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Iran marks its 38th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution with nationwide rallies and ceremonies. The ceremony also contains some anti–Trump protests. | TEHRAN — Iran marked its national holiday on Friday with nationwide rallies with far less of the usual vitriol for the United States, in what seemed a move calculated to avoid further inciting President Trump.
Many observers had expected Iranian leaders to take aim at Mr. Trump during rallies celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The stacks of posters handed out by state organizations largely avoided mentions of Mr. Trump. Anti-American slogans, usually printed in English in the past for the international news media to see, were mostly in Persian. Most notably, there were no missiles on display, as had been customary in previous years, to show off Iran’s military capabilities.
Tensions between the United States and Iran have surged in recent weeks, after Mr. Trump blocked citizens of Iran and six other predominantly Muslim nations from visiting the United States, and he called Iran “#1 in terror.” His national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, put the country “on notice” after it conducted a missile test late last month.
There were examples of anti-American sentiment on view, however: A large plastic copy of the American flag was rolled out at the main rally, as was an Israeli flag, forcing those marching to walk over them. One man handed out posters showing Mr. Trump being beaten in the face by an arm with an Iranian flag around it. “Down with U.S.A.,” the accompanying text read.
On social media, an image of an Iranian carrying an effigy of Mr. Trump hanging from a rope made the rounds. Another showed American and Israeli flags being burned.
But given the size of the rally in Tehran, the usual anti-Americanism appeared less noticeable than in previous years.
“Today’s rally shows that the government does not want any confrontation with the U.S.,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. “Don’t be surprised, we have no interest with tensions.”
Throughout the week, Iranians on social media had asked people not to burn flags, but instead to thank American protesters for standing up to Mr. Trump’s targeted travel ban and for defending refugees, students, tourists and others affected by the executive order. Others said they had underestimated the new president at first, but now worried about new sanctions on Iran, or even military strikes.
Most of the hundreds of thousands at the rallies carried signs handed to them at the starting points of the rally. Several people carried black and white signs with text in English calling on Americans to visit Iran.
“American people are welcome and invited to visit Iran,” one read. “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims,” said another. “Down with American regime, long live U.S. people,” another exclaimed.
“Let’s face it, we didn’t like Obama much, but he was much better than Mr. Trump,” said Manoucher Ashtiari, a retiree who carried a sign lauding the Islamic Revolution. “I come every year. This year, there are no missiles on display. I don’t care, what matters is that we support our revolution.”
Speaking to crowds gathered in Azadi Square here, Mr. Rouhani said that leaders of other nations “must talk to the Iranian nation with respect and dignity,” adding that Iran would meet any threat.
Iranian President Urges "Respect and Reverence" for Country “We are not after tensions in the region and the world,” he said. “We are united in the face of bullying and any threat.”
The anniversary of the Islamic Revolution is mainly celebrated as a political event. When Iranians ousted the shah in 1979, one of their demands was independence from the dominant powers of the time, the United States and the Soviet Union. While many Iranians have criticized how their country is managed today, even more point to a long list of historical grievances they have with the United States.
“The good thing about Trump is that he exposes to the world what is wrong with the U.S.,” said Mousa Aghababaei, a retired mathematics teacher who attended the rally with his family. They watched others walking by, pushing strollers and chatting. “I like to be here; it’s important for me.”
Along the route, which ended at the Azadi, or “Freedom,” monument in Tehran, dozens of Iranian organizations, including the Telecommunications Ministry, joined the rally. So did the television personality Amoo Rouhani, or Uncle Cleric, who spoke loudly into a microphone, asking children to recite poetry. Next to him stood Afghan fighters of the Fatemiyoun brigade, an Iranian-led militia active in Syria, who showed off their taekwondo skills.
“This is a glorious day,” said Ali Mir Talebani, a Shiite Muslim cleric wearing a black turban, who was at the rally with two friends. | Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2017 | ['(The New York Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
An arrest warrant is issued in Texas for 3Dprinted gun rights activist and Defense Distributed owner Cody Wilson in connection with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson was last known to be in Taiwan. | Cody Rutledge Wilson, the 30-year-old Texas man who’s been fighting with the U.S. government to publish instructions for 3D-printed guns on the internet, was charged today with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson allegedly met the girl on a website called SugarDaddyMeet.com.
Wilson allegedly paid the girl, whose name has been withheld in court documents, $500 for sex at a hotel in Austin, Texas. The exact age of the victim is not immediately clear, though the affidavit for the arrest warrant explains that she’s under the age of 17.
As local news station KVUE notes, Wilson allegedly used the name “Sanjuro” on SugarDaddyMeet.com and told the child victim that he was a “big deal,” according to court documents. The girl allegedly met Wilson at Bennu Coffee on 515 South Congress Ave. in Austin where he arrived in a black Ford SUV that matched a license plate registered under his firearms business, Defense Distributed. The police apparently have video of the meeting.
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Wilson allegedly took the girl to Archer Hotel in Austin where surveillance video reportedly also captured images of the two together. Wilson has not yet been booked into jail, according to the Austin Statesman, and it’s not even clear if he’s been arrested yet.
Cody Wilson made national headlines recently when he became the loudest voice defending 3D-printed guns. Defense Distributed sells 3D printers that can manufacture guns for $2,000. Federal courts have blocked Wilson from publishing the plans for guns, but he began emailing the plans to people who ordered them in August. Wilson just seemed happy to define how the issue was being talked about.
“It seems like I’ve crystallized the terms of the debate according to how I wanted it,” Wilson told the New York Times over the summer. “The argument that I’m making, although not always very well, is that what I’m doing is actually a pretty mainline American idea.”
Wilson was named one of “The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World” in 2012 by Wired, though at the time the publication was only referring to his association with guns.
[KVUE and Austin Statesman]
Update, 5:50pm: According to Ars Technica, Wilson is in Taipei, Taiwan and didn’t get on a return flight to the United States after getting a tip off that he’s wanted for these charges.
At the press conference, [the Austin Police Department] shared a few more details on the situation not previously included in the court documents. The alleged victim is 16 years old and lives in Central Texas. Regarding her entry on SugarDaddyMeet, Cmdr. Officer said authorities have no reason to believe that “anyone other than the victim” signed up for the site.
“The charge is sexual assault, and the statute says a victim under 17 is considered a child,” Cmdr. Officer said. “My detectives have interviewed and spoken with this victim, and in their opinion if someone mistakes their age, it’d be because she’s younger not older.”
Cmdr. Officer added that the allegations against Wilson would constitute a second degree felony, which is punishable by up to 20 years and a $10,000 fine.
The judge in the case set a bond at $150,000 despite the fact that Wilson still hasn’t been arrested. If he returns to the United States he’ll have to surrender his passport.
Update, September 20, 2018: U.S. Marshals have released a wanted poster for Wilson, who’s believed to still be on the run in Taiwan.
Wilson was staying at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taipei on September 6th and checked out on the 7th, according to the UDN news site. Taiwanese authorities are now in contact with their U.S. counterparts but Wilson’s exact whereabouts are unknown.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2018 | ['(ABC News)', '(Gizmodo)'] |
Scientists at the Rovira i Virgili University claim to have a 350,000–year–old axe, the oldest evidence of human creativity yet uncovered | The handaxe, which was discovered at an archaeological site in northern Spain, may represent the first funeral rite by human beings. It suggests humans were capable of symbolic thought at a far earlier date than previously thought.
Spanish researchers found the axe among the fossilised bones of 27 ancient humans that were clumped together at the bottom of a 14-metre- (45 feet) deep pit inside a network of limestone caves at Atapuerca, near Burgos. It is the only man-made implement found in the pit.
It may confirm the team's belief that other humans deposited bodies in the pit deliberately.
Special colour
Professor Eudald Carbonell, of the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain, and a key member of the team that unearthed the axe, was jubilant about the find. "It's a great discovery. This is an interpretation, but in my opinion and the opinion of my team, the axe could be the first evidence of ritual behaviour and symbolism in a human species," Professor Carbonell said. HUMAN FAMILY TREE
Scientists are trying to piece together the species relationships
"We conclude it could be from a funeral rite," he added.
The axe is skilfully crafted from quartzite rock, which is abundant in the region. Handaxes of this type are usually used for butchering animal carcasses for their meat. But the researchers claim the striking colour is crucial to its importance.
"It's a very special colour," said Juan Luis Arsuaga, director of the Atapuerca excavation. "They would have needed to search it out. I think this colour had some significance for [these humans]," he added.
The human remains belong to the species Homo heidelbergensis, which dominated Europe around 600,000-200,000 years ago and is thought to have given rise to both the Neanderthals and modern humans (Homo sapiens).
But some researchers, such as Peter Andrews, of the Natural History Museum in London, have proposed that the skeletons were lying elsewhere in the caves and sludged into the pit by a mudflow. Abstract thinking
"I'm cautious about its significance," said Professor Chris Stringer, also of the Natural History Museum. "The association of the handaxe and the skeletons in this pit of bones is a very interesting one," adding that it was possible there was some sort of symbolic association. "But one has to put some caution into [this announcement] because it has been suggested that this is a secondary deposit and therefore could be accidental," he noted. WALKING WITH CAVEMEN
New discoveries are revealing just how sophisticated some of our ancestors were and how much further back in time that complexity of behaviour existed - much earlier than we thought
Read more
But Arsuaga thinks it unlikely that so many human remains could have appeared in the pit in the absence of bones from other animals.
Previously, the earliest funeral rituals were thought to be associated with Neanderthal remains dated 100,000 years ago. But some researchers dispute the significance of these sites, preferring to believe that abstract thinking began around 50,000 years ago in modern humans.
Arsuaga and his colleagues found the handaxe in 1998, but decided to search for other stone tools in the pit before announcing the find. They have found none so far. | New archeological discoveries | March 2003 | ['(BBC)'] |
More than a dozen wildfires around Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, and Yuba counties in California, kill at least ten people, destroy at least 1500 homes and businesses, and force 20 thousand people to evacuate. The Governor of California, Jerry Brown, declares a state of emergency. , , | Follow NBC News LOS ANGELES — Fierce wildfires whipping up nightmare conditions in Northern California have killed at least 15 people, destroyed more than 1,500 structures and turned wineries into charred wastelands.
The death toll continued to climb Tuesday as fire crews battled at least 17 large fires, while more than 20,000 people in the paths of the fast-moving infernos fled their homes, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said. In all, more than 115,000 acres have burned since the weekend, officials added.
Firefighters were counting on cooler weather and weakening winds to help in their fight.
With increased resources headed to the region, "hopefully we'll start seeing some turnaround throughout the course of today and into tomorrow," Scott McLean, deputy chief of Cal Fire, said Tuesday on "TODAY."
Gov. Jerry Brown declared an emergency in the affected counties, which include Napa and Sonoma, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to the state's request for federal funds to help the fires, the Department of Homeland Security said.
In Sonoma County, officials said they had received about 200 phone calls to its missing persons hotline, although they believe some could be duplicates. About 45 of the missing had been located as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Sonoma County spokeswoman Maggie Fleming.
Resident Marian Williams of Kenwood, in Sonoma County, told NBC Bay Area that she joined a caravan of neighbors driving through the flames before dawn as one of the fires reached the area's vineyards.
"It was an inferno like you've never seen before," Williams told the station.
The 17 wildfires — which also engulfed a hotel and a trailer park in the city of Santa Rosa and sent smoke spewing as far south as San Francisco — have collectively become among the deadliest in California's history.
Photos: Massive Wildfires Consume Homes Across Northern California
At least nine people were killed in Sonoma County in fire-related incidents — and "that number's going to change," warned Sheriff Rob Giordano of Sonoma County.
Cal Fire confirmed that three people had been killed in Mendocino County and two people in Napa County. They were identified by NBC Bay Area as 100-year-old Charlie Rippey, a World War II veteran, and his 98-year-old wife, Sara.
Their son, Chuck Rippey, told the station that their caregiver contacted him as the fire closed in and said his parents were still inside the Silverado Golf Course home they had lived in for the past 40 years.
"The caregiver called and said there's fire everywhere," Chuck Rippey said. "I said get these guys out on the street, and before she knew it, the roof was caving in very fast."
More images from near the #Silverado Golf Course. Just devastating. pic.twitter.com/0JFWbk9xqO
Another fire-related death was confirmed in Yuba Country.
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the state Office of Emergency Services, agreed Monday that other deaths were likely across the region. Since the fires were moving so rapidly, he added, authorities were "still trying to get our hands around" the full extent of the damage and casualties.
Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said that many other people had been injured and that an undetermined number were missing.
Firefighters were also contending with strong winds fueling the flames, although the roaring gusts that reached between 35 to 50 mph were expected to weaken to about 20 mph by Tuesday afternoon.
All of California faces a renewed threat from dangerous weather conditions Wednesday that could spark wildfires, including the return of strong, offshore winds and lower humidity.
Pacific Gas & Electric said more than 94,000 customers were without power as of Tuesday morning, most of them in the North Bay Division and Sonoma area. Gas service was shut off to 30,000 customers, it said. The California Highway Patrol said it had rescued 44 people by helicopter.
All of the new fires started after 10 p.m. PT (1 a.m. ET) on Sunday, Pimlott said.
McClean said investigators were still trying to determine the origin of the blazes and called it a "meticulous process."
Californians are pushing their way through a phenomenon called the Santa Ana winds — powerful systems that start inland and almost always blast hot, extremely dry air across Northern California and the southern California coast.
The hot, dry blasts are sometimes called los diablos, or "the devil winds," and they often create critical fire conditions.
"Every spark is going to ignite a fire," Pimlott said. "The planets literally aligned to have this explosive state."
At least 1,500 homes and commercial structures were destroyed in the region in just 12 hours, authorities said.
Cal Fire Deputy Chief Bret Gouvea, commander of the unified response team, described a simultaneous eruption of "large fires that were all wind driven, with winds up to 50 miles per hour, in seven counties."
"Sometimes we get away with these wind events, and other times we get caught," he said.
Capt. Craig Schwartz, acting chief of the Santa Rosa police, said evacuation efforts were continuing. "Officers were going in and reporting that they were having a hard time getting out," he said.
Brown said Monday night that authorities anticipate more destruction, both to homes and public infrastructure. The governor added that officials would continue to do preliminary damage assessments as soon as conditions permit access.
Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner said that the flames in Sonoma County "came in very, very hard," and that they "drained our resources very quickly."
But Northern California wasn't the only part of the state inundated by infernos.
The Canyon Fire 2 wildfire was scorching rugged terrain in Anaheim Hills in Orange County, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. More than 7,500 acres were burned by early Tuesday, fire officials said, and at least 24 structures were destroyed with another 5,000 threatened.
Photos: Orange Skies Shroud Disneyland as Wildfires Loom
The officials warned that the thousands of homeowners in evacuation zones won't be allowed to return until the fire was solidly contained, but strong onshore winds could hamper the fight. Evacuation shelters were set up Monday and Tuesday in nearby communities, including the city of Anaheim, where Disneyland is.
The wildfire — the biggest in the county in nearly a decade — cast an eerie orange glow in the sky above the theme park, which remained open.
"The hillside was on fire," Anaheim Hills resident John Teague told NBC Los Angeles. "I've never seen anything like this."
| Fire | October 2017 | ['(AP)', '(The Washington Post)', '(NBC)'] |
Gunmen kill 53 soldiers and a civilian in a mass shooting in Ménaka Region, Mali. | BAMAKO (Reuters) - At least 53 soldiers and one civilian have been killed in an attack on an army post in northern Mali, the government said, in one of the deadliest strikes against the West African country’s military in recent memory.
Islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq news agency on Saturday, without providing evidence.
The militant group has posted dozens of claims of responsibility for attacks in several countries since U.S. special forces killed its previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last weekend.
The authorities first reported the attack in Indelimane, Menaka region, on Friday, but gave a lower provisional death toll.
“Heavily armed unidentified men attacked around noon. The attack started with shellfire ... Then they retreated toward Niger,” government spokesman Yaya Sangare told Reuters on Saturday.
He added the death toll remained provisional as corpses were undergoing identification, and that the army was undertaking a combing operation on the ground with support from international forces, including French troops from the Barkhane operation and U.N. peacekeepers.
“The dispatched reinforcements found 54 bodies including one civilian, 10 survivors, and found considerable material damage,” Sangare said on Twitter earlier on Saturday.
France said one of its soldiers there had died after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, according to a statement by the French presidency.
The attack follows jihadist raids in late September that underscored the increasing reach and sophistication of armed groups operating in the region.
From their stronghold in Mali, groups with al Qaeda and Islamic State links have been able to fan out across the Sahel, destabilizing parts of Niger and Burkina Faso.
Thirty-eight Malian soldiers were killed on Sept. 30 in coordinated attacks on two army bases in central Mali, which has slipped from government control despite the presence of the French army and other international forces.
| Riot | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
In Ukraine, security service states that the death of former interior minister Yuri Kravchenko was probably suicide | Kravchenko was found dead with two gunshot wounds to the head on 4 March in his country house outside Kiev. He was due to testify later that day about the high-profile murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000.
Mr Turchynov said among possible reasons of Kravchenko's apparent suicide was the "burden (of the Gongadze case) he hauled for the past four years". Kravchenko left a suicide note blaming former President Leonid Kuchma for Gongadze's death, Ukraine's investigators say. They say in the note he described himself as "a victim of the intrigues of Kuchma and his entourage".
Political scandal
The discovery of Gongadze's headless body in a wood near Kiev shortly after he was abducted in 2000 triggered anti-Kuchma protests.
GONGADZE CASE
Sept 2000 - Abducted. Headless body is found weeks later
Jan 2001 - Tape recordings apparently implicating President Kuchma emerge
Feb 2001 - EU calls for murder inquiry
May 2001 - US forensic tests confirm headless body is Gongadze's
Dec 2004 - Viktor Yushchenko elected president, promises to solve case
1 March 2005 - Suspected killers arrested
Mr Kuchma has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing of the journalist. He himself was questioned by prosecutors earlier this month amid accusations that he was implicated in the murder on secret recordings allegedly made by his former bodyguard, Mykola Melnychenko.
Mr Kuchma says the tapes were edited. President Viktor Yushchenko has pledged to find out who abducted and killed Gongadze, who reported on high-profile corruption scandals.
Ukraine's chief prosecutor said earlier this months that the authorities knew who had ordered Gongadze's killing. | Famous Person - Death | March 2005 | ['(Moscos Times)', '(BBC)'] |
A candidate in the forthcoming Papua New Guinea election is charged with attempted murder of Deputy Prime Minister Don Polye. | One of the candidates in Papua New Guinea's elections has been charged with attempting to murder the country's deputy Prime Minister.
The candidate, Peter Mision, allegedly fired shots into a crowd at a campaign rally, wounding two people.
Deputy Prime Minister Don Polye says he narrowly escaped harm.
The provincial police commander has confirmed that Mision has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.
Mision also has a court case pending against the deputy Prime Minister, claiming Mr Polye did not nominate correctly. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2007 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak sign an agreement in Warsaw to redeploy about 1,000 U.S. troops from Germany to Poland so as to bring the total to 5,500. The agreement also includes a potential increase to 20,000 U.S. troops if Poland is under threat. | US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has signed a new defence agreement with Poland that will see American troops redeployed there from Germany.
The deal will see the number of US troops in Poland rise to about 5,500.
Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said the number could quickly be increased to 20,000 if a threat justified it.
US President Donald Trump has previously accused Germany of not contributing enough to Nato.
But the US move has raised concern among Nato allies worried over possible Russian expansionism.
The Enhanced Defence Co-operation Agreement (EDCA) was signed by Mr Pompeo and Mr Blaszczak in Warsaw on Saturday.
"This is going to be an extended guarantee - a guarantee that in case of a threat our soldiers are going to stand arm-in-arm," Poland's President Andrzej Duda said at the signing ceremony.
"It will also serve to increase the security of other countries in our part of Europe."
About 4,500 US troops are currently stationed in Poland and another 1,000 will be added under the new pact. The headquarters of the US Army V Corps will also be relocated from Germany to Poland.
Last month the US confirmed that almost 12,000 troops - out of more than 38,000 - would be withdrawn from Germany in what it described as a "strategic" repositioning of its forces in Europe.
About 6,400 troops are being sent home with the rest moved to other Nato countries including Poland, Italy and Belgium.
President Trump said the move was a response to Germany failing to meet Nato targets on defence spending.
Billed by its advocates as a means to better defend Nato and strengthen deterrence against Moscow, this new military agreement could be as much about politics as it is about strategy. The US already contributes to and commands a small multi-national Nato battlegroup in Poland, with regular exercises drawing in additional forces. A land-based ballistic missile defence system is under construction. But since 2018 in particular, Polish politicians have been pushing for much more, at one stage arguing that a full US division should be permanently based in the country with Warsaw shouldering at least some of the cost; a plan dubbed by some as "Fort Trump". The new agreement falls well short of this. But it sends a clear signal about Mr Trump's preferences. Muscular Poland, with relatively strong defence spending, is the sort of ally the president likes. By contrast he has already announced the pull-out of some US forces from Germany, which he believes does not carry its share of the defence burden. It is not clear that the shifting around of forces will necessarily strengthen Nato at a time when many of its key problems seem to relate to internal cohesion.
"We don't want to be the suckers any more," Mr Trump told reporters shortly after the move was announced. "We're reducing the force because they're not paying their bills; it's very simple."
Mr Trump has long complained that European Nato members should spend more on their own defence and not rely so heavily on the US to shoulder the costs of maintaining the alliance.
The row between the allies focuses around the target agreed by all Nato members that defence spending should reach 2% of GDP (gross domestic product, the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country) by 2024.
Germany, along with other countries, has yet to meet this target.
German officials have criticised the US move, suggesting it could weaken Nato and embolden Russia.
| Sign Agreement | August 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Kashmiris demonstrate in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir demanding independence from India. | Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have taken part in a protest rally called by separatist leaders in Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city, Srinagar.
The rally ended with the leaders calling a three-day strike, beginning Saturday, in the Kashmir valley.
This is the fourth big protest in the Muslim-dominated valley in less than two weeks.
Anti-Indian sentiment has grown following a dispute over the granting of land to a Hindu shrine organisation.
More than 21 people died last week in the valley after police fired on protesters.
Trouble began two months ago when the state government granted a small piece of land to a trust running the Amarnath Hindu shrine.
After violent protests by Muslims in the valley, the order was rescinded which led to equally violent protests in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Friday's protests come after three days of relative calm in the valley which allowed residents to stock up on supplies.
Cheering supporters
Through the morning, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people on foot marched towards the Eidgah ground in the old city area of Srinagar.
Schools, businesses and shops were shut across the region and a large number of troops deployed on the streets.
The support for the marchers could be gauged from the fact that a large number of people - including women - were lined up by the road-side cheering them on, says the BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar.
In many places, the marchers were offered fruit juices and women could be seen praying for their success, our correspondent says.
The crowds thronged the Eidgah ground where senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Maulvi Omar Farooq, Shabbir Shah and Yasin Malik took stage.
However, they could not address the rally as the public address system got disconnected by the milling crowds.
The row started two months ago when the state government said it would grant 99 acres (40 hectares) of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board.
Muslims launched violent protests, saying the allocation of land was aimed at altering the demographic balance in the area.
The state government said the shrine board needed the land to erect huts and toilets for visiting pilgrims.
But following days of protests, the government rescinded the order, prompting Hindu groups to mount violent protests of their own. | Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
The United States Forest Service announces that forests in California will close after wildfires reach two million acres. | SHAVER LAKE, Calif. -- New wildfires ravaged bone-dry California during a scorching Labor Day weekend that saw a dramatic airlift of more than 200 people trapped by flames and ended with the state's largest utility turning off power to 172,000 customers to try to prevent its power lines and other equipment from sparking more fires.
California is heading into what traditionally is the teeth of the wildfire season, and already it has set a record with 2 million acres burned this year. The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest wildfire in state history — the Camp Fire that swept through the community of Paradise and killed 85 people.
That fire was started by Pacific Gas & Electric power lines. Liability from billions of dollars in claims from that and other fires forced the utility to seek bankruptcy protection. To guard against new wildfires and new liability, PG&E last year began preemptive power shutoffs when conditions are exceptionally dangerous.
That's the situation now in Northern California, where high and dry winds are expected until Wednesday. PG&E received criticism for its handling of planned outages last year. The utility said it has learned from past problems, “and this year will be making events smaller in size, shorter in length and smarter for customers.”
Two of the three largest fires in state history are burning in the San Francisco Bay Area. More than 14,000 firefighters are battling those fires and about two dozen others around California.
The fire danger also is high in Southern California, where new fires were burning in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The U.S. Forest Service on Monday decided to close all eight national forests in the region and to shutter campgrounds statewide.
“The wildfire situation throughout California is dangerous and must be taken seriously." said Randy Moore, regional forester for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region that covers California. “Existing fires are displaying extreme fire behavior, new fire starts are likely, weather conditions are worsening, and we simply do not have enough resources to fully fight and contain every fire."
Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said it's “unnerving" to have reached a record for acreage burned when September and October usually are the worst months for fires because vegetation has dried out and high winds are more common.
While the two mammoth Bay Area fires were largely contained after burning for three weeks, firefighters struggled to corral several other major blazes ahead of the expected winds. Evacuation orders were expanded to more mountain communities Monday as the largest blaze, the Creek Fire, churned through the Sierra National Forest in Central California.
It was one of many recent major fires that has displayed terrifyingly swift movement. The fire moved 15 miles (24 kilometers) in a single day during the weekend and burned 56 square miles (145.04 square kilometers). Since starting Friday from an unknown cause. it has burned 212 square miles (549 square kilometers).
Debra Rios wasn't home Monday when the order came to evacuate her hometown of Auberry, just northeast of Fresno. Sheriff's deputies went to her ranch property to pick up her 92-year-old mother, Shirley MacLean. They reunited at an evacuation center.
“I hope like heck the fire doesn't reach my little ranch,” Rios said. “It’s not looking good right now. It’s an awfully big fire.”
Mountain roads saw a steady stream of cars and trucks leaving the community of about 2,300 on Monday afternoon.
Firefighters working in steep terrain saved the tiny town of Shaver Lake from flames that roared down hillsides toward a marina. About 30 houses were destroyed in the remote hamlet of Big Creek, resident Toby Wait said.
“About half the private homes in town burned down,” he said. “Words cannot even begin to describe the devastation of this community.”
A school, church, library, historic general store and a major hydroelectric plant were spared in the community of about 200 residents, Wait told the Fresno Bee.
Sheriff's deputies went door to door to make sure residents were complying with orders to leave. Officials hoped to keep the fire from pushing west toward Yosemite National Park.
On Saturday, National Guard rescuers in two military helicopters airlifted 214 people to safety after flames trapped them in a wooded camping area near Mammoth Pool Reservoir. Two people were seriously injured and were among 12 hospitalized.
On Monday night, a military helicopter landed near Lake Edison to rescue people trapped by the fire, the Fresno Fire Department said on Twitter. There was no immediate number of how many people were airlifted.
Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Rosamond, the pilot of a Chinook helicopter, said visibility was poor and winds increasingly strong during the three flights he made into the fire zone during the operation that started late Saturday and stretched into Sunday. His crew relied on night-vision goggles to search for a landing spot near a boat launch where flames came within 50 feet (15.24 meters) of the aircraft.
The injured, along with women and children, took priority on the first airlift, which filled both helicopters to capacity, he said.
“We started getting information about how many people were out there, how many people to expect, and that number kept growing. So we knew that it was a dire situation,” Rosamond said.
In Southern California, crews scrambled to douse several fires that roared to life in searing temperatures, including one that closed mountain roads in Angeles National Forest and forced the evacuation of the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. Late Monday night, the Los Angeles County Fire Department told residents of Duarte, Bradbury and Monrovia near the forest to get ready for a possible evacuation.
Cal Fire said a blaze in San Bernardino County called the El Dorado Fire started Saturday morning and was caused by a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their baby's gender. In eastern San Diego County, a fire destroyed at least 10 structures after burning 16 square miles (41.44 square kilometers) and prompting evacuations near the remote community of Alpine in the Cleveland National Forest.
California has seen 900 wildfires since Aug. 15, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes in mid-August. There have been eight fire deaths and more than 3,300 structures destroyed. | Fire | September 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Police in Columbus, Ohio, USA, discover the body of Ohio State University football player and wrestler Kosta Karageorge. On November 26 he committed suicide. | COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The body of missing Ohio State defensive lineman Kosta Karageorge was found by Columbus police on Sunday after a search that started after he went missing on Wednesday.
Karageorge, 22, was found dead in a dumpster of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was identified by tattoos at the scene, and a police spokesman said the investigation would continue with both the dumpster and the body of Karageorge being transported to the county morgue.
"At this time, there's a lot of questions that we're still trying to work out," Sgt. Rich Weiner told reporters at the scene. "But he was found inside of the dumpster, the handgun was found inside of the dumpster with him.
