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Film director Roman Polanski testifies at a closed to the media court hearing in Kraków, Poland, regarding a US request for his extradition over a 1977 child sex crime conviction. The hearing is later postponed until April. |
The film director Roman Polanski has testified at a court hearing in Poland regarding a US request for his extradition over a 1977 child sex crime conviction.
Dariusz Mazur, the judge presiding over the case in Krakow, said the court could not make a ruling on Wednesday because it still had to consider extra documents submitted by Polanski’s lawyers.
“The proceeding will not be finished today,” Mazur said, adding that the film-maker’s lawyers had handed in preliminary documents in English and in German from his unsuccessful extradition proceedings in Switzerland in 2010.
Polanski’s hearing started at 9am local time and was closed to the media. Under Polish law, if the court rules in favour of the extradition request, it will then be passed on to the justice minister who will make the final decision on whether to hand over Polanski to the US authorities.
The Oscar-winning director pleaded guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl during a photoshoot in Los Angeles fuelled by champagne and drugs. Polanski served 42 days in jail as part of a 90-day plea bargain. He fled the country the following year, believing that the judge hearing his case could overrule the deal and put him in jail for years.
In 2009, Polanski was arrested in Zurich on a US warrant and placed under house arrest. He was freed in 2010 after Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2015 | ['(The Guardian)', '(CNN)'] |
Members of the U.S. Congress reach a spending deal that, once passed by both houses, will prevent a year–end government shutdown and will fund Fiscal Year 2016 federal government operations. President Barack Obama signs a separate bipartisan bill that extends government funding through Tuesday, December 22. | WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders reached a tentative deal Tuesday night on a $1.1 trillion spending bill that would end the threat of a year-end government shutdown and fund federal agencies through most of 2016.
Details of the massive bill had still not been posted online by the House or Senate appropriations committees late Tuesday, but House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told GOP members that an agreement had been reached. Democratic leaders cautioned that final details were still being worked out.
Funding to keep the government running is set to expire at midnight Wednesday. Ryan said lawmakers will vote Wednesday on an extension to keep the government open until Dec. 22. That gives Congress time to approve a long-term bill to fund agencies through September.
Ryan promised that there will be no government shutdown and said the House will vote Thursday on a long-term agreement. The Senate will vote on Thursday or Friday, just in time for Congress to adjourn for the holidays.
Republicans wrangled with Democrats over proposed policy riders on issues ranging from the environment to the Syrian refugee crisis.
"We didn't win everything we wanted," Ryan said on Fox News, without offering details. "Democrats got some things they wanted. So that's the nature of compromises in divided government. But all told, we'll make sure that we keep government funded and that we advance some of our priorities and, namely, that's to create jobs."
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the final sticking point Tuesday was Republicans' demand to lift a 40-year ban on the export of U.S. crude oil. Democrats agreed to lift the ban, but only after they apparently won a five-year extension of tax credits for wind and solar energy. They also beat back Republican efforts to derail President Obama's clean air and climate change regulations.
"We've made it clear that if they want this oil export ban, there must be included in this (bill) policies to reduce our carbon emissions and encourage use of renewable energy," Reid said Tuesday morning.
Lawmakers compromised on the issue of allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. The spending package doesn't include a controversial House-passed bill that would bar the refugees from entering until the U.S. implements a tough new vetting system to ensure they aren't terrorists. Instead, it includes a bipartisan bill that would impose new travel restrictions on citizens of the 38 countries that can enter the U.S. without visas. Residents of those countries would be blocked if they have traveled to Syria, Iraq, Iran, or Sudan in the past five years.
House passes five-day government funding bill, averting weekend shutdown
The spending bill is expected to be paired with legislation that would extend about $750 billion in expiring tax breaks for businesses and individuals. Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Tuesday that Democrats will oppose the tax bill, which the House is expected to vote on separately from the spending measure. Hoyer called it "too big and expensive."
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said last week that extending the tax breaks would cost the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars that could be better used for social programs for struggling Americans.
Ellison said it is part of a long-term Republican strategy to shrink government. With huge tax breaks in place, “It will be harder for us to pay for things next year," he said.
"We’re not getting any new revenue so what is there left to do but cut, cut, cut?" said Ellison, who is co-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus.
Ryan said that extending tax breaks for businesses will help create jobs.
"We’re going to have some good things in here for job creators," he said. "We’re going to have good tax policy that helps send us in the right direction for tax reform, that helps provide certainty for businesses."
The bill would postpone for two years taxes that were supposed to help pay for Obamacare, including the so-called "Cadillac tax" on expensive health insurance plans provided by some employers. That tax was supposed to take effect in 2018 but would be delayed until 2020. A tax on medical device manufacturers also would be eliminated for two years.
Democrats did get one tax break they sought — a permanent extension of the child-care tax credit.
"Even though something like the child tax credit and the rest are in that part of the bill, giving away so much to corporate America is just too much," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2015 | ['(USA Today)', '(The Washington Post)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
Israeli shelling kills four children playing in a port next to Al-Deira hotel in Gaza, base to many journalists. | The first projectile hit the sea wall of Gaza City's little harbour just after four o'clock. As the smoke from the explosion thinned, four figures could be seen running, ragged silhouettes, legs pumping furiously along the wall. Even from a distance of 200 metres, it was obvious that three of them were children.
Jumping off the harbour wall, they turned on to the beach, attempting to cross the short distance to the safety of the Al-Deira hotel, base for many of the journalists covering the Gaza conflict.
They waved and shouted at the watching journalists as they passed a little collection of brightly coloured beach tents, used by bathers in peacetime.
It was there that the second shell hit the beach, those firing apparently adjusting their fire to target the fleeing survivors. As it exploded, journalists standing by the terrace wall shouted: "They are only children."
In the space of 40 seconds, four boys who had been playing hide and seek among fishermen's shacks on the wall were dead. They were aged between seven and 11; two were named Mohammad, one Zakaria and the youngest Ahed. All were members of the extended Bakr family.
Three others who were injured made it to the hotel: Hamad Bakr, aged 13, with shrapnel in his chest; his cousin Motasem, 11, injured in his head and legs, and Mohammad Abu Watfah, 21, who was hit by shrapnel in his stomach.
A man who had been near them reached the hotel terrace first, scrambling up a steep sandy bank. A skinny man in his 30s, he groaned and held up a T-shirt already staining red with blood where he was hit in the stomach. He fainted and was carried to a taxi waved down in the street as he grew pale and limp.
The children were brought up next. Pulling up the T-shirt of the first boy, journalists administering first aid found a shrapnel hole, small and round as a pencil head, where he had been hit in the chest. Another boy, a brother or cousin, who was uninjured, slumped by the wall, weeping.
The injured boy cried in pain as the journalists cleaned and dressed the wound, wrapping a field dressing around his chest. He winced in pain, clearly embarrassed too as a colleague checked his shorts to look for unseen femoral bleeding. A waiter grabbed a table cloth to use as a stretcher, but a photographer took the boy in his arms to carry him to the ambulance.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident. The Israel Defence Force told the AFP in a statement: "Based on preliminary results, the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives. The reported civilian casualties from this strike are a tragic outcome."
The Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, on Wednesday formally rejected Egypt's ceasefire proposal that had been accepted by Israel to end the nine-day-old conflict that has left at least 213 Palestinians and one Israeli dead. In a text message to the Associated Press, a senior Hamas figure, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "We informed Cairo today officially that we don't accept the proposal they made."
He added that Hamas felt "alone in the field" with little support from the Arab world and called on the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of the rival Fatah faction in the West Bank, to support Hamas's refusal of the ceasefire deal.
Diplomatic sources told the Guardian that they did not believe that a serious new ceasefire proposal was likely to emerge for several days and, even then, securing a deal looked very difficult.
Hamas's rejection came as an Israeli official said Israel's defence minister had asked prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's security cabinet to authorise the mobilisation of another 8,000 reserves. The military has said about 30,000 reservists have been called up since the Israeli offensive began last week.
Israeli experts have been predicting in recent days that any ground attack, which Israel has threatened, may involve overland raids in the Gaza Strip to destroy command bunkers and tunnels that have allowed the outgunned Palestinians to withstand air and naval barrages and keep the rockets flying. Hamas continued to fire dozens of rockets into Israelon Wednesday.
Hamas views a significant easing of the Israeli blockade as key to its survival, but does not believe Egypt's current rulers who deposed a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo last year can be fair brokers.
The Egyptian proposal called for a halt in hostilities by Tuesday night to be followed by talks on the terms of a longer-term ceasefire, including easing Gaza's seven-year-old border blockade by Israel and Egypt. Israeli air raids on Gaza on Wednesday saw the targeting of 30 houses, including those of senior Hamas leaders, most notably Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas's former foreign minister.
Alongside the air strikes, Israel told tens of thousands of residents of the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the Zeitoun and Shujai'iya neighbourhoods of Gaza City all near the Israel border to evacuate their homes by 8am. The warnings came by automated phonecalls, texts and leaflets dropped from planes.
The Israeli military said in its message that large numbers of rockets were being launched from these areas and that Israel planned to bomb these locations.
"Whoever disregards these instructions and fails to evacuate immediately endangers their own lives, as well as those of their families," the message said.
At the Shifa hospital on Wednesday afternoon, Hamad Bakr was conscious and waiting for surgery to remove the shrapnel from his chest and drain fluid from his chest cavity. "My father has a fishing boat there. We were playing hide and seek when we were hit. I didn't hear the first one which killed one of us but I heard the second as we were running along the beach. That one killed three more."
His mother Taghrid, 35, came into the room. "Why did you go out of the door?" she demanded of Hamad.
She said that his brother, Younis, who was with Hamad, while he was being treated, "is so scared that he is shaking".
Suddenly angry and grief stricken, she said: "They killed my nephew. Who does that? Who fires on children?"
As the reporters left, Mohammad Abu Watfah was wheeled out of a lift after surgery to remove the shrapnel in his stomach. As relatives gathered not far from the Al-Deira hotel to bury the four dead boys, barely 90 minutes after the attack on the beach, the boys' uncle, Abdel Kareem Baker, 41, said: "It's a cold-blooded massacre. It's a shame they didn't identify them as kids with all of the advanced technology they claim they're using." | Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Government of Egypt circulates a draft motion for consideration by the General Assembly of the United Nations. A proposed resolution would strongly condemn human rights violations by the Syrian regime. | A proposed UN General Assembly resolution would strongly condemn human rights violations by the Syrian regime and back an Arab League plan aimed at ending the country's 11-month conflict.
The non-binding resolution demands that the Syrian government stop all violence, release detainees and withdraw all armed forces from cities and towns. It demands the Assad regime guarantee peaceful demonstrations and allow unhindered access for Arab League monitors and international media.
The draft, circulated on Tuesday by Egypt, makes no specific reference to the Arab League's call Sunday for a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping force for Syria.
Diplomats say the resolution is likely to be put to a vote on Thursday in the 193-member world body, where there are no vetoes. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2012 | ['(AP via The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al–Sabah dies at the age of 91. Crown Prince Nawaf Al–Ahmad Al–Jaber Al–Sabah is named his successor. | Kuwait's Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, has died at the age of 91, state media report.
His 83-year-old half-brother, Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed, has been named by the cabinet as his successor.
In July, Sheikh Sabah was flown to the United States for medical treatment following surgery for an unspecified condition in Kuwait that month.
He had ruled the oil-rich Gulf Arab state since 2006 and had overseen its foreign policy for more than 50 years.
He was dubbed the "dean of Arab diplomacy" for his efforts to restore relations with states that backed Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf War, when Kuwait was invaded by Iraqi forces.
The emir also often acted as a mediator in regional disputes, including the ongoing diplomatic stand-off between Saudi Arabia, its allies and Qatar.
Kuwait similarly refrained from intervening in Syria's civil war, instead hosting several donor conferences for humanitarian aid. "Today we lost a big brother and a wise and loving leader... who spared no effort for Arab unity," Jordan's King Abdullah II wrote on Twitter in Arabic.
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, tweeted: "Sheikh Sabah epitomised wisdom, tolerance, and peace and he was a great pioneer of Gulf cooperation."
UN Secretary General António Guterres called the emir "an extraordinary symbol of wisdom and generosity, a messenger of peace, a bridge builder".
Tiny, oil-rich and vulnerable, Kuwait has long been both an ally of the West and dependant on it for protection. Britain has twice sent troops to defend it from its giant neighbour Iraq, first in 1961 and then in 1991 as part of the massive US-led Desert Storm campaign to expel Saddam Hussein's forces. Despite being ruled by ageing men from the long-standing Al-Sabah dynasty, Kuwait has one of the more lively political scenes in the Arab world, with elected MPs able to call government ministers to account. This has sometimes led to political paralysis. The ruling family also took on conservative religious opinion by pushing for women to be allowed to vote and run for political office. In recent years Kuwait has been seen as a calming, mediating force in the region, helped by the late emir's decades of experience as foreign minister. The succession is thought likely to be a smooth one.
Sheikh Sabah's death was announced on state television on Tuesday afternoon by the Minister of Emiri Diwan (Court) Affairs, Sheikh Ali Jarrah al-Sabah.
"With the utmost sadness and grief for the Kuwaiti people, the Islamic and Arab world and people of friendly nations, the Emiri Diwan mourns the death of Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, who is now next to God" he said. Sheikh Jarrah did not give a cause of death.
Born in 1929, Sheikh Sabah was the great-grandson of the founder of modern Kuwait, Mubarak al-Sabah, who signed a "Treaty of Friendship" with Britain in 1899 that saw it become a protectorate.
Sheikh Sabah became Kuwait's foreign minister in 1963 - two years after Britain recognised Kuwait's independence - and held the position until 1991, following the end of the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation.
He was reappointed foreign minister in 1992 and served until 2003, when he was named prime minister by his half-brother Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad. Sheikh Sabah became Kuwait's ruler himself in 2006, after Sheikh Jaber died and his cousin Emir Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah stepped down just nine days into his rule as parliament moved to depose him on health grounds.
Kuwait - which has a population of 4.8 million, including 3.4 million foreign workers - has the world's sixth-largest known oil reserves and is a major US ally.
The emirate's parliament has the most powers of any elected body in the Gulf and opposition MPs openly criticise the Sabahs.
However, the ruling family retains full control over key government and executive posts and the emir has the last say in political matters. He also has the power to override or dissolve parliament, and call elections.
Sheikh Sabah dissolved parliament or reshuffled his cabinet a number of times after lawmakers sought to question or submit votes of no confidence against senior ministers, including members of the ruling family. Kuwaiti ruler hospitalised for medical checks | Famous Person - Death | September 2020 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Arabiya)'] |
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez arrives back in Cuba for chemotherapy treatment. | CARACAS, Venezuela, July 16 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugh Chavez says he will go to Cuba Saturday to undergo chemotherapy treatment for a cancer he had removed earlier.
"I need to continue completing the strict plan designed by the medical team that is accompanying me on this ascent of the mountain," Chavez said Friday.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said Chavez, 56, underwent surgery in Cuba last month to remove a cancerous tumor from his pelvic area, although the exact nature of the illness isn't known.
Chavez spent nearly a month in Cuba recovering from the surgery, the BBC reported.
Chavez has asked the National Assembly to authorize Saturday's trip to Cuba, as the constitution requires.
China's Xinhua news agency said Chavez has made several appearances on television this week. He also addressed troops, attended mass and led a cabinet meeting.
"I know there are people who are happy because they believe I'm dying, that I'm going to die soon," Chavez said Friday on state television. "But those evil wishes are part of that hatred … that is erased like a tsunami of love by the blessings and prayers of a nation, of millions." | Famous Person - Sick | July 2011 | ['(UPI)'] |
The challenger Venezuelan Jorge Linares defeats reigning champion British Anthony Crolla to claim the WBA lightweight title at Manchester Arena. | Last updated on 24 September 201624 September 2016.From the section Boxing
Anthony Crolla lost his WBA lightweight title to Jorge Linares after a gruelling battle at Manchester Arena.
Crolla, 29, was making the second defence of the title he won from Colombia's Darleys Perez last November.
After a slow start Crolla appeared to have found his range by the middle rounds, although the challenger landed with the more eye-catching punches.
But the Venezuelan's superior skills trumped Crolla's constant pressure and he was awarded a unanimous decision. Two judges thought the fight was close, awarding it 115-114 and 115-113 to Linares, while the third judge had the challenger winning 117-111.
Linares immediately offered Crolla a rematch, while the Manchester boxer's promoter left the crowd in little doubt that the two men would do it again.
"I am deeply disappointed. I have no complaints, but I am sorry I couldn't do it for this crowd," Crolla told Radio 5 live.
"He's the best man I've ever been in a ring with, he's very fast and sharp and it was a pleasure to be in there with him.
"I gave it everything, it wasn't through a lack of trying, the difference was I took one or two hard counter-shots, which I was warned about by my team, and I paid the price.
"I am gutted, it's heart-breaking to lose the belt, but I will come back from this."
Crolla was bidding to emulate fellow Mancunian Ricky Hatton, who beat Kostya Tszyu at the same venue in 2005 to secure the coveted Ring magazine light-welterweight title and lay claim to being the best in the division.
In his only previous bout on British soil last May, Linares climbed off the canvas before stopping Kevin Mitchell in 10 rounds at London's O2 arena.
Former three-weight world champion Linares, 31, made one more defence of his WBC lightweight belt before he was forced to vacate because of inactivity.
There was little to separate the boxers in the opening two rounds, although the challenger, who has not lost for more than four years, did land with a couple of spiteful looking lefts to the body. Linares stunned the champion with a dazzling combination at the start of the third and was unmoved when Crolla got through with an uppercut on the bell.
Crolla appeared to have found his range at the start of the fourth, during which Linares was warned twice for low blows. The second, a savage left hook, momentarily took the wind out of the champion's sails.
Linares was cut over the left eye at the start of the fifth and it appeared the momentum was beginning to turn towards the champion, who was backing Linares up and landing with left jabs and hooks.
The fight opened up in the sixth, Linares strafing Crolla with fast hands before the champion hit back with a juddering uppercut. When Linares landed with a couple of clubbing overhand rights, Crolla appeared to be in serious trouble. But he soaked up the punishment on the ropes before coming out punching again.
By the seventh the fight had become a grim war of attrition and the eighth followed in the same fashion, although Linares threw the more hurtful shots.
Crolla probably nicked the ninth but it was difficult to separate the two men as they entered the championship rounds, Crolla having been the busier but Linares having arguably landed with the more eye-catching punches.
Linares had the better of the 10th while the penultimate round was a case of sucking it up before the final push, with Linares barely throwing a right hand.
Linares came out all guns blazing in the 12th, jerking Crolla's head back with overhand rights and flashing left hooks. Crolla landed with a juddering left hook as the fight enter its final stages but Linares remained entirely unruffled.
The Tokyo-based Linares, whose blazing hand speed and variety of punches meant Crolla could have no complaint about the outcome, also claimed the coveted Ring magazine lightweight title. "I want to tell all the people thank you very much," said Linares. "We gave Manchester a beautiful fight and we can do it again.
"I hurt my hand in the sixth, and backed off a bit, in the 10th I told my corner I would close out the victory and I did and that's what got me the victory."
Crolla has experienced a stratospheric rise through the ranks since suffering a fractured skull and broken ankle when confronting burglars in 2014. And his defeat by Linares, his fifth in 39 professional fights, does not spell the end of his elite-level career by any means, with other options out there apart from an immediate rematch A match against former school-mate and WBO champion Terry Flanagan could also now happen, if promotional obstacles can be surmounted.
In June, Flanagan claimed his promoter Frank Warren had offered Crolla the fight but that Hearn turned it down. Hearn said that Flanagan did not bring enough money to the table and opted for a match with Ismael Barroso instead.
BBC Sport boxing expert Steve Bunce: "That was a fantastic performance from a great fighter. We've seen tenacity, skill and composure from Linares. "Crolla played his part from the opening round but his power seeped away from him towards the end. Not his heart, just his power. I think Crolla was close to exhaustion."
Former world champion Richie Woodhall on Radio 5 live: "Linares is a true champion and didn't let the crowd get to him. "Crolla had to take some hard shots, he showed dogged determination and boxed intelligently but he took one too many shots. Linares has very quick hands and that helped him control the fight at the end."
Jack Arnfield of Blackpool secured the fringe WBA 'international' middleweight title with a unanimous decision over London's John Ryder. Boston's Callum Johnson claimed the vacant Commonwealth light-heavyweight title with a ninth-round knockout of tough Namibian Wilberforce Shihepo. Hosea Burton, like Johnson trained by Joe Gallagher, was meant to have defended his British light-heavyweight title against Frank Buglioni only for Buglioni to withdraw because of a cut.
Watched by his cousin Tyson Fury, who withdrew from his scheduled rematch with Wladimir Klitschko on Friday, Burton stopped Mexican replacement Fernando Castaneda in three rounds to stay unbeaten in 18 pro fights. Conor Benn, boxing over six rounds for the first time, made it five wins from five professional fights by outpointing Middlesbrough's Ross Jameson.
Benn, son of British boxing great Nigel, looked raw, was easily hit and ran out of steam in the final round but is only 19 and has plenty of time to improve.
Analysis and opinion from the BBC's boxing correspondent.
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How to get into boxing - intense cardiovascular exercise from sparring in one of the Olympics' oldest sports. | Sports Competition | September 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Mark Ronson wins Best British single for "Uptown Funk" featuring American singer Bruno Mars. | The artist and producer picks up the award for his funk phenomenon Uptown Funk featuring Bruno Mars Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 11.53 GMT
Mark Ronson has won the award for best British single for Uptown Funk at this year’s Brit awards in London. The producer and artist beat out fellow nominees Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne, Ella Henderson, Duke Dumont featuring Jax Jones, George Ezra, and Route 94 featuring Jess Glynne and Sigma.
Ronson’s single, featuring Bruno Mars, marked a revival for the British producer. His comeback single, lifted from Uptown Special, rocketed straight to No 1 following a boost by Fleur East’s cover of the track on The X Factor.
His hold on the UK charts has been continual since its release in late 2014 – it enjoyed seven non-consecutive weeks at the top of the charts following its release – with a brief interuption at Christmas when the X Factor winner Ben Haenow went to the top. With the single, Ronson has scored the most weeks at No 1 since Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love in 2007. | Awards ceremony | February 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Same–sex marriage becomes legal in England and Wales after the Marriage Bill receives Royal Assent. | Same-sex couples will be able to get married in England and Wales after new measures became law. The government's controversial legislation on the issue received Royal Assent on Wednesday.
The Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaderships all backed the proposals, which were finally approved by MPs and peers earlier this week.
It is expected that the first gay and lesbian wedding ceremonies will take place by summer next year.
Under the terms of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, religious organisations will have to "opt in" to offering weddings, with the Church of England and Church in Wales being banned in law from doing so.
Commons Speaker John Bercow announced the bill had received Royal Assent - the formal approval of the sovereign required for all legislation. The news was greeted with cheers in the Commons chamber.
MPs decided not to oppose a number of minor changes agreed by the House of Lords and approved the legislation on Tuesday.
There will also be a review of whether groups such as the humanists will be allowed to carry out marriages, while ministers said they were prepared to look at eliminating any difference in the treatment of gay couples when it came to pension schemes.
During the Commons debate, Equalities Minister Maria Miller said the passing of the bill was "clear affirmation" that "respect for each and every person is paramount, regardless of age, religion, gender, ethnicity or sexuality", she added.
But Conservative MP Sir Gerald Howarth, one of the bill's opponents, said it was "astonishing that a bill for which there is absolutely no mandate, against which a majority of Conservatives voted, has been bulldozed through both Houses".
He added: "I think the government should think very carefully in future if they want the support of these benches. Offending large swathes of the Conservative Party is not a good way of going about it."
But Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: "It's wonderful to see same-sex marriage achieve legal recognition. Quakers see the light of God in everyone so we respect the inherent worth of each individual and each loving relationship."
| Government Policy Changes | July 2013 | ['(Same Sex Couples)', '(BBC)'] |
Member states of the Nile Basin Initiative hold their annual meeting in Khartoum after a two–year hiatus. | States of the Eastern Nile Basin region -- including Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan -- held an annual meeting in Khartoum on Tuesday in the absence of Egyptian representatives. Egypt suspended its membership in the in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in 2000 to protest plans by upstream countries to “renegotiate” a 1959 water-sharing agreement. Tuesday’s meeting comes one day before the resumption of tripartite talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia -- following a two-year hiatus -- to discuss Addis Ababa’s controversial Great Renaissance Dam project.
After the opening session, Sudanese Irrigation and Electricity Minister Mutaz Miss told reporters that the meeting would discuss means of enhancing coordination between NBI member-states with a view to optimizing Nile water use in the fields of agriculture and electricity production. Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Sileshi Bekele, for his part, accused “unnamed parties” of intentionally working to sow dissension among NBI member-states. South Sudanese Irrigation Minister Sophia Pal, meanwhile, called for a more mutually-beneficial system of water-sharing between states of the region. Egypt fears that any modification of the 1959 water-sharing treaty will adversely affect its historical share of Nile water. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2018 | ['(Anadolu Agency)'] |
In basketball, David Blatt, who coached Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague title this past season, has reportedly reached a deal to become the new head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Blatt is the first Euroleague coach to become an NBA head coach. | CLEVELAND -- David Blatt went overseas to chase his basketball dreams. He's coming back to fulfill them.
One of Europe's top coaches, Blatt was hired Friday by the Cavaliers, who ended a sweeping, 39-day search with an out-of-the-box selection they hope changes their fortunes.
American-born, Princeton-schooled and considered one of the game's brightest offensive minds, Blatt, 55, has long been interested in coaching in the NBA, and the Cavs will give him his first shot.
Blatt was given a three-year deal worth about $10 million with a fourth-year team option that includes incentives, sources told ESPN.com.
Cleveland contacted high-profile college coaches and interviewed both retreaded head coaches and on-the-rise assistants before zeroing in and landing Blatt, who won several European titles while coaching in Israel and guided Russia to a bronze medal at the London Olympics two years ago.
"David Blatt is going to bring some of the most innovative approaches found in professional basketball anywhere on the globe," Cavs owner Dan Gilbert said. "Time and time again, from Russia to Israel and several other prominent head coaching jobs in between, David has done one thing: 'win.' He is not only an innovator, well-trained and focused on both sides of the court, but he is always learning and always teaching."
Blatt will be introduced by the team Wednesday, one day before the club picks first in this year's NBA draft.
Cleveland's third coach in three years, Blatt replaces Mike Brown, who was fired -- for the second time -- on May 12, a few weeks after the Cavs finished 33-49 and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Blatt was not believed to be on Cleveland's radar early in its search, but that changed when he resigned at Maccabi Tel Aviv to pursue an NBA gig.
"I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to come to Cleveland and lead the Cavaliers as their head coach," Blatt said. "We are going to work extremely hard to achieve the kind of results we all expect and know are possible."
Blatt also was coveted as an assistant by Golden State and Minnesota, but the Cavs made him the first European coach to make the jump to the NBA as a head coach.
"David is a great basketball coach and a special person," Cavs general manager David Griffin said. "His abilities to communicate, to build relationships with his players and to foster winning environments at several stops throughout Europe and across the highest levels of international competition speak for itself. He brings unbridled passion, energy and creativity to his craft.
"I have watched David's work for many years. He has an uncanny ability to adapt his system to maximize the talents of his teams year after year. That is why I am very confident he will make a smooth transition to the NBA."
With Blatt in place, the Cavs can focus their attention on next week's draft.
As agent Mike Tannenbaum was negotiating Blatt's contract, Griffin and the rest of Cleveland's front office got a closer look at Duke forward Jabari Parker, who worked out at the team's training facility in Independence, Ohio. Parker is one of the Cavs' options with the No. 1 pick, a selection they are determined to get right.
Last year, the Cavs selected forward Anthony Bennett with the top choice, but he had a disastrous rookie season that began with him coming into training camp out of shape after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Cleveland had been strongly considering Kansas center Joel Embiid, but he underwent foot surgery Friday and estimates on his return range from six months to a full season. Taking Embiid, who missed the end of his freshman year with a back stress fracture, would be risky, and the Cavs are more likely to go a safer route and select Parker or Jayhawks forward Andrew Wiggins, who visited the team earlier this week.
It's also possible the Cavs could trade the pick, and Griffin has said the team will listen to offers.
With free agency to follow the draft, Cleveland's roster could have a very different look by the time Blatt holds his first practices.
Blatt played point guard at Princeton under legendary coach Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril, whose pass-and-cut offense has often been mimicked. Blatt has incorporated elements of the Princeton system into his offense.
His style with Cleveland will be vastly different than the team experienced under Brown, who improved Cleveland's defense this season in his second stint with the club. However, the Cavs' offense rarely flowed and the team was prone to empty possessions, turnovers or poor shot selection.
Blatt led Maccabi Tel Aviv to a stunning upset of Real Madrid in this year's Euroleague championship, and in the celebration afterward, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded with him to stay. But the chance to coach in the NBA was too much to resist, and Blatt, who emigrated to Israel after college, will return to live in the U.S. for the first time in 30 years.
Cleveland is his new home.
The Cavs can only hope he stays a while.
Information from ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst and Jeff Goodman and The Associated Press was used in this report. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | June 2014 | ['(ESPN)'] |
A Togolese constitutional court announces Faure Gnassingbé as a winner of presidential election. Refugees continue to flee to neighboring countries. | Lome - Togo's constitutional court has certified election results showing the son of this West African nation's late dictator had won last month's presidential ballot. The results had sparked deadly riots in the streets of the capital and a flow of refugees out of the country. The High Court confirmation on Tuesday, while expected, raised concerns there could be more violence. Chief Justice Atsu Koffi Amagah confirmed results released last week by the electoral commission, saying Faure Gnassingbe won 60% of the vote and opposition leader Bob Akitani took 38%. Akitani had filed an appeal to contest the results, complaining ballot boxes were stuffed and stolen, and voter registration lists were tampered with. Amagah said, "The petition filed by Akitani lacks substance, evidence and merit." "According to the constitution, the candidate with the majority of votes must be declared president," Amagah said. "Therefore, the court declares Faure Gnassingbe the legally elected new president of the Republic of Togo." Gnassingbe, 39, is expected to be inaugurated within 48 hours. The announcement raised concerns of a return to deadly street fighting that has sent 20 000 refugees fleeing. The April 26 announcement of Gnassingbe's provisional victory sparked two days of clashes between security forces and outraged opposition supporters that left at least 22 dead nationwide. There were no immediate signs of violence on Tuesday. Security forces dismantled barricades made of torn cobblestones in the opposition stronghold of Be, where much of last week's violence occurred. Most shops closed early before the announcement, and streets downtown were empty, though small groups of soldiers deployed heavily across the seaside city, patrolling in vehicles and standing on corners with guns. The United Nations said Togolese fearing instability continued to flee. About 18 500 refugees have been registered in neighbouring Ghana and Benin, where relief camps are starting to reach capacity, the UN refugee agency said in a statement. Togo fell into crisis February 5 when Gnassingbe Eyadema, the country's strongman of nearly 40 years, died of a heart attack, and loyalists in the military installed his son to succeed him. Under heavy international pressure from African nations that called the succession a coup, Gnassingbe stepped down and promised to run in elections. | Government Job change - Election | May 2005 | ['(News24)'] |
A new class action lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in U.S. federal court in Illinois, claims the Volkswagen Group used emission defeat devices in at least six of its Audi V6 gasoline engines. |
A newly filed class action lawsuit accuses Audi of using defeat devices in at least six of its V6 gasoline-engined vehicles. In a complaint filed in federal court in Illinois on behalf of more than 100,000 consumers, automotive class-action specialist Hagens Berman alleges the automaker employed defeat devices in the gasoline 3.0-liter Audi A6, A8, Q5 and Q7 vehicles in addition to others.
