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Opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny is arrested upon landing in Moscow, according to a statement from the prison service. The prominent Putin critic was arrested on charges of parole violations and terms of a suspended prison sentence and will be held in custody until a court makes a decision in his case. |
MOSCOW Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport after returning from Germany on Sunday, the prison service said.
The prison service said he was detained for multiple violations of parole and terms of a suspended prison sentence and would be held in custody until a court makes a decision in his case.
Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent and determined foe, had spent the previous five months in Germany recovering from a nerve agent attack that he blamed on the Kremlin. Navalny decided to leave Berlin of his own free will and wasn’t under any apparent pressure to leave from Germany.
The prison service made the announcement after the flight carrying Navalny landed in the Russian capital, though at a different airport than had been scheduled. It was a possible attempt to outwit journalists and supporters who wanted to witness Navalny’s return.
Russia’s prison service last week issued a warrant for his arrest, saying he had violated the terms of suspended sentence he received on a 2014 conviction for embezzlement. The prison service has asked a Moscow court to turn Navalny’s 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into a real one.
After boarding the Moscow flight in Berlin on Sunday, Navalny said of the prospect of arrest: “It’s impossible; I’m an innocent man.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied a role in the opposition leader’s poisoning.
Navalny supporters and journalists had come to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, where the plane was scheduled to land, but it ended up touching down at Sheremetyevo airport, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away. There was no immediate explanation for the flight diversion.
The OVD-Info group, which monitors political arrests, said at least 37 people were arrested at Vnukovo Airport, although their affiliations weren’t immediately clear.
Vnukovo banned journalists from working inside the terminal, saying in a statement last week that the move was due to epidemiological concerns. The airport also blocked off access to the international arrivals area.
Police prisoner-detention vehicles stood outside the terminal on Sunday.
The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and opposition social media reported Sunday that several Navalny supporters in St. Petersburg had been removed from Moscow-bound trains or been prevented from boarding flights late Saturday and early Sunday, including the coordinator of his staff for the region of Russia’s second-largest city.
Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later.
Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.
Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison and have challenged German officials to provide proof of his poisoning. They refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned.
Last month, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he described as an alleged member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August and then tried to cover it up. The FSB dismissed the recording as fake. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2021 | ['(Politico)'] |
Two suicide bombers detonate their devices in Sulu, Philippines, killing four soldiers and two civilians. ISIL claims responsibility. | MANILA (Reuters) - An explosion at a military base in the restive southern Philippines on Friday killed five people, including three soldiers, and wounded nine others in what Islamic State said was an attack by its suicide bombers.
The military said the blast occurred at around noon at a base on Jolo island, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a splintered militant network notorious for kidnapping and piracy and for its pledge of allegiance to Islamic State.
Islamic State said via its Amaq news agency that its fighters had infiltrated the base strapped with explosives and killed or wounded 100 soldiers. It posted an image of two young men standing beside a black Islamic State flag, wearing what appeared to be vests designed to hold explosives.
Neither the claim nor the authenticity of the photograph could be immediately verified.
The incident will be a major setback for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s goal of wiping out Abu Sayyaf, for which he has created a special infantry division on Jolo to be comprised of 4,500 troops by 2022.
There was no immediate comment from Duterte’s office.
The army provided few details of what took place, but vowed a thorough investigation and to respond “with formidable resolve”.
“Ground troops continue to establish the circumstances and identify the perpetrators behind this inhumane attack,” said Cirilito Sobejana, chief of the Western Mindanao Command. “We will intensify our offensives to crush terrorist groups.”
Clashes between troops and Abu Sayyaf have intensified in the wake of a January bombing of a Jolo church that killed 21 people and wounded close to 100, among them soldiers and civilians. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that assault.
Duterte has maintained martial law across the Mindanao region to curb Islamic State’s influence and the decades of banditry by Abu Sayyaf, which is known for its brutality and for posting videos of captives begging for their lives, and for beheading those for whom ransom demands are not met.
A Dutch wildlife photographer held hostage by Abu Sayyaf since 2012 was killed last month by his captors when he tried to escape during a firefight with troops, according to the military, which said six rebels were killed.
Reporting by Martin Petty with additional reporting by Ali Abdelaty in Cairo; Editing by Robert Birsel/Mark Heinrich
| Armed Conflict | June 2019 | ['(CBC)', '(Reuters)', '(CNN Philippines)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump, during a speech on his infrastructure plan in Richland County, Ohio, announces U.S. forces will be leaving Syria "very soon." | “We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon," the president said during an event in Ohio. "Let the other people take care of it now.” | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
'We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon,' the president said Thursday, in what would be an apparent change in U.S. policy.
By MICHAEL CROWLEY and NAHAL TOOSI
03/29/2018 02:51 PM EDT
Updated 03/29/2018 06:13 PM EDT
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States will end its military presence in Syria “very soon”—contradicting his secretaries of state and defense, who have said U.S. troops should stay in the Arab country for the foreseeable future.
Trump’s declaration was just the latest instance in which the president has publicly undercut or defied his foreign policy team, to the frustration and confusion of U.S. officials and America’s allies.
Speaking in Ohio Thursday, Trump boasted that U.S. is winning its battle against the Islamic State terrorist group, and vowed that once the fight is finished, American troops will leave Syria. The Pentagon has acknowledged a presence of about 2,000 troops in Syria, many of them Special Forces working closely with Kurdish and Arab militias against ISIS, which has lost nearly all its captured territory in the country over the past year.
“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon,” the president said during an event in Ohio. “Let the other people take care of it now.”
“We got to get back to our country where we belong, where we want to be,” he added.Trump’s view runs contrary to the crux of a detailed speech on Syria by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump has since fired, as well as multiple comments by Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Both men have argued that the U.S. must remain involved in the country—not only to prevent ISIS's return but as part of a larger battle of influence underway there among multiple nations including Russia and Iran, which have backed the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad.
CIA director Mike Pompeo, whom Trump has tapped to succeeed Tillerson, and Trump's incoming national security adviser John Bolton have both also suggested that the U.S. has interests in Syria that extend beyond militarily defeating ISIS.
"Trump has never believed it was worth investing significant American blood and treasure to try to sort out the problems of the Middle East," said Phil Gordon, who oversaw Syria policy as a senior national security aide in the Obama White House. "And if that view is somewhat different from that of Tillerson and Mattis, it’s even more different from the views of Pompeo and Bolton, who both put a premium on US leadership in the region, confrontation with Iran, and support overthrowing hostile, anti-American regimes like the one in Syria."
"People including regional allies who were expecting the new appointments to lead to greater U.S. military deployments in the region need to reckon with the views of the president himself," Gordon added. Trump's comments are starkly different in tone from a speech Tillerson delivered in January that was widely interpreted as an articulation of U.S. strategy—not just the outgoing diplomat's personal views. In it, Tillerson told an audience in California that the U.S. "will maintain a military presence in Syria focused on ensuring ISIS cannot re-emerge."
"We cannot make the same mistakes that were made in 2011 when a premature departure from Iraq allowed al-Qaeda in Iraq to survive and eventually morph into ISIS," he added.
As a candidate, Trump often made the same point—blaming then-President Barack Obama for the scourge of ISIS on the grounds that Obama had been too hasty in withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
But Tillerson also expressed broader goals, including preventing Iranian-backed militia groups from taking over Syrian territory, and maintaining influence over any potential peace settlement for the country’s civil war. Israel strongly supports a continued U.S. challenge to Iranian influence within the country.
Tillerson’s Syria policy was developed with the consultation and blessing of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has repeatedly said the Pentagon's mission in Syria will continue—not only to keep ISIS from regenerating but to influence peace negotiations there. “We’re not just going to walk away right now before the Geneva process has traction,” Mattis said in November, a reference to peace talks that have occurred sporadically for several years in the Swiss city.
In January, Mattis told reporters that more diplomats, under military protection, would be headed to the country for stabilization and rebuilding efforts.
Pompeo has also suggested that the U.S. mission in Syria should extend beyond the fight against ISIS. Asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" earlier this month whether the U.S. mission in Syria should "change to counter Iran and its proxies," Pompeo declined to comment on policy, but complained that the Obama administration had given Iran "a free pass" inside Syria and said that "we're working diligently to find the right approach to counter the incredible spread of Iranian hegemony throughout the Middle East."
Washington And The World
By MICHAEL HIRSH
In July, Bolton argued that the "U.S.-led coalition... needs to thwart Iran’s ambitions as ISIS falls" in Syria—although he also wrote that the U.S. "has carried too much of the burden for too long" in Syria.
Syria has been riven by a civil war that began in spring 2011. Rebel groups have been fighting to overthrow Assad, who has been backed by Russia and Iran. The Islamic State exploited the chaos to grab large amounts of territory in Syria and Iraq, leading the U.S. to resume military operations in Iraq and carry out strikes against the group in Syria.
Today, the battle space has grown highly complicated, involving not only Syrians, Kurds Iranians and Russians but more recently Turkish forces who are battling the Kurds.
A White House spokeswoman had no immediate comment. The Pentagon referred POLITICO to the White House. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"There has always in fact been a contradiction at the heart of Trump’s Middle East policy, which is that he supports vigorously confronting Iran and ISIS but also limiting American spending and fighting at the same time," Gordon said. "But if it’s one or the other and it looks like if forced to choose, he’ll keep the U.S. out." | Government Policy Changes | March 2018 | ['(Politico)', '(White House Dossier)'] |
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes under Cook Strait in New Zealand, causing moderate damage in the capital city Wellington. | Severe dispruption is expected in Wellington following a magnitude 6.5 earthquake that damaged buildings, cut power, trapped people in lifts and injuried at least two.
GeoNet said the 6.5 magnitude earthquake was centred in the Cook Strait, 20 kilometres east of Seddon at a depth of 17 kilometres. It struck at 5.09pm.
The Pacific Tsunami Center in Hawaii said the quake did not generate a tsunami, but a number of smaller quakes have struck since - the latest, a 4.4 magnitude 25km east of Seddon at 8.27pm, followed closely by a 5.1 magnitude near Hanmer Springs.
A spokesman for Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye confirmed a civil defence emergency had not been declared, but an emergency centre had been set up in Thorndon.
Earlier reports of sinkholes in Featherston St had been retracted by police.
At least two people have been reported as injured - one person in Kapiti and another who was hit by a falling television in Wellington.
A spokesman for Wellington Free Ambulance said they received a number of calls following the quake.
"We had one guy knocked out by a TV falling on him. That was at the Soho Apartments in Taranaki St. He was a male in his 40s and was taken to Wellington Hospital."
Major commuter chaos was being predicted for Wellington tomorrow morning. All train services were cancelled without any buses to replace them.
Wellington CBD workers are being urged to hold-off heading into work till noon tomorrow to give landlords and engineers time to assess quake-damaged buildings.
Wellington Region Civil Defence Controller, Bruce Pepperell, said people should check with work before heading into the CBD and if they did come in, stay away from quake-damaged facades.
"I am worried about some of the facades. It would only take a little shake to move some of that stuff and it could end in tragedy."
KiwiRail spokeswoman Sophie Lee said there had been no reports of damage to the tracks this evening. But because much of the assessment was done after dark, the call had been made to do a more thorough check in the morning, she said.
"Given the seriousness of the aftershocks and the fact that (the inspection) is taking a lot of time, we've decided to take every precaution."
No buses were available on such short notice so rail commuters would need to make alternative arrangements, she said.
KiwiRail was hopeful of having at least some services back up and running by midday on Monday.
There had been extensive reports of damage to buildings in the capital, but so far most of it minor.
Pepperell said engineers were urgently assessing the Mercure Hotel on Willis St this evening after it sustained damage if the quake.
He said he understood the hotel had sunk by about 5cm on one side and parts of the floor were uneven.
A section of ceiling collapsed on the third floor of the community health building at Hutt Hospital. Four staff members were evacuated.
Police spokesman Inspector Marty Parker said buildings in the city were being evacuated after structural damage was discovered.
Road blocks were also in place around the Mercure, he said.
A fire service spokeswoman said people had to be rescued from lifts in Molesworth and Brandon Streets, and in Thorndon, mainly in apartment blocks.
A number of glass windows across the city had also smashed, and cracks had appeared in many buildings.
Wellington Maritime Police senior launch master Barry Hart said a piece of previously reclaimed land along the industrial part of the waterfront had subsided into the sea, taking with it at least one shipping container.
"The land has actually subsided at least a couple of metres... into the sea. One shipping container has gone into the water."
He said the nearby container cranes were still standing and appeared not to have sustained damage. The ferry terminals also appeared to have survived unscathed, he said.
Infrastructure across the central and lower North Island, and the top of the South Island had ground to a halt.
There was a slip on Highway 1 south of Seddon, which was believed to be as a result of the quake.
Marlborough Roads general manager Frank Porter was not sure of the exact location. But a team had been sent out.
It was not yet known whether the highway would be closed.
Emergencies Services manager at the Council, John Foley, said power was out around the region, and Marlborough Lines were checking to see how long people would be without power.
Phone lines jammed in the top of the South Island and bottom of the North Island immediately after the large quake struck as people tried to call family and friends, a Telecom spokeswoman said.
Both the mobile network and the landline network were overloaded for 15 to 20 minutes.
"There was a spike in traffic straight after the quake hit, which is as we would expect - everyone getting on the phone to make sure their family is OK.
"To the best of our knowledge there's no network damage."
People should send text messages, instead of calling, to ensure emergency calls can get through, the spokeswoman said.
Vodafone customers were also affected when nine mobile sites went down immediately after the large quake.
Sites in Marlborough were affected by power outages and two Wellington sites lost coverage, a spokeswoman said.
"Some customers may have had problems with calls and texts following the quake - issues compounded by overloading on the network, rather than damage."
The network was now stable and all mobile cell sites had been restored.
"Our guys are just making sure now that staff are OK, buildings are OK and that the network is stable."
Prime Minister John Key was not in the capital but his spokesman said his thoughts were with quake-hit regions.
"This will be a frightening time for people in areas where the quakes are most felt, and the Prime Minister's thoughts are with them at this time," the spokesman said.
Key was being kept informed on events.
"No tsunami warning for the region has been issued. However, the Wellington City and Hutt City Regional Emergency Management Offices are activating to coordinate any response at a local level," the spokesman said.
"At this stage, the Prime Minister will be returning to Wellington on Monday morning, as planned."
A Kiwirail spokeswoman said services from Otaki in the North Island to Kaikoura had been suspended until further notice.
There could be some disruption to freight services between Picton and Kaikoura, while an inspection of the tracks, bridges and tunnels was done, the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for the NZ Transport Agency said an initial damage report of state highways in the quake zone was done and no damage or blockages were found.
The agency would carry out more detailed inspections tomorrow, he said.
The 6.5 magnitude quake was likely linked to a fault in the Cook Strait capable of generating far more severe shaking, GNS Science said.
Dr Kelvin Berryman, GNS Science director of Natural Hazards, said the severe shaking over the past three days was probably linked to one of several faults capable of generating shakes of magnitude 7.0 or more.
The most likely candidate was the Needle fault, although the location of the quakes over the past three days did not quite match up.
He said a larger quake was unlikely but the swarm that kicked off on Friday morning was not following the normal aftershock pattern, in which the tremors became progressively less severe.
This afternoon's 6.5 magnitude shake, the biggest in the latest swarm, meant the shaking was not following the usual pattern, he said.
GNS should have a clearer idea of the probability of another big, or even bigger, quake by tomorrow, he said.
The Earthquake Commission announced earlier this month that they had renegotiated $3.25bn in reinsurance cover.
Chief Executive Ian Simpson said at the time that EQC has sufficient cover to meet the costs of a "significant' disaster.
If there were a sequence of events, as in Canterbury, it would have up to $6.5bn in cover. A spokesman for EQC minister Gerry Brownlee said EQC had "ample to cover any future event." | Earthquakes | July 2013 | ['(Fairfax NZ)'] |
Total, CNPC and NIOC sign an investment of $5 billion in South Pars, the world largest gas field. | DUBAI/PARIS (Reuters) - France’s Total signed a deal with Tehran on Monday to develop phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, marking the first major Western energy investment in the Islamic Republic since the lifting of sanctions against it.
Total will be the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, alongside Chinese state-owned oil and gas company CNPC with 30 percent, and National Iranian Oil Co subsidiary Petropars with 19.9 percent.
The project will have a production capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day, or 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day including condensate, Total said in a statement, adding that the gas will supply the Iranian domestic market starting in 2021.
The first stage of the South Pars development will cost around $2 billion, Total added.
The project will cost up to $5 billion and production is expected to start within 40 months, Iran’s oil ministry said in a statement.
“This is a major agreement for Total, which officially marks our return to Iran to open a new page in the history of our partnership with the country,” Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said.
The offshore field was first developed in the 1990s. Total was one of the biggest investors in Iran until the country drew international sanctions in 2006 over suspicions that Tehran was trying to develop nuclear arms.
Total signed an initial agreement with Tehran on Nov. 8, a day after the U.S. presidential election victory of Donald Trump, who had criticized the deal lifting sanctions against Iran.
Total had delayed the final investment decision as it waited for the Trump administration to renew the U.S. sanctions waivers.
Trump extended sanctions relief for Iran in May, but is imposing new measures against Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Iran, the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, hopes its new petroleum contracts will attract foreign companies and boost oil and gas output after years of under-investment.
A senior Iranian official said at the signing ceremony that he hoped the deal with Total would encourage other international companies to invest in Iran’s oil and gas fields, which need tens of billions of dollars of foreign money.
“This contract will send a strong political message to the world especially at the time that the Americans have adopted a confrontational course (against Iran),” Iran’s SHANA news agency quoted the head of the country’s petroleum contracts committee, Mehdi Hosseini, as saying.
“This shows that the world is not following their path,” Hosseini was quoted as saying.
He added that experience has shown that after a deal with Total, other European and Asian companies would sign deals with Iran.
“In the 1990s, the French were the first who took the risk and invested in South Pars, but ended up paying a huge penalty to the United States later. They are taking the same risk again,” said Reza Mostafavi Tabatabaei, president of London-based ENEXD, a firm involved in oil and gas equipment in the Middle East.
“However, phase 11 of South Pars is twice the size of other phases, a lucrative opportunity that cannot be ignored,” he added.
| Sign Agreement | July 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A Palestinian man from the West Bank, Hamza Muhammad Hassan Matrouk, illegally crosses into Israel for the express purpose to stab people attacking over a dozen Israelis on a bus in central Tel Aviv. Security forces capture the assailant as he continued to indiscriminately stab people in the street. | “I saw the bus standing at the junction. People were running away from it. I went outside, I saw the terrorist running outside towards Hamasger street, policemen were chasing him. Apparently they were prison security policemen. They chased him and shot him. I decided to run to the bus to help the injured.”
(SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) TEL AVIV POLICE COMMANDER, BENTZI SAU, SAYING:
“There was a short chase after him (the attacker) during which he was shot. He is currently injured. Basically we are efforting to first of all to make sure that there are no more attackers here or in the area of the district. We are making a very big effort to locate suspects and to check whether he had assistants.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS SPOKESMAN SAMI ABU ZUHRI SAYING:
“The heroic Tel Aviv attack is a natural reaction to Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people and its holy places. There are continuous and various Israeli crimes against our people everywhere. Therefore we emphasise that our Palestinian people will continue their resistance and protection on their rights against this ongoing terrorism.”
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER’S SPOKESMAN, MARK REGEV, SAYING:
“This morning’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv is driven by the same hatred that has motivated similar such attacks in Paris, in Brussels and across the world. Hamas by praising this morning’s attack is once again demonstrating exactly what Hamas is, a brutal and vicious terrorist organisation. Now President Abbas, the leader of the Palestinians, cannot have it both ways. He can’t link arms with world leaders in Paris to condemn terrorism when he links arms with Hamas back at home.”
JERUSALEM A Palestinian man stabbed and wounded up to a dozen Israelis on Wednesday as he rampaged through a bus in central Tel Aviv during the morning rush, the police said. He then fled on foot but was shot and wounded by security forces.
At least three of the victims were reportedly hospitalized in serious condition. The assailant, a man in his early 20s from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, was arrested, the police said.
The episode broke a period of relative calm that followed a spate of attacks against Israelis in October and November in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the West Bank that were carried out by Palestinians armed with knives, cleavers and guns, or using vehicles as weapons.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel sought to place the violence in a wider political context, and to affix blame on the Palestinian leadership. He said in a statement that the stabbing attack was “the direct result of the poisonous incitement being disseminated by the Palestinian Authority against the Jews and their state.”
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“This same terrorism is trying to attack us in Paris, Brussels and everywhere,” he continued.
The assailant, identified by the police as Hamza Muhammad Hassan Matrouk, 23, boarded a bus in Tel Aviv about 7:30 a.m. and traveled two stops as more passengers boarded. He first attacked the driver, who resisted, said Yehuda Dahan, the district police chief. Mr. Matrouk then stabbed a number of passengers before they managed to open the doors of the bus and escape, Chief Dahan said.
The assailant then got off the bus and continued attacking people in the street. Video footage from a security camera showed him stabbing one woman in the upper back as she fled.
As the man ran off, armed personnel from Israel’s prison service who happened to be in the area chased him and shot him. A member of the prison service team told reporters that they were on a routine trip to the courts when they noticed the bus in front of them zigzagging and then stopping at a green traffic light. They realized that something was happening, he said, as passengers began fleeing the bus, screaming.
“First we fired in the air, but he didn’t stop,” the head of the prison security team, who was not identified, told the Israeli news media. “Then we shot him in the legs,” he said, adding that the man did not say anything.
Images from the scene showed the suspect lying face down in the mud, his hands handcuffed behind him, the lower left part of his jeans soaked with blood.
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The police said Mr. Matrouk lived in a refugee camp in Tulkarm and had entered Israel illegally on Wednesday morning to carry out the attack.
A passenger who was slightly wounded in the attack, Liel Suissa, 14, said he was on his way to school “when suddenly the terrorist showed up and started stabbing people.”
“We all moved toward the back,” he told news outlets. “The driver pressed the brakes as the terrorist was heading close to us.”
“I elbowed the window, and it broke so we could get out,” he said. “When we got out, he chased us with the knife in his hand. I ran and hid behind cars and then security personnel ran after him.”
Israel has been struggling to prevent attacks that security officials say are carried out by individuals rather than orchestrated by organizations.
The police said that during an interrogation, Mr. Matrouk said he had been motivated by the recent fighting in Gaza, tensions over a contested holy site in Jerusalem and radical Islamic broadcasts that spoke of “reaching paradise.”
“He said he decided to achieve that by carrying out an attack,” a police spokesman said.
Maan, an independent Palestinian news site, quoted a friend of Mr. Matrouk’s as saying he did not belong to any political or armed faction and had been acting normally the night before the attack.
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“Last night Hamza and I hung out with friends in the camp until 11 p.m. and we had fun,” the friend, who was not identified, told Maan. “He was laughing and kidding.”
The attack came amid a charged political atmosphere in Israel, with elections scheduled for March 17 and with Israeli-Palestinian relations in a downward spiral since the breakdown of American-brokered peace talks last spring.
Israel condemned the formation of a new Palestinian Authority government supported by the more moderate West Bank leadership, dominated by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, and by the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza.
The subsequent abductions and killings of Israeli and Palestinian teenagers were followed by 50 days of fighting in Gaza that killed nearly 2,200 people in Gaza and more than 70 on the Israeli side.
Diplomatic tensions have escalated in recent weeks as the Palestinian leadership moved to join the International Criminal Court in an effort to pursue war crimes cases against Israel. Israel responded this month by withholding more than $100 million in tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. As a result, the authority has been unable to pay full wages to its 150,000 employees.
Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday said that Hamas, Mr. Abbas’s “partners in a unity government, hastened to commend this attack.” Referring to Mr. Abbas by his popular name, Mr. Netanyahu added, “Abu Mazen is responsible for both the incitement and the dangerous move at the I.C.C. in The Hague.”
In a statement after Wednesday’s attack, Naftali Bennett, a right-wing minister in the Israeli cabinet, said of Mr. Abbas, “The person responsible for the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv this morning is the same man we saw marching in the company of world leaders in Paris just last week” after terrorist attacks there.
Mr. Bennett called on Israel to stop the flow of funds to Mr. Abbas, whom he described as a “terrorist.” | Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Pope Francis gives his first Urbi et Orbi speech calling for peace amidst the Syrian civil war and the 2013 South Sudan political crisis. | Pope Francis dedicates his first “Urbi et Orbi” message around the theme of peace in countries plagued by conflict.
Pope Francis, celebrating his first Christmas as Roman Catholic leader, called for dialogue to end the conflict in South Sudan and all wars, saying everyone should strive to be personal peacemakers.
Speaking to tens of thousands of people from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the same spot where he emerged to the world as pope when he was elected on March 13, Francis also made another appeal for the environment to be saved from “human greed and rapacity”.
The leader of the 1.2 billion-member Church wove his first “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) message around the theme of peace.
He called for “social harmony in South Sudan, where current tensions have already caused numerous victims and are threatening peaceful coexistence in that young state.”
Thousands are believed to have died in violence divided along ethnic lines between the Nuer and Dinka tribes in the country, which seceded from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war.
He also called for dialogue to end the conflicts in Syria, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, and prayed for a “favourable outcome” to the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Wars shatter and hurt so many lives!” he said, saying their most vulnerable victims were children, elderly, battered women and the sick.
The thread running through the message was that individuals had a role in promoting peace, either with their neighbour or between nations.
The message of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was directed at “every man or woman who keeps watch through the night, who hopes for a better world, who cares for others while humbly seeking to do his or her duty,” he said.
| Famous Person - Give a speech | December 2013 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe makes a landmark visit to Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, offering "sincere and everlasting condolences" to the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese empire on December 7, 1941. | Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has visited the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, where he offered "sincere and everlasting condolences" to the victims of Japan's attack on the base 75 years ago.
"We must never repeat the horrors of war again, this is the solemn vow the people of Japan have taken," he said.
Mr Abe was accompanied by US President Barack Obama, making the visit the first by the leaders of both countries.
Japan devastated much of the base, killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Mr Abe paid tribute to the men who lost their lives in 1941 at the naval base, many of whom remain entombed in the wreckage of the USS Arizona, sunk by the Japanese that day, and vowed reconciliation and peace.
"To the souls of the US servicemen who lie aboard the USS Arizona, to the American people, and all people around the world, I pledge that unwavering vow," he said.
The Japanese prime minister went on to praise the US for its efforts to mend relations with Japan following the war between the two countries, which ended shortly after the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945.
And he called the renewed alliance between the countries an "alliance of hope".
Mr Obama also paid tribute to the dead, saying that he had laid a wreath on "waters that still weep".
"That morning the ranks on those men's shoulders reflected them less than the courage in their hearts," he said.
He said he welcomed Mr Abe "in the spirit of friendship, in the manner Japan has always welcomed me".
Mr Abe is the first Japanese leader to visit the memorial on the site of the Arizona, although several of his predecessors have been to Pearl Harbor in the past.
He and Mr Obama laid wreaths at the site and the two leaders prayed for the dead.
But, as expected, Mr Abe did not issue an apology for the attack.
Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor damaged all eight of the US battleships at the base and sank four of them, propelling the US into World War Two.
Nearly half of those killed were on the Arizona and the remains of most are still entombed in the wreckage.
All eight battleships at the base were damaged and four were sunk. But the key US aircraft carriers were at sea at the time.
On Monday, Mr Abe visited the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and laid a wreath.
He stood for a moment of silence at the cemetery near central Honolulu, a memorial to those who died the the Pacific theatre of war.
He also held a summit meeting with Mr Obama in Hawaii, their last before Mr Obama steps down in January.
Mr Abe's visit, three weeks after the 75th anniversary of the attack, follows a visit earlier this year to Hiroshima by Mr Obama.
He became the first serving US president to visit the Japanese city, where about 150,000 people are believed to have been killed in 1945 by a US atomic bomb.
The first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor was Shigeru Yoshida who in 1951 stopped over in Hawaii both on the way to and from the signing of the peace treaty with the US in San Francisco.
The visit has drawn positive comments in Japanese media. The daily Asahi Shimbun calls it "an act of symbolic reciprocity" coming six months after US President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima. It also notes: "Obama did not apologise at Hiroshima. Nor did Abe."
The leading Kyodo news agency observes that wartime survivors have mostly "welcomed Abe's condolences" but some have wondered why he did not apologise outright.
The Japan Times is mindful of criticism in China, noting Beijing's insistence that "Japan must first reconcile with parts of Asia victimised by its wartime aggression". The Global Times in China reiterates the point in an editorial, saying that Mr Abe has picked "the wrong place and wrong direction if he is sincere in seeking reconciliation over historical issues". "He should have come to places like Nanjing, the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing, or the South Korean capital, Seoul. There are many venues there for him to commemorate," it adds.
Compiled by BBC Monitoring
His visit on the way home included a meeting with the commander of the US Pacific fleet, Admiral Arthur Radford. The office where the two men met offered a direct view of the site of the Japanese attack. "I could almost see the wreck of Arizona" out of the window, Mr Radford later wrote in his memoir, referring to a battleship that sank in the attack.
He recalled the meeting as having been initially rather awkward until his dog walked over to the Japanese visitor to be patted, breaking the ice between the two former enemies. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrives in Hawaii
Remembering Pearl Harbor 75 years on
Saved by my Pearl Harbor ‘guardian angel’
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. | Diplomatic Visit | December 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Thousands of people protest in Minsk, Belarus, despite a ban on protests, against a so-called "social parasites" tax on the unemployed. | Police in Belarus have arrested hundreds of people during protests against a so-called "social parasites" tax on the under-employed.
Thousands defied a ban to protest, taking to the streets of Minsk and other cities. Demonstrators shouted "Fascists!" at riot police.
There have been weeks of sporadic protests against a $230 (£185) levy on those unemployed for six months.
President Alexander Lukashenko insists the tax will not be scrapped.
He says it instils discipline in the workshy, though he has suspended it for this year.
Opponents say it punishes those who cannot find a job.
Organisers called the protest Freedom Day, evoking the independent Belarus that lasted just six months after the First World War, in 1918.
The march in the capital Minsk took place on the 99th anniversary of the proclamation of the Belarusian People's Republic.
Demonstrators tried to march down one of the major streets in Minsk, but were blocked by police who began arresting them, along with journalists covering the protest.
"They're beating the participants, dragging women by the hair to buses. I was able to run to a nearby courtyard," demonstrator Alexander Ponomarev told AP news agency.
Earlier, police raided the offices of human rights group Vesna and detained about 30 activists. The authorities had already jailed more than 100 opposition supporters for terms of between three and 15 days in the lead-up to the demonstration, reports said.
It seemed like the whole city was in a state of emergency - police everywhere, a lot of police trucks, water cannons, cars with equipment for storming barricades.
We heard that people who were unable to get to the first meeting place, the Science Academy metro station, gathered in another place - Yakub Kolas square. There we saw a crowd with white-red-white flags, which are a symbol of opposition in Belarus. The crowd was around 1,000-1,500 strong.
We started filming there. People shouted "long live Belarus". Very soon riot police appeared. In a couple of minutes police blocked the whole street from both sides. Protesters were surrounded.
Several police trucks were sent in and arrests started. Riot police started to detain literally everyone, even some journalists and old people were detained. Those who were trying to resist were beaten.
Earlier this month Mr Lukashenko said people who worked fewer than 183 days a year would not have to pay the tax this year and said those who had already paid it last year would be compensated if they found a job.
According to a recent tax inspection, 470,000 people should have paid the tax but only 50,000 had done so, Reuters news agency said.
Mr Lukashenko has run Belarus - a country where little dissent is tolerated - since 1994.
He has been described by some Western officials as "Europe's last dictator".
