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David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox hits two home runs in the Sox' 10–4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, making him the 27th player in MLB history with 500 career homers. | ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- David Ortiz became the 27th player in major league history, the fourth player in Boston Red Sox history, and the fourth Dominican Republic native to reach the 500-home run threshold, hitting two home runs Saturday night in the team's 10-4 win against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.
Ortiz hit No. 499, a three-run home run, in the first inning off Rays left-hander Matt Moore, driving a 1-2 fastball over the right-field fence. After popping out to short center field on a 3-0 pitch in the third inning, Ortiz led off the fifth inning against Moore, greeted by chants of "Let's go, Papi,'' and drove a 2-2 pitch into the seats.
Ortiz's teammates poured out of the dugout and the relief pitchers ran in from the bullpen to greet him after he jogged slowly around the bases, stepped on home plate, brought his fingers to his lips, and then pointed to the sky.
Ortiz, who is 10 weeks shy of his 40th birthday, achieved the milestone with a three-month power surge that has been matched only twice by a player of his age or older, Barry Bonds and Henry Aaron, over a full season. On June 10, Ortiz had just six home runs and was batting .219, a performance that invited wide speculation that his celebrated career was winding down. Among qualified designated hitters in the American League, Ortiz ranked last in most major categories.
Red Sox principal owner John W. Henry acknowledged the skeptics.
"The guy, he's the best hitter I've seen for the Red Sox for a long time," Henry said at the time. "He's not in his prime. He's not going to hit 50 home runs. But is he going to hit 30? It doesn't look like it this year. Is he getting older? Yes. But I don't think any of us know [if the end is nearing]."
Even Ortiz revealed a sliver of doubt.
"Everybody's time is up at some point," he said. "I don't think that's my problem, though. I'll keep on trying like I normally do."
With 28 home runs in the span of just 273 at-bats, Ortiz erased all doubts that he will return in 2016 for his 20th season in the big leagues, the past 13 with the Red Sox. He joins Manny Ramirez, Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams as Red Sox players who have hit 500 home runs, and Sammy Sosa, Ramirez and Albert Pujols as fellow Dominicans who have reached that threshold.
Ortiz also solidified his case for induction into baseball's Hall of Fame, a place which only this past year opened its doors to a second Dominican player, Ortiz's former Boston teammate Pedro Martinez, and has historically resisted the inclusion of designated hitters.
Ortiz may also encounter pushback from voters who have shown little enthusiasm for players who have been linked to performance-enhancing substances, keeping such great players as Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sosa, whose 609 home runs rank eighth on the all-time list, on the outside looking in.
Ortiz, perhaps mindful that the issue will be raised when his Hall of Fame candidacy is considered, declared his innocence in the strongest terms to date last March, in a piece entitled "The Dirt" that appeared under his byline on The Players' Tribune website.
"In some people's minds, I will always be considered a cheater," wrote Ortiz, citing a New York Times report in 2009 that cited him as one of the players who tested positive in 2003 for PEDs, a test that was supposed to be confidential. "And that's bulls---. Mark my words: Nobody in MLB history has been tested for PEDs more than me. You know how many times I've been tested since 2004? More than 80. They say these tests are random. If it's really random, I should start playing the damn lottery. Some people still think the testing is a joke. It's no joke. Ten times a season these guys come into the clubhouse or my home with their briefcases. I have never failed a single one of those tests and I never will."
In Boston, where Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino 10 years ago presented him with a plaque that said "The Greatest Clutch Hitter in the History of the Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, #34," the allegations of PED use have not kept him from being lionized as one of the greatest athletes in the city's rich sports history. That puts him in the select company of such beloved icons as Larry Bird, Bobby Orr, Ted Williams, Bill Russell, Carl Yastrzemski, Martinez and Tom Brady.
As a hitter, Big Papi has proved a worthy successor as slugger to the Splendid Splinter, as Williams was known. This is his ninth season with 30 home runs or more, passing Williams for most in Red Sox history.
But like Russell, Bird, Orr and Brady, Ortiz will be remembered for delivering championships, three World Series titles in the span of 10 years for a team that had gone the previous 86 years without winning one.
His career can be bookended by signature performances in the 2004 postseason, in which he had three walk-off hits, the most ever by a player in a single postseason. Two of those walk-off hits came on the same calendar day. Ortiz hit a 12th-inning home run off Yankees reliever Paul Quantrill at 1:22 a.m. ET to end Game 4 of the AL Championship Series, and less than 23 hours later delivered a 14th-inning single off Esteban Loaiza in the 14th inning of Game 5.
David Ortiz became the fourth member of the 500-HR club to reach the milestone while wearing a Red Sox uniform.
The Red Sox became the first team in baseball history to rally from a 3-0 deficit and win a postseason series.
Then, in 2013, Ortiz led all postseason hitters with a .500 OBP, a .706 slugging percentage and a 1.206 OPS, hitting five home runs in 16 games, capped by a near-record-setting World Series performance in which he batted .688 (11-for-16) and reached base in nine consecutive plate appearances. He was named World Series MVP.
On June 11, 2015, Ortiz launched an eighth-inning home run off Orioles reliever Chaz Roe in a 6-5 loss in Baltimore. No one could have known it at the time, but Ortiz, who earlier this season had said his home runs were "like bananas, they come in bunches," was about to go off on one of the greatest power displays of his career.
Beginning with that home run off Roe through the home run he hit off Phillies rookie Jerad Eickhoff over the Red Sox bullpen last Sunday at Fenway Park, Ortiz hit 25 home runs in 255 at-bats, a ratio of one home run per 10.2 at-bats.
That ratio is even better than the one he had in 2006, when he hit a club-record 54 home runs at age 30, when he averaged one home run per 10.3 at-bats.
In 2004, Bonds hit 45 home runs in 373 at-bats, a ratio of one per 8.29 at-bats. In 1973, at the age of 40, Aaron hit 40 home runs in 392 at-bats, one per 9.8 at-bats. They rank one-two, of course, on the all-time home run list.
Only nine players 39 or older have hit 30 home runs in a season, with Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees preceding Ortiz to that mark earlier this month. Only three players -- Bonds, Aaron and Darrell Evans -- have hit 30 or more past the age of 40.
Ortiz, who has hit at least 25 home runs in a season 11 times for the Red Sox, will have a chance to join their company in 2016.
Yastrzemski, who played 23 seasons for Boston and has both 3,000 hits and 452 home runs to his credit, nevertheless defers to Ortiz as the team's greatest hitter, behind only Williams. On July 31, the day his close friend Martinez was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Ortiz hit two three-run homers and drove in seven runs.
A preamble to his own induction?
"As long as David stays healthy and is capable of producing, as he's done for so many years,'' manager John Farrell said, "with each passing day the probability of him getting in continues to increase." | Sports Competition | September 2015 | ['(ESPN)'] |
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan establishes the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm in order to review statues in London. A statue of merchant and slave owner Robert Milligan is removed. |
Sadiq Khan has announced a commission to review statues, plaques and street names in London to ensure landmarks in the capital “suitably reflect London’s achievements and diversity”.
The announcement comes after a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol at the weekend. The bronze monument was then pushed into the Bristol Harbour.
The London mayor said the new Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will focus on “increasing representation among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (Bame) communities, women, the LGBT+ community and disability groups”.
He also said a national slavery memorial and a national Sikh war memorial should be erected in London.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Khan said: “I’m all in favour of our city reflecting the values that we have and also the diversity of our city – more murals, more blue plaques, more statues of people that reflect that side to you.
“For example, I think there should be in London a national slavery memorial, a national Sikh memorial, I think we should be commemorating great black Britons from Stephen Lawrence to many others.”
Stephen Lawrence was a black teenager from southeast London who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in 1993.
His death has been commemorated with a memorial plaque on the spot where he was killed on Well Hall Road, as well as with Stephen Lawrence Day, observed on 22 April every year, which began in 2019. When asked if he would consider taking down a statue of Winston Churchill which had the word “racist” sprayed on it during protests last weekend, Mr Khan said: “No – nobody’s perfect, whether it’s Churchill, whether it’s Gandhi, whether it’s Malcolm X.
“There’s a conversation to be had about the national curriculum properly teaches our children about people’s warts and all, and some of the things they’ve done we don’t approve of. But there are some statues that are quite clear cut – slavers, quite clear cut in my view.”
The commission, which will comprise arts, community and council leaders, and historians, will review current landmarks and discuss what legacies should be celebrated and make recommendations for establishing best practice and standards.
Ekow Eshun, of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, praised the commission as a “timely, significant development”.
“The Fourth Plinth programme is an example of a project that considers the representation of Bame communities, women, the LGBTQ+ community and disability groups as part of its mission – and is all the stronger and artistically adventurous as a consequence,” he said.
“This commission marks a positive step forward in how we think about the relationship between culture and society in London.”
| Organization Established | June 2020 | ['(The Independent)'] |
The G8 summit ends with the nations agreeing to a "7–point plan" for peace in Syria. |
G8 leaders have managed to come to agreement on a seven-point plan for Syria's future. The British prime minister David Cameron says fundamental differences were overcome to agree the joint communique, but deep divisions remain with Russia over which side to back in the civil conflict.
TONY EASTLEY: They came, they met and for the most part they agreed. All eight leaders of the G8 have managed to overcome fundamental differences in agreeing on a seven point plan for Syria.
The British prime minister hailed the outcome of the summit as a resounding success.
But scratch the surface of the communiqu and fundamental differences over Syria's future remain.
Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reports.
BARBARA MILLER: David Cameron set the agenda for this G8 Summit some time ago.
DAVID CAMERON: Tax, trade and transparency - what I call the three Ts.
BARBARA MILLER: But it was the big S that dominated this two day meeting - Syria. For a while it looked like Russia might be left out in the cold, but in the end a joint communiquwas agreed - a seven point plan for the war-torn country.
The leaders are pledging around $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid. They want to step up efforts for a new Syrian peace conference in Geneva and they want to ensure that any transitional government retains control of the country's key institutions.
This last point is being seen as a signal to the allies of president Bashar al-Assad that they can play a role in a post-Assad government.
DAVID CAMERON: I think it is unthinkable that president Assad can play any part in the future government of his country. He has blood on his hands. He's used chemical weapons.
Now let's get on with the process of naming people from the regime, from the opposition, who can sit down and talk about a transitional authority that will take power in Syria, that will have, as we agreed, full power.
BARBARA MILLER: The trouble with that model is that Russia still firmly backs president Assad. President Putin defended his country's right to supply weapons to the regime.
VLADIMIR PUTIN (translated): We fulfill legal contracts. This is the legal government of Syria, the government of Assad. There is no other legal government in Syria so far.
BARBARA MILLER: The Russian leader again had harsh words about the Syrian opposition, who the UK and US have suggested they might supply with arms. President Putin compared the rebels to the extremists who recently murdered a British soldier in London.
VLADIMIR PUTIN (translated): Many of them are exactly the same as the ones who perpetrated the killing in London. So if we equip these people, if we arm them, what is going to control and verify who is going to have these weapons?
BARBARA MILLER: Against the green backdrop of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, G8 leaders removed their ties and posed for photographers.
(Sound of cameras snapping)
But the tranquil and relaxed setting belied the bitter and deep divisions over Syria, which this meeting has failed to resolve. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2013 | ['(ABC Online)'] |
Charges against 5 men from Iraq, who had been accused of murdering 6 British police officers in 2003, are dropped. | Five Iraqis accused of murdering six Royal Military Police officers in 2003 have had their charges dropped, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
Only two men will now stand trial in Iraq, possibly later this year, after an Iraqi judge ruled that the five in question had no case to answer.
The military police officers - or Red Caps - were killed by a mob in the town of Majar al-Kabir in southern Iraq.
John Hyde, the father of Ben, who died aged 23, said he was disappointed.
He told the BBC: "The problem is it's going the wrong way. "What we expected to happen was that the people that they had in custody would be prosecuted and further outstanding arrest warrants would be acted upon. "One person that they had in custody they released about a year ago because they thought it was mistaken identity, then they decided it wasn't, so they reissued the arrest warrant. "So obviously we were hoping that the whole thing was going to bring a lot more people in. But it's just not looking that way."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Sri Lankan Member of Parliament and former industry minister Rishad Bathiudeen is arrested, along with his brother, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for having connections with the perpetrators of the 2019 attack. | COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s police arrested a top Muslim legislator Saturday in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks that killed 279 people, as pressure mounted to speed up the investigation.
Detectives took Rishad Bathiudeen, leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Party (ACMP) and a former minister, into custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.
Bathiudeen and his brother Riyaaj were arrested in pre-dawn raids on their homes in Colombo.
“They were arrested under the PTA based on circumstantial and scientific evidence that they had connections with the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks,” Rohana said in a statement.
A lawyer representing the brothers said a presidential inquiry had found no evidence linking them to the bombers and the arrests were a political vendetta.
“The arrests are politically motivated,” lawyer Rushdhie Habeeb said in a statement, which highlighted how the ACMP had opposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019 elections.
The arrests came three days after the head of Sri Lanka’s Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, accused the government of allowing investigations to stall.
Nearly 200 people were arrested within days of the suicide attacks on hotels and churches by local Islamist extremists, but no one has been charged.
Ranjith, who led commemorations on the second anniversary of the Easter attacks on Wednesday, said he was “deeply saddened” by the lack of progress in the investigation.
He renewed his call for swift action against the perpetrators and said “political posturing and the need to safeguard alliances” was hindering the probe.
Bathiudeen’s party is a member of an opposition coalition, but three of his legislators defected to the government in October to amend the constitution and give Rajapaksa wider powers over the judiciary and legislature.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2021 | ['(Arab News)'] |
Egyptian news site Masr al-Arabia says its offices were raided and a journalist arrested in response to the republication of an article by The New York Times alleging irregularities in the nation's recent Presidential election. | Masr al-Arabia journalists say raid on its offices prompted by decision to run New York Times piece on alleged election irregularities
Egyptian police have raided the office of a news website and arrested its editor-in-chief as part of a wider crack down on media that reported allegations of vote buying during last month’s presidential election.
The raid late on Tuesday came two days after the supreme council for media regulation, an official oversight body, told the Masr al-Arabia website to pay 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,849) as a fine for republishing a New York Times article on alleged irregularities during the presidential election. The website is one of over 500to have been blocked within Egypt since May 2017.
Two journalists at the website quoted the site’s lawyers as saying that police said they had acted because the website did not have a permit to operate. The journalists said the raid was prompted by the republishing of the New York Times article.
A statement from the council, which was based on a complaint from the national election authority, on Sunday had accused the website of publishing false news.
“The website should have checked the authenticity of the news or commented on it with an opinion,” the council statement said, referring to the New York Times article, which said some voters were offered payments and other inducements to vote.
The New York Times defended its reporting. “We stand by the accuracy of our reporting and strongly condemn any arrests meant to intimidate journalists and stifle freedom of the press,” Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman said.
Adel Sabry, the website’s editor-in-chief, was arrested and was still being held at Dokki police station in greater Cairo on Wednesday.
A security source at the police station said Sabry was being held prior to appearing before a prosecutor. Sabry is accused of running a news website without a permit, the source added.
The office of the website was closed and sealed with red wax, the three journalists said.
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, swept to a second term with 97% of the vote. His win came after five opposition candidates were prevented from getting on the ballot. The editor-in-chief of private newspaper Al Masry Al Youm was recently fined 150,000 Egyptian pounds and forced to apologise for the headline of an article published on its front page detailing official offers of financial incentives to voters, and threats of fines for those who did not get to the ballot box. Some voters have said they were offered incentives to cast their ballots, including money and food, local and international media reported, without saying who had made the offers. Officials said that if any such incidents took place they were not state sponsored and had been extremely limited.
Authorities say curbing fictitious news is necessary for national security.
Officials at the state information service previously declared they would summon international journalists who published election coverage “written in a non-professional manner”. Sherif Mansour, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, described continued efforts to crack down on the press as “a witch-hunt”.
“The authorities have also continued to blur the red lines journalists have known for years under Sisi,” he said. “This doesn’t bode well for the post-election era, as many thought those censorship measures were enacted temporarily to secure Sisi’s second term. But it seems like they’re here to stay and more are coming.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The cities of Yafran and al-Qalaa in the Nafusa Mountains are in critical condition following ongoing attacks by Muammar Gaddafi's forces, with heavy artillery shelling continuing, water supplies shut off, and no food or medical supplies coming into the towns for weeks. | (CNN) -- The man in front of me clasping a new satellite telephone tells me he has an urgent message. He's just received a call from his hometown warning him Moammar Gadhafi's forces are on the verge of overrunning it and he's desperate for NATO to do something about it.
Mohammed, as he wants to be known, is a middle-aged, middle-class professional.
He says he walked out of al Galaa, population 16,000, under cover of darkness three weeks ago on a harrowing two-night trek to break the siege and bring word of their suffering. It's been his mission ever since, and tonight is no exception.
"The shelling has increased," he tells me.
Libyan leader Gadhafi's forces have the hilltop "surrounded" and have "switched to 106mm rockets" that he tells me are reaching their targets more effectively than the Grad and Katusha missiles they've been firing for the past two months.
Al Galaa is in the Nafusa mountains, about 129 kilometers (80 miles) from the capital Tripoli. It sits on a small plateau next to Yefren, a town of similar size. They are at the eastern tip of a slender sliver of rebel-held territory extending 270 kilometers (168 miles) westwards to the Tunisian border. Both have been targeted by Gadhafi since they joined the rebellion three months ago.
In that time, according to Mohammed, townspeople have had their water poisoned, their houses destroyed by shelling, been shot at, arrested, denied hospital treatment and even used as human shields.
Since arriving in the rebel stronghold of Zintan about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, Mohammed has sent a satellite phone back to the rebels he left behind. That's how he says he stays on top of news from there.
He tells me Gadhafi's forces have taken control of the west of Yefren, including the hospital, the bank and the shops. What remains of the population, he says, are huddled in the east of Yefren, in al Galaa and in nearby caves.
Most of the 32,000 estimated residents fled about two months ago, he says. He says it's impossible to know exactly how many people are left but guesses it's about 1,000, half of them rebels, half of them civilians.
He claims they have been out of electricity and water for seven weeks and there is no access to the hospital, but what worries him most is Gadhafi's switch to 106mm rockets. He says it's now or never for NATO.
If they are serious, he says, "they could end the siege in two hours."
When I ask what he means, he explains the rebels have tried blowing up the two roads that lead to the mountain top without success. "All they need to do is blow up the roads to stop Gadhafi's advance."
Every day, he says, he calls in the latest coordinates of Gadhafi's forces to the rebel command in Benghazi. Each day with no NATO action, he says he can only hope his details are being passed along correctly. "Look at Benghazi and Misrata," he says. "Gadhafi's forces were stopped by NATO bombing, why not here in Yefren and al Galaa?"
It's impossible for us in Zintan to verify Mohammed's accounts. He says he could take us there but the several-day hike through the mountains would be incredibly dangerous and could end in disaster.
Zintan's rebel commander says he's getting no new information from Yefren and fears it may already be lost to Gadhafi's forces. According to a Libyan doctor at Zintan's hospital, four men arrived from al Galaa a few days ago.
They had walked for two days, they told him, taken the same nighttime route as Mohammed. One had a broken arm, the doctor said. It had been set in hardened henna because doctors had run out of regular bandages. Their stories he told me matched Mohammed's dire warning. | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(Dailymail)', '(CNN)'] |
Protests against unemployment and austerity measures take place across several European countries. The largest protests reportedly take place in Spain and Portugal, with smaller protests in Greece, Italy, and Belgium. | Workers across the European Union have launched an unprecedented string of strikes in a co-ordinated battle against austerity cuts on Wednesday.
The strikes are intended to paralyse factories and public sector offices, and have grounded more than 700 flights. Organisers are urging national leaders to abandon fiscal austerity measures and address growing social anxiety.
Walkouts are expected in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy, with other protests planned in Belgium, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
It is the first time unions have engaged in simultaneous strikes across the continent, said the European Trade Union Confederation, which organised the “Day of Action and Solidarity”.
Unions in Spain, the eurozone’s fifth-largest economy, and Portugal, ranked 14th, started strikes at midnight to protest against austerity measures that have combined tax rises with cuts in salaries, pensions, benefits and social services.
Spain, where one in four workers is unemployed in a deep recession, is holding its second general strike in eight months to protest against severe budget cuts.
Al Jazeera’s Asad Hashim, observing the protests in Barcelona, said that nearly 10,000 protesters marched peacefully chanting slogans against the budget cuts.
Hashim said that some “did throw pain on the façades of businesses that did not observe the strike. They also blew airhorns outside the doors of such businesses, until they closed their shutters. They also periodically exploded small smoke bombs.”
Violent clashes
The scene was more tense in Madrid.
In the first reported clashes of the day, picketers and police fought at a Madrid transport depot, where demonstrators were trying to stop buses from leaving.
There were outbreaks of violence in other Spanish cities as well, and the interior ministry said several arrests had been made.
In the main squares of Madrid, the main unions strung up banners declaring” “They are taking away our future!” They deployed pickets overnight at airports, markets and bus and railway stations.
“We are launching a day that will be a milestone in the history of European unionism,” said Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, head of the country’s largest trade union, the CCOO.
Our correspondent, Tim Friend, reporting from Madrid, said that unions there claim a 78 per cent participation rate in the strikes.
“There have been some clashes between police and protesters. The latest figures we have are 70 people have been arrested, 34 injured – none of them seriously,” said Friend, adding that the protests have been “largely peaceful.”
Friend also reported that public transport had been “very badly hit”, with flights cancelled and ports “at a standstill”.
In neighbouring Portugal, Lisbon’s metro service was out of service on Wednesday morning, while ferries across the River Tagus and trains across the country ran skeleton services. Refuse collection also ground to a near halt.
Hospital staff joined the action, with up to 90 per cent of staff reportedly abiding by the strike call.
Organised protests
Portugal’s unions have called marches and rallies in about 40 towns and cities against the centre-right government’s austerity policies.
Nick Spicer, reporting from Lisbon, says that the strikes are not largely backed there, with the second largest union refusing to support the stoppage.
Legislation in both Spain and Portugal requires workers to provide a minimum service in essential industries, but airlines cancelled many domestic and international flights.
Iberia, Iberia Express, Air Nostrum, Vueling, Air Europa and easyJet cut more than 600 flights, including 250 international routes. Ryanair said it had not yet scrapped any flights.
Greece, at the epicentre of the eurozone’s debt crisis, is witnessing protests against the latest round of government cuts, while Italian unions have called a four-hour walkout.
Union-led rallies supporting the day of action are expected in France, Belgium and in Poland, where workers decry “social and wage-dumping” in their country.
Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips, reporting from Athens said that the march and strike there are “done and dusted” and that strikes and protests have become a common occurrence in Greece.
“So it wasn’t a particularly exceptional day in Athens,” said Phillips.
However, the Greek government projects that the economy will continue to shrink through 2013 by another 4.5 per cent and that the outlook is “extremely bleak”.
Train services between France, Germany and Belgium have been disrupted, with Belgian rail workers participating in the work stoppage in solidarity with strikingg workers in other European countries.
In the Italian capital of Rome, students and workers have been marching against severe spending cuts, with one banner showing German Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed in a Nazi uniform.
Riot police fired tear gas at protesters as clashes broke out during one demonstration there. Armed with makeshift shields painted with anti-austerity slogans, the protesters hurled objects towards police lines.
Several people are believed to have been injured but authorities have not released any official numbers.
In Germany, viewed by many as the paymaster behind the austerity drive, the union federation DGB has called protests across the country, including in Berlin and Frankfurt. | Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Israeli police and Palestinians clash at Temple Mount, Jerusalem's holiest site, resulting in 12 arrests. | Police arrested 12 people who were throwing stones in the Temple Mount compound, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, a police spokesman said. The site contains the al-Aqsa mosque and the Jewish holy site, the Western Wall. A spokesman said police did not enter the al-Aqsa mosque itself. The clashes came amid rising tensions in the past weeks over the area. On Saturday, Jerusalem police announced they would strengthen policing around the Temple Mount after Muslim leaders urged Palestinians to defend Jerusalem against "Jewish conquest."
There have been rumours among Palestinians that Jewish extremists were planning on harming the holy site - though no such attempt has been made. Last month, police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse 150 Palestinian protesters who had thrown rocks at non-Muslims who entered the al-Aqsa mosque compound. Israeli police said the visitors were foreign tourists, but Palestinians said they were Jewish extremists. In the most recent incident, Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said 12 people had been arrested. He added: "This morning at eight o'clock a number of youngsters from east Jerusalem started rioting inside the Temple Mount itself. "Our police units entered in order to disperse them after stones and rocks as well as even petrol bombs were thrown at our officers." Security forces used stun grenades to disperse the demonstrators, and officers remain on high alert in the area. Police also said they had arrested the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, Hatem Abdel Qader, on charges of incitement. Palestinian officials said police had sealed off the compound and that some 100 Palestinian worshippers remained inside. Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in 1981 but its claim to the area is not recognised internationally. Instead, under international law, East Jerusalem is considered to be occupied territory. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state of Palestine. | Armed Conflict | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Straits Times)', '(Associated Press)'] |
At least three deaths and several injuries caused by wildfires in Tennessee are reported near Dolly Parton's Dollywood resort. | Country music star Dolly Parton says she is "heartbroken" over wildfires that have killed three people and injured 14 near her Tennessee resort.
Mandatory evacuations are under way around Gatlinburg as wildfires have set hundreds of buildings ablaze.
The fires threaten Dollywood, a theme park owned by Parton, and an aquarium housing thousands of animals.
Several southern states are battling wind-fuelled wildfires after months of drought.
"I have been watching the terrible fires in the Great Smoky Mountains and I am heartbroken," Parton said.
"I am praying for all the families affected by the fire and the firefighters who are working so hard to keep everyone safe."
Dollywood, in the mountain town of Pigeon Forge, has evacuated guests from some of its properties, with several cabins and vacation structures being damaged, a spokesman said.
Parton, 70, had appeared in a public service advertisement on Sunday, asking people nearby to take steps to prevent spreading the fire.
Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that three people had died, but he did not provide further details.
The conflagration in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains was being spread by winds gusting over 80mph (128km/h).
National Guard troops began arriving early on Tuesday morning to help battle the blaze.
What is a firenado? Wildfires- Why they start and how they can be stopped
Thousands of people have been evacuated so far.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park sent out warnings on social media to avoid the area. There is concern for more than 10,000 animals at an aquarium in Gatlinburg after all employees were evacuated. The building is still standing, but "workers are anxious to return to check on the animals", the general manager of Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, Ryan DeSears, told local media.
A new storm system is predicted to bring high winds, which authorities say could topple dead trees and pose a threat to firefighters. But the rainfall due to come with the weather system is not expected to end the drought.
"It's way too early to say, 'yes, this drought is over,'" said Mark Svoboda, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center in Nebraska. "Does it put a dent in it? Yes, but we have a long ways to go." | Fire | November 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Israel opens fire again, with the Gaza Health Ministry claiming one Palestinian was killed and 233 injured as protesters torched tyres and Israeli flags. | Israeli army says 'violent rioters and terrorists' throwing firebombs along Gaza border in third week of demonstrations ■ Protesters: Marches meant to be 'nonviolent resistance'
One Palestinian was killed and 233 were wouned by live israeli fire as more than 10,000 protested along the Israel-Gaza border on Friday, burning tires and Israeli flags, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
To really understand Israel and the Middle EastAccording to the Israeli army, protests were held at five different sites along the border.
The Health Ministry in Gaza identified the Palestinian killed in the protest as Asalam Saudi Hasralla, 28. Overall, 969 Palestinians were wounded in Friday's protest, with 233 wounded by live fire and 419 evacuated to the hospital. Of those wounded, 20 were women and 67 were under age 18. Thirteen Palestinians were wounded by rubber-tipped bullets. The ministry noted that the number of protesters was lower than last week.
According to the army, numerous attempts to destroy obstacles erected by the army were made during the day. They also said that a number of attacks were attempted, with explosives and firebombs thrown at the border, as well as gunfire.
>>The Koran according to the Israeli army: A good Palestinian woman stays away from protests
Later on Friday, the Israeli military said that attempts were made to breach and cross the border fence. An explosive charge was thrown in the Karni area, and firebombs were thrown at the border. A kite with a Molotov cocktail was sent towards the Israeli side of the border, but it fell on the side of Gaza, and no one was hurt.
The army reiterated it is opening fire only according to its protocols and will not allow anyone to harm Israel's "defense infrastructures," calling demonstrators "violent rioters and terrorists."
Palestinians said that a smoke grenade was fired at a medical tent, causing ten medics to suffer from smoke inhalation.
Friday's protests were the third round of mass demonstrations in the Gaza Strip,amid reports in Gaza that some demonstrators were preparing firebombs for what they termed “Molotov Day,” a reference to so-called molotov cocktails. The demonstrations’ organizers, however, denounced that idea, stressing that the protests are meant to be “nonviolent resistance.”
>>Marching in Gaza, my brother risks death
One organizer told Haaretz that "Israel is trying in every way to pin the marches on Hamas and it's very convenient for them if this action becomes violent on the Palestinian side, and that's why we won't allow it."
He charged that Israel’s airstrikes on Hamas positions over the past week show that Israel is trying to draw the Palestinians, and especially Hamas, into a full-on confrontation.
As this Friday’s theme, organizers plan to have the demonstrators burn Israeli flags and wave Palestinian ones.
Army braces for violence
Due to both the demonstrations in Gaza and the tension in the north, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has cut short his trip to Poland, where he was participating in the annual March of the Living. He had decided to cut the trip short before he left and even considered not going at all, because of the situation in Syria. Ultimately, however, he decided to go but return a day early.
On the Gazan front, the IDF has used both sticks and carrots over the past week to persuade Hamas to stop the violent attacks that have accompanied the Palestinian demonstrations.
