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Christopher Speight, an American man suspected of shooting and killing eight people in Appomattox, Virginia, surrenders to police. | A man suspected of shooting dead eight people in rural Virginia has given himself up after a manhunt in which a US police helicopter was fired on.
Bomb teams are searching the area for explosive devices which may have been planted in the man's house and surrounding woods. Police said medical examiners would try to identify the victims once the area has been secured. The suspect is reported to have been personally acquainted with the victims. The man, named as Christopher Speight, 39, turned himself in at about 0710 (1210 GMT) after an all-night stand-off with police, who had surrounded woodland just outside the town of Appomattox. The local sheriff said Mr Speight was wearing a bullet-proof vest when he surrendered, but was not armed and did not need any medical attention. Police are searching the area where he was hiding overnight for a high-powered rifle they believe he used to shoot at a helicopter which had been called to the scene. The helicopter's fuel tanks were hit by four bullets, forcing it to land. A sheriff said he believed that the suspect had had weapons training, based on arms found in the house. Mr Speight has been taken to Appomattox regional jail, pending charges. A spokesman for Virginia's governor said the suspect was being debriefed and was being very co-operative, although a motive for the shooting was still being investigated.
News of the shootings broke on Tuesday afternoon and everyday life in the area was paralysed, with local schools closing down as police hunted for the gunman. The authorities were first alerted when they received a call about an injured person lying in the middle of a road. When a deputy arrived at the scene, he heard gunfire and called for back-up. The injured man was taken to hospital where he died of his wounds. Police from across the state were brought into the densely wooded area, which is about 100 miles (160km) south-west of Virginia's capital, Richmond. Police dogs and a National Guard helicopter with thermal imaging equipment were used to search the woods.
Mr Speight is the co-owner of the house in Snapps Mill Road, where the first reported victim was found. He also owns a large tract of land next to the house. The Washington Post quoted local officials as saying two of the dead were believed to be his wife and son. Police found three bodies inside the house and another four outside. The eighth victim was the man found injured in the street. County Administrator Aileen Ferguson said it was one of the worst mass killings in Virginia's history, "probably the worst since the Virginia Tech killings in 2007", when a student shot 32 people . | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A NATO helicopter crashes near Sangin in Afghanistan's Helmand Province under hostile fire with four troops being killed. , | KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- A NATO helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, a spokesman for the NATO-led ISAF alliance said.
The helicopter carrying coalition service members went down in the Sangin district of Helmand province, but few details were immediately available. A spokesman for the regional government, Dawood Ahmadi, said the aircraft crashed due to hostile fire.
Mainly British troops are stationed in Sangin district, but a spokeswoman for the British Ministry of Defence was not immediately able to confirm nor deny if the helicopter was carrying British troops.
It was unclear if there were any casualties.
| Armed Conflict | June 2010 | ['(BNO News)', '(AP via MSNBC)'] |
Serbia's war crimes court rejects an appeal from former Bosnian Serb Colonel General Ratko Mladi against a transfer to a United Nations tribunal in The Hague to face genocide charges. | Serbia's war crimes court has rejected Ratko Mladic's appeal against his transfer to the UN tribunal in The Hague to face genocide charges. The Belgrade court took just hours to make its decision after receiving the appeal papers on Tuesday morning.
Gen Mladic's lawyer posted the appeal on Monday, saying the former Bosnian Serb commander needed medical attention and was too ill to face trial.
Doctors who examined him on Friday said he was fit enough to be extradited. The 69-year-old was seized last Thursday in Lazarevo village, north of Belgrade, having been on the run for 16 years.
Gen Mladic is accused of crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian war, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys.
Now the appeal has been rejected, Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said Gen Mladic would be sent to the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague "as soon as possible".
The extradition order must first be signed by Serbia's justice minister, who will hold a news conference later on Tuesday, prompting speculation Gen Mladic could be put on a flight to The Hague later in the day, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade.
From there, he is expected to be flown by helicopter to the ICTY detention unit in the city's Scheveningen neighbourhood.
Once he has arrived at the tribunal, there will be an initial hearing before preparations begin for his trial on genocide and other charges.
Despite a decision by a Belgrade court that Gen Mladic was fit enough to be handed over to the UN court, defence lawyer Milos Saljic said earlier he would request another independent medical examination, saying his client's health had deteriorated since his arrest.
Serbian court officials had earlier dismissed the claim of ill health as a delaying tactic, dismissing as unfounded media reports that Gen Mladic had hearing difficulties and that his right arm was paralysed - possibly as a result of a stroke.
Earlier on Tuesday Gen Mladic had been allowed to visit the grave of his daughter Ana, albeit under heavy security.
Ana Mladic committed suicide in 1994 aged 23, reportedly shooting herself with her father's favourite pistol after she read about his alleged crimes in a magazine. During the 20-minute visit to her grave, Gen Mladic lit a candle and he left a small white bouquet of flowers with a red rose in the middle, said Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor, Bruno Vekaric. Gen Mladic's arrest is considered crucial to Serbia's bid to join the European Union.
Darko Mladic has said his father had told him he was not responsible for the killings in Srebrenica, committed after his troops overran the town in July 1995. Following the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in 2008, Gen Mladic became the most prominent Bosnian war crimes suspect still at large.
He was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague in 1995 for genocide over Srebrenica - the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II - and other alleged crimes.
Having lived freely in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, he disappeared after the arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2001.
On Sunday, thousands of people rallied in Belgrade against his arrest, hailing the general as a Serbian national hero and decrying the pro-Western government of President Boris Tadic for arresting him.
About 100 people were arrested during clashes with police.
The government will hope Gen Mladic's departure will quell any further demonstrations by his supporters, adds our correspondent. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via The Guardian)'] |
Both President Ali Bongo Ondimba and his main challenger, former Foreign Minister Jean Ping, say they won yesterday's election for a seven-year term as president. Official results are expected Tuesday. | LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Supporters of Gabon’s President Ali Bongo and his chief rival both said on Sunday they were set to win a presidential election that poses the most serious challenge yet to the Bongo family’s half-century rule in the tiny, oil-rich nation.
Backers of the president and his main challenger, Jean Ping, also traded accusations of fraud allegedly committed during Saturday’s vote, raising the prospect of increased tension in the wake of an uncharacteristically bitter campaign.
At a large gathering of supporters at his campaign headquarters in the capital, Ping, 73, distributed figures showing him handily beating Bongo.
“The general trends indicate we’re the winner of this important presidential election,” Ping told backers and reporters. “Despite numerous irregularities ... you have managed to thwart this regime’s congenital traps of fraud.”
Interior Minister Pacôme Moubelet-Boubeya, who had already warned candidates that giving results before the official declaration was against the law, condemned Ping’s announcement.
“The candidate Jean Ping has just carried out an attempt to manipulate the democratic process,” he said in a statement distributed late on Sunday.
Official results are expected on Tuesday.
Bongo, 57, who first won election after his father Omar died in 2009 after 42 years in office, has benefited from being the incumbent in a country with a patronage system lubricated by oil largesse.
Gabon’s one-round election means the winner simply requires more votes than any other candidate. In 2009, Bongo won with 41.73 percent of the vote.
Addressing Ping’s declaration, Bongo warned his rival against pre-empting the result by claiming victory before an official announcement.
“You must not sell the skin of the bear before you’ve killed him,” he said, speaking at one of his campaign offices in Libreville. “In any case, I am confident.”
Minutes earlier, his spokesman Alain Claude Bilie By Nzé told journalists that Bongo was leading in five of Gabon’s nine provinces.
In comments broadcast overnight on state-owned television, the spokesman went even further, stating that Bongo was poised to win another term in office.
“Even if no figure can or should be given at this stage, we are, in light of information we are receiving, able to say that our candidate ... will claim victory,” he said.
Bilie By Nzé also said “massive fraud” had been observed during the vote, particularly in polling stations located in opposition strongholds.
The interior ministry on Sunday acknowledged fraud had been noted in some polling stations. But it offered little detail and said that the process remained “satisfactory and positive”.
An oil producer with a population of less than two million, Gabon is one of Africa’s richest countries.
However, declining oil output and falling prices have resulted in budget cuts and provided fodder for opposition claims that the average person has struggled under Bongo’s leadership. His re-election bid was also hobbled by a series of high-profile defections from the ruling party.
Ping, one of 10 candidates contesting the poll, is a former foreign minister and African Union Commission chairman, who was a close ally of Omar Bongo.
Some opposition supporters have called into question Bongo’s Gabonese nationality, claiming he was adopted from eastern Nigeria as a baby, a charge that risks fuelling xenophobic sentiment and which the president denies. | Government Job change - Election | August 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Two men die and ten others are injured in a mass shooting at a Halloween party in Greenville, Texas. | Two people are dead and 12 others were injured when a person, who remains at-large, opened fire Saturday night into a crowd of hundreds attending a party in Greenville, east of Dallas.
Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks said Sunday morning that two people were fatally shot when a gunman entered The Party Venue on Saturday night and opened fire with a 9mm handgun. The private event space west of Greenville was hosting more than 750 people who gathered, some of them to celebrate during Texas A&M University at Commerce's homecoming weekend.
The identities of the two people who were killed have not been officially released, however, family members of the two victims identified them to NBC 5 as Byron Craven Jr. and Kevin Berry.
The latest news from around North Texas.
A total of 14 people were injured or killed in the shooting and the commotion that followed. Eight of those people were shot, two fatally, and the remainder had cuts and bruises from trying to escape, Hunt County Sgt. Jeff Haines said.
"It was utter chaos," Haines said.
The injured people were transported to area hospitals.
Five victims, ranging from 19 to 21 years old were being treated at Medical City Healthcare facilities. Four victims were at Medical City Plano.
A hospital spokeswoman said two were listed in critical condition. Two others were in good condition.
One patient was taken to Medical City Denton and was listed in critical condition.
Witnesses Chauntel Vital and Cherise Sierra said they heard about the party on social media and drove to Greenville from Fort Worth.
"It was like pop, pop, pop. It was like four shots," Vital said.
"I could hear, like, windows breaking and people screaming for their lives," Sierra said.
In a written statement, Texas A&M Commerce President Mark Rudin said that four of the school's current students were treated and released from local hospitals. The extent of their injuries was not clear.
Sophomore Darrick Childs said he originally planned to attend the party, but decided not to go.
"One of my friends I know for sure that got hit, so I'm worried about her, but I'll see her when she gets back," Childs said. "Everybody is feeling the same thing right now. We're confused and we don't know why it happened. We don't know what happened."
Others on campus asked similar questions. Some students, like freshman Richard Almazan, woke up to the news in the middle of the night.
"My RA came and knocked on my door. I think it was like 3 a.m., and he was knocking like, 'I just want to make sure you're OK,'" Almazan said. "He was knocking on other people's doors to make sure they were OK."
Chief Deputy Buddy Oxford with the Hunt County Sheriff's Department said at a news conference early Sunday morning that the shooter is at-large, his identity is unknown and that no motive is known for the shooting.
He added that a description was also not yet available and that witnesses are "not being cooperative," saying they didn't see anything.
Meeks said it "appalls me" that with so many witnesses, there is not a better description of the shooter, and the sheriff encouraged people to come forward with information.
"Extremely difficult," Haines said. "If we don't have a witness who can tell us who the person is, we don't know where the investigation needs to go."
Oxford said deputies were called to the venue at about 11:30 p.m. after learning cars were being illegally parked along Highway 380. After about 15 minutes, deputies began hearing gunshots and called for assistance.
Meeks and Oxford both said in separate news conferences the scene was chaotic as hundreds of people began running from the building, making it difficult for deputies to determine where the shots were coming from and to locate the shooter.
"When shots were fired it was complete chaos as people fled for safety and deputies attempted to locate the shooter," Meeks said.
A patrol sergeant who had responded to the scene saw someone with life-threatening injuries, loaded the person into his vehicle and took the person to the hospital. Another deputy on scene triaged the injured, Meeks said.
Graphic video posted online showed several people unresponsive on the ground and bleeding, some receiving CPR, while other people can be heard screaming in the background.
"I'm looking for the first exit. That's all I saw," one witness told NBC 5. "I went straight for the window and hopped out the window."
One of the attendees told NBC 5 he was inside when the shooting began. He said he fell to the floor, got up an ran before exiting out a window. He said he must have been very close to what happened because he had a lot of blood on his clothes.
When the shooting subsided, officials said deputies found two people dead inside and a dozen others wounded; the gunman was nowhere to be found.
"We were here, like, coming to celebrate something and then something like this happens," witness Sierra Vital said. "I guess this is just the world that we live in now, so it kind of hurts."
Those injured in the shooting were from Fort Worth, Arlington, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Commerce and Greenville, according to Oxford. The victims were taken to hospitals in Greenville, Quinlan, Commerce, Lake Point and Rowlett. Three people were airlifted from the scene to Plano Medical City Hospital.
Texas A&M University Commerce Police tweeted early Sunday morning there was no active shooter situation on campus, which is about 18 miles away from the party location, and that "there was an event outside Greenville that may or may not have involved students at this time."
The school later confirmed that four of its students were treated and released from area hospitals; the school did not confirm if the two people killed were students.
The party was not thought to be a sanctioned homecoming event. Officials said a uniformed, off-duty Farmersville ISD officer provided security at the party.
The officer was at the front of the building when the shooting started, Meeks said.
He said Sunday morning that officials think the shooter may have entered through the back door and may have targeted one victim before firing at random.
"The overcrowdedness of it gave the opportunity to this shooter to accomplish whatever he wanted to accomplish," the sheriff said.
Texas A&M Commerce is expected to hold classes Monday on a regular schedule. Walk-in counseling services will be available to all students at the counseling center at the Halladay Student Services Building.
Greenville is in Hunt County, about 40 miles northeast of Dallas.
NBC 5's Claire Cardona, Candace Sweat, Ben Russell, Diana Zoga, Yona Gavino, Lili Zheng and Noelle Walker contributed to this report. | Armed Conflict | October 2019 | ['(KXASTV)'] |
A heavily armed militia takes over a runway at the Tripoli International Airport, demanding the release of their leader who went missing. | Libyan forces have regained control of the main airport in Tripoli, after an armed militia overran the runway demanding their leader's release. Dozens of the militiamen who drove armoured trucks onto the runway forcing flight diversions have been arrested, Libya's deputy interior minister said. Earlier, gunfire was heard when troops and other militias entered the airport to oust the brigade.
The al-Awfia brigade had refused to leave until their demands were met.
It is unclear exactly how the stand-off was resolved and whether the government made concessions to the brigade. The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli earlier witnessed armoured vehicles carrying security forces and militiamen from various armed brigades entering the airport to evict the occupying force.
There have been no reports of casualties, although Omar Khadrawi, Libya's deputy interior minister, said a hangar had been blown up and a field set alight. "The authorities have complete control over the airport," Mr Khadrawi told journalists in Tripoli. He described the militia that occupied the runway as saboteurs. The group, from the town of Tahrouna in western Libya, began the occupation in protest against the disappearance of one of their commanders. It is not clear where the man is or whom he is being held by. "One of their leaders yesterday was coming to Tripoli with two tanks, and at an inspection point they found no documents... so they took the guns and tanks from him and he returned back," Mohammed el Harezi, a spokesman for the Libyan government, told the BBC.
"Then suddenly this guy, he was kidnapped, he disappeared. So this is the group who supported him. They came to the airport asking for his release and they thought he might be in the airport area," he added. The spokesman said that the force agreed to leave after negotiations. The brigade had placed a pick-up truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun underneath each of the six planes on the tarmac, our correspondent says.
Airport sources told the BBC that at least three airlines had to cancel their flights.
Several international airlines have resumed flights to Libya since the end of the conflict which toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya's interim government took control of the airport in Tripoli in April, taking over from militia fighters who held control until then.
Tripoli says the international airport will be shut for the next 24 hours to resolve technical issues.
The incident comes as Libya's governing National Transitional Council prepares to hold elections for a constituent assembly in the coming weeks. | Armed Conflict | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
French Minister of Ecology Barbara Pompili announces that mink farms and the use of wild animals in circuses will be phased out, and the breeding and importing of dolphins and killer whales at marine parks are banned effective immediately. | France s environment minister has announced a gradual ban on using wild animals in traveling circuses, on keeping dolphins and killer whales in captivity in marine parks and on raising mink on fur farms.
Barbara Pompili, France's minister of ecological transition, said in a news conference Tuesday that bears, tigers, lions, elephants and other wild animals won't be allowed any more in travelling circuses “in the coming years.”
In addition, starting immediately, France’s three marine parks won’t be able to bring in nor breed dolphins and killer whales any more, she said.
“It is time to open a new era in our relationship with these (wild) animals,” she said, arguing that animal welfare is a priority.
Pompili said the measures will also bring an end to mink farming, where animals are raised for their fur, within the next five years. The ban does not apply to wild animals in other permanent shows and in zoos. Pompili did not set any precise date for the ban in travelling circuses, saying the process should start “as soon as possible.” She promised solutions will be found for each animal “on a case-by-case basis.” The French government will implement an 8 million-euro ($9.2 million) package to help people working in circuses and marine parks find other jobs.
“That transition will be spread over several years, because it will change the lives of many people," she said. | Government Policy Changes | September 2020 | ['(The Independent)'] |
The U.S. Treasury imposes sanctions on the Lazarus Group and two of its affiliates, accusing them of being responsible for several recent cyberattacks under direction from North Korea's RGB intelligence agency. | The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on a notorious, if opaque, constellation of North Korean hackers believed to be responsible for dozens of cyberattacks around the world, including the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures.
The sanctions targeted what is known as the Lazarus Group and two subgroups dubbed Bluenoroff and Andariel. The Treasury Department said all three are controlled by North Korea’s primary intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB).
The announcement comes a month after a U.N. panel said North Korea had stolen up to $2billion from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges through cyberattacks and used the proceeds to fund programs developing weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea has denied allegations of orchestrating cyberattacks and cyberheists.
Security experts believe the Lazarus Group stepped up its activity after U.N. sanctions were imposed on North Korea over its nuclear program, effectively starving the government of revenue.
“Treasury is taking action against North Korean hacking groups that have been perpetrating cyber attacks to support illicit weapon and missile programs,” said Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement. “We will continue to enforce existing U.S. and UN sanctions against North Korea and work with the international community to improve cybersecurity of financial networks.”
The Treasury Department said the North Korean hackers had targeted governments, the military, financial institutions, entertainment and manufacturing companies, international shipping companies and critical infrastructure.
It was not the first time Washington has hit Pyongyang with sanctions over cybercrimes, nor is it likely to be the last.
“This is yet another indication of how forward-leaning the U.S. government’s position has become in a relatively short period of time on doing attribution of malevolent cyber actors,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and chief technology officer of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that has tracked North Korean hacking groups for more than a decade. “A few years ago, this type of action would have been unprecedented. Today it is routine.”
It is unclear how much impact the sanctions will have.
In November 2014, the Lazarus Group specifically Andariel wiped data off 3,000Sony computers, released embarrassing emails, and threatened violence and more attacks if Sony did not pull a satirical film depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the RGB after the attack, but the malicious acts continued.
Last year, the Justice Department charged Park Jin Hyok, an alleged North Korean government hacker in connection with the attempted cybertheft of $1billion from the Bangladesh Bank in 2016, the Sony attack and the WannaCry virus.
The RGB was involved in the WannaCry ransomware attack that affected 300,0000 computers in more than 150 countries in 2017, the largest ransomware attack in history.
U.S. declares North Korea carried out WannaCry attack
And from about 2014 to the present, Bluenoroff has continued to carry out cyber heists against foreign banks to generate revenue for the cash-starved regime, in particular to fund its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, the government said. According to industry experts, by last year Bluenoroff had attempted to steal more than $1.1billion from banks and had successfully carried out such operations in Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Chile and Vietnam.
The same group also targeted the SWIFT interbank messaging system and cryptocurrency exchanges such as bitcoin. In one case, according to the Treasury Department, hackers from Bluenoroff and the Lazarus Group requested more than three dozen fund transfers through SWIFT, totaling $851million. The transfers were foiled only because a typographical error alerted officials to the attempted theft.
Andariel was accused of hacking automatic teller machines to withdraw cash or to steal customer data to sell on the black market. The Treasury Department said Andariel had developed malware to hack online gambling sites and steal cash. The hackers were sophisticated enough to get into the personal computer of South Korea’s defense minister and his agency’s websites to obtain military intelligence.
“Do I think North Korea will change their ways? I think that’s a hard road. I think that’s fairly unlikely,” said John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis for FireEye, another cyberthreat-analysis firm. He noted that financial cyber theft “is a lifeline for the regime” now. “It’s not really about them projecting power. It’s about them funding themselves to survive.”
Nonetheless, he said: “Calling this stuff out even if we can’t be sure that it will make a difference is worth doing. It illuminates the threat. And anytime we face a threat like this, the best thing the government can do is inform the victims and get the information out there.”
U.S. Cyber Command supported Treasury in the operation by providing North Korean malware samples linked to the cyberattacks, part of the standard coordination between agencies in sanctions cases.
Cyber Command has been sharing more of the intelligence it has gained through operations overseas with the private sector, with the Department of Homeland Security aiding such disclosures.
North Korea has accused Washington of conducting a smear campaign based on lies and for a while threatened to undermine talks between President Trump and Kim.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2019 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
An official report released after five years of research by the Dresden Historians' Commission states a reduced figure of as many as 25,000 people died in the 1945 bombing of Dresden. | DRESDEN: An official commission on the controversial Allied bombings of Dresden during World War II has concluded that up to 25,000 people were killed, fewer than often estimated.
After more than five years of research, the Dresden Historians' Commission released its final report on the firestorm unleashed by British and US bombers from February 13 to 15, 1945, only three months before the end of the war in Europe.
The study is meant to resolve a bitter, decades-old debate in which far-right groups charge that up to 500,000 people were killed in the air assault on the baroque city known as Florence on the Elbe. Conservative estimates had put the death toll at about 20,000.
The panel was convened in November 2004 by the then mayor, Ingolf Rossberg , in an attempt to put the issue to rest. The commission reviewed records from city archives, cemeteries, registries and courts and checked them against published reports and witness accounts.
The figure of 25,000 matches conclusions reached by local authorities immediately after the war, in 1945 and 1946.
The report also found that the number of refugees fleeing the horrors of the eastern front who were killed in the bombing was lower than often presumed and dismissed speculation that many victims' bodies were never recovered.
Critics of the raids say they were strategically unnecessary because Germany was already on its knees and that they targeted civilians rather than military objectives.
The commission said its conclusions had far-reaching implications for history's understanding of the war's final chapter and how Germans saw their own role in it.
''Remembering the Allied bombings of Dresden … still carries importance for the social-political understanding of how history is seen, how society is shaped, and how identities are formed,'' it said.
''In this debate, the number of people killed in the raids on Dresden has long been a crux of the argument that is key to certain views.''
The raid on Dresden, previously almost untouched by the Allied air assault on Nazi Germany, sparked a firestorm that destroyed much of the historic city.
Last month about 6400 neo-Nazis rallied on the 65th anniversary of the bombing raids. They aimed also to stage a ''funeral march'' but about 12,000 counter-protesters blocked them. | Armed Conflict | March 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(USA Today)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Argentinian voters go to the polls to elect a new president. Though the margin is lower than what opinion polls predicted, Alberto Fernández of the left-wing Justicialist Party beats incumbent Mauricio Macri of the center-right Republican Proposal. Macri becomes the first president in Argentinian history to lose his reelection bid. | Left-leaning Fernandez hails government of people, but central bank currency move shows no quick fix to economic woes.
Buenos Aires, Argentina – Argentina on Sunday elected Alberto Fernandez its new president in the hope of a reprieve from the country’s crushing economic crisis, but just hours later the central bank imposed significantly stricter controls on the purchase of US dollars underlining the scale of the economic challenge he faces.
The Peronist ticket of Alberto Fernandez and former populist president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner won a decisive victory over the incumbent Mauricio Macri, a conservative, in the highly-anticipated poll.
Fernandez’s win unleashed euphoria in parts of Buenos Aires, as supporters cruised the streets honking their car horns, and a wave of people surged towards the neighbourhood of Chacarita, where the official victory party was being held.
Speaking to supporters at his party’s headquarters, Fernandez thanked voters for showing a commitment to building a more equal Argentina.
“We’re going to be the Argentina that we deserve because it’s not true that we’re condemned to this Argentina,” he said.
“We’re going to enter the world with dignity. The government is back in the hands of the people!”
Macri conceded defeat and invited Fernandez for breakfast to begin the transition process.
“The only thing that matters here is the future and well-being of Argentines,” he told his crowd of supporters, promising a “constructive opposition”.
But after the victory speeches, the central bank revealed that as of Monday, a maximum of $200 a month could be purchased via a bank account, or $100 in cash. That is down from the previously imposed limit of $10,000.
The bank said the measures were an attempt to preserve the country’s reserves, which have been depleting as it shores up the value of the Argentine peso.
The announcement provided stark proof of the challenges facing Fernandez as he sets about trying to steady and revive the third largest economy in Latin America.
With more than 96 percent of polls counted, the lawyer and former cabinet official had 48.03 percent of the vote, ahead of Macri with 40.44 percent.
The difference was narrower than had been predicted in numerous polls, but was above the 45 percent required to declare a winner on the first round.
People sang political songs to celebrate Fernandez’s victory.
“This is it, we made it,” said a jubilant Matias Palermo, 35, as he walked in Chacarita waving an Argentine flag. “These last few years are like lost years for me. It felt like a nightmare. It changed everything for me, I felt it in my day to day, in my moods.”
Fernandez, who is seen as more of a centre-left moderate than his running mate, was the cabinet chief to deceased president Nestor Kirchner. He served briefly in the government of Fernandez de Kirchner, Nestor’s wife, before the two parted ways in a dispute over farming tariffs.
He maintained a relatively low profile until May, when Fernandez de Kirchner shocked observers who had assumed she would run for president, by instead tapping Fernandez to lead the ticket under the banner Frente de Todos (Front for All).
Fernandez de Kirchner, who is dogged by allegations of corruption, remains a divisive political figure but commands a strong political bloc.
The Fernandez-Fernandez ticket beat Macri by 16 points in the presidential primaries in August, making it seem like an inevitable return to power for Peronismo, a political movement that has come to represent the working class and is named after Juan Domingo Peron, a military leader who ruled in the 40s and 50s, and then again in the 1970s.
Fernandez officially assumes office on December 10. In the meantime, he will be staring down the grim economic indicators that have been eating away at the third-largest economy in Latin America. Poverty is up 8 points in the last year, at more than 35 percent. Unemployment has grown, thousands of small businesses have shuttered and inflation, a chronic problem in Argentina, is expected to hit 55 percent by the end of the year.
Sandra Suarez, voter
Macri, who adopted neoliberal policies throughout his term like cutting subsidies and liberalising the market, was blamed for the deteriorating economic situation. After his striking defeat in the primaries, he focused his campaign on shoring up his base with more right-wing rhetoric.
Fernandez has talked about encouraging small businesses to open by reducing tariffs, about boosting pensions for retirees, and about renegotiating a record $57bn pact with the International Monetary Fund so that it is less onerous on average Argentines.
Analysts agree that Fernandez will not have a lot of room to manoeuvre economically speaking, and he will not be given a lot of time by the electorate that is desperate for things to improve. Last week, the Central Bank continued to pour hundreds of millions of dollars from its reserves into shoring up the value of the local currency that was weakening as uncertainty loomed over the results of the election. The official peso closed at 65 to the US dollar, and it was trading higher on the black market.
Fernando Crudo, 80, and his son, also Fernando Crudo, 48, both voted for Fernandez. They have a family business that manufactures laboratory equipment.
“It’s been two years where things have been very, very tight,” said Crudo, the elder, on the steps of his home in Buenos Aires. “Everything is at a standstill. It is very, very obvious.”
“The Peronists have always been about manufacturing and the average worker,” said the younger Crudo, who hopes Fernandez will be able to stimulate consumer spending. “At least this is something different. Let’s hope Alberto can revive things.”
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Voters who supported Macri said while they did not expect to emerge victoriously, they hoped a strong showing would remind the new government that they would be watching.
Voters like Sol Szpryngier, 24, who does not consider herself loyal to any particular party, but supported Macri. “All things considered, I think his government was transparent. Yes they made mistakes, many mistakes,” she said, but she does not agree with the vision presented by Fernandez and Fernandez, and she worried about corruption taking root in the government.
Sandra Suarez, 58, voted for Macri in the last election but felt deceived by his economic performance, and opted for Fernandez this time. She said she is not struggling economically, but she fears for her grown children and the uncertainty that has submerged the entire country. “Everything Macri said he would do, they either didn’t or couldn’t deliver,” said Suarez. “He didn’t see the reality that people were living. There are a lot of people living in extreme poverty.”
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We understand that your online privacy is very important and consenting to our collection of some personal information takes great trust. We ask for this consent because it allows Al Jazeera to provide an experience that truly gives a voice to the voiceless. | Government Job change - Election | October 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
The United States will present the draft resolution, resulting from yesterday's meeting with China, to the United Nations Security Council expanding sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program. | The United States presented a draft Security Council resolution on Thursday it negotiated with China that would dramatically tighten existing restrictions on North Korea after its Jan. 6 nuclear test and create the toughest U.N. sanctions regime in over two decades.
The draft, seen by Reuters, would require U.N. member states to conduct mandatory inspections of all cargo passing through their territory to or from North Korea to look for illicit goods. Previously states were only required to do this if they had reasonable grounds to believe there was illicit cargo.
The United States used the nearly two months of bilateral negotiations that at one point involved President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, diplomats said, to win China’s support for unusually tough measures intended to persuade its ally North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons program.
The proposal would close a gap in the U.N. arms embargo on Pyongyang by banning all weapons imports and exports.
There would also be an unprecedented ban on the transfer to North Korea of any item that could directly contribute to the operational capabilities of the North Korean armed forces, such as trucks that could be modified for military purposes.
Other proposed measures include a ban on all supplies of aviation and rocket fuel to North Korea, a requirement for states to expel North Korean diplomats engaging in illicit activities, and blacklisting 17 North Korean individuals and 12 entities, including the National Aerospace Development Agency or ‘NADA’, the body responsible for February’s rocket launch.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told reporters the new measures, if approved, would be “the strongest set of sanctions imposed by the Security Council in more than two decades.”
Several council diplomats predicted a Saturday meeting to adopt the draft but Russian deputy U.N. ambassador Petr Iliichev told Reuters Moscow needed time to study the draft and the earliest likely vote would be next week. The draft was the result of seven weeks of tough negotiations between the United States and China, North Korea’s neighbor and main ally.
“This is a very robust resolution,” a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. “Clearly this took a long time ... it was a difficult process.”
North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 because of its multiple nuclear tests and rocket launches.
China and the United States had differed on how strongly to respond to Pyongyang’s most recent test, with Washington urging harsh punitive measures and Beijing emphasizing dialogue and milder U.N. steps confined to non-proliferation.
The Global Times, an influential Chinese tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party, said in an editorial that North Korea “deserves the punishment” of new sanctions, but China should “cushion Washington’s harsh sanctions to some extent.”
“China insists the sanctions should focus on striking North Korea’s ability to continue developing nuclear weapons. It is the fundamental difference between China’s policy and that of the U.S., South Korea and Japan. China holds unswerving goodwill toward North Korea, which Chinese society hopes Pyongyang can understand,” it said.
