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An Israeli soldier dies due to "friendly fire" aimed at three people thought to be infiltrating a border fence, who turned out to be Palestinian civilians crossing the border in search of employment. | An Israeli soldier was accidentally shot dead by fellow soldiers along the Gaza border on Monday in an operation aimed at stopping three Palestinians who were thought to be trying to infiltrate the border fence, an army spokesman said. The three, who were unarmed, were detained. The shooting occurred when a tank team that saw the men along the fence called for reinforcements. The new arrivals thought the soldiers were the infiltrators and shot them. The army has opened an investigation. | Armed Conflict | March 2010 | ['(tank crew member)', '(euronews)', '(BBC)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Voters in 14 U.S. states and American Samoa go to the polls in this year's Super Tuesday. | It’s the first day with a whole lot of delegates at stake, and it will shape the future of the contest.
The first day of the Democratic contest that really matters for the cold, hard delegate math — Super Tuesday — is almost here. Follow our live results here.
Tuesday, March 3, will be enormously important because it’s the first day that a lot of the delegates necessary to win the nomination are at stake, and the biggest delegate day overall. A total of 14 states and one territory — including California and Texas, the two most populous states in the country — will hold their primaries or caucuses. Candidates are competing for about a third of the overall delegates at stake. Those 1,344 delegates allocated on Super Tuesday could effectively settle the race, if one candidate locks down a gigantic lead that will be nearly impossible for anyone else to overcome. The candidate with the best chance of doing that is Sen. Bernie Sanders — his current lead in national polls and strong position in some big Super Tuesday states indicate he could rack up enough plurality wins in a crowded field to clean up in delegates. (Some recent polls, however, have shown late movement toward Joe Biden, which could spoil those plans.)
It’s also possible that Super Tuesday’s delegate haul ends up split among several candidates, with no one having gotten anywhere close to being on track for a majority. That may well mean Democrats are headed to a contested convention.
Whether we’re headed for one of these outcomes (or something in between) depends to a significant extent on Democrats’ complicated delegate allocation rules. Broadly, delegates are allotted proportionally based on candidates’ performance — the better you do, the more delegates you get. But quirks in the rules mean relatively small differences in the exact split of the votes can lead to large differences in delegates. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty below. The big picture is that if one person ends up with a commanding lead and gets nearly half the delegates, that candidate will become the overwhelming favorite for the nomination. But if the delegate leader has a narrow edge and is well below half of the delegates, a long, close-fought contest will likely ensue.
It’s simple: There are a whole lot of delegates at stake.
The way to win the Democratic nomination is by winning delegates — specifically, winning 1,991 out of 3,979 pledged delegates, enough for a majority to get the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. And there are 1,344 delegates — one-third of the total — up for grabs in Super Tuesday’s contests.
Though there will be several more months of primaries remaining, it’s possible that Super Tuesday can settle the nomination contest. It’s not mathematically possible to reach the “magic number” of delegates yet — but Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004 won so convincingly on Super Tuesday that their opponents quit shortly afterward. Yet Super Tuesday can also pave the way for a very long race. In 2008, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ended up nearly tied after an early February Super Tuesday, and they battled it out through four months of remaining contests. In 2016, Clinton locked in a solid advantage over Sanders on Super Tuesday that she never relinquished — but it wasn’t such an overwhelmingly dominant performance as to drive Sanders to quit the race, so he stayed in.
No one person or group dictates the primary calendar from the top down. The national Democratic and Republican parties have declared that the month of February is reserved only for the four early states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. But after that, it’s just up to states to schedule primaries whenever they want between March and June.
Many states that want to influence the outcome of the nomination have calculated that the best way to do that is to go as early as possible: on the first Tuesday in March. (This dynamic has been called “frontloading.”)
Super Tuesday actually began as a plot to help President Jimmy Carter stave off a primary challenge from Ted Kennedy in 1980, as Carter’s strategists got three large Southern states where he was expected to do well to schedule their primaries early. From 1984 through 1992, other Southern states joined in an attempt to give their region more influence (as did a few non-Southern states).
Eventually, big states from elsewhere in the country wanted in, and the first Super Tuesday that truly spanned the nation took place in 2000. That’s been the norm ever since, though the exact lineup varies from cycle to cycle as states move their nominating contests around. (Super Tuesday 2008 is still the record-holder for the number of states and the proportion of the total delegates at stake.)
From most delegates at stake to least, they are:
Another contest, involving “Democrats Abroad” — Democratic voters living overseas — will begin on Super Tuesday, but won’t end until March 10. So it’s those 14 states and one territory that will have their voting conclude on Super Tuesday, with 1,344 delegates at stake overall.
That’s a lot to get your head around, so it can be helpful to break down the lineup into groups:
Finally, it’s worth remembering that even though Super Tuesday is just one day, several of the states involved began early voting or mail balloting weeks ago. So a chunk of the vote will have been locked in before Tuesday itself.
In one sense, the way to ensure Super Tuesday delegate dominance is simple — win by a lot, in a lot of places. If Sanders or anyone else manages to do that, they’ll end up with a big delegate lead.
But if most outcomes are closer or if the results are mixed, the delegate situation will be highly contingent on the exact breakdown of the vote, because of Democrats’ complex delegate allocation rules. Democrats have no “winner-take-all states” (where whoever comes in first place gets all that state’s delegates) — instead, they allot delegates proportionally based on each contest’s results. That means winning isn’t all that matters: The margin of victory is crucial. A narrow win will barely provide an advantage in the delegate count, because proportional rules mean the second-place finisher usually gets close to the same amount of delegates. But winning in a landslide will provide a big delegate edge.
Beyond that, the devil is in the details, particularly when the field is still larger than usual.
First off, there’s the threshold: Candidates need to get 15 percent of the vote somewhere to get any delegates there. Those below 15 percent are nonviable and get nothing.
Second, it’s not quite so simple as “30 percent of the vote gets you 30 percent of delegates.” Instead, it’s your percentage of the viable candidates’ vote that matters. Basically, votes for any candidate who’s below 15 percent are excluded, and your percentage of whatever’s left determines your share of delegates. So let’s say you get 30 percent of the vote, but there are three other viable candidates, getting 25 percent, 20 percent, and 15 percent of the vote. The viable vote adds up to 90 percent, and your 30 percent is one-third of that — so you get one-third of the delegates. Here’s how it would play out under a sample scenario, if there were 10 delegates at stake. (Note: Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race just before Super Tuesday.)
A very different situation transpires if you get 30 percent of the vote and only one other candidate is viable, getting 20 percent, with the rest of the vote split among several others. The viable vote would then add up to 50 percent. Your 30 percent is three-fifths of that — so you get many more of the delegates at stake.
This means a great deal can depend on the exact breakdown of the vote — particularly in big states with many delegates at stake.
Finally, as if all this wasn’t enough, a candidate’s statewide performance is not all that matters for delegates. The majority of the Super Tuesday delegates (about 65 percent) are in fact allotted based on results in individual districts (mostly congressional districts, except for Texas, which uses state senate districts instead).
Proportional allocation with a 15 percent threshold applies separately in all these districts. That means that if you do well in a state overall but are at 14 percent in a district there, you’ll get zero of that district’s delegates. Take California. There are 415 total delegates at stake there. But only 144 of them will be awarded proportionally based on statewide results. The other 271 are divvied out according to the proportional results in California’s 53 congressional districts (with 4-7 delegates at stake in each district).
It’s all quite complicated. But all in all, Super Tuesday is a contest to top 15 percent by as much as possible in as many places (states and districts) as possible. Every time candidates get zeroed out by falling below the threshold is bad news for them.
Well, technically, you don’t win the Democratic nomination just by winning more delegates than anyone else. The party’s rules state that you need an outright majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot.
So another key thing to watch for in the Super Tuesday results is whether the delegate leader is on track for an actual majority — or, if not, just how far off track they are from it.
Again, Democrats’ lack of winner-take-all states makes this question very important. The problem is that those proportional delegate allocation rules make it difficult to rack up large delegate advantages. Again, narrow wins in states result in the delegates being split. To gain the upper hand, you can’t just win states — you have to win big. So if the leading candidate is significantly off track from a majority after the Super Tuesday delegate haul is locked in, he or she may never get back on track for one — paving the way to a contested convention in which no candidate wins the majority on the first ballot (something that’s never occurred in the modern nomination system).
That’s the theory, anyway. Many believe that in practice, Democrats would face enormous pressure to give the nomination to whoever wins the most delegates, even if that person is short of a majority. The specifics could depend on just how big that first-place person’s lead is, and how close to a majority they end up — which shows why, again, the delegate details of Super Tuesday are crucial.
Overall, despite all the drama in the Democratic contest so far, it’s important to remember that barely any delegates (just 4 percent of the total) will have been allotted before Super Tuesday. So while the expectation now is that Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner, and polls appear to back that up, this won’t really be set in stone until we see how he — and everyone else — does on Super Tuesday. Sanders could, as many now expect, win most states by significant margins and build a sizable delegate lead that will carry him to the nomination. But if there’s a late swing to another candidate — such as Biden, who just won big in South Carolina on Saturday — Sanders could also lose his frontrunner status quite quickly.
For the other candidates who have had more mixed outcomes or little success, Super Tuesday is really do or die. If you don’t get a significant chunk of the Super Tuesday delegates, it becomes all but impossible to get a pledged delegate majority.
Super Tuesday is also the first electoral test for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has spent half a billion dollars on advertising across the country but skipped the four early states. Bloomberg rose in national polls and in polls of Super Tuesday states over the past month, but scrutiny of his past and his rocky performance in the Democratic Las Vegas debate have lately sent his numbers in the other direction.
But the crowded field this year means that, depending on how the ball bounces on March 3, there are several possible outcomes with very different implications for the race. Here are the main ones:
Finally, it’s entirely possible that we won’t actually know the Super Tuesday outcome on Super Tuesday. For instance, California takes a famously long time to count votes (due to the need to verify late-arriving mailed ballots), and the exact vote shares and margins both statewide and in its 53 congressional districts could be important. If one candidate does end up winning almost everywhere, that wrinkle might not be such a big deal. But in this nomination contest so far, it’s usually prudent to expect that things could get messy.
| Government Job change - Election | March 2020 | ['(Vox)'] |
An explosion at an oil storage tank in Gibraltar closes the port and injures workers and cruise ship passengers. | • Welder suffers severe burns by Brian Reyes An oil storage tank exploded in the port of Gibraltar yesterday afternoon, just metres from where a cruise ship was berthed.
The explosion blew the lid off the tank and sent a fireball high into the air. The buckled steel lid lay on the quayside on the Western Arm metres away from the tank, indicating the force of the explosion.
Two people who were carrying out welding work on the tank were injured in the blast. One of them, a 40-year old Spanish national from La Linea, suffered serious, extensive and life-threatening burns.
Last night he was in St Bernard’s ICU where his condition was critical. The authorities were hoping to transfer him to a specialist unit in Seville. The other injured worker, a 25 year old also Spanish national, did not suffer serious injuries.
Some passengers on board the cruise ship Independence of the Seas also sustained injuries as a result of the explosion. A half-metre piece of steel from the tank landed on the ship and some passengers suffered minor burns and fractures.
“Ten guests sustained minor injuries and have received medical treatment on board,” said Surinder Manku, a spokesman for Royal Caribbean International. The ship sailed immediately after the blast, leaving two passengers behind.
George Dyke, the company’s local agent, said arrangements were being made to reunite the passengers with the vessel in Cannes, its next port of call.
As fire and dense black smoke billowed from the tank, the mobile phone network in Gibraltar collapsed with panicked people frantically trying to find out what was happening. “There was a loud blast,” said Giles Lopez, a resident of the nearby Gib V estate. “The windows shook violently and the shock lifted the curtains.”
Last night emergency services were fighting to control the blaze but as this edition went to press at 9pm, the fire had not been extinguished.
Throughout the afternoon an intense fireball sent up dense plumes of black smoke that drifted over the town, prompting authorities to urge people to keep their windows shut.
The incident started at around 3.40pm and emergency services rushed to the scene to set up an exclusion zone around the tanks, which are used by local company S.O.R.T to store waste oil products from ships for re-processing.
Officials made no statement yesterday as to what was inside the tanks but an investigation was underway last night to determine the cause of the blast and establish why hot works were being carried out in the area.
Industry sources said the tank contained a mixture of water and oily waste. Estimates as to how much was in there ranged from 300 to 800 cubic metres, but there was no official confirmation on any of these details. No one at S.O.R.T could be reached for comment.
Nothing had been ruled out as to the cause of the fire but police sources said there were no indications that this was a terrorist act. “Initial reports indicate that at the time of the explosion two workers were carrying out welding operations on top of the tank that exploded,” the Gibraltar Government said in a statement that was issued just after 8.30 pm.
“The precise cause of the accident remains under investigation.”
Despite the exclusion zone and official advice to stay away, many people wandered down to the waterfront to see for themselves what was happening.
At the GASA swimming club, just a few hundred metres from the tanks, people sat in chairs watching the emergency services trying to control the blaze.
The City Fire Brigade and the Environmental Agency advised that there was no need to evacuate the nearby buildings, though residents were advised to keep their windows closed as a precaution against the smoke.
The City Fire Brigade and the Defence Fire Service had deployed seven fire trucks to the scene and 32 firemen were involved in the operation.
Several local tugs were also called in to help keep the blaze under control. For the first four hours no help was requested from Spain, although it had been offered early on in the incident.
Throughout the afternoon, the main initial focus of the fire fighting operation was on hosing the adjacent tanks to stop them from overheating, as well as trying to extinguish the fire itself.
However the situation worsened at around 7.40pm when, despite the best efforts of local teams, the fire intensified and eventually caused the first tank to collapse. An adjacent tank also caught fire.
At that point, several Spanish salvage tugs with specialist fire-fighting equipment were rapidly deployed. They included two tugs hired by the Gibraltar Government from a Spanish contractor and one belonging to the Spanish maritime rescue service, Salvamento Marítimo.
Questions were being asked last night by Spanish politicians in the Campo area as to why it took so long for Gibraltar to request this specialist help. La Linea’s Popular Party mayor, Alejandro Sánchez, said he would file a formal complaint with the EU over Gibraltar’s handling of the incident.
As this edition closed, the fire fighting operation was still in full swing but the fire fighters appeared to be gaining the upper hand.
As well as the fire itself, there were also concerns that the blaze may have caused some oil pollution on the sea. Last night the Government’s Civil Contingency Committee remained in permanent meeting to assess the unfolding situation.
| Fire | June 2011 | ['(Gibraltar Chronicle)'] |
An Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip kills five Palestinian militants according to Palestinian sources; Israel says they were attempting to fire missiles into Israel. | An Israeli air strike has killed five people in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources and the Israeli military.
The five killed were militants, Palestinian hospital sources said.
The strike targeted "a squad of terror operatives", Israel said, "who were preparing to launch rockets towards Israeli territory".
Rocket fire from Gaza has dropped sharply since Israel's devastating 22-day offensive in December 2008.
Hamas, the Islamist group which controls the Gaza Strip, says it has tried to stop rocket fire aimed at Israel.
Palestinian sources later identified the five dead as members of a small militant group, Ansar al-Sunna, Reuters news agency reported. | Armed Conflict | December 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
War in Somalia: Ethiopian and Transitional government troops capture Mogadishu without resistance. ICU fighters flee to Kismayo, their last remaining stronghold, 300 miles to the south. | As they withdrew, gunfire was heard and armed supporters of the city's warlords began taking control of key facilities.
Some residents say lawlessness has returned to Mogadishu - which had been under Islamic rule for six months.
Ethiopia began a large-scale offensive at the weekend to back Somalia's interim government, capturing ground previously held by Islamist militias.
A senior Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, told al-Jazeera television his forces had left Mogadishu "to avert heavy bombing because Ethiopian forces are practising genocide against the Somali people".
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says clan militiamen appeared as soon as the news of the withdrawal emerged early on Thursday, and UIC offices have been looted.
We have taken over the two control points on the main roads outside the city
Abdirahman DinariSomali government spokesman
Conflict in pictures Violence alarms press
US keeps a close watch
Residents in the north of the city have reported cars and mobile phones being stolen.
Rising insecurity has forced most businesses to stop trading.
The situation seems to be descending back into anarchy, our correspondent adds. Observers say the UIC's departure leaves a power vacuum in Mogadishu, raising fears of a return to clan warfare that has plagued the city and Somalia for 16 years.
Last stronghold
Government forces are reported to be near Afgoye, 20km (12 miles) west of Mogadishu, cutting off the capital to the north and west. Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the army would enter Mogadishu in the "coming hours".
Militias allied to the government have taken control of key installations, including the airport, AFP news agency reports.
Islamic fighters are said to have fled towards the port city of Kismayo, their last remaining stronghold, 300 miles (500km) to the south. But a senior UIC official Omar Idris said the retreat was "not the end".
He told the BBC's World Today radio programme: "We know what happened in Iraq... I think this is very, very early to say that the Islamic Court forces were defeated."
At the weekend Ethiopia began a major offensive to support the weak government against the UIC - which previously held much of central and southern Somalia.
The conflict has killed hundreds of people. The head of the International Red Cross Somalia delegation said it was "extremely concerned about civilians caught up in the fighting". Troubled history
The African Union has called for Ethiopian forces to leave Somalia.
However the UN Security Council has failed to agree on a statement calling for the withdrawal of all foreign forces.
What the Ethiopian government doesn't understand is that it is making a continual enemy to Ethiopians at large
Tsegaye Girma, Addis Ababa
Send us your comments
A special adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Bereket Simon, declined to specify when his country's troops would leave.
"It all depends on how we find the extremist groups whether they are trying to reorganise," he said
The UIC has its roots in the north of the capital Mogadishu.
Courts administering Islamic law restored order in a city bedevilled by anarchy since the overthrow of former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The UIC assumed control of the whole capital in June, driving warlords out and rapidly extending their influence to much of southern Somalia - with the exception of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional Somali government.
That body, set up in 2004 after talks between Somali factions, has been unable to meet in the capital because of opposition first from warlords, then from the UIC.
UIC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is accused by both Ethiopia and the US of having links to al-Qaeda - charges he denies. | Armed Conflict | December 2006 | ['(500km)', '(BBC)', '(Aljazeera)'] |
In figure skating, Patrick Chan of Canada wins his third world title at the 2013 World Figure Skating Championships in London, Ontario, Canada. | LONDON, Ontario – After landing two impressive quads during his free skate, Canada's Patrick Chan began to unravel. Following four significant mistakes, including two falls, it appeared his sizable lead in the World Figure Skating Championships would vanish.
Instead, on home ice, Chan, 22, won his third consecutive world championship Friday on the strength of his short program. When he took the microphone and addressed the crowd, he apologized for his error-filled skate. "I'm sorry I didn't get to do a good program," he said. "I wanted to do it so badly."
Other than the adoring Canadian fans in the stands, many felt Denis Ten, who claimed Kazakhstan's first world medal, should have won the title. Ten, 19, finished second, 1.30 points behind Chan's score of 267.78.
Spain's Javier Fernandez, 21, won the bronze, the first world medal for his country.
Ten, who trains in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., under Frank Carroll was thrilled since a medal was so unexpected. He had never been better than seventh at the world championships or Olympics before.
Growing up in Kazakhstan without many rinks, Ten skated outdoors. To keep warm, his mother dressed him in three pairs of pants. "I looked like a cabbage," he joked.
When indoor rinks began to be built in shopping malls, he trained there. "Every Friday, we would have an exhibition," he said. "And perform for all the shopaholics."
Ten was too lost in the pinch-me moment of worlds to even question the results. Others, however, thought he had been robbed. As U.S. skater Johnny Weir tweeted: "My world champion is @Tenis_Den. No question. Congratulations. Everyone should be feeling some Kazakh pride!"
Chan became the first man since Alexei Yagudin (1998-2000) to win three consecutive world titles. At least Chan gave the crowd a short program to remember when he broke the world record with a magnificent skate. "I'm thankful for that beautiful short program I did on Wednesday," he told the crowd.
Even though his worlds ended with a subpar performance, Chan said he wasn't embarrassed by the way he won. "I definitely was disappointed in myself, " he said. "The moment wasn't as good as it could be, nonetheless it was special."
For the U.S. men, Max Aaron, in his first world championships, finished seventh and Ross Miner placed a disappointing 14th. For the first time since 1998, only two U.S. men will compete at the Olympics in Sochi next year. The result was expected; reaching the combined placement of 13 or better needed for three Olympic spots was considered a long shot.
For Aaron, figure skating is a contact sport. On Friday the former hockey player checked himself into the boards during his free skate. Two days earlier, while warming up for his short program he fell hard and banged his head on the wall.
After landing his triple axel on Friday, Aaron caromed into the wall and resumed his shift. "It's like a big hit in hockey," he said. "You hear the crowd and keep going. You feed off of that."
Aaron's ideal rink is a giant frozen pond. Even though he skates at an Olympic-sized rink in Colorado, he even runs into those walls. "I always want a bigger and bigger rink," he said. "I like to use the entire ice sheet. I have it, why not use it all? I paid for it, too. I don't want to use half the sheet."
When the season started, Aaron never imagined it would end with a national championship and the United States' best finish at these worlds. For the climb to continue, Aaron knows he needs to work on his artistry. He acknowledges his skating style is a "little rough around the edges and aggressive," but said that's what distinguishes him from the others. "I don't think many men are like that. I'll take it with me and I'll use it." | Sports Competition | March 2013 | ['(USA Today)', '(AP via ESPN)'] |
American basketball player Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls wins the NBA Most Valuable Player Award Award for the 2010–11 NBA season, the youngest player to do so. | Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP of the NBA during a ceremony May 3, 2011 in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He shares the spotlight with his mother Brenda Rose and brothers (L-R) Reggie, Dwayne and Allan after the presentation of the trophy. | Tom Cruze~Sun-Times
Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose is the NBA’s MVP, becoming the youngest player in league history to win the award. Rose is the second Bulls player to win the MVP but has a ways to go before he catches Michael Jordan, who won five — but he sure is off to a good start. In his third year, the dynamic point guard led the Bulls to their best season since the Jordan-Scottie Pippen championship era.
“If I get it? It’ll be nice, unbelievable, a goal that in the beginning in the year I said I wanted to achieve,” Rose said recently when asked what the award would mean to him. “It would be huge, not only for me, but for the city.”
He ended the two-year MVP reign of LeBron James, who spurned the Bulls and bolted from Cleveland to form a superstar triumvirate with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. The 22-year-old Rose also supplanted Wes Unseld as the youngest MVP. He was 23 was the rookie of the year and MVP with Baltimore Bullets for the 1968-69 season.
Rose became the first player since Steve Nash in 2005 to win the MVP award after not receiving any votes the previous year. Rose totaled 1,182 points including 113 first-place votes, from a panel of 120 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada as well as an NBA MVP fan vote. The fan vote counted as one vote and was compiled with the 120 media votes to determine the winner. Players were awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five for third, three for fourth and one for each fifth-place vote received. Rounding out the top five in voting are Orlando’s Dwight Howard (643 points, three first place), Miami’s LeBron James (522, four first-place votes), the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (428, one first-place vote) and Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant (190).
A product of Chicago’s South Side, Rose continued his impressive rise this season.
He established himself as one of the top players in the league after going from Rookie of the Year to an All-Star in his first two seasons with one of the best all-around performances by a point guard.
He averaged 25 points and 7.7 assists while leading Chicago into championship contention.
For all the groaning over the Bulls missing out on James, Wade and Bosh in free agency, they did quite well for themselves anyway.
Looking for more after back-to-back 41-win seasons and first-round playoff exits, they fired coach Vinny Del Negro and replaced him with Tom Thibodeau. Then, they landed Carlos Boozer and supporting players like Kyle Korver, giving the Bulls the inside scoring presence they were lacking and one of the deepest rotations.
It all added up to this — a 62-20 record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. They advanced past the first round for just the second time since the championship era, and the biggest reason for all that, of course, was Rose.
He showed up to training camp openly wondering why he couldn’t be MVP. Then, he backed it up.
He ranked seventh in scoring and 10th in assists, making him the only player this season in the top 10 in both categories. The only other Bulls player to do that was Jordan in 1988-89, when he led the league in scoring (32.5 points) and finished 10th in assists.
Throw in a 4.1 rebounding average, and Rose joins another elite group. He’s the seventh player in league history to average at least 25 points, 7.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds, along with Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Larry Bird, Wade and James, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
In the postseason, he’s been just as impressive.
He scored 39 and 36 points in the first two playoff games against Indiana. Then he shook off two sub-par performances not to mention a sprained left ankle to score 25 points in Game 5 as the top-seeded Bulls closed out what had been a tight first-round series with a 116-89 victory.
They stumbled in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Atlanta, losing 103-95. Rose scored 24 points, but he hit just 11 of 27 shots and did not attempt a free throw. He also limped off the court after twisting his left ankle in the closing seconds, sending a chill through Chicago, but he said he expects to be ready for Game 2 on Wednesday.
Rose has been a star in Chicago since high school. He helped Simeon Career Academy become the first Chicago Public League team to win back-to-back Illinois state championships, then led the University of Memphis to the NCAA championship game in his lone college season before the Bulls drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2008.
Since then, he’s been everything Chicago imagined.
He’s added new wrinkles to his game every season, expanding the range on his jumper to go with those explosive drives to the basket. He went from shooting 22.2 percent and 26.7 percent on 3-pointers his first two years to a more respectable 33.2 percent this season, and his scoring average again climbed about four points after going from 16.8 to 20.8 his first two years.
No surprise there.
He was a fixture at the team’s practice facility in the offseason when he wasn’t getting ready for the world championships, and when he was on the road, he was constantly checking in, asking about his teammates and what he should be doing.
That struck Thibodeau, the long time NBA assistant who finally got a shot to be head coach after helping Boston win a championship and get back to the NBA finals. So did the experience Rose gained with the national team, particularly playing alongside Chauncey Billups.
Now, the kid from the South Side who led his hometown team back to prominence can call himself MVP. | Awards ceremony | May 2011 | ['(Chicago Sun–Times)'] |
President Rodrigo Duterte lifts a moratorium on Filipino health professionals to work overseas during the pandemic. | The Philippines on Monday lifted a ban that barred nurses and health workers to go and work abroad, a presidential spokesman announced.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte allowed nurses and other healthcare workers with “complete documents as of Aug. 31” to leave and work overseas, Philippines News Agency reported.
It was in early April that the Southeast Asian country forbid medical professionals from going overseas as part of efforts to bolster its healthcare system against the novel coronavirus.
The decision is expected to benefit as many as 1,500 health personnel. Millions of Filipinos live and work in the US, Europe and the Middle East.
Philippines has so far reported 286,743 COVID-19 cases, the highest in Southeast Asia, according to Johns Hopkins University. While 230,233 patients recovered, 4,984 died. | Government Policy Changes | September 2020 | ['(Anadolu)'] |
In tennis, Roger Federer of Switzerland defeats Rafael Nadal of Spain in the final of the men's singles. | Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are set to do battle in what organisers have declared the biggest Australian Open final in the tournament's 105-year history.
Twenty-four hours after Serena Williams denied sister Venus in the women's decider, Federer and Nadal will also roll back the years in a 'retro' men's final on Rod Laver Arena.
A strong crowd had already begun to file in to Melbourne Park on Sunday afternoon, hours before one of the most hotly anticipated clashes in recent history.
Officials will take the unprecedented step of opening up Margaret Court Arena and telecasting the final on a big screen inside the 7,500-seat stadium, with the champion set to speak at the venue after the match.
"It'll be the biggest crowd (at Melbourne Park) for a finals' weekend, for sure," tournament director Craig Tiley said.
"From a global audience point of view, we know last year our event surpassed 350 million globally that watched it. All the indicators that we've got as we stand here now (suggest) that we'll surpass that number.
"From an Australian Open final point of view, from a global point of view and I think from a stadium point of view, it'll be the biggest (ever)."
The appearances of Serena (35 years old), Venus (36), Roger (35) and Rafa (30) in the championship matches marks the first time the veteran quartet have played off for the men's and women's trophies since Wimbledon in 2008.
Federer, already the men's all-time major title leader, is attempting to win his 18th, four and a half years after last reigning at one of tennis's four biggest events.
It is also the Swiss master's first tournament back since breaking down at Wimbledon last July with a recurrence of a knee injury he required surgery for five months earlier.
Nadal, chasing his 15th major, is hoping to crown his own comeback from an injury-ravaged 2016 season and re-enter the conversation about who is the sport's greatest modern-day player.
AAP
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Sports Competition | January 2017 | ['(ABC Australia)'] |
One of Germany's last Nazi war crimes trials begins, with Heinrich Boere charged with the killings of three civilians in the Netherlands. | On Wednesday, the trial of a former SS man began. At the end of November, an alleged death camp guard will face the judges. Justice for Nazi perpetrators is often slow, but has led to new thinking about the law.
Heinrich Boere, former SS man, does not deny the killings
On July 14, 1944, 22-year-old Heinrich Boere and another man walked into the pharmacy owned by Fritz Bicknese in the southern Dutch town of Breda. Boere asked the pharmacist if he was Bicknese. Then the SS-man is thought to have pulled out a revolver and shot the man several times. Today Boere lives in a nursing home in Germany, but from Wednesday until December 18, the now 88-year-old will be sitting in a courtroom, answering to charges that he killed Bicknese and two others.
The other of the so-called "last Nazi trials" beginning this fall is that of John Demjanjuk, whose alleged crimes reach another dimension entirely. The 89-year-old retired car worker will face accusations of being a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland and helping kill almost 28,000 Jews. The Simon Wiesenthal Center says he pushed men, women and children into the gas chambers. Both of these men are in their late 80s, which raises the question of why they were not brought to justice earlier. Boere lived openly in western Germany for decades. Demjanjuk had US citizenship for years. John Demjanjuk maintains his innocence
The cases illustrate how difficult it can be to prosecute crimes from this era, as the accused and witnesses alike die and evidence becomes harder to come by. Legal statutes from different countries and periods can also gum up the wheels of justice. To many, the fact that the two men are answering for their crimes more than 60 years after the fact is an example of a legal system that is not able, or perhaps even willing, to bring all the perpetrators to justice. In the period from 1945 to 2005, there have been 4,964 trials regarding Nazi crimes. In many people's eyes, that number is too low. Is justice possible?
In fact, political philosopher Hannah Arendt said the crimes committed by the Nazis had shattered the very foundations of justice in the Western world and it was necessary to rethink what it meant to judge crime and criminality. But Edith Raim, a historian at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, said despite the frustration felt by many at the slow, or inadequate, wheels of justice, the German judiciary has been fairly relentless in its pursuit of Nazi perpetrators. "It's impressive that the German justice system has been so active in this area for such a long time, even sometimes against public opinion," she said. "While today the public is very interested in these trials, that wasn't always the case. In the 50s, people didn't want anything to do with them, but the judiciary went ahead with prosecutions." German prosecutors have conducted investigations of Nazi crimes every year since 1945, unlike in other countries. Austria's last big Nazi trial took place in the mid-70s. The US stopped its trials in 1948, Britain one year later. Nuremberg's legacy
It was the trials just after World War Two, however, which garnered the most international attention and left a mark that is still being felt in jurisprudence today. The Nuremberg trials of top Nazi officials, including Hermann Goering, captivated the world, detailing as they did the unprecedented crimes of the Nazi regime. But legal experts agree that the trials also laid a new foundation for international law, allowing for the first time a court to directly charge and punish an individual based on international law. The Nuremberg Trials broke new ground in the field of international law
"Up to that point, people had believed a national penal law was needed. Nuremberg put an end to that, saying that some deeds were so horrible that the international community had to directly intervene," said Christian Tomuschat, a law professor at Berlin's Humboldt University.