"At this time we are able to confirm through tattoos here at the scene that it is the body of Kosta Karageorge."
Coach Urban Meyer wouldn't address the situation in his weekly news conference on Monday, but Ohio State issued a statement, saying: "We know that many of you are concerned, as we are, about the tragic news that we received yesterday about the death of one of our student-athletes, Kosta Karageorge.
"It is very early in the process of determining the cause of death, and the Columbus division of police is still investigating. We are unable to discuss this situation in detail at this time. The investigation continues, we are also not able to comment on student-athlete's medical treatments.
A police report says Karageorge's mother told authorities he has had concussions and spells of confusion. She said he texted a message Wednesday citing the concussions and saying he was sorry if he was "an embarrassment."
Karageorge was scheduled to be recognized on senior day during Saturday's home game against rival Michigan, but he had gone missing on Wednesday leading up to the 42-28 win by the No. 6 Buckeyes.
Karageorge had previously spent three seasons on the Ohio State wrestling team before walking on to help on the defensive line in August.
Wrestling coach Tom Ryan tells The Columbus Dispatch that Karageorge had no documented concussions as a wrestler.
Ryan said teammates wondered if they could have intervened to help Karageorge, and some wept at the news of his death.
"There was a lot of crying," Ryan told the newspaper. "That says something because you know how men are. We don't cry in front of anybody and don't show weakness. But it was emotional."
Ryan said many on the team wondered if they could have done anything to prevent the tragedy.
"I've been doing this for 22 years. This is as tough as it gets," he said.
Some teammates attended a vigil on campus Sunday night that drew a crowd of up to several hundred people. | Famous Person - Death | November 2014 | ['(ESPN)'] |
AbdulBaki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev who was killed by the FBI last week, describes U.S. agents as "bandits" who killed his son "executionstyle". | The father of a Chechen man shot dead while being interviewed by the FBI in Florida last week over his connection to one of the Boston bombing suspects has accused US agents of killing his son "execution-style". Speaking in Moscow, Ibragim Todashev's father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, said his son was "100% unarmed" but had been shot six times in the torso and once to the back of the head. He showed reporters photographs of the body which he said he had been taken in a Florida morgue by a friend, Khusen Taramov. "I'd only seen and heard things like that in the movies they shoot somebody and then a shot in the head to make sure," Todashev said. "These just aren't FBI agents they're bandits," he added.
The dead man's family will submit a formal request on Friday for a federal inquiry into the shooting, the Guardian has learned.
An Islamic advocacy group insists that Todashev was unarmed, and that he was hit by at least seven bullets during the interview in his Orlando apartment on 22 May, contradicting earlier law enforcement accounts of the incident.
Hassan Shibley, executive director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Todashev's family and friends were meeting lawyers on Thursday to finish off a report that will support the request.
"We're not accusing anybody of anything, but we do want to know how an unarmed man who had not been charged or convicted of anything was shot seven times, once in the head, and killed," he said.
He said his group had a source close to the FBI investigation who confirmed that Todashev was not armed, and that all but one of the agents had left the room when the fatal shots were fired.
"We had heard from day one from his family that he didn't have a weapon," Shibley said. "We just want to find out what happened and make sure that Mr Todashev's civil rights were not violated."
The FBI, which initially suggested that Todashev, 27, had "flipped out" and initiated a "violent confrontation", during which he lunged at agents with a knife, would not comment to on the new allegations, although unnamed sources close to the inquiry told the Washington Post that it now seemed apparent he was not armed.
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said in a statement that an agency taskforce from Washington was already in Orlando reviewing the case.
"The FBI takes very seriously any shooting incidents involving our agents and as such we have an effective, time-tested process for addressing them internally," he said in a statement.
"The review process is thorough and objective and conducted as expeditiously as possible under the circumstances."
He said that the panel, which included Justice Department investigators and the FBI's shooting incident review group, "examines all of the information and determines the reasonableness of the application of deadly force in accordance with the Department of Justice's deadly force policy and the law."
At the time of his death, Todashev was under investigation over his friendship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two Chechen men suspected of the April 15 bombing attack on the Boston marathon that killed three people and injured more than 260.
He and Tsarnaev were also suspects in a triple murder in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 2011, and he was reported to have been about to sign a confession for those killings when he was shot.
Todashev's family, however, say the pair only knew each other casually through a shared interest in martial arts when they both lived in Boston, and that he had always denied any connection with the bombing during numerous FBI interviews in the weeks following.
His widow, Reniya Manukyan, appeared at a press conference in Orlando on Wednesday, hosted by CAIR, to support the call for a federal review of the case. "We want to know why it happened; we want to know what is the truth," she said.
Manukyan, who lives in Georgia, said she had been married to Todashev for three years. She claimed she had documents that proved they were together on September 11, 2011, the day of the Waltham murders in which a close friend of Tsarnaev was killed. The three victims were found with their throats slit and their bodies covered with marijuana and banknotes.
At the press conference, Shibley also showed reporters photographs of Todashev's body, taken by Taramov.
"They were talking to both of us. And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they're going to bring him back. They never brought him back," he said after the shooting.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with Boston police four days after the bombing. His brother Dzhokhar, 19, was captured a day later and remains in custody on federal murder charges. He faces the death penalty if convicted. | Armed Conflict | May 2013 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Barbara Walters, longtime newswoman and host of the American talk show The View, announces plans to retire in May 2014. | Barbara Walters, the doyenne of TV news and big newsmaker interviews, is planning to hang it up in May 2014.
The newswoman, who hosts ABC's The View and prime-time specials, is 83, and will "likely" retire next spring, said a person familiar with her plans but not authorized to comment publicly, confirming a report published on Deadline.com. A series of tributes and specials will air during the run-up to her exit, the person said, adding that an announcement from Walters herself is not expected anytime soon. An ABC News spokeswoman declined comment.
A trailblazing journalist, Walters was the first female co-host of NBC's Today starting in 1974, and the first female evening-news anchor in an ill-fated pairing with Harry Reasoner at ABC a few years later. She has been the lead moderator of The View since its inception in 1997. She has occasionally battled health problems; she had open-heart surgery in 2010 and took leave earlier this year to recover from chicken pox. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2013 | ['(USA Today)'] |
In baseball, the Boston Red Sox win the 2013 World Series defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in game 6 with a score of 6–1. This is the first series to be won in Boston by the Red Sox since 1918. | BOSTON -- It is 3 in the morning Thursday at Fenway Park, and hundreds of Boston Red Sox fans are still on on the field, savoring every last moment of their World Series championship.
Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster, wearing street clothes, is actually on the mound, pitching to his family and friends.
It is 2:57 a.m.
Yes, this night - beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 to win the series in six games - meant that much to the Red Sox organization and its legion of fans.
It has been 95 years since the Red Sox last won a World Series championship at Fenway, and it was as if everyone wanted to remember this moment, just in case it doesn't happen again this century.
They are taking pictures of the scoreboard that reads: 2013 World Champions. They are on the warning track in front of the Green Monster. They are running the bases. They are on the pitcher's mound. Home plate. The dugout.
Security keeps making announcements for them to leave, but no one's listening. It took two hours just to clear family and friends from the Red Sox clubhouse so the players could shower.
If truth be told, the Red Sox players relished sharing this historic moment with their fans, spending more time on the field than inside the privacy of their clubhouse.
"It was crazy, absolutely crazy,'' Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia says. "It was just an unbelievable feeling to do this in front of our fans.
"To be honest with you, it was hard to keep the emotions down.''
This is why Pedroia, who embodies the spirit of this Red Sox team, ran around the field after the game carrying a Boston Strong flag, symbolizing the faith of the city after the Boston Marathon bombing. Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes was next, racing to nearly every part of the field, to every section of fans, to let them be part of it.
"We didn't put Boston on our back,'' Gomes said, "Boston put us on its back. I don't think a win-loss record sums up how much we care.''
Well, for the record, the Red Sox played 178 games during the regular season and postseason.
They won 108 of them.
"This city is so passionate,'' Red Sox catcher David Ross said, "and when you're able to go this far, you don't want to let them down.''
The Red Sox have won three World Series in the last 10 years, more than any franchise in baseball this century, but this one was like no other.
This one helped heal a city from the devastating April 15 bombings, and on this night, brought pure, unadulterated joy.
"Sometimes, you recognize baseball history as its being written,'' Red Sox vice president Charles Steinberg said. "This year, we were recognizing American history as its being written.
"For the Red Sox to have the honor of playing a small role in the healing of the city, is something that each of these players should really be proud of for the rest of their lives.''
It was the bombing, manager John Farrell said, that unified the Red Sox as well as the city. The players hung out together on off-days. They had more team dinners together than with their own families. They even went to baseball and football games together on off-days.
"We took it upon ourselves,'' Farrell said, "to have a positive impact on a city, and the individuals who were suffering. They get it. They get there's a place in our city, that we represent something significant, and guys embraced that and relished that.
"We knew this was a moment that this group has a chance to not only be special, but to do something special.
"This was a team in every sense of the word.''
And they embraced their role, however small, in helping their town.
"This is a city that we've been though a lot of situations,'' MVP David Ortiz said. "Sometimes, bad things got to happen for us to get the message. And we got the message. Everybody stayed together.
"And it showed the whole world that this is the best of every place.''
This isn't the most talented team the Red Sox had in the last 10 years. There are no Cy Young or MVP candidates. No one won more than 15 games. Not a single player hit more than 30 homers.
Yet, no one played more like a team, knowing they now had a purpose, believing it was destiny they would win the World Series.
It was playing with this team, Ortiz said, that made this achievement more special than either of the previous two World Series championships.
"I say this because this is a team that we have a lot of players with heart,'' said Ortiz, who batted .688, carrying a team whose offense came in fits and starts. "We probably don't have the talent that we have in '07 and '04. But we have guys that are capable to stay focused and do the little things. And when you win with a ballclub like that, that's special.
"When we started rolling, no one could stop this train.''
The Red Sox team was so close-knit, Pedroia said, it reminded them of their high-school and college days.They were at Fenway Park by 1 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 7 hours before the first pitch. It was that way all season, a bond so strong, that nothing could prevent them from winning a championship.
They were a confident team, believing that their heart and character would overcome any talent deficiencies.
"We talked about winning the World Series in spring training,'' Dempster said. "Every time you asked Jonny [Gomes] how he was feeling, and he'd say, "One step closer to the parade.''
That World Series parade happens to be Saturday in downtown Boston.
"We relied on each other all year,'' Pedroia said. "We knew there was going to be some tough times. But we were relentless. We knew that if one guy doesn't get the job done, someone else would do it for him. It was like that for 178 games.
"It was fun just showing up here, looking to the guy next to you, and knowing this guy would help you win games.
"It's been a blast to be part of this.''
Certainly, this group of players don't have the zaniness of 2004 or the talent of 2007, but they sure brought character back in vogue.
The Red Sox had only one player (Ortiz) who hit more than 25 homers, with no one hitting higher than .310. No one won more than 15 games. They finished with the second fewest saves.
And yet, they won the most games, led the league in runs scored and had the second-best ERA in the powerful American League East.
"Really, we're a team of overachievers,'' Dempster said. "We don't have anybody out of the ordinary, but a lot of consistent guys who know how to win.''
And believe they will win.
The Red Sox were facing Cardinals rookie sensation Michael Wacha on Wednesday, knowing that he was pitching like the reincarnation of Bob Gibson. Wacha was 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA in the postseason, and had shut them down in Game 2 at Fenway. He'd already won one elimination game, in the NL Division Series against the Pirates, and twice beat presumed Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw in the NL Championship Series.
Yet, there was absolutely no fear by the Red Sox, with Pedroia even letting his teammates in on a secret while taking batting practice on Tuesday.
"We got him,'' Pedroia. "No problem. We got him.''
Wacha lasted just 3 2/3 innings, giving up six earned runs - twice as many as he allowed the entire postseason. Shane Victorino, who had two hits the entire series, provided most of the damage with a three-run double in the third inning, blowing the game open.
Yes, the Red Sox got him.
And everyone else in their wake.
Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli, haunted by his only previous World Series memory when his Texas Rangers' team three times was within a strike of winning in 2011 only to lose to the Cardinals, says the ghosts have been exorcised.
"We came together,'' he said, "and just got better as the season went on. We learned how everyone plays. We never got ahead of ourselves. We just go out there and try to win that day. Things kept rolling.
"And now, we're world champs.''
Certainly, much of the credit will go Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, who cleansed a toxic 93-loss season with his six-week spending spree, picking up seven free agents, but it was the players who made it work.
"The feel was different, the clubhouse was different,'' Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz said. "Having Farrell back in the mix was big for us. A lot of the guys were here when he was the pitching coach and had a relationship with him. He basically ran a really relaxed clubhouse and then expected people to do your business between the lines.
"The front office did an awesome job of putting this team together.
"We've got a lot of empty champagne bottles lying around.''
It was Korbel, and man, did it go down smoothly.
"When we got into the season, you don't know what the outcome is going to be,'' Cherington said, "but you felt like this was a different group of people. The way they were coming together, the way they were giving it up for each other, completely selfless.
"To have this many talented players be as selfless as they were, it just a lot of fun to be around.
"It'll probably sink in a few weeks from now."
But the memory of this night, Oct. 30, 2013, will live forever.
"Hopefully,'' Farrell said, we won't have to wait another 95 years to do it again.''
Maybe not, but soon enough the Red Sox discovered that, try as they might, they can't revel in this improbably glorious season forever. At 3:27, they finally turned the lights out at Fenway. | Sports Competition | October 2013 | ['(ABC News)', '(USA Today)'] |
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers resigns over allegations of sexual harassment, while continuing to deny them. | Latest Newscast News Now Live Africa Americas Asia Europe Middle East U.S.A. American Life Health & Science Entertainment News Analysis Special Reports Find VOA Radio or TV Programs RSS Feeds Webcasts Audience Mail Correspondents Broadcast Info Articles in Special English Read Editorials
In his letter to Kofi Annan, the U.N. Refugee Chief, Ruud Lubbers blamed unsubstantiated leaks to the media and ongoing media pressure for his decision to resign. He said that he had given more than four years of his energy to the UNHCR. But, despite all his loyalty, insult had now been added to injury and therefore he was resigning. Mr. Lubbers referred to a confidential UN internal report dated last June, which found that he had engaged in sexual harassment. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, however, rejected the report. The text of the report resurfaced at the end of last week. The Independent, a British newspaper printed in its Friday edition the first detailed description of charges made by the woman who had filed the complaint. The article also included statements from four other women who claimed they had been sexually harassed by Mr. Lubbers, although they did not file official complaints. Mr. Lubbers maintains, however, that the sexual harassment complaint was unsubstantiated.
A spokeswoman for the Refugee Office, Jennifer Pagonis, told VOA Mr. Lubbers will be missed. "I can say it is an extremely sad day for all of us here at UNHCR. The High Commissioner has devoted the last four years of his life to really provide solutions for refugees and he has been an extraordinarily dedicated high commissioner. So, it is very sad it has come to this," she said.
In his letter of resignation, Mr. Lubbers noted the UN watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, came up empty-handed in its investigation and invented a fear of retaliation. Ms. Pagonis said there was no retaliation against the accuser. "The woman who filed the complaint still continues to work for UNHCR in Geneva and, no, there has been absolutely no retaliation against her whatsoever. That would be completely against the principles of UNHCR," she said.
Mr. Lubbers, who is 65, was the longest-serving postwar prime minister of the Netherlands. He is married and has three children. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2005 | ['(VOA)'] |
A Sudanese court sentences 29 people to be hanged for the killing of a teacher in detention in February during protests that led to the overthrow of former president Omar al–Bashir. | A Sudanese court has sentenced 29 intelligence officers to death for the torture and killing of a teacher. Ahmad al-Khair, 36, died in custody in February following his arrest for taking part in protests against then President Omar al-Bashir's government. These are the first sentences handed down over the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in the months before Bashir was toppled in April. The prosecution said the death sentences were a just punishment.
After the sentencing, the judge asked al-Khair's brother, Sa'd, whether he wanted the 29 men to be pardoned – but he said he wanted them to be executed instead. A lawyer for the defence said he would appeal.
The court found that Ahmad Al-Khair was beaten and tortured to death by the officers at a detention centre in the eastern state of Kassala. Under the former President Bashir, Sudan enforced the death penalty, and two people were executed in 2018. Ahmad Al-Khair's case drew widespread attention in Sudan, and his killing fuelled the protests against the 75-year-old Bashir. A huge crowd rallied outside the court in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital, Khartoum, to hear the verdict. At least 170 people were killed during the months-long crackdown against the protest movement. Bashir was eventually overthrown by the military, 30 years after he took power in a coup.
Earlier this month, he was sentenced to two years for corruption. The court ruled that he should serve the sentence in a correctional facility, as he was too old to be in prison.
The corruption case was linked to a $25 million (£19 million) cash payment he received from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Bashir also faces other charges – including some related to the 1989 coup that brought him to power, along with genocide and the killing of protesters.
Bashir claimed the payments were made as part of Sudan's strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, and were "not used for private interests but as donations".
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
500 protesters are arrested in Nepal | They say around 350 protesters were detained in a peaceful protest in the southern town of Janakpur.
In the eastern town of Kakarbhitta, police baton charged and fired tear gas at protesters, arresting 12 people.
The protests have been organised by Nepal's five main parties as part of their campaign against the king's seizure of direct power last month.
Unfurling banners
A BBC correspondent in Kathmandu says that protests in the capital were mostly peaceful, although police arrested Bal Bahadur Rai - a former acting prime minister.
The anti-king protests will continue until the king restores democracy in the country Arrested politician Hira Bahadur Singh Another politician, Hira Bahadur Singh, from the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) party, was also arrested in Kathmandu along with six protesters, the AFP news agency reported. It said all were bundled into a police van after unfurling banners and chanting slogans against the king. "The anti-king protests will continue until the king restores democracy in the country," Mr Singh told journalists.
Over a dozen activists, including a former Nepali Congress lawmaker, Gopal Koirala, were injured when police baton charged a demonstration in Kakarbhitta in the eastern district of Jhapa.
Our correspondent says that most of those people arrested around the country are political activists, and that so far relatively few members of the general public have taken part.
But correspondents say that the five-party opposition alliance is pleased that the level of violence has been kept low, and that the demonstrations are becoming better organised. Scores of political activists were arrested in various parts of the country on Sunday for protesting in advance of the demonstrations, reports said.
The king assumed direct power last month after dismissing the government.
Sporadic protests
He said they had not done enough to tackle Nepal's Maoist insurgency. Fundamental rights have since been curbed and politicians, rights activists and journalists have been detained. The government deployed security forces for the banned protests, which coincided with a meeting on Monday of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
The king says he acted as the government was not doing its job The commission is expected to criticise King Gyanendra's seizure of power and his subsequent imposition of emergency rule and suspension of civil liberties.
In a separate development, the rebel leader, Prachanda, said the Maoists will allow parties opposed to the royal coup to conduct their activities without any restrictions in the areas under their influence. But opposition parties have said they will not enter into any form of alliance with the Maoists until they give up violence. Nearly 11,000 people have been killed in the 10 years since the Maoists began their fight to replace the country's constitutional monarchy. | Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
The German Federal Minister for Defence Karl–Theodor zu Guttenberg resigns over a plagiarism scandal. | "I'VE reached the limits of my strength." With these words Germany's most promising politician, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, resigned as defence minister this morning. He fell less than two weeks after revelations that large chunks of his 2006 doctoral dissertation had been plagiarised. At first, it looked as if his charisma and popularity would save him. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, backed him. So did voters, according to opinion polls.
But he could not survive the tsunami of outrage from Germany's academic community and the internal contradictions of his position. Mr zu Guttenberg and his party—the Christian Social Union (CSU), which is the Bavarian branch of Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU)—stand for nothing if not for conservative values like personal responsibility. His downfall is a heavy blow for the chancellor, for both parties and for the health of politics in Germany generally. Mr zu Guttenberg's rise, from precocious backbencher to prospective future chancellor in little more than two years, has been called the fastest ascent in post-war German politics. His aristocratic background, good looks and glamorous wife gave him a head start. But he capitalised on it. His favourite trick was to flout orthodoxy in ways that unsettled his political allies but found favour with voters.
As economy minister in Mrs Merkel's last government he threatened to resign over a proposed bail-out of Opel, a car-maker, winning fame as a defender of liberal economic principles. At the defence ministry he prevailed over his fellow conservatives in ending conscription, the first step in an ambitious proposal for modernisation of the armed forces.
This vaulted Mr zu Guttenberg into a position occupied by no other politician. Germans in general are disillusioned with conventional politics. Voter participation is dropping and support for the big-tent political parties, including the Social Democratic Party on the left, is in long-term decline. Angry citizens are resorting to protests and referendums to countermand the decisions of a political class for which they have little respect. Mr zu Guttenberg was the great exception, the one politician who stirred something like enthusiasm among ordinary voters.If his rocket-like rise resembled Barack Obama's, his fall was reminiscent of Hosni Mubarak's. Reports of plagiarism first appeared in the newspapers, but they gained momentum on the internet. Online sleuths posted their findings on GuttenPlag Wiki, a website. An interim report found that more than a fifth of the text had been copied without attribution. Furious doctoral students wrote an open letter, signed by thousands, to Mrs Merkel demanding that she sack Mr zu Guttenberg.Mrs Merkel said she had hired a minister, not a “research assistant.” But in the face of indignation from would-be, serving and former research assistants, his political allies began feeling squeamish. How could Mr zu Guttenberg credibly remain in charge of the two armed-forces universities, they wondered. How could the CDU and CSU continue to pose as defenders of intellectual property rights? How, as the authors of the open letter asked, could Mrs Merkel continue to proclaim Germany an “education republic”? Treating plagiarism as a side issue was an uncharacteristic blunder on her part.With Mr zu Guttenberg gone the chancellor faces two immediate problems. The first is to find a credible new defence minister who does not upset the balance among the CDU, the CSU and the third coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party. The CSU transport minister, Peter Ramsauer, was an obvious choice, but he has already rejected the job.
The second problem is that there are six state elections to come this year, three in March alone. The most important is in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, on March 27th. At stake is the CDU's unbroken 57-year record in charge of government. The party had seemed to be heading for a narrow victory, but the zu Guttenberg affair throws a new element into the mix. Losing Baden-Württemberg would be even more painful for Mrs Merkel than losing her defence minister.As for Mr zu Guttenberg himself, it would be unwise to write him off. By stepping down now, he hopes to preserve much of the goodwill he has accumulated over the past few years. His resignation may be a prelude to resurrection rather than the end of a brilliant career. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2011 | ['(The Economist)'] |
Indonesian police say DNA tests show that a militant killed in a weekend raid was not Noordin Mohammed Top, one of the region's most wanted men. | Police hunting the suspected mastermind of Indonesia's hotel bombings, Noordin Mohamed Top, have said a man shot dead in a weekend raid was not him.
DNA tests identified the man as one of Noordin's accomplices in the attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on 17 July, police said. Earlier reports had suggested the dead man was Malaysian-born Noordin. His is one of Asia's most wanted men, and has been blamed for a string of attacks including the 2005 Bali blast. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The BBC's Rebecca Henschke, in Jakarta, says police are trying to play down their disappointment, but the news that Noordin was not killed will be a major blow for them. They have been hunting him for seven years. 'Explosive smuggler'
Police named the dead man as Ibrohim and said he had worked as a florist at both of the hotels that were attacked by suicide bombers. Nine people were killed in the attacks. "Ibrohim was a planner who was always present in the meetings with Noordin Top," police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a news conference. Police released new security camera footage showing Ibrohim escorting the alleged Marriott bomber around the hotel on 8 July, and later bringing bomb-making material into the hotel's staff-only loading bay. Mr Soekarna added that the militants were planning an attack on the house of President Susilo Bambang Yudohyono, and claimed Ibrohim was going to be a suicide bomber in that operation. On Saturday police mounted a siege of a farmhouse in Temanggung, central Java, after a tip-off suggested Noordin was hiding out there. Initial reports suggested Noordin had been killed after an hours-long shoot-out. But analysts had doubted the claims, and police chiefs are now not certain whether Noordin was ever at the farmhouse. He is believed to have formed a violent offshoot from the al-Qaeda-linked militant network Jemaah Islamiah. Noordin is thought to have been behind attacks on the Jakarta Marriott in 2003, the Australian embassy in 2004, and also on a series of restaurants in Bali in 2005 in which more than 20 died. | Armed Conflict | August 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket with a shipment of food and supplies in a refurbished Dragon cargo capsule for the International Space Station. The mission reuses a Dragon cargo vessel that was previously flown in a September 2014 mission. | For the first time in the history of commercial spaceflight, a used spacecraft has blasted off on a mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
After lightning strikes delayed the launch on Thursday (June 1), lingering storm clouds parted just enough for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to safely lift off from NASA's historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (June 3).
The Falcon 9 rocket, topped with SpaceX's first refurbished Dragon cargo craft, took to the skies at 5:07 p.m. EDT (2107 GMT). About 8 minutes after liftoff, the first-stage rocket booster returned to Earth to stick a landing at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. [Launch Photos: SpaceX's 1st Reused Dragon Spacecraft]
A little over 10 minutes into the flight, the Dragon separated from the Falcon 9's second stage, deployed its solar arrays and began its three-day trek to the ISS. On Monday (June 5), the spacecraft will dock at the space station's Harmony module, delivering close to 6,000 lbs. (2,700 kilograms) of supplies and science experiments to the Expedition 52 crew.
Today's launch marked the 100th mission to lift off from Launch Complex 39A, where NASA's Apollo missions and dozens of space shuttle missions were also launched. "For [SpaceX], it's the seventh launch this year, and you can tell that we picked up the rate significantly," Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of flight reusability at SpaceX, said in a prelaunch briefing on Wednesday (May 31).
"We are hoping to stay at this rate through the rest of the year and work our backlog down. We're hoping to also fly more and more refurbished Dragons, and the same is true for the first stages," he said. "The next launch after this is also refurbished first stage."
Today's mission is the latest in a series of historic firsts for SpaceX, the private spaceflight company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. In March, the company successfully launched and landed a used rocket booster for the first time. SpaceX is also the first and only company to have landed a rocket booster during an orbital mission (though Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has achieved this multiple times on suborbital journeys). And in 2012, SpaceX's Dragon capsule became the first private spacecraft to dock at the ISS.
With the ultimate (and highly ambitious) goal of being able to reuse all major components of their launch vehicles, SpaceX is now putting the Dragon to the test. The capsule first flew on a cargo mission to the space station on Sept. 21, 2014, for the cargo resupply mission CRS-4, and it returned to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean one month later.
"Once this capsule landed, we refurbished it, inspected it, made sure everything is qualified for the next flight," Koenigsmann said.
But the capsule isn't 100 percent reused parts, Koenigsmann added. Certain parts had to be replaced for a number of reasons, such as exposure to seawater during splashdown, he said, and the heat shield needed to be replaced for safety. "But I can tell you the majority of this Dragon has been in space before and has been docked to the station for a couple of weeks."
The next steps toward full reusability for SpaceX involve figuring out how to refurbish the second-stage rocket booster and the payload fairings — an ambitious but important goal, Koenigsmann said.
"This whole notion of reuse is something that's very important to the entire space industry and NASA as well as Space X and others," Kirk Shireman, manager of NASA's ISS program, said in the briefing. "The idea of reuse is important for economic reasons as well as technical reasons." [SpaceX Gaining Substantial Cost Savings From Reused Falcon 9]
Along with food, water, clothing and other gear for the astronauts at the space station, the Dragon will deliver plenty of science experiments.
The experiments on board will support about 220 investigations currently happening at the space station. "They span a multitude of scientific disciplines, including biological research, the physical sciences, the human research that we're doing with the astronauts, the technology demonstration studying Earth and space from the ISS, and then last but not least, the educational activities that students have an opportunity to participate in," Camille Alleyne, an associate space station program scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said at the briefing.
One astrophysics experiment, called the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER), will investigate the possibility of utilizing neutron stars — the ultradense cores of dead stars — to develop a type of interstellar GPS navigation system.
A new, experimental type of solar panel is also flying to the space station on the Dragon. Called the Roll Out Solar Array (ROSA), these new solar arrays are smaller, lighter and more efficient than the current solar panels that power the ISS.
The Dragon also contains some live passengers, including 40 mice and thousands of fruit flies. For a project called Rodent Research-5, the mice will help researchers study a new drug for osteoporosis, or bone density loss. The fruit flies will help investigators study the prolonged effects of spaceflight on the human heart.
More Earth-observation instruments are also on their way to the ISS. The Multiple-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) facility, developed by Teledyne Brown Engineering, contains new high-resolution digital cameras and hyperspectral imagers, bringing new capabilities to the space station's suite of Earth-observing technologies.
| New achievements in aerospace | June 2017 | ['(Phys.org)', '(Space.com)'] |
At least 22 people are dead and dozens of others injured due to flood and landslides in Kerala, India. | At least 22 people have been killed after monsoon-season floods triggered a landslide in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Houses in Idukki district were swept away after torrential rain and flooding late on Friday night.