If Hamas doesn’t stop the violence, the army warned, Israel will retaliate by attacking Hamas positions deep inside Gaza. But it also offered an economic carrot in the form of expanding the zone in which Gazan fisherman are allowed to fish a decision that was hardly self-evident given that just last week, the state indicted a Gaza resident for planning attacks on Israeli naval vessels together with several co-conspirators.
The IDF expects this Friday’s demonstration to attract roughly the same number of people as last Friday’s, but hopes that it will be less violent on both sides. It has stressed that it won’t tolerate continued violent demonstrations in Gaza at a time when tensions are running high in the north.
Overall, almost 1,300 Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers over the past couple of weeks of mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, according to a computerized count by the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 1,554 Gazans have been treated for tear gas inhalation or injuries by rubber-coated steel pellets. | Armed Conflict | April 2018 | ['(Haaretz)'] |
Joichi Ito steps down as the director of the MIT Media Lab and as a member of the board of directors of The New York Times Company. Yesterday, The New Yorker wrote that the lab hid its financial links with Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein had pleaded guilty of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008. | Joichi Ito stepped down as director of the MIT Media Lab on Saturday after a New Yorker article alleged the lab concealed its ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Joichi Ito stepped down as director of the MIT Media Lab on Saturday after a New Yorker article alleged the lab concealed its ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Joichi Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab, resigned on Saturday, one day after an article in The New Yorker reported the lab hid its financial relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. According to the report, Epstein gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the lab, and solicited millions from a list of other wealthy donors. The lab sought to conceal these financial ties after Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution from a minor in 2008, The New Yorker reported. Epstein was facing federal sex trafficking charges when he committed suicide in prison in August. The New Yorker reports:
"The effort to conceal the lab's contact with Epstein was so widely known that some staff in the office of the lab's director, Joi Ito, referred to Epstein as Voldemort or 'he who must not be named.'" "After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately," Ito wrote in an email to the provost of MIT, Martin A. Schmidt. Ito also stepped down Saturday from The New York Times Company Board of Directors. Earlier this week, Ito acknowledged taking more than $500,000 from Epstein for the Media Lab, in addition to $1.2 million from Epstein for investment funds under Ito's control.
In a letter to the school, MIT's President, L. Rafael Reif, wrote, "The New Yorker published an article that contains deeply disturbing allegations about the engagement between individuals at the Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein."
Reif said the allegations demand an "immediate, thorough and independent investigation," adding that he asked the school's general counsel to engage a prominent law firm to "design and conduct this process." "We are actively assessing how best to improve our policies, processes and procedures to fully reflect MIT's values and prevent such mistakes in the future," Reif wrote. "Our internal review process continues, and what we learn from it will inform the path ahead."
On Saturday Ito also stepped down from the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which said in an email to NPR, "The recent reports of Ito's behavior in The New Yorker, if true, would not be in keeping with the values of MacArthur. Most importantly, our hearts go out to the girls and women who survived the abuse of Jeffrey Epstein."
Ito reportedly resigned from other boards he sat on, including the James L. Knight Foundation. He was named director of the MIT Media Lab in 2011. NPR thanks our sponsors | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2019 | ['(NPR)'] |
Citizens of New Zealand head to the polls to elect the members of the country's House of Representatives. Next to the general election, the voters also decide about the country's policy regarding recreational marijuana and euthanasia. | The focus of the election is which party will be able to steer the country through a recession and best handle the pandemic.
Doors to the polling booths opened at 9am, though a record number of voters – more than 1.7 million – cast their ballots in advance, accounting for almost half of the roughly 3.5 million New Zealanders on the electoral rolls.
Restrictions are in place on what news media can report about the race until polls close at 7pm, and politicians have had to cease all campaigning, including taking down posters, and pulling advertisements from TV and radio. The rule is designed to limit undue influence on the crucial day and allow voters to cast their ballot in peace.
In a surprise move the Electoral commission gently reprimanded a British MP via Twitter on Saturday morning, reminding Angela Eagle of Wallasey that it was against New Zealand to law to post anything to social media promoting parties or candidates on voting day. Eagle’s tweet was later deleted.
No exit polls are allowed to be conducted or released either. Jacinda Ardern spent the day delivering cheese scones to volunteers, while National party leader Judith Collins kept a low profile. Voters traditionally embrace the silence by posting pictures of their dogs at the polling stations.
Luna says don't forget to vote!
At 7pm the Electoral Commission will begin publishing preliminary results, with the aim of counting 50% of the vote by 10pm, and 100% by 11.30pm. It is thought the results could come out quickly this year, because so many advance votes have been cast.
Special votes, including ballots from New Zealanders overseas and those who vote outside their home constituencies, will not be released until 6 November.
New Zealanders are also voting on referendums to legalise euthanasia and recreational marijuana. The latter vote could make New Zealand only the third country in the world to allow the adult use and sale of cannabis nationwide, after Uruguay and Canada.
The results of the referendums will be announced on 30 October.
Election day was going well for Rizzo until a starling hopped out and terrified her.New Zealand switched to a mixed-member proportional electoral system in 1996 in which a party or coalition needs 61 of Parliament’s 120 seats – usually about 48% of the vote – to form a government.
This means minor parties often play an influential role in determining which major party governs.
The 2020 election is one of the strangest New Zealand has seen, and has been described as “weird”, “bizarre” and “odd” by seasoned political observers. The vote was delayed by a month after an outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland, and many have described feeling tired by the long campaigning period, on top of what has already been a trying year. | Government Job change - Election | October 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A fire at an Aramco housing complex in the Saudi Arabian city of Khobar kills at least two people and injures 105 others. | A fire at a residential complex in Saudi Arabia has left 11 people dead and injured at least 200 others, Saudi officials say. They said multiple nationalities were among the injured - some critically. The fire broke out at a site used to house workers for the oil giant Saudi Aramco in the eastern city of Khobar. The cause is unknown. Some people were reportedly trapped on rooftops as helicopters battled to control the blaze.
Like many companies in Saudi Arabia, Aramco uses large numbers of migrant workers. Saudi's civil defence ministry tweeted: "Cars and furniture caught fire in the basement of one of the towers, heavy smoke billowed, obstructing rescue and firefighting operations."
Aramco says it has begun an investigation into the cause. | Fire | August 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Four people are charged with spying for Israel in Lebanon and admit being recruited by Mossad; two of them flee to Israel; Israel does not comment. | Four Lebanese citizens have been charged with spying for Israel by a military judge. Lebanese judicial sources said the four were accused of providing information about civilian and military positions and about the Hezbollah organization.
Two of the accused are in detention, while the other two have fled. According to a legal source, one of the suspects in custody said the two were in Israel. (AFP) | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2010 | ['(Ynetnews)', '(The Jerusalem Post)', '(Press Trust of India)'] |
Rioters armed with knives kill three members of Iran's security forces, bringing the death toll up to 11. | UN warns of ‘very serious’ number of casualties but Iran leaders stand by fuel price rise, slam ‘thugs’ behind protests.
The United Nations has called for Iranian authorities to rein in the use of force to disperse protests sparked by a fuel price rise, as Iranian media reported that three members of the country’s security forces were stabbed to death by “rioters”.
In comments made to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, said the body had received reports that dozens of people were killed during the demonstrations. Describing the extent of the reported casualties as “clearly very serious”, Colville called on authorities to uphold the demonstrators’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
His comments came a day after the semi-official ISNA news agency reported late on Monday that three members of Iran’s security forces were killed by “rioters” near the capital, Tehran.
The report brought the number of people killed during protests against fuel price rise to at least 11 – five security forces and six civilians – according to figures collated by Al Jazeera.
ISNA said the three people killed were stabbed by assailants on the outskirts of Tehran. One of the three was identified as Morteza Ebrahimi, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The other two were Majid Sheikhi, 22, and Mostafa Rezaie, 33. Both served in the Basij militia, a volunteer force loyal to the establishment.
Demonstrations first erupted on Friday when authorities rolled out a petrol rationing scheme and slashed subsidies in a move that sent prices rising by 50 percent.
Officials say the changes, which form part of efforts to blunt the effects of crippling US sanctions on Iran’s economy, are aimed at raising funds for cash handouts to the country’s poorest citizens.
But many Iranians already struggling amid a major economic downturn were quick to register their anger over the new policy, agreed on by the Supreme Council of Economic Coordination made up of President Hassan Rouhani, judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani.
Large demonstrations took place in recent days in several towns and cities across Iran, with drivers abandoning vehicles on highways and protesters blocking roads. They soon turned violent and spread to cities and towns across Iran, with banks, petrol stations and other public property set alight and shops looted.
“These protests are not like anything we have seen before in Iran,” Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said.
“They are happening by people branded ‘thugs’ by officials, because they are rioting, not gathering or demonstrating in any kind of organised or secure fashion,” she added.
“They are looting a number of banks, petrol stations and police offices across the country, according to officials, and security forces have been deployed across the country to try and deal with them.”
Still, the full extent of the protests remains unclear largely as a result of internet restrictions imposed on Saturday.
Netblocks, a website that monitors global net shutdowns, said Iran’s internet connectivity was at four percent compared with normal levels.
The government said on Tuesday it will unblock the internet only when authorities are sure it will not be “abused” during the protests.
“Many professions and banks … have faced problems, and we have been trying to solve this,” spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by ISNA.
“The internet will come back gradually in some provinces where there are assurances the internet will not be abused,” he said. “We understand that people have faced difficulties … but the bigger concern under the current circumstances is maintaining the country’s peace and stability.”
His comments came as an Iranian judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday that protests across the country had subsided.
“Calm has been restored in the country,” Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a news conference.
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His comments came a day after the IRGC warned of “decisive” action if the protests did not cease. In recent years, protests against the state of the economy have been met with a heavy-handed reaction by security forces.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has backed the council’s move, has labelled protesters taking violent action as “thugs” and accused counter-revolutionaries and foreign enemies of heightening the unrest.
For his part, Rouhani warned that “anarchy and rioting” will not be tolerated and said families would start receiving financial assistance on Monday from the funds raised by the move.
According to the IMF, Iran’s economy is already in “severe distress” and set to contract by 9.5 percent this year as it struggles under the weight of the US sanctions imposed following US President Donald Trump’s decision last year to unilaterally exit a landmark 2015 nuclear accord brokered between Iran and several other world powers.
The deal saw Tehran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Amid the continuing slump, jobs have become increasingly scarce and inflation of more than 40 percent has caused the price of everyday goods such as bread and rice to rise sharply.
The downturn has also seen Iran’s currency – the rial – plunge to record lows against the dollar.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Nigeria's acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, is sworn in as President of Nigeria following the death of Umaru Yar'Adua. | Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has been sworn as new President and Commander-in- Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, just few hours after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua.
Jonathan, in charge since February will appoint a deputy and serve out the rest of the current presidential term until elections due for next year. The new president took the oath of office in front of government ministers and other officials at the presidential villa in Abuja almost 12 hours after Yar‘Adua died. The ceremony was performed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Alloysius Katsina-Alu. Yar‘Adua died late on Wednesday in Abuja, after a long illness. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2010 | ['(The Punch)', '(AP)'] |
A wildfire is reported to have burned 300 acres near Yosemite National Park, forcing the evacuation of 700 nearby homes. | An evacuation order for 300 homes near Yosemite National Park remained in effect Saturday as firefighters battled a wildfire scorching about 300 acres in Central California.
CalFire reported that firefighters have contained about 25 percent of the blaze. The fire broke out Friday afternoon.
An additional 400 homes are being advised to evacuate. No damage has been reported. One minor injury was reported, but CalFire didn't provide details.
Officials said firefighters have been hampered by the steep terrain in the area and the dry conditions brought on by California's drought.
The area is about 15 miles southwest of Yosemite. Officials reopened a portion of state Route 49 that leads into the park that had been closed.
There were also no reports on any immediate effects on the park.
Later Friday a second blaze broke out 15 miles to the south in the community of Oakhurst. Nearly 300 alert calls telling residents to evacuate were sent out, the Mariposa County Sheriff's Department said, but they were canceled when the blaze's progress was stopped at 5 acres.
Meanwhile in far northern California, a blaze that broke out nearly four weeks ago grew to almost 130 square miles.
A red flag warning for dangerous fire conditions near that blaze was extended to Saturday night, but it has yet to damage any homes or buildings. It's 25 percent contained.
Some homes in the Happy Camp area were under evacuation orders, but it wasn't clear how many. | Fire | September 2014 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Welsh drug smuggler turned author Howard Marks dies at age 70, after suffering from cancer for more than one year. | Marks, from Kenfig Hill, Bridgend county, announced last year he had been diagnosed with inoperable bowel cancer.
Jailed in the US in 1990 after being convicted of smuggling cannabis, he recalled his exploits in a best-selling autobiography, Mr Nice, which was later made into a film starring Rhys Ifans.
The father of four stood for election to Parliament in 1997 on a single-issue ticket of reforming cannabis laws. Marks also regularly toured a one-man show in which he recounted stories about drug smuggling and his time in prison. The life of 'Mr Nice' Howard Marks
No regrets as Marks lives with cancer
A statement said: "In the early hours of 10th April 2016, Howard Marks died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by his four loving children.
"He fought the illness with grace and humour. "His death was 21 years to the day since his release from prison in the United States, his second bout of imprisonment for cannabis smuggling since his miraculous acquittal at the Old Bailey in 1980. "One of his last acts was to set up the Mr Nice foundation, to ensure the causes dear to him continue to receive his support."
Revealing his illness in January 2015, Marks said he had "no regrets" about his life.
His drug smuggling began in the 1970s after he graduated from Oxford University with a degree in physics.
In 1988, he was arrested in Spain as part of a US Drug Enforcement Agency-led operation and extradited to Florida. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and released on parole in 1995 for good behaviour.
As well as the film version of Mr Nice, Marks had cameo roles in the movie Human Traffic and appeared on TV including on the BBC quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He also collaborated on songs with the Super Furry Animals and made appearances at the Glastonbury festival.
A sequel to Mr Nice, Senor Nice, came out in 2006, and five years later Marks published a crime novel, Sympathy for the Devil.
Howard Marks in his own words
The life of 'Mr Nice' Howard Marks
No regrets as Marks lives with cancer
Ex-drug smuggler Marks has cancer
Ifans on screen as Mr Nice Marks
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Famous Person - Death | April 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Nebraska executes convicted murderer Carey Dean Moore, becoming the first U.S. state to execute an inmate with fentanyl, and what is also the state's first execution in 21 years, and its first by lethal injection. | Nebraska has become the first US state to use the opioid fentanyl to carry out the death penalty. Convicted criminal Carey Dean Moore, 60, who killed two cab drivers in 1979, was executed in the state's first lethal injection and first execution in 21 years.
Amid two lawsuits from drug companies to stay the execution, Moore had told his lawyers he wanted to be executed.
Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic drug at the heart of the US opioid crisis.
According to the Omaha World-Herald newspaper, the state used an untried drug cocktail of diazepam, fentanyl, cisatracurium and potassium chloride to execute Moore.
Moore was convicted of killing cab drivers Reuel Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland in August 1979. Both men were 47-year-old Korean war veterans. He was pronounced dead approximately 23 minutes after the drugs were administered, the Washington Post reported.
German pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi attempted to halt the execution with a federal lawsuit filed last week.
The suit alleged that Nebraska had not legally obtained the potassium chloride, meant to stop Moore's heart, and the cisatracurium besylate, a muscle paralytic.
State officials denied the allegations. In a court filing viewed by the Post, the Nebraska Attorney General's office said: "The people of Nebraska have chosen by a wide margin to retain capital punishment for Moore's crimes. "Their government is prepared to carry out Moore's sentence and possesses the constitutional, lawfully-acquired means of doing so."
A federal judge rejected Fresenius Kabi's request to block the use of its drugs, and a circuit court denied an appeal.
Another pharmaceutical company, Sandoz, requested last week that Nebraska reveal who made the drugs it would use to execute Moore.
But a judge ruled he would not decide on the case until after the execution.
Just three years ago, Nebraska had abolished the death penalty. A year later, it was restored after 60% of voters supported it.
Nebraska is not the first state to consider using fentanyl in an execution - particularly as drug companies continue to resist their products being used for death sentences.
In July, Nevada was set to use fentanyl in a lethal injection until a lawsuit stalled the execution amid claims that the state illegitimately obtained one of the drugs it planned to use.
Scott Frakes, director of Nebraska's Department of Correctional Services noted in an affidavit that lethal substances "are difficult, if nearly impossible, to obtain" in many death penalty states.
But so far, the legal questions have not involved fentanyl, the opioid at the centre of America's opioid epidemic.
In the US, it is approved as an anaesthetic and for pain relief, but because of its high profit margin for traffickers, it has become a large part of the US opioid crisis.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that between 2015 and 2016, the rate of drug overdose deaths in the US involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl had doubled.
"There's no particular reason why one would use fentanyl," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
"No one has used it before, and we've had hundreds and hundreds of executions by injection. That suggests that the state is using fentanyl because it can get its hands on it," he told the Washington Post. According to the Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska has 11 remaining prisoners on death row.
Before Moore, Nebraska's last execution was in 1997, using the electric chair.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Warren Buffett who through Berkshire Hathaway controls a significant block of the shares of Kraft came out in opposition to Kraft's proposal to float 370 million shares in order to fund its bid for the UK based confectioner Cadbury. | Warren E. Buffett opposed Kraft's $16.8 billion hostile offer for Britain's Cadbury as a threat to shareholder value, undermining the U.S. foodmaker's attempt to woo investors with a sweeter bid.
Kraft chief executive Irene Rosenfeld had sought to grab Cadbury investors' attention by raising the cash portion of the bid Tuesday. But the rare intervention by Buffett a few hours later showed that she has yet to win over Kraft's largest shareholder and one of the world's most admired investors, as well as giving Cadbury new ammunition in its defense.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement that it was voting against Kraft's proposal to float 370 million shares to fund the Cadbury bid while the company's stock remains undervalued, calling it a request for a blank check from shareholders. Berkshire holds 9.4 percent of Kraft. Berkshire said it could reconsider its vote if convinced the bid does not destroy shareholder value. Kraft could also ultimately offer fewer shares.
Buffett is on The Washington Post Co.'s board of directors.
| Organization Merge | January 2010 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
A roadside bomb explodes in Dusmareb, Somalia, killing twelve agents of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, including its local head. | Police say Abdirashid Abdunur, intelligence chief for Dhusamareeb town, was killed in the blast claimed by al-Shabab.
A roadside bomb went off just outside the central Somalia town of Dhusamareeb on Sunday, killing 12 agents working for the National Intelligence and Security Agency, police said.
Those killed included Abdirashid Abdunur, the head of the intelligence agency in Dhusamareeb, police officer Mohamed Ahmed said.
The al-Qaeda-linked armed group, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Political leaders have been meeting in Dhusamareeb, a town about 510 kilometres (317 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, to try to resolve a dispute over how to hold an election due on Monday.
A deal on how to choose a new president on Monday has been elusive so far, threatening to unleash more political turmoil.
Somalia had initially aimed to hold its first direct election in more than 30 years but delays in preparations, and the government’s inability to rein in daily attacks by al-Shabab, meant switching to an indirect vote, with elders picking legislators who would choose a president.
However, regional authorities in at least two of Somalia’s five federal states, Puntland and Jubbaland, oppose holding the election for now.
UNSOM’s chief discusses if the conflict in Somalia is the United Nations’s biggest diplomatic failure.
| Armed Conflict | February 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
The United States warns the Serbian government that it has a responsibility to protect its assets after about 1,000 protesters set fire to the U.S. embassy in anger at Kosovo's declaration of independence. | About 1,000 protesters set fire to the embassy on Thursday in anger at Kosovo's declaration of independence, which the US and others recognised.
The UK, German, Croatian, Belgian and Turkish embassies were also attacked.
Both the Serbian president and PM have condemned the violence, which left one dead and more than 100 injured.
US embassy spokeswoman Rian Harris told AFP news agency: "Dependents are being temporarily ordered to depart Belgrade. We do not have confidence that Serbian authorities can provide security for our staff members."
What we saw were terrible things - it was a reaction against a democratic world
Hashim Thaci, Kosovo PM
Another spokesperson told Reuters news agency the ambassador, Cameron Munter, and core staff would remain.
The evacuation will be reassessed in seven to 10 days. Ms Harris said the embassy would reopen on Tuesday after repairs.
The US earlier lodged an official protest over the attack.
Fears remain of further violence in the wake of the declaration of secession from Serbia by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders last Sunday.
Hundreds of Serbs protested on Friday in the ethnically-divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica, but apart from some scuffles and stone-throwing the rally passed off largely peacefully.
The European Union called on Serbia to protect embassies in Belgrade.
The UN Security Council condemned the attacks and the US described those responsible as "thugs".
Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said on Friday the embassy attacks reminded him of the era of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Mr Thaci said: "What we saw were terrible things. It was a reaction against a democratic world."
About 1,000 protesters smashed their way into the US embassy, throwing flares through a window. There were no police protecting the embassy, but riot police later intervened, firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. Fires raged for half an hour, and when firemen finally managed to get inside the building they found a charred body, which has not been identified. Reports suggest the body may be that of one of the intruders. 'No excuse'
Serbian President Boris Tadic called an emergency meeting of Serbia's National Security Council on Friday.
He said: "I most sharply condemn the violence, looting and arson. There is no excuse for the violence."
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica had earlier also condemned the attack.
Russia, Serbia's key ally, said it also regretted the actions. But foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin added: "Those forces that supported Kosovo's proclamation of independence should have been aware of the consequences of such a step."
US assistant secretary of state for political affairs, Nicholas Burns, criticised Moscow's role: "They're not in Kosovo, they're not doing anything to help the Kosovars. So they're kind of on the sidelines contributing mostly unhelpfully."
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said continued violence would harm efforts to improve ties.
He said "things will have to calm down" before the EU continued talks on a preliminary deal on EU-Serbia links.
A protest in Mitrovica on Friday passed off largely peacefully
Kosovo's declaration of independence has split the international community, with many Western nations recognising the move, while China and Russia were among those opposed.
Most Serbs regard Kosovo as their religious and cultural heartland and believe the independence declaration violates international law.
Mr Kostunica has recalled Serbia's ambassador to the US over the affair.
In the coming weeks, a 2,000-strong EU mission will be deployed to help Kosovo develop its police force and judiciary. Do not endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide. Your comments
The peaceful demonstration of around 200,000 Serbs should not be overlooked in favour of the isolated actions of a few hundred desperate lager louts and thugs. Under similar circumstances this would have happened in many other places in the world. Yesterday's dignified and solemn protest was a first class funeral for Kosovo, supported by a rare unanimous Serbian politic.J. de Ryckman de Betz, Belgrade, Serbia
I am a Serb from Belgrade and I was in the streets last night. It was painful to watch hoards of hooligans destroying our beautiful European city. They were demolishing everything: cars, shops, embassies and even street lights. The police did not stop them in time, it is madness!Milosh Gvozdenovic, Belgrade-Serbia
I wanted to go to the protest but at the last minute I gave up because I knew that something like this was going to happen. Most Serbs were protesting peacefully but there is always a small group of hooligans who make trouble! I feel sorry for the city and the damaged embassies, what a shame.Jovana S., Belgrade, Serbia
The formal protest was fine. It was nice to see thousands of people meeting to support Kosovo and its people. What happened later was disappointing. Attacking embassies was extremely stupid but I can understand the anger. Try to imagine this scene: in the street policemen were beating up hooligans while five metres away people were sitting in cafes, listening to music and drinking coffee. Serbian people cannot be surprised by anything anymore - everything is normal!Darjan Kontrec, Belgrade, Serbia
I was at the demonstrations with my family to say that we do not agree with the injustice of ripping our country apart. No-one has the right to do this. Not even the Albanians who came to live here centuries ago.Milica, Belgrade, Serbia
It's hard to be Serbian today, and even harder to be from Belgrade. What we saw yesterday on the streets of Belgrade and other Serbian cities is what we are: an angry mob that doesn't care for anything. My father's store was attacked by a mob. He has a watch repair shop and there wasn't anything to steal but a rock was thrown through the window. The collective madness of the 90's is back. It is other people's fault also, but the biggest fault is our own. Djordje Kozurik, Belgrade, Serbia
Maybe it is good that the burning of the US embassy happened because if it didn't happen last night it would have erupted later with much more violence. I understand my countrymen, both those who burned the embassy and those who went to the religious meeting. We are angry, but it is important for citizens of the USA and other western countries to understand that we are not angry at them.Milos Markovic, Belgrade, Serbia
Walking around town today is a bit weird - it feels as if nothing has happened. Some stores are closed but life goes on and people are buying concert tickets to see the likes of Kiss and Lenny Kravitz. This hopefully means the Serbs have vented their anger at the United States and are now getting on with their lives.DJ, Belgrade
What is burning of few foreign embassies compared to the tearing apart our country? Kosovo was always part of our state and always will be. It is the heart of Serbia!Ivana Bulatovi, Belgrade, Serbia
One more of those "historical" moments, which ends in looting, burning and smashing. As a Serb I have really had enough. Today I'm ashamed, for something I didn't do, for something somebody did in my name. For the first time I wish to say: enough is enough. Sladjana, Belgrade, Serbia
I didn't go to the rallies yesterday, not because I think what's happening in Kosovo is fair, but because I knew what was going to happen and I most definitely didn't want to be part of it. My country is filled with paranoia, I'm afraid that we are lost for good.Ljiljana, Belgrade, Serbia | Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
The Economic Community of West African States intends to hold an emergency summit in Niger to discuss the political developments about the appointment of Faure Gnassingbé as the president of Togo. | Mr Faure was installed as president on Monday after the constitution was hastily amended to allow him to take over and remain in office until 2008.
West Africa leaders are discussing the crisis in Togo after the death of his father President Gnassingbe Eyadema.
The regional body, Ecowas, has termed the handover of power unacceptable.
The African Union said it was considering imposing sanctions on Togo unless it restores "constitutional legality". AU leader, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, is attending the Ecowas summit being held in Niger's capital, Niamey. 'Father's mission'
According to the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt, Mr Faure could not have been more conciliatory in his address, as he referred almost apologetically to the circumstances in which he had found himself president, attributing it to his father's sudden death on Saturday. The expectation of many was that [Eyadema's] demise would open up a new chapter in the history of Togo
Mohamed Ibn ChambasEcowas Executive Secretary Excerpts from Faure Gnassingbe's speech "We want consensual discussions aimed at revising the electoral code to focus on the organisation of free and fair elections as soon as possible," he said on national television and radio.
Correspondents believe he was referring to parliamentary elections which were due this year.
After negotiations with the European Union (EU) last year, the late president promised to hold legislative elections under reforms intended to level the electoral playing field.
"Concrete measures will be taken in the near future - the 22 engagements reached on 14 April 2004 in Brussels are the fundamental guidelines for our conduct," Mr Faure said.
The EU froze aid to Togo in 1993 over the country's lack of democracy and poor human rights record.
The opposition has rejected Mr Faure's offer of elections.
While there was an illegal situation at the top, well-organised elections were not possible, Professor Leopold Gninivie from the Democratic Convention of African People told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
MPs passed a constitutional amendment the day after Eyadema's death which allowed Mr Faure to serve out his father's term as president - until June 2008.
Headache
Ecowas Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who has just returned from a fact-finding visit to Togo, said the crisis there could affect the stability of the whole region.
Gnassingbe Eyadema rose to power in a military coup
He said he had hoped that Eyadema's death would bring a "deepening of the democratic culture in Togo".
"The expectation of many was that his demise would open up a new chapter in the history of Togo... that remains the hope of many Togolese," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
Meanwhile, the second day of a general strike called by the opposition has been widely ignored, with most shops open.
FM transmissions in Lome by Radio France Internationale (RFI) have been stopped because the government was unhappy with their reporting of recent events.
Public rallies have been banned and a two-month period of national mourning declared for President Eyadema. Eyadema, Africa's longest-serving ruler, died at the age of 69 while being evacuated for medical treatment abroad - reportedly from a heart attack. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2005 | ['(GhanaWeb)', '(AllAfrica)', '(BBC)'] |
Six men have been found guilty of terrorism–related offences in Melbourne, Australia. Abdul Nacer Benbrika was found guilty of intentionally directing the activities of a terrorist organization while five other men were found guilty of being members of the same organization. Four other men were acquitted and the jury is still considering its verdict on two men. | The jury found Abdul Nacer Benbrika guilty of leading a group of men to foster or prepare for a terrorist attack.
Benbrika sat with his arms crossed as he was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist organisation.
Five of his co-accused have also been convicted on the same counts.
Four have been acquitted, including Shoue Hammoud who sat and whispered "yes, thank God."
Justice Bernard Bongiorno ordered the release of Hany Taha, Bassam Raad, Shoue Hammoud and Majed Raad.
The men in the dock stood and hugged after the verdicts were delivered.
The jury has still to decide on several counts against Shane Kent and Ahmed Haddara.
Outside court Benbrika's lawyer Remy Van de Weil said the jury had worked incredibly hard to reach their verdicts.
He said it was hard to know what his client had expected but he said Benbrika had found the proceedings very stressful.
The count against Shane Kent has not yet been decided.
He sat expressionless and looking down as the jury told the court they had not yet decided on the count aginst him.
One of the accused men with their lawyers smiled and gave the thumbs up to supporters as he left the court.
Surveillance operations on the group of Muslim men from Melbourne's northern suburbs began in July 2004.
Police tapped phone lines and installed listening devices in the homes of the twelve accused.
The men were charged in November 2005 and March 2006, after raids on their homes.
Benbrika and his eleven co-accused pleaded not guilty to charges including intentionally being a member of an organisation that was preparing or fostering the doing of a terrorist act.
