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Belgian Minister of Transportation Jacqueline Galant resigns in the wake of the recent bombings that shook Brussels last March. Galant resigned amid accusations her ministry ignored EU criticism of security at Belgium's airports. | Belgian Transport Minister Jacqueline Galant has resigned in the wake of the March 22 terrorist attacks that killed 32 people in Brussels.
Galant resigned on April 15 amid accusations her ministry had ignored EU criticism of security at Belgium's airports. Nineteen of the March 22 victims were killed at the Brussels airport.
The confidential EU reports were leaked to the press by the opposition Green Party on April 13. The most recent one, from 2015, said Belgian airports were "not compliant" with security standards and that several serious problems had been identified.
Galant told journalists on April 15 that "the orchestrated and theatrical chaos of the last 48 hours makes it impossible for me to continue." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2016 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Judges in the trial of Dutch MP Geert Wilders are ordered to step down by an independent appeals panel, with the legal process now having to begin again. | Judges in the hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders have been ordered to step down by an independent appeals panel.
The move follows a request by Mr Wilders' lawyers who said they feared the judges were biased against him.
The legal process that began in January must now begin again with new judges. The trial itself started in October.
Mr Wilders faces five charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.
If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
Mr Wilders' lawyer Bram Moszkowicz had argued that the bench at Amsterdam District Court had created "an impression of partiality" by putting off a decision on the defence's request to recall a witness. Being denied the opportunity to recall the witness would "make it impossible for the defence to substantiate a crucial part of its case", he added. A hastily convened panel said on Friday that it found the trial judges' decision to be "incomprehensible in the absence of any motivation".
They said that Mr Wilders' fear of bias as a result was "understandable".
"Under the circumstances, the request [for the judges' removal] is granted," said a statement from the panel.
"Another chamber will handle the rest of the case."
Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops, an international criminal law professor at Utrecht University, told Reuters that the ruling meant there would be new judges and a new date.
"This means that the trial has to start all over again. Not the investigation phase, but the court sessions as the new judges will not have been present at the hearings," he said.
Under scrutiny in the trial are statements Mr Wilders made between 2006 and 2008, including calling Islam "fascist" and likening the Koran to Hitler's book Mein Kampf.
Mr Wilders' Freedom Party is the third biggest in the Netherlands after elections in June, and is expected to play a key role in the next parliament.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in a major policy shift in the War on Drugs, announces that the federal government, following some states' stances, will direct its prosecutors to no longer insist on automatic mandatory minimum prison sentences for non–violent, low–level, non–repeat offender drug offenses where the defendant is not involved with gangs and/or cartels. | The Obama administration is calling for major changes to the nation's criminal justice system to cut back on harsh sentences for certain drug-related crimes.
US Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the NAACP convention in Orlando, Fla.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration unveiled steps on Monday to fix what it considers the longstanding unjust treatment of many nonviolent drug offenders, aiming to bypass tough mandatory prison terms while reducing America's huge prison population and saving billions of dollars.
"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason," Attorney General Eric Holder, the top U.S. law enforcement official, said in a speech in San Francisco unveiling the proposals.
Holder said the Justice Department would direct federal prosecutors to charge defendants in certain low-level drug cases in such a way that they would not be eligible for mandatory sentences now on the books.
Related: Judge says NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy is discriminatory
Prosecutors would do this by omitting from official charging documents the amount of drugs involved in a case, lawyers with expertise in criminal law said. By doing so, prosecutors would ensure that nonviolent defendants without significant criminal history would not get long sentences.
Other proposals unveiled by Holder — such as giving federal judges the leeway to depart from mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses — require congressional approval, a tricky prospect at a time of partisan gridlock in Washington.
Holder labeled as an injustice the mandatory minimum sentences required under the criminal justice system in many drugs cases — condemning offenders to long prison terms even for nonviolent crimes and possession of small amounts of drugs.
"This is why I have today mandated a modification of the Justice Department's charging policies so that certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences," Holder said.
Holder cited a moral imperative — as well as financial and social reasons — to re-examine policies that send so many Americans to prison.
"As the so-called war on drugs enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective," Holder said at a conference of the American Bar Association lawyers group.
WORLD INCARCERATION LEADER
The United States leads the world in the percentage of its population behind bars, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies in London. Among the reasons for that are the mandatory minimum sentences and related laws enacted in the 1980s and 1990s at a time of rising crime and drug violence.
Holder said that the United States accounts for just 5 percent of the world's population, but incarcerates almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. He added that U.S. federal prisons are nearly 40 percent above capacity and that almost half of the inmates are serving time for drug-related crimes.
American political leaders including Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic President Bill Clinton championed big spending increases to target criminal gangs and drug traffickers in what has been called the "war on drugs."
Crime has dropped in the United States since those laws were passed. Democratic President Barack Obama's administration is betting that support for mandatory minimum laws has eroded for several reasons, including the amount of money spent by governments on housing and maintaining a huge prison population.
Another step being taken by Holder's department would loosen the criteria for releasing inmates who have serious medical conditions or who are elderly — as long as they are nonviolent and have served significant portions of their sentences.
Holder also said he has instructed federal prosecutors nationwide to develop "specific, locally tailored guidelines" to determine if drug cases should be subject to federal charges.
It was not clear how many offenders might see shorter prison terms under the administration's proposals. The proposals were unlikely to affect many people already imprisoned.
CONGRESSIONAL REACTION MIXED
Democratic lawmakers responded favorably to Holder's speech, agreeing that mandatory minimum sentences had become unfair. Some Republicans said Holder went too far.
"If Attorney General Holder wants to reform our criminal justice system, he should work with Congress to do so," U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, said in a statement.
In a development that Holder called "very promising," Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — favorites of the conservative Tea Party movement — have joined leading Democrats to call for passage of legislation to enable federal judges to depart from mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses.
"Such legislation will ultimately save our country billions of dollars, and the president and I look forward to working with members of both parties to refine and advance these proposals," Holder said.
For some drug offenses, U.S. law mandates that judges impose a minimum sentence. For some other offenses, judges get an advisory range from the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Prosecutors can avoid both constraints at the outset of a criminal case when they make the crucial decisions about if and how to charge a suspect.
"By reserving the most severe penalties for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers, we can better promote public safety, deterrence and rehabilitation, while making our expenditures smarter and more productive," Holder said.
The Justice Department staff has been studying changes since the beginning of the year, about the time Holder agreed to stay in his job into Obama's second, four-year term, officials said.
According to statistics kept by the International Centre for Prison Studies, 716 of every 100,000 Americans are in prison or in jail awaiting trial. That compares to 479 in Russia, 284 in Iran, 274 in Brazil, 209 in Mexico, 149 in England and Wales, 121 in China, 114 in Canada, 102 in France and 80 in Germany.
There was little indication that the administration's proposals would affect private-sector companies that help to manage U.S. prisons. The companies specialize in housing inmates who faced immigration and customs charges, not drug charges, said Kevin McVeigh, an analyst with Macquarie Securities.
| Government Policy Changes | August 2013 | ['(MSN)'] |
Englishman Barry Thew is sentenced to four months in jail after a t–shirt he wore is deemed to offend public morality. | A man from Greater Manchester who wore a T-shirt daubed with offensive comments about the killing of two police officers has been jailed.
Barry Thew, 39, was arrested wearing the top with the words "one less pig perfect justice" hours after the deaths of PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes.
He admitted a public order offence and was jailed for four months at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester.
Insp Bryn Williams said after the case that the T-shirt had been "appalling".
A police spokesman said Thew, of Worsley Street, Radcliffe, had been arrested after being seen wearing the T-shirt in Radcliffe town centre "just hours" after the constables died in a gun and grenade attack in Mottram on 18 September.
Mr Williams said: "While officers on the ground were just learning of and trying to come to terms with the devastating news that two colleagues had been killed, Thew thought nothing of going out in public with a shirt daubed with appalling handwritten comments on."
Thew was also sentenced to a further four months for breaching the conditions of an earlier 12-month suspended sentence for the possession of cannabis.
The two PCs were killed after being called to a house in Mottram, Tameside, on 18 September.
Their funerals took place in Manchester on 3 and 4 October and saw members of the public join police officers on the city's streets to pay tribute to them.
Mr Williams said that "the overwhelming response from the public, who have inundated us with messages of support and condolence, proves that Thew is the exception and not the rule and our communities were right behind us at our darkest hour".
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Spiked)'] |
800 gambling dens are raided in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China, and 5,000 people arrested for illegal betting on the 2010 FIFA World Cup. | More than 5,000 people have been arrested across Asia as part of a World Cup operation against illegal gambling.
Almost $10m was seized during the crackdown in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, the international police force Interpol said. Police in those countries "identified and raided nearly 800 illegal gambling dens", Interpol announced. It is not clear whether results on the pitch were influenced - Interpol said that would form part of a wider probe. In the past, so-called spot bets have been placed on things like the first corner or the first booking, much easier to fix than a match involving 22 players, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris.
During Operation Soga III, which ran from 11 June to 11 July, police seized assets including cars, bank cards, computers and mobile phones.
The dens handled more than $155m (100m) in bets, Interpol said. Interpol, which facilitates international police co-operation, is based in the French city of Lyon. Police forces around the world now hope that the information gathered will lead them to more people involved in illegal football gambling. The crackdown would also have a long-term impact on organised crime gangs, said Interpol's chief of police services, Jean-Michel Louboutin.
"The results we have seen are impressive, not only in the number of arrests and seizures made across the region in just one month, but in terms of the police co-operation which made this possible."
He added that the operation had also been a blow to corruption, money laundering and prostitution, and said football gambling had clear connections to those offences. Interpol co-ordinated similar crackdowns in 2007 and 2008, codenamed Soga I and Soga II. In total all three Soga operations have led to nearly 7,000 arrests and the seizure of more than $26m (17m), Mr Louboutin said.
Last week details emerged of a Chinese gang accused of running a sophisticated online betting network in the run-up to the World Cup. The gang, which was broken up last month, was alleged to have accumulated more than 100bn yuan (9.7bn; $14.8bn), Chinese state media reported. China foils online gambling ring | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(including Hong Kong and Macau)', '(Aljazeera)', '(BBC News)'] |
Halle train collision: 20 people die in a train collision in Halle, Belgium. | Bart Ouvry, Belgian Foreign Department: "We have a great number of victims"
Eighteen people have been killed in a head-on collision between two passenger trains in Belgium, although the death toll could rise.
Railway officials said the trains collided during the morning rush hour at Halle, south-west of Brussels. One reportedly missed a stop signal. "The devastation is enormous," said an official, as bloodied passengers were helped from the wrecked carriages. Rail services to south-western Belgium, Paris and London were cancelled. There were varying reports about the death toll, but eight hours after the crash the crisis centre set up to deal with the accident said 15 men and three women had been killed. As word spread about what is believed to be Belgium's worst railway crash in 30 years, crowds of onlookers began to gather. Among them were small children, being raised aloft by their parents to stare at the scene on the first day of their half-term holiday. The walking wounded were taken from the crash site and up a hill to a nearby sports centre, where they received basic medical care. Outside people with sombre faces hugged each other as all around the numbers of emergency personnel grew.
Other officials were reported as saying up to 25 people had died. There were reports of passengers still trapped in the wreckage hours after the crash. 'Enormous devastation'
The two trains collided in the commuter town around 0830 local time (0730 GMT). The governor of Flemish Brabant province, Lodewijk De Witte, said one of the trains seemed to have missed a stop signal. Belgium's track operator Infrabel said an investigation into the accident was under way, and it was difficult to speculate on the cause at this stage. Television pictures showed carriages pushed up at an angle or leaning to the side from the force of the crash. Witnesses said people were thrown around violently inside the trains with one passenger describing the "carriages compacted together" by the collision.
The two trains were carrying a total of about 250 to 300 people, a rail official said, AFP news agency reported. Emergency workers said there was considerable damage to the overhead power lines at the station in Buizingen, the district of Halle where the trains crashed. "The devastation is enormous," said Infrabel spokesman Bram De Saedeleer. "Officials of the public prosecutor's office are at the scene and will supervise the investigation. Our first concern is for the victims." Doctors were treating some of the injured at the scene of the crash, including performing amputations, while others had been taken to nearby hospitals. Slightly injured passengers, said to number about 150, were taken to a sports hall for treatment. But there has been confusion over the number of people killed and injured in the collision. Belgian broadcaster VRT reported that sources with the national railway operator said 25 people had been killed, but the operator, SNCB, said it had not released an official figure. Local mayor Dirk Pieters said "the most recent information we have is that 20 people died. I base this on what the police and firefighters tell me." 'Nightmare'
One passenger in the third carriage, Christian Wampach, told AP news agency: "It was a nightmare. "We were thrown about for about 15 seconds. There were a number of people injured in my car but I think all the dead were in the first car." A fellow passenger, Patricia Lallemand, said: "When we came out we saw dead bodies lying next to the tracks." Infrabel said one train had been going from Leuven to Braine-le-Comte while the second train had been travelling from Quievrain to Liege. The accident led to the cancellation of services between Brussels and Tournai or Mons. And Eurostar said its Brussels trains, including those to and from the UK, were cancelled until further notice. Other high-speed trains between Paris and Brussels have also been cancelled. In 2001, eight people were killed and 12 were injured in a head-on collision between commuter trains outside Brussels. It was thought that language difficulties between a Flemish-speaking signalman and a French-speaking colleague were a factor in that crash. Another accident in 2008 left more than 40 people injured when a passenger train travelling in the wrong direction hit a goods train in central Belgium, AFP news agency said. | Train collisions | February 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Flanders News)', '(WSJ)'] |
Voters in Iraq go to the polls for parliamentary elections that have already been marred by violence from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. | Iraq's premier says he has enough support to keep his post, but with election results not due for weeks and parties bitterly divided, forming a government will probably take months.
Nuri al-Maliki, who is seeking a third term in office, will have to court disaffected parties within his own Shi'ite community, as well as Sunnis and Kurds who have angrily voiced opposition to his rule, but he expressed confidence following Wednesday's polls.
His remarks to journalists came as new figures showed April was among the bloodiest months since Iraq was embroiled in a brutal Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian war that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.
The protracted surge in bloodshed, with more than 3000 people killed already this year, is among the long list of complaints, along with rampant corruption, high unemployment and what critics of the government say is insufficient improvement in public services.
Preliminary results from Wednesday's election are not expected for at least two weeks, but initial figures from the election commission show around 60 per cent of 20 million eligible voters had cast a ballot.
Turnout in the last election in 2010 was 62 per cent.
As was the case after previous elections, forming a government is likely to take months, but Maliki said on Thursday that he had the votes to put together a ruling coalition.
"We have confidence that we will achieve a political majority," he told reporters in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
However, he insisted he would not cling to the post.
While Maliki's bloc is tipped to win the most seats, no single party is expected to win a majority on its own and Iraq's various political alliances and communal groups will have to form coalitions.
raqis in a vehicule voice their support for Iraqi Turkmen Front chairman Arshad al-Salihi on the day of the election (Getty) Iraqis have defied a rash of attacks that killed 14 people and voted in the first general election since US troops withdrew, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki proclaiming "certain" victory.
Queues formed from early morning at tightly guarded polling stations, and turnout by midday on Wednesday was around 40 per cent, according to a diplomatic source.
Polls closed at 6pm (0100 AEST), and the election commission was expected to give overall turnout figures later in the evening.
In Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Iraqis had "courageously voted", sending "a powerful rebuke to the violent extremists who have tried to thwart the democratic process and sow discord in Iraq and throughout the region."
Iraqis complain of myriad grievances, from poor public services to rampant corruption and high unemployment, but the month-long campaign has hinged on Maliki's bid for a third term and dramatically deteriorating security.
The runup to the election, the first parliamentary poll since US forces departed in December 2011, has seen Baghdad and other major cities swamped in posters and bunting.
Parties have held rallies and candidates have angrily debated on television, but their appeals have largely been made on sectarian, ethnic or tribal grounds rather than political and social issues.
Analysts had expressed fears much of the electorate would stay at home rather than risk being targeted by militants, who killed nearly 90 people over the two previous days.
And fresh attacks were launched soon after polls opened, killing 14 people and wounding dozens.
Security officials reported more than 50 incidents in all, with mortar fire, roadside bombs and suicide attacks mostly targeting polling stations or people on their way to vote in the north and west.
A bomb near a polling station in north Iraq killed two women on Wednesday, officials said, as voters cast their ballots under tight security following a surge of pre-election violence.
The blast occurred in the town of Dibs, near the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, according to a police official and a doctor at a nearby hospital.
Elsewhere, militants seized another polling station in north Iraq, evacuated election staff and voters and set off explosives, destroying the building, according to a security official and an election commission employee.
An Iraqi policeman searches a voter heading for a polling station during the Iraqi legislative election in Baghdad, Iraq. (EPA) Polls have opened on Wednesday in Iraq's first parliamentary election since US troops withdrew, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki seeking a third term in power amid the country's worst violence in years.
Voters began streaming into election centres nationwide, as more than 9,000 candidates compete for 328 seats in parliament.
Iraqis have a long list of grievances, ranging from poor public services to rampant corruption and soaring unemployment, but the month-long campaign has centred on Maliki's bid for a third term and a dramatic deterioration in security in recent months.
The run-up to the election has seen Baghdad and other major cities swamped in posters and bunting.
Parties have staged rallies and would-be lawmakers have angrily debated on television, though appeals to voters have largely been made on sectarian, ethnic or tribal grounds rather than the issues themselves.
Attacks on polling stations and campaign gatherings in recent days have cast a pall over the vote, and spurred fears that much of the electorate could stay home rather than risk being targeted.
| Government Job change - Election | April 2014 | ['(SBS Australia)'] |
Malaysian authorities break up a mass gathering of Shiite Muslims, detaining four. | KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN authorities on Tuesday broke up a mass gathering of Shi'ite Muslims and detained four, in the latest action against the banned community in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation. The minority Shi'ite community has been accused of threatening national security in multi-ethnic Malaysia, and some 200 were arrested last December, with some charged in a religious court and awaiting trial. Wahab Omar, a Shi'ite community leader, said religious department officers accompanied by 20 police raided a gathering to commemorate the birthday of Fatimah Zahra, a daughter of the Prophet Mohammed. 'We were having lunch... with 200 people, many of whom are non-Muslims, to celebrate the birthday, when our premises were raided,' he said. 'It was purely a social gathering and yet we continue to be harassed by religious authorities.' Nurhamizah Othman, spokesman for the Islamic department in Selangor state which surrounds the capital, confirmed the raid and the detention of the four. A 1989 Islamic law and a 1996 fatwa by Malaysia's top Islamic clerics banned Shi'ism, declaring it a 'deviant ideology.' | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2011 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
Australia wins 2–0 against United Arab Emirates to advance to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup Final for the second consecutive time. | Hosts Australia rode two early strikes to a 2-0 victory over United Arab Emirates that sent them into the Asian Cup final for a second successive tournament at a rain-soaked Newcastle Stadium on Tuesday.
The Socceroos, who lost to Japan in the final four years ago, will take on another East Asian power in South Korea on Saturday in Sydney looking to seal a first continental title at their third attempt.
Defenders led the way for the goal-happy tournament hosts with Trent Sainsbury heading them in front after three minutes and Jason Davidson doubling the lead 11 minutes later.
VIDEO Scroll down to watch Asian Cup highlights: Australia 2-0 UAE
West Brom Jason Davidson wheels away in celebration after doubling Australia's lead against UAE
Tim Cahill, who scored a stunning overhead kick in Australia's previous match, celebrates a goal
Australian defender Trent Sainsbury celebrates with his team-mates after scoring to put his side 1-0 up
Australia: Ryan; Franjic, Davidson, Spiranovic, Sainsbury; Jedinak; Milligan, Luongo, Leckie, Kruse; Cahill
Goals: Sainsbury 3, Davidson 14
United Arab Emirates: Naser; Abbas, Esmaeel, Sanqour, Salem, Ahmed Gharib; A Abdulrahman, M Abdulrahman, O Abdulrahman; Khalil, Mabkhout
Referee: Ravshan Irmatov
Attendance: 21,079
The UAE stunned champions Japan in a penalty shootout to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 1996 but another upset never looked on the cards after Australia's early salvo.
Attacking midfielder Omar Abdulrahman did nothing to detract from his burgeoning reputation with some delightful touches and striker Ahmed Khalil hit the woodwork in the first half but they were unable to create enough clear-cut chances.
The wet pitch probably did not help but Australia, with Matthew Spiranovic restored to the back four after suspension, also defended well enough to contain Abdulrahman and his team mates.
Sainsbury heads in to put Australia ahead in their Asian Cup semi-final after just three minutes
United Arab Emirates goalkeeper Majed Naser looks on after conceding in a rainy Newcastle on Tuesday
Sainsbury (pictured wearing 20) smiles after setting Australia on their way to victory in the Asian Cup
It was at the other end of the pitch that the Socceroos made the most important early impression to the delight of the majority of the crowd of 21,079.
Winger Robbie Kruse had his cross blocked after a burst down the right in the opening couple of minutes but when the corner came swinging into the box, Sainsbury rose unchallenged to head the ball into the net off the turf.
The UAE had their best chance in the 10th minute when Abdelaziz Sanqour broke down the right flank and crossed for striker Khalil to hit the ball first time against the base of the post.
UAE's defence are helpless to stop Davidson's header doubling Australia's lead early in the match
Davidson, one arm aloft, runs off in celebration to the delight of the home fans in Newcastle, Australia
Mark Milligan (left) runs after Davidson after he scored to put Australia 2-0 up against UAE
Australia were straight back on the attack, though, and after another surge down the right the ball was heading towards Tim Cahill in front of goal.
Cahill was dragged back as he was attempting a shot and Mathew Leckie then had an effort blocked but the ball fell to Davidson, who calmly drilled it low and hard into the goal.
The Australians were in no mood to sit back and protect their lead but the UAE kept their shape and gradually worked their way back into the contest.
Khalil let fly with a long-range effort that flew past Mat Ryan and wide of the post in the 51st minute and Abdulrahman continued to probe for weaknesses in the Australian defence.
Cahill risk injury as he jumps with UAE goalkeeper Naser attempting to head the ball towards goal
Australia and Crystal Palace captain Mile Jedinak (second left) has words with Ismail Al Hammadi (centre)
Jedinak (right) reacts to a foul during Australia's 2-0 win over United Arab Emirates in the Asian Cup
Massimo Luongo, Australia's find of the tournament, had another impressive game in midfield and his curling effort came close to the target after 72 minutes.
The Socceroos continued to press forward and Leckie forced a save out of Majed Naser in the 75th minute, although the referee failed to see it and awarded a goal kick.
The UAE probably deserved a goal but Ali Ahmed Mabkhout had his shot smothered by Sainsbury in the dying minutes to leave his tally for the tournament at four.
| Sports Competition | January 2015 | ['(Daily Mail)'] |
The United Nations human rights office says that Myanmar has been carrying out daily airstrikes in Rakhine and Chin states and that at least 32 civilians have been killed since March 23. The Arakan Army unilaterally declared a monthlong ceasefire to fight the COVID19 pandemic, but the military rejected the ceasefire saying a previous ceasefire had not been respected by the insurgents. | GENEVA (Reuters) - A surge in fighting between the Myanmar military and insurgents has killed at least 32 civilians, mostly women and children, in the restive Rakhine and Chin states, the U.N. human rights office said on Friday, adding the military had destroyed homes and schools.
Myanmar’s military denies targeting civilians and a spokesman on Friday declined to respond to the allegations.
The Arakan Army, an insurgent group seeking greater autonomy for the region, has been battling government troops for more than a year.
“Myanmar’s military has been carrying out almost daily air strikes and shelling in populated areas resulting in at least 32 deaths and 71 injuries since 23 March, the majority women and children, and they have also been destroying and burning schools and homes,” U.N. human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing.
He later said that the 32 were civilians.
Colville said it was “very difficult to get precise information from Rakhine”, noting that there had been an internet blackout in the area since June 2019.
“So as to whether the reported casualties are a result of targeting or were caught in the crossfire between the Arakan Army and Myanmar government army, it’s not entirely clear,” he said.
Myanmar army spokesman Major General Tun Tun Nyi told Reuters: “We published news of what happened there. You can find out by reading them. I don’t think I have to give any comment on it.”
After local officials and a resident told Reuters shelling in Rakhine state’s Kyauk Seik village on Monday killed eight people, the army said such reports were fake.
Countries including the United States and Britain have called for an end to fighting in Rakhine amid the coronavirus pandemic. Myanmar has reported 85 cases of COVID-19 and four deaths.
The Arakan Army declared a month-long ceasefire for April along with two other ethnic armed groups, citing the pandemic. The military rejected the ceasefire, with a spokesman saying a previous truce declared by the government went unheeded by insurgents. | Armed Conflict | April 2020 | ['(mostly women and children)', '(Reuters)'] |
In Pakistan, a collision of three express trains near Ghotki leaves at least 120 dead after 13 carriages derail, according to Pakistan Railways and local police. | Accidents on the antiquated railways are fairly common About 125 people are believed to have been killed after three passenger trains collided in southern Pakistan causing the derailment of at least 13 carriages.
The interior minister of Sindh region, Abd al-Raauf Sidiqi, told Aljazeera just hours after the crash on Wednesday that 110 people were confirmed dead, another 15 bodies were believed to be still under the wreckage and that 107 had been seriously injured.
The accident occurred at about 4am when a train sitting in a station near Ghotki, in southern Sindh province, was hit by a second train, said Abdul Aziz, a senior controller at Pakistan Railways. The collision caused several carriages to derail and spill over onto another track, where they were struck by the third train, causing further derailment, he said. "It is a very gruesome situation," local police official Aga Mohammed Tahir said. Casualties "Rescue workers have started to pull the dead and injured out. There were many people inside and there are a lot of casualties." Tahir said that dozens of people had been killed or injured, but that no exact figures would be possible for some time. He said at least 13 train carriages derailed, and that the injured were being taken in ambulances and cars to area hospitals. "Rescue workers have started to pull the dead and injured out. There were many people inside and there are a lot of casualties" Aga Mohammed Tahir, Police official"They are being pulled out every minute," he said. Abdul Aziz also said he expected the toll of dead and injured to be high. "We fear that there could be many casualties," he said. "Rescue workers have started to pull the dead and injured out. There were many people inside and there are a lot of casualties" Aga Mohammed Tahir, Police official
Ghotki is about 600km northeast of Karachi, in a remote area. Abdul Aziz said rescue teams had been dispatched, but that it could take some time for them to reach the site in force. A second railway official, Sajjad Ahmed, said the train in the station was the Quetta Express, which was bringing passengers from the eastern city of Lahore to the southwestern city of Quetta when it developed a technical problem. Pile-up Technicians were working on the train when it was hit by the Karachi Express, a night-coach passenger train from Lahore to the southern port city of Karachi. The impact pushed three carriages onto an adjacent track, and they in turn were hit by the oncoming Tezgam Express, which was bringing people from Karachi north to Rawalpindi, near the capital. Pakistan's railways are antiquated, and dozens of people have been killed in train accidents in recent years. On 5 March, five people were killed and 25 injured when a passenger train derailed in eastern Punjab province.
And on 20 September 2003, a train ploughed into a packed bus in central Pakistan, killing at least 27 people and injuring six others. | Train collisions | July 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(Al–Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
PC Simon Harwood is cleared of the manslaughter of Ian Tomlinson during protests at the 2009 G20 London summit. | A police officer who hit Ian Tomlinson with a baton and pushed him to the ground at the G20 protests has been found not guilty of manslaughter.
PC Simon Harwood, 45, of south London, denied the manslaughter, in April 2009, of Mr Tomlinson, 47, on the grounds that he used reasonable force.
Mr Tomlinson, was pushed as he walked away from a police line in the City of London. He later collapsed and died.
His family said they would be pursuing the case in a civil court.
It is not clear if that will be against PC Harwood as an individual or against the Metropolitan Police.
"After the unlawful killing verdict at the inquest last year, we expected to hear a guilty verdict - not a not guilty verdict and it really hurts," Mr Tomlinson's stepson Paul King, said outside the court.
"It's not the end, we are not giving up for justice for Ian."
Members of Mr Tomlinson's family cried in the public gallery as the verdict was delivered at Southwark Crown Court.
PC Harwood, in the dock, and his wife, in the public gallery, also cried.
The jury of five men and seven women had considered their verdict for four days.
During the trial, the police officer had accepted he was "wrong" to have hit and pushed Mr Tomlinson.
He said had he realised at the time Mr Tomlinson was walking away from police lines, he "would not have gone near him".
Father-of-nine Mr Tomlinson, a heavy drinker who had slept rough for a number of years, walked 75 yards before he collapsed.
It has emerged that, in 2000, five years after he joined the Met, PC Harwood was involved in what was described at Mr Tomlinson's inquest as a "road rage" incident but his employment record was kept from the jury.
He was off-duty and the other driver complained of unlawful arrest and abuse of authority.
PC Harwood denied the accusation but retired on medical grounds in 2001 before a disciplinary hearing took place.
He rejoined the Met in late 2004 - Scotland Yard's vetting unit had considered the road rage incident but had not reviewed the full file.
Deborah Glass, deputy chairwoman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said after the verdict "significant questions" remained over PC Harwood's actions on 1 April 2009.
She said whether or not those actions were reasonable would be tested at a misconduct hearing to be held in public in September.
"PC Harwood was able to retire from the Metropolitan Police while facing disciplinary proceedings for previous alleged misconduct towards a member of the public," she said.
"That he was then re-employed by the force, first in a civilian role and later as a constable, is simply staggering and raises considerable concerns about their vetting procedures."
The Met Police, meanwhile, said it was clear "insufficient recording and checks meant detailed information regarding the officer's misconduct history was not shared at key points".
"We got that wrong," it said in a statement, adding there had since been "huge changes" to its vetting system.