The suit comes days after the German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported Audi had employed software that monitored driving modes to detect when vehicles were being tested for emisssions, and modified CO2 output accordingly by varying the operation of the automatic transmission. The report also claimed that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been aware of these devices in Audi vehicles for several months, suggesting that they had been discovered in mid-2016 at the latest.
"Throughout the yearlong Dieselgate scandal, Audi chose to continue to deceive consumers across the country with yet another emissions-cheating device installed in even more of its vehicles,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman. “This kind of flagrant disregard for federal environmental regulations and consumers’ expectations is unacceptable, and we intend to hold Audi to the law on behalf of those who overpaid for Audi’s noncompliant, polluting cars."
The lawsuit comes a few weeks after the 2.0-liter TDI buyback and compensation program received final approval from the U.S. District Court that had been overseeing negotiations between the automaker and U.S. agencies and plaintiff groups, and amid negotiations over the fate of some 85,000 3.0-liter TDI vehicles.
The latter issue, placed on the back burner amid 2.0-liter settlement negotiations, now approaches a turning point amid reports that at least 21,000 older VW Touareg and Audi Q7 vehicles could face a buyback program as they may be too difficult and expensive to fix. The VW Group has not commented substantively on the 3.0-liter TDI issue, citing ongoing negotiations with federal agencies, though last week Audi added over $600 million to funds aimed at addressing the 3.0-liter TDI issue lending weight to the possibility of a significant compensation program that could include buybacks. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2016 | ['(UPI)', '(Auto Week)', '(Industry Week)'] |
Demetrius Pitts, accused of planning an al-Qaeda bombing in Cleveland, makes his first court appearance. | CLEVELAND/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Ohio man arrested on suspicion of planning to detonate a bomb at Cleveland’s Fourth of July celebrations and then stand by and watch “it go off” was granted a public defender on Monday during his initial court appearance.
FBI agents on Sunday arrested Demetrius Pitts, 48, after he met with an undercover agent and said he planned to plant a bomb at an event celebrating the U.S. Independence Day holiday in the Ohio city.
Pitts, a U.S. citizen and Philadelphia native who had expressed allegiance to the al Qaeda militant group, intended to target other locations in Cleveland and Philadelphia, the agency said.
An undercover FBI agent helped Pitts pick the location for his planned attack. The site is near multiple U.S. government buildings and a scheduled fireworks show along the city’s Lake Erie waterfront.
“I’m gonna be downtown when the when the thing go off. I’m gonna be somewhere cuz I wanna see it go off,” Pitts told an undercover agent who he believed was affiliated with al Qaeda, according to court documents.
Most American cities and towns mark the holiday with fireworks and parades, and typically ramp up security around such events.
In 2015, U.S. law enforcement officials said they had arrested more than 10 people inspired by the Islamic State militant group ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, saying the arrests had disrupted planned attacks.
Pitts also suggested giving the children of military personnel remote control cars packed with explosives during the event, in the hope they would unwittingly detonate the bombs, the FBI said.
Pitts, most recently of the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights, has criminal and traffic convictions in Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, dating back to 1989 through 2006. He served time in prison for a 1993 robbery in the area.
In his latest run-in with law enforcement, he was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
He appeared in court wearing glasses, a gray T-shirt, khaki shorts and black sneakers with the laces removed. He told the judge he was unemployed and was assigned to the public defender’s office.
Pitts also discussed possibly traveling to San Francisco for reconnaissance for al Qaeda, the FBI said.
Relatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
“This defendant, by his own words and by his own deeds, wanted to attack our nation and its ideals,” said Justin Herdman, the U.S. attorney for northern Ohio.
According to one of two of his Facebook pages, Pitts attended culinary school in Philadelphia, lived in Chicago and went to high school in Lincoln City, Oregon.
The FBI reviewed the Ohio suspect’s Facebook account, which appeared to have been taken down on Monday, after receiving a tip and determined that Pitts was “threatening violence against the United States,” the FBI said.
In January 2017, under the name Abdur Raheem Rafeeq, Pitts commented on pictures believed to be of a training camp for militants.
But officials said he had been radicalized in the United States.
“We need to known how to shoot guns... We should always be prepared to fight in the name of Allah Akbar,” the post read, according to the FBI. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A 43-year-old protester is shot dead outside a pawnshop. The shooting is carried out by the owner of the shop. He is arrested. | Authorities on Friday identified the only person whose death has so far been connected to the unrest that has persisted since George Floyd died Monday after his curbside detention in Minneapolis.
Calvin L. Horton Jr., 43, of Minneapolis, was fatally shot outside a pawnshop Wednesday night on East Lake Street near S. Bloomington Avenue, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.
Horton suffered wounds to his chest and other upper extremities, the examiner's office announced.
A 59-year-old man from Galesville, Wis., who owns Cadillac Jewelry, was arrested that night and remains jailed ahead of possible murder charges. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.
The storefront suffered significant damage and was looted that night.
Police have yet to disclose a motive for the shooting, but police sources said the owner suspected the man was involved in the looting.
Two officers responded to the scene outside the pawnshop and administered first aid to Horton until medics arrived. He was taken to HCMC, where he died.
Paul Walsh • 612-968-2483
Paul Walsh is a general assignment reporter at the Star Tribune. He wants your news tips, especially in and near Minnesota. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2020 | ['(Star Tribune)'] |
Six Italian peacekeepers are injured in an attack on their UNIFIL vehicle in Lebanon. | Friday, 27 May 2011 UNIFIL has about 12,000 troops and naval personnel in Lebanon. (File photo)
By ABEER TAYEL
Al Arabiya with Agencies
Two Italian peacekeepers were badly hurt in an explosion targeting their UN patrol in Lebanon Friday that also wounded four others, Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said.
“Of the two who were gravely wounded, one risks losing his eye while the other suffered a laceration of his carotid artery and has already been operated” on, Mr. La Russa told reporters in Milan, according to Agence-France Presse.
An earlier report from Italian news agency ANSA citing defense ministry sources had said that one soldier was killed in the blast.
Lebanese security sources also said one peacekeeper had died in the attack on a busy highway leading to the port city, leaving a huge, grey plume of smoke, according to Reuters.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the bomb had been aimed at a logistics convoy and confirmed six peacekeepers had been wounded.
“Five are moderately wounded, and one is seriously wounded. They are in a hospital in Sidon,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told Reuters.
The attack prompted Rome to declare it would reduce its contingent, which is the largest in UNIFIL with nearly 1,700 soldiers. UNIFIL’s previous commander was also Italian.
The force of the explosion tore through part of a highway concrete barrier, smashed the white jeep’s windows and left it riddled with shrapnel, a Reuters picture showed. The driver’s face, hands and stomach were drenched in blood.
Other pictures showed two peacekeepers with bloodied faces and dazed expressions after they left the destroyed vehicle in Rmaileh village, about 35 km south of Beirut, and near Ain al-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp where Islamist militant groups are known to reside.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, which happened on the UN’s International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, when peacekeepers killed in missions across the world are commemorated by their colleagues.
“The United Nations will work closely together with the Lebanese authorities to have a full and swift investigation on the attack to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Mr. Ban said.
The last bomb attack against UNIFIL was in January 2008 when two Irish peacekeepers were slightly wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near the area of Friday's attack. A car bomb killed six UN peacekeepers in June 2007.
UNIFIL has about 12,000 troops and naval personnel in the country after its expansion under UN Security Council resolution 1701 that halted the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL operates along 15,000 Lebanese army troops who are deployed in the south to keep peace near the frontier with Israel and make sure it is free of weapons transfers in an area that is a stronghold of Hezbollah guerrillas.
The border area has stayed largely quiet with the exception of occasional flare-ups. Ten Palestinian demonstrators were killed earlier this month after Israeli troops opened fire on a protest on the Lebanese side of the border, the Lebanese army and security sources said.
A senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist were killed when Lebanese and Israeli troops clashed last August. | Famous Person - Sick | May 2011 | ['(Al Arabiya)'] |
ITN news announces it has uncovered classified documents which seem to imply that Jean Charles de Menezes, the man shot dead by British Police on July 22, 2005, was not wearing a heavy coat, did not jump the ticket barrier, was not given a warning, and did not at any time flee from police. | ITV News has obtained secret documents and photographs that detail why police shot Jean Charles De Menezes dead on the tube.
The Brazilian electrician was killed on 22 July, the day after the series of failed bombings on the tube and bus network.
The crucial mistake that ultimately led to his death was made at 9.30am when Jean Charles left his flat in Scotia Road, South London.
Surveillance officers wrongly believed he could have been Hussain Osman, one of the prime suspects, or another terrorist suspect.
By 10am that morning, elite firearms officers were provided with what they describe as "positive identification" and shot De Menezes eight times in the head and upper body.
The documents and photographs confirm that Jean Charles was not carrying any bags, and was wearing a denim jacket, not a bulky winter coat, as had previously been claimed.
He was behaving normally, and did not vault the barriers, even stopping to pick up a free newspaper.
He started running when we saw a tube at the platform. Police had agreed they would shoot a suspect if he ran.
A document describes CCTV footage, which shows Mr de Menezes entered Stockwell station at a "normal walking pace" and descended slowly on an escalator.
The document said: "At some point near the bottom he is seen to run across the concourse and enter the carriage before sitting in an available seat.
"Almost simultaneously armed officers were provided with positive identification."
A member of the surveillance team is quoted in the report. He said: "I heard shouting which included the word `police' and turned to face the male in the denim jacket.
"He immediately stood up and advanced towards me and the CO19 officers. I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side.
"I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had been previously sitting. I then heard a gun shot very close to my left ear and was dragged away onto the floor of the carriage."
The report also said a post mortem examination showed Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder, but three other bullets missed, with the casings left lying in the tube carriage. | Famous Person - Death | August 2005 | ['(ITN)'] |
The World Health Organization warns that the Zika virus will continue to spread across Asia with cases already reported in Singapore and Thailand. | Zika infections are "highly likely" to keep spreading in Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Hundreds of cases of the virus have been reported in Singapore while two cases of Zika-linked microcephaly have already been confirmed in Thailand.
The mosquito-borne virus has been detected in 70 countries worldwide, at least 19 in the Asia Pacific region.
WHO director Margaret Chan said experts were still looking for ways to deal with the virus.
Zika virus: The outbreak in Asia
In a report released on Monday at its annual meeting in Manila, the WHO said it is "highly likely that the region will continue to report new cases and possibly new outbreaks of Zika".
This is because the carrier of the disease - the Aedes mosquito - is widely found in the region, which also sees a high volume of travel. There is also still uncertainty about the level of immunity in the regional population, the report added.
"Unfortunately, scientists do not yet have answers to many critical questions [about Zika]," Ms Chan said at the meeting.
Though the virus is known to have existed in Asia for decades, she noted that the first sign of its presence in some countries came from travellers whose Zika infections were only confirmed once they returned home.
"Is this weak surveillance, an indication of population-wide immunity, or proof that the virus has somehow acquired greater epidemic potential?" she asked.
Zika generally has mild effects but is more dangerous for pregnant women as it has been linked to severe birth defects, including the brain deformation microcephaly.
The latest large-scale outbreak originated in Brazil.
.
| Disease Outbreaks | October 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
The plane carried President of Poland Lech Kaczyński, his economist wife, army chief, central bank governor, MPs, leading historians, and many top Polish government officials to their deaths. | Footage from the scene shows firefighters at work amid the wreckage
President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other senior Polish figures have been killed in a plane crash in Russia.
Polish and Russian officials said no-one survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog. Russian media reports said the pilots ignored advice from air traffic control to divert to another airport. Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the crash was the most tragic event of the country's post-World War II history. The Polish delegation was flying in from Warsaw to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces during WWII. The BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw, says the crash is a catastrophe for the Polish people. He says Prime Minister Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told. After an emergency meeting of ministers, Mr Tusk, who runs the day-to-day business of government, said a week of national mourning had been declared with two minutes of silence on Sunday at midday. Mr Tusk added: "The Polish state must function and will function".
A government spokesman said that according to the constitution there would be an early presidential election, and the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, would be acting president. In Warsaw, people gathered outside the presidential palace to lay flowers and light candles. "I'm all broken up... it cannot be expressed in words," Ewa Robaczewska told Reuters news agency. Pilot error?
The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT) as it was coming in to land. Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.
Thousands of people have gathered outside the presidential palace to pay their respects.
There has been a spontaneous outpouring of grief, no matter what people thought of Lech Kaczynski. He was a divisive figure in Polish society, especially among younger Poles.
People are just stunned, visibly moved and in tears, whether they agreed with the president's political views or not.
The largest church bell in Poland, at Krakow Cathedral, has been rung.
It never tolls generally, only for very, very solemn occasions. The last time it did so was for the death of the Polish pope, John Paul II, five years ago.
"According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces," he said. "There are no survivors in that crash." Polish TV worker Slawomir Wisniewski said he had seen the crash from his hotel near the airport. "I saw through the fog, the aeroplane flying very low with the left wing pointing to the ground," he said. "I heard something being broken and then that thudding sound. Two flashes of fire next to each other." Russian media carried claims that the plane's crew were at fault for the crash. "Flight controllers... suggested that the plane be forwarded to Minsk but as far as we know the crew took an independent decision to land the plane in Smolensk," Smolensk regional government spokesman Andrei Yevseyenkov told Russian TV. Russian officials said 97 people were killed in the crash, including eight crew. Polish officials said that 89 people had been scheduled to fly in the delegation to the Katyn commemoration, but one person missed the flight. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the crash site, after saying he would personally oversee the investigation into the crash. "Everything must be done to establish the reasons for this tragedy in the shortest possible time," he said. He was to meet his Polish counterpart, Mr Tusk, in Smolensk. Russian officials said all the bodies had been recovered from the scene and were being taken to Moscow for identification. Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said both of the plane's flight information recorders had been found and were being examined. Controversial figure
The president was flying in a Tupolev 154, a Soviet-designed plane that was more than 20 years old.
Source: TVP1, Warsaw
Our correspondent says there had been calls for Polish leaders to upgrade their planes. Mr Kaczynski himself had suffered scares while using the plane in late 2008, when problems with the aircraft's steering mechanism delayed his departure from Mongolia. "Any flight brings with it a certain risk, but a very serious risk attaches to the responsibilities of a president, because it is necessary to fly constantly," he was quoted as saying at the time. But the head of Russia's Aviakor aviation maintenance company told Russian TV the plane was airworthy, after his plant fully overhauled it in December. As well as the president and his wife, Maria, a number of senior officials were on the passenger list. They included the army chief of staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer. World leaders including Mr Putin, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered their condolences to Poland. Mr Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw, a former prime minister and now head of the main opposition party, was said to be "devastated", an aide told AFP news agency. Lech Kaczynski, who had fewer powers than the prime minister but had a significant say in foreign policy, was a controversial figure in Polish politics. He had advocated a right-wing Catholic agenda, opposed rapid free-market reforms and favoured retaining social welfare programmes. What are these? | Famous Person - Death | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Hindu)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Egyptian businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa is convicted of murdering Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim. | CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- An Egyptian business tycoon and a former police officer have been found guilty in last July's slaying of a rising Lebanese pop singer.
Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a real estate mogul, has been found guilty of Suzanne Tamim's murder.
The case, with its high-profile victim and defendant, has captivated Egypt and the region.
A judge convicted and sentenced to death real estate mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa and the former officer Muhsen el Sukkari on Thursday.
Egypt's Grand Mufti -- the country's highest religious official -- will review the sentence and rule on June 25 if the men will be executed, the judge said. Because the two men were sentenced under Islamic law, it is widely expected that they would be hanged.
Mustafa's lawyer told reporters outside the courtroom that he will appeal the conviction, saying there was "a one million percent guarantee" the sentence would be overturned.
The singer, Suzanne Tamim, was found slain in her apartment in the United Arab Emirates. She had been stabbed and her throat slit.
Prosecutors alleged that Moustafa, a parliament member for the ruling National Democratic Party, paid el Sukkari $2 million to kill Tamim.
During the trial, Moustafa's lawyer told CNN his client loved the singer, but could not take Tamim as a second wife because his family objected.
Polygamy is legal in Egypt, and it's not unusual for men -- such as Moustafa, a married father of three -- to take on additional wives.
Prosecutors have said Tamim's death was a "means of taking revenge," but have not elaborated.
Moustafa and el Sukkari claim the prosecution's evidence could have been fabricated or tampered with by UAE authorities and should not be used against them.
Although Tamim was killed in the United Arab Emirates, the Egyptian judiciary tried the case in Cairo because the accused were arrested in Egypt.
After his arrest in September, Egyptian authorities indicted Moustafa, stripped him of his parliamentary immunity and jailed him pending trial. He also resigned as chairman of Talaat Moustafa Group -- a conglomerate with construction and real estate arms that was founded by his father, Talaat Moustafa.
Moustafa's brother, Tarek Talaat Moustafa, now chairs the company.
CNN's Raja Razek and Housam Ahmed contributed to this story. All About United Arab Emirates • Egypt | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2009 | ['(CNN)'] |
The United States House of Representatives approves contempt of Congress citations against Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten in the U.S. Attorneys controversy. | The House yesterday escalated a constitutional showdown with President Bush, approving the first-ever contempt of Congress citations against West Wing aides and reigniting last year's battle over the scope of executive privilege.
On a 223 to 32 vote, the House approved contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers over their refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the mass firings of U.S. attorneys and allegations that administration officials sought to politicize the Justice Department.
The vote came after a morning of tense partisan bickering over parliamentary rules, including a GOP call for a vote on a motion to close the chamber that briefly forced lawmakers to leave a memorial service for Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), who died this week. The conflict was capped later in the day when most House Republicans walked off the floor and refused to cast a final vote. They accused Democrats of forcing a partisan vote on the contempt citations instead of approving a surveillance bill supported by Bush.
Democrats said they were left with no choice but to engage in a legal showdown with Bush because he has refused for nearly a year to allow any current or former West Wing staff member to testify in the inquiry. Citing executive privilege, the president has offered their testimony on the condition that it is taken without transcripts and not under oath.
"This is beyond arrogance. This is hubris taken to the ultimate degree," Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in the closing moments of the debate.
The administration immediately condemned the House action, noting that no White House official has ever been cited for contempt. "This action is unprecedented, and it is outrageous. It is also an incredible waste of time -- time the House should spend doing the American people's legislative business," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.
Until now, the most recent Cabinet-level officials cited for contempt were two administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, in 1982 and 1983, over their refusal to cooperate in House oversight investigations.
The contempt resolution against Bolten cites his refusal to turn over subpoenaed documents and e-mails sought by the House Judiciary Committee in its now year-long investigation into the dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. Miers is cited for refusing to testify after she was subpoenaed to appear before the panel last summer.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved contempt citations for Bolten and former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, who also refused to appear before that panel. The full Senate has not acted on the matter.
The furor over the fired prosecutors began in January 2007 when congressional Democrats learned that seven U.S. attorneys had been fired on the same day, Dec. 7, 2006. Most senior staff members of the Justice Department resigned as the congressional investigations unfolded, and former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales, who resigned in late August, is the subject of an internal investigation into whether he tampered with a likely witness.
Democrats said their votes were meant to compel more information from a White House that has blocked their efforts to complete their investigation. "Absent this resolution, the Congress has yielded to the executive the principle of whether they participate in oversight," said Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.).
By law, the contempt citations go to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeffrey A. Taylor, but the White House and the Justice Department have said that no executive branch employee will face a grand jury inquiry. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2008 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
The Algerian Civil Defence says that 20 people were killed and 11 others injured when a vehicle carrying illegal migrants overturned in Tamanrasset. Tamanrasset is a crossing point for illegal migrants from neighboring countries, specifically Mali and Niger. | Twenty people were killed Thursday in Algeria when a vehicle carrying mainly African nationals overturned in the south of the country, the civil protection unit said.
The crash took place near the town of Tamanrasset and 11 people were also injured, the rescue unit said on its Facebook page.
Those killed were 19 African nationals, including children, and the Algerian driver of the pick-up truck, which was completely destroyed in the accident, it added.
The injured were given first aid at the scene of the accident before being transferred to a hospital.
Tamanrasset in southernmost Algeria is near the country’s borders with Mali and Niger, and a key transit route for illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa trying to reach the Mediterranean to then cross to Europe.
In recent years Algeria has seen an influx of sub-Saharan migrants, many pouring across the country’s southern border.
The civil protection unit urged drivers to respect traffic rules in Algeria, where more than 3,000 people were killed on the roads in 2019 according to official figures. | Road Crash | December 2020 | ['(AFP via Channelstv)'] |
The United States White House announces the U.S. will give $419 million more in humanitarian aid to assist Syrian refugees and the countries that are hosting them. | The United States will give $419 million more in humanitarian aid to assist Syrian refugees and the countries that are hosting them, administration officials said Monday.
The new aid brings the total U.S. donation since the Syrian conflict began in 2011 to $4.5 billion, more than any other country. It was announced a day after Secretary of State John F. Kerry said the United States would raise its annual refugee resettlement cap from 70,000 this fiscal year to 85,000 next year and 100,000 in 2017.
The United States has been the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to Syrians who have been displaced within their war-torn country or who have become refugees. But the administration has been criticized for not admitting more Syrians to the United States in the face of an epic wave of people fleeing the war zone.
[Kerry says Syria’s Assad has to go, but U.S. is flexible as to when] President Obama has directed the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare for the arrival of at least 10,000 Syrians in the next 12 months. Some members of Congress and humanitarian groups have said the United States could handle the resettlement of 100,000 refugees from Syria, in addition to tens of thousands of people who are fleeing persecution and war in other countries around the world.
Officials say they hope that humanitarian aid helps make conditions more bearable in refugee camps, so that Syrians are more likely to stay in the region until the situation stabilizes and they can return home.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that the refugee crisis will be solved not by admitting refugees to the United States but by ending the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and confronting the threat from Islamic State militants who have established a self-declared caliphate in part of Syria.
Much of the latest donation will go directly to groups working with refugees. The largest share will go to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Children’s Fund. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the money will be used for medical care, including vaccinations; safe drinking water; and food and shelter.
Humanitarian groups have had to cut back much of their assistance as donations have dried up during the prolonged war, which has turned more than 4 million Syrians into refugees and displaced more than 7 million within their country. The United Nations has less than 40 percent of what it needs to help Syrians, and its agencies cut aid to some refugees in order to provide aid to those who are more vulnerable.
The U.S. donation will also assist governments and communities in the Middle East that are coping with massive numbers of Syrians seeking safety in neighboring countries. Turkey has taken in almost 2 million Syrians, while both Lebanon and Jordan are hosting about 1 million each.
| Financial Aid | September 2015 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
The Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final to advance to the Stanley Cup Final; they will face the San Jose Sharks. | PITTSBURGH -- And so seven years later, the door swings open once again to the Stanley Cup finals for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The same stage now awaits Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, as it did during that championship run of 2009.
So much time has passed, so many opportunities gone by the boards, and almost suddenly here it is again, the shot at glory many believed would be commonplace.
But in the wake of a dramatic 2-1 victory over a plucky Tampa Bay Lightning team in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night, if there is one defining characteristic about this Pittsburgh team, it's in how vastly different it is.
Sure, the stars are the defining characteristic of this Penguins team. It's hard to imagine a time when it would be anything but so.
But if those luminaries were the sum total of the team in the past -- and it's fair to suggest that was the case, given their playoff stumbles -- this team is much more. So much more.
The evidence was never clearer than in Game 7 when rookie Bryan Rust had a dominant night, scoring both goals and having a handful of glorious opportunities throughout the night.
At one point, Nick Bonino apparently leaned over to him on the Penguins bench and asked him how it felt to be a Pittsburgh hero.
"Right now I don't really know what to feel because it's kind of been a little bit of bombardment of interviews and emotions and people," Rust said as he stood surrounded by reporters at his locker room stall. "I'm sure once I'm able to kind of sit down and relax and to think about it a little bit, it'll kind of be fairly surreal."
Rust turned 24 during these playoffs. Nearby, Matt Cullen, 39, handed out conference championship hats to his sons, who yelped with delight. The Cullens had spent the night before watching "Sea Biscuit" and playing basement hockey.
Cullen won a Cup 10 years ago with the Carolina Hurricanes and he has chased a moment like this ever since.
"It's pretty special," he said. "I'll tell you what. You could only hope for this kind of opportunity. I'm just really thankful and you just feel so blessed to have this opportunity. You just know how hard it is to get here. These kind of opportunities don't come around often. So, pretty humbled right now."
Look around the room and you see that so many parts came together in such a fortuitous way. Cullen and his locker neighbor, Eric Fehr, were elsewhere a year ago -- Cullen, in fact, contemplating retirement.
Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel were likewise on other teams.
And then there are the kids: Rust, Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl, Brian Dumoulin and, of course, the goalie, Matt Murray, who turned 22 this week and will next week play in the Stanley Cup finals against the San Jose Sharks after starting the season in the American Hockey League.
Murray was lifted for Game 5 in favor of veteran Marc-Andre Fleury and then came on to win two elimination games in a row.
"A lot of new experiences," Murray said when asked about the tension-filled third period Thursday night. "But I've said it all along, I'm just trying to enjoy myself and stay in the moment and appreciate the moment."
Count head coach Mike Sullivan among those who were not with this team a year ago, and he in fact began the season with many of those sporting conference championship gear Thursday night with the AHL affiliate.
"I know there's a lot of stories that surround this group, but the greatest story of all is the group itself," Sullivan said.
In the same office in which I spoke with general manager Jim Rutherford after the Penguins knocked off the Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington Capitals in the second round, Rutherford said he felt there was something special about this group but admitted you never know what will happen when you bring so many disparate parts together.
"You don't know when new guys come in how they're going to fit," he said. "The one thing that we concentrated on when we were looking at making changes and new guys we were bringing in was the character of the player. We brought a lot of character guys in. And when you do that and they stick with it, they're going to come together, and this team really came together a few months ago. They've done what they needed to do to get here."
On the ice, Crosby picked up the Prince of Wales Trophy that goes to the Eastern Conference champion, just as he did back in 2009. The year earlier, when the Penguins also went to the Stanley Cup finals, Crosby left the trophy untouched. Never one to flirt with superstitious disaster, Crosby resumed the pattern even though seven years separated the two events.
If those of us outside the walls of the locker room had wondered if it might ever happen again or at least happen with the team built the way it was, Crosby said he never judged the playoff losses in terms of how the team was built.
"Every year you look at the opportunities you have, and we were in pretty good spots for a number of those years going into the playoffs," Crosby said. "I don't think the thought was with the group -- it was just maybe the opportunity that just missed, maybe, what could that have been?"
Those are questions, at least for the moment, Crosby does need to bother himself with trying to answer. | Sports Competition | May 2016 | ['(ESPN)'] |
The University of Leicester holds a media conference to announce that a skeleton found in Leicester last year during an archaeological dig is that of former King Richard III of England. | An image of a skull which it is thought could be that of Richard III has been released ahead of DNA test results.
Last year a University of Leicester team dug on the site of a church where it was believed the king was buried.
They found a skeleton with a badly curved spine and head injuries consistent with recorded details of Richard's death in 1485.
Results of DNA tests on the bones are to be released at a press conference which got under way at 10:00 GMT.
Dr Jo Appleby, from the University's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, led the study of the skull.
Dr Appleby said: "The skull was in good condition, although fragile, and was able to give us detailed information about this individual. It has been CT scanned at high resolution in order to allow us to investigate interesting features in as much detail as possible.
"In order to determine whether this individual is Richard III we have built up a biological profile of its characteristics. We have also carefully examined the skeleton for traces of a violent death."
Richard's two-year reign signalled the end of the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses and is seen by some historians as the last act of the medieval era.
His death at Bosworth - the last English king to be killed in battle - ushered in the Tudor dynasty beginning with Henry VII.
Shakespeare then helped to make Richard notorious as one of the English language's most memorable villains.
While he remains for many historians the prime suspect in the death of his nephews - the Princes in the Tower - the skeleton's discovery has provided a golden opportunity for those seeking to restore his reputation to put their case.
Dr Phil Stone, chair of the Richard III Society, said: "This is an incredibly exciting time for anyone interested in Richard - it is simply the biggest news to hit Ricardian studies for 500 years.
"I really hope it is him. It is important, not just because it answers questions about what happened to his body but it gives us a chance to give him the solemn and respectful burial he deserves.
"And along with that it gives us an opportunity to show the wider public what Richard was really like and remind them Shakespeare's play was fiction."
In September, the university confirmed there was "strong evidence" a skeleton found beneath a council car park in the Greyfriars area of Leicester was the lost king.
The remains have been subjected to a battery of tests, including DNA, carbon dating and environmental analysis in an effort to confirm the identification.
The DNA tests are based on samples from a possible 17th generation descendant of Richard's sister.
The skull itself has been used to reconstruct the likely appearance of the man while alive.
Richard Taylor, deputy registrar of the University of Leicester, said: "It has been a privilege to have been involved in what could prove to be one of the biggest archaeological discoveries of recent times.
"The University of Leicester has played a pivotal role not only in leading the archaeological dig but in terms of working in partnership with the city council and the Richard III Society to bring this extraordinary project to fruition.
"It is a testament to the skill of the University of Leicester's world-class archaeological team, led by Richard Buckley, along with the meticulous scientific work of university colleagues, that has led to this moment. There is a palpable excitement at the university for an announcement that could potentially rewrite history."
| New archeological discoveries | February 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(NBC News)'] |
At least four soldiers are killed in an ambush in the Sanmatenga Province of Burkina Faso. | At least four soldiers died in an ambush in the north of Burkina Faso on Wednesday, according to security sources in the West African country, which has been battling Islamist insurgents.
The attack near Yirgou, in Sanmatenga province, was mounted by armed men on motorcycles, killing four soldiers and injuring two, one security source said. The toll was confirmed by a second source.
Authorities were searching for the attackers, the second source said.
Members of an auxiliary force in Burkina Faso's anti-jihadist campaign, Volunteers for the Defence of the Motherland (VDP), were among those on patrol when the attack occurred, the source said.
Also on Wednesday, the military said a joint air and land operation had dismantled a "terrorist base" in the Ougarou area in the country's east on 14 April, leaving one "terrorist" dead.
That occurred on the same day eight VDP members died in another ambush in the Gorgadji area in the north.
Burkina Faso, a poor, landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, has been fighting a ruthless Islamist insurgency.
The VDP was set up in December 2019 to help the beleaguered military fight jihadists but it has suffered major casualties.
The volunteers are given two weeks' military training, and then work alongside the security forces, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties.
