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French and Australian rescue crews find four French nationals who died in a helicopter crash in Antarctica. | (CNN) -- Four French nationals aboard a helicopter that crashed in Antarctica did not survive, rescuers said Saturday.
The helicopter went missing on Thursday evening.
French and Australian crews are conducting recovery operations, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.
The victims were found after a helicopter with a doctor flew from a base in Antarctica to the scene of the crash.
Once recovery operations are complete, coordination will be handed over to French authorities, the statement said. | Air crash | October 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
Indian sitar virtuoso and classical composer Ravi Shankar dies in the U.S. city of San Diego at the age of 92. | His family said he had been admitted to the Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego last week, but had failed to recover fully from surgery.
Shankar gained widespread international recognition through his association with The Beatles. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described him as a "national treasure and global ambassador of India's cultural heritage".
In a statement quoted by Reuters, Shankar's wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka said he had recently undergone surgery which would have "potentially given him a new lease of life".
"Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the surgeons and doctors taking care of him, his body was not able to withstand the strain of the surgery," they said.
"We were at his side when he passed away. "Although it is a time for sorrow and sadness, it is also a time for all of us to give thanks and to be grateful that we were able to have him as a part of our lives. He will live forever in our hearts and in his music."
Anoushka Shankar is herself a sitar player. Shankar's other daughter is Grammy award-winning singer Norah Jones.
George Harrison of the Beatles once called Shankar "the godfather of world music".
He played at Woodstock and the 1967 Monterey Pop festival, and also collaborated with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.
Shankar also composed a number of film scores - notably Satyajit Ray's celebrated Apu trilogy (1951-55) and Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) - and collaborated with US composer Philip Glass in Passages in 1990.
Talking in later life about his experiences at the influential Monterey Pop festival, Ravi Shankar said he was "shocked to see people dressing so flamboyantly".
He told Rolling Stone magazine that he was horrified when Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire on stage.
"That was too much for me. In our culture, we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God," he said.
In 1999, Shankar was awarded the highest civilian citation in India - the Bharat Ratna, or Jewel of India.
On Wednesday morning, shortly after his death, the Recording Academy of America announced the musician would receive a lifetime achievement award at next year's Grammys.
The Academy's President Neil Portnow said he had been able to inform Shankar of the honour last week.
"He was deeply touched and so pleased," he said, adding, "we have lost an innovative and exceptional talent and a true ambassador of international music".
Born into a Bengali family in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi, Ravi Shankar was originally a dancer with his brother's troupe.
He gave up dancing to study the sitar at the age of 18.
For seven years Shankar studied under Baba Allauddin Khan, founder of the Maihar Gharana style of Hindustani classical music, and became well-known in India for his virtuoso sitar playing.
For the last years of his life, Ravi Shankar lived in Encinitas, California, with his wife. | Famous Person - Death | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Egypt's president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi makes his first official visit abroad to Algeria where security was top of the agenda. | Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday made his first trip abroad since taking office, seeking Algeria's support to counter Islamist militancy in north Africa.
“We have a lot issues between us and Algeria. We've got the problem of terrorism and we want to coordinate positions. We have the problem of Libya,” Sisi told Egyptian and Algerian television during his visit to Algiers.
The two North African countries both have long borders with Libya where, three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, a weak central government is struggling to contain Islamist militants and brigades of former rebels and militias.
Sisi, who was in charge of the army when it forced Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi from power after mass protests, has been criticized by many countries for a heavy-handed crackdown on internal dissent. But Egypt's strategic position still makes it an important security partner for the West.
Sisi said this week he would not interfere with a court's decision to jail Al Jazeera journalists, despite an international outcry.
He told Reuters before his election that Libya was becoming a major security threat to Egypt, with jihadis infiltrating across the border to fight security forces.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah stopped in Cairo last Friday to show his strong support, the first foreign leader to visit Sisi since he took office. | Diplomatic Visit | June 2014 | ['(Voice of America)'] |
Ireland's Labour Party chairman Colm Keaveney votes against the Social Welfare Bill, part of Ireland's latest austerity budget. As a result he is expelled from the parliamentary party, which is part of the governing coalition. (RTÉ) | Labour Chairman and TD Colm Keaveney is to be expelled from the parliamentary party after voting against the Social Welfare Bill.
In a tweet just before the walk-through vote in the Dáil, he tweeted "Acta non verba", Latin for "deeds not words".
Protesters gathered outside the Dáil as voting took place.
The final walk through vote was 93 votes for to 53 against, and the bill has now gone to the Seanad after passing all stages in the Dáil.
Mr Keaveney said he took the decision to vote against the Budget because he wanted to keep to his principles and stay faithful to his constituency.
He said he had spoken to Labour leader Eamon Gilmore before the Budget to outline his misgivings, but agreed to wait until the details became clearer.
"Since the first leaks emerged on Budget 2013 I have had deep misgivings on aspects of the Budget in relation to the changes to PRSI, to child benefit, to respite grants and to the overall regressive nature of the budget in terms of income.
"Since Monday of last week I have been working to overturn the more odious aspects of this budget.
"I simply cannot vote in favour of measures that will have such a negative effect on working families, particularly given the regressive nature of the hits proposed."
It would have been better if the two coalition parties had left their ideology at the door when they entered the Budget negotiations, he said.
Mr Keaveney said he was alarmed after learning that one party tried to take it out on the most vulnerable, as he put it, during the wrangle over higher USC levels for the better off.
Asked whether he would step down as Labour Party chair, Mr Keaveney replied "absolutely not".
'Need to restore financial stability'
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton told the Dáil that the €20.2bn budget for her department was a big spend and while she would like it to be more, financial stability needed to be restored.
Earlier, there were robust exchanges when Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald withdrew an accusation she had made that Mr Gilmore had lied about social welfare cuts.
While debating the Respite Care Grant, Sinn Féin's Aengus Ó Snodaigh described the reduction from €1,700 to €1375 annually as an odious measure with far reaching consequences.
United Left Alliance TD Joan Collins said the proposal would see carers leaving their loved ones into accident and emergency departments because they would no longer be able to look after them.
Fianna Fáil's Willie O'Dea told Ms Burton that the best thing to do when one had made a mistake is to admit it and move on.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin accused the Labour Party of deceiving the people of the country in promising to protect Child Benefit before the general election.
He asked why protecting tax rates for those on an income of over €100,000 was more important than the Labour pledge to protect Child Benefit.
Mr Gilmore accused Fianna Fáil of having a hard neck. He told Mr Martin that Fianna Fáil's legacy to this country was to bring in the International Monetary Fund.
Mr Gilmore said this Government’s legacy will be to take them out of the country.
He said that the Budget was tough and difficult, but he said it was necessary to bring about the recovery that his party said it would bring about at the general election.
Mr Martin asked the Tánaiste if he recalled the slogan "Frankfurt's way or Labour's way".
The Tánaiste told him he was suffering from withdrawal after 14 years in government, during which Fianna Fáil squandered the boom and put the country into hock. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | December 2012 | ['(Irish Independent)'] |
The death toll from the earthquake rises to 113 with four people still in the rubble of the Weiguan Golden Dragon high-rise tower in Tainan. | TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Rescuers have pulled out 113 dead a week since a powerful earthquake struck Taiwan's oldest city of Tainan, leaving only four missing in the rubble of a collapsed 17-story residential complex, authorities said Saturday.
All but two of the dead were found at the ruins of the Weiguan Golden Dragon complex, which toppled when the 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck last Saturday during the Lunar New Year holiday.
A total of 327 people in the building survived.
According to Taiwan's Interior Ministry, workers extracted scores more bodies on Friday and Saturday morning. Four are still listed as missing.
Authorities have detained the building's developer Lin Ming-hui and two architects this week on suspicion of negligent homicide amid accusations his firm cut corners in the construction.
Tainan city officials said they will inspect several dozen other developments built by Lin, as well as other buildings in the Weiguan compound that did not collapse.
Earthquakes frequently strike Taiwan, but usually cause little or no damage, particularly since more stringent building regulations were introduced following a magnitude-7.6 quake in 1999 that killed more than 2,300. | Earthquakes | February 2016 | ['(AP via Philly News)'] |
6 police officers in Mexico are arrested and accused of participating in the kidnap and murder of Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos. | Updated: Aug 20, 2010 21:50
MONTERREY, Mexico: Six city police officers were arrested Friday in connection with the killing of a mayor in northern Mexico as the country's escalating drug violence targets more public officials.
The
suspects included the officer who guarded the house where Santiago Mayor
Edelmiro Cavazos was seized on Sunday.
The
officer was kidnapped with the mayor but was later freed unharmed.
The
officers confessed to being involved in the Cavazos' killing, said Nuevo Leon
state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza.
“We still
looking for others who were involved as well,” Garza y Garza said.
The body
of the 38-year-old mayor was found handcuffed and gagged Wednesday outside of
his town, a popular weekend getaway for residents of the industrial city of
Monterrey.
One of
the officers took part directly in the kidnapping, while the others kept watch
on roads surrounding the mayor's home, said Adrian de la Garza Santos, director
of the state investigations agency.
Shortly
after the kidnapping, the guard on duty told authorities he had been thrown in
the trunk of one of the kidnappers' cars and driven around for 15 minutes
before being dumped unharmed by the side of the road, De La Garza said. The
guard is now accused of being involved.
Cavazos'
death comes amid increasing violence in the northeast of the country attributed
to a dispute the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas.
Meanwhile,
a federal judge presiding over the case of former Cancun mayor facing
drug-related charges survived an attack Thursday in the west-coast state of
Nayarit, according to a federal official who was not authorized to be
identified.
The
assault, which killed one of two bodyguards of Judge Carlos Alberto Elorza,
came hours after President Felipe Calderon said Mexico should consider
appointing anonymous judges for drug-trafficking trials.
Calderon's
proposal in a forum on security Thursday was unexpected because it contradicts
the efforts he has promoted to build a more open judicial system.
Elorza is
the judge in the case of Gregorio Sanchez, a former Cancun mayor who was forced
out of the Quintana Roo gubernatorial campaign when he was charged with drug
trafficking and money laundering.
The Nuevo
Leon attorney general didn't indicated which gang may have been responsible in
Cavazos' case, which has prompted authorities to call for more patrols by both
the army and federal police in Nuevo Leon.
Mauricio
Fernandez, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town on the outskirts
of Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from gangs warning him to
stay out of their way and had sought advice on how to handle the threats.
Officials
at the state attorney general's office said Cavazos had never informed
authorities about any threats.
Gen.
Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, said
the army had never received complains from the mayor or requests for protection.
The
leading candidate for governor in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Nuevo
Leon, was shot to death a week before the election. A mayoral candidate in
Tamaulipas also was shot in May.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Arab News)', '(Japan Today)'] |
Hurricane Nicole impacts Bermuda at Category 3 strength, making it the strongest hurricane to effect the British Overseas Territory since Hurricane Fabian in 2003. , |
Nicole formed as a tropical storm south of Bermuda on Oct. 4, 2016.
It meandered in the same general area for several days and briefly became a Category 2 hurricane on Oct. 6. It then weakened to a tropical storm again on the following day.
By Oct. 10, Nicole began its crawl northward on a path that would take its center very close to Bermuda. It regained hurricane strength the following day on Oct. 11.
Nicole then rapidly strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane late Oct. 12 with maximum sustained winds increasing to 130 mph. It made its closest pass to Bermuda as Category 3 hurricane on Oct 13.
However, the northern, then western eyewall did not spare Bermuda, lashing the island with wind gusts over 100 mph in spots.
Sustained winds topped 75 mph at Pearl Island and at L.F. Wade International Airport where peak gusts of 119 mph and 104 mph were measured, respectively on Oct. 13.
In fact, the eye of Nicole moved over Bermuda midday Oct. 13 before moving away later in the day.
No other center of a Category 3 or stronger hurricane had tracked as close to Bermuda (officially, it did not "make landfall", according to the National Hurricane Center) as Nicole's center did since an Oct. 22, 1926 hurricane. (Hurricane Fabian's eastern eyewall struck Bermuda in 2003, but its center remained about 14 miles west of Bermuda at its closest approach.)
In a true "weather geek" moment, the Bermuda Weather Service launched a weather balloon in the eye, something they also did during Hurricane Gonzalo in October 2014.
They described the "suspended salt spray", with a "small of ripped vegetation hanging in the heavy, hot air".
Prior to Nicole's direct hit on Bermuda, its large eye, approximately 50 miles wide at one time, was much larger than the width of Bermuda.
Hurricanes of this intensity passing near Bermuda are exceedingly rare. Only 12 Category 3 hurricanes have tracked within 75 miles of Bermuda since 1899.
Only four October hurricanes have tracked within 50 miles of Bermuda dating back to 1950, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, tropical scientist at Colorado State University.
After impacting Bermuda, Nicole moved across the north Atlantic Ocean for several days. It was finally declared post-tropical by the National Hurricane Center early on Oct. 18.
Nicole was the longest lived Atlantic named storm to form after Oct. 1 since 1906, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at the Colorado State University. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2016 | ['(The Weather Channel)', '(The Alabama Media Group)'] |
A suicide attack against the Somali government offices kills at least two people and injures dozens in Mogadishu. | Two security guards have been killed in a suicide attack near the offices of Somalia's president and prime minister.
Three other guards were also wounded when the assailant blew himself up at a checkpoint near the compound housing the offices in the capital, Mogadishu.
The bomber was an ex-Islamist militant recently sacked from his job in the intelligence services, officials said.
Militants aligned to al-Qaeda have lost control of major towns in the last 18 months but still carry out attacks.
The president and prime minister took office following elections last September which were considered the first fair polls in Somalia for 42 years.
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, an academic and civic activist, beat the incumbent in a run-off vote by MPs to become president.
He then appointed his close associate, former businessman Abdi Farah Shirdon, as prime minister.
The attacker detonated his explosives when he was questioned at a checkpoint into Villa Somalia, a sprawling compound that houses both the president's and prime minister's offices, officials said.
Information Minister Abdullahi Hersi said the bomber, a former member of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, had been an employee of the intelligence services until recently.
The African Union (AU) mission in Somalia - which has 18,000 troops in the country supporting and training government troops - said the bomber blew himself up as he was chased away from the checkpoint.
"The heroic actions of the dead soldier and his compatriots have saved many Somali lives," said Mohamat Annadif, the AU's special representative on Somalia, said in a statement.
Correspondents say it is not clear if Prime Minister Shirdon was in the compound at the time. President Mohamud was not in the country.
Their new government is trying to rebuild Somalia after more than 20 years of conflict - One of its biggest challenges is how to deal with al-Shabab, which has joined al-Qaeda and still controls large areas of southern and central Somalia.
The BBC's Abdullahi Abdi, reporting from Kenya, says that the number of suicide attacks in Mogadishu has decreased since the withdrawal of al-Shabab from the capital in August 2011.
But the latest attack shows that the militants still pose a threat to the city's security, he adds.
Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Programme has announced that it has resumed distribution of food aid in the southern port city of Kismayo for the first time in four years.
The WFP and other international aid organisations have not been allowed to work in areas controlled by al-Shabab.
Feeding centres providing hot meals for 15,000 people have been set up in Kismayo, which AU and government forces recaptured last September.
A recent survey showed high levels of malnutrition and food insecurity in the city, the WFP said.
"The survey showed that almost half the households in Kismayo are really struggling to meet their daily needs, and 24% of children below the age of five are malnourished," Stefano Porretti, WFP's representative in Somalia, said in a statement.
Years of fighting between rival clan-based warlords as well as Islamist militants has led to an inability in the drought-prone country to deal with hunger and disease. | Armed Conflict | January 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Voters in Albania go to the polls to elect a new parliament. | Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama faces a challenge from a dozen parties united behind the main opposition Democrats.
Albanians are voting in a parliamentary election on Sunday after a bitter campaign marked by a gun battle between rival supporters that drew calls for calm from the United States and the European Union.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, who urged a “free and honest” vote, is seeking a third term and has promised to quit if his Socialists fail to win a majority.
He faces a challenge from a dozen parties united behind the main opposition Democrats, whose leader Lulzim Basha told his supporters that Rama had failed for eight years and should be given no more chances.
The rivalry between the two parties turned deadly in the final week of the campaign when a row over alleged vote-buying descended into a gunfight in a city near the capital, killing one Socialist supporter and injuring four others.
All parties say they will deliver the reforms needed for the Balkan country to fulfil its dream of joining the EU.
Tirana was granted EU candidate status in 2014, but there has been little progress because of enlargement fatigue around the bloc and lack of reforms within Albania. Last year the bloc agreed to open membership talks.
But despite the blasting pop music and flag-waving crowds at the final election rallies in Tirana, voters young and old expressed frustration with the politics and economy of the country.
Opinion polls suggest Rama’s socialists have a lead over their rivals, but commentators said a high number of undecided voters made predictions tricky.
President Ilir Meta – an archenemy of Rama – was among the first to vote moments after polls opened at 05:00 GMT, pledging a “patriotic vote” to rebuild the foundations of the republic.
The country of 2.8 million people is among the poorest in Europe and the coronavirus pandemic has made matters worse with the vital tourism sector suffering a huge slump.
A 2019 earthquake that killed 51 people and damaged more than 11,400 residences also hit the economy.
Rama, an artist and former basketball player, is banking on a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign to boost his popularity, promising that 500,000 Albanians will be inoculated by the end of May.
“We are fighting to get Albania out of the pandemic tunnel for good,” he told supporters in the southern coastal city of Vlora on Friday, promising an economic transformation based on tourism, agriculture, energy and the digital economy.
“You can’t give another chance to a man who has failed for eight years, we are the future,” Basha told supporters during his final rally in Tirana on Friday.
Both the main contenders traded barbs throughout the campaign with Basha accusing his rival of vote-rigging and corruption, and Rama belittling his opponent as a puppet of party veterans and the president.
Meta, whose wife runs a smaller party allied to the Democrats, said “pitchforks” would be ready on Sunday in case the Socialists attempted to tamper with the votes – prompting an unimpressed reaction from the US.
“It is unacceptable for anyone to threaten that citizens will take up ‘pitchforks’… These threats deserve condemnation,” US envoy Yuri Kim wrote on Twitter.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, an international body sending monitors for the vote, called the election a vital measure of “national political maturity”.
Voting started at 7am (5:00 GMT) is set to continue until 7pm (17:00 GMT) with officials promising results within two days.
| Government Job change - Election | April 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera English)'] |
Three members of the Tongan royal family are killed in a car accident in Menlo Park, California. | The three people who died Wednesday night in a crash on Highway 101 in Menlo Park included two members of the Tongan royal family, several sources have confirmed.
Prince Tu’ipelehake and his wife, Princess Kaimana, died in the accident, it was confirmed by a foreign affairs spokesman for the New Zealand National Party.
Prince Tu’ipelehake was a nephew of the King of Tonga.
“Their deaths will come as a shock to the people of Tonga, as they have to me,” said spokesman John Hayes. “The prince was chair of Tonga’s committee looking at democracy and political reform.”
Mr. Hayes said he met with the prince recently when he was in New Zealand to consult with the local Tongan community on that issue.
“His passing is a serious blow to Tonga and the wider region,” said Mr. Hayes.
The third person killed in the accident was Vinisia Hefa, 36, of East Palo Alto, who was driving a red Ford Explorer carrying the prince and princess, the Associated Press reported.
The crash happened shortly before 9 p.m. near Willow Road when Edith Delgado, 18, of Redwood City was driving a white 1998 Ford Mustang north at what police investigators say was a high rate of speed and struck the red 1998 Ford Explorer with the Tongan royals.
The Explorer, moving toward the right shoulder, overturned an unknown number of times and landed on its roof, California Highway Patrol Officer Ricky Franklin said.
Delgado was arrested at the scene and could be charged with vehicular manslaughter, police investigators said.
Franklin reported today that Delgado "just got her license in February," but has no prior arrests and a clean driving record.
According to Franklin, the driver of a black Cadillac Escalade that exited at Marsh Road might have either seen or been involved with the collision.
Officers continue to investigate the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call the CHP in Redwood City at (650) 369-6261.
| Road Crash | July 2006 | ['(Palo Alto Online)'] |
Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew resigns from the cabinet after 52 years. | Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew has resigned from the country's cabinet, ceding leadership to his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The move comes after their party's worst election result since 1965.
Lee Kuan Yew and fellow former prime minister Goh Chok Tong said in a joint resignation statement that the "time has come for a younger generation".
The 87-year old Mr Lee was prime minister from 1959 to 1990, after which Mr Goh took over until 2004.
Mr Lee had been known as minister mentor, while Mr Goh was senior minister since 2004. Both won parliament seats in the city-state's latest general election on 7 May.
BBC South-East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey says Mr Lee's retirement is, unquestionably, a key moment in Singapore's political history.
In a joint-statement, Mr Lee and Mr Goh said the current prime minister and his team "should have a fresh clean slate".
"The time has come for a younger generation to carry Singapore forward in a more difficult and complex situation," 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."
Politics in the tiny but hugely wealthy state have been dominated by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) since independence in 1965.
But in the latest elections, the PAP won only 60% of the vote - down from 67% in 2006 and 75% in 2001.
The Workers' Party won six seats, the most the opposition has held since independence in 1965.
Singapore is one of the world's richest countries, but soaring housing prices amid a surge of foreign workers have left poorer islanders struggling.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Salon)', '(China Daily)'] |
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invites Pope Francis to Pyongyang, and said he would be "warmly welcomed" to North Korea. | Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Kim Jong Un has invited Pope Francis to Pyongyang, and has said he would "warmly welcome" him to North Korea in what would be a historic visit to the country by the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
The North Korean leader may have taken a recommendation from South Korean President Moon Jae-in to extend an invitation to the pope, following the most recent inter-Korea summit in Pyongyang, South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported Tuesday.
Kim's willingness to host Francis could be a sign North Korea is ready to take unprecedented steps to joining the international community.
"President Moon had said the Pyongyang summit must receive the support of the international community, and suggested [inviting the pope] would be one way" of earning trust, a South Korean presidential Blue House source told Hankyoreh.
Pope Francis has previously vocalized his support for inter-Korea détente and the easing of tensions on the peninsula.
"I support the courageous decisions of the North and South Korean leaders," the pope said following the first summit in Panmunjom in April.
South Korean Archbishop Kim Hee-jung of Gwangju, who accompanied Moon to the last summit, said the North Korean leader asked him in September to deliver a message to Pope Francis -- to work toward reconciliation on the peninsula.
The South Korean cleric also said Kim Jong Un "bowed" after he said he would deliver the message to the Vatican.
Since the summit, the archbishop said he has met with Francis.
The pope has yet to respond to Kim's invitation.
South Korean diplomats at the Vatican said it is difficult to predict whether Francis will accept the chance to go to Pyongyang, Yonhap reported Tuesday.
The pope has previously brokered agreements between the United States and Cuba and urged Colombians to push for peace in 2017. | Diplomatic Visit | October 2018 | ['(New York Times)', '(UPI)'] |
Head of the CIA Leon Panetta accuses former United States Vice President Dick Cheney of hiding an intelligence program from Congress. | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA Director Leon Panetta testified to a congressional committee that he was told former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the intelligence agency to withhold information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly ordered the CIA to withhold information about counterterrorism.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, told the "FOX News Sunday" program that Panetta testified that "he was told that the vice president had ordered that the program not be briefed to the Congress."
"I think this is a problem, obviously," Feinstein said, adding that the law requires full disclosure of such operations to Congress.
The disclosure by Panetta to both the Senate and House intelligence committees about Cheney's involvement was first reported in The New York Times. Efforts to contact Cheney for reaction were unsuccessful. Watch senators discuss Cheney and the CIA.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on the report.
"It's not agency practice to discuss what may or may not have been said in a classified briefing," Gimigliano said. "When a CIA unit brought this matter to Director Panetta's attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared with Congress. That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect."
Panetta briefed lawmakers on June 24 on an unspecified counterterrorism program, according to a letter from seven House Democrats to Panetta made public Wednesday. The June 26 letter characterized Panetta as testifying that the CIA "concealed significant actions from all members of Congress, and misled members for a number of years from 2001 to this week."
The letter contained no details about what information the CIA officials allegedly concealed or how they purportedly misled members of Congress.
A knowledgeable source familiar with the matter said the counterterrorism program in question was initiated shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
The program was on-again, off-again and was never fully operational, but was rather a tool put on the shelf that could have been used, the source said. Panetta has put an end to the program, according to the source.
The disclosures follow a May spat between the spy agency and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who accused the CIA of misleading Congress during a secret 2002 briefing on harsh interrogation techniques being used on terrorism suspects. The CIA responded that Pelosi was told about the harsh techniques, including waterboarding, at the briefing.
But the June 26 letter from the seven House Democrats noted that Panetta told CIA employees in a May 15 letter -- a response to the Pelosi allegation -- that it was not CIA policy to mislead Congress. The letter from the House Democrats asked Panetta to correct his May 15 statement "in light of your testimony."
Asked about the Democrats' letter, CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta "stands by his May 15 statement."
"This agency and this director believe it is vital to keep the Congress fully and currently informed. Director Panetta's actions back that up," Little said in a statement. "As the letter from these ... representatives notes, it was the CIA itself that took the initiative to notify the oversight committees."
The latest revelations come as lawmakers consider expanding the number of House and Senate members privy to the kind of secret briefing that Pelosi received.
The White House opposes a measure that would increase the number of briefing participants from the current eight to 40 members of Congress. A White House memo warned President Obama's senior advisers would recommend a veto of the bill if it contained the expanded briefing provision.
On Sunday morning news shows, Democratic and Republican legislators sparred over the significance of the withholding of information from Congress.
Republicans agreed that the CIA should comply with all disclosure laws, but questioned if the program Panetta talked about to the intelligence committees met the required threshold.
They also said such disclosures harm the morale of the CIA, and some wondered if the revelation of Panetta's testimony was a Democratic ploy to support Pelosi's allegation that the agency misled Congress.
"This looks to me suspiciously like an attempt to provide political cover to her," Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said on FOX. "I agree with Senator Feinstein -- the CIA should brief the Congress. Congress should exercise responsible oversight. But to trot out the vice president and say he's the one that's at fault, this ... unfortunately sounds like a new theme where they still want to blame the Bush-Cheney administration for the economy and for other things."
Democrats responded that the central issue was the possible violation of laws intended to maintain a vital check on the power of the CIA.
"This is a question of whether the former vice president of the United States denied certain sensitive information to the intelligence leaders in Congress," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota. "That is not acceptable."
The Democrats also praised Panetta for immediately notifying the intelligence committees and canceling the secret program once he learned of it. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
The pound sterling weakens after the European Union says the ongoing trade negotiation between the UK and the EU would be "put at risk" if the United Kingdom failed to "withdraw or amend" its Internal Market Bill before the end of this month. The UK replies that it has "the right to overrule parts" of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. | The pound fell against the euro and dollar on Thursday afternoon, after the European Union threatened to walk away from Brexit trade talks unless the UK abandoned plans to renege on parts of the Withdrawal Agreement.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove met with EU Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič in London on Monday to discuss Europe’s “serious concerns” about the Internal Market Bill. The bill, published on Wednesday, would overrule part of the Withdrawal Agreement related to Northern Ireland and violate international law as a result.
The meeting failed to resolve the issue and the EU said Brexit trade talks could collapse unless Britain changes course.
READ MORE: Odds of Brexit trade '50-50' after row over Internal Markets Bill
“Violating the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement would break international law, undermine trust and put at risk the ongoing future relationship negotiations,” the European Commission said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
The pound was down 1.4% against the euro (GBPEUR=X) shortly after the announcement. Sterling had already been under pressure due to euro strength earlier in the session but took a leg lower.
The pound also sold off against the dollar (GBPUSD=X) and was down 0.7% by mid-afternoon.
“Sterling took a bit of a kicking as the mood music around this week’s Brexit talks took a decided turn for the worse,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.
Šefčovič gave Gove an ultimatum to withdraw or amend the Internal Market Bill by the end of the month. If it does not, the European Commission said the EU would “not be shy” in pursuing legal action. The commission said the bill “constitutes an extremely serious violation of the Withdrawal Agreement and of international law.”
“By putting forward this Bill, the UK has seriously damaged trust between the EU and the UK,” the EU said. “It is now up to the UK government to re-establish that trust.”
The British government signalled it would not change course. The government published a legal opinion stating it believes it has the right to overrule parts of the Withdrawal Agreement.
“It is an established principle of international law that a state is obliged to discharge its treaty obligations in good faith,” the government wrote in the one page statement. “This is, and will remain, the key principle in informing the UK’s approach to international relations.
“However, in the difficult and highly exceptional circumstances in which we find ourselves, it is important to remember the fundamental principle of Parliamentary sovereignty.”
Wilson said: “The language and tone coming out of everything today would suggest a material increase in no deal risks.”
The Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement bound the whole island of Ireland to abide to European standards and tariffs if no Brexit trade deal could be reached. It was conceived in order to protect the EU single market and avoid a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
However, the protocol would require checks of some goods moving between Ireland and mainland Britain in a no deal scenario, necessitating some form of sea or land border.
The Internal Market Bill seeks to overrule this clause in order to avoid the need for a border and fulfil Boris Johnson’s election pledge of unfettered trade between all four nations in the UK.
Watch: Yahoo UK Finance Reporter Edmund Heaphy explains what a no-deal Brexit actually means, and its potential consequences...
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2020 | ['(Yahoo!)'] |
Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor appears in court and is released on bail after being charged with assault and criminal mischief. |
Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has appeared in court and been released on bail after being charged with assault and criminal mischief.
The Irishman's case was heard at Brooklyn Criminal Court, with bail set for $50,000 (35,500).
The former two-weight champion has not yet entered a plea and his next hearing is on 14 June.
He was charged by New York City Police Department (NYPD) after an incident at a UFC media day.
McGregor was one of a group alleged to have vandalised a bus containing rival fighters, the Ultimate Fighting Championship said.
He turned himself into police custody at 21:00 local time on Thursday (02:00 BST on Friday).
The incident occurred at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, where the UFC had gathered to promote Saturday's show, headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov and Max Holloway.
Holloway was later ruled out of the fight because he was medically unstable.
McGregor, 29, was with fellow fighter Artem Lobov, who was due to fight featherweight Alex Caceres.
The UFC says McGregor and Lobov - accompanied by more than a "dozen individuals" - attacked the bus.
