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The jailing for two years of former Met Police officer Paul Flattley, who sold information to News International daily tabloid The Sun about Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Paul Gascoigne and a 15–year–old girl who died of an overdose, is revealed for the first time today, "legal reasons" having prevented its disclosure until now. | A convicted Scotland Yard constable awarded a coveted "baton of honour" during his training, but who went on to sell the Sun newspaper front-page secrets including the imminent proposal of Prince William to Kate Middleton, can be named today after legal restrictions were lifted in Southwark Crown Court.
Paul Flattley, 30, who was earlier this year jailed for two years at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to charges of misconduct in a public office that took place between 2008 and 2011, had been jointly charged with the Sun's former defence correspondent, Virginia Wheeler.
The decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to end proceedings against Ms Wheeler for medical reasons, means Flattley's name can now be reported.
During PC Flattley's sentencing by Lord Justice Fulford, before he was promoted to the Appeal Court, it was revealed that the Sun had paid the Metropolitan Police officer nearly £8,000 for stories.
He was described as a police officer who had "developed an eye for celebrity stories."
He had passed on information held by the Met on 39 occasions, with 19 tip-offs resulting in lead stories appearing in the best-selling red top.
Counsel for Ms Wheeler insisted that although the CPS were ending its prosecution, she would nevertheless have defended the charges against her vigorously. An attempt to have her name removed from any association with Flattley was rejected.
The hearing which sentenced the police officer heard that at Ms Wheeler's instigation, Flattley, who came to London from Cheshire, had made calls to see if extra Met officers had been deployed to protect Prince William during a period when rumours were swirling about the royal engagement.
Flattley called one of his former sergeants who was then one of the Duchess of Cambridge's close protection officers to check the force's preparations and told the paper he would find out if "an extra old bill" had been sent which might indicate an announcement from Buckingham Palace.
Other royal stories - a key part of the Sun's signature reporting - included a tip-off that Zara Philips had had her handbag stolen from her car. The headlined the tip-off "Zara bag blag".
The court heard that emails between the Sun journalist and the Met officer revealed that a preferred payment method was cash in an envelope handed over after a meeting had taken place. On one occasion the officer was offered £750 as a tip fee, with a text stating there was "much more if it makes front page."
Flattley later replied that he was clear he was engaged in wrong-doing but wanted to be careful because he did not want to "risk losing" his police job.
Other stories Flattley handed to the Sun involved information on the mental health of the former England footballer, Paul Gascoigne, and the failure of the wealthy socialite, Hans Rausing, to stop after a road traffic accident.
Although working as a Met officer in Kensington and Chelsea, he assisted the Sun with enquiries across the entire force.
The Sun paid £400 in 2008 for information on incident at the O2 arena involving the boyfriend of a member of the group, So Solid Crew.
Another tip from Flattley concerned the Arsenal and England footballer, Jack Wilshere.
Ms Wheeler was said to have texted the Met officer back saying she hoped the information "stayed exclusive" so Flattley's fee would be larger.
Force information was also checked by Flattley that helped keep mistaken rumours from being published. These included untrue stories relating to the Chelsea and England footballer, John Terry, and the former government minister, Anne Widdecombe. Flattley was given £400 for assistance on the Tory MP story.
During the sentencing hearing three months ago, Lord Justice Fulford described Flattley's conduct as a police officer as "simply motivated by personal profit."
The judge said his actions were "utterly reprehensible" and would have a "corrosive effect on public trust and confidence."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2013 | ['(The Guardian)', '(The Independent)'] |
Andrew Parker, head of British security agency MI5, states that ISIS terrorists are planning attacks in Great Britain and current terror threat levels are the highest he's witnessed in his career. | Andrew Parker says current level of threat from homegrown jihadis the highest he has seen in a career spanning 32-years
Islamic State terrorists are planning mass casualty attacks in Britain the head of MI5 has warned. Andrew Parker, director general of the security agency, said threats from homegrown jihadis who want to fight for the militant movement showed no sign of abating. He also publicly admitted for the first time that MI5 had to carry out computer hacking attacks against terror networks to crack their communications. Delivering the Lord Mayor of London’s annual defence and security lecture, he said the current level of threat was the highest he had seen in a career spanning 32-years. In the past 12 months his agency has thwarted six terror plots in the UK and another seven abroad. Mr Parker said four fifths of the 4,000-strong agency’s resources were directed at stopping terrorist attacks, with an increasing proportion of them linked to Syria and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
He said: “More than 750 extremists from this country have travelled to Syria, and the growth in the threat shows no sign of abating. “We are seeing plots against the UK directed by terrorists in Syria; enabled through contacts with terrorists in Syria; and inspired online by Isil’s sophisticated exploitation of technology.”
Britons are being rapidly radicalised online and then encouraged to carry out low tech but deadly attacks. He said: “On top of that, in a range of attacks in Europe and elsewhere, this year we have seen greater ambition for mass casualty attacks.”
While the rise of Isil had dominated the headlines in the past 12 months, he said there was still a threat from al-Qaeda terrorists who are also planning massive attacks in the UK. He said: “All of this means that the threat we are facing today is on a scale and at a tempo that I have not seen before in my career.”
The West should join with Vladimir Putin to defeat Islamic State
He went on: “We have thwarted six attempts at terrorist attacks in the UK in the last year, and several plots overseas. “It may not yet have reached the high water mark, and despite the successes we have had, we can never be confident of stopping everything. The death of 31 British nationals in the Sousse attacks in June was an appalling reminder of the threat.”
The scale of the threat meant MI5 had to update its “toolbox” of methods to fight terrorists, including using computer attacks. He said: “This includes the ability to conduct operations online and to mount IT attacks (known as equipment interference), under a warrant authorised by the Home Secretary, against terrorist networks, so that we can access their communications.”
Defending the agency’s ability to access communications data, he said: “We use these tools within a framework of strict safeguards and rigorous oversight, but without them we would not be able to keep the country safe. “As I have said before, we do not, and could not, go browsing at will through the lives of innocent people.” | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(The Telegraph)'] |
Ibrahim Rugova, the President of Kosovo, has announced that he has lung cancer but will not be stepping down. | Mr Rugova, looking weak and frail, said in a TV address to the people of the UN-run province he would have intensive treatment and "overcome this battle".
He will continue to seek his goal of independence from Serbia, he said.
Mr Rugova, regarded as a moderate ethnic Albanian and re-elected last October, was reported to have fallen ill with flu last week.
He cancelled some engagements, and spent several days at the US military medical centre in Landstuhl, Germany.
"Doctors have found that I suffer from a localised lung cancer and they have assigned me an intensive healing therapy," he said. "I am convinced that with the help of God I will overcome this battle."
Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999, when a Nato bombing campaign against Serbia stopped Serb forces expelling the ethnic-Albanian majority during an Albanian separatist insurgency. Mr Rugova led passive resistance to Serbian rule in the 1990s. Correspondents say his illness could endanger talks planned for later this year on the province's future status. | Famous Person - Sick | September 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Portuguese footballer Filipe Morais is "heavily concussed" in hospital after being involved in a car crash. | A professional footballer remains "heavily concussed" in hospital after being involved in a car crash in Greater Manchester.
Oldham Athletic's Filipe Morais was involved in the crash on Sheepfoot Lane while travelling to the club's ground ahead of their game with local rivals Rochdale on Saturday.
Greater Manchester Police said two other cars had been involved.
A club spokesman said he did not know when Morais would be leaving hospital.
"He is in hospital and is heavily concussed," he said.
The club's manager Paul Dickov said after the game with Rochdale, which Oldham lost, that the Portuguese forward had also suffered "quite severe whiplash".
Morais had been due to start for Oldham in the game.
An elderly man who was also involved in the crash was treated for minor injuries at the scene. | Famous Person - Sick | March 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is sentenced to death for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings. | BOSTON — Two years after bombs in two backpacks transformed the Boston Marathon from a sunny rite of spring to a smoky battlefield with bodies dismembered, a federal jury on Friday condemned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 attack.
In a sweeping rejection of the defense case, the jury found that death was the appropriate punishment for six of 17 capital counts — all six related to Mr. Tsarnaev’s planting of a pressure-cooker bomb on Boylston Street, which his lawyers never disputed. Mr. Tsarnaev, 21, stood stone-faced in court, his hands folded in front of him, as the verdict was read, his lawyers standing grimly at his side.
Immediate reaction was mostly subdued.
“Happy is not the word I would use,” said Karen Brassard, who suffered grievous leg injuries in the bombing. “There’s nothing happy about having to take somebody’s life. I’m satisfied, I’m grateful that they came to that conclusion, because for me I think it was the just conclusion.”
She said she understood that all-but-certain appeals meant the case could drag out over years if not decades. “But right now,” she said, “it feels like we can take a breath and kind of actually breathe again.”
The bombings two years ago turned one of this city’s most cherished athletic events into a grim tragedy — the worst terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Three people were killed, and 17 people lost at least one leg. More than 240 others sustained serious injuries.
Last month, after deliberating for 11 hours, the jury found Mr. Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 charges against him in connection with the bombings and the death a few days later of a fourth person, an M.I.T. police officer. The same jury spent 14 hours over three days deliberating the sentence.
With its decision, the jury rejected virtually every argument that the defense put forth, including the centerpiece of its case — that Mr. Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan, had held a malevolent sway over him and led him into committing the crimes.
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U.S. Attorney on Tsarnaev Death Sentence According to verdict forms that the jurors completed, only three of the 12 jurors believed that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had acted under his brother’s influence.
Beyond that, the jury put little stock in any part of the defense. Only two jurors believed that Mr. Tsarnaev had expressed sorrow and remorse for his actions, a stinging rebuke to the assertion by Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and renowned death penalty opponent, that he was “genuinely sorry” for what he had done.
When the jury entered the courtroom at 3:10 p.m. Friday, the forewoman passed an envelope to Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. of United States District Court, who had presided over the case. Jurors remained standing while the clerk read aloud the 24-page verdict form, which took 20 minutes. It was not clear until the end that the sentence was death, though all signs along the way pointed in that direction.
Not a sound was heard in the packed courtroom throughout the proceedings. Those in attendance — survivors, victims’ families, the public, the news media — had been sternly warned that any outburst would amount to contempt of court.
The Tsarnaev verdict goes against the grain in Massachusetts, which has no death penalty for state crimes. Throughout the trial, polls also showed that residents overwhelmingly favored life in prison for Mr. Tsarnaev.
Many respondents said that life in prison for one so young would be a fate worse than death, and some worried that execution would make him a martyr.
But all the jurors in his case had to be “death qualified” — willing to impose the death penalty to serve. In that sense, the jury was not representative of the state.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh said in a statement that the sentencing brought “a small amount of closure to the survivors, families and all impacted by the violent and tragic events.” His statement avoided explicit praise of the verdict.
An examination of the injuries and damage in the blast areas.
Some legal experts said that the jury’s 14 hours of deliberations seemed relatively quick in a case this complex. Eric M. Freedman, a death penalty specialist at Hofstra University Law School, said that the relative speed of the verdict could provide the defense with two possible grounds for appeal: “the failure to grant a change of venue, despite the overwhelming evidence the defense presented about community attitudes in Boston,” he said, and “the failure to instruct the jury that if a single juror refused to vote for death, the result would be a life sentence.”
“Unfortunately for all concerned,” Mr. Freedman said, “this is only the first step on a long road.”
But other lawyers said that 14 hours was not all that fast and doubted that it provided grounds for appeal.
“I’ve seen juries return verdicts in 25 minutes if the evidence is strong,” said Michael Kendall, a former federal prosecutor in Boston. “But rarely do you have a case like this — a crime of such enormity to start with, plus a mountain of evidence and a defendant who is so unsympathetic.”
He said he thought the jury had been struck by Mr. Tsarnaev’s callousness. “After he blows up this child on purpose,” he said of 8-year-old Martin Richard, the youngest of the victims, “he’s out at the convenience store buying milk, then he smokes a little dope and plans on blowing up New York.”
Among those in the courtroom were Bill and Denise Richard, the parents of Martin and of a daughter, Jane, who was 7 when she lost a leg in the attack. Despite their losses, the Richard family had called for Mr. Tsarnaev to receive life in prison. They said they feared that appeals would drag out a death sentence for years, making it hard for them to move forward with their lives.
The jury, which was not sequestered, had been told to shield itself from news accounts of the trial, and it is not known whether word of the Richard family’s decision had filtered through to any of the jurors.
Many of the jurors looked emotionally depleted after the sentence was read, with some near tears. They had been involved in the case since January, when jury selection began, and had heard testimony over 10 weeks, much of it gruesome and horrific as survivors described losing their limbs and their loved ones.
Judge O’Toole did not set a date for formally sentencing Mr. Tsarnaev. But at that point, some of the survivors will have a chance to tell the court — and Mr. Tsarnaev — how the bombings had affected their lives.
It was the first time a federal jury had sentenced a terrorist to death in the post-Sept. 11 era, according to Kevin McNally, director of the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which coordinates the defense in capital punishment cases.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch called the death sentence a “fitting punishment.”
