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Former Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick is sentenced to 28 years in prison for racketeering, conspiracy, fraud, and tax crimes. | Once seen as a rising star and a great hope for the city of Detroit, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will spend 28 years in federal prison.
DETROIT - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison for corruption, the apparent last step after a series of scandals destroyed his political career and helped steer a crisis-laden city even deeper into trouble.
Kilpatrick, who served as mayor from 2002 until fall 2008, fattened his bank account by tens of thousands of dollars, traveled the country in private planes and even strong-armed his campaign fundraiser for stacks of cash hidden in her bra, according to evidence at trial.
Related: Former Detroit Mayor convicted on 24 counts in corruption case
"I'm ready to go so the city can move on," Kilpatrick told the judge. "The people here are suffering, they're hurting. A great deal of that hurt I accept responsibility for."
In March, Kilpatrick, 43, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, fraud, extortion and tax crimes. The government called it the "Kilpatrick enterprise," a years-long scheme to shake down contractors and reward allies. He was doomed by his own text messages, which revealed efforts to fix deals for a pal, Bobby Ferguson, an excavator who got millions of dollars in city work through the water department.
Contractors said they were forced to take on Ferguson as a partner or risk losing lucrative deals. The government alleged that he in turn shared cash with Kilpatrick.
Agents who pored over bank accounts and credit cards said Kilpatrick spent $840,000 beyond his salary during his time as mayor. Defense attorneys tried to portray the money as generous gifts from political supporters who opened their wallets for birthdays or holidays.
The government said Kilpatrick also tapped a nonprofit fund, which was created to help distressed Detroit residents, to pay for yoga, camps for his kids, golf clubs and travel.
"A man with the charisma and ability of Mr. Kilpatrick chose to use his talents on personal aggrandizement and enrichment when he had the potential to do so much for the city," Judge Nancy Edmunds said before imposing the sentence.
The sentence was a victory for prosecutors, who had recommended Kilpatrick serve at least 28 years in prison, while defense attorneys argued for no more than 15 years.
Related: For Detroit, this may be a real comeback
"I want the city to heal. I want it to prosper. I want the city to be great again," Kilpatrick said in his remarks to the judge. "I want the city to have the same feeling it had in 2006 when the Super Bowl was here."
Kilpatrick, a Democrat, quit office in 2008 in a different scandal that was extraordinary at the time but seems smaller compared with the sweeping federal probe that has led to the convictions of more than 30 people. Sexually explicit text messages revealed that Kilpatrick had lied during a trial to cover up an affair with his top aide, Christine Beatty, and to hide the reasons for demoting or firing police officers who suspected wrongdoing at city hall.
Detroit voters soon will elect a third mayor since Kilpatrick's departure, although the city is under the control of an emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, for at least another year. Orr, with the blessing of Michigan's governor, took Detroit into bankruptcy in July, saying there was no other way to solve $18 billion in long-term debt. The case is pending.
"Kilpatrick is not the main culprit of the city's historic bankruptcy, which is the result of larger social and economic forces at work for decades. But his corrupt administration exacerbated the crisis," prosecutors said in a court filing last week. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2013 | ['(MSN)'] |
A Suicide attack at a wrestling club in a Hazara Shi’ite neighborhood of the Afghan capital Kabul and a second explosion apparently targeting emergency services and journalists kills at least 20 people and wounds 70 others. | KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide attack at a wrestling club in a Shi’ite neighborhood of the Afghan capital Kabul and a second explosion apparently targeting emergency services and journalists at the site killed at least 20 people and wounded 70 on Wednesday, officials said.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi, home to many members of the mainly Shi’ite Muslim Hazara ethnic minority which has been targeted repeatedly in the past by the militant Sunni group. The Taliban denied any involvement.
Prior to Wednesday’s attack, the area had seen a series of similar incidents, most recently last month, when dozens of students preparing for a university entrance examination were killed at an educational center.
As police and bystanders, some still wearing their torn wrestling kit, helped the wounded onto vehicles to be taken to hospital, the second explosion hit, catching journalists covering the attack for local television stations.
The second blast came from a car parked outside the club where the suicide attacker had struck, killing a reporter and a cameraman from local broadcaster Tolo News minutes after they had made a live report from the scene.
Four other local television crew were wounded.
After nine journalists died in a single incident in April, when a suicide bomber apparently targeted them while they were covering another attack in Kabul, at least 14 journalists have now been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.
Wednesday’s attack underlined the danger in Kabul as elections approach next month, as well as the threat facing the Hazaras, a Persian-speaking minority that has long faced discrimination and which has borne the brunt of attacks claimed by Islamic State in Kabul.
The explosion came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington’s former ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, would be appointed as an adviser to help with efforts to end the conflict.
Hopes of possible peace talks with the Taliban were fueled by a brief ceasefire, although intense fighting in the months since, in particular the Taliban’s assault on the central city of Ghazni, have dampened optimism.
In any case, any talks would not include the local affiliate of Islamic State, which has established a brutal reputation and which both the Western-backed government and the Taliban consider an enemy.
Additional reporting by Ali Abdelaty in CAIRO; writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Janet Lawrence and Alison Williams
| Armed Conflict | September 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Iran says an anti–ship missile fired during a training exercise in the Gulf of Oman struck its naval support ship Konarak, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 others onboard the vessel. | Nineteen Iranian sailors have been killed and 15 injured, some severely, in a friendly fire incident involving two Iranian naval vessels, the country’s navy has said.
A new anti-ship missile being tested by the frigate Jamaran on Sunday in the Gulf of Oman hit a support ship, Konarak, setting targets close to the contested Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supplies are sent.
The incident is another severe blow to the prestige of the Iranian military still recovering from its unintentional attack on a Ukrainian civilian aircraft departing from Tehran on 8 January, which killed all 176 people onboard.
Security forces have also been accused of deliberately shooting hundreds of Iranians in November protesting over a petrol price rise.
A report on state TV said the Konarak was struck “after moving a practice target to its destination and not creating enough distance between itself and the target”.
The incident happened near the port of Jask, state TV said. Iranian state sources quoting a local hospital spokesman initially said only one sailor had been killed and two injured severely, but the number of deaths rapidly escalated later on Monday.
Iran was relatively swift to admit the scale of the mistake, following criticism of the Revolutionary Guards, including by senior politicians up to the level of the president, Hassan Rouhani, for initially trying to cover up that its forces had fired on the Ukrainian jet.
The navy’s public relations department expressed its condolences to the families of the dead but also emphasised the defensive readiness and what it described as martyrdom-seeking spirit of the naval staff. It is not known how the Konarak was hit but the Jamaran may have locked on to it as the closest and largest vessel it encountered when it turned on the radar for final target-acquisition of the Nour anti-ship missile. Alternatively, it could have been a targeting mistake from the Jamaran crew.
The still burning Konarak was towed into the nearby port of Chabahar, and photos showed its superstructure including its command bridge destroyed. Pictures of the dead crew were also published, as well as messages of condolences from senior figures in the armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically important seaways and over the past year or so the number of military vessels has grown as nations either in alliances or separately have sought to protect commercial shipping operating under their national flag.
Donald Trump said last month he had ordered the US military to attack and destroy any Iranian vessel that harasses US navy ships. The order came a week after 11 small armed Revolutionary Guards speedboats swarmed around US navy and coastguard ships in international waters in the northern Gulf.
Tensions between Iran and the US have been rising ever since Washington pulled out of a nuclear deal in 2018, imposed sanctions on Iran and sought to prevent Iran from exporting its oil.
The US navy’s 5th Fleet, which monitors the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran has been negotiating with the US over a prisoner swap and has been moving to slowly relax controls introduced as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Latest government figures have shown a recent increase in the numbers newly infected after more than fortnight of lower deaths and infections.
The Iranian government has probably been forced to relax its physical distancing guidelines faster than it might like due to the scale of poverty in the country. A government spokesman said it had chosen a scenario that was intended to lead to fewer than 10,000 deaths.
A report issued on Sunday published by Mohammad Reza Yousefi, a professor of economics at Mofid University in Qom, showed 12 million working families did not have enough income, meaning nearly 45 million Iranians are in households in poverty. | Military Exercise | May 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Three people are dead after a tornado hits in Jackson County in the U.S. state of Alabama. Four other people are injured in neighboring De Kalb County. , | ROSALIE, AL (WAFF) - Three people are dead after storms moved through Rosalie early Wednesday morning. The Jackson County Sheriff Chuck Phillips tell us "they appear to be from the same household".
Authorities identified them as Justin Lance Wright, 26, Jessica Loren Fleming, 21, and April Annette Wright,22.
A survey team with the National Weather Service confirms the damage was consistent with an EF-2 tornado.
We've also learned two people were injured and were taken to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, TN.
Jackson County commission chairman Matthew Hodges confirmed the fatalities and added that multiple more are injured.
Hodges reports Rosalie sustained significant damage.
DeKalb County EMA Director Anthony Clifton tell us houses are damaged on County Road 159 and County Road 330 in Ider.
The Deputy Director of Jackson County, Felix Jackson tells us the Rosalie Plaza and Macklin Baptist Church both located on highway 71 have severe structural damage. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2016 | ['(WAFF)', '(NBC News)'] |
The Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as "El Chapo", is arrested in Mexico. | One of the world's most wanted drug barons, Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo or "Shorty", has been arrested in Mexico.
He was the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, which smuggles huge amounts of illegal drugs into the US. "Shorty" Guzman had been on the run since escaping a high-security prison in a laundry basket in 2001. He was arrested in Sinaloa state, in a joint operation with US anti-drugs forces.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto used his Twitter account to praise the forces involved in the arrest in the north-western resort of Mazatlan, in Sinaloa state.
Guzman was taken to Mexico City and paraded before the media, before boarding a helicopter surrounded by heavily armed troops.
He was taken straight to prison, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said.
The US state department had offered a reward of up to $5m (3.2m) for information leading to his arrest.
US Attorney General Eric Holder described Guzman's arrest as "a landmark achievement" for Mexico and "a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States". "Shorty" Guzman has been indicted in the US on federal trafficking charges.
The Sinaloa cartel controls much of the flow of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine to the US.
Guzman's arrest is a big boost for the administration of Enrique Pena Nieto, says the BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City.
Mr Pena Nieto, who took office just over two years ago, said he intended to change the "war on drugs" policy of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, which critics say led to a rise in violence throughout Mexico.
But Mexican police and troops have killed or arrested key figures in the drugs cartels since Mr Pena Nieto came to power.
The US has also arrested several associates and relatives of "Shorty" Guzman.
In May 2012, the US Treasury Department put two of his sons - Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez - on its blacklist of drugs kingpins.
Their assets were frozen and US nationals and companies were prevented from doing business with them.
Guzman's father-in-law, Ines Coronel, was arrested nearly a year ago. He was accused of smuggling drugs into the US.
Guzman was born in the town of Badiraguato, probably 56 years ago, and became an important figure in the drug cartels in the 1980s.
He was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and handed over to the Mexican authorities. He was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail, but he bribed officers and escaped a maximum security jail in Mexico in 2001. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
An unprecedented drought in Zimbabwe, considered the worst in a century, causes the Victoria Falls waterfall on the Zambezi river to nearly stop flowing. | One of southern Africa’s biggest tourist attractions has seen an unprecedented decline this dry season, fuelling climate change fears
Last modified on Mon 9 Dec 2019 09.41 GMT
For decades Victoria Falls, where southern Africa’s Zambezi river cascades down 100 metres into a gash in the earth, have drawn millions of holidaymakers to Zimbabwe and Zambia for their stunning views.
But the worst drought in a century has slowed the waterfalls to a trickle, fuelling fears that climate change could kill one of the region’s biggest tourist attractions.
While they typically slow down during the dry season, officials said this year had brought an unprecedented decline in water levels.
“In previous years, when it gets dry, it’s not to this extent,” Dominic Nyambe, a seller of tourist handicrafts in his 30s, said outside his shop in Livingstone, on the Zambian side. “This [is] our first experience of seeing it like this.
“It affects us because ... clients ... can see on the internet [that the falls are low] ... We don’t have so many tourists.”
As world leaders gather in Madrid for the COP25 climate change conference to discuss ways to halt catastrophic warming caused by human-driven greenhouse gas emissions, southern Africa is already suffering some of its worst effects – with taps running dry and about 45 million people in need of food aid amid crop failures.
Zimbabwe and Zambia have suffered power cuts as they are heavily reliant on hydropower from plants at the Kariba dam, which is on the Zambezi river downstream of the waterfalls.
Stretches of this kilometre-long natural wonder are nothing but dry stone. Water flow is low in others.
Data from the Zambezi River Authority shows water flow at its lowest since 1995, and well under the long-term average. The Zambian president, Edgar Lungu, has called it “a stark reminder of what climate change is doing to our environment”.
Yet scientists are cautious about categorically blaming climate change. There is always seasonal variation in levels.
Harald Kling, a hydrologist at engineering firm Poyry and a Zambezi river expert, said climate science dealt in decades, not particular years, “so it’s sometimes difficult to say this is because of climate change because droughts have always occurred”.
“If they become more frequent, then you can start saying: OK, this may be climate change.”
He said early climate models had predicted more frequent dry years in the Zambezi basin, but that “what was surprising was that it [drought] has been so frequent” – the last drought was only three years ago. As the river got hotter, 437m cubic metres of water were evaporating every second. In Livingstone this week, four tourists stared into a mostly dry chasm normally gushing with white water. German student Benjamin Konig was disappointed.
“Seems to be not much [water] – a few rocky stones with a little water between it,” he said.
Richard Beilfuss, head of the International Crane Foundation, who has studied the Zambezi for the past three decades, believed climate change was delaying the monsoon, “concentrating rain in bigger events, which are then much harder to store, and a much longer, excruciating dry season”.
| Droughts | December 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
In Spain, huge forest fire continues to rage, threatening villages of Selas and Ablanque. A group of ten day–trippers has confessed being responsible for the start of the fire and one of them has been charged | Eleven volunteer firefighters died tackling the blaze on Sunday. It has destroyed up to 12,000 hectares of pine woodland and is threatening the villages of Selas and Ablanque.
A group of day trippers told police that their barbecue had ignited the fire. A regional spokeswoman said only one of them would face charges.
The fire began in pine woodland at Cueva de los Casares on Saturday.
Police say it was fanned by blustery winds in very dry conditions.
Containment
But on Tuesday officials in the Castilla-La Mancha regional administration said the fire could be brought under control within 24 hours if its intensity and the wind direction did not change.
See the fires raging
In pictures: Deadly fires
Firefighters battled all night against the flames and created a fire-break eight kilometres (five miles) long and about 50 metres wide, the daily El Pais reported.
France, which is also suffering a serious drought, sent two firefighting aircraft to assist with the Spanish efforts. The fires in Spain have forced hundreds of homes to be evacuated. | Fire | July 2005 | ['(EITB)', '(BBC)'] |
Voter turnout in the referendum hits 84.5%, a record high for any election held in the United Kingdom since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1918. | The Prime Minister said he would have been "heartbroken" by the break-up of the UK and considered his position when polls put the Yes campaign ahead just days before the referendum.
Turnout in the referendum on Scottish independence hit a record high for any election held in the United Kingdom since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1918.
The participation rate of 84.5% topped the previous best of 83.9% recorded in the 1950 general election and dwarfed the tallies in recent Westminster polls, which saw 65.1% vote in 2010 and 61.4% in 2005.
The total - 3,619,915 - will have included many voters who had never cast their ballot before or had stayed away from the polling booths for many years.
Particular highs were recorded in East Dunbartonshire (91%), East Renfrewshire (90.4%) and Stirling (90.1%).
The woman expected to replace Salmond said she will "follow the mood of the people" if promises made in the run up to the vote are not met.
The double Grand Slam winner said he did not regret giving his opinion, but was 'disappointed' at the way he went about it. Alex Salmond has announced his intention to end a 24-year career at the forefront of Scottish politics. | Government Job change - Election | September 2014 | ['(ITV)'] |
United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov meet in London, United Kingdom, to discuss the current Crimean crisis. | Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, are meeting in London on Friday for talks on Ukraine before Sunday's planned referendum in Crimea.
The meeting is taking place at the US ambassador's residence in central London as Kerry attempts to head off a vote that could lead to Crimea – now under the control of Russian troops – deciding to become part of Russia.
Both the US and the EU say that if the referendum – which they have declared illegal – goes ahead, Moscow will face the prospect of fresh sanctions being imposed.
Western diplomats expressed little optimism ahead of the London talks. Nothing resembling a peace plan has been sketched out between the two sides, one said. Kerry and Lavrov have spoken almost daily as the Ukraine crisis has unfolded but have yet to find any common ground.
Ukraine's prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, on Thursday accused Russia of demonstrating unacceptable "military aggression" that has "no reason and no grounds". Moscow has deployed 10,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, deepening the crisis. The Russian defence ministry claimed the troops were only involved in a training exercise that would last two weeks.
Yatsenyuk told the UN security council he was convinced Russians did not want war. He urged Russia's leaders to heed the people's wishes and return to dialogue with Ukraine. "If we start real talks with Russia, I believe we can be real partners," he said.
Rhetoric from western capitals has stepped up in recent days as the planned referendum nears. Kerry warned on Thursday that Russia could face "a series of serious steps" if Russia annexes Crimea. Before leaving Washington for London, he said the EU was planning to join the US in imposing more sanctions on Moscow if the referendum went ahead. The sanctions would include a travel ban and a freeze on bank accounts.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, backing up Kerry in the strongest language she has employed so far, on Thursday told the Bundestag that the consequences for Russia would be huge if it failed to enter into negotiations. She ruled out military force, but warned sternly that the crisis would cause "massive damage to Russia, economically and politically".
David Cameron underlined the threat of sanctions when he sat down with Kerry ahead of the talks with Lavrov, telling him that "we want to see progress as much as you do."
"We want to see Ukrainians and the Russians talking to each other. And if they don't then there are going to have to be consequences," he said.
The US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry would reaffirm US support for Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity without interference or provocation by Russia. Kerry had previously declined a Russian invitation to Moscow and his decision to go to London prompted speculation the Kremlin may have offered concessions to ensure he would not leave empty-handed. Other diplomats expressed scepticism.
Kerry and Lavrov spoke by phone on Thursday, and Russia said the two discussed "taking into account existing Russian and US proposals to normalise the atmosphere and provide for civil peace".
The UK prime minister, David Cameron, and the foreign secretary, William Hague, will meet Kerry before his meeting with Lavrov. A Foreign Office spokesman said Hague had phoned both Kerry and Lavrov to encourage them "to hold talks in London with a view to de-escalating the situation in Crimea and setting up dialogue between Russia and Ukraine".
As part of a series of moves aimed at displaying solidarity with Ukraine, Nato was planning on Friday to meet representatives of the Tatar population in the Crimea who are largely hostile to a Russian takeover. Nato's deputy secretary general, Alexander Vershbow, will meet the Ukrainian MP and leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Cemilev Kirimoglu.
One person was killed and several were treated for injuries on Thursday evening, when hundreds of pro- and anti-Moscow demonstrators clashed in the eastern city of Donetsk.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | March 2014 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Five people are injured after a man intentionally drives a car into multiple crowds of people in the cities of Bottrop and Essen, Germany. Police say the incident appears to be a xenophobic, far-right attack. | Four people have been injured after a man intentionally drove into a crowd of people in Germany in what appeared to be a racist far-right attack, police said.
Those hit by the car included Syrian and Afghan citizens and the driver made anti-foreigner comments during his arrest, according to officials.
The man, who fled the scene, made racist comments when he was later stopped and arrested, according to a statement by local police and prosecutors.
"Investigators suspect it was a deliberate attack that may be linked to the xenophobic views of the driver," the statement said.
Police in the city of Bottrop, in western Germany, said a 50-year-old man drove at a pedestrian, who managed to get out of the way of the vehicle, shortly after midnight on New Year's Day. He then drove into the city centre, allegedly ramming a crowd with his Mercedes before fleeing towards the nearby city of Essen where he attempted to drive into a group of people waiting at a bus stop, German newspaper Die Zeit reported. Police said the attack was presumed to be premeditated. One of the four injured people remains in hospital, a police spokesperson said.
Police said there were indications the suspect is mentally ill.
Angela Luettmann, a spokeswoman for Muenster police, couldn't immediately confirm whether the driver was German but said he came from Essen. Reuters
AP
Reuters
Alamy
Kacper Pempel/Reuters
In April, a German man drove a van into a crowd in Muenster, killing four people and injuring dozens.
The driver, who had sought psychological help in the weeks preceding the attack, then killed himself. On 19 December 2016, a Tunisian man ploughed a truck into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.
The attack was claimed by Isis and the driver, who fled the scene, was later killed in a shoot-out with police in Italy. | Road Crash | January 2019 | ['(The Independent)'] |
In Port Hedland, Australia, authorities deliberately derail a runaway train after the driver left the train for an inspection. The assemblage consisted of four locomotives and two hundred sixty–eight wagons, was operated by BHP Billiton on the Pilbara Railways, and traveled ninety–two kilometers. The train was en route from Newman to Port Hedland. | A runaway train laden with iron ore has been deliberately derailed by BHP after it travelled for more than 90 kilometres without a driver in WA's remote Pilbara region.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said the fully laden train, made up of four locomotives and 268 wagons, was travelling from the mining town of Newman to Port Hedland at 4:40am on Monday, when the driver hopped out to inspect a wagon near Hester siding.
But the train took off from the siding before the driver could get back on board.
It travelled 92 kilometres in about 50 minutes, until it was derailed at a set of points about 120 kilometres from Port Hedland.
That means the train reached average speeds of about 110 kilometres per hour.
BHP said the derailment was implemented from its Integrated Remote Operations Centre in Perth.
Supplied: BHP Billiton
The centre controls the company's Pilbara operations, including rail and port facilities.
The ATSB has begun an investigation into the incident, and a spokesman said it was hoping to interview the train driver as soon as possible.
BHP said no-one was injured in the derailment and it had suspended all train operations while the investigation was carried out.
"We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the situation," a company spokesperson said in a statement.
Business analyst Tim Treadgold said the derailment would not have a major effect on BHP's cashflow or share price.
AAP: BHP
"In the overall scheme of things, this is a very small event," he said.
"Even if they lost three days of access to the rail line, which is possible, it's not a major event.
"We're talking about a company that deals in the billions of dollars, and this might register in the millions, but almost certainly not in the tens of millions."
The incident comes amid a push for driverless train technology, with fellow miner Rio Tinto making its first autonomous iron ore delivery in July.
Three locomotives carried around 28,000 tonnes of iron ore over 280 kilometres from Rio Tinto's mining operations in Tom Price to the port of Cape Lambert.
The load was monitored remotely from Rio Tinto's Operations Centre in Perth, more than 1,500 kilometres away.
| Train collisions | November 2018 | ['(ABC Australia)'] |
Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno declares a state of emergency amid nationwide protests against a hike in fuel prices. The protests have crippled the country's transport network with all major roads and bridges blocked in the capital Quito. | Ecuador's government has declared a state of emergency after protesters opposed to a fuel price hike disrupted transport nationwide. President Lenin Moreno said he imposed the measure to "ensure citizens' security and avoid chaos". Protesters were angered by Mr Moreno's decision to end 40-year-old subsidies for fuel, which he said were no longer affordable.
Diesel and petrol prices are expected to more than double.
The fuel subsidies cost the government $1.3bn (£1bn) annually.
On Thursday students and the transport sector led a national strike.
Taxi, bus and truck drivers blocked roads and bridges in the capital Quito and the city of Guayaquil, bringing transport to a standstill. Some protesters clashed with police, who fired tear gas to disperse crowds. Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said 19 people had been arrested.
"The lack of transport affects us all, but equally the rise in gasoline prices will affect us," Quito-based business owner Cesar Lopez told Reuters news agency. Some protesters burned tyres and threw objects at armoured police vans, drawing criticism from Mr Moreno.
The president, who took office in 2017, said he would not allow protesters to "impose chaos". Under the emergency measure, Mr Moreno's government can restrict freedoms and deploy the armed forces to maintain order. The elimination of the fuel subsidies, introduced in the 1970s, are part of Mr Moreno's plan to shore up Ecuador's flagging economy and ease its debt burden.
Ecuador's government has agreed to cut public spending as part of a loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The agreement, signed in March, allows Ecuador to borrow $4.2bn (£3.4bn).
On Tuesday, Ecuador announced it was leaving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to pump more oil and raise revenues. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Times reports their journalist, Bel Trew, had been expelled from Egypt shortly after her February 20 arrest. Trew had been given the option of a military trial or leaving the country. | CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities arrested a British journalist and expelled her from the country after threatening her with a military trial, The Times said on Saturday. The move comes as part of a heavy crackdown on media ahead of this month’s presidential elections.
Bel Trew, who has been in Egypt for seven years, had been detained and faced “sufficiently outlandish” threats to suggest a misunderstanding over reporting she carried out in a central Cairo district, The Times (of London) said. She was expelled in late February. The British daily has been since attempting to bring about Trew’s safe return to Cairo to cover the elections but to no avail.
“It is now clear that the authorities have no intention of allowing her to return,” The Times said in a statement. Egyptian authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Trew said in an account on the Times’ website that she has been listed as a persona non-grata and that Cairo authorities threatened to re-arrest her if she attempts to return.
She said her reporting in the district of Shoubra was part of a story on a migrant boat that disappeared two years ago. An informer seems to have reported her to the police, she added. She was stopped shortly after she left a cafe where she was conducting an interview.
“The taxi had just pulled away from the café ... when a minibus of plain-clothes police officers cut us off. Five men jumped out and took me to a nearby police station,” she said, adding that she provided the authorities with the audio recording of the interview. “It was either ignored and not listened to — or listened to and ignored,” she said.
Egypt has often detained, jailed and prosecuted journalists under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the military’s 2013 overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, after mass protests against his one-year divisive rule.
Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt as 161 out of 180 countries on their 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist ranked Egypt among the top worst jailers of journalists in a December report. It says some 20 reporters remain detained; several face charges of spreading “false news.”
Some 500 websites have been blocked since last year including many run by rights groups, sites critical of the government and the VPN services that help users bypass the blocks.
Pro-el-Sissi businessmen have also expanded their reach into an already cowed private media, according to Reporters Without Borders. The group says security forces maintain a list of “wanted” journalists they have sometimes even forcibly disappeared, and are especially keen to crack down on individuals who sell video content to opposition media abroad.
The government’s stepped up warnings to the media ahead of the 26-28 March presidential election, in which el-Sissi faces no serious challenge after a string of hopefuls were forced out of the race or arrested. His only challenger is a little-known candidate who supports him.
Early March saw some of the harshest official rhetoric to date taking aim at the press. The country’s chief prosecutor, Nabil Sadeq, described the media as “forces of evil” — one of el-Sissi’s hallmark phrases — saying they have been trying to “undermine the security and safety of the nation through the broadcast and publication of lies and false news.” El-Sissi himself described any defamation of the country’s security forces as “high treason.”
Shortly thereafter, a bill was proposed in parliament criminalizing any statements authorities define as insults toward the armed forces or police, with penalties of at least three-year jail terms and fines upward of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (or $567).
Egyptian authorities have also published a list of telephone numbers for citizens to alert reports they view as undermining security or spreading false news. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | March 2018 | ['(AP)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Riots break in Dhaka, Bangladesh, due to frequent power outages. Hundreds are injured in confrontations with riot police . | By FARID HOSSAIN, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago DHAKA, Bangladesh - Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas Thursday at demonstrators violently protesting two days of near-constant power outages in Bangladesh‘s capital, witnesses said. Police did not give an injury figure. It was not immediately clear if any security officials were hurt. But outages have become more frequent since Tuesday, when a unit that normally produces 210 megawatts of electricity a day went off-line at the Ghorasal power station near Dhaka, the government power board said. The violence broke out in Dhaka‘s northern Mirpur district, where nearly 1,000 stone-throwing demonstrators rampaged through the streets. "The mob was becoming violent. We tried to prevent them from destroying government property," a police official at the scene said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Violent protests broke out in the city‘s southern Saidabad district late Wednesday, when demonstrators blocked roads and smashed vehicles, private TV station ATN Bangla reported. "This government is so inefficient that it can‘t even provide electricity," senior opposition lawmaker Abdur Razzak told the legislature before the walkout. Public anger is stronger than usual during this outage because the power cuts have affected devotees trying to offer special evening prayers for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Most Bangladeshis are Muslims. The outages have also decreased water supplies in the capital, where water plants rely on electricity, residents say. The government says industrial growth has increased demand. In January, police killed at least 18 demonstrators in protests against power outages in the southwestern district of Chapainawabganj. | Riot | September 2006 | ['(AP)'] |
Thousands of people in Okinawa, Japan protest, demanding the removal of a U.S. military base. | Thousands of people have protested on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa demanding the removal of a US military base there.
The local mayor called on new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama "to put an end to Okinawa's burden and ordeal". Japan and the US agreed in 2006 to relocate the Futenma base from an urban area to reclaimed land but the PM's election has rekindled opposition. The protest comes ahead of this week's visit by US President Barack Obama. The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says the row over the relocation of the base threatens to sour relations between Japan's new government and the country's key security ally. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada warned it was unlikely to be resolved before Mr Obama arrives in Japan on Friday. Japan's new government has expressed a determination to have a less subservient relationship with the US. Coral reefs
Organisers of the protest claimed 21,000 people took part. Mayor of Ginowan, Yoichi Iha, told the rally: "I urge Prime Minister Hatoyama to tell President Obama that Okinawa needs no more US bases." One protester, Yoshiko Yonamine, told AFP news agency: "Okinawans voted for the new administration, thinking it would remove the base from the island. I don't want it to betray us." The base is in a busy city centre and amid local concern about noise, pollution and crime the two countries agreed in 2006 to move it to reclaimed land on Okinawa's coast. But, our correspondent says, there is opposition to the new site too because of possible damage to coral reefs. Okinawa is host to about half the 47,000-strong American force in Japan. Mr Hatoyama, whose election in August ended more than half a century of conservative dominance, has suggested the base could be moved off the island, or perhaps out of Japan altogether. The US insists Japan honour the 2006 agreement to move to the coastal Camp Schwab area. The agreement would see Japan fund the replacement base and the transfer of 8,000 US marines to Guam by 2014. | Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
26 Iranians have been arrested for poll violations. | At least 26 Iranians have been arrested for suspected presidential election violations committed during the first round of voting last week.