"Now all applicants, including officers applying to become police staff, as well those re-joining or transferring from other police services, are formally vetted and this involves a full misconduct intelligence check."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
A military court in Bangkok charges two men, Adem Karadag and Yusufu Miefaili, with offences related to the 2015 Bangkok bombing. | Two men face 10 charges in connection with the August 17 bombing at Erawan Shrine that killed 20 people.
A military court in Thailand has charged two men with carrying out a deadly August bombing at a Bangkok shrine that left 20 people dead and more than 120 injured.
The two, identified as Bilal Mohammad and Yusufu Mieraili, faced 10 charges on Tuesday in connection with the August 17 blast at Erawan Shrine.
Bilal was initially identified as Adem Karadag, which was the name on a fake Turkish passport in his possession when he was arrested on August 29.
He was arrested at one of two apartments police raided on the outskirts of Bangkok.
The charges included conspiracy to explode bombs and commit premeditated murder, Chuchart Kanpai, thedefence lawyer, said.
Both men have been described by officials as ethnic Uighurs from western China’s Xinjiang region.
Officials said the blast was carried out by a people-smuggling gang seeking revenge on Thai authorities for cracking down on their operation.
Thai officials said there was no political or religious motive behind the attack.
No mention of ‘terrorism’
Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay, reporting from Bangkok, said there was no mention of “terrorism” in those charges.
“They have been very keen to avoid using the word terrorism” because of concern it could affect the country’s tourism and foreign investments, he said.
Mohammad and Mierailihave been held at an army base since their arrests in August and September.
They are being tried at a military court, where cases of national security have been handled since the army seized power in a coup last May.
That raises “a lot of question marks about the process”, our correspondent said, adding that access have been “very limited” although defence lawyers can go and visit.
He also reported that there have been speculations that the attackers were trying to take revenge against Thailand for sending China’s minority Muslim Uighurs back to the country.
Some of the 15 other suspects are Turks, with whom Uighurs share ethnic bonds, and Turkey is home to a large Uighur community.
China has also accused some Uighurs of being involved in committing violence in the country.
Adem Karadag faces eight charges after police say CCTV footage shows him placing a rucksack at shrine before the blast.
Police arrested three people as part of investigations into last months deadly bombing which left 20 people killed.
Police arrest suspect and seize bomb-making material in first arrest since attack on August 17.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2015 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
The United States Senate passes the Trade Promotion Authority and the Trade Adjustment Assistance bills by, respectively, 60–38 and 76–22. | News News | The Senate today gave final approval to the trade promotion authority bill by a vote of 60 to 38, then proceeded to invoke cloture on the trade adjustment assistance bill by a vote of 76 to 22 and pass that bill by voice vote.
The TPA bill was signed by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, this afternoon, because the House already voted for it, and then went to President Barack Obama for his signature.
The TAA bill — which also includes the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and other trade preferences — goes to the House for a final vote.
Although the trade adjustment assistance measure failed in the House on an earlier vote because House Democrats were trying to stop TAA, it is now expected to pass because House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said today she would vote for TAA now that it has been unlinked from TPA, Washington Trade Daily reported.
Obama has said he would sign the TPA bill only if it was accompanied by the TAA bill, which provides assistance to workers and farmers who have lost their jobs due to trade.
The Senate also agreed by voice vote to go to conference with the House on customs facilitation and trade enforcement legislation, WTD reported.
A wide range of agriculture and business groups praised the TPA passage and urged Obama to sign the bill so that U.S. negotiators can proceed with the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and other trade measures.
The groups included:
▪ Trade Benefits Coalition
▪ American Farm Bureau Federation
▪ National Association of Wheat Growers
▪ National Corn Growers Association
▪ United Fresh Produce Association
▪ Western Growers
▪ National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
▪ American Feed Industry Association
▪ American Soybean Association
▪ National Pork Producers Council
▪ Sweetener Users Association
▪ National Milk Producers Federation
▪ U.S. Dairy Export Council
▪ Distilled Spirits Council
The National Foreign Trade Council praised the passage of TPA, TAA and the trade preferences bill.
“Both TAA and preferences are crucial components of U.S. trade policy, and we call on the House to pass the bill and get it to the president’s desk for signature,” NFTC said in a news release.
The AFL-CIO continued to raise procedural issues about the trade votes, but House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sander Levin, D-Mich., said the focus must now be on TPP.
“With TPA passed, the focus must now be on the vital outstanding issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations,” Levin said.
“To get TPP on track, the negotiations must now incorporate in language and action core international labor standards, a high level of environmental protection, and the same access to affordable medicines that we included in the May 10th agreement,” Levin said.
“We must take steps to be sure our TPP trading partners don’t manipulate their currencies to gain an unfair advantage over our business and workers, he said.
“We need to insist that our trading partners offer truly reciprocal access to their agricultural and automotive markets. And we need to prevent investors from challenging legitimate public welfare measures in special international tribunals.”
He continued, “Only then would TPP be moving on the right track, be worthy of the support of the American people, and gain the votes of a much broader coalition of members of Congress than voted for TPA. The issue is not pro-trade versus anti-trade, but whether we shape trade agreements to spread the benefits broadly, including to middle class Americans.” | Government Policy Changes | June 2015 | ['(TPA)', '(TAA)', '(The Hagstrom Report via Tri-State Livestock News)', '(US Senate Democrats)'] |
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mobarak is released from Tora prison and transferred to a military hospital. | CAIRO -- Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was released from prison Thursday, boarding a helicopter that flew him to an army hospital where he was expected to stay before his transfer to house arrest.
A small crowd of supporters cheered outside Tora prison as the copter carrying the frail, 85-year-old toppled autocrat took off into a clear sky. He was flown a few miles to a military hospital along the Nile in southern Cairo, arriving on a gurney. Traffic on the corniche was stopped as Mubarak was wheeled from the landing pad and through the hospital’s gates.
Although disdain over Mubarak’s 30-year rule sparked a 2011 uprising that brought him down, much of the nation was indifferent to his release from prison. The new military-backed government is in the midst of a crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood that has killed more than 900 people, mostly backers of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
A court ruled Wednesday that Mubarak be freed after judicial time limits to hold him on financial-misconduct and other crimes had expired. He is being retried on murder-related charges over the deaths of more than 800 protesters during the uprising.
The military, which controls the country under emergency law, ordered that he be placed under house arrest until his legal fate is decided.
Critics and supporters of Mubarak had expected his release. However, most leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which helped overthrow Mubarak, are now under arrest and its members are unable to organize protests.
Liberal activists who helped oust Mubarak see his release as evidence that their ambitions for a new democracy have been hijacked.
“The revolution is dead,” tweeted one man.
But many Egyptians have moved beyond the intrigue of Mubarak’s legal drama. Unemployment, economic turmoil and persistent political divisions have been the focus of much attention. In many ways, with legions of police in the streets and dissent quickly muffled, it is as if the 2011 revolution never happened. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | August 2013 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Germany's Bundestag votes to make the burning of the EU flag or that of another country a hate crime equivalent to that of burning the German flag – carrying a sentence of up to three years in prison. The only major party that opposed the move was the Alternative for Germany. | Germany has made public burning of the EU flag or that of another country punishable by up to three years in jail, classing it as a hate crime.
The vote in the Bundestag (parliament) on Thursday makes defiling foreign flags equal to the crime of defiling the German flag.
The same applies for the EU anthem, Beethoven's Ode to Joy theme.
The move followed Social Democrat (SPD) complaints about protesters' burning of the Israeli flag in Berlin in 2017.
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, a member of the centre-left SPD, said "burning flags publicly has nothing to do with peaceful protests". She said it stoked up "hatred, anger and aggression", and hurt many people's feelings. The new law also applies to acts of defilement besides burning, such as publicly ripping a flag up. Public display of the Nazi swastika and other Nazi symbols is already banned in Germany.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has condemned the new law as "excessive interference in free speech and artistic expression".
The act of defiling the Union Flag in the UK is not a crime, but France has made desecration of the tricolour punishable by a fine of up to €7,500 (£6,600; $8,000) or six months in jail. Spain, Italy and Greece also have laws banning desecration of the national flag. | Government Policy Changes | May 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
The South Africa Bulls defeat the New Zealand Chiefs to win rugby union's 2009 Super 14. | South Africa's Bulls stormed to their second Super 14 title in three years with a breathtaking 61-17 victory over New Zealand's Waikato Chiefs.
It was the biggest margin of victory in a final in the event's 14-year history. The Bulls, with a large Springbok contingent, scored eight tries including 27 unanswered points in the space of 20 first-half minutes. Fly-half Morne Steyn kicked 19 points to press his claims for a place in the South Africa side to face the Lions. The Chiefs silenced the 52,000-strong crowd at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria when they opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a try by right wing Lelia Masaga. But scrum-half Fourie du Preez launched his side's eight-try stampede with a brace in a three-minute span. Winger Bryan Habana then scored twice from long-range, one from an interception, and with Steyn's boot as straight as an arrow, the Bulls had victory secured by the break. The Chiefs got back to within 20 points at 37-17, but Bulls skipper Victor Matfield, centre Wynand Olivier, number eight Pierre Spies and replacement lock Danie Rossouw added tries. | Sports Competition | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Newcastle, New South Wales remains on alert for rising floodwaters from the Hunter River as people evacuated from Maitland, New South Wales return to their home. | Nine people, including five members of the same family, lost their lives since the storms began on Thursday, cutting a swathe of devastation which NSW Premier Morris Iemma estimated has caused tens of millions of dollars damage.
The torrent that threatened to inundate Maitland peaked at 10.5 metres early on Monday - its highest level since 1971 - but subsided without breaching the town's levee banks.
More than 5,000 evacuated residents were on Monday afternoon permitted to return to their homes as the focus turned downstream to Newcastle.
Its Lord Mayor John Tate said the hours leading up to midnight (AEST) would be crucial, but based on current information, it seemed unlikely evacuations would be necessary.
"They're expecting a peak at Hexham between 6pm and midnight," Mr Tate said.
"They'll be monitoring that, and if they feel the need to evacuate they'll go and warn people.
"There was an idea there might be a threat to the low-lying harbourside suburbs, but we're advised (by the State Emergency Service) that they don't think that'll be a problem."
As a precaution, crews from Newcastle City Council cleared streets and stormwater drains of debris in anticipation of flooding in areas adjacent to the mouth of the river.
Residents of some homes just metres from the Hunter River at Raymond Terrace have been warned to be prepared for the possibility of evacuation.
"They said, more or less, get ready to go. So I might just leave my car packed up and get ready to go," resident Lyall Mence told Network Ten.
Visiting Maitland on Monday, Prime Minister John Howard described the waterlogged town as "unrecognisable".
"It would appear ... the river didn't quite reach the height expected, affecting Maitland, and that is of course something for which we are very grateful," he said.
"But there's still other areas in the river's course that are under threat further down and clearly we are keeping our fingers crossed.
"As somebody who's visited this area on numerous occasions in my lifetime ... it's unrecognisable in many ways from the air and very, very different.
"It is an illustration to me ... just how savage the storms have been and the tragedy of course is that there has been a loss of life."
The prime minister visited an SES base where he chatted to volunteers and thanked them for their hard work.
Mr Iemma also toured the area, saying the Hunter Valley resembled "an inland sea", and the damage bill would "run into the tens of millions of dollars".
"If I can give you one example of a shopkeeper in Wallsend shopping centre (near Newcastle), he lost his business, his car and he went home that night to find a tree had collapsed on his house," he told Sky News.
"I mean, that family has lost a million dollars, so that's some idea of the extent of the damage that we have suffered as a result of the storms."
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the intense low pressure system that wreaked havoc in the area and across Sydney over the long weekend was the worst storm to hit NSW since 1998.
More than 15,000 insurance claims had been filed since Friday, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said.
And it could be several more days before power is restored to 34,500 blacked-out homes, mostly in Newcastle and on the Central Coast, Energy Australia said.
Mr Iemma said the threat of infection from the floodwaters and sewage overflows was being closely monitored.
The SES has advised flood-affected residents to be safety conscious when returning home to survey the damage and to be mindful that floodwaters may have contaminated food and utensils.
"A lot of work is going in to ensuring that people have got fresh water supplies, fresh food supply and also to make people aware that infection could become a problem," Mr Iemma said.
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell and Governor-General Michael Jeffery also paid visits to the Maitland area and thanked SES volunteers and other emergency workers.
Mr Iemma reassured affected residents they would be able to access natural disaster assistance, with several one-stop shops set up throughout the region to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.
A BOM spokesman said weather conditions were expected to remain relatively calm for the rest of the week with only isolated showers forecast for coastal regions. | Floods | June 2007 | ['(AAP via the West Australian)'] |
Alexis Debat, a consultant for ABC News and writer at The National Interest, alleged expert on terrorism, is forced to resign after Rue 89 revealed that he made two bogus interviews, one with Barack Obama and another with Alan Greenspan. | A former consultant to ABC's investigative unit admitted yesterday that he put his name on a purported interview with Barack Obama that he never conducted.
Alexis Debat, a former French defense official who now works at the Nixon Center, published the interview in the French magazine Politique Internationale. He said he had hired a freelance journalist to conduct the interview, in which the Democratic presidential candidate supposedly said that Iraq was "already a defeat for America" that has "wasted thousands of lives." Debat said he had been unable to locate the intermediary, and the Obama campaign says no such interview took place.
"I was scammed," Debat said. "I was very, very stupid. I made a huge mistake in signing that article and not checking his credentials."
ABC demanded Debat's resignation in June after discovering that he did not have a PhD from the Sorbonne, as he claims on his r?sum?.
"I was angry with him because it called into question, of course, everything he had done," said Brian Ross, ABC's chief investigative reporter, who worked closely with Debat. "He could never satisfy us that he had the PhD. . . . I was very upset."
ABC News checked out the stories Debat had worked on -- either as an on-air commentator, researcher or source -- and found no inaccuracies, network spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. But in light of the Obama debacle, reported yesterday by ABC.com, a second review is underway. Debat had specialized in reports on terrorism and national security for the past six years.
"There are some very serious questions about exactly who he is and how he works," Schneider said. "We want nothing more than to get to the absolute bottom of that."
Debat, 35, whose doctoral thesis is posted on the Sorbonne's Web site, said he thought he had earned a PhD but that there was some "administrative issue" in which the degree "hadn't been registered correctly." He said he is suing the French university.
Debat's career seemed to be flourishing in the well-trafficked intersection of academia and the media. He directs the terrorism and national security program from a downtown office at the Nixon Center, set up by the former president shortly before his death. He wrote for its magazine, the National Interest, whose honorary chairman is Henry Kissinger.
The Nixon Center's executive director, Paul Saunders, said last night that Debat has resigned from the organization and the National Interest.
Debat also contributed regularly to Politique Internationale, a relationship, he said yesterday, that has probably ended. And he worked on high-profile stories for ABC, which hired him after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ross said Debat was "very, very knowledgeable" about al-Qaeda and such terror figures as Zacarias Moussaoui, and "his information was spot on. The stuff always checked out." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2007 | ['(Washington Post)', '(Rue 89)', '(Rue 89)'] |
Voters go to the polls in Japan for local elections including 13 gubernatorial elections and 4 mayoral races with the most closely watched race being for the Governor of Tokyo. | Shintaro Ishihara, 74, won in one of 13 provinces where the results are seen as a test of support for the main parties ahead of Upper House polls in July. The elections also include four mayoral races. Local assembly polls took place in prefectures and cities as well.
Mr Ishihara was backed by PM Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
"Thank you, everyone," said Mr Ishihara. "Tokyo residents' good sense brought this result."
The governor has won popular support for his straight-talking style. But he has angered others with comments on women, history and foreign residents, who he has blamed for an upsurge in crime. He has also been hit by allegations of cronyism. He saw his support fall in Sunday's election. When he last won, in 2003, he polled 70%.
His main rival, 59-year-old reformer Shiro Asano, backed by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), polled just over 30%.
This summer's Upper House polls will be the first major electoral test for Prime Minister Abe since he took office in September last year. His premiership has already been rocked by a series of scandals and gaffes. An opinion poll last month found public support for him had shrunk to just 35%. The most read story in Africa is: Saudi 'reprieve' in sorcery case | Government Job change - Election | April 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Bolivia's new interior minister, Arturo Murillo, files a criminal complaint against former President Evo Morales for alleged sedition and terrorism. | Bolivia’s rightwing interim government has turned up the heat on former president Evo Morales, accusing him of committing acts of terrorism and sedition by fanning street protests and blockades.
The country’s new interior minister, Arturo Murillo, announced on Friday that he had asked the public prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into Morales after the release of an audio recording supposedly showing the exiled leftist orchestrating plans for roadblocks designed to suffocate the country’s main city, La Paz.
Morales, who resigned under pressure from the military and protesters on 10 November, has described the recording as “fake”, but protests by his supporters have piled pressure on the interim president, Jeanine ez, a former senator.
On Friday a representative of Bolivia’s anti-drug trafficking council claimed drug money was being used to finance an “insurrection” against Bolivia’s new government but offered no proof for the claim.
“Evo Morales is an international criminal,” Leonardo Roca claimed on national TV.
An editorial in the conservative newspaper Página Siete said on Friday: “No one doubts that Evo Morales has genuine support … but there is also ample evidence that the protests seeking to return him to power have degenerated into using violent methods.
“The most serious thing is that Evo Morales himself directs these protest from exile,” it added.
Two weeks after Morales fled the country, his followers have mobilized across the country, throwing up hundreds of roadblocks to prevent fuel and food reaching Bolivia’s de facto capital and thus force concessions perhaps even Morales’s return.
The protests have already started to bite, causing shortages of food and fuel and huge queues outside bread shops and petrol stations.
Authorities have been forced to mount an airlift, transporting some 1,400 tonnes of food to the besieged cities of La Paz, El Alto, Oruro and Sucre.
Bolivia has been in upheaval since Morales proclaimed himself the winner of a 20 October election despite widespread allegations of electoral fraud. Thirty-two people have been killed.
Morales alleges that he was the victim of a coup d’état and has been granted asylum in Mexico.
On Friday, ez pleaded with protesters to end a blockade at a natural gas plant that supplies La Paz.
“I ask for reflection from brothers who are carrying out this unnecessary blockade,” she said. “We’re all Bolivians. You can’t punish the city of La Paz.”
Eight people died in clashes with the military outside the gas plant on Tuesday. Two days later, thousands of Morales supporters carried the coffins of the dead into La Paz, where police fired teargas at them.
ez reiterated that she will only stay in power long enough for there to be new elections. But her critics say her cabinet have overstepped the bounds of a caretaker government by making changes to foreign policy and threatening to punish Morales’s allies. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2019 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Reuters)'] |
A United Nations report makes accusations of killings, torture and rape of civilians in Sudan's Darfur area, and calls for those accused of carrying out war crimes to be put on trial. The report stops short of calling the events a genocide. | The report stopped short of calling the violence genocide, but said the government and its militia allies had killed, tortured and raped civilians.
The report named, in secret, alleged war criminals it said should go before the International Criminal Court.
Sudan rejected the report as unfair and incorrect, while Darfur rebel groups said it did not go far enough.
Correspondents say there is likely to be a fierce debate at the UN Security Council about where any war crimes trials should be held. The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the government should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes
The United States does not recognise the ICC and favours the creation of a special court for Darfur instead.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the two-year conflict and some two million have fled their homes.
Many of the refugees, mostly non-Arabs, say that militiamen backed up by the security forces have ridden into their villages on horses and camels, slaughtering the men, raping the women and stealing whatever they can find.
The Sudan government denies backing the Janjaweed militia and blames the violence on rebels who took up arms in February 2003.
The African Union says some of its ceasefire monitors in Darfur were shot at on Monday while investigating a bombing that the UN blames on Sudan's government.
The Union said it "unreservedly condemns" the attacks, carried out by unidentified assailants in two locations.
Last October, the UN set up the panel led by Italian judge Antonio Cassese to investigate claims that a genocide had been committed in Darfur.
Mr Cassese is the first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The other members of the panel are: 'No genocidal intent' Where genocide is found to have taken place, signatories to a UN convention are legally obliged to act to end it. The panel found that a policy to commit genocide had not been formed but pointed to "killing of civilians, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur".
"The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the government authorities, directly or through the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in the region."
The authors also accused rebel forces in Sudan's western region of committing serious human rights violations which "may amount to war crimes".
Sudan's Justice Minister Ali Osman Yassin said: "The violations indicated in the report were not confirmed and were based on information of a political nature." He said it was "an emotional rather than realistic investigation", and was "biased and unbalanced".
The leader of one of Darfur's rebel groups told Reuters news agency that he rejected the report's finding that genocide had not been committed.
"There are hundreds of mass graves that the commission did not go to," said Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim.
US fears
The United States refuses to recognise the ICC, in case its soldiers are accused of war crimes.
The Janjaweed are accused of widespread atrocities
But most European countries, the UN and lobby group Human Rights Watch believe the trials should take place at the ICC in The Hague.
"This is a case that is tailor-made for the ICC," said Britain's UN ambassador Emyr Jones Parry.
"It's time for the Bush administration to back-pocket its abstract objections to the ICC so justice can be done," said Richard Dicker from the US-based Human Rights Watch. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Brazilian President Michel Temer deploys the Brazilian Army to the southeastern state of Espírito Santo, where a police strike has led to a wave of violence and looting, including dozens of murders in the state capital, Vitória. | RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s president on Monday ordered 200 troops to the southeastern state of Espirito Santo, where a police strike in recent days sparked a wave of violence including what is already believed to be dozens of murders.
The law enforcement stoppage in a state struggling with a budget shortfall is the latest example of how depleted public finances, amid Brazil’s worst recession on record, are crippling even basic health services, education and security in some states.
The crime surge in Espirito Santo, a small coastal state just north of Rio de Janeiro, began over the weekend, after police on Friday stopped work because of the pay dispute.
Since then, local media and citizens with cell phone videos have broadcast scenes of chaos as thieves and other criminals appear to run rampant, particularly in state capital Vitoria and its suburbs, home to about 2 million people.
Local media reported that as many as 50 people have died during the period, an unusually high death toll for the state in such a short period. But a state security spokesman said the government has not been able to make an official tally.
Schools in the area closed, as did public health clinics and other local offices. State officials, who argue they have no resources to raise wages, have already replaced the police commander and say they will not renew negotiations with officers until they return to work.
“There is no way we can accept this attitude, leaving the population deprived of an essential service like public security,” Cesar Colnago, the state’s governor, told reporters after announcing the federal aid.
President Michel Temer, who also authorized the use of federal troops to quell uprisings in prisons last month that led to around 140 deaths in various states, dispatched the country’s defense minister to Espirito Santo on Monday.
The state security spokesman said federal troops were expected to arrive by Tuesday.
Several other Brazilian states are grappling with a financial crisis. In Rio de Janeiro, the state government has been struggling to pay expenses including salaries of police, teachers and doctors and basic supplies for schools and hospitals.
| Strike | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Ivory Coast's Vice President Daniel Kablan Duncan resigns days after the death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly. His office says he is leaving for personal reasons. | ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast Vice President Daniel Kablan Duncan has resigned, the presidency said on Monday, further unsettling the political outlook days after the sudden death of prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, President Alassane Ouattara’s preferred successor.
The death last week of Gon Coulibaly, hand-picked by Ouattara to run in October’s presidential election, has left the ruling party scrambling to find a replacement candidate, a process likely to reveal internal divisions, analysts say.
Duncan is leaving for “reasons of personal convenience”, Patrick Achi, a top aide to Ouattara, told reporters, adding that Duncan had first tendered his resignation in February.
“The president of the republic would like to pay tribute to a great servant of the state, a man of duty and commitment,” Achi said.
He said Ouattara had finally accepted Duncan’s resignation last Wednesday, the same day Gon Coulibaly, who had longstanding heart problems, died after a cabinet meeting.
Ouattara picked Gon Coulibaly in March to represent the RHDP party in the Oct. 31 poll after announcing he would not stand for a third term.
Ouattara came to power in 2011 following an election the previous year that sparked a brief civil war when the defeated incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to concede.
Despite several years of relative peace, ethnic and regional rivalries linger, and this year’s election is seen as test of stability for Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer and one of West Africa’s largest economies.
Following Gon Coulibaly’s death, Ouattara’s RHDP party said last week that it may ask the president to rethink his decision not to seek another term.
This could help to unify the party but would draw fierce criticism from Ouattara’s opponents, who say the constitution does not allow him to run again.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A gunman wearing Afghan National Police uniform kills three members of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in southern Afghanistan. | A man in an Afghan police uniform has killed three NATO personnel in the war-torn country's troubled south, the coalition said.
The deaths take the toll this year in "green-on-blue" incidents - in which Afghan forces turn their weapons against their Western allies - to at least 26, in a total of 18 such incidents.
In keeping with its usual policy, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) gave no further details of the incident and did not reveal the nationality of the victims.
"An individual wearing an Afghan National Civil Order Police uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force service members in southern Afghanistan today, killing three service members," ISAF said in a statement.
The Afghan Civil Order Police was set up in 2006 as an elite riot control force.
The attack comes nearly two weeks after three men in Afghan police uniforms killed a soldier with the US-led force, also in the south.
An increasing number of Afghan troops have turned their weapons against NATO soldiers who are helping Kabul fight a decade-long insurgency by hardline Taliban Islamists.
Some of the assaults are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between the allied forces.
NATO has around 130,000 soldiers fighting alongside some 350,000 Afghan security personnel against the Taliban-led insurgency, but they are due to pull out of the country in 2014.
The Western coalition is to hand over security to local forces by mid-2013 and will play a support role up to the final withdrawal by the end of the following year. | Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(RTE)'] |
The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has risen to 1,407. | JAKARTA (Reuters) - The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia’s Sulawesi island has risen to 1,407, the disaster mitigation agency said on Wednesday.
More than 2,500 people were heavily injured in the 7.5 magnitude quake and deadly tsunami waves it triggered last Friday, the agency said.