However, Mr Lukashenko has recently been seeking to improve ties with the West and lessen the country's dependence on Russia. | Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former President Almazbek Atambayev is freed from prison by demonstrators. | The capital of Kyrgyzstan saw mass protests after the preliminary results of Sunday's parliamentary election, supporting the parties that failed to qualify and demanding a re-vote. Protesters in Bishkek have broken into an area of the White House where the parliament and the presidential administration of Kyrgyzstan are situated, according to a Sputnik correspondent. According to witnesses, a convoy of cars left the parliament building a few minutes before the incident. When the protesters arrived, there were no officials or guards inside the building. The Kyrgyz capital saw protests after the preliminary results of parliamentary elections were released on Sunday. An estimated 2,000 demonstrators gathered on Monday in Bishkek to demand a new vote and support parties that did not pass the seven percent vote threshold to gain seats in parliament. The political party Birimdik ("Unity"), which is leading in the parliamentary election, agreed to a re-vote "if they are announced". Amid the protests, Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov on Tuesday announced plans to meet with the leaders of the political parties that participated in the election. Follow Sputnik's live feed to find out more. Vigilantes have begun guarding shopping malls and other important buildings in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek from looters as widespread public unrest continues following parliamentary elections in the Central Asian country, a member of the vigilante group told the 24.kg news portal on Tuesday. "We have several Telegram channels and group chats, which we use to organize and alter our work. We are keeping order in the city. Today, we went to guard the OTRK [Public Kyrgyz broadcaster], large shopping centres… as well as the printing house Uchkun, which houses Channel Five and the Pyramid media group", Alexander Skidanov told the portal. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres closely follows the protests in Kyrgyzstan and urges all actors to show the utmost restraint and avoid violence, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Secretary-General is closely monitoring the situation in the Kyrgyz Republic”, Dujarric said. “The Secretary-General regrets the loss of life and urges all involved to exercise the utmost restraint and refrain from violence". Guterres has also called on all Kyrgyz actors to engage in dialogue and agree on a settlement within the constitutional framework, Dujarric said. The United Nations is ready to assist toward a peaceful resolution of the crisis, including through its Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the spokesman added. The current parliament of Kyrgyzstan will perform its duties until a new one is elected, Former Prime Minister Temir Sariyev, a member of the coordination council of 13 parties formed amid the political turmoil in the country, said. "We are all on the same page that this assembly should work until a new Jogorku Kenesh is elected, otherwise we will plunge into a legal vacuum," Sariyev said, according to the 24.kg news agency. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov has resigned amid large-scale protests in the country and was replaced by Sadyr Japarov, the country's parliament said on Tuesday. According to the Kabar news agency, Boronov's statement was read by lawmaker Mirlan Bakirov at an extraordinary session of the parliament, which is being held in the Dostuk hotel. Opposition politician Sadyr Japarov, who was released from prison on Monday, has become the new prime minister of Kyrgyzstan, the press service of the republic's parliament told Sputnik. The European Union is urging the political authorities in Kyrgyzstan to act peacefully and within the country's constitution amid the widespread public unrest following Sunday's parliamentary elections that have subsequently been annulled by the Central Election Commission, the bloc's foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said in a statement. "The EU calls on all political forces in the country to act within the framework of the constitution and to settle their disagreements peacefully. We look forward to new credible, transparent and inclusive elections, in line with Kyrgyzstan’s international commitments and the democratic rights of its citizens, being organized," the published statement read. The bloc will continue to support democratic and developmental processes in Kyrgyzstan, Stano added. Unknown persons seized Kyrgyzaltyn's only gold refinery in Kara-Balt, local news agency 24.kg reported, citing the company. Several dozen people entered the territory of the enterprise in the afternoon. It is not known what demands were made and the supporters of which party these people represent, the agency said. Now, Kyrgyzaltyn has no communication with the refinery, it said. The company confirmed the reports. Earlier in the day, unknown people were trying to break into the building of Kyrgyzaltyn, the country's largest gold miner. Kyrgyz pro-government political party Mekenim Kyrgyzstan (My Homeland Kyrgyzstan) that secured the second place in the parliamentary elections approves the decision to annul the results of the vote, the head of the party, Mirlan Bakirov, said on Tuesday. "Today, the Central Election Commission annulled the results of the elections, and we agree with this decision," Bakirov told reporters. According to Bakirov, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan noted "pressure and violations" during the vote. The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope on Tuesday that the crisis in Kyrgyzstan would be settled peacefully and called on all the political forces in the country to act responsibly. "Russia is interested in the domestic political stability in Kyrgyzstan, which is its strategic partner and ally, in safety and well-being of the friendly people ... We hope that the crisis will be soon resolved in compliance with the law, through negotiations, without use of force," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Moscow noted that Kyrgyzstan's democratic development should be a priority. "We are calling on all the political forces to act wisely and responsibly in this critical moment for the sake of maintaining domestic stability and safety," the Russian Foreign Ministry added. The Kyrgyz Central Election Commission (CEC) should set repeat parliamentary elections within two weeks, the official news agency Kabar reported on Tuesday, citing CEC Deputy Chairman Abdyzhapar Bekmatov. Bekmatov told Kabar that the CEC would be obligated to hold the elections within 60 days after a relevant announcement. The Kyrgyz opposition coordination council could urge President Sooronbay Jeenbekov to resign amid protests against the results of the parliamentary elections, 24.kg news agency reported on Tuesday. According to the news agency, Kyrgyz politicians are looking into two possible ways to stabilize the political situation: the coordination council does not rule out a call on Jeenbekov to step down, and the parliament could make a decision, at its upcoming special session, to impeach the Kyrgyz leader. The number of people injured in Kyrgyzstan in the clashes between protesters and law enforcement agents has grown to 686, and the death toll stands at one, the Health Ministry told Sputnik on Tuesday. "As of 15:00 [09:00 GMT], 686 injured people sought assistance in medical centers on October 6, 2020," a spokesperson for the ministry said. According to the spokesman, 164 injured people were hospitalized, seven of them are in the intensive care units, a 19-year-old man died, and 521 persons were discharged after receiving urgent assistance. The Kyrgyz parliament will convene later on Tuesday for an emergency session amid protests against the results of the parliamentary elections, press secretary Ibrahim Nurakun uulu said. "Today, the parliament will convene for a special session at 16:00 [10:00 GMT], at Dostuk hotel," the press secretary wrote on Twitter. Leaders of the Kyrgyz opposition forces are calling on the parliament to convene for appointing a new composition of the cabinet, an opposition politician, Adahan Madumarov, said on Tuesday. "We have a parliament, and it is legitimate, whether we want it or not. So we are calling on it to convene and appoint a new composition of the government," Madumarov said at a press conference, held amid protests. The opposition politician stressed the importance of legitimization. "It is not proper to just seize offices or appoint someone. We should act in compliance with the law," Madumarov stressed. A group of Kyrgyz politicians has announced that a coordination council, aimed at "restoring the legal framework" in the country, has been established, Kyrgyzstan's 24.kg news agency reported on Tuesday, citing sources. Former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariyev confirmed this information to 24.kg and said that the coordination council would make a statement at a press conference in Bishkek. Sariyev and another ex-prime minister, Omurbek Babanov, are reportedly among the members of the council. As many as 190 police officers were injured in clashes with protesters in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, the National Center for the Prevention of Torture told Sputnik on Tuesday. "Total of 190 police officers were injured in the unrest in Bishkek. Six of them are in grave condition," a spokesman for the center said. According to the spokesman, four special vehicles were burnt down, and six special vehicles were smashed up by protesters. Former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, who was freed from custody by protesters earlier on Tuesday, will make a statement later in the day, his ally from the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan told Sputnik. "Almazbek Sharshenovich will deliver an address today, at 14:00 [08:00 GMT]. Then, Sapar [Isakov, ex-prime minister] will take the floor," Atambayev's ally said. Protesters in Kyrgyzstan freed from a detention facility in Bishkek ex-head of the presidential administration, Farid Niyazov, who is suspected of staging mass riots, a witness told Sputnik on Tuesday. According to a Sputnik correspondent, former Prime Minister Zhantoro Satybaldiyev was also freed. "Farid Niyazov was freed from the first detention facility in Bishkek today," the witness said. According to him, Kanat Sagynbaev, a bodyguard of ex-Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, was freed as well. Niyazov and Sagynbayev are suspected of staging the mass riots that emerged in August 2019 in the village of Koy Tash. Back then, one special forces officer was killed and 136 people were injured in clashes between Atambayev's supporters and the law enforcement agencies. Protesters in Kyrgyzstan are set to appoint an interim prime minister, the leader of opposition political party Mekenchil said on Tuesday. "We plan to appoint an interim prime minister," Kamchybek Tashiev told reporters. According to Tashiev, opposition politician Sadyr Japarov, who was earlier freed from prison by protesters, is a possible candidate. Japarov was serving his term for taking a person hostage during the 2013 unrest. Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov has said that some political forces tried to seize power illegally overnight and called on the leaders of political parties to "calm down their supporters". "I urge my compatriots to remain calm and not succumb to provocations", the president continued. Jeenbekov added that he has ordered the security forces not to open fire at protesters. "In order to avoid bloodshed, I have ordered the security forces not to open fire. Until now, we have taken all measures to prevent the situation from escalating. Peace in the country and stability in society are above the parliamentary mandate", the head of state said. The building of the government of Kyrgyzstan has been seized by protesters, a representative of the Cabinet told Sputnik. "We cannot get to work. There are some unknown people in the building, they’re not letting us inside", the official says. According to him, most likely these are protesters. As the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers added, he did not see any signs of looting or vandalism in the government building. Demonstrations in support of the incumbent Kyrgyz president, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, are being held in the city of Osh, with an estimated 500 people gathered in the city square, according to Sputnik correspondent. Some of the demonstrators agree with the election results, while others do not. The president's younger brother and deputy of the Jogorku Kenesh [parliament], Asylbek Jeenbekov, spoke to the crowd. According to a Sputnik correspondent, he could not say when the president would address the protesters. Protesters against preliminary results of the parliamentary election in Kyrgyzstan seized the city hall in Bishkek, Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg reported, citing city mayor Aziz Surakmatov. One person died as a result of the mass protests in Bishkek, while 590 people were injured, with 13 in serious condition, the Kyrgyz Health Ministry said. BISHKEK (Sputnik) - Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov admitted that the results of the country's parliamentary elections could be canceled, spokeswoman Tolgonay Stamaliyeva told Sputnik. "Taking into account the current situation, the head of state recommends that the Central Election Commission carefully study the materials related to violations, up to the annulment of the results of parliamentary elections," Stamaliyeva said. According to the spokeswoman, Jeenbekov is in Bishkek, "controls the situation and expresses confidence that all political forces will put the interests of the country above their own, will not allow a split in society and other fears that worry the country's citizens." BISHKEK (Sputnik) - Protesters in Bishkek have freed ex-Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Sapar Isakov from prison, his lawyer Zamir Zhooshev told Sputnik. Earlier, protesters freed former President Almazbek Atambayev. "Sapar Isakov was released today. He is at large," Zhooshev said. Isakov led the cabinet under Atambayev. In December 2019, Isakov was sentenced to 15 years for corruption during the modernization of the Kyrgyz capital's heat and power plant. In June, the ex-prime minister was sentenced to another prison term - for corruption during the reconstruction of a history museum in Bishkek and the construction of a hippodrome in the city of Cholpon-Ata. Fire occured in White House in the Kyrgyz capital after the protesters seized it earlier on Tuesday. Later, firefighters have arrived at the scene. Former President Almazbek Atambaev was released following the demands of protesters who earlier broke into the building of the State Committee for National Security, according to a Sputnik correspondent. Photos shared in Telegram show protesters vandalising the cabinet of Kyrgyz President in the White House. "The President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbai Jeenbekov is in Bishkek. The head of state at his workplace in the building of the Jogorku Kenesh [Parliament]. Until 2 a.m., he held individual dialogues with all political forces. The President counts on the prudence of the organizers of the protest action", President's press secretary Tolgonai Stamalieva told Sputnik. The protesters demanded release of former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev, who is currently held in custody in the building of the State Committee for National Security, a Sputnik correspondent said. The protesters broke the gates of the bulding of State Committee for National Security and entered the territory, according to a Sputnik correspondent. Some protesters moved to the headquarters of the State Committee for National Security, where former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev is currently in custody, a Sputnik correspondent reported. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | October 2020 | ['(Sputnik)'] |
Thousands of far-right activists attend a protest in London, United Kingdom amid a recent crackdown on far-right activity on social media. Guest speakers included former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, Vice magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes, and UK Independence Party leader Gerard Batten. |
Thousands marched through London under the banner of free speech on Sunday after Tommy Robinson, a former leader of the far-right English Defence League, was permanently banned from Twitter.
Protesters flying national flags and holding placards decrying limits to free expression rallied at Whitehall after marching through central London from Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, a location seen as emblematic of free speech that has been the scene of several recent far-right rallies. Robinson called for the demonstration last week in response to Twitter’s decision to ban him for “hateful conduct” after he posted a message saying: “Islam promotes killing people.”
He and several prominent rightwing figures addressed the 2,000-3,000 attendees. Robinson told the crowd: “We couldn’t have done this three years ago, we couldn’t have done this four years ago. We are now mainstream.”
Other speakers included the leader of Ukip, Gerard Batten, the Vice magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes, the YouTube personality Sargon of Akkad, Anne Marie Waters of the political party For Britain and the former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos. Lines of police with riot vans separated the protesters from several hundred counter-protesters demonstrating against what they saw as a far-right movement. As the crowds, swelled by support from the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA), an umbrella group for football ultras, turned from Piccadilly into Whitehall, they chanted Robinson’s name. Paul Stevenson, 42, from Harrow, said he was marching to “protect freedom of speech”.
“It’s to protest against all the censorship that’s going on, political correctness, cultural Marxism and attacks on the white, Christian culture, not just in this country but across Europe,” he added.
Numbers dwindled throughout the lengthy Whitehall march, while the atmosphere was unthreatening. In his rally speech, Robinson said: “The people of this country have been silenced for 20-30 years with the tag of racists. They have managed to silence people so that they are too scared to speak up when they see things that are wrong.
“They now realise that that tag is dead: no one cares anymore with being labelled racists.”
Yiannopoulos told the crowd: “Truth and righteousness are behind you. You are the vanguard, you are the dark nights, the first men and women to proudly stand with your heads above the parapet, caring nothing for the bullets that come your way and I salute you.
“I saw what happened when Nick Griffin went on Question Time, in America when genuine racists [appear on television] ... When those people are exposed to the harsh light of day, I believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
Carl Benjamin, whose alias is Sargon of Akkad, said the protest was against “totalitarianism, identity politics and Islamism, which is really the same thing.” “Those protesting against them were only in favour of ‘curated speech’,” Benjamin added.
On the other side of the lines, Freddi Hyde-Thompson, 28, from London, was shocked to find the counter-protesters outnumbered. “It’s really worrying ,” he said. “This cannot come to London and there be more of them than there are of us.”
Hyde-Thompson saw the protesters’ claims of support for free speech as a contradiction. “If their freedom of speech is going to rub out other people’s freedom of speech then they’ve got no point. If they want to ban certain religions, that speaks for itself.”
Among those watching the speakers and videos was Fatima, a black Muslim woman who would not give her full name. “I’m here for freedom of speech,” she said, adding that she did not feel threatened. “It’s okay, I’m in my element; I don’t really care, this is England. There’s a guy with an infidels shirt right in front or me, I don’t know how he would react to me. This is a bit awkward for all of us.” | Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2018 | ['(UKIP)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Protests continue following last night's non-resignation speech of President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak. | 8.32am: President Hosni Mubarak's announcement last night that he would not stand down after a day of fevered speculation has enraged protesters. In a televised address he stunned crowds massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square and elsewhere by saying he would hand power to his vice-president, Omar Suleiman, but stay on as president until elections in September.
Mass demonstrations are expected once more today as opponents of Mubarak's regime show their anger at his refusal to step down. Protesters are already gathering in Tahrir Square, outside the state TV building in Cairo and the presidential palace.
The president's statement not only angered the Egyptian protesters but also the US, as Barack Obama issued his strongest criticism of Mubarak so far, criticising the Egyptian government's failure to put forward a "credible, concrete and unequivocal path to democracy".
The military is expected to issue a statement in the next two hours, before Friday prayers, amid continued speculation of a military takeover. There are hopes among some protesters that the military will oversee the transition to democracy.
8.49am: Here is some video of Hosni Mubarak's speech last night.
____
9.04am: There is a lot of coverage of the Egyptian situation in today's Guardian.
This is Chris McGreal's front page story on Hosni Mubarak's speech.
This is novelist Ahdaf Soueif's experience of watching the speech in Cairo's Tahrir Square last night.
By choosing this path, Mubarak is deliberately pushing Egypt further into crisis. He is putting the army in a position where they will soon have to confront either the Egyptian people or the president and his presidential guard. He is also ensuring that by the time the revolution is victorious, the military will be in a far stronger position than when all this started. We are on the streets. There is no turning back.
And here is Ewen MacAskill on the latest reaction from Barack Obama on Mubarak.
Barack Obama expressed dismay at the failure of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to stand down and said the Egyptian government has yet to put forward a "credible, concrete and unequivocal path to democracy", as Egypt braced itself for what demonstrators predicted would be the biggest protests yet.
Ian Black, the Guardian's Middle East editor, called Mubarak's speech "a bizarre performance".
Above all, the embattled president sang his own praises, reminding Egyptians – the silent majority – of his sacrifices as a war hero and his defence of the country's interests in peacetime. "I have lived for this nation," the former air force commander declared, visibly emotional about his own efforts. "I have exhausted my life defending the land and its sovereignty. I have faced death on my occasions. I never bent under foreign pressure. I never sought false power or popularity. I am certain that the majority of people are aware who Hosni Mubarak is." He clearly meant that those who were roaring their anger and disapproval for the world's TV cameras did not.
Slavoj Žižek of Birkbeck University asks: "Where are we now?"
When an authoritarian regime approaches the final crisis, its dissolution tends to follow two steps. Before its actual collapse, a rupture takes place: all of a sudden people know that the game is over, they are simply no longer afraid. It is not only that the regime loses its legitimacy; its exercise of power itself is perceived as an impotent panic reaction. We all know the classic scene from cartoons: the cat reaches a precipice but goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is no ground under its feet; it starts to fall only when it looks down and notices the abyss. When it loses its authority, the regime is like a cat above the precipice: in order to fall, it only has to be reminded to look down …
Plus: • Egypt's day of rumour and expectation ends in anger and confusion
• Egypt's economy suffers as strikes intensify• Editorial: The army's fateful choice
9.07am: The April 6 youth movement has issued a furious response to Mubarak's speech last night. In a communique sent to its Facebook followers it says "a general strike is needed to bring him down".
Mubarak's speech was an astonishing piece of hypocritical filth. This man who sat atop of the regime which brutalised his people for 30 years, and tried in the last 17 days to destroy the movement any way that it could shed crocodile tears for the people that his police had killed. Over 300 people have died to force him from power, and after cursing the movement and trying to drown them in blood he addresses his speech to the "youth of the nation". These are the youth of the nation who have risen up against him and hate him with a passion – they have nothing in common with him or his regime. They are the future and he is the past, that is why he has fought against them so violently. | Famous Person - Give a speech | February 2011 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The Guardian)'] |
A suicide bombing in the Iraqi town of Tuz Khormato kills at least eight policemen. | A suicide bomber has killed eight Kurdish police in northern Iraq after targeting a convoy, officials say.
The attack took place in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, about 70km (45 miles) south of Kirkuk, and also wounded nine officers, district official Shahal Abdul told news agency AFP.
The town is in an area that is a source of dispute between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish minority.
This year has been one of the deadliest across Iraq, with thousands killed.
Although violence has decreased across the country since the peak of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, bombings are still common.
More than 700 people have been killed in July alone.
The suicide bomber blew up his car in Tuz Khurmatu close to a three-vehicle police convoy, officials said.
Tuz Khurmatu is part of an area disputed between the government in Baghdad and ethnic Kurds, who inhabit a semi-autonomous region in the north and claim territory in four other nearby regions.
In January a suicide bomber killed at least 23 people in the town. Last month, at least 10 people were killed after two suicide bombers targeted a protest camp near the town. The protesters were ethnic Turkmen demanding better security for the area.
| Riot | July 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in New York's 9th congressional district go to the polls for a special election to replace former member of the United States House of Representatives Anthony Weiner with Republican Bob Turner winning a tight race with Democrat David Weprin | As voters went to the polls in a closely watched special election in the heavily Democratic House district last represented by Anthony D. Weiner, the Republican candidate expressed confidence that an upset was within reach, while his Democratic opponent played down the anxiety in his party and predicted that a strong turnout effort would propel him to victory. A victory on Tuesday by the Republican, Bob Turner, in a traditional Democratic stronghold like New York State’s Ninth Congressional District would reinforce concern among Democrats that President Obama’s standing with voters may have deteriorated substantially, and Mr. Turner urged voters to send just such a message.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2011 | ['(New York Times)', '(The Atlantic Monthly)', '(AP)'] |
Los Angeles Police announce that they have arrested Lonnie David Franklin, Jr., suspected to be the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, yesterday. He is arraigned on various murder charges. | (CNN) -- The arrest of a suspect in the Grim Sleeper serial killings ends a quarter-century of "terror" for Los Angeles, the city's mayor said Thursday.
Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, made his first appearance Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court on murder and attempted murder charges. He was ordered held without bail pending an arraignment scheduled for August 9.
"For the last 25 years, one man preyed on the innocent and stole the lives of women living in some of our toughest neighborhoods," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters Thursday.
"Today, I'm proud to announce that this terror has finally come to an end," he added.
Nicknamed for taking long breaks between attacks, the Grim Sleeper is believed responsible for at least 11 deaths since 1985 in south Los Angeles. The killer targeted black women, some working as prostitutes, using the same small caliber weapon. The police had DNA of the killer for years, but no one to match it. Villaraigosa, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and California Attorney General Jerry Brown praised police for the arrest at a news conference Thursday. Authorities said a DNA match from a database Brown championed tied Franklin to the killings, and the attorney general said the case demonstrates the value of the sometimes-controversial tool. Brown said California's familial DNA search program led to the identification and arrest of Franklin.
The program -- which was enacted in 2008 against opposition from civil rights groups -- uses the DNA of family members to find suspects in cases of great risk to the public, Brown's office said in a press release.
"We're going to fight to protect this technology, and next week my office will be in court defending another form of DNA technology," said Brown, a former governor now running for the office again. Using the DNA of one of Franklin's family members, who had been convicted of a felony weapons charge, investigators established a familial connection between the family member and DNA collected at the murder scenes, the statement said. That connection was used to identify and arrest Franklin after his DNA was obtained.
"This arrest provides proof positive that familial DNA searches must be a part of law enforcement's crime-fighting arsenal. Although the adoption of this new state policy was unprecedented and controversial, in certain cases, it is the only way to bring a dangerous killer to justice," Brown said.
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley said detectives then used a piece of discarded pizza with Franklin's DNA to make the link, according to CNN affiliate KTLA. Examine CNN's interactive evidence case file on the Grim Sleeper
One of the Grim Sleeper's victims was Alicia Alexander, 18, who was killed in September 1988. She left her home in South Central Los Angeles to run to a nearby store and disappeared. Her body was found four days later. Police said she was sexually assaulted and shot once in the chest. Overcome with emotion, Alexander's father Porter Alexander reacted on Wednesday.
"It just -- it was such a good relief," he said.
Franklin is a former city trash collector who at one time worked as a garage attendant at an LAPD station. His arrest came as a shock to neighbors, KTLA reported.
Margaret Prescod, who founded the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders and worked with the families of victims in the case, said the Grim Sleeper Task Force informed her of the arrest Wednesday.
Prescod said Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, head of the task force, told her that unlike a previous arrest in the case that turned out to be wrong, he was sure they had gotten their man this time.
"He told me that what they have is very solid," Prescod said.
Prescod said she is "cautiously optimistic" because an arrest years ago in the case, which police touted as solidly based on ballistics evidence, turned out to be false.
If Franklin turns out to be the Grim Sleeper, "It would be a huge relief, not only for the [victims' families], but for the entire community that remained at threat," Prescod said.
"We are mortified that it has taken this long to make an arrest, but nevertheless, one is always glad when there is a breakthrough and we can only hope right now that it is a solid breakthrough."
Prescod met with victims' family members, who had many questions, but were asked by officials not to speak to the media until the news conference Thursday, she said. She said some relatives of the victims screamed and shouted on the phone when she told them the news.
Aerial footage on Wednesday showed police searching cars in the garage of the suspect's home in south Los Angeles -- not far from the corridor where the victims' bodies were dumped.
Prescod said much of her organization's efforts focused on the area near Franklin's home.
"We went around there, going door-to-door to make sure people knew about the murders. At the time that we did that, most of the people hadn't even heard about the murders and people were concerned because they felt -- this is happening and we frankly don't know anything about it."
The LAPD confirmed that they are also searching a second home in the area listed under Franklin's name.
A 911 call made in 1987, reporting one of the murders, led police to a van they believed was involved. But the trail went cold.
In recent years, officials struggled to find new leads partially because the changing makeup of the neighborhood where the crimes were committed made it difficult to find witnesses, police said.
In May, new composite sketches of a suspect went up on billboards across Los Angeles as police intensified their hunt for the serial killer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
Englishwoman Georgia Hall wins the 2018 Women's British Open golf championship. | Women’s golf in Britain owes a debt of gratitude to Royal Lytham & St Annes. Nine years after Catriona Matthew lifted the British Open trophy at the Lancashire links Georgia Hall delivered another home victory. Hall is only the third player from her home nation to win this major. She has scope to make the biggest difference, if only by virtue of her youth.
At 22 Hall has the potential to be an inspiring figure for a generation of emerging players. The highest compliment one can pay her Sunday shootout with Pornanong Phatlum is that for long spells it bore an uncanny resemblance to the classic Open Championship battle between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon in 2016.
Hall’s closing 67 was sufficient to take the title by two shots. An aggregate of 17 under, stunning in itself on what is regarded as the toughest of the Women’s British Open venues, was achieved by four sub-70 rounds. Phatlum, who had kept pace with Hall from the onset of day four, stumbledto a double-bogey six at the 17th, thereby allowing her rival a three-stroke lead.
Even Hall’s dropped shot at the last proved immaterial; British golf has a new superstar. The next highest Briton at this major, Bronte Law, finished 39th.
“I just told myself to stay calm the whole way round and not to think about anything,” Hall said. “I thought I would cry but no, I’m just over the moon.
“It’s incredible. I had so much support today from all the people backing me and supporting me and cheering my name. I’m just so grateful. I’m so over the moon it’s hard to put into words.
“It was great seeing so many young girls out there watching. If I can be a role model for them, great. It is too good to be true. It was my goal when I was nine to win the British Open. I am so happy.”
A personal message followed. “There’s someone special at home who’s going through a very bad time, so this is for you, Grandad,” said the champion.
Hall, whose father Wayne – he named his daughter in honour of Nick Faldo’s Masters success in Augusta, Georgia, in 1996 – had assumed caddie duties all week, has emerged from humble beginnings in Bournemouth. Like Matthew she is also a former British Ladies Amateur champion.
The order of merit title on the Ladies European Tour last year was the key to taking on the United States-based LPGA Tour this year. The key event transpired 12 months ago; Hall’s third‑place finish at the Women’s British Open, then at Kingsbarns, convinced her she could prevail at this major. In highlighting Hall’s rapid progress she had survived for only 36 holes of the Women’s British Open in 2015 and 2016.
Phatlum barely stopped smiling throughout the tournament. That remained the case even in defeat. The Thai player’s prominence was extraordinary in itself given that seven previous appearances in the major had delivered six missed cuts and a share of 27th place. This marked quite a turnaround.
“Georgia played so amazing today, everything was perfect,” the runner‑up said. “She is from here and everyone was rooting for her. I’m so happy she won. This is going to be a big experience for me. I got very nervous today and didn’t play so well on the back nine.”
The world No 1, Ariya Jutanugarn, signed off with a 69 for a nine-under total and share of fourth. So Yeon Ryu claimed third, at 13 under, after a Sunday 70 which included a triple‑bogey seven at the 3rd. “I think I fought back really, really well and I’m happy to finish top three in this tournament,” Ryu said. “That was one crazy round of golf.” | Sports Competition | August 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Kevin Barry wins one of the world's richest literary awards, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. | Barry, who is originally from Limerick and now lives in Sligo, won for his debut novel, City of Bohane.
"Kevin Barry's Ireland of 2053 is a place you may not want to be alive in, but you'll certainly relish reading about," commented the judges.
The prize is open to novels in any language which have been published in, or translated into, English.
Barry, the author of two award-winning short story collections, beat competition from 153 titles, nominated by 160 libraries from 44 countries.
"The fact that this award originates with the libraries is what makes it very special for me - libraries are where we learn that we can live our lives through books," said Barry.
He is the third Irish author to win the prize, which is organised by Dublin city libraries on behalf of Dublin City Council. It was awarded to Colm Toibin in 2006 for The Master, and to Colum McCann in 2011 for Let the Great World Spin.
Other previous winners include Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor in 2012 and The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker 2010.
"I'm thrilled to see an Irish author of such immense talent take home this year's award," said the Lord Mayor and patron of the award, Naoise O Muiri.
"City of Bohane is a vivid, atmospheric portrayal of a city in the west of Ireland set in the future but mired in the past. "The highly original cast of characters are at once flamboyant and malevolent, speaking in a vernacular like no other," he added.
| Awards ceremony | June 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Abdo Hussameddin, the Syrian deputy oil minister, announces that he is resigning and joining the Opposition. | A Syrian deputy oil minister says he is resigning to join the revolt against the government. Abdo Hussameddin, 58, announced his defection in a video posted on YouTube.
He is the highest level political figure to abandon the government of President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising erupted a year ago.
Earlier, after a visit to the city of Homs, the UN humanitarian chief said some areas had been "devastated" in the offensive by Syrian government troops.
Valerie Amos said the bombed-out Baba Amr district, which was heavily shelled by before being retaken from rebels by government troops, felt like it had been closed down entirely.
"The devastation there is significant, that part of Homs is completely destroyed and I am concerned to know what has happened to the people who live in that part of the city," Baroness Amos told Reuters news agency. Activists say troops committed massacres after they went in to the district, but Damascus blames the rebels for many deaths.
On Thursday, a network of Syrian activists, the Local Co-ordination Committees, said 44 people were killed in what it called a "new massacre" by security forces in the Jobar district of Homs. It said the deaths were among 56 latest fatalities in the crackdown across Syria.
International media organisations are heavily restricted in Syria, making it impossible to verify the claims of either side.
The UN says more than 7,500 people have died as a result of the violence in Syria over the past 12 months. Abdo Hussameddin, who is one of two deputy oil ministers, posted his video on YouTube late on Wednesday.
Wearing a jacket, collar and tie, and sitting in a high-backed armchair, he read out a four-minute denunciation of the regime he said he had served in one capacity or another for the past 33 years. "I, Abdo Hussameddin, deputy oil and mineral wealth minister in Syria, announce my defection from the regime, resignation from my position and withdrawal from the Baath Party," he said.
"I am joining the revolution of the people who reject injustice and the brutal campaign of the regime."
Mr Hussameddin, who had served as deputy oil minister since August 2009, added: "I tell the regime, which claims to own the country, you have nothing but the footprint of the tank driven by your barbarism to kill innocent people."
He said he was stepping aside although he knew that his house would be burnt and his family persecuted by the regime.
An activist who shot the video and posted it on YouTube told AFP news agency in Beirut that the opposition had helped to arrange the resignation.
The Syrian government has not publicly commented on Mr Hussameddin's announcement.
Observers say public defections have been rare among civilian officials of the Syrian state, which is controlled by President Assad's minority Alawite sect.
However, there have been high-profile defections from the military, including Gen Mustapha al-Sheikh who fled to Turkey earlier this year. Also thousands of chiefly Sunni soldiers and conscripts are reported to have deserted since the start of the uprising.
A spokeswoman from the opposition National Transitional Council of Syria said she believed many more cabinet members and their deputies were prepared to defect.
The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says the deputy minister's resignation would appear to signal growing strains within the regime, as the violence intensifies, and the economy comes under increasing stress because of sanctions.
In further diplomatic efforts to halt the violence, special envoy Kofi Annan is due to meet representatives of both sides in Damascus at the weekend.
Speaking after talks in Cairo on Thursday, Mr Annan, joint envoy for the UN and Arab League, rejected military intervention in Syria.
"I hope no-one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation. I believe further militarisation will make the situation worse," he said after meeting Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi. Separately, Beijing announced on Thursday that its envoy had talks in Syria this week with representatives of the government and the opposition.
China's foreign ministry said envoy Li Huaxin met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and his deputy during a two-day visit.
Observers say Mr Li's visit is Beijing's latest attempt to counter charges by Western and Arab leaders that by vetoing two previous UN resolutions, China and Russia have aided the growing violence by Syrian government forces. UNHCR | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
On the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, thousands of students across the United States walk out of school to protest against school shootings. | On Friday, at 10 a.m. local time, students across the country walked out of their classrooms to protest what they see as continuing inaction to combat gun violence.
The action, titled the National School Walkout, comes 19 years to the day of the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado when 13 students were killed on April 20, 1999.
At the time, Columbine was the deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history, but it has since been surpassed by the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people.
After the Parkland massacre, survivors organized a national action with a similar name: Enough! National School Walkout, which took place on March 14, a month after the shooting.
Unlike that walkout, where students left their classes for 17 minutes to commemorate the 17 Parkland victims, participants in Friday’s event left school for the day and will not return.
Although organizers of today’s protest weren’t alive during the Columbine tragedy, they see the shooting as a grim pivotal event that ushered in the epidemic of shootings across the country — and they are determined to put a stop to them.
“We can rise up together and declare, with one ringing voice, that the age of national indifference towards the ever-growing death toll is over. We can change America forever, all before we reach 20 years of age.”
“Keeping up the momentum is important,” Connecticut sophomore Lane Murdock, the student who conceived Friday’s walkout, told USA Today. “We saw that low after March for Our Lives” — the student-led series of demonstrations for gun violence prevention on March 24 — “but students aren’t quitting on this. Our generation is demanding change and won’t be ignored or swept under the rug.”
More than 2,600 National School Walkout events were planned around the country with tens of thousands of students expected to be involved, according to the event’s website. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2018 | ['(NBC News)', '(People.com)'] |
Canadian pop star Justin Bieber wins four awards at the American Music Awards. | Bieber, 16, who beat Eminem, Usher, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga to artist of the year, also won best pop album, best pop male, and breakthrough artist.
He said he had "been singing Eminem since I was three and Usher is my mentor - so this is big".
Eminem led the field with five nods alongside country band Lady Antebellum. He won two awards as did Usher.
Eminem, 38 - who did not attend the ceremony at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles - won best male hip-hop artist and the hip-hop album prize for Recovery.
Usher, 32, meanwhile, won best male R&B singer and the R&B album award for Raymond v Raymond while Lady Antebellum walked away with one award - for best country band.
British band Muse won the alternative rock prize.
Collecting his breakthrough artist award, Bieber - whose album My World 2.0 has sold almost 2 million copies in the US since its release in March - said: "I'm from the smallest town in the world of, like, 30,000 people.
"I never thought this was possible."
Bieber, who was brought up in Stratford, Ontario, now lives in the US.
Picking up his best pop male prize later in the evening, he thanked Michael Jackson, who last year won four posthumous gongs at the awards.
"Without Michael Jackson, none of us would be here," he said.
Other winners included best pop band the Black Eyed Peas - who performed new single The Time - and best country female Taylor Swift, who was last year's big winner with five gongs.
Swift, 20, performed her new single, Back to December, and incorporated OneRepublic hit Apologize.
Other performers on the night included 1990s boy bands New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys who sang together.
Meanwhile, Rihanna - winner of best R&B female - performed a medley of songs from album Loud.
A pregnant Pink performed Raise Your Glass, Kid Rock gave an acoustic performance of Times Like These and Katy Perry used pyrotechnics to play her latest single Firework.
In the absence of Lady Gaga, who did not turn up to pick up her best pop female prize, Kesha gave perhaps the most bizarre performance of the night.
She sported a motorcycle helmet with light beams for eyes as she sang her hit Take It Off.