The state-run news agency did not provide full details of the infractions on Thursday, but cited an Interior Ministry statement made by an election observer that said some of the arrests were linked to distribution of CDs and other materials.
It said about 20,000 pamphlets distributed as election material had been confiscated because, under Iranian law, it is illegal to make unsubstantiated charges against a political rival during the campaign. A total of 148 claims of violations were reviewed by a joint committee comprising intelligence, police and judicial officials. At least 44 were linked to "military personnel", the report added. Public protest
The report came just hours after Rafsanjani said on state television late on Wednesday that "violators of the elections misused public fund to distribute millions of CDs against me and, unfortunately, officials have not decided what to do about them yet ... I hope they will be treated according to the law". Ayat Allah Akbar Rafsanjani faces Ahmadinejad on Friday in Iran's first head-to-head presidential ballot. Rafsanjani was shaken in the first round with Ahmadinejad right on his heels – 21% to about 19.5%. Denial
The investigation report added that a "military person" was also among those arrested. A shopkeeper tapes an Ahmadinejad poster to his window No other details were given, but a statement from Iran's armed forces said none of its personnel was implicated, which may indicate that a member of the Revolutionary Guards or the paramilitary "Basiji" was involved.
A shopkeeper tapes an Ahmadinejad poster to his window The third-place finisher, former parliament speaker Mahdi Karroubi, claimed the Revolutionary Guards intimidated voters to cast ballots for Ahmadinejad. He also accused the ruling clerics of overlooking other alleged violations such as multiple voting by one person. Vote on Friday
Various political and social groups have set aside differences and tried to rally behind Rafsanjani, 70, who served as president from 1989-97 and later moved into a key post in the theocracy. A series of street rallies in Tehran and elsewhere on Wednesday sent the message that Iran's hard-won social and economic reforms would be stifled by a populist Ahmadinejad -who has picked up significant working-class support with his blunt talk on economic and foreign policy issues.
But the Tehran mayor denies rumours he is seeking to bring back rigid laws from the years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, such as segregation of the sexes. The campaign period officially ended Thursday. But many newspapers, however, were filled with editorials against intolerance as indirect attacks against Ahmadinejad. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | June 2005 | ['(Al-Jazeera)', '(Reuters)'] |
United Nations Secretary–General Ban Ki–moon outlines seven priorities for 2010 and urges a renewed focus on sustainable development, ending poverty, disease and hunger. | The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – as the targets are known – are among the seven “strategic opportunities” to be realized not over decades but within the next twelve months, Mr. Ban told the 192-member General Assembly.
“Taken together, they can make the world safer, fairer and more prosperous today and in the future,” he stated. “I ask that we join together to make 2010 a year of sustainable development – to meet the MDGs, address climate change, promote global health and take the necessary steps for lasting and robust economic recovery.”
Mr. Ban highlighted the special MDG summit he will be convening in September in conjunction with the Assembly’s annual General Debate. Prior to that, in March, he will present his own assessment to the membership on the gaps and needs on this issue. Negotiating a binding agreement on climate change, as well as to deliver on commitments made to date, was the second priority emphasized by the Secretary-General. Last month, countries ‘sealed the deal’ on a political accord which seeks to jump-start immediate action on climate change and guide negotiations on long-term action. It also includes an agreement to working towards curbing global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, efforts to reduce or limit emissions, and pledges to mobilize $100 billion a year for developing countries to combat climate change. Mr. Ban said he intends to launch a high-level panel on climate change and sustainable development, which will deliver its own recommendations on the way ahead. The Secretary-General also called for empowering women as never before during 2010, and pointed to the need to work towards setting up the new gender entity to be established within the UN, and step up efforts to prevent violence against women. The appointment of a Special Representative on the prevention of sexual violence in armed conflict will be announced soon, he added. Noting encouraging progress in the field of disarmament, Mr. Ban’s fourth priority is working towards a nuclear-free world. “As with the MDG summit, we must prepare the ground for success,” he stated, listing a series of meetings that he will be attending on the issue in Geneva, Paris and Washington. “The fifth strategic opportunity lies in preventing and resolving deadly conflicts around the world,” the Secretary-General went on to say, adding that 2010 will undoubtedly bring unforeseen political and humanitarian crises.
Among the challenges anticipated are critical elections in Iraq, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and Myanmar. In addition, the situations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Guinea, among others, will continue to demand attention.
“In the Middle East, we must generate new momentum in the search for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace,” Mr. Ban stated. “One year after the Gaza conflict, a fundamentally different approach is required to address the major humanitarian and reconstruction challenges still facing its people.”
The sixth priority, said the Secretary-General, is to advance on issues “at the heart of who we are – human rights and the rule of law.” In this regard, he urged the Assembly in the coming weeks to conduct a thorough and clear-eyed review of the Human Rights Council.
He also called for strengthening the International Criminal Court (ICC), describing it as the “centrepiece of our system of international criminal justice,” and urged all nations to become parties to the Court’s Statute. Last, but not least, Mr. Ban cited the need to strengthen the UN system. “In the last years, we have made important progress in realigning the United Nations with new global realities. But more has to be done. “As an Organization, we have to commit to continuously improve the way we are doing business. Changing with changing times and evolving needs has to become a way of life at the United Nations,” he said, noting the need to rejuvenate management, develop the emerging leaders of the future, and build a flexible workforce for the 21st century, as well as make better use of modern technologies.
“I sense renewed energy as we start the new year and take on the heavy agenda ahead,” Mr. Ban stressed to reporters following his informal briefing to the Assembly. “We can make 2010 a year for action on a number of fronts,” he added. “We are ready to act, ready to deliver, and ready to make 2010 a year of results for people.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today pledged to continue his efforts to advance the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world, noting that a number of events over the next few months offer an opportunity to build on the “encouraging” developments of last year. | Famous Person - Give a speech | January 2010 | ['(UN News Centre)', '(Sudan Tribune)'] |
The U.S. state of Iowa's Supreme Court legalizes same–sex marriage. | 2009UPDATED: 5:37 pm CDT April 3,
2009
DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Iowa Supreme Court announced its ruling in a landmark same-sex marriage case Friday morning.
The justices ruled unanimously in favor of six same-sex couples who sought to get marriage licenses, but were denied.
The 69 page ruling means same-sex couples in Iowa can now get married under state law. The ruling said that the Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution.
"The legislature has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification," wrote the justices.
The decision strikes the language from Iowa Code section 595.2 limiting civil marriage to a man and a woman. It further directs that the remaining statutory language be interpreted and applied in a manner allowing gay and lesbian people full access to the institution of civil marriage.
Same-sex couples will be allowed to get married under Iowa law in 21 days.
The court was reviewing a lower court's ruling that overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriages.
The court's written ruling was to be issued on the Iowa Supreme Court's Web site, but traffic to the site crashed the server and took down the Web site.
No Appeal
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone told the Associated Press that his office won't ask for a rehearing, meaning the court's decision should take effect after that three-week period.
"Our Supreme Court has decided it, and they make the decision as to what the law is and we follow Supreme Court decisions," Sarcone said. "This is not a personal thing, we have an obligation to the law to defend the recorder, and that's what we do."
Advocates against same-sex marriage have said they would likely not appeal a ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. They plan to ask lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment and put the issue to voters.
Reaction To Ruling
Same-sex couples who filed the lawsuit were in Des Moines and spoke at the Hotel Fort Des Moines following the ruling.
"Today's victory is a testament to the strength of love, hope and courage. Our clients have shown an abundance of all three for many years and now at long last they will be able to marry. This will go down as another proud day in Iowa's long history of protecting individual rights," said Camilla Taylor, senior staff attorney at Lambda Legal and lead architect behind the lawsuit.
"We have all of you courageous plaintiffs to thank: Go get married, live happily ever after, live the American dream," said Des Moines attorney Dennis Johnson, who argued on behalf of the gay and lesbian couples.
All of the couples involved in the lawsuit that KCCI talked to on Friday said they plan to apply for their marriage licenses as soon as possible.
One Iowa, a group supporting same-sex marriage is also planning four rallies across Iowa on Friday at 5:30 p.m. in Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Iowa City and Davenport. In Des Moines, the rally will be held at Gateway Park at Grand Avenue and 13th Street.
A group opposed to same-sex marriage gathered outside the court building Friday morning to pray as the ruling was announced. Chuck Hurley said he would "analyze the reading accurately and respond accordingly."
National Impact (View Interactive Map)
The Iowa case has attracted attention from all across the United States and could have an impact on how other states handle the controversial issue, said advocates on both sides of the issue.
Laws banning same-sex marriage have already been struck down by state courts in Massachusetts, Connecticut and California.
Lawmakers in Vermont passed a same-sex marriage bill on Thursday with enough votes to override a veto by the governor. The bill has already passed both houses of the legislature.
Story Background The case, Varnum v. Brien, is centered on whether the state’s 10-year-old law defining a "valid" marriage as only “between a male and female” violates the Iowa Constitution’s guarantees of equal treatment and due process.
Six same-sex couples tried to apply for marriage licenses in Polk County and were denied. They argued that Iowa's marriage law goes against the state's Constitution and sued Polk County Recorder and Registrar Timothy Brien in 2005.
Polk County Judge Robert Hanson ruled last year that the law was unconstitutional and then ordered the license be issued. The next day, the judge suspended his ruling. One gay couple did get married.
The case was appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, which heard arguments in the case in December. The justices did not indicate how long it would take to make their written ruling, though the court generally takes at least several months to issue rulings. | Government Policy Changes | April 2009 | ['(KCCI)'] |
An alleged American FBI agent is arrested in Pakistan for carrying ammunition while trying to board a flight, which is in violation of their anti–terror laws. | An agent with the US FBI has been arrested under anti-terrorism laws in Pakistan for carrying ammunition while trying to board a flight.
The US citizen was detained at Karachi airport after security staff found 15 bullets for a 9mm handgun in his luggage ahead of a flight to Islamabad.
A spokeswoman for the US state department said he was on a temporary assignment with the US mission.
A judge ruled he be held until Saturday while Pakistani officials investigate. US officials said the man had accidentally been carrying the ammunition in his luggage when he was detained on Monday night.
The US embassy in Islamabad refused to reveal his identity but confirmed that a US citizen had been arrested and said the embassy was co-operating with local authorities.
On Wednesday, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed the man was an FBI employee "on temporary duty assignment to provide routine assistance to the legal attache at the US mission".
"We are co-ordinating with Pakistani authorities to resolve this matter," she said. "We are working closely with them."
American agents operating inside Pakistan have been the cause of strained relations in the past and have fuelled anti-US feeling in the country.
In 2011 there was furore when CIA contractor Raymond Davis was arrested for shooting dead two men following what he said was an attempted armed robbery in Lahore.
Mr Davis was later released after the families of the dead men accepted "blood money".
The United States and Pakistan co-operate in the global fight against Islamist militants, angering many Pakistanis.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Liberian President Ellen Johnson–Sirleaf dissolves her cabinet. | MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf dismissed her cabinet on Wednesday in a move that will provide her a “fresh slate” for the next phase of her administration, her office said in a press release.
Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf attends the opening session of the 2nd Arab-Africa summit in Sirte October 10, 2010. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny
No other reason was given for the move, but it comes in the midst of a crackdown on corruption in the West African state that has led to investigations of some public officials a year ahead of presidential elections.
“President Johnson-Sirleaf told the ministers that the reason for demanding their mass administrative leave is that this administration is entering a critical stretch and this would afford her the opportunity to start with a fresh slate going forward,” according to the release.
“The President further announced that a cabinet restructuring will be made in the shortest possible time and that several ministers could be reappointed.”
Deputies will take over the ministers’ responsibilities until replacements were nominated, according to the release, which added the minister for presidential affairs alone had been asked to stay in his post.
Sources told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that Sirleaf had asked her cabinet to resign.
An analyst said the move may be part of her strategy to improve her chances in next year’s election.
“Patience with her government is wearing thin over the issue of corruption,” said Joseph Lake of the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit. “She faces a strong challenge in the 2011 presidential election from local hero George Weah and this may be an effort to freshen up a weary cabinet.”
Sirleaf has been in power since 2006 and was expected to seek another term in the planned 2011 poll.
Critics of Sirleaf’s administration say she has not done enough to root out corruption or ease tensions between communities divided by 14-years of near-constant civil war, one of Africa’s bloodiest, that left infrastructure in ruins.
The country is near the bottom of the U.N.’s human development index but its oil and minerals resources are drawing increased investment from energy and mining companies like Chevron, ArcelorMittal and BHP Billiton that Sirleaf hopes will trickle down to improve the lives of Liberians.
The government said last month it was investigating some current and former public officials for their role in a proposed carbon deal that would have given a U.K. firm control of a fifth of the country’s rainforests.
Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Jones
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Three people are hurt and a gunman takes his own life in a rare shooting incident in Yokohama, Japan. | Police investigating the scene where a gunman wounded three people in Tokyo
A gunman in Japan has taken his own life after wounding three people in Yokohama, outside Tokyo, police said.
The gunman had taken refuge in a building in a residential area which the police surrounded. A police spokesman said one of the injured men was in a critical condition and the other two were lightly wounded. Japanese media reported the violence appeared to be gang related. Shootings are rare in Japan, where there are strict gun control laws. Police named the gunman as Kenji Hayashi, a 62-year-old member of the Inagawa-kai, a large Japanese organised crime group. He had identified himself to police after they surrounded him. Police entered the building when Mr Hayashi stopped talking and they found him dead. "We stormed the building and found the man on the floor with a revolver, bleeding from his right ear," AFP news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying. What gun violence there is in Japan tends to be associated with the Japanese mafia, known as yakuza. | Armed Conflict | November 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Daily Yomiuri)'] |
The remaining three London bombing suspects have been arrested after raids in the UK and Italy. | Roads were sealed off in west London as dozens of police, many armed and some in gas masks, surrounded properties.
Two men held in north Kensington were filmed by a witness stripped to the waist after police raided a flat.
Another suspect for the failed Tube and bus bombings has been arrested in Rome. The fourth suspect was detained in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Friday's raids saw armed police surround flats at Peabody Buildings, in Dalgarno Gardens, north Kensington.
Bare-chested
One of those arrested there identified himself as Ibrahim Muktar Said, 27, wanted for the attempt to bomb a number 26 bus in Shoreditch, east London, eight days ago.
A second man said his name was Ramzi Mohamed, suspected of the attempted Oval Tube bombing, police said.
Osman Hussain had been staying with his brother
Footage taken by a resident showed the suspects standing bare-chested on a balcony outside a flat.
They had been asked to surrender to police, but failed to do so, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, of the Metropolitan Police, said.
"Specialist tactics" were then used, he said. Eyewitnesses had earlier talked of seeing officers wearing gas masks.
The suspect arrested in Rome, who was named as Somali-born UK citizen Hussain Osman, 27, will be questioned over the bomb attempt at Shepherd's Bush station.
He had been staying with his brother, who was also taken into custody, Italian officials said.
Also on Friday, UK police arrested a third man in Notting Hill, west London, and two women at the city's Liverpool Street station.
The as yet unnamed man, arrested in Tavistock Crescent, is said by police to be of significant interest in relation to the events of 21 July.
The suspect detained last Wednesday in Birmingham was Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, who is being questioned over a bomb attempt on the Tube near Warren Street.
'I'm scared'
One man was arrested following the Notting Hill raid
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said police may have been able to make their arrests following tip-offs from the public or informants; electronic interception; or the questioning of people who were already in custody.
"I understand that the questioning of those people they have in custody was very productive," he said. Our correspondent added that following Friday's arrests, the immediate priority for police was to establish if there were any further bomb plots.
Also, officers would want to know if there were any explosives lying around in warehouses and who these detainees knew.
Mr Clarke later confirmed to reporters that the Met would be seeking the return to Britain from Italy of Mr Osman.
However, it is not yet clear if he will face any charges in Italy.
Mr Clarke added that the public "must not be complacent" that the threat of attacks had disappeared in the wake of the arrests.
"The threat remains and is very real," he said.
Detectives believe there may also have been a fifth would-be bomber on 21 July, after a device was found on Saturday in a rucksack at Little Wormwood Scrubs, near Friday's operation.
Scotland Yard described Friday as their "best day yet" since 21 July.
Eyewitnesses to the raids in north Kensington say they heard three sounds like shots and a large explosion as officers wearing gas masks entered one of the properties.
HAVE YOUR SAY
We were all locked in the office and told not to go near the windows
Rob Villa, London
A police source later said no shots had been fired and that explosions reported by witnesses were the sounds of officers blowing off the door to a flat on the Peabody Buildings estate.
In Dalgarno Gardens, officers were continually shouting at someone in a flat to come out. They were addressing him as "Muhammad", eyewitnesses said.
The police asked him: "What is the problem? Why can't you come out?
"Take your clothes off. Exit the building. Do you understand?"
One resident told BBC News 24 she was inside a block of flats on the estate at the time.
"They were shouting to him that he needed to come out with his arms up, in just his underwear. 'Almighty bang'
"He was saying to them: 'How do I know when I come out, that you're not going to shoot me? I'm scared'." Police assured him he would not get shot as long as he followed instructions, she said, and that they knew he was not a risk to the officers or the public.
Officers told other residents on the 350-property estate to "get inside now".
Chris Stokes told BBC News: "We got told to move out of the way by armed police and within about five minutes we heard three gunshots go off behind the block of flats at Tavistock Crescent."
Allan Sneddon, who lives nearby, told BBC News: "There was this almighty bang... big enough to shake the ground."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Greg Anderson, personal trainer to U.S. professional baseball player Barry Bonds, is ordered to go to prison for the third time for contempt of a grand jury for refusing to testify against Bonds regarding alleged perjury in connection to an earlier steroids investigation. | SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that
Barry Bonds' personal trainer must return to prison for refusing to
testify before a grand jury investigating performance-enhancing
drugs in professional sports.
Greg Anderson, 40, already has served two other brief prison
stints for refusing to testify whether his boyhood friend lied when
he said he never knowingly used steroids. Both times, Anderson,
held in contempt of court, was released on procedural grounds.
Anderson must report to the Federal Correctional Institution in
Dublin by Nov. 20 and could serve more than a year behind bars
unless he agrees to tell the grand jury what he knows about Bonds'
alleged steroids use.
The San Francisco Giants slugger, who's now a free agent, told a
2003 grand jury that he believed Anderson had provided him flaxseed
oil and arthritic balm, not steroids.
Anderson's attorney Mark Geragos could not immediately be
reached for comment.
Federal prosecutors believe Bonds committed perjury in 2003 when
he appeared before another grand jury that was investigating the
Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, which turned out to be a steroids
ring.
Anderson was convicted in the BALCO probe, pleading guilty to
steroid distribution and money laundering charges. He served three
months in jail.
In July, Anderson served 15 days in prison for refusing to talk
to the grand jury looking into Bonds' testimony but was released
when the panel's term expired. He was held in contempt a second
time after a new grand jury was formed but got out of prison after
37 days when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals failed to uphold
the citation within 30 days as the law requires.
Geragos argued Anderson shouldn't have to testify about whether
he gave Bonds steroids, contending prosecutors illegally recorded
him in 2004 on a tape in which Anderson is overheard discussing
steroids.
Prosecutors say the recording was made during a face-to-face
meeting and wasn't obtained improperly. A lower court judge ruled
the recording, which was made by an unidentified person, was legal
and did not prejudice the grand jury against Anderson, as Anderson
claimed.
The San Francisco-based appeals court agreed Thursday with the
lower court, ruling there was ample evidence beyond the tape to
justify the grand jury's interest in questioning Anderson about
Bonds.
Prosecutors said the questions they want answered are based on
athletes' secret testimony in the BALCO case and a search of
Anderson's house that turned up drug records, some with Bonds' name
on it.
Other than the tape dispute, the appeals court already had
rejected the merits of Anderson's appeal. Among them, Anderson said
his BALCO plea deal prevented him from cooperating with the
government's steroid investigation.
The BALCO probe has netted five convictions and a pending
indictment of Trevor Graham, track coach to Justin Gatlin, Tim
Montgomery and Marion Jones and others. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2006 | ['(ESPN)'] |
A bomb placed in an elevator shaft kills Pro-Russian, high-ranking officer of the Donetsk People's Republic's special forces, Arseny Pavlov, also known as "Motorola", in Donetsk. , | Russian mercenary Arseniy Pavlov, better known as Motorola, was killed in an explosion in Donetsk on Oct. 16. Separatist authorities confirmed Pavlov’s death. Denis Pushilin, the speaker of the separatists’ parliament in Donetsk, called the killing a “terrorist act” and blamed Ukrainian forces. Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the self-proclaimed republic, echoed Pushilin, calling the killing a “declaration of war” by Kyiv.
Pavlov was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated in the elevator of his apartment building. Previous attempts had been made on Pavlov’s life. He is just the latest in a growing number of separatist military leaders to be assassinated in the Donbas, in a spate of killings that the separatists blame on Kyiv but many others think Moscow is responsible for.
Breaking news about Ukraine
Web links to Kyiv Post material are allowed provided that they contain a hyperlink to the stories and only a brief extract (not more than 10 percent) of the text. | Famous Person - Death | October 2016 | ['(TASS)', '(The Kyiv Post)'] |
2007 Zoé's Ark controversy – Six French aid workers, sentenced to eight years at hard labor by a Chadian court for allegedly attempting to rescue over 100 Chadian children, are flown to France, where they will appear before a French court which will decide how they will serve their sentences. | Dec 28 (Reuters) - Six French aid workers sentenced to hard labour in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children flew out of the African nation on Friday bound for France, where they are due to serve their eight-year sentences in jail.
The four men and two women, from humanitarian group Zoe's Ark, were stopped in October from flying the children, aged between one and 10, out of Chad to Europe. Chad said they had no authorisation to take the minors out of the country.
Here is a chronology of the case:
Oct. 25, 2007 - Police in Chad arrest nine French citizens in eastern Chad, near the Darfur border, as they prepare to fly 103 African children to France. Seven Spaniards, who formed the crew of the chartered plane, were also detained.
-- Among those detained were six members of the French humanitarian group Zoe's Ark, which had said it intended to bring orphans from Sudan's violent Darfur region to France for fostering with families there.
Oct. 30 - Chadian authorities bring abduction and fraud charges against the nine French and seven Spanish nationals who they accuse of illegally trying to fly the children to Europe. A Belgian pilot was detained separately.
Oct. 31 - Chadians chanting "no to the slave trade, no to child trafficking" protest against the French group.
Nov. 4 - Three French journalists and four Spanish flight attendants are released after diplomatic pressure from Paris. French President Nicholas Sarkozy flies to N'Djamena to meet Chadian President Idriss Deby and collect the freed Europeans.
-- UNICEF says the bid by the French aid workers to fly the children out of Chad and place them with families in France breached international law.
Nov. 9 - Chad releases the three remaining Spanish aircrew and the Belgian pilot.
Dec. 7 - The six French nationals start a hunger strike, refusing food but drinking water.
Dec. 21 - The six go on trial charged with kidnapping and fraud in an N'Djamena courtroom, amid heavy security.
Dec. 26 - The six are found guilty and sentenced to eight years of forced labour.
Dec. 28 - The four men and two women are flown home to France where they are due to serve their sentences in jail. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he will visit the United Kingdom on July 13. | The US President will reportedly spend most of his time outside London, to avoid embarrassing protests.
By Tom Acres and Aubrey Allegretti, News Reporters Friday 27 April 2018 12:08, UK
Donald Trump will visit the UK on Friday, 13 July, the White House and Downing Street have said.
It will be his first visit to Britain since he was elected in 2016. He had been due to open the new US Embassy in London in February but cancelled the trip.
Theresa May's spokesman said the US President will hold bilateral talks with the Prime Minister, with further details to be "set out in due course".
On Wednesday, Sky's senior political correspondent Beth Rigby revealed that Mr Trump would make the trip in mid-July, with a full announcement expected within a day or so.
In Washington, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed to reporters that the date had been set.
"Does anybody know which country Queen Elizabeth is from?" White House @PressSec announces news of @realDonaldTrump's visit to the UK during 'Take Your Child To Work Day' The trip is only being billed as a "flying visit" rather than an official state one, which would have seen Mr Trump hosted by the Queen.
But the US leader will still reportedly meet Her Majesty on the 24-hour trip, which will follow a NATO summit.
The visit will be held predominantly outside London, amid the fear of protests, The Telegraph reported.
The newspaper said Mr Trump will stay overnight and hold talks with Mrs May at her countryside retreat of Chequers.
Mr Trump had been urged earlier to stay away from London because there is a risk of "major protests, crime and disorder".
In a letter, six conservative groups who support the US President suggested he visit his "ancestral home" of Scotland instead.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hailed the "fantastic" news of Mr Trump's visit.
"Looking forward to seeing our closest ally and friend on the GREATest visit ever," he wrote in a post on Twitter.
FANTASTIC news that President @realdonaldtrump will at last come to Britain on 13 July. Looking forward to seeing our closest ally and friend on the GREATest visit ever. But London Mayor Sadiq Khan, whom Mr Trump criticised for his response to the London Bridge terror attack, said if the President visits the capital he "will experience an open and diverse city that has always chosen unity over division and hope over fear".
Mr Khan added: "He will also no doubt see that Londoners hold their liberal values of freedom of speech very dear."
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson has urged that the "scaled down trip not be met with scaled down protests".
"Protesting against a man with dangerous, misogynistic and racist views is our responsibility," she said.
"It is our opportunity to stand in solidarity with all the people he has abused and denigrated."
Mr Trump was due to open the new US Embassy in London in February, but cancelled after saying the building was too expensive - and tweeted that he was not a "big fan" of the decision to move its location.
However, it is thought he scrapped the visit over fears of mass protests in the capital, something that is also believed to have played a part in the postponement of a state visit.
Number 10 insisted before the "working visit" announcement that the state visit invitation, which would entail lavish ceremonies and an audience at Buckingham Palace, still stood.
His trip to the UK will come some 15 months after Mrs May visited the White House in January 2017 - the first world leader to do so following his inauguration.
It will also coincide with the second anniversary of Mrs May becoming Prime Minister, and a partial solar eclipse. | Diplomatic Visit | April 2018 | ['(Sky News)'] |
The United Nations Security Council passes a US–drafted resolution 1556 demanding the Sudanese government end atrocities in the Darfur conflict; however, aid groups criticize the weakening of the resolution at the insistence of China, Pakistan, and Russia. | The vote was only passed after the US dropped the word "sanctions" and added economic and diplomatic "measures".
Sudan rejected the resolution, saying it conflicted with existing agreements with the UN. "It pains Sudan to have to express its rejection of the Security Council resolution, which was a not correct one," Information Minister Al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press.
He said the resolution "does not conform with the agreements signed between the government and the United Nations".
According to AP, he said the government was capable of "disarming all the looting and robbing gangs", and accused the resolution of focusing on Arab militias more than humanitarian issues in Darfur.
The resolution has been criticised as a "failure" by one major aid agency.
The only thing the UN Security Council has delivered is... another 30 days in which civilians will continue to live in fear of being killed or raped
Representative of aid agency in Darfur
Up to 50,000 people have died and more than a million have fled their homes in Darfur.
The Janjaweed, the main Arab militia group allied with the government, has been blamed for mass rapes, killings and burning of villages in Darfur. The resolution was backed by 13 council members; China and Pakistan abstained.
'Disaster'
US Ambassador John Danforth told the Council after the vote: "The government of Sudan has left us no choice. It has done the unthinkable, it has fostered an armed attack on its own civilian population, it has created a humanitarian disaster.
"The responsibility for this disaster lies squarely on the government of Sudan," he said. The newly passed resolution calls on Sudan to make good on promises it made on 3 July to rein in the fighters. It has 30 days to comply.
It calls for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to issue a report also in 30 days on the progress made in each of those areas.
The US removed any specific reference to sanctions in the resolution after objections from seven members - including China, Russia and Pakistan - who believe Khartoum needs more time to act.
But the resolution's sponsors say the substance of the threat remains in the wording of the text. It notes that the Council "expresses its intention to consider further actions - including measures as provided for in Article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations - on the government of Sudan, in the event of non-compliance". Article 41 provides for sanctions to be applied.
China and Pakistan remained dissatisfied with the wording. Explaining its abstention, China said it believed measures were unnecessary and Khartoum had been co-operating.
Darfur has been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis
Aid agencies, meanwhile, charge that the resolution has been fatally weakened by the changes. "The Security Council have today proved unanimous in their inaction," the representative of one major aid agency working in Darfur, which wanted to remain anonymous, told BBC News Online.
"This watered-down resolution contains no urgency and offers precious little help to the people of Darfur," he said.
"The only thing the UN Security Council has delivered is... another 30 days in which civilians will continue to live in fear of being killed or raped.
"While diplomats sit in New York and procrastinate, the people of Darfur are dying. The government of Sudan will be celebrating yet another failure to call them to account."
'Fear remains'
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has said it will begin a series of airdrops targeting 85,000 people in isolated regions of West Darfur in three days.
Along with those who have died or have been displaced in the Darfur conflict, an estimated 2.2 million people are in urgent need of food or medical attention. | Sign Agreement | July 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
An arrest warrant is issued for Premier League footballer Steven Pienaar after he failed to appear in court to answer speeding charges. | Everton footballer Steven Pienaar has been bailed after answering an arrest warrant issued when he failed to turn up in court on speeding charges.
The allegations, in Essex, against Pienaar, 30, were proven in his absence after he failed to attend Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Monday.
He was caught speeding twice, 11 days apart, on Lambourne Road, Chigwell.
A judge ordered Pienaar be given unconditional bail for sentencing in Chelmsford next month.
The player's lawyer said his client had "responded immediately" to news of the warrant and made a "pre-arranged visit" to a police station in Cheshire.
Gwynn Lewis said Pienaar was "totally unaware" of the court date, after he moved to Merseyside in February.
He said the correspondence from the court had been sent to his old address in Essex.
Pienaar, whose address was given in court as Theydon Road, Epping, was charged with failing to disclose who was driving his Aston Martin DBS, which was captured exceeding the limit, on two separate days in October last year.