Diplomats said a sharp tightening of restrictions was necessary since Pyongyang has proved its determination to flout at all costs attempts at constraining its nuclear and missile programs.
They said they hoped the latest measures would make it harder for North Korea to continue with that policy, keeping up the pressure on the country’s leadership without making the country’s impoverished population any poorer.
“Pyongyang has prioritized the pursuit of these massively expensive programs over absolutely everything else,” the U.S. official said. “So is New York action going to automatically convince the regime’s leaders to cease? I think we’re realistic on that point.”
However, he added that “this resolution will be felt, it will have an impact ... The DPRK (North Korea) have never been subject to the kind of pressure that is in the resolution.”
Power said the measures were aimed at the country’s leadership, and “careful not to punish the North Korean people.”
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing on Thursday: “We hope and believe this new resolution can help effectively constrain North Korea from further developing its nuclear missile program”.
There will also be further restrictions aimed at making it more difficult for North Korea to press ahead with its nuclear and missile programs. Pyongyang is currently banned from importing and exporting nuclear and missile technology and is not allowed to import luxury goods. The list of banned items will be expanded.
The U.S. official said one of five annexes to the resolution lists 31 ships owned by North Korean shipping firm Ocean Maritime Management Company Limited, which will be blacklisted.
Also new, countries will be required, not just encouraged, to freeze the assets of North Korean entities linked to Pyongyang’s nuclear or missile programs and to prohibit the opening of new branches or offices of North Korean banks or to engage in banking correspondence with North Korean banks.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2016 | ['(Jerusalem Post)', '(Reuters)'] |
Three corpses are dug up near a former U.S. military base in Narkh bringing the number of corpses whose deaths locals blame on the presence of United States personnel to 10; people flood the streets of Maidan Shar calling for the U.S. to leave. | When relatives identified three mutilated bodies dug up near a former US special forces base as their missing family members, they decided to take the corpses to the capital of restive Wardak province and organise a protest to spread word of their loss.
By noon on Tuesday, hundreds of people had flooded the streets of Maidan Shar town, blocking the main road to Kandahar and Kabul and shouting "Death to America" and "Death to special forces". By early afternoon two more men were dead and one seriously injured after police opened fire to control what they said was an increasingly violent crowd.
The three bodies were just the latest grisly discovery in the troubled Nerkh district, where locals say a string of civilians disappeared into a military base housing US special forces. They claim they were then tortured and killed. Their families blame American forces, although the base was shared with Afghan troops and a US military spokesman strongly denied any abuses by foreign soldiers.
But locals have continued to blame US forces. "We have found 10 bodies of people killed by Americans in total, seven before and three more today, on the west side of the US base," said Sediqullah, a de-miner whose brother's body was one of the three found on Monday.
"His name was Atiqullah, he was 38 years old and a shopkeeper in Maidan Shar," said the 42-year-old, before going on to list the names and professions of the other dead, who included a teacher, a taxi driver, a government worker and casual labourers. He said their bodies bore signs of torture.
"They cut their fingers and beat their stomach and head with rocks," he said by phone from his home just outside Maidan Shar. "They were poor people who just had ordinary business and were just working to feed their families."
A senior Wardak politician said the 10 men all vanished at the end of last year, and their families had been seeking news of them for months.
"When there was a lot of snow, about 10 people disappeared in Nerkh and already about a month and a half ago seven bodies were found. The last part of the process was today, when three more bodies were found," said Hazrat Mohammad Janan, deputy head of the provincial council. "It is not clear who killed them, though protesters were accusing the US soldiers."
Wardak was at the heart of a showdown between the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and US forces earlier this year. Karzai ordered all foreign special forces troops out of the province after receiving reports claiming that the elite units had been involved in the disappearance of civilians in Nerkh.
Eventually the two sides agreed that while special forces would leave that district, they would stay on in the rest of Wardak, a province with a heavy Taliban presence, until Afghan forces were better prepared to battle the insurgency alone.
Meanwhile government investigators continued to pursue the claims and now believe that at least 17 people from the province disappeared into US custody, the New York Times reported recently.
Most have now been found dead, and authorities want to arrest a man they say was part of a special forces unit operating there, the paper said. Evidence includes a video of a torture session conducted by "Zakaria Kandahari", who investigators say is of Afghan descent but was raised in the US.
The US military says its forces played no role in deaths or torture in Nerkh. "We are absolutely confident, based on the investigations that we have done, that neither US or coalition forces were involved in any unlawful deaths in there," said a spokesman, Colonel Tom Collins.
However, Afghan investigators insist that at the very least, the US military must have been aware of abuses of detainees taking place at a compact and isolated base, the New York Times said, citing members of the investigating team.
Atullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said 500 people joined the protest, and the government has ordered a delegation to investigate the three men's disappearance and death, but declined to comment further.
The protesters said they did not need further proof. "They found them under some rocks, just thrown down on the ground," said 22-year-old Atiqullah, a taxi driver who had the same name as one of the dead men but did not know him. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2013 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is predicting that a low pressure system in the Coral Sea will develop into tropical cyclone Marcia within 24 hours and bring heavy rain to South East Queensland with the potential to cause flooding. | Queensland's north is on cyclone watch while residents in the south-east prepare for destructive winds, abnormally high tides, dangerous surf and as much as two months' rain in a day.
The Bureau of Meteorology is warning a low hovering in the Coral Sea about 1000km off Bundaberg is likely to become a tropical cyclone as it heads south-east in the next 24 hours.
Queensland swiftwater rescue crew training in preparation for the storm and cyclone season.Credit:Allen Mechen
It's predicted to bring 200-400mm of rain between Rockhampton and the Gold Coast from Thursday with higher falls likely in localised areas.
Brisbane's average rainfall for February is 158mm.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service and the State Emergency Service are both gearing up for a busy few days and urging residents to do the same.
"That means things like ensure that you're house is in good order, particularly your roof," SES Brisbane regional manager Steve Waddell said.
"Loose tiles, loose iron, loose nails, loose screws can cause leaks into your home and damage to your furniture and interior so please have your roof checked and have it ready.
"Make sure your gutters are clear, your downpipes are clear.
"Any furniture that is loose in the yards and kids playground equipment like trampolines, move that indoors so it can't become a danger to yourselves and other people."
The Bureau is warning both river-based and localised flooding are likely in low-lying areas as the heavy rainfall combines with the highest tides of the year so far.
QFES technical rescue unit manager Daryl Rush said extra swift-water rescue crews were being trained to be sent to the areas most in need.
"Our message to Queenslanders is, if it's flooded, forget it," he said.
"It's really important that people heed all of these messages.
"If you do come across a flooded roadway you do not access or try to pass those roadways."
It's a message the RACQ is echoing.
"It's not worth taking the risk of crossing flooded roads even if the water appears shallow, as it's hard to know just how deep it may be," RACQ spokeswoman Renee Smith said.
"It's far better to find an alternative route or wait until the water subsides than end up being swept away."
BOM forecasters expect scattered showers to start in Brisbane as early as Wednesday afternoon with the brunt of the wild weather to hit late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Sustained heavy rainfall should last between 24 and 36 hours in most areas.
The bureau expects the low to develop into tropical cyclone Marcia within 24 hours and make landfall near Gladstone some time Friday morning.
BOM spokesman Jess Carey said it was expected to bring winds of up to 90km/h right along the south-east coast.
"With those forecasted rainfall totals of 200-400mm, potentially localised rainfall of in excess of 500mm, if we got that rainfall over quite a short period of time, potentially that could cause some quite significant flood issues," he said.
"Of particular note to remember is we've also got dangerous surf and also high tides as well alongside that.
"Beach erosion is looking likely and beaches may be closed."
The State Disaster Coordination Centre at Kedron is open and should be fully operational from 6am Thursday.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk added her voice to the chorus urging residents to be prepared.
"Our message to Queensland is start getting ready now and we'll be able to provide further advice tomorrow morning," she said.
"Safety is paramount, so parents should make sure that their children do not go in to stormwater drains, into the river systems or into the rough surf that will be off the Queensland beaches."
The state Disaster Coordination Group met on Wednesday and the Queensland disaster management cabinet committee will meet on Thursday morning.
Residents in low-lying areas are being urged to prepare for potential flooding and have evacuation plans and food supplies in order. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2015 | ['(The Age)'] |
Authorities in Uzbekistan fell trees, some of which are more than a century old, in the capital Tashkent, in a controversy which has drawn protests. | The Amir Timur square, a once leafy park in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, has been changed beyond recognition by a controversial tree felling operation. (Pictures by Aleksey Volosevich)
Despite protests, authorities sent in workmen and heavy equipment to cut down the huge trees in the square - some of them more than 100 years old.
No official reason has been given as to why the trees had to be felled, though some locals say it is to open up views of the newly-built Congress Centre. Others say officials were worried that the trees could have served as cover for would-be assassins.
The gardens were developed by the Russians in the late 19th century, and in Soviet times the area was known as the 'Square of the Revolution'.
As one of Tashkent's most beloved public spaces, the square and its gardens commemorate the medieval conqueror Timur, or Tamerlane as he is known in the West.
As well as the beautiful trees, the gardens are popular for their fountains, cafes and small restaurants.
Children often use the fountains to cool down in the 40C heat of a Tashkent summer's day.
Environmentalists were outraged at the cutting down of mature trees, just when world leaders are discussing the threat of climate change and deforestation.
Unusually for the tightly controlled country, there was a night-time vigil as the felling operation begun, but it failed to halt the operation. | Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Three highranking officers of the Investigative Committee of Russia in Moscow are detained for accepting bribes from a crime lord. |
On Tuesday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) requested the arrests of the first deputy chief of Moscow's Investigative Committee, Denis Nikandrov, the head of internal affairs of Russia's Investigative Committee, Mikhail Maksimenko, along with Maksimenko’s deputy Aleksandr Lamonov, the court's press service said.
A judge later issued arrest warrants for all of them until September 15, with one of the defendant’s lawyers announcing that a complaint in connection with the arrest will be filed.
The officials are suspected of being involved in a case of large-scale bribery and face from between eight to 15 years in prison if found guilty, as well as a fine of up to 70 times the amount of the bribe. There have been reports that the criminal network which officials allegedly patronized wanted to offer them some $1 million, RIA Novosti reported citing a lawyer involved in the case.
In all, seven high-ranking officers of Moscow's Investigative Committee are now being checked for having a potential link to the case, according to Interfax.
The FSB has been conducting searches both in the suspects' offices and at their homes, TASS said, citing an FSB spokesperson. The operation has been launched in agreement with the head of Russia's Investigative Committee, the FSB said, adding that President Putin has also been informed about the criminal case.
According to TASS sources, the detained suspects received bribes from mafia bosses.
Criminal lord Zakhary Kalashov known as Shakro Molodoy, who has recently been detained on charges of blackmail, might be involved in the detained officials' cases, RIA Novosti said.
There have been reports Nikandrov might have been detained in connection with the case of one of the criminal's gang members, who nearly escaped arrest after an investigator had "forgotten" to prolong it. Kalashov and his gang are said to be related to a much-publicized shoot-out near an area home to high-end restaurants in central Moscow in December 2015, which left two people dead and several more injured.
The case against the Investigative Committee officials is related to the killings near the restaurant and "money is not involved," Lamonov's lawyer Olga Lukmanova told RIA Novosti. "This case [is related to] the FSB's wrangle with the Investigative Committee," she claimed. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2016 | ['(RT)'] |
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is elected as the next president of Kazakhstan. The election was marred by the arrests of more than 500 protesters and was not declared to be fully democratic by OSCE observers. | The designated successor of former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev has won the presidency in a vote overshadowed by the arrests of more than 500 protesters. Nazarbayev stepped down in March after decades in power.
The handpicked successor of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was elected to the presidency on Sunday in a vote marred by clashes between protesters and police.
The electoral commission said that Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a career diplomat, had won with 70.8% of the vote. The candidate with the next highest vote share, opposition rival Amirzhan Kossanov, won around 15%.
Turnout was at about 77%, according to the national elections commission.
Read more: Historic Kazakhstan election sparks hope for a taste of democracy
Tokayev, 66, became interim president in March after the resignation of Nazarbayev, who had ruled the country since Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Yet Nazarbayev, who holds the official title of national leader, is set to exert significant influence on day-to-day politics as leader of the ruling Nur Otan party.
As he voted, Tokayev said Nazarbayev was "still in power in the capacity of chairman of the security council ... and other capacities."
| Government Job change - Election | June 2019 | ['(DW)'] |
A Canadian federal court rules the Canada–United States Safe Third Country Agreement to be invalid, saying it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedom by making the country complicit in the United States's abuses of asylum seekers in detention. The ruling goes into effect within six months to give Parliament time to respond. | OTTAWA/TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian court on Wednesday ruled invalid a bilateral pact that compels asylum seekers trying to enter Canada via the American border to first seek sanctuary in the United States, saying U.S. immigration detention violates their human rights.
Under the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), asylum seekers who arrive at a formal Canada-U.S. border crossing going in either direction are turned back and told to apply for asylum in the first country they arrived in.
Lawyers for refugees who had been turned away at the Canadian border challenged the pact, saying the United States does not qualify as a “safe” country under President Donald Trump.
Federal Court Judge Ann Marie McDonald ruled that the agreement was in violation of a section of Canada’s Charter of Rights that says laws or state actions that interfere with life, liberty and security must conform to the principles of fundamental justice.
McDonald suspended her decision for six months to give Parliament a chance to respond. The agreement remains in place during that time.
Experts have said suspending the agreement would have huge implications for the Canada-U.S. relationship.
“We are aware of the Federal Court’s decision and are currently reviewing it,” said Mary-Liz Power, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, who oversees Canada’s border agency. “The Safe Third Country Agreement remains in effect.”
The ruling can be appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court if necessary. The U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and State did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nedira Jemal Mustefa, among the refugees turned back and on whose behalf a challenge was launched, described her time in solitary confinement in the United States as “a terrifying, isolating and psychologically traumatic experience,” according to the court ruling.
“Canada cannot turn a blind eye to the consequences that befell Ms. Mustefa in its efforts to adhere to the STCA. The evidence clearly demonstrates that those returned to the U.S. by Canadian officials are detained as a penalty,” the judge wrote in her decision.
Mustefa, an Ethiopian now in New York City, told Reuters she was relieved. “At the end of the day, we are all humans,” she said. “No one deserves to be mistreated in such a way.”
Amnesty International Canada, one of the groups that launched the legal challenge against the STCA, hailed the “landmark decision.”
More than 50,000 people have illegally crossed the Canada-U.S. border to file refugee claims over the past four years, walking over ditches and on empty roads along the world’s longest undefended border.
Canada has sought to stem the tide of asylum seekers who flowed into the country starting in 2016, after Trump promised to crack down on illegal immigration.
Canada has closed its border with the United States to non-essential travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In March, it said it would no longer accept irregular migrants trying to cross the border and would instead return them to U.S. authorities, who have said they will swiftly deport them back to their home countries.
The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers said Canada should revisit that decision, given Wednesday’s ruling, and also revoke a 2019 rule that makes individuals ineligible for Canadian asylum if they had already filed for asylum in the United States.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Saddam Hussein's half–brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim as well as the former chief judge of Iraq Awad Hamed al–Bandar are hanged before dawn. According to the video released by the Iraqi government, the head of Barzan Ibrahim was separated from the rest of his body. Although government officials call the beheading an accident, many Iraqi Sunnis still express umbrage toward the decapitation, accusing the Iraqi government of mutilating the body. | The film shows Barzan Ibrahim - Saddam Hussein's half-brother - and Awad Hamed al-Bandar hanged side-by-side.
Barzan, former intelligence chief, and al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were convicted over the killing of 148 Shias in 1982.
The government said Barzan's decapitation was accidental.
The latest hangings drew expressions of concern from among the international community.
Speaking on a visit to Egypt, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said while the executions were an Iraqi process, "we were disappointed there was not greater dignity given to the accused under these circumstances".
The UK prime minister's spokesman said it was "clearly wrong" if the executions had not been carried out in a dignified way.
Others called for the Iraqi authorities to end further executions and focus on national reconciliation.
Some of the strongest reaction came from the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
UN spokesman Michele Montas said Mr Ban "regrets that despite pleas from himself and the high commissioner for human rights to spare the lives of the two co-defendants, they were both executed".
Hoods
The BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says the video first shows both men being prepared for execution standing next to each other. They were both dressed in orange boiler suits. JUDICIAL HANGING
Execution intended to break the neck, not strangle 'Long drop' method developed in late 19th Century
Length of rope calculated using prisoner's weight
Drop is usually 4ft-10ft (1.3m-3m)
Too long a drop leads to decapitation
Iraq government statement
Stances on death penalty
In quotes: World reaction
Executioners in balaclavas placed hoods round both men's heads, then the noose. A short while later the footage, which is silent, shows both men fall.
Almost immediately the rope that was round Barzan's neck flicks upwards, the body dropping below. The cameraman then shows the pit below and a headless body, bloodied at the neck and what officials say was Barzan's head still covered by a hood. Al-Bandar's body was still hanging above, said one official who was present at the execution.
Our correspondent says officials say they are not planning to release the footage publicly.
The two men were later buried near Saddam Hussein's grave in the former Iraqi leader's home village of Awja about 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad.
Some 3,000 people, many firing guns and shouting slogans against the government, gathered at the site for the funerals, AFP news agency reported.
'No taunts'
Witnesses said Barzan and al-Bandar were shaking with fear as they approached the gallows.
One of those present, public prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi, told the BBC that when the trap door opened, he could only see Barzan's rope dangling.
Executed judge's case Obituary: Barzan al-Tikriti "I thought the convict Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti had escaped the noose. I shouted that he's escaped the noose, go down and look for him. I went down a few steps ahead of the others to see: I found out that his head had separated from his body."
The hangings took place at 0300 (0000 GMT), apparently in the same building in north Baghdad where Saddam Hussein was put to death on 30 December.
The manner of Saddam Hussein's execution drew international criticism after unofficial mobile phone footage showing him being taunted and insulted in his final moments was released.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said there were no such scenes at the hanging of his aides.
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says reaction in Baghdad to Barzan and al-Bandar's executions has been mixed.
He says residents of Baghdad's largest Shia district, Sadr City, have celebrated the latest hangings, especially Barzan's. But other Baghdad residents have said the executions have nothing to do with the problems Iraqis face every day, our correspondent adds.
In the Shia holy city of Najaf, residents beat drums and marched in the streets at news of the executions. | Famous Person - Death | January 2007 | ['(The Australian)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
The Ukrainian government declares a unilateral one-day cease-fire in order to facilitate for a team of forensics experts and crash investigators to reach the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down two weeks ago, after days of delay caused by heavy fighting in the area. | KIEV, Ukraine A small advance team of forensic experts on Thursday finally reached the site where a Malaysia Airlines flight went down in eastern Ukraine two weeks ago, after four days of false starts cut short by heavy fighting in the area.
The team also recovered DNA samples from 25 victims and personal items belonging to 27 peoples, all of which had been kept in a morgue in the rebel-held city of Donetsk before being handed over to the Dutch-led team.
It took seven hours for the two Australian and two Dutch experts, accompanied by monitors with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to drive 123 miles to what they call the chicken farm area, where the plane’s wings and landing gear fell. They were delayed at Ukrainian checkpoints waiting for a cease-fire to take effect and at rebel checkpoints negotiating their advance, said Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, the head of the recovery mission.
In the end, they spent barely an hour at the site. But they hope to return Friday with a larger squad to look for body parts and possessions in more locations around the widely scattered debris field. Eventually, they may use sniffer dogs.
The sunflower-drenched fields, forests and back yards where the wreckage fell may still hold the remains of as many as 80 people among the 298 aboard Flight 17 when it was shot down July 17 by a missile apparently fired from separatist-held territory, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. Aalbersberg said the team saw no remains Thursday and could not confirm that figure. Bodies and body parts that filled 227 caskets left the area last week in refrigerated cars loaded by separatists.
Although the advance squad was small, its visit marked a breakthrough. For four straight days, they had been turned back by warnings of heavy fighting, as presidents, prime ministers and international organizations had pleaded for Ukrainian and separatist forces to observe a cease-fire around the crash site.
They succeeded on a day when the Ukrainian government called a one-day cease-fire in its military offensive against the rebels, honoring a “day of silence” called by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces fired only in self-defense. Reporters in the area said clashes were continuing in the vicinity of the crash site.
Meanwhile, in Kiev, the government pulled out of a crisis when it voted not to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Last week, he said he was stepping down in what is viewed as an ultimatum designed to force parliament to vote on an economic package.
Parliament’s rejection of his resignation is considered a victory for the reforms Yatsenyuk championed. Although officially in recess, the legislature returned for a one-day session Thursday and adopted changes that were in line with what the International Monetary Fund was seeking. Members slashed the number of government agencies from 80 to 20 and cut senior officials’ salaries. They also imposed a 1.5percent “war tax” on incomes through the end of the year for national defense spending and the war, which paved the way for Yatsenyuk to order new arms purchases, training for troops, gas for military vehicles and wages for soldiers. The defense budget was on the verge of going broke.
“Today, there are two news stories in the world economy,” Yatsenyuk said. “First news is that Argentina announced a default. Second news: Ukraine has not announced a default and will never announce it.” | Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Seven people are killed in a threeway shootout between rival drug cartels and the authorities in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, the homestate of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the country's mostwanted drug lord. | Police say a soldier, an officer and five alleged bandits have been killed in a shootout in the state of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico.
Sinaloa state police spokesman Edmundo Apodaca says a clash between rival drug gangs erupted near the town of Choix early Saturday. The Mexican army and local police responded, trying to end the fight.
Apodaca told The Associated Press that the mountainous area in the Sierra Madre is known for having large groups of drug traffickers.
The state is the home base to Mexico's most-wanted fugitive Joaquin Guzman, also known as El Chapo, who heads the head of the Sinaloa Cartel. | Armed Conflict | April 2012 | ['(Fox News)'] |
Tupac Shakur, Joan Baez, and most of the members of Pearl Jam are to receive honors in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. | The latest news from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Pearl Jam and Tupac Shakur are in. Janet Jackson is still out. And Nile Rodgers of Chic is in — sort of.
For its class of 2017, the hall has continued its twin trends of honoring 1990s rock legends the instant they become eligible, and of opening the door to older stars who have been shut out for years. Besides Pearl Jam and Shakur, the honorees include Journey, Joan Baez, Electric Light Orchestra and Yes.
The 32nd induction ceremony, which traditionally features an all-hands jam session, is planned for Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 7, with excerpts to be broadcast by HBO.
Pearl Jam’s acceptance, in the band’s first year of eligibility, was largely seen as a foregone conclusion, after the hall welcomed Nirvana in 2014 and Green Day the next year. Those bands give the hall, which is based in Cleveland, a valuable hold on three giants of ’90s alternative rock.
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As only the sixth hip-hop artist to join the pantheon, Shakur also builds on the hall’s modest representation of. Like the induction of N.W.A earlier this year, the honoring of Shakur — still revered as one of hip-hop’s fiercest and most gifted lyricists — could give the broadcast a moment of excitement, although it is unclear who would accept the award for him. Shakur was killed in 1996, and his mother, the activist Afeni Shakur, died in May.
In admitting Journey, Electric Light Orchestra and Yes, the Rock Hall followed the playbook it has used with artists like Kiss and Rush — finally admitting megaselling but unfashionable acts long ignored by the hall’s most conservative voters.
Journey, whose “Don’t Stop Believin’” has become one of rock’s most enduring power ballads, was nominated for the first time, despite having been eligible for 16 years. Electric Light Orchestra was also up for the first time, while Yes, a standard-bearer of progressive rock, was on its third nod. Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording.
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Journey’s induction offers the band a chance to reunite with its former lead singer, Steve Perry, who has not been with the group since 1998. (Journey has played with Arnel Pineda, a Filipino singer the band found through cover videos on YouTube, since 2007; Mr. Pineda will not be inducted.)
Ms. Baez may be most familiar to younger listeners for her cameo at a Taylor Swift concert last year. But her involvement raises the possibility, however remote, of an induction speech by Bob Dylan. Could the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame book the man the Nobel Prize organizers could not?
Like that of Shakur, Ms. Baez’s very presence puts in relief the hall’s definition of rock itself, which can paradoxically seem both strict and all-encompassing.
“I never considered myself to be a rock ’n’ roll artist,” Ms. Baez said in a statement. “But as part of the folk music boom, which contributed to and influenced the rock revolution of the ’60s, I am proud that some of the songs I sang made their way into the rock lexicon.”
Ms. Baez’s arrival also points to an unfortunate characteristic of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: its few female members. She is the only woman among the inductees this year, and she is only the third to be inducted over the last four ceremonies, after Linda Ronstadt in 2014 and Joan Jett the next year.
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The hall has frequently been criticized for failing to admit more women; it was one of Steve Miller’s many complaints at his induction this year. And among the 13 nominated acts who did not make the cut for the class of 2017 are Janet Jackson and Chaka Khan.
Other nominees this year who were not inducted include the Zombies, the Cars, the MC5 and Steppenwolf, all critics’ favorites; Depeche Mode and Jane’s Addiction, major names in alternative rock; the electronic pioneers Kraftwerk; the soul singer Joe Tex; the Massachusetts rock stalwart the J. Geils Band; and Bad Brains, whose furious speed had a major influence on the development of hard-core punk.
One nominee stands out for its repeated rejection. Chic, the disco-funk group led by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards that had hits including “Le Freak” and “Good Times,” was turned down for an 11th time, more than any other group in the hall’s history. (It took the Stooges seven nominations before they finally made it, in 2010.)
Despite being turned down so definitively — or perhaps as a consolation prize — Mr. Rodgers will be given the hall’s award for musical excellence, a loosely defined prize that replaced the sidemen category in 2011, and last went to Ringo Starr. It is chosen by a separate committee from the 900 musicians, journalists and executives who vote on the inductees.
In an interview, Mr. Rodgers, who in addition to his career with Chic has produced hits for Davie Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran and Daft Punk, said he was honored by the award. (Edwards, who founded Chic with him, died in 1996.) But like many observers of the rock hall’s secretive ways, Mr. Rodgers was left scratching his head about the choice.
“I’ve never been angry about Chic not getting in,” Mr. Rodgers said. “It’s just perplexing to me. I want to know why I am in and why my band is not. What’s the thing that makes me cooler than them?”
| Awards ceremony | December 2016 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Former Taliban hostage Joshua Boyle is released from jail with strict bail conditions, including an electronic tracking bracelet. |
OTTAWA – Former Afghanistan hostage Joshua Boyle, who faces several assault charges, will be released from jail with strict bail conditions that include an electronic tracking bracelet.
Ontario Court Justice Robert Wadden handed down the decision Friday in Ottawa after three days of proceedings.
Under the release conditions, Boyle will live with his parents, Patrick and Linda, in Smiths Falls, Ont. – effectively under house arrest – and wear a GPS ankle bracelet that can track his movements.
READ MORE: Psychiatric assessment of former hostage Joshua Boyle extended by two weeks
Boyle and each of his parents must post a $10,000 bond. Patrick and Linda will serve as sureties and one of them must accompany their son if he leaves the property.
“They’re all pleased that Joshua’s going to be coming home,” said Lawrence Greenspon, a lawyer for Boyle.
“Hopefully the release will happen this weekend. More than likely I think it’d be Monday.”
Boyle will be allowed to visit Ottawa with one of his parents only to see a doctor, consult his lawyers or to attend court. He must continue receiving psychiatric treatment and cannot possess a weapon or use the internet.
WATCH BELOW: Joshua Boyle granted bail with strict conditions
Boyle and his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, were taken hostage in 2012 by a Taliban-linked group while on a backpacking trip in Afghanistan.
The couple – along with the three children they had during five years in captivity – were freed by Pakistani forces last October.
Boyle was arrested by Ottawa police in December and charged with offences including assault, sexual assault, unlawful confinement and causing someone to take a noxious substance.
WATCH BELOW: Joshua Boyle ‘looking forward’ to being released after being granted bail
The charges against Boyle relate to two alleged victims, but a court order prohibits the publication of any details that might identify them or any witnesses.
None of the charges, which relate to incidents that allegedly occurred after Boyle returned to Canada, has been tested in court. A trial date is slated to be set on June 15, when Boyle is due back in court.
Evidence from the bail proceeding and Wadden’s reasons, delivered from the bench on Friday, are also covered by a publication ban.
WATCH: Joshua Boyle ‘looking forward’ to being released after being granted bail
Boyle, his wife and children had been living in an Ottawa apartment when he was arrested.
An initial evaluation found him fit to stand trial, but he underwent a fuller assessment at a mental health centre in Brockville, Ont. The confidential psychiatric assessment was completed this spring.
READ MORE: Former hostage Joshua Boyle arrested, facing 15 criminal charges
Boyle attended high school in Kitchener, Ont., and earned a degree from the University of Waterloo in 2005.
He was briefly married to Zaynab Khadr, sister of Toronto-born Omar Khadr, who spent years in a U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being captured in Afghanistan.
In 2011 Boyle married Coleman, who was raised in Pennsylvania, during a lengthy trip the pair took to South America.
The following year, they set off for Russia and travelled through Central Asia for several months, winding up in Afghanistan.
The family’s dramatic rescue last October made global headlines, and even led to a meeting on Parliament Hill with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | June 2018 | ['(Global News)'] |
Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi gives a ten–minute television address vowing to punish those investigating him in relation to claims he purchased an under–age prostitute. | Italy's prime minister has said that the magistrates who mounted what he called a politically motivated campaign to oust him should not go unpunished.
Silvio Berlusconi has been summoned for questioning over allegations that he paid an under-age prostitute.
In a 10-minute - often angry - TV address, Mr Berlusconi said the investigation was unconstitutional and procedurally flawed.
He vowed to pass new laws to prevent magistrates pursuing elected officials.
"There is nothing that I have to be ashamed of," Mr Berlusconi said. "The government will continue to work, and parliament will make the necessary reforms to guarantee that a magistrate will not be able to try to illegitimately destroy someone who has been elected by the citizens."
'Just dinner guests'
The 74-year-old billionaire said he had refused to attend the questioning as he disputes the right of Milan magistrates to preside over the case.
"I can't present myself to public prosecutors that do not have either the functional or territorial competency, and also so as not to endorse this illegitimacy," he said, adding that this was the 28th time in 17 years that judges from the city had pursued him.
Mr Berlusconi, whose five-year term is due to run until 2013, accused the prosecutors of being politically motivated, launching the investigation just a week after he narrowly survived a confidence vote.
Milan prosecutors, he said, had used spying methods worthy of an anti-mafia investigation.
"One hundred and fifty agents mounted an operation against girls who were guilty of nothing more than being my dinner guests," he said in an address broadcast on Sky. "They were taken for questioning, some without even being able to contact a lawyer, and kept there from eight in the morning to eight at night without being able to eat, without any contact with the outside world. Treated like criminals from some dangerous anti-mafia operation, a treatment utterly at odds with a state of law that cannot go unpunished," he said.
Much of the 385-page dossier detailing the investigation focuses on Karima El Mahroug, an 18-year-old Moroccan belly-dancer who attended Mr Berlusconi's parties when she was 17 and, prosecutors say, was paid to have sex with him.