The trials established that humankind is, in essence, guarded by an international legal shield. Even a head of state could be held criminally responsible and punished for aggression or crimes against humanity. However, the law limped along while atrocities in the 20th century continued - in Cambodia, Chile, Uganda and many other places. But the war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s put new moral pressure on the international community. It led to the establishment of international courts for that war, for the Rwandan genocide, and the International Criminal Court.
High level of interest
The trials this fall in Germany also stem from still-evolving thinking about international law. They have generated a good deal of interest in the media and among the public. In 1969, 70 percent of Germans wanted an end to criminal prosecutions for Nazi crimes. Today, calls for pulling down the curtain on this dark period of the past are scarcely heard. The men charged, Boere and Demjanjuk, are elderly, so it is unclear how much time they would spend in prison if convicted. But that does not lessen the importance of holding the trials, according to historian Edith Raim, who added that criminal justice has always suffered from the fact that it puts the spotlight on the perpetrator. "The many hundred thousands of victims who weren't able to have a life often are forgotten," she said. "I think these trials can serve as a reminder of the immeasurable suffering these victims and their loved ones endured." Author: Kyle JamesEditor: Nancy Isenson
A German court is expected to hand out a verdict against a Nazi war criminal 65 years after the end of World War Two as two more trials are set to start in the coming months. Will these be the final cases of this kind? (10.08.2009)
Germany's highest court has thrown out a request to block the trial of alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk. There is now nothing standing in the way of what could be the last Nazi war crimes trial in Germany. (21.10.2009)
Deutsche Welle spoke with Thomas Blatt, one of few to escape from the Nazi-run Sobibor extermination camp. He says he doesn't care whether John Demjanjuk is jailed for working at the camp, just that he tells the truth. (13.05.2009) | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2009 | ['(The Local)', '(BBC)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Two children are killed and 28 wounded in a bombing targeting a gas pipeline in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. It is the second time this week that an oil facility has been targeted. | At least three people were killed and more than 50 injured in a gas pipeline explosion in southern Iraq, police sources said on Saturday.
The military said in a statement that the cause of the blast was not known. It said nine Shia militia fighters were among the wounded and two children had been killed.
Police sources said the blast, near the southern city of Samawa, 270 km (170 miles) south of Baghdad, occurred along a stretch of pipeline that goes near a militia camp. Gas officials said the pipe there had seen leaks in the past.
Firefighters managed to contain the fire after shutting down the gas line, police said.
The oil ministry said in a statement it had sent technical crews to repair the damaged section. Gas flows would resume in the “next hours” via an alternative pipeline, to avoid shortages of supplies to power stations.
An investigation was launched to determine cause of blast, the statement cited Deputy Oil Minister Hamid Younis as saying.
Iraqi energy officials said the domestic line transports gas from some of the southern fields to feed power stations in some southern cities and a key power station near Baghdad.
The explosion has no effect on Iraq’s gas production and processing operations, two gas officials said.
| Gas explosion | October 2020 | ['(Al Arabiya English)'] |
Five people are sentenced to death and 37 others given prison sentences for their roles in the 2003 bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. | A Saudi court has sentenced five men to death for their role in three suicide bomb attacks on expatriate residential compounds in Riyadh in May 2003.
Another 37 people were given imprisoned for between three and 35 years. The attacks, which left 39 foreign nationals and Saudis dead, were part of a campaign by an al-Qaeda offshoot that aimed to destabilise the Gulf kingdom.
The authorities subsequently launched a three-year crackdown on the jihadist group, imprisoning thousands of people.
Although al-Qaeda has since struggled to operate in Saudi Arabia, a number of Saudis formed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in neighbouring Yemen in 2009 and have become senior operatives.
The five men sentenced to death on Sunday have not been named.
However, the Sabq news website said they had been found guilty of rigging the car bombs used to attack the residential compounds.
The Saudi Gazette newspaper reported that one was a former guard at al-Hayer prison who had "sheltered one of the wanted terrorists" and been involved in a gun battle with police at an apartment complex in 2003.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
An Indian court convicts six men in the 2018 rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl near Kathua in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Three of the men are given life sentences while the other three, found guilty of destroying evidence, receive five-year prison terms. | Journalists gather around an Indian police vehicle carrying seven people accused in the 2018 rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Six men were convicted and one was acquitted on Monday. Another suspect will be tried in juvenile court.
Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images
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Journalists gather around an Indian police vehicle carrying seven people accused in the 2018 rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Six men were convicted and one was acquitted on Monday. Another suspect will be tried in juvenile court.
The 8-year-old girl was grazing horses in the foothills of the Himalayas when she was lured by kidnappers. Over the next several days, investigators say, she was drugged, starved and gang-raped before being bludgeoned to death with a stone. Her small body was found in a forest.
On Monday, an Indian court convicted six men in her 2018 rape and murder. Three of the men, including a 61-year-old temple priest named Sanji Ram who is believed to be the main conspirator, were sentenced to life, while the other three were found guilty of destroying evidence and given five-year prison terms.
Four former police officers were among those convicted, including the three given shorter sentences.
A seventh suspect was acquitted, while an eighth defendant, who is a minor, will be tried in juvenile court. All eight of the accused had pleaded not guilty.
The case fueled religious tensions in India and sparked nationwide protests — including many in support of the accused. They are all Hindus. The victim was a Muslim girl from a minority nomadic community in the Kathua district of India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. Some politicians of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came out in support of the defendants. When police officers went to file a charge sheet accusing the Hindus, some Hindu lawyers tried to physically block them.
The crime against the girl was apparently a plot to drive away her tribe, which has been involved in a spat over land with the Hindu-majority community in Kathua. She was held captive in a local Hindu temple, where she was hidden under a cot in a sedated state.
"Our family has gone through hell. Our hearts are bleeding," the girl's father, Mohammed Akhtar, told The Associated Press after the court's decision was announced.
"Verdict is tribute to her," the victim's lawyer, Deepika Singh Rajawat, tweeted. Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, welcomed the judgment. "High time we stop playing politics over a heinous crime," she wrote on Twitter.
Some criticized the sentences as not harsh enough. "Why is it that they were not given the death penalty when that is the law of the land?" Swati Maliwal, chairperson for the Delhi Commission for Women, told local media. She urged the Jammu and Kashmir state government to appeal the sentences to a higher court.
The Kathua killing was one of the cases that prompted stricter laws against child rape in India. Last year, Indian lawmakers made a provision for giving the death penalty as punishment in cases of aggravated sexual assault against minors. However, whether those guilty are sentenced to death is left to the discretion of the judge in each case.
Much like the high-profile 2012 gang rape of a paramedical student on a bus in New Delhi, the Kathua case galvanized and horrified India, which has long grappled with the problem of sexual violence against women and girls. Last year, a survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the most dangerous country for women.
Days before the Kathua verdict, an 8-year-old girl was raped and killed in the city of Bhopal, her body dumped in a drain. Another young girl was raped and strangled to death in Meerut in northern India. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2019 | ['(NPR)'] |
A fire forces the evacuation of the Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base with two people dying. | The Brazilian navy says it has recovered the bodies of two of its members from the debris of a Brazilian research station in the Antarctic. The Comandante Ferraz base near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula was destroyed by an explosion on Saturday. Officials said the blast was caused by a fire which raged through the base, where marine research work is carried out.
A third member of the navy injured in the fire is in a stable condition.
Defence Minister Celso Amorim praised the military personnel's bravery.
"In an act of heroism, they risked their lives to extinguish the fire, but did not succeed," Mr Amorim said. He said all the scientists from the station had been evacuated to Punto Arenas in Chile, from where they will be taken to Brazil on Sunday. The military personnel stayed in Antarctica, but sought temporary shelter at Chile's Eduardo Frei research base.
Officials said the fire started in a machine room housing energy generators before destroying the entire station, which had been built in 1984. Fifty-nine people were stationed at the base on King George Island when the fire broke out on Saturday morning. The Comandante Ferraz base was equipped with research laboratories, dormitories, a large-scale kitchen, a library, and technical installation used by expedition boats.
An investigation is under way to establish the cause of the blaze. Researchers said the burning down of the station was "an incalculable loss to science". 'New frontier' of Antarctic lake exploration
Antarctic's hidden world revealed
| Fire | February 2012 | ['(AFP via Google)', '(BBC)'] |
The European Union formally grants Georgian citizens visa-free travel to its member states, with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The signed documents will be published on March 8, and officially enter into force on March 28. | BRUSSELS -- European Union officials and lawmakers signed documents formalizing a visa-liberalization deal with Georgia on March 1.
Diplomats familiar with the issue told RFE/RL that the documents will be published in the official EU journal on March 8 and will enter into force 20 days later, enabling Georgians to travel visa-free to the EU as of March 28.
That moment has been eagerly awaited in Georgia, a former Soviet republic that has long sought closer ties with Europe and has faced persistent efforts by Russia to increase Moscow's influence following a brief war in 2008.
Officials and diplomats are signed a document on a visa-suspension mechanism that has been drafted as a condition for the implementation of visa-liberalization agreements for non-EU countries.
The suspension mechanism allows for visa-free regimes to be halted under certain circumstances once they are in place.
On February 28, the EU decided to move ahead with visa liberalization for Ukraine, another country whose efforts to tighten ties with the West have led to Russian aggression. EU ambassadors are set to endorse that deal on March 2, but more steps are needed before it can go into effect.
The visa-liberalization deal will apply to all EU countries except Britain and Ireland, and also to non-EU Schengen Area countries Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.
| Government Policy Changes | March 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces his intention to resign due to his deteriorating health. | Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday he will resign due to a flare-up of his chronic intestinal disease, ending his nearly eight-year stint as Japan's longest-serving leader, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, with many of his political ambitions unrealized.
Abe, who just four days ago set a record of staying in power for 2,799 consecutive days, will leave office without achieving his long-cherished goal of amending Japan's pacifist Constitution or seeing the Tokyo Olympics due to be staged next summer while still the country's leader.
"As I am no longer in a condition to respond confidently to the mandate of the people, I have decided I should not stay in the prime minister's post," the 65-year-old said at a nationally televised press conference.
The abrupt announcement, already setting off a contest for his successor, came amid falling public support for his Cabinet as many perceived his government was dealing poorly with issues stemming from the spread of the virus.
The Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Abe, is considering holding a leadership election on Sept. 15 or around that day, according to senior party lawmakers.
Abe said he had been able to keep the illness, ulcerative colitis, which led to his first resignation as premier in 2007, under control for most of his tenure, but he started to feel fatigue from mid-July and was diagnosed with a relapse earlier this month.
Abe said he thought now was the right time to step down from the top job as he believes the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus has been on a downtrend and he has been able to compile new measures to fight the pandemic, including plans to secure enough vaccines for all residents and expand testing capacity to 200,000 a day.
"I apologize to the people from the bottom of my heart for having to leave the job amid the coronavirus pandemic while many policies are still halfway toward realization," he said.
Abe said he will remain in office until his successor is chosen by the ruling party and he plans to continue his political career, running in the next general election.
Asked who he thinks should succeed him, the premier refrained from commenting.
Potential candidates include Fumio Kishida, the LDP policy chief and a former foreign minister, Yoshihide Suga, known for his behind-the-scenes coordination skills who has been the chief Cabinet secretary since Abe returned to power in late 2012, and Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense minister who has often been critical of the prime minister.
But Finance Minister Taro Aso, who doubles as deputy prime minister, said during a meeting Friday night of his party faction that he will not aim to become the next LDP president, according to an attendee at the gathering.
The LDP will decide next Tuesday on how to hold its leadership election, with parliamentarians and representatives of local chapters likely to cast ballots, instead of all party members, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Abe's decision to quit came as a surprise to many, including his close aides. "I was taken aback," Tomomi Inada, one of the aides, said at LDP headquarters, noting the announcement was all too sudden and unexpected.
Financial markets reacted sharply to the news, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average briefly diving more than 2 percent from Thursday while the yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar.
Abe made two hospital visits this month, only a week apart, for what his aides called health checkups after he was reported as having vomited blood at the prime minister's office in early July.
Questions about Abe's health had been raised from time to time after he unexpectedly resigned due to worsening of his illness in 2007, only a year after becoming the country's youngest premier in the postwar era at age 52.
After returning to power, Abe said he had overcome the intestinal disease with the help of a new drug. On Monday, he became Japan's longest-serving prime minister by number of consecutive days in office, eclipsing the previous record held by his great uncle Eisaku Sato (1901-1975).
His government's measures to deal with the pandemic have faced criticism, such as over the distribution of washable cloth face masks, which arrived too late and turned out to be too small for many.
The masks became known as "Abenomask," which means "Abe's mask" in Japanese and is a pun on his touted "Abenomics" economic policy package that calls for bold monetary easing by the Bank of Japan, generous fiscal spending and deregulations to spur economic growth.
The government also drew flak for suddenly abolishing its plan to offer 300,000 yen ($2,830) to financially struggling households amid the pandemic and deciding to provide 100,000 yen to each resident, and for trouble with online applications.
A Kyodo News opinion poll in August found 58.4 percent had been discontent with the government's handling of the pandemic. The approval rate for Abe's Cabinet, which stood at 62 percent at the start of his second stint, came to 36.0 percent in August.
During Friday's press conference, Abe said it was "gut-wrenching" to have to leave the job while still trying to guide the Japanese economy out of deflation, sign a peace treaty with Russia, and amend the Constitution.
He also said he is pained by his failure to resolve the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
Abe had initially appeared to be on course to shore up the country's economy with Abenomics by setting the inflation target at 2 percent and introducing massive monetary easing, which has given a boost to Japanese stock indexes and employment.
The positive economic impact has helped Abe ride out a string of money and favoritism scandals engulfing him and his Cabinet members, including the dubious sale of state-owned land to a school operator linked to his wife Akie.
But the fruits of his policies were nearly wiped out by the novel coronavirus, causing a practical halt of economic activities.
He raised the consumption tax twice, to 8 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in October 2019, but Japan is still far from achieving fiscal health.
Abe was often regarded as a hawkish conservative seeking to raise Japan's profile overseas.
In 2014, he went ahead with a reinterpretation of the pacifist Constitution to enable the use of collective self-defense -- defending allies even without an attack on Japan itself -- and expanded the role of its defense forces under new security legislation in 2016.
In the diplomatic arena, Abe was a familiar face in international gatherings and Japanese government officials said he could talk frankly with many foreign leaders, notably U.S. President Donald Trump, who has become his golf buddy.
But the abduction issue remains unresolved even though Abe said it was "the highest priority" for his administration, and no date has been fixed for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un despite Abe's overtures.
Trump raised the issue when he held his second summit with Kim in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in February 2019, at Abe's request.
Negotiations toward signing a postwar peace treaty with Russia have hit a snag as well. Tokyo-Moscow ties have remained hampered by a decades-old territorial row over Russian-held islands off Hokkaido.
Abe says:
-- resignation meant to avoid his health issue creating leadership vacuum.
-- he needs prolonged treatment for ulcerative colitis.
-- he lost confidence in his ability to serve Japanese people.
-- now is the only time he could resign amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
-- he will remain in office until his successor is selected.
-- he apologizes to the Japanese people for stepping down at this time.
-- it is with utmost regret that he failed to amend the Constitution, bring Japanese abductees home from North Korea.
-- will continue his political career, run in next general election.
Sept. 20, 2006 -- Abe becomes president of the Liberal Democratic Party after its leadership election.
Sept. 26 -- Abe appointed Japan's 90th prime minister.
July 29, 2007 -- Abe presides over the LDP's crushing defeat in the House of Councillors election.
Sept. 12 -- Abe announces his intention to resign as prime minister.
Sept. 26, 2012 -- Abe returns to the LDP presidency after its leadership election.
Dec. 16 -- LDP regains majority in the House of Representatives election.
Dec. 26 -- Abe becomes prime minister for the second time after the LDP and its coalition partner New Komeito win back the lower house.
July 21, 2013 -- The ruling coalition secures a majority in the upper house, ending the divided Diet.
Dec. 26 -- Abe visits the war-linked Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, becoming the first prime minister to do so in seven years and drawing a backlash from China and South Korea.
April 1, 2014 -- Japan's consumption tax is raised from 5 percent to 8 percent.
July 1 -- The Cabinet approves a controversial reinterpretation of the Constitution allowing Japan to come to the aid of allies under armed attack in collective self-defense.
Dec. 14 -- The ruling coalition retains a two-thirds majority in the lower house election.
Sept. 8, 2015 -- Abe re-elected unopposed as LDP president.
Sept. 19 -- Japan enacts security legislation aimed at expanding the scope of the Self-Defense Forces' operations overseas.
July 10, 2016 -- The ruling coalition gains a two-thirds majority in the upper house election.
Oct. 22, 2017 -- The ruling coalition retains its two-thirds majority in the lower house election.
Sept. 20, 2018 -- Abe secures a third consecutive term as LDP leader.
July 21, 2019 -- The ruling coalition wins a majority of contested seats in the upper house election but falls short of the two-thirds of seats needed to propose amending the pacifist Constitution.
Oct. 1 -- Japan's consumption tax rate is raised to 10 percent from 8 percent, after twice being delayed.
March 24, 2020 -- Abe and the International Olympic Committee agree to postpone the Tokyo Olympics for one year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
April 7 -- Abe declares a state of emergency for seven prefectures over the pandemic.
Aug. 17 -- Abe checks in at a Tokyo hospital for what an aide calls a "regular health checkup."
Aug. 24 -- Abe revisits Tokyo hospital for additional checkups and marks record as Japan's longest-serving prime minister in terms of consecutive days in office. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2020 | ['(CNN)', '(Kyodo News)'] |
Disgraced Australian former entertainer Rolf Harris has applied for permission to appeal against his conviction for indecent assault. Eighty–four–year–old Harris was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in prison in July on 12 counts of indecent assault against 4 girls between 1968 and 1986. | Entertainer Rolf Harris has applied for permission to appeal against his conviction for indecent assaults, a spokesman for the Judicial Office says.
Harris, 84, was jailed in July for five years and nine months for 12 indecent assaults on four girls aged between seven or eight and 19.
The Judicial Office said his lawyers had lodged papers at the Court of Appeal.
A judge will now decide if his appeal bid should progress to a full hearing.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Jeremy Wright decided not to refer Harris's sentence to the Court of Appeal despite 150 complaints over its "leniency".
Mr Wright said he did not think judges would find it to be unduly lenient and increase it.
Harris, an artist, TV presenter and musician, was found guilty of all 12 indecent assaults of which he was accused in his trial at Southwark Crown Court in London.
His victims included a young autograph hunter, two girls in their early teens and a friend of his daughter's against whom he committed a catalogue of abuse over several years.
The offences took place between 1968 and 1986. Harris has been stripped of a Bafta fellowship and accolades in his native Australia. He also faces losing his CBE.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed it has received "a number of allegations" about Harris since his conviction, which are being investigated.
The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw, said it was unlikely that Harris's application for permission to appeal would be dealt with in the next few weeks.
"We are looking at a possible decision or possible hearing in the autumn," he said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2014 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Lebanon confiscates a shipment of arms and ammunition meant for Syrian rebels and arrests 11 crewmembers. | The Lebanese navy is holding a Sierra Leone-registered ship and says it has confiscated a large consignment of arms and ammunition it was carrying.
The 11 crew members were detained after three shipping containers full of heavy and light weapons were found on the Lutfallah II.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says it is believed the consignment was destined for the rebels in Syria.
Some of the arms were labelled as Libyan, says Reuters news agency.
The ship's owner told Reuters it was due to unload in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.
Milos Strugar, a spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) which assists Lebanon in preventing illegal arms entering the country, confirmed to the BBC that it was bound for a Lebanese port.
Tripoli is a hotbed of support for the Syrian opposition, and the authorities in Damascus have frequently complained about arms being smuggled from the areas into the country, our correspondent says. Violence has fallen in Syria since a ceasefire was put in place, but activist groups still counted some 40 deaths in fighting across the country over the weekend.
The dead included 26 civilians killed by government forces, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Russia has accused Libya of supporting the Syrian rebels and providing them with weapons.
Lebanese media say there was light, medium and heavy weaponry in the consignment.
The ship is reported to have begun its voyage from Libya, stopped off in Alexandria in Egypt, and then headed for the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon before it was intercepted. It is now being held at the port of Salaata near Beirut. AP news agency reported that the containers had been placed on Lebanese army flatbed trucks and taken away.
They are now being held under lock and key at an army base.
The owner of the Lutfallah II told Reuters that he was told the ship was carrying engine oil, and was unaware of any weapons. "The law doesn't allow me to open and inspect the containers," he said. He said the ship was originally asked to carry 12 containers of "general cargo" from Libya to Lebanon. After three days of delay it left only carrying the three containers, he told Reuters.
On Saturday Syrian rebel gunmen in inflatable dinghies attacked a military unit on the Mediterranean coast, with deaths on both sides, state media report.
It is thought to be the first rebel assault from the sea. The violence comes despite a shaky ceasefire in force since 12 April.
Syria's official news agency Sana said a military unit had foiled a "terrorist attempt" to infiltrate the country overnight by boat in Latakia province.
The UN currently has about 15 observers in Syria monitoring a shaky ceasefire, which came into force on 12 April, and hopes to have the full advance team of 30 in place by Monday.
Violence has been continuing despite the truce.
On Thursday UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that Syria's government was "in contravention" of a UN- and Arab League-backed peace plan.
Mr Ban has demanded that Damascus comply with the peace plan brokered by international peace envoy Kofi Annan without delay.
The Security Council has approved the deployment of up to 300 monitors. Norwegian Maj Gen Robert Mood, who is to lead the team, arrived in Damascus on Sunday.
"To achieve the success of Kofi Annan's six-point plan... I call on all to stop the violence and to help us on a continued cessation of armed violence in all its forms," Gen Mood told reporters.
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Steve Huffman is re–appointed as the CEO of Reddit as Ellen Pao steps down over a dispute with the website's users over the firing of a popular employee. | Ellen Pao became a hero to many when she took on the entrenched sexist culture of Silicon Valley. But sentiment is a fickle thing. Late Friday, she fell victim to a crowd demanding her ouster as chief executive of the popular social media site Reddit.
Ms Pao’s abrupt downfall in the face of a torrent of sexist and racist comments, many of them on Reddit itself, is quite likely to renew charges that bullying, harassment and cruel behavior are out of control on the internet - and that Silicon Valley’s well-publicised problem with gender and ethnic diversity in its workforce persists.
The debates over diversity in technology and invective on the internet have boiled over in the last year. One reason is Ms Pao’s lawsuit against her former employer, the venerable venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Her gender discrimination case failed to sway a jury, but did reveal a community that casually tolerated an atmosphere where women often seemed to be relegated to secondary roles.
The dispute at Reddit, which arose from the dismissal of a well-liked employee this month, drew much of its intensity from Ms Pao’s lawsuit - and her gender. “The attacks were worse on Ellen because she is a woman,” said Sam Altman, a member of the Reddit board. “And that’s just a shame against humanity.” More than 213,000 people signed a petition demanding Ms Pao’s resignation. After her departure was announced, Reddit users celebrated in an over-the-top fashion. “Rejoice internet brethren,” wrote one. “The great evil has been slain.” Ms Pao wrote in a Reddit post on Friday that in her eight months as chief executive, “I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly.” She added that “the good has been off-the-wall inspiring, and the ugly made me doubt humanity.” She characterised her exit as a mutual agreement with the board after having differing views about the company’s future. Ms Pao’s departure from Reddit was prompted after the online message board’s tight-knit community broke into upheaval when news broke that Victoria Taylor, a prominent Reddit employee, had been suddenly dismissed from the company this month with no public explanation. Ms Pao apologised to the site’s members for the episode earlier this week.
At Reddit, Ms Pao will be replaced by Steve Huffman, the chief technology officer at Hipmunk, a travel search site. Ms Pao said she would remain as an adviser to Reddit’s board for the remainder of the year. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2015 | ['(Irish Times)'] |
War in Afghanistan: A suicide bombing in the eastern Afghan city of Khost kills three NATO soldiers and 16 Afghan police officers and civilians. | A suicide bomber has killed at least 20 people, three of them Nato soldiers, in the eastern Afghan city of Khost, Nato and local officials say.
Nato did not confirm the nationalities of the soldiers, but correspondents say US troops operate in the area.
The Taliban claimed the attack, which also killed 10 civilians, six police and an Afghan interpreter for Nato.
Witnesses said the attacker waited for the soldiers to leave their vehicles before detonating the bomb.
About 60 people were wounded in the attack, some critically.
"A suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a joint patrol in Khost city in a crowded area," the governor's office said. Khost, like other parts of eastern Afghanistan, has seen a dramatic rise in violence. In June, a suicide bomber killed 21 people including three US troops and a local interpreter in the city.
The Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network regularly mount large-scale attacks and suicide bombings in the area. Over the weekend, a shooting at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan took the US military's death toll in the war past 2,000.
Three US soldiers and contractor were killed in the attack in Wardak province on Saturday, along with three Afghan soldiers.
| Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(New York Times)'] |
At least 34 more protesters are killed by Syrian security forces in protest marches dedicated to children who have died during the demonstrations. | Dozens of people were killed on Friday as Syrian protesters demonstrated over of the killing of 30 children at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad's security forces.
Alarmed by the impact of a widely circulated video showing the corpse of a 13-year-old boy allegedly tortured to death while in prison, the government instituted an internet shutdown.
The death of Hamza el-Khatib spurred tens of thousands of demonstrators to join marches across the country.
Activists said up to 150,000 people gathered in the northern city of Maarat an-Numan, which, if confirmed, would be by far the largest protest since protests began in March.
The violence, which killed at least 34 people, was centred on the historically volatile city of Hama, scene of the worst civilian massacre in modern Syrian history. In 1982, government forces put down an Islamist uprising, killing 20,000 people.
Yesterday’s violence came after protesters attempted to burn down the local headquarters of the ruling Ba’ath party. Some in the crowd were said to be carrying hunting rifles. An estimated 50,000 people rallied against Mr Assad.
Security forces unleashed “intense gunfire” against the crowd as they marched and the death toll was likely to rise, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian observatory for human rights.
Protesters also came under live fire in a district of Damascus and two eastern towns as a call to observe a “Day of Child Martyrs” after Friday prayers was met with an unprecedented response.
“Yet again the Syrian government has shown an abhorrent disregard for human life as ordinary Syrians took to the streets today in memory of the innocent children who have died during the unrest,” said Alistair Burt, Foreign Office minister for the Middle East.
The previously flagging protest movement has been given renewed impetus by horror over Hamza el-Khatib’s death. Activists say the images of his mutilated body show that he was repeatedly subjected to cigarettes burns, electric shocks and beatings. He also had his neck broken, his penis cut off and was shot through both arms and his head.
Many other children have become victims of regime repression. In the past week, three girls — one of them four years old — have been shot dead by the security forces. Hajar Tayseer el-Khatib, 12, who was killed as her school bus came under fire, has been named “the flower of Syria’s martyrs” by the protest movement.
In an attempt to unify support against Mr Assad’s regime, protesters uploaded clips on YouTube.
“They killed my father last night,” said one girl aged around 8-years-old from Tel Kalakh, near the border with Lebanon. “We could not even catch a goodbye sight of him. Three of my uncles have been in jail for two years. Two other uncles and my grandmother are dead, and my father was killed yesterday. May God take their lives. I will get my revenge one day.” | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2011 | ['(The Telegraph)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Voters in Malta go to the polls for a snap election, with current Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his Labour Party facing off against Forza Nazzjonali, led by Simon Busuttil. The election comes amid corruption allegations leveled against Muscat's associates. | VALLETTA (Reuters) - Maltese voters cast ballots in a snap election on Saturday called by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who has sought to fend off corruption allegations leveled at his wife and associates with a campaign touting the island’s solid economic performance.
Muscat, leader of the Labour party whose five-year term was due to end next year, is running for a second term against opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who is leading the Nationalist Party into parliamentary elections for the first time.
Party officials on both sides expect high turnout among the Mediterranean island nation’s 342,000 eligible voters, who can cast ballots until 10 p.m. (2000 GMT).
There are 224 candidates standing for the election for the 65-seat parliament, with results expected on Sunday morning.
Opinion polls gave the 43-year-old Muscat and his Labour party a 5 percent lead but also showed many voters were undecided until the vote. The president will ask the leader of the party that wins the most votes to form a government.
Muscat called the early vote a month ago, saying they were vital because of the corruption allegations that he said risked creating uncertainty that could undermine economic growth.
Busuttil and the Nationalist Party had demanded Muscat step down over allegations of improper business dealings by his wife and some of his associates. Magistrates are investigating the allegations. Muscat has described the claims against his wife as the “mother of all lies”.
Muscat is hoping the island’s robust economy will help him to a second mandate. Economic growth is running at about 6 percent, unemployment is at a record low of about 4 percent, and wages and pensions are rising.
The 48-year-old Busuttil, a lawyer and former member of the European Parliament, has said doubts tied to the corruption scandal risk undermining Malta’s reputation, particularly in financial services, which account for a fifth of the economy.
| Government Job change - Election | June 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
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. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi were both approved to run in May’s presidential election by a government vetting body, while former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was disqualified, state media reported on Thursday.
The approval of Rouhani, a moderate, and Raisi, a political hardliner thought to have the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sets up a showdown between rival political camps.
Four other candidates were also qualified to run. Among them are Rouhani’s vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Khamenei had advised Ahmadinejad not to run, and his attempt to become a candidate was widely seen as a public snub to the Supreme Leader, which is nearly unheard of in the Islamic Republic.
The disqualification of Ahmadinejad, a two-term president, draws attention to the criteria that the Guardian Council, the governmental body which vets candidates, uses in the selection process.
Khamenei appoints half of the members of the Guardian Council, and by disqualifying Ahmadinejad, the body runs the risk of being seen as a rubber stamp for the Supreme Leader, who is the highest authority in the country.
Rouhani and Raisi will likely face off over the economy as well as the nuclear deal signed with Western powers, which Rouhani has highlighted as his signature achievement during the past four years in office.
Iran agreed to curb portions of its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of several sanctions as part of the deal.
Political hardliners see the deal as a form of capitulation and are wary of the opening it presents for Western companies to work in the Islamic Republic.
In recent days, Raisi, who was appointed by Khamenei as the head of a multi-billion-dollar religious foundation last year, has repeatedly blasted Rouhani’s economic performance.
Khamenei has also criticized Rouhani’s economic performance in recent speeches and called on the government to do more to address the issue of unemployment.
About 3.2 million Iranian are jobless out of a total population of 80 million.
Rouhani has claimed that inflation has decreased and the economy has grown on his watch. He has also said in recent public appearances that the judiciary and security forces should be more mindful of ordinary Iranians’ rights and privacy, which is likely to appeal to his supporters.