The South Africa international joined his former club Everton, on loan from Tottenham, in January. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
After Palestinians fire a Qassam rocket that explodes in an open area of the city of Ashkelon, Israeli planes launch air strikes on several targets in the Gaza Strip, in locations which include Gaza City, Khan Yunis and Rafah. | a Qassam launched from northern Gaza Thursday evening exploded in an open area within the Ashkelon Beach Regional Council's limits.
The attack followed two days of calm in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip. The last rocket to hit Israel's southern region was fired on Monday, Passover eve.
According to a report
published Thursday by the Shin Bet there has been a significant rise in the number of attacks on Israel emanating from Gaza.
The report said 36 attacks in the Gaza area included 25 rockets, five mortar shells, five shooting attacks and one anti-tank missile attack. In March, 35 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel and six mortar shells, compared to five rockets and five shells in February.
Earlier Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Hamas
politburo chief Khaled Mashaal in a phone conversation that the Islamist group must stop the "unconscionable firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel."
Mashaal said that the Hamas leadership has decided to "maintain the calm, and is not interested in escalating the tension. He promised that his organization would take "appropriate measures to prevent the rocket fire from Gaza." | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(The Jerusalem Post)', '(BBC)', '(Ynetnews)'] |
A United States Federal grand jury indicts Jared Lee Loughner for attempted murder of Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and two of her aides with further charges pending. , | TUCSON - A federal grand jury indicted accused Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner on three counts Wednesday, with prosecutors saying more indictments could be on the way for the 22-year-old.
The news came on the same day that aides to wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) announced her transfer, scheduled for Friday, from a trauma center here to a rehabilitation hospital in Houston.
Loughner will be arraigned in a Phoenix courtroom Monday. U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke announced that he was charged with attempting to assassinate Giffords and with two counts of attempting to murder her congressional aides, Ron Barber and Pam Simon, in the Jan. 8 shooting rampage that killed six and wounded 13. Those charges carry maximum sentences of life in prison and 20 years, respectively.
Loughner also has been charged with killing District Judge John Roll and Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman. If indicted in those killings, he would face the death penalty.
Justice Department rules "require us to pursue a deliberate and thorough process," Burke said in a statement. "Today's charges are just the beginning of our legal action. We are working diligently to ensure that our investigation is thorough and that justice is done for the victims and their families."
Loughner is likely to also face state murder charges in the deaths of the four others who were not federal employees.
Giffords remains in serious condition at Tucson's University Medical Center after being shot in the face at close range. Barring unforeseen complications, she will be transferred Friday to the TIRR Memorial Hermann rehabilitation hospital in Houston, her aides said.
"I am extremely hopeful at the signs of recovery that my wife has made since the shooting," said her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, who has been at her bedside.
The family also considered Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center and facilities in New York and Chicago. But Kelly said the Houston hospital is near where he lives and where he trains, at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The news of a hospital transfer was hailed by well-wishers in Tucson who have streamed to makeshift tributes outside the medical center and Giffords's local office, leaving cards, stuffed animals, signs and candles for the 40-year-old congresswoman.
To Jennifer Wright, 51, who was outside the office Wednesday wearing a T-shirt covered with peace signs, Giffords's departure from Arizona will be bittersweet because it could mean an extended absence from her community. "Knowing she's right here down the street has been comforting," Wright said.
Inside the office, the mood was lifted by the presence of dozens of stuffed animals that were collected from the memorial for donation to local children's charities. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2011 | ['(Reuters)', '(AP via Washington Post)'] |
Bombings in Baghdad kill at least 37 people hours before the city's curfew was due to end. ISIL claims responsibility. , | BAGHDAD (AP) Baghdad's decade-old nightly curfew ended after midnight Sunday, hours after bombs exploded in and around the Iraqi capital, killing at least 40 people in a stark warning of the dangers still ahead in this country under attack by the Islamic State group.
The deadliest of Saturday's bombings happened in the capital's New Baghdad neighborhood, where a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a street filled with hardware stores and a restaurant, killing 22 people, police said.
"The restaurant was full of young people, children and women when the suicide bomber blew himself up," witness Mohamed Saeed said. "Many got killed."
The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their bomber targeted Shiites, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based terrorism monitor. The Sunni extremist militants now hold a third of both Iraq and neighboring Syria in their self-declared caliphate.
A second attack happened in central Baghdad's popular Shorja market, where two bombs some 25 meters (yards) apart exploded, killing at least 11 people, police said. Another bombing at the Abu Cheer outdoor market in southwestern Baghdad killed at least four people, police said.
In Tarmiya, a Sunni town 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad, a bomb blast killed at least three soldiers in a passing convoy, authorities said.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to brief journalists. No group claimed the other attacks.
Despite the bombings, the government went ahead with its plans to lift the nightly midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew on Sunday. The curfew largely had been in place since 2004, in response to the growing sectarian violence that engulfed Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion a year earlier.
Square in central Baghdad amid major security presence. Men, women and even children awake well past midnight played music and waved Iraqi flags.
A crowd of men, women and even children played music and waved Iraqi flags early Sunday as they gathered amid a heavy security presence in central Baghdad's Tahrir Square to celebrate the curfew's end. Elsewhere, small groups of young men rode around the capital early Sunday on motorcycles and in cars, cheering and waving Iraqi flags.
There was no immediate comment Saturday from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who on Thursday announced plans to end the curfew by decree. He also ordered that streets, long blocked off for security reasons, reopen for traffic and pedestrians.
Iraqi officials repeatedly have assured residents that the capital is secure, despite Sunni militant groups occasionally attacking Baghdad's Shiite-majority neighborhoods. | Armed Conflict | February 2015 | ['(AP via Los Angeles Times)', '(AP via KSL)'] |
Anti–government red shirt protesters return to the streets in Thailand. | BANGKOK (Reuters) - At least 10,000 anti-government protesters returned to Bangkok’s streets Friday to mark the six-month anniversary of a deadly military crackdown, but there were no violent incidents.
Thai anti-government "red shirt" protesters gather at the gates of the Klongprem prison in Bangkok November 19, 2010. Thai anti-government protesters called on the government to release protest leaders who were detained for their role in the crippling protests and deadly clashes in April and May. They planned to return to the streets of central Bangkok on Friday evening, to mark the six-month anniversary of the forcible dispersal of their last protracted demonstration.
Flag-waving, red-shirted protesters converged on the same shopping district they occupied during the April to May unrest that killed 91 people and wounded at least 1,800 in the worst political violence in modern Thai history.
“People died here,” the protesters chanted. Many called for those responsible for the killings to be punished.
But the lack of clear leadership among the “red shirts” makes a prolonged protest this time unlikely, especially with memories still fresh of a May 19 crackdown that ended in a night of rioting in which more than 30 buildings were set ablaze.
“There have been and will be short and sporadic protests like this for some time,” said Karn Yuenyong, director of independent think-tank Siam Intelligence Unit.
“They aim to energize the people and remind the government that the resentment is still there but it’s not about forcing an end game yet.”
The gathering at the Ratchaprasong area caused disruption to traffic and several luxury malls protectively closed their front entrances but remained open for business.
The rally served as a reminder of fissures in Thai society that remain dangerously unresolved despite government promises of reconciliation.
The continued protest movement bodes ill for chances of an imminent end to a five-year political crisis that broadly pits urban and rural working class red shirts against the establishment elite, royalists, and the military, who back British-born, Oxford-educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Related Coverage
“We’ll keep coming back until someone takes responsibility for what’s happened,” said food stall owner Sawanee Pinnguen, 38.
“The elite have to take responsibility for much more. They have committed crimes to hold on to power. Have they no shame, killing fellow Thais?”
The red shirts are fast regrouping in Bangkok despite nearly eight months of emergency rule under which gatherings of more than five people are banned. Though technically illegal, Friday’s protest was approved to go ahead as long as it was peaceful.
The emergency decree has helped to restore order to Thailand. Its economy is bouncing back, projected to grow as much as 8 percent this year.
Thai stock prices, which fell nearly 5 percent in a $1.5 billion wave of foreign selling during the unrest, are now the second-strongest in Southeast Asia.
Analysts see the protests as a low political risk, for now.
The demonstrators, many of whom support the twice-elected former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, say democracy and the judiciary have been undermined by their powerful opponents and have demanded immediate elections, which Abhisit said could come next year before his term expires, if the country is peaceful.
Several hundred protesters dressed in black and carrying red roses gathered outside a Bangkok prison earlier Friday to call for the release of detained protesters and their leaders. Prison authorities estimate at least 150 are still being held.
Outside the Central World, Southeast Asia’s second-biggest mall partially restored after it was set ablaze on May 19, protesters waved flags atop trucks carrying megaphones.
“We are back to remember those who were brutally murdered,” bellowed a protest leader, Somyos Phrueksakasemsuk. | Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(Thai News Agency)'] |
A Syrian man is jailed for manslaughter in relation to a stabbing in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany last year. The killing sparked far-right protests and riots in the city. | A Syrian man has been sentenced in Germany to nine and a half years in prison over the fatal stabbing of a man in Chemnitz last year.
Alaa Sheikhi, 24, was found guilty of "joint manslaughter and serious physical injury" over the death of Daniel Hillig, a 35-year-old carpenter.
A second suspect, an Iraqi, is thought to have fled Germany after the attack.
The case led to violent protests in Chemnitz, where far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has strong support.
Ahead of his sentencing on Thursday, Sheikhi denied any responsibility for the death of Hillig. Speaking through an interpreter, he said: "I can only hope that the truth is brought to light here and that a just verdict is pronounced."
Sheikhi, who had reportedly remained silent throughout the trial, told German public broadcaster ZDF in a telephone interview just two days before the verdict that he did not touch either the victim or the knife that killed him. "I just ran away," he said, adding: "I swear on my mother I did not touch him."
The sentencing comes one year after thousands of neo-Nazis marched through Chemnitz, where AfD hopes to increase its share of the vote in elections in Saxony and neighbouring Brandenburg on 1 September.
In the early hours of Sunday 26 August 2018, a fierce fight broke out between "multiple nationalities" on the sidelines of a street festival in the eastern German region of Chemnitz, near the Saxony capital of Dresden.
It remains unclear what triggered the brawl - police at the time dismissed online rumours that Hillig, who had a German mother and a Cuban father, had been defending a woman from sexual assault.
During the fight, Hillig was stabbed and critically injured. He later died in hospital of heart and lung wounds.
Two other German men with him at the festival, aged 33 and 38 at the time, were seriously hurt, police said.
Sheikhi, who arrived in Germany in 2015, was arrested hours after the attack, along with another Iraqi man, who was released due to a lack of evidence.
Friends of the victim later told local media that misreporting following the incident had helped fuel far-right protests in the region.
Several xenophobic assaults were reported in the days after the attack. They were described as racist "hunts" and images emerged showing demonstrators chasing people and flinging bottles and fireworks.
The far-right protests, some involving thousands of people, led to violent clashes with police and counter demonstrators.
Chemnitz is a region where the AfD party and the Pegida movement are particularly strong. They deplore German Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal immigration policy.
In 2015, Chancellor Merkel decided to let in a record 890,000 asylum seekers. Syrians fleeing the civil war comprised the biggest group.
Germany's far right march en masse
Are migrants driving crime in Germany?
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
In Lebanon, the Parliament grants amnesty to the imprisoned Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Geagea was arrested since 1994. | At least one person has been killed and several others wounded in clashes that broke out in Beirut after the Lebanese parliament granted former militia leader Samir Geagea amnesty.
The violence began when sticks and rocks were used in fighting between members of the Shia Amal movement and Christian Maronite supporters of Geagea.
When gunfire broke out, Lebanese army units were deployed to the area to stop the violence. Several armed men from both sides were arrested.
Aljazeera reported that one person was killed in the clashes.
Geagea's supporters had been celebrating following the Lebanese parliament's decision to grant him an amnesty after 11 years in jail.
Lebanon's parliament had also granted amnesty to nearly three dozen Muslim militants.
Geagea, the former leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces, has been linked with some of Lebanon's most notorious civil war-era killings, including the 1987 bombing of a military helicopter that killed pro-Syrian prime minister Rashid Karami and the slaying of prominent Christian politician Danny Chamoun.
National reconciliation
Parliament voted to pardon Geagea, who has been behind bars since 1994, apparently in the spirit of national reconciliation following the withdrawal of the Syrian army and the end of Syrian domination of Lebanon.
"This national unanimity that happened today indicates the Lebanese people's will to turn the page of the war once and for all and to head toward the future," Geagea's wife, Setrida, said outside parliament after the legislature's first session since last month's elections that swept an anti-Syrian alliance into power.
It could be a week before the former militia leader is freed, after which he is expected to travel abroad to undergo medical checkups, his wife said.
Some 100 lawmakers, including Geagea's wife, voted for the amnesty motions, while about 15 legislators of Shia Muslim group Hizb Allah and their allies walked out when lawmakers began debating Geagea's case.
Hizb Allah legislator Muhammad Raad said the legislators left because of the case's political sensitivity, referring to the family of the slain Karami - including his brother and fellow former premier Omar Karami - who refuse to forgive Geagea.
Supporters celebrate
After the vote, Geagea supporters cheered outside the parliament while heavy gunfire and fireworks erupted in his northern Lebanese mountain hometown of Becharre.
Lebanese troops stood by without intervening as other supporters in cars honked horns and waved Lebanese Forces flags.
His supporters also dismantled tents set up in Beirut's central Martyrs' Square, becoming the last anti-Damascus protesters to leave the square that had became the centre of popular opposition to Syrian dominance.
In Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, protesters blocked roads with rocks and burned tires because their own jailed relatives, including drug dealers, were not covered by the amnesty, according to footage aired on Lebanese television.
Amnesty law
Syrian influence over Lebanese politics stymied past attempts to secure Geagea's pardon and the return of former foe, General Michel Aoun, from 14 years' exile in France. But Aoun returned on 7 May, less than two weeks after Syria withdrew its troops under US and UN pressure sparked by the 14 February assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.
"This national unanimity that happened today indicates the Lebanese people's will to turn the page of the war once and for all and to head toward the future" Setrida Geagea, wife of Samir GeageaPresident Emile Lahoud has to sign both amnesties and the law must be published in the official gazette, before it is enforced. The process could take up to a week. Lahoud is expected to sign the amnesty bill.
"This national unanimity that happened today indicates the Lebanese people's will to turn the page of the war once and for all and to head toward the future" Setrida Geagea, wife of Samir Geagea
The Muslim militants who were pardoned include 26 being tried on charges of involvement in clashes with soldiers in northern Lebanon that killed more than 40 people, including 11 troops, in 1999.
Seven other Muslim militants detained in September for plotting to bomb the Italian and Ukrainian embassies in Beirut, assassinate Western diplomats and attack Lebanese security facilities, were also pardoned.
Notorious leader
Geagea led the Lebanese Forces militia during the 1975-90 civil war and has spent most of the past 11 years in solitary confinement in an underground cell at the Defence Ministry.
He was arrested in 1994 and his group outlawed after a church bombing killed 10 people. He was later acquitted of the bombing but sentenced to three life terms on several other murder counts.
Druze, Muslim and Palestinian forces were all targeted by Geagea, who allied his men with the Israelis in the central mountain region during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Other attacks that Geagea has been linked to include the 1978 attack against fellow Christians in northern Lebanon that killed the son of former president Suleiman Franjieh; the 1986 military offensive that defeated his Lebanese Forces rival commander, Elie Hobeika; and the devastating 1990 war with Lebanese army units loyal to Aoun for the control of the Christian heartland.
But Geagea helped end the civil war by agreeing to the 1989 Taif Accord, an Arab-brokered power-sharing agreement with the Muslims. He disarmed his militia but later complained of being sidelined as Syria's grip tightened over Lebanon. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2005 | ['(AlJazeera)', '(Ya Libnan)', '(Newsday)'] |
Citing a drop in demand, the Dubai–based, United Arab Emirates–owned airline Emirates Air announces a cut in flights to five of its 12 U.S. destinations. The airline’s Dubai hub, third–busiest in the world, is a major stop for travelers in countries affected by President Donald Trump’s travel ban, and is also one of several Middle East airports affected by a U.S. ban on tablets, laptops, and similar devices in the passenger cabin. | Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest airline, said Wednesday that it is cutting flights to the United States because of a drop in demand caused by heightened U.S. security measures and Trump administration attempts to ban travelers from several Muslim-majority nations.
The decision by the Dubai government-owned airline is the strongest sign yet that tougher measures imposed on U.S.-bound travelers from the Middle East are taking a financial toll on fast-growing Persian Gulf carriers that have expanded rapidly in the United States in recent years.
Dubai was one of 10 cities in Muslim-majority countries affected by a ban on laptops and other personal electronics in carry-on luggage aboard U.S.-bound flights.
Emirates’ hub at Dubai International Airport, the world’s third busiest, is a major transit point for travelers who were affected by President Trump’s executive orders temporarily halting entry to citizens of six countries.
The latest travel ban suspended new visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and froze the nation’s refugee program. Like an earlier ban that also included Iraqi citizens, it has been blocked from taking effect by the courts.
Emirates said the reductions will affect five of its 12 U.S. destinations, starting next month. It called the move “a commercial decision in response to weakened travel demand” in the three months since Trump took office.
“The recent actions taken by the U.S. government relating to the issuance of entry visas, heightened security vetting, and restrictions on electronic devices in aircraft cabins, have had a direct impact on consumer interest and demand for air travel into the U.S.,” the carrier said.
Emirates did not provide financial data for its U.S. operations but said it had seen “healthy growth and performance” there until the start of the year.
But in the three months Trump has been in office, the airline said, there has been “a significant deterioration in the booking profiles on all our U.S. routes, across all travel segments.”
“Emirates has therefore responded as any profit-oriented enterprise would, and we will redeploy capacity to serve demand on other routes on our global network,” it said.
The cuts will reduce the number of U.S.-bound flights from the carrier’s Dubai hub to 101, down from 126.
Twice-daily Emirates flights to Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston will be reduced to once a day. Daily flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla., will be pared down to five a week.
Like its smaller Persian Gulf rivals Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, Emirates has ramped up its U.S. presence in recent years and recently launched a new service to Newark, N.J., via Athens.
Several big U.S. carriers have bristled at the Persian Gulf airlines’ American push, accusing them of flooding the market with capacity while receiving billions of dollars of unfair government subsidies. The Persian Gulf airlines deny the allegations.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines both stopped flying to Dubai last year, leaving Emirates as the only carrier to offer direct U.S. flights to what has become the world’s busiest airport for international traffic.
| Government Policy Changes | April 2017 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
A fire destroys a home on Clivus Drive in Nevada County, California, killing two dogs and several cats, and leaving a resident with second–degree burns, prompting officials to close Highway 49. | Local-news | Flames destroyed a south Nevada County family’s house, claimed countless antiques, and killed many of their pets after a wicked chain of events that started with a motor home fire Friday.
Highway 49 was closed for two hours as firefighters battled the fires.
“I must’ve had 200 boxes full of stuff,” said Louanne Witt, the owner of Antique Palace in downtown Grass Valley.
Firefighters were mopping up the scene when Witt and her 19-year-old daughter, Lindsay, arrived at their address, 21098 Clivus Road. In addition to the antiques, they lost two dogs, many of their 20-plus cats, and a vehicle.
The sequence unfolded quickly at about 3:20 p.m. on Highway 49 near Clivus Drive, where 79-year-old Donald Williams stopped his motor home on the southbound shoulder after it caught fire, according to firefighters.
Williams suffered second-degree burns to his lower legs after briefly trying to fight the fire, according to the California Highway Patrol. Williams went by ambulance to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Fire spread to grass on the west side of the highway, then shot to the east after a propane tank in the motor home sprayed 50-foot flames.
“I’m lucky it didn’t blow toward me,” said Higgins Fire Capt. Jerry Good, the first firefighter on the scene.
“It burst into flames,” neighbor Tracie O’Connell said of the motor home. “Within three minutes, it started exploding. It could’ve been the propane.”
Once on the highway’s east side, flames marched two acres up a slope of thick grass though Witt’s backyard and swallowed a Monterey pine next to her house.
Montereys “are just like torches. They just go up,” said Battalion Chief Rob Paulus of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “Basically, the fire just swept up the slope.”
With Witt’s house quickly a lost cause, O’Connell and her parents, Nancy and Jack Spann, also neighbors, raced to the house next door, owned by U.S. Forest Service Battalion Chief Gary Fildes, and sprayed it with garden hoses.
Nancy Spann saved about a half-dozen of Witt’s cats, and one bit her on the lower lip. Her hair was doused with red retardant from an air tanker.
“I was glad to see the retardant,” Spann said with a relieved smile.
Firefighters called the incident a comparison study in home fire protection. Witt’s house was surrounded by tall grass and thick brush, while Fildes’ house had shorter grass, a rock wall and cement patio close to the house.
“Basically, the difference between her house and mine is that I had clearance around mine,” said Fildes, who listened to radio traffic while at his job and increasingly wondered about the proximity of his own house.
“Finally, one of my bosses said, ‘Why don’t you go home and see?'”
Witt learned about it from one of her shop employees. She can’t begin to estimate the value of the lost antiques.
“A lot of it was my mother’s, my grandmother’s and my great-grandmother’s,” she said.
Witt wasn’t sure how many of her cats died. About half lived inside, along with her dogs, she said. Some of the cats had been strays.
“They adopted me. I put the food out, and they came,” she said.
Witt said her family has another home in Auburn, which is where they’ll stay.
Crews were still at the scene at 8 p.m. Besides CDF and Higgins, firefighters from Nevada County Consolidated, Grass Valley, Penn Valley and a Shasta/Trinity CDF unit responded, along with Red Cross volunteers.
– Reporter Grace Karpa contributed to this report
| Fire | September 2002 | ['(The Union)'] |
21st Century Fox announced that the head of Fox News, Roger Ailes, is resigning. Rupert Murdoch will replace him as interim Chief Executive and Chairman. | Ailes' departure is effective immediately. Rupert Murdoch, the 85-year-old patriarch of parent company 21st Century Fox, is now the channel's chairman and acting CEO. Ailes, 76, one of the most powerful men in the media business, was thought to be untouchable until two weeks ago, when ex-anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against him. Within days, other women also came forward with similar accounts of harassment. Some of the allegations dated back to the 1960s; others were much more recent. Fox's 9 p.m. host Megyn Kelly told investigators that Ailes harassed her a decade ago. Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan, who jointly run the company, pressured Ailes to resign. Firing him outright was another option. After Ailes' resignation was announced, Carlson's lawyers released a statement saying, "Gretchen Carlson's extraordinary courage has caused a seismic shift in the media world. We hope that all businesses now understand that women will no longer tolerate sexual harassment and reputable companies will no longer shield those who abuse women... We will have more to say in coming days as events unfold." Ailes may also have more to say. He has repeatedly denied the harassment charges. Related: Roger Ailes, exit on the right In a letter to Murdoch, he initially said "I am proud of our accomplishments and look forward to continuing to work with you as a consultant in building 21st Century Fox." However, a corporate source said that "consultant" is not an accurate word for what Ailes will be doing. Ailes will simply "be available to advise Rupert during the transition," the source said. The letter was revised to replace "consultant" with "adviser." Fox News staffers expressed astonishment about the sequence of events. Some said they believed that Ailes' exit was a power play by the Murdoch sons, who are said to dislike Ailes. If that's what it was, it worked. Shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch held a conference call with top Fox employees -- many of whom are in Cleveland covering the Republican National Convention -- to address the news. Sources on the call said that Rupert expressed sadness about Ailes' departure but encouraged the staff to stay focused on the work in front of them. "The call felt like part funeral and part pep talk," Bret Baier, one of the network's lead anchors, said. "It is a sad day, but we have a lot of work to do tonight." Some staffers described feeling sadness at the sudden exit of the man who had shaped so many of their careers. "I can only speak for my relationship with Roger. I don't know about all the allegations. I only know -- and would like to focus on -- the Roger I know," Baier continued. "A man who was kind to me and my family and was a television genius." For others, especially some female employees, there was anger at the fact that Ailes will continue to serve as an adviser and be paid by 21st Century Fox. One source said women were relieved that Ailes had been removed. Ailes will receive in excess of $40 million, which accounts for the remainder he is owed under the terms of his multi-year contract with Fox. Related: Fox without the $2.3 billion man will be a challenge Insiders have speculated that Ailes could jump to a rival channel, but the corporate source said the exit deal includes a non-compete clause that would precludes such a move for an extended period of time. Another option for Ailes -- once a feared Republican political consultant -- is a return to the political arena. He has had a friendly relationship with the GOP nominee Donald Trump for decades. The two men have been counseling each other by phone in recent days. Trump, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on Ailes on Thursday. Ailes has had health problems in recent years, which may affect his decisions about what to do next. Ailes is revered by some and reviled by others. Through Fox News, he reshaped American television news and Republican politics simultaneously. Murdoch tapped Ailes to create and run the network in 1996, ushering in a controversial new era in cable news. By hiring hosts like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and enforcing a conservative editorial point of view, Ailes developed a virtual public square for the American right and filled a void on television. It has dominated all other cable news channels for 14 years. The channel claimed to be "fair and balanced," but in reality its programming was tilted in favor of conservative opinions and Republican politics, reflecting the views of Ailes himself. Fox mixed daily news reporting and nightly conservative opinion in ways that many critics found to be damaging to American discourse. But Fox's many fans said it was a necessary counterweight to liberal media bias. Within six years, Fox came to dominate cable news ratings, dethroning CNN, and it has been a wildly successful business, with annual profits believed to exceed $1 billion. Last year Fox News was the number two channel on cable, behind only ESPN. Ailes was admired and envied for his talent management skills. But in recent weeks some women have described a darker side. On the day Carlson sued, the Murdochs decided to conduct an internal review of the allegations. An outside law firm interviewed present and past Fox employees. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that at least six other women told the lawyers that Ailes had behaved inappropriately toward them. And on Thursday, Carlson's lawyers released a statement saying that they had received accusations of sexual harassment against Ailes from "more than 20 women." The claims could not be independently verified. After being briefed on the initial findings from the investigation, the Murdochs concluded that Ailes must leave. Exit talks then began. Rupert Murdoch was on vacation, but flew back to New York early to participate in the talks. The drama at the network unfolded even as Fox was having its highest-rated year ever, and was three months away from the 20th anniversary of the channel's launch. Maybe that's a convenient time for a change in leadership -- or maybe not. The succession plan is unclear. The corporate source said Rupert would be acting CEO for a period of "months." But high-ranking sources at the network said they believed that actual day-to-day operations would be run by Bill Shine, the head of primetime and opinion programming, and Jay Wallace, who oversees daytime and news programming, while Murdoch makes some important calls from the top job. Shine and Wallace were already running things day-to-day as negotiations picked up around Ailes' departure. Both men are in the running to replace Ailes, and have guided the network in the past when Ailes was absent. There are conflicting reports about whether a talent "walkout" is possible in the wake of Ailes' departure. Fox's biggest stars, like O'Reilly and Baier, have something called a "key man clause" in their contracts, allowing them to leave the network if a key executive, in this case Ailes, leaves. One of the allegedly rebellious hosts told CNNMoney on Wednesday that, contrary to a report on Breitbart News, there is no organized exodus in the works. But another one of the hosts left the door open. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2016 | ['(Mediaite)', '(CNN)', '(New York Post)'] |
United States Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says the U.S. will begin "direct action on the ground" against the ISIL forces in Iraq and Syria, aiming to intensify pressure on the militants as progress against the militants remains elusive. The U.S. has done some special operations raids in Syria, e.g., last week's rescue operation with Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to free hostages held by ISIL. Carter also said the U.S. would intensify the air campaign against ISIL with heavier airstrikes and will focus on Raqqa, the group's declared capital in Syria. | Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday that the U.S. plans to step up its attacks againstIslamic State in Iraq and the Levant(ISIL) fighters in Iraq and Syria, possibly escalating American action on the ground.
"We won't hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or conducting such missions directly whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground," Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The U.S. has done some special operations raids in Syria. Carter did not say under what circumstances the U.S. might act on the ground on its own, but said "once we locate them, no target is beyond our reach."
Pentagon said operation was launched at the behest of Kurdish fighters and freed 70 people from ISIL captivity in Iraq
Carter's testimony described a changing approach to the fight against ISIL, focusing largely on Raqqa, the group's declared capital in Syria, and Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq. It reflected an acknowledgment of little recent progress in defeating the armed group.
Carter said the U.S. would intensifythe air campaign against ISILwith additional U.S. and coalition aircraft and heavier airstrikes. His testimony came asRussia is conducting its own airstrikesin Syria, saying it aims to help the Syrian government defeat ISIL and other armed groups.
Whileboth the U.S. and Russia oppose ISIL, Russia is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom the U.S. wants out of power. Some Republican lawmakers complained that the Obama administration isn't doing enough against Assad.
Carter said the U.S.-led effort will include more strikes against ISIL's “high-value targets as our intelligence improves, and also its oil enterprise, which is a critical pillar of IS's financial infrastructure.” IS, which stands for Islamic State, is another common acronym for the armed group.
Carter said to keep up the pressure on Raqqa, the U.S. will support moderate Syrian forces, who have made territorial gains against ISIL near that city. “Some of them are within 30 miles of Raqqa today,” he said.
He said the U.S. also hopes to better equip Arab forces battling ISIL and to further bolster Jordan, a neighbor of Iraq and Syria, which is flying missions as part of the anti-ISIL coalition.
Carter said he was disappointed that the U.S. effort to form new moderate Syrian rebel forces to fight ISIL had failed. He said the new approach is to work with vetted leaders of groups that are already fighting the armed group and also give them equipment and training and help support them with U.S. air power.
“If done in concert as we intend, all these actions on the ground and from the air should help shrink ISIL territory into a smaller and smaller area and create new opportunities for targeting ISIL ultimately denying this evil movement any safe haven in its supposed heartland,” Carter said.
The new strategy also includes helping the Iraqi government's effort to assemble Iraqi forces, including Sunni fighters, to fight ISIL fighters in Anbar province. Carter said that as the U.S. sees more progress in assembling motivated Iraqi forces, it will be willing to continue providing more equipment and fire support to help them succeed.
“However, the Iraqi government and security forces will have to take certain steps militarily to make sure progress sticks,” he said.
Carter's outline of the new U.S. approach came under attack by Republicans on the committee.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pressed both Carter and Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on whether the U.S. has a military strategy to take out the Syrian president. Graham noted that Russian, Iranian and the Hezbollah armed group all are supporting Assad. Carter and Dunford both repeatedly said that the U.S. was supporting moderate forces in Syria in the fight against ISIL, but not those fighting against Assad.