Rescuers have been recovering bodies from under debris but 44 people remain missing, Idduki MP Dean Kuriakose told the BBC.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued a red alert for Idukki on Friday, forecasting extremely heavy rainfall of more than 20cm (8in).
The landslide happened at a settlement for tea workers in the Rajamalai area, around 25km (15 miles) from the tourist town of Munnar.
Local reports say as many as 20 houses of tea-plantation workers and their families were buried under the debris.
Rescue efforts are ongoing, but operations have been hampered by heavy downpours, foggy conditions and the fear of more landslides.
Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala, said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was assisting rescue workers who were struggling to find bodies.
The site had been completely cut off after a bridge to the area collapsed amid the flooding.
But the bridge has now been restored, allowing more rescue workers, including local police and firefighters, to attend the scene.
"Only one of the four layams (line houses) was searched and [we] recovered 17 bodies yesterday. Searches under the debris of other rows started today," Mr Kuriakose, the lawmaker for the area, told the BBC on Saturday.
"The death toll has gone up to 22 now, and 44 are missing. We have now received two heavy earthmovers and rock breakers, and rains have subsided."
The tragedy occurred on the first anniversary of the landslides in Malappuram and Wayanad districts that claimed more than 50 lives during the 2019 floods.
Kerala also witnessed severe floods in August 2018, during which thousands of homes were swept away and more than 400 people were killed.
More heavy rainfall is expected in southern and eastern India this weekend. The IMD said a low pressure system was brewing over the Bay of Bengal, as the monsoon season reaches its peak. The season lasts from June to September and wreaks havoc across South Asia every year.
Several parts of another southern Indian state, Karnataka, have also been affected by heavy rainfall and landslides.
The river politics behind South Asia's floods
Monsoon floods displace millions in India
Indian monsoon
| Floods | August 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Vaughan Foods beheading incident. A recent convert to Islam goes on a rampage in a grocery warehouse in Oklahoma, beheading a woman with a knife and stabbing another female colleague. | A fired employee who had been trying to convert co-workers to Islam stabbed two female colleagues - beheading one of them - before an off-duty officer shot him, police have said.
Alton Alexander Nolen, 30, was fired from Vaughan Foods, a food distribution center in Moore, Oklahoma on Thursday before returning to his car and smashing it into another vehicle.
He then climbed out and entered the building, attacking the first two people he encountered with a knife, Moore Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said.
After beheading Colleen Hufford, 54, and stabbing Traci Johnson, 43, multiple times, Nolen was shot by off-duty officer Mark Vaughan, who was working at the business.
On Friday, Lewis said that Nolen had been trying to convert co-workers to Islam and that local police had contacted the FBI to help investigate the man's background, KFOR reported.
Co-workers said Nolen himself had only just converted to Islam, according to News9. It is not yet known if his beliefs played a role in the attack.
Read the full story at DAILY MAIL
---
Billy Hallowell, The Blaze
Gruesome new details have been revealed regarding a woman murdered in Moore, Oklahoma, Thursday. According to local outlets, she was beheaded by a man who was reportedly in the process of converting to Islam.
The victim, identified as Colleen Hufford, 54, died at the scene at Vaughan Foods, a food distribution company, after the violent attack unfolded around 4:05 p.m. at the hands of a former employee.
Alton Alexander Nolen, who was fired from the business before attacking Hufford and another coworker, is the primary suspect in the case. He was shot during the attack by an off-duty officer and remans hospitalized, but is expected to survive.
Read the full story at the BLAZE
---
FOX NEWS
MOORE, Okla. FBI officials are reportedly investigating a beheading at an Oklahoma food distribution center after co-workers said the suspect tried to convert them to Islam after his recent conversion.
The alleged suspect, Alton Nolen, 30, was recently fired from Vaughn Foods in Moore prior to Thursday’s attack. Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis told KFOR that Nolen drove to the front of the business and struck a vehicle before walking inside. He then attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, stabbing her several times before severing her head. He also stabbed another woman at the plant, 43-year-old Traci Johnson.
Lewis said Mark Vaughn, the company’s chief operating officer and a reserve county deputy, shot Nolen as he was stabbing Johnson, who remains hospitalized in stable condition Friday.
“He’s a hero in this situation,” Lewis told the station. “It could have gotten a lot worse.”
Nolen was apparently attacking employees at random, authorities said. The motive for the attack is unclear, but FBI officials are now reportedly probing whether Nolen’s recent conversion to Islam is somehow linked to the crime.
Nolen, who also remains in stable condition, has not yet been charged in the gruesome attack.
Calls seeking comment by FBI officials were not immediately returned.
---
BY KFOR-TV & K. QUERRY
MOORE, Okla. Officials with the Moore Police Department say the FBI is now involved in the investigation related to a brutal attack of workers at a food distribution plant.
Sgt. Jeremy Lewis says the alleged suspect, 30-year-old Alton Nolen had just been fired when he drove to the front of the business, hit a vehicle and walked inside.
He walked into the front office area where he met 54-year-old Colleen Hufford and began attacking her with a knife.
The Moore Police Department released the 911 tapes associated with the attack.
911 Caller: “Shut the door, shut the door!”
Dispatcher: “Moore 911, where’s your emergency?”
911 Caller: “Vaughan Foods, Moore, Oklahoma, 216 N.E. 12th St.”
Dispatcher: “What’s going on there?”
911 Caller: “We have someone attacking someone in the building. I was just informed.”
Dispatcher: “Okay, where are they at?”
911 Caller: “Inside, are they in the office? They’re in the office, front office of the building. Yeah, we can hear a lot of screaming. We’re actually in a different office but someone just came in here yelling.”
Dispatcher: “Okay, do you know where they’re at in the building?”
911 Caller: “In the front of the building, there’s our main entrance.”
Dispatcher: “Okay, do you know where he is at in the plant?”
911 Caller: “We know that he’s loose. He has stabbed someone.”
Dispatcher: “Yeah, we’ve got medical en route for them. Is anybody with him or do you know?”
911 Caller: “Hold on, I’m going to put you on speakerphone for one second. Okay, so we don’t know where the person went and he went through our front office, went through the shipping office and stabbed a woman in our customer service department.”
Dispatcher: “Okay, did he know her? Is that who he was arguing with? Is she an employee?”
911 Caller: “She is an employee.”
Dispatcher: “Okay, thank you.”
911 Caller: “Lock that door.”
Dispatcher: “Yeah, lock everyone in there if you can.”
911 Caller: “Yeah, we’re trying. Okay, can you hear this in the background?”
(yelling)
Dispatcher: “Is that him? He’s back?”
911 Caller: “Yeah, it sounds like he’s running around out here.”
(loud bangs)
911 Caller: “And that’s a gun shot.”
Dispatcher: “Got a gun shot. Units responding to Vaughan Foods, be advised we do now have gunshots. Okay, do you know where he’s at now?”
911 Caller: “He’s in the hallway, outside of the center of the building.”
Dispatcher: “Maybe in the hallway in the center of the building. And how many more shots have you heard?”
911 Caller: “We’ve heard three.”
Dispatcher: “Three shots?”
911 Caller: “Now I’m hearing somebody yelling in the hallway.”
Dispatcher: “There’s another subject yelling in the hallway. Units be advised that there’s another subject yelling in the hallway. Still same amount of injuries.”
911 Caller: “Stay down, stay down.”
| Armed Conflict | September 2014 | ['(Fox News)'] |
Two people are killed, the pilot and the passenger, when a floatplane crashes into Metlakatla harbor near Ketchikan, Alaska. The pilot and passenger were the only people on board. | Two people died Monday afternoon when the plane they were in crashed into Metlakatla Harbor, Alaska, a week after another deadly crash nearby involving the same operator.
The Ketchikan Gateway Borough confirmed on its Facebook page that "a pilot and a single passenger" died in the crash of the de Havilland Beaver floatplane operated by Taquan Air, reports CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA-TV.
The names of the deceased were being withheld pending notification of their next of kin.
"Good Samaritans have the aircraft in tow and are bringing the Beaver to the beach until it can be secured," borough officials wrote.
Last week, a midair collision of sightseeing planes near Ketchikan left six people dead. The aircraft in that incident were operated by Taquan Air and Mountain Air Service.
A Taquan spokesperson referred all media queries Monday evening to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The agency told CBS News it "dispatched investigators from its Anchorage Regional Office to investigate. While owned by the same operator involved in the May 13, 2019, mid-air collision, this plane was not on sightseeing flight, it was a commuter flight. It is unusual for an operator to have two accidents in a short time but that alone does not infer there is a safety issue with the company, their pilots or type of aircraft."
Clint Johnson, the NTSB's Alaska chief, told KTVA the commuter flight was from Ketchikan to Metlakatla.
"There were a number of people that actually witnessed the accident, so our investigator is obviously going to be centering in on interviewing those witnesses when she arrives in on scene, hopefully early tomorrow morning," Johnson said.
Asked about the proximity of last week's crash and Monday's in both time and space, with Ketchikan and Metlakatla just 8 nautical miles apart, Johnson couldn't immediately recall any similar precedents for two fatal Alaska crashes involving the same carrier.
"Obviously it's a unique situation, and coming just on the heels of a major accident investigation," Johnson said. "However, I have to stress that each one of these accidents will be investigated to the detail that each one needs, but they are two separate accidents and that's the way that they'll be investigated: as separate accidents. We may draw parallels as we get into the analysis portion, but at this point keep in mind that we are just gathering information — just the factual information."
Taquan suspended scheduled flights on May 14 after the Ketchikan crash, according to its Facebook page, but resumed them along with flightseeing tours and chartered flights on May 17. | Air crash | May 2019 | ['(CBS News)', '(NBC News)'] |
The Social Democratic Party of Germany endorses Martin Schulz as its leader. | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday formally endorsed former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as their leader and challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in what is set to be a tightly contested national election in September.
The SPD has undergone a revival since nominating Schulz in late January, gaining around 10 points in opinion polls and signing up thousands of new members as the 61-year-old focuses his campaign on social justice.
“The SPD is back! We’re back!” Schulz told around 600 delegates at a party meeting in Berlin shortly before he was chosen as SPD leader in a vote in which all 605 of the valid votes gave him a ‘yes’. Delegates signaled with their hands they also wanted him to run for the SPD in the Sept. 24 election.
While the center-left SPD is slightly behind Merkel’s conservatives in the latest Emnid poll, it showed Schulz should be able to take power with a left-leaning alliance involving the far-left Linke and Greens in what would be the first time Germany has ever had a ‘red-red-green’ coalition at the national level.
“We want the SPD to be the strongest political force after the federal election so it gets a mandate to make this country better and fairer and to give the people of this country the respect they deserve and I want, dear comrades, to be the next German chancellor,” Schulz said.
He reiterated his calls for free education, more investment such as in nursing care and schools as well as qualification programs for the unemployed in a speech that earned him a standing ovation.
It is necessary to close the “intolerable pay gap” so men and women in both eastern and western Germany get the same amount of pay for doing the same work, Schulz said.
He also said he wanted to introduce special working hours - financially supported by the government - for those with families, but he did not give further details.
The former mayor of Wuerselen, a small town near the Dutch border, has made much of his humble beginnings and on Sunday recounted how he was born in western Germany as the fifth child of a policeman and housewife, who he described as “simple and very decent people”.
He said he was “lazy” at school and thought only of football, ultimately dropping out of school and losing his way before getting a second chance. Schulz later trained as a bookseller and opened a bookshop before becoming a member of the European Parliament in the mid-1990s.
His nomination for SPD leader followed a decision by Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel to stand aside as SPD head because he thought Schulz had a better chance of winning the election.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | March 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The media is revealed to have been the target of violence and harassment at least 50 times on Friday and Saturday. | Journalists covering the protests and riots that have erupted in US cities after the killing of George Floyd have reported being shot at, teargassed and arrested, as well as being intimidated by crowds.
More than 50 incidents of violence and harassment against media workers were reported on social media and in news outlets on Friday and Saturday, according to a tally the Guardian collated.
They included the blinding of Linda Tirado, a freelance photojournalist and activist who has contributed to the Guardian, who was hit in the eye with a nonlethal round while covering unrest in Minneapolis; the arrest of the HuffPost US reporter Chris Mathias during protests in New York; and the shooting of the Swedish foreign correspondent Nina Svanberg, who was struck in the leg by several rubber bullets on Friday night.
“They’re sighting us in,” a member of a CBS News crew was heard saying in another incident in Minneapolis on Saturday, as police fired rubber bullets at the team, who said they were wearing press credentials and carrying large cameras. A sound engineer was struck in the arm, a journalist from the outlet said.
A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Susan Ormiston, was hit with a gas canister also while covering the protests in the city. “The thing is, we were in that parking lot all by ourselves,” she said in a broadcast. The police “fired at us to clear us away but we clearly had our camera equipment visible”.
Minneapolis was the scene of especially acute unrest on Saturday night as authorities imposed a curfew and deployed the Minnesota state national guard to clear the streets and prevent the rioting and looting of the previous night.
Protests have spread to more than 30 states across the US since Floyd’s death on Monday. Curfews are in place in dozens of cities and hundreds of people have been arrested.
David Kaye, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, said the reports of attacks on journalists were “appalling and must be condemned and perpetrators held accountable”.
“They are a repudiation of fundamental rights enjoyed by all Americans, under the constitution and human rights law,” he said on Twitter. “Poor training combined with incessant attacks by Trump on the press as enemy no doubt contribute to an environment ready for such abuse.”
The US president has regularly called the media the “enemy of the people”, including in a tweet he posted on Saturday.
Much more “disinformation” coming out of CNN, MSDNC, @nytimes and @washingtonpost, by far, than coming out of any foreign country, even combined. Fake News is the Enemy of the People!
The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders ranked the US 48th in the world in its 2019 index, down three places as a result of growing abuse of journalists in the country. “Never before have US journalists been subjected to so many death threats or turned so often to private security firms for protection,” the report said.
The majority of the most recent incidents appeared to be perpetrated by police, but at least two involved crowds. A crew from the conservative outlet Fox News was surrounded by protesters outside the White House early on Saturday morning and jeered at and pelted with objects until they were forced to clear the area. An angry crowd also stormed the headquarters of CNN in Atlanta on Friday.
Police in Louisville, Kentucky, apologised on Saturday after a television reporter covering protests in the city on Friday night was hit with what appeared to be a pepper ball, shouting “I’m getting shot” live on air.
Many of Saturday’s attacks were filmed by the reporters involved. In his footage, the VICENews correspondent Michael Anthony Adams could be heard shouting “press” repeatedly as an officer approached him with his gun raised.
“I’m press,” he says. “I don’t care,” the officer replies. He was pepper sprayed while lying on the ground shortly afterwards.
Some of the incidents were broadcast on national television, including one in which a nonlethal explosive device was fired near the MSNBC correspondent Morgan Chesky and his crew. The CNN correspondent Omar Jiminez was arrested live on air on Friday and released a short time later.
The investigative reporter Ryan Raiche said he had been standing with other journalists in Minneapolis in what he thought was a safe area when police started targeting the group. “We kept saying we’re media,” he said in tweeted. “Police teargassed and pepper sprayed the entire group.” | Riot | May 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Mount Bulusan, a volcano in the Philippines, erupts again. | LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – Mount Bulusan belched out Friday morning a voluminous ash plume of up to 700 meters above the volcano’s crater rim causing ashfall in the villages southwest of the volcano, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.
Ashfall was reported in the municipalities of Irosin and Juban in Sorsogon after the explosions took place at 6:59 a.m., shooting up a light grey ash column accompanied by rumbling sounds, Phivolcs' bulletin said. Seismic instruments recorded four volcanic earthquakes during the past 24 hours while weak steaming was observed from the crater during times of good visibility prior to the explosion.
Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, said Friday’s ash explosion brought to five the ash and steam explosions since last Saturday, when the volcano showed signs of restlessness, prompting the raising of volcanic alert level 1.
Phivolcs director Renato Solidum said that an aerial survey on Thursday showed the series of explosions at the summit had resulted in the merging of two explosion craters created during the 2006-2007 eruptions.
He said ash grains from Tuesday's explosions appeared to be old and that no new material from magma was seen.
Alert level 1 remains over Bulusan Volcano.
The public, including tourists, have been advised to keep out of the designated four-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone.
Pilots are likewise advised to avoid flying close to the volcano’s summit.
The Bicol Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council earlier requested the regional office of the Department of Interior and Local Government to coordinate with the affected government units in Sorsogon on the use of their respective calamity funds.
Copyright 2010 Inquirer Southern Luzon. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Volcano Eruption | November 2010 | ['(The Inquirer)'] |
Coalition forces launch over 30 airstrikes on Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL. | US-led coalition warplanes carried out as many as 30 air strikes overnight against Islamic State (Isis) militants in and around the group’s de facto capital in north-eastern Syria, activists said on Sunday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted Isis positions in the city of Raqqa as well as the Division 17 air base, which the militants seized earlier this year from government forces.
The monitoring group, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, reported at least 30 coalition strikes in all. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist collective, also confirmed the air strikes. Neither group had casualty figures.
There was no immediate confirmation from the US military.
The US-led coalition began targeting Isis militants in Syria in September, expanding an aerial campaign already hitting the extremist group in Iraq. Many US air strikes have targeted Isis fighters who are attacking the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani on the Turkish border.
The Observatory said that at least 50 Isis militants were killed on Saturday and early Sunday in clashes with Kurds and in coalition air strikes. Eleven Kurdish fighters were also killed, according to the Observatory.
Idris Nassan, a Kurdish official from Kobani, said by telephone that tens of Isis militants were killed, but he did not have a concrete figure.
Isis has been attacking Kobani since mid-September. The militants’ offensive has bogged down, and the Syrian Kurds backed by their Iraqi brethren with heavy weapons appear to have seized the momentum and to have begun pushing the jihadis back
Meanwhile, Syrian government aircraft targeted a southern town with a series of air strikes on Sunday, killing at least a dozen people including women and children, activists said.
The Local Coordination Committees activist collective and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights both reported the strikes on Jasim in the southern province of Daraa.
| Armed Conflict | November 2014 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that the U.S. and the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a seven-day reduction of violence in Afghanistan. | U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he thinks there is a “good chance” the United States would reach an agreement with the Taliban by the end of February on a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump’s comments were the latest indication of significant progress in negotiations that the United States and the Taliban have been holding since December in Qatar.
“I think we’re very close,” Trump said on a podcast broadcast on iHeart Radio when asked if a tentative deal had been reached. “I think there’s a good chance that we’ll have a deal ... We’re going to know over the next two weeks.”
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the talks had achieved “a pretty important breakthrough.” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the sides have been negotiating a proposed seven-day reduction in violence that some lawmakers saw as a test of the Taliban leadership’s control of its fighters.
Sources had told Reuters a U.S.-Taliban peace deal could be signed this month, a move that would pave the way for a withdrawal from Afghanistan of some 13,000 U.S. troops and thousands of other NATO personnel, 18 years after a U.S.-led coalition invaded following the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States.
The demand to sharply reduce violence has been partly why the talks had been deadlocked, according to a Western diplomat in Kabul.
Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Munich, where he will attend a security conference, Pompeo expressed both optimism and caution.
“We have made real progress over the last handful of days and the President gave us the authority to continue to have the conversations,” Pompeo said, adding: “We are not there yet.”
“We hope we can get to a place where we can get a significant reduction in violence, not only on a piece of paper but demonstrated ... and if we can get there, if we can hold that posture for a while, then we’ll be able to begin the real, serious discussion which is all the Afghans sitting at a table,” Pompeo said.
He is expected to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Munich, a former senior Afghan official said on Wednesday.
Esper, during a press conference in Brussels, said that if the process goes forward there would be continuous evaluation of any violence.
The news of a potential agreement comes amid continued attacks by the Taliban, who control about 40% of Afghanistan, according to Afghan defense officials.
Last month the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. government agency, assessed that there had been a record-high number of attacks by the Taliban and other anti-government forces in the last three months of 2019.
Although the Taliban is negotiating with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, it refuses to talk directly to Ghani’s government, which it denounces as a puppet of the West.
U.S. Democratic Representative Tom Malinowski, who has expressed deep reservations about the talks with the Taliban, said he viewed the proposal of a reduction in violence as a test of the Taliban leadership.
“We also need to see whether the Taliban leadership conducting these negotiations actually can control what their forces in the field do. And I’m glad to see that intra-Afghan talks are supposed to start if this test is passed,” he told Reuters. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Iraqi security services announce the arrests of 20 suspected Islamic State militants in raids in Nineveh. | by Nehal Mostafa Apr 7, 2018, 6:41 pm Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Security services have arrested more than twenty Islamic State members in several operations in Nineveh province, while weapons and explosives were seized in their possession, security sources said on Saturday.
Speaking to BasNews website, Cap. Amir Watheq, from Nineveh police, said, “security troops arrested eight Islamic State members, possessing hand grenades in Makhmur, southeast of Mosul.”
“Troops cordoned off the area, where the militants were hiding and invaded their houses, then took them to Nineveh Operations Command headquarters for investigations.”
All hand grenades, in their possession, were confiscated.
In related news, Col. Khodier Saleh, of the Federal Police, said, “security services arrested an IS cell, composed of 15 members, which was planning to to attack troops deployed in western Mosul.”
“The cell members, were possessing weapons. All were arrested inside a tunnel,” he added. Thousands of Islamic State militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.
Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against security troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced, in December, full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members.
I | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2018 | ['(Iraq News)'] |
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge begin legal action after the magazine Closer published topless pictures of the Duchess taken during a holiday to France last week, and which their spokesman describes as “a grotesque and totally unjustifiable” invasion of privacy. | The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have launched legal action against the French magazine Closer over its publication of topless pictures of the duchess, Clarence House has said.
The celebrity gossip magazine printed pictures of the duchess taken during the couple's private holiday in France.
A royal spokesman said the legal proceedings had been launched in France and were for breach of privacy.
Closer's editor said the couple were "visible from the street".
"These photos are not in the least shocking. They show a young woman sunbathing topless, like the millions of women you see on beaches," said Laurence Pieau.
She described the reaction as "a little disproportionate".
A spokesman for the couple, who are on a tour of South East Asia and the South Pacific to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, strongly condemned publication of the pictures.
The duke and duchess, who were staying at the French chateau of the Queen's nephew, Lord Linley, "have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner", said the spokesman for Clarence House, the Prince of Wales's office.
The spokesman said the incident was "reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, and all the more upsetting to the duke and duchess for being so". One royal official said the couple could not have chosen a more secluded spot in France for their private holiday.
The magazine's website says the pictures are of the couple "like you have never seen them before. Gone are the fixed smiles and the demure dresses. On holiday Kate forgets everything."
A royal spokesman said: "St James's Palace confirms that legal proceedings for breach of privacy have been commenced today in France by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge against the publishers of Closer Magazine France."
The BBC's Nicholas Witchell said he had rarely seen such a level of publicly expressed anger from the palace over such an incident, and this anger reflected Prince William's feelings on the matter.
Our correspondent said that the prince had a "look of absolute thunder" on his face as they left Kuala Lumpur - a stop on their nine-day tour - to travel to Sabah in north Borneo. Kate, meanwhile, "looked composed and was smiling", he said.
Peter Hunt added that William's fury was because the prince had promised Kate that "what happened to his mother would not happen to her, and he has failed on this occasion but he does not want to fail again".
British newspapers said they were offered photographs last week but turned them down.
The Sun - the only British newspaper to publish recent pictures of Prince Harry naked - said it had no intention of publishing the images.
"The circumstances are very different to those relating to the photos of Prince Harry in Las Vegas. As we said at the time, he was at a party in a hotel suite with a large group of strangers and one of those present released a photograph into the public domain," said the Sun's editor Dominic Mohan.
Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said: "The view from Downing Street is that they are entitled to their privacy."
A royal spokesman said the couple would not let the controversy distract them from their trip. "The duke and duchess remain focused currently on their tour of Singapore, Malaysia, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu on behalf of HM the Queen."
The couple spent the day in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur where they started the day with visit to a mosque for the first time.
They later left the mainland and flew to Kota Kinabalu, capital of the state of Sabah on Borneo, where they will travel to the rainforest to learn about the wildlife.
Closer is not run by the same company as the British title; it is administered by Italian business Mondadori, owned by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest. The publisher which established the Closer brand, said it was "appalled" by the decision to publish the images and said it was reviewing the licence of the French magazine, over which it has no editorial control.
Paul Keenan, chief executive of Bauer Media, which owns the UK version of Closer, said: "We deplore the publication of these intrusive and offensive pictures and have asked that Closer France takes these pictures down immediately from its website and desist from publishing any further pictures. "Bauer Media and Closer UK regards publication of these photographs as a gross intrusion of their Royal Highnesses' privacy."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(The Telegraph)'] |
The American International Group , the world's largest insurance company, removes Martin J. Sullivan as its CEO due to losses caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. | NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world’s biggest insurer, American International Group Inc, replaced CEO Martin Sullivan on Sunday after it suffered two quarters of record losses from risky mortgage bets and its share price more than halved over the past year.
AIG Chief Executive Martin Sullivan listens to speeches during a photocall to announce Manchester United's new shirt sponsorship deal with US insurance and finance company, American International Group (AIG), at the Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, northern England, April 6, 2006. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Sullivan is the latest Wall Street chief -- including former Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Charles Prince and Merrill Lynch & Co’s Stan O’Neill -- who have left their jobs amid large losses stemming from the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, which triggered a global credit crunch.
AIG named veteran former Citigroup banker Robert Willumstad, who was already AIG chairman, as its new CEO, effective immediately.
Willumstad told Reuters that he plans to craft a turnaround plan for AIG by early September.
Several large AIG shareholders had pushed in recent weeks for Sullivan’s ouster after it posted back-to-back quarters of record losses, stemming from more than $20 billion in write-downs on the market value of assets linked to subprime mortgages.
Willumstad told Reuters that his first priority will be to meet AIG’s regulators, credit rating agencies and top managers around the globe over the next three months.
He is also working to quickly hire a new CFO, after Steven Bensinger stepped aside last quarter. The company is poring over external candidates with financial services experience, he said.
“I have mixed feelings. It seems like he (Sullivan) was made a scapegoat for issues before he took over the helm,” said analyst Donn Vickrey at research firm Gradient Analytics, noting some derivatives contracts that contributed to AIG’s losses were entered into under former CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg.
“It would have been preferable to bring someone in from outside that had a core insurance pedigree,” Vickrey said.
While Willumstad does have the “deep, financial experience” to deal with AIG’s thorny subprime exposure, its insurance operations have also posted poor results recently, Vickrey added.
“It is unclear whether he has the background for that.”
Greenberg, who remains a large shareholder, has also been critical of management and AIG’s board.
Willumstad, who spent nearly two decades at Citi and about 40 years in banking, said his appointment may surprise some.
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“It may seem like (a bank) would make a more natural fit,” he said, but added that he felt “very good” about taking up AIG’s helm, pointing to his two years as chairman of the firm and to his time at Citi, where several of Citi’s insurance businesses had reported to him when he was chief operating officer.
AIG last month posted the worst results in its 89-year history, resulting in some of its financial ratings being cut and forcing it to strengthen its balance sheet with a $20 billion capital raising.
Willumstad will be under pressure to boost AIG’s ailing share price and give investors a clearer idea of how much actual cash the company could lose after the subprime-related write-downs.
Failure on those two fronts led to Sullivan’s ouster.
AIG is also being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it may have overvalued the derivatives that have led to its costly write-downs.
AIG on Sunday said Sullivan was also quitting the board, where he has had a seat since 2002. Sullivan started with the company in London as a 17-year-old clerk.
“Bob’s broad managerial and financial services experience makes him the right person to lead AIG through today’s turbulent markets, drive further organizational change and rebuild shareholder value,” George Miles, chairman of AIG’s nominating and corporate governance committee, said in a statement.
In an interview, Miles characterized Willumstad’s financial experience as “world class.”
Willumstad said he had every intention of a long career at AIG, and might even last as long as former CEO Greenberg, who was almost 80 when he left the company in 2005.
“I am a very young 62,” Willumstad said.
Stephen Bollenbach, chairman of U.S. homebuilder KB Homes and a former Hilton executive, who was named to AIG’s board earlier this year, will become lead director, the company said. Bollenbach is favored by some of AIG’s most critical shareholders, including billionaire Eli Broad.
Broad, a former AIG director, said the appointments of Willumstad and Bollenbach were a “positive step forward.”
Broad, together with fund managers Shelby Davis of Davis Selected Advisers LP and Bill Miller of Legg Mason Inc, wrote in a letter seen by Reuters last week that “significant and immediate changes at both the management and board level are clearly called for.”
The group holds about 4 percent of AIG’s shares.
Sullivan, 53, replaced Greenberg as chief executive in 2005, after then-New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Greenberg and the company of financial misconduct.