Reportuing by Jakarta burerau
| Tsunamis | October 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A large security operation in Jerusalem appears to have prevented Israeli Zionist extremists from staging a rally at the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram al-Sharif. The rally was to be in opposition to the proposed Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip. The police are also able to quell a stone-throwing Arab counter-demonstration. | Israeli police Sunday detained a senior Hamas leader after he entered the Temple Mount of the Old City of Jerusalem, violating a ban on worshippers from the West Bank.Some 3,000 police were deployed in the Old City of Jerusalem early on Sunday in a bid to head off expected protests by extreme rightists on the Temple Mount, and by young Palestinians angered by the killings over the weekend of three Palestinian youths in Gaza. Witnesses said the Hamas leader, Hassan Yousef, was driving back to the West Bank from Jerusalem when he was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and taken from his vehicle by police. Yousef is a resident of the West Bank, and did not have a permit to enter Jerusalem. He is one of the most outspoken of the Hamas leaders who favor steering the movement away from violence and towards mainstream politics.Anticipating a threatened mass protest by Jewish demonstrators early on Sunday, hundreds of Palestinians had spent the night in the mosque compound.Police sources said that they had considered entering the Mount on Saturday to remove Yousef and others by force, but decided against it due to the risk of causing a riot. "Al Aqsa is in danger," Yousef told reporters at the Temple Mount site. "The attempts to desecrate Al Aqsa have not ended."Yet despite widespread fears of a spiral of violence in the wake of the threatened protests, only a few dozen Jewish demonstrators arrived and were easily rebuffed by police, who also confronted stone-throwing Arab counter-demonstrators.Eight Israeli Arabs were injured, none seriously, in the clashes with police. One policeman was lightly injured by the stone-throwing,The Arab protesters approached the Western Wall area, but were turned away by guards of the Waqf Islamic Trust, which administers the site. Police early Sunday arrested nine members of the Revava movement behind the Jewish rally, including movement leader Yisrael Cohen, who was questioned on suspicion of disturbing the peace.Later police barred entry to four right-wing legislators, Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad of the National Union, and Yehiel Hazan and Michael Ratzon of the Likud. Police officials had said prior to the planned right-wing demonstration that Jews, including members of the Revava ["The 10,000] movement behind the protest, would not be allowed on the Temple Mount."Given assessments that such a move on the Temple Mount may spark a flare-up and disturbances from worshippers there, this [ban] is final and non-negotiable," Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco told Army Radio.Apart from barring entry to Jews, police had sought to limit entry to the Mount to Arabs over age forty.Islamic fundamentalists had issued calls "to defend the mosques" on the Mount, implying that the Jewish protesters had planned to do them harm.Arab anger was also sparked by the killings Saturday afternoon of three Palestinian teenagers by IDF Golani troops deployed on the Philadelphi route on the Israel-Egypt border. The troops opened fire when they noticed five teenagers crawling from Rafah toward the border, which has been frequently used in the past for smuggling of arms to Palestinian terror groups. In retaliation, militants in the Strip fired dozens of rounds of mortar shells overnight Saturday. There were no injuries in the shelling. The IDF did not respond.Underlying the fears for violence in Jerusalem Sunday was the volatile character of the Mount, where the second Palestinian uprising effectively began in 2000. At the time, soon after a visit to the Mount by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon, Israeli police clashing with stone-throwing protesters shot dead several of the demonstrators.The site is revered by Jews as the location of the ancient Temples, and by Muslims as the point from which the Mohammed ascended to heaven. The site was declared off-limits to Jews from the inception of the uprising until a year and a half ago, when then-public safety minister Tzachi Hanegbi reversed the ban, allowing Jews to visit the site, with the stipulation that they be forbidden from praying there. Ezra: Revava succeeded in tying up police Israel's police minister, Gideon Ezra, said the far-right group Revava, which had threatened to bring thousands to the shrine Sunday, succeeded in keeping the security forces busy. "We've got around 3,000 (police) from all around the country brought into Jerusalem, instead of doing what they have to do in other places," Ezra told reporters during a tour of the area, speaking in English.Organizers have said Sunday's event was a trial run for the summer's withdrawal when they want to divert as many troops as possible from dismantling Jewish settlements in Gaza by forcing them to secure other areas, including the Jerusalem shrine. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Haaretz)'] |
The Calbuco volcano erupts in southern Chile forcing the evacuation of 4000 residents. , | By Anthony Esposito SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Volcano Calbuco in southern Chile erupted for the first time in more than five decades on Wednesday, sending a thick plume of ash and smoke several kilometers into the sky. Chile's Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the sudden eruption at around 1800 local time (2100 GMT), which occurred about 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) south of Santiago, the capital, near the tourist town of Puerto Varas. About 1,500 people were being moved out of the area and an evacuation radius of 20 km has been established, authorities said. "In this situation, with the eruption column so high, the main risk is that it collapses, falls due to gravity because of its own weight and causes a pyroclastic flow," Gabriel Orozco, a vulcanologist with Chile's geological and mining service, said on local TV. A pyroclastic flow is a superheated current of gas and rock that can destroy nearly everything in its path and travel at speeds upwards of 200 to 300 kilometers per hour. LATAM Airlines said it has canceled flights to and from neighboring Puerto Montt, the area's largest city, due to the presence of volcanic ash, which can potentially damage aircraft and make flying dangerous. Trevor Moffat, who lives in Ensenada, some 10 km from the volcano, said he and his family fled when the volcano erupted. The 2,003-meter-tall Volcano Calbuco saw its last major eruption in 1961. "It sounded like a big tractor trailer passing by the road, rattling and shaking, guttural rumbling. ... We left everything there, grabbed my kid, my dog, got in the car with my wife," Moffat said. "All the neighbors were outside, a lot of young people crying. Armageddon type reaction," said Canada-born Moffat, who was driving to nearby Puerto Varas. Television pictures showed a spectacular mushroom-shaped column billowing into the sky with occasional lighting bolts shooting through. The eruption was seen in towns at least 50 kilometers away. "There are a lot of people out in the streets, many heading to the gas stations to fill up on gas," Derek Way, a resident of Puerto Varas, said. "A friend told me to fill everything we have with water," Way added. Chile, on the Pacific "Rim of Fire," has the second largest chain of volcanoes in the world after Indonesia, including around 500 that are potentially active. In March, Volcano Villarrica, also in southern Chile, erupted, sending a plume of ash and lava high into the sky, but quickly subsided. (Additional reporting by Rosalba O'Brien and Antonio de la Jara; Editing by James Dalgleish, Christian Plumb and Leslie Adler)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ethiopians will vote Monday in a landmark election overshadowed by reports of famine in the country’s war-hit Tigray region and beset by logistical problems that mean some people won’t be able to vote until September. The election is the centerpiece of a reform drive by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose rise to power in 2018 seemed to signal a break with decades of authoritarian rule and led to his Nobel Peace Prize the following year. He has described the poll as “the nati
The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4:00 a.m. ET on Friday, June 18, 2021. Some provinces and territories do not report daily case numbers. There are 1,406,253 confirmed cases in Canada. Canada: 1,406,253 confirmed cases (13,444 active, 1,366,797 resolved, 26,012 deaths).*The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers. There were 1,114 new cases reported Thursday. The rate of active cases is 35.37 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven d
VICTORIA — Students and parents can expect a near-normal return to school in British Columbia this fall as regular activities like assemblies and field trips are phased in and any transmission of COVID-19 is monitored. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said there will be a "heightened concern" if the virus starts to spread in communities, but public health teams would manage it like any other communicable disease including influenza. Henry said some school activities may have to be temp
BERLIN (AP) — Germany has now given at least one coronavirus vaccine shot to more than half its population but officials urged people Friday to remain cautious and slow the spread of the more contagious delta variant. COVID-19 infections have declined sharply in Germany over the past few weeks, on some days dropping below 1,000 per day for the first time since September. On Friday, the national disease control center said 1,076 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, and there were only 10
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his government to be prepared for both dialogue and confrontation with the Biden administration — but more for confrontation — state media reported Friday, days after the United States and others urged the North to abandon its nuclear program and return to talks. Kim’s statement indicates he’ll likely push to strengthen his nuclear arsenal and increase pressure on Washington to give up what North Korea considers a hostile policy t
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan authorities ordered the capture of a former education minister and a businessman Thursday as the government's crackdown continued to expand beyond leaders of the political opposition. The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that arrest orders were issued for Humberto Belli, who served in the administration of former President Violeta Chamorro, and Gerardo Baltodano, owner of Café Soluble, for not appearing to provide statements as scheduled. Baltoda
PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegrin lawmakers on Thursday ousted a pro-Serb government minister who has denied the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica and passed a resolution condemning the massacre, in a vote that has shaken the new government and exposed a rift within the Balkan country’s ruling coalition. Parliament voted 43 to 27 to replace the Human and Minority Rights Minister Vladimir Leposavic for disputing recently that the killing of some 8,000 Bosniak Muslims in Srebrenica by Bosnian Ser
| Volcano Eruption | April 2015 | ['(Reuters via Yahoo! Canada)', '(Wall Street Journal)'] |
Hurricane Matthew, responsible for killing 13 people and knocking out power to 2.2 million households and businesses in the Southeastern United States, is now a Category 1 hurricane (75 mph;120 km/h winds) approaching the North Carolina coast. , , | — -- Hurricane Matthew is no longer a hurricane: It was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone around 5 a.m. ET on Sunday as it made an eastward turn and began to move out into the Atlantic at 14 mph. The newly-minted post-tropical storm Matthew has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
Despite the downgrade, ABC News meteorologist Daniel Manzo cautions, "Record-breaking flooding will continue in eastern North Carolina this morning. This will come to an end later on Sunday. The Outer Banks and mid-Atlantic will continue to see very gusty winds and heavy rain this morning."
President Obama signed major disaster declarations, which provide more federal money and resources than emergency declarations, for Florida and Georgia on Sunday morning.
Matthew made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in the Cape Romaine National Wildlife Refuge near McClellanville, South Carolina, around 10:45 a.m. on Saturday
Around the same time the National Hurricane Center announced that Matthew had been downgraded, the North Carolina Office of Emergency Management confirmed a fifth death in Pitt County overnight due to weather. The US death toll from Matthew is currently at 19.
The state-by-state death toll so far is: North Carolina, 8 deaths; Georgia, 4 deaths; Florida, 6 deaths; and South Carolina, 1 death.
As of late Saturday, there were also four people missing in Cumberland County in North Carolina.
The latest radar and satellites maps of Hurricane Matthew as it slowly heads offshore
During the early hours of Sunday, Matthew had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and was moving northeast at 16 mph. It was located 30 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at 2 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Matthew has left 2.2 million households and businesses without power across the Southeast region.
At 1 a.m. Sunday, North Carolina officials said there were 670,716 power outages across the state. In South Carolina, there were 768,856 power outages. Georgia was experiencing 205,220 outages, while Florida still had 561,862 outages, as of early Sunday morning.
The video below, released the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina, shows New York Police Department officers and New York Fire Department firefighters performing a rescue.
A Fayetteville resident also posted this video to Instagram of a road being washed away amidst the torrential downpour.
Storm surges that could cause flooding have been a concern up and down the coast. The National Weather Service measured a record tide level of more than 12 feet at the mouth of the Savannah River, which borders both South and North Carolina. Forecasters warned that the combination of a dangerous storm surge, the tide and large waves could cause rising waters to move inland from the shoreline to flood normally dry areas near the coast.
On Saturday, Charleston County Emergency Medical Services in South Carolina suspended its service countywide, warning that high-span or exposed bridges are unsafe for public travel due to high winds. A curfew was implemented in Charleston between Saturday 8 p.m. ET through Sunday 8 a.m. ET.
Nearly 17 inches of rain were recorded at Hunter U.S. Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia over a 48-hour period, according to the National Hurricane Center.
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said Friday, "Many of these areas have not had this level of flooding since, like, the late 1800s."
Meanwhile, the storm left a deadly trail of destruction in Florida. Six people in the state have died from Hurricane Matthew, authorities said.
In Jacksonville, officials said at a press conference Saturday morning that one person died in the area but they have not yet confirmed whether it was storm-related. The city's beaches will reopen Saturday at noon as officials continue to assess the damages.
“I’m grateful that the damage wasn’t worse than it is, but there’s a whole lot of work to do," Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said at the news conference Saturday.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said there are "unbelievable" amounts of beach erosion and fallen trees, but he was thankful the hurricane didn't make landfall. More than 5,900 people were in 70 shelters across the state as of Saturday afternoon, Scott said.
More than 763,000 households and businesses were still without power in Florida as of late Saturday afternoon, the governor said. The Florida Power and Light Company said it expects to have power restored to all customers by end of day Sunday, but "flooding and severe damage" will likely extend outages for some homes and businesses through Monday.
As of Saturday afternoon, more than 500,000 Floridians were in evacuation zones. As the zones are being lifted, the governor said local law enforcement ultimately decides when it is safe for residents to return to their communities and homes. Meanwhile, all toll suspensions remained in effect and will remain suspended until at least Sunday night.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(The National Hurricane Center)', '(ABC News)'] |
The United States, United Kingdom, and France close their Yemeni embassies and evacuate their staff due to terrorist activities and continued unrest. | Yemen rebels seized U.S. Embassy vehicles in the capital of Sanaa on Wednesday as diplomats fled the country and several foreign embassies closed amid deteriorating security conditions.
More than 25 vehicles were taken by Houthi rebels after Americans departed the city's airport, airport officials told the Associated Press.
The Marine Corps said security personnel destroyed their personal weapons before boarding a commercial flight out of Yemen.
They destroyed heavier weapons, such as machine guns, before departing the shuttered U.S. Embassy in an "orderly" evacuation, said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. He said "several" vehicles were left behind.
A small number of military personnel not assigned to the embassy remain behind, he said. Staffers at the U.S. Embassy also destroyed files and documents, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, the State Department said it currently had no plans for a government-sponsored evacuation of American citizens but urged extreme caution amid an ongoing risk of kidnapping.
In Sanaa, witnesses told the Associated Press that the Houthis violently attacked several demonstrations Wednesday against their takeover of the country. Later in the day, thousands of Houthi supporters marched through the capital shouting "Death to America, Death to Israel," which is part of the group's slogan.
In addition to the United States, Britain and France announced the closure of their embassies in Yemen after the country was taken over by the Shiite militants late last week. The embassy closures were a signal that world powers see little chance the rebels' advances will roll back soon.
Tobias Ellwood, a British cabinet-level secretary for the Middle East, urged British citizens in Yemen to immediately leave. "We now judge that our embassy staff and premises are at increased risk," Ellwood said.
The French embassy said its offices would close Friday and told French citizens to leave the country "as soon as possible," according to a statement Wednesday on its website.
The U.S. Embassy closure will not affect counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaeda's Yemen branch, which the U.S. views as the world's most dangerous branch of the terror group.
Yemen is the Arab world's poorest country, and it has been in crisis for months as fighters led by Iran-linked Abdel-Malek al-Houthi last week dissolved parliament and claimed formal control of the government.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi resigned in January and has since been under house arrest, and al-Houthi has repeatedly warned against foreign intervention.
"We will not accept pressures. They are of no use," al-Houthi said Tuesday. "Whoever harms the interest of this country could see that their interests in this country are also harmed." | Armed Conflict | February 2015 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Gunmen kill 11 worshipers in St Phillip's Catholic Church in the town of Ozubulu in Nigeria's Anambra State. | ABUJA (Reuters) - Gunmen killed 11 people and wounded 18 others in a church in southeastern Nigeria on Sunday in an attack arising from a feud between members of the local community, officials said.
However, police believe that a man the gunmen were hunting for was not present in the church and so escaped the attack.
The attackers struck the church in Ozubulu early in the morning, said Garba Umar, head of police in Anambra state.
They were believed to have been trying to kill a local man, who was not identified by the authorities.
“The gunmen came thinking that their target was in the church but incidentally he was not,” Umar said, adding that the violence may be linked to drug-trafficking.
No arrests have been made, he said.
Nigeria’s southeast is predominantly Christian and the attack is a rare act of violence at a church.
Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano said the attack stemmed from a feud between members of the local community who were living outside Nigeria.
“We are not going to relent until we bring those that perpetrated this heinous crime to book,” he said.
Nigeria is wracked by insecurity, with Islamist insurgency Boko Haram having killed more than 20,000 people since 2009, sparking one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
Ethnically-charged violence is common throughout the central states and militancy is a constant threat in the oil-rich southeast.
Reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu; Additional reporting by Tife Owolabi; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Adrian Croft
| Armed Conflict | August 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
More than 114,000 people in the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, are without power due to storms. | KNOXVILLE — An evening thunderstorm has left nearly 114,000 Knoxville-area addresses in the dark, along with dozens of downed trees, damaged power lines and several blocked roadways throughout Knox County tonight.
North Knoxville is particularly affected, with blocked roadways include North Broadway, Washington Pike, Atlantic Avenue, Oglewood Avenue, Merchants Drive and Tillery Lane at Clinton Highway.
Knox County emergency dispatchers also have received numerous calls of downed trees into houses, although no injuries have been confirmed.
The Knoxville Utilities Board reported widespread power outages, with 113,159 customers without power as of 9 p.m.
A severe thunderstorm warning remains in effect until 9:45 p.m. for eastern Knox County, as well as Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson and Union counties, according to the National Weather Service office in Morristown.
The weather service is tracking a line of severe thunderstorms capable of producing damaging winds in excess of 60 mph moving northeast at 40 mph.
The southbound lane of Broadway is blocked in North Knoxville at Kenyon Street, near Rose Mortuary.
Further north of Broadway, at Walker Boulevard, another tree has completely blocked Broadway.
Among the areas hit hardest was a section of North Knoxville, east of Broadway and north of Cecil Avenue.
Block after block of homes and businesses sat in the dark after high winds downed trees and power lines. An emergency vehicle sat across Washington Pike at Belle Morris School to prevent drivers from hitting debris and damage in the road. Yards away stood the Washington Pike United Methodist Church, which suffered roof damage in a similar flash storm in late April.
Most of Fountain City is without power. Trees are down along Tazewell Pike.
Many roads are blocked in Fountain City. A tree has taken down a power pole on Tazewell Pike at Kesterwood Drive, causing downed lines to block traffic on the pike.
A tree has reportedly fallen into a home at Kesterwood and Robin Drive.
At 9 p.m., power was out in scattered ares around Lenoir City, Loudon County, Farragut and West Knox County, according to Lenoir City Utilities Board General Manager Shannon Littleton.
LCUB was in the process of restoring power to about 2,500 customers in Lenoir City and about 500 in Farragut and West Knox, he said.
“We were lucky that we were ahead of the game,” Littleton said. “We already had our crews out.”
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2011 | ['(Knox News)'] |
A court in Bangladesh sentences five men to death for murdering Avijit Roy, an American-Bangladeshi blogger critical of religious extremism, six years ago. The men belong to the al-Qaeda-inspired group Ansarullah Bangla Team. Another man was sentenced to life in prison. | The five are members of an armed group accused of killing Avijit Roy, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, in February 2015.
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced to death five members of an armed group for killing a US blogger critical of religious extremism six years ago. One man was sentenced to life in prison.
Avijit Roy, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was hacked to death by machete-wielding assailants in February 2015 while returning home with his wife from a Dhaka book fair. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed suffered head injuries and lost a finger.
Public Prosecutor Golam Sarwar Khan said the six men convicted on Tuesday belong to the al-Qaeda-inspired armed group Ansar Ullah Bangla Team, which police say was behind the murders of many secular activists and bloggers.
“Charges against them were proved beyond any doubt. The court gave them the highest punishment,” Khan said after the verdict amid tight security at the Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal in the capital, Dhaka.
Syed Ziaul Haq, a sacked army major believed to be the leader of the group and who masterminded the killing, and one other member of the group were tried in absentia and received death sentences, Khan said.
Nazrul Islam, defence lawyer for the six men, said they would appeal the sentences in the higher court.
Bangladesh saw a string of deadly attacks between 2013 and 2016 targeting bloggers, secular activists and religious minorities, claimed by armed groups linked to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group or al-Qaeda.
Roy had founded a popular Bengali-language blog – Mukto-mona, or Free Mind – in which articles on scientific reasoning and religious extremism featured prominently.
The most serious attack came in July 2016, when gunmen stormed a cafe in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka and killed 22 people.
After the cafe siege, more than 100 suspected armed group members were killed and hundreds more were arrested as the government cracked down on such groups to preserve its image as a moderate Muslim nation.
In November 2019, seven people were sentenced to death for the deadly siege in Dhaka.
Motorcade accompanying Hasina, then an opposition leader, was attacked with rocks, batons and machetes, prosecutors say.
Eight hardliners sentenced to death for 2015 murder of secular publisher Faysal Arefin Dipon.
Hundreds join vigil for Avijit Roy in Dhaka as father of US blogger demands government to bring killers to justice.
A year after the Bangladeshi American blogger’s murder, a friend asks what happens when people try to ban dissent.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Following consultations with fellow academics, Stephen Hawking boycotts the Israeli Presidential Conference Facing Tomorrow 2013 in Jerusalem. | UK cosmologist Prof Stephen Hawking has withdrawn from a high-profile Israeli conference, in support of an academic boycott of the country.
He initially planned to speak at the event in June but pulled out following advice from Palestinian academics. Pro-Palestinian campaigners said the 71-year-old wrote to the organisers on 3 May saying that he had planned to criticise the Israeli government.
The conference chairman criticised the move as "improper".
Previous speakers at the Israeli Presidential Conference include former UK prime minister Tony Blair, former US president George W Bush and former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace laureate Dr Henry Kissinger.
A statement published on Tuesday by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, with Prof Hawking's approval, said: "This is his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there."
A spokesman for the University of Cambridge - where Prof Hawking is a director of research - said the scientist had written to the Israeli president's office regarding his decision. "We had understood previously that his decision was based purely on health grounds having been advised by doctors not to fly," the spokesman added.
The withdrawal follows representations Prof Hawking received from Palestinian academics and pro-Palestinian groups. But he was sharply criticised by conference organisers.
"The academic boycott against Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone for whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic mission," conference chairman Israel Maimon said in a statement.
A spokesman for the Fair Play group, which campaigns against boycotts of Israel, described the scientist's withdrawal as "bizarre".
"Prof Hawking could have joined the conference and explained his views on the conflict in the region, just as many other participants have done. "By boycotting the conference, he has thrown away this opportunity and will help nobody."
The Israeli Ambassador in London said it was a shame Prof Hawking would not be attending.
"Rather than caving into pressure from political extremists, active participation in such events is a far more constructive way to promote progress and peace," he said.
But a source close to the boycott campaign said Prof Hawking had chosen to withdraw from the conference - rather than use it as a platform - to support Palestinian academics. A spokeswoman for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign added: "Many will be taken aback at the extreme reaction among Israel's supporters to the news of Prof Hawking's support for the Palestinian call for boycott. "We urge those opposed to boycotts, disinvestment and sanctions to respect freedom of speech." Update 11 June 2013: This story has been amended following a complaint.
Israel 'curbs settlement building'
British Committee for Universities for Palestine
The Israeli Presidential Conference
Stephen Hawking
Fair Play Campaign Group
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Attorney General of Mexico issues an arrest warrant for the former Governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, for suspected involvement in organized crime and money laundering. | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has ordered the arrest of an outgoing state governor in the ruling party suspected of corruption, as well as one of his opposition contemporaries, the government said on Wednesday, as it seeks to quell public discontent about its record on graft.
Attorney General Arely Gomez said an arrest warrant was issued for outgoing Veracruz governor Javier Duarte on suspicion of involvement in organized crime and money laundering, just a few days after he took a leave of absence from the job.
The government also said it was seeking the arrest of Guillermo Padres, a member of the opposition center-right National Action Party battling allegations of corruption who governed the northwestern state of Sonora until last year.
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s credibility has been damaged by accusations he has been soft on corruption and he himself became embroiled in an embarrassing conflict-of-interest scandal in 2014 that included his wife and then-finance minister.
Duarte, a member of Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has become the most public face of the government’s inability to silence its critics over graft, and party insiders have for weeks said that his arrest was imminent.
Duarte’s whereabouts are currently unknown, and Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong stressed he would be caught.
“It’s down to us to capture (him) now,” he told local radio. “We’ve done it with others, and we’ll do it with the two they’re looking for now, the one from Sonora and the one from Veracruz.”
Attorney General Gomez was speaking at a news conference in the city of Acapulco when she announced the arrest order for Duarte, adding that warrants were also issued for nine of his associates. Two of them were arrested on Tuesday, she said.
Duarte, who presided over a spike in gang violence and kidnappings in Veracruz, as well a doubling of state debt, has denied any wrongdoing. He could not be reached for comment.
Duarte has not appeared in public since giving an interview on Mexican television last week. On Wednesday evening, the PRI said it would proceed with the process of expelling Duarte, calling him to testify before its justice committee next week.
Two government officials said the attorney general’s office was seeking Padres’ arrest, but could not specify the charges.
This month, the PAN provisionally stripped Padres of his party rights, citing outstanding investigations into suspected corruption. Padres | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The California Department of Public Health reports the state's first case of plague in five years at South Lake Tahoe. The patient, believed to have been bitten by an infected flea, is under medical care recovering at home. The CDC says that America sees between one and 17 cases annually. | Health officials have confirmed a case of plague at South Lake Tahoe the first in California in five years. El Dorado County officials said Mondaythat the California Department of Public Health notified them of the positive test of a local resident who is under medical care while recovering at home.
Plague bacteria are most often transmitted by fleas that have acquired it from infected squirrels, chipmunks and other wild rodents. Dogs and cats may also carry plague-infected fleas.
Health officials believe the South Lake Tahoe resident may have been bitten by an infected flea while walking a dog along the Truckee River corridor or in the Tahoe Keys area on Tahoe's south shore.
"It's important that individuals take precautions for themselves and their pets when outdoors, especially while walking, hiking and/or camping in areas where wild rodents are present," said El Dorado County Public Health Officer, Dr. Nancy Williams. "Human cases of plague are extremely rare but can be very serious."
The last reported human cases of plague in California were in 2015?when two people were exposed to infected rodents or their fleas in Yosemite National Park. Both were treated and recovered.
No human cases have been reported since, but authorities did find evidence that a total of 20 ground squirrels or chipmunks around South Lake Tahoe had been exposed to the plague bacterium from 2016-19. Those rodents were identified near the Tallac Historic Site, Fallen Leaf Campground or Taylor Creek Visitor Center.
Symptoms include fever, nausea, weakness, and swollen lymph nodes and usually show up within two weeks of initial contact with an infected animal. The disease can be treated with?antibiotics, but if it's not caught early, can turn deadly.
The disease killed millions of people in Europe in the Middle Ages in a series of outbreaks known as the Black Death. However, now it is very rare, especially in the U.S.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases are reported nationwide each year. Most human cases in the United States are scattered in rural areas in the west, including northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, southern Colorado, California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada.
| Disease Outbreaks | August 2020 | ['(CBS News)', '(Yahoo!)'] |
The Bataan Coast Guard detains cruise ship MV Forever Lucky on suspicion of involvement in human trafficking. The National Bureau of Investigation rescues 139 alleged victims from the vessel and charges Johnny Cabrera, the alleged lessor of the ship. | 139 human smuggling victims bound for Micronesia rescued in joint-operation by PH Coast Guard and NBI at Port of Orion in Bataan. Photo from PCG
ORION, BATAAN The Coast Guard stopped a cruise ship from sailing off from the Port of Orionon Monday(July 2), allowing the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to rescue 139 alleged victims of human trafficking.
Lt. Carlos V. Carlos, Bataan Coast Guard commander, said the 139 Filipinos were on board the ship, “Forever Lucky,” which was headed for Micronesia.
NBI agents began investigating the passengerson Tuesday, and confirmed that the Filipinos were illegally recruited for jobs in Guam.
The ship was initially delayed for failing to produce the proper travel documents, Carlos said.
It had been anchored at the port for a month, and was reportedly leased by a job recruiter in Olongapo City, Carlos said. The alleged recruiter, Johnny Cabrera, will be charged with illegal recruitment by the NBI in Manila.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2018 | ['(Inquirer)'] |
Willem Holleeder, a notorious convicted Dutch felon, is released from jail after serving six years of a nine–year sentence for extortion and blackmail. | Willem Holleeder, the Netherlands’ most notorious gangland figure, was released from jail on Friday after serving six years of a nine-year sentence for extortion and blackmail.
The 53-year-old, who also spent time in jail for kidnapping beer magnate Freddie Heineken, was taken by car to a secret location ‘on a public road’ where he was picked up by friends, the Telegraaf reported. The paper said the release had been closely coordinated by justice ministry officials in an effort to avoid Holleeder being either greeted as a hero or attacked. The NRC reported at the beginning of January that Holleeder would not face charges in an ongoing investigation into gangland killings and would be freed from prison at the end of the month. Blackmail Holleeder was sentenced to nine years in jail by an Amsterdam court in December 2007 for his part in blackmailing three property tycoons. He still remains a suspect in an investigation into at least seven murders, known as the Passage case, and will be closely monitored. Holleeder was earlier jailed in the 1980s for kidnapping beer magnate Freddie Heineken. The equivalent of €16m was paidin 1983 to free Heineken and his chauffeur Ab Doderer, much of which was found buried in woods near Zeist shortly after they were freed.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | January 2012 | ['(DutchNews)'] |
Paul Simon and Yo–Yo Ma are awarded the Polar Music Prize. | US singer Paul Simon and cellist Yo-Yo Ma are to be the recipients of this year's Polar Music Prize.
The award, which is Sweden's highest music honour, is presented annually to both a pop act and classical performer.
It is given in recognition of "exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music".
The pair will collect their one million kronor (£91,000) prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a Stockholm ceremony on 28 August.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Music praised Simon for his "consummate skill, innovative arrangements and provocative lyrics".
"Nobody else is more deserving of the epithet of 'world-class songwriter'," it said.
"For five decades, Paul Simon has built bridges not only over troubled waters but over entire oceans by (re)joining the world's continents with his music. Paul Simon has compiled a library of songs which will remain open to future generations."
The academy also lauded Ma as "the leading cellist of our time" who had "united people from every continent".
"Yo-Yo Ma has dedicated his virtuosity and his heart to journeys of musical exploration and discovery around the world," it said.
"[He] is living proof that music is communication, passion and the ability to share experience."
The prize was founded by Stig Anderson, the manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989.
Previous recipients include Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan and Ennio Morricone.
Last year's winners were Patti Smith and US string group Kronos Quartet.
| Awards ceremony | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
In Europe's first national referendum on the proposed European Constitution, the people of Spain vote to endorse the Treaty by a landslide 76.73% to 17.24%. However, turnout is an extremely low 42.32%, even after both the government and the main opposition party campaigned for a "yes" vote. | The blueprint for the EU's future was backed by 77% of voters, with 17% against, official figures showed.
Spain's prime minister hailed the result, but his opponents pointed to the low turnout of 42%. It was the first of a series of European polls on the constitutional treaty, which must be ratified by all 25 EU member states to go into effect.
The deadline for ratification is November 2006.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told reporters: "Today has been a great day for all Europeans".
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who called Mr Zapatero to congratulate him, welcomed "the very clear 'yes' which Spain has given to a Europe which moves forward and which makes a difference, a Europe united in diversity".
Like most Spaniards, I'm pro-European - but it's the wrong time for a constitution
The EU constitution is designed to streamline the EU's decision-making process after the bloc brought in 10 new members - mostly from central and eastern Europe - last May.
The BBC's Katya Adler, in Madrid, says the turnout was embarrassingly low for the Spanish prime minister, who had promised to set a shining example for the rest of Europe.
Critics said the government's information campaign had been glitzy - with football and film stars calling for a Yes - but did not do enough to inform voters about the content of the charter.
In a recent poll, nine out of 10 Spaniards admitted they had little idea what the EU constitution is about.
The referendum was non-binding, with parliament set to have the final say.
Spanish voters say how they intend to vote and why
Voters were asked: "Do you approve the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe?" Early voters in Madrid included King Juan Carlos, who cast his ballot at a school.
The EU constitution provides for the first EU president and foreign minister and incorporates certain fundamental rights into EU law.
Nine EU members have definitely said they will hold referendums, with two more countries undecided. The remainder are ratifying the treaty by a parliamentary vote. | Government Job change - Election | February 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(Bloomberg)', '(EUobserver)', '(EurActiv)', '(BBC)'] |
At least 50 people die following a series of storms and floods that hit the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh and India; many more are missing, and officials fear for the safety of over a hundred fishermen. | More than 140,000 have been evacuated there after rains swelled rivers and inundated villages, disrupting roads, trains and power supplies.
Alarm bells
The weekend's rains caused the sea to rise up to 3m (10ft) in coastal areas along the Bay of Bengal. The death toll in Andhra Pradesh has risen to 58, the commissioner for disaster management, Shashank Goel, said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced compensation of 100,000 rupees ($2,300) each to the families of those killed.
The BBC's Omer Farooq in the state capital, Hyderabad, says the state government has set up 465 relief camps in the affected districts of Khammam, East and West Godavari and Krishna.
Mr Goel said that in Khammam district alone 30,000 people were evacuated to relief camps. About 70,000 houses in the state were flooded - more than 7,000 of them destroyed.
Some parts of the state have received record rainfall, officials say.
Helicopters have been used to rescue stranded villagers.
In Orissa state in eastern India, 11,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas. State Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal told the BBC that more than 25,000 hectares of rice crop were destroyed by the storm.
A cyclone in Orissa in 1999 killed up to 10,000 people.
In Bangladesh, 16 fishermen are thought to have drowned when their trawlers sank in stormy weather.
Scores more are missing according to local officials and the media were reporting that anxious families were waiting along the coastlines for their relatives to return.
Bangladesh television said as many as 200 boats were initially reported missing but the government says it cannot yet confirm the figures.
A government official told the Associated Press news agency that there were not enough boats to conduct a fully fledged search. | Floods | September 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
An award–winning essay written by Paul McCartney as a 10–year–old for the coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is found after lying undiscovered in Liverpool's Central Library for more than 50 years. | An essay written by Sir Paul McCartney as a 10-year-old has been found after lying undiscovered in Liverpool's Central Library for more than 50 years.