Footage appears to show McGregor throwing a trolley at the bus - smashing a window - followed by further altercations. UFC saysexternal-link two fighters were injured and have been withdrawn from Saturday's undercard.
Lightweight Michael Chiesa received several facial cuts, while flyweight Ray Borg suffered an eye injury.
Lobov has also been removed from the bill, due to his alleged involvement.
"The organisation deems today's disruption completely unacceptable and is currently working on the consequences that will follow," the UFC said.
McGregor, who was beaten by Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match in August 2017, has not fought in the UFC since knocking out Eddie Alvarez in November 2016.
Before Thursday's incident, he was stripped of his UFC lightweight title for being inactive, with the winner of Nurmagomedov-Holloway taking the belt. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Joaquin is slowly moving on an east/northeast trek lowering the possibility of a direct hit to the U.S. East Coast. However, unrelated storms have already drenched the eastern seaboard this week. Streets were underwater up and down the coast at this afternoon's high tide. Adding Joaquin's wind and rain could create deadly, unprecedented downpours, flooding, wind damage, and power outages. . | The latest tracking of Hurricane Joaquin by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration estimates the storm will stay at sea and not directly strike the Northeastern U.S. as feared, but forecasters warn it will indirectly produce dangerous flooding and high winds.
"People should not let their guard down due to a shifting track of the hurricane as the risk to lives and property in this complex situation remains high," Accuweather.com's senior meteorologist, Alex Sosnowski, reported Friday evening.
The storm already is being blamed for a lost cargo ship near the Bahamas with 33 people aboard, including 31 Americans. The 735-foot ship El Faro was en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville, Florida, Fox News reported.
The U.S. Coast Guard, which is searching for the vessel, said it received notification that the ship had lost power around 7 a.m. Eastern Time Thursday near Crooked Island in the eastern Bahamas. The crew reported it was taking on water but eventually contained the flooding. The Coast Guard has been unable to reestablish communications with the ship. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2015 | ['(WorldNetDaily)', '(Reuters)', '(AP via Portland Press-Herald)'] |
In cricket, England manage to bat through the 5th day of the final test match against New Zealand in Auckland, to draw the three match series 0–0. | Last updated on 26 March 201326 March 2013.From the section Cricketcomments428
England's last-wicket pair held on to secure a stunning draw in a thrilling third Test against New Zealand.
Matt Prior made a magnificent unbeaten 110 and Monty Panesar faced five balls at the death to deny the hosts a series victory at Eden Park in Auckland.
"We had everything on the final day: England's last-wicket pair together; a comical near run-out with number 11 Monty Panesar diving to make his ground; an impassioned crowd urging New Zealand towards a rare series win; and the game not decided until the final ball.
"Only Test cricket can provide these wonderful finishes, which is why it is the purest form of the sport and why it needs to be preserved and cherished."
Read more from Aggers Prior and Stuart Broad defended stoutly after coming together at 237-7 at tea, but Broad and James Anderson fell in the fourth over before the close.
However, Prior and Panesar clinched the draw with England on 315-9 at the end.
Prior, who successfully overturned an lbw decision and survived the ball hitting his stumps earlier in his innings, faced 182 balls and batted for four hours and 29 minutes.
It was the 31-year-old vice-captain's seventh Test century and the longest innings of his 65-Test career.
It is only the third time in Test cricket that a team had gone into the final day of a match with four wickets down and avoided defeat.
With Ian Bell dismissed in the last over before tea for a battling 75, Prior was left with three tail-enders going into the final session.
Broad, who has been in horrible form with the bat, also overturned an lbw decision, but batted with admirable discipline. He eventually got off the mark to his 62nd ball faced, after a Test record 103 minutes in the middle.
With the tension growing, Prior almost played on but missed his leg stump by the smallest of margins.
The wicketkeeper brought up their fifty partnership, having hit all the runs, and moments later reached his century with a muted celebration.
Boult thought he had Broad lbw to one that jagged back but he survived thanks to another review, while Prior was almost caught six overs from the end.
New Zealand looked increasingly desperate as the overs ticked down but Kane Williamson had Broad and Anderson caught at slip in the space of three balls.
That brought in Panesar and he anxiously held his nerve, despite almost being run out in comical fashion after mistiming a dive to make his ground.
England went into the series with many experts predicting a comprehensive victory following a historic series triumph in India.
• England are the third Test side to bat out the entire final day having been four wickets down overnight. England against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1995, when Michael Atherton finished unbeaten on 185, and South Africa in Australia last year, are the others.
• Matt Prior batted for four hours and 29 minutes, to salvage the draw in Auckland. It is his longest innings in a Test.
• Stuart Broad set a new Test record for the longest time at the crease without scoring. He needed 103 minutes to get off the mark, beating the previous record of 101 minutes set by New Zealand's Geoff Allott against South Africa in 1999 - also at Eden Park.
But Alastair Cook's side failed to match the high standards set before Christmas and, after two rain-affected draws, were thoroughly outplayed over the first four days after putting the hosts into bat.
The draw, however, means England remain above India in second place in the International Cricket Council Test rankingsexternal-link and denies New Zealand what would have been only their fourth series win against them.
Starting the day on 90-4, and with the victory target of 481 no longer relevant, England needed to bat for a minimum of 90 overs.
Bell and Joe Root dropped anchor but fell just short of batting through the first session.
Left-arm seamer Trent Boult needed just one delivery with the new ball to break a stand of 60 - Root departing leg before for 29 pushing forward to an inswinger.
Bell and Jonny Bairstow were both dropped in the final over before lunch. The Warwickshire player was dropped at fourth slip by Dean Brownlie on 40 and Bairstow was put down at gully by Williamson two balls later as England went into the break on 158-5.
Bairstow, who has played only two first-class innings since August, was out for six after the interval when he edged Tim Southee to first slip.
Prior was given out lbw to Southee but the wicketkeeper had inside-edged the ball and successfully overturned umpire Rod Tucker's decision on review.
"It was very dramatic and had everybody on the edge of their seats all of the time. It was a great advert for the game. You can't tell me that Twenty20 cricket is better than that. There were moments where you thought England were getting home and then someone would get out. In the end it was left to Monty Panesar to get the finest single of his life to get out of the way and let Matt Prior see the job through."
Prior kept playing his shots but had another close call when he pulled Southee high into the air, only for a diving Neil Wagner to just miss the toughest of overhead chances running back from midwicket.
Then, on 28, the Sussex wicketkeeper somehow survived when a short delivery from Wagner ricocheted from his shoulder to his helmet and then onto the stumps, but without dislodging the bails.
He survived another huge appeal from the Kiwis for a catch behind before Bell edged to Southee at third slip and departed after 271 balls of resistance.
His departure left Prior as the last recognisable batsman in England's rearguard action, but he was more than up to the task.
Listen to match highlights and Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott's analysis of the Test on the Test Match Special podcast | Sports Competition | March 2013 | ['(ESPN Cricinfo)', '(BBC)'] |
The Palau National Congress passes a joint resolution supporting the decision made by President Surangel Whipps Jr. to leave the Pacific Islands Forum. The National Congress says that the "gentleman's agreement was not honored". | The Palau National Congress - Olbiil Era Kelulau - has voiced its support for President Surangel Whipps Junior's decision to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum.
Palau's national congress (Olbiil Era Kelulau) building.
The congress met ahead of today's virtual meeting of the leaders of Micronesian countries to discuss their future involvement of the sub-region in the Forum.
President Whipps Jr's decision stemmed from the appointment of Cook Islands former prime minister Henry Puna as secretary general of the Forum last week.
Palau and other Micronesian countries argued the post should have gone to their candidate, Marshall Islands' diplomat Gerald Zackios.
This is based on an unwritten "gentleman's agreement" that the role be rotated by sub-region and that it was Micronesia's turn.
In a statement, members of the Palau National Congress reaffirmed their support for a House Joint Resolution made last year that concluded "...there is no benefit to the Micronesian members remaining in the Pacific Island Forum if the gentleman's agreement is not honored."
On Friday, speaking to RNZ Pacific, Whipps Jr said South Pacific countries had come to dominate the forum's decisions by sheer numbers.
Describing a breakdown in trust within the Forum membership, he questioned the composition of the Pacific Islands Forum, and suggested a new regional body might be needed.
"As a region, as Pacific brothers, we will continue to fight for that, we will continue to be part of FFA, we will continue to be part of SPREP and all those things.
"But the PIF, maybe we need to come up with a new organisation and find new members because the current configuration is self-interest and that is the problem." | Withdraw from an Organization | February 2021 | ['(RNZ)'] |
172 coal miners are trapped in a flooded mine in Shandong province in eastern China. | JINAN -- A coal mine in east China's Shandong Province was flooded by surface water on Friday afternoon, leaving 172 people missing by 3:0 am on Saturday.
The flooding occurred at about 2:30 pm on Friday in the Zhangzhuang mine run by Huayuan Co., Ltd. which is located in Xintai City in the central part of the province.
"There were 756 miners working under the ground when the accident occurred. By 8:55 pm Friday, 584 miners have been rescued." said Zhang Dekuan, deputy secretary-general of the provincial government, who is at the site.
Shandong's Communist Party chief Li Jianguo, acting governor Jiang Daming and other senior officials had arrived at the site to coordinate the rescue work.
The provincial government has established a rescue headquarter at the site headed by Jiang Daming. The rescuers have been divided into nine groups responsible for ventilation, water drainage and other tasks.
By the press time, heavy rain is still pouring down at the site.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
Also on Friday, the 14 miners who were trapped for more than a day in a flooded colliery in east China's Jiangxi Province were rescued. Rescuers had fed them milk before pulling them out of the shaft. They are hospitalized and were described as stable.
On July 29, 69 miners were trapped when the coal mine they were working in was flooded in Henan Province, but they were rescued three days later. During the rescue, rescuers sent 400 kilograms of milk through ventilation pipes to the trapped miners. | Mine Collapses | August 2007 | ['(AFP via ABC News Australia)', '(ChinaDaily)'] |
Saudi-led coalition air-strikes on the Yemeni city of Taiz leave at least 65 civilians killed. | At least 65 civilians have reportedly been killed in air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition on the Yemeni city of Taiz. More than half of the dead were women and children, according to aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Taiz has been the scene of intense clashes between Houthi rebels and pro-government forces, supported by Saudi Arabia and its allies. The coalition began targeting the Houthis in March. It wants to defeat the rebel group, which controls much of Yemen, and restore the government of exiled President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The conflict has killed about 4,000 people so far, nearly half of them civilians, according to the United Nations.
Seventeen of those who lost their lives in air strikes late on Thursday were members of the same family, MSF said. A number of civilians also died in rebel shelling in Taiz. "We call on the warring parties to stop attacking civilian targets, especially hospitals, ambulances and densely populated neighbourhoods," MSF said in a statement. The Houthis - backed by forces loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh - say they are fighting against corruption and marginalisation of their northern powerbase by Mr Hadi's government.
Sunni power Saudi Arabia alleges its Shia rival Iran is providing the rebels with weapons. Tehran and the Houthis deny this. | Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
SpaceX successfully launches the European Space Agency's satellite altimeter Copernicus Sentinel-6 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The satellite will monitor global sea levels with high accuracy, enhance weather forecasting, and provide detailed information on ocean currents to support ship navigation near coastlines. | A joint U.S.-European satellite built to monitor global sea levels lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Saturday at 9:17 a.m. PST (12:17 p.m. EST).
About the size of a small pickup truck, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will extend a nearly 30-year continuous dataset on sea level collected by an ongoing collaboration of U.S. and European satellites while enhancing weather forecasts and providing detailed information on large-scale ocean currents to support ship navigation near coastlines.
"The Earth is changing, and this satellite will help deepen our understanding of how," said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division. "The changing Earth processes are affecting sea level globally, but the impact on local communities varies widely. International collaboration is critical to both understanding these changes and informing coastal communities around the world."
After arriving in orbit, the spacecraft separated from the rocket's second stage and unfolded its twin sets of solar arrays. Ground controllers successfully acquired the satellite's signal, and initial telemetry reports showed the spacecraft in good health. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will now undergo a series of exhaustive checks and calibrations before it starts collecting science data in a few months' time.
Continuing the Legacy
The spacecraft is named in honor of Michael Freilich, the former director of NASA's Earth Science Division, who was a leading figure in advancing ocean observations from space. Freilich passed away Aug. 5, 2020. His close family and friends attended the launch of the satellite that now carries his name.
"Michael was a tireless force in Earth sciences. Climate change and sea level rise know no national borders, and he championed international collaboration to confront the challenge," said ESA (European Space Agency) Director of Earth Observation Programmes Josef Aschbacher. "It's fitting that a satellite in his name will continue the 'gold standard' of sea level measurements for the next half-decade. This European-U.S. cooperation is exemplary and will pave the way for more cooperation opportunities in Earth observation."
"Mike helped ensure NASA was a steadfast partner with scientists and space agencies worldwide, and his love of oceanography and Earth science helped us improve understanding of our beautiful planet," added Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science at the agency's headquarters. "This satellite so graciously named for him by our European partners will carry out the critical work Mike so believed in – adding to a legacy of crucial data about our oceans and paying it forward for the benefit of future generations."
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will continue the sea level record that began in 1992 with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite and continued with Jason-1 (2001), OSTM/Jason-2 (2008), and eventually Jason-3, which has been observing the oceans since 2016. Together, these satellites have provided a nearly 30-year record of precise measurements of sea level height while tracking the rate at which our oceans are rising in response to our warming climate. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will pass the baton to its twin, Sentinel-6B, in 2025, extending the current climate record at least another 10 years between the two satellites.
Global Science Impact
This latest mission marks the first international involvement in Copernicus, the European Union's Earth Observation Programme. Along with measuring sea levels for almost the entire globe, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich's suite of scientific instruments will also make atmospheric measurements that can be used to complement climate models and help meteorologists make better weather forecasts.
"NASA is but one of several partners involved in Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, but this satellite speaks to the very core of our mission," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "Whether 800 miles above Earth with this remarkable spacecraft or traveling to Mars to look for signs of life, whether providing farmers with agricultural data or aiding first responders with our Disasters program, we are tirelessly committed not just to learning and exploring, but to having an impact where it's needed."
The initial orbit of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is about 12.5 miles (20.1 kilometers) lower than its ultimate operational orbit of 830 miles (1,336 kilometers). In less than a month, the satellite will receive commands to raise its orbit, trailing Jason-3 by about 30 seconds. Mission scientists and engineers will then spend about a year cross-calibrating data collected by the two satellites to ensure the continuity of sea level measurements from one satellite to the next. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will then take over as the primary sea level satellite and Jason-3 will provide a supporting role until the end of its mission.
"This mission is the very essence of partnership, precision, and incredible long-term focus," said Michael Watkins, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission. "Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich not only provides a critical measurement, it is essential for continuing this historic multi-decadal sea level record."
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and Sentinel-6B compose the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission developed in partnership with ESA. ESA is developing the new Sentinel family of missions to support the operational needs of the Copernicus program, managed by the European Commission. Other partners include the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support from France's National Centre for Space Studies.
"The data from this satellite, which is so critical for climate monitoring and weather forecasting, will be of unprecedented accuracy," said EUMETSAT Director-General Alain Ratier. "These data, which can only be obtained by measurements from space, will bring a wide range of benefits to people around the globe, from safer ocean travel to more precise prediction of hurricane paths, from greater understanding of sea level rise to more accurate seasonal weather forecasts, and so much more."
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, is contributing three science instruments to each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Climate, the Global Navigation Satellite System – Radio Occultation, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA is also contributing launch services, ground systems supporting operation of the NASA science instruments, the science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the U.S. component of the international Ocean Surface Topography Science Team. The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. | New achievements in aerospace | November 2020 | ['(NASA.gov)'] |
In Taiwan, a SWAT team apprehends wanted gang leader Chang Hsiming after a 30minute gun battle in Shalu Township. | In another major victory for the nation's law enforcement officials, the notorious gangster Chang Hsi-ming () was arrested after a shootout with police in Shalu Township (沙鹿), Taichung County, yesterday.
Chang was shot at least twice in his left arm, and according to pictures provided by the police, he also had countless minor wounds all over his body. Police said that the wounds were probably from the gunfight.
Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) Detective Tang Jia-jen (唐嘉仁) was also wounded in the battle, although he suffered only a flesh wound to the neck.
PHOTO: TSAI CHIH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Both Chang and Tang were described as being in good condition after receiving emergency medical treatment.
A man described as Chang's bodyguard, Lin Tai-heng (林泰亨), was also apprehended. However, Lin was shot in the head during the morning raid, and he was in critical condition as of press time yesterday.
Approximately half an hour after yesterday's raid began at 9am, the injured Lin was captured and immediately hurried to Taichung's Kuang Tien General Hospital (光田合院).
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
A few minutes later, the wounded Chang was also captured, then escorted to an ambulance and hurried to Tungs' General Hospital (童合院) for surgery. The CIB then sent a text message to reporters with the message: "The police have located and arrested Chang Hsi-ming at 308 Chung-hsing Road in Shalu Township a few minutes ago."
Chang is best known for his high-profile escape from a bungled police raid in July last year after a series of running gunbattles between his heavily armed gang and more than 1,000 police officers.
At the time, people were captivated by the dramatic television footage of the gangsters, wearing bulletproof vests and equipped with assault rifles, as they took hostages to cover their escape.
Chang, whose gang specialized in kidnapping for ransom, had escaped police dragnets on at least four occasions before.
But the "Evil Dragon" -- as he was dubbed by some media outlets -- and his band of outlaws have now been brought to heel.
Chang's arrest sent shivers of excitement through the government, and Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓泰) was so excited that he had difficulty speaking, and could barely finish his sentences during the regular press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.
"I believe that everybody is as excited as we are now," Cho said. "This is such an inspiration for our police officers and to my fellow Taiwanese people, as well."
According to the spokesman, during the breakfast before the Cabinet meeting, Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (嘉全) told Premier Frank Hsieh (廷) in private that the police would launch the raid at 9am.
When Su got the message of good news, he immediately shared it with the premier. The premier then interrupted the meeting and made the announcement in front of the Cabinet.
"The applause was thundering for minutes," Cho said. He quoted the premier as having said: "This is the most perfect ending to this case."
Hsieh and Su then left for Taichung right after the meeting yesterday morning to congratulate the police, and visited Tang in person.
According to Cho, although Chang has been very cautious and has tried to stay low-profile during his flight from justice, police have "always" had an idea of his whereabouts, because he sent his henchmen to buy large quantities alcohol for him almost every day.
"The police were able to maintain surveillance on his gang. But officers did not take action until [yesterday], because Chang is extremely cunning and knows how to take advantage of his surroundings to protect himself. The police did not do anything for fear of harming innocent people," Cho explained.
In addition to following the alcohol trail, CIB Commissioner Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said that Internet gaming also played a key role in locating Chang.
"He played online games a lot. Although he always used a pseudonym, Taichung City Police Department Internet Squad Chief Chang Cheng-juei (承瑞) had already locked on to him, and was able to confirm his location through his IP address approximately one week ago," the CIB chief said.
The build-up to yesterday's raid began at 3am, when the police confirmed Chang and Lin's whereabouts and began surrounding the townhouse where they were staying in Shalu Township.
Around 9am, more than 130 police officers from nine different police units gathered at the scene. Under the personal direction of the CIB chief Hou, a military armored vehicle smashed through the garage door of the townhouse, leading to a shootout between the two sides.
`Extremely calm'
The injured detective Tang told reporters from his hospital bed that Chang was extremely calm during the entire battle.
"I went inside the townhouse to search for [Chang]. We bumped into each other accidentally in a hallway inside the house. To my astonishment, he simply identified himself by saying, `I am Chang Hsi-ming. I think my arms are broken. Help me,'" Tang said.
According to Hou, Chang and Lin moved into the townhouse two days ago, and none of the neighbors knew who they are.
As of press time yesterday, the police said that they had discovered two rifles, two pistols and several rounds of ammunition, as well as hand grenades. The exact amount of ammunition and number of grenades has not yet been released.
Chang and his gangsters began to kidnap for a living in 1995.
He is a former bodyguard of the gangster Chan Lung-lan (詹), known as "the Pangolin" for ability to escape from custody, who is now serving jail time for his involvement in more than 10 cases of robbery, drug smuggling, murder and kidnapping. Chan was arrested by Chinese police and extradited to Taiwan for trial on April 2, 2002.
Chang and his gang members were involved in at least 10 kidnapping cases. However, two recent cases made front-page news across Taiwan and made capturing Chang a priority for the police.
On July 2 last year, Chang and his gang allegedly kidnapped Hohsin Bus Co owner Yang Chin-yuan's (元) second-oldest son, and held him for a ransom of NT$36 million.
Hohsin is one of the nation's biggest bus companies. Police have refused to reveal the full name of Yang's son.
The victim was released after Chang and his members were paid the ransom. Yang's son told police that Chang and his fellow kidnappers had not harmed him.
Then, on March 23 this year, Chang and his fellow outlaws kidnapped Taichung businessman Yu Kuo-chu (于柱) and asked for a ransom of NT$500 million. Yu was also released after his family paid the ransom.
Target
Local Chinese-language news-papers reported that Yu made roughly NT$10 billion last year from an international sports gambling and casino Web site -- which is illegal in Taiwan -- and police believe the widespread media coverage of Yu's fortune was the reason that Chang and his members targeted the gambling tycoon.
Since Chang was taken alive, he will almost certainly face trial in the near future.
The Criminal Code allows for the death penalty, a life sentence or more than seven years in prison for kidnappers. However, it is unlikely that Chang and his fellow crime-ring members will be sentenced to death, as they are not known to have killed any of their victims. Also, they always released their victims once they received the ransom.
‘GOOD SIGN’:
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2005 | ['(Taipei Times)', '(Channel News Asia)'] |
Mehbooba Mufti, leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, becomes Jammu and Kashmir's first female Chief Minister. | Mehbooba Mufti of People’s Democractic party takes oath of office, ending stalemate over formation of new state government
Last modified on Thu 15 Oct 2020 14.29 BST
Mehbooba Mufti, the leader of the pro-India Peoples’ Democratic party, has become the first female chief minister of India-controlled Kashmir.
Mufti took took the oath of office on Monday after the death of her father, ending the deadlock over the formation of a new state government.
The chief minister’s post fell vacant when Mufti’s father, the PDP founder Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, died in January. However, Mufti was reluctant to continue her party’s coalition with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party without an assurance from its leaders that they would take “confidence building” steps to improve the restive Himalayan region.
Mufti, 56, held a meeting with the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, last month but details of her agreement with the BJP remain unclear. The PDP’s coalition with the BJP in Kashmir followed prolonged negotiations, as no single party won the majority needed to form a government in the state during elections in 2014. The alliance marked the first time the rightwing BJP held a leadership position in the Muslim-majority region also claimed by Pakistan. The PDP emerged as the largest single party with 28 of the regional legislature’s 87 seats; the BJP won 25 seats – all in Hindu-dominated districts. The two parties hold diametrically opposite views on several issues, including a law that protects Indian military personnel from criminal prosecution in the violence-racked Himalayan region. The PDP wants the law scrapped, which the BJP opposes. The BJP also opposes Kashmir’s special constitutional status, which allows the region to make its own laws, while regional parties including the PDP defend it.
Rebels have been fighting against Indian rule in the state since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the uprising and a subsequent Indian military crackdown. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | April 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Suspected militants kill at least four civilians in a series of grenade attacks in Indianadministered Kashmir. A fifth civilian dies after police opens fire on the suspected militants. At least 17 others are injured. | At least 17 others were injured in the attacks in the state's summer capital, Srinagar, the authorities said.
More than 60,000 people have been killed since 1989, when an armed separatist insurgency began in Indian-administered Kashmir.
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Kashmir dispute
Police say two civilians, including a girl, were killed when militants attacked a police post located on a busy street near the city's Dal lake, a major tourist attraction.
"After a deafening explosion I could only see people shouting for help and others were running for cover," Mohammad Ramzan, one of the victims, is quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency. "I was bleeding and police took me to the hospital," he added.
Another civilian died when police opened fire on the militants.
A second grenade attack took place when a truck carrying Indian paramilitary soldiers was passing by in another part of the city.
Two civilians, one of them a woman, died in that attack which also injured four people, including two soldiers, officials said. There were at least two other grenade attacks in other parts of the city, causing some injuries, reports say.
All the blasts took place within the space of an hour, creating panic, the BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says.
Violence has decreased in Indian-administered Kashmir following a peace process between India and Pakistan which began in 2004.
Both countries lay claim to Muslim majority Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two wars over the region since 1947. | Armed Conflict | April 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
Attacks by rebels in Yemen are reported despite a ceasefire. | Fighting in Yemen is reported to be continuing despite a conditional ceasefire called by the government in its conflict with northern Shia rebels.
The government had called the ceasefire to coincide with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The UN has appealed to both sides to allow humanitarian corridors to be opened so that aid can be delivered to those displaced by the fighting. About 150,000 people have been displaced in the five-year conflict. On Saturday, statements from both the military and the rebels accused the other side of continuing attacks in spite of the ceasefire. The combat area has been cut off from journalists, and correspondents say it has been hard to verify conflicting reports from both sides. Air strike
It is the second recent ceasefire that appears to have quickly collapsed. The government had proposed that it begin late on Friday and run during Eid, the three-day holiday that starts on Sunday and marks the end of Ramadan. The government's five conditions included removing road blocks, the withdrawal of rebel forces, the release of detained military personnel, and abiding by the constitution and Yemeni law in general. But the rebels have asked that the ceasefire be unconditional. The BBC's Paul Wood reports from Yemen that people at a camp for the displaced said rebels had been steadily winning territory from the army. International concern about the conflict has intensified after witnesses said that more than 80 people were killed in a government air raid on a camp for displaced people on Wednesday. The rebels, known as Houthis, complain of discrimination. They say they want greater autonomy and a greater role for their version of Shia Islam. Both sides see unwelcome influences from abroad, with government accusing rebels of having Iranian backing and being accused itself of being influenced by Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni government is also battling secessionists in the south and has been criticised by the US for its failure to tackle al-Qaeda militants in the east and pirates off the coast. | Armed Conflict | September 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(Saba)', '(BBC)'] |
President Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigns following ten days of unrest and protests in response to the parliamentary election. | BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov resigned on Thursday, leaving power in the hands of a nationalist rival whose supporters freed him from jail last week.
The swift transition appears to put an end to more than a week of turmoil and unrest that followed a disputed election.
Sadyr Japarov, 51, who was named prime minister this week, told cheering supporters that he had taken on the powers of the presidency, following the resignation of Jeenbekov and of the parliament speaker, who would otherwise have been next in line.
“Today, (speaker Kanatbek) Isayev signed a resignation letter. All presidential powers have fully passed to me today,” Japarov said.
Hours earlier, Jeenbekov became the third president of the small Central Asian nation since 2005 to be toppled in a popular uprising. In a statement, he said he was resigning to prevent violence, which he said would have been inevitable if protesters carried out a threat to march on his compound.
“I do not want to go down in Kyrgyzstan’s history as a president who shed blood and shot at his own citizens.”
Kyrgyzstan’s constitution requires a new election for president within three months. The rules appear to bar Japarov, as interim president, from standing again.
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Kyrgyzstan has been in turmoil since an Oct. 4 parliamentary vote, which the opposition rejected after Jeenbekov’s allies were declared the winners.
Since the election, opposition supporters have taken to the streets and seized government buildings, prompting the authorities to annul the vote.
Japarov who was serving a sentence for attempting to kidnap another politician during unrest in 2013, was sprung from prison by his supporters last week. A judge then threw out his conviction, and parliamentary factions picked him to be premier.
Jeenbekov announced last week that he planned to resign, but later said he would stay in office until a new election was held. Japarov rejected the delay and pressed him to resign immediately.
“The president couldn’t hold out. He’s very weak. No spirit,” Dastan Bekeshev, a lawmaker who supports neither Jeenbekov nor Japarov, told Reuters. “It’s not clear what happens next, nobody can tell what is going to happen.”
Kyrgyzstan hosts both a Russian military base and a large Canadian-owned gold mine. Moscow, which considers the former Soviet space its sphere of influence, had said it would be responsible for ensuring stability.
Russia said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken by phone to his Kyrgyz counterpart, Ruslan Kazakbayev, and promised to assist “legitimate authorities” to stabilise the situation.
Lavrov’s call could be seen as recognition of the legitimacy of Japarov, who named Kazakbayev to the post this week.
Felix Kulov, a former prime minister who met with Jeenbekov before his resignation, said on Facebook the president had said nothing about planning to quit.
“One thing is clear: some forces - I am sure sooner or later we will find out which ones - decided to seize power by force and made the president choose between resignation or an all-out war,” Kulov said.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Pro-Donald Trump protests over the 2020 United States presidential election results are held in Washington, D.C. Participants included members of the far-right group Proud Boys. During the demonstrations, four people are stabbed, one is shot, and 33 others are arrested, six for assaulting police officers. | The pro-Trump protest that took over Washington on Saturday turned violent at night as members of groups that refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden won the election started roaming the streets and there were multiple faceoffs with counterprotesters. At least four people were stabbed near Harry’s Bar, which had become popular among members of the Proud Boys, the far-right male-chauvinist group. The victims were transported to the hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries. It wasn’t clear who the attackers were and whether the victims were affiliated with any political group although there are reports that at least one of the people stabbed was a Proud Boy member. Two police officers with non-life-threatening injuries and two other people with minor injuries were also hospitalized. At least 23 people were arrested throughout the day, including six for assaulting police officers.
multiple fights break out between #antifa and the Proud Boys as the two groups meet. Cops try to intervene as pepper spray is shot into the crowd. #BlackLivesMatter #MarchForTrump pic.twitter.com/5gykrpzQcN
At least one proud boy stabbed after random lone protester fights with multiple proud boys. This protester was the only one around in a mob of a few hundred pb’s and fought with one prior to this video starting and him brandishing a knife pic.twitter.com/OeK3Zwp9cv
Pro-Trump protsters gathered in several state capitals across the country and some of those also turned violent. In Olympia, Washington one person was shot, three were arrested and police declared a riot. Videos posted on social media appear to show the moment of the shot and the person who fired the shot and later put on a red hat.