In Russia, when informed of the verdict by a reporter, Mr. Tsarnaev’s father, Anzor, simply exhaled and hung up. He then turned off his cellphone.
Prosecutors had portrayed Mr. Tsarnaev, who immigrated to Cambridge, Mass., from the Russian Caucasus with his family in 2002, as a coldblooded, unrepentant jihadist who sought to kill innocent Americans in retaliation for the deaths of innocent Muslims in American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“After all of the carnage and fear and terror that he has caused, the right decision is clear,” a federal prosecutor, Steven Mellin, said in his closing argument. “The only sentence that will do justice in this case is a sentence of death.”
With death sentences, an appeal is all but inevitable, and the process generally takes years if not decades to play out. Of the 80 federal defendants sentenced to death since 1988, only three, including Timothy J. McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, have been executed. Some of the sentences were vacated or the defendants died or committed suicide.
Most cases are still tied up in appeal.
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If you have a critical piece of feedback for us, you can always reach the newsroom via the Reader Center. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2015 | ['(New York Times)'] |
52 civilians are killed and 55 others are wounded in renewed tribal clashes in Sudan's South Darfur state. | KHARTOUM - Fifty-two civilians have been killed and 55 others wounded in renewed tribal clashes in Sudan's South Darfur State, Khartoum media reported Wednesday.
"Violent clashes broke out Tuesday between Rizeigat and al-Sada tribes at various areas, some 61 kilometers north of Nyala, the capital city of South Darfur State," Khartoum's Al Ahdath daily reported.
In the meantime, Khartoum's Al Ray Al A'm daily quoted commissioner of Wohda in South Darfur State as saying that two security committees of the state and Wohda are present at the sites and that the situation has been under control.
He said that a committee has been formed to calm the tension between the two sides and tackle the root-causes of the problem, according to the newspaper.
He attributed the causes of the problem to the robbery operations and that some criminals seek protection from the tribes after committing crimes.
The western Sudanese region witnesses repeated tribal confrontations due to several reasons including banditry activities and disputes over pastures, besides spread of vengeance among the tribes.
| Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(Kazinform)', '(China Dialy)', '(China.org)'] |
British comic actor and songwriter Sir Norman Wisdom dies in an Isle of Man nursing home. | Big in Albania, and huge in the affection of generations of his fans, comedian Sir Norman Wisdom, one of the last great survivors of the music halls, has died aged 95.
His official website crashed last night under the volume of traffic, as word spread of his death.
His deceptively artless comedy, usually based on his role as "The Gump", a downtrodden, sad faced little man in a battered cap and a deplorably ill-fitting suit, concealed immense technical skill, superb comic timing, and a sharp business mind. Although best known as a performer, he was also a talented song writer
His family announced that he died peacefully in a nursing home on the Isle of Man, where he had lived for the last 30 years in an antiques filled house he designed himself.
"Over the last six months Norman has sustained a series of strokes causing a general decline in both his physical and mental health. He had maintained a degree of independence until a few days ago.
"However, over the last few days his condition rapidly declined. He was in no pain or distress and peacefully passed over at 18.46 on October 4."
Wisdom's admirers included Charlie Chaplin – who called him his favourite clown, and said he was the only serious rival to his own genius – Prince Charles, and the entire population of Albania, where for years under the totalitarian regime of Enver Hoxha his were the only western films approved.
His films, usually dialogue-light and slapstick-heavy, were popular all over the world, but he had a cult following in Albania. It was said that on any day of the year one of his 32 films was showing there in some cinema or television station, and he was greeted as a national hero – under the name of his film character, Norman Pitkin – when the iron curtain fell and he could finally visit.
He knew exactly how much he would be missed: two years ago he had the satisfaction of clarifying a few points when Sky News ran an affectionate obituary online in error. "Sir Norman is alive and well and wondering what all the fuss is about", his statement read.
His own theme song was Don't Laugh at Me Cause I'm a Fool, but he was anything but. He was famous in a spendthrift industry for how careful he was with money, saving as soon as he began to earn, and making stock market investments. Undoubtedly this was rooted in his earlier life, when he knew hunger and neglect.
He was born in London in 1915, one of two sons of a dressmaker and a chauffeur. His parents divorced, unusually for the time, and he was nominally brought up by his father, although he learned young to look after himself and spent time in a children's home.
He recalled in an interview that often the two boys survived by stealing food from shops and stalls, but were sometimes at a loss to know how to prepare it: their attempt to fry eggs in the shells was a failure.
He left school at 13 for a 10 shilling job as a Liptons Teas delivery boy, and went on to work as a pageboy in a ladies' club, a cabin boy – after, he insisted, walking from London to Cardiff to join the merchant navy – and having learned in his days as a bandsman in the army, a useful boxer despite his slight frame.
His showbusiness break came unusually late in 1946, in the last days of the music halls circuit, when he began as the straight man to magician David Nixon, and then got his own slots as a comedian, singer and dancer. Within six years he was a film star, and appearing in the Royal Variety Show.
As his early film career waned in the 1960s, he reinvented himself several times, as a straight actor – winning rave reviews for his role as a dying cancer victim in a 1981 television play, Going Gently – and as a stage and television cabaret star. He was knighted in 2000.
He formally retired at the age of 90, by then almost completely deaf, but continued to make occasional television appearances. He lived alone in the house he designed and built on the Isle of Man until three years ago, when he moved into a nearby nursing home.
Phil Day, who had been Sir Norman's publicist since 1969, paid tribute to him tonight as a "lovely man" who was "100% professional". Day, who chose Wisdom to be his daughter's godfather, said: "He never turned down any request. He never threw a tantrum. He was 100% professional all of the time.
"Of all the artists I've ever worked with, he's been the closest. It's a sad day."
He admitted the star could be "unpredictable", adding: "Whatever he said, you had to look for the tongue in the cheek to see if he was serious."
Day said: "I have never met anyone in the profession who didn't like him, right up to royalty.
"I've been with him with members of the royal family and the hairs on the back of my neck have stood up at things he's said. I can't think of anyone else who could get away with it."
Day visited Sir Norman at his nursing home last year and said that despite his failing health, he remembered pretending to stumble after receiving his knighthood from the Queen in 2000, asking: "Do you remember when I tripped?" | Famous Person - Death | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Gregory and Travis McMichael are arrested for murder and aggravated assault in relation to the February shooting of an African American man in Brunswick, Georgia. | Two men have been arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault for the February shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, were arrested on Thursday evening and were booked into the Glynn County Jail.
"Based on our involvement in this case...within 36 hours we secured warrants, that speaks volumes for itself to the probable cause in this case," said GBI's Director Vic Reynolds at a press conference on Friday morning.
Cellphone video showing the moment Arbery was killed has prompted national outrage since surfacing online on Tuesday afternoon, but his mother said she can't bring herself to watch it.
"I don't think I'll ever be in a mental state where I can actually watch the video. I had others that watched it that shared what they saw and that just was enough," Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC News in an interview that aired Thursday morning on "Good Morning America."
In the 28-second video, Arbery, who is black, can be seen jogging around a neighborhood just outside the port city of Brunswick on a sunny afternoon on February 23. The footage ends with three loud gunshots.
Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael, who are both white, told police they grabbed their guns and hopped in their truck to pursue Arbery after seeing him running in their neighborhood, because they believed he was responsible for several recent burglaries. The father claimed his son got out of the truck holding a shotgun and was attacked by Arbery, according to a police report obtained by ABC News.
The two men tussled over the firearm before Arbery was shot, as seen in the cellphone video, which was allegedly taken by a bystander.
Two prosecutors recused themselves from investigating Arbery's murder citing conflicts of interest since Gregory McMichaels is a retired Glynn County police officer and investigator with Brunswick's district attorney's office.
Tom Durden, the district attorney for the Atlantic Judicial Circuit, was assigned the case in the middle of April by the state's attorney general. Durden brought in the GBI to investigate on Tuesday evening, Reynolds said.
The McMichaels were charged with felony murder and aggregated assault charges.
Reynolds said on Friday there will be no hate crime charges. "There is no hate crime in Georgia," Reynolds said, adding, "Georgia is one of I think four or five states left in the union that doesn't have any hate crime."
The GBI is also investigating who leaked the cellphone video onto social media and threats against the Glynn County Police Department.
Arbery, who lived in Brunswick, one town over from where the McMichaels reside, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Glynn County coroner. No weapons were found on him, according to the police report.
"I'm managing, it's really hard," Arbery's mother told ABC News Thursday. "It's really been hard."
"It’s outrageous that it has taken more than two months for Ahmaud Arbery’s executioners to be arrested, but better late than never," Ben Crump, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement. "This is the first step to justice. This murderous father and son duo took the law into their own hands."
Prior to the pair's arrest, Cooper-Jones told ABC News she believed authorities hadn't taken them into custody because Gregory McMichael had a lengthy career as an investigator in the Brunswick district attorney’s office before recently retiring.
"I think that they don't feel like he was wrong because he was one of them," she said.
After the video circulated on social media Tuesday, a large crowd of protesters marched through the neighborhood where Arbery was killed. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations announced Wednesday that it was opening its own probe into the Feb. 23 incident.
S. Lee Merritt, one of the attorneys representing Arbery's family, demanded answers Thursday morning and had asked for the immediate arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael.
"Prosecutors will need a grand jury in order to formally indict these men, but that has nothing to do with actually going out and arresting the men seen on camera murdering a 25-year-old unarmed black man," Merritt told ABC News in an interview that aired Thursday on "GMA."
"The prosecutors actually have the option, if they so chose to, to directly indictment and skip the entire grand jury process," he added. "It's something that happens all the time in our legal system, and this would certainly be an appropriate moment."
The McMichaels' attorney did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment Wednesday, and the McMichaels themselves did not return phone calls.
Arbery would have turned 26 years old on Friday. Cooper-Jones described her late son as humble, kind, well-mannered and beloved by his family and peers. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou does well in a second round of municipal elections including its candidates elected as mayors of Athens and Thessaloniki. | Greece's governing Socialists have won control of the capital, Athens, in the second round of local elections dominated by the country's debt crisis.
Prime Minister George Papandreou's Pasok party also won most races for regional governors.
Mr Papandreou said he had received a mandate from voters to press on with his austerity plan.
IMF and EU officials are due in Athens on Monday for talks on implementing a 110bn euros ($150bn;£93bn) rescue loan.
In Sunday's run-offs, Socialist-backed mayoral candidates won in both Athens and Thessaloniki - Greece's second-largest city - reversing a string of conservative victories dating back to 1986.
In addition, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) won eight of 13 races for regional governor - including in the greater Athens area.
Commenting on the results on Sunday, the prime minister said: "We have ahead of us a clear three-year period... to save and change Greece once and for all.
"We will put all our weight behind the major changes which will allow Greece to breathe, to stand up on its feet."
Pasok came to power last year. Its parliamentary mandate expires in 2013.
Last week Mr Papandreou dropped his threat to call a snap general election after Pasok avoided heavy defeat in the first round of regional elections.
New figures also due on Monday are expected to show Greece's budget deficit for last year was worse than previously declared.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2010 | ['(PASOK)', '(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Surrey defeat Glamorgan by 39 runs on the Duckworth–Lewis method to achieve a world record for the highest score in 40–over cricket in the CB 40 at The Oval. | Surrey maintained their hopes of securing a semi-final place in the Clydesdale Bank 40 with a comfortable 39-run victory over Glamorgan at The Oval.
The Lions racked up 386 for three - a new world record total in 40-over cricket - sparked by a maiden one-day hundred from Rory Hamilton-Brown and an elegant 88 off 63 balls from Steven Davies.
Mark Ramprakash and Matthew Spriegel then went to share in an unbeaten stand of 142 for the fourth wicket.
Chasing a revised target of 227 in 20 overs, the Dragons battled bravely without ever threatening to turn the contest on its head.
Mark Cosgrove hit 88 off 55 balls, sharing in a rousing fifth-wicket partnership of 85 in six overs with Jamie Dalrymple, who made 54 not out.
In a match initially reduced to 38 overs per side, Surrey set off at nearly 10 runs an over after being inserted by the visitors.
They were able to maintain that rate even after Hamilton-Brown and Davies were parted in the 20th over with the total on 190.
Hamilton-Brown's 50 came off only 33 deliveries. Davies was no slouch either, his half century taking just 44 balls.
Hamilton-Brown brought the 50 up for the Lions in the fifth over with a huge on driven six off Will Owen. Six overs later, Davies posted the pair's third three-figure opening stand in this season's CB40 by despatching Robert Croft through extra cover for four.
Having lifted Dean Cosker and David Brown over long-on for maximums, Davies was eventually caught at long-off off the bowling of Cosgrove.
Glamorgan let Hamilton-Brown off the hook on three occasions - on 24, when he should have been run out at the non-striker's end, on 40, when Mark Wallace missed a stumping chance off Cosker and on 95 when the Surrey skipper edged a drive past the wicketkeeper, again off Cosker. The second and third reprieves were immediately followed up with Hamilton-Brown sixes.