She then stripped off to reveal a mirrored outfit and was joined by a gang of male dancers dressed like her - complete with fishnet stocking and blonde wigs.
Other winners on the night included Michael Buble, who won best contemporary artist, and Shakira who picked up the Latin music gong.
Bieber wins American Music Awards
| Awards ceremony | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma kills at least 110 people and leaves hundreds injured. , , , , | More than 80 people have been killed and hundreds more injured following a series of air raids in the market town of Douma, in Syria. The strikes were carried out by the Syrian military today, 16 August, on the opposition-held town which is seven miles from the capital, Damascus.
At least 200 people have been injured in the attacks. The death toll continues to rise as many of the wounded are in serious condition, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The regime carried out four air strikes against a market in the centre of Douma," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the UK-based organisation. "The preliminary information suggests most of the dead are civilians," he added.
A video posted by activists on Twitter shows footage of the wreckage following the strike. Rubble and twisted metal lay strew along the intersection, as emergency services help the injured. The air is thick with dust as silhouettes of wounded people come out of the debris to seek help.
#BREAKING four devastating fuel air bombs in Douma (Damascus countryside). 55 killed, 300 wounded. https://t.co/dR7R5cEY1E
Significant damage seems to have been caused to buildings and several vehicles lay overturned. A Douma-based activist known as Mazen al-Shami said that the situation is "catastrophic" and that hundreds of people were in the main market when the first missile struck, according to AP reports.
Emergency services are overwhelmed and many of the clinics are full, with people being rushed to medical facilities in civilian cars, al-Shami added. Mosque loudspeakers are issuing appeals for people to donate all types of blood.
The rebel-controlled town of Douma has been the focus of regular air raids and helicopter barrel bomb attacks in recent months by Syrian government forces. The civil war in Syria is now in its fifth year and has now claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and injured at least one million. | Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(The International Business Times)', '(Reuters)', '(Xinhua)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
A grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky, indicts former police officer Brett Hankison on felony charges of wanton endangerment for firing into a neighboring apartment, but no officers are charged directly with Breonna Taylor's death. A large police presence is seen in Louisville as protests continue. | LOUISVILLE, Ky.For five months, the demand has echoed across Louisville and around the country: "Arrest the cops who killedBreonna Taylor."
On Wednesday, they got their answer.
A Jefferson Countygrand jury Wednesday indictedBrett Hankison, 44,on three counts offirst-degree wanton endangerment. Jurors saidseveral bullets he fired outside Taylor's apartment March 13 went into a neighboringunitwhere a pregnant woman, a man and a child were home.
But neither he nor two other Louisville officers who fired their weapons atTaylor's apartment Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove were charged with killing Taylor, an unarmed Black woman.
And Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameronmade it clear he expects no further criminal chargesto be filed in connection with the events at Taylor's apartment that night.
Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency roomtechnician, was shot six times by the officers and died in the hallway of her South Louisville apartmentduring an attempted LMPD search for drugs and cash that went horribly wrong.
Immediately after the 1:15 p.m. announcement Wednesday, protesters at downtown's Jefferson Squareexpressed their frustrationand began to march through downtown. Trash can fires were lit in the evening as several hundred people marched through the city.
The latest:Mom's lawyer says AG needs to 'learn the law of self-defense,' 2 reporters among more than 100 arrests in Louisville
ForTaylor's family, attorneysand the protesters who have taken to Louisville's streets for 119consecutive days, the grand jury's indictment was a bitter disappointment.
A week after celebratingthe city of Louisville's $12 million settlementwith Taylor's family that included more than a dozen police reforms, emotions tumbled.
"If Brett Hankison's behavior was wanton endangerment to people in neighboring apartments, then it should have been wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylor's apartment too," family attorney Ben Crump wrote on Twitter.
"In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder!"
But Cameron, whose office has been investigating the officers' conduct at Taylor's apartment for four months, pushed back. In a televised news conference from Frankfort, he said the criminal justice system "isn't the quest for revenge," and he cautioned those angered by the outcome.
"Our reaction to the truth today says what kind of society we want to be: Do we really want the truth, or do we want a truth that fits our narrative? Do we want the facts, or are we content to blindly accept our own version of events?"
More:'Vigorous' self-defense laws likely prevented homicide charges in Breonna Taylor's death, experts say
Later Wednesday, President Donald Trump called Cameron"brilliant" andcommended his handling of the case, applauding the attorney general's statement that"justice is not often easy."
“I said, ‘Write that down for me, please, 'cause I think it was a terrific statement,’” the president said in an evening news conference.
At 4:30 p.m.Hankison was bookedinto the Shelby County jail. He was released by 5:02p.m. after posting $15,000 cash bond.
Stewart Mathews, a Cincinnati attorney, is representing Hankison andsaid Cameron did "an excellent job" describing his handling of the case and its conclusions. "He said he presented the evidence to the grand jury and didn't try to influence them one way or another, which I appreciate very much, based on prior cases I've been involved with in the past where that was not necessarily the case from the prosecutors," Stewart said.
Hankison will be entering a not guilty plea, Stewart said.
Wanton endangerment is a Class D felony and carries a penalty of one to five years in prison. The grand jury charges Jefferson Circuit Judge Annie O'Connell read said that Hankison "wantonly shot a gun" into Apartment 3 next to Taylor's unit.
The occupants who Hankison is charged with threatening with his errant shots were identified by their initials. None of them was BT Breonna Taylor.
Breonna's family dismayed by indictment:'I'm mad as hell because nothing's changing'
Those same bulletscost Hankison his job in June. LMPD interimChief Robert Schroeder fired him for "blindly" shooting 10 rounds into Taylor's apartment and the adjoining unit.
Crime scene photos from the aftermath of the shooting show the neighbor'sshattered sliding glass door, with at least five bullet holes puncturing the glass, vertical blindsand curtains, while five more rounds went through a covered bedroom window.
Those bullets also penetrated into Apartment 3, where the patio door at the back of the apartment was shattered. A clock on the wall was struck twice, and the dining table was hit at least once, photos showed.
None of the three residents was injured, but they did file a Maylawsuit against the LMPD officersclaiming the shots were "blindly fired"and nearly hit a man inside. Chelsey Napper was pregnant and had a child in the apartmentat the time, according to the lawsuit.
Attorneys for Taylor's family expressed dismay and confusion at the grand jury's conclusion.
"I can’t make it make sense in my head," attorney Lonita Baker wrote on Facebook. "Wanton endangerment to a neighboring apartment constitutes wanton endangerment to Breonna."
'Absolutely heartbreaking':Ruling in Breonna Taylor shooting sparks new wave of national protests for justice, racial equality
Sam Aguiar, Baker's co-counsel, added "way to really rub it in" and apologized to Taylor's family members.
"Three counts for the shots into the apartment of the white neighbors, but no counts for the shots into the apartment of the Black neighbors upstairs above Breonna’s. Let alone everything else you got wrong," Aguiar wrote.
"This isn't right, and I should've done more."
Crime scene photos indicate at least one bullet traveled through the ceiling of Taylor's apartment and into the one upstairs.
Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, hadpreviously pushed Cameron"to get all the facts, to get the truth and to get justice for Breonna."
She said after an August meeting with Cameron that she was more confident after meeting with him that "truth will come out and that justice will be served."
But on Wednesday, a visibly upset Palmer traveled to Cameron's announcement in Frankfort and left without commenting. Attorneys for the Taylor family said they would not be talking or issuing a statement.
Taylor's sister, Juniyah Palmer, posted a picture on Instagram of her with Breonna, saying, "Sister, I am so sorry."
Cameron said he'd met with family members of Taylor's before his press conference, calling it a hard and difficult meeting, but he declined to share specifics.
"I certainly understand the pain that has been brought about by the tragic loss of Ms. Taylor," he said.
"I understand that as a Black man, how painful this is. Which is why it was so incredibly important to make sure that we did everything we possibly could to uncover every fact."
Cameron said the grand jury decidedhomicide charges were not applicable because the investigation showed Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in shooting back after they were fired upon by Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend.
Walker hassaid he didn't knowpolice were on the other side ofthe door when officers used a battering ram to bust it in.
In total, police fired 32 shots into Taylor's apartment.
From the doorway, Mattingly fired six shots and Cosgrove fired 16 "in a matter of seconds," according to Cameron's investigation.From outside, Hankison shot 10 more.
Of the sixshots that struck Taylor, Cameron said only one was fatal. (He noted the sixth shot was a "projectile" lodged in one of Taylor's feet, despite her death certificate listing five shots as the cause of death.)
A Kentucky State Police analysis did not identifywhich of the three officers fired the fatal shot, but the FBI crime lab concluded it came from Cosgrove. Cameron said this creates a "reasonable doubt" of who actually killed Taylor.
Cameron noted there was "nothing conclusive to say" that any of Hankison's 10 shotshit Taylor.
The attorney general also rebutted the idea, suggested by Walker's civil attorney, that Mattingly was struck in his femoral artery by friendly fire. The officers fired .40-caliber handguns; Mattingly was struck by a 9 mm round.
"Justice is not often easy and does not fit the mold of public opinion. And it does not conform to shifting standards," Cameron said. "I know that not everyone will be satisfied with the charges we've reported today."
Cameron also said his investigation did not delve into the process of obtaining the warrant that led police to break down Taylor's door. Instead, federal law enforcement is examining that aspect of the case and any potential civil rights violations.
Cameron, a Republican elected in November as the commonwealth's top law enforcement official, announced he would create a task force to "review the process for securing, reviewing and executing search warrants in Kentucky."
Gov. Andy Beshear, a former attorney general before being elected governor in November, called on Cameronto make as much of his office's findings publicas possible.
"Everyone can and should be informed, and those that are currently feeling frustration, feeling hurt, they deserve to know more," hesaid. "I trust Kentuckians. They deserve to see the facts for themselves, and I believe that the ability to process those facts helps everybody."
State Rep. Charles Booker, who ran for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said "justice failed us today."
"It failed us in a way that it has been failing us for generations," hesaid.
There is no justifying Taylor's death at the hands of police, he said. Booker has participated in the ongoing demonstrations in Louisville.
"Keep demanding change … but don't be quiet, don't slow down, and most importantly, lean in with love," he said. "Breonna, thank you for being the light. We'll keep fighting to honor your name."
Fact check:Debunking 8 widely shared rumors in the Breonna Taylorshooting
As the grand jury's decision was announced around 1:15p.m., around 200 protesters gathered at Jefferson Square Park, where there's a Breonna Taylor memorial,to listen to the judge's words over a loudspeaker.
At first, there was confusion, then anger from those gathered.
“Is that it?” one woman asked.
Protesters almost immediately began chanting, "No justice, no peace." Several cried at the grand jury decision.
"I'm heartbroken," Logan Cleaver, a protester, said Wednesday immediately after the grand jury's decision was announced. "This is not a justice system if it's not for everybody."
AtTaylor’s former apartment complex, resident Renee Pruitt said Wednesday’s wanton endangerment charges amounted to a “slap on the wrist.”
Pruitt, 39, a health care worker was there with her children the night Taylor was shot, awaking to gunfire. She was among those who called 911.
Her apartment was upstairs from Taylor across an open stairwell. It wasn’t hit, but others were which she said was terrifying.
Standing outside a shrine of poems, flowers, a Black Lives Matter sign and artwork of Taylor, Pruitt said she learned of the grand jury’s decision while working downtown, before they were sent home for possible unrest.
“My head just dropped,” she said.“You blindly shot into this apartment, and not to mention other peoples’ and you get three counts of wanton endangerment?
“Breonna deserves more than that.”
In anticipation of Cameron's announcement, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer invoked a72-hour curfew, effective Wednesday night, from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.
The uncertainty swirling around the decision has drawn both local and international attention as protesters have marched and chanted on Louisville's streets for 119 consecutive days.
Protesters in Louisville and supporters across the U.S. have called for "justice for Breonna" and other Black Americans, such as George Floyd in Minneapolis,who have been killed by police.
Taylor's death and the ensuing protests have been showcased in news reports and in public statements by celebrities, athletes, sports leagues and politiciansfrom Joe Biden to Beyonce to LeBron James, allcalling for justice and the arrest of the officers who shot the unarmed Louisville woman.
In the past week, the tension escalated to an unnerving pitch as national network crews arrived in Louisville and rumors spreadwildly that a decision was imminent,only to be proven wrong again and again.
Wednesday's announcement comes as imagesof a restricted downtown Louisville have flashed across the world.
Schroeder, the interim police chief, said the restrictions, long plannedamid “unprecedented times,” were meantto protect public safety,property, protesters and avoidconflicts between drivers and demonstrators.
Protesters will still be able to access downtown on foot to demonstrate and retain their First Amendment rights, city officials said.
“I hope all of this is not needed,” Schroeder said.
Through it all, Cameron has stayed quiet. Until the decision came down. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2020 | ['(USA Today)', '(CNN)'] |
The Brisbane River breaks its banks in the state capital Brisbane, prompting flood warnings for its central business district as well as several suburbs. , | BRISBANE, Australia (Reuters) - Thousands of residents of Australia’s third-largest city evacuated homes on Wednesday as massive floods threatened to inundate the financial district, sparked panic buying of food and left authorities despairing for more than 90 people missing.
The biggest floods in decades have so far killed 14 people since starting their devastating march across the northern mining state of Queensland last month, crippling the coking coal industry, destroying infrastructure, putting a brake on the economy and sending the local currency to four-week lows.
With a flood surge expected to peak in the Queensland capital of Brisbane, a city of two million, on Thursday, search and rescue crews took advantage of rare sunshine on Wednesday to look for those still missing from tsunami-like flash floods that tore through townships west of the city this week.
“I think we’re all going to be shocked by what they find in these towns that were hit by that tsunami yesterday,” Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh told local television on Wednesday.
The worsening floods are forcing economists to raise estimates of the economic impact, with one central bank board member quoted on Wednesday as saying the disaster could cost as much as 1 percent of economic growth -- equal to almost $13 billion, double the previous highest estimate.
The Australian dollar sank to a fresh four-week low of $0.9803 on the comments from Warren McKibbin, an academic and a member of the central bank’s policy making board.
In Brisbane, thousands of homes and businesses were inundated as swirling flood waters rose in and around the riverside city, triggering residents to flee with few possessions to higher ground and evacuation centers.
City Mayor Campbell Newman said the number of homes expected to be hit by flooding had risen to 19,700, affecting up to 45,000 people, with the military now running relief flights with helicopters and C-130 transports.
Dams built to protect communities are at bursting point.
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Power company Energex has shut power to some low-lying areas of Brisbane, including parts of the financial district, for fear that live power lines could electrify floodwaters. Up to 100,000 homes in Brisbane and nearby Ipswich were without electricity.
‘TERRIFYING, CHAOS’
Bligh said the Brisbane River, which winds through the city center, should peak at the high tide on Thursday around mid-afternoon, with thousands of properties to be inundated before that time, but she appealed for calm.
“Right across this region, this river is creating chaos, terrifying people and causing damage already,” she said.
Unmoored boats and pontoons with speedboats still attached could be seen adrift on the Brisbane River, which was swirling with flotsam as the sun broke through on Wednesday for what was expected, allowing rescue helicopters into the air.
Showers, though, were forecast to return next week.
Some scenes in the city were surreal with early-morning joggers trying to carry on as normal, despite parts of the their routes being submerged.
Amy Cotterill, a waitress at a central Brisbane cafe, said she was unsure about the fate of the city, with flood levels of around 4.5 meters expected on Wednesday and worse to come.
“They make it sound like it’s going to be bad, cutting power and so on,” she said, adding that so far her home in the Hawthorn area of the city was on dry ground.
Hundreds of people were evacuated overnight from homes at Ipswich, west of Brisbane, with a third of the town expected to go under water as the Bremer River peaks.
Further south, in neighboring New South Wales state, entire communities were evacuated around Grafton and Maclean, as the Clarence River swelled, catching emergency teams by surprise.
In southeast Victoria state, heavy rain caused flash flooding around the town of Horsham, prompting fears a nearby lake could break its banks, while in Western Australia authorities fought bushfires in a summer of extremes.
Thin lines of sandbags surrounded some businesses in downtown Brisbane, with some motorists braving flooded streets.
“There is nothing we can do about it,” said Ricardo Rindu, who runs a Latin Restaurant on Melbourne Street. “I tried ringing the council for sandbags but there was no answer.”
Floodwaters entered the lobby of Brisbane’s Cutting Edge TV production house. A day earlier workers had tried desperately to sandbag the glass-front building full of high-tech equipment.
Some residents wheeled shopping carts and carried bags laden with food as supermarkets ran out of staples such as milk and bread. Food prices are surging around the country as the floods ruin crops in Queensland and sever distribution networks.
Police were starting to close off more streets in the center of Brisbane as some streets were flooded with knee-high water.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard arrived in the city to inspect the devastation and said she was deeply concerned about the impact of the flood on jobs and livelihoods.
“I have been shocked. I think we’ve all been shocked by the images of that wall of water just wreaking such devastation. The dimensions of it are truly mind-boggling,” Gillard said.
“We will have to work through the long-term economic impacts for Queensland, and of course the huge infrastructure re-building task to come as floodwaters subside.”
(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in CANBERRA and Balazs Koranyi and Amy Pyett in SYDNEY)
Writing by Rob Taylor; Editing by Mark Bendeich
| Floods | January 2011 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(Reuters)'] |
Officials give no hope for the missing migrants of yesterday's fatal boat disaster off Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. | Hopes of finding survivors are fading after a boat carrying scores of migrants capsized in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, Italian officials say.
The search continues for more than a hundred missing migrants who were on board the boat which sank off the south Italian Island of Lampedusa. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said more than 50 people had so far been picked up by rescue vessels.
Officials say the boat departed from western Libya on Monday.
Twenty deaths have been confirmed.
"Our hope is of finding a survivor, maybe someone who held on to a piece of wreckage," said Pietro Carosia, head of the coast guard in Lampedusa.
Television images on Wednesday showed shaken-looking survivors wrapped in thermal blankets being helped off rescue boats in Lampedusa.
Italian officials have reported that the boat had been carrying about 200 people but the International Organization of Migration (IOM) put the figure at 300.
| Shipwreck | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
A judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia upholds the conviction of five men in connection with the Srebrenica massacre. | A judge at the UN Yugoslav tribunal has upheld the convictions of five men for their role in the Srebrenica massacre. Sentences for four of the men, high-ranking officials in the Bosnian Serb Army in 1995, were also confirmed.
They had appealed against their convictions in 2010 for a range of crimes including genocide.
About 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were killed in Srebrenica in just three days in 1995 - the worst atrocity on European soil since the Holocaust. Two of the men - Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa Beara - are among just a few to have been found guilty of genocide. They were sentenced to life for deliberately targeting and destroying groups of people based on their ethnicity. Those life sentences were confirmed on Friday, as were the sentences of 35 years for Drago Nikolic, and 13 years for Vinko Pandurevic. The sentence of the fifth man, Radivoge Miletic, was reduced from 19 to 18 years. The atrocity took place a few months before the end of the Bosnian war, when 20,000 refugees fled to Srebrenica to escape Serb forces.
It was an enclave protected by UN Dutch soldiers but was overrun by paramilitary troops led by the Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic - after which reports of atrocities began to emerge.
Some of the accused reported directly to Gen Mladic - who is himself currently on trial at the tribunal in The Hague, also accused of genocide.
The accused
Vujadin Popovic
Pleaded not guilty to all charges. Convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, violation of the laws or customs of war in June 2010; sentenced to life imprisonment
Ljubisa Beara Pleaded not guilty to all charges. Convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, violation of the laws or customs of war; sentenced to life imprisonment
Drago Nikolic Pleaded not guilty to all charges. Convicted of aiding and abetting genocide, crimes against humanity, violation of the laws or customs of war; sentenced to 35 years in jail
Radivoge Miletic
Pleaded not guilty to all charges. Convicted of crimes against humanity; sentenced to 19 years in jail
Vinko Pandurevic
Pleaded not guilty to all charges. Convicted of crimes against humanity and violation of the laws or customs of war; sentenced to 13 years in jail
Source: ICTY
Their lawyers argued that there had been a miscarriage of justice and that there were factual errors in the original judgement. They claimed that that one of the defendants was involved in a plea bargain designed to falsely incriminate the others.
Families of the victims were at court to hear the decision on the convicted men's appeals. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was set up to deal with war crimes in the Balkans. Timeline of Srebrenica siege:
6-8 July 1995: Bosnian Serb forces start shelling Srebrenica enclave
9 July: Bosnian Serbs step up shelling; thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees flee to Srebrenica
10 July: Dutch peacekeepers request UN air support after Bosnian Serbs shell Dutch positions. Large crowds of refugees gather around Dutch positions
11 July: More than 20,000 refugees flee to main Dutch base at Potocari. Serbs threaten to kill Dutch hostages and shell refugees after Dutch F-16 fighters bomb Serb positions. Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic enters Srebrenica and delivers ultimatum that Muslims must hand over weapons
12 July: An estimated 23,000 women and children are deported to Muslim territory; men aged 12-77 taken "for interrogation" and held in trucks and warehouses
13 July: First killings of unarmed Muslims take place near village of Kravica. Peacekeepers hand over some 5,000 Muslims sheltering at Dutch base in exchange for the release of 14 Dutch peacekeepers held by Bosnian Serbs
14 July: Reports of massacres start to emerge
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Syria announces Turkish civilian flights over Syrian territory are banned, days after Turkey intercepted a Syrian flight that was suspected to be carrying illegal cargo. | Turkish civilian planes are no longer allowed to fly over Syria, Damascus has said, amid growing tensions between the two neighbouring countries.
The ban took effect at midnight (2100GMT) on Saturday.
This comes just days after Turkey intercepted a Syrian-bound plane, claiming it carried Russian-made munitions for the Syrian army.
Syria has described the claim as a lie, challenging Ankara to put the seized goods on public view. The Syrian foreign ministry said its ban on Turkish flights was in retaliation for a similar move from Ankara. Turkey has not announced such a measure, although it has said it will continue to ground Syrian civilian planes it suspects are carrying military cargo.
Tensions have been recently rising between the two countries after a series of cross-border incidents.
Last week, there were several days of firing across the border after five Turkish civilians were killed by Syrian shelling.
Turkey's government has backed the Syrian opposition and called for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad.
In Syria itself, there were reports on Saturday that rebels had shot down a Syrian military jet outside Aleppo - the town at the centre of recent fighting. Footage posted online showed the burning wreckage of what appeared to be an aircraft, but the claim has not been independently verified.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has accused the government of President Assad of dropping cluster bombs - which are banned by more than 100 countries - into populated areas.
The group said there was a number of credible reports that the number of cluster bomb strikes had increased dramatically in recent days. Syria refuses to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use of such weapons.
In a separate development, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan told a conference in Istanbul that the UN's failure to act in Syria gave President Assad the green light to kill tens or hundreds of people every day.
Turkey may not be at war with Syria, but it is now increasingly involved in its neighbour's conflict, the BBC's James Reynolds in Turkey reports.
Mr Erdogan's comments come as the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, had talks in Istanbul with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to hear Ankara's perspective on the crisis.
No breakthroughs were expected, and none were reported after the meeting, our correspondent says.
1. The cluster bomb, in this case a CBU-87, is dropped from a plane and can fly about nine miles before releasing its load of about 200 bomblets.
2. The canister starts to spin and opens at an altitude between 1,000m and 100m, spraying the bomblets across a wide area.
3. Each bomblet is the size of a drink can and contains hundreds of metal pieces. When it explodes, it can cause deadly injuries up to 25m away.
More than 100 countries have signed a treaty banning the use of cluster munitions through the Convention on Cluster Munitions. | Government Policy Changes | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew resigns from the cabinet after 52 years. | Lee and fellow former prime minister Goh Chok Tong said in their joint resignation statement they wanted to leave a clean path for younger leaders.
"A younger generation wants to be more engaged in the decisions which affect them," they said. "After a watershed general election, we have decided to leave the cabinet and have a completely younger team of ministers to connect to and engage with this young generation."
The 87-year old Lee was prime minister from 1959 to 1990 after which Goh took over until 2004. Lee had been known as Minister Mentor while Goh was Senior Minister since 2004, and both won parliament seats in the May 7 election.
The ruling People's Action Party won 60 percent of the vote, down from 67 percent in 2006 and 75 percent in 2001. The Workers Party won six seats, the most the opposition has held since independence.
Lee's resignation marks the first time since 1959 that he hasn't been in Singapore's Cabinet and hails the coming-of-age of his son, 59-year-old Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
PAP leaders after the election have said they were surprised at the level of resentment some voters felt toward the government for its perceived arrogance and lack of collaboration with citizens. The Southeast Asia island is one of the world's richest countries, but soaring housing prices amid a surge of foreign workers have left poorer Singaporeans struggling.
Last month, Lee Kuan Yew warned voters in the Aljunied district that they would "repent" for five years if they voted for opposition candidates. Prime Minister Lee later distanced himself from his father's comments, but the opposition won all five of Aljunied's seats.
"The time has come for a younger generation to carry Singapore forward in a more difficult and complex situation," Lee and Goh said. "The Prime Minister and his team of younger leaders should have a fresh clean slate." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Salon)', '(China Daily)'] |
NATO launches four more air strikes on Tripoli. , | The Libyan capital Tripoli has experienced a series of heavy blasts and gunfire by what is thought to be Nato air missile strikes. Eyewitness reports say the five blasts took place in quick succession and are reported to have targeted the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi's compound.
Earlier, the UN aid chief called for a pause in hostilities to ease Libya's humanitarian crisis, and described the situation in the city of Misrata as dire.
Heavy explosions rock Tripoli. | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(AP via MSNBC)', '(BBC)'] |
A stabbing attack from March 17, leaves three dead and three wounded in New Bern, North Carolina, both the 18yearold attacker and victims were refugees from Myanmar . | NEW BERN, North Carolina (AP) A frantic and bloodied mother whose three young sons were killed in a machete attack jumped from an upstairs window and ran across the street for help, according to neighbors.
A couple, who, like the suspect and victims, were Burmese refugees, was startled Tuesday night by pounding on their door by the mother. They said she was bleeding from a wound in her back and asking for help.
"We were scared," said A Bu, who took in the mother and a surviving daughter while they waited for police to arrive.
The suspect, identified as 18-year-old Eh Lar Doh Htoo, attacked the family in their home Tuesday night. The brothers, ages 1, 5 and 12, were killed, police said.
New Bern Police Lt. Ronda Allen confirmed Thursday that a machete was used in the attack. She said the father of the children was away from the house at work during the attack.
AP Photo/Craven County Sheriff's Office
This booking mug provided by the Craven County Sheriff's Office, in North Carolina, shows Eh Lar Doh Htoo, 18, under arrest, Wednesday, March 18, 2015. Htoo is charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Other charges are also expected. Three children, ages 1, 5 and 12, were stabbed to death and two other people were wounded in a Burmese community in New Bern, N.C.
When officers arrived, he was still holding the weapon, New Bern Police Chief Toussaint Summers Jr. told The Associated Press.
Htoo also wounded the brothers' mother and their 14-year-old sister. Police said they don't know a motive for the attack and a language barrier hampered their investigation.
The sounds of screaming and dogs barking, followed by police sirens, awakened several neighbors who live in what they describe as a normally quiet neighborhood. The diverse neighborhood includes several families of Burmese refugees.
Htoo was charged with three counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Police said they don't know whether he has an attorney.
New Bern is a coastal town and home to about 1,900 Burmese refugees, who resettled in the area after fleeing persecution from the country once called Burma, now known as Myanmar.
"Anytime this happens in any community, any part of town, it's surprising," the police chief said.
The stabbings happened on a street of about 10 homes that face a railroad track and several dilapidated commercial buildings.
About 11 p.m. Tuesday, officers were called there to a report of a person with a knife. They entered the home and found two dead boys. A third died at a hospital.
Police did not release the victims' names.
Another neighbor said the suspect had scared his family by knocking on their door several times in the middle of the night.
"He's crazy," neighbor Ner Wah said Wednesday. "I told my wife: 'Be careful. Don't answer the door.'"
Wah said that like him, Htoo was a member of the Karen ethnic group, an oppressed people whose language has been banned back home.
Htoo once came to Wah's house during the day to ask him to help translate documents, but Wah said they weren't friends. | Armed Conflict | March 2015 | ['(Burma)', '(AP via MSN)'] |
Zimbabwe Football Association chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya is charged in relation to allegations of match–fixing. | Zifa Chief Executive Henrietta Rushwaya was suspended last week in relation to a national team tour of Malaysia in December. It is alleged players masqueraded as members of the genuine national squad, known as the Warriors and Rushwaya failed to intervene to stop the fraud. Ms. Rushwaya has denied any wrong doing and has vowed to clear her name. The Zimbabwe team lost 6-0 to Syria and 3-0 to Thailand during the tournament. The federation also alleges that Rushwaya signed a deal with a Swiss-based company to bring the Brazil team to Harare for a high-profile friendly international against the Warriors two days before the opening of the World Cup in neighbouring South Africa in June. Brazil won the match 3-0 but according to the federation, the country earned nothing because the Brazilians demanded an appearance fee and under the deal, the Swiss company had been pledged all the gate takings at the 50,000-seat national sports stadium in Harare. Rushwaya's lawyers have been given until Sept. 1 to study the allegations. What are these? | Sports Competition | August 2010 | ['(Zifa)', '(BBC Sport)'] |
Ard van der Steur the Minister of Security and Justice of the Netherlands resigns after allegedly misinforming the House of Representatives over the fallout of a payments scandal. | Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur has resigned in a row over a 2001 compensation payment to a convicted drug trafficker.
His departure is regarded as a blow to the government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte. His centre-right Liberal Party (VVD) is trailing in opinion polls ahead of a general election in March.
Mr van de Steur is the third member of Mr Rutte's government to resign over the scandal.
Former Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten and his junior minister, Fred Teeven, resigned in 2015 after misleading parliament over the 2001 deal.
The affair revolves around a deal prosecutors reached with a drug trafficker, Cees Helman, worth €2m (£1.7m; $2.1m).
Mr van de Steur has been criticised for his role in answers provided to parliament over the issue. He has denied advising certain information be withheld. PM Rutte has also come under fire from opposition politicians. The Freedom Party, led by anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders, is leading public opinion polls.
Dutch 'drug money' ministers resign
Dutch reject 'encryption backdoors'
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.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | January 2017 | ['(BBC News)'] |
An Australian motorcycle gang assaults and kills a man at Sydney Airport. | Police at the scene of the incident in Sydney airport
A man has been bludgeoned to death by a group of Australian motorcycle gang members in full view of dozens of people at Sydney airport.
Witnesses described bikers swinging poles "like swords" at each other's heads as the brawl spilled over two floors of Sydney's domestic terminal.
Four suspects have been arrested and the others are said to have fled.
Police believe the fight broke out when one group of bikers coming off a plane was ambushed by a rival gang. Police did not name any gangs thought to be involved, but Australian media reported that the brawl, on Sunday afternoon, was between the Hell's Angels and Comancheros gangs.
A 28-year-old man died in hospital from severe head injuries.
Police said about 15 gang members were involved in the fight, which was witnessed by about 50 people.
'Group of cowards'
Witnesses described how the gang used the metal bollards in the check-in area as weapons.
"They started grabbing the metal poles that break up the check-in area and swinging them almost like swords at each other's heads," Naomi Constantine told Australia's ABC news.
"I saw one of the men lying on the ground and another man came up with a pole and just started smashing it into his head."
Local police chief Peter Williams called the attack a "disgraceful act perpetrated by a group of cowards".
"A group of males have exited a plane and they were met by another group of males who we believe may be other motorcycle gang members," Detective Inspector Williams told reporters. | Armed Conflict | March 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
President of the United States Barack Obama signs an order to ease sanctions against Sudan, citing the country's efforts to "reduce internal conflict, improve humanitarian access to people requiring aid and curtail terrorism". | The White House said the move was intended to acknowledge Sudan's efforts to reduce internal conflict, improve humanitarian access to people requiring aid and curtail "terrorism".
The president signed an executive order implementing the measures on Friday.
The move is been seen as an effort by Mr Obama to strengthen ties with Sudan before he leaves office.
The White House in a statement said the easing of sanctions will be delayed by 25 weeks in order to give further incentives to the Sudanese government to continue its reforms.
Mr Obama said in a letter to members of Congress that sanctions introduced by President Clinton relating "to the policies and actions of the government of Sudan have been altered by Sudan's positive actions over the past six months". Economic sanctions were imposed against the country after the state was labelled a "sponsor of terrorism".
The penalties being suspended could be re-imposed if Sudan were seen to backtrack on any progress.
The actions recognised by the US include the move by South Sudan to deny safe haven to South Sudanese rebels.
Despite the move by the outgoing Obama administration, Sudan is expected to remain on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
In 2009, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir was indicted on war crimes charges, the first to be issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against a sitting president.
The US foreign policy establishment has been split between those who advocate greater engagement with Sudan, and those who believe it is morally wrong to deal with what they consider a genocidal regime. Easing sanctions shows that the realpolitik wing - which in my experience has deeper knowledge of Sudanese affairs - holds the upper hand. There are legitimate questions over whether Sudan has really passed the series of tests set by the Americans in areas such as stopping aerial bombardments, opening up the political arena to dissidents and improving humanitarian access to conflict areas. However, it is clear that the sanctions, which have been in place for so long, have not brought about political change in Sudan and have hurt the people more than the politicians, a point made by Sudanese campaigners in recent months. For Sudan, which is struggling with an economic crisis, the attraction of the policy change is obvious. Questions remain. Will the Trump administration continue this new policy left to them by Obama's team? Activists from all parts of the US political spectrum are implacably opposed to the Islamists who run Sudan, and may try to exert pressure to reverse this decision. And would the US really be prepared one day to fully normalise relations with Sudan if the ICC-indicted Omar al-Bashir is still president?
That's for the future. For now, this announcement is an important first step towards a better relationship between the US and Sudan. Human rights activists in the US have in recent years been strongly critical of President Bashir's record in the western region of Darfur.
The area has for many years been plagued by tensions between mostly nomadic Arabs and farmers from the Fur, Massaleet and Zaghawa communities who have complained of persecution.