Sex with a prostitute aged under 18 is an offence in Italy.
Mr Berlusconi quoted from public statements where she has denied having sexual relations with him, adding that she had been introduced to everyone as a 24-year-old.
But in a TV interview to be broadcast on a network owned by Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset group late on Wednesday, Ms Mahroug denied both having sexual relations with the prime minister, and media reports she was to receive a vast sum of hush money.
"He didn't lay a finger on me. I respect him as a person, and for helping me without asking for anything in return," she said, according to Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX.
Silvio Berlusconi: Italy's perpetual powerbroker
Berlusconi sex allegations widen
In pictures: 'Berlusconi's women'
Timeline: Berlusconi in politics
Prosecutors' letter to parliament (in Italian)
Il | Famous Person - Give a speech | January 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
A 32–year–old Syrian man rams a stolen truck into eight cars in Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse, causing eight injuries. German police believe it was intentional, but the motive is yet to be determined. | German authorities are investigating a man who drove a stolen lorry into a line of cars in Limburg in the western state of Hesse, injuring eight people.
The 32-year-old had pulled the driver of the vehicle from his cabin at a red light before using the lorry to plough into eight cars waiting at a light near the town’s central railway station at about 5.20pm (1620 BST) on Monday.
The man, a Syrian national named as Omar AI by the national broadcaster ARD, was arrested at the scene.
Germany has been on alert following several jihadi attacks in recent years claimed by Islamic State. The most deadly was committed in 2016 by a 23-year-old Tunisian, who killed 12 people when he stole a truck and ploughed it through a Berlin Christmas market.
A number of German media outlets, citing security sources, reported that authorities believed Monday’s incident to have a terrorist background. However, a spokesperson for the general public prosecutor in Frankfurt said they could not confirm a terrorist motive and were still investigating the case.
According to the news agency dpa, the suspect has lived in Germany since 2015 and was known to the police for a number of minor criminal offences including possession of drugs and theft.
However, he had no known links to Islamist extremist circles.
The Hesse state interior minister Peter Beuth urged people not to jump to conclusions. “Although the events recall the horrible attacks in Nice and Berlin, the motive of the detained man remains unclear,” he said. Marius Hahn, the mayor of Limburg, said he was shocked by the incident. “My thoughts are with the injured victims of the accident and their families,” he said. | Road Crash | October 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, a member of The Greens, is elected President of Austria in a tight contest that was decided by mail-in votes. | VIENNA — Austrian anti-immigrant candidate Norbert Hofer lost his bid Monday to become the first far-right president of a European country since World War II.
Hofer conceded to former Green Party chief Alexander Van der Bellen, who won a very close race after hundreds of thousands of ballots cast by mail were counted. The Interior Ministry announced that the official tally showed Van der Bellen won 50.3% of the vote to 49.7% for Hofer.
"Dear Friends! I would like to thank you for your great support. Of course I'm sad today," Hofer told his Freedom Party supporters in a post to his Facebook account. "I will remain loyal to you and my contribution for a positive future in Austria."
"Please don't be despondent," he added. "The use for this campaign is not lost but an investment in the future."
Van der Bellen told his jubilant supporters on Monday, “I will try my best to earn the trust of Norbert Hofer’s voters.”
Speaking of his narrow victory margin, he said, “This is a symbol. We were talking a lot about dividing lines — left and right, city and countryside, young and old — but we can see it this way: We are equal. There are two halves that make up Austria, and both are equally important.”
More than 4.6 million ballots were cast. Hofer led slightly among people who voted in person on Sunday, but Van der Bellen, who ran as an independent, pulled ahead when 750,000 ballots sent by mail were counted. Many of those ballots were cast by Austrians living outside the country who opposed Hofer's anti-immigration and anti-European Union stance.
Van der Bellen's victory marks the first time since World War II that a candidate representing Austria's two mainstream parties — the left-leaning Social Democrats and the conservative People’s Party — will not occupy the largely ceremonial presidency.
President Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, is barred from running again after serving two terms.
The country's two main parties lost in last month's first round of voting, reflecting a voter backlash against the flood of refugees and other migrants pouring into Europe. Last year, Austria received around 90,000 asylum requests, the second-highest in the EU on a per capita basis. Most of the migrants are Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa fleeing violence and poverty.
Many voters said they were relieved that Hofer lost. “With these two candidates I didn't even have to think who to vote for one second," said Maria Grabherr, 28, who works in fashion in the capital. "Anything else than Van der Bellen would have been irresponsible and stupid.”
Lorenz Krasser, 27, an accountant in Vienna, said he voted for Hofer because of his firm stance on limiting immigration. “This is the biggest topic for Europe in the coming years,” he said.
Daniel Posch, a marketing expert in Vienna in his 20s, said he voted for Van der Bellen "because I think he acts calmly and rationally, and that's what a president needs to be.”
In the first round on April 24, discontented voters stunned the two major parties accustomed to running Austria. They came in fourth and fifth with just 11% of the vote each. The result prompted Chancellor Werner Faymann to resign on May 9.
Milo Tesselaar, head of the election campaign for a candidate who came in third in the first round of voting, said Hofer’s election would have represented "a risk for Austrian democracy as we know it.”
“Van der Bellen represents a more cosmopolitan, pro-European Union and liberal position,” Tesselaar said. “With the new chancellor, Christian Kern (of the Social Democrats), they would make a progressive couple of decision-makers in a very sensitive situation for both Austria and Europe.”
Stefan Sengl, a political analyst in Vienna, said Van der Bellen benefited from a surge of support at the end. "If the election had been held three weeks ago, he would not have won.”
Unlike the chancellor, the president does not wield much legal authority. But Hofer could have helped lay the framework for the future election of Freedom Party candidates in the parliament. His victory also could have given an inspirational lift to growing right-wing movements elsewhere in Europe.
Hofer's aides claimed victory even in defeat. “This is a gigantic achievement,” Herbert Kickl, chief of Hofer’s election campaign, told Austrian broadcaster ORF. “Hofer managed to convince half of the population in defiance of the system." | Government Job change - Election | May 2016 | ['(CNN)', '(USA Today)'] |
Torrential rain in Northern Ireland causes flooding in the towns of Newry and Newcastle in County Down. | In Newcastle, Mourneview Road was under 18 inches of water. Down District Council has opened its centre on the promenade for those needing shelter.
A woman was rescued by firefighters in Castlewellan after she became trapped in her car by flood water. Police said the Drumbanagher Road in Poyntzpass near Newry was closed after part of a boundary wall was "swept away" by flood water.
They have also advised motorists to avoid Shimna Road in Newcastle and Hilltown Road in Newry.
A PSNI spokeswoman added the Lidl supermarket in Newcastle had also been flooded.
Down District Council has declared an emergency in the area. It has distributed sandbags to residents. Northern Ireland Water also said its workers are on site in Newcastle responding to flooding calls.
Newcastle SDLP councillor Carmel O'Boyle said flood water was "several feet deep" in some areas of the town. Petra Ruddy, from Bleary in Craigavon, is holidaying at a caravan park in Newcastle.
She said the park had flooded by about 08.30 BST on Thursday and while the caravans had so far escaped damage she was afraid of what would happen if the rain returned.
"The sky is very grey with heavy clouds - I'd be worried if the rain comes back - we couldn't cope if the water gets any higher," she said
Sinn Fein councillor Stephen Burns said on Twitter that flooding "has caused sewage problems at Burrendale Park and Dundrum Road, Newcastle".
His Alliance colleague Patrick Clarke said the situation in the town was "horrendous".
"It would appear no lessons have been learnt from what happened in Belfast last week," he said. "Representatives on the ground from the water and roads service are working hard to resolve the situation, but people have found difficulties in using the floodline to report problems, which is absolutely unacceptable," he said.
Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Executive has announced a series of measures aimed at mitigating the impact of flooding. It said projects costing more than £10m are being accelerated to improve infrastructure at Sicily Park in south Belfast, along the Loop River in east Belfast and in Cushendall, north Antrim. A major upgrade is also planned for the Flooding Incident Line call centre to ensure more calls can be handled. Emergency funding for flood homes
| Floods | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology publishes the result of radiocarbon and DNA analysis from the fossils that has been found in the Bacho Kiro cave, Bulgaria. The result, showing that the fossils belong to Homo sapiens instead of Neanderthal, indicates that modern humans may have arrived in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought. | Fossils found in a Bulgarian cave show that Homo sapiens may have swept into Europe 46,000 years ago. This indicates a longer overlap with Neanderthals and suggests major cultural links between the two.
Scientists have found bones in a Bulgarian cave that show modern humans may have arrived in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought, at a time when the region had long been home to Neanderthals.
Five fossils, four bone fragments and a tooth, were found in Bulgaria's Bacho Kiro cave, according to two studies published on Monday. Detailed radiocarbon and DNA tests show that the bones anatomically belonged to four Homo sapiens, the oldest dating back some 46,000 years.
An array of artifacts, believed to have been made by the humans, were also found at the site. These include pendants made from the teeth of cave bears, which are about 47,000 years old. The pendants share striking similarities to the ones later made by the Neanderthals in Western Europe, suggesting that they adopted aspects of human culture at the time.
Stone artifacts from Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria of pointed blades and fragments
Researchers believe our species came from Africa during a brief warming period. Europe was then a bastion for Neanderthals, who had inhabited the continent for thousands of years.
Humans and Neanderthals shared the continent for about 7,000 years, said paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.
"The DNA evidence is now secure that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interacted when they came into contact with one another. In some places those interactions may have even been 'friendly,' for lack of a better word," said New York University anthropologist and study co-author Shara Bailey. "We carry their DNA and they were influenced by our cultural innovations."
R
Hotly disputed
The cause of Neanderthals' extinction is a matter of much debate. One of the possibilities is that our species wiped them out after thousands of years of interaction, including interbreeding which left an indelible mark on the human genome.
"In my view, Neanderthals disappeared from Europe because of the competition with our species. However, this did not occur overnight," said Hublin, the lead author of one of the two studies. | New archeological discoveries | May 2020 | ['(DW)'] |
Matt Bevin wins the Republican nomination and Andy Beshear wins the Democratic nomination primaries ahead of the November 5 gubernatorial election. | Kentucky Democrats on Tuesday nominated the state’s attorney general, Andy Beshear, to run against embattled Gov. Matt Bevin, who fended off a surprisingly strong challenge in a Republican primary that illustrated his general election vulnerability.
Mr. Bevin captured only about 52 percent of the vote and lost a wide swath of counties in eastern Kentucky to Robert Goforth, a little-known state lawmaker.
| Government Job change - Election | May 2019 | ['(The New York Times)', '(Lexington Herald-Leader)'] |
A suicide bomb attack kills at least nine people at the entrance to an antiTaliban commander's compound in Kurram in northwestern Pakistan. | The blast went off at the entrance to an anti-Taliban commander's compound in Kurram, part of the tribal regions which border Afghanistan.
The compound is used by a local militia and also contains residential units, reports the Reuters news agency. Pakistan's military has been carrying out operations against militant groups in the tribal regions for months. Three children were among the dead, tribal police officials told the Associated Press (AP). At least 15 people were injured.
The compound belongs to a militant commander, Mullah Nabi, who split from the Pakistani Taliban.
He has been involved in clashes in the past with other commanders loyal to the Taliban, says BBC Asia analyst Jill McGivering. The bomber tried to enter the guest quarters in Nabi's compound, tribal police official Amjad Khan told AP. When the bomber was challenged by guards outside, the explosives were detonated, he said. Mullah Nabi was unhurt, residents said.
It is unclear who carried out the attack. Mullah Nabi used to belong to the Pakistani Taliban but broke away to form his own group. His main rival is another prominent commander, Mullah Toofan, a Taliban ally. 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.
The ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters. | Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Israeli security forces kill four Palestinians and critically wound another who attempted to stab either police officers or a member of the public today. This is the latest in a month of similar attacks where 17 Palestinian attackers and eight Israelis have been killed. , | JERUSALEM, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Four Palestinians were killed by Israelis, and one critically wounded, after attempting to stab either police officers or a member of the public on Saturday, the latest in a month of similar attacks.
Eight Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians with mostly kitchen knives during the last month, and 17 Palestinians labelled as the attackers have been killed almost immediately after they happen, according to The Guardian.
An 18-year-old Palestinian attacked a settler in Hebron and was shot by another citizen, not long before an Israeli border police officer at a nearby base was stabbed, resulting in his 16-year-old Palestinian attacker being shot.
In Jerusalem, a 16-year-old Palestinian attempted to stab an officer while being questioned and was shot dead.
A 24-year-old Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli border policeman, and was shot and wounded in the leg in response. During a police body search after he'd been shot, the man pulled out a second knife and was shot dead after he tried to stab another officer.
A Palestinian man also stabbed a soldier and was shot, however his condition was unknown, according to the New York Times.
The series of recent attacks started after a drive-by shooting earlier this month that resulted in the death of two Israeli settlers in the West Bank, according to Bloomberg.
In addition to the eight Israelis and 17 Palestinians who have died during or after stabbing attacks, 17 Palestinians have also died in other skirmishes with Israeli troops in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders have been critical of what they call tacit approval of Israeli officers and citizens killing attackers "in cold blood."
B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said in a statement last week "no one disputes the serious nature of the events of recent days, nor the need to protect the public against stabbing and other attacks. However, it seems that too often, instead of acting in a manner consistent with the nature of each incident, police officers and soldiers are quick to shoot to kill.
Israel's defense minister praised the response by security forces, saying they had acted "with vigilance, resourcefulness and coolheadedness." | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(UPI)', '(Abu Dhabi National)'] |
Two Roman Catholic priests are sentenced to more than 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting deaf children at a church school in Mendoza Province, Argentina; the school's gardener also receives an 18-year sentence. | Court convicts two priests and former gardener at school for deaf students on counts of sexual abuse and corruption of minors
Last modified on Mon 25 Nov 2019 20.54 GMT
A court in Argentina has convicted two Roman Catholic priests and the former gardener of a church-run school for deaf students on 28 counts of sexual abuse and corruption of minors, in a case that has shaken the church in Pope Francis’s homeland.
A three-judge panel in the city of Mendoza sentenced Nicola Corradi to 42 years and Horacio Corbacho to 45 years for abusing children at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Lujan de Cuyo, a municipality in north-western Argentina.
Corradi, an 83-year-old Italian, and Corbacho, a 59-year-old Argentine, were arrested in 2016. The court also sentenced gardener Armando Gómez to 18 years in prison.
The verdicts can be appealed.
The judges found the men guilty of 20 counts of abuse, including rape, that occurred between 2005 and 2016 at the school, which has since shut down. The 10 victims were former students and all minors at the time of the abuse. After the sentence was delivered, several of the victims expressed their joy in the courthouse hallway by jumping and raising their arms in the air, as if they were clapping. They also embraced the prosecutors who had investigated their cases.
“I am happy, thank you so much for the battle, because everyone has supported us ... This has changed my life, which is evolving,” said Vanina Garay, 26.
The case has shocked Argentines – as did the revelation that Corradi had been previously accused of similar offences at a sister agency, the Antonio Provolo Institute in Verona, Italy, but was never charged.
The Vatican had known about Corradi since at least 2009, when the Italian Provolo students went public with tales of abuse and named names. The Vatican ordered an investigation and sanctioned four accused priests, but Corradi apparently never was sanctioned in Italy.
The defendants, who had pleaded innocence, declined to make statements ahead of the judges’ ruling. They appeared somber as they arrived in the courtroom, with Corradi in a wheelchair, his gaze fixed on the ground.
In a statement, the Archbishopric of Mendoza expressed “solidarity and closeness with the victims and their families, who have reported suffering the most aberrant mistreatment” and vowed to “keep working to ensure that these situations are not repeated”.
The Provolo victims have said they did not feel that the local church or the Vatican were protecting them.
“The Argentine court has given the traumatized children of Provolo a measure of justice that the Catholic church failed to give them,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-founder of the online research database BishopAccountability.org, to the Associated Press.
“The horror of Provolo is twofold: the torture of the children and the church’s failure to prevent it. We hope the prosecutors now will launch a criminal investigation of the archbishops and other church leaders who knew or should have known that the school was being run by a child molester.”
Doyle also said that “the pope too must accept responsibility for the unimaginable suffering of these children. He ignored repeated warnings that Corradi was in Argentina.”
Pope Francis has not commented publicly on the case, though in 2017, the Vatican sent two Argentine priests to investigate what happened in Mendoza. Former students, young men and women, testified that the priests touched and sometimes raped them in their dormitories and school bathrooms. They also said they were forced to look at pornographic images. They said they were warned to keep quiet.
Investigators found records of complaints made by parents that weren’t followed up, photographs of a naked girl on Corbacho’s computer and chains he allegedly used to subdue one girl.
Many in Argentina have asked why Francis did not remove Corradi as the authority at the Mendoza school once he learned of the allegations in Verona.
Corradi’s name appeared publicly in 2009, when 67 people said they were abused at the Verona institute by 24 priests, lay people and religious brothers, and specifically said that Corradi was in Argentina. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Somali pirates seize the Russian oil tanker Moscow University with 23 people on board, 500 miles off the Somali coast. | A Russian warship is rushing to assist an oil tanker bound for China which has been hijacked by Somali pirates.
The Marshal Shaposhnikov was heading towards the Moscow University, which was attacked 900km (560 miles) off the Somali coast, officials said. The 23 Russian crew on board are reported to have locked themselves in the ship's radar room. But a BBC reporter says the Russian warship is unlikely to intervene as it could put the hostages' lives at risk. Big prize
Shots were fired at the 96,000-tonne tanker from two speedboats in the dawn attack, the ship's owner said. The BBC's East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the oil tanker is a big prize for the pirates who, based on previous hijackings, are likely to release the cargo and crew only once a multi-million-dollar ransom has been paid. While the international war ships have prevented some attacks in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, it is widely felt that the solution to ending piracy is on land, he says. Over the weekend an Islamic insurgent group took control of one of the main pirate bases on the Somali coast. The pirates had already fled and our correspondent says is not yet clear whether this was part of a wider effort by the insurgents to stamp out piracy. For now the pirates have moved towards other bases along the coast and at sea the hijackings continue, he says. Numerous groups of pirates are currently holding more than 350 hostages as well as about 20 ships at various bases around the country. | Armed Conflict | May 2010 | ['(RIA Novosti)', '(BBC)'] |
Italy signs $2.8 billion in deals with the Belt and Road Initiative. | Italy signed a preliminary accord with China on Saturday that makes it the first country of the Group of Seven industrialized nation to join the Chinese Belt and Road infrastructure project.
Around 30 parallel deals were signed on the sidelines of the visit to Rome by Chinese President Xi Jinping, including 10 with Italian companies and others with ministries and public bodies.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said the deals were worth an initial 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) but had a potential value of 20 billion.
Here are details of some of the accords.
Italy’s state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) signed an agreement with Bank of China to let it sell “Panda” bonds - debt sold by foreign entities to investors in mainland China.
CDP said it will issue bonds worth 5 billion renminbi ($744.5 million). CDP and Bank of China will also co-finance Italian companies for 4 billion renminbi. A CDP official told Reuters on Friday that the first tranche of Panda bonds will be issued in the coming weeks.
CDP and Italian gas company Snam have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Silk Road fund (SRF) for cooperation on international investments in China and in the about 120 countries that have already signed up for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Snam and SRF said they will consider possible cooperation in the natural gas sector -- pipelines, storage facilities, LNG infrastructure and biomethane plants.
Italian metals company Danieli has signed a deal to build part of a steel plant in China that will then be transferred to Azerbaijan.
TRIESTE AND GENOA PORTS China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) has signed two cooperation agreements with the authorities of Trieste’s port and with the commissioner supervising the reconstruction of the bridge of Genoa that collapsed last year.
Ansaldo Energia said it signed a deal with China United Gas Turbine Company (UGTC) for technology cooperation in the field of heavy duty gas turbines.
Ansaldo Energia has also been awarded a contract worth approximately 25 million euros to supply a AE94.2K gas turbine and syngas compressor train for Bengang combined cycle power plant, located in Benxi in the northeast China.
China’s e-commerce group Suning, top shareholder of Italian Serie A soccer team Inter Milan, announced a deal with the Italian Trade Agency to boost Made-in-Italy exports to China.
Intesa Sanpaolo has signed a MoU with the Chinese city of Qingdao to develop wealth management services for local clients through a wholly-owned company called Yi Tsai. Intesa aimed to sell its own financial products in Qingdao in the near future, Intesa CEO Carlo Messina said.
Italian energy giant Eni has signed a MoU with Bank of China to secure a credit line.
Italy’s railways group Ferrovie dello Stato, Atlantia’s airport operator Aeroporti di Roma and the museums of sports car maker Ferrari have signed a commercial deal with China’s biggest online travel agency Ctrip to develop Chinese tourism in Italy.
| Sign Agreement | March 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
According to court documents, the Los Angeles County coroner's preliminary assessment is that Michael Jackson's death was caused by an overdose of the anesthetic propofol. | HOUSTON (Reuters) - Pop star Michael Jackson died from a lethal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol given in a cocktail of drugs, leading authorities to suspect his doctor of manslaughter, court documents showed on Monday.
Propofol OD killed Jackson -coroner
01:12
The “Thriller” singer suffered cardiac arrest and died on June 25 at age 50. Since then, an investigation by state and federal agencies have focused on Conrad Murray, Jackson’s personal doctor who was at his bedside the day he died.
The findings, contained in a warrant to search Murray’s home and offices, paint a picture of an insomniac pop star who could not sleep without heavy medication. Jackson sought out propofol -- routinely used to sedate patients and anesthetize them before surgeries such as a colonoscopy -- and called it his “milk.”
“The Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr. (Lakshmanan) Sathyavagiswaran, indicated that he had reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson’s cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol (diprivan),” according to a warrant to search Murray’s offices issued by California.
The document was unsealed and released by the Harris County District Clerk in Houston, where Murray has an office. U.S. agents raided the office on July 22.
In an affidavit seeking the warrant, Houston police officer E.G. Chance said U.S. agents had gathered “items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed the said criminal offense.”
Murray’s attorney, Ed Chernoff, was not available to comment.
Related Coverage
In a statement, a representative said Jackson’s family has “full confidence in the legal process, and commends the ongoing efforts of the L.A. County Coroner, the L.A. District Attorney and the L.A. Police Department.”
Murray, who was with Jackson on June 25 administering drugs to ease the pop star to sleep, gave him a range of medication including a 25-milligram dose of propofol via an intravenous drip at 10:40 a.m. PDT, the state search warrant said.
Jackson was “very familiar” with propofol and referred to it as his “milk” because of its milky appearance, the warrant said. Murray, who had been treating Jackson for about six weeks leading up to his death, was worried that Jackson was addicted to propofol. Murray was trying to wean him off the drug by giving him smaller doses, it said.
Jason Hymes, an assistant clinical professor at the University of Southern California who is not associated with the case, said the drug was a true anesthetic. “You administer it to somebody and then operate on them ... This concept of giving somebody a general anesthetic for sleep disturbance strikes me as just bizarre and astoundingly inappropriate.”
In the early hours of June 25, Murray also gave Jackson doses of anti-anxiety medications Valium and Ativan and sedative Versed, the filing said.
Jackson went to sleep after Murray gave him the propofol, and Murray stayed by his side for about 10 minutes, then left “to go to the restroom and relieve himself,” the search warrant said.
Murray was out of Jackson’s room for about 2 minutes and when he returned, Jackson was no longer breathing, the warrant said.
(additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinski in Los Angeles)
Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
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.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Famous Person - Death | August 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Viktor Yanukovych is sworn in as the 4th President of Ukraine. | (CNN) -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich pledged Thursday to make his country "a bridge between East and West" after being sworn into office in Kiev.
Yanukovich, who was ousted from office in 2004 in the pro-West "Orange Revolution," beat Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a bitterly fought election earlier this month that has left the country deeply divided.
Yanukovich enjoys support among the Russian-speaking people living in eastern Ukraine, while Tymoshenko is mainly supported by the Ukrainian speakers in the western part of the country. There is concern Yanukovich will move the former Soviet state more closely into Moscow's orbit and many fear further political turmoil.
But in his inaugural address, Yanukovich said it was in Ukraine's interest to build close relations with Russia, the European Union and the U.S.
"Being a bridge between East and West, an integral part of Europe and the former Soviet Union at the same time, Ukraine will choose a foreign policy that will allow our country to get the most out of the development of equal and mutually beneficial relations with Russia, the European Union, the United States and other countries that influence development in the world," he said.
Yanukovich also said he would put Ukraine on a "path of accelerated development" to save Ukraine from socio-economic collapse and called for cooperation between president, parliament and government.
In one of his first action as presidents, Yanukovich said he had reduced the costs of maintaining a presidential administration by 20 percent. The money saved would go to the fifth of Ukrainians living in poverty, according to a statement from his office.
Yanukovich was declared the winner of the presidential election in 2004, but the legitimacy of the vote was questioned and he faced accusations of stealing the race.
Yanukovich's win was annulled following the Orange Revolution uprising, with former President Victor Yushchenko winning the revote.
Tymoshenko stood alongside Yushchenko during the Orange Revolution, but later political infighting broke down their alliance. In a recent interview with CNN, Yanukovich attributed his dramatic comeback to the current economic situation, saying people voted for him because they believe he can improve the economy.
"I want to tell the people of Ukraine ... we will repay the arrears of wages and pensions, what the current government never managed to do," he said Thursday. "Given the dire situation in public finances, we will do this by reducing the costs of (the) bureaucratic system. We will start with ourselves." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | February 2010 | ['(Kyiv Post)', '(The Moscow Times)', '(BBC Europe)', '(CNN)'] |
Newspaper publisher Conrad Black is released from prison but restricted to the continental United States; he is to appear in a Chicago court on 23 July. | Canadian-born tycoon Conrad Black has been freed from a Florida prison on bail, pending an appeal over fraud convictions.
Black, a British peer, was released on a $2m (£1.3m) bond more than two years into a six-and-a-half year term.
The newspaper mogul will appear in a Chicago court on Friday to hear his bail conditions.
In 2007 Black and three other Hollinger International executives were convicted of defrauding shareholders of $6.1m.
As part of his bail conditions Black is not allowed to leave the US. After leaving the minimum security prison in Coleman, where he was being held, Black was driven to his mansion at Palm Beach.
Black and the other convicted executives were found to have paid themselves tax-free bonuses from the sale of newspaper assets without the approval of the company's board. In addition, Black was convicted on one count of obstructing justice, after being recorded on videotape removing documents from his office in Toronto after US regulators had informed him he was under investigation. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
Black's release was preceded by a Supreme Court ruling on one of the laws used to convict him. It said the three counts of fraud were based on a vague piece of US law that was interpreted too broadly by the prosecution. Under Black's leadership, Hollinger became one of the largest media companies in the world, acquiring the Chicago Sun-Times, the UK's Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers in the US and Canada.
Black, born in 1944 in Montreal, renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 so he could become a member of the UK's House of Lords.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
The Islamic State's Libyan branch continues attacks on Libya's oil ports of Sidra and Ra's Lanuf, resulting in at least 10 security personnel deaths and 40 injured. The National Oil Corporation reports that fires continue to rage in both Sidra and Ra's Lanuf after oil storage tanks were hit by shells. | Shelling by so-called Islamic State (IS) on an oil terminal in Libya has started fires that have spread to giant storage tanks, officials say.
The fires are reported to be raging in Sidra, on the coast between Sirte and Benghazi.
Officials said at least 10 guards had been killed since IS attacked the neighbouring ports on Monday.
Warplanes from Libya's internationally recognised government have provided air support to help defend the area.
Libya has been split between rival militias and two competing governments since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
IS has been operating in Libya for about a year, and in December France warned that the group was aiming to seize the country's oil wells.
Ali al-Hassi, of the Petrol Facilities Guard militia, told the BBC that five storage tanks were on fire in Sidra but none in Ras Lanouf, as earlier reported.
Each rank is thought to contain more than 400,000 barrels of oil.
Mr Hassi also said guards had recovered the bodies of 30 militants and had captured military vehicles.
On Monday, IS said it had taken control of the town of Bin Jawad, 30km (19 miles) west of Sidra on the road from its stronghold in Sirte.
The jihadists failed to take Sidra in an attack last October.
In December, Libya's rival politicians signed a UN-brokered deal to form a unity government, but that has not yet been implemented.
Islamic State gains Libya foothold
| Armed Conflict | January 2016 | ['(NOC)', '(Al-Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, replaces his Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh with Gholam–Hossein Nozari, head of the National Iranian Oil Company acting as his deputy. | TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replaced his oil minister, Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, on Sunday, a move some analysts saw as a bid to stamp his control on an industry that is the source for most of Iran’s revenues.
Facilities at phases 2-3 of the South Pars gas field, owned jointly by Iran and Qatar, are illuminated at night in Assaluyeh on Iran's Persian Gulf coast, May 27, 2006. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replaced his oil minister, Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, on Sunday, a move some analysts saw as a bid to stamp his control on an industry that is the source for most of Iran's revenues. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
Iranian news agencies, which carried letters from the president announcing the step, did not give a reason but said the head of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Gholamhossein Nozari, would become caretaker minister.
One oil official, yet to officially hear the news, said such an initiative was unlikely to mark a shift in Iran’s policy on OPEC issues but could herald a shake-up by the president in the management of the state sector that Vaziri-Hamaneh had opposed.
“I am thanking you for your work during your ministerial tenure,” ISNA news agency cited a letter to Vaziri-Hamaneh saying.
It said Vaziri-Hamaneh would become a presidential adviser on energy affairs in the world’s fourth biggest oil producer which earned more than $50 billion from its crude exports in the year to March, reaping windfall gains from soaring prices.
The ministry had recently been accused by a former deputy minister of reaching a deal to sell gas to India and Pakistan, via pipeline, too cheaply.
An oil official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said that criticism could partly be behind the move to replace the minister in the No. 2 producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
“But it is not the main issue,” he said. “Everyone knew that Vaziri-Hamaneh was not a candidate that Ahmadinejad wanted.”
Parliament rejected three of Ahmadinejad’s candidates for the post of oil minister after he came to office in 2005. MPs complained those candidates lacked experience in the industry, before Vaziri-Hamaneh, a technocrat, was accepted.
Analysts say Iran’s oil industry needs a big injection of foreign investment with accompanying expertise to meet targets to boost output beyond roughly 4 million barrel per day now.
The ministry also faces the challenge of implementing a gasoline rationing scheme that prompted protests in June.
‘OIL MAFIA’
“The question is can a new minister have sufficient backing to press forward much needed reform in the oil and gas sector?” said Iranian Energy Analyst Mehdi Varzi.
Analysts said Nozari came with expertise and inside knowledge to help ensure a smooth transition in the ministry.
“Nozari could be better for the oil industry, as he is more action-orientated. But he’s still a prisoner of the bureaucracy though,” said an executive at an international oil company.
Rumors swirled in the media this year that Vaziri-Hamaneh would be replaced although those reports were regularly denied.
Speculation had focused on Vaziri-Hamaneh’s opposition to the president’s plans for a management sweep-out in the oil industry, similar to Ahmadinejad’s changes in other official bodies since taking power on a pledge to root out corruption.
During his election campaign, Ahmadinejad promised to tackle the “oil mafia” in the state-dominated Iranian energy sector.