Rouhani was elected in 2013 with a promise to bring about greater individual freedom and detente with the West. Some of his supporters say he has fallen short of those goals.
Regardless of how the rivalry between Rouhani and Raisi plays out, top Iranian officials, including Khamenei, have said they will confront any individuals or groups who attempt to destabilize the country.
Iranian police fanned out across Tehran after the names of the candidates were announced on Thursday night, according to the news site of the Iranian judiciary Mizan Online.
Live debates between presidential candidates, a feature in the last two presidential elections, have also been called off, according to state media. Pre-taped interviews will air instead, perhaps to keep candidates from stoking up their supporters.
Widespread protests broke out and continued for months after the disputed election of Ahmadinejad in 2009, and led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests.
“The bitter incidents of (2009) will not be repeated,” Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said on Wednesday, according to state media. | Government Job change - Election | April 2017 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Reuters)'] |
Clashes with ISIL in Anbar province kill twenty-three Iraqi Army soldiers and allied Sunni fighters. | Members of an honour guard stand at attention at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier on Iraqi Army Day in Baghdad on Tuesday. A suicide blast and subsequent clashes with Islamic State militants have killed at least 23 troops and allied Sunni fighters in the western Iraqi Province of Anbar.
| Photo Credit: AHMED SAAD Iraqi officials say a suicide blast targeting security forces and subsequent clashes with Islamic State militants have killed at least 23 troops and allied Sunni fighters in the embattled western Province of Anbar.
The officials say a suicide bomber first struck a gathering of pro-government Sunni fighters near the town of al-Baghdadi on Tuesday morning. The town is about 180 km northwest of Baghdad.
Soon after, Islamic State extremists attacked nearby Army and police positions, setting off clashes.
Police and hospital officials say 23 were killed and 28 were wounded on the government side. They did not say give casualties on the militants’ side.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Islamic State kills 8 for ‘cooperating’ with govt.
Earlier in the day, the Islamic State group said it has killed eight men in Iraq’s Salahuddin Province north of Baghdad for allegedly cooperating with the government security forces and international airstrikes targeting the group.
A collection of photos posted late Monday on a Twitter account frequently used by the militants showed eight bearded men in orange jumpsuits with their hands tied behind their backs. Five were identified as police officers and two as informants, but no information was provided on the eighth victim.
The photos showed the blindfolded men being brought to a riverbank by masked gunmen under what looks like a bridge, then lined up on their knees and shot in the head. The group didn’t mention when the killings took place.
A Provincial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for his safety, offered a different account; he said Tuesday that the men were Army officers who abandoned the Army before the militants took over parts of the province last year and that they didn’t cooperate with the Iraqi government forces.
The Salahuddin Provincial capital, Tikrit, and other nearby towns have been in militant hands since June when the Islamic State group expanded with lightning speed across Sunni-dominated regions of northern and western Iraq as government forces collapsed. | Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(AP via The Hindu)'] |
China, having won 8 gold medals in one day, overtakes its record at Athens and leads the medal table with 35 gold medals. | China won the women's table tennis team event to overtake their previous best of 32 Olympic gold medals.
Guo Yue and Zhang Yining beat Singapore 11-8 11-5 11-6 with President Hu Jintao watching from the stands.
They picked apart second seeds Singapore with near-flawless execution, dishing out shots to the edges and corners of the table.
Singapore, with three former Chinese athletes, secured their first Olympic medal since 1960.
South Korea beat Japan 3-1 3-1 3-0 in the bronze-medal match.
Aiming to beat the previous gold tally, China have fielded 639 competitors in Beijing, compared to the 407 they sent to Greece.
"Most of the Chinese competitors fully displayed their abilities to achieve good results on home soil," said Cui Dalin, China's deputy chef de mission.
"We are especially pleased by our athletes in judo, shooting and weightlifting. But every single medal is meaningful in its own way and won through painstaking efforts by our athletes."
However, he cautioned: "Generally speaking, Chinese athletes are not strong contenders in many events in the second half of the Games." | Break historical records | August 2008 | ['(32 gold medals)', '(BBC News)'] |
At least 100 people are left homeless after a fire razes 40 houses in Samal, Davao del Norte, Philippines. | Posted at Mar 29 2013 12:13 PM | Updated as of Mar 29 2013 08:13 PM
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Davao City -- About 40 houses were burned to the ground after a fire broke out in Barangay Miranda in the Island Garden City of Samal at around 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The fire spread quickly as the houses were made of light materials and were built in close proximity to one another, authorities said. The officials also said an unattended mobile phone charger may have caused the fire.
Some 63 families were left homeless and the Samal fire authorities estimated property loss at P1.5 million.
The victims were evacuated at a nearby school where Social Welfare volunteers provided them food and promised them assistance and help. | Fire | March 2013 | ['(ABS via CBN News)'] |
Former Egyptian interior minister Habib al–Adli is sentenced to 12 years imprisonment on corruption charges. | Thursday, 05 May 2011 Egypt's former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Egypt's former Interior Minister, Habib al-Adli, was sentenced on Thursday to 12 years in jail, reports Agence-France Presse. Mr. al-Adli is the first official from former President Hosni Mubarak’s administration to stand trial and be convicted on charges of corruption.
A correspondent for Al Arabiya reported that a Jiza court sentenced Mr. al-Adli for seven years on charges of profiteering and five years for money laundering. The court also fined him 15 million Egyptian pounds ($2.5 million) reported AFP.
Many Egyptians have been closely watching Mr. al-Adli’s trial as he is widely reviled for the brutality shown by his police force during the January 2011 protests that led to Mr. Mubarak’s ouster.
Mr. al-Adli is also facing separate charges for the death of pro-democracy protesters during the revolt for which he pleaded his innocence on April 26.
The former interior minister could face the death penalty if convicted.
The trial for those charges was adjourned until May 21.
Mr. al-Adli’s trial, along with six of his top aides, opened at a courthouse in a Cairo suburb amid tight security. Some 1,000 relatives and friends of the nearly 850 Egyptians killed in the protests demonstrated outside the courthouse demanding he and his aides be hanged for their alleged crimes. His trial came amid a wave of investigations concerning former Egyptian officials charged with a host of corruption charges during their tenure in Mr. Mubarak’s rule. On Saturday, Egypt's new Justice Minister, Mohammed al-Guindi told the daily al-Ahram that Mr. Mubarak himself could face the death penalty if convicted of ordering the shooting of protesters during the uprisings that saw his downfall. At least 846 protesters were killed during the January uprising that led to Mr. Mubarak's departure from the Egyptian presidency on February 11. “Certainly, if [he is] convicted for the crime of killing protesters, it could result in the death sentence,” said Mr. al-Guindi. He added it would depend on whether Mr. a-Adly testifies against Mr. Mubarak and identifies him as the man who gave the order to open fire on the protesters. Mr. al-Adly was one of the most powerful men under Mr. Mubarak, in charge of an estimated 500,000 men and women in the security forces. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2011 | ['(Al Arabiya)'] |
In Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially becomes new president. | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taken over the Iranian presidency with Tehran under mounting pressure from the West over a threat to resume some nuclear activities. The 48-year-old conservative former mayor of Tehran, deeply loyal to the values of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, won a landslide election victory in June and was appointed president by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "I therefore ... approve the vote of the nation and appoint Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said a text by Khamenei, read out at a ceremony by outgoing President Mohammad Khatami. Ahmadinejad takes the helm as Iran edges closer to possible UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear programme, which Washington says is a smokescreen for building atomic bombs. Tehran insists its ambitions are peaceful. After taking office in a ceremony attended by government leaders and foreign ambassadors, Ahmadinejad appealed for an end to weapons of mass destruction in the world. "I will plead for the suppression of all weapons of mass destruction," he said. "Iran wants to see the establishment of last peace and justice," he said. "I will work for international justice because the world is starved of justice." In order to break this impasse, EU diplomats have been trying to get Iran to surrender its nuclear fuel work in return for economic incentives. EU warnings
But Iran says that such a compromise is unacceptable and that it will resume part of the nuclear fuel cycle, a move that threatens to end EU mediation. Iran says it will resume uraniumore conversion Iran says it will resume uraniumore conversion The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and EU foreign policy official Javier Solana warned of "other courses of action" if Tehran carries through with its threat to resume uranium ore conversion, the first step in the cycle to producing fuel for nuclear reactors. A Washington-based analyst on US national security affairs, Munzir Suleiman, told Aljazeera that the standoff might not lead to Iran's referral to the UN Security Council. "There is still room for negotiations ... Ahmadinejad has tried to send a message that open negotiations do not mean dragging your feet in reaching a settlement."
The Paris agreement, Suleiman added, gives Iran technical, economic and political incentives for accepting international monitoring.
"Negotiations might probably reap benefits by next week and in particular that we keep an eye on similar negotiations going on in North Korea in which no threats are directed to refer its file to the UN security council. "We should also bear in mind that North Korea's nuclear file is much more serious than Iran's," Suleiman added. Still timeAsked if Iran needed to be deterred from uranium enrichment, he said, "The Paris agreement that supported the negotiations pointed out that freezing the uranium enrichment is a voluntary act and not binding to Iran."
"We should also bear in mind that North Korea's nuclear file is much more serious than Iran's"Munzir SuleimanAnalyst"This means that even if Iran was referred to the UN, Iran will not be accused of violating the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Iran's activities will be acceptable as long as they are monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)." "There is still time to reach a settlement, but this will not be attainable if the next week passes without agreement," stressed SuleimanAhmadinejad, who became Tehran mayor two years ago, has yet to give concrete indications of how Iran will look under his rule. "We should also bear in mind that North Korea's nuclear file is much more serious than Iran's"Munzir SuleimanAnalyst
Branded by his enemies before his 24 June victory as a dangerous extremist, the former revolutionary guard has gone out of his way to vow there will be "no place for extremism" in his government. Less conciliatory
Many diplomats and rights groups doubt he will show more conciliation with dissidents or the international community than did the previous administration of Mohammad Khatami, whose efforts at reform were stymied by hardliners. Few expect a rapprochement with the US"I ask if Iran could possibly be more hardline on nuclear policy than it is at the moment," said one diplomat. "The resumption of these nuclear activities seems to show that there will be continuity in policy."
Few expect a rapprochement with the US
Ahmadinejad has pledged to extend "the hand of friendship" to the international community and made clear that he is ready to work with any country that does not show animosity to Iran. Any thoughts that a rapprochement with arch enemy the United States could be on the horizon have been buried by Ahmadinejad's assertion that Iran is strong enough without Washington, along with accusations he took part in the 1979 kidnapping siege at the US embassy in Tehran. Economic concernsBut what reaped Ahmadinejad 61.69% of the votes in his crushing run-off win against government veteran Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was his success in convincing Iranians he is an honest Muslim who cares about their economic problems.
Ahmadinejad says he cares aboutordinary Iranians' economic plight Iranians who are more concerned with their weekly pay packets than freedom of the press will be looking to the man who proudly presents himself as the "nation's street sweeper" to put money into their pockets. He may be helped by a bumper oil revenues in the current financial year - $24.4 billion more than budgeted - because of high oil prices. Ahmadinejad says he cares aboutordinary Iranians' economic plight
Having initially alarmed economic observers by promising to thwart a "mafia" that was dominating the oil industry, and promising a redistribution of wealth, Ahmadinejad has moved to calm nerves by saying that he is pro-investment.
Ahmadinejad's future policies remain a mystery, but some clarity should emerge when he announces his government line-up. He has two weeks after being sworn in before parliament on Saturday to present the names to the house. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2005 | ['(IRNA)', '(Al–Jazeera)', '(Reuters)'] |
Campaigning ahead of Sunday's French presidential election enters its final day. | The leading contenders for the French presidency have made their final appeals to voters on the last day of campaigning before Sunday's election.
Incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy - in office since 2007 - urged supporters to "speak up" and choose "a strong France".
Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, who also held a rally, said it was "the left's turn to govern the country". There are 10 candidates in all and if no candidate wins 50% of the votes, there will be a second run-off round.
Addressing a rally in the south-eastern city of Nice on Friday, Mr Sarkozy said: "Speak up. Don't allow yourselves to be silenced. Come en masse on Sunday."
Bring your ballot papers because each ballot paper will build our victory. Only the French people can say: "The choice we have made is that of a strong France."
Meanwhile Mr Hollande ended his campaign in the industrial north-east - a region hard hit by unemployment.
He told a rally in the town of Charleville-Mezieres: "This is a region that put its faith in Nicolas Sarkozy, who came here making speeches on industry, jobs, workers. Everybody can see the scale of the disappointment.
"Now, it's the left's turn to govern the country," he added.
As well as Mr Hollande and Mr Sarkozy, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, radical leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon and centrist Francois Bayrou are among the front-runners.
Campaigning has focused on the economy, with Mr Sarkozy boasting of good economic growth in 2011, despite unemployment at 10%.
Both leading candidates have promised to balance the budget, but Mr Hollande has emphasised growth rather than austerity. Mr Hollande told Europe 1 radio earlier on Friday that the country's budget woes were the result of five years of Mr Sarkozy's policies, and called for concerted European action to revive growth.
"The important thing is to put our public finances in order," he said.
"They've been turned completely upside down these past years due to irresponsible fiscal policy and the crisis."
He called for the European Central Bank (ECB) to take a radically different role by lending directly to troubled eurozone states rather than to banks, and by keeping interest rates low. The ECB is barred by law from purchasing government debt directly - the "no bailout clause" - and some economists argue that such a move would risk easing the pressure for governments to balance their budgets.
Also on Friday morning, Mr Sarkozy said he had helped steer the eurozone through the worst of the debt crisis, making him the safest pair of hands.
"The risk of the euro imploding doesn't exist any more," he told RTL radio.
"We can't afford any mistakes. The minute we ease up on cutting spending, reducing the deficit, reducing the debt, France will share the fate of Spain."
By law, election campaigning had to end at midnight local time (22:00 GMT) on Friday. | Government Job change - Election | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Governor of Missouri Mike Parson signs House Bill 126 into law, effective on August 28, 2019, bans all abortions in the state of Missouri at or beyond 8 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of medical emergencies. Persons who perform abortion in the state after 8 weeks of pregnancy face 5 to 15 years in prison. | Updated on: May 24, 2019 / 6:18 PM
/ AP
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday signed a bill that bans abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy without exceptions for cases of rape or incest, making it among the most restrictive abortion policies in the nation. Under the law that comes into force Aug. 28, doctors who violate the eight-week cutoff could face five to 15 years in prison.
Women who terminate their pregnancies cannot be prosecuted. A legal challenge is expected, although it's unclear when that might occur.
The measure includes exceptions for medical emergencies, such as when there is a risk of death or permanent physical injuries to "a major bodily function of the pregnant woman." But the lack of exceptions for women who find themselves pregnant after being raped or subjected to incest has drawn sharp criticism, including from wealthy GOP donor David Humphreys, a Missouri businessman, who had urged the Republican governor to veto the bill and called it "bad public policy."
Parson defended the lack of exceptions as he spoke to a group of abortion opponents gathered Friday for the bill signing in his Capitol office. "Is it a terrible thing that happens in those situations? Yes it is. ... But the reality of it is bad things do happen sometimes. But you have two months to decide what you're going to do with that issue, and I believe in two months you can make a decision," he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri said it was exploring "all options, including litigation, to block the law from going into effect." The organization's state legislative and policy director, Sara Baker, said in a statement the bill is "unconstitutional, and it must be stopped."
Alabama's governor signed a bill on May 15 making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases. Supporters have said they hope to provoke a legal challenge that will eventually force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationally.
Unlike Alabama's near-total abortion ban, lawmakers who helped draft the Missouri bill said it's meant to withstand court challenges instead of spark them. If the eight-week ban is struck down, the bill includes a ladder of less-restrictive time limits at 14, 18 or 20 weeks.
Missouri's bill also includes an outright ban on abortions except in cases of medical emergencies, but that would kick in only if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Missouri Right to Life called it "the strongest pro-life bill in Missouri history."
Missouri state House Democratic Minority Leader Crystal Quade said in a written statement the new law treats women "as little more than fetal incubators with no rights or role in the decision, even in cases of rape and incest." Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia also have approved bans on abortions once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy.
Some of those laws already have been challenged in court, and similar restrictions in North Dakota and Iowa have been struck down by judges.
Missouri already has some of the nation's most restrictive abortion regulations, including a requirement that doctors performing abortions have partnerships with nearby hospitals. Missouri is down to one clinic performing abortions, which is in St. Louis.
A total of 3,903 abortions occurred in Missouri in 2017, the last full year for which the state Department of Health and Senior Services has statistics online. Of those, 1,673 occurred at under nine weeks and 119 occurred at 20 weeks or later in a pregnancy.
A total of 2,910 abortions occurred in 2018 in Missouri, according to the agency. The bill also bans abortions based solely on race, sex or a diagnosis indicating the potential for Down syndrome.
It also requires a parent or guardian giving written consent for a minor to get an abortion to first notify the other parent, except if the other parent has been convicted of a violent or sexual crime, is subject to a protection order, is "habitually in an intoxicated or drugged condition," or lacks legal or physical custody. | Government Policy Changes | May 2019 | ['(CBS News)', '(The Kansas City Star)'] |
Severe gales batter large parts of England, Northern Ireland and Wales with some bridges being closed. | A woman has died after a tree fell on her car during 24 hours of severe gales and torrential rain.
The 55-year-old was impaled on a branch in the incident in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on Thursday night and died a short time later in hospital.
Northern England, north Wales and Northern Ireland were worst hit by the bad weather, with electricity cut off, flights disrupted and bridges closed.
Damage to Blackpool's illuminations could cost up to £1m to repair.
West Yorkshire Police said the woman, from Pontefract, was travelling in a Vauxhall Zafira which was hit by the falling tree on the A642. The 54-year-old male driver was hurt in the incident, but his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
Gales peaked late on Thursday, easing off through the early hours of Friday morning.
Great Dun Fell, in the north Pennines, recorded gusts of 100mph (161km/h), and Capel Curig, in Snowdonia, experienced 91mph (146km/h) winds. In Northern Ireland, some 6,000 people were left without power overnight, but services were restored by Friday afternoon.
The main areas affected were Dungannon and Omagh in County Tyrone, and Enniskillen in County Fermanagh.
At Leeds-Bradford airport, one flight from Dublin was forced to divert to Liverpool after making three unsuccessful attempts to land. Other planes were forced to fly on to Manchester.
Coastal areas bore the brunt of the gales and in Lancashire, roads surrounding Blackpool Tower, including part of the Promenade, were closed due to gale-force winds.
Police made the decision to cordon off the area after scaffolding fell to the ground from the Tower, which is undergoing refurbishment. No-one was injured.
Blackpool Council said there was extensive damage to the famous illuminations.
Coastguards at Holyhead, north Wales, said wind speeds reached 78mph (126km/h) and some ferries to Northern Ireland from the ports of Stranraer and Cairnryan on the west coast of Scotland were suspended. Some services were still disrupted on Friday.
The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait and Cleddau Bridge in Pembrokeshire were closed overnight, but have since reopened with speed restrictions.
The Dartford-Thurrock Thames river crossing, the QEII bridge, was closed on Thursday afternoon for safety reasons and police in Northamptonshire had to cordon off a bungalow after part of a tree smashed into it.
There were reports of localised flooding in some parts of Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Wight.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Pro-Russian separatist military leader colonel Alexei Mozgovoi is confirmed killed in an ambush on his car. | One of the top rebel commanders in eastern Ukraine, Alexei Mozgovoi, has been killed in an attack on his car, Russian and Ukrainian media report.
Mr Mozgovoi led the "Prizrak" (Ghost) battalion which was based in the Alchevsk area of Luhansk.
Reports said a bomb struck his car, which was then targeted by gunfire that killed Mozgovoi and six others.
Mr Mozgovoi was a critic of the Russian-backed separatist leadership and the Minsk accord signed with Kiev.
He took control of Alchevsk as part of the uprising that began last April in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
There are no details on who may have carried out the attack, which was said to have taken place on the road from Luhansk to the city of Alchevsk.
One report said the attack took place near the spot where Mr Mozgovoi had survived another assassination attempt in March.
His press secretary and three security officers were reportedly among the dead.
Last May he allowed the BBC's Panorama exclusive access to his militia's training camp.
Mr Mozgovoi told our reporter the conflict was "in full swing... The east of Ukraine is moving steadily towards Russia, and that's a fact".
Last November Mozgovoi was seen at the head of a summary court system.
He is heard issuing a warning to residents: "Too many women go to restaurants. What kind of example do they show to their children? From now on, we will arrest all women we find in restaurants and cafes."
The Minsk ceasefire agreement came into effect on 15 February, but there has been regular sporadic fighting and both the pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government accuse the other of preparing a major offensive.
The Ukrainian government and Western leaders say there is clear evidence Russia is helping the rebels with heavy weapons and soldiers - an accusation Moscow denies.
But the rebels are also not a single coherent force in eastern Ukraine and there have been reports of power struggles.
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
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The ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters. VideoThe ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters
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How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Famous Person - Death | May 2015 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Monsoon flooding on the Yamuna River threatens the Taj Mahal in Agra, India after more than 800,000 cu ft/s (23,000 m3/s) of water had to be released from a barrage in Haryana, while hundreds of nearby villages flooded and flooding continues in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. | Chandigarh: The flood threat in Haryana has risen after the Tajewala headwork on the Yamuna in Yamunanagar district suffered extensive damage on Monday, allowing the fast flowing waters to inundate low-lying villages, officials said.
People watch the overflowing Yamuna river near the Taj Mahal in Agra on Sunday.
"One corner of the Tajewala headwork has been washed away with the strong current of water. It will certainly dissipate the regulatory power of the point and pose a threat of floods in the nearby villages," an official said here. "Water is flowing at very fast pace through this headwork. However, our officials are monitoring the situation."
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday carried out an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Yamunanagar district. Over 125 villages were flooded in Panipat and Yamunanagar districts last Wednesday as the Yamuna River overflowed its banks. Rescue work is on in the flood-affected villages. Meanwhile, the discharge of water from Hathni Kund barrage into the Yamuna was over 265,944 cusecs.
"Flood water that had entered the villages and the agricultural land after peak discharge of 7.07 lakh cusecs a couple of days back, has started receding," a revenue department spokesman said, adding there was damage to the Yamuna embankment at many places due to erosion
"Incessant rain in various parts of Haryana yesterday (Sunday) has increased flood discharge to 47,907 cusecs in the Ghaggar River. Preventive measures have been taken to check further erosion of embankments. No loss of life and property is reported so far," he added.
Over population and pollution are probably not reversible in India with the present political setup which has given enough leeway to promote evil in this country. Suppose we need natural calamities to remind us that there are restrictions in everything we do. We promote mediocrities in the form of cricket and cheap cinemas and lure millions to be patrons to this ludicrous ventures until the corrupted masses are wiped out by natural calamities, probably the only way to retain the sanctity of our country.
The KANGRESS is just waiting to IMPOSE NEW ADDITIONAL FLOOD-RELIEF AND REPAIRS TAXES SHORTLY to cover up its so-called LOSSES in the CWG Infra works...
Hope no country turns up for this goddam KANGRESS EXTRAVAGANZA in the YAMUNA FLOODS.
| Floods | September 2010 | ['(MSN India)', '(The Weather Network)'] |
Home Secretary Sajid Javid is eliminated after coming in fourth place in the fourth round of voting. Boris Johnson remains the front runner, with Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt coming in second and third place respectively. | Sajid Javid has been knocked out of the Tory leadership race, leaving three contenders vying for the job and to be the next prime minister.
The home secretary received 34 votes, coming behind Jeremy Hunt with 59.
Michael Gove received 61 votes, leapfrogging Mr Hunt to gain second place; while frontrunner Boris Johnson got 157 votes from MPs.
MPs have voted in a fifth ballot to select the final two candidates. The remaining two MPs will compete in a run-off of the party's 160,000 or so members, and the winner will be announced in the week of 22 July.
The BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg said: "The question is now, where do Mr Javid's votes go? His supporters have been an interesting mixed bag so it is not easy to read where they go."
Mr Javid is not expected to endorse anyone publicly this afternoon. Leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson - a key supporter of Sajid Javid - said she now wanted Mr Gove in the final two, describing him as "smart, articulate and always on top of detail". Ms Davidson is not an MP and therefore does not get a vote in the fifth ballot.
Mr Javid said he was "truly humbled by the support I have received".
"If my ambition and conduct in this contest has set an example for anyone, then it has been more than worth it," he said. "These are very challenging times ahead for our party and our government... the Conservatives must continue to be a broad church."
Addressing his comments to "kids who look and feel a bit different to their classmates" he said: "Don't let anyone try and cut you down to size or say you aren't a big enough figure to aim high.
"You have as much right as anyone to a seat at the top table."
Mr Johnson, a former Foreign Secretary, said he was "incredibly grateful" for the support of more than half of all Conservative MP, adding that "we have much more work to do".
Environment Secretary Mr Gove jumped into second place, overtaking Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt, who had been second in each of the three previous rounds of voting.
Mr Gove said he was "absolutely delighted" adding: "If I make the final two I look forward to having a civilised debate of ideas about the future of our country."
Mr Hunt said: "The critical decision now for all colleagues is what choice do we present to the country.
"Choose me for unity over division, and I will put Boris through his paces and then bring our party and country back together."
A source close to Mr Hunt told the BBC: "Boris and Michael are great candidates but we have seen their personal psychodrama before. Jeremy Hunt is the candidate who can best unify the party." | Government Job change - Election | June 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Xavier Bettel is sworn in for a second term as Prime Minister. His coalition government plans to make all public transport completely free by next summer, a world's first. | A decision has yet to be taken on what to do about first- and second-class compartments on trains Photograph: iStock
Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all its public transport free.
Fares on trains, trams and buses will be lifted next summer under the plans of the re-elected coalition government led by Xavier Bettel, who was sworn in for a second term as prime minister on Wednesday.
Bettel, whose Democratic party will form a government with the left wing Socialist Workers’ party and the Greens, had vowed to prioritise the environment during the recent election campaign.
On top of the transport pledge, the new government is also considering legalising cannabis, and introducing two new public holidays.
Luxembourg City, the capital of the small Grand Duchy, suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion in the world. It is home to about 110,000 people, but a further 400,000 commute into the city to work.
A study suggested that drivers in the capital spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams in 2016. While the country as a whole has 600,000 inhabitants, nearly 200,000 people living in France, Belgium and Germany cross the border every day to work in Luxembourg.
Luxembourg has increasingly shown a progressive attitude to transport. This summer, the government brought in free transport for every child and young person under the age of 20.
Secondary school students can use free shuttles between their institution and their home. Commuters need only pay €2 for up to two hours of travel, which in a country of just 2,590 sq km (999 sq miles) covers almost all journeys.
Now, from the start of 2020 all tickets will be abolished, saving on the collection of fares and the policing of ticket purchases. The policy is yet to be fully thought through, however.
A decision has yet to be taken on what to do about first- and second-class compartments on trains. Bettel only just scraped back into government in the recent election. Opinion polls before October’s poll had indicated that the Christian Social People’s party (CSV) – led for 19 years by the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker – would end Bettel’s five years as prime minister.
The CSV, however, lost seats, while the Greens gained three seats. The result gave the coalition 31 seats in the 60-seat chamber. The policy of the new government that has caused the most debate, however, has been that of legalising the purchase, possession and consumption of cannabis for recreational use.
.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | December 2018 | ['(The Irish Times)'] |
Three suicide bombers kill 27 people and wound 83 near Maiduguri, Nigeria. | MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A woman suicide bomber blew herself up and killed 27 others at a market in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, two local officials said, in an attack bearing the hallmark of Boko Haram militants.
Two more suicide bombers detonated their devices at the gates to a nearby refugee camp, wounding many people, an emergency services official said.
In all, 83 people were wounded in the three explosions near the city of Maiduguri, epicenter of the long-running conflict between government forces and Boko Haram.
Nigeria’s military last year wrested back large swathes of territory from the Islamist insurgents. But they have struck back with renewed zeal since June, killing at least 143 people before Tuesday’s bombings and weakening the army’s control.
The group has waged an eight-year war to create an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, and provoked international outrage by kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls known as the Chibok Girls in April 2014.
Its better-known faction, led by Abubakar Shekau, has mainly based itself in the sprawling Sambisa forest, and been characterized by its use of women and children as suicide bombers targeting mosques and markets.
A rival faction - based in the Lake Chad region, led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi and boasting ties to Islamic State - has in the meantime quietly become a deadly force capable of carrying out highly-organised attacks.
Last month, an oil prospecting team was captured by al-Barnawi’s group. At least 37 people, including members of the team, died when rescuers from the military and vigilantes attempted to free them.
The Boko Haram insurgency has killed 20,000 people and forced some 2.7 million to flee their homes in the last eight years.
Reporting by Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Mark Trevelyan
| Armed Conflict | August 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Israeli soldiers kill four heavilyarmed Islamic Jihad gunmen sent to attack Israeli forces and believed to be planting explosives along the security fence with Gaza. | JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Four Palestinians believed to be planting explosives along the security fence in Gaza were heavily armed, Israel's army said.
Israeli troops fired on and killed the men Tuesday morning. Initial reports had said one of the suspected terrorists was killed and three injured.
No Israeli soldiers were injured in the incident.
Israel's military found explosives, assault rifles, hand grenades and other weaponry on the bodies, according to an Israel Defense Forces statement released Tuesday evening.
Islamic Jihad said in a statement that it had sent the men to attack Israeli forces at the border, The New York Times reported.
"The presence of Palestinian civilians in the area adjacent to the security fence in Gaza is used by terrorist organizations as cover for their activities, including planting explosive devices, planning terrorist attacks and attempts to kidnap IDF soldiers. For this reason, the IDF considers this a combat zone," the IDF statement read.
On Sunday, Hamas prevented members of Islamic Jihad from firing rockets into Israel from northern Gaza, according to the Times.
| Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(JTA)'] |
Thousands of people join protests across the United Kingdom against the suspension of the UK Parliament. | In one of the biggest demonstrations the remain voting west country city has seen since the Brexit referendum, up to 5,000 people are thought to have marched in Bristol. Some waved homemade placards emblazoned with slogans like “I have the right to representation”, “shamocracy” and “fuck Boris” while the crowd chanted “stop the coup” and “Boris, Boris, Boris – out, out, out”.
Many were old hands, who had been to lots of remain protests. But others were taking to the streets for the first time. Will Roberts, 39, who was with his wife and two children, had steered clear of protests until now, preferring to let the democratic process takes its course. “I was disappointed with the result but this is worse than Brexit itself,” he said. “Hand on heart, this is really frightening. If you know a bit of history, you’ll know this is the thin end of the wedge.”
Donna Ferguson in Cambridge Martin Baxter, 67, is holding a “no to racism, no to Boris Johnson” banner. “I think the situation is farcical in this country at the moment. The government we have is headed by a playboy.”