Greenberg, through a spokesman, on Sunday declined to comment on the changes at AIG.
Sullivan, a quick-witted Englishman who spent almost 36 years with the insurer, ushered AIG through the difficult process of reaching a settlement with regulators, paying $1.64 billion to settle charges of fraud, bid rigging and improper accounting, one of the largest regulatory settlements in U.S. history.
Sullivan initially won investor favor by seeing AIG through the regulatory probe, but more recently saw his reputation become tarnished as losses mounted and AIG’s stock plunged.
AIG’s shares closed on Friday at $34.18. A year ago, they were trading at $72.91.
Additional reporting by Dan Wilchins, Editing by Jonathan Oatis & Kim Coghill
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 - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2008 | ['(AIG)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Assembly of California votes in favor of ending a ban which barred members of the Communist Party USA from holding positions in the state government. , | A bill in California that would remove a ban on members of the Communist Party working in state government was sponsored by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, seen here in 2016.
California may end a decades-old ban on members of the Communist Party working in its government, after the state Assembly approved a bill that would delete references to the party from its employment requirements.
The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, said that California's laws should focus on individuals' actions and evidence rather than political affiliations and what he termed "empty labels."
Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, Bonta called the legislation a "cleanup bill that removes archaic and outdated references to the Communist Party in our state laws, specifically those stating that a public employee may be dismissed from employment if he or she advocates or is knowingly a member of the Communist Party."
The bill passed in a 41-30 vote, after a debate that touched on the Cold War, the U.S. history of fighting communism — and the potential for future conflicts.
While Bonta called the measure "an appropriate step forward" for the state, three of his Republican colleagues in the California Assembly rose to speak against the bill, AB 22.
"This bill is blatantly offensive to all Californians," said Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, who said his constituents include people who fled Vietnam's Communist regime. "Communism stands for everything that the United States stands against."
Allen concluded, "To allow subversives and avowed Communists to now work for the state of California is a direct insult to the people of California who pay for that government."
Assemblyman Randy Voepel, R-Santee, also opposed the bill, noting America's history of going to war to combat communism.
"There are 1.9 million veterans in California," Voepel said. "Many of us fought the communists. They are still a threat. We have North Korea, that wants to do us in. We have China, who is a great, great threat to the United States."
After those objections were raised, Bonta told his colleagues that the legislation includes a provision that allows the dismissal of any state employee "if that public employee advocates or is knowingly a member" of an organization that works toward "the overthrow of the government of the United States or any state by force or violence."
The Northern California chairman for the Communist Party USA, Juan Lopez, has pushed to roll back similar bans in recent years — including one that forbids teachers from being in his party.
The Communist Party isn't a registered political party in California, Lopez told the Daily Bulletin back in 2013. | Government Policy Changes | May 2017 | ['(NPR)', '(AP via Fox News)'] |
Former Indian Communications Minister Sukhram is jailed for three years for corruption. | A court in Delhi has sentenced a former Indian federal government minister to three years in jail for corruption. The ex-minister, known only as Sukhram, was convicted of amassing a disproportionate amount of wealth while in office.
He served as communications minister in the government of PV Narasimha Rao. Mr Sukhram, who is 82, said he would appeal and has been released on bail. The court also ordered him to pay fines totalling 200,000 rupees ($4,000). | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Greek court rules that farright political party Golden Dawn operated as a criminal organization in connection with the murder of antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013 and other crimes. | Athens, Greece A Greek court ruled Wednesday that the far-right Golden Dawn party was operating as a criminal organization, delivering a landmark verdict in a marathon five-year trial. The court delivered guilty verdicts against several of the party's former lawmakers for participating in a criminal organization, and deemed others guilty of leading a criminal organization.
The court convicted a Golden Dawn supporter of the 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas. Yorgos Roupakias, who had already confessed to participation in the killing, was among the members of a mob that chased Fyssas down and fatally stabbed him. He was accused of delivering the fatal stab wound and now faces a possible life sentence.
The verdicts announced Wednesday are the culmination of a marathon, five-year-long trial against the country's extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party. There was tight security around the Athens court as more than 15,000 people gathered for an anti-fascist rally outside. When the verdict on Roupakias was announced, crowds both inside and outside the court erupted in raucous cheers. There were reports that tear gas was fired by police outside as they attempted to control the crowd. The 68 defendants in the trial include 18 former lawmakers from the party that was founded in the 1980s as a neo-Nazi organization and rose to become Greece's third largest party in parliament during the country's decade-long financial crisis.
The court has been assessing four cases rolled into one: the fatal stabbing of Fyssas, attacks on migrant fishermen, attacks on left-wing activists and whether Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organization.
The presiding judge of the three-member panel began reading the verdicts shortly after 11:30 a.m. local time, quickly delivering the guilty verdict against Roupakias.
Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and 17 other former parliamentary members face at least 10 years in prison for leading or participating in a criminal organization. Dozens of others on trial, party members and alleged associates, face convictions on charges that range from murder to perjury most linked to a spate of violent attacks in 2013.
Only 11 of the 68 defendants were present in the courtroom, with the rest represented by their lawyers. None of the former Golden Dawn lawmakers were in court. About 2,000 police were deployed outside the court, as well as a drone and a police helicopter. The avenue outside the Athens courthouse was closed off to traffic and the building itself blocked off by a string of police buses. The crowd outside waved banners with slogans including "Fyssas lives, crush the Nazis," and chanted "The people demand the Nazis in jail." Representatives of parties across the political spectrum, from the governing conservative New Democracy party to Greece's Communist Party, were outside the courthouse. "The war against violence and hate is constant," said New Democracy's Giorgos Stergiou, noting it was under a New Democracy government that the prosecution of Golden Dawn began. "Today the victims and society seek justice," said center-left Kinal party leader Fofi Gennimata. "We are here because there is no room for fascism in our lives."
The human rights group Amnesty International, which took part in and helped organize a network to record racist violence in Greece, said Wednesday's verdict would boost the efforts of those trying to prosecute hate crimes. "The accusations against the leaders and members of Golden Dawn, including the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, expose a fissure that exists not just within Greece but across Europe and beyond," said Nils Muiznieks, Europe director at Amnesty. "The impact of this verdict, in what is an emblematic trial of an extreme far-right party with an aggressive anti-migrant and anti-human rights stance, will be felt far beyond Greece's borders." Golden Dawn denies any direct link to the attacks and described the trial and charges brought against the party's leadership as an "unprecedented conspiracy" aimed at curbing its rise in popularity. "All supporters await an acquittal tomorrow, a decision that will trigger an even more strident nationalist campaign to take our country back," it said Tuesday. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2020 | ['(CBS News)'] |
Goldman Sachs agrees to pay $5.06 billion to settle allegations that it sold packages of shoddy mortgages prior to the global financial crisis.. The U.S. Justice Department settlement includes a $2.385 billion civil penalty, and $1.8 billion for distressed borrowers and communities affected by the housing crisis. | NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs, one of the most powerful investment banks on Wall Street, agreed on Monday to pay $5.06 billion to settle allegations that it sold packages of shoddy mortgages to investors during the period leading up to the financial crisis.
But, similar to other massive settlements reached with large banks over the last few years, no individual bank employee is being held responsible for the alleged bad behavior that led to the settlement.
Instead, the settlement includes a $2.385 billion civil penalty and $1.8 billion for distressed borrowers and communities affected by the housing crisis.
“Today’s settlement is another example of the department’s resolve to hold accountable those whose illegal conduct resulted in the financial crisis of 2008,” Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement.
This is the fifth settlement reached by a panel President Obama put in place in 2012 to look into the lending practices of the country’s largest financial institutions. The Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group has already reached historic settlements with JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. They agreed to pay $13 billion and $16.6 billion respectively. Citibank settled for $7 billion and Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $3.2 billion.
“This settlement, like those before it, ensures that these critical programs—such as mortgage assistance, principal forgiveness, and code enforcement—will continue to get funded well into the future, and will be paid for by the institutions responsible for the financial crisis,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the co-chair of the working group, said in a statement.
Between 2005 and 2007, Goldman Sachs repeatedly discovered problems with the mortgages it was selling to investors but didn’t tell investors, according to a statement of facts agreed to by the bank.
In 2006, for example, a Goldman Sachs employee recommended investors buy shares in Countrywide, the large mortgage company, noting that it was issuing more loans than expected. Another Goldman employee responded to the research report by saying: “If they only knew……”
Goldman had already discovered problems with Countrywide’s loans, but didn’t warn investors, according to the settlement agreement.
In a statement, Goldman Sachs said it was pleased to resolve the issue. “Since the financial crisis, we have taken significant steps to strengthen our culture, reinforce our commitment to our clients, and ensure our governance processes are robust,” the statement said.
But advocacy groups quickly pounced on the deal as too lenient, noting that the $5 billion settlement is dwarfed by Goldman Sach’s recent profits. Also, they note, Goldman Sachs will be be able to deduct some of the cost of the settlement from its taxes. “That is not justice,” said Dennis Kelleher, president and chief executive of Better Markets. “Every single individual at Goldman who received a bonus from this illegal conduct not only keeps the entire bonus, but suffers no penalty at all.”
| Organization Fine | April 2016 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(UPI)'] |
Bill Richardson, a U.S. special envoy, predicts that North Korea will not meet a deadline of today set by the Six–Party Talks to shut down its nuclear reactor but will meet their obligations a few days after. | A special United States envoy, just back from North Korea, says he believes Pyongyang will eventually shut down its nuclear reactor, but will likely delay the move by several days. "I do believe they are committed at least to phase one and phase two of the six-party agreement, which is to start a denuclearisation of their weapons," said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. "Probably they won't make the deadline, but a few days after, I believe they will meet their obligations."
The deadline for North Korea to shut down its Yongbyon atomic reactor and invite United Nations (UN) inspectors arrived on Saturday (local time), as the communist state promised to honour a commitment to scrap its nuclear program. Governor Richardson, a former US ambassador to the UN, led a US delegation to Pyongyang with the blessing of the White House this past week. He has also urged continued direct contact between the US and North Korea. "What they respond to is dealing with them directly and I believe the Bush administration has been doing that," Governor Richardson said. US envoy Christopher Hill says he will meet with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday as the deadline for North Korea to shut down its nuclear power plant passes. Mr Hill says he will meet bilaterally with Wu Dawei, China's envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program that also include the two Koreas, Japan and Russia. "We need to talk to the Chinese about where we stand on the February 13 agreement and how the Chinese assess the way ahead," Mr Hill said.
"A key opinion here is the Chinese, they are the hosts of this, they have also worked very hard, so I'm sure they have some views on what the DPRK is doing." The US envoy says he would also be in touch by phone with his other counterparts in the talks hosted by Beijing, although he had no immediate plans to meet with North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan. - AFP
A special United States envoy, just back from North Korea, says he believes Pyongyang will eventually shut down its nuclear reactor but will likely delay the move by several days. | Diplomatic Visit | April 2007 | ['(AFP via ABC News Australia)'] |
The last King of Romania, Michael I, dies at the age of 96. , | BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania’s former King Michael died in Switzerland at the age of 96 on Tuesday, the Royal House was quoted by Digi 24 TV as saying on Tuesday.
King Michael of Romania withdrew from public life because of illness in 2016.
A cousin of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, Michael was forced to abdicate in 1947 after the post-war Communist takeover of Romania and has lived in exile in the West for decades. He underwent surgery for leukaemia and cancer.
| Famous Person - Death | December 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
A US Coast Guard vessel fired roughly 30 warning shots on Monday to drive away Iranian fast-attack boats in an "unsafe" encounter in the Strait of Hormuz. | A US Coast Guard vessel fired roughly 30 warning shots on Monday to drive away Iranian fast-attack boats in an "unsafe" encounter in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said Monday.
"A large group of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, also known as the IRGCN, fast boats conducted unsafe and unprofessional maneuvers and failed to exercise due regard for the safety of US forces," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said.
During the incident, 13 IRGCN fast-attack boats approached at high speed and closed to within 150 yards of a formation of six US Navy vessels escorting the guided-missile submarine USS Georgia. The US Navy said that the IRGCN was "unnecessarily close" and "put the ships and their crews in immediate danger."
"Two of the 13 IRGCN vessels broke away from the larger group, transited to the opposite side of the US formation," the US Navy's 5th Fleet said in a statement. The boats approached two US ships from behind "at a high rate of speed (in excess of 32 knots) with their weapons uncovered and manned."
After sounding the horn, reaching out over bridge-to-bridge radio transmissions, trying other forms of communication, the Coast Guard cutter Maui fired a total of about 30 warning shots with a .50-caliber machine gun. The IRGCN vessels withdrew after the second round of warning shots.
The first round of warning shots was fired when the IRGCN vessels were 300 yards out. The second round of shots was fired at 150 yards.
Monday's incident marks the second time in less than a month US forces have fired warning shots in response to actions taken by the IRGCN.
In late April, US Navy coastal patrol ship USS Firebolt fired warning shots after three armed IRGCN fast-attack boats came "unnecessarily close" to it and US Coast Guard patrol boat Baranoff as they operated in the Persian Gulf.
"Sadly," Kirby told reporters Monday, "harassment by the IRGC Navy is not a new phenomenon." He explained that it is a threat that the commanding officers and crews of US ships, especially those operating in and around the Persian Gulf and the critical chokepoint that is the Strait of Hormuz, are trained to address.
"They have the right of self-defense," he said of US vessels, adding that "they have the means at their disposal to defend their ships and their crews." He then turned his attention to the actions of the IRGCN.
"As we said at the top, it's unsafe, it's unprofessional, and this kind of activity is the kind of activity that could lead to somebody getting hurt and could lead to a real miscalculation there in the region," Kirby said, emphasizing that such behavior is not in anyone's interests.
Asked at what point the US would take action to sink the Iranian vessels that harass US forces in the region, the Pentagon spokesman said that he would not comment on rules of engagement. | Armed Conflict | May 2021 | ['(MSN)'] |
A bomb explodes in the Pakistani town of Landi Kotal, killing at least thirteen people. | A bomb on a bus in north-western Pakistan has killed at least 22 people, officials say.
More than 80 were injured in the blast, which occurred in Landi Kotal, a town near the Afghan border. The bomb appeared to be aimed at members of a pro-government tribe who have formed an anti-Taliban militia.
Landi Kotal is in the Khyber tribal agency, part of Pakistan's tribal north-west which has seen frequent attacks by Taliban militants. The town lies close to the Torkham crossing into Afghanistan. "The blast was so powerful, it was heard far and wide and caused damage to nearby buildings," resident Sher Mohammad Shinwari told Reuters news agency.
The bomb was fixed under the vehicle in question and exploded after all passengers had boarded, a local official told the BBC.
Amongst those wounded were children from a nearby school.
The death toll may rise as many sustained serious injuries, officials say. The attack is believed to have been aimed at members of the Zakha Khel tribe, which has been targeted by militants before.
No group has so far claimed the attack. However, the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for attacks here in the past - describing them as retaliation for the tribesmen's support for the government. | Armed Conflict | June 2012 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Arlington High School (LaGrange, New York) announces that a Columbinestyle attack on the school was thwarted by New York State Police, who arrest three students. | FREEDOM PLAINS State police have arrested three Arlington High School students in relation to a plot to attack the school two years from now, a school official said.State police arrested two 16-year-old Poughquag students - Patrick Quigley and Joseph Saia and a 15-year-old student after investigating a threat posted on a MySpace page. The three teens were charged with fourth-degree conspiracy, a felony.The Web page described events to take place on April 20, 2010, the 11th anniversary of the attack on Columbine High School, police said. In 1999, two teens killed 13 people and wounded two dozen others at the Littleton, Colo., high school before both committing suicide.School officials and police were alerted to the plan after a student saw the Internet message and reported it to one of the high school principals, said Barbara Donegan, assistant superintendent for pupil personnel services.The message stated the attack was in the planning stages, Donegan said.“It seemed to be a credible, serious threat,” Donegan said.On the Web site, students had “mapped out and clearly identified areas within the shcool which were to be specifically targeted,” police said in a written statement. Because the threat was not imminent, district officials did not dismiss students early, Donegan said. The school has been searched and no bombs or other harmful objects were found.Donegan said she applauds the student who saw the message and came forward with the concern.“We’re very proud,” she said. “We were able to be proactive because a student did alert an administrator and we were able to follow up.”Donegan said the district is awaiting further information from the state police. The three students have been suspended from class for five days, and will undergo a disciplinary hearing during that time, Donegan said.The two 16-year-old students were arraigned before Town of LaGrange Justice Steven Greller, and sent to Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $2,500 bail. Both students have since been released. The 15-year-old student was placed in a non-secure detention center and will be arraigned Thursday morning in Family Court. | Armed Conflict | November 2007 | ['(Poughkeepsie Journal)'] |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejects the country's once effective family planning program as an "ungodly Western import" and urges girls to marry at age of 16. | urged young girls to marry at age of 16 in his latest rejection of the country's once effective family planning program, local newspapers reported on Sunday.
Following record birth rates in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran implemented an internationally praised family planning program in the 1990s that dramatically reduced the growth rate. Ahmadinejad has criticized the program as an ungodly and a Western import.
"We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17," he said, according to the state-owned Jam-e Jam daily. "The marriage age for boys has reached 26 and for girls to 24, and there is no reason for this."
Since coming to power in 2005, the Iranian president has sought to increase of the country's population, which is already at 75 million, with a third between the ages of 15 and 30.
In July, he inaugurated a new policy to encourage population growth with financial incentives for every new child born, having previously said the country could feed a population of 150 million.
Critics said the policy will only exacerbate unemployment, currently set 9 percent officially. There are an estimated 3 million unemployed people of working age in the country. | Government Policy Changes | November 2010 | ['(Ynet)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jongun orders the Korean People's Army to be on a war footing following the exchange of artillery fire with South Korea yesterday. , | North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his frontline troops to be on a war footing, after an exchange of fire with the South across their heavily fortified border, state media report. The KCNA report said Mr Kim declared a "semi-state of war" at an emergency meeting late Thursday. It threatened action unless Seoul ends its anti-Pyongyang border broadcasts.
The North often uses fierce rhetoric when tensions rise and it has made similar declarations before.
The BBC's South Korea correspondent Steve Evans says that although this ritual of aggression often sees such language escalate to the firing of ammunition, this time the rhetoric is fiercer and artillery shells are now in use. KCNA reported that Mr Kim had ordered that troops be "fully ready for any military operations at any time" from 17:00 Friday local time (08:30 GMT), at the emergency meeting of the central military commission.
South Korea's Vice Defence Minister Baek Seung-joo said that 11 sites with loudspeakers for the anti-Pyongyang broadcasts are likely to be targets.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing a government source, said that North Korea appeared to be preparing to fire missiles.
The North often conducts missile tests to show displeasure at South Korea, or in protest at US-South Korean military drills.
In 2004, South Korea and North Korea reached an agreement to dismantle their propaganda loudspeakers at the border.
The broadcasts were part of a programme of psychological warfare, according to South Korean newspaper Korea Times, to deliver outside news so that North Korean soldiers and border-area residents could hear it.
On 10 August this year, South Korea restarted broadcasting in an apparent reaction to two South Korean soldiers being injured in a landmine explosion in the demilitarised zone that was blamed on the North.
Military authorities say days later the North also restarted its broadcasting of anti-South propaganda. However, some reports said that the quality of the North Korean loudspeakers is so bad that it is difficult to understand what they are saying.
The South had previously threatened to restart broadcasts in 2010 but although the loudspeakers were reinstalled at that time, they were not put into use, with the South using FM broadcasts into the North instead.
Mobilising the propagandists in North Korea
The latest tensions come after North Korea fired a shell at South Korea's western border on Thursday, reportedly to protest against the South's propaganda broadcasts.
The South responded to the North's shelling with artillery fire, and ordered the evacuation of some of its residents on the border. There were no reported casualties.
North Korea then warned the South that it would take military action unless border propaganda broadcasts were ended and broadcast facilities dismantled "within 48 hours".
However, in a separate letter Pyongyang said it was willing to resolve the issue even though it considered the broadcasts a declaration of war, South Korea's unification ministry said, according to Reuters.
North Korean media outlets used a mixture of new and old phrases on Friday to warn the government in Seoul. KCNA news agency announced that the country was in "a state of semi-war in the frontal zone". State-run media outlets often reminisce how founding President Kim-Il-sung declared a state of "semi-war" against the "gangster-like" attitude of the US in the 1990s. In the current crisis, phrases like "puppet forces", "war maniacs", "hostile and hooligan army" and "psychological warfare" have also been use by the media. State-run radio said South Korea had launched a "vicious political and military provocation" against Pyongyang. It added that such provocations were "currently driving the country's situation toward the phase of exploding into a critical point". Another report by KCNA said that such "foolhardy provocation deserves harsh punishment". The two Koreas remain technically at war, because the 1950-1953 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
South Korea and the US also began annual joint military exercises on Monday - they describe the drills as defensive, but North Korea calls them a rehearsal for invasion.
| Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Former rebel leader John Garang is sworn in as vice president of Sudan as part of the agreement ending the Second Sudanese Civil War. , | KHARTOUM, July 8 (Reuters) - Southern Sudanese rebel leader John Garang was set to return to Khartoum for the first time in more than two decades on Friday to mark the start of a new era of government in war-torn Sudan.
Flags and pictures of Garang lined the streets of the capital to welcome the man who led a southern rebel movement against the Khartoum government for 21 years.
Under the terms of a peace deal agreed in January ending Africa’s longest civil war, Garang will become deputy to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in an agreement meant to share power and wealth more equally throughout the country.
Garang was to be sworn in as first vice-president on Saturday in the presence of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and South African President Thabo Mbeki among other leaders.
"Politically this is a major breakthrough," Jan Pronk Sudan’s top U.N. envoy said.
Sudan’s southern civil war broadly pitted the Islamist government in Khartoum against the mostly Christian, animist south and claimed two million lives.
Under the peace deal Sudan’s current ruling party will have 52 percent of government and parliament and Garang’s movement 28 percent, with northern and southern opposition parties taking the remaining 20 percent.
Both northerners and southerners expressed delight about Garang coming to Khartoum.
"We need John Garang to come so we can be free," said 17-year old Michael Nyang, from the southern oil area of Bentiu who sought refuge in Khartoum seven years ago. "Wherever he goes I will follow," he said.
Northern businessman Hakim Moussa said he hoped the new government would usher in a period of investment and development.
The peace deal leaves unsettled however conflict in the western region of Darfur where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million driven from their homes since rebels took up arms in early 2003.
The south is also to vote in a referendum within six years on secession from Khartoum. Although Garang’s position is for unity, many southerners want separation.
Pronk said Garang’s group had to negotiate which posts they would get in the new government, to be formed within 30 days of the ceremony on Saturday, then complete talks with southern militias who have not yet signed up to the deal. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2005 | ['(Sudan Tribune)', '(Boston Globe)'] |
The China National Space Administration successfully launches the Chang'e 5 robotic spacecraft from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. It is China's first sample return mission, and if the mission is successful it will be the first lunar sample return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. Chang'e-5 will bring back at least 2 kilograms of lunar soil. | Lunar landing is due in about eight days and entire mission is scheduled to last 23 days
Last modified on Tue 24 Nov 2020 11.10 GMT
China has launched a robotic spacecraft to bring back rocks from the moon – the first such attempt by any country since the 1970s.
The Long March-5, China’s largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4.30am Beijing time on Tuesday from Wenchang space launch centre on the island of Hainan carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft.
The Chang’e-5 mission, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect lunar material to help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation. The mission will test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space before more complex missions.
If successful, the mission would make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, joining the United States and the Soviet Union.
Upon entering the moon’s orbit, the spacecraft is meant to deploy a pair of vehicles to the lunar surface: a lander and an ascender. The landing is due to take place in about eight days, according to Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesman for the mission. The probe is due to be on the lunar surface for about two days, and the entire mission is scheduled to take around 23 days.
The plan is for the lander to drill into the lunar surface and scoop out soil and rocks using a robotic arm. This material would be transferred to the ascender vehicle, which is due to carry it from the surface and then dock with an orbiting module.
The samples then would be transferred to a return capsule for the trip to Earth, with a landing in China’s Inner Mongolia region.
“The biggest challenges … are the sampling work on the lunar surface, takeoff from the lunar surface, rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit, as well as high-speed re-entry to Earth,” said Pei, who is also director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center at China National Space Administration.
“We can conduct sampling through circumlunar and moon-landing exploration, but it is more intuitive to obtain samples to conduct scientific research – the method is more direct,” Pei added. “Plus, there will be more instruments and more methods to study them on Earth.” | New achievements in aerospace | November 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
NASA says it has received the first message from interstellar space from its Voyager 2 spacecraft. | Five new research papers detail Voyager 2's observations since it exited the heliosphere, or the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by our Sun.
One year ago, on Nov. 5, 2018, NASA's Voyager 2 became only the second spacecraft in history to leave the heliosphere - the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by our Sun. At a distance of about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from Earth - well beyond the orbit of Pluto - Voyager 2 had entered interstellar space, or the region between stars. Today, five new research papers in the journal Nature Astronomy describe what scientists observed during and since Voyager 2's historic crossing.
Each paper details the findings from one of Voyager 2's five operating science instruments: a magnetic field sensor, two instruments to detect energetic particles in different energy ranges and two instruments for studying plasma (a gas composed of charged particles). Taken together, the findings help paint a picture of this cosmic shoreline, where the environment created by our Sun ends and the vast ocean of interstellar space begins.
The Sun's heliosphere is like a ship sailing through interstellar space. Both the heliosphere and interstellar space are filled with plasma, a gas that has had some of its atoms stripped of their electrons. The plasma inside the heliosphere is hot and sparse, while the plasma in interstellar space is colder and denser. The space between stars also contains cosmic rays, or particles accelerated by exploding stars. Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere protects Earth and the other planets from more than 70% of that radiation.
When Voyager 2 exited the heliosphere last year, scientists announced that its two energetic particle detectors noticed dramatic changes: The rate of heliospheric particles detected by the instruments plummeted, while the rate of cosmic rays (which typically have higher energies than the heliospheric particles) increased dramatically and remained high. The changes confirmed that the probe had entered a new region of space.
Before Voyager 1 reached the edge of the heliosphere in 2012, scientists didn't know exactly how far this boundary was from the Sun. The two probes exited the heliosphere at different locations and also at different times in the constantly repeating, approximately 11-year solar cycle, over the course of which the Sun goes through a period of high and low activity. Scientists expected that the edge of the heliosphere, called the heliopause, can move as the Sun's activity changes, sort of like a lung expanding and contracting with breath. This was consistent with the fact that the two probes encountered the heliopause at different distances from the Sun.
The new papers now confirm that Voyager 2 is not yet in undisturbed interstellar space: Like its twin, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 appears to be in a perturbed transitional region just beyond the heliosphere.
"The Voyager probes are showing us how our Sun interacts with the stuff that fills most of the space between stars in the Milky Way galaxy," said Ed Stone, project scientist for Voyager and a professor of physics at Caltech. "Without this new data from Voyager 2, we wouldn't know if what we were seeing with Voyager 1 was characteristic of the entire heliosphere or specific just to the location and time when it crossed."
Pushing Through Plasma
The two Voyager spacecraft have now confirmed that the plasma in local interstellar space is significantly denser than the plasma inside the heliosphere, as scientists expected. Voyager 2 has now also measured the temperature of the plasma in nearby interstellar space and confirmed it is colder than the plasma inside the heliosphere.
In 2012, Voyager 1 observed a slightly higher-than-expected plasma density just outside the heliosphere, indicating that the plasma is being somewhat compressed. Voyager 2 observed that the plasma outside the heliosphere is slightly warmer than expected, which could also indicate it is being compressed. (The plasma outside is still colder than the plasma inside.) Voyager 2 also observed a slight increase in plasma density just before it exited the heliosphere, indicating that the plasma is compressed around the inside edge of the bubble. But scientists don't yet fully understand what is causing the compression on either side.
Leaking Particles
If the heliosphere is like a ship sailing through interstellar space, it appears the hull is somewhat leaky. One of Voyager's particle instruments showed that a trickle of particles from inside the heliosphere is slipping through the boundary and into interstellar space. Voyager 1 exited close to the very "front" of the heliosphere, relative to the bubble's movement through space. Voyager 2, on the other hand, is located closer to the flank, and this region appears to be more porous than the region where Voyager 1 is located.
Magnetic Field Mystery
An observation by Voyager 2's magnetic field instrument confirms a surprising result from Voyager 1: The magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere. With Voyager 1, scientists had only one sample of these magnetic fields and couldn't say for sure whether the apparent alignment was characteristic of the entire exterior region or just a coincidence. Voyager 2's magnetometer observations confirm the Voyager 1 finding and indicate that the two fields align, according to Stone.