The oil official said policy towards OPEC was not likely to change. Vaziri-Hamaneh, like other OPEC ministers, has insisted high oil prices are not due to a shortage in crude supply. OPEC ministers next meet on September 11.
“The thing that could change if Mr Nozari took command is that many officials who previously Mr. Vaziri-Hamaneh resisted changing would change,” the official said.
Analysts said this could lead to a greater bias towards offering new energy development contracts to Iranian firms, already playing a bigger role, instead of foreigners.
Foreign firms are wary of investing in Iran amid threats of a third round of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, which the West says is a bid to build bombs. Tehran denies this.
An Iranian political analyst said changing the minister appeared to be part of a bigger plan by the president to assert his control on the crucial sector. “(Ahmadinejad) is trying to exert more influence,” he said.
Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl in Tehran and Simon Webb in Dubai
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. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Italy trash ten-man Ireland to go through to the quarter-finals, with Ireland on their worst run for more than 40 years. | Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli fired Italy into the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 after a tense victory over the Republic of Ireland.
The AC Milan striker headed home from Andrea Pirlo's 35th-minute corner before substitute Balotelli added a second at the death to finally kill off Ireland's brave resistance.
Spain's 1-0 win over Croatia in Gdansk meant the reigning champions topped Group C, but Italy went through in second place.
On a night when only victory would do for Cesare Prandelli's men, they came up with the goods against an Ireland side whose exit from the competition was confirmed last week.
But while Italy dominated for long periods, they were unable to find a way past the green shirts for a second time to leave the Republic, led by winger Damien Duff on his 100th appearance for his country, in with a chance until Balotelli eventually calmed the nerves.
Giovanni Trapattoni's side, who had midfielder Keith Andrews sent off late on, staged a late blitz on the Italian goal which came up only just short, and although they restored some of their battered pride, they will return to Dublin tomorrow having failed to collect a single point.
Duff and his team-mates ran out wearing black armbands to mark the 18th anniversary of the shootings of six men in Loughinisland, County Down, as the victims watched the national team play Italy at the 1994 World Cup finals in the United States.
That day, Ray Houghton's goal secured a famous victory over the Italians, and the latest generation set out in determined fashion in an attempt to repeat the feat.
They might have taken the lead straight from the kick-off when Kevin Doyle ran on to Pirlo's careless pass, but defender Giorgio Chiellini dispossessed him before he could shoot.
Ireland safely negotiated the opening five minutes which had previously proved so problematical in the tournament, but as the deep-sitting Pirlo started to pull the strings, found themselves having to defend for dear life.
But where that had been beyond them in their opening two games, this time they found the resilience and organisation which had brought them to the finals.
The two sides traded blows in their own particular fashions, the Italians stylish and patient, the Irish more direct and abrasive, but with neither goalkeeper being called upon at all.
Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger both had to get in good blocks to prevent Antonio Di Natale from troubling Shay Given, and the Leicester defender had to be on his toes to dispossess the same man as he threatened to carve his way into the penalty area once again.
But with 10 minutes of the first half remaining, Italy started to turn the screw.
Glenn Whelan's misplaced pass allowed Cassano to pick out Di Natale and when he rounded Given on the right side of the penalty area and shot from a tight angle, St Ledger once again came to the rescue on the line.
But the reprieve was only temporary and after Given had conceded a corner by spilling Cassano's snapshot, Prandelli's men edged ahead.
Pirlo's near-post delivery was met with a glancing header by Cassano and although Given got a hand to it, he could not keep the ball out of the net.
The sense of relief among the Italian fans, who were dwarfed in number by their Irish counterparts, was palpable, and will have been shared both on the pitch and the bench.
However, Prandelli's players returned knowing they still had to get through another 45 minutes and hope things elsewhere continued to go for them if they were to progress.
It would have been 2-0 within three minutes of the restart had St Ledger not once again denied Di Natale with a vital block, and Given had to get down well to keep out Cassano's side-footed effort seconds later with Italy looking to kill the game off.
Daniele De Rossi curled a 51st-minute shot over the angle of bar and post with Ireland looking more open than they had at any point until then.
But there was a flicker of hope for the Republic when Robbie Keane forced Ignazio Abate to concede a corner which Dunne headed wide.
Given had to repel another Di Natale effort at his near post with 55 minutes gone, but Andrews tested Gianluigi Buffon from distance for the first time on the hour.
Sensing that their time had come, the Republic launched a sustained assault on the Italian goal, prompting Prandelli to introduce wild card striker Balotelli with 15 minutes left on the clock.
But Buffon had to be at his best to keep out Andrews' drilled 79th-minute shot from Duff's back-heeled free-kick, with Ireland throwing everything they had at Italy.
However, it all turned sour at the death as Andrews, who had earlier been booked for a foul, received a second yellow card for dissent seconds before Balotelli hooked home a Pirlo corner to secure the win.
Italy: 1 Buffon; 7 Abate, 15 Barzagli, 3 Chiellini (19 Bonucci '57), 6 Balzaretti; 21 Pirlo; 8 Marchisio, 5 Motta; 16 De Rossi; 10 Cassano (22 Diamati '62), 11 Di Natale (9 Balotelli '75).
Subs not used: 12 Sirigu, 14 De Sanctis, 2 Maggio, 4 Ogbonna, 13 Giaccherini, 17 Borini, 18 Montolivio, 20 Giovinco, 23 Nocerino.
Booked: Balzaretti, De Rossi, Buffon.
Republic of Ireland: 1 Given; 4 O'Shea, 2 St ledger, 5 Dunne, 3 Ward; 11 Duff, 6 Whelan, 8 Andrews, 7 McGeady (19 Long '65); 9 Doyle (14 Walters '76), 10 Keane (20 Cox '86).
Subs not used: 16 Westwood, 23 Forde, 12 Kelly, 13 McShane, 15 Gibson, 17 Hunt, 18 O'Dea, 21 Green, 22 McClean. | Sports Competition | June 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(RTE)'] |
Wildfires prompt the evacuation of 12,000 people along the French Riviera, while more than 4,000 firefighters and French Armed Forces personnel backed by 19 water-bomber planes are mobilised to extinguish the flames. | Summer wildfires are once again blazing across southern Europe, forcing the evacuation of 12,000 people on France’s Mediterranean cost and devouring swaths of forests as far afield as Corsica, Portugal, Italy and Albania.
Authorities in the Côte d’Azur region decided to move people out of tents, campsites and holiday homes around the hilltop town of Bormes-les-Mimosas after a fire broke out in the surrounding forests on Tuesday.
Some of the 12,000 people displaced by the flames sheltered in gymnasiums, village halls and schools while others huddled on local beaches.
Karine Dolczewski, a mother of four from Pas-de-Calais who was on holiday with her family in the area, said they had been ordered to leave their holiday centre at about 10.30pm on Tuesday.
“The sky was all red,” she told Le Monde. “It was a huge blaze with enormous flames spreading everywhere.”
After hearing gas canisters exploding at a nearby campsite, guests at the centre in La Manne were told they needed to evacuate.
“We left everything there except for the baby’s bottle and nappies,” Dolczewski added. After marching calmly in single file down to the beach, they were taken to the village hall in Bormes-les-Mimosas.
Local journalists photographed several people curled up in sleeping bags on the sand while smoke from the fire could be seen in the distance.
On Tuesday, more than 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water-bombers had already been mobilised to extinguish the flames.
At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities.
With strong winds and dry brush creating a dangerous mix, the government asked its European partners to send two extra firefighting planes – a request immediately fulfilled by Italy, according to the EU.
But one union official denounced what he said was a lack of spare parts that was preventing all the aircraft from being put into action.
Gerard Collomb, the interior minister, said France would be adding six more firefighting planes to its fleet. He made the announcement on Tuesday during a visit to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, which also been badly affected by fires.
The number of people on France’s Côte d’Azur swells in July and August as holidaymakers head to the beach, and the area is experiencing an exceptionally hot, dry summer that has made it especially vulnerable to fires.
On Wednesday, Eric Martin of the Var firefighting unit told the BFM-TV channel that nearly 600 firefighters were trying to contain flames that had run through 1,300 hectares (3,210 acres).
Four tracker planes and a firefighting aircraft were sent in as thick black smoke billowed above the skyline.
The airport in Toulon, a city 25 miles (40km) from Bormes-les-Mimosas, was briefly closed on Wednesday, as well the Fort de Brégançon, which sits on a rock off the coast of Bormes.
The wildfires began raging along France’s Mediterranean coast two days ago, forcing smaller, scattered evacuations, with flames reaching a corner of Saint-Tropez. A fire in nearby La Croix-Valmer was under control by Tuesday evening, according to the local fire chief, Philippe Gambe de Vergnes.
The blaze had already consumed 400 hectares of coastal forest in an area dotted with homes, he said. More than 200 people had to be moved from the area.
La Croix-Valmer’s deputy mayor, René Carandante, described a desolate landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines, where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean. “It’s a disaster area. There’s nothing left,” he said.
François Fouchier, of the local coastal conservation group, said local wildlife, such as the Hermann’s tortoises, would be victims of the fires. “We are going to find burnt shells,” he said.
About 50 miles (80km) inland, 300 hectares of pines and oaks went up in smoke near the village of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. A local official accused the authorities of failing to regularly remove dry undergrowth, making the forest a fire hazard.
Further south, flames ate through 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) of forest on the northern end of Corsica.
In Portugal, more than 2,000 firefighters were battling nine major wildfires on Wednesday, with drought conditions, high temperatures and strong winds fuelling the flames.
Another 1,000 firefighters were conducting mopping-up operations at 37 different Portuguese woodland blazes.
Ash floated in the air and vast plumes of smoke covered areas of central Portugal, in the area around Serta, about 125 miles (200km) north-east of Lisbon. The Civil Protection Agency said 24 water-dropping aircraft were in action.
Serta is close to Pedrógão Grande, where 64 people died in a wildfire last month. No injuries have been reported in recent days as the blazes raced through thick eucalyptus and pine forests.
Large wildfires are a common occurrence in summer in Portugal, where thousands of firefighters are on duty in the hottest months.
In Italy, where fires have raged for weeks, firefighters responded to 26 requests for water and fire retardant air drops on Tuesday, throughout central and southern Italy, including Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio and Puglia.
The Coldiretti agriculture lobby said 50 billion bees were destroyed along with their hives in fires on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Coldiretti said another 20% of the bee population is estimated to have become disoriented and died as a result.
Albania’s interior ministry said 130 firefighters were battling 18 fire spots around the country on Wednesday.
A spokesman, Ardian Bita, said fires were blazing in five western and central districts, damaging 15 hectares (37 acres) of pastures, vineyards and dozens of olive trees.
Firefighters, military personnel and local authorities have been fighting about a dozen wildfires every day in Albania since the end of June. No injuries have yet been reported. Authorities have arrested several people accused of starting fires.
“Compared to a year ago we have increased public awareness and have also had better communication with the communities and local authorities,” said Bita. | Fire | July 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Anheuser-Busch states it will allow Armstrong's contract with them to expire at the end of the year. It will also continue to support LIVESTRONG. |
Lance Armstrong has lost three of his main sponsors as the fallout continues from the United States Anti-Doping Agency's report into doping.
Sportswear giant Nike, cycle maker Trek and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch will cut ties with the former cyclist. Armstrong, 41, who has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, has also stepped down as chairman of his cancer charity Livestrong.
The three companies pledged to continue to support Livestrong.
Nike said in a statementexternal-link "due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Armstrong participated in doping... we have terminated his contract".
Anheuser-Busch will not renew its sponsorship deal with Armstrong when it finishes at the end of 2012, while Trek is ending its long-term relationship with the American with immediate effect. Another of Armstrong's sponsors, sportswear firm Oakley, said: "As we have stated in the past, Oakley does not approve in any way the use of illegal substances for enhancing performance in sports. "Our policy with our athletes is to support them until proven guilty by the highest governing body of sport or court of law. We are reviewing the extensive report from the Usada, as well as our relationship with Lance, and will await final decision-making by the International Cycling Union."
The decisions come a week after the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) released a report containing accusations of widespread doping by Armstrong and his teams.
It contains sworn statements from 26 witnesses, including 11 former team-mates. Usada ordered 14 years of Armstrong's career results to be erased. The American has always denied doping, but gave up his fight against the charges in August.
Nike, which added that it was "misled" by the American for more than a decade, made a U-turn on a statement released last weekexternal-link when it said it would "continue to support Lance and the Lance Armstrong Foundation". Nike and Armstrong had been in partnership since 1996.
Armstrong also announced on Wednesday that he would be quitting his role as chairman of his cancer charity in order "to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career".
"Armstrong's comeback from cancer to dominate the world's toughest bike race was such a wonderful story that people want to believe that it is true. So great a hero was he to so many that some are still reluctant not to."
Read the rest of Tom's feature here
The Texan will remain on Livestrong's 15-member board, with vice-chairman Jeff Garvey, who was founding chairman in 1997, taking over Armstrong's role.
Armstrong added: "As my cancer treatment was drawing to an end, I created a foundation to serve people affected by cancer. "It has been a great privilege to help it grow from a dream into an organisation that today has served 2.5 million people and helped spur a cultural shift in how the world views cancer survivors."
Livestrong spokesperson Katherine McLane told BBC Radio 5 live: "I think he reached this decision because he holds this organisation close to his heart and he thinks of this as akin to one of his children in terms of how deeply he cares for it. "Surprisingly throughout the last few years, with these issues being in the news, we've seen an increase in the number of people that support (Livestrong) and contribute."
Former England footballer Geoff Thomas was inspired to set up his own foundation after reading Armstrong's autobiography days after being diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in 2003.
Armstrong led the tributes when Thomas was awarded the 2005 BBC Sports Personality Helen Rollason Award in recognition of his charity work, but Thomas said the American "had done the right thing" by stepping down as chairman.
"I think it's damage limitation while everything is going as it is - there's a news story about Lance every day," the 48-year-old told BBC Sport.
"Lance stepping down will probably take the heat away from the charity itself and put the focus solely on him."
Thomas contacted Armstrong on Twitterexternal-link, writing: "@lancearmstrong please for your sake, come clean. If not yours, for the millions you have inspired over the last 15+ years." | Sign Agreement | October 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
Former President of Madagascar Marc Ravalomanana is sentenced in absentia to life in prison with hard labour for ordering the killing of opposition supporters. | Madagascar's exiled former president has been sentenced to life in prison with hard labour for ordering the killing of opposition supporters.
Marc Ravalomanana was sentenced in absentia for the February 2009 murders of at least 30 people by his presidential guard.
Mr Ravalomanana has been living in South Africa since March 2009.
Those killed were supporters of Andry Rajoelina, who has now taken over the government. Mr Ravalomanana was charged with murder and being an accessory to murder, along with 18 other people, some of whom are also in exile.
The former president's defence lawyers walked out on the trial shortly after the hearings began, saying the court was being used by Mr Rajoelina's administration.
"The aim is to sentence him so he can't return to Madagascar and run in future elections," lawyer Hanitra Razafimanantsoa told news agency AFP.
Madagascar has been in the midst of a political crisis for the past 19 months.
It is the third sentence given to Mr Ravalomanana by a court since he left the country. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters Africa)'] |
Representative Gabby Giffords of Arizona announces her resignation from office to focus on her recovery after surviving an attempted assassination in 2011. | Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was only a few minutes into her “Congress on your Corner” meeting with constituents when the gunman struck. Now, one of her last acts in Congress will be to finish that meeting.
The Arizona Democrat announced Sunday that she will resign from her congressional seat this week, about one year after sustaining massive injuries in the massacre in Tucson that killed six, wounded 13 and sparked a nationwide conversation about the tenor of the country’s political debate.
She nearly died from the gunshot wound to her head, and the severity of the damage to her brain left the extent of her recovery in question. But it was in a clear and strong voice that betrayed only a hint of her ordeal that Giffords announced her decision, in a video posted on her campaign Web site.
“I don’t remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice,” she said, looking directly into the camera. The hair that had been severely cropped after the shooting now framed her face in soft curls. “I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week.”
Before handing in her resignation to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), Giffords has some unfinished business. She plans to attend President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. And she will finish the meeting that was “interrupted,” her staff said in a statement, by gathering with some of the survivors at a private event in Tucson on Monday.
The announcement came as an emotional blow to many of her friends and supporters, who had hoped she would recover enough to run for reelection or even for the Senate. But it was not entirely unexpected.
For months, her devoted staff shouldered the burdens of her office while she underwent multiple surgeries and intensive therapy in Houston, where her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, lived. Giffords made a remarkable recovery, but with her term ending this year, her constituents wondered whether she would be up to the challenge of running for reelection.
Bill Badger, a retired Army colonel who was injured in the shooting, said he does not begrudge her the decision.
“I fully support her decision to not run again and I understand, because I was shot in the head myself — not as seriously as Gabby — and I know how it changed my priorities and changed my life,” Badger said.
Giffords’s decision means that a special election will be held in the next few months, and despite rumors that her husband might run for her seat, Democratic officials in Washington and Arizona do not expect Kelly or any of Giffords’s top staff members to do so.
Giffords’s southern Arizona district, which is on the Mexican border, is widely considered a swing district, and several candidates of both parties have expressed interest in running for the seat.
In the end, Giffords did what was in her best interests and those of her constituents, said Fred DuVal, a friend and Democratic operative from Phoenix.
“It feels like a responsible decision in the sense that her health comes first, her recovery first,” he said. “And, secondly, knowing her so well, she’s not capable of making a commitment that she can’t engage with full talent and responsibility. I’m sure she balanced that and always wanted to do right by the people she represents.” Before the shooting, Giffords had been a rising star in the Democratic Party, a centrist politician and talented communicator who championed stronger border security, veterans’ rights and solar energy. In its aftermath, she became a national symbol for the effort to restore civility to American politics, following a brutal 2010 midterm election in which even Giffords’s race turned into a bitter battle.
Lawmakers set aside their partisan divisions to sit together for last year’s State of the Union address — before the legislature dissolved again into gridlock over the budget. Giffords served as a sort of peacemaker for the body in August, when she made a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill to vote in favor of raising the nation’s debt limit, with members on both sides of the aisle bursting into applause, many choking up or openly crying. Some stood on their chairs to get a glimpse of her.
At the end of September, Giffords had $879,000 in her campaign account, money that was raised almost entirely by the efforts of her close friends in Congress, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
Giffords by law cannot use that money for personal expenses, but she could transfer it to the Democratic Party for use in the special election or donate it to a charity. She could also keep the funds in that account for a future political race.
In a news release on Sunday, Giffords’s office said she would meet privately Monday with some of the people who were at the community meeting with her last January when the shooting occured. In addition to fellow survivors, some of the “citizen heroes” who aided the injured and subdued the gunman will be present, the congresswoman’s office said.
Gifford was also scheduled to meet with and than community leaders from her district, and some of her advisers. In late morning, she will visit a community food bank in Tucson to tour a family assistance center that bears her name. Giffords will submit her letter of resignation to House Speaker John Boehner and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer later this week, her office said.
Staff writer Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.
Read more on PostPolitics.com Survey paints portrait of black women in America In Florida, Romney takes aim at resurgent Gingrich Federal employees owe $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes Romney vs. Gingrich highlights GOP unease | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | January 2012 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Police in Krasnodar investigate allegations of animal cruelty after a terrified donkey is forced to parasail off a beach as part of an advertising stunt in a film that has shocked Russians nationwide. |
Russian holidaymakers were left shocked after a donkey was forced to parasail off a beach as part of a sick advertising stunt.
The animal, braying in terror, soared above the southern village of Golubitskaya while crying children below echoed its screams.
The stunt intended to attract people into parasailing at a private beach club backfired after police began investigating allegations of animal cruelty.
The animal eventually landed back on the shoreline in an ‘atrocious manner’ after being dragged through the water at the Sea of Asov resort.
Sunbathers rushed to rescue the frightened donkey and were lucky to stop it from drowning.
‘The donkey screamed and children cried,’ Krasnodar regional police spokeswoman Larisa Tuchkova told the AFP news agency. ‘No-one had the brains to call police.’
Steady: Private beach hold the donkey down as a speedboat pulls the parachute
Donkey gone: Workers let the donkey go as the parachute drags it into the air
Flight of fright: The donkey, which could be heard screaming, soars over the sea
Instead, she said, people reached for their cameras and bombarded a local Cossack newspaper with phone calls.
According to the paper, Taman, the donkey flew so high that children on the beach cried and asked their parents: ‘Why did they tie a doggy to a parachute?’
Its editor, Elena Iovleva, said: ‘The donkey landed in an atrocious manner.
‘It was dragged several metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore.’
The incident is stunning even for a country where animal cruelty is widespread and came as a shock to the locals, Miss Iovleva said.
She added: ‘This has never happened before.’
The footage of Thursday’s incident has now been aired across Russia’s national TV network.
An Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed that a beach club had given ‘this donkey a parasailing ride in order to attract holidaymakers’ attention to this sort of entertainment.’
Police will now launch a probe and, if the entrepreneurs are found guilty, they could face prosecution for animal cruelty.
The offence carries a maximum punishment of two years in prison.
Russian police last night admitted that the trail has gone cold as they hunt to find the donkey owner, who was responsible for the horrific animal abuse. 'He has done a runner, he has gone into hiding,' said a police spokesman. Another officer Denis Yegorov said: 'It’s amazing that onlookers didn’t knock his teeth out there and then. But in fact no-one complained, not a single person. 'And this is a problem for the police because without an official complaint from a witness we cannot launch a criminal investigation.
[caption]
'If we find this man right now all we can do is talk to him - and check the donkey is healthy.'
He claimed the shocking video evidence could not be used alone under Russian law to spark an official probe.
But as Russian public opinion was horrified by the footage, there was speculation the FSB - formerly called the KGB - would join the hunt for the donkey owner.
A police source said: 'The man is missing. But we are now very concerned for the donkey.'
'Reports say the animal survived but we need to make sure the creature is all right after his ordeal.'
Last night a Russian animal rights group lodged an official complaint demanding police action. 'The sadists have shown their know-how,' said Konstantin Sabinin, projects director Vita, an anti-cruelty group. 'It’s an extremely despicable event.' The group said it was a test case for how seriously the Kremlin takes animal cruelty.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(IOL)', '[permanent dead link]', '(iAfrica)', '(Sky News)', '(Daily Mail)'] |
Incumbent Democratic governor John Bel Edwards narrowly defeats businessman and Republican candidate Eddie Rispone to retain his seat; Louisiana Republicans also fall short of winning a supermajority in the Louisiana House of Representatives, allowing Edwards to retain veto power over legislation. The results follow recent gains by the Democratic Party in elections in Virginia and Kentucky and is considered as another blow to U.S. President Donald Trump. | (Reuters) - Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a conservative Democrat, won a second term in office on Saturday, defeating a Republican opponent who had closely aligned himself with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Louisiana's Democratic governor wins re-election
01:33
The outcome is widely seen as the latest barometer on the value of Trump’s endorsement for Republican candidates ahead the 2020 elections.
Edwards, an observant Roman Catholic who opposes abortion, won a run-off election by a 51% to 49% margin over Eddie Rispone, a construction entrepreneur described by Trump as “pro-family, pro-life, pro-Second Amendment and 100 percent pro-America.”
Edwards is the Deep South’s only Democratic governor, and campaigned on his state’s strengthening economy.
In a Tweet early on Saturday morning, Trump urged Louisiana voters to vote for Rispone, saying he will lower their taxes and the cost of auto insurance, which is the highest in the United States, while protecting their gun rights.
“He will be a great governor!” Trump wrote in an earlier Tweet.
Other recent elections have offered mixed readings.
In Kentucky’s gubernatorial election, Democratic challenger Andy Beshear defeated Republican Governor Matt Bevin despite the president’s full-throated Bevin endorsement. In Mississippi earlier this month, Republicans easily kept control of the statehouse, thanks in part to Trump’s support.
In a victory speech to supporters, Edwards said he had spoken to Rispone by phone.
“We both agreed that the time for campaigning is over and now our shared love for Louisiana is always more important than the partisan differences that sometimes divide us,” Edward said.
In conceding the election, Rispone said he was disappointed in the result.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” he told supporters.
Rispone thanked Trump for campaigning for him in the state.
“He (Trump) came down here three times specifically to try to help us,” he said, to cheers from the crowd.
Louisiana has enjoyed a net increase of 21,000 jobs under Edward’s watch, while the unemployment rate dropped from 6% to 4%.
“You didn’t just vote for me; you voted for four more years of putting Louisiana first,” he told supporters.
Rispone had depicted himself as a political outsider with business acumen who is setting his sights on rewriting the state constitution in order to reform the state’s tax code.
Edwards topped Rispone by a large margin in a six-candidate primary last month, but failed to secure the 50 percent needed to win a second term outright. | Government Job change - Election | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Chicago, Illinois police officer, Jason Van Dyke, enters a not guilty plea regarding the charges of the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald. | “Change of venues they rarely happen, especially in Cook County, but this is a case where we are certainly going to explore every possibility that we have which gives my client the best opportunity for a fair trial.”
Daniel Herbert, Van Dyke’s attorney:
“He’s doing OK. He’s hanging in there. And as far as him not saying anything about this, you know, it’s essentially what I tell him. We’re not going to try this case in the media.”
Marvin Hunter, Laquan McDonald’s great uncle:
“This trial should be televised gavel to gavel in the interest of fairness to make sure that everyone that is involved is doing the job that we’ve either elected them to do or hired them to do.”
Marvin Hunter, Laquan McDonald’s great uncle:
“In the culture that we are living in just over the weekend, a Chicago police officer just killed a young man and an innocent lady, shot the lady through the door. You have to have some sense of comfortability within yourself to believe that you can do this without any kind of recourse from your actions.”
CHICAGO Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer charged with murder for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald, pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance Tuesday morning, setting a case that has stirred emotions here and across the country on a course toward trial.
Officer Van Dyke, who is free on bond, stood silently before Judge Vincent Gaughan as his lawyer, Dan Herbert, entered the not-guilty plea. Officer Van Dyke was charged last month with murder just hours before a dashboard camera video of him shooting Mr. McDonald 16 times was released, setting off protests and calls for changes to policing here. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2015 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Israel Defense Forces jets attack targets in the Gaza Strip following a Qassam rocket fired at the Negev in Israel on Saturday night. | Air Force on Sunday jets struck two Gaza targets in response to the Qassam rocket fired at the Negev Saturday evening.
The targets hit were an arms smuggling tunnel and a tunnel under the border fence used for carrying out terrorist activity inside Israel.
An IDF statement after the attack said, "The military will not tolerate any attempt to harm the citizens of the State of Israel or IDF soldiers and will continue to act determinedly and severely against any element using terror against the State of Israel. The IDF holds the Hamas
terror organization as solely responsible for the occurrences in the Gaza Strip and for maintaining calm there."
Following the attack, a mortar shell was fired from the northern Gaza Strip and exploded near Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no reports of damage or injury.
Saturday's rocket indicates an escalation on the southern front. The current round of violence along Israel's border with Gaza began Friday morning, when a Grad rocket fired from the Hamas-ruled territory landed
near an apartment building in central Ashkelon. A few hours later two mortars landed within the limits of the Eshkol Regional Council. There were no reports of injury in either attack, but eight people suffered from shock in Ashkelon. | Armed Conflict | August 2010 | ['(Ynet News)'] |
French police arrest a 39–year–old Rwandan refugee who is charged with arson after he admitted setting fires inside Nantes Cathedral on July 18, which destroyed the 17th–century grand organ and stained–glass windows. | A church volunteer has admitted starting a fire that devastated the cathedral in the French city of Nantes last week, his lawyer has said.
The Rwandan refugee, who worked as a warden at the cathedral, was rearrested on Saturday night.
No motive for the fire, which destroyed the cathedral's 17th Century organ as well as historic stained-glass windows, has been given.
His lawyer told reporters his client felt "relief" after confessing.
"It's someone who is scared, who is somehow overwhelmed," his lawyer, Quentin Chabert, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
The 39-year-old volunteer, who has not been named, was initially detained for questioning after the blaze but then released without charge.
He had been in charge of locking up the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul cathedral the day before the blaze on 18 July.
Officials had previously said that the fire was believed to have been arson and had been started in three different places. Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennes said on Saturday that the man had been charged with "destruction and damage by fire" and could face up to 10 years in prison and €150,000 ($175,000; £135,000) in fines, according to the AFP news agency.
Around 100 firefighters managed to stop the flames from destroying the main structure at the cathedral. French Prime Minister Jean Castex praised their "professionalism, courage and self-control".
The fire comes about 15 months after a blaze nearly destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Huge fire wrecks French basilica
Notre Dame spire will be rebuilt exactly as it was
Rescue on hold for fragile Notre Dame in Paris
Work starts to remove melted Notre-Dame scaffolding
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong–un fires Economic Affairs Minister Kim Tu–il less than a month after appointing him to his cabinet for "lack of innovation". He is replaced by O Su–yong, according to state media. | SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sacked his economy chief, who was only appointed last month, and denounced his cabinet for a lack of innovation in drafting goals for a new five-year economic plan, state media reported on Friday.
The ruling Workers’ Party wrapped up its four-day plenary meeting on Thursday, where Kim also mapped out his vision for inter-Korean affairs and relations with other countries, as well as party rules and personnel issues.
With the economy topping the agenda, Kim reviewed action plans for his new five-year strategy which was unveiled at last month’s party congress amid international sanctions, a prolonged border closure and reduced outside aid due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He accused the cabinet of drafting plans with “no big changes” from previous ones, which he has said had “failed tremendously on almost every sector.”
The committee appointed O Su Yong, a longtime economic policymaker who previously served as a vice premier, to be the new director of its Department of Economic Affairs, replacing Kim Tu Il who was appointed in January.
“The idea and policy of the party congress are not properly reflected in the proposed plan for economic work for this year and innovative viewpoint and clear tactics can’t be found,” Kim told the meeting, according to the official KCNA news agency.
“The cabinet failed to play a leading role in mapping out plans of key economic fields and almost mechanically brought together the numbers drafted by the ministries.”
As a result, plans for some sectors were unrealistically elevated and others had tasks that were already easily achievable, he added.
The party decided to build 10,000 homes in capital Pyongyang this year, replacing a previous construction plan that Kim described as too low and a product of “self-protectionism and defeatism” in the bureaucracy.
State television footage showed an angry looking Kim yelling, finger pointing and striking the podium as he addressed the meeting.
He also called for enhanced self-reliance and the local production of goods and materials, KCNA said, after trade with China, which accounts for about 90% of shipments into and out of North Korea, plunged more than 80% last year due to strict COVID-19 lockdowns.
As part of its personnel changes, the committee also promoted Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon to the politburo shortly after reinstating him as an alternate member of the powerful governing body. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Pádraig Harrington wins the 2008 PGA Championship, becoming the first European to do so in 78 years. | BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Michigan (AFP) — Padraig Harrington hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy as he captured his third major championship and snapped Europe's 78-year drought in the PGA Championship.
The two-time reigning British Open champion fired a final round of four-under 66 for a three-under-277 total, winning by two strokes over Spain's Sergio Garcia and American Ben Curtis.
The 36-year old is the first European to win the British Open and PGA Championship in the same year and the first European to win consecutive major golf championships.
