makes coordination between opposition parties difficult and means that in past elections, constituencies often had more than one opposition candidate challenging the ruling party. Splitting the opposition vote between multiple challenger parties made beating the ruling party harder than it would have been if opposition supporters could rally behind a single candidate.
These elections, however, are different. Tanzania’s major opposition parties – Chama Cha Demokrasia Na Maendeleo (CHADEMA, in English: Party of Democracy and Development), the Civic United Front (CUF), National Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR), and National League for Democracy (NLD) — are running as Umoja wa Katiba ya Wananchi (UKAWA, in English: Coalition of Defenders of the People’s Constitution). This loose coalition of parties agreed to collectively nominate only one presidential candidate. There is also only one UKAWA candidate running in each of Tanzania’s 265 parliamentary constituencies. This ensures the opposition vote will be unified and not split between several opposition candidates, as it had often been in the past. The majority of UKAWA nominees come from CHADEMA (about 55% of UKAWA’s candidates), followed by CUF (39%), NCCR (4%), and NLD (1%).
UKAWA’s momentum arose from Tanzania’s constitutional reform process, in which the opposition boycotted the ruling party’s attempt to pass a constitution that favored themselves—one that does not represent the preferences of the majority of Tanzanians. Their attempts to block the proceedings were ultimately unsuccessful but the constitutional assembly process allowed opposition parties to build trust in one another and demonstrate the credibility of commitments to coordinate.
3. Ruling party leadership has changed
President Jakaya Kikwete is completing his second term in office and stepping down. 38 hopefuls sought CCM’s nomination in July and John Pombe Magufuli was chosen by the party’s secretariat. While some events surrounding the nomination seemed commonplace, like arrests of individuals with cash-filled suitcases, the nomination outcome shocked many. The party spurned long-standing senior members — such as Fredrick Sumaye, Steven Wasira and William Ngeleja — and the new party’s new generation in January Makambe and Bernard Membe. The party’s decision to pass up a widely popular candidate, former prime minister Edward Lowassa, marked the party’s aim to appoint someone untouched by corruption scandals. As some observers predicted, this weakened CCM in the short-run as defections to the opposition ensued, despite CCM claim’s that defections actually strengthened them.
4. The opposition is gambling on a ruling party defector
Within days of CCM’s presidential candidate selection, Lowassa defected to the opposition, joining the CHADEMA party. Opposition parties gambled that their popularity — they together won almost 40 percent of the presidential vote in 2010 — combined with the ballots of Lowassa loyalists would be enough to deliver victory. The UKAWA coalition designated Lowassa as their presidential candidate a week after his defection from CCM.
This strategy is risky. The opposition’s campaign messages about political change and rooting out corruption contrast with Lowassa, who is emblematic of corruption and systematic rot within the government. Lowassa once topped CHADEMA’s “List of Shame” for corruption, including the “Richmond Scandal” that prompted him to resign as Prime Minister in 2008. UKAWA has publicly defended their candidate but tensions over his selection threaten the UKAWA unity. Both CHADEMA flag-bearer Wilbrod Slaa and CUF head Ibrahim Lipumba stepped down from leadership positions in their respective parties after Lowassa’s nomination.
Whether or not this gamble will pay off remains in doubt. Public opinion polls carried out by the independent, nonpartisan organization Twaweza in mainland Tanzania in 2013 and 2014 indicated that around half of Tanzanians were likely to vote for the ruling party. A survey carried out last month indicated that the tide has shifted: about two thirds of respondents reported that they would vote for CCM’s presidential candidate (see a comparison over time here).
5. There are a lot of new candidates running in legislative races
While all Tanzanian voters are familiar with the party in power and its brand, the faces of the legislative candidates on its ballots are fresh. I (Weghorst) show in my dissertation that because of CCM dominance in general elections, competition is most fierce in nomination contests to become the CCM candidate. CCM candidate hopefuls face a number of high-quality opponents. CCM incumbent legislators and party elites are not spared from this competition—5 current cabinet ministers failed reelection bids at the nomination stage.
I traced the political trajectories of 323 parliamentarians who later left office. While most incumbent legislators from the opposition lose reelections on polling day or choose to step down, over half of the turnover for CCM’s legislators occurs when an incumbent loses office after failing to secure renomination in the party’s primary election. The high rates of competition within the CCM are a holdover from Tanzania’s period of single-party rule. It allows CCM partisans to “throw the bums out” at the nomination stage, without suffering the electoral consequences of poor performance in office.
6. Tanzanian union and Zanzibari autonomy are critical to election
Zanzibar has historically been the center of electoral violence in Tanzania. For example, after the 2000 elections, security services shot and killed at least 35 people, injuring hundreds, and causing thousands to flee to Kenya. Zanzibar’s “Maridhiano” reconciliation process initiated in 2009 established a power-sharing government between CCM and CUF, the latter of which has been relatively successful in winning support in Zanzibar. The power-sharing arrangement shifted political discontent outward to Zanzibar’s autonomy in the Tanzanian union.
At the same time, Tanzania convened a nationwide constitutional reform process that was widely participatory. The resulting draft constitution — which was supposed to go to referendum in April 2014 — promised to reform the federal structure of Tanzania into three governments — equally autonomous Tanganyikan and Zanzibari governments held together by a substantially weakened Union government. Although the majority of Tanzanians supported this draft, the ruling party ultimately modified the draft to maintain the status quo federal structure and has delayed the constitutional referendum until after the elections.
This may be the single-most important policy difference between the CCM and the opposition party CUF, whose Zanzibari wing has campaigned on the promise of making Zanzibar fully sovereign and autonomous. With the future of Zanzibar’s place in the United Republic symbolically (and possibly truly) at stake in these elections, and CUF perennial candidate Maalim Seif standing for president for what could be his last time, this year’s campaigns have seen intimidation by youth groups and security services, similar to Zanzibari’s “old style” of contentious politics. The rhetoric of CCM and CUF has become increasingly provocative. CCM leaders have stated the only way they would exit power is through a bloody revolution, like the one that brought them to power in 1964. CUF have declared that they will win the election, will not longer accept defeat due to ‘rigged outcomes’ and would take to the streets if they lose.
Keith Weghorst is a post-doctoral fellow in the political science department at Vanderbilt University and was a Fulbright-Hays Fellow in Tanzania in 2012-2013. Follow him on Twitter at @keithweghorst.
Sterling Roop is a senior adviser at International Law and Policy Institute (ILPI) based in Oslo, Norway. He previously ran ILPI’s country office in Tanzania from 2009-2014. Follow him on Twitter at @sterlingroop.
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Government Job change - Election | October 2015 | ['(Revolutionary Party)', '(Washington Post)'] |
Kosovo and Gibraltar are elected as new members of FIFA. | From the section European Football
Kosovo and Gibraltar can enter the 2018 World Cup after being accepted as members of world governing body Fifa.
The move takes the total number of Fifa members to 211. Kosovo FA president Fadil Vokrri said: "The players and people of Kosovo have been waiting a long time - thank you."
Both territories enjoyed sizable majorities in the vote - 86% in favour of Kosovo's inclusion and 93% in favour of Gibraltar - despite facing opposition from neighbouring countries.
Spain - which ceded Gibraltar to Britain 300 years ago but wants it returned to Spanish sovereignty - has long opposed Gibraltar's progress towards Fifa membership, while Serbia has strongly been against Kosovo's inclusion. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo's complicated political status has seen several players born in the state play for different countries, including Xherdan Shaqiri and Valon Behrami (Switzerland), Shefki Kuqi (Finland) and Lorik Cana (Albania).
Kosovo's admission raises the question of whether players born in the former Serbian province will be allowed to switch allegiance. A player with dual nationality who has played for one national team is unable to switch to his second country, but in Kosovo's case Fifa is expected to look at individuals on a case-by-case basis.
Kosovo were only granted membership of European governing body Uefa last week, narrowly surviving a vote on their inclusion by 28 votes to 24. Kosovo played their first international friendly in 2014 after being granted permission by football's global governing body Fifa.
Gibraltar, which has a population of about 32,000, became full Uefa members in 2013 and took part in qualification for Euro 2016, albeit without picking up a single point.
"We are realistic about what we can achieve on the pitch but that is not the point," said Michael Llamas, the head of the Gibraltar football association.
"The point is that our many children who love our sport and who now will be the first generation of Gibraltarians to grow up with Fifa membership. They will be able to dream." | Join in an Organization | May 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
All 279 schoolgirls abducted from a boarding school in Zamfara State, Nigeria, are released by their armed kidnappers. | GUSAU, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen who kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria last week beat them and threatened to shoot them during a forced march into captivity, victims said on Tuesday after they were set free.
The pupils from Jangebe, a town in Zamfara state, were seized in a raid just after midnight on Friday. All 279 had now been released by the gunmen, Zamfara Governor Bello Matawalle said.
Dozens of girls in Muslim veils sat in a hall in a state government building before being taken for medical checks. A few parents arrived, and one father wept with joy after seeing his daughter.
Farida Lawali, 15, told how she and the other girls had been taken to a forest by the kidnappers.
“They carried the sick ones that cannot move. We were walking in the stones and thorns,” she said, covered in a light blue veil.
“They started hitting us with guns so that we could move,” she added. “While they were beating them with guns, some of them were crying and moving at the same time.”
Another of the girls, Umma Abubakar, told Reuters they were forced to walk although many had injuries: “They said they will shoot anybody who did not continue to walk.”
Relief at their return was tempered by concern over the circumstances of their release. A series of similar school abductions in recent months has led many Nigerians to worry that regional authorities are making the situation worse by letting kidnappers go unpunished or paying them off.
Zailani Bappa, a media adviser to the state governor, denied that a ransom had been paid, but said the captors had been offered amnesty, as well as assistance to resettle at a site with newly built schools, a hospital and other facilities.
“The process means amnesty for those who repent and will be assisted to resettle,” he said. “Those who surrender their arms will be assisted to start a new life. Since they are herders, they will be supported with a few cows each.”
But the state’s apparent conciliatory approach was at odds with the central government. President Muhammadu Buhari called for the captors to be brought to justice and said that if ransoms were being paid, this would make future attacks more likely.
His national security adviser, Babagana Monguno, said the president had ordered a massive military deployment to Zamfara, banned mining and imposed a no-fly zone in the state.
The central government “will not allow this country to drift into state failure,” Monguno said. “We are not going to be blackmailed.”
But the military is already stretched, and it was difficult to assess whether the flight and mining bans would have much impact in a state with no major airport, and where many mines already operate illegally.
Boarding schools in northern Nigeria have become targets for mass kidnappings for ransom by armed criminal gangs.
The trend was started by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which kidnapped 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014, around 100 of whom have never been found. But recent months have seen a sudden escalation of similar attacks, including the abduction of 344 boys in December.
Friday’s raid on the Government Girls Science Secondary School was the second school abduction in little over a week.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told Reuters that the authorities have made payoffs in the past in exchange for child hostages, creating an incentive for abductions.
Several of those officials declined to comment on Tuesday on whether they believed a ransom had been paid in the latest incident.
Lawal Abdullahi, whose seven daughters were among those kidnapped and freed, said the incident would not deter him from schooling his children.
“It’s a ploy to deny our girls ... from getting the Western education in which we are far behind,” he told Reuters. “We should not succumb to blackmail. My advice to government is that they should take immediate precautions to stop further abductions.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | March 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Two passenger trains collide in Zibo in Shandong province in eastern China resulting in the deaths of at least 71 people. | At least 66 people were killed and nearly 250 injured early Monday when a passenger train from Beijing careered off the rails and slammed into another train in eastern China, state media reported.
The train was travelling to Qingdao -- the coastal city that will host the Olympic sailing competition in August -- when it derailed, causing the other train to leave the tracks too.
The accident happened in the city of Zibo in Shandong province, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
It cited unidentified rail officials saying the death toll so far was 66, and that 51 of the 247 injured were in a critical conditions.
Four French nationals were among the injured, state media have also reported.
The four were hospitalised with broken bones after the pre-dawn accident, Xinhua news agency said, citing an unnamed spokesman with the provincial government.
Witnesses said many passengers were able to climb out of the wrecked train carriages shortly afterwards, some wrapped up in bed sheets from the sleeper cars to guard against the early morning chill.
"I think dozens were injured or killed," a doctor told Xinhua earlier. "We have received around 40 injured passengers but nobody died," a nurse at one of Zibo's hospitals told AFP.
"Some of them are seriously injured, some slightly injured. Their injuries are external."
Nurses at the accident and emergency departments of two other hospitals in the area said they too were counting the injured but that no one had died, and there were no critical injuries.