Years before the Beatles received their MBEs, he beat hundreds of other school children to win a prize for his 1953 essay marking the Queen's coronation. In neat handwriting, he refers to "the lovely young Queen Elizabeth". In 2013, the library will display the essay - found in a scrapbook - to mark the 60th anniversary of the coronation. Thought to be one of the earliest surviving written works by Sir Paul, the essay gave him an early taste of appearing in public. Liverpool's Lord Mayor presented him with the prize - despite the work having been marked down for grammatical errors. McCartney's neat writing has the same curly ends on capital letters which he used later on the "B" of "Beatles" on the group's drum skin. The schoolboy compares the happy scenes expected outside Buckingham Palace with the coronation of William the Conqueror nine centuries earlier, when a massacre of Saxons took place. He declares that Britain's "present day royalty rules with affection rather than force".
McCartney's earliest creative contribution found in Liverpool Central Library
The essay also mentions a coronation cup with Elizabeth II on the front and Elizabeth I on the back, and he concludes it by saying: "After all this bother, many people will agree with me that it was well worth it." Some 16 years later, with the Beatles nearing their break-up, McCartney was still writing about the monarch. His song Her Majesty, featuring the lyrics "Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, some day I'm going to make her mine", was recorded for the Abbey Road LP. The Queen knighted him in 1997. | New archeological discoveries | September 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(CBC)', '(NME)', '(The Sunday Times)'] |
One student is killed and three others wounded during an early morning shooting in a Northern Arizona University dorm in Flagstaff, Arizona. The suspected shooter was taken into custody. | A Northern Arizona University freshman, after answering a punch with a spray of gunfire, was arrested Friday for killing one fraternity member and wounding three more.
Student Steven Jones, 18, was charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault after the 1:20 a.m. Flagstaff, Ariz., campus killing.
According to court documents, Jones ran to his car and grabbed a gun after a late-night confrontation where he was hit in the face during a parking lot dispute.
The 18-year-old freshman has beencharged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault.
Jones was with two friends when they began squabbling with the fraternity members, and the confrontation quickly escalated, officials said.
Jones whose .40 caliber handgun was fitted with a flashlight fatally shot Delta Chi fraternity member Colin Brough from less than 10 feet away, officials said. Jonesis a pledge member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
The injured students' conditions and their relationship to the gunman, since charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault, are unclear.
The Arizona shooting came just hours before President Obama was set to visit Roseburg, Ore., where nine people were slaughtered on the Umpqua Community College campus on Oct. 1.
Funerals for the Oregon victims started Thursday. More are planned for the weekend and next week.
Arizona students heard sirens echoing across campus about 1:30 a.m. Friday and learned about the shooting from Mountain View residents who reported shots fired on social media, NAU freshman Mackenzie Cutrone told the Daily News. Thanks to the alert glitch, she didn't get the university's messages about the attack until after the gunman was already in custody.
"That's what's absolutely crazy," said Cutrone, who lives in a dorm on the other side of campus. "The only way I found out about all of this was because of Twitter and Yik Yak."
She continued: "They didn't say a thing today until after 2:30 a.m., after they already had the guy in custody. It was a little disappointing."
Fowler said he was not aware of the timeline of messages, but maintained that the alert system worked properly.
"The situation was stabilized right away," he said at the early morning press conference, as a group of somber students huddled in the back of the audience.
Rumors about the suspected gunman's motives swirled on social media, Cutrone said. Some students reported that the shooting, which could have happened in the dorm's courtyard, may have stemmed from an argument over money, she said.
President Obama, who landed in Oregon on Friday, has not commented on the Arizona shooting.
After the Oregon campus shooting last week, avisibly irate Obama suggestedthe blood of Americans has been repeatedly spilled because of partisan politics.
"Somehow this has become routine," he said just hours after the bloody attack. "The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. We've become numb to this ... It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get a gun." | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(New York Daily News)', '(NPR)'] |
American general Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. takes over command of NATO forces in Afghanistan, replacing John R. Allen. | KABUL, Afghanistan — Marine Gen. John Allen relinquished command of coalition forces in Afghanistan on Sunday, expressing optimism about the nation's future but saying the world will keep a close watch on how the government handles next year's elections and whether it follows through on promised reforms.
"The big benchmark for all of us is going to be the election," Allen told reporters moments before a simple ceremony in which he handed the battle colors to another U.S. Marine general, Joseph Dunford.
The last Afghan elections, held in 2009, were marred by violence and allegations of corruption. Elections are scheduled for next year, a time when most security will be the responsibility of the Afghan security forces and the American presence will be significantly reduced.
"The international community is in this to a point, but it won't be in this to a fault," Allen said. "What that means is we will all watch the outcome of the election."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged to combat endemic corruption in his country and improve government transparency. "The rhetoric has to be accompanied by action," Allen said.
Hoping to avoid a repeat of history, U.S. officials have emphasized the importance of continued support of Afghanistan after 2014 when most U.S. combat forces will leave.
The Soviets withdrew nearly all support for Afghanistan's government after its troops left the country in 1989, leading to the collapse of the Soviet-backed government and civil war several years later.
By contrast, the United States and its allies have pledged to continue supporting Afghanistan's military and economy even after most foreign troops are gone.
But Allen said the United States and its allies will expect to see improvements in governance and efforts to reduce corruption.
"The normal follow through on counterinsurgency is the development of governmental capacity," Allen said.
Still he said such improvements usually lag behind security progress and urged the international community to exercise patience.
"We all have to recognize the limits of the capacity of the Afghan people and the government at this particular moment," Allen said.
On a military level, Allen said the coalition campaign over the past couple years has been successful in pushing the Taliban out of key towns and cities and bolstering the capabilities and confidence of Afghan security forces.
"We are winning," Allen said simply during a speech at an awards presentation before departing Kabul.
Allen has been nominated to the top NATO job in Europe. He was to fly out of Kabul after the ceremony Sunday after 19 months in the job.
Allen earned a reputation as both an aggressive commander and cerebral officer. In Iraq in 2007 he helped lead a successful effort to consolidate and broaden a tribal revolt against al-Qaeda in Iraq's western desert.
Dunford is a well-respected troop commander who led a Marine regiment during the U.S.-led attack into Iraq in 2003. His aggressiveness and coolness under fire earned him the moniker Fighting Joe. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | February 2013 | ['(AFP via ABC News)', '(The Guardian)', '(USA Today)'] |
Egypt restricts opposition before vote, with security forces arresting hundreds of opposition activists, and clamping down on the media ahead of parliamentary elections next week according to Amnesty International. | (CNN) -- A major human rights group called on Egyptian authorities Sunday to refrain from harassing candidates and their supporters after security forces reportedly arrested hundreds of activists from the biggest opposition bloc.
London-based Amnesty International accused Egyptian authorities of silencing critics in the runup to the November 28 parliamentary elections.
"Egyptians ... considered a threat to public order or security, have faced arrest, detention, criminal charges and the threat of detention without charge or trial under the emergency law," the group said in a statement released Sunday.
Senior members of the country's ruling party, the National Democratic Party, have dismissed such accusations.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which has been officially banned -- but tolerated -- since 1954, is widely seen as the main opposition to the ruling party. Its members run as independents in local elections.
While Egyptian authorities have not confirmed the total number of arrests in recent weeks, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed that security forces had arrested 1,044 of its activists as of Sunday.
Amnesty International documented hundreds arrested since October 9, when Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohammed Badie said the group would field candidates for election.
The most violent clashes involving police and Muslim Brotherhood members took place on Friday at a rally in Alexandria where witnesses said police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. At least 33 were injured, witnesses said.
"The Egyptian authorities must uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly and ensure that peaceful protestors are not arbitrarily arrested and detained. The rights of all candidates and campaigners should be upheld without discrimination," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.
The human rights group has also accused Egyptian authorities of restricting public access to information in the runup to the elections.
"Newspapers whose reports the authorities consider politically-sensitive have been seized or destroyed. Media sources say a dozen Egyptian satellite television channels have been suspended," the organization said in its statement.
The government said the suspensions are only related to issues with the channels' broadcast licenses and accused some religious-based programs of fueling animosity among Muslims and Christians in Egypt.
Various opposition groups have accused the ruling National Democratic Party of using its power to suppress voices critical of President Hosni Mubarak's almost-30-year rule. The ruling party has dismissed the accusations.
Opposition calls for international election monitors are unnecessary, said the ruling party general secretary, Safwat al-Shareef.
Egypt's Supreme Election Committee and "civil community groups will guarantee free and transparent elections," Al-Shareef said.
The election commission said that 76 Egyptian civil organizations will be allowed to monitor the polls, but the paperwork is not finished, official news agency MENA reported Friday.
About 800 candidates from the ruling party, 250 from the liberal al-Wafd Party and 130 from the Muslim Brotherhood are running for the parliament's 508 seats.
Smaller parties and opposition movements have declared they are boycotting the elections over transparency concerns.
Egypt has remained under a continuous state of emergency since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. | Government Job change - Election | November 2010 | ['(Reuters Africa)', '(CNN)', '(AP via Google News)'] |
The Hellenic Parliament formally ratifies a maritime agreement with Egypt, that defines maritime boundaries and an exclusive economic zone between the two countries in the Mediterranean Sea. | Greek parliament ratified an accord defining maritime boundaries between Greece and Egypt on Thursday, amid rising tensions with neighbouring Turkey over energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean.
The pact, which was sealed earlier this month and has already been ratified by Egypt’s parliament, was approved by a majority of Greek lawmakers.
The Athens-Cairo agreement has angered Turkey which says that it infringes on its own continental shelf. The agreement also overlaps with maritime zones Turkey agreed with Libya last year, decried as illegal by Greece.
| Sign Agreement | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Technocrat Mario Monti resigns as Prime Minister of Italy after the parliamentary passing of Italy's latest austerity budget. | Announcement on whether technocrat will take part in elections is not expected before news conference set for Sunday.
Mario Monti has handed in his resignation to Italy’s president, bringing to a close his 13-month technical government and preparing the country for national elections.
President Giorgio Napolitano accepted the resignation on Friday evening and asked Monti, who said his brief time in office had been “difficult but fascinating”, to stay on as head of a caretaker government until the vote, expected in February.
Monti kept his pledge to step down as soon as parliament gives final passage to the 2013 budget law.
In what was his last official public act as prime minister, Monti earlier told foreign diplomats in Rome on Friday that his year-old technical government had rendered the country “more trustworthy”.
He cited structural reforms, such as measures to improve competition and liberalise services, as well as the recently approved anti-corruption law.
Political ambitions
Monti, who became prime minister after Silvio Berlusconi lost his parliamentary majority in November 2011, is expected to reveal the extent of his future political ambitions during an end-of-year news conference, scheduled for Sunday at 10:00 GMT.
Sources close to the technocrat prime minister insist he has yet to decide whether to join the race, despite appearing to launch a bid for a key role in the campaign with a rousing speech at a Fiat factory on Thursday.
“Monti has not made any decision yet,” sources told the AFP news agency.
His popularity is also said to be taking a downward spiral, declining from a peak of 62 percent shortly after he came to power down to 33 percent at present.
Some political observers have been speculating that Monti is planning to take part in the campaign as unofficial leader of a centrist coalition that has been likened to the Christian-Democrats who dominated Italy for decades.
Monti’s name cannot be on the ballot as he is already a senator for life, but he can still be appointed to a post in government including prime minister or finance minister.
The AFP cited sources quoted by the newspaper Corriere as saying the centrist agenda will include “historic reforms” and “far deeper liberalisation than we have witnessed so far”.
According to the online edition of La Stampa daily, Monti had been eager to run for the top job but has now given up on the idea.
‘Bitter medicine’
“He no longer intends to be a candidate for the centrists, or even give them his endorsement,” it said.
Instead, he will propose “a type of Monti Memorandum of things done and still to do,” it said, adding that the prime minister was unwilling to risk running for a post he may not win.
Monti, 69, defended on Thursday the “bitter medicine” of budget discipline he has implemented and warned against any attempt to turn back the clock.
While the financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore said that “Monti’s strength lies in his ability to address Italians with a direct language,” La Stampa described his actions as a “strange electoral bid… a prelude, on Monti’s part, to a rethink of the decision to candidate himself”.
While supporters applaud Monti for having launched a far-reaching programme of austerity and reforms that has reassured the financial markets, his popularity has been hit among ordinary Italians as the debt-laden country grapples with record-high unemployment and a recession-hit economy.
The current favourite in the opinion polls is centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, who has promised to continue Monti’s reforms while adding “jobs and equity”.
Billionaire Berlusconi, 76, who has swung back and forth on whether to run for the top job a sixth time, warned Monti against joining the campaign and condemned his economic policies.
Follow Al Jazeera English:
We understand that your online privacy is very important and consenting to our collection of some personal information takes great trust. We ask for this consent because it allows Al Jazeera to provide an experience that truly gives a voice to the voiceless. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | December 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
A "significant explosive event" occurs at the Mount Redoubt volcano in Alaska. | April 5, 2009 12:06 AM April 5, 2009 11:38 AM by Casey Grove and Jennifer CastroSaturday, April 4, 2009
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A day after the Alaska Volcano Observatory lowered the alert level for Mount Redoubt, the volcano exploded again Saturday, spewing ash to some of its highest levels yet.
The AVO recorded a "significant explosion event" at Redoubt that sent ash up to at least 50,000 feet above sea level at about 6 a.m. Saturday. Morning Web cam images showed clear pictures of the eruption.
Ash fall has been repoted in Homer and Anchor Point. The National Weather Service has canceled all ash fall advisories, though blowing ash is a possibility along the western Kenai Peninsula south of Ninilchik.
A flash flood warning for the Drift River has expired.
The AVO reports that lightning was observed in the eruption cloud, and their seismometers indidcate a fresh lahar -- a mudflow caused by the volcano melting glacial material -- in the Drift River Valley.
Scientists say Redoubt is following patterns of its last eruption -- it's building a dome, which is then collapsing. "Gas is leaking out of the system through cracks and other means, diffusion, so a lot of the oomph behind the explosivity is slowly going to bleed away," geophysicist Peter Cervelli said. "But I wouldn't be surprised to see another cycle or two like this."
The plan to remove oil from two storage tanks at Drift River has temporarily been put on hold. A spokesperson for the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport says there has been no flight cancelations or airport closures due to Saturday morning's eruption.
Flights that were headed east at the time of the eruption were re-routed into Anchorage. Contact the Channel 2 newsroom at news_desk@ktuu.com | Volcano Eruption | April 2009 | ['(KTUU)'] |
On the first anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, millions join protests in cities across the world to demonstrate against the war and the continued occupation. In London two Greenpeace protesters evade newly tightened security and scale the Houses of Parliament's Clock Tower to unfurl a banner calling for the truth to be told by the UK government. | Anti-war demonstrators scaled London's landmark Big Ben clock tower in a spectacular protest, as opponents of the US and British invasion of Iraq prepared to mark its first anniversary with a rally.
"Officers are at the scene trying to bring the protest to a peaceful solution," a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.
The scene at St Stephen's Tower, known as Big Ben, at London's House of Commons Saturday March 20, 2004, where two Greenpeace antiwar demonstrators scaled the tower. A large antiwar march in London was scheduled for later in the day.Police said they did not believe there was reason to fear a terrorist incident.
"We don't think it is terrorist related. We think they are anti-war," the spokesman added.
British news channel Sky News showed pictures of two men, perched at the level of the clock more than 45 meters (150 feet) from the ground. They were roped together and appeared to have climbing equipment.
The spectacular protest is an embarrassment for British security services who have been on near high alert following the Madrid train bombings on March 11 which killed more than 200 people.
Opponents of the US and British invasion of Iraq were later to mark its first anniversary Saturday with a major street march in London demanding an end to the country's occupation.
Tens of thousands were expected to join the main demonstration in London, starting at noon (1200 GMT) in Hyde Park and snaking its way to Trafalgar Square for an afternoon rally, the Stop the War Coalition said.
Buses were being laid on from more than 75 cities to bring protestors to the British capital.
Several thousand black balloons were to be released at 3 pm in memory of both Iraqi war victims and the 202 people killed in last week's train bombings in Madrid.
It will be a far smaller event than the million-strong march in February last year that underscored the scale of opposition within Britain to Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to join the US thrust to oust Saddam Hussein.
But organizers were determined to make their voice heard.
"We want to call for an end of the occupation in Iraq," Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition told a news conference earlier in the week.
"Everything we said about the war has turned out to be true, and everything the (British) government said has turned out to be a lie." Blair, to a greater extent than US President George W. Bush, argued that military action was essential in order to deal with Saddam's feared pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
No such weapons have been found, however, prompting the demonstration's keynote slogan: "No more lies, Mr. Blair."
Blair received a roasting Saturday from his newspaper critics over the war in Iraq, while papers which supported Blair's decision to commit British troops to the campaign to remove Saddam Hussein were notably quieter.
Most trenchant was the Independent, which used its entire front page to run a hard-hitting editorial piece condemning the initiative, titled: "A year of war that made the world a more dangerous place."
An opinion poll by Sky News television, released earlier this week, indicated that Britons are as divided as ever over the war, with 48 percent saying it was right, and 41 percent saying it was wrong.
The last big anti-war protest in London, also spearheaded by Stop the War, was last November when 100,000 to 200,000 converged on Trafalgar Square as Bush paid a state visit. | Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2004 | ['(Democracy Now!)', '(Reuters)', '(AFP)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
The U.S. House of Representatives votes 410–4 to pass the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which designates lynching a federal crime. This is the first time that anti-lynching legislation has ever passed Congress. |
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., speaks during a news conference about the Emmett Till Antilynching Act on Wednesday on Capitol Hill. He stands beside a photo of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in the 1950s.
With supporters calling it more than 100 years in the making, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Wednesday that makes lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in U.S. history. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act was approved in a vote of 410-4. Three Republicans and one independent representative voted against it. Advocates say there have been more than 200 attempts to pass the legislation in the past, and the latest effort has been in the works for nearly two years. "This act of American terrorism has to be repudiated," Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush, who sponsored the legislation nearly two years ago, told NPR. And "now it's being repudiated. It's never too late to repudiate evil and this lynching is an American evil." Lynching is an American evil. Today, we send a strong message that violence—and race-based violence, in particular—has no place in America.Thank you to my colleagues in the House & Senate who have joined me to correct this injustice. #OutlawLynching https://t.co/io451Agyne pic.twitter.com/3Uq1U6fTFM
While there are no recently recorded lynchings, sponsors say, the House bill remains critical. The legislation was named for a 14-year-old Chicago teenager who was lynched in the 1950s during a visit to see relatives near Money, Miss. His body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. California Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, a co-sponsor of the House bill, says although the legislation touches on a difficult period in U.S. history, it also stands as a reminder of the hate crimes that continue today. For example, she noted that a Mississippi memorial in Till's honor has been vandalized several times. Last year, cameras were installed and the memorial was covered in bulletproof glass to prevent new attempts of vandalism. "Even today, periodically, you hear news stories of nooses being left on college campuses, worker locker rooms, to threaten and terrorize African Americans — a vicious reminder that the past is never that far away," Bass said. Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ted Yoho of Florida and the chamber's lone independent, Justin Amash of Michigan, voted against it.
A painful legacy
The U.S. saw more than 4,000 cases of lynching between the late 1800s and the 1960s, according to the Montgomery, Ala.,-based nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative. Many of those cases involved black men. "We often like to only talk about only the glorious parts of our history, and it's difficult for us to hear some of the ugly parts," Bass, the co-sponsor, said. "But it is important that we do hear and understand our history in full." Rush said he first filed the legislation in June 2018 after hearing from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who asked the lawmaker if he knew that lynching wasn't a federal crime. Rush said he did not. But Rush says his journey to sponsoring the legislation probably started long before that.
Emmett Till in that casket launched the civil rights movement in America.
Rep. Bobby Rush
As a child, Rush said his mother sat him and his four siblings around a table in their Chicago home to share images of Emmett Till. Jet magazine published graphic photos shared by the teen's mother of Till's body in a casket to illustrate the painful legacy of lynching. "That atrocity has been really something that has been with me, that's a part of who I am," Rush said in a struggling, soft-spoken voice, his vocal cords previously damaged as a result of an illness. "Emmett Till in that casket launched the civil rights movement in America." Rush's mother told her children that Till's story was why they left their home state of Georgia, and moved to Chicago instead. A path forward
The Senate passed similar anti-lynching legislation, led by California Democrat Kamala Harris, for the first time in December 2018. However, the legislation failed to gain traction in time for the end of the legislative session that year. So, in February 2019, Harris introduced and gained passage again for her anti-lynching bill for the new legislative session. But since the House bill is titled differently, now the Senate must take up Rush's measure in order to send it to the president's desk. Harris lauded the news of the House passage on Wednesday. "It's about time that the United States Congress take this issue up," Harris told NPR a day before the vote. "It represents the thousands of lives that were the subject of extreme violence and criminal activity in saying — finally — that it was a crime that was committed against those folks, and it should never be repeated. So it is one of the most significant pieces of legislation that we could ever address."
Lawmakers have said they hoped the Senate could take up the House measure during the final days of Black History Month, but that remains to be seen. The Senate returns Thursday after a one-day recess for party retreats. But lawmakers remain hopeful the Senate can pass the House measure in the near future and send it to President Trump's desk. "I'm very proud of that. I helped negotiate it and I'm grateful for the leadership of the House and the House members who were part of it. It's really historic," New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, who co-sponsored the Senate measure with Harris, told NPR. In terms of the timing, Booker said, "It's Black History Month, it's been too long, and the time to do right is always right." On Wednesday, a White House official told NPR that Trump is expected to sign it. NPR's Franco Ordoñez contributed to this report | Government Policy Changes | February 2020 | ['(NPR)'] |
Red shirt protesters set up roadblocks to prevent police reinforcements from reaching the capital Bangkok. | BANGKOK, April 26 (TNA) – Border Patrol Police in Phitsanulok have broken the Red Shirt blockade, and headed to Bangkok after a five-hour stand-off, with some injuries reported.
A clash occurred between the anti-government Red Shirt protesters and the police as the police broke through the Red Shirt blockade to travel to the capital.
About 100 Red Shirts Monday morning blocked the main entrance to a Border Patrol Police unit at Phraya Chakri camp in Phitsanulok to prevent a company of anti-riot police from travelling to Bangkok.
Negotiations to ask the Red Shirts to unblock the entrance failed as they insisted to stay there, claiming the government will disperse the protest at Ratchaprasong.
Meanwhile, more Red Shirt guards have been mobilised to six checkpoints around their protest site in Ratchaprasong after police reinforcement in the area, according to Red Shirt leader Natthawut Saikua.
An additional 20-30 Red Shirt guards have been stationed at check points around the protest site and extra sharpened bamboo staves and piles of tyres reinforced their barricades.
Mr Nattawut said he has learned that the police were reinforced in nearby areas and called for the military and the police to ignore the order of the government, which he claimed will not stay in power for long due to a possible dissolution of the ruling Democrat Party by the court on allegedly misuse of party’s donation money.
He said Red Shirt supporters upcountry were trying to block police reinforcement from travelling to the capital.
After the prime minister called a meeting with provincial governors on Sunday, Nattawut said he believed the governors would not follow the prime minister’s order as they did not want confrontation with local people.
Red Shirt guards were instructed to be more vigilant after a hand grenade was found in front of the emergency room of Chulalongkorn University Hospital Monday morning. The grenade was disposed by officials.
Jatuporn Prompan, a Red Shirt leader said that more 70 companies of police officers will be reinforced in the capital to retake the protest site.
He said government officials who still serve Mr Abhisit’s administration will have a problem in the future as they have to take responsibility if the government orders operations to hurt the people.
Meanwhile, another UDD leader Weng Tojirakarn confirmed that there was no new Influenza type A (H1N1) infections among protesters.
Dr Weng said he believed the infection is limited to six patients, as confirmed by BMA General hospital, and the H1N1 flu will not spread at the protest site as it is open air area with temperatures as high as 42 degrees Celsius. (TNA) | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Thai News Agency)'] |
The top foreign affairs officials of the G8 group of nations meet in London, where the Korean crisis, Syrian conflict and Iran's nuclear threats are expected to be major talking points. | Foreign ministers from the G8 group of nations have condemned in the "strongest possible terms" North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
Tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, a Pentagon spy report concluded "with moderate confidence" that North Korea had the capability to launch nuclear-armed missiles.
But their reliability would be low, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) said.
It is thought to be the first time that the agency has acknowledged North Korea's capability to produce warheads small enough to fit onto a missile.
The report's conclusion was made public by Republican Doug Lamborn as he questioned senior Pentagon officials about North Korea's nuclear weapons programme during a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
"DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles, however the reliability will be low," Mr Lamborn said, quoting directly from the report released in March.
The study's conclusion was erroneously marked unclassified, an unnamed US official later told the Associated Press news agency.
In a news conference after the G8 summit, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that "if the DPRK [North Korea] conducts another missile launch or nuclear test, we have committed ourselves to take further significant measures".
The Group of Eight nations comprises the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.
Britain currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the G8 and the talks are a prelude to the annual G8 summit later this year in Northern Ireland.
Correspondents say Japan, present at the talks, had been looking for a strong statement of solidarity over Korea.
North Korea has been making bellicose threats against South Korea, Japan and US bases in the region.
Mr Hague said the ministers condemned North Korea's "current aggressive rhetoric", saying it would "only serve further to isolate the DPRK".
Later on Thursday, US President Barack Obama also called on North Korea to end its "belligerent approach".
He added that the US would take "all necessary steps" to protect its people, while stressing that "nobody wants to see a conflict on the Korean peninsula".
BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says ministers agree that the combination of warlike threats from North Korea and preparations for new missile tests amount to dangerous provocation. South Korea has raised its alert level amid indications that the North is preparing for a missile test.
Pyongyang has moved two Musudan ballistic missiles to its east coast. Estimates of their range vary, but some suggest it could travel 4,000km (2,500 miles).
A missile therefore has the potential of hitting US bases on Guam, although it is not known whether the Musudan has been tested before.
North Korea has increased its fiery rhetoric following fresh UN sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test and joint military manoeuvres by the US and South Korea.
The North says it will restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, has shut an emergency military hotline to the South and has urged countries to withdraw diplomatic staff, saying it cannot now guarantee their safety.
However, in the past few days North Korea's media appear to be in more of a holiday mood, due to the approach of Kim Il-sung's birthday on Monday - a potential launch date for a new missile test.
The G8 ministers also pledged to work to end sexual violence in conflict, calling for urgent action to address "comprehensively" the "culture of impunity" in conflict zones.
Mr Hague said he was "delighted" that ministers had agreed on plans to tackle "the horrific use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war in conflicts around the globe", which he described as "one of the greatest and most persistent injustices in the world".
Mr Hague said the G8 had "committed to the development of a comprehensive international protocol on the investigation and documentation of rape and sexual violence in conflict".
The UK announced £10m ($15.4m) of fresh funding to supports efforts against sexual violence.
In a statement welcoming the moves, the Save the Children charity said: "The majority of victims of sexual violence, especially in conflict situations, are children so we must ensure these funds reach the most vulnerable children as a matter of urgency."
The UN special envoy for refugees, Angelina Jolie, said that wartime rape should not be regarded as inevitable, saying: "It can be prevented and must be confronted.
"Finally we have some hope to offer victims."
On Syria, Mr Hague admitted that "the world has failed so far in its responsibilities, and continues to do so", adding that divisions over the conflict continue.
"This is on track to be the biggest humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st Century so far," he added.
Ministers called for greater humanitarian assistance to Syrians affected by the conflict.
They affirmed their support for a "political transition", but did not mention any punitive measures against President Bashar al-Assad.
Fresh evidence of links between some opposition fighters and al-Qaeda has made it even harder for governments to decide a course of action, correspondents say.
G8 ministers met Syrian opposition figures on Wednesday on the sidelines of the two-day forum.
More than 60,000 people are estimated to have died since the uprising against the government of President Assad began in March 2011.
The London talks were also the first chance for G8 ministers to discuss face-to-face the failure of last week's meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on curbing Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Hague called that failure "disappointing".
"We will continue to work with the twin-track approach of sanctions and negotiations, but... the window of diplomacy will not remain open forever," he went on.
Tehran says it only wants to produce energy but the US and its allies suspect it is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Notre Dame wins the 2018 NCAA Tournament over Mississippi State 61–58, with the deciding points coming on a dramatic 3-point shot by Arike Ogunbowale just before the final buzzer. | Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale drains not one, but both of Notre Dame's game-winning shots in the final seconds to lead the Fighting Irish to a national championship. (0:55)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- First she punched the padded support behind the basket in frustration.
A few minutes later she threw her hands in the air in exultation.
As her last shot dropped through the net, the most frustrating 39 minutes, 57 seconds of Arike Ogunbowale's young basketball life vanished into the same air that would soon be filled by confetti.
Her 3-pointer in the final second -- and it will go down as the greatest last-second shot in championship game history even if there was still one-tenth of a second left on the clock -- lifted Notre Dame to a 61-58 win against Mississippi State and the biggest comeback in championship game history.
It also bumped the game-winning shot she hit Friday, which beat UConn in overtime in the semifinals, one spot down basketball's greatest-hits list.
Ogunbowale fell five points shy of becoming the fifth player to score 150 points in one NCAA tournament, but never has naming the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player been more of a foregone conclusion. As Notre Dame associate coach Niele Ivey put it, Ogunbowale hit the shot of a lifetime -- then did it again less than 48 hours later.
"To do that twice in one weekend, the biggest stage in college basketball, it's crazy," Ogunbowale admitted.
The sequel also looked unlikely for much of the evening in Columbus. After a quick start, Notre Dame ran aground against Mississippi State's defense. Bringing the ball up court or executing an inbounds pass became perilous adventures. No one bore the brunt of the frustration more than Ogunbowale. She missed 9 of 10 shots in the opening half. She had missed two more shots by the time Notre Dame reached its nadir, trailing by 15 points with a little less than seven minutes to play in the third quarter. Even as Notre Dame rallied and pulled level, the frustration of the cold shooting showed when she smacked the stanchion after a miss.