Harrington also joins Walter Hagen, Nick Price and Tiger Woods (2000 and 2006) as the only players to win both events in the same year.
"I like the fact no other European has won two majors consecutively," Harrington said. "I obviously hold a lot of European players who I grew up watching in high esteem.
"To achieve something that they hadn't is very special."
Garcia shot a two-under 68 and finished in a tie for second with third round leader Curtis (71) at the Oakland Hills Country Club course.
Argentina's Camilo Villegas (68) and Sweden's Henrik Stenson (72) placed fourth, four strokes back of Harrington, who is also the first European golfer to win the PGA Championship since Tommy Armour in 1930.
American Steve Flesch shot a one-under 69 to finish alone in sixth.
Harrington, 36, brandished his iron game and flexed his putter to post back-to-back 66s on the weekend.
"Once I got to the weekend and made a few putts it was a question of adrenaline keeping me going," said Harrington who earned 1.35 million dollars for the victory. "You just have to give it a go. From my experience in majors I know that nobody goes without making mistakes.
"I knew I would get my opportunity and it was going to be my day. I took that opportunity."
He rolled in six birdies, including four on the back nine, in marathon Sunday in which both he and playing partner Garcia had to play 36 holes.
Third round play was called off late Saturday after a series of thunderstorms rumbled through the Detroit-area course.
"When I started making putts I just stuck in there and it brought my game up. The more I got into it the better I played," said Harrington, who is the second player behind Tiger Woods to follow back-to-back British Open titles with a PGA Championship.
Two-time defending champion Woods didn't play at Oakland Hills after having season-ending knee surgery.
Harrington, of Dublin, now appears to have the number of Garcia who finished second in a major for the third time in his career and second time to Harrington.
Harrington also beat the Spaniard in a four-hole playoff in 2007 at Carnoustie for his first major championship. Harrington defended his Open title just three weeks ago.
"I had to convince myself not to get into this sentimental thinking that maybe it is his turn," Harrington said. "Maybe he deserves it. Maybe it is his day.
"I had to convince myself that it is going to be my day. I deserve to win three majors. You have to be very selfish in this situation when you are on the golf course.
"It was evident at Carnoustie when I won. I was so focused on what I was doing and the high of it and then I turned around. I saw Sergio and I could see the disappointment and that there was a loser that day.
"I could see the sheer disappointment in his face."
Harrington took the lead from Garcia for good on the par-three 17th hole by making a 10 foot birdie putt. Garcia putt his tee shot inside Harrington's to four feet of the cup but two-putted and had to settle for par.
"When I got up to the green I had no idea which was which," Harrington said. "I'm 10 feet and Sergio is four feet. I knew I had the opportunity to get the putt in first. That was important. I knew if I holed this I would probably win the PGA. If I missed Sergio would probably win the PGA. It was down to that.
"I hit a lovely putt. Read it exactly and it did exactly what I wanted."
But Garcia certainly made Harrington work for it. He came out strong in the fourth round, opening with a birdie and eagle and was tied with Harrington after 16 holes.
His undoing proved to be a shaky putter on the final two holes. He made bogey on 18 missing a 10-foot putt for par.
"Unfortunately sometimes things just don't go the right way," Garcia said. "That is the way it goes.
"I feel like I played well enough to win. But it didn't happen. That's pretty much all I can ask of myself."
It was the second consecutive disappointment for Garcia at the PGA Championship. Last year in Tulsa his tournament ended in disaster when he was disqualified after signing an incorrect scorecard.
Garcia said he is trying to take the positives from this experience.
"Every time you are out there trying to win a major there can only be one winner," Garcia said.
"I feel like I putted well today, just a couple of putts that didn't want to go in. When you give it your best and the end result is not what you wish for. It is hard but you feel like you gave it your best." | Sports Competition | August 2008 | ['(AFP via Google News)'] |
Serbia arrests Goran Hadžić, a Croatian Serb wartime leader, indicted for alleged crimes against humanity during the Croatian War of Independence. | Serbia's last major war crimes fugitive, a Croatian Serb wartime leader indicted for crimes against humanity during the 1991-95 Croatian war, has been arrested, Serbian president Boris Tadic says.
Goran Hadzic was a key figure in the breakaway Krajina Serb republic in Croatia, and after the arrest of wartime general Ratko Mladic earlier this year, he was Serbia's last remaining figure sought by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
Serbia's leader held a press conference to announce the capture shortly after Hadzic's arrest at 8:24am (local time).
"With this, Serbia ends the most difficult chapter in its cooperation with the court," Mr Tadic told the conference.
Hadzic is charged with ordering the killing of hundreds and the deportation of thousands of Croats and other non-Serbs from the area.
Mr Tadic said Hadzic was tracked down in the idyllic mountain region of Fruska Gora, near the northern city of Novi Sad, and arrested near Krusedol village.
The village is home to a famous Serbian Orthodox monastery, a popular tourist destination known for its icons.
The European Union, which hailed Belgrade for finding Mladic in May, has continued to insist on the arrest of Hadzic for Serbia to make progress towards European Union membership.
Hadzic lived openly in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad until July 13, 2004, when The Hague sent an indictment and arrest warrant to Belgrade.
He fled immediately, tipped off by nationalist hardliners in Serbia's security services.
His escape was kept a secret for days, while relatives said he was at home and police denied having orders to arrest him.
The Hague later made public surveillance pictures showing him leaving his house with a bag on the afternoon of July 13.
At the press conference Mr Tadic dismissed criticism that Serbia had been slow to arrest Hadzic and Mladic.
"I have been explaining everything we have been doing in the past few years that it has been very difficult for us to investigate those kind of people," he said.
"I will confirm once again we did everything possible and I am very proud of everybody who has been working on this issue."
In Serbia, Hadzic gained notoriety in the past for his involvement in murky deals including illegal exports of oak wood, wine as well as crude oil from an oil well which was under Serb control.
He was frequently seen in the company of Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic, a paramilitary leader and the head of Belgrade's underworld at the time.
United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the arrest.
Mr Ban's spokesman said the secretary-general "commended" the Serbian president and authorities for their "leadership in ending impunity for those indicted for serious violations of international humanitarian law".
"Mr Hadzic's apprehension sends a powerful message that those who are alleged to have committed such crimes cannot evade justice," the spokesman said, quoting Mr Ban.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2011 | ['(Reuters via ABC Online)'] |
At least 14 people are dead after Typhoon Mirinae hits the Philippines. | (CNN) -- At least 14 people were dead and four missing in the Philippines a day after Typhoon Mirinae roared through the heart of the country, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Sunday.
Mirinae was the fourth typhoon to affect the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands in a month. It quickly dissipated after Saturday's landfall, becoming a tropical storm. Mirinae was forecast to weaken further before hitting Vietnam on Monday, forecasters said.
The hardest hit areas were the Southern Luzon and Bicol regions, the Philippines News Agency reported. Civil Defense administrator Glenn Rabonza said more than 13,000 people were affected by the storm.
The storm brought at least 85 millimeters (3.3 inches) of rain to Manila. The city of Daet, on the eastern coast, received 149 millimeters (5.8 inches) of rain, and Virac, which sits on an island that juts into the Pacific, received 72 millimeters (2.8 inches) of rain.
The first of the four typhoons to threaten the Philippines happened in late September, when Ketsana drenched the island nation with its heaviest rainfall in 40 years. Eighty percent of Manila flooded and more than 420 people died.
r
Flooding from Ketsana has lasted well into October and tens of thousands of people are still in evacuation centers, according to the disaster coordinating council.
Typhoon Parma made landfall on October 3 in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands. It destroyed 55,000 houses and killed more than 430 people.
Last week, a third typhoon, Lupit, narrowly missed making landfall, but brought lots of rain to the Philippines. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(Philippine Inquirier)'] |
Bobbi Kristina Brown, age 22, daughter of American entertainer Whitney Houston and heiress to the Houston estate, dies approximately 6 months after having been put in a medically induced coma since being found face–down in a bathtub in her Roswell, Georgia home near Atlanta on January 31, 2015. , | ATLANTA (AP) — An autopsy will be needed to evaluate what led to the death of Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of singer Whitney Houston, authorities said Monday, the day after her death.
In a statement Monday morning, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office says the time that elapsed from when she was found unresponsive in January until her death Sunday will "complicate" its effort to reconstruct events.
"Interpretation of autopsy findings and other information will also be challenging," the medical examiner's office said in the statement. "However, an autopsy could be helpful to address questions which may arise about the cause of her unresponsiveness and eventual death."
Bobbi Kristina died Sunday at Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth, Georgia, about six months after she was found Jan. 31, face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta townhome. She was 22.
A police report described it as a drowning.
Bobbi Kristina was the only child of Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown.
"Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away July, 26 2015, surrounded by her family. She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months," Kristen Foster, a representative for the Houston family said Sunday.
She had been hospitalized for months in Atlanta — eventually being placed in hospice care — after being found in a manner grimly similar to the way her megastar mother died three years earlier.
Nick Gordon, who shared her townhome with her, said at the time it seemed Bobbi Kristina wasn't breathing and lacked a pulse before help arrived.
"The Roswell Police Department continues its investigation into the circumstances preceding and surrounding the time of the original incident leading to her death," the medical examiner said in Monday morning's statement.
The medical examiner did not release a timeframe for the autopsy, but said additional lab testing might take several weeks.
Born and raised in the shadow of fame and litigation, shattered by the loss of her mother, Bobbi Kristina was overwhelmed by the achievements and demons of others before she could begin to figure out who she was.
Bobbi Kristina — the sole heir of her mother's estate — did have dreams.
She identified herself on Twitter as "Daughter of Queen WH," ''Entertainer/Actress" with William Morris & Co., and "LAST of a dying breed." She told Oprah Winfrey shortly after her mother's death in 2012 that she wanted to carry on her mother's legacy by singing, acting and dancing. But her career never took off.
She became a social media sensation, sending more than 11,000 tweets and attracting 164,000 followers.
As the news of her death spread across social media, several celebrities tweeted their condolences.
© Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2012
Grammy-winning performer Missy Elliot tweeted, "My heart is truly heavy. May u rest in peace with your mommy #BobbiKristina sending prayers 2 the Brown/Houston family."
"Empire" star Taraji P. Henson tweeted, "Rest in heaven."
"RIP #BobbiKristina My deepest sympathies 2 your father #BobbyBrown n your GrandMa #CissyHouston We will miss ya 4sho darling ;) Actress Vivica A. Fox said on Twitter.
And Winfrey tweeted, "Peace at Last!"
Whitney Houston, known as "America's Sweetheart," was an impossible act to follow.
The late singer sold more than 50 million records in the United States alone during her career. Her voice, an ideal blend of power, grace and beauty, made classics out of songs like "Saving All My Love For You," ''I Will Always Love You" and "The Greatest Love of All." She earned six Grammys and starred in the films "The Bodyguard" and "The Preacher's Wife."
© Rex Features
Whitney Houston and daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2012.
Bobby Brown, who had a bad-boy image, also became a huge star, selling platinum records with New Edition and going solo before drugs and legal woes derailed his career.
Bobbi Kristina appeared alongside both parents in 2005 on the Bravo reality show "Being Bobby Brown," which captured her parents fighting, swearing and appearing in court. The Hollywood Reporter said it revealed that Brown was "even more vulgar than the tabloids suggest," and managed "to rob Houston of any last shreds of dignity."
After their divorce in 2007, Houston kept custody of Bobbi Kristina and raised her alongside Gordon, an orphan three years older than her daughter. Houston brought Gordon into her family, and while she never formally adopted him or included him in the will, both teenagers called her "mom."
The threesome's tight bond was shattered when Houston's assistant found the singer's lifeless body face-down in a foot of water in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel just before the Grammy Awards in 2012. Authorities found prescription drugs in the suite, and evidence of heart disease and cocaine in her body, but determined her death was an accidental drowning.
Bobbi Kristina, then 18, was at the hotel and became so hysterical she had to be hospitalized. "She wasn't only a mother, she was a best friend," she told Winfrey.
She and Gordon then went public with their romance, posting defiant messages online after the tabloids accused them of incest.
Relations between Gordon and some other relatives soured over the past year after Bobbi Kristina was hospitalized. A protective order barred him from being within 200 feet of Pat Houston, Bobbi Kristina's aunt. A feud erupted over whether Gordon could visit Bobbi Kristina while she stayed in the hospital.
On June 24, Bobbi Kristina's court-appointed representative sued Gordon, accusing him of misrepresenting his relationship with Bobbi Kristina. The complaint accused him of being violent toward her and taking more than $11,000 from her account while she was in a medically induced coma.
The lawsuit also accused Gordon of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unjust enrichment and conversion.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he and his office are interested in reviewing the investigative file to determine whether any charges will be filed.
Bobbi Kristina was fabulously wealthy for a teenager, but her money was in a spendthrift trust, designed to keep creditors and predators from taking advantage of people who can't manage their money. Bobbi Kristina's grandmother, Cissy Houston, and aunt, Pat Houston, eventually took over control of the trust and then took Bobbi Kristina to court to protect the estate.
Bobbi Kristina Brown's Tragic Life
The size of Houston's estate is a privately held secret.
In May, a judge appointed Bobby Brown and Pat Houston as co-guardians of Bobbi Kristina, giving them joint responsibility in decisions related to her care and medical needs. Lawyer Bedelia Hargrove was appointed conservator to oversee Bobbi Kristina's assets, including her rights and legal claims.
By January 2014, the young couple who grew up as brother and sister were sharing a townhome and calling themselves husband and wife.
They posted images of their hands wearing wedding rings, with the caption "#HappilyMarried. So #InLove. If you didn't get it the first time that is." They got identical "WH" tattoos with flying doves on their wrists, and Gordon added a large portrait of Houston's face on his arm.
Their marriage announcement troubled Pat Houston, who obtained a restraining order against Gordon two months later.
___
Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida; Jeff Martin and Kathleen Foody in Atlanta and Mesfin Fekadu in New York contributed to this report. | Famous Person - Death | July 2015 | ['(CNN)', '(MSN)'] |
President Obama's staff has unmasked and fired a national security official who tweeted critical comments under a pseudonym. | President Obama's staff has unmasked and fired a national security official who tweeted critical comments under a pseudonym.
Jofi Joseph, tweeting under the handle @natsecwonk, once wrote: "I'm a fan of Obama, but his continuing reliance and dependence upon a vacuous cipher like Valerie Jarrett concerns me."
A federal law enforcement official, who was not authorized to commeny on the matter, told USA TODAY that Joseph is not under investigation, as has been reported
Other Obama staff members and officials — including Secretary of State John Kerry and former National Security adviser Tom Donilon — had also been targeted by @natsecwonk, which was shut down last week.
The secret Twitter feed also raised questions about the administration's handling of the 2012 attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya.
The Daily Beast, which broke the story, reported that Joseph, who is well known in national security circles, "has also worked at the State Department and on Capitol Hill for Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and (Vice President) Joe Biden. Until recently, he was part of the administration's team working on negotiations with Iran."
Of course, Joseph also insulted Republicans on his mystery Twitter feed: "So when will someone do us the favor of getting rid of Sarah Palin and the rest of her white trash family? What utter useless garbage .... "
Politico reported on the investigation into Joseph's Twitter activities:
"After a probe that included an investigation into Joseph's travel and shopping patterns — parsed from over 2,000 tweets — lawyers from the White House counsel's office confronted Joseph and ordered him to leave the executive complex, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Joseph had been scheduled to rotate out of White House duty to a senior job in the Pentagon, an administration official told Politico."
A federal law enforcement official, who was not authorized to comment on the matter, told USA TODAY that Joseph is not under investigation. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2013 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Jerry Sandusky, former American football coach at Pennsylvania State University, is convicted on 45 charges of child sex abuse. He is on suicide watch. | Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will now begin the next phase of his life as a convicted child sex offender. NBC's John Yang reports.
Jerry Sandusky has been placed on suicide watch, one of his lawyers said Saturday, a day after he was convicted of sexually abusing children in what one juror told NBC was a clear case of guilt.
Centre County Correctional Facility via Reuters
Jerry Sandusky is seen in this booking photo on Friday.
Karl Rominger said Sandusky was under individual guard at the county jail, known as suicide watch, and was apart from the general prison population, Reuters reported.
It was not clear if Sandusky had acted in a way that threatened his own life, or if the move was standard procedure in such a high-profile case.
Rominger reiterated that the former defensive coach for Penn State football will appeal the verdict, a process that can happen when Sandusky is sentenced in 90 days or so.
Sandusky, 68, was convicted Friday of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and faces a minimum sentence of 60 years in prison, NBC News reported.
NBC TODAY: Juror explains deliberations
JurorJoshua Harper told TODAY that the look on Sandusky's face as the guilty verdicts were announced was "confirmation" that they had made the right decision.
Sandusky had shown "no real emotion, just kind of accepting because he knew it was true," he added.
The ex-coach had repeatedly denied the allegations, and his defense suggested that his accusers had a financial motive to make up stories, years after the fact.
Sandusky convicted of 45 counts, plans to appealReaction to the Sandusky verdictAnalysis: Number of victims persuadedjurorsFull coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trialGhosts of Sandusky haunt home where charity was born
NBC's Michael Isikoff has more on the next steps in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case.
As Sandusky was placed in a police cruiser to be taken to jail on Friday, someone yelled at him to "rot in hell!" Others hurled insults and he shook his head no in response.
Defense attorney Joe Amendola was interrupted by cheers from the crowd on the courthouse steps when he said, "The sentence that Jerry will receive will be a life sentence."
Sandusky is one 272 inmates at the Centre County Correctional Facility, a jail that is just seven miles from the Penn State campus.
Like other inmates there, he was allowed to bring a few items with him and is allowedvisits from his family, friends and lawyers.
The jail did not say whether anyone had come to see him Saturday. At his home, his wife and three of their adopted children remained inside after returning there Friday night. The windows blinds and curtains were drawn.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jerry Sandusky's victims, their families and an entire community are hoping to move forward after the former Penn State assistant football coach was found guilty of child sex abuse. NBC's Ron Allen reports. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2012 | ['(AP via Atlanta JournalConstitution)', '(MSNBC)'] |
Euro zone leaders secure a €109 billion bailout for Greece with the country going into default for a short period, but with increased powers for the main European rescue fund to assist countries that have not been bailed out, such as Spain and Italy. | After years of resistance, European leaders agreed Thursday to reduce Greece’s debt burden in a last-ditch effort to preserve the euro and stem a broader financial panic.
The pact, negotiated in Brussels, is part of a rescue package of 109 billion euros, or $157 billion, for Greece, the most troubled economy in the euro zone. It will force many investors in Greek debt to accept some losses on their bonds.
| Financial Aid | July 2011 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Voters in South Korea go to the polls with exit polls showing a very close race expected between Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the left-of-centre Democratic United Party. | Published: 19 December 2012 8:19 AM Park Geun-hye casts her ballot at a polling station in Seoul. — Dec 19 — South Koreans started voting for a new president today in a battle between the daughter of a former military ruler and a man who was jailed by her father for political activism, set against the backdrop of a hostile North Korea and a slowing economy.
Conservative candidate Park Geun-hye had a narrow lead in polls published last week, the last allowed under election rules. If she wins, she would be the first woman leader of the country, which is still largely run by men in dark suits.
The 60-year-old daughter of Park Chung-hee has pledged dialogue with isolated, impoverished North Korea, whose rocket launch last week reinforced fears it is developing a long-range missile, while promising a tough position on its nuclear and missile programmes.
Moon Jae-in votes with his wife Kim Jeongsook at a polling station in Busan.Her left-of-centre challenger, Moon Jae-in, is a former human rights lawyer who has promised unconditional aid for North Korea, and to reintroduce an engagement policy that ushered in closer ties between the Cold War rivals.
Those ties started unravelling with the shooting by North Korea of a tourist from the South in 2008, and deteriorated with the sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010, which the North denies, and the shelling of a South Korean island the same year.
Freezing temperatures
More than 40 million people are eligible to vote.
The polls opened at 6 a.m. (2100 GMT) and close at 6 p.m. (0900 GMT), when the three network television stations will announce the result of a jointly conducted exit poll.
One hour into voting, more than 1.1 million had braved freezing temperatures to cast ballots, a slightly higher turnout at that point than five years ago when only 60 per cent voted.
The cold weather — minus 10 degrees Celsius in the capital Seoul early today and forecast to remain below freezing throughout the day — was likely to have an impact on turnout, which had been expected to be high.
Most analysts forecast a tight race between the two front-runners, who were separated by as little as 0.5 percentage points in some polls, with Moon making late gains on Park.
While Park’s bid to become president has stirred debate and divisions about her father’s rule, and the prospect of a nuclear-armed North Korea also hangs over the country, the main issues in the election has been the economy.
While outwardly successful and home to some of the world’s biggest companies, such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Hyundai Motor Co, South Korean society has become steadily more unequal.
The hundreds of thousands of graduates whom its universities churn out each year complain they have trouble finding decent jobs and, while South Korea is now the 29th richest country in the world in terms of gross domestic product per capita, income differentials have widened sharply.
Park has proposed more social welfare under what she terms an “economic democratisation” but has given few specifics. Her party says it will not spend more money to boost the economy.
Park, who has never married nor had children, has advocated a broader welfare policy than when she ran five years ago, when she failed to win the conservative presidential nomination, and has proposed paying for it by cutting wasteful spending.
Moon, by contrast, has proposed an US$18 billion (RM55 billion) jobs package, boosting maternity pay and taxing the super-rich. He has also pledged to repeal a controversial free trade agreement with the United States.
While North Korea was the main issue for just 4.7 per cent of voters, according to a poll by broadcaster SBS taken last week, the 18-year rule of Park’s father still divides Koreans and will be on the minds of many voters.
The elder Park took power in a 1961 coup and helped push South Korea from poverty to developed-nation status, but at the cost of repressing human rights and democracy.
His wife was shot by a North Korean-backed assassin who was gunning for him in 1974 and his then young daughter took on the role of South Korea’s first lady until Park’s own killing in 1979 by his security chief after a drunken night out.
Park has at times sought to appeal to the spirit that her father embodied. Yesterday she evoked his economic call to arms of “Let’s Live well” in a bid to rally her party faithful.
But at other times she has stumbled over apologies to victims of her father’s rule and sought to appeal to her mother’s softer image.
Moon, jailed in 1975 when he was a student activist, has attacked Park for being at the “heart” of South Korea’s dictatorship and “for living the life of a princess”.
Moon’s only political experience was as an aide to former President Roh Moo-hyun, who was his law partner. | Government Job change - Election | December 2012 | ['(Reuters via the Malaysian Insider)', '(BBC)'] |
Veteran US National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal announces his retirement by Twitter. (Shaquille O'Neal), | Updated | Certain to be a Hall of Famer in five years, veteran NBA center Shaquille O'Neal(FSY) announced on Wednesday he's about to retire.
By Ronald Martinez, Getty Images
Center Shaquille O'Neal, here smiling during his run to the NBA title with the Miami Heat in 2006 vs. the Dallas Mavericks, announced his retirement Wednesday on Twitter.
In a very short tape on his Twitter account, O'Neal says:
"We did it. Nineteen years, baby. I want to thank you very much. That's why I'm telling YOU first. I'm about to retire. Love you. Talk to you soon."
O'Neal, who turned 39 in March, averaged 23.7 points and 10.9 rebounds in his 19-year career out of LSU. What set him apart right away was the enormity of his size — and his personality.
At 7-1, 325 pounds, he was a beast underneath, with rim-rattling dunks. Off the court, his various Shaqisms became part of the sports lingo of the time, such as: "I've won at every level, except college and pro," before he had won an NBA title. He played for six teams, but his mega-highlight years came for the team that drafted him, the Orlando Magic, and for the team where he won three consecutive NBA championships, the Los Angeles Lakers.
He was the NBA's MVP in 1999-2000 with the Lakers, when he averaged a career-high 29.7 points with 13.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks as Los Angeles won its first of three titles in a row.
"His contributions were significant to the entire NBA, but we specifically appreciate what he did with and what he meant to the Lakers during his eight years with us," owner Jerry Buss said in a statement. "We have three championships that we wouldn't have won without him, and we will forever be grateful for his significant contributions to those teams." Added NBA Commissioner David Stern in a statement; "For 19 seasons, Shaquille O'Neal was literally and figuratively an NBA giant. On behalf of the NBA, its teams, and his millions of fans around the world, I want to thank Shaq for everything he has meant to the league and to the sport of basketball, both on and off the court. We wish him and his family all the best." O'Neal was named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players, and his uniqueness was difficult to escape.
"There's been a lot of great players in the league. But when you're dealing with his combination of agility and brute strength, it changed every game plan. He was just so overpowering," says ABC/ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy, who coached against O'Neal with the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets. "He really developed into a great passer. But it's the freakishness of his size, strength and agility that set him apart. "When he came into the league with Orlando, the way he ran the floor was incredible. His footwork inside was really good. I think the other thing people underestimate is he took so many incredibly forceful shots to the head and the body to prevent him from making a layup and sending him to the line.
"Thankfully, he didn't have a temper."
A 15-time All-Star, he averaged 24.3 points in the playoffs and 11.6 rebounds. He would retire as fifth all-time in scoring (28,596 points), 12th in rebounds (13,099 rebounds) and second only to Artis Gilmore among players with more than 2,000 baskets with a 58.2% field goal percentage.
He also won an NBA championship with the Miami Heat in the 2005-06 season, his second year after leaving the Lakers.
"I'm a little bit sad," said Heat president Pat Riley, who was the coach when Miami won the title in 2006. "It's the end of an absolute 20-year career. Great, great player. ... The league's going to miss Shaq. I'm sure Shaq will do something big and beyond."
Said Heat guard Dwyane Wade (FSY) , a teammate of O'Neal's in 2006: "He came into my life at a time where I needed some guidance, in a way. I was 22 years old. He helped me grow. I'm always appreciative of him for that, whether we spoke another day or whether we don't. He meant a lot to my basketball career."
Other Tweets:
• Heat forward LeBron James: (FSY) "The most dominating force to ever play the game."
• Lakers forward Pau Gasol: (FSY) "It's been an honor having played against one of the most dominant players ever."
O'Neal was unique. O'Neal finished his career playing for the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Celtics.
With Boston this past season, O'Neal was thought of so highly that that the Celtics traded center Kendrick Perkins(FSY) to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the trading deadline. But injuries, primarily an Achilles issue, kept O'Neal out of action after Feb. 1 until five minutes in a game April 3. After that, he only got into two playoff games against the Heat, his last action coming May 9.
Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss said O'Neal has not yet informed the team of his plans. As of Wednesday afternoon, "To my knowledge, he has not informed any of us that he's retiring," Twiss said.
Even as he was struggling this year, O'Neal commanded the respect of his NBA brethren.
"It's been an honor having played against one of the most dominant players ever. Congratulations for an amazing career Shaq" is what Lakers forward Pau Gasol tweeted Wednesday. "Talk about someone who does it on both sides of the floor, and on and off the court. He did it as far as using his personality to get out to the world. He made fans believe they were one with him," Heat forward LeBron James has said.
"As big as Shaq is, the way he was with his personality, if he was a complete stranger and you see how big he is, you wouldn't be afraid to go talk to him because you seen how likable he was and how his personality was, how outgoing he was." Contributing: Jeff Zillgitt in Miami | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2011 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Arvind Krishna is appointed chief executive officer of IBM, taking over from Ginni Rometty. | International Business Machines Corp. said Chief Executive Ginni Rometty is stepping down after a challenging eight-year run at the top of the iconic technology company, as she struggled to deliver growth at a time other tech giants’ fortunes blossomed. Ms. Rometty, 62 years old, will formally step down on April 6. She will be succeeded by Arvind Krishna, who heads the company’s cloud and cognitive-software division, the company said on Thursday. Jim Whitehurst—the chief executive of Red Hat, the open-source software giant that IBM acquired for about $33 billion last year—was appointed the company’s president.
It is the first time in decades that IBM will have a leadership structure with a CEO and separate president. They form a dual executive team—one member with deep IBM experience and another new to the company—focused on reviving its fortunes.
Ms. Rometty will continue as the company’s board chairman through the end of the year, when she will retire after almost four decades with Big Blue, the company said. Ms. Rometty has been one of the most high-profile female CEOs in business, where the top ranks are still dominated by men.
During her time at the helm of one of the U.S.’s most storied companies, shares in IBM fell by more than 25%, lagging other tech giants. Microsoft Corp. shares are up more than 500% during the period. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose around 250% over that time. IBM sales during the period fell more than 25%. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2020 | ['(Wall Street Journal)'] |
A Peruvian court orders the arrest of two Chilean military officers on charges of spying, causing a diplomatic row between the two countries. | A new diplomatic row has erupted between Peru and Chile after a Peruvian court ordered the arrest of two Chilean military officers over alleged spying.
The court accused the officers of paying a Peruvian air force officer to reveal national secrets. Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez has denied his government has been involved in espionage. But Peru's President Alan Garcia said he was leaving the Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore a day early over the row. He also said he had cancelled planned talks with his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, at the Apec summit. "I am returning 24 hours earlier than scheduled so I can obtain complete and sufficient information (on the issue) and to be able to speak from Peru," Mr Garcia said, quoted by AFP new agency. Reports in the Peruvian media said Lima had recalled its ambassador to Chile for talks. Claims dismissed
Speaking in Singapore, Chile's foreign minister said: "Chile does not engage in espionage. "We dismiss any charges [that] the Chilean government is involved in anything illegal in regards to relations between the two countries," Mr Fernandez added. The Peruvian air force officer, Victor Ariza Mendoza, has been arrested and charged with spying. Lima-based El Comercio reported that Mr Ariza had worked at the Peruvian embassy in Santiago in 2003. Tensions are already strained between the two countries following a military exercise staged by Chile last month near its disputed border with Peru. Peru and Chile have been embroiled in a bitter border dispute since the late 19th century, when Chile defeated Peru in the War of the Pacific. The countries also disagree on their maritime border, and last year Peru took Chile to the international court in The Hague to seek a resolution. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | November 2009 | ['(AFP)', '(BBC)'] |
Bal wins the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. | Roman Polanski has won the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival for his new political thriller, The Ghost Writer.
Polanski could not accept the award as he is under house arrest and fighting extradition to the US over a conviction for having sex with a minor in 1977. His producer, Alain Sarde, said he would be "very happy" with the honour. The Turkish film, Bal (Honey), was the surprise winner of the coveted Golden Bear for best picture at the festival. Directed by Semih Kaplanoglu, it tells the story of a six-year-old boy who ventures into the woods to find his missing father, a beekeeper. The runner-up prize was awarded to the Romanian entry, Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle), a tough prison drama about a teenager who escapes from jail to stop his mother taking his brother away to Italy. Appeal
The Ghost Writer, which is about a writer hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister, had its premiere at Berlin. Accepting the best director prize on Saturday, Sarde said: "I am sure Roman will be very happy." "However, when I was lamenting with him that he cannot be with us, he said to me, 'even if I could, I wouldn't because the last time I went to a festival to get a prize, I ended up in jail.'" Sarde was referring to Polanski's detention by Swiss authorities in September when he travelled to Zurich to receive a prize. Last week, Switzerland said it would not decide whether to extradite the 76-year-old until an appeal over his US trial was resolved. A judge in Los Angeles ruled in January that Polanski had to attend court in the US if he wanted to resolve the case. He left the US in 1978 before sentencing and has never returned. | Awards ceremony | February 2010 | ['(Deutsche Welle)', '(BBC)'] |
Two trains collide in Java, Indonesia, killing at least 13 people and injuring 26 others. | The crash happened at a station 450km (280 miles) east of Jakarta. Rescuers are at the scene, looking for bodies and survivors who may be still trapped.