He hopes that the decision to prorogue parliament will be challenged and can be overturned, but is doubtful the situation will work out well for the political parties backing ‘remain’, either way. “I think Mr Johnson doesn’t care what the outcome is, as long as he can blame his political enemies when prorogation is overthrown. He can say: ‘Oh well, if I’d been able to prorogue parliament, then I would have got my deal through and I’d have won. This is all their fault.’ And then there will be a general election.”
“You do not preserve democracy by trashing it,” said Barbara Wibbelmann, 64. “Proroguing parliament is no way to go about delivering Brexit.”
Originally from Germany, she has been living in the UK since 1984 and took out British citizenship shortly after the referendum. “I can see why people don’t like the EU, but we need to change it from within, not without.”
As for Boris Johnson, she says, what he is doing is “very wrong”: “It flies in the face of democracy. People are being excluded from the decisions and their voices are not being heard.”
The Green party London assembly member Caroline Russell was among protesters blocking the road at Trafalgar Square arrested by police, it has emerged. The politician joined other demonstrators sitting in the road refusing to move while chanting: “You shut down the parliament, we shut down the streets.”
The Guardian captured footage of her being cheered as she was taken away in handcuffs by officers. Sian Berry, the Green Party co-leader, said: “Earlier today, I was speaking at the main rally of the Defend Our Democracy protest. I said then that we were calmly determined not to have our rights chipped away. Protest, and direct action were needed, I said.
“I’m proud that Caroline has been at the forefront, with others, of showing that determination. “History tells us that all the rights we have we had to win. No one has ever handed them to us. “Caroline and the others on the streets in London today were defending those hard-won rights that are now under attack from Boris Johnson.
“We, the people, will come back on the streets again and again in the coming weeks of national crisis to defend our MPs and win our final say. “We will keep saying to Boris Johnson, to Jacob Rees-Mogg, to Dominic Raab – your actions do not represent us
“If you abuse power, we the people will make sure you won’t be in power much longer.”
Donna Ferguson in Cambridge Wearing a Bollocks to Brexit sticker, Brian Gould, 53, said he couldn’t stay at home if there was any chance attending the rally would make a difference: “I am afraid a no-deal Brexit may happen, and I don’t want it to. I am here to stop Brexit.”
He runs his own business, importing German products into the UK and is worried about the consequence of Brexit on trade. “I also have family living in Germany and friends living across the EU. I fear it will become harder to freely travel and visit them.”
He thinks the reason many people voted to leave is because British people don’t feel European. “When my friends in Europe speak of Europeans, they don’t speak of ‘them’, they speak of ‘us’. Here in Britain, we don’t do that. But whether or not we’re in the EU, we’re still Europeans. That’s what a lot of people don’t understand.”
31 Aug 2019
16:56
Darren Jones, the Labour MP for Bristol North West, told protesters in the city that people should take to the streets to demonstrate against the prime minister and not allow “democracy to die”. He added: “Thank you to the thousands of you that have marched through the streets of Bristol and across the country to make it clear we will not stand down when our democracy is being shut down. “We are members of parliament and parliament is where we should be making your voice heard loud and clear, with the power of our vote and the ability to hold the government to account.
“If Boris Johnson thinks he can turn Britain into an autocracy, he has got another think coming. “If the prime minister is able to close down parliament, we need to be able to bring it to the streets because we are your voice in parliament and our democracy is about all of us. “What is clear from all of you today, and in towns and cities up and down the country, is that the British people will not let democracy die.”
After speaking at a demonstration in her Brighton constituency, the former Green party leader, Caroline Lucas, thanked those who came out to protest. She tweeted:
This is what democracy looks likeThanks to all who came to #StopTheCoup demos todayThis is about more than #BrexitA democracy worthy of name isn’t one where power is hoarded at the topWe need a #CitizensConvention to put people at heart of our politics, not feral elites pic.twitter.com/e9bvzeJ95f
31 Aug 2019
16:34
At least two arrests made by police after protesters refused to leave. pic.twitter.com/qFN2hJOnrc
British citizen Jasmina Makljenovic has spent an hour listening to speeches at the Stop the Coup rally in Cambridge, and now she is crying. “This is about my children and their future,” she said. “Boris Johnson is dangerous. This is not how democracy should work. There aredictators everywhere in the world. How on earth do people think they got into power? This is how it happened: slowly and gradually. We are like boiled frogs. Slowly we are being cooked and our freedoms are being taken away.”
Dozens of protesters are blocking traffic at Trafalgar Square by sitting in the road to demonstrate against the suspension of Parliament.
Priyanka, a teacher from Berkshire who says her grandfather and great aunt were part of the salt march against colonial Britain in India led by Gandhi in 1930, joined others blocking the road to protest in the spirit of her family.
The 33-year-old told the Guardian: “We want to make our voice heard. Regardless of what side of the fence everybody is on, whether it’s anti-Brexit or pro-Brexit, I think today is actually about defending democracy and the very foundation of Parliament.”
Explaining why she felt compelled to sit in the road, she said: “I think we were chanting just outside the steps of Downing Street, ‘you shut down our Parliament, we’ll shut down the streets.’ So I think everyone has metaphorically taken it and now physically wants to be able to sit down and just make the point that actually something needs to be done.
“It can’t be that we have someone who just railroads a decision for 31st October and then is masking proroguing of Parliament with domestic policy.”
Referencing her family’s history on the salt march with Gandhi in protest against colonial Britain, she added: “My Mum’s finding quite ironic that I’m actually marching for Britain.”
Couple Emma Beckingham and Charles Barker, both 23 and from Tooting, south London, sat in the road for an hour. Barker, clutching a sign reading “remain, reform revolt, said Johnson was trying to “block the will of the people by stopping Parliament talking to each other”.
The bar worker added: “If MPs truly are the elected members of the people and the voice of the people, by stopping Parliament sitting you’re stopping us from having a voice.”
Liberal Democrat Stephen Williams, a former MP for Bristol West, told protesters in the city: “Democracy is never a one-off event, whether it is a referendum or an election.
“All he [Boris Johnson] cares about is being in power himself and being in power for his class of people so they can be the people who rule over us. We must stand up to that.
“What Johnson has done is wipe out most of the September calendar, wipe out most of the October calendar, leaving them with about four days to make the most important decision of any of our lifetimes and the most important decision that this 650 people will ever have to make.
“That is worthy of North Korea, not Great Britain.”
| Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Somalia's police and intelligence chiefs were sacked after Al-Shabaab's attack on the Presidential palace yesterday. | Somalia's police and intelligence chiefs have been sacked following militant Islamist group al-Shabab's assault on the presidential palace, a government minister has said. Three of the attackers were killed and a fourth captured, the minister added. Al-Shabab fighters entered the compound in the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday before being driven out by African Union (AU) and government forces. This was the second assault on the heavily fortified compound this year.
The police and intelligence heads - Abdihakim Saaid and Bashir Gobe respectively - have been replaced with immediate effect, said Information Minister Mustafa Dhuhulow. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was not at the palace at the time of the attack.
Al-Shabab said 14 government soldiers had been killed in the assault but government officials have not referred to this claim.
The raid started with a suicide bomber detonating a car at a barrier near the entrance to the compound, after which the militants attacked from two directions, correspondents say.
At a press conference at the palace after the attack was repelled, Mr Mohamud said the government would not be intimidated by al-Shabab. "I say to them, you will not kill us, and nor will you demolish our spirit," he added. Some 22,000 African Union troops are helping the UN-backed government battle al-Shabab, which wants to create an Islamic state.
Al-Shabab lost control of Mogadishu in 2011, but often carries out attacks in the city.
The group has vowed to step up attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
On Saturday, a suicide car bomb exploded near the parliament building, killing at least four people. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Obama administration through the U.S. Department of Justice announces that they will file criminal contempt of court charges against Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for violating a judge's order to stop immigration patrols that led to a court finding of racial profiling. The charges carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail. , | Federal prosecutors said Tuesday they will pursue a criminal-contempt charge against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for defying orders to halt the immigration-enforcement operations that made him a national lightning rod.
If convicted, Arpaio could spend up to six months in jail.
The movehas few precedents in U.S. history, as prosecutorsendorsed a federal judge's findings that the lawman intentionally violatedthe judge's orders.
Dozens of protesters who lined the sidewalk outside the federal courthouse Tuesday morning erupted in cheers, hugs and tears when they heard the news.
They moved toward the courthouse doors,circled and shouted: “Si se puede! Si se puede!” ("Yes, we can!")
Arpaio has not yet officially been charged. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton asked the federal government to write an order to show cause for her to sign by Wednesday. That will serve as a charging document for the case to go forward against Arpaio.
The sheriffblasted themove aspolitically motivated, coming on the eve of the start of early voting for the Nov. 8 election, in which he is running for his seventh term. He said he has done nothing wrong.
“My point is this was strictly a political attack on this sheriff in this campaign," Arpaio said in comments to The Arizona Republic.
“I am not going to surrender. I am going to fight this all the way. And I expect to be re-elected.”
Announcement of the charge, which came minutes into the start of the criminal-contempt proceedings, surprised eventhose closest to the lawsuit.
“Usually a set status conference is a meeting between the court and council to discuss legal issues,” said Mel McDonald, Arpaio’s defense attorney. “We had no clue that they were going to come here today and make the announcements that they made.”
McDonald said Arpaiowill plead not guilty.
Legal experts say the judge and attorneys have little historical guidance moving forward with the case.
“As rare as it is to have a federal judge refer the head of a law-enforcement agency for prosecution, it is even rarer that the Department of Justice would pick up that gauntlet and move forward with the charge,” said Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. “It’s unheard of.”
U.S. Department of Justiceattorney John Keller said the government will continue to investigate additional allegations against Arpaio, two aides and a defense attorneyover concealing evidence and therefore obstruction of justice but will not proceed with a criminal case at this time.
Although the federal judge presiding over the racial-profiling case referred Arpaio and three others for consideration of criminal contempt,Keller saidthestatute of limitations may have run out for the allegations against the others.
Bolton said she is not sure, and asked for a pause on the statute-of-limitations clock so that all sides coulddiscuss that issue.
Arpaio’s criminal case stems from alawsuit filed in 2007 that alleged Arpaio’s immigration patrols amounted to discriminatory policing of Latinos.
U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow issued a December 2011 order that barred the Sheriff’s Office from detaining individuals solely on the belief they were in the country illegally, and without being suspected of a state crime.
Arpaio’s deputies, however, continued the practice for at least 18 months thereafter.
Critics of the lawman said the defiance was political,that he ignored the federal court in order to maintain his hard-line immigration platform.
Arpaio’s attorneys admitted to the violations in civil-contempt hearings last yearbut maintained they were the result of miscommunications and confusion, notwillful defiance.
Generally, the difference between civil and criminal contempt of court is intent. Only criminal contempt can result in jail time.
Largely because of Arpaio’s age he is 84Bolton ruled that a sentencing cap of six months is appropriate on the contempt charge.
A tentative trial date was set for Dec. 6. Arpaio’s attorney asked for a jury trial.
The six-month cap suggests the case will be tried as a misdemeanor, although it was not explicitly stated in court.
Only a felony conviction can force an elected official out of office in Arizona, according to state statute.
Theothers referred by Snow for possible charges of criminal contemptChief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, Capt.Steve Bailey and defense attorney Michele Iafrate will not face immediate charges.
Arpaio’s charge stems from a December 2011 federal-court order that barred his agency from enforcing federal immigration law.The other defendants were not involved in this allegation.
Snow’s additional referrals for criminal contempt involved allegations thatthe sheriff, Sheridan, Bailey and Iafrate withheldevidence from the court.
Arpaio and Sheridan are accused of failing to turn over 50 hard drives related to a Seattle-based confidential informant named Dennis Montgomery.
Sheridan, Iafrate and Bailey were referred for criminal contempt for concealing nearly 1,500 identification cards that should have been turned over to the court-appointed monitor.
DOJ officials did not respond to requests for an interview after court proceedingsbut issued the following statement.
“The matter was referred to the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, and at a status hearing today before U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton, the department informed the court that it intends to proceed to trial against Sheriff Arpaio on the criminal contempt charges but, because of procedural defects, will not be proceeding against the other individuals. The court ordered the department to file a revised order redacting the contempt matters against the other individuals and set a preliminary trial date of Dec. 6, 2016.”
The criminal charge is particularly ill-timed for the self-proclaimed “America's toughest sheriff,” with the general electionless than a month away.
His campaign released a statement hours after the hearing, attributed to Arpaio.
“First and foremost, it is clear that the corrupt Obama Justice Department is trying to influence my re-election as Sheriff of Maricopa County," the statement said. "It is no coincidence that this announcement comes 28 days before the election and the day before early voting starts. It is a blatant abuse of power and the people of Maricopa County should be as outraged as I am."
Can Sheriff Joe Arpaio win re-election in the face of a criminal-contempt referral?
Arpaio, in comments to The Republic, echoed the theme.
“Let’s put the cards on the table: Tomorrow begins early voting. This has to come out on the eve of early voting?
“But this sheriff will never surrender. I’m going to continue running for office. This Obama administration will do anything.
“I’m not going to settle. I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just politics. It’s not the first time.”
Arpaio said his attorneys were aggressively appealing the civil action that gave rise to thecriminal-contempt charge.
“One day the truth will come out,” he said.
Protesters lined the sidewalk outside thecourthouse, as many do whenever a hearing pertains to Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
They rallied near what has become a fixture at the hearings: amassive, inflatable doll depicting the lawman in shackles and striped jail garb.
Diaz: Wanting Joe Arpaio behind bars is not vengeance, it's about justice
The crowd started small until a group of students from high schools across Phoenix joined the protest. They held hands and protest signs. Others raised their fists in the air.They shouted,“This is what community looks like!”
After the hearing, civil-rights advocate Lydia Guzman said she had mixed feelings about the case’s trajectory. She had hoped Arpaio and the others would have been charged with all of the criminal referrals.
“This is like seeing a snake trying to slither away,” she said. “If the one person that is being charged will be the head of the snake, then that’s the way we’re going to have to do it.”
Sagal Hassan, 16, said she joined the protest on her fall break to show unity among "brown and black people" who she argues have been racially profiled by Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m here to protest against Arpaio because he should be in jail,” she said. “He’s not above the law. I am tired of him harassing Latinos and intimidating the Latino community. He needs to be elected out of office.”
As Hassan spoke, protesters behind her chanted in Spanish: “Que queremos? Justicia! Cuando? Ahora!” ("What do we want? Justice! When? Now!")
As protesters waited for the judge's’ decision, they alternated between chants and political speeches. One organizer rallied the crowd with a chant: “Va caer! Va caer! El Arpaio va caer! ("He will fall! He will fall!Arpaio, he will fall!")
Phoenix resident Viridiana Hernandez told the crowd that the community wants Arpaio to pay for ignoring court orders tied to the 2011 racial-profiling case, for the fear he induced among Latino families, and forthe years ofsuffering he caused.
In the meantime, she said,they must do more than protest, they must work to see him voted out of office in November.
When Carlos Garcia, a community organizer with Phoenixmigrant-rights group Puente, took the microphone, he said he had an announcement the judge’s decision was in.
“Arpaio will go to trial on December sixth!” he said.
As the cheers died down andthe protest ended, organizers called on people to join them in a door-to-door canvassing effortlater thatday to encourage people to vote against re-electing Arpaio.
Liz Gomez, 28, held her 8-year-old son’s hand as she walked away from the courthouse. She spoke with her mother in Spanish. The women said they are undocumented migrants.
“We have to stand up,” said Gomez's mother,Francis Figueroa, 47, in Spanish,as she watched her grandson hold his sign depicting Arpaio behind bars.“This man is disgraceful.He has torn our families apart. He must face justice.”
Figueroa told a story of a neighbor, a mother, her friend.
She said the woman was driving her children to school when aMaricopa County sheriff's deputystopped her for a traffic violation.
"She was deported," Figueroa said. "Her children were left herealone."
Figueroa's grandson, Luis Gomez, clutched his sign close totheBatman T-shirt he wore. Helooked up at his grandmother, then at his mother.
“I'm in third grade.We’re Mexicans,” the boysaid. “Mexicans work hard. Arpaio isn’t nice.”
Liz Gomez, smiling at her son, said she was happy a judge hadordered a trial. But she had doubts.
“I want there to be justice,” she said in Spanish. “Iwant him to be treated the way any person who broke the law would be treated. Let him spend time in jail like we would have to."
The news is almost certain to play a role in Arpaio’s re-election campaign, but it’s unclear to what extent.
Historically, his votes have been buoyed by a bloc of die-hard fans, and fundraising emails often use his court battlesas a rallying crywhen the sheriff appears to be in legal danger.
Campaign manager Chad Willems said the DOJ's decision will spark outrage among Maricopa County voters.
"We now see that the corrupt Obama Department of Justice will go to any lengths to damage Arpaio politically, that they’re even now are engaged in electioneering against the sheriff," he said. "If anybody out there believes that this decision is anything but pure politics and politically motivated, they are living on a different planet."
Asked for comment, the campaign of Arpaio’s Democratic challenger Paul Penzoneissued the following statement Tuesday.
“No one is above the law, and today’s announcement in court epitomizes the strength of the judicial system.The federal courts have been responsible and ethical in the oversight of these criminal violations by Sheriff Arpaio.I have utmost confidence that our voters will make the right decision to repair the damage that has been done to our community.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2016 | ['(NPR)', '(Arizona Central)'] |
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons reports that Syria has handed over data on its chemical weapons program. | The international chemical weapons watchdog says it has received "the expected" account by Syria of its chemical arms programme.
The announcement by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) comes before a deadline set for Damascus as part of a Russia-US deal.
Syria is believed to have about 1,000 tonnes of chemical toxins.
Its entire chemical weapons arsenal is meant to be dismantled by the middle of next year under the terms of the deal.
"We can confirm that we have received the expected disclosure from the Syrian government regarding its chemical weapons programme," the OPCW said. "The Technical Secretariat is currently reviewing the information received," the statement added.
On Monday, the UN confirmed in a report that the nerve agent sarin had been used in an attack in the Ghouta district of the capital, Damascus, on 21 August, killing hundreds of people. The report did not apportion blame, but the US, UK and France have accused Syrian government forces of carrying out the attack, and the US has threatened military action.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed rebel groups. Syria's ally, Russia, said it had "serious grounds" to believe the attack had been a provocation by the rebels.
| Armed Conflict | September 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
ISIL confirms the death of militant Jihadi John in an airstrike in November. | The Islamic State group's propaganda magazine has confirmed the British militant known as Jihadi John died in a drone strike in November.
The group published an obituary for the jihadist, whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi, in its online magazine Dabiq.
In November the US military said it was "reasonably certain" it had killed him in the IS-stronghold of Raqqa.
Emwazi appeared in beheading videos of victims including UK aid worker David Haines and taxi driver Alan Henning.
Who was Mohammed Emwazi?
In the eulogy, Kuwaiti-born Emwazi is referred to as Abu Muharib al-Muhajir, his nickname in the group and the details of his death confirm the US version of events.
The jihadist group said Emwazi was killed on 12 November "as the car he was in was targeted in a strike by an unmanned drone in the city of Raqqa, destroying the car and killing him instantly".
A smiling picture of the militant, who appears unmasked looking towards the ground, accompanies the text, which is written in tribute form to a man they describe as an "honourable brother".
Emwazi first emerged in August 2014 when he appeared masked in a video in which US journalist James Foley was apparently murdered.
Dubbed Jihadi John by the media, in February 2015 he was identified as Emwazi, a computer programming graduate who grew up in London.
He also appeared in videos of the beheadings of US journalist Steven Sotloff, Mr Haines, Mr Henning, as well as American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
He became a top target for US and British intelligence agencies, even though he is thought to have played no military role within IS.
At the time of his reported death in November, Prime Minister David Cameron said targeting Emwazi had been "the right thing to do".
He said the UK had been working with its US allies "literally around the clock" to track Emwazi down.
Three drones - one British and two American - were involved in the strike. One of the American drones hit the car, and it is believed there was one other person in the vehicle.
Mohammed Emwazi
Source: Cage, London-based campaign group
Civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, and now President Bashar al-Assad's government, IS, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all hold territory. Millions have been displaced and more than 250,000 people killed as a result of the fighting.
More than 750 people from the UK are thought to have travelled to support or fight for jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq, and approximately half of those have returned, Home Secretary Theresa May said in November.
Who was Mohammed Emwazi?
US believes strike killed 'Jihadi John'
'Jihadi John' claimed UK harassed him
Sister of IS suspect urges family help
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
In a rare move, the UN condemns the overthrowing of Aung San Suu Kyi and calls for an arms embargo. | Famous Person - Death | January 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hilary Mantel is awarded the 2013 David Cohen Prize for literature. | Fresh from winning the Costa prize and completing a Booker double, Hilary Mantel this evening added the award described as the "British Nobel" – the £40,000 David Cohen – to her haul of prizes.
Chair of judges Mark Lawson stood ready to defend to the hilt the decision by judges to reward a novelist who has already enjoyed an extraordinary year. "It seems paradoxical that giving a major literary prize – the British Nobel prize, as I think of it – to one of the most generally-admired and well-liked people in the literary world will be, for some, controversial," he said. "This is because of a feeling – voiced by some pundits and perhaps secretly thought by authors who feel unrewarded – that Hilary Mantel has recently been given too much too quickly. That issue, however, was rapidly dismissed by the judges. It would be ludicrous if a history of high achievement somehow disbarred a writer from the David Cohen prize's list of the highest literary achievers."
Established in 1993, the biennial David Cohen award celebrates an entire career, and has been won in the past by Nobel laureates Seamus Heaney, VS Naipaul and Harold Pinter and, last year, by Julian Barnes. Mantel's 28-year career is of a similar stature, with 13 books, including novels, short stories and memoir – as well as the two historical blockbusters which have brought her fame and fortune in more recent years, 2009's Booker-winning Wolf Hall, and last year's sequel, Bring Up the Bodies.
"There are some readers who think that I was born on the day Wolf Hall was published," said Mantel. "This prize acknowledges that there are no overnight sensations in the creative arts. That's not the way it works. The ground has to be prepared and I feel that this is recognition of the fact that for many many years I've been trying to perfect my craft."
In 1989, Mantel's clerical novel Fludd, set in a 1950s northern England town, won her the Winifred Holtby Memorial prize, the Cheltenham prize and the Southern Arts Literature prize. A Place of Greater Safety, set during the French revolution, took the Sunday Express Book of the Year award, while her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost (2003), was the MIND Book of the Year. In 2006 she was awarded a CBE.
"Crucially, while [Mantel's] other recent prizes have been for two recent books, the David Cohen prize assesses and rewards an entire career to date. In the case of Hilary Mantel, this means 28 years of work that has produced 13 books ranging across historical and contemporary novels, short stories and a memoir," said Lawson, who was joined on the David Cohen judging panel by authors, critics and academics including Kathleen Jamie, Kate Summerscale and Sarah Hall.
"While the judges were as impressed as most readers by Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, it is our particular hope that this prize for three decades of dedication to the possibilities of narrative imagination and English prose will direct attention to such earlier works as the novels Fludd, A Change of Climate and Beyond Black and the autobiography Giving Up The Ghost," said Lawson. "Consideration of this remarkable career soon led us to feel that we had had enough of anyone who will moan that Hilary Mantel has already had enough prizes."
The novelist, who drew controversy last month over misinterpreted remarks about the Duchess of Cambridge, said she "did at first find it a little bit hard to take in" when she heard she'd won the David Cohen. "My husband gave me the news and I said 'Oh I think you mean I've been invited to the David Cohen awards'." But she promised judges "that much as there is a lifetime's worth of work behind me, there is still a lifetime's worth of work still to come".
Part of Mantel's prize is to choose the recipient of the Clarissa Luard award, a £12,500 award for a literature organisation that supports young writers and readers or an individual writer under the age of 35. Mantel picked Katie Ward, an author who she met in 2007 and whose first novel – Girl Reading – she passed on to her agent. A bidding war ensued, and the book was published in 2011 by Virago.
"Hilary is a very special person to me. Not only is she a brilliant and perceptive author, she is also a kind and generous mentor," said Ward. "Over the years, she's dedicated a great deal of time to supporting new writers. I for one will always be grateful for her guidance, friendship and belief. To be receiving the Clarissa Luard Award is lovely, and a little surreal. I take it as encouragement to keep writing. It means I can finish my second novel with confidence and begin to think ahead about what I want to tackle next." | Awards ceremony | March 2013 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Final results in the Nepal Constituent Assembly election show that the Communist Party of Nepal won double the number of seats of the next largest party. | KATHMANDU (AFP) — Final results from Nepal's landmark elections gave the Maoist outsiders a clear victory with double the number of seats of their nearest rivals and favourites, officials said Thursday.
"We completed the nationwide counting of proportional representation late Wednesday night, and the Maoists have emerged well ahead," election commission official Matrika Shrestha told AFP.
The ultra-leftists have won a total of 217 seats in the new 601-member constituent assembly, whose first job will be to abolish the 240-year-old monarchy.
The Congress -- traditionally the dominant party in the Himalayan nation -- took just 107 seats, election officials also said.
The April 10 polls were a dual first-past-the-post and proportional representation system, and the Maoists had already secured 120 of the 240-seats up for grabs under the first-past-the-post system.
Counting for the 335 seats under proportional representation ended late Wednesday with the Maoists securing almost a third of the vote.
"The Maoists have got 29.27 percent of the total votes and the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)) received 21.13 and 20.33 per cent respectively," Shrestha said.
"This percentage will give the Maoists 97 seats under proportional representation," another election official Yam Bahadur Dura told AFP.
The new government is due to fill a further 26 seats.
The ultra-leftists' triumph looked to seal the fate of King Gyanendra who was forced to end a short period of direct rule in April 2006 after mass protests by the Maoists and mainstream parties.
Last December, Nepal's interim parliament agreed that the monarchy would be formally abolished in the first meeting of the assembly, before the body goes on to re-write Nepal's constitution.
The Maoists will head the new government that will be formed from the constitution-drafting assembly, but they say they are looking to build a coalition.
The elections were a central strand of a 2006 historic peace deal the Maoists signed with mainstream parties that ended their decade-long insurgency that left 13,000 people dead. | Government Job change - Election | April 2008 | ['(Maoist)', '(AFP via Google News)'] |
Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate join the list of retired Atlantic hurricane names. | Goodbye and good riddance. The names of last year's monster hurricanes — Harvey, Irma and Maria — will never be used again after they were officially "retired" Thursday.
The hurricanes killed hundreds of people, caused more than $200 billion in damage and brought misery and hardship to millions of Americans. The World Meteorological Organization also retired Nate, a hurricane that hit central America as a tropical storm, killing dozens, then hit the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane that hit Texas with winds of 132 mph, killed 68 people and dumped historic amounts of rain on Houston. With damage of $126 billion, it's the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history, behind Katrina.
Irma lashed the Caribbean and the U.S., making seven separate landfalls as it tore across the islands and the Southeast U.S. A Category 5 storm at its height with winds of 178 mph, Irma killed more than 100 people and devastated the island of Barbuda and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Hurricane Maria, with winds of 172 mph at its height, ravaged the island of Dominica as a Category 5 on Sept. 19 and later devastated Puerto Rico as a high-end Category 4 hurricane, producing catastrophic damage to the U.S. territory.
The meteorological organization retired the four names from its rotating list used for hurricanes and tropical storms in light of the death and destruction the storms caused.
The organization reuses storm names every six years in lists for the Atlantic and eastern Pacific basins. The nation hardest hit by a storm can request its name be removed because the storm was so deadly or costly that future use of the name would be insensitive.
The removal also avoids confusion caused by a future storm having the same name. In 2005, five storm names, including Katrina, were retired — the most for a single season.
The list from 2017 will be used again in 2023. The organization will replace Harvey with Harold, Irma with Idalia and Maria with Margot. Nate will be replaced by Nigel.
This year's Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1 — with Alberto.
More:It's going to be another busy, above average hurricane season, meteorologists say
In all, 86 hurricane names have now been retired. When a storm name is retired from the Atlantic's list of names, member countries of the meteorological organization from that region select a new name. For Atlantic storms, the name can be French, Spanish or English, reflecting the languages of residents of countries that could be hit by a hurricane.
In 1953, the U.S. began using female names for hurricanes and, by 1979, male and female names were used. The names alternate between male and female.
There are no Q, U, X, Y or Z names because of the lack of usable names that begin with those letters. If more than 21 storms form in one season, such as in 2005, the Greek alphabet is used to name the additional storms.
There are also separate lists for typhoons in the western Pacific and tropical cyclones in Australia and the Indian Ocean. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | April 2018 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Prosecutors in the state of Minnesota file criminal charges against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for allegedly mishandling sexual abuse allegations by a priest. | CHICAGO Prosecutors in Minnesota filed criminal charges on Friday against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, accusing church leaders of mishandling repeated complaints of sexual misconduct against a priest and failing to follow through on pledges to protect children and root out pedophile clergymen.
The charges and accompanying civil petition, announced by the Ramsey County prosecutor, John J. Choi, stem from accusations by three male victims who say that from 2008 to 2010, when they were under age, a local priest, Curtis Wehmeyer, gave them alcohol and drugs before sexually assaulting them.
Laurie Goodstein contributed reporting from New York. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2015 | ['(New York Times)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump fires the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman, whose office had been investigating the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A stand-off over the independence of one of the country’s most important prosecutor’s offices ended on Saturday when Geoffrey Berman agreed to step down as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the office that had been investigating President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani.
I'm not involved' -Trump on the firing of top Manhattan prosecutor
00:23
Berman’s confirmation of his departure came after Attorney General William Barr told him he had been fired by Trump at Barr’s request, and that Berman’s hand-picked No. 2, Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, would become Acting U.S. Attorney until a permanent replacement is installed.
Under Strauss’ leadership, Berman said the office could continue its “tradition of integrity and independence.”
Berman’s office, which is known for prosecuting the most high profile terrorism cases, Wall Street financial crimes and government corruption, has not shied from taking on figures in Trump’s orbit.
It oversaw the prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, indicted two Giuliani associates and launched a probe into Giuliani in connection with his efforts to dig up dirt on Trump’s political adversaries in Ukraine.
Giuliani has not formally been accused of any wrongdoing.
The standoff with Berman follows the latest in a series of moves by Barr that critics say are meant to benefit Trump politically and undermine the independence of the Justice Department.
It also comes as Trump has sought to purge officials perceived as not fully supporting him. In recent weeks he has fired a series of agency watchdogs, including one who played a key role in Trump’s impeachment earlier this year.
The row with Berman began late Friday, when Barr unexpectedly announced that Berman was stepping down and would be replaced by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton.
Berman, however, issued a statement of his own, saying he had no intention of stepping down until the Senate confirmed his successor, and that his office’s investigations would continue.
On Friday, Barr said he had picked Craig Carpenito, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New Jersey, to serve as Acting U.S. Attorney until Clayton’s confirmation.
But in a letter on Saturday to Berman, Barr back-tracked from that plan, saying Strauss would take over in an acting capacity.
One former Southern District prosecutor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Barr’s initial decision to install Carpenito was a “huge departure” from normal practice.
In the letter, Barr said he was “surprised and quite disappointed” by Berman’s statement late on Friday night in which he refused to quit his job, and he accused Berman of choosing “public spectacle over public service.”
“I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so,” Barr said.