Carter said the U.S. approach to removing Assad has been mostly a political effort.
Dunford said, “I think the balance of forces right now are in Assad's advantage.”
Graham seized on their replies, saying Assad is “secure as the day is long.”
“If I'm Assad this is a good day for me because the American government has just said, without saying it, that they are not going to fight to replace me,” Graham said.
“You have turned Syria over to Russia and Iran. … This is a sad day for America and the region will pay hell for this,” he said. “The Arabs are not going to accept this. The people of Syria are not going to accept this.”
The Associated Press
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US informed Syria in advance of strikes, which a monitoring group says has killed or wounded at least 20 ISIL fighters
Moscow says its actions are targeting ISIL, but US says armed group not present where strikes were directed Obama and Putin sit down to discuss Syrian strategies. Jamie McIntyre reports from the Pentagon
The monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said unidentified warplanes hit a motorcade in Hama province
New PM says he has informed Obama of withdrawal but provided no timeline
Former prime minister acknowledges mistakes made during Iraq War led to the rise of armed group ISIL | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(NBC News)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(AP via Boston Globe)'] |
In Uganda, thousands of Muslims demonstrate in the capital Kampala against the Domestic Relations Bill that would, among other things, limit polygamy. (New Vision, Uganda), , , | Muslims in Demo Over Domestic Relations Bill
Thousands of Muslims from various parts of the country yesterday poured
onto Kampala streets to protest against a Bill that proposes to outlaw
polygamy.
About 7,000 demonstrators, according to police estimates, marched
through the city centre carrying branches, placards and banners opposing
sections of the Domestic Relations Bill. The Bill is before Parliament.
NO NO NO: The Mufti Sheikh Ramadhan Mubajje (with flag) flagging off the
demonstrators at Old Kampala Mosque (Photo by Wandera w'Ouma).
The demonstrators included veiled women, young and old, wearing hijab,
the traditional Islamic dress, who led the men clad in Islamic cloaks
chanting Allah Akbar (God is Great).
The Muslims say the Bill is aimed at forcing them to follow Christian
laws, by stopping polygamy, and forms of marriage allowed in Islam.
The Uganda Human Rights Commission last month asked Parliament to outlaw
polygamy, saying it undermines the dignity of women and the welfare of the
family.
Yesterday's demonstrators flashed the four-finger sign and chanted "four
to one." The Quran permits four women for every man.
They first converged at the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC)
headquarters at Old Kampala as early as 8 am before the Mufti, Sheikh Shaban
Ramadhan Mubajje, flagged them off at 11.30 am.
Security personnel in civilian clothes and a few baton wielding
uniformed police guided the demo. Some of the placards read: "We don't
accept the interference with the Holy Quran"; "Marry women of your choice
two, three or four and lastly one."
Others read: "Ugandan Women condemn the Domestic Relations Bill"; "Don't
force us to become terrorists"; "Dare not tamper with our Constitution - The
Quran." "We shall die for our Quran"; Jihad has arrived in Uganda"; "Leave
Islam alone or we declare a Jihad against you."
Mubajje called upon every Muslim in the country to stick to the rules as
they are written in the Quran. "The Quran caters for every aspect of
marriage, children and relationship. There is no need of making another law
for Muslims," he said.
"Muslims give birth to many children. I repeat, give birth to as many
children as you can to increase our (Muslim) population," he added. He
reminded the Muslims that they constitute only 12 percent of Uganda's
population.
"The Quran stipulates very well everything in marriage. A man can marry
women depending on his ability to maintain and sustain the relationship," he
said.
In a rare occasion, the mainstream Muslims united with Tabliqs and
Mubajje handed the green Muslim flag to the Tabliq sect leader, Sheikh Jamil
Kakeeto and the Director of Sharia at the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council,
Sheikh Hussein Rajab Kakooza, to lead the procession through the city to
Parliament.
At Parliament, the chairman of the parliamentary Islamic caucus and
Butambala county MP, Kaddunabbi Ibrahim Lubega, led a ten-member delegation
into the Deputy Speaker's chambers where they presented their memorandum to
Ms Rebecca Kadaga.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2005 | ['(AllAfrica)', '(BBC)'] |
A 6.8 earthquake strikes off the coast of Mindanao, Philippines triggering tsunami warnings. | A strong earthquake measuring 6.8 struck off the coast of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines on Saturday, the country's seismology agency said, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was a risk of large waves as far away as Indonesia,.
The Philippines Institute of volcanology and seismology said the earthquake was about 57 km southwest of Sarangani. It was felt in most parts of Mindanao, the biggest island in the south of the archipelago nation.
There were no initial reports of damage or casualties.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said hazardous waves could spread 300 km (190 miles) away from the epicentre.
But Renato Solidum, head of the Philippines seismology agency, told Reuters no tsunami warning was issued and there was no need to evacuate the areas affected.
But the agency had issued an advisory saying people could expect a minor drop in the sea level, large waves, and people should steer clear of the coast, he said.
The Philippines is on the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire and experiences frequent earthquakes, several last month in the main island of Luzon, which were felt in the capital Manila.
Janet Bongolan, tourism officer at the Tuka Marine Park in Sarangani province, said people spilled out of their homes and into the streets during the earthquake, but most had returned and there was no sign of panic.
"There's no news here that there will be a tsunami. But we are watching out for aftershocks. We are careful here," she said by telephone.
Harry Camoro, a disaster official in Davao province, said people on the coast saw the waterline receding before retuning to normal.
"It was strong enough to awaken me and my family," he told a radio interview.
The U.S Geological Survey initially said the quake measured 7.2 but later downgraded it to 6.8.
| Earthquakes | April 2017 | ['(The Telegraph)'] |
At least 17 people are killed and 45 injured in an attack on two churches in the eastern Kenyan town of Garissa. | Fifteen people have been killed in attacks on churches in the Kenyan town of Garissa near Somalia, say the Kenyan Red Cross and a medical official.
Regional deputy police chief Philip Ndolo said balaclava-clad "goons" attacked the town's Catholic church and the African Inland Church (AIC). A combination of grenades and gunfire was used, police said.
Kenya's border region has been tense since it sent troops into Somalia to pursue al-Shabab Islamic militants.
Kenya said the operations, launched last October, were designed to bring an end to kidnappings on Kenyan soil and other violence which it blamed on al-Shabab.
But since then, al-Shabab has been blamed for a further string of grenade and bomb blasts across Kenya - though it has never admitted to carrying out any such attack on Kenyan territory. No group has yet said it carried out these latest attacks, but the finger of blame will once again undoubtedly be pointed at al-Shabab or sympathisers, says the BBC's Kevin Mwachiro in Nairobi.
"We condemn this act in the strongest terms possible," Mr Ndolo said.
The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims also condemned Sunday's church attacks, saying that "all places of worship must be respected", reported the AFP news agency.
Sunday's attacks took place during morning sermons at the churches in the garrison town. The Provincial Medical Officer for North Eastern Province in Kenya, Mahamad Abey Shekh, said 15 people had been killed.
About 40 were thought to be wounded, several in serious condition.
The first and most serious attack took place at the AIC, police told our correspondent.
Gunmen shot two policemen outside one of the churches, and grenades were then thrown inside. As the panicked congregation rushed to escape, gunmen fired on them, police said. At least 10 people died.
In the second - apparently co-ordinated - attack at a Catholic church, two grenades were thrown inside the church. One failed to go off, but police say three people were injured by the other one.
Police said up to seven gunmen were involved in the attacks, but none had been apprehended.
Witnesses told AFP that bodies lay scattered in the blood-spattered churches as scores of wounded were rushed to hospital.
"It is a terrible scene, you can see bodies lying in the churches," regional police chief Leo Nyongesa told the agency.
"You can imagine for such a small town how the police and medical services have been stretched trying to deal with this," Mr Ndolo told Reuters news agency.
Garissa is the capital of North Eastern province, about 140km (90 miles) from the Somali border.
It is close to the Dadaab refugee camp, where gunmen kidnapped four aid workers and killed a driver on Friday in an attack Mr Ndolo said he suspected al-Shabab sympathisers of carrying out.
These two incidents have not painted a good picture of the efficacy of Kenyan security forces, our correspondent says.
Troops are supposed to have secured the Kenya-Somali border and frontier towns, but this does not seem to be happening, he adds. | Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(MSNBC)'] |
In the second round run-off to select the Socialist Party's candidate in this year's spring presidential election, the leftist candidate, former Minister of National Education Benoît Hamon, topped former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, a centrist, with 58.65 percent of the vote. | French voters on Sunday were electing the Socialist candidate who will face a tough battle against rivals from the far-left, far-right and the political center in the presidential election this spring.
The Socialist primary runoff offered a stark choice between two candidates — Benoit Hamon and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls — on opposite poles of the beleaguered party, with sharply different plans for France.
With a headline-grabbing proposal to pay all French adults a modest monthly stipend, Hamon, 49, emerged from obscurity on the Socialist left to win the primary's first round against six other candidates last weekend.
Casting his ballot Sunday in Trappes, the blue-collar town west of Paris where he is the elected lawmaker, Hamon expressed hope for high voter participation. Voting in Evry, south of Paris, Valls echoed that call. The primary was open to all voters who paid 1 euro ($1.04) and signed a document saying they share the left's values.
A more robust turnout than the anemic 1.6 million votes cast in the first round of the primary would help bolster the legitimacy of the runoff winner entering a potentially bruising campaign.
In the sometimes testy primary campaign, Valls, 54, emphasized his experience in government. As prime minister from 2014 to 2016, he was on the front lines of France's response to gun and suicide-bomb attacks that killed 147 people in Paris in January and November 2015. He was also in office in July 2016 when a man drove a truck into crowds in Nice, killing 86 people.
Casting his ballot for Valls in a gymnasium two blocks from the presidential Elysee Palace, voter Jean-Pierre Abehassera said the ex-prime minister offered a stronger bulwark against militant Islam than Hamon. The 69-year-old web publisher lost a friend in the November 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 died.
"The No. 1 problem is security," Abehassera said.
But Valls' close association with chronically unpopular President Francois Hollande, who isn't seeking a second five-year term, has made him vulnerable in a race against Hamon, who quit Hollande's government in 2014 amid infighting over economic policies.
Hamon, a former junior minister and briefly Valls' education minister, picked up backing from Arnaud Montebourg, another Socialist left-wing rebel who defied Hollande. The 290,000 votes the former economy minister received in the primary's first round were expected to help Hamon defeat Valls in the runoff.
Hamon's signature proposal is for a 750 euros ($800) "universal income" that would be gradually granted to all adults. Valls sharply criticized the idea as unrealistic and ruinous, both for France and the Socialist Party's credibility. Hamon also proposes legalizing cannabis and allowing medically assisted deaths.
Voting for the first time, student Maayane Pralus, 18, backed Hamon, saying: "He has a lot of the youth vote with him, which is sick of the old politics."
"People call him utopian, but that's the politics we've been waiting for," she said.
The presidential race was rocked this week by ethics questions faced by conservative candidate Francois Fillon, a former prime minister. Financial prosecutors are investigating an allegedly fake but handsomely paid job as a parliamentary aide held by this wife, Penelope.
She appeared at his side and was given a standing ovation during a boisterous rally in Paris on Sunday to bolster his troubled campaign, where supporters chanted her name and "Fillon, president!"
"Through Penelope they are trying to break me," he said. "I will never forgive those who chose to throw us to the wolves."
The first order of business for Sunday's winner will be trying to unite the Socialist family that has been torn for years between advocates of a radical left, including Hamon and Montebourg, and party members with center-left views, like Valls and Hollande.
"It's always been hard to unite the left," Hamon said as he voted.
Divisions are so deep that some of Valls' support is expected to shift to centrist Emmanuel Macron, running for president as an independent, if Hamon wins the Socialist ticket.
In such a complex political landscape, some voters cast ballots strategically. Bernard Biassette, 74, a retired bank worker, voted for Hamon only to eliminate Valls, whom he saw as a greater threat to his preferred presidential candidate — Macron.
Hamon "is throwing money out of the window," Biassette said. "He's not a serious candidate."
Early polling has suggested that the Socialist nominee will struggle to advance from the presidential election first-round in April to qualify for the runoff in May. Macron, Hollande's former economy minister, and fiery far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon are squeezing the Socialists from both sides.
But Fillon's legal problems have thrown a cloud of uncertainty over expectations of a two-horse race between him and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
"I still think he is the best candidate for France, to help us get out of the crisis and reduce unemployment," said Laurence Benoist, who was among the 15,000 people Fillon said attended his rally.
Despite being "a bit surprised, a bit upset" by the allegations against Penelope Fillon, Benoist, 43, added: "I still believe he is sincere when he says he tells the truth about France's situation". | Government Job change - Election | January 2017 | ['(ABC News)', '(Yahoo! News)'] |
Cuba approves its first animal welfare law after pressure from animal rights movement groups. The decree will regulate scientific experiments on animals, the handling of stray cats and dogs, and veterinarian practices in the country. Some civil society groups say the decree doesn't go far enough, as it doesn't outlaw animal sacrifice or cockfighting. | HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba has approved a long called-for decree on animal welfare in what some rights activists are hailing as an unusual triumph of civil society in the Communist-run country where animal sacrifice and cock and dog fighting remain commonplace.
The move aims to prevent cruelty and raise awareness about the need to protect animals, marking a cultural advance in a nation where strays abound and the coast is strewn with chicken carcasses sacrificed in religious rituals.
Although details remain scarce, the new legislation will become clear within 90 days when it is published in the Official Gazette.
“Cuba was one of the few countries in Latin America that didn’t have an animal welfare law so to have one now is an immense joy,” Fernando Gispert, President of the Havana branch of the Cuban Association of Veterinary Medicine.
The Agriculture Ministry said the decree, which regulates scientific experiments, the handling of strays and veterinarian practices amongst other matters, responded to concerns aired in a nationwide debate over the new constitution three years ago.
For decades though, animal rights activists have called for legislation on animal welfare, largely through official channels in the one-party state where public dissent is frowned upon.
In recent years, frustrated with the slow pace of change, a younger generation has opted to exert pressure on authorities with marches, protests in public spaces and social media campaigns.
“This has set an example for all communities that want their voice to be heard,” said Beatriz Batista, 23, who has become one of the leaders of the movement. “You have to pressure, pressure.”
The approval of the decree underscores the extent to which Cuban civil society has strengthened of late, particularly thanks to the rollout of internet which has increased the flow of information and allowed citizens to better mobilize, analysts say.
In a country where demanding anything of the government outside official channels is frowned upon as weakening the common front against old Cold War foe the United States, it is unsurprising that a topic not deemed to be particularly sensitive should be the one to galvanize many Cubans, they say.
“While important, this decree law is a relatively low hanging fruit that both the government and civil society activists can celebrate as having picked in a tense collaboration/standoff,” said Cuba expert Ted Henken at Baruch College in New York.
The growing voice of activists has led to a proliferation of citizen initiatives to rescue and sterilize strays and to clean the coasts and river beds of the remains of animal sacrifices.
“We are fighting for dead animals not to be left out in public spaces,” said José Manuel Pérez, president of the officially recognized Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba.
Perez said the blood of sacrificed animals had spiritual significance and sacrifices had increased of late due to a growth in believers but also due to malpractice.
The ministry said in a statement on its website that sacrifices would not be outlawed but the decree would stipulate they be conducted in a “compassionate and rapid manner, avoiding pain and stress,” establishing some broad criteria.
Supporters of cock fighting, often hosted in official arenas, say it is part of Cuban, and more broadly Caribbean, culture. Activists say it should at the very least be strictly regulated to avoid unnecessary cruelty.
To those worrying the decree may not be far-reaching enough, Cuban independent journalist Monica Baro said in a widely shared Facebook post: “It is better to have a minimal framework of legal protection than nothing.”
Reporting by Nelson Acosta and Reuters TV; Writing by Sarah Marsh; editing by Diane Craft
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. | Government Policy Changes | February 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A fire destroys 20 homes on the Yakama Indian Reservation in the US state of Washington. | WHITE SWAN, Wash. — This small enclave west of Toppenish became a war zone Saturday, shut off from the rest of the Valley as firefighters from across the area battled wind-whipped blazes that Yakama Nation tribal authorities said had consumed 20 homes as of early evening.
With all entrances to White Swan blocked by emergency personnel and electrical power out, the only light was flames from burning structures and a log stack at the Jeld-Wen wood-chipping plant west of the community. That blaze could be seen for miles.
The fires raged as trees and power lines fell in winds that gusted to more than 50 mph, with intermittent rain falling and dust and debris swirling across streets.
"There are a lot of spot fires. We have a hazardous, dangerous situation here," said Harry Smiskin, chairman of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council, who was on the scene monitoring the fires.
East Valley Fire Chief George Spencer, tabbed as public information officer for the blaze, said firefighters were attempting to keep the flames from reaching the east side of Curtis Street, which bisects White Swan north to south.
As of 8:30 p.m., Spencer said authorities were optimistic they would be able to hold that line. He said they had begun to gain the upper hand.
"I think we have enough resources to keep up with it," he said from a command post established at the White Swan fire station.
One firefighter was slightly injured when he was struck in an eye by debris.
An initial report to Yakima County Fire District 5 was called in at 1:37 p.m. about a chimney fire at 131 Hitchcock Lane, which is west of White Swan.
Jennifer Weisbacker, of 160 Hitchcock Lane, said in a phone interview that firefighters who "are here are trying their best to keep everything in control but there’s not much they can do because of the wind."
Weisbacker, 62, said her home did not catch fire because winds blew the flames in the opposite direction.
Embers whipped by high winds moved to the Jeld-Wen log stacks and through dry brush into White Swan, where homes were ignited. Flames took down power poles, and a downed power line lay across West White Swan Road.
Flames quickly consumed homes on Coburn Loop Road as well as houses on First and Second streets.
On Second Street, longtime homeowner Rodney Martin, 45, watched as his home went up in flames.
"I saw the fire across the street. I ran to see it," said Martin, his face streaked with soot. "It came so fast. All the houses on Second Street are gone."
Martin said he tried to wet down the front of his home with a hose, but it was too late.
"It overtook me," said Martin, who is to celebrate his 22nd wedding anniversary in a few days.
He said he could stay with relatives.
Faron Young, manager of the White Swan Trading Post, 160 Birch Ave., said fire officials ordered the business to close about 3 p.m.
"There are lots of little fires out there," he said. "I know the fire department came and shut down the store and told everybody to leave."
Cheryl Hart, 54, never did reach her home. Shopping in Yakima, she said she and her sister saw the smoke from just south of Union Gap.
Hart was stopped fromentering the community and was told her house on Maple Street had been destroyed. She wasn’t sure what happened to her two dogs and a cat.
"This is the first house fire we have ever had. I consider myself lucky," the 54-year-old Hart said in a telephone interview.
She was at Harrah Elementary School, where the American Red Cross had established a shelter for fire victims.
"I feel for the other people because they lost a lot of stuff. I’m worried about my two dogs and my cat. I don’t know what happened to them." Hart said.
Authorities instituted a voluntary evacuation, first establishing the White Swan Longhouse as a shelter. But the site had to be moved when the power went out.
Smiskin said tribal officials were opening the Toppenish Longhouse and the Toppenish Community Center to assist victims of the fire.
With a huge commitment of fire apparatus from throughout the Yakima Valley, Smiskin said he is contacting the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide additional fire equipment and personnel.
Stephanie Hakala, a spokeswoman for the Yakima Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, said chapter representatives were preparing to have enough food to feed firefighters and the displaced residents of White Swan, which has a population within and around the unincorporated community of about 3,200.
Spencer said fire crews would remain on the fire lines throughout the night. More crews are being prepared to take over the battle at 7 a.m. He said it wasn’t certain whether help would be sought from outside Yakima County.
Firefighters from stations in Fire District 5, which covers the entire Lower Valley, as well as Yakima, Selah, West Valley, East Valley, and other fire departments were on the scene.
"If people want to do something, they can say a prayer to have the winds die down," Spencer said.
| Fire | February 2011 | ['(Yakima Herald)'] |
North Korean officials attend a rare meeting with members of the American–led United Nations Command. | Colonels from North Korea and the US have met under UN auspices for a third round of talks.
The talks with the US-led UN Command follow a large-scale military exercise by US and South Korean troops.
China also carried out live-fire naval drills this week, state media report, while South Korea plans its own anti-submarine drill next week.
Tensions have been high on the Korean peninsula since the North was accused of torpedoing a South Korean warship.
The Cheonan sank on 26 March with the loss of 46 South Korean lives.
The US-South Korean military exercise was a four-day naval and air operation in the seas around the Korean peninsula, described as the first of a series.
It had prompted strong denunciations from Pyongyang, which had threatened to unleash nuclear retaliation if the exercises went ahead.
Instead, the UN Command talks took place at the Panmunjom border village as scheduled.
North Korea has strongly denied any role in the sinking of the Cheonan but agreed to hold tension-reducing talks under the UN Command.
These talks are intended to set up higher-level consultations. When the talks were last held on July 23, the two sides discussed forming a joint group to assess the circumstances of, and evidence on, the sinking.
The UN Command has been based in the South since the end of the 1950-53 war to enforce the armistice which ended the conflict.
There are about 28,500 US troops based in South Korea.
China, which has heavily criticised the US-South Korean exercises, said on Thursday that it too had carried out live-fire naval and aviation drills. The exercises, involving precision strike training, were carried out on 26 July in the South China Sea, the Xinhua news agency reports. Kim ready for 'dialogue and confrontation' with US | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Samaylive)'] |
Uruguay holds the second round of the 2019 presidential election. | Conservative Luis Lacalle Pou has led opinion polls against rival Daniel Martinez after striking key coalition deals.
Voters in Uruguay are heading to the polls in a presidential election that appears likely to sweep the right-leaning opposition into power and end the centre-left’s 15-year rule.
In the lead-up to Sunday’s vote, conservative opposition candidate Luis Lacalle Pou led the opinion polls against ruling party candidate Daniel Martinez after striking key coalition deals following a first-round vote in October.
Those alliances with mostly conservative parties might prove key – Lacalle Pou came second in the October 27 poll with around 29 percent of the vote, behind Martinez’s Broad Front with 39 percent.
The polling stations will open at 8am (11:00 GMT) and close at 19:30 (22:30 GMT). Some 2.6 million voters are eligible to vote.
The next president will take office in March for five years.
The Broad Front, a coalition of leftist movements, can point to a record of progressive government since it broke a decades-long conservative stranglehold in 2005.
Uruguay stood out on the international stage by approving abortion and gay marriage, as well as pioneering the legalisation of cannabis in 2013.
But Lacalle Pau has tapped in to voter concerns over the country’s high tax rates, promising to look elsewhere to raise the $900m needed to reduce the public deficit, nearly five percent of GDP.
“Uruguay can’t bear any more taxes,” he told supporters.
Security has also declined, with a sharp rise in some violent crimes reported last year.
In 2018, South America’s second-smallest country registered a record 414 murders, up 45 percent on the year before.
“Lacalle is the president who can improve the country, change what Broad Front did wrong economically and especially security,” said Mariela Barcia, a 51-year-old teacher who voted for the conservative candidate in October.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2019 | ['(Aljazeera)'] |
The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow reopens following a six–year renovation which has restored it to its pre–revolution state. | It has been a renovation marred by endless delays and allegations of corruption, but on Friday the Bolshoi theatre finally opens its doors after a six-year overhaul to restore it to its pre-Soviet glory.
The grand theatre in Moscow, stripped of much of its opulence in Soviet times, now stands bathed in red Italian fabric and newly gilded mouldings, harking back to its tsarist-era splendour. But the most important changes are those unseen – namely, an overhaul of the theatre's acoustics, which were severely damaged during ill-planned Soviet-era changes.
"This pushed the theatre below the 50th position in the world opera house rankings. Now we've returned to the theatre its original 19th-century acoustics," said Mikhail Sidorov, a spokesperson for Summa, the company in charge of the renovation since 2009.
Russia's ruling duo, President Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin, will preside over a grand invitation-only gala at the theatre on Friday. Details of everything from guests to the performance have been kept secret. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is among the rumoured guests, while foreign opera stars from Placido Domingo to Natalie Dessay and Violeta Urmana are expected to perform.
"This will be a truly national celebration," the Bolshoi's general director, Anatoly Iksanov, said.
The opening performance will be aired in cinemas around the world, and live on Russian state-run television and YouTube. The theatre will set up screens outside its renovated facade for those Russians unable to snag a Kremlin invite to the exclusive event.
The Bolshoi's history encapsulates Russia's troubled past.
The theatre was founded by Catherine the Great in 1776, and its current home was built in 1825 after fire gutted a previous site. Two more fires would damage the building later in the 19th century. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Modest Mussorgsky held premieres there, creating its reputation as one of the world's leading cultural jewels.
Then came the Soviet era. With culture given the mission of promoting national glory, the Bolshoi's ballet troupe flourished, producing stars like Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya. The building was hit by a bomb during the second world war, but quickly repaired.
More damaging were the changes implemented by the Bolshoi's Soviet overlords, who also used the theatre to officially confirm the creation of the Soviet Union, host party congresses and announce important events like the death of Vladimir Lenin.
Like so many opulent tsarist-era buildings, the Bolshoi was stripped of its gold in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution. The loss of the sound-reflecting decoration harmed the theatre's acoustics, which were further degraded by a decision to fill the hollow underneath the orchestra with cement, as it was seen as "impractical".
Decades of neglect followed and when the theatre was shut in July 2005 for its biggest renovation in 150 years, it was on the verge of collapse.
"By the time we closed the theatre for renovation, there was a 70% chance of the building collapsing," said Iksanov. "We had reached a critical point."
More than 3,600 engineers, designers, construction workers and artists were called in to work on the renovation. The theatre now boasts a modern stage and changeable floor – with a sound-absorbing coating for ballet performances, and a sound-reflecting one for opera. The Soviets, in a populist move, had expanded the number of seats from 1,720 to 2,200. The new theatre boasts the original design, with larger chairs outfitted in Italian fabric designed to enhance the acoustics.
"When I walked in, I stopped and couldn't believe what was happening," Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi's ballet troupe, told Russian television this week. "I felt nothing but admiration."
The theatre was initially due to reopen in 2008, but the date was pushed back several times amid spiralling costs and allegations of poor work.
The budget eventually soared to 21bn roubles (£435m) and in September 2009 prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into alleged misuse of funds.
No charges were brought and the Bolshoi denied any wrongdoing, but the main contractor on the project was replaced later that year.
Russians are already struggling to get tickets for the theatre's public premiere, a performance of Mikhail Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila to be held on 2 November. The top price for tickets is set at 3,000 roubles (£62) but there have been reports of online retailers offering them for as much as 2m roubles.
| Organization Established | October 2011 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Burma lifts restrictions on election campaigning. | Officials in Burma have lifted restrictions on election campaigning, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party said late on Monday.
This came just hours after the National League for Democracy (NLD) complained at a press conference that it was being denied the use of venues for rallies.
"It's a very significant change,'' spokesman Nyan Win told AFP news. ''We are still hoping for fair play."
There are 48 parliamentary seats being contested in the 1 April by-election.
Another NLD member told Reuters that the Union Election Commission (UEC) contacted the party to say that a ban on the use of sports grounds, which had prevented a rally planned for 14 February from taking place, was lifted.
Earlier, at the press conference in Rangoon, the NLD had warned that by-elections may not be fair because of the restrictions. Nyan Win told reporters that the party had been stopped from using three sports fields for the rallies.
The polls are being seen as a test of the government's commitment to reform.
The NLD boycotted Burma's last election in 2010 but agreed to rejoin the electoral process after the military-backed government brought in a series of democratic reforms. Even if the NLD wins all 48 seats, the military-backed government would still have a commanding majority in parliament.
But, the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Bangkok says, an opposition victory would be seen as hugely symbolic.
Although insignificant in terms of numbers, the conduct of the election will go a long way towards deciding whether Western sanctions to Burma will be lifted.
The 2010 elections saw a military junta replaced with a nominally civilian government backed by the armed forces. Since then, the new administration has embarked on a series of reforms, prompting the NLD to rejoin the political process. Western nations have said that they will match progress on reform with movement on sanctions. The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 election, but the ruling military junta at the time did not allow the party to take office.
Ms Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, was under house arrest at the time. This is the first time that she has run for a parliamentary seat. | Government Policy Changes | February 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva backs autonomy for the restive southern provinces to bring an end to violence in the region. | BANGKOK - THAILAND'S prime minister backed on Tuesday a suggestion by his Malaysian counterpart to grant autonomy to the insurgency-hit Thai south, as five more people were killed in the Muslim-majority region.
Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would discuss the plan for the restive southern provinces on the Malaysian border when Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak visits Thailand in December.
Mr Razak said in a newspaper interview published on Monday that Thailand should offer 'some form' of autonomy to the region, where more than 3,900 people have been killed since separatist violence erupted in January 2004.
In response, Mr Abhisit said: 'That's the right approach. My government is working to make it materialise and in early December I and my Malaysian counterpart will visit the southern region.'
Malaysia's Mr Razak told Thai English-language daily The Nation that 'you may not want to call it autonomy but there could at least be some form of involvement'.
'It is Thailand's decision to consider how far such autonomy in the deep south should go, and Malaysia, as a neighbour, would not intervene in the matter,' he was quoted as saying. -- AFP | Riot | October 2009 | ['(The Nation)', '(Straits Times)'] |
A school bus crashes in Jiangsu, China, killing 15 children. | BEIJING — A half-filled school bus ferrying students home from a primary school in rural China rolled into an irrigation canal, killing 15 children and injuring 8 others, officials said. The accident Monday evening in Jiangsu Province has renewed public indignation over school bus safety and, more broadly, complaints about inadequate government spending on education.
Mia Li contributed research. | Road Crash | December 2011 | ['(The New York Times)', '(Xinhua)'] |
United Nations inspectors are investigating three alleged instances of use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war since the Ghouta chemical attack on 21 August. | UN inspectors are investigating seven alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria - three of which happened after the 21 August Damascus incident that led to threats of US military action.
Little is known about the latest three alleged attacks, which the Syrian government asked the UN to investigate.
The 21 August attack left hundreds dead; the resulting outcry led Syria to offer up its chemical weapons arsenal.