The accident happened at 4:43 am (2043 GMT Sunday), Xinhua said, quoting a spokesman from the Shandong provincial government.
The other train was on its way to Xuzhou in the eastern Jiangsu province, from Shandong's Yantai.
About 10 carriages crashed into a ditch after the train derailed, a witness told Xinhua.
A photo of the crash, posted on a popular Internet news web portal, showed people wrapped in white blankets sitting by the train wreckage.
Railway Minister Liu Zhijun has arrived at the scene of to oversee rescue efforts, Xinhua said, where he demanded an investigation to prevent this type of incident happening again.
The accident has disrupted traffic on a major railway route linking Jinan, the capital of Shandong, to Qingdao.
In January, a high-speed train ploughed into a group of railway workers in Shandong province, killing 18 people.
The Chinese government said earlier this year that 101,480 people died in 2007 in more than 500,000 transport, industrial and other accidents.
It said the number of rail accident deaths fell 45 percent, or 2,595, but did not provide an absolute figure. However, data suggest the number of train deaths last year was about 3,170.
In one of the worst rail accidents in recent times, 126 people were killed and more than 200 injured when two trains collided in central China's Hunan province in 1997. | Train collisions | April 2008 | ['(UK Press Association via Google News)', '(AFP via Google News)', '(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
Former President of France Jacques Chirac is probed by a judge for alleged embezzlement of public funds when he was Mayor of Paris. | The case relates to a scheme whereby rightist sympathisers were allegedly given jobs by Paris city hall.
Last summer, Jacques Chirac was questioned by another judge over allegations in the same case. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing while he was mayor of the capital between 1977 and 1995.
He lost immunity from investigation after he left the presidency in May.
Artificial salaries
Mr Chirac has now been placed under formal investigation, said his lawyer Jean Veil. Mr Chirac's lawyer, Jean Veil, said his client was co-operating
This means judges believe there is enough evidence against a suspect to proceed with a more exhaustive investigation, which may or may not culminate in a trial. It could be the first time in modern French history that a former president faces criminal charges.
Mr Veil said an interview conducted by a magistrate with his client on Wednesday morning had been conducted in "the best possible atmosphere", AFP news agency reported.
"I simply think that he is not necessarily unhappy with the fact that for the first time he had an opportunity to explain himself on this issue," Mr Veil said. "He would certainly have spared himself this if it was possible, but in view of the heaviness of the judicial investigation, of the number of denunciations which have been made, it was quite certain that this would happen one day."
This investigation relates to allegations that during Mr Chirac's time as mayor of Paris, up to 40 people were paid salaries by the city authority despite having had no connection to it. They are alleged to have been supporters of Mr Chirac's own conservative RPR political grouping. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two undercover UK soldiers are detained on claims they had been planting bombs, evading arrest, exchanging fire with police, killing one, and failing to stop at a checkpoint. An operation to free the two prisoners ends with civilians gathering around the tanks sent to free the prisoners and setting the tanks they were in alight. Soldiers from the tanks flee the scene while being stoned by the locals, one man, Sergeant George Long, of the Staffordshire Regiment, was seen on fire and another man was seen being surrounded and beaten by locals. One Iraqi official claimed that 150 prisoners escaped including the two soldiers. , | The dramatic events began to unfold just before dawn yesterday, when two British nationals were detained by Iraqi authorities. It emerged later that they were British soldiers. Dressed in plain clothes - according to some they were wearing traditional Arab dress - the two men had been driving in an unmarked car when they arrived at a checkpoint in the city. In the confrontation that followed, shots were fired, and two Iraqi policemen were shot, one of whom later died. The Iraqi authorities blamed the men, reported to be undercover commandos, and arrested them.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2005 | ['(China view)', '(The Times)', '(BBC)', '(Washington Post)', '(the Independent)'] |
Rwandan opposition politician Seif Bamporiki is killed in his car by a single bullet fired by a gunman in Cape Town, South Africa, where he lived in exile. | Leading Rwandan opposition politician Seif Bamporiki has been shot dead in South Africa, where he lived in exile.
Mr Bamporiki was pulled from his vehicle in a township in Cape Town before being killed, police said. Preliminary investigations showed he had been killed in a robbery, police said. But Mr Bamporiki's party, the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), said the motive was still unclear.
Rwanda has previously been accused of targeting dissidents in South Africa. It has consistently denied the allegation. The RNC was formed in exile by opposition politicians who accuse President Paul Kagame's government of being authoritarian, and of being intolerant of dissent.
Mr Bamporiki ran a bed shop in Cape Town. He was making a delivery in Nyanga township on Sunday when he was shot after being confronted by two men, police said. "The deceased was pulled from his vehicle and shot while the 50-year-old man who accompanied him managed to escape unharmed.
"The suspects who are yet to be arrested fled with the deceased's vehicle, and we have reason to believe that the motive for the murder was robbery," police added in a statement to the BBC. RNC spokesman Etienne Mutabazi gave a different account, saying Mr Bamporiki was killed after a gunman fired a single shot through the window of the car. There was speculation on social media that Mr Bamporiki had been killed in a political hit, but Mr Mutabazi said he did not know whether this was the case, reports the BBC's Nomsa Maseko from South Africa's main city, Johannesburg. Nyanga is known to be one of the most dangerous townships in South Africa, with a high rate of crime, she adds. Rwanda's former intelligence chief and RNC founding member Patrick Karegeya was murdered in a hotel room in Johannesburg in 2014. Another RNC founding member, former army chief Gen Faustin Nyamwasa was shot and wounded in Johannesburg in 2010. The attacks caused a huge diplomatic row between South Africa and Rwanda in 2014.
South Africa expelled three Rwandan diplomats after accusing them of links to the murder and attempted murder of Rwandan dissidents living in the country. Rwanda's government dismissed the allegation.
. | Armed Conflict | February 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
A NATO convoy is hit by a suicide car bomb in Kabul. Three or four civilians are injured; no fatalities have been reported. | KABUL, Afghanistan A NATO military convoy was hit by a suicide car bomb in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, officials told NBC News.
The Taliban claimed subsequently claimed responsibility for the blast in the Shah Shaheed area of the city, but NATO said that no coalition forces were killed in the explosion.
Around three or four civilians were injured in the bombing, according to the Ministry of Public Health. Abdul Bashir, a local police officer at the scene, had told NBC News earlier that "many people have been injured and ambulances are rushing [them] to the hospitals."
U.S. Army Col. Brian Tribus, spokesman for the NATO mission in Afghanistan, confirmed there had been an "attack on coalition forces" at around 11:30 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).
He said the force was "gathering further information on this incident" but confirmed in a statement that no NATO personnel had been killed.
Rahim joined the NBC News Kabul Bureau team in December 2013. He has extensively covered events in Afghanistan since 2001, and is a former Afghanistan Bureau Chief for CBS News. While with CBS, he co-produced reports for "The CBS Evening News" and "60 Minutes." | Armed Conflict | July 2015 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Australian criminal Matthew Johnson is found guilty of the murder of drug boss Carl Williams in Victoria's Barwon Prison. | As Matthew Johnson, 38, learned his fate on Thursday, he stared ahead with his hands clasped, displaying a resigned indifference.
The verdict comes after three days of deliberations following a trial that lasted 14 days; one in which Johnson played only a minor role.
The focus was on the late gangland boss, four-times convicted killer and drug trafficker Williams.
Johnson pleaded not guilty to murder and maintained he bludgeoned Williams to death in self-defence, believing he was to become the next target of the baby-faced killer.
At the time he was killed, Williams was serving a minimum 35-year sentence for the gangland murders of Michael Marshall, Lewis Moran, Jason Moran and Mark Mallia.
He was also convicted of drug trafficking.
Prosecutor Mark Rochford SC asked the jurors to push aside who and what Williams was, pointing out that when he was killed he was sitting reading a newspaper and posed no threat.
"It doesn't matter if someone in the community thinks Matt Johnson did the world a favour by killing Carl Williams ... that's no excuse," he said.
CCTV cameras captured the moment on April 19, 2010 when Johnson attacked Williams unawares in Barwon Prison.
Johnson walked up behind him and bludgeoned him eight times with the stem of an exercise bike, a weapon he had moved closer to his cell after what he said was months of bullying and torment.
The first blow was so hard it knocked Williams off his chair. Johnson then dragged Williams's bloodied body back to his cell.
It was nearly another 30 minutes before prison guards stormed the unit and found Williams after Johnson told them "Carl has hit his head".
Johnson admitted on the stand it was a planned attack.
He told the court that another inmate, Tommy Ivanovic, had told him Williams was planning to kill him using a "common prison weapon" - a sock full of billiard balls.
Johnson said he took the threat seriously as Williams was "a killer". He told the court Williams was "the boss" who would talk of murders like others talk of football.
Supplied
Johnson said he had decided to "get in first"; and he said letters he wrote to other inmates on April 18, 2010 hinted of what was to come.
"I think I'll have to hang around for a while longer," he wrote to one friend.
"It doesn't matter because I love this s***. I'm the true general so I must keep things in good order."
In a second letter to Ange Goussis, he wrote: "By now you'd know that Charlie's team also lost. What can ya do, buddy? Life goes on."
On the stand, Johnson admitted he was referring to Williams's killing, which he planned to carry out at the first available opportunity the next day.
According to Johnson's lawyer, Bill Stuart, Williams was "the most dangerous man to walk the streets of Melbourne".
He was described as a master manipulator, a man who hired assassins to kill.
Mr Stuart argued the drug boss wanted to remain the "top dog" and be "the most dangerous man to walk the corridors of Victoria's prisons".
He argued that Williams's character was paramount to Johnson's decision to "kill or be killed".
The defence never shied away from the imposing figure Johnson cut - 188cm and 100 kilograms.
In Johnson's own words, he was "fairly big" without an ounce of fat on him; he was much larger than Williams, who had dropped 20 kilograms in prison.
Johnson has spent the best part of his life in jail. Since a teenager he has been in and out of prison.
Just last year he was sentenced to 16 years, to serve at least 13, for a vicious aggravated armed robbery.
Two years ago he was acquitted over the 2007 murder of an 18-year-old over a $50 drug debt.
The burnt body of Bryan Conyers was found by a security guard at a vacant house in Pakenham. He had been shot, stabbed and set alight.
Johnson and another man were cleared of the murder. His co-accused, Timothy Prentice, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder.
The trial was one of revelations, twists and turns.
Johnson was the self-titled "general" of a group of inmates known as 'Prisoners of War'. He hated "dogs", a prison term for police informers.
At an earlier and unrelated trial, later to be dubbed "the trial from hell" by the presiding judge, Johnson and four other men displayed the worse examples of contempt of court in Victoria's history.
As a fellow Barwon prisoner broke the cardinal rule and testified against them, human waste was thrown from the dock, some of the men bared their bottoms, and Johnson broke wind into the microphone.
Later his lawyer told the court of appeal the witness "knew how to push his buttons".
They were the same words he used to describe how Carl Williams got under his skin.
Williams had confided in his fellow prisoners about the help he was giving police to solve the 2004 double murder of Terence Hodson and wife Christine at their Kew home.
Three statements written by Williams detailed his cooperation and implicated former drug squad detective Paul Dale.
Williams alleged Mr Dale asked him to organise a hit on police informer Hodson for $150,000.
The statements also implicated a hit man who cannot be named, but one widely known in the prison system - someone known to Johnson.
In a secretly recorded prison phone call, Johnson whispers he had found the statements and put them on his computer. Police found copies on his computer after the killing.
The prosecution argued that was the motive behind the killing; that Williams was a "dog" and despite attempts to keep Johnson onside, his hatred spilled over.
But on the stand, Johnson said he knew the drug boss was spinning a yarn, hoping to get 15 years knocked off his sentence.
"He was pulling the wool over their eyes... Then he was going to shaft 'em," he said.
Johnson also said Williams had asked him to kill Mr Dale for $200,000 if he was granted bail.
Despite his infamous reputation, Williams died the same as many of his victims: the victim of a cold, callous and brutal death.
Johnson's legal team has 28 days to appeal the conviction.
Outside court, Detective Superintendent Doug Fryer expressed relief at the verdict. "We're pleased obviously with the result, and [it's a] great result for everyone, certainly the family are rapt about it," he said.
"It's been a sensational trial and sensational events over the last 12 to 14 months and justice has been done today." Victoria Police released a brief statement saying investigations into a number of matters surrounding Williams's death are continuing. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2011 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(Melbourne Herald–Sun)'] |
Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio is arrested for destroying a Black Lives Matter sign at the Asbury United Methodist Church during a protest in Washington, D.C. last month. | Follow NBC News Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested Monday and accused of destroying a Black Lives Matter sign at a historic Black church in Washington, D.C., last month.