Burkina Faso has endured regular attacks, sometimes intertwined with community conflicts, since jihadists from neighbouring Mali launched raids in 2015.
G5 Sahel summit: Macron, regional leaders discuss jihadist insurgency
France and five allies gather on Monday to discuss the Sahel's jihadist insurgency, with Paris looking for support enabling it to cut French troop numbers in the strife-torn region. Leaders of the so-called G5 Sahel -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Ma...
G5 Sahel summit: France to meet regional leaders as it mulls troop drawdown
France and five allies gather on Monday to discuss the Sahel's jihadist insurgency, with Paris looking for support enabling it to cut French troop numbers in the strife-torn region. Leaders of the so-called G5 Sahel - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mau...
G5 Sahel leaders pay tribute to French soldiers killed in Mali
Macron wants the summit to help re-legitimize the French operation in the Sahel by sending a strong joint message.
Benin's President Patrice Talon votes in bid for reelection
Benin President Patrice Talon votes in elections almost certain to hand him a second term in office. A cotton tycoon first elected to lead the West African nation in 2016, Talon faces two little-known rivals, as more serious contenders have been e...
Niger inaugurates president in 1st democratic power transfer
Niger is swearing in its new president Friday in the West African nation's first democratic transfer of power. Newly elected President Mohamed Bazoum's inauguration Friday comes days after Niger's security forces thwarted an attempted military cou...
Vote counting starts in Benin presidential elections
Vote counting starts in Benin after polls closet at 4pm local time (1500 GMT) in presidential elections. President Patrice Talon, cotton tycoon first elected to lead the West African nation in 2016, faces two little-known rivals, Alassane Soumanou...
| Armed Conflict | April 2021 | ['(News24)'] |
United Nations Secretary–General Ban Ki–moon discusses climate change with Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma. | Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed climate change today with Evo Morales Ayma, the President of Bolivia, which recently hosted a major civil society conference on the issue.
Before a private meeting with the Bolivian leader, Mr. Ban met with Mr. Morales and representatives from civil society organizations that participated in the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, held from 19 to 22 April in the city of Cochabamba.
In a message sent to the conference, the Secretary-General had called on all governments, businesses and citizens of the world to give the Earth the respect and care it deserves, and emphasized that the wise management of the Earth’s resources must be an integral part of efforts to reduce poverty and hunger and improve health and human well-being. Mr. Ban told Mr. Morales that he was pleased that the conclusions of the Cochabamba conference had been submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the one universal forum where all nations and peoples come together to resolve climate issues.
He added that the voices of civil society and indigenous peoples must be heard, according to information provided by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.
In addition, he welcomed all initiatives that can contribute to a comprehensive, equitable and effective global response to climate change, which the Secretary-General has described as the “defining challenge of our era.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the need to respect and care for the Earth, noting that safeguarding the environment will impact efforts to achieve development goals and ensuring the health and well-being of its inhabitants. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2010 | ['(UN)'] |
The Ethiopia Federal Police Commission announces the arrests of 30 people suspected of involvement in a bombing of a rally for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The attack killed two and injured 156. The United States announces the deployment of FBI specialists to assist the probe. | ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Twenty people appeared in court in the Ethiopian capital on Monday following a grenade attack at a rally for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in which two people were killed and scores wounded.
State-affiliated media Fana said those in court included Girma Kassa, deputy police commissioner for the capital. He is among nine police officials arrested for security lapses over Saturday’s attack.
The explosion raised fears of a backlash against reforms instituted since Abiy became prime minister in April. The reforms include releasing jailed dissidents, loosening the government’s grip on the economy and taking steps to improve relations with Eritrea.
Abiy had just finished a speech to tens of thousands of supporters in the central square in Addis Ababa when the grenade exploded. Thirty suspects are being held over suspected links to the attack. Security officials are yet to say who is responsible.
On Monday, the head of Ethiopia’s Federal Police Commission Zeinu Jemal said experts from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation were providing assistance in the capital.
“The aim of their support is to help determine the perpetrators,” he told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.
U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Gilbert Kaplan made the offer while talking to Ethiopia’s minister of foreign affairs, Workneh Gebeyehu, on Monday, Fana added.
Related Coverage
Abiy has pledged to increase government transparency and reconcile a country torn by protests since 2015. Ethiopia has released thousands of jailed dissidents since the beginning of the year, including members of armed groups.
Abiy has enacted major policy shifts including the partial privatisation of the state-run telecoms monopoly and state-owned Ethiopian Airlines.
He has also announced that Ethiopia will implement a peace deal with its neighbour Eritrea that was signed in 2000 after a two-year war. For years, Addis Ababa refused to implement the deal, saying it wanted more talks.
A delegation from Asmara is expected to arrive in the Ethiopian capital this week in a bid to resolve one of Africa’s most intractable military stand-offs. [nL8N1TR1GA]
Ethiopia has one of Africa’s fastest growing economies but opponents of the ruling EPRDF coalition that has ruled since 1991 say its benefits have not been shared fairly between the country’s ethnic groups and regions.
Reporting by Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Editing by Costas Pitas and Matthew Mpoke Bigg
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
There are mass arrests in the United States and Italy in an anti–Mafia sweep including three suspected senior members of the Gambino crime family. | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police in the United States and Italy arrested 77 suspected members of the Mafia on Thursday, including some of its most wanted leaders, for an array of crimes going back more than 30 years.
Big mafia roundup in New York
01:52
The three-year joint investigation sought to prevent organized crime in New York and Sicily from reuniting their drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations, officials in both countries said.
U.S. authorities rounded up 58 suspects with the help of an informant deep inside the Gambino crime family. Police said the source helped nail the three top Gambino members not already in jail.
A U.S. grand jury indicted 62 suspects with charges including murder, extortion, loan-sharking, gambling, cocaine and marijuana distribution, money laundering, bribing labor officials and embezzling union funds, U.S. and New York state officials said.
“Organized crime still exists,” New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told a news conference. “We like to think it’s a vestige of the past. It’s not. It is as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks in society.”
The U.S. investigation focused on the Gambino family once run by the late John Gotti. The indictment charges one Gambino family soldier, Charles Carneglia, with at least five murders dating to 1976.
Associates of the Genovese and Bonanno families were also arrested.
More than 300 Italian police were mobilized, mostly in Sicily, in an operation code-named “Old Bridge,” arresting 19 suspects and filing new allegations against four others already detained for separate crimes.
Italian prosecutors said the operation sought to block the re-establishment of the New York-Palermo axis, which ran drug trafficking in the 1980s.
“There was an attempt to rekindle ties between Cosa Nostra in Palermo and New York because the Sicilian Mafia wanted to get back into drug trafficking in a big way,” top anti-Mafia prosecutor Francesco Messineo told reporters in Rome.
The joint probe focused on the Inzerillo family, which was forced to leave Sicily in the 1980s after a Mafia turf war and rebased in the United States. They became known as “the runaways” and there was a split in the Sicilian Mafia over whether they should be allowed to return.
Among those arrested were suspects linked to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who was arrested on November 5 in Sicily. He had become the new “boss of bosses” after the arrest in 2006 of Bernardo Provenzano, who had been on the run for 43 years.
Caretaker Prime Minister Romano Prodi praised what he called a “brilliant operation against organized crime.”
In what appeared to be a separate operation in Naples, police arrested a suspected leading figure of that southern city’s criminal underworld on Thursday.
Vincenzo Licciardi, 42, purportedly a boss of the Camorra crime group, was arrested in a Naples suburb. He had been on the run since 2004 and was one of Italy’s 30 most wanted criminals, police said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | February 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
President Barack Obama signs the bill, reinstating expired provisions of the Patriot Act while reforming Section 215 of the Act. | President Barack Obama signed the "USA Freedom Act" Tuesday, moving the storage of bulk telephone metadata used by the National Security Agency to telecom companies rather than the government.
Obama, who had said he would sign the bill as soon as possible, acted just hours after the measure passed the Senate by a 67-32 vote. He welcomed the Senate vote Tuesday, calling it "sensible reform legislation."
"After a needless delay and inexcusable lapse in important national security authorities, my administration will work expeditiously to ensure our national security professionals again have the full set of vital tools they need to continue protecting the country," Obama said.
He said the law strengthens civil liberty safeguards while "providing the American people with additional transparency measures."
Tuesday's actions brought to a close a dramatic multi-day showdown over civil liberties that made strange political bedfellows and united factions on the left and right ends of the ideological spectrum who are both skeptical of an overreaching government in a post-9/11 era.
"This legislation is critical to keeping Americans safe from terrorism and protecting their civil liberties," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "I applaud the Senate for renewing our nation's foreign intelligence capabilities."
The Senate spent hours Tuesday fiercely debating whether to pass an amended version of the bill, which passed in the House on a 338-88 vote last month. In the Senate, where amendments need 51 votes to pass, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle worked to defeat any changes to the House bill.
Passing an amended version of the bill would have sent it back to the House, where its original co-sponsors said the chamber was unlikely to accept changes.
One Senate amendment would have stymied efforts to allow "friends of the court" to address civil liberties issues before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in some cases. Another would have lengthened the transition time to move the bulk metadata collection program to telecom companies.
A Senate substitute to the broader bill, offered by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, included a provision that would have required that a high-ranking intelligence official certify the readiness of surveillance programs after transitioning to telecom companies.
Those measures failed.
VIDEO: Sen. McConnell Opposes Bill that Weakens Counter Terrorism Tools https://t.co/yykMSnOdYK
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, introduced at least 10 amendments to the Senate substitute version of the bill. Republican leadership aides said none of them came to a vote because that would have required all 100 senators to agree, which was highly unlikely.
"If you amend the bill, you kill the bill," Dean Heller, R-Nevada, a Senate co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act, said Tuesday. "I don't want the program to go away, but I think the USA Freedom Act is the correct way to go."
The inability to amend the bill marks a notable defeat for McConnell, who had lobbied hard to change the bill and send it back to the House. McConnell called the House bill a "resounding victory for those who are plotting against our homeland."
The highly controversial issue also put McConnell at odds with a political ally, Boehner, who ushered a bill through the House that passed with a majority of both Republicans and Democrats.
Related: Expiration Date: What's Next for the Patriot Act? The National Security Agency’s authority to collect troves of bulk telephone metadata under the Patriot Act expired at midnight Monday, which the Obama administration said left the government with fewer tools in its arsenal to help thwart terrorism. Paul, who has been heavily campaigning for president on his stand against extending the bulk collection program, is unconvinced, as are civil liberties advocates who cite concerns about government overreach and privacy.
On Friday, The New York Times editorial board also advocated letting the Patriot Act provisions expire.
McConnell sought a two-week extension Sunday of two less controversial provisions, but Paul blocked that effort.
The most well-known of the lapsed provisions was “Section 215," which authorized the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata — information that includes who called whom when, but not what was said.
Two other programs — involving "roving wiretaps," which helps the FBI use warrants to track terrorism suspects who frequently switch cellphones, and a never-used program to monitor potential "lone wolf" suspects, who haven't been tied to terrorist groups — also expired. All three programs were established as a part of the Patriot Act, which was passed in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and any investigations that began before the sunset occurred can continue.
In recent days, the White House intensified efforts to influence public opinion. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the administration has worked to reform the bulk collection program to better protect civil liberties while helping national security investigators.
"We've only got a few days," Obama said Friday. "These authorities expire on Sunday at midnight, and I don't want us to be in a situation in which, where for a certain period of time, those authorities go away and suddenly we're dark and, heaven forbid, we've got a problem where we could have prevented a terrorist attack or apprehended someone who was engaged in dangerous activity but we didn't do so simply because of inaction in the Senate."
Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate. | Government Policy Changes | June 2015 | ['(NBC)'] |
Six activists of the Free Papua Movement are sentenced by an Indonesian court to 8–9 months in prison for treason. The ruling is condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as a violation of their freedom of speech and assembly. | JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian court convicted six activists of treason for organising a protest demanding independence for the easternmost province of Papua, in a verdict slammed by rights groups.
The peaceful protest of about 100 people had been held outside the presidential palace and military headquarters on Aug. 28 in the capital of Jakarta and followed a period of unrest in Papua.
In a sentencing hearing on Friday held online due to the coronavirus outbreak, Judge Agustinus Setya Wahyu Triwiranto said he had found the six defendants “guilty of treason”.
Activists Ambrosius Mulait, Surya Anta, Charles Kossay, Dano Tabuni, and Arina Elopere were convicted and sentenced to nine months in prison, while Isay Wenda was given an eight-month sentence.
All six have been held in prison since August. Prosecutors accused them in December of organising a rally demanding the Indonesian government allow a vote in Papua to let it separate from Indonesia.
International rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticised the convictions, stating that the activists had been attending a peaceful rally over perceived ethnic discrimination.
“The six who were sentenced today did nothing but attend a peaceful protest, enjoying their rights to freedom of expression and assembly,” said Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid.
Amnesty noted the six activists are part of 57 “prisoners of conscience” from Papua being held for peacefully expressing their views.
Resource-rich Papua was a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a controversial U.N.-backed referendum in 1969, which has since endured decades of mostly low-level separatist conflict.
Thousands of Papuans staged rallies in August to protest an incident that saw a racist slur against Papuan students who were hit by tear gas in their dormitory and detained in the city of Surabaya. The resulting protests were the biggest in years and triggered some calls for independence.
Oky Wiratma, the lawyer for the activists, told Reuters on Saturday the verdict was disproportionate, and the Papuan activists had “protested peacefully against racism”.
He said the six activists were expected to be released in the coming weeks based on the time already served, barring a decision by prosecutors to appeal.
Prosecutors had originally sought 18-months sentences for the activists. Prosecutors were not immediately reachable for comment.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
North Korea's military seeks talks with the United States to discuss "peace and security on the Korean peninsula." | The talks, to be attended by a UN representative, could take place at a mutually acceptable place and time, a statement from KCNA news agency said.
But it also warned that US pressure could derail a key disarmament deal. Under the deal, North Korea agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for fuel aid and political incentives.
UN inspectors are currently heading to North Korea to monitor the shutdown of the North's main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, Washington's chief envoy to North Korea, said on Friday that he wanted the Yongbyon reactor to be disabled by the end of this year.
No pressure
North Korea's proposal reportedly came from the chief of the military mission at the truce village of Panmunjom, which is located in the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas. "The Korean People's Army side proposes having talks between the DPRK [North Korea] and US militaries, to be attended by a UN representative," the statement said.
But the statement also told the US not to pressurise North Korea "under the pretext of the nuclear issue", warning that it would boost defensive measures if this was the case. N KOREA NUCLEAR DEAL
N Korea to "shut down and seal" Yongbyon reactor, then disable all nuclear facilities
In return, will be given 1m tons of heavy fuel oil
N Korea to invite IAEA back to monitor deal
Under earlier 2005 deal, N Korea agreed to end nuclear programme and return to non-proliferation treaty
N Korea's demand for light water reactor to be discussed at "appropriate time"
New tactics in nuclear dispute
Q&A: N Korea standoff
N Korea timeline
It is unclear why the North has chosen to make these comments now, and there has so far been no immediate response from the US to the proposal of military talks.
US and North Korean military officials already hold general-level meetings, about the administration of the ceasefire that ended the Korean War, but analysts say this latest request by the North is noteworthy because it appears to widen the remit for military discussions. The comments have been interpreted as being an attempt to discuss a formal peace treaty on the Korean peninsula. Despite a ceasefire being signed to end the conflict in 1953, this has never been replaced by a peace treaty, leaving the region technically in a state of war.
But US envoy Mr Hill told Reuters on Friday: "I want to emphasise that we're not going to be reaching any peace arrangement on the peninsula ahead of denuclearisation."
Currently the main forum for discussions between Pyongyang and Washington is the ongoing six-party talks, which involve delegates from South Korea, Japan, China and Russia as well as North Korea and the US. Bilateral talks do sometimes occur on the sidelines of these discussions, but between political rather than military representatives.
The latest round of six-party talks are set to resume in Beijing on Wednesday.
IAEA mission
UN inspectors have set off for North Korea for the first working visit by an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team since Pyongyang expelled monitors in 2002. Nine members of the IAEA team left Vienna late on Thursday. They will make a brief stop in Beijing, from where they will fly to North Korea on Saturday. A tenth expert is expected to join the group later. Leaving Vienna, leader Adel Tolba told the Associated Press news agency that the team members were optimistic about their mission. "We have a reason to believe that it will be successful," he said. North Korea - which shocked the world with its first nuclear test in October 2006 - has strongly indicated that it will consider starting to shut down its key nuclear reactor, Yongbyon, as soon as the first shipment of aid arrives. A South Korean vessel carrying aid - 6,200 tons of fuel oil - set sail on Thursday and is due to dock in North Korea's Sonbong port on Saturday. Under the February deal, North Korea is to receive 50,000 tons of energy aid for closing Yongbyon and another 950,000 tons for closing and dismantling all its nuclear facilities. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
In the Philippines, president Gloria Arroyo's press secretary Ignacio Bunye states that the president is ready to face proper impeachment charges if the opposition follows the proper legal process. Many politicians have expressed support to her. | Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye on Monday said President Arroyo is prepared to face impeachment charges stemming from the alleged taped conversations between her and a poll official.
Opposition congressmen last week raised the possibility of initiating impeachment proceedings against the President over allegations of election cheating and corruption. Bunye said that opposition lawmakers should follow the proper legal process in pursuing impeachment proceedings at the House of Representatives. "As long as they meet all the requirements, they can continue," he told DZMM's "Tambalang Failon at Sanchez."
He added that the people were tired of street protests or another uprising against the government. Bunye also denied that the administration conducted loyalty checks among administration lawmakers last Friday and Saturday. He said the President had dinner with officials of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, including several congressmen, last Saturday during a summit at the Manila Hotel. ULAP leaders and members earlier pledged to support the President in a gathering for national unity at the Manila Hotel. The group, an umbrella organization of 11 government leagues, also vowed to rally their constituents behind the government in an effort to counter fresh destabilization moves set off by the jueteng and wiretapping controversies. "We condemn in the strongest possible term any and all forms of extra-constitutional and extra-legal moves to effect change in the government, including the call for President Arroyo to resign," the group said. Bunye also thanked former presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos as well as actress Susan Roces, wife of the late former presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., for calling for sobriety amid controversies rocking the nation.
Bunye earlier warned of an opposition plot to link the President to electoral fraud using an alleged wiretapped conversations between Mrs. Arroyo and Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
He later presented two versions of the alleged conversations, one of which he claimed "contained the President's voice." He later backtracked on his statement, saying that the voice could have been digitally manipulated. Bunye said authorities are still investigating the case.
Opposition lawyer Sixto Brillantes earlier said the wiretapped conversations could be used as evidence before the Senate impeachment court if the President is impeached. "The Senate are not bound by rules of court. They can promulgate their own rules," he said in a DZMM interview. He added: "If the tape is presented in the course of the trial, they can always rule that they can use it." He said the opposition is still determining the authenticity of the tapes. The House committees on public information, national defense, public order and security, electoral reform and information technology are set to hold a joint investigation about the alleged wiretapping on June 15.
Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla said Bunye, Garcillano, former Estrada lawyer Alan Paguia, Rep. Ignacio Arroyo's chief of staff Edgar Ruado and representatives from the National Bureau of Investigation, the National Telecommunications Commission and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were invited to the hearing. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2005 | ['(ABSCBN)', '(Manila Bulletin)'] |
David Kelly, the "grand old man of Irish acting", dies in Dublin. | Irish stage and screen actor David Kelly, known for films such as Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has died aged 82.
Dublin-born Kelly also played feckless builder Mr O'Reilly in Fawlty Towers but is perhaps best remembered for riding a motorbike naked in the comedy Waking Ned.
He earned a Screen Actors' Guild nomination for the 1998 film.
Kelly was married to actor Laurie Morton and had two children.
His friend, Ballykissangel star Niall Toibin, told the Press Association: "He was a hilarious man. He had an outlook on life that was slightly skewed and made you laugh all the time."
He praised Kelly's "wicked sense of humour".
In a 50-year career, Kelly's roles ranged from the dramatic to the comedic.
In his native Ireland, he is well known for the historical drama mini-series Strumpet City, which starred Peter O'Toole and Peter Ustinov.
In 2005, he received a lifetime achievement award at the Irish Film and Television Awards. The same year, he was seen by cinema audiences as Grandpa Joe Bucket in Burton's adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, opposite Johnny Depp.
Kelly's final film role was in the 2007 British fantasy film Stardust, as a deceptively nimble, high-kicking wall guard.
| Famous Person - Death | February 2012 | ['(The Irish Times)', '(BBC)', '(Irish Examiner)'] |
A 14–year–old schoolgirl in Coventry, England, who died after being given a cervical cancer vaccine as part of that country's national immunisation programme is found to have suffered from a tumor in her heart and lungs. | A 14-year-old girl has died after being given a cervical cancer jab as part of a national immunisation programme, but the exact cause of death is unknown.
The pupil was taken ill at Blue Coat CofE School in Coventry shortly after she received the Cervarix vaccine. She died in the town's University Hospital. The local NHS said there would be a "short pause" in the vaccination programme but it would then continue. The batch of the vaccine used has been placed into quarantine. The injection protects against a sexually transmitted disease, which is linked to most cervical cancers. A routine programme of vaccinating 12 and 13-year-old girls started in September 2008 across the UK using the Cervarix vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline. A catch-up campaign is now under way for older girls. The injection offers protection against the human papilloma virus (HPV), the most common cause of cervical cancer. 'Urgent investigation'
The girl, who has not yet been named, died at lunchtime on Monday.
Dr Caron Grainger, joint director of public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, said their sympathies are with the girl's family and friends. She said: "The incident happened shortly after the girl had received her HPV vaccine in the school. No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place. "We are conducting an urgent and full investigation into the events surrounding this tragedy." A small number of girls at the school had also reported mild symptoms such as dizziness and nausea but they were not admitted to hospital. In a statement posted on the school's website, headteacher Dr Julie Roberts said during the immunisation, "one of the girls suffered a rare, but extreme reaction to the vaccine". "A number of other girls also reported being unwell and some were sent home," she said. "If your daughter has received a vaccine today we ask that you are extra vigilant regarding any signs or symptoms." She listed possible reactions as mild to moderate short-lasting pain at the injection site, headache, muscle pain, fatigue and a low-grade fever. 'Tragic death'
It is thought about a million girls have already safely received the vaccine. When the national immunisation project was announced, there was some controversy about the selection of Cervarix over Gardasil, which is used by the majority of vaccination programmes worldwide.
Dr Pim Kon, medical director at GlaxoSmithKline UK, which makes Cervarix, said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the young girl. "We are working with the Department of Health and MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) to better understand this case, as at this stage the exact cause of this tragic death is unknown." The global pharmaceutical company added that the vast majority of suspected adverse reactions have related either to the symptoms of recognised side effects or were due to the injection process and not the vaccine itself. Different vaccine
Public health minister Gillian Merron said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the family. It is important we have the results of further investigations as soon as possible to establish the cause of this sad event." In the UK, about 3,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and about 1,000 die from it. The department said Cervarix had a strong safety record. Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the tragedy needed to be investigated "as a matter of urgency". He said: "This again raises the question which we have asked for some time, as to why the government won't publish the assessments it made of the relative merits of the two HPV vaccines and why we therefore use a different vaccine to most other comparable countries." There are more than 100 types of HPV but only 13 of them are known to cause cancer. Cervarix protects against two strains of HPV that cause more than 70% of cases of cervical cancer in women. Vaccination is not compulsory and consent is required before it is administered to the under-16s. | Famous Person - Death | September 2009 | ['(The Times)', '(BBC)', '(MSNBC)'] |
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani claims victory over ISIL, citing the surrender of over 600 of their fighters in the past weeks as an example that the group has given up. | JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Security forces have “obliterated” Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday, hours after a prisoner swap with Taliban insurgents raised hopes of a lull in violence in the country.
More than 600 fighters from IS, locally known as Daesh, have surrendered with their families to the Afghan government in past weeks. Officials say air strikes by Afghan and coalition forces, lack of funds and low morale have forced the group to give up.
“No one believed one year ago that we would stand up and today be saying we have obliterated Daesh,” Ghani told a gathering of elders and officials in Jalalabad, the main city of eastern Nangarhar province that saw a wave of suicide attacks in past years claimed by the jihadists.
“Now that Daesh militants have surrendered, I ask authorities to treat their families humanely,” Ghani added.
The government says among fighters in its custody are foreign nationals from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and the Maldives.
However, the Afghan Taliban, which has been battling IS and the government for control of the country, disputed that.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s official spokesman, described Ghani’s announcement as “absurd”.
“Kabul admin had 0% role in defeat of Daesh and the proud people of Nangarhar are witnesses,” he tweeted.
The Taliban controls more territory than at any point since the U.S. invasion in 2001, including sections of Nangarhar province.
Nangarhar, which shares a long and porous border with neighboring Pakistan, has long served as the main stronghold of IS, from where militants planned and staged bombings around the country, especially the capital Kabul.
Their attacks, targeting foreign nationals and the minority Shi’ite community, have killed hundreds.
Corroborating the government’s claims on defeating IS is difficult given the province’s remote and mountainous terrain, with diverse bands of fighters that often switch sides between militant groups and sometimes pro-government forces.
Last month, Washington announced that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself during a raid by elite U.S. special operations forces in Syria.
The Taliban on Tuesday freed two Western professors in exchange for three of its senior leaders held by the government, in a rare act of cooperation between the warring sides.
Reporting by Ahmad Sultan and Rafiq Sherzad in Jalalabad; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Andrew Cawthorne
| Armed Conflict | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
18 countries, including the United States, deploy naval troops in joint exercises which they say are an attempt to defend the Panama Canal against terrorism. | MIAMI. - The United States Southern Command announced the participation of Dominican Republic military in joint naval exercises with pars of the US and 19 other countries in the hemisphere, to bolster security and defense tactics in Latin America countries, as well as to improve the knowledge of the different troops. The exercises will be conducted in the Panama Canal are slated from August 17 to 27, said the Miami based Southern Command in the start of the 8th Allied Exercises Panamax 2010. Panama’s Public Security Ministry and Sea and Air National Service (SENAN) will coordinate the activities that include maneuvers against a terrorist attack on the Canal, with around 4,000 military from the countries involved in the exercise taking part.
Trial on Bani killings resumes August 24
Anti-corruption group says officials must prove what they say they have
Cedulas don't have to be renewed until January
The UN: Dominican Republic’s response for Haiti "exemplary," "inspiring" Puerto Rican kingpin “owned” the Dominican antinarcotics agency Dominican troops join exercise to protect Panama Canal | Military Exercise | August 2010 | ['(UPI)', '(Dominican Today)', '(MercoPress)', '(United States Department of Defense)'] |
At least six people are killed in clashes between supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian police. | At least six people have been killed in clashes between Islamist protesters and police in Egypt's capital Cairo.
The violence broke out during demonstrations in support of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and the banned Muslim Brotherhood after prayers at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The authorities blamed unknown assailants for firing on the march. But the Muslim Brotherhood said the deaths occurred when the police broke up the protest.
Supporters of the Brotherhood have faced a crackdown since mid-2013, with thousands jailed and hundreds, including Morsi, sentenced to death.
Demonstrations have dwindled under a law that requires a police permit.
But there were street rallies on Friday following morning prayers for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month. They followed a Brotherhood call for protests, saying "your Eid is your revolution", says the BBC's Claire Read in Cairo.
On Thursday night, Morsi released a message from his jail cell calling on his supporters to "save Egypt from the oppressive military officials".
Friday's clashes happened in Talbiya district, near the Giza pyramids, and Nahya, near Cairo.
Police also made 20 arrests in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, state news agency Mena reported.