The UN will vote later on a plan of action to eliminate the stockpile.
Its resolution is expected to incorporate the text of an agreement by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), whose 41-nation executive council is currently meeting in The Hague to give formal approval to the plan.
The OPCW will be responsible for dealing with Syria's chemical weapons, and has said it will send in its own team of inspectors next Tuesday.
US President Barack Obama said agreement on the issue by UN Security Council members was a "potentially huge victory for the international community".
Meanwhile violence goes on in Syria. Activists said a car bomb killed at least 20 people near a mosque in Rankus, a town north of Damascus, just after Friday prayers. In a statement, the UN said its current inspection team in Syria is investigating seven allegations of chemical weapons use this year.
The team, led by Ake Sellstrom, arrived in Syria for its second visit on 25 September and hopes to finish its work by Monday 30 September, the statement said.
It is working on a "comprehensive report" into the allegations that it hopes to have finished by late October.
The UN listed the alleged attacks, which all took place this year, as Khan al-Assal on 19 March; Sheikh Maqsoud on 13 April; Saraqeb on 29 April; Ghouta on 21 August; Bahhariya on 22 August; Jobar on 24 August and Ashrafieh Sahnaya on 25 August.
Syria has pushed for the investigation of the three post-21 August incidents.
Its envoy to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, accused "militants" of using chemical gas against the army in Bahhariya, Jobar and Ashrafieh Sahnaya.
It was the Ghouta incident of 21 August that sparked international outrage and the threat of military action from the US and its allies.
Since then, Russia - an ally of Syria - has secured an agreement from Damascus to give up its chemical weapons.
Earlier this month, the US and Russia asked the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW, to decide how to ensure the "complete elimination of all chemical weapons material and equipment" in Syria by the first half of 2014.
The OPCW's text calls for inspections to begin by Tuesday. An advance team will probably arrive on Monday.
The OPCW sets out a deadline that will see the destruction of production and mixing/filling equipment by 1 November 2013 and the complete destruction of all chemical weapons material and equipment in the first half of next year.
Syria is instructed to provide "immediate and unfettered" access to the OPCW's inspectors. If it does not, a meeting of the executive council will be called within 24 hours.
The text also authorises the OPCW to inspect "any other site identified by a State Party as having been involved in the Syrian chemical weapons programme, unless deemed unwarranted by the director general".
This is unchartered waters for the OPCW, which is a small organisation that has never undertaken a job of this size or complexity, the BBC's World Affairs correspondent Paul Adams says. It will need a lot of help and is expected to ask for urgent funding and additional personnel, he adds.
If the text is approved by the OPCW's executive council, it will form part of the UN Security Council resolution, which sets out to govern the whole process.
The resolution includes a warning to all the warring parties in Syria that evidence of non-compliance will trigger measures under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which could, but does not necessarily, include force, our correspondent notes.
| Armed Conflict | September 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Japan has delivered two more ships to Vietnam that will be refurbished into patrol boats. The ships, which arrived in the port city of Da Nang, are the second delivery of a 2014 deal in which Tokyo is to provide Vietnam with six used fishing vessels that will be converted into patrol boats for Vietnam's coast guard in the South China Sea. | Japan has delivered to Vietnam another two ships that will be refurbished into patrol boats in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
The ships, which arrived Tuesday in the port city of Da Nang, are the second delivery of a 2014 deal for Tokyo to provide Vietnam with six used fishing vessels that will be converted into patrol ships for Vietnam's coast guard and fisheries ministry.
Japan has also agreed to provide equipment and technical advice. In September, the two sides signed a separate deal for Tokyo to provide even more vessels in the future.
The Japanese ships follow a U.S. pledge to provide at least five refurbished fast patrol ships to improve Vietnam's Coast Guard.
Nguyen Do, captain of a Vietnamese fishing vessel that works in disputed waters, told VOA Tuesday the international aid is desperately needed.
"Despite being frequently attacked and chased away by Chinese vessels, we keep fishing in these waters, we have no other choices," he said. "They robbed and damaged our assets, they chased us out of the area. Their vessels are well-equipped gunboats armed with weapons. These vessels belong to coast guard forces or fisheries resources surveillance, not civilian fishing boats."
Fishing boat captain Le Van Xinh said Hanoi needs to make good use of the new ships.
"If the Vietnamese government put into practice some policies to support and protect fishermen then we will be less worried while operating at sea. To be specific, if the law enforcement forces are around in our fishing field, that would help ease our worries when being harassed by foreign vessels, especially in the context of constant threats from China’s vessels, as what’s going on right now," he said.
Anti-China sentiments are still running high in Vietnam as Beijing seeks to strengthen its claim over virtually all of the South China Sea.
Last year, Beijing was sharply criticized by Hanoi when it placed an oil rig in disputed waters, leading to several small maritime confrontations and deadly rioting in mainland Vietnam.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled in Hanoi this week for a visit aimed at improving relations. | Sign Agreement | November 2015 | ['(Voice of America)'] |
Ken Livingstone is re–elected Mayor of London for a second four–year term after polling 828,380 first and second preference votes, defeating his nearest rival Conservative Steve Norris by 161,202 votes. | Ken Livingstone tonight lifted some of the gloom surrounding the Labour party when he won a second term as London mayor on a healthy majority.
The victory will salvage something from disastrous polls for Tony Blair who, four years ago, refused to back Mr Livingstone as the Labour candidate.
With no candidate gaining more than half of first preference votes, Mr Livingstone won 828,380 of the combined first and second preference votes, beating the Conservative candidate Steven Norris, who secured 676,178 votes.
The Liberal Democrat candidate, Simon Hughes, won 284, 645 of first preference votes.
Former boxing promoter Frank Maloney, the Ukip candidate, came fourth with 115,665 votes, while the BNP's Julian Leppart (58,405) beat Green candidate Darren Johnson (57,331) but trailed the Respect candidate Lindsey German (67,731).
Mr Livingstone made a brief speech of thanks, in which he pledged to "leave London more beautiful" than he found it. "I think that is a good statement for any mayor to make," he said. Admitting that Mr Norris had been "more of a threat than I would have liked", Mr Livingstone used the Tory candidate's success to make the point that "rumours of the death of the Tory party have been rather overplayed".
"There is a clear choice in the months to come," said Mr Livingstone, in what seemed an attempt to shore up support for Mr Blair. "A clear choice - not just about international policy, but a clear choice about our public services." Mr Livingstone's win spared Labour further humiliation following the party's trouncing at the local elections. The prime minister's initial refusal to back Mr Livingstone for the first mayoral elections four years ago led to the candidate's expulsion from the party. Mr Livingstone was subsequently elected after deciding to pursue his mayoral dream on a independent ticket.
However, his popularity led to Mr Blair changing his mind about the firebrand politician and backing his selection as the Labour choice for a second term. In an effort to distance himself from the prime minister's policy on Iraq, Mr Livingstone played down his Labour links during his campaign. Instead, his pitch was been based around signalling his opposition to the Iraq conflict, coupled with citing the achievements of his first term.
His second success means an end to Mr Norris's hopes of a return to political office.
Accepting his defeat, Mr Norris said: "I am sorry I lost but if I had to lose, I would rather lose to Ken Livingstone."
The mayor can expect a more difficult time in his second term, having lost some of the nine-strong Labour member grouping that would have helped push through key policies in the devolved assembly. Under proportional representation, the initial election of the 14 constituency members is topped up by the nomination of 11 London-wide members drawn from the party lists. These results have yet to be declared.
The Labour group has lost seats, while Respect and the Eurosceptic Ukip should have gained following wins of 5% and 10% respectively. | Government Job change - Election | June 2004 | ['(Guardian)'] |
A bus carrying Hungarian students crashes near Verona in northern Italy with at least 18 people dead and 50 injured. , | Sixteen people were killed and about 40 injured when a bus carrying students from Hungary hit a pillar and burst into flames on a highway in northern Italy, police and the fire service said on Saturday.
The bus left the road near a highway exit close to the city of Verona during the night. The local police chief said it was carrying mostly teenage students, teachers and parents.
“Many children among the victims of the accident in Verona, a bus catches fire on impact with a pillar,” police said on Twitter, adding that the coach had arrived in Italy from France.
Peter Szijjarto, the Hungarian foreign minister, told a news conference that the teenagers were from a secondary school in Budapest, returning from their annual ski camp in France. He said there was uncertainty over the exact number of passengers on the bus, but it was higher than the director of the school had been aware of.
Mr Szijjarto said one seriously injured passenger was being kept in a coma. The minister said that 12 passengers were “well” and staying in a hotel in the southern part of Verona.
Girolamo Lacquaniti, the highway police chief for the area, said: “We are not aware of other vehicles being involved, it seems to have gone off the road of its own accord.”
Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, said: “With my prayers, I am with the families and friends shocked by the tragedy.”
Italian media said the bus had been carrying students aged between 14 and 18, when it was involved in an accident on a motorway near the city of Verona.
The fire service said on Twitter that the bus had burst into flames. "There are many victims," it said.
| Road Crash | January 2017 | ['(The Telegraph)', '(BBC)'] |
2006 World Cup: Gordon Strachan is named as FIFA/SOS Ambassador for Scotland for the 2006 World Cup. (SOS Children's Villages) | As well as Wayne Rooney and Gordon Strachan over 80 other international football stars are official FIFA/SOS ambassadors. Many of these international ambassadors play for UK clubs. Here are a few you may have heard of!
Lucas Radebe, former Leeds United star and captain of the South African national team, "Bafana Bafana", has for over six years been one of the most committed and popular of the FIFA/SOS Ambassadors, including making SOS a benficiary of his own benefit match earlier this year. Radebe, who received the prestigious "FIFA Fair Play Award" in 2001 and who donated the prize money as well as 3,000 books collected by Leeds United to SOS Children's Villages South Africa, makes regular visits to the South African SOS Children's Villages and is patron of the new village being built in Rustenburg as part of the "6 villages for 2006" campaign. The small inhabitants of the villages are among his most loyal and enthusiastic fans. Whether in Pietermaritzburg, Ennerdale, Mamelodi or Capetown, personal football instruction from Lucas Radebe count among the real highlights for the children.
On 1 September 2001 Ruud van Nistelrooy was officially appointed "FIFA for SOS Children's Villages" Ambassador in The Netherlands. The Manchester United and Dutch national team striker has taken on the task of bringing the work of SOS Children closer to the world of football. The football star first came into contact with the SOS Children's Village world back in 1998, when he visited SOS Children's Village Bucharest in Romania with his 'Jong-Oranje' team-mates and experienced life in an SOS Children's Village at first hand. "I was really impressed by all the happy children playing. In spite of their difficult pasts, the children were very positive," said van Nistelrooy, and when the Dutch SOS Children's Village Association asked whether he would like to take on the role of an ambassador, the star player didn't need long to think about it: "Although I have a very busy life, I love to make an exception for SOS Children"
Alexandr Hleb, the Arsenal star and Belarus International, was made "FIFA for SOS Children's Villages" Ambassador for Belarus in 2003. Hleb was following in the footsteps of his former Stuttgart team-mate and FIFA/SOS ambassador for Bulgaria Krassimir Balakov. "I didn't know anything about SOS Children, but Balakov told me everything about the organisation. Even though I'm still pretty young myself, I've always wanted to help children. It was a very emotional moment when they asked me whether I wanted to take on the role of ambassador" says Hleb.
In the summer of 2004, one of Bolton Wanderers' and Africa's finest football players joined the illustrious list of FIFA/SOS Ambassadors when Nigerian Jay Jay Okocha signed up for the good cause. Okocha has often been described as one of Africa's most gifted and beloved players ever.
Okocha led Nigeria to 1994 African Cup of Nations victory and also lifted the coveted African Player of the Year title. Since 2002, Okocha has been playing his club football with English Premier League side Bolton Wanderers. He was recently included in a list of the world's top 100 football players. Together with his family, Okocha delighted children at the SOS Children's Village in Isolo, in his native Nigeria, when he visited the facility in 2004.
Frenchman Robert Pires, a 1998 World Cup champion and 2000 European Cup winner, as well as Arsenal midfielder, has been a "FIFA for SOS Children's Villages" Ambassador since 1998. Although Pires has been playing for Arsenal in London since 2000, he uses every opportunity to visit a village or invite the children to spend a day of games and fun. Before moving to Olympic Marseille, Pires gave part of the profits of a video about his career in Reims and Metz to SOS Children's Villages.
Robert has given his wholehearted support to the "6 villages for 2006" campaign, appearing in a promotional video for SOS in France.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2005 | ['(joining Wayne Rooney for England)', '(Celtic FC)'] |
Gunmen kill at least 24 people in a mass shooting at a drug rehabilitation center in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen killed 24 people at a drug rehabilitation facility in the central Mexican city of Irapuato, police said on Wednesday, underlining the government’s challenge in fulfilling its pledge to stop gang violence.
Police in the city in Guanajuato state said the unidentified attackers also shot and wounded seven people in what was the second attack at an Irapuato rehab center in the past month.
Photos from the scene shared by police with reporters showed at least 11 prone and bloodied bodies in a room.
Police said in a statement that three of the wounded were in grave condition, and that the facility was not formally registered.
Social media videos following the incident showed ambulances on site and several dozen people described as relatives of the victims clustered on the street.
Guanajuato’s Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa said he had designated a specialized team to investigate the killing, which he called a “cowardly criminal act,” while Governor Diego Sinhue called for a joint effort from federal and state authorities to tackle violence.
The attack was one of the worst mass slayings since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office 19 months ago pledging to reduce record levels of violence. But homicides hit a new record last year and are trending higher still in 2020.
Guanajuato, a major carmaking hub, has become one of the principal flashpoints of criminal violence in Mexico, ravaged by a turf war between the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
According to federal data, Guanajuato registered 1,405 homicides this year through May, more than any other state.
On June 6, gunmen opened fire at a different addiction rehab center in Irapuato, killing 10 men. Rehab centers are known to have been targeted by criminal gangs waging battles for control of the drug business.
At least 26 people were killed in an arson attack by suspected gang members on a bar in the southern port of Coatzacoalcos last August.
| Riot | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Iranian women post videos of themselves dancing to protest the arrest of Instagram blogger Maedeh Hojabri. | Iranian women are dancing in public and posting videos of themselves online to protest the arrest of a teenage Instagram star.
Maedeh Hojabri gained a large social media following for her dancing videos. To the tune of Western and Iranian pop and rap music, the teenager bopped and twirled in her bedroom without wearing the compulsory Islamic headscarf or hijab.
In Iran, women are required to cover their hair while out in public, and dancing with the opposite sex is prohibited unless it is in front of immediate family members, according to the BBC.
Hojabri appeared on state television Friday and confessed to violating moral conventions, in what activists say was a forced appearance. She was one of several people recently detained on similar charges before being released on bail, the Associated Press reports.
“It wasn’t for attracting attention,” she said, according to the Guardian‘s translation. “I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same … I didn’t work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics.”
Hojabri’s account has since been suspended, but social media users have been sharing her videos.
With hashtags that translate as #dance to freedom and #dancing_isn’t_a_crime, Iranian women, many also without the mandatory hijab, have started posting their own videos in support of Hojabri.
In an Instagram post translated by the Guardian, blogger Hossein Ronaghi wrote, “If you told people anywhere in the world that 17 and 18-year-old girls are arrested for their dance, happiness and beauty on charges of spreading indecency, while child rapists and others are free, they would laugh! Because for them, it’s unbelievable!”
Iranian authorities have previously cracked down on dancing. Last August, six people were reportedly arrested for Zumba dancing.
In 2014, six Iranians, three men and three unveiled women, received suspended sentences of one year imprisonment and 91 lashes for a video that showed them dancing on Tehran’s rooftops to Pharrell William’s song “Happy.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2018 | ['(Time)'] |
A passenger jet suffers an uncontained engine failure during a flight from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas. One passenger is killed. The aircraft diverts to Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | A woman who was partially sucked out of a window of a US passenger plane after an engine exploded in mid-air has died. Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after a window, wings and fuselage were damaged. Seven passengers were injured. Initial findings say an engine fan blade was missing. In a recording, one of the pilots can be heard saying "there is a hole and someone went out". The last passenger death on a US commercial flight was in 2009.
The Boeing 737-700 had been en route from New York's La Guardia airport to Dallas, Texas, with 143 passengers and five crew when the incident happened.
Witnesses say an engine on the plane's left side blew, smashing a window and causing cabin depressurisation that nearly sucked the woman out of the aircraft.
She was pulled back in by other passengers.
The plane made a safe landing at 11:20 (15:20 GMT), fire officials said.
The victim was Jennifer Riordan, a mother-of-two and bank vice-president at Wells Fargo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In the air traffic control recording released by NBC News, pilot Tammie Jo Shults is heard saying: "We have a part of the aircraft missing, so we're going to need to slow down a bit." Asked if the plane is on fire, she says it is not but adds: "They said there is a hole and someone went out."
The former Navy pilot was at the controls when the plane landed.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said a preliminary investigation had revealed that an engine fan blade was missing and there was evidence of metal fatigue at the point where it had apparently broken off. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said part of the cowling - the engine's covering - was found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles (112km) from Philadelphia.
"It is very unusual so we are taking this event extremely seriously," he said, adding that the investigation could take 12 to 15 months.
Mr Sumwalt told reporters the type of engine, a CFM56, is "very widely used in commercial transport".
Southwest Airlines said it was accelerating its inspection programme for CFM56 engines "out of an abundance of caution" and said inspections should be completed over the next 30 days.
What a flight! Made it!! Still here!! #southwest #flight1380 pic.twitter.com/Cx2mqoXVzY
In a statement, Southwest said it was "devastated" and extended sympathy to all those affected by the "tragic event".
The Philadelphia Fire Department said one passenger had been taken to hospital in a critical condition while seven other people were treated for minor injuries at the scene.
Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel told a news conference that passengers and crew "did some pretty amazing things under very difficult circumstances".
First responders "found a fuel leak and small fire in one of the engines", he said, adding that they used foam to extinguish the flames.
Images have been shared on social media showing passengers sitting in oxygen masks as the plane shudders around them.
"All of a sudden, we heard this loud bang, rattling..." said one passenger.
@SouthwestAir These are the hero’s of SWA 1380 NYC to Dallas We lost an engine mid-flight and they guided back to Philly saved 149 on board pic.twitter.com/RNA8sXRBZA
"It just shredded the left-side engine completely... it was scary," Kristopher Johnson told CNN. Timothy Bourman, a pastor from New York City, told the Philadelphia Inquirer he had been sitting in the rear of the plane when he heard a loud boom.
"All the sudden, it felt like we dropped 100 feet," he said. "We were kind of out of control for a while. It seemed like the pilot was having a hard time controlling the plane. Honestly I think we just all thought we were going down."
When flight attendants told passengers to brace for impact, Mr Bourman said he and his wife worried for the worst.
"We're just all really thankful to be alive right now," he said. "Thankful to God, thankful to that pilot."
Passenger Marty Martinez posted a brief Facebook live with the caption: "Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!" After landing, he told CBS News that it felt like the plane was "free-falling", and added that he saw one injured woman being taken off the plane by rescuers.
"There was blood everywhere," he said.
"First there was an explosion and then almost immediately the oxygen masks came down and probably within a matter of 10 seconds the engine hit a window and busted it wide open." 'There's a hole and someone went out'
| Air crash | April 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A commissioner of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission resigns, citing the conduct of the election process. | The integrity of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has been called further into question by the resignation of one of its commissioners, Mkhululi Nyathi, on Wednesday.
In his letter to the Commission, seasoned lawyer Nyathi said he had been forced to step down as a result of the unprofessional manner in which the whole electoral process was handled.
...
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2013 | ['(AllAfrica)'] |
In Germany, police in Brandenburg announce that they have uncovered bones of nine newborn babies that had been buried in flower pots. The woman believed to be their mother, identified in newspapers as "Sabine H.", has been arrested in the worst case of individual infanticide in German history. | The 39-year-old woman is believed to be the mother of the children found in Brieskow-Finkenheerd, in Brandenburg state, near the border with Poland.
Police officers with sniffer dogs were searching the site for further remains.
The grim discovery of little bodies found buried in flower pots and buckets has shocked Germany.
It is thought that the babies were born, and died, between 1988 and 2004.
"We are looking at a crime on a scale that, as far as I can remember, has never been seen in the history of the Federal Republic," Brandenburg Interior Minister Joerg Schoenbohm said in a statement.
Police are searching the property for further remains
"We have to ask ourselves how this incredible crime remained hidden over all these years. It's a question directed at relatives, neighbours, doctors and the authorities."
The bodies were discovered after someone clearing a garage at the site found human bones stored in a fish tank, police said.
According to Reuters, the woman has said she was the mother of the babies but has not admitted killing them. A court spokesman said her statement was confused.
Other discoveries
The woman has been identified in the German press only as Sabine H. She is reported to be a jobless dental assistant who moved from the house, where her mother and eldest sister live, to nearby Frankfurt an der Oder.
Bild newspaper said she met her first boyfriend, a former East German army officer and Stasi employee, when she was 17 and they had a daughter in 1984. She had two more children in the following two years.
Sabine was quite a normal girl, not stupid at all
Neighbour Ulrich Heitmann
Berliner Zeitung says she has lived for several years in Frankfurt an der Oder with a man who is the father of her youngest child, 18-month-old Elisabeth. Three other children - aged 18, 19 and 20 - live with her first husband.
Neighbour Ulrich Heitmann, 69, told the newspaper: "Sabine was quite a normal girl, not stupid at all".
The finds come after other recent grim discoveries in Germany, says the Associated Press.
Last week, a dead baby girl was found in a public toilet in Magdeburg and a young boy was discovered on a recycling company's conveyer belt in Guetersloh.
A walker in Lower Saxony found a dead baby in a plastic bag in June.
The authorities in Austria are holding the parents of at least three of four children whose bodies were found in a freezer and concrete-filled buckets at their home. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
The FBI arrests Everett, Washington, 43-year-old Thanh Cong Phan on suspicion of charges of illegally shipping explosive materials by sending 12 package bombs to the CIA as well as multiple military and government facilities in the Washington, D.C. area. Those devices did not explode. | WASHINGTON -- Hours after news that suspicious packages were turning up in and around Washington, D.C., an arrest was made on the other side of the country. Thanh Cong Phan, 43, appeared in court in Washington state a little more than 24 hours after 11 packages he allegedly mailed arrived at military bases in the D.C. area.
Phan had a history of writing crank letters to the military, and rambling notes included in the packages immediately fingered him as a suspect. He was arrested at his home in Everett, Washington, on Monday night, much to the surprise of a neighbor.
"I'm in shock, I don't know what to say, its so close to my house," the neighbor said.
Phan has been charged with one count of shipping explosive materials, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The packages contained what the FBI called "potential destructive devices" and were sent to government mail-processing facilities at the CIA, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Fort Belvoir, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and Fort McNair.
The package at Fort McNair was addressed to the National Defense University and contained black powder and a fuse. One at Fort Belvoir was meant for the National Geospatial Agency, the intelligence organization which analyzes spy photos taken by satellites. Another package was addressed to the Secret Service.
None of the packages exploded.
The motive for mailing the packages is unclear and the FBI warns that additional packages may show up at other mail processing facilities in the D.C. area. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | March 2018 | ['(CBS News)'] |
People in Peru head to the polls to elect the members of the country's congress after its dissolution in September 2019. | No party won an overall majority but centrist parties have made gains, which could ease the passage of reforms.
The new Congress will be short-lived - it will be replaced in next year's general elections. A quick count carried out by Ipsos research firm suggests Popular Force has dropped from the 36.3% it won in the 2016 election to 7%, putting it into sixth place. If confirmed, the figures mean that the party will lose many of the 73 out of 130 seats in Congress it held until September.
According to the quick count, the centrist Popular Action party will emerge as the strongest party with 10.1% of the vote.
An evangelical party, the Agricultural People's Front of Peru, known by its initials in Spanish as FREPAP, came second in the quick count with 8.9%. The party has not had any representatives elected to Congress since 2000 and its last-minute surge has surprised political analysts. It is followed by the right-wing Podemos Peru (We can, Peru) party with 8.2%, and the centre-right Progress Alliance with 8%.
In another unexpected result, the nationalist Union for Peru (UPP) also passed the 5% threshold necessary to enter Congress. The new Congress will be fragmented but analysts think the gains made by centrist parties could work in President Vizcarra's favour.
They argue that if he manages to get enough small parties on his side he will be able to push through the anti-corruption reforms Popular Force blocked. The losses suffered by Popular Force are a big blow to its leader, Keiko Fujimori. The daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori has been a divisive figure in Peruvian politics. She is accused of accepting $1.2m in illegal campaign financing from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht and a judge is due to decide on Tuesday whether she should be sent to jail to await trial. Her father is serving a sentence for corruption and human rights abuses. Despite their legal woes, the Fujimori family has retained the backing of hardcore supporters. But political commentators say the election result suggests that Fujimorismo, the political movement named after them, may have finally collapsed. Normally, congressional elections are held at the same time as presidential polls but Sunday's elections were brought forward after President Vizcarra took the drastic step of dissolving Congress in September. President Vizcarra made the fight against corruption his main priority when he took power in March 2018 after then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned over a vote-buying scandal. When parties, led by Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force, blocked his efforts, he simply dissolved the legislative body.
Opposition lawmakers denounced the move as a coup but the heads of the armed forces and the police backed the president. Supporters of Mr Vizcarra turned out to show their approval of the move and Peru's top court later ruled that it had been constitutional. | Government Job change - Election | January 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Saudi Arabia's general prosecutor claims Jamal Khashoggi died in a fight inside the Istanbul consulate. | Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, Saudi Arabia’s general prosecutor said early Saturday morning local time.
The government said that Khashoggi got into a fight with the people he met at the consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 2. The kingdom alleged that Khashoggi died in that clash.
@alekhbariyatv: عاجل | النائب العام: المناقشات التي تمت بين المواطن جمال خاشقجي وبين الأشخاص الذين قابلوه أثناء تواجده في قنصلية المملكة في إسطنبول أدت إلى حدوث شجار واشتباك بالأيدي مما أدى إلى وفاته. #الإخبارية
That explanation counters multiple reports of how Khashoggi died. Turkish officials told The New York Times that it has audio evidence which proves Khashoggi was tortured, killed and subsequently dismembered by a hit team of Saudi agents.
It also contradicts the Saudi government’s earlier account of events. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman previously told Bloomberg that the dissident journalist left the consulate shortly after he arrived.
“My understanding is he entered and he got out after a few minutes or one hour. I’m not sure. We are investigating this through the foreign ministry to see exactly what happened at that time,” he told Bloomberg at the time.
When asked to confirm that Khashoggi is not inside the consulate, the crown prince told Bloomberg, “Yes, he’s not inside.”
The kingdom also fired Deputy Chief of General Intelligence Ahmad bin Hassan Asiri and royal court advisor Abdullah Al-Qahtani. The kingdom also said a committee would be formed to restructure its intelligence agency under the supervision of Prince Mohammed, “to modernize its regulations and define its powers precisely.”
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that Saudi officials close to the crown prince planned on blaming Asiri for Khashoggi’s death. The Times said by making Asiri a scapegoat, the government could help shield the crown prince from blame.
Through its state press, the kingdom said it has detained 18 Saudi nationals after preliminary investigations linked them to the case.
@Spa_Eng: Attorney General: Primary investigations disclose the death of Jamal Khashoggi. Investigations continue with 18 persons, all are Saudi nationals.
Saudi Arabia said it “is taking the necessary measures to clarify the circumstances in the case of Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi” and that “all those involved will be brought to justice.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued the following statement:
“The United States acknowledges the announcement from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that its investigation into the fate of Jamal Khashoggi is progressing and that it has taken action against the suspects it has identified thus far. We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent, and in accordance with all due process. We are saddened to hear confirmation of Mr. Khashoggi’s death, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, fiancée, and friends.”
In the weeks following Khashoggi’s disappearance, the international community increasingly pressed Saudi Arabia for the dissident’s whereabouts. U.S. President Donald Trump also faced mounting criticism for being too soft in his response. On Thursday, Trump acknowledged Khashoggi was likely dead and said he would consider “very severe consequences” if Saudi Arabia is found responsible.
But Trump’s resistance to act swiftly sparked comparisons to how he has spoken deferentially about other autocratic leaders accused of human rights abuses, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. On Tuesday, the president told The Associated Press that he saw a case of “you’re guilty until proven innocent.”
Trump on Friday called the arrests a “good first step.” Yet he also mentioned that he would be reluctant to undo arms deals with the kingdom if the U.S. were to slap Saudi Arabia with sanctions over Khashoggi’s death.
Vice President Mike Pence said that the U.S. will not “solely rely” on information provided by Saudi Arabia, a longtime U.S. ally in the Middle East.
Several members of Congress have called for swift sanctions on oil-rich Saudi Arabia in the uproar over Khashoggi. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., quickly expressed his doubts about the Saudi account of the journalist’s death, saying “It’s hard to find this latest ‘explanation’ as credible.”
@LindseyGrahamSC: First we were told Mr. Khashoggi supposedly left the consulate and there was blanket denial of any Saudi involvement. Now, a fight breaks out and he’s killed in the consulate, all without knowledge of Crown Prince.
The announcement comes more than two weeks after Khashoggi was last seen in public, entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was a frequent critic of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and wrote columns for The Washington Post.
In his last column for the Post, Khashoggi highlighted the need for independent and free press in Arab nations. He said the international community had turned a blind eye to the increasing rate at which Arab governments were silencing the press.
“These actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community. Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence,” Khashoggi wrote. | Famous Person - Death | October 2018 | ['(CNBC)'] |
Olivier Awards: Liam Mower, James Lomas and George Maguire win an award for Best Actor in a musical for their role in Billy Elliot the Musical. They are the first to do so in a shared capacity. At 13, this makes Mower the youngest actor to ever receive this award. | James Lomas and George Maguire, 15, and Liam Mower, 13, who share the title role, won best actor in a musical.
Its composer, Sir Elton John, shared best new musical with writer Lee Hall. The Almeida Theatre's revival of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler also won four awards in the ceremony, which honours the best of the London stage.
Its star Eve Best won best actress, while Richard Eyre won best director. It also won best revival and best set design.
Brian Dennehy took the best actor award for his performance in Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman, while comedy actress Celia Imrie won best supporting role in a musical for her part in Acorn Antiques - The Musical!