About 1,000 passengers were on the trains, which were both travelling from the capital to the city of Surabaya.
One train apparently ploughed into the back of the other at Gubuk station. An investigation is now under way.
The accident occurred at about 0200 local time (0700 GMT).
A local railway official told the Associated Press news agency that one train had crashed into the back of a stationary train but seemed to have enough time to apply brakes, keeping down the number of fatalities.
In pictures: Train crash
Indonesian Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said initial reports indicated the driver of the moving train had failed to heed a conductor's call to stop.
"It means that there was a human error, at the moment we can say that," he said.
One of the train drivers is believed to be among the dead.
A Swiss citizen was reported to be among the injured.
Crowds gather
The crash left a section of one of the trains lying on its side in a paddy field. Rescue workers moved from carriage to carriage to look for anyone who might still be trapped inside.
Officials said it would take at least a day to clear the wreckage.
After the crash, crowds gathered at railways stations further along the line to wait for any news.
Trains are a cheap and popular mode of transport in Indonesia, often crowded and carrying passengers on the roof. | Train collisions | April 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 35 people are killed and 130 injured after a suicide bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in the Russian capital Moscow. | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least 35 people at Russia’s busiest airport on Monday, state TV said, in an attack on the capital that bore the hallmarks of militants fighting for an Islamist state in the North Caucasus region.
President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to track down and punish those behind the bombing, which also injured over 150 people, during the busy late afternoon at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. The dead included some foreigners.
Islamist rebels have vowed to take their bombing campaign from the North Caucasus to the Russian heartland in the year before presidential elections, hitting transport and economic targets. They have also leveled threats at the 2014 Winter Olympics, scheduled for the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, a region some militants consider “occupied.”
Dense smoke filled Domodedovo’s international arrivals hall and a fire burned along one wall.
“Taxi drivers lined up in the arrivals hall were blown up. Pieces of their bodies covered us and my left ear doesn’t hear very well at all,” Artyom Zhilenkov, 30, told Reuters as he pointed to pieces of human flesh on his coat.
Thick drops of blood were scattered across the snow-covered tarmac outside the arrivals hall, where Interfax news agency said traces of shrapnel were found.
Two Britons were among the dead, media cited investigative committee spokesman Vladimir Markin as saying, and French, Italians, and Germans were in hospitals, though this could not be immediately confirmed with their embassies. Planes from across Europe had landed in the half hour leading up to the attack.
“I heard a loud boom... we thought someone had just dropped something. But then I saw casualties being carried away,” a check-in attendant who gave her name as Elena told Reuters at Domodedovo, which is some 22 km (14 miles) southeast of Moscow.
The prosecutor’s office said the bomb had been classified as a terrorist attack -- the largest since twin suicide bombings on the Moscow metro rocked the Russian heartland in March.
“The blast was most likely carried out by a suicide bomber.”
State television said the blast was the work of a “smertnik,” or suicide bomber. State-run RIA, quoting Markin, said the bomber most likely had a belt laden with explosives.
| Armed Conflict | January 2011 | ['(Russia Today)', '(Reuters)'] |
Twenty gold miners are rescued from a collapsed mine in Nicaragua but five are still missing. (Reuters, AFP via ABC News Australia) | Rescuers in north-eastern Nicaragua have saved 20 miners but five are still missing after a cave-in at an unlicensed gold mine in the village of El Comal, near the town of Bonanza.
The miners had been trapped deep underground for more than 24 hours but 20 were found alive.
"We give thanks to God our Lord and the Virgin Mary for having saved from death 20 artisanal miners," First Lady Rosario Murillo, the Nicaraguan government's official spokeswoman, told reporters.
She said five miners had "not surfaced" and rescue crews were still trying to locate them.
The miners were removed one at a time using a pulley system installed late on Friday near the pit where they had been trapped since early Thursday.
They were mostly younger than 30 and were "pretty tired, exhausted, dehydrated, muddy and dirty," an AFP photographer on the scene said.
The miners were embraced by family members, who had stayed nearby since the accident. There had been 28 "guiriseros," or informal gold miners, working 800-metres underground in the shaft early Thursday when the mouth of the mine caved in because of a landslide triggered by heavy downpours.
Earlier reports said two of the miners made it out alive on their own by digging through the debris.
Footage broadcast by a local TV station appeared to show the body of one dead miner being recovered. | Mine Collapses | August 2014 | [] |
At least four people die with the balance missing when the ferry MV Princess of the Stars, carrying 700 passengers, sinks near Sibuyan island in the wake of Typhoon Fengshen. | CEBU, Philippines (Reuters) - More than 800 people were missing on Monday after a Philippine ferry capsized in a typhoon that has killed scores and left a trail of destruction across the archipelago.
Philippines death toll rises
Sulpicio Lines, the owner of the MV Princess of Stars, revised up the number of people missing to 845 after discovering an extra 100 passengers on the ship’s manifest. Only four people are so far known to have survived the ferry disaster and they said many did not make it off the ship in time.
Crowded life-rafts sank in cold, storm-tossed seas.
“Many of us jumped, the waves were so huge, and the rains were heavy,” a survivor identified only as Jesse told local radio.
“There was just one announcement over the megaphone, about 30 minutes before the ship tilted to its side.” “Immediately after I jumped, the ship tilted, the older people were left on the ship.”
Four people have been confirmed dead. Children’s slippers and life jackets have washed ashore.
There were 724 passengers and 121 crew on board, including at least 20 children and 33 infants.
In the central city of Cebu, where Princess of Stars was meant to dock, dozens of relatives maintained a vigil at a small passenger terminal, waiting for news.
“The last time I heard from my son was on Friday evening when the ship left Manila. He texted to say he was coming home,” said Celecia Tudtud, a mother of four.
Related Coverage
“I really hope he’s ok,” she said, wiping away tears.
A spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who flew to the United States on Saturday night, said she would not cut short her eight-day state visit, which includes meeting U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House on Tuesday.
A coastguard vessel was trawling the waters around the 23,824 gross tonne ferry, which is upside down with only its bow above the waves, trying to confirm reports some passengers had made it to a small island.
“We are hoping more people will have reached the shoreline,” Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, the head of the coastguard, told Reuters.
Princess of Stars ran aground on Saturday but the coastguard was unable to reach it because of huge swells and bad weather caused by Typhoon Fengshen, which crashed into the central Philippines on Friday.
At least two other coastguard vessels were en route to help in rescue efforts and Tamayo said he hoped divers would be able to scour the submerged ship later on Monday.
He said there was no sign fuel was leaking from the ferry but said an oil-spill response team would arrive with one of the two coastguard ships before dawn on Monday.
Princess of Stars sank 3 km (2 miles) from Sibuyan island in the centre of the archipelago.
“WORST DISASTER”
Typhoon Fengshen, with maximum gusts of 195 kph (121 mph), has killed at least 155 people in central and southern Philippines, with the western Visayas region, famed for its sandy beaches and sugar plantations, the worst affected.
In Iloilo province, 101 people were reported dead after flood waters over two meters high engulfed communities, forcing tens of thousands to scramble onto the roofs of their homes.
“Iloilo is like an ocean. This is the worst disaster we have had in our history,” Governor Neil Tupaz told local radio.
In neighboring Capiz, more than 2,000 houses were destroyed in the provincial capital and officials were struggling to make contact with communities further afield.
“We got hit real bad this time,” said Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippines’ Red Cross.
After battering Manila on Sunday, Fengshen spun out into the South China Sea on Monday. The storm was en route to Taiwan, where it could make landfall in the next few days, according to storm tracker website www.tropicalstormrisk.com.
More than 30,000 people were being housed in evacuation centers in the centre and south of the archipelago.
An archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, the Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2008 | ['(Reuters)', '(Reuters)'] |
Authorities in Ecuador evacuate nearby residents as the Tungurahua erupts. | (CNN) -- Authorities in Ecuador closed schools and evacuated residents in areas near a volcano Tuesday after ashes spewing from its crater fell on homes and farms, state media reported.
Ashes from Tungurahua -- which means "throat of fire" in the native Quechua language -- rose more than 7 kilometers (4 miles) into the air Tuesday, the government news agency said.
Authorities issued an alert as monitors detected six eruptions, ranging from moderate to large, and a significant ash cloud Tuesday, state media said.
"According to our observations, damages to crops, pastures and small effects to the health of people are already evident," the country's geophysics institute said.
Officials first detected increased activity in the volcano April 20, with monitors observing regular small eruptions of ash and gas.
The glacier-capped, 16,478-foot volcano has erupted periodically since 1999, when increased activity led to the temporary evacuation of the city of Banos at the foot of the volcano.
Tungurahua erupted in December, sending ash and lava spewing nearly a mile into the sky.
Major eruptions also occurred in August 2006 and February 2008, according to the government's emergency management agency.
Before the recent activity, the last major eruption was between 1916 and 1918. Relatively minor activity continued until 1925, the Smithsonian Institution said on its volcano website. | Volcano Eruption | April 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
Thousands of protesters march in Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, against Thursday's arrest of LDPR governor Sergey Furgal for allegedly organizing the murder of entrepreneurs 15 years ago. | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thousands marched in Russia’s far eastern city of Khabarovsk on Saturday in support of its regional governor, who is being held in pre-trial detention after being charged with organising the murder of several entrepreneurs 15 years ago.
Sergei Furgal, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, was a popular governor of the Khabarovsk region where he swept to power in 2018 after defeating a rival from the ruling United Russia party that backs President Vladimir Putin.
Furgal was detained on Thursday and taken to Moscow.
He could face up to life in prison if found guilty of the charges that include attempted murder. He denies the charges.
Video footage from news website DVHAB showed people chanting “Furgal is our choice”, “Freedom” and marching with posters “I am/We are Sergei Furgal.”
“Get out of here, Moscow,” an unnamed female resident said in another video from the same website, which claimed the protest was the largest in Khabarovsk’s history.
Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Christina Fincher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Dana Shell Smith announces she is resigning as United States Ambassador to Qatar amid regional tensions over Qatar's alleged support for terrorist groups. | Submit June 13, 2017 | 12:19pm | Updated June 13, 2017 | 1:20pm
The US ambassador to Qatar said Tuesday she is resigning her post in Doha amid the worst diplomatic crisis involving Washington’s Persian Gulf allies in years.
“This month, I end my 3 years as US Ambassador to #Qatar. It has been the greatest honor of my life and I’ll miss this great country,” Dana Shell Smith tweeted Tuesday.
Shell Smith did not explain why she was stepping down, if she will remain in the diplomatic service or who would replace her, Agence France-Presse reported.
Many US ambassadors leave their posts after serving about three years.
But Shell Smith previously appeared to slam the Trump administration after the president sacked FBI Director James Comey.
“Increasingly difficult to wake up overseas to news from home, knowing I will spend today explaining our democracy and institutions,” she tweeted on May 9.
Last week, Trump lashed out at Qatar, demanding that it stop funding terrorism shortly after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged other Gulf nations to end their blockade of the tiny, oil-rich emirate.
“The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. The time has come to call on Qatar to end its funding,” Trump said last week.
Qatar strongly rejects the allegations.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar over longstanding allegations that the country was courting Iran and fomenting instability in the region.
Qatar is home to a vital US military outpost, the Al-Udeid Air Base, which houses 10,000 troops.
The Pentagon has said that while the blockade was not affecting current operations against ISIS, it was “hindering” the ability to plan for the long term.
Qatar paid $2.5 million to hire a lobbying firm run by former Attorney General John Ashcroft to audit its efforts at stopping terrorism funding, CBS News reported. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2017 | ['(New York Post)'] |
On its first day of service the Sheffield Supertram's new tram–train is struck by a truck and derailed. , | Tram services have been suspended in Attercliffe after a collision between a new Sheffield tram-train and a lorry
The crash happened on the first day of the new tram-train service.
A spokesperson for Stagecoach Supertram, the operator, said: "We can confirm that a collision took place this afternoon between a lorry and one of our vehicles shortly before 3.20pm on Staniforth Road. "No-one has been seriously injured however a small number of people were treated at the scene for minor injuries."
They added they are assisting police with their inquiries.
South Yorkshire Police confirmed that road closures are in place, and urged motorists to avoid the area. A spokesperson said: "At this time no-one is thought to be seriously injured. Please avoid the area and plan alternative routes."
Darren Bailey, a rail enthusiast from Doncaster, says he was on the tram at the time.
He told ITV News: "We'd just left Attercliffe tram stop when I heard this mighty bang.
"People were being thrown all over. I just looked up and saw the side of a lorry."
Mr Bailey added: "It was a bit of a shock to say the least."
| Train collisions | October 2018 | ['(ITV)', '(Express)'] |
In golf, the United States wins the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008. | Two decades worth of frustration was pent up inside the American team room when it arrived to Hazeltine National this week for the 41st Ryder Cup. And two decades worth of relief was released with the force of popping champagne corks when the Americans put the finishing touches on a 17-11 rout of the Europeans Sunday, capturing the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008 and only the third time since 1999.
After eight losses in the last 10 Ryder Cups, including the last three, the Americans decided enough was enough.
“We got kicked around for so long,’’ U.S. captain Davis Love III said. “You keep losing and you feel like you’ve got to do something different.’’
Massive changes had been made. A “task force’’ was formed with a goal in mind to right all the wrongs that had been supposedly holding back the Americans, who entered the week having won the Ryder Cup only twice since 1993.
The Europeans publicly and privately snickered at the Americans, seeing the task force as an act of desperation. If we’re being honest, they had an arrogance about them when they crowed about how “flattered’’ they were that Americans were “copying’’ their formula for success. The Europeans acted as if they had all the answers.
Well, this week in a suburb about 30 minutes west of the Twin Cities, it was the Americans who had more answers. They took a 9 ½ to 6 ½ lead into Sunday’s 12 singles.
There was not a single player or captain on the U.S. side who had taken victory for granted overnight considering the fact that the Europeans stunned the Americans in 2012 after trailing 10-6 entering the singles.
Certainly not U.S. captain Davis Love III. He was, after all, also the captain of that 2012 team and had felt the sting of that European comeback ever since … until Sunday.
With all the pressure on them, the Americans extended their lead and won 7 ½ of the 12 singles points, extended the lead to a lopsided win — their second-largest margin of victory, behind only 1981, when they won 18½ to 9½.
There were so many elements to the week that made this U.S. victory monumental beyond the fact that for at least these next two years before the Ryder Cup is contested again, in France in 2018, they put an end to the European dominance.
The task force, until further notice, has been validated. So, too, has Phil Mickelson. His public undressing of 2014 captain Tom Watson right after the matches ended in U.S. defeat in Scotland was the catalyst to the changes made.
New stars were born on the U.S. team, too, with Patrick Reed, who was a revelation at Gleneagles as a rookie, taking over as “Captain America.’’ Reed has not won a major championship, but he has asserted himself as the best U.S. Ryder Cupper. He’s now is 6-1-2 in his two Ryder Cups, and he was the top points earner for the Americans this week with a 3-1-1 record.
It was Reed who Love sent out in the opening match against Rory McIlroy in an effort for the U.S. to stave off any early European comeback. And he defeated Europe’s best player 1-up in an utterly scintillating 18 holes of golf in which the two players should have been playing in a steel cage with boxing gloves on, because it was full-contact golf.
“Yeah, it does hurt,’’ McIlroy said. “We would definitely like to be feeling what the Americans are feeling right now. But saying that, they haven’t felt this in awhile.It’s been eight years since they felt this feeling. They deserve their moment. We’ll come back better and stronger in Paris.’’
The clinching point could not have come from a more fitting player, Ryan Moore, who was the 12th and final player selected to the team. Moore, one of two rookies on the U.S. team, did not even arrive to Hazeltine until Monday afternoon. It was his 1-up victory over Lee Westwood that closed out the Euros.
“This is unbelievable right now to actually get the point that clinched it for us, I guess you can say it was fitting,’’ Moore said.
“I’m just so proud of these guys,’’ Love said. “They had a lot of pressure on them for the last two years. I’ve never seen a team come together like a family like this. So much has happened over the last week. Unbelievable golf. The Europeans played just some stunning golf.’’
But, as European captain Darren Clarke put it: “The Americans played better than we did.
“They holed putts when they had to and we lipped out. But that’s happened the other way around for quite some time.’’
Eight long years to be exact.
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For all offline third party sales, please use the "Submit an Opt Out Request" link below. | Sports Competition | October 2016 | ['(The New York Post)'] |
At least 13 people are dead and 34 injured after Boko Haram gunmen attack a government college in the northern Nigerian city of Kano. | Kano, Nigeria: Gunmen and suicide bombers stormed a government college in northern Nigeria's main city of Kano on Wednesday, firing repeatedly on fleeing students and setting off an explosion, the military said.
At least 13 people have been killed and 34 others wounded when police fought a battle with suspected Boko Haram jihadists in Kano, northern Nigeria, the state's police chief says.
A grab from a video shows the leader of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau (centre) delivering a speech. Boko Haram is suspected of carrying out the latest Kano attack as it continues to target schools and kill and abduct students.Credit:AFP
Kano State police commissioner Adelere Shinaba said the gunmen, whom he described as "insurgents", ran onto the grounds of the Kano Federal College of Education after exchanging fire with police outside.
"They were obviously suicide bombers. One of our officers shot at one of the gunmen and the explosives on him went off, killing him on the spot," he said on Wednesday.
A man walks through the ruins of a zonal police headquarters after a bomb attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria's northern city of Kano in January, 2012.Credit:Reuters
"Another gunman was also killed. Thirteen people were killed by the gunmen and 34 others have been taken to hospital with injuries."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Islamist militant group Boko Haram is likely to be a prime suspect.
The insurgents, who are fighting to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria, have repeatedly targeted civilians in bomb and gun attacks, mostly in remote northeastern Borno state. Western-style schools, which they revile, are a prime target.
"Our men are already there. I've called them and they've said the crowd is too big. We are yet to establish the exact number who were injured or killed," Kano military spokesman Captain Okechukwu Eze said on Wednesday.
Children who fled their homes following an attack by Islamist militants in Bama, take a lesson at a camp in Maiduguri, Nigeria.Credit:AP
A military offensive since last year has pushed the Islamists to take out their anger on civilians, with attacks surging dramatically, and has also led them to strike out in areas far from the rebel strongholds have resumed.
At least 82 people were killed in July in a double suicide bombing in the north Nigerian city of Kaduna in July.
Protesters call on the Nigerian government to rescue the kidnapped girls of the government secondary school in Chibok during a demonstration in Abuja, Nigeria.Credit:AP
President Goodluck Jonathan's administration and the armed forces face mounting criticism that they are failing in the war to counter Boko Haram. The group's leader Abubakar Shekau proclaimed a "Muslim territory" in the northeast after seizing Gwoza near the border with Cameroon, to the east, last month. | Armed Conflict | September 2014 | ['(AFP via The Age)'] |
Video interviews show that two Russians captured in Ukraine have publicly admitted to being soldiers in the GRU Russian special forces. The Donetsk People's Republic authorities claim these men were official policemen in the self-proclaimed republic, publicized their ID badges, and claimed they retired from the Russian military last year. | Kiev (AFP) - European mediators in the Ukrainian crisis said Thursday that two men captured by Kiev's troops had confessed to being members of the Russian armed forces sent in to back up pro-Moscow separatist fighters.
The revelation by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) provides some of the strongest independent evidence to date of Russian President Vladimir Putin's direct involvement in the 13-month war in the neighbouring nation.
Kiev and its Western allies have long accused the Kremlin of covertly coordinating the loosely organised rebel units' tactics and backing them up with high-tech weapons and troops in their fight against Ukraine's pro-Western government.
Russia denies the allegations and says the claims are part of a US-led campaign to topple Putin and contain Russia's regional interests.
The OSCE said the two wounded servicemen said in an interview conducted at Kiev's military hospital that they were armed when wounded and taken prisoner by Ukrainian government forces in the separatist eastern province of Lugansk on Saturday.
"Both individuals claimed that they were members of a unit of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. They claimed that they were on a reconnaissance mission. They were armed but had no orders to attack," the security body said in a report.
"One of them said he had received orders from his military unit to go to Ukraine; he was to 'rotate' after three months. Both of them said they had been to Ukraine 'on missions' before," the OSCE added.
There was no initial response to the findings from either the Kremlin or Russia's foreign ministry.
But initial state media coverage of the findings suggest that Moscow may try to either downplay or ignore the report.
Russia's TASS news agency misquoted the OSCE as saying that both Russians "claimed that they used to serve in a unit of the Russian Armed Forces."
Ukraine has charged the captured men -- identified as Captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Sergeant Aleksander Aleksandrov -- with involvement in "terrorist activity" and promised to release them should they fully confess during a public trial.
Russian state TV aired an interview with Aleksandrov's wife on Wednesday saying that the 28-year-old professional soldier had quit his army reconnaissance unit in December.
Putin has described Russians discovered fighting in Ukraine as either "volunteers" or off-duty soldiers who crossed into the war zone out of patriotic pride and to take on the far-right extremists who Moscow claims are running Kiev.
- Burning bridges -
The Ukraine crisis has chilled Moscow's ties with Washington to a degree last seen in the Soviet era and driven the new pro-Western leadership in Kiev to treat Russia as an existential threat.
Kiev lawmakers on Thursday annulled five crucial security agreements with Moscow that had allowed Russia to transport troops to a separatist region of Moldova and purchase weapons that are only produced in Ukraine.
The deals were first suspended when Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in the wake of bloody street protests that toppled a Moscow-backed president in February 2014.
But Thursday's decision means that legislative support from Ukraine's dominant nationalist and pro-European parties would be required before such cooperation could resume once the separatist conflict is resolved.
It also underscores how little a truce deal brokered in February has done to rebuild trust between Moscow and Kiev.
"The chances of Ukraine and Russia resuming the type of military and technological cooperation that they enjoyed just a few years ago appear highly unlikely in the mid-term perspective," independent military analyst Mykhaylo Pashkov said.
One of the cancelled agreements notably allowed Moscow to send peacekeeping forces across Ukraine to Moldova's Russian-speaking Transdniester region.
Several senior Russian officials signalled their alarm at the sudden complication.
"There is no way for us to reach (Transdniester) other than through Ukraine," an unnamed diplomat in Russia's foreign ministry told Interfax.
A second politically-charged agreement cancelled by Kiev required the neighbours to protect each others' state secrets. It was adopted with former spy Putin's arrival in the Kremlin in 2000.
Another arrangement covered basic Russian military transports across Ukraine and a fourth concerned mutual arms purchases.
Ukraine inherited several huge Soviet-era arms manufacturing sites that once formed the backbone of Russia's armed forces.
The final agreement covered intelligence sharing.
| Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(separatists)', '(AFP via Yahoo! News)'] |
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announces that far-right activist Tim Gionet, commonly known as "Baked Alaska", has been arrested in Houston for participating in the storming of the United States Capitol. | Anthime Joseph Gionet, a far-right media personality nicknamed “Baked Alaska” who is known for livestreaming himself participating in illegal activity, was arrested by the F.B.I. on Friday and accused of illegally storming the Capitol during the attack on the building by President Trump’s supporters last week.
Mr. Gionet, who has been banned from Twitter and YouTube for his content, livestreamed himself in the mob on DLive, a streaming service becoming more popular after a mass exodus of right-wing figures from more mainstream platforms. He posted a video that showed supporters of Mr. Trump taking selfies with officers in the Capitol who calmly asked them to leave the premises. The video showed the Trump supporters talking among themselves, laughing, and telling the officers and each other: “This is only the beginning.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | January 2021 | ['(New York Times)'] |
An Italian court convicts 22 CIA agents and 2 Italian agents over the kidnap of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in Milan in 2003, in the first court case challenging the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" programme. | ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Nearly two dozen Americans -- most thought to work for the CIA -- were sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday by an Italian court for their role in the seizing of a suspected terrorist in Italy in 2003, the prosecutor in the case told CNN.
The Americans did not appear for trial and are not in custody, but the ruling could effectively make them international fugitives.
The trial was the first to deal with a practice that human rights groups call "extraordinary rendition." They say the United States has often sent suspects to countries that practice torture.
Washington acknowledges making secret "rendition" transfers of terrorism suspects between countries but denies using torture or handing suspects over to countries that do.
The case centered on the extraordinary rendition of a Muslim cleric, Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, or Abu Omar.
He was seized on the streets of Milan, Italy, in 2003, transferred to Egypt and tortured, he said. He was suspected of recruiting men to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and was under heavy surveillance by Italy's intelligence agency.
Prosecutors said he was nabbed by a CIA team working with Italian intelligence officials.
The verdict "shows governments and institutions that the fight against terrorism has to be carried out in accordance with the law. There are no shortcuts," Spataro told CNN.
Those who were found guilty were ordered to pay Abu Omar 1 million euros ($1.48 million) and his wife 500,000 euros.
A total of 22 Americans were each sentenced to five years in prison for their role in his abduction. Another -- Robert Seldon Lady, whom prosecutors said was the CIA station chief in Milan -- was sentenced to eight years in jail, prosecutor Armando Spataro told CNN.
Cases were dismissed against three other Americans, including Jeff Castelli, the man assumed to be the CIA station chief in Rome at the time, because they had diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Spataro said he may appeal that ruling.
Cases were also dismissed against the former head of Italy's intelligence service and his deputy because of state secrecy provisions.
Two other Italians were sentenced to three years in jail for aiding the plot.
Sabrina De Sousa, one of the American defendants, was "saddened, angered and dismayed" by the ruling, her lawyer told CNN.
She felt the U.S. government had "stabbed her in the back," Mark Zaid said. "We understand why the Italians did what they did. They were following their laws. But at the end of the day, representatives of our United States government abroad were let down and left alone by their own government."
De Sousa, a career diplomat, is suing the State Department over the case, Zaid confirmed. She has never said she worked for the CIA.
CIA spokesman George Little said Wednesday: "The CIA has not commented on any of the allegations surrounding Abu Omar."
But U.S. officials confirmed to CNN when the case first broke that the CIA was involved in the rendition of Abu Omar from Italy to Egypt. The officials never disclosed the number of Americans involved or their names.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell responded to the verdict as it applied to an Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Joseph Romano III, who was among the Americans sentenced.
The Pentagon had asserted jurisdiction over the incident under the NATO Status of Forces Agreement, a position that the Italian minister of justice supported, Morrell said.
"We are clearly disappointed by the court's ruling," Morrell said. "Our view is that the Italian court has no jurisdiction over Lt. Col. Romano and should have immediately dismissed the charges."
The American Civil Liberties Union, a persistent critic of Washington's extraordinary rendition program, demanded the United States match Italy's actions.
"The decision in Italy underscores the need for the United States to hold its own officials accountable for crimes committed under the 'extraordinary rendition' program. It is shameful that the first convictions of this kind came from a foreign justice system, where those convicted are not likely to serve their time," said Steven Watt, staff attorney for the ACLU Human Rights Program.
Italian authorities originally indicted 26 Americans and five Italians in 2007 for kidnapping in the matter.
The Italians included the former head of Italian intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, and one of his deputies. They testified in preliminary hearings that Italian intelligence played no role in the alleged abduction.
None of the Americans is in custody in Italy and the Italian government did not ask for their extradition; they were tried in absentia.
Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer told CNN in the past that the Italian military secret service had approved the operation involving Hassan, and CIA sources who refused to be named told CNN in 2005 that the agency had briefed and sought approval from its Italian counterpart for such an abduction.
The Italian government of the day -- which was led by Silvio Berlusconi -- vigorously denied having authorized Hassan's kidnapping, which it called illegal. Berlusconi has since returned to power.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(CNN)'] |
Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Southern Sudan launch an operation against the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in the DRC's Garamba National Park. | Three African armies have launched a joint offensive against Ugandan rebels based in eastern DR Congo, military officials say in Uganda.
Uganda, DR Congo and the government of South Sudan reportedly moved against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the Garamba region of DR Congo.
LRA leader Joseph Kony, wanted by the International Criminal Court, has recently stalled on a peace deal.
The LRA has led a rebellion for more than 20 years in northern Uganda.
The fighting has displaced some two million people.
Uganda's government has been involved in lengthy peace negotiations with the LRA, but the rebels' leader has demanded that arrest warrants for him and his associates are dropped before any agreement can be struck.
Peace unravelling
A statement announcing the operation was released in the Ugandan capital Kampala by the intelligence chiefs of all three armed forces.
The statement said the attack targeted the "terrorists" at their bases in the forested area of Garamba, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The three armed forces successfully attacked the main body and destroyed the main camp of Kony, code-named camp Swahili, setting it on fire," the statement said.
Correspondents say the regional governments had hardened their attitudes to Joseph Kony in recent months as the peace process appeared to unravel.
Plans to attack the rebel camps have been under consideration for some time in the event no progress was made in peace talks, Reuters news agency said.
The LRA is known for its violence, in particular the mutilation of those who survive its attacks and the kidnapping of children, who have often been forced into conflict.
A spokesman for the rebels, David Nyekorach-Matsanga, told AFP the attack would be strongly opposed.
"If this is true, it is a highly regrettable provocation and the LRA will retaliate," he said.
"I met with the president of Uganda just this week and he assured me there would no attack on the LRA."
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has recently renewed a call for Joseph Kony to sign the peace deal, Reuters reports. | Armed Conflict | December 2008 | ['(BBC)'] |
Typhoon Bolaven moves past the Japanese island of Okinawa en route to the Korean Peninsula. | A powerful typhoon has moved past the Japanese island of Okinawa, causing blackouts and forcing thousands of residents indoors.
Typhoon Bolaven is forecast to be moving towards the Korean Peninsula and is likely to move west of Seoul.
At least four people were injured, but reported wind speeds on Okinawa and nearby Amami were lower than forecast.
About 57,000 people on the islands were left without power, Japanese media reported.
Residents had been told to stay at home and protect themselves against the strong winds and heavy rain.
Forecasters had predicted slow-moving Typhoon Bolaven could be the strongest storm to hit the area in over 50 years.
Public broadcaster NHK said gusts could overturn cars, while waves around the island could reach 12m (40ft).
Japan's meteorological agency estimated wind speeds near the storm's centre at around 180km/h (112 mph), with extremely strong gusts reaching 252 km/h.
But NHK reported early Monday morning that the strongest gusts measured on the islands - on Amami, north of Okinawa - reached just 140km/h, according to the AP news agency.
"The winds weren't as strong as expected. We're glad there's no major damage so far," crisis management official Yoshimitsu Matsusaki was quoted as saying by AP.
The storm was expected to dump up to 350mm (20in) of rain on Okinawa and 250mm on Amami, NHK reported.
All domestic and international flights out of the island's Naha Airport have been cancelled.
Some 200 households are already without electricity, and hundreds of people have taken shelter in public buildings on the island.
Hannah Bryan, who is visiting her sister in Okinawa from Britain, told the BBC that she and several others would try to weather the storm in her sister's house.
"We are planning on putting lots of duvets in the middle of the living room and staying together, away from the windows," she said
"It is really windy at the moment and it is getting stronger and stronger. The trees are bending outside."