After making 115 off 69 balls, Hamilton-Brown departed in the 25th over, holing out to long-on; though not before Huw Waters had caught and bowled Stewart Walters for 18.
But Surrey were not finished there. Ramprakash raced to his 79th domestic one-day 50, which he reached in just 35 deliveries, and brought up the hundred partnership in the 36th over with the second of four successive boundaries off Owen.
Ramprakash ended up with 85 not out from 46 balls. Spriegel's contribution to Surrey's mammoth total was an unbeaten 56 in 39 deliveries.
Croft was caught behind off Chris Tremlett in the fifth over of Glamorgan's reply, whereupon the heavens opened. When play resumed, the visitors refused to lie down, despite losing Will Bragg and David Brown cheaply.
Tom Maynard made a breezy 19, which included a six over third man off Steven Cheetham, but the bulk of the entertainment was supplied by Cosgrove and Dalrymple, whose 54 off 23 balls included four sixes. | Sports Competition | August 2010 | ['(BBC Sport)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(Sky Sports)'] |
The Swedish Supreme Court rejects a bid from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to revoke the warrant for his detention in 2010. | The Supreme Court in Sweden has rejected Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's request to revoke a warrant for his detention. Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition from Britain.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's appeal was denied by the Swedish Supreme Court on Monday. The Australian had filed a request to revoke the warrant for his detention following complaints of sexual harassment in 2010.
"The Supreme Court notes that investigators have begun efforts to question Julian Assange in London. The Supreme Court finds no reason to lift the arrest warrant," the court said in a statement.
Sweden issued the arrest warrant in 2010 after two Swedish women accused the internet activist of rape and assault. Assange, who has not been charged, sought refuge with the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 to avoid getting arrested and being sent to Stockholm for questioning.
After nearly five years of uncertainty regarding the case, Swedish investigators finally offered to interrogate Assange in London this year. The Wikileaks founder has denied all allegations against him, arguing that his sexual encounters with the two women were consensual.
The Australian has avoided travelling to Stockholm, suspecting he could be sent further on to the USA, where authorities are looking into the 2010 Wikileaks release of 500,000 classified military files on US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The leaks also included 250,000 diplomatic cables which proved to be very embarrassing for Washington.
mg/msh (AFP, Reuters)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to be questioned over rape allegations at Ecuador's London embassy. The development could break a five-year deadlock in the case. (16.04.2015) | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2015 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
The Iraqi military says "unidentified snipers" have shot four people dead on the streets of Baghdad amid protests, including two police officers, with dozens of others wounded by sniper fire. Reuters reporters witness at least one protester being shot in the head by a sniper, killing him. | The death toll in anti-government protests that have swept Iraq the past five days has soared to at least 70, security and medical sources say. The figure has more than doubled since Friday, as clashes between protesters and police intensified.
The military said "unidentified snipers" had killed four people in Baghdad, including two police officers.
However the authorities lifted a daytime curfew in the capital early on Saturday.
Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi earlier said protesters' "legitimate demands" had been heard, but appealed for calm.
Spontaneous protests erupted on Tuesday amid frustration over Iraq's high youth unemployment rate, its dire public services and chronic corruption.
It is seen as the first major challenge to Mr Mahdi's fragile government, nearly a year since he came to power.
Despite the prime minister's plea for patience, Iraqis continued to throng the streets in their hundreds on Friday. An indefinite curfew imposed by authorities in the capital, as well as an internet blackout, also failed to prevent protesters from gathering.
According to Reuters, security forces were seen firing live rounds at protesters trying to reach Tahrir Square in the capital Baghdad - where much of the unrest has been focused. A Reuters reporter on the ground said several people had been hit by bullets, some in the head and others in the stomach.
At least 10 people were killed there on Friday alone, according to medical and security sources.
This is said to include the four Iraqis shot by sniper fire.
The violence has also affected majority Shia Muslim areas in the south, including Amara, Diwaniya and Hilla. A number of deaths were reported on Friday in the southern city of Nasiriya, about 320km (200 miles) away.
In his first speech since unrest began, Prime Minister Mahdi vowed early on Friday to respond to protesters' concerns but warned there was no "magic solution" to Iraq's problems.
He said he had given his full backing to security forces, insisting they were abiding by "international standards" in dealing with protesters.
Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged the government to respond to the demands for reform, saying it has "not answered the demands of the people to fight corruption or achieved anything on the ground".
Meanwhile, Moqtada Sadr - another highly influential Shia cleric who leads the largest opposition bloc in parliament - demanded the Iraqi government resign and call snap elections.
Mr Sadr also instructed his lawmakers to pull out of parliament, until the government devises a programme acceptable to the wider public.
The UN and US have expressed concern over the violence, and urged the Iraqi authorities to exercise restraint. Human rights group Amnesty International has also appealed for the security forces to be reined in.
Corruption, unemployment and poor public services are at the heart of the discontent faced by young Iraqis today. The unrest began spontaneously with no formal leadership in mostly Shia areas in the south, and quickly spread.
Iraq has the fourth-largest reserves of oil, but 22.5% of its population of 40 million were living on less than $1.90 (£1.53) a day in 2014, according to the World Bank. One in six households has experienced some form of food insecurity.
The unemployment rate was 7.9% last year, but among young people it was double that. And almost 17% of the economically active population is underemployed.
The country is also struggling to recover after a brutal war against the Islamic State group, which seized control of large swathes of the north and west in 2014. | Riot | October 2019 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Japanese PM Shinzō Abe arrives in Saudi Arabia in his first visit to the Middle East, where he expects to mediate between the United States and Iran amid heightening tensions. |
25
P/SUNNY
JIJI, Kyodo, Staff Report
AL-ULA, SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has expressed full support for Japan’s dispatch of a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer and patrol aircraft to the Middle East, during a meeting with visiting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday.
At the talks, held in Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia’s northwest, Abe sought Riyadh’s understanding and cooperation for the MSDF mission in the sea off Yemen and Oman, which Tokyo says is aimed at gathering information to ensure the safe navigation of ships in the region, including those owned or operated by Japan.
In response, the crown prince, who has taken charge of domestic politics for aging King Salman, said that his country fully supports Japan’s efforts. Abe and the crown prince confirmed that Japan and Saudi Arabia will work together for stability in the Middle East and safe navigation in the region.
Japan is sending SDF personnel and assets to enhance its own intelligence-gathering capabilities in areas that include the Gulf of Oman and part of the Arabian Sea.
But the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, a key shipping lane, is out of scope for the mission, as Japan wants to draw a clear distinction between its own deployment and a U.S.-led maritime security initiative that Tokyo has not joined.
Two MSDF P-3C patrol planes that have been engaged in anti-piracy patrol missions off Somalia are set to begin their Middle East mission later this month, while a Takanami destroyer operated by the force is slated to leave for the region on Feb. 2.
On growing U.S.-Iran tensions that have led to an exchange of military strikes, Abe said an armed conflict in the Middle East, including Iran, would greatly affect peace and stability not only within the region but also elsewhere in the world.
Noting that any further escalation in the situation must absolutely be avoided, Abe emphasized that Japan would patiently continue making maximum diplomatic efforts to help ease the tensions and stabilize the regional situation.
The Saudi crown prince said that he completely agreed with Abe’s views, adding that dialogue between the countries concerned is crucial and that Riyadh will further enhance its own efforts.
They affirmed that relevant countries should join forces to stabilize the Middle East situation and de-escalate the tensions.
Earlier this month, a U.S. airstrike killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, prompting Tehran to retaliate by firing dozens of ballistic missiles on two Iraqi bases being used by U.S. forces.
Stability in the Middle East is critical for Japan, which depends on the region for more than 80 percent of its crude oil imports. The crown prince vowed to continue paying utmost attention to the stability of crude oil supplies from Saudi Arabia to Japan.
Photos tweeted by Abe’s official Twitter account Sunday local time showed both Abe and the crown prince grinning as they met.
It was not clear if Abe had broached the issue of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi during the meeting with the crown prince, though he did not do so during their meeting last June.
The crown prince has been dogged by questions about Khashoggi’s death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
A U.N. report has called the killing a “premeditated extrajudicial execution” and said there is “credible evidence” suggesting the crown prince’s involvement.
The Japanese government has called the killing “extremely regrettable.” Abe is trying to mediate between Washington and Tehran using Japan’s close alliance with the United States and its long-standing friendship with Iran.
The prime minister was visiting Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a five-day Middle East tour that started Saturday. After Saudi Arabia, he is scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Saudi Arabia, a Sunni power and major rival of Shiite Iran, apparently hopes to prevent the regional tensions from boiling over. It is a member of the U.S.-led coalition for ensuring maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz.
Abe and the crown prince also affirmed close cooperation between their countries for the success of a series of Group of 20 gatherings, including a summit meeting, set to be hosted by Saudi Arabia this year. Japan hosted last year’s meetings of the world’s top 20 advanced and emerging economies.
Earlier on Sunday, Abe held a meeting with King Salman.
They exchanged views on the Middle East situation, aiming to defuse tensions between the United States and Iran. | Diplomatic Visit | January 2020 | ['(The Japan Times)'] |
Eight police officers are injured and eight people are arrested during a riot in Sandy Row, south Belfast. | Arlene Foster appeals to young people not to join violence after eight police officers injured in loyalist area
Stormont’s first minister has joined calls for calm after riots in Belfast, urging young people “not to get drawn into disorder” and parents to protect their children.
Eight police officers were injured after being pelted with bottles, bricks and fireworks in a loyalist area of the Northern Irish capital on Friday evening. Eight people were arrested, including a 13-year-old boy.
Arlene Foster, the Democratic Unionist party leader, said: “I know that many of our young people are hugely frustrated by the events of this last week but causing injury to police officers will not make things better. And I send my strong support to all of the rank-and-file police officers that are on duty over this Easter weekend.
“I appeal to our young people not to get drawn into disorder which will lead to them having criminal convictions and blighting their own lives. I also ask parents to play their part and be proactive in protecting their young adults.” The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, described the incident as “completely unacceptable”.
“Violence is never the answer. There is no place for it in society,” Lewis said. “It is unwanted, unwarranted and I fully support the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] appeal for calm.”
He also said his thoughts were with the eight officers injured.
The riots, in Sandy Row, followed four consecutive nights of disturbances in the unionist Waterside area of Derry. It comes against the backdrop of tensions within loyalism across Northern Ireland.
Loyalists and unionists have argued that post-Brexit trading arrangements create barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Tensions escalated further this week after authorities decided not to prosecute 24 Sinn Féin politicians over their attendance at a large-scale republican funeral during Covid-19 restrictions.
The main unionist parties have demanded the resignation of Simon Byrne, the chief constable of the PSNI, saying he has lost the confidence of the community.
On Friday night, the Belfast district commander, Ch Supt Simon Walls, said a “small local protest quickly developed into an attack on police”.
On Saturday, he described it as a “real tragedy” that children as young as 13 and 14 were among those arrested. “I think it’s a tragedy that any child in Northern Ireland is sitting in a custody suite this morning and facing criminal investigation, possibility of being charged and possibility of facing a criminal conviction,” he said.
“It shouldn’t happen. And that’s why I’m very keen that people with influence try to ask anyone intent on violence to please step back. It’s not the way to resolve tensions or arguments.
“I would encourage anyone who has influence to use it now and stop the rioting before anyone else is injured, or worse.