Administration officials first raised the possibility of a reduction in sanctions in the autumn. | Sign Agreement | January 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United States Department of Homeland Security announces they will not renew the "temporary protected status" of around 50,000 Haitians living in the United States when it expires in 18 months. | The Trump administration has given nearly 60,000 Haitians with provisional legal residency in the United States 18 months to leave, announcing Monday that it will not renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that has allowed them to remain in this country for more than seven years.
The decision came after the Department of Homeland Security determined that the “extraordinary conditions” justifying their presence in the United States following a 2010 earthquake “no longer exist,” a senior administration official said.
“Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97 percent,” acting Homeland Security secretary Elaine Duke said in a statement. “Significant steps have been taken to improve the stability and quality of life for Haitian citizens, and Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens.”
The 18-month deadline, Duke said, will allow for an “orderly transition,” permitting the Haitians to “arrange their departure” and their government to prepare for their arrival.
The Haitians are among more than 300,000 foreigners, the majority of them illegal arrivals from Central America, living here under TPS. The designation was created in 1990 to shield foreign nationals from deportation if the executive branch determined that natural disasters or armed conflict in their countries had created instability or precarious conditions.
Successive administrations have regularly renewed their status, and many of the Haitians have U.S.-born children.
But the Trump administration has repeatedly noted that the program was meant to be temporary, not a way for people to become long-term legal residents of the United States. Administration officials have said that decisions about further extensions will be made on the basis of whether initial justifications for protection still exist.
Monday’s announcement comports with a broader administration effort to restrict immigration to the United States and increase efforts to expel those who have no permanent legal status.
Earlier this month, the administration announced that it would not renew the provisional residency of 2,500 Nicaraguans. They were given 14 months to leave the United States.
But Duke deferred for six months a decision for the much larger group of 57,000 Hondurans living here under the same designation, saying that more time was needed for consideration. The deferral came after an unsuccessful White House effort to press her to end their TPS authorization, officials said at the time.
Nicaraguans and Hondurans have been shielded from deportation since a devastating 1998 hurricane hit those nations.
TPS status for 200,000 Salvadorans, here since El Salvador was struck by earthquakes in 2001, is due to expire in January. They are by far the largest group of TPS recipients.
[A Haitian woman asks, ‘How would I survive back there?’]
More than half the Haitians affected by Monday’s announcement live in Florida, where lawmakers had asked that they be allowed to remain. The lawmakers cited ongoing economic and political difficulties in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, as well as a still-raging cholera epidemic.
"I traveled to Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and after hurricane Matthew in 2016. So I can personally attest that Haiti is not prepared to take back nearly 60,000 TPS recipients under these difficult and harsh conditions," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), one of several GOP lawmakers who joined Democratic leaders in chastising the decision on Twitter. Ros-Lehtinen is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill that would extend TPS for Haitians and others.
Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was less reserved in his criticism of the decision.
“Donald Trump’s cruelty knows no bounds,” he said in a statement. “He’s taken away protections for immigrant children and their parents, and now he’s going after U.S. residents whose home countries have been devastated by war and environmental disaster.”
Rocio Saenz, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which claims thousands of members living in the United States under TPS, called the decision “heartbreaking, and harmful in every way.”
TPS holders, who include a relatively small number of Africans in addition to Central Americans and Haitians, “have more than 270,000 U.S.-born children,” she said in a statement, “and thousands of grandchildren. After all of this time, no conceivable purpose is served by upending all of that and ordering them to return to some of the most dangerous and precarious countries on earth.”
But the senior official, one of several who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity set by the administration, said that “the law is relatively explicit, that if the conditions on the ground do not support a TPS designation, then the secretary must terminate.”
Duke had “assessed overall that extraordinary temporary conditions” that justified the designation in the first place “had sufficiently improved such that they no longer prevent nationals of Haiti from returning,” the official said.
As the Haitian status was due to expire this past spring, then-DHS Secretary John F. Kelly extended it for six months but said that conditions may not warrant further extension. Kelly, now the White House chief of staff, visited Haiti shortly after that initial announcement and later joined Vice President Pence for a meeting in Miami with Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Duke, in her statement, said that she met recently in Washington with Haiti’s foreign minister and the Haitian ambassador to the United States and consulted other U.S. government agencies.
“In 2017 alone,” Duke said, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted extensive outreach to the Haitian communities throughout the country.” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) hosted a meeting last week with Duke to which all members of the state’s congressional delegation were invited.
Days before the decisions about Nicaraguan and Honduran were announced, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Duke that the State Department assessed that TPS was no longer necessary for the Central Americans or the Haitians.
The senior official who briefed reporters said that the 18-month “wind-down” period for the Haitians was enough time “to allow families with U.S.-born children to make decisions about what to do, and make arrangements.”
Some immigration experts have speculated that many Haitians are likely to seek residency in Canada, particularly in French-speaking Quebec, to avoid being sent home.
| Government Policy Changes | November 2017 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
The United States target Al-Shabaab in a series of airstrikes that killed four. The strikes were in coordination with the government of Somalia. | The US airstrike came a day after a car bomb in Mogadishu killed at least 79 people. US strikes in Somalia surged after President Donald Trump declared Southern Somalia an "area of active hostilities."
A US airstrike against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militant group on Sunday killed at least four "terrorists," US Africa Command said in a statement.
"In coordination with the federal government of Somalia, US Africa Command conducted three airstrikes in two locations targeting al-Shabab militants in the vicinity of Qunyo Barrow and Caliyoow Barrow, Somalia, respectively, December 29," AFRICOM said.
The US strike came one day after a busy area in Somalia's capital Mogadishu was rocked by a car bomb that killed at least 79 people.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the Saturday bombing, though similar attacks are regularly carried out by al-Shabab, which aims to topple the United Nations-backed government in the African country.
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed condemned the attack as a "heinous act of terror."
Surge in US air attacks
AFRICOM increased airstrikes against militant groups in the country after President Donald Trump said the southern part of the country posed a security risk.
In an April statement, AFRICOM said it had killed more than 800 people in 110 air strikes in Somalia since April 2017.
"Since al-Shabab's first external attack in 2010, the group has ruthlessly killed hundreds," said US Army Major General William Gayler, AFRICOM's director of operations. "They have attacked and killed African partners, allies, and fellow Americans."
In October 2017, the deadliest attack in the country's history left 512 people dead and around 295 injured in Mogadishu.
The al-Shabab group was forced out of Mogadishu several years ago but continues to target high-profile areas such as checkpoints and hotels. Two weeks ago, the extremist outfit attacked a hotel popular with politicians, army officers and diplomats, killing five people.
Somalia has suffered through violent conflict since 1991, after clan warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
In recent months, the government has claimed that the security situation has improved, with increased security personnel and surveillance.
Read more: US reopens embassy in Somalia after nearly three decades
The truck was loaded with explosives and detonated at a busy junction in the heart of Mogadishu in the afternoon of September 14, 2017. The explosion of the bomb killed at least 276 people and injured hundreds more. It was the worst terror attack in the history of Somalia. Nearly three decades of civil war and terror have also robbed the population of its resilience to drought. Xamdi is a child of Somali nomads and has been in the nutrition ward of Mogadishu's Banadir Hospital since the beginning of August. Her mother feeds her with the peanut-based 'Plumpy’Nut' paste to avoid severe acute malnutrition. Xamdi is three years old and only weighs seven kilograms. Most kids in Germany in the same age group weigh twice as much. About 800,000 Somalis are facing starvation. This boy recovers in the bed next to Xamdi. He is fighting pneumonia, one of the all too common infections caused by chronic malnutrition and overcrowded conditions in Mogadishu's refugee camps. His hands are wrapped in paper to prevent him from pulling out his feeding tube. Banadir Hospital is the biggest public clinic in the capital, but even here the collapse of the health system is visible.
Mogadishu is full of makeshift homes. Many nomads and countryside dwellers are determined to stay. They have fled civil war, terror, violence and hunger. The city's population has swollen to nearly 2.5 million. At least 600,000 are officially regarded as 'internally displaced people'.
The congested and unhygienic living conditions in the camps are a health hazard. Acute respiratory tract infections and diarrhea are common diseases among Mogadishu's internally displaced population. Life in the makeshift camps is a daily struggle for the next meal and the next bucket of water.
There is not much to do inside the camps but to sit and wait. Many children don't have access to education. Most makeshift camps lack playgrounds or other recreational spaces. There is much hardship outside the camps, too. The old part of Mogadishu is particularly pockmarked by nearly three decades of internal conflict. But there are also signs of new beginnings. Early September 2017: These youngsters are having a good time in Mogadishu's Peace Park. All of them are students, all of them express faith in the new government of western-backed President Mohamed. One of them wants to become a civil aviation engineer. He says: "It is much safer here than five years ago." Five years ago al-Shabab ruled the capital. Today the extremists send suicide bombers.
Right at the entrance to Peace Park, visitors are reminded to leave behind Kalashnikovs, knives, hand grenades and pistols. Liido beach draws huge crowds especially after Friday prayers. People meet to dance and play soccer. Soccer is hugely popular in Somalia. Young lovers meet to court each other. Mogadishu's Liido beach was deserted under al-Shabab's brief rule of the capital. The international community has started to invest in rebuilding Somalia's shattered state. Reconstruction is most visible in the capital. This new street was built with Turkish help. Turkey has also set up a huge military base in Mogadishu to train Somali soldiers. New villas spring up throughout town. Somalia's returning diaspora invests in Mogadishu's booming property market. So do politicians and other strongmen. Many of the new buildings are surrounded by high blast walls and concertina wire to fend off terrorists, criminals and rivals. The airport region has become the expats' hub. Like Baghdad and Kabul, Mogadishu has a green zone. The United Nations and most of the returning diplomatic missions live and work in the vast compound which has developed around Mogadishu's International Airport. It is fenced off and guarded by African Union troops. Most of Mogadishu's shopfronts sport hand-painted murals which add some much-needed color to a city slowly rising from its ruins. | Strike | December 2019 | ['(DW News)'] |
British Foreign Office Minister Mark Field is suspended for assaulting a Greenpeace activist. | Mark Field has been suspended as a Foreign Office minister after grabbing a female Greenpeace activist at a black-tie City dinner.
The MP has apologised for confronting Janet Barker and marching her away as protesters interrupted a speech by Chancellor Philip Hammond.
Ms Barker suggested Mr Field "go to anger management classes" but said she did not intend to complain to police.
Mr Field said he had been "genuinely worried" she may have been armed.
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said there were also "very serious questions to be asked" about security, as a "large number" of protesters had apparently managed to "walk through" to the event at London's Mansion House. Footage of the incident involving Mr Field has been widely shared on social media, with several Labour politicians calling for him to be sacked.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Prime Minister Theresa May had "seen the footage" and "found it very concerning".
She added that Mr Field had "referred himself to both the Cabinet Office and the Conservative Party. He will be suspended as a minister while investigations take place." Climate change protesters - wearing suits, red dresses and sashes with "climate emergency" written on them - entered Mansion House on Thursday night, as Mr Hammond was beginning his speech on the state of the economy.
One of them began reading an alternative speech.
As Ms Barker walked past his table, Mr Field stood up, stopped her and pushed her against a column.
The Conservative MP for the Cities of London and Westminster then put a hand on the back of her neck and led her out of the room.
Ms Barker told the BBC the purpose of the protest had been to speak to "men who are in power, the bankers, the investors that are continuing to invest into fossil fuels". "We were polite with people and said: 'We're here to deliver a message'," she said.
City of London Police said they were looking into "a number of third-party reports of a possible assault".
"He certainly manhandled me in a way in which was very disagreeable," she said.
Asked if she felt Mr Field's actions amounted to criminal assault, Ms Barker said: "No, I don't think so. I don't want this to turn into a mud-slinging match."
The activist, who travelled from her home in Wales to take part in Thursday's protest, said: "350 people were there and only one person reacted that way. "It's more the behaviour of that individual. I want him to reflect on what he did and not do it again. Maybe he should go to anger management classes."
Before his suspension, Mr Field told ITV News that guests had "understandably felt threatened" and he had "instinctively reacted" when Ms Barker rushed past.
"There was no security present and I was, for a split second, genuinely worried she might have been armed," Mr Field said.
He added: "I deeply regret this episode and unreservedly apologise to the lady concerned for grabbing her, but in the current climate I felt the need to act decisively to close down the threat to the safety of those present." Labour's shadow women and equalities minister Dawn Butler tweeted: "This is horrific... [Mark Field] must immediately be suspended or sacked."
But Mr Field was defended by some of his colleagues, with Conservative MP Johnny Mercer tweeting: "He panicked, he's not trained in restraint and arrest, and if you think this is 'serious violence' you may need to recalibrate your sensitivities."
Another Conservative MP, Bob Stewart, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that Mr Field had "probably" placed his hand on Ms Barker's neck because if he had "touched her anywhere else he'd probably have been deemed highly inappropriate".
Conservative leadership contender Jeremy Hunt, who, as Foreign Secretary, is Mr Field's boss, said: "Mark has issued a full and unreserved apology. He recognised that what happened was an over-reaction.
"In his interest and in the interest of the lady involved we need a proper [Cabinet Office] inquiry and that's what going to happen."
The City of London Corporation said it was investigating how security had been breached at Mansion House, adding it would be "reviewing arrangements for future events".
. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
An Air India pilots' strike enters its seventh day, with the airline cancelling 13 international flights. | At least 14 Air India flights have been cancelled as a strike by the pilots of India's national carrier entered its seventh day.
Thousands of passengers have been stranded at Delhi and Mumbai airports. Many have complained of a lack of information from the airline.
The airline has sacked more than 70 pilots over the past few days in a dispute over training.
India's aviation minister renewed his call for pilots to enter talks.
Officials said at least eight Air India international flights and six domestic fights were cancelled overnight on Sunday.
Reports said about 200 pilots have called in sick since last Tuesday amid a dispute over training for the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes.
The pilots are protesting against the decision to train pilots from Indian Airlines, which merged with Air India in 2007, to fly the new planes.
Air India pilots say that as the planes were ordered before the merger, they should be given priority for training.
A day after the action began, the Delhi High Court ruled that the pilots' strike was "illegal" and ordered them back to work, but many pilots have refused to return to duty.
The airline last week said it had stopped taking bookings for US and Europe-bound flights until 15 May.
| Strike | May 2012 | ['(NDTV)', '(BBC)'] |
Workers at La Scala opera house in Milan go on strike in a dispute over pay and contracts. | La Scala, one of the world's best-known concert venues, apologised on its website for the cancellation.
The 800 workers, including 135 musicians and 107 in the chorus, walked out in a row over pay and contracts.
They last went on strike in 2005 in protest at musical director Riccardo Muti, who later resigned.
La Scala's workers want salary increases and better working schedules, arguing that between 2001 and 2007 the number number of performances staged had increased from 164 to 273.
'Unacceptable'
While unions only called a one-day strike on Friday, the dispute raised questions about the opening of the 2007-2008 season.
Stephane Lissner, La Scala's artistic director, described the strike as "serious and unacceptable".
Some of the salary demands were out of proportion he said, because while the theatre's finances were in profit, they remained fragile.
Silvio Belleni, general secretary of the CISL union, said discussions on a new contract had begun in July but management had since informed workers that talks could not continue until a national contract was in place. | Strike | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Protesters strip naked in the public galleries of the House of Commons, pressing their buttocks against the window facing Ministers. | Activists spent almost 20 minutes with their hands glued to the public gallery and buttocks facing the chamber
Last modified on Tue 2 Apr 2019 01.11 BST
Semi-naked climate change protesters interrupted a House of Commons Brexit debate and glued their hands to the glass of the public gallery, spending almost 20 minutes with their buttocks facing the chamber.
MPs attempted to continue the debate during the peaceful protest by 11 activists from Extinction Rebellion, though several made coded mentions to the protest in their speeches.
Protesters had slogans daubed on their chests, including “for all life” and “SOS” and two more wore grey body paint and elephant masks, which the group said referred to climate change as “the elephant in the room”.
Police cleared the public gallery in the House of Commons and then removed the protesters individually, some of whom were carried out by officers.
The police later said 12 people had been arrested “for outraging public decency”.
The protest began during a speech by the Labour MP Peter Kyle, who was arguing in favour of his motion to add a confirmatory Brexit referendum.
The Tory MP Justine Greening congratulated Kyle for “fleshing out his arguments very well indeed” and Kyle in turn thanked the Conservative MP Steve Brine for a “cheeky intervention”.
The Conservative Nick Boles congratulated Kyle for delivering his speech “with a certain amount of distraction” and quipped that many of his Tory colleagues appeared to be missing from the benches around him including “a noted naturist”.
Boles was referring to the Brexiter MP Bernard Jenkin – who enjoys nudism as a private hobby.
In a point of order, the Conservative MP Nigel Evans said the House of Commons had dealt well with “a distraction, not a disruption to our proceedings” and thanked thanked police and Commons officials.
The Speaker, John Bercow, also thanked officials after the protesters were removed. “We just press on with the debate, that is what we are here to do,” he said, to cheers in the chamber.
In a statement after the protest, one of the activists, Mark Ovland, said climate change was being “flagrantly and recklessly ignored by our government and media” and the group wanted to draw attention to the crisis during the debate on Brexit.
“By undressing in parliament, we are putting ourselves in an incredibly vulnerable position, highlighting the vulnerability that all of us share in the face of environmental and societal breakdown,” he said.
Another of the activists, Iggy Fox, said: “I’m tired of the time and resources our government wastes rearranging the deckchairs on the Brexitanic. It’s high time politicians stop beating around the bush and tackle the environmental crisis head on, like they should have done years ago. I won’t stop causing disruption until the government does its duty to protect the people from disaster.” | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2019 | ['(The Guardian - YouTube)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Protestors in Cairo condemn a film promoted by controversial American pastor Terry Jones as a "humiliation of Muhammad under the pretext of freedom of speech". They climb over the walls of the US Embassy and tear down an American flag, replacing it with a black flag inscribed with Islamic emblems. Egyptian police have surrounded the compound to block further incursions. | Terry Jones, the Florida Koran-burner, is helping to promote a movie vilifying Egypt's Muslims, and the Egyptian media got ahold of some clips. Right now, protesters in Cairo are gathered at the U.S. embassy compound, where some have scaled the walls and pulled down the American flag, with which they've replaced a black flag bearing the prayer "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger." They say they're protesting an American film that insults Prophet Mohammed. About half an hour in, someone took a photo that appears to show some of the protesters, of which Reuters estimates there to be 2,000, setting off celebratory fireworks.
* Correction: This sentence originally credited Terry Jones with producing the film, as some Egyptian media had suggested. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal now reports, Jones is playing a promotional role, but the film was in fact directed and produced by "an Israeli-American California real-estate developer who called it a political effort to call attention to the hypocrisies of Islam." Separately, members of a Libyan Islamist extremist group called Ansar al-Sharia attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, over the film, firing at the building with a rocket-propelled grenade. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2012 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)', '(The Atlantic)', '(Ahram)'] |
The death toll from the earthquake reaches 98 with police fearing for another 226. , | The death toll from the Christchurch earthquake is now 98 with police holding grave concerns for a further 226 people.
Canterbury district commander Superintendent Dave Cliff said police had received 98 bodies and 226 people were reported as missing.
Missing ... Police and families have grave concerns for these people.
"We're gravely concerned about those individuals," he said, adding the number might grow.
He said the list was made up of people reported missing by loved ones and nothing had been heard from them since Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake.
Destruction ... a car sits crushed in Christchurch.Credit:John Bisset
Prime Minister John Key told media: "We are very fearful tonight that the death toll could be much greater than any of us ever feared."
Mr Key said it could be weeks before families had their loved ones' bodies returned. DNA and fingerprint samples are being used to identify the badly burnt bodies, he said.
Earlier this afternoon 238 people were confirmed missing - although some may have already left Christchurch before the disaster, police said.
The missing includes 16 Chinese students, ranging in age from 17 to 22, believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of the CTV building.
Police Minister Judith Collins described the horrific conditions rescue workers face, with bodies being pulled "in ones and twos" from the rubble.
"We've got 76 at the morgue at the moment and more coming through.
"I've never seen anything like it."
We've got 76 at the morgue at the moment and more coming through. I've never seen anything like it
Superintendent Cliff said the number of bodies thought to be in the CTV building ranged from "the high 60s'' to 120.
Several more bodies are known to be in the Pyne Gould Corporation building, where two victims were pulled from the rubble this morning.
The rescue operation at the collapsed Cambridge Terrace building has entered a "recovery" phase.
Heartfelt messages from families and friends of missing loved ones on social media sites paint a poignant picture of the quake's likely victims.
Police have begun a major clampdown on non-emergency personnel entering Christchurch's CBD.Media have been threatened with arrest and two members of the Japanese press were taken into custody after trying to gain access to Christchurch Hospital in breach of a curfew overnight.
Meanwhile, petrol retailers in the city have called for calm amid panic buying of fuel that has reportedly led to queues a kilometre long outside some petrol stations.Hopes dashed for woman's rescue
New Zealand authorities said they might have been mistaken over reports of a woman's voice coming from the rubble of a Christchurch chapel this morning.
Hours after Mr Key warned that hopes of finding survivors were fading, search teams swung into action after it was claimed one worker had heard a "faint" female voice at Holy Cross Chapel about 9am local time.
Hopes were dashed, with an emergency worker later telling Sky News that two teams searched the site and no one had been found.
"What this does is draws us away from other things we are doing and ties up resources," Chris Haines of St John Ambulance told Sky News.
Meanwhile, local Police Commissioner Howard Broad said he was bracing for criticism over the identification of the quake victims by authorities.
"We don't know who is under the rubble in these places where buildings have collapsed. We have been releasing the number of people we have certainly recovered," he said.
Police were working to estimate how many dead might be trapped, he said.
"Now just imagine if we get this wrong, if we're sloppy, if we tell a family that their loved one is dead and we made a mistake.
"So we're not going to do that, we are going to work carefully, methodically, and we're going to get it right. Unfortunately that means that this will take some time and we're going to experience some criticism for the amount of time that this takes.''
New Zealand's Civil Defence Minister John Carter said rescue teams were heading into the city's suburbs for the first time since the magnitude 6.3 quake hit the South Island.
Mr Key said search and rescue workers were now focused on the recovery of bodies rather than the rescue of survivors.
Mr Key said emergency workers were "not getting positive signs" as they looked for sounds or signs of life under the rubble, as he warned New Zealanders to brace themselves for a rising death toll.
About 300 people are believed to be missing, but authorities have said the number of people unaccounted for may include many who fled the city centre after the quake and have not contacted officials since.
No concerns for Australians
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokeswoman said this afternoon that they had no concerns for the welfare of any Australian caught up in the Christchurch quake.
But DFAT staff were still confirming the location of almost 1350 Australians registered with its consular emergency centre.
Almost 3500 Australians were registered with the centre and more than 1955 have been located as safe, she added.
Those that wanted to leave New Zealand have been confirmed on commercial flights out of the country today and tomorrow, she said.
Mr Carter said about 2500 people had been injured, 164 seriously.
Police said no survivors had been pulled from the rubble since yesterday afternoon and it had been more than 24 hours since any text messages had been received from anyone trapped under the debris.
"We are hopeful that we might find survivors but as time passes hopes fade," Superintendent Russell Gibson told TV3.
But police said they were holding out hope that people were still alive in wrecked buildings.
"Experts tell me that there are pockets within a number of these buildings, and providing people haven't been crushed there's no reason that we will not get people out of there," Superintendent Gibson said.
Superintendent Gibson said 50 to 100 people were believed to be missing in one of the worst-hit buildings, the CTV site, but stressed the numbers were speculative.Among the missing are 90 students and staff from King's Education English language school, four nurses and 15 staff members from Canterbury TV.
Victim's home burgled
The home of New Zealand television producer Donna Manning, who is believed to have died in the CTV building, was robbed overnight.
Manning's children had been keeping a vigil outside the building when the house was robbed, her brother Maurice Gardiner told New Zealand television network TV One.Mr Gardiner said the actions of "some uncouths" increased the suffering of Manning's family.
"Bad things happen. We are all suffering bad things as a result of this earthquake that we can't help."
Mr Gardiner pleaded for respect from the "criminal element".
"Just respect, if you know what that means."
While people across the city were suffering, he said many were in the position that their valuables had been left in the open.A national state of emergency has been declared and the central city has been under curfew with soldiers patrolling in armoured personnel carriers. Six people were arrested for looting.Tallest hotel remains standing
Hundreds of rescuers swarmed over twisted and smoking buildings yesterday in a frantic search for survivors, as fears for the collapse of Christchurch's Hotel Grand Chancellor were not realised overnight.
The city's tallest hotel was expected to topple after suffering extensive damage in the quake and showing signs of buckling yesterday.Witnesses said the tower subsided three metres in a matter of minutes.Volunteer army rallies via FacebookA 10,000-strong student volunteer army was assembled through social networking site Facebook to help those suffering."We are working closely with Civil Defence in this operation. At this very early stage, we are focusing on helping everyday people in their homes in low-risk areas with non-life threatening situations," student organiser Sam Johnson said. Emergency services cordoned off central Christchurch. Rescuers from the United States, Britain, Taiwan and Japan are expected to join the operation today. More than 1000 workers were expected to comb though shattered buildings.
The new rescue teams would allow the search of wrecked buildings to be widened.
Thousands of people spent a second night in emergency shelters set up in local schools, sports grounds, and at a race course. Fresh water supplies were being distributed from schools and portable toilets set up around the city as services were disrupted.Mr Key today thanked other countries for their support, singling out Australia, which yesterday announced the deployment of 300 police and medical staff as well as aid and counselling services.
"I would like to pay special acknowledgement to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard for her announcement of a $A5 million donation to help with the recovery," he said.
"Leaders from around the world have responded generously with offers of help and support and encouragement." | Earthquakes | February 2011 | ['(New Zealand Herald)', '(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
American missile attacks kill 57 suspected militants in a region in northwest Pakistan. | Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The death toll in Friday's three drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal region has gone up to 57, intelligence officials in Pakistan told CNN on Saturday.
Two intelligence officials say 15 suspected militants were killed in the first drone strike, which targeted a militant hideout.
The second drone strike, which also targeted a militant hideout, killed 17 other suspected militants. In the third, which targeted a training camp, 25 suspected militants were killed.
The three assaults occurred in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
U.S. forces are suspected of carrying out the strikes.
The officials say all three occurred in an area of 4 square kilometers.
The intelligence officials asked not be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media. | Armed Conflict | December 2010 | ['(Washington Times)', '(Associated Press)', '(CNN)'] |
Ansar al-Sharia announces it is formally dissolving amid heavy losses that have wiped out its leadership and decimated its fighters. The group was responsible for the 2012 Benghazi attack. | CAIRO (Reuters) - Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, a group linked to Al-Qaeda, is formally dissolving itself, it said in a statement on Saturday.
The group, which Washington says was behind the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed the U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens, had been at war with Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army.
The group said its decision came on the back of heavy losses that have wiped out its leadership and decimated its fighters, according to the statement.
Forces aligned with the Libyan National Army have skirmished since late last year with opponents aligned with a U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
Groups such as Ansar al-Sharia, which had tried to maintain a stronghold in the country’s east, have inserted themselves into the larger war, creating a fractious battleground overlaid by a multitude of militias.
The group’s statement called on revolutionary forces and shoura councils in Benghazi to unite in order to form a united front.
| Organization Closed | May 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A roadside bomb kills two others in Khost Province. | LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 10 civilians on Sunday when he detonated his explosives near a crowd in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb in the east killed two others, officials said.
Violence in Afghanistan has surged, with 2009 being the worst year since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. More than 2,400 civilians were killed last year, a 14 percent rise on 2008, the United Nations said.
In the first incident, a suicide bomber driving a three-wheeled rickshaw detonated his explosives near a crowd who were holding a picnic for the Afghan New Year in Gereshk district of Helmand province, the provincial governor’s spokesman said.
“The target was an Afghan Army vehicle. The first reports are that 10 civilians have been killed and seven more wounded,” said spokesman Daoud Ahmadi, adding the bomb missed its target.
A witness at the scene told Reuters by telephone he had been no more than 50 meters away from the blast.
“The bomber was driving a rickshaw and was targeting an army vehicle. When the soldiers saw the rickshaw they sped up. The bomb exploded in a crowded area where many people were having picnics,” said Khan Mohammad.
“Many people have been killed and wounded,” he said.
A spokesman for NATO-led forces in Kabul said none of its forces were killed or wounded in the attack, but that foreign troops were now in the area assessing the situation.
In February, thousands of U.S. Marines launched an assault in Marjah, another part of Helmand, which had been under the insurgents’ control. The operation was described as the biggest offensive of the eight-year war.
There are some 120,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and that is set to rise to nearly 150,000 by the end of this year as Washington sends in more troops as part of a new strategy to try and quell the mounting violence.
Separately, in Khost province in the southeast of the country, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan civilians and wounded four, a senior police chief said.
“A civilian car hit a roadside bomb on the outskirts of Khost city. Two civilians were killed and four wounded,” acting provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqoub Mandozai told Reuters.
| Armed Conflict | March 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Voice of America says official results for the 35 "geographical" seats in Hong Kong's legislative elections show 18 seats for the "pan-democracy" camp, 16 seats for the "pro-Beijing" camp and one seat for an independent candidate. The "super" seats show a 3 to 2 win for the pan-democrats. Voter turnout was 53 %, up from 45 % at the previous election in 2008. Reuters says support is "steady" for pro-Beijing chief executive Leung Chun-ying. The New York Times says that, despite winning more votes, the pro-democracy camp has fewer seats than expected. | HONG KONG — Pro-democracy candidates won strong voter support in legislative elections here on Sunday, but came away with fewer seats than expected because pro-Beijing political parties with greater financial resources proved more skillful in navigating Hong Kong’s complex electoral system.
But pro-democracy groups appeared by late morning on Monday to have narrowly retained at least one-third of the seats in the new legislature, the proportion they need to block fundamental changes in the territory’s laws. | Government Job change - Election | September 2012 | ['(Voice of America)', '(South China Morning Post)', '(Reuters via Chicago Tribune)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Reuters via Stuff.co)', '(New York Times)', '(results)'] |
Attacks by men armed with rifles and machetes kill 19 people in three villages, including Kuru Station and Fagawon in central Nigeria. | Jos, Nigeria - Men armed with rifles and machetes killed 19 people in attacks on three villages in volatile central Nigeria, authorities said.
Three homes were attacked in the Christian village of Kuru Station about 30 kilometres from the central Nigerian city of Jos, a flashpoint of religious tension between Christians and Muslims, a community leader said Tuesday.
“It was a very terrible scene, a very pathetic scene,” Riyom local government chairman Simon Mwaekwom told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
He said villagers told him armed men woke up the houses' occupants around midnight with gunshots and forced them out before setting their homes ablaze and attacking them with machetes. In total, 19 people, including women and children, died in the assaults and at least three others were injured, police say.
“Those that escaped said they saw military men; the military men were shooting and the other people burning the houses and macheteing the villagers,” Mwaekwom said.
He said the villagers claimed to have picked up two identification cards left behind by military attackers, but the military disputed their claim and said villagers attacked the soldiers in retaliation.
“When you lose someone, it is a period of anguish and reactions can come in different folds,” said Brigadier Hassan Umaru, commandant of the Plateau State Special Task Force. “After the attack, the villagers went to the soldiers' living quarters, brought out their properties and burned them. It was thereafter that they said they got an ID card.”
A military post stands about 200 meters away from the scene of the attack. The villagers told Mwaekwom that they had asked the soldiers for help and that they refused.
“If there was anything like that and the soldiers did not respond, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against them,” Umaru said. “We will not allow that to happen.”
Sectarian violence has been on the rise in recent weeks in Jos and surrounding areas.
Plateau State police commissioner Abdurrahman Akano said Sunday that at least eight people died in weekend rioting that began when Christian youths in a village nearby attacked a car carrying Muslims home from a wedding Friday night. Separately, three people were killed and several others were wounded in Jos when a meeting of a political party aligned with former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari collapsed into violence Saturday, witnesses said.
Those attacks came after four bombs exploded in Jos on Christmas Eve, killing at least 32 people.
Nigeria, an oil-rich country of 150 million people, is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. Jos is in the nation's “middle belt,” where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.
The Jos violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do with local politics, economics and rights to grazing lands. - Sapa-AP | Riot | January 2011 | ['(IOL)'] |
Hillary Clinton steps down as United States Secretary of State; she is succeeded by Senator John Kerry. | Hillary Clinton has said the world is a safer place, in her farewell address to state department staff on her last day as America's top diplomat.
Mrs Clinton, 65, leaves the post after four years, visits to 112 countries and nearly a million air miles.
She will be replaced by John Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, who was sworn in at a private ceremony on Friday.
The former first lady is now discussed as a possible candidate for the 2016 presidential election.
Mrs Clinton said leading the agency as the 67th US Secretary of State had been a "unique and singular, exciting and challenging" experience.
She acknowledged the attack on the US embassy in Turkey - a sobering reminder of the everyday global threats that will face her successor.
"I am very proud of the work we have done together," she told her staff. "Of course, we live in very complex and dangerous times, as we saw again just today at our embassy in Ankara, where we were attacked."
But she said she was "more optimistic" now than when she took up her post in 2009.
"I am so grateful that we've had a chance to contribute in each of our ways to making our country and our world stronger, safer, fairer and better," she told staff.
Earlier in the day, Mrs Clinton officially tendered her resignation to President Barack Obama, her former bitter rival in the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination. In her letter, she said she was more convinced than ever of America's strength as a global leader and its potential to be a force for good.
Mrs Clinton has been coy about a possible White House run in four years' time. She has said she has no specific plans for the future, but that she "absolutely" still plans to make a difference on issues she cares about.
"I am going to be secretary of state until the very last minute when I walk out the door," she told the Associated Press on Thursday.
"And then I am going to take the weekend off and then I may start thinking about all the various offers and requests and ideas that have come my way."