Shots fired by one proud boy, counterprotestor hit and on the ground now. #OlympiaProtest pic.twitter.com/VYDvymPXz8
This protester just shot a counter-protester as Antifa counter-protesters were walking protesters out to the parking lot. #Washington #portland #protest #olympia pic.twitter.com/gtThORFJan
In Washington, D.C., there were small clashes between pro-Trump groups and counterprotesters throughout the day but things started to get more intense at night as officers struggled to keep the two sides apart. The Proud Boys made their presence felt in downtown Washington, marching like soldiers as they seemed to get increasingly angry and violent as the night wore on. Sometimes it appeared protesters wanted to attack anybody who crossed their path, regardless of whether they were being violent. At several points it seemed officers were playing whack-a-mole with clashes, struggling to pull people apart only to see another fight break out elsewhere. Some smaller groups of protesters that broke off from large groups seemed “intent on conflict,” D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said.
*CW: graphic violence*#ProudBoys ruthlessly assault a non-violent couple tonight in DC. #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/56SVUwogHQ
Seeing some ugly, violent scenes tonight in downtown DC. Brawls, beatings, harassment of anyone perceived by Proud Boys as “antifa.” Here’s one that just happened near Thomas Circle. Two young Black men were the targets. No police here, though they were on other streets. pic.twitter.com/xjlqSxlryE | Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2020 | ['(CNN)', '(Slate)'] |
Christian Dior S.A. fires fashion designer John Galliano following a series of anti–semitic remarks. , | PARIS — This time, John Galliano, long a top fashion-world provocateur on and off the runway, went too far.
The storied French label Christian Dior said Tuesday it was firing the zany British bad boy after a video showing him spouting "I love Hitler" in a drunken rant went viral online — sending shock waves through the start of Paris Fashion Week.
The ouster followed a barrage of accusations and revelations about Galliano's outbursts that spelled major career trouble for the talented and moneymaking couturier.
The allegations of bigotry had put Dior, which battles crosstown rival Chanel for the title of world's top fashion house, in the hot seat: Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, the new advertising face of the Miss Dior Cherie perfume line, who is Jewish, expressed fury over the remarks.
Galliano's sacking marked the latest bout of scandal to shake the rarified fashion world, including last year's suicide of Alexander McQueen, another celebrated British designer, and supermodel Kate Moss' brief stint in the industry wilderness after photos of her snorting cocaine went public in 2005.
"Knowing John's proclivity for provocation on the runway and in life, to hear such accusations wasn't surprising," said Dana Thomas, a fashion guru and author of "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster," an expose of the luxury industry.
"But the videos that went viral yesterday were too damning to deny," she said. "I'm sure (Dior CEO Sidney) Toledano was deeply hurt because he's Jewish."
"It's an insolence that's unforgivable," she added.
'I love Hitler'
Fashionistas almost uniformly said Dior would pull through the controversy, and some even suggested the episode gave it a chance to clean its slate after Galliano's 15-year rein as its mastermind of creation.
The 50-year-old designer's tailspin began after a couple accused him of hurling anti-Semitic insults at them Thursday at La Perle, a trendy eatery in Paris' Marais district — a hip neighborhood known for its sizable gay and Jewish populations.
As word got out that police were investigating, another woman came forward Saturday accusing Galliano of similar anti-Semitic insults in October at the same brasserie.
An apparent smoking gun emerged Monday when the British daily The Sun posted a video on its website showing Galliano, his speech slurred, appearing to taunt two women diners.
At one point, a woman's voice asks Galliano, "Are you blond, with blue eyes?"
Galliano replied: "No, but I love Hitler, and people like you would be dead today. Your mothers, your forefathers, would be ... gassed and ... dead."
Which celebrity couples make love and fashion look easy? Take a look at Hollywood's hottest duos.
Making anti-Semitic remarks can bring up to six months in prison in France, and Galliano appeared in a Paris police station Monday to face the accusations against him.
In what some hailed as an appropriate and quick response, Christian Dior SA said Tuesday it had launched termination proceedings for Galliano and decried "the particularly odious nature of the behavior and words" in the video.
Galliano's lawyer did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
'Extremely sad'
News of Galliano's firing hit Tuesday's start of Paris' nine-day-long ready-to-wear marathon like a tidal wave, with journalists, editors and stylists reading out Dior's statement on a shuttle bus between shows.
Some murmured that Dior had long been looking to part with Galliano, and this was a way out. Others feared that it might bring his brilliant career to a tragic finish — and possibly overshadow his legacy.
Dior said it still planned to go ahead with its Galliano-designed fall-winter 2011-12 collection on Friday as part of Paris fashion week.
Trying to limit the fallout, press officers at the designer's signature label, John Galliano, spent much of the day checking with journalists, critics, stylists and editors to make sure they would be attending its women's wear show, scheduled for Sunday.
Questions were bound to arise about whether Galliano's fame and fawning fans had gone to his head, or whether he had succumbed to the pressures of the high-octane, big-payoff industry.
"The situation is extremely sad. Creative people like John — great artists, great writers — often wrestle with the devil in the form of the bottle or drugs," Joanna Coles, editor-in-chief of American Marie Claire, said. After seeing the video, she said, "You were left thinking, 'What on earth was he thinking?'"
"The pressure is probably less when you start somewhere than when you've been there for some time and have to continue to produce at such a high level," she said. "We're very curious to see who replaces John."
The guessing-game got going in earnest from the moment it became clear Galliano was out.
While some fashion insiders put their money on Alber Elbaz, who has transformed Lanvin from a musty old label into one of Paris' hottest, others said Givenchy's Riccardo Tischi was their man.
Since his appointment in 1996, Galliano, who was born in Gibraltar and grew up in London, made an indelible mark on the storied House of Dior. Season after season, he reinterpreted the iconic New Look pieces pioneered by founder Christian Dior, managing to make the designs first fielded after World War II fresh and youthful.
Galliano's glorious past collections channeled inspiration like ancient Egypt — with models in Nefertiti eye makeup and King Tut beards — as well as Masai tribespeople accessorized with rows of beaded necklaces and crop-brandishing equestrians of the 19th century.
Always theatrical and sometimes outrageous, Galliano's star-studded runway shows are big-budget blockbusters and among the most-anticipated displays on the Paris calendar.
For years, Galliano has made a spectacle of himself at the end of his shows, prancing out in a rooster-style strut, arms akimbo, his chin up and head cocked back. Backstage he holds court for reporters' questions and fan emulation while seated on a high-backed chair resembling a throne.
'A bold move'
Galliano's days holding court at Dior are over.
The last straw appeared to be a statement by Portman, who won an Oscar on Sunday for "Black Swan," expressing shock and disgust at the video. "As an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way," she said.
It’s the Giggle Heard ’Round the World — a video of 8-month-old Micah McArthur laughing as his dad rips up a job rejection letter has drawn 5.5 million views on YouTube. “He just went crazy,” Micah’s dad said Friday. “It really lifted my spirits.”
Marcellous Jones, editor-in-chief of thefashioninsider.com magazine, said he was "really surprised that Dior actually had the conviction to fire John Galliano because he makes them a lot of money."
"I think we were all expecting them to send him to rehab and so they are actually firing him. It's a bold move," he said. "It marks a dramatic end to one of the greatest eras in the history of the house of Dior in terms of its international reputation."
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, praised Dior's move in a statement saying Galliano's words had caused pain around the world — notably among Holocaust survivors and their relatives.
"The fact that someone is brilliant in a certain field does not immunize him from facing the consequences of words that are hateful, bigoted or prejudiced," Foxman said. "Galliano is a public figure with a high profile, but he is apparently also a serial bigot."
Outside Dior's flagship store on ritzy Avenue Montaigne in Paris, fashion aficionados expressed surprise and anger.
"I'm shocked because the name of Dior has always been related to John Galliano — he's creative, he's a big designer, and everybody is waiting for his fashion show every season," said Shams, a Kuwaiti singer. "I can't believe it." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2011 | ['(AP via MSNBC)', '(Minneapolis St–Paul Tribune)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
Australian cardinal George Pell is convicted of sexually assaulting two 13-year-old choirboys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral. The verdict has been suppressed by a gag order until now. He is the Catholic Church's most senior official to be convicted of a sexual crime in history. | EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction. It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict. Cardinal George Pell has been found guilty and is set to be jailed for child sexual abuse in the most sensational verdict since the Catholic Church became engulfed in worldwide abuse scandals.
Pell, who was Vatican treasurer, close to the Pope and the most senior Catholic figure in the world to be charged by police with child sex offences, has been found guilty of orally raping one choirboy and molesting another in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral 22 years ago.
Cardinal George Pell leaving the County Court on Tuesday, where was found guilty of historic child sex offences.Credit:Justin McManus
Australian media has been unable to report the guilty verdict until now, due to a suppression order.
A second trial, over allegations Pell abused boys in a swimming pool in Ballarat in the 1970s, has now been abandoned due to lack of admissable evidence and the suppression order lifted.
The cardinal was Archbishop of Melbourne when he abused the two 13-year-old boys and was managing the church’s response to widespread child abuse by priests through the “Melbourne Response”, which he designed.
He was found guilty in a retrial last December, with the verdict sending shockwaves through the Vatican and around the world. A jury in an earlier trial was discharged, in September, when it was unable to reach a verdict. His legal team will appeal against the conviction.
County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd has now revoked the suppression order that prevented media reporting the results of the trial and retrial.
Pell emerged from the court building about 11.30am to a huge media pack. Flanked by police officers, he was jeered and abused by some people outside.
"You're an absolute animal," one man shouted at him as police and protective services officers ushered the cardinal to a waiting car.
"Burn in hell, Pell. Burn in hell, Pell," the man chanted.
Pell's victim released a statement via his lawyer, thanking his family for their support and the wider public for their interest in the case. He said the process had been stressful and was not over yet.
"Like many survivors I have experienced shame, loneliness, depression and struggle. Like many survivors it has taken me years to understand the impact upon my life," the man said.
"At some point we realise that we trusted someone we should have feared and we fear those genuine relationships that we should trust."
The man has requested privacy.
Read the victim's full statement here
"Cardinal George Pell has always maintained his innocence and continues to do so," Pell's lawyer Paul Galbally said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Although originally the Cardinal faced allegations from a number of complainants, all charges except for those the subject of the appeal have now been either withdrawn, discharged or discontinued. He will not be commenting in the meantime."
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Pell was stripped of his position as the Vatican’s chief financial officer and expelled from Pope Francis’ inner circle of trusted cardinals known as the Group of Nine, or C-9, shortly after the verdict, but due to the suppression order the world’s media was forced to pretend Pell, 77, stepped down due to his age.
On December 11, when Pell was found guilty of five charges including sexual penetration of a child under 16 – a charge his lawyer, Robert Richter, QC, likened to "oral rape" – the cardinal was granted bail and allowed to travel to Sydney to have knee surgery before he was due to face another trial on more sex abuse charges.
Pell will be the highest-ranking Catholic figure in the world to be jailed for child sex abuse.
Each of the five charges of which Pell has been found guilty carries a 10-year maximum prison term.
Judge Peter Kidd has said Pell will be remanded in custody after a pre-sentence hearing on Wednesday. He is likely to be sentenced in the fortnight after that hearing.
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom on the afternoon of December 11 when a jury found Pell guilty of one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four of committing an indecent act with, or in the presence of, a child under 16.
The cardinal pursed his lips and stared at the floor, frowning, as he sat in the dock while the guilty verdicts were read out.
Pell’s victims were two 13-year-old St Kevin's College students who were choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral when they were assaulted in December 1996 and February 1997. Both incidents took place after Sunday mass and while Pell was robed.
In the first incident, the choirboys broke away from a procession outside the cathedral and snuck back into the sacristy – a room where priests dress for mass – and were swigging sacramental wine when Pell walked in.
Pell, dressed in his Archbishop’s robes, told the boys they were in trouble and then exposed himself.
He pushed one of the boys close to his penis, before turning to the second boy and putting his penis in the boy’s mouth.
Pell then masturbated as he fondled the second boy’s genitals.
In 1997, Pell pushed one of the boys against a wall in a cathedral hallway and squeezed the boy's genitals.
The second boy, who is now in his 30s, reported the allegations to police in 2015. He gave evidence across three days, and at one point said the offending was "something I've carried for the whole of my life".
The other victim died several years ago from a heroin overdose. He never reported the abuse and denied anything happened when he was asked by his mother.
Yet the evidence of the second victim was "powerful and persuasive" and withstood scrutiny under hours of cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson, SC, said.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury he was in shock after the abuse and didn't report it for years, partly out of fear he wouldn’t be believed.
"What would I do if I went forward and said such a thing about an archbishop?” he said.
He also feared his school scholarship would be jeopardised if he reported the offending.
"If I mentioned anything like that to anyone it would be a pretty big deal," he said.
"It would be something that I thought perhaps would be dismissed or not acknowledged and I knew that a scholarship [was] something that could be given and taken away, even at that age, and I didn't want to lose that. It meant so much to me."
So, he said, he put the events into one of the “dark corners or recesses” of his brain.
Mr Richter, who has previously accused Victoria Police of running a "get Pell operation", told the jury the allegations were a “far-fetched fantasy”.
It would have been impossible for two choirboys to break away from the procession unnoticed and enter the priests' sacristy, Mr Richter said.
Robert Richter, QC, arrives at Melbourne Magistrates Court with George Pell in July 2017.Credit:Joe Armao
He argued Pell was never left alone by church officials while robed as the Archbishop after mass.
"Only a madman would attempt to rape boys in the priests’ sacristy immediately after Sunday solemn mass," Mr Richter said during the retrial.
Pell had just launched the controversial "Melbourne Response" to child sexual abuse when he assaulted the two boys in 1996.
It later emerged that victims who sought compensation through the Melbourne Response received far smaller payouts, capped at $50,000, than they would have if they had gone through the courts. The response was criticised for doing more to protect the church and minimise its financial costs than helping victims.
The suppressed verdict and the pending appeal
Pell was due to face another trial, charged with molesting boys in a Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s while he was a priest in his Victorian hometown.
But on Tuesday, prosecutor Fran Dalziel, SC, told the court the trial involving the swimmers would no longer go ahead because there was not enough admissable evidence to proceed. That paved the way for Judge Kidd to revoke the suppression order.
Pell's lawyers last week lodged an appeal with the Court of Appeal, and Mr Richter said on Tuesday he would challenge the verdict on the grounds it was unreasonable and contrary to the evidence the jury heard.
"This is not a frivolous appeal. There are substantial reasons to believe the verdict may be set aside for one reason or another," he said.
The Court of Appeal has the power to quash a conviction and order a retrial.
Mr Richter is likely to request that the court grant Pell bail while reviewing the case, but he conceded a jail term was inevitable if the conviction ultimately stood.
Media lawyers urged Judge Kidd to revoke the order immediately given the high public interest in the case. Ms Dalziel supported the media in their application.
After an adjournment, Mr Richter announced he was withdrawing his opposition to the suppression order being revoked, which allowed Judge Kidd to grant media permission to report the story.
In revoking the suppression order, Judge Kidd said there was a "very strong" ground for the public to be informed of Pell's guilt and his eventual sentence given the high public interest in the case.
Pell was found guilty about three months after a jury in the earlier trial was unable to reach a verdict on the same charges and was discharged, which forced a retrial.
The revelations about Pell come in the same month that the Catholic church defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, once the Archbishop of Washington DC, after he was found guilty of sex crimes.
Last week the church held a four-day summit at the Vatican on how best to tackle paedophilia within the clergy.
Pell was previously accused of sexually assaulting an altar boy, then 12, at a camp at Phillip Island in 1961. In 2002 a retired Supreme Court judge, hired by the church to investigate, found he was not satisfied the complaint was ever established.
In recent years, another man also reported to media that he saw Pell expose himself to three boys at the Torquay life saving club in 1986 or 1987. Pell denied both allegations.
The jury of eight men and four women in the retrial found Pell guilty after deliberating for 3½ days.
Pell stayed in the dock for some time once the verdict was delivered. He held hands with Mr Richter for a moment and shook the hands of his other supporters, including former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, who was regularly in court during the retrial. Mr Fischer is also a former Australian ambassador to the Holy See.
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or beyondblue 1300 224 636.
Adam Cooper joined The Age in 2011 after a decade with AAP. Email or tweet Adam with your news tips. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2019 | ['(The Age)', '(The Age2)'] |
Lebanon says it will default on a eurobond repayment and pursue restructuring its debt. The country has never before defaulted. Lebanon's government debt is about 170% of its yearly gross domestic product. | Country was due to repay a $1.2bn Eurobond this month but will seek to restructure its debts
Last modified on Sat 7 Mar 2020 19.12 GMT
Lebanon said on Saturday it would default on its Eurobond debt for the first time and seek out restructuring agreements amid a spiralling financial crisis that has affected foreign currency reserves.
The country, hit by a severe liquidity crunch and months of anti-government protests, was due to repay a $1.2bn (£920m) Eurobond on 9 March, while another $700m matures in April and a further $600m in June.
But the prime minister, Hassan Diab, said that foreign currency reserves have fallen to “a worrying and dangerous level which pushes the Lebanese government to suspend payment of the 9 March Eurobond maturity because of a need for these funds.”
“The Lebanese state will seek to restructure its debts, in a manner consistent with the national interest, by entering into fair negotiations ... with all creditors,” he said in a live address.
Lebanon’s debt burden, long among the largest in the world, is now equivalent to nearly 170% of its gross domestic product.
Despite a series of crises, the country has never before defaulted, but in recent months it has grappled with its worst economic turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Foreign currency inflows have slowed, Lebanon’s pound has plunged in value and banks have imposed tough restrictions on dollar withdrawals and transfers.
Local banks, which own a chunk of the Eurobonds maturing on 9 March, had argued against a default, saying it would pile added pressure on a cash-strapped banking sector and compromise Lebanon’s ties with foreign creditors.
According to Marwan Barakat, head of research at Bank Audi, Lebanese banks owned $12.7bn of the country’s outstanding $30bn Eurobonds as of the end of January.
The central bank held $5.7bn and the remainder was owned by foreign creditors, he said.
According to local media reports, Lebanese banks have recently sold a chunk of their Eurobonds to foreign lenders.
Anti-government demonstrators who have remained on the streets since October have lobbied against repayment, fearing a depletion of reserves could further limit access to their savings.
“We shouldn’t have to pay the price of government shortcomings,” said Nour, a 16-year-old demonstrator, during a rally outside the central bank’s headquarters in Beirut.
Rallies were held across the country on Saturday to decry deteriorating living conditions.
Lebanon’s sovereign debt rating slid into junk territory long ago, but investor confidence has fallen further since the mass protests erupted. Credit rating agencies have warned of further downgrades in the event of a default, but economists have stressed the need to protect Lebanon’s foreign currency reserves.
Jad Chaaban, an economics professor at the American University of Beirut, blamed the political class for Lebanon’s predicament, accusing it of decades of corruption. The crisis “is the creation of a failed and criminal political class that has lied and robbed for more than 30 years,” he said on Facebook.
He called on officials to restructure the debt and introduce an economic rescue plan that would protect modest depositors.
Diab met last month with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund to discuss how to tackle the country’s spiralling economic crisis.
The premier asked the Washington-based emergency lender for advice, but has yet to ask for funds.
Barakat at Bank Audi said IMF assistance was necessary.
“Lebanon needs first and foremost an imminent debt restructuring plan within the context of a comprehensive plan for debt management,” he told AFP.
The best move would be “to have such a plan under the umbrella of the IMF”, since that would enable international financial assistance to materialise, he said.
The Lebanese pound, which has officially been pegged to the dollar since 1997, has plummeted on the parallel market, amid soaring inflation and unemployment.
The World Bank has warned of an impending recession that may see poverty rates rise drastically.
Lebanon’s foreign backers, including France, have said they are willing to offer financial assistance if the country takes serious steps towards addressing the ailing economy.
An $11bn aid package pledged at a conference dubbed CEDRE in Paris in April 2018 has not been unlocked by donors due to a lack of reform. | Financial Crisis | March 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announces the arrest of Kevin Seefried, a Delaware man who was seen carrying the Confederate flag during the storming of the United States Capitol. His son, Hunter Seefried, is also arrested. |
Two Delaware men, one of whom was seen in a viral photograph holding a Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol during last week's riot, have been arrested on federal charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
Kevin Seefried and Hunter Seefried were charged with unlawful entry into a restricted area, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and depredation of government property, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia.CBS station WDEL reports the men are father and son.
The U.S. Attorney's statement says both are alleged to have entered the Capitol through a broken window, which video footage allegedly shows Hunter Seefried punching out with a two-by-four. Kevin Seefried, whom WDEL reports is the elder Seefried, was photographed a short time later with the Confederate flag, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. According to court documents, Kevin Seefried said he brought the flag from his home in Delaware, where it is usually displayed outside.
A co-worker of Hunter Seefried's told the FBI he "bragged about being in the Capitol with his father on January 6, 2021."
The pair participated in voluntary separate interviews with the FBI on Tuesday, and Kevin Seefried told "law enforcement that he had traveled with his family from Delaware to the District of Columbia to hear President Trump speak and that he and Hunter Seefried participated in a march from the White House to the Capitol led by an individual with a bull horn," according to court documents.
WDEL reports Kevin Seefried, of Laurel, is expected to appear at a virtual court appearance Thursday. Tips to federal authorities led to his arrest, according to the station.
Federal authorities are investigating more than 170 people more than 30 of whom now face federal charges in the January 6 Capitol assault that left five dead. Hundreds more charges are expected as federal investigators comb tips, video and social media to identify and arrest suspects across the country.
Those already charged face a variety of counts including unlawful entry, disorderly conduct, theft, assault and weapons violations. A team of senior federal prosecutors are investigating more serious charges including sedition and conspiracy related to the "most heinous" acts at the Capitol, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin said Tuesday.
Clare Hymes contributed to this report.
First published on January 14, 2021 / 2:08 PM
2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Erin Donaghue reports and writes for CBSNews.com on topics including criminal justice, social justice and culture. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2021 | ['(CBS News)'] |
Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch is killed by her brother in an honour killing. | Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch has been killed by her brother in an apparent 'honour killing' in the province of Punjab, police say.
Ms Baloch, 26, recently caused controversy by posting controversial pictures of herself on social media, including one alongside a Muslim cleric.
Police say she was strangled to death.
Cases of women being killed for 'dishonouring' their family are commonplace in Pakistan. Qandeel Baloch became a household name for posting bold, sometimes raunchy, photographs, video and comments.
Ms Baloch's parents told The Express Tribune that she was strangled to death on Friday night following an argument with her brother. They said her body was not discovered until Saturday morning. Her parents have been taken into custody, the Tribune reported.
Ms Baloch had gone to Punjab from Karachi because of the threat to her security, police say. "[Her] brothers had asked her to quit modelling," family sources quoted by the Tribune said. Sources quoted by the newspaper said that Wasim was upset about her uploading controversial pictures online and had threatened her about it.
Police said he had not been arrested and was on the run.
Ms Baloch's murder was condemned by filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, whose documentary A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness won an Oscar earlier this year.
"I really feel that no woman is safe in this country, until we start making examples of people, until we start sending men who kill women to jail, unless we literally say there will be no more killing and those who dare will spend the rest of their lives behind bars," she told the AFP news agency.
Qandeel Baloch used social media to find fame and the reactions there showed the feelings she inspired, from admiration to disgust. Some called her death "good news" and even praised her suspected killer. Others said it was wrong to condone her murder, even if she was flawed. Some showed outright support. Qandeel Baloch has been dubbed Pakistan's Kim Kardashian. There are comparisons: the provocative selfies, the pursuit of celebrity, the controversial rise to notoriety. But in Pakistan, women, especially poor ones, still lack basic rights, from schooling to choosing a husband and violence against them is rife. The country struggles with sexuality and especially with "immodest" women. The fact that many of Qandeel's videos went viral suggests a titillating fascination with confident female sexuality - along with fear of its power and of her assertion of independence. However she lived her life, tweeted one, it was her life.
Ms Baloch rose to fame in Pakistan in 2014 when a video of her pouting at the camera and asking "How em looking?" went viral.
In a recent interview she was bitterly critical of Pakistan's patriarchal society and described herself as a leading exponent of girl power.
While many younger people saw her as a cultural icon and hailed her liberal views, she was also subjected to frequent misogynist abuse online.
Her request for better security was ignored by the government, Dawn reported, despite pleas made three weeks ago to the interior minister and other senior officials.
Hundreds of women are murdered every year in Pakistan in so-called honour killing cases. Pakistan's social media celebrity
Pakistan honour killings 'on the rise'
Why 'honour' killing call may fall on deaf ears
Woman who spurned suitor burnt to death
Pakistan elders 'ordered girl's death'
Daughter 'burnt to death by mother'
Four condemned for Pakistan murder
Pakistani filmmaker on Oscar hopes
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
In a rare move, the UN condemns the overthrowing of Aung San Suu Kyi and calls for an arms embargo.
| Famous Person - Death | July 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Mortar fire kills eleven children at a school in Damascus. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 11 children were killed in Damascus when mortars fell on a school in an eastern district of the Syrian capital, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.
The attack occurred in Qaboun, a district in the east of the city, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The death toll was expected to rise because a number of those wounded were in critical condition, it said.
Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Dominic Evans | Armed Conflict | November 2014 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Foreign Ministry of China confirms that United Kingdom consulate in Hong Kong employee Simon Cheng, who was reported missing, is administratively detained for 15 days by Shenzhen police. | Hong Kong(CNN) An employee of the British consulate in Hong Kong who has been missing for almost two weeks has been detained in mainland China, the country's foreign ministry confirmed Wednesday. Simon Cheng, a 28-year-old who works as a trade and investment officer for the British Consulate General Hong Kong, has been put in administrative detention for 15 days, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday. "I want to be clear: This employee is a Hong Kong citizen, not a UK citizen. So he is Chinese and this is a purely internal Chinese affair," Geng said. Cheng was detained by the Shenzhen police for violating China's Security Administration Punishment Law, which covers a range of offenses deemed too minor to be crimes. The law is often used as a preliminary measure that allows police to investigate a suspect before deciding whether to prosecute.
According to Cheng's girlfriend Annie Li, Cheng traveled from Hong Kong to the border city of Shenzhen on the morning of August 8 in his capacity as a trade officer. Cheng is employed by the consulate's Scottish Development International investment agency, which promotes trade between Scotland and other countries, and is often required to go to mainland China for work. Cheng messaged Li on the night of August 8, just before he was about to go cross the border into Hong Kong, Li told CNN. She has not heard from him since.
"Simon has signed a contract with the British government," she told CNN. "If he hadn't been given that assignment, he wouldn't have needed to go to Shenzhen. Britain must take the responsibility in rescuing Simon."
In a statement sent to CNN Wednesday, a spokesperson for the British Consulate-General in Hong Kong said legal assistance was available for employees arrested for reasons related to their employment. "However, we need to establish the facts before we can decide what action is appropriate," the spokesperson said. "That's why we are urgently seeking further information from the Chinese authorities about why Simon Cheng was detained. We remain in close contact with his family."
In a statement Tuesday, the British Consulate-General said it was "extremely concerned" by reports that a member of its team had been detained returning to Hong Kong.
On August 8, Cheng messaged Li to say he was on the high-speed train. He later messaged to say he was about to pass through the border, according to screenshots seen by CNN. If Cheng was on the high-speed train between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the only immigration checkpoint is in the West Kowloon station. In parts of the station, Chinese laws apply despite it being in Hong Kong, which operates under a separate legal system from the mainland.
Li said Cheng is a Hong Kong permanent resident who was traveling on his mainland travel permit. She said he also has a British National Overseas (BNO) passport, a special document for people from Hong Kong, a former British colony, which entitles them to consular assistance from the UK but is not equivalent to UK citizenship.
China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national, meaning it does not recognize BNO passports. Cheng's disappearance comes as Hong Kong approaches its 12th weekend of mass pro-democracy protests. Travelers told CNN that security at the border between Hong Kong and China had increased since the demonstrations began in June. A Hong Kong man who recently crossed back to the city from China told CNN that border police appeared to be picking people at random to be subjected to extra searches. The man -- who asked not to be named -- said police scrolled through the photos on his phone.
On Wednesday, around a dozen people protested outside the UK consulate in Hong Kong, expressing concern over Cheng's detention and asking the UK to do more to assist him. "Today could be Simon, tomorrow could be me," said a 29-year-old at the protest.
In a statement posted online Wednesday morning, Cheng's family reiterated that Cheng had been in Shenzhen on a "business trip."
On August 9, the family contacted Hong Kong Police and the Immigration Department, and were told they could travel to mainland China themselves to report the missing person case to authorities there, the statement said. On August 10, the Immigration Department told the family Cheng had been "administratively detained," but that they had no information on why, where, and for how long he would be detained.
The family said they had not received any notice of administrative detention, which is supposed to be sent out within 24 hours of a person's detention. "We simply have never received any documentation confirming that Simon has been formally detained by the authorities," the statement said. "We feel very helpless, and are worried sick about Simon," the family said. "We hope that Simon can return to Hong Kong as soon as possible."
In the statement, the family said that a lawyer representing them had gone to three detention centers in Shenzhen, but was unable to find Cheng. Police stations in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and the Guangzhou Railway Public Security Bureau, also had no information on his whereabouts. Authorities in both Hong Kong and mainland China -- which operates under a separate legal system from Hong Kong -- have released few details of the case. On Tuesday, Hong Kong Police Senior Superintendent Kong Wing-cheung confirmed that they had received a missing person report on August 9. The Hong Kong Immigration Department also confirmed it had received a request for assistance from Cheng's family and was providing them with advice and assistance. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2019 | ['(CNN)'] |
Anti-Japan protesters in China ransack Japanese businesses; set fire to a Panasonic plant in Qingdao. | BEIJING -- Anti-Japan protests spread to dozens more Chinese cities Sunday, as thousands of demonstrators agitated by the Japanese government’s plan to buy several uninhabited islands near Taiwan marched in front of diplomatic compounds, attacked Japanese businesses and burned Japanese flags.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, demonstrators stormed into the first two floors of a complex that houses the Japanese consulate, breaking windows in a hotel and smashing a vehicle. In nearby Shenzhen, police fired tear gas and used a water cannon to disperse a large crowd of marchers. Japanese factories, grocery shops, restaurants and car dealerships were reported damaged in a number of cities, including Qingdao. In Beijing, more than 1,000 marchers waving flags and carrying banners gathered for a second straight day in front of the Japanese Embassy, hurling water bottles at the building and chanting slogans such as “Knock down the little Japanese,” “Long live the People’s Republic of China” and “China will prevail.”