“Local communities do not want to be dragged back to the past. They deserve to live in safe and peaceful areas, free from rioting, violence and wanton destruction of their communities,” he added. | Riot | April 2021 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Bulgarians head to the polls to elect new members of the National Assembly. | . Bulgaria, a small Balkan nation of 7 million that is the European Union's poorest country, rarely grabs international headlines. Yet there are a number of reasons why Europeans should care about Bulgaria's election -- from defending the rule of the law to opening accession talks with North Macedonia, or containing the pandemic in the hard-hit Balkans. Here is what is at stake. Anti-corruption NGO Transparency International ranks Bulgaria as the most corrupt of the 27 nations in the EU. Last summer, thousands of Bulgarians have rallied daily for several months, decrying widespread, deep-rooted corruption and degradation of the rule of law. They were calling for Borissov’s government and chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev to resign over allegations they allowed an oligarchic mafia to seize control of the Balkan country. Protesters also said they were fed up with the ruling style of Borissov, who has been in power since 2009. But Borissov refused to resign, saying he could not give up to chaos amid a health and economic crisis. Therefore, Sunday's elections are regularly scheduled elections as protests failed to trigger snap elections. While protests have dwindled in recent months due to the looming election and the pandemic, three parties are campaigning on protesters' demands:
But according to Petar Bankov, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow, "we should not overestimate the effects of the protest movement" in the polls. The Bulgarian politics expert told Euronews that support for these three parties was either stagnating or declining. "The effects of the protests are waning out due to the lack of a unifying figure or political entity," Bankov said. Speaking to Euronews ahead of the election, Maria Mateva an activist at Justice for All, who joined the protests from day one, said the stakes of the elections were high. "We have been in a status quo for a very long time (...), a status quo that maintains very high corruption levels. "So I think it's very important that we break this model," Mateva went on, adding that she was not optimistic over the outcome of this election. "I believe our arrogant and unqualified government will put their best efforts to sabotage the vote and stay in power," she said. "The election protocols are more complicated than ever. The commissions will lack some experienced members due to the pandemic and the replacements will be from the parties in power," Mateva added. Wary of electoral fraud, the activist has volunteered as a vote count observer. MEPs sided with the protesters in a resolution voted in October last year that intended to defend the bloc's democratic principles. "The European Parliament deeply regrets that the developments in Bulgaria have led to significant deterioration of respect for the principles of rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights, including the independence of the judiciary, separation of powers, the fight against corruption and freedom of the media," the resolution said. But Borissov is well connected in EU circles and a long-time member of the powerful European People’s Party (EPP), making it delicate for Brussels to lash out at him. Mateva told Euronews that she wished the EU had stricter binding mechanisms in place to ensure respect for the rule of law in her country. "I'm very happy with all the recommendations, all the reports, but to be honest, in our case, they don't have the expected results," she said. "The perception of many Bulgarians is that European funding is providing a lifeline to the government," Bankov told Euronews. The expert welcomed the bloc's new rule of law mechanism that ties respect for the EU's core democratic values with EU funding. "This would be something that could potentially work for Bulgaria," he said, even though the conditionality of EU funds has drawn strong pushback from eastern EU countries. Bulgaria has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with infection and mortality rates spiralling in recent weeks. The Balkan country now has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the EU, behind Hungary and about equal to the Czech Republic. The deteriorating health situation prompted the government to impose new restrictions on March 18, including the closure of schools, universities, malls, culture, and sports venues. Borissov had been reluctant to impose an unpopular lockdown ahead of the election despite soaring infection numbers. Over the past week, Bulgaria reported on average 3,670 news cases per day, according to John Hopkins University. That is a three-fold increase in one month. WHO said the situation in the Balkans and Central Europe was "particularly worrying." The country's vaccination campaign has been slow and the country is lagging behind other EU nations. Only 5% of the population has received at least one injection, compared to 11% on average for the bloc. Bankov said the main impact of the pandemic on the election will likely be a low turnout, in the absence of postal or proxy voting. "We do see parties that are pandering to anti-lockdown sentiment," Bankov also noted, "especially populist party There Is Such a People." "We also see the government currently using the pandemic for its own political benefits," the scholar went on, noting for instance that the government announced a lockdown easing for Thursday -- just before election day and despite soaring infection numbers. Other experts think COVID anxiety may benefit the government. Dimitar Ganev, an analyst from the research firm Trend, told AFP that voters usually favoured the status quo in times of uncertainty. Bulgaria's election may shape the outcome of North Macedonia's EU membership talks. Bulgarian authorities vetoed in November last year the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia. Bulgaria insists North Macedonia formally recognise that its language has Bulgarian roots and stamp out what it says is anti-Bulgarian rhetoric in the country before it will lift its objections to the country joining the bloc. Last week, MEPs voted a resolution putting pressure on Sofia to lift its veto. Recalling "North Macedonia’s cooperative and constructive approach throughout the negotiations," EU lawmakers "called on the two countries to reach a compromise over an action plan that includes concrete measures." Bankov told Euronews there was currently a "consensus between the opposition and the government about the Bulgarian stance" on North Macedonia's accession talk. One factor, however, is whether or not anti-Macedonian party VMRO makes it to parliament at the election. It is currently polling around the 4% threshold, Bankov said
"If they manage to enter into parliament, it could make it easier for them to continue with the current coalition (...), which would essentially mean that there would be no major changes in the government's stance on North Macedonia." On the contrary, a government without VMRO could "moderate its stance," the scholar said. Bulgaria, Moscow’s closest ally during the Cold War, is a member of NATO but remains heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies. Last week, Sofia expelled two Russian diplomats after Bulgarian prosecutors said they had dismantled an espionage ring reporting to Moscow. Borissov, who portrays himself as pro-West, called on Russia "to stop spying in Bulgaria" following the incident and received support from both Washington and London. Meanwhile, the Socialist opposition is traditionally friendlier to Russia. But Bankov nuanced the binary opposition between a pro-Western Borissov and a pro-Russian opposition. Borissov is like a "Janus face, in the sense that he just wants to get along with everyone," the expert told Euronews. "So if he has to be anti-Russian in front of his Western partners, he will be. If he has to a bit more, say Russia friendly to another audience, then he will be as well." The expert didn't think that this balancing exercise between Russia and the West would change fundamentally with the election. A least three different scenarios may emerge from Bulgaria's elections. "As it looks, one very possible coalition would be between GERB, There Is Such a People and VRMO," Bankov said. So far There Is Such a People has ruled out entering a coalition with GERB, the Socialist Party or the movement for rights and freedoms. (Source: Europe Elects)
Another option would be a so-called "grand coalition" between GERB and the socialists, Bankov said. Even if the Socialist Party has so far rejected the idea, some of the socialist candidates have openly said that they were in favour of an "expert government," Bankov noted
"If they [all parties that can potentially enter parliament] keep to their pre-electoral promises, the most likely outcome will be new elections to coincide with the presidential elections in the fall," Bankov said. "And that will definitely work in favour of Borissov, just because GERB is a major party" with the resources to handle several national campaigns at the same time. | Government Job change - Election | April 2021 | ['(Euronews)'] |
At least six people are killed as an elementary school bus carrying dozens of students crashes in Chattanooga, Tennessee. | Updated on: November 21, 2016 / 8:48 PM
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Bloodied students lay on stretchers, while other children walked away dazed with their parents after an elementary school bus crash that killed six Monday in Chattanooga.
Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston told media outlets that five people were killed at the scene and one died at the hospital. Melydia Clewell, spokeswoman for the district attorney, confirmed the number.
Police said the ages of the students ranged from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said 35 students were on board on the bus when it crashed, according toCBS Chattanooga affiliate WDEF. At a news conference, Fletcher said that the bus was the only vehicle involved.
Fletcher said the crash was “every public safety professional’s worst nightmare.”
Fletcher said police were interviewing the bus driver to determine what happened and told reporters later that investigators were looking at speed “very, very strongly” as a factor. The bus was the only vehicle involved but the crash scene covers a significant area, he said.
The Chattanooga Fire Department’s Public Information Director, Bruce Garner, said in a tweet that 23 patients were taken to hospitals in ambulances.
Colonel Tracy Trott of the Tennessee Highway Patrol tweeted that children were both killed and injured:
My heart goes out to the families of the children that were killed & injured in the school bus crash in Chattanooga this evening. TT
The police department said the bus driver is cooperating in the investigation.
“We just wanted to inform you that Hamilton County schools faced a great tragedy today,” read a text message sent to parents in Tennessee’s Hamilton County on Monday, according to WDEF. “School and county personnel are on scene of a bus accident on Tally Road in Chattanooga. Extra counselors and support staff will be on hand to help students process this horrible incident.”
The NTSB said Monday evening they will send a team to investigate.
NTSB launching Go Team to investigate school bus crash in Chattanooga, TN. Team to deploy a.m. of Tuesday, 22 Nov.
Shocking pictures posted to social media from the scene of the accident showed a tree slicing through the crashed school bus.
Last patient just extricated from bus by #ChattFire here at school bus crash on Talley Rd. EMS is transporting. pic.twitter.com/0GhrSSy0Wc
Governor Bill Haslam issued a statement on the deadly bus crash.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with victims of today’s tragic school bus crash in Chattanooga,” the statement said. “It’s always a very sad situation when you have a school bus crash with children involved and we will do everything we can to assist the local authorities and the victims’ families.”
Transportation company Durham School Services confirmed that its bus was involved in the crash and said it could not answer questions at this time due to the active investigation.
JUST IN: statement from Durham, that operates the bus pic.twitter.com/PQuecuMxBd
| Road Crash | November 2016 | ['(CBS News)'] |
Astronomers discover the largest known explosion ever in the history of the Universe, which occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. It replaces MS 0735.6+7421. As space and ground telescopes that study radio emissions improve , more similar explosions, or "giant radio fossils", may be found. | by International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the Universe since the Big Bang.
The blast came from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy hundreds of millions of light-years away.
It released five times more energy than the previous record holder.
Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the event was extraordinarily energetic.
"We've seen outbursts in the centres of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive," she said.
"And we don't know why it's so big.
"But it happened very slowly—like an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years."
The explosion occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, about 390 million light-years from Earth.
It was so powerful it punched a cavity in the cluster plasma—the super-hot gas surrounding the black hole.
Lead author of the study Dr. Simona Giacintucci, from the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, said the blast was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which ripped the top off the mountain.
"The difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas," she said.
Professor Johnston-Hollitt said the cavity in the cluster plasma had been seen previously with X-ray telescopes.
But scientists initially dismissed the idea that it could have been caused by an energetic outburst, because it would have been too big.
"People were sceptical because of the size of outburst," she said. "But it really is that. The Universe is a weird place."
The researchers only realised what they had discovered when they looked at the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster with radio telescopes.
"The radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove," said co-author Dr. Maxim Markevitch, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"This is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here."
The discovery was made using four telescopes; NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA's XMM-Newton, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India.
Professor Johnston-Hollitt, who is the director of the MWA and an expert in galaxy clusters, likened the finding to discovering the first dinosaur bones.
"It's a bit like archaeology," she said.
"We've been given the tools to dig deeper with low frequency radio telescopes so we should be able to find more outbursts like this now."
The finding underscores the importance of studying the Universe at different wavelengths, Professor Johnston-Hollitt said.
"Going back and doing a multi-wavelength study has really made the difference here," she said.
Professor Johnston-Hollitt said the finding is likely to be the first of many.
"We made this discovery with Phase 1 of the MWA, when the telescope had 2048 antennas pointed towards the sky," she said.
"We're soon going to be gathering observations with 4096 antennas, which should be ten times more sensitive."
"I think that's pretty exciting."
| New wonders in nature | February 2020 | ['(which are better than X–ray observations for detecting these)', '(Phys)', '(CNN)', '(Astrophysics via arXiv at Cornell University)'] |
Chile confirms its first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. The case involves a 46-year-old woman whose partner was infected while in Haiti. | BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Chile has confirmed its first case of the Zika virus having been sexually transmitted, the health ministry said in a statement on its website on Saturday.
The virus is linked to thousands of suspected cases of birth defects in Brazil.
The new case in Chile is that of a 46-year-old woman whose partner was infected while in Haiti. Chile, where the mosquitoes that transmit the virus are not found, has confirmed 10 cases of Zika involving people infected outside the country.
There is growing evidence that suggests a link between Zika and microcephaly in babies. The condition is defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.
Brazil said it has confirmed more than 900 cases of microcephaly and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.
U.S. health officials recommend that women wait at least two months, and men at least six, before attempting to conceive after infection with Zika.
| Disease Outbreaks | March 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Over 600 people are poisoned by lead in Zhejiang, eastern China. | More than 600 people,including 103 children,have been sickened due to lead poisoning in China’s Zhejiang province.
Workers and their children in 25 family-run tinfoil processing workshops in Yangxunqiao have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood,official Xinhua news agency said.
Results of preliminary medical tests showed that 26v adults and 103 children are suffering from severe lead poisoning,or with more than 600 micro grams of lead per litre of blood,a spokesman with the county’s health bureau said.
The 129 poisoning victims are undergoing a second test,and 12 of them are receiving treatment at a local hospital,the spokesman said.
Another 494 people have moderate lead poisoning,or with 400 to 600 micro grams of lead per litre of blood,the spokesman said.
Lead is commonly used in tinfoil processing.
Medical experts say that children tend to absorb more lead than adults which can lead to fatal levels of lead in their blood.
Excessive amounts of lead in the blood can damage the digestive,nervous,and reproductive systems and cause stomach-aches,anaemia and convulsions.
The 25 workshops have suspended operations,according to the township government. In the township of Yangxunqiao,more than 2,500 people are employed by nearly 200 tinfoil processing workshops. | Mass Poisoning | June 2011 | ['(Xinhua)', '(Indian Express)'] |
Protesters take to the streets in Iran as the government introduces petrol rationing and raises prices. | TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The Iranian government's last-minute decision to ration monthly fuel allotments, as well as increase the price of gas, triggered protests and riots -- a rarity in the Islamic republic -- according to Iranian media reports.
The oil ministry issued a statement at 9 p.m. Tuesday that the restrictions would go into effect at midnight.
That prompted hundreds of thousands of car owners to line up for miles at gas stations late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Others took to the street in protest, burning at least 12 gas stations in Tehran and looting other businesses, according to Fars News Agency.
Under the order, most Iranians will be limited to about 26 U.S. gallons (100 liters) per month. The ministry also announced the price would be raised by more than 20 percent to 11 cents per liter (about 42 cents a gallon).
The riots took place across Iran's major cities, including the holy city of Mashhad and Arak, where Iran's heavy water plant is located, according to Iran's official news agency, IRNA.