"I was missing a lot of bunnies with the layups, it was a little frustrating," Ogunbowale said. "But I knew I had to keep shooting, keep going to the basket. My teammates, they tell me to keep shooting, but I think that's just my mentality. I'm never going to stop."
She nearly hit a much less dramatic, and higher percentage, game winner after Notre Dame's Jackie Young came up with a steal on a scramble (and what Mississippi State will forever believe was a Marina Mabrey foul on Morgan William) with less than 10 seconds to play in the game. But Mississippi State center Teaira McCowan's foul just before Young passed the ball instead gave Notre Dame the ball to inbound in the offensive end with three second left.
On April 1, 2018, Arike Ogunbowale sinks a game-winning 3-pointer for the Fighting Irish to claim the national championship against the Bulldogs.
It was the 6-foot-7 McCowan's fifth foul, which is why the ball wasn't even supposed to be in Ogunbowale's hands for the final play. The primary option was post Jessica Shepard on the near block. Shepard had hit 8-of-10 shots to that point and led Notre Dame with 19 points.
"Because Jess was playing so well and McCowan had fouled out," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said of going through Shepard instead of Friday's hero. "We definitely thought we had an advantage in there. Plus, they had a foul to give, I thought. So we didn't want to do anything that was going away from the basket, where they could maybe [foul and] take some time off the clock. We thought get as close to the basket as you can with Jess. She could turn and shoot and maybe get fouled. That was the first option.
"Arike hadn't been shooting the ball particularly well. Jess was."
Mississippi State took a timeout the first time Notre Dame set up to inbound the ball. What Notre Dame wanted to do was apparent.
"We knew they were going to come into their post player because Teaira had just fouled out," Mississippi State guard Blair Schaefer said. "We doubled that, we took away their first option."
Initially guarding Young as she inbounded the ball, Schaefer dropped off by design to help on Shepard in the post.
"We had [Zion Campbell] behind her because she's smaller, and we had Blair to sag back on her," Bulldogs associate head coach Johnnie Harris said of Shepard. "So they didn't get that option. The second option, they were screening up top -- we switched the screen, but we didn't deny it."
On the perimeter, Mississippi State's Victoria Vivans guarded Kathryn Westbeld, and Roshunda Johnson guarded Ogunbowale. When Westbeld set a screen on Johnson, Ogunbowale got between the Mississippi State defenders and the ball on the sideline.
"When we say we're going to switch something, that means we're going to switch to deny," Schaefer said. "But we didn't switch to deny. They're great players and they made that one more [play] tonight."
Notre Dame associate coach Carol Owens noted how important to the whole sequence it was that Ogunbowale moved so quickly and assertively toward the ball.
"Last time, against Connecticut, we couldn't get the ball in and they stole it," Owens said of a botched play at the end of regulation in that game. "She just came in and boxed her man out and got the ball."
No less important was Young's decision making. Her ability to take on much of point guard duties in the second half was key to Notre Dame rallying in the first place. On the final play, the sophomore showed that vision and poise by not forcing the ball to Shepard.
Notre Dame still had two timeouts if it needed them, but Young didn't panic.
"For me, taking the ball out of bounds, whatever I was looking at, I didn't like the way it looked," Young said. "Before that I had told Arike, 'Hey, if this matchup doesn't look right, make sure you come back to the ball.' I made sure she was heading my way and I passed it to her. When I gave it to her, I knew she was going to do something big."
Ogunbowale was a step from the sideline and still well beyond the 3-point line when she caught the short pass. With her back to the basket and three seconds left, there was no opportunity to drive. And for a right-handed shooter, there was really only one direction to go without creating an awkward shot back across her body. Not that the corner 3 is necessarily her favorite.
"If I could have picked a shot, I would have chose a layup," Ogunbowale said. "It's not what I really wanted, it's just what happened."
Ogunbowale spun toward the baseline, took two dribbles and launched a shot off essentially one leg, her left leg trailing in the air before she landed well out of bounds.
It bears repeating that, at that moment, Ogunbowale had missed 15 of 20 shots in the biggest game of her life. She had missed jump shots and layups. Normally a lock from the line, she had even missed two free throws. But from the moment she arrived in South Bend, she has always looked for the next shot. Among the throng in the locker room after the win was WNBA point guard Lindsay Allen, who played the past two seasons with Ogunbowale.
"She was coming in the gym shooting, no matter what," Allen said. "No matter if she hit the first five shots or missed the first 10 shots, she was going to keep shooting. We had that confidence in her. With her it was just learning when to take those shots and when to risk taking those sort of iffy shots during the course of a game. But she's learned over time and she's hit huge shots over the course of her career, none bigger than in the Final Four."
Notre Dame's consistent excellence over almost the past decade created a line of succession from Skylar Diggins to Kayla McBride to Jewell Loyd. One star followed another.
"Her and Sky are probably the most confident players I've been around," Ivey said. "She doesn't show too much emotion. When she gets frustrated, she fouls. That's her way of kind of relieving the frustration. She punches things. She gets mad. But she never thinks she can't score."
Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw says her team came out with a new belief in the second half, which led them to the comeback win in the national championship game.
So, no, there wasn't any doubt in her mind that she would take the shot or that it would go in -- certainly no doubt she would admit.
"She always practices that shot in warm-ups, and it irritates me because she misses it a lot," Mabrey said. "We'll be trying to move to our next drill in warm-ups, and she'll shoot that. Honestly, it doesn't go in all that often.
"I saw her do the shot tonight, and I thought, 'That's good.' I had a really good angle and I saw the rotation, and I was like, 'Wow, she is the absolute GOAT.'"
Not all involved were quite so sure.
"I didn't have a clue," Shepard said. "I was just going in for the rebound again. But after last game, you've kind of got to count on it going in."
The trajectory helped, but the ball seemed to hang in the air longer than physics should allow.
"This one was such a high arc-er, I was like, 'I can't tell if that's going to go in or not,'" Notre Dame associate coach Carol Owens said. "The UConn [game-winning shot] definitely looked truer than any shot -- her combo move and then the shot.
"This one was like, 'I need to get this up so the shot clock doesn't go off.'"
Arike Ogunbowale explains she practices game-winning situations all the time, which helped her make two big shots to lead Notre Dame to a national championship.
Lili Thompson was the first player with her hand in the air on the Notre Dame bench, the ball not yet at the basket as she counted it good. Thompson was among the reasons this wasn't supposed to be a championship year for the Fighting Irish. Not this year. A former standout at Stanford, she transferred to Notre Dame for her final season and was expected to handle a lion's share of the minutes at point guard. An ACL tear, one of four for the Fighting Irish, ended that.
But down to six players, Notre Dame got its shot. Ogunbowale took care of the rest.
"That's two nights in a row," Thompson said. "I mean, I have as much faith as anybody as her -- I'm surprised, but I'm not surprised she knocked it down. It looked good.
"That's Arike, she makes those crazy shots in big moments."
It was a stage made for her. And in what was undoubtedly the greatest Final Four in the history of the women's game, people took notice. Ogunbowale swore that the national championship meant more than the shoutout from Kobe Bryant, but the grin on her face after the game as she recounted the tweet she got from the Black Mamba suggested it was a close call.
"For me to be looking up to him my whole life really," Ogunbowale said. "And for him to say my name, follow me, it's just unreal." | Sports Competition | April 2018 | ['(ESPN)'] |
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva heavily criticises the "rich countries", the G8 and other international bodies over the global economic crisis. | President Lula says the crisis was the creation of "white, blue-eyed bankers"
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has heavily criticised the "rich countries", the G8 and other international bodies over the global economic crisis.
"The rich countries are more to blame because they did not have any regulation for their financial system," he said in an exclusive interview with the BBC on the global downturn. President Lula has positioned himself as a kind of informal spokesperson for the developing world since the beginning of the crisis. He has been defending what he perceives as the interests of the poor in places such as Latin America, Africa and Asia and asking for changes in the global financial system. President Lula told the BBC that the governments of rich countries "knew how to give their opinion about everything related to the economy of the developing countries. "But, when they felt the pain, they did not know how to act." His criticism was also directed at the international economic institutions. "The IMF didn't have a solution, it wasn't sure and didn't have an answer," he said. "The World Bank didn't have a solution, it wasn't sure and didn't have an answer. And the governments also didn't!" 'Blue-eyed bankers'
President Lula also insisted that the crisis was the creation of "white, blue-eyed bankers" in the rich world. That expression first caused controversy in March, when the Brazilian leader used it while standing next to Gordon Brown during the UK prime minister's visit to Brasilia. He was criticised for using the expression, considered by some to be inappropriate and bordering on racism. During his recent interview, however, he was unrepentant. "What I wanted to say is more noteworthy today than it was then. What I wanted to say was that it wasn't the indigenous or the black population who should pay the bill [for the crisis] but those really responsible, the blue-eyed bankers. "It was the rich who were responsible for the crisis. And we weren't going to allow them to put the blame on the poor people of the world, as always happens when there is an economic crisis", President Lula said. The president, however, seemed confident that the leaders of the G20 group of developed and emerging countries could find solutions if they kept working together. They will meet again to discuss the crisis in the US city of Pittsburgh on 24 and 25 September, and Brazil is hoping to influence the debate, calling for further changes to the financial system. '
President Lula defended the group, arguing that the G20 was becoming an important forum for debating and finding solutions for the economy. But he also argues that the group should widen its goals and start implementing policies to speed up development. "I hope... that the poor of the world, the emerging countries, are not only called upon to resolve the problem of the crisis and then, when the crisis is over, the G20 will be dissolved and we go back to the G8," he said. According to the Brazilian president, the G8 does not have the credibility to deal with the global economic challenges. He said the G8 was "a closed club" which had "no legitimacy" to debate the current crisis. President Lula was interviewed as part of BBC Two's Love of Money series. | Famous Person - Give a speech | September 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Typhoon Tembin makes landfall on Taiwan. | TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A powerful typhoon made landfall in southern Taiwan before dawn Friday, toppling trees and dumping torrential rain that flooded farmlands before roaring out to sea.
No casualties from Typhoon Tembin were immediately reported. Authorities had taken precautions, evacuating more than 3,000 people from mountainous, landslide-prone areas of Taiwan a day ahead of the storm.
The Central Weather Bureau said Tembin landed in coastal Pingtung County at 5 a.m. (2100 GMT), packing winds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour, before blowing out to the Taiwan Strait 2 1/2 hours later.
Mindful of a devastating typhoon three years ago that took 700 lives, Taiwan's military readied thousands of soldiers equipped with rubber boats and amphibious vehicles to help with relief efforts in areas impacted by Tembin's fury.
Authorities also ordered workers home in the eastern city of Hualien, where all flights were canceled. Schools were closed in several areas in the southeast.
Farmers urgently harvested crops ahead of the storm's arrival, and many homes and businesses in eastern Taiwan boarded up their windows. Outdoor events to mark a special Taiwanese Valentine's Day on Thursday were canceled.
Another typhoon may threaten southern Japan over the weekend. Typhoon Bolaven has winds of 144 kph (89 mph) and may intensify, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The current forecast has the typhoon affecting southern islands, including Okinawa, on Sunday.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2012 | ['(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
Houthi militants blow up several bridges in Yemen's southwestern Taiz Governorate to halt the advance of pro-Hadi government forces. | Aden (AFP) - Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have blown up several bridges in the mountainous southwestern Taez province to hamper the advance of pro-government forces, military sources said Tuesday.
Government forces backed by air and ground support from a Saudi-led coalition launched an all-out offensive last week to push the rebels out of Taez and break the siege of loyalists in its provincial capital.
Taez is seen as crucial for the recapture of other central provinces and for opening the way to the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa farther north.
It is also important for securing the south, where loyalists have retaken five provinces since July, including Aden, seat of the provisional government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The Shiite Huthi rebels on Monday "blew up several bridges leading to Rahida to prevent the advance" of loyalist forces, said one of the sources in a reference to the province's second-largest city.
Military officials said this week that landmines planted by the rebels have already been hampering the progress of government forces and had caused casualties.
Loyalist forces are now stationed 12 kilometres (seven miles) away from Rahida after they regained several positions in clashes that lasted until early Tuesday and left five rebels and two pro-government fighters dead, according to the military sources.
Elsewhere, the rebels said they repelled a loyalist advance in Dhubab region on the Red Sea, killing 20 and wounding another 20, a toll that could not be independently confirmed.
In the neighbouring Lahj province, farther south, Hadi visited Al-Anad airbase, where Yemeni and coalition commanders are deployed to supervise the Taez offensive, a presidency source said.
"The visit is to oversee the military preparations to liberate Taez," the source told AFP.
Hadi returned from exile in Saudi Arabia on November 18, two days after the offensive to retake Taez began.
A key member of the coalition, the United Arab Emirates, said Tuesday that one of its soldiers in Yemen died of his injuries from a September 4 missile attack in Marib, east of the capital Sanaa.
His death in Germany, where he was hospitalised, raised to 64 the number of Emirati soldiers killed in the attack.
The United Nations says a total of more than 5,700 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led intervention began in March, nearly half of them civilians. | Armed Conflict | November 2015 | ['(AFP via Yahoo)'] |
In a move that surprised insiders, Microsoft beats Amazon Web Services to win a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the United States Department of Defense. | Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O has won the Pentagon's $10 billion cloud computing contract, the Defense Department said on Friday, beating out favorite Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O.
The contracting process had long been mired in conflict of interest allegations, even drawing the attention of President Donald Trump, who has publicly taken swipes at Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos. Trump in August said his administration was reviewing Amazon’s bid after complaints from other companies.
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract is part of a broader digital modernization of the Pentagon meant to make it more technologically agile. Specifically, a goal of JEDI is to give the military better access to data and the cloud from battlefields and other remote locations.
Oracle Corp ORCL.N had expressed concerns about the award process for the contract, including the role of a former Amazon employee who worked on the project at the Defense Department but recused himself, then later left the Defense Department and returned to Amazon Web Services.
In a statement, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesman said the company was “surprised about this conclusion.”
The company said that a “detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings” would “clearly lead to a different conclusion,” according to the statement.
AWS is considering options for protesting the award, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Although the Pentagon boasts the world’s most potent fighting force, its information technology remains woefully inadequate, according to many officials.
Officials have complained of having outdated computer systems and being unable to access files or share information as quickly as they might be able to in the private sector.
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“If I am a warfighter, I want as much data as you could possibly give me,” Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan, the director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told reporters in August describing the importance of the contract.
Some companies were concerned that a single award would give the winner an unfair advantage in follow-on work. The Pentagon has said it planned to award future cloud deals to multiple contractors.
This week, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper removed himself from reviewing the deal due to his adult son's employment with one of the original contract applicants, IBM Corp IBM.N. IBM had previously bid for the contract but had already been eliminated from the competition.
Microsoft said it was working on a comment. IBM and Oracle did not immediately return requests for comment.
In a book slated for publication Oct. 29, retired Navy commander Guy Snodgrass, who served as a speech writer to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, said Trump called Mattis and directed him to “screw Amazon” by preventing it from bidding on the JEDI contract, according to an excerpt of the book seen by Reuters ahead of its release.
“We’re not going to do that,” Mattis later told other Pentagon officials, according to the excerpt. “This will be done by the book, both legally and ethically.”
Snodgrass declined to comment pending the release of his book.
In a statement announcing Microsoft as the winner, the Pentagon underscored its view that the competition was conducted fairly and legally.
“All (offers) were treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation’s stated evaluation criteria. Prior to the award, the department conferred with the DOD Inspector General, which informed the decision to proceed,” it said.
Microsoft shares were up 3% to $144.98 in after-hours trading after the news. Amazon shares were down 0.92% to $1,745.12.
The Pentagon said it had awarded more than $11 billion across 10 separate cloud contracts over the past two years.
“As we continue to execute the DOD Cloud Strategy, additional contracts are planned for both cloud services and complementary migration and integration solutions necessary to achieve effective cloud adoption,” the Pentagon said.
| Sign Agreement | October 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The shortest living person, He Pingping, dies in Rome due to unknown complications at the age of 21. | The world's shortest man has died in Rome
The world's shortest man, He Pingping, who was just 74.6cm (2ft 5in) tall, has died in Rome.
He was born in 1988 in Wulanchabu, China, with a form of primordial dwarfism, and was officially recognised as the world's shortest man in 2008. He was admitted to hospital two weeks ago after suffering a chest complaint and died on Saturday, but his death has only just been announced. Guinness World Records said he had made a "huge impact around the world". "From the moment I laid on eyes on him I knew he was someone special - he had such a cheeky smile and mischievous personality, you couldn't help but be charmed by him," said Craig Glenday, Guinness World Records editor-in-chief. "For such a small man, he made a huge impact around the world," he added. Mr He was in the Italian capital to take part in the filming of a television programme called The Record Show. According to the TV production company Europroduzione, he had already filmed two episodes of the programme when he complained of feeling unwell. "He started to feel slightly ill and we decided to take him to hospital. He entered hospital two weeks ago and had all kinds of tests, being a very special person he had to go though all sorts of tests. He went into intensive care three days after he was admitted," said Marco Fernandez de Araoz, communications director for Europroduzione. He said that Mr He died on Saturday afternoon and, at the request of his family, his body would be returned to China to be buried. | Famous Person - Death | March 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A riot at a maximum security prison in El Porvenir, Atlántida, Honduras leaves at least 16 inmates dead, according to Honduran authorities. The riot comes just two days after another riot killed 18 inmates at a prison in the town of Tela. | TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — At least 16 prisoners died during fighting inside a juvenile detention center in Honduras on Sunday, two days after rioting at another prison killed 18 inmates, authorities said.
The latest bloody violence occurred at a maximum security prison in the municipality of El Porvenir, 116 kilometers (72 miles) from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
The rioting was confirmed to The Associated Press by José Coello, spokesman for the National Interagency Security Force, an entity formed from the military and the National Police to deal with the recent unrest in Honduras’ prisons. He gave no further details.
The task force was put in charge of managing the country’s 29 prisons and juvenile detention centers Tuesday when the federal government declared a state of emergency throughout the National Prison System. Civilian officials in the system were suspended, and the special commission will seek to root out corruption and violence in prisons.
Digna Aguilar, communications director for the prison system, said she could not comment on what happened Sunday.
“We are counting the deceased and it would be irresponsible to give an exact number,” she told AP.
Prisoners at the detention center were reportedly having a meal when several inmates armed with knives attacked fellow detainees. The attack also wounded a dozen inmates, one of whom died later.
The outburst came after inmates, including some armed with guns, battled each other Friday at a prison in the city of Tela, leaving 18 dead and 16 wounded.
Before Sunday’s bloodshed, the Observatory of Violence of the National Autonomous University of Honduras had counted a total of 27 killings in three separate incidents of multiple deaths inside prisons so far in 2019. | Riot | December 2019 | ['(AP)'] |
The death toll from the recently discovered H7N9 bird flu rises to six. China begin slaughtering birds in hopes of containing the disease. | The death toll from a new strain of bird flu rose to six in China on Thursday as scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and around the world stepped up efforts to determine its pandemic risk.
This is the first time the H7N9 virus has been detected in humans, but there is no evidence that the strain is transmitted from human to human, officials said. At least 14 people in China have been confirmed to have H7N9, all in the eastern part of the country. According to the World Health Organization, three of the most recent fatal cases involved men: a 38-year-old from Zhejiang province, in eastern China, who became sick March 7; a 64-year-old, also from Zhejiang, who became ill March 28; and a 48-year-old from Shanghai who also became sick March 28.
Chinese authorities confirmed the sixth death on Friday, hours after the CDC reported it.
Shanghai officials closed the Huhai agricultural market on Thursday and began slaughtering birds there after discovering the new virus strain in a market pigeon. By late Friday, they had killed more than 20,000 birds at the market. Officials announced that all live poultry markets in the city would be closed beginning on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a person who had contact with one of the victims in Shanghai was in quarantine after developing flu-like symptoms, according to the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission.
These deaths dont have any links or common exposures that we know of, Joe Bresee, chief of epidemiology for CDCs Influenza Division, said in an interview Thursday. Chinese health authorities are monitoring more than 400 people who were in close contact with people in which the strain was confirmed. None of these people are sick, he said.
Clearly, if there is evidence that the virus spread from human to human, that becomes a game-changing event, Bresee said.
Officials in Hong Kong and Japan said they are taking precautions at airports. Posters and personnel are warning passengers to seek medical attention if they suspect they have bird flu. Vietnam banned all poultry products from China this week, and Taiwan set up a monitoring group.
After Chinese authorities revealed the cases last weekend, officials quickly posted the genetic sequence data from the first three cases on a public database, Bresee said. The viruss genetic sequence shows that its a combination of an H7N9 virus that circulates in birds and an H9N2 pathogen, scientists have said. The CDC is developing a kit that could be sent to other countries to allow public health officials to test for the virus, Bresee said. The agency also is using the genetic information to grow a seed virus for potential production of a vaccine, he added. That has become a routine procedure for the CDC in the past five to six years.
Other strains of bird flu, such as H5N1, have been circulating for years and can be transmitted from bird to bird, and bird to human, but not generally from human to human.
The H1N1 virus responsible for the 2009-2010 swine flu pandemic originated in pigs, then mixed with human and avian viruses, touching off the first global influenza outbreak in more than 40 years. It killed 151,700 to 575,400 people in the first year, with a disproportionate number of deaths in Southeast Asia and Africa, according to the CDC.
Its possible that the new bird flu virus may persist in animals and occasionally occur in humans, but not develop the capacity to spread in humans, Bresee said.
Researchers dont know the source of the infection. The H7N9 virus is usually present in poultry and wild bird populations and doesnt generally make them very sick, Bresee said. Chinese officials have tried to dispel rumors that the new bird flu strain was related to the recent scandal triggered by the discovery of more than 15,000 dead pigs in Shanghai area rivers. State media reported that health officials tested 34 samples from pig carcasses and found no traces of bird flu.
We dont know that its not pigs, Bresee said. We have seen evidence from the genetic sequence that at some point, it passed through poultry. Could it be chickens? Could it be pigs? I dont know. Scientists also dont know whether the virus is resistant to drugs or whether it has mutations that would give it greater ability to transmit and cause severe disease.
Some Chinese newspapers have questioned why it took so long for the government to announce the new cases, especially because two victims fell ill in February. The government has said it needed time to correctly identify the virus. During the 2002 and 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, authorities initially tried to cover up an epidemic that emerged in China and killed nearly 10 percent of the 8,098 people infected worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Bresee, who worked in Hong Kong during the SARS epidemic, praised Chinese officials for how quickly they have been sharing information about the new bird flu strain. William Wan in Beijing contributed to this report.
| Disease Outbreaks | April 2013 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
The closely-watched CEVIPOF poll shows Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clinging to a narrow lead heading into the first stage of the election, with Le Pen recently becoming embroiled in a spat with the European Commission after refusing to appear on TF1 while there remained a Flag of Europe in the background. | PARIS (Reuters) - Centrist Emmanuel Macron clung on to his status as favorite to win France’s presidential election in a four-way race that is too close to call, as the camp of far-right challenger Marine Le Pen ramped up its eurosceptic rhetoric in a row with Brussels.
Macron clings on to lead in French election
A closely-watched Cevipof opinion poll published on Wednesday showed frontrunners Macron and Le Pen both losing some momentum ahead of Sunday’s first round, and conservative Francois Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon still in contention for the second round run-off.
With millions of French voters still undecided or planning to abstain, the vote is the most unpredictable in France in decades and investors are nervous about potential last-minute surprises that could trigger market turmoil.
Le Pen and Melenchon, who both pitch themselves as defenders of French workers, say they could take France out of the European Union and the euro currency. Banks have requisitioned their staff to be at their desks through the night on Sunday to enable them to respond fast to the outcome.
Le Pen has pressed hard her anti-immigration, anti-globalisation message as she seeks to mobilize voters.
As she prepared for the last big rally of her campaign in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, her camp became embroiled in an angry Twitter exchange with the European Commission.
Reacting to Le Pen’s refusal to appear on France’s TF1 television channel on Tuesday unless the EU’s yellow-starred blue flag was removed, the Commission tweeted: “Proud of our flag, a symbol of unity, solidarity and harmony between the people of Europe. Let’s not hide it.”
Le Pen’s deputy Florian Philippot fired back: “You’ll see, we’ll soon be sticking your oligarchic rag in the cupboard.”
The election race for a successor to the deeply unpopular Francois Hollande has become increasingly tense as the gap between the leading candidates shrinks.
The Cevipof poll of 11,601 people showed first round support for Le Pen falling 2.5 percentage points since early April to 22.5 percent and backing for Macron down 2 points to 23 percent.
Melenchon, a firebrand left-winger who has surged in recent weeks, was on 19 percent, while Fillon, whose campaign has been hurt by a financial scandal, received 19.5 percent of support.
Macron would win a head-to-head contest against National Front chief Le Pen, the poll showed.
Another poll, a daily survey by Opinionway, gave similar projections to Cevipof for the top candidates and projected Macron beating Le Pen in the May 7 second round by 65 percent to 35.
Abstention, a key factor adding to uncertainty over the outcome of the first round, was seen at 28 percent, Cevipof’s survey found - near a record level that helped Marine’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, make it to the runoff in 2002.
Another poll, conducted by BVA, showed Macron taking 24 percent of the vote in the first round, one point more than Le Pen, with Fillon and Melenchon tied on 19 percent.
The BVA poll showed abstentions at between 20 and 24 percent.
Fillon, 63, an ex-prime minister whose campaign was derailed by an embezzlement inquiry targeting him, his wife and two of his children, got last-minute public endorsements from ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and ex-prime minister Alain Juppe - two men he beat to win the presidential ticket of his party, The Republicans.
Fillon, who says he is victim of a “dirty tricks” campaign, said in comments reported by Le Parisien newspaper that he would work to ensure France’s institutions better protected the confidentiality of sensitive information.
For large parts of the campaign, sleaze allegations have overshadowed hot button themes like unemployment and how to revive France’s sluggish economy.
However, security and tackling the threat posed by Islamist militants has returned to the fore after the arrest of two men in Marseille on Tuesday suspected of plotting an imminent attack.
The Paris prosecutor said on Tuesday that a video linked to the two Frenchmen and intercepted in early April had featured a machine gun placed on a table as well as a newspaper which had one of the presidential candidates on the front page.
A source close to the investigation said on Wednesday that the candidate featured on the newspaper cutting was Fillon.
France’s internal intelligence agency had warned the main candidates of a threat, campaign officials said.
| Government Job change - Election | April 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Six people are killed and 15 injured by an explosion at a bus stand in Matni, northern Pakistan. | (CNN) -- Six people were killed and 15 were injured from an explosion at a bus stand the northern Pakistani village of Matni, a police official said.
Kalam Khan, a Peshawar police official, told CNN that the dead included three women, two men and one child. The blast also destroyed three vehicles, Khan said. Matni is about 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) south of Peshawar.
Muhammad Ejaz Khan, a senior Peshawar police official, said a militant placed a bag with an explosive in a passenger van set to leave for another city. He said the militant then ran away and detonated the bag with a remote control. | Riot | June 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
Three Belgian police officers are injured and four people are arrested, after a crowd of around 2,000 people at the Bois de la Cambre park in Brussels is charged for violating social distancing measures by organizing and participating in a coronavirus party marketed as an April Fools' Day prank. | Police on horseback and using water cannon charged a crowd of up to 2,000 people gathered in a Brussels park on Thursday for a fake concert announced on social media as an April Fool's Day prank.
AFP journalists at the scene saw at projectiles thrown at police in riot gear in the Bois de la Cambre park on the southern side of the Belgian capital.
Police said that three officers were wounded, one of whom was taken to hospital, and four people were arrested.
The police, wearing protective helmets and advancing in a line, moved in to enforce strict Covid-19 social-distancing rules that prohibit gatherings of more than four people outdoors.
Brussels law enforcement authorities on Wednesday had issued a warning that the announcement on social media of a "party" was illegal and that its organisers could be prosecuted.
Belgium on Saturday imposed tighter restrictions aimed at curbing surging Covid infection numbers.
They include closing schools, keeping borders closed, limiting access to non-essential shops and lowering the number of people able to meet outdoors to four.
One participant, Selim Jebira, told AFP that "we were tear-gassed for no reason at all".
Brussels mayor, Philippe Close, tweeted that, while he could understand people wanting to go outside in the springtime weather, "we can't tolerate such gatherings".
He thanked the police "for the difficult job, and for people who have respected the rules for more than a year," since the start of the pandemic. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2021 | ['(The Bangkok Post)'] |
Hundreds of pilgrims are evacuated from the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France following severe flooding in the area. | Hundreds of Roman Catholic pilgrims have been evacuated from the sanctuary of Lourdes in France after heavy flooding in the area.
The Gave de Pau river burst its banks after days of rain, flooding campsites around the shrine and parts of the southern city itself.
Lourdes is famous for what many Roman Catholics believe was a vision of the Virgin Mary by a local girl in 1858. Millions of pilgrims from around the world visit the shrine each year.
More than 450 pilgrims, including the sick and disabled, were evacuated from the area by Saturday, local officials say.
The water now is about a metre (three feet) deep in front of the grotto where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared, covering the altar.
However, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception itself - situated on higher ground - has not suffered any damage, officials say.
"I've seen nothing like it in 40 years," hotel owner Pierre Barrere was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
Meteorologists warn that the rain - which has been falling since Thursday - is likely to continue until at least Sunday.
The sanctuary is the name given to the central area of the Lourdes pilgrimage site, which is home to 22 places of worship.
It was founded after 14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous claimed to have witnessed a series of visions in a cave.
