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Janis Karpinski, the United States Brigadier General at the center of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse in Iraq, says that she was "ordered from the top" to treat detainees "like dogs", as they are treated in Guantanamo. | The former US commander of the prison at the centre of the Iraq abuse scandal today claimed she was being made a "scapegoat" for the abuses committed there.
Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib prison, said in a radio interview that she had no control over the section of the jail where the abuses are believed to have taken place.
She was suspended from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade, following an army investigation, for failing to monitor operations at the jail closely enough and for failing to enforce discipline among her staff.
But today, speaking on the BBC's On the Ropes programme, Gen Karpinski repeated her assertion that she knew nothing about the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners.
"Having lived through the operations in Iraq, having briefed just about everybody in there in a senior leadership position, having been sent out to conduct press conferences and escort congressional delegations because of the extent of my knowledge and responsibilities and then to have somebody, very late in the game, just question my leadership abilities and other people follow suit - I believe I was a convenient scapegoat," she said.
She said she had no reason to visit the cell blocks where the detainees were photographed being abused and humiliated by prison guards, as they were run by US military intelligence. She was not even aware of a Red Cross inspection that reported on the abuses.
According to Gen Karpinski, the officers who took over part of the jail proceeded to "Gitmoize" the interrogation of prisoners - in other words, to model it on the techniques used at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp.
She said: "The interrogation operation was directed, it was under a separate command and there was no reason for me to go out to look at Abu Ghraib at cell block 1a or 1b or visit the interrogation facilities."
She also suggested that such practices were approved at a high level in the military, because, she claimed, on one occasion a senior officer advised her that detainees should be treated "like dogs".
She said the senior officer told her prisoners "are like dogs and if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them".
Several soldiers are facing courts martial over the allegations, which arose when dozens of what seemed to be "trophy" photographs appeared in the media. Their publication severely undermined the moral authority of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
The US military investigation of the abuse concluded that the soldiers involved had acted of their own volition, and that there was no evidence "of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did".
But Gen Karpinski suggested it would have been difficult for the soldiers to take part in the abuses - which often involved large numbers of prisoners - without the approval of a higher authority.
"I know that the MP [military police] unit that these soldiers belonged to hadn't been in Abu Ghraib long enough to be so confident that one night or early morning they were going to take detainees out of their cells, pile them up and photograph themselves in various positions with these detainees.
"How it happened or why those photographs came to the criminal investigation division's attention in January I think will probably come out very clearly at each individual's court martial." | Famous Person - Give a speech | June 2004 | ['(BBC)', '(Guardian)', '(Voice of America)'] |
August: Osage County wins the 62nd Tony Award for best play while In the Heights wins best musical. | Actress Rondi Reed accepts the award for best performance by a featured actress in a play for her work in "August: Osage County," at the 62nd Annual Tony Awards in New York, Sunday, June 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen)
By MICHAEL KUCHWARA – 3 days ago NEW YORK (AP) — "In the Heights," a joyous celebration of Latino life in the upper reaches of Manhattan, was named best musical at Sunday night's Tony Awards, while "August: Osage County," Tracy Letts' scabrous tale of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, took best play.
But the lavish production of "South Pacific" picked up seven prizes (more than any other show), including musical revival, actor-musical for leading man Paulo Szot, director-musical and four design awards — sets, costumes, lighting, sound.
Bartlett Sher, who oversaw "South Pacific," thanked the show's legendary creators, composer Richard Rodgers, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, its original director Joshua Logan and James Michener, who wrote the novel on which the show was based.
"They were kind of incredible men, because they seem to teach me particularly that in a way I wasn't only an artist but I was also a citizen," Sher said. "And the work that we do in these musicals or in any of these plays is not only important in terms of entertaining people, but that our country was really a pretty great place, and that perhaps it could be a little better, and perhaps, in fact, we could change."
Yet "Gypsy," the main competition for "South Pacific," could cheer, too. It took three of the four musical performance awards.
Patti LuPone was cheered mightily as she won the actress-musical prize for her powerhouse performance as Rose, an indomitable stage mother. It was LuPone's second Tony, the first since 1980 when she won for playing another strong-willed woman, Eva Peron, in "Evita."
Her co-star, Boyd Gaines, did even better. He collected his fourth Tony, winning for his portrayal of Rose's gentlemanly candy-salesman suitor, Herbie. And Laura Benanti, who plays the ugly-duckling daughter who blossoms into Gypsy Rose Lee in the show, received the featured-actress award.
"It's such a wonderful gift to be an actor who makes her living on the Broadway stage and then every 30 years or so picks up one of these," said an exuberant LuPone. "I was afraid to write a speech, because I had written a couple before and they never made it out of my purse. So I'm going to use one of the old ones and add a few names."
The win for "August" was not unexpected since it already has won most major theater awards including the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. It won five Tonys, all told, Sunday.
Thanking the show's producers, Letts said: "They did an amazing thing. They decided to produce an American play on Broadway with theater actors."
Deanna Dunagan, who portrays the play's acidulous matriarch, took the actress prize while Rondi Reed, who plays her flighty sister, won in the featured category.
"This is so overwhelming," Dunagan said. "This whole year has been entirely unexpected and astonishing. ... After 34 years in regional theater, I never thought about it (the Tonys). I watched it on television like everybody else."
Anna D. Shapiro, who directed the production, which came from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, also triumphed.
"If you're really followed by a star, Tracy Letts hands you 'August: Osage County' and says, 'Wanna?' Then heaven opens up and you get the greatest cast you will ever work with in your entire life," said a tearful Shapiro.
"Boeing-Boeing," a 1960s sex farce filled with slamming doors and eager stewardesses, was named best-revival play. It also won the top acting prize for its star, Mark Rylance.
Rylance, who plays a nerdy visitor to Paris in the comedy, didn't give an acceptance speech rife with thank-yous. Instead, he riffed about wearing clothing appropriate to your vocation or avocation.
"Otherwise, it might appear that you don't know what you're doing, that you're just wandering the earth, no particular reason for being here, no particular place to go," he said. "Thanks very much for this."
Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music and lyrics for "In the Heights," rapped his way through his acceptance speech for best score, saying: "I know I wrote a little show about home. Mr. Sondheim, look, I made a hat. (a reference to a lyric in Sondheim's 'Sunday in the Park with George') But there never was a hat — it's a Latin hat at that!"
And "In the Heights" managed two other musical prizes — for the choreography of Andy Blankenbuehler and for orchestrations.
But Stew, the star and co-creator of "Passing Strange" took the prize for best book of a musical.
"Yeah, yeah. Um. Yeah," said the almost speechless performer, who did not expect awards to be given out so early. "I thought this going to happen like an hour from now. I was looking for some M&Ms; in my pocket."
Jim Norton, who played a cantankerous blind Irishman in "The Seafarer," took the featured actor-play prize and told the audience: "This has to be one of the happiest days of my life. I can't believe it."
The CBS telecast from Radio City Music Hall opened with an elaborate number from Disney's "The Lion King," now in its second decade on Broadway, and finished with host Whoopi Goldberg, walking out dressed as the crab from another Disney musical "The Little Mermaid."
In a season that offered 36 productions, 23 of them were plays — 10 new works and 13 revivals. But despite the abundance of plays, it was a disconcerting year for Broadway. A crippling 19-day stagehands strike last November shut down more than two dozen shows during a particularly lucrative time of year, resulting in millions of dollars in losses. The strike most likely prevented the theater from having its first-ever billion-dollar season.
The total gross for the season, according to the Broadway League, was $937.5 million, about a million dollars shy of the previous year. Attendance slipped slightly, too, to 12.27 million, down from 12.3 million in the preceding season. | Awards ceremony | June 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
An agreement is reached between Mongolian government representatives and the International Monetary Fund and other international partners on a three-year, $5.5 billion economic stabilization package. | ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) - Mongolia has agreed with the International Monetary Fund and other partners for a $5.5 billion economic stabilization package, according to a statement from the IMF on Sunday.
The landlocked nation saw its economy grow at a double-digit annual rate over 2011-2013 as foreign investors rushed in to take advantage of its vast untapped mineral deposits, but it has been hit hard by an economic crisis since 2016 due to government overspending and declining revenues from commodity exports.
To bailout the country - which is now scrambling to avoid missing a $580 million sovereign-guaranteed debt repayment due in March - the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and bilateral partners, including Japan and South Korea, will provide up to $3 billion in aid, the IMF said in its statement.
People’s Bank of China will expand a swap line worth 15 billion yuan ($2.19 billion), while the IMF will offer three-year loans worth about $440 million, the latter added.
The bailout plan is pending formal approvals from the IMF board in March, according to the statement.
“Fiscal consolidation is a key priority, as loose fiscal policy in the past was a major driver for Mongolia’s current economic difficulties and high debt,” said Koshy Mathai, IMF’s team leader for the package.
Paving the way for the bailout was a move by the country’s lawmakers earlier this month to allow the Development Bank of Mongolia, which issued the $580 million debt that is up for repayment, to act independently of the government.
Under the bailout plan, Mongolia has pledged to implement fiscal reforms for greater budget discipline, maintain a flexible exchange rate and build a stronger regulatory environment for banking and finance.
The president of the Bank of Mongolia, Nadmid Bayartsaikhan, said the central bank would no longer bankroll fiscal policy programs, including a mortgage subsidy one that will now be self-sustaining rather than dependent on additional financing from the central bank.
Bayartsaikhan added that an independent study of the banking sector would be launched to identify weaknesses at institutions and the need for new regulations.
The Mongolian economy grew at 1 percent last year, its slowest pace in seven years, and may slip into recession when austerity measures imposed on the country for a debt bailout are rolled out.
However, the bailout terms will not affect Mongolia’s social spending. It plans to subsidize some drug costs and a universal allowance for children will be given to those in need, Finance Minister Battogtokh Choijilsuren told reporters on Sunday.
With these structural changes in place, Mathai of the IMF said Mongolia could look forward to sustainable growth built upon its lucrative mining sector, as well as its growing industries in agriculture and tourism.
“I think we’re looking at a pretty good outlook for Mongolia,” said Mathai.
| Sign Agreement | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(IMF)'] |
Wonga, the largest payday lender in the United Kingdom, collapses into administration. | Payday lender Wonga has announced its intention to go into administration after losing its battle to stay afloat.
The company said in a statement that it had assessed all options and had decided that administration was the appropriate route.
It had already stopped accepting new loan applications as it fought to stave off collapse.
Its demise in the UK follows a surge in compensation claims amid a government clampdown on payday lenders.
Grant Thornton will be acting as administrators.
In a statement Wonga said: "Customers can continue to use Wonga services to manage their existing loans but the UK business will not be accepting any new loan applications. Customers can find further information on the website.
Unfortunately for you, the repayments will still have to be made. Although this will be overseen by the administrators - in the short-term at least - there is no practical difference in the way that these payments are made.
A service will continue for anyone who needs help, and anyone struggling to repay can still get in touch, and can also contact debt charities such as Citizens Advice or StepChange for free advice.
Read more answers to your questions here
"Wonga's overseas businesses continue to trade and are not part of this announcement."
The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said: "The FCA will continue to supervise Wonga once it is in administration and is in close contact with the proposed administrators with regard to the fair treatment of customers.
"Customers should continue to make any outstanding payments in the normal way. All existing agreements remain in place and will not be affected by the proposed administration. However, the firm is no longer able to issue new loans."
Wonga, which was the UK's biggest payday lender, had faced criticism for its high-cost, short-term loans, seen as targeting the vulnerable.
Among those who used its services at its height was journalist James Ball, now aged 32. He said Wonga made it easy to get a loan when he was young and prone to overspending.
But he said that it was also convenient for him to borrow when he was struggling with student debts and commuting costs among other bills.
"I am absolutely not looking for sympathy," he said.
In 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority found that Wonga's debt collection practices were unfair and ordered it to pay £2.6m to compensate 45,000 customers. Since then, payday loan companies have faced tougher rules and have their charges capped.
This hit Wonga's profits hard. In 2016, it posted pre-tax losses of nearly £65m, despite claiming its business had been "transformed".
It continued to face legacy complaints and was forced to seek a bailout from its backers in August amid a surge in claims. It was a huge fall from grace for Wonga, which in 2012 was touted to be exploring a US stock market flotation that would have valued it at more than $1bn (£770m).
Wonga never considered itself to be a payday lender, preferring instead to describe itself as a maverick technology company that happened to sell loans. Its technology was groundbreaking, allowing the smartphone generation to choose how much they wanted to borrow with the slide of a thumb.
That convenience, matched with a huge advertising campaign featuring amusing puppets and upbeat voiceovers, proved a hit. At the height of its success in 2013, Wonga had a million customers. But Mick McAteer, founder of the not-for-profit Financial Inclusion Centre, said this demand was a bubble: "They were flogging [credit] and they created demand for it."
In other words, some borrowers simply did not need to borrow from a payday lender, but were attracted towards these high-cost, short-term loans anyway.
The collapse spells the end of a rags to riches to rags story of a company that was vilified for its conduct when lending to people who could not afford to repay.
The market has changed as a result of the FCA's crackdown, and thousands of former customers have sought compensation.
Anyone awaiting compensation payments from Wonga is now likely to be in the queue for a payout from the sale of any assets.
Many have said they will not mourn the loss of Wonga.
Guy Anker, deputy editor of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: "Payday loans are hideously expensive and morally questionable products - and many have been mis-sold to vulnerable customers. They should only be seen as a loan of absolute last resort. "So to have one fewer payday loan lender - and Wonga was a biggie - is positive for consumers, but of course is very sad for the staff who will have lost their jobs."
| Organization Closed | August 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes western Indonesia, killing at least 75 and trapping thousands of people under rubble. | JAKARTA (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake, which struck near the city of Padang on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Wednesday, has killed between 100 and 200 people, but thousands remain buried in rubble, officials said on Thursday morning.
Indonesia rocked by earthquake
01:05
Priyadi Kardono, spokesman for the national disaster agency, gave the death toll of 100-200 in the city of 900,000. About 500 houses had caved in, according to officials in the area.
By Thursday morning there were still “thousands of people trapped in the rubble of buildings,” said Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry’s disaster center in Jakarta.
The 7.6 magnitude quake hit Padang, West Sumatra, on Wednesday afternoon. With communications to the area cut, officials have struggled to get details of casualties and damage.
The death toll was likely to rise as many buildings had collapsed, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a late night news conference in Jakarta.
“The big buildings are down. The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned. A lot of people died in there. A lot of places are burning,” Australian businesswoman Jane Liddon told Australian radio from Padang.
“Most of the damage is in the town center in the big buildings. The little houses, the people’s houses, there are a few damaged, but nothing dramatic. It’s not all a rubble heap in terms of smaller buildings.”
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Australia’s international Aid Minister Bob McMullan said he feared the death toll would be “large” and offered emergency assistance if it was required.
“We are, of course, ready to assist. They are very close friends and neighbors. They know that we are here and available to help. They just have to ask,” he said.
TV footage showed piles of debris and smashed houses after the earthquake, which caused widespread panic. The main hospital had collapsed, roads were cut off by landslides and Metro Television said the roof of Padang airport had caved in.
The disaster is the latest in a spate of natural and man-made calamities to hit Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 226 million people.
Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie said on Wednesday that damage could be on a par with that caused by a 2006 quake in the central Java city of Yogyakarta that killed 5,000 people and damaged 150,000 homes.
“Hundreds of houses have been damaged along the road. There are some fires, bridges are cut and there is extreme panic here,” said a Reuters witness in the city. Broken water pipes, he said, had triggered flooding.
His mobile phone was then cut off and officials said power had been severed in the city.
The quake was felt around the region, with some high-rise buildings in Singapore, 440 km (275 miles) to the northeast, evacuating staff. Office buildings also shook in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Sumatra is home to some of the country’s largest oil fields as well as its oldest liquefied natural gas terminal, although there were no immediate reports of damage. Padang, capital of Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, sits on one of the world’s most active fault lines along the “Ring of Fire” where the Indo-Australia plate grinds against the Eurasia plate to create regular tremors and sometimes quakes.
Geologists have long warned that Padang may one day be destroyed by a huge earthquake because of its location.
A 9.15 magnitude quake, with its epicenter roughly 600 km (373 miles) northwest of Padang, caused the 2004 tsunami which killed 232,000 people in Indonesia’s Aceh province, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries across the Indian Ocean.
The depth of Wednesday’s earthquake was 85 km (53 miles), the United States Geological Survey said. It revised down the magnitude of the quake from 7.9 to 7.6.
For a graphic, click here
Additional reporting by John Nedy in Padang and Sunanda Creagh in Jakarta and by Rob Taylor in Canberra; Writing by Sara Webb;
| Earthquakes | September 2009 | ['(Reuters)', '(The Guardian)', '(Jakarta Globe)'] |
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announces that he will resign by April 28, following intense pressure from the military and the ruling party to step down amid anti-government protests, bringing an end to his 20-year rule. | ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will resign before his mandate ends on April 28, state news agency APS said on Monday, bowing to weeks of mass protests and army pressure seeking an end to his 20-year rule.
Algerian President to resign before mandate ends
00:53
There was no immediate reaction from leaders of the protest movement that has buffeted Algeria, a major oil producer, since Feb. 22. Many protesters want a new generation of leaders to replace an elderly, secretive ruling elite seen by many as out of touch and unable to jump-start a faltering economy hampered by cronyism.
In a sign that protesters might demand more changes, most opposition parties rejected a new caretaker cabinet appointed by Bouteflika late on Sunday, saying the prime minister was too close to ruling circles.
APS said Bouteflika, who is 82 and in poor health, would take important decisions to ensure “continuity of the state’s institutions” before stepping down. It did not spell out a date for his departure or give more details immediately.
Under Algeria’s constitution, Abdelkader Bensalah, chairman of the upper house of parliament, would take over as caretaker president for 90 days until elections are held.
Bouteflika, rarely seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013, at first sought to defuse the unrest by saying on March 11 he was dropping plans to run for a fifth term.
But he gave no timetable for his exit, advocating a national conference on reforms to address the outpouring of discontent over corruption, nepotism, economic mismanagement and the protracted grip on power of veterans of the 1954-62 war of independence against France.
Bouteflika’s hesitation further enraged protesters, spurring the powerful army chief of staff to step in by proposing last week to implement a provision of Algeria’s constitution under which a constitutional council would determine whether Bouteflika was still fit to govern or allow him to resign.
But Bouteflika signaled late on Sunday that he was on his way out when he appointed a caretaker cabinet headed by interim Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui. An interim leader cannot appoint ministers under the constitution.
Central Bank Governor Mohamed Loukal was named finance minister, while the former head of the state power and gas utility, Mohamed Arkab, will take up the energy portfolio. OPEC member Algeria is a major oil and natural gas exporter.
Most opposition parties rejected the cabinet because they see Bedoui as too close to the ruling elite. They also say past elections he supervised as interior minister were not fair.
Several opposition leaders on Sunday supported the army chief’s proposal that Bouteflika’s capacity to govern be assessed under article 102 of the constitution.
The announcement of Bouteflika’s pending resignation came hours after private Ennahar TV said Algeria had seized the passports of 12 businessmen in an apparent swoop on associates of the president.
It said an investigation into alleged corruption had been ordered by the army without informing the presidency -- part of a struggle between the military and Bouteflika’s circle, analysts said.
On Sunday, authorities had arrested Ali Haddad, a leading Algerian businessman close to Bouteflika.
On Monday, the state prosecutor opened cases against “some people” over alleged corruption and banned them from transferring assets abroad, APS said.
It gave no details, but Ennahar TV, a well-informed media outlet throughout the wave of unrest, said 12 businessmen had been targeted and their passports seized, citing a statement from the general prosecutor.
Apart from Haddad, two tycoons close to Bouteflika, Mahieddine Tahkout and Reda Kouninef, were also on the list, according to Ennahar.
Some demonstrators have rejected Algeria’s tradition of military intervention in civilian matters and want to dismantle the entire power elite, known locally as “le pouvoir”, which includes army officers, the long-ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party and business tycoons.
Several close allies, including FLN figures and union leaders, had in the past weeks abandoned Bouteflika.
He established himself in the early 2000s by ending a civil war with Islamist militants that claimed 200,000 lives.
But dissatisfaction grew with an establishment widely seen as unaccountable, raising pressure for a new generation to take over, capable of modernizing the oil-dependent state and giving hope to a young population impatient for a better life.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At least seven people are killed and 21 others wounded in a mass shooting in West Texas, between the cities of Midland and Odessa. The shooter is shot and killed in Odessa. Police continue to investigate for other possible suspects. | (Reuters) - A white male in his 30s who was known to police killed four people and wounded 21 others on Saturday in a gun rampage between the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa that started with a traffic stop and ended when he was killed by officers, authorities said.
The suspect hijacked a postal van and opened fire on police officers, motorists and shoppers on a busy Labor Day holiday weekend before being shot dead outside a multiplex cinema complex in Odessa, police said.
Authorities originally thought there were two shooters driving two vehicles, but Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke told a news conference on Saturday evening that he believed there was only one.
The gunman was heading from Midland to Odessa on Interstate 20 when he was stopped at 3:17 p.m. local time, Gerke said. He shot the police officer, took off west on I-20 and then exited at Odessa. There he drove to a Home Depot and opened fire on passersby.
“At some point the suspect stole a mail truck and ditched his car,” Gerke said. He drove the mail truck back east, pursued by police, before crashing into a stationary vehicle behind the Odessa Cinergy multiplex complex, where he engaged in a gun battle with police and was shot dead, Gerke said.
Video shown by a local CBS affiliate showed the white postal van crashing into a vehicle at high speed outside the movie theater complex before the man believed to be the shooter was swarmed by police. Screaming theater goers ran from the complex.
Gerke said the suspect was known to him but declined to comment on a motive for the shootings.
The Medical Center Hospital in Odessa took in 13 victims, including one who died, the hospital’s director, Russell Tippin, told reporters. Seven were in critical condition, two serious, and two were treated and released. One “pediatric patient” under the age of 2 was transferred to another facility, he said.
“Grab onto your loved ones, pray for this town, stop and give your prayers for the victims,” Tippin said.
Midland Mayor Jerry Morales said hundreds of people were enjoying the holiday weekend inside the Cinergy complex when the gunman was confronted by officers who boxed in his vehicle in the parking lot before shots were exchanged.
He said the suspect used a rifle to shoot the Texas Department of Public Safety officer who had stopped his vehicle, but did not know any more details about the weapon.
Morales said three police officers - one from Midland, one from Odessa and the Department of Public Safety officer - were wounded by gunfire. At one point, Midland police barricaded the highway to stop the suspect leaving Odessa, about 20 miles (32 km) away in the Permian oil boom area of West Texas.
“It was very chaotic,” Morales said by telephone. “There were rumors flying that the shooter was at shopping malls, the movie theater.”
Retail stores, a shopping mall and the University of Texas Permian Basin were locked down as rumors spread of the shootings and sightings, he said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said that as two state troopers made the initial traffic stop on I-20, the suspect pointed a rifle toward the rear window of his car and fired several shots toward their patrol vehicle, hitting of them.
The wounded trooper is in serious but stable condition, and two other wounded police officers are in stable condition at a local hospital, the department said in a statement.
At one point armed police ran through the Music City Mall in Odessa, forcing anchors for television station CBS 7, located inside, to duck off-screen as the building went into lockdown.
Saturday’s shooting came after 22 people were killed at a Walmart store about 255 miles west of Midland in the city of El Paso, Texas on Aug. 3.
.
| Armed Conflict | August 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(Reuters)', '(MST)'] |
Guardian Council announces names of six final candidates. Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, chairman of Astan Quds Razavi Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is among the list. More than 1,600 nominees were disqualified, including all 137 female candidates and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. | Six politicians given go-ahead to run in presidential election, which is likely to boil down to a three-man race on 19 May
Iran’s former hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been disqualified from running in Iran’s presidential elections next month, according to the final list of approved candidates announced on Thursday.
Iran’s interior ministry said that the guardian council – the group of influential jurists and clerics that vets all candidates – had approved six politicians to run, including the moderate incumbent, Hassan Rouhani. Also on the list are Ebrahim Raisi, a close ally of the country’s supreme leader; the mayor of Tehran, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf; Rouhani’s first deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri; and relatively low-profile politicians Mostafa Agha Mirsalim and Mostafa Hashemi-Taba.
But the list excluded more than 1,600 other nominees who had applied to run for president, including all 137 female candidates – and Ahmadinejad.
The council’s decision marks a new nadir in the deteriorating relationship between the Iranian establishment and Ahmadinejad, whose controversial re-election in 2009 plunged the country into crisis. Ahmadinejad’s exclusion means the presidential race will probably be a tight three-man race between Rouhani, Raisi and Ghalibaf. Jahangiri has already announced that his candidacy is tactical and that he intends to eventually drop out in favour of Rouhani. He is believed to have entered the race to help Rouhani to defend his legacy by buying more airtime in presidential debates and media opportunities.
Raisi’s surprise entry in the race earlier this month has threatened what many had expected would be a relatively straightforward bid by Rouhani for a second term. After rapidly rising in prominence over the past year, he is being touted as a possible successor to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Raisi and Ghalibaf originally belonged to a coalition of conservatives known as the Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces, or Jamna, which said only one candidate would ultimately run. But both men have distanced themselves from the coalition and it is still not clear if either will pull out in favour of the other. Some analysts say a defeat would scupper Raisi’s chances of succeeding Khamenei and that he is therefore likely to drop out at the last minute.
Last week, Ahmadinejad surprised observers by registering to run in defiance of Khamenei who had told him to stay out of the race. He had kept the decision secret and had said that he was only accompanying his former deputy, Hamid Baghaei, to the registration office for the latter to put his name forward. While Baghaei was registering, Ahmadinejad stunned registration officials when he took his national ID out of his pocket and asked to apply. Khamenei took Ahmadinejad’s side in the unrest in the aftermath of his re-election in 2009, but the relationship between the two grew fraught in the final years of Ahmadinejad’s presidency. He served two consecutive terms and oversaw a period of huge uncertainty amid international sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme. He still enjoys a considerable fanbase in Iran, mainly among conservatives, which means his disqualification could cost the establishment dearly.
Commentators say Ahmadinejad and his inner circle, who had been sidelined under Rouhani, may have their eyes on the period after Khamenei, who underwent prostate surgery in 2014. His disqualification could help him regain some of his credibility among a large constituency critical of the Iranian establishment. Ahmadinejad joins an expanding list of former Iranian presidents who have fallen foul of the establishment following their departure from office. The reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, whose backing of Rouhani in 2013 was crucial in the current president’s election, also faces restrictions. Media is banned from using his name or images, although the restrictions appear to have been relaxed as the 19 May elections approach. Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died earlier this year, was blocked from running in the 2013 presidential elections, and Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first post-revolutionary president, currently lives in exile. There were some angry social media reactions after Ahmadinejad’s exclusion. “Disqualifying candidates is illegal. If Ahmadinejad has committed a crime, why hasn’t been put on trial all these years?,” tweeted Iranian user @sahartwitt. “We are opposed to the disqualifications of the Guardian Council, it’s not right for the council to decide what the people are meant to decide.”
Iranian poet Fatemeh Shams wrote on her Facebook page: “[Ahmadinejad’s] eight years of presidency came at the cost of so much blood, imprisonment, house arrest and exile. It took the [supreme] leader a long time to come to the very same conclusion as that of the Green movement supporters in 2009. And the leaders of the Green movement [Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi] are still under house arrest after 6 years. What a dirty show.” | Government Job change - Election | April 2017 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Reuters)'] |
A small boat carrying asylum seekers sinks in the Black Sea near the Turkish city of Istanbul resulting in at least 21 deaths. |
A migrant boat carrying more than four times its maximum capacity has sunk in the Black Sea just off Istanbul, killing at least 21 people.
At least 21 people, including children, have drowned and a dozen are missing after an overloaded boat taking migrants towards EU waters sank in the Black Sea just off Istanbul, Turkish officials said.
Those on board were mainly Afghans in search of a better life in the EU. They had reportedly paid several thousand euros each to people smugglers for a seat on the vessel.
The boat was described as a small cruiser that was carrying about 40 people - more than four times its maximum capacity - including 12 children.
Six people were rescued from the stricken boat and 21 corpses recovered, the coastguard said in a statement on Monday, lowering an earlier toll of 24.
It added that search operations were continuing for the dozen still missing.
The boat sank three nautical miles north of the northern entrance to the Bosphorus, one of the busiest shipping thoroughfares in the world.
They had set off earlier from Bakirkoy, an Istanbul suburb on the Sea of Marmara side of the Bosphorus. Turkish media said at least one of those who died could have been a crew member or a smuggler guiding them.
Some reports said Syrians and Turkmen could also have been on board as well as Afghans. Television pictures showed survivors draped in blankets and sobbing as rescue workers offered them soup.
The official Anatolia news agency said rescuers, alerted by fishermen, found the vessel semi-submerged .
It was not immediately clear what had caused the boat to sink, with media citing overloading, bad weather conditions or even a collision with another vessel in the busy shipping lane as possibilities.
| Shipwreck | November 2014 | ['(AAP via SBS)'] |
Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers is injured in a car accident and rushed to a hospital with minor injuries. | Bij een auto-ongeluk in Rotterdam is oud-premier Ruud Lubbers (73) lichtgewond geraakt. Hij moest ter controle naar het ziekenhuis.
De politie bevestigt dat bij het ongeluk op de Boezemlaan een 73-jarige man gewond is geraakt, maar geeft geen nadere informatie. Het ging volgens de politie om een eenzijdig ongeval.
Volgens De Telegraaf raakte Lubbers waarschijnlijk de macht over het stuur kwijt toen hij een betonnen middenberm raakte. Zijn elektrische auto belandde daardoor op zijn kant. Lubbers had volgens de krant niet gedronken.
Deel dit artikel:
Ze stemden met een ruime meerderheid in met een document dat ertoe kan leiden dat katholieke politici worden 'berispt' voor steun aan abortuswetgeving.
Het gaat om werken van de Nederlandse schilder Samuel van Hoogstraten en de Italiaan Pietro Bellotti. De Duitse politie staat voor een raadsel. | Famous Person - Sick | March 2013 | ['(NOS)', '(Telegraaf)'] |
The uncrewed Soyuz MS–14 spacecraft successfully docks with the International Space Station on its second attempt, with the Zvezda module. The docking follows the failure of the automated systems aboard the Poisk module with which the spacecraft was originally intended to dock on 24 August. MS–14 carries supplies for the ISS, along with a humanoid robot named Fedor. (SpaceNews, Space.com) | For the first time in history, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the International Space Station without a human in the driver's seat.
Called Soyuz MS-14, the unpiloted spacecraft docked at the space station late Tuesday (Aug. 26), parking itself at a port on the aft end of the outpost's Russian Zvezda service module. It was the second attempt by Soyuz MS-14 to dock at the station after a Saturday try ended with a surprise abort.
"The second time was the charm," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias during live commentary just after the Soyuz docked. "A flawless approach." The space station was sailing 260 miles (418 kilometers) over eastern Mongolia when the Soyuz docked at at 11:08 p.m. EDT (0308 GMT).