The riots were so intense that fire engines could not reach the burning gas stations, Fars reported, adding that the security forces and the Basij militia were trying to get the situation under control until 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Video showed streets jammed with cars waiting for gas. Some drivers returned to their cars with plastic cans, even a ceramic pitcher, filled with gasoline.
Fuel consumption has increased in recent years in Iran, which imports $4 billion worth of gas each year. Although it is the fourth largest crude oil producer in the world, Iran lacks the capacity to refine all of its petroleum into gasoline for consumption.
Iran's government has considered imposing gas rations in the past, but the measures have been postponed amid debate. It has also debated how to increase gas prices so they are more in line with market value.
Iran is tightening its belt as the United Nations considers imposing additional economic sanctions on the Islamic republic for its failure to comply with U.N. demands to halt its uranium enrichment program. In addition, U.S. lawmakers are considering the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 which calls for an end to foreign investment in Iran's energy sector.
"We must reduce our vulnerability in foreign relations in order to safeguard our political independence by resolving our traffic problems," parliament speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel said.
Haddad-Adel, who is considered to be close to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, also said the measure was an attempt to combat gas smuggling out of Iran.
Hundreds of thousands of liters of cheap and subsidized gasoline is smuggled out of Iran to other Persian Gulf countries as well as to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq , Turkey and Azerbaijan, costing Iran hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Iran's parliament Wednesday rejected an emergency measure that would have postponed the order to impose rations and increase prices, Fars reported. Parliament is scheduled to take its summer recess after Wednesday's session, but it could reconvene to deal with the situation.
CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2007 | ['(CNN)'] |
Libyan National Army forces continue to advance on the Libyan capital Tripoli, capturing the city of Gharyan, with only light resistance reported. General Khalifa Haftar has ordered the LNA to seize control of Tripoli, prompting the Tripoli-based Presidential Council to declare a general mobilization. | Libya's Presidential Council declared a military alert Wednesday after forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar were deployed to western parts of the country, Anadolu reports.
In a statement, the chairman of the council, Fayez al-Sarraj, said instructions were issued and mobilization of all military and security forces was declared to thwart any attacks.
There is no military solution to the crisis, al-Sarraj said, adding the war does not bring anything to the country other than destruction and annoyance to the people.
Haftar on Wednesday reportedly ordered his forces to deploy to western parts of the country with a view to "purging them of terrorist groups and strongholds".
The statement did not provide the exact locations to which forces were reportedly being deployed.
Read: Arab League stopped 40 embassies moving to Jerusalem
The move comes amid mounting speculation that pro-Haftar forces plan to march on the capital Tripoli, where Libya's UN-backed unity government is headquartered.
Libya has remained beset by turmoil since 2011 when a bloody NATO-backed uprising led to the ouster and death of President Muammar Gaddafi after four decades in power.
Since then, Libya's stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of power: one in the eastern city of Al-Bayda, to which Haftar is affiliated, and another in Tripoli.
On April 14, a UN-sponsored "national dialogue" conference will be held in Libya's western city of Ghadames with the aim of hammering out a political "roadmap" for the troubled country's future.
The Libyan Ministry of Defence yesterday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement signed with renegade General Khalifa Haftar due to his forces’ “recklessness”. In a statement published on the Facebook page of the Libyan Army's ‘Operation Volcano of Anger’, quoted Defence Minister Salah Al-Din Al-Namroush saying: "If the United…
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared on Friday that it will not allow Wagner mercenaries to be part of the oil industry in the country. This came in a statement issued by NOC Chairman of the Board of Directors Mustafa Sanalla, as he objected to what he called: “Politicising the…
A militia leader fighting for Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar has received medical treatment in Germany, a local newspaper reported Wednesday, Anadolu reports. Abdurrahim al-Kani, who runs a militia with his brothers, is accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians in Libya’s southwestern city of Tarhuna, the Suddeutsche Zeitung daily reported,… | Armed Conflict | April 2019 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Middle East Monitor)'] |
Powerful storms and tornadoes continue across the Central United States, claiming at least 10 more lives across Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. | Piedmont, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas picked up the pieces after damaging storms and tornadoes moved through Tuesday night, but national weather forecasters predicted more severe weather Wednesday evening for parts of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys.
Around 7:03 p.m. central time, trained weather spotters reported a tornado near midtown Memphis, Tennessee, according to the National Weather Service.
Tornado warnings were issued for eastern Arkansas, areas of western Tennessee and southeast Missouri. The jet stream disturbance that was partly responsible for Tuesday's tornado outbreak could cause storms on Wednesday eveningfrom Louisiana northeastward to the lower Great Lakes region, according to a statement from the weather service. Numerous tornadoes were expected to develop, accompanied by widespread damaging winds and large hail, in a region that stretches from northern Mississippi, across parts of Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana, all the way to central and southern Illinois.
Huge swathes of the region have face a "particularly dangerous situation," according to designations by the weather agency. This means that destructive tornadoes, hail up to 3 inches in diameter, wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour and dangerous lightening are possible. This is bad news for an area still reeling from deadly storms that rolled through less than 24 hours earlier.
Family took cover, had no idea top floors were blown away
Sixteen people were killed by the latest string of severe storms. Ten were in Oklahoma, four in Arkansas and two in Kansas, authorities said.
In Arkansas' Franklin County, a tornado touched down shortly after midnight, killing at least two people, according to Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
The two other deaths were in Johnson County, said Renee Preslar, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
In Stafford County, Kansas, two motorists died when an uprooted tree slammed into their van, according to the state adjutant general's office.
In Oklahoma, seven people were killed in Canadian County, according to Sheriff Randall Edwards. Ronnie Funck, a spokesman for the county emergency management office, said more than 100 people were injured.
Two people died in Oklahoma's Logan County, and one was killed in Grady County, according to Cherokee Ballard with the state medical examiner's office.
A 3-year-old who went missing during the ferocious weather in Canadian County remains unaccounted for. Ryan Hamil was with his mother and his siblings in their home when the storm hit, said Pam Capener, the boy's great-aunt. "Cole, the 15-month-old, did not survive," she said. "Cathleen, who is 5, is in the hospital in stable condition."
Their mother, Catherine Hamil, "has a lot of broken bones, bruises and cuts, but I believe she's stable now, last I heard," Capener said. Hamil is pregnant, and her baby is due in October, she said. "They did get the heartbeat of the baby yesterday, so the baby's stable." The children's father, Catherine's husband Hank Hamil, was out of town Tuesday but has returned and is searching for Ryan, Capener said. "Last I heard, they're searching a 16-mile stretch," she said.
She added that she believes the family had taken refuge in a bathtub when the storm barreled through. "I don't know if they were thrown out," she said.
How to help
The family has started a fund to raise money for hospital expenses. The Hamil Family Assistance Fund already had $2,225 in pledges even though it was created only Wednesday.
Teams of rescuers were out Wednesday continuing the search on both land and water.
But there were unexpected tales of joy amid the devastation and destruction.
In Piedmont, Oklahoma, a family now has its beloved dog, Roxie, back, even if there isn't a home to bring her to. Frank Wood said he was forced to shut the door to their safe room Tuesday evening with Roxie still outside. "I couldn't get her," he told CNN. "The storm was basically just circulating right around the corner. I didn't really have a choice. She just kept running away from me. She was so scared and skittish."
In Joplin, a push to find missing When Wood and his two children emerged, the house had been ripped to shreds, and Roxie was nowhere to be seen.
She was found the next morning, however, at a work site nearly two miles from the Woods' family home. Chesapeake Energy worker David Franco scooped up the boxer and got Woods number from Roxie's tag.
It's been a historic tornado season in the U.S. More than 500 people have been killed, according to figures from the National Weather Service and local authorities. That makes 2011 the deadliest season since 1953, when 519 people were killed in twisters.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency Wednesday in 68 Oklahoma counties hit by the tornadoes and other severe weather. Only nine counties in the state were not included in the declaration.
"Our hearts go out to those who lost their loved ones in the storms last night, and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all the families and communities that have been affected," Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in a statement issued Wednesday.
"These historic storms have highlighted the incredible resolve of the American people, especially the first responders, emergency workers, firefighters, volunteers and neighbors who have been working around the clock for days to respond to these storms and conduct search and rescue efforts. Their efforts have been extraordinary," he said.
Chickasha, Oklahoma, is one of the towns where a tornado was spotted Tuesday night.
"Thank God we weren't (there)," said Pastor Gary Rogers of the Grand Assembly of God church in Chickasha. "No one was there." Half the church's roof was torn off, he said. Twenty-four hours later, the church would have been bustling with Wednesday activities, he said.
Chickasha is about 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.
The tornado "came right past the store," said Chickasha AutoZone employee Nathaniel Charlton. "They had a little debris thrown across the parking lot. It was on the ground, but it wasn't bad."
The tornado that passed through Chickasha also damaged several other communities.
Jeremy Morrison, a truck driver from McAlester, Oklahoma, was hauling a load of freight to Oklahoma City Tuesday night when he spotted a twister. He pulled over and started climbing out of his truck, preparing to enter a ditch for safety, when the tornado disappeared from his sight, he said. He then climbed back into the truck and was set to keep driving when the tornado suddenly struck, lifting the entire rig and throwing it onto its side.
Morrison fell out of the window -- or was sucked out, he's not sure which. He said he ran to check on a nearby car, where he found two people hiding underneath. Morrison survived with a fractured shoulder bone, he said. His trailer was destroyed.
Aerial video of the incident was captured by CNN affiliate KOCO .
"We could see debris in the radar returns we were receiving, and that gave us a good indication the tornado was strong and large," said Steve Piltz, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Tulsa, Oklahoma, adding that the tornado was anywhere from a half-mile to a mile wide.
The powerful storms also struck Joplin, Missouri, where a weekend tornado killed more than 120 people, making it the deadliest single U.S. twister since modern record-keeping began 61 years ago.
The city was briefly under a tornado warning late Tuesday before it was raked by blustery winds and peppered with lightning.
Twisters also brewed in Dallas and several northern Texas counties, according to the National Weather Service.
Authorities in Dallas reported an unidentified man died of electrocution. He was found Wednesday morning at an apartment complex, within an area that had fallen electrical wires. Police had previously established a perimeter around the area, but the man apparently entered after the perimeter was established, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said.
The storms disrupted air traffic, which could have ripple effects for air travel in parts of the country throughout Wednesday.
About 140 flights were canceled Wednesday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, mostly due to the effects of hailstorms that moved through overnight. Neither the airports facilities nor terminals were damaged, according to a statement from the airport, but airlines were still conducting damage assessments, so the airport warned there could be further disruption to flight schedules. About 10,000 sheltered in the airport overnight, having been stranded by the storms, airport spokeswoman Sarah McDaniel said. Passengers and staff were forced to evacuate to designated shelters inside the airport as storms moved in, she said.
American Airlines and American Eagle had approximately 65 aircraft pulled from service because of weather damage Tuesday night, McDaniel said. Nearly 100 flights were canceled as of early Wednesday, she added. "Some airlines are still assessing hail damage."
Southwest Airlines said Wednesday that it took eight aircraft out of service in Dallas for inspections and repairs because of damage from the weather, particularly the large hail. Operations at Love Field in Dallas were suspended for a time Wednesday night, spokesman Jose Torres said. The airport moved all passengers and personnel into an airport basement for an hour as winds kicked up and power was lost, Torres said.
When people emerged from the basement, they found damaged aircraft and vehicles. Some passengers slept in that airport as well, Torres said.
The storms left a wide swath of destruction.
Canadian County Sheriff Edwards said Piedmont, Oklahoma, was especially hard hit. "There's more damage in Piedmont because it's the most densely populated area."
A large tornado crossed I-40 near El Reno, destroyed residences and caused a gas leak at an energy plant west of the state capital, he said. Twenty injuries were reported in the area, but none were from workers at the plant, the City of El Reno Community Services Department said Wednesday.
The twister injured motorists on Interstate 40 and U.S. 81, Canadian County Emergency Management Director Jerry Smith said. There were reports of property damage in the area.
About 1,200 people packed a shelter in Newcastle, a bedroom community near Oklahoma City, during the storm, City Manager Nick Nazar said. "That saved lives."
About 100 people were displaced, and 50 homes were rendered uninhabitable, Nazar told CNN. Two or three businesses were damaged, as was an elementary school.
Statewide, at least 60 people were hurt and nearly 58,000 homes lost power, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Some employees at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, briefly took shelter as a tornado approached, a spokesman for the National Weather Service told CNN.
Emergency personnel were mobilized immediately after the storms, Oklahoma's governor said.
"The National Guard is out helping, our highway patrol, our health department, Salvation Army, Red Cross, all of our first responders are out across the state," Fallin said, noting the massive outbreak of tornadoes that lasted most of Tuesday evening.
"I've been in (public) office for 20 years. I've been through a lot of these natural disasters, but I've never seen this many in a short period of time."
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
Juan Carlos Ramirez–Abadia, Colombian cocaine trafficker boss of the Norte del Valle Cartel is apprehended in Brazil and faces extradition to the United States. The US Government had offered a reward of US$5 million dollars. | SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested a man said to be one of Colombia’s most violent drug traffickers and wanted by U.S. authorities for shipping thousands of tonnes of cocaine to the United States.