Since then, many people suffering illness or infirmity claim to have been miraculously cured by spring water coming from the sanctuary. In pictures: Town under water
| Floods | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll in China from Typhoon Fanapi reaches 54 with dozens more people missing. | GUANGZHOU - Floods, landslides and heavy downpours brought by typhoon Fanapi had claimed 54 lives in South China's Guangdong province, while another 42 were missing, local authorities said Thursday.
Meanwhile, more than 1.16 million people were affected and 79,400 in low-lying areas were forced to be evacuated, the provincial flood control headquarters said in a statement.
Typhoon Fanapi ravages South China Typhoon Fanapi leaves 33 dead, 42 missing in south China Typhoon Fanapi hits Fujian province Typhoon Fanapi lands on Fujian Province
Rainstorms and and geological disasters had destroyed more than 3,637 homes and inundated more than 35,900 hectares of cropland, the headquarters said.
Direct economic losses were estimated at about 2.11 billion yuan ($315 million).
The Ministry of Civil Affairs said Thursday that 2,000 tents, and 1,000 folding beds had been sent to Guangdong.
Typhoon Fanapi, the 11th and strongest typhoon that hit China this year, landed in Fujian province at 7 am Monday, but wreaked most havoc in Guangdong, which neighbors Fujian on the south. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2010 | ['(AP via SignOn SanDiego)', '(China Daily)'] |
Azerbaijani police detain three opposition party leaders and more than 100 activists for attempting to protest the results of last week's parliamentary election. | BAKU (Reuters) - Police in Azerbaijan detained three opposition party leaders and more than 100 activists on Sunday before they were due to take part in a protest against the results of last week’s national election, which have been questioned by international observers.
According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party won 72 out of 125 seats in the single-chamber parliament last Sunday, with nearly all other seats going to small parties and independents loyal to President Ilham Aliyev.
Before Sunday’s unauthorized protest was scheduled to start, police detained either at their homes or outside their party headquarters the leader of the REAL party, Ilgar Mamedly, the leader of the Musavat Party, Arif Gajily, and the head of the D18 opposition movement, Ruslan Izzetly. All three failed to win seats in last week’s election.
Dozens of riot police surrounded the election commission’s building, where the protest had been due to start from, and put anyone arriving to take part in the demonstration on a bus, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
Some protesters held up posters saying: “Abolish election results!” or “We demand free elections!”
Police officials declined to comment on arrests.
International monitors found widespread procedural violations in the vote count, which they said raised doubt about the honesty of the election. Aliyev had called the election nine months early to consolidate his authority and speed economic reforms.
The CEC has so far canceled the results in four election constituencies following reports about violations.
Azerbaijan has been governed by Aliyev since 2003 when he succeeded his late father Heydar.
Western nations have courted Azerbaijan because of its role as an alternative to Russia in supplying oil and gas to Europe, but various European bodies and rights groups have accused Aliyev of muzzling dissent and jailing opponents, charges Baku denies.
. | Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At least 49 people die in Irkutsk, Russia after consuming hawthorn–scented bath essence as if it were alcohol. The product has been found to contain methanol. | SOUNDBITE (Russian) Yeveniy Vigovsky, senior doctor: “We were admitting patients in a very serious condition with symptoms of severe poisoning and signs of endotoxin shock. All patients have been admitted to the intensive care unit and were given appropriate medical treatment.” SOUNDBITE (Russian) Karina Golovacheva, representative of the investigation committee of the Interior Ministry: “Those patients who are conscious and in a stable condition are being interrogated. Also, searches are being conducted at two locations. According to the preliminary information the liquid which caused massive poisoning was sold at those locations.”
Death Toll Rises From Drinking Bath Lotion By Ivan Nechepurenko
MOSCOW — Dozens of people in the Siberian city of Irkutsk died after drinking cheap surrogate alcohol over the weekend, evoking memories of the poverty and social depression that came after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The tragedy was a reminder that while President Vladimir V. Putin may be taking a star turn on the world stage — dominating the war in Syria and alarming European and American leaders who fear the Kremlin is undermining democracy — Russia remains in many respects a struggling country. For all his bravado, Mr. Putin continues to wrestle with domestic economic woes, widening inequality and endemic corruption.
The economy, deeply dependent on oil revenues, was thrown into recession in 2015, after a collapse in oil prices, and is just now emerging tentatively into positive territory. The ensuing collapse of the ruble and Western economic sanctions over the Kremlin’s maneuvers in Crimea and Ukraine have hit living standards hard.
The number of victims in Irkutsk — 49 dead, as of late Monday — evoked earlier periods in Russian history when alcohol was restricted and people turned to substitutes. Under Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who in the mid-1980s ordered shelves emptied of vodka and historic vineyards razed, many Russians drank after-shave, window cleaners and antifreeze.
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Now they are doing so again because they can no longer afford even the cheapest vodka. This is particularly true in the struggling districts outside the more prosperous cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Irkutsk, a city of 620,000 people known as the gateway to Lake Baikal, is typical of those locales. Once an industrial center, it faced a bleak future after its markets for heavy machinery vanished with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The victims had consumed scented bath lotion containing methanol, a cheap substitute for the ethanol in standard alcoholic beverages. A local prosecutor, Stanislav Zubovsky, told the Interfax news agency that a total of 57 people went to hospitals over the weekend.
The liquid was sold in local stores for around a dollar a bottle, compared with about $3 for a half-liter bottle of vodka.
Methanol is a highly toxic version of alcohol, commonly used as antifreeze. The bottle was marked as not fit for consumption, but that did not seem to faze the pensioners, students and others who bought it regularly, according to a report by the local version of Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Russian newspaper.
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It was unclear what went wrong with the batch distributed over the weekend. Local investigators detained seven people on suspicion of distributing the liquid and discovered a workshop where they said the substance was produced. About 2,000 bottles were seized from local stores.
Alcoholism remains rampant in Russia. The government’s consumer rights watchdog agency reported in January that alcohol abuse was implicated in the premature death of 30 percent of men and 15 percent of women in the country.
In Moscow, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev has called for the government to put controls on the circulation of cheap perfumes and other liquids containing alcohol.
“This is a complete disgrace and clearly we should put an end to it,” Mr. Medvedev told a cabinet meeting on Monday. “Such liquids should simply be banned.”
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, called the situation “a horrible tragedy” and said Mr. Putin was aware of what happened, Interfax reported.
The mayor of Irkutsk declared a state of emergency in the city. The authorities ordered the police to check the places where homeless people sought refuge from the bitter winter cold and to post notices warning against the use of unfit substances. | Mass Poisoning | December 2016 | ['(The New York Times)', '(BBC News)'] |
Tibetan exiles vote for a new Prime Minister. |
DHARAMSHALA – Thousands of Tibetans worldwide vote Sunday for a new leader who hopes eventually to become the new face of the struggle for freedom in China, a cause embodied for decades by the Dalai Lama.
The famous and celebrated monk, now 75, announced 10 days ago that he wanted to retire as political head of his exiled government and hand power to an elected leader who could continue the fight after his death.
Amid great anxiety about the change – the Dalai Lama however remains the more important spiritual head -- the 85,000-strong exiled Tibetan electorate will choose a new prime minister, known as the Kalon Tripa.
The front-runner is a 43-year-old Harvard scholar and international law expert, Lobsang Sangay, who was born in a tea-growing area of northeast India and has never visited his homeland.
"Elections are always important, but this time it coincides with the transition," the present prime minister Samdhong Rinpoche, an elderly monk elected in 2001, told AFP last week.
"The new incumbent will have much more responsibility."
The Dalai Lama's role as head of the government in exile is mostly ceremonial, but under his plans he would no longer sign resolutions, swear in the cabinet or attend parliament.
The exact details of the transfer of power are yet to be worked out – the parliament-in-exile still hopes to block the change – but the Dalai Lama is adamant that the movement must be fully democratic to prepare for the future.
"Rule by spiritual leaders or by kings, these are now out of date," he told AFP last week during an interview in his home in exile in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas.
At present, the Nobel laureate is both the spiritual leader of Tibet and the political head of the government-in-exile, which he founded after fleeing his homeland in 1959 amid a rebellion against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama institution has existed largely unchanged for 400 years.
Sangay is the clear favourite in Sunday's contest between three secular candidates, having triumphed in a first round of the election last year with nearly 50 percent of the votes.
"People see in me someone who is rooted in tradition but is also modern," he told AFP last Friday.
Final results will be known sometime at the end of April once the votes are collated from polling stations in 13 different countries where Tibetan exiles are found. Preliminary figures are expected to emerge in the next few weeks.
The move by the Dalai Lama to relinquish power is seen by observers as a risky but necessary step to prepare for a future without his charismatic leadership, which has kept the cause alive for the last 50 years.
It is unclear, however, whether the new leader will have the power or influence to advance the cause, which under the Dalai Lama's policy seeks "meaningful autonomy" for Tibetans in China and not independence.
Despite 50 years of lobbying, the Dalai Lama himself has little to show for his efforts. Beijing continues to brand him a "splittist" and subjects him to virulent attacks in public.
An uprising by Tibetans in 2008 was brutally suppressed.
The new prime minister, unlike the Dalai Lama, will have difficulty enlisting Western support for the Tibetan cause.
The government-in-exile is not recognised by any country and US President Barack Obama, for example, would be unlikely to risk China's wrath by meeting whoever wins on Sunday.
The victor's legitimacy might also be in question among Tibetans in Tibet, who will not take part in the election. Their loyalty remains with the Dalai Lama, who must convince them to accept his transfer of power.
Sangay faces competition from two older candidates, Tenzin Tethong and Tashi Wangdi, who both have a long track record in government in the Tibetan adminstration in Dharamshala.
The election will face severe difficulties in Nepal, where 20,000 of the estimated 150,000 exiled Tibetans live. Under Chinese pressure, authorities in Kathmandu are expected to stop what they see as an unlawful vote.
Copyright 2011 Agence France-Presse. A | Government Job change - Election | March 2011 | ['(Sify India)', '(Philippine Inquirer)'] |
Two people are killed and at least 15 are hospitalized following a 55-vehicle accident, involving a gas tanker explosion, on Interstate 95 in Baltimore, Maryland, as cold air causes rain and wet roads to freeze across the Eastern U.S. Three other deaths are reported from other accidents in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. At least six people have been killed in total on icy roads. , | Four people were killed and dozens more were injured in vehicle wrecks across the Washington region early Saturday as winter’s first blast of precipitation covered the area in a sheet of ice, crippling roadways and grounding flights at local airports.
Though Maryland and Virginia transportation crews pre-treated highways and major roadways to thwart icing, officials said a steady stream of freezing rain fell longer than expected, outlasting the salt and other treatments applied to roads before and during the storm.
Stretches of the Beltway and Interstate 95 were closed for hours.
“After a while the salt becomes diluted,” said Charlie Gischlar, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation. “People travel too fast for the conditions, and once you lose control, that’s it.”
Gischlar said the weather also stayed cooler longer than expected, making conditions more challenging. Rather than freezing rain giving way to regular rain that would melt the ice, he said, “it matured into a full-fledged ice storm.” Even pre-treating more than 5,000 miles of roadways and continuously salting, as Virginia did, couldn’t hold off dangerous conditions.
“When it comes to ice and when the temps are very, very low, the roads will refreeze really quickly,” said Jennifer McCord, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation. The most serious incident was in Baltimore, where 55 cars piled up on Interstate 95 after a tanker truck went off the highway and burst into flames early Saturday. Two people died and at least 12 others were transported to local hospitals, according to Baltimore fire officials.
A video of the scene posted by a bystander on Facebook showed a large tanker truck careen down the road, then spin onto its side and over the left-hand barrier of the highway overpass. The tanker caught fire as it fell, exploding into a giant plume of flames and smoke. Officials said the tanker driver was killed, as well as another driver who was hit by debris.
In Northern Virginia, 23 vehicles piled up on the Beltway near mile marker 50 in Fairfax just after 5 a.m. A short time later, about a mile away, a man’s body was found on the highway shoulder. Authorities said it appeared the man was involved in the wreck and had walked away, though it was unclear how he died.
A fourth person was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer near the Bayview area of Baltimore at about 5 a.m. Police do not yet know why the person was not in a vehicle. By the time the storm moved out of the region around lunch time, officials had reported hundreds of wrecks from Baltimore down through Northern Virginia. Dozens of cars from the tanker accident and pre-dawn pileup in Baltimore still had not been removed.
Meanwhile, airports scrambled to get passengers in the air — or, in some cases, back on the ground — after closing runways in the morning. Dulles International Airport opened two runways by around 10 a.m. Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport was reporting lengthy delays through the morning. Ronald Reagan National Airport reported “fairly normal” operations but told passengers on social media to “expect some delays as planes line up to de-ice before takeoff.”
Those who weren’t stranded in traffic jams were stranded in the air. Through the miracle of in-flight WiFi, they kept track of the ice disruptions from above.
After Dulles Airport tweeted that frequent status updates would be posted online, David Ramadan, a former state House delegate in Virginia, responded, “Those of us circling above would appreciate direct updates.”
Ramadan was apparently trying to get home from Dubai. Low on fuel, his plane was diverted to Pittsburgh for a fill-up, he later tweeted. Back in the air, Ramadan noticed the airport tweet that operations were returning to normal.
“You better keep the runways open,” he replied. “We’re coming in!!”
Bus service closures left many without a way to work. Youth sports games were canceled. In the District, even a holiday cookie decorating event in Chevy Chase and a 5K “Ugly Sweater Run” were not spared.
But as morning gave way to afternoon, the worst was passed.
“Winter weather advisories were allowed to expire at noon in the local area,” the Capital Weather Gang reported. “Temperatures are now at or above freezing from the I-95 corridor and to the southeast.”
rachel.weiner@washpost.com
| Road Crash | December 2016 | ['(AP)', '(The Baltimore Sun)', '(The Washington Post)', '(AAP via SBS)'] |
The Lebanese Army clashes with supporters of Hezbollah and Amal Movement in Beirut. The Shiite Islamists were attempting to attack an anti-government protester camp in Martyrs' Square. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese troops lobbed tear gas on Tuesday to disperse supporters of Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal who tried to storm a square in Beirut in response to a video that purportedly offended Shi’ite figures, witnesses and media reports said.
Lebanese army clashes with protesters in Beirut
01:03
Hundreds of youths on motorcycles waving their party and religious flags gathered in downtown Beirut chanting “Shi’ites, Shi’ites” and setting fire to tyres. They hurled stones and fireworks at security forces standing nearby, witnesses said.
Ignoring calls for restraint by politicians, the youths tried to break a security cordon to storm the square where demonstrators have set up tents as part of an anti-government protest that has been going on for weeks.
In the vicinity of the area close to a main road that links the capital’s eastern and western sections, scores of youths had burnt tyres, smashed office buildings and torched several cars, live coverage by local television stations showed.
The protesters camped in the square have been targeted by Shi’ite groups in the past angered by chants against their political leaders, although Tuesday’s violence was of an overtly sectarian nature.
The video, which inflamed passions in a country where sectarian divisions run deep, was purportedly made by an expatriate Lebanese Sunni from the northern city of Tripoli and released on social media.
In the predominately Sunni populated city of Saida in southern Lebanon, groups of masked youths stormed into a main square where they set ablaze several tents set up by demonstrators who have camped for weeks, local television stations said.
Lebanon has been gripped by a historic wave of protests since Oct. 17 leading to the resignation of Saad al-Hariri as prime minister, amid anger at the government’s failure to address the country’s worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
More than seven weeks since Hariri quit, politicians have been unable to agree on a new administration despite the deepening financial crisis.
The impasse took a violent turn at the weekend when Beirut was clouded in tear gas as security forces clashed with protesters who blame the ruling elite for corruption and bad governance. Dozens were wounded.
Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Dan Grebler and Stephen Coates
| Armed Conflict | December 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
North Korea's and the United Nations' military commands meet in South Korea for the first time since 2002. | SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean generals met the U.S.-led U.N. military command in South Korea for the first time in about seven years on Monday after Pyongyang warned at the weekend “arrogant” acts by U.S. troops could spark a war.
S. Korea protests against N.Korea
01:28
Local news reports said the North had protested against joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that will be held from next week and the activities of American troops stationed in South Korea to support its soldiers.
“North Korea argued that holding the joint military training at a moment when the situation on the Korean peninsula is already tense would only raise more tension,” the South’s Yonhap news agency quoted a military source as saying.
Prickly North Korea has stoked tensions in recent weeks by readying a test flight of its longest-range missile, which is designed to carry a weapon as far as Alaska but has never successfully flown, U.S. and South Korean officials say.
North Korea also has severed dialogue with the South and threatened to reduce its neighbor to ashes in anger at President Lee Myung-bak’s policy of cutting off what once had been a free flow of unconditional aid and instead tying handouts to the North’s nuclear disarmament.
In Washington, a U.S. State Department official played down any prospect of the United States postponing the joint exercises with South Korea because of North Korean protest.
“The idea that we would change that planned calendar is not one that anybody has presented to me,” said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition that he not be identified.
Asked if he had any indication of a postponement, the official replied: “None whatsoever.”
The U.N. Command said in a statement the North requested the meeting, which lasted half an hour, to “discuss issues of mutual trust and tension reduction.”
Talks were held at the Panmunjom truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that has divided the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire. The two sides agreed to meet again, it said.
“RESOLUTE COUNTERACTION”
The North’s KCNA news agency on Saturday quoted a North Korean military official as saying: “If the U.S. forces keep behaving arrogantly in the area under the control of the North and the South, the (North’s) Korean People’s Army will take a resolute counteraction.”
The official said U.S. troops had come near the actual border several times over the past two months.
The Pentagon sought to present the meeting in a positive light.
“We think that discussions of this nature can be very useful in building trust and preventing misunderstanding,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. “It is a positive development.”
The border, called the Military Demarcation Line, is at the center of the 4-km-wide (2.5-mile-wide) DMZ -- a no man’s land buffer zone. North Korea positions most of its 1.2 million troops near the DMZ.
North Korean, South Korean and U.S. soldiers are on their respective sides of the Military Demarcation Line on a daily basis at Panmunjom, where low-level meetings can be arranged by shouting into a bullhorn to the other side.
U.S.-led U.N. forces signed the armistice in 1953 and the United States has kept troops in the South after the fighting formally ended to deter North Korea from attacking again.
There are about 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to support its 670,000 soldiers.
The new U.S. government will be sending Stephen Bosworth, its special envoy for North Korea, to the region this week with stops in China, Japan and South Korea, the State Department said.
In Seoul, Bosworth will likely meet Wi Sung-lac, a specialist in North American affairs and adviser to the foreign minister, who was named on Monday as South Korea’s new chief to six-country talks on ending the North’s nuclear program.
Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Kim Junghyun in Seoul and Andrew Gray and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by John O’Callaghan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Diplomatic Visit | March 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An explosion kills one and injures at least 30 people, mostly police officers preparing for the weekly antibullfighting protests in Bogotá, Colombia. Bullfighting resumed last month after a fouryear lull, per a Supreme Court order. Responsibility has not been determined. | An explosion near Bogota’s bullring injured at least 26 people, most of them police officers as they prepared for anti-bullfighting protests in Colombia’s capital on Sunday, the police said, but no one was killed.
Earlier, the police said one of its officers had been killed in the blast.
Details of the cause of the blast were not immediately available, but media images showed a police officer in a shredded uniform walking with support from his colleagues, as well as debris in the road, broken glass and damage to apartment buildings close by.
“The national police rejects and condemns these acts of barbarism that affect the integrity of our police and other citizens, as well as the tranquility and coexistence of the country’s capital,” the police said in statement.
Hundreds of protesters have gathered weekly to demonstrate against bullfighting in Bogota, which resumed last month for the first time in four years.
The ban was lifted by the constitutional court which said it was part of the national heritage, prompting weekly clashes with police. | Armed Conflict | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(i24news)'] |
United States President Barack Obama signs the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act into law. The legislation is the first major overhaul of toxic chemicals rules in America in 40 years. | President Obama signed a bill into law Wednesday that places stronger regulations on chemicals present in nearly every product Americans use, including detergents, clothing, paint thinners, cleansers and automobiles.
The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act passed by Congress early this month in a rare bipartisan vote. It updates the Toxic Substances Control Act, which had not been reauthorized since the Ford administration in the mid-1970s. The new law gives the Environmental Protection Agency more oversight and stronger tools to monitor chemicals that in some cases could cause cancer and other health problems in adults and children.
Minutes before signing the law, Obama said the bill's passage showed that "even in the current polarized political process here in Washington, things can work." He added: "Somewhere on the horizon we can make politics less toxic as well."
Congress passed the legislation after decades of criticism from environmental groups that called on lawmakers to fix what they called "one of the worst environmental laws on the books." Federal oversight over chemicals was so weak that a court ruled the EPA lacked the power to fully regulate use of asbestos.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the TSCA was well meant when it was originally passed but "without major changes to the law, EPA couldn’t take the actions necessary to protect people from toxic chemicals."
Why Congress worked to overhaul 'the worst environmental law on the books'
"The updated law gives EPA the authorities we need to protect American families from the health effects of dangerous chemicals," McCarthy said in a statement. "And at EPA, we’re excited to get to work putting it into action."
Now the EPA is expected to start reviewing at least 10 potentially toxic chemicals that are commonly found in households and businesses across the country: asbestos, formaldehyde and flame retardants. Those chemicals are in the framework of homes, cars, family sofas, clothing and even newspaper ink.
Remarking on the bill's passage, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) explained why the old law fell short. "Most Americans believe that when they buy a product at the hardware store or the grocery store, that product has been tested and determined to be safe," he said. "But that isn't the case. Americans are exposed to hundreds of chemicals from household items."
The Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates praised the bill's passage as historic and said it "begins the process of regaining the public's confidence in everyday products made possible by our industry."
The reaction of environmental groups was deeply split, with some hailing the bill as a new way forward and others calling it a disappointment.
Richard Denison, a lead scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, called it "a strong new TSCA." Unlike the old version, the new law allows the EPA to stop a potentially dangerous chemical from going to market. A consideration of high risk populations, such as pregnant women and children, will factor into decisions on whether to approve chemicals. Chemicals with high priority concerns will get faster reviews, and companies can no longer hide behind "trade secret" claims to shield the identity of chemicals they use so officials can't investigate them.
But the Environmental Working Group said the bill got a lot wrong. States would be stripped of their power to stop products they deem suspicious from going to market for up to three years during an EPA investigation. Congress doesn't provide the agency with adequate funding to take on a stronger oversight role, the group said. And EPA must factor in the cost to a company for eliminating a chemical deemed harmful to public safety.
"The failure to include a bulletproof safety standard or sufficient resources, along with the uncertain effects of new restrictions on state action, could ultimately result in less regulatory action than supporters claim," Melanie Benesh, an attorney, and Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs, wrote for EWG.
Chemical companies can continue to tie up the EPA's oversight in the courts, "which is exactly what happened 25 years ago when the courts overturned EPA’s attempt to ban asbestos."
| Government Policy Changes | June 2016 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(AP via The New York Times)'] |
The 2020 Indianapolis 500 will be delayed until August 23, marking the first time in history that the event will not be held in May. | For many Hoosiers, the Indianapolis 500 feels eternal. You can always count on 33 cars running 500 miles on the last Sunday in May — or soon after, weather permitting. In 2020, it's been significantly delayed, until Aug. 23.
But there have been six times when the race was outright canceled. All were due to war.
Two weeks before the United States entered World War I, and just two months before the 1917 Indianapolis 500, James Allison and his associates at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced that the threat of war had prompted track officials to cancel the race.
Allison noted that the skills and talents of the mechanics could be better utilized by the government than for entertainment purposes and that the materials used for racing would be critical to the war effort.
The U.S. Army chose the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Speedway City, as it was known, to be sites for aviation repair, and they were thrust into wartime service.
Work at the aviation depot included repairing airplanes damaged in combat overseas or during training in the U.S. The track was used as a landing strip and maintenance/refueling station for military aircraft traveling between Wilbur Wright Field in Ohio and Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois.
The Indianapolis 500 resumed after the war in 1919.
On Dec. 28, 1941, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, announced that the Indianapolis 500 must give way to the demands of war. Men and materials should be diverted to the war effort.
The World War I flying ace noted, “Tradition and priorities demand that we again voluntarily abandon the annual 500-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the interest of full-out victory effort."
But the speedway did not see any action this time around. It was completely shuttered.
RetroIndy: Indy 500 drivers who served in the military
Aviation hub:IMS and town were a crucial aviation hub during WWI
After war's end, Rickenbacker wanted to devote his attention to other business endeavors. Veteran racer and former winner of the 500 Wilbur Shaw introduced Rickenbacker to Terre Haute businessman Tony Hulman.
In the fall of 1945 when Grace Smith Hulman was asked by her 44-year-old son, Tony, what she thought of his Indianapolis Motor Speedway purchase for $750,000, she said: "Tear it down and start all over."
She was looking at a weed patch and an assortment of dilapidated grandstands that had been idle since 1941. Unattended for four years, the stands were showing the effects of Hoosier winters. Weeds were growing between the bricks on the race track. It looked like a ghost town that even the ghosts wouldn't inhabit. | Sports Competition | March 2020 | ['(Indianapolis Star)'] |
A boat carrying Syrian migrants sinks in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece with seventeen people on board. (Today's Zaman) | People upload coffins with the bodies of migrants that were drowned while they were trying to cross on a boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, to the hospital's morgue at the coastal town of Bodrum on Sunday, Sept. 27. (Photo: AP) Seventeen migrants trying to reach Greece from Turkey drowned on Sunday when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea.
The victims were Syrians who departed from the Turkish resort town of Bodrum and were bound for the Greek island of Leros, the Doğan news agency reported. Five women and five children were among the dead.
The remaining 20 migrants on the boat were rescued, with none missing or unaccounted for by Sunday afternoon.
The area where the incident happened is part of the larger Bodrum peninsula, a popular tourist destination where this summer the body of drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi washed up on the shore, sparking international outrage.
A record number of Syrians -- at least 300,000 -- and migrants from other countries have arrived in Greece recently, mostly setting off from Turkey's Aegean coast, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The coast guard has rescued more than 53,000 migrants, however 274 have died in Turkish waters, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said, without giving a time frame in which those deaths occurred.
| Shipwreck | September 2015 | [] |
President-elect Joe Biden wins Georgia, after the state completed its hand recount, making him the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. | Georgia's hand recount has been completed and President-elect Joe Biden's victory has been reaffirmed, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger said Thursday. According to a statement from Raffensberger, the hand recount upheld and reaffirmed the original outcome produced by the machine tally of votes cast.
"Georgia's historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state's new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results," Raffensberger said in a statement. "This is a credit to the hard work of our county and local elections officials who moved quickly to undertake and complete such a momentous task in a short period of time."
The hand recount was part of an audit that is required by a new state law. It is not connected to any suspected problems with the results of this election or an official recount request. The law requires the audit to be completed before the counties' results can be certified by the state, which must be done by Friday.
Mr. Trump can request a recount because the results were still within 0.5%, but not until after the state certifies its results.
Georgia was one of five states Mr. Biden flipped from President Trump in 2016. Mr. Biden won the state by an 0.3% margin. The state has not voted to send a Democrat to the White House since former President Bill Clinton won it in 1992.
President Trump has alleged without evidence that illegal votes were counted in the presidential election and declared Georgia's recount a "scam." Mr. Trump has also falsely claimed that the state would "flip Republican" when all votes are counted. "Get it done!" he tweeted Thursday to the state's Republican governor.
In response to Raffensberger's announcement, the Trump campaign said in a statement that "This so-called hand recount went exactly as we expected because Georgia simply recounted all of the illegal ballots that had been included in the total." The statement did not provide any evidence of illegality. | Government Job change - Election | November 2020 | ['(CBS News)'] |
Former British Labour Party MP Margaret Moran is given a two year supervision and treatment order after falsely claiming £53,000 in expenses. A judge had earlier ruled she was unfit to stand trial because of mental health issues. | Former MP Margaret Moran has been given a two-year supervision order by a court after falsely claiming more than £53,000 in expenses.
A judge had ruled the ex-Labour MP for Luton South was unfit to stand trial for mental health reasons and so could not receive a criminal conviction.
The jury heard the case at Southwark Crown Court in November in her absence. It found she had committed 15 counts of false accounting and six other charges relating to forged invoices.
Moran, who lives in St Denys, Southampton, served in the Commons between 1997 and 2010.
She was found to have falsely claimed about £60,000 in parliamentary expenses between 2004 and 2008, of which she received £53,000.
She claimed nearly her entire annual allowance in one bogus expense entry and forged invoices for more than £20,000 of non-existent goods and services.
The court had heard that she was able to make a dry rot claim of £22,500 by "flipping" her two homes - changing which property was listed as her second home and therefore allowing her to claim expenses for its upkeep.
Her claims were the largest amount uncovered in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal.
Moran was not present at Southwark Crown Court to hear Mr Justice Saunders make the ruling.
"There will inevitably be feelings among some that Mrs Moran has got away with it," he said.
"What the court has done and has to do is to act in accordance with the law of the land and on the basis of the evidence that it hears.
"The findings of the court were not convictions. Those findings enable me to make orders requiring her to undergo treatment for her mental health."
The order is to be supervised by Southampton City Council.
The judge said Moran would be under the supervision of a council mental health social worker and would be treated by Dr Simon Kelly, from the Priory Hospital in Southampton, with a view to the improvement of her medical condition.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said the judge had made the "right decision", but added that depression was not an excuse for "losing all moral judgement".
"There is no point in her joining the two-thirds of people in prison who suffer two or more mental disorders," she said.
"It would be right if Ms Moran were to pay back the monies to the taxpayer but not right that she should be in prison. "We trust that she will continue to receive psychiatric care. Contrary to many people's perceptions, such is the stigma of psychiatric treatment it is not always considered the softer option."
The Crown Prosecution Service said it was still determining whether any action will be taken to recover the money fraudulently gained by Moran.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The European Commission proposes the establishment of a European Institute of Technology. | The move is a response to surveys which show that only a handful of European universities can compete with the world leaders, which are mostly in the US.
The Commission has also noted that China and India are the "coming players in the knowledge game".