Soyuz MS-14 is the first Soyuz capsule to visit the space station without a human crew. Russian space officials launched the spacecraft on a test flight on Aug. 22 using an upgraded Soyuz 2.1a rocket, a booster typically used to fly robotic Progress cargo ships. Roscosmos wanted to test an uncrewed Soyuz capsule with the upgraded rocket before actual crewed launches begin in March 2020.
Video: Watch the Soyuz Docking Abort as It Happened
While there was no human crew onboard Soyuz MS-14, the spacecraft was by no means empty.
Russia's space agency Roscosmos packed the spacecraft with 1,450 lbs. (658 kilograms) of food and other vital supplies to help keep the station crew stocked with the supplies. The centerpiece, however, is the humanoid Skybot F-850.
The 6-foot-tall (1.8 meters) robot sat in the commander's seat on Soyuz MS-14 during launch and recorded all manner of conditions, such as forces and vibrations, to give engineers an idea of what humans would experience on Soyuz 2.1a launches. Cosmonauts on the space station will also test the robot in space to see how it could make the crew's life easier.
Eventually, Roscosmos envisions the robot could one day help explore the surface of another world.
In Photos: Russia's Humanoid Skybot Robot for Space
Sunday's Soyuz docking comes after busy weekend of spacecraft shuffling aboard the International Space Station to make way for the MS-14 spacecraft. The spacecraft was originally scheduled to dock at the station's top-mounted Poisk module on Saturday, but a problem with the automated rendezvous system on the module forced Soyuz to abort.
In order to clear the Zvezda module docking port for Soyuz MS-14, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov and two crewmates (Andrew Morgan of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency) moved their own Soyuz spacecraft — called Soyuz MS-13 — to the Poisk port. Skvortsov flew the Soyuz manually, avoiding the rendezvous system problems seen by Soyuz MS-14, which does not have a human crew to take manual control.
Video: Soyuz Can't Lock On to Space Station Docking Port
Sunday's Soyuz move set the stage for Monday's second docking attempt by Soyuz MS-14, which went off without a hitch. The spacecraft approached planned, locked on to the station and docked itself smoothly to the Zvezda module. Cameras on the space station caught dazzling views of Soyuz MS-14 as it flew around the station.
"Congratulations are in order," Russian flight controllers radioed station commander Alexey Ovchinin and his six-person Expedition 60 crew after the docking. "You did a good job," another said.
Ovchini appeared to think it was just part of a job well done.
"We all did a good job," he said.
The comings and goings aren't finished yet at the space station. On Tuesday, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is scheduled to depart the space station and return to Earth. SpaceX launched the Dragon to the station on July 25 to deliver more than 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kilograms) of supplies for the Expedition 60 crew.
The Dragon resupply ship, which is on its third trip to the station, will be released from the outpost's robotic art at 10:42 a.m. EDT (1442 GMT) and return 2,700 pounds (1,225 kilograms) of science results and other gear to Earth. If all goes well, Dragon will splash down in the Pacific Ocean about 300 miles west of Long Beach, California to be retrieved later.
You can watch the Dragon ship's space station departure on Space.com Tuesday, Aug. 27. The webcast will begin at 10:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT). | New achievements in aerospace | August 2019 | [] |
Pope Benedict XVI meets with a delegation from the Latin American Jewish Congress, and speaks about progress in relations between the two faiths in the past 50 years. | Pope Benedict XVI met on May 10 with a delegation from the Latin American Jewish Congress, and spoke about the progress in relations between the two faiths in the past 50 years. The Vatican II document Nostra Aetate provides “the basis and the guide for our efforts,” the Pope said. That document, he added, “not only took up a clear position against all forms anti-Semitism, but also laid the foundations for a new theological evaluation of the Church’s relationship with Judaism, expressing the confidence that an appreciation of the spiritual heritage that Jews and Christians share will lead to increasing understanding and esteem.” In Latin America, the Pontiff observed, “dynamic Jewish communities” live in predominantly Catholic societies, and efforts to promote friendly relations between the two faiths continue. While a great deal remains to be done, he said, the fact that “we are jointly committed to a path of dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation is a reason for thanksgiving.” | Diplomatic Visit | May 2012 | ['(Catholic World News)'] |
Floods kill at least 154 in China and 300,000 people are being evacuated in Hebei province. Villagers have accused local officials of covering up the extent of the damage. | By Associated Press Published: 16:26 BST, 23 July 2016 | Updated: 16:26 BST, 23 July 2016 BEIJING (AP) — Torrential rains that have swept through China have killed at least 154 people and left 124 missing, officials said Saturday, with most of the casualties reported from a northern province where villagers complained about lack of warning before a deadly flash flood.
The rains, which began on Monday, have flooded streams, triggered landslides and destroyed homes across the country. Most of the fatalities were reported in the northern province of Hebei, where the provincial Department of Civil Affairs said 114 people were killed and 111 others were missing.
More than 300,000 people were evacuated in Hebei, and the province made another round of appropriations of tents, blankets, rain boots and generators, the department said.
In this Thursday, July 21, 2016, photo, rescuers use a raft to transport people along a flooded street in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province. Dozens of people have been killed and dozens more are missing across China after a round of torrential rains swept through the country earlier this week, flooding streams, triggering landslides and destroying houses. (Chinatopix Via AP)
In the Hebei city of Xingtai alone, 25 people were killed and another 13 were missing.
The Xingtai village of Daxian was swamped by a flash flood early Wednesday as residents were asleep. Eight people, including three children, were killed and another was missing in the flood, according to the Xingtai government.
But the tragedy did not surface until Friday, when accounts, purportedly by local residents, began surfacing on Chinese social media of angry villagers blocking roads, accusing the local authorities of failing to notify them in time for evacuation when an upstream reservoir discharged the floodwaters.
The online posts — accompanied by photos of drowned victims — also accused local officials of covering up the tragedy by lying about having no deaths in the area. State media later confirmed that a local official had said Wednesday afternoon that the flash flood caused no fatalities.
Some of the accompanying photos showed images of apparently drowned children lying in mud, their bodies swollen and their skin pale. In another photo, local villagers and an official knelt before each other, with state media reporting that the official was trying to console the grieving family members.
Although removed from social media by Saturday morning — apparently by censors — the postings had already caused a national uproar, with members of the public demanding accountability from local authorities. Chinese journalists rushed to the village Friday night and reported on the disaster.
In response, local authorities started to release casualty figures and offered explanations late Friday.
On Saturday night, Xingtai Mayor Dong Xiaoyu made a public apology and bowed at a news conference for the mishandling of the flash flood. He said that the danger of the flood was underestimated, and that local officials erred in failing to confirm and report casualties in a timely and accurate fashion. He promised a thorough investigation and to hold negligent officials responsible.
Authorities blamed extraordinary rainfall and a failure of a river levee near the village for the sudden water surge. Local media reported that the river channel is particularly narrow near the village of Daxian and has been blocked by pipes from a heating utility, as well as mud.
Qiu Wenshuang, a vice mayor of Xingtai, said Saturday that the flood was sudden and that the village was already flooded when officials arrived there to evacuate residents on Wednesday morning, according to state media reports. | Floods | July 2016 | ['(AP via The Daily Mail)'] |
In tennis, defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeats second seed Andy Murray of the United Kingdom in the men's singles in straight sets. It is Djokovic's third straight Grand Slam title. , | Last updated on 31 January 201631 January 2016.From the section Tenniscomments162
It was a familiar ending, a habitual champion winning once again. The second best player in the world could not topple him, and seemingly no-one can. The Big Four is now the Big One. Novak Djokovic's record-equalling sixth Australian Open title was his third consecutive Grand Slam and the 11th of his career, putting him alongside two of the sport's idols, Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg. A beaten Andy Murray, comfortably conquered in straight sets, smiled as he reached for the on-court microphone. "I feel like I've been here before," he quipped. Yet what to do about it? It was the Serb's fourth win over the Briton in the Melbourne final, and his 11th in their past 12 matches. But the complex puzzle of how to beat Djokovic in a Grand Slam is not only Murray's to solve. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, owners of 31 major titles between them, cannot crack the code and neither can anyone else, while the 28-year-old Djokovic has time to improve, to hunt more records, to become the greatest ever. Former British number one Andrew Castle likens the Australian Open champion to Barcelona and Argentina footballer Lionel Messi. They inhabit a different planet to the rest. "The bar has never been as high in men's tennis," says Castle. "I cannot believe what I'm watching and Novak Djokovic is undoubtedly moving towards being considered the sport's all-time greatest player, and that's quite something, particularly in this generation. "I cannot think of a more eminent, more illustrious sportsperson in the world. There's Lionel Messi and his Ballons d'Or, and Serena Williams with her 21 Grand Slam titles, but I cannot think of anybody more notable than Djokovic. It's amazing." Djokovic's ruthless accumulation of titles, winning four of the past five Grand Slams, is spellbinding. For the past couple of years, the Serb has seemed to play with a cloak of invincibility, making a muggle of every elite player. "He doesn't miss anymore," says former Australian Open finalist John Lloyd in astonishment. "He's always been a great defender but now he seems to be able to defend and hurt you at the same time. He's improved everything. His serve, he's better at the net - his coach Boris Becker has helped there - and in some ways his instincts are more aggressive."
In 2011 Djokovic won 43 matches in a row and collected three Grand Slams, but his statistics in 2015 were even better. He won 82 of 88 matches - a 93% win percentage - and the present-day Djokovic is more ruthless on the grandest of stages. Last year, the man Becker describes as a "street fighter", won 11 of 15 finals and became only the third player in the open era to reach all four Grand Slam finals in a calendar year. "Mentally, he doesn't think he can be beaten," says Lloyd. After losing three consecutive Grand Slam finals, Djokovic recruited six-time Grand Slam champion Becker in 2013 and the German, says Lloyd, has given his pupil an edge. Djokovic has backed up this theory, revealing it was a pep talk from his coach during a third-set rain delay that was key to winning his third Wimbledon title against Roger Federer last year. "To say Boris is confident in himself is an understatement and I mean that in a positive way," says Lloyd. "The night before a match they all have doubts, all the greats, just a tiny little bit, but when you have someone like Boris there it makes a huge difference."
Can the Serb be beaten in a Grand Slam? Stan Wawrinka was the only player to do so last year, beating him in the French Open final and preventing Djokovic claiming the only major that has eluded him. The 34-year-old Federer, a 17-time Grand Slam champion and still the world number three, has been beaten in the last three Slam finals the pair have contested. Indeed, the Swiss last beat the world number one in a Grand Slam in 2012, the semi-finals at Wimbledon. "It's going to take an unbelievable performance," says Lloyd. "A player can have a day like Wawrinka did at the French, when everything just went in - it can happen. But Djokovic has an aura, which gives him an extra few points, even against Federer. "Federer hasn't beaten him for a while in a best of five; Federer knows it, Novak knows it. With Federer you can never tell facially but I can guarantee there's doubt."
Murray has now racked up five losses in Australian Open finals and it's Djokovic who has been his tormentor on four of those occasions, as he often is against the Briton. During the two hours and 53 minutes of Sunday's contest, the Scot created opportunities in the second and third sets but once Djokovic had eased to a 5-0 lead in the first, restricting his rival to five points in the first 20 minutes, the course of the match had been set. Murray has played better, but was he bad? No, Djokovic was just superior. "Murray came after him, he tried to be very aggressive, but Djokovic just blunted his attack and was able to dominate proceedings," says Lloyd. "The first set set the tone. I thought Djokovic was exceptional. "I liked that Murray was going for the second serve more. Ironically, it cost him the third set tie-break when he got those two double faults, but that's the sort of thing he needs to do from now on. "I thought his backhand was magnificent, his serve was very good. His forehand did break down a little bit and that was the one area he needed to be solid with."
Castle believes the Scot got his tactics "spot on", praising Murray's "superb" backhand and aggression. "Against anybody else, Murray would have beaten them, but what happened? He lost in straight sets to Djokovic," says Castle. "Murray's had a brilliant career but with Djokovic he's looking at a different level again and it's going to be fascinating watching Murray go forward." The Scot has created history, ending Britain's 77-year wait for a men's Wimbledon champion and, last year, leading Britain to a first Davis Cup win since 1936, but can he catch Djokovic? Castle believes "taking care" of the world number one is the last remaining goal of Murray's career.
"He must be thinking about that in practice every time," he says. "Every time he's lifting weights, every time he's moving to the forehand. That's how good Djokovic is. "Andy will make whatever changes are required because he's that professional, but it will be a hell of a grind. It takes months to make the smallest of margins."
For Murray to succeed in Grand Slam finals again, Lloyd says the former Wimbledon and US Open champion must stop directing negative energy towards his coaching team.
"The mental side was what I thought let him down again," says the former Davis Cup player. "There was far too much negative body language, looking up at his box. When you're doing that nonsense it's sending a message out and Djokovic is feeding off that. When Djokovic sees that, he's thinking 'I've got this guy'. "He's got to cut that out if he's going to beat Djokovic. I'd replay that match to him and show him what he looks like - I'd show that to him until he's sick of it, so it'd just be like watching a horror film. "I'm not saying he should be a robot, but the energy needs to be far more positive. He won two Grand Slams with his previous coach Ivan Lendl when he cut all that out. It's in his hands."
Murray was expected to board the first flight back to the UK to be with his pregnant wife Kim, and should he need guidance on combining fatherhood with on-court success he need only look at Djokovic, father of 14-month-old Stefan.
Fatherhood, after all, has not stopped the Serb chasing history. He will again set his sights on winning a calendar Grand Slam and, should he do so, will draw level with Nadal on 14 Grand Slams. After that? Federer's 17 titles, which both Lloyd and Castle believe is an achievable target. "He's got to keep the hunger," says Lloyd. "At some stage the desire to train four hours every day ends, but at the moment it hasn't. "Players, whether they say it or not, love records. He's equalled Laver and Borg, he wants to win the French Open and wants to become the greatest player of all time. These are all incentives. They have to have something to keep motivating them and this guy wants to break records.
"He's still got another four great years in him. If he can keep the focus who knows how many more he can win." | Sports Competition | January 2016 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(BBC)'] |
A Chilean Air Force C-130 Hercules with 38 passengers and crew onboard is reported missing while en route to Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva in Antarctica. | A military plane with 38 people on board has disappeared en route to Antarctica, Chile's air force says.
The C-130 Hercules transport aircraft took off from Punta Arenas at 16:55 local time (19:55 GMT), and operators lost contact at 18:13 (21:13).
Those missing include 17 crew and 21 passengers.
They were travelling to provide logistical support to a military base on Antarctica's King George Island. A search-and-rescue mission is under way.
Air Force Gen Eduardo Mosqueira told local media that the plane did not activate any distress signal. He said the plane, whose pilot had extensive experience, might have been forced to touch down on water.
An air force statement said that the plane was about 450 miles (725km) into its 770-mile journey when contact was lost, placing it within the Drake Passage. The air force published a map of the plane's last known location on Twitter:
Gráfica que complementa Comunicado de Prensa #FACh pic.twitter.com/Elcbaudk48
The Drake Passage is a body of water connecting the South Atlantic and South Pacific oceans, and is known for treacherous weather conditions. But Chile's air force said local weather was good at the time of the plane's disappearance.
It also said that the plane would have had enough fuel to keep airborne until 00:40.
Three of the passengers were Chilean soldiers; two were civilians employed by engineering and construction firm Inproser, who were going to carry out work on the military base; one was a student at Magellanes University; and the remaining 15 passengers were members of the air force, an official said.
The C-130 is also staffed by 17 crew members. The Air Force has published a list of all those on board.
Air Force Gen Francisco Torres said that the search for the plane had "begun immediately" after it had failed to arrive at the military base in Antarctica.
Four ships and 10 planes from Chile are taking part in the search operation.
Uruguay and Argentina have also each sent a plane to help locate the missing C-130. An initial overflight of the area where communication was lost failed to yield any sign of the missing plane. Rescuers are currently searching inside a 60-mile radius from the last point of contact.
President Sebastián Piñera said in a tweet that he was "dismayed by the loss".
He cancelled his planned trip to Argentina to attend the swearing-in of President-elect Alberto Fernández and instead went to Cerrillos Air Base in the capital, Santiago, to monitor the search, along with Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel.
| Air crash | December 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The oldest fossil records of Homo sapiens are discovered in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, dated at between 300,000 and 350,000 years old. The earliest Homo sapiens fossils had been dated as 200,000 years old. | Bones found in a cave in Morocco add 100,000 years to the history of modern human fossils. These bones are from “early anatomically modern” humans — our own species, Homo sapiens, with a mixture of modern and primitive traits, an international team of anthropologists, paleontologists and evolutionary scientists report in a pair of papers published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Despite their primitive features, these ancient people could blend in with a modern crowd, study author Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said in a news briefing Tuesday — particularly, he added, if hats covered their somewhat oddly shaped heads.
The oldest Homo sapiens bones known date to about 200,000 years ago, but the new analysis shows these bones are surprisingly old: 300,000 to 350,000 years old.
Workers discovered the bone site in the 1960s. Barite miners excavating a hill in western Morocco hit a pocket of red sediment with ancient stone tools, limbs and a human skull, which the workers gave to the quarry doctor. The doctor turned the skull over to scientists. It was a puzzling bone. At first the skull was linked to Neanderthals, a species that has been found in Europe but not Africa.
Discoveries of human fossils in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania soon overshadowed the bones from the Moroccan hill. Complicating matters still, the quarry miners took few detailed records of where they found the bones. But the hill, named Jebel Irhoud, was not forgotten. Hublin explored the site several times in the 1980s and 1990s, though he had little luck.
The Jebel Irhoud fossils are roughly 100,000 years older than any previously described modern human bones. In the late 1960s, Richard Leakey and his fellow paleoanthropologists found Homo sapiens fossils from the Kibish Formation of Ethiopia, dated at the time as 130,000 years old. In 2003, in Herto, Ethiopia, anthropologists said they found older Homo sapiens, about 160,000 years old. Two years later, a reanalysis of the Kibish specimens added 35,000 years, pushing fossil evidence of Homo sapiens to just under 200,000 years ago.
Based on the previous discoveries, experts suggested that human ancestors evolved into our species 200,000 years ago. But the new fossils shift that window in time back half again as long, to 300,000 years.
“I think it's wonderful that finally we’ve got a date from Jebel Irhoud,” said Frank Brown, a University of Utah geologist and author of the Kibish reanalysis who was not involved in the new research. “They're not Homo neanderthalensis. They're not Homo erectus. They're not Homo anybody else.”
Brown said that the dates made sense, considering the “near-but-not-quite modernity of the specimens.” He also noted that “the authors were careful to say that the remains are on their way to being anatomically modern.”
There is no specific biological feature that validates a specimen as a member of modern Homo sapiens. But a jutting chin helps. “Humans all around the world have a modern human chin,” Shara Bailey, an anthropologist at New York University and one of the study's authors, told The Washington Post. Bailey said that Irhoud mandibles, like our jaws, have a prominent chin, as well as several dental features found only in modern humans.
“The really cool stuff with Irhoud,” she said, is that “the traits that make them look more like humans are not primitive traits.”
To reconstruct ancient skulls, the study authors examined features from specimens Irhoud 1 (the face and brain case found in 1961), Irhoud 2 (a brain case found in 1962) and Irhoud 10 (the partial face found in 2007). The reconstructions of the Irhoud 10 face fall “right in the middle of the recent modern humans,” said Richard Potts, a paleoanthropologist who directs the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program.
The analysis revealed “small faces shaped distinctively like modern humans,” he said in an email. And although the brain pans fall outside the range of humans alive today, “so do several other clearly fossil Homo sapiens from Africa and Europe,” he said. “So that’s okay.” Comparing these with facial position on known human skulls from Ethiopia, Potts said, “I think we have a good instance of early Homo sapiens from Irhoud.”
Two techniques dated these humans to about 300,000 years ago. Electron resonance spin dating can estimate how long enamel, for instance, has been bombarded by radiation from sediment. With this method, the scientists determined an Irhoud tooth was 286,000 years old (give or take 30,000 years).
A method called thermoluminescence, or TL, dating can gauge the last time an object was heated, by measuring the electrons trapped within it. Fortuitously, the inhabitants of the Jebel Irhoud cave burned their flint tools.
“That was big luck, I would say,” Hublin said during the news conference.
“People must have been involved in heating the flints, and these have been dated directly using well-established TL techniques,” said Richard Roberts, an expert in luminescence dating at the University of Wollongong in Australia who reviewed the dating techniques before the papers' publication.
“I feel the authors have presented pretty convincing evidence for the presence of early modern humans at the site by 300,000 years ago and possibly a little earlier,” Roberts wrote in an email.
Potts was more critical of the dates. “In short, the dating has a lot of [indirect] links in the chain of interpretation,” he said. The authors of the study assume that all of the human fossils came from the same sediment layer, he said. To link the new fossils to the 1960s specimens, the scientists cite a metal nail they found in the area from an older excavation. Potts also noted that in east Africa, dating the argon in volcanic ash is preferred over thermoluminescence (but there is no ash in Morocco to measure).
All told, he said, the researchers' estimate of about 315,000 years old is a provisional “best bet,” with the probable range between 247,000 to 383,000 years.
Three hundred millennia ago, Morocco was wetter and dotted with clumps of trees. The ancient humans would have sought shelter in the cave as they stalked prey. “The overall picture that one gets is a hunting encampment,” study author Shannon McPherron, a Max Planck archaeologist, said during Tuesday's briefing. The hunters carried the flint from a source some 15 miles away; they would have stopped by the cave to eat, light fires and retool their weapons, he said.
The burned flint tools were more elegant than the heavy cleavers earlier in the Stone Age, McPherron said. Found among them were the remains of butchered gazelle, zebra, wildebeest and hartebeest. The researchers also discovered bones from a few carnivores, such as lions and leopards.
As formidable as the Sahara is today, the region was more humid and the desert smaller 300,000 years ago, Hublin said — primarily grassland, instead of dunes, and broken up by lakes the size of Germany.
The site is far north of where other early Homo sapiens bones have been discovered. Hublin envisioned that these early humans could travel across Africa from Morocco to Tanzania and back, spreading their genes along the way.
“There is no Garden of Eden in Africa,” Hublin said. “Or, there is a Garden of Eden — and it's Africa.” (Any one site claiming to be birthplace of Homo sapiens, in other words, is a tourist trap.)
Potts said: “This view promoted by Hublin is by no means a slam dunk, but it is feasible. It will doubtless be tested over and over by further African fossil discoveries in this important time period.”
Bailey said that this research gives a Pan-African perspective to early modern humanity. “We tend to focus on areas of the world where we have a lot of fossils, in east Africa and south Africa. Much less work has been done in north Africa,” she said. “We’re getting a bigger picture of the process of the origin of our species.”
| New archeological discoveries | June 2017 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
The Russian military launches cruise missile strikes from the Mediterranean on ISIS positions in Al-Raqqah, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's de facto capital in Syria, Aleppo, and Idlib. A U.S. official confirms that Russia has conducted a significant number of strikes in Syria using both sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to escalate his military campaign in Syria after it was confirmed that a bomb brought down Metrojet Flight 9268 over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. , | The information that Russia has struck Islamic State positions in Raqqa has been also reported by a senior French government source, cited by Reuters.
A US official told Reuters that Moscow has conducted a significant number of strikes in Syria using both sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers.
Russia gave notice to Washington ahead of the airstrikes, in accordance with an agreement on air safety, US official said, adding that some of Russian strikes had targeted Raqqa, the stronghold of IS militants.
If confirmed, this would be the second time Russia has hit Islamic State positions in Syria from the sea. The first attack was in October this year when Russian warships fired cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea to hit several Islamic State positions in Syria.
On September 30, Russia launched its military operation against Islamic State at the request of the Syrian government. Since the start of the operation the Russian military have destroyed hundreds of extremist targets in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, Deir ez-Zor, Hama, Homs, Idlib and Latakia.
Earlier on Tuesday France’s defense ministry confirmed that Raqqa was also being targeted by the French military.
"For the second time in 24 hours the French military conducted an air raid against Daesh [derogatory name for Islamic State] in Raqa [Raqqa] in Syria," the ministry said, adding that ten Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters dropped at least 16 bombs.
"Both targets [chosen for the attack] were hit and destroyed simultaneously…Conducted in coordination with US forces, the raid was aimed at sites identified during reconnaissance missions previously carried out by France."
France started launching airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria in September. The strikes have intensified following the deadly Paris attacks on November 13 that left 129 people dead. The attacks were claimed by IS militants.
On Tuesday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian made the country’s first-ever request for military help from all 28 EU members in French operations in Middle East and Africa. Such EU defense cooperation is possible thanks to the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.
"France cannot do everything, in the Sahel, in the Central African Republic, in the Levant and then secure its national territory," Le Drian said. | Armed Conflict | November 2015 | ['(RT)', '(The Independent)'] |
North Korea sentences American Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio, studying at the University of Virginia, to 15 years hard labor for removing a political poster from a hotel. | White House calls for leniency and release of Otto Warmbier, 21, convicted of ‘crimes against the state’ after removing political banner from hotel First published on Wed 16 Mar 2016 04.04 GMT
North Korea has sentenced an American college student to 15 years’ hard labour after finding him guilty of “crimes against the state”, in a ruling that is certain to increase tensions with Washington.
Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old economics student at the University of Virginia, was found guilty of committing “severe crimes” against the North Korean state after he was held for allegedly attempting to steal a political banner from a restricted area of the hotel where he was staying in the capital Pyongyang.
Warmbier’s conviction by the North’s supreme court, announced on Wednesday by China’s Xinhua news agency, comes soon after the UN security council agreed a new round of sanctions in response to the regime’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch. The White House also announced a fresh round of sanctions on North Korea in response to those same incidents on Wednesday.
There was no immediate confirmation of the trial, which reportedly lasted less than an hour, by the North Korean state media. Calling Warmbier’s detention “completely unjustified”, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich, governor of Warmbier’s home state of Ohio, called on North Korea to “immediately release Otto Warmbier and let him return to his family here in Ohio”.
“His detention was completely unjustified and the sentence North Korea imposed on him is an affront to the concepts of justice. Continuing to hold him only further alienates the international community.” Kasich repeated his calls for the Obama administration to “redouble its efforts” to secure Warmbier’s release.
Later on Wednesday, the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, urged North Korea to show leniency for the 21-year-old student.
“We strongly encourage the North Korean government to pardon him and grant him special amnesty and immediate release.”
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen in recent weeks following the start of the largest-ever joint military exercises involving South Korea and the US. In response, Pyongyang has kept up a daily barrage of threats to carry out nuclear strikes against Seoul and Washington over the drills, which the North regards as a rehearsal for an invasion.
Earlier this week the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, warned that the country was about to carry out tests of another nuclear warhead, as well as ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear bombs to the US and other targets.
While there is some disagreement over how advanced North Korea’s nuclear programme is, US officials believe North Korea is some way off being able to mount a nuclear warhead and deliver it to a target as far away as the mainland US.
“We have not seen North Korea demonstrate capability to miniaturise a nuclear weapon, and again, put it on a ballistic missile,” the Pentagon spokesman, Peter Cook, told reporters.
In the past, the regime has used detainees as leverage to secure visits by high-profile US politicians, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
The US accused North Korea of using Warmbier for propaganda purposes after he made a stage-managed confession in late February. In a prepared statement read out before TV cameras, Warmbier said a member of Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, described as the mother of a friend, had offered him a used car worth $10,000 if he could return with the banner as a “trophy” from North Korea.
Church officials said they did not know the woman identified by Warmbier, adding that he was not a member of the congregation.
Warmbier broke down in tears as he acknowledged and apologised for his alleged crime, which he described as “the worst mistake of my life”.
Warmbier was arrested in early January, as he was about to board a flight from Pyongyang for Beijing at the end of a visit arranged by Young Pioneer Tours, an agency specialising in travel to North Korea.
On its website, the US State Department strongly discourages all travel to North Korea, with which Washington does not have diplomatic relations, and warns of the “risk of arrest and long-term detention”.
Warmbier’s parents pleaded with the North to show leniency, citing his youth and the fact that he had made a full confession in public.
Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, who had previously travelled to North Korea, met Pyongyang’s ambassador to the UN on Tuesday to press for Warmbier’s release, the New York Times reported. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2016 | ['(The Guardian)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
5,300 people flee flames which thousands of firefighters fight in British Columbia. | VANCOUVER — More than 100 new forest fires are starting each day in B.C.’s tinder-dry forests, and the province has already burned through double its average firefighting budget, officials said Monday. Thousands of homes have been evacuated as the fires threaten communities throughout southern British Columbia.
At least 4,850 British Columbians are staying in hotels, schools, or with friends after forest fires forced them from their homes. And late Monday, the 600 residents of Bella Coola on B.C.’s central coast were ordered to leave, as two out-of-control blazes threatened the community.
Hot, dry weather mixed with lightning storms has pushed the fire risk up to critical levels in 85 per cent of the province, fire information officer Radha Fisher said Monday.
“The conditions are prime for fires,” Fisher said. “We have seen big fire seasons in the past and we are seeing one now.”
In an average fire season, which runs from April to October, there are 1,200 fires by the first week of August, according to statistics from the past seven years. This year, there have already been 2,200 fires.
Between 500 and 700 fires are burning in the province on any given day, Fisher said, with 100 to 150 new ones starting each day.
On Sunday, for example, 100 fires began, most ignited by lightning, and a handful caused by humans.
On Monday afternoon, another fire broke out on Blackcomb Mountain. It spread to 10 hectares in an area called Ruby Bowl, about one kilometre up the slope from last week’s Crystal Ridge fire, said Mike McCulley, a provincial fire information officer. Helicopters were battling the blaze, and air tankers were expected to help out.
The increase in fires has boosted firefighting costs to $110 million so far this year, Fisher said. That’s up from the average of $50 million a year, based on the past seven years.
One thousand provincial firefighters are battling the blazes across the province, with the help of 800 out-of-province firefighters. Another 750 people are contracted by the province to cool hot spots and patrol fires. Dozens of helicopters, aircraft and heavy equipment are also spread throughout the provinces as needed.
Another 1,000 people are working behind the scenes as fire information officers and incident managers.
And the fire season is far from over.
"Some fires don’t go out until the snow flies," Fisher said. "We are going to control them where we can, but some of these fires will only be put out by Mother Nature."
In 2003, the last extraordinary fire year, August was the peak month for fires, said Fisher.
August 2009 has started with a vengeance.
The 3,333-hectare Mount McLean fire forced 2,300 residents in Lillooet, B.C., from their homes on Sunday night after the section of fire threatening the town located about 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver grew from 100 hectares to 300 hectares. Neighbouring First Nations communities of Bridge River and Kayoosh First Nations have also been evacuated.
The fire, which is burning within a kilometre of the closest home, is being fuelled by hectares of dry timber, said fire information officer Garry Horley.
“I was watching on the hill last night and, every once in a while, there’d just be a huge ball of flame. It was just like it exploded,” Horley said. “It was just phenomenal.”
Lillooet resident Karen Spencer and her five cats headed across the river to her friend Julie Brown’s home Sunday night as scorched pine needles and burnt leaves rained down in a copper haze of smoke.
With all the people leaving town, the 10-minute drive took nearly an hour, said Spencer.
“I’m stressed. Am I going to have anything to come home to? I don’t know,” Spencer said. “It could still go any way.”