‘I DON’T GET INVOLVED’
Trump told Fox News Channel he approved Barr’s request, and said he did not know Giuliani was being investigated by Berman, although he had read that recently.
“If (Barr) wants to do something ... I don’t get involved,” Trump said in an interview. “But the president has to sign a document, where I guess you give it your OK. And he wants to run his operation, and that’s okay with me.”
Asked if Barr said why he wanted to fire Berman, Trump said: “We spent very little time talking about it, but I have a lot of respect for Attorney General Barr.”
Although Berman agreed to step down on Saturday, it did not end the political controversy swirling around his highly unusual firing. It comes after Barr intervened in February to scale back a sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone over the advice of career prosecutors.
Then in May, Barr asked a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, again prompting questions about whether he was acting in the president’s personal interest.
Jerrold Nadler, the Chairman of the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee, said he has launched an investigation into Berman’s termination.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the firing appeared to have “base and improper motives,” while the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Diane Feinstein, urged the panel’s chairman, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, to launch an investigation into “political interference in the work of the Justice Department.”
Putting a spotlight on prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, a new book by John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, alleges that the president once promised Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan he would oust prosecutors in Berman’s office who were investigating a Turkish bank, Halkbank, for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran.
“The president said to Erdogan at one point, ‘Look, those prosecutors in New York are Obama people. Wait till I get my people in and then we’ll take care of this.’” Bolton told ABC News in a pre-taped interview set to air on Sunday.
Berman’s office ultimately secured an indictment against the bank, and the case is ongoing.
Barr, in his letter to Berman, said his departure would not impede ongoing investigations, and that any allegations of improper interference in a case should be referred to the Justice Department’s inspector general. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
According to reports, David Moyes will soon be sacked as manager of Manchester United after a season that left United without Champions League football for the first time in decades. | The former Everton manager may not even last as long as the end of the season
David Moyes is facing the sack by Manchester United, who have finally run out of patience with him and do not believe he can be trusted with the £150m overhaul the club intends to carry out this summer.
The manner of Sunday's defeat to Everton underlined how far the club have fallen in the 347 days since Moyes took over from Sir Alex Ferguson and the Glazer family now appear to have reached the conclusion that continuing with the 50-year-old would risk an extended period outside of the European elite, which the club cannot afford to take. It would make his reign even more undistinguished than the 18 months Wilf McGuiness was given when succeeding Sir Matt Busby.
Though United had been aiming to make the Scot's departure a graceful one when United's Premier League season ends at Southampton on May 11, he could leave imminently. Any attempt on his part to seek a clarification about his own future is unlikely to secure the reassurance he would be looking for. Without such assurances, he would be likely to tender his resignation and the United board would be likely to accept.
Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp, the Dutch national manager Louis van Gaal are high on the list of possible replacements, with the prospect of a return to Old Trafford by Laurent Blanc, currently Paris Saint Germain manager, not to be ruled out. The job done by Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone also makes him a contender.
Though Sir Alex Ferguson was adamant that Moyes should be given the time that he was allowed, when he took United through some very dark days in the late 1980s, he has become increasingly desperate about United's fall. Moyes's performances have called into question the judgement of the former manager in insisting that the Scot should succeed him.
Moyes is understood to have known after the desperate 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool on March 16 that he was skating on extremely thin ice and would have quit then if chief executive Ed Woodward had wanted him to. But the board told him at that stage that they were willing to let him tough things out.
The manner of the Champions League quarter final defeat to Bayern Munich may have strengthened his position. But the defeat to Everton - a side possessing all the confidence and self-expression that United lack - has left United with the conclusion that Moyes - who was appointed a mere 347 days ago - is not the man to lead them back.
Klopp is likely to feature highly on the list of possible replacements, with the dismantling of his own side underlined by the loss of Robert Lewandowski to Bayern Munich this summer possibly convincing the German that he can take the club no further. United chief executive Ed Woodward is an enthusiast for the way that Dortmund are run. Van Gaal is thought to have delayed making any commitment to joining Tottenham Hotspur as Tim Sherwood's successor until the United situation is resolved.
The old guard of Ferguson's era have felt for weeks that Moyes is not capable of taking United on, with Paul Scholes acute criticism of the side in the 3-0 home defeat to Manchester City last month underlining his profound doubts. Former captain Gary Neville, who insisted last December that it was an "insult" even to consider Moyes' future, observed towards the Everton game that United's meek display was as ambitious as it had got for the club this season.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2014 | ['(The Independent)'] |
Global warming protesters glue themselves to a road near the Port of Dover in England, blocking it. Police arrest ten people, believed to be members of Extinction Rebellion. Further scheduled protests take place in a dedicated area set up by police. | Ten people have been arrested during a climate change protest in Dover aimed at "blockading" the port.
Four of them, including men aged in their 80s and 90s, staged a sit in at the Eastern Docks Roundabout.
Extinction Rebellion campaigners are legally occupying part of the A20, off the roundabout, and near the port.
The campaign group said the "No Food on a Dying Planet" protest centred around the potential for food shortages as climate change develops.
Those arrested, on suspicion of public order offences, remain in custody as inquiries continue. Kent Police set up a designated area on the westbound A20 for activists to demonstrate, in order to "minimise disruption".
Traffic leaving the port is being diverted via the A2, on the opposite side of the Eastern Docks Roundabout.
However some protesters also blockaded part of the A2, by gluing themselves to the road. They were removed by police.
According to witnesses, one protester who had glued their hands to the road was taken away in a stretcher.
Ch Supt Andy Pritchard, from Kent Police, said disruption was "kept to a minimum".
Live music is expected later as part of the demonstration, while flags and signs adorn seafront railings, including slogans like "Rebel for life" and "Climate breakdown kills".
The protest was due to last until 15:00 BST.
It comes a day after thousands of people across the UK took part in a global "climate strike day".
Chris Atkins, from Extinction Rebellion Dover, said: "As climate change develops, millions of ordinary Britons will face the real and growing threat of food shortages, hunger and starvation.
"This crisis may seem far away now but given the dependency of the UK on food imports we are extremely vulnerable."
A Port of Dover spokeswoman said it was experiencing "intermittent delays" due to the protest, adding: "We are working closely with Kent Police to ensure as minimal disruption as possible."
| Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The European Union and Turkey agree on broad principles for a plan to ease the migration crisis which includes returning thousands of migrants to Turkey. For this, the EU will swiftly ease visa requirements for Turks and speed up Ankara's EU accession talks. A final agreement is to be ready for next week's two-day EU summit in Brussels, Belgium. (March 17-18, 2016, EU agenda) | European Union leaders said Tuesday they have reached a possible deal with Ankara to return thousands of migrants to Turkey, and that they are confident a full agreement can be reached at a summit next week.
After months of disagreements and increased bickering among the 28 EU nations, the leaders said they agreed to give Turkey more money to help refugees, swiftly ease visa requirements for Turks and speed up Ankara's accession talks in exchange for its help in stemming migration flows to Europe.
French President Francois Hollande said "the summit has created hope that the refugee question can be dealt with through solidarity in Europe, and efficiency in cooperation with Turkey."
All eyes are now on March 17 and the start of a two-day summit to finalize the commitment and agree on a deal that the leaders hope will allow for a return to normalcy at their borders by the end of the year.
"We hope that we can have an efficient method as well as a results-oriented approach, humanitarian approach without harming any refugee or the rights of refugees," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in advance of the reported agreement at a news conference at NATO headquarters.
New demands from Turkey
But the difficulties in reaching a deal were underscored by the talks themselves, which stretched hours later than initially scheduled. Turkey, which is sheltering an estimated 2.7 million Syrians, was reported to be asking for an extra $3.3 billion from the EU, roughly twice the amount already pledged by the 28-member bloc.
The new set of demands also included a deal for the EU to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in return for every Syrian refugee Turkey takes back from Greece. In addition, Turkish authorities wanted to speed up sputtering EU membership talks that have made little progress over the years.
Davutoglu cast the new Turkish proposals as a way to both rescue lives, staunch migrant trafficking and herald "a new era in EU-Turkish relations."
But deep divisions remain over finding a solution to Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II. More than 1 million migrants arrived on the continent last year, and roughly 142,000 have arrived so far this year, many crossing the Aegean to EU member Greece from Turkey.
Beyond differences with Turkey, EU countries are split among themselves over how to handle the crisis, as some countries install border controls while others — notably Germany and Sweden — call for a more humanitarian approach. Those differences were on display during an EU summit last month, when leaders failed to make any headway on the migrant issue.
‘Collective solution’ needed
New spats have flared up, including between France and Belgium over the fate of asylum-seekers in Calais — which has also been a longstanding bone of contention between France and Britain, the ultimate destination of many.
Even some areas of agreement — such as the voluntary resettlement of roughly 160,000 asylum-seekers — have shown little progress on the ground.
"There is a lack of political willingness to implement the decisions that have been taken," said Sergio Carrera, senior research fellow for the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, who said he was baffled by the EU's inaction toward asylum-seekers, many of whom come from conflict-torn countries such as Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.
Arriving at the talks Monday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras — whose country is on the front lines of the migrant influx — called on fellow EU members to honor their resettlement agreement.
"This is a European problem, so we have to find collective solutions to this problem," he said.
Some governments, however, seem opposed to following even already-existing rules, according to Carrera.
"These include basic human rights of the people arriving,” he said. “Then they want to rewrite their rules according to their own wishes."
But, he added, "a union cannot function like this."
Meanwhile, thousands of migrants are now stuck in Greece since non-EU member Macedonia blocked their passage northward as part of a domino series of border controls established by Balkan countries.
And more keep arriving — or lose their lives trying to do so. At least 18 asylum seekers were drowned off the Turkish coast Sunday, according to news reports.
Ahead of the Brussels meeting, Human Rights Watch warned that a potential deal with Ankara would mean a "flawed and potentially dangerous policy to refugee flows" across the Aegean.
"EU leaders are in a panic to stop refugee flows before spring," senior Human Rights Watch official Judith Sunderland said, "and they seem willing to throw human rights overboard in the process. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | March 2016 | ['(Voice of America)', '(BBC)'] |
Tens of thousands of Italians gather in Bari to march against the mafia and remember its many victims. | BARI, Italy (Reuters) - Thousands of Italians marched on Saturday in an anti-mafia protest and called on all citizens to take a public stand against Italy’s powerful crime syndicates.
Crying openly and shouting “Basta!” (Enough!), politicians and anti-mafia leaders made emotional appeals against keeping silent and read out the names of people assassinated by the mafia.
Many at the rally in the southern city of Bari held up pictures of relatives gunned down by members of organized crime.
“The mafia has not been defeated and above all the incurable ill of turning a blind eye needs to be defeated,” said Enzo Longo, the mayor of the Sicilian town of Capaci best known for the 1992 killing of a judge and his entourage by the mafia.
The founder of anti-mafia group Libera, Don Luigi Ciotti, led the march holding a small piano flute that belonged to an 11-year-old boy strangled 15 years ago by the mafia, who then left his body to dissolve in a tub of acid.
Organizers said 100,000 people took part in the march but there were no official estimates.
Italy’s government says it has inflicted major blows on the Sicilian mafia with the arrests of several high-profile suspects in recent months. Young Sicilians have also been leading efforts to openly reject calls to pay “pizzo” or protection money.
But a February report by a parliamentary commission on the mafia warned the Calabrian version of the mafia, called the ‘Ndrangheta, had become an increasingly powerful and sophisticated organization, comparing it to al Qaeda.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2008 | ['(Reuters)', '(EuroNews)'] |
Twenty-nine men are charged with the sexual exploitation and rape of a teenage girl over a seven-year period in Calderdale and Bradford, West Yorkshire, between 2003 and 2010. | Twenty-nine men have been charged in connection with the sexual exploitation and rape of a girl over a seven-year period in West Yorkshire.
The offences are said to have taken place in and around Calderdale and Bradford between 2003 and 2010 when the victim was aged between 13 and 20.
The men are due to appear at Bradford Magistrates' Court on 7 and 9 July.
Eight other suspects arrested during the West Yorkshire Police investigation have been released without charge. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
Jalisco New Generation Cartel massacres 19 people, hanging 9 of their desecrated bodies from a bridge in Uruapan. | The merciless dogfight between Mexican drug cartels has produced its latest macabre spectacle with the discovery of 19 mutilated corpses nine of them hung semi-naked from a bridge in a city to the west of the capital.
The massacre, in Uruapan 250 miles from Mexico City, was claimed by the increasingly dominant Jalisco New Generation cartel which posted a large white banner beside the dangling bodies of its victims.
“Lovely people, carry on with your routines,” it read, beneath the group’s capitalised red initials, CJNG.
At least 10 other dismembered and bullet-riddled bodies were reportedly found dumped in two nearby locations.
Michoacán state’s attorney general, Adrián López Solís, blamed the killings on a clash between rival cartels battling for control of the region’s drug trade. Troops were being mobilized to investigate the crimes and catch the killers, he said.
Falko Ernst, an International Crisis Group researcher who studies Mexico’s cartels, said this week’s slaughter was clearly intended to intimidate rival criminal groups, the families of their members, as well as Mexican authorities.
Ernst said the bloodbath was partly about the struggle for control of Uruapan’s local drug trade. But a more important motivation was the fight for the region’s billion-dollar avocado industry. “The big magnet here is avocados,” he said.
Ernst said at least three armed groups were currently battling for control of the city of Uruapan the CJNG, the Knights Templar cartel and Los Viagras, which is part of a larger organization called the the Nueva Familia Michoacana.
Stomach-churning displays of criminal might are not unusual in Mexico, which last year suffered a record 35,964 murders.
But the CJNG has become particularly notorious for its willingness to confront Mexican authorities with brazen public shows of brute force and firepower.
In May video footage emerged showing heavily armed cartel members parading through Zamora, another city in Michoacán, in cars marked with their group’s insignia. The cartel was blamed for a battle with local police that day that reportedly left at least four officers dead.
Why did Mexico launch its war on drugs?
On 10 December 2006, Felipe Calderón launched Mexico’s war on drugs by sending 6,500 troops into his home state of Michoacán, where rival cartels were engaged in tit-for-tat massacres.
Calderón declared war eight days after taking power a move widely seen as an attempt to boost his own legitimacy after a bitterly contested election victory. Within two months, around 20,000 troops were involved in operations.
What has the war cost so far?
The US has donated at least $1.5bn through the Merida Initiative since 2008, while Mexico spent at least $54bn on securityand defence between 2007 and 2016. Critics say that this influx of cash has helped create an opaque security industry open to corruption.But the biggest costs have been human: since 2007, over 250,000 people have been murdered, more than 40,000 reported as disappeared and 26,000 unidentified bodies in morgues across the country.Human rights groups have alsodetaileda vast rise in human rights abuses including torture, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances by state security forces.Pea Nieto claimed to have killed or detained 110 of 122 of his government's most wanted narcos. But hisbiggest victory and most embarrassing blunder was the recapture, escape, another recapture and extradition ofJoaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
Mexico’s decade-long war on drugs would never have been possible without the injection of American cash and military cooperation under the Merida Initiative. The funds have continued to flow despite indisputableevidence of human rights violations.Under new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, murder rates are up and a new security force, the Civil Guard, is being deployed onto the streets despite campaign promises to end the drug war.
What has been achieved?
Improved collaboration between the US and Mexico has resulted in numerous high-profile arrests and drug busts. Officials say 25 of the 37 drug traffickers on Calderón’s most-wanted list have been jailed, extradited to the US or killed, although not all of these actions have been independently corroborated.
The biggest victory and most embarrassing blunder under Pea Nieto’s leadership was the recapture, escape and another recapture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
While the crackdown and capture of kingpins has won praise from the media and US, it has done little to reduce the violence.
Uruapan boasts an unenviable place in Mexican drug trafficking lore. It was here, in 2006, that five severed heads were rolled on to a nightclub dancefloor by gangsters a ghoulish attack that made global headlines and helped trigger then president Felipe Calderón’s catastrophic six-year war on drugs. That failed offensive against the cartels resulted in an unprecedented period of bloodletting, with murder rates soaring across the country almost ever since.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who became Mexico’s president last December, swept to power promising to rethink his country’s fight against crime. He created a new security force called the national guard and vowed to tackle the social roots of crime by offering scholarships to disadvantaged teenagers.
But eight months into López Obrador’s presidency there is no sign of improvement. Official figures show there were at least 17,608 murders in the first half of the year.
La Voz de Michoacán, a local newspaper, said that this year, as armed groups battled for supremacy there, Michoacán state had found itself at the eye of the storm with 963 killings since January.
Even Mexico City long seen as a island of relative calm from the conflict has seen a surge in crime this year. | Armed Conflict | August 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A panel formed by the Senate of the Philippines concludes that operations under Oplan Tokhang by the Philippine National Police is unconstitutional. | THROUGH THE GATES. In this file photo, Makati police officers conduct Oplan TokHang inside the exclusive Forbes Park in Makati City on September 5, 2016
Photo by LeAnne Jazul/Rappler
The PNP chief says he doesn't want illegal drugs to flourish once again
MANILA, Philippines – Unfazed by a Senate panel's findings that one of his flagship anti-illegal drugs operations is unconstitutional, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said he has not made up his mind on whether or not to put a stop to it.
"Mas alam nila 'yun (The senators would know better). Kung unconstitutional, we will follow. Kung sabihin nila sa kanilang report na (If they say in their report that) we stop Oplan TokHang, then we will stop. Sabihin nila (They can say), you stop your war on drugs and let the drug menace continue," said Dela Rosa during a press conference at Camp Crame on Thursday, December 8.
But he said he will have to seriously consider the matter. "Pag-isipan ko muna kung stop ko 'yan dahil 'di ako papayag na kakalat ang droga. But 'yung legal standpoint na 'yan, we will follow what is legal. I-co-consider namin."
(I'll think about it before I stop it because I will not allow illegal drugs to spread. But we will follow the legal standpoint. We will consider it.)
Dela Rosa, who has led the PNP since the war on drugs began in July, said the police will "step back and reconsolidate [its] forces and reevaluate the situation."
"TokHang" refers to Oplan TokHang, among the PNP's main anti-drug campaigns. TokHang is a combination of the Bisaya words "tuktok" and "hangyo" which literally means "to knock" and "to plead." Police knock on the homes of suspected drug users and pushers to ask them to change their ways.
His brainchild
The operation is the brainchild of Dela Rosa, during his stint as Davao City chief of police. Since going nationwide, TokHang has been customized by different police chiefs and commanders, also upon the orders of Dela Rosa.
It has one common feature, however. "Surrendered" personalities are typically asked to go to the nearby police station or barangay (village) hall and are made to sign "voluntary surrender certificates." The Senate committee on justice and human rights noted that doing this was "in violation of [the surrenderer's] Constitutional rights, particularly the rights of the accused."
The committee said police and other law enforcement offers should avoid "urging" drug personalities to sign the certificates. Committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon is himself a lawyer.
Oplan TokHang is the PNP's main program to nab "street level" drug personalities – small-time pushers and users, for instance. Since July 1, police have tallied over 800,000 "surrendered" personalities nationwide.
How did this story make you feel?
But the program is not without its controversies. Some Oplan TokHang excursions have ended up bloody. There have also been reports of TokHang "surrenderers" who were eventually gunned down by police in supposed operations.
The police insist those who died fought back and threatened the lives of cops. (READ: Dela Rosa to Senate: We are not butchers)
Although the committee led by Gordon has raised alarm over the constitutionality of TokHang, there have been no moves – even from Duterte's fiercest critics – to question the police operation before the Supreme Court. | Government Policy Changes | December 2016 | ['(Rappler)'] |
The Venezuelan government takes six cable television channels off the air, including RCTV, after they refused to transmit government messages. | The Venezuelan government has taken six cable television channels off the air for breaking a law on transmitting government material.
The privately owned RCTV International, openly opposed to President Hugo Chavez, is one of those affected. On Saturday the government had ordered RCTV to televise a government message, but the channel refused to comply. The communications director for RCTV, Gladys Zapain, told AFP there was "no prior notification" of the move. Last week RCTV, along with 23 other cable channels, was redefined by the government as a national, rather than international broadcaster. As such, the channels would now be expected to carry presidential addresses and government campaign material in what is an election year in Venezuela. 'Battle of wills'
The government had urged cable services to drop channels ignoring the rules. "They must comply with the law, and they cannot have a single channel that violates Venezuelan law as part of their programming," said the director of Venezuela's state-run telecommunications agency, Diosdado Cabello. When the first opportunity to televise a government message was rejected by RCTV, it was ordered off air within a day. The BBC's Will Grant in Caracas says there was only going to be one winner in such a battle of wills. He says it is thought that the move is temporary at this stage, but that the government is unlikely to permit RCTV to broadcast again until the media group agrees to comply with the new law. Opposition groups accuse Mr Chavez of trying to control the media and prevent coverage of political discontent. RCTV moved to cable in 2007 after the Venezuelan government of Mr Chavez refused to renew its terrestrial licence. Mr Chavez has in the past accused it of backing a coup attempt against him. | Government Policy Changes | January 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Azerbaijan says three people have been killed and three others injured after a funeral procession in Tartar District was shelled by Armenian forces, while the Armenian prosecutor-general's office says two soldiers were killed in a drone strike in Vardenis; the soldiers were not involved in military action. | Hopes of a humanitarian ceasefire ending fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh sank further on Thursday as the death toll mounted and Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of launching new attacks, Reuters reports.
Armenia accused Turkey of blocking flights carrying emergency aid from using its airspace, and Azerbaijan's president warned of "new victims and new bloodshed" from fighting over the mountain enclave that broke out on Sept. 27.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev demanded that Armenia "halt attempts to capture liberated territories back" and said his country would take all regions of Nagorno-Karabakh if Armenia "acts negatively."
Last Saturday's ceasefire, aimed at letting the sides swap detainees and bodies of those killed in the clashes, has had little impact on the fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountain territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated and governed by ethnic Armenians.
In the deadliest flare-up since a 1990s war killed about 30,000 people, 604 Nagorno-Karabakh defence personnel have been killed, ethnic Armenian authorities say.
On Thursday, three Azeri civilians were killed and three were wounded during a funeral in Azerbaijan's Terter region when an artillery shell fell on a cemetery, presidential aid Hikmet Hajiyev said on Twitter.
That would add to Azeri estimates provided on Wednesday that 43 civilians had so far been killed. Baku does not disclose military casualties. The prosecutor's office said earlier on Thursday that two civilians had been wounded in shelling of the Aghdam area.
The Armenian prosecutor-general's office said Azeri drones had killed two soldiers in the Vardenis region of Armenia on Wednesday, raising the Armenian military death toll to five. The servicemen were not involved in military action, it said.
A tweet from Nagorno-Karabakh's ombudsman accused Azerbaijan of using heavy rockets to target civilian infrastructure in the town of Stepanakert.
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Sunday of violating a new humanitarian ceasefire in fighting over the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, hours after it was agreed,Reutersreports. The truceagreed on Saturday came into force at midnight (2000 GMT) after a week-old Russian-brokeredceasefirefailed to halt the worst fighting in the South…
Armenian and Azeri forces fought new clashes on Friday, defying hopes of ending nearly three weeks of fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Turkey for inflaming the situation by arming the Azeris, Reutersreports. The worst outbreak of violence in the South Caucasus since…
Turkey’s parliament approved the deployment of troops to join Russian forces at an observation post in Nagorno-Karabakh after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire to end fighting over the enclave, the Turkish Defence Ministry announced,Al Jazeerareports. According to the report, Russian forces will allow Turkish troops to be stationed… | Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(Middle East Monitor)'] |
Kenyan pastor John Kamau Mbugua pleads not guilty to two charges over an alleged plot to bomb a campaign rally for next month's constitutional referendum. | A Kenyan pastor has pleaded not guilty to two charges over an alleged plot to bomb a campaign rally for next month's constitutional referendum.
John Kamau Mbugua and two other men were arrested on Saturday, allegedly in possession of fertiliser and a detonator.
Police say he was planning to travel to Mombasa, where churches had helped organise a rally for the "No" campaign.
Last month, a grenade attack on a similar church rally led to six deaths.
Ahead of the 4 August referendum, some fear a new outbreak of political violence. Three MPs, including as assistant minister were last month charged with hate speech over their campaigns against the referendum.
Some 1,300 people were killed and 300,000 forced from their homes after the disputed December 2007 elections.
In court, Mr Mbugua said he was a pastor with the local Victory Church, although church officials say he was excommunicated three years ago.
The two others pleaded guilty to possession of explosives but denied charges of planning injure members of the public. They said the explosives were to be used in a quarry.
Mr Mbugua is also a local official with President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU).
Both President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are campaigning in favour of the draft constitution.
They agreed to share power in 2008 in order to end the post-election violence but their alliance remains shaky.
Some churches oppose the draft constitution because it recognises Muslim courts.
The document provides for greater checks on presidential powers and more regional devolution. It also recognises the UN human rights charter and creates a second parliamentary chamber - the senate. Kenya MPs held over hate speech | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Over 1,500 supporters of opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are arrested ahead of a planned protest in the capital Islamabad against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. | A supporter of the opposition party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan makes victory sign as he is detained by police near Khan's residence on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 31, 2016. Pakistani police launched a nation-wide crackdown overnight, arresting at least 1,500 of Khan’s supporters ahead of an opposition rally planned later this week in Islamabad, officials said.
Anjum Naveed/The Associated Press
This article was published more than 4 years ago. Some information in it may no longer be current.
Pakistani police launched a nation-wide crackdown overnight, arresting at least 1,500 supporters of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan ahead of an opposition rally planned later this week in Islamabad, officials said Monday.
The arrests followed intermittent clashes over the weekend between Khan's supporters and riot police in the capital that saw police using tear gas and batons to fight stone-throwing protesters.
The violence erupted again Monday when police fired tear gas at nearly 3,000 supporters on a main highway some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Islamabad. Khan's party rules in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and its chief minister, Pervez Khattak, and some cabinet ministers led the protesters.
Police official Hussain Awan said the protesters pelted police with stones and bricks, burned several vehicles and chanted slogans against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had warned Sunday that the government would extend protocol to Khattak if he arrived in the capital formally but that he would be dealt with strictly if he led the protesters.
Amnesty International expressed concern over the situation demanding that Pakistani authorities release opposition activists and allow demonstrators to exercise their right to peaceful assembly.
"Pakistan's authorities must immediately and unconditionally release hundreds of opposition activists, lift restrictions on their movement," Amnesty said in a statement. "If sporadic incidents of violence occur, the authorities should identify the responsible people. Using the violent acts of a few as a pretext to restrict or impede the rights of a majority is in clear violation of Pakistan's obligations under international law."
On Monday, a Pakistani court barred Khan's followers from demonstrating on Islamabad streets, restricting the rally to within the limits of a city park, said government prosecutor Saddique Awan. Last week, the government imposed a two-month ban on street rallies in the capital.
Khan's attorney Babar Awan said the party would appeal. The party has called for massive street demonstrations for Wednesday, threatening to lock down Islamabad in a bid to force Sharif to resign.
Sharif has been under pressure after his family members were named as holders of offshore bank accounts in leaked financial documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
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Police have conducted raids based on tips and information about planned violence, said government spokesman Zaeem Qadri. Those who pledge not to take part in violent actions are released, while those considered a threat remain in custody pending charges, he said.
Two security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the number of those arrested overnight ranges between 1,500 and 1,800. Punjab provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah said 838 Khan supporters were arrested.
Police have already placed shipping containers on key highways leading to Islamabad to stop convoys of Khan supporters from reaching the capital.
The interior minister said Khan's followers had violent plans, which included the storming of government offices.
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If you would like to write a letter to the editor, please forward it to letters@globeandmail.com. Readers can also interact with The Globe on Facebook and Twitter .
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We aim to create a safe and valuable space for discussion and debate. That means:
If you do not see your comment posted immediately, it is being reviewed by the moderation team and may appear shortly, generally within an hour. We aim to have all comments reviewed in a timely manner. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2016 | ['(The Globe and Mail)'] |
New York police arrest members of Jewish group IfNotNow during a protest against Israeli actions. IfNotNow members were blockading a local politician, and have previously chained themselves to the Israeli consulate. |
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Members of a left-wing group protesting Israel’s actions along its border with Gaza were arrested at protests in Boston and New York.
Reports said police in Boston arrested eight members of IfNotNow after they chained themselves to Israel’s consulate in Boston on April 3, and seven on Monday as they blockaded the entrance to the New York office of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader.
“We always welcome hearing from our constituents on critical matters such as this, and support their right to express their views,” Marisa Kaufman, Schumer’s spokeswoman, told JTA. Schumer is a leading defender of Israel in the Senate.
Another four were arrested Tuesday in Minneapolis outside that city’s Jewish Community Relations Council office, an IfNotNow spokesman said.
The protests followed clashes at the Gaza border between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers. Some 30 Palestinians, including a journalist, have been killed since the protests began on March 30 in what the Israeli military is calling a justified response to violence and critics are calling excessive force.
“Senator Schumer – your silence speaks volumes!” the protesters chanted, according to Haaretz.
After the Boston protest, the Israeli consul general said the demonstrators crossed the line with their rhetoric and by chaining themselves to the consulate’s gate.
“Israel and America have a shared appreciation for freedom of expression, based of course on respect for the law,” Yehuda Yaakov told the Boston Globe. “What we saw today crossed the line into lawlessness, following a recent public call on social media to ‘Target Yehuda Yaakov.'”
In total, IfNotNow said it protested at 26 sites across the country in recent days, targeting groups either for supporting Israel’s actions or not speaking out against them. Among these were the American Israel Public Affairs Committee office in Washington, D.C., and the Union for Reform Judaism office in New York.
The protesters “called on the URJ, the largest denomination of American Jewry — which has taken bold progressive positions against gun violence and Israel’s mistreatment of liberal Jews, among other issues — to condemn the shocking murders of Palestinian protesters by the IDF,” an IfNotNow statement said.
The protesters in Gaza have been massing at the security fence with Israel in order to reclaim lands inside Israel they say their families once owned. Israeli officials say they have the right to protect the country’s borders from unauthorized entry and that the protesters, who are backed by Hamas, the terrorist group controlling Gaza, have not been peaceful.
On Monday, five days after the IfNotNow protest outside the URJ, the Reform body’s president, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, issued a statement calling on Israel to take measures ensuring that civilians and reporters are not harmed.
“There appears to be no doubt that Hamas has made cynical and violent use of those Gazans who seek a more hopeful future,” he said. “But, at the same time, we call on Israel to take all necessary and effective precautions so that innocent civilians will not be harmed. Additionally, the press — especially when marked clearly as such — must be protected as non-combatant civilians.”
Mark Pelavin, the URJ’s chief program officer, told JTA that Jacobs’ statement was in the works before the IfNotNow protest, but also said the URJ “noticed” the protest.
“We are not unwilling or unhappy to engage with them,” Pelavin said, noting that the group had exhibited at Reform’s biennial conference.
AIPAC declined to comment.
IfNotNow, launched during the 2014 Gaza war, protests Israel’s actions in the West Bank and along the Gaza border and urges the U.S. Jewish community to “end their support for the occupation.”
