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Rescue efforts continue in Brazil in an attempt to locate around 200 people believed to have been buried in their homes by a large landslide in Morro do Bumba near Rio de Janeiro city in the state of Rio de Janeiro. | Footage shows the extent of the devastation caused by the latest landslide
Rescue teams in Brazil are working for a second night to find 200 people believed to have been buried in their homes by a massive landslide.
More than 50 houses were engulfed as mud and rubble poured into the Morro do Bumba shantytown near Rio de Janeiro. At least 170 people died after a week of heavy rain prompted mudslides and floods in Rio de Janeiro state. The soil is still saturated and local officials are warning that there could be further landslides. Although rescue teams were working through the night with floodlights in Morro do Bumba, there was little hope of finding survivors, says the BBC's Paulo Cabral in Rio de Janeiro, and the number of confirmed deaths is expected to rise steeply. The shantytown was built on top of a disused landfill which makes it prone to landslides, our correspondent adds, and the 300 rescue workers on the site are having to conduct their search with great caution. Officials are working to distribute 70,000 packs containing food, clothes and medical supplies for those left homeless by the flooding. The Brazilian government has announced an emergency programme to rebuild homes. The local authorities have requested more than $200m from the federal government to help them cope with the disaster. . | Mudslides | April 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A private Twin Squirrel helicopter crashes in the Rhinog mountains of North Wales, killing all five people aboard. | Five members of the same family have been killed in a helicopter crash in north Wales.
Two of those on board have been named locally as Kevin and Ruth Burke from Hulcote, near Milton Keynes.
They were believed to have been travelling to Dublin, where Mrs Burke was born, for a christening with three other adult family members.
A massive air and land search was launched on Wednesday when the aircraft vanished after leaving the Luton area.
Kevin and Ruth Burke are believed to have been directors of the Milton Keynes-based Staske Construction company - the registered owner of a Twin Squirrel helicopter.
This was the model that vanished from radar contact while over Caernarfon Bay.
It is believed Mr Burke was originally from Manchester and was a qualified pilot. Supt Gareth Evans, of North Wales Police, said the crash site was in the Rhinog mountains between Harlech and Trawsfynydd and the bodies of all five people on board had been found.
A mountain rescue team found the wreckage.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch are now leading an investigation of the forensic recovery of the aircraft once specialist officers start recovery of the bodies.
But the police have said they might have to suspend recovery for the night due to worsening weather conditions and "treacherous terrain".
Police said they were not aware of any plan for the helicopter to stop in Caernarfon as part of its route.
Formal identification of the bodies has not yet taken place and the coroner for north west Wales, Dewi Pritchard-Jones, has opened an investigation.
Police have not revealed the exact location of the crash and have asked for members of the public to stay away from the site "to allow emergency services and personnel access". An air exclusion zone is also in place. "Their recovery is not just important to their families but also the investigation as it may help identify any contributory factors," added Supt Evans.
Family of those killed have been informed and the police have confirmed all five adults are "part of the same extended family from the Milton Keynes area".
Initial searches on Wednesday followed the intended flight plan of the aircraft over the Irish Sea.
But the Coastguard said on Thursday that inquiries led them to divert their efforts to Snowdonia National Park.
Prior to the crash site being discovered, UK Coastguard duty commander Mark Rodaway said: "These aircraft normally carry beacons that we can track by satellite - they're activated by salt water - we've not seen any of that and also mobile phone data has aided our inquiries in shifting inland." Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said the UK government would offer its full support to the investigation.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin said it "stood by to offer consular assistance".
The Eurocopter AS355 Ecureuil 2 (Twin Squirrel), made by Airbus, has a cruising speed of 140mph (225km/h) and a range of nearly 440 miles (700km). | Air crash | March 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 13 are killed in a fire in New Delhi, India. | A fire that broke out in a suspected illegal garment factory on the outskirts of the Indian capital, New Delhi, killed at least 13 workers as they slept early Friday in the building.
Uttar Pradesh state authorities said nine other workers were injured, four of them seriously.
The early-morning blaze started in the factory, a converted house used to make leather jackets, with a narrow stairway to the basement where the workers slept.
A dozen fire engines brought the flames under control after several hours. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
Deadly incidents such as factory fires are common in India, known for its poor record regarding workplace safety. Watchdog entities say South Asia's lucrative garment industry has an alarming safety record as the rules are routinely flouted.
Last month, a huge explosion at a fireworks factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu left eight workers dead.
In November 2013, a fire at a New Delhi factory where leather bags were being stitched killed six workers. Some were trapped inside the building and burned beyond recognition.
In May 2014, a massive blaze in a firecracker workshop in central Madhya Pradesh killed 15 people. | Fire | November 2016 | ['(VOA News)'] |
A suicide bombing at a market in the Pakistani town of Darra Adam Khel kills at least 15 people. | At least 15 people have been killed and up to 30 wounded in a car bomb attack on a market in north-west Pakistan, local security officials say.
Some reports said a suicide attacker detonated the bomb in the town of Darra Adam Khel near the Khyber tribal area.
It was apparently aimed at a pro-government militia set up to fight the Taliban, local security officials said.
Some of the wounded were being taken to hospitals in other towns, because local facilities could not cope.
Some were being taken to Peshawar, about half-an-hour's drive to the north.
Officials said no group had claimed responsibility for the bombing, but previous attacks in the area have been blamed on the Taliban.
President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the blast. In a condolence message he said the incident showed that extremists had no regard for human life.
The blast occurred outside the office of the local "peace committee" - a group of militants who used to fight with the Taliban but switched sides and now support local elders and the government.
At least 20 nearby shops were also badly damaged in the explosion, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported.
It was not immediately clear how many of the victims were members of the peace committee and how many were local people going about their shopping on a Saturday morning, local government official Fakhar-ud-Din told the AFP news agency.
Darra Adam Khel is a small town on the edge of the ethnic Pashtun tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan.
The government has fought a long campaign to bring the region, which is a haven for militant groups, under its control.
Darra Adam Khel has been a centre for arms trading, with locally made weapons on sale openly at stalls in the town.
A suicide bomb attack on a mosque in the town two years ago killed more than 70 people.
Prayers were held in schools across Pakistan on Saturday for a young victim of the Taliban, 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who was shot this week in the Swat Valley.
The girl, who had campaigned for the right to an education, was picked out by name by an armed man on a bus, and shot in the head.
A military spokesman said she was still on a ventilator in hospital on Saturday and that the next 36 to 48 hours would be critical.
Pakistan mosque attack toll rises
Who are the Taliban?
Pakistan's flourishing arms bazaar
| Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Icelandic voters elect 30 women to parliament, the most ever for the island nation. Voter turnout was under 80 percent, the lowest ever. | If you take a look at Iceland’s newly elected parliament, you’ll notice something striking: Almost half of all the officials are women. During the weekend’s national elections, Icelandic voters elected 30 women to parliament — a record number.
The country is now at the top of the list of governments with a high percentage of representation by women. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Iceland the “most equal Parliament in the world” without a quota system, according to NPR. That’s no measly achievement, of course. Female politicians only make up about 20 percent of Congress in the United States, while Nordic countries continue leading when it comes to electing women into government.
While voter turnout was a record low for Iceland (just under 80 percent), women have been making political statements in recent weeks. Thousands of women took to the streets on Women’s Day in protest of the ongoing gender pay gap in Iceland. The government has also pledged to close the gender pay gap by 2022. Sounds like progress. | Government Job change - Election | October 2016 | ['(NPR)', '(New York)'] |
An explosion in the Pakistan city of Multan kills at least eleven people and injures 79. , | At least nine people were killed and 42 others wounded in an explosion on a congested road in the central Pakistani city of Multan, police say.
The blast came when a motorcycle hit an auto rickshaw that police believe was carrying some kind of explosive material while travelling on the city's Vehari Road.
"At least nine people were killed and more than 40 were wounded," Multan police chief Azhar Ikram said, adding that the rickshaw had exploded on impact.
Ashiq Malik, chief of Nishtar Hospital, confirmed the death toll and said 42 others were wounded.
The doctor said 15 people were discharged after their wounds were dressed, while 27 were admitted to hospital.
Mr Ikram said police initially thought the Compress Natural Gas (CNG) cylinder installed in the rickshaw had detonated, but that bomb disposal staff later found traces of explosive material.
He said police had launched an investigation into the incident and were trying to identify the passengers in the rickshaw in an effort to discover where the explosives had come from and why they were being transported.
The southern parts of Punjab, the state where the city of 1.1 million people is located, are rife with sectarian militants allied to Taliban.
In the past year Pakistani authorities have cracked down on the myriad insurgent groups that have plagued the country for a decade. The offensive intensified after Taliban gunmen slaughtered more than 130 children at a school in the northwest of the country in December last year.
| Armed Conflict | September 2015 | ['(AFP via ABC News Australia)', '(Pakistan Tribune)'] |
Somalia's presidential palace is targeted by AlShabab militants in a mortar attack. | MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fighting between Islamist al Shabaab rebels and Somali troops in the capital Mogadishu has killed at least 20 people and wounded 30 this weekend, a human rights group and medical officers said Sunday.
Residents said al Shabaab insurgents have sought to advance toward the presidential palace for the past four days but government troops and African Union peacekeepers have been trying to repel them.
“More than 20 people died and scores of others were injured Saturday and Sunday,” Ali Yasin Gedi, the vice chairman of Mogadishu-based Elman rights group, told Reuters.
“The government and Islamists are engaged in heavy shelling and mortars have landed in residential areas in the city.”
The fragile Western-backed transitional government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed only controls a small pocket of Mogadishu, with the help of African Union troops, and faces near daily attacks from Islamist rebels.
Residents in the north of Mogadishu said government troops and rebels fought fiercely in Shibis neighborhood and that both sides suffered several defeats in back and forth shelling.
Ali Muse, an ambulance service coordinator, told Reuters at least 30 people had been wounded in the past two days of clashes. “Most of the people were wounded in and around Bakara market,” he said.
A spokesman for the AU AMISOM force in Mogadishu said they would attack if al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda’s proxy in the region, came too close.
“If the rebels cross the red line we’ll act and they should know that,” Major Barigye Ba-hoku told Reuters.
“The red line means any situation that can bring insecurity to the government institutions or our troops, and that is our mandate. We shall chase them if they come close,” he said.
Sheikh Ahmed is currently at an international U.N.-backed conference in Turkey at which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said international support for the government was the only chance to stabilize the chaotic country.
The fighting has killed at least 21,000 people in the failed Horn of Africa nation since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies.
Editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura
| Armed Conflict | May 2010 | ['(Press TV)', '(Reuters)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(AP)'] |
A high-ranking representative of the Zimbabwe National Army broadcast a military statement calling on the various sectors of society to keep calm and support the country's development. | Military spokesman Maj Gen SB Moyo has addressed the nation after troops took over the state broadcaster ZBC.
“Good morning Zimbabwe.
Fellow Zimbabweans. Following the address we made on 13 November 2017, which we believe our main broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and the Herald were directed not to publicise, the situation in our country has moved to another level.
Firstly we wish to assure our nation, His Excellency, the president of the republic of Zimbabwe and commander in chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, comrade R G Mugabe and his family, are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed.
We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice.
As soon as we have accomplished our mission we expect that the situation will return to normalcy.
To the civil servants, as you are aware there is a plan by the same individuals to influence the current purging which is taking place in the political sphere. To the civil service, we are against that act of injustice and we intend to protect every one of you against that.
To the judiciary, the measures underway are intended to ensure that as an independent arm of the state you are able to exercise your independent authority without fear of being obstructed as has been the case with this group of individuals.
To our members of parliament, your legislative role is of paramount importance, of peace and stability in this country, and it is our desire that a dispensation is created that allows you to serve your respective political constituencies according to democratic tenants.
To the generality of the people of Zimbabwe, we urge you to remain calm and limit unnecessary movement. However we encourage those who are employed and those with essential business in the city to continue their normal activities as usual. Our wish is that you will enjoy your rights and freedoms and that we return our country to a dispensation that allows for investment, development and prosperity that we all fought for and for which many of our citizens paid the supreme sacrifice.
To political parties, we urge you to discourage your members from engaging in violent behaviour. To the youth, we call upon you to realise that the future of this country is yours. Do not be enticed with the dirty coins of silver, be disciplined and remain committed to the efforts and values of this great nation.
To all churches and religious organisations in Zimbabwe we call upon your congregations to pray for our country and preach the gospel of love, peace and unity and development. To both our people and the world beyond our borders, we wish to make this abundantly clear this is not a military takeover of government. What the Zimbabwe defence forces is doing is to pacify a degenerating political, social and economic situation in our country which if not addressed may result in violent conflict.
We call upon all the war veterans to play a positive role in ensuring peace, stability and unity in the country. To members of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, all leave is cancelled and you are all to return to your barracks with immediate effect.
To the other security forces, we urge you to cooperate for the good of our country. Let it be clear we intend to address the human security threats in our country. Therefore any provocation will be met with an appropriate response. | Famous Person - Give a speech | November 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The World Health Organization announces an ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 11 cases so far. | Brazzaville - Health officials confirmed on Wednesday that Ebola had killed nine people and infected two in north-western Republic of Congo in the latest outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever. The outbreak occurred in Itoumbi district, 700km north-west of the capital, Brazzaville. "The medical centre of Franceville (in neighbouring Gabon) has confirmed the presence of Ebola," said Dr Alzouma Yada Adamou, a World Health Organisation official in the Republic of Congo. Adamou said eleven cases of Ebola, including nine deaths, had been reported in the Cuvette West region since May 7. Last week, Republic of Congo health officials sent samples to Franceville to investigate what they called a "suspected Ebola-like virus." Ebola is a haemorrhagic fever transmitted through direct contact with body fluids of infected persons or other primates. There is no cure and between 50% and 90% of victims die. Last year, 120 people died of Ebola in the same Cuvette region, bordering Gabon. Ebola generally kills rapidly and has so far afflicted remote regions of Africa, meaning the disease often burns out before spreading great distances. | Disease Outbreaks | May 2005 | ['(WHO press release)', '(News24)', '(Reuters AlertNet)'] |
A fire in the South African city of Cape Town leaves two people dead and four thousand people homeless. | At least two people were found dead and thousands of people lost their homes in a devastating fire that raced through an informal settlement near Fish Hoek, Cape Town, early on Sunday morning.
The blaze started in the impoverished Masiphumelele shortly after 01:00, destroying 800 shacks at last count, and causing two deaths.
Sixty-five firefighters and emergency workers with 14 firefighting vehicles finally brought it under control by mid-morning on Sunday.
An estimated 4 000 people have lost everything.
Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town Disaster Management Centre, said the Red Cross Society and NGOs were registering their details and arranging temporary relief and accommodation.
The residents who survived the blaze can sleep with friends and family, and those who have nowhere to go, can bed down at the Masiphumelele Community Hall on Sunday night.
The City's Department of Solid Waste was trying to remove the destroyed structures to salvage what they could, while the Department of Human Settlements assessed the situation.
Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Theo Layne said that in addition to the 800 informal structures being lost, the fire also burnt a field of reeds, two single storey formal houses and a double storey formal house.
Sections of the community are sometimes at odds with each other over disparities between well-off Fish Hoek and underdeveloped Masiphumelele, but they set their differences aside and started rallying around the survivors, calling for blankets, food, crockery and any other items that could help.
An upset Twitter user also directed questions to the City's mayor Patricia de Lille, demanding why nothing was being done to stop shack fires.
In the meantime, further afield in Langa, between 50 and 60 people also lost their homes when a fire burnt down 30 shacks.
The SABC also reported that a fire along the R27 national road at Langebaan on the Cape West Coast on Saturday night had been brought under control after over 50 firefighters and volunteers worked to contain it. It had started on a reserve road. | Fire | November 2015 | ['(The Times Live)'] |
In a so-called VatiLeaks case, a Vatican City Court dismisses charges of publishing confidential information against two Italian journalists stating it lacked jurisdiction in this case. Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi wrote books on the inner workings of the Vatican. The court did convict a Vatican priest to 18 months, and assessed a 10-month suspended sentence on an Italian communications expert, for conspiring to pass documents to the journalists; a fifth defendant was cleared of all charges. | A Vatican court has convicted a priest and a PR executive over their roles in leaking secret documents to two journalists, ending a trial during which scandal and intrigue returned to haunt the seat of the Roman Catholic church.
Eight months after the Vatican launched its case against five defendants caught up in the “Vatileaks II” scandal, only one the Spanish monsignor Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda will be heading for a jail cell in the city state. Announcing their verdict on Thursday, judges ordered the priest to serve 18 months in prison for leaking confidential documents to the reporters Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, who wrote books exposing the inner workings of the Vatican. Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations consultant, was given a 10-month suspended sentence, and the court ruled it did not have jurisdiction over Fittipaldi and Nuzzi, who received the leaked documents on Italian rather than Vatican soil, and therefore could not convict them. The fifth defendant, Nicola Maio, who worked as Balda’s assistant, was acquitted. The sentences, which came after a lengthy trial dominated by accusations of mafia ties, threats and romance, not to mention serious concerns over the Vatican’s commitment to press freedom, were more lenient than those requested by prosecutors, who had called for Chaouqui and Balda to serve more than three years each in jail.
Before the trial, Fittipaldi and Nuzzi said they risked sentences of up to eight years, based on the Vatican’s strict anti-leaks law, a possibility that alarmed media groups.
The books by Nuzzi, Merchants in the Temple, and Fittipaldi, Avarice, alleged widespread financial mismanagement and waste at the heart of the Catholic church. The journalists exposed the workings of a Vatican commission set up in 2013 to advise Pope Francis on reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. Balda was an obvious choice for the papal commission because of his work at the Vatican’s prefecture for economic affairs, although the inclusion of Chaouqui, a laywoman, raised some eyebrows. The pope has since described their appointments as a mistake.
Fittipaldi said he had spent years working on his investigation before receiving a limited number of documents from Balda, whereas closer ties were established between Balda and Nuzzi. The books revealed strong resistance among the Vatican hierarchy to Francis’s transparency drive, and detailed lavish spending and a lack of accountability.
In March, Balda admitted having passed information to journalists but suggested he had been coerced into it.
While the trial may serve as a warning to other insiders considering speaking to journalists, it shone a greater spotlight on the secretive Vatican, and the two books became bestsellers.
The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, rejected suggestions that the trial had been an over-reaction. “It needed to be done, to demonstrate the will to fight with determination the manifestations and the mistaken consequences of internal Vatican tensions and controversies,” he said.
Indiscretion and leaking documents to the media had negative consequences on public opinion, Lombardi said in a statement, arguing that people had a right to “objective and clear information”.
The work of Fittipaldi and Nuzzi is regarded has having already had a positive impact on Vatican policy. They exposed a lack of accounting in the sainthood process, which could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds a time. In March, the pope tightened controls on the path to canonisation, ordering more stringent bookkeeping and greater supervision during staff investigations into whether a person qualifies for saint status.
The court case against the journalists began to fall apart when Balda admitted he had not been directly threatened by the two journalists. But during the trial he said he feared repercussions from Chaouqui, who he believed had powerful connections in Italy. Chaouqui dismissed the Spanish priest’s claims that she was a high-ranking secret service agent or could appeal to the mafia for support. One of her lawyers, Laura Sgro, told the court this week that Chaouqui should not be convicted just because she was “unlikeable, unpleasant, insufferable, arrogant and presumptuous”. The Italian was pregnant during the trial and recently gave birth to a son, Pietro, whom she vowed to take to jail with her if convicted and given a custodial sentence.
Balda has been in custody since November, although he has recently been allowed out on day release. He will have three days to appeal against the verdict, although he could put his hopes in a papal pardon.
The priest’s conviction came four years after the first Vatileaks scandal, in which Nuzzi published the private correspondence of Pope Benedict XVI. The pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was jailed in October 2012 after he admitted having handed over the secret documents. Gabriele claimed he acted out of love for the Catholic church and the pope, who pardoned him after two months in prison.
Lombardi said on Thursday it would be up to Francis to decide whether or not to pardon Balda and Chaouqui. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2016 | ['(AP)', '(The Guardian)', '(Catholic News)', '(Vatican Radio)'] |
The United States wants the United Kingdom to extradite WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange, who might face American espionage charges. | WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is wanted in the U.S. over the publication of classified documents because he put lives at risk, the lawyer in a U.S. extradition hearing said in a courtroom in London on Monday.
U.S. authorities want to try Assange on espionage charges that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison over the 2010 publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military documents and diplomatic cables.
The extradition hearing follows years of subterfuge, diplomatic dispute and legal drama that have led the 48-year-old Australian from fame as an international secret-spiller through self-imposed exile inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to incarceration in a maximum-security British prison.
Assange has been indicted in the U.S. on 18 charges over the publication of the documents. Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange argues he was acting as a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection, and says the leaked documents exposed U.S. military wrongdoing. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
Journalism organizations and civil liberties groups including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders say the charges against Assange set a chilling precedent for freedom of the press.
Lawyer James Lewis, representing the U.S. government, said it was not the role of the British court to determine whether Assange was guilty.
“This is an extradition hearing, not a trial," he said. “The guilt or innocence of Mr. Assange will be determined at trial in the United States, not in this court.”
Lewis said Assange was guilty of “straightforward" criminal activity.
"What Mr. Assange seeks to defend by free speech is not the publication of the classified materials, but he seeks to defend the publication of sources the names of people who put themselves at risk to assist the U.S. and its allies," the lawyer said.
“Reporting or journalism is not an excuse for criminal activities or a license to break ordinary criminal laws.”
Supporters of Assange gathered outside the high-security London courthouse, and could be heard inside the courtroom as well. Some observers in an overflow room waved and blew kisses to Assange who was seated at the back of the courtroom.
Earlier, Assange entered the dock at Woolwich Crown Court's court number 2, and spoke to confirm his name and date of birth. He nodded towards reporters before taking his seat.
Assange's legal saga began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. He refused to go to Stockholm, saying he feared extradition or illegal rendition to the United States or the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In 2012, Assange sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish authorities.
For seven years Assange led an isolated and increasingly surreal existence in the tiny embassy, which occupies an apartment in an upscale block near the ritzy Harrod’s department store. The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for jumping bail in 2012.
Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November because so much time had elapsed, but Assange remains in London’s Belmarsh Prison as he awaits a decision on the U.S. extradition request.
For his supporters around the world, Assange remains a hero. But many others are critical of the way WikiLeaks has published classified documents without redacting details that could endanger individuals. WikiLeaks has also been accused of serving as a conduit for Russian misinformation, and Assange has alienated some supporters by dallying with populist politicians including Brexit-promoter Nigel Farage.
An end to the saga could still be years away. After a week of opening arguments, the extradition case is due to break until May, when the two sides will lay out their evidence. The judge is not expected to rule until several months after that, with the losing side likely to appeal.
If the courts approve extradition, the British government will have the final say.
The case comes at delicate time for transatlantic relations. The U.K. has left the European Union and is keen to strike a trade deal with the U.S. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2020 | ['(NBC News)'] |
A boat containing 129 Rohingya refugees from Burma is found by Indonesia. | BANDA ACEH (Indonesia) - INDONESIAN marine police say they have picked up 129 starving, dehydrated people whose boat engine broke down while they were fleeing Myanmar.
Police Col. Muhammad Zaini says fishermen discovered the rickety, 14m boat off the coast of westernmost Aceh province and towed it to shore early on Wednesday.
He says the passengers - all males belonging to the ethnic Rohingya minority - had run out of food and water and were severely dehydrated and weak.
One man told investigators they were fleeing violence and pressure by Myanmar's government.
The Rohingyas, who are not recognised by Myanmar's government, have fled by the hundreds of thousands to Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Middle East. | Shipwreck | February 2011 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
A police officer discharges a 50,000volt Taser gun into the groin of a GuillainBarré syndrome sufferer in Somerset, England, prompting a possible legal battle; he denies he was acting in an aggressive manner. | By Luke Salkeld for the Daily Mail Updated: 20:42 BST, 20 July 2010 104
Near miss: Peter Cox was outside his partner's home when a police officer accidentally shot him in the groin and ankle with a 50,000 volt Taser
A man was shot in the groin with a 50,000 volt Taser gun by police who wrongly believed he had been driving without insurance. Peter Cox was given the electric shock after he climbed out of his BMW to talk to officers who had been following him. He had a brief conversation with them but suddenly collapsed to the ground in agony when one of the policemen discharged the weapon. Yesterday Mr Cox, 49, said he was considering legal action against the force after it said the gun had been fired accidentally. In addition, it later emerged Mr Cox's car was insured. Officers had been tailing the motorist as he drove through Bridgwater, Somerset. When he stopped at the home of his partner Donna Allen, 47, where he was going to do some gardening, he asked the police what they wanted. He said: 'I asked them to park on the other side of the road because we were working on the front garden. 'The officer didn't say anything, but he got out of the car and pulled out a Taser and pointed it at me. 'I didn't know this at the time so I just went on with what I was doing and got a bag of stone for the garden out of the boot. Then he shot me.' Mr Cox denied acting aggressively. He said the Taser missed his genitals by three inches. He continued: 'I was really shocked and I didn't know what was going on. I got one in my groin and one in my ankle. Snapped: Donna Allen, who was with Cox at the time, took this photo of the three police officers who spoke with the pair
Stand-off: A policeman armed with the new Taser during the confrontation with Raoul Moat
'It really hurt. It just stunned me completely and felt like someone was stabbing me with a fork all over my body.' He added: 'Police should not be armed with Tasers if they cannot use them properly. 'It was incredibly painful. It totally paralysed me.' Paramedics treated Mr Cox, who suffers from debilitating Guillain Barre syndrome - an autoimmune disorder which can cause paralysis - on the front lawn of the home. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police confirmed officers had wanted to speak to Mr Cox as they suspected the BMW 3 Series he was driving was not insured. The force later issued a statement, saying: 'The Taser is a hand-held device which discharges an electrical current to temporarily incapacitate a person. 'Its effects are short-lived but are designed to give officers control of the offender and the situation.' The statement continued: 'On Tuesday morning officers stopped a man in Bridgwater suspected to be driving a vehicle without insurance. 'The man appeared to become aggressive and the officer removed his Taser in accordance with protocol. 'On lowering the Taser it was accidentally discharged. Police are now looking into this.' The incident is the latest episode to raise questions over the use of Tasers by police. It has been suggested that Raoul Moat shot himself in the head during negotiations with police because of an involuntary action caused by being shot with the weapon. Since being introduced in April 2004, Tasers have been used in more than 5,400 incidents in England and Wales. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Independent)', '(Daily Mail)'] |
Alejandro Valverde wins his first title after a four-man sprint, ahead of Romain Bardet and Michael Woods. | Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Alejandro Valverde (Spain) took the world title after leading out the final four players in an attritional 265-kilometer race in the Austrian mountains. Romain Bardet (France) and Michael Woods (Canada) took second and third, having been unable to come around the Spaniard in the final kilometer. Tom Dumoulin took fourth after a brave solo chase to the leaders in the final kilometers.
“It’s just something incredible,” said Valverde. “There are so many years fighting, fighting, and finally, I achieved it.
“Many times I was very close and I have six medals and not one of them was a gold. Finally I could manage to pull it off. I knew I couldn’t mess it up in the last kilometer.”
The race kicked off almost from the gun, with two breaks going clear and joining forces after around 20km of racing. The break was made up of Robert Britton (Canada), Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden), Kasper Asgreen (Denmark), Conor Dunne, Ryan Mullen (both Ireland), Daniil Fominykh (Kazakhstan), Vegard Stake Laengen (Norway), Karel Hnik (Czech Republic), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa), Ilia Koshevoy (Belarus), and Laurent Didier (Luxembourg).
The break stretched out their gap to 19 minutes by the summit of the Gnadenwald, the first climb of the day, however, 200km remained and the peloton was calm.
As the race entered the first of the route’s six laps – each of which included the Igls climb – Great Britain, Slovenia, Austria, and France took to the front of the bunch, controlling the pace. The Spanish, French, and Polish kept close to to the front, but didn’t contribute to pacemaking.
As the kilometers ticked by, the difficulty of the mountainous route became evident, and riders constantly slipped off the back of the peloton. Likewise, the break started fatiguing, and the once-cohesive unit lost Mullen, Dunne, and Didier on the third ascent on the Igls.
Warren Barguil (France) hit the deck and pulled out on 100km, marking a blow for the French team, and shortly after, Peter Sagan (Slovakia) dropped out of the bunch, the constant climbing too much for him.
With 80km to go, the gap was down to seven minutes as the pace in the bunch notably increased, driven by GB and the Spanish. By the top of the fourth climb of Igls, the break was down to four; Laengen, Britton, Asgreen, and Van Rensburg.
With 200km down and 65km remaining, the race started hotting up, with Dario Cataldo (Italy), and Jesus Herrada (Spain) launching from the peloton. Shortly after, dangermen Vicenzo Nibali (Italy), and Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) bridged. They gained several seconds, but the Russian, GB, Spanish, and French teams soon brought them back. The next attack came from Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), with Damiano Caruso (Spain) and Omar Fraile (Italy) soon joining him.
With 50km and one lap of the Igls remaining, all the main contenders were still present bar Sagan and Barguil, with Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) chasing hard after an earlier crash. The Van Avermaet group were 20 seconds in front of them and working well, with the break down to four minutes.
With only 45km remaining, flurries of short-lived attacks kept going off the front, with Germany, Italy, and France particularly active. This upping in pace bought back the trio of Caruso, Fraile, and Van Avermaet, and shelled Dan Martin (Ireland), Wout Poels (Netherlands), Kwiatkowski, and Simon Yates (GB). Up front, the original break was down to two, Asgreen and Laengen.
As the race started approaching the final ascent of the Igls, the two leaders, who had been out front all day, were still over two minutes in front.
The Italian team, still totally intact, took to the front on the climb, taking control for Gianni Moscon and Vicenzo Nibali. The Dutch, Spanish, and French kept close behind them in a bunch now down to around 60 riders.
On 24km to go, Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands) went clear, briefly breaking the rhythm of the race, though the bunch soon came back together. The change in pace was enough to drop several from the group, notably Nibali and Van Aevermaet. With 2km remaining of the last ascent of the Igls, the two remaining riders in the break were finally swallowed up.
Peter Kennaugh (GBR) attacked hard as the race approached the top of the climb, but soon faded. However, his acceleration drew out Michael Valgren (Denmark), who went over the summit with a decent gap. On the descent, several riders including Rui Costa (Portugal), Moscon, Thibaut Pinot (France), and Roglic lead the chase. Up front, Valgren had taken 30 seconds and looked comfortable, with just the steep Holl climb remaining.
In the run into the Holl, the French and Dutch teams chased hard, with the latter still boasting a strong number of riders. As the narrow, brutal climb kicked in, the bunch shattered, with the Frenchmen Julian Alaphilippe and Pinot at the front, along with Valverde, Woods, and Moscon. Alaphilippe soon went backward, whilst Woods, Bardet, Moscon, and Valverde caught and dropped Valgren. Behind, Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) chased hard.
Woods went over the summit of the Holl first having set a fearsome pace, whilst Moscon went off the back.
The race was now led by Woods, Valverde, and Bardet, with Dumoulin not far behind. On the descent, the lead trio watched each other, none of them willing to commit. With 2km to go, Dumoulin’s furious chase paid off, as he made contact with the leaders.
In the final straight, Valverde led out the sprint, and stayed strong to the line, with Woods attempting to come around him but lacking the legs, and Dumoulin hesitating at the back.
“It was a long sprint and they put all the responsibility on me. When we got to 300m, I said, this is my distance. I went full-gas and finally I could achieve this victory,” said the tearful winner.
| Awards ceremony | September 2018 | ['(VeloNews)'] |
An Italian rescue official says a number of people have been killed by an avalanche, possibly connected to Wednesday's earthquakes, that buried a ski resort on a slope of the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy's Abruzzo region. About 30 guests and staff were at the hotel. The only survivors are two men who had been outside when the disaster struck. | Rescuers have removed two bodies from a hotel engulfed by an avalanche in central Italy as a desperate search for up to 35 other people continues. Heavy snow and disruption caused by multiple earthquakes have hindered rescue efforts in the rubble of the Rigopiano hotel, in the Abruzzo region.
Rescuers say they have heard nothing in the rubble while sniffer dogs are reportedly unable to locate victims.