Brown rolled out the welcome mat by sweeping inches of ash off her deck.
“It looked like an ashtray was blown over on my deck. My chairs were all covered in ash, my flowers, my laundry, everything was covered in ash,” Brown said.
Emergency social services personnel have set up reception centres in fire-affected towns for people without a place to stay. Evacuees can register at the centre and can receive vouchers for accommodation, food and clothing.
Another 2,500 people were under evacuation order in the Fintry area of the central Okanagan Valley during the weekend after the 7,025-hectare Terrace Mountain fire sped north towards residences.
Another 2000-hectare fire in Brookmere, B.C., about 150 kilometres west of Kelowna, forced 50 people out of their homes.
| Fire | August 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Canada.com)', '(CBS News)', '(National Post)'] |
Brazilian President Michel Temer is charged with corruption by Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot. The case will now go to the Supreme Federal Court. | Brazil is bracing for a fresh bout of political turmoil after the president, Michel Temer, became the country’s first sitting head of state to be formally charged with a crime.
Less than a year after taking power, the deeply unpopular leader was formally accused of corruption by the attorney general Rodrigo Janot on Monday night and could now face a lower house vote on whether he should be tried by the supreme court for taking bribes.
In a damning indictment to the supreme court, Janot alleged Temer took millions of dollars in bribes from meat-packing giant JBS. The attorney general said the president had “fooled Brazilian citizens” and compromised the image of the country.
Temer said on Tuesday that he was the victim of a political defamation campaign. “I have been denounced for passive corruption without having received anything of value. Where is the concrete proof that I received something of value?” he said in a statement made before journalists in the Planalto Palace.
As he has done repeatedly, the president turned on his accusers, insisting Janot and his supporters were damaging the national interest. “They want to paralyze the country, they want to paralyze the government,” he said. “I will not run away from the battles, nor the war that lies before us.”
The ruling coalition currently has sufficient votes to defend the president in Congress, where a two-thirds majority would have to approve a trial. But the looming battle will further undermine the credibility of Temer, whose approval ratings have slumped to 7%. His predecessor Dilma Rousseff who was ousted in an impeachment plot in May 2016 was quick to note that her former running mate was now accused of greater crimes than those for which she was removed from office last year.
“The result of the 2016 coup: leaving the country in the hands of the only president indicted for corruption,” she tweeted.
Janot launched an investigation last month into Temer for bribery, obstruction of justice and activity in a criminal organization.
These allegations followed the release of a secret recording of a late-night conversation earlier this year between Temer and the JBS executive Joesley Batista, in which the president appeared to endorse hush money payoffs to former house speaker Eduardo Cunha, a member of Temer’s party who is serving a 15-year sentence for corruption. Police have since confirmed the authenticity of the recording and said there is sufficient evidence to indict the president.
“The circumstances of this meeting [with Batista] at night and without any register in the official schedule of the president of the Republic reveal the intent not to leave traces of the criminal actions already taken,” Janot claimed.
Temer has resisted pressure to stand down and tried to demonstrate leadership last week by making an official visit to Norway and Russia. But his attempt to shift the focus backfired when Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, publicly lectured him on the need for Brazil to deal with its corruption woes.
Norway also halved its contribution to an Amazon rainforest fund due to the Brazilian government’s failure to address accelerating deforestation.
Analysts say Temer’s position is weakening as major news outlets turn against him and some allies such as former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso call on him to resign. “Temer has never been so fragile,” said Lúcio Flávio Rodrigues de Almeida, a politics professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of So Paulo. “His support levels are at a low and continue to fall. There is also a strike under way. This make make him suffer pressure even from his allies. He is on a tightrope.”
However, the president still has the backing of the leader of the lower house, Rodrigo Maia, who could block the judicial process. The main business group, the National Confederation of Industries, also continues to endorse him in the hope that he will push through pension and labour reforms which will help companies.
Temer a constitutional scholar has changed justice minister twice this year in an attempt to strengthen his hand when dealing with judges, prosecutors and police, but time could wear him and his congressional majority down, particularly if Janot files other accusations.
“This crisis will not be solved today or even this week. There is a big change of this dragging out for a long time and perhaps only coming to a conclusion towards the end of the year,” said Rogério Arantes, a political scientist at the University of So Paulo. “Temer has the capacity to resist, due to his base in Congress, which needs to authorise the accusations against the president. This fact might help him in the next days and weeks, but in the next months, it’s impossible to say.”
His fate is likely to depend on whether ruling party legislators consider him a liability ahead of next year’s presidential election or whether they feel he can push through unpopular reforms.
“The proximity to the voters at this point could be an important factor in determining whether his allies will continue their support,” said Mara Telles, a professor at Federal University of Minas Gerais. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
More than 110 people are killed across Europe as a result of a recent cold snap. | Heavy snow has left at least 11,000 villagers cut off in remote areas of Serbia amid a European cold snap that has claimed more than 130 lives.
At least six people have died in Serbia, with emergency services expressing concern for the health of the sick and the elderly in particular.
Temperatures are below -30C (-22F) in parts of Europe and 63 people have died in Ukraine and 29 in Poland.
In Italy, weather experts say it is the coldest week for 27 years.
Emergency services in Serbia have described the situation, close to the country's south-western borders with Kosovo and Montenegro, as very serious.
In places, the snow has reached a depth of 2m (6ft 6in). Fourteen municipalities are affected, emergency official Predrag Maric told the BBC.
Helicopters have helped move several people to safety, and food and medicines have been airlifted to isolated areas. Snow began falling in Serbia on 7 January and has hardly stopped since, says BBC correspondent Nick Thorpe. Serbian media say further snow is expected in the coming days.
Ukraine has seen the highest number of fatalities, many of them homeless. Over a 24-hour period, as many as 20 people died.
Food shortages have been reported in the capital, Kiev, because lorries have been unable to transport supplies.
Heavy snow has also caused widespread disruption in northern and central Italy. More than 600 passengers were trapped on an unheated train in the Apennine mountains for seven hours on Wednesday night, when the brakes and electrical cables froze.
The coldest temperatures have been recorded in Russia and Kazakhstan. In the Urals and Siberia, the temperature fell to -40C (-40F) while in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, a forecaster told Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency the wind-chill factor meant the real temperature was down to -52C, even though the air temperature was -35C.
In southern Russia, cars and lorries became stuck in snow drifts between Novorossiisk and Krasnodar. Heavy snow has also hit Turkey, with 50cm falling in Istanbul on Wednesday. An avalanche in the south-east of the country killed a woman in her home, reports say.
Another avalanche blocked a main road connecting the provinces of Bitlis and Diyarbakir.
Rescuers in Germany were unable to save an elderly woman after she had gone swimming in the frozen waters of a gravel pit in Lower Saxony. Reports said she had often swum in the lake.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Courier Mail)'] |
Iran's Roads Minister Abbas Akhoundi apologizes for deadly train crash in a live TV program. In the meantime, Iranian MPs are working on a plan to impeach Akhoundi for what they call his poor performance that led to the terrible incident. | In a message to the bereaved families of victims of the train crash on Monday, Akhoundi expressed deep condolences to all the people and said after receiving news of the incident, he made every effort and used everything in his power to assist those injured in the crash.
“Since the incident occurred in a field under my management, I apologize to the bereaved families, the injured and all of the dear Azeris (people of provinces of West and East Azerbaijan),” he said.
It came after Managing Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Mohsen Pourseyyed Aqaei resigned following the deadly train crash.
In the meantime, Iranian lawmakers are working on a plan to impeach Akhoundi for what they call his weak performance that led to the terrible incident.
In a message on Saturday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei voiced deep sorrow over the incident, blaming it on the negligence and imprudence of those involved.
At least 45 people died and dozens of others were wounded in the crash, which occurred at around 8 a.m. Friday in a mountainous area near Haft-Khan station, on the railroad linking the cities of Semnan and Damghan.
A passenger train travelling between capital Tehran and the northeastern holy city of Mashhad was stopping near the station when another train hit it from behind, setting a number of cars ablaze. | Train collisions | November 2016 | ['(Tasnim)'] |
A new species of Titi monkey, the Caquetá Titi, is discovered in the Colombian department of Caquetá. | A Colombian monkey species that had long been rumored but which scientists couldn't reach because of insurgent violence in the remote area where it lives has finally been found -- teetering on the brink of extinction.
The new species of cat-sized titi monkey was discovered in the Colombian Amazon by researchers from the National University of Colombia, who dubbed it Callicebus caquetensis
However it's not known how long the species will last. The scientists estimate that only 250 of the monkeys are still alive, as their forest home is being cut down to make way for farms.
The monkeys live Department of Caquetá, close to the border with Ecuador and Peru.
Evolutionary biologist Martin Moynihan saw the species in the 1980s, but violence in the area kept researchers who could confirm the discovery away until 2008, when scientists Thomas Defler, Marta Bueno and Javier García were finally able to travel to the upper Caquetá River, where they found 13 groups of the monkeys.
The discovery is described in the current issue of the journal Primate Conservation.
The monkeys, called zogui zogui in Spanish, have one of the most complex calls in the animal kingdom, which they use to mark their territory.
"We had heard about this animal, but for a long time we could not confirm if it was different from other titis. We now know that this is a unique species, and it shows the rich diversity of life that is still to be discovered in the Amazon," Defler said in a statement issued by Conservation International, which helped fund the research.
By Elizabeth Weise
| New wonders in nature | August 2010 | ['(USA Today)'] |
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference removes disgraced senior official Ling Jihua from the office of Vice–Chairman and also strips him of his ordinary delegate status. | .
BEIJING (Reuters) - China expelled a disgraced senior aide to former President Hu Jintao from a high-profile advisory body on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported on its website, marking the latest step in a significant political scandal.
Ling Jihua heads a Communist Party body charged with reaching out to non-Communists and holds a rank equivalent to vice-premier. The largely ceremonial advisory council also dismissed former spy boss Ma Jian and Zhu Mingguo, once a senior official in the southern export powerhouse province of Guangdong, according to media reports. Both have been accused of graft.
Ling was demoted in September 2012 after sources said his son was involved in a deadly crash involving an expensive sports car in an embarassment to the party, which is sensitive to public criticism that its officials and their families lead lifestyles of excess.
Ling was dropped from his post as head of the party's General Office of the Central Committee, a powerful post similar to cabinet secretary in governments modelled after the politics of Britain, such as Australia and Canada.
He was then appointed as minister for the less influential United Front Work Department, which is in charge of co-opting non-Communists, religious groups and ethnic minorities.
The country's National People's Congress, a largely rubber-stamp parliament, also cast out Liu Zheng, a former deputy director of the powerful General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army, who is being investigated for corruption, state media reported on Saturday.
The development, which comes as China's leadership pursues a campaign to weed out corruption and excess in its armed forces, is significant because it means Liu has been stripped of immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament.
Liu is under investigation, the Ministry of Defence said in January, accused of "seriously violating party discipline", a euphemism for graft.
Serving and retired Chinese military officers have said graft in the armed forces is so pervasive it could undermine China's ability to wage war.
China's campaign to rid its military of corruption has ensnared several high-ranking officials, including Xu Caihou, who retired as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission last year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to target high-flying "tigers" as well as lowly "flies" in his anti-corruption campaign. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2015 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
Typhoon Damrey kills at least 19 people in Vietnam, a week before the country is set to host APEC Vietnam 2017. | Typhoon Damrey has killed at least 27 people after pummelling central and southern Vietnam, just days before Donald Trump heads to the country for the APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
Damrey reached land at 4am (local time) with winds gusting at up to 90 kilometres per hour that damaged more than 40,000 homes, knocked down hundreds of electricity poles and uprooted trees.
The communist state's search and rescue committee said 22 people are missing after the storm, while 626 houses had been collapsed entirely. More than 33,000 people had been evacuated.
The storm made landfall near the city of Nha Trang, which is about 500 kilometres south of the coastal city of Danang, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is taking place next week.
Danang itself also suffered. A gateway proclaiming "Welcome to Danang" collapsed in the storm, state media said.
Authorities in the area called on citizens to volunteer to help clean up.
The city will host US President Donald Trump from November 10 as well as China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin and counterparts from other APEC members.
Nha Trang, a coastal resort city, faced the brunt of Damrey's impact, with fierce rain and extreme winds knocking over scooters and flooding roads. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2017 | ['(ABC Australia)'] |
Ratko Mladi is removed from his hearing after he is ruled to have spoken out of turn while asking that he have his own lawyer instead of one appointed by the court, then quarrelling with the judge to be allowed speak. | Ex-Bosnian Serb army head Ratko Mladic has been removed from a hearing at The Hague war crimes tribunal after quarrelling with the judge.
Gen Mladic was ordered out after continually interrupting the proceedings.
The court entered a plea of not guilty on Mr Mladic's behalf, after Mr Mladic refused to do so.
Mr Mladic is charged with crimes including genocide in connection with the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
He attempted to speak several times at the beginning of the hearing, but Judge Alfons Orie asked him to remain silent until he was allowed to speak.
He was reprimanded by the judge for speaking out of turn and communicating with the public gallery.
Mr Mladic then refused to enter a plea after his request to change his lawyer to one of his choosing rather than a court-appointed one was denied, because he had not made his request in time, the judge said.
When Judge Orie began to read out the charges, Mr Mladic shouted: "No, no, I'm not going to listen to this without my lawyer," removing his translation headphones. "Who are you? You're not allowing me to breathe," Mr Mladic snapped. Shortly before guards escorted Mr Mladic from court, he shouted at Judge Orie: "You want to impose my defence. What kind of a court are you?"
After he was removed, the judge read out all 11 charges, including murder and genocide, and entered pleas of not guilty on Mr Mladic's behalf.
From the moment he walked in, Mr Mladic was absolutely defiant, says the BBC's Lauren Comiteau who was there, adding that she had never seen anything quite like it in 15 years of covering the court. Mr Mladic would not take off his hat; he was communicating with the public gallery, giving a thumbs up; the judge warned him not to do that; he continued to do it throughout the hearing, our correspondent says. He interrupted the judge at every turn he could, and then finally when the judge did start to read out the charges, he threw up his hands, started screaming and he had to be removed from the court, she says.
Meanwhile, survivors, mothers from Srebrenica, were also screaming, saying he killed Muslims, that he should plead guilty, our correspondent adds.
It was Gen Mladic's second appearance before the court, after a hearing on 3 June when he declined to plead on what he called 11 "obnoxious" charges.
His Belgrade lawyer, Milos Saljic, had said the former general would boycott the hearing as his defence team has not been approved. Mr Mladic was represented in court by court-appointed lawyer Aleksandar Aleksic. Gen Mladic was extradited to the Netherlands from Serbia at the end of May after being captured following 15 years as a fugitive.
He is charged in connection with the massacre of about 7,500 people in Srebrenica - Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
Gen Mladic is also charged over the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 people died.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Anti-government protests cause the Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra to flee to a secret location as a pro-Thai government protester is killed. | A Thai government supporter was shot and killed early on Sunday at protests in Bangkok, raising the death toll to two as protesters invaded a police compound and forced the evacuation of the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, to a secret location.
Some reports said anti-government demonstrators had seized control of the broadcaster Thai PBS. Police backed up by the military were attempting to protect government buildings amid the deadly street clashes between supporters and opponents of Yingluck and her billionaire brother, the ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Anti-government protesters on Sunday broke into the compound of a police sports club where the prime minister had been during the morning but she was able to leave the premises and went to an undisclosed location, an aide said.
In another area of the city police fired teargas at protesters near Government House, where Yingluck's office is located, a Reuters witness said. On Sunday about 70,000 government supporters gathered near a sports stadium and by morning the surrounding streets were littered with broken glass and rocks from the unrest, a Reuters witness said.
Seventeen battalions of 150 soldiers each, along with 180 military police, all unarmed, were called in to boost security ahead of a deadline the same day set by demonstrators for the ousting of the government.
Fighting had intensified on Saturday after anti-government protesters attacked a bus they believed was full of government supporters. They also smashed the windshield of a taxi carrying people wearing red shirts, a pro-government symbol, and beat two people, one unconscious, police and witnesses said. As darkness fell, gunfire erupted outside the sports stadium in Bangkok's Ramkamhaeng area, where the 70,000 backers of Yingluck and Thaksin had gathered for a rally in a show of support after a week of anti-government protests. Around 8pm a gunman fired into Ramkamhaeng University, where hundreds of anti-government protesters had retreated after trying to block people from entering the stadium, witnesses said. One person was killed. It was not known who fired the shots. Fighting raged in the area through the night. At around 2am, Kittisak Srisunthorn, 36, said he was shot in the arm while sitting with a group of red shirt guards. "I heard homemade bombs, gunshots. People started to throw rocks and glass bottles. There were around one hundred people gathered. I didn't see any police," Kittisak told Reuters.
Thousands of red shirts have begun to return by bus to their homes in northern Thailand but their departure is unlikely to defuse Thailand's worst political crisis since April-May 2010, a period of unrest that ended with a military crackdown. In all 91 people were killed, mostly Thaksin supporters. Yingluck, who won a 2011 election by a landslide to become Thailand's first female prime minister, has called on the protesters to clear the streets and enter into talks to avoid confrontation, saying Thailand's economy was at risk after demonstrators occupied the finance ministry on Monday. Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has told demonstrators laws must be broken to achieve their goals and has urged them to surround the headquarters of the national and city police, ministries and the prime minister's office at Government House. Shopping malls shut as Bangkok braced for violence on Sunday. | Armed Conflict | December 2013 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
As the North American cold wave continues, a massive winter storm across states in the southern United States causes widespread power outages, travel disruptions and dangerous road conditions. | Follow NBC News Emergency crews deployed for battle Wednesday with a vicious ice storm that cut off power for hundreds of thousands of people across the Southeast — and worse power failures were on the way.
About 400,000 customers were without power Wednesday evening in Georgia and the Carolinas, utilities reported. That was on top of tens of thousands more who were in the dark as the storm gathered strength earlier in the week across Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.
"This storm is very unpredictable. It's one of the toughest storms we're going to see in our history," North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said Wednesday.
Nearly 600 power workers prepared to camp overnight at the Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta, where support staff and volunteers showed up to serve breakfast and dinner and to pack box lunches, NBC station WXIA reported.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed warned that "the hardest part of this storm is tonight and tomorrow," as residents get cabin fever and want to go outside.
"Let me be very clear: Last night and today was the opening act of what's getting ready to occur," Reed said, as snow continues to fall and temperatures plunge back below freezing, re-icing everything.
It's the ice that's the real culprit — coating streets, trees and power lines to a depth of a full inch in parts of all three states.
Having learned their lesson two weeks ago, when snow locked down the city for a day and a half, Atlantans stayed home, leaving usually jam-packed interstates looking like a sci-fi wasteland as an eerie calm settled over desolate streets slick with ice. Highways were deserted as freezing rain and ferocious wind gusts kept drivers at home.
That wasn't the case in Charlotte, North Carolina's biggest city, where cars and trucks slipped, slid and stalled at the junction of Interstate 277 and Independence Boulevard, a major highway through town.
In a scene reminiscent of the parking lot that Atlanta's freeways became last month, vehicles lined up motionless for miles. Hundreds of crashes were reported, and Independence was eventually officially closed.
Similar scenes played out in South Carolina, where a woman was killed Wednesday when her car speeded out of control and collided with a law enforcement vehicle on Interstate 95 in Clarendon County, Gov. Nikki Haley said.
Three other deaths were also blamed on the storm Wednesday, raising the number of confirmed deaths to 10 since the storm swept in through Texas earlier this week.
At least six other deaths were reported Tuesday as the storm gathered power over Texas and Mississippi: four in separate accidents on icy north Texas roads — including a Dallas firefighter who was knocked off an interstate ramp — and two in separate accidents in Mississippi.
While ice may look pretty and unthreatening, it's actually the biggest hazard of the storm, meteorologists said. The National Weather Service called the ice storm a potentially "catastrophic event" and said some areas of the South could be without power "for days and perhaps as long as a week."
More than 3,400 flights into and out of U.S. airports were canceled and 3,500 more were delayed — the vast majority of them at the Atlanta and Charlotte hubs.
Amtrak suspended service Wednesday on 10 trains in Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas "to reduce the exposure of Amtrak passengers, crews and rail equipment to extreme weather conditions."
As it crawls eastward, the same weather system was forecast to dump up to 12 inches of snow on New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., overnight and into Thursday, snarling travel plans for millions more people.
@weatherchannel Road and traffic backup in Danville, Va. #Pax #TooMuch pic.twitter.com/FjVG1YBh4F
"There will be disruption," said Kevin Roth, lead meteorologist for The Weather Channel. "The whole region will be in a deep freeze."
But with warmer temperatures expected, especially along the coast, some of the precipitation will simply be rain, and "there shouldn't be as much ice further north," Roth said. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2014 | ['(NBC)'] |
In Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, gunmen kill five Westerners and a Saudi security guard in a shooting spree and car chase. | Two Americans, two Britons, at least one Australian and a Saudi national guard are among the dead.
The attackers are reported to have called themselves "mujahideen", hinting at possible links with al-Qaeda.
Local reports said one body was dragged through the streets by a car before Saudi security forces killed three of the gunmen in a shootout.
The attack began at offices just outside a petrochemical plant partly owned by the US firm Exxon-Mobil.
Saudi Arabia said the three of the gunmen worked at the site and used their entry passes to gain access, also sneaking a fourth attacker in with them.
A McDonalds hamburger restaurant was peppered with gunfire and a pipe bomb was reportedly thrown at the international school.
There was also reported to be an exchange of fire with police outside the Holiday Inn.
'Fired at random'
In a statement, the Saudi interior ministry said: "At 7am (0400GMT) on Saturday, four men entered the headquarters of a Saudi contractor in Yanbu and fired at random on Saudis and foreigners.
"Security forces chased them and they took refuge in residential areas and hijacked some cars. Three of them were killed and a fourth was wounded.
"There were a number of deaths and injuries among Saudis and foreigners."
At least four of the dead were oil engineers working for Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB. Another was sub-contracted to work for it.
The US embassy confirmed that two Americans had died, while the UK Foreign Office confirmed the deaths of two Britons.
A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said an Australian national was believed to have been killed. Local hospitals reported that 28 people, mostly Saudis, were injured.
'Mujahideen'
A media adviser to the Saudi embassy in London, Jamal Kashoggi, said the gunmen had shouted, "We are the mujahideen", citing eyewitness reports.
He said this was how al-Qaeda activists in Saudi Arabia described themselves.
Saudi Arabia has seen a year-long wave of Islamist militancy, targeting mainly foreigners.
More than 50 people have been killed in suicide bombings in the capital Riyadh, including an attack on a security building last month.
But this is the first attack by anti-Western groups on an oil facility in Saudi Arabia.
The BBC's Paul Wood in Cairo says it will send shockwaves through the expatriate community and the Saudi Royal family.
Yanbu, together with Jubail, is home to much of the kingdom's oil refining and petrochemicals industries.
Earlier this month, the US urged its citizens to leave Saudi Arabia after issuing a warning of "credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and
Western interests in Saudi Arabia".
The Saudi ambassador to London, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said the incident would strengthen his country's resolve "to eradicate terrorist activity and to combat this evil wherever we find it". | Armed Conflict | May 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Japanese convict who served seventeen years in prison for the murder of a four–year–old girl pleads not guilty during a retrial. | A Japanese man who spent 17 years in jail for the murder of a four-year-old girl has now pleaded not guilty in a retrial of his case.
Toshikazu Sugaya, 63, was released earlier this year after fresh DNA tests showed that evidence found at the murder scene did not match his DNA. He was sentenced to life in jail after saying during a police interrogation that he committed the crime. He later retracted this statement, saying it was made under duress. Human rights groups have criticised Japan's system of police interrogations, where suspects can be detained and questioned for up to 23 days without the presence of a lawyer. The conviction rate in Japan is more than 99%, and a recent report by Amnesty International criticised the system, saying some of these convictions were based on confessions extracted from suspects against their will. Appearing at the Utsunomiya District Court on Wednesday, Mr Sugaya said he had nothing to do with the 1990 murder. He then asked the court why he had been made to suffer 17-and-a-half years in jail for a crime he did not commit. The retrial is expected to last about six months, but prosecutors are expected to ask the court to acquit Mr Sugaya as quickly as possible. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hong Kong's June 4th Museum, the first museum dedicated to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, is to close down. Organizers say they believe they are being targeted for political reasons. It comes at a time when concerns are growing in Hong Kong that Beijing is tightening its grip on the city. | Organisers believe they are being targeted for political reasons as China seeks to cast more influence on the city
Last modified on Wed 5 Jul 2017 13.09 BST
The world’s first museum dedicated to China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown is to close its doors in Hong Kong, with organisers saying they believe they are being targeted for political reasons.
It comes at a time when concerns are growing in the semi-autonomous Chinese city that Beijing is tightening its grip.
There has been keen interest in the museum from mainland tourists. Half of the more than 20,000 total visitors since it launched in 2014 have come from mainland China, where all reference to the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters is banned.
The June 4 Memorial Hall is run by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which also organises the city’s huge Tiananmen anniversary vigil each year.
Tenants in the commercial building housing the museum say it breaches regulations because the premises should only be used for offices, according to legal documents seen by AFP.
“I tend to believe they are politically motivated... the other side seem to have unlimited resources,” said lawmaker Albert Ho, chairman of the Alliance. Museum organisers say they cannot afford to continue the protracted legal battle – the tenants have been pursuing the issue since it first opened.
The current venue will close by year-end and organisers are seeking bigger premises. If they fail to find somewhere in time, the exhibits will be put in storage.
Multiple requests for an interview with tenants’ committee officials went unanswered.
One tenant complained to AFP that visitors to the museum “jammed” elevators during peak hours, but others said they were not aware of a public museum in their building.
The crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, is branded a “counter-revolutionary rebellion” by Chinese authorities and many on the mainland remain unaware of it.
Pro-Beijing groups protested when the museum first opened, saying it presented a skewed version of events.
Venue organisers claim visitors have felt “harassed” by security guards who ask them to present their personal information. The 74 sq m (800-square-foot) museum is in the commercial district of East Tsim Sha Tsui and features video clips and photographs.
There is also a two-metre tall statue of the Goddess of Democracy, similar to one erected at Tiananmen Square during the protests.
Beijing has never given an official death toll for the Tiananmen crackdown, which was condemned worldwide, but independent observers tallied more than 1,000 dead.
Hong Kong enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland, enshrined in a deal made before Britain handed it back to China in 1997. But there are growing fears those freedoms are being eroded. | Organization Closed | April 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Indian child actress Taruni Sachdev and her mother are revealed to be among the dead in yesterday's plane crash in northern Nepal, which killed 15 people. | A child actress, who starred in the Bollywood film Paa with superstar Amitabh Bachchan, was killed in Monday's plane crash in northern Nepal. Taruni Sachdev, 14, played Bachchan's friend in the award-winning film about progeria, a rare genetic condition. She and her mother were among the 13 Indians killed in the crash. The plane was carrying 21 people and hit a hillside as it tried to land at Jomsom airport. Six people survived the crash. "Just reading that Taruni Sachdev, the girl child artist in Paa, has perished in Nepal plane crash... Please God may this not be true," Bachchan tweeted. His son Abhishek, who too had a leading role in the film, also tweeted about Sachdev's death. "SHOCKED and very saddened to hear about the Nepal plane crash. Lost one of my cutest co-stars. Little Taruni Sachdev from Paa. Speechless," he wrote. Sachdev became famous after doing a commercial for Rasna soft drink and featured in almost 50 other commercials.
She also acted in two regional Malayalam language films and appeared in a quiz show hosted by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. | Air crash | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Venezuela announces an electricity rationing programme in which the entire country will be affected by four–hour blackouts every week. | President Hugo Chavez has said rationing is necessary to prevent water levels in Guri Dam -- the cornerstone of Venezuela's energy system -- from falling to critical lows and causing a widespread power collapse. Drought has cut the flow of water into the dam, which feeds three hydroelectric plants that supply 73 percent of Venezuela's electricity.
"This plan is going to be implemented throughout the country," Electricity Minister Angel Rodriguez said. "In some places, it will be four hours, in others it will be three hours."
Rolling blackouts will begin in the capital of Caracas on Wednesday, said Javier Alvarado, president of the city's state electric utility.
Government officials had already imposed some cuts to help the country get through the dry season until May, when seasonal rains are predicted to return.
Related readings: Venezuela shutters stores amid price hike Chavez says Venezuela jets intercepted US plane China, Venezuela sign oil development pacts Venezuela beefs up military presence in border area near Colombia
Chavez's government has also partially shut down state-run steel and aluminum plants. The president announced last week that many public employees will have shorter workdays -- from 8 am to 1 pm -- except those in offices that tend to the public.
"With these measures, we're trying to keep Guri from taking us to a very critical situation at the end of February, from creating let's say a total shutdown of the country," Rodriguez told state television Monday night as he announced the nationwide rationing plan.
Some parts of the country have already been enduring unplanned blackouts for months, as demand has outstripped the electrical supply. The energy output from the Guri Dam's three hydroelectric plants has also declined below its normal capacity.
The increased rationing will help cover a 12 percent gap between energy supply and demand, due to the situation at Guri and at some thermoelectric plants that are operating below capacity, Alvarado said.
He said water levels at the dam in southeastern Venezuela have dropped drastically as a result of the El Nino weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, saying "it's a global phenomenon and it's affected us in recent months." He noted there has been particularly little rain in southeastern Venezuela, where the watershed that feeds Guri is located.
Chavez's critics say his government is to blame because it has failed to complete enough power upgrades to keep up with increasing demand despite Venezuela's bountiful oil earnings.
Alvarado said the Caracas subway, hospitals, media outlets and public institutions that tend to the public would not be affected. | Government Policy Changes | January 2010 | ['(El Universal)', '(China Daily)'] |
Indonesia raises the lava alert for Mount Karangetang on the resort island of Siau as authorities move to evacuate those most at risk. | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Lava and hot gas clouds have begun erupting from an Indonesian volcano, threatening hundreds of people living in nearby villages, an official said on Monday.
Saut Simatupang, the head of Indonesia’s Vulcanology Survey, said nearly 600 people had evacuated their homes in an area south-east of Mount Karangetang.
Simatupang said the alert status for the volcano was raised to maximum at the weekend after hot clouds started moving eastwards, posing a threat to hundreds of people.
The 1,827 meter (5,994 feet) peak, on the diving resort island of Siau off Sulawesi and 2,325 km (1,445 miles) north-east of the capital Jakarta, is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes.
“At least hundreds of the 30,000 people living on the island are at grave risk,” Simatupang said by telephone from his office in the city of Bandung.
“We have recommended evacuation for entire districts and we are pushing for the complete evacuation of at least two villages located 5 km (3 miles) from the volcano’s crater.”
Simatupang said he received reports saying lava had already spread more than 1 km down the volcano’s slopes.
Another volcano 175 km south of Mount Karangetang has also been spewing ash and sending debris down its slopes.
But Simatupang said that Mount Soputan, which lies on the northern tip of the Sulawesi island, was no threat to nearby villages.