Mrs Clinton's time in office will also be remembered for the attack last September on a consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a US ambassador and three other Americans. She has apologised for that security failure. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
David W. Panuelo is sworn in as President of the Federated States of Micronesia, succeeding Peter M. Christian, after being elected by the Congress. | PALIKIR, 13 MAY 2019 (FSMIS) – The 21st Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has elected H.E David W. Panuelo as its ninth President, during its First Regular Session on 11 May.
Prior to his election, President Panuelo was elected Senator At-Large for Pohnpei State.
Also elected was the new Vice President, the Honorable Yosiwo P. George. Prior to his election, Vice President George was elected as the Senator At-Large for Kosrae State.
During the session, the new Speaker and deputy Speaker of Congress were elected. The Honorable Wesley W. Simina won the election for the Speaker while the Honorable Esmond B. Moses was elected Deputy Speaker.
The Honorable Florencio S. Harper was elected Floor Leader of the Congress of the FSM.
The FSM National Government congratulated President Panuelo and Vice President George on their elections and assured their support to ensure their administration is a success for everyone who calls the FSM their home. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2019 | ['(Fiji Times)'] |
An Australia–bound boat carrying Iranian asylum seekers sinks off the coast of Indonesia, leaving at least three people dead, 157 rescued and an uncertain number missing. | At least four people have died after a boat carrying Australia-bound asylum-seekers sank, amid ongoing debate over the new policy.
The boat sank off the Indonesian island of Java, the transit point for people-smugglers. At least 157 people have been rescued. It is not clear how many are missing. Meanwhile, Australia's immigration minister said he would investigate abuse claims at the country's offshore processing centre in Papua New Guinea.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a new asylum policy last week, ahead of polls expected to be announced soon. Under the policy, asylum-seekers arriving by boat in Australia will be sent to Papua New Guinea (PNG) for processing, and those whose refugee claims are upheld will be settled in PNG, rather than Australia.
Australia has experienced a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat in recent months. But critics have accused Australia of avoiding responsibility and passing on its problem to a developing nation.
Mr Rudd said that the sinking underlined the need for a policy shift, saying the government had to send "a very clear message to people-smugglers to stop sending people by boat to Australia". "We are seeing too many drownings, we are seeing too many sinkings, too many innocent people being lost at sea."
PNG is to receive Australian investment as part of the deal. But some PNG politicians say the agreement could cause tensions on the island.
Opposition spokesman Tobias Kulang said PNG had "become a dumping ground for Australia's inadequacies".
"This is an appalling performance by Australia, which with its monetary wealth is able to pass the buck on to poorer countries," he said.
The latest sinking, which happened on Tuesday night, involved passengers who said they were from Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka and Syria.
At least two children are among the dead. More people are feared missing but officials still do not know the exact number of people who were on board.
Fishermen first spotted the asylum seekers - men, women and children - swimming to the shore near the West Java town of Cidaun on Tuesday evening, the BBC's Alice Budisatrijo in Jakarta reports.
The head of the local rescue agency told the BBC they were now being held in a nearby immigration facility.
Another boat carrying around 38 asylum seekers has also been stopped near Christmas Island, reports say.
Many asylum seekers seek to journey to Christmas Island, which is the closest part of Australia to Indonesia and lies 1,600 miles north-west of mainland Australia.
Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said he would travel to Manus Island, Australia's offshore processing centre in PNG, after allegations of abuse there emerged.
A former security manager, Rod St George, told Australia's Special Broadcasting Service that some detainees had been raped and assaulted. He said the the facilities at the site were not "even fit to be used as a dog kennel".
Mr Burke has described the allegations as "horrific", and said that he intended to "work through" issues at the island.
Asylum policy is expected to be a key issue in Australia's elections, which must take place by 30 November.
An opinion poll on Tuesday suggested that the opposition coalition led Mr Rudd's Labor party by 52% to 48% after preferences.
However, Mr Rudd is still polled as voters' preferred prime minister, at 50%, compared to opposition leader Tony Abbott's 34%.
Mr Rudd ousted Julia Gillard as Labor Party leader last month, amid dismal pre-election polling figures.
Australia PM defends asylum shift
Riot hits Australian-run asylum camp
Migrant boat capsizes off Australia
One Covid vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75%
But the number of Delta variant cases recorded in the UK has risen by 79% in a week, figures show. | Shipwreck | July 2013 | ['(The Australian)', '(BBC)'] |
Two people are killed and five others are injured in a series of stabbings in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The suspect, a man in his 20s who was wearing medieval-style armor, is now in police custody. | Two people are dead and five others have been injured in a stabbing rampage in Quebec City Saturday night.
Speaking at a press conference Sunday morning, the chief of the Quebec City police department Robert Pigeon, said a 24-year-old man was arrested just before 1 a.m. ET.
The suspect appeared in court via video conference later on Sunday and was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder.
The suspect has been identified as Carl Girouard from Sainte-Thérèse, north of Montreal.
According to Pigeon, Girouard has no known links to terrorist groups and police believe his motive was personal in nature.
Authorities say he intended to harm as many people as possible.
Read more: Fatal shooting in Montreal’s NDG neighbourhood leads to investigation by Quebec’s police watchdog
Pigeon said the attack was premeditated but the victims appeared to have been chosen at random. The coroner has identified the two people killed as François Duchesne, 56, and Suzanne Clermont, 61, both residents of Quebec City.
Officials say the lives of the five other victims are not in danger. They did not offer any more specific information about their conditions but said that they suffered “serious lacerations.”
Pigeon said the five other victims are locals as well. Two are French nationals who live in the city.
“Our thoughts are with the family of the people who died today,” said police spokesman Etienne Doyon.
Police did not speculate on a possible motive for the attack. Doyon said he could not immediately confirm if Girouard was known to police, or whether more than one person may have been involved in the attack.
“Nothing is impossible,” he said. “But for now, we’re happy to have arrested a suspect and the investigation is ongoing.”
Girouard’s Sainte-Thérèse apartment building concierge told Global News on Sunday that in her experience the suspect was always kind and respectful. She said his brother lived in the same building as he did.
Police had earlier warned residents to remain indoors as they hunted for a man dressed in medieval clothing and armed with a sword who they said had left “multiple victims.”
Doyon said police were first notified of the stabbings near the national assembly in Quebec City’s downtown core shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday. The attack went on for nearly two and a half hours as police pursued the man on foot.
Carlos Godoy, who lives in the area, said police K-9 units had searched his backyard as they hunted for the suspect.
“It was really erratic, very abnormal for the neighbourhood,” he said.
“It’s a full moon, it’s October 31st. It’s Halloween, and it’s a lockdown weekend. No one should be out on the streets,” Godoy said. “And I’m in an extremely quiet neighbourhood because there are no tourists nowadays.”
Police had asked area residents to remain indoors as they continued their investigation.
Quebec’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Security Geneviève Guilbault said she is “devastated,” but added that she was relieved to hear a suspect is in custody.
In a tweet Sunday morning, Quebec Premier François Legault offered his condolences to the families of the victims.
“Quebec is waking up after a night of horror,” he wrote in French. “Words fail to describe such a tragedy.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his “heart breaks for the loved ones of the two people killed in last night’s horrific attack in Quebec City.”
“I’m also wishing a full recovery to the injured,” he wrote on Twitter. “We’re keeping you in our thoughts and will be there for you.”
Trudeau also thanked first responders for their “critical work.”
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne called the news “terrible.”
“There are no words to express my sadness,” he wrote in a tweet. “I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims.”
At a press conference on Sunday, Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume said that “mental health is the current biggest security challenge.”
Guilbault added that mental health-related incidents are what police forces are responding to more and more.
Labeaume called on all Quebecers who may need psychological support to call 211.
–With files from the Canadian Press | Riot | October 2020 | ['(Global News)'] |
A concrete and steel fence is built in Sydney to protect leaders attending the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting next week. | More than 5,000 police and troops will also be deployed as part of Australia's largest security operation ever.
The 5km (three-mile) barrier is intended to protect the 21 leaders attending the meeting from thousands of protesters expected at the summit.
Major landmarks such as Sydney's Opera House fall inside the protection zone.
The world leaders - including US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin - will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) meeting for talks on climate change, regional security and free trade.
'Rabble-proof fence'
Police say they expect protests to be violent and have warned demonstrators not to march near the venue.
I'm looking forward to the beautiful city and to the extent I inconvenience [Sydney residents], I apologise
George W BushUS president
In pictures: Fence built
But activists opposed to the Iraq war and global warming have insisted they want to make their point peacefully. Australia's government has spent A$169m (£68m, $138m) on security for the event over six years, with media dubbing the barrier the "rabble-proof fence".
Fighter jets and police helicopters will patrol the skies above Sydney, while Australia's navy will deploy ships, divers, water police and special forces in Sydney Harbour.
Mr Bush has already apologised to Sydney residents for any inconvenience caused during the summit, which started on Saturday and will end on 8-9 September.
"I'm looking forward to the beautiful city and to the extent I inconvenience [Sydney residents], I apologise," Mr Bush said.
There is plenty to grumble about, says the BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney, with commuters and tourists facing more than a week of disruption.
Parts of Sydney's rail network will be closed, along with many roads.
But residents have been given a sweetener, our correspondent says - next Friday has been declared a public holiday to coincide with the start of the meeting. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A fire severely damages the 16th century Wythenshawe Hall, near Manchester, England. | Fire has badly damaged a 16th Century hall in Manchester destroying the roof and causing extensive damage to an upper floor. The blaze started in the roof of Wythenshawe Hall at about 03:30 GMT, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) said. More than 50 firefighters tackled the "serious blaze" at the Tudor hall. Five fire engines are still at the scene as an investigation is under way into the cause.
The timber-framed hall was built in 1540 and was home to the Tatton family for about 400 years. Warren Pickstone, from GMFRS, said: "We are doing everything we can to save as much of this building as we can. "The fire is in the roof and is difficult to access but we have specialist resources at the scene and we are doing our best."
He said the historic clock tower was also on fire, adding: "So far we believe we have lost the roof and the first floor."
The hall was donated to local people in 1926 and was previously run as a museum and art gallery.
Source: Friends of Wythenshawe Hall
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
| Fire | March 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Nepal's ruling coalition government announces that elections to a special assembly to write a new constitution will be held in November. | The seven parties and former Maoists had earlier agreed to hold the vote in June, but the election commission said it needed more time to organise it.
The assembly will decide the future of the monarchy and political system. The date of the vote has yet to be fixed. The elections are part of a peace deal signed last year with the Maoists whose 10-year rebellion claimed 13,000 lives.
Date unclear
"We have agreed to hold the constituent assembly elections by the end of November and the eight party leaders have given the responsibility to the government to fix the date," Ramchandra Poudel, Nepal's minister for peace and reconstruction, told the AFP news agency.
The weapons of both sides are under UN supervision
He said the country's parliament, formed in January, would need to amend the interim constitution in the next two weeks.
"We have also agreed to amend the interim constitution and formulate the necessary election laws by mid-June," he said.
United Left Front party leader CP Mainali said that Prime Minister GP Koirala had proposed 26 November as election day, but that the date had not been approved by the leaders of the other parties. The governing coalition of seven political parties and the former Maoist rebels has said the fate of Nepal's beleaguered monarch, King Gyanendra, will be decided in the new assembly's first meeting. He was forced to relinquish most of his powers after huge protests in April last year ended his absolute rule. The assembly's members are then supposed to reorder Nepal's highly centralised political structure. The BBC's Mark Dummett in Kathmandu says they will consider a federal form of government, as well as ways to empower traditionally marginalised groups, such as low-caste Hindus, indigenous tribes and people living on the southern plains.
Maoist demands
The delay in holding the elections prompted complaints by the Maoists that King Gyanendra was manipulating the situation and trying to make a comeback.
The former rebels insist he should be removed and a republic declared before polls are held.
At least 13,000 people were killed in the fighting between security forces and Maoists, after the rebels began their insurgency in 1996.
As part of a landmark peace deal agreed late last year, the former rebels and the army have placed their weapons under United Nations supervision. | Government Job change - Election | May 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
US Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy announces his retirement, effective July 31, 2018. | US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is to retire, giving President Donald Trump the chance to cement a conservative majority on the top court.
The conservative has sided with liberals on many decisions, including the 5-4 rulings that decided same-sex marriage and upheld abortion rights.
In his letter to Mr Trump, Justice Kennedy expressed "profound gratitude" for having served in the highest court.
The 81-year-old judge will retire on 31 July, he said in his letter.
He is the second-oldest justice on the nine-member US Supreme Court.
The court plays a key role in American life and is often the final word on highly contentious laws, disputes between states and the federal government, and final appeals to stay executions.
In recent years, it has expanded gay marriage to all 50 states, halted President Barack Obama's immigration orders and delayed a US plan to cut carbon emissions while appeals went forward.
Earlier this week it upheld Mr Trump's travel ban which covers people from several Muslim-majority countries, in a 5-4 conservative majority ruling.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said on Wednesday that a vote on Mr Trump's nominee to replace Justice Kennedy - who earned a reputation as the court's "swing" vote - would take place by the autumn.
Justice Kennedy has frequently sided with abortion rights advocates in the court and news of his retirement has raised fears among pro-choice groups that access to legal abortions in several states could be under threat. Justice Kennedy said he was retiring because he wanted to spend more time with his family. Justice Kennedy, who was raised in California, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and began his term in 1988. He voted conservative on issues of campaign finance, voting rights and gun rights but was considered a swing vote on key rulings.
Justice Kennedy penned the Supreme Court's first major gay-rights decision in 1996, protecting LGBT Americans from discrimination.
In 2015, he authored the landmark opinion which gave LGBT citizens the right to marry, writing: "They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law and the Constitution grants them that right."
As a justice, he routinely favoured personal liberty and the limiting of federal power. Mr Trump said Justice Kennedy had "displayed great vision" and "tremendous heart". Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington
Without Anthony Kennedy, the political centre on the Supreme Court will be firmly on the right. Whoever Donald Trump nominates - and he's promised to draw from the same list of candidates from which he picked Neil Gorsuch - will be a person with solid conservative bona fides. Democrats and liberal activists will howl, rage and do all they can to slow the process, but the timing of Mr Kennedy's retirement makes what happens next all but inevitable. The president will surely offer his choice quickly, and if Republican senators stick together they have the votes to confirm before November's mid-terms congressional elections, let alone when new senators are sworn in next January.
And even if the court vacancy becomes a campaign issue, the open seat in 2016 proved that court vacancies are a much stronger motivating consideration for Republicans - particularly evangelical voters - than they are for Democrats. File this as yet another entry in the "elections have consequences" scrapbook. If Hillary Clinton had prevailed in 2016, Democrats would be contemplating a 6-3 liberal Supreme Court majority and an opportunity to reshape the legal landscape for a generation. Instead, on subjects like abortion law and gay rights, the pendulum is swinging the other direction. During a meeting with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the White House, President Trump said he would select a nominee to replace Justice Kennedy from a list of 25 potential court candidates that his campaign had compiled during the election. Mr Trump said the process to replace him would begin immediately.
"Hopefully we will pick someone who is just as outstanding", he said. Mr Trump added that he had learned of the judge's retirement about a half hour before, when Justice Kennedy came to the White House to meet him. The White House also released a statement thanking Justice Kennedy for his 30 years of service as a "tireless voice for individual rights".
"His words have left an indelible mark not only on this generation, but on the fabric of American history."
Top Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a televised speech on the floor of the Senate that Justice Kennedy's replacement would be a decision affecting "generations".
"Our Republican colleagues in the senate should follow the rule they set in 2016, not to consider a Supreme Court Justice in an election year," Senator Schumer said.
"Anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy."
Fellow Democrat Tammy Duckworth cited that same rule, pushed in 2016 by Republican leader Mitch McConnell, in a tweet.
Top Republican and House Speaker Paul Ryan called Justice Kennedy "a man of integrity and decency".
"He has earned the respect of the House and the American people," he wrote, adding that he was looking forward to Mr Trump's nomination of a successor who would be "dedicated to upholding the Constitution".
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
UEFA President Michel Platini, who had been suspended by the FIFA Ethics Committee last fall, announces his resignation following the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision that let stand his ban, shortened to four years which corresponds to the duration of his remaining time in office. The court ruled that Platini was guilty of conflict of interest for taking a $2 million payment from FIFA approved by Sepp Blatter in 2011. | GENEVA (AP) — Michel Platini will resign as UEFA president after failing to overturn his ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which cut his sanction from six to four years.
Platini called the verdict a "deep injustice" and said he will now step down from the UEFA position he has held since 2007.
CAS effectively removed Platini from world soccer by ensuring his ban "corresponds to the duration of a presidential term," the court said in a statement.
Platini's current UEFA mandate expires in March 2019, and the next FIFA presidential election is due in May 2019.
"This decision is inflicting me a suspension whose length will de facto prevent me — as if by chance — from bidding for the next FIFA presidential election," Platini said in a statement.
Leaving UEFA also frees him to pursue an appeal to Swiss courts and "establish my integrity in this case," Platini said. Switzerland's supreme court can overturn verdicts if legal process is abused but will not re-judge the evidence.
The court ruled that Platini was guilty of conflict of interest for taking a $2 million payment from FIFA approved by Sepp Blatter in 2011. The money was uncontracted extra salary for working as Blatter's presidential adviser from 1999-2002, and was largely unknown until it was revealed by Swiss federal prosecutors last September.
The CAS panel "was not convinced by the legitimacy of the 2,000,000 Swiss francs payment, which was only recognized by Mr. Platini and Mr. Blatter," the CAS statement said.
Platini got the money "more than eight years after the end of his work relations, was not based on any document established at the time of the contractual relations and did not correlate with the alleged unpaid part of his salary," the court said.
In deciding the ban, the judges said Platini's attitude in court was a factor in the verdict.
The ruling cited "the absence of any repentance and the impact that this matter has had on FIFA's reputation."
FIFA was also criticized by the court for knowing about the irregular payment for four years before the independent ethics committee opened an investigation. For that reason, CAS dismissed a FIFA ethics charge against Platini of disloyalty to FIFA.
The case ended Platini's hopes of replacing Blatter at FIFA.
The UEFA executive committee will meet next week in Basel, Switzerland, on the sidelines of the Europa League final to discuss replacing Platini. An election is likely in mid-September at meetings of European soccer leaders in Athens, Greece.
UEFA said Monday that it will not appoint an interim leader ahead of the election, and did not comment on the verdict.
FIFA also avoided comment in a brief statement, saying it "acknowledged the decision," including cutting Platini's fine to 60,000 Swiss francs ($61,900) from 80,000 Swiss francs ($82,500).
Blatter is awaiting a CAS hearing to challenge his six-year ban.
Blatter and Platini were provisionally suspended by the FIFA ethics committee last October, then banned for eight years. FIFA's appeal panel cut two years off their sanctions in February as reward for their long service to the sport.
The verdict came on Monday, one month before a project close to Platini's heart — the European Championship in his native France — kicks off. He captained France to the title when it last hosted the tournament in 1984.
Platini said as he left his hearing at CAS 10 days ago that he will attend matches as a guest at Euro 2016, played in nine cities from June 10-July 10. However, his ban bars him from formal business contact with soccer officials and he cannot present the trophy.
Platini put his faith in the independence of CAS throughout his case, and criticized the FIFA ethics court as biased. He often said there were forces inside soccer's world body trying to block his presidential bid, though he did not identify who.
The CAS panel judged the evidence afresh and had the power to impose a life ban on Platini if it believed bribery and corruption were factors.
Platini received his money from FIFA in February 2011, when Blatter was preparing for what became a bitterly fought re-election contest against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar. The Platini-led UEFA pledged support to Blatter before Bin Hammam's candidacy was ended by allegations he bribed Caribbean voters.
The timing of the payment in an election year was noted in the CAS statement on Monday.
Platini and Blatter, the Frenchman's former mentor, deny wrongdoing, and claim they had a verbal contract for the additional money.
"I had confidence in Mr. Blatter that he would pay me," Platini said at CAS in Lausanne last month, when asked about the nine-year delay which breached Swiss law. "What is the problem?"
Both men, whose friendship soured as Platini's FIFA leadership ambitions grew, have effectively been a star witness in each other's appeal case. They were heard on back-to-back days at the two earlier FIFA tribunals.
An entirely different CAS panel will judge Blatter's appeal and should take into account the Platini verdict, CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said last month.
In February, Blatter was replaced as FIFA president by Gianni Infantino, Platini's long-time right-hand man at UEFA.
UEFA publicly stood by Platini since details emerged last September, when Swiss federal prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against Blatter for suspected mismanagement. Both men were quizzed at FIFA headquarters after an executive committee meeting.
"Life has always given me beautiful surprises," Platini said Monday. "Now I'm available to live them." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2016 | ['(USA Today)'] |
SpaceX successfully launches Commercial Resupply Services payload CRS-15 via a Falcon 9 rocket to dock with the International Space Station. The cargo includes CIMON, a head-shaped AI robot designed by the German Aerospace Center to assist crew onboard the ISS. | SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft began its next mission to the International Space Station Friday, with launch aboard a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket – the final Block 4 vehicle – from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The mission, which will also use a previously-flown Dragon capsule, lifted off at 05:42 Eastern Daylight Time (09:42 UTC).
The second Dragon flight of 2018, the CRS-15 mission launched Friday is carrying 2,700 kilograms (5,900) of supplies, provisions and equipment to the space station. Dragon is one of two US cargo vehicles – along with Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus – that perform deliveries to the outpost under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts.
Both Dragon and Cygnus were developed under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, aimed at maintaining the agency’s ability to get cargo to the International Space Station following the retirement of the Space Shuttle. The CRS contracts, which cover operational flights, were first awarded in 2008.
Dragon consists of a pressurized capsule and an unpressurized trunk section, with the trunk providing critical services such as power generation via its solar arrays, as well as space for externally-mounted cargo. Dragon’s capsule is designed to be recovered at the end of a mission and can be refurbished for subsequent missions, while the trunk burns up on reentry.
Other than Russia’s manned Soyuz spacecraft, Dragon is the only spacecraft currently capable of returning cargo to Earth from the space station.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft – via NASA
SpaceX was originally awarded twelve resupply missions for Dragon, with this being extended to 15 and later 20 in 2015. SpaceX has also been awarded a contract under the second phase of Commercial Resupply Services, CRS2, for six cargo missions with its next-generation Dragon 2 spacecraft.
Orbital ATK – now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems – and Sierra Nevada Corporation were also awarded cargo missions for their Cygnus and Dream Chaser spacecraft respectively.
Friday’s launch began Dragon’s seventeenth flight, which will use spacecraft C111. This capsule already has one round trip to the ISS under its belt – having performed the CRS-9 mission in 2016.
Lifting off from Cape Canaveral in mid-July, CRS-9 saw Dragon spend thirty-six days berthed at the space station’s Harmony module before returning to Earth in late August. CRS-9 ended with the capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Mexico.
Dragon on her previous mission during CRS-9 – via NASA
It is the fourth time a previously-flown Dragon spacecraft has been used for a CRS mission. SpaceX intends to use refurbished spacecraft for its remaining Phase 1 CRS contracts, which has allowed the company to cease production in favor of the Dragon 2 vehicle that will support future manned and unmanned missions to the station.
The cargo aboard CRS-15 includes 205 kilograms (452 lb) of provisions for the crew, 178 kilograms (392 lb) of hardware for the US orbital segment of the outpost, 12 kilograms (26 lb) of hardware for the Russian part of the station, 21 kilograms (46 lb) of computer equipment and 63 kilograms (139 lb) of hardware to support future spacewalks.
There are 1,233 kilograms (2,718 lb) of scientific experiments and equipment aboard Dragon. One experiment is Chemical Gardens. These are inorganic silicon-based structures that form from the interaction of metal salts and silicate anions. The complex structures that grow can resemble plants, and the goal of growing chemical gardens aboard the space station is to see how they develop in microgravity conditions, without the effect of Earth’s gravity.
The BCAT-CS experiment will study cohesive and adhesive forces in sediments that are being transported aboard Dragon. These forces can cause particles to cluster together, but as they are much weaker than gravity they are hard to measure in laboratories on Earth. BCAT-CS will study quartz and clay sediments in microgravity, providing experimental results that can be used to validate existing scientific models of the forces.
Rodent Research 7 will study the effects of microgravity on microorganisms that live in the gastrointestinal tract, allowing for a better understanding of how to ensure the health of astronauts engaged in long-duration missions and to aid research into related conditions on Earth.
The Rodent Research containers
Angiex Cancer Therapy will test a new drug that has proven effective against cancer in microgravity conditions, where certain cultures of cells have been shown to exhibit similar properties to those in living organisms. The experiment will validate whether microgravity conditions can be used to model the performance of the drug within an organism, helping to develop new techniques for testing future drugs.
The European Space Agency’s Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON) will employ artificial intelligence (AI) to support astronauts aboard the station. Enclosed within a 3D-printed shell, CIMON will be able to maneuver autonomously, using onboard fans to control its flight in microgravity. The unit will be able to hover at eye level with the astronauts, with a screen displaying its face.
CIMON incorporates ultrasonic sensors for collision detection and an array of cameras and microphones that will help it in interactions with the crew and movements around the station.
CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN) – the first Artificial Intelligence crew assistant for spaceflight crews. (Credit: Airbus/NASA)
CIMON’s AI is based around IBM’s Watson system, which can run locally aboard the unit or be downlinked for cloud processing when the space station is in range of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The mobile companion is designed to interact with the crew, assisting with experiments and operations through a voice interface that allows the astronauts to keep their hands free for other tasks.
This will allow them to ask for instructions and run through checklists. CIMON can also be used as a floating camera platform, to provide early warning of problems aboard the station and to monitor the psychological condition of its human crewmates.
CIMON’s interactions with the crew are intended to be natural, with the AI able to display emotions and appear to nod when processing its response to a question. Astronaut Alexander Gerst, currently aboard the ISS, contributed to the design of CIMON helping to pick out a face and voice to aid bonding with the crew.
Gerst will perform three experiments to test out CIMON during his time aboard the space station, including growing crystals, solving a Rubik’s Cube and a medical experiment. The ESA project – which is led by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) – is seen as a precursor to the inclusion of AI assistants on future long-duration deep space missions.
NASA’s Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment (ECOSTRESS) is an ecological research payload that will be mounted outside the space station to monitor the temperature of plant life on Earth’s surface. The experiment will help to study how the planet’s ecosystems respond to the amount of water available and the resultant impact on the carbon cycle. ECOSTRESS will also be used to evaluate how monitoring water consumption and forecasting drought conditions can help protect agriculture.
ECOSTRESS uses the Prototype HyspIRI Thermal Infrared Radiometer (PHyTIR), a prototype instrument developed as a technology risk reduction exercise for a future mission named HyspIRI. PHyTIR contains a shortwave infrared pushbroom spectrometer and a whiskbroom thermal infrared multispectral imager. Operating in six spectral bands, PHyTIR will provide a resolution of up to 38 meters (125 feet). The 490-kilogram (1,080 lb) instrument draws 516 watts of power from the space station and will be mounted on the exposed facility of the Japanese Kibo module.
Dragon’s Trunk is also transporting a replacement Latching End Effector (LEE) for the space station’s CanadArm2 robotic arm. The robotic arm has two end effectors, one at each end of the arm, which allow it to move between different base points around the outside of the space station and to grapple other hardware – including Dragon, Cygnus and Kounotori spacecraft.
After performance issues related to their age, both LEEs were replaced during spacewalks late last year and early this. The new end effector, which was built as a ground spare, will be stored outside the station ready to be installed if needed.
The new LEE inside Dragon’s Trunk.
The Latching End Effector that was removed during last October’s spacewalk has been brought aboard the space station. This will be packaged up and returned to Earth within Dragon’s pressurized capsule, allowing it to be refurbished and become the new ground spare.
Six CubeSats are aboard Friday’s launch. Carried aboard Dragon as pressurized cargo, these will be released from the space station at a future date. These miniaturized satellites include Biarri-Squad, a constellation of three CubeSats that will be used by the multinational Biarri project to study potential military applications for constellations of small spacecraft. A partnership between the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, Biarri-Squad uses three-unit CubeSat buses built by Boeing under the US National Reconnaissance Office’s Colony-2 program.
Building on the flight of Biarri-Point, a risk-reduction satellite that was deployed from the ISS last May, Biarri-Squad will use L1 GPS receivers and laser ranging to make precise measurements of the satellites’ relative positions. Australia’s Electro-Optic Systems (EOS) will perform the laser ranging experiments – relying upon retroreflectors aboard each CubeSat.
The other three CubeSats aboard Dragon for Friday’s launch form part of the Japanese-led multinational Birds-2 project, consisting of small satellites with Earth imaging, radio and technology demonstration payloads. The original Birds constellation, consisting of five satellites, was previously deployed from the International Space Station early last July after launching aboard Dragon’s CRS-11 mission the previous month.
Each Bird satellite is a single-unit CubeSat. Built by Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT), in partnership with other universities and organizations around the world, the satellites will return images of the Earth, be used by amateur radio enthusiasts and test new microcontroller systems in orbit. Birds-2 consists of spacecraft built in partnership with universities in Bhutan, the Philippines and Malaysia.
The Bhutan-1 CubeSat, also known as Bird BTN, will be the Kingdom of Bhutan’s first satellite. Maya-1, or Bird PHL, was constructed for the University of the Philippines Diliman and will be the first Filipino CubeSat in orbit – although the country has previously operated larger satellites. Malaysia’s contribution is the Universiti Teknologi MARA Sat 1 (UiTMSAT-1) – or Bird MYS – which was built in conjunction with the Shah Alam-based MARA University of Technology.
SpaceX launched Dragon on its way to the space station via a Falcon 9 rocket. First flown in June 2010, Falcon 9 is the only rocket currently flying that is – in part – reusable. Falcon 9’s first stage is designed to be able to make a powered landing after boosting the rocket’s second stage and payload on their way towards orbit, allowing the stage to be refurbished and reflown on subsequent missions.
B1045 ahead of launching TESS – via Chris Gebhardt for NSF/L2
The Falcon 9 design has undergone several revisions since the type’s introduction, including the v1.1 and v1.2 configurations that debuted in 2013 and 2015 and incremental block upgrades within each of these configurations. Following the first flight of the Block 5 Falcon 9 v1.2 last month, intended to be the definitive version of the rocket, SpaceX is phasing out their remaining hardware from previous generations.
While SpaceX expects the Block 5 first stages to be capable of many flights, earlier versions have been used for a maximum of two launches. The first stage for Friday’s launch is Core 1045.2, a Block 4 first stage that will be making its second and final flight. Core 1045 was previously used in the launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) on 18 April – making its second flight, just seventy-two days later, the fastest turnaround to date for a recovered first stage.
Because the first stage cannot be used for any further launches, SpaceX did not attempt to recover it following Friday’s launch. Although SpaceX does have one remaining Block 4 first stage – Core 1042 which was used last October to deploy Koreasat 5A – this is not expected to fly again making the CRS-15 launch the last to use a Block 4 vehicle, or any version of Falcon 9 other than the Block 5.
Maiden launch of the Falcon 9 Block 5 – via Brady Kenniston for NSF/L2
Falcon lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This launch pad – which previously supported Titan III and Titan IV rockets – was leased by SpaceX in 2007 and was used for all East Coast Falcon 9 missions until it was damaged in a pre-launch accident in September 2016.
While SLC-40 was repaired, SpaceX performed launches from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center – which had already been undergoing conversion for Falcon 9 at the time of the accident – with SLC-40 returning to service last December.
Falcon is assembled horizontally in a hangar close to the launch pad. Once the first and second stages have been integrated the rocket is rolled out for a static fire – giving the first stage engines a short test run to shake down any potential issues with the vehicle.
The static fire for Friday’s mission was performed last Saturday, after which Falcon returned to the hangar to allow the Dragon spacecraft to be fitted to the top of the stack. Falcon was rolled back out to the launch pad – this time with Dragon – on Thursday and following the addition of late-load payloads to the Dragon capsule, the rocket was raised to the vertical position.
Fuelling of the Falcon 9 takes place in the last seventy minutes of the countdown. Loading of RP-1 propellant – a refined petroleum commonly used in rockets – begins at the T-70-minute mark in the countdown while oxidizer – supercooled liquid oxygen – is pumped into the rocket’s tanks from the thirty-five-minute mark onwards.
Friday’s launch sequence began with ignition of the Falcon’s nine Merlin-1D first-stage engines about three seconds ahead of the planned liftoff. The three-second holddown gives the engines enough time to build up to full thrust while the rocket’s onboard computers can verify their performance is nominal and abort the launch if the engines are not healthy.
CRS-14 launches via the ignition of the nine Merlin 1D engines – by Brady Kenniston for NSF/L2
Once Falcon 9 lifted off, the rocket climbed away from SLC-40 before maneuvering to the required trajectory to put Dragon on course for the International Space Station. Heading to the northeast over the Atlantic Ocean, Falcon passed through the area of maximum dynamic pressure – Max-Q – seventy-nine seconds into flight.
The first stage, Core 1045.2, powered Falcon’s ascent for the first two minutes and 45 seconds of the mission. Since the core was not going to be recovered, it did not need to save propellant for the entry and landing burns so can burn for longer than on missions with a landing attempt. This reduces the amount of work the second stage has to do to reach orbit.
The first stage shutdown event is designated main engine cutoff (MECO). Three seconds later, the spent first stage was jettisoned and allowed to fall back to Earth. Falcon’s second stage ignited its single Merlin Vacuum (MVac) engine eight seconds after stage separation.
For Friday’s mission the second stage only needed to make one burn to place Dragon into its planned deployment orbit, with this burn lasting five minutes and 35 seconds. Dragon separated from Falcon 9 one minute after the end of the second stage burn, at nine minutes and 31 seconds mission elapsed time.
After separation, Dragon will make a series of burns to set up its rendezvous with the International Space Station. Arrival is expected at around 11:00 UTC on 2 July – when the spacecraft will be grappled by the CanadArm2 robotic arm and berthed at the nadir – Earth-facing – port of the Harmony module. Dragon will remain at the space station for one month before it is unberthed and released to begin the journey back to Earth.