Two people who were outside the hotel at the time of the avalanche survived. Four earthquakes above magnitude five rocked central Italy on Wednesday, with tremors continuing into the night. The quakes compounded problems resulting from snow and freezing weather, with power lines brought down and villages temporarily cut off. Rescue operations are under way across central Italy and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said the EU is ready to help. It appears the guests had gathered on the ground floor of the four-star spa hotel, close to the Gran Sasso mountain, to await evacuation following the earthquakes.
Twenty-two guests and seven staff members were registered as being at the hotel, among them children, but rescuers say the actual number could be 35. The avalanche struck some time between 16:30 (15:30 GMT) and 17:40 on Wednesday, when the first known appeal for help was made. It partially brought down the roof and, according to some reports, shifted the building 10m (11 yards) off its foundations.
A guest who was outside the building at the time raised the alarm with his phone. Giampiero Parete, whose wife and two children are missing, said he had gone to get something from his car: "I was covered by the snow but I managed to get out. The car was not submerged and I waited for the rescuers to arrive."
A couple was quoted as telling rescuers in a message: "Help, we're dying of cold."
Mr Parete, who was taken to hospital with a fellow survivor, continued to make phone calls but it reportedly took until 20:00 before his pleas were acted on by the authorities. A list of 23 names given by La Stampa newspaper suggests that most are Italians but they include a Swiss national and a Romanian.
Three are children aged six, seven and nine, and the oldest person on the list is a man of 60. Seven of the missing are from the neighbouring region of Marche.
A couple from Marche who are not recorded in La Stampa's list, Marco Vagnarelli and Paola Tomassini, were last heard from at 16:30 on Wednesday, when Marco contacted his brother Fulvio on WhatsApp, Ansa reports. The avalanche had still not started at that point.
Marco had told his brother that their departure from the area was being delayed by the bad weather. Video shows hotel interiors choked with walls of debris and snow.
"The hotel is almost completely destroyed," Antonio Crocetta, a member of the Alpine rescue squad who was at the scene, told Reuters news agency by phone.
"We've called out but we've heard no replies, no voices. We're digging and looking for people."
The first rescuers only reached the hotel on skis at 04:30 on Thursday morning. A line of rescue vehicles snaked along an approach road as they waited for it to be cleared. Earlier on Thursday, Italian media said three bodies had been extracted while, according to an unconfirmed report, a fourth body had been found inside but not yet recovered. But the fire service said only two bodies had been retrieved. The tremors caused chaos across central Italy, compounding problems caused by heavy snow and freezing weather.
Rescue services initially struggled to reach rural communities in regions like Marche.
One man was killed by a falling roof in Marche and another person swept away by a landslide in Abruzzo. People have been evacuated from their homes in some areas.
An earthquake rocked central Italy on 24 August, killing 298 people die. Another quake in October killed no-one, as most of the population centres had been evacuated.
By Jonathan Amos, BBC science correspondent
The Apennines region saw three magnitude-6 tremors between August and October. A succession of quakes like this is often how the geology works.
The big picture is reasonably well understood. Wider tectonic forces in the Earth's crust have led to the Apennines being pulled apart at a rate of roughly 3mm per year - about a 10th of the speed at which your fingernails grow.
But this stress is then spread across a multitude of different faults that cut through the mountains. And this network is fiendishly complicated.
It does now look as though August's event broke two neighbouring faults, starting on one known as the Laga and then jumping across to one called the Vettore.
Then came October with a swathe of quakes that broke the rest of the Vetorre. But the stress, according to the seismologists, wasn't just sent north, it was loaded south as well - south of August's event. And it's in this zone that we have now seen a series of quakes in recent days. About a dozen magnitude fours and fives. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | January 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(Daily Express)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Russian military sends medical help and disinfection tools to Italy to battle the coronavirus. | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian military will start sending medical help to Italy from Sunday to help it to battle the new coronavirus after receiving an order from President Vladimir Putin, Russias Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Putin spoke to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Saturday, the Kremlin said, adding that the Russian leader had offered his support and help in the form of mobile disinfection vehicles and specialists to aid the worst hit Italian regions.
Italy recorded a jump in deaths from the coronavirus of almost 800 on Saturday, taking the toll in the worlds hardest-hit country to almost 5,000.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that military transport planes would deliver eight mobile brigades of military medics, special disinfection vehicles and other medical equipment to Italy from Sunday.
Russia will also send about 100 military specialists in virology and epidemics, the Interfax news agency cited the defense ministry as saying.
Russia itself has reported 306 cases of the virus, most of them in Moscow, and one coronavirus-related death.
| Disease Outbreaks | March 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General of the United States, advises that the US government will seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof accused of conducting the 2015 Charleston massacre. | Nearly a year since gunfire interrupted a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church, federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they will seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old suspect in the attack that killed nine people.
Roof’s substantial planning before the assault, his expressions of hatred toward black people and his lack of remorse after the slayings helped drive the decision, a notice in U.S. District Court stated.
The move is a relatively rare one for the federal government since it reinstated capital punishment nearly three decades ago. Of thousands of eligible cases since then, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has authorized prosecutors to seek execution in about 500.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement that she arrived at the decision after a “rigourous” of the case’s factual and legal issues.
“The nature of the alleged crime and the resulting harm compelled this decision,” she said.
If he’s convicted, Roof will face the ultimate penalty in two different courtrooms. In state court, he is set to be tried in January, but his federal trial has not been scheduled.
Surviving victims of the June 17 attack, considered one of the most heinous hate crimes in recent memory, and family members of those who died had differing views on whether Roof should face execution.
They learned of Lynch’s much-awaited decision during a conference call with federal authorities Tuesday afternoon, less than a month before the one-year anniversary of the shooting. The federal trial has been delayed four times as Lynch considered the case.
Steve Schmutz, a Charleston attorney who represents family members of three of the slain victims, said the development was not surprising.
“The families will support this decision,” he said. “Really, I think the families have mixed emotions about the death penalty. But if it’s ever going to be given, this case certainly calls for it.”
Roof, an Eastover resident, was indicted in July on 33 federal charges, including the hate crimes. But accusations that he used a gun to kill the parishioners and that their slayings violated their right to freely practice a religion are the charges that carry the death penalty.
Officials said he penned an online manifesto in which he wrote about white supremacy and taking his struggle “to the real world.” He chose Charleston because of its history, he wrote.
He sat for an hour through the Bible study at the Calhoun Street church, then opened fire.
The shooting left the church’s pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, and eight others dead. Three adult women and two children in the church at the time survived without physical wounds.
In the federal notice Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson wrote that Roof’s actions met the legal threshold for the death penalty because he intended to kill the people he shot: Pinckney, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders Daniel Simmons Sr. and Myra Thompson.
The prosecutor also listed nine aggravating factors, including: multiple deaths, extensive premeditation, the targeting of people more than 70 years old, an intent to incite violence by others, the deaths’ impact on the victims’ loved ones, endangering the safety of people besides those who were slain, racial motivation and a lack of remorse.
Roof also targeted Emanuel AME, the filing stated, “in order to magnify the societal impact” of the crimes.
Reach Andrew Knapp at 843-937-5414 or twitter.com/offlede.
Victims of the nine people gunned down at Emanuel AME Church have waited for nearly a year to learn whether federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty against accused killer Dylann Roof. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2016 | ['(Post and Courier)'] |
Australian SAS Corporal Ben Roberts–Smith is awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in action in the offensive in the Shah Wali Kot region in Afghanistan in June 2010. | An Australian soldier has been awarded the country's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, for bravery while serving in Afghanistan. Cpl Benjamin Roberts-Smith, 32, was given the medal for single-handedly overpowering Taliban machine-gunners attacking his platoon last June.
"You went to Afghanistan a soldier, you came back a hero," Australian PM Julia Gillard said at the awards ceremony.
Cpl Roberts-Smith said the real heroes were those who died for the country.
Australia has a 1,550-strong contingent in Afghanistan.
On 11 June 2010, Cpl Roberts-Smith was leading a mission in the volatile Kandahar province when his men came under machine-gun fire from fortified Taliban positions.
He decided to draw their fire away from his men, who were unable to move under the hail of bullets. The corporal deliberately revealed his position to the insurgents, shooting dead one insurgent and then overpowering two others.
"He will always know, as we know now, that in the heat of the battle he did not fail when mateship and duty called," Ms Gillard said. Cpl Roberts-Smith is the second person to have received the Victoria Cross for Australia, which was created in 1991 and is a separate award from the British VC.
Overall, 98 Australians have been awarded the VC - the highest military honour in the Commonwealth and equivalent to the US Medal of Honor. | Awards ceremony | January 2011 | ['(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(BBC)'] |
Former South African president Nelson Mandela is readmitted to a Pretoria hospital in a serious condition with a recurring lung infection. | Former President Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital in South Africa with a lung infection.
A presidential spokesman said he is in a "serious but stable condition", although he was able to breathe on his own - a "positive sign". Mr Mandela, 94, has been ill for some days but deteriorated overnight and was transferred to a hospital in Pretoria.
He led the fight against apartheid and is regarded as the father of democratic South Africa. He has recently suffered a series of health problems and this is his fifth visit to hospital in two years.
In April he was released from hospital after a 10-day stay caused by pneumonia.
His illness was described on Saturday as a recurrence of a lung infection, which has troubled him repeatedly. Mr Mandela was taken to hospital, from his home in a suburb of Johannesburg, at about 01:30 local time (23:30 GMT Friday).
Mac Maharaj, South Africa's presidential spokesman, told the BBC he was receiving expert medical care.
Doctors were doing everything possible to make him comfortable and better, he added.
"What I am told by doctors is that he is breathing on his own and I think that is a positive sign," he said.
Mr Mandela's wife Graca Machel had been at his bedside since the early hours of the morning, Sapa news agency quoted the presidential spokesman as saying.
She cancelled a scheduled appearance at a meeting in London.
"Naturally the immediate members of the family have access to him and it's always good for the patient that he has been accompanied by one or other of them, and that has happened," Mr Maharaj told the BBC.
"President Jacob Zuma, on behalf of government and the nation, wishes Madiba a speedy recovery and requests the media and the public to respect the privacy of Madiba and his family," Mr Maharaj said in a statement, using the clan name by which Mr Mandela is often known. On the streets of Pretoria, people expressed their affection for their former president and their concern.
Mamoshomo Tswai, a trader, said: "As long as Tata [father] is still alive then poor people like me, people who are down down, single mothers like me, we still have hope. South Africa is nothing without him."
But another informal trader in Pretoria, who did not want give their name, said: "We must just accept that he is old. We love him, we all do, but we must start to accept that he is a very old man."
Keith Khoza, a spokesman for the governing ANC, said Mr Mandela continued to be "a symbol of hope, to be a symbol of reconciliation" for South Africa.
"We are certainly concerned about his health and we called on South Africans to pray for him and his family.
"Even if you have an elderly person in the family who is sick and you expect something - once it happens the shock is still there."
Mr Mandela served as president from 1994 to 1999. He was previously imprisoned for 27 years, and is believed to have suffered damaged lungs while working in a prison quarry.
He contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while being held in jail on the windswept Robben Island.
He retired from public life in 2004 and has been rarely seen in public since.
There was a row in April when South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) - Mr Mandela's party - filmed a visit to see him and broadcast the pictures of him with President Zuma and other party figures.
Critics called it an invasion of his privacy.
Mr Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 jointly with former President FW de Klerk for ending apartheid and bringing democracy to South Africa.
Mandela's life and times
The battle for Nelson Mandela's legacy
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
In a rare move, the UN condemns the overthrowing of Aung San Suu Kyi and calls for an arms embargo.
The ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters. VideoThe ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters
Tokyo Olympics: No fans is 'least risky' option
Asia's Covid stars struggle with exit strategies
Why residents of these paradise islands are furious
The Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care. VideoThe Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care
Troubled US teens left traumatised by tough love camps
Why doesn't North Korea have enough food?
Le Pen set for regional power with eye on presidency
How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Famous Person - Sick | June 2013 | ['(AP via News24)', '(BBC)'] |
Two men are sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of a Rwandan journalist who had allegedly uncovered evidence that the Rwandan government was behind the attempted murder of an ex–army general. | Two men have been jailed for life for the killing of a Rwandan journalist who said he uncovered evidence showing the government was behind the attempted murder of an exiled army general, a rights group said on Saturday.
Didace Nduguyangu and Antoine Karemera were arrested the day after the killing in June of journalist Jean-Leonard Rugambage.
Nduguyangu had pleaded guilty, saying that he acted on Karemera's advice after Rugambage killed members of his family in the 1994 genocide. Karemera denied any responsibility.
“The High Court on Friday sentenced both of them to life in prison,” the League for Human Rights in the Great Lakes Region (LDGL) said.
Nduguyangu “was found guilty of homicide and illegal possession of a firearm” while Karemera was found guilty of “being an accessory to homicide”, the Kigali-based rights group said in a statement.
Three rights activists who attended the court hearing confirmed the sentences.
Rugambage, the deputy editor of Umuvugizi newspaper, and an outspoken critic of the Rwandan authorities, was shot at the gate of his home in Kigali in the evening of June 24.
The Rwandan authorities have been accused of having ordered the killing but have always denied any implication. - Sapa-AFP | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2010 | ['(IOL)'] |
North Korean state media Korean Central News Agency calls high-level talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "regrettable" and criticizes the United States' "unilateral and gangster-like" demands for denuclearization. | U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, says goodbye to Kim Yong Chol, right, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, Saturday, July 7, 2018. PYONGYANG, North Korea -- High-level talks between the United States and North Korea appeared to hit a snag on Saturday as Pyongyang said a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been "regrettable" and accused Washington of making "gangster-like" demands to pressure the country into abandoning its nuclear weapons.
The statement from the North came just hours after Pompeo wrapped up two days of talks with senior North Korean officials without meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but with commitments for new discussions on denuclearization and the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.
While Pompeo offered a relatively positive assessment of his meetings, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the U.S. betrayed the spirit of last month's summit between President Donald Trump and Kim by making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands on "CVID," or the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea.
It said the outcome of the follow-up talks was "very concerning" because it has led to a "dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearization that had been firm."
"We had expected that the U.S. side would offer constructive measures that would help build trust based on the spirit of the leaders' summit ... we were also thinking about providing reciprocal measures," said the statement, released by an unnamed spokesman and carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
"However, the attitude and stance the United States showed in the first high-level meeting (between the countries) was no doubt regrettable," the spokesman said. "Our expectations and hopes were so naive it could be called foolish."
According to the spokesman, during the talks with Pompeo the North raised the issue of a possible declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which concluded with an armistice and not a peace treaty. It also offered to discuss the closure of a missile engine test site that would "physically affirm" a move to halt the production of intercontinental range ballistic missiles and setting up working-level discussions for the return of U.S. war remains.
However, the spokesman said the United States came up with a variety of "conditions and excuses" to delay a declaration on ending the war. The spokesman also downplayed the significance of the United States suspending its military exercises with South Korea, saying the North made a larger concession by blowing up the tunnels at its nuclear test site.
In criticizing the talks with Pompeo, however, the North carefully avoided attacking Trump, saying "we wholly maintain our trust toward President Trump," but also that Washington must not allow "headwinds" against the "wills of the leaders."
In comments to reporters before leaving Pyongyang, Pompeo said his conversations with senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol had been "productive," conducted "in good faith" and that "a great deal of progress" had been made in some areas. He stressed that "there's still more work to be done" in other areas, much of which would be done by working groups that the two sides have set up to deal with specific issues.
Pompeo said a Pentagon team would be meeting with North Korean officials on or about July 12 at the border between North and South Korea to discuss the repatriation of remains and that working level talks would be held soon on the destruction of North Korea's missile engine testing facility.
In the days following his historic June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, Trump had announced that the return of the remains and the destruction of the missile facility had been completed or were in progress.
Pompeo, however, said that more talks were needed on both.
"We now have a meeting set up for July 12 -- it could move by one day or two -- where there will be discussions between the folks responsible for the repatriation of remains. (It) will take place at the border and that process will begin to develop over the days that follow," he said as he boarded his plane for Tokyo.
On the destruction of the missile engine plant, Pompeo said, "We talked about what the modalities would look like for the destruction of that facility as well, and some progress there as well, and then we have laid out a path for further negotiation at the working level so the two teams can get together and continue these discussions."
Earlier, Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol both said they needed clarity on the parameters of an agreement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula that Trump and Kim Jong Un agreed to in Singapore. The trip was Pompeo's third to Pyongyang since April and his first since the summit.
Unlike his previous visits, which have been one-day affairs during which he has met with Kim Jong Un, Pompeo spent the night at a government guesthouse in Pyongyang and did not see the North Korean leader, although U.S. officials had suggested such a meeting was expected. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said no meeting had been planned.
As they began their talks on Saturday, Kim Yong Chol alluded to the fact that Pompeo and his delegation had stayed overnight in Pyongyang.
"We did have very serious discussions on very important matters yesterday," Kim said. "So, thinking about those discussions you might have not slept well last night."
Pompeo, who spoke with Trump, national security adviser John Bolton and White House chief of staff John Kelly by secure phone before starting Saturday's session, replied that he "slept just fine." He added that the Trump administration was committed to reaching a deal under which North Korea would denuclearize and realize economic benefits in return.
Kim later said that "there are things that I have to clarify" to which Pompeo responded that "there are things that I have to clarify as well."
There was no immediate explanation of what needed to be clarified, but the two sides have been struggling to specify what exactly "denuclearization" would entail and how it could be verified to the satisfaction of the United States.
Pompeo and Kim met for nearly three hours Friday and then had dinner amid growing skepticism over how serious Kim Jong Un is about giving up his nuclear arsenal and translating the upbeat rhetoric following his summit with Trump into concrete action.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2018 | ['(AP via AL.com)'] |
Around 27,000 anti–government red shirt protestors march in Bangkok, Thailand, calling for the release of imprisoned leaders. | BANGKOK, Jan 23 -- Ratchadamnoen Road closed to traffic in a historic part of the capital late Sunday as the anti-government Red Shirts demonstrate at Democracy Monument in a mass gathering set to end at midnight.
Thousands of United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) activists have occupied the roadway from Phan Fah Bridge to Sanam Luang ceremonial ground. As the main rally stage has been erected at the monument itself, small assembly points were scattered throughout the area, and police were deployed to provide security and maintain order.
The demonstrators lit red candles in commemoration of the Red Shirt protesters killed during the street violence in April and May during the mass protest.
Red leader and Opposition MP Jatuporn Prompan said the Red Shirts will change their strategy and protest only once a month in the future to avoid making trouble for the public.
The group also plans to hold a special protest at Khao Yai or the Rajamangala National Stadium. However, while the venue has not yet been finalised, their ideology will be the same in demanding the release of jailed Red Shirts on terrorism charges and the reinstatement of the 1997 Constitution.
He also said that during tonight’s protest of the Red Shirts, supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, there will be no telephone address from the self-exiled former prime minister.
Mr Thaksin lives abroad, having been sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for conflict of interest in a case focused on his then wife's purchase of land from a government agency in a prime Bangkok commercial area at a price discounted significantly below the market price. (MCOT online news) | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Thai News Agency)'] |
Thousands of people of all ages march through Brussels in a rally, "Shame: No government, great country", to protest against nationalism and the lack of a proper government for the past seven months. The protest is initially started by students but soon expands to other parts of society. | Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Belgian capital today in support of national unity and to demand that the rival political groups form a coalition after seven months without a government.
Organisers said the peaceful rally in Brussels was also meant to promote solidarity among the country's Flemish and Walloon communities and to reject nationalism.
Police said between 20,000 and 30,000 people took part in the demonstration called by a group of university students who say they are fed up with the political deadlock.
"We're sending a clear message to the political leaders that we want them to form a government," said Felix De Clerck, one of the organisers.
"We are sick and tired of the enduring political impasse," said Thomas Decreus, another organiser. He said the protest showed "the people can act where politicians fail: ie working together across the language barrier" that slices Belgium in half.
The demonstration – the result of a Facebook campaign under the banner "Shame. No government, great country" – was the second of its kind in just over three years. On 18 November 2007, about 35,000 people marched through the capital to vent their anger about a political deadlock that by then was preventing the formation of a government for 161 days.
Like in 2007, today's protest led demonstrators – Francophones and Dutch-speakers – to a vast stone arch in the Cinquantenaire park. The arch marks Belgium's independence from the Netherlands in 1830 .
Political parties representing Belgium's two communities have been unable to form a coalition since parliamentary elections last June – a record period of deadlock in postwar Europe.
Politicians have been trying unsuccessfully to broker a new constitution with increased regional autonomy for the 6 million Dutch-speaking Flemings and 4.5 million French-speaking Walloons.
The deadlock has led to fear that Flanders could secede from the union formed in 1830.
Positions in Flanders have hardened over the years, bringing to the fore the centre-right N-VA nationalist party headed by Bart De Wever. He is negotiating on forming a government with the socialist PS party, the dominant political party in Wallonia.
In a reference to De Wever, several demonstrators carried pictures of cartoon character Bart Simpson with his face crossed out. Others carried signs saying "Separation? Not in our Name," and "Less Bla-Bla, More Results."
Many carried umbrellas, hats, shawls and other items in the black, gold and red colours of the Belgian flag. "What do we want? We want a government," they chanted.
Since the elections, the country has been run by a caretaker government led by the prime minister, Yves Leterme. But that government only has a limited remit and, as the euro currency tries to weather a deepening crisis, international investors are looking unkindly at the political stalemate that hamstrings the nation and prevents it from taking decisive action. | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2011 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Irish Times)'] |
Australian radio host Derryn Hinch is sentenced to five months home detention for broadcasting the names of two sex offenders. | A VICTIMS' advocate has vowed to continue Derryn Hinch's fight to end laws banning the naming of sex offenders.
A VICTIMS' advocate has vowed to continue Derryn Hinch's campaign to end the suppression of the names of sex offenders.
A magistrate today ordered that Derryn Hinch, 67, serve five months of home detention for naming two serial sex offenders in breach of serious sex offender laws, reported the Herald Sun.One of Hinch's supporters, victims' champion Noel McNamara, said the campaign to end the suppression of the names of sex offenders would go on."Derryn has been gagged for five months and in a way I suppose in a way we're all in home detention with him,'' Mr McNamara said."But the campaign will continue and we will press the attorney general to get rid of suppression orders where it is not identifying the victim."Derryn is clearly very ill still. To get out of bed and come along for that is a pretty good effort. He copped it sweet and all power to him.''Hinch shuffled slowly into court this morning, accompanied by his wife Chanel, and he appeared to be out of breath and struggling to make it up a wheelchair ramp.Before he was silenced by the magistrate Hinch remained unrepentant about what he had done."I still believe that this is a bad law and it will change. It will go,'' he said.When asked what would happen if he cannot broadcast on his drive-time show on 3AW he said "I'll just be locked up and be silent. But not for long.''Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg told Hinch today that he had several previous serious breaches of the law in his various "name and shame campaigns" over the years.Magistrate Rozencwajg made a number of conditions on Hinch's home detention order which will mean the "Human Headline" cannot communicate with his audience.The magistrate said Hinch must not engage in gainful employment and must not use Facebook or Twitter or other social media to propagate his views.Hinch has also been ordered not to give media interviews and not to encourage others to pass on his views on his behalf.It is unknown who radio station 3AW will get to replace Hinch on his drive program.Hinch was found guilty of five breaches of section 42 of the serious sexual offenders monitoring act by naming two rapists.In his Melbourne Magistrates' Court sentence Mr Rozencwajg said the offences were committed in May, June and July 2008 when Hinch posted information on his website and publicly named the offender at a rally on the steps of state parliament."I would regard your actions as taking the law into your own hands and encouraging others to do the same," Mr Rozencwajg said.The magistrate said that one of the ironies of the case was that Hinch would probably be the last person in Victoria to be sentenced to home detention.He said that another irony was the fact that Hinch had campaigned for the abolition of suspended sentences and encouraged the passing of a "one size fits all approach which removed judical discrection" in sentencing.Such an approach would lead to injustice, the magistrate said.Mr Rozencwajg said that Hinch had a number of prior convictions for similiar offences but had not heeded the warnings given to him over the years about his conduct.The magistrate said that if Hinch gave interviews to the massive media pack assembled at court today it would be in contravention of his order.Hinch underwent a life-saving liver transplant earlier this month and was in hospital again yesterday to have a stent removed.Professor Bob Jones, liver transplant unit director at the Austin Hospital, who was at court said the five-month enforced lay off would be good for the broadcaster's recovery."He’s making a good recovery, but it’s still very early,” Professor Jones said.“This is a recovery after a transplant that takes several months. And Derryn is just a couple of weeks in. By all rights I would still expect him to be at hospital.“Going home so early there's a real risk he'll have to come back into hospital.”Prof Jones said that he realised staying silent would be an ordeal for Hinch.“Perhaps he can take up Zen Buddhism or something,” he said.“It's a really big ordeal (going to court). I was pretty worried about him. It's pretty intimidating. I was intimidated."In his situation, just a couple of weeks out of a transplant it's a very tough deal to go through."He's by no means well."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2011 | ['(News.com.au)'] |
The United States Supreme Court allows states to collect sales taxes from online retailers that do not have a "physical presence" in that state. | The 5-4 decision overturned an earlier court ruling that states have fought for years. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The decision means states are free to collect billions of dollars in extra revenue from online retailers.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that states can force out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax on purchases by their residents, sweeping away decades of precedent.
The decision means states are free to collect billions of dollars in extra revenue from online retailers, at a time when many state officials complain it's difficult to balance their budgets, and that many consumers may pay more for online purchases.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, one of the driving forces behind getting the case to the court, wrote in his opinion that the previous precedent — that states could only mandate sales tax collection from companies with a physical presence in their borders — was "unsound and incorrect."
The court's 5-4 split on South Dakota v. Wayfair didn't break along traditional ideological lines. Kennedy was joined by fellow conservative-leaning Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, along with usually liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Chief Justice John Roberts, normally a conservative, was joined in a dissent by liberal-leaning Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor that asserted Congress should take the lead on the online sales tax issue.
In his opinion, Kennedy said the rise of the internet had made the error of the court's previous decisions "all the more egregious and harmful." At the time of those rulings, the Supreme Court "did not have before it the present realities of the interstate marketplace, where the Internet's prevalence and power have changed the dynamics of the national economy."
The high court's ruling also is a boon to President Donald Trump, who has long railed against the ability of internet-based sellers to undercut retail stores. Much of Trump's ire on the subject has been aimed at Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.
"Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!" Trump tweeted in March.
Amazon for years took advantage of its ability to dodge collecting state and local sales taxes, but more recently has joined big-box stores and their advocates in pushing for legislation to give states more sales tax power. The company now collects in every state with a statewide sales tax, as it has built numerous distribution centers close to urban hubs.
But some sales carried out on the Amazon platform for other dealers still escape sales tax.
The Supreme Court had most recently upheld its precedent in 1992's Quill decision, while inviting Congress to give states more latitude on sales tax if it wished.
Two justices, Kennedy and Thomas, effectively flip-flopped Thursday from the stances they took in the Quill case 26 years ago. Thomas penned a concurring opinion saying he “should have joined” the dissent in Quill in 1992. “It is never too late to ‘surrende[r] former views to a better considered position,’” Thomas wrote.
In his dissent, Roberts also agreed that a 51-year-old Supreme Court ruling exempting out-of-state mail-order purchases was “wrongly decided,” but said it should be up to Congress and not the courts to make such a potentially far-reaching decision. “Any alteration to those rules with the potential to disrupt the development of such a critical segment of the economy should be undertaken by Congress,” Roberts wrote. “The Court should not act on this important question of current economic policy, solely to expiate a mistake it made over 50 years ago. … By suddenly changing the ground rules, the court may have waylaid Congress’s consideration of the issue.”
But lawmakers have been mired in gridlock for years over that issue, with Republicans particularly divided. Some GOP lawmakers backing the states' position believe that giving states more sales tax power merely allows them to collect taxes that are generally owed anyway and gives them more freedom with their own budgets.
Others see it as a de facto tax increase that would give states too much power to regulate commerce beyond their own borders. The Senate did pass online sales tax legislation in 2013, but the measure was never picked up in the House, where Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) — whose panel has jurisdiction on the issue — opposes allowing states to collect outside their borders.
Because of that gridlock, major retail industry groups and state governments once more looked to the courts for assistance.
Kennedy first signaled that Quill might get another hearing at the Supreme Court, when he wrote in a related 2015 opinion that the precedent might have outlived its usefulness.
South Dakota, whose tax system is heavily reliant on sales taxes, then quickly passed a law that required out-of-state companies to collect taxes if they hit certain sales thresholds in the state. Wayfair, Newegg and Overstock, three companies that would have been affected by that law, were defendants in the case.
History Dept.
By KEVIN LIPPERT
The court’s action Thursday paves the way for states to start seeking methods to collect more sales tax, but it may be far from the last word from Washington on the matter.
Both supporters and critics of the court’s decision called on Congress to follow up on the ruling with legislation that offers clear rules for how states can use their new taxing power. “Remote retailers — many of whom are small businesses — may soon be forced to keep track of the thousands of taxing jurisdictions across the country, many with their own rates, bases, rules and regulations. Congress remains the only solution to this threat,” said Joel Griffith of the conservative-leaning American Legislative Exchange Council, who maintained that the ruling “marks a departure from a constitutional understanding of federalism.”
Along those lines, critics of the decision also said they were worried that states would move aggressively to start taxing businesses that reside outside their borders. But Kennedy’s decision also praised the South Dakota law — which, for instance, does not allow the state to retroactively collect sales taxes — for offering a “reasonable degree of protection” to companies, and some retail advocates suggested that states would take a moderate approach with their new powers.
“Most will work quickly and judiciously to reclaim their authority and create a level playing field for all retailers selling to customers in their states,” said Deborah White of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which applauded Thursday's ruling. | Government Policy Changes | June 2018 | ['(Politico)'] |
A "very loud explosion" and a "huge fire" at a military factory in Khartoum are being treated as suspicious. | The Sudanese government says it believes Israel was responsible for explosions at a military factory in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday.
Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said four Israeli planes attacked the factory and two people were killed. Israel has not commented.
Sudan has blamed Israel for such attacks in the past.
Correspondents say Israel believes weapons are being smuggled through the region to Gaza.
Leaked US State Department documents three years ago suggested that Sudan was secretly supplying Iranian arms to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In April 2011, Khartoum held Israel responsible for an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan. Israel, again, did not comment on the incident.
Israel was also blamed for a strike on a convoy in north-eastern Sudan in 2009, but neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
In the latest incident fire engulfed the Yarmouk plant and nearby buildings after the explosions, with flames visible over a wide area.
Residents reported seeing aircraft or missiles overhead before a number of explosions.
Speaking to reporters in Khartoum, Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman said: "We think Israel did the bombing.
"We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose."
Mr Osman said four radar-evading aircraft that "appeared to come from the east" had attacked the Yarmouk plant.
He said that evidence pointing to Israel had been found among remnants of the explosives and that Sudan's cabinet would hold an urgent meeting at 20:00 (17:00 GMT).
Mr Osman said the factory made "traditional weapons".
"The attack destroyed part of the compound infrastructure, killed two people inside and injured another who is in serious condition," he added.
A spokesman for the Israeli army, Avikhai Adraie, told the BBC's Arabic service that Israel had no comment on the accusation.
Earlier, Sudanese armed forces spokesman Col al-Sawarmi Khalid said civil defence forces had contained the fire and that investigations were under way.
Witnesses reported seeing two or three fires with dense smoke and intermittent flashes of white light.
In 1998 the US launched a missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, alleging that it was making materials for chemical weapons. Sudan denied the allegation, insisting that the US had attacked a factory that manufactured anti-malaria medicines and veterinary products, in defiance of international laws. | Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
A militia attack on a power plant in Sirte leaves at least 19 soldiers dead. | An attack on a power plant in the Libyan city of Sirte has left at least 19 soldiers dead.
Libyan military sources said the Libya Dawn movement, based in western Libya, was responsible for the attack.
In a separate incident, an oil tank at Libya's largest oil export terminal in Sidra caught fire when it was struck by a rocket during fighting.
Libya has been plagued by instability and infighting since the toppling of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Oil production has plummeted as strikes and fighting have closed down facilities.
Falling global oil prices have also severely affected Libyan oil receipts.
A spokesman for the Libya Dawn movement told Reuters that his forces were not responsible for damaging the oil tank in Sirte.
Ismail al-Shukri said warplanes belonging to the government had struck the tank.
Photos on social media appeared to show the tank on fire and producing thick black smoke,
Rival groups now control most of the country including the two largest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi.