Indonesia has the highest number of active volcanoes of any country, sitting on a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire”.
| Volcano Eruption | August 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Mongolian authorities confirm a helicopter crash that claimed 14 lives last Wednesday. | Eight passengers are said to have survived and 14 to have died when the Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter crashed in a mountain in northern Mongolia.
The authorities confirmed the crash on Monday, and said the mountainous location had impaired rescue work.
The aircraft was on its way to fight a forest fire, Emergency Minister S Otgonbayar is quoted as saying.
He told the AP news agency the wreckage from the crash was only located on Saturday in Selenge province.
Mr Otgonbayar said metal-cutting equipment may be needed to free some of the survivors.
According to AP, relatives of the crash victims complained to reporters that the authorities had taken too long to locate the helicopter, having initially said the craft had landed safely after running out of fuel. | Air crash | June 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
In a video interview posted on the state-run website Uriminzokkiri, the two sons of James Joseph Dresnok have confirmed that their father has died of a stroke last November 2016. | Dresnok was among a handful of American servicemen to desert after the Korean war and was loyal to Kim Jong-un Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 18.13 GMT
The only US soldier known to still be living in North Korea after defecting more than five decades ago died last year, pledging his loyalty to the “great leader Kim Jong-un”, his sons have said.
James Joseph Dresnok was among a handful of American servicemen to desert following the Korean war, crossing the heavily fortified demilitarised zone in 1962.
He went on to appear in North Korean propaganda films and was believed to be the last US defector in the country, the others all having died or been allowed to leave.
In a video interview posted on the state-run Uriminzokkiri website, Ted and James Dresnok, his two sons, confirmed their father had a fatal stroke in November last year.
“Our father was in the arms of the republic and received only the love and care of the party until his passing at age 74,” said Ted Dresnok, the elder of the two.
In the video, Dresnok and his brother wore a Korean People’s army uniform, adorned with a badge depicting the North’s founder Kim Il-sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-il.
Both men were born in North Korea and spoke Korean with a heavy northern accent.
“Our father asked us to render devoted service to our great leader Kim Jong-un,” said Ted Dresnok, who also goes by the Korean name Hong Soon-chol.
Their comments were similar to those of North Koreans, who normally only express officially approved sentiments when speaking for a foreign audience.
It was the brothers’ second appearance on the programme, after they praised the country in an interview in May 2016.
Addressing the recent tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, Ted Dresnok warned that the “US imperialists” were raising “war hysteria madness” with little knowledge about the North’s military and its people.
If war breaks out, he said, “we will not miss the opportunity and wipe the land of the US from the earth for ever”.
Tensions have been mounting in the region since Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) last month that appeared to bring much of the US within range.
That sparked a volley of threats between Pyongyang and Washington, with the US president, Donald Trump, warning of bringing “fire and fury” on the North while Pyongyang threatened to fire a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam.
“We have our dear supreme commander Kim Jong-un. If he is by our side, our victory is certain,” said James Dresnok, who also goes by his Korean name Hong Chol, in the video posted on Friday.
The late James Dresnok, known as Joe, crossed a minefield at 21 to reach North Korea, after his wife divorced him and he was reportedly about to be court martialled.
He was the subject of a British documentary, Crossing the Line, in 2006 and expressed satisfaction with his life in Pyongyang, whose citizens enjoy better standards of living than those elsewhere in the isolated country.
He also told CBS that he would not leave even if “you put a billion damn dollars of gold on the table”. | Famous Person - Death | August 2017 | ['(the last remaining American defector to North Korea)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Roadside bombings in Iraq leave at least 10 people killed. | The officials say Saturday's blast hit the convoy, headed to the border with Jordan in western Iraq, near the border post of Trebil.
Officials also say a pair of roadside bombs killed five people and injured 19 south and west of Baghdad. Also in the capital, assailants using pistols fitted with silencers killed two people in the Jihad neighborhood in western Baghdad before they fled in a car. Other details were not immediately available.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Security officials say a roadside bomb targeting a border guard convoy has killed five officers.
The officials say Saturday's blast hit the convoy, headed to the border with Jordan in western Iraq, near the border post of Trebil.
Officials also say a pair of roadside bombs killed five people and injured 19 south and west of Baghdad. Also in the capital, assailants using pistols fitted with silencers killed two people in the Jihad neighborhood in western Baghdad before they fled in a car. Other details were not immediately available. | Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(al-Arabiyah)'] |
In tennis, defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeats second seed Andy Murray of the United Kingdom in the men's singles in straight sets. It is Djokovic's third straight Grand Slam title. , | Novak Djokovic will target a record-equalling sixth Australian Open title and look to extend his supremacy over men's tennis when he plays Andy Murray in the final later on Sunday.
The Serbian world number one and defending champion is hot favourite in his fifth consecutive Grand Slam final after pipping Murray to the title three times already at Melbourne Park.
Should Djokovic win again, he will claim his 11th Grand Slam title and join Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg on the all-time list - and inch closer to Roger Federer's record of 17.
He would also equal the tally of Australia's Roy Emerson, who won the tournament six times between 1961 and 1967, an achievement that has gone unmatched in the 49 years since.
Djokovic, 28, is now established as the dominant force at Melbourne Park, after downing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga there to win his first major title in 2008, and beating Rafael Nadal in an epic final in 2012.
He also overcame Murray in the 2011, 2013 and 2015 finals, and arrives at this year's decider in rare form after winning three major titles in an astonishing season last year.
This week, Djokovic demolished four-time winner Federer in a sublime semi-final to set up his sixth decider at Rod Laver Arena - a match he has never lost.
"Fighting for a Grand Slam trophy is a pinnacle of our sport. This is exactly where you want to be," Djokovic said.
"You work hard to put yourself in this position. Of course, adding to that the fact that I am able to make history is just an additional encouragement and incentive for me to do well.
"If you want to win Grand Slam titles and be the best in the world, you have to win against the best players in the world. Going to be ready for that."
Getty Images: Quinn Rooney
Murray, who also lost to Federer in the 2010 final, is looking to become the first man in the Open era to win the Australian title after losing four finals.
Murray has other things on his mind in addition to the tennis - his wife Kim is expecting the couple's first child, and the world number two has said previously that if she went into labour during the tournament, he would fly back to Britain to be with her.
The 28-year-old has some other tennis history of his own to make after the success of his older brother on Saturday night, with Jamie Murray combining with Brazil's Bruno Soares to win the Australian Open men's doubles title.
Murray and Soares beat Canada's Daniel Nestor and Czech Radek Stepanek 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the final.
Andy Murray was present at the trophy presentation, a fact acknowledged by his brother.
"Andy you should be in bed. I don't know why you're here taking photos but we'll be there supporting you," a tearful Jamie Murray said in a courtside interview.
It was the first grand slam title for the Briton and his Brazilian partner, in their first major tournament together.
The Murrays are also the first brothers to make the men's singles and doubles finals at the same grand slam in the Open era. WIRES / ABC
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Sports Competition | January 2016 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(BBC)'] |
In American football, Adrian Peterson, running back for the Minnesota Vikings, turns himself in to authorities in the Houston area. The day before, he had been indicted on child abuse charges stemming from an incident in which he spanked his 4yearold son with a tree branch that he used as a switch. The Vikings have deactivated him from Sunday's game against the New England Patriots. | Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson turned himself in to Montgomery County, Texas, authorities early Saturday morning.
He was booked into the Montgomery County jail at 1:06 a.m. CT and released at 1:35 a.m. CT after posting the $15,000 bond.
Peterson had been indicted by a grand jury on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He flew back early Saturday morning to Minnesota, where he has been deactivated for the Vikings' home game against the Patriots on Sunday.
At a news conference on Saturday afternoon, Montgomery County first assistant district attorney Phil Grant said Peterson was charged with one count of injury to a child and could be sentenced to as many as two years in state jail, as well as a $10,000 fine. Probation is an option, Grant said, for defendants with no prior criminal record.
Grant said only one grand jury reviewed Peterson's case, refuting a report that an initial grand jury rejected the case and it took a second grand jury to indict Peterson. He said the grand jury "was provided lots of evidence over a significant number of weeks, and at the conclusion of that evidence presentation and an explanation of the law in this particular matter, they chose to indict Mr. Peterson."
In Texas, Grant said, "parents are entitled to discipline their children as they see fit, except when that discipline exceeds what the community would say is reasonable." In Peterson's case, Grant said, the grand jury found Peterson's discipline exceeded a reasonable standard.
Peterson will likely make a court appearance in the next several weeks, Grant said, but it could be several months before the case would go to trial.
Peterson's uncle, Chris, told ESPN.com that Peterson will be releasing a statement at some point through his attorney but that it wouldn't come Saturday. Peterson wants to take his time, his uncle said.
Peterson's attorney, Rusty Hardin, issued a statement Friday saying his client's conduct "involves using a switch to spank his son." According to a report by Sports Radio 610 in Houston, Peterson removed the leaves of a tree branch, which he referred to in a police report as "a switch," to strike the 4-year-old child.
The Houston station, citing law enforcement sources, said Peterson told police that the incident -- he referred to it as a "whooping" -- occurred in Spring, Texas, in May as punishment for his son pushing another one of Peterson's children. The boy suffered cuts and bruises to areas including his back, buttocks, ankles and legs.
"This indictment follows Adrian's full cooperation with authorities who have been looking into this matter. Adrian is a loving father who used his judgment as a parent to discipline his son," Hardin said in his statement. "He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in east Texas. Adrian has never hidden from what happened."
Hardin said Peterson has cooperated fully with authorities and voluntarily testified before the grand jury for several hours.
"Adrian will address the charges with the same respect and responsiveness he has brought to this inquiry from its beginning," Hardin said. "It is important to remember that Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury."
The Vikings released a statement earlier Friday saying they're in the process of gathering information about Peterson's legal situation and deferred comment to Hardin.
Vikings executive vice president and general manager Rick Spielman expanded on the team's stance on Sunday.
"Friday night was the first we heard of the formal allegations against Adrian Peterson, and we decided, as an organization, that to deactivate him this weekend was in the best interest of everybody concerned," he told ESPN's Sal Paolantonio. "We are, as an organization, still in the process of gathering information, and at the end of the weekend we will discuss what we will do going forward. You don't want to make any knee-jerk reactions. All options are on the table. You can't take any options off the table because we're still gathering information."
On Saturday, the NFL told ESPN.com it would review Peterson's case under the league's personal conduct policy.
Nike, which Peterson endorses, said Saturday: "We are aware of the concerning allegations surrounding Adrian Peterson. We will continue to closely monitor the situation."
Peterson is pictured on the Vikings' tickets for Sunday's game as well as the tickets for his alma mater Oklahoma's home game against Tennessee on Saturday.
Last October, Peterson's 2-year-old son died in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after being allegedly assaulted by a man who was dating the boy's mother. Peterson learned only two months earlier that he was the boy's father. The man who assaulted the boy, Joseph Robert Patterson, was charged with murder and manslaughter.
Peterson reflected on the loss in an August interview with ESPN.com Vikings reporter Ben Goessling.
"It's just made me stop taking things for granted," said Peterson, who turned 29 in March. "Life is short. You never know. You just want to take advantage of the time you do have."
Peterson, in his eighth NFL season, rushed for 10,115 yards through his first seven full seasons as a pro, the fifth-most for any running back in NFL history during that specific time frame. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2014 | ['(ESPN)'] |
The 14th century Basilica of St. Benedict in the town of Norcia is destroyed. | Only medieval facade of one of Italian region’s most spiritually important sites is still standing after 6.6-magnitude quake Last modified on Sun 4 Mar 2018 12.48 GMT
The basilica of San Benedetto had withstood the tests of time since the end of the 14th century.
But on Sunday, the church that paid homage to the patron saint of Europe, Saint Benedict, was reduced to a heap of rubble after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake ripped through the town of Norcia where it stood in the main square.
The basilica was considered one of the region’s most spiritually important sites. Now, only its medieval facade still stands, and centuries of work and other renovations to the interior, including a complete restructuring that was completed at the end of the 18th century, are gone.
News of the church’s destruction was confirmed in a four-word tweet sent by the monastery of San Benedetto, a Benedictine community in Norcia. La Basilica è crollata #terremoto - https://t.co/iDrWBvrbMS
The monks escaped largely unscathed, in part because they had moved to a makeshift monastery about a mile from Norcia after the August earthquake in nearby Amatrice that killed nearly 300 people.
The monks released a statement on Sunday morning, saying they were all safe, and were searching for victims who might require last rites. The statement, posted below an image of the ruined basilica, said: “May this image serve to illustrate the power of this earthquake, and the urgency we monks feel to seek out those who need the sacraments on this difficult day for Italy.” The building contained a large painting, St Benedict and Totila, by Filippo Napoletano, which was completed in 1621, and another painting from the mid-1600s, Madonna and Norcia Saints, by the Roman painter Vincenzo Manetti.
The church was located on top of the ruins of a house that were said to be the birthplace of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica, and parts of the ancient Roman structure were still visible on the left side of the basilica. Some parts of the crypt walls contained opus reticulatum brickwork – a diamond-shaped style used in ancient Rome – while other walls contained traces of 14th-century frescoes, according to an Umbrian tourism website. While the basilica was first constructed between 1290 and 1338, it was enlarged a few years later by the monks of Sant’Eutizio in Valcastoriana. A bell tower was erected in the 14th century but was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1703, and was then replaced by a smaller tower.
The town attracts pilgrims from all over the world who seek to honour Saint Benedict, seen in Catholicism as crucial to the founding of western civilisation, according to the Vatican journalist Edward Pentin.
The monks are likely to play a central role in the eventual rebuilding of Norcia and had begun an appeal on their website before Sunday’s quake. Norcia , a destination for food lovers, is known for its prosciutto, salami, cheese and wild boar.
The monks also put it on the map with their craft beer, which is called Birra Nursia, after the Latin name of the town, and is sold at local shops and hotels, as well as in the US through its website. The beer was reportedly served to cardinals during the papal conclave that elected Pope Francis. | Earthquakes | October 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The United Kingdom announces it is withdrawing from the 1964 London Fisheries Convention, which allows several European countries to fish within 6 to 12 nautical miles of each other's coastlines. | The government is to end an arrangement that allows other countries to fish in UK waters, it has been announced. The convention allows Irish, Dutch, French, German and Belgian vessels to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of UK coastline.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the move would help take back control of fishing access to UK waters.
The European Commission said it "took note" but felt the convention had been superseded by EU law. Ireland's minister for agriculture, food and the marine, Michael Creed, however, said it was "unwelcome and unhelpful".
"Brexit poses very serious challenges to the seafood sector and this announcement will form part of the negotiations," he said.
The Scottish government backed the idea, saying it had been pressing for it "for some time".
The London Fisheries Convention sits alongside the EU Common Fisheries Policy, which allows all European Union countries access between 12 and 200 nautical miles of the UK and sets quotas for how much fish nations can catch.
The relationship between the UK and Ireland is further governed by a separate arrangement. Withdrawing from the convention, which was signed in 1964 before the UK joined what became the EU, means UK vessels will also lose the right to fish in waters six to 12 nautical miles offshore of the other countries.
What happens to the 12 to 200 mile area will be one of the issues at stake in Brexit negotiations. Michael Gove told the BBC's Andrew Marr the change was about "taking back control" of UK waters, 6-12 miles from the coast. When the UK left the EU it would become an "independent coastal state", he said.
He said the EU's common fisheries policy had been an environmental disaster and the government wanted to change that, upon Brexit, to ensure sustainable fish stocks in future. But the SNP's Richard Lochhead, who held the post of fisheries minister in Scotland until last year, has concerns around fishing being used as a "bargaining chip" by the government, which would "let down UK fishermen". "Michael Gove is doing his best to get maximum publicity out of the easy bit," he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend. "But the difficult, complex bit is still to come [with] the Common Fisheries Policy.
UKIP's fisheries spokesman Mike Hookem also said he feared another "wholesale betrayal" without assurances about the 200-mile zone. "Fishing communities across Britain voted to leave the EU to get back the rights to earn a living, support their communities and to stop the EU plundering our seas of fish that the UK could exploit economically," he said. He added that the announcement was "no victory for the fishing community" and was instead a "government attempt to use smoke and mirrors to placate British fishermen, while at the same time having the option of handing most our fishing rights to the EU".
Government figures say fishing contributed £604m to UK GDP in 2015 and employed around 12,000 fishers. In 2016, the fish processing industry supported around 18,000 jobs.
The industry's body, the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, welcomed the decision.
Chief executive Barrie Deas said: "This is welcome news and an important part of establishing the UK as an independent coastal state with sovereignty over its own exclusive economic zone."
Its chairman Mike Cohen said a 12-mile exclusive zone for UK boats would be "a good thing" for the UK's inshore fishing fleet. Will McCallum, Greenpeace UK head of oceans, said leaving the convention would not in itself deliver a better future for the UK fishing industry, and that for years governments had blamed the EU for their "failure" to support the small-scale, sustainable fishers. He said, for example, that the UK had had the power since 2013 to decide how to allocate its EU fishing quota but that a report by Greenpeace in 2016 had found almost two thirds of that quota was concentrated in the hands of three companies.
He said the UK would also still be bound by the UN convention of the law of the seas - which requires cooperation with neighbours.
But Mr McCallum said he was "excited" that the government was making fishing a priority, after fearing fishing communities would end up "at the bottom of the heap" amidst complex Brexit negotiations. Environmental law firm ClientEarth consultant Dr Tom West said the move appeared to be an aggressive negotiating tactic.
"As a country outside the EU we need to consider how we can best co-operate with our neighbours, rather than unilaterally withdrawing from all agreements in the hope that standing alone will make us better."
| Withdraw from an Organization | July 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ireland defeats Wales in rugby union's Six Nations Championship. | Wales (6) 15Pens: S Jones 4 Drop-goal: S Jones Ireland (0) 17Try: Bowe, O'Driscoll Cons: O'Gara 2 Drop-goal: O'Gara
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Highlights - Wales 15-17 Ireland
Ireland claimed their first Grand Slam in 61 years in a sensational climax to this year's Six Nations Championship.
The Irish overturned a 6-0 interval deficit with early second-half tries from Brian O'Driscoll and Tommy Bowe. Stephen Jones kicked his third and fourth penalties and appeared to have won the Triple Crown for Wales with a drop-goal with five minutes remaining. But Ronan O'Gara's drop-goal regained the lead with two minutes left, and Jones's last-gasp penalty fell short. Wales, from being within two minutes of denying Ireland a Grand Slam, but not their first-ever Six Nations title, suddenly had to come to terms with finishing fourth in the championship. The hosts, needing to win by 13 points to retain their title, planned to target O'Gara from the off, but skipper Ryan Jones set a bad example with a trip on the fly-half in the first minute.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Ireland celebrate historic Grand Slam
Ireland lock Donncha O'Callaghan objected to Jones's actions and a minor tussle between the players earned an early warning from English referee Wayne Barnes, but O'Gara failed with the long-range penalty attempt. Ireland responded with a Gordon D'Arcy break only for Gavin Henson's tackle to thwart Luke Fitzgerald, and a testing O'Gara cross-kick that Shane Williams and Lee Byrne failed to deal with. The immediate pressure on Wales was relieved when Ian Gough's challenge knocked the ball out of Jerry Flannery's hands and Henson sent a huge clearance kick downfield. But when Wales had their first defensive line-out, the hosts were in danger of cracking as Matthew Rees's throw could not be cleanly gathered and Shane Williams rescued his side, but was forced to concede a five-metre scrum. Wales held firm in defence, Mark Jones's tackle on Ireland captain O'Driscoll forcing him to knock-on in a passage of play that led referee Barnes to warn both captains about off-the-ball incidents. O'Gara kicked the ball out on the full twice, perhaps indicating the early attention Wales paid to him was paying dividends.
Lock Paul O'Connell led the way as Ireland stole home line-out ball on successive occasions and as both sides belied the occasion to vary their attacking play, that advantage boosted the visitors' confidence. The Grand Slam chasers were happy to kick for touch in the belief they could successfully attack Wales' line-out. But after Lee Byrne departed with an ankle injury, Henson switching to full-back to accommodate Jamie Roberts, Denis Leamy held on too long in a tackle on Martyn Williams at the back of a line-out and Stephen Jones kicked the 33rd-minute penalty. Another throw to Williams at the back spelled danger for Wales as the veteran flanker was unable to gather, but Fitzgerald blocked the defence from tackling O'Gara and Jones struck from 49 metres to give Wales a 6-0 lead going into the break. Ireland began the second half with a Bowe burst down the right from O'Driscoll's pass and an O'Gara cross-kick that Mark Jones made safe, but failed to mark before he stepped into touch. That gave Ireland the platform and territory their forwards craved and after a series of close-quarter drives, O'Driscoll's good leg strength and body angle was enough for him to claim the score. French television match official Romain Poite had to make that decision in the 44th minute, but two minutes later Bowe claimed O'Gara's chip and raced away from the pursuing Shane Williams to score under the posts. O'Gara converted both tries for a 14-6 lead, but Wales were soon back in the hunt. O'Callaghan's petulant push on Mike Phillips after the scrum-half had knocked on gave fly-half Jones the chance to hit the mark, which he did via an upright. A timely O'Driscoll tackle on Tom Shanklin helped thwart a Wales attack and Bowe was denied by a knock-on as he won an aerial joust with Ospreys team-mate Williams. The other aerial battle, at the line-outs, was also going in Ireland's direction. But Irish composure again failed them to allow Jones to kick a fourth penalty. Wales coach Warren Gatland attempted to solve his side's line-out issues by sending Luke Charteris on for Gough and Huw Bennett for hooker Matthew Rees ahead of the final quarter. A rare long-range Gavin Henson penalty attempt fell short after 68 minutes and Ireland brought on Peter Stringer at scrum-half for O'Leary for the final 10 minutes. And that is when the drama truly unfolded. For the first time in the game, Wales' strike runners began to make their mark. Wing Williams slipped to end one attack, but after Phillips's thunderous charge through the Welsh defence, Jones dropped the goal that put his side back into the lead. O'Gara replied moments later after his opposite number kicked out on the full to give Ireland the attacking platform. Jones had one last chance to redeem the season for Wales, but his effort from just inside the Ireland half fell short and Ireland were at last able to taste Grand Slam champagne. Wales: Byrne; M Jones, Shanklin, Henson, S Williams; S Jones, Phillips; Jenkins, Rees, A. Jones, Gough, A Jones, D Jones, M Williams, R Jones (capt).Replacements: Roberts for Byrne (30), Bennett for Rees (55), Charteris for Gough (55). Not Used: Yapp, J Thomas, Fury, Hook. Ireland: Kearney; Bowe, B O'Driscoll, D'Arcy, Fitzgerald; O'Gara, O'Leary; Horan, Flannery, Hayes, O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Ferris, D Wallace, Heaslip. Replacements: Murphy for Kearney (66), P Wallace for Fitzgerald (76), Stringer for O'Leary (69), Best for Flannery (68), Leamy for Ferris (blood, 7), Court for Hayes (blood, 27) Not Used: M O'Driscoll. Att: 74,625 Ref: Wayne Barnes (RFU) | Sports Competition | March 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from sectarian clashes in northern Nigeria rises to 700. | A commander of the state adhoc security group, codenamed, ‘Operation Flush’ deployed to tackle members of the Boko Haram fundamentalist sect which last week inficted violence on Bauchi and Borno states, Colonel Ben Ahanotu yesterday said about 700 bodies have so far been recovered in Maiduguri alone after the clash between police and the radical Islamist sect subsided. The toll was previously thought to be around 300.The disclosure of the casualty figure in the Borno State capital came as the top echelon of the nation’s security services met in Kano for most part of the weekend to formulate appropriate strategy for averting similar occurrence in the future.Ahanotu told the Associated Press (AP) that mass burials have begun because bodies were decomposing in the heat. The Islamist compound destroyed this week by government troops is one of the burial sites, he said."They've got almost 700 bodies," Ahanotu, who is in charge of security in Maiduguri, said of officials gathering bodies."Right there, they had to do a mass burial there because there are a lot of bodies inside," he said, pointing to what used to be the Boko Haram sect leader's compound. It is now smoldering rubble with digging equipment around it.Maiduguri city was largely quiet yesterday. Its streets had been cleared of bodies and the blood spilled during five days of fierce fighting. Banks and markets have reopened.But sporadic violence continued.At the Umaru Shehu Hospital, an official, who asked not to be named because he feared more violence, said five other people had been killed Saturday, their bodies left in the parking lot. He said 172 bodies had been brought to the hospital since Tuesday.He said people were coming to the hospital Saturday to remove sick relatives so they wouldn't get caught up in the violence.Destruction was evident only in some areas of the city: The police building was in ruins and smoke rose from the destroyed compound of the sect's leader, Mohammed Yusuf, where bodies were now buried. The compound was guarded by soldiers armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.A bloodied man, alleged to be a member of the sect, lay beneath a tree, his hands tied behind his back, guarded by the soldiers.Borno Police Commissioner Christopher Dega said the members of the Boko Haram sect are likely in hiding and may be using the current calm to regroup."I am warning all of you to report immediately if such members are fighting," Dega told reporters late Friday.Associated Press reporters saw two men heavily sweating as they were questioned by soldiers outside the compound. They were later released.One of them, 35-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed, told the AP that he and his family cowered in their house for days, terrorised by knife and sword-wielding sect members then later by soldiers, who, he said, would shoot anything that moved."It was terrible," Mohammed said as he drew an imaginary knife across his throat. "At first if you run, (the sect) will knife you, and then after you run, (soldiers) will shoot you."He said he hid 17 neighbors, including a pregnant woman, in his house during the fighting.In a wave of violence that began last Sunday, in Bauchi and quickly spread to three other northern states, including Borno, the sect, Boko Haram the name means "Western education is sacrilege" attacked police stations, churches and government buildings. The group is seeking the imposition of strict Islamic Shariah law in Nigeria, a country of several religions.On Wednesday, troops retaliated, killing about 100 people, half of them inside the sect's mosque. The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri on Thursday morning as security forces hunted militants.An Associated Press reporter saw dead bodies piled into at least six trucks in the hospital's parking lot on Wednesday.Mohammed Yusuf, head of the Boko Haram sect, was killed Thursday after he was found hiding in a goat pen at his in-laws' home. The details of his death remain murky.Nigeria's Civil Rights Congress, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for investigations into Yusuf's death and other killings during the upheaval.Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), lawyers, politicians, clerics and members of the international human rights community yesterday condemned the handling of the disturbance by the police which led to the high death toll. However, no evidence has been provided about the circumstances in which the sect leaders, Yusuf and Alhaji Buji Foi, believed to be the sponsor of the group, were killed. Police maintained they died during exchange of gunfire between the fundamentalists and security officials. The claim by human rights group and other commentators that there were extra-judicial killings however remain unsubstantiated.NBA president, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), in a statement advised the police to adhere to the principle of rule of law being proclaimed by the Yar’adua administration by ensuring that anyone suspected of committing an offence must be given adequate opportunities to defend himself. On the violence in parts of the north, the NBA condemned what it called the mindless massacre of innocent citizens and the destruction of properties as witnessed in parts of the North . “The perpetrators of this heinous act, predicated the latest round of pervasive disruption of public peace, on their campaign against western education. The purveyors of this strange philosophy were able to mobilise the ever ready army of the unemployed and the disgruntled youths to visit violence on the public. “The NBA joins other well-meaning Nigerians and organisations in condemning this brazen expression of bestiality unleashed on the citizenry. We also note the effort of the security operatives for rising to the occasion and nipping the horrific incident in the bud. We must all rise to challenge fanaticism and reactionary religious bigotry,” it said.It therefore tasked the authorities to “strive to unmask the real sponsors of these deviants and punish them appropriately.”Also speaking, the Chief Imam of Farfaru Juma’at Mosque, Sokoto, Sheikh Abubakar Jibril condemned the way the crises was handled by the government. He said there was no justification whatsoever for government to have handled the crisis the wayit did which resulted in the killing of some innocent Nigerians. Jibril also condemned the action of the fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, by attacking security operatives which he said was uncalled for. However, heads of security agencies met at the weekend in Kano to assess situation reports on the crisis and formulate measures to ensure that the crisis does not repeat itself.The security assessment team was headed by Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Paul Dike and it comprised the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, representative of the Defence Head Quarters, State Security Service (SSS) and other security agencies.The security chiefs may hold another meeting early in the week with President Umaru Yar’Adua who just returned last night from a state visit to Brazil. Meanwhile, Police, at the weekend, said they have so far rescued not less than 230 hostages seized by Islamist fighters during the recent unrest in the northern part of the country. Fifty-two hostages were freed from a house in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and at the scene of the deadliest clashes between police and members of the Boko Haram group."We have so far rescued more than 230 women and children abducted from many parts of the North, particularly Bauchi, Plateau and Katsina States, kidnapped by members of the Boko Haram sect," Isa Azare, a police spokesman, told the AFP news agency.A total of 120 rescued women and children were returned on Thursday to Bauchi, from where they had been kidnapped before being brought to Maiduguri, he said. One of the women told the AFP news agency that Boko Haram members had ushered a group of civilians into waiting buses three days earlier and threatened to kill them if they refused.The woman, a theology student, said: "We asked questions about our mission but we did not get any answers. We were only told that we would continue our studies in Maiduguri and be brought back later."
| Armed Conflict | August 2009 | ['(This Day)', '(CNN)'] |
Officials in Sierra Leone report that four protesters, looking to block the movement of a power generator to another town, were killed in the city of Makeni in Saturday's protests after both police and soldiers opened fire on them. The government had acknowledged "potential loss of life" but had not provided details. | FREETOWN (Reuters) - At least four people including a teenager were killed and 10 wounded when police and soldiers opened fire on protesters in northern Sierra Leone, a health official and witnesses said on Sunday.
Hundreds gathered on a rainy day in the city of Makeni on Saturday to try to block the movement of a power generator to another town, fearing it would jeopardise the area’s electricity supply, five witnesses said.
When protesters began throwing rocks, the authorities opened fire, said Matthew Kanu, a department head at the University of Makeni.
“They began by firing into the sky and people started running away ... but after that, when people kept throwing stones, they started shooting into the people,” he said.
A police spokesman did not immediately comment. An army spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement late on Saturday, the government said it was aware of a “potential loss of life”, without providing details. It said that any attempt to undermine public peace would be met with “the fullest force of the law.”
The youngest among the dead was a 15-year-old schoolboy who died shortly after arriving at Makeni’s main hospital, said the city’s medical superintendent, Mohamed Sheku. Ten others were admitted to hospital with bullet wounds, four of whom were in critical condition as of Saturday night, he said.
“It was complete chaos all day. We were afraid that If we left we’d get caught in the crossfire,” Sheku told Reuters. “Many hospital staff haven’t come into work because they’re afraid of things flaring up again outside.”
Sierra Leone’s power generation capacity falls far short of the needs of its 7 million citizens. Prolonged blackouts are common even in the capital and urban areas, and area a source of frustration for the population.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo announce that 12 soldiers were killed in an attack by militants in Ituri Province over the weekend. | At least 12 people were killed including four government soldiers in a weekend attack by militia fighters on an army base in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the army said Monday.
Members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) were attacked by a group called Kyini ya kilima on Saturday in the town of Marabho, located more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, according to the army.