Friday’s launch was the fifty-seventh flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and its eleventh mission of 2018. The next Falcon 9 launch is currently slated to be from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 20 July, with a payload of ten Iridium-NEXT communications satellites. Another launch from Cape Canaveral with the Telstar 19V satellite is currently scheduled for the next day. Dragon’s next CRS mission, CRS-16, is targeting a launch in mid-November. | New achievements in aerospace | June 2018 | ['(NASA Spaceflight)'] |
Former Rwandan Armed Forces chief of staff Augustin Bizimungu is sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. | Former Rwandan army chief Augustin Bizimungu has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the 1994 genocide.
The UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda also convicted ex-paramilitary police chief Augustin Ndindiliyimana but released him for time already served.
Two other senior generals were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the 100-day genocide.
Bizimungu and Ndindiliyimana are two of the most senior figures to be sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), established in Arusha in neighbouring Tanzania to try the ringleaders behind the killings.
"It is a welcome decision by the ICTR. In its own circumstances, that is a big sentence, even if many people would think he [Bizimungu] deserved the highest," Martin Ngoga, Rwanda's chief prosecutor, told Reuters news agency.
The court ruled that Bizimungu, who was arrested in Angola in 2002, had complete control over the men he commanded in 1994, AFP news agency said.
Ndindiliyimana, however, was said to have only had "limited control" over his forces and was described as being opposed to the killing.
Having already spent 11 years in jail following his arrest in Belgium in 2000, Ndindiliyimana was released.
Both men were found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The BBC's Will Ross in Nairobi, Kenya, says Bizimungu appeared unmoved when he was handed his sentence. The 59-year-old was accused of going to the homes of militants and ordering them to kill all those from the Tutsi ethnic group - people he referred to as cockroaches.
He was said to have promised weapons, as well as fuel to burn houses, our correspondent says.
Major Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, the former commander of a reconnaissance battalion, and his second-in-command, Capt Innocent Sagahutu, were meanwhile each given 20-year sentences for crimes against humanity.
They were accused of ordering the murder of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.
Ten Belgian peacekeepers who were protecting the prime minister were also killed, triggering the withdrawal of the UN force from Rwanda.
Rwanda's genocide was sparked by the death of former President Juvenal Habyarimana who was killed when his plane was shot down close to the capital, Kigali, on 6 April 1994.
Within hours of the attack, certain members of the government organised Hutu militias across the country to systematically kill Tutsis, resulting in more than three months of violence.
The Hutu government blamed Tutsi RPF rebels for killing Mr Habyarimana but RPF leader Paul Kagame, now Rwanda's president, says the plane was shot down to provide a pretext for the premeditated slaughter.
Many thousands of lower-ranking people accused of involvement in the genocide have been put on trial in Rwanda, either in formal courts or in a traditional system known as "gacaca".
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2011 | ['(FAR)', '(BBC)'] |
The U.S. Senate passes a legislation that would allow victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to file lawsuits seeking damages from Saudi Arabia despite Saudi threats to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia’s government for damages, setting up a potential showdown with the White House, which has threatened a veto.
The Saudis, who deny responsibility for the 2001 attacks, strongly object to the bill. They had said they might sell up to $750 billion in U.S. securities and other American assets in retaliation if it became law.
The “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” or JASTA, passed the Senate by unanimous voice vote. It must next be taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Judiciary Committee intends to hold a hearing on the measure in the near future, a committee aide said.
If it became law, JASTA would remove the sovereign immunity, preventing lawsuits against governments, for countries found to be involved in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. It would allow survivors of the attacks, and relatives of those killed in the attacks, to seek damages from other countries.
In this case, it would allow lawsuits to proceed in federal court in New York as lawyers try to prove that the Saudis were involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir has said his country’s objection to the bill is based on principles of international relations. “What (Congress is) doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
James Kreindler, a prominent trial lawyer who represents 9/11 families and won large payouts for the victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan American Airways Flight 103 over Scotland, said he expected the bill to pass the House and become law.
“It would be crazy for (President Barack) Obama to veto bipartisan legislation (which would) open (U.S.) courts to victims of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history,” Kreindler said.
Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and a JASTA co-sponsor, said the bill is overdue.
“Today the Senate has spoken loudly and unanimously that the families of victims of terrorist attacks should be able to hold the perpetrators, even if it’s a country, a nation, accountable,” Schumer told a news conference.
Related Coverage
Republican Senator John Cornyn, also a sponsor of the bill, said JASTA does not target the Saudis, although he alluded to a still-classified section of a report on the Sept. 11 attacks that Saudi critics say might implicate Riyadh.
“We have yet to see the 28 pages that have not been yet released about the 9/11 report, and that may well be instructive,” Cornyn said at the news conference.
Other lawmakers who have seen the 28 pages have said releasing them would quiet such rumors.
Cornyn said it was up to the court to decide whether the Saudis were liable. “I don’t believe that this will be destructive of the relationship that we have with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The White House said Obama still plans to veto JASTA.
“This legislation would change long-standing, international law regarding sovereign immunity,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a daily press briefing.
“And the president of the United States continues to harbor serious concerns that this legislation would make the United States vulnerable in other court systems around the world.”
Asked if Senate Democrats would back a veto, Schumer said he would vote against Obama.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who had opposed the bill, said the version passed on Tuesday eased his worries that it might leave U.S. allies more vulnerable to lawsuits, for example if groups based within their borders but not supported by their governments were behind a terrorist attack.
“We don’t want to alienate allies, but we do want to create redress if a nation-state was involved in helping a terrorist organization attack American interests, and I think they should be held liable,” Graham said in a brief interview.
| Government Policy Changes | May 2016 | ['(LA Times)', '(Reuters)', '(NY Times)'] |
U.S. Attorney General William Barr resumes the federal usage of the death penalty. Five inmates are expected to be executed between December 2019 and January 2020. If carried out, these would be the first federal executions in the United States in sixteen years. | The federal government will resume executing death row inmates after nearly two decades without doing so, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Attorney General William Barr directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of five inmates convicted of murder and other crimes. The executions have been scheduled for December 2019 and January 2020.
The department also announced a new execution protocol, replacing the three-drug cocktail previously used in federal executions with the single drug, pentobarbital.
The last federal execution was carried out in 2003. There are 62 individuals on federal death row, according to a tracker maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center.
The Supreme Court outlawed state and federal death penalty laws in the 1972 decision Furman v. Georgia. The ruling invalidated the laws then on the books, but did not outlaw the death penalty under all circumstances, leading states and the federal government to draft new legislation.
The federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, and expanded by Congress in 1994. No federal executions took place, however, until 2001, according to to the Bureau of Prisons website.
“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Barr said in a statement. “Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding.”
“The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system,” he said.
Executions have been scheduled for Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, Wesley Ira Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Lee Honken, according to the Justice Department. In its release, the DOJ provided brief summaries of the crimes committed by each inmate.
In a statement, Ruth Friedman, director of the Federal Capital Habeas Project, said it was a “pervasive myth” that the federal death penalty was applied to only the worst offenders who committed a narrow class of crimes.
“In fact, the federal death penalty is arbitrary, racially-biased, and rife with poor lawyering and junk science. Problems unique to the federal death penalty include over-federalization of traditionally state crimes and restricted judicial review,” Friedman said. “These and other concerns, including troubling questions about the new execution protocol, are why there must be additional court review before the federal government can proceed with any execution.”
The Justice Department said each of the inmates had “exhausted their appellate and post-conviction remedies, and currently no legal impediments prevent their executions.” The executions will take place at the U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The Justice Department said that additional executions will be scheduled at a later date.
The announcement comes as a number of Democrats running for president have promised to do away with the death penalty altogether. In 2016, the Democratic Party made abolishing the death penalty a part of its official platform. | Government Policy Changes | July 2019 | ['(CNBC)', '(The New York Times)'] |
The United Nations states that at least 400 children have already died in the Zamfara State lead poisoning epidemic, double the amount that had been previously reported; the incident is described as "far from over". | Geneva - Some 400 children in northern Nigeria have died since March from lead poisoning linked to illegal gold mining by residents, and thousands more remain at risk, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The Dutch arm of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) reported the new toll, up from 160 deaths last June, and is treating a further 500 children in its four clinics, a UN spokesperson said. Most victims are under the age of 5.
"The lead pollution and intoxication crisis in Zamfara state is far from over," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"An urgent and co-ordinated response is needed. Thousands (of people) are at risk," she told a news briefing.
A UN assessment mission, acting at the request of the Nigerian government, found that water supplies in four out of five villages visited were contaminated by high levels of lead.
Concentrations of mercury in the air were also high, according to their preliminary results issued after a two-week investigation in Abare, Bagega, Dareta, Kersa and Sunke.
"The exposure to lead is thought to be caused by processing of lead containing gold ore in rural areas. Ore mined nearby is brought into the villages for further processing, which is often done by women and young children," a UN summary said.
The affected villages are largely made of mud-brick buildings and lie in the poor, arid Sahel region on the southern fringe of the Sahara, where many people work as miners and subsistence farmers.
Too much lead can cause irreparable damage to the nervous and reproductive systems and the kidneys. Lead is especially harmful to young children and pregnant women who pass the metal through the placenta to foetuses or to babies via breastfeeding.
Many families thought that their children suffering convulsions had malaria, but blood samples taken by MSF revealed the lead poisoning, according to the UN spokesperson. The Weekly
Newsletter editor Alet Law guides you through our most interesting and insightful stories to give you a well-rounded view of the week that was. | Mass Poisoning | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(Reuters via News24)'] |
The Israeli cabinet approves a plan to allow 8,000 Ethiopians of Jewish descent into the country. | JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's Cabinet approved a plan to bring about 8,000 more Ethiopians to Israel over the next four years.
The Cabinet's approval came as aid groups involved with Ethiopian aliyah reached an agreement under which mass ethiopian aliyah will end once these 8,000 Ethiopians are brought to the Jewish state. The would-be immigrants are considered so-called Falash Mura -- Ethiopians who claim family links to descedants of Ethiopian Jews who coverted to Christianity generations ago. They must embrace Judaism as a condition of their aliyah.
"From my perspective, this closes a cycle because during my first term as prime minister, I brought approximately 5,000 Falash Mura to Israel," Israeli Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. "Today we are discussing an agreed-upon arrangement with all of the relevant bodies, and there are many, so that we might finally resolve this painful and complicated problem."
The Ethiopians currently awaiting aliyah live in the Ethiopian city of Gondar, where they receive aid services from the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry and health services from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Under the deal reached by the aid groups, the Jewish Agency will take over many of the aid operations, which will cease once the 8,000 people are brought to Israel.
The Ethiopians will be brought at the rate of approximately 200 per month over the course of four years. | Government Policy Changes | November 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(JTA)'] |
The ruling Workers' Party of Korea in North Korea announces that it will convene a meeting in September to elect new leaders. | North Korea's ruling communist party will convene a rare meeting of key delegates in September to elect new leaders, Pyongyang's official media reported Saturday.
It will be only the third such meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since the communist state was founded in 1948 and will probably designate leader Kim Jong-Il's son as his political heir, analysts said.
The session would be "for electing its (the party's) highest leading body", said the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"The Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee decides to convene early in September, Juche 99 (the year 2010) a conference of the WPK for electing its highest leading body," KCNA said.
Analysts said the conference would have enormous political significance and raise the status of Kim Jong-Un, Kim Jong-Il's little-known youngest son.
"This is an extremely rare meeting," Kim Yeon-Chul, a professor at Inje University, told AFP, adding that the two previous sessions were held in the 1950s and 1960s.
Kim Yong-Hyun, a professor at Dongguk University, said the conference would be the most important party event since 1980, when a fully fledged convention of all members made public Kim Jong-Il's status as Kim Il-Sung's successor.
"There will be an important reshuffle of the party's official posts aimed at preparing for an eventual succession," he said.
Hours after the announcement, G8 leaders condemned the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea in an official communique released after two days of talks.
"We deplore the attack on March 26 that caused the sinking of the Republic of Korea's naval vessel, the Cheonan, resulting in tragic loss of 46 lives," the communique said.
Recalling that a multinational investigation had found that Pyongyang was to blame for the attack that sank the ship, the statement added: "We condemn, in this context, the attack which led to the sinking of the Cheonan.
"We demand that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea refrain from committing any attacks or threatening hostilities against the Republic of Korea."
South and North Korea exchanged a barrage of cross-border accusations Friday as they marked the 60th anniversary of a war that killed millions of people and has kept the peninsula divided to this day.
Speculation about succession in North Korea has intensified since Kim Jong-Il, now 68, suffered a stroke in August 2008, but he has since recovered sufficiently to work.
Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the conference was part of a series of events aimed at reshuffling the country's military, party and government.
Over the past year, North Korea has carried out personnel changes at the powerful National Defence Commission chaired by Kim Jong-Il and has had a cabinet reshuffle.
"The September meeting, which is aimed at reorganising the party leadership, will wrap up the reshuffle," Yang said. "We cannot rule out the possibility that the party may anoint Jong-Un as successor behind close doors."
But the North is likely to wait until 2012 before it makes public the son's status as his father's successor, Yang said.
North Korea has vowed to build a prosperous socialist state by 2012, when it celebrates Kim Il-Sung's 100th birthday.
South Korea's spy chief said this week that Kim Jong-Il's poor health was driving him to speed up preparations for transferring power to Kim Jong-Un.
Won Sei-Hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service, told parliament that Jong-Un, 27, was taking a greater role in policy-making and frequently accompanied his father on inspection tours.
A US State Department spokesman said Friday Washington was aware of a North Korean declaration of a nine-day "no sail" zone off its western coast, which in the past has signalled the onset of missile tests, and urged Pyongyang to exercise restraint. | Government Job change - Election | June 2010 | ['(Arirang News)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
The United Nations decides to withdraw aid workers from Tamil Tigerheld areas of Sri Lanka. | UN workers in the northern part of Sri Lanka controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels will be relocated following a government order, UN officials say.
They say that the relocations will begin soon following the government's statement on Monday that it could not guarantee the safety of aid workers.
The government says that it is on track to defeat the rebels in the north.
The UN announcement follows a government claim that a rebel bomber has been shot down for the first time.
The Tigers have denied they lost an aircraft and said the raid caused heavy damage.
"The UN acknowledges the announcement by the government of Sri Lanka that they can no longer guarantee the safety of aid workers... and their request that UN and non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff should relocate to government controlled territory," a UN statement said.
"The UN notes that the government of Sri Lanka holds primary responsibility for ensuring the safety of humanitarian workers."
UN spokesman Gordon Weiss told the BBC Sinhala service that there were about 70 UN national and international workers in areas of the north controlled by the Tamil Tigers.
He said that UN staff were mostly based in the town of Kilinochchi and were engaged in humanitarian work for displaced people.
Crushing
Aid agencies say there are nearly 160,000 people in the Tiger-controlled north who have been displaced by the fighting
The International Red Cross (ICRC) - one of the most prominent international agencies in the north - said that its teams were committed to remain in both rebel and government-held areas.
But an ICRC spokesman said that situation was being monitored and negotiations are currently underway with the government in Colombo.
Correspondents say that part of the problem for some aid agencies in the north is that their staff cannot leave because they are Tamil locals and the rebels will not issue them with passes.
The military meanwhile say that its offensive aimed at crushing the rebels and ending their fight for a separate state for the Tamil minority is on course.
The Ministry of defence said that it shot down a rebel plane on Tuesday after 12 soldiers and a policemen were killed during a Tamil Tiger attack on a base in the northern area of Vavuniya.
The Tigers say 10 of their suicide fighters were killed in the raid.
They say that the raid was backed by artillery and light aircraft dropping bombs and that a radar station was destroyed in extensive damage to the base.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a separate state for the Tamil minority in the north and east of Sri Lanka for 25 years. More than 70,000 people have died. | Armed Conflict | September 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Bills banning homosexual "propaganda" pass through Russia's parliament; gay people are hit with eggs by anti–gay extremists and then dragged off by police near the Duma. | Russia's parliament has unanimously passed a federal law banning gay "propaganda" amid a Kremlin push to enshrine deeply conservative values that critics say has already led to a sharp increase in anti-gay violence.
The law passed 436-0 on Tuesday, with just one deputy abstaining from voting on the bill, which bans the spreading of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors.
The law in effect makes it illegal to equate straight and gay relationships, as well as the distribution of material on gay rights. It introduces fines for individuals and media groups found guilty of breaking the law, as well as special fines for foreigners.
Minutes after passing the anti-gay legislation, the Duma also approved a new law allowing jail sentences of up to three years for "offending religious feelings", an initiative launched in the wake of the trial against the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot.
The two laws were widely criticised by Russia's marginalised liberal and human rights communities and come amid a wider crackdown against independent civil activity in the country.
"I have sincere contempt for the Duma's deputies. All, including the so-called opposition. You have now brought fascism to my country," wrote Yelena Kostychenko, a journalist at the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
International rights groups have called the current situation in Russia the worst human rights climate in the post-Soviet era.
The two laws vastly boost the power of the Russian Orthodox church, a religious body that professes total allegiance to the state. Putin, who often makes a show of his faith, has increasingly called upon the church to fill his own ideological vacuum following a contested presidential election last year, accompanied by unprecedented protests against him.
The case against Pussy Riot – in which three members were found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing an anti-Putin anthem inside a Moscow church – was widely seen as the launch of an ultra-conservative agenda.
Russia's anti-gay law, whose text was softened to remove explicit referrals to "homosexual propaganda", introduces fines of up to 100,000 roubles (£1,975) for individuals who have used the media or internet to promote "non-traditional relations". Organisations can be fined up to 1m roubles and closed down for up to 90 days.
The bill, which must be signed by Putin to become law, also says foreigners can be detained for up to 15 days and deported, as well as fined up to 100,000 roubles, for breaking the law.
International gay rights activists, including British campaigner Peter Tatchell and US activist Dan Choi, have regularly travelled to Russia to support the country's struggling gay rights movement.
Russian activists insisted they would not halt their work. "It was totally expected – I don't take today's decision as the end of something," said Igor Kochetkov, the head of LGBT Network, a St Petersburg-based group.
"We insist on equal rights for all and we will continue to stand up against those patriarchal values that are today being actively promoted by the church and the government. We are doing this because we think these values, these norms, don't fit into a modern society."
"The government is using these instincts – homophobia, xenophobia – to justify its policies against an independent civil society," Kochetkov said. "They are making enemies out of us – not just LGBT society, but any group in society that doesn't agree with their current politics."
Clashes broke out in front of the Russian parliament on Tuesday, as around 300 activists gathered to protest for and against the bill. Police said 20 people were detained. | Government Policy Changes | June 2013 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The Independent)', '(The Guardian)', '(USA Today)'] |
Nine people are killed and another three are injured in a plane crash in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States. | SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The investigation into a single-engine plane crash that killed nine members of an extended Idaho family was delayed Sunday by harsh winter weather.
Peter Knudson with the National Transportation Safety Board said the Pilatus PC-12 had 12 people on board when it crashed at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, shortly after taking off from Chamberlain, about 140 miles west of Sioux Falls.
Three other family members were injured in the crash and remained hospitalized on Sunday. The plane was bound for Idaho Falls, Idaho, Knudson said.
Federal investigators – one from Washington, D.C. and two from the Chicago area – were stuck in Sioux Falls but would likely would reach the crash site on Monday, Knudson said. Local authorities were guarding the site, he said.
Brothers Jim and Kirk Hansen, co-founders of the wellness company Kyani, were killed in the crash, company president Travis Garza said in a Facebook post on Sunday. Garza said the crash also killed their father, Jim Hansen Sr.; Kirk Hansen’s children, Stockton and Logan; his sons-in-law, Kyle Taylor and Tyson Dennert; and Jim Hansen’s son, Jake, and grandson, Houston.
Garza identified the injured as Kirk’s son, Josh, and Jim’s son, Matt, and son-in-law, Thomas Long.
.
One survivor was admitted to a hospital in Chamberlain, another was taken to Avera Queen of Peace in Mitchell, and the most critical was taken to Sioux Falls by ambulance, Brule County emergency manager Katheryn Benton said.
The ages of the passengers ranged from 7 to 81. The survivors are three men ages 17, 27 and 28, Benton said.
Brian Wood, owner of a funeral home in Idaho Falls, called the Hansens "pillars of our community" in a Facebook post.
“Our community has a dark cloud over it now,” Wood wrote. “They will never know the many lives they touched.”
The plane flew into Chamberlain from Idaho Falls on Friday morning, according to FlightAware. Its flight log also shows frequent flights in the past month, including trips to Everett, Washington; Las Vegas; and Nampa, Idaho.
According to the Pilatus website, the PC-12 can be flown by one pilot and carry up to 10 passengers.
Chamberlain and central south-central South Dakota were under a winter storm warning at the time of the plane crash.
The NWS said visibility was a half a mile with light winds reported at at the airport at 12:30 p.m. There have no snowfall totals reported for Chamberlain, but Gregory, which is south of Chamberlain, reported 8 inches of snow as of 2 p.m., the NWS said.
"The men and women of law enforcement, first responders and medical professionals should be commended in their heroic actions to rescue the victims in extreme weather conditions," Maule Rossow said. | Air crash | November 2019 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Tony Abbott becomes the leader of the Federal Liberal Party of Australia and Leader of the Opposition defeating Malcolm Turnbull by 42 votes to 41 following a party revolt over its position on the Rudd government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. | New Liberal leader Tony Abbott has promised to take the fight to the Government over emissions trading after wresting the leadership from Malcolm Turnbull by just one vote today.
Mr Abbott confirmed that the Liberals would seek to send the emissions trading legislation to a Senate committee for more scrutiny but would try to block it in the Senate if the committee proposal was voted down.
And he warned Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that he was not frightened of fighting an election on the issue.
"As far as many many millions of Australians are concerned what the Rudd Government ETS looks like is a great big tax to create a great big slush fund to provide politicised handouts run by a giant bureaucracy," he said.
Mr Abbott said the next election would be a tough fight, but that the Opposition would fight hard.
"You cannot win an election without a fight," he said. "The job of the Opposition is to be an alternative, not an echo."
The comments drew a swift riposte from Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, who said: ""The extremists and climate change deniers have taken over the Liberal Party."
Flanked by his deputy Julie Bishop, Mr Abbott said he was "humbled and daunted" about taking on the leadership.
"It's been a tumultuous week for the Liberal Party," he said.
"Obviously it's been a big day for me. I will do my best to be a consultative and collegial leader."
Mr Abbott said the new emissions trading policy was decided by a secret party room ballot after the leadership spill this morning.
"That is the right thing to do. As an Opposition our job is the hold the Government rigorously to account," he said.
"Political parties don't work when leaders just announce what they're doing and expect everyone to follow," he added in a dig at ousted leader Mr Turnbull.
Mr Abbott is now the third Liberal leader since the Coalition lost the 2007 election.
He won the final vote against Mr Turnbull by 42 votes to 41 after challenger Joe Hockey was knocked out in a first round of voting when he got 23 votes to Mr Turnbull's 26 and Mr Abbott's 35.
Mr Hockey defended his actions in seeking to find a compromise within the party, saying his backing on emissions trading was driven by his belief that "the Earth deserves the benefit of the doubt".
"Some people will say that by offering an opportunity for some to have a free vote that that was weak - so be it," he said.
But he said he had not yet decided whether he would accept Mr Abbott's offer to continue in his job as Opposition Treasury spokesman.
Ms Bishop stayed on as deputy leader, after being unopposed for her position.
She said today's vote showed the Liberals had moved on from the disastrous events of recent weeks.
"Today our colleagues showed a great sense of unity ... they have drawn a line and we will now move forward under our new leader Tony Abbott."
Speaking after his loss, Mr Turnbull confirmed that he would remain in Parliament but had made no decision about contesting the next election.
"I'm disappointed that not only has there been a change in leadership but also that there has been a pretty dramatic change in policy," he said.
Asked if in hindsight he would change any decisions he had made in the past month Mr Turnbull replied: "No."
"There's no question that the amendments that we achieved [to the emissions trading scheme] would save tens of thousands of jobs," he said.
"They would have protected Australian farmers."
Mr Turnbull also congratulated Mr Abbott, saying he has a big job ahead of him.
And Mr Abbott has paid tribute to Mr Turnbull.
"I've known Malcolm for a long time - we've sometimes be sparring partners but we've mostly been friends," he said.
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce says the Coalition parties will now be united in their opposition to the Government's emissions trading scheme.
"Today is a great day, because today you will see a unified opposition," he said.
"You will see a unified opposition that will take you on."
One-time leadership candidate Kevin Andrews says despite the close vote, Mr Abbott will lead a united party with a clear policy on climate change.
"What's been missing in the past is a collegiate approach to putting a policy together," Mr Andrews said.
"That's what Tony has committed us to do. That's what I will be working to do. I'm sure that's what Nick [Minchin] and all the others will be working to do."
The Senate is now debating the scheme and working its way through hundreds of amendments.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2009 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(BBC)'] |
A Russian highspeed passenger train traveling on the Moscow Saint Petersburg Railway derails near Uglovka in a suspected terrorist attack, killing 26 people and injuring more than 100. | Richard Galpin reports on speculation about the cause of the derailment
Rescue workers are searching for survivors of a Russian express train crash who may be trapped in wreckage.
The government says 25 people are known to have died in the derailment, amid speculation that it may have been caused by a bomb blast. Earlier, one official reported that 39 people had died, but that has now been denied by the authorities. The train, travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg, crashed on Friday night near Bologoye town in Tver region. About 90 people were injured as at least three carriages of the express train came off the tracks as it travelled on one of Russia's busiest rail links.
An investigation is under way into the cause of the crash. A small crater at the scene of the wreck has raised suspicions of sabotage. "Several versions are being considered. It must be just a pit someone dug out. Or the crater was left by an explosive device," a law enforcement official was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying. Some witnesses heard a loud bang before the crash, Russian media reports said. In 2007, a bomb on the same line derailed a train, injuring nearly 30 passengers. | Armed Conflict | November 2009 | ['(RIA Novosti)', '(BBC)'] |
A proPalestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni is kidnapped in the Gaza Strip by an Islamic Salafite group with threats to execute him within hours. , | Security forces in Gaza located overnight Thursday the body of Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian member of the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who had been kidnapped by Salafist Muslims earlier.
Hamas officials, who reported that Arrigoni's body had been found, added that the body had been found in an abandoned home in Gaza.
Kidnappings of foreigners are commonplace in Gaza. In the past year 14 such kidnappings have occurred. In each case the victim has been released after a short period of time and unharmed. The demands are not usually aimed at Hamas, however.
In Sufi and Shi'ite literature the term Salafi is interchangeable with the term Wahabi, but many Salafis reject the term as unfounded despite philosophical similarities. Wahabi Islam dominates the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and characterizes the philosophy of the al Qaeda international terrorist organization. | Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Israel National News)', '(Antara)'] |
Canada temporarily closes its embassy in Venezuela after Canadian diplomats were no longer able to get diplomatic accreditation under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government according to a statement released by the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland. | “As Venezuela slides deeper into dictatorship, and as Venezuelans continue to suffer at the hands of the illegitimate Maduro regime, the regime has taken steps to limit the ability of foreign embassies to function in Venezuela, particularly those advocating for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.
“Unfortunately, at the end of this month, Canadian diplomats in Venezuela will no longer be in a position to obtain diplomatic accreditation under the Maduro regime, and their visas will expire. Therefore, we are left with no choice but to temporarily suspend our operations at the Embassy of Canada to Venezuela, effective immediately.
“We are also evaluating the status of Venezuelan diplomats appointed by the Maduro regime to Canada.
“Notwithstanding this temporary suspension, Canada, together with its partners in the Lima Group and the international community, will continue to stand up for the rights of the Venezuelan people and for a full return to democracy in Venezuela.
“Canada continues to provide consular assistance to Canadians in Venezuela through the Embassy of Canada to Colombia, in Bogotá. For several months, we have advised Canadians to avoid all travel to Venezuela.
“Canadians in need of consular assistance in Venezuela should send an email to sos@international.gc.ca or contact the Embassy of Canada to Colombia, in Bogotá, at +57 (1) 657-9800. Canadians can also contact Global Affairs Canada’s 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa by calling collect +1 613 996 8885. For Travel Advice and Advisories for Venezuela, visit travel.gc.ca.”
| Organization Closed | June 2019 | ['(Global Affairs Canada)', '(CBC News)'] |
The APEC summit in Papua New Guinea ends without a communiqué for the first time in the forum's history. | - Asia-Pacific leaders failed to agree on a communique at a summit in Papua New Guinea on Sunday for the first time in their history as deep divisions between the United States and China over trade and investment stymied cooperation.
Competition between the United States and China over the Pacific was also thrown into focus with the United States and its Western allies launching a coordinated response to China’s Belt and Road program.
“You know the two big giants in the room,” Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said at a closing news conference, when asked which of the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group could not agree.
O’Neill, who was chairman of the meeting, said the sticking point was over whether mention of the World Trade Organization and its possible reform should be in the Leaders’ Declaration.
“APEC has got no charter over World Trade Organization, that is a fact. Those matters can be raised at the World Trade Organization.”
The multilateral trade order that APEC was established in 1989 to protect is crumbling as Chinese assertiveness in the Pacific and U.S. tariffs strain relations in the region and divide loyalties.
A Leaders’ Declaration has been issued after every annual APEC leaders’ meeting since the first in 1993, the group’s website shows.
O’Neill said that as APEC host, he would release a Chairman’s Statement, though it was not clear when.
U.S. President Donald Trump did not attend the meeting and nor did his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attended instead of Trump.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived to great fanfare on Thursday and was feted by PNG officials. He stoked Western concern on Friday when he met Pacific island leaders to pitch his Belt and Road initiative.
The United States and its allies, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, countered on Sunday with a $1.7 billion plan to deliver reliable electricity and the internet to PNG.
Wang Xiaolong, a senior economic official with China’s APEC delegation, said of the failure to agree on a joint statement that it was “not exactly a sticking point between any particular two countries”.
Most members affirmed their commitment to preserving the multilateral trading system and supported a robust and well-functioning WTO, he said.
“Frankly speaking, we are in a very early stage of those discussions and different countries have different ideas as to how to take that process forward,” Wang said.
One diplomat involved in the negotiations said tension between the U.S. and China, bubbling all week, erupted when the Chinese government’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, objected during a leaders’ retreat to two paragraphs in a draft document seen by Reuters.
One mentioned opposing “unfair trade practices” and reforming the WTO, while another concerned sustainable development.
“These two countries were pushing each other so much that the chair couldn’t see an option to bridge them,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“China was angered that the reference to WTO blamed a country for unfair trade practices.”
Pence said in a blunt speech on Saturday there would be no end to U.S. tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods until China changed its ways. On Sunday, as he left the PNG capital of Port Moresby, he listed U.S. differences with China.
“They begin with trade practices, with tariffs and quotas, forced technology transfers, the theft of intellectual property. It goes beyond that to freedom of navigation in the seas, concerns about human rights,” Pence told reporters.
Pence also took direct aim at Xi’s signature Belt and Road initiative, saying in his speech countries should not accept debt that compromised their sovereignty.
“We do not offer a constricting belt or a one-way road,” he said.
The Belt and Road plan was first proposed in 2013 to expand land and sea links between Asia, Africa and Europe, with billions of dollars in infrastructure investment from China.
APEC host PNG is home to 8 million people, four-fifths of whom live outside urban areas and with poor infrastructure, and found itself feted by superpowers.
Xi opened a Beijing-funded boulevard, while Pence talked of a 400-year old King James Bible in the PNG parliament that he had played a role in bringing to the country.
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, has for decades enjoyed largely unrivalled influence among Pacific island nations. China has recently turned its attention to the region with a raft of bilateral financing agreements to often distressed economies.
PNG Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato said his country did not need to pick sides.
“For us, we welcome Chinese investment, we welcome U.S. investment. Our foreign policy is to be friends of all, enemies of none.” | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Dutch police seal off the streets of Ondiep in Utrecht on the second day of rioting. | Thursday, March 15, 2007 The Dutch police deny that the police officer who killed Rinie Mulder is of Moroccan or Turkish descent. Esther, a Dutch blogger, refers to a post on a Moroccan website saying the police officer is Turkish, not Moroccan. The post has, however, been removed. Yesterday, we reported, relying on sources in Ondiep, that the officer was a Moroccan woman.
It remains unclear what happened in the Utrecht neighbourhood Ondiep on Sunday evening when a police officer shot 54-year old Mulder. According to some press reports, which also rely on rumours, Mulder was drunk when he and a friend became involved in a quarrel with immigrant youths. When the police intervened they shot Mulder. The man had been complaining about harassment by immigrant youths for months. Neighbours accuse the police of turning a blind eye to the youths' behaviour.
Following Mulder's death indigenous Dutch have started rioting. According to the authorities many rioters came from outside the neighbourhood.
The police have placed fences and cameras around the neighbourhood, and have closed it off to non-residents. The closure of the neighborhood will be reviewed day by day. The fines for those entering are going up. On Tuesday the fine amounted to 200 euros, on Wednesday to 300 euros and on Thursday to 400 euros.
Ondiep has now literally become a no-go area. | Riot | March 2007 | ['(DutchNews)', '(Canada Free Press)'] |
Gaddafi's youngest son, Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, is killed in a NATO airstrike, according to the Libyan government, along with three of the leaders' grandchildren. , , | A Nato air strike in Tripoli has killed the son of Col Muammar Gaddafi, a Libyan government spokesman has said. Saif al-Arab and three of Col Gaddafi's grandchildren died at a villa in the Bab al-Aziziya compound, he said.
The Libyan leader himself was there at the time but was unharmed, he added. Nato said it had hit a military target but denied targeting individuals.
Gaddafi supporters rallied outside Western diplomatic missions in Tripoli, reportedly causing some damage.
The UK Foreign Office said it was investigating reports that the residence of its ambassador had been "destroyed". The UK has withdrawn diplomats from Tripoli. There were also demonstrations outside the Italian and US missions, and the UN building said its offices were looted. Earlier on Sunday, Nato acknowledged that there had been a strike in Tripoli late on Saturday.