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By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA.org | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2018 | ['(The Jewish Telegraphic Agency)', '(The Times of Israel)'] |
Four Tunisian soldiers are killed by a land mine during a counter-terrorism operation in Mount Mghila, central Tunisia. (AFP via Barron's) | A landmine blast killed four Tunisian soldiers on Wednesday during a counter-terrorism operation in mountainous central Tunisia, the defence ministry said.
"Four soldiers who were part of a military unit tasked with carrying out a combing operation of Mount Mghila looking for terrorist elements were killed by a mine," ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekri told AFP.
Mount Mghila, near the border with Algeria, is adjacent to Mount Chaambi, which is considered a hideout for jihadists.
The sweep was "part of the regular anti-terrorist operations carried out by military forces in the region," Zekri said.
He said an operation was ongoing but declined to provide further details.
Tunisia has seen a surge in radical Islam since veteran president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the country's 2011 revolution.
Dozens of members of the security forces have been killed since then in jihadist attacks.
The security situation has greatly improved in recent years, but Tunisian forces continue to be targeted.
Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said Wednesday's incident "will not stop us from pursuing our efforts to fight and defeat terrorism".
"Our compass must always stay pointed towards protecting the nation from all dangers... far from all tensions and quarrels," he said in a statement, alluding to Tunisia's prevailing political climate.
Parliament approved a cabinet reshuffle a week ago but the new ministers are still waiting to be sworn in due to a standoff between President Kais Saied and key parties in the legislature.
Tunisia's bloodiest single attack against the army was in July 2014, when 15 soldiers were killed on Mount Chaambi.
The army has been battling militants in the rugged area since 2012.
Tunisia's mountainous central Kasserine region is also a hideout for the Tunisian branch of jihadist group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) known as Okba Ibn Nafaa.
. | Armed Conflict | February 2021 | [] |
Two campaigners for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe are freed after spending six days in custody on charges of possessing pornographic material and insulting President Robert Mugabe. | Harare - A Zimbabwe court on Thursday freed two employees of a gay organisation after six days in jail on allegations of possessing indecent material and displaying a placard seen as insulting to President Robert Mugabe, an outspoken critic of homosexuality. The Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (Galz) organisation said on Thursday that the two employees were assaulted by police while in custody. Defence attorney David Hofisi said the two were also made to bend their knees into a sitting position with their arms outstretched for long periods and were struck with bottles when they weakened and fell. Magistrate Munamate Mutevedzi on Thursday released the two on bail of $200 each until a trial set for June 10, where they will face penalties of imprisonment or a fine. Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe and most African countries, with the exception of South Africa. Police allege the two employees possessed photographs of gay sex and posted a letter in their office from former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown criticising the Zimbabwean president's opposition to homosexuality. The organisation identified them as Ellen Chadehama, 34, and Ignatius Mhambi, 38 and said both were married with children. They were arrested on Friday on allegations under censorship laws and sweeping security laws making it an offence "to undermine the authority of the president". The US former mayor's letter also commended the local organisation as a champion of gay rights. State prosecutors asked the court to deny bail. Mutevedzi said provisions of Zimbabwe law on both allegations did not take into account the sexuality of suspected offenders.
'Lower than pigs'
"The generality of Zimbabweans pictures of a man and a man having sex would easily be regarded as morally reprehensible," he said. Mugabe, 86, has described same-sex partners as "lower than dogs and pigs" but arrests of gays are rare in Zimbabwe. Mugabe had been in power for three decades since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain. Last year, he entered a power-sharing coalition government with his long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai following a disputed 2008 election. However, the fragile partnership has been fraught with disagreements, including allegations that Mugabe's party has not done enough to promote democratic and human rights reforms. Mugabe has vowed not to allow gay rights to be written into a new constitution being drafted by the coalition. Last week in the southeast African nation of Malawi, a judge sentenced a gay couple to a maximum of 14 years in prison with hard labour after the men celebrated their engagement with a party at a hotel. In Uganda, lawmakers are considering a bill under which homosexuals could be sentenced to life in prison and "repeat offenders" could be executed. Ugandan church groups have accused Western countries of exporting homosexuality to Africa under the guise of human rights. Even in South Africa, the only African country that recognises gay rights, gangs have raped lesbians.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | May 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(IOL)', '(News24.com)'] |
In Seattle, Washington, a Seattle Fire Department crew, responding to reports of a natural gas leak in the Greenwood neighborhood, are caught in an explosion that injures nine firefighters. The explosion blew out windows in businesses and storefronts in the surrounding blocks, destroying three businesses and heavily damaging a fourth. | March 9, 2016 by Kellie Randall An early morning explosion leveled several Greenwood businesses and sent nine firefighters to the hospital on March 9, 2016.
Fire companies responded to reports of a natural gas leak at 1:04 a.m. in the vicinity of Greenwood Avenue North and 85th Street. A short time later flying glass and debris from an explosion and fire injured eight firefighters and a battalion chief. All were transported to Harborview Medical Center with minor injures and treated and released. Search dogs have been brought in as a precaution to ensure there are no other patients.
The explosion blew out windows in businesses and storefronts in the surrounding blocks. Seattle Fire Investigators are working with the Seattle Police Arson Bomb Unit and Puget Sound Energy to determine the cause of the explosion and two alarm fire.
Approximately 70 Seattle Firefighters responded to the incident. Firefighters will remain on scene throughout the day on fire watch.
Greenwood Avenue North is currently closed between 87th Street and 83rd Street and 1st Avenue Northwest and Dayton Ave Northwest. | Gas explosion | March 2016 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(KING–TV)', '(Seattle Fire Department)'] |
Burma's Home Minister General Maung Oo says Aung San Suu Kyi will be released by November this year. | YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed when her house arrest ends in November, according to a government minister quoted by witnesses on Monday, but critics said that may be too late for this year’s elections.
A pro-democracy activist for Myanmar holds a portrait of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest in New Delhi August 12, 2009. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Home Minister Major General Maung Oo told a January 21 meeting of local officials the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner would be released in November, a month after many observers expect the country to hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades.
The information could not be verified independently but three people who attended the meeting said the comment was made to an audience of several hundred people in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 565 km (350 miles) north of the former capital, Yangon.
The three witnesses requested anonymity.
Suu Kyi, detained for 14 of the past 20 years, was sentenced to a further 18 months of detention last August for harboring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home, raising questions over whether the election will be a sham.
That incident took place in May 2009, just before an earlier period of house arrest was due to end. Taking into account the three months she spent in a prison guesthouse after the incident, her 18-month sentence would end in November.
The planned election would be the first since 1990, when Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party scored a landslide victory that the country’s junta refused to recognize.
Related Coverage
Maung Oo also said detained NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo would be released on February 13, and that the government would pursue an international-style market economy after holding “free and fair” elections, including loosening restrictions on car imports.
Tin Oo, 82, a former defense minister and retired general, has been in prison or under house arrest for more than a decade.
Senior NLD official Khin Maung Swe said it was crucial Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were released before the election.
“The most important thing is they must be freed in good time so that they can work for national reconciliation,” he said.
The military junta has not set a date for the election but has promised U.S. President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders the vote would be free, fair and inclusive.
In recent months Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet the junta’s liaison officer and foreign diplomats.
The NLD has not yet said whether it would take part in the elections, portrayed by the generals as a move to a multi-party democracy but derided by opponents as a sham designed to let the army retain real power.
The United States and others are reviewing policy toward the former Burma after years of sanctions and trade embargoes failed to get the junta to improve its human rights record or relax its grip on power.
Obama has offered Myanmar the prospect of better ties with Washington if it pursued democratic reform and freed political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | January 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
No candidate wins a majority in the Maldives' first democratic presidential election; the incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom will face Mohamed Nasheed in a runoff. | Mohamed Nasheed (Anni), presidential candidate for the largest opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), on Thursday night he has secured the support of the four other opposition candidates now eliminated in the presidential race.
The first round of voting on Wednesday saw Anni and incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, in power for 30 years, gain the top two places and proceed to a runoff.
After preliminary results were issued Thursday morning, independent candidate Dr Hassan Saeed, who had placed third, offered unconditional backing to Anni, as did last-placed Social Liberal Party candidate Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra).
“We welcome Dr Hassan Saeed’s support…We are thankful for Ibra’s support. We hear Umar Naseer of the Islamic Democratic Party will join us,” said Anni at a press briefing at the MDP’s Haruge Dhunfinige, attended by hundreds of MDP supporters.
“We just came from a second discussion with the Republican Party. Tonight at some point, the party will announce their support for us,” he added.
However the Republicans – whose candidate, former finance minister Gasim Ibrahim, placed fourth – have yet to make a public statement, as does the IDP, despite rumours they would appear beside Anni at the late night event.
“Every success of ours is obtained on the edge of a razor blade. We are ready for a second round even tomorrow,” said Anni.
A runoff was declared after no candidate managed to secure more than 50 percent of the Wednesday’s vote. Gayoom won the greatest support with 40.63 per cent, whilst Anni placed second with 25.09 per cent.
Anni’s running mate, Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik of the National Alliance party, said the party was also looking forward to defections from the government’s Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP).
“A very reliable source told me one of the DRP’s vice presidents will shortly join the MDP,” said Waheed.
The DRP generally has four vice presidents, but with one slot currently vacant, the three in place are the President’s nephew Hamdhun Hameed; his running mate Thasmeen Ali; and business magnate Ahmed “Sun Travel” Shiyam, perhaps the most likely defector.
“We are ready to form alliances, we are ready to compromise, to take steps forward,” Anni told reporters.
Together, Anni, Saeed and Ibra look set to command greater support than Gayoom, with a combined total of 42.65 per cent in the first round.
However Gasim’s 15.32 percent of the electorate could still prove key, and would bring Anni’s potential support – based on first round figures for all opposition candidates – to just under 60 per cent.
The MDP has not ruled out offering cabinet portfolios to other parties to garner support, with Anni saying the party could “only reveal details [of negotiations] after discussion with other parties.”
“God willing on 11 November there will a Maldivian citizen’s government in Maldives… By principle, we are willing to work with everyone,” he said. The five opposition groups had held deliberations in May to produce a joint candidate to challenge Gayoom, but failed to agree on a mechanism to select a single candidate. Instead, they agreed to support whichever candidate garnered most votes in the first round.
If Gasim backs Anni, it is unclear whether the religious conservative Adhaalath Party and Maldivian National Congress, which had formed a coalition with the Republicans ahead of the first round, will join him.
“It is very good we had to go to a runoff,” Anni said on Thursday.
“If this had been over in the first round [with a joint candidate] there would not be room for the formation of new political personalities. With the participation of all political parties we can achieve a better victory,” he said, despite having previously advocated the single-candidate concept.
“If the MDP had won in the first round, that would be good for the party. But in total, for the future of Maldives, this is better,” he added. Despite President Gayoom securing the largest share of the vote, Anni has claimed a “victory” for the opposition. “60 per cent of people want to bring an end to this cruel government,” he said.
When asked about possible legal action against Gayoom under an MDP government, Anni echoed previous conciliatory lines, saying: “We cannot win with a culture of revenge and retaliation.”
He highlighted legal action is open to the public as “we have an independent judiciary. We will not try to influence it.” “We do not want former presidents of Maldives to leave the country. With that kind of thinking we cannot go to the Other Maldives that we envision,” he said.
Wednesday’s election is the first time Gayoom has faced rivals at the polls. Anni has been one of Gayoom’s most longstanding opponents, and has faced 26 different charges over political activity. | Government Job change - Election | October 2008 | ['(Minivan News)'] |
Eighty–eight people are injured following an apartment fire in Ulsan, South Korea. | A fire that was spread up a high-rise apartment building by high winds left scores of people with minor injuries in a South Korean port city
SEOUL, South Korea -- A fire spread up a high-rise apartment building by strong winds in a South Korean port city left scores of people with minor injuries, officials said Friday.
Footage from the scene in Ulsan showed a huge ball of orange flame soaring up the 33-floor building and shooting through the roof as firefighting crews tried to put out the blaze from below.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries. Hundreds of residents evacuated as the fire broke out while workers rescued another 77 who had escaped to the roof or other spaces.
South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety said at least 88 people were treated for minor injuries such as scratches or lightly inhaling smoke.
Officials are investigating the cause of the fire, which they said started at a balcony in one of the lower floors late Thursday and spread up the exterior of the building amid strong winds. The fire was nearly put out as of 9 a.m. Friday. | Fire | October 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
In Niger, a military junta named the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy carries out a coup d'état, suspending the constitution and detaining President Mamadou Tandja. |
A coup has taken place in Niger and the president has been captured after a gun battle in the capital, Niamey.
In a televised announcement, a spokesman for the plotters said Niger's constitution had been suspended and all state institutions dissolved. The junta imposed a curfew and closed the country's borders. President Mamadou Tandja, in power for more than a decade in the uranium-rich nation, is believed to be in captivity at a military barracks. Reports say government ministers are also being held.
Tensions have been growing in the country since last August, when Mr Tandja changed the constitution to allow him to stay in power beyond his legal term limit. The move provoked a political crisis and threw Niger into isolation - regional grouping Ecowas (Economic Community Of West African States) suspending its membership. Poverty, deception
A spokesman for the coup leaders said the country was now being led by a group called the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD). He called on the people of Niger to "remain calm and stay united around the ideals postulated by the CSRD... [to] make Niger an example of democracy and good governance".
The area near the presidential palace is where the business of government takes place and at least four military barracks are based there. People have fled the area and some civil servants have locked themselves inside their offices.
Earlier, smoke could be seen from the roof of the office where President Mamadou Tandja was holding his cabinet meeting.
"We call on national and international opinions to support us in our patriotic action to save Niger and its population from poverty, deception and corruption," he added. The BBC's Idy Baraou in Niamey says despite the curfew, people have gone to mosques and shops as normal. He says there is not an obvious military presence on the streets, but heavy artillery has been deployed around the presidential palace. The African Union has condemned the takeover saying coups were contrary to the AU's vision of a continent free of unconstitutional changes of government. But one opposition leader, Mahamadou Karijo, welcomed the coup and praised the soldiers as "honest patriots". "They behave like they say - they are not interested in political leadership, they will fight to save the Nigerien people from any kind of tyranny," he told the BBC's Network Africa. Huge investment
Soldiers captured Mr Tandja while he was chairing his weekly cabinet meeting, a government source told the BBC.
The government and opposition have been holding on-off talks since December - mediated by the regional body Ecowas - to try to resolve the country's political crisis. Mr Tandja, a former army officer, was first voted into office in 1999 and was returned to power in an election in 2004. Niger has experienced long periods of military rule since independence from France in 1960. It is one of the world's poorest countries, but Mr Tandja's supporters argue that his decade in power has brought a measure of economic stability. Under his tenure, the French energy firm Areva has begun work on the world's second-biggest uranium mine - ploughing an estimated $1.5bn into the project. China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $5bn deal in 2008 to pump oil within three years. | Regime Change | February 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(Business Day)'] |
Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics throws the 19th perfect game in Major League Baseball history in a 4–0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. | Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in major league history on Sunday, shutting down the majors' hottest team and leading the Oakland Athletics to a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Braden threw his arms in the air after Gabe Kapler grounded out to shortstop for the final out, his simmering feud with Yankees star Alex Rodriguez merely a footnote to the first perfect game for Oakland in 42 years.
The closest the Rays got to a hit was Jason Bartlett's liner to third leading off the game. Evan Longoria tried to bunt leading off the fifth, drawing boos from the small crowd.
"Pretty cool," Braden said. "I don't know what to think about it just yet. There's definitely a select group. I'd like to have a career more than today."
Before this gem, Braden was best known for his enraged reaction to Rodriguez walking across the mound on April 22. Still angry after the game, he told the slugger "to go do laps in the bullpen" if he wanted to traipse across a mound.
The squabble was still simmering last week. On Friday in Boston, Rodriguez said he didn't want to extend Braden's "extra 15 minutes of fame."
A-Rod struck a far more conciliatory tone Sunday.
"I've learned in my career that it's always better to be remembered for some of the good things you do on the field, and good for him," Rodriguez said before facing Boston. "He threw a perfect game. And, even better, he beat the Rays."
That said, Braden's grandmother may have gotten the last word:
"Let's forget it, uh huh -- and stick it, A-Rod," said a chuckling Peggy Lindsey, who was in the stands watching.
This was the majors' first perfect game since Mark Buehrle did it for the White Sox against the Rays on July 23, and the second no-hitter this season after Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez accomplished it in Atlanta on April 17.
"I'm a bad omen. That's the third perfect game and fourth no-hitter I've been on the wrong side of," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "When Kenny Rogers threw his I was the bullpen coach. If you want to see another one, just follow me around."
Braden pitched the A's first perfect game since Hall of Famer Jim "Catfish" Hunter's gem on May 8, 1968, against the Minnesota Twins. Only 6,298 were there to witness it. Sunday's crowd at the Coliseum wasn't much better: 12,228.
Braden (4-2) wasn't fazed by anything, locating his fastball in every spot, throwing two-strike changeups and getting quick outs against a Rays team that lost on the road for just the third time this year. He struck out six in the improbable 109-pitch performance, throwing 77 strikes in his 53rd career start and first complete game.
Braden's teammates mobbed him when the Mother's Day masterpiece was over, leaving bats and gloves scattered on the field. The left-hander pointed to the sky in honor of his single mom, Jodie Atwood, who died of skin cancer when he was a high school senior. He shared a long and tearful hug with Lindsey, who helped raise him, in front of the dugout.
"It hasn't been a joyous day for me in a while," Braden said. "With my grandma in the stands, it makes it a lot better."
Braden's perfect game was the sixth no-hitter in Oakland history. The 26-year-old Braden, a native of nearby Stockton, was a 24th-round draft pick by the A's in 2004. He improved his career record to 18-23.
"Little League, I got a couple of them under my belt," Braden said. "In the bullpen, I'm damn near perfect every day."
His grandmother gets the game ball, the Stockton Hall of Fame everything else. Dozens of supporters from Stockton packed the Coliseum's Section 209 -- the number of their area code.
Last Mother's Day, Braden was hit by a line drive by Vernon Wells.
"You know, a year later you don't expect anything like this," he said. "I'm just happy to be putting on the costume a year later."
The A's defense didn't even have to make a really tough play in fair territory.
Third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff sprinted to the dirt in front of Oakland's dugout to catch a foul popup by Dioner Navarro for the second out in the sixth. Kapler then fouled out on a 12-pitch at-bat on another ball caught by Kouzmanoff. Navarro fouled off five straight pitches before the popup.
In the eighth, Kouzmanoff went down the dugout steps to snare Carlos Pena's foul.
"I told him he needs to quit stealing my thunder," Braden said. "He makes ridiculous plays."
Landon Powell -- who caught the game with regular catcher Kurt Suzuki injured -- Kouzmanoff and Ryan Sweeney each singled in runs for the A's, who added two unearned runs in the fourth after catcher Navarro's throwing error.
This was even a first for longtime umpire Jim Wolf, who worked home plate.
"You do get caught up in it a little bit," said Wolf, who watched younger brother Randy throw a perfect game and no-hitter as a high-schooler.
James Shields (4-1) failed to beat the A's for the second time in 12 days after striking out 12 in a 10-3 win April 28.
Game notes
The A's last no-hitter was by Dave Stewart on June 29, 1990, at Toronto. ... Maddon is open to the idea of Longoria playing every day this season. "I'm not opposed to it," Maddon said. "We'll look at it. If he's well, I believe he's capable of all the games." | Sports Competition | May 2010 | ['(ESPN)'] |
Mychal Bell of the Jena 6 is ordered to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility for violating probation for previous convictions. | (CNN) -- A black Louisiana teenager at the center of the racially charged "Jena 6" case was ordered Thursday to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility, after a judge ruled he had violated his probation for earlier juvenile convictions, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings said.
Supporters joined Mychal Bell after he was released from jail last month.
Mychal Bell, 17, who was freed two weeks ago after his adult criminal conviction for beating a white classmate was overturned, was sent to the Renaissance Home for Youth in Alexandria, Louisiana, the source said. The decision came at the end of a two-day juvenile court hearing that was closed to the media and public.
Carol Powell-Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys, said the judge's decision would be appealed.
Bell was freed on $45,000 bail on September 27, after an appeals court threw out his conviction on battery and conspiracy charges in adult court and remanded the case to juvenile court.
But Judge J.P. Mauffrey agreed with prosecutors that Bell had violated the probation he was given for four previous juvenile offenses, including two simple battery charges, the sources said. Bell had been placed on probation until he turned 18.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who has championed Bell's case, denounced Thursday's decision as "revenge" by the judge and called on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.
Demonstrators in September took to the streets of the small town of Jena to protest how authorities handled the cases of Bell and five other teens accused of beating white student Justin Barker in December 2006. The incident was a culmination of fights between blacks and whites.
Many said they were angry that the students, dubbed the "Jena 6," were being treated more harshly than three white students who hung nooses from an oak tree on Jena High School property.
The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters said they should have been charged with a hate crime. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2007 | ['(CNN)'] |
Egils Levits, a Judge of the European Court of Justice, is elected President by the Saeima. | RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia’s parliament elected former European Court of Justice judge Egils Levits as the Baltic country’s next president on Wednesday, a largely ceremonial role that also brings with it limited political powers.
Levits won the support of 61 lawmakers in the 100-seated parliament. He will serve four years starting on July 8, when incumbent president Raimonds Vejonis’ term comes to an end.
The president of Latvia has mostly ceremonial functions but can propose new bills and nominate candidates for prime minister. The president is appointed through the parliament votes rather than popular elections.
Reporting by Gederts Gelzis, writing by Johan Ahlander; editing by Niklas Pollard
| Government Job change - Election | May 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Protests continue across Iraq with a death toll of seven protesters by unsourced reports. Other reports by hospital sources state the death toll is over 20 due to Iraqi forces opening fire in Nasiriya. | Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi is to submit his resignation, his office says, after more than 40 people were killed on the bloodiest day since anti-government protests began.
Iraq's top Shia Muslim cleric condemned the use of force against protesters and called for a new government.
About 400 people have been killed in protests since the start of October, and at least 15 died on Friday.
Iraqis are demanding jobs, an end to corruption and better public services.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned over reports of the continued use of live ammunition against demonstrators" and called for "maximum restraint".
The statement said he would present his resignation to parliament so lawmakers could select a new government.
It came after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for a new government.
"In response to this call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand [to accept] my resignation from the leadership of the current government," the statement signed by Mr Abdul Mahdi said.
The statement did not say when his resignation would take place. On Sunday parliament will hold an emergency session to discuss the crisis.
Earlier on Friday Ayatollah Sistani said the government appeared to have been "unable to deal with the events of the past two months".
"Parliament, from which the current government emerged, must reconsider its choices and do what's in the interest of Iraq," he said in remarks delivered by his representative during a televised sermon in the city of Karbala.
The ayatollah said attacks on peaceful protesters were "forbidden" and also urged demonstrators to avoid violence and "eject vandals" from their midst.
Mr Abdul Mahdi has offered his resignation before but the intervention by Ayatollah Sistani, the most influential man in the country, makes things different now, BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reports.
What is happening in Iraq is part of a wave of unrest across the region, much of it driven by the anger of those under the age of 30 who are fed up with unemployment, unreliable public services and what they consider as corruption by the country's elite, our correspondent adds.
Mr Abdul Mahdi had earlier ordered an investigation into Thursday's violence in Dhi Qar and Najaf provinces.
Mr Abdul Mahdi took office just over a year ago, promising reforms that have not materialised. Young Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad for the first time at the beginning of October. After the first wave of protests - which began in October, lasted six days and saw 149 civilians killed - Mr Abdul Mahdi promised to reshuffle his cabinet and cut the salaries of high-ranking officials, and also announced schemes to reduce youth unemployment.
But the protesters said their demands had not been met and returned to the streets in late October. The demonstrations escalated and spread across the country after security personnel responded with deadly force.
At the end of October Mr Abdul Mahdi offered to resign if parties could agree a replacement.
On Friday at least 15 people were killed in fresh clashes in the city of Nasiriya.
Protesters have been celebrating Mr Abdul Mahdi's announcement. In Baghdad, a protester called Hejar told the BBC it was a win for the protesters, but there were more demands.
"It is our first demand. That will change something. Then our second demand is to shut down the parliament. We're hoping it's going to happen because our young guys are very strong and they have their words, we say that we're going to stay here," he said.
Hejar said protesters would remain on the street despite the use of lethal force against them.
"It is hard for us, like it's hard for everyone to see how the security forces are dealing with us, how they're killing us by tear gas, live ammunition. And it's tearing us apart, but we are strong and we're going to stand still and demand what's right for us."
Earlier on Friday large crowds attended funerals for those killed in the city of Najaf. The deputy governor of Najaf has resigned, following the governor who resigned on Thursday.
Amnesty International's Middle East research director, Lynn Maalouf, accused security forces of "appalling violence against largely peaceful protesters". In the bloodshed on Thursday:
Many of those taking part have expressed anger at Iran's influence over Iraq's internal affairs, which has steadily grown since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Protesters accuse Iran of complicity in what they see as Iraq's governance failure and corruption.
They chanted "Iran out of Iraq" as Iran's mission in Najaf burned. The city is the seat of Iraq's Shia religious authority and the location of the revered Imam Ali shrine, where the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad is buried.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
British broadcaster George Entwistle is named as the next Director–General of the BBC, beginning in autumn 2012. | George Entwistle has been named the new director general of the BBC. Mr Entwistle, who is currently director of BBC Vision, will take over from outgoing director general Mark Thompson on 17 September.
Announcing the appointment outside BBC Broadcasting House, BBC Trust Chairman Lord Patten said: "George is a creative leader for a creative organisation."
The BBC Trust said Mr Entwistle would be paid an annual salary of £450,000.
It is a smaller figure than the £671,000 earned by Mr Thompson, bearing out Lord Patten's repeated assertion that the next head of the BBC would have a smaller salary than their predecessor.
'Privilege'
In his current role - where he is paid £285,000 - Mr Entwistle oversees the division responsible for commissioning, producing, scheduling and broadcasting all of the BBC's TV content.
"I'm delighted that the chairman and Trustees have decided I'm the right person for the job and I'm very excited about all that lies ahead," he said.
"Mark Thompson will be a tough act to follow but it's a privilege to be asked to lead the greatest broadcasting organisation in the world."
Mr Entwistle - who will be celebrating his 50th birthday this weekend - was selected by a panel at the BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC, led by chairman Lord Patten.
Speaking at a news conference announcing the appointment, Lord Patten said the Trust had "unanimously decided" to hire Mr Entwistle.
"George had a lot of the attributes that we hoped a director general of the BBC would have," he said.
"At the heart of them is the ability to give leadership to a great creative organisation.
"While it's possible to do that if you haven't had a background in making programmes, there's greater credibility if you have, and he's got a great reputation as a cultural leader."
Asked by the press whether the salary was higher than anticipated, Lord Patten said: "It's higher than some of you guessed but I can't help it if you guessed wrong. "It's actually less than anyone else in the sector... or what the heads of several newspapers are paid."
'Brilliant appointment'
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the BBC's Media Show that Mr Enwistle faced two key challenges.
"The first is how you make sure that the BBC maintains its position as the gold standard for quality in British and global broadcasting, whilst managing the licence fee settlement.
"The second thing is coping with the technology revolution. By the time this director general ends his term of office, we will be in a totally different place as far as the broadcasting technology works, "I think that's been one of Mark Thompson's major achievements - with innovations like the iPlayer, the BBC has been a leader in technology. But I think that's going to be a very, very big challenge."
Mr Thompson, who was rumoured to have singled out Mr Entwistle as his preferred candidate, said it was a "brilliant appointment". "George has shown himself to be an outstanding leader with an intuitive understanding of public sector broadcasting," he said.
"He has a formidable track record as a programme maker and in recent years has also shown his calibre as a leader.
"I wish him and the BBC every success in the years to come."
Mr Thompson will stand down from his post after the Paralympics, having spent eight years in the role.
He is the BBC's longest-serving director general since the 1970s.
His tenure has seen the BBC suffer scandals including the Sachsgate affair, and controversy over the tone of the coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee last month, in which Mr Entwistle also had a role.
The corporation has also seen a series of budget cuts and staff redundancies in recent years.
Yet Mr Thompson has also presided over successes including Strictly Come Dancing and Frozen Planet, and the launch of the BBC iPlayer.
The new director general's first priority will be to prepare the BBC for the review of its Royal Charter. The current charter, which expires in 2016, sets out how the BBC should be funded, what it does and how it is managed.
Profile: George Entwistle
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
2 people are killed and 29,000 are evacuated following floods in Johor, southern Malaysia. | JOHOR BARU - TWO people have died and 28,932 were evacuated to 200 centres statewide by 11am on Monday as continuous rain in the past few days flooded many parts of Johor.
Segamat, Johor Baru and Kluang were the worst-hit areas and the bad weather was expected to continue on Tuesday, said Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman on Monday.
All of Segamat is cut off by floodwaters. It is an island. Police said no one can get in or out of the town as the roads to Muar, Johor Baru and Kuala Lumpur are under water.
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has disconnected electricity supply to Segamat. Its substations have been switched off as a safety precaution. A TNB spokesman said Monday that it was a common procedure during a flood to prevent electrocution. The supply will be restores once the floodwaters ebb to a 'safe level'.
Roads in Labis town, which was flooded on Sunday, are clearing but the outskirts are still submerged. According to the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia (DID) online river level data, three in Johor burst their banks Sunday. Sungai Muar, Sungai Benut and Sungai Mengkibol overflowed. With the downpour continuing, the department is closely watching five more rivers - Sungai Simpang Kiri at Sri Medan, Sungai Bekok, Sungai Johor at Rantau Panjang are at a dangerous level. -- THE STAR/ANN | Floods | January 2011 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
Wanted Moroccan–Dutch criminal Ridouan Taghi has been arrested in Dubai. He was wanted by the Netherlands for large scale cocaine trafficking and multiple murders. | Police in Dubai have arrested the suspected head of a cocaine trafficking gang described as the most wanted man in the Netherlands.
Ridouan Taghi, 41, who was wanted on international arrest warrants for murder and drug trafficking, was held at a house in the Gulf emirate on Monday.
Taghi , who was born in Morocco, gained international notoriety in September when a Dutch lawyer for a state witness in a case against him was shot dead near his home in Amsterdam.
The Dutch police chief, Erik Akerboom, said Taghi’s arrest was of “great importance for the Netherlands”.
Dubai police said Taghi entered the city through its airport using a passport and a visa with a fake identity.
They said he was living in a residential area in Dubai where he was not engaged in any criminal activity and had assistants from various nationalities.
Dutch media said Taghi was accused of cocaine trafficking. The Netherlands and Dubai have no extradition treaty but authorities were working on transferring him, the broadcaster NOS said.
The killing of the lawyer, Derk Wiersum, in Amsterdam in September raised the pressure on Dutch authorities to act.
Wiersum was the lawyer for a state witness named Nabil B in a case against Taghi and another suspect wanted on similar charges, Said Razzouki.
The Netherlands has long been known for its tolerant attitude towards marijuana but a report commissioned by Amsterdam city council this year said it now had a big problem with drugs and the criminal underworld.