A number of the marchers, most of whom were young men, carried pictures of Mao Zedong. Others wore shirts urging the boycott of Japanese products. Hundreds of Chinese police and security officers, some in black SWAT uniforms and others in camouflage gear and holding riot shields, lined the protest route and kept marchers circulating back and forth past the embassy building as a helicopter flew overhead. Scores of neighborhood watch volunteers, with red armbands pinned to their shirtsleeves, also patrolled the area.
On a nearby commercial street, Japanese restaurants were shuttered, with some hiding their signs behind tarps. Others hung Chinese flags and banners in front of their stores.
In front of the Kurazen sushi restaurant, which was closed and adorned with a large red banner reading “The Diaoyu islands are China’s,” dozens of onlookers snapped photos. A few doors down, neighborhood watch members used a ladder to cover up the placard of a Japanese BBQ restaurant called Ours.
“The Diaoyu islands themselves are not so important, but I do think Japan is trying to bully China,” said an 18-year-old university student surnamed Wen who came to watch the protest but not participate. “Still, I feel bad about these restaurants because it is Chinese people who work in them.”
Tensions have been rising since Japan’s government announced a plan last week to purchase what it calls the Senkaku islands from the Japanese family that has controlled them for decades. China has protested the move at the United Nations and sent vessels to the area in an expression of force. Taiwan, which also claims the islands, has also sent ships to nearby waters.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, speaking on a talk show on national broadcaster NHK on Sunday, called on China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens and businesses in China. Japan’s consulate in Shanghai has reported that a number of Japanese citizens have been harassed in recent days, including one who had a bowl of hot noodles with soup thrown at him and another who was kicked on the street. The consulate urged citizens to not take taxis alone and to not speak loudly in Japanese while in public.
The protests are expected to continue at least through Tuesday, when China will mark the anniversary of an incident in 1931 that began Japan's 14-year occupation of the mainland.
Large-scale protests of any kind are rare in China. Although the government basks in such expressions of nationalism, it strives to ensure such gatherings do not morph into larger outpourings of discontent. In a sign that the protests may be pushing officials toward the edge of their comfort zone, an opinion piece carried by the state-run New China news agency on Sunday counseled that “wisdom is needed in the expression of patriotism” and that “Chinese people should be rational and obey the law when expressing patriotic feelings, and they should abstain from ‘smashing and looting.’”
A number of protesters in Shenzhen and Guangzhou had issues beyond the disputed islands, such as corruption and high housing prices, on their minds. One photo circulated on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog service, showed a man at a demonstration wearing a shirt reading: "I'm willing to feed the corrupted officials and become a housing slave, but I will never give up on the Diaoyu islands."
On Weibo, many users expressed dismay at the destruction of Japanese businesses and property and harassment of Japanese citizens. Reports on Weibo that one of the organizers of the demonstrations in the city of Xi’an was a police officer prompted questions about how involved the government was in facilitating the gatherings. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2012 | ['(Bloomberg)', '(Reuters)', '(Kyodo News via The Japan Times)', '(Los Angeles Times)'] |
At least 20 people die in a shootout between Indian police and timber smugglers in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. | .
HYDERABAD, India (AFP) - At least 20 people died in a gun battle between the police and alleged timber smugglers in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, a local police chief said.
Deputy Inspector General M. Kantha Rao said his officers had opened fire "in self-defence" after challenging a group of over 100 suspected smugglers in a remote forest.
Our police party warned them to hand over the logs. They were accompanied by forest officials as well. But the smugglers refused to hand over the logs,” he told AFP.A local Forestry Department official told AFP separately that the loggers had attacked the police with axes, sticks and stones in two separate areas of the forest.“Ultimately in self-defence the police opened fire on the smugglers and found nine bodies in one position, and 11 bodies in another,” Mr Rao said.Mr Rao, who heads a state task force set up to combat the smuggling of sandalwood, said six or seven police officers had been wounded during the clash in Chittoor district, 480km north of the state capital Hyderabad.Rights activists in Andhra Pradesh said there had been frequent clashes between the police and loggers in Chittoor over the smuggling of sandalwood, which is highly sought after in neighbouring China.Mr V.S. Krishna, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Forum, said an earlier attack described by police as a gunbattle had turned out to be “one-sided firing” by the police.Many of the victims of such incidents were poor migrant workers from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, he said. | Armed Conflict | April 2015 | ['(AFP via Straits Times)'] |
People are evacuated from houses in Oxford due to the 2007 United Kingdom floods as the 350,000 people in Gloucestershire without running water are supplied with bottled water. | Homes were evacuated in Oxford overnight while places including Reading, Henley and Caversham are braced for similar flooding.
About 350,000 people in Gloucestershire without tap water are getting supplies, but could be cut off for up to 14 days.
The prime minister said flood-hit councils would receive £46m in aid.
Gordon Brown also told the House of Commons he would push insurance firms to make payouts.
Refused to move
The Environment Agency still has six severe flood warnings in place - three on the Severn - in Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Worcester - two on the Thames around Oxford, and one on the Ock, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
BBC weather forecasters said flood-hit areas would see heavy rain of 10mm to 15mm on Thursday.
These levels are not expected to make the flooding worse but could slow the speed at which waters recede.
Water levels in the Thames around Oxford rose throughout the night and are expected to peak later.
The Environment Agency said the river had breached its banks in Henley early on Wednesday evening and flooding was possible. It is expected waters will rise in Reading and Caversham later.
Water covered the pitch at Abingdon Town FC in Oxfordshire
Waters are also predicted to peak at Pangbourne, Purley-on-Thames and Mapledurham on Wednesday evening, with residents braced for floods.
It is predicted Windsor, Eton and Maidenhead will escape flooding while Marlow, Cookham, and Staines will see limited flooding later this week.
Responding to questions in the House of Commons Mr Brown said all councils affected by the floods would receive 100% compensation.
He said £46m had been made available by the government in the immediate future and annual spending on flood protection would rise to £800m by 2010/11. Meanwhile, the RSPCA has launched an appeal for donations, saying the rescue of pets and farm animals has already cost £300,000 and involved the biggest deployment of its staff for a generation.
'Bubbling up'
Of those evacuated in Oxford, about 30 people went to a shelter set up at Oxford United Football Club's Kassam stadium while another 250 decided to stay with family and friends.
Those who stayed in their homes told how water began flowing in at about 0300 BST.
Angela MacKeith, 61, said: "We are under 2ft of water throughout the house.
"The awful thing is that this time last year we were in the same situation after a flash flood.
"It appeared to be bubbling straight up from the water table."
The Environment Agency's Robert Runcie said it was not the Thames causing the problems in Oxford, but the tributaries flowing into it and creating the higher levels.
There had been concerns about Osney Mead substation, which supplies power to Oxford city centre, but this has now receded, according to the county council. HAVE YOUR SAY
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In Gloucestershire, water supplies have been cut off after a treatment plant flooded.
Severn Trent Water is supplying water tankers known as bowsers, while the army is delivering three million bottles of water a day from a base Cheltenham racecourse. But Gloucestershire's Chief Constable Tim Brain said there had been instances of people "behaving most selfishly", using "very large receptacles" to empty bowsers and trying to resell water at inflated prices.
"That is simply theft and it is being treated as theft," he said.
Visiting Gloucestershire on Wednesday, Mr Brown said great efforts were being made to help those without water, but added: "We've got to get the supplies stepped up."
"We will get more tankers in, we will get more bowsers in, we will get more regular filling of them, and at the same time, more bottled water will be provided." The prime minister said the loss of water supply was a "disappointment", but insisted a government review of the flood crisis and the response to it would look at whether similar problems could be avoided in future. 'War-time spirit'
Long queues formed in supermarket car parks on Wednesday as people waited to collect their daily ration of six two-litre bottles of water.
At Tesco in Quedgeley residents said the crisis had fostered a war-time spirit.
Reginald Davies, 91, who fought during the Second World War, said: "I did five days without water in Burma.
"I've seen men go mad from thirst. This is nothing. The worst thing is getting out of bed in the morning at 91 to get water."
Five brewing companies, Coors, Carlsberg, Scottish and Newcastle, Inbev and Greene King, have offered the use of 23 beer tankers to help with the delivery of drinking water.
Dr Brain said it could take seven to 14 days to restore supplies, but advised people to remain calm as there was enough water for everyone.
Severn Trent Water said on Wednesday evening that it hoped to use a temporary solution to restore water supply to 10,000 homes in Tewkesbury from Thursday.
Gloucestershire County Council's chief executive Peter Bungard said the council had received 10,000 calls for help and advice since Monday morning.
He said there were about 25,000 elderly and vulnerable adults in the county and that 1,400 portable toilets had been ordered for those most in need.
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First Great Western - services suspended between Oxford and Didcot, and Oxford and Worcester
Virgin trains - services between Oxford and Reading suspended
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Gloucestershire Police said teenager Mitchell Taylor, 19, who has not been seen since the height of the floods was still missing.
He disappeared after leaving a bar in Tewkesbury in the early hours of Saturday. It is not known if his disappearance is related to the floods. There have been calls for the government to seek money from the EU's Solidarity Fund to help cover costs arising from the floods.
Conservative MEP for the South West Neil Parish said: "There's money available to restore the infrastructure for drinking water, transport, telecommunications, health and education." The European Commission's Anthony Gooch told the BBC: "If Britain wants money from the Solidarity Fund then there's every chance it will get it. A major disaster of these proportions is exactly the sort of unfortunate event that we created this facility for."
Environment Agency floodline: 0845 988 1188
SEVERE FLOOD WARNINGS IN PLACE
| Floods | July 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Nadja Benaissa, a HIV–positive former singer in the German girl band No Angels, goes on trial for allegedly not advising sexual partners of her condition. | A singer who transformed herself from a teenage crack addict to become the star of one of Germany's most popular girl bands broke down in court as she admitted to having unprotected sex despite knowing that she was HIV-positive.
Nadja Benaissa, who rose to fame with the pop group No Angels, was charged last year with one count of grievous bodily harm for allegedly infecting her partner with HIV in 2004. She faces two further charges of attempted bodily harm for having unprotected sex with two other men who did not catch the HIV virus.
Dressed in a purple blouse with her hair in a ponytail, Ms Benaissa appeared in a court in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, yesterday for the start of a five-day trial which could see her jailed for up to 10 years if convicted.
She broke down as her lawyer, Oliver Wallasch, read out a statement in which she admitted to having unprotected sex despite knowing she was infected. "I am sorry from the bottom of my heart," the statement read. "No way did I want my partner to be infected."
The case has received widespread press interest in Germany and has caused concern among Aids campaigners who have criticised the way the 28-year-old singer has been treated by both the police and media.
Ms Benaissa, whose band has sold more than 5 million records, was arrested in Frankfurt last year just hours before she was due to perform a concert at a nightclub. She was led away in front of her fans and incarcerated for 10 days prompting criticism from HIV campaign groups who said the singer had been subjected to a public "witch hunt". Under German law, failing to disclose being HIV-positive before having unprotected sex is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The tariff can be extended to life if the person goes on to die of Aids.
Ms Benaissa, who is of Moroccan and Roma descent with German citizenship, is accused of having had sex with three men between 2000 and 2004 without informing them of her condition. The trial is taking place in a juvenile court because the first alleged offences took place when she was 17.
In the courtroom yesterday the singer came face to face with her primary accuser, a 34-year-old man who is HIV-positive. His identity has been kept secret for the trial. "We had sex between five and seven times, about three of those were unprotected," the man told the court. It was only when an aunt informed him that Ms Benaissa was HIV-positive that he went to see a doctor. "[After] a few hours he called me and said I should go to see him," he said. "It was then I knew I was positive."
In her opening statement, Ms Benaissa gave an insight into her troubled life as a teenager which led to her becoming HIV-positive.
"When I was 12 years old I had problems and fell in with the wrong circle of friends," she said. "I fell off the rails and took drugs – alcohol and grass. When I was 14 I became addicted to crack without knowing what it was. I ended up on the streets."
The court heard how Ms Benaissa became pregnant two years later. Following a routine blood test, she discovered that she was HIV-positive but said she did not know who had infected her.
She told the court that she kept her condition secret because she was initially scared of her daughter being stigmatised, and later because she feared it could affect the band's success.
"I'd been told the likelihood of infecting someone or that I would develop the illness [Aids] was more or less zero," she added. "For that reason, I kept the news, even from my close group of friends, [as] I didn't want my daughter to be stigmatised. I told the band members because I trusted them but I never made it public because I feared that it would mean the end of the band."
No Angels were formed in 2000 after Ms Benaissa and her three bandmates won a reality talent contest called Popstars. The band went on to become Germany's best selling all-girl group before breaking up in 2005. They reformed three years later to become Germany's entry for Eurovision and have remained a band since.
Over the coming five days the court is expected to hear from the two other men with whom Ms Benaissa is accused of having unprotected sex, as well as from her bandmates. The defence is expected to bring in medical experts who will question whether the court can prove the 34-year-old man was infected by the singer or someone else.
| Famous Person - Sick | August 2010 | ['(CNN)', '(Aljazeera)', '(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Independent)', '(AFP via Philippine Daily Inquirer)'] |
A jury finds five men guilty of conspiring to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, United States. | (CNN) -- A jury has found five men guilty of conspiring to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office said Monday. Five men were accused in a plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
The defendants were acquitted of attempted murder charges but face life in prison. The jury spent six days deliberating.
Six men were arrested on May 7, 2007, in New Jersey, as two of them were meeting a confidential government witness "to purchase three AK-47 automatic machine guns and four semi-automatic M-16s to be used in an attack they had been planning from at least January 2006," according to a criminal complaint.
The sixth defendant, Agron Abdullahu, pleaded guilty in October to a reduced charge of providing firearms to illegal aliens and received a sentence of 20 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
"For the 12 of us involved in these deliberations, this has been one of the most difficult things we've ever had to do," the jury said in a written statement given to the news media, according to CNN Radio affiliate KYW. "We have not reached our conclusions lightly. The burden imposed on us has been heavy but we are confident that our verdict has been reached fairly and impartially."
For the conspiracy conviction, each of the defendants faces a sentence of as much as life in prison. They are to be sentenced in April.
Abdullahu told the court in October that, from January 2006 to May 2007, he and Turkish-born Serdar Tatar, 25, provided firearms to brothers Dritan Duka, 30; Shain Duka, 27; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 25.
The Duka brothers, born in the former Yugoslavia, were in the United States illegally.
Tatar and Abdullahu are both legal U.S. residents. The other defendant, Jordanian-born Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, is the only U.S. citizen among them.
The jury found one member of the group conducted surveillance at Fort Dix and Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and the U.S. Coast Guard facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the U.S. attorney's office said in a written statement.
The alleged Fort Dix plot came to light when two men gave an 8 mm videotape to a clerk at a Circuit City store in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and asked him to convert it to DVD format.
Authorities said the tape showed 10 young men shooting at a practice range and shouting in Arabic, "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great."
The clerk, Brian Morgenstern, said the video showed the men with handguns and rifles that appeared to be "fully automatic weapons."
"I saw some stuff on the film that was disturbing and it kind of gained my attention that way," he told CNN in May 2007.
Morgenstern alerted the police, who initiated the investigation into the men, who were living in Philadelphia's southern New Jersey suburbs.
Michael Riley, the lawyer for Shain Duka, said he will appeal the verdict. "It's a certain time in our history where these certain types of allegations are very troublesome, and it's very difficult," he said. "It's disappointing when it doesn't come out the way you think it should."
Tatar's lawyer, Richard Sparaco, predicted an appeal would be filed on behalf of all the defendants. U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler scheduled sentencing for the Duka brothers for April 22 and for Shnewer and Tartar on April 23.
CNN's Aurore Ankarcrona contributed to this story All About Fort Dix • U.S. Armed Forces Activities | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2008 | ['(CNN)'] |
At least two people are killed and two others seriously injured after a plane carrying vital medical supplies crashes near Esquel Airport in Esquel, Argentina. | At least four people were believed to be on board a plane carrying vital medical supplies when it crashed in intense fog near Esquel Airport
A plane carrying vital medical supplies has crashed near an airport in Argentina with two passengers rushed to hospital, according to reports.
At least four people are understood to have been on board when the aircraft crashed near the Esquel Airport, in the Chubut province of Argentina, say local media.
It has not been confirmed whether there were any deaths.
Radio Nacional reports two people were wounded after the crash and transferred to Esquel hospital.
A huge blaze erupted at the crash site, with firefighters and police officers quickly on the scene. Some reports suggest the flight was bound for Santa Fe.
It is understood the plane was close to landing in Esquel in the middle of an intense fog which caused reduced visibility.
According to news outlet, elPatagonico, the plane was carrying a doctor, a nurse and two crew members.
Local newspaper El Chubut reported the aircraft - a Learjet 35A - was coming from the north when it crashed close to the airport.
The outlet also revealed relatives of the victims have not yet been notified as their names have not been officially announced.
ElPatagonico also reported the plane was on its way to transfer a patient who required care that could not be provided in the area of Chubut.
"The plane was arriving from the province of Santa Fe and the accident would have been caused by the presence of fog, which made landing maneuvers difficult," said the newspaper.
The plane, which was carrying medical supplies crashed in the Chubut area where there have been four confirmed cases of coronavirus. Argentina currently has 5,007 confirmed cases of the deadly bug, with 264 deaths.
Esquel Airport which is an international airport was built in 1944 in the Chubut province, which has a population of 509,108.
The plane that crashed is registered in the name of the company Cabiline SA, a medical air transport company.
Since Mirror is a Reach news title, you have been logged in with the Reach account you use to access our other sites. | Air crash | May 2020 | ['(Mirror)'] |
In women's golf, Inbee Park of South Korea wins the gold medal. | Last updated on 20 August 201620 August 2016.From the section Olympics
South Korea's Inbee Park won the women's Olympic golf tournament in Rio, as Great Britain's Charley Hull finished just outside the medals.
Park shot a final-round 66 to finish on 16 under, five clear of world number one Lydia Ko of New Zealand.
China's Shanshan Feng took bronze, a shot further back on 10 under par. Hull carded a three-under-par round of 68 to finish tied for seventh on eight under as women's golf returned to the Games for the first time since 1900.
Catriona Matthew of Great Britain finished on level par, 29th overall.
Japan's Harukyo Nomura, American Stacy Lewis and South Korea's Hee Young Yang shared fourth place on nine under.
Park, a seven-time major winner, had not competed in top-level competition for two months and missed the past two majors on the LPGA Tour because of a thumb injury.
However, the 28-year-old took a two-shot lead into the final round and was six clear after a hat-trick of birdies from the third and another on the eighth, before Feng closed the gap with a birdie on the 10th.
Her advantage was reduced to three shots when Park bogeyed the 10th as Feng birdied the 11th in the group ahead.
But birdies on the 13th, 15th and 17th all but sealed victory - and saw the focus switch to the battle for silver and bronze, in which New Zealander Ko prevailed with a birdie on the 18th.
Britain's Hull was within a shot of the bronze-medal position after a birdie on the 11th, but three-putted the 13th and was unable to pick up any shots until a two-putt birdie on the last.
"I was quite happy with the way I finished," said the 20-year-old. "Especially on the back nine I gave myself plenty of opportunities, I just didn't hole them. "I missed one short putt, which was a bit silly, but apart from that I feel like my game is in good shape.
"My first Olympics was a fantastic experience and I got a good buzz off it."
Team-mate Matthew, from Scotland, shot a final round of 70.
"Today I was never really in with a chance for a medal so it was just trying to play good golf and try something different with my putting to help that. It was nice to finish with a good round.
"It has been a great golf course for such a new course and it has played really well. It has been great being at the Olympics. I have loved it.
"Hopefully golf will stay in the Olympics and we'll get to watch it a few more times."
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From hitting a few balls on the range or a quick nine holes, to the full 18 and tournaments - how to get into golf. | Sports Competition | August 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
An ancient petroglyph has been discovered in Central Iran. | An ancient petroglyph depicting a creature that is half mantis, half man, has been discovered in central Iran. The rock art dates to somewhere between 40,000 and 4,000 years ago, and suggests the preying mantis has fascinated humans for thousands of years.
The "unique" piece of rock art was found in the Markazi Province during a survey of petroglyphs in the area over 2017 and 2018. After researchers noticed the unusual carving, they enlisted the help of an archaeologist to describe it. Findings are published in the Journal of Orthoptera Research.
While petroglyphs often depict larger animals, those representing a six-legged creature that appeared to be an invertebrate are not. The carving appears to have a triangular head, large eyes and the arms of a preying mantis. By analyzing the features further, the team concluded it is of an Empusa, a species of preying mantis found in Iran. They also note the carving appears to have legs that feature a symbol representative of the "squatting man" motif found in rock art across the world.
"The Iranian motif seems to be a combination of 'praying mantis' and 'squatting (squatter) man,' so it is hereby named 'squatting (squatter) mantis man,'" the researchers wrote.
The zoomorphic petroglyphs found in the mountainous regions of Iran are believed to have been created by nomadic tribes that lived there. The research project to survey them aimed to identify the animals depicted.
"Humanity's interest in the praying mantis can be dated to prehistoric times," the researchers wrote. "Praying mantids had great value to the Mesopotamian people who established the first civilization. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead (written on papyrus, 1555–1350 B.C.), praying mantids appear as the abyt-bird (bird-fly or bird-dancer), a smaller divinity of the underworld and a guide that accompanies the dead along their path in the Royal Palace of the great divine spirits... The main question is why prehistoric man was fascinated by mantids as far back as at least 4,000 years ago, and, consequently, why did they start scratching their images into solid rocks?"
The team suggests it could relate to a "controversial hypothesis" proposed in the 1980s that says rock art was connected to the consumption of hallucinogenic plants. They also highlight the hunting ability of mantids, so may have been an inspiration to early humans.
"The useless but astonishing praying mantids could have merited petroglyphs of their forms by being part of ancient religions, fears, or admirations," they conclude | New archeological discoveries | March 2020 | ['(Newsweek)'] |
In an unexpected move, Sudanese President Omar al–Bashir replaces Salah Gosh, his country's chief of security and intelligence since the mid–1990s, with General Mohamed Atta al–Mawla. | Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has replaced the country's influential intelligence chief Salah Gosh, the official Suna news agency reports.
It gave no reason for the move, but said Mr Salah had now been appointed as Mr Bashir's adviser. Suna said Gen Mohamed Atta al-Mawla was named as Mr Salah's successor. In January, Mr Salah said "outlaws" may start targeting foreigners if the International Criminal Court pursued a case against President Bashir. Attacks on aid workers have increased in the months since the ICC issued the warrant against Mr Bashir over alleged war crimes in Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region, correspondents say. Mr Salah had been the chief of Sudan's national security and intelligence since the mid-1990s. He had co-operated with the US intelligence services in the fight against terror, following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. What are these? | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Gunmen attack a party office of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi, Pakistan, killing three supporters. | QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) Gunmen attacked a party office of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing three of her supporters ahead of parliamentary elections, police said.
The attack occurred in Naseerabad, about 150 miles east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, said Wajid Akbar, the district police chief. Police had no immediate information about the motive for the attack or who was behind it, he said.
Killings and other violence have been common in past elections in Pakistan, where Bhutto and others are now campaigning for parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8.
Suicide bombers struck at Bhutto's October homecoming parade in the southern city of Karachi, killing more than 140 people.
Pakistan's political turmoil deepened on Nov. 3 when the country's ruler President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule. | Armed Conflict | December 2007 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant says its official spokesman, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, has been killed in Syria's Aleppo Governorate. The group's statement, distributed by Amaq News Agency, did not say how al-Adnani was killed. | BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic State said on Tuesday one of its most prominent and longest-serving leaders was killed in what appeared to be an American air strike in Syria, depriving the militant group of the man in charge of directing attacks overseas.
Islamic State leader killed in Syria
00:48
A U.S. defense official told Reuters the United States targeted Abu Muhammad al-Adnani in a Tuesday strike on a vehicle traveling in the Syrian town of al-Bab. The official stopped short of confirming Adnani’s death, however.
Such U.S. assessments often take days and often lag behind official announcements by militant groups.
Adnani was one of the last living senior members, along with self-appointed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who founded the group and stunned the Middle East by seizing huge tracts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
As Islamic State’s spokesman, Adnani was its most visible member. As head of external operations, he was in charge of attacks overseas, including Europe, that have become an increasingly important tactic for the group as its core Iraqi and Syrian territory has been eroded by military losses.
The group reacted by saying his death would not harm it, and his killers would face “torment”, a statement in the group’s al-Naba newspaper said, according to the Site Intelligence monitoring group.
“Today, they rejoice for the killing ... and then they will cry much when Allah will overpower them, with His permission, with affliction of the worst torment by the soldiers of Abu Muhammad and his brothers,” the statement said.
Advances by Iraq’s army and allied militia toward Islamic State’s most important possession of Mosul have put the group under new pressure at a moment when a U.S.-backed coalition has cut its Syrian holdings off from the Turkish border.
Those military setbacks have been accompanied by air strikes that have killed several of the group’s leaders, undermining its organizational ability and dampening its morale.
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A U.S. counter-terrorism official who monitors Islamic State said Adnani’s death would hurt the militants “in the area that increasingly concerns us as the group loses more and more of its caliphate and its financial base ... and turns to mounting and inspiring more attacks in Europe, Southeast Asia and elsewhere”.
Under Adnani’s auspices, Islamic State launched large-scale attacks, bombings and shootings on civilians in countries outside its core area, including France, Belgium and Turkey.
The official said Adnani’s roles as propaganda chief and director of external operations had become “indistinguishable” because the group uses its online messages to recruit fighters and provide instruction and inspiration for attacks.
Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency reported that Adnani was killed “while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo.” Islamic State holds territory in the province of Aleppo, but not in the city where rebels are fighting Syrian government forces.
Amaq did not say how Adnani, born Taha Subhi Falaha in Syria’s Idlib Province in 1977, was killed. Islamic State published a eulogy dated Aug. 29 but gave no further details.
Adnani was a Syrian from Binish in Idlib, southwest of Aleppo, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State’s predecessor, al Qaeda, more than a decade ago and was once imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq, according to the Brookings Institution.
He was from a well-to-do background but left Syria to travel to Iraq to fight U.S. forces there after its 2003 invasion, and only returned to his homeland after the start of its own civil war in 2011, a person who knew his family said.
He once taught theology and law in jihadi training camps, according to Brookings. A biography posted on militant websites says he grew up with a “love of mosques” and was a prolific reader.
He had been the chief propagandist for the ultra-hardline jihadist group since he declared in a June 2014 statement that it was establishing a modern-day caliphate spanning swaths of territory it had seized in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Adnani had often been the face of the Sunni militant group, such as when he issued a message in May urging attacks on the United States and Europe during the holy month of Ramadan, and as in Sept. 2014 when he called on supporters to kill Westerners throughout the world.
Recent advances by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, and by Syrian rebels backed by Turkey, have made inroads into Islamic State holdings in Aleppo province, cutting them off from the Turkish border and supply lines along it.
Iraqi army advances against the jihadist group meant Baghdad was on track to retake Mosul by the end of this year, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command General Joseph Votel said on Tuesday.
Among senior Islamic State officials killed in air strikes this year are Abu Ali al-Anbari, Baghdadi’s formal deputy, and the group’s “minister of war”, Abu Omar al-Shishani. Adnani had joined the group under its founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
There were conflicting reports earlier on Tuesday as to where and how Adnani died.
A senior Syrian rebel official said Adnani was most probably killed in the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in an air strike. Citing unconfirmed reports, he said Adnani was in the Aleppo region to raise morale in the face of mounting pressure.
Islamic State’s territory around Aleppo is of particular significance to the group because it is also the location of Dabiq, where an Islamic prophecy holds the last battle between Muslims and infidels will rage, heralding the end of time.
Iraq said in January that Adnani had been wounded in an air strike in the western province of Anbar and then moved to the northern city of Mosul, Islamic State’s capital in Iraq.
The United States designated him a “global terrorist” this year and said he was one of the first foreign fighters to oppose U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq since 2003 before becoming spokesman of the militant group.
There was a $5 million reward on his head under the U.S. “Rewards for Justice” program.
| Famous Person - Death | August 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico says that he will also demand an opt–out in the Treaty of Lisbon if the Czech Republic is granted one. | Czech President Vaclav Klaus has made no bones about his dislike for the Lisbon Treaty. Over the weekend, though, he said he would sign it anyway.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus finally ran out of allies. For much of the year, the European Union's most famous detractor could point to Ireland as an excuse for not signing the Lisbon Treaty. But then the
Irish backed the reform agreement in a referendum. At a party conference earlier this month British conservatives briefly paid lip service to that nation's Euro-skeptics, posing as David to the EU Goliath by suggesting a referendum on the subject if they got into power -- but it quickly became clear that their strategy was tenuous at best. Even Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed the Lisbon Treaty earlier in October.
Over the weekend, Klaus finally indicated that he would do the same, telling the Czech paper Lidove Noviny that the train "is already moving so fast and has gone so far that it is probably impossible to stop it or to bring it back."
He reiterated that he doesn't think the Lisbon Treaty -- which will revamp the way the 27-member club makes decisions, strengthen the EU's role on the world stage and create the position of EU president -- is good for Europe. He indicated he would sign it anyway.
Klaus is still seeking to get a footnote added to the treaty which guarantees the validity of the Benes Decrees, a set of laws which provided for the expulsion of millions of Germans and Hungarians following the end of World War II. Klaus has said he is concerned that the human rights guarantees in the Lisbon Treaty could result in lawsuits from families of expellees seeking to regain ownership of lands now in the Czech Republic. Klaus had been asking that the Czech Republic be granted an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but now says he would be happy with the kind of legal guarantees granted to Ireland. The more fundamental changes Klaus had been demanding would have made a re-ratification of the treaty necessary.
Slovakia, though, has said that, should the Czechs be granted a Benes-based opt-out, then it will demand one too. "For us, the Benes Decrees are such an important part of the rule of law that we cannot allow for Slovakia to be left in any kind of legal uncertainty," said Slovak prime Minister Robert Fico on Czech television on Sunday.
Still, Klaus' back-pedalling removes the last major hurdle in the Lisbon Treaty's path. It's about time, say German commentators.