“The militia men attacked a FARDC camp and opened fire around 5 a.m. In the ensuing clashes, four of our troops were killed and two wounded,” the army spokesman in Ituri, Lt. Jules Ngongo, told reporters.
“On the enemy side, eight assailants were neutralized, six were wounded and two were captured. Some ammunition was also seized, including four AK-47 branded weapons.”
Ngongo noted that security in the area was under the control of government forces and appealed to the population to remain calm.
“We are monitoring the situation in Marabho without any worries. That is why we call on the population to calm down but also to report any suspicious cases. These militiamen come from families we know very well,” he added.
The army launched an offensive in January against the militias operating in the gold-rich northeastern province of Ituri as part of a wider operation launched last October. History | Armed Conflict | May 2020 | ['(Anadolu Agency)'] |
Businessman Tom Steyer suspends his presidential campaign, after coming in a distant third. , | Follow NBC News Tom Steyer, the California activist billionaire who has largely been a nonfactor in the Democratic primary campaign, dropped out of the race on Saturday night.
Steyer's departure came after a disappointing finish in the South Carolina Democratic primary. With 70 percent of the vote in, Steyer had just 11.5 percent of the vote — despite spending millions of dollars on campaigning there.
"There’s no question today that this campaign, we were disappointed with where we came out," Steyer told supporters in Columbia, S.C.
"But I said if I didn’t see a path to winning that I'd suspend my campaign, and honestly I can't see a path where I can win the presidency."
His exit came after he'd spent a total of $158 million on television and radio ads, according to Advertising Analytics. In South Carolina alone, Steyer had spent nearly $21 million as of Tuesday, the firm said.
Steyer had essentially put all of his efforts in recent weeks into South Carolina. He'd shown promise in recent polling in the Palmetto State and invested more time there than any of his competitors. His wife, Kat Taylor, even moved to Columbia earlier this month.
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Steyer had initially opted against entering the presidential contest before reversing course and joining the large field in July. He spent exorbitant sums of his own money on the race, outpaced in the Democratic field by another late-entrant, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul.
Steyer based his candidacy on promising to declare a "national emergency" on climate change upon taking office, racial justice, and ideas like allowing voters to make laws directly through regular national referenda. He also was a proponent of impeaching President Donald Trump. Former rivals thanked Steyer for his contributions to the race in tweets late Saturday. Thank you @TomSteyer for running a campaign to bring the crisis of climate change to the forefront of our national conversation. I look forward to working together to defeat Donald Trump in November.
Steyer was able to become a regular participant in the Democratic debates, though some his rivals charged that he was simply buying his way onto the stage. The state Steyer zeroed-in on and saw the greatest return on his investment was South Carolina, where he consistently polled among the top three contenders.
As of Tuesday, Steyer had held 63 events in South Carolina, according to an NBC News count — far more than any of his competitors. He also had hired more than 80 staffers in the state — also more than any of his competitors.
Asked about Democrats thinking he should drop out of the race due to little visible path to the nomination, Steyer told NBC News in an interview he didn't care for what "the Democratic establishment" thinks of his strategy and said it was "a crazy statement" to claim he was serving as a spoiler for former Vice President Joe Biden. | Government Job change - Election | February 2020 | ['(NBC News)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, the president of the Chadian Independent National Election Commission, announces that incumbent President of Chad Idriss Déby won the 2006 Chadian presidential election held on May 3 with 77.5% of the vote. The official turnout was 61%, though international observers estimated turnout at 4–10%. | Announcing the result on Sunday, Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, the president of Chad's Independent National Election Commission, said Deby won the May 3 election with 77.5% of the vote, handing him a third five-year term as president of the central African oil producer.
Despite a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena, three weeks before the polls, Deby's re-election was widely considered a formality after opposition parties boycotted the election, calling it a farce.
Western diplomats had reported a low, unenthusiastic participation at the polls which appeared to hand Deby only a shaky mandate, but Bachir said turnout was 61%.
Rebels who launched the April 13 attack on N'Djamena, in which hundreds of people were killed, have already rejected Deby's offer of dialogue.
Deby, 54, a French-trained pilot, has ruled Chad since his Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) rebel group seized power in a revolt. | Government Job change - Election | May 2006 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
An explosive device which was placed in a suitcase on the sidewalk exploded next to bus number 74 near the Jerusalem International Convention Center complex. A woman is killed in the explosion and at least 50 people are injured. | Blast caused by explosive device placed next to telephone pole; 59-year-old killed believed to be foreign citizen; three people seriously wounded; entrance to the city has been closed.
A bomb exploded Wednesday at a crowded bus stop outside the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, just opposite the central bus station. A 59-year-old woman was killed and at least 30 people were wounded in the incident, three of them seriously.
All of the casualties have been evacuated to the Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem.
| Armed Conflict | March 2011 | ['(Haaretz)', '(Jerusalem Post)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(The Australian)'] |
The European Union notifies the United Kingdom of its intent to start an infringement procedure. According to the EU, the UK breached the Northern Ireland Protocol by unilaterally extending the grace period related to trade on the island of Ireland beyond April 1. | The European Union has launched legal action against the United Kingdom over its alleged violation of the Brexit divorce deal’s contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.
The 27-nation bloc is objecting to the UK unilaterally extending a grace period beyond April 1 that applies to trade on the island of Ireland, where the EU and the UK share a land border and where a special trade system was set up as part of the Brexit agreement.
The EU has sent a letter to London demanding it reverses this decision, and has given formal notice of Brussels’s plans to kick-start an “infringement procedure”, which could lead to fines being imposed by the EU’s top court.
That could be at least a year off, however, leaving time for a solution to be found.
Maros Sefcovic, the top EU official in charge of UK relations, has sent a separate letter to his British counterpart David Frost seeking talks to resolve the issue this month.
But the UK says it has not violated the agreement, which leaves the UK-ruled province of Northern Ireland subject to some EU regulations, and requires checks on some goods arriving there from other parts of the UK.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday the extension was simply a technical decision aimed at being fair. The protocol, he said, should guarantee trade between Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as across Northern Ireland’s land border with Ireland.
Later on Monday, a government spokesman said Britain received the EU letter and would respond in due course.
The dispute marks yet another worsening of relations between the two sides since a divorce transition period ended on January 1, with disputes over coronavirus vaccines and the level of diplomatic recognition of the EU in the UK.
This is the second time the EU has feuded with the UK over the Irish question. Last September, the UK did acknowledge its Internal Market Bill would break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty it signed in January 2020, when it formally left the EU.
The legislation would have given Johnson’s government the power to override part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement relating to Northern Ireland.
However, it dropped certain contentious clauses in December, two weeks before the two sides struck a trade deal.
The sensitivity of Northern Ireland’s status was underscored this year when the EU threatened to ban shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Northern Ireland as part of moves to shore up the bloc’s supply.
That would have drawn a hard border on the island of Ireland – exactly the scenario the Brexit deal was crafted to avoid.
Northern Ireland is part of the UK but remained part of the EU’s single market for goods after Brexit to avoid a hard border that could revive sectarian violence.
That means that products arriving from the UK face EU import regulations. The grace periods cover areas such as supermarket supplies and parcel deliveries to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, and mean checks are not yet fully applied.
UK GDP shrank by 2.9 percent in January from December, but trade dropped by the most on record as Brexit kicked in.
Business minister says UK wants to use its new freedoms to help domestic industries.
UK exporters say they are struggling to obtain key documents that would allow them to ship goods to EU without delay.
Centuries of union between Scotland and England are straining amid the UK’s exit from the EU and the COVID pandemic.
| Tear Up Agreement | March 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
After a tense standoff, Burkina Faso's military crushed the elite presidential guard and seized the coup's abandoned headquarters. The former head of the guard, Gen. Gilbert Diendéré, had called on his men to lay down their weapons to avoid a bloodbath. Diendéré told Agence France-Presse he feared “many deaths and injuries” in the operation. It is unclear whether there are casualties. | Burkina Faso's interim government says the army has retaken the barracks of the presidential guard that staged a coup earlier this month.
Earlier, a BBC correspondent in the capital Ouagadougou said shots and explosions were heard and smoke seen rising from the barracks.
It is not clear if there were any casualties. The international airport in the city has now reopened. The army accuses the presidential guard of not laying down arms after the coup.
Coup leader Gen Gilbert Diendere, whose whereabouts are still unknown, had called on the elite force to surrender "to avoid a bloodbath".
He told the AFP news agency that he feared there had been "many deaths" as the barracks were seized, as there had been families inside a building and a clinic inside the barracks.
Troops are now searching the neighbourhood for members of the elite unit who were believed to be in hiding, a soldier told AFP.
The army had surrounded the barracks all day on Tuesday and army spokesman Capt Guy Herve Ye said artillery was fired at the complex before soldiers moved in and took control.
The presidential guard, who number between 1,000 and 3,000 people, are said to be the most well-trained troops in the West African state. Army sources say that before the assault nearly 300 of them had surrendered, the BBC's Anais Hotin reports from Ouagadougou.
Amid the standoff at the barracks, the airport was shut and residents told to stay indoors as the area was surrounded by armoured cars and military pickup trucks, our reporter says.
The presidential guard ceded power a week ago after the army opposed the coup staged the previous week. The reinstated government says it has dissolved their elite unit, which is loyal to former President Blaise Compaore and Gen Diendere.
Mr Compaore was ousted in a popular uprising last year after attempting to change the constitution to extend his 27-year rule. Djibril Bassole, who served as Mr Compaore's foreign minister, has been detained over allegations that he supported the coup, security sources said. He has denied the allegation.
Speaking to the BBC, Gen Diendere had called on his men to lay down their weapons but said that some members of the presidential guard unit were now acting on their own.
About 10 people were killed in protests which followed the coup. Gen Diendere was Mr Compaore's chief of staff, but denies that he had any contact with him before he staged the coup. He gave power back to the government following a deal brokered by regional leaders, and said the coup was a "mistake".
The deal requires the presidential guards to disarm. What was behind the coup in Burkina Faso? | Armed Conflict | September 2015 | ['(AFP)', '(The New York Times)', '(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
The Australian Dollar falls to its lowest level against the US Dollar since 2010. | The Australian dollar fell to its lowest since September 2010 after a round of selling that kicked off early in US trading on Friday caught some investors by surprise.
The dollar slumped more than 1.5 per cent to as low as 91.13 US cents and closed at 91.36 US cent after US Federal Reserve governor Jeremy Stein said the central bank may make a decision in September about tapering monetary stimulus.
The greenback strengthened against most major currencies on the back of his comments.
In late local trade on Friday the currency had been holding its own at 92.66 US cents, and off the 33-month trough of 91.48 US cents plumbed at the start of the week. Yet a couple of attempts to extend the bounce had faltered in the face of offers around 93.40 US cents.
The late sell-off in offshore trade capped a brutal quarter for the Aussie, during which it slumped 12.3 per cent against the greenback.
Also on Friday, the International Monetary Fund released data showing the dollar's share of central bank reserves edged higher in the first quarter of 2013. For the first time, the IMF broke down central bank holdings in the Australian and Canadian dollars, which were previously classified under "other currencies".
Central banks held $US98.66 billion in the Australian currency globally as of the first quarter, or 1.63 per cent of allocated reserves. They held $US94.93 billion in Canadian dollars, or 1.57 per cent of known reserves.
The IMF also provided data on reserves held in these two currencies in the previous quarter, with $US89.74 billion in the Australian dollar, or 1.48 per cent, and $US90.05 billion in the Canadian dollar, also 1.48 per cent.
The vast majority of reserves is still held in greenback. US dollar reserves rose to $US3.76 trillion in the January to March period, or 62.2 per cent, from $US3.73 trillion, or 61.2 per cent in the previous quarter.
Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, said the IMF data suggests "the demise of the US dollar has been exaggerated." He said the share of reserves in the Australian and Canadian dollars was a bit less than expected, which will leave investors guessing which other currencies are in the "other" category.
Some traders suggested that the lower than expected share of reserves contributed to the overnight pressure on the Australian dollar.
Next week's main focus is the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) interest rate decision on Tuesday.
Most analysts polled by Reuters expect the RBA to stand pat on rates, in part due to the recent steep decline in the Aussie.
"The AUD's depreciation has been essentially across the board. Given the importance of the currency in recent monetary policy deliberations, a cut at the July window looks to be extremely unlikely," said Justin Smirk, economist at Westpac Bank.
"This does not, however, mean that the RBA is set to remove their current easing bias."
The head of the central bank, Glenn Stevens, is also due to give a speech on July 3 which could be very important in setting the outlook for rates.
Currently the market implies only a one-in-five chance of an easing next week, but does have a cut to 2.5 percent priced in by October.
Australian debt futures crept higher following a positive lead from US Treasuries. The 10-year bond contract put on 5.5 ticks to 96.220, marking a sizable turnaround from early in the week when it hit 15-month lows at 95.840. The three-year bond contract rose 6 ticks to 97.210. | Financial Crisis | June 2013 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
The journal Scientific Reports publishes research from a team, led by Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum's Stephen Poropat, reporting the discovery of a new Australian dinosaur species, Savannasaurus elliottorum, using fossils first found in 2005 at Winton, Queensland, Australia. | Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur in Australia. The wide-hipped, long-necked, four-legged plant-eater was about half the length of a basketball court, and its shoulders stood as high as the hoop. Dinosaur fossils in Australia are exceedingly rare, and this discovery could help scientists understand how these massive creatures spread across the planet millions of years ago.
"There are entire lost worlds of dinosaurs waiting to be found."
David Elliott, now the chairman of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, stumbled across the fossils by chance in 2005. He was herding sheep in the northern Australian town of Winton when he discovered what he thought were fossilized limb bones. When his wife Judy Elliott fit two of the fossils together, they realized that the bones were in fact the toe of a massive, plant-eating dinosaur. The rest of the skeleton revealed that it was an entirely new species from the group of vegetarian dinosaurs called sauropods.
Today, after more than 10 years of work, a team of scientists led by Australian paleontologist Stephen Poropat officially published their discovery in the journal Scientific Reports. They named the species Savannasaurus elliottorum after the the Elliott family and the grassy region where they discovered it. This is an important discovery, says Matthew Lamanna, a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pennsylvania who was not involved in this study. "Dinosaurs from Australia are extraordinarily rare, and most Australian dinosaurs are represented by just a few bits and pieces," he says.
By contrast, the Savannasaurus skeleton is one of the most complete sauropods to be discovered in Australia. Based on its skeleton, it was probably about 50 feet long, with a long neck and a wide, round body — weighing in at 40,000 pounds, as much as three African elephants combined, Poropat says. The researchers haven’t found any fossilized dung or teeth to determine what Savannasaurus ate, but it likely grew to that size on a low-quality vegetarian diet. That might be why the dinosaur was so wide across the middle: it needed a really long gut to extract the nutrients from its fibrous food.
Savannasaurus lived in Australia 95 million to 98 million years ago alongside two other titanosaurs. That places it squarely in the late Cretaceous, the last portion of the age of dinosaurs that started about 225 million years ago and ended when an asteroid careened into the Earth some 66 million years ago, driving the massive animals extinct.
We don’t know how these dinosaurs spread to Australia, but during this time period, Australia was connected to South America by Antarctica. Because there aren’t any sauropod bones on Australia that are more than 105 million years old, the authors of the study suspect that the dinosaurs may have traveled there from South America via Antarctica during a warming period.
It’s also possible that sauropods were there, but their bones didn’t survive long enough to be found.
"It’s been bandied about whether or not this is a bias in the fossil record," Poropat says. "But given the thousands of fossils that have come out of these sediments, to not even have a single tooth of a sauropod, or a limb bone, or anything like that seems quite strange."
In the same paper, Poropat and his colleagues also published their discovery of a skull belonging to another Australian titanosaur, Diamantinasaurus matildae. This species was discovered in 2009, but finding the first Diamantinasaurus skull is an especially big deal because it meant the scientists could use it to place Diamantinasaurus more accurately on the dinosaur family tree. Right now, Poropat and his colleagues suspect that Savannasaurus and Diamantinasaurus were probably most closely related to each other than any other species. While the researchers convinced that the two are distinct species enough to name Savannasaurus, the paleontologists will need to find more specimens to be sure.
"Anytime you put a name on a dinosaur it’s a hypothesis — and it’s one that’s going to be tested and tested in the future, and we are hoping of course that Savannasaurus will stand the test of time," Poropat says.
"One of the most exciting things about this discovery — and others that have come from Australia in recent years — is we’ve really only scratched the surface as to what’s there," Lamanna says. "There are entire lost worlds of dinosaurs waiting to be found in Australia." | New archeological discoveries | October 2016 | ['(The Verge)'] |
The insurgent group Islamic State of Iraq claims responsibility for ambushing a convoy of Syrian Army soldiers on March 4. | A militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq has said it was behind the killing of 48 Syrian soldiers and nine Iraqi guards in Iraq last week.
In an online statement, the Islamic State of Iraq said its fighters had set ambushes on roads to the border and "annihilated" an entire convoy.
The presence of Syrian troops showed Iraqi leaders' "firm co-operation" with President Bashar al-Assad, it added.
Meanwhile, the UN has announced it has evidence of further massacres in Syria.
In a new report for the Human Rights Council, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria accused both government and opposition forces of showing a reckless disregard for the lives of civilians across the country.
Investigators found evidence of three massacres in the central city of Homs between December and March. In one, 50 prisoners were executed by government forces, while in the other two entire families were killed in their homes, though it remains unclear by whom.
The report says that fighting has spread right across Syria and that nowhere is safe for civilians. Basic human rights like access to food, medicine and education have all but disappeared, it adds.
It calls for those responsible for war crimes to be brought to justice, but only the UN Security Council can refer a country to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it is not party to the Rome Statute, and the Security Council remains divided, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says. The Syrian soldiers who were killed in Iraq last week reportedly entered through the Yaarubiyeh border in the northern Nineveh province over the weekend of 2-3 March after Syrian rebels attacked them.
On 4 March, the soldiers were being escorted to the al-Waleed border crossing further south in Anbar province when they were ambushed near the town of Akashat, Iraqi officials said.
A statement posted on jihadist websites by the Islamic State of Iraq on Monday claimed that its military detachments had "succeeded in annihilating an entire column of the Safavid army", a reference to the Shia dynasty which ruled Iran between the 16th and 18th centuries. President Assad's Alawite sect is a heterodox offshoot of Shia Islam.
The assailants detonated explosive charges on military escort vehicles assigned to protect the lorries carrying the Syrian soldiers, then opened fire with "light and medium-range weapons, as well as rocket-propelled grenades", the statement added.
The Sunni Islamist group also said the presence of Syrian forces showed the "firm co-operation" of Iraq's Shia-led government with Syria's president. Syria's majority Sunni community has been at the forefront of the uprising against the state, which the UN says has left 70,000 people dead.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said he is taking no sides and blamed last week's attack on Syrian armed groups which had infiltrated his country.
He has previously expressed concern that the two-year-long conflict in Syria could spill over the 600km (372-mile) shared border. | Armed Conflict | March 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Winter Storm Jacob makes landfall over the Pacific Northwest, bringing high winds and up to 22 inches of snow to the Olympic Peninsula and forcing widespread road closures and transport cancellations. | A winter storm brought snow and ice to the West, Midwest and Northeast in mid-January 2020.
The Weather Channel named this system Winter Storm Jacob. Below is a recap of Jacob's impacts.
Wednesday, Jan. 15
The low-pressure system underwent bombogenesis while it was off the Pacific Northwest coast. This is a term for a low-pressure center that intensifies rapidly. In this case, it went from a weak low Tuesday, Jan. 14 to a 979-millibar powerhouse less than 24 hours later.
Joyce, Washington, near the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the Olympic Peninsula, reported up 22 inches of snow.
Blowing snow from strong winds ahead of this storm prompted a shutdown of a stretch of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon on Jan. 15.
Thursday, Jan. 16
Snow fell from western Montana to Idaho, Utah and California's Sierra Nevada as the jet-stream energy associated with Winter Storm Jacob dropped southward into California. The heaviest snow pounded the Sierra Nevada, where as much as 26 inches of snow fell. Two feet of snow was reported along Interstate 80. Chain controls were put in place across many roads in the Tahoe Valley, and icy roads were reported in downtown Reno. Wind gusts over 80 mph along with 1 to 2 feet of snow were reported in the central Sierra in a 24-hour period from early Jan. 16 to early Jan. 17.
The snow and strong winds likely contributed to a deadly avalanche at Squaw Valley - Alpine Meadows in California's Sierra Nevada.
Friday, Jan. 17
Jacob's jet stream energy pushed across the central Rockies and into the central Plains where a low-pressure system developed and strengthened.
Overnight freezing rain lead to widespread reports of icy roads in the Texas Panhandle, including in parts of the Amarillo metro area. Snow accumulated on roads in Omaha, Nebraska, making for a tricky morning commute. Ice accumulations of at least 0.1 inch on vehicles was reported in Wichita, Russell and Great Bend, Kansas.
Ice also accumulated on vehicles as far east as Harrison and Mountain Home, Arkansas, early in the day. After a brief period of light snow, precipitation changed quickly to freezing rain in the Kansas City metro area. A plane slid off a slick taxiway at Kansas City International Airport shortly after the precipitation arrived, prompting a closing of the airport. More than a quarter inch of ice accreted from eastern Kansas to western Missouri, including in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Lawrence, Kansas. Up to 0.5 inch ice accumulation was measured near Ridgely, Missouri. Pittsburgh picked up a quick inch of snow overnight, before precipitation changed over to freezing rain.
Saturday, Jan. 18
Jacob's low pressure system pivoted into the Great Lakes while its snow shield expanded from the Dakotas into the Northeast. Parts of the mid-Atlantic picked up ice before warm air surged northward turning the freezing rain into plain rain in spots like Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Strong winds lofted snow and created hours of ground blizzard conditions from the Dakotas to Minnesota and Iowa. Blowing snow continued in the Great Lakes. Wind gusts above 40 mph were clocked in several locations in the eastern Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. Huron and Yankton, South Dakota, as well as Imperial, Nebraska, gusted to near 60 mph. Wind chills were as low as the 40s below zero in parts of the Dakotas.
Whiteout conditions forced closures of over 500 miles of interstate highways in the eastern Dakotas, including Interstates 29, 90 and 94. According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, rescues of stranded motorists had been undertaken near Jamestown, North Dakota. To the east, Chicagoland picked up 2 to 5 inches of snow before precipitation changed to light freezing rain, then ended. The Detroit metro area picked up 5 to 7 inches of snow before precipitation changed to rain Saturday morning. Cleveland also picked up 2 to 5 inches of snow prior to the rain changeover, including a burst of 2 inches of snow in just one hour at the National Weather Service office in Cleveland.
A few tenths of an inch of snow were measured at both Dulles and Reagan National Airports in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Numerous accidents were reported in Erie, Pennsylvania, from ice accumulation on roads. Light icing on vehicles was reported in parts of West Virginia. Snow arrives in New York City, Hartford and Boston during the afternoon hours, mainly bringing light snow to the major East Coast cities. The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | January 2020 | ['(56\xa0cm)', '(The Weather Channel)'] |
A KNVB Cup game between AFC Ajax and AZ is abandoned after the AZ manager leads his team off the pitch in protest at the sending–off of his goalkeeper, Esteban Alvarado, who kicked an Ajax fan who attacked him. | Last updated on 28 December 201128 December 2011.From the section Football
A goalkeeper who was sent off after kicking a fan has had his red card rescinded.
Wednesday's last-16 tie in the Dutch Cup between Ajax and AZ Alkmaar was abandoned after 38 minutes with Ajax leading 1-0 when a fan ran towards Alkmaar's Costa Rican goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado.
The goalkeeper kicked the fan in retaliation after being kicked himself - but was given a red card for misconduct.
Alkmaar's furious coach Gert Jan Verbeek ordered his team to leave the pitch.
The red card has now been rescinded by the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) and the match will now be replayed in full behind closed doors on 19 January.
The eventual winners will play third tier side GVVV in the quarter-finals.
The KNVB said in a statement: "The keeper was attacked unexpectedly and therefore the prosecutor judged that his mood caused his response against his attacker." Alkmaar's technical director Earnest Stewart said: "Verbeek ordered the team off the pitch to control the situation and, in the dressing room, our players said they don't feel safe anymore on the pitch." An Ajax official said that the police arrested a 19-year-old man. Ajax coach Frank de Boer said: "I saw that Esteban was attacked and that he defended himself. "I don't know how I would have reacted but I can understand Esteban with his South American temper. I understand the decision of Alkmaar because of all the emotion at that moment."
Referee Bas Nijhuis had defended his decision to show Esteban a red card.
"I understand that Esteban was defending himself, but he walked to him (the supporter) and kicked him multiple times," Nijhuis said.
"He could also have walked away."
Alkmaar director Toon Gebrands said the club would respect any decision taken by the disciplinary board of the KNVB but that the safety of his players was at stake. | Sports Competition | December 2011 | ['(BBC Sport)', '(ESPN)', '(Sky Sports)'] |
2008 Santa Catarina floods: The Brazilian federal government authorizes nearly 2 billion reais in emergency relief funds. | BRASILIA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Brazil sent hundreds of state and federal police officers on Wednesday to quell looting by homeless and hungry landslide victims facing the threat of disease after heavy flooding that authorities say killed more than 100 people and displaced 54,000.
Rescue workers shoveled through massive mudslides that buried homes and cars and ferried stranded survivors to safety in rubber dinghies, as the disaster prompted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to visit the region on Wednesday.
Lula authorized nearly 2 billion reais ($881 million) in emergency relief funds, his office said in a statement, after residents complained that food aid had failed to arrive.
Of that amount, 730 million reais will go to help rebuild damaged hospitals, roads and railways in the region.
Six areas in southern Santa Catarina state declared a state of emergency, some of them wealthy districts, and as many as 100,000 people are still largely trapped after landslides and raging rivers washed out roads and cut power.
The Civil Defense agency said the official death toll rose to 99 but estimated it was more than 100. Nineteen people were still missing.
In the cities of Blumenau and Itajai, among the worst hit by the floods, people ransacked supermarkets and grocery stores during the night in search of food, local officials said.
“Many haven’t had food or water in four or more days. They’re hungry,” Maj. Sergio Murillo de Mello, commander of the Itajai fire department, told Reuters.
“We desperately need those food baskets that were promised,” he said.
Television footage of the region showed houses and cars buried under mudslides, while trees and household items drifted through flooded streets.
A handful of people were arrested in Blumenau for looting.
More than 200 police officers and at least 50 agents of the National Security Force were arriving from The state capital, Florianopolis, to help prevent further looting in the flooded cities, a spokesman for the local police told Reuters.
The Itajai river, which rose by more than eight yards (meters) and flooded nearly 90 percent of the city’s houses, began to recede on Wednesday, local authorities said.
But around a quarter of the houses remained flooded by more than a yard (meter) of water, they said. Meteorologists forecast more rain in the region on Thursday.
The spread of disease was now a major concern, said de Mello. “Sewage water spilled into the streets and with people homeless and walking barefoot, it’s a big concern,” Mello said.
Minister of Health Jose Temporao, in the region to help coordinate rescue efforts, announced the shipment of 17 tonnes of medical supplies, including antidotes for snake bites.
The army will set up a regional field hospital, he said.
The Port of Itajai, where docks were seriously damaged, has shut down. Contraband goods confiscated by customs had washed out to sea as a warehouse collapsed.
“We haven’t seen a ship here since Friday. We’re closed,” said Itajai port spokeswoman Patricia de Barcelos.
Food processor Sadia SDIA4.SASDA.N, one of several large companies that use the port, said its exports did not suffer significantly and it is shipping from other ports.
Repairs could take several months and some ships were being rerouted to the port of Santos, around 437 miles (700 km) northeast of Itajai, de Barcelos said.
Repairs of a pipeline that carries natural gas from Bolivia to Brazil would take up to 21 days, the operator said, leaving hundreds of manufacturers in Santa Catarina and neighboring Rio Grande do Sul state cut off.
Steelmaker Gerdau GGBR4.SAGGB.N said it had to reduce production and was looking for alternative energy supplies. It gave no further details.
| Financial Aid | November 2008 | ['(881 million U.S. dollars)', '(Reuters)'] |
Brandon Mayfield, wrongly arrested after the 11 March, 2004 Madrid attacks settles a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation for $2 million. | The monetary settlement involving Brandon Mayfield comes more than two years after he was detained by U.S. authorities who had misidentified a fingerprint lifted from the scene of the Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people in March 2004.
"The United States acknowledges that the investigation and arrest were deeply upsetting to Mr. Mayfield, to Mrs. Mayfield and to their three children," the government said in a written statement. It said the FBI has taken steps to ensure that similar errors are not repeated.
Despite the agreement, Mayfield said he would continue to press a separate legal action challenging the USA Patriot Act. He said provisions of the law, which allows the government broader surveillance authority, represented "unwarranted violations" of privacy in his case.
"The power of the government to secretly search your home or business without probable cause, under the guise of a terrorist investigation, must be stopped," Mayfield said in a written statement.
Mayfield, a convert to Islam, also alleged that investigators went after him because of his faith. "The U.S. government targeted me and my family because of our Muslim religion," he said.
The Justice Department said that was untrue. Spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said the department's inspector general concluded earlier this year that Mayfield was not targeted because of his religion and found that the FBI had not misused provisions of the Patriot Act.
Investigators in the United States and in Spain were drawn to Mayfield by a fingerprint lifted from bags of detonators found at the scene of the Madrid attacks. Investigators also learned that Mayfield had represented a member of a group of Oregon residents implicated in an effort to support the Taliban. Mayfield's legal representation involved a child-custody issue, separate from the criminal case.
The FBI said in a written statement that its fingerprint analysis had been based on a digital image of the prints provided by Spanish authorities and not the actual prints.
Mayfield was held under the material-witness law, which allows the government to detain indefinitely people who are believed to have knowledge of terrorist plots and who might flee if they are not in custody. The government does not often issue public apologies and monetary settlements in cases of mistaken identity. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2006 | ['(USAToday)'] |
Thousands of people protest in Los Angeles, California calling for citizenship rights for undocumented immigrants to the United States. | A 15,000-strong crowd carrying American flags and holding signs saying "Amnesty Now" paraded through the streets towards City Hall. Many people were protesting against a leaked White House plan under which illegal migrants would be charged hefty sums for work visas and residency. There are believed to be about 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
Last year President George W Bush backed a Senate proposal on immigration that included a guest worker programme offering illegal workers a "path to citizenship". But the plan has come to nothing amid opposition from Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives. 'Don't have the money'
Correspondents say the latest proposals - leaked last week - are far more conservative. They have, campaigners say, left illegal workers disappointed. "People are really upset," said Juan Jose Gutierrez of the LA-based Latino Movement USA. "For years, the president spoke in no uncertain terms about supporting immigration reform... then this kind of plan comes out and people are so frustrated," he said.
According to the plan, a new visa category would be introduced for illegal workers, who could apply for renewable three-year work permits at a cost of $3,500 (£1,800), the Associated Press news agency reports.
But then to become legal residents, workers would have to return to their home countries, apply and pay a $10,000 (£5,100) fine. Campaigners say the costs would be prohibitive for most illegal workers. Maria Lopez, an illegal worker from Mexico, told AP that she would never be able to apply for residency under such a plan. "We have no way to come up with that much money, and Bush knows that," she said. "He is doing this on purpose so we don't ever become legal residents."