Islamist-leaning militias, some of them remnants of forces which helped oust Gaddafi, have taken power in western Libya.
These groups have attempted to reinstate Libya's previous parliament and appoint a parallel government, but this has not been recognised internationally.
The country's recognised parliament and government have been forced to move to eastern Libya.
. | Riot | December 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont is released with charges by the Brussels prosecutor's office after surrendering on Thursday to the Belgian authorities following the issuing of the European Arrest Warrant on Monday. | Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president sought by Spanish courts over his role in the region’s failed independence bid, has been released on bail after testifying before judicial authorities in Belgium in response to the reactivation of an international arrest warrant against him this week.
News of his court appearance came as Catalonia prepared for a general strike and a huge demonstration in Barcelona after a fourth night of violent protests triggered by the jailing of nine pro-independence leaders by the Spanish supreme court on Monday.
Puigdemont, who led the region between January 2016 and October 2017, fled to Belgium to avoid arrest after being sacked by the Spanish government for staging an illegal referendum and making a unilateral declaration of independence two years ago.
In a statement, Puigdemont’s office said: “[Carles] Puigdemont, accompanied by his lawyers, has appeared voluntarily before the Belgian authorities in response to the European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish supreme court.”
It added that he was complying with the warrant but remained opposed to being extradited.
Puigdemont’s lawyers said he was ordered to remain in Belgium but could seek permission to travel abroad.
The former president told reporters waiting outside the prosecutor’s office in Brussels he did not fear justice “from a fair court”.
Spain’s supreme court reissued the warrant on charges of sedition and misuse of public funds after Puigdemont’s former vice-president and eight other independence leaders were jailed for the same offences on Monday.
A member of Puigdemont’s team told the Belgian daily Le Soir that Puigdemont had decided to go to the police “on his initiative”.
Spain filed the European arrest warrant to Belgian authorities on Tuesday. Belgium’s federal prosecutor insisted the Spanish refile it in one of Belgium’s three official languages French, Dutch and German or English. The translated document had been expected to arrive next week.
Belgian lawyers had warned that the procedure was long and slow, especially if contested by Puigdemont’s lawyers.
The former president has so far managed to avoid extradition from Germany and Belgium. One of the complications is that Belgium does not have have an equivalent offence of sedition.
Spain’s supreme court said that although Puigdemont was elected as a member of the European parliament in May, he could not claim parliamentary immunity as he had neither taken up his seat nor sworn on the Spanish constitution a prerequisite under the country’s electoral rules.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2019 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Euronews)'] |
Human Rights Watch reports whistleblowers accuse U.S. troops of routinely torturing Iraqi prisoners and declining to investigate complaints. , , | WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 - Three former members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division say soldiers in their battalion in Iraq routinely beat and abused prisoners in 2003 and 2004 to help gather intelligence on the insurgency and to amuse themselves.
The new allegations, the first involving members of the elite 82nd Airborne, are contained in a report by Human Rights Watch. The 30-page report does not identify the troops, but one is Capt. Ian Fishback, who has presented some of his allegations in letters this month to top aides of two senior Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, John W. Warner of Virginia, the chairman, and John McCain of Arizona. Captain Fishback approached the Senators' offices only after he tried to report the allegations to his superiors for 17 months, the aides said. The aides also said they found the captain's accusations credible enough to warrant investigation. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2005 | ['(Human Rights Watch)', '(IPS news)', '(USA Today)', '(NYT)'] |
British–Dutch consumer goods company Unilever rejects a US$143 billion takeover from Kraft Heinz, saying the deal had no financial or strategic merit. Nevertheless, Kraft is still interested in finding agreement; it has until March 17 to make a final bid under UK takeover rules. | LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. food company Kraft Heinz Co made a surprise $143 billion offer for Unilever Plc in a bid to build a global consumer goods giant, although it was flatly rejected on Friday by the maker of Lipton tea and Dove soap.
Unilever's 'no' an unlikely end to Kraft Heinz's pursuit
A combination would be the third-biggest takeover in history and the largest acquisition of a UK-based company, according to Thomson Reuters data.
It would bring together some of the world’s best known brands, from toothpaste to ice creams, and combine Kraft’s strength in the United States with Unilever’s in Europe and Asia.
The global packaged food industry is grappling with slowing growth, new competition from upstart brands, deflation in developed markets and more health-conscious consumers.
Although Kraft, which is controlled by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett and private equity firm 3G Capital, said it looked forward to talking terms, Unilever said it saw no reason to discuss a deal without financial or strategic merit.
Kraft approached Unilever earlier this week, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified because the approach was confidential.
Kraft believes that investing in innovation would be an important part of the combined company, one of the people said. Kraft has also offered to keep three headquarters for the combined company in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands, the source added.
Credit rating agency Moody’s characterized the bid for Unilever as “credit negative” as the combined company would be more highly financially leveraged. There would be offsetting benefits such as cost savings, an expanded geographic footprint and improved product diversification, the agency said.
Kraft wants the combined company’s credit rating to be investment-grade, according to the sources.
Kraft has until March 17 to make a final bid for Unilever under UK takeover rules.
Unilever shares rose to a record following news of the offer, which analysts at Jefferies called a “seismic shock”, and closed 15 percent higher, short of Kraft’s $50 per share offer price, with the news lifting shares across the sector.
Unilever said Kraft’s proposal included $30.23 per share in cash, payable in U.S. dollars, and 0.222 of a share in a new enlarged entity per Unilever share and represented an 18 percent premium to its share price on Thursday.
“We believe Kraft will likely need to raise its offer substantially if it hopes to change the outcome,” RBC Capital Markets analyst David Palmer said in a research note.
Kraft’s move could flush out other bidders for Unilever, but of the potential rivals, U.S. consumer giant Procter & Gamble Co may face anti-trust hurdles, while pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods company Johnson and Johnson would likely not be interested in household products.
Unilever, which has struggled recently amid slowing growth and currency fluctuations, saw its shares tumble 4.5 percent on Jan. 26, its worst day in nearly a year, when the company reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter sales. The share plunge encouraged Kraft to make an approach, another source familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the matter is confidential.
Unilever has been hit by a slowdown in emerging markets, which it and other consumer companies have long relied on for growth, as well as in its home market, where consumers have been rattled after “Brexit,” Britain’s decision to leave the European Union last year.
Brexit pushed down the value of the pound, raising the cost of producing consumer goods in Britain and straining relations between the country’s retailers and suppliers.
For Kraft, its move comes as low interest rates and cheap debt have fueled big cross-border deals, making it the busiest start to the year for M&A activity on record.
Still, investors will look at Kraft-Heinz’s own track record of boosting sales when evaluating whether they can help Unilever cope with its own slowed growth. Kraft’s sales fell 3.8 percent to $6.86 billion in the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, and its U.S. sales, which account for more than 70 percent of total sales, fell 3.1 percent to $4.84 billion.
Kraft Heinz shares rose more than 10 percent in New York trading, helping lift the Nasdaq to a record high.
Although Kraft is smaller than Unilever, with a market value of $106 billion as of Thursday, it is 50.9-percent owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc and 3G Capital, which also controls Anheuser-Busch InBev.
3G, known for driving profits through aggressive cost cutting, has orchestrated a string of big deals rocking the food and drink industry, including Anheuser-Busch InBev’s takeover of SABMiller and the combination of Kraft and Heinz.
A deal would offer opportunities to combine marketing, manufacturing and distribution in addition to cutting costs, but some industry analysts said Kraft might not want Unilever’s household and personal goods brands and could spin them off.
“This is cheap money meeting industrial logic,” said Steve Clayton, manager of the HL Select UK Shares fund at Hargreaves Lansdown, which owns Unilever shares.
“Kraft Heinz are attempting a massive push on the fast forward button ... To acquire the sheer scale of brands that Unilever represents through one-off acquisitions could take decades,” Clayton added.
Britain’s largest union, Unite, represents employees at Unilever, according to its website. Unite urged Unilever to continue fending off the takeover attempt to prevent job losses.
Unilever employs 168,000 people and generates roughly 17 percent of its revenue in the United States compared with Kraft-Heinz, which generates roughly 78 percent in America.
A recent wave of cross-border deals in Europe is leaving British businesses vulnerable to possible job cuts. Pegeuot SA’s proposed acquisition of General Motors Co’s Opel business may eventually lead to heavy restructuring at the Vauxhall brands, which employ 4,500 people in Britain, sources said.
Centerview and Morgan Stanley are working with Unilever alongside UBS and Deutsche Bank, who are also acting as corporate brokers. Kraft is working with Lazard.
Additional reporting by Angelika Gruber in Zurich, Danilo Masoni and Simon Jessop in London and Lauren Hirsch and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer, Nick Zieminski and Lisa Shumaker
| Organization Merge | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
In ice hockey, the Washington Capitals win their first Stanley Cup after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 4–1 in the finals. | The Washington Capitals, for the first time in their 44 years of existence, are Stanley Cup champions.
Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Eller scored in the third period of Game 5 to propel the Capitals to a clinching 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. Washington won the series and Alex Ovechkin, who earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP, cemented his place in hockey history.
Vegas rebounded from its Game 4 loss coming out with nothing else to lose. Coach Gerard Gallant chose to pair Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore on defense while taking out Ryan Reaves and Ryan Carpenter in favor of David Perron and William Carrier. The moves paid dividends for the Golden Knights as Schmidt and Perron recorded their first goals of the series.
GOLDEN STANDARDHow Vegas became the most successful expansion team in sports history
Reilly Smith's power-play tally with less than a minute left in the second period gave the Golden Knights their first lead of the game. The Capitals entered the third period trailing by a goal and facing the grim possibility of heading back to Capital One Arena for Game 6.
CAPS WIN THE CUP: Get championship gear
Washington's depth, again, was its saving grace in Game 5 as Smith-Pelly and Eller stepped up.
Sporting News provided updates throughout Game 5 (All times Eastern).
SN LOOKS BACK: Alex Ovechkin's career-defining moments
11:06 — The Washington Capitals are Stanley Cup champions.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! #ALLCAPS #STANLEYCUP pic.twitter.com/uBSP6XXTJO
11:01 — Icing after icing. Fleury is pulled, Vegas opts for the extra attacker.
10:55 — Under four minutes remaining in the game.
10:51 — Vegas is about to send everything including the kitchen sink and more in these last few minutes. Capitals have doubled Vega's shots on goal in the third. Can Holtby withstand the upcoming surge?
10:47 — It is bedlam in Washington! Brett Connolly's shot didn't go through but Lars Eller puts the loose puck away. Assisted by Connolly and Burakovsky. Capitals lead 4-3.
Lars Eller puts the Caps up 4-3! Washington is seven minutes away! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/1Ws9LcFX5l
10:41 — Brooks Orpik keeps the puck in the zone by inches, Devante Smith-Pelly converts on the Caps ninth shot of the period. Tie 3-3.
What a big-time goal from Devante Smith-Pelly pic.twitter.com/LqeCfrnDVv
10:39 — We've reached the midway point of the period. Washington's eight shots outshoots Vegas' two.
10:32 — Washington manages one shot on the power play. Vegas maintains the one-goal lead.
10:29 — Tatar heads to the penalty box for hooking Lars Eller. Washington heads to its fourth power play, hoping to tie the game.
10:25 — 2:50 into the period and both teams combined for six shots. Those at T-Mobile Arena are on the edge of their seats.
10:21 — Let's see what the third period has in store for us, shall we? Puck has been dropped.
10:03 — We can all relax after that period.
9:56 — Reilly Smith converts on the power play. Golden Knights lead 3-2.
They trailed, they trailed, and now the @GoldenKnights take their first lead. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/wkKnEIAhBu
9:54 — Alex Ovechkin trips Karlsson. Vegas headed to its second power play of the game.
9:52 — Washington hit the post again! Chandler Stephenson, this time, beats Fleury but not the post behind him.
9:50 — Immensely even matchup right now. Washington leads 17-15 in shots, but both teams exchanging scoring chances.
9:43 — After review, officials determined David Perron didn't interfere with Holtby. Tie game 2-2.
After review, Tomas Tatar scores to tie the game up. Agree with the decision? #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/KddwtuuugE
9:41 — Tomas Tatar redirects the shot, but Washington challenges for goaltender interference.
9:39 — Unlike the first period, the second period is abundant with scoring chances.
9:34 — Brayden McNabb trips Alex Ovechkin, who proceeds to score as Marchessault's goal was being announced. Capitals lead 2-1.
Amazing pass, amazing finish. Washington back up by 1. #ALLCAPS #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/nmzR372zrB
9:33 — Nate Schmidt is credited with Vegas' goal and we have a tie game! Golden Knights tie 1-1.
9:30 — Capitals crash the net, Fleury was on his back but the puck stayed out. Colin Miller cleared the zone.
9:25 — After Deryk Engelland's near miss, Jakub Vrana breaks in alone on Fleury and beats him glove side. Assisted by Wilson and Kuznetsov. Capitals lead 1-0.
Jakub Vrana ?? #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/4qK6glVlRI
9:22 — Washington's sensational penalty kill comes through. Vegas is unable to score on the power play due.
9:20 — It's Vegas' turn on the power play. Christian Djoos receives two minutes for high-sticking. The Golden Knights will have their best opportunity to get on the board.
9:18 — Kuznetsov cannot deflect the shot high enough, as Fleury gloves Washington's shot. Tomas Nosek stands in the way of Ovechkin's slap shot and the Golden Knights prevent any damage on the Capitals' power play.
9:16 — Oshie draws a tripping penalty on Shea Theodore. Washington heads to its second power play of the game.
9:15 — We're back for the second period. Who will get the first goal? It's anybody's guess at this point.
8:56 — Well, that was quite an eventful period. Vegas and Washington, nevertheless, end the first period scoreless. Washington leads 10-7 in shots.
8:51 — Devante Smith-Pelly is unable to corral the puck on a breakaway as Fleury swatted it away.
8:44 — Ovechkin's shot rings off the post as Vegas fans collectively catch their breath. The Golden Knights kill off Washington's man advantage.
Alex Ovechkin was so close #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/mqVz4MZMQv
8:41 — Washington heads to its first power play of the night. Colin Miller called for interference.
8:40 — Shea Theodore is surely redeeming himself tonight. After rough Games 3 and 4, Theodore nearly puts Vegas on the board.
8:38 — T.J. Oshie finds Fleury out of position. As he attempts to find an open lane, Vegas clears the puck out of the zone and survives the latest threat of the Capitals' offense.
8:31 — The Golden Knights are starting to come alive. Despite being held without a shot for nearly the first five minutes, Vegas' three shots pull even with Washington.
8:28 — Tom Wilson lays a hard hit on William Karlsson, but Vegas' Reilly Smith is rejected by Braden Holtby five minutes into the period. Karlsson took a bit to head back to Vegas' bench. Wilson is taking advantage of the lack of Reaves in the lineup, meaning an extremely physical game coming for Wilson.
Wilson lays out Karlsson #ALLCAPS #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/WaiZ2eww9f
8:24 — Ovechkin has the Capitals' first shot on net 1:15 into the game. Fleury immediately covers the puck. Both fanbases represented well tonight.
8:23 — Here we go. Game 5 is underway.
8:08 — Panic! at the Disco just wrapped up. Almost time for the National Anthem . . . then it's puck-drop! In the meantime, enjoy Alex Ovechkin and Marc-Andre Fleury's exchange during warm-ups.
Alex Ovechkin vs. Marc-Andre Fleury in warmups pic.twitter.com/p4pW4XYN7V
7:44 — Both team have taken the ice for warm-ups. Ryan Reaves and Ryan Carpenter will not play tonight. William Carrier and David Perron check in.
6:30 — All the way over on the east coast, Caps fans are filling up Capital One Arena ahead of Game 5.
How many inflatable #StanleyCups are at @CapitalOneArena right now? Not one ... #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/uvSmz25qbY
Noon — Despite trailing 3-1 in the series, Vegas' fans show their full support at today's optional skate.
? #VegasBorn
? pic.twitter.com/kRSiuBhmZ3
11 a.m. — Capitals fan or not, check out the immaculate job Washington's digital staff did with their hype video. | Sports Competition | June 2018 | ['(Sporting News)'] |
Unions in the United Kingdom call on members to stage a nationwide "day of action" on 30 November in protest at changes to public sector pensions. | Unions have called on a nationwide "day of action" for 30 November, which threatens to disrupt public services across the UK.
Strikes, rallies and other events will be held in protest at the government's decision to increase workers' pension contribution payments.
TUC boss Brendan Barber urged ministers to "engage in a genuine spirit of seeking agreement" to end the deadlock.
Chancellor George Osborne branded the strike plans "deeply irresponsible".
Four unions - Unison, Unite, the GMB and the Fire Brigades' Union - are already balloting over co-ordinated industrial action.
Mr Barber said 10 other unions were also looking to hold a vote on strikes.
He promised 30 November would bring "the biggest trade union mobilisation for a generation".
Unions and the government have been in talks over pension contribution rises since the beginning of the year, with ministers saying the change - scheduled for next April - is needed to make schemes sustainable in the face of an ageing population.
On Wednesday, the TUC voted unanimously in favour of action against the move as its annual conference came to a close.
Following this, 24 union leaders held a meeting where the 30 November date was chosen.
Mr Barber told the BBC it could be the first of several such days, saying: "If there's no progress, then potentially we will see very widespread industrial action across the public services."
He added: "We are absolutely committed to justice for the millions of workers we represent."
Events will "range from strike action, where ballot mandates have been secured from members and unions judge that appropriate, through to lunchtime meetings, rallies and joint events with community groups and service users", Mr Barber said.
Union leaders will hold another meeting at the end of September to co-ordinate their actions.
Mr Osborne said: "Everyone who's sensible accepts that public sector pensions have to be reformed.
"The offer on the table is for public sector pensions that are far better than most in the private sector and fairer to taxpayers.
"Unions must not take this deeply irresponsible action at this time. It would do nothing for our country."
Proposing a motion backing mass strikes to the TUC conference, Unison leader Dave Prentis revealed he was giving 9,000 employers formal notice that his union's 1.1 million members would be balloted.
He added: "It's the fight of our lives. I know it's an over-used cliché, but make no mistake, this is it."
The GMB's Brian Strutton said: "We're not talking about a day out and a bit of a protest. We're talking about something that's long and hard and dirty as well, because this is going to require days of action running through the winter, through into next year, following the government's legislative programme right into the summer."
For Labour, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "I hope there won't be strikes."
But he added: "I totally understand people saying 'If there isn't a fair deal, then we are going to vote yes in a ballot'."
Neil Bentley, deputy director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said: "Strikes cause major disruption for families and businesses, and mass strike action would mean thousands of parents forced to take a day off work to look after their children. We urge union leaders to get round the table with the government and negotiate on the details."
Labour leader Ed Miliband was heckled at the TUC conference on Tuesday when said a one-day strike in June over pensions had been a "mistake" and urged unions to continue the talks with the government.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Downtown Tuscaloosa tornado passes over the University of Alabama campus close to the Bryant-Denny Stadium. | At least 15 are dead in Tuscaloosa after a massive tornado Wednesday according to the state Emergency Management Agency. The tornado continued on the ground to Birmingham, which took heavy damage and 11 more died in Jefferson County.
This is at least the second tornado in 12 days to touch down in Tuscaloosa.
University Mall in Tuscaloosa also suffered extensive damage and businesses near the intersection of 15h Street and McFarland Boulevard were destroyed. The tornado narrowly missed the University of Alabama campus, which did not suffer any damage.
Cameras caught a massive tornado tracking through town.
Windows were blown out of several rooms and a waiting area at the Druid City Hospital but it is still functioning.
Classes were canceled at the University of Alabama, which is located in the heart of Tuscaloosa. The university student newspaper, The Crimson White, reported power outages across campus. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | April 2011 | ['(Times Daily)', '(The State)', '[permanent dead link]', '(WAFF)'] |
Egyptian security forces arrested an alleged member of the Free Syrian Army in Giza's Imbaba. They also seized a number of explosives they claimed would allegedly be used in terror attacks in the country before the upcoming presidential elections. | An alleged member of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) was arrested on Sunday by security forces in Imbaba, northern Giza, Al-Ahram daily newspaper reported.
The forces uncovered a number of explosives and US $30,000, which he allegedly planned to use in terror attacks in Cairo and Giza before the presidential elections scheduled to take place on 26-27 May, the same source said.
According to Al-Ahram daily newspaper, investigations conducted by the General Intelligence and National Security apparatuses revealed that the suspect -- who arrived in Egypt 45 days ago -- has been monitoring all prominent government facilities in order to target one of them.
Major General Sayed Shafiq, assistant to the interior minister, had received primary information on the presence of an FSA member who planned to carry out a number of terror attacks in Egypt, Al-Ahram daily newspaper wrote.
The rebel FSA was created soon after the Syrian uprising in March 2011 to oppose President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
Considered the "moderate" rebel group, the Western-backed FSA was once the country's strongest armed opposition force but is now increasingly marginalised by Islamists.
Egypt has suffered a string of terror attacks that erupted following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in June 2013.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based militant group, has claimed responsibly for the major attacks in Sinai and around Egypt since Morsi's ouster. However, a number of other Islamist insurgent groups are also active in Egypt. | Armed Conflict | May 2014 | ['(Al-Ahram)'] |
Jamaican reggae singer Tessanne Chin wins Season 5 of the American singing competition The Voice. | It’s official: Tessanne Chin, the supple-singing pride of Jamaica, has won Season 5 of “The Voice.” After a hard-fought season, in which, as the coaches often told us, the talent was perhaps the best ever to compete on the show, Chin emerged victorious Tuesday night, beating out her Team Adam Levine teammate Will Champlin, the resilient L.A. son of a rocker, who finished third, and second-place finisher Jacquie Lee, the big-voiced New Jersey teen in whom coach Christina Aguilera saw so much of herself.
Chin’s joy of performance was on full display earlier in the show, when she teamed up with a bunch of previously departed Season 5 contestants -- James Wolpert, Preston Pohl, Olivia Henken and Grey -- for her “bring-back” song, “Hold On, I’m Coming,” by Sam & Dave. She just wanted to rock out with her friends, she told us, and so they did. Her onstage interplay with Pohl was particularly winning. PHOTOS: On set: Movies and TV
Vocal power? Check. We were treated to that when Chin dueted with Celine Dion, apparently her longtime hero, on Dion’s “Love Can Move Mountains” -- and more than held her own.
And heart? Well, Chin is all heart, beaming warmth and kindness. Levine said singing “Let It Be” with her on Monday night was like singing “with an angel from heaven.” The love was mutual. “A better coach for me I could not find,” Chin told her coach before learning she’d won. “You are just a great, solid guy.”
But on Tuesday, moments after she’d been handed her trophy and hugged her mom, it was Chin’s pure professionalism that was on display. Breathless and stunned, she nevertheless took her mark and sang the song OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, who also performed Tuesday night, had written for the winner. She kept at it, gaining strength as the confetti fluttered all around her and landing it like a pro, like a winner, like someone who was born to sing. “You deserve it,” rival coach Aguilera, fresh from her performance with Lady Gaga, could be heard telling her.
She does. | Awards ceremony | December 2013 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Iranian powerlifter Siamand Rahman cleared the bar at 310kg in the men's over 107kg, setting a new world Paralympic record and claiming his second consecutive Paralympic gold. (IOC²) | Iran’s Siamand Rahman wrote his name into the history books after doing what no man had ever done before – he cleared the bar at 310kg in the men’s over 107kg, setting a new world record and claiming his second consecutive Paralympic gold.
The world’s strongest Paralympian, who had lifted 296kg at a World Cup in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, last February, was widely expected to break the 300kg barrier after years systematically improving his marks.
Rahman won gold at London 2012 with a 280kg lift. Two years later, he registered 285kg at the World Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and 290kg at the Asian Para Games in Incheon, Korea.
In Rio, the 28-year-old proved again that nothing can stop him in front of a noisy crowd that had gathered to witness the historic moment and never stopped chanting “Iran, Iran”.
“I feel very happy and proud for having broken the 300kg barrier and for being the strongest Paralympian in the world,”said Rahman afterwards. “I want to be an inspiration for all people with impairment who stay at home and don’t lead an active life, and especially for the youth."
Egypt’s Amr Mosaad claimed silver thanks to his 235kg lift in the last round, whilst Jordania’s Jamil Elshebli (234kg) sealed bronze.
“Winning silver is like winning gold to me. It is just impossible to defeat Rahman,” said Mosaad.
The other stand-out story of the day at the Riocentro – Pavilion 2 was the success of Josephine Orji. The Nigerian cleared 160kg, adding 7kg to her previous own world record to top the podium in the women’s over 86kg.
The world champion ended far ahead of Poland’s Marzena Zieba (134kg), who collected silver, and the Netherlands’ Melaica Tuinfort (130kg), who sealed bronze.
“It is very special for me to win gold at my first Paralympic Games,” said Orji.
With six golds, two silvers and one bronze, Nigeria topped the final Rio 2016 powerlifting medal tally.
“We eat a lot of good food and that is why we are so strong,” Orji added.
World champion Pavlos Mamalos confirmed he is the strongest in the men’s up to 107kg, breaking the Paralympic record with a 238kg lift on his way to gold, Greece’s second powerlifting medal at Rio 2016 after Dimitrios Bakochristos sealed bronze in the men’s up to 54kg.
Mamalos finished ahead of Egypt’s Mohamed Ahmed (233kg) and Iran’s Ali Sadeghzadehsalmani (226kg), who claimed silver and bronze, respectively. The Greek later tried to break Azerbaijan’s Elshan Huseynov’s world record of 243kg but failed.
“Winning a gold medal is only possible if you are strong, brave and never give up. I am extremely happy,” said Mamalos.
“I have been working very hard to reach my best possible shape ahead of this Paralympic Games, training every day except Sundays in the morning and the afternoon.
“I never think of winning a medal before competing but of giving my best and being as focused on my lifts as possible.
“Next year we have the World Championships in Mexico, where I will try again to break the world record. And then I will start training for Tokyo 2020.” | Sports Competition | September 2016 | ['(IOC)', '(PressTV)'] |
Rupert Murdoch provides $1 million to the U.S. Republican Party ahead of an important election in November, more than doubling the party's funds with one of the largest handouts by a media organisation; critics declare Fox News is not impartial. | RUPERT MURDOCH has thrown his financial weight behind the Republican party, donating $1 million (€776,000) to help its candidates in the November elections. It is one of the biggest donations to the party by any individual or organisation.
The move comes in spite of Mr Murdoch’s praise during the 2008 White House race for Barack Obama, whom he described as a phenomenon of “rock star” proportions. | Financial Aid | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Channel 4)', '(The Irish Times)'] |
Bangladesh executes two former members of parliament, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, of the Jamaat–e–Islami party, who were convicted in 2013 of war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence. | DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh executed two men on Sunday who were accused of war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence, a move that could spark street protests in a country already on edge after a string of terrorist attacks.
The government said that at 12:55 a.m. Sunday, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid of the Jamaat-e-Islami party were hanged at the Dhaka Central Jail.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentences for the men, former members of Parliament who had been convicted in 2013 on charges that included genocide and torture during the war. The government said the two had sought clemency with the country’s president earlier in the day but the families denied this was the case.
[Fears grow over killings claimed by Islamic State in Bangladesh] The government of the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, set up a domestic war crimes tribunal in 2010 to bring justice for the victims of the bloody conflict. But the three-judge panel has been widely criticized by the United Nations, human rights organizations and the U.S. State Department’s office of Global Criminal Justice.
This week, five members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a letter to the State Department’s top South Asia official that the tribunal’s process was “deeply flawed” and that members of the House panel were concerned by reports that “democratic space is shrinking” in Bangladesh.“The right to a free and fair trial is of paramount importance in any democracy,” the letter said. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have said that the tribunal’s work does not conform to international standards and that its decisions have been arbitrary and politically motivated. In the case of Chowdhury, Human Rights Watch said in a report this week, the panel refused to accept testimony from some of his alibi witnesses. For Mujahid, it permitted only three of hundreds of potential witnesses to testify, according to the report.
“Justice and accountability for the terrible crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence are crucial, but trials need to meet international fair trial standards,” Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Unfair trials can’t provide real justice, especially when the death penalty is imposed.”
The issue of war crimes has been a divisive one in the predominantly Muslim country of 160 million since the war forged the new, secular nation of Bangladesh from what had been East Pakistan. The accused had fought for the Pakistani side during the conflict, which left hundreds of thousands dead.
Prosecutors had argued that Chowdhury had accompanied the Pakistani army on a village raid in April 1971 in which scores of Hindus were executed. Mujahid was accused of running a militia that systematically killed the country’s leading artists and intellectuals in the waning days of the war.
“It’s the responsibility of the nation to try those who have committed crimes against humanity and genocide. Morally speaking, it is the right thing to do, there is no doubt in my mind,” said Ali Riaz, an expert on Bangladesh who is chair of the department of politics and government at Illinois State University. But he said there were “procedural flaws” in the process that should have been addressed at the outset.
In 2013, hundreds of students and other young people massed in Dhaka’s Shahbag Square to call for capital punishment for war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah, whose eventual execution later that year sparked violent protests across the country.
News of Sunday’s executions comes as Bangladesh has been reeling under a string of terror attacks, beginning with the killing of four secular bloggers and a publisher this year by a Islamic fundamentalist group inspired by the writings of al-Qaeda. In recent days, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the shootings of three foreign nationals, two of whom have died, and vowed that more attacks will come.
Hasina’s government has denied the presence of the Islamic State in the country and said that the deaths of the foreign nationals were fomented by her political opponents and could have been a plan to disrupt the work of the war crimes tribunal.
Azad Majumder contributed to this report.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(Washington Post)'] |
Four inmates are killed at Kirkland Correctional Institution in South Carolina. Authorities have charged two inmates with the murders of the four men. | Two convicts each serving a life sentence for killing a mother and her child have been charged with murder in the strangulation deaths of four inmates inside a South Carolina prison.
Denver Simmons and Jacob Philip lured each of the four inmates into a cell at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia on Friday morning, then worked together to attack and choke them, according to arrest warrants released early Saturday.
Two of the inmates were also beaten or stabbed with a broken broomstick, according to the warrants released by State Law Enforcement Division agents.
The attacks took place within 30 minutes, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said in a statement Saturday.
One inmate was choked with an electrical cord, while another had his chest pressed down while he was being strangled. The cause of death for the other two inmates was also strangulation, Watts said.
The warrants gave no reason for the attacks. They did say there is video of the killings and the men confessed to investigators.
The Corrections Department will conduct an internal investigation into the killings after the criminal investigation is finished, Corrections Department Director Bryan Stirling told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Because of the ongoing investigation, Stirling would not talk about whether prison policies were broken or how the inmates came to be together.
Prison records show the four inmates killed were considered minimum security risks. The Kirkland prison serves several roles in South Carolina's system. It operates a specialized housing unit for the state's most dangerous inmates, an assessment and evaluation center for new inmates sentenced to more than three months, and a 24-bed infirmary, according to the Corrections website.
Simmons, 35, has been behind bars since his 2007 arrest on charges he killed a woman he knew in Colleton County, took her debit card and ate pizza for lunch, then got her 13-year-old son from school and killed him too.
Philip, 25, has been in prison since 2013. Authorities said he strangled his girlfriend and her 8-year-old daughter in Berkeley County.
Prison records show Simmons has three disciplinary infractions in four years for being out of place, disrespect and refusing to obey an order. Philip has no disciplinary actions against him in nearly two years in state prison.
Records did not show if the inmates had lawyers.
The four inmates killed were John King, 52; Jason Kelley, 35; Jimmy Ham, 56; and William Scruggs, 44, prison officials said.
King was serving time for a variety of crimes and had a projected release date of October 2020. Kelley was serving 15 years for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. He was scheduled for release in August 2020.
Ham was scheduled for release this November after serving a sentence for a variety of offenses. Scruggs was sentenced to life in prison for murder and first-degree burglary. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2017 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who turned 33 this past Monday, defeats Austrian Dominic Thiem 6–3, 5–7, 6–1, 6–1 for his 12th French Open men's singles championship, and his 18th Grand Slam title. | PARIS — Roland Garros keeps changing look and shape in the 21st century. It is vaster and more avant-garde, and perhaps it will become less crowded in the passageways as tennis fans shuffle from match to match.
The No. 1 Court, known as the bullring, will soon be demolished. The No. 2 Court, with its enchanting lack of symmetry, is already gone.
Even the main Philippe Chatrier Court, where Rafael Nadal won his 12th French Open singles title on Sunday, was reconstructed in the past year.