The Muslim Brotherhood was banned for decades until the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
Their candidate Morsi won elections in 2012, but he lasted only a year in power before he was toppled by the military following popular protests. 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. | Armed Conflict | July 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Sudanese police detain three senior figures from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the ruling party in South Sudan, at a demonstration calling for electoral reform in Khartoum. | December 6, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese authorities arrested the SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum and his deputy Yassir Arman, Sudan Tribune has learned. They were taken to the police station after appearing for the planned protest in front of the National Assembly. The Qatar based Al-Jazeera TV website said that its TV crew was prevented from covering the demonstration and their tapes were confiscated. Reuters said that around 25 SPLM and opposition supporters gathered outside the parliament in the early hours of Monday and were surrounded by police armed with batons and shields. Arman, a senior member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) scuffled with police outside the National Assembly and was driven away to a police station, a Reuters witness said. Police officers beat demonstrators and onlookers with batons as Arman was driven away chanting "freedom." Amum speaking through his cell phone from the police station to Al-Jazeera said that they have recieved permission from the interior ministry to carry out the demonstration. He said that the law allows for staging protests if they notify the authorities beforehand. He accusd the government of breaching the constitution and resorting to restricting freedoms. The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) issued a statement calling on all its supporters in the capital to join the demonstration and “extract their rights to express their free will in their present and the future of their country”. “The movement urges all Sudanese opposition forces to join forces” the statement read. It was also reported that the police detained the SPLM figure Abbas Goma’a who also holds the post of the state minister for interior in the coalition government. The Sudanese authorities surrounded the headquarters of the Umma Party. An eyewitness said that the police threw tear gas. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS. PLEASE COME BACK FOR UPDATES. The Sudanese opposition groups vowed to stage mass demonstration at the parliament on Monday despite a last minute ban made by the authorities on the rally raising fears of a confrontation between the two sides. The Sudanese interior ministry issued a statement saying that the political parties did not receive proper permission to proceed with the mass protest and warned that those intending to take part in this “illegitimate” demonstration with legal action. The move is a reversal in position by the government which has previously stated that political forces “are entitled to engage in any manifestation that is in accordance with the laws to express their opinion”. Eyewitnesses who asked not to be named told Sudan Tribune that thousands of heavily armed policemen took up positions in the capital since early morning hours in an apparent bid to curb the protests. The bulk of the parties which signed up to take part in the rally include those signatories to the Juba declaration last September in a conference hosted by Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM). The parties are protesting the delay in passing crucial laws including the national security and referendum bill. A memorandum is set to be delivered to the national assembly. However, the Sudanese cabinet unexpectedly announced that Monday will be a holiday in order to allow people to register for voting before the deadline expires. The decision prompted some opposition figures to view it as an attempt to kill the planned rally. The SPLM Secretary General, Pagan Amum said that around 50,000 are expected to take part in today’s demonstrations. He added that the number will increase within two weeks if the laws do not get passed in this timeframe. Yesterday Amum said that Monday will be a “historical day for the start of mass popular movement for freedom”. The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir met today separately with Umma Party leader Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) chief Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghani. Al-Mirghani, who boycotted the Juba conference, told reporters afterwards that Sudanese issues cannot be handled only between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the SPLM. The Umma party leader Al-Mahdi said he proposed to Bashir an “elections Code of honor” and Sudan state media reported that Bashir told the ex-PM that it is needed in order to pave the way for the coming Elections, stressing the necessity of displaying it to all political parties for reviewing and studying it. Al-Mahdi added that strong national efforts are needed in the upcoming period to address the issues of differences. He indicated that an inclusive national gathering shall be called to tackle points of differences with regard to the Act of the Security, the referendum, the issues of Darfur and the freedoms. However, the Umma party leader made no mention of the planned demonstration though other officials confirmed their intention to participate. The leader of the Darfur rebel group, Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur said he supports the SPLM in “achieving the legitimate rights of Southerners”. “The problem of the South is the same problem of all Sudan whether in Darfur or in the east. We need a new state based on values of liberalism, citizenship and secularism” Al-Nur said. (ST)
Pagan Amum is dead living thing,
This man seems to be trouble maker why all the time full of problem?? Please those who advise him should do so otherwise his days are numbered. This is not time for joking Amum be very careful with your life. Brother in Christ,
Busta 2
repondre message
Mr Busta2,
Why are dancing with the false rumours. Please there is nothing like that. If it happen, then the war has begun in Sudan. False false false aricle. Thanks
repondre message
Dear readers,
The news of humaliating arrest of Pagan Amum and Yasir Arman have been reported over the news every where. Look, I have been telling you that Pagan Amum is looking for a crisis which he could not control. See the humiliation done to him! He has been arrested like a thief or street boy found messing up with people in the bar. Pagan Amum always wants to avoid the peaceful and successful way of negotiating the laws. The CPA is mostly implemented and there are other smart ways by the SPLM team, led by Dr. Riek Machar to convince Bashir and Taha to complete the referendum laws and popular consultations. The so-called laws for democratic transformation are useless since SPLM itself is not ready for the elections. They don’t even nominate their candidate because they have difficulty in nominating the candidate. So why create unncessary crisis because of such useless laws. And why not use other avenues to settle them if they are that serious NOW! The referendum law is 95% agreed. The most important provision needed which is the 51% to declare the South independent is already agreed by Dr. Machar and Taha. The remaining part is only the turnout percentage which is closely between 55% (SPLM position) and 60% (NCP’s position). They are very close to reaching an agreement and therefore it is unnessary to create a crisis that will only worsen the situation over an issue close to agreement. Pagan Amum just wants to show himself foolishly that he fights for the rights of the people, but instead he drags the people to war when we are at the verge of referendum. repondre message
Riek’s houseboy,
I underestimated your traitor character until now. I knew all along that you are nothing more than a confused servants working for Riek and his wives. For you to brand comrades CDE Pagan Amum and CDE Yasser Arman as troublemakers is nothing short of treason. You don’t deserve to be breathing the air we liberated from jellabah. What happened to these two leaders is a declaration of null and void of the CPA. Al-Bashir and his criminal regime are living on borrowed time. Sudanese of all walks are rising up to demand laws that will make elections fair. NCP is trying to institute laws that will favor its candidates and you are trying to blame CDE Pagan and CDE Arman just because Riek’s poor negotiation tactics were disapproved of by the SPLM leadership? You are nothing more than a nyagat dog with his tail between his legs. We liberated South and we will not allow a late-comer nyagat like Riek to come and negotiate it away like he did with KPA. Let me inform you that we know Riek is grumbling in his house and sending confused boys like you to go and do his dirty work that is anti-SPLM and anti-South. You should be ashamed of yourself and turn yourself in to the local authorities for treason. repondre message
Dear Gatwech,
I think it would be good enough to stop commenting and try to learn the politics of the world. The demonstration has been always a last resort for any oposition in a country given the long time that people spend renegotiating the CPA and some of the national laws. Remember that whatever comes out of that you will be affected whether a good thing or bad things if you are truly a southerner which I doubt most. Police is not a hell but a place where the rule of laws and justics are sorted out. The may go and come back but this does not stop what they want. Mr. Yarserman and Amum, you have shown something which had never happened in Sudan history. Continue and Bashir will listen to you. repondre message
Gatwech,
Don’t let your petty personality politics blind you to the greater danger facing all oppressed Sudanese from this NCP’s strong arm tactics. Think beyond your nose! repondre message
Let them experience the taste of humiliation!!!!!!! the freedom you deny others shall also be denied to you!!!! let the dogs bark gatwech while the camel is moving. These uncouth youth think that by insulting using street language people will be bended. This is very light; have they forgotten the incident of Kwaje recently at his own home? Pagan and Yaser will surely face the same way. They have destroyed the interim period and they are also a danger to the refrendum, by creating unnecessary problems, which could have been takled with on the round table with their partner the ncp. How can a person oppose him/herself? You are in the government and you are in the opposition, the best would have been for the SPLM to withdraw totally from the government and then go to the streets as opposition. We southerners are very unlucky to have such people like pagan and Yaser to represent us and always directing us to the wrong position. What is Sadig now after all? one time he was killing southerners. Look what happened in a Dhahein and Jebelain. At whose time? So now SPLM thinks that he has become a friend. Shame on you!!! for misleading our people in the name of democratic transformation which does not exist in your hearts. Look at south sudan today; insecurity everywhere, people are being arrested and killed in the hands of SPLM/A and no one is brought to trial. The money which is meant for the development of our land is looted to foreign lands. Shame and shame !!!!!!! repondre message
NO!!! Pagan and Yasir were arrested simply becouse of the millions of dollars those cheeps has been stealling!!!! well done,its agreat news any way,two down many to follow including the cowboy him self. repondre message
I agree with Mr Gatwich, Pagan sometime act like childish not politician. He suppose to control and respect himself as a leader. As NPC side, its really dictatorship to arest the high rank like Pagan and Yasir. That is indicated that the NCP leadership is dictatorship. Mosa
repondre message
They are just playing their communist tactics.They are not going to succed.Khartoum is very quite.Very few people turned up for demonistration.People are lining up in thousands to registered for the elections.Their aim is to delay elections becsuse they are going to lose it. If they want to change the laws they can change it through the ballot box. They can change the government itself only through the ballot box.ANARCHY IS NOT ALLOWED. The Cubian communist twins ,the fugative Arman and loser Pagan can not derail the CPA, simply because they are going to lose the elctions. The CPA stipulates that elections to take place this year and the referundum next year,this is going to happen . Nobody is going to change these milestones towards final peace for all the Sudan and only through the ballot box. repondre message
In reply to your views Mr X, you really have limited understanding of the implementation of CPA. Have you read the whole CPA articles and interpreted them meaningfully? What parts of the CPA have been implemented fully and what remains? I want to advise you that the staggering CPA is yet to be implemented and the NCP is playing around it every time. Do not claim to be enjoying the fruits of CPA before they ripe. You have not seen anything good yet. What Pagan and Arman are doing is the right thing that we Southern Sudanese including all marginalised Sudanese should do jointly to ensure that our rights are being heard and granted. | Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2009 | ['(Sudan Tribune)', '(AFP)', '(BBC)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismisses Nizhny Novgorod Oblast governor Valery Shantsev from his post, the second governor to lose his job in a week after Putin dismissed Samara Oblast governor Nikolay Merkushkin the day before. The dismissals come amid speculation that governors of several federal subjects will resign in anticipation of presidential elections in 2018. | Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Valery Shantsev, the second regional leader to lose his job this week amid reports that more could go as the Kremlin gears up for a presidential election in March.
A decree posted on the Kremlin website on September 26 said that Putin accepted Shantsev's resignation and appointed Gleb Nikitin, a 40-year-old who until now was a deputy trade and industry minister, as acting governor of the region on the Volga River.
Veteran administrator Shantsev, 70, had been governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast since August 2005 and was deputy mayor of Moscow in 1996-2005.
Shantsev's dismissal comes a day after Putin replaced Samara Oblast Governor Nikolai Merkushkin, 66, with Dmitry Azarov, 47, a member of Russia's upper house of parliament and a former mayor of the city of Samara.
On September 25, Russian media reports cited unnamed sources close to the Kremlin as saying that governors of several other regions -- including Ivanovo, Murmansk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Altai Krai, and Nenets Autonomous Region -- would step down in the coming days. The reports said that the planned shakeup was connected to preparations for the March 18, 2018, presidential election in which Putin is widely expected to seek and secure a fourth term even though he has not announced his candidacy.
In past elections, the Kremlin has looked to regional governors to secure as much support as possible for Putin. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Four Palestinians die in a tunnel beneath the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, possibly after the tunnel was filled with gas or blown up. | Four Palestinians were killed and at least 10 others were wounded Wednesday following the collapse of a smuggling tunnel on the border between Gaza and Egypt, according to Palestinian medical sources in Gaza.
Palestinian police accused Egyptian security forces of killing the Gaza smugglers by blowing up their cross-border tunnel. The Palestinians also charged that Egyptian security forces spread toxic gas in the collapsed tunnels.
Witnesses said the incident was apparently caused by an explosion that occurred on the Egyptian side of the tunnel.
Detonating a bomb underground, Egyptian security forces collapsed a tunnel in which seven smugglers were working, a Palestinian police official said. Three died of smoke inhalation and a fourth from flying debris.
The three injured Palestinians were admitted to a hospital in Rafah.
The death toll in the Rafah-area accident is the highest since 2009, when five Palestinians were killed in a tunnel.
According to other reports, 10 people were hurt in the incident.
Collapses have been frequent in the tunnels, used to traffic in arms, fuel and goods from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.
While the smuggling continues, Egypt has started to install a metal barrier at the underground border with Gaza to curb the operation of the tunnels.
Under pressure from Israel and the United States, Egypt has tried to stem the secret passages from its Sinai Peninsula, which have allowed Palestinians in Gaza to also import commercial goods into the Strip. | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Ynetnews)'] |
Former Oceanic Bank chief Cecilia Ibru is sentenced to six months in prison after being found guilty of committing 3 of 25 charges of fraud and mismanagement. | A former Nigerian bank chief has been sentenced to six months in prison for fraud and ordered to hand over $1.2bn (£786m) in cash and assets.
Cecilia Ibru, former CEO of Oceanic Bank, pleaded guilty to three of 25 counts of fraud and mismanagement.
She is one of a large number of executives held in connection with the near-collapse of nine banks in 2009.
The verdict is sending shockwaves through Nigeria's financial world, says the BBC's Caroline Duffield in Abuja.
Mrs Ibru's sentence was the result of a settlement agreement, Judge Dan Abutu told the court in Lagos on Friday. Her three sentences are for six months each, but will run concurrently. This means she will spend only six months in jail, our correspondent says.
"This is an indication that we are making progress in the war against graft in the country," Farida Waziri, who heads Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, said in a statement. The government removed Mrs Ibru along with other executives from a number of financial institutions in 2009.
The central bank then had to step in and bail out nine banks which were on the brink of collapse because of reckless lending and fraud.
Mrs Ibru belongs to an elite family, which controls massive business interests across the country. She was famous on Nigeria's party circuit for her jewellery and her taste for corporate jets, our correspondent says. Until her arrest, the former banker had been considered beyond the reach of the fraud police, our correspondent adds. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from the California wildfires of October 2007 rises to 12 as four bodies are discovered near the Mexican border. | American border patrol agents discovered four charred bodies in rugged mountains near the Mexican border, bringing the probable death toll from California's bushfires to 12, even as firefighters gained the upper hand in their five-day battle.
Agents found the burned remains of three males and a female in the mountains east of San Diego, about 16 kilometres west of the Mexican border town of Tecate.
They were thought to have died in the Harris fire, US Border Patrol spokesman Matthew Johnson said.
"It seems fire-related. The Harris fire at the border was out there," Mr Johnson said. The victims, he added, would be turned over to local authorities for identification and further investigation.
Together with two other burned bodies found earlier yesterday in a house in San Diego county, the discovery doubled the probable death toll from the fires. At least 60 people have been injured.
As crews used a break in the weather to bring most of the fires under control, President George W Bush surveyed the devastated areas and met with a few of of the estimated 500,000 people who fled their homes in California's largest mass evacuation.
Mr Bush, who was roundly criticised for his handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, flew over hard-hit San Diego in a helicopter with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and visited charred neighbourhoods.
"It really is important for me to come out here and see first hand the situation, and there's no question a lot of people are suffering, and there's no question there's been terrible losses," Mr Bush said.
-Reuters | Fire | October 2007 | ['(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
United States Senator and Republican candidate to the 2008 presidential election John McCain makes a surprise visit to Iraq. | Mr McCain - set to be the Republican's presidential candidate in November - will meet with US and Iraqi officials during his trip.
Mr McCain is also scheduled to visit London, Paris and Israel this week.
The senator is known for his strong support of current US policy in Iraq, and was one of the most prominent proponents of the "surge" strategy.
Eighth visit
This will be Mr McCain's eighth visit to the country since the US-led invasion began in 2003.
He is scheduled to hold meetings with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and Gen David Petraeus, the commander of US troops in Iraq.
During the rest of his tour he will meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
He is being accompanied on his trip by Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator Lindsey Graham, close allies of Mr McCain and fellow supporters of a continued US troop presence in Iraq. | Diplomatic Visit | March 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Ahmad Kazemi, the top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards ground forces, and ten others have been reportedly killed when their plane crashed in northwestern Iran. | The small Falcon jet came down near Oroumieh, 900 km (560 miles) north-west of the capital, Tehran. State TV said it was attempting an emergency landing.
Officials blamed bad weather and engine failure for the crash. Last month, a military transport plane crashed in Tehran, killing 128 people. It came down in a residential district, hitting a 10-storey apartment building.
The latest crash happened at around 0930 (0600GMT) near the Turkish border.
Revolutionary Guards' spokesman, Gen Masoud Jazayeri, said the plane "crashed near the airport due to bad weather, lack of visibility and failure in both engines."
War veteran
On board was Ahmed Kazemi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces and a veteran of the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
Correspondents say Gen Kazemi was one of the Guard's most powerful commanders after its commander-in-chief. He was recently appointed to the post by Iran's new president. The Fars news agency, which has close links to the Revolutionary Guards, said a number of other top commanders, including an intelligence chief, were also on board.
Fars said 15 people were on the flight, and 13 had died with two missing. The Iranian news agency, Irna, said 11 people died in the crash.
The Revolutionary Guards, known locally as the Pasdaran, is a parallel military force with its own army, air force and navy. It was set up to enforce and defend the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution and answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ageing planes
Irna quoted deputy government spokesman Mohammad Paryab as saying an investigation into the causes of the crash would be carried out.
The military plane that crashed into the residential Tehran neighbourhood a month ago was carrying journalists to the south of the country.
The ageing plane - bought before the 1979 revolution - experienced technical problems and a first pilot refused to fly it, according to reports.
An inquiry into allegations of negligence has been carried out but not yet made public.
Because of US sanctions, Iran cannot buy spare parts of its ageing military and civilian fleet - something that puts lives in danger as air crashes become increasingly frequent, says the BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran. | Air crash | January 2006 | ['(IRNA)', '(BBC)'] |
The United Nations drop sanctions on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar after his Hezb–e Islami faction and the Afghan government reached a deal in September. Hekmatyar is granted immunity in exchange for his abandoning violence and supporting the Constitution of Afghanistan. | The UN has dropped sanctions against former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, paving the way for him to return to the country.
The Afghan government asked for the move as part of a deal with Mr Hekmatyar and his militant group in September. The deal grants him immunity in return for support for the Afghan constitution and a promise to abandon violence. He fought the Soviet occupation but was later accused of shelling civilians.
Mr Hekmatyar is also a former Afghan prime minister and his Hezb-e-Islami militant group is the second biggest in the country.
He was forced to flee Kabul in 1996 when the Taliban came to power and in 2003 was designated as a terrorist by the US.
Mr Hekmatyar's whereabouts remain unknown. He did not attend the signing ceremony in Kabul for the deal with the government.
Under the UN Security Council move, his assets are unfrozen and a travel ban is rescinded.
As a guerrilla leader in the 1980s, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had air of icy menace about him that hinted at ruthless ambition, a characteristic he demonstrated to the full during the ferocious power-struggle that followed the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He became known as the Butcher of Kabul for his faction's indiscriminate firing of rockets into the capital. The death and destruction this caused led many Afghans to welcome the takeover of the Taliban. Once one of the main recipients of western aid, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was deeply hostile to the west and was later accused by the US state department of supporting attacks by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The deal between Mr Hekmatyar and the Afghan government was seen as being highly symbolic because it is the first to be concluded without UN or international mediation.
BBC Afghan Service editor Waheed Massoud said Mr Hekmatyar appeared to have calculated that he would be more significant as a political leader in Kabul than as the leader of a group of fighters up in the mountains who are also competing with the Taliban for influence. Hezb-e-Islami has supporters across the country and it is thought the peace agreement could encourage some Taliban leaders to consider joining the process.
| Sign Agreement | February 2017 | ['(BBC News)'] |
New Zealand defeats France 29–0 in the final to win the 2018 women's Rugby World Cup Sevens. | The New Zealand women's rugby sevens team have retained their World Cup title with a commanding 29-0 win over France in San Francisco.
Michaela Blyde ran in a hat-trick of tries, with Portia Woodman and Tyla Nathan-Wong also scoring as the Black Ferns Sevens proved too strong and too fast for the French.
Black Ferns captain Sarah Goss and team mates celebrate winning the Rugby World Cup Sevens at AT&T Park, San Francisco Photo: Photosport
The New Zealanders' superior pace and unwavering defence proved the difference, Blyde's hat-trick in the final taking her tally to a tournament high of nine tries.
While two of her tries today were scored through her trademark pace, the first was all about grit and determination as she refused to die with the ball and powered through a number of French defenders to score.
Woodman scored shortly after following a great breakout from captain Sarah Goss before Tyla Nathan-Wong caught the French defence napping to extend the Black Ferns Sevens lead at half-time to 15-0.
France had plenty of ball in the second half but couldn't break through a New Zealand defensive line that refused to yield.
Sarah Goss said the match had been defined by her team's ability to control possession.
"It was about holding the ball, when they've got the ball they're hard to stop, they're strong runners, and they've got speed on the outside. So we knew if we could hold on to the pill we were going to convert points. When you've got players like Portia Woodman and Michaela Blyde on the outside they're hard to stop as well," said Goss.
Earlier, the Black Ferns Sevens had to work right to the final whistle to edge the United States 26-21 in the semi-finals, trailing the hosts 14-12 at half-time.
The break proved crucial for New Zealand, with replacement Gayle Broughton running 80 metres to score just after the restart before Woodman outran the US defence from the left wing to extend the lead further.
A try to Lauren Doyle on full-time wasn't enough to pull the match back for the US.
The New Zealand men's team are on track to defend their title, through to their semi-finals following their 12-7 win over France.
Despite receiving three yellow cards, the All Blacks Sevens emerged victorious and will now face Fiji in Monday morning's semi-final, after they thumped Argentina 43-7 in their quarter-final.
South Africa recorded a comfortable 36-5 win over Scotland to progress through to the other semi, where they will meet England, who edged the United States 24-19 thanks to an extra time try from Phil Burgess. | Sports Competition | July 2018 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court is confirmed when a final vote takes place, with 50 senators for his confirmation and 48 against. | His confirmation marks a major victory for President Trump. Kavanaugh confirmed to Supreme Court amid protests
The Senate officially confirmed Brett Kavanaugh Saturday as the next Supreme Court justice -- but the vote, like the controversial confirmation process, was anything but smooth.
Protesters in the public viewing gallery regularly interrupted the vote, screaming "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and causing brief upsets in the roll call vote.
Vice President Mike Pence, who serves as the president of the Senate, had to repeatedly call for the sergeant at arms to restore order in the gallery.
"I do not consent! Where's my representation?" one female protester screamed before being forced out of the chamber.
Kavanaugh was sworn in late Saturday by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose spot on the court he will be taking, and current Supreme Court Judge John Roberts.
In the end, the vote came down as anticipated, with 50 votes in favor, 48 votes against, and 1 present, confirming Kavanaugh as the next justice in the highest court in the land.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, noted that she would like her vote to be marked as "present," in a logistical maneuver aimed to address the fact that another Republican, Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, was unable to attend the vote because he is scheduled to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding.
Daines wanted to vote in favor of Kavanaugh, so Murkowski paired her vote with his so they would cancel one another out -- she would have voted against Kavanaugh.
President Donald Trump tweeted shortly after the vote, congratulating the Senate and his nominee.
"I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court," he tweeted. "Later today, I will sign his Commission of Appointment, and he will be officially sworn in. Very exciting!"
I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court. Later today, I will sign his Commission of Appointment, and he will be officially sworn in. Very exciting!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2018
I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court. Later today, I will sign his Commission of Appointment, and he will be officially sworn in. Very exciting!
Kavanaugh and his wife were seen in a black SUV entering the Supreme Court to be sworn in Saturday night.
The vote came after weeks of high-stakes political and human drama, as Kavanaugh defended himself against accusations of sexual misconduct.
The victory marked an instance of President Donald Trump following through on a key campaign promise to turn the court more conservative for generations.
Trump spoke briefly from the White House lawn before the Senate vote session started, saying that "in the end maybe the process, it was really unattractive, but the extra week was something that I think was really good. I thought it was really good. I think a lot of very positive things happened in the last week. It didn't look that way but in the end, that's what happened."
As for Kavanaugh, Trump said "he's going in looking really good."
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump called Kavanaugh to congratulate him while onboard Air Force One as he headed to a campaign rally in Kansas.
Trump told reporters that his speech in Mississippi on Tuesday, days before the vote, had an effect on Kavanaugh's nomination. During that speech, Trump appeared to mock Christine Blasey Ford's testimony about her alleged assault at the hands of Kavanaugh. The judge has denied the accusations.
"I think the Mississippi speech had a great impact, yes. I think it was a very important thing," Trump said on the plane Saturday.
"He was chosen for the reason of his temperament, his incredible past, his outstanding years on the court. He’s had an outstanding record, a brilliant scholar, a totally brilliant scholar -- top -- and we’re very honored that he was able to withstand this horrible horrible attack by the Democrats," Trump said.
Kavanaugh's confirmation essentially became a done deal on Friday afternoon, when Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a key undecided vote, announced on the Senate floor that, despite allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against him, "I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh."
Just hours earlier, with Kavanaugh's fate still uncertain, the full Senate had voted 51-49 to end debate and advance the nomination, after an additional FBI investigation seemed to turn up nothing to corroborate the allegations.
"This is not a criminal trial, and I do not believe that claims such as these need to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt," Collins said in a lengthy speech defending her decision.
The Maine moderate Republican faced heavy political pressure, including from women who came from her home state and demanded that she side with Kavanaugh's chief accuser, Ford.
Collins' declaration of support for Kavanaugh was quickly followed by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, another key undecided vote, who issued a statement saying he, too, would vote "yes," giving Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell the support he needed to get Kavanaugh confirmed, even if by one of the narrowest margins in history for a high court nominee.
Manchin, a red state Democrat in a close re-election fight, said that while he had "reservations' given the accusations, he did what was "best for West Virginia," persuaded Kavanaugh will "follow the Constitution." Protesters shouted "shame" at him as he tried to board an elevator near his office.
Ford's attorneys said their client has no regrets.
"I think she feels good about the fact that she came forward and did what she felt strongly was her civic duty to do, which is to provide the information she had to the Judiciary Committee so that they could make a better decision -- a more informed decision," her attorney Lisa Banks told ABC News' Congressional Correspondent Mary Bruce.
When asked if Ford will ever be able to live a normal life again, her lawyer seemed optimistic.
"She's going to go back to teaching. She loves being a teacher. She's very good at it," attorney Debra Katz said. "And she's looking forward to getting back to her family and her friends and her job. And we continue this fight, we continue to look for corroborating evidence against Judge Kavanaugh." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2018 | ['(ABC News)'] |
5,000 people are evacuated in North Korea after the Yalu River on the border with China floods; 94,000 in China are also evacuated. | China and North Korea have evacuated thousands of people from their homes after heavy rains burst the Yalu river, flooding areas near their border. North Korean state media reported that 5,000 people had been moved in the city of Sinuiju and nearby villages.
China is continuing mass evacuations, with 94,000 people in the Dandong area being taken to safety after the Yalu burst its banks on Saturday.
Further rain is expected in the region, putting more pressure on rescue work.
North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported that water from Yalu - or Amnok, as it is known in Korean - had destroyed homes and buildings in five villages.
Sinuiju, in the North Pyongan province, was said to have been "severely affected", with residents trying to find safety on roof-tops or on higher ground.
The agency reported that Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, had deployed military units, including the air force and navy, to aid rescue efforts and move at least 5,150 people.
Sinuiju lies on a vital trade route for North Korea and previous flooding has exacerbated problems in a country where millions have died in famines over the last two decades.
In China, at least 200 houses have been destroyed in the city of Dandong, in Liaoning province, and four people are reported missing, state media say.
Xinhua news agency says that a local weather station on Sunday morning had forecasted more rains over the next 24 hours.
More than 1,500 people have died in China in recent months. The latest flooding comes after the deaths of more than 700 people in China in a landslide triggered by heavy rains in Zhouqu county, Gansu, last week. China floods force evacuation | Floods | August 2010 | ['(AFP)', '(Xinhua)', '(BBC)'] |
Joko Widodo is sworn in as President of Indonesia. | Joko Widodo, the charismatic outsider who won Indonesia's presidency, made a call for national reconciliation and unity as he was sworn in.
Popularly known as Jokowi, the 53-year-old took the oath of office at a ceremony held at parliament in Jakarta.
He was then cheered through the streets as he made his way on a horse-drawn carriage to the state palace.
The former Jakarta governor is the first president not to have come from the military or political elite.
Elected in July, the former furniture exporter and son of a carpenter now leads the world's third-largest democracy, with a population of about 250 million people.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott were among those who attended the inauguration.
"We used to have our transfers of power marked by bloodshed," said an elderly Indonesian man to me today. "Today - we have this: a huge party."
Indonesia is celebrating the inauguration of its new president in style, with dancers decked out in traditional costumes, a marching band and thousands of people lining up to catch a glimpse of Jokowi on the main thoroughfare.
One man told me he had taken the day off work and brought his young daughters to witness this event because they should know what kind of man makes a "good president". Another woman, a school teacher, said that Jokowi was someone "like her" and that's why she is so thrilled he's become the leader of her country. It was smiles all around, and a real feeling of festivity in the air. Although Mr Widodo has tough challenges to face in the future, today it was about celebrating the moment and leaving the hard work till tomorrow. After reading the oath of office, he told Indonesians that "unity and working hand in hand are prerequisites for us to be a great nation. We will never become a great nation if we are stuck with division".
"This is a historic moment for us all to move together, to work and work," he said.
Mr Widodo then travelled through the capital in a horse-drawn carriage to the state palace with Vice-President Jusuf Kalla. He was met by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the palace. The two had met on Sunday for a tour of the estate.
An outdoor concert featuring rock bands is scheduled for Monday night, with Mr Widodo expected to appear on stage.
About 24,000 police and military personnel have been deployed, but correspondents say that the mood in the capital is upbeat.
What does Jokowi win mean for Indonesia?
Jokowi - who has promised to focus on healthcare and education - has been catapulted to power by his "man of the people" image, our correspondent says. But that will not be easy with an antagonistic parliament in power and he will be sorely tested in this first term in office, she adds.
Mr Widodo's defeated rival in the presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, gave the new leader his conditional support last week, in a move seen by observers as a positive sign.
But two-thirds of parliament are from Mr Subianto's coalition. He said on Friday that he would ask his party to support Mr Widodo, but also said he would not hesitate to criticise if he disagreed with him.
Mr Subianto had challenged the election results, claiming there was "massive" electoral fraud, but his case was rejected by Indonesia's constitutional court. One of the first, and biggest, challenges Mr Widodo faces is Indonesia's at least $20bn (£12bn) fuel subsidy bill. He has said he plans to reduce subsidies, but the move has been met with opposition. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
An Iraqi court orders a search for a man, who disappeared yesterday, accused of involvement in the murder of aid worker Margaret Hassan in 2004. | An Iraqi court has ordered a search for a man convicted of the 2004 kidnap and murder of British aid worker Margaret Hassan, amid fears he has escaped.
The move comes after Ali Lutfi Jassar failed to appear at his new trial and one day after Mrs Hassan's family warned he had gone missing.
Jassar was given a life sentence in 2009, but was later awarded a retrial.
It is unclear whether he has escaped from custody, or if he has been lost in the prison system, correspondents say.
The move comes as the US hands over the last detention facility under its control to Iraqi authorities.
Mrs Hassan, the director of Care International in Iraq, was abducted and murdered in Baghdad in 2004. Her remains have never been found.
Rumours abound as to the whereabouts of the accused, who has now failed to appear in court on at least four consecutive occasions, says the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse from the courthouse in Baghdad.
The three judges said they would seek clarification from Iraq's ministry of justice about which prison is supposed to be holding Ali Lutfi Jassar - if indeed he is still in the prison system at all.
There are those who believe he has escaped and that is not beyond the bounds of possibility, our correspondent says: prisoners have done so before, often with the help of a bribe.
But equally, Jassar may be lost somewhere in Iraq's complicated network of detention facilities, which are not under the control of one single authority, he adds. On Wednesday, Mrs Hassan's sister, Deirdre Manchanda, said the family had been told that Jassar could not be located in prison.
Irish-born Mrs Hassan had lived and worked in Iraq for 30 years when she was abducted in October 2004. She was shot dead weeks later, but her body has never been found.
Jassar was arrested by Iraqi and US forces in 2008 after contacting the British embassy in Baghdad and attempting to extort money in return for leading them to Mrs Hassan's body.
He was sentenced to life in prison last year, but granted a retrial after arguing his confession was coerced. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
According to Afghan officials, a US drone strike kills more than 30 pine nut farm workers in Nangarhar Province. The US military say they targeted ISIL terrorists. | JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike intended to hit an Islamic State (IS) hideout in Afghanistan killed at least 30 civilians resting after a day’s labor in the fields, officials said on Thursday.
U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan
01:14
The attack on Wednesday night also injured 40 people after accidentally targeting farmers and laborers who had just finished collecting pine nuts at mountainous Wazir Tangi in eastern Nangarhar province, three Afghan officials told Reuters.
Graphic on Afghan civilian casualties -
“The workers had lit a bonfire and were sitting together when a drone targeted them,” tribal elder Malik Rahat Gul told Reuters by telephone from Wazir Tangi.
Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry and a senior U.S official in Kabul confirmed the drone strike, but did not share details of civilian casualties.
“U.S. forces conducted a drone strike against Da’esh (IS) terrorists in Nangarhar,” said Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “We are aware of allegations of the death of non-combatants and are working with local officials to determine the facts.”
About 14,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, training and advising Afghan security forces and conducting counter-insurgency operations against IS and the Taliban movement.
Haidar Khan, who owns the pine nut fields, said about 150 workers were there for harvesting, with some still missing as well as the confirmed dead and injured.
Related Coverage
A survivor of the drone strike said about 200 laborers were sleeping in five tents pitched near the farm when the attack happened.
“Some of us managed to escape, some were injured but many were killed,” said Juma Gul, a resident of northeastern Kunar province who had traveled along with laborers to harvest and shell pine nuts this week.
Angered by the attack, some residents of Nangarhar province demanded an apology and monetary compensation from the U.S. government.
“Such mistakes cannot be justified. American forces must realize (they) will never win the war by killing innocent civilians,” said Javed Mansur, a resident of Jalalabad city.
Scores of local men joined a protest against the attack on Thursday morning as they helped carry the victims’ bodies to Jalalabad city and then to the burial site.
Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor said the aerial attack was meant to target IS militants who often use farmlands for training and recruitment purposes, but had hit innocent civilians.
Jihadist IS fighters first appeared in Afghanistan in 2014 and have since made inroads in the east and north where they are battling the government, U.S. forces and the Taliban.
The exact number of IS fighters is difficult to calculate because they frequently switch allegiances, but the U.S. military estimates there are about 2,000.
There was no word from IS on the attack.
There has been no let-up in assaults by Taliban and IS as Afghanistan prepares for a presidential election this month.
In a separate incident, at least 20 people died in a suicide truck bomb attack on Thursday carried out by the Taliban in the southern province of Zabul.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in fighting across Afghanistan after the collapse of U.S.-Taliban peace talks this month. The Taliban has warned U.S. President Donald Trump will regret his decision to abruptly call off talks that could have led to a political settlement to end the 18-year-old war.
The United Nations says nearly 4,000 civilians were killed or wounded in the first half of the year. That included a big increase in casualties inflicted by government and U.S.-led foreign forces.
Additional reporting and writing by Rupam Jain in Kabul; Editing by Toby Chopra, Andrew Cawthorne, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Armed Conflict | September 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The government of the Maldives, including President Mohamed Nasheed, holds the world's first underwater Cabinet meeting, to highlight the threat of global warming. | Saturday, October 17th, 2009 Maldives has made history by holding the first ever cabinet meeting in the world today in the sea near Girifushi which is a military training camp near capital Male, President Mohamed Nasheed who has been hailed for his courageous efforts to inspire greater world attention to tackle climate change, and his young team of ministers attended this 47th meeting of the cabinet. The under-sea cabinet signed a historic declaration making a frantic appeal to world leaders to take urgent and effective action to combat Climate Change. President Nasheed Vice President Mohamed Waheed and 12 members of the Cabinet signed 3 copies of the declaration, one of which will be sent to Copenhagen, one to be kept in the Presidents Office and the third for the National Museum. In the meeting the President and his cabinet ministers communicated in sign language used by divers. 3 ministers could not attend the meeting. They are Transport, Housing and Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam, Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Shaheed and Education Minister Dr. Musthafa Luthfy. Environment Minister Aslam is in London on an official visit. Dr. Shaheed and Dr. Luthfy could not attend due to health reasons.
Immediately after the meeting President Nsheed and his cabinet came to shallower waters and raising their faces above the sea a buoyant and smiling President told media joined by a representation of major world media networks that the purpose of the meeting was to tell the world what is going to happen to the Maldives if Climate Change is not tackled. He said its a challenging situation where everyone has to take part and urgent action needed to save the world. The President said its a serious issue which requires serious action. President Nasheed expressed the hope the world will take serious note of it and make a better deal in Copenhagen in December. He said his message is to impress upon the world leaders about the seriousness and urgency of the issue. CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, ABC, Reuters, Associated Press, Indian Star were present to cover the event.
President Nasheed has captured global attention when he made impassionate addresses at the UN Climate Summit and General Assembly in September and earned much praise for his leadership. He was also named by TIME magazine as the top environmentalist of 2009.
Maldives Divers Association was the major partner of the historic event. The event was conducted and coordinated with the prticipation of Maldivian divers only. The President and each member of the cabinet was escorted by one of their divers. The conduct of the meeting went on routine with Maldivian national flag hoisted near the table where they were seated. The President and other members all signed each of the three originals of the declaration in three separate rounds. After exchanging ok sign between the President, the 12 minute under sea cabinet meeting was over setting a new world record.
The declaration has expressed the worries and feelings of the Maldivians about the impending threats of Climate Change, and the urgent need for support for its survival. The islands of the Maldives rising barely a metre above the sea is the most vulnerable country to be submerged if climate change is not reveresed. Maldives is one of the first countries which will require a safe land for its people to live in such catastrophic situation. Climate Change is not affecting the Maldives alone, but if the carbon emissions are not reduced to minimum 350, the world and human life is at stake. Urgent action is needed to save the world and life on earth. Copenhagen is our last opportunity to make meaningful decisions. The event which was organised under the global 350 campaign which is focusing on urgent global action to reduce the carbon emission level to maximum healthy level of 350 ppm.
350 is a global media campaign consisting of grassroots groups dedicated to build pressure on international media and legislative bodies to drastically and immediately change carbon emission. 350 ppm is the maximum safe allowance of CO2 in the atmosphere before devastating and irrevversible climate change occurs. the world is already at 387 ppm.
The Maldives which has moved to the front line in the fight against climate change under the leadership of President Nsheed, is expected to earn much international publicity after this landmark under sea cabinet meeting. The event will also attract more tourists to visit Maldives which is one of the most famous tourist destination in the world.
There are more activities the Government has planned to carry out under the 350 campaign program. On the 24th of this month President Nasheed and his cabinet ministers will be pedalling on bicycles as a sign of their deep commitment to adapt to green policies and lifestyle. President Nasheed has earlier announced to make the Maldives the first carbon neutral country in the world. The Government has decided to implement several programs to demonstrate its support to tackle climate change, including developing alternative energy sources and green tourist resorts which will run on renewable energy. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2009 | ['(Miadhu News)', '(BBC)'] |
Suspected jihadist militants attack a Malian military base in the town of Guiré, Koulikoro Region, killing ten soldiers. | Government soldiers were said to have been taken by surprise, coming under heavy gunfire. The attack comes as the country’s president searches for a new prime minister in the wake of a complete Cabinet resignation. Soldiers of the Barkhane Force and the Malian army patrol in a street of Menaka, in the region of Liptako (DAPHNE BENOIT/AFP/Getty Images)
At least 10 Malian soldiers were killed on Sunday in an attack by suspected jihadists, according to a security source.
The attack took place at 5 a.m. local time (0500UTC) at a military camp in Guirein the Nara Cercle region, roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north ofBamako.
"The terrorists came out of the forest. They were on motorcycles and pick-up trucks. They burnt vehicles and took away others," the source said.
The Mali armed forces confirmed the attack via Twitter, and said reinforcements had been dispatched.
The military "were taken by surprise"by heavy gunfire in the attack, said a local resident. "I saw two terrorists put their motorcycles in an army vehicle and drive off with it," he said.
A day earlier, a UN peacekeeper had been killed and four others wounded when a mine exploded as their convoy was passing through central Mali.
The attack comes in the wake of consultations by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to pick a new prime minister. Earlier this week, the country's former prime minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and his entire cabinet resigned following the killing of 160 people in Ogossagou.
German Bundeswehr troops arestationed in the northeastern city of Gaoas part ofthe United Nations' MINUSMA peacekeeping force. | Armed Conflict | April 2019 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
British MP John Hemming uses parliamentary privilege to identify a married footballer named on Twitter as having an injunction over an alleged affair as being Ryan Giggs. | A married footballer named on Twitter as having an injunction over an alleged affair with a reality TV star has been identified in Parliament as Ryan Giggs.
Lib Dem MP John Hemming named the Manchester United star during an urgent Commons question on privacy orders. Using parliamentary privilege to break the court order, he said it would not be practical to imprison the 75,000 Twitter users who had named the player.
The High Court has again ruled that the injunction should not be lifted.
It rejected two attempts on Monday to overturn the ban, the first after a Scottish paper named the footballer on Sunday, and the second after Mr Hemming's action.
The player obtained the order against ex-Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas, who is a former Miss Wales, and the Sun newspaper.
The footballer's lawyers have also obtained a High Court order asking Twitter to reveal details of users who had revealed his identity after thousands named him.
Parliamentary privilege protects MPs and peers from prosecution for statements made in the House of Commons or House of Lords.
Addressing MPs, Mr Hemming said: "Mr Speaker, with about 75,000 people having named Ryan Giggs it is obviously impracticable to imprison them all."
House of Commons speaker John Bercow interrupted the MP saying: "Let me just say to the honourable gentleman, I know he's already done it, but occasions such as this are occasions for raising the issues of principle involved, not seeking to flout for whatever purpose."
John Hemming later told the BBC why he had named Mr Giggs.
"Basically when he... showed that he was going to go after relatively normal people and try and prosecute them, for gossiping about him on a matter of trivia, I think he has to be held to account for that," he said.
John Whittingdale, Conservative chairman of the Commons culture committee, said he "regretted" Mr Hemming's use of parliamentary privilege to name Mr Giggs. "Firstly because I think, if MPs think the law is wrong then we should change the law rather then flout the law," he said.
"And secondly because the result of that is that the only thing being reported is the name of Ryan Giggs and we're rather losing sight of the bigger issue, which is how the law of privacy is operating in the UK."
Labour MP Tom Harris said it was "incredibly irresponsible" of Mr Hemming to name the footballer.
"We leave these decisions up to judges who are very careful to look at both sides of the argument, and then suddenly you have a self-publicist like John Hemming," he said. "There's no justification for it whatever," he added. "I genuinely believe that people in this country, even multi-millionaires, have got a right to privacy."
Mr Justice Eady said when rejecting a second application - the first of Monday's attempts - by Sun publisher News Group Newspapers to discharge the privacy injunction, that the court's duty "remains to try and protect the claimant, and particularly his family, from intrusion and harassment so long as it can".
The Attorney General Dominic Grieve told the Commons the prime minister had asked for a joint committee of peers and MPs to investigate the use of privacy orders.
David Cameron has written a letter to Mr Whittingdale, recommending the setting up of a new body.
Earlier on Monday, the prime minister told ITV1's Daybreak that banning newspapers from naming such stars while the information was widely available on the internet was both "unsustainable" and "unfair".
In another case brought by a separate footballer, known to the court as TSE, a High Court judge ruled on Monday that comments on Twitter about the private life of a famous person did not mean there should be no injunction preventing newspapers from publishing stories about him.
Midfielder Ryan Giggs, 37, is Manchester United's most senior player, having appeared in 613 games.
He celebrated with the team at Old Trafford on Sunday as they were crowned English league champions for a record 19th time, and is expected to be in the squad to face Barcelona in Saturday's European Champions League final at Wembley.
The player, who made 64 appearances for Wales before retiring from international football in 2007, was awarded an OBE that year.
He was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2009.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara resigns. | Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara has resigned after being criticised for accepting a political donation from a foreign national.
Japanese law bans the practice, if done intentionally, and the opposition had called on him to quit.
The move is seen as a blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who has been struggling to get budget bills through parliament and hold on to his own job. Mr Maehara had been seen as a potential successor to Mr Kan.
On Friday, he admitted taking a 50,000 yen ($610) political donation from a South Korean national resident in Japan. The sum is small but Japanese law bars politicians from accepting money from outsiders to prevent foreign powers having influence on domestic politics. The opposition said Mr Maehara's position was untenable. "I apologise to the Japanese people for stepping down after only six months and provoking distrust over a problem with my political funding, although I have sought to pursue a clean style of politics," Mr Maehara said announcing his decision to step down.
Even before the scandal, Mr Kan was battling to stave off opposition calls for an early general election, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo.
He wants to implement tax reform to cover the costs of Japan's rapidly ageing society and rein in its massive public debt. But deadlock in parliament means Mr Kan is struggling to pass bills to implement the trillion-dollar budget for the new financial year which begins next month.
The foreign minister had called for closer ties with the US and had been critical of China's military build-up. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(Japan Times)'] |
SpaceX successfully launches astronauts Shane Kimbrough, K. Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide, and Thomas Pesquet onboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft into low Earth orbit. The capsule is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on April 24. | The Crew-2 mission is the third to carry people to the International Space Station. “It’s great to be back in space,” said the flight’s commander. SpaceX Launches 4 Astronauts to Space Under darkness, Crew Dragon launched toward the space station. Next SpaceX destination: the moon
A piece of debris whizzes past the Crew Dragon
Who are the astronauts? Now launching to the space station: Vaccinated astronauts. Is Russia leaving the International Space Station? The first two launches of NASA astronauts by Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, worked like a charm. The third worked like a charm too — a string of successes over the past year that is making human spaceflight look routine, as NASA and Mr. Musk’s company intend it to. At 5:49 a.m. Eastern time, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A smooth countdown proceeded through the early morning, and even ran ahead of schedule at times. The mission, Crew-2, is carrying two American, one Japanese and one French astronaut to the International Space Station. It is a continuation of a successful effort by the space agency to turn over to the private sector the business of taking people to low-Earth orbit. SpaceX conducted a demonstration mission with two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, a year ago. The capsule, named Endeavour, with the two men then splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean in August. Months later, SpaceX conducted what NASA called the first routine operational mission for the Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts onboard. That mission, Crew-1, launched in November, and the astronauts are still aboard the station, scheduled to return to Earth next week. Today’s launch was the second operational mission. The Crew-2 astronauts are traveling in the same Endeavour capsule used in the demonstration mission last year. — Kenneth Chang
At the news conference following Friday’s successful launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, NASA’s press secretary urged everyone to keep questions focused on the Crew-2 mission. But reporter after reporter asked Elon Musk about the moon instead. Last week, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build the lander that NASA will use to take astronauts back to the surface of the moon, adapting a giant rocket called Starship that SpaceX has been developing for trips to Mars. “It’s a great honor to be chosen by NASA to return to the moon,” Mr. Musk said. He then expressed his hopes for building a permanent base on the moon, then a city on Mars. “We don’t want to be one of those single-planet species,” Mr. Musk said. “We want to be a multi-planet species.”
Currently, the schedule for the lunar program, Artemis, has astronauts landing on the moon in 2024, a timetable that is widely regarded as unlikely, especially as Congress has not provided as much money for the development of lunar landers as NASA has requested. The space agency had hoped to award contracts to two companies to develop two different landers. Mr. Musk noted that he had been “somewhat optimistic” about SpaceX schedules in the past. (Development of SpaceX rockets and spacecraft have generally taken about twice as long as Mr. Musk predictions.) But he then added that Starship could be ready to carry people in a couple of years. “Obviously, we need to like not be making craters,” he said, and laughed. “Otherwise, it’s like, ‘Hop in, we’re going to Mars — nope, not quite!’”
SpaceX has been launching a series of prototypes from its site in southern Texas, near Brownsville. It is trying to perfect a technique whereby Starship very gently belly flops, using air resistance as a brake and then tipping upward just before landing. The last four flights have ended in fiery crashes, although one did manage to land in a single piece before exploding a few minutes later. “The thing that’s really important to revolutionize space is a rapidly reusable rocket,” he said. “That is the gateway to the heavens.”
Still, Mr. Musk said, the 2024 target was achievable despite the technical challenges. “We’re going to build a lot of rockets, and then we’re going to probably smash a bunch of them,” Mr. Musk said. “But I think it will happen. I think 2024, it seems likely.”
— Kenneth Chang
Hours before the launch, the astronauts start to get into their trademark SpaceX spacesuits with the help of technicians. They then bid farewell to their families and head out to the launchpad in Tesla Model X S.U.V.s. (A bit of cross-marketing between SpaceX and Tesla, both run by Mr. Musk.) After they arrive at the launchpad, the astronauts board the capsule and spend hours working with mission control to confirm that its systems are ready for flight. The launch is timed to when the space station’s orbit passes over Florida. When the capsule reaches orbit, it will be directly behind the space station but traveling faster in a lower orbit. That allows the Crew Dragon to catch up for docking at 5:10 a.m. on Saturday. During their 23-some hours in flight, the astronauts will change out of their spacesuits, eat a meal or two, rest and provide updates to mission control. Once the capsule docks with the station — an automated process — it then takes a couple of hours of checking to make sure there are no air leaks before the hatches open and the Crew-2 astronauts disembark. — Kenneth Chang
As the astronauts were getting ready for sleep, there were a few minutes of concern: Mission controllers at SpaceX headquarters in California warned the crew that a piece of space debris was going to whiz past the capsule at about 1:43 p.m. Eastern time. The astronauts were told to put on their spacesuits, get back in their seats and lower their protective visors. With the growing number of rocket launches and satellites — especially with the proliferation of constellations in orbit like SpaceX’s Starlink system — low-Earth orbit is becoming increasingly cluttered with debris like pieces of rockets and dead satellites, and experts on Earth have repeatedly voiced their worry about the risk of collisions. The European Space Agency hosted a major conference on the subject this past week. The space station, which is about the size of a football field, periodically has to adjust its orbit to avoid a piece of space debris. It is more unusual to find debris on a near collision course with something the size of the Crew Dragon — 27 feet tall, 13 feet wide. For the space station-bound crew, the object appeared likely to miss the Crew Dragon, and no emergency maneuvers were performed to get out of the way. But because of the uncertainty in the exact location and trajectory of the debris, the spacesuits offered an extra level of protection if the debris did collide with the spacecraft. The debris was not immediately identified, and the time of closest approach came and went uneventfully. The crew members then returned to doing what they had been doing — getting ready to sleep. — Kenneth Chang
The Crew-2 astronauts are to spend six months at the International Space Station. Akihiko Hoshide of JAXA, the Japanese space agency. Mr. Hoshide, 52, has made two previous trips to space. He was a member of the crew of the space shuttle Discovery in 2008, and in 2012 he spent four months on the space station. Shane Kimbrough of NASA. Mr. Kimbrough, 53, is the commander of Crew-2. He has made two previous trips to space, once on the space shuttle Endeavour in 2008 and then spending more than six months on the space station from October 2016 to April 2017. K. Megan McArthur of NASA. Dr. McArthur, 49, is the mission’s pilot and previously flew on the space shuttle Atlantis in May 2009 on the last mission to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. During that mission, Dr. McArthur, an oceanographer by training, operated the shuttle’s robotic arm to grab the telescope and place it in the cargo bay. Dr. McArthur is married to Bob Behnken, one of the astronauts who traveled on the first astronaut flight of the same SpaceX capsule last year. She will sit in the seat he occupied during that flight. Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. Mr. Pesquet, 43, previously spent six months on the space station from November 2016 to June 2017, overlapping with Mr. Kimbrough for most of his stay. He is from France. — Kenneth Chang
Without hospitals or medical specialists in space, NASA and other space agencies have always been concerned about astronauts falling sick during a mission. To minimize the chances of that, they typically spend the two weeks before launch in quarantine. A Covid-19 superspreader event at the space station would disrupt operations. The interior of the space station has a volume equivalent to a Boeing 747 jetliner, so there would be space for infected crew members to isolate themselves. But space station managers certainly would not want to worry about the virus spreading in the station’s perpetually filtered and recycled air. During a news conference last week, Shane Kimbrough, the NASA astronaut who is the commander of Crew-2, said all four astronauts had received Covid vaccinations. “I guess it went fine,” he said. “We all have a little bit different reactions, just like most people do. So we’re no different in that regard. But we’re thankful that we have the vaccines.”
The three astronauts who launched in a Soyuz rocket to the station earlier this month — Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of the Russian space agency and Mark Vande Hei of NASA — were also vaccinated. The four astronauts of the Crew-1 mission are not, because no vaccines were available when they launched last November. When they return to Earth, every human not on the planet will be vaccinated against Covid-19. — Kenneth Chang
About four hours ahead of the launch on Friday morning, the four astronauts had put on their spacesuits. Masked SpaceX suit technicians in black uniforms attended to the four crewmates, who sat in models of the seats aboard the capsule that will carry them to orbit. Once the astronauts completed suiting up, they were seen off by Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, and Steve Jurczyk, the acting administrator of NASA. John Insprucker, a SpaceX engineer said “things were looking good” with the spacecraft and the weather ahead of the launch. About three hours and 15 minutes before liftoff, the four astronauts and other crew sat down in Tesla Model X SUVs with license plates that read “REDUCE,” “RECYCLE” and “REUSE.” Before the cars drove toward the launchpad, they said socially distanced goodbyes to their families. The four crewmates arrived at the launch site and were soon on board the Crew Dragon capsule with about two hours and 30 minutes to go before launch. Shane Kimbrough, the mission commander, and Megan McArthur, the pilot, boarded first, and were followed by Thomas Pesquet, Crew-2’s specialist and Akihiko Hoshide, the flight’s engineer. About 45 minutes ahead of the launch, SpaceX began loading propellent into the rocket. The countdown proceeded smoothly, and a camera captured the International Space Station crossing the night sky over the Kennedy Space Center as it orbited the planet. In the final minutes of the countdown, Mr. Kimbrough said a few words ahead of launch. “Off the Earth, for the Earth, Endeavour is ready to go,” he said, referring to the name of this particular Crew Dragon capsule. The astronauts then briefly clasped each other’s hands. After the capsule reached orbit, Mr. Kimbrough said, “It’s great to be back in space.”
The night before the launch, the astronauts shared some of the last meals they’d enjoy on Earth. “6 months of space food after this!” Shane Kimbrough of NASA said on Twitter. 6 months of space food after this! | New achievements in aerospace | April 2021 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
A petition calling for a second EU referendum has topped two million signatures – more than doubling the highest signed in UK parliamentary history. | Angry Brits are demanding a re-run of the referendum following Friday's narrow decision to leave the EU
A petition calling for a second EU referendum has topped TWO MILLION signatures - more than doubling the highest signed in parliamentary history.
The popular petition, which was started just one day ago, attracted so many signatures when it first opened that the government's website crashed.
The enormous surge followed the initial 100,000 signatures which were created in a bid to get London Mayor Sadiq Khan to declare the capital as independent.
Protesters are hoping that Khan will call for London to be classed separately from the UK and therefore be able to apply to join the European Union.
The petition, which by Saturday morning was being signed by more than 1,660 a minute - 100,000 an hour, has so far exceeded the number of signatures needed to trigger a debate on the topic in Parliament by 1.9 million.
Eager protesters took to Twitter urging people to sign the petition and assist in calling for a second chance.
One said: "The petition for a second referendum hit one million in just a day. We can do this, guys!"
Another wrote: "The petition for another referendum now has almost 2 million signatures WOW."
Physicist Brian Cox said: "A rather mischievous question ... what happens if over 17 million people sign the petition for a second referendum?"
Broadcaster Mary Portas said: "Please sign. Let's change this madness."
The petition was set up by William Oliver Healey who states: "We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the Remain or Leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout less than 75%, there should be another referendum."
On Thursday 51.9% of votes were cast to leave the EU, versus 48.1% for remaining part of the bloc.
A map of the signatures indicated that most activity was in England's major cities.
The highest number of signatories came from London, where most boroughs backed Remain in the referendum.
But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn rejected calls for a second vote.
He said: "The referendum has taken place, a decision has been made, I think we have got to accept that decision and work out our relationship with Europe in the future.
A House of Commons spokeswoman earlier said the site had temporarily been taken out of action on Friday due to "exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous occasion."
"UK Parliament and the Government Digital Service are aware of the issue and are working hard to resolve the problems as quickly as possible."
The parliamentary petitions system is overseen by the Petitions Committee, who consider whether petitions that receive more than 100,000 signatures should be raised in the house.
The committee is due to sit again on Tuesday.
A separate Change.org petition calling on Mr Khan to instigate the secession of London from the rest of the UK gathered more than 100,000 signatures by Saturday morning.
The page, set up by James O'Malley, stated: "London is an international city, and we want to remain at the heart of Europe.
"Let's face it - the rest of the country disagrees. So rather than passive aggressively vote against each other at every election, let's make the divorce official and move in with our friends on the continent.
"This petition is calling on Mayor Sadiq Khan to declare London independent, and apply to join the EU - including membership of the Schengen Zone (Umm, we'll talk about the Euro...)."
| Government Policy Changes | June 2016 | ['(Daily Mirror)'] |
A Japanese judicial panel calls for charges against top Democratic Party figure Ichirō Ozawa. | A judicial panel in Japan says Ichiro Ozawa, one of the governing Democratic Party's top figures, should be charged over a political fund-raising scandal. The panel criticised earlier decisions by prosecutors not to indict Mr Ozawa over alleged false reporting by his fund management company. The ruling means courts must now appoint lawyers to prosecute him. Last month Mr Ozawa failed in a leadership challenge to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The 68-year-old has been so powerful in Japanese politics that he's known as the "shadow shogun".
He helped to found the governing Democratic Party of Japan, and is widely credited with overseeing its election victory last year, which ended half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.
But Mr Ozawa has been dogged by a scandal over political fund-raising. He has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated.
Prosecutors raided his offices and charged three of his former assistants, but said there was not enough evidence to take action against the politician himself.
Now a judicial panel of ordinary citizens appointed to review the case has overturned their decision, saying it was questionable.
Some in Japan believe since losing the leadership challenge last month, Mr Ozawa had been biding his time before trying again.
But the ruling by the citizens' panel means the courts must now appoint lawyers to prosecute him. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2010 | ['(DPJ)', '(BBC)', '(Bangkok Post)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
Several thousand residents affected by the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and requesting help in Rome are skirmished by police, with two of the residents sustaining injuries. | ROME (Reuters) - Demonstrators from the quake-stricken city of L’Aquila clashed with police on Wednesday before reaching Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s house to demand more state help to rebuild their lives.
The protest by some 5,000 people paralyzed the center of the Rome and was a major blow for Berlusconi, who has repeatedly presented his hands-on response to the April 2009 quake as one of the main successes of his two-year-old government.
Two people were slightly injured as police in riot gear tried to control the crowd, which managed to bring their protest right outside Berlusconi’s private residence.
“Shame on you!” the demonstrators shouted.
“We came here to collectively ask for help and we are being beaten,” said L’Aquila mayor Massimo Cialente.
Residents of L’Aquila, where more than 300 people were killed in the disaster, complain about the slow reconstruction of their medieval city and want the government to extend tax exemptions for the victims.
The government immediately offered a concession, saying it would allow earthquake survivors to pay unpaid taxes over a period of 10 years instead of five, starting in 2011.
Berlusconi, who has built his political career as Italy’s “Mr Fix It,” often boasts on television that new houses in the devastated city were built in record time.
He hosted last year’s G8 summit in L’Aquila in a show of solidarity for the victims.
But residents say that after an initial flurry of headline-grabbing initiatives many have been left to fend for themselves as reconstruction money ran out.
“The ‘House Project’ is a joke. Only a few people were given new homes. The rest of us are still in the same situation. There are no projects to rebuild the historic center. L’Aquila is a dead city and we have been forgotten,” said one demonstrator.
Pierluigi Bersani, the head of the largest opposition party, and former anti-graft magistrate Antonio Di Pietro, who now heads a smaller opposition party, came out of parliament to show their support for the protesters.
The demonstrators also fear that a government austerity budget aimed at reducing the deficit will be a double blow to them because it plans to cut funds to Italy’s regions.
“We lost everything and they took us for a ride,” another demonstrator shouted.
Additional reporting by Antonio Denti and Cristiano Corvino; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Philip Pullella and Jon Boyle
| Earthquakes | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(The Star)'] |
A light aircraft crashes in the Ghatkopar district of Mumbai, India, killing all four occupants and one person on the ground. | A chartered plane has crashed in India's financial capital Mumbai, killing at least five people, officials have confirmed. It crashed into a building that was under construction in Ghatkopar, a residential area in eastern Mumbai.
Fire officials told BBC Marathi that the dead included four people on the flight and one person on the ground.
Initial reports say the plane crashed while the pilot was attempting to land. It burst into flames immediately after. "I was riding my bike when I saw the plane go down," Prathamesh Lokhande, an eyewitness, told BBC Marathi's Janhavee Moole. "I rushed to the spot and helped the fire officials recover the bodies and send them to the hospital." Suresh Prabhu, India's aviation minister, tweeted his condolences and said that there would be an official inquiry into the crash.
Saddened to hear the news about the aircraft crash in Mumbai.Have directed DGCA to conduct an investigation into the plane crash at the earliest. I'm in constant touch with on ground developments.
The plane used to be owned by the government of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and had been sold to private operator UY Aviation, a senior police official told the BBC.
| Air crash | June 2018 | ['(NDTV)', '(BBC)'] |
President Obama gives a televised address to the United States warning of "incalculable damage" if the debt limit is not raised. | US President Barack Obama has warned that America's growing debt could cost jobs and do serious damage to the economy, in a rare primetime speech.
Obama has called for a balanced approach to addressing the debt crisis, and says he believes "patriotic Americans" will be willing to pitch in.
The president's speech comes as Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress remain deadlocked over a plan to raise the US debt ceiling and deal with the country's ballooning deficits.
Democrats who control the Senate and Republicans who lead the House of Representatives are at odds over rival plans for raising the $14.3 trillion US debt limit, allowing cash-strapped Washington to stay open as it approaches its August 2 debt limit deadline.
Obama said a short-term debt ceiling extension would just lead to another standoff in six months, describing it as "kicking the can further down the road".
He said he had ordered members of congress to reach a compromise he could sign off on in the next couple of days, and he was confident this could be done.
"America, after all, has always been a grand experiment in compromise," he said.
Speaking from the White House East Room on Monday night (Tuesday morning EAST), Obama said the only ones standing in the way of a balanced compromise to the nation's debt crisis were those Republicans in Congress who were insisting only on spending cuts.
In a televised address, Obama said the nation was growing dangerously close to default.
He warned that would be what he called a "reckless and irresponsible" outcome to the debate.
The United States will run out of ability to borrow money and pay its existing bills after August 2 if a deal is not reached by then to extend the nation's debt limit. | Famous Person - Give a speech | July 2011 | ['(AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Palestinians riot along the Israel-Gaza border fence, burning tyres and flying flaming kites across the border to set Israeli fields ablaze; Israel Defence Forces soldiers respond with tear gas and live fire, killing four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. | Some 3,000 Palestinians protested along the Gaza border with Israel on Friday, burning tires and flying flaming kites across the frontier to set Israeli fields ablaze, witnesses and the army said. Soldiers responded with tear gas and live fire, killing four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old, according to the Hamas run-health ministry.
Ahmad Abu Aqel, 25, was shot east of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, health ministry spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, said. It also said a 24-year-old and 29-year-old and a 15-year-old boy were killed, but did not provide details on their identity.
Israel’s army said it was looking into the incidents.
In all the Gaza ministry said that some 445 people were injured, including 96 from live fire.
These brought to 39 the number of fatalities from the border demonstrations and clashes dubbed the March of Return, which took place for the fourth time Friday, according to the health ministry figures. The numbers could not be verified by Israel. | Riot | April 2018 | ['(Haaretz)', '(The Times of Israel)'] |
French prosecutors claim that evidence supports the conclusion that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed the plane. | Here are the major developments in the aftermath and investigation of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps that killed 150 people. Updated
at 7.34pm GMT
27 Mar 2015
19:22
Germanwings continues to have “full faith in our pilots”, the company says in a new statement in line with comments by Lufthansa executives earlier today. The statement also reiterates that Andreas Lubitz appears responsible for the deaths of 150 people. “We are horrified to discover today that the aircraft that crashed in the south of France appears to have been crashed deliberately – probably by the co-pilot of flight 4U9525. Based on audio taken from the voice recorder, the French authorities have come to the conclusion that after the aircraft had reached cruising altitude, the captain left the cockpit for a short time and was then unable to re-enter. “It appears that the co-pilot, who had stayed in the cockpit, prevented the captain from re-entering by fully locking the cockpit door in order to then initiate the fatal descent. All Germanwings and Lufthansa employees are deeply shocked. We could never have imagined that a tragedy like this could occur within our company. “Yet even after this terrible event, we have full faith in our pilots. They remain the best in the world; this event is an extremely tragic isolated incident. “We share in the sadness, shock and incomprehension of the bereaved families and friends and that of millions of other people.”