Colombian citizen Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, considered one of his country's most important drug traffickers, is seen in these two undated photographs posted on the U.S. Department of State website. Brazilian police arrested Ramirez Abadia on August 7, 2007 in an operation against an international smuggling and money-laundering ring, officials said. Ramirez Abadia was arrested in a dawn raid on an apartment in the town of Aldeia da Serra, in Sao Paulo state, as part of an operation across six states, the federal police force said in a statement. REUTERS/U.S. Department of State/Handout
Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, 44, was seized around dawn at an apartment in Aldeia da Serra, Sao Paulo state, in an operation against an international smuggling and money-laundering ring, a federal police statement said.
The U.S. State Department describes Ramirez Abadia -- nicknamed Chupeta, or lollipop -- as one of Colombia’s most significant cocaine traffickers and a leader of the Cali-based Norte del Valle cartel.
It says he is extremely violent and had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
In a March 2004 indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Washington, Ramirez Abadia is accused of shipping about 500 tonnes of cocaine worth in excess of $10 billion from Colombia to the United States between 1990 and 2004.
A federal police spokesman in Brasilia said the Supreme Court was processing a U.S. extradition request and if approved, Ramirez Abadia would be transferred to the United States.
The Brazilian police statement said Ramirez Abadia is suspected of ordering the murders of hundreds of people in Colombia and the United States, including police and informers.
It said the gang targeted in Tuesday’s sweep exported huge quantities of drugs to Europe and the United States and laundered the profits in Brazil via Spain, Mexico and Uruguay. It invested the money in real estate, including mansions and hotels, industry and cars.
The operation across six states followed a two-and-a-half year investigation.
Ramirez Abadia has been involved in drug trafficking since at least 1986, the U.S. State Department said. He was previously indicted in the United States in 1994 and 1996 but the Colombian government turned down extradition requests.
He has served prison time in Colombia but carried on his drug trafficking activities from behind bars.
The U.S. government says Ramirez Abadia also smuggled thousands of tonnes of cocaine to Texas, California and New York in the mid-1990s, setting up a financial network using a Colombian pharmaceutical distribution company as a front.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg meets with Premier of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang in Beijing to announce the end of a diplomatic freeze between the countries and the resumption of free trade negotiations between China and Norway. | BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Norway signed a pact on Friday to resume free trade negotiations, marking the end of a six-year diplomatic freeze, a move China called internationally significant, against the backdrop of a rise in protectionist sentiment worldwide.
The memorandum of understanding was one of six pacts covering cooperation on economic development, technology, health, science and sport during Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s visit to China, the first since the countries resumed diplomatic relations in December.
Until then relations between Oslo and Beijing had been on ice, following the award of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
“Your visit to China shows that our relations will again, from a new starting point, go on a long journey,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Solberg ahead of a formal two-way meeting.
It was important to find “common areas of interest” as relations normalize, Solberg added.
Li emphasized the international significance of renewal of the talks, given recent setbacks to globalization and rising protectionism, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry official who briefed reporters on the meeting.
“The resumption of free trade negotiations in this context is very important,” said Liu Weimin, the vice-director of the ministry’s European department.
Liu Xiaobo, who was involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests crushed by the Chinese army, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 on subversion charges for organizing a petition urging an end to one-party rule. He remains in prison.
The Nobel peace prize winner is chosen by a committee in Oslo, while other recipients of the annual awards are decided in Stockholm.
The row between Oslo and Beijing led to difficulties for Norwegian salmon exporters.
Solberg will travel to the business hub of Shanghai and the eastern city of Hangzhou before returning to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping on Monday.
Reporting by Philip Wen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The International Security Assistance Force kills 13 people in Guzara, Herat, Afghanistan. | KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Thirteen people, described by the U.S. military as "noncombatants," were killed in western Afghanistan earlier this week during a coalition operation, the military said Saturday.
An Afghan man grieves for his brother after an attack this week by U.S.-led coalition forces.
"We expressed our deepest condolences to the survivors of the noncombatants who were killed during this operation," said Brig. Gen. Michael Ryan, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan.
Three militants also died in Tuesday's operation in the Gozara district of Herat province, the military said.
The killings further inflame Afghans' anger and frustration over the killing of civilians in U.S.-led coalition and NATO operations. Many civilians also die in the crossfire between coalition forces and Taliban militants. Watch the challenge coalition forces face
Afghan and coalition investigators and international observers this week were in Herat this week. Weapons and ammunition were found at the site of the operation and Afghan soldiers held shuras, or consultative bodies, with village leaders. Ryan discussed the attack with senior police and army officials and with the governor of Herat.
"Our inquiry in Herat demonstrates how seriously we take our responsibility in conducting operations against militant targets and the occurrence of noncombatant casualties," Ryan said. "Our concern is for the security of the Afghan people. To this end, we continually evaluate the operations we conduct during the course of our mission in Afghanistan and have agreed to coordinate our efforts jointly."
President Hamid Karzai raised the issue of civilian casualties during a meeting he had on Saturday with visiting U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
A "recent consensus between the Afghan government and NATO, which gives more authority to the Afghan security forces during military operations, house searches and detention of suspected individuals, will help in reducing civilian casualties and bringing more effectiveness in the fight against terrorism," Karzai said. | Armed Conflict | February 2009 | ['(CNN)'] |
Nine Extinction Rebellion protesters are arrested for storming U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. | The hunger strike inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office to protest inaction on climate change wasn’t going well Thursday.
It was day four without food for nine young strikers who vowed to stay until the bitter end, and Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not come close to meeting their demand to talk with them for an hour on camera about her leadership on the issue. They were allowed to squat at the entrance to her office on the plush blue carpet and quietly draw signs with Sharpies, but aside from that, it was almost as if Pelosi didn’t know they were there.
And so, weak and dizzy for lack of food, they gathered in a circle in the hallway and came up with a plan.
With the little energy they had left, they would storm past two aides, barge into the wider room where the congresswoman’s chief of staff and others sat, get arrested by police and make a statement that they were there to protest the “lip service” House Democrats paid to an issue that would impact their future.
That’s how nine members of a global organization called Extinction Rebellion ended their protest, marched out of the second-floor office in the Longworth building with their hands bound by zip ties as the impeachment inquiry spectacle played out in a hearing room one floor below.
Eva Malecki, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police, said the nine protesters were charged with unlawful entry. Pelosi’s office claimed that a protester also shoved an aide, who declined to press charges.
Before he was led away, Nick Brana, 30, said members of Extinction Rebellion sent Pelosi two letters, one last week on Tuesday and another Sunday, a day before they arrived at her door, listing their demands.
“We said we would go on hunger strike unless she met with us in her office,” Brana said. “We knew she would not want to meet with us. On Monday we told her what the start time would be. We would take over your office until you meet with us. We have yet to see her. She has yet to make any acknowledgment of us, let alone set up a meeting in the office.”
Extinction Rebellion believes climate change is “an unprecedented global emergency.” The group, comprised mostly of young people, stages demonstrations in cities across the world to call attention to its cause to make it a political priority.
On Monday, 25 of them gathered at Folger Park and vowed not to eat. Giovanni Tamacas, who was also arrested, opened the door to Pelosi’s office and in they walked.
Extreme climate change has reached the United States
The group protested peacefully until Thursday, when they realized that Congress would adjourn for the Thanksgiving holiday, and that Pelosi would fly to San Francisco that evening without agreeing to a video recorded meeting.
“It’s unfortunate that the Extinction Rebellion protestors resorted to non-peaceful measures today after they were kindly accommodated in the Speaker’s office for four days,” Taylor Griffin, a spokeswoman for Pelosi, said in a statement.
The speaker respected their right to free speech and demonstration, Griffin said. Another staff member said they were willing to allow staff members to meet with the protesters. They were provided with water with lemon that strikers took instead of food. They endured how members of the group unplugged their television monitor and hung signs when they were asked not to.
Pelosi was focused on the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, an issue that’s consuming Washington. The staff confirmed the speaker, who conducts up to 20 meetings per day, received Extinction Rebellion’s demands less than a week before the protest.
The staff member disagreed with Brana’s assertion that the House under Pelosi has only paid lip service to climate change. Pelosi has been a vocal proponent of curbing greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change for years. She helped orchestrate the passage of legislation in 2009 that would have set the first-ever national cap on greenhouse gas emissions, only to see the bill die in the Senate.
Brana said local members of Extinction Rebellion believe that Pelosi has helped block the ambitious climate package crafted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), which would direct billions of dollars to addressing the issue. Pelosi has questioned the political viability of enacting the Green New Deal into law, remarking earlier this year, “I can’t say we’re going to take that and pass it.”
There have been 110 hearings related to climate change in less than a year under Pelosi, far more than when Republicans controlled the House, Pelosi’s office said. Pelosi has established select committees on climate change twice after getting hold of the speaker’s gavel, in 2009 and again a decade later.
But a committee that can’t make policy or pass laws is exactly what angers Extinction Rebellion about Pelosi’s leadership, meetings that don’t lead to action.
“We’re looking at an existential threat to human society,” Stephen Leas said before he too was led away from Pelosi’s office, hands behind his back. “We won’t be able to stop the impacts in the next 10 years.” Leas, 28, spoke of a downward climate spiral of melting ice, rising seas, monster wildfires and land that can no longer support crops. In other words, a future of hunger, the way he felt Thursday, having not eaten since Sunday.
Leas’s mother made a pie that night, one of the last things he gobbled down. On Thursday morning, he awoke feeling lethargic, not wanting to get out of bed. Brana felt pain gnawing at his empty stomach three days after eating his last meal, pasta. Tamacas, 20, sat in a corner in the hallway outside Pelosi’s office, saying he felt dizzy each time he stood and pointed at his right rib cage to where he felt pain.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “It’s nothing compared to people who will starve in the future. They won’t have a choice.”
Leas said young people are laying down a gauntlet to leaders like Pelosi. “We as a generation can determine whether humans will continue to exist.”
But Brana, Leas and Tamacas felt they had too much to lose and everything to gain.
Since Monday, Brana had lost nine pounds and so had Leas. Tamacas had lost four.
“I feel weak throughout my whole body. Every physical exertion feels taxing at this point,” Brana said. “The world needs action now and that’s not what we’re getting from [Pelosi].”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2019 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Two security forces later confirm to Reuters that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keta and Prime Minister Boubou Cissé have been detained by the mutinying forces. The two men are believed to have been transported to Kati. | Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and several officials were arrested by mutinying soldiers on Tuesday, local media reported.
Keita and Cisse were taken to the Kati military camp, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) northwest of the capital Bamako, at around 4.30 p.m. local time (1630 GMT), according to Journal du Mali.
Earlier, it was reported that gunshots were heard at the military camp, while military trucks were also seen on the road heading toward the capital. The military reportedly blocked the road from the town of Kati to Bamako, and businesses and offices were also closed.
Sources told online newspaper MaliActu that a number of officials, including the finance minister, speaker of the national assembly, and several other prominent figures, were also arrested by unidentified gunmen.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, condemned the arrests.
“I strongly condemn the arrest of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the Prime Minister and other members of the Malian Government and call for their immediate release,” Mahamat said in a Twitter post.
“I strongly condemn any attempt at anti-constitutional change and call on the mutineers to cease all use of violence and respect for republican institutions,” he added.
Mali has been rocked by protests for several months as demonstrators call for the resignation of President Keita.
On social media posts, French and Belgian embassies in Mali urged their citizens to limit their movement given the tense situation in Bamako at the moment.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali issued a message recommending to the UN personnel "to avoid the Kati area and all unnecessary road movements in Bamako until further notice," MaliActu reported.
The house of Justice Minister Kassoum Tapo was set on fire and vandalized by young demonstrators in Bamako on Tuesday, according to International Security and Conflict Research.
The military mutiny comes at a time when, for several months, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been undertaking initiatives and deploying mediation efforts between all the Malian parties, the West African body said in a statement on Tuesday.
''ECOWAS calls on the military to return to their barracks without delay, asking all Malian stakeholders to prioritize dialogue to resolve the crisis facing their country.
''ECOWAS reiterates its firm opposition to any unconstitutional political change and invites the military to remain in a republican posture,'' it said.
Last month the head of the African Union Commission urged calm, continued dialogue and negotiations for the diligent implementation of consensual solutions to preserve peace, stability, and social cohesion in Mali.
Tensions erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup and a Tuareg rebellion that ultimately allowed al-Qaeda-linked militant groups to take over the northern half of the country. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2020 | ['(France 24)', '(Andolu Agency)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Yuriko Koike wins her second term as Governor of Tokyo. | TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike has won a second term to head the Japanese capital, propelled to an election victory Sunday by public support for her handling of the coronavirus crisis despite a recent rise in infections that has raised concerns of a resurgence of the disease.
In her victory speech, Koike, the first woman to lead Tokyo, pledged to continue to take measures to protect the city’s 14 million people amid the pandemic, calling it her “most pressing task.”