The center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Monday writes:
"Vaclav Klaus had become almost unbearable. The 17 Czech lawmakers, who challenged the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech high court, likewise grated on the nerves of their EU partners. Their true aims were often all-too-easy to recognize. They weren't really interested in protecting their constitutional rights -- rather they wanted to throw as much sand into the works of the EU ratification machine as possible."
"Just as Klaus did, they harmed their own country's image. They were unable to convince the rest of the EU that they had fundamental concerns with the Lisbon agreement. Instead, it became clear that they only really cared about the expulsion of Germans and Hungarians out of Czechoslovakia in 1945 under the provisions of the Benes Decrees. The fact that this history has once again been placed on the EU's agenda makes a new, less one-sided discussion necessary. It doesn't, however, make it any easier."
The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "When the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in the first referendum (in June 2008), most EU member states decided to continue the ratification process because they correctly assumed that Brussels would have the Irish vote over and over again until it got the result it wanted. Klaus, on the other hand, chose to see the treaty as having been rejected unless the Irish chose to change their minds. That may have been naïve given the balance of power between the large and small states in the European Union, but his view certainly wasn't contrary to the rules of the EU. The results of the second Irish referendum came on October 3. If one is to talk about Klaus' "delayed signature" on the Lisbon Treaty, then it is a delay of just three weeks."
The conservative paper Die Welt stays closer to home on Monday and argues that, given how important the EU has become for German policy, Chancellor Angela Merkel should add a Europe Minister to her cabinet.
"Germany pays €8 billion to Brussels every year -- that is almost double what France owes (€4.5 billion) and fully eight times what Great Britain pays (€1 billion). But when it comes to the struggle for influence and power, Germany often doesn't do as well as countries like France, Great Britain or Holland. A Europe Minister, resident in the chancellery, who, with the full support of Chancellor Angela Merkel, coordinates German EU policy, lays out strategy and improves German influence in Brussels, is badly needed."
"Some 70 percent of all national laws originate in Brussels. Those who want to be part of their creation must know early on what their interests are, and should not have to wait until the draft laws have already been hammered out."
"A number of countries, like France, have had Europe ministers for a long time. And they have been able to increase their influence in Brussels."
| Withdraw from an Organization | October 2009 | ['(Der Spiegel)'] |
A prison riot in the Mexican state of Durango leaves at least 19 people dead and 20 injured. | MEXICO CITY, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Nineteen people died and at least another 20 were hurt in a prison fight on Friday in the northern Mexican state of Durango, a security official said.
Many of the dead were shot in the clash between rival gangs at the prison in the town of Gomez Palacios, said Barbara Ramirez, a spokeswoman for the state security minister.
"We are currently trying to find out how these weapons got into the prison," she said. The prison holds inmates seen as low or medium security risks.
Durango has seen an explosion of drug gang violence in recent months in clashes between the Gulf and the Sinaloa cartels but it was unclear whether this incident was related to drugs.
At least 13,000 people have died in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in Dec., 2006. Some 4,000 have been slain this year as powerful gangs clash over territory and federal police and soldiers try to impose order.
| Riot | August 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(Press TV)'] |
Republican candidate Ted Cruz fires campaign spokesman Rick Tyler who posted incorrect information on Twitter about candidate Marco Rubio. | LAS VEGAS -- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has parted ways with Rick Tyler, his longtime campaign spokesman, attempting to put an end to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's accusation that the Texan is trying to win the Republican presidential nomination with dirty tricks.
"Yesterday, a staffer from our campaign sent out a tweet that tweeted a news story that purported to indicate Marco saying something negative about the Bible," Cruz said. "The news story was false. That staffer deleted the tweet, apologized, and pulled it down, although I've spent this morning investigating what happened. And this morning, I asked for Rick Tyler's resignation."
Cruz made the remarks before a campaign rally of around 800 potential voters in the western suburbs of Las Vegas. An 11:30 a.m. news conference was pushed back 40 minutes, as Cruz huddled with aides in the parking lot of a YMCA. Tyler did not respond to a question from The Washington Post, but NBC reporter Katy Tur tweeted that he walked off the set before an interview, scheduled right when Cruz was talking to reporters.
For Cruz and Rubio, the moment has arrived: A three-man race with Trump
Tyler's offense had not, initially, looked like the sort of mistake that could cost someone his job. The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania, had published a 21-second video of Rubio walking past a Cruz staffer and Cruz's father, Rafael. According to the paper, the muffled audio found Rubio joking that there were "not many answers" in the book the staffer was reading -- the Bible.
The video went viral. Tyler posted it on Facebook. (Cruz mistakenly said he had done so on Twitter.) Then, upon learning that the transcript was exactly wrong -- that Rubio had said "all the answers" were in the Bible -- Tyler wrote a late-night Facebook post apologizing to Rubio.
The senator did not quite accept the apology. At a morning gaggle with reporters in north Las Vegas, near where he spent parts of his childhood, Rubio called the errant post “part of a pattern” of dishonest tactics by the Cruz campaign.
“Perhaps that was the most offensive one because they basically made it up," Rubio said. "People in a lobby taking a video on their phone. I know exactly what I said to that young man. I said the answer to every question you’ll ever have is in that book. And then I pointed to the Book of Proverbs, which he was reading; I said particularly that one, which is a book of wisdom.”
Rubio said he accepted Tyler’s apology, but added that “at some point there was to be some level of accountability.”
But the firing of Tyler came as a surprise. As recently as last night, the Cruz campaign considered the Rubio campaign's outrage over the tweet to be just the latest example of a candidate with friendly media coverage using it to accuse Cruz of negative campaigning. In the final days of the South Carolina primary, the Cruz campaign found itself responding to sketchy accusations of robocalls or online chatter spreading rumors that Rubio would quit the race.
Those attacks looked to be sticking, thanks to a pincer attack from Rubio and Donald Trump. Both have accused Cruz of spreading the rumor that Ben Carson was quitting the race on the night of the Iowa caucuses -- something that a few overzealous Cruz precinct captains actually did, after a CNN story about Carson taking some downtime was misinterpreted.
Earlier in the news conference, Cruz appeared to be digging in, saying that both Rubio and Trump were getting away with "fabrications" about his record. Before taking a question about Tyler, Cruz fielded two about whether Donald Trump was, respectively, "unstoppable" or "unbeatable." And on the way out of the news conference, Cruz denied reports that he had met or talked to Rubio since the incident.
"None of you have heard me throw the kind of insults at Marco Rubio that he throws at me every single day," said Cruz. "When other candidates choose to go into the gutter, we will not do the same. Rick Tyler is a good man. This was a grave error of judgment. It turned out the news story he sent out was false, but I'll tell you, even if it was true, we are not a campaign that is going to question the faith of another candidate."
The Rubio campaign, once again, took the apology as a chance to ask for more.
"Rick is a really good spokesman who had the unenviable task of working for a candidate willing to do or say anything to get elected," said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant in a statement. "There is a culture in the Cruz campaign, from top to bottom, that no lie is too big and no trick too dirty. Rick did the right thing by apologizing to Marco. It's high time for Ted Cruz to do the right thing and stop the lies."
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2016 | ['(Fox News)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
Italian actress and former beauty pageant winner Lucia Bosè dies aged 89 from pneumonia complicated by COVID-19. | LLC
Lucia Bosè arrives at the 2013 Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year honoring Miguel Bose at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on Nov. 20, 2013 in Las Vegas.
Lucia Bosé, the Italian actress and mother of Spanish Pop star Miguel Bosé, has died at age 89.
Miguel Bosé confirmed his mother’s death via social media on Monday (March 23). "Dear friends...my mother Lucía Bosé has just passed away. She is in the best of places," he wrote.
According to Spanish news reports that cited information provided by family members, Lucia Bosé died of pneumonia in her Brieva, the small town in Spain where she lived. Some outlets reported that her death came after being infected with the coronavirus, though Billboard has not yet been able to confirm.
Miguel Bosé
Bosé was known for her roles in movies including Fellini’s Satyricon and Death of a Cyclist, directed by Jaun Anotnio Bardem (Javier Bardem’s father). A great beauty who was crowned Miss Italy when she was a teenager, she married the famous Spanish bullfighter Miguel Dominguín.
The dashing couple, who were married from 1955-1967, had three children, Miguel, Lucia and Paula. After leaving her career to raise her family, Bosé occasionally returned to the screen in small film roles. | Famous Person - Death | March 2020 | ['(Billboard)'] |
Disney CEO Bob Iger joins Elon Musk in resigning from President Trump's advisory councils in response to Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. | Mr Iger wrote on Twitter that 'as a matter of principle, I've resigned from the President's Council over the #ParisAgreement withdrawal'
Disney boss Bob Iger has become the latest chief executive to quit Donald Trump’s business advisory council, protesting the President’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
Mr Iger wrote on Twitter that "as a matter of principle, I've resigned from the President's Council over the #ParisAgreement withdrawal".
He joins Tesla chief executive Elon Musk who earlier tweeted: “Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world".
Technology companies have been among the most vocal to oppose some of Mr Trump’s controversial policies and in February Uber CEO Travis Kalanick quit the council after the administration implemented a travel ban on people from seven majority Muslim countries.
The council, created by Mr Trump in December, is designed to assist the administration when making decisions on policy. Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone Group, leads it. Other members include PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi and Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Wall Street giant JPMorgan.
Overnight Mr Trump cast the Paris agreements as a global conspiracy that damaged his country’s economic prospects, but said the US may attempt to re-join the pact if he can secure a better deal.
He had made pulling out of the pact – which has been signed by almost 200 nations – a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and said that by withdrawing he was underscoring his promise to put American workers first.
Jeff Immelt, the chief executive of the conglomerate General Electric, tweeted: "Disappointed with today’s decision on the Paris Agreement. Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government."
Former US President Barack Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned Mr Trump’s move.
Theresa May expressed regret over the withdrawal in a personal phone call with the US President.
Additional reporting by Reuters
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2017 | ['(The Independent)'] |
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pardon United States Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton for the killing of a transgender woman in 2015. Human rights activists condemn the decision while Duterte defends his move saying Pemberton was treated "unfairly". | MANILA (Reuters) - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday pardoned a United States Marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in the country nearly six years ago, sparking condemnation from activists who described the move as a “mockery of justice”.
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was jailed in 2015 for killing Jennifer Laude near a former U.S. navy base. A trial court signed off on his early release last week for good conduct, but was blocked by an appeal from Laude’s lawyers.
“Cutting matters short over what constitutes time served, and since where he was detained was not in prisoner’s control - and to do justice - the president has granted an absolute pardon,” Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin announced on Twitter.
One of Laude’s lawyer was dismayed by the pardon and questioned Duterte’s commitment to a foreign policy that he insists is independent and not dictated by U.S. interests.
“We see the welfare of our countrymen are set aside,” lawyer Rommel Bagares told DZBB radio.
Cristina Palabay of human rights group Karapatan described Dutere’s independent foreign policy as “bankrupt”.
“We view this as not only a mockery of justice but also a blatant display of servility to U.S. interest,” Palabay told Reuters.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte had “erased the punishment” but the conviction of Pemberton stands.
“He is still a killer,” he said.
Roque was a lawyer in the prosecution of Pemberton and last week criticized his early release, likening Laude’s killing to the “death of Philippine sovereignty”.
Duterte’s tirades and threats against United States are frequent and famous, but he has yet to downgrade ties and in June decided against scrapping a bilateral troop deployment agreement central to the defense alliance.
Speaking on television, Duterte said Pemberton was treated unfairly.
“This is how I see it,” he said. “So release him. Pardon.”
He added: “There is a time you are called to be fair.”
Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | September 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fires top airport security officials, two days after a suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport killed 35 people and injured 130. | (CNN) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that those behind the deadly blast at Moscow's busiest airport were hoping, in part, to prevent him from attending the World Economic Forum.
Speaking at the gathering of business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Medvedev said, "Those who committed the heinous act by aiming their blow against the citizens of various countries expected that their act would bring Russia to its knees, would force us to be defensive. They expected and hoped that the president of Russia would not come here to attend to this forum, among other things, of course. This is the criteria used to choose the time and place for committing that act of terrorism.
"But they miscalculated. Russia is aware of its place in the world, Russia is aware of its responsibilities to its citizens and will comply with them, and its responsibility to the world community. This is the reason why on this day I'm speaking from this rostrum."
The bombing Monday killed 35 people. Earlier Wednesday, Medvedev fired top airport security officials. He accused transport police of "taking an absolutely passive position. At best, they are examining migrants, to check their registration and display their authority," in comments carried on Russian state TV.
Among the people he dismissed was Andrei Alexeyev, the head of the Interior Ministry's transport administration for the Central Federal District, he announced in his televised remarks.
"If people don't understand how to work, we'll find other people," Medvedev said, according the RIA-Novosti news agency.
Moscow is observing a day of mourning for the victims Wednesday, with flags flying at half staff. The government asked television stations to cancel entertainment programs as a mark of respect, RIA-Novosti said.
"We have to do all we can to influence, if not the ideology, then at least the social and economic roots of terrorism -- poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, parentlessness," Medvedev said in Davos. "And we have to be sure that global development is stable, safe, and just and fair."
At the end of his speech, he announced that he was cutting short his previously planned stay in Davos to head back to Moscow.
The blast occurred around 4:30 p.m. Monday at the entrance of Domodedovo Airport's international arrivals section.
A day later, authorities were still trying to tally the exact number of people injured in the blast.
RIA-Novosti said as many as 180 were hurt. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said there were 110 wounded people still in hospitals.
Medvedev blamed security violations. "What happened at Domodedovo shows the airport lacked security," he said Tuesday. "It's unbelievable that such a huge amount of explosives were brought into the terminal. Those officials responsible for security at Domodedovo must be punished for their decisions. This is a terror attack, a grief, a tragedy."
It is not yet clear what impact a recent decision to shake up the Russian Transport Police, which is charged with protecting train stations and airports, may have had on the security perimeter at the airport Monday.
In August, Medvedev fired at least 12 generals in the Transport Police branch of the Ministry of Interior, as part of a broader reform of the Russian security services.
Domodedovo is 22 kilometers (14 miles) southeast of Moscow and is the largest of Moscow's three airports, as well as the busiest in terms of passenger traffic.
It was still not immediately clear who was responsible for Monday's blast. Previous terror attacks in Russia have been blamed on militants from the North Caucasus region.
Over the past decade, bombers have hit trains and planes operating in and traveling out of Moscow at least four times, with a combined death toll of more than 100 victims.
In 2004, two planes blew up nearly simultaneously after taking off from Domodedovo airport. That attack was linked to Chechen suicide bombers.
An explosive device derailed an express train in November 2009, killing at least 26 people. Chechen rebels were blamed again.
Medvedev has called on his government to do "everything in order for the criminals who committed this crime to be established, found and brought to justice. And the nest where these bandits are hiding, whatever their name is, should be exterminated." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | January 2011 | ['(CNN)', '(RIA Novosti)'] |
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 hit record highs. | The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index reached record highs Monday thanks to investors looking for bargains on shares that lagged last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 112 points, about 0.7% to close at 16,695.02, after peaking at 16,704.84 earlier in the afternoon. The S&P 500 gained 18.13 point, or 1%, beating its previous record to close at 1,896.65.
The Dow’s Monday close surpassed the record 16,583 hit on Friday. Monday’s boost follows an uptick in shares for Internet companies including Twitter, Yahoo, and Facebook, according to CNBC. Hillshire Brands’ acquisition of Pinnacle Foods, which owns Aunt Jemima among other brands, helped push the company’s stock 13,4%, according to the Associated Press. | Break historical records | May 2014 | ['(TIME)'] |
Authorities in China sentence Huang Yu, a computer technician from Sichuan who worked for a government department which handled state secrets, to death for leaking more than 150,000 classified documents to an unidentified foreign power. The documents in question covered secrets ranging from the ruling Communist Party to military and financial issues. | Huang Yu convicted of leaking state secrets to unidentified foreign power, state television said on Tuesday
A Chinese man has been sentenced to death for leaking more than 150,000 classified documents to an unidentified foreign power, state television said on Tuesday, offering unusual details of a kind of case rarely mentioned in public.
The man, a computer technician from Sichuan named as Huang Yu, worked for a government department which handled state secrets, but he was a bad employee and was sacked, the report said.
Filled with anger, he messaged a “foreign spy organisation” on the internet and offered to sell documents he had obtained while working for his former employer, who gladly took him up on his offer and so began their relationship, it added.
Meeting in south-east Asia and Hong Kong, Huang eventually handed over 150,000 documents, covering secrets ranging from everything from the ruling Communist party to military and financial issues, the report said.
But as he was no longer employed, he began to run out of documents to provide, and so reportedly targeted his wife and brother-in-law who also worked for government departments handling state secrets.
In the end, his frequent travel and sudden unexplained wealth caught up with him and in 2011 he was arrested, and then sentenced to death, state television said.
The report did not say when or if the execution had happened, or where he was tried.
China’s state secrets law is notoriously broad, covering everything from industry data to the exact birth dates of state leaders. Information can also be labelled a state secret retroactively.
President Xi Jinping has overseen a sweeping revamp of the security apparatus, aimed at combating threats both at home and abroad.
But new security laws he has passed, or wants to pass, have alarmed western governments, including the counterterrorism law and a draft cyber security law, amidst a renewed crackdown on dissent.
The cyber security and counterterrorism laws codify sweeping powers for the government to combat perceived threats, from widespread censorship to heightened control over certain technologies.
China has consistently rejected any criticism of its human rights record, saying it adheres to the rule of law. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Republican voters in the state of Minnesota participate in caucuses with 40 delegates at stake - Rick Santorum is projected to win. , , | Minnesota holds its Republican caucuses on Tuesday. But in the race for the White House, these caucuses are just a nonbinding straw poll.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The Super Bowl of political contests is the presidential campaign. And if 2012 is not compelling enough for you, not to worry. Journalists are already writing about the prospects for 2016. But this year's Republican nominating contest is far from over. Tomorrow, Missouri which holds a primary, and there's a caucus in Minnesota, which is where we find Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio.
MATT SEPIC, BYLINE: A company in northern Minnesota provided a tailor-made campaign stop for Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania senator visited Bemidji Woolen Mills, the official maker of - you guessed it - his signature sweater vests. The company is filling orders for several thousand vests. But since it was Sunday, this was just a photo op. At a rally later, Santorum, who squeaked to a win last month in Iowa, urged social conservatives to support him Tuesday, here in Minnesota.
RICK SANTORUM: You have an opportunity to speak loudly about the values of faith and family, of life, and the respect for the dignity of all human life.
SEPIC: That message resonated with supporter Janet Duncanson.
JANET DUNCANSON: I believe he is absolutely right when he says our country is on the line in this election. We will lose a lot of our freedoms if we continue to go the way we are.
SEPIC: However, all Santorum and his three GOP opponents can hope for in Minnesota is a symbolic victory. In the race for the White House, these caucuses are just a non-binding straw poll. Fewer than 3 percent of the state's registered voters are expected to show up. Still, all the candidates are making appearances - Mitt Romney, last week; Newt Gingrich, tonight; Ron Paul made several weekend stops.
With unemployment below the national average, President Obama may have an advantage in Minnesota. And polls here show Mr. Obama would beat either Romney or Gingrich in a general election match-up. So if the caucuses don't count, and Minnesota has voted Democratic in presidential elections for decades, why do Republicans care?
LARRY JACOBS: Folks are showing up in Minnesota because of the symbolic importance of getting a win.
SEPIC: That's University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs. He says now, momentum is what matters.
JACOBS: Even though none of the delegates are going to be apportioned at the Minnesota caucus, it's the ability to either stem momentum for Romney, or add to it, that's drawing the attention from the candidates this week.
SEPIC: With scant polling for the caucuses, it's anyone's guess who will prevail. Former GOP Governor Tim Pawlenty briefly ran for president, and now backs Romney. Pawlenty said in a conference call with reporters that well-organized candidates could benefit from the low turnout.
TIM PAWLENTY: There's a pretty strong contingent of Ron Paul supporters in Minnesota. I don't think he'll win the caucuses, but I think he'll have a respectable showing. Newt Gingrich has had, over the years, a strong following here.
SEPIC: Besides momentum, there's another reason the Republicans are campaigning here. Political scientist Larry Jacobs says with a Republican-controlled legislature, a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot this fall, and a close governor's race two years ago, Minnesota is far from the liberal bastion of yesteryear.
Jacobs says Republicans are taking the opportunity to energize and organize their base, and let President Obama know he can't take Minnesota's 10 electoral votes for granted. | Government Job change - Election | February 2012 | ['(NPR)', '(The Guardian)', '(Fox News)'] |
Malaysia Airlines loses contact with a Boeing 777-200ER passenger plane carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China. | South-east Asian states have joined forces to search waters between Malaysia and Vietnam after a Malaysia Airlines plane vanished on a flight to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that flight MH370 had disappeared at 02:40 local time on Saturday (18:40 GMT on Friday) after leaving Kuala Lumpur.
It had been expected to land in Beijing at 06:30 (22:30 GMT).
Malaysia's transport minister said there was no information on wreckage.
"We are doing everything in our power to locate the plane," Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
"Our hope is that the people understand we are being as transparent as we can, we are giving information as quickly as we can, but we want to make sure information has been verified."
Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the focus was on helping the families of those missing. He said that 80% of the families had been contacted. The plane went off the radar south of Vietnam, according to a statement on the Vietnamese government website.
Its last known location was off the country's Ca Mau peninsula although the exact position was not clear, it said.
The Boeing B777-200 aircraft was carrying 227 passengers, including seven children, and 12 crew members. Malaysia's military said a second wave of helicopters and ships had been despatched after an initial search revealed nothing.
Territorial disputes over the South China Sea were set aside temporarily as China dispatched two maritime rescue ships and the Philippines deployed three air force planes and three navy patrol ships.
Vietnam also sent aircraft and ships while Vietnamese fishermen in the area were asked to report any suspected sign of the missing plane.
"In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues," said Lt Gen Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military's Western Command.
The passengers were of 14 different nationalities, Mr Jauhari said. Among them were 152 Chinese nationals, 38 Malaysians, 12 people from Indonesia and six from Australia.
The pilot was Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981, Mr Yahya said. A Vietnamese navy official told the BBC the plane had gone missing within Malaysian maritime territory.
Friends and relatives expecting to meet passengers from the flight in Beijing were instructed to go to a nearby hotel where officials were meant to be on hand to provide support.
"They should have told us something before now," a visibly distressed man in his thirties told AFP news agency at the hotel.
"They are useless," another young man said of the airline. "I don't know why they haven't released any information."
In Kuala Lumpur, Hamid Ramlan, a 56-year-old police officer, said his daughter and son-in-law had been on the flight for an intended holiday in Beijing.
"My wife is crying," he said. "Everyone is sad. My house has become a place of mourning. This is Allah's will. We have to accept it."
The plane had been flying at an altitude of 35,000ft (10,700m) and the pilots had not reported any problems with the aircraft, Fuad Sharuji, Malaysian Airlines' vice-president of operations control, told CNN.
Malaysia's national carrier is one of Asia's largest, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.
The route between Kuala Lumpur to Beijing has become more and more popular as Malaysia and China increase trade, says the BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur. The Boeing 777 had not had a fatal crash in its 20-year history until an Asiana plane came down at San Francisco airport in July of last year. Three teenage girls from China died in that incident.
Boeing said in a statement posted on Twitter: "We're closely monitoring reports on Malaysia flight MH370. Our thoughts are with everyone on board." | Air crash | March 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Naxalite Insurgents kill at least 20 Indian Army soldiers and injure 12 in an attack on a convoy in the state of Manipur. | At least 20 soldiers have been killed and 15 injured in an attack on a troop convoy in north-east India, police say.
The ambush occurred in the state of Manipur as the convoy made its way to Imphal, the state capital.
The region's deadliest in years, the attack is thought to be a retaliation for the death of a woman who soldiers are accused of killing on Monday.
Authorities in Manipur have struggled for years with an insurgency involving several militant groups.
Thursday's attack took place at 07:00 local time (01:30 GMT) in the state's Chandel district, close to the border with Myanmar.
Police said rebels used rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles to target the soldiers.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the worst in the area in more than a decade.
The attack came a day after shops and businesses in the state closed in protest over the alleged killing of a woman by soldiers.
Manipur has been relatively peaceful in recent years and the attack took authorities by surprise, said the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder from Delhi.
Along with other north-east Indian states, Manipur is poorly developed and has long complained of neglect by the federal government, fuelling unrest, our correspondent adds.
In April, insurgents opened fire at two trucks carrying Indian paramilitary soldiers in neighbouring Nagaland state, killing eight of them. Indian security forces have for more than half a decade had sweeping shoot-to-kill powers in so-called "disturbed areas" under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
The controversial act was first enforced in Manipur in 1958 and later introduced in other insurgency-ridden north-eastern states.
The law has been blamed for "fake encounter" killings and campaigners say it is often misused. It was withdrawn in Tripura at the end of May.
| Armed Conflict | June 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
More than 60 people are hospitalised after a suspected chlorine gas leak in Mumbai. | At least 92 people were taken ill, eight of them critically, after they inhaled chlorine which leaked from a cylinder in an industrial part of India's business capital, Mumbai, officials said today.
Vijay Kumar Gawit, the health minister of Maharashtra state, said the leak happened just before dawn in the Sewri area of Mumbai, where a busy port shares space with residential buildings and a college.
PP Lahane, the head of , where those affected were treated, said most people who inhaled the gas suffered burning eyes and respiratory problems.
Of the 92 affected, 14 were released from hospital after treatment.
Buildings in the area were temporarily evacuated as a precautionary measure.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. | Mass Poisoning | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Arab News)', '(News24.com)', '(The Age)', '(The Independent)'] |
Clashes break out and turn into a riot in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on the pretext that the police try to close down illegal food vendors. Nearly 90 police officers are injured. | HONG KONG • Scores of police officers were hurt yesterday when a riot erupted in Hong Kong's Mongkok district after the authorities tried to remove illegal street stalls set up for Chinese New Year celebrations.
It was the worst street violence the city had seen since pro-democracy protests in 2014.
Police said nearly 90 of their number were injured, many by broken glass or projectiles.
Dozens of protesters were also hurt in the clash that began late on Monday night and lasted till yesterday morning.
While the streets were calm by the afternoon, Police Commissioner Stephen Lo Wai Chung told reporters that officers would remain vigilant.
Demonstrators charged police lines with home-made shields and set rubbish on fire in the middle of the road.
One officer was seen pointing his gun at crowds who hurled stones, bottles and pieces of wooden pallets at police.
Officers fired at least two warning shots in the air, multiple news outlets reported, a very rare occurrence in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city. They also used pepper spray in chaotic scenes broadcast on local television.
As criticism grew of police tactics, Commissioner Lo defended the officer who fired his weapon, saying rioters had been continuously attacking his injured colleague.
Police said that 54 protesters aged between 15 and 70 were arrested for assaulting the police, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct in a public place, among other offences.
"We will consider charging the arrested persons with participating in a riot," Commissioner Lo said.
This offence carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Secretary for Security Lai Tung Kwok said police were investigating "indications" that the clashes had been organised.
Hong Kong leader Leung Chun Ying said that the government "strongly condemns such violent acts".
The hawkers, a common sight on Hong Kong's bustling streets, attracted a strong social media following under the hashtag, #FishballRevolution.
Demonstrators, including members of radical "localist" groups - which stress Hong Kong's separate identity from the mainland and demand greater autonomy - tried to defend the hawkers, who they say add to the festive atmosphere.
Reports said that one of those arrested was Mr Edward Leung, a "localist" candidate for an upcoming by-election on Feb 28.
At least four journalists were injured, one of them hit on the head by a brick thrown by rioters, the Hong Kong Journalists Association said.
Mongkok, on the city's Kowloon peninsula, was the scene of some of the worst violence during the 79-day "Occupy" pro-democracy street protests in late 2014.
Police presence was increased for last night's Chinese New Year fireworks display as thousands gathered at the city's Victoria Harbour. | Riot | February 2016 | ['(The Straits Times)'] |
At least three people are killed and two hospitalized, one in serious condition, from a fire in a condominium tower in the U.S. city of Honolulu, Hawaii. An unknown number of residents are reportedly still trapped in their apartments. | HONOLULU (Reuters) - Flames ripped through three floors of a Honolulu tower block, killing three people including a mother and her adult son on Friday, officials and media said.
The blaze at the 36-story Marco Polo condominium complex sent thick black smoke pouring over the city, a month to the day after a deadly high-rise fire in London.
Firefighters sprayed water onto the flames from nearby balconies and brought them under control at about 6.30 p.m. local time (0430 GMT Saturday), fours hours after the fire began, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell told reporters.
“I looked down I could see the billowing smoke coming up,” resident Ron Chiarottino said. “I heard three women’s voices screaming, pleading, moaning, ‘Please help me, please’ continuous screaming for five or ten minutes, and then I didn’t hear anymore.”
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper said a mother and her adult son were among the three people who perished on the 26th floor, where the fire started. At least 12 other people were injured, it added.
Fire Chief Manuel Neves told reporters that the building did not have a sprinkler system. “Without a doubt if there was sprinklers in this apartment, the fire would be contained to the unit of origin ... the unit (where) the fire started,” he said.
More than 100 firefighters tackled the fire and officers were conducting a room-by-room search, a task that could take several hours, he added.
The building was constructed in 1971, before the city began requiring sprinkler systems, the Star-Advertiser newspaper said.
In London, at least 80 people were killed when a fire gutted the 24-story Grenfell Tower block on June 14. That building was also built in the 1970s and did not have a sprinkler system.
Images posted online on Friday showed orange flames raging on several floors and debris falling from windows. There were no immediate reports on what caused the blaze in Honolulu.
“We were all trying to help as much as we could ... but there was a fire and you could see it spreading,” said 72-year-old resident Karen Hastings, who was in the building when the fire broke out.
One firefighter and four residents were taken to hospital while eight other residents were treated at the scene, the Star-Advertiser said.
Volunteers were looking after residents at a nearby park, the Hawaii Red Cross said on Twitter.
The fire forced the closure of a major road in front of the condominium complex, the Honolulu police department said on Twitter.
Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Andrew Heavens | Fire | July 2017 | ['(AP via Fox News)', '(Reuters)'] |
Swedish prosecutors decide to reopen a rape case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange; Assange denies the allegations. | A senior Swedish prosecutor reopened a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange today, in the latest twist to a puzzling case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other.
Assange has denied the allegations and suggested they are part of a smear campaign by opponents of WikiLeaks an online whistleblower that angered Washington by publishing thousands of leaked documents about US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan on 25 July.