The Voyager probes launched in 1977, and both flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 changed course at Saturn in order to fly by Uranus and Neptune, performing the only close flybys of those planets in history. The Voyager probes completed their Grand Tour of the planets and began their Interstellar Mission to reach the heliopause in 1989. Voyager 1, the faster of the two probes, is currently over 13.6 billion miles (22 billion kilometers) from the Sun, while Voyager 2 is 11.3 billion miles (18.2 billion kilometers) from the Sun. It takes light about 16.5 hours to travel from Voyager 2 to Earth. By comparison, light traveling from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth. | New achievements in aerospace | November 2019 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)'] |
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks in prison by a judge in the United Kingdom for breaching bail in 2012. Assange still faces possible extradition to the United States on charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. | The WikiLeaks founder, who had lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, delayed justice, the judge said.
Jack Taylor/Getty Images
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The WikiLeaks founder, who had lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, delayed justice, the judge said.
Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks in prison by a British judge.
The controversial founder of WikiLeaks was arrested in April after being pushed out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been living since 2012, avoiding an international arrest warrant. That same day, he was convicted of jumping bail.
Judge Deborah Taylor said Assange's time in the embassy had cost British taxpayers the equivalent of nearly $21 million, and that he had sought asylum in a "deliberate attempt to delay justice."
Assange offered a written apology in court, claiming that his actions were a response to terrifying circumstances. He said he had been effectively imprisoned in the embassy; two doctors also provided medical evidence of the mental and physical effects of being confined.
The judge was not swayed by the arguments. "You were not living under prison conditions, and you could have left at any time to face due process with the rights and protections which the legal system in this country provides," she said.
Assange's prison sentence fell two weeks short of the 12-month maximum.
Supporters of the 47-year-old, who see him as a light shining truth on government abuses of power, shouted "Free Julian Assange" as the van that transported him left Southwark Crown Court.
Protesters congregated nearby, criticizing the mainstream media and reportedly repeating the words "Shame on you" to the judge.
Assange had been wanted for questioning about allegations of rape and sexual misconduct, and he had faced extradition to Sweden, but Ecuador granted him asylum. He has maintained that he is innocent. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2019 | ['(NPR)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Michaëlle Jean is sworn in as the 27th Governor General of Canada, replacing Adrienne Clarkson. | Below the high arches of the Senate chamber and amid even higher expectations, Michaëlle Jean was installed as Canada’s 27th Governor General.
In a speech that indirectly rebuked Quebec sovereignists and appealed to Canadians' generosity, the new Governor Generalsaid, "We must eliminate the spectre of all the solitudes ... and promote solidarity among all the citizens who make up the Canada of today."
During a ceremony marked by the traditional pageantry of scarlet-coated honour guards, military bands and a 21-gun salute, Prime Minister Paul Martin spoke of how Jean's family came to Canada fleeing a dictatorship in her native Haiti. “Your life,” the prime minister said to Jean, “is a profound expression of what being a Canadian means.”
Jean's first speech as Governor General was highly personal. "I know how precious ... freedom is," Jean told parliamentarians, senior members of the judiciary, the military and friends and family crowded into the Senate Chamber. "I, whose ancestors were slaves, who was born into a civilization long reduced to whispers and cries of pain, I know something about its price."
Moments after Jean took the oath, there was extended applause and even cheers in the august Senate chamber. After her installation, Jean greeted hundreds of people as she moved to the front doors of Parliament. Under bright skies, she inspected members of the Royal 22nd Regiment. Then she and her husband, Jean Daniel Lafond, entered the Governor General's horse-drawn landau and left for their official residence, Rideau Hall. Jean’s installation coincides with the release of an opinion poll commissioned by CTV and the Globe and Mail. It found that 46 per cent of Canadians, and 71 per cent of people in Quebec, think Jean is a good replacement for the former governor general, Adrienne Clarkson.
The pollsters interviewed 1,000 people last week. In an unusual move, Clarkson was present at the installation and spoke briefly to Jean as she entered the chamber. She also received a standing ovation from the audience when Martin formally thanked her for her six years of service. Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul, now return to private life in Toronto. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2005 | ['(CBCUnlocked)'] |
Cruise ship Carnival Triumph suffers a fire in the aft engine room. The fire is automatically extinguished, but it results in a loss of power and propulsion. There are no casualties or injuries to passengers or crew. | UPDATE, 8:22 pm ET: Carnival says the Carnival Triumph will be towed to Progreso, Mexico, the nearest port to its location, in a process that will take several days. The line says it expects the ship to arrive in Progreso on Wednesday afternoon. Passengers then will be flown home. Carnival also has canceled the next two sailings of the vessel.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
(4:29 pm ET) -- A Carnival cruise ship in the Caribbean is operating on emergency power in the wake of an engine room fire.
The 102,000-ton Carnival Triumph was sailing approximately 150 miles off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula earlier today when the blaze broke out in the aft engine room. The fire was extinguished with the help of the ship's automatic fire suppression systems, but the vessel is now without propulsion.
In a statement sent to USA TODAY, Carnival says no casualties or injuries to passengers or crew have been reported.
"The ship's technical crew is continuing to assess the damage and attempting to restore power," Carnival says in the statement. "In the meantime, a tugboat is being dispatched to the ship's location in the event it is needed. All appropriate authorities including U.S. Coast Guard have been notified."
RELATED:Five dead in cruise ship accidentPHOTO TOUR:Look inside a Carnival ship
There are 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew on board the ship.
Today's incident comes two years after a fire left Carnival's 113,000-ton Carnival Splendor without power and adrift for days off the coast of Mexico. Passengers on that ship went long periods without air conditioning, hot food and working toilets in what Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill called an extremely trying situation. The vessel eventually was towed to San Diego.
Carnival says passengers on the Carnival Triumph have been asked to remain in the ship's public areas and open decks. They're being provided with food and refreshments.
Carnival also says that all passengers on the vessel will receive a full refund for the trip, a four-night sailing to Mexico out of Galveston, Texas. The voyage began Thursday and had been scheduled to end in Galveston on Monday morning.
The next voyage of the Carnival Triumph, scheduled to begin tomorrow, has been delayed.
"Carnival has contacted guests booked on the next voyage ... to make them aware of the situation and advise that tomorrow's voyage will not depart as scheduled," the line says in the statement. "Guests have the option of cancelling now and receiving a full refund or waiting for further information to determine if a shortened, partial voyage may be possible. Further updates will be provided as information becomes available." | Fire | February 2013 | ['(ABC News)', '(USA Today)'] |
Two people in Vernon Parish, Louisiana and five in Texas die during Hurricane Laura, bringing the national death toll to 27. The two people in Louisiana died due to heat-related illness while removing debris. | by: KLFY Staff This aerial view shows damage to a neighborhood by Hurricane Laura outside of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on August 27. – Hurricane Laura slammed into the southern US state of Louisiana Thursday and the monster category 4 storm prompted warnings of “unsurvivable” ocean surges and evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said “extremely dangerous” Laura would bring winds of 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour) and “destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage” to Louisiana and Texas.
BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — The Louisiana Department of Health on Friday verifies two additional deaths tied to Hurricane Laura, bringing the state’s current death toll to 22.A 41-year-old man and a 47-year-old man died due to heat-related illnesses while removing debris following the storm. Both deaths were in Vernon Parish.
A 59-year-old male in Calcasieu Parish died after being struck on the head by a falling tree limb.Below are details on the 22 deaths LDH has verified to date:
In an effort to ensure the most accurate reporting of deaths that are attributable to Hurricane Laura, the Louisiana Department of Health will only report a death after it has been confirmed as storm-related by the parish coroner.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2020 | ['(KLFY)', '(NBC News)'] |
Voters in Greenland go to the polls for a parliamentary election. | GREENLAND is voting in an election focused on the vast Arctic island's untapped mineral resources that promises to be a close race between incumbent Prime Minister, left-winger Kuupik Kleist and social democrat Aleqa Hammond.
The election on Tuesday, called by Kleist after four years in power, takes place as the self-governing Danish territory begins to take centre stage in the hunt for some of the world's rarest earth minerals.
Polls on the island -- which despite its huge size, has only 57,000 inhabitants -- have mostly put Kleist, leader of the Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party, neck and neck with his Siumut party rival.
Though Greenland is still predominantly covered in permafrost, the gradual melting of its glaciers means hitherto untapped resources are becoming more accessible.
Though both candidates agree that the territory's natural resources need exploiting, their difference in opinion over how to do it could determine who wins.
Kleist is keen to attract foreign investment to the potentially mineral-rich country, recently pushing through legislation known as the "Large-Scale" law which gives special rights to foreign companies investing more than five billion kroner (670 million euros, $873 million) in big mining projects.
"We can no longer base our economy on fisheries alone. We must get the mineral sector and industry moving," Kleist told reporters in the capital Nuuk, according to the website of weekly newspaper Sermitsiaq.
But his rival Hammond says the country needs to ensure it benefits from government revenue raised from natural resources that include rare earth minerals, uranium and oil.
"The most important thing for us is to introduce royalties on our raw materials. Siumut is canvassing for greater demands on foreign companies," Hammond told reporters, adding that her party wanted more democratic involvement for all Greenlanders, including those in sparse settlements in outlying regions.
The law has worried some critics in Copenhagen, which sees it as tailoring employment laws to the needs of investors in China, who plan to introduce some 2,000 Chinese workers into new mining ventures.
Kleist told AFP last month that the new law was fully in keeping with all international conventions.
The electoral race has been considered a tight one though the latest poll on Saturday of 1,817 voters, or 4.5 per cent of the electorate, gave Hammond's Siumut party a surprise clear lead over IA, with 45.2 per cent of the vote compared to 32.3 per cent for Kleist's party.
The Social Liberal Demokraatit party garnered 7.9 per cent, the Inuit party 7.4 per cent and the liberal Atassut party had 6.3 per cent of the vote.
Greenland's 31-member legislature has full control over its natural resources, under a 2009 extended self-rule act.
Meanwhile Denmark, which transfers over three billion kroner in subsidies to the territory each year, maintains control of foreign policy and defence.
Originally published asMinerals dominate Greenland election
| Government Job change - Election | March 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(AAP via News Limited)'] |
A motorist opens fire and attempts to breach the perimeter of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, injuring a security guard, before being shot and killed. FBI officials determine the incident to be terrorism-related and say a second person of interest may be at large. The shooter is later identified as a Syria-born man who expressed support for ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. | A shooting that injured one security guard at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas on Thursday has been determined to be terrorism-related, FBI officials said.
The shooter was shot dead, but a second person of interest may be at-large, the FBI said.
"The public should remain calm, and if you see something, say something," FBI officials said.
ABC News has learned the shooting suspect has been identified as Adam Alsahli, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation.
The shooting unfolded at about 6:15 a.m. local time when the suspect sped through a gate, activating vehicle barriers, which stopped the car, a defense official told ABC News.
The driver then got out of the car and began shooting, before being "neutralized," the defense official said.
"We have determined that the incident this morning at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is terrorism-related," said Leah Greeves of the FBI. "They are working diligently with local, state and federal partners on the investigation, which is fluid and evolving."
"Electronic media" was discovered at the scene, said Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec.
Investigators are still working at the scene to go through the suspect’s car with a robot.
“The Department of Justice’s counterterrorism section is working closely with the FBI, the U.S. Attorneys Office in SDTX and other federal and local authorities to expeditiously investigate the circumstances of this event and all available evidence," Kupec said.
The security guard suffered minor injuries and was released from the hospital later in the day, Navy officials said. | Armed Conflict | May 2020 | ['(ABC News)', '(CNN)'] |
Anthrax kills 30 hippopotamuses in Uganda. | KAMPALA - ANTHRAX has killed at least 30 hippopotamuses in a popular Ugandan game park that saw a similar outbreak six years ago, officials said on Wednesday. Tom Okello, conservation area manager at Queen Elizabeth National Park, a much-visited safari destination, said 10 of the hulking semi-aquatic animals were found dead over one half-day period alone. 'This was something that we had seen before, so I knew immediately that we had to get the blood samples tested,' he said, recalling a 2004 outbreak that claimed around 300 hippos around a small lake in the park. 'When anthrax is involved, the blood doesn't clot. That is the reason we have to act very fast,' he said. Anthrax emanates from spore-forming bacteria in soil along a lakeshore. It can be contracted by wildlife through open wounds; flesh-eating vultures and big cats in the park can also spread the illness. Sections of the park frequented by tourists are unaffected, but Okello warned that the threat is not fully contained. 'At this time it is just localised, but you never how these things can spread,' he said. -- AFP | Disease Outbreaks | June 2010 | ['(The Straits Times)'] |
Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden's former driver, is sentenced to 66 months in prison for war crimes. | GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba Rejecting a prosecution request for a severe sentence, a panel of military officers sentenced the convicted former driver for Osama bin Laden to five and a half years in prison on Thursday. The sentence means that the first detainee convicted after a war crimes trial here could complete his punishment by the end of this year.
The military judge, Capt. Keith J. Allred of the Navy, had already said that he planned to give the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, credit for at least the 61 months he has been held since being charged, out of more than six years in all. That would bring Mr. Hamdan to the end of his criminal sentence in five months. After that his fate is unclear, because the Bush administration says that it can hold detainees here until the end of the war on terror.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2008 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
NATO and the European Union urge an immediate end to the violence in South Ossetia. | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO and the European Union expressed serious concern about fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in Georgia’s South Ossetia region on Friday and urged an immediate end to the violence.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called for direct talks between the parties.
“We are very closely following the situation, and the NATO Secretary General calls on all sides for an immediate end of the armed clashes and calls for direct talks between the parties,” a NATO statement said.
A spokesman for EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana said the EU was very concerned by how the situation was evolving. “We repeat our message to all parties to immediately stop the violence,” he said.
Fighting raged around the capital of South Ossetia on Friday as Georgian troops and warplanes pounded separatist forces in a bid to re-take control of the territory.
The crisis has fuelled fears of full-blown war in a region emerging as a key energy transit route and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.
Georgia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, has angered Russia by allying itself with the West and pushing to join NATO. It lies at the heart of the Caucasus -- an unstable region which hosts a pipeline pumping oil to Europe from Asia.
The European Union said it was in contact with international partners including Russia, the United States, Georgia and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) about the situation.
Solana discussed South Ossetia by telephone with Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili on Thursday, including the latter’s offer of a ceasefire, an EU statement said.
The EU has reiterated its willingness to take a greater role in peace efforts.
| Riot | August 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Fifteen security personnel are killed when Boko Haram ambush a convoy of vehicles in which government officials were driven in Borno State, Nigeria. | ABUJA, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 Nigerian security personnel were killed when Boko Haram group ambushed a convoy of vehicles in which government officials were driven in the northeastern state of Borno, local media reported on Saturday.
The attack near Monguno town in the restive northern state occurred on Friday while the officials were on their way to Baga, another town, where hundreds of returning Internally Displaced Persons were to be received.
Eight policemen, three soldiers, and four Civilian Joint Task Force personnel died in the attack, local online newspaper Premium Times reported, citing security sources.
The security team was deployed to provide escort to the local officials.
Channels Television, a local broadcaster, also reported that an armored personnel carrier belonging to the police, as well as state government vehicles, were hijacked in the attack.
The attack on Friday was the second of its kind in that northern state, stirring great concern. The Monguno area in Borno is believed to be dangerous and has witnessed many abductions by the terrorist group in the past.
Nigerian authorities are yet to react to the latest Boko Haram attack.
Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, extending its attacks to countries in the Lake Chad Basin. Enditem | Armed Conflict | September 2020 | ['(Xinhua)'] |
The death toll in El Salvador's floods and mudslides reaches 140. | SAN SALVADOR, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The death toll from flooding and mudslides in El Salvador triggered by the passage of Hurricane Ida jumped to 124 people, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes said in a national radio broadcast.
Funes described the disaster as "a tragedy" and said the damage sustained by the Central American country was "incalculable." (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Robert Campbell, editing by Philip Barbara) | Floods | November 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Sky News)', '(Reuters)'] |
Conflict in Iraq: At least 60 people die following a series of bombings throughout Iraq. | The deadliest bombings were in Tikrit, where at least 33 died, and the town of Hawija, where at least 32 were killed.
Suicide bombings and shootings rocked Baghdad, killing at least four people.
The attacks continue an upsurge in violence that has claimed more than 400 lives since the start of May, as US forces fight rebels in the west.
I was standing near the centre and all of a sudden it turned into a scene of dead bodies and pools of blood Police Sgt Khalaf Abbas, Hawija
In pictures: Slaughter in Iraq
Press mulls rising violence
Laith Kubba, an Iraqi government spokesman, told the BBC that rebels were lashing out wildly, knowing their "days are numbered".
But the insurgency appears to be gathering pace rather than running out of steam, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says.
The attacks came a day after the US Senate unanimously approved an emergency spending bill authorising a further $82bn for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other activities.
Police targets
Wednesday's wave of bombings began in the northern city of Tikrit - Saddam Hussein's hometown, which is dominated by Iraq's minority Sunni Muslim community. At least 33 people were killed and about 70 injured in a car bombing in a crowded marketplace, police said.
The bomber had apparently been targeting a police station, but police forced him to swerve into the market.
Almost all the dead are said to be Shia Muslim civilians who had gathered to look for work.
Ibrahim Mohammad, a migrant worker who saw the explosion, called it "a tragedy", Reuters news agency reported.
"Some [bodies] were burned, some were ripped to pieces."
The militant group Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the Tikrit attack, saying it was aimed at migrant workers employed by a nearby US base.
Baghdad saw suicide car bombings and an attack on a convoy
At least 32 people were killed and dozens wounded soon afterwards, when a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body hit a police and army recruitment centre in the northern town of Hawija.
The bomber reportedly mingled with recruits before setting off his explosives, a tactic that has been used at least twice before in recent weeks, our correspondent says.
"I was standing near the centre and all of a sudden it turned into a scene of dead bodies and pools of blood," police Sgt Khalaf Abbas told the Associated Press news agency by telephone.
"Windows were blown out in nearby houses, leaving the street covered by glass."
Some casualties were taken to Kirkuk, the nearest city, because Hawija does not have the means to care for them, AP reported.
Kidnappings
There were also at least four explosions in Baghdad, including a suicide car bombing in the Dura district that killed three people other than the bomber and injured at least eight.
HIGH-PROFILE KIDNAPS Akihiko SaitoContractor, Japanese Raja NawafGovernor of Anbar, Iraqi Mohammad Jalal SalehSecurity chief, Iraqi Douglas WoodEngineer, Australian Marie Jeanne Ion, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, Ovidiu Ohanesian Journalists, Romanian
Florence Aubenas Journalist, France
Jeffrey AkeContractor, US
Baghdad was also the scene of an attack on a police patrol in the Mansour district that killed two policemen and a civilian, Reuters reported.
It was unclear if a third car bombing, and a roadside bomb aimed at a US convoy, caused any deaths.
Not since 28 February - when 125 people died in a massive car bombing in Hilla - have insurgents killed so many Iraqis in a single day.
US forces have been mounting a major counter-insurgency operation in the western province of Anbar, where they say they have killed about 100 rebels in the past several days.
The insurgents deny suffering such heavy losses.
The governor of Anbar was kidnapped on Tuesday and rebels have demanded that the US stop its operations.
A number of foreigners are also being held hostage - among them an Australian engineer seized in Baghdad in late April and a Japanese security contractor captured on Sunday. | Armed Conflict | May 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Student activist Parit Chiwarak is released on bail after being arrested on Friday for co-organising a rally in July. He was charged with violating the COVID-19 measures and breaching internal security. Protests have been taking place in Thailand since July against the government. Parit Chiwarak has said he will continue to protest against the government and for reforms in the Thai monarchy. | BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai student activist vowed on Saturday to continue to protest against the government and demand reform of the monarchy after being detained overnight on charges related to a demonstration last month and released on bail.
Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, 22, was arrested on Friday and charged with breaching internal security rules and breaking regulations to stop the spread of coronavirus among other charges, by co-organising a protest on July 18.
Since that protest in July, university and high school student groups around Thailand have rallied almost daily, demanding for the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who first took power in a 2014 military coup, and an end to the military domination of politics.
Some students have also demanded reforms to the powerful monarchy, once a taboo subject.
Parit told reporters at the court that he had been ordered not to re-offend as a condition of his bail, but that the director-general of the court had agreed that he could take part in a major protest planned for Sunday.
“My arrest must not be wasted, people must talk more publicly about the monarchy,” Parit said after reciting a 10-point call for monarchy reform issued earlier this week by one of the student group.
“We have lifted the ceiling, there is no lowering it now.”
The monarchy is protected by a strict lese majeste law that punishes anyone who offends King Maha Vajiralongkorn or his family, but Prime Minister Prayuth said earlier this year that the king had asked for it not be used.
Prayuth appealed for national unity earlier this week but also said some of the student activist demands on the monarchy “went too far.”
Last week two other activists were arrested and later released on similar charges to Parit, and Human Rights Watch said the criminal court has issued arrest warrants for 12 others for organising the July 18 protest.
Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um, Editing by Matthew Tostevin & Shri Navaratnam
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 - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Voters in Azerbaijan go to the polls for a presidential election with incumbent President Ilham Aliyev expected to be elected amid concerns about the fairness of the election. | Azerbaijan elects a president on Wednesday in what human rights organisations say is a stifling atmosphere of intimidation.
Ilham Aliyev, who has run the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic since he succeeded his father 10 years ago, is standing for a third term.
During his presidency, allegations of high-level corruption, the subversion of democracy and the stifling of dissent have been rife, with reports of politically motivated arrests shooting up drastically in the last two years.
The pre-election period has, nonetheless, been a relatively calm one. But it is "post-election disorder" that worries the authorities, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a recent report. Riots over corruption in regions like Ismayilli and Quba in January were seen as a sign of major public discontent with regional governors and, in effect, the ruling elite. In Ismayilli, the governor's son's car and hotel were set on fire after he reportedly insulted the residents.
It was a small wave of unrest, but clearly worried the authorities and the repercussions continue. Ilgar Mammadov, a human rights defender and leader of the political movement ReAL who went to the region after the unrest erupted, was charged in February with causing mass unrest.
While his trial is pending, he put forward his candidacy for the elections - which was rejected due to "invalid signatures". Mr Mammadov is one of 14 people described by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience in Azerbaijan.
Human rights organisations put the number of political prisoners between the tens and the hundreds.
Seven of them are leading members of the youth movement Nida, who were detained in April while protesting against corruption and face charges of causing mass unrest and possessing illegal firearms.
They are known for their frequent posts on Facebook and Twitter about alleged government corruption and human rights abuses. Azeri political analyst Rashad Shirinov told the BBC that Nida was "one of the most active and vivid youth forces" in the country and could have had an impact on the campaign had its leader not been arrested.
Around the same time as the Nida arrests, Dashgin Melikov, an asthmatic young activist critical of the government, was also charged with illegal drugs possession and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Until last week, he was a member of one of two major opposition parties, the Azerbaijani Popular Front.
But then in an open letter he wrote from prison, Mr Melikov renounced his party and declared his support for Ilham Aliyev. His father told BBC Azeri that his son's illness was a factor in his decision - and that he had been promised freedom in return. The government insists that nobody is imprisoned for their political activities, and that their activism does not mean that they are not criminals. Yet according to Human Rights Watch, the Azerbaijani authorities use "spurious drug possession charges to lock up political activists critical of the government" ahead of the elections.
The main competition to Ilham Aliyev comes from former MP Professor Jamil Hasanli, a candidate from the National Council opposition bloc. For the first time in more than two decades the in-fighting within the main opposition, already seen as weak, was put aside to choose a single candidate. According to Shirinov, this in itself is an achievement.
He says that there are a number of fake candidates, installed by the ruling elite to confuse the citizenry, to counter the opposition's candidate. "This is very visible during the TV debates when all other candidates attack Jamil Hasanli," he says.
A spokesman for the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, Aydin Mirzazadeh, dismisses these allegations, saying that every vote for another candidate is a vote against the government, and Azerbaijan's Central Election Committee (CEC) boasts of pluralism.
But one of the main election observers, the OSCE, has been critical of the election environment from the start, saying there has been little substantive debate, unjustified restriction of freedom of speech and imbalanced media coverage. In addition to Ilgar Mammadov's disqualification, a second prominent candidate, popular cinematographer Rustam Ibrahimbayov, has been barred because of his dual Russian citizenship.
Ilham Aliyev changed the constitution through a referendum in 2009 which got rid of the two-term limit for presidents, allowing him to stand for re-election this year.
The opposition, however, argues that the candidacy is invalid because the constitution was changed after Mr Aliyev was sworn in as president in his second term.
Prof Hasanli has formally complained to the CEC, with sources close to him saying the case will go "to the highest courts".
Observers believe there is only one conceivable outcome from the election - another term for President Aliyev.
Yet after the unprecedented outbursts of violence against corruption in Azerbaijan's regions, it is the period immediately after the election that will determine how popular Ilham Aliyev really is.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites
The co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps on Tuesday was in sole control of plane and intentionally started its descent, officials say.
Tuesday's devastating attacks in Brussels show IS's European network is still at large, despite a year of intensive efforts by security forces to close it down.
| Government Job change - Election | October 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
A powerful tornado hits Chongqing municipality in south–western China, killing at least 25 and injuring more than 160 people in Dianjiang and Liangping counties. | State media report fatalities caused by storm, floods and landslides
Severe storms and a tornado have killed at least 39 people near the city of Chongqing in south-western China.
State news agency Xinhua reported that at least 150 others were injured after heavy rain, a hail storm, gales and a tornado struck two rural districts. Rescue work was underway in Liangping and Dianjiang districts, Xinhua said, and some 70,000 people were temporarily evacuated from areas near Chongqing. The storms destroyed some 1,000 homes, damaged crops, and caused power cuts. Local reports said almost 1,000 homes in Chongqing - a municipality of more than 30 million people - had partially collapsed and thousands more were damaged. A nurse at a hospital in the area told the BBC that equipment was damaged when power was lost. She said she could see several uprooted trees and houses with broken windows. The BBC's South China correspondent, Chris Hogg, says most of the houses damaged were the older type of Chinese dwellings with tiled roofs. Most of the roofs blew off and the weaker houses collapsed. Up to 157mm (6.5in) of rain had fallen in parts of the region from late Wednesday to Thursday afternoon, the China News Service said. The storms were caused by a heatwave from the south colliding with a northern cold front, it added. The worst affected area reported winds of more than 100km/h (62mph). Local government has told the BBC it will take two days to restore power. Our correspondent says tornadoes which kill are relatively rare in China. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2010 | ['(The Independent)', '(BBC)', '(news.com.au)', '(China Daily)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Mount Nyamuragira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo erupts, threatening rare wildlife in the Virunga National Park. | Mount Nyamulagira erupted early Saturday in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo near the city of Goma, threatening rare wildlife species in the surrounding Virunga National Park, according to wildlife officials. But the eruption does not pose a danger to Goma, a local government said.
In an interview with the AFP news service, Feller Lutaitchirwa, the vice governor of Goma, said the city appeared to be out of harm’s way.
Mount Nyamulagira erupted in 2002, destroying much of Goma, and is about 22 kilometres away from the city, which is on the Rwandan border.
Lutaitchirwa also told AFP that the eruption started at 1:07 am local time, and that the lava is heading in the direction of Virunga National Park. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to critically-endangered mountain gorillas.
Wildlife experts however say the mountain gorillas are safe as they live further east. But about 40 endangered chimpanzees and other animals living in the area are threatened, according to park officials. | Volcano Eruption | January 2010 | ['(France 24)', '(BBC)'] |
A Boeing 737 crashes shortly after taking off from Havana, Cuba, with 104 passengers and nine crew on board. Only three people are reported to have survived the crash. One survivor later dies from her injuries. , | More than 100 people have died after a Boeing 737 airliner crashed near Cuba's main airport in Havana, the country's worst air disaster in decades.
Three women were pulled alive from the wreckage, but are said to be in a critical condition. The plane, which was nearly 40 years old, was carrying 105 passengers and six crew members.
Cuban authorities have launched an investigation, and two days of national mourning have been declared.
The Boeing 737-201 crashed at 12:08 (16:08 GMT) on Friday, shortly after taking off from Havana on an internal flight to Holguin on the east of the island.
All six crew members on board were Mexican and the majority of the passengers were Cuban, with five foreigners reported to be among them.
"There has been an unfortunate aviation accident. The news is not very promising, it seems that there is a high number of victims," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said after visiting the crash site.
It's too early to say what caused the crash, but eyewitnesses on the ground describe seeing the jet burst into flames before crashing into a field close to a wooded area near Havana's main airport.
"I saw it taking off," supermarket worker Jose Luis told the AFP news agency. "All of a sudden, it made a turn, and went down. We were all amazed."
"We heard an explosion and then saw a big cloud of smoke go up," Gilberto Menendez, who runs a restaurant near the crash site, told Reuters.
Mexico's transport department said on its website that "during take-off (the plane) apparently suffered a problem and dived to the ground".
Boeing said that it was ready to send a technical team to Cuba, "as permitted under US law and at the direction of the US National Transportation Safety Board and Cuban authorities". A US trade embargo has been in force against Cuba for many decades.