“Now is a very important time to prepare for a possible second wave, and I will continue to firmly take steps,” she said.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said its exit polls showed that 74% of respondents supported Koike, with 63% saying they approved of her handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Koike, 67, is a veteran conservative who has served in key Cabinet and ruling party posts, and is viewed as a potential candidate to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when his term ends in September 2021. For now, she says she’s focused on protecting the lives of the people of Tokyo, a megacity with a $1 trillion economy.
“The next four years is a crucial time for Japan’s capital, with the Olympics and Paralympics coming up, and coronavirus measures are needed,” she said. “I’m fully committed to my duty as governor.”
Tokyo’s infections started to rebound in late June, with the city reporting 111 new cases on Sunday, topping 100 for a fourth straight day. New daily cases have spiked throughout Japan in recent weeks, with the country approaching 20,000 cases and 1,000 deaths. Koike said, however, that another state of emergency nationwide or in Tokyo would be difficult because the economy had already been battered by seven weeks of restrictions in April and May. She instead pledged to balance disease prevention and the economy, while suggesting “pinpoint” measures in specific areas. One area would be Tokyo’s night entertainment districts linked to younger people, who have accounted for the majority of recent new cases.
A record 22 candidates ran in Sunday’s election.
Koike’s challengers included popular actor-turned-politician Taro Yamamoto and veteran lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya. Yamamoto wanted to cancel the Tokyo Olympics — which were postponed from this summer to next summer due to the pandemic — and use the funds to help people hurt by the coronavirus crisis. Utsunomiya, known as the Bernie Sanders of Japan, called for better welfare support for a more inclusive and diverse society. Koike’s victory was widely expected, with a recent poll by the Mainichi newspaper having her leading her opponents by a wide margin. Outside a polling station in downtown Tokyo, retiree Hidekazu Tamura said he voted for Koike because of her effort to secure the Olympics. “I say no to anyone who is against the Olympics,” he said.
Another voter, Yojiro Tsuchiya, said he didn’t think Koike had addressed growing concerns about the latest jump in coronavirus infections. “I don’t think they have a clear grasp of the current situation,” he said, adding that he voted for Utsunomiya, who is pushing for more testing. Koike also pledged to set up Tokyo’s own version of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, she said Japan lacked an efficient crisis management system to deal with the pandemic. Despite a growing call for a cancellation of the Olympic, Koike said she hoped to achieve the event “as proof of our victory against the coronavirus.” She has tried to gain public support for a simpler version of the Tokyo Olympics since the games were postponed.
Though Koike has not fully delivered on promises to Tokyo residents to relieve congestion on commuter trains, ensure adequate availability of child and elder care facilities, and end overwork, even her critics have generally lauded her handling of the pandemic. That’s in sharp contrast to Prime Minister Abe, who has been criticized for doing too little, too late.
As the pandemic deepened in the spring, Koike often upstaged fellow conservative Abe, whose approval ratings have plunged due to his handling of the crisis and its severe impact on the economy, on top of a slew of scandals.
A former TV newscaster, Koike is stylish and media savvy. She earned the nickname “Migratory Bird” for hopping between parties and forming new alliances — doing it at least seven times — a rarity among Japanese politicians, who are known for their loyalty to party factions. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2020 | ['(AP)'] |
A gunman from the Islamic State opens fire on a Shiite meeting hall in Saudi Arabia, killing five people. |
"With the approval of God Almighty, the soldier of the caliphate Shuja al-Dawsari, may God accept him, set his Kalashnikov upon one of the apostate polytheists' temples," said an online statement on one of the Twitter accounts used by Islamic State.
Several pro-ISIS users alleged the assault was carried out by a newly-instutited Bahraini branch of the terrorist organization.
An eyewitness told Reuters that the attacker arrived in a taxi before being stopped at a checkpoint by Shiite volunteers. The man, who was said to be in his twenties by Saudi state television, then engaged in a shootout, before police took him out.
“A person who opened fire on a hussainiya was killed, and the attacker was in his twenties,” reported government-run channel, Al Ekhbariya TV.
Suspected IS gunman killed by local authorities in Saudi Arabia's Dammam. pic.twitter.com/Uu3caRvCje
The attack came two days after the start of Ashura, one of the most significant celebrations in the Shia calendar. Last year, seven Shia worshippers were murdered on the occasion in another sectarian assault.
BREAKING: Moment at least 1 gunman opened fire at a Shia mosque in Saihat, Saudi Arabia this evening. pic.twitter.com/AZP5utspzW
State media also confirmed that the attacker a member of Islamic State.
The radical Sunni terrorist group was blamed for two mosque attacks that resulted in 25 deaths in May, and another that killed 15 people in August. The country’s security forces said that they arrested 431 Islamic State members in a special operation in July. | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Teachers, writers and students lead a protest rally in Dhaka against the recent killings and attacks on secular authors and publishers in Bangladesh. |
DHAKA (AFP) - Protesters rallied in the Bangladesh capital on Sunday (Nov 1) over the latest attacks against secular writers and publishers, accusing the government of failing to halt rising deadly violence blamed on hardline Islamists.
Teachers, writers, students and other protesters converged on Dhaka University to vent their anger, one day after a gang of men armed with machetes and cleavers hacked to death a publisher of secular books.
Two secular bloggers and another publisher were also badly injured in a similar and separate attack in Dhaka on Saturday, leaving them in pools of blood in their office.
"First they targeted the writers, and now the publishers and soon they'll target all of us," Samina Lutfa, a teacher at the university, told the rally of a couple of hundred protesters.
"Don't stay at home, come out on the street and protest these killings," she said at the campus, Bangladesh's secular bastion, as protesters called for similar rallies elsewhere in the country.
Fears of Islamist violence have been rising in Muslim-majority Bangladesh after four atheist bloggers were murdered this year, allegedly by Islamist hardliners.
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks, along with the four earlier ones, branding the victims "blasphemers" and warning any writers who criticiseIslam of being next in line.
Police said Faisal Arefin Dipan, 43, was killed in his third-floor publishing office in central Dhaka on Saturday, with his attackers padlocking the door from the outside as they left.
Dipan published several books by Avijit Roy, a US national of Bangladeshi origin, who was hacked to death outside a book fair in February in the capital.
Hours before Dipan's murder, three unidentified attackers entered another publishing office, Shuddhaswar, and attacked its owner along with two secular bloggers, police said.
Shuddhaswar owner Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, 43, whose condition is still serious, also previously brought out several of Roy's books including one on homosexuality.
"It's a failure of the government that it has not been able to prosecute the killers," said Imran Sarker, head of a secular bloggers' group, which organised the protests.
"There is a climate of impunity in which these militants now operate brazenly," he said.
Police said both of Saturday's attacks bore the hallmarks of the earlier ones on bloggers which were blamed on banned local group Ansarullah Bangla Team. Police could not confirm if AQIS was behind the latest ones.
Bloggers say about a dozen secular writers have fled the country in fear following this year's killings, while some have faced threats themselves from Islamists.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has blamed local hardline Islamist groups for the earlier attacks and launched a crackdown after facing Western criticism of failing to stop the bloodshed.
Bangladesh has also been rocked by the recent murders of an Italian aid worker and a Japanese farmer, while Dhaka's main Shi'ite shrine was bombed last weekend, killing two people and wounded dozens.
The government has accused its political opponents of orchestrating those attacks to destabilise the country, rejecting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) claim of responsibility.
Bangladesh prides itself on being a mainly moderate Muslim nation, but the gruesome killings along with the Shi'ite shrine bombing have heightened fears for minorities. | Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2015 | ['(AFP via Straits Times)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump announces the resignation of Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Former coal lobbyist Andrew R. Wheeler will act as a temporary replacement. | Andrew Wheeler, deputy administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, will become the agency’s acting chief following the resignation of Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump said Thursday.
“I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda,” Trump said in the same pair of tweets in which he announced Pruitt’s resignation. “We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!”
Wheeler will take over on Monday, Trump said.
Under Pruitt, the EPA became known more as a magnet for negative news bombshells than for its control over the Trump administration’s environmental policy. But like his predecessor, Wheeler could prove to be a controversial pick among Trump’s opponents, if only on policy grounds.
At the time of his resignation, Pruitt was mired in at least a dozen ethics probes into his workplace conduct and spending practices. While Trump heartily approved of Pruitt’s deregulatory moves at the head of the EPA, a steady trickle of bad press prompted the White House in recent weeks to repeatedly express concerns.
Wheeler, in contrast, has been the subject of no such scandals since his confirmation in April, where he secured three Democratic votes in his favor for a final count of 53-45.
But while an EPA press release describes Wheeler as having “spent his entire career working in environmental policy,” his past experience as a registered lobbyist for a coal mining company drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers.
In his confirmation hearing in November 2017, Wheeler said he would recuse himself from matters related to that coal mining company, Murray Energy, including meeting with former clients or his former law firm that represented the company.
Environmentalists and Democrats are wary of Wheeler’s associations with climate change skeptics and deniers. Wheeler previously worked for Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who authored “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.”
Some environmental groups are already speaking out against Wheeler.
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement: “We have to restore public trust in the EPA and let the agency fulfill its mission, rather than gut the laws that keep our families safe. A coal lobbyist dogged by ethical questions like Andrew Wheeler is not the person to do that.” | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2018 | ['(CNBC)'] |
The French Navy, supported by European Union aircraft and vessels, seizes 35 suspected pirates in 4 mother ships and 6 little boats off the coast of Somalia in the EU's most successful mission. | The French navy has captured 35 piracy suspects off Somalia's coast - hailing it as the most successful mission since EU operations began in 2008.
French officials said four mother ships and six smaller boats had been seized in four operations since last Friday. EU forces used helicopters and fired warning shots to capture the pirates, France's defence ministry said. The EU launched its anti-piracy mission in December 2008, but the pirates have since attacked ships in a wider area. The EU's mission has focused on the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes which was being ravaged by pirates. But recently, the attackers have struck hundreds of miles further south - near the Seychelles and even as far afield as Madagascar. Legal problems
The defence ministry said the frigate Nivose was backed by an Italian vessel and Spanish aircraft during its three-day mission. The ministry did not specify where the action took place, but said 22 suspected pirates were held on Friday, two on Saturday and 11 more on Sunday. It is not yet clear what France intends to do with the suspects. More than 100 Somalis accused of piracy have been sent to Kenya, but very few have been convicted and most are languishing in jail awaiting trial in the country's overburdened legal system. A handful have been sent for trial in France, the Netherlands and the US. But jurisdiction over suspected pirates seized on the high seas remains unclear and calls for an international tribunal to be set up have so far come to nothing. Lawlessness in Somalia allows the pirates to function with relative impunity in their own country - and many pirate leaders have reportedly amassed fortunes through ransoms paid by shipping firms. War-ravaged Somalia has had no functioning central government since 1991. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Protesters angered by an anti-Islamic film denigrating the Prophet Muhammad attack the German and British embassies in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. In Khartoum, Tunis and Cairo, at least seven people die. An Egyptian fruit seller dies by rubber bullets. | At least seven people were killed on Friday in demonstrations over a film made in the US that mocks Islam - as protests spread around the world.
Three people were killed when the US embassy in Khartoum was attacked, Sudanese state radio said.
In Tunisia, two people were killed after crowds breached the US embassy compound in Tunis. There was one death in Egypt and one in Lebanon.
Protests began on Tuesday against the film, Innocence of Muslims.
The film depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womaniser and leader of a group of men who enjoy killing. Clips were distributed online with an Arabic voice-over.
The film's exact origin and the motivation behind its production remain a mystery.
In Khartoum, a crowd of several thousand attacked the US embassy. State radio said three people were killed. The crowds gathered first outside the German embassy, setting it partially alight and causing extensive damage.
The UK embassy nearby was also targeted by protesters but escaped major destruction. The controversial film has no known links to either Germany or the UK. Both countries confirmed all their staff in their Khartoum embassies were safe. "I condemn in the strongest possible terms today's attack and call on the Sudanese authorities to ensure that those involved are brought to justice," said UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Later, US Vice President Joe Biden called his Sudanese counterpart Ali Osman Taha to express concern over the security of US and other diplomatic missions in Khartoum, the White House said.
In Tunis, hundreds of protesters entered the embassy compound and set fire to several vehicles in the car park.
Earlier reports said three people had been killed but this was later revised down to two. Police fired shots, but it was not clear whether these were rubber bullets or live rounds.
Demonstrators raised a black flag bearing the Islamic proclamation of faith: "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."
The American school in Tunis was looted and set on fire.
The leader of Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, said the attacks were unacceptable.
All the dead are believed to be protesters. There is no indication that any diplomatic staff or members of the security forces were killed. At least one person was killed in Cairo as protests raged for a fourth day. Police firing tear gas pushed about 500 demonstrators back from the US embassy. Streets nearby were blocked with barbed wire, concrete and police vehicles.
Islamist groups and others had called for a peaceful "million-man march" in the city, but a number withdrew those calls on Friday.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which backs Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, said it would organise marches and sit-ins in front of mosques - but none outside the US embassy in Cairo. After talks with Italian leaders in Rome, Mr Mursi reiterated his government's determination to protect foreign diplomats on its soil. He also condemned the film as unacceptable.