One of the main Dutch police unions said at the time that the lawyer’s shooting was “confirmation that we live in a narco-state”. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | December 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Former Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front guerilla leader Salvador Sánchez Cerén is sworn in as the President of El Salvador. | El Salvador's new President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, sings the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front anthem during a rally with party supporters after his swearing-in ceremony in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, June 1, 2014. (AP / Moises Castillo)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- A onetime rural schoolteacher who became a rebel commander during El Salvador's long civil war was sworn in as president Sunday, the first former guerrilla to lead the Central American nation.
Salvador Sanchez Ceren, 69, began his five-year term promising "honour, austerity, efficiency and transparency" at the inauguration ceremony attended by 13 heads of state or government.
Sanchez Ceren's Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front battled U.S.-backed governments during a 12-year conflict in which some 76,000 people died. The Front became a political party after peace accords in 1992.
He alluded to that struggle Sunday, saying his government is possible "only because of the work of our heroes and martyrs ... visionary people who gave their lives and dreamed of a country with democracy."
The Front first won the presidency in 2009 under outgoing leader Mauricio Funes, a former journalist who didn't take part in the fighting and governed largely as a centrist.
The new president promised to focus on one of the country's biggest challenges: gang violence that has made El Salvador one of the world's most dangerous countries. He said he personally will head the System of Citizen Security.
Security "requires that we work together against organized crime, drug traffic, extortions and all expressions of violence," he said.
To spur development, Sanchez Ceren said he was in talks to bring El Salvador into the Petrocaribe program under which Venezuela provides subsidized oil to countries in the region.
But the new president has said he intends to govern less like Venezuela's socialist leaders than Uruguay's folksy Jose Mujica, a former guerrilla who gives away most of his presidential salary, drives a 41-year-old Volkswagen and never wears a tie.
Sanchez Ceren has promised to maintain good relations with the United States, where hundreds of thousands of Salvadoran migrants live. The U.S. dollar is El Salvador's official currency.
One of 12 children born to a carpenter and a food vendor, Sanchez Ceren became an activist in the teachers union as a youth.
As bloody repression of union leaders grew in the 1970s, he gravitated toward the rebel movement, finally heading into the mountains as a guerrilla by 1978.
He rose to become one of the rebels' five top commanders under the nom-de-guerre "Comandante Leonel Gonzalez." He served as a negotiator in the 1992 peace accords.
Sanchez Ceren won a narrow election victory March 9 over Norman Quijano of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, which had governed El Salvador for most of the past two decades.
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A check-in on the public mood of Canadians with hosts Michael Stittle and Nik Nanos. FOLLOW ON | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | June 2014 | ['(AP via CTV)'] |
Two suicide bombings at mosques kill at least 33 people in the northeast Nigerian cities of Yola and Maiduguri. Archived 2015-10-24 at the Wayback Machine | Maiduguri - Two bomb blasts ripped through mosques in northeast Nigeria on Friday, killing at least 55 people and injuring more than 100, as Boko Haram fighters seized a town in neighbouring Cameroon.
The attacks in Maiduguri, Yola and Kerawa again underlined the persistent national and regional threat from the Islamist militants, despite military claims of gains.
Fears will be heightened particularly in Maiduguri, which has been hit six times this month, killing a total of 76 people, according to an AFP tally.
Questions will also again be raised about how the militants are able to carry out such attacks on a regular basis, after similar attacks in the city last month claimed 117 lives.
The bombings also demonstrated the challenges facing the United States, which last week announced the deployment of up to 300 military personnel to northern Cameroon.
The contingent will conduct surveillance and intelligence operations against Boko Haram, including within Nigeria, at a time when attacks on civilians are on the increase.
The first attack in Maiduguri happened shortly after 05:00 (04:00 GMT) in the Jidari area of the Borno state capital, where Boko Haram was founded in 2002.
Umar Sani, a civilian vigilante assisting the military in the counter-insurgency, and local resident Musa Sheriff both told AFP there were two blasts at the mosque. "I was involved in the evacuation. We counted 28 dead bodies apart from the two bombers, who were identifiable by the mutilation of their bodies," said Sani. "Over 20 other people were injured." Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said only six people were killed and 17 others injured, while hospital sources put the death toll at 19. Both Sani and Sheriff said two other people were arrested and handed over to the military for questioning after they were seen apparently celebrating following the blasts. "Allahu Akbar"
The two men were "standing from afar, hugging each other like a celebration, chanting "Allahu Akbar" [God is greatest]", said Sani. "To them it was a mission accomplished," added Sheriff.
Boko Haram, which wants to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, has previously targeted mosques and religious leaders who do not share their extremist ideology.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has given his military commanders until December to end the insurgency, which has left at least 17 000 people dead and more than 2.5 million homeless since 2009.
The explosion in Yola happened at about 14:00 at the Jambutu Juma'at mosque in the Jimeta area of the city, shortly after the imam had finished his inaugural sermon. One volunteer at the Jambutu Juma'at mosque, who helped in the rescue effort but asked not to be identified, said: "This mosque was nearly built and this was the first prayers in it. "While worshippers had risen for the prayers to start after the sermon by the imam, there was a huge blast in the premises."
Nema's co-ordinator in the Adamawa state capital, Sa'ad Bello said the 116 people were being treated for injuries at two hospitals in the city.
Most of the injured were in a stable condition, with injuries ranging from fractures and burns to cuts from the blast, he added.
Yola has been seen as a relatively safe haven from the Boko Haram insurgency, which has ravaged the northeast for the last six years.
But fears were heightened after an explosive device went off at a camp for displaced people to the south of the city last month, killing seven people and injuring 20 more. Town overrun In Cameroon, regional and security sources said the rebels had overrun the town of Kerawa, in the far north area, and that an unspecified number of civilians were killed.
It was not immediately clear whether troops had engaged in any fighting with the Islamists but the source said "several people" were killed inside the town's mosques.
Kerawa, which has 50 000 inhabitants, is located in the Kolofata district that is regularly targeted by Boko Haram. There is a military camp inside the town, which was last hit by a double suicide bombing on September 3, which claimed at least 30 lives. Cameroon, Chad and Niger have formed a military alliance with Nigeria and Benin to battle the extremists, who this year declared allegiance to the Islamic State.
The Islamists' grip on the region has suffered as a result of offensives launched by local armies. But the group maintains strongholds in areas that are difficult to access, such as the Sambisa forest, the Mandara mountains and the numerous islands of Lake Chad.
| Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(Premium Times)', '(Reuters)', '(Media24)', '(AFP via Yahoo)'] |
In the UEFA Group I, Spain, the defending World Cup champions, defeats France 1–0, with a Pedro's winning goal at the Stade de France. | Last updated on 26 March 201326 March 2013.From the section Football
World champions Spain regained control of Group I after Pedro's winner earned them a crucial win over 10-man France.
The Barcelona forward struck in the 58th minute in Paris when he bundled home from close range following a cross by Arsenal's Nacho Monreal.
France, now one point behind Spain with three games remaining, had former Manchester United player Paul Pogba sent off for two yellow cards.
The Netherlands and Germany are close to qualifying after wins on Tuesday.
The eight best group runners-up will be paired into four two-legged ties. The matches will likely be played between 15 and 19 November 2013. The four winners will qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque, who had seen his side held by lowly Finland last Friday, said: "They are three welcome points, and this changes our group position for the better.
"There are still three games left so there is plenty of time left to drop points, for both sides. This isn't over, although it's true France missed a chance to pull away."
The Spanish, who enjoyed the better of the first-half exchanges, thought they should have had a penalty when Pedro went to ground under a challenge from Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
But Pedro had the last say when he ghosted into the penalty area unmarked to beat Lloris.
Pogba's 78th-minute dismissal capped a frustrating night for the French, with the 20-year-old Juventus player blanked by coach Didier Deschamps as he made his way off.
The Netherlands are close to confirming their presence at next year's World Cup finals after a 4-0 win over Romania.
Manchester United striker Robin van Persie scored twice as Louis van Gaal's side made it six qualifying wins out of six. Rafael van der Vaart and Jeremain Lens also scored as the hosts moved seven points clear at the top of Group D with four games remaining.
Elsewhere, Germany are also within sight of qualifying for Brazil after Marco Reus scored twice in a 4-1 win over Kazakhstan, which extended their lead at the top of Group C to eight points.
Former Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli scored both goals as Italy won 2-0 in Malta to go three points clear in Group B.
However, group rivals Denmark are in danger of missing out after being held 1-1 at home against Bulgaria to slip four points off second place.
The race for automatic qualification from Group A is developing into a fascinating contest, Belgium and Croatia both locked on 16 points after respective wins over Macedonia and Wales.
Israel and Portugal moved to within one point of Group F leaders Russia, who did not play, yet Fabio Capello's side have two games in hand on their nearest rivals.
Although Montenegro and England look well placed to contest the top two spots in Group H, Ukraine and Poland are far from out if it.
Robert Lewandowski scored twice from the penalty spot as the Poles hammered San Marino 5-0, while Ukraine won 2-1 at home Moldova. Both Ukraine and Poland are four points behind England with a game in hand. | Sports Competition | March 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(FIFA)'] |
Simon Mann, a British mercenary who had been serving a 34–year prison sentence in Equatorial Guinea for his role in a failed coup d'etat, is given a presidential pardon. | The British mercenary Simon Mann, who was sentenced to 34 years in prison in Equatorial Guinea last year for plotting to overthrow the oil-rich country's government, has been granted a presidential pardon.
Equatorial Guinea's information ministry said tonight that Teodoro Obiang, the president, had already signed the waiver, which was "a complete pardon on humanitarian grounds".
Mann, an Eton-educated former SAS officer, was arrested in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2004 with dozens of mercenaries when their private plane landed. He spent three years in prison in Zimbabwe and was then extradited to Equatorial Guinea.
During his trial, the court in Equatorial Guinea heard that Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister, was a member of the group. Mann acknowledged knowingly taking part in the attempt to topple Equatorial Guinea's government, but his lawyer argued he was a secondary player. He has been held at the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital.
Mann was also ordered to pay a fine and compensation of about £14.6m.
The presidential pardon said Mann had been released, taking into account his health and given his need "to receive regular medical treatment and to be with his family". It stated that the pardon came on the eve of an official visit to Equatorial Guinea by Jacob Zuma, the South African president.
The decree also said that Mann's "attitude during the investigation … and his behaviour during the trial and while being held in prison … showed sufficient and credible signs of repentance".
When Mann was sentenced in July last year the presiding judge, Carlos Mangue, said Mann had failed to show "an attitude of regret" despite his apology before the court. But there was speculation at the time that he would be pardoned by Obiang.
Diplomatic sources said he had told the court what the regime wanted to hear, implicating individuals and foreign governments blamed by Equatorial Guinea for the plot. Mann claimed Spain and South Africa, with the endorsement of the former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, had supported the plot. "It was like an official operation. The governments of Spain and South Africa were giving the green light: 'You've got to do it'," he told the court. Tacit approval for regime change came from the Pentagon, CIA and the big US oil companies according to Mann. Mann had accepted he was doing the job for money – said to be $15m – but he claimed he was sympathetic to the story he was told: that Equatorial Guinea's oil money was not reaching the people. He told the court that in retrospect he was relieved the coup had not succeeded, because he now realised Equatorial Guinea was not such a bad place.
The trial took place under heavy security with a tank outside and the court ringed by soldiers.
He told the court that he took Mark Thatcher to the Chelsea home of Ely Calil, a Lebanese businessman who is alleged by the government of Equatorial Guinea to have been the main financier of the plot. He named the management board as Calil, himself, a London property developer, Thatcher, who he described as "a part of the management team", and a Lebanese colleague of Calil who lives in Beirut.
Mann said Thatcher had provided $350,000 for the coup, which was used to buy a small plane that would transport the new provisional president, Severo Moto, from his opposition exile in Spain to Malabo via the Canary Islands. Thatcher has said he had no idea what the money was intended for.
Calil has always strongly denied involvement in the coup plot and claimed Mann was pressured into repeating in court allegations that previously been extracted from him under torture in Zimbabwe.
At the time of Mann's trial there were reports that anti-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan police were considering flying out to question him about the coup, including the role of Thatcher. The police refused tonight to comment on whether Mann would face questioning on his return to the UK.
Mann was extradited from Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea in January last year after being convicted in Zimbabwe of attempting to buy arms for an alleged coup plot and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. His lawyers accused Zimbabwean officials of a criminal conspiracy in secretly flying him out of the country before his appeals procedure was finished.
A statement by Equatorial Guinea's information ministry said that once he was released, Mann would have 24 hours to leave the country. The statement was published on its website yesterday. It said the decree would take effect when published "in the national information media". It was unclear whether this meant – on the website of the information ministry or in the local press. The Foreign Office said tonight it was seeking to clarify reports of Mann's release. "We are aware of reports about the proposed release of Simon Mann and we are seeking to clarify these but it's an issue for the Equatorial Guinea authorities," a spokesman said.
Obiang's regime which has been in power since 1979 is accused of being one of Africa's worst violators of human rights. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | November 2009 | ['(The Guardian)', '(CNN)'] |
A record–setting rainstorm causes flash flooding in Palermo, Italy. The meter of water turns streets into rivers and traps motorists in their cars. Palermo mayor Leoluca Orlando says this "water bomb" dropped as much rain in two hours as the Sicilian capital gets in a full year. Two people are reported drowned; that has not been confirmed. | Two people have drowned after their car became submerged due to heavy rains in Palermo, Sicily. The pair tried to shelter in an underpass, but the road quickly became blocked by the flooding, trapping them inside.
Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando said, “Over one metre of rain fell in Palermo in less than two hours. It is the most violent rain in the history of the city since 1970, equal to what we get in a year.”
Two children, the youngest 9 months, have been taken to hospital with hypothermia. They, too, remained stuck inside a car with their parents in an underpass.
Local authorities say there was not sufficient warning by weather forecasts. “Had a red alert been issued,” continued Orlando, “the usual procedures would have been activated that, despite the scale of the flooding, would have reduced the risks.” | Floods | July 2020 | ['(VOA)', '(EuroNews)'] |
The United States Department of Defense drops charges against Mohammed al Qahtani, who was suspected of being the "20th hijacker" in the September 11, 2001 attacks. | The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi citizen alleged to have been the "20th hijacker" in the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
Mohammad al-Qahtani was one of six Guantanamo Bay inmates charged with murder and war crimes in February. The Pentagon said the case against the other five defendants would proceed. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the suspects in a case before military tribunals at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay.
A Pentagon official said the charges against Mohammad al-Qahtani had been dropped "without prejudice", meaning they could be reinstated. The US military gave no reason for its decision. But lawyers for the defendant say they believe the charges were dropped because he "was tortured" under interrogation. The decision could have implications for the other five suspects, whose lawyers claim that similar treatment was meted out to them, the BBC's Adam Brookes reports from Washington. Authorities say Mr Qahtani failed to take part in the 9/11 attacks because he was denied entry into the US by an immigration official. He was refused entry at Orlando in Florida in August 2001 and returned to Dubai. He was later detained in Afghanistan and transferred to Guantanamo Bay. In 2006, he recanted accusations he had made against fellow detainees of having links to al-Qaeda. His lawyer told Time magazine the statements had been extracted under torture. The Saudi was reportedly submitted to stress positions, sleep deprivation and humiliation at Guantanamo. Officials said he had been subjected to a harsh interrogation authorised by former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Four planes were hijacked by 19 men in the 11 September attacks. Two hit the World Trade Center in New York, another the Pentagon in Washington and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people were killed. The five suspects still facing trial at Guantanamo include the alleged mastermind of the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. What are these? | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Haiti acknowledges the immediate international assistance it received from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela following the recent earthquake and confirms the death toll has reached 150,000. | •
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti. — The international community’s response in helping Haiti has been very important, above all that of Cuba, which was "the first country to help us, because the Cubans were working here before the earthquake, and have collaborated a lot in saving a considerable number of lives," affirmed Jean Rénald Clérismé, advisor to the office of President René Préval, during a meeting with Cuban reporters. Rénald also acknowledged the immediate support of the Dominican Republic, whose president, Leonel Fernández, arrived in Port-au-Prince the day after the earthquake. Likewise, he praised the help of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. "We can say that the Hispanic world of the region is very much present in Haiti." Rénald particularly thanked Fidel, who initiated the cooperation program with Préval; Raúl, and "that other great friend, Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo, who has accompanied Haiti for so many years."
Regarding the number of dead as a result of the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, he said that the total given stands at 150,000, although that figure could rise to 200,000, because many people remain under the wreckage. "This has been worse than a war," he commented. However, to date the country is receiving help from all over the world. "We would like to achieve good coordination to help the Haitian people, and for there not to be a politicization of the disaster; that each country will contribute to the health and dignity of the people," he commented. Rénald admitted that there have been coordination problems in food distribution. He said that on the government level, working teams have been created, but in a disaster situation, coordination becomes very difficult, above all "because we do not have the habit of doing so. It is complicated, but day by day, we are trying to achieve that coordination so that people receive the aid," he said. Regarding the controversial issue of the adoption of Haitian children who lost their parents in the earthquake, he said that the country has a Ministry of Social Affairs and an Institute of Social Welfare that oversee those procedures. "The government has no problem with adoption, but it should be done according to the country’s regulations." He also explained that a plan exits for building encampments outside the city and creating places for some 600,000 people who lost their homes. | Earthquakes | January 2010 | ['(Granma)'] |
Police issued a warning and evacuation orders after a unknown chemical "haze" leaves over 200 people on Britain's south coast, between the towns of Eastbourne and Birling Gap, suffering irritation to their eyes and throats. | (Reuters) - Police issued a warning on Sunday after chemical haze left up to 50 people on Britains south coast suffering irritation to their eyes and throats.
Sussex police urged people to keep doors and windows shut in the affected area, between the resort town of Eastbourne and Birling Gap, a few miles along the coast.
Police also warned people to stay away from the beaches, on a busy public holiday weekend.
The haze seems to have been coming in from the sea but the source has not been established, the statement said.
| Disease Outbreaks | August 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
PGA of America announces it will terminate an agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster because conducting the golf tournament there would have been "detrimental" to the PGA brand. | The PGA of America is moving on from President Donald Trump, announcing Sunday in a statement that it will relocate the 2022 PGA Championship scheduled for the New York City suburbs at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
The venue was awarded the tournament in 2014 and was to be the first men's major championship contested at one of Trump's golf properties.
"The PGA of America Board of Directors voted tonight to exercise the right to terminate the agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster,'' said Jim Richerson, president of the PGA of America in a statement on Sunday. "It has become clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminister would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand and would put at risk the PGA's ability to deliver on many programs and sustain the longevity of our mission.''
The organization did not announce any financial repercussions or a replacement course, but several venues have already been mentioned, including past PGA sites Bethpage Black, Southern Hills and Valhalla.
The events of Wednesday, during which pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol, pushed the organization to move to another venue with just more than 16 months until that championship is scheduled to be played May 19-22, 2022.
"We find ourselves in a political situation not of our making,'' said Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, in an interview with The Associated Press. "We're fiduciaries for our members, for the game, for our mission and for our brand. And how do we best protect that? Our feeling was given the tragic events of Wednesday that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster. The damage could have been irreparable. The only real course of action was to leave.''
Waugh said he expected to have several options for relocating the championship.
A spokesperson for The Trump Organization told ABC News it is "incredibly disappointed" with the decision.
"This is a breach of a binding contract, and they have no right to terminate the agreement," the spokesperson said. "As an organization, we have invested many, many millions of dollars in the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. We will continue to promote the game of golf on every level and remain focused on operating the finest golf courses anywhere in the world."
Located in Bedminster, New Jersey, approximately 45 miles west of New York City, the venue was home to the 2017 U.S. Women's Open, which caused the United States Golf Association to have to defend its choice after Trump had made insensitive remarks about immigrants while campaigning for office in 2015.
One of the president's other venues, Trump National Doral, near Miami, had been home to a PGA Tour event since 1962 but lost the World Golf Championship event to Mexico City following the 2016 tournament. Although Trump's involvement has often been blamed for the change, the tour maintained that a sponsorship agreement with Cadillac and lack of renewal caused it to look elsewhere. It had a willing sponsor in Grupo Salinas, a Mexican conglomerate, which has staged the WGC-Mexico Championship since 2017.
This year's PGA Championship is scheduled for South Carolina's Kiawah Island in May.
The PGA of America represents the country's approximately 28,000 club professionals. It runs the PGA Championship, the Women's PGA, the Senior PGA and also the Ryder Cup, when it is played in the United States.
Typically, the organization sends a team of people to the venue of an upcoming PGA Championship two years in advance of the tournament to begin preparations, including the selling of corporate hospitality and ticket packages. Major championship locations are often awarded years in advance because of the amount of planning that is required to stage them.
"Our decision wasn't about speed and timing," Waugh told the AP. "What matters most to our board and leadership is protecting our brand and reputation, and the ability for our members to lead the growth of the game, which they do through so many powerful programs in their communities.''
The Bedminster announcement was made on May, 1, 2014, under a different PGA of America regime, then led by CEO Pete Bevacqua, who has since left the organization to become president of NBC Sports.
When he was with the PGA, Bevacqua was a frequent golf partner of Trump, although the PGA on his watch pulled the PGA Grand Slam of Golf from Trump's course in Los Angeles in the wake of Trump's comments as a presidential contender about Mexican immigrants.
The Trump Organization took on the Grand Slam and a Senior PGA Championship at another Trump venue, along with the awarding of the 2022 PGA Championship.
Waugh has a history with Trump in that he formerly served as CEO of Deutsche Bank, which loaned money to Trump for, among other things, the purchase of Doral -- although Waugh had opposed extending financing to Trump and was no longer involved in such decisions when the Doral loan was awarded.
Trump also owns the Turnberry Resort in Scotland, one of 10 courses in The Open rotation but where none has been played since Trump's involvement. The course, which last hosted an Open in 2009, won't see the tournament's return anytime soon.
"We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future," R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said in a statement Monday. "We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances."
Slumbers said last year that Turnberry had remained a part of the 10-course rotation.
Since it was last played at Turnberry -- when Stewart Cink defeated Tom Watson in a playoff -- The Open has returned to each of the other venues at least once. | Tear Up Agreement | January 2021 | ['(ESPN)'] |
The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Bopha rises to 647 with 780 people still missing. | UN asks for $65m for victims of Typhoon Bopha, as death toll rises to nearly 650.
The Philippines government and the United Nations are launching a $65m global appeal to help the victims of Typhoon Bopha that devastated the country’s south and left hundreds dead.
Luiza Carvalho, country officer for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Monday that the funds would initially help provide food, water and emergency shelter to 480,000 people in the worst-hit areas.
At least 650 people have died, while millions are left homeless and in desperate need of food aid and other basic goods, the country’s disaster chief in Manila told Al Jazeera.
Benito Ramos said that 647 bodies had been found and 900 people were still missing, including hundreds of fishermen.
Rescuers continued searching for bodies or signs of life under tonnes of fallen trees and boulders in the worst-hit town of New Bataan, where rocks, mud and other rubble destroyed landmarks, making it doubly difficult to search places where houses once stood.
“This is a scale the Philippines has not previously seen, we’re talking about tens of thousands of homes destroyed across southeast Mindanao,” Joe Curry of Catholic Relief Service told Al Jazeera.
“People live in fragile housing and when storms like this hit … it wipes out entire communities.”
Hundreds of refugees, rescuers and aid workers took a break on Sunday to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight on a big TV screen, only to be dismayed by their hero’s sixth-round knockout.
Nearly 400,000 people, mostly from Compostela Valley and nearby Davao Oriental province, have lost their homes and are crowded inside evacuation centres or staying with relatives.
“In my 15 years of service to the Red Cross, I have not seen such great destruction and devastation,” Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, told Al Jazeera.
“Almost everyone there is homeless, there is no clean water … there is very limited medical care.”
Missing fishermen
Families and fishing companies reported losing contact with more than 300 fishermen at sea.
Ramos said the authorities were unprepared for the unprecedented weather in those areas worst affected, and that it was struggling to cope with the disaster.
“Right now, we have some international organisations and governments assisting us, but our supplies are still insufficient at this moment,” he said.
The fishermen from southern General Santos city and nearby Sarangani province left a few days before Bopha hit the main southern island of Mindanao on Tuesday, causing deadly flash floods.
Ramos said the fishermen were headed to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and to the Pacific Ocean and there had been no contact from them for a week.
He said the coast guard, navy and fishing vessels had launched a search.
Benigno Aquino III, the Philippine president, declared a state of national calamity on Friday, which allows for price controls on basic commodities in typhoon-affected areas and the quick release of emergency funds.
Typhoon Bopha has re-developed in the South China Sea and now threatens flooding in the northern Philippines.
Typhoon Bopha has re-organised and strengthened. The storm is now expected to cause flash flooding in northern Luzon.
The Philippines strongest typhoon of the year makes landfall
Number of undernourished Filipinos has grown by two million in two years, even as it drops in neighbouring countries.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | December 2012 | ['(Al–Jazeera)'] |
The United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform cites the Attorney-General Eric Holder for contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with an investigation into Operation "Fast and Furious". | A congressional committee voted Wednesday to recommend that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. be held in contempt after the Obama administration, citing executive privilege for the first time, refused to turn over documents pertaining to a botched gun-trafficking operation.
The party-line vote at a marathon session of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee intensified a feud between the Obama administration and Republican lawmakers and dealt an embarrassing blow to the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement official.
House leaders said they will schedule a vote of the entire chamber on the matter next week unless the attorney general turns over certain documents on Operation Fast and Furious. If the full House votes to find Holder in contempt, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who is employed by the Justice Department will have to decide whether to criminally prosecute him.
In a statement, Holder called the vote “an election year tactic” and blasted it as “an extraordinary, unprecedented and entirely unnecessary action, intended to provoke an avoidable conflict between Congress and the Executive Branch.”
Speaking Thursday from Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is attending meetings with European Union officials, Holder said the administration had given the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee a proposal to negotiate an end to the conflict.
“I think the possibility still exists that it can happen in that way,” Holder said, according to the Associated Press. “The proposal that we have made is still there. The House, I think, the House leadership, has to consider now what they will do, so we’ll see how it works out.” The vote against Holder marks only the third time in 30 years that a congressional panel has held an attorney general in contempt. At Wednesday’s often-heated hearing, Republicans railed against the former judge and U.S. attorney, accusing him of repeatedly stonewalling them in their investigation. Democrats blasted the GOP for allowing the dispute to devolve into personal attacks against Holder.
At its core, the conflict centers on a particular set of documents that the oversight committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), subpoenaed from the Justice Department in October for the investigation he launched into Operation Fast and Furious in the spring of last year.
The operation, named after the popular movie series, was run out of the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives between 2009 and 2011, with the legal backing of the U.S. attorney in Phoenix. As part of the operation, ATF agents purposefully did not interdict more than 2,000 weapons they suspected of being purchased at Arizona gun shops by illegal buyers known as “straw purchasers”; agents hoped to later track them to a Mexican drug cartel.
ATF lost track of most of the firearms, some of which have been found at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States. Two of the guns connected to the operation were found at a scene in the Arizona desert where a Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed in December 2010.
While lawmakers have already conducted an investigation of the operation, they are seeking to determine who in the Justice Department knew about the tactics used in Fast and Furious and when. They are also trying to find out whether any officials tried to cover up their knowledge of the tactics once Congress began investigating.
Last year, a Justice Department official told lawmakers in a letter that ATF had not ever “sanctioned” or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico. Ten months later, the Justice Department withdrew the letter, acknowledging the botched operation.
That episode has heightened suspicions among Republican lawmakers, who have demanded that the department hand over the records of any deliberations it had about Fast and Furious after the Feb. 4, 2011, letter.
Justice officials have insisted that no senior officials in the department knew of the controversial tactics, which were approved by ATF’s Phoenix division. They also have said they have worked hard to cooperate with requests from Issa’s committee. Over the past year, Justice officials have turned over 7,600 documents relating to the operation, as well as documents relating to another operation involving “gun-walking,” as the tactic is known, in the George W. Bush administration.
Holder has testified to congressional committees about Fast and Furious nine times over the past 14 months.
But Issa and his investigators said the Justice Department was not fully cooperating with their request, arguing that the records turned over were only a sliver of the 80,000 documents that Justice has given to the department’s inspector general, who is also investigating the gun operation at Holder’s request.
In recent weeks, Issa has narrowed his request to documents relating to “internal deliberations” over the operation. Justice officials have insisted that they do not have to hand over those files based on long-standing executive branch policy. They have also said that many of the documents delivered to the inspector general pertain to ongoing criminal investigations and legally cannot be released to Congress.
In a bid to head off a contempt vote, Holder met with Issa and several other lawmakers Tuesday evening. The attorney general agreed to turn over documents that Justice officials think would answer Issa’s questions if the committee would consider the subpoena issues related to Fast and Furious to be “resolved.” He told reporters afterward that the set of documents “pretty clearly demonstrates that there was no intention to mislead, to deceive.”
Issa declined the offer, however, saying he would not make such a determination until he saw the documents.
On Wednesday morning, just minutes before the scheduled hearing, committee staff members said they were informed by the Justice Department that Obama was invoking executive privilege to withhold the contested documents. After a six-hour hearing, the panel voted 23 to 17 to hold the attorney general in contempt.
“Fast and Furious was a reckless operation that led to the death of an American border agent, and the American people deserve to know the facts to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again,” House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a statement after the vote.
House Democrats quickly denounced their plans to bring a vote to the floor next week.
“If Mr. Boehner takes this to the House, he will be seen as one of the most extreme speakers that ever took charge of the House,” the oversight committee’s ranking Democrat, Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), told reporters.
He noted that in the Clinton administration, then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) declined to bring to the House floor a vote on contempt charges against Attorney General Janet Reno.
“Instead of going after guns, the Republican majority is going after the attorney general of the United States,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) told reporters. “This is a political witch hunt during the witch hunt season, and the witch hunt season will probably not end until Election Day.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2012 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
51–year–old Texan Cornelius Dupree, freed on parole in July 2010 after serving 30 of a 75 year sentence for aggravated robbery, has his conviction quashed after he was found to be innocent of the crime through DNA evidence. | A man in the US state of Texas has had his robbery conviction overturned after serving 30 years in jail - longer than anyone in Texas cleared by DNA.
Cornelius Dupree Jr was jailed from 1979 to 2010 as part of a 75-year sentence for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.
The 51-year-old was freed on parole in July 2010. DNA test results proved his innocence roughly one week later.
A judge has now officially overturned Mr Dupree's conviction.
"It's a joy to be free again," Mr Dupree said outside the Dallas County courtroom.
Mr Dupree told the CNN network he had "mixed emotions" about the hearing considering how long he had been in jail.
"I must admit there is a bit of anger but there is also joy, and the joy overrides the anger," he added.
Mr Dupree was charged in 1979 with being one of two men who raped and robbed a 26-year-old woman. He received a 75-year sentence for robbery but was never tried on the rape charge.
Mr Dupree and Anthony Massingill, who was also convicted for the crime, were identified by the victim following the event.
Massingill, who is also serving time for a separate rape charge, is expected to have his conviction related to the 1979 crime cleared as well, according to the Innocence Project, a public policy organisation.