27 Mar 2015
19:15
In the German town of Haltern, home to 16 students and two teachers killed in the crash, shock and anger has set in with the “nightmare” of the day’s revelations, the AFP reports. “Personally, I’m stunned, angry, speechless and deeply shocked by the latest news,” said Bodo Klimpel, mayor of the small northwestern town of Haltern where the students went to school. “I’m asking myself when this nightmare will end,” Klimpel told a televised news conference after investigators said they believed the 28-year-old co-pilot of the Germanwings jet, Andreas Lubitz, had deliberately slammed a jet into the French Alps, killing himself and the other 149 people on board. “It’s bad enough for the families to learn of the death of loved ones in an accident. But when it’s clear that an individual may possibly have deliberately caused the accident, it takes on an even worse dimension,” Klimpel said. “I don’t think we can even begin to imagine it.”
27 Mar 2015
19:02
The FAA, the US aviation authority, has released a Q&A about cockpit safety and pilot health screening for US airliners, excerpted below. “What are US rules that apply when pilots leave the cockpit? US airlines have to develop procedures that the FAA approves. Those procedures include a requirement that, when one of the pilots exits the cockpit for any reason, another qualified crew member must lock the door and remain on the flight deck until the pilot returns to his or her station. “What kind of psychological screening does the FAA require for pilots? US scheduled airline pilots must have a first class medical certificate. The pilot must renew the certificate every year if the pilot is under 40 years old, every six months if the pilot is 40 years old or older. “FAA medical requirements for pilots: Airline pilots undergo a medical exam with an FAA-approved physician every six or twelve months depending on the pilot’s age. The FAA does not release pilot medical records, including the results of any pilot’s medical testing, because medical information is covered by privacy laws. …
“The AME will typically ask questions about psychological condition as part of his/her assessment, and the AME can defer any examination when he or she believes additional psychological testing may be indicated. … The pilot must self-disclose the information requested and give explanations to all yes answers. The AME will use this self-disclosure to ask additional questions about mental health issues.The AME can order additional psychological testing. …
“Additionally, if the FAA receives information from another source that a pilot may have a mental health issue, the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine can direct the pilot to provide specific documentation and/or a psychiatric and psychological evaluation from a mental health care professional in order to make a determination about the pilot’s suitability for certification.”
at 7.03pm GMT
27 Mar 2015
18:49
There is some disagreement about the age of Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who by all appearances deliberately crashed the Airbus 320, killing himself and 149 others. French prosecutor Brice Robin saying earlier today that he was 28 but Düsseldorf authorities saying he was 27, according to the local newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. German media have meanwhile identified the captain as Patrick Sonderheimer. A Lufthansa colleague has told Europe1, a French website, that Sonderheimer was “one of the best”. Updated
at 7.14pm GMT
27 Mar 2015
18:42
As at least four airliners implement the “rule of two” people in the cockpit at all times, my colleague Holly Watt examines European and American air safety rules in the wake of the Germanwings crash. The US Federal Aviation Authority said in a statement: “US airlines have to develop procedures that the FAA approves. Those procedures include a requirement that, when one of the pilots exits the cockpit for any reason, another qualified crew member must lock the door and remain on the flight deck until the pilot returns to his or her station. A qualified crew member could be a flight attendant or a relief pilot serving as part of the crew.”
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was “co-ordinating closely” with the European aviation agency in the aftermath of the Flight 0525 crash, after it emerged that the 27-year-old pilot Andreas Lubitz apparently deliberately crashed an Airbus plane, killing everyone on board. French officials said Lubitz appeared to have locked his fellow pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane. According to rules set out by the European Aviation Safety Agency, pilots must remain at their “assigned station” throughout the flight, “unless absence is necessary for the performance of duties in connection with the operation or for physiological needs”. At this point, one pilot can leave the cockpit provided “at least one suitably qualified pilot remains at the controls of the aircraft at all times”. American airlines have different systems for minimising the risk to pilots while flying, which often involve using food carts as makeshift barricades. “Every airline in the United States has procedures designed to ensure that there is never a situation where a pilot is left alone in the cockpit,” said a representative for the Air Line Pilots Association in America. EasyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Air Transat and Air Canada announced new rules on Thursday. 27 Mar 2015
18:30
Half the 150 people killed in the crash of Germanwings Flight 4U9525 were German, Lufthansa has confirmed, up from an earlier estimate of 72. The German victims include 16 teenage students and their two teachers and two opera singers, one with her husband and infant child. Fifty Spanish nationals were on board, junior security minister Francisco Martinez has said. There were also at least three British nationals, three Americans, two Australians, two Argentines, two Mexicans, two Colombians, two Venezuelans, a Chilean, Belgian, Dane and Dutch person. Kazakhstan has said that three of its citizens were killed in the crash, as were two Moroccans, two Iranians and an Israeli. 27 Mar 2015
18:19
German police have begun to search the home of Andreas Lubitz for any hint of what caused the co-pilot – qualified, trusted and showing no signs of psychological distress – to crash a plane and kill himself and 149 others. Although by appearances fit for duty, one gap in the the man’s story suggests something wrong, my colleagues Ian Traynor and Louise Osborne report. Lubitz had taken a break of several months from his pilot training. Carston Spohr, Lufthansa’s chief executive, said there was nothing unusual about this but that he could not and “may not” give the reason for this for reasons of medical confidentiality. The Lufthansa boss said the interruption in the training occurred six years ago. A journalist from Der Spiegel, reporting from Montabaur, cited acquaintances as saying that the break in 2009 was because of stress – “because of burnout or depression.”
Spohr said Lubitz was judged fit to resume the training scheme a few months later and then passed all the medical, psychological, and flying tests. The interior ministry in Berlin ran security and intelligence checks on both pilots on Tuesday, said Thomas de Maiziere, minister in charge. The data bases were scoured. “There is no indication of any kind of terrorist background,” he said. Lubitz apparently lived in the small town of Montabaur with his parents, but also had an apartment in Dusseldorf. At his parents’ house in Montabaur on Thursday, the curtains were drawn and four police cars were parked outside. German chancellor Angela Merkel has urged people not to jump to conclusions before investigators can do their work, and even friends and families of the victims have expressed reservations through their shock. Ulrich Wessel, head teacher of the school, told the AFP that although he feels “angry, perplexed, stunned,” he did not want to hypothesize whether Lubitz was suffering from depression or another condition: “We don’t know whether he was psychologically ill, and whether he was in a position to gauge the consequences of his decision. That would be speculation.”
Updated
at 6.22pm GMT
27 Mar 2015
17:57
Air Canada is changing its rules to require two people in the cockpit at all times, AP reports. Spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick says the airliner is implementing the new rules “without delay” but did not disclose the company’s former policy. The FAA has not yet responded to the Guardian’s queries about its rules or recommendations regarding cockpit security, but my colleague Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch) spoke with Aaron Karp, a senior editor at Air Transport World, who is combing FAA regulations looking for a rule. Karp said that it is standard airline policy to require two people in the cockpit. “The impression I am getting is that it is just something that most US airlines implemented for domestic flights, it may have been something that the FAA recommends, but I’m not sure there is a list of rules and regulations that says this has to be the case,” Karp said. He thinks airlines implement this practice so that someone knows what is going on in case their is a medical emergency in the cockpit. 27 Mar 2015
17:40
Here are the key developments in the aftermath of the Germanwings crash. Updated
at 6.05pm GMT
27 Mar 2015
17:36
Effective tomorrow EasyJet will require two crew members in the cockpit at all times, the airliner has said in a statement, following rule changes by Fly Norwegian and likely preceding more announcements from other companies in the coming days. “EasyJet can confirm that, with effect from tomorrow Friday 27 March, it will change its procedure which will mean that two crew members will be in the cockpit at all times. This decision has been taken in consultation with the Civil Aviation Authority,” the statement reads. “The safety and security of its passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority.”
. @Fly_Norwegian Air Shuttle says in wake of #4U9525 it's speeding up rule changes so there's always 2 ppl in cockpit: pic.twitter.com/33FGxvHTzw
27 Mar 2015
17:24
Around 150 relatives flown to Marseille were met by psychologists and support teams, and then taken to Seyne-les-Alpes, the Guardian’s Angelique Chrisafis (@achrisafis), reports from the scene. In the fields surrounding the holiday centre, looking up onto the staggering view of snowy mountain tops was the closest the families would be able to get to the site of the tragedy, where remains were still being located scattered across the craggy mountainside. The crash site, tucked behind the mountain peaks, was not visible except from helicopters. Officials said the airspace had been closed to all but army recovery teams and families could not fly over. The families’ visit seemed all the more poignant to villagers because relatives did not yet have any identified remains and faced a long wait for any repatriation or funerals. The work of recovering and identifying remains is likely to take weeks, if not months, officials said. International forensics teams were working with mountain gendarmes but accessing the craggy slopes to locate the dispersed remains often involved absaling down by rope to inspect the debris in detail. One forensics expert told the local paper La Provence that the biggest body-part was “no bigger than a briefcase”. French media has described the plane wreckage as being “reduced to confetti”. DNA had been collected from relatives in order to aid in identification, as well as dental records. “Hundreds of villagers in the valley have come forward to offer beds for the families,” the mayor of Seyne-les-Alpes has said, but most of the families will leave the village before nightfall to return home. You can read the full piece on the families’ arrival and town’s shock here. Updated
at 5.36pm GMT
27 Mar 2015
17:15
27 Mar 2015
17:05
“I saw debris scattered over a wide area, small fragments of the plane, each no bigger than a book. I was shocked that there was so little left,” a local mountain guide has told the Guardian’s Angelique Chrisafis (@achrisafis), reporting from the mountain village of Seyne-les-Alpes near the site of the crash. “It’s unthinkable,” said Guy Brunet, the village butcher and a mountain-climber and hunter. “Imagine if he had done this only 150 metres before, the plane could have hit the village. It would have been absolute carnage.”
Jean-Louis Bietrix, a mountain guide and local councillor in nearby Prads-Haute-Bléone, who had led the first gendarme teams onto the site of the crash shortly after the Barcelona to Dusseldorf flight went down, said: “This new element must make it so much worse for the families, it really adds to their grief. I think it will be so much harder now.” Guy Derbez, who was mayor of Seyne-les-Alpes in the 1970s and 80s, said the latest revelations about the co-pilot’s deliberate act had left locals confused and struggling for explanations. He hoped the truth would emerge in the coming days. “A suicide that also took 149 people to their deaths seems hard to conceive.”
“If he wanted to kill, then it must be seen as an attack in itself. Nothing happens gratuitously when there are 150 deaths,” he said. Updated
at 5.05pm GMT
27 Mar 2015
16:54
Robert Tansill Oliver, father of an American victim, speaks about the loss of his 37-year old son. Oliver’s son, Robert Oliver Calvo, was born in Barcelona but was an American citizen. He worked for the Barcelona-based clothing company Desigual. 27 Mar 2015
16:43
Lubitz had passed all the psychological and physical tests required for training, Lufthansa chief executive Cartsen Spohr has said, as anecdotes and small details of the co-pilot believed responsible for the crash emerge. A neighbour of Lubitz told Germany’s daily newspaper Bild that he hadn’t known the co-pilot, but had seen him when he was out jogging. “He always seemed very polite and always said hello and I said hello back, but we never got into a conversation,” he said. Asked about Lubitz’s family, the neighbor said there wasn’t a strong sense of neighbourliness in the area. However, he added that he refused to believe the news before it was proven 100 percent. “I can’t believe that anyone would have the heart to commit such a selfish act.”
You can read our profile of Lubitz here. 27 Mar 2015
16:26
In Berlin, Merkel says that the background to the crash was still unclear, Louise Osborne reports. “It is and remains important that further inquiries take place and that every aspect is further investigated,” Merkel said. Investigators are likely to delve into Lubitz’s personal life to uncover any clues about his mental state. “The very first thing the aviation authorities and investigators will do is go through his personal background and look at his professional life, in terms of his relationships, finances, flying record and medical record,” the aviation psychologist Robert Bor said. “They will also be interviewing pilots he has flown with over the last few weeks to see if there is anything about his behaviour, attitude or professional conduct that could be potentially relevant here. “It’s an extremely rare thing for a pilot to crash his own plane.”
You can read a profile of Lubitz by Louise Osborne and Luke Harding here. 27 Mar 2015
16:16
“This is an unbearable tragedy … this information leaves us without words,” German chancellor Angela Merkel has said. “What I want to say today is that this is a crime against all the victims and families involved,” she continued. Reporting on the crash site, ABC’s Hamish Macdonald says the commander in charge of recovery operations has just briefed reporters. “I won’t do any description of what my guys saw on the ground. It is not a show. We have to respect the victims,” the commander said. His team “arrived and felt a sense of cold. … The mission is not easy but they are soldiers.”
Macdonald reports that between 250 and 300 family members have arrived at the site, and have been asked to provide DNA samples to assist in identifying the victims. “Some want to stay for several days but most will be leaving tonight,” he tweets. There will be a mass in honor of the victims on Saturday morning at Notre Dame du Bourg Cathedral in Bourg, in Digne #Germanwings
| Air crash | March 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe wins the Man Booker International Prize in honour of his career. | Achebe is best known for his 1958 debut novel Things Fall Apart, which sold more than 10 million copies.
The 76-year-old, who was paralysed from the waist down after a car accident in 1990, beat writers including Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie to the honour.
The £60,000 prize, awarded every two years, will be presented to Achebe at a ceremony in Oxford on 28 June.
'Remarkable man'
Achebe was called "the father of modern African literature" by writer Nadine Gordimer, one of the judges, who added that he is "integral to world literature".
He's what I think writers should be
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"What African literature set about to do was to broaden the conception of literature in the world - to include Africa, which wasn't there," Achebe told the BBC. "In the stories we tell, it is intended to help us solve the problem of this failure that has overtaken the early sense of joy and happiness when Africans became independent, received their self-determination."
Another judge, academic Elaine Showalter, said Achebe had "inaugurated the modern African novel".
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who recently won the Orange Prize for Fiction, said of Achebe: "He is a remarkable man. The writer and the man. He's what I think writers should be."
Others who have been nominated for the prize, which recognises a living writer for their body of work, included Doris Lessing, Philip Roth, Peter Carey and Margaret Atwood.
The recipient of the first honour - awarded in 2005 - was Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. | Awards ceremony | June 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Around 1,000 people protest in Taipei, demanding that the government make a weekly day off a legal right for Taiwan's 200,000 foreign live–in caregivers. | TAIPEI (AFP) - Almost a thousand protesters took to the streets of Taipei on Sunday demanding that the government make a weekly day off a legal right for Taiwan's 200,000 foreign live-in carers. The demonstrators - mostly caregivers from South-east Asia backed by local labour group activists - chanted slogans and unfurled huge banners as they marched through the capital. 'A weekly day off is the minimum standard... It is not negotiable,' said an official from the Taiwan International Workers' Association, which organised the protest. An AFP photographer estimated that almost 1,000 people took part. | Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2011 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
The federal government carries out its final execution under the Trump administration, executing convicted murderer Dustin Higgs by lethal injection at USP Terre Haute in Indiana. | TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (Reuters) - The U.S. government carried out the 13th and final federal execution under President Donald Trump’s administration early on Saturday, days before his successor Joe Biden takes office with a promise to try to end the death penalty.
Dustin Higgs, 48, was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. EST (0623 GMT), the federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement, after a late-night Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the execution to proceed.
Since resuming federal executions last year after a 17-year hiatus, Trump, a long-time proponent of capital punishment, has overseen more executions than any U.S. president since the 19th century, including three this week.
Higgs was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for his role in the kidnapping and murder of three women on a federal wildlife reserve in Maryland in 1996: Tanji Jackson, Tamika Black and Mishann Chinn.
His accomplice, Willis Haynes, who confessed to shooting the women, was sentenced to life in prison in a separate trial.
In his final words, Higgs sounded calm and defiant at the Justice Department’s death chamber in its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, a reporter who served as a media witness said.
“I’d like to say I am an innocent man,” he said before lethal injections were administered, mentioning the three women by name. “I did not order the murders.”
Some of his victims’ relatives attended, and a sister of Jackson released a statement, although the Bureau of Prisons did not share the sister’s name.
“When the day is over, your death will not bring my sister and the other victims back,” the statement said. “This is not closure, this is the consequence of your actions.”
Higgs’ older sister, Alexa Cave, could be heard sobbing uncontrollably from a separate witness room as Higgs died.
“THIS IS NOT JUSTICE”
“The government completed its unprecedented slaughter of 13 human beings tonight by killing Dustin Higgs, a Black man who never killed anyone, on Martin Luther King’s birthday,” Shawn Nolan, one of Higgs’ lawyers, said in a statement.
“Dustin spent decades on death row in solitary confinement helping others around him, while working tirelessly to fight his unjust convictions.”
The majority conservative Supreme Court’s ruling was consistent with earlier decisions: it had dismissed all orders by lower courts delaying federal executions since they were resumed last year.
“This is not justice,” one of its members, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, wrote in dissent.
“After waiting almost two decades to resume federal executions, the Government should have proceeded with some measure of restraint to ensure it did so lawfully. When it did not, this Court should have. It has not.”
The federal government executed 10 people last year, more than three times as many as in the previous six decades, marking the first time that it had conducted more executions than all U.S. states combined, according to a database compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center.
A minority of the country’s 50 states still carry out executions.
Before Trump became president, only three people had been executed by the federal government since 1963.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the execution of Higgs the end of a “cruel, inhumane and lawless” spree by the federal government.
“President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to end the federal death penalty. He must honor that commitment,” Cassandra Stubbs, director of ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project said.
After a failed triple date with the three women, Higgs and Haynes offered to drive them home but instead took them to the Patuxent Research Refuge. Prosecutors said Higgs gave Haynes a gun and told him to shoot the three women.
The disparity in their sentences was grounds for clemency, Higgs’s lawyers had said.
Higgs and another death row inmate, Corey Johnson, were diagnosed with COVID-19 in December, but on Wednesday the Supreme Court rejected an order by a federal judge in Washington delaying their executions for several weeks to allow their lungs to heal.
The Justice Department executed Johnson on Thursday night.
Cave, Higgs’ sister, said she believed life in prison would have been a more just punishment.
“They don’t have freedom at all in any sense of the word,” she said in an interview on Friday, before Higgs was executed. “What purpose does it serve to kill you? It brings nothing back.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
On his final day as President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III says he was right when he sued China over the South China Sea. | It was not an easy decision for Philippine President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, leader of a developing country heavily dependent on China when it comes to trade.
China, after all, is the Philippines’ second biggest trading partner, based on the latest government statistics released in September 2015.
China, too, is the homeland of at least 1.5% of the Philippines’ population. Many of these Chinese Filipinos wield huge influence in business and other spheres, as in the case of two of the Philippines’ richest men, Henry Sy and Lucio Tan.
Aquino himself hails from a Chinese family. The Cojuangco clan, to which he belongs, comes from the line of Chinese immigrant Co Yu Hwan, who moved to the Philippines in 1861.
In a roundtable interview with Rappler, Aquino admitted that he initially had some concerns about suing China: "I won’t say I wasn’t bothered, I wasn’t apprehensive about some of the issues that we had to face. Going against China, how will China treat us if we dare?"
"But being confident that the people are there, that if you present the facts to them, they will see how reasonable our position, how logical, how correct. We can count on their support," the 56-year-old outgoing president said.
Aquino, the son of two icons of democracy, ended up making history. Hebecame the only president who brought China to court over a dispute involving the South China Sea, parts of which the Philippines claims as the West Philippine Sea.
Under Aquino as the chief architect of Philippine foreign policy, the Philippines filed an arbitration case against China over the West Philippine Sea onJanuary 22, 2013.
The Aquino administration initiated these arbitration proceedings after a standoff between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea in April 2012.
The case is pending before an arbitral tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. The Philippines expects a ruling in late June or early July of this year.
By filing this case, the Philippines stopped bilateral or one-on-one talks with China the means preferred by China to settle the maritime row.
The Aquino administration said it brought China to court to secure a long-lasting solution to the sea dispute.
This will also allow the Philippines to "at least negotiate from a stronger position"when it returns to bilateral talks with China, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said.
'Very good job,' analyst says
Ernest Bower, senior adviser for the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Aquino administration "did a very good job."
Referring to the Aquino administration, Bower added: "They actually put their actions behind their words. They not only talked about rule of law, but they took the court case to The Hague."
"I thought that the foreign secretary, Albert del Rosario, did a very good job of driving for more ASEAN unity and engagement. And he made it clear to the Americans that the Philippines was serious about this issue," Bower added.
He said Del Rosario’s efforts led to the signing of the Philippines-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) in 2014. The EDCA gives American troops greater access to Philippine military facilities.
Bower said the EDCA is "probably moving the US-Philippine relationship to a new point; a new high point."
Security analyst Jose Antonio Custodio, for his part, pointed out one of the shortcomings of the Aquino administration’s approach toward the West Philippine Sea dispute.
"It was too much focused on the diplomatic angle and it did not really have any efforts, following 2012, to protect, for example, Scarborough Shoal…in a physical way," he said.
While the Philippines pursues an arbitration case against China, Custodio said, "I would have appreciated it if there been an effort to defend the fishermen also, at the same time."
In Panatag Shoal, for instance, fishermen have reported being blocked by Chinese vessels from approaching fishing grounds. (READ: PH in The Hague: China robs us of right to fish)
'What is ours is ours'
Custodio warned: "If the Chinese sense that we're only good for diplomacy but when it comes to things on the ground, we're a little bit averse, then they will keep on probing and probing and pushing and pushing you if you don't push back. This is their typical bully thing."
At the same time, other analysts say the US has not committed itself enough to the Philippines in the sea dispute. How, for example, will the US come to the Philippines’ aid in case China attacks this Southeast Asian country?
In any case, Aquino said he did what matters most: protect his land from an aggressive neighbor.
He illustrated this well in his State of the Nation Address in 2011, when he compared the contested Recto Bank (Reed Bank) in the West Philippine Sea with a busy street in Manila called Recto Avenue.
How did this story make you feel?
"Kapag tumapak ka sa Recto Bank, para ka na ring tumapak sa Recto Avenue," Aquino said. (Setting foot on Recto Bank is no different from setting foot on Recto Avenue.)
The President stressed, "Malinaw ang pahiwatig natin ngayon sa buong mundo: Ang sa Pilipinas ay sa Pilipinas(Now, our message to the world is clear: What is ours is ours)." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2016 | ['(Rappler)'] |
The death is announced of slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's mother Vallipuram Parvathi. | Vallipuram Parvathi, the mother of slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran, passed away on Sunday morning at a Jaffna Hospital. She was 81.
Cofirming this, the Army said that the death came at around 6.30 am.
TamilNet, in a post, said that after the demise of her husband in January 2010, Mrs. Parvathi was released and was later allowed to go to Malaysia for medical treatment in March 2010. She was denied entry to Tamil Nadu and deported back to Malaysia last year. Later, she was brought to her home village of Valveddiththurai and the local hospital was treating her.
PTI adds
When Parvathi Pillai was admitted to hospital last month, she was already partially paralysed. Lately, she sunk into a major depression and stopped eating as her three remaining children, settled abroad, were not ready to visit Sri Lanka, though they were helping her financially.
Her two married daughters live in Toronto, Canada and Chennai respectively, while her surviving son Manoharan is based in Denmark.
Parvathi Pillai, whose husband Thiruvengadam Velupillai died in January 2010 in Jaffna, was deported last year when she landed in Chennai for treatment. Before that, she had been living in Malaysia.
After her deportation last year, she was placed under the protective custody of Sri Lankan military before being released.
She stayed at a lodge in Colombo for a short period until she was moved to her native place at Valvettithurai. | Famous Person - Death | February 2011 | ['(The Hindu)'] |
A man in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, is arrested for attempting to steal one of four existing original copies of Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral. | A hammer-wielding man has been arrested after an attempted smash and grab of a Magna Carta from its display at Salisbury Cathedral.
Alarms went off when the would-be thief tried to break through the glass box which protects the charter on Thursday.
The suspect was held on suspicion of attempted theft of the document - claimed to be the best preserved of four original Magna Cartas.
It was not damaged and nobody was injured, police said.
The man was wrestled to the ground by staff when he attempted to flee after the attempted raid at 16:45 BST, the Dean of Salisbury said.
The Very Reverend Nick Papadopoulos said: "There were people around so the cry went up, it was pretty thick glass so it hadn't yielded easily despite having a hammer hit it.
"It was a great shock but everyone responded magnificently, both our staff and volunteers and members of the public. "They raised a cry and he did not get away."
The drama unfolded just before Evensong near to closing time at the visitor centre.
Dean Papadopoulos added: "He had been carrying a hammer so our guys were very courageous.
"They were able to restrain him and they held him for 12 minutes." A silent alarm was activated which alerted staff to the disturbance, he added.
A 45-year-old man is being held on suspicion of attempted theft, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon.
He has been taken to Melksham police station where he is being questioned.
Magna Carta is a charter of rights agreed by King John in 1215. It is considered one of Britain's most influential legal manuscripts.
Several versions were sent around the country "as evidence of the King's decision", according to Salisbury Cathedral's website. Only four original copies survive today, and the cathedral is home to what is claimed to be "the most beautiful".
The charter was put on display at the cathedral three years ago as part of an exhibition funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The charter has been removed for safe-keeping while the case is refurbished, Dean Papadopoulos said.
A facsimile copy of the charter will be displayed, and the visitor centre will re-open as soon as possible.
Magna Carta outlined basic rights with the principle that no one was above the law, including the king.
It charted the right to a fair trial, and limits on taxation without representation.
It inspired a number of other documents, including the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Only three clauses are still valid - the one guaranteeing the liberties of the English Church; the clause confirming the privileges of the city of London and other towns; and the clause that states that no free man shall be imprisoned without the lawful judgement of his equals.
The British Library has two copies of the 1215 Magna Carta.
Source: The British Library
The historical document is encased in two glass layers, Dean Papadopoulos added.
"The layer that is closest to the document itself was completely untouched by the individual concerned, but his hammer did do some damager to the initial glass screen."
Two copies of the Magna Carta that date from 1215 are held by the British Library and go on regular display there.
The Salisbury copy went on display in 2015 in the 13th Century Chapter House at the cathedral.
Best-preserved Magna Carta on show
BBC History | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | October 2018 | ['(NPR)', '(BBC News)'] |
Flooding in Japan kills nine people in Chiba and one more in Fukushima, with a further person missing in the latter. | Tokyo: Torrential rain that caused flooding and mudslides in towns east of Tokyo left at least 10 people dead and added fresh damage in areas still recovering from recent typhoons, officials said Saturday.
Rescue workers found the body of a person who had been missing in Chiba prefecture after getting caught up in floodwaters while driving. Another person was unaccounted for in Fukushima, farther north, which is still reeling from damage by Typhoon Hagibis earlier this month.
The death toll from the flooding included nine people in Chiba and one in Fukushima.
While rains and floodwaters subsided, parts of Chiba were still inundated. About 4,700 homes were out of running water and some train services were delayed or suspended.
In Midori district in Chiba, mudslides crushed three houses, killing three people who were buried underneath them. Another mudslide hit a house in nearby Ichihara city, killing a woman. In Nagara and Chonan towns, four people drowned when their vehicles were submerged.
“There was enormous noise and impact, ‘boom’ like an earthquake, so I went outside. Then look what happened. I was terrified,” said a Midori resident who lives near a crushed home. “Rain was even more intense than the typhoons.”
In Fukushima, a woman was found dead in a park in Soma city after a report that a car was washed away. A passenger was still missing.
Rain also washed out Friday’s second round of the PGA Tour’s first tournament held in Japan, the Zozo Championship in Inzai city. Saturday’s second round allowed no spectators.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held an emergency task force meeting Saturday morning and called for “the utmost effort in rescue and relief operations.” He also urged quicks repairs of electricity, water and other essential services to help restore the lives of the disaster-hit residents.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the average rainfall for the entire month had fallen in just half a day Friday.
The downpour came from a low-pressure system above Japan’s main island of Honshu that moved northward later Friday. Power was restored Saturday at most of the 6,000 Chiba households that had lost electricity. About 390 people remained at shelters Saturday afternoon.
Two weeks ago, Typhoon Hagibis caused widespread flooding and left more than 80 people dead or presumed dead across Japan. An earlier typhoon in September had devastated Chiba, where more than 50,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and 100 others flooded. Friday’s downpour flooded more than 150 homes and damaged several others.
Yoshiki Takeuchi, an office worker who lives in a riverside house in Chiba’s Sodegaura city, said he had just finished temporary repairs to his roof after tiles were blown off by the September typhoon when Friday’s rains hit hard.
“I wasn’t ready for another disaster like this. I’ve had enough of this, and I need a break,” he told Kyodo News agency.
Get Breaking News Alerts From Gulf News
We’ll send you latest news updates through the day. | Floods | October 2019 | ['(Gulf News)'] |
Asia Bibi's blasphemy acquittal is upheld by Pakistan's Supreme Court. She may seek asylum. | Christian woman who spent eight years on death row free to leave country First published on Tue 29 Jan 2019 09.54 GMT
Asia Bibi, the Christian farm labourer who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy, is expected to leave the country after the supreme court upheld her acquittal.
The court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to October’s ruling brought by an extreme Islamist party, which led violent protests across the country in the autumn and called for Bibi to be killed.
Bibi, who has been held at a secret location since her death sentence was overturned, could be flown out of the country within hours. Two of her children are reportedly already in Canada, which has offered Bibi asylum.
After the ruling, Bibi’s lawyer, Saiful Malook, suggested that she could leave Pakistan imminently. “I think at this time she is here [in Pakistan] – but by tonight, I don’t know,” he told reporters outside the court.
Extremists had “said they would kill her despite the judgment of the supreme court. Therefore, I think she should leave the country.”
The supreme court’s decision was welcomed by Christian and human rights campaigners, who have lobbied western countries to offer sanctuary to Bibi, her husband and five children.
In November, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, said his country was in talks with Pakistan about helping her. Australia, Spain and France are also thought to have offered sanctuary.
Chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa, one of a three-judge panel that considered the petition, said: “Based on merit, this review petition is dismissed.”
He added: “The image of Islam we are showing to the world gives me much grief and sorrow.”
Malook, who returned to Islamabad at the weekend after fleeing to the Netherlands amid death threats following October’s ruling, called the decision a victory for Pakistan’s constitution and rule of law. The court had “insisted on very strict proofs of blasphemy” and found none, he said. In a statement, Amnesty International said Bibi should be free “to reunite with her family and seek safety in a country of her choice”.
John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need, which campaigned on behalf of Bibi and her family, said: “This is a victory for the rule of law in Pakistan and promises to draw a line under a miscarriage of justice that has cost almost 10 years of pain and suffering for Asia Bibi and her family. We are all so happy for them.
“Now, please God, Asia can be reunited with all her family and together rebuild their lives in a new and safe environment.”
Zoe Smith of Open Doors, which campaigns against Christian persecution around the world, said: “We are overjoyed that justice has prevailed and are praying that this heralds a new era of equal rights for Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan.”