Critics of the European Institute of Technology (EIT), as it has been labelled, fear it will divert money away from another new programme to sponsor top-level research.
Brains
"Excellence needs flagships - that's why Europe must have a strong European Institute of Technology, bringing together the best brains and companies, and disseminating the results throughout Europe," Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday. Europe consistently falls short in turning R&D results into commercial opportunities, innovations and jobs
Education Commissioner Jan Figel
He said it would teach graduates and doctoral candidates, carry out research and be active in innovation.
"We have a really urgent problem with our deficit, especially compared with the United States, in science, research and innovation," Mr Barroso added later.
European Commissioner for Education Jan Figel said Europe had to improve the relationship between education, research and innovation.
"Europe consistently falls short in turning R&D results into commercial opportunities, innovations and jobs," he said.
The name EIT is a deliberate reference to the US's Massachusetts Insitute of Technology (MIT) which has a strong record as a link between academics and industry.
Virtual body
Former European Commissioner Chris Patten, now chancellor of Oxford University, has said the Commission should concentrate its funds on existing institutions.
He argues that the EIT, which an earlier Commission paper suggested could cost 2bn euros (£1.4bn), would undermine the nascent European Research Council (ERC) which was created for the same purpose.
Cambridge University's pro-vice-chancellor for research, Professor Ian Leslie, has also called for more funds to be channelled to the ERC, rather than the EIT.
However, the Commission has opted for the idea of a "virtual" institute, rather than a new organisation in direct competition with Europe's top existing universities.
It says the EIT will not be a university on a single site, but a "multi-site legal entity which brings together the best teams and university departments in strategic fields across Europe".
Microsoft, Nokia and Pirelli are among the companies reported to have expressed interest in the institute. | Organization Established | February 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, flying from Tehran to Yerevan, Armenia with 153 passengers and 15 crew members on board, crashes in Iran shortly after takeoff. | Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The plane carved a large crater in farmland
All 168 passengers and crew have died in a Caspian Airlines plane crash in northern Iran, officials say.
Wreckage was spread over a large area in a field in Jannatabad village, Qazvin province, about 75 miles (120km) north-west of Tehran, state TV said. The Tupolev plane was flying from the Iranian capital to Yerevan in Armenia, with mostly Iranian passengers. The cause of the crash, which happened soon after take-off, was unknown. One witness said it plummeted from the sky. "The 7908 Caspian flight crashed 16 minutes after its take-off from the International Imam Khomeini Airport," Iranian Aviation Organisation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said, reported Iran's Press TV. He said no problems were reported before take-off and there would be a full investigation into the cause of the crash. At Yerevan's airport, one woman wept as she said her sister and two nephews, aged six and 11, had been on the flight. "What will I do without them?" said Tina Karapetian, 45, before collapsing. It was earlier reported that most of the passengers were Armenian, but officials later said the majority on board were Iranian. A Caspian Airlines spokesman told Reuters news agency up to 25 of the passengers were Armenians. There were also two Georgians on the plane, which had 153 passengers and 15 crew. 'Big explosion'
One witness said the Tu-154 circled briefly looking for an emergency landing site, while another said the plane's tail was on fire. A man who saw the crash said the aircraft exploded on impact. There are tales of aircrew buying spare parts on flights to Europe, then sneaking them back to Iran in the cockpit. While those sanctions don't apply to aircraft from Russia and Ukraine, many planes from those countries in the Iranian fleet also appear well past their best. For some people, flying in Iran can be a nerve-wracking experience. Stepping on board, it often becomes quickly apparent you are in a plane that has done many years service. There are also frequent delays because of the shortage of aircraft. Iranian engineers and aircrew do their best to keep their fleets in service.
"I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an earthquake. Then, plane pieces were scattered all over the fields," 23-year-old Ali Akbar Hashemi told AP news agency. Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were on the flight, heading for training with the Armenian team. Mohammad Reza Montazer Khorasan, the head of the disaster management centre at Iran's health ministry, said: "All people aboard... the crashed plane are dead," according to AFP news agency. Television footage showed a massive crater in a field, with smouldering debris over a wide area. The Qazvin Fire Department Chief said: "The area of the disaster is very wide and wreckage of the crashed plane has been thrown around as far as 150 to 200m." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered his condolences to the families of the victims. The plane was built in Russia in 1987. It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in Iran since 2002. The BBC's Jon Leyne says Iran's civil and military air fleets are made up of elderly aircraft, in poor condition due to their age and lack of maintenance. Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, trade embargoes by Western nations have forced Iran to buy mainly Russian-built planes to supplement an existing fleet of Boeings and other American and European models. | Air crash | July 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Press TV)'] |
Several grenades explode in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, killing at least one person and injuring at least 75 others. | The BBC's Rachel Harvey reports on the ''heightened anxiety'' in Bangkok
The Thai government is blaming unnamed "terrorists" for deadly explosions in Bangkok on Thursday night, amid high tension and deadlock in the capital.
Early on Friday, hundreds of riot police crossed a major road to confront red-shirt anti-government protesters. The police stepped back from confrontation and the reds agreed to retreat slightly from their barricade. Britain, the US and Australia have issued new warnings against travelling to Thailand in the attacks' aftermath. Pro-government groups have begun a demonstration in another part of Bangkok, further adding to the tension.
Six weeks of red-shirt protests have severely challenged the Thai government. It is under increased pressure to find a way out of the conflict but room for negotiation appears to be slim, correspondents say. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said through a spokesman that it was "a moment requiring restraint on all sides". Hurling abuse
The protesters are occupying swathes of Bangkok's shopping hub and have built barricades, the largest of which faces police in the Silom business district. Early on Friday, police moved across the main Rama IV road up to the red-shirt barricade for about two hours, only to pull back again. They surged forward, lining up just metres from the red-shirts' tyre, wire and sharpened bamboo-stick barricade.
The police soon withdrew, but this busy road junction on the edge of Bangkok's financial district has now become the most likely flashpoint.
Tension builds here from late afternoon, not just between the red-shirts and security forces, but with a group of anti-red shirt demonstrators who gather to hurl insults - and last night rocks and glass bottles.
It was among them the explosions went off, and where flowers were being laid this morning.
It's currently calm, but the atmosphere can change very quickly.
Protesters were hurling abuse and waving sharpened bamboo spikes - to impassive stares from the security forces. The red-shirts later agreed to move back from their barricade by about 100m. At least 75 people, many of them commuters on Bangkok's elevated train system, the Skytrain, are being treated in hospitals after Thursday night's attacks in Silom. Earlier reports had said that three people were killed, but the government later said that one person died. Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said the explosions were caused by M79 grenades launched from a southern corner of Bangkok's Lumpini Park, which is behind the red-shirts' main barricade. Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said they were "the work of the terrorists that the government has always been wanting to get rid off". But red-shirt leaders denied all responsibility for the explosions, saying they were not in the business of hurting innocent people. A senior police officer has announced a multi-agency investigation into the violence, as well as into the earlier failed military crackdown of 10 April that left 25 people dead. In the business district, many shops and offices were closed as Bangkok residents chose to avoid the area. Bangkok has been on edge for days, with the armed forces and senior government figures repeatedly issuing warnings to the red-shirt protesters to leave the centre of the city. Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Thursday that "time was running out" and that many people would be hurt if a new crackdown was ordered. "The government will be very decisive but in the beginning of the operation there may be chaos." Some of the "anti-red" protesters - who have gathered alongside the troops - have called on the government to be more firm with the reds. They have begun holding a separate protest in Bangkok's historic district. Britain is advising against all but essential travel to Bangkok, while US and Australian government warnings advised against travel to Thailand. "There is a strong possibility of renewed violent clashes in Bangkok between demonstrators and security forces," Australia's foreign affairs department said. "We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Thailand." Are you in Bangkok? Have you witnessed any clashes? Send us your experiences using the form below. | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(Bangkok Post)', '[permanent dead link]', '(BBC News)'] |
Two car bombs explode outside the General Security headquarters of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, killing nine and wounding 125. | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior Saudi official has said the Saudi government believes al Qaeda is responsible for the suicide bombings in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The attempt to detonate multiple bombs at once "fits the pattern of an al Qaeda operation," the official said, adding that al Qaeda has threatened Saudis before.
"Who else sends suicide bombers to blow up cars in the midst of urban centers? Who else has publicly said we are going after the Saudi state," the official said. "Who else has publicly said they are planning to do more of these things? You put it all together and that's the end of it."
The bomb which detonated in the Saudi capital ripped through a five-story building Wednesday and could be heard up to a half-mile away.
The Interior Ministry said four people were killed in the blast and about 150 were injured. Earlier reports from hospital sources had indicated 10 people were killed, and eyewitnesses said the bomber was blown apart in the explosion. The bomber attempted to drive an explosive-packed car into the Traffic Department building, which houses police offices, at around 2 p.m. local time, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.
He was stopped by officers about 30 meters from site and outside the old General Security building, where the bomber set off the explosion, the ministry said.
The dead include a civil servant, two security officers and an 11-year-old Syrian girl, Interior Ministry officials announced. Of the 148 injured, 45 remained hospitalized Wednesday night and three of those were in critical condition, the ministry said. Television pictures from the scene showed the entire front of the building had been shattered. Burned-out and damaged cars littered the area.
This is the first time terrorists have targeted a Saudi government facility, the official said, adding that foreigners do not frequent the area.
But he pointed out that the planning of the attack "was not as effective as it could have been," citing the fact that several individuals abandoned their vehicles when chased by authorities, and did not have a back-up plan.
The "clumsiness" of the attacks, including the fact that the bombers might have had the wrong target, indicate the operation was undertaken by the "second echelon" of al Qaeda leadership, the official said.
The Saudi government has been on alert for a possible attack for some time, the official said, adding they are "still on high state of alert" for further attacks.
Last week the U.S. State Department ordered most of its personnel in the kingdom and all family members out of the country.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in Riyadh Wednesday, said, "The terrible bombing here in Riyadh today showed the wisdom of that decision."
Armitage said the United States and Saudi Arabia shared information about the latest threats as part of ongoing cooperation in combating terror.
Saudi Arabia has mounted a massive effort to combat terrorists in the kingdom since deadly attacks last May and November.
A senior Interior Ministry official said that authorities, tipped off that six explosions had been planned, had found and defused five of the bombs.
On Tuesday, Saudi security forces defused two truck bombs outside Riyadh, a security source said, bringing the number of car bombs seized in the kingdom to five within a week.
The vehicles were discovered late Monday at Shuaib Juraidal in Rumhiyah village, 56 miles (90 kilometers) east of Riyadh.
After the two vehicles were found, security forces and helicopters searched the area for armed men, who fled the area in a jeep, residents told Arab News.
On Sunday, an Interior Ministry official announced the arrest of eight suspects linked to recent deadly clashes with security forces and car bombs. (Full story)
The Saudi Press Agency quoted the official giving details of three seized vehicles packed with thousands of pounds of explosives, including one vehicle authorities had been searching for since February.
Saudi police set up several checkpoints in Riyadh. -- CNN's Caroline Faraj and State Department Producer Elise Labott contributed to this story | Armed Conflict | April 2004 | ['(AP)', '(CNN)'] |
In France, court in Angers sentences 62 members of a child sex ring to up to 28 years in jail. Trial lasted 5 months | A court in France has been handing down verdicts in the country's largest ever paedophile case. At least 62 people have been given jail terms of up to 28 years in the western town of Angers. The court has been hearing how some of the defendants prostituted their own children. Five people at the heart of the child sex ring have been sentenced to more than a hundred years in prison. In total, 65 men and women stood accused of sexually abusing their own and other children between January 1999 and February 2002. Prosecutors say children as young as six months old were offered for sex - often in exchange for small sums of money or a packet of cigarettes. The jury has had to decide on nearly 2,000 during the five month trial, estimated to have cost five million euros. After the collapse of massive child sex abuse hearing at Outreau last year, the ability of the French authorities was also in question. The trial took place with limited media coverage and witnesses are said to have undergone extensive pre-trial cross examination. Critics say many of the accused seemed confused and may not have fully followed the proceedings, while for others it was just another day in court. Social Service director, Christian Gillet, says there were a few repeat offenders on trial who'd been convicted for rape in other parts of France. "At the time there didn't exist a central register for sex offenders like there is in Britain," he says. The law has since changed but France has been horrified by the disturbing revelations and there may still be wide-ranging ramifications for authorities. Many have questioned how such crimes could happen in a poor district where most of the accused and their victims were on the watch list of social services. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2005 | ['(Euronews)', '(Reuters)'] |
Chinese foreign ministry says AustralianChinese journalist Cheng Lei is detained in China on grounds of breaching the national security law and "suspected of carrying out illegal activities endangering China’s national security". | Australian news anchor Cheng Lei was arrested in Beijing on national security grounds last month, China’s foreign ministry spokesman has revealed, speaking just hours after two other Australian journalists arrived home after fleeing the country.
Cheng, a business journalist for the state broadcaster CGTN, was taken into secretive detention in mid-August, the Australian government revealed last week. Consular staff were able to visit Cheng by videolink but were not told why she had been detained.
On Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, told a daily press conference Cheng was “suspected of carrying out illegal activities endangering China’s national security”.
“This case is being handled according to law and Cheng’s legitimate rights and interests are fully guaranteed,” he said.
No further details were provided. Cheng was critical of the Chinese government in English posts on her Facebook page earlier this year, but there has been no indication the posts were linked to her detention. CGTN has since scrubbed all evidence of her employment from its websites.
Cheng is believed to be detained under “residential surveillance at a designated location”, a benignly termed form of solitary detention where she can be held for up to six months without access to a lawyer.
Just hours before Zhao’s press conference, Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, was still indicating Canberra had not been told why Cheng had been detained. Amid a deteriorating relationship between the countries, Payne is among a number of Australian ministers who have indicated they have been unable to get their Chinese counterparts on the phone.
Australia’s parliament passes new laws against foreign interference in domestic affairs, with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull citing “disturbing reports about Chinese influence”.
Australia excludes Huawai and ZTE from the nation's 5G infrastructure. China blocks the Australian Broadcasting Corporation news site.
Australia is one of 22 countries at the UN to criticise Chinese mass detention of ethnic Uighurs.
Australia’s cyber intelligence agency declares that China was responsible for a cyber-attack on parliament’s computer network earlier in the year. Australian prime minister Scott Morrison calls on China to lose its "developing nation" economic status, which would end concessions that the world's second largest economy currently enjoys.
A war of words over the coronavirus develops after Morrison discusses launching an international review of China's handling of the crisis.
China announces new tariffs of up to 80% on Australian barley imports, and bans beef imports from four firms.
The Australian government is informed that Cheng Lei, an Australian citizen who works as a TV anchor for a Chinese state-controlled broadcaster, has been detained in Beijing. Cheng’s young children were being cared for in Melbourne by family members. In a further trade war escalation, China announces it is investigating whether Australian wine has been “dumped” into the Chinese market at artificially low prices, worrying producers it will be hit with tariffs.
Two Australian journalists are forced to flee China after being questioned by China’s ministry of state security.
Zhao also defended the questioning of Australian journalists Bill Birtles, from the ABC, and Mike Smith, from the Australian Financial Review. He said the questioning of the two journalists was “normal enforcement of law”.
Both journalists were visited by contingents of state security officers late at night and told they were persons of interest in an investigation into Cheng and that they were banned from leaving the country. They were requested to submit to questioning.
Birtles and Smith, who had already been warned by Australian authorities to consider leaving the country because of Cheng’s arrest, took shelter at diplomatic missions for five days while high-level negotiations had the travel bans lifted in return for interviews.
Birtles said on Tuesday he was asked primarily about his reporting, and not Cheng, and felt the episode was a case of harassing journalists.
Smith said the late-night visit by police to his home was “intimidating and unnecessary and highlights the pressure all foreign journalists are under in China right now”.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said the actions of the Chinese government amounted to “appalling intimidatory tactics that threaten and seek to curtail the work of foreign journalists based in China”.
Those remaining faced the threat of arbitrary detention for doing their work, circumstances which made remaining in China “untenable”, the club said.
“The effort to keep foreign journalists in China against their will marks a significant escalation of an ongoing, sustained Chinese government assault on media freedoms. The FCCC denounces this extraordinary erosion of media freedoms leading foreign journalists to fear that they could be targets of China’s hostage diplomacy.”
The United States said on Tuesday that it had been informed by China’s foreign ministry of unspecified tighter rules for foreign media. “These proposed actions will worsen the reporting environment in China, which is already suffering a dearth of open and independent media reporting,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus wrote on Twitter.
The action against Birtles and Smith is the latest move against foreign journalists by Beijing, following mass expulsions of journalists working for US titles earlier this year. There has been increased harassment and intimidation too, according to an annual report by the foreign correspondents’ club released this week.
The report said Chinese authorities were “using visas as weapons against the foreign press like never before” and that set the stage for further escalation.
Sophie McNeill, a researcher with Human Rights Watch Australia, is concerned for local staff who remain in China working for foreign organisations and other Australian citizens working for foreign news outlets.
“At the top of our concern is the fate of Chinese journalists who don’t have a foreign embassy they can turn to,” she told Sky News, adding that China was the leading jailer of journalists in the world, citing statistics from the Committee to Protect Journalists which found at least 48 were currently in jail.
Peter Greste, a spokesman for the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, said the treatment of Birtles and Smith appeared to be harassment to make a political point.
“Journalists should never be used as political pawns and hostages,” said Greste, who was detained in Egypt as a journalist for Al Jazeera between 2013 and 2015.
“Without Australian journalists operating freely in China, the Australian public has no independent eyes or ears reporting events inside our most important trading partner. That is bad for both Australia and China.”
Marcus Strom, president of Australia’s media union, the MEAA, said the midnight visits to the two correspondents were “appalling”.
“China’s continued intimidation and harassment of foreign journalists, including Australians, represents a dramatic low point for the foreign media’s relations with China,” he said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A car bomb, apparently set up by Basque paramilitary group ETA, explodes in Madrid, injuring 31 people outside a conference center where the King and Queen of Spain and President of Mexico were to open an exhibition later today. . | Spanish police say a caller claiming to be from the Basque militant group Eta told a newspaper the group was planning to explode a device in the city.
The blast occurred at 0930 (0830 GMT) near the Juan Carlos I Convention Centre - one of the proposed venues for Madrid's 2012 Olympic bid.
Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia had been due to visit the centre.
Eta 'operational'
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, on a visit to Poland, condemned the attack, saying there was no room for "the terrorists of Eta and their supporters" in civil society or politics.
"Bombs will only lead you to prison," he said.
"They will never achieve any of their objectives with violence. And this feeling is overwhelmingly the majority view, not just among Spaniards, but also among all Basque citizens."
In pictures: Madrid blast
But the banned Basque separatist party, Batasuna, said calls for condemnation of the attack were "outdated".
Batasuna leader Joseba Permach said: "Some will still dare to demand that Batasuna condemn the attack, as if that were a magic wand to solve all problems."
The call to the Basque newspaper Gara was made shortly before the white Renault 19 car exploded near the Campo de las Naciones in the Avenida de los Andes.
Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said police and explosives experts had been deployed after the warning, but the call had not been precise enough to locate the device before it went off.
Flying glass from nearby buildings is said to have caused most of the injuries when the bomb exploded outside a building belonging to the French computer manufacturer Bull.
Mr Alonso said police explosives experts estimated that the car bomb contained between 20-30kg of explosives. He said the fight against terrorism would continue.
Although Eta is widely believed to have been weakened after more than 200 arrests over the past two years, Mr Alonso acknowledged the group was still capable of carrying out attacks.
"It hasn't a political or social future but it has - as I have said in the past - operative capability," he said.
Arrests
The BBC's Danny Wood, in Madrid, said the car bomb, the telephone call and the high profile venue were hallmarks of an Eta attack.
The attack happened on the same day as a police operation in the Basque country, Navarre and Valencia that has resulted in the arrest of 14 suspected members of Eta.
Last week the Spanish parliament rejected a plan for even greater autonomy for the Basque country.
Some Basque separatist deputies in the regional assembly had backed the plan, put forward by the Basque regional premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe.
Eta has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the 1960s in its battle to form an independent Basque homeland. Eta's last attack was in the Costa Blanca on 30 January, when a device exploded in a hotel, slightly injuring one person. | Armed Conflict | February 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
A French investigation finds that Andreas Lubitz, perpetrator copilot of the murdersuicide disaster of Germanwings Flight 9525 had practised rapid descent on a previous flight. | The co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps in March appears to have practised a rapid descent on a previous flight, a report by French investigators says.
The report said Andreas Lubitz repeatedly set the same plane for an unauthorised descent earlier that day.
Lubitz is suspected of deliberately crashing the Airbus 320, killing all 150 people on board.
He had locked the flight captain out of the cockpit.
Lubitz appears to have practised programming a rapid descent on the outbound leg of the flight - from Duesseldorf to Barcelona on 24 March - the preliminary report by accident investigation agency BEA said.
It added that on several occasions - again with the captain out of the cockpit - the altitude dial was set to 100ft (30m), the lowest possible reading, despite instructions by air traffic control in Bordeaux to set it to 35,000ft and then 21,000ft.
It was also reset on one occasion to 49,000ft, the maximum altitude.
The changes apparently happened over a five-minute period at about 07:30 starting 30 seconds after the captain left the cockpit.
When you hear that Lubitz was feeding in extreme altitude settings of 100ft to 49,000ft, you may have an image of the aircraft zig-zagging up and down while he pushes and pulls on the joystick.
How then, could the captain and passengers in the back not notice something was wrong? Well it doesn't work like that. All Lubitz would have been doing was twisting a dial on a computer in front of him. Pilots say that just quickly turning that dial wouldn't have led to dramatic changes on board. In fact, the aircraft would have just kept descending as per instructions from air traffic control.
That's why the other pilot didn't notice. And Lufthansa said a while ago that this was the same pilot flying with Lubitz on the aircraft he later decided to crash. Clearly, he didn't notice anything odd about his colleague's behaviour.
What happened in the final 30 minutes of Flight 4U 9525?
Who was Andreas Lubitz?
Six cases of suspected pilot suicide
"I can't speculate on what was happening inside his head - all I can say is that he changed this button to the minimum setting of 100ft and he did it several times," BEA director Remi Jouty told Reuters news agency.
It was on the return leg on the same day - from Barcelona to Duesseldorf - that the fatal crash occurred. 07:19:59 - Noises corresponding to captain leaving cockpit
07:20:29 - Plane told by air traffic control to descend to 35,000ft
07:20:50 - Selected altitude changed to 100ft, increased to 49,000ft then returned to 35,000ft
07:21:10 - Plane told to descend to 21,000ft
07:22:27 - Selected altitude changes to 100ft several times
07:24:29 - Noises corresponding to captain returning to cockpit
The co-pilot is known to have suffered depression in the past. Last month German prosecutors revealed that Lubitz had researched suicide methods and the security of cockpit doors.
Lufthansa, Germanwings' parent company, twice refused to renew his medical certificate in 2009 due to depression, the BEA's preliminary report says. When it was revalidated, a note was attached requiring aeromedical doctors to contact the pilot licensing authority before renewal. The BEA report also discloses more detail of what happened on board in the minutes before the crash. The flight data recorder appears to show Lubitz, 27, increasing the aircraft's speed from 273 knots (505km/h, 314mph) to 345 knots on its descent. On 14 occasions, air traffic control and French air defence tried to contact the plane. The cabin intercom, knocking on the cockpit door and then "noises similar to violent blows" are heard on the voice recorder as the captain tries to re-enter the cockpit. BEA is expected to release its final report in a year, with the focus on "systemic failings" and cockpit security. | Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
With their demands not being met, protests are scheduled to continue until at least Sunday 1 December 2013. | Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's opposition vowed at a mass rally in Kiev on Friday to maintain pressure on President Viktor Yanukovych to step down after he refused to salvage a key deal with the European Union.
Speaking to around 10,000 supporters, opposition leaders said Yanukovych had until mid-March to sign a political and free trade deal with the bloc.
"We are demanding Yanukovych's resignation," said an opposition statement read out at the evening rally by an activist and singer who goes by the stage name Ruslana, in the presence of top leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk and world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko.
"We declare that we are continuing to fight for a European Ukraine," said the flamboyant singer, who won the Eurovision song contest in 2004.
Klitschko told the flag-waving crowd: "Failure to sign the Association Agreement is state treason."
"Today they stole our hope, the hope to live in a modern European country," said Klitschko, speaking shortly after returning from a summit with the EU in Vilnius, together with Yatsenyuk and ultra-nationalist leader Oleg Tyagnybok.
Yatsenyuk, a key ally of imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, vowed to keep the protest alive across the entire country.
Yanukovych failed to rescue the deal at the summit in Lithuania, telling EU chiefs his government wanted to sign the pact "in the near future" but needed economic and financial aid.
EU leaders accused Ukraine's old master Moscow of pressuring Kiev, which heavily depends on Russian natural gas, to walk away from the agreement. Yanukovych's aides said the next opportunity to sign the deal may arise at a Ukraine-EU summit in March next year.
Incensed by the snub, thousands of pro-EU protesters turned up on Kiev's central Independence Square, some chanting "Revolution" and others holding flags of the European Union, Ukraine and neighbouring Poland.
Many protesters daubed their faces with blue and yellow paint, the colour of the Ukrainian and EU flags.
The authorities deployed hundreds of riot police to the city centre, creating a tense atmosphere on a sixth day of mass rallies.
A week before the summit the Ukrainian government suddenly halted all preparations for the deal that would have set the country on a path to EU integration, prompting thousands to take to the streets in the largest demonstrations since the pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004.
A new protest is scheduled to take place on Sunday at which the opposition is expected to determine a further course of action.
Thousands in eastern and central Ukraine have opposed the EU agreement. But their protests have been outnumbered by the pro-EU rallies in the rest of the country.
Some 3,000 pro-Yanukovych supporters massed in Kiev on Friday.
Historic and linguistic fault lines have traditionally divided Ukraine into the Kremlin-friendly Russian-speaking east and the pro-European Ukrainian-speaking west.
'Ukrainians want to be in Europe'
Earlier Friday, thousands of Ukrainians locked hands in a symbolic chain linking their ex-Soviet country to the European Union.
Draped in star-studded blue EU flags and chanting "Ukraine is Europe", protesters formed a human chain that began in the Independence Square and ran along the main Kreshchatyk thoroughfare and other streets.
In the fiercely pro-EU city of Lviv in western Ukraine, some 20,000 locked hands.
"This means that the majority of Ukraine's population wants to be in Europe," Andrii Grytsiuk, a Lviv student, told AFP.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2013 | ['(Seven News)'] |
Conflict in Iraq: At least 50 die following a series of insurgent attacks across Iraq, including a suicide bomb at a Shia funeral which left 36 mourners dead. | In the worst attack, at least 36 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a Shia funeral north of Baghdad. Across Iraq, more than 50 people died.
In Washington, President George Bush said the plan in Iraq was going well.
He said Iraqi forces were improving all the time. "As Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down," he said, touting possible further cuts in US troop levels.
Mr Bush said wide participation in Iraq's election showed the people were buying into the new democracy, and had more confidence in their security. "The election results served as a real defeat for the rejectionists," he said. However, after a drop in insurgent attacks around the time of the elections, car bombings and suicide attacks have intensified. In some of Wednesday's other incidents:
Blood-stained tombstones
In Wednesday's attack on a funeral near Baquba, mourners took cover in a graveyard amid mortar and automatic weapons fire, before a suicide bomber detonated explosives attached to his body.
The funeral was for a bodyguard killed in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on a local leader of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's Islamic Dawa Party.
More than 100 mourners were at the funeral that was targeted
The explosion in Miqdadiya, 100km (60 miles) from Baghdad, left tombstones stained with blood and small body parts on the ground, police said.
Police Lt Salam Hussein told the Associated Press that the bombing had been a "terrorist act" aimed at igniting a Shia-Sunni civil war.
The people behind such attacks want to destabilise the country and shed more blood," he added.
The politician targeted in the attack on Tuesday escaped with his life.
Fuel crisis
Shortly after the funeral attack, a convoy of 60 fuel tankers was ambushed, with insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades at the convoy, police said.
One driver was killed and at least 18 vehicles in the escorted convoy were damaged or destroyed in the attack about 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad, according to police.
The attack comes as Iraq grapples with a fuel crisis stemming from the closure of a major refinery in the north that has prompted panic buying of fuel and long queues at petrol stations.
The defence ministry said there have been 420 incidents in the last week which have killed or injured more than 200 people, the BBC's Alastair Leithead in Baghdad says.
The violence comes as Shia, Sunni and Kurdish politicians continue efforts to form a coalition governments in the wake of the elections.
But the violence is a reminder of how quickly militants can fill the political vacuum, our correspondent says. | Armed Conflict | January 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, man who is alleged to have been planning a machine gun mass shooting at a local Masonic Temple. | Acting United States Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad and Special Agent in Charge Robert J. Shields of the FBI’s Milwaukee Division announced today that Milwaukee resident Samy Mohamed Hamzeh, 23, has been charged with possessing machineguns and a silencer.
According to the criminal complaint, Hamzeh had been under investigation since September 2015. The investigation revealed that, in October 2015, Hamzeh planned to travel to Jordan, enter the West Bank, and conduct an attack on Israeli soldiers and citizens living in the West Bank. Hamzeh later abandoned those plans and began to focus on conducting an attack in the United States.
According to the criminal complaint, Hamzeh has engaged in extensive conversations with two confidential sources (referred to here as CS-1 and CS-2). Those conversations, which were in Arabic, were monitored, recorded, and translated by the FBI beginning in October 2015.
During those recorded conversations, Hamzeh explained that he wanted to commit a domestic act of violence and, earlier this month, he settled on a Masonic temple in Milwaukee as his target.
On January 19, 2016, Hamzeh, CS-1 and CS-2 took a guided tour of the Masonic temple, during which they learned meeting schedules and where people would be located during meetings. In a recorded conversation after they left the temple, Hamzeh, discussed his plans with CS-1 and CS-2. In that conversation, Hamzeh reaffirmed his intention to commit an armed attack on the temple and discussed in further detail how they would carry out the attack.