The head of Nato's military operations in Libya, Lt Gen Charles Bouchard, said a "command-and-control" building had been hit, and that all targets for Nato attacks were "military in nature".
He added that he was aware of reports that members of Col Gaddafi's family had been killed, but made no further comment.
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Tripoli says that unusually the alliance issued its statement within hours of the strike, well aware of the political implications.
China and Russia within the Security Council have concerns that the alliance has gone beyond the mandate of the UN resolution authorising "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.
But UK Prime Minister David Cameron said Nato's targeting policy was "in line with the UN resolution".
"It is about preventing a loss of civilian life by targeting Gaddafi's war-making machine, so that is obviously tanks and guns, rocket launchers, but also command and control," he told the BBC.
Journalists taken to the site of the air strike said the building was extensively damaged and one unexploded bomb remained at the site.
Saif al-Arab, who had a lower profile than his brother Saif al-Islam, had been studying in Germany and returned to Libya recently.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said: "The attack resulted in the martyrdom of brother Saif al-Arab Muammar Gaddafi, 29 years old, and three of the leader's grandchildren.
"The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and relatives. The leader himself is in good health." Col Gaddafi's wife was also unharmed, he said.
"This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country," the spokesman added.
There has been no independent confirmation of the deaths.
Libyan rebels began a campaign in mid-February to end more than four decades of rule by Col Gaddafi. Since last month they have been aided by an international coalition acting on a UN mandate.
Mr Moussa said the attack was against international law.
"How is this helping in the protection of civilians? Mr Saif al-Arab was a civilian, a student," he said.
"He was playing and talking to his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors when he was attacked and killed."
An adopted daughter of Col Gaddafi's was killed in 1986 by a US air strike launched in response to alleged Libyan involvement in a Berlin bombing targeting US military personnel. Mr Ibrahim accused the international coalition conducting strikes over Libya of not wanting peace. "We have again and again declared that we are ready for negotiation, ready for road maps for peace, ready for political transitional periods, ready for elections, ready for a referendum. "The West does not care to test our statements. They only care to rob us of our freedom, our wealth, which is oil, and our right to decide our future as Libyans."
Gunfire rang out in celebration in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi following the reports that Saif al-Arab Gaddafi had been killed.
On Saturday, Nato officials said the alliance would not consider talks until government forces stopped attacks on civilians. | Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(New York Times)'] |
Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Vayu is in the Arabian Sea less than 600 miles south-southeast of Karachi, Pakistan, and is strengthening as it heads north. Vayu is expected to be a Category 2 or 3 storm when it approaches the Indian state of Gujarat early Thursday , then should weaken as it approaches southeastern Pakistan over the weekend. | .
Tropical Cyclone Vayu is moving away from northwestern India's Gujarat state, but outer rainbands and gusty winds continue to lash parts of the coastline.
More than a quarter-million people were evacuated from several towns and villages in harm's way along India's western coast, according to the Associated Press. This was done with assistance from 39 National Disaster Response teams that were deployed to the region.
On the forecast track, Vayu will move away from India's Gujarat state into this weekend. Western India is 9.5 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time in the United States.
However, outer rainbands may continue to produce locally heavy rain and gusty winds at times.
The track of Vayu is more uncertain late this weekend into early next week, and it could turn back toward northwestern India or southeastern Pakistan. It will be weakening but will also likely be moving slowly, which could result in prolonged heavy rainfall.
Vayu didn't officially make landfall in Gujarat state, but it would have been a rare occurrence if it did. Landfalling tropical cyclones are not very common along northwestern India's Gujarat coast, and stronger tropical cyclones with hurricane-force winds are even rarer.
There have been just three tropical cyclones on record to make landfall in this region of India as a Category 2 or stronger equivalent, according to NOAA's tropical cyclone database. The last one was a Category 3 tropical cyclone, which made landfall in Gujarat in May 1999.
We recognize our responsibility to use data and technology for good. Take control of your data. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2019 | ['(local time)', '(The Weather Channel)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
The U.S. Department of Justice publishes a 568-page report by Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz on the FBI's handling of its investigation of Hillary Clinton's email practices. The report is critical of former FBI Director James Comey, accusing him of being "insubordinate", but finding that his actions were not politically biased. | Updated on: June 14, 2018 / 7:00 PM
/ CBS News
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's inspector general put out his long-awaited report on the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation. It is critical of former Director James Comey, saying he was "insubordinate" for not telling his bosses he planned to make a public announcement that he was not recommending charges against Hillary Clinton.
The report found the decision not to prosecute was proper. It also said some FBI agents showed anti-Trump bias, but that bias did not affect the investigation.
The report says "we find it extraordinary that ... [Comey] engaged in his own subjective ad hoc decision-making" and concludes that while Comey was not politically biased, his decision-making "negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the Department [of Justice] as fair administrators of justice."
FBI Director Christopher Wray summed up his reaction of the report in one word: disappointing.
He added Thursday's report "does identify errors of judgment, violations of or even disregard for policy, or decisions that at the very least with the benefit of hindsight were not the best choices."
Comey told "CBS This Morning" on May 4, 2018, he faced an impossible choice after new Clinton emails were discovered on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner. Comey informed Congress of the new evidence just days before the election.
He described his choice to investigators as being between "two doors," one labeled "speak" and one labeled "conceal."
The inspector general rejected this characterization "a false dichotomy" and said "the two doors were actually labeled 'follow policy/practice' and 'depart from policy/practice.'"
Comey declined to comment when approached Thursday in Minneapolis.
"No, I'm not going to say anything," he said, laughing.
The report also suggests FBI agent Peter Strzok, who led both the Clinton and Russia investigations, may have acted improperly. During its investigation, the inspector general uncovered text messages Strzok exchanged with top FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
In August 2016, Page texted Strzok asking: "[Trump] is not ever going to become president, right? Right?!"
Strzok replied, "No. No he won't. We'll stop it."
Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz concluded that in the thousands of texts, Strzok and Page were critical of both candidates and "brought discredit to themselves and sowed doubt about the FBI " in its handling of the Clinton and then the Russia investigations.
However, the inspector general did not find political considerations affected the outcome of either agent's work.
Comey tweeted today that the IG's conclusions are reasonable, but that he disagrees with some of them.
I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review. The conclusions are reasonable, even though I disagree with some. People of good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently. I pray no Director faces it again. Thanks to IG’s people for hard work. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | June 2018 | ['(CBS News)', '(BBC)'] |
A van crash on U.S. Route 27 in Florida near the town of Moore Haven results in 8 deaths and 10 injuries. | Follow NBC News Eight people were killed and 10 injured when their church van crashed in Florida early Monday, officials said.
The 15-seat van, from the Independent Haitian Assembly of God in Fort Pierce, was carrying 18 people back from Fort Myers when it passed through a stop sign at the intersection of State Road 78 and U.S. Highway 27 in Glades County around 12:30 a.m. ET, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
The van then careened across all lanes of traffic on U.S. Highway 27 near Moore Haven, about 80 miles west of West Palm Beach. The van struck an embankment ditch and ended up in a steep, partially water-filled ditch, the Highway Patrol said.
The driver and seven passengers were confirmed dead, while 10 other people were taken to four local hospitals. Four were listed in critical condition, according to a Highway Patrol report. Another four, including a 4-year-old girl, were in serious condition. Two were treated for minor injuries. | Road Crash | March 2015 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Russian authorities detain hundreds of protesters, including Novaya Gazeta journalist and protest organizer Ilya Azar and other reporters, at an "unauthorized march" in Moscow demanding punishment for police who detained anti-corruption journalist Ivan Golunov. Golunov's charges were dropped and he was released yesterday at which time Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said some officers who had taken part in his detention were suspended pending an investigation. | Hundreds of people have been detained at a Moscow rally demanding punishment for police who detained an anti-corruption journalist.
Officers in riot gear clashed with protesters during the unauthorised march in support of Ivan Golunov. Among those detained at the rally were journalists and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr Golunov was freed on Tuesday after drug-dealing charges against him were dropped following a public outcry.
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokotsev said officers who had taken part in his detention would be suspended during an investigation.
Three major Russian newspapers had earlier rallied round the freelance journalist in a rare public show of support.
A monitoring group said more than 400 people were detained, although Russian authorities put the number at closer to 200.
Local media said more than 2,500 people had taken part in the rally, although authorities said it was less than half that number.
Protesters waved banners and wore T-shirts with the slogan "I/We are Ivan Golunov" and accused police of using criminal behaviour in arresting the reporter.
A number of journalists at the rally were detained, including protest organiser Ilya Azar of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and several others who were reporting on the demonstration. Irganiser Ilya Azar is arrested. Just before told me he was disappointed, but not surprised by crackdown. “Nothing in my country surprises me. But if yesterday, the government showed us a reasonable face. Today it showed us that nothing has changed."
A member of staff from German magazine Der Spiegel was held as well as journalists from Vedomosti and Echo Moscow Radio.
Footage of the arrests and of the crowds gathered in the centre of the city were shared on social media. Mass arrests have started here. I have seen at least 5 people being dragged off. People shouting “Shame!” and “Who are you serving?!” pic.twitter.com/CConRW9mfG
The march was originally organised to demand Mr Golunov's release but then became a call for those responsible for his initial detention to be held accountable. The interior minister admitted that Mr Golunov's guilt had "not been proven", and that an internal inquiry had been launched.
"I believe that the rights of every citizen, regardless of his profession, must be protected," he asserted.
Mr Navalny tweeted that the government had become very worried by the "fantastic and unanimous expression of solidarity in the Golunov case" and was now setting about destroying that solidarity and intimidating and jailing those who persevered.
Mr Golunov, 36, had been working for the Latvia-based independent news website Meduza, among others. The website was established by Russian journalists from Lenta.ru, who formed their own outlet abroad after a takeover by a new pro-Kremlin owner.
His reporting included coverage of the loan shark business, the earnings of the family of Moscow's deputy mayor, the unusually high cost of public works in the Russian capital, and the alleged censorship of journalists.
Mr Golunov was on his way to meet another journalist in Moscow last week when he was stopped and searched by police officers.
Officers said they had discovered the drug mephedrone in his bag, and more drugs and weighing scales in a search of his home. Reports said he was beaten during his arrest.
The journalist's lawyers and press freedom activists said the drugs had been planted in order to silence the investigative journalist. Much of Russia's media is controlled by the state and Russia is ranked 83rd out of 100 countries for press freedom by Freedom House.
Supporters immediately claimed the journalist was innocent and a victim of fabricated drug charges, which activists say are used against opposition figures and human rights activists by the Russian state. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
European Union leaders gather in Rome to mark 60 years since the Treaty of Rome was signed. | European Union leaders have stressed the need for unity at a celebration in the Italian capital marking 60 years since the Treaty of Rome was signed. Twenty-seven European Union countries, not including the UK, signed a new declaration to honour the 1957 treaty, which led to the bloc's foundation. With Brexit looming, UK PM Theresa May is not attending the celebrations.
European Commission head, Jean-Claude Juncker, spoke of a new mood of optimism about the way forward. "The atmosphere is now such that we can approach this with confidence," he said, referring to the future of the bloc as Britain leaves. Mrs May plans to launch the Brexit process on Wednesday by formally triggering article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Pro-EU march in London goes silent for attack victims
On the Capitoline Hill, where the six original states signed the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 1957, the 27 leaders put their names to a declaration of unity. "Prove today that you are the leaders of Europe, that you can care for this great legacy we inherited from the heroes of European integration 60 years ago," European Council President Donald Tusk said. "Europe as a political entity will either be united, or will not be at all."
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany described the signing of the declaration as moving. She also repeated the German position that different members of the EU could move at different speeds - a notion opposed by Poland. "A Europe of different speeds does not mean that there is not a unified Europe. "We clearly say that we want to go in the same direction, and there are some things non-negotiable like the single market, the four basic freedoms, that are our values of liberty, of freedom of opinion, of freedom of speech, of freedom of press, of freedom of religion, and that makes us strong, and we shall not compromise on that."
EU abuzz ahead of two key dates
David Willey: My part in the Treaty of Rome signing
The celebratory summit comes as the EU faces a range of challenges, including Brexit and the rise of populist parties. Pro- and anti-EU protests took place in several member states. Thousands gathered for a march in London against Brexit; and in the Polish capital, Warsaw, thousands took to the streets to show solidarity with the EU. In pictures: Marches in major cities mark EU anniversary
In Rome itself, there were a range of protests, both opposed to and in favour of the EU. The Eurosceptic Fratelli d'Italia met in a central university hall to declare that the bloc needed to be "shut down". Security has been tightened across the Italian capital following Wednesday's terrorist attack in London. Pope Francis welcomed the leaders to the Vatican on the eve of the summit. In a speech, he said that all bodies risk dying if they do not look ahead, and thus urged the EU to approach the future with renewed vigour. He also warned against "false forms of security" promised by populists who want to wall themselves off, and instead urged greater solidarity. The original Treaty of Rome launched the European Economic Community, the EU's forerunner. It was signed by six countries: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. The US was among those countries that sent congratulatory messages to EU leaders. "Together we look forward to another 60 years and more of shared security and shared prosperity," read the White House statement. President Donald Trump has more often been critical of the union, calling Brexit a "good thing", and predicting more countries will follow suit. In a new Declaration of Rome, the 27 countries are reaffirming their shared desire to continue with what is a greatly expanded and deepened union. But there are huge challenges. The UK's looming exit is the Union's biggest setback ever. And after a decade of crises and sense of growing threats at home and abroad, European leaders are looking for ways to reinvigorate their project, but struggling to find a united way forward. EU summit: My part in the Treaty of Rome signing | Sign Agreement | March 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Majlis of Iran elects Ali Larijani as its new Speaker. | TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's parliament on Wednesday elected as its speaker former top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, a conservative heavyweight who has been critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Larijani won 232 votes out of a total of 263 cast in parliament, Iranian news agencies reported.
One of the top conservative figures in Iran, Larijani has held posts including top nuclear negotiator, state broadcasting chief, culture minister as well as unsuccessfully standing for president against Ahmadinejad in 2005.
In his first speech to the 287-member assembly, Larijani made clear his intention to be a powerful speaker in all domains, warning that parliament could use its powers to make Iran revise its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Larijani expressed regret that in its latest report on the Iranian nuclear drive, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had "spoken in an ambiguous way."
"This was used by the media, as you have seen, in the last days. This attitude of the agency is regrettable," he said in the speech broadcast live on state radio.
"Parliament will not allow that such deceptions are made and if they continue along this path, the new parliament will intervene in the case and set a new line for cooperation with the IAEA."
The speaker of parliament is a powerful position in Iran and was a post held by pragmatic cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani before he became president for two terms from 1989-1997.
Larijani, who won a seat in parliament as MP for the holy city of Qom in the March general election, was elected without any contest after being chosen by the dominant conservative faction as their candidate.
Conservatives chose Larijani in favour of previous speaker Gholam Ali Hadad Adel for reasons that have yet to be publicly explained. But it is likely his past experience and distance from Ahmadinejad proved attractive.
He typifies an increasingly prominent group in Iranian politics who remain rigidly loyal to the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution but are distinctly lukewarm over the presidency of the ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad.
The divisions between the two were laid bare in October when Larijani resigned his post as top nuclear negotiator amid speculation that he was ready to take a slightly more pragmatic line in the standoff with the West. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2008 | ['(AFP via Google News)'] |
14 Indian soldiers die following an insurgent attack in the eastern state of Manipur. | The soldiers were killed in two separate ambushes. Meanwhile, six rebels were killed in factional fighting between two groups claiming to represent the interests of the Zomi tribe in southern Manipur.
The Indian army has been carrying out extensive counter-insurgency operations in the state since early this year.
Soldiers from the elite Gorkha Rifles regiment were clearing a road for troop movement at Ngareyan, 35 km from state capital Imphal, when they came under attack from rebels of the Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF).
Indian army spokesman Lt Col SD Goswami told the BBC: "In areas dominated by rebels, military patrols drive through and allow other vehicles to pass only if the rebels have not showed up to challenge them."
Earlier reports suggesting that 14 soldiers had died in this incident have proved to be incorrect.
The MPLF - an umbrella organisation of three leading separatist groups in Manipur - claimed responsibility for this attack, and another at Jirghat on the border of Assam state. One soldier was killed in the second attack. Factional fighting
Six rebels of the Zomi Revolutionary Front (ZRF) were killed in a clash with activists of the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) in Churanchandpur district. One ZRA activist was also injured, police say.
A special law gives the Indian army extensive powers in the north-east
Both groups claim to represent the interests of the Zomi, a tribe in southern Manipur.
The ZRA has agreed to suspend hostile operations against the Indian army, but the other group says it wants to fight on.
More than 10 armed insurgent groups are active in Manipur.
Most of these groups represent the state's majority Hindu Meitei people, but others represent tribes such as the Nagas, Kukis and Zomis. Manipur became a fully fledged Indian state in 1972, but unrest has simmered since then over the nature of the remote state's relationship with the central Indian government.
Last summer bitter anti-army protests erupted in the state after the death of a young women arrested by paramilitary forces on suspicion of helping insurgents. The protests were accompanied by demands for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which gives the army in north-east India sweeping powers to deal with insurgents.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International say the law has allowed the armed forces to commit human rights abuses with impunity. | Riot | September 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hong Kong pro–democracy lawmakers Eddie Chu, Raymond Chan Chi–chuen, Wu Chi–wai, Andrew Wan, Helena Wong, Fernando Cheung and Kwok Wing–kin are arrested for "scuffles with pro–Beijing legislators" last May. | Seven pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong have been arrested over scuffles with pro-Beijing lawmakers in the city's Legislative Council in May. Police say they have been charged with contempt and interfering with members of the council. The two opposing camps came to blows, with heckling and shoving on both sides, over the appointment of the chair of a key committee. None of the pro-Beijing politicians involved have been detained.
It is the latest in a string of arrests of China critics in Hong Kong, after a sweeping new national security law was imposed by Beijing in June.
A police statement said that six men and one woman had been arrested as part of an investigation into the 8 May meeting, which descended into chaos amid a row over who should control a key committee in the legislature. Those arrested include the Democratic Party's Wu Chi-wai, Andrew Wan Siu-kin and Helena Wong Pik-wan, and the Labour Party's Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung and Kwok Wing-kin.
Ex-legislators Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen were also detained on Sunday morning.
They face up to a year in prison if convicted. They were among a group of pro-democracy legislators who tried to storm the chairperson's seat in the Legislative Council after pro-Beijing councillors forcibly installed one of their politicians as the committee leader following months of deadlock. Mr Chu was carried out of the room by four security guards holding each of his limbs, after attempting to physically reach the chair.
One pro-Beijing politician was shown live on TV dragging Mr Chan out by his collar.Some lawmakers dashed towards the security guards surrounding the rostrum and made it impossible for the meeting to go on," police chief inspector Chan Wing-yu told reporters on Sunday.
"Law enforcement action is taken in accordance with law and evidence gathered during the recent police investigation... I wish to reiterate that enforcement action taken on that basis is not about the social status or political background" of those arrested, he added.
However, opposition politicians questioned why none of the legislators from the opposing side had been charged.
The Democratic Party described the arrests as "arbitrary", adding: "We will not back down in the face of an authoritarian regime."
The 8 May incident was the first in a series of confrontations in the council over who would have the power to legislate controversial bills, including one approved later in June criminalising disrespect of the national anthem. Separately last week, teen activist Tony Chung became the second person to be charged under the new security law, which makes it easier to punish protesters, and gives Beijing extensive new powers to shape life in the territory.
The law has been widely condemned by western governments and human rights groups, with critics saying it ends freedoms guaranteed for 50 years after British rule ended in Hong Kong in 1997.
The way Hong Kong's electoral system is stacked in favour of pro-Beijing politicians was one of the central issues in last year's protests, the BBC's John Sudworth in Beijing reports.
The sweeping new national security law has come with warnings that it could be used to target future protests inside parliament, with much harsher sentences of 10 years, to life, our correspondent adds.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | November 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, calls for an investigation into comments by UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Johnson is facing criticisms he overstated the strength of evidence against Russia, an accusation he calls "lamentable" and accuses Corbyn of sympathizing with Russia. | Boris Johnson under pressure to explain whether position has changed after tweet blaming Moscow is deleted
Boris Johnson is facing embarrassing questions over his claims that Russia had produced the Salisbury nerve agent after it emerged that the Foreign Office had deleted a tweet blaming Moscow for the attack.
With the foreign secretary already under pressure over his remarks two weeks ago that a Porton Down scientist had been “absolutely categorical” that the novichok had originated in the country, Jeremy Corbyn accused Johnson of “completely exceeding the information he had been given” after the emergence of the deleted tweet.
But Johnson later hit back, accusing the Labour leader of “playing Russia’s game”.
The deletion, immediately seized on by the Russian embassy, has deepened the government’s difficulties after British scientists at the UK’s defence research laboratory announced on Tuesday that they had not established that the nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal had been made in Russia.
After Porton Down said it had “not identified the precise source” of the poison, the Foreign Office issued a swift rebuttal saying the prime minister had always been clear that the assessment was “only one part” of the intelligence picture.
The announcement prompted claims from the Kremlin that Britain was lying about the origins of the novichok and demanded an apology from Theresa May.
However, it emerged on Wednesday that the Foreign Office had earlier deleted a tweet claiming the British scientists had concluded that the nerve agent was “produced in Russia”.
In an awkward development for the Foreign Office, the Russian embassy’s Twitter feed pointed out that the 20 March tweet on a presentation by Britain’s ambassador to Moscow on the Salisbury attack had disappeared.
Why would @foreignoffice delete this tweet from 22 March? pic.twitter.com/Nvu1BfJw9J
The deleted tweet read: “Analysis by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology laboratory at Porton Down made clear that this was a military grade nerve agent produced in Russia.”
Johnson is now under growing pressure to explain whether the government has shifted its position. Visiting the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar's former capital Yangon, Johnson starts reciting Rudyard Kipling's colonial-era poem The Road to Mandalay. UK ambassador Andrew Patrick steps in and stops him. The poem includes a reference to the Buddha as a “Bloomin’ idol made o’ mud/ Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd”
Visiting the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar's former capital Yangon, Johnson starts reciting Rudyard Kipling's colonial-era poem The Road to Mandalay. UK ambassador Andrew Patrick steps in and stops him. The poem includes a reference to the Buddha as a “Bloomin’ idol made o’ mud/ Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd”
At a Conservative conference fringe event Johnson draws gasps saying: “There’s a group of UK business people who want to invest in Sirte, on the coast, near where Gaddafi was captured and executed. They literally have a brilliant vision to turn Sirte into the next Dubai. The only thing they’ve got to do is clear the dead bodies away."
Tory colleague Heidi Allen says the remarks are "100% unacceptable from anyone, let alone the foreign secretary”. A senior Downing Street source says: “We did not feel it was an appropriate choice of words.”
"When I look at what Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it" the foreign secretary tells the foreign affairs committee.
He is later forced to apologise in parliament, accepting that the British government believes, as Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family assert, that the sole purpose of her visit to Iran was for a holiday.
Despite a subsequent visit to Tehran by Johnson, Zaghari-Ratcliffe remains in prison, serving a five-year sentence.
While applying pressure over Brexit arrangements, a leaked document reveals Johnson had suggested the government’s task is not to maintain “no border” in Ireland, but to prevent it from “becoming significantly harder”.
On the radio he goes on to say "There’s no border between Islington, Camden and Westminster, but when I was mayor of London we anaesthetically and invisibly took hundreds of millions of pounds from people travelling between those boroughs without any need for border checks.”
In an interview with Deutsche Welle's Zhanna Nemtsova, Johnson categorically asserts Porton Down informed him the nerve agent came from Russia.
Nemtsova: You argue the source of this nerve agent, novichok, is Russia. How did you manage to find it out so quickly? Does Britain possess samples?
Johnson: Let me be clear with you … When I look at the evidence, I mean the people from Porton Down, the laboratory …
Nemtsova: So they have samples …?
Johnson: They do. And they were absolutely categorical and I asked the guy myself, I said, "Are you sure?" and he said there's no doubt.
The security minister, Ben Wallace, said the Porton Down scientists had only provided one part of the picture and had never been expected to attribute responsibility for the attack.
He told the BBC: “Scientists are scientists. I, as well as national security, have organised crime [and] terrorism under my portfolio, and when we work with forensic scientists, the scientists tell us what something is. They tell me a gun and a type of gun was used, but the attribution of who used it, exactly how it was used, is a matter for the broader investigation. “That includes intelligence, detectives if it’s a police investigation, and the scientists as well, and that’s perfectly understandable.”
Wallace, a close ally of the foreign secretary, defended Johnson for suggesting he had received assurances from government scientists that the nerve agent was categorically made in Russia.
“Porton Down will be able to tell you there are very, very, very few people in the world who, first of all, did design novichok and that was the Russians and who have developed and stockpiled it. In fact, the task of that is reduced to one,” he said.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “An HMA Moscow [British ambassador Laurie Bristow] briefing on 22 March was tweeted in real time by @UKinRussia and amplified by @foreignoffice to explain what happened in Salisbury to as wide an audience as possible.
“One of the tweets was truncated and did not accurately report our ambassador’s words. We have removed this tweet.”
According to an official transcript of the speech, Bristow’s original words were: “The analysts at Porton Down, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in the UK, established and made clear that this was a military-grade chemical weapon. One of the novichok series; a nerve agent as I said produced in Russia.”
Corbyn, who faced criticism for his initial, cautious response to the novichok allegations, accused Johnson of exaggerating the evidence that Russia was to blame for the Salisbury poisoning.
Novichok refers to a group of nerve agents developed by the
Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s to elude international restrictions
on chemical weapons. Like other nerve agents, they are organophosphate compounds, but the chemicals used to make them, and their final structures, are considered classified in the UK, the US and other countries.
The most potent of the novichok substances are considered to be more lethal than VX, the most deadly of the familiar nerve agents, which include sarin, tabun and soman.
Novichok agents work in a similar way, by massively over-stimulating muscles and glands. Treatment for novichok
exposure would be the same as for other nerve agents, namely with atropine, diazepam and potentially drugs called oximes.
The chemical structures of novichok agents were made public in 2008 by Vil Mirzayanov, a former Russian scientist living in the US, but the structures have never been publicly confirmed. It is thought they can be made in different forms, including as a dust aerosol.
The novichoks are known as binary agents because they only become lethal after mixing two otherwise harmless components. According toMirzayanov, they are10 to 100 times more toxic than conventional
nerve agents.
The Labour leader, asked on a campaign visit to Watford about the foreign secretary’s remarks, said: “He claimed categorically and I think he used the words 101% that it had come from Russia.
“Boris Johnson seems to have completely exceeded the information that he had been given and told the world in categorical terms what he believed had happened. And it’s not backed up by the evidence he claimed to have got from Porton Down in the first place. Boris Johnson needs to answer some questions.
He added that Johnson had been left with “egg on his face” over his interview.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday afternoon, Johnson dismissed Corbyn’s response, writing: “It is lamentable that Jeremy Corbyn is now playing Russia’s game and trying to discredit the UK over Salisbury attack... 28 other countries have been so convinced by UK case they have expelled Russians. In contrast, Jeremy Corbyn chooses to side with the Russian spin machine.”
The European commission said it had never thought that Porton Down had been tasked with identifying the source of the substance used in Salisbury.
The commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein told a Brussels press briefing: “Our understanding is that the role of the experts there was to identify the type of agent that was used, not the source of the agent ... They did identify the nerve agent novichok. That is what they have done.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2018 | ['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)'] |
The former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra goes on trial facing corruption charges. | The corruption trial of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has begun in Bangkok, almost two years after he was overthrown in a coup. Mr Thaksin and his wife face charges related to a Bangkok real estate deal. The couple deny any wrongdoing, saying the charges of abuse of power against them are politically motivated. Meanwhile, a top member of the main party in the ruling coalition was found guilty of electoral fraud. The ruling could lead to the party's dissolution. The Supreme Court banned former House Speaker Yongyut Tiyapairat, of the People Power Party (PPP), from politics for five years after finding he was guilty of vote-buying in 2007.
The ruling will put more pressure on the PPP-led six-party governing coalition, already weakened by accusations that it is too close to Mr Thaksin. Under Thai election law, the ruling against Mr Yongyut opens the way for the Election Commission to investigate whether the whole party was guilty of electoral fraud. It could then be disbanded. Mr Thaksin, a telecoms billionaire who owns the English football club Manchester City, returned to Thailand in February after 18 months abroad.
The military ousted him in September 2006, accusing him of corruption and abuse of power. Mr Thaksin has since been living mostly in the UK, but his political allies won democratic elections late last year, facilitating his return to Thailand. He, his family and his aides face a number of different allegations. Millions of dollars of his assets have remained frozen since charges were laid. The case now before the Supreme Court relates to the purchase of a plot of land in the Thai capital. The former prime minister is accused of using his political influence to help his wife buy the land from a state agency at a favourable price.
The couple, who could face lengthy prison terms if convicted, did not attend court, but their lawyer sounded a positive note. "We are confident that our evidence will be enough to prove in the court that Thaksin and his wife are not guilty," Anek Khamchum told the AFP news agency. But the courts have shown surprising tenacity in pursuing this first case, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok. The government has tried to weaken the case by arguing that the military-backed bodies which investigated Mr Thaksin had no legitimacy. The courts have ignored that, and have even intervened to reverse other government decisions. Many observers in Thailand are calling this a judicial revolution - where the courts are quietly being asked by the traditional elite to act as checks on the power of elected governments. Mr Thaksin's own prospects dimmed significantly when three of his lawyers were jailed last month by the Supreme Court for offering a cash bribe in a cake box, our correspondent adds. At the very least, Mr Thaksin's chances of making a political comeback are looking slim, our correspondent says. What are these? | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Hundreds of thousands march in Baghdad to protest the presence of the United States in Iraq. | Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through Baghdad on Friday calling for US troops to leave Iraq, heeding the call of powerful Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who called for a "Million Man March." Families and children held aloft signs that read "no, no to America" and "no, no to occupation" amid a sea of Iraqi flags. A heavy security presence surrounded the path of the march, as well as the Green Zone which houses the US embassy. The Green Zone has been the site of multiple rocket attacks that have increased in frequency since a US attack in Baghdad killed Iran's most powerful military general, Qasem Soleimani, and the Iran-backed Iraqi commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The targeted killing on January 3 sparked growing calls for US troops to leave the country, as many Iraqis criticized what they see as a breach of its sovereignty. There are roughly 5,000 US troops in Iraq. | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2020 | ['(CNN)'] |
In Delhi, India, two explosions inside the 16th century mosque Jama Masjid injure at least nine people. | The mosque's chief cleric, Imam Bukhari, told the BBC the blasts inside the complex came in swift succession. He has appealed for calm.
It is not clear what caused the blasts which came soon after Friday prayers.
The 17th century mosque is one of the largest in India. A bomb disposal squad is at the site, police say.
There is anger among our people but I am appealing to them to maintain calm
Imam Bukhari Delhi police chief KK Paul told the BBC that one of those hurt was in a serious condition. The other eight received minor injuries.
Religious leaders, including Imam Bukhari, were swift to call for calm and stress the need for communal harmony.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also called for calm and condemned the blasts in Delhi and in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, where at least five civilians were killed in grenade attacks and shooting.
Anger The explosions came within minutes of each other at about 1700 local time (1130 GMT).
"The blasts took place near a water tank used by worshippers," a mosque official, Mr Amanullah, told the BBC.
He said that most worshippers were inside the mosque and not by the tank when the blasts took place.
Imam Bukhari said he thought worshippers had been deliberately targeted.
"We did not see the first explosion but the second one definitely originated from a plastic bag that was kept inside the prayer grounds," Imam Bukhari told the AFP news agency.
"The second blast went off as people were helping those injured and if this is not a terror attack then what is?"
"There is anger among our people but I am appealing to them to maintain calm."
The Jama Masjid is located in Delhi's old city which is mainly populated by Muslims and has a history of religious tension.
Last month, suspected militants targeted the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, where simultaneous explosions killed 15 people. In October last year, more than 60 people were killed and hundreds injured when three bombs exploded in busy shopping districts in the Indian capital. | Armed Conflict | April 2006 | ['(BBC)', '(VOA)'] |
A Libyan army general Mohammed Hadia al Feitouri is shot dead in Benghazi. | A Libyan army general, with a senior defence ministry role, has been shot dead in the eastern city of Benghazi.
General Mohamed Hadia al-Feitouri was returning home from Friday prayers when a group of gunmen pulled up in a car and opened fire, his son said.
In recent months, Benghazi has seen a spate of killings of security officials who, like Gen Hadia, served under former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The incident comes a day after Libya's new interim assembly assumed power.
The historic June elections to the body - the first free vote in decades - faced boycott calls in Benghazi.
Some political groups in oil-rich eastern Libya, where the uprising that overthrew Col Gaddafi last year originated, fear domination by the capital Tripoli and the west.
Gen Hadia was one of the first military officers to defect to the rebellion, the BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Tripoli.
He was the defence ministry official responsible for ammunition and weapons.
The identity of the attackers and the motives behind the killing remain unclear, our correspondent says.
Last week, the military intelligence service's offices in Benghazi were hit by an explosion, but there were no casualties. | Famous Person - Death | August 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from the two–mile high Mount Sinabung ash eruption Saturday has risen to seven, with two others in critical condition. All victims were working farms in the village of Gamber in the Karo Regency of North Sumatra, within the volcano's "red zone" that Indonesian authorities have declared off–limits. |
The death toll in the eruption of Mount Sinabung rose to seven Sunday with two people still in critical condition, as officials warned of more explosions.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AP that the blast shot volcanic ash as high as 2 miles into the air and that ash tumbled down the slopes as far as 3 miles westward into a river.
Nata Nail, also a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, told AP that a man died at a hospital Sunday, leaving two other people in critical condition. The bodies of six other victims have been found near the mountain.
All of the victims of the eruption were working on their farms in the village of Gamber in Simpang Empat subdistrict, 2.5 miles away from the slope but still within the danger area, the Associated Press reports.