A special award was presented to Sir Ian McKellen in recognition of his contribution to theatre, at the ceremony at the London Hilton.
Breaking voices
Of the three Billy Elliot stars, only one, Liam, is still performing - breaking voices have forced the other two to bow out of the smash hit musical. They are the only actors to have won the award in a shared capacity and the youngest-ever winners of an award.
Billy Elliot also won best theatre choreographer and best sound design.
The trio beat Ewan McGregor to their prize, but his Guys and Dolls co-star Jane Krakowski won best actress in a musical for her performance as Miss Adelaide.
Liam said: "Ewan should be grateful to be nominated! I know he's a big Hollywood star and I didn't expect to beat him. It's outstanding."
McGregor said he was "delighted" that the Billy Elliot stars had won the award.
Anthony Minghella's production of Puccini's Madam Butterfly at the English National Opera won best new opera production. | Awards ceremony | February 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
Israeli forces in separate incidents in violent riots protesting an arson attack that burned an infant to death result in the death of two 17-year-old Palestinians. , | Laith Fadel al-Khaladi, 17, was reportedly shot in the chest by an Israeli sniper near Bir Zeit, north of Ramallah in the central West Bank. The teen later died from his injuries at a hospital, the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency quoted medical sources as saying.
Al-Khaladi is said to have been shot during anti-Israeli protests in the area, sparked by the deadly “price tag” attack in Kafr Duma.
Six other Palestinians were injured in clashes erupting during arson-related protests in the West Bank and Jerusalem on Friday, Haaretz reported.
One Palestinian was shot in the leg during protests in the West Bank city of Hebron; four others were wounded after police resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets against about 30 stone-throwers in the city of Halhul. One more Palestinian was injured with a rubber bullet in Kfar Kadum.
Earlier in the day, another Palestinian teen, 17-year-old Mohammed Hamed al-Masri, was fired upon by Israeli forces in north Gaza. He sustained gunshot wounds to the upper body and later died at a hospital.
Masri had approached the border fence west of the Beit Lahia area along with other Palestinian youths to join the protests of the deadly arson attack, Haaretz cited Palestinian sources as saying. One other person was wounded in the shooting, receiving non-life threatening injuries, a Palestinian medical official told AFP, a French news service.
According to an Israeli army spokeswoman: “Two suspects approached the security fence of the northern Gaza Strip.” One of the figures ignored an order to halt, prompting warning shots to be fired, she told AFP, adding “the force fired toward the lower extremities of a suspect.”
Jerusalem witnessed firebombs and stone throwing with one Israeli officer wounded. Gunshots were reported not far from Kochav Hashahar, north of Jerusalem, but with no resulting injuries.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers were targeted by Palestinians in the southern Hebron Hills community of Beit Hagai, the Jerusalem Post reports. Dozens were evacuated because of a brush fire allegedly started by Palestinians. Thirty people received medical treatment for smoke inhalation.
“Every Israeli is now a legitimate target,” Hamas said earlier on Friday calling for “day of rage” in response to the Palestinian toddler’s killing.
18-month-old baby killed after Israeli settlers set a Palestinian home on fire. 4 y/o brother left with severe burns. pic.twitter.com/klLIEZxpu9
The Friday attack also caused international condemnation with UN chief Ban Ki-moon saying that the absence of a peace process and Israel’s illegal settlement policy had sparked violent extremism by Jews and Palestinians. The US condemned the deadly arson in the strongest possible terms calling it “vicious.” The EU also expressed its condemnation saying that “it is a tragic reminder of the dramatic situation in the region that highlights the urgent need of the political solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
Suspected Jewish extremists threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a Palestinian home in the village of Kafr Duma near the West Bank city of Nablus in the early hours of Friday. Eighteen-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha was killed, and his brother and parents were seriously injured in the resulting blaze.
Hundreds of people gathered for the child’s funeral on Friday.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that the perpetrators of the attack would be brought to justice.
“I am in shock from this criminal and terrible act,” Aruts Sheva quoted Netanyahu as saying Friday morning. “We are talking about terrorism in every respect.”
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas blamed the Israeli government for the incident because of its support of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. He also said that the Palestinian leadership was going to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and urged the international community to act.
Palestinian baby burned to death after Jewish settlers set fire to home; "revenge" graffiti http://t.co/bFCRa36rMlpic.twitter.com/pm8cQI2n4s
“We are immediately preparing the file that will be submitted to the ICC,” Abbas told reporters, denouncing what he called “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed each day by Israelis against the Palestinian people.” | Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(RT)'] |
Five Muslim American students sentenced to serve 10 years in a Pakistani prison for conspiracy to commit attacks and raising funds for terrorism, appeal their conviction. | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Five American men sentenced last week to serve 10 years in a Pakistani prison on terrorism charges appealed against their conviction Monday, their defense lawyer said. The five Americans, all students in their 20s, were sentenced Thursday for contacting militants online and plotting attacks by a court in Pakistan, fighting its own battle with Islamist radicals.
“We believe all evidence we produced in their defense were not considered by the court and it relied on prosecution witnesses,” defense lawyer Hassan Katchela told Reuters.
The appeal will be heard by the Lahore High Court, but no date has been set for the hearing.
Waqar Hussain Khan, Ahmed Minni, Ramy Zamzam, Aman Yemer and Umar Farooq were each charged with five counts of conspiracy, raising funds for terrorist acts, planning war against Pakistan, directing others to launch attacks and attempting to cross the Afghan border illegally.
They were detained in December in Pakistan’s central city of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad.
Immediately after last week’s court appearance, Deputy Prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar said the men were convicted on two counts each, with one carrying a 10-year sentence and the other carrying five years, to be served concurrently. They were also fined a total of 70,000 rupees ($820).
Bakhtiar said the court issued the 10-year sentences for conspiracy and five years for raising funds. The other charges were dropped. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(CNN)', '(Voice of America)'] |
United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes recuses himself from the committee’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election; Rep. Mike Conaway will take the lead in this investigation. | The head of a key US congressional investigation into alleged Russian hacking has temporarily stepped down amid an ethics inquiry into him.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes is now himself under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
The panel is looking into claims that the Republican disclosed classified intelligence.
Mr Nunes called the charges "entirely false" and "politically motivated".
He said his decision to step aside came after "several left-wing activist groups have filed accusations against me with the Office of Congressional Ethics".
Mr Nunes added he would continue to fulfil his other responsibilities as chairman, requesting to speak to the ethics panel "in order to expedite the dismissal of these false claims". Democrats have criticised Mr Nunes for his handling of the inquiry, which is also looking at possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
The House Ethics Committee said in a statement on Thursday: "The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Devin Nunes may have made unauthorised disclosures of classified information, in violation of House rules, laws, regulations, or other standards of conduct."
Watchdog groups Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had asked the House ethics panel to investigate Mr Nunes. His political foes have accused him of helping the White House to divert attention from several investigations into links between the Trump team and Russian officials.
Mr Nunes has acknowledged making an after-dark trip to the White House grounds last month that even the congressman's own aides were apparently unaware of.
The next day at a hastily arranged news conference he announced he had learned that post-election communications of Mr Trump's team had been monitored by US intelligence agencies as they snooped on foreign officials. He expressed alarm that information about the then-incoming president's aides had been swept up in US intelligence reports.
Mr Nunes' Democratic colleagues on the panel were furious that he had not shared such information with them before going public.
In the face of much scepticism, Mr Nunes maintains White House officials were not his original source for the claims. Democrats questioned whether the investigation into Russia's alleged role in the election could proceed objectively.
It's never a good sign when the investigator becomes a bigger story than the investigation. Such was the case with Congressman Devin Nunes, with his shifting explanations for where and how he acquired sensitive intelligence documents, his decision to keep details from his fellow intelligence committee members, his apparent behind-the-scenes co-ordination with White House sources and his penchant for dramatic press conferences. All this made him a liability for Republican congressional leadership and the White House. Now he is, at least temporarily, out of the picture.
He may blame an ethics complaint filed by "leftwing activist groups" for forcing the move, but there's little doubt that many Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief. Mr Nunes, at times, seemed out of his depth on the big political stage.
The committee's investigations effectively had been ground to a halt by partisan bickering, and this move is a first step toward rebooting the efforts. It may be too late, however, as the concurrent Senate intelligence committee investigation has launched more smoothly and with a greater show of bipartisan co-operation. Members of the House of Representatives often complain of being viewed as the "baby brother" to the upper chamber. The dual Russia probes haven't done much to dispel that notion.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he fully supported Mr Nunes' decision. Mr Ryan said he trusts Mr Nunes, but the ethics inquiry "would be a distraction" for the House Intelligence Committee investigation.
Representative Adam Schiff, a ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he respected Mr Nunes' decision. "We have a fresh opportunity to move forward in the unified and nonpartisan way that an investigation of this seriousness demands," he added. A White House spokesman said in response to the announcement: "This is an internal matter for the House". Texas Representative Mike Conaway will take over that inquiry with the help of fellow Republicans Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney.
"We're going to proceed with the investigation and follow every lead to its logical conclusion," Mr Conaway said on Thursday. It is unclear whether Mr Nunes' departure will end the partisan bickering that has brought the committee's investigation to a virtual halt. But a separate Senate Intelligence Committee probe into Russia's alleged role in the US election appeared to be moving forward, conducting its first round of hearings on the issue last week. Meanwhile, the FBI also recently acknowledged it is running its own probe into claims of Kremlin political meddling.
Mr Nunes said he plans to return to the House investigation, but he did not provide a timeline. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
Syria signs the Paris Agreement. This will make the United States the only country not in the Paris Agreement, when they plan to leave on 4 November 2020. |
Syria has decided to sign the Paris agreement on climate change, the world’s final functioning state to do so. The surprise decision, taken amid a brutal civil war in the country, will leave the US as the only country outside the agreement if it follows through on President Donald Trump’s vow to leave.
Syria’s decision brings to 197 the number of nations signed up to the landmark 2015 pact on global warming, the first in more than 20 years of UN negotiations to bind both developed and developing countries to a clear limit on temperature rises.
The 2015 Paris climate agreement is the first truly global deal to tackle climate change. It commits governments to limit temperature rises to no more than 2C (3.6F) – which scientists say is the threshold of safety, beyond which the effects of global warming are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible – and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C. It has been signed by 197 countries. The US is on course to become the only country outside the agreement if it follows through on Donald Trump’s vow to leave.
President Barack Obama signed the accord and it was ratified before his term of office ended, but this summer Donald Trump began the process of withdrawing from it. Withdrawal will take several years under UN rules, so the US officially remains a party until 4 November 2020, the day after its next presidential election. The US is the only country to renege on the agreement.
Civil society groups said the US, the world’s largest economy and second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, was now isolated on the world stage.
Paula Caballero, global director of the climate programme at the World Resources Institute, said: “Now the entire world is resolutely committed to advancing climate action – all save one country. This should make the Trump administration pause and reflect on their ill-advised announcement about withdrawing from the Paris agreement.”
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club environmental group, said: “As if it wasn’t already crystal clear, every single other country is moving forward together to tackle the climate crisis, while Trump has isolated the US in an embarrassing and dangerous position. Trump’s desperate moves to help corporate polluters by refusing to acknowledge the climate crisis shows he neither cares about leadership nor does he understand it.”
Observers said that although the White House could withdraw the federal government from the pact, cities and states in the US would continue to take action on climate change, for instance by investing in renewable energy.
The French government, according to reports, said Trump had been excluded from the invitations to more than 100 world leaders to meet in Paris for a climate conference next month, to follow on from the Paris agreement.
The US delegation in Bonn, where two weeks of UN climate negotiations are in their second day, did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
The US is participating in the Bonn talks, according to the UN climate chief Patricia Esposito, but its contributions so far have been low-key. Under UN rules, it will continue to be allowed to do so until the formal withdrawal can be completed in 2020.
At the Bonn talks, called COP23 in the UN jargon, countries are hoping to come up with a roadmap to meet the goals set out in the Paris agreement. In 2015, countries agreed to hold rising temperatures to no more than 2C, which scientists say is the limit of safety, beyond which the ravages of climate change are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.
Such a roadmap must include ways to toughen the promises on curbing greenhouse gas emissions that countries made in Paris. The Paris pledges are not in themselves enough to satisfy the 2C limit, and if left unchanged would lead to a 3C rise in temperatures, according to studies. A 3C rise would mean far higher sea level rises, heatwaves and droughts afflicting large swaths of the globe and making agriculture impossible in those areas, while devastating floods would increase in other areas.
To meet the Paris goals, countries will have to ratchet up their commitments on emissions reductions, which will be a difficult negotiation. Scientific advice at the Bonn conference has been clear, however: this year is likely to be the third warmest on record, confirming a warming trend that bears the fingerprints of human activity affecting the global climate.
Syria’s decision was largely symbolic, given the country’s disarray, and follows a similar announcement before the Bonn talks by the only other holdout on the Paris accord, Nicaragua.
| Sign Agreement | November 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Files regarding Sweden's sexual indecency charges against Julian Assange are leaked on the Internet. | By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: 14:05 BST, 5 February 2011 Swedish police documents on the Julian Assange sex cases have been leaked online. More than one hundred pages of interview transcripts, photographs and other evidence relating to sexual assault claims made by two Swedish women appeared on the internet this week.
The documents raise key questions for both sides about the allegations including whether one of the WikiLeaks founder's Swedish lovers was asleep during intercourse. Those answers will determine whether rape was committed under Swedish law.
Leak: Police files on sex allegations against Julian Assange were leaked on the internet
The 39-year-old Australian denies any wrongdoing in separate encounters with two Swedish women last summer, and is fighting Swedish attempts to have him extradited from Britain to face questioning in the cases. He will appear in court in London on Monday and Tuesday in that extradition case.
In leaked police documents that emerged this week on the Internet, the Swedish woman accusing Assange of rape woke up as he was having sex with her, but let him continue even though she knew he wasn't wearing a condom. She says she insisted that Assange wear a condom when they had sex in her apartment in the Swedish city of Enkoping on Aug. 16, and that he reluctantly agreed. The incident labeled as rape happened the next morning, when the woman claims she was woken up by Assange having unprotected sex with her.
'She immediately asked: 'Are you wearing anything?' and he answered 'You,'' according to a police summary of her deposition. 'She said to him 'You better don't have HIV' and he answered 'Of course not.' She felt it was too late. He was already inside her and she let him continue.'
Waiting game: Mr Assange, pictured inside a police vehicle last December, faces extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sex case
Having sex with a sleeping person can be considered rape in Sweden, but the details in the leaked transcript could explain why different prosecutors have made different assessments of the incident.
One Stockholm prosecutor threw out the rape case altogether. A more senior prosecutor later reinstated it, and asked for Assange's extradition from Britain so she could question him in the case.
It's unclear who leaked the police documents, some of which have been publicly released before but with key portions blocked out. It's also not clear which side the full police documents would help more.
'Frazzled': Bradley Manning, the Army private accused of leaking material to WikiLeaks, is said to be struggling in maximum confinement in Virginia
'It is a complicating factor that this person when she wakes up in one way or another gives her consent,' said Nils-Petter Ekdahl, a judge and expert on Sweden's sex crimes legislation. 'Does the consent also apply to what happened when one was sleeping? This question has not been tested by the justice system.'
The documents included a cover letter signed by Assange's Swedish lawyer, Bjoern Hurtig.
'I can just say that I sent them to my client through his lawyer in London. But how it ended up on the Internet I don't know,' Hurtig said. 'It's incredibly unfortunate.'
Assange is also accused of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion against another Swedish woman with whom he had sex in the same week. The leaked documents show she accuses him of deliberately damaging a condom during consensual sex, which he denies.
Assange met both women in connection with a seminar he gave on free speech in Stockholm after he and WikiLeaks made headlines around the world with the release of thousands of secret U.S. military documents on the war in Afghanistan.
His supporters say the allegations are trumped up and possibly politically motivated, charges that the women's lawyers have denied.
WikiLeaks has deeply angered the U.S. and other governments by publishing tens of thousands of secret military documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as a massive trove of U.S. diplomatic cables. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2011 | ['(The Daily Mail)'] |
South Sudan says the capture of the disputed Abyei region is a "declaration of war". | Updated: May 22, 2011 20:30
JUBA, Sudan: Northern Sudan's seizure of a contested border region is an act of war, a spokesman for the Southern Sudanese Army said Sunday, raising fears that fighting over the town could re-ignite a civil war between the north and south.
A minister from the northern government said Sunday the northern army has taken control of the disputed Abyei region and is clearing it of armed forces from the south. "The Sudanese armed forces control Abyei and are cleansing it of illegal forces," Amin Hassan Omar, a minister of state for presidential affairs, told reporters after meeting a delegation of the UN Security Council in Khartoum.
He said the northern army had acted only after the southern army had recently moved unauthorized forces into the disputed region in repeated violation of the 2005 peace agreement. "The government is committed to the peace agreement but the southern army wanted to enforce a unilateral solution," he said.
The United Nations had said earlier that the northern army deployed 15 tanks alone in one area of the main town, also called Abyei.
The southern army (SPLA) said it had pulled out all forces of Abyei town after northern forces took control of it but was worried about the fate of other troops and civilians fleeing the region.
"We didn't declare war," said southern army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer. "The National Congress Party (Sudan's ruling party) and the Sudan Armed Forces declared war on us."
Southern Sudan fought the north for more than two decades in a brutal war that claimed more than 2 million lives and forced more than 4 million people to flee their homes. A peace deal in 2005 offered the south the chance for independence and it overwhelmingly voted to secede in a January referendum. It is due to become the world's newest country in less than two months but the Abyei violence threatens to further destabilize an already volatile region.
Aguer called for the UN "to protect the people of Abyei," saying that the northern government intends to "displace civilians and commit human rights violations as they did in Darfur." Several members of the Abyei government were missing, he said.
| Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(Arab News)'] |
General John Abizaid, head of the United States Central Command, tells the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services that he is optimistic that "we can stabilize Iraq." | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Wednesday he is optimistic that "we can stabilize Iraq."
Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, rejected a call from some Democrats for a phased redeployment of forces beginning in four to six months.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Abizaid said such a move would result in an increase in sectarian violence.
Among the Democrats proposing a phased redeployment is Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, who is in line to replace Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia as chairman of the committee in January.
"It seems to me that the prudent course ahead is keep the troop levels about where they are," Abizaid told the committee. The current force of about 141,000 troops is making progress, he said. (Watch Abizaid discuss troop levels in Iraq -- 1:43)
"While sectarian violence remains high and worrisome, it's certainly not as bad as the situation appeared back in August," Abizaid said.
Also rejecting calls for a phased troop reduction was Ambassador David Satterfield, the State Department's senior adviser on Iraq.
"It would be interpreted as a withdrawal of U.S. support," Satterfield told the committee. Abizaid would not be pinned to any timetable for withdrawal. He said commanders were considering options that range "from increasing our U.S. combat forces all the way down to withdrawing our U.S. combat forces."
But he said it might be possible to increase "the pace of transition" to bring forward what has been envisioned as a 12- to 18-month transition to Iraqi control.
The key to success, he said, will be for U.S. forces to help the Iraqi military and police -- through embedding -- to create a stable environment so Iraqis do not seek safety from militias. "It is possible that we might have to go up in troop levels in order to increase the number of forces that go into the Iraqi security forces, but I believe that is only temporary," Abizaid said.
Abizaid's appearance before the Senate panel was the first congressional appearance by a commander since the midterm elections and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The testimony came on the same week Abizaid met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad, telling him the Iraqi government must quickly take more responsibility for security. The question of Iraq security was profoundly illustrated this week as dozens of Iraqis were kidnapped from a research institute on Tuesday.
Also on the same day, a car bomb killed 12 people and wounded 33 in Baghdad. Abizaid acknowledged the U.S. effort to push Iraqis into security roles has faced major challenges.
He confirmed reports that police in Anbar province -- where 40 U.S. troops were killed last month -- have not been paid for three months.
"People in Sunni areas are not being paid in order to advance the sectarian agenda," he said.
But the two key centers in the province, Ramadi and Falluja, are in good shape, he said.
Despite such issues, the addition of more American forces would simply impede Iraqis from taking responsibility for their own future, Abizaid said.
Asked again whether more troops are needed, the general responded, "We do need more troops and the more troops we need are Iraqis." Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a possible presidential candidate who has called for more troops in Iraq, accused Abizaid of simply supporting the status quo.
McCain asked whether the general really believes U.S. troop strength is sufficient to accomplish his aims.
The general acknowledged the military could send 20,000 more troops to help stabilize Baghdad, but said he is not prepared to recommend such a commitment.
Such a move would achieve only "a temporary effect," he said, and further strain an already stretched military.
"The ability to sustain that commitment is simply not something that we have right now, with the size of the Army and the Marine Corps," he said.
Abizaid also responded to questions from McCain and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida about the situation in Anbar province, considered one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq and an area where al Qaeda in Iraq is active.
"Al-Anbar province is not under control," Abizaid told McCain.
"Al-Anbar province is critical, but more critical than al-Anbar province is Baghdad. Baghdad's the main military effort," Abizaid told Nelson. "That's where our military resources will go."
"There will be some hard things on the horizon," Abizaid told the senators. "We'll have to do something in al-Anbar province. We'll have to commit forces to deal with the Mehdi Army.
"Each of those things will be battles in and of themselves that we can win if we set the right political and military conditions. And I sincerely believe we can do that."
The Mehdi Army is the militia of Muslim Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The unpopularity of the conflict was underscored by Satterfield's response to a question about whether the United States has attempted to recruit police from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Persian Gulf region.
"I don't think the willingness exists," Satterfield said.
Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York expressed impatience with the war, which began in March 2003 and has resulted in more than 2,800 U.S. deaths and thousands more Iraqis.
"Hope is not a strategy," she told the witnesses. "Hortatory talk about what the Iraqi government must do is getting old. ... The brutal fact is it is not happening." Satterfield and Abizaid both rejected the possibility of solving the conflict by dividing the country into three parts -- one for Shiites, one for Sunnis and the third for Kurds -- as has been suggested by some pundits.
"There is no easy map that can be drawn ... that would not involve death and suffering," Satterfield said. "This is simply not an option. It's not a practical option; it's not a moral option."
Abizaid went further, saying such a move would create an area "where al Qaeda would have safe haven and exploit terror to surrounding territories."
In addition, any Shiite state would be subject to domination by Iran, he said.
As the hearing closed, Abizaid urged the politicians not to consider the situation to be worse than it is.
"When I come to Washington, I feel despair," he said. "When I'm in Iraq with my commanders, when I talk to my soldiers and Iraqi leadership, they are not despairing." He added, "I believe that we must stick with them until such time that they show us that they can't do it. ... Those among us who fight bet on the Iraqis, and as long as they're confident, I'm confident."
| Famous Person - Give a speech | November 2006 | ['(CNN)'] |
The United States Air Force launches a small shock and awe bombing raid using F-35 and F-15 Eagle warplanes on the ISIL-occupied Qanus Island in Iraq's Saladin Governorate, dropping 36,000 kg of explosives. The small island was being used by ISIL as a "major transit hub", according to the U.S.-led coalition. | US warplanes have dropped 40 tonnes of explosives on an island in northern Iraq to annihilate an Islamic State hideout.
F-15 and F-35 fighter jets were used in the joint operation between US-led coalition forces and the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service, which targeted Qanus Island in the Tigris River.
Footage of the attack on IS - also known as Daesh and ISIS - was released by the coalition in a tweet, saying: "Here's what it looks like when @USAFCENT #F15 and #F35 jets drop 36,000 Kg of bombs on a Daesh infested island."
It showed aerial views of the mile-and-a-half-long island before, during and after its obliteration.
The island lit up as several dozens of bombs were dropped in quick succession, creating large explosions which unleashed huge plumes of fire and smoke into the sky.
Soldiers and military vehicles could also be seen on the ground, against the backdrop of the airstrikes.
Based on the footage, the island did not appear to be inhabited, but areas on either side of the river, on the mainland, appeared to be settled. It is unclear if civilians were moved before the attack.
Major General Eric T Hill said: "We're denying Daesh the ability to hide on Qanus Island.
"We're setting the conditions for our partner forces to continue bringing stability to the region."
Follow-on ground clearance operations are currently being led by the 2nd Iraqi Special Operations Forces Battalion to destroy a major transit hub for IS fighters moving from Syria and the Jazeera desert into Mosul, Makhmour and the Kirkuk region.
In February, US President Donald Trump said coalition forces had "liberated virtually all of the territory previously held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq".
However, elements of the group remain active and it has been tied to numerous incidents in Iraq since.
The attack took place on the same day as Mr Trump announced that he had sacked his national security adviser John Bolton.
Mr Bolton - who was a strong supporter of the 2003 Iraq war - gave his own version of events, saying he had resigned. | Armed Conflict | September 2019 | ['(The Independent)', '(Sky News)'] |
Experts and officials from Interpol and 19 countries met Tuesday in Burkina Faso to elaborate a strategy to combat terrorism and crime in Africa. Countries participating included France, the United States, Britain, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Benin, Burundi, Togo and Mauritania. | Nouakchott - Experts and officials from Interpol and 19 countries on Tuesday elaborated a strategy to combat terrorism and crime in Africa that envisages joint cross-border operations and better sharing of information.
The countries pledged to undertake "joint cross-border operations to better fight against the menace of terrorism and crime" in Africa, they said in a statement after the two-day meeting.
They also called on countries to share intelligence with an international task force against terrorists.
Those attending the meeting included France, the United States, Britain, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Benin, Burundi, Togo and Mauritania. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2004 | ['(Independent Online)'] |
Stephen Paddock's former neighbors in Reno, Nevada, describe him as having a possible gambling problem. | Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock's former neighbors in Reno, Nevada, say the reclusive resident had a gambling problem, a large safe in his garage, avoided saying hello to them and often left for six months at a time with his girlfriend, Marilou Danley.
"Wow," said Darline McKay, who lived next to Paddock for two and a half years when Paddock and Danley lived in Reno as recently as July. "I knew he was a professional gambler. Now I wonder if he was keeping guns in that safe."
McKay and her husband, John, noticed an "enormous" safe when Paddock opened his garage door and found it strange. She called the pair recluses but said she used to chat with Danley when the two pulled weeds in their front yards.
"He never put his head up, never said hello," she said. "And I thought, How could Marilou be married to somebody like that?"
Harold Allred, another Reno neighbor, said the couple spent a lot of time away from home. "Danley spent a lot of time in L.A. with her daughter," he told Newsweek.
Stephen Paddock's brother, Eric Paddock, told CBS on Monday that the gunman had "no religious affiliation. No political affiliation. He just hung out." And he denied that Paddock had a history of mental illness.
"He gambled. He was nice to my kids when they went out to Vegas. My kids didn't know him that well. He lives on the other coast and that kind of thing. He sends his mom cookies," the younger Paddock said.
The gunman and his girlfriend moved around constantly, and public records show they had properties in Arkansas, Nevada, California and Texas over the past few decades. Paddock had a pilot's license since at least 2004 and two registered aircraft, according to public records. He has also held hunting and fishing licenses. He acted as manager of an apartment complex in Las Vegas, and was an auditor for defense and aerospace company Lockheed Martin. His home in Mesquite, Nevada, in a golfing and retirement community, was worth $350,000.
Police said Paddock had a gambling problem, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that he sued the Cosmopolitan, a casino on the Las Vegas Strip, for negligence in 2012. He claimed he "slipped and fell on an obstruction on the floor" and suffered injuries as a result of the "dangerous condition." Both sides agreed to drop the lawsuit in October 2014.
Police said Paddock killed himself on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas after he fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition at a crowd of 22,000 people at a concert below on Sunday night. The mass shooting, which left at least 58 dead, was the deadliest in U.S. history. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2017 | ['(Newsweek)'] |
The head of the fourth largest coalition in the Iraqi parliament, Harith al–Obeidi, is assassinated in west Baghdad. | The head of Iraq's Sunni parliamentary bloc has been assassinated at a mosque in the capital, in an attack that has killed at least four other people.
Harith al-Obaidi, a human-rights advocate, was shot as he left a mosque in the Yarmouk area of western Baghdad. Iraqi police said a teenager carried out the attack. He was shot dead by a guard as he tried to escape. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said violence is likely to increase before Iraq's general election next year. Mr Obaidi was the leader of Iraq's Accordance Front. A university professor with a doctorate in Islam, he had just finished delivering the sermon at Friday prayers. Iraqi police said the youth opened fire as worshippers began to leave the mosque, killing Mr Obaidi and one of his body guards. He then threw a hand grenade to cover his escape, causing further casualties. The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says the assumption will be that this attack was carried out by insurgents from Mr Obeidi's own Sunni community, who have often targeted Sunnis involved with the government. | Famous Person - Death | June 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Avian flu virus H5N8 outbreaks are reported in birds in India, Germany, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and several other European nations. The World Health Organization advised on 17 November that human infection is possible, but unlikely, based on information available. | PARIS (Reuters) - India has reported an outbreak of a highly contagious bird flu virus in the southwestern state of Karnataka, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Friday, citing a report from the Indian agriculture ministry.
The H5N8 virus was confirmed among birds in the village of Itagi, and all 1,593 of the birds at risk from the disease died or were culled, according to the report posted by the Paris-based OIE.
No details were given on the type of birds or location involved.
The H5N8 bird flu strain has been found in several countries in Europe and the Middle East in recent weeks, leading some states to order poultry flocks to be kept indoors.
Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Bate Felix
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Disease Outbreaks | November 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)', '(Business Insider)', '(Agriland)', '(Phys.org)', '(WHO)'] |
Greece scores their first goal in FIFA World Cup history against Nigeria and beats them 2 to 1. | Greece has won its first ever World Cup finals match in Bloemfontein, emerging a 2-1 victor over 10-man Nigeria in a spiky encounter.
The game came to life spectacularly after a moment of madness from Nigerian winger Sani Kaita, who was red-carded after lashing out at Vasilis Torosidis when the pair came together contesting the ball.
Kaita's dismissal allowed a cagey Greece to come out of its shell and with its World Cup ambitions on the line, its newfound initiative paid historic dividends.
Georgos Samaras had a first-half effort hacked off the line by Lukman Haruna, before Dimitrios Salpingidis made the pressure pay with an outside-the-box finish that took a wicked deflection on its way in.