The accused are: Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, of Dallas, Shane Kent, 31, Meadow Heights, Majed Raad, 24, Coburg, Abdullah Merhi, 23, Fawkner, Aimen Joud, 23, Hoppers Crossing, Ahmed Raad, 24, Fawkner, Fadl Sayadi, 28, Coburg, Ezzit Raad, 26, Preston, Hany Taha, 33, Hadfield, Shoue Hammoud, 28, Hadfield, Bassam Raad, 27, Brunswick and Amer Haddara, 29, Yarraville.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2008 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
A fly-in fly-out worker from Perth attacks seven people in South Hedland, Western Australia. None were killed, though five were hospitalised. Police shot the attacker dead. | Five people treated in hospital in Hedland in Western Australia after stabbing incident at local shopping centre
Last modified on Fri 1 May 2020 10.19 BST
A knife-wielding man has been shot dead by police after stabbing seven people in a rampage in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
An officer shot the man after attempting to subdue him at the South Hedland Square shopping centre, where he attacked five of the victims.
The man has been identified as a fly-in, fly-out worker from Perth aged in his 30s.
Police say he stabbed a man at a motel and another who was in a car at the local McDonald’s before entering the shopping centre and attacking a further two men and three women.
Two officers attempted to subdue him and fired a Taser before he lunged at them with a “very large” knife.
“While being confronted by this person who was called upon many times to drop the knife - this is after the series of stabbings that had occurred – one of the officers is believed to have fired several shots,” police commissioner Chris Dawson told reporters.
None of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries but five were hospitalised with stab wounds, including two who remain in a serious but stable condition at Hedland Health Campus.
One of the victims had been pushing a pram with a child inside who was unharmed.
Dawson said there was no indication the man was politically or ideologically motivated, describing the incident as a tragedy.
The shooting was captured on CCTV and on police body-worn cameras, he said.
Homicide detectives have flown to South Hedland via police aircraft and the professional standards division will also investigate.
WA Police Union president Harry Arnott said a team had been deployed to assist the two officers, a man and a woman, involved in the incident.
“Our information indicates our members acted to protect the community and themselves, and without their intervention this incident would be significantly more tragic for the Hedland community,” he said.
WA premier Mark McGowan described the incident as “tragic and awful”, saying the officers had been responding to a highly dangerous scenario.
“All of our thoughts go to those people who have been hurt and all of our thoughts and appreciation go to those police officers,” he said.
One victim, Esther Brooks, told the ABC she thought the man had punched her in the back before realising he had slashed her as he ran past.
Port Hedland commissioner Fred Riebeling said another victim was a council employee who works at a local theatre.
“It’s all really upsetting,” he said.
“If there’s five or half a dozen people injured, half the town will probably know someone involved.” | Riot | May 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron meets with US President Barack Obama to discuss the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Afghanistan and the global economy. | External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his American counterpart Hillary Clinton on Tuesday discussed the Afghan situation, regional security and bilateral ties during a meeting between the two leaders in Kabul.
Krishna and Clinton, who met on the sidelines of an international conference on Afghanistan, warmly shook hands and posed for photographs. During their meeting, they discussed issues like bilateral ties, Afghan situation and regional security. Later, Krishna also met his Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul. The biggest ever conference on Afghanistan has brought together delegates from 70 nations to chalk out the future of the war-torn country, amidst a total lock-down of the capital city. The meet was considering a plan to hand over security in the country's 34 provinces to the Afghan government by 2014. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Samaylive News)', '(Aljazeera)'] |
Former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney admits he has received a small heart pump to combat "increasing congestive heart failure". | Mr Cheney, 69, had a small heart pump installed last week after he "began to experience increasing congestive heart failure".
The former US vice president, who served under George W Bush, has suffered from heart problems for decades. He had his first heart attack at the age of 37 in 1978.
He was admitted to hospital several times while in office, and underwent several operations, leading to questions over whether he was medically fit enough to be vice president.
In a statement, Mr Cheney said: "Over the years, excellent care from my doctors and advances in medicine and technology have allowed me to live a full and active life, for which I am very grateful.
"A few weeks ago, it became clear that I was entering a new phase of the disease when I began to experience increasing congestive heart failure.
After a series of recent tests and discussions with my doctors, I decided to take advantage of one of the new technologies available and have a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implanted. The LVAD is a small implantable pump that improves heart function and will enable me to resume an active life." | Famous Person - Sick | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)'] |
Film director Roman Polanski is arrested in Zurich on a 31yearold US arrest warrant. | Film director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody in Switzerland and faces extradition to the US for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Mr Polanski, 76, was detained in Zurich on Saturday as he travelled from France to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival. He is being held under a 2005 international alert issued by the US. Mr Polanski has been to Switzerland before, but this time US authorities apparently knew of his trip in advance. That gave them time to prepare the groundwork for his arrest and send a provisional arrest warrant to Swiss authorities, judicial officials said. A Swiss spokesman said the US would now have to make a formal extradition request. The director can contest his detention and any extradition decision in the Swiss courts, he added. Mr Polanski's lawyer, Georges Kiejman, said he planned to challenge his client's arrest. "We are going to try to lift the arrest warrant in Zurich," he told France Info radio. "The [extradition] convention between Switzerland and the United States is not very clear." Mr Polanski fled the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with an underage girl. He was initially indicted on six counts and faced up to life in prison. In recent years, he has tried to have the rape case dismissed, claiming the original judge, who is now dead, arranged a plea bargain but later reneged.
Earlier this year, Judge Peter Espinoza agreed there was misconduct by the judge in the original case, but said Mr Polanski must return to the US to apply for dismissal. Mr Polanski's lawyers said he would not return to the US because he would be immediately arrested as a fugitive. The victim at the centre of the case, Samantha Geimer, has previously asked for the charges to be dropped, saying the continued publication of details "causes harm to me, my husband and children". She has also called the court's insistence that Mr Polanski appear in person "a cruel joke". 'Shock and dismay'
The Paris-born Polish filmmaker - who is also a French citizen - has not set foot in the US for more than 30 years. His Oscar for directing 2002 film The Pianist was collected by Harrison Ford, who had previously starred in his 1988 thriller, Frantic. France's culture minister said he was "dumbfounded" by Mr Polanski's detention in Switzerland. Frederic Mitterrand said he "strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them". He added that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was "following the case with great attention and shares the minister's hope that the situation can be quickly resolved". The organisers of the Zurich Film Festival said Polanski's detention had caused "shock and dismay", but that they would go ahead with a planned retrospective of the director's work. A special ceremony is planned for Sunday night "to allow everyone to express their solidarity for Roman Polanski and their admiration for his work", festival managers said in a statement. Meanwhile, British author Robert Harris - who had been working with Mr Polanski on a film adaptation of his novel The Ghost - said he was taken aback by the weekend's events. "One of the reasons I'm absolutely shocked and stunned by his arrest is that we have worked together extensively in Switzerland, where he has a home," Harris said. "If he was such a wanted criminal why did they let him own a house and travel back and forth freely?" But justice officials in both Switzerland and the US said the difference this time was that a provisional arrest warrant had been sent. William Sorukas, chief of the US Marshals Service's domestic investigations branch, told the Associated Press that investigators learned about the trip days in advance and were therefore able to prepare for an arrest. "There have been other times through the years when we have learned of his potential travel but either those efforts fell through or he didn't make the trip," he said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Angola Press)'] |
Militants who formed the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta announce that unless the Nigerian Army withdraws from the area and their development demands are met, they will shut down oil and gas production from Bonny Island. | By KATY POWNALL Jul 23, 2008 LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) Nigeria's main militant group on Wednesday threatened to destroy the nation's major oil pipelines within 30 days to counter allegations it had struck a $12 million deal with the government to protect them.
A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta denied claims it said had been made by the country's petroleum company that the state-run organization was paying militants to protect pipelines. Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation could not immediately be reached for comment.
"MEND will never sell its birthright for a bowl of porridge when the impoverished masses in the region continue to live in abject poverty," the statement said.
Militant attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure have slashed this west African nation's oil output by almost a quarter in the past two years, helping push world crude prices to historic highs.
The e-mail said profits of the alleged deal were split among military and government officials. The group also said "huge payments" had been made by authorities to criminal gangs in the Niger Delta to protect oil facilities, but those groups were not part of the militant movement.
To prove "we are not a part of this deal, the Chanomi Creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days," the militant statement said. Chanomi Creek is located in the western Niger Delta.
Militants say their attacks are aimed at forcing the federal government to send more money to the six states comprising the southern Niger Delta.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and is routinely ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world. | Armed Conflict | July 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak with a display of up to 80 meteors an hour. | Skywatchers across Europe have enjoyed another night of "fantastic views" as the annual Perseid meteor shower reached the second day of its peak. The shower was expected to produce a display of up to 80 meteors per hour, according to Nasa. "A waxing crescent moon will set before the shower becomes active, setting a perfect stage for meteor watching," said the US space agency.
Space enthusiasts in the UK and US have already captured images of the show. John Mason from the British Astronomical Association told the BBC that the weather was helping those who wanted to view the shower.
"The shower has been ongoing for a week now and we have already seen some very bright meteors whizzing overhead," he said.
The Perseid meteor shower is caused by debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. Every 133 years, the huge comet swings through the inner part of our Solar System and leaves behind a trail of dust and gravel. When Earth passes through the debris, specks hit our atmosphere at 140,000 mph (240,000 km/h) and disintegrate in flashes of light. The Royal Astronomical Society said the relatively warm summer nights would make this meteor shower one of the more comfortable to watch.
NASA Science: Perseid meteor shower
| New wonders in nature | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Chinese authorities close down the firm handling dissident artist Ai Weiwei's affairs, possibly saving him from paying the remainder of a 15 million yuan tax fine. | Chinese authorities are closing down the firm handling Ai Weiwei's affairs, the outspoken artist said on Monday, possibly saving him from paying the remainder of a 15m yuan (£1.5m) tax fine.
The 55-year-old said he believed he and his team had lost the battle but won the war, after a court rejected his appeal against the charges last week.
Officials said this weekend they were removing Fake Cultural Development's business licence because it had not met annual registration requirements. The company has been unable to do so because police confiscated all its materials and its stamp when they detained Ai last year.
"I think it could be an excuse not to give us a fine," the artist added. Ai's lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, said it was not clear how Fake could pay the 6.6m yuan outstanding if it had no licence. But he added that he had filed a request for a hearing into its closure.
Ai's supporters have always said the fine and his 81-day detention were in retaliation for his social and political activism, while Chinese authorities insist the case was unrelated to human rights and was solely about tax evasion. He was held amid a broader crackdown on dozens of activists, lawyers and dissidents.
Thousands of supporters sent Ai money to help pay an 8.45m yuan bond, allowing him to challenge the charges. After his appeal was rejected he said he would refuse to pay the rest because he did not recognise the fine, adding that he suspected authorities would be too embarrassed to collect it.
"I think they want to back down to try and conclude this case. From the beginning they should not have had it; they were using very old tactics to punish someone and make up a crime to make people think 'He's a bad guy' … That didn't work and it backfired. I think it completely failed," he said on Monday.
"Of course they didn't like the fact it had gone on so long and could last longer."
Ai added that he had mixed feelings about the long-running case.
"Of course we have lost the battle – they kept our [tax deposit]. But I think we have won the war. We gave people a clear understanding of what the Fake case was about and how they handled it," he said.
He said he hoped it would mean that they could not do the same to anyone else.
"No great nation should play dirty tricks on its citizens," he said.
Chinese authorities could not be contacted as Monday is a public holiday in China. They have made little public comment on his case in the past.
Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "The tax case against Ai Weiwei was politically motivated from the outset – an 11th-hour pretext pulled out of a hat by the government to justify Ai's unlawful arrest and secret detention for 81 days.
"The authorities are dealing with Ai in the time-honoured tradition of making critics 'wear small shoes' as the Chinese expression has it: a never-ending series of petty bureaucratic harassment and administrative vexations designed to wear down its victim.
"While Ai may have scored a moral victory in the tax case, the government has yet to restore his freedom to travel, return his passport, lift the tight police monitoring he is the target of, and allow him to resume the civic initiatives that first landed him in trouble, from filming interviews of social activists to pressing for accountability in the collapse of schools during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake." | Organization Closed | October 2012 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The captain of a Ukrainian vessel loaded with tanks and weapons that was seized off the African coast says one crew member has died. | (CNN) -- A crew member of a Ukrainian vessel pirates seized off the African coast last week has died, a Somali town commissioner said Sunday.
A photo from the USS Howard shows Somali pirates in small boats hijacking the MV Faina last week.
Abdi Salan Khalif, commissioner of the coastal town of Harardhere, Somalia, said the pirates told town elders the man died of problems relating to high blood pressure. Khalif said the pirates, who were communicating with the elders and the U.S. Navy by radio, reported they were holding the crew in a hot part of the ship. The elders, who talked to the U.S. Navy by radio, had formed a crisis team. The ship Faina, loaded with tanks and weapons, was seized Thursday not far from its destination port of Mombasa, Kenya, officials said. Ukraine had sold the weapons to Kenya, said Ukraine Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. On Friday, the Russian news agency Interfax quoted a source in Kiev, Ukraine, as saying the pirates had contacted the Kenyan Defense Ministry to obtain information about the ship's owner so ransom negotiations could begin. Watch CNN's David McKenzie report on the hijacking
However, Dr. Alfred N. Mutua, a spokesman for the Kenyan government, said Sunday it had neither been contacted by the pirates nor asked to pay ransom.
"Combined security efforts are still going on to secure the ship ferrying Kenya military equipment that was hijacked ... by pirates off the Somali coast," Mutua said in a written statement. "The Kenyan government is NOT in contact with the pirates. ... The Kenyan government will not engage in answering back to terrorists who have hijacked important military equipment paid for by the Kenyan taxpayer for use by the Kenyan military." The Ukrainian defense ministry said the ship is carrying 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, tank artillery shells, grenade launchers and small arms. The ship departed from Nikolayev, Ukraine, officials said.
The Pentagon said U.S. naval ships in the area are "monitoring the situation."
"I think we're looking at the full range of options here," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, because the United States does not want the pirates to dock the ship in Somalia and offload the weapons.
Khalif said representatives of Harardhere "have told the pirates that they can't bring any crew or material from that ship to our town because we don't want to risk a military response from the surrounding military navies."
Faina is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine, and its crew includes citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Latvia, the U.S. Navy said.
U.S. officials said the ship reported being surrounded by three small boats of pirates while sailing 250 miles off the coast of Somalia.
CNN's Mohamed Amiin Adow, Maxim Tkachenko and Barbara Starr contributed to this report. All About Ukraine Somalia Pirates | Armed Conflict | September 2008 | ['(MV Faina)', '(CNN)'] |
The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency session on Ukraine at the request of Lithuania. | The UN Security Council met Thursday in an emergency session on the growing crisis in Ukraine with some members expressing outrage.
UN Undersecretary-General of Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman told council members, as the meeting began, that the latest developments mark a "dangerous escalation in the conflict," but that the international body had no way of verifying the latest "deeply alarming reports."
The emergency Security Council meeting came hours after a top Ukrainian official said two columns of Russian tanks and military vehicles fired missiles from Russia at a Ukraine border post, then rolled into the country. That opened a new front in the war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russia separatists and the new government of President Petro Poroshenko.
Statements from NATO, Poroshenko ,the separatists, the United States and the president of the Security Council left no doubt that Russia had invaded Ukraine. A top NATO official said at least 1,000 Russian troops have entered Ukraine with sophisticated equipment and have been in direct "contact" with Ukrainian soldiers, resulting in casualties.
The new southeastern front raised fears that the separatists are seeking to create a land link between Russia and Crimea, which Russia annexed in March.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the council. "Every single one has sent a straightforward, unified message: 'Russia, stop this conflict. Russia is not listening."'
"Russia has come before the council to say everything but the truth," Power said.
"We will continue working with G-7 partners to rachet up consequences on Russia," Power said, and France also threatened that sanctions will be increased if the escalation continues.
Prior to the meeting, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told reporters "You're at a loss," offering no further comment.
UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters: "Russia will be asked to explain why Russia has its troops inside Ukraine. It's very clear that Russian regular troops are now in Ukraine."
Lithuania's UN ambassador, Raimonda Murmokaite, who requested the emergency meeting, tweeted prior to its start: "An invasion is an invasion is an invasion."
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2014 | ['(CTV News)'] |
President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade announces in a televised address marking 50 years of independence that his country is to resume control of all military bases held by former colonial power France. | Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade says his country is taking back control of all military bases held by the former colonial power France.
He made the announcement in a televised address as Senegal marked 50 years of independence. France and Senegal had reached agreement in February on the future of the bases. Earlier, Senegal had inaugurated its controversial Monument of African Renaissance. In his address, Mr Wade solemnly declared that Senegal was formally assuming sovereignty over military bases that since decolonisation in 1960 have continued to house French army and air force personnel. The announcement appeared designed to boost national pride in a country that sees itself as shaking off the last vestiges of colonialism. In fact, France and Senegal reached an amicable agreement last February under which most of the 1,200 French military personnel based in Senegal would leave this year. For some years, France has been steadily reducing its presence in Africa, both militarily and economically. Earlier, Senegal unveiled the African Renaissance monument - a bronze monument bigger than the Statue of Liberty. Some of the 19 African leaders who attended the ceremony praised its scope, but thousands of protesters complained at its cost of $27m. | Famous Person - Give a speech | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(euronews)'] |
Germany and the Netherlands suspend military training mission in Iraq citing escalating tensions in the region with Iran. | Germany's Bundeswehr has halted its military training exercises in Iraq amid heightened tensions in the region. The US has put troops on high alert and removed nonemergency diplomatic staff from Baghdad and Erbil.
The German army has suspended its training operations in Iraq as regional tension grows, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
"The German army has suspended the training," ministry spokesman Jens Flosdorff said. There was "generally heightened alert, awareness" for soldiers currently operating in the region, he added, but said training could be resumed within a few days as there was "no concrete threat" at the moment.
Germany was "orienting itself toward our partner countries, which have taken this step," Flosdorff said.
Germany has some 60 soldiers stationed north of Baghdad to train Iraq security forces as well as 100 more troops in the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq. Germany's decision to call a halt to the training missions follows steps from Washington to put US troops on high alert and remove some diplomatic staff.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said: "Obviously, we are watching the increasing tensions in the region with considerable concern and welcome any measure that is aimed at a peaceful solution." The German government has not reduced staff at its embassies in Iraq or in Iran.
A Bundeswehr soldier and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters training in northern Iraq in 2014
State broadcaster NOS reported on Wednesday that the Netherlands had suspended its military training mission because of a security threat. The 50-person mission which primarily trains Kurdish forces in Iraq has been halted "until further orders."
On the other hand, military alliance NATO said it would continue its training missing in Iraq, despite security concerns. The situation remains under constant evaluation, according to the organization.
US embassy personnel
The US Embassy in Baghdad said on Wednesday it was moving non-emergency personnel out of Iraq, with the staff serving in the Erbil consulate also ordered to leave the embassy. The move comes as the US boosts its military presence in the region amid rapidly escalating tensions with Iran.
The US urged its embassy employees to leave Iraq "as soon as possible." Separately, the US State Department warned of "anti-US sectarian militias" active in the Middle Eastern state.
The partial pullout comes a day after the US Central Command placed its troops in Iraq and Syria on high alert over "credible threats" from Iranian forces.
UK general disputes threat level
Washington has ramped up aggressive rhetoric against Iran since US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the internationally backed nuclear deal last year. Although US officials repeatedly stated that they did not want a war with Iran, the US has recently deployed an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf and started flying B-52 bombers to "deterrence missions" in the region.
According to the Pentagon, deployment of the strategic bombers is a response to plans of "Iranian and Iranian proxy forces" to attack US troops.
The US military also responded harshly to remarks made by UK General Chris Chika, a spokesman for the US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" milita, who said there was "no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria."
Khamenei hints at uranium enrichment
In Tehran, the Iranian government officially stopped some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal. Specifically, it said Iran was no longer pledged to keep its national stock of enriched uranium below 300 kilograms (661 pounds) and heavy water below 130 tons.
The nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said neither Iran nor the US was "seeking war." At the same time, Iran has threatened to start enriching uranium to higher levels than under the terms of the current deal, if the UK, Germany, and France did not provide a new deal to offset reimposed US sanctions within a 60-day deadline. The deal currently allows Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67%, which is way below the 90% needed to weaponize the material.
Scientists say the time needed to reach the 90% threshold for weapons-grade uranium is halved once uranium is enriched to around 20%.
In remarks published by the state-run "IRAN" newspaper on Wednesday, Khamenei said that "achieving 20% enrichment is the most difficult part."
"The next steps are easier than this step," Iran's top cleric told a group of Iranian officials. | Military Exercise | May 2019 | ['(Deutsche Welle)', '(Reuters)'] |
Wildfires kill at least two people in Syria. | Wildfires across parts of the country have so far killed two people and forced many to flee; Lebanon and Israel also hit by blazes.
Massive forest fires in war-torn Syria this week have killed at least two people and burned swaths of land, state media and officials said, as blazes also hit neighbouring Lebanon.
Syrian state television on Saturday morning broadcast scenes from the affected areas, where firefighters were working to extinguish the blazes.
It said hundreds of hectares had burned in the countryside of Syria’s coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces, and in the central Homs province.
The health ministry said two people died in Latakia province on Friday as a result of the fires, and that 70 people in the area were taken to hospital suffering from breathing difficulties.
Dozens of fires were burning, including “45 in Latakia and 33 in Tartus”, Syria’s Agriculture Minister Mohammed Hassan Qatana told a radio station on Friday.
“For the first time in its history, Syria is witnessing this [large] number of fires in a single day,” Qatana said.
The Latakia fire brigade said they were “facing the largest series of fires seen in Latakia province in years”.
#Syria is engulfed in flames, large swathes of land devastated, houses destroyed, little or no support, even from allied countries. When will it end! pic.twitter.com/tDzlreUOwd
— Danny Makki (@Dannymakkisyria) October 9, 2020
Official news agency Sana said fires burned homes in the coastal city of Banias in Tartus province, as well as in Qardahah, President Bashar al-Assad’s hometown in Latakia.October 9, 2020
Fires heavily damaged a building in Qardahah used as a storage for the state-owned tobacco company, part of which collapsed. The town’s local hospital was also surrounded by flames, according to local media reports.
State news agency SANA quoted Bassem Douba, director of the forestry department in Latakia’s agricultural department, as saying that dozens of people were evacuated from their homes in several villages. Those people sought refuge in central Latakia and Tartus, he said.
At least four firefighting teams were dispatched from the capital, Damascus, to assist in putting out the blazes. Some residents helped them by carrying water in buckets and pouring them on the flames.
The fires raging across Syria’s north, for the second time in months, were triggered by a heatwave that is unusual for this time of the year. They will likely cause considerable financial damage amid a deep economic crisis crippling the country.
Syria is currently suffering from an acute shortage in fuel ahead of the winter months, while power cuts have become more frequent across a country ravaged by more than nine years of war.
Among those affected by the devastating fires are landowners and farmers who rely on the agriculture sector to get by.
Images circulated on social media portrayed citrus and olive trees engulfed in flames in villages on the outskirts of Latakia.
Next door in Lebanon, meanwhile, there have been more than 100 fires across the country since Thursday, according to George Abu Musa, head of operations for the country’s civil defence.
“The situation is crazy, there are fires everywhere,” Abu Musa told the AFP news agency. “We have mobilised 80 percent of our personnel and almost all our centres in Lebanon,” he said.
There have been no reports of casualties in Lebanon.
Abu Musa said most of the blazes had been extinguished but some were still burning in the mountainous Chouf region in the south, and in Akkar in the north.
Military helicopters were assisting firefighters in “hard-to-reach” areas, he added. He was unable to identify the cause of the blazes but said wind and high temperatures were helping them spread.
Dozens of fires hit Lebanon in mid-October last year, amid unusually high temperatures and strong winds.
The government faced heavy criticism and accusations of ill-preparedness over its response to the 2019 blazes.
Days after Lebanon’s 2019 fires, mass protests broke out, triggered by proposed tax hikes but quickly transforming into months-long demonstrations against the ruling class, deemed by protesters as inept and corrupt.
Separately on Friday, authorities reported several fires across northern and central Israel and the occupied West Bank as temperatures soared, forcing thousands to evacuate.
Israeli police said in a statement firefighters and police forces evacuated 5,000 people as the fires spread for a second day on Saturday.
| Fire | October 2020 | ['(Al Jazeera English)'] |
Manchester United F.C. beat FC Schalke 04 4–1 to progress to the final of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League against Barcelona at Wembley Stadium on May 28. | (CNN) -- Manchester United will face Barcelona in the Champions League final after the English Premier League side thrashed Schalke 4-1 at Old Trafford on Wednesday for a comfortable 6-1 aggregate win.
Leading 2-0 from the first leg in Gelsenkirchen last week, Alex Ferguson's side were always in control against their German Bundesliga opponents and will now take on tournament favorites Barca at Wembley on May 28 in a repeat of the 2009 final in Rome -- when the Spanish giants ran out 2-0 winners.
United opened the scoring in the 26th minute when Darron Gibson's defence-splitting pass found Antonio Valencia free on the right, and the winger slotted the ball past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Barcelona held but go through to final
And the same two players combined for the second goal six minutes later, this time Valencia laid the ball on for Irishman Gibson, whose shot went in off the post following a fumble by the highly-rated Neuer.
Schalke pulled a goal back before half-time when Jose Manuel Jurado fired home a fine strike from the edge of the penalty area.
That meant Schalke needed three second-half goals to progress, but they never looked like troubling United and a quickfire double from midfielder Anderson saw the home side complete the job in style.
First the Brazilian turned in the area to finish off Nani's pass from the right in the 72nd minute.
Then, just four minutes later, Anderson added his second when he was left unmarked in the area to convert Dimitar Berbatov's cross from the right. The result vindicated Ferguson's decision to make nine changes to his side, with one eye on Sunday's crucial match at home to Chelsea, where a victory will virtually clinch the Premier League title.
Ferguson told ITV Sport: "The players I brought in did me and the club proud, it is fantastic to reach the final again. I have always said that our record in Europe is not good enough for a club of our size but reaching our third final in four years is going some way to changing that."
The Scot added: "We showed great spirit and determination but must now face a team of amazing quality to win the trophy." | Sports Competition | May 2011 | ['(their third final in 5 years)', '(CNN)'] |
Financier and cricket mogul Allen Stanford is sentenced to 110 years in prison after siphoning billions from investors. | Disgraced tycoon Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $7bn (£4.5bn).
The scheme was described as one of the largest in US history.
In court, Stanford denied any guilt, telling the judge at his sentencing hearing: "I did not defraud anybody."
A Texan banker, Stanford rose to prominence outside the US when he bankrolled international cricket competitions in the UK and Caribbean.
But after the collapse of his agreement to stage Twenty20 cricket in England, his financial empire began to crumble amid investigations by US regulators.
Forbes Magazine listed him as the 605th richest man in the world in 2006.
However, since his arrest in 2009 he has spent three years in detention after being denied bail.
Stanford's Ponzi scheme centred on his banking operation based in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua.
Some 30,000 individual investors were swindled, it was alleged. Prosecutors failed to find as much as 92% of the assets Stanford International Bank claimed to have.
In his statement in court on Thursday, which ran for some 40 minutes, he told the judge: "I'm not here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy.
"I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn't defraud anybody."
US District Judge David Hittner, who presided over Stanford's trial, called Stanford's actions "egregious criminal frauds" during the hearing.
Two victims of the scheme spoke during the hearing, including Angela Shaw, who told the court Stanford was worse than convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff because he preyed on middle-class investors.
"He stole more than millions," Ms Shaw said. "He stole our lives as we knew them."
His sentence is 40 years shorter than the jail term handed down to Madoff, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to a Ponzi scheme targeting wealthy investors.
Stanford was convicted in March on 13 of 14 charges against him, despite his lawyers attempting to shift most of the blame on his chief financial officer.
Prosecutors had asked for a 230-year sentence, with defence lawyers arguing for a lenient term of 44 months.
Three other former executives at Stanford's company are awaiting trial, while a former Antiguan financial regulator is expected to be extradited to the US for related charges.
While a jury has cleared the way for access to about $330m in stolen funds sitting in Stanford's frozen bank accounts across Canada, England and Switzerland, legal wrangling could make it years before investors recover any of that money. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2012 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
Torre Ejecutiva Pemex explosion: A blast at Torre Ejecutiva Pemex, the headquarters of Pemex in Mexico City, Mexico, kills 36 and injures 126 people. | The number of people killed by a blast in Mexico City at the headquarters of the state oil company, Pemex, has risen to 25, the interior minister has said.
At least 100 people were injured and an unknown number are trapped in rubble at the base of the 54-storey tower. The search for survivors continues.
The cause of the blast is under investigation, Pemex says.
Last September, 30 people died in an explosion at a Pemex gas plant in northern Mexico.
Thursday's explosion in the lower floors of the building happened as shifts were changing in the afternoon, making the area particularly crowded.
Television pictures showed debris from the blast spread out on to the street in front of the building, and Red Cross ambulances on the scene attending to the injured.
Hundreds of rescuers helped by dogs are searching the building for around 30 people thought to be trapped inside.
Police have cordoned off the streets around the building, which is located in a busy commercial area of Mexico City.
Pemex says its operations will continue to run normally - and commercial and financial obligations will continue to be met - despite the blast.
The company's chief executive, Emilio Lozoya Austin, cut short a business trip to Asia and was on his way back to Mexico, a Pemex statement said.
Relatives of employees have gathered outside the building in search of information about their loved ones, local media report. Some are said to have tried to reach employees on their mobile phones but have had no reply.
"The place shook, we lost power and suddenly there was debris everywhere. Colleagues were helping us out of the building," eyewitness Cristian Obele said.