The case was dismissed last week by Eva Finne, chief prosecutor in Stockholm, who overruled a lower-ranked prosecutor and said there was no reason to suspect that Assange, an Australian citizen, had raped a Swedish woman who had reported him to police.
The woman's lawyer appealed against the decision. Director of public prosecution Marianne Ny decided to reopen the case, saying new information had come in on Tuesday. "We went through all the case material again, including what came in, and that's when I made my decision," [to reopen the case] Ny told The Associated Press by phone. She declined to say what information she had received or whether Assange, who was questioned by investigators on Monday, would be arrested. An arrest warrant issued on 20 August was withdrawn within 24 hours.
Ny added that "it's not entirely uncommon" that such reversals take place in Sweden, in particular regarding allegations of sex crimes. She also decided that another complaint against Assange should be investigated on suspicion of "sexual coercion and sexual molestation". That overruled a previous decision to only investigate the case as "molestation," which is not a sex crime under Swedish law.
Investigators have not released details about either case, though a police report obtained by AP shows both women had met Assange in connection with a seminar he gave in Stockholm on 14 August. The report shows the women filed their complaints together six days later.
Assange is seeking legal protection for WikiLeaks in Sweden, one of the countries in which the group says it has servers. The Swedish Migration Board has confirmed that Assange has applied for a work and residence permit in the Scandinavian country.
"It appears to be highly irregular and some kind of legal circus," Assange told the Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen.
"I was dumbfounded and concerned as to the integrity of the Swedish judicial process," he said when asked what his feelings were after the investigation was reopened. "I know what I have done with my life therefore I know that these accusations are baseless and disturbing," he said.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said it backs Assange. "We hope that he will clear his name and meanwhile the WikiLeaks organisation is going on with its endeavours," Hrafnsson told AP.
WikiLeaks says it intends to publish 15,000 more Afghan war documents in the coming weeks, a disclosure that US officials say could endanger innocent people or confidential informants.
Claes Borgstrom, a lawyer who represents both women, welcomed the decision today: "This is a redress for my clients, I have to say, because they have been dragged through the mud on the internet, for having made things up or intending to frame Assange."
Borgstrom had previously dismissed rumours that the sex allegations were part of a conspiracy against Assange, saying: "There is not an ounce of truth in all this about Pentagon, or the CIA, or smear campaigns, nothing like it." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(The Guardian)', '(CNN)', '(The New Zealand Herald)'] |
The European Commission imposes a record €2.42bn antitrust fine on internet giant Google for allegedly manipulating its search engine results. , | The European Commission found that the U.S. tech giant denied "consumers a genuine choice" by using its search engine to unfairly steer them to its own shopping platform. Regulators said that Google must change its behavior within 90 days or face additional penalties. "What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules," said Margrethe Vestager, the bloc's top antitrust official. "It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation." Google (GOOGL) said in a statement that it tries to show ads in ways that are helpful for buyers and sellers. "We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today," a Google spokesperson said. "We will review the Commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case." The Commission said that Google acted illegally by giving priority placement in search results to its own shopping service, while relegating results from rivals to areas where potential buyers were much less likely to click. It could have fined Google as much as 10% of its annual sales, or roughly $9 billion. The $2.7 billion fine represents just over 2.5% of Google's revenue last year and Alphabet, Google's owner, had $92.4 billion in cash as of end of March. Vestager said Google's competitors could claim compensation in national courts within the EU. She said hundreds of companies, including some based in the U.S., complained about the way Google displayed its shopping service. Shares in Alphabet dropped by 1.2% in premarket trading. Tuesday's fine dwarfs the previous EU record antitrust penalty of €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion) imposed on Intel (INTC) in 2009. Intel has been fighting to overturn that decision ever since. Google's regulatory headache in Europe doesn't end with the online shopping case, which dates back to 2010. The EU has also accused the Silicon Valley titan of abusing its market position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators. It is also investigating the company's ad placing service, AdSense. Related: Nike is the next U.S. company in Europe's crosshairs American firms have come under increased scrutiny in Europe on issues related to tax and competition. Apple (AAPL) is fighting a European demand that it repay €13 billion ($14.7 billion) in back taxes to the Irish government. Facebook (FB) was fined by antitrust regulators in May for misleading officials over its takeover of messaging service WhatsApp. The same month, Amazon (AMZN) agreed to change its distribution agreements with e-book publishers to address antitrust concerns raised by the Commission. And in early June, antitrust officials launched investigations into claims that Nike (NKE) may have broken EU laws by restricting how traders can sell licensed merchandise. Comcast's (CCV) Universal Studios is being investigated on the same grounds. Vestager rejected any suggestion of anti-American bias, telling reporters on Tuesday that an analysis of investigations her department has launched found that U.S. companies were not being disproportionately targeted. | Organization Fine | June 2017 | ['(BBC News)', '(CNN)'] |
Filipino domestic helper Mary Jane Veloso commemorates the first anniversary of her being spared from the death penalty in Indonesia for allegedly smuggling controlled substances. A trial to determine her innocence is ongoing. | Filipina who was temporarily spared at 11th hour, as the Bali Nine pair and six others were killed, remains on death row amid uncertain future
A woman who was temporarily spared death by firing squad last year remains on death row in Indonesia with her life precariously wagered on an slow-moving court case.
Mary Jane Veloso won sympathy in her home country of the Philippines, as well as within Indonesia, after she said she was duped into smuggling drugs. And in a shock turnaround, Indonesian president Joko Widodo – known as Jokowi – delayed her killing with a temporary reprieve just hours before she was due to be executed in April 2015.
Indonesia shot dead eight others that night, including two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who fought a years-long campaign for clemency and were part of the Bali Nine heroin-smuggling ring. Four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian were also killed.
Sparing the domestic worker and mother-of-two was unexpected and several Filipino newspapers wrongly reported on their front pages the next day that she had been killed. The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran the headline: “Death came before Dawn.”
But in the year that has passed, the outburst of joy and relief has given way to a lengthy human trafficking trial in the Philippines and no guarantees that Veloso will be taken off death row even if she can prove she was tricked.
Migrante International, a group that promotes the rights of overseas Filipino workers, says Veloso’s life depends of the speedy trial and conviction of her accused traffickers, Maria Kristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.
But the group complains that the defence has employed delaying tactics by filing motion after motion to keep the case in the early stages of legal proceedings.
“Mary Jane is still facing the threat of execution,” Migrante International vice-chair Rina Anastacio told the Guardian. “Unfortunately the trial is going very slowly.”
Hours before Veloso was due to be killed last year, Sergio handed herself in to police in Manila, and the Philippines president, Benigno Aquino, made an appeal to his Indonesian counterpart on the basis that Veloso would be needed as a witness in the case against her alleged recruiter.
Key to the last-minute reprieve was that the Philippines invoked a regional treaty (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations mutual legal assistance treaty, or Asean MLAT) signed to fight transnational crimes in south-east Asia, which obliges Indonesia to help provide Veloso as a witness to the human trafficking court case.
Filipino officials have travelled to Indonesia to discuss the case that they hope can save her life.
Activists fear that Veloso, who has already been convicted in an Indonesian court, could yet be executed if the trial is overly delayed, as she is being kept alive only to give testimony. Her supporters want the Indonesian government to allow Veloso to fly home so she can testify in person in court.
They hope a swift conviction in the Philippines will show that Veloso was a pawn and might persuade Indonesia to spare her life.
The plan is far from certain. Indonesian officials suggest executions could restart again this year after a short hiatus, and the attorney general said in January the country was “ready” to execute Veloso.
Attorney general Prasetyo told Rappler: “We will look at the verdict, perhaps the verdict can be new evidence to appeal for clemency from the president. But surely Mary Jane will not be free from punishment. The fact is that she smuggled drugs to Indonesia.”
Veloso’s lawyer Edre Olalia lamented the slow pace of the human trafficking case. “After one year, we have unfortunately only presented her sister as prosecution witness so far. This week, we are calling her mother to the witness stand,” he said.
Olalia said Veloso was given a reprieve following what he described as bold legal tactics and an overwhelming local and international campaign – “and her peculiar circumstance of being a credible victim of human trafficking plus the human side of her being a young, poor mother of little boys forced by poverty to work abroad”.
Veloso, who fled Dubai after an attempted rape and moved to Indonesia via Malaysia to find work, says she was tricked by a trafficking gang to smuggle 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin six years ago. The drugs were found in the lining of her suitcase at Yogyakarta airport.
Olalia joined Veloso’s parents and children during a prison visit in January to celebrate her 31st birthday. He said: “Her family communicates with her by phone from time to time.”
Yohanes Sulaiman, a lecturer and political analyst at Indonesia’s Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yan, said Veloso’s story resonated with Indonesians who, like Filipinos, have a large emigrant population, some of whom are exploited. “Lots of people here in Indonesia were against her execution because her story was so close to home … it’s not unlike Indonesians in the Middle East.”
With the potential for public anger following her still-planned execution, Sulaiman said: “The Indonesian government had to be really sure that Mary Jane is what they consider as a big dealer. Not just a mule.”
He suggested that if a new date was set for her death by firing squad, there might be “uproar again”, but added: “The wheels of justice grind very slowly here in Indonesia, so people tend to get distracted. It is hard to maintain pressure over Mary Jane.”
Indonesia has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world and the president says the nation is facing a “drug emergency”, calling for a stronger fight, including rejecting clemency. Since Widodo took office, 14 drug convicts have been executed. Most of them were foreigners. Close to 90 convicted drug traffickers are currently on death row in Indonesia.
Capital punishment was outlawed in the Philippines in 2006.
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| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The government of Curaçao Prime Minister Ben Whiteman resigns ahead of the Curaçao general election on October 5. (The Curaçao Chronicle) | WILLEMSTAD - Prime Minister Dr. Bernhard Whiteman today submitted the resignation of his cabinet to Governor Lucille George-Wout. That is the tradition on the eve of new elections. Until a new government takes office, the government-Whiteman remains in caretaker form.
The Cabinet which tendered its resignation this morning is the second cabinet that bore the name of Whiteman. He became Prime Minister after his predecessor Ivar Asjes had submitted his resignation late August last year, when the ruling party Pueblo Soberano (PS) lost all confidence in him. Whiteman was at that time Minister of Health, Environment and Nature (GMN).
The first government-Whiteman only lasted a few months. In November last year Member of Parliament for PAIS, Dr. Marilyn Moses withdrew her support for the Cabinet and announced to continue as an independent MP. After the fall of the government, Whiteman was appointed by the governor as "informateur" (person who gathers information about which parties would like to form a government) and later "formateur" (person appointed to form a government). After negotiations, he managed to get the PAR on board his cabinet to help gain a majority in parliament.
PAIS then lost a ministerial post and PAR took over the Ministry of Economic Development with Eugene Rhuggenaath as Minister. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2016 | [] |
A suicide bombing at the Supreme Court of Afghanistan in Kabul kills at least 20 people and injures 41 others, 10 of whom are in critical condition. | A suicide bomber struck an entrance to Afghanistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people in the latest in a series of attacks on the country's judiciary.
The attacker, who was on foot, targeted a side door as court employees and other people were exiting the building in downtown Kabul, the Interior Ministry said. Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz said 41 people were also wounded, including 10 of them in critical condition.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the Taliban. The insurgents, who have been at war with the U.S.-backed government for 15 years, have increasingly targeted the judiciary since six convicted insurgents were executed in May.
Shortly after the executions, a suicide bomber targeted a minibus carrying court employees in Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing 11 people in an attack claimed by the Taliban, which called it an act of revenge.
In June, three Taliban fighters stormed a court building in eastern Logar province, killing seven people, including a newly appointed chief prosecutor, before being shot dead by police.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the Supreme Court attack, which he blamed on the "enemies of our people." The U.S. Embassy in Kabul called it "an attack on the very foundation of Afghan democracy and rule of law."
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb killed a top district official in western Farah province as he returned home from a mosque, police spokesman Iqbal Baher said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. | Armed Conflict | February 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(NBC News)'] |
At least fifteen people die and at least 65 more disappear after a boat carrying 200 Haitian migrants sinks near the Turks and Caicos Islands. | Survivors of the boat wreck have been taken to safety
Fifteen people are dead and nearly 70 are missing after a boat carrying up to 200 Haitian migrants capsized off the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos.
Emergency services managed to rescue 113 people and some of the injured were taken to hospital after the incident, thought to have happened on Sunday. The US Coast Guard has been leading the search for survivors among the reefs. Haitians often travel through the islands in overcrowded boats, hoping to find work in the Bahamas or Florida. Dangerous crossing
The flimsy boat had been at sea for three days when it accidentally steered into a reef as it tried to avoid being spotted by a police patrol vessel, one survivor, Alces Julien, told the Associated Press news agency from hospital. Lt Cdr Matthew Moorlag of the US Coast Guard told the BBC his team had rescued 113 people. It was helping local authorities in the search for those still missing, he added. "Unfortunately many people lose their lives trying to reach the United States illegally, anywhere of 100 or more per year," he said, adding that the heavy loss of life was mostly due to overcrowding of vessels. "They don't have enough life-saving gear or signalling gear to ensure that they are able to survive if they do have any problems at sea," he said. At least nine people, including a pregnant woman, died in May this year when a boat carrying nearly 30 people, mostly Haitians, sank off the Florida coast. | Shipwreck | July 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Daily Express)', '(Houston Chronicle)', '(Reuters)', '(Toronto Star)'] |
Roger Federer wins the men's Wimbledon championship for the second straight year, defeating Andy Roddick in four sets. | Roger Federer retained his Wimbledon title with a riveting 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-4 victory over American Andy Roddick in the men's final on Sunday. The 22-year-old Swiss top seed, who also won this year's Australian Open, recovered after a ferocious start by Roddick on Centre Court to secure his third Grand Slam title. Despite two rain interruptions, the clash between the world's two best players did not disappoint and U.S. Open champion Roddick's breathtaking power gave him the edge early on. Federer, though, had come into the match having won his last 23 games on grass and gradually the world number one took control with his fluid strokeplay, wrapping up victory with his 12th ace before collapsing to his knees in triumph. Second seed Roddick had begun the match in blistering form, firing three aces in his first service game before breaking Federer for a 2-1 lead after the Swiss had sailed a forehand long. Federer had four break points to level the set in the next game but was foiled by Roddick's thunderbolt deliveries, one of which was measured at 145 miles per hour (233.3 kph). A 35-minute rain delay failed to put Roddick off and he kept up the relentless pace to win the first set when Federer slapped a forehand into the net after 31 minutes. Federer quickly turned things around in the second when two consecutive double faults from the U.S. Open champion gifted the top seed a break for a 2-0 cushion. With the momentum clearly behind him, the 22-year-old raced into a 4-0 lead as Roddick tried his best to recapture his form from the opening set. The American finally registered on the scoreboard in the fifth game after breaking Federer's serve on his fourth break point with a scorching forehand winner. Federer appeared to lose his focus and allowed Roddick to get back on level terms after mis-firing a backhand wide. But Federer took the set with a majestic forehand winner after breaking his opponent for the third time in the set. Roddick gained the psychological edge early in the third set with a break for a 2-1 lead when Federer whipped a forehand long to drop his serve for the fourth time in the match. MORE RAIN However, a second rain disruption, this time for 40 minutes midway through the set, allowed Federer to regroup. When play resumed, Federer wasted little time in attacking Roddick's serve and levelled for 4-4 after forcing the American to hit a forehand wide. Federer was at his sublime best in the tiebreak, clinching it 7-3 with a superb backhand down the line winner. Inexplicably, Federer started to struggle with his serve in the fourth set as Roddick desperately looked for a breakthrough. The Swiss survived a flurry of brutal blows from Roddick to save four break points at 1-2 down and two more in his next service game. Having survived the scare, Federer ruthlessly punished Roddick as the American dropped his serve to love in the seventh game. With Roddick left to shake the net in frustration, Federer kept his cool to seal victory in two hours 30 minutes. | Sports Competition | July 2004 | ['(Rediff News)'] |
Local tribesmen and Uzbek militants clash in South Waziristan, Pakistan, leaving at least 46 people dead. | Local and foreign militants fought a gun battle in north-western Pakistan, leaving at least 46 dead, the second such clash this month in a region where the government is urging tribesmen to move against al-Qa'ida-linked fighters. At least two children were also killed and about 20 wounded when a stray mortar from the fighting in South Waziristan hit their school bus.
The clash between Uzbek militants and tribesmen broke out near the town of Wana on Monday and continued yesterday, a senior military official and a senior government official said.
They did not have further details on the allegiances and identities of the 46 dead.
"According to our information, at least 46 people died in the fighting between militants and tribesmen on Monday and Tuesday," the military official said.
No Pakistan army spokesman was available for comment.
But the two officials, speaking in Islamabad, said the clash was between pro-government tribesmen and foreign militants.
A senior diplomat in the Pakistani Embassy in Washington saidtribal leaders had given foreigners an ultimatum to get out of the region or surrender. When the Uzbeks failed to leave, fighting broke out. However, a local intelligence official said the fighting was part of a feud among militant groups.
A clash between tribesmen and central Asian militants in South Waziristan earlier this month killed 18 people.
Pakistan's government, an ally in the US-led war on terrorism, has long urged tribesmen to expel central Asia and Arab militants and faces fresh US concern that al-Qa'ida is regrouping in an area also viewed as a haven for Taliban fighters operating in Afghanistan.
However, the local intelligence official said the latest clash was not a simple conflict between pro- and anti-government forces in South Waziristan.
He said the fighting broke out over the killing of an unidentified Arab with suspected links to al-Qa'ida, who was an ally of local tribesmen led by a pro-Taliban leader, Maulvi Nazir. The Arab's body was found near a road bridge on the outskirts of Wana.
Local militants blamed the death on the Uzbeks, triggering a gun battle between the two groups in Kalosha, a village west of Wana, he said.
Some 13 Uzbeks and seven local tribesmen were killed in the fighting, and 35 others were wounded.
Among the wounded were five women injured when a rocket hit their home, he said.
He added that during the clash a stray mortar had hit a school bus, killing six children and wounding 20.
However, another security official said only two children were killed. It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the different casualty tolls.
Pakistan's security forces have fought intense battles with foreign and local militants in recent years in the region as part of the government's efforts to crack down on al-Qa'ida and pro-Taliban forces.
But before this month, such clashes have rarely been reported. | Riot | March 2007 | ['(The Independent)'] |
An air raid on a peoplesmuggling convoy in Sudan in January killed 119 people. | An air raid in a Sudanese desert in January killed 119 people travelling in a people-smuggling convoy, the country's defence minister has said.
Abdul-Rahim Hussein told parliament that the attack was still under investigation, state media reported. Fifty-six smugglers died as well as 63 people wanting to emigrate, he said. Israel - battling Hamas in Gaza at the time of the attack - was suspected of being behind air raid, but has never explicitly confirmed any involvement. The attack happened near the border between Sudan
and Egypt, the state Suna news agency said. Gaza concerns
In his report, Gen Hussein said there were up to 1,000 people in the convoy involved in "a smuggling process at the border with Egypt", Suna reported. Among the convoy were people from Ethiopia and Somalia, the defence minister said. The air raid happened while Israel was engaged in intensive conflict in Gaza
in a bid to stop rocket attacks into Israel. Israel has long been concerned about weapons smuggling into Sudanese ports, up through Egypt, and then into the Gaza Strip by way of underground tunnels. In March, when news of the attack was first reported
, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: "There is no place that the state of Israel will not act, nearby and not that close." While not confirming Israel's role, correspondents said the remark was seen as a heavy hint that Sudan's suspicions were accurate. | Armed Conflict | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
U.S. federal authorities arrest militia leader Ammon Bundy and several of his followers following an exchange of gunfire at a traffic stop on U.S. Route 395 in Harney County, Oregon. One person, LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona and spokesman for the militia, was killed in the shootout. , | BURNS - Oregon standoff spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was killed and other leaders of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation were arrested Tuesday after the FBI and state police stopped vehicles about 20 miles north of Burns.
Authorities did not release the name of the person who died at the highway stop, but Finicum's daughter confirmed it was Finicum, 54, of Cane Beds, Arizona, one of the cowboy-hat wearing faces of the takeover.
"My dad was such a good good man, through and through," said Arianna Finicum Brown, 26, one of Finicum's 11 children. "He would never ever want to hurt somebody, buthe does believe in defending freedom and he knew the risks involved."
Ryan Bundy, 43, of Bunkerville, Nev., suffered a minor gunshot wound in the confrontation about 4:30 p.m. along U.S. 395. He was treated and released from a local hospital and was in FBI custody, authorities said.
Also arrested during the stop were his brother, Ammon Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho, Ryan W. Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont., Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nevada, and Shawna J. Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah. They were charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers, a felony.
Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore said that Ammon Bundy called his wife, Lisa Bundy, from the back of a police car on Tuesday night.
Gov. Kate Brown called for calm late Tuesday night. "The situation in Harney County continues to be the subject of a federal investigation that is in progress," she said in a statement. "My highest priority is the safety of all Oregonians and their communities. I ask for patience as officials continue pursuit of a swift and peaceful resolution."
Little detail was available about the dramatic finish to the free-roaming ways of the militant leaders. State police said troopers were involved in the shooting and that one person died, another suffered non-life-threatening injuries and no police were hurt.
The militants seized the wildlife refuge on Jan. 2, insisting they wouldn't leave untiltheir demands weremet, including the freeing of two Harney County ranchers jailed on federal arson charges.
One militant on Tuesday afternoon posted a video of Ammon Bundy talking earlier in the day with an FBI negotiator identified only as "Chris." The two have been negotiating since last week, with Bundy dictating the circumstances under which he would talk and what the group wanted.
The leaders were on the highway bound for John Day, where they were scheduled to participate in an evening community meeting set up by local residents. A crowd of several hundred had gathered at the John Day Senior Center and were subsequently told the the "guest speakers" would not be appearing.
The highway was blocked for a 40-mile stretch between Burns and John Day. Police were stationed near Seneca, a small city of 200 south of John Day, with long guns. They said they didn't know how long the roadblock would be place. Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer was there.
Palmer two weeks ago had met with Payne and Ritzheimer. He later publicly declared that Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven, should be freed from federal prison to help end the standoff. Palmer also has recommended that the FBI leave the Harney County scene and turn thematter to local police.
The armed militants took over the vacant headquarters compound at the refuge. They have been using refuge buildings for meetings and lodging, posting armed security guards.
The occupiers have been moving without police interference between the refuge and Burns, even attending a county-sponsored community meeting at the Burns High School a week ago. Police estimated at least 50 militants scattered through the crowd of about 400 people.
The dramatic event came days after local and state officialshad publicly complained about the apparent inaction by federal law enforcement. The governor had complained directly to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey as well as the White House. On Monday, Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, who chairs the county commission, also publicly urged police to resolve the occupation.
Payne and Bundy have been in and out of Harney County since November, aroused by the sentencing of the Hammonds. In October, they were ordered back to federal prison to finish five-year terms for deliberating starting fires that burned federal land in 2001 and 2006. Bundy and his followers had demanded that Harney County Sheriff David Ward protect the ranchers from having to surrender, a demand Ward rejected.
Gallery: Oregon standoff in Harney County overview
Payne and other militia met local residents in an informal meeting on New Year's Day in Burns, vowing they had peaceful intentions. The next day, about 300 people - a mix of militia and local residents - paraded in protest through downtown Burns, stopping at the sheriff's office and then stopping at the home of Dwight Hammond and his wife Susan.
That afternoon, a splinter group of militants drove out to the refuge, left vacant after federal authorities warned employees to stay away over safety concerns. Later, Payne confirmed in interviews with The Oregonian/OregonLive that the group had long planned to seize the refuge.
Besides demanding freedom for the Hammonds, the Bundy group wanted the refuge turned overto prior private owners and to the county. They insist that the federal government has no constitutional authority to control land in Harney County, a county that measures 10,000 square miles. The federal government controls 76 percent. The Bundy group also has encouraged ranchers to renounced their federal grazing permits, showcasing a New Mexico rancher Saturday at the refuge who did just that.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2016 | ['(CNN)', '(Oregon Live)'] |
Carlos Noe Gomez, the vice–president of Guatemalan football club Deportivo Xinabaju, is reported to have been shot dead by two men. | The vice-president of a Guatemalan football club has been shot dead, after receiving death threats over the team's poor performance.
Police said Carlos Noe Gomez of Deportivo Xinabajul was killed by two men who were waiting for him as he left a team meeting.
Xinabajul, based in the northern town of Huehuetenango, are at the bottom of Guatemala's national league.
Police are focusing on threats Gomez said he received several weeks ago.
National police spokesman Donald Gonzalez said Gomez was attacked late Friday. Guatemala's national league condemned the killing and called for a "serious and profound" investigation.
The killing follows that of Carlos Mercedes Vasquez, from the first-division club Malacateco.
He was found murdered in November last year after being kidnapped. The football star's dismembered body was found dumped in five plastic bags with a note accusing him of "messing with the women of others".
A suspect in the murder, Elmer Aroldo Zelada Galdamez, was arrested but freed in December by a group of armed men who stormed the prison in Malaceteco where he was being held.
Gunmen stage Guatemala jailbreak
Country profile: Guatemala | Famous Person - Death | February 2011 | ['(BBC News)'] |
It is suspected that Israeli jets bomb a military research facility near the city of Masyaf, Hama Governorate, killing at least two Syrian Army soldiers. The facility was rumoured to contain chemical weapons. | Syrian military appears to confirm media reports of attack on research centre near Mediterranean coast in night-time raid
Last modified on Sat 14 Apr 2018 18.53 BST
Israeli jets have reportedly bombed a Syrian government facility in north-west of the country believed to be associated with Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons programme.
The strikes were initially reported by Hebrew and Arab media sources on Thursday morning. A Syrian military statement appears to confirm the reports.
The airstrike on the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre was reported to have taken place overnight. Western intelligence reports have linked the centre near the town of Masyaf to Syria’s chemical weapons programme.
A statement from the Syrian military said the attack had occurred early on Thursday and hit a facility close to the Mediterranean coast. It said Israeli warplanes fired several missiles after entering neighbouring Lebanon’s air space.
“Israeli warplanes at 2.42am fired a number of missiles from Lebanese air space, targeting one of our military positions near Masyaf, which led to material damage and the deaths of two members of the site,” the army said in a statement.
It warned of the “dangerous repercussions of such hostile acts on the security and stability of the region”.
Syrian opposition sources said four Israeli warplanes were involved in the strike. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, along with others, identified the target as the al-Talai facility, a site that had been subject to US sanctions for its role in the Syrian non-conventional weapons agency.
The strikes follow a series of statements by Israel in recent weeks accusing Iran of seeking to establish itself in Syria and Lebanon and of building a weapons factory, as the six-year Syrian civil war has continued to swing in favour of Assad.Israel rarely confirms its strikes inside Syria but it has launched numerous strikes during the country’s civil war, usually against arms convoys and weapons storage sites associated with Hezbollah, a key Assad ally.
An Israeli army spokeswoman declined to discuss reports of a strike in Syria, but Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, tweeted that the reported attack was not routine and targeted a Syrian military scientific centre.
“The facility at Masyaf also produces chemical weapons and explosive barrels that have killed thousands of Syrian civilians,” he said. Amir Eshel, a former Israeli air force chief, suggested in August that Israel had conducted dozens of airstrikes on weapons convoys destined for the Hezbollah over the past five years.
Washington claims the al-Talai centre developed the sarin gas weapon allegedly used in a chemical attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun in April, which left about 80 people dead.
UN war crimes investigators announced on Wednesday they had an “extensive body of information” that indicated Syrian warplanes were behind the attack.
In a conference call with journalists, the former Israeli national security adviser Yaakov Amidror said the fact that the target was a Syrian military facility took Israeli intervention to a new level.
“I know the organisation and facility,” he said. “For many years it has been one of the Syrian centres for research and development for weapons systems including chemical weapons … and weapons that have been transferred to Hezbollah.”
The only logical explanation for the attack was that the facility was producing weapons systems for Hezbollah, he said.
Even before the outbreak of the war in Syria, the al-Talai centre was on Israel’s radar. The director of the Israeli national security council’s counter-terrorism bureau called for the destruction of the centre in 2010, alleging it had provided weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas.
Israel is conducting its biggest military exercise in 19 years on its northern border, involving tens of thousands of troops. It has been widely described as a dress rehearsal for a future war with Hezbollah, including civilian evacuation drills.
The strike, if confirmed, follows increasingly bellicose statements from senior Israeli government officials, including the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the advances Assad has made in the civil war, backed by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia.
Netanyahu accused Iran last week of building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, but the commentator Amos Harel suggested in Haaretz that the Israeli action may have been a message aimed as much at Washington and Moscow as Tehran and Hezbollah after Israeli disquiet over a Russian-backed partial ceasefire in Syria.
“The United States, whose interest in Syria has been on the decline, acceded to the Russian initiative. Washington and Moscow also failed to heed Israeli protests that the agreement to reduce friction in southern Syria failed to require Iran and allied militias to steer clear of the Golan Heights,” he wrote. | Armed Conflict | September 2017 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Andal Ampatuan Jr., charged with 41 counts of murder in the Maguindanao massacre in November, pleads not guilty at the beginning of his trial in the Philippines. | (CNN) -- A member of a politically powerful family in the southern Philippines pleaded not guilty to dozens of murder charges filled against him in connection with a November massacre in Maguindanao province, Philippine news outlets reported.
Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. pleaded "not guilty to all the 41 charges," Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, told reporters at Camp Crame where the trial is being held, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN said.
Ampatuan could face an additional 16 charges in the Nov. 23 massacre that killed 57 people.
Authorities have said the killings were part of a politically motivated attempt to keep an opponent of the politically powerful Ampatuan family from running for governor. Thirty journalists were among those killed.
Authorities raided a warehouse and ranch belonging to the Ampatuan family last month and confiscated firearms, ammunition and vehicles, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, deputy of operations for the eastern Mindanao command, said at the time.
Following the killings, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared martial law on Dec. 4 before lifting it eight days later, saying it had achieved its objectives.
Violence in the run-up to elections is not uncommon in the Philippines. The Maguindanao massacre, however, is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history, according to state media.
The victims included the wife and sister of political candidate Ismael "Toto" Mangudadatu, who had sent the women to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of Maguindanao. He said he had received threats from allies of Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the father of the accused mayor, saying he would be kidnapped if he filed the papers himself.