Nigeria was earlier coasting after opening the scoring with Kalue Uche's freekick, which made a fool of Greek 'keeper Alexandros Tzorvas.
Tzorvas jumped completely the wrong way as the ball missed everyone in the box to sail into an empty net.
The moment which will live in Greek memories came on 71 minutes when, after a flurry of corners, Greece finally made the pressure pay.
A headed clearance found Alexandros Tziolis, whose rasping shot was spilled by Enyeama, leaving the lurking Torosidis with an easy finish to give Greece the lead.
It was cruel on Enyeama, who had moments earlier kept out a Samaras header in spectacular fashion, flinging himself to his left for a dramatic stop.
Enyeama was again involved one of the moments of the match. Joseph Yobo's misplaced header put a chance for Theofanis Gekas on a plate, but his stab was brilliantly saved by the Nigeria stopper.
Nigeria broke from that very save, as a telling pass found Yakubu up the pitch, who forced a brilliant save from Tzorvas and Chinedu Ogbuke failed to finish off the rebound.
Tzorvas had earlier kept Greece in the game when he palmed over Uche's deft cross from inside the box.
Greece closed out the game peppering Enyeama's goal from distance, as Nigeria struggled to get the ball out of their own half.
Greece will in all likelihood need a win against Argentina to progress to the knockout rounds, while Nigeria will need a big win over South Korea, coupled with a Greek loss.
Greece: 2 (D Salpingidis 44', V Torosidis 71')
Nigeria: 1 (K Uche 16')
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Sports Competition | June 2010 | ['(Fifa World Cup)', '(ABC Online)', '(Reuters Africa)'] |
The Israel Defense Forces again open fire with tear gas and live ammunition on Palestinian protesters, following 6 weeks of protests. One person is killed and 146 others wounded, with some protesters throwing stones and burning tyres. | A Palestinian has been killed and hundreds more have been wounded amid fresh violence at the final Friday protest in six weeks of demonstrations at Gaza's border with Israel.
Israeli soldiers fired live bullets and tear gas as activists across the frontier fences burned tyres and threw stones. The clashes broke out days before weeks of protests, aimed at ending a decade-old blockade of Gaza, culminate in a planned mass march expected to involve tens of thousands of people.
At least 146 protesters were wounded by live fire, seven of them critically, including a 16-year-old boy who was shot in the head, Gaza health officials said. Dozens more were overcome by tear gas.
It comes after Save the Children said more than 250 children had been shot by the Israeli army during the six previous Friday demonstrations.
Forty-four Palestinian protestors have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded by Israeli army fire since the weekly protests led by Gaza's ruling group Hamas began in late March.
Israel has faced international condemnation over its response to the demonstrations, but says it has the right to defend its borders. It insisted its gunmen only targeted the "main instigators" of violence and protesters who approach the border fences.
There are fears of further casualties after the leader of Hamas in the Gaza strip hinted that thousands of Palestinians could breach the border fence at Monday's march.
Comparing the enclave’s people to a “starving tiger”, Yahya Sinwar said: “What’s the problem if hundreds of thousands storm this fence which is not a border of a state? What’s the problem with that?“ Israel has warned it will prevent any border breach during the protests, which are part of a campaign to break the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
The six weeks of demonstrations will come to and end with a large-scale protest planned for Tuesday, when Palestinians mark their "nakba," or catastrophe, referring to their mass uprooting during the Middle-Eastern war over Israel's 1948 creation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out or fled homes in what is now Israel, and more than two-thirds of current Gaza residents are descendants of refugees.On Friday, thousands of protesters gathered in five tent camps set up weeks ago, each several hundred metres from the border. From there, smaller groups moved closer to the border fence. One man was shot dead while protesting east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said medics.
Israeli soldiers fired live rounds and volleys of tear gas. Witnesses said Israeli forces on the other side of the fence had added reinforcements, including cement slabs, as protective cover. In recent weeks, soldiers have fired from behind sand berms.
More than 500 children have been injured during the border protests, more than half of them wounded by live bullets, according to Save the Children's analysis of data from the Palestinian health ministry.
Four children have been killed, including 14-year-old Mohammad Ayyoub, whose shooting prompted condemnation and demands for an investigation from the United Nations (UN) and European Union. Children wounded by Israeli gunfire include a 16-year-old track athlete whose leg was amputated after being shot, Save the Children said.
"We are deeply concerned by the high number of children who have been hit by live ammunition and we agree with the High Commissioner for Human Rights that this could suggest an excessive use of force and may amount to unlawful killing and maiming,” said Jennifer Moorehead, the charity's director for occupied Palestine territory.
She added: "We support the UN secretary-general’s call for independent investigations to be carried out and any perpetrators to be held to account. We strongly urge all protests to remain peaceful, and call on all sides to tackle the long-term causes of this conflict and promote dignity and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.” UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has called for an "independent and transparent investigation" into the killings, while the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said a "staggering number" of injuries had been caused by live ammunition.
Israel accused Hamas of using children as human shields in the protests, which it claimed were a front for attacks.
Save the Children said its workers had seen children who had been repeatedly shot in the legs, arms and chest by Israeli forces. Victims also faced rapidly deteriorating conditions in hospitals, the charity warned.
“Gaza has been under an Israeli air, sea and land blockade for more than 10 years and has suffered three wars from which it has never fully recovered,” said Ms Moorehead.
Palestinian officials have announced that Egypt will open its border with Gaza for four days from Saturday. Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing point, Gaza's main gate to the outside world, closed most of the time since the Hamas takeover to reinforce Israel's blockade.
Egypt opens the crossing from time to time, mainly to allow people in special categories, including medical patients and Gaza residents studying abroad, to leave the territory or return.
The upcoming opening was framed as a humanitarian gesture ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins next week.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2018 | ['(The Independent)'] |
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that movie theatres in New York City can reopen with 25% capacity on March 5, in line with rules currently in place for locations in the rest of the state. | After nearly a year of closures, New York City cinemas will be permitted to open on March 5, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
Movie theaters in the city will be allowed to operate at 25% capacity, consistent with rules currently in place for locations in the rest of New York State.
The movie theater announcement follows a recent series of moves the governor has made over the past few weeks to reopen the state’s economy. Large New York City arenas like Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden are preparing to welcome a limited number of fans for live basketball games beginning Tuesday.
Last week, Cuomo said indoor family entertainment centers, such as arcades, trampoline parks and laser tag facilities, could reopen beginning March 26 and outdoor amusement parks will be able to return April 9 at limited capacity.
“Governor Cuomo’s announcement that movie theatres can reopen in New York City in the first week of March is another important step towards restoring the health of the movie theatre industry and of our company,” said Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, in a statement.
Aron said the company will reopen all 13 of its New York City theaters on March 5.
Notably, March 5 also marks the day that Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” becomes available in theaters and on Disney+ and Lionsgate’s “Chaos Walking” hits cinemas. Later in March, Warner Bros.′ “Godzilla v. Kong” will also make its debut.
“Movie theaters in New York will be brought in line with the rest of the state: 25% capacity; no more than 50 people per screening; masks; assigned seating; social distancing; staff to control occupancy, traffic and seating to ensure compliance,” Cuomo said. “They need the enhanced air filtration, ventilation and purification standards that DOH has specified.”
Cuomo has repeatedly said the state has seen the end of its post-holiday coronavirus spike while simultaneously warning the emergence of highly contagious virus strains, like the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in the U.K., could derail the state’s progress and reverse its downward trend in cases.
New York is reporting a weekly average of 7,400 Covid-19 cases daily, a more than 13% decline compared with a week ago and the state’s lowest average since the beginning of December, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“Theater owners are pleased with the announcement that New York City movie theaters will be allowed to safely re-open,” the National Association of Theatre Owners said in a statement. “Stringent voluntary health and safety protocols have made it possible for cinemas across the country to operate safely and responsibly at higher capacity limits for many months without a single outbreak of COVID-19 being traced to movie theaters.”
“New York City is a major market for moviegoing in the U.S.; re-opening there gives confidence to film distributors in setting and holding their theatrical release dates, and is an important step in the recovery of the entire industry,” the group, which represents more than 33,000 movie screens in the U.S.
New York City is a vitally important hub for movie ticket sales. There are nearly 300 cinemas in New York state, but the key geographic metric that analysts are focused on is New York’s designated market area, or DMA.
This is an area surrounding New York City that includes part of Connecticut and New Jersey and excludes cinemas north of Albany and west of Cooperstown. Within this DMA are 234 cinemas that represent 7.4% of the total domestic box office, according to Comscore.
That is the second-highest driver of ticket sales in the U.S., just behind the Los Angeles DMA, which accounts for 8.9%.
New York City has above-average ticket prices and population density, meaning it generates more money for the industry than other areas of the United States and Canada. That’s one of the reasons studios have been keen to push films along the calendar and wait for New York theaters to reopen to the public.
The city also had massive advertising penetration. Movies that perform well in the city generate buzz that helps sell tickets in other parts of the country.
Not to mention, New York City is symbolically important because it is one of the places where there are a high concentration of Hollywood producers, directors and actors living in the area. | Government Policy Changes | February 2021 | ['(CNBC)'] |
Former Ethiopian minister of communication Bereket Simon is sentenced to six years in prison for corruption and mismanagement of public funds. | ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An Ethiopian court on Friday convicted a former cabinet minister on corruption charges and sentenced him to six years in prison.
The conviction comes amid a push by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to crack down on corruption in the public sector. Several former senior government officials and executives of state-owned enterprises have already been arrested and jailed.
Bereket Simon was minister of communication from 1995 to 2012 under then prime minister Meles Zenawi and was widely considered to be his right-hand man.
Bereket co-founded the Amhara region’s public investment fund, TIRET Corporation, which he led until 2017. TIRET owns companies in the brewing, construction, transport and logistics sectors.
He was arrested last year on suspicion of mismanagement of public funds while he was heading the fund.
Bereket was found guilty on two counts, of corruption and mismanagement of the institution, court spokesman Tazebachew Tassie said.
The court in Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara, also convicted Tadesse Kassa, a former TIRET board member, on the same charges.
Lawyers for Bereket and Tadesse could not immediately be reached for comment.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Eight people are killed and nine others wounded in a fire at an illegal hostel in Riga, Latvia. | Eight people have been killed and several others seriously hurt in a fire at an illegal hostel in the Latvian capital Riga, officials say.
Firefighters were called to an apartment on the top floor of a six-storey building in the city's Merkela Street in the early hours of Wednesday.
At least 24 people were evacuated from the burning building, some suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
Most of the victims are believed to be foreign tourists, Riga's mayor said. Mayor Martins Stakis said the apartment, located near the main railway station, was within a state building and did not have permission from the authorities to be used as a hostel.
He told reporters that police were asking for help to identify the victims and that "specialists have been employed to help with the language barrier". He added that alternative accommodation was being provided to anyone affected. Latvia's deputy police chief, Andrejs Grishins, said that in addition to the eight fatalities, "nine were injured during the lethal fire in the hostel". The State Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said firefighters were called to the address at 04:43 local time (01:43 GMT) on Wednesday to find the building's top floor and roof on fire - an area, it said, of about 250 sq m.
The SFRS said the area was cleared and roads were closed while rescue operations were under way, but that efforts were hindered because the apartment door was reinforced and required a key code to open. It said the fire was brought under control shortly after 08:00 and was eventually extinguished at 12:10. Earlier this year, the SFRS asked the owner of the property on Merkela Street to provide information that fire safety regulations were being met, Latvia's national public broadcaster lsm.lv reported. It said that no information was provided and that fire inspectors were refused access to the building. Mr Stakis tweeted on Wednesday that police had received "information about drug use [and] non-compliance with Covid regulations" at the location, which had previously been reported for inspection by residents. A criminal investigation is under way. | Fire | April 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
Anti–Putin protesters in St. Petersburg, a part of the Dissenters March coalition, are beaten by Russian police. | ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Riot police wielding batons beat, kicked and chased anti-Kremlin protesters through the heart of St. Petersburg on Sunday, a day after Russian authorities snuffed out a similar rally in Moscow.
The use of force used by riot police and the detention of hundreds of activists have drawn criticism from the West.
Sunday's violence began when about 500 demonstrators calling for the resignation of President Vladimir Putin moved towards a metro station after an officially permitted protest ended.
Police wearing crash helmets and armed with full-length metal shields and rubber truncheons moved into the crowd, a mixture of people from students to old women.
Police arrested some protesters, pushed others to the ground where they kicked and hit them with their batons and some chased individuals through the streets.
"Stop the beating," demonstrators shouted at the police. "Fascists. How much did Putin pay you?"
The police herded about 150 protesters into police vans, and continued to hit some of them with batons inside. The city authorities had allowed the protesters to hold a meeting, but had banned the march.
Opponents of Putin, acting under the umbrella organization Other Russia, planned two rallies over the weekend. Authorities banned the main rally on Saturday in Moscow and detained several hundred protesters there, including former world chess champion Garry Kasparov.
Kasparov said the recent heavy-handed policing showed the authorities contempt for democracy.
"The last two days show that Putin's regime doesn't pay any attention to legalities, it relies just upon brute force," he told CNN International.
Other Russia brings together Kremlin opponents from across the political spectrum, from liberals to communists. They say Putin has trampled on democratic freedoms and they demand a free and fair presidential election in 2008.
DETENTIONS
But Other Russia has only marginal influence as the vast majority of Russians support Putin, whose seven years in power have been marked by huge oil and commodity wealth and the return of national pride after the chaotic post-Soviet 1990s.
Sunday's rally in St. Petersburg attracted about 3,000 people. The mobile phone network had been blocked and police trucks mounted with water cannon were parked in side streets.
"Freedom!" the protesters shouted. "Putin is the enemy of the people."
The leader of the left-wing National Bolshevik party, Eduard Limonov addressed the crowd: "Our demand is the resignation of the government and the president and free and fair elections this year and next."
Police later detained him at a St. Petersburg apartment.
Earlier police detained dozens of protesters heading towards the rally, organizers said.
"Police detained me as soon as I left my house this morning," rally organizer Olga Kurnosova, leader of Kasparov's political party in St. Petersburg, told Reuters by telephone from police custody.
In March riot police used batons to break up a march by Putin opponents who blocked one of St. Petersburg's main roads. | Riot | April 2007 | ['(Reuters)', '(National Post)'] |
Burmese security forces raid several Buddhist monasteries arresting hundreds of the Buddhist monks who have led the protests. | Police are reported to have fired shots at demonstrators. Witnesses said at least one person collapsed. Witnesses said soldiers stormed six monasteries overnight, smashing windows and doors and beat the sleeping monks. About 200 Buddhist monks were reported to have been detained during raids on two monasteries in Rangoon.
As protests resumed, only a small number of monks could be seen among the crowd. Many of the protesters were heard chanting nationalist songs.
Two members of the National League for Democracy, the party led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were also arrested overnight.
There were also reports of raids in the north-east of the country.
The arrests come a day after five people were reported to have been killed when police broke up protests by monks and civilians. The military government has confirmed one death.
In Rangoon, security forces have set up barbed wire barricades around Shwedagon Pagoda and Rangoon city hall, two of the focal points for the demonstrations.
The junta are using dirty tactics - they don't fire guns but beat people with rifle butts | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2007 | ['(BBC)', '(AP and Reuters via Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
The United States Treasury Department spends US$125 billion of its $700 billion bailout fund on nine banks, some of whom had argued that they did not need the money. | WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department has made the first payments from the $700 billion rescue fund, a total of $125 billion in stock purchases from nine major financial institutions.
Treasury officials on Wednesday released a report on the payments, showing that the $125 billion in purchases of bank stock were made on Tuesday. The program is designed to inject fresh capital into the nation's banks as a way to encourage them to resume more normal lending.
The report showed that the payments included $25 billion each to Citigroup Inc. (C, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC, Fortune 500) Bank of America Corp. (BAC, Fortune 500) received $15 billion andMerrill Lynch & Co. (MER, Fortune 500), which is being acquired by Bank of America, got $10 billion. Bank of New York Mellon (BK, Fortune 500) received $3 billion and State Street Corp. (STT, Fortune 500) of Boston got $2 billion.
Two large investment banks, which converted to bank holding companies during the upheavals on Wall Street last month, also got support. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) also received $10 billion each.
The nine major banks were called to a meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Oct. 13 where he convinced them to participate in the program even though some of the institutions argued that they did not need the money being supplied by the government.
Paulson wanted major banks to be unified in participation as a way to remove any stigma from the program. The government has begun striking deals with major regional banks, and the goal is to have another $125 billion distributed to potentially thousands of banks by the end of this year, all in an effort to bolster the banks' reserves so they will increase their lending.
On Tuesday, Treasury officials informed representatives of non-publicly traded banks, a group that covers about 6,000 of the nation's 8,500 banks, that they will also be able to participate in the program. Officials said they were moving to modify the contracts so that institutions without publicly traded stock would be able to submit applications.
The government also is being petitioned by a number of other industries, from auto companies to insurance firms, in a bid to get a part of the $700 billion bailout package.
The announcement Wednesday represented the government's first acknowledgment of the names of the banks and the amounts of money they were receiving, although the institutions had separately disclosed that information after their meeting with Paulson. | Financial Aid | October 2008 | ['(CNN)'] |
A De Havilland Otter air taxi crashes near the Soldotna Airport in Soldotna, Alaska, killing all ten on board. | A locally owned charter plane crashed in Soldotna late Sunday morning killing all 10 aboard, including the pilot, according to authorities.
The single-engine De Havilland Otter, registered to Rediske Air, Inc. of Nikiski had nine passengers and one pilot aboard when the accident happened at Soldotna’s Municipal Airport, authorities said.
National Transportation and Safety Board spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said that information coming into his office Sunday was conflicting and unclear if the plane was landing or taking off at the time of the incident, he said.
Will Satathite, on hand at Rediske Air’s Nikiski office, confirmed Sunday afternoon that the aircraft was flown by Nikiski pilot Willy Rediske with nine passengers onboard. Rediske was president of the small aviation company centered on the Kenai Peninsula.
Satathite also said that Rediske Air, Inc. has an office at the Soldotna airport.
According to Megan Peters with the Alaska State Troopers, Soldotna police received a report of a plane crash at the Soldotna Airport located down Funny River Road shortly before 11:20a.m. Soldotna police, fire and medic personnel with Central Emergency Services and Alaska State Troopers responded to find the aircraft was fully engulfed in flames, which CES put out. Lunsford confirmed there were no survivors. Investigators from Anchorage were en route to Soldotna Sunday afternoon, he said. Since the crash was fatal, the NTSB will be in charge of the investigation upon their arrival, he said. Please Note: You may have disabled JavaScript and/or CSS. Although this news content will be accessible, certain functionality is unavailable. | Air crash | July 2013 | ['(Associated Press via ABC News)', '(Peninsula Clarion)'] |
Former Vice President of the Maldives Ahmed Adeeb is sentenced to 20 years prison and fined US$129,892 for corruption relating to the leasing of islands for hotel development. | Criminal Court charged Adeeb with embezzlement, money laundering and misuse of government authority among other offences.
A court in the Maldives has sentenced former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb to 20 years in prison for corruption charges related to leasing tropical islands for hotel development.
The 38-year-old, who pleaded guilty last month under a plea bargain, was also fined $129,892 on Monday.
The Maldives Criminal Court charged Adeeb with embezzlement, money laundering and misuse of government authority among other offences, according to an order of Judge Hassan Saeed.
According to an asset recovery commission formed by the current government, the islands in the popular holiday destination were sold below-market prices. As a result, the government lost nearly $259m.
In his statement to the court, Adeeb said he was ready to cooperate to recover the missing money.
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Last year, Maldivian police arrested Adeeb after he fled the Indian Ocean archipelago and sought asylum in India.
Adeeb, who became the Maldives’ youngest vice president in July 2015 at 33 years of age, suffered a spectacular fall from grace just months later following a mysterious blast on then-President Abdulla Yameen’s speedboat.
Yameen, who lost a 2018 presidential election and in 2019 was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering, escaped the explosion unharmed but his wife and two aides were injured.
Authorities in the Maldives swiftly moved to arrest Adeeb, and brought him to trial, first on charges of corruption relating to the theft of nearly $80m from state coffers from the lease of islands for tourism, and later on accusations of plotting to kill Yameen.
The following year, Adeeb was sentenced to a total of 33 years in jail in trials rights groups called unfair.
In May last year, an appeals court overturned the sentences against Adeeb and ordered retrials, citing political interference in the convictions. Prosecutors appealed the ruling in the money-laundering case, and the Supreme Court seized Adeeb’s passport pending a new decision.
He was released from house imprisonment in July 2019.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2020 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
World and Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam becomes the first female heptathlete ever to jump over 2 metres . In this year's heptathlon event at the Götzis, Austria, competition, she clears the bar at 2.01 m, also a season's best in women's high jump overall. | World and Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam from Belgium and Canada’s Damian Warner are the overnight leaders after the first day of the 44th edition of the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, the second leg of the 2018 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
Thiam tallied 4112 points, propelled by a 2.01m clearance in the high jump, the highest ever in heptathlon competition and an outright world lead. Warner, who is aiming to become the meeting’s fourth four-time winner, scored 4565 after winning the 100m in 10.31, the long jump with 7.81m and finishing second in the 400m in 47.72.
Erica Bougard from the US, this year’s Multistars winner and current world leader, won the 100m hurdles with a 12.80 PB in the fifth heat ahead of her compatriot Alex Gouchenour (13.23) and world silver medallist Carolin Schaefer (13.25). Running in the fourth heat, Thiam was edged by Allison Reaser, but both were credited with 13.45. For Thiam, it was the second-fastest performance of her career.
In the high jump, her favourite event, the 2017 World Athlete of the Year was on fire, topping 1.83m, 1.86m, 1.89m, 1.92m and 1.95m on her first attempt before clearing 2.01m on her second to improve the previous heptathlon best of 1.98m she held jointly with Katharina Johnson-Thompson of Great Britain. Points-wise, the clearance, good for 1251, is the second best result ever achieved in a heptathlon competition behind Jackie Joyner Kersee’s 7.27m in the long jump at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, a performance worth 1264 points.
She ended the event with three misses at 2.04m, just one centimetre less than the Belgian record held by Tia Hellebaut.
World indoor bronze medallist Yorgelis Rodriguez finished second at 1.86m, beating Bougard on countback. Thiam carried a 100-point lead over Bougard into the shot put, 2309 to 2209.
World bronze medallist Anouk Vetter won the shot put with a personal best of 15.91m to beat Thiam, who reached 15.29m, also a lifetime best. That effort extended her lead to 224 points over Rodriguez, who threw 14.95m, also a personal best. Bougard reached 13.02m to remain in the top three with 2938. Vetter, meanwhile, climbed from 14th to fourth.
Bougard clocked the fastest time in the 200m with 23.31 to overtake Rodriguez by 36 points to move back into second. Thiam, however, ended the first day with 4112 after clocking 24.61, the third best time of her career.
“It was a perfect first day despite the hot day,” said Thiam, who has in her sights Carolina Kluft’s European record of 7032 set at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. She is 56 points up on her first day total here from one year ago when she tallied 4056 en route to her 7013 performance, her first over the mighty 7000-point barrier.
“I don’t focus on the record. I set two PBs and we are only at the end of May. Last year I didn’t improve in the 100m hurdles and in the 200m in the first day. I had a very good feeling during the high jump. After clearing all the heights until 1.95m at the first attempt, I decided to skip 1.98m. I did not come here to reach the highest number of points but to test myself against the bar at 2.01m.”
Warner, the Olympic bronze medallist, got his campaign for a fourth Gotzis victory off to a flying start, clocking 10.31 in the 100m, the fastest of the day, beating German Rico Freimuth (10.59) and Zach Zemek of the US (10.65).
Warner went on to set a season’s best in the long jump with 7.81m to increase his lead over Freimuth to 163 points in the overall standing. Ziemek jumped 7.43m to stay in third place.
The Canadian then threw a season’s best of 14.83m in the shot put to maintain his lead over Freimuth. The German produced a best put of 14.88m to stay in second, 14 points ahead of recent Multistars winner Martin Roe, who reached 14.99m.
World indoor bronze medallist Maicel Uibo from Estonia won the high jump, topping 2.12m on his second attempt to move up from sixth to second overall. Warner cleared 2.03m to keep his lead. Another Estonian, Karol Tilga, finished second with 2.09m to move from seventh to third.
Kai Kazmirek clocked the fastest time in the 400m with 47.27, beating Warner who clocked 47.72. Warner ended the first day with 4565 points, 218 more than Kazmirek, who moved up from sixth into second place with 4347. Uibo ranks third after five events with 4295. | Sports Competition | May 2018 | ['(6\xa0ft 7\xa0in)', '(IAAF)'] |
Pakistani authorities announce they have arrested five suspected members of al-Qaeda in the eastern province of Punjab, as they are reported to have been planning an attack on security personnel. | LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan has arrested five suspected al Qaeda militants planning an attack on security personnel, authorities in the eastern state of Punjab said on Friday.
The raid in Gujranwala city hit an important media cell and financing network for the jihadists, Punjab’s counter-terrorism department said. Laptops with encrypted data, cell phones, a printing press, explosives, five Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and cash were found.
For years militants have held sway in remote northwestern regions on the Afghan border but some have also established networks in Punjab, Pakistan’s richest and most populous province.
“They were planning attack on law enforcement officials in Gujranwala,” the police statement added, without giving more details on the plot.
The Gujranwala group recently relocated from Karachi and was running al Qaeda’s media operations for the Indian subcontinent and sending funds to central leadership in Afghanistan, it added.
The Pakistan government says the number of militants in the country has decreased due to an army crackdown.
Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. operation in 2011 in Pakistan.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
In Gaelic football, Dublin defeat Kerry 1–18 to 0–15 in the 2019 All–Ireland Senior Football Championship Final replay to become the first male team in GAA history to win 5 All–Ireland titles in a row. | The impossible no longer impossible. The final undoable in the GAA has finally been done. Five in a row.
Dublin have put together five perfect seasons - something no other team in men's football or hurling has managed before. History made.
And with a five-point cushion in the closing stages Croke Park shook as their fans roared them home. The five minutes of added time announced was cheered like a goal and was like a victory lap.
Having survived a scare with 14 men in the drawn game 13 days previously, they slowly put Kerry to sleep in this one, using all of the know-how, experience, class and ability that has seen them win seven All-Ireland titles in the past nine seasons.
The Kingdom are definitely the next best team in the country and in all likelihood they will be the next team to beat Dublin in the Championship and the next team to lift Sam Maguire. They are young though and when the toughest of questions were posed at Croke Park here they hadn’t the answers - and that’s not to sell short a terrific side who gave so much in the month of September.
Is there six in Dublin? Only time will tell. They’re not at the peak of their powers, but they are still an awesome outfit. The greatest of their era for sure and up there with the true greats of any time.
Plenty of people have opinions on how this team was formed and the money that drives them, though those arguments should never take away from a group of individuals, on the field and on the line, who have broken down all the barriers.
From the kick-out Eoin Murchan nets for his first ever Championship score.
The closely guarded secrets which were both teams' line-outs were finally released to the public around 20 minutes before throw-in and there were two changes - on on each side.
Eoin Murchan, who did so well in the Dublin half-back line after his long-term introduction as a temporary replacement in the drawn game, started in place of Michael Darragh Macauley with James McCarthy moving forward into midfield.
On the Kerry side Diarmuid O’Connor came in a right wing-forward with Gavin White dropping to the bench having leaked 1-03 to man of the match the last day, the Dubs’ Jack McCaffrey.
An absorbing first half ended with the sides locked at ten points apiece, though in the early exchanges it was all one-way traffic as the blue Dublin wave crashed into the Hill 16 end.
After nine minutes they were 0-05 to 0-01 ahead and Paul Mannion dropped one short to keeper Shane Ryan. Such was their dominance at this stage that another point would have put real distance between the sides.
Kerry tried route one early on, bombing ball after ball into David Clifford and getting absolutely zero return. Mick Fitzsimons took over the marking duty on Clifford from Jonny Cooper, who played a spare man in defence having been sent off before half-time in the draw.
The Kingdom also tried a full-court press on Stephen Cluxton’s early kick-outs early, but the Dubs’ captain, just like the television ad, brings us the wonderful every day and he pinged the ball to his men, drawing appreciative applause from the crowd. After a while Kerry sat off and let Dublin go short and build.
After quarter of an hour or so the Green and Gold got wise and begun to run the ball and this is where they started to get joy, Clifford and Geaney both registering three from play before the break.
Con O’Callaghan and Ciarán Kilkenny got the same for the Boys in Blue and, in fact, all of their team’s scores before the break came from play. They weren't awarded a single scoreable free by referee Conor Lane, which was controversial on occasion, and didn’t hit a wide either in a remarkably efficient shooting display.
At the other end there was confusion when Lane appeared to black card Fitzsimons after Tom O'Sullivan was bundled over as he zeroed in on goals. It was later clarified that he was ticked, though the main issue was that Con O’Callaghan committed the foul, not his Cuala club mate.
The Dubs kept Kerry at arm’s length for most of the opening period, but the Kingdom got the last two scores before the break to draw them level.
Sensational counter-attacking point from Paul Geaney levels the game. Watch highlights on @rte2 from 10pm tonight #dubvker #rtegaa https://t.co/V80t8MYz5R pic.twitter.com/VviN1wGRlu
One of those scores came after McCaffrey was turned over on the attack, no foul was awarded though the ref went back after Kerry had subsequently scored to book Brian Ó Beaglaoich. McCaffrey stayed down injured and didn’t come out for the second half, replaced by Diarmuid Connolly.
The Dubs were four up inside 90 seconds, Murchan gathering the break ball from the throw-in and lancing straight through on target untouched, banging in a goal straight form the restart and O'Callaghan followed up with a point.
From here the four-time defending champions were always going to be hard to catch, given their experience and so it proved, no matter what Kerry tried.
Peter Keane on the line threw the kitchen sink at it, bringing on the likes of Tommy Walsh, James O’Donoghue, Jack Sherwood and Killian Spillane, but the momentum of this game wasn't to be shifted.
The air seemed to go out of Kerry little by little as leaders like Geaney and David Moran hit wides when there were better options on. This was a sign of a tiring team who had stood up so well to the Dubs’ for so long.
Mannion clearly didn’t have his shooting boots on, but he still added two to his total in the second half, Kilkenny kept the white flags waving as well as pulling the strings while James McCarthy and Niall Scully also chipped in with scores.