"We were talking and all of sudden we heard an explosion with white smoke and glass falling from the windows," another witness said. "People started running from the building covered in dust. A lot of pieces were flying."
Images of the blast posted on Twitter revealed large clouds of smoke billowing from the building. TV footage showed people being transported from the scene by helicopters.
President Enrique Pena Nieto and Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera headed to the scene of the blast.
Mr Pena said Pemex rescue and security teams were working alongside city authorities to help the injured.
"I am deeply sorry for the deaths of our fellow workers at Pemex. My condolences to their relatives," Mr Pena said on Twitter.
"At the moment, the priority is to help the injured and protect the physical safety of those who work there." The president said he has ordered an investigation into the causes of the blast.
Earlier on Thursday, Pemex had reported problems with the electricity in the building in a message on Twitter.
It later confirmed that an explosion had taken place "in the B2 building of the administrative centre".
Plaster had fallen from the ceiling of the basement and the situation was "delicate", a spokesman for local emergency services was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.
Pemex has experienced a number of fatal accidents in recent years.
Last September's deadly blast at a gas plant near the northern town of Reynosa is thought to have been caused by a build-up of gas. | Gas explosion | January 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(Euronews)', '(Milenio)'] |
The Lansing, Michigan, Catholic Diocese's insurance company files a civil suit against Rev. Jonathan Wehrle, former pastor of St. Martha's Catholic Church in Okemos, a Lansing suburb, for the embezzlement of more than $5 million from his parish. Wehrle already faces six criminal counts for using embezzled funds to pay for home construction (appraised for much more than a $1 million), maintenance, and purchases. , , | MASON -- A long-time Okemos priest will stand trial on charges that he stole from his parish.
The Rev. Jonathan Wehrle was bound over by District Judge Donald Allen Friday at the conclusion of a four-day preliminary examination. Wehrle will stand trial on six counts of embezzlement of $100,000 or more.
Prosecutors believe Wehrle used parish funds to pay for work and materials at his more than 11,000-square-foot home in Williamston.
Auditors from Plante Moran have said about $5 million is missing from St. Martha Parish.
“The defendant in this case, FatherWehrle, was one of the founding members of St. Martha’s Parish and has maintained pretty autonomous control of that parish,” Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Stevens said.
Wehrle’s lawyer, Lawrence Nolan, maintained his client had an arrangement with a now-deceased bishop regarding use of parish funds for his private residence, although witnesses have said they had no knowledge of the agreement.
Nolan also maintained that Wehrle’s record keeping was that of an innocent man.
"I’ve never seen anyone that was embezzling keep meticulous records of everything they were charged with having embezzled," Nolan said.
The four-day hearing included testimony from three Catholic bishops, as well as testimony related to hundreds of pages of invoices, checks and bank records.
That evidence matched invoices for work and material at Wehrle’s Williamston home with the corresponding St. Martha’s checks that paid for the items.
Michigan State Police Detective Erik Darling said the invoices presented in court represented a total of $107,382 in 2011, $106,968 in 2012, $101,076 in 2013, $100,027 in 2014, $104,793 in 2015, and $102,247 in 2016.
Among the expenses detailed in the invoices were home insurance, utility bills, mortgage payments, property taxes, home security, propane, pond excavation, woodworking, carpentry, ceramic tile, granite countertops, showers, washer, drier, elevator maintenance, and tens of thousands of dollars in pipe organ installment, maintenance and repair.
Photos introduced in court of Wehrle’s Williamston home show pipe organs, grand pianos, a pool, hot tub, stained glass windows, a large deck overlooking a pond and an elevated steel footbridge connecting the home and barn.
Wehrle has been pastor for St. Martha since 1988, but was placed on administrative leave by the Catholic Diocese of Lansing in May.
Witnesses have said the diocese uncovered the embezzlement during a routine audit, then hired Plante Moran to perform a forensic audit. When the Plante Moran audit brought up additional concerns, the diocese contacted the Michigan State Police.
On May 13, police arrested Wehrle and later charged him with embezzlement. He currently is out on a personal recognizance bond. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2018 | ['(Lansing State Journal)', '(AP via ABC News)', '(Lansing State Journal)'] |
A court in the United Kingdom sentences an 18–year–old man to 15 years in prison for attempted murder for throwing a six–year–old French boy off the roof of the Tate Modern art gallery in London in December. He was 17 at the time of the crime, and said he "wanted to be on the television news". The boy survived but suffered life–changing injuries. | LONDON (Reuters) - A British teenager who threw a six-year-old French boy from a 10th-floor viewing platform at the Tate Modern art gallery in London with the intention of killing him was jailed for at least 15 years on Friday and told he might never be freed.
Jonty Bravery, who was 17 at the time of the incident and told police he carried it out because he wanted to be on the television news, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder last December.
The unnamed victim, who was visiting Britain with his family, fell 100 feet (30 metres) after he was targeted by Bravery and was found on a fifth-floor roof. His mother was heard by witnesses screaming: “Where’s my son? Where’s my son?”
The boy survived but suffered a bleed to his brain and several fractured bones. Judge Maura McGowan said the boy’s life would never be the same again and his parents had been forced to give up their lives to care for him.
“You had intended to kill someone that day. You almost killed that 6-year-old boy,” she told Bravery.
Bravery, now 18, who was arrested shortly afterwards, told police he had planned to hurt someone at the museum to be on television. He had researched how to kill people on the internet the previous day and before the incident he had asked a member of the public the location of a tall building.
Related Coverage
The teenager, who has autistic spectrum disorder and a personality disorder, was being held at the high security Broadmoor Hospital.
The judge at London’s Old Bailey court said his conditions did not alone explain his actions, adding he posed a “grave and immediate threat to the public”. She decided he should be jailed for life and serve a minimum of 15 years.
“You may never be released,” she said.
In a statement read out by a police officer on their behalf outside court, the victim’s parents said he had been able to eat again in January, could speak a little but remained very weak, with many years of physiotherapy ahead of him.
“He is still in a wheelchair today, wears splints on his left arm and both his legs and spends his days in a corset moulded to his waist sat in his wheelchair,” they said. “He is in pain. There are no words to express what we are going through.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
A car bomb kills at least seven people in the Latakia Governorate. | Citizens, one holding a poster bearing the portrait of Syrian President Bashar Assad, during a rally to support his re-election on May 29, 2014 outside the city hall of Syria's Mediterranean port city of Latakia. AFP/HO/SANA
AMMAN: At least ten people were killed and scores wounded when a car bomb exploded in the Syrian city of Latakia Wednesday, state television said, in a rare attack in a coastal stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad.
The explosion was in a main square, state television said. Latakia has so far been largely spared the violence that has ravaged Syria during more than four years of civil war, killing around a quarter of a million people.
Video footage on state and social media showed burning vehicles in an area littered also with the wreckage of scores of cars smashed by the force of the blast. Rescue workers and civilians were seen fighting the fires.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which state media said was carried out by "terrorists," a term it uses to describe insurgents fighting to topple Assad.
While Latakia city has been spared, the surrounding province of the same name - home to Syria's biggest port and a stronghold of Assad's Alawite sect - has been a key battleground in long conflict.
Sunni Muslim jihadists, including Al-Qaeda's Syrian offshoot the Nusra Front, control many villages in the borderlands north of the Mediterranean port city and other areas dominated by Alawites, who follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
AMMAN: At least ten people were killed and scores wounded when a car bomb exploded in the Syrian city of Latakia Wednesday, state television said, in a rare attack in a coastal stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad.
The explosion was in a main square, state television said. Latakia has so far been largely spared the violence that has ravaged Syria during more than four years of civil war, killing around a quarter of a million people.
Video footage on state and social media showed burning vehicles in an area littered also with the wreckage of scores of cars smashed by the force of the blast. Rescue workers and civilians were seen fighting the fires.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which state media said was carried out by "terrorists," a term it uses to describe insurgents fighting to topple Assad.
While Latakia city has been spared, the surrounding province of the same name - home to Syria's biggest port and a stronghold of Assad's Alawite sect - has been a key battleground in long conflict.
Sunni Muslim jihadists, including Al-Qaeda's Syrian offshoot the Nusra Front, control many villages in the borderlands north of the Mediterranean port city and other areas dominated by Alawites, who follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
| Armed Conflict | September 2015 | ['(AFP via Daily Star)'] |
2011 Libyan civil war: Muammar Gaddafi's forces attack the eastern front line and shell the city of Misrata. | AJDABIYA, Libya Moammar Gadhafi's forces fired rockets along the eastern front line and shelled the besieged city of Misrata on Tuesday as France and Britain said NATO should be doing more to pressure the Libyan regime.
Several rockets struck Ajdabiya, the main point leading into the rebel-held east, and witnesses also reported shelling in Misrata, the only major city in the western half of Libya that remains under partial rebel control.
Weeks of fierce government bombardment of Misrata have terrorized the city's residents, killing dozens of people and leaving food and medical supplies scarce, according to residents, doctors and rights groups. International groups are warning of a dire humanitarian crisis in Libya's third-largest city. 'No safe place'
"Unfortunately, with the long-range war machines of Gadhafi forces, no place is safe in Misrata," a medical official in Misrata told The Associated Press, asking that his name not be published for fear of reprisals. Six people were killed Monday and another corpse was brought in Tuesday, he said. Libyan opposition spokesman Ali al-Issawi, meanwhile, said Gadhafi's soldiers have killed about 10,000 people throughout the country and injured 30,000, with 7,000 of the injured facing life-threatening wounds. He said another 20,000 people were missing and suspected of being in Gadhafi's prisons. There was no way to independently verify the report. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday that NATO was not doing enough to ease the pressure on Misrata. He also said the alliance should be firing on the weapons being used by Gadhafi's troops to target civilians in Misrata. Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague agreed that the allies must "intensify" their efforts. France has played a particularly aggressive role in Libya in recent weeks, pushing diplomatically for a U.N. resolution to allow the international military operation and firing the first strikes in the campaign. France also was the first to recognize the Libyan opposition and to send a diplomatic envoy to the rebel-held city of Benghazi. The criticism of NATO by France followed the collapse of an African Union peace initiative on Monday. Juppe told France Info radio: "It's not enough." Has royal memorabilia hit an all-time sugar high? A jelly bean featuring what looks like Kate Middleton's face will be up for auction on eBay, with the lucky owner setting the bid price at a whopping 500.
He said NATO must stop Gadhafi shelling civilians and take out the heavy weapons bombarding Misrata. In a barbed reference to the alliance command of the operation, Juppe added: "NATO must play its role fully. It wanted to take the lead in operations, we accepted that." 'Efficient military pressure'
Speaking after meeting European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg later, Juppe said NATO should "exert the most efficient military pressure. We need to be more efficient". Rebels said Tuesday they had beaten back two separate offensives by troops loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Misrata, along with other cities, rose up in revolt against Gadhafi's four-decade rule in mid-February and is the last big rebel stronghold in the west of the country.
"There was heavy fighting in Tripoli Street and the rebels held their positions. Also, very intense fighting occurred on the eastern side of Misrata on the Nak el Theqeel road. The rebels repelled the attack," a rebel spokesman who identified himself as Mohamad Abu Shaara told Reuters by telephone.
Tripoli Street is a main thoroughfare that cuts through to the city center from the western outskirts while the Nak el Theqeel road leads to Misrata's rebel-controlled port. Shaara said there were casualties but gave no further details.
Libyan officials say they are fighting armed militia groups linked to al-Qaida who are bent on destabilizing the north African country. It is difficult to verify reports from Misrata because journalists are prevented from reporting freely there.
'Mortar rounds' in Zintan
A rebel spokesman in Zintan, another town in western Libya which has been under attack by Gadhafi forces, said there had been a new bombardment.
"The pro-Gadhafi forces located north of the town fired mortar rounds from pick-up trucks at Zintan. Fortunately only one person was wounded in the attack," the spokesman, Abdulrahman, told Reuters by telephone.
"It's been mostly random firing as the town is perched 750 meters above sea level and the pro-Gadhafi forces are in the foothills of the mountains."
Zintan is in the Western Mountains region, a sparsely populated area inhabited by ethnic Berbers, many of whom rose up against Gadhafi's rule.
Residents of the region who fled to neighboring Tunisia have told Reuters that government forces are waging a campaign of terror there, destroying homes, killing livestock and threatening to rape women,
The spokesman said Gadhafi's forces, unable to get into the town of Zintan itself, were targeting people in nearby villages and rounding up anyone suspected of links to the rebels.
"In the nearby hamlet of al-Ghnayma, the pro-Gadhafi forces have since Saturday been singling out civilians originating from Zintan," he said.
"They have arrested 15 in total and released them later after finding out they had nothing to do with the rebels."
"But they have, up to today, burned down the homes of about 40 to 50 families (originally) from Zintan who live in al-Ghnayma and have also been poisoning their water wells by pouring in fuel and ... engine oil."
Zintan itself was suffering from an increasingly acute shortage of water, the spokesman said.
"Zintan relies on water from the foothills of the mountains. But with the fuel shortage, tanker trucks cannot go there and even if they had fuel they'd run the risk of being attacked by Gadhafi forces controlling that position," said Abdulrahman.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
in libya tonight, as the gadhafi regime bombards the city of misrata, there are new strains in the nato
campaign. as you may know, the rebels have been saying they need more air support
, and now both britain and france urge their nato
allies, that includes the u.s., to step up this campaign by air against the libyan regime. nato | Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(MSNBC)'] |
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and Sweat by Lynn Nottage win the Pultizer Prizes for Fiction and Drama respectively. | The acclaimed slavery novel has been rewarded alongside Lynn Nottage’s factory drama Sweat and Matthew Desmond’s nonfiction work Evicted
Last modified on Wed 20 Sep 2017 10.36 BST
Literary blockbuster novel The Underground Railroad, which depicts the journey of a young woman escaping from slavery via a fantastical train system, has won the Pulitzer prize for fiction.
Author Colson Whitehead has collected multiple accolades for the bestselling book, including last year’s National Book Award. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins is adapting the story into a limited series for Amazon. “For a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America,” read the Pulitzer judges’ note about Whitehead’s win.
The author reacted to the news on Twitter:
Giddy-up, motherfucker!
The Pulitzer prizes, considered the most prestigious journalism and arts awards in the country, were announced on Wednesday afternoon at Columbia University in New York.
Playwright Lynn Nottage nabbed her second Pulitzer for the drama Sweat, a Broadway play about factory workers battling job cuts.
Author Matthew Desmond won the nonfiction award for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, a book about housing inequality and evictions, and Hisham Matar won the biography prize for The Return, his book on his missing father in Libya.
Bestseller When Breath Becomes Air by the late Paul Kalanithi, the autobiography of a dying surgeon, was a runner-up in the biography category.
Tyehimba Jess won the poetry award for his work Olio.
In the journalism awards, New York Daily News and ProPublica jointly nabbed the top award, for public service, for their investigation into the New York police department evicting people, mostly minorities, from their homes.
“We are not in a period of decline in journalism. Rather, we are in the midst of a revolution,” Pulitzer prize administrator Mike Pride said during the award ceremony.
David A Fahrenthold of the Washington Post won the national reporting award for his coverage of the lack of promised donations by the Trump Foundation during the election. He regularly tweeted his news-gathering techniques, a photo of a crammed notepad listing organizations he had called showing the scale of the issue.
California’s East Bay Times nabbed the breaking news Pulitzer for its coverage of the Oakland fire at a warehouse that killed 36 people. Hilton Als of the New Yorker won the criticism award, Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail took home the investigative award for his reporting on opioids in West Virginia, and the New York Times garnered the international reporting award for its coverage of Vladimir Putin and Russia.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald won the explanatory reporting award for its work on the Panama Papers. | Awards ceremony | April 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A massive forest fire in Valparaíso, Chile destroys thousands of homes and leaves 11 people dead. | More than 10,000 people have been evacuated from Chile's port city of Valparaiso to escape a moving fire that has killed at least 12 residents.
Some 1,200 firefighters are battling the large blaze, which has destroyed hundreds of homes since Saturday.
President Michelle Bachelet put the army in charge of the evacuation after declaring the city, 110km (70 miles) west of Santiago, a disaster zone.
Security forces are on the streets to maintain order and prevent looting.
Earlier, the authorities said 16 residents had died, but it turned out that one family had been counted twice. One official said it was the "worst catastrophe" he had ever seen.
"We fear that the fire will spread to the centre of the city, which would increase the severity of the emergency," regional governor Ricardo Bravo, a life-long resident of Valparaiso, said.
The old centre is a Unesco World Heritage Site, packed with old buildings that are vulnerable to fire.
Strong Pacific coast winds have pushed the fire deeper into the neighbourhoods of Valparaiso, hampering the battle to contain the blaze.
The city is built on a series of steep hills, separated by narrow winding streets, making the job of firefighters all the more difficult, says the BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago.
Large parts of Valparaiso are without electricity, and residents were said to be suffering from smoke inhalation.
President Bachelet is in the city to oversee an emergency committee's response.
"The people of Valparaiso have courage, have strength and they aren't alone," she said during a tour of the worst-hit areas.
"In some places the fires have started again so we're working on this and people will continue to be protected," the president added.
Temporary shelters have been set up for residents who were forced to flee.
The Chilean Red Cross has appealed for donations, such as food and other basic supplies, to help those who were left homeless.
"We will send all of this to the people because they lost everything," a Red Cross volunteer told the BBC.
The fire started on Saturday, and most of the damage was done overnight.
'Hell'
Those residents who managed to return to their homes discovered that they had been destroyed.
"It's all burned down. My sister's house also burnt to the ground," Rosa Guzman told the Reuters news agency.
Another resident said the blaze felt as if "hell encircled my family". "The fire raced down the hills and destroyed everything in its path," Miguel Ramirez told the AFP news agency.
This is the second emergency that President Bachelet has had to face in the first month of her second term in office, after an 8.2 earthquake hit northern Chile on 1 April.
Fires are frequent in central Chile, where summer sends temperatures soaring. | Fire | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan says that captured Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman will be released tomorrow as a gesture of peace. | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Indian pilot shot down and captured by Pakistani forces this week will be released on Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said as efforts to cool a crisis between the two nuclear-armed neighbours continued.
“As a peace gesture we will be releasing him tomorrow,” Khan told parliament in Islamabad on Thursday.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | February 2019 | ['(Economic Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
Dozens of people are rescued from Japan's Mount Ontake following a volcanic eruption, with at least 30 feared dead. This is the first deadly eruption in Japan since 1991. | The bodies of 31 hikers have been found near the top of Japan's Mount Ontake a day after a sudden volcanic eruption.
The hikers were not breathing and their hearts had stopped. The search for a total of 45 missing climbers has now been called off for the night.
The volcano, about 200km (125 miles) west of Tokyo, erupted without warning on Saturday, spewing ash and rocks. About 250 people were trapped on the slopes of the popular beauty spot, but most got down safely.
Japan is one of the world's most seismically active nations - but there have been no fatalities from volcanic eruptions since 1991, when 43 people died at Mount Unzen in the south-west.
Saturday's eruption forced many of those on the mountain to make emergency descents through clouds of volcanic ash and falling rocks.
"The volcanic rocks fell like hailstones," one man said. "We couldn't breathe so we covered our mouths with towels. We couldn't open our eyes either."
Another told reporters: "The volcanic ash was hurtling so fast I couldn't run away. I'm worried about people still on the mountain."
Almost 50 people were thought to have stayed on the mountain on Saturday night, reports said.
Rescue efforts will resume on Monday after an intense search on Sunday was called off because of toxic volcanic gases in the area.
It is understood 45 people are still listed as unaccounted for - including those found near the summit. There are fears that others could be buried under volcanic ash.
Four people were transported back down the mountain on Sunday and later confirmed dead, Japan's NHK News reported.
Japanese officials can only announce deaths after a formal doctor's examination.
The question many people have been asking is - why were there hundreds of people on top of an active volcano? And, why was there no warning it was about to erupt? The answer to the first question is that there are lots of active volcanos in Japan, and people hike on them all the time. I have done so myself. Mount Fuji is classed as an active volcano, and hundreds of thousands of people climb it every year. In some ways the people caught in Saturday's eruption were very unlucky. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday at the peak of the autumn hiking season. Had it been a rainy Wednesday in June the chances are very few people would have been up there. The question of no warning is harder to answer. Volcanologists point out this was a relatively small eruption, and that it was driven by super-heated steam and ash, not by lava being ejected from the magma chamber. That made it much more difficult to predict. But it also meant that many of those caught up in the eruption survived. Had it been a large-scale eruption (like the one in 1979) with large pyroclastic flows, many more would have been killed. The sudden eruption on Saturday was described as "like thunder" by one woman who runs a lodge near the summit.
Heavy, toxic volcanic ash up to 20cm (8in) thick covered much of the mountain, reports said.
"All of a sudden ash piled up so quickly that we couldn't even open the door," Shuichi Mukai, who worked in a mountain lodge just below the peak, told Reuters. "We were really packed in here, maybe 150 people. There were some children crying, but most people were calm. We waited there in hard hats until they told us it was safe to come down."
Ordinarily Mount Ontake is a popular place to see autumn foliage. Its peak is 3,067m (10,120ft) high and the mountain is a popular hiking route, dotted with lodges, cabins and well-marked trails.
Mount Ontake spews ash and stones
Animated guide: Volcanoes
Volcanoes explained
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The Maryland and the District of Columbia attorneys general plan to sue President Trump on Monday claiming he violated the emolument clauses in the Constitution by accepting foreign payouts for his hotelier empire. | Two attorneys general plan on suing President Trump, alleging he violated the U.S. Constitution by accepting payouts from foreign governments through his hotel empire, according to a report Sunday.
Brian Frosh of Maryland and Karl Racine of the District of Columbia said the two will lodge a joint-lawsuit against the President centered on the emoluments clause, which prohibits federal office holders from accepting payments from foreign states, the Washington Post reported.
"We're getting in here to be the check and balance that it appears Congress is unwilling to be," Racine told the Post, describing the case. "We're bringing suit because the President has not taken adequate steps to separate himself from his business interests."
Frosh and Racine, both Democrats, will also claim that Trump failed to distance himself from his Trump Organization assets despite putting sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. in charge through a trust and he continues to benefit from the White House
Trump's business portfolio boasts of hotels in NYC, Las Vegas, Chicago and Miami. One of his hotels is located in the heart of the nation's capital. The entrance to the Trump International Hotel in D.C. was splashed with guerilla art in May, suggesting that foreign guest could drop off bribes inside.
The Trump Organization also owns more than a dozen more golf clubs globally, including properties in Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey.
Multiple spokespersons for the prosecutors declined to comment on the case, pending a press conference scheduled for Monday at noon.
If the case proceeds, the attorneys will demand Republican Trump's elusive tax returns through discovery, the Post reported. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2017 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(New York Daily News)'] |
Peruvian President Alan García swears in Rosario Fernández as Prime Minister, after the sudden resignation of José Antonio Chang. | Rosario del Pilar Fernandez Figueroa replaces former Cabinet chief Jose Antonio Chang Escobedo, who presented his resignation Friday for personal reasons.
Chang, who also served as education minister, was honored with Peru's Order of the Sun for his service to the country.
Fernandez Figueroa will remain as justice minister, while Victor Raul Diaz Chavez took oath as education minister at the same ceremony.
The other members of the Cabinet have kept their posts, including Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde as foreign minister, Enrique Cornejo as transport and communications minister, Pedro Sanchez as energy and mines minister, and Eduardo Ferreyros as trade and tourism minister.
Also, Jaime Thorne as defense minister, Oscar Ugarte as health minister, Virginia Borra as women's and social development minister, Jorge Villasante as production minister, Ismael Benavides as finance minister, Manuela Garcia as labor and employment promotion minister, and Rafael Quevedo as agriculture minister.
Juan Sarmiento, Miguel Hidalgo, Antonio Brack and Juan Ossio also retained the housing, interior, environment and culture portfolios, respectively. (END) CCR/EEP | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | March 2011 | ['(Andina)', '(BBC)'] |
North Korea responds to nearby joint United States–South Korean military exercises by stating that the acts resemble 19th century "gunboat diplomacy", describing them as "a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole". | North Korea says it will use its "nuclear deterrent" in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend.
Pyongyang was ready to launch a "retaliatory sacred war" at any time, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Washington and Seoul say the war games are to deter North Korean aggression.
Tensions between the two Koreas have been high since the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
An international investigation said the ship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, a claim strongly denied by Pyongyang.
Responding to Pyongyang's warning, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said that Washington was "not interested in a war of words with North Korea". "What we need from North Korea is fewer provocative words and more constructive action," the spokesman added.
The BBC's John Sudworth, in Seoul, says this is not the first time that North Korea has issued such a warning. Although it is likely to be dismissed as the usual diplomatic brinkmanship, the rising tension will cause concern among governments in the region, he adds.
The North's powerful National Defence Commission said the war games were "nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] by force of arms," the KCNA reported.
"The army and people of the DPRK will start a retaliatory sacred war of their own style based on nuclear deterrent any time necessary in order to counter the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war," it added.
The North had already promised a physical response to the military exercises during an Asian regional security forum in Vietnam on Friday.
North Korea's delegation spokesman at the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) regional forum said the exercises were an example of 19th century "gunboat diplomacy".
"It is a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole," he said.
The forum was dominated by the crisis between the two Koreas.
The war games - which begin on Sunday - will involve the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, 20 other ships and submarines, 100 aircraft and 8,000 personnel.
China has criticised the plans and warned against any action which might "exacerbate regional tensions".
But Japan is sending four military observers, in an apparent endorsement of the drills. The US announced on Wednesday that it was to impose new sanctions on North Korea, aimed at halting nuclear proliferation and the import of luxury goods. ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)
| Military Exercise | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Amidst a concerted effort to persuade electors to choose another candidate, Donald Trump earns the required Electoral College votes to be selected as the next President of the United States. | Right Now: The Electoral College has affirmed Donald J. Trump as the nation’s 45th president, pushing him past the 270-vote threshold for election, with scant evidence of the anti-Trump revolt among electors that some of his critics had hoped would occur.
Republican electors in Texas vaulted Mr. Trump past the 270 mark, granting him all but two of their 38 ballots in a ceremony in the State Capitol in Austin.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2016 | ['(New York Times)'] |
The United States Senate votes to approve John Negroponte as the head of the new U.S. embassy in Iraq despite concerns over his role in allegedly supporting widespread campaigns of terror and human rights abuses as ambassador of Honduras in the 1980s. | WASHINGTON - John Negroponte, the Bush administration's nominee to become Washington's first ambassador to Iraq since last year's invasion, was talking about how much ''sovereignty'' the country's new government will enjoy after Jun. 30, when U.S. military forces will remain in control of security. ''When it comes to issues like (the siege of) Fallujah'', said Negroponte, currently Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, ''I think that is going to be the kind of situation that is going to have to ... be the subject of real dialogue between our military commanders, the new Iraqi government, and, I think, the United States mission as well''. That was too much for Andres Thomas Conteris, a human rights and peace activist who was sitting in the hearing room. John Negroponte
At that point, he stood up and, in a determined voice, said: ''There is no sovereignty, Mr Ambassador, if the U.S. continues to exercise security. Senators, please ask the ambassador about Battalion 316. Ask him about a death squad in Honduras that he supported''. Security personnel quickly confronted Conteris and escorted him from the room, while Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar gaveled the hearing back to order, and Negroponte, the smooth-as-silk career diplomat fluent in five languages, went on as if nothing had happened. And, while everyone in the hearing room knew exactly what Conteris was referring to, the senators also ignored the interruption, repeatedly praising Negroponte for his distinguished career and his courage in taking on such a challenging and potentially dangerous assignment. Only two senators alluded to Honduras, albeit obliquely, suggesting they may have had some differences with the nominee in the distant past, but that it was all behind them now. With the committee's approval in hand, Negroponte, by all accounts an accomplished diplomat who has held senior posts in the White House and the State Department and headed U.S. embassies in Quito, Tegucigalpa, Mexico City and Manila, will direct the world's largest U.S. embassy when it opens its doors in Baghdad on Jul. 1, the day after ''sovereignty'' is to be transferred from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to a yet-to-be-chosen new Iraqi government. He will be in charge of nearly 2,000 employees, most of them Americans. A long-time friend of Secretary of State Colin Powell, Negroponte is generally considered to be a pragmatist -- rather than an ideologue -- albeit one with a hawkish reputation that dates to his work as a young diplomat in Vietnam in the 1960s. Some describe him as a low-key version of CPA chief Paul Bremer. But Bremer did not work in Honduras. ''I spoke up because Negroponte at that moment was talking about sovereignty'', Conteris, whose mother is Uruguayan and who has lived in Bolivia and Honduras, told IPS later. ''I lived in Honduras for five years, and I know the impact Negroponte's policies had there in the early 1980s (when) Honduras was known as the USS Honduras, basically an occupied aircraft carrier''. Negroponte was sent by the incoming administration of then President Ronald Reagan (1981-89) to Tegucigalpa in early 1981 to transform Honduras into a military and intelligence base directed against Nicaragua and the left-wing insurgents in neighboring El Salvador -- a mission he largely accomplished in the four years he spent running what at that time was Washington's biggest embassy in the Americas. To do so, he and the station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Donald Winter, formed a close alliance with Gen Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, the army's ambitious and murderous commander who admired -- and implemented -- the ''dirty war'' tactics that he had learned from the Argentine military in the late 1970s. The Argentine junta sent advisers to Honduras at Alvarez' request to begin building what would become a U.S.-backed contra force against Nicaragua. Until Negroponte's arrival, Honduras was a sleepy, relatively untroubled backwater in the region whose military, unlike those of its neighbors, was seen as relatively progressive, if corrupt, and loathe to resort to actual violence against dissidents. But with the support of the CIA and the Argentines, Alvarez moved to change that radically, according to declassified documents as well as detailed and award-winning reporting by the 'Baltimore Sun' in the mid-1990s. A special intelligence unit of the Honduran Armed Forces, called Battalion 316, was put together by Alvarez and supplied and trained by the CIA and the Argentines. It was a death squad that kidnapped and tortured hundreds of real or suspected ''subversives'', ''disappeared'' at least 180 of them -- including U.S. missionaries -- during Negroponte's tenure. Such activities were previously unknown in Honduras. At the same time, Negroponte, who was often referred to as ''proconsul'' by the Honduran media, oversaw the expansion of two major military bases used by U.S. forces and Nicaraguan contras, and, after the U.S. Congress put strict limits on the training of Salvadorian soldiers in-country, he ''persuaded'' the government to build a Regional Military Training Center (RMTC) on Honduran territory, despite the fact that Honduras and El Salvador were traditional enemies who had fought a bloody war less than 15 years before. Throughout this period, Negroponte steadfastly defended Alvarez, at one point calling him ''a model professional'', and repeatedly denied anything was amiss on the human rights front in Honduras despite rising concern in Congress about reports of disappearances and killings by death squads. In a 1982 letter to 'The Economist' magazine, he asserted it was ''simply untrue to state that death squads have made their appearance in Honduras''. He said much the same in testimony before Congress at the time. Embassy employees were told to cleanse their reports about rights abuses, even as the military's role in the killings and disappearances became widely known -- and reported by Honduran newspapers -- within the country. One exiled colonel living in Mexico denounced Alvarez for creating a death squad: Negroponte denied the charge. Alvarez's excesses, the unprecedented human rights abuses and the country's total alignment with U.S. plans eventually became too much for the Honduran military itself. In a move that caught Negroponte and Winter completely by surprise, his fellow-officers deposed the armed forces chief in a barracks coup in 1984. Negroponte, whom the insurgents reportedly wanted to have declared persona non grata, was back in Washington within the year. As more details about Battalion 316 have come to light in the 20 years since, Negroponte has continued to deny any knowledge of its existence or activities. As late as 2001, when President George W Bush nominated him as United Nations ambassador, Negroponte insisted, ''To this day, I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras''. Negroponte's protests of innocence are simply not credible to many observers, including his predecessor in Tegucigalpa, who claims to have personally briefed him about Alvarez and his murderous plans. Rights groups have also pointed out he successfully intervened with the army to gain the release of at least two people who had been abducted, suggesting that he must have known who was responsible. Activists and some senators with whom he had tangled over Honduras in the past had hoped his record would have been closely scrutinized by the Senate when he was nominated to the U.N. ambassadorship, but his nomination was rushed to the floor for confirmation in the immediate aftermath of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, when the administration argued there was no time for extended hearings given the urgency of directing the U.S. response at the world body. Now he goes to Iraq to oversee its democratization. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2004 | ['(95–3)', '(Los Angeles Times)', '(IPS)', '(Democracy Now!)'] |
Fulton County authorities charge a woman with arson in relation to an Atlanta Wendy's restaurant being burnt down the day after police killed Rayshard Brooks there after he fled when they tried to arrest him for DUI. The woman's lawyer said she was Brooks' girlfriend. , The New York Post 2) |
Deputies have arrested the woman accused of torching the Atlanta Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was gunned down by police.