Immigration is expected to be a key issue in the lead-up to next year's presidential election. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The impact crater of the "Great Dying"—the end–Permian event, the largest extinction event in the history of life on Earth—appears to be a 125–mile –wide crater called "Bedout" off the northwestern coast of Australia. | Most scientists agree a meteor impact, called Chicxulub, in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, accompanied the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But until now, the time of the Great Dying 250 million years ago, when 90 percent of marine and 80 percent of land life perished, lacked evidence and a location for a similar impact event. Becker and her team found extensive evidence of a 125-mile-wide crater, called Bedout, off the northwestern coast of Australia. They found clues matched up with the Great Dying, the period known as the end-Permian. This was the time period when the Earth was configured as one primary land mass called Pangea and a super ocean called Panthalassa.
During recent research in Antarctica, Becker and her team found meteoric fragments in a thin claystone "breccia" layer, pointing to an end-Permian event. The breccia contains the impact debris that resettled in a layer of sediment at end-Permian time. They also found "shocked quartz" in this area and in Australia. "Few Earthly circumstances have the power to disfigure quartz, even high temperatures and pressures deep inside the Earth's crust," explains Dr. Becker.
Quartz can be fractured by extreme volcanic activity, but only in one direction. Shocked quartz is fractured in several directions and is therefore believed to be a good tracer for the impact of a meteor. Becker discovered oil companies in the early 70's and 80's had drilled two cores into the Bedout structure in search of hydrocarbons. The cores sat untouched for decades. Becker and co-author Robert Poreda went to Australia to examine the cores held by the Geological Survey for Australia in Canberra. "The moment we saw the cores, we thought it looked like an impact breccia," Becker said. Becker's team found evidence of a melt layer formed by an impact in the cores. In the paper, Becker documented how the Chicxulub cores were very similar to the Bedout cores. When the Australian cores were drilled, scientists did not know exactly what to look for in terms of evidence of impact craters. Co-author Mark Harrison, from the Australian National University in Canberra, determined a date on material obtained from one of the cores, which indicated an age close to the end-Permian era. While in Australia on a field trip and workshop about Bedout, funded by the NSF, co-author Kevin Pope found large shocked quartz grains in end-Permian sediments, which he thinks formed as a result of the Bedout impact. Seismic and gravity data on Bedout are also consistent with an impact crater.
The Bedout impact crater is also associated in time with extreme volcanism and the break-up of Pangea. "We think that mass extinctions may be defined by catastrophes like impact and volcanism occurring synchronously in time," Dr. Becker explains. "This is what happened 65 million years ago at Chicxulub but was largely dismissed by scientists as merely a coincidence. With the discovery of Bedout, I don't think we can call such catastrophes occurring together a coincidence anymore," Dr. Becker adds. | New archeological discoveries | May 2004 | ['(200–km)', '(UCSB Press release)'] |
The Cambodian government closes an investigation into the shooting of anti–logging activist Chhut Vuthy and a military policeman after the arrest of a security guard. | PHNOM PENH (AFP) - The Cambodian government on Saturday said it had closed its investigation into the fatal shootings of a well-known activist and a military police officer after the arrest of a security guard. Ran Boroth accidentally shot dead In Rattana, a military policeman who had just gunned down anti-logging activist Chhut Vuthy during an argument in a remote forest on April 26, a government spokesman said. 'This is the clear and true result confirmed by witnesses at the scene,' spokesman Tith Sothea told reporters in the capital Phnom Penh. 'Now we have shown the truth to the public,' he said of the government probe. 'So our work is closed for now.' | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | May 2012 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
A gunman holds a parent hostage at a school in VitrysurSeine, France, on the outskirts of Paris. | A man apparently brandishing a fake gun has freed the final hostage he had been holding at a French school outside Paris and has himself been captured.
The last hostage was a parent who had come to drop off a child at the school in Vitry-sur-Seine, which is being used as a leisure centre during the holidays, police said.
Earlier, the man released a group of children he had been holding.
Many French schools run summer activities during the holidays.
Officers of the elite police Raid unit attended the scene.
"The Raid succeeded in freeing the hostage during negotiations," a police source said. The man was captured unharmed.
The man was using an imitation automatic weapon that could only fire gas cartridges, judicial sources said.
The Charles Perrault pre-school is in the centre of the town, itself some 7.5 km (5 miles) from the centre of Paris.
Police were called at about 07:00 (05:00 GMT) to the school, where five to 10 children and three parents were at the time, French radio reported.
The children were quickly released.
The hostage-taker was said to be in his 30s and unknown to the police. He may have been wearing a binman's green boiler suit when he entered the school, police sources told French radio.
A judicial source said the man had "made incoherent statements and expressed a desire to die", during negotiations, adding that the hostage taker had "at no point been threatening" with the parent held captive, the AFP news agency reports.
Last month, a 26-year-old man with a record of psychological problems was shot and arrested by elite police in Toulouse after taking several hostages and claiming to be a member of al-Qaeda.
Toulouse is also where another al-Qaeda-inspired gunman, 23-year-old Mohamed Merah, was shot dead by police after killing three soldiers, three Jewish children at a school and a rabbi.
| Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
An army helicopter crashes in Bitlis, Turkey, killing 11 military personnel and injuring two others. | A lieutenant general among the dead after in an army helicopter crash in southeast Turkey that left two others wounded.
An army helicopter crashed in southeast Turkey on Thursday, killing 11 military personnel and injuring two others, the defence ministry said.
The Cougar-type helicopter crashed near the village of Cekmece, close to the town of Tatvan, in the predominantly Kurdish-populated Bitlis province. It was on its way to Tatvan from the nearby province of Bingol when authorities lost contact with it at 2:25pm (11:25 GMT), the ministry said.
Nine of the victims died at the crash site, while two died of their injuries in hospital, officials said.
The victims included Lieutenant-General Osman Erbas, an army corps commander, said Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey’s main nationalist party, on Twitter.
The defence ministry described the crash as accidental but did not elaborate.
Turkish media reports said Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, and senior military figures were travelling to the site of the crash.
The European Union and the United States immediately offered their condolences to the NATO ally.
“We share the deep sorrow of Turkey for the loss of nine military personnel in Bitlis,” said the EU’s Turkey ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, whose bloc will review its relations with Ankara at a summit in Brussels later this month.
“Our thoughts are with the families of all those affected, and we wish a rapid recovery to the injured,” the US embassy said in a tweet.
A Turkish diplomatic source said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg offered his condolences in a telephone call with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and added the alliance “stood in solidarity with Turkey”.
The Cougar family of multipurpose helicopters was developed by France and are now produced by Airbus.
The accident occurred in a region where Turkish forces regularly conduct military operations against outlawed Kurdish militias.
In 2017, a military helicopter crashed in the southeastern Sirnak province near Turkey’s border with Syria and Iraq, killing 13 soldiers.
Rebel spokesman says Houthis used surface-to-air missile to down Saudi helicopter near border, killing its 2 pilots.
Russia says two servicemen killed as military helicopter shot down in Armenia near border with Azerbaijan.
Helicopter belonged to an international peacekeeping force; five Americans are among the dead, Israeli official says.
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The New York City Marathon begins with over 45,000 runners participating in the 26.2–mile run with Geoffrey Mutai and Firehiwot Dado winning the men's and women's races, respectively. , | Unlike the rest of us who failed to make good on our ill-fated resolutions to start hitting the gym, the motivated participants in this year’s New York City Marathon will be racing through 26.2 miles across the city on Sunday.
That doesn’t mean we won’t be able to celebrate one of the largest long-distance races in the world. Check out the details below to see how you can have fun and cheer on our ambitious counterparts. And remember, there’s always next year!
When Is Game Time:
Rather than unleash a mass of 45,000 runners at the same time, the New York City Marathon organizes three separate ‘waves’ with about 15,000 runners each. The first wave begins at 9:40AM and goes on two more times in 30 minute intervals. The entire race is expected to last for approximately 8.5 hours.
Where To Watch:
Whether you’re cheering on a friend or family member or just showing your love for participants in general, there’s plenty of spots to catch a running glimpse across the five boroughs. Check out this handy map for the course’s exact route and keep in mind that spectators are not allowed at the start. The most crowded spot will most likely be towards the finish line, so if you’re heading to Central Park, make sure to arrive well in advance. Secret Spots:
The New York Road Runners provided some helpful locations that might be worth checking out including the corner of Bay Ridge Parkway and Fourth Avenue, intersection of Hall Street and Lafayette Avenue in Clinton Hill, 111th Street and Fifth Avenue, and anywhere along Bedford Avenue where one past spectator said runners “are usually still feeling okay at this point.”
Reserved Seating:
Don’t feel like fighting to stake out a good place towards the finish line? Unfortunately, the Blue Line Lounge and NYRR Patron Seats are all sold out, but you can still have the chance to shell out $75 for reserved grandstand seating. Seating is limited, so get to the ticket sales booth early.
Music and Entertainment:
More than 130 bands on 16 stages will accompany spectators and runners for a wide range of musical entertainment. Check out this nifty site to narrow down the music by type, borough, and mile mark. Check out a video from last year’s exciting run below: | Sports Competition | November 2011 | ['(Fox News)', '(Huffington Post)', '(AP via Yahoo News)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
The Palestinian National Authority cuts all ties with the United States and Israel, including those relating to security, after rejecting a peace plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump. | The Palestinian Authority has cut all ties with the United States and Israel, including those relating to security, after rejecting a Middle East peace plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday.
Abbas was in Cairo to address the Arab League, which backed the Palestinians in their opposition to Trump’s plan.
The blueprint, endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state that excludes Jewish settlements built in occupied territory and is under near-total Israeli security control.
“We’ve informed the Israeli side ... that there will be no relations at all with them and the United States including security ties,” Abbas told the one-day emergency meeting, called to discuss Trump’s plan.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment on his remarks.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s security forces have long cooperated in policing areas of the occupied West Bank that are under Palestinian control. The PA also has intelligence cooperation agreements with the CIA, which continued even after the Palestinians began boycotting the Trump administration’s peace efforts in 2017.
Abbas also said he had refused to discuss the plan by with Trump by phone, or to receive even a copy of it to study it.
“Trump asked that I speak to him by phone but I said ‘no’, and that he wants to send me a letter ... but I refused it,” he said.
Abbas said he did not want Trump to be able to say that he, Abbas, had been consulted.
He reiterated his “complete” rejection of the Trump plan, presented on Tuesday. “I will not have it recorded in my history that I sold Jerusalem,” he said.
The blueprint also proposes U.S. recognition of Israeli settlements on occupied West Bank land and of Jerusalem as Israel’s indivisible capital.
The Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo said the plan did not meet the minimum aspirations of Palestinians, and that the League would not cooperate with the United States in implementing it.
The ministers affirmed Palestinian rights to create a future state based on the land captured and occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, with East Jerusalem as capital, the final communique said.
Foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, three close U.S. allies, as well as Iraq, Lebanon and others said there could be no peace without recognising Palestinian rights to establish a state within the pre-1967 territories.
After Trump unveiled his plan, some Arab powers had appeared, despite historic support for the Palestinians, to prioritise close ties with the United States and a shared hostility towards Iran over traditional Arab alliances.
Three Gulf Arab states - Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - attended the White House gathering where Trump announced his plan alongside Netanyahu.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said he would ask his cabinet this week to approve the application of Israeli law to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Such a move could be a first step towards formal annexation of the settlements and the Jordan Valley - territory Israel has kept under military occupation since its capture in 1967.
Most countries consider Israeli settlements on land captured in war to be a violation of international law. Trump has changed U.S. policy to withdraw such objections. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Six Vietnamese pro–democracy activists are sentenced to up to six years in prison for "spreading propaganda" against the government. | HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Vietnam has begun sentencing several political activists for publicly but peacefully calling for democracy and an end to government corruption.
A diplomatic source has told media outlets that so far two people have been sentenced in the closed-session trials in Hanoi and the port of Haiphong, including a former school teacher.
The unnamed source said Vu Hung, 43, was sentenced to three years for, most notably, hanging a banner around 10 feet long over a Hanoi bridge in July 2008 upon which he demanded multiparty democracy. Vu Hung along with several other activists was arrested in September last year on charges of spreading propaganda against the state, according to human-rights group Amnesty International.
A poet, Tran Duc Thach, has also been sentenced to three years in prison and seven more activists will face trial later this month, according to brief media reports.
The judge reportedly said Vu Hung, a high school physics teacher before his arrest, was a danger to society. Vu Hung's comment was simply that he wanted only for his voice to be heard.
Amnesty International has been calling for their release from prison since last year and has been compiling information about their physical and mental condition from fellow prisoners who have been set free.
Vu Hung, married with two children, was causing most concern to Amnesty because of reports of his ill health, several visits to hospitals and alleged beatings. His whereabouts while in prison were not known for two months before the trial began this month.
He is also one of 14 people arrested in April 2008 during peaceful demonstrations against Chinese policies as the Olympic torch relay passed through Ho Chi Minh City. He was then beaten by police before being released, Amnesty said.
The current trials are the latest in a series that the government has been pursuing since the protest movement Bloc 8406 was created three years ago.
Since then Amnesty believes at least 30 dissidents have been handed long prison sentences, and an unknown number of dissidents are languishing in jail under what is called pre-trial detention.
In 2006 the government liberalized Web access in the country but found it being used for protest purposes. An initial clampdown only increased the use of the Web as a vehicle for protest, particularly by Bloc 8406 members and supporters.
Bloc 8406 is a loose coalition of political activists and pressure groups within Vietnam who advocate for democracy reforms. The name comes from the date of the Bloc 8406 democracy manifesto, on April 8, 2006. Originally it was signed by 118 dissidents calling for a multiparty state, but support has grown into the thousands, analysts have said. A prominent supporter is longtime activist and Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, 64.
The communist government has considered Van Ly a thorn in its side since it took control of the country in 1975. He was sentenced in March 2007 to eight years in prison for his support of Bloc 8406.
The protest group's trademark is that of a brief video clip on the Web where people, old and young, are interviewed, often in the streets and holding up protest signs with "Freedom" written in English. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(UPI)', '(Reuters India)'] |
A magnitude 8.1 earthquake is recorded 96 kilometers south of Pijijiapan, Chiapas, Mexico. This is Mexico's strongest quake since the 8.0 earthquake that hit the Greater Mexico City area in 1985. At least 26 deaths have been recorded., | Twenty-three of the confirmed fatalities were in the state of Oaxaca, according to its governor. Seventeen of those deaths occurred in the town of Juchitan.
Seven people were killed in the state of Chiapas, where a state of emergency has been declared, according to a spokesman for emergency services cited by Reuters.
Two children were killed in neighboring Tabasco state, according to its governor. One was crushed by a collapsing wall, while the other – an infant on a respirator – died after the quake triggered a power outage in the hospital.
The epicenter of the quake was at a depth of 33 km (21 miles), 123 km (76 miles) southwest of the town of Pijijiapan, not far from the Guatemalan border.
The quake was registered in local calculations has having a magnitude of 8.2, making it the largest to hit Mexico in 100 years.
“It was a major earthquake in scale and magnitude, the strongest in the past 100 years,” President Peña Nieto said in an address from the National Disaster Prevention Centre’s headquarters, where he was supervising the emergency response.
The US Geological Survey reported the quake’s magnitude at 8.1.
Peña Nieto said the quake was felt by 50 million of the country's 120 million residents, and was also felt in much of Guatemala, which borders Chiapas.
Waves of more than 3.3 feet (1 meter) were measured off Salina Cruz, Mexico, following the quake, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Smaller waves were observed in several other locations.
Peña Nieto has warned that more aftershocks are likely, and has urged people to check their homes and offices for structural damage and gas leaks.
Officials have ordered schools in 11 states to remain closed on Friday, including in Mexico City, so officials can inspect for structural damage.
Mexico sits atop five tectonic plates, with their movement making it one of the most seismically-active countries in the world.
The most destructive earthquake to hit the country to date was in 1985, when an 8.1 magnitude quake killed more than 10,000 people in the capital, Mexico City. | Earthquakes | September 2017 | ['(60 miles)', '(USGS)', '(RT)'] |
Violent storms in western Germany with high winds and flooding kill six people. |
Heavy rains, hail and high winds have left at least six people have died in western Germany after violent storms battered the region. In the North Rhine-Westphalia capital of Duesseldorf, police said two men and a woman who had sought refuge in a garden house were killed late Monday when a large tree fell on the building, the dpa news agency reported Tuesday. Firefighters were able to rescue six others, who were taken to hospitals. Lightning bolts illuminate the sky as they strike near high voltage power lines in Sehnde, near Hanover. At least six people have died in western Germany as heavy rains, hail and high winds battered the region
Lightning illuminates the sky as storm fronts move east near Soest. Many flights from Duesseldorf airport were delayed and some train routes were still closed today
Police say two bicyclists were killed when hit by falling tree limbs in separate incidents in Cologne and Krefeld, and a man in Essen collapsed and died near midnight as he was working to clear debris from a street. Many flights from Duesseldorf airport were delayed and some train routes were still closed today.
After a scorchingly hot three-day holiday weekend, thunderstorms, strong winds and heavy rain pounded the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia
A tree branch on a house roof in Recklinghausen. In the North Rhine-Westphalia capital of Duesseldorf, police said two men and a woman who had sought refuge in a garden house were killed when a large tree fell on the building
Train services were temporarily suspended and fallen trees blocked some streets in Duesseldorf, where trams and underground trains were also stopped due to damaged overhead lines
Train services were temporarily suspended and fallen trees blocked some streets in Duesseldorf, where trams and underground trains were also stopped due to damaged overhead lines.
Some locals reported electrical outages.
The storm front moved further northeast and the German Meteorological Service issued weather warnings for regions including Hanover and Bremen for the night.
Fallen tree branches on a street in Gelsenkirchen.Police say two bicyclists were killed when hit by falling tree limbs in separate incidents in Cologne and Krefeld, and a man in Essen collapsed and died near midnight as he was working to clear debris from a street
Municipal workers and firemen remove tree branches from the garden of a house in Recklinghausen. The storm front moved further northeast and the German Meteorological Service issued weather warnings for regions including Hanover and Bremen for the night
A lightning strike during a thunderstorm over the French city of Paris
I know exactly how this felt, as I have just arriv...
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2014 | ['(Daily Mail)'] |
The death toll from floods in central Vietnam rises to at least forty–nine. | VietNamNet Bridge - Torrential rain and flash floods in the central region left at least 28 dead, with seven missing and nine injured.
More than 900 border soldiers with 500 lifebuoys, 400 life jackets and 35 tents were mobilised to join the rescue work in the central region.
Around 70,000 houses from Quang Tri to Thua Thien-Hue Province were flooded. More than 5,150 households in low-lying and submerged areas in Ha Tinh, Quang Tri and Quang Binh provinces were relocated to higher ground.
The National Hydro-Meteorology Forecast Centre said the low pressure, off China’s Hainan Island, was about 360km north east of Vietnam’s central provinces.
The low, together with a cold spell, would bring heavy rainfall to central provinces from Nghe An to Quang Tri.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on October 5 sent an official meesage, demanding urgent measures to deal with the disaster.
The Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control yesterday required local authorities to collaborate with the Search and Rescue Committee, to inform offshore fishing vessels about the low pressure to avoid dangerous areas and seek shelter if necessary.
Local authorities were required to take measures to deal with landslides and floods.
The Ministry of Health also urged local health agencies from Thanh Hoa to Binh Thuan provinces to supply 100,000 tablets of Chloramine B and 100 lifebuoys to flooded areas.
More than 900 border soldiers with 500 lifebuoys, 400 life jackets and 35 tents were mobilised to join the rescue work. More than 1.5 million tonnes of food,15,000 packets of instant noodles and 2.5 million litres of water were sent to help people in flood-hit areas.
Ha Tinh Province People’s Committee provided VND1 billion (US$51) worth of aid to flood victims. Thousands of people were mobilised to re-open roads and control drainage systems.
As many as 300 soldiers were sent to help evacuate more than 4,000 households in flood-prone areas in Quang Binh Province. Nearly 2,000 households would be moved to safer places today.
Hanoi People’s Committee on October 5 said the city’s agencies and organisations had donated VND1 billion ($51,000) for the five heavily-affected central provinces.
The Vietnam Red Cross also provided financial support and goods valued at VND820 million ($41,820) for Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces.
This afternoon, October 6, Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai will make a field trip to the central region.
The rainfall from October 1-5 in the central Vietnam reached the record high level, with over 1,600mm in Minh Hoa district, nearly 1,300mm in Mai Hoa district, over 1,150mm in Tuyen Hoa district and over 980mm in Tuyen Hoa district in Quang Binh province. The average rainfall in the region was from 500 to over 800mm.
In Quang Tri province
In Ha Tinh province
PV
| Floods | October 2010 | ['(AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)', '(VOV News)', '(Vietnamnet)', '(TRT)'] |
16 European Union leaders meet in advance of the 28 June full EU summit on migration. | BRUSSELS — The leaders of Germany, France and about a dozen other European Union nations are converging on Brussels for an afternoon of informal talks on differences over migration ahead of a full EU summit that starts next Thursday.
Facing a domestic political crisis in Germany over the topic, Chancellor Angela Merkel will be seeking to get EU leaders to forge a joint approach to manage the influx of migrants and refugees, a divisive issue which is now back at the heart of the EU too.
There are deep divisions over who should take responsibility for arriving migrants, how long they should be required to accommodate them, and what should be done to help those EU countries hardest hit like Italy and Greece.
Italy’s populist 5-Star Movement demanded Sunday that European countries step up and actually take action to deal with hundreds of thousands of migrants on the continent. The 5-Stars, who are in a ruling coalition with the anti-migrant League party, penned a blog titled “The migrant hypocrisy sinks Europe.”
“It’s time for Europe to find itself again in the principles that everyone preaches, but few sincerely practice,” the party said, adding “the future of Europe as a political community” is at stake.
Looking for common ground among a few key nations, the informal mini-summit now involves about 16 member states, as others demanded to take part.
And to further complicate matters, four eastern EU countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — refused to attend and reject taking in migrants in general. It means that whatever is agreed upon Sunday, it would still face a full test when the full two-day EU summit starts Thursday.
Two issues have brought the crisis back to haunt the leaders: In Germany, Christian Democrat coalition partners CDU and CSU are haggling over the right approach in what is seen as one of the toughest challenges Merkel has faced in her entire political career.
In Italy, the new populist government caused a fight with Malta and France over who should take responsibility for 630 people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, the main departure point for people trying to reach Europe. Amid the mud-slinging, Spain’s new Socialist government agreed to take charge of the migrants last weekend.
On Saturday, Spain also announced it had rescued 569 more migrants at sea, many from boats in the Strait of Gibraltar, a busy shipping lane with treacherous currents.
Migrants, part of a group intercepted aboard dinghies off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea, leave a rescue boat upon arrival at the port of Malaga, Spain, on June 23, 2018. Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters
But Italy and Malta were at it again Saturday, refusing to let a German rescue ship with 234 migrants dock. The German aid group said a cargo vessel, the Alexander Maersk, had another 113 migrants and was also waiting for a port to receive them.
One of the key accomplishments of the EU is the Schengen free travel zone and some fear that closing internal borders between EU nations to keep migrants out would undermine that cornerstone of EU cooperation.
“We want to have real controls at the external borders to make sure we can safeguard the free travel zone of Schengen,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.
Left:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks after arriving to take part in an emergency European Union leaders summit on immigration, in Brussels, Belgium June 24, 2018. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2018 | ['(PBS Newshour)'] |
Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, a young protester who was shot in the head last week, dies from her injuries, the first death since the opposition to the coup began and as pressure on the military mounts. | (Reuters) - A young woman protester in Myanmar died on Friday after being shot in the head last week as police dispersed a crowd, her brother said, the first death among opponents of the Feb. 1 military coup since demonstrations began two weeks ago.
News of the death came as baton-wielding police and soldiers broke up a procession of people carrying banners of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the northern town of Myitkyina and thousands returned to the streets of the main city of Yangon.
Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, who had just turned 20, had been on life support since being taken to hospital on Feb. 9, after she was hit by what doctors said was a live bullet at a protest in the capital, Naypyitaw.
“I feel really sad and have nothing to say,” said her brother, Ye Htut Aung, speaking by telephone.
Protesters set up a shrine for her on a pavement in Yangon, with pictures, flowers and the flag of Suu Kyi’s party.
“I’m proud of her and I’ll come out until we achieve our goal for her,” Nay Lin Htet, 24, told Reuters.
Friday marked two weeks of daily demonstrations against the military’s seizure of power and its detention of veteran democracy campaigner Suu Kyi.
The protests throughout the ethnically diverse country have been more peaceful than the bloodily suppressed demonstrations during nearly 50 years of direct military rule up to 2011.
But police have fired rubber bullets several times to break up crowds, as well as water cannon and catapults. The army says one policeman has died of injuries sustained in a protest.
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The U.N. office in Myanmar and international rights groups called on the security forces to avoid using force.
In Myitkyina, police and soldiers sent protesters scattering down a street lined with shops, video on social media showed.
Rights activist Stella Naw said about 50 people were detained but later released.
There have been clashes in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State, over the past two weeks with police firing rubber bullets and using catapults to disperse crowds.
Police in Yangon sealed off the city’s main protest site near the Sule Pagoda, setting up barricades on access roads to an intersection where tens of thousands have gathered this week.
Hundreds of people gathered at the barricades anyway and several thousand formed a procession at another site.
The demonstrations have at times taken on a festive air and LGBT rights campaigners marched in Yangon while in the second city of Mandalay, chefs set up melons carved with the message “Justice for Myanmar”.
‘SYMBOLIC’ SANCTIONS
As well as the protests, a civil disobedience campaign has paralysed much government business and international pressure is building on the military.
Britain and Canada announced new sanctions on Thursday and Japan said it had agreed with India, the United States and Australia on the need for democracy to be restored quickly.
The junta has not reacted to the new sanctions. On Tuesday, an army spokesman told a news conference that sanctions had been expected.
There is little history of Myanmar’s generals giving in to foreign pressure and they have closer ties to neighbouring China and to Russia, which have taken a softer approach than long critical Western countries.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing was already under sanctions from Western countries following the 2017 crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.
“Sanctioning military leaders is largely symbolic, but the moves to sanction military companies will be much more effective,” said Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK group.
Britain froze assets and imposed travel bans on three generals and took steps to stop aid helping the military and to prevent British businesses working with the army. Canada said it would take action against nine military officials.
After decades of military rule, businesses linked to the army have a significant stake across the economy, with interests ranging from banking to beer, telecoms and transport.
The army seized back power after alleging fraud in Nov. 8 elections won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, detaining her and other top party members and halting a transition to democracy that had begun in 2011. The electoral commission had dismissed the allegations of fraud.
Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said 521 people had been detained, with 44 released, as of Thursday.
Suu Kyi, 75, faces a charge of violating a Natural Disaster Management Law as well as charges of illegally importing six walkie talkie radios. Her next court appearance has been set for March 1.
| Famous Person - Death | February 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The United States Geological Survey reports a 7.7 magnitude earthquake has struck off the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says there is no tsunami threat because the quake was very deep in the earth. | A strong earthquake happened close to Agrihan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, at about 7:18 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake had a magnitude of 7.7 and was located 19 miles south-southwest of the island, and about 131 miles deep. It was felt as far south as Guam.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in Hawaii, has acknowledged the quake, but issued a statement saying there is no tsunami threat because the quake was very deep in the earth. No warnings have been issued.
As of 8:20 a.m, an hour after the quake, there had been no reports of damage or injuries, according to the commonwealth's Emergency Management Office.
According to the Geological Survey, deep quakes cause less damage on the surface than shallow quakes, but strong deep quakes, like this one, can be felt at greater distances. | Earthquakes | July 2016 | ['(USGS)', '(Pacific Daily News)'] |
The United Nations advises that Yemeni peace talks will start on December 15. | United Nations-backed peace talks aimed at ending eight months of civil war in Yemen between an Iranian-allied militia group and the embattled Saudi-backed government will convene on Dec. 15, Saudi-owned TV quoted Yemen's foreign minister as saying.
"Consultations on the implementation of Resolution 2216 will be held on Dec. 15," the network quoted Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi as saying in a news flash, referring to a U.N. Security Council decision calling for Yemen's dominant Houthi militia to quit major cities.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2015 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Suicide bombers attack a French military base in Gao, Mali, where Estonian, French and Malian troops serve. Six Estonians and "around the same number" of French personnel are wounded in the attack. | On Monday night, suicide bombers attacked the French military base in Gao, Mali, where Estonian and Malian troops are also serving. Six members of the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) were injured and needed medical attention alongside French troops.
"A total of six Estonian servicemembers needed medical attention following the suicide attack, three of whom remain under medical care," Commander of the EDF Maj. Gen. Martin Herem said at a press conference held on Tuesday.
It was previously reported that five Estonian servicemembers had been injured in the attack.
Herem noted that around the same number of French troops were likewise injured, although he declined to provide an exact number. Sustained injuries were not severe, limited to shrapnel or contusions. The hearing of a few men may also have been affected, he added.
According to the commander, the EDF is not planning on sending the injured servicemembers home sooner, as handover to the next planned rotation is scheduled to take place at the beginning of August anyway. "The problem is that they won't be healed by the end of the mission," he added.
Suicide bombers attacked the base with a vehicle containing animprovised explosive device (IED).
The attack took place at the entrance to the French part of the base, The Defence Post reported French military spokesperson Col. Frederic Barbry as saying. The attackers did not manage to enter the base itself.
Barbry likewise confirmed that the troops' injuries were not life-threatening.
A source in Gao had told Nord Sud Journal that Malian troops fired on a vehicle as it tried to drive through a checkpoint located outside the base. The occupants of the vehicle returned fire before the vehicle exploded.
Attack successfully fended off
According to Herem, the fact that neither Estonians nor the French lost a single servicemember in the attack is proof of their professionalism.
"Clearly our and the French's actions were so effective that nobody was killed," he said, adding that such attacks often claim the lives of dozens of people. "These security and safety measures ensured that we did not have any losses."
While it was determined that there were civilians present in the vicinity at the time of the attack, he did not have verified information regarding whether any civilians were injured.
Herem noted that the Gao military base would be under heightened alert and readiness following Monday night's attack, and if necessary, changes would be implemented. "It's not appropriate for me to get smart, but I have no doubt that the Estonian and French units will implement changes if necessary," he added.
In the course of the attack, the perpetrators attempted to approach the gates of the military base in a vehicle allegedly in UN livery, but ended up in a firefight. The gates cannot be accessed directly; in order to reach them, a vehicle must maneuver between several obstacles and barricades.
According to Herem, it also has yet to be determined what caused the large amount of explosives in the vehicle to explode whether it was the terrorist sitting in the vehicle, whether it was detonated remotely, or whether it was set off as a result of being hit by gunfire.
The commander also said that it hasn't yet been determined who exactly is responsible for the attack, but added that it was likely Daesh (the Islamic State group), and such a serious attack indicates that the guerrillas are bothered by the activity of the French and Estonian units. He noted that this was the most dangerous attack seen at the Gao base since Estonian troops began serving there.