This area is referred to as the “red zone,” and has been declared off-limits by government authorities for safety reasons, reports the Bangkok Post. Despite repeated warnings and government efforts to deter people from farming there, some still return to the area.
(MORE: Deadly Storm Hammers Southern China)
“This area should have been empty because nobody should be inside the red zone,” Nugroho told the Post. He warned of more potential eruptions, with volcanic activity still high at the mountain.
Photos taken on Sunday showed evidence of pyroclastic flows in the village. Dead and injured animals were lying on the ground amongst scorched homes and smoky vegetation.
Search operations around the area were halted after officials found there were no more victims or villagers inside the danger zone, Nail told AP.
Mount Sinabung is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
We recognize our responsibility to use data and technology for good. Take control of your data. | Volcano Eruption | July 2016 | ['(Weather Channel)', '(Bangkok Post)'] |
Two bombs explode near the National Assembly in Kabul, killing at least 38 people. | Afghan officials say twin bombings near parliament in Kabul killed at least 38 people on January 10, while a powerful blast at a government guesthouse in southern Kandahar left at least seven dead, including five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates. The initial blast in Kabul struck about 4 p.m. as employees were leaving a compound of government and legislative offices, Interior Ministry spokesman Sadiq Sadiqi said. Sadiqi told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that a suicide bomber blew himself up, followed by a car bomb in the same area in "what appears to have been a coordinated attack." The second explosion occurred after security forces had arrived at the scene.
According to some reports, another vehicle with explosives was stopped by security forces near the area.
Health officials say more than 70 people were wounded in the bombings, which were claimed by the Taliban.
Health Ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh warned that the death toll was expected to rise as many of the wounded were in critical condition. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the Taliban for the "barbaric attack" on civilians. A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted a minibus purportedly carrying Afghan intelligence agency staff, but that claim could not be confirmed.
Media reports say most of the victims were civilians, including parliament staff. A female lawmaker from western Herat Province, Rahima Jami, was among the wounded, Tolo news agency reported. The Interior Ministry said at least four police officers were killed in the attack.
Afghan media reported that a district head of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency, was among those killed. Amnesty International condemned the attack, saying it "indicates that the Taliban are pressing ahead with a gruesome campaign of violence that makes no effort to spare civilian lives."
The rights watchdog called for an independent investigation to "secure justice for the victims and their families."
Meanwhile, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Kandahar guesthouse attack. Local government spokesman Samim Khpalwak said the blast hit the heavily guarded compound in the provincial capital, Kandahar, where Governor Hamayoon Azizi was hosting a dinner attended by the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Kabul and several Afghan officials and Emirati diplomats.
The U.A.E. said on January 11 that five of its diplomats were killed in the bombing. It said the five were carrying out humanitarian, educational, and development work in Afghanistan.
The U.A.E.'s ambassador to Afghanistan and Kandahar Governor Hamayoon Azizi were injured in the explosion. Afghan officials say at least seven people were killed in the blast and 18 were injured.
U.A.E. President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayyan ordered flags flown at half-staff and three days of official mourning.
No one has claimed responsibility for the Kandahar bombing. The Taliban have denied involvement. Authorities believe it may have been a result of local rivalries.
U.A.E. combat troops had been deployed to Afghanistan -- as part of the NATO-led mission -- after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban. Also on January 10, at least seven people were killed and six injured by a suicide-bomb attack in volatile Helmand Province in the south of the country, the provincial chief of police said. The attack reportedly occurred in the house of a local tribal elder in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault.
Last week, Afghan officials welcomed the Pentagon’s decision to send 300 Marines to Helmand to help train and advise local security forces.
Brigadier General Roger Turner told journalists on January 8 that it will be the first Marine deployment to Helmand since 2014 when the United States announced the end of its combat role in Afghanistan.
Turner said Washington views the Helmand deployment as "a high-risk mission."
U.S. and NATO forces formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, but thousands of troops remain in the country, where they train and assist Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations against groups like Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
| Armed Conflict | January 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
A Ukrainian court sentences a former police chief Olexiy Pukach to life imprisonment for murdering journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. | A Ukrainian court has convicted a former police chief of murdering journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000, a crime which rocked the country.
The court in Kiev found that Olexiy Pukach had killed the journalist, then cut off his head. It sentenced Pukach to life imprisonment.
Pukach confessed but said he had acted on the orders of the late Interior Minister, Yuri Kravchenko.
The murder sparked protests against the president at the time, Leonid Kuchma.
An attempt to prosecute Mr Kuchma for ordering the killing collapsed in December 2011 when a judge ruled that secret audio recordings which apparently incriminated him could not be used as evidence, as they had been obtained through "illegal means".
Mr Kuchma has always denied involvement in the journalist's murder.
A few months before his death, Georgy Gongadze founded the news website Ukrainskaya Pravda, which was sharply critical of the Kuchma presidency. While serving as head of the Ukrainian interior ministry's external surveillance service, Pukach tracked Gongadze, the court found.
Pukach testified that he had accidentally strangled the journalist with a belt while interrogating him about possible links to foreign states in September 2000.
He further admitted severing Gongadze's head from his body, which was found in woodland in the Kiev area later that year. Part of the skull was found in 2009.
Arrested in 2009, Pukach confessed to the killing at an early stage, saying he had used an axe to behead the journalist.
A lawyer for Pukach said the defence would appeal against the court's judgment, the Russian news agency Interfax reports.
Three officials from Pukach's department are already serving jail terms for their part in the murder. Kravchenko was found dead with gunshot wounds in 2005, in what was officially described as a suicide, just as he was about to be questioned. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(AFP via Yahoo!)'] |
A riot breaks out inside the G4S–run HM Prison Birmingham in Winson Green, Birmingham, United Kingdom. At least one inmate has been badly injured. The Ministry of Justice says riot police have regained control of the prison. | Specialist team deal with incident involving hundreds of prisoners at city centre facility run by G4S
First published on Fri 16 Dec 2016 14.06 GMT
Authorities have regained control of one of the country’s biggest jails after a major disturbance involving hundreds of inmates. Specialist riot squads were deployed to HMP Birmingham to tackle the disorder that lasted more than 12 hours on Friday.
Trouble spread across four wings of the privately run facility, with reports of prisoners setting fire to stairwells, breaking a security chain and destroying paper records.
Specially trained prison guards, known as “Tornado” squads, from other parts of the country were backed up by about 25 riot police as they moved into the G4S-run jail, which has a capacity of 1,450 prisoners.
The trouble started at about 9am on Friday and spread from two to four wings by the evening, according to sources, with reports of prisoners burning and destroying their files. It is understood that about 260 prisoners were involved. One prisoner is understood to have received a broken jaw during the disturbances.
Jeering and shouting could be heard into the evening from inside the jail, with smoke rising from the roof, apparently from fires lit inside the building.
Prisoners caught in the middle of the disturbance spoke of their fear they might be attacked by the other prisoners. One prisoner said others had tried unsuccessfully to force their way on to his wing. Speaking through his solicitor, the prisoner, who is on the jail’s G wing, known as the protected wing for inmates accused or convicted of sex offences, said: “The others have been trying to get in here. We’re terrified.”
All prison officers have been accounted for and none was injured, a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said. Earlier on Friday evening, the managing director for G4S custodial and detention services, Jerry Petherick, said: “Our teams withdrew following a disturbance and sealed two wings, which include some administrative offices. The disturbance has since spread to two further wings.
“Additional officers have arrived on site and we have deployed canine units within the prison. West Midlands police helicopter is also in attendance. We are working with colleagues across the service to bring this disturbance to a safe conclusion.”
The situation, in which keys giving access to residential prison areas were taken from an officer, will be investigated thoroughly, the justice secretary said. Liz Truss said: “I want to pay tribute to the bravery and dedication of the prison officers who resolved this disturbance … Violence in our prisons will not be tolerated and those responsible will face the full force of the law.” Prison affairs academic and blogger Alex Cavendish said an “inside informant” told him the trouble started with lights being broken and prisoners controlling fire hoses. “The officers were then, as they are instructed to do, trying to get as many prisoners locked in their cells as possible to contain it,” he said. “While one of the officers was putting a prisoner in the cell, he was threatened with what appeared to be a used syringe.”
Cavendish said that while this officer was distracted by the threat, “another inmate came up behind, snatched the keys from his belt and snapped the security chain”. He said that once prisoners have control of the keys, protocol tells the officers to “withdraw to a place of safety” and said they “abandoned the wing” where the incident started.
A spokesman for the Prison Governors’ Association said: “It would appear, on the face of it, that the private sector has now been infected with the same disease that has had such a debilitating impact on the running of public sector prisons: an erosion of respect and a disregard for authority which has emboldened prisoners across both the public and private sector. Any suggestion that this riot is evidence that the staffing levels in public sector prisons are not a factor, or an insignificant one, is too simplistic.”
The national chairman of the POA prison officers’ union, Mike Rolfe, said the incident was “another stark warning to the Ministry of Justice that the service is in crisis”.
POA members held protests outside jails around the country in November over health and safety concerns.
The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, had said that the disturbances at the Birmingham jail were “hugely concerning”. The Labour MP said: “It must be hoped that order can be swiftly and peacefully restored. This is only the latest in a number of disturbances across the prison estate. The justice secretary is failing to get this crisis under control.”
The Victorian category B jail, which was built in 1849 and is close to the city centre, can hold 1,450 adult remand and sentenced male prisoners. A spokesman for the West Midlands ambulance service said it was called to the prison at 12.23pm. A hazardous area response team was in attendance, together with an ambulance and paramedic area support officer.
A former prisoner who was released in January told the Press Association that drugs were rife in the jail and there was a lack of respect between some staff and prisoners. The man, who declined to give his name, said each of the jail’s wings was arranged over four floors, with more than 100 prisoners per wing.
It is the third disturbance in English prisons in less than two months. On 6 November, a riot at the category B Bedford prison caused chaos when up to 200 prisoners flooded the jail’s gangways. On 29 October, a national response unit had to be brought in to control prisoners during an incident at HMP Lewes in East Sussex.
There has been a string of warnings about safety behind bars after statistics revealed soaring levels of violence in jails in England and Wales, with assaults on staff up by 43% in the year to June.
Last month, the justice secretary, Liz Truss, unveiled her plans for prison reform, with measures including a recruitment drive to add 2,500 officers to the frontline and “no-fly zones” to stop drones dropping drugs and other contraband into prisons. | Riot | December 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Liberians register to vote in the first elections after a long civil war. Elections are due on October 11. | Students, and roadside traders and market women formed queues in some places in the capital to register, but there was apathy amongst many others.
There are some 18 political parties and more than 50 presidential hopefuls registered to participate.
"We are confused, we don't know who to register to vote for," said Lucy Kollie, 36, carrying a baby on her back.
"We don't know who means what."
There are 1,500 registration centres across Liberia to enhance the registration which ends on 24 May.
Optimism
Transitional head of state Gyude Bryant, whose administration is to hand over power in January next year to the elected government, visited a registration centre near the presidency expressing happiness that it had started but displeasure at the low turn-out.
Liberians hope the polls will mark the start of a new era of peace
"I like what I see," Mr Bryant said of the start of the exercise. "The only disappointment is I don't see huge lines, I hope our people will come out and register," he said .
Potential voters queuing to register expressed optimism that this was a beginning of putting the war behind and move forward.
"This means we are going to the end of the war, I am so happy to come to register for the next president, we want a good leader for tomorrow, at least for our grandchildren, because for some of us, we are already old," said Frances George, in her early 50s.
Displaced
Liberian fighting ended in 2003 with the stepping down and exile of former President Charles Taylor.
It saw close to half a million people displaced, some of whom are still residing in camps around Monrovia.
Under the current electoral process, the displaced people are to register in the camps, and then vote in their home communities once they are repatriated before polling day.
But the United Nations and partner organisations have repatriated less than 100,000 of the more than 300,000 displaced people.
Some of the displaced people are sceptical that they would benefit from the electoral process and were reluctant to register.
Isaac resides in the Jah Tondo Displaced people camp in the western Brewerville suburb of Monrovia.
"We want to vote, but we are concerned we are not likely to be taken out of here before October," he said
There are three registration centres at the Jah Tondo camp which is home to thousands of displaced people. | Government Job change - Election | April 2005 | ['(Land Claims Court)', '(Reuters AlertNet)', '(BBC)'] |
Formula One postpones the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix due to COVID-19-related restrictions. The Australian Grand Prix will take place in November instead of March, while the discussion over a new date for the Chinese Grand Prix is ongoing. | This year's Formula 1 season will have a delayed start after the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix were postponed because of Covid-19 restrictions.
The races were first and third on the 2021 calendar and the season is now scheduled to begin with the second race, in Bahrain, on 26-28 March.
Australia and China have strict rules on international arrivals.
The Australian Grand Prix, originally scheduled for 19-21 March, will now take place between 19-21 November.
A race at Imola in Italy has been added from 16-18 April and becomes the second race of the season.
"We are pleased to confirm that the number of races planned for the season remains unchanged," F1 president Stefano Domenicali said.
"The global pandemic has not yet allowed life to return to normal, but we showed in 2020 that we can race safely as the first international sport to return and we have the experience and plans in place to deliver on our season."
F1 says discussions over a new date for the Chinese Grand Prix, which was meant to be held from 9-11 April, are ongoing.
The third race of the season, scheduled for May 2, is yet to be confirmed but it is expected to be filled by Portugal's Portimao circuit following its debut last year.
The dates of the Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi events have been moved to accommodate the postponed Australia race.
Brazil moves forward one week to 7 November, while the latter two have been pushed back a week to 5 and 12 December respectively.
Only 17 of the 22 scheduled F1 races went ahead in 2020 while the 2021 season is due to have a record 23 races. Imola, a historic F1 venue which held a grand prix for 27 consecutive years from 1980, hosted its first race since 2006 in November last year.
"It is great news that we have already been able to agree a rescheduled date for the Australian Grand Prix in November and are continuing to work with our Chinese colleagues to find a solution to race there in 2021 if something changes," Domenicali added.
"Obviously, the virus situation remains fluid, but we have the experience from last season with all our partners and promoters to adapt accordingly and safely in 2021."
Valtteri Bottas won the last Australian Grand Prix in 2019, after the 2020 race was called off only hours before first practice was due to start when a McLaren team member tested positive for coronavirus.
28 March - Bahrain (Sakhir)
18 April - Italy (Imola)
2 May - TBC
9 May - Spain (Barcelona)
23 May - Monaco (Monaco)
6 June - Azerbaijan (Baku)
13 June - Canada (Montreal)
27 June - France (Le Castellet)
4 July - Austria (Spielberg)
18 July - Great Britain (Silverstone)
1 August - Hungary (Budapest)
29 August - Belgium (Spa)
5 September - Netherlands (Zandvoort)
12 September - Italy (Monza)
26 September - Russia (Sochi)
3 October - Singapore (Singapore)
10 October - Japan (Suzuka)
24 October - USA (Austin)
31 October - Mexico (Mexico City)
7 November - Brazil (Sao Paulo)
21 November - Australia (Melbourne)
5 December - Saudi Arabia (Jeddah)
12 December - Abu Dhabi (Yas Island)
Analysis and opinion from the BBC's chief Formula 1 writer.
Get the latest results and headlines sent straight to your phone, find all our Formula 1 coverage details with our Live Guide, sign-up to our newsletter and learn where to find us on online. | Sports Competition | January 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
A sunken ship believed to carry over US$15 million in gold is located in the Magellan Straits off the coast of Argentina. | A vessel which sank carrying $18m (£11m) in gold and silver ingots has been found in the Magellan Straits off the coast of Argentina.
The cargo belonged to Argentine mining companies Cerro Vanguardia and Minera Triton and was on its way from mines in southern Argentina to Europe. The boat sank in heavy seas in mysterious circumstances in January. Although the vessel has been found, it is unclear if the nine and a half tons of cargo remain on board. The Chilean fishing boat, the Polar Mist, set sail from Santa Cruz in southern Argentina for the port of Punta Arenas in Chile. The bullion was heading first to Santiago in Chile, and then on to Switzerland for sale. But a day after setting sail, the crew abandoned ship in a heavy storm. Gold on board?
The ship was found 24 hours later by a Chilean tug which tried - and failed - to bring it into port. It went down in deep waters 40km (25 miles) off the coast. Now in an operation to find the gold, a specialist boat carrying sonar equipment sailing under the orders of the Argentine mining companies and the international insurer Lloyds has found the wreck. But the million-dollar question is, will they find gold on board? Many questions have been asked about why a fishing boat was used to transport bullion and about the circumstances under which the boat was abandoned. Because of high winds, a new attempt to investigate the wreck further is expected only when the heavy weather subsides. Argentina has become an important gold producer. | Shipwreck | June 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Chinese president Xi Jinping visits Finland on his way to the United States. | HELSINKI (Reuters) - China and Finland will increase cooperation under the China-European Union framework, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday after arriving in Finland for his first visit as head of state.
Xi is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida later this week.
Like China, the Nordics, home to blue chips like Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia and Swedish truck maker Volvo, stand to lose out if Trump’s pledge to put “America first” increases global protectionism.
For China, the visit to eurozone member Finland is a chance to shore up support in Europe, its biggest trading partner.
European diplomats have said China has launched a charm offensive with the European Union since Trump took office, shifting its stance on trade negotiations and signaling closer cooperation on a range of other issues.
After meeting Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Xi said China and Finland will “seize the opportunity of Finland’s rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council to enhance cooperation in Arctic affairs and promote environmental protection and sustainable development of the Arctic.”
The countries also said they would support the launch of a joint feasibility study on an EU-China free trade agreement when conditions were right and step up high-tech trade cooperation.
“China continues to raise its profile as a defender of free trade,” said Jyrki Kallio, researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
“Both Finland and China share the same concern about the negative effects on the global economy if Trump’s action ignites a trade war between China and the United States.”
Niinisto said the two heads of state also discussed North Korea, which test-fired a ballistic missile into the sea on Wednesday.
| Diplomatic Visit | April 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Israeli soldiers arrest 33 Hamas figures in Nablus, West Bank, including one cabinet member, Palestinian Education Minister Naser al-Shaer. | Israeli soldiers arrested 33 senior Hamas figures in the West Bank today in order to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, an Israeli military spokesman says. The operation in the northern West Bank, mainly in the town of Nablus, netted Palestinian education minister Nasseredine al-Shaer, three law-makers and four mayors, among others. The Hamas officials had been arrested because they "supported the firing of rockets," said the Israeli military spokesman. Israel resumed air strikes against Gaza last week as militants fired scores of rockets towards the Jewish state, breaking a six-month truce. The air strikes in Gaza have killed 12 civilians and 25 militants, but have failed to halt the rockets. More than 120 have slammed into Israel over the past week, killing a woman, wounding 16 others and sending hundreds fleeing the town of Sderot that has borne the brunt of the fire. Israel has warned that no leaders in Hamas - the senior movement in the Palestinian coalition government whose militants have been mostly responsible for the rocket attacks - were immune from attack. Last year Israel arrested several Hamas leaders including Mr Shaer, who was detained in August and released the following month. Israel also arrested more than 60 Hamas leaders in the West Bank as part of its efforts to secure the release of a soldier who was captured by Gaza militants in June 2005. - AFP | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2007 | ['(AFP via ABC Australia)'] |
The Israeli air force strikes a rocket launching squad in the northern Gaza Strip, reportedly killing three, following rocket fire on southern Israel from Gaza and a mortar attack on an IDF patrol near the border. | Two fighters killed in Gaza as Israeli troops allegedly crossed into the Gaza Strip in response to mortar fire.
Two Palestinianshave been killed in air strikes on the Gaza Stripafter they had clashed with Israeli troops crossing into the territory,medical sources say.
Both strikes took place on Sunday around the northern town of Beit Hanoun wherefighters were firing mortar shells at an Israeli tank and several military vehicles which had crossed the border, witnesses and security sources said.
The flare-up provoked threats of revenge from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, and a pledge from Israeli Prime Minister BinyaminNetanyahu that there would be no immunity for those firing on Israeli forces.
The first strike hit north of Beit Hanoun, critically wounding four Qassam Brigades fighters, one of whom later died of his injuries, medics and thegroup said.
As the clashes continued, Israel launched a second air strike east of the town,killing a fighterfrom the Popular Resistance Committees(PRC) and critically wounding another man, the same sources said.
The Qassam Brigades confirmed that one of itslocal commanders and aPRC fighter had been killed.
The Israeli military said that both strikes had targeted “a rocket launching squad”.
“The squad was targeted in response to mortar shell fire at a routine IDF [army] patrol in the area, near the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Am,” a statement said of the first strike. An identical statement was issued following the second strike.
Tit-for-tat
The military refused to say whether troops were operating on the Gaza side of the frontier, saying only “they were near the security fence on a routine patrol”.
No damages or injuries were reported from thebarrage of rockets that hit southern Israel.
Hamashas recently refrained from violence, and the show of force appeared to be a direct response to the alleged incursion by Israeli tanks.
The Qassam Brigades said in a statement that “the enemy will not be able to tie our hands and his crime will not go unanswered”.
Netanyahu also issued a warning of his own.
“We’re not going to let anyone arm themselves and fire rockets on us and think that they can do this with impunity. They’re not going to get away with it,” he said.
“The flareup comes on the eve of a high-profile visit by the emir of Qatar to the Gaza Strip, the first such trip by an Arab head of state since Hamas took over the territory in 2007.
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. | Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The Times of Israel)'] |
Five Guatemalan politicians are convicted of racial discrimination for taunts hurled at Rigoberta Menchú. | Footage of the accused shouting abuse at Ms Menchu was shown in what was the country's first racism trial.
The five, including the grandson of the former military ruler, were sentenced to three years' prison and fined $400 (£210) but can pay more to avoid jail.
About 60% of Guatemala's population is indigenous - most living in poverty.
Taunted
The racist chants were made at a court hearing in October 2003 to decide whether former ruler Gen Jose Efrain Rios Montt could stand for president. Ms Menchu opposed the candidacy of the general, who ruled the country during the bloodiest period of Guatemala's 36-year-long civil war when a total of 200,000 indigenous Maya were killed or disappeared. Gen Rios Montt's supporters taunted her with comments such as "Go and sell tomatoes at the market, Indian" after the court ruled in their favour.
The five guilty are Gen Rios Montt's grandson Juan Carlos Rios, and four women - former lawmaker Enma Samayoa, a member of the Guatemala City-based Central American Parliament, Ana Lopez, and two activists from the Republican Front party founded by Gen Rios Montt, Mirna Orellana and Elvia Morales.
Today we have a great experience that we can communicate to our children
Rigoberta Menchu
At the end of the month-long trial, the judges sentenced each of them to three years and two months in prison for discrimination and disturbing the peace.
They were also ordered to pay $400 in fines each but can avoid jail by paying $10 for each day of their sentence.
Ms Menchu won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign for Indian rights. She said: "Today we have a great experience that we can communicate to our children, that nobody should discriminate against anybody else, that nobody should offend the dignity of anybody else just because they speak another language or come from another part of the country." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2005 | ['(Reuters AlertNet)', '(BBC)'] |
Hamas announces the formation of its new cabinet to govern the territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, however, in a last–ditch effort to include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the government, postponed by one day the submission of the new cabinet to the approval of PNA President Mahmoud Abbas. | Abbas (L) with Ismail Haniya, the prime minister-designate The Palestinian president will accept Hamas' cabinet line-up, but will press the group to make changes to its government agenda, which calls for resistance by any means to end Israeli occupation, aides say.
Nabil Abu Rudaina, spokesman for the president, said on Saturday that Mahmoud Abbas would not reject the cabinet because he believed he should give Hamas a chance to set up its government.
"In my view, the president is not going to reject the Hamas government because he is not willing to block a government that will win a confidence vote in parliament," said Abu Rudaina.
"He will none the less ask the new government to respect the programmes of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian National Authority as any other path will lead to isolation and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people because Hamas' programme fails to meet the demands of the international community."
"In my view, the president is not going to reject the Hamas government because he is not willing to block a government that will win a confidence vote in parliament" Nabil Abu Rudaina, spokesman for Mahmoud AbbasHis comments were echoed by Azzam al-Ahmad, the leader of Fatah's parliamentary bloc.
"In my view, the president is not going to reject the Hamas government because he is not willing to block a government that will win a confidence vote in parliament" Nabil Abu Rudaina, spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas
"In my view, the president is going to accept the government, although Fatah has decided neither to join it nor to give it its support in parliament, because its policies are different from ours," al-Ahmad said.
Hamas, the surprise winner of parliamentary elections in January, has refused to accept interim peace deals with Israel or to commit to seeking a negotiated settlement as demanded by Abbas.
Abbas could try to delay installation of a government until after Israel's 28 March parliamentary election. A standoff over Hamas' government programme could trigger a constitutional crisis, Palestinian officials have said.
Hamas list completed
Hamas completed forming a Palestinian cabinet that will put loyal members of the Islamist group in charge of key ministries, including interior, foreign affairs and finance, Hamas officials said on Saturday.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said: "The cabinet is ready to be presented to President Mahmoud Abbas in a meeting to be agreed with him." Hamas had planned to hand its cabinet lineup to Abbas on Saturday. But the meeting with the president, whose Fatah group has refused to join the Hamas-led government, was postponed to Sunday.
The Islamist resistance movement's inability to win any coalition partners and its decision to appoint its own members to the top three ministries could bolster US and Israeli efforts to isolate the new government diplomatically and economically.
Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri said it did not plan to unveil its ministerial list publicly before presenting it to Abbas.
The delay in the meeting with Abbas could give Hamas extra time to try to find a coalition partner.
Only the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose leader was seized this week by Israeli forces from a West Bank prison, was still considering joining the government.
Abbas' Fatah and the other factions were under heavy US pressure not to join.
Finance minister
According to sources close to the deliberations, Hamas will name Omar Abdel-Razeq, a prominent West Bank economics professor and Hamas election official, to the post of finance minister.
Mahmoud al-Zahar is to be foreign minister, sources sayAbdel-Razeq, a professor at an-Najah University, led Hamas' election team for the West Bank. He was seized by Israeli forces early in January and freed three days ago, Hamas sources said.
Mahmoud al-Zahar is to be foreign minister, sources say
The US and Israel have vowed not to provide any money to a Hamas-led finance ministry, which pays the salaries of about 140,000 public employees and security force members.
As many as one in four Palestinians depend on wages from the Palestinian Authority.
Donor countries could set up a trust fund that would pay salaries directly to the Authority's employees, bypassing a Hamas-led finance ministry, Western diplomats said on Friday.
Hamas sources said the group might keep Mazen Sonnoqrot, an independent, in his post as economy minister.
The foreign minister will be Mahmoud al-Zahar, a leader in Gaza whom Israel has tried to assassinate, Hamas sources said.
And another Hamas leader, Saeed Seyam, would become interior minister, with control over three Palestinian security agencies. | Organization Established | March 2006 | ['(IOL)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Al–Jazeera)'] |
The Government of Thailand declares 60–day state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding provinces from tomorrow as anti–government protests continue. | The Thai government has imposed a 60-day state of emergency in the capital, Bangkok, and the surrounding provinces, from Wednesday, to cope with unrest.
The decree gives the government wide-ranging powers to deal with disorder.
Anti-government protesters have been blocking parts of the capital to try to force PM Yingluck Shinawatra to resign.
They accuse the government of being run by exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, the brother of the current prime minister. Ms Yingluck has refused to resign and has called an election on 2 February to pacify the protesters.
The state of emergency was announced after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday and comes after a spate of attacks with explosives and firearms on the anti-government protesters blockading central Bangkok for which the government and the protesters blame each other. On Sunday, 28 people were injured when grenades were thrown at one of several protest sites set up at major road sections in the city.
"The cabinet decided to invoke the emergency decree to take care of the situation and to enforce the law," Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said.
The emergency decree gives the government power to censor the media, ban public gatherings and detain suspects without charge. It also allows for curfews and for parts of Bangkok to be declared off-limits.
The Thai government has been contemplating a state of emergency for weeks, but in practice, it is not clear how many of those powers it will be able to use, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok. Emergency rule is supposed to be administered by the police and the army, but the police have until now been told to avoid any confrontation with the protesters, and military commanders have made it clear they do not want to be drawn into the increasingly bitter conflict between the government and its opponents, our correspondent says. Ms Yingluck said the police, not the military, would mainly be used to maintain control under the decree.
"We will use peaceful negotiations with the protesters in line with international standards... We have told the police to stick with international standards, to be patient with the protesters," she told reporters.
Labour Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, who will oversee the decree's implementation, said Thailand would abide by international standards.
"We will not use force. We have no policy to disperse them [the protesters] and we haven't announced a curfew yet," he said.
Addressing supporters in Bangkok, the leader of the protesters, Suthep Thaugsuban, questioned whether the state of emergency was justified.
"Is it right for them to use the emergency decree to declare a state of emergency to come and deal with us? Come and get us. We are not afraid of you."
The decree extends past the date of the general election next month. The official election commission has already expressed doubt over whether conditions are peaceful enough for the vote to go ahead. Imposing emergency rule casts yet more doubt over the poll - yet the government, which is now acting in a caretaker capacity, insists there is no legal alternative, our correspondent adds. The government says that as the Thai parliament has already been dissolved, only a new parliament can choose the next administration. The demonstrators have been rallying in the streets of Bangkok for months. They want an unelected "people's council" to run the country until Thailand's political system is changed.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Thousands of Indonesians are stranded on the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan as five airports remain closed as a result of the eruption of the Raung and Gamalama volcanoes. | Ash spewing from two volcanoes in Indonesia has shut three more airports, which means five are now closed as millions head home for the Eid holiday.
The closures were sparked by eruptions at Mount Raung and Mount Gamalama.
Raung, which has been rumbling for weeks, led to airport closures last week including at tourist hotspot Bali - that has since reopened.
But thousands remain stranded at other airports including at Surabaya, Indonesia's second biggest city.
On Thursday evening officials ordered shut the airports serving Surabaya and Malang in East Java - near Raung - and Ternate in North Maluku, near Gamalama.
Two other airports have remained closed since last week - Banyuwangi and Jember near Raung.
The eruption came on the eve of Friday's Eid holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It is a major occasion in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, where many journey home to celebrate with their families.
Volcanic ash can be dangerous for planes as it can get sucked into engines and melts.
It could then turn into a kind of molten glass that coats the inside of engines and affects fuel flow, which can cause engines to shut off.
| Volcano Eruption | July 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend of accused marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is found guilty of obstruction of justice and conspiracy for trying to hide evidence during the ongoing case. | BOSTON (AP) — A college friend was convicted Monday of trying to protect Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by agreeing with another friend to get rid of a backpack and disabled fireworks they took from his dorm room three days after the attack.
Azamat Tazhayakov, a baby-faced 20-year-old, put his hands over his face and shook his head as guilty verdicts were read on federal charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy in the first trial stemming from the twin bombings, which killed three and injured more than 260 near the marathon's finish line in April 2013. His mother sobbed loudly and rocked in her seat.
The jury found that Tazhayakov conspired with friend Dias Kadyrbayev to take from Tsarnaev's room a backpack containing fireworks that had been emptied of their explosive powder. Prosecutors said the explosive powder could have been used to make bombs.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers both told the jury it was Kadyrbayev who actually threw the items away, but prosecutors said Tazhayakov agreed with the plan and was an active participant.
Juror Daniel Antonino, 49, said the panel heavily debated the charges but in the end believed Tazhayakov had impeded the investigation.
"They took materials from that room that they never should have touched, and that's what he is going to pay the price for," Antonino said.
Tazhayakov faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence for obstruction and a five-year maximum for conspiracy at sentencing, which was scheduled for Oct. 16. The verdicts came less than three years after he arrived in the U.S. from his native Kazakhstan, hoping to get an engineering degree at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
Prosecutors said Tazhayakov quickly became friends with Kadyrbayev, who was also from Kazakhstan, and the two also became friendly with Tsarnaev who, like them, spoke Russian. Tsarnaev, who lived in Kyrgyzstan and Russia, had come to the U.S. as a child with his family. He turns 21 on Tuesday.
The three men often hung out together, in Tsarnaev's dorm room or at the off-campus apartment Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev shared. Friends testified that the three men enjoyed playing video games and smoking marijuana.
During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors video of Tazhayakov at the university gym with Tsarnaev the day after the bombings. Both appeared relaxed. Tazhayakov's lawyers said the footage showed their client had no idea Tsarnaev was involved in the bombings until days later, when the FBI released photos of him and his brother, Tamerlan, as suspects.
Tazhayakov's lawyers argued that it was Kadyrbayev who removed the items from Tsarnaev's dorm room and then threw them away. Kadyrbayev faces a separate trial in September. A third friend, Robel Phillipos, is charged with lying to investigators and is also scheduled for trial in September.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev escaped but was soon found, wounded and hiding in a boat dry-docked in a backyard in suburban Watertown. The backpack and fireworks were later recovered from a landfill.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in November. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
Getty Images: David L. Ryan, The Boston Globe
Two explosions went off near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.
Defense attorney Matthew Myers called the Tazhayakov verdict "somewhat surprising" and said it was difficult to try the case in Boston, where emotions run high over the bombings. He said he believes jurors felt a "certain pressure" to find his client guilty.
"We understand what this town has been through. ... It's hard to overcome that bias," Myers said.
Myers said lawyers will appeal the verdict, at least in part on a verdict form that asked jurors to decide whether Tazhayakov obstructed justice and conspired to obstruct justice on both a laptop computer that was taken from Tsarnaev's room and the backpack containing fireworks.
The jury found Tazhayakov not guilty of participating in the plan to take the laptop, but guilty on the plan to take the backpack and fireworks. They had to find him guilty of only one of them to convict him of the charge.
"We think it may have distracted the jury," Myers said of the verdict form.
FBI agents testified during the trial that Tazhayakov told them he and Kadyrbayev decided to take the backpack, fireworks and Tsarnaev's computer hours after Kadyrbayev received a text message from Tsarnaev that said he could go to his dorm room and "take what's there."
Myers told the jury his client was a naive college kid who was prosecuted because he was a "friend of the bomber." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2014 | ['(MSN)'] |
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