Natalie White, 29, was apprehended Tuesday in connection to the arson that burned down the fast-food chain’s location during protests on Saturday, June 13, a day after Brooks was killed in its parking lot, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Brooks had referred to White as his “girlfriend” during the June 12 traffic stop that ultimately led to his death, body cam footage shows. White’s lawyer on Tuesday confirmed the two were “close friends” but declined to comment further on their relationship.
A warrant was issued for White on Saturday, about a week after she allegedly set the blaze. Atlanta’s fire department said it was difficult for its crews to fight the fire because they were met by demonstrators blocking their path, according to the local NBC affiliate.
White’s apprehension comes on the same day as the Atlanta funeral for Brooks, where he was remembered as a hard-working family man who left behind three young daughters and a teenage stepson.
The Fulton County Sheriff's Office Fugitive Unit just apprehended Wendys arson suspect Natalie White moments ago. White is being booked into the Fulton County Jail right now. This case is being investigated by @ATLFireRescue Arson Unit. @FGTV @FultonInfo
Fulton Sheriff PIO (@FultonSheriff) June 23, 2020
Brooks, 27, was fatally shot by an Atlanta police officer during a foot chase with police in the restaurant’s parking lot. After he failed a sobriety test, he took off running with an officer’s Taser.
As Brooks fled, he turned back and pointed the Taser at officer Garrett Rolfe, who then opened fire.
Rolfe, 27, was fired from the department and charged with murder. The second responding officer, Devin Brosnan, 26, was placed on administrative duty and charged with aggravated assault in connection to the death.. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2020 | ['(The New York Post)'] |
Actor George Clooney is to receive an award for humanitarian work. | Hollywood star George Clooney will receive an Emmy award for his humanitarian efforts, it has been announced.
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will present the 49-year-old actor with the prestigious prize, named after the late comic-actor Bob Hope.
Chairman of the TV academy John Shaffner said Clooney was "an obvious choice" for the award.
He is the fourth recipient of the trophy and will receive it next month.
Past winners of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award include Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby. Clooney is being honoured for the Hope for Haiti US TV special - which has also been nominated for an Emmy.
The star hosted the telethon, which took place in January.
He has also been heavily involved in raising funds for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and helping to increase awareness about genocide in Darfur.
The 62nd Emmy Awards will take place on 29 August in Los Angeles.
| Awards ceremony | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(News24)', '(Los Angeles Times)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso rejects and condemns the United States's new plan on deporting undocumented immigrants, stating that Mexico cannot "accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another." | Mexico has condemned new guidelines issued by the United States, under which almost all illegal immigrants can be subject to deportation.
The new rules include sending undocumented people to Mexico, even if they are not Mexicans. But Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray says his country cannot "accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another."
Two top US officials are in Mexico to discuss the measures.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the head of Homeland Security, John Kelly, will hold talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto, amid one of the most serious rifts between the two neighbours in recent years.
The changes announced on Tuesday include plans to enforce an existing provision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act that allows authorities to send illegal immigrants back to Mexico, regardless of where they are from.
But it is unclear whether the US has authority to force Mexico to accept foreigners.
The Obama government focused on deporting immigrants convicted of serious crimes.
Now, the new priorities are broad enough to apply to almost any illegal immigrant, including anyone who has been charged with a crime, misrepresented themselves, poses a risk to public safety, or "abused any programme related to receipt of public benefits".
The new guidelines also allow Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport people immediately.
Expedited deportations can now be used against undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US, who are unable to prove they have been in the country for more than two years.
Previously, expedited removals were applied to people who had been in the country for less than two weeks and were within 100 miles of the border.
An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the US, many of them from Mexico.
Read more on the Trump administration and immigration:
Mr Videgaray said on Wednesday that Mexico would not accept the new rules. "We are not going to accept that because we don't have to and it is not in the interest of Mexico."
"We also have control of our borders and we will exercise it fully," he added.
He said his country was prepared to go to the United Nations to defend the freedoms and rights of Mexicans under international law. Roberto Campa, head of the human rights department of Mexico's interior ministry, said the plan to deport non-Mexicans to Mexico was "hostile" and "unacceptable".
Relations between the US and Mexico have been tense under Mr Trump, who has said Mexico will pay for a wall he wants to build on the southern border, expected to cost billions of dollars.
Last month, Mr Pena Nieto cancelled a planned meeting with the US president in Washington over disagreements over the wall.
President Donald Trump made immigration and border control a key part of his campaign. The government said the new guidelines would not usher in mass deportations, but were designed to empower agents to enforce laws already on the books.
Earlier, in Guatemala, Mr Kelly reinforced that the measures did not signal mass deportations.
"We will be looking primarily at criminal offenders first. But there will be no mass round-ups, and when we do take someone into custody, they're then put into the American legal justice system, that's the courts, and the courts will decide what'll happen to them," he told reporters.
Despite the tensions, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Wednesday that the relationship with Mexico was "phenomenal right now".
He said he expected a "great discussion" between US and Mexican officials. The talks are expected to also include drug trafficking and the North American Free Trade Agreement, among other issues.
| Government Policy Changes | February 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 9 people are killed and 18 injured, some by law enforcement and others in gunfire exchanges, in a shootout between rival biker gangs in Waco, Texas, at the Twin Peaks Restaurant. , | WACO: (May 17, 2015) Three rival motorcycle gangs turned a local restaurant into a shooting gallery Sunday afternoon and when the gunfire was over, nine people were dead and 17 were injured..
Waco police Sunday afternoon, assisted by Department of Public Safety troopers, police officers from several cities and deputies from the McLennan County Sheriff's Office were surrounding the Twin Peaks Restaurant, in the Central Texas Market Place after several people were reported shot during a rival motorcycle gang fight, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.
Police and troopers were in the parking lot trying to secure the area and protect citizens when a fight broke out inside the restaurant and spilled into the parking lot.
Swanton said the fight quickly escalated from fists and feet to chains, clubs and knives, then to gunfire.
Gang members were shooting at each other and officers at the scene fired their weapons, as well, Swanton said.
Other patrons in Twin Peaks and some employees locked themselves in a freezer to escape the fight.
The scene at the Market Place between Don Carlos and Twin Peaks was absolute chaos, Swanton said.
"It is one of the most violent scene I've seen in my 34 years as a police officer in Waco," Swanton said.
Swanton said officers recovered more than 100 weapons from the scene and there were several vehicles that had bullet holes in them.
Swanton said no officers and no civilians were injured.
Swanton said police are prepared to deal with any additional bike gang members who choose to come to Waco.
The 18 victims were taken by ambulance to Baylor Scott and White Hillcrest Medical Center, which later was placed on lock down, but officials at Hillcrest said they had no comment.
Later reports indicated one of those taken to Hillcrest died there.
He also said police have been trying to work with management at Twin Peaks for several weeks but have been thwarted in their efforts to avoid a situation like happened Sunday afternoon.
A witness who was having lunch across the parking lot at Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant said he and his family had just finished eating and walked into the parking lot when they heard several gunshots and saw wounded being taken from the fight scene.
"We crouched down in front of our pick-up truck because that was the only cover we had," the man, who asked not to be identified, said.
He and his family were traveling to Salina, Kansas and decided to stop for lunch.
He said he saw several wounded men being treated.
He also said there were several police officers at the scene and ambulances were responding to the scene to aid those hit by gunfire.
At about 2 p.m. a second scene was being investigated at the Waco Convention Center but only very few details were known about the situation there.
One law enforcement spokesman said there were several armed officers and EMS units on the scene and Washington Avenue and University Parks Drive in that area had been closed.
A News 10 photographer who was at the convention center said he witnessed several men being arrested there.
Officers also were en route to the Flying J Truck Stop, at New Road and Interstate 35 because a large number of bikers had been seen gathering there.
Swanton said the scene at Twin Peaks is "as secure as it can be right now," Swanton said, but police are concerned that groups who were involved in the first incident may be moving to other locations in and around Waco where more violence could erupt.
Swanton said citizens should avoid the area until an all clear can be issued.
The Interstate 35 exit onto Loop 340 southbound is closed, as is the access road that runs alongside the Interstate.
"We have multiple medical and law enforcement resources in the area who are dealing with the issue," Swanton said.
Ambulances from West, Limestone and Coryell counties were at the scene to assist local EMS units.
Trouble at Twin Peaks among rival bikers had been brewing for some time, District Attorney Abel Reyna told News 10 about two weeks ago.
Reyna said local police were on heightened alert in anticipation of trouble on Thursday nights, when Twin Peaks hosts a Biker Night.
Reyna said some weeks ago trouble erupted between two local motorcycle gangs and that spilled over into gangs from the Dallas-Fort Worth area showing up to support the local groups.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or fccinfo@fcc.gov. | Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(KWTX)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Volodymyr Zelensky wins the first round of Ukraine's presidential election with 30 percent of the vote, with President Petro Poroshenko coming in second with 15 percent of the vote. Since no candidate reached the required number of votes to achieve the office of the presidency, a runoff election between the two candidates will be held on April 21. Voter turnout was 63 percent. | According to the results, Volodymyr Zelensky gets 30.24% of the vote, Petro Poroshenko – 15.95%, Yulia Tymoshenko – 13.4%, Yuriy Boiko – 11.67%, Anatoliy Hrytsenko – 6.91%, Ihor Smeshko - 6.04%, Oleh Liashko – 5.48%, Oleksandr Vilkul - 4.15%, Ruslan Koshulynsky — 1.62%.
Other candidates received less than 1% of the vote.
According to the latest data, a total of 18,893,393 people voted in the elections in Ukraine.
1.18% of ballots were invalidated across Ukraine.
The presidential elections in Ukraine took place on March 31. There were 39 candidates in a ballot paper.
According to the preliminary data, comic Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent Head of State Petro Poroshenko make it to the runoff. | Government Job change - Election | April 2019 | ['(Ukrinform)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
United States State Department blocks the sale of firearms to the Philippines due to concerns of human rights violations. , | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department halted the planned sale of some 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines’ national police after Senator Ben Cardin said he would oppose it, Senate aides told Reuters on Monday.
Aides said Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reluctant for the United States to provide the weapons given concerns about human rights violations in the Philippines.
News of the thwarting of the weapons sale was met with disappointment among the Philippine police and government on Tuesday, but they said alternative suppliers would be found. Police spokesman Dionardo Carlos said the Philippines had yet to be notified about the sale being stopped.
The relationship between the United States and the Philippines, a long-time ally, has been complicated lately by President Rodrigo Duterte’s angry reaction to criticism from Washington of his violent battle to rid the country of illegal drugs.
More than 2,300 people have been killed in police operations or by suspected vigilantes in connection with the anti-narcotics campaign since Duterte took office on June 30.
The U.S. State Department informs Congress when international weapons sales are in the works. Aides said Foreign Relations committee staff informed State that Cardin would oppose the deal during the department’s prenotification process for the sale of 26,000-27,000 assault rifles, stopping the deal.
U.S. State Department officials did not comment.
Ronald dela Rosa, the Philippine national police chief and staunch supporter of the war on drugs, said he liked the American rifle, but suggested China as an alternative small-arms provider.
“We really wanted the U.S. rifles because these are reliable,” he told broadcaster ABS-CBN.
“But if the sale will not push through, we will find another source, maybe from China.”
In October, Duterte told U.S. President Barack Obama to “go to hell” and said the United States had refused to sell some weapons to his country, but he did not care because Russia and China were willing suppliers.
According to some U.S. officials, Washington has been doing its best to ignore Duterte’s rhetoric and not provide him with a pretext for more outbursts.
An open break with the Philippines could create problems for the United States in a region where China’s influence has grown. | Government Policy Changes | November 2016 | ['(CNN)', '(Reuters)'] |
Jean Castex is appointed Prime Minister of France by President Emmanuel Macron following the resignation of Édouard Philippe and amid speculation of a possible cabinet reshuffle. | PARIS — Emmanuel Macron appointed low-profile conservative Jean Castex as his prime minister on Friday, in a move that means the French president is effectively betting the house on himself.
In choosing such a little-known figure to replace Edouard Philippe as head of his government, Macron indicated he will be taking even greater charge of policymaking for the remaining two years of his term.
Castex, who is the mayor of the small town of Prades in southern France, had previously been given the delicate task of handling the government’s plan for exiting the coronavirus lockdown.
“I’m not here seeking the spotlight, I’m here seeking results,” Castex said in his first interview after taking office on French TV. “Until today I wasn’t a national politician,” he added, highlighting his local roots.
Hoping the worst health aspects of the coronavirus crisis are now behind him, Macron is turning his attention to the still-unfolding massive economic fallout. How the president handles that aspect of the crisis will be a determining factor in his reelection chances in 2022. And he is not taking chances on delegating that task to another powerful figure.
“There’s a period of [socio-economic] reconstruction to lead,” said an official in Macron’s office. “He [the president] is setting off with a new man for a new phase on a new path that he has laid out.”
Macron made his move to reshape his government after his La République En Marche (LREM) suffered a big defeat in local elections on Sunday.
But the details of this new path Macron plans on taking remain largely unknown even to Cabinet members.
In his interview, Castex outlined his main priorities: the economic recovery plan, investing in what he called “sectors of the future,” including more eco-friendly sectors, and engaging in a more constructive dialogue with unions. The previous government faced a series of protests and strikes and was accused of not engaging enough with trade representatives.
Castex sounded like a traditional conservative politician, saying “to be able to redistribute wealth one has to produce it first” and adding that people “can’t expect everything from the state.”
The resignation of the government was tightly held even within the Cabinet. Ministers discovered only minutes before the public that a Cabinet meeting scheduled for Friday morning had been canceled.
Despite promising since March that he would “reinvent” himself and sending signals of a shift to focus more on social and green policies, Macron is instead doubling down on a course that is widely seen as center-right in economic terms.
He has foregone the opportunity to change tack by appointing a non-conservative prime minister, or a woman, as he indicated he wanted to do when he ran for president in 2017.
His choice of Castex indicates Macron may be giving up on trying to win back center-left voters, who have been disappointed by many of his policies over the past three years but were an essential part of his unlikely success in 2017.
Castex was an adviser on social affairs in former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Cabinet, before becoming deputy secretary-general of the Elysée in 2011, a key post that Macron himself occupied.
The new prime minister started his political career with conservative heavyweight Xavier Bertrand, first as his head of Cabinet at the health ministry and later in the labor ministry in the 2000s.
Castex has a lot in common with Philippe, his predecessor. Both were previously members of the conservative Les Républicains party, are local elected officials and are part of an elite circle of high-level civil servants.
However, Castex’s chief of staff will be Nicolas Revel, who has a Socialist past but is very close to Macron, having served alongside him as deputy secretary-general of the Elysée under former President François Hollande. Macron had initially pushed for Revel to be Philippe’s chief of staff.
At a ceremonial handover of power, both Philippe and Castex had very warm words to say about one another. “You will know how to face decisions that are sometimes difficult, and make the right decisions,” Philippe told Castex.
Castex, speaking with a southern accent, notably started his speech by enumerating a long list of what he called Philippe’s accomplishments, including the lowest unemployment rate in a decade, as well as the reduction in taxes the government put in place.
He also promised continuity in the new phase.“A new stage is starting, it is dictated by a new context… the health crisis is sadly not over,” Castex said. “We will need more than ever to fight against this crisis that is taking hold and in particular continue the reforms that you put in place in order to make sure we come out of it stronger and more united.”
Macron made his move to reshape his government after his La République En Marche (LREM) suffered a big defeat in local elections on Sunday, where the Greens swept big cities while incumbent conservative and Socialist mayors largely held on to their seats.
“He can build a calm dialogue with the territories,” said the official in Macron’s office, outlining the strengths of Castex.
The makeup of the new government is expected to be revealed next week, with the first Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
This article has been updated.
Turnout is expected to reach a record low in an election that is seen as a key test ahead of the presidential elections. Thaïs d’Escufon, a poster girl for the French alt-right, worked behind the scenes on the campaign of National Rally MP Sébastien Chenu.
Damien Tarel gets four months in prison for hitting president.
Emmanuel Macron got a slap in the face, and he’s not the only one.
Log in to access content and manage your profile. If you do not have a login you can register here. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2020 | ['(CNBC)', '(Politico)'] |
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests an alleged agent of Pakistan's Inter–Services Intelligence in the US state of Virginia for making illegal campaign contributions. | Law enforcement sources say the FBI has arrested an agent of Pakistan's official state intelligence service, accusing him of making thousands of dollars in political contributions in the United States without disclosing his connections to the Pakistani government. Syed Ghulam Fai will appear in federal court this afternoon in Alexandria, Virginia. He's not charged with being a spy. But he is charged with being an unregistered agent or lobbyist of the Pakistani government. He's the exective director of a group called the Kashmiri American Council, the sources say, and he has given tens of thousands of dollars to congressional candidates and party organizations. U.S. officials say there's no reason to believe that members of Congress or other organizations that received his contributions were aware of his government connections. A call to the Kashmiri American Council's office in Washington went unanswered this morning. older
First Thoughts: The blame game
newer
NBC/WSJ poll: Majority says not raising debt ceiling would be problematic
72 comments, including:
Now we are starting to see what was in Pandora's Box that the SCOTUS opened. From this article, we are seeing some PROOF of influence in OUR elections by outside, foreign moneyed interests. This revelation should be a warning sign to ALL of us - Republicans and Democrats alike. I thnik that the battle lines have been clearly marked. older
First Thoughts: The blame game
newer
NBC/WSJ poll: Majority says not raising debt ceiling would be problematic
The other half of the story would be: to who and why? Along with how much,when,and what did they get in return?It does take two to tango,and in this case it was just as bad to receive as it was to give. Well, Since FR doesn't identify who or what party, can we assume that it was to Democrats? Probably not, but the complete story might have been nice. Does it really matter, WCA? You want to show 'your side' as being pristine when the whole boat is sinking. The fact of the matter is that this is clear evidence that OUTSIDE moneyed interests have the means to influence OUR elections. Wake up and smell the coup de etat, WCA. Aww - it's only right that "others" can donate. Afterall Obama is the world's president, isn't he? This is an NBC scoop! I just checked other websites and no one has reported this yet. WCA,
All you need to do is run the guy's name through the FEC database and, voila... Turns out he was an "Equal Opportunity" contributor as he appears to have made contributions to both sides of the political aisle:
$250 to Gore 2000, Inc in 1999
$250 to Obama for America in 2008
$3500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2004
$5000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2006
$2000 to Joe Pitts (R) in 2004
$500 to Yvette Clark (D) in 2007
Great job, FBI. It doesn't matter which side received the money, a Pakistani group contributed money to try buying influence. That's what matters, UAW, not who got the money because the person or party receiving it most likely did not know it was illegal money. While I do not dispute the idea that anyone, any business or any group can contribute money to campaigns, every person, group or business must be required to disclose who and how much was given and to whom it was given and there should be limits on the amount. Every campaign ad run by anyone should declare in large, bold letters WHO paid for that ad. When people see an add talking about the merits of such and such, they deserve to know who is telling us something is wonderful. I see big oil ads all the time touting the greatness of the technology to obtain natural gas from sources no one thought possible but they don't bother to tell people the process or that fracking contaminates the underground water sources and destabilizes the land--but at least they put their name on the ad. Da Noid, that's why I said probably not. Of course this guy played both sides of the same coin. Lobbyists do it all the time. Really, I was just calling out what I considered shoddy reporting. After all, you were able to find out who and what without much trouble weren't you? Jody - That's what matters, UAW,
Jody, I am not a member of the UAW, if in fact you are referring to me. And so there it is - Jody calling for full disclosure in ads. Golly Jody, you mean Fruit Loops isn't good for you? 9 out 10 dentists do not recommend Dentine for to their patients that chew gum. Huh. See Jody you can disclose everything under the sun, but it really means very little. Just look at all the mis-information/thinkprogress drivel you spout regarding fraking. Destabilizes the land? Contaminates ground water? You do realize the NYT had to come clean and its Ombudsman had to admit they were flat making crap up? Sure you do. See Jody ignorance is bliss. All of the disclosure in the world is not going to change that. or you ability to process the information given anyway. Confusion is a state of mind for some. Danoid
I don't think it is as simple as that. Why would it take the FBI to go after contributions that had already been reported to the FEC? he is charged with being an unregistered agent or lobbyist of the Pakistani government. But if he registered? Well that's okay because we certainly want foreign nationals and corporations buying our politicians to do their bidding not ours. I see big oil ads all the time touting the greatness of the technology to obtain natural gas from sources no one thought possible but they don't bother to tell people the process or that fracking contaminates the underground water sources and destabilizes the land--but at least they put their name on the ad. Thanks for the reminder Jody! When you turn on your kitchen sink, your water should NOT BURN! In the fracking process, they use over 596 chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens... Which have created numerous health issues for those unfortunate enough to live within the circle of mayhem. For those who haven't seen it, I highly recommend the documentary 'Gasland'! It lays out exactly how the 'poison for profit barons' operate! It's sickening! Wow - so this goes well beyond simple ignorance. That film has been discredited as a hoax. Yet here Feisty is shilling for it. Does she know, or is she just that dishonest? Which is worse. Oh well, anatomy of a libbie I guess. The EPA announced June 23, 2011 that it will examine claims of water pollution related to hydraulic fracturing in Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Louisiana
Hmmm Spanky; My company contracts analytical analysis, field sampling and remediation planning for the EPA and we are directly involved this EPA decision. We now have ground water and soil samples being processed that are contaminated; some are so bad that we have to dilute them up to 100x so they will fall within the standard curve of our instrumentation. A few energy companies that will go unnamed in this post have lawyers all over our labs like flies on crap doing damage control. Truthfully, the problem is more regulatory than fracking persay. If not watched closely drillers will add more chemicals than allowed before they inject the water (chemicals soften/dissolve the rock to increase the amount of fracture) and they will go as far as fracking wells that don't pass the pressure test. Looks like to me that when it comes to fracking someone here has an agenda besides Jody and Fiesty. Thank you KRT for your comments on what's going on in the real world! Much appreciated! Uh oh Spanky, Did you get that from the anga web site? I guess they don't have any skin in the game? Nope you can trust them. How about the other articles about hydro fracking? A tad bit disingenuous Spanky? You're most welcome Feisty;
I think you will find this fact interesting. Under the Bush administration’s 2005 Energy Policy Act, chemicals used in natural gas extraction are exempt from the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Superfund and Clean Water Act........(courtesy of the evil Dick....lol)
It really is some scary crap that's going on with the fracking process...
What everyone fails to realize is there is a finite amount of consumable water on this planet & without it, we're toast! BS
WOW, nobody's jumping on this or are you waiting to see what party he's donating too then you can pounce? How about, good job FBI!! Man, you people are so predictable. And Paul-Florida, you are so predictable as well. Who cares which party the donations were going to? I will agree with you that the FBI did a great job rooting this out. But how many OTHERS are doing what this person did that the FBI did NOT catch? OUR ability to influence our lawmakers with OUR issues (via our votes) are being jerked out from under us and the American populace doesn't know or care because they are ASLEEP. So Pietro is the only way you influence your lawmakers is with cash? I have never understood the outrage - all Citizens dealt with was monetary contributions. So what? Unless you all think the only way you can do anything is through huge cash donations. Funny thing is Obama is the man when it comes to raking in cash. Too bad that ain't going to get him elected. Too bad he can't buy a better unemployment rate. Genius Spanky, "it's only money" is a brilliant point. I wonder why Madison Avenue and all it's billions exist??? It's not because advertising works, is it? And therefore money is critical in any campaign, maybe? I would argue that anyone defending the Citizens United decision would defend child abuse if their party supported it, and should therefore be ignored. Just a fact Nick - all an ad is is a form of advocacy. I advocate for my clients. Advertisers advocate for their clients. Politicians advocate for themselves. Good thing were are all adults and can interpret information on our own. No one has to rely on just one sourse for info. But let's get back to Citizens. What about the ruling, in your own words is wrong? Cause see I represent and sue corporations all the time. Let me bust some wisdom on you:
"As a general rule, a corporation is considered to be a legal entity that has an existence seperate from that of its shareholders. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2011 | ['(FBI)', '(MSNBC)'] |
Nepal prepares for an election that will decide the new Constituent Assembly, tasked with rewriting the constitution. The fate of the monarchy is also at stake. | KATMANDU, Nepal Violence marred the eve of a historic election intended to bolster peace in Nepal, as officials confirmed Wednesday the killings of at least eight people in three incidents in the tense western hill region.
In a turning point for a country bled by a decade-long Maoist insurgency, polls opened Thursday morning for Nepal’s 17.6 million voters to choose a special assembly that will rewrite the Constitution and govern the nation in the meantime. | Government Job change - Election | April 2008 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
After a ten-week suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 AFL season resumes with Collingwood facing Richmond at the MCG. Before the match began, both teams knelt to show solidarity with the George Floyd protests. The match finished in a draw. | Richmond and Collingwood have drawn for the second time in their history in a simply staggering 2020 AFL season re-launch.
Richmond and Collingwood have drawn for the first time since 1917 as footy made a staggering return on Thursday night.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Watch every match of every round Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
The two teams were locked at 36-36 with three minutes remaining and both clubs failed to score in a frantic, frenzied final few minutes as they played out just the second draw in the history of the famous Tigers-Magpies rivalry.
In 212 meetings between the bitter suburban rivals, there have now been just two draws since their first official meeting during the first VFL season in 1897.
The draw left players out on their feet with a hollow feeling in their stomachs as the scoreboard showed 5.6 (36) to 5.6 (36) at the final time siren.
Tigers captain Trent Cotchin said after the final siren: “It’s just an empty feeling”.
The Tigers made a courageous fightback after finding themselves down by four goals at quarter time.
It was the pies who had the final chance to break the deadlock when they surged forward in the dying seconds only for a kick to Callum Browne to sail wide of the mark, allowing Nick Vlaustin enough time to rush in and make a game-saving tackle with three seconds remaining.
Jack Riewoldt and comeback kid Jack Higgins also had late chances to snatch victory for the Tigers but could not convert their set shots late in the final term.
Just like that, it was a draw.
The 103-year first was also the lowest scoring footy match in 21 years. The combined score of 72 points is the lowest score seen in the AFL since 1999.
The Magpies failed to kick a goal in the second half while the Tigers also failed to kick a goal in the final quarter.
The Pies kicked four goals in the first 21 minutes, but then kicked just one goal for the rest of the match.The amazing drama came after Richmond and Collingwood players produced a stunning combined protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement before the first siren.
10 weeks after coronavirus restrictions forced the 2020 season to shut down, the Tigers and Magpies welcomed footy back with a moving pre-match tribute.