It might be hard to believe at this stage, but Nadal will fade from view someday, too. Or at least he’ll spend men’s final day in the front row of the presidents box, his water bottles surely still in order, instead of in the arena with his socks coated in red clay and his poor opponents failing to find, to use one of his favorite English words, solutions.
But for now, and for honestly who knows how much longer, Nadal, 33, remains a pillar of the place: more immovable, as it turns out, than many a stadium.
[Ashleigh Barty won the women’s title. Read about how she did it.]
He has cemented his reputation and legacy year after year, duel after duel, rout after rout. He added another layer of mortar on Sunday by holding off Dominic Thiem, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, in what was a dazzler of a final for exactly two high-powered, spectacularly athletic sets.
“The first set was unbelievably intense; the second as well,” Thiem said. “Maybe I had a little drop in the third set, I don’t know, but against other players, it’s not that dramatic, a little drop like that physically and also tennis-wise. But him, such a great champion, he uses the situation and goes all in.”
Nadal has been giving it all in Paris and elsewhere since 2005, and he is now 12-0 in finals at Roland Garros. That is not a typo. His only two losses at any stage at this event came in the fourth round in 2009 to Robin Soderling and in the quarterfinals in 2015 to Novak Djokovic. (In 2016, he withdrew with an injury after the second round.)
Other than that, it has been “Vamos Rafa!” The former French star Fabrice Santoro began his postmatch interview with Nadal on Sunday by reeling off all the years he had prevailed in Paris: “2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019.”
It sounded more like a mantra than a question, and well before Santoro finished off the list, Nadal was scratching the back of his head and looking slightly embarrassed. He has such gaudy stats, yet away from the clay he is more into understatement. But awkward moments are his own fault for enduring and winning beyond any reasonable expectation.
“I can’t explain it,” Nadal said. “My feeling for me is it’s a dream. When I played the first time here in 2005, I could not think that I’d be coming back here in 2019.”
Much less still winning in 2019, but on he reigns. If they are not going to retire the trophy and give Nadal the Coupe des Mousquetaires permanently (not a bad idea), it must surely be in need of repair at this stage after all the celebratory bites he has taken out of it.
Such outrageous dominance has not been to the liking of those who prefer a healthy dose of suspense, but it is one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of professional sports.
“For sure, you are not going to see another guy win 12 French Opens,” said Nicolás Massú, Thiem’s coach.
Nadal has doubled Bjorn Borg, the greatest men’s clay-court player before him, who won six times in Paris. And he has, more intriguingly, closed the gap with his friendly rival Roger Federer, who has won a men’s record 20 Grand Slam singles titles. Nadal now has 18.
“It’s a motivation, but it’s not my obsession,” Nadal said of the record. “It’s not what makes me get up every morning or go and train and play. I don’t think my inner happiness or my future will change if I equal Federer or if I do something like Djokovic. I have already achieved more in my career than I ever imagined.”
This latest title in Paris was far from a given. Nadal withdrew from the BNP Paribas Open before a semifinal match with Federer in March with a recurrence of knee tendinitis. The withdrawal, the latest in a long line during the last two injury-filled seasons, sent him into a funk.
“I lost a little bit that energy because I had too many issues in a row,” he said, throwing shadow punches at himself to demonstrate. “Is tough when you receive one, then another. Then sometimes you are groggy.”
But after failing to win titles on clay in Monte Carlo, Barcelona or Madrid, he returned to top gear to win the Italian Open and dropped only two sets at Roland Garros.
The fourth-seeded Thiem, a 25-year-old Austrian who lost to Nadal in straight sets in last year’s final, was playing for the fourth day in a row. A full day of rain on Wednesday had muddled the schedule, and he had needed parts of two days to finish his semifinal against the top-ranked Djokovic.
That match ended 23 hours before Sunday’s began. If Thiem was fatigued, it did not show in the taut, thrilling first set. Then he prevailed in the second.
But Nadal, the No. 2 seed, won the first 11 points of the third set and quickly went ahead by two breaks, 3-0. After the grueling duels of the first two sets, which each had taken nearly an hour, Nadal won the third set in 28 minutes.
Thiem had chances to break Nadal in the hard-fought first and third games of the fourth set but could not convert. Thiem, looking lower on energy and inspiration, could not hold his own, and Nadal soon ran out the match, mixing successful forays to the net with his customary precision and court coverage at the baseline.
The tournament ended with a forehand return from Thiem that landed just long. Nadal, tracking it closely, watched it bounce and then went into a slide and landed on his back, arms spread wide and eyes closed.
He was undeniably a man on his element. Nadal is the first player in any era to win 12 singles titles at the same Grand Slam tournament, breaking his tie with Margaret Court, the Australian who won the Australian Championships (which later became the Australian Open) 11 times from 1960 to 1973.
But nothing in men’s tennis can compare, and perhaps Massú is correct that nothing ever will truly compare. Nadal, a man who runs (and runs) on doubt, is skeptical.
“I consider myself a normal person,” he said before Sunday’s triumph. “I’m certain that another player can do it in the future. But it’s true that you need to have qualities, luck, physical attributes and a long enough career to do it. You need to have the possibility to play at least 11 French Opens to win 11 times. It’s complicated.”
Even more complicated when his successors will need to play at least 12 French Opens to win 12 times. | Sports Competition | June 2019 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Peruvian President Alan García names José Chang as Prime Minister, replacing Javier Velásquez as part of a cabinet reshuffle. | Chang replaces Javier Velasquez who had stepped down from the Prime Ministerial post earlier in the month to run for presidency in the April 2011 elections as the ruling APRA party's candidate.
Like Velasquez, Chang is one of the key members of the ruling APRA party. He has also served as an education minister and is said to be a long-time ally of Garcia. Without mentioning other changes to the cabinet, Garcia's office in a statement said the rest of the cabinet reshuffle would be announced later Tuesday during the swearing-in ceremony, rttnews.com reported.
Garcia cannot run for presidency in the April 2011 elections as Peru's constitution bans sitting Presidents from running for a second consecutive term in office. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2010 | ['(Andina)', '(BBC)'] |
Victoire Pisa wins the Dubai World Cup, the first Japanese win in the history of the US$10 million event. | Victoire Pisa clinched the Dubai World Cup as Japan sealed an emotional one-two in 'the richest race in the world'.
The Katsuhiko Sumii-trained four-year-old, a 12-1 shot, led home Takayuki Yasuda's 40-1 outsider Transcend. Referring to the recent disasters that have hit Japan, Sumii said: "I felt the whole country was behind me." Monterosso, also a 40-1 shot, was third for Godolphin in the $10m (£6.2m) event but favourite Twice Over, trained by Henry Cecil, was a distant ninth. Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco battled hard under Jamie Spencer to take fourth for trainer Aidan O'Brien. However, the day belonged to Japan, still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami earlier this month. Many of the owners and trainers wore polo shirts emblazoned with a message of support for those affected. It is the first time a horse trained in Japan has won the race, which was first contested in 1996. "I love you Japan, thank you so much," said Italian jockey Mirco Demuro after his win.
Trainer Sumii described victory as "unbelievable" after seeing his charge recover for a bad start to fight off Transcend having left the rest of the field around the halfway point. Only half a length separated the pair at the post. "I didn't think we would win until the very end," Sumii said. Twice Over had raised hopes that he might overcome being drawn in stall 12 after he seized victory from out wide in round three of the Al Maktoum Challenge earlier this month. But despite an identical course and distance, jockey Tom Queally could not coax a similar result from his ride. "They went very slowly early and that didn't suit him," said trainer Cecil of the 2-1 favourite. "He broke well and was up there but couldn't get back in. The next minute they slowed it up and he got shuffled back through the field. "He never got anywhere and it is disappointing, but that is the way it goes. It is such a shame as he was very well." | Sports Competition | March 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Lithuanian citizens also are heading to the polls to elect their future president in the second round of the latest presidential election. | The two candidates to become Lithuania’s next president are locked in a tight race ahead of Sunday’s election.
Former Finance Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and economist Gitanas Nausėda are competing to replace President Dalia Grybauskaitė, who cannot run again after two consecutive terms in office. Both are running as independents.
They were neck-and-neck in the first round on March 12, which saw Šimonytė win 31.31 percent of the vote, narrowly beating Nausėda to the top spot by 0.37 percentage points. The Lithuanian electoral commission said that 3,935 votes were all that stood between them — in a country of 2.5 million eligible voters.
But as neither candidate received 50 percent in the first vote, a second round will be held this Sunday, coinciding with the final day of voting in the European Parliament election. No opinion polls are expected to be published ahead of the vote.
Šimonytė, 44, a former MP, was finance minister during the global financial crisis when Lithuania’s GDP dropped by almost 15 percent.
In Lithuania’s semi-presidential system, the main duties of the president are foreign and security policy, but domestic issues were the major campaign talking points.
Despite having the backing of the conservative Homeland Union-Christian Democrat party, she has drawn support from young, liberal voters for her progressive social policies, which include support for same-sex civil partnerships and working toward greater representation of women and ethnic minorities in politics and public life.
Homeland Union MP Rasa Juknevičienė, who served as defense minister when Šimonytė was finance minister, praised her as a straight-talking leader and said she would be “more clear and open” than other politicians.
Nausėda, 54, a former chief economist at SEB Bankas and lecturer, has no affiliation with any party. With little experience in politics, his campaign is focused on emphasizing his independence, suggesting he can cooperate with all parties in government.
“Being an independent candidate allows me to represent the whole of society,” he told POLITICO. “And Lithuania needs a president who can act as a unifier.” He added that he wanted to create a sense of “social solidarity.”
Both candidates are economists with center-right views who want to unite a society they see as divided. They also emphasize the importance of long-term policy making and constructive political debate.
Lithuanian presidential candidate Ingrida Šimonytė speaks to journalists after voting during presidential elections in Vilnius, Lithuania, said the first round’s results had been “quite surprising,” with two very similar candidates making it to the run-off.
“They are representing the same part of the electorate with very small ideological differences,” she said, while noting that Nausėda is considered the more conservative of the two candidates.
She added: “It might be a positive trend when people get tired of populists and choose those who rationalize their statements.”
Speaking after the first round, outgoing President Grybauskaitė said: “The election showed the maturity of Lithuanian society. People have values that cannot be affected by populism or blackmail.”
Lithuanian presidential candidate, independent economist Gitanas Nauseda, attends a debate in Vilnius, LithuaniaIn Lithuania’s semi-presidential system, the main duties of the president are foreign and security policy, but domestic issues such as the economy and social welfare were the major campaign issues ahead of the vote.
“Neither [candidate] seems to have a flagship policy for foreign and security policy,” said Egle Murauskaite, a Lithuania-based senior researcher at the University of Maryland’s ICONS project, adding that neither was as well-connected in Brussels as Grybauskaitė had been when she started her first term as president.
Grybauskaitė served as European commissioner for budget before becoming Lithuania’s first female president in 2009.
Race to elect leader of powerful union gets complicated.
Liberal Democrats’ shock by-election win shows how vulnerable the Conservatives are. The Chesham and Amersham seat has been held by the Tories since its creation in 1974.
Turnout is expected to reach a record low in an election that is seen as a key test ahead of the presidential elections. Log in to access content and manage your profile. | Government Job change - Election | May 2019 | ['(Politico)'] |
Conservative leader Theresa May states she will be a "bloody difficult woman" in her negotiations with Jean-Claude Juncker regarding the rights of EU nationals after Brexit. | Theresa May says she will be a "bloody difficult woman" towards European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker during Brexit talks.
The PM revived a line used during her Tory leadership campaign to respond to claims the two clashed over dinner.
She also declined to commit to settling the issue of expats' rights by June.
EU sources claim UK misunderstanding of the talks process, and ignorance about how Brussels works, could lead to no deal being agreed on the UK's exit.
According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, the prime minister and Mr Juncker clashed last Wednesday at Downing Street over Mrs May's desire to make Brexit "a success" and whether the issue of protecting the rights of expat UK and EU nationals could be agreed as early as June.
Speaking to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Mrs May said there were a lot of similarities and common ground in the two sides' positions.
She added: "But look, I think what we've seen recently is that at times these negotiations are going to be tough.
"During the Conservative Party leadership campaign I was described by one of my colleagues as a bloody difficult woman. And I said at the time the next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker."
The "bloody difficult" quote came from former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke, who was recorded discussing her after a TV interview last year.
Asked about the German newspaper report, Mrs May said: "I don't recall the account that has been given of the meeting that took place, I think that a lot of this is Brussels gossip."
But she said that the talks would be tough and would involve either her or Jeremy Corbyn lining up for the UK against the other 27 EU leaders.
Theresa May's comment is revealing about her strength, and also her weakness. No political leader wants to be seen to be pushed around. When the UK talked tough as a member of the EU the others had no choice but to listen.
But now the UK is on the way out, the incentives for the others to pay attention - let alone do our bidding - is very different.
Refusing to be pushed around is one thing, refusing to show any sign of compromise or listen quite another.
Read more from Laura
Pressed on whether she did believe the issue of the rights of EU nationals in the UK - and Britons abroad - could be settled in June, she said: "I've always said that I want this to be an issue that we address at an early stage."
"I've always said that there are complexities to this issue and lots of details that will need to be agreed. What people want to know is to have some reassurance about their future. I believe we can give that at an early stage. I've got the will to do this," she added.
She also said she would have "no intention of doing anything other" than serving a full term until 2022 if she wins the 8 June general election.
Opposition parties have accused the Tories of pursuing a "hard Brexit" strategy, with the PM insisting no deal is better than a bad one and planning to withdraw the UK from the EU single market.
The first edition of the London Evening Standard published under the editorship of ex-chancellor George Osborne was headlined "Brussels twists knife on Brexit", with an editorial warning the PM against seeking a "blank cheque" from the EU.
Launching his party's Brexit strategy, ex-Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said Mrs May had "chosen to pursue the most extreme and damaging form" of EU departure.
He said his party would offer another EU referendum in which it would campaign to Remain.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
A US$600 million project to revamp the Democratic Republic of the Congo's colonial–era railway system is launched in the capital Kinshasa, primarily funded by the World Bank and China. | A $600m (£368m) project to revamp the Democratic Republic of Congo's decrepit railway network within four years has been launched in the capital, Kinshasa.
The World Bank and China are the principal backers of the scheme.
The aim is to restore services to provinces where rail is the only connection to the rest of the world in the absence of roads or rivers.
The 3,000km (1,100 mile) colonial-era rail network has had little maintenance after years of misrule and conflict.
The BBC's Thomas Hubert in Kinshasa says about 700km of track will have to be repaired or replaced and dozens of new locomotives and wagons purchased.
Equipment is only part of the bill: DR Congo's nation railway company SNCC is also mired in financial problems, he says.
It has some 12,000 employees who have not been paid for more than four years.
Under the plan, by the end of June 2,200 employees - many of whom are long past retirement age - will be given the option to retire after the company finally pays their salaries and pension contributions.
Pierre Pozzo di Borgo, the World Bank's African transport specialist, says a working train system will open up the centre of the country and allow it to develop.
"In the province of Maniema, the price of a bag of cement is roughly $35. It's less than $10 in Kinshasa," he said at the launch.
"If the train stops working, it goes through the roof. If the train starts being reliable, the price drops by two-thirds."
But Mr Pozzo di Borgo warned that putting SNCC back afloat for good will take 20 years and $1.5bn.
The World Bank, which is putting $218.8m towards this four-year project, is hoping for investment from international mining companies operating in southern copper-rich Katanga region, which mainly ship their produce out by road through countries to the south.
"We're happy if the mining companies can benefit from this and move their produce more quickly," Reuters news agency quotes Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu as saying.
Equally, in many parts of eastern DR Congo, more goods on sale have arrived through neighbouring countries than from far-away Kinshasa.
China's $200m contribution will be drawn from the "minerals-for-infrastructure" deal signed between Beijing and Kinshasa in 2009.
The remaining money for the $600m project will come from the Congolese government, and will include tax breaks for Vecturis, the Belgian company tasked with sorting out the management of SNCC.
| Financial Aid | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Major Italian cultural attractions are closed as the government plans to cut its culture budget as part of austerity measures. | Most of Italy's major cultural attractions are closed because of a one-day strike over government plans to cut their funding.
Hundreds of museums, art galleries and heritage sites are affected. The Italian government wants to cut 280 million euros (£237m, $380m) from the culture budget over the next three years as part of an austerity drive.
Italy has more World Heritage Sites than any other country, a fact that has put even greater strain on funding. The collapse of a house at Pompeii last weekend raised new questions over the country's ability to maintain its heritage.
Culture Minister Sandro Bondi came under pressure to resign after the "House of the Gladiators" fell down at the 2,000-year-old site. Critics blamed a lack of money for maintenance and say it is an example of why Italy's culture investment should rise, not fall, the BBC's Duncan Kennedy reports.
The government says it is trying to attract private investment to safeguard the country's rich cultural portfolio and help ease the strain on the over-extended public purse. But it argues that it cannot avoid making painful economies. Tourists will have a hard time finding a cultural institution that is open in Italy on Friday, our correspondent says.
Around 800 museums, art galleries, libraries and heritage sites will be affected by the strike. Those that are not fully closed will have restricted hours.
The strikes will affect 11 museums in Venice and others in Turin, Florence and also Rome, where its newly opened Maxxi museum of modern art will be among the sites shut. Italian heritage experts warn that many other monuments, including Bologna's twin towers, Florence's Cathedral and Nero's Golden House in Rome, are vulnerable to collapse.
"With no maintenance and non-existent funds, the whole of Italy is at risk of collapsing," Alessandra Mottola Molfino, head of the heritage charity Our Italy, told the AFP news agency earlier this week.
| Government Policy Changes | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United States and South Korea increase their alert states after North Korea renounces the armistice that halted the Korean War in 1953. | South Korean and US troops have gone on higher alert after North Korea said it was scrapping the treaty that halted the Korean War more than 50 years ago.
Seoul's defence ministry said it would increase reconnaissance operations over North Korea. North Korea recently tested a nuclear device and several short-range missiles but no significant troop movements within the country have been reported. The UN Security Council is discussing a response to North Korea's nuclear test. "Watchcon II took effect as of 0715 [2215 GMT]," said South Korean defence ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae, adding that the five-stage combat alert level was at its second-highest level. "Surveillance over the North will be stepped up, with more aircraft and personnel mobilised," he said. The US is to bolster its intelligence support. The UN Command said the armistice - which has preserved a tense peace for more than five decades on the Korean peninsula - remained in force. The UN Command is a multi-national military force headed by the US which fought for the South in the 1950-53 Korean war, and still stations 28,500 troops in the South. Pyongyang has blamed its decision on South Korea's decision to join a US-led initiative to search ships for nuclear weapons, calling it a "declaration of war". "Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels, including search and seizure, will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty," said a spokesman for the North's army. "We will immediately respond with a powerful military strike." Punitive measures
This latest crisis comes just days after North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test, followed by the launch of several short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan. No other significant troop movements within the country have been reported, but analysts have warned of a further increase in military tension, including the possibility of a naval clash along the sea border between the two Koreas. The UN Security Council's five permanent members - plus Japan and South Korea - are working on a strong resolution condemning North Korea's actions, including possible punitive measures. Washington has reaffirmed US commitments to its allies Japan and South Korea while accusing Pyongyang of "sabre-rattling and bluster and threats". US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the North's violation of Security Council resolutions, but also held out hope that North Korea would return to six-nation disarmament talks. Moscow said that while world powers should be firm, they should not inflame tensions, adding that the stand-off could only be solved through talks. Heightened tensions
Last month North Korea launched a long-range rocket over Japanese airspace, angering the international community. Pyongyang said the rocket had carried a peaceful communications satellite, but several nations viewed it as cover for a missile test. The UN Security Council condemned the launch and, in retaliation, North Korea announced it was quitting long-running six-nation negotiations on its nuclear disarmament. It ejected all international monitors and said it would reopen its main nuclear plant at Yongbyon, which was closed in July 2007 as part of a disarmament deal. When North Korea agreed in February 2007 to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and diplomatic concessions, there was real hope of reaching a settlement. But the negotiations stalled as it accused its negotiating partners - the US, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia - of failing to meet agreed obligations. What are these? | Armed Conflict | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Tropical Storm Meari leaves at least nine people dead and three missing as it strikes the west coast of South Korea, with heavy rains and strong winds causing flooding and the suspension of sea traffic around the Korean Peninsula. | Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Meari raked the west coast of South Korea over the weekend, leaving at least nine people dead and three missing, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Monday.
Among the missing is a three-year-old toddler who was swept away by strong currents along the coast, the agency said.
The heavy rains and strong winds flooded fields and suspended dozens of sea routes around the peninsula, emergency officials said.
Meari has since moved over North Korea where it is expected to dissipate. The powerful storm pounded the cities of Kaesong and Haeju, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday.
Regional governments in South Korea have begun to tackle the clean-up effort, according to NEMA. The agency said Monday that most public facilities had been restored across the country. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
In biathlon, Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen and Tora Berger become the main heroes of the 2013 Biathlon World Championships in Nové Město, Czech Republic. | Norwegian Championship in Nove Město na Moravě has ended. Pardon us, the World Championships, even though the Norwegians have nearly transformed it into their separate home championship. The last competition – 15K Mass Start Men – won Tarjei Boe, the fourth finished Ondřej Moravec massively cheered by a fantastic home crowd and he equaled his result from the 20K Men Individual Race.
Moravec was the only Czech representative in the start list assembled of 30 men. And he was doing excellent right from the beginning. In two prone shootings he didn’t miss a single shot and was fourth before shooting #3. At first standing he missed, but he achieved to get to the medal fight back again. „I had excellent skis. In addition those crowds along the track and on the stadium were pushing me forward like mad, it was unbelievable,“ as he said in the finish line. Just this one miss cost him a medal. After clean fourth shooting from sixth position he caught up two guys in front of him, but he couldn’t manage it any further – to the big podium. He finished fourth once again.
Norway confirmed current position of its biathlon supremacy. With a victory of Boe, Norwegians all together gained 8 gold medals out of 11 available, which no one else managed to achieve before. Their stars became Tora Berger and Emil Hegle Svendsen, who is taking bronze from the Mass Start. He was only beated by his team mate Boe and Anton Shipulin of Russia in silver. Tarjei Boe had a perfect race with good skiing and flawless shooting and therefore he deservedly gained the title.
| Sports Competition | February 2013 | ['(IBU)', '(Biathlon WC2013)'] |
Thirteen soldiers in Burundi have been arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza. | Thirteen soldiers in Burundi have been arrested for plotting a coup to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza, the army chief of staff has said.
Major Gen Godefroid Niyombare said the 12 soldiers and one officer had been caught in a meeting near Lake Tanganyika earlier on Friday. Correspondents say there are fears this may affect elections due in June. They will be the second polls to be held in country since the end of the deadly 12-year, ethnic-based civil war. Major Gen Niyombare said those arrested were from both the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. Investigations were ongoing and more arrests should be expected, he added. In 2007, former President Domitien Ndayizeye was acquitted of charges of plotting a coup. A former rebel leader himself, President Nkurunziza was elected five years ago under a deal to end the years of conflict between the Tutsi army and Hutu rebels. Some 300,000 people are believed to have died during the war. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2010 | ['(BBC News)', '(Afrique en ligne)'] |
Democratic state senator Troy Carter wins the runoff election for a special election for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district to replace Representative Cedric Richmond, who had left his position to work for President Joe Biden. | BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Democrat Troy Carter won Saturday’s special election for Louisiana’s vacant U.S. House seat, defeating his state Senate colleague and ending an acrimonious, intraparty clash that divided politicians across New Orleans.
Carter easily defeated Karen Carter Peterson in the race for Louisiana’s only Democrat-held seat in Congress, in a race seen as handing a victory to the more moderate side of the party after Peterson planted herself firmly in the progressive camp. Carter dismissed those comparisons, noting he also had progressive support.
The pair of state senators from New Orleans, who both made previous failed bids for the congressional seat, had only modest policy differences to distinguish them, and the race centered mainly on personality. Carter had the backing, however, of the seat’s predecessor, Cedric Richmond.
The 2nd District seat — representing a majority-Black district centered in New Orleans and extending up the Mississippi River into Baton Rouge — was open because Richmond left the position shortly after he won last year’s election to work as a special adviser to President Joe Biden. “I will wake up every day with you on my mind, on my heart, and I will work for you tirelessly,” Carter, a former New Orleans City Council member, pledged to his supporters. He said he would focus on economic recovery from COVID-19, overhauling criminal sentencing laws, protecting LGBTQ rights and fighting for clean air in parts of the 10-parish district with higher levels of pollution.
“The work begins tomorrow,” Carter said.
Peterson, the former chair of Louisiana’s Democratic Party, conceded fewer than two hours after the polls closed, acknowledging she lost her latest attempt to be the state’s first Black woman elected to Congress. She pledged to “keep swinging hard for the people” from the state Senate.
“I can still do a lot in the role I have,” Peterson said.
Carter and Peterson reached Saturday’s runoff after they emerged as the top vote-getters among 15 candidates in the March primary. Carter raised more campaign cash in the competition, but he faced attack ads from out-of-state groups supporting Peterson. The two state senators differed more in style than substance, though Peterson positioned herself as the more liberal candidate. In one runoff debate, Peterson described herself as “bold and progressive” and willing to “shake things up to get things done.”
Carter is known more for his ability and willingness to work across party lines, while Peterson is more overtly partisan in her approach. She suggested Carter cozied up to Republicans to boost his campaign, while he said Peterson’s dogmatic approach damaged her ability to pass legislation.
“In order to get things done, they need to send someone to Washington who can build bridges, not walls, that can establish relationships that mean something, not kick rocks because you don’t get your way, not spew lies because you’re losing,” Carter said in a debate. The two candidates backed an increase in the minimum wage, the legalization of recreational marijuana and abortion rights. They supported changes in how police agencies and public safety are funded and approached, though Peterson went further saying she backed a “complete restructuring.”
Both Carter and Peterson said they support the idea of “Medicare for All.” But while Peterson fully embraced shifting to a government-run, single-payer plan, Carter said he’d like people to have the option of retaining employer-financed coverage. Across the campaign, they traded accusations.
Carter hit Peterson on her many missed votes in the Louisiana Senate. Peterson slammed campaign donations Carter received from people and entities tied to the oil and gas industry. She made support of “environmental justice” for poor communities facing greater health risks from pollution one of the cornerstones of her campaign.
Carter hammered Peterson for suggesting she helped establish Louisiana’s Medicaid expansion program, which was started by Gov. John Bel Edwards and required no legislation. He noted that when she was head of the Democratic Party, she discouraged Edwards from running for governor.
They each touted high-profile endorsements. Peterson had backing from voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, progressive U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, among others. In addition to Richmond’s endorsement, Carter had backing from No. 3 House Democratic leader James Clyburn of South Carolina, New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams and every Black member of the state Senate besides Peterson. | Government Job change - Election | April 2021 | ['(AP)'] |
The World Health Organisation confirms that the Ebola virus has resurfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. | NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept. 11 The lethal Ebola virus has resurfaced in central Congo, United Nations officials said Tuesday, and health experts were rushing supplies and doctors into the remote, densely forested area to contain the disease. Five samples taken from sick people in Congo have tested positive for Ebola, said Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the World Health Organization. But another disease may be involved because some patients have responded to antibiotics, which would not work on a virus like Ebola. Already, more than 150 people have died. | Disease Outbreaks | September 2007 | ['(NYT)'] |
Afghanistan's incumbent President Ashraf Ghani wins a slim majority of the votes in a September 28 election, delayed preliminary results showed after a poll that plunged the country into political crisis and was marred by allegations of fraud. | KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan’s incumbent President Ashraf Ghani won a slim majority of votes in a Sept. 28 election, delayed preliminary results showed on Sunday, after a poll that plunged the country into political crisis and was marred by allegations of fraud.
Afghan poll results suggest slim win for Ghani
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said the total turnout in the presidential election was more than 1.8 million with Ghani securing 50.64% - enough to win the first round of voting - beating his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, who currently shares power with Ghani in a unity government.
In a television speech on Sunday, Ghani welcomed the result and said the country was now on the right path towards prosperity and development.
“With the announcement, we are moving now from darkness to light and from uncertainty to a bright future,” Ghani told a jubilant crowd gathered at the presidential palace in Kabul.
The head of IEC, Hawa Alam Nuristani, told a news conference in Kabul earlier that the outcome could change after final results and was still subject to a review by the election complaints’ commission.
If a review showed Ghani’s vote falling below 50% and no other candidate with a majority, a second round of voting would be held, she said.
According to the tally released by the IEC on Sunday, the total turnout was 1,824,401 with Ghani winning 923,868 votes and Abdullah finished second with 39.5% and 720,099 votes.
The United States, Afghanistan’s biggest donor, reacted cautiously to the result.
“It is important for Afghans to remember: these results are preliminary. Many steps remain before final election results are certified, to ensure the Afghan people have confidence in the results,” John Bass U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said in a post on Twitter.
Abdullah’s office said in a statement that he did not accept the preliminary results and that the commission had failed to tackle election fraud.
“The result that stands is based on fraud and without considering our legitimate demands, will never be accepted,” the statement said.
With 9.7 million registered voters, according to IEC, turnout was a record low for an Afghan presidential election.
Last month, the IEC began recounting thousands of votes due to what it described as discrepancies in its system. Abdullah’s side objected to the recount and called it an attempt to add more votes in favor of Ghani. the IEC dismissed those allegations.
In protest, Abdullah’s supporters blocked IEC offices in seven northern provinces to prevent the recount, creating delays in the results’ announcement.
Last week, Abdullah allowed the recount but warned that he would not accept a tainted result.
The situation echoes 2014, when both Ghani and Abdullah alleged massive fraud by the other, forcing the United States to broker an awkward power-sharing arrangement that made Ghani president and Abdullah his chief executive.
Aides close to Ghani, a Western-educated former World Bank official, said the incumbent was not ready for another power-sharing deal with Abdullah, a former medical doctor and three-time contender for the presidency.
Without a unifying leader accepted by all sides, Afghanistan could split further along tribal and ethnic lines.
The election result also comes at a critical time for Afghanistan as the United States is showing more interest in negotiating a peace settlement with the Taliban to end a war that has dragged on for more than 18 years.
Eighty-five civilians were killed and more than 370 wounded in militant attacks and violence on the day of the election, the United Nations said last month, and the country plunged into chaos with both Ghani’s and Abdullah’s camps claiming victory before ballots had been tallied.
The U.N. report accused the Taliban of deliberate attacks against civilians on election day.
Election result announcements in Afghanistan are typically followed by violent protests from supporters of losing candidates.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
British right–wing activist Tommy Robinson is sentenced to nine months in prison for contempt of court — minus time served equals about another 10 weeks in prison. Supporters attacked police and journalists following the court proceedings. Police say no new arrests were made. | The ex-English Defence League leader was found guilty last week of interfering with the trial of a sexual grooming gang at Leeds Crown Court in May 2018.
Two Old Bailey judges said his Facebook Live video of defendants in the trial had encouraged "vigilante action".
A social media account in Robinson's name called his sentence an "absolute joke" and said it was time to protest.
Outside court, his supporters pelted police with bottles and cans. Later, journalists filming on College Green outside the Houses of Parliament were verbally abused, physically intimidated and had their equipment attacked before police officers arrived.
The BBC News at One cut short a broadcast from College Green as protesters interrupted a live report.
Police said no arrests had yet been made in relation to Thursday's protests.
But officers did arrest three people for affray, and one for a public order offence in relation to a protest that happened outside court on the day of Robinson's conviction last Friday. Four other people had already been arrested for affray on Friday.
Outside the Old Bailey, supporters of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, booed and chanted "we want Tommy out" after his sentencing, before some began throwing missiles at police.
As a prison van thought to contain Robinson drove away, several people shouted "we love you, Tommy".
During the 2018 case at Leeds Crown Court, reporting restrictions had been put in place postponing the publication of any details until the end of a series of linked trials involving 29 defendants.
However, Robinson, 36, from Luton, broadcast footage from outside the court on 25 May 2018, while the jury in the second trial of the series was considering its verdict.
The video lasted an hour-and-a-half and was viewed online 250,000 times, after being live-streamed on Facebook.
In a written ruling, Dame Victoria Sharp said Robinson had claimed his intention in making the broadcast was to "denounce the media" for their behaviour.
But the judges found he had encouraged others "to harass a defendant by finding him, knocking on his door, following him, and watching him".