Four people survived the crash but one died after being transported to hospital, the director of Havana's Calixto Garcia hospital, Carlos Alberto Martinez, told Reuters.
The three survivors are all women, according to Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma: one aged between 18 and 25, one in her thirties and the third aged 39. "She is alive but very burnt," one of the women's relatives at the hospital told Reuters.
Both the Argentine and Mexican governments have confirmed nationals from their countries were among the dead.
The plane had been leased to state airline Cubana de Aviación by the Mexican company Aerolineas Damojh.
The Mexican authorities said the plane was built in 1979 and had been successfully inspected last November. Mexico has said it was sending two civil aviation specialists to join the investigation.
Aerolineas Damojh, also known as Global Air, has three planes in operation.
According to industry research, last year was the safest in history for commercial airline travel with no passenger jet crashes. But there have been several serious air disasters this year.
Cuba's deadliest air crash was in 1989, when a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62M passenger plane crashed near Havana killing 126 people on board and another 24 people on the ground. | Air crash | May 2018 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
Hewlett–Packard announces plans to cut 24,600 jobs. | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co plans to cut 7.5 percent of its work force, or 24,600 jobs, seeking to realize savings from its recent acquisition of Electronic Data Systems Corp, the company said on Monday.
Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd smiles at a press conference announcing his appointment at HP headquarters in Palo Alto, California March 30, 2005. REUTERS/Lou Dematteis
HP said it would carry out the cutbacks over the next three years, while replacing about half the jobs in new areas of its services business. It announced the plan ahead of a meeting with Wall Street analysts to detail the merger plans.
Nearly half of the job reductions will take place in the United States, the Palo Alto, California-based company said.
EDS was headquartered in Plano, Texas, near Dallas.
“We are good at integrating companies ... I believe we will do it well,” HP Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Hurd told financial analysts at the company’s headquarters.
The $13.2 billion acquisition of EDS, a deal announced in May and closed in August, made HP the world’s second largest provider of technology services, up from No. 5 previously.
Arch rival IBM is No. 1 in computer services, and HP’s strategy takes aim at this dominance.
The deal bolsters HP’s business in the United States and Britain, two strong market for EDS, both among commercial clients and in government agencies.
EDS also gives HP the No. 1 position in “applications management” -- providing maintenance and outsourced management of older software systems.
HP said it would take a charge of $1.7 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter ending in October. Accounting for goodwill will cost $1.4 billion, while cost of the restructuring will involve anther $300 million.
HP estimated $1.8 billion in annual cost savings once the three-year cost-cutting program is completed.
HP’s shares fell 3.5 percent to close at $45.33 ahead of the analysts’ meeting Monday afternoon, amid a broad sell-off.
Following the news, HP shares edged up 11 cents to trade at $45.44 in after-hours trading.
Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP’s Technology Solutions Group, told the meeting the merger with EDS would help the company compete more aggressively for big business customers in a market that will be worth $451 billion by 2010.
She said the combination of HP and EDS position the combined company to play a disruptive role in the computer and technical services market, now dominated by IBM.
HP is well positioned to provide companies looking to cut the costs of managing their technical systems through services such as virtualization and server automation.
The company can also attack the fast-growing centralized data center market with its market-leading position in blade servers and heavy investments in recent years in network management software, she said.
“This is a market looking to be disrupted,” Livermore said. “We have got ourselves positioned to be where the market is moving ... The core trends are very much playing to HP’s strengths.”.
At the time the merger was announced in May, HP counted 178,000 employees on its books and EDS had 142,000 employees.
Including the value of common stock, options and restricted stock units, the enterprise value of the deal totals $13.9 billion. The deal closed last month.
Hewlett-Packard said the vast majority of the cuts would focus on eliminating overlapping jobs at EDS in corporate functions such as legal, accounting, information technology and human resources, as well as excess office space.
Work-force reduction plans will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultation with works councils and employee representatives, HP said.
Reporting by Eric Auchard, editing by Richard Chang, Gary Hill
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Six people are killed in an attack by Somali militants in police posts over the Kenyan border. | At least six people have been killed in an attack by Somali militants on police posts over the Kenyan border, the Kenyan police have said.
At least two of the victims of the attack on the Abdisugow and Damajale posts were policemen.
A spokesman for the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab said it carried out the attack and that eight people had been killed.
An African Union force has weakened al-Shabab's power in Somalia in recent years but it still mounts border raids.
Al-Shabab, or "The Youth" in Arabic, has imposed a strict version of Sharia law in areas under its control in Somalia. It has been forced from towns and cities but still runs many rural areas.
David Kimaiyo, inspector general of Kenyan police, told the Associated Press news agency that six people were still missing after the attack on Saturday night.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabab's military operations spokesman, told Reuters news agency: "We have gone 35km (21 miles) into Kenya and burnt their base, Damajale, last night."
An al-Shabab social media posting said two people had been captured and taken into Somalia.
Albert Kimathi, district commissioner for the Dadaab area, confirmed the two attacks on police posts.
Mr Kimaiyo said: "We will pursue the attackers to the end."
Militants have staged numerous cross-border attacks since Kenya decided in October 2011 to send troops into Somalia to confront them.
The Kenyans form part of the African Union peacekeeping force that has weakened al-Shabab's power bases.
| Armed Conflict | May 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
EU finance ministers reach an agreement on reforming bank capital rules. | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers reached an agreement on Friday on reforming bank capital rules, a major step towards boosting the bloc’s financial stability and a stepping stone towards a deal on a backstop for its bank-rescue fund in June.
The accord came after 18 months of heated debate among the 28 EU governments on how to apply new global bank capital rules that overhauled financial regulations after the 2007-2009 global crisis.
It paves the way for another breakthrough on the bloc’s bank rescue fund, which ministers committed on Friday to equip with a backstop, although the final decision will be made only in June.
The two measures are seen as interlinked because the banking capital rules are expected to reduce bank risk, which would allow more sharing of risk among euro zone countries in the form of a common backstop to prop up the sector’s rescue facility, known as Single Resolution Fund.
Germany’s Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said after the meeting that the deal was a good start that would provide momentum towards further progress in the area.
Under the accord, which must be approved by EU lawmakers, European banks will have to abide by a new set of requirements aimed at keeping their lending in check and ensuring they have stable funding sources.
Germany and France fully backed the deal, others accepted it with some reservations. Italy and Greece, which abstained, said the deal on capital rules should be matched by an agreement on sharing banking risk by June.
Italy’s position, although in line with past statements, was partly dictated by the fact that it has yet to form a government after inconclusive elections in March.
Under the deal, the euro zone’s agency for troubled banks, the Single Resolution Board, will be given a clearer mandate to set the level of capital buffers that banks should hold against the risk of failure.
The so-called Minimum Requirement for own funds and Eligible Liabilities (MREL), which introduces into EU legislation the global standard known as Total Loss Absorbing Capacity (TLAC), will be set at 8 percent of large banks’ total liabilities and own funds.
The SRB will, however, be able to require higher buffers for banks it deems insufficiently safe, or a lower buffer for better capitalised institutions.
Ministers agreed on a more favourable capital treatment for large banks in countries that belong to the bloc's banking union, such as France's BNP Paribas BNPP.PA, Netherlands' ING INGA.AS and Italy's Unicredit CRDI.MI, as their exposure to other countries in the bloc will be treated as a safer domestic exposure. The agreement “will allow our banks to better finance households and firms in France and in Europe,” the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
However, Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond and ministers from smaller EU states said that departure from global standards could heighten risk.
The new rules would also require large foreign banks to set up intermediate parent undertakings (IPUs) that would bring their EU operations under a single holding company. The move effectively mirrors U.S. rules and is seen as crucial to protecting the bloc’s financial stability against risks posed by major banks.
In a minor concession to reluctant states, ministers reiterated their intent to reach an agreement on a state-funded backstop for the euro zone’s bank-funded Single Resolution Fund.
The fund is currently equipped with 17 billion euros ($19.9 billion), but that is not considered enough to cope with a larger banking crisis.
The backstop is expected to be provided by the euro zone’s state-backed bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism.
Another measure of risk sharing, a common insurance of covered bank deposits, is still far from being agreed, despite being a pillar of the banking union, the EU’s flagship project to strengthen its banking sector after years of crisis.
| Sign Agreement | May 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Iran hangs Javid Dehghan, the former leader of the Salafi jihadist group Jaish ul-Adl, for the murder of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. | (Reuters) - Iran executed on Saturday an ethnic Baluch militant convicted of killing Revolutionary Guards members, the judiciary’s official website reported, a day after the United Nations urged Iranian authorities to spare his life.
The Mizan site said Javid Dehghan, who it said was a leader of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, was hanged for shooting dead two Guards five years ago in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province.
In a tweet on Friday, the United Nations human rights office called for a halt to Dehghan’s imminent execution and condemned “a series of executions – at least 28 – since mid-December, including of people from minority groups.”
World bodies and human rights groups have often criticised Iran for its rights record and large number of executions - the world’s highest after China, according to Amnesty International.
Amnesty said the court that convicted Dehghan relied on “torture-tainted ‘confessions’” and ignored serious abuses of due process by Revolutionary Guards agents and prosecution authorities during the investigation.
The impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has long been the scene of frequent clashes between security forces and Sunni militants and drug smugglers. The population of the province is predominantly Sunni Muslim, while most Iranians are Shi’ite.
Jaish al-Adl, which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent years on Iranian security forces in the province.
On Thursday, state media said an Iranian member of Islamic State was executed in southwestern Khuzestan province, home to many of Iran’s ethnic Arabs, for taking part in an attack that killed two paramilitary Basij militiamen.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Firefighters have contained about 80 percent of the 516-acre brush fire in Calabasas, California. Evacuation orders affecting at least 5,000 people in the Los Angeles area are being lifted. The fire started yesterday when a pickup truck struck a power pole. | Follow NBC News Firefighters made great progress battling a 516-acre brush fire Sunday in Calabasas, California, and evacuation orders were being lifted late in the day, fire officials said.
The fire burning in Calabasas was 80 percent contained, officials said early Sunday evening — a substantial increase from 30 percent in the morning.
But part of the fire was still burning in rugged terrain that was hard to access, and expected windy weather could spread the flames before the 400 firefighters battling the blaze have a chance to put them out, Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.
"We can drop all the water all day. It's got to be boots on the ground to make sure that fire's out," he said.
The fire, which is believed to have been sparked Saturday after a truck struck a utility pole, had scorched 516 acres, according to fire officials.
Some of the 5,000 people evacuated Saturday night were allowed to return Sunday morning, but they were warned that they might be returning to houses without power. Evacuation orders for other neighborhoods and communities were lifted at 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET).
LA Sheriff deputies grab garden hoses and start putting water as fire reaches the back of houses. Well done Sheriff!Officials said they didn't know exactly how many people didn't have power.
High temperatures and dry conditions caused hundreds of smaller fires to merge into one, Tripp said at a news conference Sunday. "We had fires flaring up all around — in front of us, behind us and on either side of us."
Officials originally said two homes had been damaged, but after inspection, they revised the number to one on Sunday afternoon. Another building — a camp event space — was destroyed, officials said.
Three firefighters had been injured since Saturday, Tripp said. Two suffered knee injuries, and one had a "cardiac event," he said.
Calabasas is a city of about 24,000 residents northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The city is home to several affluent gated communities and numerous celebrities, including the Kardashian family.
Sending thanks to Portia's brother Michael & all the rescue workers on the scene of this dangerous fire in Calabasas | Fire | June 2016 | ['(CNN)', '(NBC News)'] |
North Korea sentences American Kenneth Bae to 15 years of prison labor for "hostile acts" against the regime. The United States calls for amnesty. | The US has called on North Korea to release immediately an American citizen sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for alleged anti-government crimes.
Pae Jun-ho, known in the US as Kenneth Bae, was detained last year after entering North Korea as a tourist.
"We urge the DPRK [North Korea] to grant Mr Bae amnesty," a US State Department spokesman said.
Mr Pae's sentence came amid high tension between the US and North Korea, after Pyongyang's third nuclear test.
Mr Pae, believed to be a tour operator of Korean descent, was tried on 30 April. It is not known if he was immediately taken to jail after the sentencing.
On Wednesday, US state department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the country had "long standing concerns" about the lack of transparency and due process in North Korea's legal system and in Mr Pae's case.
"Now that [Mr Pae] has gone through a legal process we urge the DPRK to grant him amnesty and immediate release," Mr Ventrell said. Sweden, which represents the US in North Korea in the absence of diplomatic ties, had helped to provide counsel to Mr Pae, reports said. North Korean media reported last week that he had admitted charges of crimes against North Korea, including attempting to overthrow the government.
The 44-year-old was arrested in November as he entered the north-eastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea's border with China.
South Korea activists believe he was arrested for taking pictures of starving children.
The Associated Press news agency also reports that he is described by friends as a devout Christian. The sentence comes after several months of heightened tensions between the US and North Korea.
The UN expanded sanctions against the communist state in March, in the wake of its 12 February nuclear test and December long-range rocket launch. Pyongyang reacted angrily both to the measures and the annual US-South Korea military exercises, threatening to attack US military bases and cutting key hotlines with its southern neighbour.
Analysts suggest Pyongyang could be using the jailed American as leverage.
North Korea has arrested several US citizens in recent years, including journalists and Christians accused of proselytising.
They were released after intervention from high-profile American figures, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, both of whom went to Pyongyang.
Mr Carter has no plans to travel to North Korea to intervene in this case, a spokeswoman said.
"President Carter has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit," Deanna Congileo said in an email. North Korea defector Kwon Hyo-jin told Reuters he believes Mr Pae will not be incarcerated in a slave labour camp similar to the one Mr Kwon was locked up in for several years.
"If an American served jail together with North Korean inmates, which won't happen, he could tell them about capitalism or economic developments," Mr Kwon, who defected to South Korea in 2009, said.
"That would be the biggest mistake for North Korea."
As it happened: | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2013 | ['(The Australian)', '(BBC)'] |
ISIS militants blow up the Green Church in Tikrit, an important historic site in early Christianity. | Islamic State militants on Wednesday blew up an important site in early Christianity known as the Green Church in Tikrit. The group, also known as ISIS, has driven thousands of Christians and other religious minorities from their homes as it has consolidated its hold on a broad section of Syria and Iraq. It has destroyed or defaced several historic churches as well as many Muslim shrines that it considers prohibited by its puritanical version of Islam. After capturing the city of Mosul this summer, the Islamic State’s fighters took a sledgehammer to the tomb of the biblical figure Jonah. It replaced the cross above the historic St. Ephrem’s Cathedral in Mosul with its black jihadi flag, and it also destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary. | Armed Conflict | September 2014 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
At least twenty protesters some reports say as many as 500 are shot dead in Uzbekistan. Thirty soldiers have been taken hostage as a result. | President Islam Karimov blamed the violence on Islamic extremist "criminals". He said about 10 soldiers, and "many others", were killed.
However, witnesses said troops opened fire on unarmed civilians. Some said they had seen at least 200 bodies.
The government said it was back in control of the city on Saturday, and had retaken administrative buildings.
But huge crowds were on the streets, shouting "killers, murderers" and demanding the president step down.
"What kind of government is this?" one of the protesters said to the Associated Press.
"People were raising their hands up in the air showing they were without arms but soldiers were still shooting at them."
'Bodies on trucks'
The violence erupted after days of peaceful protest in the eastern city of Andijan, against the imprisonment of 23 local business leaders accused of Islamic extremism.
A mob reportedly seized arms from a local garrison, before raiding the prison where the men were held and freeing them, along with thousands of other inmates.
UZBEK TENSIONS
Most populous central Asian former Soviet republic, home to 26m people
Ruled since independence in 1991 by autocrat Islam Karimov
Accused by rights groups of serious human rights abuses, including torture
Rocked by violence in capital Tashkent in 2004
Government says radical Islamic groups behind violence
Tough regime's unlikely allies
What lies behind protests?
Media clampdown stifles news
They also took control of administrative buildings in the city and took government workers hostage, according to reports.
Just before dusk, troops moved in and opened fire on the crowds in the city square.
Men, women and children fled in panic. One woman spoke of "indiscriminate firing", and said she saw "bloody corpses" lying in a ditch.
Helicopters hovered overhead as cars and buildings burned, reports said.
President Karimov told a press conference that the unrest was planned by Islamic militants linked with the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir movement, who wanted to overthrow the government.
He said the leaders of the uprising had been on the phone to Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan during the siege.
"Their aims are hatred and aversion to the secular path of development. These are unacceptable for us," he said.
President Karimov blamed the violence on Islamic militants
On Saturday civilians dragged six bodies from an abandoned administrative building, placing them at the foot of a nearby monument to an Uzbek poet.
Witnesses said they had seen troops loading dozens of bodies onto trucks.
Hospital officials told the BBC that at least 50 had died and many more were wounded throughout the day. The city appeared calmer on Saturday, though the occasional shot could be heard in the background, a reporter for the AFP agency said.
Troops were standing by in neighbouring streets as people began to fill the square. Journalists said they were being expelled by soldiers who had set up a cordon around the city.
I think the West should rethink its relationship with Uzbekistan
Bauyrzhan Meirmanov, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Uzbek crisis: Your comments
Authorities in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan said thousands of terrified Uzbeks had gathered on the border, and about 500 had managed to break through.
Friday's violence prompted alarm around the world. In the US, White House spokesman Scott McClellan called for both sides to show restraint.
The EU criticised Uzbek leaders for not paying enough attention to human rights, the rule of law and relieving poverty.
Mr Karimov has taken a tough line on security since a spate of suicide bombings last year, blamed on Islamic extremists.
But critics say the president is using the threat of extremism as a cover to crush dissent.
Andijan, in the densely-populated Ferghana Valley, has a long tradition of independent thought, and is eyed by the government with suspicion, says the BBC's Monica Whitlock in Tashkent.
Thousands of local people have been locked up.
Along with high poverty and unemployment, it has pushed many people beyond the limit of endurance, she says. | Armed Conflict | May 2005 | ['(Yahoo!)', '(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Alpha Condé of the opposition Rally of the Guinean People is declared the winner of the election. | Conakry, Guinea (CNN) -- Alpha Conde said Monday in a speech to supporters at his home that his victory in last week's presidential runoff will result in "a new era" for Guinea.
"Tonight marks a new era for our country, the hour of change that millions of Guineans have strived for years to achieve," he said in a victory speech in the Mafonco neighborhood of Conakry.
He delivered the speech shortly after the president of the Independent National Electoral Commission declared he was the victor in last week's tightly contested presidential election, the first in the West African republic's 52-year history.
Outside Conde's residence, hundreds of cheering supporters surrounded his house in jubilation. About eight soldiers who made up his security contingent fired their AK-47s into the air in celebration.
The announcement capped a day of violence in the capital city of Conakry during which supporters of Conde and challenger Cellou Dalein Diallo claimed victory in the November 7 runoff election.
Shortly after Conde declared he had won, Diallo said he was the winner. In the melee that followed, security forces fired on supporters of Diallo in the Bambeto area of Conakry, killing three people, a spokesman for the military police said.
Gunfire could be heard throughout the day as demonstrators set tires afire in an attempt to block roads and threw stones at security forces armed in riot gear as they patrolled the streets in pickup trucks.
The forces fired tear gas and live ammunition against demonstrators, many of them boys who had thrown stones and then retreated into buildings.
Though most of the streets were open, most of the stores were closed on Monday, a day before a Muslim holiday, when shoppers would typically be out in force stocking up on foodstuffs.
The U.S.-based Carter Center and a European Union election group both monitored last week's election and said they had found no major problems.
"The Carter Center congratulates Guineans for the peaceful and orderly conduct of voting and the high level of participation," the Carter Center said last week.
"The successful voting process is an overwhelming testament of Guineans' profound desire to express their will at the ballot box and to complete their historic democratic transition."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Guineans to "accept the results ... and resolve any differences through legal means." In a statement, he said the republic had the United Nations' full support, and urged individual countries "to provide Guinea with concrete support as the country embarks on a new phase towards peace, consolidation and development."
But supporters of Diallo said voter fraud was widespread, with more ballots cast in certain areas than there were people registered to vote. In other cases, they said, they had evidence that ballots that had been filled out at the polling places differed from the ballots that were submitted to the central counting location in Conakry.
Violence surrounding the election has an ethnic dimension: Conde is an ethnic Malinke and Diallo a Peul.
The election results had initially been due last Wednesday, but Gen. Siaka Toumani Sangare, who heads the Independent National Electoral Commission, said he was delaying them to give time to consider election complaints that had been posed by both sides.
Early results showed many Guineans voted along ethnic and regional lines, with the ethnic Peul, also known as Fulani, supporting the Peul candidate, Diallo, and the Malinke strongly in favor of their candidate, Conde.
As winner, Conde will get unparalleled access to lucrative mining contracts for the ruling party.
In the past, Guinean presidents have favored their own ethnic groups, which is why many have openly worried that their community would be shut out of the resources if they lose.
But others were more hopeful that Guinea's democratic transition from the military junta that took power in 2008 would take place peacefully.
"The Guinean population from all the regions has witnessed war in the neighboring countries and has received displaced people, and I don't think they want to be in that position," Mamadou Camara, a computer engineer in Conakry, told CNN Thursday.
Guinea, rich in minerals, is one of the poorest countries in Africa. Its new president will have to deal with myriad infrastructure problems, like the widespread lack of electricity and running water. | Government Job change - Election | November 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
A Pakistani court sentences three leaders of Jamat–ud–Dawa to between one and 16 years in prison for helping coordinate the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The sentences come as the deadline for the country to avoid getting placed on the Financial Action Task Force blacklist approaches. | LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A court in Pakistan has sentenced to prison three leaders of Jamat-ud-Dawa, an organisation accused by India and the United States of masterminding the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.
The sentencing was not related to the Mumbai attack itself.
The sentencing comes ahead of a September deadline for Pakistan to avoid being blacklisted for failing to curb terror financing by global financial watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Inclusion on the blacklist, alongside Iran and North Korea, would mean being shunned by international financial institutions. The watchdog has called for Pakistan to prosecute those funding terrorism, as well as to enact laws to help track and stop terror financing.
Malik Zafar Iqbal and Abdul Salam were each handed 16-1/2 year total sentences on four charges, to be served concurrently, while a third man, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, got 1-1/2 years on one charge, according to a court judgment seen by Reuters.
The men were associates of Hafiz Saeed, who was sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison in February. All the sentences are concurrent so Saeed, Iqbal and Salam will serve five years.
Saeed founded and led Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or the Army of the Pure, a group blamed by India and the United States for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 160 people, including Americans and other foreigners.
Saeed and his associates also face a further slew of cases for allegedly financing militant activities, while Iqbal and Makki have already been convicted in several cases.
Saeed says his network, which spans 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups. Jamat-ud-Dawa funds the militant wing LeT.
A 2011 U.S. sanctions designation describes Iqbal as a co-founder of LeT and in charge of its financing activities. Salam is described as the interim leader of the group during the brief periods when Saeed was arrested in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, and running its network of seminaries.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Russia successfully test fires a sea–based ballistic missile, the Bulava. | The weapon, capable of breaching anti-missile defence systems, flew almost the whole length of the country.
US plans to build a missile defence shield in Europe have angered Russia, which sees the proposal as a challenge to its influence in the region.
The Russian test comes as President Vladimir Putin heads for the US to meet President George W Bush on Sunday.
'Key component'
The Bulava missile was launched from the White Sea off Russia's north-west coast.
The intercontinental missile hit its target on the Pacific Ocean peninsula of Kamchatka.
Three earlier tests of the weapon in recent years had failed.
The Bulava is designed to have a range of 10,000km (6,200 miles) and carry six individually targeted nuclear warheads.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the missile as a key component of Moscow's future nuclear forces, saying it can penetrate any prospective missile defence system. | Military Exercise | June 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A suicide bombing occurs at a checkpoint near the Kabul International Cricket Stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least three people and injuring five. | KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint near the main cricket stadium in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least three people as a tournament was under way, officials said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said two police and one civilian were killed and five people wounded. Local Tolo News Television quoted the Afghan Cricket Board as saying all players were safe.
The blast outside Kabul International Cricket Stadium took place during a match in Afghanistan’s Shpageeza Cricket League, a T20 franchise tournament on the lines of the Indian Premier League and similar 20-over tournaments.
A statement in Bosnian on Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said a suicide attack had been carried out on members of the Afghan security forces in Kabul, although it was not immediately clear whether the statement referred to the same incident.
The Shpageeza tournament, now in its fifth season, is one of a small number of Western-style sports competitions along with Afghan Premier League football that have grown up since a U.S.-led campaign toppled the Taliban in 2001.
A small number of foreign players are also taking part in the competition.
Cricket, which spread from refugee camps in Pakistan, has become one of Afghanistan’s most popular sports and the national team has become increasingly successful, raising the profile of the game.
Reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi, Ivana Sekularac in BELGRADE; Editing by Nick Macfie
| Armed Conflict | September 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Bangladesh accuses the Myanmar Army of laying landmines on the border between both countries to prevent the return of fleeing Rohingya refugees. Myanmar denies the Bangladeshi claims. | DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh lodged a protest after it said Myanmar had laid landmines near the border between the two countries, government officials said on Wednesday, amid growing tensions over the huge influx of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar.
An army crackdown triggered by an attack on Aug. 25 by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces has led to the killing of at least 400 people and the exodus of nearly 125,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh, leading to a major humanitarian crisis.
When asked whether Bangladesh had lodged the complaint, Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said “yes” without elaborating. Three other government sources confirmed that a protest note was faxed to Myanmar in the morning saying the Buddhist-majority country was violating international norms.
“Bangladesh has expressed great concern to Myanmar about the explosions very close to the border,” a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The source asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
A Myanmar military source said landmines were laid along the border in the 1990s to prevent trespassing and the military had since tried to remove them. But none had been planted recently.
Two Bangladeshi sources told Reuters they believed Myanmar security forces were putting the landmines in their territory along the barbed-wire fence between a series of border pillars. Both sources said Bangladesh learned about the landmines mainly through photographic evidence and informers.
“Our forces have also seen three to four groups working near the barbed wire fence, putting something into the ground,” one of the sources said. “We then confirmed with our informers that they were laying land mines.”
The sources did not clarify if the groups were in uniform, but added that they were sure they were not Rohingya insurgents.
Manzurul Hassan Khan, a Bangladesh border guard officer, told Reuters earlier that two blasts were heard on Tuesday on the Myanmar side, after two on Monday fueled speculation that Myanmar forces had laid land mines.
One boy had his left leg blown off on Tuesday near a border crossing before being brought to Bangladesh for treatment, while another boy suffered minor injuries, Khan said, adding that the blast could have been a mine explosion.
A Rohingya refugee who went to the site of the blast on Monday - on a footpath near where civilians fleeing violence are huddled in a no man’s land on the border - filmed what appeared to be a mine: a metal disc about 10 centimeters (4 inches) in diameter partially buried in the mud. He said he believed there were two more such devices buried in the ground.
Two refugees also told Reuters they saw members of the Myanmar army around the site in the immediate period preceding the Monday blasts, which occurred around 2:25 p.m.
Reuters was unable to independently verify that the planted devices were land mines and that there was any link to the Myanmar army.
The Myanmar army has not commented on the blasts near the border. Zaw Htay, the spokesman for Myanmar’s national leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was not immediately available for comment.
On Monday, he told Reuters clarification was needed to determine “where did it explode, who can go there and who laid those land mines. Who can surely say those mines were not laid by the terrorists?”
The Bangladesh interior ministry secretary, Mostafa Kamal Uddin, did not respond to calls seeking comment.
The border pillars mentioned by the Dhaka-based sources mark the boundaries of the two countries, along which Myanmar has a portion of barbed wire fencing. Most of the two countries’ 217-km-long border is porous.
“They are not doing anything on Bangladeshi soil,” said one of the sources. “But we have not seen such laying of land mines in the border before.”
Myanmar, which was under military rule until recently and is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, is one of the few countries that have not signed the 1997 U.N. Mine Ban Treaty.
| Armed Conflict | September 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(Reuters)'] |
A day after the arrest of opposition politicians, a mass anti–Putin protest takes place in central Moscow. | People of all ages took to the streets for the mass demonstration. Activists marched through Moscow chanting “Russia Will be Free.”
The focus of the protest was President Putin.
Activists braved the rain and ignored a new law promising heavy fines for demonstrators. Demonstrators with flags and placards filled the streets.