They turned over a few silly balls, but for the most part they were patient in holding onto possession, building pressure, creating chances and taking scores. In other words, it was a performance that typified the latter Jim Gavin era of Dublin dominance.
There is no one who could say that they weren’t the better team and they saw this one out with a degree of comfort.
Dublin: Stephen Cluxton; David Byrne (0-01), Michael Fitzsimons, Jonny Cooper; Jack McCaffrey, Eoin Murchan (1-00), John Small; Brian Fenton, James McCarthy (0-01); Niall Scully (0-01), Ciarán Kilkenny (0-04), Brian Howard; Paul Mannion (0-04), Con O'Callaghan (0-04), Dean Rock (0-03, 1 ’45').
Subs: Diarmuid Connolly for McCaffrey HT; Philly McMahon for Murchan 54 mins; Cormac Costello for Scully 57 mins;Cian O’Sullivan for Byrne 67 mins; Kevin McMamamon for Mannion 67 mins; Michael Darragh Macauley for Howard 73 mins.
Kerry: Shane Ryan; Jason Foley, Tadhg Morley, Tom O’Sullivan; Paul Murphy, Gavin Crowley, Brian Ó Beaglaoich; David Moran, Jack Barry; Diarmuid O’Connor, Seán O’Shea (0-05, 3f), Stephen O’Brien; David Clifford (0-05, 1f), Paul Geaney (0-04), Adrian Spillane (0-01).
Subs: Gavin White for Adrian Spillane 51 mins; Jack Sherwood for Ó Beaglaoich 51 mins; Tommy Walsh for O’Connor 54 mins; Killian Spillane for Murphy 59 mins; James O’Donoghue for Barry 64 mins; Dara Moynihan for Crowley 71 mins. | Sports Competition | September 2019 | ['(RTE)'] |
Iran announces it has launched a satellite launch–capable Safir rocket. | TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said it had put a dummy satellite into orbit on a home-grown rocket for the first time on Sunday -- a move likely to increase Western concerns about its nuclear ambitions.
The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into space can also be used for launching weapons, although Iran says it has no plans to do so.
“The Safir (Ambassador) satellite carrier was launched today and for the first time we successfully launched a dummy satellite into orbit,” Reza Taghizadeh, head of the Iranian Aerospace Organisation, told state television.
Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions, caused international concern in February by testing another domestically made rocket as part of its satellite program, the Explorer 1.
Iran said at the time it needed two more similar launches before putting a domestically made satellite into orbit.
France and Russia both said that test raised the suspicion that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Washington, has accused Iran of aiming to equip missiles with nuclear warheads, called it ‘unfortunate’. It cites Iran’s missile potential, among others, as the reason why it needs to install an anti-missile defense system in eastern Europe.
Iran already claims to have missiles with a range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), meaning it could hit Israel or U.S. military bases in the Gulf.
The West accuses Iran of trying to obtain nuclear arms under cover of a civilian program. Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, insists it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was present at Iran’s space centre and read out the launch countdown, state television reported. It said he had “congratulated the Iranian nation on the great achievement”.
Iranian television showed the rocket on its desert launch pad, but did not show the actual lift-off. Few details were available about the rocket or its payload.
Western experts say Iran rarely provides enough details for them to determine the extent of its technological advances, but that much Iranian technology consists of modifications of equipment supplied by China, North Korea and others.
The U.N. Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for defying demands that it suspend its uranium enrichment program.
Ahmadinejad insisted international sanctions had made Iran even stronger, IRNA reported.
“Sanctions have not isolated us. Instead, we have become more independent,” he said after the launch.
| New achievements in aerospace | August 2008 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC News)'] |
Former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg suspends his presidential campaign. | The first openly gay major presidential candidate, Mr. Buttigieg rose to the primary’s top tier, but was unable to build a broad coalition of voters, and lost badly in South Carolina Saturday.
So tonight, I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency. I will no longer seek to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president. But I will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new Democratic president come January. In a field in which more than two dozen Democratic candidates ran for president, senators and governors, billionaires, a former vice president, we achieved a top-four finish in each of the first four states to hold nominating contests and we made history, winning those Iowa caucuses. We have a responsibility to consider the effect of remaining in this race any further. Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to defeat Donald Trump, and to win the era for our values.
‘We Have a Responsibility,’ Buttigieg Tells Supporters By Reid J. Epstein and Trip Gabriel
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Pete Buttigieg, the former small-city Indiana mayor and first openly gay major presidential candidate, said Sunday night he was dropping out of the Democratic race, following a crushing loss in the South Carolina primary where his poor performance with black Democrats signaled an inability to build a broad coalition of voters.
The decision comes just 48 hours before the biggest voting day of the primary, Super Tuesday, when 15 states and territories will allot about one-third of the delegates over all. The results were widely expected to show him far behind Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Mr. Buttigieg canceled plans for a Sunday night rally in Dallas and a Monday morning fund-raiser in Austin to return to South Bend. “Sometimes the longest way around really is the shortest way home,’’ he told supporters to loud cheers.
“The truth is that the path has narrowed to a close, for our candidacy if not for our cause,” he said, adding “Tonight I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency.”
On a conference call with campaign donors on Sunday evening, Mr. Buttigieg said he had reached the decision with regret but concluded it was “the right thing to do, when we looked at the math,” according to one person on the call. Without mentioning opponents by name, Mr. Buttigieg said he was concerned about the impact he would have on the race by staying in, saying Democrats needed to field “the right kind of nominee” against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Buttigieg talked with Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama on Sunday night, according to a Democratic official familiar with the conversations. Mr. Biden asked for Mr. Buttigieg’s support and the former mayor indicated he would consider the request. Mr. Buttigieg wants to sleep on the decision, he told aides, some of whom believe he should move quickly to endorse Mr. Biden.
Mr. Obama did not specifically encourage Mr. Buttigieg to endorse Mr. Biden, said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations. But Mr. Obama did note that Mr. Buttigieg has considerable leverage at the moment and should think about how best to use it. Should Mr. Buttigieg endorse Mr. Biden on Monday, it could reshape the Democratic primary if many of his supporters shift to Mr. Biden, creating a more formidable centrist challenge to Mr. Sanders’s progressive movement.
In his remarks, Mr. Buttigieg directed criticism toward Mr. Sanders, without naming him, that he has previously made on the debate stage and on the campaign trail.
“We need leadership to heal a divided nation, not drive us further apart,” he said. “We need a broad based agenda to truly deliver for the American people, not one that gets lost in ideology. We need an approach strong enough not only to win the White House, but hold the House, win the Senate and send Mitch McConnell into retirement.”
Mr. Sanders, in Los Angeles, made a brief statement congratulating Mr. Buttigieg while also making a bid for those who backed him. “He is the first openly gay candidate for president of the United States and he did extraordinarily well,” Mr. Sanders said. “And tonight, I just want to welcome all of his supporters into our movement and to urge them to joining us in the fight for real change in this country.”
Mr. Buttigieg’s departure was another step in the narrowing of a Democratic field that once featured two dozen candidates, and now has six. His move comes one day after Tom Steyer, the billionaire former hedge fund executive, dropped out after a disappointing finish in South Carolina.
Mr. Buttigieg, 38, skyrocketed from obscurity into the top tier of a field of more than two dozen Democratic presidential candidates largely on the strength of his robust fund-raising totals early last year. He collected more than $24 million in the three-month period ending June 30, more than any other candidate in the field.
The campaign spent nearly all of its funds to deliver its virtual tie for first place in Iowa and a narrow second-place finish behind Mr. Sanders in New Hampshire. But the rush of contributions the campaign expected after Iowa and New Hampshire never materialized. The Iowa Democratic Party’s vote-counting fiasco robbed Mr. Buttigieg of some of the expected momentum and media attention after the state’s caucuses, and Senator Amy Klobuchar was the big story after her surprise third-place showing in New Hampshire.
And Mr. Buttigieg never broadened his breadth of support in a party with a large component of nonwhite voters, and one that has veered leftward since 2018.
He came in a distant third in the Nevada caucuses, which drew strong numbers of Latino voters, and then fourth place in South Carolina, where black voters made up a majority of the Democratic electorate. He won just 3 percent of them, according to exit polls.
The field of Democratic presidential candidates has been historically large, but all have dropped out except Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Trump.
After raising more than $76 million in 2019, an astonishing haul for a mayor with no national profile, Mr. Buttigieg spent nearly all his war chest in Iowa and New Hampshire. He faced campaigning coast-to-coast for Super Tuesday with evaporating funds and little chance of clearing the threshold of 15 percent of votes needed to amass delegates.
But Mr. Buttigieg’s main challenge was his inability to appeal to voters of color, both African Americans and Latinos.
Many establishment Democratic officials have openly worried about the party’s moderate candidates cannibalizing the center-left vote and making it impossible to coalesce and challenge Mr. Sanders.
Mr. Buttigieg on Monday said in a town hall event on CNN that he and his fellow moderates had not had any talks about one or more of them dropping out. Asked the same question in a post-debate TV interview on Tuesday, Mr. Buttigieg argued that it was he, as the candidate with the second most delegates, whom other moderates should rally behind.
But except for a polling uptick after his strong Iowa finish, Mr. Buttigieg’s support in an average of national polls plateaued around 10 percent. That imperiled him as the race moved to the 14 Super Tuesday states, including California and Texas, where most delegates to the National Convention go only to candidates who win 15 percent in congressional districts and statewide.
As Mr. Sanders, in his second presidential run, built a devoted following of progressives with a call for political revolution, Mr. Buttigieg tried to offer an alternative: an upbeat message of unity and more ideological flexibility, aimed at attracting moderate Democrats, independents and crossover Republicans. But the pitch, which some found contained more platitudes than passion, was no match at a time of rising anger on the left that the political establishment has failed to address health care, income inequality and climate change.
In his quest to earn black support, Mr. Buttigieg spent more time visiting South Carolina than any other candidate, spent more on TV ads in the state than any candidates besides Mr. Steyer, and rolled out a sweeping proposal, called the Douglass Plan, to redress the legacy of racism. None of it made much of a dent with African-American voters who had developed a deep trust in Mr. Biden over decades.
Another factor may have been the sometimes troubled history of Mr. Buttigieg’s relationship with black residents of South Bend, including his demotion of a black police chief and the shooting last summer of a black resident by a white officer. Mr. Buttigieg tried to counter poor impressions by campaigning with African-American leaders from his hometown who vouched for him.
Reid J. Epstein reported from Selma, Ala., and Trip Gabriel reported from Charlotte, N.C. Alexander Burns contributed reporting from New York.
| Government Job change - Election | March 2020 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Israel announces that it will transfer the bodies of 84 Palestinian militants to the Palestinian Authority, apparently as a diplomatic gesture to the Palestinians ahead of Ramadan. | "At this time Civil Administration officials and their Palestinian counterparts are engaging in the coordination process regarding the manner and timing of handing over the bodies," the IDF's statement read.
Earlier Monday, Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh said that the Palestinian Authority had agreed with Israel that 84 bodies of Palestinians who were involved in terrorist activity against the Jewish state since 1967 will be handed over to the PA.
The list is said to include, among others, the body of Hanadi Jaradat,
the Palestinian woman who blew herself up in Haifa's Maxim restaurant in 2003, killing 21 people. The bodies are buried in military cemeteries for terrorists inside Israel.
Officials said that the return of the terrorist bodies is not related to efforts to secure a swap for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. The handover of the bodies will apparently be a gesture to the Palestinian Authority ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
"The move has no diplomatic significance, and had the Palestinians not announced the move, it would have likely continued to be discussed behind the scenes," an Israeli official said. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2011 | ['(Ynetnews)'] |
Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan, meets with the President of the United States Barack Obama at the White House to discuss trade, economic, and security issues including North Korea and the Senkaku Islands dispute with China. | WASHINGTON — When President Obama sits down on Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the conversation will focus primarily on trade and economic issues. But the two leaders will also dedicate plenty of time to two hot-button security issues.
Abe's visit to the White House comes as his country is gripped in a territorial dispute with China and days after North Korea conducted its third nuclear test despite stiff opposition from the USA and other allies.
On North Korea, Obama and Abe are more or less on the same page. Both quickly expressed support of new measures against Pyongyang by the U.N. Security Council after North Korea conducted its latest nuclear test on Feb. 12.
But on Tokyo and Beijing's ongoing dispute over disputed islands in the East China Sea (known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China), the Obama administration has cautioned both sides to show restraint. The islands, which are under administrative control of Japan, are also claimed by Taiwan.
Over the years, there has been intermittent spats and heated rhetoric between the two countries over the islands. Last month, China agitated Japan when it announced it would carry out a geological survey of the islands as part of an effort to safeguard its "maritime rights and interests."
Both China and Japan have ships in waters around the eight uninhabited islands, which are rich fishing grounds and thought to contain oil deposits, leading to fears of a clash.
In the lead-up to his visit, Abe suggested in an interview with TheWashington Post that he wants the Obama administration to make clear to China that coercion on the issue is unacceptable.
But White House officials made clear Thursday that maintaining stability in the region is its top priority on the matter.
"I, frankly, am confident that both leaders (Obama and Abe) believe that constructive bilateral relations with China are important — are essential, frankly, for regional growth, and that managing differences is an important part of every bilateral relationship," said Danny Russel, White House National Security Council senior director for Asia.
"Sino-Japanese relations have significant impact on all of us and on all the countries in the region, so it's something that we all pay close attention to. The East China Sea and, frankly, the broader Asia-Pacific region is an area in which stability is in all of our interests."
Another issue that could come up in Friday's meetings is Abe's stance on a 1993 statement from the Japanese government apologizing for forcing about 200,000 women from neighboring countries into sexual servitude during World War II. The victims of the practice were known as "comfort women."
Soon after Abe's victory in December, one of his top deputies suggested that Abe would review the 1993 apology, but Abe subsequently said he would refrain from making further remarks on the matter.
Reps. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Mike Honda, D-Calif., wrote to Japan's envoy to Washington earlier this week expressing their concerns. "Japan's government must fully acknowledge, apologize and increase awareness of its history of comfort women," Israel said in a statement.
Russel added that "Obama knows full well that there are very sensitive legacy issues from the last century and believes that it's important to take steps to promote healing. " | Diplomatic Visit | February 2013 | ['(USA Today)', '(Reuters)'] |
American billionaire Louis Bacon wins a judgement in the United Kingdom against Wikipedia, the Denver Post and WordPress about disclosure of identities of people who published allegedly defamatory comments although the judgement does not apply in the United States. | A billionaire US hedge fund manager has been given the green light by the high court in London to force three websites – including Wikipedia – to disclose the identities of online commenters alleged to have defamed him.
Louis Bacon, the founder and chief executive officer of Moore Capital Management, was given permission on Monday to use a UK court order to obtain the information from the US publishers behind Wikipedia, the Denver Post newspaper, and the popular blogging platform WordPress.
Bacon wants to launch defamation proceedings against a number of online commenters – all of whom use sobriquets like "gotbacon" and "TCasey82" – alleged to have posted libellous material about him on these websites.
In the high court on Monday, Mr Justice Tugendhat granted Bacon's application to serve a court order – known as a Norwich Pharmacal Order (NPO) – by email against these websites. However, legal experts have told the Guardian that the US-based companies could legally ignore or refuse to comply with the orders.
US-born Bacon, who owns a property in London, was this weekend named the UK's wealthiest hedge fund manager by the Sunday Times Rich List. According to the paper, Bacon is now worth £1.1bn after a 69% rise in his personal fortune in the past 12 months.
Tugendhat said that the Wikimedia Foundation had told Bacon's solicitors, Schillings, that it would hand over details of the commenters if it was served with a court order – but later said that it would have to be a US subpoena, as opposed to a NPO brought in a UK court.
Automattic, the company behind WordPress, said Bacon would need a court order and that any defamatory material would be removed from its websites. The Denver Post had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Tugendhat said civil procedure rules allowed him to grant Bacon's application against the US defendants, but added: "In future claimants should put before the court evidence as to whether that method is permitted by the law of the country in which the claim form is to be served (or a good reason for not doing so), since if it is, service by an alternative method will be unnecessary."
A spokeswoman for London law firm Schillings said the case was brought in the UK high court – as opposed to a US court – because Bacon had made a similar case against the UK-based website host, justhost.com, last year. Justhost complied with that order.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2011 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Thousands of people protest in Whitehall calling on British Prime Minister David Cameron to resign over his financial affairs and his handling of them in relation to revelations made by the leak of the Panama Papers. | Thousands of protersters have moved on Downing Street to call for tough action on tax avoidance – or David Cameron's resignation.
Following the revelations about his tax affairs in the Panama papers, demonstrators are asking Mr Cameron to either “close tax loopholes or resign”. The protests are being organised around the hashtags “Resign Cameron” and “Close tax loopholes”, and have gained support from high-profile figures including Edward Snowden and Lily Allen.
Protestors arrived at Downing Street wearing "offshore-themed" outfits including Panama hats and carrying props such as a huge pig-shaped piñata.
Events began at Whitehall at 11am on Saturday — and may last for hours or even days after that, according to protestors.
The protestors are explicitly drawing inspiration from the demonstrations in Iceland, which saw a huge proportion of the country’s population march on its parliament. Soon after, the country’s Prime Minister quit.
Two of the most popular Facebook events for the protest each have thousands of people who have registered as going, with many more indicating that they are “interested”. Together, over 20,000 people have indicated that they could go to the protests.
One of those Facebook events promises that the protest will “end when he resigns”. It lists itself as lasting until 21 April.
“Does the Prime Minister think we’re stupid?” protest organiser Abi Wilkinson wrote on one of the Facebook event pages for the gathering.
“He preaches about 'tough decisions' whilst cutting funding for disability benefits, social care and other essential services. Now we find out he personally intervened to protect offshore trusts from an EU crackdown intended to tackle money laundering.”
Ms Wilkinson has argued that protestors should concentrate on forcing Mr Cameron to reform tax law, rather than to fully resign. But other groups ask for Mr Cameron’s resignation outright.
“As much as I dislike Cameron, getting a scalp wouldn't mean things were all solved,” she wrote on the group’s official Facebook page. “If he resigns it doesn't mean the problem has gone away, he could just be replaced with someone equally untrustworthy.”
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2016 | ['(Independent)'] |
The Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Temir Sariyev announces he will resign from his post. This comes after several Parliament members accused Sariyev and his cabinet of corruption. The Kyrgyz presidential press service said President Almazbek Atambayev accepted his resignation. | WATCH: Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariev announced his resignation, but insisted he was innocent of corruption allegations made by one of his own ministers. (RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service)
Print
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariev has announced he will resign. The announcement on April 11 at a government meeting in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek comes after several parliament members accused his cabinet of corruption.
"Squabbles, rumors and gossip have upset the balance within the government," Sariev said. "The government's work has stalled at such a difficult time." The Kyrgyz presidential press service said President Almazbek Atambaev had accepted Sariev's resignation. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2016 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Rustam Makhmudov, suspected of the 2006 shooting of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, is arrested overnight at the home of his parents in Chechnya. , | The man suspected of shooting Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 has been arrested in Chechnya and is due to be brought to Moscow. Rustam Makhmudov was arrested overnight at his parents' home, his lawyer told AFP news agency.
Two of the detainee's brothers and a third man are currently awaiting trial over the murder in Moscow.
Politkovskaya's murder in cold blood outside her home in the Russian capital caused shock and revulsion.
Rustam Makhmudov's brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim, have been accused of acting as drivers at the scene of the crime while former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov has been accused of providing logistical support.
All three men were tried and acquitted for lack of evidence in 2009 but the verdict was overturned by Russia's supreme court, which ordered them to be retried.
Rustam Makhmudov remained a fugitive through his brothers' first trial. Confirming the arrest, Russian prosecutors said the detainee would be transferred to Moscow "shortly" as part of the investigatory procedure. Mr Makhmudov's lawyer, Saidakhmet Arsamerzayev, said the defence would seek to disprove key video evidence which allegedly shows his client's face.
"I have always said that investigators don't really need to arrest Rustam because his arrest will not confirm that he is the killer," Mr Arsamerzayev added. "Right now it is clear that Rustam was not difficult to capture. He was hiding of course, but even so, he was taken at his house."
The suspect, 37, was born in Achkoi-Martan, Chechnya, according to his profile on Interpol's website.
Politkovskaya was a human rights campaigner and Russia's most famous investigative journalist, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.
Her reports were often highly critical not only of the Kremlin, but of the actions of the Russian military in Chechnya and of the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities, he notes.
A lawyer for Politkovskaya's family denied the arrest was a major breakthrough since investigators had yet to establish who it was that ordered the assassination. At the time of her death, aged 48, the journalist was working for a low-circulation Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, known for its fierce attacks on the country's authorities.
On 7 October 2006, she was found shot dead in a lift at her apartment block with a pistol and four bullets lying near her body.
Grainy CCTV footage from the building, which was broadcast on Russian television, showed a man in a baseball cap following her inside just before the shooting.
The arrest was welcomed by Novaya Gazeta. "We hope that the jury can see for themselves that the prosecution was right," editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was quoted as saying by AFP. New Politkovskaya probe ordered
Obituary: Anna Politkovskaya
Russian state prosecutor (in Russian)
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters via The Guardian)', '(RIA Novosti)', '(CNN)'] |
Demonstrations break out in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, following the shooting death of protest singer Hachalu Hundessa. | Seven people have died in Ethiopia in protests that followed the shooting dead of musician Hachalu Hundessa, well known for his political songs, medics have told the BBC.
Police are investigating his death.
Hachalu's songs often focused on the rights of the country's Oromo ethnic group and became anthems in a wave of protests that led to the downfall of the previous prime minister in 2018.
The 34-year-old was attacked on Monday evening when he was driving.
The singer had said that he had received death threats, but it is not clear who was behind his shooting on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa.
Thousands of his fans headed to the hospital in the city where the body of the singer was taken on Monday night.
To them, he was a voice of his generation that protested against decades of government repression.
Hachalu was more than just a singer and entertainer. He was a symbol for the Oromo people who spoke up about the political and economic marginalisation that they had suffered under consecutive Ethiopian regimes.
In one of his most famous songs, he sang: "Do not wait for help to come from outside, a dream that doesn't come true. Rise, make your horse ready and fight, you are the one close to the palace."
The musician had also been imprisoned for five years when he was 17 for taking part in protests.
Many like him fled into exile fearing persecution but he remained in the country and encouraged the youth to struggle.
In Addis Ababa, police used tear gas to disperse the crowd outside the hospital and gunshots have been heard in the city where people set fire to tyres.
In Adama, 90km (56 miles) south-east of Addis Ababa, five people died after being shot during demonstrations and 75 others were injured, hospital chief executive Dr Mekonnin Feyisa told BBC Afaan Aromo.
Nineteen others were injured in nearby Dera town, he added.
Meanwhile, in the eastern town of Chiro, two people were shot dead during protests, a medic at the local hospital told the BBC.
The internet has also been shut down in parts of the country as the protests spread in Oromia regional state.
Hachalu's body was being taken to his hometown, Ambo, about 100km west of the capital, but protesters tried to stop it and insisted that he should be buried in Addis Ababa.
In the eastern city of Harar, protesters have pulled down a statue of a royal prince - Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael - who was the father of Haile Selassie, Ethiopia's last emperor.
The statue shows Ras Makonnen, an important military figure and former governor of Harar province in the 19th Century under then-Emperor Menelik II, sitting on a horse.
Following the murder of a famous Oromo singer in Addis Abeba by unknown forces, Oromo protesters removed and burned the statue of Ras Mekonnen, the father of HIM Haile Selassie, in Harrar. pic.twitter.com/XuIBvS2hOq
In a recent interview with local TV station Oromia Media Network, Hachalu had said that people should remember that all the horses seen mounted by old leaders belonged to the people.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has expressed his condolences saying in a tweet that Ethiopia "lost a precious life today" and describing the singer as "marvellous".
The musician's death and the protests come as political tensions rise following the indefinite postponement of elections due in August, on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
They would have been the first electoral test for Mr Abiy after he came to power in April 2018.
The Oromo, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, have long complained of being side-lined.
Demonstrations erupted in 2016 and pressure built on the government. The ruling coalition eventually replaced then-Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn with Mr Abiy, who is Oromo himself.
He has brought in a series of reforms, which have transformed what was considered a very oppressive state.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 primarily for making peace with long-time foe Eritrea, but his efforts in transforming Ethiopia were also recognised.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Taiwan's Premier Chang Chun–hsiung remains in office as President Chen Shui–bian rejects his resignation. | Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) announced yesterday that he would continue to serve as premier "for political stability" and that most of his Cabinet members would also stay on, after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) rejected his resignation.
Chang resigned from the position on Thursday following a tradition set by previous premiers following the election of a new legislature.
However, with only three months left of his presidential term, Chen decided to reject Chang's resignation in order to avoid any more political upheaval, the Central News Agency reported.
Chang accepted Chen's decision and said that most of his team would stay as well.
"My Cabinet team knows my leadership style well," Chang said when approached for comment outside his residence. "I think they will stay on with me."
As for the vacancies left by former Cabinet members who were elected to the legislature, "those vacancies will be filled with lawmakers who failed in their re-election bids," Chang said.
Meanwhile, Chang confirmed that Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) and Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) would stay on.
Shieh and Tu resigned before the Cabinet did so en masse, after Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and several other Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members said that the two, along with Ministry of Education chief secretary Chuang Kuo-jung (莊國榮), were partly responsible for the party's defeat in the legislative elections because of their "controversial" behavior.
In related news, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday he supported the president's decision to reject the resignation of the Cabinet and that it should be established as a constitutional convention, dismissing criticism that the move showed disrespect to the legislature.
"Rejecting the [Cabinet's] resignation is more acceptable. It would be wrong for the president to accept [Chang's] resignation and then appoint a new premier only months before the presidential election," Wang said yesterday outside the Central Election Commission, where he was accompanying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as he registered his candidacy.
Constitutional convention stipulates that the Cabinet resign when a new legislature is elected and gives the president the power to choose a new premier without requiring the consent of the new legislature.
Establishing a new constitutional convention, as Chen has suggested, would eliminate the problem of a Cabinet forming twice in the space of three months, once when the new legislature is sworn in on Feb. 1 and again when the new president is inaugurated on May 20.
Rejecting the resignation and making the Cabinet a "caretaker Cabinet" presenting policies and bills through cross-party negotiations was more reasonable, Wang said.
Wang said the Constitution did not require the premier to resign after a new legislature was elected.
Meanwhile, two academics yesterday criticized the DPP caucus' move to seek a constitutional interpretation on the new "single district, two-vote" electoral voting system.
At a forum in Taipei, National Taiwan University political science professor Chang Lin-cheng (張麟徵) said it was "strange" for the caucus to pursue the interpretation, adding that such a move would give the public a negative impression as the new system had been "co-authored" by the DPP and the KMT.
"The DPP should have been able to foresee the [legislative elections] result [under the new system]," she said, adding that the new system should not be reviewed until it had been used at least twice.
"Is it reasonable for those who lose the game to seek to change the rules of the competition?" she asked.
Chang made the comments after the DPP caucus on Friday began a signature drive to seek a constitutional interpretation on the grounds that the new system was unfair because of the large variations in the sizes of the populations in the different constituencies.
The caucus is expected to hold a meeting today to promote the signature drive.
George Tsai (蔡瑋), a professor at Chinese Culture University's Sun Yat-sen Graduate Institute, said the DPP was overlooking the "real problem" and that it should attribute its defeat in the elections to the government's "poor administrative achievement."
While the antiparasitic drug ivermectin is being touted as a treatment for COVID-19 in many parts of the world, Taiwanese experts on Monday warned against regular use of the drug in COVID-19 treatment, citing a lack of solid evidence.
“Following an experts’ meeting, we do not recommend regular use of ivermectin in treating COVID-19 due to the lack of enough evidence,” said Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳), convener of the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) expert advisory panel.
A report in the American Journal of Therapeutics said that meta-analyses based on 18 randomized controlled treatment trials of ivermectin in COVID-19 patients had found large, CLASSES HALTED:
Cram schools have had to return tuition fees due to mandatory closures and might need to lay off half of their staff because of a lack of revenue The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the education sector, with some cram schools and tutoring centers saying they might soon be unable to pay their instructors due to the extension of a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert. The heightened alert level means schools must remain closed, so cram schools and tutoring centers have had to return tuition fees, one cram school said. June is normally the peak season for recruiting new students at cram schools and tutoring centers, but this year many such schools might need to lay off half of their staff due to a lack of A person who was on Friday reported as the first in Taiwan to die after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine died of a heart attack, a Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) official said yesterday.
The deceased, whose sex and age were not disclosed, had coronary artery disease, which led to a fatal heart attack, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, told a news conference, citing the autopsy report.
It was the first death listed as a possible adverse event after receiving the AstraZenenca COVID-19 vaccine since the start of the vaccination program on March 22.
The Taichung, Kaohsiung and Chiayi County are to adopt a COVID-19 vaccine administration method invented in a town in Japan to make the inoculation process easier for elderly people, the local governments said.
Under the method, dubbed the “Umi-machi style,” seniors who go to get their jabs at designated venues remain seated while a team of medical staff move from one person to another to administer their shots. Umi, a town in Fukuoka Prefecture, conceived of the idea by observing Toyota’s vehicle assembly lines, which are renowned for being efficient. Taichung, which has about 36,000 people older than 85, would try to | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2008 | ['(Taipei Times)'] |
Heavy rain triggers flash floods killing 10 people in Tehran and southern Iran, with eight others missing. | Iranians visit the scene of a flash flood in Pakdasht southeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. Iran's state TV says flash floods triggered by heavy rains have killed 10 people in the capital, Tehran, and south of the country. Authorities attribute the rising number of deadly flash floods to deforestation and improper construction near riverbeds. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's state TV says flash floods triggered by heavy rains have killed 10 people in the capital, Tehran, and south of the country.
The report Saturday says the flash flood killed six in Tehran and four in the southern province of Hormozgan on Friday night.
At least eight people, including five members of the same family in Tehran, were still missing. Relief and rescue operations are underway.
Earlier in July, at least 11 people were killed in flash flooding in both Tehran and the northern province of Alborz.
Authorities attribute the rising number of deadly flash floods to deforestation and improper construction near riverbeds. | Floods | September 2015 | ['(AP via CP24)'] |
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