This created "a real risk that the course of justice would be seriously impeded", she said.
Robinson was originally jailed for 13 months on the day of the Facebook broadcast, but was released two months into his sentence after winning an appeal.
The case was then referred back to Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, who announced, in March this year, that it was in the public interest to bring fresh proceedings.
The nine month jail sentence served on Thursday includes six months for the Leeds Crown Court offence last year and another three months for contempt of court, following a suspended sentence given at Canterbury Crown Court in May 2017.
At the Old Bailey on Thursday, Dame Victoria told Robinson that the time he previously spent behind bars for contempt would be taken into account, reducing his sentence to 19 weeks - of which he would serve half before being released.
Robinson's barrister Richard Furlong raised the possibility of an appeal against the court's decision and was told he has 28 days to apply.
The attorney general said the sentencing illustrated how seriously the courts would take matters of contempt.
"I would urge everyone to think carefully about whether their social media posts could amount to contempt of court," Mr Cox added.
Contempt of court laws exist to ensure people have fair trials. The idea is that juries must not be influenced by anything but the evidence they hear in court.
The rules apply to everyone from journalists to people posting comments on social media, and even jurors. If someone interferes with a trial, the defendants can walk free and a new trial may have to be held.
The maximum sentence for contempt of court is two years in prison, but it can also be punished with an unlimited fine. Contempt includes publishing anything that creates a substantial risk of seriously prejudicing "active" criminal proceedings. Proceedings become "active" when a suspect is arrested. Someone could also be in contempt by actions including taking photographs or film, recording what is said in court or talking to a jury member about a case. The rancour, rhetoric and riches of brand Tommy
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urges supporters to oppose the coup d'etat by taking to the streets. | ISTANBUL — Turkey’s government said it was restoring order Saturday after renegade army soldiers staged an attempted coup, wreaking havoc in several Turkish cities and plunging the already troubled country into a new era of uncertainty.
Addressing a big crowd of supporters gathered in Istanbul shortly after dawn, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government was now fully in control following a night of bloodshed that saw Turkey, a major NATO member and key U.S. ally, spin briefly out of control.
“This government, brought to power by the people, is in charge,” he said, as the crowd roared: “Turkey is proud of you.”
“I am here, I am with you and I want you to know this,” Erdogan said.
Hours earlier, branches of the police and army had fought pitched battles for control of major government buildings in the capital, Ankara, as protesters swarmed onto the streets to confront the tanks rumbling into their cities. Helicopters flown by coup supporters fired on government buildings and into the crowds gathering to challenge the attempt to overthrow Turkey’s government, in the most significant challenge to the country’s stability in decades.
At least 60 people were killed in the violence in Ankara, including a lawmaker who died when the parliament was bombed by a helicopter, Turkish officials said.The State run Anadolu news agency said 754 members of the armed forces had been arrested. A Turkish official said 29 colonels and five generals had been removed from their posts.
Gruesome video footage posted on social media showed tanks crushing protesters who tried to block their path, bloodied bodies strewn on the streets of Ankara and helicopters firing into civilian crowds, raising fears that the toll could be higher.
By the early hours of Saturday morning, Turkish officials said the government had managed to claw back control from the coup plotters, whose identity and profile remained unclear. A Turkish warplane shot down a helicopter carrying some of the coup leaders, the officials said, and the state broadcaster, which had been silent for several hours after it was overrun by soldiers, was back on the air.
Istanbul Ataturk Airport reopened after being closed for hours, and officials said the national airline had resumed flights.
[Turkey’s Erdogan always feared a coup. He was proved right.] Erdogan, who was visiting the coastal resort of Marmaris when the coup began, had flown to the airport and emerged to greet the thousands of cheering, flag-waving supporters who had descended on the facility to eject the coup participants.
“A minority group within the armed forces targeted the integrity of our country,” Erdogan told reporters at a news conference broadcast live on state television. “This latest action is an action of treason, and they will have to pay heavily for that. This is a government that has been elected by the people.”
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim issued orders early Saturday to the military aircraft pilots still loyal to the government to take to the skies to shoot down any remaining planes flying on behalf of the coup plotters, who appeared to include a sizable proportion of the air force.
“The situation is largely in control,” Yildirim told Turkey’s NTV television channel. “All commanders are in charge. The people have taken steps to address this threat.”
“We expect the situation to end by the morning,” added a senior Turkish official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive information.
But with reports that gunfire and explosions were still being heard on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara well into the morning, it was far from clear whether the worst crisis in Turkey in decades had been resolved.
[The coup in Turkey, even if it fails, could lead to uncertainty in anti-ISIS fight] Soldiers subsequently overran the offices of several major media organizations, including CNN Turk, which went off the air.
The unrest raised fears that Turkey could be destined for a prolonged period of civil strife that would reverberate across an already bloodstained and chaotic region.
The splits within the security forces and the chaotic scenes on the streets revealed a society polarized between supporters and opponents of the deeply controversial Erdogan, whose autocratic behavior has alienated some segments of Turkish society but who remains hugely popular among his core constituents.
With the main opposition parties making statements condemning the coup attempt, and most of the important branches of the military and security services rallying to the government’s side, it did not appear that the renegades had widespread support.
The upheaval began Friday evening when tanks and other armored vehicles appeared on bridges across the Bosporous in Istanbul and F-16s began streaking through the skies.
Shortly afterward, an anchor with the state television broadcaster read a statement purportedly from the Turkish military saying it had taken control of the country, citing concerns about the increasingly autocratic behavior of Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party.
[Turkey’s increasingly desperate predicament poses real dangers] “The Turkish Armed Forces, in accordance with the constitution, have seized management of the country to reinstate democracy, human rights, and freedom, and to ensure public order, which has deteriorated,” the statement said.
Erdogan, whose party won a comfortable majority in elections last year, then appealed to his supporters to take to the streets to protest the coup. He spoke to the nation using the FaceTime app on the phone of a Turkish TV anchor.
Many thousands responded, with protesters gathering in venues including Istanbul’s central Taksim Square and outside Erdogan’s palace in Ankara. Mobile phone videos uploaded to social-media sites showed scenes in which people scrambled over tanks to try to block their path and soldiers opening fire on some of the crowds.
Turkish officials blamed the coup attempt on a small group of disgruntled military officers loyal to the movement of a U.S.-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who maintains a network of adherents across Turkey and has long challenged Erdogan’s hold on power. The officers were destined to lose their jobs in August during a military reshuffle, said the Turkish official.
The Gulenist movement denied involvement, however, and amid the confusion, it was impossible to confirm who was behind the attempt to topple the government.
Erdogan has made many enemies in the 13 years he has run Turkey, first as prime minister and then, since 2014, as president, including within the military. Hundreds of officers have been imprisoned by his government, some of them accused of coup-plotting, and it had been widely thought that his crackdown on dissent had dispelled the risk of coups in the once coup-prone country.
These latest coup plotters included members of the air force and gendarmerie, and at least 130 have been arrested, according to the Turkish official. Among them were 13 officers who tried to force their way into the presidential palace, the official said.
Sly reported from Irbil, Iraq. Ishaan Tharoor in Washington, Carol Morello in Moscow and Menekse Tokyay in Ankara contributed to this report.
Read more: Turkey’s cat-and-mouse game with the Islamic State Turkey’s most-read newspaper begins publishing pro-Erdogan articles after government seizure Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
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| Famous Person - Give a speech | July 2016 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
American actress Annette Funicello dies at the age of 70. | Annette Funicello, who won America’s heart as a 12-year-old in Mickey Mouse ears, captivated adolescent baby boomers in slightly spicy beach movies and later championed people with multiple sclerosis, a disease she had for more than 25 years, died on Monday in Bakersfield, Calif. She was 70.
Her death, from complications of the disease, was announced on the Disney Web site.
As an adult Ms. Funicello described herself as “the queen of teen,” and millions around her age agreed. Young audiences appreciated her sweet, forthright appeal, and parents saw her as the perfect daughter.
She was the last of the 24 original Mouseketeers chosen for “The Mickey Mouse Club,” the immensely popular children’s television show that began in 1955, when fewer than two-thirds of households had television sets. Walt Disney personally discovered her at a ballet performance.
Before long, she was getting more than 6,000 fan letters a week, and was known by just her first name in a manner that later defined celebrities like Cher, Madonna and Prince.
Sometimes called “America’s girl next door,” she nonetheless managed to be at the center of the action during rock ’n’ roll’s exuberant emergence. She was the youngest member of Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tour, which included LaVern Baker, the Drifters, Bobby Rydell, the Coasters and Paul Anka. Mr. Anka, her boyfriend, wrote “Puppy Love” for her in her parents’ living room.
As a Mouseketeer, she received a steady stream of wristwatches, school rings and even engagement rings from young men, all of which she returned. She wrote in her 1994 autobiography, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” that irate mothers often wrote back to say “how hard Johnny or Tommy had worked to save the money for the gift and how dare I return it?”
She said that if she had charm (she undeniably had modesty), it was partly a result of her shyness. Mr. Disney begged her to call him Uncle Walt, but she could manage only “Mr. Disney.” (She could handle “Uncle Makeup” and “Aunt Hairdresser.”)
At the height of her stardom, she said her ambition was to quit show business and have nine children.
With minor exceptions, like her commercials for Skippy peanut butter, Ms. Funicello did become a homemaker after marrying at 22. One reason, she said, was her reluctance to take parts at odds with her squeaky-clean image. She had three children.
Her cheerfulness was legendary. Her response to learning she had multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system, was to start a charity to find a cure.
There was no irony, only warm good feeling, in her oft-repeated remark about the world’s pre-eminent rodent: “Mickey is more than a mouse to me. I am honored to call him a friend.”
Annette Joanne Funicello was born on Oct. 22, 1942, in Utica, N.Y., and as the first grandchild on either side of the family was indulged to the point of being, in her own words, a “spoiled brat.” At age 2, she learned the words to every song on the hit parade, her favorite being “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive.”
In 1946, her parents decided to move to Southern California in the hope of doing better economically. They lived in a trailer park until her father, a mechanic, found work. They settled in Studio City and later moved to Encino.
Annette took dancing lessons, learned to play drums and, at 9, was named Miss Willow Lake at a poolside beauty contest. She did some modeling. Mr. Disney, who wanted amateurs and not professional child actors, discovered her when she danced in “Swan Lake” at a local recital.
“The Mickey Mouse Club” was instantly popular, generating orders for 24,000 mouse-eared beanies a day. Annette quickly became the most popular Mouseketeer, and Disney marketed everything from Annette lunchboxes and dolls to mystery novels about her fictionalized adventures.
But she did not receive special treatment. When she lost a pair of felt mouse ears, she was charged $55. It was deducted from her $185 weekly paycheck.
She once decided she wanted to change her last name to something more typically American. She chose Turner. But Mr. Disney, whom she considered a second father, convinced her that her own name would be more memorable once people learned it.
In 1958, as “The Mickey Mouse Club” was ending its run, Mr. Disney summoned Ms. Funicello to his office. She feared she was going to be fired for growing too tall, but instead he offered her a studio contract — the only one given to a Mouseketeer.
Her first movie role was in “The Shaggy Dog,” Disney’s first live-action comedy. Then came the television series “Zorro.” Next she was “loaned out,” in industry talk, to CBS to appear on the Danny Thomas sitcom “Make Room for Daddy.” She also pursued a recording career, and had two Top 10 singles: “Tall Paul” in 1959 and “O Dio Mio” in 1960.
She and her family continued living as they had, with her father working five days a week at a gas station and everyone pitching in to do housework. She was not allowed to date until she was 16. When her mother was asked how she was able to keep life so normal, she answered succinctly, “Nothing impressed us.”
Ms. Funicello had crushes on her fellow singers Fabian Forte and Frankie Avalon but fell hard for Mr. Anka. “As Paul wrote in his hit song about us,” she wrote, “just because we were 17 didn’t mean that, for us, our love wasn’t real.”
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But their careers were increasingly busy, and time together was scant. When Ms. Funicello finally told Mr. Anka that she really cared for him, he replied, “What script did you get that from?”
Her records continued, including the albums “Hawaiiannette,” “Italiannette” and “Dance Annette.” Movie parts included “Babes in Toyland,” in which she sang “I Can’t Do the Sum.” (She actually could, as proved by her straight-A high school record.)
When Mr. Disney told her he had been approached by American International Pictures about her making a beach movie, he said he thought it sounded like “good clean fun,” but asked her not to expose her navel. She readily agreed.
She and Mr. Avalon ultimately starred in a series of beach movies together, beginning with “Beach Party” in 1963. She harbored no illusions that she and Mr. Avalon were the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of their generation. “Ma and Pa Kettle of the surf set,” she suggested instead.
On Jan. 9, 1965, Ms. Funicello married her agent, Jack Gilardi. Charles M. Schulz, in his “Peanuts” comic strip, showed Linus reading a paper, clutching his security blanket and wailing: “I can’t stand it! This is terrible! How depressing. ... ANNETTE FUNICELLO HAS GROWN UP!”
She made a few films in the middle and late 1960s, including “Fireball 500” and “Thunder Alley,” but her attention was focused on her children, Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason Michael. During the 1970s and early 1980s, she appeared occasionally on TV but was known principally for commercials, including her memorable issuing of the Skippy peanut butter challenge: Which has more protein? (Bologna and fish were not the correct answers.)
In 1987, she and Mr. Avalon reunited to do a self-mocking beach party movie. She wore polka dots with matching hair bows, and he portrayed a work-obsessed car salesman who hates the beach. Their fictional son wore punk clothes and carried a switchblade.
But Ms. Funicello’s main concern was being a good mom, her daughter, Gina, said. In a 1994 interview, she told In Style magazine that her mother “was always there for car pools, Hot Dog Day and the PTA.”
In 1981 Ms. Funicello divorced Mr. Gilardi. In 1986 she married Glen Holt, a horse breeder. Mr. Holt, who cared for Ms. Funicello in her later years, survives her, along with her 3 children, 4 stepchildren, 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.
Ms. Funicello learned she had M.S. in 1987 but kept her condition secret for five years. She announced the illness after becoming concerned that the unsteadiness the disease caused would be misinterpreted as drunkenness.
She set up the Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases and underwent brain surgery in 1999 in an attempt to control tremors caused by her disease.
But for many, Annette Funicello remained forever young, whether in mouse ears or a modest bathing suit. Some may even recognize a ditty from the long-ago television shows:
Ask the birds and ask the bees
And ask the stars above
Who’s their favorite sweet brunette;
You know, each one confesses:
Annette! Annette! Annette!
| Famous Person - Death | April 2013 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Afghan security forces battle Taliban insurgents in central Kabul. An Afghan policeman, a Nepalese soldier, and numerous insurgents are killed. | Afghan security forces have fought Taliban insurgents for hours in the centre of Kabul, after a major explosion shook the city. A Nepali guard and an off-duty policeman were killed, along with a number of militants.
The attack hit a guesthouse used by the International Organization for Migration, one of whose employees was badly injured. The Taliban told the BBC it was targeting CIA trainers.
The attack began at about 16:00 local time (11:30 GMT) with a car bombing, and it was late evening in Kabul by the time interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the last of the assailants had been killed.
The militants, who officials said numbered five or six, had been holed up in the area, home to a number of buildings used by foreign workers.
"We are dealing with a well co-ordinated attack," Kabul police chief Gen Ayub Salangi told the BBC as the attack unfolded. He said seven policemen had been injured. A Taliban spokesman said the group had targeted CIA trainers instructing Afghans at the National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agency.
The IOM, which is affiliated to the UN, said three of its employees had been injured, one of them seriously burned by a grenade. An employee of the International Labour Organization was also wounded.
It was not clear whether the guesthouse used by the IOM employees was the Taliban's main target.
UN special envoy Jan Kubis strongly condemned the attack, and said all UN staff had been accounted for. During the assault, Afghan TV Channel One quoted police as saying a group of militants had taken up position inside the nearby headquarters of the Directorate of the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF). A hospital run by the NDS is also in the area.
The initial explosion was felt several kilometres away, shattering shop windows and sending a plume of smoke into the sky. There were reports of smaller, subsequent blasts.
Graeme Smith, who works for the think tank Crisis Group and lives in the New City neighbourhood about 1km (0.6 miles) away from the site of the fighting, said he had heard a constant exchange of gunfire for several hours.
"It seems to have been contained, which shows how robust the Afghan forces are in the capital," he said. "In more rural parts of the country this would have had a much bigger impact."
The Taliban announced a "spring offensive" in April, saying it would target foreign military bases and diplomatic areas.
Last week another Islamist militant group, Hezb-e-Islami, said it had carried out an attack on a military convoy in Kabul in which at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured.
In the last major attack in Kabul before that, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the defence ministry, killing nine people.
Most international troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Afghan forces are due to take responsibility for the security of the whole country in the next few months, for the first time since 1992.
| Armed Conflict | May 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Iranian–Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, the founder of one of the first Farsi–language blogs, is sentenced to 19 years imprisonment in an Iranian court for "anti–state activity". | An Iranian court has sentenced a prominent Iranian-Canadian blogger to more than 19 years in jail, rights groups and Iranian media say.
Hossein Derakhshan was charged with "propagating against the regime" and "co-operating with hostile states".
Mr Derakhshan was arrested in 2008 during a visit to the country. He is credited with launching Iran's blogging revolution. Originally critical of the government, he later backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Derakhshan was also sentenced for promoting counter-revolutionary groups, insulting Islamic thought and religious figures and managing obscene websites, Mashreq news website reported.
Judicial sources said he could appeal the ruling.
After moving to Toronto, Canada, from Tehran in 2000, he posted simple instructions in Farsi on how to publish blogs - thus helping to spark an explosion of blogging in Iran.
He paid a highly-publicised visit to Israel - Iran's arch-enemy - in 2006, saying he wanted to act as a bridge between the two countries. Pressure group the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called Derakhshan "a prisoner of conscience, prosecuted and sentenced solely for his opinions and writings".
The group says there are more than 500 prisoners of conscience in Iranian jails.
Iranian opposition bloggers continue to be active despite a government crackdown since disputed elections last year that saw President Ahmadinejad re-elected.
Opposition leaders said the election was rigged.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2010 | ['(AP)', '(BBC)'] |
Archaeologists discover a centuries-old shipwreck near the Portugal coast of Cascais. | By Vasco Cotovio and Theresa Waldrop, CNN
Updated 0116 GMT (0916 HKT) September 23, 2018 (CNN)Archeologists have found a centuries-old shipwreck off Portugal's coast near Lisbon, a local mayor's office said Saturday. | New archeological discoveries | September 2018 | ['(CNN)'] |
The United Kingdom government announces plans to overhaul the pension system. | The link between the state pension and earnings will also be restored within the next Parliament, Pensions Secretary John Hutton said.
A new savings scheme will be set up with automatic enrolment for staff and compulsory employers' contributions.
Mr Hutton said the changes would secure the future of the state pension system.
'Lasting solution'
"I believe it can lay the foundations for a lasting solution to the pensions challenge we face as a country," Mr Hutton told MPs, unveiling the contents of the white paper.
The key aspects of the proposals, the biggest shake-up of pensions for years, are:
PENSIONS WHITE PAPER
Executive summary (437K)
White Paper in full (2.7MB)
The White Paper and all related documents
The proposed changes will have little impact on anyone currently over the age of 47.
Turner welcome
The white paper is the government's response to the report of the Pensions Commission.
In a series of three reports the Commission, headed by Lord Turner, looked at the UK pensions system and made recommendations for reform.
The Commission concluded that unless the state pension was overhauled and private savings boosted, millions of Britons were headed for a meagre old age.
Lord Turner welcomed the government's proposals, saying it planned to implement 95% of his recommendations.
Mr Hutton told MPs that the restoration of the earnings link would take effect at some point during the next Parliament, preferably in 2012. HAVE YOUR SAY
Pensions are a complete lottery Alan Tayler, Wivelsfield
Industry welcomes proposals
Q&A: How it affects your pension
The impact on business
Pension changes by age group
However, he said this would be subject to affordability and the government's fiscal position at the time.
The announcement got a positive reaction from employers and unions with Derek Simpson, Amicus general secretary, calling it a "victory for working people".
The Conservatives welcomed the basic aspects of the proposals but claimed the restoration of the link to earnings in 2012 was in doubt because a dispute between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
But former pensions minister Frank Field described the proposals as a "lost opportunity".
Savings scheme
Employees will be asked to pay 4% of their salary into the new National Pension Savings scheme.
Employers must, in turn, contribute 3% while the government will contribute 1% in the form of tax relief.
Company contributions will be phased in over three years and some support will be offered to small businesses.
The CBI said the proposals would cost businesses £2.3bn, while the Forum of Private Business said compulsory employer contributions represented a "stealth tax" on employers.
However, firms which already offer a pension scheme on an auto-enrolment basis that is at least as generous as the NPSS will not be forced to participate. | Government Policy Changes | May 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
North Korea stated that it would dismantle the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site between May 23–25 ahead of the Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un summit meeting. Furthermore, North Korea invited journalists from the United States, South Korea, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom to cover the process. | North Korean officials announced Saturday they will take the first steps in less than two weeks to dismantle the country's nuclear test site, as they prepare for the historic summit between leaders of the isolated nation and the United States.
The country's central news agency says the North will hold a "ceremony" between May 23 and May 25 to mark the start of the process.
President Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un are scheduled to meet just weeks later — on June 12 in Singapore — to discuss denuclearization. It will be the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
In a tweet Saturday afternoon, Trump thanked the North Koreans for their move to dismantle the underground nuclear test site, calling it "a very smart and gracious gesture."
The dismantling will include using explosions to collapse the site's tunnels, blocking entrances and removing all observation facilities, research buildings and security posts, according to media reports.
Journalists from the United States, Russia, South Korea, China and Britain will be invited to witness the process, North Korea state media said Saturday.
Kim first disclosed plans to shut down his country's only unknown underground test site at a summit last month with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
On Wednesday, in another goodwill gesture ahead of the summit with Trump, North Korea released three Americans who had been imprisoned there. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2018 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Tunisians cast their vote in the first round of presidential elections. | TUNIS (Reuters) - Two political outsiders said they believed they had advanced to the second round of Tunisia’s presidential election on Sunday, citing exit polls, though no official results have been announced.
Tunisian presidential contenders cast their ballots
A representative for detained media magnate Nabil Karoui said he had scored “an impressive win”, while conservative law professor Kais Saied, who was largely unknown before the election, said his performance marked “a new revolution”.
If confirmed, their success on Sunday in a vote marked by low turnout would be a sharp rebuke to Tunisia’s established political powers after years of economic frustration. Only 45% of registered voters took part, compared to 63% in 2014, official figures showed.
However, the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, a partner in recent coalition governments, said its count, to be announced at a news conference later, was different to that released in exit polls.
A party official, speaking anonymously, said the race was between Karoui, Saied and the Ennahda candidate Abdelfatah Mourou.
Tunisia’s prime minister, two former prime ministers, a former president and the defense minister were also among the 26 candidates on the ballot.
“This is an impressive win that shows Tunisians want to cut the old system and want to see a leader who is like them... it is a lesson for the rulers,” said Samira Chaouachi, an official in Karoui’s party.
A court on Friday ruled that he must stay in detention after his arrest last month on three-year-old charges brought by a transparency watchdog for tax evasion and money laundering.
He denies wrongdoing and his supporters say the timing of his arrest showed the establishment was trying to silence him. His critics accuse him of illicitly using his unlicensed television station and his charity as campaign tools.
Saied, a conservative constitutional law professor, is also a political newcomer. In the televised debates shown over consecutive nights last week, he expressed support for the death penalty and opposition to equal inheritance rights between men and women.
With no real political machine or publicity campaign, Saied has appealed to Tunisians in television appearances speaking in a highly correct form of Arabic devoid of the colloquial expressions used by most of his compatriots.
The simplicity of his campaign may also have strengthened his credentials as a crusader against the corruption which many Tunisians believe has bedeviled their transition to democracy.
Heavily indebted, Tunisia’s next government, like its last, will have to navigate popular demands to relax public purse strings while foreign lenders push for spending cuts.
Tunisia threw off autocratic rule eight years ago in a revolution that inspired “Arab Spring” revolts in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria, but it alone has enjoyed a peaceful transition to democracy.
However, after years of economic troubles including high unemployment and inflation, many Tunisians have voiced frustration over their government’s inability to improve living standards.
Many voters are disillusioned. In the poor Ettadamen district, Mouaz Chneifiya, a 42-year-old unemployed man, was sitting in a cafe and said he would not vote.
“Since the election we’ve been getting promises and nothing is done on the ground, so why vote? The elections will end and the promises will be dropped as soon as they get into office like in past elections,” he said.
In the central Lafayette district of Tunis, dozens of people stood patiently queuing in the Rue de l’Inde primary school in a whitewashed stucco courtyard under sky blue wooden shutters.
Kholoud Alwi, 27, said none of the candidates had convinced her. “But I have to vote. It’s important for the country,” she said.
The election was brought forward after the death in July of the incumbent Beji Caid Essebsi.
Tunisia’s president has direct control over foreign and defense policy while most other portfolios are handled by a prime minister chosen by parliament, for which an election will be held on October 6.
With that limited role, many candidates have emphasized their policies on security - an area in which Tunisia has improved since two jihadist attacks in 2015 killed scores of tourists, devastating the country’s tourism sector.
A pair of armed soldiers stood outside each polling station Reuters visited.
Despite economic frustrations, many voters said they were proud of Tunisia’s march to democracy.
Outside the capital, in the village of Sidi Thabet, six middle-aged men sat debating the merits of rival campaigns in a field under the shade of a gum tree, having pulled chairs over from the cafe opposite.
They each had the inky forefinger that showed they had voted, and were united in concern at the poor level of public services in a local economy based on growing olives, vegetables and fruit, though they supported different candidates.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Israelis go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years. | Israelis have voted in a fourth general election in two years, in what is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The previous three elections - a record cycle - ended inconclusively. A unity government, which was formed to break the impasse, collapsed in December. Polls ahead of the latest elections pointed towards another stalemate.
They were held as Israel emerges from lockdown and two weeks before Mr Netanyahu's corruption trial resumes.
The prime minister is fighting charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He denies the accusations, calling them politically motivated.
Mr Netanyahu encouraged all Israelis to go out and vote as he cast his ballot in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
"We have had a year of sacrifice, unity, and now we are leaving this coronavirus in the past together," he said.
But by 18:00 (16:00 GMT) turnout stood at 51.5% - down from 56.3% at the same time during the last election in March 2020.
Later, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip landed in an open field near Beersheba, a short while after Mr Netanyahu visited the southern city to rally his supporters.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties from the attack, and it was not clear whether the prime minister was in Beersheba when it happened. His Likud party said he had already left the city.
Since the last election, Israel has gone through three lockdowns to try to curb the spread of coronavirus. Mr Netanyahu's opponents have accused him of mishandling the crisis. However, the economy has largely reopened in recent weeks, infection rates have plummeted, and the prime minister has touted Israel's rapid inoculation programme as a major achievement.
At its peak, Israel was one of the worst-hit countries in the world, but more than half the population has now received at least one vaccination dose.
Aside from the pandemic, opposition parties have focused on Mr Netanyahu's political dominance as Israel's longest-serving leader, arguing that the country is overdue for change.
Israelis have had a lot of experience of elections in the past two years, but there are some ways in which this one looks different.
Those testing positive for Covid-19 can go to drive-through polling stations, and the seriously ill can vote in hospitals. There are also ballot boxes at the airport for returning citizens going into self-isolation at home.
In his campaign, Mr Netanyahu takes credit for Israel's world-leading vaccination rollout. On TikTok, he tells people: "Go get vaccinated - we have enough for everyone."
Meanwhile, one of his rivals, Yair Lapid - who wants to knock him out of office - shows off his boxing skills to the Rocky soundtrack.
To many Israelis, the election cycle has gone on too long. "I just want an end to the chaos," a teacher, Ami, tells me in Holon. But analysts warn that with the country split into pro- and anti-Netanyahu camps, this vote might not end the political stalemate and a fifth election is still possible. The 71-year-old prime minister has been in power continuously since 2009, having served an earlier three-year term in the late 1990s.
His Likud party is expected to win most seats but fall far short of the 61 needed to be able to form a government without the support of other parties. Israel's electoral system has resulted in coalitions or, more rarely, unity governments since the state was founded in 1948.
However, polls suggested that even a bloc of right-wing parties willing to back the prime minister could struggle to pass the numerical threshold to enable him to stay in office.
Anti-Netanyahu parties are expected to outperform the pro-Netanyahu bloc. But analysts say the extent of political differences between them mean that even if they win 61 or more seats, they are unlikely to be able to put a government together.
If no bloc can achieve a workable majority, a fifth round of elections could be called.
Israel has been blighted by political paralysis since the April 2019 election, when Likud won the most votes but failed to form a governing coalition. Although the party stands strongly behind Mr Netanyahu, mass demonstrations have been held weekly outside his Jerusalem residence, apart from during periods of tight lockdown.
Tens of thousands of opponents took part in the latest such rally on Saturday night, in one of the biggest gatherings of its kind since the demonstrations began.
Israel election hopes and fears play out in crater town
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's unseated long-term leader
| Government Job change - Election | March 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Guardian publishes articles alleging that the Chicago Police Department have been running a black site at Homan Square for detained Americans; former justice officials call for investigation. The CPD denies the allegations. | The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site.
The facility, a nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, has long been the scene of secretive work by special police units. Interviews with local attorneys and one protester who spent the better part of a day shackled in Homan Square describe operations that deny access to basic constitutional rights.
Alleged police practices at Homan Square, according to those familiar with the facility who spoke out to the Guardian after its investigation into Chicago police abuse, include:
At least one man was found unresponsive in a Homan Square “interview room” and later pronounced dead.
Brian Jacob Church, a protester known as one of the “Nato Three”, was held and questioned at Homan Square in 2012 following a police raid. Officers restrained Church for the better part of a day, denying him access to an attorney, before sending him to a nearby police station to be booked and charged.
“Homan Square is definitely an unusual place,” Church told the Guardian on Friday. “It brings to mind the interrogation facilities they use in the Middle East. The CIA calls them black sites. It’s a domestic black site. When you go in, no one knows what’s happened to you.”
The secretive warehouse is the latest example of Chicago police practices that echo the much-criticized detention abuses of the US war on terrorism. While those abuses impacted people overseas, Homan Square said to house military-style vehicles, interrogation cells and even a cage trains its focus on Americans, most often poor, black and brown.
Unlike a precinct, no one taken to Homan Square is said to be booked. Witnesses, suspects or other Chicagoans who end up inside do not appear to have a public, searchable record entered into a database indicating where they are, as happens when someone is booked at a precinct. Lawyers and relatives insist there is no way of finding their whereabouts. Those lawyers who have attempted to gain access to Homan Square are most often turned away, even as their clients remain in custody inside. “It’s sort of an open secret among attorneys that regularly make police station visits, this place if you can’t find a client in the system, odds are they’re there,” said Chicago lawyer Julia Bartmes.
Chicago civil-rights attorney Flint Taylor said Homan Square represented a routinization of a notorious practice in local police work that violates the fifth and sixth amendments of the constitution.
“This Homan Square revelation seems to me to be an institutionalization of the practice that dates back more than 40 years,” Taylor said, “of violating a suspect or witness’ rights to a lawyer and not to be physically or otherwise coerced into giving a statement.”
Much remains hidden about Homan Square. The Chicago police department did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about the facility. But after the Guardian published this story, the department provided a statement insisting, without specifics, that there is nothing untoward taking place at what it called the “sensitive” location, home to undercover units. “CPD [Chicago police department] abides by all laws, rules and guidelines pertaining to any interviews of suspects or witnesses, at Homan Square or any other CPD facility. If lawyers have a client detained at Homan Square, just like any other facility, they are allowed to speak to and visit them. It also houses CPD’s Evidence Recovered Property Section, where the public is able to claim inventoried property,” the statement said, something numerous attorneys and one Homan Square arrestee have denied.
“There are always records of anyone who is arrested by CPD, and this is not any different at Homan Square,” it continued.
The Chicago police statement did not address how long into an arrest or detention those records are generated or their availability to the public. A department spokesperson did not respond to a detailed request for clarification.
When a Guardian reporter arrived at the warehouse on Friday, a man at the gatehouse outside refused any entrance and would not answer questions. “This is a secure facility. You’re not even supposed to be standing here,” said the man, who refused to give his name.