Maguindanao is part of an autonomous region in predominantly Muslim Mindanao, which was set up in the 1990s to quell armed uprisings by people seeking an independent Muslim homeland in the predominantly Christian Asian nation. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2010 | ['(Philippine Inquirer)', '(CNN)', '(AFP)'] |
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda says tomorrow’s presidential and parliamentary elections will be peaceful, and urges all registered citizens to vote. Seven candidates are vying to unseat President Museveni, who has been in office since 1986. | Ugandan Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda has assured Ugandans that Thursday’s presidential and parliamentary elections will be peaceful. He urged all registered Ugandans to turn out in droves.
The prime minister’s appeal comes as fears mount that Thursday’s vote could turn violent. But Rugunda said there is no cause to alarm.
“I personally encourage and the government encourages all the registered voters to turn out in big numbers to ensure that they vote for party and candidates of their choice and for parties of their own choice,” he said.
The reassurances come as reports say many Ugandans are fearful the elections could turn violent.
Ugandan police Tuesday blocked main opposition candidate Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and his supporters from accessing parts of Kampala to hold their party’s final rally before Thursday’s vote.
Prime Minister Rugunda described the incident as regrettable but says Besigye and his supporters were not supposed to campaign through the central business district of the capital.
“Besigye was going to the business district which was not part of the program and the [pre-determined] route that he was supposed to take, and the police said no you cannot come in the central business district because this will disturb the active business environment. Continue to take the route that you and the police had agreed on. So that was the incidence. It is regretted but came as the result of insistence on passing through a route that was not in the plan and not agreed upon with the police personnel,” Rugunda said.
Local media have reported that while insisting that Besigye could not campaign through the Kampala business district, the police have not enforced the same law when incumbent President Yoweri Museveni has done the same.
Prime Minister Rugunda said the police have been implementing the law, but there have been some instances where they have allowed some candidates to conclude their rallies beyond required time.
“The police officers who are in charge may sometime allow some candidates conclude their meetings, but all in all respect for time and the regulation about the election is indeed what has been followed by the candidates,” Rugunda said.
“The elections in Uganda are very competitive. The campaigns have been going at least for the last three months. They have been basically peaceful, and the elections tomorrow will be peaceful. The government and its agencies are ready to ensure that peace is kept and people vote without fear, without intimidation and select candidates of their choice, and therefore there is cause to alarm,” he said.
Local media report Besigye concluded his campaign Tuesday by urging his supporters to vote early and protect the vote. He said he had garnered enough support to win the election.
“Get to the polling stations early and ensure that by midday all our votes have been cast,” Besigye said, according to the local Daily Monitor newspaper.
He reportedly urged his supporters to stay at the polling stations until the results have been declared.
Seven candidates, including former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi are vying to unseat President Museveni who has been in power for 30 years. This is Besigye’s fourth campaign for president. | Government Job change - Election | February 2016 | ['(Voice of America)'] |
Six people die and more than 30 people are injured after a car bomb explodes in the centre of the Colombian Pacific port city of Buenaventura. | A car bomb has exploded in the centre of the Colombian Pacific port city of Buenaventura, killing at least six people, officials have said.
More than 30 people were hurt by the blast near the mayor's office and the local public prosecutor's building. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, though the army blamed left-wing Farc rebels. Armed groups and drug traffickers are active in the western port, which lies on a key cocaine-smuggling route. The explosion, which officials said occurred at about 0930 (1430 GMT), caused widespread damage to the city centre. "This is an unfortunate terrorist act," said army commander General Freddy Padilla, adding that he suspected it was the work of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
The governor of Valle del Cauca province, Juan Carlos Abadia, said the car had been left outside the government buildings overnight. President Alvaro Uribe, who leaves office this August, has pursued a tough security policy against the rebels during his years in office. They have been put on the defensive, but they are still able to carry out attacks. In recent months, the Farc has carried out a number of raids on military posts in Valle del Cauca in particular, officials say. Buenaventura, which has easy access to the coast, has over the years seen battles between guerrilla groups, drug traffickers and paramilitaries for control of lucrative smuggling routes. Wednesday's car bombing was the most deadly in Colombia since September 2008, when four people were killed in Cali, the capital of Valle de Cauca. | Armed Conflict | March 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Toronto Sun)', '(CNN)', '(ABC News)', '(TVNZ)', '(Radio Netherlands Worldwide)'] |
The death toll from the Indonesian tsunami climbs to 394 with 312 still missing. , | Mentawai Islands, Indonesia (CNN) -- The toll climbed to 413 dead and 298 missing four days after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Indonesia's coast, triggering a tsunami, officials said Friday.
The National Disaster Coordinating Agency said 270 people were seriously injured and 142 had minor injuries. More than 22,000 people have been displaced or affected by the tsunami, which swept up villagers and their homes without warning, the agency said.
The government is considering relocating some residents in the earthquake-prone islands near Sumatra, the state-run Antara news agency said.
Organization: Tsunami warning system worked
"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed me to draft a government regulation related to the relocation plan. We will discuss this matter soon after the emergency response period and rehabilitation of the impacted area are over," said People's Welfare Minister Agung Laksono.
It's been difficult to protect Indonesia's small islands with a tsunami warning system, but most of them will be covered by February 2011, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho of the Indonesian national board for disaster management. The effectiveness of a warning system also would depend on the size of a tsunami and residents' proximity to it.
Monday's tsunami destroyed or carried away 517 homes, officials said.
On the country's hard-hit Mentawai Islands, at least six of the 27 villages were "practically been flattened," state media said, citing the governor of West Sumatra.
The quake struck at 9:42 p.m. Monday, triggering a tsunami warning. Its epicenter was 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Padang, at a depth of 20.6 kilometers (12.8 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The magnitude was revised from a preliminary 7.5.
The remoteness of many Indonesian islands left residents without warning, and continued to limit communications and stymie rescue and recovery efforts.
Medicine and supplies being used to treat hundreds of injured residents are being depleted, Antara reported.
On Friday, four warships from the naval base in Padang, West Sumatra, were to arrive to offer aid to victims in the Mentawai islands, according to Antara.
The ships were carrying medical supplies and medical personnel from the marines, Antara said, citing Col. Indarto Budiarto. Volunteers, a helicopter and a plane also were aboard the ships.
The naval base in Padang had set up aid command posts in the Mentawai waters, as well as medical command posts for victims, Antara said. A cargo plane also was ferrying supplies.
The colonel also asked aid donors to channel supplies through the base in Padang.
"We are trying to prevent the accumulation of aid for Mentawai," he told Antara.
The United States will provide $2 million in humanitarian assistance in response to this week's tsunami and the eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano, which killed dozens and displaced thousands, the U.S. ambassador in Indonesia announced Friday.
The funds will be used to purchase relief items and help displaced people resume their lives, Ambassador Scot Marciel told students at the University of Indonesia, the embassy said in a statement.
Earlier Friday, the European Commission announced it was offering 1.5 million euro ($2.1 million) to help the victims of the tsunami and the volcano eruption.
"This envelope will help around 65,000 people in Mentawai and at least 22,000 people in Yogyakarta/Central Java," the European Commission said in a news release.
"Humanitarian partners will use these funds to provide water and sanitation to victims; access to primary health care and disease control; food and nonfood items; emergency telecommunications, emergency shelter; psychological support; logistics and will mainstream disaster preparedness," the release said.
The city of Padang and the Mentawai Islands are at the meeting place of two tectonic plates, making them vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis.
On December 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off northern Sumatra. A tsunami generated by that earthquake killed more than 225,000 people in 14 countries -- mainly India, Indonesia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The Indonesian region of Banda Aceh was hard-hit: About 150,000 died there. | Tsunamis | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
The Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio announces he is ending his presidential campaign, saying "I feel like I have contributed all I can to this primary election, and it's clearly not my time". | New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced he is pulling out of the Democratic race for the White House.
"I have reached a point where I feel I have contributed all I can to this primary," the 58-year-old said in an email to supporters. Observers say his campaign had failed to take off within a wide field of Democrats seeking to be selected as the party's presidential candidate.
Despite him dropping out 19 more remain in the race.
Mr De Blasio won a landslide victory in 2013 to become New York's first Democratic mayor in a decade. He implemented a programme of free universal pre-school and made police wear body cameras in the most populous city in the US. Mr de Blasio was rewarded for his efforts at the polls: re-elected in 2017 with more 66% of the vote. Still, New Yorkers did not get behind their mayor's presidential bid. A Quinnipiac poll from one month before he announced found that 76% of the city did not want him to run. Announcing his decision to leave the race, Mr de Blasio thanked supporters, describing his presidential campaign as a "profound experience". President Donald Trump tweeted about Mr de Blasio's announcement, saying sarcastically it was "really big political news".
Oh no, really big political news, perhaps the biggest story in years! Part time Mayor of New York City, @BilldeBlasio, who was polling at a solid ZERO but had tremendous room for growth, has shocking dropped out of the Presidential race. NYC is devastated, he’s coming home!
Mr de Blasio told MSNBC that a "central reason" for his decision was the Democratic Party's rules for qualifying for televised debates. "The bar is so high so early that for a lot of us - clearly, some of my fellow chief executives, governors - couldn't make that cut," he said.
He failed to qualify for a debate earlier this month that featured the 10 leading candidates for the party's nomination.
Bill de Blasio's presidential campaign has been described as "quixotic" - but even Cervantes' hero had a few imagined victories before the end. The New York mayor was a late entry to the race, started at the bottom of the pack and stayed there. De Blasio ran on a progressive platform, but progressives didn't like him. No one seemed to like him much. In fact, the New Yorker's negatives were higher than any of the other candidate in the field.
Perhaps Democratic voters weren't that keen on trading the current pugilistic New Yorker in the White House for one of their own.
There are now 19 Democrats left in the running, with former Vice-President Joe Biden currently ahead in the polls, followed by left-wing senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
The rest of the Democratic contenders have polled in single figures in most opinion polls.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Indian Air Force searches unsuccessfully for a helicopter containing Dorjee Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh state and four others. | New Delhi, India (CNN) -- India's air force unsuccessfully struggled to trace a helicopter carrying the top leader of a state bordering Tibet a day after it disappeared in the remote mountainous region, officials said Sunday.
The helicopter, belonging to the government-run Pawan Hans company, took off from Tawang for Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh state Saturday at 9.45 a.m. Authorities sounded an alert for it when it did not arrive for landing.
The helicopter, carrying Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu and four others, remains missing, said Avinash Kumar Mishra, the state's resident commissioner in New Delhi, Sunday.
He told CNN the search would resume Monday morning.
According to Mishra, the helicopter did not go outside Indian airspace into neighboring Bhutan, as some initial reports, rejected by officials later, suggested. "That's completely ruled out. It is missing within the Indian territory," Mishra said.
On April 20, at least 17 people were killed as a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in Tawang upon landing and caught fire, officials said.
Arunachal Pradesh has been the center of a tense struggle between India and China.
The two giant neighbors fought a brief but bitter border war in 1962 over the hill territory.
India insists Arunachal Pradesh is its "integral" and "inalienable" part. China lays claim to 90,000 square kilometers (34,750 square miles) of land in that Himalayan region governed by India. | Air crash | May 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
South Korea signs a new military plan with the United States to counter a possible incursion or a limited attack from North Korea. | South Korea has signed a new military plan with the US to counter what officials call North Korean "provocations". The plan provides for a joint response between both countries in the event of a limited attack from the North, officials say.
Help from the US - which has 28,000 troops in South Korea - has until now been optional in minor skirmishes. Regional tension remains high after the North's third nuclear test last month. The US already offers South Korea a "nuclear umbrella", but Cold War experts have pointed out that while nuclear deterrence may address the possibility of all-out war, it does not deter low-level incidents. Under the new plan, South Korea will be able to call on US assistance should Pyongyang follow through with its recent threats, for example to attack remote South Korean islands, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul.
"This allows both nations to jointly respond to the North's local provocations, with the South taking the lead and the US in support," South Korean defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said on Monday.
"It will have the effect of preventing the North from daring to provoke us," he added of the deal, which was signed on Friday.
The "provocative" acts that the plan seeks to address include incursions on the border and by low-flying aircraft, and attacks on border islands, says the Agence-France Presse news agency.
The new plan was conceived in 2010, after North Korea shelled a border island. A South Korean warship also sank that year, leaving 46 sailors dead. South Korea said North Korea torpedoed the ship, but Pyongyang denied this.
Last month the United Nations imposed fresh sanctions against North Korea following its nuclear test on 12 February.
Pyongyang has responded with escalating rhetoric both to this and US-South Korea joint military drills which it bitterly opposes.
It says it has scrapped the Korean War armistice and ended non-aggression pacts with Seoul. South Korea says North Korea cannot unilaterally dissolve the armistice and has called on Pyongyang to tone down its language. | Sign Agreement | March 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Unidentified gunmen try to assassinate Baha Balousheh, a security chief associated with Fatah, but instead shoot and kill his three children in the Gaza Strip. The assassination attempt may have been a revenge attack for the attempted assassination of Interior Minister Sayid Seyam of Hamas. | Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the attack by gunmen in Gaza City was "an ugly and inhuman crime". "Words stop at the extent of this crime," said the children's father, Baha Balusheh, who is linked to Mr Abbas's Fatah party. The gunmen fired dozens of bullets at the car in which the children, aged six to 10, were travelling to school.
An adult was also killed in the attack which took place in a street crowded with children. I am a father who has lost his children... This crime is a part of the terrorism which continues on Palestinian streets
Baha Balousheh
So far, no-one has admitted carrying out the drive-by shooting. The motive also remains unclear but Mr Balousheh's position means he would have made many enemies, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says.
Mr Balousheh led a crackdown on the now-ruling Hamas movement 10 years ago.
"I am a father who has lost his children... This crime is a part of the terrorism which continues on Palestinian streets," said Mr Balousheh who was not travelling in the car at the time. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum condemned the killings as an "awful, ugly crime against innocent children". The attack comes amid growing tension between the rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah.
It is bound to inflame the situation, the BBC's Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says.
The clear danger is that political differences will lead to an escalation of tit-for-tat violence, he says. On Sunday, gunmen shot at Interior Minister Saeed Seyam's convoy in Gaza. Mr Seyam, who is a senior Hamas leader, was unharmed in that incident.
Pandemonium
The attack happened as children were arriving at nine schools which line Palestine Street in Gaza City's central Rimal district.
The gunmen fired more than 70 bullets at the vehicle in which Mr Balousheh's children were travelling. At least two other children were hurt. Inside the vehicle with its blacked out passenger windows, the seats and a school bag were covered in blood.
There was pandemonium as hundreds of people ran for cover from the gunfire, with many young children being separated from parents and siblings. Fadwa Nabulsi, 12, said she was outside a school with her nine-year-old brother, Wael, when the shooting started. "We saw fire coming from one car. We started screaming and children started running. I was crying, and I lost Wael for about half an hour," she told Associated Press news agency.
A funeral procession for the children was held at midday, with thousands of people marching through the streets, including hundreds of pro-Fatah security officers, many of whom fired into the air.
Political stand-off
Mr Balousheh is considered a leading enemy of Hamas. He was the main interrogator of Hamas members during the 1990s crackdown on the Islamist movement.
Hamas won a landslide victory in elections in January but its funding has been choked off by Western donors because it refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.
Mr Abbas has been considering a request by his allies to hold early elections to resolve an impasse in efforts to form a unity government. | Armed Conflict | December 2006 | ['(BBC)', '(JTA)'] |
A series of moderate magnitude 4–5 earthquakes hit eastern Eritrea, preceding reports of a possible volcanic eruption. | . ASMARA, ERITREA (BNO NEWS) -- A series of moderate earthquakes struck the Eritrea - Ethiopia border region on Sunday evening, seismologists said, but it was not immediately known if there was damage or if there were casualties.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a total of 14 light to moderate earthquakes in the border area on Sunday evening, with the strongest being two 5.7-magnitude earthquakes which were both centered in Eritrea.
The series of earthquakes began at 6.37 p.m. local time (1537 GMT) when a 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck about 128 kilometers (79 miles) west-northwest of Assab, a port city in the Southern Red Sea region of Eritrea. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake.
The moderate earthquake was followed by seven light earthquakes between magnitudes 4.5 and 4.8 on the Richter scale during the next 2.5 hours. Those were then followed by three earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.7, 4.8, and 5.0.
Soon after, at 11.32 p.m. local time (2032 GMT), a moderate 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck about 123 kilometers (76 miles) west-northwest of Assab at a depth of 10.1 kilometers (6.3 miles). It was quickly followed by another 5.7-magnitude earthquake, as well as a 4.5-magnitude earthquake.
There were no immediate reports from the region, but the USGS said there was a possibility of damage and casualties as a result of the earthquakes. It estimated that some 18,000 people may have felt moderate to strong shaking as a result of the 5.7-magnitude earthquakes, while 3.6 million others were estimated to have perceived light shaking.
Earthquakes in Africa are rare, especially moderate earthquakes, but similar events have happened before in the region. On July 20, 1884, a strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck offshore Massawa, Eritrea. Scores of homes in the region were destroyed but there were no confirmed reports of fatalities. | Earthquakes | June 2011 | ['(The Lincoln Tribune)', '(Earthquake Report)'] |
A suicide bomber kills two policemen and a civilian, the second attack in four days for which the Taliban claims responsibility, while separately, three policemen are killed in a 'friendly fire' incident as US Vice President Joe Biden arrives for a visit in Afghanistan. | Insurgents Monday staged the second suicide bombing in four days in a strategic border district in southern Afghanistan, signaling determination to open a new front in the battle with coalition forces in volatile Kandahar province. Two policemen and a civilian were killed in the attack, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.
Separately, Western military officials acknowledged that the NATO force had apparently killed three Afghan policemen in an airstrike a day earlier, in the year’s first deadly instance of friendly fire. Afghan officials criticized a lack of coordination by Western troops.
The airstrike occurred in the same area on the border between the provinces of Daikundi and Oruzgan where a Western airstrike killed more than two dozen Afghan civilians almost a year ago after their vehicles were mistaken for an insurgent convoy.
The latest friendly-fire incident came as Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Afghanistan for a series of meetings to gauge the progress toward a drawdown of U.S. forces later this year and an eventual handoff of security responsibilities to the Afghans.
The unannounced visit was Biden’s first since January 2009, when he was vice president-elect. During that trip he clashed sharply with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, with whom he will be meeting this week.
“This is a pivot point in our policy,” a senior Obama administration official told reporters aboard Air Force 2 en route to Afghanistan. “We moved from a [troop] surge last year to the transition to Afghan lead that we’ll be starting this year and concluding in 2014. So what he [Biden] wants to do in the first instance is to assess the progress we’re making toward transition.”
U.S. officials worry that corruption in Karzai’s government is an obstacle to a stable, self-governing country that is not reliant on outside forces. And Karzai has his own complaints about his uneasy partnership with the U.S. Last week, he warned “our foreign friends” not to interfere in the internal affairs of his government, saying the Afghans don’t want any “meddling.”
The suicide attack in Kandahar province took place in the district of Spin Buldak, which borders Pakistan. Intelligence officials have warned that a Taliban group with suspected links to Al Qaeda has been operating from a base just across the frontier, in the Pakistani town of Chaman. NATO ground forces are not allowed to pursue the insurgents into Pakistani territory.
The Taliban group, thought to be led by Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, is also believed to be responsible for a suicide bombing Friday in a public bathhouse in Spin Buldak. That blast killed 17 people, including a senior officer in the province’s border police force. Zakir is a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who is now believed to play a senior role in the Quetta Shura, the Taliban leadership council based in the Pakistani city of that name.
Last year, U.S.-led forces largely drove Taliban fighters from three districts surrounding Kandahar city, which lies well to the north of the border. But the attacks in Spin Buldak, which had previously been relatively secure, suggest that insurgents intend to continue harrying Western and Afghan forces from across the frontier even during the winter months, which traditionally bring a respite from fighting.
Months of relative calm in Spin Buldak had been widely attributed to former warlord Abdul Razzaq, who has allied himself with the Americans and serves as the commander of border police in Kandahar province. Monday’s bomber apparently intended to target Abdul Razzaq’s force, but the attacker’s vehicle was spotted first by a contingent of national police, officials said.
Khan Mohammad Mujahid, chief of the national police in Kandahar province, said the assailant set off his explosives when police surrounded the car, killing two officers and a civilian nearby. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the Afghan police, provided a similar account, as did district officials in Spin Buldak.
The Taliban claim of responsibility, which came from Qari Yousef Ahmadi, the movement’s spokesman in the south, derided the border police as a “puppet” force. Abdul Razzaq has been targeted by the Taliban in the past.
The friendly-fire killings of the three Afghan police officers, and the injuries of four others, occurred when they were mistaken for insurgents laying an ambush, the NATO force said in a statement. It expressed regret for the deaths.
Gen. Murtazaqul Dilshad, police chief in Daikundi, said police were working in concert with teams of Western special-operations forces at the time, and blamed a lack of coordination.
The strike took place not far from the scene of a U.S. airstrike last February, also called in by special-operations forces, which left at least 27 Afghan civilians dead. That incident triggered a public outcry and angry protests from Karzai.
In another development, the White House said Monday that the American official in charge of investigating corruption in U.S.-funded projects in Afghanistan had resigned. Retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Fields, an appointee of President George W. Bush, was praised in a White House statement for service as special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction. But many congressional Democrats in recent months had asked President Obama to replace Fields, saying he and his staff had been lax in rooting out corruption.
| Armed Conflict | January 2011 | ['(Los Angeles Times)', '(The New York Times)'] |
The Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park is reported as having grown to nearly 200 square miles (~520 square kilometers). | GROVELAND, Calif.--The Rim fire continued to spread into Yosemite National Park on Saturday, burning more than 125,000 acres and threatening the power supply of San Francisco.
The fire was edging toward communities of Groveland, Pine Mountain Lake and Buck Meadows. Officials ordered parts of Groveland evacuated Friday afternoon.
The Rim fire, which is only 5% contained, destroyed nine structures and is threatening 4,500 more, according to a recent update by the U.S. Forest Service.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday night extended a state of emergency to include the city and county of San Francisco because of a threat to utilities.
PHOTOS: Rim fire rages near Yosemite
The governor’s declaration said the wildfire has caused damage to electrical infrastructure serving the city and county of San Francisco.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has been forced to shut down transmission lines, and the city and county could face further damage to water and electrical assets, which could result in the interruption of those services, according to the governor’s declaration.
American Red Cross spokesman Jordan Scott said that on Thursday, 102 evacuees stayed at the evacuation center set up at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds in Sonora. The center has a 1,000-person capacity.
“The general rule is you get about 10% of the number evacuated,” he said. “I don’t know whether we’ll hit that 10%.”
On Wednesday night, Scott said, volunteers were anticipating about 150 people, but 58 showed up.
He said that because many of the houses under evacuation advisories are vacation homes -- combined with the fact that residents are no strangers to wildfires -- many already have contingency plans in place.
Larry Brown, who was volunteering for the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Department, said the Rim fire was “coming in at a close second” to a rash of wildfires that scorched hundreds of thousands of acres throughout the state in 1987.
Four firefighters died battling those blazes, including one in the Stanislaus National Forest who was crushed by a falling tree. Tuolumne County was among the hardest-hit areas. | Fire | August 2013 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
President Donald Trump acknowledges that he will leave the White House on January 20 if the electoral college confirms Joe Biden's victory. | WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump still won’t bring himself to concede the election he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden. But he’s now acknowledging he will leave the White House if Biden’s win is affirmed by the Electoral College, which is firmly on track to do just that in a few weeks.
“Certainly I will,” he said Thursday when asked if he will vacate the premises after electors make Biden’s win formal. “But you know that.”
Trump, who took questions from reporters for the first time since the election, unleashed another round of complaints about the vote and theatrical warnings that “a lot of things” would happen before the Electoral College meets Dec. 14 that could possibly change results. But while he’s stirring uncertainty about how he will behave in the weeks ahead, there is no real suspense about the outcome.
All states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets and any challenge must be resolved by Dec. 8. States have already begun that process, including Michigan, where Trump and his allies tried and failed to delay the process, and Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Nothing stands in the way of Biden taking office Jan. 20 with a clear margin of electoral votes.
No concession is needed from Trump for Biden to become president, none has been offered and Trump may never admit he was beaten fair and square. But there were a few signs that Trump was coming to terms with his loss.
At one point he expressed concern that Biden would get the glory from pending coronavirus vaccines. “Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines,” Trump said, “because the vaccines were me, and I pushed people harder than they’ve ever been pushed before.”
The fact that a sitting American president even had to address whether or not he would leave office after losing reelection underscores the extent to which Trump has smashed one convention after another over the last three weeks. Vote certification at the local and state level is typically a ministerial task that gets little notice, but that changed with Trump’s fierce but fruitless legal challenges and attempts to manipulate the certification process in battleground states he lost.
No evidence has emerged of the widespread voting fraud that Trump and his legal team have repeatedly alleged, only to be slapped down by judges and state election officials.
Trump spoke to reporters in the White House’s ornate Diplomatic Reception Room after holding a teleconference with U.S. military leaders stationed across the globe. He thanked them for their service, joked that they shouldn’t eat too much turkey, then turned to the election after ending the call. He repeated grievances and angrily denounced officials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two key states that helped give Biden the win.
Trump’s administration has already given the green light for a formal transition to get underway. Yet Trump took issue with Biden moving forward.
“I think it’s not right that he’s trying to pick a Cabinet,” Trump said, even though officials from both teams are already working together to get Biden’s team up to speed.
Asked if he’ll attend the inauguration, Trump said he knows the answer but doesn’t want to say.
He said he’ll go to Georgia to rally supporters before two Senate runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. The White House said that rally is expected Dec. 5.
One of the reasons Republicans have stood by Trump and his baseless claims of fraud has been to keep his loyal base energized for those Jan. 5 runoffs. But Trump, in his remarks, openly questioned whether that election would be fair, casting suspicions that could dampen Republican turnout.
“I think you’re dealing with a very fraudulent system,” he said. “I’m very worried about that.” He said: “People are very disappointed that we were robbed.”
Trump made clear that he will probably never formally concede, even if he said he would leave the White House.
“It’s gonna be a very hard thing to concede,” he said. “Because we know there was massive fraud.” Electors “will have made a mistake” by affirming Biden’s win, he said.
Yet “time isn’t on our side.”
Will he run again in 2024? Trump said he doesn’t “want to talk about 2024 yet.” | Government Job change - Election | November 2020 | ['(AP)'] |
Two explosions rip through the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna killing at least 82 people. | By Garba Muhammed KADUNA Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 82 people were killed on Wednesday in two suicide bombings in the north Nigerian city of Kaduna, one aimed at opposition leader and ex-president Muhammadu Buhari and another at a moderate Muslim cleric about to lead a crowd in prayer. The attacks bore the hallmarks of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which considers all those who do not share its views to be enemies. But it may also have been linked to politics before the 2015 elections. In the deadliest attack, a bomber in a car full of explosives hurtled towards Buhari's convoy at the crowded Kawo market, his son told Reuters on the scene and police said later. A Red Cross official said at least 50 people were killed there. Buhari was the main opposition party contender against President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 election and remains a key figure in the opposition alliance. He was riding in an armor-plated sport utility vehicle and was not wounded. A crowd gathered at the scene of the explosion until the military dispersed them by firing shots in the air. Smoke rose from another vehicle destroyed in the blast. "When I came out of my car I saw many dead bodies littered around," Buhari said in a statement, calling the attack "mass murder" and "clearly an assassination attempt". Earlier, a suicide bomber on foot, targeting a moderate cleric, killed at least 32 of his congregation on a busy commercial road. Thousands were gathered for prayers with Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi in Murtala Muhammed square. When his convoy pulled up, the bomber lunged at him before being stopped by his private security, witnesses and police commissioner Shehu Umar Ambursa said. Kaduna's governor, Mukhtar Yero, declared a 24-hour curfew in the city until further notice and condemned the bombs as "the height of cowardice". "The enemies of peace have visited us with their ungodly venom of wanton destruction," he said in a statement. "Those behind the act have no notion of God, as they have none for the sanctity of human life." President Jonathan in a statement called it "an odious attempt to inflame passions and exacerbate disquiet, fear, insecurity and sectional divisions in the country." BOKO HARAM SUSPECTED The bomber did not injure Bauchi, several witnesses told Reuters. Mustafa Sani, a volunteer for Bauchi's mosque evacuating bodies, said 32 were confirmed dead so far. "Somebody with a bomb vest ... was blocked. He detonated the bomb along with the person that tried to block him," the police commissioner said, adding police had been able to confirm 25 dead, with 14 wounded. Police later said just 14 died in the second blast, but they often give lower casualty tolls than workers on the scene. The military used pick-up trucks to cordon off the area. Sirens wailed as fire engines raced to the scene. An angry crowd started throwing stones at police, who responded with teargas. Some followers had come from Senegal, Chad and Niger to see the popular sheikh. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast, but Boko Haram has been staging attacks, especially with explosives, outside its northeastern heartland for the past three months. [ID:nL6N0PO17O] The main Islamic association, Jama'atu Nasril Islam, called the bombings "acts of terror" and said Nigeria was becoming "a theatre of loss of blood for no just cause". The United States condemned the bombings and expressed concern that the blasts had targeted Bauchi and Buhari. "We call on Nigerian authorities to fully investigate these attacks," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement. "We urge all Nigerians to avoid reprisals and continue to practice the interfaith cooperation that violent extremists seek to undermine." Since launching an insurgency in 2009, the militants have often attacked clerics, such as Bauchi, who take issue with their Salafist ideology. If Boko Haram is responsible for Wednesday's attacks, it underscores the risks moderate clerics take speaking out against it. The insurgents, who are fighting to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria, have repeatedly targeted civilians, mostly in remote northeastern Borno state. They killed more than 2,000 civilians during the first half of this year, Human Rights Watch estimated a week ago. The Islamists attacked the northeastern town of Damboa and surrounding villages over the weekend, killing at least 50 people. [ID:nL6N0PX5KV] The rebellion has been in the international spotlight since Boko Haram fighters kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in the northeastern village of Chibok on April 14. Jonathan met parents of the abducted girls, and some other girls who had escaped, for the first time on Tuesday. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau last week claimed responsibility for two explosions on June 25 at a fuel depot in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, that killed at least two people. [ID:nL6N0PO0RH] A military offensive since May last year that was meant to dismantle their hold on the northeast has caused the militants to react in two ways: brutal attacks on civilians in the region have surged dramatically, and efforts to strike out in areas far from the rebel strongholds have resumed. A blast in the central city of Jos, 170 km (105 miles) east of Kaduna, killed 118 people in May.
| Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(Yahoo News)'] |
AMC Theatres is purchasing London–based Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group in a deal valued at about £921 million ($1.21 billion). AMC has 385 theaters with 5,380 screens, most in the United States. Odeon & UCI has 242 theaters and 2,236 screens in the U.K. and Ireland. AMC noted its $1.1 billion (£835 million) acquisition of Carmike Cinemas (276 thrs/2,954 scrs) (of Columbus, Georgia) is still in the works. | AMC Entertainment Holdings said Tuesday that it had reached a deal to acquire Europe's largest theater chain as the company's Chinese owner continues its acquisition spree.