Tens of thousands of protesters thronged central Moscow in a drenching rain on Tuesday, voicing renewed fury at President Vladimir V. Putin and defying recent efforts by his government to clamp down on the political opposition movement. The large turnout, rivaling the big crowds that had gathered at the initial antigovernment rallies in December, suggested that the tough new posture adopted by the Kremlin against the protests was emboldening rather than deterring Mr. Putin’s critics. On Friday, Mr. Putin signed a new law that imposes steep financial penalties on participants in rallies that cause harm to people or property. On Sunday, officials arrested five more people on charges related to the last protest, which ended in a melee between demonstrators and riot police officers. And on Monday, the authorities searched the homes of several opposition leaders and issued summonses ordering seven of them to appear for questioning on Tuesday so they could not attend the rally. Despite these measures, organizers said, more than 50,000 people joined in Tuesday’s protest, braving the heavy rains that soaked many participants beforehand and the claps of thunder and lightning that dispersed the crowd about four hours later. The police, who typically offer a muted estimate of crowd size, put the official tally at 15,000. Even the physical absence of some of the opposition’s most prominent leaders seemed to strengthen rather than weaken the protesters’ resolve, and organizers said the attendance showed that people would not be intimidated. “It means that we were not afraid of the tough actions of the powers and the police,” said Dmitry G. Gudkov, a member of Parliament and a leader of the opposition, adding that the government could achieve more through negotiation. “We need dialogue with the authorities, and we need to pursue political reforms, constitutional reforms and the reform of the judicial system. It is the only way out of this political crisis in Russia — the only way out.” Mr. Gudkov said it was silly for the authorities to issue summonses to prevent some opposition leaders from attending. “Everyone is a leader here, and we can change speakers,” he said. “It’s the people’s protest, and I think Putin and the government need to realize it.” Among those forced to skip the rally and instead face questioning by the authorities was the blogger and anticorruption activist Aleksei Navalny. But far from being silenced, Mr. Navalny posted a series of messages on Twitter mocking his interrogators. “I am still in questioning,” Mr. Navalny wrote at one point. “They are asking about the Anti-Corruption Fund, who works for it, what they do — surely they want to be employed by us.” At another point, he wrote: “They just asked, ‘How have you been employed since Jan. 1 2005?’ It seems I have been planning unrest for a long time.”
Some in the crowd also mocked the authorities. “Do you want a ticket to the paddy wagon?” cried one young man, carrying a roll of fake bus tickets. “Step up for a ticket to the paddy wagon!” The police tightly penned in the march and rally site, a roughly mile-and-a-half stretch using barricades, trucks and other heavy equipment. But the overall police presence, while still large, seemed lighter than at previous protests. Officers, some dressed in camouflage, for the most part did not engage with the crowd. Some demonstrators tried to spin this as a public relations victory. “The police are with the people!” they shouted. While that seemed wishful thinking, there was none of the violence that marred the last big protest, which occurred on May 6, the day before Mr. Putin’s inauguration to a third term as president. So far, the authorities have arrested more than a dozen people on various charges related to the May 6 unrest, and the criminal inquiry is still under way. It was that investigation that led to the searches of opposition leaders’ homes and their being summoned for questioning. Most complied. Mr. Navalny, the television star Kseniya Sobchak and the liberal organizer Ilya Yashin all reported to the Investigative Committee for questioning at 11 a.m., waving cheerfully to photographers on their way in. But the leftist Sergei Udaltsov defied the summons and went to the march. Instead, his lawyer delivered a statement explaining that as an official organizer of the demonstration, Mr. Udaltsov would have been irresponsible not to attend. Mr. Yashin, who went to the rally straight from being questioned, said he had thanked his interrogators for promoting the march. “I told them that no one had done so much for the success of our demonstration,” he said, to cheers from the crowd. “We have no better helpers than these criminal people who are carrying out senseless, idiotic repressions.” Once again, the huge crowd of antigovernment protesters represented a panoramic range of political views, and in some cases the demonstrators seemed barely united by their opposition to Mr. Putin. The crowd, for instance, included many Russian nationalists dressed in black and flying black, yellow and white flags, and one column unfurled a huge banner reading, “We’ll take back Russia for the Russians.” Groups of liberals passed by wearing their own symbol — the white ribbon — with some murmuring, “How awful.” Aleksei Kovalyov, one of the nationalists, expressed disdain for many of the liberal leaders of the demonstrations.
“The only reason we’re here is because we are going to unite the Russian people against the government,” Mr. Kovalyov said. “They won’t be able to put us down like in Libya or Syria because every Russian knows something about total war in his soul.” Thousands joined an antigovernment protest in Moscow on Tuesday in defiance of tough new government measures to end demonstrations against Vladimir V. Putin.
Thousands joined an antigovernment protest in Moscow on Tuesday in defiance of tough new government measures to end demonstrations against Vladimir V. Putin.
People of all ages took to the streets for the mass demonstration. Activists marched through Moscow chanting “Russia Will be Free.”
The focus of the protest was President Putin.
Activists braved the rain and ignored a new law promising heavy fines for demonstrators. Demonstrators with flags and placards filled the streets. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2012 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(The New York Times)', '(AP via Time)'] |
A 6.6 magnitude earthquake occurs in Central Italy 68 kilometres east southeast of Perugia. Many buildings are reported as having been destroyed. , | Towns and villages in central Italy have been hit by an earthquake for the fourth time in three months.
The 6.6-magnitude quake - Italy's strongest in decades - struck close to the region where nearly 300 people were killed by a quake in August.
This time no-one appears to have died, but about 20 people were injured.
The medieval basilica of St Benedict in Norcia, the town closest to the epicentre, was among buildings destroyed.
An evacuation of buildings in the region deemed vulnerable to seismic activity last week, following strong aftershocks from August's quake, may have saved lives. Tremors from this latest earthquake were felt in the capital Rome, where the Metro system was shut down, and as far away as Venice in the north. The head of the national civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, said there had been extensive damage to many historic buildings but no deaths had been registered.
"About 20 people are injured. As far as people are concerned, the situation is positive, but many buildings are in a critical state in historic centres and there are problems with electricity and water supplies," he added.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has promised that everything will be rebuilt, saying resources will be found.
"We are going through a really tough period," he said. "We must not allow the profound pain, fatigue and stress that we have now to turn into resignation."
Pope Francis mentioned the quake in his Sunday blessing in Rome's St Peter's Square.
"I'm praying for the injured and the families who have suffered the most damage, as well as for rescue and first-aid workers," he said to loud applause.
We have now seen three magnitude-6 tremors in Italy's Apennines region in just three months.
The big picture is reasonably well understood. Wider tectonic forces in the Earth's crust have led to the Apennines being pulled apart at a rate of roughly 3mm per year - about a 10th of the speed at which your fingernails grow.
But this stress is then spread across a multitude of different faults that cut through the mountains. And this network is fiendishly complicated.
It does now look as though August's event broke two neighbouring faults, starting on one known as the Laga and then jumping across to one called the Vettore.
The mid-week tremors appear to have further broken the northern end of the Vettore. But both in August and mid-week, it seems only the top portions of the faults have gone, and the big question is whether the deeper segments have now failed in the latest event.
Read more from Jonathan Amos
The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake was 68km south-east of the regional centre of Perugia and close to the small town of Norcia, which is believed to be the birthplace of St Benedict.
Images from the town show the almost complete destruction of the medieval basilica erected in St Benedict's name, with just its facade left standing.
"It was like a bomb went off," said the town's deputy mayor, Pierluigi Altavilla.
"We are starting to despair. There are too many quakes now, we can't bear it anymore."
The earthquakes have left the residents of Norcia anxious and shattered. Stefano and his family have slept in a camper van since the first quake in August - they decided it was too dangerous to sleep indoors. He's now looking to get his family out of here. In the hour after I arrived, there were two sizeable aftershocks - which sent bits of masonry from the town's ancient walls to the ground. The aftershocks added to the tension felt by residents here.
An emergency HQ has been set up in a car park. Civil protection officials are assessing the damage. Next to a petrol station, there is a group of people with their bags packed, ready to leave. They don't want to wait for another quake to hit. Giuseppe Pezzanesi, mayor of Tolentino in the neighbouring Marche region, said the small town had "suffered our blackest day yet".
"The damage is irreparable. There are thousands of people in the streets, terrified, crying. Let's hope that is an end to it, the people are on their knees psychologically."
The towns of Castelsantangelo and Preci have also suffered considerable damage, but were mainly abandoned after last week's quakes, of magnitude 5.5 and 6.1.
Castelsantangelo's mayor, quoted by La Stampa newspaper, said there were no casualties at all in the town as "everyone had already left".
The mayors of the villages of Ussita and Arquata said many buildings had collapsed there too.
Central Italy has seen several major quakes in recent years. Earthquakes which devastated the town of L'Aquila in 2009 and Amatrice in August this year killed about 300 people each. But they both measured only 6.2 and were deeper than Sunday's earthquake.
| Earthquakes | October 2016 | ['(Reuters via ABC Online)', '(BBC)'] |
Sri Lanka convicts exarmy chief Sarath Fonseka on charges of engaging in politics while on active service. | The first Court Martial has found (Rtd) General Sarath Fonseka guilty with a sentence of a dishonorable discharge from rank, pending approval from the President, according to Jasmine Newswire, quoting a military official. This comes after an often delayed trial which finally proceeded during court holidays despite Fonseka not having legal counsel during that time. He was found guilty of engaging in political activity while still in uniform. Fonseka fell out of favor with the government after running against President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2010 Presidential Election. Prior to that he was the powerful Army Commander during the war and was portrayed as close to the President and his brother, the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Fonseka is currently an MP from the opposition Democratic National Alliance party though he remains under arrest. He is being tried for political activity while in office and corrupt procurement practices. His supporters allege that these accusations are politically motivated. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(Sunday Leader)', '(Aljazeera)', '(AFP)'] |
A suicide bomb attack kills the police chief of a district in southern Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. | News - Afghanistan A suicide attack at the police headquarter of Arghistan district of southern Kandahar province claimed the lives of Abdul Manaf, the district police chief, and two of his bodyguards on Sunday night, spokesman for Kandahar governor, Samim Ekhpelwak, said on Monday.
"Investigations are underway to find out how the suicide bomber entered the police headquarter."
Reports indicate that six other policemen were injured in the attack. The injured policemen have been sent to a nearby hospital, he added.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi has claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Manaf had served as the Arghistan police chief for the three years.
With high rates of insurgent activity, Arghistan is considered among the most insecure districts in the province. | Armed Conflict | September 2014 | ['(Tolo News)'] |
Voters in El Salvador go to the polls with a tight race expected. | MEXICO CITY — Salvadorans vote Sunday in a presidential election that may give former leftist rebels a second chance at government — or return national leadership to the right-wing party that ruled the country for two decades.
Opinion surveys have shown an extremely tight race, especially with the entrance of a new third party run by a former conservative president with family members tied to notorious corruption cases.
More than 20 years after the end of a civil war in which more than 75,000 people were killed, choices remain stark in El Salvador, the tiny Central American country that, after Mexico, is the leading source of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Southern California.
When the left won the presidency in 2009 for the first time in modern Salvadoran history, there were high expectations about change and progressive policies after a generation of conservative rule.
But many Salvadorans now express disappointment in a country where international drug-trafficking has made great inroads, gangs control entire neighborhoods, and economic growth has plummeted.
Salvador Sanchez Ceren, vice president and candidate for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, the guerrilla group that became a political party after the war, appears to have a slight lead going into Sunday’s vote. Close behind is Norman Quijano, a popular former mayor of San Salvador, the capital, who represents the once-dominant Arena party.
Both are polling at about 30%, according to most surveys. A candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.
Another candidate, Antonio Saca, heads a coalition called Unidad. He was accused of suspicious enrichment during his 2004-09 presidency under the Arena banner. Even though he is polling at less than 10%, it is thought he is siphoning votes from his erstwhile right-wing colleagues.
Sanchez Ceren, the FMLN candidate, was one of the guerrilla movement’s founding commanders, and thus is seen as more hard-line than President Mauricio Funes, who led the FMLN to victory in 2009. Funes, a former journalist, never joined the guerrillas.
Funes remains popular, having sponsored social programs, including affordable education. But after taking a stab at police reform, he turned to the military for security, which eroded some of his support.
A controversial gang truce under the Funes government succeeded in reducing the number of homicides but did little to curb other major crimes, such as extortion. Some Salvadorans have criticized the truce as an undesirable negotiation with criminals.
To what extent Sunday’s vote will serve as a plebiscite on the Funes and FMLN performance remains to be seen. In the closing weeks of the campaign, Quijano said he would not continue the truce. He pledged an iron-fisted response to crime, possibly including the militarization of the police, similar to the vow from the new conservative president-elect of neighboring Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez.
The candidates have not offered many specifics on the economy, in a country surviving in large part on $4 billion a year in remittances sent from Salvadorans in the United States. A Sanchez Ceren government would probably emphasize “continuity,” and Quijano might give priority to the agricultural sector. Both say jobs are key.
“The government that takes office June 1 will receive a perverse inheritance because the country … is immersed in an inevitable crisis — economic, political, social, and in security — like never before,” columnist Claudio M. de Rosa wrote this week in the Salvadoran daily La Prensa Grafica.
A runoff, if necessary, will be held in March and the victor inaugurated June 1.
The U.S. government, which backed El Salvador’s right-wing governments against the guerrillas during the 1980-1992 war, has insisted that it remains neutral in the election and will work with whoever wins.
Washington has showered El Salvador with aid and enlisted it in the regional battle against drug traffickers, as the tiny country increasingly has become a transshipment point for cocaine and other drugs headed to the United States.
| Government Job change - Election | February 2014 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
A boat carrying 380 asylum seekers en route from Indonesia to Australia sinks off the coast of Java with hundreds of people missing. | Indonesian officials say a boat carrying hundreds of asylum seekers from the Middle East has sunk in heavy seas off the main island of Java.
The Australian Government says about 250 people were on board the wooden boat, which was believed to be heading for Australia, but some news reports put the figure at 380.
Last month, eight people died when a boat capsized in the same area.
Local fisherman have helped to rescue 33 people so far, while two bodies have been recovered.
Sahrul Arifin from the East Java Disaster Mitigation Centre says strong waves wrecked the wooden boat when it was about 90 kilometres out to sea. "Our search and rescue team have begun sweeping the water around where the accident took place, but we are now sending body bags to that area," he said.
He says the passengers are believed to be asylum seekers from countries including Iran and Afghanistan. A search and rescue spokesman says extremely bad weather and poor visibility is making their work difficult.
As a result, two Indonesian navy ships and hundreds of sailors have been called in to continue the search.
"It is somewhat difficult to go on with the search because extreme weather has caused reduced visibility," search and rescue team member Brian Gauthier told state-run news agency Antara.
Mr Gauthier says some of the rescued are receiving assistance in the town of Prigi in eastern Java, around 30 kilometres from where the boat sank, adding that the rescue team believed some passengers were still alive and were likely suffering "severe dehydration".
"They must be evacuated as soon as possible. They can't stay for long in the middle of the sea," he said.
The Australian Government has also offered assistance in the search for survivors.
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare says the boat sank about 7:00am (local time) and Australia was informed this morning.
He says Australia is offering an Orion aircraft but he has grave fears about finding survivors given they have been in the water for over 24 hours.
"Obviously grave fears are held for those on board," he said.
Local TV showed images of more than a dozen shocked survivors huddled in a clinic in Trenggalek, a town on Java island's southern coast.
One survivor from Afghanistan, 24-year-old Esmat Adine, gave rescuers an estimate of how many passengers were on the boat.
"He did not know exactly how many passengers there were, but he said that four buses with around 60 or more adult passenger each had turned up to the port where they set off," a translator for Mr Adine said.
Mr Adine said the boat, believed to be a traditional fishing vessel with a capacity of about 100, had been heading towards Christmas island.
Dimas Aro: Reuters
Many asylum seekers from the Middle East and Asia use Indonesia as a transit point en route to Australia.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the Coalition was profoundly saddened by the tragedy.
"While these events did not take place in Australia's waters they are equally devastating and equally tragic," he said in a statement on Sunday.
The Coalition said it supported all Australian government efforts to support the Indonesian rescue and recovery operation.
"The report of this tragedy once again confirms our worst fears and the extremely dangerous nature of these journeys, especially at this time of year," Mr Morrison said.
The large number of people reported to have been on the vessel was especially concerning, he said.
"It confirms the trend we have seen this year of the people smugglers putting more and more people onto every boat."
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare has responded angrily to the criticism about the Government's onshore processing policies and says today's focus must be on rescuing survivors. "I'm not going to go into the politics of this. People have died," he said. "Today is not the day for politics - there'll be plenty of time for that. There'll be plenty of time to talk about the politics of this issue in the days ahead."
| Shipwreck | December 2011 | ['(Reuters via ABC Australia)'] |
The fire onboard South Korean ship FV Dong Won 701 in the Port of Timaru, New Zealand, enters its fourth day. The port resumes limited operations despite the ongoing blaze and the Transport Accident Investigation Commission starts an investigation despite being unable to board the vessel. |
A Timaru District Council webcam shows a large amount of smoke coming from the town's port on Monday. The fire is still burning. Photo / Timaru District Council
Fire investigators will be assessing a fire on a boat at Timaru's port this morning, now blazing for a fourth day.
Three crews are fighting the blaze - including firefighters from Dunedin and Christchurch.
Southern district communication manager Brent Dunn said the fire was contained but still going strong.
The 80m ship, understood to be a fishing vessel, prompted a large-scale Fire and Emergency response on Monday when the fire broke out.
10 fire engines attended the fire in the South Canterbury town's port.
Three crew members have been treated for smoke inhalation.
A Timaru District Council webcam showed a large amount of smoke coming from the port.
Police were also at the blaze.
Three ambulances are initially at the scene and dozens of onlookers are watching the scene unfold. | Fire | April 2018 | ['(The New Zealand Herald)', '(Stuff)'] |
Representatives from about 20 countries meet in Vienna, Austria, seeking a political solution to Syria's four-year civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people, including dozens more today. For the first time Iran is at the table, where diplomats seek peace through a ceasefire plan followed by a transitional government. | Diplomats seeking a political solution to end the four-year Syrian civil war agreed Friday to resume talks with the participation of representatives of the Syrian government and opposition groups.
The talks wrapped up as dozens of people were killed Friday in a rocket attack on a rebel-held suburb of Syria's capital Damascus.
A joint statement issued by the 19 countries that participated in the meeting said Syria is to remain unified and its state institutions will remain intact, but did not say when or if Syrian President Bashar Assad would leave power. The countries agreed to resume talks next week, according to Iran's semi-official Islamic Republic News Agency.
While the meetings were ongoing Friday, Syrian government forces fired more than 11 missiles at a market in Douma, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens more, according to the Associated Press. The fighting has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced about half of Syria's population of 22 million, contributing to the European migrant crisis.
Obama authorizes advisers to enter Syria
Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, spoke cautiously after the talks, which also included Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and, for the first time in a summit about Syria, Iran — the most important ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“Four-and-a-half years of war, we all believe, has been far too long,” Kerry said in a news conference with Lavrov and the U.N. special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura.
“I did not say that Assad has to go or that Assad has to stay,” Lavrov said.
5 things to know about the Syria talks in Vienna
The diplomats seek a cease-fire plan, followed by a transitional government that would include Assad and opposition members, according to the State Department. While many elements of the new plan are similar to one laid out in 2012, more countries participated in Friday's outcome, and all agreed that the Islamic State group, which did not exist in 2012, must be defeated, said State Department spokesman John Kirby.
Also, Kerry "made clear the process moving forward needs to be Syrian owned and Syrian led," Kirby said. "For this to be successful it can’t be pushed on the Syrian people, they have to be part of this."
The United States does not want Assad to stay in power, and thinks his presence motivates his opponents to join extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The latter has seized large swaths of eastern Syria and western Iraq.
In a separate development Friday, the White House said it would send "fewer than 50" U.S. special operations forces to work in Syria to assist local forces there. It is described as a shift, not a major change, in U.S. policy.
Kerry said the USA seeks two goals in Syria, to resolve the civil war and defeat the Islamic State.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian told Iranian media that Tehran may agree to Assad's departure. "Iran does not insist on keeping Assad in power forever," he said, according to Reuters.
Abdollahian later said there's been "no change" in Iran's policy to support Syria in its fight against what he called terrorism. "Those who intend to bypass Bashar Assad know well that only the Syrian people should decide about their fate within the specified political framework," he said, according to the Fars News Agency.
Kerry sounded cautious Thursday when he arrived in Vienna for the talks.
“I am hopeful that we can find a way forward,” he told reporters. “It is very difficult.”
The U.S. and its allies want to see if Iran “is serious” about reaching a political transition in Syria, Kirby said.
Kirby said that despite Iran's involvement in the talks, "there is no change in our policy" toward Iran.
The U.S. is still committed to ending Iran's "destabilizing behavior" in the region, he said.
The goal of the U.S. and its allies is for the Syrian people to form a representative government "that's strong enough, independent enough and viable enough to push back on that kind of influence," Kirby said, referring to Iran's support of militant groups such as Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
But Iranian cooperation over Syria is not without risks, according to Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department Iran analyst who's now at the Brookings Institution.
She said U.S. policy makers may not intend "to cede anything to Iran," but they may not be able to prevent Iran from maintaining its relationship Hezbollah. Syria provides Iran with a geographical link to Hezbollah.
In 1983, the group killed 241 U.S. service members in Lebanon and it has fought several wars with Israel, a close U.S. ally.
Iran has spent billions of dollars propping up Assad, and it has lost hundreds of fighters, including two generals in recent weeks, protecting him. Iran views itself as the protector of Shiites across the Middle East, which include Assad's Alawite sect, Maloney said. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2015 | ['(USA Today)', '(Payvand.com)'] |
Canadian BlackBerry Limited announces plans to shut down operations in Pakistan at year's end because it cannot comply with the Pakistani government's monitoring orders which would result in a massive invasion of user privacy. | The Canadian company has taken a stand against demands for "backdoor" access to its services, including encrypted email and messages.
BlackBerry says Pakistan is demanding complete access to customer information. BlackBerry will shut down operations in Pakistan at year's end because demands from the country's Telecommunications Authority would result in a massive invasion of user privacy, the company said Monday.
BlackBerry refuses to agree to the Pakistani government's order to monitor BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES), including encrypted emails and BBM messages sent and received in the country. It is therefore withdrawing on December 30, Chief Operating Officer Marty Beard said in a blog post Monday. The Canadian company said it enforces a blanket ban on allowing so-called "backdoor" access to customer information anywhere in the world.
"Pakistan's demand was not a question of public safety; we are more than happy to assist law enforcement agencies in investigations of criminal activity," Beard said. "Rather, Pakistan was essentially demanding unfettered access to all of our BES customers' information."
Governments, accustomed to tapping phone lines and opening mail in decades past, want access to people's digital data to help stop crime and security threats. However, especially in the wake of revelations from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about massive surveillance by the US and UK, tech companies have been wrestling with government data requests that they believe can go too far.
BlackBerry has long emphasized security in its sales pitch to government, military and business customers. On learning that the Pakistani government would require "wholesale" access to BlackBerry Enterprise Services, the company decided its customers' communications would be compromised to the extent that it has no choice but to leave Pakistan altogether.
BlackBerry is setting a precedent for how it will react to being told it must comply or leave, but it is far from the only company facing serious questions. The debate over encrypted communications is raging in many countries, including big markets like the US and UK that are tougher to ignore. If governments come down hard against encryption in the name of national security, tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook will need to decide on the importance of customer privacy in countries a lot closer to home than Pakistan.
. | Organization Closed | November 2015 | ['(CNET)'] |
The Prime Minister of Australia John Howard puts an appeal on YouTube for people not to participate in violent protests this week. | Prime Minister John Howard has blamed expected violent protests for the intensive security measures put in place for this week's APEC meeting in Sydney.
Organisers are gearing up for large-scale protests for the week long Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, with US President George W Bush expected to be the main target.
The Stop Bush Coalition is holding a rally on Wednesday to mark Mr Bush's arrival, and a major protest march on Saturday is expected to attract thousands.
Security officials will continue the rollout of a five kilometre, 2.8-metre-high fence which will cordon off a large chunk of the CBD.
There will be significant delays for people entering the city during the week, with road closures, traffic-stopping motorcades and security checks required to enter the exclusion zone.
Mr Howard said NSW Police Force had the primary responsibility for security and they had taken the necessary precautions.
"Unfortunately, the extra security precautions that are needed to be taken are necessary part of hosting such meetings in today's world," Mr Howard said in an address broadcast on the networking website, YouTube.
"They are the fault of people who threaten violence as part of their protest."
The prime minister has urged Australians to look beyond the protests for the benefits of APEC being held in Sydney.
"I ... know that there will be some individuals who want to protest against APEC. I simply ask them to stop for a moment and consider that if they really are worried about issues such as poverty, security and climate change, then they should support APEC and not attack it," Mr Howard said.
"In the end, I'm confident that fair-minded Australians will recognise the importance of this meeting.
"Equally, I'm confident that the world will look at Australia and at Sydney as APEC's host and recognise the vibrant, friendly and outward-looking character of the Australian people."
Meanwhile, Labor leader Kevin Rudd has called on protesters to be non-violent.
Speaking to reporters in Brisbane, Mr Rudd said he was a strong supporter of APEC which is bringing together delegates from 21 nations across the Asia-Pacific.
"Violent protests have no place in Australia," he said.
"Any violent protests should be met with the full force of the law and that would have my entire support."
He said if anyone wanted to protest they should do so peacefully.
A week of meetings will culminate in the leaders' gathering involving Mr Howard, Mr Bush and 19 other world leaders, beginning on Saturday. | Famous Person - Give a speech | September 2007 | ['(AAP via the Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
The Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, wins a leadership ballot held by the Democratic Party of Japan. | Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has won a party leadership vote against three challengers, more than a year after assuming office.
Mr Noda was re-elected president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) by a convincing majority, local media report. He will remain prime minister.
He became DPJ head after Naoto Kan resigned after the Fukushima crisis.
Mr Noda, Japan's sixth prime minister in six years, has faced pressure on many issues like the sales tax hike.
The leadership vote, held every two years, is a requirement under DPJ's party rules. Three others challenged Mr Noda for DPJ chief - former agriculture ministers Michihiko Kano and Hirotaka Akamatsu, and former Internal Affairs Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi.
Analysts had expected Mr Noda to easily win the vote, as key figures such as former PM Kan and policy chief Seiji Maehara said that they would back him. Mr Noda has had to deal with many controversial issues as prime minister. One was on the controversial tax rise that saw bitter disagreement and gridlock among Japan's lawmakers and caused a rift in the ruling DPJ.
Mr Noda said that doubling the tax from 5% to 10% by 2015 was key to cutting Japan's high public debt and funding rising welfare costs. He is also under increased pressure over an impending election, due to be called by next year.
Other key public issues he continues to face are the country's use of nuclear energy and the ongoing row over disputed islands with China.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Strong wind blows a passenger train off the tracks near Turpan, Xinjiang, China, killing four and injuring 30 more. | Overturned carriages lie off the tracks after a passenger train was blown off the tracks by strong winds near Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the wee hours on February 28, 2007. The winds blew nine out of the 11 train cars off the tracks. Four were killed and dozens injured in the accident. [newsphoto]
The 11-car train had just left a station in Turpan, in the Xinjiang region's east, when it was hit by wind at 2 am Wednesday, the Xinhua News Agency said. "A strong sandstorm cracked window panes soon after the train left Turpan, and blew some of the cars off the rail when we were trying to plug up the windows," Xinhua quoted passenger Su Chuanyi as saying. Sandstorms fed by the deserts of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia blow toward Beijing and the eastern seaboard each spring powered by vigorous winds. Sometimes, the dust blows out across the Pacific, clouding the skies of South Korea and occasionally drifting as far as the western coast of the United States. At least 100 rescue workers, doctors and police were at the scene of the derailment, which disrupted operations of the Southern Xinjiang Railway, it said. The train had been running between the capital city of Urumqi and Aksu, in the west. | Train collisions | February 2007 | ['(China Daily)'] |
One person is killed and 20 are injured when a passenger train derails near Leuven, Belgium. | The passenger train bound for the Belgian capital jumps the tracks, with one carriage flipping on its side.
Saturday 18 February 2017 15:04, UK
One person is dead and 20 are injured after a passenger train derailed close to Brussels.
The train jumped the tracks shortly after departing from the station in Leuven, 12 miles east of the Belgian capital.
Images from the scene show one of the carriages lying on its side, as rescue workers and emergency crews rushed to the scene.
Leuven mayor Louis Tobback said the person who died was most likely not on the train itself, but was caught on or near the rails.
Two of those injured were reported to be in a serious condition. Mr Tobback said most were only slightly hurt.
Prime Minister Charles Michel had arrived at the scene, reports said.
Reports said the Brussels-bound train was travelling at a low speed since it had just left the station. | Train collisions | February 2017 | ['(Sky News)'] |
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay agree to close their ports to ships flying the flag of the Falkland Islands at a Mercosur meeting; Argentina and the United Kingdom both claim the islands. | Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay agree to close their ports to shipping bearing flag of disputed South Atlantic islands.
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have agreed to close their ports to ships flying the flag of the Falkland Islands, a British territory in the South Atlantic claimed by Argentina.