Mr Dupree served more years in prison than anyone who has been freed by DNA evidence in Texas.
The state has exonerated 41 wrongly convicted inmates through the use of DNA since 2001 - more than any other US state.
Only two other individuals cleared by DNA evidence anywhere in the US have spent more time in prison, the Innocence Project said.
One man in the state of Florida spent 35 years in prison, while another inmate spent 31 years in a Tennessee jail. The Innocence Project
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
United States militant nativist Shawna Forde of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps is sentenced to death in Arizona for her role in the murders of Raul and Brisenia Flores. , | Arizona border vigilante Shawna Forde has been sentenced to death for the 2009 murders of a 9-year-old girl and her father during a robbery to fund her militia.
Forde, 43, of Everett, Wash., becomes the third woman on the state's death row.
Last week, a Tucson jury convicted her of two counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of Raul "Junior" Flores and his daughter Brisenia in their home near the Mexico border in May 2009.
She was also found guilty of one count of attempted murder for wounding the girl's mother and of assault and robbery. After being shot, the girl's mother wounded one of the attackers, who faces trial with several others.
The Arizona Daily Star writes that Forde "once boasted she was going to take her Minutemen group to the 'next level.'"
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2011 | ['(AP via AZCentral)', '(USA Today)'] |
In Senegal, former prime minister Idrissa Seck is arrested for "endangering national security" | Dakar — Former prime minister Idrissa Seck, an emerging political rival to
President Abdoulaye Wade, has been charged with endangering national
security and remanded in custody until his trial.
Seck, who served as Wade's prime minister from November 2002 until April
2004, was formally charged on Saturday after spending a week in police
detention.
During that time, Seck was questioned about allegations of massive
overspending on public works in the city of Thies, where he serves as
mayor.
The government has not spelled out publicly how Seck is supposed to have
endangered national security or whether the charges against him are
connected to allegations that he squandered 46 billion CFA francs (US $84
million) on public works projects in Thies that were only budgeted at 25
billion CFA (US $45 million).
Supporters of the 46-year-old politician have accused Wade of simply
bringing the charges in order to silence a political rival.
Seck, who has made clear his ambition to become president, was taken
into police custody on 15 July. He was transferred to the main prison in
Dakar at the weekend after formal charges were laid against him.
Seck has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and his defence team told IRIN
that the charges against him were politically motivated.
"No specific fact was brought against him and no proof was submitted
against him," said Boucounta Diallo, the coordinator of his team of
Senegalese and French defence lawyers.
"Mr. Seck is completely innocent of everything he has been accused of,"
he added.
Ousmane Seye, a government lawyer, said Seck had refused to answer any
police questions about municipal spending on public works in Thies,
Senegal's second largest city, which lies 70 km east of the capital
Dakar.
Widely regarded as a rival and potential successor to 78-year-old Wade
within the ruling Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS), Seck has never denied
that he has presidential ambitions.
However, he has consistently said that he would not stand against Wade
if the aging president chose to seek re-election in 2007.
As the number two figure in the PDS, Seck played a key role in securing
Wade's election as president and in constructing political alliances with
minority parties that gave Wade's supporters 89 of the 120 seats in
parliament in the 2001 general election.
He was made chief of staff of the president's office immediately after
Wade's election and occupied the post for two years until he was made prime
minister.
But the two men fell out last year and Seck was sacked as a result.
Wade's present drive to prosecute his former ally for "endangering state
security and national defence" may prove difficult, since the constitution
accords Seck certain privileges as a former prime minister.
Parliament must first approve the government's move to bring charges
against Seck by a 60 percent majority.
If the legislature gives its consent, Seck will then be brought before a
special court to be judged by a committee of eight senior judges and eight
members of parliament.
Senegal has until recently had a reputation for democracy and tolerance
in West Africa, a region plagued by military coups and civil wars.
The country has enjoyed uninterrupted civilian rule since independence
from France in 1960 and Wade peacefully ended four decades of rule by the
Socialist Party when he came to power in the 2000 elections.
But five years into his seven-year presidential term, Wade is facing
increasing criticism for his increasingly authoritarian style.
In May, Abdourahim Agne, the vocal leader of the small centre-left
Reform Party (PR), was arrested and charged with threatening the state after
he urged people to take to the streets to demand Wade's resignation.
Shortly aftwards dissent broke out within the PDS's own ranks when 12
members of parliament close to Seck briefly defected from the ruling
coalition.
Following their walkout, Seck's home was attacked and a pro-PDS student
leader was knifed.
Such incidents of political violence are relatively rare in Senegal, but
they have become more common in recent years.
Diallo, Seck's chief defence lawyer, pointed out that ironically the
president was bringing charges against Seck under four articles of the legal
code which he had earlier vowed to abolish.
This special "High Court of Justice" was last convened in 1962 to hear
charges that Mamadou Dia, the then prime minister had been plotting a coup
against Senegal's first president, Leopold Senghor. He was found guilty and
sentenced to life imprisonment.
Sidiki Kaba, the chairman of the Paris-based International Federation of
Human Rights (FIDH), who is another lawyer in the defence team has no doubt
why Seck is in prison.
"He is a political prisoner and we are defending him," Kaba said of
Seck.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2005 | ['(AllAfrica)', '(Reuters AlertNet)', '(BBC)'] |
Wang Xiaoning, a Chinese dissident who was detained in 2002 with information provided by Yahoo!, is released. | A Chinese dissident convicted of subversion charges with the help of evidence provided by US internet giant Yahoo has been released from jail.
Wang Xiaoning was freed early on Friday morning, his wife, Yu Ling, told the BBC by telephone.
Mr Wang, who was detained in 2002, served his 10-year sentence in a Beijing jail.
Yahoo drew widespread criticism for providing information linking him to emails and political writings.
Ms Yu said her husband was in "good health and fine spirits" but was not allowed to give media interviews under the conditions of his release.
She could not comment on his experience in prison, she added.
Mr Wang, a former engineer, was prosecuted after posting pro-democracy statements online calling for an end to one-party Communist rule. He was jailed for "incitement to subvert state power". The case raised questions about whether internet companies should co-operate with governments that repress freedom of speech, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.
A human rights group filed a lawsuit in the US on behalf of several plaintiffs, including Mr Wang and a Chinese journalist, Shi Tao, who was also jailed for 10 years in 2005.
Yahoo later apologised and paid an undisclosed amount of compensation to the families involved.
It also told the US congress that the company had been legally obliged to provide the information. Yahoo 'helped jail China writer' | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | August 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The finals of the robot football World Cup are held. A Chinese team defeats the Netherlands in the finals of the middle–weight non–humanoid league, while another lost in the final of the small humanoid class to a team from Japan. | A team from Japan have won the child-sized humanoid football final at the RoboCup World Championships in China.
The Brains Kids, from the Chiba Institute of Technology, beat rivals ZJUDancer, from China's Zhejian University, 1-0.
| Sports Competition | July 2015 | ['(DutchNews)', '(BBC)'] |
Archeologists of the Romano–Germanic Museum report the discovery of the foundations of a Roman library building in Cologne. Dating from the 2nd century CE, it is the oldest library yet discovered in Germany. | Archaeologists in Cologne believe they have uncovered the foundations of the oldest known library in Germany, dating back to the 2nd Century.
A team from the city's Roman-Germanic Museum discovered the library remains while excavating the site of a Protestant church.
The building likely housed up to 20,000 scrolls, according to Dr Dirk Schmitz, a researcher on the expedition. He described the find as "truly spectacular".
The archaeologists involved in the parish church project uncovered the remains of a Roman building from the 2nd Century.
Cologne was founded by the Romans under the name Colonia in 50 AD.
The former library is thought to have had a size of around 20 metres by nine and was two storeys high. "At first we thought they were the remains of a space for public gatherings," Marcus Trier, director of the city's Romano-Germanic Museum said, but the walls had "unusual, cavernous structures".
After intensive research and comparison with ancient buildings such as the Ephesus in Turkey, the archaeologists were confident they had found the remains of what used to be a library. "It took us some time to match up the parallels - we could see the niches were too small to bear statues inside," said Dr Schmitz, from the Roman-Germanic Museum of Cologne. "They are very particular to libraries - you can see the same ones in the library at Ephesus."
The historic ruins have also revealed niches and cases, which likely stored an incredible number of parchment and papyrus rolls. "Maybe 20,000," he estimates.
The western German city on the Rhine River is over 2,000 years old - so stumbling upon ancient ruins is not unusual. The foundations are now to be integrated as a significant part into the new protestant church and will be open to the public. Other remains of the newly found library will be left for further archaeological examinations. | New archeological discoveries | August 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Northern Territory Police call for reinforcements as violence breaks out amongst Australian aborigines in the town of Yuendumu following the death of an indigenous man. | Northern Territory police say they are sheltering a number of people in a house at Yuendumu, as more forces arrive to deal with violence at the remote Central Australian community.
Alice Springs Commander Anne-Marie Murphy says a group of 20 to 30 people armed with iron bars and sticks have set fire to five cars and a house and there are reports five people have been injured.
"There are a number of people that are being targeted by the offenders and we are making every effort to keep them safe and keeping them in a secure area that we can monitor and look after them," she said.
No arrests have been made but police say the offenders will be dealt with.
Police have taken the unusual step of issuing a travel warning for the community and a tactical response team is being flown in to try to calm things down.
Earlier this week police increased their numbers in Yuendumu because of ongoing threats of violence between families.
Police say the situation was exacerbated by the stabbing death of a Yuendumu resident in Alice Springs and the subsequent arrest of two people over the death.
Long-term Yuendumu resident Frank Baarda says the trouble in the community is linked to the stabbing death, but it is not payback in the traditional sense.
"A long time ago payback used to be very ritualised and so on, and now it's not quite the same now; it's a little bit less structure and so on," he said.
Mr Baarda warns against drawing conclusions about Yuendumu and worries what the violence will mean for the community's reputation.
"All I know is that in situations like this, in the past people have tended to overreact and make it sound like it was a war zone," he said.
"Whilst as I say the place is tense and there's been some fights and disturbances... a few cars got burnt down and it's not necessarily over because that tension's still there.
"At the same time, I can say that at the moment things are very calm and that it doesn't affect non-Warlpiri people that are not directly related to the incident in town."
Vice-president of the NT branch of the Australian Education Union Stephen Nimmo is also worried about disruptions for the town's children.
"The violence in the community will automatically lead to fewer kids attending school," he said.
"Whilst there were 20 kids at the school, there's normally an awful lot more than 20 kids at that school.
"So that's obviously having an immediate effect and you're not sure how long it's going to take before attendance levels return to normal.
"When this sort of incident happens there's often relocations of family groups away from the community which causes a certain amount of unrest.
"In the longer term, it makes it very difficult to staff remote schools because if you're thinking of working remote in the Northern Territory and you look up Yuendumu and you find violence and lockdowns as the first things on your Google search, you're probably going to think of maybe working somewhere else."
| Riot | September 2010 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
The Trump administration reverses its student visa policy, announced on July 6, to deport international students whose courses move fully online. The plan met stiff opposition. At least 59 universities and the attorneys general of 18 states sued to block this directive. Federal district judge Allison Burroughs dismisses the first case brought to court as moot because the federal government has agreed to rescind the policy. | US President Donald Trump's government has dropped its plans to deport international students whose courses move fully online because of the coronavirus pandemic. The U-turn comes just one week after the policy announcement.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University sued the government over the plan. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Massachusetts says the parties have come to a settlement.
The agreement reinstates a policy implemented in March, amid the virus outbreak, which allows international students to attend their classes virtually if necessary and remain legally in the country on student visas, according to the New York Times. Large numbers of foreign students travel to the US to study every year and are a significant source of revenue for universities.
Harvard announced recently that, because of concerns over the virus's spread, course instruction would be delivered online when students return for the new academic year. MIT, like a number of other educational institutions, said it would also continue to use virtual tuition. Foreign students were told last week that they would not be allowed to stay in the US this autumn unless they switched to a course with in-person tuition.
Those who had returned to their home countries when term ended in March - as the coronavirus crisis grew - were told they would not be permitted to return if their classes had since moved online. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency had said people could face deportation if they did not comply with the rules.
The Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which is run by ICE, had originally permitted foreign students to continue with their spring and summer 2020 courses online while remaining in the country. But on 6 July the agency said foreign students who then failed to switch to in-person courses could face "immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings".
Two days afterwards, Harvard and MIT filed the first of several lawsuits seeking to overturn the directive, calling it "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion". Dozens of other universities signed a court brief to support the action. The "true motivation," the 59 universities argued in their supportive brief, "has nothing to do with ensuring that students engage in a 'full course of study' or with protecting the integrity of the student visa program. Instead, its purpose ... is to 'encourage schools to reopen.'"
The attorneys general of at least 18 states, including Massachusetts and California, also sued.
President Trump has been pushing for university and school students to return to classrooms in the new term. He sees reopening as an indicator of recovery after months of upheaval, which could be beneficial in his bid for reelection in November.
However, many educators are concerned about student wellbeing and want to continue practicing social distancing while the outbreak is ongoing. The policy applied to holders of F-1 and M-1 visas, which are for academic and vocational students. The state department issued 388,839 F visas and 9,518 M visas in the fiscal year 2019, according to the agency's data.
According to the US commerce department, international students contributed $45bn (£36bn) to the country's economy in 2018. Universities fear fall in lucrative overseas students
Foreign students in US 'scared for the future' | Government Policy Changes | July 2020 | ['(BBC)', '(USA Today)'] |
Garret Miller, a Texas man who participated in the storming of the United States Capitol, is charged for threatening to assassinate U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. | A Texas man who participated in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January has been charged with threatening to “assassinate” the New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Garret Miller of Texas faces five criminal charges arising from his participation in the pro-Trump riot, including “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted buildings or grounds without lawful authority” and making threats.
According to court documents, he allegedly tweeted: “Assassinate AOC.”
He is also charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, obstructing or impeding any official proceeding, and certain acts during civil disorder.
Asked for comment on Saturday, Miller’s lawyer, Clint Broden, said in an email: “The charges are based on an inappropriate comment made in the heat of the moment on Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter feed.”
On Friday night, Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democratic congresswoman from New York, responded to news that Miller had been arrested, and had posted a selfie to Facebook, writing that he “just wanted to incriminate myself a little lol”.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “Well, you did!”
She added: “On one hand you have to laugh, and on the other know that the reason [the Capitol rioters] were this brazen is because they thought they were going to succeed.”
Miller is also alleged to have said an officer who shot and killed a Trump supporter inside the Capitol “deserves to die” and would not “survive long” because it’s “huntin[g] season”.
Broden said: “Mr Miller regrets the actions he took in a misguided effort to show his support for former President Trump. He has the full support of his family and has always been a law abiding citizen.
“His social media comments reflect very ill-considered political hyperbole in very divided times and will certainly not be repeated in the future. He looks forward to putting all of this behind him.”
The criminal complaint filed in Washington DC federal court lists example after example of social media posts apparently placing Miller on Capitol grounds, participating in the riot.
Several hours after the insurrection, authorities allege, Twitter user @garretamiller publicly posted a video from within the Capitol captioned: “From inside congress”.
“In examining Miller’s Facebook account, there are many posts relating to his involvement in criminal activities at the Capitol,” officials wrote.
On 2 January, Miller allegedly wrote on Facebook: “I am about to drive across the country for this trump shit. On Monday … Some crazy shit going to happen this week. Dollar might collapse … civil war could start … not sure what to do in DC.”
On 3 January, Miller allegedly said he was bringing to Washington “a grappling hook and rope and a level-3 vest. Helmets mouth guard and bump cap”. The last time he was in Washington for a pro-Trump rally, Miller allegedly added, he “had a lot of guns” with him.
Miller also seems to have sought to set the record straight about participants in the riot. When someone wrote on Twitter that “the people storming The Capitol are not Patriots. They are PAID INFILTRATORS”, Miller allegedly responded: “Nah we stormed it. We where [sic] gentle. We where [sic] unarmed. We knew what had to be done.”
In a 15 January Facebook chat, Miller allegedly wrote that he was “happy to make death threats so I been just off the rails tonight lol” and was “happy to be banned now [from Twitter]”. Asked if police knew his name, he allegedly wrote: “[I]t might be time for me to … Be hard to locate.”
A bail hearing was scheduled for Monday.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that the FBI and Department of Justice were considering not charging some of the hundreds of people arrested over the riot.
It was “a politically loaded proposition”, the paper said, “but one alert to the practical concern that hundreds of such cases could swamp the local courthouse”.
Donald Trump was impeached for inciting the Capitol attack. He will face trial in the Senate. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2021 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Ten civilians are killed when a suicide bomber detonates his explosive belt in a crowd of worshippers at a Shia mosque in eastern Baghdad, Iraq. | No terrorist group has immediately claimedresponsibility for the Friday attack on the mosque, according to the Iraqi media. Ten people died and thirty more sustained injuries as a result of an explosionin Imam Mahdi's mosque in theBaladiyat district of the Iraqi capital, the Baghdad Today media outlet reported citing its security sources.
According to the local media, aterrorist wearing a suicide belt had conducted the attack.
The site where the blast took place has been cordoned off by security services.
There are conflicting reports on the death toll; the local media outlet Baghdad Informer reports that the explosion resulted in the death of seven people.
7 killed in blast at Shiite mosque in eastern Baghdad: police sources The Daily Star https://t.co/fxrAJ0HnEi pic.twitter.com/ZfOJkolkZB | Armed Conflict | June 2019 | ['(Sputnik)'] |
Colombian FARC rebels release four former members of Congress, held hostage since 2001 and 2002, in a deal brokered by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. | The four had a tearful reunion with relatives after being released in the Colombian jungle to Venezuelan envoys.
The Farc says it will not free more hostages until Colombia creates a demilitarised zone for talks.
One of the remaining and most prominent hostages, Ingrid Betancourt, is said by the freed hostages to be very ill.
Firm stance The hostages, all former members of Congress, are Luis Eladio Perez, Gloria Polanco, Orlando Beltran and Jorge Gechem. The four were handed over to Venezuelan and Colombian politicians and Red Cross personnel, who had arrived in the jungle on two helicopters to collect them. I always waited for him and I always fought for him
Lucy GechemHostage's wife
Farc back in limelightHand of Chavez evidentIn pictures: Hostage release
Video footage showed the hostages appearing, raising their hands in the air and embracing officials sent to pick them up. The helicopters took the hostages back to Venezuela, where they were transferred onto private planes for the flight on to Caracas where they met relatives.
Among those waiting in Venezuela's capital was Mr Gechem's wife Lucy, who was emotional when she heard the news.
"I don't know what I am going to say to him, because it is going to be such a happy moment," she told local radio. "I always waited for him and I always fought for him." Chavez intervention
After meeting the freed hostages at the presidential palace, Mr Chavez made what he called an appeal "from the heart" to the Farc's leader to move Ms Betancourt to a safe location. "Move her to a base closer to you while we continue working to pave the way for her definitive release," he said. Mr Perez said Ms Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who holds dual Colombian-French nationality, had been very badly treated by her captors and was in poor condition.
"It hurts my soul, she is very bad, very, very sick. She is physically and morally exhausted."
It was a tearful reunion in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas
The latest releases follow the freeing last month of two women, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, which Mr Chavez also helped to broker. These developments have raised hopes that more hostages might be released. But Mr Perez said Ingrid Betancourt is convinced she will be the last to be freed. He also urged US politicians to increase the pressure for the release of the three American defence contractors, saying he had a clear message for President George W Bush and the US presidential candidates. "Please don't leave these Americans in exile in the Colombian jungle."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday's release was a "powerful encouragement" in the task of freeing the remaining captives. US state department spokesman Tom Casey welcomed the move, but said it was "reprehensible" that the Farc was continuing to hold hostages. Pressure for concessions
The rebels, who have long wanted to exchange their high-profile hostages for hundreds of jailed guerrillas, repeated their demand that a demilitarised zone be created where talks can take place on a prisoner exchange. COLOMBIAN HOSTAGES
Gloria Polanco: Former congresswoman, 42, kidnapped in 2001
Luis Eladio Perez: Former senator, 50, kidnapped in 2001
Orlando Beltran: Former congressman, 50, kidnapped in 2001
Jorge Gechem: Former congressman, 57, kidnapped in 2002 Q&A: Colombia hostagesThe rebels: A fading force?
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who has tense relations with his Venezuelan counterpart, thanked Mr Chavez for his help and reiterated his call for all hostages to be freed. Mr Uribe has maintained a firm stance against the Farc, which is regarded as a terrorist group by the US and the European Union. Colombia was involved in a fight against "kidnapping and terrorism", Mr Uribe said, but the nation was "always ready for forgiveness and reconciliation". The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Medellin says that with the release, the pressure on Mr Uribe to make concessions to the Farc will increase.
But Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday that the Farc was using its calls for dialogue to gain political space and discredit the government. Farc rebels are also thought to be holding several hundred other hostages, many of whom were taken for ransom to help fund rebel operations. What are these? | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | February 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says that a Turkish court will decide the fate of American pastor Andrew Brunson. | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said a Turkish court, not politicians, will decide the fate of an American pastor whose detention on terrorism charges has hit relations between Ankara and Washington.
EXCLUSIVE-Turkey's Erdogan says court will decide fate of detained U.S. pastor
01:47
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful Turkey would release evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson this month. The preacher was moved to house arrest in July after being detained for 21 months.
In an interview with Reuters late on Tuesday while he was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meetings, Erdogan said any decision on Brunson would be made by the court.
“This is a judiciary matter. Brunson has been detained on terrorism charges ... On Oct. 12 there will be another hearing and we don’t know what the court will decide and politicians will have no say on the verdict,” Erdogan said.
If found guilty, Brunson could be jailed for up to 35 years. He denies the charges. “As the president, I don’t have the right to order his release. Our judiciary is independent. Let’s wait and see what the court will decide,” Erdogan said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, infuriated by Brunson’s detention, authorized a doubling of duties on aluminum and steel imported from Turkey in August. Turkey retaliated by increasing tariffs on U.S. cars, alcohol and tobacco imports.
The Turkish lira has lost nearly 40 percent of its value against the dollar this year on concerns over Erdogan’s grip on monetary policy and the diplomatic dispute between Ankara and Washington.
“The Brunson case is not even closely related to Turkey’s economy. The current economic challenges have been exaggerated more than necessary and Turkey will overcome these challenges with its own resources,” Erdogan said.
Turkey’s central bank raised its benchmark rate by a hefty 625 basis points this month, boosting the lira and possibly easing investor concern over Erdogan’s influence on monetary policy. Erdogan said he was against the measure.
“It shows the central bank is independent. As the president, I am against high interest rates and I am repeating my stance here again,” he said, adding that high rates “primarily scare away investors”.
“This was a decision made by the central bank ... I hope and pray that their expectations will be met because high rates lead to high inflation. I hope the other way around will happen this time.”
The lira firmed slightly on Wednesday morning, after Erdogan’s assurance on the independence of the central bank was published.
In an effort to boost the economy and attract investors, Erdogan will travel on Sept. 28 to Germany, a country that is home to millions of Turks.
“We want to completely leave behind all the problems and to create a warm environment between Turkey and Germany just like it used to be,” Erdogan said, adding that he will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel during his visit.
The two NATO members have differed over Turkey’s crackdown on suspected opponents of Erdogan after a failed coup in 2016 and over its detention of German citizens.
On Syria, Erdogan said it was impossible for Syrian peace efforts to continue with President Bashar al-Assad in power.
Earlier this month, Turkey and Russia reached an agreement to enforce a new demilitarized zone in Syria’s Idlib region from which “radical” rebels will be required to withdraw by the middle of next month.
But Erdogan said the withdrawal of “radical groups” had already started.
“This part of Syria will be free of weapons which is the expectation of the people of Idlib ... who welcomed this step,” he said. The demilitarized zone will be patrolled by Turkish and Russian forces.
Close to 3 million people live in Idlib, around half of them displaced by the war from other parts of Syria.
Erdogan said Turkey will continue to buy natural gas from Iran in line with its long-term supply contract despite Trump’s threats to punish countries doing business with Iran.
“We need to be realistic ... Am I supposed to let people freeze in winter? ...Nobody should be offended. How can I heat my people’s homes if we stop purchasing Iran’s natural gas?,” he said.
Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 multinational nuclear deal with Iran and in August Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran, lifted in 2016 under the pact. U.S. sanctions on Iran’s energy sector are set to be re-imposed in November.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Sudan says it has detained 122 of its nationals, including eight children, who were heading to neighboring Libya to fight as "mercenaries". Sudanese Foreign Minister Asma Mohamed Abdalla says, "We cannot get involved in a conflict in any neighboring country." | KHARTOUM: Sudan said Sunday it has arrested 122 of its nationals as they headed to neighboring Libya to fight as “mercenaries,” state media reported.
State news agency SUNA on Sunday cited Brig. Jamal Jumaa, spokesman for the Rapid Reaction Forces, saying that “joint security forces detained 122 outlaws including eight children who were heading to (fight as) mercenaries in Libya.”
SUNA published a video showing dozens of youths sitting on the ground, surrounded by military vehicles carrying soldiers armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.
It said the video was shot in Al-Junayna, the capital of West Darfur province.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister this week denied that Sudanese forces were involved in the conflict in Libya.
In an interview with AFP, Asma Abdalla said: “We cannot get involved in a conflict in any neighboring country.”
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2020 | ['(Arab News)'] |
Brazil's Supreme Court voted 8-2 to take over the corruption investigation of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Silva alleges Judge Sérgio Moro unfairly targets him. The court also overruled Moro's decision to release the recording of Silva's call with President Dilma Rousseff, since it is the only court that can authorize a wiretap on presidential conversations. The full court is still to rule on the injunction that prevents Silva from taking office as the President's Chief of Staff. | Brazil's Supreme Court handed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a victory on Thursday, ruling against returning a corruption investigation involving the ex-leader to a judge he accuses of unfairly targeting him.
Brazil's highest court voted 8-2 to take over the case, effectively removing the probe into Silva from Judge Sergio Moro, the lower court magistrate spearheading a corruption case centered on state-run oil company Petrobras.
Moro, a judge from the provincial backwater of Curitiba, has risen to prominence over the past two years while presiding over the Petrobras investigation that has ensnared some of Brazil's richest businessmen and top public figures from across the political spectrum.
But he was accused of partisanship earlier this month after ordering police to take Silva in for questioning in connection with the Petrobras case.
Silva's supporters say Moro is waging a crusade against the former leader and fear he could order Silva detained, a step the Supreme Court is thought much less likely to take, at least in the short term.
The full court has not yet taken up appeals of a separate injunction that prevented Silva from taking office as President Dilma Rousseff's chief of state, a post that would give him greater legal protections. Under Brazilian law, only the Supreme Court can authorize the investigation, detention and indictment of Cabinet ministers and legislators.
Silva's appointment has remained in limbo for weeks, pending a decision by the Supreme Court. The former president, who served from 2003-2010, has denied all wrongdoing.
Meanwhile Thursday, demonstrators gathered in more than 20 states to support Silva and Rousseff, who is facing impeachment proceedings over accusations she violated fiscal laws. Thousands of demonstrators — many dressed in red, the symbol of Rousseff's left-leaning Workers' Party — converged in the capital, Brasilia, as well as the financial center of Sao Paulo and other cities throughout the country.
Rousseff's chance of surviving impeachment effort looked slimmer after the biggest party in her governing coalition decamped earlier this week — a move that also created confusion about the status of her Cabinet.
Leaders of The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, known by the Portuguese initials PMDB, said Tuesday that all their Cabinet ministers, as well as hundreds of other federal government employees, would have to resign immediately.
But Agriculture Minister Katia Abreu, a close confidant of Rousseff, said on Twitter that she didn't plan on leaving either the government or the party. Her tweet suggested the other five PMDB Cabinet ministers held the same stand.
It wasn't immediately clear how the PMDB — Brazil's largest party — would respond to the minister's defiance.
Rousseff's office announced late Wednesday that Sports Minister George Hilton had asked to leave the position and would be temporarily replaced by a top ministry official.
Hilton's departure is unlikely to have much effect on preparations for the Aug. 5-21 Olympics as his role in the project was marginal. The presidential palace said in a statement that Hilton's replacement, 45-year-old Ricardo Leyser, had headed the agency responsible for coordinating the federal government's role in the Olympics.
Wednesday's announcement capped weeks of confusion about whether Hilton would stay on as minister. He left his party after it also pulled out of Rousseff's governing coalition in March, in an apparent bid to keep his job. But a top Rousseff aide said last week that Hilton would resign, although his ministry declined to confirm it at the time.
Brazilian news media have suggested Rousseff planned to offer the vacated ministries to the six smaller parties that remain in her coalition in a bid to help her secure their support against impeachment efforts. She needs 172 out of 513 votes in the lower house to bury the proceedings.
But the defection of the PMDB, which has been a key part of the governing coalitions since Brazil emerged from military dictatorship in 1985, appears to have made that more difficult.
Rousseff's approval rating has plummeted amid the worst recession in decades, rising unemployment and an outbreak of the Zika virus, which has been linked to a rare birth defect. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | March 2016 | ['(AP via ABC news)', '(Reuters)'] |
A Burkinabé military operation reportedly kills 146 jihadists after the Al-Qaeda-linked militants killed 14 people in other attacks. | Burkina Faso's commander general says armed forces have killed 146 jihadists in three counterattack operations in the northwest near its border with Mali.
General Moise Minoungou spoke on National Television late on Monday saying armed men entered Kain village early on Monday and killed 14 men and women. He said Burkina Faso's army responded by fighting in Kain, about 80km from Ouahigouya in the north Yatenga province. With air support it also fought in Bahn in the north region and Bomboro in the Boucle du Mouhon region.
He said the combined operations killed 146 jihadists fleeing to Mali.
Islamic extremists have increased attacks in Burkina Faso's Sahel region, also shifting to the forested east near the Niger border. | Armed Conflict | February 2019 | ['(News24)'] |
Elections are held in The Gambia. | Yahya Jammeh, president since 1994, confident of winning yet another term in the office after Thursday’s polls.
The Gambia President Yahya Jammeh, who has been in office for more than two decades, has warned that even peaceful protests will not be permitted after the upcoming election.
On Thursday, more than 880,000 registered voters will head to more than 1,400 polling stations around the country whose population is around 1.9 million.
President Jammeh, 51, who took control of the West African country in 1994, said on Tuesday that his victory in the election is all but assured with divine intervention, and warned the opposition against protesting.
“Our election system is fraud-proof, rig-proof, you cannot rig our elections,” he said. “There is no reason that anybody should demonstrate.”
Demonstrations will not be allowed “because those are the loopholes that are used to destabilise African governments”, he said.
Voters will use marbles, placing them into green, silver and purple ballot drums, which will be counted on the spot using wooden tablets.
Observers from the European Union and the West African regional bloc ECOWAS are not attending the election but the African Union will send a handful of observers.
Jammeh faces off against Adama Barrow, a former businessman and United Democratic Party leader, who emerged as the candidate for an alliance of eight opposition parties.
Former ruling party deputy Mama Kandeh is running for the Gambia Democratic Congress, the only opposition party not in the coalition.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2016 | ['(Al-Jazeera)'] |
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