Tarrio, chairman of the far-right, all-male self-described group of "Western chauvinists," was taken into custody on suspicion of destruction of property after the incident during a pro-Trump rally Dec. 12 in downtown Washington, police said in a statement.
One of the city's oldest Black houses of worship, Asbury United Methodist Church, said last month that a Black Lives Matter sign was removed from its building and set on fire.
Tarrio, 36, who lives in Miami, was arrested upon entering the city Monday and found to have two high-capacity magazines, police said. He faces an additional gun charge, police said.
More pro-Trump protests are expected in Washington on Wednesday, plans that prompted the mobilization of the National Guard ahead of possible violence.
Separately Monday, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church sued Tarrio and the Proud Boys in connection with the destruction of a Black Lives Matter sign during the same Dec. 12 pro-Trump rally.
In a complaint filed in D.C. Superior Court, the church accused Tarrio and the group's members of "engaging in acts of terror and vandalizing church property in an effort to intimidate the Church and silence its support for racial justice."
Eight unidentified members of the Proud Boys are also named in the suit.
The incident occurred the night of Dec. 12 after an event that featured right-wing figures like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
A widely circulated video showed several people destroying a Black Lives Matter sign in front of the church, which was founded in 1872 and hosted Frederick Douglass' 1895 funeral. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2021 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Twenty civilians are killed after Islamic State militants and the allied terror group Ansar al-Sunna attack a village in Mtwara, Tanzania. Properties are damaged, forcing scores of people to abandon their homes. | Hundreds of terrorists infiltrating from northern Mozambique killed at least 20 civilians in Tanzania’s southern Mtwara region, police and local media said on Thursday. More than 300 Daesh/ISIS terrorists attacked civilians and damaged properties, forcing scores of people to abandon their homes. A gruesome video circulating on social media showed the terrorists beheading a man believed to be Tanzanian. One of them could be heard saying in Kiswahili language that they have nothing to do with the country’s general elections, set to be held on Oct. 28.
Police said the attackers entered Tanzania via the Ruvuma river and raided Kitaya village, located on the border with Mozambique’s troubled gas-rich Cabo Delgado province.
Without giving specific numbers, Simon Siro, Tanzania’s police chief, said some terrorists have been arrested and others ran away.
He said the suspects are being interrogated and a manhunt has been launched for those who fled back to Mozambique. He vowed that the police and other security forces will defeat the “vicious network of terrorists, who are Tanzanians and Mozambicans.”
“If you kill Tanzanians, their blood cannot go in vain. We will do all we can to bring them to justice,” said Siro.
Violence in northern Mozambique has intensified over the course of this year, with terrorists attacking important military targets and even seizing key towns.
Attacks around Tanzania’s border with Mozambique have increased security risks for investors eyeing multibillion-dollar offshore gas projects. | Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(Anadolu Agency)'] |
China's State Council announces details of its intention to ban all ivory trade and processing activities by the end of 2017. | China has announced a ban on all ivory trade and processing activities by the end of 2017.
Conservation groups hailed the decision as "historic" and a "game-changer" for the future of elephants.
The move follows a resolution at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in South Africa in October.
China has the biggest ivory market in the world - some estimates suggest 70% of the world's trade ends up there.
The commercial processing and sale of ivory will stop by 31 March, and all registered traders will then be phased out, bringing a full halt to the market by the end of the year.
Conservation group WWF welcomed the latest news, calling it a "historic announcement... signalling an end to the world's primary legal ivory market and a major boost to international efforts to tackle the elephant poaching crisis in Africa".
Elly Pepper, deputy director of wildlife trade for the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised China for its "great leadership" on the issue.
"Setting such an aggressive timeline to close - once and for all - the largest domestic ivory market in the world is globally significant. "It's a game changer and could be the pivotal turning point that brings elephants back from the brink of extinction," she said.
While the international market in ivory has been closed since 1989, legal domestic markets have continued in many countries around the world.
A surge in the killing of elephants over the past seven years has seen populations across Africa shrink by a third, according to the recently published Great Elephant Census.
China had backed the Cites resolution in October, surprising participants with the strength of its support for a ban. | Government Policy Changes | December 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
A multiple–vehicle collision on the Long Island Expressway in Shirley, Suffolk County, New York, United States leaves one person dead and at least 32 injured. | All lanes of the Long Island Expressway reopened Thursday following a chain reaction of fiery crashes that killed one person and injured 33 others.
Police said a tractor-trailer smashed into several vehicles about 70 miles east of New York City on Wednesday, setting off a series of accidents that left nearly three dozen vehicles strewn across several hundred yards of the eastbound lanes.
At least three vehicles, including the tractor-trailer, which was carrying storm debris, caught fire and smoldered into the early evening, a fire official said.
The westbound lanes reopened before Thursday's morning rush hour. Despite its remote location far from the city, the closure of the highway snarled traffic throughout Long Island well into Wednesday evening.
Police on Thursday identified the woman killed in the crash as 68-year-old Christa Zepf of Blue Point. She was driving a Toyota Camry eastbound on the expressway and was killed at the scene, police said. The injured were taken to three area hospitals.
The only other victim identified in the crash was 57-year-old Robert Murphy of Lloyd Harbor. Police said he was in critical condition at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital with a head injury.
The cause of the accident hadn't been determined, and no charges had been filed related to it. A police spokeswoman said Thursday it was uncertain how long the investigation might take.
The tractor-trailer driver, 42-year-old Raymond Simoneau, of Rockingham, Vt., was heading eastbound when the truck struck a number of cars, triggering a pileup involving 35 vehicles, Suffolk County police said. He was uninjured, police said.
A car involved in the initial collision with the tractor-trailer was incinerated beyond recognition, with its tires punctured and paint burned off its body. Some SUVs and cars suffered extensive damage while others appeared to have barely a scratch; all were haphazardly stopped across the highway, which is up to six lanes in parts.
Police Deputy Inspector Kevin Fallon said the accident occurred at about 2:40 p.m. on the expressway, which connects suburban Long Island neighborhoods with New York City.
Five fire departments responded to the scene as well as 19 Emergency Medical Services agencies, police said.
Investigators were working to sort out the sequence of events that led to the accident, on an isolated stretch of road on the rural part of eastern Long Island, Fallon said.
"Anybody rolling up on this scene you would think there would be definitely more than just one fatality," said John Mirando, chief of the Ridge Fire Department. "It's just lucky that it's only one, but it could have been a lot worse."
Driver Danny Gershonowitz told Newsday he was ahead of the accident when he saw two cars stop on the road shoulder.
"The gentleman to the right of me went down to the ground and was praying. When I looked in my rear view mirror, there was smoke and flames coming out," he said.
He said he and others got the attention of the truck driver and helped him as he climbed out of his smoking vehicle.
"Pretty soon, the whole front of the truck was engulfed in fire, and that's when people started backing away," he said. "The police came and asked everybody to run and get out of the way, because I guess they thought it would explode." | Road Crash | December 2012 | ['(AP via ABC News)'] |
At least seven people have been killed and 25 others are injured after an explosion caused by the derailment of a train carrying propane and butane in the Bulgarian village of Hitrino, near Shumen. | A train carrying liquid petroleum gas has derailed and exploded in Bulgaria, killing at least five people.
More than 20 people are being treated in hospital with burns and other injuries after the incident in the village of Hitrino, local media say.
The authorities ordered an evacuation as firefighters battled the blaze.
At least 20 buildings were damaged in the derailment and explosion, spokesperson Nikolay Nikolov told Bulgaria's Nova television.
Two tanks hit an electricity line and exploded when the train derailed near the village station at about 05:30 local time (03:30 GMT), according to several reports.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, who arrived at the village several hours after the blast, told reporters: "there will be more casualties."
Several people suffered burns to more than 90% of their bodies, he added, and appealed to people in the region to donate blood to the local hospital's supply.
Hitrino, a town of around 800 people, is located in Bulgaria's north-eastern Shumen province, about 60 miles (100km) from the Black Sea. | Train collisions | December 2016 | ['(BBC News)', '(Independent Ireland)', '(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)'] |
A journalist based in Somaliland is killed by gunmen while returning home from work. | A journalist in the breakaway republic of Somaliland has been killed by gunmen as he returned home.
Ahmed Farah Ilyas was a reporter in Las Anod, the main city of the volatile Sool region, for UK-based Somali station Universal TV.
Before he was shot, he had been covering the story of a landmine explosion blamed by the authorities on al-Qaeda-aligned Islamist militants.
Ilyas is the 16th journalist to be killed in Somalia this year. Since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has seen clan-based warlords, Islamist militants and its neighbours all battling for control of the country.
Somaliland declared independence in the wake of Mr Barre's ousting - and has been a far more peaceful part of Somali territory, although Sool is in an area also claimed by the autonomous Somali state of Puntland and has experienced some unrest.
The BBC's Hagar Jibril in nearby Burao says witnesses told him that Ilyas was shot by two gunmen on Tuesday evening about 10m from his house.
"It was really shocking news for us. He was killed around 10pm local time [19:00 GMT]," Universal TV's Managing Direct Ahmed Abubakar told the BBC Somali Service.
Mr Abubakar said he did not know why the reporter was murdered.
"In all Somalia nowadays journalists have been targeted in so many places… so it might be to do with anything, it might be to do with the conflict with Somaliland and some groups there, or it might be a personal issue or family issue, but we're still waiting for that investigation to happen," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, four people were wounded by a landmine which Sool governor Mahamed Mahamud Ali said was laid by al-Shabab militants.
"We condemn the killing of Ahmed Farah Ilyas. Journalists are being targeted for their work, and they are performing their duties under the most trying times," Omar Faruk Osman, from the National Union of Somali Journalists, said in a statement.
Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to work. According to the UN special representative for Somalia, a journalist working for the Shabelle media network in the capital, Mogadishu, was shot on Saturday and is still in a critical condition.
"I condemn these horrific attacks in the strongest terms. Trying to silence the media will have a devastating effect on the nation's vibrant media community. These attacks must stop and the crimes must be fully investigated by the Somali and Somaliland authorities," Augustine Mahiga said in a statement.
Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for killing more than 10 of the 16 journalists this year. One of them was beheaded in Mogadishu.
Earlier this year, a UN report noted that al-Shabab was expanding operations further north, and last week a large consignment of arms destined for suspected Islamist militants was seized in Puntland.
Al-Shabab has been under pressure from African Union troops and Somali government army in central and southern Somalia.
It has lost some of the major towns it once controlled over the last few months but still control large areas of land, especially in rural areas. | Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Michael Kors buys Jimmy Choo for US$1.2 billion. | On Tuesday, Michael Kors Holdings said it had agreed to buy the shoe company Jimmy Choo for 896 million pounds, or about $1.2 billion, the latest push by an American high-end fashion house to find new sources of growth and what its chief executive characterized as the first step in building a bigger international luxury group.
Many upscale brands like Michael Kors have faced plummeting sales and tepid profits. Mall traffic in North America has declined sharply, while shoppers who have traditionally been loyal to the so-called middle market have gravitated toward brands at extremes of the style and price spectrum.
| Organization Merge | July 2017 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Pierre Nkurunziza of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy–Forces for the Defense of Democracy, a former rebel leader of the Hutu majority in Burundi, has been elected unopposed as the new President of Burundi by the parliament, the first president chosen through democratic means since the start of the civil war in 1993. He will be sworn in on 27 August. , | He was elected by parliament last week, after his Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) won elections earlier this year to both the Senate and the National Assembly.
The FDD was until recently the largest rebel group fighting the Burundi government. After 10 years of conflict between ethnic Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-dominated army, the FDD joined the peace process in November 2003 paving the way for its entry into government. Mr Nkurunziza, 41, arrived in Bujumbura in November 2004, to take up his post of minister for good governance.
He belongs to the younger generation of Hutu leaders, whose political and military careers started after the killing of Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye by disgruntled soldiers in 1993. Before joining the rebels, he was a teacher, not known for his political activities.
"I was pushed into rebellion by the inter-ethnic massacres that were taking place at the university in 1995," he said on Wednesday.
In the bush, he kept a low profile, despite his rise to take over the FDD leadership.
'Pre-destined'
He joined the FDD after narrowly escaping death in combat in 2001 in the central province of Gitega.
Injured in battle and with the army in hot pursuit, he says he saw those who had gone to kill him were eaten by crocodiles near the Maragarazi river, in central Burundi.