Stars from both clubs executed a prearranged demonstration in the final seconds before the re-launch of the 2020 season in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Indigenous stars Shane Edwards, Sydney Stack, Daniel Rioli, Marlion Pickett and Shai Bolton were centre stage, as the Tigers and Magpies took a united stand in a player-led initiative for the worldwide cause against systemic racism.
Umpires, coaches and support staff joined in the player-led initiative.
Every player on the ground is wearing a black shirt in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter ✊ pic.twitter.com/MZvdB5fA5w
— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 11, 2020
Jack Higgins found himself in the middle of a boiling controversy after a contentious umpire decision allowed him to turn the contest on its head. Higgins was controversially awarded a mark during a score review after he marked the ball right on the goal line to the right of the big sticks. The goal umpire judged the ball had sailed over the line for a behind, but the score review awarded Higgins a mark, overturning the original decision despite an apparent lack of evidence. Higgins went back and slotted a crucial goal that put the Tigers back to within one straight kick at three quarter time. Channel 7's Brian Taylor was stunned that the score review would overturn the decision despite the vision appearing to be inconclusive as to whether the ball had travelled over the line or not before Higgins took the mark. AFL legend Wayne Carey described it as "contentious". “You can clearly see the ball was marked before the line.” ??Was it? #AFLPiesTigers pic.twitter.com/niPkzlgmZg
Interesting call by video review… I can see where he’s coming from. But given camera on left side on angle is this side of fat post… it’s not precise to say that ball has not passed line. You can only be definitive if it’s between big posts… pic.twitter.com/UmN7urzPs4
Richmond and Collingwood players have run out onto the MCG for their pre-match warm-ups wearing black T-shirts in a sign of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Players from both teams wore the clean black warm-up shirts that did not feature any markings, signage or sponsorship. The T-shirts are expected to be just the first act in a series of displays of support from AFL players across the second round of the competition after the AFL gave the all clear for players to show their support for the protests occurring across Australia and the United States. Collingwood and Richmond players will together take a knee in the final moments before the first siren in a clear display supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. The gesture has been ticked off by both clubs and the AFL as the Victorian rivals relaunch the season after a three-month break at the MCG on Thursday night.
A player-led initiative, the Tigers and Magpies are determined to take a united stand for the worldwide cause against systemic racism.
It is expected the league’s other 16 clubs will display similar shows of unity during the weekend’s remaining eight games.
“Certainly both our clubs are endorsing and supportive of our players doing that and they’ll do that just before the bounce. We strongly support them doing so,” Magpies chief executive Mark Anderson told ABC Radio.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan said “racism needs to be stamped out”. “It is an important issue for our players, for our clubs and for the AFL,” he told Sunrise.
A number of other AFL clubs, including Western Bulldogs, North Melbourne, Melbourne and Brisbane, have already posted photos and messages on social media in support of the worldwide movement.
Richmond and Collingwood players will take a knee before their AFL clash to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The gesture has been ticked off by both clubs and the AFL as the Victorian rivals relaunch the season after a three-month break at the MCG on Thursday night.
A player-led initiative, the Tigers and Magpies are determined to take a united stand for the worldwide cause against systemic racism.
It is expected the league’s other 16 clubs will display similar shows of unity during the weekend’s remaining eight games.
“Certainly both our clubs are endorsing and supportive of our players doing that and they’ll do that just before the bounce. We strongly support them doing so,” Magpies chief executive Mark Anderson told ABC Radio.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan said “racism needs to be stamped out”. “It is an important issue for our players, for our clubs and for the AFL,” he told Sunrise.
A number of other AFL clubs, including Western Bulldogs, North Melbourne, Melbourne and Brisbane, have already posted photos and messages on social media in support of the worldwide movement.
Black Lives Matters protests took place in the United States after the death in police custody of George Floyd which were followed in Australia last weekend and across the world.
The Tigers-Magpies match will be shown live to American audiences on Fox Sports 1.
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first started the practice of kneeling during the United States national anthem before NFL games in 2016.
— with AAP
A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. | Sports Competition | June 2020 | ['(News.com.au)'] |
In Chile, court strips Augusto Pinochet of presidential immunity from prosecution in the investigation of disappearance of political opponents in so–called Operation Colombo | General Pinochet is accused of involvement in the abduction and killing of political prisoners in what was known as Operation Colombo.
His lawyers say he is innocent and are expected to appeal against the ruling to the Supreme Court. In June, a court lifted the immunity he enjoys as a former ruler to allow an inquiry into his financial affairs.
General Pinochet is accused of being involved in a Chilean secret police operation in 1975 in which more than 100 left-wing activists disappeared. Pinochet's regime said the dissidents were killed in clashes in Argentina involving rival groups opposed to the military government.
Wednesday's hearing at the Santiago Appeals Court should have taken place in June, but was postponed after Mr Pinochet was said to have suffered a minor stroke.
Human rights campaigners have accused the general of exaggerating his health problems to try to win the sympathy of the courts.
He was also treated in hospital in May after suffering what aides said was a suspected mild stroke.
Gen Pinochet has never been put on trial for human rights violations under his 1973-90 rule, despite several high-profile cases against him. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | July 2005 | ['(IHT)', '(BBC)', '(Bloomberg)'] |
7 children die in a farmhouse fire near Harrisburg, PA. | For more information visit CNN affiliates WGAL and WHTM. (CNN) -- A fire has killed seven children at a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, authorities said.
The children -- ages 7 months to 11 years -- died Tuesday night when the fire fully engulfed the Mennonite family's two-story house in Loysville, about 25 miles northwest of Harrisburg, Tom Pinkerton of the state police said.
The parents were outside the house at the time of the fire. They survived, as did another child, he said.
The fire sent shock waves through the central Pennsylvania community.
"It's just hard to explain how somebody could lose their whole family in a wink of an eye like that," said Steve Orris, who works at an insurance company in Loysville. "It's just unbelievable."
"Everybody I've talked to here this morning has felt a lot of sympathy toward these people. It's a real shame the way things like that happen," he said.
The father was taking a nap in his milk truck after making a few stops along his delivery route, Pinkerton said. The mother was milking cows in the barn.
"While mom's milking cows, her 3-year-old daughter comes running into the barn and the 3-year-old tells the mother that there's smoke inside the house," Pinkerton said. "Mom leaves the barn, comes running out, sees that the house appears to be on fire."
The mother went to two neighbors' houses before she could get someone to call 911, he said. She then found her husband sleeping in his milk truck and they rushed back to the home to find their home engulfed in flames and firefighters trying to put out the blaze. | Fire | March 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
Sudanese forces arrest about 160 people on the border with Libya who were en-route to enter the neighboring country to operate as "mercenaries". A General for the Rapid Support Forces says that "sending Sudanese to fight in Libya as mercenaries is unacceptable". | Sudanese forces arrested around 160 people on the border with Libya who were en-route to the war-torn neighboring country to work as “mercenaries”, a state-linked paramilitary group said Sunday.
“The joint security forces stationed at the Sudanese-Libyan border arrested 160 people who were going to work as mercenaries to fight in Libya, including two foreigners,” Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said in a statement.
The RSF is led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a leading member of Sudan’s transitional ruling council.
“Sending Sudanese to fight in Libya as mercenaries is unacceptable,” said General Jaddo Hamdan, the RSF’s commander in North Darfur state.
“We have been monitoring and securing the border with Libya to combat illegal migration, human trafficking and all cross-border criminal enterprises,” he added.
Sudan is currently undergoing a fragile democratic transition after massive protests last year prompted the military to topple long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
In January, a United Nations panel of experts said many Arabs from Sudan’s conflict-wracked region of Darfur and neighboring Chad were fighting as “individual mercenaries” in Libya.
The panel said they belonged to the same tribes that made up a majority of RSF personnel, but said there was no “credible evidence” that the RSF itself had deployed in Libya.
The UN experts’ report also said several Darfuri armed groups operating in Libya “have participated in various clashes and military operations alongside Libyan warring parties.”
Sudan’s Darfur region itself remains scarred by war after a rebellion in the early 2000s against al-Bashir was brutally suppressed.
Libya has turned into a regional proxy-war in recent years, amid chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Gaddafi.
Since 2015, a power struggle has pitted Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against the Libyan National Army (LNA) headed by General Khalifa Haftar, based in the east of the country.
Last month, Khartoum arrested 122 people including eight children in western Darfur who were allegedly intending to serve as mercenaries in Libya’s civil war.
In an interview with AFP in June, Sudan’s then foreign minister Asma Abdalla denied that Sudanese forces were involved in the conflict in Libya.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2020 | ['(AFP via Al Arabiya)'] |
Military clashes kill 57 people in Sudan. | At least 57 people have been killed in fighting between government forces and a rebel militia in South Sudan, officials have said.
South Sudan army spokesman Brig Malaak Ayuen said dozens were also wounded in the clashes in the state of Jonglei.
The local authorities accuse the government in Khartoum of backing the rebels to destabilise South Sudan, which will soon become independent. The UN says more than 800 people have been killed in the region this year.
There are at least seven rebel groups operating in South Sudan.
Brig Ayuen said rebels led by Maj-Gen Gabriel Tang were responsible for the fighting on Saturday, south of the town of Malakal. Gen Tang led a southern border militia allied to the government in Khartoum during Sudan's 21-year civil war that ended in 2005. His forces were accused of burning and looting southern villages along the Nile River during the conflict, which left two million people dead.
Members of the Sudanese armed forces loyal to Gen Tang in Malakal clashed with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in 2006 and 2009 in breach of the peace deal. The 2006 fighting killed about 150 people.
He was pardoned by South Sudan's president ahead of January's referendum, in which southerners voted to secede. He also agreed to reintegrate his militia into South Sudan's army.
In a separate incident in Jonglei, a Sudanese employee of the UN World Food Programme was killed on Friday by unknown assailants.
This week there have also been clashes in neighbouring Unity state, where a militia led by former SPLA Gen Peter Gadet began an assault on government forces, leaving at least 45 people dead.
South Sudan clashes 'killed 50'
| Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
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. | A Carnival cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew is stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire broke out this morning, representatives for the cruise line said.
The fire was extinguished aboard the Carnival Triumph this morning and no injuries were reported. The ship, however, lost power and is relying on a back-up generator as it drifts 477 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, Carnival said in a statement.
The vessel is currently without propulsion and the ship is operating on emergency generator power, according to a statement from Carnival. The ship's technical crew has determined the vessel will need to be towed to port. A tugboat is en route to the ship's location and will tow the vessel to Progreso, Mexico, which is the closest port to the ship.
The ship is expected to arrive in Progreso Wednesday afternoon and guests will be flown from there back to the United States, Carnival said.
The Carnival Triumph departed Galveston on Thursday with 3,143 guests and 1,086 crew on board for a Mexican cruise and was due to return to the port on Monday.
The passengers have been asked to remain in the ship's public areas and open decks for their comfort, and they are being provided with food and refreshments, Carnival said.
"All the passengers are staying in the public areas of the vessel and the open decks, cause there's no air conditioning," Coast Guard Lt. Julio Gonzalez said. "The air conditioning is not working right now."
But he said it appears there is enough food and water for the passengers and crew on board.
"As of right now, it hasn't been a concern for cruise line, for the cruise ship captain or for the company," Gonzalez said.
Passengers aboard the wayward ship will receive a full refund, Carnival said.
Guests booked on the next voyage, scheduled for a Monday departure, have been given the option to cancel and receive a full refund, according to Carnival, or wait for further information. | Fire | February 2013 | ['(ABC News)', '(USA Today)'] |
At a GCC summit in Kuwait City, the United Arab Emirates announce a political and military alliance with Saudi Arabia. | The United Arab Emirates has announced the formation of a new political and military alliance with Saudi Arabia, throwing into doubt the future of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Gulf states’ 36-year-old political and trading bloc.
The announcement, made at a GCC summit in Kuwait City, marks the latest development in a six-month dispute that has pitted the GCC members Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Egypt, against tiny, gas-rich Qatar. Since June the four countries have mounted a land, sea and air blockade of Qatar. Numerous efforts at mediation made by fellow Gulf states and European leaders have failed. Saudi Arabia has accused Qatar of funding terrorism, interfering in its neighbour’s internal affairs and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Western leaders fear the Saudi action is pushing Qatar – which houses a major US military base – closer to Iran.
The new Saudi-UAE committee is bound to be seen as an alternative, if not substitute, to the malfunctioning GCC. Both countries are strong militarily, and are likely to take a more aggressive approach towards Iran – a foreign policy hallmark of Saudi Arabia’s young, risk-taking crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Background
Prince Mohammed, 32, is the Saudi crown prince and defence minister. He was named as heir to the throne in a June reshuffle by his father, King Salman, that sidelined his older cousin, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.
Ascent
Prince Mohammed’s profile and powers have soared in recent years under the tutelage of his father, who has given him an almost free hand across most aspects of society. He has consolidated more influence than anyone else in the kingdom, spearheading plans for the privatisation of the state oil company, Aramco, taking charge of the war in Yemen, and leading the way in the move to blockade and isolate Qatar.
Reforms and purge
Since his appointment as crown prince, Prince Mohammed has launched a dizzying series of reforms dubbed Vision 2030, designed to transform the kingdom’s moribund economy and put the relationship between the state and its citizens on a new footing, underpinned by a pledge to “return Saudi Arabia to moderate Islam". On 4 November he led an astonishing corruption purge in which 11 senior princes, one of the country’s richest men and scores of former ministers were arrested. Critics say the purge and his headlong rush to revolutionise is driven by a push for unprecedented power.
Saudi Arabia has not yet commented on the UAE announcement.
In recent weeks, Iran and Saudi Arabia have been at loggerheads in Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is trying to sponsor a Palestinian peace deal that critics will say concedes too much to Israel.
It is not clear if Bahrain is going to join the grouping, or was invited to do so.
The new formation came despite calls for unity by the GCC secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani.
Opening the summit, the Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid, insisted GCC leaders were keen to “meet the challenges of security and stability in response to the aspirations and hopes of the Gulf people for the importance of cohesion”.
“The GCC is a continuous project in which the will of member states meets to build a unified Gulf body”.
Despite the poor state of relations across the Gulf, the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, has attended the GCC summit, and was due to meet leaders of the states mounting the boycott of Qatar.
Founded in 1981, the GCC is a political and economic union grouping Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE.
Britain had been keen to negotiate an early post-Brexit free trade deal with the GCC, and at one stage was going to host the GCC summit in London in a diplomatic display of unity with the Gulf states. But the collapse in relations within the GCC in the summer has put the plans on hold.
The Gulf states have approved a customs union, a common market, a single currency and a single central bank but most of these plans have yet to be fully implemented. In October Bahrain openly called for Qatar’s membership of the GCC to be suspended until it accepted the demands made by the four boycotting states.
This article was amended on 5 December 2017. An earlier version said Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani was the Qatari foreign minister. He is that country’s emir. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Export restrictions placed by the commerce department of the United States against China's state–owned ZTE for alleged violations of U.S.–imposed export controls on Iran takes effect. , | The U.S. government has announced restrictions against China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, prompting a strong protest from Beijing.
The U.S. Commerce Department announced that sanctions barring ZTE Corp. from using American components in its equipment will take effect on March 8. The department released documents it said showed ZTE knowingly violated controls on sales of U.S. high-tech goods to Iran and set up front companies to conceal that.
China protested that the move will severely disrupt ZTE's business, with customers in more than 160 countries.
ZTE must now apply for permission to export equipment from the United States for use in its manufacturing business, it said.
"The U.S. move will severely affect the Chinese company's normal business activities," China's Ministry of Commerce said. Beijing and ZTE are both seeking negotiations to resolve the matter.
"ZTE has been actively making efforts to internationalize its business and has carried out broad trade and investment cooperation with hundreds of U.S. companies, creating tens of thousands of jobs for the United States," the Chinese ministry said. | Government Policy Changes | March 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Singer Michael Bublé's son is diagnosed with cancer. | Singer Michael Buble and his wife Luisana Lopilato have said they are "devastated" after their three-year-old son Noah was diagnosed with cancer.
The Canadian star broke the news on his Facebook page. He did not give any details about the type of cancer. He said he and Lopilato, a model and actress, were giving up work commitments to concentrate on "helping Noah get well".
Buble has appeared on TV and radio in recent days to promote his new album.
His statement said: "We are devastated about the recent cancer diagnosis of our oldest son Noah who is currently undergoing treatment in the US.
"We have always been very vocal about the importance of family and the love we have for our children. Luisana and I have put our careers on hold in order to devote all our time and attention to helping Noah get well.
"At this difficult time, we ask only for your prayers and respect for our privacy.
"We have a long journey in front of us and hope that with the support of family, friends and fans around the world, we will win this battle, God willing."
Buble and Lopilato have another son, nine-month-old Elias.
During a recent appearance on ITV's Loose Women, the 41-year-old crooner said: "I had no idea how much I would love being a dad.
"That's it, that's all I care about... I love them too much probably, if there was such a thing.
"It's made everything else so insignificant, moments that I was afraid of and moments that would overwhelm me have now become a joy because I've realised how not serious they are compared to what is really important, which is Noah and Eli and that's it."
Buble's scheduled appearances in the coming months include a slot at the BBC Music Awards on 12 December.
He is also due to host the Brit Awards in London on 22 February and the Canadian equivalent, the Juno Awards, in Ottawa on 2 April. His spokesman said he did not know "anything more at this stage" about whether these and other engagements would be called off.
Buble's new album Nobody But Me went into the UK chart at number two last week.
An average of 3.2 million people watched a TV special, titled Buble at the BBC, on BBC One on Thursday, according to overnight ratings.
On Monday, Lopilato, from Argentina, announced that she was working on a new film titled Los Que Aman, Odian (Those Who Love, Hate), adapted from the novel by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo.
To mark Noah's third birthday in August, she posted five of her son's "best moments" on her website, including a shot of him just after birth and a video of him on stage singing with his father on New Year's Eve 2015. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
Buble was told his music 'wouldn't sell'
Michael Buble on his secret love
Buble cancels appearances for surgery
Michael Buble
Luisana Lopilato - five of Noah's best moments before he turned three
| Famous Person - Sick | November 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Usain Bolt is unhurt following a car accident in Jamaica. | Last updated on 10 June 201210 June 2012.From the section Olympics
World 100m record holder Usain Bolt escaped uninjured after a car accident on Sunday, his publicist said.
Triple Olympic champion Bolt, 25, had been returning home in the early hours when the accident happened near his home in Jamaica, according to reports.
"Usain was in a minor accident in the Half Way Tree area and sustained no injuries," said Carole Beckford.
Bolt is due to take part in the national trials later this month ahead of the Olympics.
It is not the first time the Jamaican has been involved in a car accident.
In 2009 police said Bolt, also the 200m world record holder, was taken to hospital with a female after an accident in Jamaica.
Jamaica's Gleaner newspaperexternal-link reported that compatriot and sprint rival Asafa Powell was also present, but in another car, at the latest accident.
Beckford added Bolt, who ran 9.79 seconds in the 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Norway on Thursday, was resting at home following the incident. | Road Crash | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Following a South African Constitutional Court order, the National Treasury reports President Jacob Zuma should pay back $500,000, the public funds spent upgrading his private residence. | Opposition says the sum was too low but was still a damning indictment of the president
Johannesburg: South African President Jacob Zuma should pay back $500,000 (Dh1.83 million) of public funds spent upgrading his private residence with facilities including a chicken coop and a swimming pool, the treasury said on Monday.
In March, the country’s highest court found that the president had violated the constitution by defying an order to repay some of the money in one of several scandals that have dominated his presidency.
The Constitutional Court asked the national treasury to determine the value of the non-security upgrades installed at Nkandla, Zuma’s traditional homestead in the rural eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The work included a swimming pool, which was claimed to be a fire-fighting facility, a chicken run, a cattle enclosure, an amphitheatre and a visitors’ centre.
The treasury said in a statement that Zuma, head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, should pay back 7,814,155 rand (Dh1,88 million or $509,000).
The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said the sum was too low but was still a damning indictment of the president.
“The president should pay back 100 percent of the non-security upgrades - previously we determined that amount to be up to 52.9 million rand ($3.4 million),” DA spokesman Mabine Seabe told journalists.
“This (the treasury’s report) sends out a clear message to those involved in corruption, especially those in the ANC, that you will be held accountable for your actions, even if you are the president.”
The presidency made no immediate comment on the treasury’s calculation, which will now be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.
After the court’s ruling in March, Zuma was urged to step down by several ANC veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle that brought liberation icon Nelson Mandela to power in 1994.
But he retains widespread loyalty in the party, and ANC lawmakers have regularly rallied to his defence.
In April, they easily defeated an opposition move to impeach the 74-year-old who has been in power for seven years.
He has been wounded by months of scandals, including his sacking of two finance ministers in four days last year which rocked the markets and saw the rand currency plummet.
South Africa holds local elections in August and, if the ANC suffers a major drop in support, Zuma could lose backing within the party and not serve out the last three years of his final term.
As well as the DA, the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party hopes to attract voters frustrated by record unemployment and lack of progress since the end of white-minority rule.
“Zuma paying is an admission of guilt. The next step is criminal charges,” the EFF said in a text message.
Last week, a separate court threw out Zuma’s attempt to appeal against a ruling that he should face almost 800 corruption charges that were dropped in 2009 shortly before he came to power.
The charges relate to alleged corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering over a multi-billion dollar arms deal.
The Nkandla scandal became a symbol of alleged widespread corruption and greed within the ANC party.
A 2014 report by the government-appointed Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, found that Zuma and his family had “unduly benefited” from the upgrades and ordered him to pay back some of the money, but Zuma stalled for two years.
| Organization Fine | June 2016 | ['(Gulf News)', '(Business Standard)'] |
Minoru Yanagida resigns as the Japanese Minister of Justice for joking about how easy his job was. | Japan's justice minister says he is resigning after causing outrage for joking about how easy his job was.
Minoru Yanagida said the only two phrases he had to remember in parliament were: "I won't comment on individual cases," and "I'm acting in accordance with the law and the evidence."
Opposition conservatives said he deserved to be fired for the gaffe.
The move may make it harder for Japan to pass a key budget, analysts say.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan gave Mr Yanagida a severe warning for the remarks, which were made earlier this month during a private gathering in his home constituency in Hiroshima Prefecture. Mr Yanagida announced his resignation at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday morning.
The opposition had called his comments an insult to the legislature, and was preparing a censure motion against him.
Plenty of Japanese politicians have been felled by gaffes before, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Toyko, including a tourism minister who resigned just four days into his job for saying the Japanese did not like foreigners. But the latest resignation comes at a bad time for the prime minister, adds our correspondent.
There is widespread public discontent with the struggling economy. Falling support for the centre-left government has complicated efforts to enact the crucial $61bn (£38bn) stimulus package, which the government hopes will stimulate the economy.
Support for Mr Kan has also been undermined by criticism of his handling of territorial rows with China and Russia.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Japan Today)'] |
Ethnically motivated violence erupts in the suburbs of Sydney, leading authorities to condemn the incidents as "shameful". |
Shameful actions: Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has condemned the mob attacks. (ABC TV) The New South Wales Police Commissioner says he is ashamed at the mob mentality that has driven a racially-motivated rally at Sydney's Cronulla beach.
More than a dozen arrests have been made after several people of Middle Eastern appearance were abused and assaulted by members of the crowd.
Police removed others from the beach for their own protection, six people were treated for injuries.
The rally had been called in response to the assault of two lifeguards last weekend.
Commissioner Ken Moroney says an ambulance officer was attacked while transferring an injured person and the crowd turned on a woman because of her race. "That woman was saved, literally saved by the police officers and those officers deserve my highest commendation for the way in which they went about their task," he said. "The other equally offensive conduct today, the absolutely total un-Australian conduct today, was an attack on an ambulance.
"That has brought a higher level of shame to those involved in that level of attack and they deserve to be condemned in the highest possible terms," he said. Commissioner Moroney says the attack on the ambulance officer is hypocritical given the rally was called in response to the assault of two lifeguards last weekend.
A week of simmering racial tensions boiled over into mob violence today in the beachside suburb of Cronulla. | Riot | December 2005 | ['(ABC)'] |
Tornados hit the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, damaging scores of homes and killing at least one person. | Two days of threatening skies turned furious over the Twin Cities on Sunday, unleashing at least three tornado touchdowns in the metro area, killing one person in Minneapolis, injuring at least 30 others, knocking out power to thousands and leading to a curfew and school closings in north Minneapolis.
The massive, slow-moving storm also caused major damage in other metro communities, most significantly St. Louis Park and Fridley.
In the hardest-hit area, Minneapolis' Jordan neighborhood, downed trees, snapped power lines and pieces of roofs littered streets and yards. The smell of natural gas led police to call people out of some homes. Roads were blocked and residents scrambled to find loved ones; close to 200 or so people displaced by the storm made their way to an emergency shelter at the Northeast Armory, near Broadway and Central Avenue.
Mayor R.T. Rybak described the damage as "widespread and significant" after he and City Council President Barbara Johnson viewed it from a helicopter.
Rybak and Police Chief Tim Dolan said Sunday night that the three-day 9 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew was imposed to help emergency workers move around and to prevent looting of damaged homes and businesses.
At 9 p.m., commercial streets in north Minneapolis were all but deserted, although countless people continued working on fixing their homes in residential areas. Police reported no major problems.
Just after the storm, about 22,000 Xcel Energy customers across the metro area were without power; by 8 p.m., that number had been cut roughly in half. Lack of electricity forced the emergency command center to be moved twice, and it ended up just across the Minneapolis border in Fridley. Xcel officials indicated that most power should be restored by midnight Monday but that some customers may not get it back until Tuesday or later because of significant structural damage to that area's electricity system.
The Hennepin County medical examiner's office said one person died near 37th and Fremont Avenues N. No details about that person or the circumstances of the death were immediately available, although there were reports that it was a man whose car was hit by a tree.
Also, 30 people were taken to hospitals. Two were critically hurt, 12 had moderate injuries and 15 minor injuries.
Six public schools in the storm-damaged area of north Minneapolis -- Lucy Laney, Cityview, Nellie Stone Johnson, Hmong International Academy, Northstar and Plymouth Youth Center -- will be closed Monday, said Heather Peters, a Minneapolis schools spokeswoman. Other district schools will remain open.
The curfew covers an area from Interstate 94 west to Penn Avenue N. and from Plymouth Avenue N. to Dowling Avenue N. Residents were told to stay in their homes "for their own safety," city spokesman Matt Laible said.
"We don't want any looting," Dolan said. "There's property strewn all over. There are wires down. There's not much lighting. It's for people's safety and for the safety of people's property."
A trail of wreckage
Sunday's tornado was the first to strike within the city of Minneapolis since a minor twister in south Minneapolis on Aug. 19, 2009. Sunday's damage appeared consistent with tornadoes rated EF2, which carry winds of 111 to 135 miles per hour. Only 10.7 percent of U.S. tornadoes are rated EF2, and only about 4 percent are stronger. On Monday, damage assessment teams from the National Weather Service will visit dozens of damage scenes and make a final pronouncement on the length, strength and number of tornadoes.
The havoc started about 2 p.m. in St. Louis Park, where a suspected tornado tore up the Cedar Trails Condominiums complex, forcing residents from the 35-building property.
At 21st and Queen Avenues N., firefighters went door to door after the storm to urge residents to leave because of reports of a gas leak. Residents told of seeing the tornado go through their yards.
"It went right between our houses," said Tiffany Pabich, who was napping just as the tornado passed through near 21st and Queen. "A tree landed on top of my car. We smelled gas right away."
"Oh, my God, it's gone, it's gone," one woman said as she came across her badly damaged house at Russell and 21st Avenues N.
The large number of downed trees and traffic congestion caused by emergency vehicles, evacuees and people streaming into the area to gawk produced traffic snarls. Hundreds of people had to leave their homes on foot, many with children and pets in tow. Most were headed toward the police station on Plymouth Avenue, directed there by officers.
"We got out alive," one woman said as she herded six children down the road.
Up the street, in an even more heavily damaged area, people started to clean up.
"It's a good thing we were in the basement at the time," said Zahra Ali, who escaped injury with her two daughters, ages 16 and 17. Power lines behind her home were down and nearly every window was damaged. Ali said her daughters were shaken but OK.
The city advised families looking for loved ones to go to the Northeast Armory, 1025 NE. Broadway, or call 651-268-8537. About 200 people were at the shelter Sunday. "This is a distressed neighborhood to begin with," said Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner-Solon, who was at the armory. "These people are suffering a tremendous loss."
People continued to arrive, many of them dropped off by a Metro Transit bus with a "rescue bus" sign on it.
Three Salvation Army mobile kitchens and crews set up shop, and one is expected to continue to operate Monday at 25 37th Av. NE. "I've got 24 to 36 hours of back-up volunteers ready to go," said Drew Hasty, the Salvation Army's metro disaster manager.
Near dusk, Steve Miller, 38, of Coon Rapids, and his family handed out sandwiches and water from his car trunk. "Anybody need prayer? Anybody need Jesus?" he called out, adding, "I think people should realize when you see catastrophes on TV you should take them to heart, because you never know when it will strike you in your back yard."
Damage in northern suburbs
In Fridley, the storm tipped over two Burlington Northern rail cars, sheared in half a stand of mature trees near I-694 and left extensive pockets of damaged homes and businesses.
The storm struck with quick fury. Peter Krueger and his 2-year-old son, Ezra, were looking warily out the front of their home on Panorama Avenue when the wind and rain suddenly picked up.
"It was just straight across -- a horizontal rain," said Krueger, who saw insulation, tree limbs and debris whip through the air as he gathered up his little boy and rushed downstairs.
Krueger's neighbor Gretta Stritesky arrived home to find a tree had crashed through the roof and come to a rest on her bed. Somehow, Stritesky managed a smile at the room's odd mix -- leaves, rumpled sheets, shingles, a fuzzy pink blanket, all cast into an unnatural relief by sunlight peeking through the roof. "My pillow is covered by this huge tree!" she said.