The move was announced on Tuesday at a meeting of the Mercusor trading bloc in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo.
Leaders of the bloc, which also includes landlocked Paraguay, agreed that Falklands-flagged ships “should not dock in Mercosur ports, and if that were to happen, they should not be accepted in another Mercosur port,” said Uruguayan President Jose Mujica.
A statement issued at the end of the summit said member countries would adopt “all measures that can be put in place to impede the entry to its ports of ships that fly the illegal flag of the Malvinas Islands,” referring to the islands by their Argentine name.
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner de Fernandez, who took over the presidency of the trade bloc from Mujica, thanked her fellow presidents for the show of support for Buenos Aires’ claim to the archipelago, which lies 400 nautical miles from the Argentine coast.
“I want to thank everyone for their immense solidarity with the Malvinas,” Kirchner said in a speech to the summit. “But you should know that when you are signing something on the Malvinas in favour of Argentina you are also doing it in your own defence.”
Malvinas ‘a global cause’
“Malvinas is not an Argentine cause, it is a global cause, because in the Malvinas they are taking our oil and fishing resources,” she said. “And when there is need for more resources those who are strong are going to look for them wherever and however they can.”
Britain has claimed the Falklands since 1833 and the two countries fought a brief war in 1982 after an invasion by Argentine forces, and maintains a small military presence there.
The islands, which have a population of about 2,500 people, are currently a self-governing British territory and both the British government and the Falklands government maintain that sovereignty is not a matter for discussion.
The Falkland Islands government “hopes for peaceful co-existence between Argentina and the Falkland Islands, without diluting or adapting the position on sovereignty,” according to the islands’ website.
But the dispute has heated up again as British companies have begun exploring for oil in waters surrounding the islands.
In mid-September, UK-based Rockhopper Exploration announced that it hoped to begin oil production in the region in early 2016, ramping up to a maximum output of 120,000 barrels per day by 2018.
Mujica announced last week that his country would bar Falklands ships from Uruguayan ports, prompting Britain to call in the Uruguayan ambassador to express its concern.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2011 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
A Burmese court announces it is to reveal its verdict on an appeal by Aung San Suu Kyi in October. | YANGON - A COURT in junta-run Myanmar will rule next month on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her extended house arrest, an official said Friday, after lawyers gave their final arguments.
The judges will give their decision on Oct 2 on whether to uphold the Nobel Peace laureate's conviction for breaching security laws following an incident in May in which an American man swam uninvited to her house.
The 64-year-old pro-democracy icon was found guilty of violating the terms of her detention on Aug 11 and sentenced to three years' hard labour, but junta chief Than Shwe cut the term to 18 months' house arrest.
Government and defence lawyers made their closing submissions to the Yangon divisional court on Friday after her legal team filed an appeal earlier this month. Ms Suu Kyi was denied permission to attend the hearing.
'The final arguments have finished. The court set a date on Oct 2 at 10am (0430 GMT, 10.30am Singapore time) for the judgment,' a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity.
Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers were not immediately available for comment after the hearing. But Mr Nyan Win, who is one of her main lawyers and also the spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, told AFP before Friday's court session that they were 'confident' they would win.
The guilty verdict against Ms Suu Kyi sparked international outrage and the imposition of further sanctions against Myanmar's powerful generals, who have already kept her locked up for 14 of the past 20 years.
Her extended house arrest keeps her off the scene for elections promised by the regime some time in 2010, adding to widespread criticism that the polls are a sham designed to legitimise the junta's grip on power.
John Yettaw, the eccentric American who swam to her house using homemade flippers and stayed there for two days, stood trial at the same time and was ordered to serve seven years' hard labour. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2009 | ['(The Straits Times)', '(Associated Press)', '(BBC)'] |
The Football Association sets up an internal inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse in English football. | Last updated on 28 November 201628 November 2016.From the section Football
The Football Association has confirmed it is investigating allegations of sexual abuse in football.
Former footballers have come forward to say they were sexually abused as youth players.
Four police forces are investigating the allegations, and an NSPCC hotline has had more than 100 calls.
The FA said it was working closely with police, adding it "must ensure we do not do anything to interfere with or jeopardise the criminal process". The FA has instructed independent leading counsel Kate Gallafent QC, an expert in child protection, to assist with its review.
The internal review will look at what information the FA was aware of at relevant times, which clubs were aware and what action was, or should have been, taken. The Child Protection in Sport Unit, which has assisted the FA in relation to its safeguarding procedures since 2000, will also carry out an independent audit into the FA's practices.
The NSPCC hotline was set up after David White, Andy Woodward, Steve Walters and Paul Stewart all spoke out about abuse.
Ex-Crewe player Woodward, 43, went public on 16 November about his abuse by former Crewe coach and youth football scout Barry Bennell, who was later convicted of sex offences against children. Crewe have begun their own independent review into the allegations.
Former youth team players Chris Unsworth and Jason Dunford also told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme they had been abused by Bennell.
The players all waived their right to anonymity to speak publicly.
Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) chief executive Gordon Taylor says more than 20 former footballers have come forward regarding allegations of sexual abuse.
Taylor said at least "six or seven clubs" including Crewe, Manchester City, Blackpool, Leeds, Stoke and Newcastle were connected with "particular individuals".
Blackpool released a statement saying the club "is yet to receive any information from the PFA or relevant authorities in relation to the ongoing investigations of historical abuse".
Leeds also said it had not been made aware of any allegations but would "take any such complaints seriously and will cooperate fully with the PFA and the FA with any investigations".
Taylor added: "Should any past links with the organisation come to light, the club will provide every assistance it possibly can."
"I am expecting there will be more," he told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek, adding he did not believe it would just be confined to north east and north west of England clubs.
"I am mindful it could be throughout the country where children are there; church, schools and other areas we are well acquainted with over the past few years."
However, Taylor, 71, said none of those who had come forward were currently playing in the top four leagues in England.
He said the alleged abuse occurred to footballers aged six to 16, when players were "vulnerable young people".
"It is the situation they are put in, the fear of telling anyone, the power of the paedophile over him and what he wanted to do for himself and his parents to achieve his dream of being a professional footballer," said Taylor.
Former trainee footballer Ian Ackley, who appeared as a witness in Barry Bennell's child abuse trial in 1998, at which he was convicted, told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek he first met Bennell when he was 10 years old and he was abused for three an a half to four years.
I was playing for a local side and he was scouting. He asked me to go along for a trial with his team.
The draw to him was his connections with big teams. He was a good coach, very demanding. He wanted you to commit to a process and if you did then those opportunities might come your way.
He created the image of a charismatic figure in the football world who could make a young boy's dreams come true.
The abuse happened after an initial period of a week or two, just after I had signed. It was the full range of abuse. There were no limits to what he put people through to get what he wanted.
I didn't tell anyone. It was a feeling of being frozen, isolated and not knowing what to do. Who would believe me? I was a young boy still in a time when you were brought up in an environment where children were seen and not heard and to have respect for their elders.
This guy was seen as a very significant person of influence and people in that circle respected him. I knew it was wrong and while the abuse happened it switched a part of me off just to get through it. Once it finished it was a case of pretending it did not happen. It was almost like a double life. I was trapped in that dream of wanting to make it as a footballer. It was habitual - every weekend, school holiday, football trips.
Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has said victims of sexual abuse in football "must come forward". "Come and give your story, you will be listened to, you will be believed," she told Pienaar's Politics on BBC Radio 5 live.
"The only way that we can find out what happened is by getting the evidence, letting the police do investigations as appropriate and making sure we understand what went wrong"
Bradley has welcomed the FA's inquiry.
She added: "We do need to look at this independently, we do need to make sure the FA and others who I know take this seriously, get to the bottom of this."
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How to get into football - the most popular sport in the world, with clubs and facilities throughout the UK. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | November 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
An Amtrak train derails in the Port Richmond neighborhood of the American city of Philadelphia causing cars to roll over. At least 5 people have been killed, 50 people are injured in the derailment., | At least five people died Tuesday night when a passenger train carrying 238 passengers and five crew members derailed in Philadelphia.
The tragedy that took place some time after 9 p.m. ET and forced Amtrak to shut down all service in the busy corridor between New York City and Philadelphia.
"It is an absolute disastrous mess," Mayor Michael Nutter said late Tuesday night. "Never seen anything like it in my life."
At least 140 people have gone to hospitals to be treated or evaluated. Six people were taken to hospitals with critical injuries, officials said earlier.
The train appeared to go off the tracks, Paul Cheung, an Associated Press employee, said. Cheung said he was fortunate to be at the back of the train, and that the front of it "looks pretty bad." Cheung said he saw "some people mangled up."
Former U.S. representative Patrick Murphy tweeted that he was on the train, that he was OK, but that others were hurt. "Helping others. Pray for those injured," Murphy tweeted.
The effect that the accident will have on major rail traffic in the Northeast corridor remains somewhat unclear, but Amtrak did announce late Tuesday that it was canceling all traffic between New York and Philadelphia for the time being. Philadelphia is a major hub along the Northeast corridor, one of the most heavily traveled in the nation.
Shortly after 10 p.m. ET, Amtrak issued a statement saying that it was aware of the derailment involving Northeast Regional Train 188 and that it would provide updates as soon as they are available.
"It is a devastating scene down there," Nutter said during a late night news conference. "We walked the entire length of the train area. The engine completely separated from the rest of the train and one of the cars is perpendicular to the rest of the cars. It's unbelievable."
Police in Philadelphia issued a statement asking members of the public not to go anywhere near the scene of the derailment to allow first responders to do their jobs.
One person, a woman, was being transported to Temple University Hospital, and three other people were being taken to Jefferson University Hospital, according to 6ABC. | Train collisions | May 2015 | ['(USA Today)', '(Huffington Post)', '(CNN)'] |
An Indonesian man is charged with blasphemy after saying that God does not exist on his Facebook page. | An Indonesian man who said that God did not exist in a posting on a Facebook page for atheists could face jail. Civil servant Alexander Aan, 31, is now in protective police custody after he was attacked by an angry mob earlier this week.
He may also lose his job over his posting on the social networking site.
Atheism is a violation of Indonesian law under the founding principles of the country.
Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim nation - recognises the right to practice five other religions aside from Islam, says the BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta.
Local media said a mob attacked Mr Aan when he arrived for work at a government office on Wednesday.
Police said that according to Indonesian criminal law, anyone who tried to stop others believing in a faith could face up to five years in prison | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2012 | ['(The Jakarta Globe)', '(BBC)'] |
Several bombings kill at least 40 people in government and Kurdish held territory across Syria, including Tartus, Homs, Al-Hasakah and Damascus. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility. | Near-simultaneous bombings claimed by the Islamic State group struck in and around strongholds of the Syrian government and Kurdish troops Monday, killing at least 48 people in a wave of attacks that came a day after the militants lost a vital link to the outside world along the Syrian-Turkish border.
The IS-run Aamaq news agency said the attacks included six suicide bombings and one remotely detonated blast. Most targeted security forces.
The Britain-based Observatory, which maintains a network of contacts in Syria, put the overall death toll at 53, although Syrian state TV said 48 were killed. Conflicting casualty figures are common in the 5-year-old Syria civil war.
Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria expert with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said it was too soon to say if the attacks by the IS group were a reaction to its recent defeats along the border.
But she cautioned that setbacks for IS can lead to "a dangerous new phase" by the group, which sometimes resorts to "infiltration and spectacular attacks that exploit and widen rifts" between populations, groups and security forces in both western and northern Syria,
Turkey's recent intervention in the north has exposed major rifts and encouraged anti-Kurdish activity, Cafarella said in emails to The Associated Press. She said it was likely that as IS militants are pushed out of territory, they will increasingly target government and Kurdish areas.
"So it's a dangerous possibility that we're witnessing ISIS gear up for a campaign to expand westward into either or both regime and opposition territory as it loses to the anti-ISIS coalition," she said, using an acronym for the militant group.
The territorial losses at the border were the biggest blow to the militant group that also has suffered a series of recent battlefield setbacks in Syria and Iraq. Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish warplanes and tanks, continued to push IS fighters out of the border strip Monday, securing their hold on an area seized a day earlier.
In Hangzhou, China, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said the U.S. and Russia have not given up on negotiations to halt the bloodshed in Syria, but acknowledged that "gaps of trust" exist between the rival powers.
Significant sticking points remain in negotiations over creating a U.S.-Russian military partnership focusing firepower on "common enemies" in Syria, Obama said. He acknowledged that a meeting Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin did not yield a breakthrough.
A deal would depend on Moscow using its influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad to persuade him to ground planes and stop the assault on opposition forces.
Monday's bombings came in rapid succession during the morning rush hour, targeting the central city of Homs; a highly guarded Damascus suburb; the government stronghold of Tartus, where Russia has a major naval base; and Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria.
State TV showed massive damage at the Arzoneh bridge just outside Tartus along the international coastal highway. The report said the Tartus-Homs highway was closed briefly.
Dozens of burned and mangled cars sat in pools of water mixed with blood after the blaze was extinguished.
"My car caught fire and army soldiers pulled us out of the car," a survivor told state TV from al-Bassel Hospital.
IS and the Observatory said the target was a checkpoint at Tartus' southern entrance. The militant group said it sent three suicide bombers to the area, the first of them in a car. Two followed after security and rescuers responded.
State TV said at least 35 were killed. The Observatory put the figure at 38, including an army colonel. Dozens were wounded.
The coastal city is a popular beach resort among Syrians, with many coming from government controlled areas, particularly ahead of a major Muslim holiday next week.
The Islamic State group claimed suicide bombings in Tartus and neighboring Jableh that killed over 160 people in May.
Areas controlled by Assad's forces have had several bombings and other attacks claimed by both IS and al-Qaida-linked militant groups.
Another of Monday's bombings occurred in the Damascus suburb of Sabbourah, a major security breach in the heavily guarded area. The state-run SANA news agency said the attack killed one person, while the opposition-run Observatory said three were killed.
IS said a suicide car bomb targeted a military checkpoint west of Damascus.
"It's an area that houses officers and their families. Even before the revolution, it was carefully guarded," said opposition media activist Yousef al-Boustani, referring to the 2011 uprising against Assad that began with peaceful protests demanding reform.
Police chief Maj. Gen. Jamal Bittar told state TV that three attackers were in the car that was seen by security forces. They fired at the car, forcing two passengers to get out and the driver to blow it up, Bittar said. Another bomber blew himself up as he was arrested, killing the security officer and wounding three civilians, he added.
A car bomb struck a military checkpoint in the central provincial capital of Homs, killing three soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 10 others, according to the governor of Homs.
The city, which is Syria's third-largest, is largely under government control, with only one neighborhood still held by rebels. The bomb exploded in the government-held Bab Tadmor district. The Observatory said four soldiers were killed.
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle in the northeastern city of Hasakeh killed eight people, SANA said. The IS news agency said the attack targeted a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces.
Government troops withdrew from Hasakeh in August after street battles with Kurdish forces, which took control of the city, although the police force stayed in place. The Observatory said the blast killed five Kurdish police, the Asayesh, and three civilians.
IS said it also detonated a bomb in the northeastern city of Qamishli, targeting Kurdish fighters. The Observatory confirmed a bomb but had no casualty figures.
| Armed Conflict | September 2016 | ['(AP via ABC News America)', '(BBC)'] |
A bus carrying volunteer doctors from La Paz towards the north of Bolivia crashed, leaving 14 dead and 21 injured. | A bus carrying volunteer doctors from La Paz towards the north of Bolivia crashed leaving 14 dead and 21 injured, the La Paz local government said on Monday.
The doctors were part of the MedFund foundation based in La Paz and were heading to five villages in the region around Apolo to the north of La Paz.
According to reports, the bus fell into a ravine on Sunday night close to Charazani, around 250 kilometers to the north of La Paz.
Amongst the dead were 11 woman, according to Daniel Quelca, the health service co-ordinator for the Apolobamba region.
Bolivia has a sorry record when it comes to highway safety, and crashes involving buses travelling at night are common.
The worst accident this year came in April when 25 people died when a head-on collision between two vehicles sent a bus crashing into a ravine to the north of La Paz.
In February, 24 people died in an accident between a bus and a truck in Oruro.
And in January, 34 people died over a weekend in two separate incidents, the first a collision between two buses on the road between the southern regions of Oruro and Potosi, and the second when a bus careered over a cliff edge near the capital Sucre, in the center-south of the country.
Bolivia's authorities have shown little appetite to tackle the problem, with President Evo Morales writing on Twitter after the April accident: "To our brother drivers we ask you to always be very careful."
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world. Watch Live News: | Road Crash | August 2019 | ['(NDTV)'] |
A court in Cambodia sentences Australian film director James Ricketson to six years in prison after he was found guilty of espionage for flying a drone at a Cambodia National Rescue Party rally. | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court jailed an Australian filmmaker for six years on Friday after finding him guilty of espionage for flying a drone over an opposition party rally.
Cambodian court jails Australian filmmaker on espionage charges
James Ricketson, 69, was arrested last June after he was photographed flying the drone above the rally organized by the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) before communal elections.
Ricketson was charged with espionage, although it remains unclear for whom he was spying. His family called the court sentence an “absolute tragedy”.
“The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has decided to convict James Ricketson and sentences him to six years in prison for espionage and collecting information that is harmful to the nation between December 2010 and June 2017,” Judge Seng Leang said.
Ricketson, who has spent more than a year behind bars after his bail was denied, appeared in court wearing a pink prison uniform and holding a copy of the thriller book ‘The Faithful Spy’ by Alex Berenson.
Speaking in court after the verdict, Ricketson expressed disbelief. “Which country was I conducting espionage for?” he asked.
“James is almost 70 and is not in good health, our family is very scared about what will happen to him in there if things take a turn for the worst,” Ricketson’s family said in a statement following the verdict, referring to Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison where Ricketson has been jailed.
“James is not a spy. James loves Cambodia and the Cambodian people. He is a filmmaker and a humanitarian,” the family said.
During hearings that began last week the prosecution argued that Ricketson’s work had damaged Cambodia’s reputation on the world stage.
Ricketson has been visiting Cambodia for more than 20 years, producing documentaries about the country and its people.
Ricketson’s son, Jesse Ricketson, said the court’s decision was an “absolute tragedy”.
“It’s very difficult to imagine what the future holds now for my dad. I’m absolutely terrified for him,” he added.
“We are really looking for a lot more support moving forward from the new Australian government,” Ricketson’s nephew, Bim Ricketson, told reporters in Sydney.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that Ricketson can expect further consular assistance and that the government had previously approached Cambodia directly about the case.
“As usual with these types of events, it’s best I think to deal with these things calmly, directly and in a way that best assists the citizen,” he told reporters in Jakarta.
‘EXCESSIVE CHARGES’
In a letter to Cambodia’s long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen last month, Ricketson apologized for statements to media that were disrespectful to Hun Sen.
Ricketson’s arrest came amid a wider crackdown on freedom of expression by Hun Sen’s government and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
The CPP last month claimed victory following a controversial general election which was largely unopposed.
Rights groups said the July 29 vote was neither free nor fair given the absence of a significant challenger to Hun Sen, who has ruled for 33 years.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the trial exposed flaws in Cambodia’s judicial system.
“This trial exposed everything that’s wrong with the Cambodian judicial system: ridiculously excessive charges, prosecutors with little or no evidence, and judges carrying out political orders from the government rather than ruling based on what happens in court,” Robertson said in a statement.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Thai police raid the Dhammakaya Buddhist temple, north of Bangkok, to arrest Abbot Phra Dhammachayo, who is accused of conspiring to launder money by accepting stolen cash from a credit union. His followers deny the allegations and claim the charges are politically motivated. |
Phra Dhammajayo is accused of money laundering and embezzling funds from the huge Dhammakaya temple in Bangkok.
But his supporters blocked officers from searching parts of the compound.
The 72-year-old abbot has stayed inside the temple for months, saying he is too ill to face officials. He denies the allegations and says they are politically motivated. In a statement, the devotees of the temple said Phra Dhammajayo was severely ill and would enter the judicial process only when the country returned to democracy.
Police say they have paused an operation to arrest Phra Dhammajayo after devotees blocked their way.
A temple spokesman said monks were co-operating with police, but could not stop some followers from acting. However, Suriya Singhakamol, deputy chief of the police department of special investigations, said: "Our operation has not ended. The [arrest] warrant is still valid so we will have authority to carry out the operation. According to our information, he is still inside."
One 58-year-old female supporter told Reuters: "Arresting him is uncalled for. It's not like he killed someone."
The raid is the latest flashpoint between secular authorities and Buddhists in Thailand, and follows a raid on the controversial Tiger Temple.
Analysts say police do not want to appear confrontational towards Buddhist monks or enter a temple by force, given their revered status in Thailand.
Police said they had delayed Thursday's raid against the Dhammakaya temple in northern Bangkok until the monks had finished their lunch - their only meal of the day.
Founded in the 1970s, the temple contrasts starkly with the informal, tradition-bound character of most Thai temples, which are often integrated into the local community. It has more of the character of a charismatic cult, offering tightly choreographed mass meditations at its bizarre, flying saucer-like central chedi, and encouraging intense loyalty from its followers. Partly it is due to its size, the devotion of its followers, and its unusual interpretation of Buddhist practice. It has proved very attractive in a fast-changing society, and become wealthy on the back of generous donations. Critics have accused it of distorting the traditional teachings of Buddhism, and taking followers away from local temples.
Wat Dhammakaya is controversial for another reason too - its alleged close links to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the red shirt movement which supports him. They deny the Thaksin links. They say the temple attracts Thais from all walks of life and all political persuasions. But in Thailand's polarised political climate, such a powerful religious sect has inevitably been drawn in, with opponents of Mr Thaksin and his party making the loudest calls for action against the temple's abbot.
The potential for huge numbers of the temple's followers to be mobilised in mass protests must also weigh on the minds of a military government obsessed with maintaining tight control of the country as it navigates a difficult political transition. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Two people are killed and 13 wounded during an anti-government protests in Togo. | LOME (Reuters) - Two protesters were killed and 13 others wounded in Togo on Saturday when security forces opened fire to break up demonstrations against the ruling Gnassingbe family dynasty, the security ministry said.
President Faure Gnassingbe has been in power in the West African country since the death in 2005 of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had been at the helm for 38 years.
Wearing the red colors of the opposition PNP party, chanting and singing “50 years is too long!”, thousands of demonstrators in the capital Lome called for the reinstatement of the constitution limiting terms that Eyadema introduced in response to protests in 1992.
Security forces fired tear gas to disperse them.
But in a parallel protest in Sokode, 210 miles (338 km) north of the capital, clashes erupted and Togolese forces used live bullets.
The security ministry said that apart from the casualties among protesters 12 gendarmes had also been wounded.
“We do not understand our little Togo,” said demonstrator Ali Boukari. “The father Eyadema was in power for 38 years, his son will soon have done 15 years. All we are demanding is a term limit and they shoot (tear gas) at us.”
The 1992 constitution brought in notional multi-party democracy after decades of dictatorship, and limited presidential terms to two, but ten years later lawmakers amended it to enable Eyadema to run for another term - a common pattern in Africa.
Then, when he died, the military effectively tore up the constitution by installing his son as interim president, instead of the head of the national assembly, as was legally required.
The protests that followed Faure Gnassingbe’s first election victory in 2005 triggered a violent security crackdown in which around 500 people were killed.
“We are protesting against the arbitrary nature of governance and denial of freedom to assemble,” PNP leader Tikpi Atchadam said.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
As police arrive at the stateless Mikheil Saakashvili's house in Kiev to detain him, Saakashvili goes up on the roof to protest verbally. Police then detain him and try to take him away in a blue minivan while hundreds of people block the street. Finally the supporters free him out of the van. Bespeeching the cameras again, he rails against corruption, against Petro Poroshenko and urges Ukrainians to "be afraid of nothing". (U.S. News & World Report) | KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian supporters of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili freed him from a police van on Tuesday after his detention on suspicion of assisting a criminal organisation led to clashes with police in Kiev.
Once freed, Saakashvili raised a hand in a V-for-victory sign -- a handcuff still dangling from his wrist as he stood in a melee of supporters. He then led protesters towards parliament, where he called defiantly for President Petro Poroshenko to be removed from office.
Prosecutors said they would make all efforts to regain custody of Saakashvili but the chaotic scenes of his detention and escape are likely to undermine the image of stability that Ukraine’s leadership are keen to present to foreign backers.
Ukrainian prosecutors suspect Saakashvili of receiving financing from a criminal group linked to former president Viktor Yanukovich which planned to overthrow the current government.
He could face up to five years if found guilty. Saakashvili is also wanted in Georgia on criminal charges which he says were trumped up for political reasons.
Masked officers had earlier dragged Saakashvili, 49, from an apartment in the Ukrainian capital. But his supporters prevented the police van from moving off, hemming it in and eventually freeing him by breaking its windows and back door.
Protesters also started assembling a barricade of tyres, wood and stones ripped up from the street in scenes reminiscent of Ukraine’s 2013-14 pro-European ‘Maidan’ uprising.
“Today you maybe saved me from death, therefore my life belongs to you,” Saakashvili told a crowd at a makeshift camp outside parliament built by opposition supporters in September.
“The people of Ukraine must assemble and force the Ukrainian parliament to remove from power the criminal group led by the traitor to Ukraine, Poroshenko,” he said.
General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko said Saakashvili had a 24- hour deadline to present himself to the state security service, but subsequent comments by his press office suggested he could be detained earlier.
“All legal grounds for his detention have been established,” spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.
The detention was the latest twist in a prolonged feud between the Ukrainian authorities and Saakashvili, who was invited by Poroshenko to become a regional governor after the ‘Maidan’ protests ousted a pro-Russian president in early 2014.
The two quickly fell out and Saakashvili turned on his one-time patron.
It is unclear if Tuesday’s events will lead to wider unrest, as Saakashvili enjoys limited support in Ukraine. Only 1.7 percent of voters would support his party, the Movement of New Forces, in elections, according to an October survey by the Kiev-based Razumkov Centre think-tank.
In a response to a request for comment on the case and on Saakashvili’s comments on Poroshenko, the president’s administration said law enforcement had found evidence to back up the claims against Saakashvili.
“These facts clearly demonstrate the true price of all the political and ‘incriminating’ statements, which were recently made by Mikheil Saakashvili,” it said in a statement.
Georgian prosecutors said they had not been informed of Tuesday’s developments by their Ukrainian counterparts.
Saakashvili made a dramatic return to Ukraine in September, barging his way across the border from Poland despite having been stripped of Ukrainian citizenship and facing the threat of possible extradition to Georgia.
He wants to unseat Poroshenko and replace him with a new, younger politician. His supporters have camped in tents outside parliament and launched sporadic protests since his return.
“We have been waiting for it (the arrest) for months, of course, and especially in the recent weeks,” Saakashvili’s wife Sandra Roelofs told Georgian TV Rustavi 2.
“It’s illegal and outrageous.”
Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship when he reinveted himself as a Ukrainian politician. He was made governor of the Odessa region in 2015 on the strength of the reforms he carried out in Georgia.
But he fell out with Poroshenko, accusing him of corruption, while Poroshenko’s office said Saakashvili was trying to deflect from his own shortcomings as an administrator.
He was stripped of his citizenship by Poroshenko in July and is now stateless.
Saakashvili’s supporters see him as a fearless crusader against corruption but critics say there is little substance behind his blustery rhetoric.
In his homeland, where he took power after a peaceful pro-Western uprising known as the Rose Revolution in 2003, his time in office was tarnished by what critics said was his attempts to monopolise power and exert pressure on the judiciary.
He was president at the time of a disastrous five-day war with Russia in 2008, a conflict that his critics argued was the result of his own miscalculations.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2017 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Reuters)', '(Interfax Ukraine)'] |
Botswana decriminalizes homosexuality. | Botswana's High Court has ruled in favour of decriminalising homosexuality in a landmark decision for campaigners. The court rejected laws that impose up to seven years in prison for same-sex relationships, stating they were unconstitutional. The move contrasts with Kenya's recent ruling against campaigners seeking to overturn laws on gay sex. "Human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalized," Judge Michael Elburu said. Three judges came to the decision unanimously. Judge Elburu labelled laws banning gay sex as "discriminatory" and added: "Sexual orientation is not a fashion statement. It is an important attribute of one's personality." The law has been in place since 1965 when it was brought in by the colonial British government. The case was brought to court by a student who argued society had changed and homosexuality was more widely accepted. Activists welcomed the decision and described it as a significant step for gay rights on the African continent.
Laws outlawing same sex relations exist in 31 out of 54 African countries, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).
Gay sex can be punishable by death in northern Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and Mauritania. Tanzanian laws mean homosexuality can result in a life sentence. Angola, Mozambique and the Seychelles have all scrapped anti-homosexuality laws in recent years. On 24 May, Kenya's High Court ruled against overturning a law banning gay sex. | Government Policy Changes | June 2019 | ['(BBC News)'] |
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