She added: “Asia and her family’s safety remains of paramount importance. Many Christians will still be praying for their safety.”
David Alton, a peer who advocates for religious freedom, said: “We cannot forget that Asia Bibi’s case is one of many, and that, by some estimates, more than 70 people are currently on death-row for alleged blasphemy crimes.” Bibi now needed to be “given time and space to rebuild her life”.
But Hafiz Ehtisham Ahmed, an Islamist activist linked to the extremist Red Mosque in Islamabad, said Bibi may not be safe wherever she goes. “She deserves to be murdered according to sharia. If she goes abroad, don’t Muslims live there? If she goes out of Pakistan … anybody can kill her there,” she told AFP.
The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, which was formed to defend Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and which led violent protests demanding Bibi’s execution after her acquittal, called on Tuesday for its members to be ready for action.
However, most of its leaders are in detention after a government crackdown, and there were few protesters at the court in Islamabad.
Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 in what swiftly became Pakistan’s most infamous blasphemy case. She had been accused by Muslim villagers of insulting the prophet Muhammad in a row over a cup of water. She always insisted she was innocent.
Blasphemy is a highly inflammatory issue in Pakistan, where even unproven accusations of insulting Islam can spark lynchings. Human rights activists say blasphemy charges are frequently used to settle personal scores.
After the supreme court overturned her conviction, cities across Pakistan were paralysed for several days by violent demonstrations with enraged extremists calling for her beheading.
In a deal to end the violence, the government, led by the prime minister, Imran Khan, struck a deal allowing the petition seeking an appeal against the supreme court’s judgment. Khan was accused of capitulating to the extremists’ demands. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | January 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
An attack by a man armed with a knife in Tehran Metro's Shahr-e-Rey Station leaves two injured. The attacker is shot dead by the police. | DUBAI (Reuters) - Tehran police shot dead a man who attacked a clergyman and other people with a knife at a metro station on Saturday, Iranian state television reported.
Hadi Tamhidi, deputy governor of the Shar-e Rey district in south Tehran, said the unidentified man attacked the clergyman with a knife after a dispute, and injured another man.
Police shot and wounded the assailant, who later died of his injuries, Tamhidi said, adding that the assailant was mentally “unbalanced”.
A spokesman for the metro said traffic at the Shar-e Rey station had returned to normal after the incident.
Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Dale Hudson
| Armed Conflict | July 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At least 27 people are killed and dozens are wounded in conflicts between inmates and guards at Welikada prison in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. | At least 27 people have died in clashes between inmates and guards at Sri Lanka's Welikada prison in the capital Colombo, authorities say.
The violence started when police commandos arrived at the prison to provide security whilst prison officers searched for illegal items.
After some prisoners seized arms a gunfight erupted. Witnesses said guards fired on prisoners who tried to escape.
Most of the casualties were inmates. Dozens were injured. Prison authorities say the situation is now under control, but a government minister said a search for escaped prisoners was under way.
A police spokesman told the BBC six escaped prisoners have been recaptured, but said he did not know yet how many more remained on the run.
Prisoners' families and friends have gathered by the jail in a state of panic, the BBC's Charles Haviland reports from Colombo.
Up to 4,000 inmates are held in the jail, which has seen violence before. The violence began when prisoners rounded on hundreds of police commandos who had entered the jail, the head of the prison service said.
The commandos used tear gas and prisoners broke into the armoury, seizing weapons and taking officials hostage. A prison official told the BBC the commandos came to the jail without a court order and provoked the inmates.
However, prison officials also said the inmates opened fire first.
Guards killed at least three people when they fired on inmates fleeing from the prison in a motorised rickshaw, according to witnesses.
The director of the national hospital said the bodies of 16 people killed in the clashes were brought there overnight.
The commissioner-general of prisons told the BBC that bodies of 11 more victims - all inmates - were inside the Welikada jail.
Among 43 others injured were 23 prisoners, 13 police commandos, four soldiers and at least one member of prison staff, the hospital director said. Five were put in intensive care.
A prisoner who was in the jail at the time told the BBC Sinhala's Saroj Pathirana that clashes broke out when police commandos entered the jail, taking prisoners out of their cells and handcuffing them.
Some reports say the police may have been searching for drugs and smuggled mobile phones.
The prisoner told our correspondent that inmates seized weapons from the prison's weapon store during the confrontation.
Inmates were later seen waving rifles from the roof of a prison building.
The army was called in and surrounding roads were closed.
In January 25 prisoners and four guards were wounded when clashes erupted at Welikada, and in 2010 more than 50 police and prison guards were wounded during a raid to seize mobile phones. | Riot | November 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
A bus crash kills at least 39 pilgrims in the southern Nepali town of Parasi. | The crowded bus swerved off a road and plunged into an irrigation canal near the town of Parasi, 150km (93 miles) south-west of Kathmandu.
The bus was taking the pilgrims - mostly from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh - to the Hindu pilgrimage site of Triveni, close to the Indian border.
Buses are often overcrowded in Nepal and accidents on poorly maintained mountain roads are common.
Police official Gyan Bikram Shah told the Associated Press that the driver had lost control on roads that were slippery because of rainfall. He said the bus was so crowded that people were riding on the roof.
Local government official Bir Bahadur Rai told the BBC that he was trying to verify accounts from survivors that more than 100 people had been travelling on the bus.
The BBC's Surendra Phuyal says only two bodies of Nepali nationals have been identified so far.
Indian officials have now arrived at the scene and are expected to help identify the other victims, our correspondent adds.
Police official Deepak Raya said the bus became fully submerged after veering off the road.
He said the pilgrim were to attend an annual religious festival at Triveni on Monday morning.
Officials said water levels in the canal were high as a result of monsoon rains. Rescuers have drained water from it to search for survivors, police officer Ram Dutta Joshi told the Reuters news agency.
Last October, at least 41 people were killed when a bus swerved off a mountain road and plummeted 400m (1,300ft) into a river in eastern Nepal.
| Road Crash | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Violent riots between Muslims and Buddhists rage in the town of Welipitiya, Sri Lanka, leaving 3 dead, 78 injured, and multiple mosques and shops burned or vandalized. | ALUTHGAMA, Sri Lanka — In some of the worst religious violence in Sri Lanka in decades, three people have been killed and 78 injured in riots between Buddhists and Muslims in this southwestern coastal town after months of rising tensions, officials said Monday.
The riots on Sunday followed a protest march by a hard-line Buddhist group, Bodu Bala Sena, which is led in part by monks. Its name roughly translates as Buddhist Power Force. Shops and homes in the area, many of them owned by Muslims, were set ablaze and vandalized in violence that continued throughout the night. Mobs shouting anti-Muslim slogans and hurling gas bombs and stones advanced on a Muslim part of the village of Welipitiya, where men were protecting a mosque.
| Riot | June 2014 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is charged with mass killings for his role in an uprising earlier this month. | Deposed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has been accused in absentia of organizing murders and abuse of power, interim Deputy Prime Minister Azimbek Beknazarov said on Tuesday.
Beknazarov said Bakiyev has been accused of two charges so far: murder of two or more persons and abuse of office.
"There are already grounds for his extradition," he said adding that the interim government has accepted a decree on Bakiyev's resignation and removing his presidential immunity.
Kyrgyzstan's opposition took power on April 7 amid violent unrest in which more than 80 people died. There has been sporadic violence since, but nothing like the events at the start of April.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2010 | ['(Washington Post)', '(RIA Novosti)'] |
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes off the Loyalty Islands Province, New Caledonia. It is the strongest recorded earthquake of the year so far. A tsunami warning was issued with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology confirming that a tsunami was generated by the earthquake. | A tsunami warning has been issued after a powerful earthquake hit near the coast of New Zealand. The quake – which measured up to 7.7 on the richter scale – could cause ‘hazardous waves’, officials warned. It happened within minutes of two other major quakes – one southwest of Sumatra in Indonesia and the other near the Philippines. The NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned: ‘hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within the next three hours.’
Waves reaching between 0.3 and one metre above the tide level are possible for some coasts of Fiji, New Zealand and Vanuatu, the centre said.
Smaller waves were forecast for other nations in the region including Australia, the Cook Islands and American Samoa.
New Zealand authorities told residents along its far northern coast to move away from beaches and other waterfront areas due to the expected ocean surges.
‘We expect New Zealand coastal areas to experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore’ the National Emergency Management Agency said.
‘People in or near the sea (along the north coast) should move out of the water, off beaches and shore areas and away from harbours, rivers and estuaries’, it added.
There were no initial reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which was initially recorded by The U.S. Geological Agency at magnitude 7.5 before being revised to 7.7.
The agency said it hit Wednesday evening, New Zealand time. It was centred at a depth of six miles southeast of the Loyalty Islands and was not expected to cause significant damage or fatalities on land.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) put the magnitude of the quake at 7.2 and said its epicentre was 424 km east of Tadine, New Caledonia, and was at a depth of 10 km.
The new Zealand quake was the strongest of three earthquakes in the region in the space of just over an hour.
Tsunami Info Stmt: M7.9 Loyalty Islands Region 0520PST Feb 10: Event is being reviewed to determine threat to CA,OR,WA,BC,and AK
It came shortly after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This quake was at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres and hit around 217 kilometres south-southwest of the city of Bengkulu – home to more than 300,000 people. No casualties have been reported so far and the extent of the damage remains unclear.
The region is prone to earthquakes because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the ocean.
| Earthquakes | February 2021 | ['(The San Francisco Chronicle)', '(Metro)', '(NDTV)'] |
A college admission scheme across the United States results in the indictment of over 50 people including athletic coaches, CEOs, and two Hollywood actresses, accused of using bribery and fraud in order to cheat their children into universities such as Yale and Stanford. | BOSTON (Reuters) - Nearly 50 people, including actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were charged on Tuesday in what federal authorities say was a $25 million scam to help wealthy Americans get their children into elite universities like Yale and Stanford.
The most sweeping college admissions fraud scheme ever unearthed in the United States was masterminded at a small college-preparation company based in Newport Beach, California, prosecutors said. It relied on bribes to coaches, phony test takers and even doctored photos misrepresenting non-athletic applicants as elite competitors to gain admissions for the offspring of rich parents.
“These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney in Boston, said at a news conference. “For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected.”
William “Rick” Singer, 58, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges related to running the scheme through his Edge College & Career Network, which charged from $100,000 to as much as $2.5 million per child for the services, which were masked as contributions to a scam charity Singer runs.
“I was essentially buying or bribing the coaches for a spot,” Singer said as he pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. “And that occurred very frequently.”
Dressed in a dark sweater blazer, wearing glasses, her hair in a ponytail, Huffman, best known for her role in the TV series, “Desperate Housewives,” was among around 20 defendants who appeared in a Los Angeles court.
Many were slumped in chairs and one woman tried to hide her face. Huffman’s actor husband William H. Macy, known for roles in movies such as “Fargo” and the hit TV series “Shameless”, sat in the front row of court wearing a gray sweater coat.
Magistrate Judge Alexander MacKinnon ordered Huffman’s release on a $250,000 bond before a March 29 hearing in Boston.
All the defendants who appeared in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles were likely to be released on bond, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said in an email.
Macy has not been charged in the case, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Schleifer told the court he was a “subject of the investigation.”
Loughlin’s husband Mossimo Giannulli, a fashion designer known for his “Mossimo” brand, sat in court wearing a hooded sweatshirt and close-cropped hair. He was released on a $1 million bond. Loughlin, best known for her role in the ABC sitcom “Full House” and the recent Netflix sequel “Fuller House,” has also been charged.
Huffman, Giannulli and Loughlin have yet to enter pleas.
The case was the latest in a series of scandals that have rocked the high-stakes, high-stress world of admissions to top colleges. Prosecutors in Boston in recent years have also charged Chinese nationals with cheating on entrance exams, while the College Board, which administers the SAT tests, was rocked in 2016 by a security breach that exposed hundreds of questions planned for tests.
Some 300 law enforcement agents swept across the country to make arrests in what agents code-named “Operation Varsity Blues.”
Prosecutors have so far named 33 parents, 13 coaches and associates of Singer’s business.
Other parents charged include Manuel Henriquez, the chief executive of specialty finance lender Hercules Capital Inc; Gordon Caplan, the co-chairman of international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Bill McGlashan Jr., who heads a buyout investment arm of private equity firm TPG Capital; and Douglas Hodge, the former CEO of the investment management firm Pimco.
Representatives for the companies, and for Huffman and Loughlin, either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
The alleged masterminds of scam and parents who paid into it could all face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
On a call with a wealthy parent, prosecutors said, Singer summed up his business: “What we do is help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school.”
No students have been charged and authorities said some of them were unaware of the scams.
Prosecutors said it was up to the universities what to do with students admitted through cheating.
Yale University and the University of Southern California (USC) said that they were cooperating with investigators.
“The Department of Justice believes that Yale has been the victim of a crime perpetrated by its former women’s soccer coach,” Yale said in a statement.
The coach, Rudolph Meredith, resigned in November after 24 years running the women’s soccer team. Meredith, who is accused of accepting a $400,000 bribe from Singer, is due to plead guilty, prosecutors said. His lawyer declined to comment.
John Vandemoer, a former Stanford University sailing coach who worked with Singer, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the scheme began in 2011 and also helped children get into the University of Texas, Georgetown University, Wake Forest University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Part of the scheme involved advising parents to lie to test administrators that their child had learning disabilities that allowed them extra exam time.
The parents were then advised to choose one of two test centers that Singer’s company said it had control over: one in Houston, Texas, and the other in West Hollywood, California.
Test administrators in those centers are accused of taking bribes of tens of thousands of dollars to allow Singer’s clients to cheat, often by arranging to have wrong answers corrected or having another person take the exam. Singer would agree with parents beforehand roughly what score they wanted the child to get.
In many cases, the students were not aware that their parents had arranged for the cheating, prosecutors said, although in other cases they knowingly took part. None of the children were charged on Tuesday.
Singer also helped parents stage photographs of their children playing sports or even Photoshopped children’s faces onto images of athletes downloaded from the internet to exaggerate their athletic credentials.
Wake Forest said it had placed head volleyball coach Bill Ferguson on administrative leave after he was among the coaches accused of accepting bribes.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators heard McGlashan of TPG Capital listening to Singer tell him to send along pictures of his son playing sports that he could digitally manipulate to make a fake athletic profile.
“The way the world works these days is unbelievable,” McGlashan said to Singer, according to court papers.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2019 | ['(CNN)', '(Reuters)'] |
Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman resigns in protest of holiday lockdown, he also accuses the government of failing to act earlier and deliberately picking Rosh Hashanah as the start date of closure. | Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman resigned from the government on Sunday in protest of the government’s imminent decision to impose a general lockdown during the upcoming holiday period.
Litzman — the former health minister — had long threatened to resign if the lockdown plan is approved, and had also said his United Torah Judaism party could bolt the coalition.
Litzman accused coronavirus czar Ronni Gamzu of planning for months to impose a lockdown on Rosh Hashanah — which begins this week — and Yom Kippur while avoiding the move during the summer season.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Litzman decried the fact that the lockdown would prevent worshipers, including tens of thousands of Jews who don’t go to a synagogue during most of the year, from attending the most important and well-attended Jewish services of the year.
Litzman, who was infected with coronavirus in April when he was health minister and was also reportedly caught attending a prayer group of more than 10 men despite a ban on such gatherings, said he had opposed the lockdown plan “in all forums” and said that if a lockdown was needed, it should have been imposed a month or several weeks ago. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2020 | ['(Times of Israel)'] |
The government of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu decides to free three men and a woman found guilty of assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. | The government in India's Tamil Nadu state has decided to free seven people convicted of plotting the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.
The six men and a woman were members of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel group. The move came a day after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of three of the convicts, citing delays in deciding their mercy pleas.
Gandhi's murder in May 1991 was seen as retaliation for the sending of Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987.
The decision to free the prisoners was taken on Wednesday morning at a cabinet meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha.
Ms Jayalalitha told the state assembly later that the government would send the cabinet decision to the federal government for approval.
"If there is no reply within three days from the centre, the state government will release all the seven... in accordance with the powers vested with the state government," she said.
Among the prisoners to be released are the three men whose death sentences were commuted on Tuesday by the Supreme Court - Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan. They have been in jail for more than 20 years and on death row since 1998.
The court ruled that they should be spared the death sentence as it was inhumane to keep them for so long under the threat of execution. Nalini Sriharan, an Indian Tamil woman who will also be released, was also given the death penalty by the trial court in 1998, but the authorities commuted this to life imprisonment in 2000. Three other convicts - Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran - who are serving life sentences for involvement in the assassination would also be among those freed, authorities said.
There is sympathy for the prisoners in Tamil Nadu, where many believe that they were duped into taking part in a conspiracy they knew little about. Governments in the state have long campaigned for clemency for the convicts, and correspondents say that with general elections due in India soon, Ms Jayalalitha will use the issue to win the support of ethnic Tamils for her party.
Meanwhile, relatives have welcomed the prospect of the prisoners' release. Perarivalan's mother was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying she was "very happy" and she praised the Tamil Nadu chief minister for putting an end to "the pain" of a mother. Mr Gandhi was killed by a female suicide bomber at an election rally in Tamil Nadu. In 2006, the Tamil Tigers expressed "regret" for the murder.
A BBC correspondent in Delhi says the Gandhi family is unlikely to oppose the move to free the prisoners.
Nalini's death sentence was changed into a life term following a plea for clemency by Mr Gandhi's widow and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi. Mrs Gandhi had appealed on Nalini's behalf because she had a young child.
In 2008, Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi met Nalini in jail. "I needed to make peace with all the violence in my life," she later said.
"I don't believe in anger or violence and I refuse to let it overpower me. Meeting Nalini was my way of coming to terms with my father's death," Ms Gandhi said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | February 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Violent rioting and protests including looting occur near the Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore after the funeral of Freddie Gray with fifteen Baltimorean police officers being injured. , | Rioters in Baltimore hurled rocks at police, destroyed patrol cars and looted and burned stores as demonstrations over the death of a black man in police custody turned violent Monday.
Police said 15 officers were injured and two remained hospitalized Monday evening.
"All are going to be OK but sustained heavy damage to their bodies," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said in a news conference late Monday night.
One officer was hit in the head and another suffered severe damage to his knee cap, Batts said.
The police commissioner said at the news conference that he believes that the tensions were on the down side and on their way to dying down.
Batts said it was his understanding that a number of gangs met and decided that each group would "take out a police officer" after the Monday's funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who suffered a fatal spinal injury after being in custody with Baltimore city police.
Batts implored parents to take control of their children who might be taking part in the rioting and said what troubled him was that the structures that were being destroyed took great effort to erect in ailing communities that need them. Many communities do not survive riots, he said.
"I've seen cities that haven't recovered 50 years later," he said.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency in the city and activated the National Guard to assist city and state police, calling it a "last resort'' to restore order.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called the rioters "thugs" and said the city was imposing a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew starting Tuesday. She said she asked Hogan to send in the Guard.
"We are deploying every resource possible to gain control of the situation and ensure peace moving forward,'' she said.
Referring to the looters, she said during a television interview: "I don't understand how stealing jeans is going to bring justice to Mr. Gray."
She said the city would get to the bottom of whether the rioters were from Baltimore or from outside the city. "We won't stand by and let our community be destroyed," Rawlings-Blake said.
The Baltimore Orioles postponed a scheduled Monday night game with the Chicago White Sox. The violence was taking place about two and a half miles from the Camden Yards baseball stadium that is home to the Orioles.
Police said more than two dozen people were arrested. The city's schools were canceled for Tuesday.
After darkness fell, a large building under construction near a Baptist church was engulfed in fire. A spokesman for the mayor, Kevin Harris, said the fire was related to the riots. He said the Mary Harvin Transformation Center was under construction and that no one was believed to be in the building at the time. The center is described online as a community-based organization that supports youth and families.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch dispatched the Justice Department's civil rights chief and director of the agency's community policing office to Baltimore in wake of rioting there. She condemned "senseless acts of violence.''
"In the days ahead, I intend to work with leaders throughout Baltimore to ensure that we can protect the security and civil rights of all residents,'' Lynch said. "And I will bring the full resources of the Department of Justice to bear in protecting those under threat, investigating wrongdoing, and securing an end to violence.''
Dozens of people could be seen throwing bricks, rocks and other objects at officers and at patrol cars with officers inside just hours after funeral services for Freddie Gray. Some demonstrators attacked a stopped police car, leaping on the roof and hood and smashing windows. At least two other police vehicles were set on fire.
Police officers moved in and took down several people near the damaged car. But no police could be seen as rioters looted stores including a CVS pharmacy, a check cashing store, a liquor store and a cell phone store.
A short time later, smoke billowed from the broken windows of the pharmacy. Police said via Twitter that rioters cut a hose firefighters were using to battle the blaze.
Police said on Twitter that looters were "continuing to break into businesses and set cars on fire'' in the area, and that they were responding to reports of looting inside Mondawmin Mall.
The rioting came after days of protests over the death of Gray, 25, who suffered a fatal spinal injury after being taken into custody by Baltimore city police. It was the latest in a series of deadly encounters with police around the country that has triggered a national debate over the use of force, especially against suspects who are black.
Linda Singh, adjunct general of the Maryland National Guard, said they were bringing in Guard troops in armoreed Humvee vehicles. "We are going to be out in massive force,'' she said.
As night approached, Baltimore police used Twitter to describe protesters as "a violent and aggressive group'' and urged citizens to avoid the area.
Numerous police officers in riot gear responded to the demonstrations near a mall in northwest Baltimore. Police described many of the protesters as juveniles.
A flier circulated on social media called for a period of violence Monday afternoon to begin at the Mondawmin Mall and move downtown toward City Hall, Associated Press reported. Outside the mall, a young person threw a flaming trash can at the line of officers.
The University of Maryland Baltimore shut down its campus, hours after city police announced a "credible threat" that local gangs were targeting police officers.
The police department said the Criminal Intelligence Unit had obtained information indicating "members of various gangs including the Black Guerilla Family, Bloods and Crips have entered into a partnership to 'take out' law enforcement officers."
The department said law enforcement agencies and officers should take appropriate precautions. It was not clear if the threat to officers was directly tied to the concern for safety at the school.
The campus shut down at 2 p.m. "at the recommendation of the BPD." The school cited unidentified "activities (that) may be potentially violent and UMB could be in the path of any violence.
"The safety of our students and employees is of paramount importance please vacate the campus as soon as possible."
The schools alert was issued shortly after the funeral of Freddie Gray, which drew thousands of mourners to the downtown Baltimore church.
Gray's death April 19 while in police custody set off a week of protests. Most of the protest were quiet — until Saturday night. That protest began peacefully with more than 1,000 people rallying at City Hall. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said he moved through the crowd, promising that his office was making systemic changes.
Batts, who is black, said the organized protest had essentially wrapped up when tense confrontations resulted in violence. He has blamed the violence on "agitators."
The protesters "became very violent. They began to throw objects," Batts said Saturday night. "They picked up aluminum barricades and smashed windows at our bars and pubs."
Patrol cars were smashed. Six police officers suffered minor injuries; 34 people were arrested.
Batts said some residents moved between police and the angry crowd, urging the protesters not to damage the city. He commended police officers for showing "tremendous restraint" and city residents for helping tamp down the unrest.
"I am proud of our residents and our police officers," Batts said. "The vast majority of residents out here did a good job. ... A small number of people felt like they had to turn this into an ugly day." | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(USA Today)'] |
Nigeria bans international humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger for allegedly providing food and medicine for Boko Haram militants in the north-east of the country. Action Against Hunger denies the Nigerian military's accusations. | Nigeria’s army has ordered for the closure of the offices of non-profit Action Against Hunger, accusing it on Thursday of aiding terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State.
The international aid agency said it was ordered to close its main office in Maiduguri, Borno state, on Wednesday.
Colonel Ado Isa, the deputy director of army public relations, said Action Against Hunger was warned several times that it was “aiding and abetting terrorists” by supplying food and drugs.
Consequently, the AAH has been declared persona (non) grata.
“Consequently, the AAH has been declared persona (non) grata,” Isa said.
The humanitarian group, which focuses on providing water, food and healthcare, particularly in areas plagued by conflict and famine, called on “competent authorities” to let it continue its work.
“This decision, without notice and without any explanation, jeopardizes the assistance Action Against Hunger provides to the most vulnerable people in Borno State and halts, with immediate effect, the assistance Action Against Hunger provides to millions of people in Maiduguri, Monguno, and Damasak,” the group said in a statement.
In July, an Action Against Hunger staff member and five others traveling with her were kidnapped by Islamic State’s West Africa branch.
In total, around 30,000 people have been killed, and more than two million forced to flee their homes, in the decade-long insurgency led by Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) split from Boko Haram in 2016. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(Africanews)'] |
Reports indicate that 40 people have died following a U.S. Air raid near Karabilah in Western Iraq. The military says it was a targeted strike against Al Qaeda, whereas doctors treating the injured and dead said the dead were all civilians, including many women and children. |
Mon Oct 31, 3:49 AM ET
RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft bombed a house near
the Syrian border before dawn on Monday in what the military
said was a precision strike on an al Qaeda leader.
A local hospital doctor in the Iraqi town of Qaim said 40
people were killed and 20 wounded, many of them women and
children, and a tribal leader said there were no guerrillas in
the area.
A U.S. military spokesman said the precision bombing in
Karabila, close to Qaim, was meant to avoid civilian
casualties.
U.S. and Iraqi officials describe Qaim and the Euphrates
Valley running southeast from the Syrian border as a prime
channel for foreign Islamist fighters heading for Baghdad.
"The Americans started to bomb around Betha from after
midnight (2100 GMT) until dawn," said a police officer, reached
by telephone, who asked not to be named for his own security.
He did not know the number of casualties who were taken
from the village of Betha, outside Karabila, to Qaim hospital.
At the hospital, doctor Ammar al-Marsoumi said he believed
40 civilians were killed and 20 wounded; rescuers were still
trying to remove bodies from the rubble, he added.
Mohammad al-Karbouli, a local tribal leader said: "There
are no insurgents in this area, they are all harmless
families."
Colonel David Lapan, in a reply to an e-mail about the
bombing, said: "The only air strike in that area (west of Qaim)
of which I am aware is an attack on a terrorist safe house in
Karabila that occurred before dawn this morning.
"A senior al Qaeda cell leader was the target of the
strike. The timing of the attack and use of precision-guided
munitions is intended to avoid civilian casualties."
U.S. marines have mounted several offensives against their
strongholds in the area over the past few months as part of
efforts to stem the insurgency among Local Iraqi and U.S. military officials have frequently
contradicted each other on the nature and number of casualties.
U.S. officers accuse local doctors of inflating casualty
figures and describing dead guerrilla fighters as civilians.
Independent verification of the casualties was not
possible; the conflict has made it all but impossible for
journalists to operate in the area most of the time.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rashid and Alastair
Macdonald)
| Armed Conflict | October 2005 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Three Spanish aid workers are kidnapped in northern Mauritania, after they became separated from an aid convoy. | Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- Three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania appear to have been abducted by al Qaeda, Spain's interior minister said Monday.
"Everything points" to al Qaeda as being responsible for the kidnapping, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the interior minister, told reporters in Brussels, a senior aide traveling with Rubalcaba told CNN.
Rubalcaba said he was not absolutely certain it was al Qaeda, but added that he's concerned that "we are facing a kidnapping by Islamic radicals."
The three aid workers from the Barcelona Solidarity Action humanitarian organization were traveling in a car Sunday that got separated "for unknown reasons" from the rest of a 13-vehicle aid convoy.
They were traveling from Mauritania southward toward Dakar, in neighboring Senegal, Spain's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility nor has there been any contact with the presumed kidnappers, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Monday in Portugal, where he was attending a meeting.
Moratinos said he has talked to the presidents of Mauritania and neighboring Mali, and the three countries have agreed to cooperate in trying to find the hostages. Spain is sending aircraft to aid in the effort.
The search was broadened to Mali, the western neighbor of Mauritania, to try to prevent the hostages from being moved further afield, Moratinos said.
The vehicle was noticed missing around 7:30 p.m. local Mauritania time on Sunday, when the other vehicles stopped to make a security check of the convoy, and noticed that one vehicle was missing, Moratinos said.
They soon found it, but empty, with the doors open and with tracks from another vehicle leading away into the desert, Moratinos said.
The abduction occurred on a road between the coastal cities of Nouadhibou and Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, Moratinos said.
Spanish news reports said the vehicle was the last in the convoy and authorities found valuables, including money in it. The reports added that the assailants were armed.
But the Spanish Foreign Ministry could not immediately confirm those details, a spokesman in Madrid told CNN.
At Spain's request, troops from Mauritania are now escorting the rest the convoy, the ministry said.
The aid agency and the three people kidnapped are well known in Barcelona, news reports said.
Spain's Foreign Ministry said it has sent an official to help the rest of the convoy and is trying to gain the release of the three. | Armed Conflict | November 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(The Guardian)'] |
At least four people are dead and 48 injured following a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Pishan County in China's Xinjiang region. | At least four people have been killed and more than 48 injured by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in China's Xinjiang region, according to state media.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of 20km (12 miles) northeast of the city of Hotan, followed by a series of aftershocks.
Officials said more than 3,000 houses and buildings in the mainly ethnic Uighur region were damaged.
China is regularly hit by earthquakes, particularly in Sichuan and Yunnan.
"Buildings were trembling and people rushed to the streets," said Hotan resident Jin Xingchang.
The government said it would send 1,000 tents and other relief materials to the area, said AFP news agency citing the Xinjiang Bureau of Civil Affairs.
In 2008, a 7.9 magnitude quake rocked Sichuan killing more than 80,000 people, making it the worst earthquake to hit China for more than three decades. | Earthquakes | July 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
The shortlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction is announced, featuring Ann Patchett and Anne Enright. | Cynthia Ozick celebrated her 84th birthday on Tuesday and news that her seventh novel, Foreign Bodies, has been shortlisted for the 17th Orange prize for excellence in fiction written by women.
She admitted, however, that she would rather people did not dwell on the former. Asked if she minded her age being mentioned, Ozick said: "Yes, is the direct answer, yes. Because I think that writers are judged on their work and not on their age, and that seems to me a very simple axiom. I suppose if a writer publishes a novel at the age of 10 it is worth mentioning, but if one is mature it seems rather irrelevant."
However, Ozick added: "I understand journalism, I do, and journalists latch on to things that seem remarkable. To me, it does not seem remarkable, although when I look at the number it seems dreadfully old. But I don't relate to it."
She joins a list including her fellow Americans Ann Patchett and Madeline Miller, Esi Edugyan from Canada, the Irish writer Anne Enright and the sole British contender, Georgina Harding.
The six novels explore subjects as diverse as modern-day adultery, ancient Greek love and wartime atrocities in Romania. The £30,000 winner will be announced on 30 May at a the Royal Festival Hall in London.
The novelist Joanna Trollope, chair of this year's judges, said: "I think this is one of the strongest lists I've seen for a literary prize and I'm quite an old hand at them now. It is a list of international standing."
Trollope highlighted "the diversity of voice, the diversity of subject matter, the strength and accessibility". She added: "They are all so readable. I know Stella Rimington got shot down last year for using that word, but what is the point of a book if it isn't?