When I am in church, I pray and devote myself exclusively to God. And when I am in politics, I do the opposite
Pierre Nkurunziza
He says the experience is proof that he was pre-destined to lead the FDD. The son of a former governor, he was born in December 1963 in the northern province of Ngozi. His father was Catholic and his mother Anglican.
Now a born-again Protestant, he is described by those close to him as "religious, cool and a gentleman devoid of religious fundamentalism". He says he is against tribalism and fought for peace, justice and security for all. "When I am in church, I pray and devote myself exclusively to God. And when I am in politics, I do the opposite while at the same time acknowledging that God is everywhere," he once said. Although Mr Nkurunziza preaches peace and unity, his rebel group staged several ambushes along major roads killing many travellers, mostly Tutsis. In 1998, he was sentenced to death by a Burundian court but he received an amnesty under the peace accords.
The FDD now boasts many Tutsi officials, which some say is proof of Mr Nkurunziza's national outlook.
However, others point out that under the new constitution, parties were obliged to have members from both major communities.
The constitution also shares out government posts on an ethnic basis. Thus, the pro-Hutu FDD was obliged to seek Tutsi members who in turn could fill the posts reserved for them under the peace deal.
Family tragedy
Mr Nkurunziza is married with two sons, aged nine and 11. He had a sister and six brothers, two of whom died during the 1993 killings which followed Mr Ndadaye's killing. Three others died in the bush. Now only he and his sister remain. He was reunited with his family in December 2003 after the signing of the peace agreement with the government.
After 10 years of war, Burundians hope they can now rebuild their lives
His father was killed in ethnic violence in the 1970s.
His primary education was in Bujumbura Province and his secondary studies in Gitega Province. He then studied sports education at the University of Burundi. On completion of his academic studies, he taught at Muramvya high school and the University of Burundi as an assistant lecturer
He also taught at the Burundi military academy, ISCAM, where he formed ties which would later serve him in the bush.
He used his sporting skills to coach the army football team, Muzinga, as well as Union Sporting, a Burundian first division football team. Mr Nkurunziza relinquished the FDD leadership post after being chosen as a presidential candidate for the forthcoming elections.
As the nation's leader, he faces the challenges of elevating the standard of living of millions of Burundians, which have plummeted during the 12 years of civil war, compounded by endemic official corruption. His government will also face the hard task of engaging the only active rebel group, the National Liberation Forces, in talks and then reaching a peace agreement. After so many years of conflict, he will also have to reassure the minority Tutsis, through actions as well as words, that their future is secure in a democratic government led by the majority Hutus. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(BBC)'] |
The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century colours the moon reddish orange in parts of Africa, Asia and Europe for about one hour and 42 minutes. | The longest total lunar eclipse of the century transformed the moon into a reddish orange color for more than 100 minutes, according to NASA.
The eclipse was not visible from North America, Noah Petro, a scientist for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told ABC News. Star-gazers in areas near the Middle East, south or eastern Africa, western and southeast Asia and India were be able to catch a glimpse of the celestial event as long as the weather permits, Petro said.
In those areas, the totality of the lunar eclipse -- when the moon will retain its red color -- lasted for about an hour and 42 minutes. The entire event will last about six hours and 13 minutes, Petro said.
Residents in Australia were able to see the lunar eclipse as the moon sets, while those in eastern Brazil and western Europe could see it as the moon is rising.
Petro suggested either renting a boat and driving it to the middle of the Indian Ocean or visiting relatives in Ethiopia for the "best seat in the house."
A San Antonio couple named Miguel and Sara who experienced the eclipse from Cairo, Egypt described it as a "beautiful" sight.
"It looks like a giant tangerine," Miguel told ABC News, adding that Cairo" was "a little bit colder than Texas right now."
Cloudy weather conditions in cities like London, Moscow and Hong Kong obstructed views of the blood moon in those areas.
ABC News correspondent Matt Gutman described the sight of the lunar eclipse from Hong Kong as "more like a gray smudge," due to the weather.
However, cities like Rome and Cairo, as well as several areas in Africa, had a clear picture of the moon.
In the U.S., the lunar eclipse began around 1:14 p.m. ET, with the maximum period of totality will starting around 4:21 p.m. ET, making it too light outside for the blood moon to be visible, Petro said.
Although U.S. residents weren't able to see the eclipse, they should still note that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter -- NASA's robotic spacecraft orbiting the moon -- experienced it first-hand, Petro said. The LRO was launched in June 2009 to provide detailed maps to identify "safe and interesting" landing sites on the moon for future human and robotic exploration.
"The moon really holds the secret to understanding how the solar system works," Petro said.
It's a good time for Americans to start getting excited about the moon, as NASA will begin celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the spaceflight that made astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first two people on the moon, in October, Petro said. Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.
The next total lunar eclipse visible in the U.S. will be on Jan. 21, 2019, according to NASA. It will be a super moon as well, which is a full moon or new moon that coincides with the moon's position at it's closest to the Earth.
A partial lunar eclipse -- which looks "like someone took a bite out of the moon -- will also be visible in the U.S. in July 2019, Petro said. The partial lunar eclipse involves the southern half of the moon passing into the earth's shadow, he added.
A blood moon is a term used to describe a total lunar eclipse, which is when the moon appears darkened as it passes through the Earth's shadow.
The total lunar eclipse is given the "blood" nickname because of the "beautiful" red color caused by the projection of all of the Earth's sunrises and sunsets onto its surface, Petro told ABC News earlier this year, before the super blue blood moon event that took place on Jan. 31. | New wonders in nature | July 2018 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Egyptian interior minister Magdy AbdelGhaffar accuses Hamas and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the June 2015 assassination of Attorney General Hisham Barakat. | Egyptian interior minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar revealed Sunday that 13 Muslim Brotherhood operatives had fled to Turkey after the assassination of chief prosecutor Hisham Barakat last June, for which “Hamas trained, prepared and oversaw implementation” in the Gaza Strip. Barakat was killed by a massive bombing outside his home. Dozens of people have been arrested. Egyptian intelligence had intercepted electronic messages between Gaza and Cairo concerning the crime.
Hamas immediately denied the accusations. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2016 | ['(Latin American Herald Tribune)', '(Debkafile)'] |
The Haitian government announces the death toll from the recent earthquake has reached 150,000 in the capital Port-au-Prince alone. | The confirmed death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake has risen above 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince area alone, a government minister has said.
Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the count was based on bodies collected in and around the capital by state company CNE. Many more bodies remain uncounted under rubble in the capital, including the towns of Jacmel and Leogane. The search for survivors has officially ended and the focus has shifted to aid. But there is disagreement about how well the aid operation is doing, with the head of Italy's civil protection service making highly critical comments. Guido Bertolaso, who is in Haiti to co-ordinate relief efforts, also criticised what he saw as the presence of too many American soldiers. He said they had no training in running a civilian relief operation. "When there is an emergency, it triggers a vanity parade. Lots of people go there anxious to show that their country is big and important, showing solidarity", he said. He called on the United Nations to establish a procedure to follow when major natural disasters occur. As the death toll in Haiti has risen, it has become clear the 12 January quake is one of the worst natural disasters to have struck in recent years. Some say the 7.0-magnitude quake killed as many as 200,000 people, while an estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless. Ms Lassegue said that the authorities were still far from knowing the total number of those killed. "Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble - 200,000, 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" the Associated Press quotes her as saying on Sunday. Speaking to reporters a day earlier, she said the general hospital had received about 10,000 corpses, which it had handed over to CNE for burial. At least 75,000 people have been buried in mass graves since the disaster. Relatives have also burnt the bodies of some of the victims. 'Tremendous need'
Thousands of people joined open-air church services in Port-au-Prince, Leogane - the epicentre of the earthquake - and elsewhere on Sunday. A day after the funeral of the capital's Roman Catholic archbishop, Father Glanda Toussaint celebrated Mass at an altar improvised on a wooden table by the wrecked cathedral. He told his congregation: "What we are going through is not finished, we must reconstruct the country and reconstruct our faith. As a Haitian, it hurts." Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, who set up the charity foundation Yele Haiti, arrived in the capital on Sunday. He was expected to meet officials and help distribute aid to people left homeless. He was among a number of high-profile artists to take part in a "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon in the US on Friday which raised more than $57m (£35m) for the aid effort. Meanwhile, BBC correspondents in Port-au-Prince report a few signs of normal life returning to the city, with street stalls starting to sell fruit and vegetables and some shops and banks re-opening. Queues to withdraw cash have been long, as prices for what is now on sale have increased dramatically and many Haitians have been without access to money for days. The UN says more than 130,000 people have now been relocated out of Port-au-Prince by the authorities, easing the pressure on overcrowded camps in the city. Others have left independently. Foreign ministers will discuss plans for reconstruction at an international donor conference to take place in the Canadian city of Montreal on Monday.
Hours after Haiti's government declared a formal end to the search for survivors on Saturday, a 24-year-old man was pulled alive from the remains of a hotel in the capital after 11 days under the rubble. Rescuers described his survival as "a miracle". Onlookers cheered as Wismond Exantus - smiling and apparently in a good condition - emerged on a stretcher from what remains of the Napoli Inn Hotel. He later told reporters that soft drinks and snacks had kept him going. A French medic said he could expect to leave hospital within a day or two. The BBC's Orla Guerin in Port-au-Prince says doctors believe he will make a full recovery. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Exantus appealed for search and rescue efforts to continue so that others could share his chance of rescue. | Earthquakes | January 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Flooding in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Fujian, and Jiangxi damage agricultural land and crops, kill 66 people, and force 600,000 people from their homes. | China's civil affairs ministry said that the floods had caused an estimated $380m (£284m) worth of damage.
The provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Fujian and Jiangxi were among the worst-affected regions.
Floods also damaged agricultural land and crops.
"Floods caused by heavy rains have affected about 294,800 hectares of crops, completely destroying 53,000 hectares of them," an official told China's Xinhua news agency.
Seasonal rains
Rescue teams have been sent to the area to help in relief work and search for an estimated 12 people who remain missing.
In the province of Guangxi, the rains destroyed 29 reservoirs and 162 roads and forced 59 factories to suspend production, Xinhua reports.
Seasonal rains bring flash floods to China each year.
Although towns and cities are normally protected by dykes, smaller farming communities and mountain towns are particularly vulnerable to the sudden rise in water levels. In the country's central and southern regions, many people farm on land reclaimed from the flood plains of rivers.
Last year some 2,704 people died in flooding and typhoons in China, according to the country's Meteorological Administration. | Floods | June 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Duncan Laurence, representing the Netherlands, wins the 2019 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Arcade". It is the country's first win since 1975. | In one of the closest competitions in recent years, the battle for top spot in the Eurovision song contest was a tight fight between Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy and North Macedonia.
Duncan Laurence, the bookies’ favourite from the Netherlands, justified his pre-contest hype after the public voted his ballad Arcade the winner. It is the first time the Dutch have won since 1975.
Laurence’s haunting track has already become a big hit on streaming services since its release earlier this year.
Sweden’s entry John Lundvik had looked like adding to the Scandinavian country’s illustrious record of six wins, beginning back in 1974 when Abba came first. Sweden has such a surplus of Eurovision talent it also furnished the song for the UK’s entry, as well as Estonia’s – Victor Crone is Swedish.
The Eurovision show brought together acts from 41 countries. The surprise of the night was North Macedonia, the newly renamed country in the Balkans. Their performer, Tamara Todevska, had previously appeared twice before in the competition but Saturday night’s entry, Proud, proved their most popular entry ever.
The coveted 12 points from the UK’s jury panel of industry professionals also went to North Macedonia. The UK’s entrant, Michael Rice, delivered a rousing performance earlier in the evening singing Bigger Than Us against a backdrop of a starry night sky and racing comets.
Rice had said before the contest that he hoped to improve the UK’s reputation at Eurovision, as the UK had not won in 22 years or been in the top 10 in a decade. However, it was not to be – the UK finished last in the final with just 16 points.
Unusually, none of the performers went home with zero points.
The contest was staged in Israel, a country that had played host twice before, in Jerusalem in 1979 and 1999. The recent policies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government towards the occupied Palestinian territories roused considerable anger and calls for a boycott of the contest.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement claimed that Israel was “shamelessly using Eurovision as part of its official Brand Israel strategy” to “whitewash and distract attention from its war crimes against Palestinians”.
Iceland’s entry, the leather-clad BDSM group Hatari, had slammed Eurovision in Israel as being “built on a lie”, but nonetheless took to the stage – choosing to instead focus on Eurovision as a champion of diversity and inclusiveness. Their song, Hatrið Mun Sigra, was one of the eye-catching performances of the final.