Hamzeh said that they would need two machineguns so that they each would have one (Hamzeh indicated that one CS already had a machinegun), and also said that they would need three silencers:
“We want two machineguns, you now have one, so we want two more, and we need three silencers, that’s it.Find out how much all together these will cost, and then we will march.”
“We want two, like the machinegun you have. . . . And we need silencers. . . . Three, yes three silencers, and that’s it.”
“. . . each one has a weapon, each one has a silencer gun, the operation will be one hundred percent successful.I am telling you, to go without silencer gun, you will be exposed from the beginning.”
Hamzeh also explained to CS1 and CS2 that, when they executed the attack at the temple, one of the three of them would have to stay at the main door while the others went upstairs to kill the people who would be meeting there:
“one of us will stay at the door at the entrance and lock the door down, he will be at the main door down, two will get to the lift up, they will enter the room, and spray everyone in the room.The one who is standing downstairs will spray anyone he finds.We will shoot them, kill them and get out.We will walk and walk, after a while, we will be covered as if it is cold, and we’ll take the covers off and dump them in a corner and keep on walking, as if nothing happened, as if everything is normal.But one has to stand on the door, because if no one stood at the door, people will be going in and out, if people came in from outside and found out what is going on, everything is busted.”
“As long as the one on the door understands he has bigger responsibility than the others.For your information, he has to take care of everyone around him, the comers and the one that wants to go, he has to annihilate everyone, there is no one left, I mean when we go into a room, we will be killing everyone, that’s it, this is our duty, as for the one at the door, he must have 20/20 eye vision and always alert for all the traffic around him.”
“I am telling you, as I was saying, all three of us get in together, one will go, to the one that is staying at the reception . . . . If she was alone, it is okay, if there were two of them, shoot both of them, do not let the blood show, shoot her from the bottom, two or three shots in her stomach and let her sit on the chair and push her to the front, as if she is sleeping, did you understand?Then stay downstairs, the other two will take the lift to the third floor, go directly to the room, open the door, shoot everyone, move fast even avoiding the lift and take the stairs running down. . . . Using the stairs, the third one on the door will notice us coming down, we will go out together.No one sees anything and no one knows anything.We leave, as if there is nothing, no running, no panic, just regular walking.We’ll get three head covers with three holes in them. . . . we’ll get in all three of us together, the minute we get in, we shoot whoever is in front of us, and all have to be eliminated.One stays down and two will go up quickly.
“And we will eliminate everyone.”
Hamzeh also explained what his objectives were in committing the attack:
“I am telling you, if this hit is executed, it will be known all over the world. . . . Sure, all over the world, all the Mujahedeen will be talking and they will be proud of us. . . such operations will increase in America, when they hear about it.The people will be scared and the operations will increase, and there will be problems all over, because more than one problem took place, and this will be the third problem, this will lead to people clashing with each other.This way we will be igniting it.I mean we are marching at the front of the war.”
“They are all Masonic; they are playing with the world like a game, man, and we are like asses, we don’t know what is going on, these are the ones who are fighting, these are the ones that needs to be killed, not the Shi’iat, because these are the ones who are against us, these are the ones who are making living for us like hell.”
“Thirty is excellent.If I got out, after killing thirty people, I will be happy 100%. . . . 100% happy, because these 30 will terrify the world.”
Hamzeh made plans to purchase machineguns and silencers from two individuals who, unbeknownst to Hamzeh, were undercover FBI agents. He met with them, along with CS-1 and CS-2, on January 25, 2016. The undercover agents displayed the weapons and a silencer to Hamzeh, told him that the weapons were capable of automatic fire, and explained to him the functioning of the selector switch that allowed the weapons to fire automatically. Hamzeh agreed to a price and paid it to the undercover agents, who then handed Hamzeh a bag containing two automatic weapons and a silencer. Hamzeh carried the bag to the vehicle in which he had traveled to the meeting, and he placed the bag in the trunk of the vehicle. He then was arrested and has been charged with illegally possessing machineguns.
Acting United States Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad said, “Samy Mohamed Hamzeh devised a detailed plan to commit a mass shooting intended to kill dozens of people. He also said that he wanted this mass shooting to be ‘known the world over’ and to ‘ignite’ broader clashes. It is difficult to calculate the injury and loss of life that was prevented by concerned citizens coming forward and by the tireless efforts of the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”
Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Robert J. Shields said “The arrest of Samy Mohamed Hamzeh is the result of a well-coordinated undercover law enforcement action, at no time was the public’s safety placed in jeopardy. I would like to commend the efforts of the Joint Terrorism Task Force which includes our local and state law enforcement partners in thwarting an attack that could have resulted in significant injury and /or loss of life.”
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Paul L. Kanter.
The charges contained in the criminal complaint are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | January 2016 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)', '(FBI)'] |
Super Typhoon Mangkhut , one of the strongest in the history of the Philippines, kills at least 59 people. The typhoon struck also Hong Kong, injuring more than 200 people while four persons died in China. A woman died in Taiwan after being swept out to sea. | The body of a teacher who was swept away by waves Friday afternoon turned up on another beach in Yilan Saturday morning.
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - The body of a 30-year-old woman who was swept away by a three-meter wave off the coast of Yilan Country Friday turned up on another beach Saturday, as the outer rim of Typhoon Mangkhut (山竹) lashed Taiwan.
While the super typhoon had been downgraded to regular typhoon status and was hitting the Philippines instead of Taiwan, sea alerts were still in force for the seas east and south of Taiwan Saturday, with torrential rain, strong waves and flooding possible.
On Friday afternoon, Tainan teacher Chen Hsuan-ju (陳鉉濡) had been visiting Fenniaolin (粉鳥林) Beach in the township of Su’ao with four female friends when a wave swept her away. A search by helicopter and Coast Guard ships did not turn up any results.
However, Saturday morning, the body of a woman washed ashore on Neibei (內埤) Beach in Nanfang’ao, the Apple Daily reported. A local coast patrol took a picture and sent it to relatives, who provisionally identified the woman as Chen.
She graduated from the Chinese language department at National Changhua University of Education and started work at the Xinshi Junior High School in Tainan City five years ago.
Her father, who lives in Chiayi, and most of her colleagues were unaware she had traveled to Yilan County for the day, according to the Apple Daily. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2018 | ['(Ompong)', '(BBC)', '(Taiwan News)'] |
American comedian Joan Rivers is rushed to the hospital after she stopped breathing during throat surgery. | 5:00 AM PT (8/29) -- Melissa Rivers released a statement saying Joan is now "resting comfortably."8:49 AM PT -- The NYPD tells us ... Joan is currently in critical condition. We're told ... at one point, Joan's heart stopped beating.
It's unclear if doctors were able to restart the comic's heart.
8:15 AM PT -- We're told an emergency call was placed to 911 at 9:39 AM ET and the caller said, "We have somebody in either cardiac or respiratory arrest."
Joan Rivers was rushed to a hospital in New York City moments ago ... after she stopped breathing during a surgery on her throat ... TMZ has learned.
We're told Rivers was undergoing the throat procedure in a clinic (specifically on her vocal cords) ... when she stopped breathing during the surgery. | Famous Person - Sick | August 2014 | ['(TMZ)'] |
Brazil's Education Minister Abraham Weintraub announces his resignation. He did not give a reason; it is believed to be due to derogatory remarks he made about the Supreme Federal Court. | SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s firebrand education minister resigned on Thursday, following blunders that aggravated tense relations between the right-wing president and the country’s Supreme Court.
Education Minister Abraham Weintraub has been one of the loudest ideological voices in the government. His aggressive style made trouble for the president, including racist remarks about China, Brazil’s top trading partner, and a comment that Supreme Court judges should be locked up.
“If it were up to me, I’d stick all those bums in jail,” the minister said in a videotaped cabinet meeting.
The court included Weintraub in its investigation of an alleged libel and disinformation network run by Bolsonaro’s supporters after that recording became public in May.
Speaking on Thursday after justices voted 10-1 in favor of moving ahead with the “fake news” probe, Chief Justice Dias Toffoli warned that the gradual destabilization of institutions can lead to authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
“We cannot trivialize attacks and threats to the Supreme Court, guardian of the constitution,” he said.
Bolsonaro has ramped up tensions with the Brazil’s top court in recent months, participating in demonstrations calling for it to be disbanded after it authorized an investigation of his alleged interference in law enforcement.
In a bid to calm tensions with the court, Bolsonaro publicly rebuked Weintraub when he participated on Sunday in the latest protest, feeding speculation about the minister’s departure.
In a video on social media, Weintraub said he would not discuss why he was leaving the government to take a role at the World Bank. He read from a statement to the stone-faced president and then gave him a hug.
Weintraub’s departure came the same day Brazilian police arrested a former aide to Bolsonaro’s eldest son in a graft investigation, threatening to ratchet up his battle with the judiciary.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Former President of Brazil Michel Temer is arrested as part of an investigation into corruption. Former Governor of Rio de Janeiro Moreira Franco is also arrested. | Former Brazilian President Michel Temer has been arrested in São Paulo as part of a massive corruption investigation.
Mr Temer, a 78-year-old lawyer who was in office from 2016 to 2018, is being investigated in several cases. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing. His arrest was considered imminent after he lost his legal protection when he left office. Many politicians and business leaders have been convicted or charged as part of the so-called Operation Car Wash.
Mr Temer was arrested in his hometown of São Paulo on Thursday morning local time and will be flown to Rio de Janeiro.
Local media say police had been trying to trace Mr Temer since Wednesday. His former Mining and Energy Minister Moreira Franco was also arrested.
Mr Temer, from the centre-right MDB party, took over the Brazilian presidency in August 2016 following the impeachment of leftist Dilma Rousseff, a process in which he played a key role.
While in office, Mr Temer was hit by corruption charges which were blocked by his allies in Congress.
Deeply unpopular, the former law professor was replaced in January by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
"The largest foreign bribery case in history", as it was dubbed by the US Department of Justice, began in March 2014.
It started as a federal police investigation into money laundering at a currency exchange business at a petrol station in Brasilia. The probe widened and looked into allegations that executives at the state oil company Petrobras had accepted bribes from construction firms in return for awarding them contracts at inflated prices.
The corruption scandal involves millions of dollars in kickbacks and more than 80 politicians and members of the business elite. It provoked huge street protests nationwide.
Operation Car Wash's most high-profile conviction is of former leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is now serving 12 years in jail for corruption.
Brazil's Michel Temer: A master of survival
Brazil corruption probe targets ministers
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 | March 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Thousands of Palestinians demonstrate on the 64th anniversary of their Nakba ("Catastrophe"), in remembrance of their exodus from the former Mandate of Palestine after Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. Demonstrators and Israeli policemen are lightly injured in several clashes. | Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli security forces at points throughout the West Bank Tuesday, though much of the area remained relatively calm as Palestinians marked the anniversary of Israel’s founding, which they term the Nakba, or catastrophe.
By late afternoon, 50 Palestinians were reported to have been lightly injured in clashes with Israeli troops — mainly at a checkpoint near Hebron and a prison outside Ramallah. An Israeli soldier and three Border Police personnel were also reported lightly hurt.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in Ramallah, marked the day by declaring, “We will remain in this land. We will remain like oak trees. We will remain like our olive trees.” He applauded Palestinian leaders “who led us from Nakba to revolution to statehood,” the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.
Abbas added that “Jerusalem is the key in the gate to peace. Any attempt by the occupation to mess with the Holy City means igniting tension and wars in the region and the world… We insist on each particle and each stone in Jerusalem.”
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently exchanged emails about conditions for a resumption of peace talks. Both sides claim to want negotiations to resume; each blames the other for the ongoing deadlock. | Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(The Times of Israel)'] |
Four Ugandan civilians are killed in a rare afternoon ambush on a pickup truck in northeast Uganda by Lord's Resistance Army rebels. The insurgents are suspected of shooting the driver and two passengers and killing a fourth with an axe. | The rebels are suspected of shooting the driver and two passengers, and killing a fourth with an axe.
The LRA continues to target civilians despite being weakened by more than three years of military pressure.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo has warned Uganda not to try to disarm an LRA force in its territory.
DR Congo's United Nations ambassador, Atoki Ileka, told the UN Security Council that such an intervention into its eastern jungles would pose a threat to international peace and security. In 1998, Uganda was one of several countries to become embroiled in DR Congo's five-year civil war in which an estimated three million people were killed.
Pregnant mother survives
The BBC's Will Ross in the capital, Kampala, says one o'clock in the afternoon is considered to be one of the safer times to travel on the dirt roads in the isolated areas of northern Uganda.
Survivors of the ambush on Monday say the vehicle, which was heading from Kitgum town to Orom in the north east, came under heavy gunfire and then caught fire.
Several wounded people were taken to hospital in Kitgum town where they are being treated for gunshot wounds.
Amongst them a pregnant mother who had a lucky escape - she was shot in the stomach but both the mother and the unborn baby survived.
In recent days, our correspondent says, hundreds of people fled their homes after suspected LRA rebels burnt down up to 200 huts in the east of Uganda in Teso region - an area which has been relatively free from LRA attacks for almost two years. Last Thursday four farmers were killed near Palenga in Gulu district - their bodies hacked with machetes. People in northern Uganda wish more rebels would turn themselves in - to see security improve and more reunions between formerly abducted children and their families. Sanctions
Some 450km away in the north-east of the DR Congo another group of the LRA continues to keep the Ugandan military busy.
Not only soldiers and police carry weapons in Kampala
Trucks full of soldiers and military hardware have been moved to the Congolese border.
The army says this is a precautionary measure to prevent LRA rebels who recently crossed into DR Congo from attacking Ugandan civilians.
Last week, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said if the Congolese authorities failed to disarm LRA members, the Ugandan army would enter neighbouring Congo to do so. Mr Ileka asked the Security Council to impose sanctions on Uganda including an arms embargo and the suspension of international aid.
The UN mission in DR Congo has said it intends to use all means necessary to drive out the LRA group. | Armed Conflict | October 2005 | ['(BBC News)'] |
A United Nations official accuses Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya. | Myanmar is seeking the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority from its territory, a senior UN official has told the BBC. Armed forces have been killing Rohingya in Rakhine state, forcing many to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, says John McKissick of the UN refugee agency.
The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been conducting counter-insurgency operations since coordinated attacks on border guards in October.
It denies reports of atrocities.
A spokesman said the government was "very, very disappointed" by the comments.
Burmese officials say Rohingya are setting fire to their own houses in northern Rakhine state. The BBC cannot visit the area to verify what is occurring there, as journalists and aid workers have been barred.
The Rohingya, who number about one million, are seen by many of Myanmar's Buddhist majority as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Although Bangladesh's official policy is not to allow in illegal entrants across the border, the foreign ministry has confirmed that thousands of Rohingya have already sought refuge in the country, while thousands more are reportedly gathering on the border.
Some are using smugglers to get into Bangladesh, while others have bribed border guards, according to Amnesty International.
Efforts to resolve the issue must focus on "the root cause" inside Myanmar, Mr McKissick, head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox's Bazar, told BBC Bengali's Akbar Hossain.
He said the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police had "engaged in collective punishment of the Rohingya minority" after the murders of nine border guards on 9 October which some politicians blamed on a Rohingya militant group.
Security forces have been "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river" into Bangladesh, Mr McKissick said.
"Now it's very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar," he said.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is in a delicate position. She is Myanmar's de facto leader, but security is under the control of the autonomous armed forces.
If Ms Suu Kyi bows to international pressure and sets up a credible investigation into the alleged abuses in Rakhine state, she risks fracturing her relationship with the army. It could jeopardise the stability of her young government.
So for the last six weeks Ms Suu Kyi has kept her head firmly in the sand, avoiding journalists and press conferences. When forced, she has commented that the military in Rakhine is operating according to the "rule of law". Few believe that to be the case.
While there are loud calls from overseas for action, most Burmese have very little sympathy for the Rohingya. The army's "clearance operations" against the "violent attackers" of Rakhine state appear to have strong popular support, putting Ms Suu Kyi under very little domestic pressure. Myanmar's presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said Mr McKissick "should maintain his professionalism and his ethics as a United Nations officer because his comments are just allegations".
"He should only speak based on concrete and strong evidence on the ground," he said.
On Wednesday, the Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned Myanmar's ambassador to express "deep concern" over the military operation in northern Rakhine state.
It said "desperate people" were crossing the border seeking safety and shelter and asked Myanmar to "ensure the integrity of its border".
Authorities in Bangladesh have been detaining and repatriating hundreds of fleeing Rohingya, which Amnesty International condemned as a violation of international law.
Bangladesh does not recognise Rohingya as refugees, and many of those fleeing Myanmar have been "forced into hiding and are suffering a severe lack of food and medical care", the rights group said.
Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers have arrived into Bangladesh from Myanmar in waves since at least the 1970s. There are some 33,000 registered Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar's two camps, Kutupalong and Nayapara.
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch released satellite images which it said showed that more than 1,200 homes had been razed in Rohingya villages over the past six weeks.
A massive security operation was launched last month after nine police officers were killed in co-ordinated attacks on border posts in Maungdaw.
Some government officials blamed a militant Rohingya group for the attacks. Security forces then sealed off access to Maungdaw district and launched a counter-insurgency operation.
Rohingya activists say more than 100 people have been killed and hundreds arrested amid the crackdown.
Soldiers have also been accused of serious human rights abuses, including torture, rape and executions, which the government has flatly denied.
It says militants have attacked helicopter gunships providing air support to troops.
The estimated one million Muslim Rohingya are seen by many in mainly Buddhist Myanmar as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. They are denied citizenship by the government despite many having lived there for generations.
Communal violence in Rakhine state in 2012 left scores dead and displaced more than 100,000 people, with many Rohingya still remaining in decrepit camps.
They face widespread discrimination and mistreatment. Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya are estimated to live in Bangladesh, having left Myanmar over decades.
Myanmar held its first openly contested election in 25 years last November, with Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy winning a landslide victory.
Though she is barred from the presidency due to a constitutional rule, Ms Suu Kyi, who serves as State Counsellor, is seen as de-facto leader.
But her government, led as it is by a former human rights icon, has faced international criticism over the dire situation in Rakhine state.
Rights groups have questioned why journalists and aid workers are not being allowed to enter northern Rakhine. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
A coach carrying British Muslim pilgrims on an Umra trip from Mecca to Medina crashes near Al Khalas, Saudi Arabia. Four are killed and twelve more injured. | Four British people have died and 12 others have been hurt in a coach crash in Saudi Arabia, a travel firm says. Raj Begum Hussain, 70, from Blackburn, died alongside an elderly man and a mother and her grown-up son, all from Preston, in Lancashire.
The coach was travelling from Mecca on an Umrah pilgrimage, when it was hit by a fuel tanker which caught fire and set the bus alight, the firm said.
Trip organisers Hashim Travel said the incident on Saturday was "horrendous". Eighteen people were aboard the coach when it crashed. All were taken to hospital, where six remain.
Mrs Hussain - a mother of six and a grandmother of 13 - was travelling with her younger sister who survived but was injured.
"She will be sorely missed by all family and friends. We would like to thank the whole community for their condolences and support at this difficult time," her family said in a statement. It is understood that a young child was also among the injured.
The group were travelling as part of an Umrah pilgrimage and had been in Saudi Arabia for a week.
The crash happened near the start of the group's five-hour road trip from Mecca to Medina, near the town of Al Khalas.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of those that are reported to have been invlolved in an accident in Saudi Arabia
The Umrah pilgrimage is on a smaller scale than the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
Blackburn-based Hashim Travel says it specialises in Umrah and Hajj and has been providing travel packages to people in north-west England for 20 years.
The company's director, Gulfaraz Zaman, called the incident "horrendous" and "very distressing". "If you see the remains of the bus, there's just the metal frame of it that's left," he told the BBC. "It's very upsetting - especially the people that have passed away," he added, "our thoughts are with the families."
He said visas had been arranged for family members of the deceased who were now travelling out to Saudi Arabia. The Council of British Hajjis said it was providing support to a British family which had been affected.
Rashid Mogradia, chief executive of Council of British Hajjis, told the BBC the route between Mecca and Medina was a long but "relatively safe journey".
A lot has been done by the Saudi authorities to improve the safety of pilgrims, he told the BBC. Passengers on the bus were from Accrington, Preston, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Northampton and Blackburn.
Abdul Hamid Qureshi, chairman of Lancashire Council of Mosques said: "This is a very sad incident. Our prayers and thoughts are with the deceased and their families."
Conservative MP for Wyre and Preston North Ben Wallace tweeted his condolences and Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, who is chair of the recently formed All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hajj and Umrah, said: "I am really saddened to hear of the death of pilgrims."
"We are supporting the British families of those who have died and those injured following a serious road traffic accident near the town of Al Khalas, Saudi Arabia," a Foreign Office spokesperson said. The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that takes place in the month of Dhul Hijjah, which is the 12th month of the Islamic lunar calendar.
The Umrah is an extra, optional pilgrimage and does not count as the once-in-a-lifetime Hajj. Although it includes some of the rituals of the Hajj, they are shortened and there are fewer of them.
s
| Road Crash | April 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Pakistan says it was surprised to learn of the country's inclusion in Saudi Arabia's so-called "Islamic anti-terrorist alliance", and that Pakistan was not consulted before inclusion in the alliance by the Saudis. Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry says he has asked the country’s ambassador in Riyadh to get a clarification from Saudi Arabia on the matter. Malaysia has also denied any involvement in Saudi Arabia’s military coalition to counter terrorism. | ISLAMABAD: Pakistan found itself in the crosshairs of Middle Eastern politics on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia named it as part of its newly formed 34-nation military alliance of Muslim countries meant to combat terrorism, without first getting its consent. Talking to journalists, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said he was surprised to read the news that Saudi Arabia had named Pakistan as part of the alliance. He said he had asked the country’s ambassador in Riyadh to get a clarification from Saudi Arabia on the matter. Know more: Pakistan part of 34-state Islamic military alliance against terrorism, says KSA
Another senior official also confirmed that Pakistan was not consulted before inclusion in the alliance. In a statement on Tuesday, the Saudi government surprised many countries by announcing that it had forged a coalition for coordinating and supporting military operations against terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. The headquarters of the new Saudi-led coalition would be based in Riyadh. This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia has named Pakistan as part of its military alliances without Islamabad’s knowledge and consent. The Saudis earlier named Pakistan as part of the coalition that carried out operations in Yemen and a Pakistani flag was displayed at the alliance’s media centre. Pakistan later declined to join the Yemen war. It is Pakistani government’s policy that it will not deploy its troops outside the country’s borders except for UN peacekeeping missions. In the past Pakistan has twice rejected US calls for joining alliances against the militant Islamic State (IS) group on the same pretext. “We are not looking for any involvement outside our region,” army spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa had said last month while replying to a question about the possibility of Pakistan becoming part of a US-led coalition against IS. It is unclear how Riyadh went ahead with announcing Pakistan’s participation in the new alliance. It is also difficult to speculate if Islamabad will change its policy because of its close ties with the kingdom. Pakistan, however, has counter-terrorism cooperation with Saudi Arabia. The IS operations and activities across the Middle East have led to military responses executed by alliances that most of the time rival each other. Syria has been battling IS and other militants with the help of Iran and Russia. The US, which is supporting groups trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is meanwhile leading another alliance against IS. Iran has led military efforts along with the Iraqi army and volunteers in the fight against IS in Iraq. The US-led alliance has been supporting the ground operations against IS with their air strikes. | Join in an Organization | December 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(DAWN)'] |
In soccer, Bob Bradley is dismissed as manager of the United States men's national soccer team. | For U.S. soccer fans, the scene was tough to watch: Archrival Mexico celebrating a Gold Cup victory on American soil, cheered on by a largely pro-Mexico crowd at the Rose Bowl.
A little more than a month later, Bob Bradley has been fired as coach of the U.S. men's soccer team.
Bradley led the team to big moments during his tenure, including Landon Donovan's heart-stopping goal to secure a place in the round of 16 at last year's World Cup in South Africa and an unforgettable victory over Spain in 2009.
The U.S. Soccer Federation is widely expected to announce Bob Bradley's successor Friday. Leander Schaerlaeckens examines the list of potential candidates led by Juergen Klinsmann. Story
• Bradley was a divisive figure
Although the news of Bob Bradley's sacking comes as a shock, there's little downside to replacing him, writes Jeff Carlisle. Story
• Insider: How Bradley's exit could change the U.S. squad But to some, the disappointing Gold Cup loss to a Mexico team that seems to be on the upswing was another sign that the U.S. team's progress has stalled under Bradley.
"We want to thank Bob Bradley for his service and dedication to U.S. Soccer during the past five years," U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in a statement. "During his time as the head coach of our Men's National Team he led the team to a number of accomplishments, but we felt now was the right time for us to make a change. It is always hard to make these decisions, especially when it involves someone we respect as much as Bob. We wish him the best in his future endeavors."
Now another coach will be given the chance to lead the Americans into another World Cup qualifying cycle, which begins next year. The next World Cup is in Brazil in 2014.
With a Mexico rematch looming, an Aug. 10 exhibition in Philadelphia, U.S. Soccer likely will move quickly to select Bradley's replacement. The federation said it will have a "further announcement" on Friday, but did not provide details.
The United States has long been linked with a move for Juergen Klinsmann, former coach and player for the German national team. Other foreign coaches might be in the mix. But the federation also might consider an up-and-coming Major League Soccer coach, Real Salt Lake's Jason Kreis.
The dismissal comes nearly a year after Bradley was given a contract extension to continue coaching the team through 2014. But even as Bradley was given a new deal, there were concerns that the team had hit its ceiling.
The U.S. made it to the round of 16 in last year's World Cup -- but it needed Donovan's last-minute heroics to make it out of what was seen as a relatively easy group. It then was eliminated by Ghana in a game many thought was winnable.
Bradley's supporters would point out that he has made the most of a group of players who generally can outwork rival teams, but lack the technical skills and finishing touch of the world's elite.
U.S. Soccer is in the middle of overhauling its youth development system, an effort led by former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna. The hope is to grow a new generation of elite players by identifying and nourishing their potential at an earlier age.
Although many current U.S. national team players have proven themselves good enough to join European club teams, too many get stuck on the bench when they make it overseas.
Bradley was chosen as coach in January 2007 and went 43-25-12 overall.
Highlights include the victory over Spain and a near-upset of Brazil in the 2009 Confederations Cup, along with last year's World Cup.
But the U.S. team is having a rough 2011. First came Spain's 4-0 rout of the U.S. in an exhibition, followed by a head-scratching 2-1 loss to Panama early in the Gold Cup.
The U.S. rallied to make it to the Gold Cup championship game, but the 4-2 loss was seen as a setback for the U.S. after the team blew a 2-0 lead. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2011 | ['(ESPN)'] |
One person is killed and four others are injured in a knife attack in an Edeka supermarket in Barmbek in the German city of Hamburg. Mayor Olaf Scholz said the attack was motivated by "hate". The attacker is reported to have shouted "Allahu Akbar" before attacking. | A 50-year-old German man has been killed and six people injured in a knife attack in a Hamburg supermarket.
Police said the suspect was 26 years old and born in the United Arab Emirates. They said he acted alone and he was overpowered by passersby.
Mayor Olaf Scholz said the attack was motivated by "hate" but did not say it was a terror attack.
There are unconfirmed reports that the man shouted "Allahu akhbar", Arabic for "God is great" while attacking people. Police said they were still seeking to confirm his current nationality. Mr Sholz said he was a failed asylum seeker.
The man attacked customers in the supermarket at random, ran outside and was chased by customers and by people outside the shop. They brought him to the ground before he was detained by plain-clothes police officers.
Mobile phone footage on German media that is purportedly of the attack's aftermath shows several people chasing a man and throwing chairs at him.
A 50-year-old woman and four men aged between 19 and 64 were stabbed, while a 35-year-old man was injured while helping overcome the suspect. The attack happened in the Barmbek region in the north of the city in a branch of Edeka, Germany's largest supermarket chain.
Police say the man's weapon may have looked like a machete but they are, for now, assuming it was a kitchen knife.
One eyewitness made a gesture about 50cm (20 in) long when asked on German TV how big the knife was.
Asked whether this was a terror attack, a police official told the BBC: "We are at an early stage of the investigation... At the moment we can't rule anything out. We are investigating all avenues."
Speculation in German media said the attack may have been part of a robbery attempt but police said that that motive could not be confirmed.
One eyewitness, who ran from the scene into a nearby shop as the situation unfolded, told German broadcaster NTV that it seemed "hectic and confused, not like a properly planned attack". | Armed Conflict | July 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Basque separatist group ETA announces its dissolution in May. | Alleged ex leader of an elite unit of the Basque separatist band ETA Eneko Gogeaskoetxea testifies during his trial at the National Court in Madrid, Spain, on Sept. 26, 2017. EPA-EFE/FILE/Ballesteros /POOL
Arnaldo Otegi (C), the General Coordinator of the EH Bildu (short for 'Euskal Herria Bildu', or 'Basque Country Gather') far-left, Basque nationalist and pro-independence party, raises his voting card during a rally of the party held in Vitoria, northern Spain, Oct. 07, 2017. EPA-EFE/FILE/David Aguilar
Basque separatist group ETA is set to announce its dissolution in the first week of May at an event in the French city of Bayonne, sources told EFE.
Details of the event, set to take place on May 5 and expected to be attended by representatives of the Basque government, political parties and trade unions, will be announced at a press conference on Friday.
Sources from the Basque autonomous government had refused to comment on what they called speculations and said that as and when there is a decision by the ETA, they would evaluate it.
Basque public television station ETB had reported on Wednesday that ETA was planning to announce its dissolution on the first weekend of May.
In Bayonne, on April 8 - the first anniversary of the disarmament of ETA - Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the EH Bildu political party, had announced that the militant group would be taking new steps in the coming weeks and months. | Organization Closed | April 2018 | ['(EFE)'] |
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