Parts of the metro area were covered by five tornado warnings Sunday. Sirens blared as heavy clouds swarmed across the skies for the second day in a row.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Taggart said an increase in "wind shear" -- the movement of winds in contrasting directions -- along with increased moisture and warmth in the atmosphere Sunday triggered the tornadoes.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2011 | ['(AP via Saint Cloud Times)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Minneapolis Star-Tribune)'] |
A 6.5-magnitude earthquake strikes the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia. 30 people are killed and 156 others injured. | DAMAGED. Several homes are damaged in Ambon, Indonesia's Maluku islands following a 6.5-magnitude earthquake on September 26, 2019
Photo by Handout/Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana/AFP
Among the confirmed dead are 3 young children, with many people killed by falling debris in and around quake-struck Ambon City
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JAKARTA, Indonesia – The death toll from a powerful earthquake that rocked Indonesia's remote Maluku islands rose to 30 on Sunday, September 29, including several toddlers, the disaster agency said.
On Thursday, September 26, terrified residents ran into the streets as buildings fell in around them when the 6.5-magnitude tremor struck, sparking landslides that buried at least one of the victims.
Among the confirmed dead were 3 young children, with many people killed by falling debris in and around quake-struck Ambon City.
The region's governor has declared a state of emergency until October 9, the agency said.
"As of Sunday morning, 30 people died and 156 were injured," said national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Agus Wibowo.
On Friday, September 27, the agency had revised down the official death toll of 23 to 19 after officials realized some of the deceased has been double-counted.
At least 25,000 people had to flee because their houses were damaged by the strong jolt, Wibowo said previously.
Hundreds of houses, offices, schools, and public facilities were also been damaged in the disaster. Authorities have set up emergency tents and public kitchens for the evacuees in several districts.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck about 37 kilometers northeast of Ambon in Maluku province at a depth of 29 kilometers.
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The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth.
It experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where tectonic plates collide.
Last year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing. (READ: Indonesia marks 1 year since deadly quake-tsunami disaster)
In 2004, a devastating 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia. – Rapper.com
| Earthquakes | September 2019 | ['(Rappler)'] |
31 years after its launch, the Voyager 2 spacecraft sends a detailed view of the shock wave that marks the thinning of the solar wind, the charged particles streaming from the sun, confirming that the heliosphere is actually egg–shaped, possibly due to a tilted magnetic field in local interstellar space. | PARIS (AFP) — Millions of textbooks depicting our Solar System as spherical have got it all wrong, according to studies of data sent back from deep space by NASA's venerable probe, Voyager 2.
The Sun's zone of influence -- called the heliosphere -- turns out to be seriously asymmetrical, not round, they say.
The heliosphere comprises space dominated by the solar winds, or particles blasted out by the Sun. It goes way beyond the orbit of Pluto, which circles the Sun at a distance of nearly six billion kilometers (four billion miles).
Launched in 1977 on a historic trek of the outer planets, Voyager 2 has now crossed the turbulent boundary, known as the "termination shock," where the heliosphere yields to interstellar space.
Its twin probe Voyager 1, crossed the same threshold four years earlier at a different spot some 1.5 billion kilometres (one billion miles) farther from the Sun.
This difference proves that the heliosphere is not even close to perfectly round, but is oblong, like an egg, according to the studies, released by the British journal Nature on Wednesday.
The "bottom" of the egg is flattened by a permanent clash of particles, as the outbound solar wind smashes into atomic debris hurtling in from interstellar space, the scientists theorise.
Voyager 2 also crossed the "termination shock" several times within the space of a single day, showing that the boundary is in perpetual flux, like the ebb-and-flow of a tide.
University of Arizona astronomer Randy Jokipii paid tribute to the two Voyagers, which have been operating faithfully since their launch in 1977.
Crossing the heliosphere "opens a new age of exploration," said Jokipii.
"The stream of in situ and remote data from the outer reaches of the heliosphere has revolutionized our view of how the Sun interacts with the Galaxy."
For decades to come, the two spacecraft -- speeding outward at more than 17 kilometers per second (38,000 miles per hour) -- will be the only source of local observations of the far limits of our Solar System.
The probes were originally sent to fly by and observe Jupiter and Saturn, which they did with thrilling results, including the discovery of active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io, and unknown intricacies in Saturn's rings.
After that their mission was reconfigured to explore space beyond the Solar System's planets.
They became the first man-made objects to enter these cold, dark reaches, powered by long-life nuclear batteries in the absence of solar energy.
The spacecraft are so distant that commands from Earth, travelling at light speed, take more than a dozen hours to reach them. Each Voyager logs approximately 1.6 million kilometres (one million miles) per day.
Should they ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, the two probes each carry a time capsule, a "golden record" of sounds and images about life on Earth in the mid-1970s. | New achievements in aerospace | July 2008 | ['(The Daily Telegraph)', '(AFP via Google News)', '(Fox News)'] |
Seven car bombs are detonated in Baghdad, killing at least 95, and wounding nearly 600. | BAGHDAD Insurgents struck at the heart of the Iraqi government on Wednesday in two huge and deadly bombings that exposed a new vulnerability after Americans ceded control for security here on June 30. Nearby American soldiers stood by helplessly despite the needs of hundreds of wounded lying among the dead waiting for a request for assistance from Iraqi officials that apparently never came.
“As much as we want to come, we have to wait to be asked now,” said an American officer who arrived at one site almost three hours after the blast and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. At one blast site, American soldiers snapped pictures of the devastation before ducking out of the streets. After weeks of escalating violence in Iraq, the powerful truck bombs on Wednesday killed at least 95 people and wounded nearly 600 at and around the Foreign and Finance Ministries in central Baghdad, assaults on symbols of government that lent an air of siege to the capital. The bombs crippled the downtown area, closed highways and two main bridges over the Tigris River, and clogged hospitals with the wounded. The bombings, the worst since American forces handed over security responsibilities for cities to Iraq at the end of June, shook the Iraqi government’s confidence that it was ready and able to secure the nation. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki called for a reassessment of his security measures, calling the attacks “a vengeful response” to his recent, optimistic order to remove blast walls from the streets of Baghdad.
A Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mohammad al-Askari, was quoted by Reuters as telling American and Iraqi military officers: “We must face the facts. We must admit our mistakes, just as we celebrate our victories.” And Baghdad’s security spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, told the state-owned television station Iraqiya, according to Reuters, that attacks were “a security breach for which Iraqi forces must take most of the blame.” He said a number of security force officials were detained pending an investigation. A senior Shiite politician went on Iraqiya to call on Mr. Maliki to fire the security and intelligence officials responsible for the areas that were attacked. “We must punish those who made mistakes,” said the politician, Hadi al-Ameri. The explosions, one close to the heavily fortified Green Zone and the other less than three miles away, sent plumes of smoke billowing over the capital, ripped a gaping hole in a compound wall and set cars ablaze, trapping drivers inside. “The whole thing is just so disgusting,” the United States ambassador, Christopher R. Hill, said as he read reports from his staff about the extent of the damage while on an official visit to the northern city of Kirkuk. “They’re just psychopathic.”
Around 11 a.m., the two truck bombs struck the Finance Ministry and the Foreign Ministry within three minutes, officials said, sending heavy smoke into the sky. The first blast, near the Finance Ministry, killed at least 35 people, collapsed a main elevated highway nearby and left rubble littered with shrapnel and blood. The second, more powerful blast near the Foreign Ministry killed at least 60 people, shattered windows inside the Green Zone and shook houses throughout Baghdad. At roughly the same time, attacks in other parts of the city, including three roadside bombings and some mortar and rocket fire, left 17 people wounded, Iraqi officials said. Though no one claimed responsibility for the attacks, Iraqis doled out blame both to their government and to the United States for coming to Iraq in the first place. “This country is finished,” said one resident, Jamil Jaber, 45, whose five-room home behind the Foreign Ministry had been flattened, crushing his 4-month-old grandson. “It’s just robbery and killing.” He cursed the United States and former President George W. Bush.
Since the beginning of July, bombings in northern Iraq for which officials blamed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and an affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq have killed at least 140 people. The attacks on Wednesday might have been a signal from these groups that they could also assault the capital. In the attack at the Foreign Ministry, a suicide bomber stopped his truck beside the ministry compound wall, just off a busy intersection. The driver then detonated what was estimated to be two tons of explosives.
The blast left a crater 30 feet deep and 60 feet wide, and it set fire to cars and other vehicles clogging the road, trapping occupants in the inferno.
The blast shattered the front wall of the 10-story main ministry building. One body was burning in a car while a big slab of concrete from the front wall crushed to death the four people in another vehicle. Bodies were lined up on the sidewalk and covered with blankets, scraps of cardboard, even tree branches. “This is our misery, and this is our flesh,” an Iraqi screamed. Many people were injured at an apartment building opposite the ministry compound. A woman on the sixth floor had been slashed by a ceiling fan that fell on her in the chaos, said Tariq Qader, 35, who said he rescued her. Another resident, Munthir al-Jaafar, walked from one of the apartments with blood streaming down his face and body from a wound in his head.
Frantic women wailed and slapped their faces as they searched for loved ones.
“We heard a huge explosion at 11 a.m., and suddenly we started to hear voices of employees screaming in pain,” a top official in the Finance Ministry said in a telephone interview after the blast there. “The whole ministry was destroyed.” The attacks, in the heart of the capital and against crucial ministries, one led by a Kurd and another by a Shiite, appeared to carry a number of messages. | Armed Conflict | August 2009 | ['(The Times)'] |
Two buses collide head–on in a village near Kintampo, Ghana, killing at least 50 people. Almost all casualties are a result of a fire on one of the buses. | At least 50 people have died and others were injured after two buses collided in central Ghana. The crash happened in Kitampo town, 430 km (270 miles) north of the capital Accra, at 0200 GMT on Friday morning, police say. Emergency services are at the scene rescuing passengers still trapped inside the two vehicles.
Each bus had about 50 passengers on board. One of the vehicles caught fire after the collision.
"Most of the passengers in both vehicles died at the spot. A number of them with varying degrees of injuries have been rushed to hospital," a police spokesperson said.
Road accidents are common in Ghana. An average of six people die every day on Ghana's roads. | Road Crash | March 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(GhanaWeb)'] |
The United States successfully shoots down a launching ballistic missile using the Boeing YAL1, a military Boeing 747400F aircraft mounted with a chemical oxygen iodine laser weapon. | A U.S. high-powered airborne laser weapon shot down a ballistic missile in the first successful test of a futuristic directed energy weapon, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Friday.
The agency said in a statement the test took place at 8:44 p.m. PST (11:44 p.m. EST) on Thursday /0444 GMT on Friday) at Point Mugu’s Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off Ventura in central California.
“The Missile Defense Agency demonstrated the potential use of directed energy to defend against ballistic missiles when the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) successfully destroyed a boosting ballistic missile” the agency said.
The high-powered Airborne Laser system is being developed by Boeing Co., BA.N the prime contractor, and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
Boeing produces the airframe, a modified 747 jumbo jet, while Northrop Grumman NOC.N supplies the higher-energy laser and Lockheed Martin LMT.N is developing the beam and fire control systems.
“This was the first directed energy lethal intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform,” the agency added.
The airborne laser weapon successfully underwent its first in-flight test against a target missile back in August. During that test, Boeing said the modified 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air Force Base and used its infrared sensors to find a target missile launched from San Nicolas Island, California.
The plane’s battle management system issued engagement and target location instructions to the laser’s fire control system, which tracked the target and fired a test laser at the missile. Instruments on the missile verified the system had hit its mark, Boeing said.
The airborne laser weapon is aimed at deterring enemy missile attacks and providing the U.S. military with the ability to engage all classes of ballistic missiles at the speed of light while they are in the boost phase of flight.
“The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers (miles), and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies,” the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said. | Armed Conflict | February 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson abruptly pulls out of a press conference in Luxembourg to avoid an anti-Brexit protest organised and attended by British citizens living in Luxembourg. Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel attends the press conference, where, during a short speech followed by questions from journalists, he contradicts Johnson's prior public statements and exposes that the UK government has not submitted any concrete proposals for amendments to the UK's Withdrawal Agreement from the European Union, or delivered any alternative to the "Irish backstop" which Johnson wishes to replace. Bettel warns that Johnson "holds the future of all UK citizens in his hands" and that he shouldn't "hold the future hostage for party political gain". | Xavier Bettel said the British government had failed to put forward any serious proposals for a new deal.
But Mr Johnson, who pulled out of a joint press conference with Mr Bettel because of noisy protesters, said there was still a good chance of a deal.
A government source said the gap the UK and Brussels needed to bridge to achieve a deal "remains quite large". Mr Johnson was visiting Luxembourg to hold talks with the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, as well as Mr Bettel. After the working lunch with Mr Juncker and Mr Barnier, Mr Johnson said he had been encouraged by the EU's willingness to engage with the UK in their shared desire to avoid a no-deal exit - but there had not been a "total breakthrough". However, the European Commission said the PM had yet to present concrete proposals for it to consider and insisted any new plans had to be "compatible" with the existing withdrawal agreement, which has been rejected three times by MPs.
There was then confusion after Mr Bettel held a press conference without Mr Johnson amid noisy protests by anti-Brexit protesters.
Mr Bettel, who addressed the media on his own after the UK PM pulled out, said his counterpart "holds the future of all UK citizens in his hands" and suggested it was his responsibility to break the deadlock in the process. Standing next to an empty lectern, Mr Bettel warned Mr Johnson "you can't hold the future hostage for party political gain". He said there were "no concrete proposals at the moment on the table" on a new Brexit deal from the UK and said the EU "needs more than just words".
"We need written proposals and the time is ticking, so stop speaking and act," he said.
The existing withdrawal agreement was the "only solution", he added.
Mr Johnson said his joint press conference was cancelled over fears the two leaders would have been "drowned out" by pro-EU protesters.
It is understood that his request for it to be held inside was turned down. What exactly should we make of the oh so public venting on Monday by the prime minister of Luxembourg following his meeting with Boris Johnson?
Does this mean the EU has lost patience and will no longer engage in negotiations with the Johnson government? Can we expect an Angela Merkel rant or a Mark Rutte rave next?
Quite the opposite.
"As long as there is a chance of a deal, it's in our own interest to engage. However frustrating negotiations are," a high-level EU contact told me.
Read more from Katya's blog
The EU's Brexit co-ordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, tweeted a photograph of the empty podium where Mr Johnson had been due to speak alongside Mr Bettel with the caption: "From Incredible Hulk to incredible sulk".
Over the weekend Mr Johnson told a newspaper that the UK would break out of its "manacles" like cartoon character The Incredible Hulk - with or without a deal.
After the working lunch with Mr Juncker, Mr Johnson told the BBC's political editor he was "cautiously optimistic" about the state of negotiations and suggested the EU wanted to bring the two and half years of arguments about the terms of the UK's exit to an end.
"I see no point whatever in staying on in the EU beyond October 31st and we're going to come out. And actually that is what our friends and partners in the EU would like too. "And I think that they've had a bellyful of all this stuff. You know they want to develop a new relationship with the UK. They're fed up with these endless negotiations, endless delays."
While he was working "very hard" to get a deal, Mr Johnson said there would be no agreement unless the EU shifted its position on the backstop, the insurance policy to maintain an open border on the island of Ireland unless and until another solution is found.
"If we can't get movement from them on that crucial issue... we won't be able to get it through the House of Commons, no way."
He said there were a number of ideas under discussion which would allow the whole of the UK to leave the EU while protecting the integrity of the bloc's single market, upholding the Good Friday Agreement and supporting the Irish economy.
These, he said, included the use of technology to minimise border checks as well as the so-called Stormont lock, a mechanism to give Northern Irish politicians a say on the rules that apply to Northern Ireland.
"It is all doable with energy and goodwill," he insisted.
A UK government source later said: "It's clear Brussels is not yet ready to find the compromises required for a deal, so no-deal remains a real possibility - as the gap we need to bridge remains quite large."
As soon as we arrived at the office of the prime minister of Luxembourg it became obvious a planned outdoor news conference could not go ahead. The anti-Brexit protesters in the square numbered less than 100 but their music and megaphones made it sound like a lot more and they occasionally used language you wouldn't want to hear on the news. Behind the scenes the British and Luxembourgish delegations grappled with a diplomatic dilemma: Move the event inside but exclude the majority of the journalists? Gamble that the demonstrators could pipe down for a bit? Silence the host to save the guest's blushes? The end result saw Mr Johnson do a short interview at the ambassador's residence to be shared with everyone while Mr Bettel took to the stage next to an empty podium. He used the moment in the spotlight to deliver an impassioned speech, made all the more dramatic by the fact he's famed as one of the EU's most smiley, mild-mannered leaders.
Mr Johnson said he would meet the Halloween Brexit deadline come what may, insisting that the UK would be "in very good shape" whether there was a deal or not. But pushed on how he would get around the law requiring him to ask for an extension if there is no deal by 19 October, the PM did not explain how it would be possible.
Ahead of Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing into whether the prorogation of Parliament was lawful, Mr Johnson defended the decision to suspend Parliament.
Parliament was prorogued last week, ahead of a Queen's Speech on 14 October. Legal challenges to the decision have been lodged in the courts by opposition MPs and campaigners.
Mr Johnson described claims that Parliament was "being deprived of the opportunity to scrutinise Brexit" as "all this mumbo jumbo" and a "load of claptrap".
"I think people think that we've somehow stopped Parliament from scrutinising Brexit. "What absolute nonsense. Parliament will be able to scrutinise the deal that I hope we will be able to do both before and after the European Council on October 17."
| Famous Person - Give a speech | September 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
American spammer Jeremy Jaynes is sentenced for nine years in prison. The sentence is suspended until further appeals. | Firstly heres a quick mugshot of the ugly Jaynes aka Gaven StubberfieldMy Jaynes has obviously hit the newslines before, some recent articles include:
How Jeremy Jaynes earned $750k per month for spamming Spammers found guilty and sentenced to nine years Here's a quote from the previous article detailing the spammers high earnings:"But he earned $40 a pop, and the undertaking was so vast that Jaynes could still pull in $400,000 to $750,000 a month, while spending perhaps $50,000 on bandwidth and other overhead, McGuire said. "And from the associated press article:[A jury had recommended the nine-year prison term after convicting Jeremy Jaynes of pumping out at least 10 million e-mails a day with the help of 16 high-speed lines, the kind of Internet capacity a 1,000-employee company would need. Jaynes, 30, of Raleigh, will be free on $1 million bond until the appeals process concludes, which his lawyers estimate could take three or four years.
In deferring the prison time, Loudoun County Circuit Judge Thomas Horne acknowledged that the law targeting bulk e-mail distribution is new and could raise constitutional objections. ``I do not believe a person should go to prison for a law that is invalid,'' Horne said. ``There are substantial legal issues that need to be brought before the appellate court.''
Horne also said he might reconsider the sentence if Jaynes loses the appeal. The judge did not elaborate.]
Another frequent question is to whether spammers ever actually learn their lesson, the concluding comment from Aunty Spam suggests yes, but can you trust a spammers' guarantee?In the meantime Jaynes told the judge that “I can guarantee the court I will not be involved in the e-mail marketing business again. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2005 | ['(Spamfo)', '(E–Commerce News)', '(CNN)'] |
The death toll in the North Complex Fire in Northern California rises to ten, while 16 people are missing, according to the Butte County Sheriff's Department. |
6:20 p.m.
The North Complex Fire's death toll rose to 10 as authorities reported seven more deaths on Thursday evening.
Sixteen people also remain unaccounted for in Butte County, Butte County Sheriff Capt. Derek Bell said in a press briefing Thursday evening.
Rescuers have located 98 people, and the Butte County Sheriff's Office has responded to 124 calls for welfare checks.
Authorities had announced three deaths in the fire on Wednesday evening.
More:'Extremely active' North Complex Fire pushes death toll to 10; officials say 16 still missing
6 p.m. Thursday
Fire and law enforcement officials provide a live update on area wildfires at 6 p.m. Thursday.
A woman searching for her parents after they fled the North Complex Fire has reconnected with them.
Shawnisty Earl reconnected with her parents, Jerry and Debbie Earl, hours after posting to social media outlets and calling print media outlets to report them missing.
The couple had fled to a Red Cross facility in Colusa, nearly two and a half hours from their Berry Creek home. Their home was destroyed in the fire.
As officials start to tally the wreckage of the North Complex Fire, family members of those impacted by the burn are asking for help to find loved ones who are missing.
At least a dozen people have been reported missing in the fire – Jerry and Debbie Earl are among those.
“We are all praying and hoping that they are safe no matter what,” said their daughter, Shawnisty Earl, who lives in Santa Cruz. “They are very private people and they don’t have cell phones. This is very critical. I have no way of knowing they are safe and sound.”
More:Deadly wildfires rage in Western states: 'I never want to see California again'
She, along with many others, have taken to posting on social media to try to find her family.
Shawnisty said her parents are in their early 60s and lived on Meadow Lane in Berry Creek, one of the communities hit hardest by the fire.
She watched a Wednesday night fire press conference, when it was announced that three people had been killed in the fire, with two found in the same location. She called the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, and the coroner told her the remains have not been identified yet.
Shawnisty said she was told her parents’ house burned down but their vehicle, an early 2000's white Nissan Altima, is missing from their driveway.
“The whole neighborhood is gone,” she said “It’s very encouraging that the car is not there.”
The Earls are not registered at any of the evacuation centers or with the Red Cross, Shawnisty said.
It’s not the first time the Earls have had to evacuate – they were also displaced during the 2018 Camp Fire.
With hotels and evacuation centers full, “They were stuck in their car for days,” Shawnisty said.
She is asking anyone who has seen her parents – possibly traveling with two cats and an Australian shepherd – to contact the Red Cross.
11:03 a.m. Thursday
More than 24,000 structures have been destroyed or are threatened by the North Complex Fire.
A CalFire fact sheet released Thursday morning says 22,356 structures are threatened and another 2,000 structures are damaged or destroyed.
According to CalFire, there is no expected full containment date for the blaze, which is burning 247,358 acres.
The fire has done “major damage” to the communities of Berry Creek and Feather Falls, according to CalFire.
More than 100 people have been rescued so far in the fire, according to Cal Fire.
Three fatalities have been reported so far. All three were residents, not emergency personnel, according to CalFire.
A second fire burning south of the North Complex Fire has destroyed dozens of structures and is threatening hundreds more.
The Willow Fire started Wednesday north of the community of Smartsville in the area of Neptune and Willow Glen roads, south of the Bear Fire, one of several fires comprising the North Complex Fire.
So far, 30 structures have been destroyed and an additional 700 are threatened, according to CalFire.
The Willow Fire and Bear Fire are “not likely to merge,” CalFire Public Information Officer Lynnette Round said.
10 a.m. Thursday
The North Complex Fire shrunk slightly overnight even as Oroville remains threatened by the blaze.
As of 9:14 a.m. Thursday, the fire was at 247,358 acres and 23 percent containment.
On Wednesday night, it was reported the fire reached 252,163 acres in size. The decrease in fire acreage was due to more accurate mapping, said Lisa Cox, public information officer for the California Interagency Incident Management Team Four.
Oroville, a city of around 20,000 people, remains under evacuation warning. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for a small portion of South Oroville.
The fire is “threatening the city,” Cox said. “It’s all around the lake (Oroville.)”
At least three people have died in the blaze, which is burning from the Plumas County seat of Quincy toward the Butte County seat of Oroville. Cox said she is not aware of any more confirmed fatalities as of Thursday morning.
She also did not have an update on structure damage.
The North Complex Fire is located on the Mt. Hough Ranger District on the Plumas National Forest. It is comprised of multiple lightning fires – including the Bear, Sheep and Claremont blazes – that ignited nearly a month ago during an Aug. 17 lightning storm.
Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect for:
Evacuation warnings are in effect for:
Previous Coverage: Containment of California's North Complex Fire shrinks as fire jumps Lake Oroville
Those under evacuation advisories should make preparations to evacuate. If you have special needs, you may want to evacuate now. If you have large animals, you should make arrangements to move them immediately.
Evacuation advisories are in effect for:
Evacuation centers have been established at:
Plumas County residents who have shelter needs due to an evacuation should contact Plumas County Social Services at 530-283-6350. For animals in need of shelter, contact Plumas County Animal Services at 530-283-3673. Locations have been prepared for animals.
Amy Alonzo covers the outdoors, recreation and environment for Nevada and Lake Tahoe. Reach her at aalonzo@gannett.com or (775) 741-8588. Here's how you can support ongoing coverage and local journalism. | Fire | September 2020 | ['(Reno Gazette Journal)'] |
Turkey scrambles a total of six F-16 fighters jets near its border with Syria in response to three cases of Syrian military helicopters approaching the Turkish border, although there is no border violation. | Turkey has scrambled six F-16 fighter jets near its border with Syria after Syrian helicopters came close to the border, the country's army says.
Six jets were sent to the area in response to three such incidents on Saturday, the statement said, adding that there was no violation of Turkish airspace.
Last month, Syrian forces shot down a Turkish jet in the border area.
The incident further strained already tense relations between former allies.
Turkey's government has been outspoken in its condemnation of Syria's response to the 16-month anti-government uprising, which has seen more than 30,000 Syrian refugees enter Turkey.
On Friday, Turkey said it had begun deploying rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns along the border in response to the downing of its F-4 Phantom jet on 22 June.
The move came after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey had changed its rules of military engagement and would now treat any Syrian military approaching the border as a threat.
Syria said the Turkish F-4 was shot down by air defence fire inside its airspace. Turkey insists it was downed by a missile after briefly entering and the leaving Syrian airspace.
The plane crashed in the Mediterranean, off the coast of the southern province of Hatay. Its pilots are still missing.
Mr Erdogan spoke of Turkey's "rage" at the incident and described Syria as a "clear and present threat".
Nato condemned the attack and voiced strong support for Turkey, after Ankara invoked Article 4 of Nato's founding treaty, which entitles any member state to ask for consultations if it believes its security is threatened.
Four of the six jets were scrambled on Saturday from the airbase of Incirlik in response to two occasions of Syrian helicopters flying close to Hatay province, Sunday's army statement said.
Later, two more F-16s took off from a base near Batman, in southeastern Turkey, after Syrian helicopters were spotted close to the province of Mardin, it added.
The military said the helicopters flew as close as 6.5km (4 miles) to the border, according to the AP news agency.
The border incident comes after the UN and Arab League envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan, warned of the danger of the Syria conflict spilling over into the wider region if the bloodshed is not stopped.
He was addressing an international meeting of major international and regional powers in Geneva on Saturday, aimed at reviving the six-point peace plan for Syria brokered by Mr Annan.
The countries present at the Geneva talks reached an agreement calling for a ceasefire and a transitional government in Syria.
Western demands to exclude President Bashar al-Assad and his allies from the interim administration reportedly foundered on opposition from Russia.
Moscow sees Syria as its closest ally in the region, and rejects any attempt to impose a solution on Syria from the outside.
The Paris-based opposition Syrian National Council rejected the Geneva deal as too ambiguous, according to the AP news agency.
Violence has worsened in Syria recently despite the cease-fire mediated by Mr Annan as part of his six-point plan earlier this year.
On Friday, government forces recaptured the Damascus suburb of Douma - an opposition stronghold - after 10 days of artillery bombardment. Activists described conditions in the town as "catastrophic".
Activists estimate that as many as 15,800 have died since the uprising began early last year. Casualty figures are difficult to verify, as Syria does not allow foreign journalists to operate on its territory.
The conflict is seen as becoming increasingly militarised, with both rebels and government forces thought to be receiving arms supplies from abroad.
| Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
A leaked French report on the cause of Yasser Arafat's death says he died of an infection. A Swiss inquiry had said polonium poisoning was most likely. | French experts have ruled out a theory that Yasser Arafat was killed by poisoning, a source close to the investigation into the Palestinian leader's 2004 death told AFP.
"The report rules out the poisoning theory and goes in the sense of a natural death," the source said.
The French experts' findings differ significantly from those of Swiss scientists, who said last month that their research offered some support for the suggestion Arafat was killed by polonium poisoning.
Arafat died at a French military hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004, with doctors unable to say what killed him. At the time, an autopsy was never carried out -- at his widow's request.
But France opened a formal murder inquiry into his death in August 2012, a month after an Al-Jazeera documentary linked his death to polonium poisoning.
Some 60 samples were taken from Arafat's remains in November 2012 and divided between Swiss and Russian investigators and a French team carrying out a probe at his widow's request.
The Swiss team said the test results neither confirmed nor denied polonium was the actual source of his death, although they provided "moderate" backing for the idea he was poisoned by the rare and highly radioactive element.
They said the quantity of the deadly substance found on his remains pointed to the involvement of a third party.
The global network of Agence France Presse covers 150 countries
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AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from wars and conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. | Famous Person - Death | December 2013 | ['(AFP)', '(BBC)', '(LA Times)'] |
In swimming, retired Paralympic swimmer Natalie du Toit is awarded an honorary MBE | those that have made it possible I thank you for believing in me and by having
stayed by my side."
British Acting High Commissioner Martin Reynolds said:
"Natalie has achieved great success in her sport, demonstrating an ability
to compete with the best in both Olympic and Paralympic disciplines at numerous
international sporting events.
"Natalie is an inspiration to up and coming athletes
throughout the world and I am delighted she has been recognised for her
achievements."
The UK was proud to have helped shape Du Toit's career,
with her first competition being the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester,
said Reynolds.
Du Toit retired after the 2012 London Olympic and
Paralympic Games, where she won three gold and one silver medal.
"She has been an inspiration for a generation of
Paralympians and we are delighted that her contribution has been
recognised," he said.
Du Toit would be presented with the award at a ceremony
by His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex in October in Pretoria.