Hatari showed support for Palestine, holding up Palestinian flags as their points scores were read out.
Madonna’s performance during the show received a muted response from the studio audience. Dressed by the designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who said he had been channeling Joan of Arc, Madonna’s show featured as many as 30 dancers dressed as monks.
“You’re all winners,” Madonna told the Eurovision finalists before her appearance.
“Let’s not underestimate the power of music to bring people together. That’s the most important thing. Music makes the people come together.”
Her decision to perform had provoked furious reaction from fellow musicians in the lead up to the event.
Madonna defended her choice to perform, saying: “I’ll never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda nor will I stop speaking out against violations of human rights wherever in the world they may be.”
Roger Waters, founding member of Pink Floyd, wrote in the Guardian that her decision to perform in Tel Aviv “raised fundamentally important ethical and political questions for each and every one of us to contemplate”.
Waters said that “to perform in Israel is a lucrative gig but to do so serves to normalise the occupation.”
| Awards ceremony | May 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A car bomb explodes outside a police college in the Yemeni capital Sana'a with at least 38 people reported dead and more than 50 wounded. , , | At least 37 people have been killed and 66 others injured by a bomb blast outside a police academy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, police say.
Two men were seen getting out of a minibus and walking away shortly before it exploded beside dozens of people queuing to enrol at the academy.
Afterwards, body parts and debris from the bus were strewn across the street.
There has so far been no claim of responsibility, but an offshoot of al-Qaeda has carried out similar attacks.
Yemen has experienced a wave of violence in recent months, with militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) battling Shia Houthi rebels who have taken control of the capital.
Wednesday's bombing took place early in the morning in a central part of Sanaa near the central bank and the defence ministry building.
The explosion was heard across the city and a large plume of smoke was seen rising from the scene.
The victims included many cadets at the police academy as well those waiting to enrol, and passers-by, officials said.
"We were all gathering and... [the minibus] exploded right next to all of the police college classmates," Jamil al-Khaleedi told the Associated Press. "It went off among all of them."
A paramedic at the scene described the situation as "catastrophic".
"We arrived to find bodies piled on top of each other," he told Reuters news agency. Some initial reports said the attack was a suicide bombing. But police spokesman Brig Abdul Aziz al-Qadasi told the state news agency Saba the driver of the minibus and another person were seen getting out of the vehicle and fleeing the scene before the blast.
The US embassy in Yemen condemned the attack, saying it "reveals the nihilistic vision and depravity of terror groups operating in Yemen".
Yemeni security forces personnel have been targeted many times by AQAP in the past four years. A suicide bomber killed more than 90 people in 2012 at a military parade in the capital and an assault on a military hospital a year ago left more than 50 dead.
The jihadist group has exploited the chaos and instability that has resulted from the uprising that forced longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in 2011.
His successor, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, has ordered a series of military offensives on AQAP strongholds, but its members have been able to withdraw to remote, mountainous regions where they are protected by local tribes wary of the government.
President Hadi has also been weakened by the Houthi rebels from the northern province of Saada, who triggered a political crisis in September when they overran security forces in the capital and forced him to form technocratic government and reverse unpopular subsidy cuts. The rebels were supposed to withdraw from Sanaa, but they have instead expanded their presence in central and western Yemen, triggering fierce clashes with AQAP and Sunni tribesmen.
Last week, a suicide bomb attack on Houthi supporters in Ibb left as many as 49 people dead.
| Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Car bombs injure at least 37 people in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Kirkuk. | Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 37 people were wounded Saturday in attacks in the Iraqi capital and the northern city of Kirkuk, authorities said.
Police said 27 people were wounded after three car bombs detonated in Kirkuk Saturday.
The car bombs detonated in close succession in predominantly Kurdish parts of the city, local police said. The blasts appeared to be targeting the homes of Kurdish officials in different parts of the city, police and Interior Ministry officials said.
The ethnically mixed Kirkuk is a top disputed territory between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government in the north.
Separately, at least 10 others were wounded in attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Seven people, including two civilians, were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in the western part of the city, the Interior Ministry said. The blast occurred after another bomb explosion set a liquor store ablaze. The roadside bomb detonated as emergency officials responded to the scene.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, two traffic officers were wounded when a rocket struck a busy area in the center of the city, the Interior Ministry said. Also, a bomb attached to a civilian vehicle detonated, wounding the driver.
And three rockets struck Baghdad's heavily fortified International Zone on Saturday morning, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
The International Zone, formerly known as the Green Zone, houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy.
While the widespread daily violence across Iraq has dropped over the past two years, more than 150 Iraqis have been killed in attacks over the past week. On Tuesday, 64 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in more than a dozen bombings that struck mostly Shiite parts of the capital. Tuesday's bombings were among the largest scale attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Seventeen Baghdad neighborhoods were struck by more than a dozen bombs, most of which were car bombs. And at least 58 people died in the siege of a Baghdad church on Sunday by fighters affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq -- one of the worst attacks of the war against Iraq's dwindling Christian minority. | Armed Conflict | November 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
French novelist Michel Houellebecq wins the Prix Goncourt for his book La Carte et le Territoire . | Michel Houellebecq, France's best-known novelist, has finally won the country's most prestigious literary award after a series of high profile snubs for previous works.
Houellebecq, the enfant terrible of French contemporary literature accepted the Prix Goncourt at Le Drouant, the small Paris restaurant where the jury always make their final judgement over lunch.
The jury had voted seven to two in favour of his widely-acclaimed novel "La Carte et le Territoire" (The Map and the Territory) after three failed attempts over a decade. He wins a symbolic prize of 10 euros (£8.60), but the prize is said to boost sales to around 400,000 copies in general - the book has already sold almost 200,000 copies in France.
The win comes despite accusations of plagiarism – one critic noticed at least three chunks of text were apparently the same as passages from the French-language edition of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
"It's a bizarre sensation but I'm deeply happy", the controversial 54-year-old said of the prize previously awarded to Marcel Proust, Simone de Beauvoir and Marguerite Duras. "There are people that only know contemporary literature thanks to the Goncourt, and literature at the centre of French people's concerns, so it's significant."
Houellebecq has previously criticised the award after missing out. When Atomised, his sexually explicit novel about two half brothers' relationships that shot him to fame in 1998, lost the Goncourt he claimed the jury were "bought off".
He complained when his next work, Platform about third-world sex tourism and terrorism, was knocked out in 2001, while in 2005, his book, The Possibility of an Island, featuring a standup comic cloned by the Rael sect, failed to make the grade, he said: "The prize system is so opaque that it is better to expect nothing from it."
Yesterday [Monday], he said however: "I'm someone who forgets bad things, the wounds have healed."
Detractors of the Goncourt have accused the jury of awarding prizes to make sure publishers share the spoils. Houellbecq's publisher, Flammarion, however, has not won the award for 30 years.
Pierre Assouline, a critic for Le Monde newspaper, wrote in his literary blog: "If the Goncourt jury had not crowned him this time, they would have looked ridiculous."
Houellebecq's latest novel, set largely in Paris, centres on a lonely misanthropic artist who wins critical and commercial success by photographing Michelin maps and then painting business tycoons.
The character befriends a grumpy writer who "stinks a little less than a corpse" and resembles "an old, sick tortoise", named Michel Houellebecq.
The writer's works have consistently sparked controversy and claims of misogyny, racism and sexism.
His description of Islam as "the most stupid religion" landed him in court in 2002 on a charge of inciting racial hatred, of which he was acquitted.
He also hit the headlines over a savage public row with his estranged mother Lucie Ceccaldi, whom he portrays in a deeply unflattering light in his novel Plateforme. She responded by writing a book in which she called him a liar, an impostor and a parasite.
Houellebecq dismissed the allegations of plagiarism, arguing that the passages were part of a "patchwork" approach that was ironic.
"If people really think that, then they haven't the first notion of what literature is. That is part of my method", he said, saying other great writers versed in the arts of mixing "real" texts into fiction. | Awards ceremony | November 2010 | ['(The Map and the Territory)', '(The Telegraph)'] |
Hezbollah commander Imad Mugniyah is killed by a bomb attack in Damascus, Syria. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Senior Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyah, on the United States’ most wanted list for attacks on Israeli and Western targets, has been killed by a bomb attack in Damascus, the Lebanese group said on Wednesday.
A TV grab from al-Manar Hezbollah TV shows an undated portrait of slain leader Imad Moughniyeh. REUTERS/al-Manar Hezbollah TV
Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, accused Israel of assassinating Moughniyah by planting a bomb in his car. Tehran blamed Israel and condemned the attack as an act of “state terrorism”. Washington welcomed his death.
Israel denied any involvement in the killing, seen as a major blow to a group whose last confrontation with the Jewish state was the 34-day war of 2006.
Moughniyah, 45, was killed late on Tuesday. He had long been on a list of foreigners Israel wanted to kill or capture and had been top of Washington’s wanted list before al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden emerged as an enemy of the United States.
“His killing is a huge blow to Hezbollah,” Magnus Ranstorp, terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defence College, said.
In his first official reaction to Tuesday’s killing, Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Majeed condemned the attack as a “terrorist act” and said that an investigation was under way.
“Syria condemns this cowardly terrorist act and presents its condolences to the Lebanese people and to the family of the martyr,” the official SANA news agency quoted Abdel Majeed as saying.
Moughniyah was implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks in Beirut, which killed over 350 people, as well as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s.
The United States indicted him for his role in planning and participating in the June 14, 1985, hijacking of a U.S. TWA airliner and the killing of an American passenger.
“The world is a better place without this man in it. He was a cold-blooded killer, a mass-murderer and a terrorist responsible for countless innocent lives lost,” State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said.
“One way or another he was brought to justice,” he said.
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Hezbollah, a strong political and military force in Lebanon, called followers to his funeral on Thursday.
“After a life full of jihad, sacrifices and accomplishments ... Haj Imad Moughniyah ... died a martyr at the hands of the Israeli Zionists,” Hezbollah said.
Moughniyah’s coffin, draped in a Hezbollah flag and flanked by four men in military uniform, was laid in a hall where his family and leaders of the Shi’ite group received condolences.
The 2006 war with Israel was triggered by a Hezbollah cross-border raid in which two Israeli soldiers were captured.
According to Israeli intelligence assessments, Moughniyah was involved in planning the operation. He had also once been head of the security network of Hezbollah, a group which emerged in the early 1980s during Lebanon’s civil war.
Israel accuses Moughniyah of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and of involvement in a 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital that killed 28.
“He was not only being targeted by Israel, but also by the Americans and many other parties,” said former Mossad head Danny Yatom on Israel Radio. “He was one of the terrorists with the most amount of intelligence agencies and states chasing him.”
Moughniyah had been a very tough target to track, he said. “He behaved with extreme caution for many years. It was impossible even to obtain his picture. He never appeared or spoke before the media.
“His identity was hidden. His steps were hidden. He behaved with extreme caution, and that was the reason it was difficult to get to him for so many years.”
The United States tried to detain Moughniyah several times,
including a 1995 attempt to arrest him when the plane he was traveling was due to stop in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials refused to allow the plane to land, diplomats say.
The attack occurred at an upmarket district housing an Iranian school, a police station and a Syrian intelligence office. Witnesses said that scores of police and intelligence officers rushed to the site. A police truck towed away the destroyed car, a new model Mitsubishi Pajero.
Senior Hamas officials, including leader Khaled Meshaal, live in exile in Damascus.
“Israel rejects the attempts of terror elements to attribute to Israel any involvement in this incident,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said in a statement.
Moughniyah is thought to have been commander of Islamic Jihad, a shadowy pro-Iranian group which emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980s and was believed linked to Hezbollah.
Islamic Jihad kidnapped several Western hostages, including Americans, in Beirut in the mid 1980s. The group killed some of its captives and exchanged others for U.S. weapons to Iran in what was later known as the Iran-Contra scandal. Among those killed was the CIA’s station chief.
Moughniyah’s brother was killed in a car bomb in Beirut in 1994. Reports at the time suggested Imad had been the target. Moughniyah had spent much of the 1990s in Iran.
| Famous Person - Death | February 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Nigerian diplomat Tijjani Muhammad–Bande is elected President of the United Nations General Assembly, assuming the office on September and succeeding Peruvian María Fernanda Espinosa. | The global reach of the United Nations makes it “the world's best hope for peace and security, sustainable development and the promotion and protection of human rights and social progress”, said the top Nigerian diplomat who will be the next President of the General Assembly.
Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, Nigeria’s current UN Permanent Representative, was elected to head the world body by acclamation on Tuesday in the General Assembly Hall in New York and will succeed Ecuador’s Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
The newly-elected UN General Assembly President , Tijjani Muhammad-Bande of Nigeria, was elected Tuesday. Here's our news video of the day. pic.twitter.com/goG8e4N6Wf
“Peace and security, poverty eradication, zero hunger, quality education, climate action and inclusion will constitute a major priority of my presidency”, said the Nigerian ambassador.
When he takes the reins at opening of the 74th session in September, he committed “to promoting partnerships that are needed from all stakeholders to achieve our objectives, and ultimately ensure that we do our best to ensure peace and prosperity, particularly, for the most vulnerable”.
Mr. Muhammad-Bande spoke about a number of September’s high-level events that will be convened at UN Headquarters in New York to support the Sustainable Development Agenda, including a High-Level Political Forum, the Climate Change Summit, the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development, the High-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage, as well as the high-level meeting to review progress made in addressing the priorities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
“The promotion of human rights and the empowerment of women and youth deserve special attention, and I will be devoted to the promotion of gender parity throughout the whole UN system, starting from my own Office”, said the president-elect.
Noting that the 75th anniversary of the UN’s founding would be commemorated during his tenure, he called it “a unique opportunity for us to reduce the trust deficit between nations”.
To “achieve the visions of our founding fathers, we must ensure that indifference and cynicism does not creep into our Organization”, he asserted, saying that the 193-nation Assembly “must play its role in bridging the gaps and promoting collective action”.
He also highlighted that efforts must be maintained to strengthen the relationship between the General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
“I will count on the support and solidarity of all Member States as well as the Secretariat”, he maintained, saying that he would use his office’s advocacy tools to promote multilateral approaches for “workable solutions” to pressing issues. “I will work with Member States on streamlining our work and improving the way we do business at the UN”, he added.
Noting the growing number of events, which may risk undermining genuine dialogue and over-stretching delegations, he assured “I will work with you all on appropriate solutions, as I believe we must make the UN more efficient, effective and accountable to the people we serve”.
In his remarks, Secretary-General António Guterres congratulated Mr. Muhammad-Bande and noted some of the “many important and admirable qualifications” he brings to the office.
He cited the president-elect’s tenure as Nigeria’s UN Ambassador; his expertise in political science and public administration; and the “invaluable insights” he has into Africa’s challenges and world affairs in general, particularly regarding the Organization’s peace and security work, sustainable development and human rights.
The UN chief said that “as we gear up to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations”, he hopes to use the occasion “to reaffirm the value of international cooperation and the vision of the Charter”.
Mr. Guterres also commended the current Assembly President, María Fernanda Espinosa for her “outstanding work”, saying “I am most grateful for her support for United Nations reform and her overall stewardship of this body”.
The Secretary-General concluded by offering the president-elect his support “as we strive to reach our shared goals and uphold universal values”.
The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday elected Ecuadorean Foreign Minister María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of its upcoming 73rd session; only the fourth woman to hold that position in the history of the world body, and the first since 2006. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | June 2019 | ['(UN News)'] |
South Korean opposition lawmakers' anti–terrorism bill filibuster, which stops all other legislative business, extends its world record to 115 hours Sunday afternoon, easily besting Canada's 58–hour session in 2011. The major issue is giving South Korea's intelligence agency powers to monitor private communications. This parliamentary session is set to end March 11, with elections on April 13. | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean opposition lawmakers seeking to block a government-backed “anti-terrorism” bill pushed their record-breaking filibuster into a sixth straight day of speeches in the parliamentary chamber on Sunday.
The filibuster began on Tuesday and had continued around the clock for more than 115 hours by Sunday afternoon, making it the world’s longest, according to the Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper.
The marathon filibuster easily surpassed a 58-hour session by 103 members of Canada’s New Democratic Party in 2011.
By Sunday afternoon, 23 lawmakers had spoken for an average of five hours each in opposition to a bill they believe will threaten personal freedoms if passed. Many carried boxes of documents to the podium at the National Assembly, some wearing sneakers.
Earlier this month, President Park Geun-hye’s office called for parliament to pass the stalled security bill, part of tough action taken by her government amid heightened tension with North Korea following its test launch of a long-range rocket this month and its fourth nuclear test last month.
The opposition wants the removal of a provision in the bill that would give South Korea’s intelligence agency authority to monitor private communications.
Lawmakers from the conservative ruling Saenuri party, which controls 157 of the assembly’s 293 seats, have expressed dismay that the speech-making is causing other bills to be delayed ahead of parliamentary elections due in April.
Opposition lawmaker Jung Chung-rae spoke for 11 hours and 39 minutes on Saturday, the longest speech of the filibuster thus far. Some lawmakers have come to tears during their speeches, while one of them sang and another read aloud from George Orwell’s “1984,” according to a South Korean newspaper.
| Government Policy Changes | February 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Palestinian militant group Hamas announces that a ceasefire agreement has been reached with the Israeli government to end a month-long series of cross-border firing involving the launch of incendiary balloons in the Gaza Strip. The agreement follows mediation talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials. | Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas have announced they have reached a Qatari-mediated deal with Israel to end more than three weeks of cross-border exchanges of fire.
After talks with Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi, “an understanding was reached to rein in the latest escalation and end [Israeli] aggression against our people,” said the office of the Palestinian territory’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.
In the latest escalation, Israel has bombed Gaza almost daily since 6 August, in response to airborne incendiary devices and, less frequently, rockets launched across the border.
The fire bombs – crude devices fitted to balloons, inflated condoms or plastic bags – have triggered more than 400 blazes and damaged swathes of farmland in southern Israel, according to the fire brigade.
An Egyptian delegation had been shuttling between the two sides to try to broker a renewal of an informal truce under which Israel committed to ease its 13-year-old blockade of Gaza in return for calm on the border.
It was joined by Al-Emadi, who also held talks with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.
A Hamas source said there had been “a total halt” to balloon and other attacks against Israel, in agreement with other factions in the coastal strip, home to some 2 million people.
“Fuel supplies will return and the power station will be restarted from Tuesday,” the source said.
A punitive Israeli-imposed ban on fuel deliveries cut electricity supplies to just four hours a day, supplied from the Israeli grid.
Financial aid from gas-rich Qatar has been a major component of a truce first agreed in November 2018 and renewed several times since.
Israel had also agreed to take other steps to alleviate unemployment of more than 50% in Gaza, but disagreements over implementation have fuelled repeated flare-ups.
These escalated into full-blown conflict in 2008, 2012 and 2014, and mediators have been working to prevent a new war. | Sign Agreement | August 2020 | ['(AFP via The Guardian)'] |
A suspected suicide carbomber kills 49 people in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in an attack that the government said underscored the need for an allout offensive against the Pakistani Taliban. | PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected suicide car-bomber killed 49 people on Friday in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in an attack that the government said underscored the need for an all-out offensive against the Pakistani Taliban.
Blast in Pakistan kills dozens
01:29
There was no claim of responsibility but Interior Minister Rehman Malik said “all roads are leading to South Waziristan,” referring to the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest.
“One thing is clear, these hired assassins called Taliban are to be dealt with more severely,” Malik told reporters in Islamabad.
“We think we have no other option except to carry out an operation in South Waziristan,” he added, while declining to say when that might happen.
The suspected car-bomber set off his explosives as he was passing a bus, police said. The blast hurled the bus onto its side on a road in a commercial neighborhood of the northwestern city. Several cars were destroyed.
“The bus was making a turn when the blast occurred and it threw the bus into the air,” a witness told Duniya Television.
An official at Peshawar’s main hospital said 49 people had been killed including seven children. About 100 people were wounded.
Related Coverage
The bomb dented trade at Pakistan’s main stock market, which has gained about 66 percent this year after losing 58.3 percent in 2008, although it ended 0.28 percent up at 9,768.63.
Islamist militants who have set off numerous bombs in towns and cities including Peshawar over the past couple of years, most aimed at the security forces and government and foreign targets.
Early this year, the militants pushed to within 100 km (60 miles) of Islamabad, raising fears for nuclear-armed Pakistan’s stability. An exasperated U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the government appeared to be “abdicating” to the militants.
The United States needs Pakistani help against militants crossing into Afghanistan to battle U.S.-led forces there.
But in late April the security forces launched a sustained offensive in the Swat valley, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, largely clearing Taliban from the region although six militants were killed there in the latest clashes, the army said.
The militants suffered another big blow on August 5 when their overall leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an attack by a missile-firing U.S. drone aircraft in South Waziristan.
Mehsud’s death and reports of infighting over who would take over as leader raised hopes that the militants were in disarray.
But in recent weeks violence has been picking up after a relative lull following Mehsud’s killing.
A soldier was killed by a bomb in North Waziristan and four soldiers were wounded when militants fired 24 rockets at a checkpost, the military said.
The government ordered the army to go on the offensive in South Waziristan in June and security forces have been launching air and artillery strikes, while moving-in troops, blockading the region and trying to split off factions.
The army has declined to say when it would send in ground troops.
| Armed Conflict | October 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom are sworn into office, replacing the Law Lords as the final court of appeal in the country. | Lord Phillips, president of the new Supreme Court, is sworn in
The highest court in the United Kingdom has been formally opened, with the swearing in of its 11 justices in a ceremony in London.
The Supreme Court, housed at Middlesex Guildhall, replaces the Law Lords as the last court of appeal in all matters other than criminal cases in Scotland. The court is independent of Parliament and will hear the most important cases. Lord Phillips, President of the Supreme Court, said the change in form was important for judicial openness. The judicial function of the House of Lords, whose powers had evolved over centuries, ended with the swearing in of Lord Phillips. The justices wore black robes threaded with gold, replacing the full-bottomed wigs, robes and breeches of the lords. The £59m Supreme Court has opened six years after it was first announced. Its first members were - until last month - the Law Lords who would have otherwise heard the same cases in the House of Lords. But the constitutional change that led to the Supreme Court's creation means that Parliament's lawmakers and the judges charged with overseeing legislation have been separated.
Scotland's supreme criminal court remains the High Court of Justiciary. The swearing-in saw Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers become the first President of the Court. He was joined by 10 other colleagues in taking an oath of allegiance to uphold the law. A final 12th member of the court will be appointed at a later date. Lord Phillips said: "This is the last step in the separation of powers in this country. We have come to it fairly gently and gradually, but we have come to the point where the judges are completely separated from the legislature and executive. "The change is one of transparency. It's going to be very much easier for the public to come to our hearings. "I would hope that the court is still sitting in 100 years' time and that when people look back at this step that they see it as a very significant step in the constitution of this country." While only the Law Lords' judgements were televised from Parliament, all of the Supreme Court's hearings will be open to the public. Its building, in Parliament Square, Westminster, includes a public cafe and education facilities. For the first time, television cameras have been fitted into the courtrooms meaning that many hearings will be available to broadcasters.
The Supreme Court sits for the first time later on Thursday to deal with a relatively minor issue relating to legal costs. Its first major appeal hearing follows next week in a case concerning terrorist suspects whose assets have been frozen. Although the actual business and workings of the justices will be essentially the same as those of the Law Lords, it will be watched closely to see if the move across Parliament Square will affect the way its decides cases. One group of influential solicitors and barristers is launching a blog to monitor the Supreme Court's decision-making. But others have criticised the change, arguing that it is largely a cosmetic exercise. . Inside the UK's first Supreme Court | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(The Times)'] |
British Conservative Party politician Lord Young resigns as the coalition government's enterprise adviser after claiming that most Britons "have never had it so good" in spite of the recession. | David Cameron's enterprise adviser Lord Young has quit after claiming most Britons "had never had it so good". The Tory peer said many people had gained from low interest rates during this "so-called recession", remarks Mr Cameron said were "unacceptable".
No 10 said Mr Cameron had accepted the peer's resignation from the unpaid advisory role he took on last month.
Lord Young, an ex-cabinet minister, made the move after reflecting on media coverage of his remarks, it added.
It followed criticism of his remarks about the impact of the recession and future spending cuts and calls for his departure by Labour.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Lord Young's initial appointment reflected badly on the prime minister as the peer was "out of touch with people".
He told BBC News: "Lord Young is right to go, I think his remarks are frankly disgraceful and many of the people who are struggling up and down this country with the consequences of the recession that we had, the consequences of the spending cuts that we are seeing, will be insulted by his comments".
He added: "Part of what this government has to do is demonstrate they do understand the consequences of the decisions they are making and the way people are struggling every day in our economy.
"I'm worried that people like Lord Young indicate a government that doesn't understand that."