AMC, which is majority-owned by Dalian Wanda Group Co., said the deal for London-based Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group is valued at $1.2 billion based on stock and cash compensation and the assumption of debt.
Separately, AMC said it is still committed to its $1.1 billion acquisition bid for competitor Carmike Cinemas, a deal which it delayed recently amid dissension among Carmike shareholders over the transaction price.
The Odeon & UCI deal would add 242 theaters, 2,236 screens and $1.2 billion in annual revenue to AMC's portfolio. Odeon & UCI sells 90 million tickets annually with No. 1 market share in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy and Spain, according to AMC.
AMC currently operates 385 theaters with 5,380 screens, mostly in the U.S.
AMC Theatres buys Carmike Cinemas to create largest chain
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire Europe’s leading cinema chain and create the world’s biggest and best theater operator,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. "With this opportunistic transaction, AMC will be extending the reach of our proven guest experience strategies to transform the movie-going experience for millions of moviegoers in Europe."
AMC said it would pump up Odeon & UCI's operation with its own growth strategy focused on recliner seating, large auditoriums, improved food and drink options and "pricing expertise."
The deal comes as AMC is hoping that Carmike shareholders will vote Friday to approve its acquisition bid at $30 per share.
Aron warned that there's "considerable risk" that the Carmike deal will collapse.
China's Wanda buys U.S. film studio Legendary for $3.5 billion
"Some Carmike shareholders have an unrealistic view as to Carmike’s value to AMC, and their resulting price expectations are simply beyond what AMC believes is prudent to pay," Aron said. "We have said all along that AMC is a disciplined buyer, and that very much continues to be the case."
Dalian, AMC's China-based owner, has rapidly expanded its foothold in the global entertainment business, having also recently reached a deal to acquire U.S. movie student Legendary Entertainment. | Organization Merge | July 2016 | ['(AP)', '(USA Today)'] |
Barack Obama, the President of the United States, signs a memorandum expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to 490,000 square miles, making it the biggest marine preserve in the world. | President Barack Obama is carving out a wide swath the Pacific Ocean for an expanded marine preserve, putting the waters off-limits to drilling and most fishing in a bid to protect fragile underwater life.
The revamped expanded Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument will cover 490,000 square miles - an area roughly three times the size of California - and will become the largest marine preserve in the world. Millions of seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals live in the bio-rich expanse included by the new monument, which will also add new protections for more than 130 "seamounts" - underwater mountains where rare or undiscovered species are frequently found.
The move to broaden the George W. Bush-era preserve comes as Obama seeks to show concrete presidential action to protect the environment, despite firm opposition in Congress to new environmental legislation. At the United Nations this week, Obama announced new U.S. commitments to help other nations deal with the effects of climate change, as world leaders seek to galvanize support for a major global climate treaty to be finalized next year in Paris.
"We hope the steps taken today by the U.S. government will accelerate similar actions by a growing list of coastal nations to protect more of the world's great ocean treasures," said Matt Rand, who heads the ocean program at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Obama will sign a memorandum expanding the ocean preserve on Thursday, the White House said. Secretary of State John Kerry was also to discuss the announcement during an event Thursday on ocean sustainability in New York.
The president signaled his intent to expand the monument in June and asked for input on the final boundaries from fishermen, lawmakers and scientists. Officials said they received more than 170,000 electronic comments on the proposal.
The memorandum bans commercial fishing, deep-sea mining and other extraction of underwater resources, by recreational fishing will continue to be allowed. White House officials said they decided to allow some fishing in an attempt to preserve and encourage the public's access to federal areas.
While a major symbolic victory for environmentalists, who long urged Obama to take this step, the designation will have limited practical implications. That's because little fishing or drilling are taking place in the region even without the new protections.
The expansion also falls far short of what Obama could have done had he used the full extent of his powers.
Maritime law gives the U.S. control up to 200 nautical miles from the coast. Under Bush, the U.S. set aside waters extending about 50 miles from the shore of an array of U.S.-administered islands in the south-central Pacific, thousands of miles from the American mainland.
The islands sit between Hawaii and American Samoa and are divided into five regions. Obama is extending the preserve to the full 200 miles - but only for three of the five regions.
Had Obama expanded the preserve in all five regions, he could have protected more than 780,000 square miles, according to a geographic analysis by Pew. | Sign Agreement | September 2014 | ['(AP via ABC News)'] |
The Parliament of Libya orders the closure of Libya's southern borders with Chad, Sudan, Algeria and Niger while declaring seven southern regions restricted military areas to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and goods. | Libya's parliament has ordered the temporary closure of southern borders and declared seven southern regions restricted military areas.
A parliament spokesman, Omar Humidan, said the move was aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigrants and goods.
There was no indication of how long borders with Chad, Niger, Sudan and Algeria would remain shut.
Libya's southern regions have struggled with lawlessness since former leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled last year. One member of parliament, Suad Ganur, said the situation had deteriorated recently because of possible international military action against Islamist militants in northern Mali.
She also told AFP news agency that there had been an "upsurge in violence and drug trafficking, and the presence of armed groups that act with complete impunity". The move comes after the European Union proposed to help train Libyans to secure their southern borders and prevent the trafficking of arms from the country.
The parliamentary decree said the southern regions of Ghadames, Ghat, Obari, Al-Shati, Sebha, Murzuq and Kufra would be "considered as closed military zones to be ruled under emergency law".
The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says it is unclear what this latest decree means in practice because - in the continued absence of a conventional national army - most provinces and cities effectively rule themselves.
There was little sign of any change after the government declared a military area in the mountains near the western city of Zintan earlier this year, our correspondent says.
Also on Sunday, gunmen killed four policemen in an attack against a police station in the eastern city of Benghazi. Officials said they thought the attack was linked to the detention of men suspected of involvement in a series of recent assassinations. At least two members of the security forces were killed in a separate incident in the town of Bani Walid, a was a stronghold for Gaddafi loyalists during the uprising against his rule.
| Government Policy Changes | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Peruvians vote in presidential elections with the most likely result a runoff between Ollanta Humala and either Pedro Pablo Kuczynski or Keiko Fujimori. , , , | Peru's presidential election will go to a second round on 5 June, pitting former army officer Ollanta Humala against Keiko Fujimori, daughter of disgraced ex-leader Alberto Fujimori.
No candidate received the 50% needed to secure victory outright in the first round on Sunday. With 75% of votes counted, Mr Humala has 29.3%, while Ms Fujimori has 22.9%. Observers from the Organization of American States say no major logistical difficulties affected the election.
Former Minister of the Economy Pedro Pablo Kuczynski received 21.1%.
Former President Alejandro Toledo is also contesting the election.
Outgoing President Alan Garcia could not stand for a second term and his Apra party did not put forward a candidate. Peru is enjoying an economic boom and the campaign focused on how to maintain growth while tackling widespread poverty.
Mr Humala, 48, who came second to Mr Garcia in 2006, campaigned on a promise to increase the state's role in the economy and redistribute wealth to Peru's poor majority. His critics have compared him to Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez, but he has emphasised links with Brazil's governing Workers' Party. Keiko Fujimori, 35, appealed to voters who still admire her father, president for a decade from 1990. He is now serving a 25-year jail sentence for corruption and organising death squads. She has defended his record, saying by taming hyper-inflation and defeating Marxist Shining Path rebels, he laid the basis for Peru's current economic boom. The prospect of a run-off between Mr Humala and Ms Fujimori has worried some Peruvians, including the Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, who has said it would be like "choosing between Aids and cancer".
Mr Vargas Llosa is an outspoken critic of left-wing politics and himself stood for president in 1990 only to be defeated by Alberto Fujimori. On the eve of the election, Apra gave its support to Mr Kuczynski, 72. | Government Job change - Election | April 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Newsday)', '(New York Times)', '(BBC)'] |
Voters in the Maldives go to the polls for a presidential election with Abdulla Yameen winning the election with 51.3% of the vote. | Abdulla Yameen will be sworn in as the Maldives new president today after his surprise win over former leader Mohamed Nasheed in the election run-off.
Mr Yameen secured 51.3 percent of the popular vote compared to 48.6 percent for Mr Nasheed in Saturday's poll.
It ended a contest wracked by lengthy delays.
Despite the acrimonious campaign, Mr Nasheed conceded defeat and said he would not challenge the results of an election monitored by international observers.
"I graciously accept defeat," Mr Nasheed told reporters in the capital Male in a late night address.
"We lost by a very small margin. Democracy is a process. It is up to us to make it work." He added: "The MDP (Mr Nasheed's Maldives Democratic Party) has always asked for a government elected by the people. Today is a happy day for the Maldives. We now have an elected government." The election commission said an inauguration ceremony would take place on Sunday and a special session of parliament had also been organised.
Mr Yameen is the half-brother of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the archipelago for 30 years.
Mr Nasheed won a first vote on September 7 with 45 per cent, but the result was scrapped by the Supreme Court which upheld a complaint about voter list irregularities.
After another attempt to hold the poll was blocked, a re-run of the first round took place on November 9.
Mr Nasheed won by a larger margin of nearly 47 per cent, but still not enough for an outright victory.
A run-off election announced for the day after by the independent Election Commission was again cancelled by the Supreme Court, which is dominated by judges named during Mr Gayoom's three-decade rule.
AFP We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Government Job change - Election | November 2013 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
Several people have been shot dead in the Swiss town of Würenlingen in Aargau canton northwest of Zurich. , | Five people have been found dead after a shooting in a town in northern Switzerland, including the suspected gunman, police said Sunday. Residents heard shots in the town of Wuerenlingen shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, police said. Officers then found five bodies in a quiet residential neighborhood. The shooting appears to have been a “relationship crime,” or the result of domestic dispute, Aargau canton (state) police chief Michael Leupold said at a news conference. Police “were able to rule out a terrorist background” or any other danger, he added. The suspected gunman first killed three people a 58-year-old man, a 57-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man in a house, criminal police official Markus Gisin said. He is then believed to have killed a 46-year-old neighbor outside the house before shooting himself. The victims in the house were the parents-in-law and brother-in-law of the suspected gunman, a 36-year-old who lived in Schwyz canton (state), south of Zurich. All were Swiss nationals. The gunman’s wife and three children weren’t targeted in the shooting. Wuerenlingen is a town of some 4,500 people northwest of Zurich, near the German border.
| Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Los Angeles Times)'] |
An Egyptian court sentences university student Ahmed Bassam Zaki to an additional eight years in prison for sexually assaulting and blackmailing at least three women between 2016 and 2020. The case led to a public debate about sexual harassment and abuse within the country. Zaki was previously sentenced to three years in prison by a different court in December. | CAIRO, April 11 (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced a university student to eight years in jail for sex crimes, judicial sources said, in a case prompted by a social media campaign that opened up a rare public debate on sexual harassment.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Palestinian militants fire rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel severely injuring an elder. Israel launches a missile strike in return, killing two Palestinians. | Two Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, medics say, while an Israeli has been hurt by a rocket fired from there.
A militant was targeted as he launched rockets from northern Gaza overnight. Another man later died near Jabaliya.
An explosion also killed a six-year-old boy in Khan Younis on Saturday. Medics blamed an Israeli air strike, but the Israeli military denied responsibility.
Meanwhile, more than 20 rockets have been fired into southern Israel.
An Israeli man was moderately wounded on Saturday morning when a Qassam rocket hit the roof a factory in the Sderot industrial zone.
The Israeli military's chief of staff, Lt Gen Benny Gantz, has convened "an urgent meeting" to discuss ways of dealing with the rocket- and mortar-fire, which has continued despite efforts this week to agree a ceasefire.
Overnight, the Israel Air Force struck two targets in the Gaza Strip, including the militant preparing to launch rockets. About 20 people, some of them civilians, were wounded.
A man was later killed east of Jabaliya, also in the north, medics said.
Officials from the Hamas militant group, which governs Gaza, said another Israeli air strike killed a six-year-old boy at a football pitch near the southern town of Khan Younis, and wounded two other people.
They also said a baby was wounded in a separate attack in Rafah.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said an initial examination showed that it was not involved in the death of the boy. She suggested the cause could have been a misfired Palestinian rocket.
She had no immediate comment on the report about the baby.
The BBC's Jon Donnison in Ramallah reports that the ceasefire announced on Wednesday never really took root. Hamas seems to have refrained from firing rockets itself for the last three days but smaller militant groups have continued to do so, he says.
Although neither Hamas nor Israel's leaders say they want an escalation, there is always a fear the fighting could get out of control, our correspondent adds.
It is more than three years since Israel's last major offensive in Gaza, in which some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, as well 13 Israelis.
As it happened: | Armed Conflict | June 2012 | ['(The Jerusalem Post)', '(BBC)'] |
Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki becomes the new world number one during the 2010 China Open. | BEIJING (Reuters) - Caroline Wozniacki became the first Danish tennis player to be crowned world number one when she beat Czech Petra Kvitova 6-3 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the China Open Thursday.
The 20-year-old dethroned American Serena Williams, who has not played since winning her 13th grand slam title at Wimbledon in July, when Kvitova smacked a service return into the net.
A jubilant Wozniacki held her arms aloft in celebration as Tina Turner’s hit “Simply the Best” blasted out of the PA system in Beijing’s Olympic tennis center.
“Being number one has always been a dream for me,” a beaming Wozniacki told the cheering crowd after being presented with a an oversized number 1 made of flowers.
The Dane become the 20th woman to top the standings since their inception in 1975. However, Wozniacki is the third player in the last two years to have reached the pinnacle of tennis without winning one of the four grand slam titles.
Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic and Russia’s Dinara Safina are still without a major title despite topping the rankings in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
At 4-1 up in the first set, Wozniacki dropped two games before overpowering Kvitova -- but only after a quiet word from her father.
With the score at 5-3, Piotr Wozniacki came on to the court to spur on his daughter.
‘KEEP FIGHTING’
“He told me to try to get a lot of first serves in. He said she’s still there, that she’s a good player. So I should just keep fighting no matter if she comes back or not,” Wozniacki said.
Related Coverage
The Liverpool football supporter was quick to defend her achievement from the critics of the ranking system -- which seems to reward quantity over quality as Williams has been usurped despite winning two of the four slams this year.
“A grand slam is definitely my next goal now that I’ve achieved becoming number one in the world -- one of my big dreams,” she said.
“I’m still young, so I still have a lot of time ahead of me. I’ve had a fantastic season, and I think I can be proud of this. It’s an incredible feeling for me right now to say that I’m number one in the world,” added Wozniacki, who next faces former number one Ana Ivanovic.
WTA chief executive Stacey Allaster was among the first to congratulate Wozniacki.
“It’s not surprising that Caroline’s incredible athleticism, discipline, dedication to training, and razor sharp focus have gotten her to world number one,” she said in a WTA statement.
Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion, said winning a grand slam tournament had brought her more satisfaction than the top ranking.
“I remember when they told me I was going to be number one, and I was very, very excited about it,” the 22-year-old Serbian said.
“But I remember I was even more hungry to win a grand slam. Grand slams definitely bring more satisfaction. If I’m never number one again but win another few grand slams, I’ll be more than happy.”
Editing by Pritha Sarkar and Alison Wildey
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Sports Competition | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Russia wins 2012 IIHF World Championship. | The 2012 IIHF World Championships wrapped up Sunday with Russia continuing its recent dominance earning its third gold medal in five years with a 6-2 victory over Slovakia. Russia won all 10 of its games of the tournament and scored 44 goals to lead all teams. It was the first team since the Soviet Union in 1989 to win every game in regulation.
Leading the way in the gold medal game were Alex Semin (two goals, one assist), Pavel Datsyuk (one goal, two assists) and Alex Ovechkin (two assists). Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves and won all eight of his starts to finish with a 1.77 goals-against average and .939 save percentage.
Evgeni Malkin earned MVP honors for the tournament after netting 11 goals and 19 points in 10 games. He scored the final goal for Russia on a lovely individual effort:
Throughout the tournament, the Slovakian players paid tribute to Pavol Demitra, the hockey great who perished in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl airplane crash last September. Some players wore his No. 38 on their equipment and others sported T-shirts with his picture on them under their jerseys.
Zdeno Chara paid his own tribute to Demitra after the game.
Chara, who scored both Slovakia goals Sunday and was named "Best Defenseman" in the tournament, and named "Player of the Game" from his side. During the postgame, he wore Demitra's jersey:
Even before Sunday's victory, Russia cemented its place atop the IIHF's rankings. The results of the tournament also confirmed the groups for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
The Russians will be grouped with Slovakia and the United States. Group B will feature Finland, Canada and Norway, while the Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland make up Group C. A fourth country in each group will come through final qualification next February.
Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy
Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman, stars of Saturday Night Live when the show was in its infancy, appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen Thursday, where they spoke about the fight between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase in 1978. After leaving the show, Chase had returned to host. Murray and Chase exchanged some deeply hurtful words following dress rehearsal, which soon resulted in a physical altercation just minutes before Chase took the stage to deliver the monologue. “I think Jane and I, and Gilda both witnessed it,” Newman said. “But, ya know, it was very sad and painful and awful.” “It was that sad kind of tension that you would get in a family,” Curtin added, “and everybody goes to their corners because they don't want to have to deal with the tension, and it was uncomfortable. You could understand, you know, there were these two bull mooses (sic) going at each other, so the testosterone was surging and stuff happens.”
Sam Presti wins again.
The G.O.A.T. is serving some serious summertime vibes ahead of the Olympics.
In a clip from the series “Covid and the Vaccine: Truth, Lies and Misconceptions Revealed” making the rounds on social media Thursday, the former Utah Jazz guard brags about his supposed expertise on the coronavirus pandemic. Sometimes your hero’s crush your heart…..thank god this mofo meant nothing to me.
Only the low 60 players and ties earn weekend tee times at America's national championship.
Bears quarterback Justin Fields recently praised QB1 (for now) Andy Dalton for taking the rookie under his wing. But one this Fields said raises eyebrows. “I think there was one day after OTAs, I was throwing extra after practice, and he stayed out there specifically just to see maybe what I was doing wrong and [more]
The Warriors need luck in regards to getting the fourth selection, and then they need this player to be available ...
From Slovenia, Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic addressed the departure of team president Donnie Nelson.
As is normally the case when an All-Star is involved, some have started proposing Kemba Walker deals to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Dallas Mavericks hell week continues; coach Rick Carlisle quits 10 days after saying he wants to return
Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart and Tristan Thompson gave special shout-outs to Kemba Walker on social media after the Celtics traded the popular point guard Friday.
Here's what fans and analysts are saying about Friday's big trade.
Anderson forced overtime and won it for a Canadiens lead.
Seth Curry was a man on a mission to begin the third quarter against the Hawks on Friday night.
Days after being fired as Pelicans head coach, Stan Van Gundy reacted on Twitter by defending his former players.
Seth Curry saved the Philadelphia 76ers' season.
After Suns completed the sweep, Phoenix star Devin Booker tweeted a screenshot of the viral video.
The Warriors might have the NBA's most attractive trade package. But at the moment, there isn't anyone available who is worth that price.
Former Celtics center Kendrick Perkins explains why he loves the Kemba Walker trade for Boston.
The Celtics shook up the NBA landscape Friday morning by trading Kemba Walker to the Thunder for old friend Al Horford. Chris Forsberg shares his reaction to the blockbuster transaction. | Sports Competition | May 2012 | ['(Yahoo! Sports)'] |
Slovakia and Ukraine agree to a deal that will allow gas from Central Europe to reach Ukraine via Slovakia. | Slovakia and Ukraine have agreed a deal that will allow gas from Central Europe to reach Ukraine via Slovakia.
Under the deal Slovakia will reinstate a disused pipeline that will be capable of supplying 3 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year to Ukraine.
Ukraine has been looking for alternatives to Russian gas, which last year accounted for around a half of its 55bcm consumption.
In April, German energy firm RWE began deliveries of gas via Poland.
Under that deal RWE can supply up to 10bcm of gas a year. Russia has almost doubled the price of gas for Ukraine, following the toppling of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich in February.
Also, Ukraine owes Russian gas firm, Gazprom $2.2bn (£1.3bn) for supplies of gas.
The two nations are in dispute over that debt and Ukrainian officials are concerned that Gazprom could just cut off the nation's supply of gas.
Ukraine was hoping that Slovakia would be able to open more capacity, by reversing the direction of gas in the main pipeline from Russia to the West.
But Slovakian authorities are concerned that would break the terms of its contract with Gazprom.
"I am convinced that this solution is the first possible and realistic one, and one which does not threaten the energy security of Slovakia and other EU countries," Slovak Economy Minister Tomas Malatinsky said in a statement, on Saturday.
The deal is due to be signed in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, later on Monday.
| Sign Agreement | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
An Arizona woman in Scottsdale is arrested at Target after pulling face masks off the displays. | An Arizona woman immediately dubbed "QAnon Karen" on social media was arrested after she pulled all the face masks off a display at a Scottsdale area Target. When employees told her to stop, she refused, claiming they let "everyone else" do that and they only targeted her because she is a blonde White woman wearing a $40,000 watch. In another video shared, the woman told police officers she was sent by President Donald Trump himself and is a spokesperson for QAnon.
The first video, filmed by the woman herself, begins with her looking at the face masks display and declaring she has been "looking forward to this moment my whole f— life." She then swung her arm to knock off each face mask from the racks, declaring this "s— is over" repeatedly. Two Target employees approached the woman to tell her to stop. She refused, telling them they are letting "everyone else" do the same thing. "Why can't I do it? Because I'm a blonde White woman? F— wearing a f— $40,000 Rolex? I don't have the right to do this?" she yelled.
This woman in Scottsdale, Arizona was super upset with Target for selling face masks. So upset in fact, that she attacked their display....pic.twitter.com/ye9LiDz0JH
Another clip, published on Instagram Live — this time to her company, The Brand Consortium — shows the woman's interaction with police officers. She told the officers she was "hired" to be a "QAnon spokesperson" and refused to give the officers any "classified" information. She told the officers to call Trump and that she is on the phone with him "all the time." She claimed she was "wired" and refused to put her phone down because she was recording.
The woman also told the officers the video was being live-streamed to "millions" of viewers, even though the video showed less than 100 people were watching live on her Instagram account. The officers told her to turn around as they finally cuffed her. At that point, she yelled, "You're doing this to me because I'm Jewish" repeatedly and yelled out, "This is Nazi bulls—."
Continued...
Police came to her house and she was arrested on IG Live saying she is a spokesperson for QAnon & the White House and wanted the police to “call Donald Trump and ask him” because she can’t share any “classified information.”
We’re doomed...
While this woman claimed the coronavirus pandemic "is over" during her tirade, it is not, particularly in Arizona. On Sunday, the Arizona health department reported 3,536 new cases and four deaths. The total number of cases in the state since the pandemic began sits at 98,089 and 1,809 people have died. The state set a single-day high in both deaths and cases on Wednesday, when 4,878 cases and 88 deaths were reported, according to KTAR.
"QAnon" is a far-right conspiracy theory centered on the idea that there is a "deep state" within the U.S. government trying to undermine Trump's administration. The theory includes several unsubstantiated and false claims. Lauren Boebert, a Rifle, Colorado restaurant owner who allows her wit staff to carry guns and has said she believes in QAnon, won the Republican primary in Colorado's Third Congressional district race. Trump congratulated her on the surprise win, writing, "Congratulations on a really great win!" | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2020 | ['(popculture.com)', '(New York Daily News)'] |
An earthquake of 5.8 magnitude is felt on Puerto Rico. | WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake hit in western Puerto Rico on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The quake occurred at 1:16 a.m. local time (0516 GMT) at a depth of 68 miles (110 km). It was centered about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and 67 miles (107 km) west of San Juan.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Earthquakes | May 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(AP)'] |
Islamic State releases a video purporting to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines. | Follow NBC News Terrorist group ISIS released a video Saturday purportedly showing the execution of British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines.
If confirmed, it is the third time the organization, which has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria, beheaded a captive and released a video of the execution, intending to send a message to Western nations. Britain recently said it would send machine guns and ammunition to Iraq to help that government battle the militants, and it is weighing whether to participate along with the U.S. in possible airstrikes in Syria against the terror group.
Haines, 44, like others in taped executions by the terror group, is forced in the new video to read a script in which he blamed his death on British Prime Minister David Cameron and the British government’s decision to join the U.S. in its battle against ISIS.
A black-clad, masked militant holding a knife then says the execution is in retaliation for Britain’s decision to supply arms to Kurdish fighters battling ISIS in Iraq.
After the murder, another captive is shown and the executioner warns Cameron "you ... will have the blood of your people on your hands,” if the U.K. continues to ally with the U.S. in its campaign against the group.
Cameron called the execution "an act of pure evil."
"This is a despicable and appalling murder of an innocent aid worker. It is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to the family of David Haines who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude throughout this ordeal," the prime minister said.
"We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes," Cameron added.
President Barack Obama said, "The United States strongly condemns the barbaric murder of UK citizen David Haines” and offered his condolences to the family and the country.
“The United States stands shoulder to shoulder tonight with our close friend and ally in grief and resolve. We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice, and to degrade and destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world,” Obama said in a statement.
Haines, a father of two, was reported abducted in early 2013 in Syria while working for an aid group.
His brother, Mike Haines, said in a statement that David was "murdered in cold blood." He remembered the former Royal Air Force aircraft engineer and humanitarian worker as "just another bloke" and a "good brother" who adored his children.
"David was most alive and enthusiastic in his humanitarian roles. His joy and anticipation for the work he went to do in Syria is for myself and family the most important element of this whole sad affair," Mike Haines said in a statement on behalf of the family. "He was and is loved by all his family and will be missed terribly."
The statement said David Haines participated in United Nations missions in the Balkans, and those experiences made him want to pursue humanitarian work.
ISIS released a video Sept. 2 showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, who was kidnapped in Syria in August 2013. Another American journalist, James Foley, was executed and a video was released Aug. 19.
The murder of David Haines is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to his family who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude.
We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.
U.S. strongly condemns the barbaric murder of UK citizen David Haines by the terrorist group ISIL. | Armed Conflict | September 2014 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Following yesterday's conviction of scientists for their failure to predict the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, Luciano Maiani—head of Italy's disaster body—resigns in protest at the harsh treatment of his colleagues. | Luciano Maiami resigns after seven members of his committee are sentenced to jail for underestimating L’Aquila quake.
The head of Italy’s top disaster body has resigned in protest after seven of the organisation’s members were sentenced to six years in jail for manslaughter for underestimating the risks of a deadly 2009 earthquake.
Luciano Maiami told Italy’s ANSA news agency that he had quit as head of the Major Risks Committee because “there aren’t the conditions to work serenely,” a day after the watershed ruling that sent shockwaves through the international scientific community.
The seven defendants are appealing Monday’s ruling by the court in the medieval town of L’Aquila in central Italy, an area devastated by the April 2009 earthquake that killed 309 people. Maiami, one of Italy’s top physicists and a former head of the top partical physics laboratory Cern in Geneva, criticised the verdict as “a big mistake”.
“These are professionals who spoke in good faith and were by no means motivated by personal interests, they had always said that it is not possible to predict an earthquake,” he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“It is impossible to produce serious, professional and disinterested advice under this mad judicial and media pressure. This sort of thing doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.
“This is the end of scientists giving consultations to the state.”
All seven defendants were members of the Major Risks Committee which met in L’Aquila on March 31, 2009 – six days before the 6.3-magnitude quake devastated the region that left thousands homeless.
Under the Italian justice system, the seven remain free until they have used two chances to appeal the verdict, but the ruling has sparked outrage among the world’s scientific community which says it has set a dangerous legal precedent.
‘Incredulous’
Maiami said the committee’s deputy head was also set to resign.
Michael Halpern of the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists said that without the right to speak freely and independently, they become vulnerable to scapegoating and persecution.
“Scientists need to be able to share what they know – and admit what they do not know – without the fear of being held criminally responsible should their predictions not hold up,” he said in a blog.
The seven Italians will appeal their sentence in hearings set for the final months of 2013, according to Marcello Melandri, lawyer for Enzo Bosci, who was the head of Italy’s national geophysics institute at the time of the earthquake.
“We will wait to read the grounds for the verdict and then the defence lawyers will work on the appeal, hoping for a better outcome,” he said.
“I am still incredulous, I keep thinking about it and ask myself why,” he said, referring to judge Marco Belli’s decision to give the scientists a harsher sentence than called for by the prosecutor.
The defendants were also ordered to pay more than $12m in damages to survivors.
‘No danger’
In L’Aquila and the surrounding towns, where rubble from crumbled houses and churches still lies in vast piles in off-limit zones, survivors and families of those killed said they were shocked by the global reaction.
“There has not been any trial against science,” said Anna Bonomi, spokeswoman for the 3and32 survivors’ group which has campaigned for justice.
“If anything, there has been a trial against a system of power,” she said, referring to the widely-held belief that the government had conjured up a media-friendly reassuring message to calm skittish citizens before the earthquake.
“They may convince Italians [that the trial was unfair] but they will not convince us residents: they played with people’s lives.”
The government committee met after a series of small tremors in the preceding weeks had sown panic among local inhabitants – particularly after a resident began making worrying unofficial earthquake predictions. Italy’s top seismologists were called in to evaluate the situation and the-then deputy director of the Civil Protection agency Bernardo De Bernardinis gave news interviews saying the seismic activity in L’Aquila posed “no danger”.
He advised local residents to relax with a glass of wine. About 120,000 people were affected by the earthquake, which destroyed the city’s historic centre and medieval churches as well as surrounding villages.
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