The Weekly
Newsletter editor Alet Law guides you through our most interesting and insightful stories to give you a well-rounded view of the week that was. | Awards ceremony | September 2013 | ['(Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire)', '(SAPA via News24)'] |
3 people are killed and others are injured as the regime shells Talkalakh, a city near the border with Lebanon; injured Syrians are taken to Lebanese hospitals with at least one man reported to have died. | New violence has flared in Syria, with three people reported killed in a town near the city of Homs.
Several other people were injured when security forces shelled the town of Tal Kalakh, close to Syria's border with Lebanon, activists and witnesses said.
The reports of violence come a day after Syria said it was withdrawing troops and tanks from some cities and offering a "national dialogue".
Activists say at least 700 people have been killed in two months of protests.
A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has described that figure as credible.
Security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have used force against anti-government protesters in a string of cities across the country.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it fears hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have been detained in Syria in recent weeks. However, reports from Syria are hard to verify independently as foreign journalists are not allowed into the country.
The Syrian government says it is pursuing "armed terrorist gangs", which it blames for the deaths of about 98 soldiers and members of the security services nationwide, and 22 police officers.
Despite the reports of a pullout of troops in the coastal city of Baniyas and the main flashpoint centre of Deraa, reports from Tal Kalakh on Saturday suggested they remained very much in control there.
One witness told the AFP news agency that security forces had surrounded the town since early on Saturday, before opening fire with automatic weapons.
Unconfirmed reports said many people fled across the border into Lebanon, some with gunshot wounds.
The new reports of violence come a day after six people were said to have been killed during Friday protests, despite orders from the government for security forces not to attack demonstrators.
Officials also said a "comprehensive national dialogue" on the unrest would begin in all provinces next week.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in Lebanon, says that it is unsurprising that there is scepticism in opposition circles about the regime's announcement.
Giving details of the proposed dialogue, Information Minister Adnan Hassan Mahmoud said President Assad would meet with "popular delegations" from around the country and listen to "their opinions, demands, and visions about what has currently been taking place in Syria."
It is not clear who will form the delegations, but the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the moves are a clear shift in tactics by President Assad.
Announcing the troop withdrawal, Mr Mahmoud said on Friday that army units had completed their pullout from the southern city of Deraa and started a gradual withdrawal from the coastal city of Baniyas. Residents of Deraa said there were still tanks outside mosques after the conclusion of Friday prayers and that troops had fired into the air to disperse a large demonstration. Information from residents of Baniyas suggested that hundreds of troops were still there during Friday. Before Friday prayers - which have become a rallying point for protesters in Syria as they have in several other Arab countries in recent months - an opposition leader said President Bashar al-Assad had promised troops would not fire on protesters.
As Friday prayers came to an end, reports started to come in of protest marches leaving mosques in many parts of the country.
Despite the apparent pledge of restraint, three people were killed in Homs, Syria's third largest city, when security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
Homs has been the scene of a major military operation since Monday. Areas of the city have been shelled by tanks, and troops have been conducting house-to-house searches and arrests to find or intimidate protesters.
Two people were killed in al-Qaboun, a northern suburb of the capital, Damascus, activists said, when plainclothes gunmen opened fire on protesters.
Activists also said one person was killed in a village outside Deraa, the epicentre of the anti-government unrest.
Protests elsewhere in the country were broken up by security forces using tear gas, water cannons and batons.
A mobile phone snapshot, reportedly taken in Qamishli on 29 April, shows protesters carrying banners written in Arabic and Kurdish demanding democracy.
Razan, who is a resident of Damascus, tells the BBC about violence and protests around Syria.
This unverified video seems to show a peaceful protest in Talbisah. Moments into the footage, tanks fire on unarmed civilians. Wyre Davis reports.
Residents of Deraa walk past a burnt-out building. It follows shelling by troops in what human rights groups say was an intensified crackdown on protests in recent weeks.
Syrian army vehicles were photographed near Homs and broadcast on the Syrian opposition internet channel Sham SNN on 11 May.
Human Rights Council
Syrian presidency
| Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(CNN)'] |
According to a local police chief, at least seven militants are killed by Afghan security forces in Logar Province. | Afghan security forces have killed seven militants in the latest military operation in Logar Province, where Taliban insurgents have a strong presence, a local police chief has said.
Esmatullah Alizai said that government forces also seized weapons from the militants during the operation in Logar's volatile Charkh district on March 24.
Alizai said more than 20 militants were killed, 10 wounded, and four others detained since the military sweep in Logar, southeast of the capital, Kabul, began three weeks ago, amid Afghanistan's spring fighting season.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, officials say security forces uncovered a plot to detonate explosives inside a mosque in the northern province of Sar-e Pol.
Provincial Governor Mohammad Zahir Wahdat said on March 25 that a man was arrested in suspicion of planting a bomb inside the Guzar Shahan mosque ahead of Friday Prayers on March 24.
| Armed Conflict | March 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Sears, Roebuck & Co. announces it will be closing eight more of its namesake department stores, as well as thirty five Kmart locations in addition to the hundred and fifty stores that they had announced in January would be shuttered. | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp SHLD.O is closing eight of its namesake department stores and 35 Kmart locations to cut costs and square footage in an effort to return to profitability, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert said on Friday.
The store closings are in addition to 150 the company announced in January. Once the largest U.S. retailer, Sears has struggled with years of losses and declining sales as shoppers have shifted from the mall to the web. The company said in February it would cut costs this year by at least $1 billion.
Shares of Sears fell as much as 4.8 percent in afternoon trading.
"This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs," Lampert wrote in a blog post. (bit.ly/2u03gDc)
A Sears spokesman declined to say how many jobs would be lost from these store closures. He said employees who are eligible would receive severance and be able to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores.
Lampert added that Sears expects to open more smaller-format stores while shrinking its large, less-competitive ones. He said Sears was on track to meet its cost-cutting targets.
“We reached the point in the past 12 months where some of our vendors have reduced their support, thereby placing additional pressure on our business,” Lampert said.
Sears suppliers told Reuters in March they were doubling down on defensive measures, such as reducing shipments and seeking better payment terms, to protect against the risk of nonpayment.
Lampert, in a version of the blog post updated on Friday afternoon, added that Sears had amended its second lien credit facility to provide up to $500 million in additional borrowing capacity and had sold over $200 million in real estate, helping Sears pay down part of its real estate loan.
Sears said in a separate statement that Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments Inc, controls one of the entities that has loaned money under the facility, and that ESL is considering participating in the facility as a lender.
As well as owning over 48 percent of Sears, Lampert and ESL - through its affiliates - have provided debt funding to the company several times since he was appointed CEO in 2013.
Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
More From Reuters
| Organization Closed | July 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Six people are injured by a knifeman who also set fire to a train at Salez, Switzerland. | A knifeman has set fire to a train in north-eastern Switzerland, leaving six people in hospital with stab wounds and burns, police say.
The suspect, described as a Swiss man aged 27, was also taken to hospital after the incident near Salez in St Gallen canton, close to Liechtenstein.
He had ignited a flammable liquid before attacking people with a knife. A child of six was injured. Police said they could not exclude the possibility of a terrorist motive.
"We can neither exclude nor affirm that this was a terrorist act," St Gallen regional police spokesman Bruno Metzger told the local St Galler Tagblatt daily.
Police spokesman Hanspeter Kruesi told AFP news agency the suspected attacker was not of immigrant background.
Three rescue helicopters are at the scene. A major police operation is under way. The attack occurred around 14:20 (12:20 GMT) as the train was approaching Salez station, between the towns of Buchs and Sennwald. Several dozen passengers were on board at the time of the attack. Apart from the child, a girl and a boy, both 17, two women aged 34 and 43, and a man aged 50 were hurt. Some of the injured are said to be in a serious condition. Police estimated damage to the train at CHF100,000 (79,000; $103,000). European states have been on the alert for "lone wolf" attacks after a series of recent incidents.
Last month, an Afghan asylum seeker attacked passengers on a train in the neighbouring German state of Bavaria with an axe, injuring four people.
The so-called Islamic State later claimed the attack, releasing a video of the attacker who was shot dead by police as he fled. Switzerland country profile | Armed Conflict | August 2016 | ['(BBC News Online)'] |
A Pakistani court charges former President Pervez Musharraf with high treason in relation to the imposition of the emergency rule in 2007. | A court in Pakistan has charged former military ruler Pervez Musharraf with treason, the first army chief to face such a prosecution.
Mr Musharraf is accused of unlawfully suspending the constitution and instituting emergency rule in 2007.
He pleaded not guilty and has always claimed that the charges against him are politically motivated. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
President from 2001 to 2008, he was one of Pakistan's longest-serving rulers.
He went into self-imposed exile in 2008, returning to Pakistan in March 2013. He had hoped to lead his party into elections, but was disqualified from standing and found himself fighting an array of charges relating to his time in power.
The 70-year-old has been in hospital since the beginning of the year and reports say he is being treated for high blood pressure.
The court on Monday also rejected Mr Musharraf's application to leave the country to visit his sick mother in Dubai. He is currently under house arrest and has been placed on an exit control list restricting certain Pakistani nationals from leaving the country.
Judges rejected his application on the grounds that only the government had the authority to remove him from the list.
When the former president entered the court he was heavily guarded, but nevertheless appeared relaxed, even waving to the audience.
The judge read out five charges to Mr Musharraf. He pleaded "not guilty" to each of them but also addressed the court with a speech about his services to the country and questioned how he could be called a traitor, declaring that he was a patriot.
"I am being called a traitor, I have been chief of army staff for nine years and I have served this army for 45 years. I have fought two wars and it is 'treason'?" the Agence France-Presse news agency quoted him as saying.
"Is this the way to reward someone for being loyal to the country and for loving the country?" the former president asked the court.
Mr Musharraf insists that he acted within the constitution when he declared a state of emergency in the country in 2007 and that he did not act alone when taking that decision. Mr Musharraf seized power from Mr Sharif in a coup in 1999. He remained president until 2008, when a democratically elected government came into power.
He left the country soon afterwards to live in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Rosanna Al–Yami, a female journalist in Saudi Arabia, is sentenced to sixty lashes and a two–year travel ban for her involvement in a controversial sex programme. | In Saudi Arabia a female journalist has been sentenced to 60 lashes for having worked for a television network that is banned from broadcasting in the country. The network aired a programme in July containing a Saudi man's sexual confessions. Earlier this month he was sentenced to 1000 lashes and five years in prison. Four other people involved in the programme were also sentenced to lashes and jail terms.
The Saudi-owned network, LBC, broadcasts from Lebanon, but attracts many viewers in Saudi Arabia. Although the convicted journalist was not involved in the programme, she was sentenced on the grounds that she had worked for the network while it did not have an operating licence.
Hour-by-hour programme guide
More about our programmes What's on this week Complete shortwave frequency schedule Dutch and international news roundup, distributed daily at 16.00 UTC. Please click the link and send the email message. Dutch Press Review: of the leading Dutch newspapers every weekday. Programme preview. What's on guide. Please click the link and send the email message. Media Network Newsletter, published each Thursday. You can find daily updates on the Media Network Weblog. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(The New York Times)', '(Radio Netherlands Worldwide)', '(Reuters)'] |
The European Union signs pacts with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova in a move strongly opposed by Russia. | Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have signed partnership agreements with the European Union, in a move strongly opposed by Russia. The pact - which would bind the three countries more closely to the West both economically and politically - is at the heart of the crisis in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said making Ukraine choose between Russia and the EU would split it in two.
A ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine is due to end on Friday.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in Brussels to sign the pact, said he would take a decision on an extension to the truce when he arrived back in Kiev later on Friday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would welcome an extension, but not if it were simply an ultimatum for separatists to lay down their arms.
Meanwhile the United Nations refugee agency said there had been a sharp rise in the numbers of displaced people in eastern Ukraine in the past week, with 16,400 people fleeing the area.
The total number internally displaced has reached 54,400, while a further 110,000 people left Ukraine for Russia this year.
There is a general sense of irritation or perhaps even anger here that Moscow has failed to convince countries like Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia not to sign this historic free trade deal today with the EU.
Moscow has economic concerns about these deals - it is worried that the Russian market could be flooded by cheap goods from the EU that would hit Russian producers.
More pressing for Moscow are the geopolitical concerns here - the whole idea of former Soviet states, countries that Moscow still views as being within its sphere of influence, drifting towards Europe and one day possibly becoming part of the EU - that really grates with Moscow, particularly in the case of Ukraine.
There's a lot of concern about what could happen in eastern Ukraine - the ceasefire announced a few days ago by Mr Poroshenko, and the ceasefire announced by armed separatist rebels, is due to expire today. It's unclear how things are going to develop later. Ukraine crisis timeline
What happens after deal is signed?
Numbers behind the deal
Mr Poroshenko hailed the signing as Ukraine's most historic day since independence in 1991, describing it as a "symbol of faith and unbreakable will".
Mr Poroshenko also said he saw the signing as the start of preparations for joining the bloc.
"Ukraine is underlining its sovereign choice in favour of membership of the EU," he said.
Meanwhile European Council President Herman Van Rompuy described it as a "great day for Europe".
"The EU stands by your side, today more than ever before," he told leaders of the three countries, adding that there was nothing in the agreements that might harm Russia in any way.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "efforts to force Ukraine into an artificial choice between Russia and the EU had pushed Ukraine towards a split, a painful internal conflict".
Peaceful citizens were the main victims of the conflict, he said, with thousands of people seeking refuge in Russia.
The European Council on Friday issued a policy statement on Ukraine, setting out key steps it expected to happen by Monday, including the return of three key checkpoints to Ukrainian forces and the "launch of substantial negotiations on the implementation of President Poroshenko's peace plan".
Mr Poroshenko set out a 15-point peace plan on 20 June. It involves decentralising power and holding early local and parliamentary elections.
It also proposes the creation of a 10km (six-mile) buffer zone on the Ukrainian-Russian border, and a safe corridor for pro-Russian separatists to leave the conflict areas.
The European Council did not announce any new sanctions against Russia but said that it continued to assess the situation.
Earlier senior Kremlin adviser Sergei Glazyev described Mr Poroshenko as a "Nazi" and said his presidency was illegitimate because parts of Ukraine did not vote in the May elections.
In a BBC interview, he said that Mr Poroshenko had no constitutional right to sign the treaty, which would damage the Ukrainian economy.
However, President Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media that Mr Glazyev's comments did not reflect the official Kremlin position.
Mr Poroshenko's predecessor Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the deal under pressure from Russia and protests led to his overthrow.
After this Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea region and pro-Russia separatists in eastern regions declared independence, claiming that extremists had taken power in Kiev.
Fighting is said to have continued in some areas of eastern Ukraine despite the temporary ceasefire. In another development, rebels released four international observers captured more than a month ago.
Alexander Borodai, head of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, said the members of the Vienna-based Organisation for the Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had been freed as a goodwill gesture.
More than 420 people have been killed in fighting between pro-Russia rebels and government forces in eastern Ukraine since mid-April, the UN estimates. | Sign Agreement | June 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
A bus runs off the road in northwestern Nepal killing at least seventeen people. | At least 17 people were killed on Monday when a bus slipped off a rain-drenched mountain road in north-western Nepal, police said.
The bus skidded off the road and rolled a few metres near Rararihi village, about 400 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu, said police official Indra Bahadur Saud.
The mostly gravel road was slippery from overnight rainfall, and visibility was poor because of fog, he said.
Among those killed, 13 died on the spot, while four succumbed to injuries at the hospital.
Twelve other people were injured in the accident and taken to nearby hospitals, including five, who were in critical condition, Mr. Saud said. | Road Crash | March 2015 | ['(The Hindu)'] |
Vladimir Kramnik beats Veselin Topalov in a World Chess Championship reunification match. | In a finale without precedent in world chess championship history, Vladimir Kramnik clinched the title in a playoff when Veselin Topalov made a terrible blunder on his final move of the fourth and last playoff game.
The final score was 8.5-7.5. There had never been a playoff for the world championship before, because previous championship matches featured a champion and a challenger, and the champion would keep the title in case of a tie. Ties are possible because each competitor plays an equal number of games as White and as Black, yielding an even number of games. Going into this match, though, both players claimed the title, because of a 13-year-old schism in the chess world. Mr. Topalov, a Bulgarian, was the official champion of the World Chess Federation, which organized the match. Mr. Kramnik, a Russian, based his claim on having defeated Garry Kasparov of Russia in a match in 2000, seven years after Mr. Kasparov, the last undisputed champion, broke away from the federation. The playoff — four games played in one day, with much less time than usual available to each player — was like the final rounds of a brutal heavyweight boxing fight. After a draw in the first game, first Mr. Kramnik and then Mr. Topalov landed roundhouse blows by winning a game, before Mr. Kramnik delivered the knockout punch.
Mikhail Savinov, a freelance journalist who has covered the match for the Associated Press and Chessbase.com, a chess news Web site, said that afterward Mr. Topalov blamed “bad luck” for his loss, and was philosophical, pointing out that he was only 31 and could expect to have a chance to compete for the championship again.
Even before the playoff, the match — held in Elista, the capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia — was already memorable. It had been marred with protests and accusations of cheating, locked bathrooms and a forfeit of a game in Mr. Topalov’s favor. Mr. Kramnik had threatened to sue the federation over the forfeit. Mr. Savinov said that Mr. Kramnik was asked after his victory if still intended to sue but declined to give a definite answer.
The $1 million prize will be split by the players.
In the playoff, both players stuck to the defenses they had favored throughout the match. Neither ventured anything new to surprise his opponent, perhaps because each player wanted to get quickly past the opening into a position that he was familiar with and would know how to handle. That approach also avoided the danger of stumbling on an opening surprise that the player’s opponent might have studied and prepared before the match. In Game 16 — the fourth and deciding game of the playoff — Mr. Topalov adopted the Semi Slav Defense, as he had in Game 8, which he won, and in the second game of the playoff, which he lost. Through 14 dc, the game followed a known path, albeit one that had not been seen frequently at elite levels. The reason was that Black seems to get a good game by playing 14 ... 0-0, when White cannot hold the pawn at c5. Mr. Topalov’s 14 ... Nc5 was new, and a bit risky. After Mr. Kramnik as White played 15 Bb5, Black chose to forgo castling by 15 ... Kf8, perhaps because he did not like 15 ... Nd7 16 Bf4 a6 17 Ba5 Bd5 18 Bd6 Be7 19 Be7 Ke7 20 Qd4, when White has an edge. Still, Black’s enduring problem became how to complete his development and get his king rook into the game. Black’s 19 ... a6 may have been a mistake, as the pawn became an easier target for White. Instead of 21 ... Be4, Black might have tried 21 ... Bd5, when 22 Bb4 g6 23 Rbc1 Bc4, allows Black to solve most of his problems. After White finally won the weak a pawn with 28 Ra6, Black was definitely fighting an uphill battle. The situation was bad, but not desperate, after 44 Ke3. Black should have responded with 44 ... e5 to restrict White’s king. Instead, Mr. Topalov played 44 ... Rc5, and lost immediately after 45 Rb7. Simply put, 45 ... Rb7 is met by 46 Rc5 Kb6 47 ab, when Black cannot both take White’s rook and capture the “b” pawn that is about to queen. So Mr. Topalov gave up.
What happens next is a bit murky. According to the match provisions, Mr. Topalov, who may still be the top ranked player in the world despite the loss because he has such a commanding lead on the No. 2 player, Viswanathan Anand of India, will not be part of a tournament scheduled to be played next year in Mexico to select a new champion. His place now belongs to Mr. Kramnik.
But who knows if Mr. Kramnik will want to participate? Mr. Kramnik has said in the past that a tournament is not the right way to select a champion. And the tournament is being organized by the chess federation, which Mr. Kramnik does not trust and may even sue. So, while the chess world once again has an undisputed champion, perhaps fittingly for a game that abstracts warfare, it may be only a temporary peace. | Sports Competition | October 2006 | ['(NY Times)'] |
US health officials report that 21 players on 13 National Basketball Association teams were sickened with the novovirus stomach virus last fall including Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic. | ATLANTA -- U.S. health officials say last fall's outbreak of a stomach virus that swept through pro basketball teams sickened 21 players on 13 teams.
They were infected with the norovirus, highly contagious and known for spreading on cruise ships. The federal researchers didn't name the teams. But media reports have said players with a stomach bug at the time included four on the Orlando Magic, including star center Dwight Howard.
The virus can spread through the air on the basketball court. But researchers said it more likely was spread by players socializing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated the investigation after reading media reports about player illnesses, and the NBA cooperated, said Dr. Rishi Desai, one of the CDC investigators.
It's not clear how the outbreak started, but the strain of norovirus was an unusual enough that investigators believe players got it from each other rather than from family members or others, he added.
CDC officials believe that there may have been at least two instances in which an infected team passed it to a healthy team. The CDC recommended that in the future, NBA players sick with the virus should not play or take part in team activities.
Norovirus can cause diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain. It often spreads through contaminated food or water, but the virus can also move through dried vomit particles spread in the air, Desai said.
An NBA spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
The results of the investigation were publicly disclosed for the first time Friday at a CDC conference in Atlanta. | Famous Person - Sick | April 2011 | ['(ESPN)'] |
Georgia, US. 17 human rights activists sentenced to prison including one 81–year–old retired World War II Veteran for trespassing at Fort Benning military camp. (Scoop, New Zealand) | World Video | Defence | Foreign Affairs | Natural Events | Trade | NZ in World News | NZ National News Video | NZ Regional News | Search
Seventeen Sentenced to Prison as Trials Continue for Human
Rights
Advocates
81-year-old WWII Veteran among 32
Charged in Columbus, Georgia
COLUMBUS, GA – The
week after a military jury in Colorado decided not to jail
an Army interrogator even after they found him guilty of
negligent homicide in the torture and killing of an Iraqi
detainee, a federal judge in Columbus, Georgia is sentencing
nonviolent activists to months in federal prison. The 32
defendants, ranging in age from 19 to 81, are charged with
trespass after peacefully walking onto the Fort Benning
military base in protest of a controversial Army training
school located there.
Yesterday, Judge G. Mallon
Faircloth sentenced 17 human rights advocates, including
Delmar Schwaller, an 81-year-old retired World War II
Veteran, to between one and six months in prison; thirteen
of those individuals were also fined between $500 and
$1,000. Trials are expected to continue at least throughout
today. Each person faces a maximum sentence of six months in
prison and a $5,000 fine.
Those arrested were among
19,000 who gathered in November outside the gates of Fort
Benning to demand a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy
and the closure of the controversial U.S. Army’s School of
the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute
of Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC).
“I have written
hundreds of letters to the editor, met with many U.S.
officials, and helped to found three human rights
organizations,” said defendant GAIL PHARES, 66, of North
Carolina, on the steps of the U.S. Courthouse. “In my 40
years of experience in Latin America, I've witnessed a
number of patterns repeated over and over which trace death,
torture and suffering back to troops trained in
counter-insurgency warfare by the U.S. military, many of
whom were trained at the School of the Americas.”
The
SOA/ WHINSEC made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon
released training manuals used at the school that advocated
torture, extortion and execution. Despite this admission and
hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to
soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation
into the facility has ever taken place. New research
confirms that the school continues to support known human
rights abusers.
Despite having been investigated by the
United Nations for ordering the shooting of 16 indigenous
peasants in El Salvador, Col. Francisco del Cid Diaz
returned to SOA/ WHINSEC in 2003.
Judge Faircloth is
known for handing down stiff sentences to opponents of the
SOA/ WHINSEC. Since protests against the SOA/ WHINSEC began
more than a decade ago, 183 people have served a total of
over 81 years in prison for engaging in nonviolent
resistance in a broad-based campaign to close the
school.
The movement to close the SOA/ WHINSEC
continues to grow. In 2005, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)
introduced HR 1217, a bill to suspend operations at WHINSEC
and to investigate the development and use of the “torture
manuals.” The bill currently has 123 bipartisan
co-sponsors.
“People speaking out for justice and
accountability will most likely be sent to prison this
week,” said FR. ROY BOURGEOIS, founder of SOA Watch,
“while the SOA and its graduates continue to operate outside
a system of real accountability.”
* * * Interviews
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2006 | [] |
Thousands of Algerians march in the capital of Algiers as the first anniversary of the protests nears, repeating their calls for overhauling the political system and ending corruption. | ALGIERS (Reuters) - Thousands of Algerians marched on Friday, a year since the start of weekly protests calling for a complete overhaul of the ruling elite, an end to corruption and the army’s withdrawal from politics.
“We will not stop,” chanted a crowd in the center of the capital Algiers, despite a large police presence.
Over the past year the protesters have changed the face of Algeria’s power structure, causing the fall of a veteran president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the arrest of dozens of leading figures including a once untouchable former intelligence chief.
However, while the new president has released people detained in the protests, set up a commission to amend the constitution and offered talks to the opposition, much of the old ruling elite remains in place.
The leaderless protest movement, known as “hirak”, is demanding more concessions, including the release of more activists and the departure of more senior figures from positions of power.
“Our hirak is tireless. We are ready to keep marching for months more,” said Yazid Chabi, a 23-year-old student on the central Didouche Mourad street in central Algiers.
However, since December’s presidential election the number of protesters has fallen according to people attending the marches each week.
Related Coverage
Hirak opposed the election, regarding as illegitimate any vote that took place while the old ruling elite was in power and while the military was involved in politics.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a former prime minister seen by the protesters as part of the old elite, was elected, but turnout was only 40% according to official statistics.
Even without the political unrest, his new government now faces a difficult economic year with energy revenues rapidly sinking, hitting state finances hard.
Chabi, who is studying law, said he has no expectation of finding work after he graduates. “Algerians have been getting only promises. Nothing has improved in recent years because corruption is still there,” he said.
Two former prime ministers, several ex-ministers and prominent businessmen have been jailed after anti-graft investigations that followed protests demanding the prosecution of people involved in corruption.
Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad this week said corruption and mismanagement resulted in a “delicate” economic situation for Algeria, an OPEC member country that is also facing a negative impact from falling global crude oil prices.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Presidential elections, legislative elections and local elections start today in the Philippines. | There have been problems with the automated voting system
Voting in national and local elections in the Philippines has ended and early results are expected within hours.
At least six people were killed as voters cast ballots for a new president and vice-president, amid reports of continuing violence in the south. Voting was extended by one hour to accommodate long queues of voters. The queues have been linked to problems with new automated vote-counting machines, some of which had failed to operate properly in pre-poll testing. Formal results from the elections, which will also fill more than 17,000 government positions, are expected within two days. In the presidential race, Benigno Aquino, the son of the popular former president, Cory Aquino, has been leading the polls but former president Joseph Estrada is also in the running. Outgoing President Gloria Arroyo, whose term expires in June, is running for a seat in parliament. Determined to vote
Long lines formed at the Nemesio Yabut elementary school in the capital, Manila, with hundreds of people waiting in the heat for a chance to vote, says the BBC's Philippines correspondent Kate McGeown.
Nemesio Yabut elementary school is more used to queues of children than queues of adults, but today they're here in their hundreds waiting for a chance to vote. It's one of Manila's biggest polling stations - about 20,000 people are expected to pass through here today. It's hot and sticky here, and some people have already been waiting for hours. But everyone still seems to be in high spirits, and some people have even started selling food and drink here to the waiting crowds. People I've spoken to say they are excited about today, but also worried about the possibility of violence. The school's principal, Marilyn Macalma, said she expected 22,500 people to turn up to vote there. People take elections seriously in the Philippines and an estimated 85% of those eligible are expected to vote, says our correspondent. But as had been predicted, glitches were reported with the country's new automated voting system. Even the election front-runner, Mr Aquino, had trouble voting at his home province of Tarlac because the ballot-counting machine had broken down. "Hopefully, this is just an isolated incident. We are waiting for more reports... (but) if people can't vote because the machines don't accept their ballots, then certainly that is a problem," said Mr Aquino. Voter Armand Juele, 42, said he had queued for more than an hour to cast his ballot and the line was still 50m (yards) long. "It's super-disorganised," he told Reuters news agency. "There's no order. It's the worst election by far." Another unnamed voter said he had no intention of leaving despite the long queues. "We have to push through with the voting," he said. "Otherwise it would be a waste of our rights." Throughout the campaign the issue of the automated voting machines has dominated headlines. Election commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal appealed to voters in Manila to wait patiently and said back-up machines were available if ones in use malfunctioned. "What's important is that you will be processed," he said. "You will be able to vote. Your vote will be counted." Poll violence
The presidential contenders are vying to replace Mrs Arroyo, who came to power in 2001 and is stepping down as she reaches her constitutional two-term limit.
Her premiership has been marred by allegations of corruption and she has fended off several impeachment motions put forward by Congress. She is now running for a post in Congress herself and her opponents have said they will file corruption charges against her once she no longer has presidential immunity. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino has been the pre-election day favourite to replace Mrs Arroyo. Correspondents say the 50-year-old's political pedigree - as the son of the beloved former president who died in August last year - has been hugely important in his campaign, but he is also considered an honest, if inexperienced, candidate. Joseph "Erap" Estrada is another front-runner but correspondents say his past could play against him. He was deposed and jailed by Mrs Arroyo in 2001 on allegations of corruption, although she later pardoned him. Property tycoon Manny Villar is also expected to do well. His campaign on focused on what he portrays as his rise from poverty to riches but has been tainted by corruption allegations. Security has been high around polling stations in an attempt to stave of the violence that has accompanied the country's past elections. But there were sporadic reports of violence as polling took place: The latest deaths bring the toll during the four months leading up to the elections to 35 killed. Those deaths are in addition to the 57 people killed in Maguindanao province in November, when a group tried to register a candidate for the elections in an area held by a rival clan. Twelve members of the clan, the Amapatuans, have been charged with involvement in the mass killing, but 10 of them are running for posts in these polls. | Government Job change - Election | May 2010 | ['(Philippine Inquirer)', '(BBC)'] |
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