There is no reason to believe that the attack was aimed at any one country, but rather it was aimed at Operation Barkhane itself, Herem said.
The commander also passed along a message from his French counterpart regarding the success of Operation Barkhane. According to Herem, a large number of people in the Gao region are able to live at home thanks to the international operation.
President, prime minister offer support
President Kersti Kaljulaid and Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Centre) wished for a speedy recovery to the Estonian troops injured on Monday night. Both the head of state and the head of government stressed the contributions they have made to ensuring the security of Estonia and its allies.
"I wish a speedy recovery to the members of the EDF who were injured in the suicide attack in Mali last night," Kaljulaid wrote on social media. "All of Estonia has its fingers crossed for you, as while you are serving on this mission, you are standing for all of us and our allies!"
"I wish a speedy recovery to our compatriots, and peace of mind to their loved ones," Ratas wrote on social media on Tuesday morning. "I will help with this in any way I can. I met with members of the EDF at the base in Gao last October. I saw how seriously they contribute to the success of the international operation on behalf of the security of Estonia and our region, and how highly Malians and the French value our troops' contributions. I can confirm as much again today."
Following the attack, Ratas said in a press release that this was a reminder of how seriously members of the EDF must be taken who, in the name of peace and stability, participate in international military operations far from home for the sake of Estonian security.
"I wish the Estonian troops injured in Mali a speedy recovery, and peace of mind to all of their loved ones," Ratas said. "French President Emmanuel Macron asked me to pass along the same message to our troops and their loved ones. The Estonian state will do everything it can to help aid the speedy recovery of our troops."
In his statement, the head of government highlighted that Estonia has a clear role and responsibility in the world. "We will support our allies and partners in NATO and the EU on a daily basis," he said.
Defense ministers affirm strength of allied relations
In a phone call on Tuesday morning, Minister of Defence Jüri Luik (Isamaa) and French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly discussed the attack in Mali, according to a ministry press release.
"We are proud of the members of the EDF who are defending European security in Mali," Luik said, adding that he wishes the troops a speedy recovery. "It is in our interests to stand against threats together with our allies, understanding one another's needs and strengthening our allied relations."
Parly thanked the Estonian troops for their exemplary service, and wished them a speedy recovery as well. She stressed that the Estonian troops' professional behavior during the attack is exactly what French troops so highly value in their Estonian colleagues.
US Embassy: We reject all acts of terrorism
The U.S. Embassy likewise released a statement in response to the attack.
"The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn is saddened to learn of yesterday's terrorist attacks on Estonian, French and Malian troops serving in Operation Barkhane and Malian civilians at the Gao military camp in Mali," the embassy said in a press release.
"We deeply admire these servicemembers' commitment to eradicating terrorism, and the risks that are attached to this mission," the statement continued. "We share our sympathies with the injured civilians, soldiers, and their families, and stand united with our allies in rejecting all acts of terrorism worldwide."
50 Estonian troops serving in Mali
Operation Barkhane is a French-led anti-insurgent mission in Africa's Sahel region. The operation's objective is to support the governments of the Sahel region countries of Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in their fight against Islamic terrorists, as well as prevent illegal migration and human trafficking. The UK is also supporting the operation with transport helicopters, and Spain with an air force component.
Some 50 members of the EDF are currently serving in Gao, including the infantry platoon ESTPLA-30 and members of a national support element.
In addition to patrols, Estonians serving on the French Army-led Operation Barkhane are tasked with ensuring the security of the base as well as fulfilling rapid response tasks.
-
Editor:
Aili Vahtla
| Armed Conflict | July 2019 | ['(ERR)'] |
Tokyo Electric Power Company begins the pumping of decontaminated water in an attempt to cool damaged reactors. | Operators of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have begun pumping decontaminated water in as part of a system to cool damaged reactors. The government hailed the move as "a giant step forward" in bringing the facility under control.
Some 110,000 tonnes of water have built up during efforts to cool reactors hit by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.
The tsunami destroyed both power and back-up generators at the plant, breaking the cooling systems.
Three of the reactors went into meltdown, and there have been radiation leaks.
It is the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.
Operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said about 1,850 tonnes of radioactive water had been recycled so far.
The firm said it would continue to inject 16 tonnes of water every hour into reactors 1, 2, and 3, and that 13 tonnes of this would be the decontaminated water.
"This is critical in two aspects," said Goshi Hosono, an adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan. "First, the system will solve the problem of contaminated water, which gave all sorts of worries to the world. Second, it will enable stable cooling of reactors." Tepco has been running out of space to store the huge quantities of contaminated water, which has also hindered engineers' efforts to carry out critical work. Small amounts of low-radioactive wastewater have been released into the sea.
Tepco said the process would help the company meet its target of bringing the plant to a "cold shutdown" by January next year. | Environment Pollution | June 2011 | ['(TEPCO)', '(BBC)'] |
A New York judge rules that Nafissatou Diallo's civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault by Dominique StraussKahn can proceed to trial. | A hotel maid's civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault by Dominique Strauss-Kahn can proceed to trial, a New York judge has said.
The judge rejected the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) head's bid to have the case dismissed on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.
The woman, Nafissatou Diallo, says Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in his hotel suite in May 2011. He denies it.
Prosecutors dropped criminal charges in the case last summer.
Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon said diplomatic immunity did not apply to Mr Strauss-Kahn at the time of the 14 May encounter at a Sofitel Hotel in New York City.
"Confronted with well settled law that his voluntary resignation from the IMF terminated any immunity which he enjoyed... Mr Strauss-Kahn, threw (legally speaking, that is) his own version of a 'Hail Mary pass'," Judge McKeon wrote
.
Ms Diallo, 33, has said Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, forced her to perform oral sex; he says the encounter was consensual. DNA evidence suggests that a sexual encounter did take place between the two.
Ms Diallo's defence lawyers praised the judge's ruling.
"Strauss-Kahn's desperate plea for immunity was a tactic designed to delay these proceedings and we now look forward to holding him accountable for the brutal sexual assault that he committed," they said in a statement on Tuesday.
Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said: "He is determined to fight the claims brought against him, and we are confident that he will prevail."
Criminal charges against the French economist were dropped in August, after prosecutors said Ms Diallo had changed her account of her actions immediately after the incident.
At the time of the incident, Mr Strauss-Kahn had been viewed as a potential candidate for the French presidency.
In the wake of the incident another woman, a French writer, claimed Mr Strauss-Kahn had attempted to rape her during an interview in 2003. Prosecutors in France decided the claims were too old to bring to trial.
Separately, French authorities alleged that Mr Strauss-Kahn had been involved with a hotel prostitution ring that also implicated city officials and police in the town of Lille.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Three suicide bombers at Lake Chad kill at least 30 people and injure at least 80 others. Three women carried out the attack at a weekly market on an island on the Chadian side of the lake. No group claims responsibility; officials suspect the attacks were carried out by members of the Boko Haram militant group from neighboring Nigeria. , | Three suicide attacks have hit an island on Lake Chad, killing at least 27 people, security sources have said.
The blasts, on the island of Koulfoua on the Chadian side of the lake, struck a weekly market, the sources said.
No group has said it was behind the attacks, but the region is under a state of emergency after attacks by the Boko Haram militant group.
This year thousands of people fleeing the Islamist fighters sought safety on the island.
A police spokesman told Associated Press news agency that three women had carried out the attack on Koulfoua. At least 80 others were injured in the blasts.
Chad has played a key role helping Nigeria recapture areas seized by the group in northern Nigeria.
But as Boko Haram lost territory it stepped up attacks away from its Nigerian strongholds and into remote areas of Chad, as well as neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.
At least 17,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since 2009, when the group launched its violent uprising to try to impose Islamist rule in northern Nigeria, according to Amnesty International. | Armed Conflict | December 2015 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
A gunman opens fire in Paradise, Nevada, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino from the upper floors down upon a Jason Aldean outdoor concert, with at least 59 people dead and 527 others injured. Authorities believe the lone gunman is dead. | 10 Minutes. 12 Gunfire Bursts. 30 Videos. Mapping the Las Vegas Massacre. By The New York Times
LAS VEGAS A gunman on a high floor of a Las Vegas hotel rained a rapid-fire barrage on an outdoor concert festival on Sunday night, leaving at least 59 people dead, injuring 527 others, and sending thousands of terrified survivors fleeing for cover, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.
Online video of the attack near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino showed the singer Jason Aldean’s performance at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music event, being interrupted by the sound of gunfire. The music stopped, and as victims fell bleeding, concertgoers screamed, ducked for cover, or ran. “Get down,” one shouted. “Stay down,” screamed another.
How one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history unfolded.
| Armed Conflict | October 2017 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
China is dealing with two typhoons in a week. Typhoon Linfa lost power after making landfall in southern China's Guangdong province Thursday. Typhoon Chan-hom is headed for landfall in eastern China near Shanghai this weekend. | .
Over a 12-day period, Typhoon Chan-hom brought at least some wind and rain to four different locations in the western Pacific and eastern Asia in early-mid July 2015.
Based on satellite estimates from the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Chan-hom reached its peak intensity, the equivalent of a Category 4 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, on July 10 as it was near the far southwest Japanese island of Miyakojima.
Sunday, July 5, Chan-hom soaked Guam with up to 16 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service.
Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, reported a peak wind gust to 62 mph that afternoon. Guam International Airport just east of Hagatna, Guam, clocked a peak gust to 43 mph, while Rota Island measured a peak gust to 37 mph.
Okinawa Island was battered by the first spiral band outside of the typhoon's immediate core much of Thursday night, July 9. The Japan Meteorological Agency's observation site at Itokazu, near the southern end of Okinawa Island, clocked a peak gust of 111.6 mph at 1:05 a.m. Japanese time Friday, July 10. Minutes later it reported a sustained wind of 33.0 meters per second (73.8 mph), right at the minimum threshold for a typhoon.
Kadena Air Base on Okinawa clocked tropical storm-force sustained winds up to 59 mph Thursday afternoon into Thursday night. A peak gust of 78 mph occurred there around 3:20 a.m. Friday Japanese time.
Kitahara, on the island of Kumejima west of Okinawa, had a peak gust of 100 mph Friday.
(FORECAST: Kadena Air Base)
At least 27 people were injured by Chan-hom in Okinawa, according to Fuji TV. In addition, 30,800 customers were without power at one point in Okinawa Power territory.
According to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Chan-hom made landfall in Zhoushan city, Zhejiang Province at 4:40 p.m. local time Saturday (4:40 a.m. EDT Saturday in the U.S.). Zhoushan is along the coast just southeast of, and across Hangzhou Bay from, Shanghai.
This was the strongest landfalling storm to hit within 200 miles of Shanghai in at least 35 years, according to Weather Underground's Dr. Jeff Masters.
Typhoon-force winds (74 mph or greater) began to reach the coast of China in the Zhejiang Province Saturday morning, local time. An observation station well south of Shanghai at Shipu reported sustained winds of 74 mph and a gust to 110 mph. Shanghai's Pudong International Airport saw a peak gust of 56 mph at 11 a.m. local time Saturday.
The China Meteorological Administration raised a "red warning of typhoon" Friday morning for Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. Several other areas were placed under orange and yellow typhoon warnings, including areas as far north as Qingdao.
Xinhua News Agency said around 1.1 million people were evacuated from coastal areas. The country's railway service said more than 100 trains between the region's cities are canceled through Sunday and over 600 flights were canceled on Saturday. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | July 2015 | ['(Falcon)', '(CNN)', '(CRI English)', '(Weather Channel)'] |
Those sexually abused as children by Catholic priests in Italy gather in public for the first time in Verona to campaign for the act to be made a crime against humanity and to organise an international demonstration outside the Vatican next month. | ITALIAN VICTIMS of clerical sex abuse will meet today in Verona, northern Italy, for a gathering billed by the organisers as the first of its kind in Italy.
Called “ Noi Vittime Dei Preti Pedofoli” (We Victims of Paedophile Priests), the meeting will provide an opportunity for sex abuse victims and their families to confront their traumatic experiences together.
Among the 350 victims will be 120 former inmates of the Antonio Provolo Institute, a Verona-based home for the deaf and mute.
In a case similar to that involving Fr Larry Murphy in the diocese of Milwaukee earlier this year, the Provolo Institute made national headlines in Italy in January last year when 67 former inmates, male and female, issued a detailed accusation recounting 30 years of sexual and physical abuse by the priests of the Company of Mary order, who ran the institute.
In March of this year the institute featured in a current affairs programme on state broadcaster RAI, in which three former pupils recounted a series of harrowing tales of sexual, psychological and physical abuse.
Given that the abuse in question took place between the 1950s and the 1980s, the crimes in question have long since fallen under the statute of limitations.
However, last February the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acknowledged an inquiry would be “opportune”. And in July the bishop of Verona, Msgr Giuseppe Zenti, met the Provolo victims’ association, agreeing to collaborate during a forthcoming Curia investigation into the institute.
Members of the La Colpa group, which organised today’s meeting, claim they have done so against a background of national media indifference and of local obstruction and/or embarrassment. La Colpa’s experience mirrors that of other Italian anti-paedophilia lobbies, such as La Caramella Buona, which have long complained about scarce attention from national media for the whole paedophilia problem, clerical or otherwise.
Today’s meeting will have a reserved, intimate aspect to it, so no public demonstration is planned. The organisers say they will take part in a public protest next month at the Vatican. “Reformation Day”, organised by the US sex abuse victims’ group, Survivors Voice, has invited people to join them in Rome and say “Enough”. Bernie McDaid of Survivors Voice, himself a victim, said: “I’m going to fill St Peter’s Square with victim survivors, with their loved ones and with priests of a good heart who want to stand next to us . . . for a day of healing and empowerment.”
In April La Caramella Buona accused the church of systematically covering up recent clerical sex abuse offences in Italy. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(AP via The Age)', '(The Irish Times)', '(The Jakarta Post)'] |
British astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore, presenter of The Sky at Night for over 55 years, dies aged 89. | He "passed away peacefully at 12:25 this afternoon" at his home in Selsey, West Sussex, friends and colleagues said in a statement.
Sir Patrick presented the BBC programme The Sky At Night for over 50 years, making him the longest-running host of the same television show ever.
He wrote dozens of books on astronomy and his research was used by the US and the Russians in their space programmes.
Described by one of his close friends as "fearlessly eccentric", Sir Patrick was notable for his habit of wearing a monocle on screen and his idiosyncratic style.
Sir Patrick presented the first edition of The Sky at Night on 24 April 1957. He last appeared in an episode broadcast on Monday.
A statement by his friends and staff said: "After a short spell in hospital last week, it was determined that no further treatment would benefit him, and it was his wish to spend his last days in his own home, Farthings, where he today passed on, in the company of close friends and carers and his cat Ptolemy.
"Over the past few years, Patrick, an inspiration to generations of astronomers, fought his way back from many serious spells of illness and continued to work and write at a great rate, but this time his body was too weak to overcome the infection which set in, a few weeks ago.
"He was able to perform on his world record-holding TV programme The Sky at Night right up until the most recent episode .
"His executors and close friends plan to fulfil his wishes for a quiet ceremony of interment, but a farewell event is planned for what would have been Patrick's 90th birthday in March 2013."
Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was born at Pinner, Middlesex on 4 Mar 1923.
Heart problems meant he spent much of his childhood being educated at home and he became an avid reader. His mother gave him a copy of GF Chambers' book, The Story of the Solar System, and this sparked his lifelong passion for astronomy. When war came he turned down a place at Cambridge and lied about his age to join the RAF, serving as a navigator with Bomber Command and rising to the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
But the war brought him a personal tragedy after his fiancee, Lorna, was killed when an ambulance she was driving was hit by a bomb. He never married.
Sir Patrick, who had a pacemaker fitted in 2006 and received a knighthood in 2001, won a Bafta for services to television and was a honorary fellow of the Royal Society.
He was a member of the UK Independence party and, briefly, the finance minister for the Monster Raving Loony Party, and attracted some controversy for his outspoken views on Europe and immigration.
His other TV credits include the role of Gamesmaster in the 1990s computer games show of the same name. BBC science correspondent Pallab Ghosh said Sir Patrick's appearance sometimes aroused as much comment as his astronomy: "He was six-foot-three, and was once described as having 'an air of donnish dishevelment', with his raised eyebrow, scarcely-brushed hair and poorly-fitting suits. "His enthusiasm was unstoppable, and on occasions he would talk at 300 words a minute."
Queen guitarist Brian May, who published a book on astronomy written with Sir Patrick, described him as a "dear friend, and a kind of father figure to me". He said: "Patrick will be mourned by the many to whom he was a caring uncle, and by all who loved the delightful wit and clarity of his writings, or enjoyed his fearlessly eccentric persona in public life.
"Patrick is irreplaceable. There will never be another Patrick Moore. But we were lucky enough to get one."
Television presenter and physicist Professor Brian Cox posted a message on Twitter saying: "Very sad news about Sir Patrick. Helped inspire my love of astronomy. I will miss him!"
The acting director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, said his achievements at the corporation "were unmatched", adding that Sir Patrick will be missed by his "countless fans".
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: "Since I first met Sir Patrick when he dominated a UKIP stage in 1999, he has been a friend and an inspiration - not only to us in UKIP, but across the country and around the world. Today we have seen the passing of a true great, and a true Englishman." And Dr Marek Kakula, public astronomer at Royal Observatory in Greenwich, described him as a "very charming and hospitable man".
"When you came to his home he would always make sure you had enough to eat and drink. He was full of really entertaining and amusing stories.
"There are many many professional astronomers like me who can actually date their interest in astronomy to watching Patrick on TV, so his impact on the world of professional astronomy as well as amateur is hard to overstate."
Obituary: Patrick Moore
In pictures: Life of Sir Patrick Moore
Sky at Night colleague's tribute
Tributes paid to Sir Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Moore: Your memories
The Sky at Night
As it happened: One Covid vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75%
But the number of Delta variant cases recorded in the UK has risen by 79% in a week, figures show. | Famous Person - Death | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opens the U.S. general election campaign with a narrow lead over Republican John McCain. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama opens the general election campaign with a narrow lead over Republican John McCain but the two score near even among independent voters, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Obama, McCain debate the Iraq War
02:15
According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, Obama leads McCain by 48 percent to 42 percent among all adults, while McCain has picked up support from independents who could be key to deciding the November election.
Independents see McCain, an Arizona senator, as more credible on fighting terrorism and are split evenly on who is the stronger leader and better on the Iraq war, the Post reported.
McCain has a 14-point lead over Obama, an Illinois senator, on the issue of dealing with terrorism and a narrow edge on who is best equipped to handle international affairs, the poll found.
On Iraq, 47 percent of all respondents said they trust McCain more and 46 percent said they have faith in Obama.
Related Coverage
Independents were 45 percent for McCain to 43 percent for Obama on the question of Iraq, according to the poll.
Experience appears to be Obama’s clearest weakness, the newspaper said. The poll found that just 50 percent of Americans said Obama has the necessary experience to be president, almost unchanged since early March.
Fifty-six percent said McCain was a safe choice, while 52 percent said that of Obama.
The two candidates were evenly matched on the question of who is the stronger leader, with 46 percent of respondents rating each as top.
McCain was in a far weaker position on domestic issues with Obama leading by 16 points on the economy, which continues to top the list of the campaign’s most important issues, the Post reported.
The poll of 1,125 adults was conducted by telephone on June 12-15 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Writing by JoAnne Allen; Editing by John O’Callaghan | Government Job change - Election | June 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An airstrike conducted by NATO kills at least five people in the eastern Afghan province of Ghazni. | Thursday's incident comes just one day after the Taliban attacked a courthouse in the western province of Farah, killing more than 50 people. The suicide bomb and gun attack also left a further 90 people, mostly civilians, injured. Militants disguised as soldiers tried unsuccessfully to free suspected Taliban members. According to a local police chief, the aim of the attack had been to free 15 Taliban prisoners who were being transferred to the courthouse for trial.
The attack was the deadliest in Afghanistan since December 2011, when at least 70 people were killed in a blast at Kabul's Shia shrine.
The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul said the attack would further dent the confidence of the Afghan people in the ability of the national army to protect them, as foreign troops prepare to withdraw in 2014. Coalition forces have been fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for eleven years. Some 100,000 foreign combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year. | Armed Conflict | April 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Italian police arrest buffalo mozzarella maker Giuseppe Mandara over alleged links to organized crime groups in Naples, Italy. | Italian police have arrested the head of the biggest buffalo mozzarella maker in the country and seized assets worth 100 million euros ($120.47 million) on suspicion of links to organised crime.
The police said Giuseppe Mandara - who once called himself the "Armani of Mozzarella" in an interview - and his Mandara Group were controlled by the notorious Casalesi clan of the Camorra mafia based in the city of Naples.
The Mandara Group is also a major global exporter of buffalo mozzarella and is sold by large chains in Europe, Japan and the United States.
"Mandara and some of his staff have been arrested," the police said in a statement on Tuesday.
The investigation includes charges of misleading consumers after the company was found to have mixed in cow milk with more expensive buffalo milk and labelled batches of ordinary provolone as a more prestigious kind.
Another charge is for trading in noxious substances after it was found that up to two tonnes of buffalo mozzarella, which has already been taken off the market, may have been contaminated with ceramic residue from a broken machine.
"We have seized the whole company," Paolo Di Napoli, an officer from the environmental protection arm of the Carabinieri police, said.
Contacted by Agence France-Presse, the Gruppo Alival consortium which Mandara Group belongs to declined to comment on the investigation.
Gruppo Alival's website said Mandara was a third-generation family business and the country's top producer of buffalo mozzarella.
In an interview with business website denaro.it in 2010, Mandara said he produced 78,000 cheeses a day and employed 180 people. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2012 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
At least 65 million people on the East Coast of the United States will be in the direct path of Hurricane Irene over the next few days. | Update: DEATH toll rises to 25 as thousands return home after weakening tropical storm passes over Manhattan.
Floodwaters surround this pickup truck on Hwy 55 Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011 in New Bern, N.C. Hurricane Irene knocked out power and piers in North Carolina, clobbered Virginia with wind and churned up the coast Saturday to confront cities more accustomed to snowstorms than tropical storms. New York City emptied its streets and subways and waited with an eerie quiet. Picture: AP Photo/The News & Observer, Chris SewardSource:AP
AN elderly Bronx man whose body was found floating at a City Island marina just hours after Hurricane Irene tore through the area may be the only New York City fatality related to the monster storm, authorities said.
Jose Sierra, 68, arrived at the Sunset Marina, where cops believe he kept a boat, at around 8:00am local time, at the height of the storm - and waved hello to the marina owner, cops said.
The marina owner then spotted Sierra's body floating in the water at 4:40pm, hours after Irene passed through New York, and called 911.
The body showed no signs of trauma and no crime is suspected, police said.
At least 25 deaths in eight states have been attributed to Irene, with most of those killed either struck by trees or caught in floodwaters.
City under siege
America’s largest city was shut down as the eye of the storm - downgraded from a hurricane, but still blasting winds - passed over the Big Apple overnight.
IreneSource:No Source
Thousands of New Yorkers fled the city while those who stayed boarded up windows, filled bath tubs with emergency water and went panic shopping for days worth of food and drink, expecting the very worst from Irene.
In an unprecedented move, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the mandatory evacuation of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, including the sick at five New York hospitals most at risk from the hurricane.
The three major airports in the New York area which closed ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irene will reopen early today, officials say.
US-122293503Source:No Source
John F Kennedy International Airport in New York and Newark airport in New Jersey will open at 6am (8pm AEST), while LaGuardia reopens at 7am (9pm AEST), the Federal Aviation Administration said on its website.The city's transport system was shut down for the first time in history and is still to re-open. Commuters face lengthy delays on their return to work on Monday morning.
Irene NYCSource:No Source
APTOPIX IreneSource:No Source
US-122294057Source:No Source
The New York Times reports sections of Long Island, Westchester County, New Jersey and Connecticut faced blackouts, blocked roadways and flooding.
Emergency officials scrambled to respond to flash floods. On Staten Island, firefighters used boats to rescue more than 60 people from a flooded neighborhood.
The New York National Guard deployed 129 soldiers and several speedboats in an attempt to rescue 21-people, including several children, trapped in a Prattsville, New York, hotel by massive flooding from Hurricane Irene.John Esquivel, who was staying at the Moore's Hotel with his family, told myFOXny.com that he awoke to fast rising water today. The hotel was quickly surrounded by water, forcing Mr Esquivel and 20 others to rush to the second floor.
Esquivel said that he saw entire buildings float by, apparently knocked off their foundation by the flash flood caused by rains from Hurricane Irene.
US-WEATHER-HURRICANESource:No Source
Death toll at 14
At least 14 deaths have been blamed on Hurricane Irene, which slammed into North Carolina yesterday with 140 kilometre an hour winds and the National Hurricane Centre reports a new tropical storm, Jose, has formed and is approaching Bermuda.
In New Jersey, a 20-year-old woman was found dead on Sunday morning in her submerged car on a flooded rural road in Salem County, eight hours after she called the police to say she was trapped in her vehicle with water up to her neck.
In Spring Valley a man was electrocuted after coming in contact with a downed power line. In North Carolina a man died after he was hit by a falling tree. A woman in Maryland died after she was hit by a falling chimney, and another man was killed by a storm-related electrical fire in Connecticut.
Hurricane IreneSource:Supplied
The youngest fatalities were a boy killed by a falling tree in his apartment in Newport News, a city on a coastal peninsula in Virginia, and a girl who died in North Carolina.
"A 15-year-old girl was killed in a car accident on her way back from the beach after vacationing in North Carolina,'' emergency official Patty McQuillan said.
"The traffic light at the intersection was not working, the power was out.''
North Carolina emergency management spokesman Brad Deen said one of the six victims in his state was a man who had a heart attack on Friday while nailing plywood over his windows in preparation for the hurricane.
Two people were also killed in the state in separate driving accidents. Another North Carolina fatality was a man struck by a falling tree limb while outside feeding his animals.
Another storm-related death was a 55-year-old surfer who took to his board in treacherously high waves off the Florida coast on Friday.
New York waits for Hurricane IreneSource:AP
Damage in the billionsIrene is expected to inflict tens of billions of dollars in damage after its three-day sweep caused widespread flooding and structural damage across a vast swath of the US eastern seaboard."I've got to imagine the damage estimates will be in the billions of dollars if not the tens of billions of dollars," Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey said.
New York waits for Hurricane IreneSource:AP
Experts said the financial toll would have been much higher if there was a direct hit on New York, the US financial capital and largest city with nearly 19 million people living in its metropolitan area.Economist Peter Morici put the immediate casualty losses from the storm at $US40 billion ($38.42 billion), including the loss of two days of economic activity.But Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland, said the impact would diminish significantly over the longer term as reconstruction spending kicks in, injecting fresh spending in recession-weakened regional economies."Rebuilding after Irene, especially in an economy with high unemployment and underused resources in the construction and building materials industries, will unleash at least $US20 billion ($19.21 billion) in new direct private spending-likely more as many folks rebuild larger than before, and the capital stock that emerges will prove more economically useful and productive," he said.Another silver lining is that the storm made landfall over a weekend, mitigating the economic impact in coastal cities although dealing a direct hit to the tourist industry at the peak of the summer beach season.
With AFP/ AP
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2011 | ['(News Limited)'] |
Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continue to attack the city of Misrata. | Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi were stepping up attacks on Misrata and firing rockets into the city, protesters said on Wednesday as they appealed for international help ahead of a meeting in Qatar of their representatives with US-led allies.
The opposition’s Interim Transitional National Council called for the United Nations to declare the besieged city an internationally protected zone. It said all necessary measures must be taken to prevent a massacre of men, women and children. The Council’s leaders will hold talks in Qatar on Wednesday with officials from the US, U.K., France and other countries giving them military support against Muammar Qaddafi.
“What we will seek is the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions about the protection of civilians, and the opening of humanitarian corridors to Misrata and the other cities in the west that are besieged,” Abdel Hafiz Ghogha, deputy head of the council, was quoted by ITV as saying in an interview in Benghazi.
UNICEF has warned that fighting in Misrata was threatening the civilian population in the city, where water and sewer systems are disrupted.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and several thousand wounded in Misrata in the six-week siege, according to Suleiman Fortia, a spokesman for Transitional National Council.
ITV news has reported impartial coverage for the first time from the city of Misrata. The report showed a shadow of a city that was once Libya’s second business hub. In its place is now a city in ruin, buildings, roads and hospitals destroyed. Hundreds dead, blood stained streets and an overflowing central hospital. Perhaps more devastating were attacks by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces on schools and children’s playgrounds. These attacks have resulted in many children being killed and others seriously injured. On Tuesday, the interim council said it would accept nothing short of the removal of Colonel Qaddafi and his sons from the country, according to AFP.
Mahmoud Shammam, whose council is seeking international approval, stressed: “We want to move from the de facto recognition of the council to an internationally-recognized legitimacy.”
Such recognition would pave the way for the TNC to receive billions of dollars of desperately needed Libyan funds frozen in the United States and Britain, and the right to obtain credit at sovereign rates.
Colonel Qaddafi’s government vowed to confront anyone trying to get close to Misrata under the pretext of humanitarian aid, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Tuesday.
| Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(Al Arabiya)'] |
A suicide car bomb attack kills five members of the Syrian Democratic Forces while they were out on a patrol with U.S. troops in northeastern Syria. | A suicide car bomb attack has killed five members of a Kurdish-led force while they were out on a patrol with US troopsinnortheastern Syria.
The five fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed in the attack, which occurred near a checkpointon a road near the town of al-Shadadiin Hasakah province,according to UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"A combined US andSyrian partner force convoy was involved in an apparent VBIED attack today inSyria," Sean Ryan, spokesman for the US-led coalition, wroteon Twitter, adding that there were no US casualties.
The incident marked the third major attack on SDF andcoalition forces since Donald Trump, the US president, announced he was withdrawing all 2,000 troops from Syria in December.
Last week a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest outside a restaurant in northern city of Manbij, where US coalition forces were on patrol, killing 16 people including two American soldiers and two American contractors. Three more US servicemen were injured.
The attack, which was claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), was the deadliest against US forces since they deployed in Syria in 2015.
On January 5, they fired a heat-seeking missile into a group of coalition troops on patrol further south in Deir Ezzor, injuring five British special forces.
Mr Trump announced in a tweetthat Isil had been defeated in Syria and he would pull American forces out of the country.
The decision injected new uncertainty into the eight-year-long Syrian war and spurred a flurry of contacts over how a resulting security vacuum will be filled across northern and eastern Syria where the US forces are stationed.
US Senator Lindsey Graham said over the weekend that he hoped President Trump would slow their withdrawal from Syria until Isil was destroyed, warning that, if not thought through, the pullout can create an “Iraq on steroids”.
| Armed Conflict | January 2019 | ['(Telegraph)'] |
The body of a Palestinian teenager said to have been shot dead by Jewish settlers is found. He is the first to die since Israel and the Palestinian National Authority began indirect peace talks on Saturday. In a retaliation shooting, the AlAqsa Martyrs' Brigades claims responsibility for firing on a car of Jewish civilians in the West Bank. | Relatives gather around the body of 16-year-old Aysar Zaben during his funeral in the West Bank village of Almazraa Alsharqiyah near Ramallah May 14, 2010. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The body of a Palestinian teenager was found in the occupied West Bank on Friday, and Palestinian police and witnesses said he had been shot dead by Jewish settlers after he threw rocks at their car.