British tourist Paul Graham, whose flight out of Okinawa has been cancelled, said the streets in Naha were deserted.
"It is quite stormy at the moment, very windy and very wet. There is a canal nearby here, and there is concern about its levels in this weather," he told the BBC.
Typhoon Bolaven comes just after Typhoon Temblin, which has caused widespread damage in Taiwan.
The latest typhoon is the 15th destructive storm of the season in East Asia. Tropical storm dumps rain on Cuba | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Atlantic Tropical Depression Two makes landfall near South Padre Island in Texas. | (CNN) -- The latest tropical depression from the Gulf of Mexico marched inland across southern Texas Thursday, deluging the area with torrential rainfall in the hours after reaching shore, the National Hurricane Center said.
As of 1:00 p.m., the "poorly-defined" center of Tropical Depression 2 was located near the Rio Grande, about 35 miles southeast of McAllen, Texas, the Hurricane Center said.
The "poorly organized" system never packed sustained winds higher than 35 mph, falling short of the 39 mph needed to be upgraded to a tropical storm, which would have been called Bonnie. The center of the cyclone made landfall around 10:15 a.m. about on South Padre Island, Texas, about 25 miles northeast of Brownsville, Texas, the Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters said portions of far northeastern Mexico and coastal Texas should expect 4 to 8 inches of rain with isolated areas getting up to 10 inches. Isolated tornadoes also posed a potential threat to southern Texas, according to the Hurricane Center.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry activated emergency response forces Wednesday.
"As South Texas continues to feel the effects of Hurricane Alex, we are closely monitoring a storm system that is expected to bring more heavy rains to the area and increase flooding along the Rio Grande," Perry said. "I urge residents to exercise caution, pay attention to changing conditions and heed the warnings of local officials as this storm system threatens Texas communities."
Tropical Depression 2 is following almost the same path that Hurricane Alex did a week ago. Alex dumped 6 to 12 inches of rain across southern Texas and northeastern Mexico and some standing water remains in fields and residential areas. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | July 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
Benon Sevan, head of the United Nations' oil–for–food program, resigns before the publication of a report that is expected to accuse him of corruption. He blames Kofi Annan for "sacrificing" him and denies all charges | Benon Sevan's announcement on Sunday came a day before a third report on the scandal-plagued programme is published.
It is expected to accuse Mr Sevan of receiving cash in return for allocating Iraqi oil contracts in the mid-1990s.
The oil-for-food programme allowed Saddam Hussein to sell limited amounts of oil to buy humanitarian goods.
Mr Sevan's lawyers have already said the report will falsely accuse him of receiving cash kick-backs for helping a company obtain lucrative oil contracts under the scheme. Mr Sevan, a Nicosia-born Cypriot who had worked with the organisation for four decades, tendered his resignation in a letter addressed personally to Kofi Annan.
'False charges'
"I fully understand the pressure you are under [...] but sacrificing me for political expediency will never appease our critics or help you or the Organization," he wrote.
The charges are false and you, who have known me all these years, should know they are false
Benon Sevan
Q&A: Oil-for-food
Profile: Benon Sevan
Mr Sevan was suspended in February. Despite retiring last year, he was retained on the UN payroll on a nominal annual salary of $1 for the duration of the investigation.
The report is the third in a series produced by an independent inquiry committee established by the UN, under the leadership of Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman.
A separate inquiry is being conducted by a committee of the US Senate. In his letter Mr Sevan insisted he was innocent of any charges that would be made against him.
"The charges are false and you, who have known me all these years, should know they are false," he wrote.
In February, the independent panel investigating the allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food scandal had said that Mr Sevan had received payments of cash as well as oil allocations.
Mr Sevan said the real oil-for-food scandal was the way the programme was misrepresented by those who were against the UN.
He said he was disappointed by Mr Annan's "failure to defend the historic achievements of the oil-for-food programme." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Israel Defense Forces says that it has conducted a "complex and first-of-its-kind operation" in the Gaza Strip, killing several senior members of Hamas. | JERUSALEM (AP) The Latest on confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians as Israel signals a widening military campaign:
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JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is condemning the “anarchy” of Jewish-Arab violence in cities across the country after a day of tumultuous unrest. Netanyahu said Wednesday that “nothing justifies” Jews attacking Arabs or Arabs attacking Jews. He vows to restore order after two days of violence unchecked by police. In his words: “It doesn’t matter to me that your blood is boiling. You can’t take the law in your hands.”
Shortly after he spoke, police reported two people injured in a shooting in the restive city of Lod. Despite large police mobilization under a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew, Lod was the scene of street battles between Jewish and Arab mobs Wednesday night. ___
WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden says that “Israel has a right to defend itself” amid a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups from Gaza. Biden says he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the dayslong outbreak of violence that has killed dozens. Says Biden: “My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later.” He adds, “Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory.”
Israel escalated its air campaign in Gaza on Wednesday, killing a string of senior Hamas military figures as it hammered the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. Militants in the territory fired rocket barrages into Israel. ___
MOSCOW Russia is calling for a quick meeting of international mediators to help defuse the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says it is necessary to call an urgent meeting of the so-called Quartet of mediators, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Lavrov made the statement after talking Wednesday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Lavrov says a quick ministerial meeting of the Quartet is “the most acute task now.” He voices hope that Guterres can help convene such a meeting. Guterres says “we are totally committed to revitalizing the Quartet.”
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UNITED NATIONS The U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees has condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the killing of four children the previous day in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. UNRWA says the children two siblings and two cousins were killed near the refugee camp of Beit Hanoun. It says they were under the age of 12 and went to schools in the territory sponsored by the agency. Wednesday’s statement says: “Our hearts go out to their families and friends in communities that have been so cruelly affected by this latest escalation.”
UNRWA provides critical services to more than 1.4 million Palestine refugees in Gaza and delivers education to some 285,000 Palestine refugee students there. The statement also repeated profound concern regarding the impact of the military escalation on children by placing their lives and futures at risk. The escalation between Israel and Gaza this week has killed 65 Palestinians in Gaza, including 16 children and five women. Seven people have been killed on the Israeli side by rocket fire from Gaza, including a 6-year old and an Israeli soldier, the first military death in this round of conflict. ___
TEL AVIV, Israel A large crowd of ultranationalist Israelis have attacked a car in a Tel Aviv suburb they suspected was driven by an Arab, dragging the driver out of the car and beating him. A video from the scene on Wednesday shows the driver trying to maneuver the vehicle to flee the scene but colliding into two other vehicles. He is then pulled from the vehicle and beaten. TV footage from the scene showed the driver motionless on the ground. A doctor at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital says the driver is hospitalized with serious injuries. Dr. Eyal Hashiva told reporters he suffered major trauma to his entire body but was in stable condition. However, the suburb of Bat Yam’s Deputy Mayor Eyal Yariv told Channel 12 that police did not respond to city hall’s calls for assistance. Police said they deployed forces along the city’s border with Jaffa to prevent the mob from entering the Arab neighborhood. Violent unrest has involved Jewish and Arab throngs in Lod, Acre, and Tiberias since the latest escalation between Israel and the Palestinians erupted this week. Also on Wednesday, a crowd of around 100 Jewish protesters marched down Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem, chanting “death to Arabs.”
And in the northern city of Acre, an Arab mob attacked and critically injured a Jewish man. Paramedics said the ambulance was also attacked by the crowd en route to a hospital. ___
UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Mideast envoy has told the Security Council the current violence is “the most serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in years. Diplomats say Tor Wennesland is worried it could erupt into a civil war. He briefed the council on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time in three days on the deteriorating situation on the ground but the U.N.’s most powerful body again took no action. Diplomats said China, Tunisia and Norway, who called the meeting, wanted the council to issue a press statement but the United States objected. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the consultations were private. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Wennesland expressed concern over the growing number of civilian casualties in both Gaza and Israel, and sadness at the death of children in Gaza. Dujarric said the U.N. chief, Antonio Guterres, and Wennesland have both reiterated that “indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars from highly populated civilian neighborhoods towards civilian population centers violates international humanitarian law.”
Wennesland recognizes Israel’s legitimate security concerns but reiterated that “Israeli security forces should exercise maximum restraint, calibrate their use of force to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations.” Four European council members France, Estonia, Ireland and Norway issued a statement after the council meeting urgently calling on both sides “to de-escalate tensions, end violence and show the utmost restraint.” They condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and called civilian casualties on both sides “worrying and unacceptable.”
Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations
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WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm America’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. Blinken spoke on Wednesday with the Israeli leader. The State Department said he also repeated U.S. calls for a de-escalation of violence and the Biden administration’s belief that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in safety and security. Blinken announced earlier he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to make similar appeals in person to Israeli and Palestinian officials. He also said that Israel had an “extra burden” to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to the attacks. According to the State Department, Blinken also told Netanyahu that as he and President Joe Biden have said in the past, the administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should “enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy.”
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israeli fighter jets have dropped two bombs on a 14-story building in Gaza City and destroyed it. The building housed businesses as well as offices for Hamas’ Al-Aqsa satellite TV channel. It was located in the old Roman neighborhood, on the busiest shopping street in Gaza. Hamas says it has fired 130 rockets toward Israel in response for the attack on Wednesday. The Israeli airstrike was the latest in a series of assaults on targets in the Gaza Strip after a long dispute between Israel and Hamas erupted into an exchange of rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli retaliation. The building is the third multistory structure that Israeli aircraft have hit directly, reducing two to rubble. The third is still standing but in irreparable condition. -
WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel bears an “extra burden” to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to rocket attacks from Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Blinken says Israel has an “absolute” right to defend itself and its citizens from militant attacks but that it must take all possible steps to protect innocent Palestinians. He said on Wednesday that Israel should “do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people.”
Blinken made the comments after announcing that he is sending a senior U.S. diplomat to the Middle East to press Israeli and Palestinians officials both to de-escalate the tensions and violence that now verge on war. Blinken condemned the Hamas rocket attacks and stressed that both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to live in peace and security. ___
WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he’s sending a senior American diplomat to the Middle East to urge Israeli and Palestinian officials to de-escalate the conflict threatening to erupt into a new war. Blinken told reporters on Wednesday he had instructed Hady Amr, the deputy secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to travel immediately to the region. The move comes as the situation deteriorates with intensified rocket attacks on Israel from Hamas militants and Israeli retaliation. Amr is the most senior U.S. diplomat tasked with the matter. He served as deputy Middle East peace envoy during the Obama administration. Blinken did not say who Amr would meet with or how long his mission would last. The Biden administration has been criticized by both sides as well as by lawmakers for not doing enough to try to stop the violence. Blinken said the administration is “very focused” on the matter and remains committed to a two-state resolution to end the decades-long conflict. ___
JERUSALEM Israeli police are imposing a nighttime curfew on a central city that was the scene of unrest in recent days. Police said in a statement on Wednesday that officers would enforce the ban on people entering the city of Lod, residents leaving their homes, and people in public spaces starting at 8 p.m.
Lod has seen two nights of violent protests, including the torching of dozens of vehicles, a synagogue, and violent clashes between Arab protesters and police. Israeli authorities declared a state of emergency in the city and deployed Border Police forces. ___
BELGRADE, Serbia Dozens of Palestinians living in Belgrade have staged a protest in the Serbian capital over an escalation in fighting in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The protesters on Wednesday gathered at Belgrade’s Republic Square to draw public attention to the conflict that has surged after weeks of violence in Jerusalem. The protesters carried banners reading “Gaza needs our voices now,” and, “Freedom!” The latest Mideast fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and now increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. ___
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian militant group Hamas has confirmed that its Gaza City commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday. Bassem Issa was the highest-ranking military figure in Hamas to be killed Israel since 2014. Wednesday’s statement was the first time Hamas acknowledged the death of militants in this round of fighting with Israel. The armed wing of Hamas said Issa was killed “along with a few of his fellow brothers of leaders and holy fighters” during the fighting that has been going on for two days in Gaza. Israel’s internal security agency said a series of airstrikes had killed Issa and several other senior Hamas militants, including the head of rocket development and cyber warfare, the head of rocket production, and the Hamas engineering chief. Issa and several other commanders responsible for the different districts of the Gaza Strip formed Hamas’ military council, the highest body deciding on the group’s militant operations. The military council is headed by Mohammed Deif. ___
LONDON Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to see an “urgent de-escalation of tensions” between Israel and Hamas amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Johnson tweeted on Wednesday that the United Kingdom is “deeply concerned” and urged leaders to “step back from the brink.” He was one of many leaders around the world offering up advice after longtime tensions in contested Jerusalem erupted into rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip and an intense response from Israel. British Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told Parliament that Britain “unequivocally condemns the firing of rockets at Jerusalem and other locations in Israel.” He called Hamas’ conduct “terrorism” and called on militants to “end their incitement and rocket fire against Israel.”
Cleverly said Israel has a “legitimate right to self-defense,” but added that in doing so, ”it is vital that all actions are proportionate, in line with international humanitarian law and make every effort to avoid civilian casualties.”
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JERUSALEM Israel’s firefighting service says it has almost completely extinguished a blaze at a petroleum facility in southern Israel that was set alight by a rocket fired by Hamas militants. The rocket landed Tuesday night near a Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures Ltd. facility south of Ashkelon during a major barrage by Gaza militants. The result was a massive fire in a storage tank that blazed through the night and into Wednesday. Israel Fire and Rescue Services said that 20 teams have been working for 25 hours to extinguish the inferno that issued a column of thick black smoke. Israeli state-owned Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures said the fuel had been transferred to another storage facility. On Wednesday, the plume of smoke was still rising over Ashkelon. Israeli health and environment officials have instructed residents of the area to avoid prolonged periods outdoors. ___
JERUSALEM Israel’s president says the country’s Arab leaders are “giving support to terrorism and rioting” by staying quiet about an outbreak unrest in mixed communities. Reuven Rivlin said on Wednesday that the “silence of the Arab leadership” over violence in mixed Jewish-Arab communities amounts to “encouraging the rupture of the society” amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Rivlin says Israel “must pursue the rioters with a firm hand (to) restore security and order to all of us, also while fighting terrorism from Gaza without compromise.”
The unrest that began at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem has spread across Israel itself. It comes after Hamas called for a full-scale Palestinian intifada, or uprising. In the Israeli city of Lod, a 52-year-old Arab Israeli and his 16-year-old daughter were killed early Wednesday when a rocket landed in the courtyard of their one-story home. Lod also saw heavy clashes after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man who was killed the previous night, the suspect a Jewish gunman. Israeli media reported that the crowd fought with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles on fire. ___
JERUSALEM The Israeli military says it has killed several senior Hamas militant commanders in airstrikes in Gaza and Khan Younis. The army released a statement on Wednesday, saying that it carried out a “complex and first-of-its-kind operation.” Those targeted, it said, were “a key part of the Hamas ‘General Staff’” and considered close to the head of the group’s military wing. Hamas had no comment. ___
JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will use “an iron fist if needed” to stop widespread protests by Arab citizens that have resulted in injuries, arrests, and property damage. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will “stop the anarchy” after deploying Border Police forces to calm unrest in recent days in the cities of Lod and Acre. The mounting unrest comes after weeks of violence in Jerusalem and heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. Netayahu says Israel will “stop the anarchy and restore governance to the cities of Israel, with an iron fist if needed, with all forces needed and all authorities required.”
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BERLIN Germany is standing by Israel during the most intense fighting since the 2014 Gaza war. Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht on Wednesday condemned the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, saying Germany is standing “strongly on the side of Israel.” She called for the attacks on Israel to stop, adding that Israel has the right to protect itself.”
Lambrecht also denounced anti-Semitic acts near synagogues in Germany. She said a spate of Israeli flag-burning and other acts at a time of “agony” for Israel shows “nothing but horrible disrespect for human dignity.” German news agency dpa reported that police stopped 13 suspects late Tuesday in the western city of Muenster near a synagogue after an Israeli flag was burned there. Police said that in the western city of Bonn, several people damaged the entrance of a synagogue with stones. Investigators found a burned flag there as well. And in nearby Duesseldorf, somebody burned garbage on top of a memorial for a former synagogue. The justice minister vowed that “the perpetrators must be found and held responsible and Jewish institutions must be protected thoroughly.”
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ANKARA, Turkey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the international community should “give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson” over its conduct toward the Palestinians. That’s according to the Turkish Presidential Communications Directorate, which said the two leaders talked by phone on Wednesday about the escalating confrontation sparked by tension over contested Jerusalem. The statement said Erdogan stressed the need for “the international community to give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson” and pressed for the U.N. Security Council to rapidly intervene with “determined and clear messages” to Israel. The statement said Erdogan suggested to Putin that an international protection force to shield the Palestinians should be considered. Meanwhile, thousands of people in Istanbul defied a nationwide coronavirus curfew late on Tuesday to demonstrate against Israel’s attacks. A large convoy of cars drove toward the Israeli Consulate, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. An image of the Palestinian and Turkish flags was projected onto the Israeli building. ___
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan has condemned Israel’s actions and called for Muslim nations to stand by the Palestinians. Prime Minister Imran Khan took to Twitter, saying: “We stand with Gaza and Palestine.”
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi meanwhile urged Muslim nations to unite over Israel’s strikes on Palestinian civilian areas. Protesters are expected to hold a small anti-Israel rally later today in the southern city of Karachi. ___
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has climbed to 43, including 13 children and three women. It says nearly 300 Palestinians in the territory have been wounded in the strikes. The strikes began on Monday after Palestinians launched a barrage of rockets into Israel. The worst fighting since the 2014 Gaza war was ignited by clashes in Jerusalem in recent weeks between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police focused on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims. | Armed Conflict | May 2021 | ['(AP)', '(Reuters)'] |
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Balochistan in western Pakistan with at least 40 people dead. | The September 24, 2013, M 7.7 earthquake in south-central Pakistan occurred as the result of oblique strike-slip type motion at shallow crustal depths. The location, focal mechanism solutions, and finite-fault modeling of the earthquake are consistent with left-lateral (southwest-striking) rupture within the Eurasia plate above the Makran subduction zone. The event occurred within the transition zone between northward subduction of the Arabia plate beneath the Eurasia plate and northward collision of the India plate with the Eurasia plate. The epicenter of the event is 69 km north of Awaran, Pakistan, and 270 km north of Karachi, Pakistan (population 11.6 million). On a broad scale, the tectonics of southern and central Pakistan reflect a complex plate boundary where the India plate slides northward relative to the Eurasia plate in the east, and the Arabia plate subducts northward beneath the Eurasia plate in the Makran (western Pakistan). These motions typically result in north-south to northeast-southwest strike-slip motion at the location of the September 24th earthquake that is primarily accommodated on the Chaman fault, with the earthquake potentially occurring on one of the southernmost strands of this fault system. Further, more in-depth studies will be required to identify the precise fault associated with this event. While commonly plotted as points on maps, earthquakes of this size are more appropriately described as slip over a larger fault area. Strike-slip events of the size of the September 24, 2013, earthquake are typically about 160x20 km (length x width); modeling of this earthquake implies dimensions of about 200x20 km, predominantly up-dip and southwest of the hypocenter.
Although seismically active, this portion of the Eurasia plate boundary region has not experienced large damaging earthquakes in the recent history. Over the past 40 years, only one significant event (M 6.1), which killed six, has occurred within 200 km of the September 2013 event, in July 1990.
Hayes et al. (2016) Tectonic summaries of magnitude 7 and greater earthquakes from 2000 to 2015, USGS Open-File Report 2016-1192. (5.2 MB PDF) | Earthquakes | September 2013 | ['(USGS)', '(Wall Street Journal)'] |
New Zealand's Whakaari / White Island stratovolcano erupts with reports of at least five fatalities and a number of people injured or missing. Around 50 people, mostly tourists, were believed to be on the island at the time of eruption, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. | Updated 2208 GMT (0608 HKT) December 9, 2019 (CNN)At least five people were killed and eight more are still missing following a deadly volcanic eruption on New Zealand's White Island Monday.
My god, White Island volcano in New Zealand erupted today for first time since 2001. My family and I had gotten off it 20 minutes before, were waiting at our boat about to leave when we saw it. Boat ride home tending to people our boat rescued was indescribable. #whiteisland pic.twitter.com/QJwWi12Tvt
CNN's Sarah Faidell, Isaac Yee, Eric Cheung, Jessie Yeung, Julia Hollingsworth and Pauline Lockwood contributed to this article. | Volcano Eruption | December 2019 | ['(CNN)'] |
President–elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen resigns from her position as Federal Minister of Defence of Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel appoints Annegret Kramp–Karrenbauer, the leader of the ruling CDU, as her successor. | Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the head of Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party, has replaced Ursula von der Leyen as defense minister. The announcement came as a suprise to many in Berlin.
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Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was officially named Germany's new defense minister during a ceremony in Berlin on Wednesday, a day after Ursula von der Leyen's departure from the post to become president of the European Commission.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, who leads German Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right CDU party, received her official letter of appointment from Berlin Mayor Michael Müller, who was standing in for the vacationing President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Müller also gave von der Leyen an official certificate of dismissal. Merkel, whose health has been in the spotlight after a series of shaking fits, was also in attendance, though she sat for most of the ceremony.
Kramp-Karrenbauer is scheduled to swear the oath of office next Wednesday in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament.
Ursula von der Leyen (L) stepped down as defense minister to become the next president of the European Commission
Unexpected appointment
The move is a surprise, as many had expected Health Minister Jens Spahn to become defense chief. It was doubly surprisingly because Kramp-Karrenbauer, also known by her initials AKK, had previously said she would forgo a ministerial post in favor of concentrating on party leadership.
Kramp-Karrenbauer won a hotly contested leadership vote in December to succeed Merkel as CDU leader. However, since then, she has failed to connect with voters and many see her as out of touch, stiff and lacking in the chancellor's political savvy.
A former leader of the state of Saarland, Kramp-Karrenbauer is well versed in domestic issues. The defense ministry could give her experience in security and military matters that could prove useful when Germany holds elections in 2021.
Her appoint as defense minister is also significant for the Bundeswehr, Germany's military, according to CDU defense and foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter.
"What is special about this decision is that, for the first time in the history of the Bundeswehr, the defense minister and CDU leader positions will be held simultaneously," Kiesewetter told DW on Wednesday. "That is a clear commitment by the CDU to the Bundeswehr like never before in the history of Germany."
Kiesewetter also said that he believes that Kramp-Karrenbauer's dual responsibility "will be able to face the upcoming Bundestag election campaign in a broad and experienced manner." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2019 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
A suicide bomber kills at least 22 people and injures 40 in an attack on a funeral in a village west of Baghdad. | At least 20 people have been killed and 35 others wounded in a suicide bombing at a Sunni funeral west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, officials say.
The bomber detonated his explosive belt in front of the mourners during an vigil in the village of Abu Minasir. Police said the funeral was for the head teacher of a local school. Earlier, an Iraqi soldier was killed and seven others wounded when a teenage girl blew herself up at an army post south of Baghdad, the US military said.
The bombings came hours after it was announced that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki was supervising an offensive against Sunni insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Mosul is seen as the last urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Sadr City truce
Elsewhere, there are growing concerns over a ceasefire agreed between the government and the Shia Mehdi Army militia to end weeks of fighting in the eastern Sadr City district of Baghdad. The truce was called on Sunday, but was dependent on both sides fulfilling a number of obligations within a four-day period. The government has accused the Mehdi Army, which is loyal to the cleric Moqtada Sadr, of not fully withdrawing from the area and not removing any of the roadside bombs it has planted, while the militia has accused US troops of continued harassment and targeted killings. Some skirmishes were still reported overnight in Sadr City, with hospital officials saying five people had been killed.
More than a thousand people have been killed and 2,500 others injured, mainly civilians, in fighting between government forces and Shia militias in Baghdad and southern Iraq over the past seven weeks. | Armed Conflict | May 2008 | ['(AP via Yahoo! News)', '(BBC News)'] |
Two people are burned alive amid xenophobic riots in Lusaka, Zambia. The riots started after rumours spread that Rwandans were behind recent ritual killings in the city. More than 250 people have been arrested after more than 60 Rwandan–owned shops were looted in two days of violence. | Two people were burned to death on Monday during xenophobic violence in Zambia's capital, Lusaka, police have said in a statement.
The riots started after rumours that Rwandans were behind recent ritual killings in the city.
The two were Zambian nationals killed "in the confusion" Home Affairs Minister Davies Mwila reportedly said.
More than 250 people have been arrested after more than 60 Rwandan-owned shops were looted in two days of violence.
The two Zambians had been burned with firewood and vehicle tyres, according to police quoted by the AFP news agency.
Six people have been murdered since March and their body parts removed.
Rumours circulated that the body parts would be used as charms to ensure success in business. Police spokeswoman Charity Munganga urged Zambians not to believe "false rumours".
"No baby or human body parts were found in any fridge belonging to any foreign national. These statements are coming from people with criminal minds to create alarm among the members of the public and justify their criminality," she said in a statement.
She warned that it was an offence to spread rumours that caused alarm and the police would not hesitate to arrest those doing so "regardless of the medium they are using".
"We are appealing to the members of the public not to believe any statement they see on social media which is not confirmed by the police."
Rwandans are the largest group of immigrants in Zambia, owning shops in the densely populated areas which have been affected by the riots.
BBC Great Lakes service analysis:
In the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, two million ethnic Hutus fled as the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels captured the capital Kigali in July, ending 100 days of ethnic killings. Some 800,000 people had been slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
Many of those who left settled in camps set up across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But others continued walking - some across the vast country into Angola, before settling in neighbouring Zambia, in the Meheba refugee camp in north-west of the country where many stayed for nearly two decades.
In July 2013, the UN said it was safe for Rwandans across Africa to go back home, and revoked their refugee status, encouraging voluntary repatriation.
Despite diplomatic efforts and assurances, about 4,000 Rwandans in Zambia do not want to go back - and are trying to get Zambian citizenship.
In the last five years, they have been joined by several hundred Rwandans who say Zambia is more conducive for business, as taxes are not as high as at home.
Rwanda: 100 days of slaughter
The BBC's Meluse Kapatamoyo in Lusaka says the riots began in two poor neighbourhoods on Monday and spread to other areas on Tuesday.
Young men ransacked shops, possibly reflecting growing frustration at the high levels of unemployment and the rising cost of living, our correspondent says. Riot police had to be deployed and many Rwandans fled to police stations to take shelter.
Ms Munganga said police officers were still deployed to all areas. No rioting has been reported on Wednesday.
The violence shocked many Zambians, who say they cannot recall such hostility towards foreigners, our reporter says.
Ritual killings are also rare in in the southern African nation, she says.
The home affairs minister said on Tuesday, after visiting areas hit by the riots, that 11 people had been detained on suspicion of being involved in ritual killings.
| Riot | April 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Aboard Air Force One, President Trump tells reporters he is considering issuing a revised policy banning citizens of certain countries traveling to the United States. | PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is considering issuing a new executive order banning citizens of certain countries traveling to the United States after his initial attempt to clamp down on immigration and refugees snarled to a halt amid political and judicial chaos.
Trump announced the possibility of a “brand new order” that could be issued as soon as Monday or Tuesday, in a surprise talk with reporters aboard Air Force One late on Friday, as he and the Japanese premier headed to his estate in Florida for the weekend.
His signaling of a possible new tack came a day after an appeals court in San Francisco upheld a court ruling last week that temporarily suspended Trump’s original Jan. 27 executive order banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
Trump gave no details of any new ban he is considering. He might rewrite the original order to explicitly exclude green card holders, or permanent residents, said a congressional aide familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. Doing that could alleviate some concerns expressed by the courts.
A new order, however, could allow Trump’s critics to declare victory by arguing he was forced to change course in his first major policy as president.
Whether or not Trump issues a new order, his administration may still pursue its case in the courts over the original order, which is still being reviewed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told reporters late on Friday that taking the case to the Supreme Court remained a possibility, after another White House official said earlier in the day the administration was not planning to escalate the dispute.
“Every single court option is on the table, including an appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision on the TRO (temporary restraining order) to the Supreme Court, including fighting out this case on the merits,” Priebus said.
“And, in addition to that, we’re pursuing executive orders right now that we expect to be enacted soon that will further protect Americans from terrorism.”
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Trump’s original order, which he called a national security measure meant to head off attacks by Islamist militants, barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except refugees from Syria, who were banned indefinitely.
The abrupt implementation of the order plunged the immigration system into chaos, sparking a wave of criticism from targeted countries, Western allies and some of America’s leading corporations, especially technology firms.
A federal judge in Seattle suspended the order last Friday after its legality was challenged by Washington state, eliciting a barrage of angry Twitter messages from Trump against the judge and the court system. That ruling was upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday, raising questions about Trump’s next step.
An official familiar with Trump’s plans said if the order is rewritten, among those involved would likely be White House aide Stephen Miller, who was involved in drafting the original order, as well as officials of the National Security Council, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security.
It is not clear if a new order from Trump would immediately put a travel ban back in place, or if those who have filed lawsuits, including the state of Washington, would succeed in asking the same judge for another hold.
Should Trump issue a new order, he is still likely to face legal challenges, as opponents could ask the court to let them amend their complaints, said Alexander Reinert, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York.
‘WE NEED SPEED’
On Air Force One, Trump addressed the San Francisco court fight, saying: “We will win that battle. The unfortunate part is that it takes time statutorily... We need speed for reasons of security.”
The matter could move forward next week. An unidentified judge on the 9th Circuit on Friday requested that the court’s 25 full-time judges vote on whether the temporary block of Trump’s travel ban should be reheard before an 11-judge panel, known as en banc review, according to a court order. The 9th Circuit asked both sides to file briefs by Thursday.
In a separate case on Friday, Justice Department lawyers argued in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia against a preliminary injunction that would put a longer hold on Trump’s executive order than the Seattle court ruling, but focused solely on visa holders.
Judge Leonie Brinkema asked the administration for more evidence of the threat posed by citizens of the seven countries.
Aboard the flight with Trump were his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie. The Trumps landed in the evening and went to their Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. | Government Policy Changes | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Colombia extradites captured FARC leader Omaira Rojas Cabrera, also known as Sonia, to [US to face drug trafficking charges | Omaira Rojas Cabrera, known as Sonia, is accused of running a large drug trafficking ring for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Sonia has taken what will most likely be a one way trip to the US.
The senior Farc commander is accused of running a network that earned the guerrillas tens of millions of dollars.
Sonia was captured in February last year, in a raid by elite Colombian troops. Found with her were seized documents and a laptop computer that provided much of the evidence that will be used against her in court. Sonia's extradition is a heavy blow to the Farc.
Not only have they lost one of their top female commanders, but they fear that under pressure from US authorities and facing a sentence of more than 20 years in prison she may reveal crucial information about their finance system. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Donald Trump wins primaries in Illinois, North Carolina, Missouri and Florida while John Kasich wins in Ohio. , | Donald Trump won three of five Republican presidential primaries Tuesday, including a blowout victory in Florida that allowed him to scoop up the state's winner-take-all 99 delegates and knock Sen. Marco Rubio from the race.
But it wasn't all roses for the bombastic billionaire. He lost Ohio, the night's other crucial winner-take-all state, to Gov. John Kasich, who at his victory rally triumphantly drew distinctions between himself and front-runner and vowed to carry on until the party's convention in July.
"I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land," Kasich said. "This is about pulling us together, not pulling us apart."