A former Chicago police superintendent and a more recently retired detective, both of whom have been inside Homan Square in the last few years in a post-police capacity, said the police department did not operate out of the warehouse until the late 1990s.
But in detailing episodes involving their clients over the past several years, lawyers described mad scrambles that led to the closed doors of Homan Square, a place most had never heard of previously. The facility was even unknown to Rob Warden, the founder of Northwestern University Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, until the Guardian informed him of the allegations of clients who vanish into inherently coercive police custody.
“They just disappear,” said Anthony Hill, a criminal defense attorney, “until they show up at a district for charging or are just released back out on the street.”
Jacob Church learned about Homan Square the hard way. On May 16 2012, he and 11 others were taken there after police infiltrated their protest against the Nato summit. Church says officers cuffed him to a bench for an estimated 17 hours, intermittently interrogating him without reading his Miranda rights to remain silent. It would take another three hours and an unusual lawyer visit through a wire cage before he was finally charged with terrorism-related offenses at the nearby 11th district station, where he was made to sign papers, fingerprinted and photographed.
In preparation for the Nato protest, Church, who is from Florida, had written a phone number for the National Lawyers Guild on his arm as a precautionary measure. Once taken to Homan Square, Church asked explicitly to call his lawyers, and said he was denied.
“Essentially, I wasn’t allowed to make any contact with anybody,” Church told the Guardian, in contradiction of a police guidance on permitting phone calls and legal counsel to arrestees.
Church’s left wrist was cuffed to a bar behind a bench in windowless cinderblock cell, with his ankles cuffed together. He remained in those restraints for about 17 hours.
“I had essentially figured, ‘All right, well, they disappeared us and so we’re probably never going to see the light of day again,’” Church said.
Though the raid attracted major media attention, a team of attorneys could not find Church through 12 hours of “active searching”, Sarah Gelsomino, Church’s lawyer, recalled. No booking record existed. Only after she and others made a “major stink” with contacts in the offices of the corporation counsel and Mayor Rahm Emanuel did they even learn about Homan Square.
They sent another attorney to the facility, where he ultimately gained entry, and talked to Church through a floor-to-ceiling chain-link metal cage. Finally, hours later, police took Church and his two co-defendants to a nearby police station for booking. After serving two and a half years in prison, Church is currently on parole after he and his co-defendants were found not guilty in 2014 of terrorism-related offenses but guilty of lesser charges of possessing an incendiary device and the misdemeanor of “mob action”.
The access that Nato Three attorneys received to Homan Square was an exception to the rule, even if Jacob Church’s experience there was not.
Three attorneys interviewed by the Guardian report being personally turned away from Homan Square between 2009 and 2013 without being allowed access to their clients. Two more lawyers who hadn’t been physically denied described it as a place where police withheld information about their clients’ whereabouts. Church was the only person who had been detained at the facility who agreed to talk with the Guardian: their lawyers say others fear police retaliation.
One man in January 2013 had his name changed in the Chicago central bookings database and then taken to Homan Square without a record of his transfer being kept, according to Eliza Solowiej of Chicago’s First Defense Legal Aid. (The man, the Guardian understands, wishes to be anonymous; his current attorney declined to confirm Solowiej’s account.) She found out where he was after he was taken to the hospital with a head injury. “He said that the officers caused his head injuries in an interrogation room at Homan Square. I had been looking for him for six to eight hours, and every department member I talked to said they had never heard of him,” Solowiej said. “He sent me a phone pic of his head injuries because I had seen him in a police station right before he was transferred to Homan Square without any.”
Bartmes, another Chicago attorney, said that in September 2013 she got a call from a mother worried that her 15-year-old son had been picked up by police before dawn. A sympathetic sergeant followed up with the mother to say her son was being questioned at Homan Square in connection to a shooting and would be released soon. When hours passed, Bartmes traveled to Homan Square, only to be refused entry for nearly an hour.
An officer told her, “Well, you can’t just stand here taking notes, this is a secure facility, there are undercover officers, and you’re making people very nervous,” Bartmes recalled. Told to leave, she said she would return in an hour if the boy was not released. He was home, and not charged, after “12, maybe 13” hours in custody. On February 2, 2013, John Hubbard was taken to Homan Square. Hubbard never walked out. The Chicago Tribune reported that the 44-year old was found “unresponsive inside an interview room”, and pronounced dead. After publication, the Cook County medical examiner told the Guardian that the cause of death was determined to be heroin intoxication. Homan Square is hardly concerned exclusively with terrorism. Several special units operate outside of it, including the anti-gang and anti-drug forces. If police “want money, guns, drugs”, or information on the flow of any of them onto Chicago’s streets, “they bring them there and use it as a place of interrogation off the books,” Hill said.
A former Chicago detective and current private investigator, Bill Dorsch, said he had not heard of the police abuses described by Church and lawyers for other suspects who had been taken to Homan Square. He has been permitted access to the facility to visit one of its main features, an evidence locker for the police department. (“I just showed my retirement star and passed through,” Dorsch said.)
Transferring detainees through police custody to deny them access to legal counsel, would be “a career-ender,” Dorsch said. “To move just for the purpose of hiding them, I can’t see that happening,” he told the Guardian.
Richard Brzeczek, Chicago’s police superintendent from 1980 to 1983, who also said he had no first-hand knowledge of abuses at Homan Square, said it was “never justified” to deny access to attorneys.
“Homan Square should be on the same list as every other facility where you can call central booking and say: ‘Can you tell me if this person is in custody and where,’” Brzeczek said.
“If you’re going to be doing this, then you have to include Homan Square on the list of facilities that prisoners are taken into and a record made. It can’t be an exempt facility.”
Indeed, Chicago police guidelines appear to ban the sorts of practices Church and the lawyers said occur at Homan Square.
A directive titled “Processing Persons Under Department Control” instructs that “investigation or interrogation of an arrestee will not delay the booking process,” and arrestees must be allowed “a reasonable number of telephone calls” to attorneys swiftly “after their arrival at the first place of custody.” Another directive, “Arrestee and In-Custody Communications,” says police supervisors must “allow visitation by attorneys.”
Attorney Scott Finger said that the Chicago police tightened the latter directive in 2012 after quiet complaints from lawyers about their lack of access to Homan Square. Without those changes, Church’s attorneys might not have gained entry at all. But that tightening about a week before Church’s arrest did not prevent Church’s prolonged detention without a lawyer, nor the later cases where lawyers were unable to enter.
The combination of holding clients for long periods, while concealing their whereabouts and denying access to a lawyer, struck legal experts as a throwback to the worst excesses of Chicago police abuse, with a post-9/11 feel to it.
On a smaller scale, Homan Square is “analogous to the CIA’s black sites,” said Andrea Lyon, a former Chicago public defender and current dean of Valparaiso University Law School. When she practiced law in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, she said, “police used the term ‘shadow site’” to refer to the quasi-disappearances now in place at Homan Square.
“Back when I first started working on torture cases and started representing criminal defendants in the early 1970s, my clients often told me they’d been taken from one police station to another before ending up at Area 2 where they were tortured,” said Taylor, the civil-rights lawyer most associated with pursuing the notoriously abusive Area 2 police commander Jon Burge. “And in that way the police prevent their family and lawyers from seeing them until they could coerce, through torture or other means, confessions from them.”
Police often have off-site facilities to have private conversations with their informants. But a retired Washington DC homicide detective, James Trainum, could not think of another circumstance nationwide where police held people incommunicado for extended periods.
“I’ve never known any kind of organized, secret place where they go and just hold somebody before booking for hours and hours and hours. That scares the hell out of me that that even exists or might exist,” said Trainum, who now studies national policing issues, to include interrogations, for the Innocence Project and the Constitution Project.
Regardless of departmental regulations, police frequently deny or elide access to lawyers even at regular police precincts, said Solowiej of First Defense Legal Aid. But she said the outright denial was exacerbated at Chicago’s secretive interrogation and holding facility: “It’s very, very rare for anyone to experience their constitutional rights in Chicago police custody, and even more so at Homan Square,” Solowiej said.
Church said that one of his more striking memories of Homan Square was the “big, big vehicles” police had inside the complex that “look like very large MRAPs that they use in the Middle East.”
Cook County, home of Chicago, has received some 1,700 pieces of military equipment from a much-criticized Pentagon program transferring military gear to local police. It includes a Humvee, according to a local ABC News report.
Tracy Siska, a criminologist and civil-rights activist with the Chicago Justice Project, said that Homan Square, as well as the unrelated case of ex-Guantánamo interrogator and retired Chicago detective Richard Zuley, showed the lines blurring between domestic law enforcement and overseas military operations.
“The real danger in allowing practices like Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib is the fact that they always creep into other aspects,” Siska said.
“They creep into domestic law enforcement, either with weaponry like with the militarization of police, or interrogation practices. That’s how we ended up with a black site in Chicago.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2015 | ['(The Guardian)', '(The Guardian)', '(Chicago SunTimes)'] |
The Supreme Court of India strikes down Article 377, a colonial-era law which criminalized homosexuality, declaring it unconstitutional. | In a historic decision, India's Supreme Court has ruled that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence.
The ruling overturns a 2013 judgement that upheld a colonial-era law, known as section 377, under which gay sex is categorised as an "unnatural offence".
The court has now ruled discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a fundamental violation of rights.
Campaigners outside the court cheered and some broke down in tears as the ruling was handed down.
Although public opinion in India's biggest cities has been in favour of scrapping the law, there remains strong opposition among religious groups and in conservative rural communities.
But this ruling, from the top court, is the final say in the matter and represents a huge victory for India's LGBT community.
One activist outside the court told the BBC: "I hadn't come out to my parents until now. But today, I guess I have."
Thursday's decision was delivered by a five-judge bench headed by India's outgoing chief justice Dipak Misra and was unanimous.
Reading out the judgement, he said: "Criminalising carnal intercourse is irrational, arbitrary and manifestly unconstitutional."
Another judge, Indu Malhotra, said she believed "history owes an apology" to LGBT people for ostracising them.
Justice DY Chandrachud said the state had no right to control the private lives of LGBT community members and that the denial of the right to sexual orientation was the same as denying the right to privacy.
The ruling effectively allows gay sex among consenting adults in private.
It is a 157-year-old colonial-era law which criminalises certain sexual acts as "unnatural offences" that are punishable by a 10-year jail term.
The law punishes, in its own words, "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal".
While the statute criminalises all anal and oral sex, it has largely affected same-sex relationships.
Human rights groups say police have used the statute to harass and abuse members of the LGBT community. Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi
Even though it was rarely invoked when it involved consenting adults, section 377 could be - and was sometimes - used as a tool for harassment. It is not surprising then that campaigners are describing the verdict as a "new dawn for personal liberty".
But in a largely conservative India, where leaders of all religions have consistently opposed gay sex, it will still be a while before attitudes change and the community finds full acceptance.
But laws almost always play an important role in changing mindsets, and by recognising the community's right to love, the Supreme Court has restored the dignity denied to them for a very long time.
It's been a tortuous route. A bid to repeal section 377 was initiated in 2001 and was batted between court and government until 2009, when the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of decriminalisation.
Several political, social and religious groups then mobilised to restore the law and in 2013 the Supreme Court struck down the High Court ruling.
Anti-section 377 activists then submitted a "curative petition" - a formal request to review an earlier court order perceived as a "miscarriage of justice" - and in 2016 the Supreme Court decided to revisit its ruling.
One of joy given that the community has fought vigorously to strike down the law.
Equal rights activists had argued that the very existence of such a law was proof of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
LGBT activist Harish Iyer told the BBC: "I'm absolutely elated. It's like a second freedom struggle where finally we have thrown a British law out of this country... I think the next step would be to get anti-discrimination laws in place, or anti-bullying laws."
Messages of support were posted on Twitter, including from film director Karan Johar:
Historical judgment!!!! So proud today! Decriminalising homosexuality and abolishing #Section377 is a huge thumbs up for humanity and equal rights! The country gets its oxygen back!
Journalist Anna MM Vetticad said India had been saved from its shame:
We are witnessing history being made. Hats off to all my #LGBT rights activist friends who have battled hard to get here. You have saved India from the shame of being one of the remaining countries in the world that criminalises #homosexuality - thank you for that. #Section377
The governing BJP party has said it would leave the decision to the Supreme Court.
However, one of its members said he was disappointed with the verdict.
Subramanian Swamy, known for making provocative comments, said: "It could give rise to an increase in the number of HIV cases."
Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress party has welcomed the ruling, saying they "hope this is the beginning of a more equal and inclusive society".
The UN has also welcomed the ruling, saying "sexual orientation and gender expression form an integral part of an individual's identity the world over".
The court said other aspects of section 377 dealing with unnatural sex with animals and children would remain in force.
The judges also explicitly said that they only ruled on the constitutional validity of section 377 and were not looking at it in terms of other rights such as those related to marriage or inheritance.
It remains too early to say what this will translate to in the longer term.
Author and commentator Sandip Roy told the BBC that although the ruling was a cause for celebration, there were still hurdles to overcome, and a need for anti-discrimination laws.
"I think we would be foolish to think that this is the end of the fight," he said.
The 2017 report from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (Ilga) lists 72 countries and territories where same-sex relationships are still criminalised, although that includes India before its latest ruling.
Most of them are in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of south Asia.
The report said homosexuality could still result in the death penalty in eight nations.
| Government Policy Changes | September 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash, Jr. and his wife Alicia died in a taxi accident. | John F. Nash Jr., a mathematician who shared a Nobel in 1994 for work that greatly extended the reach and power of modern economic theory and whose long descent into severe mental illness and eventual recovery were the subject of a book and a film, both titled “A Beautiful Mind,” was killed, along with his wife, in a car crash on Saturday in New Jersey. He was 86.
Dr. Nash and his wife, Alicia, 82, were in a taxi on the New Jersey Turnpike in Monroe Township around 4:30 p.m. when the driver lost control while veering from the left lane to the right and hit a guardrail and another car, Sgt. Gregory Williams of the New Jersey State Police said.
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This is an offer for a Basic Digital Access Subscription. The Basic Digital Access Subscription does not include e-reader editions (Kindle, Nook, etc.), NYT Games (the Crossword) or NYT Cooking. Mobile apps are not supported on all devices. These offers are not available for current subscribers. Other restrictions and taxes may apply. Offers and pricing are subject to change without notice. | Famous Person - Death | May 2015 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Fan protests at a Serie A match between Genoa and Siena disrupt play. | Fan protests at an Italian top league game between Genoa and Siena led to a 45-minute halt in play as attempts were made to restore order.
Supporters of relegation-threatened Genoa, trailing 4-0, threw flares onto the pitch and climbed safety barriers.
Some even demanded that Genoa players take off their team shirts.
Observers said scenes were reminiscent of trouble at the same stadium in 2010, when clashes between fans and police halted an Italy-Serbia international.
Genoa, who are threatened by relegation in Italy's Serie A, were 4-0 down at the start of the second half when the trouble kicked off. Referee Paolo Tagliavento halted play after home fans threw flares and smoke bombs onto the pitch. Families with young children were reportedly forced to flee.
The visiting team retreated to the dressing room until the situation calmed down.
One report said Genoa team capital Marco Rossi went up to the "Ultra" fans behind one goal to appeal for calm, while many home supporters left the ground in disgust at their team's performance.
The game eventually resumed without incident, and Siena won 4-1 after an own goal.
Italian football federation chief Giancarlo Abete called the violence "unacceptable".
"Those are not fans. I hope these people are identified and condemned. They should not be allowed into the stadium ever again." The Genoa president, Enrico Preziosi, said: "I'm sorry that 60 or 100 people can say and do as they want with impunity without us having the ability to control them and send them home." | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two nephews of Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores, who were arrested in Haiti by U.S. authorities on Tuesday, are indicted in New York for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. |
Santa Elena,November 12th, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Two young men, reported to be the nephews of Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores, were arrested this weekend in Haiti by US authorities and will allegedly face charges of drug trafficking in a New York federal court.
The case was made public yesterday after an anonymous US law enforcement official told reporters that the suspects, Francisco Flores and Efrain Campos Flores, were attempting to transport 800 kilograms [over 1700 pounds] of cocaine in a deal with undercover US agents.
Venezuelan media reports that Campos Flores is the son of a deceased sister of the First Lady Flores, and was partly raised by the presidential couple as their godson.
According to Michael Vigil, a former head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the two men were arrested after traveling from Venezuela to Port-au-Prince in a private plane.
Vigil, who claims to have been briefed by authorities who took part in the eight-month undercover operation leading up to the arrests, said the two were carrying diplomatic passports, but did not possess diplomatic immunity.
Venezuela does not produce cocaine as its neighbor Colombia does, but in a recent interview Vigil insisted that around 25 percent of the drugs produced in South America are transported through the country.
Former president Hugo Chavez kicked the DEA out of Venezuela in 2005 after accusing the organization of espionage and drug trafficking.
No official response has been made by Venezuelan authorities.
News analysts have claimed imbalanced media coverage regarding the Flores arrests, pointing to the general silence following last month’s arrest of Olivier Martelly, son of Haitian President Michael Martelly, who is also facing alleged drug charges in the US.
Additionally, activists have juxtaposed the apparent efficiency with which US authorities trapped the Venezuelan men, when the DEA has been unable to locate the fugitive, notorious drug kingpin and accused death squad leader Guy Philippe, who ran for Haitian parliament in 2006.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2015 | ['(USA Today)', '(Venezuelanalysis.com)'] |
ADF militants kill 22 people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were all hacked with machetes and many also went missing in the attack. | Distrust in government grows after 23 people die in an attack by ADF, which has killed hundreds since late October.
At least 23 people were killed in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in what officials described as an attack by rebel fighters.
Police and local officials said on Monday that the overnight raid on Apetina-Sana in the restive eastern region of Beni was carried out by ADF rebels, who operate in both DRC and neighbouring Uganda.
Beni administrator Donat Kibwana told AFP news agency that the ADF hacked civilians to death in the settlement, which lies 16 kilometres (10 miles) west of Oicha, the chief administrative town in Beni.
The rebels also reportedly torched the victims’ homes.
Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Nairobi, Kenya, said the death toll was expected to rise as the attack had lasted hours and many people were yet to be accounted for.
“They say when the rebels entered the village, they went from house to house burning everything in their path. Anyone they came across, including women and children, they killed.”
Mutasa said some people were now making the hours-long walk to Beni city to stay in churches or with family members.
“You get a sense that people are terrified,” she said, adding that many in the area have long felt abandoned by the government.
“They feel that all the resources go to the capital … The roads are in a bad state, there’s no infrastructure, they feel let down. So a lot of people say that when these attacks happen and they do happen often they feel alone.”
While the ADF originated in Uganda, its rebels have been attacking and killing people in eastern DRC for more than 20 years.
Apetina-Sana is a point on the so-called Triangle of Death, along with Mbau and Eringeti the worst-hit area by attacks.
ADF fighters have killed more than 200 people since the DRC army launched an offensive against the armed group on October 30, according to civil society groups.
“The authorities were tipped off on Sunday evening about the presence of suspicious men west of Oicha,” said Teddy Kataliko, a civil society activist in Beni.
“We continue to ask the DRC armed forces to launch operations on the western side as well to save civilians.”
There have also been demonstrations in Beni city, where local people accuse the United Nations peacekeeping force MONUSCO of failing to protect them.
In a separate incident in eastern DRC on Monday, “armed bandits” attacked a base used by a Chinese-owned gold mine, killing four people, the military said.
The raid took place in Irumu district in the northeastern province of Ituri, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, the army’s provincial spokesman, said.
Two soldiers, a policeman and a driver for the mine were killed.
| Armed Conflict | December 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Jason Dalton, the suspect in six murders and two attempted murders during a rampage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States in February 2016, pleads guilty to all counts. , | KALAMAZOO, MI The man accused of killing six people and critically injuring two in a shooting spree across Kalamazoo County in February 2016 has pleaded guilty to all counts against him.
Jason Dalton, 48, pleaded guilty Monday, Jan. 7, to six counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and several felony firearms charges for the Feb. 20, 2016, shooting rampage. Dalton pleaded guilty just before the prosecutor and defense attorney were supposed to start voir dire, the process of questioning 112 potential jurors for the case. Jury selection started in a closed courtroom Thursday, Jan. 3.
Dalton entered the pleas in a low voice in a silent courtroom packed with about 50 family members and friends of the victims, including survivor Tiana Carruthers.
There was no sentencing agreement tied to Dalton’s guilty pleas, according to Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Williams. Dalton faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for each of the first-degree murder convictions.
Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Judge Alexander C. Lipsey denied bond. Dalton is scheduled for sentencing on the convictions Feb. 5.
Defense attorney Eusebio Solis said discussions of pleading guilty in the case have been taking place for months. Solis withdrew an earlier motion to pursue an insanity defense, explaining an independent forensic examination showed Dalton did not meet the legal requirements for insanity.
Solis said he spent more than an hour over the weekend talking with Dalton about the decision.
“He is doing that against my advice, your honor,” Solis said. “But, in speaking to Mr. Dalton, there are reasons for that. There are personal reasons, for him. He does not want to put his family through that, or the victims' families, through the trial. It’s his decision; against my advice.”
Standing next to his attorney at the judge’s bench, Dalton told Lipsey his pleas were being offered voluntarily.
“Yes. I’ve wanted this for quite a while,” he said.
Solis acknowledged, given the charges Dalton was facing, that a guilty plea at this stage was rather unusual.
“I’ve been practicing law for 30 years and have never pleaded to life in prison without parole," Solis said after the hearing.
The case had been on hold for nearly three years as it wound its way through appellate courts.
In an interview with detectives, Dalton said the Uber app “literally took over his mind and body” on Feb. 20 when the color of the app’s symbol changed from red to black. Dalton told the detectives the app symbol changed colors when he spoke the name of the Eastern Star symbol.
Dalton’s trial has been delayed as his defense attorneys argued detectives violated his Miranda rights in interviews the day after the shooting. Ultimately, the Michigan Court of Appeals decided the interviews will not be allowed at trial.
Dalton shot Tiana Carruthers, 25, in the parking lot of the Meadows town home complex, 5066 Meadows Blvd,, just before 6 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2016. Dalton shot and killed father and son Rich, 53, and Tyler Smith, 17, in the parking lot of Seelye Kia on Stadium Drive just after 10 p.m. that same evening. He then shot four women and a 14-year-old girl in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel, 5581 S. 9th St. in Texas Township.
Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda; Mary Jo Nye, 60, Dorothy “Judy” Brown, 74, and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, all of Battle Creek, were killed and the 14-year-old girl, Abigail Kopf, survived but was critically injured.
Dalton drove erratically that afternoon, picking up Uber fares between the shootings. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2019 | ['(MLive)', '(WOOD-TV)'] |
Zimbabwe releases 60 South African mercenaries that were linked to an alleged coup attempt in the Equatorial Guinea last year. | Sixty men linked to an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea remain in custody in Zimbabwe, four days after their jail terms ended.
The men were to be deported to South Africa on Thursday, but remain in the custody of immigration officials. "It looks like this is a cat and mouse game situation," lawyer Jonathan Samkange told the Associated Press. Coup allegations against the men were not proven, but they were convicted of breaking Zimbabwe's immigration laws. The men have not left the Harare jail where they served a one-year sentence. On release, they are expected to be taken by road to the Beit Bridge border crossing. "My clients are all dressed up in their own clothes very cheerfully ready to leave but they are getting anxious," Mr Samkange said. New charges
They will be reunited with their families before facing possible charges in South Africa, their South African lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow, said. They are in good health apart from one with tuberculosis, he added. The alleged ringleader of the plot, Briton Simon Mann, and the two pilots of the plane, remain in prison in Zimbabwe on longer sentences. The men being released had been travelling on South African passports when they were arrested in March 2004 after their chartered plane touched down at Harare airport to pick up weapons. Zimbabwean officials said they had been en-route to Equatorial Guinea to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in the oil-rich country. The men said the weapons were to be used for guarding diamond mines in Democratic Republic of Congo. In Equatorial Guinea, 14 other people have been found guilty of charges linked to the coup plot, including South African Nick du Toit who received 34 years. Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was given a suspended jail term in South Africa and fined after agreeing a plea bargain to help investigators. Previous reports said that there were 62 prisoners due for release but latest reports refer to 60. Under South African law, they could be charged with engaging in military activities abroad without official permission. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | May 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(IOL)', '(Reuters AlertNet)'] |
Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos receives his award in Oslo, Norway. | President to be awarded the prize for his efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.
The Nobel Peace Prize of 2016 is set to be awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who called it “a gift from heaven” for his country’s peace process with FARC rebels.
The prize ceremony will be held on Saturday evening in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
Al Jazeera will be talking exclusively to the Colombian president at 17:00GMT. Watch the interview live here. The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the prize to Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to an end.
The war has cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people.
Santos was named peace prize laureate on October 7, just four days after the people in Colombia in a referendum narrowly rejected a peace deal his government had reached with the FARC rebels.
Despite the outcome, Santos concluded “all wanted peace”, he told a news conference at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
“Four days later the Nobel Prize award was announced, and it came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push,” he said on Friday. “People in Colombia interpreted it as a mandate from the international community to persevere.”
The recipients of the Nobel prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and economics are also to receive their awards. The ceremonies for these prizes will be held in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
The Nobel Peace Prize will offer Juan Manuel Santos and Colombians a second shot at peace.
The president of Colombia wins award despite the referendum result to reject peace with FARC rebels.
Colombia president awarded one of world’s most prestigious prizes for efforts to end 52 years of war with FARC rebels.
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We understand that your online privacy is very important and consenting to our collection of some personal information takes great trust. We ask for this consent because it allows Al Jazeera to provide an experience that truly gives a voice to the voiceless. | Awards ceremony | December 2016 | ['(Al-Jazeera)'] |
Justice Minister Michael Masutha paroles South African apartheid–era death squad commander Eugene de Kock, nicknamed "Prime Evil", after having served 20 years for killing activists. | South African apartheid-era death squad commander Eugene de Kock has been granted parole after 20 years in jail.
He was nicknamed "Prime Evil" for his role in the killing and maiming of activists fighting white minority rule in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha said De Kock would be released "in the interests of nation-building".
De Kock, 66, was sentenced in 1996 to two life terms in prison and a further 212 years for the crimes he committed.
Mr Masutha said the time and place of De Kock's release would not be made public.
The justice minister stressed that his decision was guided by South Africa's constitution.
Sandra Mama, widow of Glenack Mama who was killed by De Kock in 1992, said she thought the minister was right in granting parole.
"I think it will actually close a chapter in our history because we've come a long way and I think his release will just once again help with the reconciliation process because there's still a lot of things that we need to do as a country," she told the BBC.
The former colonel was head of the notorious Vlakplaas police unit.
He appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which was established a year after South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.
De Kock confessed to more than 100 acts of murder, torture and fraud, taking full responsibility for the activities of his undercover unit.
Eugene de Kock at glance:
Has justice been served?
Eugene de Kock: Profile of an apartheid assassin
He was granted amnesty for most offences but the TRC only had the power to grant amnesty to human rights violators whose crimes were linked to a political motive and who made a full confession.
During the TRC hearings, he described the murders of a number of African National Congress (ANC) members, in countries including Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Angola, naming the police commander above him in each case.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who chaired the TRC, said the decision to release him represented a milestone on South Africa's road to reconciliation and healing.
"I pray that those whom he hurt, those from whom he took loved ones, will find the power within them to forgive him. Forgiving is empowering for the forgiver and the forgiven - and for all the people around them. But we can't be glib about it; it's not easy," Archbishop Tutu said.
Ms Mama said that in her opinion, De Kock had been held responsible for the orders of others.
"He got the instructions from the top and they got away with it. They're living, you know... they're amongst us today and one man is taking the fall," she said.
Whilst in prison he did a radio interview in 2007, accusing South Africa's last white ruler FW de Klerk of having hands "soaked in blood" for ordering specific killings.
The former president denied the allegations, saying his conscience was clear.
De Kock also made contact with some of his victims' families while in jail, asking for forgiveness.
Eddie Makue, who worked for the South African Council of Churches when its headquarters was bombed in 1988, said he was ambivalent about the announcement.
"It's mixed feelings, which is something we've gotten used to as South Africans,'' he told the Associated Press news agency.
The justice minister also announced that he was not granting parole on medical grounds to another convict in jail for apartheid-era crimes.
Mr Masutha said former MP Clive Derby-Lewis, who was involved in the assassination in 1993 of Chris Hani - the popular Communist Party politician and leader of the ANC's armed wing - had not shown any real remorse.
The murder sparked riots and fears for the transition to democracy ahead of the 1994 elections.
De Kock parole: Has justice been done?
Profile of an apartheid assassin
Why de Kock got parole
The voice of 'Prime Evil'
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
U.S., Canadian, British and Iraqi officials say they believe the plane crash near Tehran in which 176 were killed yesterday was likely caused accidentally by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile, while Iran says it was due to "mechanical failure". | LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday there was a body of evidence that a Ukrainian airliner that crashed in Iran was downed by a surface to air missile that might well have been fired unintentionally.
Echoing the conclusion of the United States and Canada, Johnson called for a full and transparent investigation into the crash which killed all 176 people on board including four Britons.
“There is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian Surface to Air Missile. This may well have been unintentional,” Johnson said in a statement. “The UK continues to call on all sides urgently to deescalate to reduce tensions in the region.”
| Air crash | January 2020 | ['(Newsweek)', '(NPR)', '(Reuters)'] |
A large explosion is reported in southwestern Iran, in the province of Bushehr, close to the site of a newly built nuclear power plant. Iranian officials later announce that the explosion was caused by construction work on a dam at Kowsar, near the port city of Deylam. | Iranian officials say an explosion Wednesday near the southwestern port city of Daylam was caused by construction work, and was not a hostile attack.
News of the blast raised concerns, because it was in the same province where Iran and Russia are building a nuclear reactor. However, the blasting site was about 150 kilometers north of the Bushehr nuclear facility.
Earlier state television reported that residents had seen an aircraft overhead at the time of the blast. The television channel reported that the explosion may have been caused by a fuel tank dropping from an Iranian airplane. | Riot | February 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '[permanent dead link]', '(VOA News)', '(Guardian)', '(Reuters)'] |
A court in Thailand rejects a request to drop charges against Viktor Bout, whom the United States suspects of attempting to sell weapons to its opponents. He was arrested by undercover United States agents in 2008 at a Bangkok hotel. | A Thai court has rejected a request to drop charges of money laundering and fraud against suspected Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout, stalling his extradition to the US.
Mr Bout was to be extradited in August, to face trial for conspiring to sell weapons to a Colombian rebel group.
But it was postponed after the new charges led to legal complications.
The US and Russia have been squabbling over his fate since his 2008 arrest in a joint Thai-US sting operation.
After more than 15 years of allegedly running guns to African warlords and Islamic militants, Mr Bout was arrested at a Bangkok hotel by US agents posing as Colombian Farc rebels, after he allegedly tried to sell them weapons.
Mr Bout, dubbed the Merchant of Death by a British politician, is pleading not guilty to charges of conspiracy to sell arms to Colombian rebels.
He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
An appeals court ordered Mr Bout's extradition on 20 August, and ruled that it must take place within three months.
His extradition was delayed by a legal bottleneck over the extra charges of money laundering and fraud, lodged by the US against Mr Bout in February.
The Bangkok Criminal Court rejected a US and Thai request to drop the charges, meaning new legal proceedings must be launched.
If the case drags out, the extradition order will expire and a two-and-a-half-year process will have to start all over again.
Moscow has been demanding his release, saying that Mr Bout is an innocent businessman.
Mr Bout, a former Russian air force officer, is thought to have knowledge of Russia's military and intelligence operations.
Analysts say Moscow is perhaps worried he might turn state witness on trial in the US, and there may be some secrets they would rather not have him spill.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Xinhua)'] |
John N. Kennedy of the Republican Party defeats Foster Campbell of the Democratic Party to become the junior Senator for Louisiana. | John N. Kennedy of Louisiana has prevailed in the final U.S. Senate contest of 2016, beating out Democrat Foster Campbell for the seat being vacated by David Vitter (R).
Shortly after the polls closed, the Associated Press projected Kennedy the winner.
Kennedy, the state’s Republican treasurer, had endorsements from President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Trump won Louisiana by a wide margin during the general election last month and stumped for Kennedy on Friday during a visit to Baton Rouge.
Campbell, a public service commissioner, had faced an uphill climb in his campaign to defy polls that heavily favored Kennedy and Louisiana’s deeply red history. With the Democrat's defeat, Republicans will hold a 52-to 48-edge in the Senate when Trump assumes the presidency next month.