"Anyone who reads any of them will be left with so much to think about afterwards. They can be read by academics, they can be read by people in local book clubs. There is so much meat in them."
Ozick was installed as 2/1 favourite by the bookmaker William Hill. Her novel loosely uses Henry James's The Ambassadors as a platform from which to explore big themes such as anti-semitism and the postwar divergence in fortunes of Europe and America.
Patchett, who won the prize 10 years ago for Bel Canto, is shortlisted for State of Wonder, a gripping Amazonian adventure story about the search for a drug that could change women's lives.
Another literary heavyweight on the list is Enright, who won the Man Booker prize in 2007 for The Gathering. She is shortlisted for The Forgotten Waltz, which explores adultery and the power of children in a family.
Enright said: "I am so proud to be on the shortlist for the Orange. It is the friendliest and most forward-looking of all the prizes, constantly bringing new names to our attention and casting older ones in a new light. It gives the bag a shake."
Harding is nominated for her third novel, Painter of Silence, set in postwar Romania, telling the story of Augustin, an artistically gifted deaf and mute man who turns up nearly dead on the steps of a hospital.
Edugyan is shortlisted for Half Blood Blues, which was also on last year's Man Booker shortlist. It tells the story of black jazz musicians in Nazi-occupied Paris.
The sixth book on the list is Miller's debut novel, The Song of Achilles, set in Greece in the age of heroes, telling the story of the love between Achilles and Patroclus.
Other judges on the panel were the writer Lisa Appignanesi, the broadcasters Victoria Derbyshire and Natasha Kaplinsky, and the writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes.
| Awards ceremony | April 2012 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Iran confirms it has executed nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri by hanging for treason. Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholam–Hossein Mohseni–Eje'i says Amiri was charged with spying for enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and that U.S. officials had been unaware that Iran was monitoring Amiri's efforts for the West. His body was returned to his family with rope marks around his neck. | An Iranian scientist accused of providing information on his country's nuclear program to the United States has been executed for treason, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said Sunday.
Shahram Amiri was charged with spying for enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni-Ejei said in his weekly news conference, the Iranian Student News Agency reported.
"Amiri had access to confidential military secrets and was connected to our No. 1 enemy, the Great Satan,” Mohseni-Ejei said. "He was sentenced to death in primary court, and the sentence was confirmed by Supreme Court" after Amiri appealed.
Mohseni-Ejei said U.S. officials had been unaware that Iran was monitoring Amiri's efforts for the West.
"The CIA thought that its movements were kept away from the eye of Iranian Intelligence Ministry," Mohseni-Ejei said. "They took Amiri to Saudi Arabia."
Amiri, 38, disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2009. He re-emerged a year later in the U.S., claiming in a video that he had been abducted, interrogated, tortured and offered millions in bribes while under "intense psychological pressure" by the CIA. He said he rejected the U.S. effort to break him.
The U.S. said in 2010 that Amiri had defected voluntarily and was paid millions of dollars for providing "useful information."
Report: $400M flown to Iran as U.S. prisoners freed
A month later, Amiri went to the Iran interest section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, demanding to be sent home. He drew a hero's welcome from family members and Iranian officials upon returning to Iran but was arrested less than a year later.
Mohseni-Ejei said Amiri's family thought he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2011, but Amiri actually had been sentenced to death. Amiri's mother said Saturday that his body had been handed over with rope marks on his neck.
The State Department, contacted Sunday, declined to comment on the case.
Last year, Iran reached an agreement with the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France and Germany to limit its nuclear program to peaceful activities in return for lifting crippling international sanctions. The deal went into effect in January.
Last week, revelations emerged that the Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran in January to settle a decades-old legal dispute — just as the Iranians were releasing four Americans detained by Tehran.
Year after nuclear deal, 6 ways Iran is more assertive
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the payment was not ransom for the release of the prisoners. He said the money was actually Iran's — a payment for U.S. arms never delivered after the shah's government fell — and that the timing of the various deals and prisoner release overlapped because the multiple agreements with Iran "came to a head at the same time."
The recent release of emails sent by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on a private server while she served as secretary of State apparently include references to Amiri, the Associated Press reported.
An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010, from Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, says, "Our friend has to be given a way out. ... We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent."
Another email, sent July 12, 2010, by Sullivan, appears to refer to Amiri just before the story of his complicity became public.
"The gentleman ... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure" from the U.S., Sullivan wrote. "This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2016 | ['(USA Today)'] |
A ban on single-use plastic shopping bags comes into force in New Zealand. Businesses that break the ban will face fines of up to $100,000NZD. | Single-use plastic shopping bags are banned in New Zealand from today. File photo / Reuters New Zealand officially banned single-use plastic shopping bags on Monday, introducing hefty fines for businesses that continue to provide them.
Plastic pollution has become a growing global concern, with a million birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals injured or killed every year by becoming entangled in packaging or ingesting it through the food chain.
Companies that break New Zealand’s ban will face heavy penalties, including fines of up to NZ$100,000 ($67,000).
“New Zealanders are proud of our country’s clean, green reputation and want to help ensure we live up to it,” Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said. “Ending the use of single-use plastic shopping bags helps do that.”
Under the new rules, thin plastic single-use shopping bags can no longer be supplied — but the law allows reusable carriers to continue being provided.
The legislation — which was announced in August last year and came into force on Monday — will have little practical effect, as New Zealand’s major supermarkets have already voluntarily banned the bags.
However, Sage said it was putting the issue of recycling on the agenda.
“(The ban) doesn’t go far enough, but what is really great is it’s started the conversation,” she told Radio New Zealand.
“People are now talking about single-use plastics and how we can phase them out.” More than 80 countries have already introduced similar bans, according to the UN Environment Programme.
Agence France-Presse
Bahrain will start phasing out the use of plastic products in July, Bahrain News Agency, BNA, reported on Wednesday. A Ministerial order with respect to the technical regulations New Zealand does not recognise the legitimacy of the military-led government and called on the military to immediately release all detained political leaders and restore civilian rule, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a separate statement.
The unprecedented policy plans to curtail plastic consumption habits among the common public and redirect them to sustainable materials that would considerably reduce plastic waste in the oceans.
The country of 5 million people now has nine active cases after having none at all earlier this month. Health officials said Monday that all those cases involve people who have recently arrived and are in quarantine, and there’s no evidence of community transmission.
In a flash of a second, the men started to climb the pipe attached to the building forming a human chain.
The plane was parked at the time of the accident while it was carrying cargo. There were no passengers on board at the time.
Guterres was the only candidate nominated by a UN member state, his home country Portugal where he previously served as prime minister, and the country’s current president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was in the assembly chamber to watch the event.
Rooms and others parts of each floors were already prepared in a factory and later each part was transported to the site on trucks. | Government Policy Changes | July 2019 | ['(Gulf Today)'] |
Voters in Latvia go to the polls to vote for a new parliament. The governing coalition loses its majority with two new parties Who owns the state? and the New Conservative Party becoming the second and third biggest parties behind Social Democratic Party "Harmony". , | RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia’s ruling coalition lost its majority and two newly formed parties took more than a quarter of the votes amid widespread disillusion with the Baltic country’s politicians, the result in Saturday’s parliamentary elections showed with 80 percent of the votes counted.
The country of 2 million, a quarter of whom are ethnic Russians, is a frontline state in Europe’s and NATO’s increasingly tense relationship with Vladimir Putin.
The pro-Russia party Harmony remained the biggest with 20 percent, due to its support from Russian-speakers, but will find it difficult to get in government as parties that oppose it because of its Moscow ties won enough votes.
Latvia has long been plagued by corruption and money-laundering issues. The country’s central bank governor is currently awaiting trial for accepting a bribe.
In part because of those issues, two newcomers, populist party KPV LV and anti-corruption party the New Conservatives, both won around 14 percent of the vote each to became the second- and third-biggest parties.
“This political party doesn’t take instructions or orders, whims of its founders, supporters or various other people who stand behind it,” Janis Bordans, party leader for the New Conservatives, told supporters after the election. “Faith in the rule of law will return to the people!”
The new parliament will be more fragmented and a broad coalition of ethnic Latvian parties is seen as the most likely outcome by political analysts. However, with seven parties winning seats, coalition talks could go on for weeks or months.
“Forming a new government will be very difficult,” current Prime Minister Māris Kucinskis of the Union of Greens and Farmers said after the election.
The ruling coalition consisting of his party, the National Alliance and the Unity party appear to have lost almost half of its votes.
“The messages that the voters have tried to send is that we’re going to have some new faces in politics,” Janis Ikstens, political scientist at Latvia University, told Reuters. “And perhaps they’re not happy with the neglect of social needs.”
Before the election, some Latvians feared a strong result for Harmony and KPV could lead to them forming a government and bringing the Latvia’s foreign policy closer to Putin’s Russia. But given the result, that looks unlikely, according to Ikstens.
Harmony recently rebranded itself as a Western-style Social Democratic party, saying it is committed to the European Union and NATO.
But it only last year ended its official cooperation agreement with Putin’s United Russia Party, raising concerns its transformation is only skin deep.
Latvia, a member of the European Union and NATO, shares a 276-kilometre (167 miles) border with Russia.
NATO currently has more than 1,000 troops deployed in the Baltic country of 2 million and even the potential of a minor shift in allegiance in Latvia will worry both Brussels and Washington.
| Government Job change - Election | October 2018 | ['(Deutsche Welle)', '(Reuters)'] |
Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler wins the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival. | Actor Mickey Rourke, and actor Todd Barry, left, arrive for the premiere of the movie "The Wrestler" at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Friday, Sept. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
3 days ago
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" has won the top award at the Venice Film Festival.
The film awarded the Golden Lion on Saturday stars Mickey Rourke as a wrestler forced into retirement who strikes up a romance with an aging stripper played by Marisa Tomei.
Russia's Aleksey German Jr. won the award for best director for "Bumaznyj soldat (Paper Soldier)," a story set in the early days of the space program in the Soviet Union.
Italian Silvio Orlando was crowned best actor for his role in Pupi Avati's "Il Papa' di Giovanna," (Giovanna's Father), about a father's relationship with his troubled adult daughter.
France's Dominique Blanc won best actress for playing a jealousy-struck woman in "L'Autre (The Other One)," directed by Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic. | Awards ceremony | September 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
At least one person is killed and a dozen injured after a series of tornadoes hits the US states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa and Illinois. , | A massive tornado has ripped through neighbourhoods near Oklahoma City, on the second day in a row the state has been pummelled by destructive twisters.
The "mile-wide" storm sparked fires and flattened homes as it tore through.
On Sunday, at least two people died and 21 more were injured by the tornadoes.
The worst damage was caused by a twister near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles (55km) from Oklahoma City, where a mobile home part was razed and thousands have lost electricity.
Tornadoes, hail and high winds also hit Iowa and Kansas, part of a storm system stretching from Texas to Minnesota.
The National Weather Service (NWS) says there is a continuing risk of dangerous thunderstorms in the region that could produce hail and tornadoes on Monday afternoon.
On Sunday, a tornado smashed a trailer park on Highway 102 near Shawnee.
Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park resident James Hoke said he had emerged from a storm cellar with his family to find their mobile home vanished.
"Everything is gone," he said. As he tried to help neighbours, Mr Hoke said he found his wife's father covered in rubble.
"My father-in-law was buried under the house. We had to pull Sheetrock off of him," Mr Hoke said.
Oklahoma's state medical examiner confirmed on Monday that two people had been killed near the trailer park: Glen Irish, 79, and Billy Hutchinson, 76. Both lived in Shawnee, but it was not immediately clear if either or both lived in mobile home park. The Oklahoman newspaper reported that five people were brought to Norman Regional Hospital for injuries, with three injured critically.
"This is the worst I've seen in Pottawatomie County in my 25 years of law enforcement," county Sheriff Mike Booth said.
The massive storm system had prompted the NWS to issue a blunt warning to residents in the affected states.
"You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter," the agency warned. "Complete destruction of neighbourhoods, businesses and vehicles will occur."
One resident, Amber Ash, said her home had been hit by a tornado as she waited in a storm shelter.
"Once it passed, we got out and saw the devastation," she said. "Everything I had was destroyed."
Thousands of residents in the affected areas have been left without power.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency in 16 counties in order to send aid to the worst-hit parts of the state.
At least four tornadoes ravaged the state on Sunday, part of a storm system that was moving north-east across the Midwestern states and Texas.
"Right now we're in a rescue and recovery stage," Gov Fallin said. "We're still not in the clear yet."
A twister with an estimated 110mph (177km/h) wind speed touched down on Sunday afternoon near Wichita's Mid-Continent airport.
It knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses, but bypassed the most populated areas of Kansas' largest city.
Presenters of a local afternoon news programme were forced to evacuate during a live broadcast as the tornado touched down.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
A European windstorm across France and Spain kills 15 people with hurricane–force winds. |
Hurricane-force winds lashed northern Spain on Saturday, bringing down the roof of a sports hall near Barcelona, killing four children, officials said.
Eleven people died in separate incidents in Spain and south-western France as the fiercest storm in a decade blew in from the Atlantic.
Torrential rains and winds of up to 184km/h (114mph) were reported.
It is now tracking across central Italy, bringing rain and winds of 80-95km/h (50-60mph), forecasters say.
Some 1.3 million homes in France suffered power cuts while road and rail links were blocked and airports closed.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit the region on Sunday.
The impact of the storm was felt from the Channel Isles to Barcelona, but the strongest winds and heaviest rain were concentrated on south-western France.
Although this type of active low pressure system is fairly common in winter, BBC meteorologist Alex Deakin says Saturday's storm has been described as the most damaging since that of December 1999, which killed 88 people and uprooted millions of trees.
The storm tracked south-eastwards and cleared the south-east coast of France during Saturday evening.
The Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily have also been affected.
Children killed
The sports hall partially collapsed in the town of Sant Boi de Llobregat, Catalonia, with between 20 and 30 youngsters inside, officials said.
The youngsters had gathered to play baseball but the fierce winds drove them to take shelter in a small covered area for spectators, made of concrete, with a corrugated iron roof.
"It seems that the roof shifted and brought down part of the wall," a regional government spokeswoman said.
Local people and fire-fighters helped free the survivors from the rubble but three children aged between nine and 12 died at the scene, and a fourth child died later in hospital. More than a dozen others received treatment for injures.
In other incidents:
Tens of thousands of homes have been left without power in Spain.
'Ghost town'
French weather agencies had forecast the storm but it affected a wider area than expected. A state of "red alert" was declared in nine departments, but lifted by the end of Saturday.
The storm caused havoc from the Dordogne area to the Pyrenees. Torrential rains caused flooding in some areas prompting thousands of calls to the emergency services.
The force of the storm also led to the closure of airports in Bordeaux, Pau, Biarritz and Toulouse, and train services also ground to a halt, leaving several hundred passengers stranded in stations. Many roads were also blocked.
Mark Richardson, a BBC News website reader visiting Bordeaux from the UK, said the city ground to a standstill following the storm overnight and felt like a ghost town.
Another reader, Simon Ritchie, witnessed the damage wrought by the storm in the French town of Rodez.
"This morning, I awoke to the sound of very strong winds and lashing rain or hail," he said.
"I looked out of my kitchen's skylight window to see scaffolding and sheets or corrugated iron blowing of the adjacent cathedral. One such sheet blew about 50 yards from the tower and landed on a car below, smashing it in completely."
"People were screaming on the street below, and bits of masonry and scaffolding continued to fall," he added. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | January 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
North Korea and South Korea agree to seek talks with the People's Republic of China and the United States to reach a permanent peace agreement to formally end the Korean War. | SEOUL (Reuters) - Leaders of the two Koreas agreed on Thursday to try to bring peace to the Cold War’s last frontier, just a day after the North signed up to an international deal to disable its nuclear facilities.
N. Korea pact signed
03:19
But some analysts said the pledges at only the second summit between North and South Korea were limited, with the hermit North clearly reluctant to break much new ground.
“North and South Korea shared the view they must end the current armistice and build a permanent peace regime,” President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said in a joint statement at the end of their three-day meeting in Pyongyang.
They will push for talks next month with China and the United States to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which technically is still going on because a peace treaty has yet to be signed.
If Beijing and Washington did agree, it would mark an end at last to the Cold War in the region but the United States has already made clear that one condition would be for Pyongyang to give up all nuclear weapons -- something the North shows no sign of being in a hurry to do.
The two leaders also agreed to set up the first regular freight train service for half a century, linking two countries divided by a heavily fortified border.
There will also be meetings of ministers and defense officials and the establishment of a cooperation zone around a contested sea border on the west of the Korean peninsula.
The summit ended just a day after North Korea agreed to disable the three main nuclear facilities at its Yongbyon site -- and a source of material for atomic weapons -- and provide a full declaration of all its nuclear programs by the end of the year.
U.S. President George W. Bush was quick to praise the nuclear deal with North Korea, a country he once linked with Iran and pre-invasion Iraq as members of an “axis of evil”.
He even held up North Korea as a possible model for resolving the nuclear standoff with Iran.
Roh left Pyongyang, where thousands lined the streets waving plastic flowers and cheering “hurray” as his motorcade headed to the South.
Roh went to the summit declaring it would make the peninsula safer and help the North’s shattered economy, but many analysts were doubtful he would be able to win concessions from the reclusive Kim.
And even Roh said he found it difficult to break down a wall of mistrust from Kim whom analysts say fears that opening up his secretive state too much to foreign influence could undermine the personality cult around his rule and threaten his own position.
“I expected much stronger results such as large-scale aid or support for North Korea. The results are more moderate than I had expected,” said Kim Young-yoon, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
“South Korea very aggressively proposed many projects and businesses but on the other hand North Korea seems to have been passive and not willing to accept all of them.”
South Korean officials say relations can improve only gradually and that a collapse of the North would be so catastrophic for wealthy South Korea that they were prepared to pump billions of dollars into their neighbor’s economy.
“This is an event that will open a new horizon between North and South Korea,” presidential spokesman Kim Jeong-suob told reporters in Seoul.
Wednesday’s agreement to disable the Yongbyon complex came a year after North Korea tested a nuclear device, earning it international sanctions that analysts say have hit hard.
The deal essentially puts North Korea back to where it was over a decade ago -- as Kim Jong-il was taking over from his father as the North’s autocratic ruler -- when it agreed to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for aid.
But it is full of ambiguity and key issues still to be clarified include a suspected uranium enrichment program which could be another way to make fissile material for atomic weapons.
Also unclear, is how much fissile material the North has already stashed away -- some experts say enough for several warheads.
A number of analysts have said it will take an extremely high price for paranoid North Korea to agree to completely give up nuclear weapons it sees as about the only leverage it has to deal with a hostile world.
And many point to Kim’s record of not sticking to agreements.
But the greatest prize it seeks, they say, is normal relations with the United States, which would bring an end to its pariah status as a state that sponsors terrorism and a chance to tap directly into the global economy.
This time the aid has already started to trickle in, with the United States the next country scheduled sometime this month to send in 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, or its equivalent.
If North Korea keeps its word, the agreement will eventually give the energy-starved country around 1 million tons of oil.
“A virtuous circle,” said South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo of the combination of the summit and a nuclear deal.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
ASEAN foreign ministers get together for their annual summit on the island of Bali in Indonesia with concerns over territorial claims on the South China Sea. | Territorial disputes and flare-ups in the South China Sea are expected to dominate talks at Asia's largest security forum this week.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations arrived at a tightly guarded five-star hotel in Bali for their annual get-together on Tuesday.
They will be joined later in the week by officials from the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States for the ASEAN Regional Forum.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd will be participating in talks on Thursday.
Other hot topics are expected to be the North Korean nuclear crisis and concerns about the slow pace of democratisation in military-dominated Burma.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his opening statement that goals of the South-East Asian bloc include establishing a European-style economic community by 2015 and fighting threats like climate change and human trafficking.
But the North Korean nuclear crisis also will be high on the table - with representatives from the stalled six-party talks aimed at convincing Pyongyang to give up its weapons program all in attendance.
Members also are growing frustrated by the slow pace of democratic reforms in military-dominated Burma and want to end once and for all a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand.
Overshadowing talks, however, will be China's increasingly assertive stance in the potentially resource-rich South China Sea, officials said on the sidelines on Tuesday.
The sparring is primarily over the Spratlys, nearby Paracels and Scarborough Shoal, a slew of tiny, mostly uninhabited islands.
China claims the entire area, a large swathe extending far from its southern coast and overlapping with the 370-kilometre exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and Vietnam and, to a lesser degree, of Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
ASEAN, founded in 1967, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2011 | ['(AP via Sydney Morning Herald)', '(BBC)'] |
Mandatory emergency evacuation is ordered for Outer Banks in North Carolina as Hurricane Ophelia approaches. , , | FRISCO, N.C., Sept. 14 -- As slow-moving Hurricane Ophelia hugged the North Carolina coast in a torrential embrace Wednesday, federal, state and local officials were taking no chances of a repeat of the sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina.
Here on Hatteras Island, which was expected to bear the worst of the storm, emergency officials stockpiled enough water and military rations to last 3,000 people for three days. The National Guard was standing by with all-terrain vehicles and four-wheel-drive ambulances. The National Forest Service had 10 chain-saw teams ready to remove fallen trees.
Gov. Mike Easley (D) urged residents of low-lying coastal areas to evacuate. "We're asking them and begging them to please do that because it's going to be hard to get them out later," he said. "The storm surge is going to be higher than projected" Tuesday.
But despite a "mandatory" evacuation order -- which state officials acknowledged was not really mandatory at all -- many residents stayed behind on Hatteras and neighboring islands along the Outer Banks. They parked dozens of cars, pickup trucks and a fire engine on the lawn of the Cape Hatteras Baptist Church in Frisco, not because it is the holiest ground in town, but because it is the highest.
They piled sandbags, stowed boats, bought groceries. And while emergency officials took no chances, some locals did.
"Gosh, that was great. Best way to stretch out your back," said Jim Bagwell, 52, after a 10-minute swim in the pounding, six-foot ocean surf at the Frisco Fishing Pier, just hours before the eye of the hurricane was forecast to come through. In last year's Hurricane Alex, the 200-foot pier itself was carried away.
Cars pulled in and out of the parking lot as residents came to gawk at the high waves and exchange gossip. Bagwell's Labrador retriever, Gator, started to run after him into the surf, then thought better of it.
"They're bringing in truckloads of water. It's paranoia from Katrina," said Murray Clark, 77, a retired trawler captain. "All of us locals are sitting and giggling."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency placed emergency operations centers on 24-hour alert and readied 50 rescue aircraft, spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said.
The agency staged three response teams and stockpiled medical supplies in Raleigh, N.C., and held three more in reserve in Virginia and Maryland in case the storm moved north, a FEMA official said. More than 100 medical personnel were in Raleigh.
While North Carolina had stored enough ice to last two days for 10,000 people, federal authorities staged more food, water and ice in Emporia, Va.; Palmetto and Thomasville, Ga.; Columbia, S.C.; Cumberland, Md.; and Edison, N.J.
North Carolina also activated 200 National Guard members and placed 200 more on standby, a FEMA official said. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2005 | ['(Washington Post)', '(Reuters)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Guardian)'] |
A United Nations Human Rights Council fact-finding mission formally accuses the Venezuelan government of crimes against humanity, including cases of killings, torture, violence against political opposition and disappearances since 2014. President Nicolás Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials are among those implicated in the charges. | United Nations (UN) investigators say Venezuela's government has "committed egregious violations" amounting to crimes against humanity.
Cases of killings, torture, violence and disappearances were investigated in a fact-finding mission for the UN Human Rights Council.
The UN team said President Nicolás Maduro and other top officials were implicated. Venezuela's UN ambassador has described the mission as a "hostile initiative".
Ambassador Jorge Valero said last year that the UN action was part of a US-led campaign. The UN team was blocked from travelling into the country.
Venezuela is suffering a severe economic and political crisis. Millions have fled in recent years.
In the report of its findings on Wednesday, the UN team said Venezuela's security services had been engaged in a pattern of systematic violence since 2014, aimed at suppressing political opposition and generally terrorising the population.
Mr Maduro and the ministers of interior and defence were not only aware of the crimes, but gave orders, co-ordinated operations and supplied resources, the report said. "The mission found the government, state agents, and groups working with them had committed egregious violations," it said.
It called on Venezuela to hold those responsible to account and to prevent further violations from taking place. "The mission found reasonable grounds to believe that Venezuelan authorities and security forces have since 2014 planned and executed serious human rights violations, some of which - including arbitrary killings and the systematic use of torture - amount to crimes against humanity," the mission's chairperson, Marta Valias, said in a statement. "Far from being isolated acts, these crimes were coordinated and committed pursuant to state policies, with the knowledge or direct support of commanding officers and senior government officials."
A typical operation might involve weapons being planted in an area thought to be loyal to the opposition, with security services then entering the area and shooting people at point blank range, or detaining them, torturing them, and killing them. The report also looked into the violent response to opposition protests and the torture of people detained at them.
Investigators made their conclusions after looking into 223 cases. They said almost 3,000 others corroborated "patterns of violations and crimes". The report will be presented to UN Human Rights Council member states next week, when Venezuela will have a chance to respond. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde announces the collapse of his coalition government in the wake of the country's financial crisis. | Conservative Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced the resignation of his cabinet, after talks with his Social Democratic coalition partners failed.
He said he could not accept the Social Democrats' demand to lead the country.
Iceland's financial system collapsed in October under the weight of debt, leading to a currency crisis, rising unemployment and daily protests.
The economy is forecast to shrink by almost 10% this year.
The coalition between Mr Haarde's Independence Party and Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Gisladottir's Social Democratic Alliance had been under strain in recent months.
Mr Haarde told reporters on Monday: "We couldn't accept the Social Democratic demand that they would lead the government."
The Independence Party currently controls 25 of the country's 63 parliamentary seats, to the Social Democrats' 18.
Meltdown
The announcement comes three days after the prime minister called an early general election for 9 May, adding that he would not stand for health reasons.
The coalition government, in place since 2007, had been due to remain in place until 2011.
Ms Gisladottir said a more powerful leadership was needed.
"The government's actions in the last weeks and months were not swift enough," she said.
Her party is now expected to look for new partners to form a government until the election.
President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said he would not give any party a mandate to form a new government until Tuesday at the earliest.
In recent months the Social Democrats had urged Mr Haarde to fire the central bank governor and move towards closer ties with Europe.
Iceland, a country of about 300,000 people, has traditionally sought to stay outside the EU.
But last month European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the island might apply for membership as soon as this year.
The extent of Iceland's trouble became evident as conditions tightened in global credit markets last year.
It emerged that the country's banks, which had amassed debt during years of rapid expansion, owed about six times the country's economic output.
Money from around the world had also poured into Iceland because interest rates there exceeded 10%.
Mr Haarde's government responded to the financial collapse by nationalising leading banks. It also negotiated about $10bn in loans with the International Monetary Fund and donor countries. | Financial Crisis | January 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The CEO for Boeing, Dennis Muilenburg, apologizes for the loss of lives in the two 737 MAX accidents, recognizing the role that the MCAS system played in the disasters. | Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg apologized Thursday for the 346 lives lost in crashes of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia, according to a letter made public on the company’s website.
Muilenburg recognized the role in both crashes of a Boeing-approved flight system, called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. In certain dangerous situations, MCAS can cause pilots to lose control of an aircraft in response to erroneous data from the plane’s external sensors.
His comments followed the release of the preliminary report about the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed everyone on the flight. Ethiopia’s transport minister said the crew had “performed all the procedures, repeatedly, provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft.” As Muilenburg had in the past, he expressed condolences to the family members of those killed.
“We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 MAX accidents,” Muilenburg wrote.
He later wrote: “I cannot remember a more heart-wrenching time in my career with this great company.” Read the Ethiopian aircraft accident report here
Preliminary reports from investigators in Indonesia and Ethiopia indicated that the MCAS had activated in the two flights’ final minutes, with pilots struggling to keep the plane level as it pitched inexorably downward.
“The history of our industry shows most accidents are caused by a chain of events. This again is the case here, and we know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents,” Muilenburg wrote, also noting that pilots have raised concerns over the potential for the flight system to create new risks in “what is already a high workload environment.” “It’s our responsibility to eliminate this risk,” Muilenburg said, adding “we own it and we know how to do it.” Ethiopian authorities describe similarities between jet crashes, but questions remain
He also drew attention to the company’s efforts to improve the flight control system, an effort that began after Indonesian investigators issued their preliminary report in late November. The company is required to submit its final version of the software fix no later than April to the Federal Aviation Administration. The 737 Max 8 and 9 planes have been grounded for weeks.
“We’re taking a comprehensive, disciplined approach, and taking the time to get the software update right,” Muilenburg said. “We’re nearing completion and anticipate its certification and implementation on the 737 MAX fleet worldwide in the weeks ahead.” And he once again applauded the safety record of the Boeing 737 even as he apologized for lives lost in the two crashes.
“This update, along with the associated training and additional educational materials that pilots want in the wake of these accidents, will eliminate the possibility of unintended MCAS activation and prevent an MCAS-related accident from ever happening again,” he added. “When the MAX returns to the skies with the software changes to the MCAS function, it will be among the safest airplanes ever to fly.” And he promised the company would work to regain the confidence of the flying public, which has been rattled in recent months.
All eyes are watching as Boeing prepares software update months after Indonesia plane crash
“We know every person who steps aboard one of our airplanes places their trust in us,” Muilenburg said. “Together, we’ll do everything possible to earn and re-earn that trust and confidence from our customers and the flying public in the weeks and months ahead.” The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Air crash | April 2019 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
A Russian court releases Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a day after being sentenced for alleged embezzlement. | Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, left, and his former colleague Pyotr Ofitserov react as they were released in a courtroom in Kirov, Russia on Friday.
| Photo Credit: Evgeny Feldman In a surprise turn of events, opposition leader Alexei Navalny was released from custody, less than 24 hours after he was sentenced to five years in prison.
A court in Kirov, where Mr. Navalny and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov on Thursday were convicted for embezzlement, on Friday morning ordered their release pending appeal.
The judge said the arrest put the anti-corruption campaigner who is running in Moscow mayoral elections, at a disadvantage.
However, Mr. Navalny and his supporters said his release was the result of spontaneous protests that hit Moscow and other Russian cities after his conviction. Several thousand protesters filled Moscow’s main thoroughfares on Thursday night, blocking traffic and shouting anti-government slogans.
Friday’s court decision has no precedent in Russian legal practice, prompting Mr. Navalny to poke fun at the prosecutor who had asked for his release:
“I ask the court to verify the identity of the prosecutor; I doubt he is the same person who demanded my immediate arrest a day earlier.”
Analysts said the conviction of Russia’s most famous anti-corruption campaigner on what experts said were tramped-up charges will boost his popularity in the Moscow elections scheduled for early September. As of last week he was trailing far behind Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who is favoured by 76 per cent of voters. Mr Navalny is in a distant second place with 14 per cent, but his support grew by four per cent in just one week.
Mr. Navalny may yet be taken off the race if his appeal against his sentence is overturned and the guilty verdict enters into force at least nine days before the September 8 vote. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2013 | ['(AP via The Hindu)'] |
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