"We are going to go all the way to Cleveland and secure the Republican nomination," he said to cheers.
Trump was declared the winner in Florida as soon as polls closed at 8 p.m. With more than 99% of the state's precincts reporting, Trump had 46% of the vote, compared with 27% for Rubio and 17% for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He was also declared the winner in Illinois, where 69 were up for grabs, and in North Carolina, where 72 were at stake.
Rubio, who had campaigned and spent heavily in his home state, delivered a concession speech in Miami, where he said he would quit the race.
"After tonight, it's clear that while we are on the right side this year, we will not be on the winning side," he said.
(New York Daily News) "While this may not have been the year for a hopeful or optimistic message about our future, I still remain hopeful and optimistic about America," he added.
With the win in Florida, Trump expanded his commanding delegate total to 586. To secure the GOP nomination, the real estate magnate needs to amass 1,237 delegates.
But Trump's path to the Republican nomination isn't totally certain. Kasich's win in his home state gives his struggling campaign momentum.
With the victory, the conservative governor collected all of his state's 66 delegates, and, with Rubio bowing out, emerges as a possible consensus establishment candidate in case of a deadlocked convention.
His Ohio victory, however, won't be enough to pave a path for him to win the necessary number of delegates to clinch the nomination without going to a contested convention.
With 62% of the state's precincts reporting, Kasich had 47% of the vote, compared with 36% for Trump.
In Illinois, meanwhile, Trump was declared the winner with 39% support, compared with 30% for Cruz, with over half of the state's precincts reporting.
Trump also won in North Carolina, with 40% to Cruz's 37%, with nearly three-fourths of the state's precincts counted.
At a victory speech from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., the outspoken mogul claimed to want to unify the GOP and looked ahead to the general election.
"We have to bring our party together," said Trump, who was flanked by his sons and staffers, including campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly manhandled a Breitbart reporter at a campaign rally last week.
"I think we're going to have a great victory, and I think more than anything else, we are going to start winning again," he said.
One other race, in Missouri, where 52 delegates were at stake, was too close to call. With most of the Show Me State's precincts reporting, Trump led Cruz 41% to 40%.
Before Tuesday's results began pouring in, three influential Republicans — perhaps sensing the inevitability of a Trump-led ticket — called on fellow conservatives to join them in a closed-door meeting Thursday in Washington, to discuss how they could best stop the surging businessman.
| Government Job change - Election | March 2016 | ['(NY Daily News)', '(Decision Desk HQ)', '(CNN)', '(USA Today)', '(NBC News)'] |
The fire onboard South Korean ship FV Don Wong 701 in the Port of Timaru, New Zealand, enters its third day. At least four vessels – MV Searuby, MV San Granit, MV Longview Logger and MV Jeppesen Maersk – are delayed from arriving. | A fire aboard a Korean fishing vessel has delayed the arrival of four other ships in Timaru and extended the closure of the port.
The fire, which broke on Monday evening, resulted in the port operator, PrimePort, initially closing the port until 10am Wednesday but that has since twice been extended firstly to 2pm and now 8pm.
PrimePort chief executive Phil Melhopt said they would now be reviewing port operations every six hours. "We now also have three-metre southerly swells limiting our ability to receive vessels.
"We will strive to resume operations as soon as safe to do so."
Melhopt did not name the delayed vessels, the port's website lists the Searuby, San Granit, Longview Logger and Jeppesen Maersk as all due to arrive on Wednesday.
Fire crews are struggling to extinguish the blaze aboard the Dong Won 701.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) area commander Steven Greenyer said the fire is not out but under control.
"We are doing everything we can to extinguish the fire and ensure public safety."
Greenyer said the focus "is still on cooling the sides of the ship down and we will reassess the situation in a few hours to decide whether or not we can enter the ship to start dealing with the fire from the inside".
He said PrimePort was operating one tug boat around the vessel to help with cooling its sides.
"We are also operating one hose line inside of the ship and may look at extending that further on board when we reassess the situation."
All road cordons have been lifted, except the one on the road leading directly to the port's fuel terminal.
The Dong Won 701 arrived in port on Monday morning. It was due to leave on Tuesday. It is owned by Korean fishing company Dong Won Fisheries.
DW NZ chief executive Tae Wang said on Wednesday the company was continuing to support the efforts of the emergency services, while its other priority was "looking after our crew" of 50 to 60.
"We have been arranging for replacement clothing and toiletries that were lost in the fire as well as sorting out their accommodation needs," he said.
Meanwhile, the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) said the site investigation into the fire, conducted by a team which arrived on site on Tuesday afternoon, could take several days, while the full inquiry could take 18 months to two years.
TAIC spokesman Peter Northcote said the organisation would work with relevant authorities to determine what caused the fire.
"We don't know what we don't know yet," Northcote said.
"The purpose of our inquiry is to determine whether there are any safety lessons we can learn from the event."
At this stage it is unknown what caused the fire, which was believed to have started somewhere in the ship's accommodation facilities.
"We should have a better idea of where we're at by the end of the week," Northcote said. | Fire | April 2018 | ['(Stuff)', '(Stuff)'] |
Chennai Super Kings defeat Mumbai Indians to win the third Indian Premier League cricket tournament. CNN, Al Jazeera, Sydney Morning Herald |
This was published 11 years ago
The Chennai Super Kings are the champions of the 2010 Indian Premier League after a 22-run win over Mumbai on Sunday.
Chennai, featuring Australians Matthew Hayden and Doug Bollinger, successfully defended a first-innings total of 5-168 to restrict Mumbai to just 9-146 and claim the title.
| Sports Competition | April 2010 | [] |
A fire in a hospital in Japan's Fukuoka prefecture kills ten people. | A fire broke out in a hospital in southern Japan early on Friday, killing 10 people, police said.
Eight patients and two hospital workers died in the blaze that hit the hospital in Fukuoka prefecture, police said. The fire reportedly started on the ground floor of the four-storey building at 02:20 am (17:20 GMT) and took more than two hours to put out.
Reports say at least 17 people were in the orthopaedic hospital when the blaze broke out, including elderly patients.
"The cause of the fire is yet to be determined," a police official said.
An eyewitness told local media that the ground floor of the hospital "was red with flames and was filled with smoke. The part where beds were located seemed to be burning".
During a press conference, a fire station official told reporters: "We did our best in fire-fighting to save lives... but it was a difficult situation." "We received news of the fire at a very late stage, and there had been no attempt [by staff] to tackle the fire in its early stages."
"Patients... were exposed to a lot of smoke because fire doors that would have stemmed the flow had been left open," he added.
"We will start an investigation [into the source of the fire]." At least five other people were injured by the fire, officials said, with several reportedly in a critical condition.
| Fire | October 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
New York Senator Hillary Clinton wins the Rhode Island, Ohio, and Texas Democratic primaries. | March 4, 2008— -- Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has conceded the Republican nomination to rival Senator John McCain, R-Ariz.
But there is no doubt the longshot-turned-contender left his mark on the GOP race.
Calling his White House bid the "journey of a lifetime", Huckabee spoke Tuesday night from Irving, TX commending McCain on an "honorable campaign" and emphasizing his commitment to the Republican party in the fight to the November election.
"We stayed in until the race was over. We kept the faith, that for me has been the most important goal of all," Huckabee said, standing with his wife on stage at the Four Seasons Hotel. " I'd rather lose the election than lose the principles that got me into politics in the first place."
McCain visits President Bush at the White House Wednesday.
Huckabee's brand of social conservatism, combined with his strong core support among evangelicals, and a frugal campaign budget, left party rivals scrambling to defend their conservative credentials.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney were all, at least in part, victims of Huckabee's surprise success.
Ultimately, the former Arkansas governor won by losing, attracting significant blocs of the GOP base in state races despite McCain's significant delegate lead, the latter due in part to the party's largely winner-take-all delegate distribution.
Huckabee's folksy appeal earned him clout within the party as a force to be reckoned with. Still, he has said he is not interested in a third-party run for the White House and, presidential aspirations aside, that he would rather go on a "rock tour with Amy Winehouse" than enter the Arkansas Senate race.
Huckabee has also downplayed his place in the '08 veepstakes, telling a reporter this February "I don't think Sen. McCain would select me anyway...I think that it's a little almost off the chart to think that he would end up selecting me."
Huckabee's meteoric rise from political obscurity to GOP threat began with his second-place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll — an unofficial but closely watched exercise within the Republican campaign cycle — back in August 2007, which signalled his potential to stage a GOP upset.
The momentum that followed Huckabee out of the straw poll finish — complete with cable news bookings, network morning show interviews, and print media outlets clamoring to ask him "how" — bumped Huckabee from second-tier to rising star on the nation's political radar.
Through the almost five full months from the Iowa Straw Poll until any votes were cast in the state's January caucuses, Huckabee continued his presidential campaign, run on a shoestring budget. He spent time at home in Little Rock and flew to first-in-the-nation contest states for long weekends when the crowds were more substantial.
But in November, a CBS News/New York Times poll changed everything.
Showing Huckabee within striking distance of then-Iowa front-runner Mitt Romney, Huckabee's campaign quickened its pace, tailed by the national media, which had previously covered him from afar.
By mid-December, Huckabee had become the bona fide front-runner in Iowa, overtaking Romney in the state's pre-caucus polling.
Come January, Huckabee won the Iowa caucus with 34 percent of the vote, spending a fraction of what second-place Romney used to saturate the state's market.
Then-underdog McCain tied former Sen. Fred Thompson for third in Iowa, with each candidate garnering 13 percent of the vote.
Riding the Iowa win, Huckabee headed to New Hampshire, where he was down in the polls. For the five days leading up to the Republican primary, Huckabee shook every hand he could, taking advantage of just about any opportunity for free media in the Granite State.
He surprised many with a third place finish in New Hampshire, at 26 percent, behind McCain's 37 percent and Romney's 32 percent, and beating Giuliani by a decent margin.
The southern states that followed were Huckabee's strong suit: he spoke the language of the electorate, and drew on the shared, common experiences that resonated with voters.
Huckabee was poised for a strong, possibly winning finish in South Carolina, when his campaign made a questionable decision to make a series of stops in Michigan — rival Romney's home state.
As expected, Huckabee placed third in Michigan and went back to South Carolina to finish what he had started.
Primary day in South Carolina proved interesting from both a political and meteorological standpoint.
Snowy weather in Huckabee-friendly districts, and tough competition from Thompson, led to a disappointing South Carolina loss, as Huckabee finished with 30 percent, trailing McCain's 33 percent.
The campaign then turned farther south, to Florida.
The Sunshine State was never Huckabee's to win, and while his supporters there remained fervent, the South Carolina loss had the chattering classes convinced that Huckabee was on the ropes — a claim he would deny over and over in the weeks that followed.
Huckabee's fourth-place Florida finish — behind McCain, Romney and Giuliani — and lack of subsequent momentum heading into Super Tuesday were thought to be the final nail in the campaign's coffin. But Huckabee would not go so quietly into the night.
Huckabee would visit seven southern states in seven days, his strategy now to carry the South and prove his viability in Republican strongholds, who turned voices to votes against McCain's brand of conservatism, in favor of Huckabee's.
Huckabee surprised many, winning Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia and his home state of Arkansas.
Following Romney's withdrawal from the race on Feb. 7, the southern string would soon turn the race into a two-man battle, with McCain leading by a substantial margin.
Surprising wins in Kansas and Louisiana kept Huckabee afloat for a while, but could not sustain his campaign once McCain gained an insurmountable delegate lead.
Huckabee made his last stand in Texas.
Recalling the famous battle of the Alamo in which Texas rebels staged a fierce fight against Mexico for independence, the insurgent former governor often quoted a letter by Texas commander William Barrett Travis: "The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken -- I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls."
Huckabee spent a few arduous days flying all over the state but in the end it would not prove enough to overcome the McCain's momentum. Huckabee's crowds fluctuated significantly from a rally at Texas A&M with about 900 in the room and another 1500 watching from outside to a morning rally at Southern Methodist University in Dallas that drew less than 200. | Government Job change - Election | March 2008 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Republican Party voters in Colorado participate in caucuses with 36 delegates at stake - Santorum wins, with Mitt Romney placing second. , , , | US presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has swept the contests for the Republican Party nomination in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado.
Mr Santorum outperformed longtime front-runner Mitt Romney, who has struggled to connect with the party's conservative base.
Supporters in Missouri heard Mr Santorum declare victory for all those "building the conservative movement".
The eventual nominee will face Barack Obama in November's election.
Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich hardly campaigned in the three states that voted on Tuesday, and did not even appear on Missouri's ballot.
In Minnesota's caucuses, with 95% of the vote counted, Mr Santorum was on 45%, while Texas Congressman Ron Paul was on 27% and former Massachusetts Governor Romney had 17%.
In Missouri's primary, with all votes counted, Mr Santorum won with 55%, well ahead of Mr Romney at 25% and Mr Paul on 12%.
After an anxious wait, the Republican Party chairman in Colorado eventually declared Mr Santorum the winner in that state's caucuses, too.
Final results showed Mr Santorum won the state with 40% of votes, with Mr Romney on nearly 35%.
Pitching himself as the only true conservative in the race, Mr Santorum had campaigned hard in Minnesota and Missouri - states with significant blocs of Tea Party and evangelical Christian voters respectively.
Polls had showed him performing well, and predicted the possibility he would win in either or both states. But while Mr Romney's team had sought to manage expectations, they still retained hopes of a Colorado victory.
"Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota," he said before the Colorado results were known. "I don't stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."
The former Pennsylvania senator, who had not won a contest since his narrow win in Iowa's caucuses in January, had been viewed as a long-shot candidate.
Tuesday's victories will inject new momentum into his campaign, as he hopes to displace Mr Gingrich as the Mr Romney's main challenger.
Mr Gingrich, who was campaigning in Ohio, told CNN: "I think the big story coming out tonight is going to be that it's very hard for the elite media to portray Governor Romney as the inevitable nominee after tonight's over."
Correspondents say Mr Gingrich's game plan is to ride out February and hang on until March when Southern states come into play. As a former Georgia representative with a long history in the south, his campaign feels he stands a better chance of success in those states.
In a last-ditch effort to win over social conservatives ahead of Minnesota and Colorado's caucuses, Mr Romney tried to boost his credentials on being anti-abortion, pro-religious freedom and opposed to gay marriage.
During his first run for the Republican presidential nomination back in 2008, when he challenged John McCain, Mr Romney won in both Colorado and Minnesota. But both states are perceived to have moved to the right since then, so doubts over his Mormon faith and political record as governor of a liberal state could have cost him votes.
Table ordered by Colorado results
Source: Associated Press
Santorum
40.2%
44.9%
55.2%
Romney
34.9%
16.9%
25.3%
Gingrich
12.8%
10.7%
7.3%
Paul
11.8%
27.2%
12.2%
Playing down the significance of Tuesday's contests, Mr Romney told supporters in Denver: "This was a good night for Rick Santorum. We'll keep on campaigning down the road, but I expect to become our nominee with your help.
"When this primary season is over, we're going to stand united as a party behind our nominee to defeat Barack Obama."
Thirty-seven delegates were at stake in Minnesota and 33 Colorado, although they are not officially awarded until later this year. The primary in Missouri is being dubbed a "beauty contest" since it will actually allocate its delegates via a caucus held next month.
Before Tuesday's votes, Mr Romney had 101 of the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination at the Republican Party convention in August, according to an Associated Press news agency tally. In second place, Mr Gingrich was on 32 delegates, Mr Santorum 17 and Mr Paul nine.
| Government Job change - Election | February 2012 | ['(9 News)', '[permanent dead link]', '(The Guardian)', '(BBC)', '(Denver Post)'] |
The Federal Parliament of Nepal votes 124–93 in a no confidence vote against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli over both his handling of the COVID–19 pandemic and his attempts to lead a minority government after his party, the Nepal Communist Party, split into the Communist Party of Nepal–UML and Communist Party of Nepal–Maoist earlier this year. President Bidya Devi Bhandari is expected to name Oli caretaker Prime Minister until the next election. | President Bidya Devi Bhandari is expected to ask Oli to lead a temporary caretaker gov’t after he loses crucial parliamentary vote.
Nepal’s prime minister has lost a vote of confidence in parliament, ending his attempt to show he has enough support to remain in office.
Ninety-three legislators backed Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, while 124 voted against him in Monday’s vote. A new rival faction of 15 legislators within his governing party abstained.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari is expected to ask Oli to lead a caretaker government while parties in parliament seek to form a new government.
There was no immediate comment from Oli.
Oli’s Nepal Communist Party won elections in late 2017 and he was chosen to be prime minister by parliament in early 2018. An earlier split in his party in March had already weakened him, forcing him to lead a minority government, and a new split emerged this week.
He sought a vote of confidence in an attempt to demonstrate he had enough support to stay in power.
Oli has been criticised for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with the Himalayan nation recently reporting its largest number of new cases and deaths.
Authorities have imposed a lockdown in most parts of the country since last month and are likely to extend it as hospitals report running out of beds, oxygen and medication.
The Himalayan nation on Monday reported a new 24-hour tally of 9,127 infections, 27 times the number recorded on April 10. The total caseload stands at 403,794, with 3,859 deaths, according to government data.
Oli became prime minister after his party merged with another communist party composed of former Maoist rebels, winning elections three years ago.
He became involved in a power struggle, however, with the leader of the former rebels, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also co-chair of the party.
Oli has refused to allow Dahal to succeed him as prime minister or lead the party, despite an earlier agreement to do so, causing divisions within the party.
“He has created instability and is behind the crisis the country is facing now,” Dahal said. “He does not have the confidence of parliament any more.”
Oli directed the dissolution of parliament in December and announced new elections this year. The Supreme Court, however, reinstated parliament and cancelled the new elections.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Korean Workers' Party chairman Kim Jong-un has reportedly told Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping that he is willing to resume six-party talks. | TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping during talks in Beijing last week that he agreed to return to six-party talks on his nation's nuclear program and missile tests, the Nikkei newspaper said on Thursday. Months of chill between Beijing and Pyongyang appeared to suddenly vanish during Kim's secretive visit, with China saying that Kim had pledged his commitment to denuclearization. Quoting multiple sources connected to China and North Korea, the Nikkei said that, according to documents issued after Kim and Xi met, Kim told Xi that he agreed to resuming the six-party talks, which were last held in 2009. North Korea declared the on-again, off-again talks dead at the time, blaming U.S. aggression. The talks grouped the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China. The sources said it was also possible that Kim could convey his willingness to resume the talks to U.S. President Donald Trump at a summit set to take place in May, but that it was far from clear if that meant the talks would actually resume. Chinese officials were not immediately able to comment. China has traditionally been secretive North Korea's closest ally, though ties have been frayed by Kim's pursuit of nuclear weapons and missiles and Beijing's backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response. North Korea has said in previous talks that it could consider giving up its nuclear arsenal if the United States removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan. Some analysts have said Trump's willingness to meet Kim handed North Korea a diplomatic win, as the United States had insisted for years that any such summit be preceded by North Korean steps to denuclearize. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2018 | ['(Yahoo! News)'] |
Dr. Ashraf Marwan, who had been accused of being a senior Mossad agent operating in Egypt prior to the Yom Kippur War, is found dead below the balcony of his home in London; Scotland Yard investigates the "unexplained" death. , | London police are investigating the death of Dr. Ashraf Marwan, a senior Mossad agent who operated in Egypt prior to the Yom Kippur War, whose body was found near his London home Wednesday.Some reports maintain Marwan fell off the balcony of his home, while other accounts claim he collapsed on the street near his house. Two weeks ago, Haaretz reported that a court ruled Major General (Res.) Eli Zeira, who headed the Military Intelligence during the war in 1973, leaked Marwan's identity, placing his life in danger.
The ruling ended a protracted legal dispute between Zeira and Zvi Zamir, who served as head of the Mossad during the war.In 2004, Zeira filed a libel suit against Zamir, after Zamir had publicly accused him of betraying Marwan's identity. Retired Supreme Court Justice Theodore Or, who served as an arbitrator in the case, confirmed that Zeira had indeed exposed the agent's identity.The court ordered Zeira to pay Zamir NIS 30,000 and to cover his full arbitration expenses.The affair began 14 years ago, with the publication of Zeira's book, titled "Myth Versus Reality: The Yom Kippur War - Failures and Lessons." In his book, Zeira countered the findings of the Agranat Commission, which the government had appointed to investigate its performance and that of the defense establishment before and during the war. The committee found that Zeira was responsible for the MI's failure to give an advance warning of the war. In his book, Zeira maintained that the omission was a result of a sting operation by an Egyptian agent, who had allegedly acted as a double agent. Zeira claimed that agent, whose name he did not reveal, withheld information of the Egyptians' preparation for war, taking advantage of his status as a reliable and trustworthy source. Nevertheless, Ashraf Marwan's name was leaked to the foreign press, and then quoted n Israel by Haaretz in 2003. In a television interview to Channel 1, Zeira reiterated his version that the Egyptian was a double agent. Following the interview, Zamir accused Zeira of leaking the agent's name to many journalists, and compared Zeira's statements in the interview to the actions of Mordechai Vanunu, who was convicted of treason after he had betrayed the secrets of what the foreign media term "Israel's nuclear weapons program." | Famous Person - Death | June 2007 | ['(Haaretz)', '(Guardian)'] |
In American football, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots breaks the National Football League records for career postseason yardage and touchdown passes in the AFC Divisional playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens won by the Patriots 35–31, advancing them to the AFC Championship game. | New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady set the NFL records for career postseason passing yards and touchdowns during Saturday's AFC Divisional playoff game vs. the Baltimore Ravens.
Brady threw for more than 200 yards in the first half to pass Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning for the yardage record, though Manning will be in action on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts. Manning entered the weekend with 6,589 passing yards, while Brady had 6,424 before Saturday's game.
• Ravens WR Steve Smith passes 1,000 career playoff receiving yards
Brady has played in 27 playoff games, winning 18 entering Saturday. Manning has played in 23, winning 11.
Brady also eclipsed San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana for the most postseason passing touchdowns with 46 when he connected with Brandon LaFell on a 23-yard score with 5:13 remaining in the game. The touchdown put the Patriots ahead 35-31.
Brady grew up a fan of the 49ers, for whom Montana played 13 seasons for from 1979-92. Montana played the final two seasons of his career with the Kansas City Chiefs. He appeared in 23 postseason games, 19 with the 49ers.
Brady also threw touchdowns in the second quarter on a 15-yard pass to Danny Amendola and in the third quarter on a 5-yard toss to Rob Gronkowski.
| Sports Competition | January 2015 | ['(Sports Illustrated)'] |
At least 25 or 32 Afghans, including civilians, are killed by NATO airstrikes in Nangarhar Province, many bombed by NATO planes while attending the funeral of a flood victim; relatives are displeased. | Nato air strikes are said to have killed 25 Afghans including many civilians, hours after US troops were urged to avoid hurting non-combatants.
The Nato-led Isaf force said it regretted the "apparent" loss of life in Nangarhar province, where its forces had been conducting operations.
It said it would work with an inquiry ordered by President Hamid Karzai.
Gen David Petraeus, in a directive issued on Wednesday, emphasised the need to avoid civilian casualties. "Every Afghan civilian death diminishes our cause," he said.
Mohammad Hassan, head of Nangarhar's Khogyani district, told news agencies that between 12 and 14 people had been killed in one incident.
Villagers were carrying the body of a flood victim for burial in their home village when they were bombed by Nato planes, he told the Reuters news agency.
The attack was also reported by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency.
It quoted local people as saying that a passenger vehicle carrying the body from Nangarhar's provincial capital Jalalabad to the Hesarak Ghaljai area had stopped near the River Hashimkhel because of a rise in the water level.
It was bombed as it stopped on the main road, the agency said.
An Associated Press cameraman filmed freshly dug graves in a cemetery said to contain victims of the air strike.
AP also filmed bomb damage in the neighbouring district of Sherzad, where village elder Rahmatullah Sherzad told the agency that 13 people had been killed.
Abdul Qadir, described as a relative of one of the victims, said: "If these infidels and crazies are not going to leave our country, we are going to attack Jalalabad City and then there will not be any governor or Karzai."
Mohammad Hassan told AFP he had information that 14 people were killed in the second incident, in which several houses were bombed.
"It's not clear how many of them are civilians or Taliban," he said. "There are some civilians among them."
Mr Karzai's office said the Afghan leader was "saddened by the reports of civilian casualties in Khogyani", and had instructed the authorities to investigate the incident "immediately and thoroughly".
Rear Admiral Greg Smith, Isaf director of communication, said: "Coalition forces deeply regret that our joint operation appears to have resulted in civilian loss of life and we express our sincerest condolences to the families.
"We will partner with the government of Afghanistan to conduct a thorough investigation of this incident, and to provide solatia [compensation] to the families of the civilians killed during the engagement."
Isaf said Afghan and coalition ground forces had "conducted operations in multiple locations" in Nangarhar province on Wednesday, but it talked only of Sherzad district.
While searching for a Taliban commander at a compound, troops came under attack and returned fire, killing "several insurgents", it said.
As the soldiers were leaving the area, they came under new attack, and "an air weapons team provided cover fire", Isaf added.
Voice of Jihad, an Afghan Taliban website, said US airborne forces had launched a raid on Khogyani at 0130 on Thursday (2100 GMT Wednesday), killing eight Taliban fighters.
According to the Taliban source, seven civilians were killed in air strikes during the fighting and a further 10 civilians died when they were bombed from the air "while removing the bodies of the martyrs".
Isaf
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How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Armed Conflict | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(France24)', '[permanent dead link]', '(The New York Times)'] |
A suicide bombing at a funeral in the Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 28 people. | A suicide bombing at a funeral for a policeman in south-western Pakistan has killed at least 28 people including a senior police officer, police say.
They say that the blast in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, also wounded at least 50 people.
Quetta police chief Mir Zubair Mehmood told the AP news agency that the bomber detonated his explosives just before the funeral service was about to start.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
However suspicion is likely to fall on the Taliban who have in the past carried out numerous suicide bombings in Balochistan. The province is plagued not just by the Taliban's insurgency, but also by sectarian in-fighting between Sunnis and Shias and a rebellion by Baloch separatists.
On Tuesday separatist gunmen killed at least 13 bus passengers near Quetta.
Correspondents say the latest bombing marks the culmination of a bloody Ramadan in Pakistan, with more than 90 people killed in at least 11 attacks during the month.
Deputy Inspector General of police Fayaz Sumbal, one of the most senior officers in Quetta, was among those killed, police say.
They told the AP news agency that Mr Sumbal spotted the suicide bomber before he detonated his explosives and asked police officers quickly to search him. As officers began to question the bomber, he blew himself up.
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Islamabad say that heavy security in Quetta, believed to be the hiding place of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was not enough to prevent the bomber from striking.
The incident was captured live by some television channels which were covering the funeral. Most of those killed and wounded were policemen.
The funeral was for a policeman who was shot and killed as he travelled through Quetta earlier on Thursday with his children, who were both injured.
Witness said that in the immediate aftermath of the attack weeping policemen wandered among the blood and body parts, looking for colleagues or sat, shocked and in silence, amid abandoned shoes and other belongings.
Policeman Mohammad Hafiz told the AFP news agency of his horror after the bomber - wearing a jacket packed with ball bearings and shrapnel - detonated his device.
"I was inside the mosque and we were lining up for the funeral prayers when a big blast took place," he said. "I came out and saw injured and dead bodies lying on the ground. "I have no words to explain what I've seen. It was horrible."
Balochistan police | Riot | August 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
The political party Demosistō of social activist Joshua Wong is disbanded following the passing of the law. Wong urges the international community to keep "speaking up for Hong Kong people". | HONG KONG (Reuters) - A pro-democracy group led by Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong disbanded on Tuesday, hours after China’s parliament passed national security legislation for the Chinese-ruled city that has stoked fears for its freedoms.
Beijing’s swift imposition of the law and a lack of transparency over its details have alarmed some diplomats, business leaders and activists who say it is the latest example of China’s tightening grip over the former British colony.
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have said the law is necessary to tackle separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces following anti-government protests that escalated in June last year.
Wong, who rose to prominence during a series of protests in 2014, has rallied support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement overseas, in particular in the United States, drawing the wrath of Beijing, which says he is a “black hand” of foreign forces.
He has said he expects to be targeted under the law.
“If my voice will not be heard soon, I hope that the international community will continue to speak up for Hong Kong and step up concrete efforts to defend our last bit of freedom,” Wong said on his Twitter feed, announcing he was stepping down from his group, Demosisto.
A short while later, Demosisto members Nathan Law and Agnes Chow also said they were also stepping down.
“The struggle of Hong Kong people will not stop, it will only continue with a more determined attitude,” Law said in a Facebook post.
Demosisto then said on its Facebook page it was disbanding.
While details of the security legislation have not been made public, many in Hong Kong fear it will be used to silence dissent.
It has also alarmed foreign governments concerned that Beijing is eroding the high degree of autonomy granted to the city when it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, which underpins its role as a financial centre.
China says the national security law will target only a small group of troublemakers and people who abide by the legislation have no reason to worry.
Independence advocacy group the Hong Kong National Front said on its Facebook page it had shut its Hong Kong office and that its units in Taiwan and Britain would continue to promote independence for the Chinese-ruled city.
China considers Hong Kong to be an “inalienable” part of the country so any suggestion of independence is anathema to its Communist Party leaders. Independence activists fear they too will be targeted by Beijing under the legislation.
Hong Kong pro-independence activist Wayne Chan said in a Facebook post on Sunday he had skipped bail and fled the city amid fears he would be detained.
In a sign of concern among businesses over the implications of the law, a restaurant that has become famous for its support of the pro-democracy movement, the Lung Mun Cafe, said it was quitting a group of like-minded businesses known as the Yellow Economic Circle, or yellow economy.
| Organization Closed | June 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Joko Widodo, the President of Indonesia, cancels a planned visit to Australia following violent protests in Jakarta that resulted in one death and 12 injured. | Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has called off his visit to Australia after violent clashes at a Jakarta rally by thousands of hard-line Muslims.
Mr Widodo, also known as Jokowi, blamed "political actors" for exploiting the situation as protesters marched against Jakarta's governor.
The demonstrators accuse Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian, of having insulted Islam's holy book, the Koran.
The clashes left one person dead and 12 wounded.
"We deplore the incident," Jokowi said as he called for calm on the streets of the country's capital. In a statement on Saturday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed that the Indonesian president had postponed his visit. It comes after Indonesian police used tear gas and water cannon to subdue protesters who refused to disperse after Friday prayers as they congregated around the presidential palace.
Police had been braced for the possibility of religious and racial tensions erupting at the rally, attended by an estimated 50,000 people.
It had mostly been peaceful but groups of angry demonstrators clashed with police after nightfall and set vehicles alight.
A Muslim group, the Islamic Defenders' Front, has accused Mr Purnama of insulting Islam after he said his opponents had used a verse from the Koran to deceive voters. The verse can be interpreted as meaning that Muslims should not choose non-Muslims as leaders.
The protest was held to demand that Mr Purnama be prosecuted for blasphemy over the comments.
Mr Purnama has apologised but formal complaints have led to an investigation by police.
Muslims are the majority in Indonesia which has a population of 250 million. New voting power of Chinese Indonesians
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
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