The body of 16-year-old Aysar Zaben was not found until after midnight, although the incident happened on Thursday on a road near the city of Ramallah, they said.
An Israeli police spokesman said the incident was being investigated but it was not clear exactly what took place or who was responsible.
Witnesses said a group of Palestinian teenagers threw rocks at a car carrying Jewish settlers as they drove past. The armed settlers then fired at the stone throwers.
The death was the first on either side since Israel and the Palestinians began indirect peace talks on Saturday.
An Israeli army spokesman said that later on Friday, Palestinians had shot at a car belonging to Israelis travelling in the West Bank and that two people were slightly hurt when bullets shattered the car windows. He said troops were searching the area for suspects.
A Palestinian security source told Reuters the shooting may have been prompted by the killing of the teenager, as it happened in the same area.
“It appears as if this was a retaliation shooting,” said the Palestinian source, who declined to be named.
Some 500,000 Jewish settlers and about 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and areas near Jerusalem annexed by Israel after its victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Reporting by Mohammed Assadi; Writing by Ari Rabinovitch and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Louise Ireland
| Armed Conflict | May 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
A threeday national mourning period begins in Kenya for the victims of a fourday siege that began on September 21 when heavily armed AlShabaab militants stormed the Westgate shopping mall in the capital, Nairobi, killing 61 civilians and 6 soldiers. | Kenya has begun three days of national mourning following the end of the four-day siege by Islamist militants on Nairobi's Westgate shopping centre.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said 72 people had died, including six security personnel and five militants.
Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the attack. Al-Shabab, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said 137 hostages had died, but the statement cannot be verified.
Across Kenya, flags flew at half mast, as grieving friends and relatives continued to hold funerals for victims of the attack. As the clearing of the mall continues, the death toll is expected to rise.
Several bodies, including those of some attackers, are thought to be trapped under rubble after three floors of the building collapsed following a blaze.
Kenya's Standard newspaper reported that dozens of bodies were removed from the building on Tuesday evening.
The building has been sealed off as forensic experts collect evidence.
The BBC's Will Ross reports from Nairobi that for most Kenyans there is relief that the siege is over and on the first of three days of mourning the hustle and bustle is returning to Nairobi's streets.
In his address late on Tuesday, the president praised the response of ordinary Kenyans, calling it exemplary and overwhelming.
"We have ashamed and defeated our attackers," he said. "Kenya has stared down evil and triumphed."
He did not confirm earlier reports that several of the attackers were American and British.
"Intelligence reports had suggested that a British woman and two or three American citizens may have been involved in the attack," said Mr Kenyatta.
"We cannot confirm the details at present. Forensic experts are working to ascertain the nationalities of the terrorists."
He added: "These cowards will meet justice, as will their accomplices and patrons, wherever they are."
The UK Foreign Office said that one British national had been arrested in Nairobi, but the British High Commissioner, Christian Turner, later said it was "not of significant interest" to the Westgate inquiry. Our correspondent reports that there are many unanswered questions, including whether any of those arrested were ever inside the shopping centre.
A tweet from Kenya's interior ministry said they had been detained at the airport, and were being held for questioning.
At least 18 foreigners are among the dead. They include six Britons as well as citizens from France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China.
About 175 people were wounded, including 62 who remain in hospital.
"Now it is for the forensic and criminal experts," said police spokesman Masoud Mwinyi.
Somali Islamist group al-Shabab said it had carried out the attack in retaliation for Kenyan army operations in Somalia.
The militants stormed the Westgate centre on Saturday, throwing grenades and firing indiscriminately at shoppers and staff.
Twitter posts on an al-Shabab account said the group's militants had held 137 people hostage, and claimed the hostages had died after security forces fired chemical agents to end the siege.
The posts could not be verified. A government spokesman denied any chemical agents were used, and authorities called on Kenyans to ignore militant propaganda.
Both sides blamed the other for causing part of the shopping centre to collapse.
Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has repeatedly threatened attacks on Kenyan soil if Nairobi did not pull its troops out of Somalia.
There are about 4,000 Kenyan troops in the south of Somalia as part of an African Union force supporting Somali government forces.
Al-Shabab is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia.
Despite being pushed out of key cities in the past two years, it remains in control of smaller towns and large swathes of the countryside.
UN special representative for Somalia Nicholas Kay called on Tuesday for a fresh surge in African troops to Somalia to counter an estimated 5,000 al-Shabab fighters. | Armed Conflict | September 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
A drunk man on a tractor kills 11 people and injures many others in a rampage in northern China. | A drunken man on a tractor has killed 11 people and injured many in a rampage in northern China, the local government has revealed.
Driver Li Xianliang, 38, was arrested after running amok for an hour around a coal depot in Hebei province on Sunday. The driver ploughed into pedestrians, cars and shops as he drove away from the depot before coming to a stop in a field where he was arrested.
The incident began with an argument between Mr Li and a customer.
Mr Li killed the man at the Hongyuan coal depot and then set off down the street on a powerful tractor with a shovel on the front, officials said in a statement.
Eight people were killed outright as he drove down the road from the depot tearing shop fronts apart and crashing into cars and buses.
Local media reported that he drove the tractor onto the highway where he smashed into cars and lorries and then turned off into a crowded market.
Three more people died later in hospital and at least 20 were injured, the officials said.
Mr Li could face the death penalty if convicted of murder, reports said.
China has suffered a number of rampage attacks in recent years.
.
| Road Crash | August 2010 | ['(Reuters Africa)', '(BBC)', '(The Hindu)'] |
Former presenter Andrea Tantaros sues Fox News by accusing the network of being a "sexfueled, Playboy Mansionlike cult." | Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros has filed a lawsuit against the network, claiming that she was sexually harassed by Roger Ailes when he was network chairman and that Ailes’s lieutenants punished her for her complaints.
Tantaros is the second on-air personality at Fox in the past two months to sue Ailes and others at the network for alleged harassment. Former “Fox and Friends” host Gretchen Carlson filed a suit against Ailes in early July, prompting his departure from the network he founded and shaped into a dominant media organization.
Tantaros, who had appeared on “The Five” and other Fox shows as a conservative commentator since 2010, echoed some of Carlson’s claims in her complaint, which was filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court.
Tantaros said it was routine practice for Ailes to call women, including her, into his office and ask them to turn around “so I can get a good look at you.” She said that he asked her whether she planned to marry and have children and said that he had made off-color jokes about his own marriage on several occasions. At one point, she said, he speculated about what she would look like in a bikini and asked her about the sexuality of “Five” co-hosts Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld.
The complaint also said that Fox host Bill O’Reilly had made unwelcome advances toward her.
“Ailes did not act alone,” the lawsuit said. “He may have been the primary culprit, but his actions were condoned by his most senior lieutenants, who engaged in a concerted effort to silence Tantaros by threats, humiliation and retaliation.”
In particular, Tantaros said that Bill Shine who was named as Ailes’s replacement earlier this month warned her to drop her complaints about Ailes at one point. Shine, who was Fox’s top news executive and a key aide to Ailes, told her to “let this one go” or she would face a campaign of retaliation from Irena Briganti, the network’s head of media relations, according to the lawsuit.
A Fox spokeswoman declined to address Tantaros’s claims, saying the network does not comment on pending litigation.Through his attorneys, Ailes has denied Carlson’s claims.
“Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny,” Tantaros’s lawsuit says.
Fox and Tantaros have been at odds since last year, when the network said she breached her employment contract by writing a book without Fox’s approval. As a result of the dispute, she has not appeared on Fox for months. A Fox attorney has previously claimed in an arbitration hearing that her claims of sexual harassment were an attempt to gain leverage in her dispute over the book.
Since Carlson’s suit was filed July 6, more than 20 women have told her attorneys that they were harassed by Ailes during his long career in television, dating as far back as the mid-1960s. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2016 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
The death toll from an outbreak of legionnaires disease in New York City rises to eight with 97 people sick. | An additional death is being linked to the Legionnaire's disease outbreak in New York City that has sickened 97 people in the last three weeks, health officials said Wednesday.
That brings the death toll to eight in the outbreak, clustered in the Bronx.?In total, 97 cases of the disease, a severe, often lethal, form of pneumonia spread through the air, have been reported in the south Bronx since July 10, city officials said in a statement Wednesday. That marks 11 new cases since the last update from the city Tuesday, and 51 new cases since last Wednesday, when health officials first discussed the outbreak.
The Department of Health and Mental Health said those who died were older adults and had additional underlying medical problems.
Legionnaires' disease is caused by exposure to the bacteria Legionella; in most cases, people are exposed to the bacteria by inhaling contaminated aerosols from cooling towers, hot tubs, showers and faucets or drinking water.
Twenty-two buildings have been visited as "disease detectives" hunt for the source of the outbreak, the city said last Friday. Seventeen of those buildings have cooling towers -- five of those tested positive for Legionella, including one at Lincoln Hospital; one at Concourse Plaza; one at a shopping plaza; one at a Verizon office building and one at the Opera House Hotel. All have been decontaminated.
Health Commissioner Mary Bassett reiterated earlier this week that the contaminated cooling towers have had no effect on the water in the Bronx, and that tap water remains entirely safe to drink.
The cases have been reported primarily in High Bridge, Morrisania, Hunts Point and Mott Haven since July 10, the Health Department said.
Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday officials believed they had identified the only sites that are causing the outbreak, and no additional cooling towers are believed to be contaminated. All of those sites must submit long-term plans as to how they will maintain cooling towers to protect against any future growth of legionella, he said. Those plans are due Friday.
Bassett said authorities are confident one of the five cooling towers that tested positive for Legionella is the primary source of the outbreak, though it will likely take weeks to confirm. Now that the contaminated sources have been remediated, she said, authorities expected to see the number of cases continue to go down.
"This is the largest outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that we are aware of in New York City,"?Bassett said Tuesday.?"Although we will continue to see cases, we expect the case rate to decline and the number of cases to fall over the coming weeks."
On Tuesday, de Blasio said the fact that only a few new cases were added to the outbreak total since Monday "suggests a reduction in the rate of increase and that is good news." But with 11 new cases announced on Wednesday, along with the death, concerns have been renewed.
"This is really not good," said South Bronx resident Chenelle Stuckey. "People are dying."
Dr. Robert Glatter of Lenox Hill Hospital said the main issue is the incubation period, which is very long -- up to about two weeks.?
"So we're going to continue to see more cases," he told NBC 4 New York.
Legionnaires' disease usually sets in two to 10 days after exposure to the bacteria and has symptoms similar to pneumonia, including shortness of breath, high fever, chills and chest pains. People with Legionnaires' also experience appetite loss, confusion, fatigue and muscle aches.
City officials plan to host a town hall Tuesday, Aug. 11 for area residents with council member Vanessa Gibson to answer questions and concerns about the outbreak.
Both de Blasio and Bassett stressed last week there was no concern for alarm.
"People have to understand that this is a disease that can be treated -- and can be treated well if caught early," de Blasio said last Thursday. "The exception can be with folks who are already unfortunately suffering from health challenges, particularly immune system challenges. But for the vast majority of New Yorkers, if they were even exposed, this can be addressed very well and very quickly so long as they seek medical treatment."
Glatter emphasized the point.
"Most people who get this, who are otherwise healthy, they get a mild flu, get better, and they don't need antibiotics," he said Wednesday.
It cannot be spread person-to-person and those at highest risk for contracting the illness include the elderly, cigarette smokers, people with chronic lung or immune system disease and those receiving immunosuppressive drugs. Most cases can be treated successfully with antibiotics.
The Health Department urges anyone with symptoms to seek immediate medical attention.
An outbreak last hit the Bronx in December. Between then and January, 12 people in Co-op City contracted the potentially deadly disease. Officials said a contaminated cooling tower was likely linked to at least 75 percent of those cases. No one died in that outbreak. | Disease Outbreaks | August 2015 | ['(NBC New York)'] |
Three Japanese employees of Fujita Corporation detained by China for allegedly intruding in a restricted area in Hebei Province are released while a fourth remains in custody. | BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) - China released three Japanese citizens on Thursday whose detention had added to tensions between Asia’s two top economies, but a fourth remains in custody in a sign that the row is not yet over.
Junichi Iguchi (C), one of four Japanese citizens detained by China, arrives at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai September 30, 2010. China released three Japanese citizens on Thursday whose detention had added to tensions between Asia's two top economies, but a fourth remains in custody in a sign that the row is not yet over. REUTERS/Aly Song
Tokyo and Beijing have been in a bitter feud since Japan detained a Chinese fishing boat skipper whose trawler collided this month with two Japan Coast Guard ships near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that both sides claim.
Japanese prosecutors released the skipper late last week, but both sides have demanded compensation over the collision.
The release of three of the Japanese employees of construction firm Fujita Corp, held on suspicion of entering a restricted military zone, comes amid signs that Beijing and Tokyo are moving past the most vehement phase of their latest friction.
But Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara demanded the remaining Japanese being held be released quickly and for China to explain the reasons behind their detention.
“What’s most important is that one of them hasn’t been released yet,” Maehara told reporters. “We will strongly urge that he be released soon.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular briefing that China did not want the on-going diplomatic spat with Japan to deteriorate further -- but also called on Tokyo to stop making “irresponsible statements.”
“We hope that Japan will proceed from the fundamental interests of both countries peoples and stop issuing irresponsible statements, and take practical actions to protect broader development of China-Japan relations,” she said.
Jiang said China’s statements had “both demonstrated our determination to defend national territorial sovereignty and also our sincerity in developing China-Japan relations.”
The Fujita employees were detained in northern China’s Hebei province last week while Beijing and Tokyo were embroiled in the row sparked by Japan’s detention of the Chinese boat captain.
They were in China for a project to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese military at the end of World War Two. A Chinese national and fellow employee detained with them at the same time has also been released.
Related Coverage
Jiang said the case of the still-detained Japanese national awaited further investigation. She did not elaborate.
The tensions have underscored the fragility of a relationship long troubled by bitter Chinese attitudes toward Japan’s wartime occupation as well as by present-day mistrust as China edges past Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy.
The roots of the trawler dispute lie in a long-standing disagreement about sovereignty over parts of the East China Sea, which has potentially rich natural gas resources.
Fishery patrol boats from both sides have remained in waters near the disputed islands, called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan, although an expert said passions seemed to be subsiding in the bilateral feud.
“It looks like the Chinese side is letting the heat out of the argument,” said Phil Deans, a professor of international affairs at Temple University’s Japan Campus.
“It’s not going to go away. It’s very easy to reignite ... There is still a dispute (over the islands) and there are some very passionate figures on both sides that don’t want a good relationship.”
Japan and China have a long-running disagreement over China’s exploration for natural gas in the disputed waters in the East China Sea, although in 2008 they agreed in principle to solve the argument by jointly developing the gas fields.
Japan’s ambassador to China, Uichiro Niwa, has told China not to unilaterally develop a gas field in the disputed area, Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday.
China has canceled diplomatic meetings and student visits in protest at the trawler captain’s detention, although Kyodo said Japan’s defense minister may seek talks with his Chinese counterpart in Vietnam next month in a bid to repair ties.
Industry sources have cited concerns that Beijing was apparently holding back shipments to Japan of rare earth minerals vital for electronics and auto parts, but a Japanese trading firm source has said China ended its de facto ban on the exports.
Additional reporting by Yoko Nishikawa, Linda Sieg and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Toyko and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The United States officially withdraws from the Paris Agreement. | After a three-year delay, the US has become the first nation in the world to formally withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
President Trump announced the move in June 2017, but UN regulations meant that his decision only takes effect today, the day after the US election.
The US could re-join it in future, should a president choose to do so.
The Paris deal was drafted in 2015 to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change. It aims to keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C.
The delay is down to the complex rules that were built into the Paris agreement to cope with the possibility that a future US president might decide to withdraw the country from the deal. Previous attempts to put together a global pact on climate change had foundered because of internal US politics. The Clinton administration was unable to secure Senate backing for the Kyoto Protocol, agreed in 1997. So in the run up to the Paris climate talks, President Obama's negotiators wanted to ensure that it would take time for the US to get out if there was a change in leadership.
Even though the agreement was signed in December 2015, the treaty only came into force on 4 November 2016, 30 days after at least 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions had ratified it. No country could give notice to leave the agreement until three years had passed from the date of ratification. Even then, a member state still had to serve a 12-month notice period on the UN. So, despite President Trump's White House announcement in June 2017, the US was only able to formally give notice to the UN in November last year. The time has elapsed and the US is now out. While the US now represents around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it remains the world's biggest and most powerful economy. So when it becomes the only country to withdraw from a global solution to a global problem it raises questions of trust. For the past three years, US negotiators have attended UN climate talks while the administration has tried to use these events to promote fossil fuels. "Being out formally obviously hurts the US reputation," said Andrew Light, a former senior climate change official in the Obama administration.
"This will be the second time that the United States has been the primary force behind negotiating a new climate deal - with the Kyoto Protocol we never ratified it, in the case of the Paris Agreement, we left it."
"So, I think it's obviously a problem."
Although this has been a long time coming, there is still a palpable sense of disappointment for many Americans who believe that climate change is the biggest global challenge and the US should be leading the fight against it. "The decision to leave the Paris agreement was wrong when it was announced and it is still wrong today," said Helen Mountford from the World Resources Institute. "Simply put the US should stay with the other 189 parties to the agreement, not go out alone."
The formal withdrawal has also re-opened old wounds for climate diplomats. "It's definitely a big blow to the Paris agreement," said Carlos Fuller, from Belize, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States in the UN talks. "We actually worked very hard to ensure that every country in the world could accede to this new agreement. And so, by losing one, we feel that basically we have failed." | Tear Up Agreement | November 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Georgia's arrest of four Russian army officers for spying was "an act of state terrorism with hostage-taking". | He said Georgia was trying to provoke Moscow with the help of "foreign sponsors" and compared its leadership to that of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
Correspondents say it is Russia's worst crisis in relations with its neighbour in more than a decade.
In his first public comments on the crisis, Mr Putin likened the arrests to the repression of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's feared police chief, saying they were "a sign of the political legacy of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria".
Both Stalin and Beria were Georgian.
They clearly want to pinch Russia in the most painful way, provoke it
Russian President Vladimir Putin
"They clearly want to pinch Russia in the most painful way, provoke it," Mr Putin said in televised remarks at the start of a session of the presidential security council.
"These people think that under the roof of their foreign sponsors they can feel comfortable and secure. Is it really so?" He then denounced the arrests as "an act of state terrorism involving the taking of hostages", the Kremlin said in a statement.
Growing tensions
On Friday, four Russian officers who had been detained in Georgia on Wednesday were charged with spying and were ordered to be held for two months pending investigations. We neutralised a very serious and dangerous group
Vano MerabishviliGeorgian Interior Minister
Q&A: Tense bilateral ties
Media war escalates
Georgian fear and pride
Russia recalled its ambassador to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and began a partial evacuation of its staff from the country. On Saturday, Russia announced it was suspending the withdrawal of its troops from Georgia, which had been expected to be completed by the end of 2008. Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said his country expected Russia to honour the pullout agreement, and accused Moscow of trying to scare the Georgian people.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has described Moscow's reaction to the arrests as "hysteria".
Russia has urged the United Nations Security Council to take action to restrain Georgia. Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have deteriorated in recent weeks, since Georgia and the Western military alliance Nato agreed to hold talks on closer relations, correspondents say. Georgia has also accused Russia of actively trying to undermine its government by backing separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Relations between the two nations had already become increasingly tense since Mr Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia in 2004, pledging to take the Caucasian nation out of Russia's orbit and join Nato and the European Union. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | October 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
The European Commission fines Google €4.34 billion for breaching EU antitrust regulations, claiming that Google abused the dominant position of Android to promote their search product. Google announces it will appeal the ruling. | European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager held a joint news conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday after slapping a record $5 billion antitrust penalty on the U.S. tech giant.
John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
hide caption
European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager held a joint news conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday after slapping a record $5 billion antitrust penalty on the U.S. tech giant.
Updated at 9:15 a.m. ET
The European Commission has fined Google $5 billion for violating the European Union's antitrust rules — specifically, by forcing manufacturers of Android phones to install the Google search app and the Chrome Web browser.
"Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine," Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. "These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits."
The tech giant plans to appeal the decision, a Google spokesperson tells NPR.
"Android has created more choice for everyone, not less," the company says. "A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation and lower prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition."
Last year, the European Commission fined Google $2.72 billion for antitrust violations. That time, it found Google was using its search service to improperly promote its shopping service.
The new fine — 4.34 billion euros, or just over $5 billion — sets a world record for such antitrust penalties, Bloomberg reports. And if Google doesn't change its business practices, the cost could grow even higher, with penalty payments added after 90 days.
The European Commission says the large fine is appropriate because of the "duration and gravity" of the antitrust violations.
The executive body says that about 80 percent of smart devices in Europe run on Android. It's not illegal to dominate a market, the European Commission says — but companies aren't supposed to "abuse their powerful market position by restricting competition."
Google licenses its Android operating system to third-party phone manufacturers. The issue, the EU says, is that Google requires Android device-makers to pre-install the Google search and browser apps on "practically all" devices sold in Europe; in the past, the company used financial incentives to further encourage pre-installation. That makes it hard for other search apps to compete, the EU says.
Another problem has to do with rival operating systems. Source code for the Android system is shared online, allowing third parties to modify it and create "forks," or versions of Android not approved by Google. (Amazon's Fire devices, for example, run a "fork" of Android.)
Google has prohibited companies that make Android devices from making and selling any other devices that run Android forks. That gives Google too much power over competition between different operating systems, the EU says.
Google forcefully objects to the ruling, calling it a a rejection of Android's entire business model.
In a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai said the decision "ignores the fact that Android phones compete with iOS phones." (The European Commission decided that Apple products don't adequately "constrain Google's market power" in part because iPhones are more expensive, and because iPhones use Google search by default anyway.)
Phones typically come preloaded with dozens of apps, not just Google apps, and it's easy to remove them and add new apps instead, Pichai writes. He also says that the rules imposed by Google are meant to "ensure technical compatibility," and that they're optional. | Organization Fine | July 2018 | ['(European Commission)', '(NPR)'] |
Around 1,000 protesters block a key road in Moscow, Russia, following the killing of a fellow football fan blamed on a group from the North Caucasus. | Moscow football fans briefly blocked a key city artery in protest at a killing which puts new pressure on race relations in the Russian capital.
They stopped traffic on Leningrad Avenue for half an hour, climbing on cars, lighting flares and chanting nationalistic slogans.
Protesters demanded a full inquiry into the murder of Yegor Sviridov, 28.
He was allegedly shot in a fight with a group of men from the North Caucasus, a mountainous region in southern Russia.
Longstanding ill-feeling between ethnic Russians and members of the North Caucasus's numerous small ethnic groups is one of the country's most sensitive social problems.
While ethnic minorities complain of continuing discrimination in central Russia, some ethnic Russians accuse the authorities of trying to play down hate crimes against Russians.
The death of Mr Sviridov generated a wave of anger on Russian nationalist websites, which reported graphic, unconfirmed details of how he died.
Russia's chief investigator's office (SK) said its Moscow branch would take charge of the investigation into Mr Sviridov's death.
"The decision was made taking into account the wide social response sparked by this crime," spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
Leningrad Avenue, which connects the city centre to Sheremetyevo Airport, was blocked by about 1,000 fans of Moscow's Spartak football team, according to police figures.
They marched to the road from a prosecutor's office in the north of city, where they had angrily demanded a "full and unbiased" investigation into their fellow Spartak fan's death.
The demand also appeared on the Spartak supporters' website Fratria, accusing the authorities of failing to catch the killer of another fan, Yury Volkov, who was stabbed to death in Moscow in July, allegedly during a fight with a group of Chechens.
Police say the demonstrators left the avenue peacefully and no arrests were made. Two windows in a kiosk were broken but it was unclear when the damage had occurred.
Video of the protest posted on Russian websites shows fans chanting "One for all, all for one" as well as nationalistic slogans such as "Russia for Russians" and "Moscow for Muscovites".
Aslan Cherkessov, 26, a resident of the Kabardino-Balkaria region, was formally accused by a Moscow district court of murdering Mr Sviridov and placed in custody until 6 February.
A lawyer for the accused, Venera Goncharova, said she would appeal against her client's detention, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.
Mr Markin earlier gave brief details of the killing: "The SK investigator ascertained that it was Cherkessov who fired on Sviridov, inflicting a fatal head wound upon him."
Police say Mr Sviridov was shot dead with a rubber bullet pistol on Monday night in a fight at a bus stop involving 10 people on Kronshtadt Boulevard. A friend accompanying him was also shot and seriously injured.
Russian media report that three other suspects were detained along with Mr Cherkessov but then released, and are now being sought again.
While gas-powered rubber bullet guns are legal weapons in Russia, they have come in for increasing scrutiny following their use by criminals. | Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2010 | ['(The Moscow News)', '(BBC)'] |
Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaty to the European Union, continuing the enlargement process. | The treaties contain a safeguard clause delaying entry for a year if either country fails to meet EU standards.
The EU wants the independence of the judiciary to be strengthened and more efforts to tackle corruption in what will be its poorest member states.
The signing ceremony took place at the old Neumuenster Abbey in Luxembourg.
If Bulgaria and Romania join in 2007, it will be the fifth enlargement of the EU project, making a total of 27 member states.
In May last year, eight of the 10 new member states were former communist countries.
Bulgaria and Romania missed that first round of EU expansion into eastern Europe because they had failed to implement sufficient democratic and market reforms.
Romania and Bulgaria are poorer than any of the 25 EU states
At the signing ceremony on Monday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it had been a "demanding and challenging voyage" and the EU set high standards for new members.
But he told Bulgaria and Romania that the Commission would work with them to overcome difficulties.
"We have every confidence that you are capable of making even most demanding reforms," he said.
The BBC's Nick Thorpe says many governments in western Europe fear an influx of Romanians and Bulgarians and may yet find reasons for delaying full membership.
The reforms that Bulgaria and Romania have already passed into law must now be put into practice.
Courts will have to prove that people receive a fair trial and anti-corruption authorities will have to show that no one is beyond their reach.
The cost of living may rise dramatically as heating bills increase and the withdrawal of state subsidies for less profitable sectors like steel and coal may add to unemployment.
Our correspondent says the leaders of both Romania and Bulgaria will, however, find comfort in the fact that the political will to accept them is now being put into writing.
That should also encourage countries further down the queue in the Balkans, Turkey and Ukraine, he says. | Sign Agreement | April 2005 | ['(press release)', '(BBC)'] |
Germany's plagiarism scandal widens, engulfing the European Parliament's vice president Silvana KochMehrin accused of plagiarizing 25 per cent of her doctoral thesis; she refuses to comment. | The European Parliament’s vice president has become the latest among a growing number of high profile German politicians to face allegations that they plagiarised large amounts of other people’s academic work in order to obtain a university doctorate.
The current charges concern Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a well-known German liberal Free Democrat politician and Euro MP who holds the post of European parliamentary vice president. She stands accused of “copying” 25 percent of her doctoral thesis on currency reform obtained in 2000.
Mrs Koch-Mehrin has flatly refused to comment on the allegations which have surfaced less than a month after Germany’s highly popular conservative defence minister, Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, was forced to resign his post amid a plagiarism scandal.
Mr zu Guttenberg, who dropped his academic title of “Dr” in a bid to limit the damage to his reputation, was found to have lifted large sections of his Bayreuth University doctoral thesis from other people’s work without having sourced the information.
His resignation was a severe blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition as Mr zu Guttenberg rated as Germany’s most popular politician and as a possible future chancellor.
It has since emerged that the allegations against Mrs Koch-Mehrin are being made by a largely anonymous group called VroniPlag, the same organisation which pursued, exposed and effectively dismissed Mr zu Guttenberg with its plagiarism accusations.
VroniPlag, which publishes its findings online, presents evidence which it claims shows both the original thesis and the sources from which it claims the elements are copied.
“The goal is to guarantee the integrity of doctor titles in Germany,” VroniPlag says on its website. “Our work is neither politically motivated, nor is it aimed at personal defamation or anything like that,” it insists.
The group has also levelled accusations of doctoral plagiarism at Veronica Sass, the lawyer daughter of the former Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber. She faces allegations that parts of her thesis on the regulation of cell phone networks appeared to be copied from Wikipedia articles. Her university has since confirmed that it is investigating a case of plagiarism
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Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2011 | ['(The Independent)'] |
A new picture of Fidel Castro is published in the Juventud Rebelde state–run newspaper, apparently showing Cuba's ailing former leader in much better health. | A new picture of Fidel Castro has been published in a state-run newspaper, apparently showing Cuba's ailing former leader in much better health.
Mr Castro, 83, was dressed more smartly than in other recent photos, wearing a white shirt rather than a tracksuit. Later he appeared on television for the first time in 14 months, chatting to Venezuelan students, in a meeting which reportedly took place on Saturday. He has not been seen in public since undergoing an operation in 2006. Mr Castro stepped down and his younger brother, Raul, took over his various offices. Since then he has undergone a series of major intestinal operations, although the state of his health and whereabouts remain state secrets. Neatly combed
The photograph in Juventud Rebelde, the Communist Youth newspaper, showed Mr Castro talking to Ecuador's left-wing President, Rafael Correa.New TV pictures emerge of Fidel Castro
There was speculation that Fidel Castro's health had deteriorated significantly at the end of last year in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of Cuba's revolution, says the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana. But his health does appear to have visibly improved in recent months, our correspondent adds. In the latest photograph Mr Castro appears stronger: his greying, almost white hair is neatly combed back and even his trademark beard appears to have grown a little. He remains an influential figure behind the scenes in Cuba and publishes regular editorials in the state-run media. Occasional photographs of him are published, usually showing him greeting visiting dignitaries. | Famous Person - Recovered | August 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(IOL)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Reuters Africa)'] |
A boat sinks on the Kasai river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing as many as 140. | Up to 140 people are feared dead after a boat carrying passengers and goods capsized on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say.
The accident happened on the Kasai river - a tributary of the Congo River - in the western province of Bandundu.
Information Minister Lambert Mende told the BBC the vessel had been overloaded and 80 people had been confirmed dead.
After decades of conflict, DR Congo has few roads or rail links and many people travel on often overloaded boats.
The latest accident occurred on Wednesday.
Mr Mende told the BBC the river level had been low and the accident occurred when the overcrowded boat hit a mud bank.
He told the AFP news agency that 76 survivors had been found and that the ferry had officially been carrying 180 passengers.
But he said many more people are likely to have boarded the boat illegally.
Several local officials have said about 140 people are believed to have died.
The ferry was travelling to the capital Kinshasa from Mushie, about 30km (20 miles) from the town of Bandundu, AFP reports.
Last November at least 73 people died when a boat sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe, also in Bandundu province.
DR Congo - a country the size of western Europe - has only a few hundred kilometres of paved roads outside the cities, so the rivers are the main long-distance transport link for the majority of people who cannot afford to travel by air.
| Shipwreck | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(UPI)'] |
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