Kennedy had more than 63 percent of the vote with 3,391 of 3,904 precincts reporting, in results posted on the website of the state Secretary of State’s Office.
Campbell conceded the race in a speech to his supporters Saturday in Baton Rouge, Reuters reported. He said he called Kennedy to congratulate him.
The Senate race in Louisiana was the last in the country because of a unique primary system that allows all of the candidates, regardless of their party affiliation, to compete against one another on the November election date. The two front-runners then proceed to a runoff election in the following weeks. Last month, Kennedy and Campbell bested a 24-candidate field that included David Duke (R), a onetime Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, to advance to the final election Saturday.
In Louisiana, Republicans control all statewide elected offices as well as both chambers of the state legislature. The governorship is the only outlier. Last year, John Bel Edwards (D) beat out Vitter, who faced continued scrutiny from a prostitution scandal. After losing the gubernatorial race, Vitter chose not to run for a third Senate term this year.
Thugs, prostitutes and spies: La. governor’s race gets raucous at the end
Despite working in government for the last quarter-century, Kennedy has billed himself as a Washington outsider.
“The swamp in Washington, D.C., has to be drained,” he said in a recent TV ad. “I can help. After all, we know a thing or two about swamps in Louisiana.”
Voters also filled two open U.S. House seats Saturday, choosing Republican Clay Higgins, a former sheriff’s captain known as the “Cajun John Wayne,” in the 3rd District representing southwest and south central Louisiana, and Republican state Rep. Mike Johnson in the 4th District covering northwest Louisiana.
Tyler Bridges contributed to this report.
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Government Job change - Election | December 2016 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Sinclair Broadcast Group buys Fox Sports Networks from The Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion. Disney was ordered by the U.S. Justice Department to sell FSN as part of its purchase of 21st Century Fox last year due antitrust concerns over its ownership of ESPN Inc. | Sinclair Broadcast Group said Friday that it had agreed to acquire 21 regional sports networks from Walt Disney Company in a deal worth $10.6 billion, giving the largest operator of local television stations in the United States a foothold in the cable industry with the rights to broadcast games of dozens of professional teams.
Disney was forced to sell the networks to receive antitrust approval for its $71.3 billion acquisition of most of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox in a deal that closed in March. The Justice Department required the sale of the networks, which were part of Fox, because Disney, through its ownership of ESPN, already dominates the market for televised sports.
One of the 22 sports properties that Disney was required to sell, the YES Network, is being acquired by the New York Yankees and the e-commerce giant Amazon for about $3.5 billion, according to people familiar with the transaction. Sinclair also has a stake in that deal.
Disney is getting less for the sports networks than some analysts had expected. Last year, Guggenheim Securities estimated that, including the YES Network, the channels had a value of $22 billion. Regional sports networks have lost value in recent years as fewer people pay for television.
Chris Ripley, Sinclair’s chief executive, said the company was well positioned to manage the networks. “This is a very exciting transaction,” he said in a statement. “While consumer viewing habits have shifted, the tradition of watching live sports and news remains ingrained in our culture.”
Sinclair is taking on a significant amount of debt to secure the deal, borrowing $8.2 billion, or more than 80 percent of the purchase price, to complete the acquisition. The company said it would create a wholly owned subsidiary to buy the sports networks, effectively allowing it to keep that debt off Sinclair’s balance sheet. The broadcast company itself already holds $3.9 billion of debt and has a modest profit margin of 11 percent. Last year, earnings fell 41 percent to $341 million.
Sinclair, which owns nearly 200 local television stations, is a leading voice for conservative views. It has faced criticism in recent months for requiring its stations to air segments defending the use of tear gas on migrants at the border.
Sinclair made a bid last year to buy rival Tribune Media for $3.9 billion in a move that would have created a conservative media behemoth with the potential to challenge Fox News as the pre-eminent media outlet on the right. The deal fell apart in August after encountering opposition from federal regulators.
Known primarily as a broadcaster, Sinclair could become a significant player in cable with its acquisition of the regional sports networks, which are available only on pay television systems. The company now has the opportunity to bundle the sports networks with local news broadcasts to attract customers. (Broadcast stations, despite being freely available over the air, are also carried by cable and satellite operators for a fee.)
Sports content is considered extremely valuable because it continues to draw the largest audiences on television and is mostly viewed live, putting a premium on game-time advertising. The networks that Sinclair is acquiring are largely devoted to airing baseball and basketball games and carry high price tags for cable operators, which pass the costs on to customers.
The business of operating regional sports networks has become difficult in recent years. The networks are effectively the middlemen of sports rights. They are paid by the cable and satellite companies that carry them, but they must pay sports teams for broadcast rights.
With more people abandoning cable and satellite television, the operators of those services have started to squeeze regional sports networks, either by refusing to carry them or by balking at any increases in fees. That has put the networks’ owners in a difficult position, as sports teams continue to increase rights fees every year. And because they don’t typically own streaming rights for games, the networks’ ability to capitalize on digital audiences — an increasingly important part of the media business — is hampered.
There are tools Sinclair could employ to make owning its new acquisitions worthwhile. Bundling the networks with local stations could strengthen its bargaining position with cable operators when it comes to raising licensing fees. The company already owns stations affiliated with the four major networks, giving it access to the National Football League and other sports.
Sinclair has made investments in sports before. Three years ago, it agreed to acquire the Tennis Channel for $350 million, and it operates the digital television station Stadium. It plans to start a new regional sports network, the Marquee Sports Network, with the Chicago Cubs next year. | Organization Merge | May 2019 | ['(FSN)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Catalan police in the coastal town of Cambrils kill five suspected terrorists in a counter-terror operation to stop a second van attack. The police reported the attackers were wearing explosive vests, however they were later discovered to be fakes. | Spanish police say they have shot dead five suspected terrorists in the town of Cambrils in a second vehicle attack, hours after another in Barcelona killed 13 people and injured dozens.
Police said the men were linked to the Barcelona attack, which so-called Islamic State said it had carried out.
Police are still hunting the man who drove his van into crowds on Las Ramblas in Barcelona on Thursday.
Spanish media have named Moussa Oukabir, 18, as the suspect.
He is the brother of Driss Oukabir, whose documentation was allegedly used to rent the van involved in the attack.
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has condemned what he called a "jihadist attack". He has announced three days of national mourning and a minute's silence was held at noon (10:00 GMT) on Friday. Seven people, including a police officer, were wounded when a car was driven into them early on Friday, Catalan emergency services said. One later died in hospital.
The attackers' vehicle overturned and when the men got out they were quickly fired upon by police, media say. One was reportedly brandishing a knife.
The men were wearing what appeared to be explosive belts, police said, and a series of controlled explosions was carried out. The belts proved to be fake, Catalan regional head Carles Puigdemont later told local radio.
Police say the situation in Cambrils - a popular seaside resort 110km (70 miles) south-west of Barcelona - is now under control.
A rented van was driven down Las Ramblas, a popular street in the centre of the city on Thursday afternoon, mowing down tourists and locals.
Witnesses said the van deliberately targeted people, weaving from side to side.
The driver of the van, believed to be the sole attacker, fled on foot and is still being hunted by police.
Las Ramblas is a central boulevard that runs 1.2km (0.75 miles) through the centre of Barcelona from the city's Plaa de Catalunya (Catalonia Square) to the Christopher Columbus monument at the seafront.
A businessman from New Orleans, who was just arriving in a taxi in Las Ramblas, said: "I heard a crowd screaming. It sounded like they were screaming for a movie star.
"I saw the van. It had already been busted on the front. It was weaving left and right, trying to hit people as fast as possible. There were people lying on the ground."
Kevin Kwast, who is on holiday in Barcelona with his family, said: "I was eating with my family in La Boqueria market very near where the crash occurred. "Hundreds of people started stampeding through the market... we started running with them going outside right into where casualties were already on the ground. "Police pushed us into a money transfer shop and we've been sheltering there for over an hour."
Citizens of some 24 countries were killed or injured in the Las Ramblas attack, the Catalan government has said.
Confirmed dead:
What do we know about the victims?
France's foreign ministry said on Friday that 26 French nationals were injured, with at least 11 in a serious condition.
Thirteen German citizens were wounded, some seriously. A five-year-old Irish boy suffered a broken leg.
Hong Kong, Taiwan and Greece are among those saying their citizens were injured. Pakistani, Philippine, Venezuelan, Australian, Romanian, Peruvian, Dutch, Danish, Algerian and Chinese nationals were also among the casualties, officials said.
Two people were detained on Thursday over the Las Ramblas attack, but not the driver of the van.
One of those held is Driss Oukabir, whose documents were used to rent the van, local media say.
They say he is in his 20s, and was born in Morocco. However, latest reports suggest he has told police he was not involved, and that his documents were stolen.
Spanish media report that his younger brother, Moussa, rented two vans, the one used in the attack and another found hours later in the town of Vic, north of Barcelona, and intended as a getaway vehicle.
The second man arrested was born in Melilla, the autonomous Spanish city on the north coast of Africa. He has not been named.
On Friday, police announced a third arrest had been made in the Catalan town of Ripoll.
So-called Islamic State has said it was behind the Las Ramblas attack, saying in a brief statement carried by its Amaq news outlet that it was carried out by "Islamic State soldiers". The group gave no further evidence or details to back this claim. | Armed Conflict | August 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Opposition leader Enele Sopoaga is sworn in as Prime Minister of Tuvalu by Governor–General Iakoba Italeli after winning a secret ballot held in parliament. | FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu --- Tuvalu's parliament has formally elected Enele Sopoaga to lead the country after Willy Telavi was removed as prime minister. In a sitting of parliament, a majority of eight of Tuvalu's MP's voted in support of a no-confidence motion against Telavi. The vote follows nearly eight months of standoff between Telavi's government and the opposition, with the death of one minister, the resignation of another, high court action and orders from the Governor-General. Opposition MP Taukelina Finikaso has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat the vote was held in parliament on Friday after more High Court action. "Everything was in order; and the speaker was also barred from not accepting the motion of no confidence," he said. "The voting was eight for the motion, four against and one abstention. The speaker himself abstained." said Finikaso. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2013 | ['(Islands Business)'] |
EgyptAir Flight 804 between Paris and Cairo disappears with 56 passengers and 10 crew onboard. The plane was at 37,000 feet when it disappeared ten minutes before entering Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. It is later reported to have crashed off the Greek island of Karpathos. Locals reported seeing a fireball. | Updated
at 9.46am BST
20 May 2016
08:00
Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Frence foreign minister, was this morning still refusing to draw conclusions about the cause of the crash, despite the Egyptian authorities already saying it was likely to have been a terrorist attack. “We’re looking at all possibilities, but none is being favoured over the others because we have absolutely no indication on the causes (of the crash),” Jean-Marc Ayrault told French television, according to AFP. The French government will meet families of the victims on Saturday in order to “provide all the information we can,” Ayrault said.
20 May 2016
07:00
Claire Phipps
Here is a summary of what we now know about EgyptAir flight MS804, which disappeared from radar at 2.30am local time (04.30 GMT) on Thursday morning.
So far no confirmed wreckage of the missing plane has been found.
20 May 2016
06:38
We now know a bit more about some of the crew members on board flight MS804.
The captain has been named as Mohamed Said Shoukair. EgyptAir said he was an experienced pilot, having clocked up 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320.
His co-pilot and first officer has been named as Mohamed Mamdouh Ahmed Assem. He had 2,766 flying hours.
CNN reports both lived in Cairo.
The head flight attendant has been named as Mirvat Zaharia Zaki Mohamed.
Assem’s personal Facebook page has become a commemorative page, with tributes from friends and relatives.
Facebook added "Remembering" on the profile of #MS804 #EgyptAir pilot. pic.twitter.com/hw5js0Y41W
20 May 2016
06:18
20 May 2016
05:43
A huge hunt is underway in the Mediterranean for debris from the EgyptAir jet that swerved abruptly and disappeared from radar while carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo.
EgyptAir initially claimed debris and life jackets belonging to MS804 had been found near the Greek island of Karpathos, east of Crete, but airline vice-president Ahmed Adel later said “we stand corrected”.
He added that the recovered debris “is not our aircraft”.
Egypt was leading international efforts to find any wreckage of the plane, backed by France, Greece and Turkey. The US navy dispatched a P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft from a base in Sicily.
Egypt’s aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, said he did not want to prematurely draw conclusions, but added: “The possibility of having a different action or a terror attack, is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure.”
Retrieving the plane’s black box is likely to be a long and fraught operation. The head of Greece’s air traffic control board, Serafeim Petrou, told the Guardian it was a “fact the plane had crashed”, adding: “Most probably, and very unfortunately, it is at the bottom of the sea.”
Petrou said tracing the cause and retrieving wreckage would therefore take time. “Nothing can be excluded. An explosion could be a possibility but, then, so could damage to the fuselage,” he said.
20 May 2016
03:51
Claire Phipps
As dawn approaches in Egypt, with first light set to assist the search and rescue operation, here is a summary of what we now know about missing EgyptAir flight MS804, which has been missing since 2.30am local time (04.30 GMT) Thursday morning.
20 May 2016
03:06
This updated video explainer sets out the latest key points in the search for MS804 and the investigation into its disappearance.
Search and rescue efforts are still underway in the Mediterranean, but so far no confirmed sighting of wreckage has been made.
20 May 2016
02:53
Reuters has more on the confusion over the debris that was first claimed – then denied – to be part of the plane:
The Egyptian civil aviation ministry initially said Greek authorities had found “floating material” and life jackets likely to be from the plane, an Airbus A320.
However, late on Thursday EgyptAir vice-president Ahmed Adel told CNN that the wreckage had not been found.
“We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane. So the search and rescue is still going on,” Adel said.
Greek defence sources told Reuters the material was discovered in the sea 370km (230 miles) south of the island of Crete. 20 May 2016
02:05
Los Angeles international airport said it was stepping up security measures in the wake of the disappearance of the EgyptAir plane.
In a statement, the Los Angeles airport police said:
In light of the disappearance of EgyptAir flight MS804, we have heightened our security posture and enhanced our counter-terrorism security measures.
20 May 2016
01:18
What do we know about why EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed?
Until the wreckage of the plane is found, it is near impossible to say with certainty what caused it to drop out of the sky from 37,000 feet. But this sets out what we actually do know at this stage of the investigation:
20 May 2016
00:58
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been ramping up the rhetoric over the circumstances of the plane’s disappearance, telling supporters:
If anybody thinks it wasn’t blown out of the sky, you’re 100% wrong.
His Democrat rival Hillary Clinton said comments like Trump’s “make it more difficult” to get allies round the table to tackle terror, and doubted his qualifications as would-be president to take on the threat of terrorism.
This in turn prompted an angry response from the Trump campaign, which issued this statement:
Look at the carnage all over the world including the World Trade Center, San Bernardino, Paris, the USS Cole, Brussels and an unlimited number of other places.
She and our totally ignorant President won’t even use the term Radical Islamic Terrorism. And by the way, ask Hillary who blew up the plane last night – another terrible, but preventable tragedy.
More on our US election live blog:
20 May 2016
00:36
Here is the full statement from Julie Bishop, Australia’s foreign minister:
I regretfully confirm that one of the passengers on Egypt Air flight MS804, en route from Paris to Cairo was an Australian-UK dual national.
We are working closely with UK authorities, which are taking the lead in the provision of consular assistance to the man’s family.
The government is working with our partners and allies to understand the reasons behind the flight’s disappearance and presumed crash. It is too early to speculate on the cause of this incident.
My thoughts are with the families and friends of those affected.
Out of respect for the man’s family, the government will not provide more details at this stage.
20 May 2016
00:27
The Australian government has said that one of the passengers on board the missing plane was an Australian-UK dual national.
It is unclear at this point if this is Richard Osman, so far identified as the only Briton on the flight.
20 May 2016
00:19
Claire Phipps
Hello, this is Claire Phipps picking up the live blog again.
We have now learned the names of some of the crew aboard MS804.
The captain has been named as Mohamed Said Shoukair.
Mohamed Mamdouh Ahmed was the first officer, and Mirvat Zaharia Zaki Mohamed was the head flight attendant.
20 May 2016
22:35
Here’s what we know so far about EgyptAir flight MS804, which went missing en route from Paris to Cairo at 2.30am local time Thursday morning.
Updated
at 12.47am BST
20 May 2016
22:24
Though officials have said terrorism is the most likely cause of MS804’s disappearance and assumed crash, a US intelligence review have of satellite imagery has so far not shown evidence of an explosion, Reuters reports.
Reuters cites officials from several US agencies.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the conclusion was the result of a preliminary examination of imagery and cautioned against media reports suggesting the United States believed a bomb was responsible for the crash. The United States has not ruled out any possible causes for the crash, including mechanical failure, terrorism or a deliberate act by the pilot or crew, they said. National security adviser Ben Rhodes has meanwhile told reporters that the White House is not making any claims about what happened to the missing plane.
"Our Government has not reached a formal determination about what took place," says @rhodes44 about the EgyptAir crash. | Air crash | May 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(The Telegraph)', '(The Guardian)'] |
American Republican politician Bill McCollum proposes stricter immigration legislation for the U.S. state of Florida, similar to that in the U.S. state of Arizona. | Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican running for governor, has proposed immigration legislation that seeks to toughen measures against illegal immigrations in the state.
The proposal would require police to check a suspected illegal immigrant's status while enforcing other laws.
The move could throw Florida into a heated immigration debate ahead of mid-term elections on 2 November.
The proposal is similar to a disputed law introduced in part in Arizona.
A judge in Arizona last month issued a temporary injunction blocking elements of that law from coming into effect - including a requirement that police check the immigration status of suspected criminals. Increased penalties
Enforcement officials in Florida are currently allowed to check a person's immigration status, but are not required to as they would be under the proposed new law.
The legislation would also require Florida businesses to use a verification system to ensure new employees are legally authorised to work and increase penalties for illegal aliens who commit crimes in Florida, according to a statement released by Mr McCollum's office.
The statement also states illegal aliens would face increased prison terms in Florida under the revised legislation.
Mr McCollum's office said the immigration proposal "goes one step further" than the law passed in Arizona, by "giving judges and law enforcement more tools" in dealing with immigrants. "Florida will not be a sanctuary state for illegal aliens," Mr McCollum said in the statement.
He added: "Floridians want to see their elected officials provide leadership to the challenges of illegal aliens living our state."
Florida, in the south-east corner of the US, is a large migration hub for immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America.
Mr McCollum said at a event on Wednesday he thought Arizona was "going to want this law".
Mr McCollum's office said it had made changes to the draft legislation to strengthen it against constitutional challenges, after parts of the Arizona law were blocked by a federal judge in late July.
The measure in Arizona, which requires immigrants to carry documentation or face a misdemeanour charge, is on hold while a federal court battle continues. | Government Policy Changes | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Paul in Sheffield, England, suffers damage due to a fire. There were no injuries. A 40–year–old woman has been arrested and charged with arson, burglary and assault of an emergency worker. | A woman has been charged with arson after a fire at Sheffield Cathedral and will appear before magistrates later.
The fire broke out on Thursday night in a part of the building used by a homelessness charity.
South Yorkshire Police said a 40-year-old woman had been charged with arson with recklessness endangerment and burglary.
The woman is also accused of assaulting an emergency worker for allegedly spitting at two police officers.
The alarm was raised at the cathedral shortly after 18:00 BST on Thursday.
Fire crews reported a window had been smashed at the rear of the building and clothing had been set alight in one of the rooms.
| Fire | May 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 13 people are killed and dozens of others are declared missing as a result of a Nepal flash flood after a mountain river burst its banks. | At least 13 people have died in Nepal and dozens more are missing, police say, after a mountain river burst its banks, causing flooding around Mount Annapurna in the west of the country.
Three Russian tourists trekking in the area are among the missing. Their names have not been released.
The floodwaters have swept into Pokhara, Nepal's second biggest city. Police have been trying to reach the village in the Mount Annapurna area where the flooding started.
Fast-flowing floodwaters from the swollen Seti River smashed into two buildings and a number of shacks in Kharapani village, in the shadow of Mount Annapurna, police official Shailesh Thapa told the AFP news agency. A number of people were swept away along with their houses and livestock. Police are searching for more victims.
"Tourists flock to this area because there is a hot-water spring," an official from the Annapurna Conservation Area Project, named only as Paudel, told the AFP news agency.
"There hasn't been any rain recently, so we were surprised when the flood occurred at 09:30.
"The water has risen so high that it was up to a bridge. I found two truck drivers who had survived by fleeing to a hill nearby."
May is the end of the trekking season, but before the monsoon. The cause of the flood is not yet known. One report said an avalanche on Annapurna had caused the river to back up before it burst its banks.
| Floods | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
India has launched its Resourcesat–2A imaging satellite via its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket. | India has launched its Resourcesat-2A imaging satellite on Wednesday morning via its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket. The ISRO launch, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, occurred on schedule at 10:24 India Standard Time (04:54 UTC) from the center’s First Launch Pad.
Indian Launch:
Wednesday’s launch, India’s seventh and final of 2016, caps what was already the country’s busiest year for space launches.
Including Wednesday’s, six of India’s launches this year were made by the workhorse PSLV rocket, with the seventh using the larger Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk.II.
It is the third year in a row that India has increased the frequency of its satellite launches; making four launches in a year for the first time in 2014, and beating this with five in 2015. All six of India’s 2016 launches to date have been successful.
ISRO began 2016 with a salvo of three launches to complete the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), a constellation of geosynchronous navigation satellites. Made by PSLV-XL rockets, these launches took place in January, March and April. A further PSLV-XL launch in June deployed the Cartosat 2C reconnaissance satellite along with a cluster of secondary payloads.
Early September saw the GSLV Mk.II rocket record a third consecutive successful launch, deploying the INSAT-3DR communications satellite. India’s most recent launch, at the end of September, used a PSLV-G rocket to deploy the SCATSAT-1 ocean research satellite and seven small satellites.
*Click here for ISRO coverage*
The payload for Wednesday’s launch was Resourcesat-2A.
A replacement for the five-and-a-half-year-old Resourcesat-2, this is a 1,235-kilogram (2,723 lb) remote sensing satellite that is expected to provide data to help monitor natural resources. Designed for a five-year mission, the spacecraft will operate in a circular sun-synchronous orbit, 817 kilometers (508 miles, 441 nautical miles) above the Earth at an inclination of 98.718 degrees, completing one revolution every 101 minutes and 21 seconds.
The Resourcesat spacecraft, along with the Cartosat and Oceansat programs, are the successors to ISRO’s Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) series of satellites which began launching in 1988. The first two satellites, IRS-1A and 1B, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soviet Vostok-2M rockets making the antepenultimate and final flights of the Vostok series.
A third satellite, IRS-1E or P1, was constructed from an engineering model built alongside the original satellites and intended as a relatively low-risk payload for the PSLV’s maiden flight in September 1993. IRS-1E was lost when the PSLV failed to achieve orbit.
The IRS-P2 satellite, launched successfully on the PSLV’s second mission, in October 1994, as a demonstrator ahead of a second-generation pair of satellites. These – IRS-1C and 1D – were launched in 1995 and 1997, the former aboard a Russian Molniya-M/2BL and the latter atop India’s own PSLV. During the IRS-1D launch the PSLV’s fourth stage underperformed, leaving the satellite in a lower-than-planned orbit.
Another experimental IRS satellite, IRS-P3, was launched by a PSLV in March 1996. The IRS-P4, P5 and P6 satellites, launched by PSLVs in May 1999, May 2005 and October 2003 respectively, began the Oceansat, Cartosat and Resourcesat series of spacecraft.
Resourcesat was the direct successor to the primary IRS satellites. Despite being designed for a five-year mission, it remains operational after thirteen years in orbit alongside its replacement, Resourcesat-2, which was deployed in April 2011.
Resourcesat-2A has been built to similar specifications as Resourcesat-2, and carries the same instrumentation as both Resourcesat-2 and Resourcesat-1 before it.
The primary imaging payload is the Linear Imaging Self Scanner 4 (LISS-4), a high-resolution visible and near-infrared camera with a resolution of 5.8 meters (19 feet).
A medium-resolution instrument, LISS-3, will produce images at a resolution of 23.5 meters (77.1 feet) while the lower-resolution Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) can image a 740-kilometre (460-mile) swath at resolutions of up to 56 meters (184 feet). The swath width for LISS-4 is 70 kilometers (43 miles), while for LISS-3 it is 141 kilometers (87.6 miles).
All three cameras can operate in multiple spectral bands; all three can capture green, red and near-infrared light, at wavelengths of 0.52-0.59 nanometres, 0.62-0.68 nanometres, and 0.77-0.86 nanometers respectively. LISS-3 and AWiFS have an additional short-wave infrared band, at 1.55-1.70 nanometres.
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was used to place Resourcesat-2A into orbit. The rocket used for Wednesday’s launch flew in the PSLV-XL configuration, and had flight number C36.
It was the thirty-eighth PSLV launch since the rocket was introduced in 1993; thirty-five of its previous launches have been successful; its maiden flight failed and another early launch – with the IRS-1D satellite, a predecessor of the Resourcesat series – was a partial failure due to upper stage underperformance. Since the IRS-1D launch the PSLV has achieved thirty-three consecutive successful launches in nineteen years.
PSLV C36 launched from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) on Sriharikota, an island on India’s east coast about 70 kilometers (40 miles) north of Chennai.
Formerly known as the Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR), the facility was renamed in 2002 following the death of former ISRO chairman Satish Dhawan. All of India’s orbital launches have been made from the site.
The First Launch Pad was constructed ahead of the PSLV’s début launch in 1993, replacing the launch pads to the south which had been used for the earlier Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) and Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV).
Both the First Launch Pad, and the nearby Second Launch Pad, can accommodate the PSLV and the larger Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), although since the second pad became operational in 2005, it has been used for all GSLV launches; with the PSLV continuing to use both pads. At the First Launch Pad, rockets are integrated at the launch pad within a mobile service tower; in contrast to the Second Launch Pad where assembly takes place in a separate integration building with the rocket being transported vertically to the pad for final preparations.
PSLV is a four-stage rocket, using a mixture of solid and liquid-fuelled stages. The first and third stages use solid propellant, as do the six strap-on boosters which augment the first stage as the rocket climbs through the lower regions of Earth’s atmosphere, while the second and fourth stages are liquid-fuelled.
The first stage, or PS1, uses an S-138 motor. The six boosters which provide additional thrust during the early stages of flight are PS0M-XL rockets, powered by S-12 motors. The PSLV-XL uses PS0M-XL boosters in placed of standard PS0M motors used on the rocket’s standard, or PSLV-G, configuration.
First stage ignition occurred at the zero mark in the countdown. Four of the strap-on motors are ground-lit, igniting in pairs 0.42 and 0.62 seconds after the first stage, while the final pair are air-lit. These are started twenty-five seconds after liftoff.
The ground-lit solids were jettisoned at the end of their burn; with the first pair separating 69.9 seconds after liftoff and the second pair following two tenths of a second later. The air-lit motors separated 92 seconds into the flight.
Burnout and separation of the first stage occurred one minute and 50.48 seconds after liftoff. Two tenths of a second later the second stage’s Vikas engine ignited, beginning an approximately two-minute, 30-second burn.
Vikas burns a mixture of hydrazine hydrate and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) – designated UH25 – oxidized by dinitrogen tetroxide. It is a license-built version of the Viking engine that was used by Europe’s Ariane family of rockets prior to the introduction of the modern Ariane 5.
Forty seconds into the second stage’s burn, the payload fairing separated from around Resourcesat-2A at the nose of the rocket. At this point the vehicle was at an altitude of around 126 kilometers (78 miles, 68 nautical miles) and the fairing was no longer be needed to protect the satellite from Earth’s atmosphere.
Two minutes and 31.28 seconds after the second stage ignites, it shut down its engine and separated. The third stage – or PS3 – ignited its S-7 motor 1.2 seconds after stage separation, burning for around 70 seconds.
Once the third stage burned out, the vehicle coasted towards the apogee of its trajectory. The spent third stage remained attached during this coast, separating at eight minutes, 41.72 seconds mission elapsed time. The fourth stage, PS4, ignited ten seconds later.
The PS4 uses monomethylhydrazine (MMH) propellant, oxidized by mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON). It burned for eight minutes and 16.54 to establish a circular deployment orbit at an altitude of 827 kilometers (514 miles, 447 nautical miles) and an inclination of 98.719 degrees; slightly above what will become the satellite’s operational orbit. Forty-seven seconds after the end of the fourth stage burn, Resourcesat-2A separated from the PSLV.
The launch of Resourcesat-2A concluded India’s scheduled launches for 2016. ISRO’s next launches are scheduled for January; with 18 January a possible date for the first orbital launch of the new Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk.III. A PSLV launch with the Cartosat-2D imaging satellite is also scheduled for the start of the year. | New achievements in aerospace | December 2016 | ['(PSLV)', '(NASASPACEFLIGHT)'] |
Greece experiences its first forest fires of the summer season. | Two large forest fires, the first of the summer season, were "partly contained" at sundown, a top firefighter told reporters on Saturday.
The two fires, one northeast of Athens and one southeast of the city, spread quickly, aided by gale force winds up to 65 kilometres per hour.
By sundown, winds had dropped to about 32km/h, but were expected to pick up on Sunday morning.
The most serious of the two fires broke out about 1pm local time (1000 GMT, 2000 AEST) Saturday in a mountain ravine near the coastal resort town of Kalamos, 45km northeast of Athens.
The fire spread southeast, in the direction of the town of Marathon and the nearby Marathon Lake, which serves as a major reservoir for the Greek capital. It stopped well short of both, but threatened five villages along the way. Four of the villages were evacuated.
"The fire is now partly contained.... It is still expanding in two ravines, one near Kalamos and the other (to the south), but has been contained on other fronts," Lieutenant-General Apostolos Gerokostas, deputy head of Greece's fire service, told reporters.
Dozens of fire trucks, 12 planes and four helicopters fought the fire. The aircraft cannot operate at night.
A few houses in the area sustained minor damage. No casualties were reported.
"I saw only one building, a guesthouse, completely burned," Gerokostas said.
Another fire had broken out earlier near the port of Lavrio, southeast of Athens, forcing authorities to evacuate a scout camp. Authorities said the fire was under control by sundown.
Forest fires regularly break out in Greece in the summer season, aided by the combination of hot, dry weather and high winds. Huge forest fires devastated a large area east of Athens in 2009. | Fire | July 2010 | ['(WAtoday)'] |
Voters in Serbia go to the polls for an election, which Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić of the conservative Serbian Progressive Party is expected to win. In projections, Vučić gets around 55% of the votes, avoiding a second round. , | Conservative Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic won Serbia's presidential election on Sunday by a huge margin, confirming his domination of the Balkan country as he pursues a delicate balancing act between Europe and Russia.
Vucic, 47, avoided a run-off by taking around 55 percent of votes; his nearest rival, opposition candidate and former rights advocate Sasa Jankovic, trailed on just over 16 percent, according to a two projections by polling groups CRTA and Ipsos.
Vucic will take on the largely ceremonial post at the end of May, but is expected to retain de facto power through his control of Serbia's ruling Progressive Party.
The result marked a political humiliation for Serbia's beleaguered opposition parties, which say Vucic's rule is increasingly autocratic. Vucic made clear his change of job would not alter the former Yugoslav republic's geopolitical balance between the European Union, which Vucic wants Serbia to join, and Russia, with which Serbs share their Orthodox Christian faith and Slavic heritage.
He thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both of whom he met during the election campaign. "For me it is important this election demonstrated that a large majority of Serbian citizens favours the continuation of the European path while maintaining close ties with China and Russia," Vucic told cheering supporters. Despite economic growth and greater fiscal stability, Serbia remains mired in poverty and corruption. But to his supporters, Vucic is a firm hand in a troubled region.
"I voted for stability, we've had enough wars," said Bozica Ivanovic, a 65-year-old pensioner who voted for Vucic. "We need more jobs for younger people and if we can get higher pensions and salaries, even better." Vucic's opponents, however, say he has an authoritarian streak that has led him to take control over the media in Serbia since his party rose to power in 2012 and he became prime minister three years ago. He denies the charge but has struggled to shake it given his record when last in government in the dying days of Yugoslavia. Then in his late 20s, Vucic was Serbia's feared information minister behind draconian legislation designed to muzzle criticism of the government during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.