The 78-year old peer, who served in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet in the 1980s, was named peer of the year at the Spectator magazine's annual awards this week, before his comments had been reported, and his recent report for Mr Cameron on health and safety was highly praised by the prime minister.
At a lunch with a Daily Telegraph journalist, Lord Young said that for "the vast majority of people in the country today, they have never had it so good ever since this recession - this so-called recession - started."
He pointed to the savings that "most people" had made on their mortgages as a result of interest rates remaining at 0.5% for the past 18 months.
He also forecast that annual job losses of 100,000 over the next four years, due to coalition spending cuts, were "within the margin of error".
Lord Young immediately apologised for the offence caused by what he said were "insensitive and inaccurate" remarks.
Explaining his decision to step down in a letter to the prime minister, Lord Young said: "In view of the reaction to the reporting of the interview I gave earlier this week, I feel that it would be right to resign forthwith from my position as your adviser."
He added: "I am a very strong supporter of you and the coalition government....You should know that you will continue to have my support in every way."
Before his resignation had been announced, David Cameron said his adviser would be doing "a bit less speaking" in the future.
"Obviously he is extremely embarrassed," Mr Cameron said of the remarks during a visit to Cornwall. "He was very quick to retract completely what he said. It was unacceptable."
Lord Young told the newspaper that the government's spending cuts, totalling more than £80bn over four years, would just take state spending levels back to what they were in 2007 - a time, he said, when people were "not short of money".
"Now, I don't remember in '07 being short of money or the government being short of money," he said.
"So, you know, I have a feeling and a hope that when this goes through, people will wonder what all the fuss was about.
"Of course, there will be people who complain, but these are people who think they have a right for the state to support them." The Unite union said Lord Young was talking "Thatcherite claptrap" and his comments showed how divorced the government was from the problems facing workers and families across the country.
But former Conservative Cabinet minister David Mellor said Lord Young, a personal friend of his, had been badly treated.
The Tory peer had apologised after acknowledging that his remarks "were not as balanced as they ought to have been", Mr Mellor told Radio 4's PM programme, adding that he should have been allowed to stay in his job.
The former MP criticised David Cameron's handling of the matter, saying it "was like a headmaster reproving a disorderly pupil when, if anything, it might well be thought it could be the other way round".
"For the government to have lost David Young's services is a mistake," he added.
"As the political climate for the coalition darkens and as controversy gets whipped up over a whole lot of what they are trying to do the prime minister should be more careful not to cut off at the knees people who are only trying to do their best to serve him because there will be plenty of others who will blunder into these traps for the unwary.
"The prime minister needs his friends about him, not to cast them adrift the moment they say something he finds even remotely embarrassing."
Lord Young, a former successful businessman, was advising the government on how best to support small firms.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Plaintiffs aligned with President Donald Trump's re-election campaign and the GOP announces that they will drop lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia challenging ballots and attempting to block the states from certifying their election results. | Plaintiffs aligned with President Donald Trump in four states on Monday abruptly dropped recently filed lawsuits challenging ballots seen as giving President-elect Joe Biden his margin of victory in those locales.
The dismissals of the cases, which all involved plaintiffs represented by lawyer James Bopp and the conservative group True the Vote, occurred in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The cases are among a group filed by backers of Trump and the president’s own campaign as part of an effort to reverse Biden’s projected win in the national race for the White House.
Those efforts have largely failed to gain traction and it is not clear that Trump has any chance of overturning his loss through legal actions.
With all 50 states’ results projected as of last Friday, Biden has 306 Electoral College votes, 36 more than he needs for victory, compared with just 232 votes for Trump.
But that has not stopped the president both from claiming otherwise and from falsely saying that he won the election.
When asked why the cases were being dismissed, Bopp told CNBC in an email that because of attorney-client privilege, “and because I do not telegraph my next moves, I cannot comment.”
It is not clear if Bopp will seek to resurrect the claims, but it is legally possible he and the plaintiffs could do so.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office noted that the plaintiffs represented by Bopp in the case there, which sought to invalidate election results in Wayne, Ingham and Washtenaw counties because of claims of voting irregularities and fraud, dropped the action even before serving the lawsuit on the defendants.
“This case was clearly designed to spread misinformation about the security and integrity of Michigan elections,” Nessel, a Democrat, said in a statement.
“Our elections have been conducted fairly and transparently and the results reflect the will of Michigan’s voters. Any claims to the contrary are wholly without merit,” Nessel said.
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, “We are not surprised that plaintiffs have moved to dismiss their own claims in this case as it confirms the pattern we have seen with these post-election suits — they are littered with baseless allegations that can’t be substantiated in a court of law.”
“There is no clear or coordinated strategy as these suits continue to crumble,” Clarke said in a statement.
“The litigants in these cases have been desperately court-shopping in search of a judge who might be sympathetic to their claims. These suits are part of a last-ditch attempt intended to promote chaos and discord while eroding public confidence in the outcome of our elections.”
In Wisconsin, where Biden had a margin of victory of about 20,000 votes, a court filing by Bopp for three plaintiffs, Michael Langenhorst, Michael LeMay and Stephen Fifrick, said the case was being dropped “without prejudice,” which means the plaintiffs reserved their right to make the claims again.
When the suit was filed, the plaintiffs argued that there was evidence of enough illegal mail-in ballots counted in the three counties to invalidate the election results.
The Wisconsin suit was filed just last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Green Bay. The named defendants included the clerks of the three counties, Wisconsin’s elections director and elections commission chair, Gov. Tony Evers, and other officials.
The plaintiffs had argued that votes in the counties of Milwaukee, Dane and Menominee should be tossed out because “the sudden flood” of mail-in ballots had left election workers unable to carefully review those ballots for fraudulent ones.
The firm Law Forward, which was founded to challenge conservative election and voting-related legal efforts, said the dismissal was “an exercise in efficiency.”
“This case was entirely without merit and the plaintiffs saved the court the trouble of saying so,” Jeff Mandell, president of Law Forward, said in a statement.
Biden, a Democratic former vice president, narrowly defeated the Republican Trump in Wisconsin, which has 10 Electoral College votes.
Biden received 1.63 million votes to 1.61 million votes for Trump, a margin of 49.5% to 48.8%.
Trump has said he wants a recount of the votes in Wisconsin. Georgia is set to conduct a recount of its presidential election results because of Biden’s similarly narrow margin of victory there.
Milwaukee County went heavily for Biden, giving him more than 69% percent of the ballots cast. The actual vote margin in that county was more than 180,000 ballots for Biden.
Biden also far exceeded Trump in Dane County, which Biden won with 75.5% of the ballots.
In Menominee County, which had relatively few voters, Biden crushed Trump with 1,303 votes to just 278 votes for the incumbent. | Government Job change - Election | November 2020 | ['(Forbes)', '(CNBC)'] |
Scientists at NASA announce the Kepler mission's discovery of a planet orbiting two suns. This is the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet, i.e., a planet that orbits two stars instead of one. | A planet orbiting two suns - the first confirmed alien world of its kind - has been found by Nasa's Kepler telescope, the US space agency announced.
It may resemble the planet Tatooine from the film Star Wars, but scientists say Luke Skywalker, or anyone at all, is unlikely to be living there.
Named Kepler-16b, it is thought to be an uninhabitable cold gas giant, like Saturn. The newly detected body lies some 200 light years from Earth.
Though there have been hints in the past that planets circling double stars might exist - "circumbinary planets", as they are known - scientists say this is the first confirmation.
It means when the day ends on Kepler-16b, there is a double sunset, they say.
Kepler-16b's two suns are smaller than ours - at 69% and 20% of the mass of our Sun - making the surface temperature an estimated -100 to -70C (-150 to -100F). The planet orbits its two suns every 229 days at a distance of 65m miles (104m km) - about the same distance out as Venus. The Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, is designed to scour our section of the Milky Way for Earth-like planets.
"This is really a stunning measurement by Kepler," said Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science near Washington DC, a co-author of the study. "The real exciting thing is there's a planet sitting out there orbiting around these two stars."
Kepler finds stars whose light is regularly dimmed when an orbiting planet passes between the star and the telescope.
In this case, the team was also able to observe dimming when one star passed in front of the other.
Nasa's scientists saw additional dips in the light in both stars at alternating but regular times, confirming the dual orbit of the planet.
Data collected by the Kepler telescope allows for very precise measurements of the mass, radius and trajectories of all three bodies - the best ever estimates of a extra-solar planet.
The finding was reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
| New achievements in aerospace | September 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(NASA.gov)'] |
A lorry loses control at a toll station in Lanzhou, China, killing at least 15 people and injuring 44 others. | More than a dozen people have been killed after a lorry lost control at a toll station in north-west China.
Dozens more were injured when the vehicle collided with a line of waiting cars in Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu, on Saturday.
The cause of the 31 vehicle pile-up is under investigation.
However, according to China's Xinhua news, the lorry driver told authorities his brakes failed as he travelled down a hill towards the toll station.
Xinhua puts the death toll at 15, with another 44 people injured.
The crash comes less than a week after 13 people were killed when a bus plunged off a bridge and into a river in Chongqing , south-western China. | Road Crash | November 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Cyclone Dineo kills seven and destroys twenty–thousand homes in Mozambique. | Tropical storm Dineo has killed seven people in Mozambique since it hit the eastern coast on Wednesday, the government's disaster centre said Thursday.
The storm has brought heavy rain and winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour), raising the risk of flooding and crop damage in the impoverished southern African country.
Mozambique's emergency operational centre said in a statement about 130,000 people living in the Inhambane province, 500km north of the capital Maputo, had been affected by the storm. About 20,000 homes were destroyed by heavy rains and fierce winds.
One of the world's poorest countries and also in the throes of a financial crisis, Mozambique is prone to flooding. It is especially vulnerable after a major drought last year as soils degraded or hardened by dry spells do not easily absorb water.
"The system will pose a great risk for the next 36 to 48 hours, particularly in terms of further exceptionally heavy rainfall and resultant flooding," the South African Weather Service said in a statement.
The Mozambican government said the situation was less severe in Gaza, which has the popular resort town of Xai-Xai as its capital and is near the border with South Africa.
Government said, however, that it feared flooding in the area due to the torrential downpour.
Experts said the storm should weaken as it moves over land, but that it could still bring heavy rainfall.
Damage could be inflicted on Mozambique's multi-million dollar macadamia nut industry. Subsistence maize farmers recovering from last year's El Nino-triggered drought are also at risk.
Floods in 2000 and 2001 killed hundreds of people in Mozambique and two cyclones in January 2012 killed 26 and displaced more than 125,000, according to official data. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2017 | ['(Newsweek)'] |
Counting for the Northern Ireland Assembly election finally ends with the DUP and Sinn Féin winning the most seats, 38 and 29 respectively. | Democratic Unionist leader Peter Robinson has dedicated his party's win in the NI Assembly election to murdered Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr.
The DUP and Sinn Fein won the most seats with 38 and 29 respectively.
Mr Robinson said the results proved people wanted peace and Constable Kerr's murder achieved nothing.
The Ulster Unionists won 16 seats, the SDLP 14, Alliance eight, Greens one and TUV one. David McClarty was the sole independent elected.
The result means the DUP and Sinn Fein retain their positions as the two major parties in the NI Assembly. Following the last count in his east Belfast constituency, Peter Robinson dedicated his win to PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr, who was murdered by dissident republicans in Omagh last month. "He wanted to serve his community," Mr Robinson said. "And in the words of his mother, she wanted to ensure that people would come out and support the way forward peacefully in Northern Ireland."
The DUP went up two from their 2007 performance while Sinn Fein picked up one seat from four years ago. The final outcome for the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP was more disappointing, with both dropping two seats. The DUP performed strongly in North Down, winning three seats in a constituency where it had no MLAs ten years ago. It also picked up four seats in Lagan Valley, up from three in 2007. Mr Robinson also polled strongly, bouncing back from losing his Westminster seat last year. He said: "It is very pleasing and rewarding to hear that right across the province our candidates are doing so well because they put a lot of work into it.
"We didn't ask for a mandate from the people to enhance the standing of the Democratic Unionist Party, we asked for a mandate to keep Northern Ireland moving forward."