"If there's no second round, that means we live in a society that is politically immature," sociologist Jovo Bakic told N1 television. "Where else do you not get a second round? In North Korea." Twenty-five-year-old student Luka Maksimovic, who ran as a white-suited parody of a sleazy political fraudster called Ljubisa "Beli" Preletacevic, came third with just over nine percent, picking up the votes of Serbs disillusioned with the country's political class. "I voted for Beli," said 30-year-old Dejan Markovic, an unemployed metal worker. "The so-called opposition candidates have betrayed us in the past and Vucic is lying to us all now, so Beli is the only way to mock all this hypocrisy."
As president, Vucic will have few formal powers, among them the right to send legislation back to parliament for reconsideration.
But he is widely expected to appoint a loyal ally as prime minister and try to keep a tight rein on policy, as former President Boris Tadic, then of the Democratic Party, did between 2004 and 2012. Some analysts said that could prove difficult. "Vucic will now be distanced from everyday policy-making and executive affairs and will have to rely on a proxy," Eurasia Group wrote on March 30. | Government Job change - Election | April 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)', '(CNBC)'] |
A bomb explodes in a mosque in the Indonesian city of Cirebon in West Java with at least one person dead and seventeen injured. | A bomb exploded in a mosque inside the Cirebon Police Headquarters compound in West Java after Friday prayers at 12:50 p.m.One man, believed to be the bomb carrier, died and a number of police officers were wounded in the explosion, including the Cirebon Police chief, Metro TV said.The bomb squad have arrived at the scene and are currently securing the area. All victims were taken to Gunung Jati Hospital.The story is developing.
Suicide Bomber Identified | Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(Jakarta Globe)'] |
Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah calls on his supporters to leave the protests, warning the government's resignation will lead to "chaos" and "civil war". It comes the day after Hezbollah supporters violently clashed with protestors in central Beirut. | Hassan Nasrallah hails reforms won by protesters but says demands have been hijacked and calls supporters leave streets.
Lebanon’s influential Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has warned that the fall of the government could lead to “chaos”, or “God forbid” civil war, calling on supporters to leave the streets as mass anti-establishment demonstrations entered their ninth day. In a widespread outburst of anger against corruption and deteriorating living standards, people from across Lebanon’s sectarian and political divide have been pouring onto the streets and blocking major roads to demand the resignation of the country’s power-sharing government.
In his anticipated televised speech on Friday, Nasrallah appeared to repeat his previous stance that while the government needed a new agenda and “new spirit”, a change would be a “a waste of time” and not the answer.
“We do not accept the fall of the presidency nor do we accept the government’s resignation and we do not accept, amid these conditions, holding early parliamentary elections,” Nasrallah said.
Instructing his supporters, who had gathered in public spaces to hear his address, to stay away from the demonstrations, Nasrallah argued that the demand coming from the streets had been hijacked in recent days. “The data and information that we have obtained confirm that Lebanon has entered a stage of regional political targeting, and it is no longer just a popular movement,” he said, in comments that were likely to anger protesters.
The Hezbollah chief praised the government reforms announced on Monday at the behest of the protests, which have continued daily since last Thursday. He said the demonstrators have forced the government to approve a 2020 budget with no new taxes, as well as a raft of “unprecedented” reforms which included cutting in half the salaries of some current and former politicians, abolishing the Ministry of Information and other obsolete state institutions and reforming the listless state-run power sector.
However, protesters were duly disappointed with the reforms announced by Prime Minister Saad Hariri and have continued taking to the streets to call for doing away with Lebanon’s sectarian government.
Lebanon’s power-sharing system based on 18 recognised religious groups dates back to French colonial rule, allocating posts for each of the country’s communities and forming the basis of its major political parties.
Nasrallah warned that demands for a government resignation could cause a “vacuum”. In his first address since the crisis began, President Michel Aoun on Thursday suggested a government reshuffle was a possibility, an idea that was welcomed by Hariri.
Hezbollah, which is aligned with Iran, has been largely resistant to any move that would alter the current status quo. The group and its allies are part of the government that came to power last year after months of negotiations. Hariri is not aligned with the group and is therefore considered a shield against the United States sanctioning Lebanon.
Shortly before Nasrallah spoke, groups of people chanting in solidarity with Hezbollah pushed into a peaceful demonstration at a square in central Beirut. The men shouted “we heed your call, Nasrallah,” in reference to the Hezbollah leader.
Following the scuffles, additional riot police with masks and batons were dispatched to the square to defuse the situation, which appeared to be growing more tense.
Some people began lobbing stones and sticks, threatening to quickly turn the so far peaceful protests violent.
“Nasrallah is more honourable than all of them,” the supporters chanted about government leaders accused of corruption by the protesters. “Riad Salameh is a thief,” they shouted, in reference to the central bank governor.
Similar scuffles broke out on Thursday night at the same site in central Beirut. The protests initially began in response to a proposed tax on Whatsapp calls. They are considered unique for both their geographic reach and support across sectarian lines.
The demonstrations have cut roadways, closed schools, and shut banks nationwide for days.
However, numbers have declined since Sunday when hundreds of thousands took over Beirut and other cities in the largest demonstrations in years, but they could grow again over the weekend.
International lenders are as responsible for the growing inequality in Lebanon as the country’s own political elite.
Michel Aoun urges demonstrators to accept proposed economic reforms but his speech leaves protesters unsatisfied.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
The World Health Organization reports a record increase in global COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with the total rising by more than 292,000. | (Reuters) - The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Friday, with the total rising by 292,527.
The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. Deaths rose by 6,812. The four countries have dominated global headlines with large outbreaks.
The previous WHO record for new cases was 284,196 on July 24. Deaths rose by 9,753 on July 24, the second largest one-day increase ever. Deaths have been averaging 5,200 a day in July, up from an average of 4,600 a day in June.
Nearly 40 countries have reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the last week, around double the number that did so the previous week, according to a Reuters tally showing a pick-up in the pandemic in every region of the world.
Cases have been on the rise also in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Bolivia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Uzbekistan and Israel, among others.
Last week, cases in Latin America for the first time surpassed the combined infections in the United States and Canada, a Reuters tally showed. Infections are surging in Brazil, which is second in the world behind the United States in cases and deaths.
Globally there are over 17.4 million infections and nearly 675,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
Reporting by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Howard Goller
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Disease Outbreaks | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
19 people are killed in a fire at a shopping centre in Doha, Qatar. | A fire at a shopping centre in the Qatari capital Doha has killed at least 19 people, local officials have said.
The interior ministry said 13 of the victims at the Villaggio centre were children. Four of them were Spanish nationals, three from New Zealand and one child was French.
The cause of the fire - believed to have started in the centre's nursery - is being investigated.
The Villaggio is a popular shopping centre in the small Gulf state. The centre - which opened in 2006 - has a cinema, a hotel and a Venice-styled theme park.
The blaze started at about 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT) on Monday, Qatari Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani said. It is believed to have started at the centre's Gympanzee nursery, and firefighters reportedly had to break through the roof to get to trapped children when a staircase collapsed.
But the firefighters were too late to save seven young girls and six boys who died with four of their teachers, reports say.
Four of the children who died were Spanish, foreign ministry officials in Madrid said, without giving further details. In Paris, the minister in charge of French expatriates, Yamina Benguigui, said that a three-year-old French child died in the blaze. New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key later confirmed that three of the dead children were New Zealanders, adding that they were believed to be triplets, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reports.
Two civil defence officials - said to be firefighters - were also among the victims, the interior ministry said.
All the victims died of asphyxiation, reports say.
"We tried our best, but when we got there, the children were trapped inside. We are very sorry for what happened. We tried as much as we could to save these people," Sheikh Abdullah told reporters.
Black smoke billowing from the centre and also a lack of floor plans are believed to have hindered the rescue operation.
Medics were treating the injured after police evacuated the complex. "There don't seem to have been any fire alarms or sprinklers at the mall," a relative of one of the victims told Reuters. One teacher told the BBC: "I was in Pizza Express in the mall... with 17 children, aged three to four. We were making pizzas as part of a school trip.
"The first we knew of the fire was when we saw the smoke, there were fire alarms going off in the building but they were barely audible. They were not sounding in the individual shops, they were so quiet. We were so lucky to be near the exit.
"The idea that the emergency services turned up a minute after the call about the fire was made is nonsense - they arrived after we were all safely outside and the fire was well under way," Ms Amanda said.
Reports say that the evacuation was very chaotic and there is some criticism of the way the incident was handled by the emergency services. The fire was later extinguished. | Fire | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
A 15–hour protest about police–related deaths, in Thalang on Thailand's Phuket Island in the Andaman Sea, turned into a riot when the crowd attacked the Thalang Police Station with rocks and fire bombs. Two young men were killed in a motorcycle crash while being chased by police. Fourteen police were injured, nine cars were torched, 13 others and five motorcycles damaged. While numerous people were inconvenienced by the blockade, a heart attack patient died on his way to Thalang Hospital when the ambulance couldn't get through the crowd. | Scores of local residents in a small rural town in Phuket island joined the protest, throwing stones and setting fire to police vehicles before they were dispersed early Sunday.
At least nine cars were set alight and 11 others were damaged by the angry mob, which threw objects at a police station, with officers trapped inside.
Details are not yet clear but about 5pm it was reported in one online social network that a crowd of about 100 had gathered outside the Thalang Police Station in Thepkasattri Road, Phuket’s main north south thoroughfare. 700 Army and Police reinforcements were called in to handle the mob that surrounded the police station. “It was loud and chaotic”, Amnuay said, adding that officers were instructed to keep calm and not retaliate.
Seven police vehicles were torched last night at the Thalang Police Station where several hundred protesters hurled petrol bombs and stones over the deaths of 17-year-old Therapong Srisamut and Pathomwat Panarak, 22, who reportedly died earlier Saturday when a police pick-up truck crashed into a motorcycle they were attempting to flee upon.
Fox News reports that the recently deceased were on a motorcycle when local authorities initiated the deadly pursuit – a pursuit which occurred because, according to Police Lt. Col Amnuay Kraiwuttinan, the two men are drug suspects.
Police are investigating the deaths of the two Thai men, who were aged 17 and 22. The crash left both victims with severe head injuries and they were pronounced dead upon arrival at Thalang Hospital.
However, relatives of the dead men and the angry crowd accuse the police of overreacting.
Phuket police chief Pachara Boonyasit vowed there would be a fair trial for anyone held responsible, but his assurances were met with skepticism.
Prawut Thawornsiri, the police spokesman, posted on Twitter that four police officers who were involved in the incident had been transferred to the Region 8 Provincial Police headquarters, pending investigation. | Riot | October 2015 | ['(AP via Fox News)', '(Celebcafe.org)', '(Immortal.org)', '(PhuketWan Tourism News)'] |
Voters in New Zealand go to the polls, electing all members of their House of Representatives and the consequent Prime Minister. | Jacinda Ardern’s revitalised Labour party is looking to upset prime minister Bill English’s plans for a fourth term for National
Last modified on Mon 11 Jan 2021 21.24 GMT
Voting has opened in New Zealand’s most exciting general election in years, with New Zealanders asked to decide between the status quo of National or taking a punt on new Labour leader Jacinda Ardern. Polling booths opened in libraries, schools and town halls around the country at 9am (9pm Friday GMT) and will close at 7pm, after which results begin to roll in immediately. A record number of voters have already cast their vote since booths opened in selected areas on 11 September. More than 1.2 million people cast an early vote this year, compared with 717, 579 in 2014.. On Friday long lines were reported at polling booths around the country in what the electoral commission has just confirmed was the biggest day of advance voting on record with 253, 473 casting their vote. The commission estimates 3,569,830 New Zealanders are eligible to vote this year.
Archaic legislation bans campaigning in any form on voting day itself, including banners, T-shirts and roadside advertising. New Zealand media is banned from publishing any politics-related articles other than how and where to vote. Even members of the public are unable to discuss their voting choices on social media until the polls close, in case they influence those who have yet to cast their ballot.
New Zealanders are being asked to choose between prime minister Bill English’s National party, which has had nine years at the tiller; Jacinda Ardern, just seven weeks into her leadership of a revitalised Labour party; the Greens, or one of the plethora of smaller parties, which include New Zealand First, the Opportunities party, the Maori party, Act and the New Zealand Outdoors party.
With the 120 seats in parliament elected via constituency and party lists, coalitions – formal or otherwise – are the norm and English or Ardern could be forced to court a kingmaker. According to opinion polls, that could be Winston Peters, leader of the populist, anti-immigration New Zealand First.
Two months ago the crawl towards the general election was looking pre-determined. National, led by ex-finance minister English, was polling well and looked set to be returned comfortably to a fourth term in government.
Labour’s Andrew Little had failed to connect with voters, and on 1 August he stepped down as leader, nominating his 37-year-old deputy Jacinda Ardern to take his place – although she had previously said she had no interest in the job. But within days Ardern’s campaign of “relentless positivity” set fire to the political landscape. Labour soared in the polls, climbing 20 points in a matter of weeks to overtake National as the preferred party, with Ardern ahead of English as preferred prime minister. “The Jacinda effect, also known as Jacindamania, has been looming for a long time because she is a politician who has been a rising star and someone with a strong X-factor and charismatic personality for a few years now,” said Bryce Edwards, a political commentator. “At this point the Labour party seems to have gone from a grey old party with a lot of doom and gloom about them, to a party of Corbyn-esque excitement and similar support.”
The UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn recently sent Ardern a video message of support, urging her to win “for all of us”. However, in the last 10 days of campaigning, Labour’s momentum has began to falter and it has dropped seven to 10 points in the last three major polls.
The opposition’s campaign suffered significant damage when Ardern announced a tax working group would be set up to explore how best to tackle the country’s housing crisis, refusing to rule out the introduction of new taxes.
A later clarification that no new taxes would be introduced before the next election in 2020 was not enough to stop National from seizing the chance to launch an assault on the party’s economic credibility, claiming there was a NZ$11.7bn (AU$10.7bn/£6.3bn) hole in Labour’s fiscal plan. It was a claim not backed by a single economist, but one English rolled on with.
National, which has promised NZ$2bn of tax-cuts for middle-income earners, also claimed Labour would raise income tax – a charge Ardern labelled “scaremongering” and “lies”. In the final week the Labour leader pleaded with young New Zealanders – who, alongside women, are her most loyal supporters – to get out and vote. “We have called and knocked on thousands of doors and now we’re at the critical moment,” she said. “If you’ve seen any of the polls you know this is an election that is going to come down to turnout … please, please make sure you vote.”
For many New Zealanders the twists and turns of the 2017 election campaign have been unsettling, rather than exciting. Many are reluctant to upset the status quo, which has seen New Zealand’s economy survive the global financial crisis and two major earthquakes.
Tamati McLean, 38, a meat-worker from Bulls in the north island, told the Guardian he plans to vote for English because he does not trust Labour to deliver on its promises, which include eradicating child poverty, building 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years, and introducing a water tax.
“Jacinda has been saying all these things but until I see it with my own eyes I am sticking with National,” he said. “I need to see it with my own eyes to become real, and with National, I have seen it – so I believe it.” | Government Job change - Election | September 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Met Office issues travel warnings for parts of Wales, Scotland and England as Storm Doris, described as a “weather bomb”, brings gales, heavy rain and snow to the United Kingdom. At least one person is killed. | Woman dies in Wolverhampton as high winds, heavy snow and rain also bring major disruption to roads, trains and flights
First published on Thu 23 Feb 2017 06.31 GMT
The Met Office has declared Storm Doris a “weather bomb” as gales and snow hit parts of Britain.
High winds brought widespread travel disruption on roads, rail, in the air and on the water. A woman died in Wolverhampton city centre after suffering serious head injuries after being hit by falling debris.
In Cornwall, a man was taken to hospital after being rescued by firefighters when a tree hit his van on the A374 near Torpoint. The extent of his injuries was not known.
The QE2 bridge in Dartford, Kent, the Orwell bridge in Suffolk and the Severn bridge between England and Wales were closed because of the high winds. The port of Liverpool was closed due to gusts of 100mph. In Scotland, the M80 was closed between Glasgow and Stirling because of heavy snow but later reopened.
In north Wales, a 94mph gust hit Capel Curig, although later wind speeds of 80mph were recorded, suggesting the storm had passed its peak. Winds of 60mph-plus were reported elsewhere. A weather bomb is an intense low-pressure system with a central pressure that falls by 24 millibars in a 24-hour period.
The Met Office extended its amber – be prepared – warning covering Wales and much of England to London, where winds were expected to reach 60-70mph. It said damage to structures, interruptions to power supplies and widespread disruption to travel networks were likely, and there was a danger of injury from flying debris. Trees were likely to be damaged or blown over, it said.
#StormDoris continues to bring very strong winds, heavy rain and snow in places. Here are the highest wind gusts so far
Aer Lingus cancelled 12 flights within England and between England and the Republic of Ireland, while Heathrow advised passengers to check for delays and cancellations before travelling. Network Rail imposed speed restrictions on some lines, and services were disrupted by debris and fallen trees. Damage to overhead power lines in St Albans caused trains from St Pancras station in London to be cancelled. Network Rail warned of disruption till midday.
More than 200 homes in Macclesfield, Cheshire, lost electricity because of a fallen tree and there were also reports of power outages on the island of Anglesey, north Wales.
An amber warning of snow remains in place for north-east England and southern and central Scotland. The Met Office said up to 30cm was possible on higher ground.
Yellow – be aware – warnings were in place for Northern Ireland and the rest of Scotland, for wind and snow respectively. In the Republic of Ireland, where Met Éireann issued a yellow warning predicting winds of up to 75mph, almost 50,000 homes were without power on Thursday morning, mainly due to fallen trees knocking down power lines.
Highways England issued a weather alert on major roads. It said high-sided vehicles, caravans and motorbikes were particularly at risk, and it “strongly advised” drivers to avoid travelling on some stretches of road in Yorkshire, the Midlands, and the east and north-west.
Richard Leonard, the head of road safety at Highways England, said: “We’re expecting Storm Doris to have a significant impact on the roads throughout the day so are urging drivers to consider changing their plans if necessary and to slow down in stormy weather. Drivers should look out for warnings on the electronic message signs and listen for updates in radio travel bulletins.”
AA spokesman John Snowling said: “The unpleasant combination of torrential rain, severe gales and heavy snow will create some very poor driving conditions, with the potential for roads to be affected by black ice, debris or standing water.
“Wind can also bring down tree branches, blow you off course or blow other vehicles into your path. Expect travel disruption as some roads will be treacherous.”
Storm Doris is expected to move on quickly, with the worst of the weather gone by Thursday evening. More wind and rain is forecast for the weekend and into next week, but it is not expected to reach the extremes of Doris. The bad weather contrasts with earlier in the week when visitors to Kew Gardens in west London enjoyed the UK’s warmest day of the winter so far, at 18.3C (64.9F). Parts of London and the south of England had temperatures warmer than southern Spain. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2017 | ['(The Guardian)', '(The Independent)'] |
A court in Paris sentences four men to 2–7 years in prison for complicity in the murder of Afghan resistance leader Ahmed Shah Masood in 2001. | The four Islamic militants, who faced up to 10 years in jail, were sentenced to between two and seven years.
Another man was convicted of separate offences, while two were acquitted.
Mr Masood, a leading anti-Taleban fighter, was blown up in 2001, two days before the 9/11 terror attacks, by two Tunisian men posing as journalists.
Those convicted, all of north African origin, were seized by French police who traced passports found on Mr Masood's killers to a Brussels-based militant cell run by Tarek Maaroufi.
Maaroufi was sentenced to six years in prison by a court in Brussels in 2003.
Money changer
Mr Masood was a leading general in Afghanistan's anti-Taleban Northern Alliance. The death of the man revered as the "Lion of the Panjshir Valley" stunned the country's then rebel forces, who were soon called to fight alongside US troops in a campaign against the Taleban in late 2001.
In Paris on Tuesday Adel Tebourski, 41, was handed a six-year sentence after admitting he was a member of an Islamist cell linked to one of the Tunisian killers.
He was accused of changing 30,000 French francs (4,500 euros) into almost $6,000 for Dahmane Abd al-Sattar before he set out on his suicide mission in May 2000.
Frenchman Yousef el-Aouni, 31, received a two-year sentence, while Abderahmane Ameroud, a 27-year-old Algerian, was handed the longest sentence, of seven years.
Another man, 37-year-old Mehrez Azouz, was imprisoned for five years.
A fifth suspect, Khellaf Hammam, 37, was convicted of helping organise paramilitary training for French-based Islamic militants, and was imprisoned for two years. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Raytheon Hawker 800 corporate jet crashes in Owatonna, Minnesota, resulting in at least eight deaths. | Authorities work the scene of a plane crash, Thursday, July 31, 2008, at Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minn. Seven people died when a business jet crashed in heavy weather Thursday at the Owatonna city airport, authorities said. One person was hurt and two more unaccounted for. (AP Photo/The People's Press, Clare Kennedy)
By AMY FORLITI – Jul 31, 2008 OWATONNA, Minn. (AP) — A small jet crashed Thursday while preparing to land at a regional airport in Minnesota, killing eight people, including casino and construction executives.
Authorities initially thought nine people may have been aboard the Raytheon Hawker 800, which went down about 9:30 a.m. at a regional airport about 60 miles south of the Twin Cities.
But by late evening, Department of Public Safety spokesman Doug Neville said it had been confirmed that eight people were on board.
Seven people were dead at the scene. One died later at a hospital. The plane was carrying two pilots.
Severe weather had been moving through southern Minnesota earlier Thursday, but witnesses and the National Weather Service said the storms were subsiding at the time of the crash. It wasn't immediately clear if weather was a factor.
The charter jet, flying from Atlantic City, N.J., to Owatonna, a town of 25,000, went down in a cornfield northwest of Degner Regional Airport, Sheriff Gary Ringhofer said. The wreckage was not visible to reporters because tall corn obscured the crash site.
The debris was scattered 500 feet beyond the airport's runway. Late Thursday, the Dakota County coroner was on the scene working to identify victims.
Cameron Smith, a mechanic at the airport, said he spoke by radio with the jet's pilot just minutes before the crash. The pilot was about to land and was asking where he should park for fuel, Smith said.
He ran to the crash scene to see if anyone could be helped, but saw only a long skid path and debris that he described as "shredded."
He said: "There was no fuselage. There were just parts."
The plane had been scheduled to land at 9:42 a.m., then take off at 11:40 a.m. for Crossville, Tenn.
The only crash victim publicly identified as of early Thursday evening was Karen Sandland, 44, a project manager on the Revel casino project who worked out of Tishman Construction's Newark, N.J. office, company spokesman Bud Perrone said. She was the only Tishman employee on board, said Richard M. Kielar, the company's senior vice president.
Atlantic City Mayor Scott Evans said two high-ranking Revel executives also were among the victims, but he declined to identify them.
Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis issued a statement Thursday night mourning the loss of employees from his company, Tishman and APG International, a Glassboro, N.J., company that specializes in glass facades. DeSanctis did not identify the victims or say how many of his company's employees died.
APG's telephone rang unanswered Thursday night, and no one immediately responded to a fax sent to the company seeking comment.
Don Pyatt, president of glass company Viracon, told the Owatonna People's Press that the customers were from "a couple of different companies" who were coming to the plant to discuss a project in Las Vegas.
Mary Ann Jackson, a spokeswoman for Viracon's parent company, Apogee Enterprises Inc., confirmed to the AP that those on board were Viracon customers, but declined to provide other details. She said no Viracon employees were involved in the crash.
The airport lies alongside Interstate 35 as it skirts Owatonna's western edge. The airport's Web site describes it as "ideal for all classes of corporate aircraft use" with an all-weather instrument landing system.
Sharon Gordon, a spokeswoman for the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which operates Atlantic City International Airport, said the East Coast Jets plane landed at the airport at 7:10 a.m. from its base in Allentown, Pa.
It picked up several passengers and left at 8:13 a.m., requiring no services on the ground. | Air crash | July 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)', '(Wikinews Article)'] |
American swimmer Michael Phelps breaks the record for most Olympic gold medals won by an individual athlete at the Beijing Olympics. | BEIJING -- For Michael Phelps, it's not enough just to set a new standard. He has to demolish the old one.
Winningest Olympian ever? He's two golds past that already and not finished yet, just over halfway to his goal of breaking Mark Spitz's record seven in a single Olympics.
World records? In a sport measured down to the hundredths for a reason, Phelps sets a pace to crush one of them by more than four seconds.
Even when his goggles malfunctioned during the first race of a golden morning in China, the gangly, 23-year-old American squinted through water-filled lenses on the way to, yes, a world record. Of course, he was none too happy to beat it by only six-hundredths of a second.
So un-Phelps-like.
"In the circumstances, not too bad I guess," he said with a shrug. "I know I can go faster."
No wonder his competitors realize they're merely swimming for second.
Monumental challenges for mere mortals seem almost inconsequential to Phelps.
"He is just a normal person, but maybe from a different planet," said Russia's Alexander Sukhorukov, fresh off a thrashing by the Phelps-led Americans but still good enough to have a silver around his neck.
On Wednesday, Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals -- and five world records in five events at the Beijing Games.
A day after etching his name alongside Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis with gold No. 9, Phelps set a standard all his own when he won the 200-meter butterfly. An hour later, he swam the leadoff of a runaway victory by the U.S. 800 freestyle relay team, which shattered the old world mark in becoming the first team to break the 7-minute barrier.
Seemingly impervious to fatigue, he set a blistering pace of 1 minute, 43.31 seconds that got the Americans rolling toward a winning time of 6:58.56.
"Come on! Come on!" he screamed at teammates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay.
The previous record of 7:03.24 was set by the Americans at last year's world championships. Russia took the silver, more than five seconds behind the Americans, who mainly had to make sure they didn't get in the water too soon. Australia won the bronze.
"Safe start! Safe start!" Phelps yelled at Berens before he dove in.
Phelps ended his golden day by qualifying sixth-fastest in the 200-meter individual medley on Wednesday night. He won his preliminary heat in 1 minute, 58.65 seconds, good enough to move on to the semifinals.
After a six-gold performance at the 2004 Athens Games, Phelps needed only five days in Beijing to surpass Spitz, Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi as the winningest Olympian ever.
"I'm almost at a loss for words," Phelps said. "Growing up I always wanted to be an Olympian. Now to be the most decorated Olympian of all time, it just sounds weird saying. It started setting in a little bit after the butterfly. I was just trying to focus on my next race, but I just kept thinking, 'Wow, greatest Olympian of all time.' It's a pretty cool title. I'm definitely honored."
Phelps has three more chances to stretch his lead before he leaves China. He'll swim in the 200 individual medley, 100 fly and 400 medley relay.
"There is still something left in the tank," Phelps said. "I've got three races left, so there had better be something left in the tank."
In his signature stroke, the butterfly, Phelps was second at the first flip, then pushed it into another gear, his long arms gobbling up huge chunks of water as he literally sailed along atop the surface. He finished in 1:52.03, breaking his mark of 1:52.09 from the 2007 worlds.
Phelps barely smiled as he looked at the board, breathing heavily and hanging on the lane rope. Hungary's Laszlo Cseh really pushed it at the end, but settled for silver in 1:52.70. Japan's Takeshi Matsuda took the bronze in 1:52.97.
Phelps rubbed his eyes and said climbing from the pool, "I can't see anything." A pair of leaky goggles kept him from even seeing the wall as he touched.
"My goggles kept filling up with water during the race," Phelps said. "I wanted 1:51 or better."
Still, he had two more golds and two more records before lunchtime, leaving him just three wins away from beating Spitz's record in the 1972 Munich Games.
"There is nobody in our sport that can win like he wins," U.S. head coach Eddie Reese said. "He is not just winning, he is crunching world records."
British swimmer Simon Burnett provided his theory to Reese when they ran into each other in the cafeteria.
"He was saying to me, 'I think I've figured out Michael Phelps. He is not from another planet; he is from the future. His father made him and made a time machine. Sixty years from now he is an average swimmer, but he has come back here to mop up.'"
Phelps is also keeping pace with Spitz on the record front. Spitz set world standards in all his wins at Munich; Phelps is now 5-for-5 in China.
"I'm pumped about our relay," Phelps said. "It's the most fun thing to be in a team environment and be part of a relay. It's cool when you get four Americans who all swim well together. Everyone has to play their part or it's just not going to happen. We've been lucky that we've been able to do that."
The Americans are sure lucky to have Phelps, who is already recognized as the greatest swimmer ever -- sorry, Mark -- and plans to keep competing at least through the 2012 London Games.
After another trip to the medals podium, he flipped his flowers to mother, Debbie, tears pouring down her face as she proudly watched from a front-row seat with her two daughters.
Everyone wanted to get a look at history, including the U.S. men's basketball team. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony were among those cheering on Phelps from poolside seats. James posed for pictures with Phelps' mom.
Three worlds records fell before Phelps even walked on deck the first time. By the end of the morning, six new marks were set. It was impossible to win gold without putting up the fastest time in history. | Break historical records | August 2008 | ['(ESPN)'] |
Arsala Rahmani, a key peace negotiator for the Afghan government, is shot dead by assassins in Kabul, Afghanistan. | Arsala Rahmani was a key member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which leads Afghan efforts to make peace with the Taliban.
Correspondents say his death is a major blow to President Hamid Karzai as Mr Rahmani was key in reaching out to Taliban commanders. It also emerged Afghan forces could soon be in charge of security in areas home to 75% of the population.
Mr Karzai said Afghan National Security Forces will soon take lead responsibility for security in a further 122 areas of the country - a move described as a "significant development" by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
It is expected that all of the country will be under the control of Afghan forces by the end of 2014 when NATO's combat mission will end.
Police say that Mr Rahmani was shot dead on Sunday morning by an unidentified gunman while on his way to work in western Kabul, in what was described as a carefully planned attack.
Gunmen driving a white Toyota Corolla fired a single bullet using a silencer, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul reports. "Mr Rahmani was shot in his heart and died instantly. His nephew, who was also his driver, didn't even realise he had been shot," Kabul police chief Gen Ayub Salangi told the BBC.
There had been threats against his life in the past and questions will be raised as to why he was travelling without an armed bodyguard, our correspondent says.
Last year the chief of Afghanistan's peace council was killed in a suicide attack. Burhannudin Rabbani was killed by a bomb hidden in the turban of a suicide attacker posing as a Taliban peace envoy last September.
His US-educated son, Salahuddin Rabbani, was appointed to replace him last month. The Taliban have denied involvement in the killing of Mr Rahmani. An Isaf statement condemned the killing and paid tribute to Mr Rahmani: "His decision to help make the future brighter for Afghans serves as an inspiration to us all and his contributions will be missed".
Mr Rahmani was one of the first senior Taliban members to join the peace process and his death will be of concern to other Taliban officials considering engaging with the government, a senior presidential aide told our correspondent. He was a critical figure in President Karzai's plans to reach out to Taliban commanders, although it is unclear how many senior leaders he managed to bring into the fold. Nevertheless the president frequently consulted him to gain insight into the inner workings and the thinking of the Taliban leadership. Mr Rahmani was responsible for the committee within the peace council that considers the release of Taliban prisoners from Bagram and other Afghan prisons. He served as minister of higher education in the Taliban administration that ruled Afghanistan for five years until the US drove them from power in 2001. But he had been politically active long before the birth of the Taliban movement, holding political office in Afghan administrations during the 1990s. And he was one of several former Taliban officials removed from a UN blacklist last July as a signal of support for Afghan peace efforts, which meant that a travel ban and assets freeze were lifted. Afghanistan's 70-member peace council was set up two years ago by President Karzai to open negotiations with insurgents. The council was credited with reconciling hundreds of Taliban field commanders, but had failed to woo any senior figures away from the insurgency. Although the Taliban denied sanctioning last year's killing of Mr Rabbani, they view the Western-backed Karzai government as illegitimate.
And in March the militants suspended parallel preliminary peace negotiations with the United States, saying US efforts to involve the Afghan authorities were a key stumbling block.
| Armed Conflict | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Seven people are killed and two injured after a customs boat sinks near the coast of North Sumatra Province in Indonesia. | JAKARTA—Seven people were killed and two more injured when a customs boat caught fire and sank in western Indonesia, a search and rescue official said Saturday.
The boat, which had nine people on board, sank near the coast of North Sumatra province, said Hadi Tugiman, search and rescue chief for Medan city.
“The two injured people are currently being treated in hospital,” he added.
The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands has a poor safety record, and fatal accidents are common.
Up to 335 people were killed when a heavily overloaded ferry sank off Sulawesi island in January last year.
| Shipwreck | July 2011 | ['(AFP via NewsInfo)'] |
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