Sinn Fein has won three seats in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and also picked up its first seat in East Antrim. However, it did not balance its vote as well as it had hoped in Upper Bann and Mid-Ulster. Speaking at his election count in Ballymena, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said that he wanted to see "more realism" from the UUP and SDLP. "I would like to see those parties as well as the Alliance Party working in the spirit of co-operation," he said. "If Peter Robinson and I can work together, then surely all of those parties can work with us." The Ulster Unionists' deputy leader John McCallister prevailed in a battle to retain his seat in South Down. UUP veteran Fred Cobain lost his fight to retain his North Belfast seat but David McNarry clung on in Strangford. There was also better news for the Ulster Unionists in South Belfast where Michael McGimpsey was elected on the fifth count and in Upper Bann with Jo-Anne Dobson winning in a count which went on until 0300 BST on Saturday morning. The party also gained a seat in West Tyrone, with Ross Hussey elected on the fifth count. UUP leader Tom Elliott has said he will be looking at his party's internal structures. "Obviously there are issues around how candidates are selected and how internal officers are appointed," he said. Former UUP MLA David McClarty, who fell out with the party over its selection procedures, was elected as an independent in East Londonderry. The SDLP has lost seats in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, South Antrim and North Antrim but made a gain in West Tyrone. It hung on to its second seat in South Belfast, with Conall McDevitt winning without reaching the quota. It has produced its traditional strong performance in Foyle, where it won three seats. It was also aiming for a seat in Strangford but ultimately fell short. The party's successful candidate in Upper Bann, Dolores Kelly, has said that "overall, the party is somewhat disappointed" and said there would be areas it would need to look at over the next four years. The Alliance Party gained a seat in East Belfast but missed out on another potential gain in North Down. "Our vote appears to be up in every constituency if you allow for boundary changes," Alliance leader David Ford said. "I think that's a sign of growth in our vote, growth in party support generally and its translating into a couple of extra seats."
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister won a seat in North Antrim. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
Chief Electoral Officer Graham Shields has defended the slow pace of counting saying it was important to be 'accurate'
Mr Allister pledged to be a "thorn in the flesh" of Sinn Fein and the DUP at Stormont.
Official figures showed the turnout percentage to be well down on previous polls. There has been criticism of the speed of the count which finished at 2200 BST on the second day. The chief electoral officer Graham Shields said single-transferable vote elections normally last over two days. "Yesterday, we were dealing with three electoral processes for the first time ever in Northern Ireland," he said. Northern Ireland collectively voted no in the UK-wide Alternative Vote referendum. 372,706 voted no with 289,088 voting yes. The turn-out in the referendum was 55.2%. | Government Job change - Election | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Jamaican Police announce that Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistan national cricket team, was murdered on Sunday, and proceed to question all members of the team. , (IOL ) | Sizwe Banzi loses none of its power to depress I love this film to pieces. Absolutely beautiful and thrilling
A really good atmosphere, lively and fun and great to have a cocktail in Long Bar afterwards
My first ever encounter in the Dolly World and I am a convert
London, Thursday 29.03.07
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• Not a sound as Woolmer was murdered
• Mystery of coach's corruption book
• He 'probably knew his killer' Bob Woolmer had endured the longest and loneliest night of his career as an international cricket coach. He was unable to sleep after seeing his team, Pakistan, lose a World Cup match to the rank amateurs of Ireland - a humiliation greeted in Lahore by the ritual burning of his effigy and chants of 'death to Woolmer'. So the 58-year-old Briton whiled away the early hours on his laptop computer. His last known contact with anyone beyond the confines of his 12th-floor room in the Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, Jamaica, came in a plaintive e-mail to his wife, Gill, six time zones away at their home in Cape Town. Scroll down for more Family man: Bob Woolmer with his wife Gill and their two sons in 1994
Dispatched at 3.12am, the message told of Woolmer's despair over a defeat which will go down as one of the great sporting upsets. 'He was really depressed and couldn't believe how this could have happened,' Mrs Woolmer says. Seven hours and 33 minutes after he pressed the Send button, Bob Woolmer was found dead. A chambermaid using her pass key found his naked body splayed out in the bathroom. The white tiles were spattered with blood and vomit, and there were cuts on the bridge of his nose and face. Though there were few signs of a violent struggle, we now know that someone - probably with an accomplice - had used their hands to strangle the 6ft 1in, 16-stone Woolmer, an act which would have required huge strength. Since there were no signs of forced entry to the room, it is thought that he must have known whoever killed him and let them in - unless they had their own key. There is also the possibility that his supper that night - provided by room service - had been drugged. Video...Jamaican police make the grim announcement that Bob Woolmer was murdered • Windows Media Player
• Real Player The former Kent and England Test all-rounder was affable, muchrespected and enduringly cleancut -a throwback to the days before cricket stars prettied themselves with tattoos and hair gel. In the West Indies, his murder, described by police as ' extraordinary and evil', has stained the World Cup to such an extent that there are growing calls here for the event to be called off. Citing other sporting catastrophes, such as the Munich Olympics massacre, and reminding us of the event's huge importance to the host nations, the game's ruling body, the International Cricket Council, refuses to countenance such action. And so, as the tournament limps on, one question dominates the conversation among the thousands of visiting fans thronging the Caribbean beach-bars: who could possibly want to kill Big Bob, one of cricket's last true gentlemen? By chance, the task of providing an answer falls to a fellow Englishman. A seasoned ex-Scotland Yard high-flyer whose globetrotting 30-year career encompasses skirmishes with the Russian Mafia, Swiss money-launderers and the IRA - not to mention Victoria Beckham's alleged kidnap plotters - Mark Shields is now Deputy Commissioner of the Jamaican police. Formally launching the murder investigation at a press conference on Thursday evening, the urbane, silver-haired 48-year- old officer needed all his experience to deflect hostile questions from the West Indian and Pakistani media. Why had it taken five days to decide Woolmer was murdered, they demanded to know? Hadn't the delay - during which it was thought probable that the diabetic Woolmer had either died naturally or committed suicide - allowed the killer(s) time to cover their tracks? Scroll down for more... Mark Shields, Jamaica's chief of police, makes the grim announcement that Bob Woolmer was murdered
Mr Shields explained, reasonably and with admirable patience, that the cause of death was not visibly evident. Given the huge attention the case would attract, it was vital to be certain before going public. Pressed for possible motives and suspects, he was understandably circumspect. However, by piecing together facts the police have disclosed with information uncovered during the Daily Mail's own extensive inquiries, several compelling theories emerge ... Formerly the highly-successful coach of South Africa, Bob Woolmer had been Pakistan's supremo for three years when he arrived at this World Cup. Given the volatile nature of his team, who walked off the field and forfeited a Test against England last year amid allegations of ball-tampering, it was a daunting job. The highly-critical nature of Pakistan's media and impassioned supporters, a section of whom use cricket as a vehicle to further political and cultural grievances, made it harder still. Then there were the ever-present whispers that Pakistani cricket is endemically corrupt following revelations of past match-fixing and drug-taking. Bob Woolmer's widow Gill
Despite these obstacles, however, Woolmer exuded quiet confidence as the tournament approached. His 15-man squad was packed with talent - and, given a favourable bounce or two, had as much chance of lifting the trophy as Australia, South Africa or Sri Lanka, the three favourites. Coming after a defeat by the host nation, West Indies, the beating by the lowly Irish shattered Pakistan's and Woolmer's dream. Inevitably, there were mutterings that Pakistan must have thrown the game as part of some bookmaking scam. The first theory surrounding Woolmer's murder, therefore, is that he was bumped off by, or on the orders of, the shady underworld figures who control cricket betting and make millions by rigging matches. What evidence is there for this theory, which would fatally damage the game's image if true, and which gathered credence yesterday with the arrival in Jamaica of Jeff Rees, head of international cricket's anti-corruption unit? Pakistan Captain Inzamam (right) at a memorial service for Bob Woolmer After the fateful match, last Saturday, Woolmer endured a grilling at a press conference where angry Pakistani journalists asked if he would resign - 'I'd like to sleep on that one,' came the reply. Downcast, he was driven back to the Pegasus, a 17- storey skyscraper in what passes for the most fashionable part of Kingston, with 300 rooms, three restaurants, a '24/7' deli, two bars, tennis courts and a big pool. That night, as now, the hotel was teeming with reporters, supporters, tournament and team officials and cricketers. The Pakistan party (who have been interviewed and fingerprinted and are expected to be DNA tested but remain free to return home) number about 25, including 15 players. Gill with Bob in his playing days in England
Woolmer dined in his £120-anight room, opened by a slide card system which records every time it is used. Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria says he did not hear any noises coming from Woolmer's room' despite being next door at the time. The time of his death is not yet known. However, Mr Shields hints at a belief that he was strangled on the Sunday morning - not long, perhaps, before the chambermaid found him at 10.45am. The fact that attempts were made to rescuscitate him at the University of West Indies Hospital supports the suggestion that he had only recently succumbed to asphyxiation. Woolmer was naked when he died. Did he recognise his killers' voices and feel sufficiently relaxed to let them into the room while he was in a state of undress? Moreover, if he was killed by the cricket mafia, did they have help - perhaps from within the Pakistan squad? It's a deeply unpalatable thought, but one police will doubtless explore. If Woolmer was the victim of gangsters, this might also explain why there were no obvious signs of injury. Was he forced into the bathroom and strangled with the aid of a towel to cover up thumb-prints, or the burn marks that a ligature would have left? Or rather, was he first rendered helpless, possibly with chloroform or with drugs in his food? Police hope this will become clear when toxicology tests are concluded, but it would account for the fact that Woolmer - a keen swimmer with wrists and forearms strengthened by years of batting - did not struggle for his life. Another clue pointing strongly towards some mafia link is that Woolmer is said to have complained, shortly before his death, that pages from a book he was writing had been stolen. He was known to be involved in two 'official' works - a coaching manual and an updated edition of his autobiography. His two ghostwriters have said they were unaware that he planned to include any material about matchfixing. But it was claimed yesterday that he was planning to write a sensational third volume about his time as Pakistan coach. Edward Craig, deputy editor of Wisden Cricketer magazine, said that Woolmer was 'pretty excited about that book because there was some pretty interesting stuff that he was going to write.' Mr Craig told Radio 4's The World at One: 'There were drug allegations, there were ball-tampering allegations, there were also religious differences in that side. 'Whether match-fixing was going to be part of that, who knows?' The second theory is that Woolmer was murdered by someone connected with the Pakistan party: players, officials or the media. Strong words are believed to have been spoken in the dressing-room after the Ireland match, and within the Pakistan camp simmering resentment, ego and vanity frequently explode in temper-tantrums. Did Woolmer vent his anger at the abysmal performance so strongly that someone felt sufficiently aggrieved to murder him? Or, coupling this theory with the first, did Woolmer make it plain that he felt the defeat was deliberately engineered? One rumour suggests that Pakistan might have 'thrown' their first match against the West Indies knowing that victories against the lowly-rated Ireland and Zimbabwe would still be enough to qualify them for the next stage of the World Cup. If so, did this plan go wrong? Did Woolmer know too much? A third theory is that he was killed by furious Pakistan supporters. This would be more plausible if the team's following in the West Indies had included the most extreme element, yet it consisted largely of less volatile expats living in nearby America. Then again, Woolmer was deeply unpopular among certain members of the travelling fans and media (two Pakistani journalists verbally attacked him in the hotel bar for declining an interview on the eve of the Ireland game). Surely, however, he wasn't hated sufficiently for a writer or fan to throttle him? Despite his long enforced absences from home, Woolmer was a devoted family man, and police have categorically ruled out any kind of sexual motive. This leaves the fourth theory, that he was murdered by a would-be robber, who unaccountably-fled empty-handed, a random intruder - or hotel staff member. Mr Shields said last night: 'We know Bob ordered room service and that is an area of our inquiry. We are looking at whether his food was drugged.' In seeking to solve this deeply mysterious Caribbean whodunnit, Mr Shields will rely on Jamaican detectives, whose competence he diplomatically commends. Yet he has also promised to call on outside help as he sees fit. British DNA experts are expected to be brought in while Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has offered any assistance that Scotland Yard can provide. There is a glint of zeal in Mark Shields's eyes as he promises - for Gill Woolmer's sake - to do all he can to catch the murderers. Bob Woolmer deserves no less. If Mr Shields really is pitted against the evil men who make their grubby pile on the fringes of cricket, however, then Scotland Yard's finest will need to perform at the very top of his game.
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This world cup tournament should be stopped until this investigation is concluded and the gulity parties brought to justice
- Adam Khan, London
Surely a cricket competition can not continue in this atmosphere. Commercial interests may dictate otherwise, but if it goes ahead the England party should return home. A reminder of the security needed in 2012!
- Roy G, Solihull, England
I am a massive and extermely passionate cricket fan who has been looking forward to the World Cup for 4 years! What has happened is disgusting and if it turns out to be match fixing/betting/corruption linked in any way... I would want the tournament suspended immediately and without a doubt. God give strength to Bob's family... | Famous Person - Death | March 2007 | ['(This is London)', '(S. Africa)'] |
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