Later on Friday, Islamic militants attacked an international observer post in Egypt's restive Sinai region.
The base is not far from the border with Gaza and Israel. It houses some 1,500 members of the multinational force, including US troops.
There were also protests in the northern city of Alexandria. In other developments:
The protests against the film began on Tuesday in Cairo.
They spread to the Libyan city of Benghazi, where demonstrators stormed the US consulate, killing the ambassador and three other Americans.
President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have attended a ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base for the return of the remains of the Americans killed. Mr Obama said the US would "stand fast" against the violence at its diplomatic missions. The US has said it is stepping up security at its missions globally in the wake of the attack.
The BBC has been told that the US consulate in Benghazi was not given the standard security contract offered to most US diplomatic missions in the Middle East. The allegation came from Western private military contractors. A White House spokesman has said there was no "actionable intelligence" in advance about the Benghazi attack. President Obama has now ordered a review of security at US diplomatic facilities around the world. Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(BBC)', '(Egypt Independent)'] |
Hundreds of Sub-Saharan African migrants storm a border fence in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, using home-made flamethrowers and other improvised weapons. The Spanish Civil Guard reports that 602 people succeeded in reaching Ceuta, of whom 586 were taken to a temporary reception centre, while 16 others are being treated in a hospital. Fifteen border guards were also hurt. | About 800 people have tried to enter Europe by storming a border fence that separates Morocco from Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta, according to Spanish police.
The incident on Thursday morning followed renewed warnings about Spain’s ability to cope with the rising number of migrants and refugees who have been arriving on its southern coast. It also came just hours before the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was to meet the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss the EU’s response to the migration crisis.
Spain’s Guardia Civil said 800 people from sub-Saharan Africa rushed the fence at Ceuta at 6.35am, using shears and hammers to smash the high, razor wire-topped barriers, and attacked officers.
“In an attempt to stop the Guardia Civil getting close to the break-in area, the migrants … officers with plastic containers of excrement and quicklime, sticks and stones, as well as using aerosols as flame-throwers,” it said.
The force said 602 people had succeeded in reaching Ceuta, of whom 586 had been taken to a temporary reception centre, while 16 were being treated in hospital. Fifteen police officers were also hurt, it added.
Although Spain has been praised for taking in the 630 people onboard the rescue ship Aquarius after it was turned away by Italy and Malta, it is finding it much harder to deal with the thousands of people crossing from north Africa. According to the International Organization for Migration, 19,586 people have arrived in Spain by sea so far this year, more than in Italy (17,981) or Greece (15,351).
Town councils, police unions and NGOs in southern Spain have complained that they simply do not have the resources to deal with the number of people arriving.
The mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, said the port city was having to divert funds and act as a humanitarian stopgap. He also said the Spanish government and the EU needed to step in to stop the area becoming “the new Lampedusa” as more and more people landed on the coast.
“I hope the EU is working on a global policy on this: it may be our problem initially, but tomorrow, or in a week’s time, or a month’s, it’ll be at the heart of Europe,” he said.
“We’ve never, ever, ever had 1,000 migrants arriving in Spain each weekend. And all this could just be for starters: there’s a lot of the summer left and there are thousands and thousands of migrants arriving on the coasts of north Africa and thousands and thousands more who have been waiting to cross for months or years.”
Carmen Velayos, the secretary general of the United Police union in Cádiz, said the region’s infrastructure had been “overwhelmed” by the rise in arrivals.
“Migrants are sleeping wherever they can: the police stations are full, the converted sports centres are full and the reception centres are full,” she said.
“There’s a reception centre for minors in La Línea de la Concepción that’s meant for 30 people. Right now there are 200 little kids there, sleeping on the floor. You’ve even got people sleeping on the decks of maritime rescue boats because there’s nowhere else for them.”
Velayos called for an annual action plan to anticipate the migrant flow and for increased human and material resources: “At the moment, we’re just patching over things.”
Others point out that large-scale arrivals are hardly a new phenomenon on Spain’s southern shores. In 2017, almost 22,000 migrants and refugees arrived by sea – almost four times as many as arrived the previous year.
“This has been going on for more than a decade,” said Carlos Arce, migration co-ordinator for the Andalusian Association for Human Rights. “It’s when more people arrive than usual that you see the defects and failings of the system.”
Arce said the Spanish authorities needed to stop looking at the issue as a policing or border problem and see it instead as a humanitarian imperative.
The Aquarius, he said, should serve as an example of what could be achieved with the necessary political focus and resources. “That’s the paradox: the new government has shown there are other ways of doing things if it wants to.”
Sánchez’s recently formed socialist government has blamed its conservative predecessor for failing to act on the problem, but said it was committed to improving the situation.
“We’re working on an emergency plan to reinforce the system and give more help to the NGOs working on arrivals,” Magdalena Valerio, the minister for work, migration and social security, said on Thursday morning. “I know this is a problem and that the apparatus is being overwhelmed.” | Riot | July 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The 2010 Women's Baseball World Cup is suspended after Hong Kong player Cheuk Woon Yee is shot through her lower left calf during the game against the Netherlands; Hong Kong are forced to withdraw from the competition. | Venezuela has moved the women's baseball World Cup from a Caracas military base after a Hong Kong player was hit by a bullet during a game.
Cheuk Woon-yee spent the night in the base's hospital but was not seriously hurt. Hong Kong has since pulled out of the competition.
Vice-President Elias Jaua described the bullet as stray, and said it was not clear where the shot had come from.
The remaining games will be played in the city of Maracay, west of Caracas.
Sports Minister Hector Rodriguez said the tournament was being relocated "to reassure all of the participating teams".
"We're very sorry about [Hong Kong's] decision to pull out, but we respect it."
The sports ministry said Ms Cheuk was hit in the lower left calf and fell to the ground during the fourth inning of a match against the Netherlands, as she went to take her position at third base.
She was taken to the hospital on Fort Tiuna military base, where surgeons operated to remove the bullet.
Ms Cheuk left the hospital on Saturday, accompanied by members of her team.
Analysts say the incident is highly embarrassing for the Venezuela authorities, especially as Fort Tiuna military base is considered to be one of the safest places in Caracas. President Hugo Chavez has been known to stay the night at the officers' mess. A residence belonging to the vice-president is on the military compound, and high-ranking foreign delegations have been hosted there. Gun violence has become increasingly common in Venezuela, one of the most violent countries in Latin America.
Hardliner Raisi set to be new Iran president
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UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
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The Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care. VideoThe Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care
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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 | Sports Competition | August 2010 | ['(BBC News)', '(CBC Sports)', '(Reuters)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Tara Air Flight 193 crashes in western Nepal, killing all 23 people on board. | A small passenger plane has crashed in mountainous western Nepal, killing all 23 people on board.
The Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Tara Air, was travelling from Pokhara to Jomsom and lost contact with the control tower shortly after taking off.
Most of those on board were Nepalis. It is not clear what caused the crash. The plane was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, one of them Chinese and one Kuwaiti. Nepal's aviation industry has a poor safety record. According to Sanjiv Gautam, director general of Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority, the plane's wreckage was found near the village of Dana in Myagdi district. Earlier he told the BBC Nepali Service that the aircraft had lost contact with the control tower at Pokhara 10 minutes after take-off. The identities of those on board have yet to be released. Two of those on board were children. Three helicopters were sent to search for the missing plane, Tara Air said on its website, adding that "the weather at both origin and destination airports was favourable" for the 20-minute flight. Nepal's army said, however, that fog had hampered the search for the aircraft.
"It looks like the plane crashed into the hillside. The wreckage was still in flames when the team arrived," chief district officer Sagar Mani Pathak told AFP news agency.
"We are sending teams to bring down the bodies, but they have not arrived yet. It is not possible for a helicopter to land in the area." March 2015: Lucky escape for passengers after plane skids off runway in fog in Kathmandu
February 2014: Bodies of all 18 people recovered after small plane crashes in western Nepal
September 2012: Plane heading for Everest region crashes on the outskirts of Kathmandu, killing all 19 on board
May 2012: Fifteen people die when plane carrying Indian pilgrims crashes in northern Nepal
September 2010: Sight-seeing flight crashes into a hillside near Kathmandu
September 2006: All 24 people on board a WWF helicopter die when it crashes in eastern Nepal
Pokhara is a resort town some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu. Jomsom, a short distance further north, is the starting point for many people trekking in the Himalayas. Nepal has a limited road network and many areas are accessible only on foot or by air.
Since 1949, the year the first aircraft landed in Nepal, there have been more than 70 different crashes involving planes and helicopters, in which more than 700 people have been killed. Most accidents have been attributed to bad weather, inexperienced pilots and inadequate maintenance.
In 2013, the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying to its territory for safety reasons.
| Air crash | February 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
At least 20 people are killed after a female suicide bomber attacks a fish market in Nigeria's north-eastern city of Maiduguri. The militant Islamist group Boko Haram is suspected to be behind the attack. | At least 20 people have been killed after female suicide bombers attacked a fish market in Nigeria's north-eastern city of Maiduguri, eyewitnesses have told the BBC. The attackers disguised themselves as beggars to try to enter the market, eyewitnesses say. One woman blew herself up inside the market, while another fled, detonating her vest nearby, with no casualties. Islamist militant group Boko Haram has not commented on the attack.
The group will be the key suspect, as it is known for carrying out suicide bomb attacks in the city.
Maiduguri is the birthplace of Boko Haram, and the Nigerian military has recently begun moving its headquarters from the capital Abuja to the strategic north-eastern city. Africa Today podcasts | Armed Conflict | June 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Protesters in Sudan demand execution of Gillian Gibbons for insulting the prophet Muhammad after she let students name a teddy bear after him. | Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was jailed for 15 days on Thursday after allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Some reports said protesters had called for her to be shot. Her lawyer said she was later moved for her own safety.
Muslim Labour peer Lord Ahmed is on his way to Sudan to push for her release.
Lord Ahmed, who is being accompanied by the Conservatives' Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, expects to meet President Omar al-Bashir and possibly the chief justice. He is travelling at the invitation of the Sudanese government.
'Kill her'
The Foreign Office said Mrs Gibbons had been visited again by consular staff on Friday and that she was "well", but it could not confirm where she was being held.
A spokeswoman said: "We are pursuing diplomatic contacts with the Sudanese government, we are continuing to do so and will throughout the weekend both in London and Khartoum.
"We are continuing to search for a swift resolution of this issue."
The Foreign Office said it had been in touch with Lord Ahmed about his trip to Sudan but added that it was a private visit.
The BBC's Adam Mynott in Khartoum said Mrs Gibbons was initially held in a women's prison, but was later moved to a secret location following the protests.
What we have here is a case of cultural misunderstandings
Ali AlhadithiFederation of Student Islamic Societies
Reaction to verdict
Sudan's 'harsh' prisons
Send us your comments
The marchers took to the streets after Friday prayers to denounce the sentence as too lenient.
The protesters gathered in Martyrs Square, outside the presidential palace in the capital, many of them carrying knives and sticks.
Some news agencies reported thousands of people took part in the protest, but a BBC reporter at the scene said up to a thousand marchers turned out.
According to some agencies, some of the protesters chanted: "Shame, shame on the UK", "No tolerance - execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad".
One demonstrator told reporters that it was unacceptable to take a toy and call it Muhammad.
"We can't accept it from anybody. Even if they can do that in Europe, they cannot do it here in Sudan. We ask our rulers and judges to review what they have said. Fifteen days is not enough." Hundreds of riot police were deployed but they did not break up the demonstration.
The Foreign Office said it was seeking more details about the protest.
'Strongest terms'
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been in touch with Mrs Gibbons' family for a second time, speaking to a close relative of the teacher.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has expressed "in the strongest terms" the UK's concern at her detention.
He said there were no plans to issue advice to British nationals living and working in Sudan in the light of the trouble, but diplomatic staff were keeping "a close eye" on the situation.
Mrs Gibbons allowed her class to name the teddy bear Muhammad
Naming as Muhammad
Respecting feelings abroad
Bloggers condemn Sudan
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said he could not "see any justification" for the sentence, calling it an "absurdly disproportionate response" to a "minor cultural faux pas".
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis), which represents more than 90,000 Muslim students in the UK and Ireland, said it was "deeply concerned" at what was a "gravely disproportionate" verdict.
The federation's president, Ali Alhadithi, said: "What we have here is a case of cultural misunderstandings, and the delicacies of the matter demonstrate that it was not the intention of Gillian Gibbons to imply any offence against Islam or Muslims.
"We hope that the Sudanese authorities will take immediate action to secure a safe release for Gillian Gibbons."
In September, Mrs Gibbons allowed her class of primary school pupils to name the teddy bear Muhammad as part of a study of animals and their habitats. The court heard that she was arrested on Sunday after another member of staff at Unity High School complained to the Ministry of Education.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Judges from the United States meet with counterparts in Malaysia to discuss strategies for prosecuting terrorists. | TUARAN: The Malaysian and the United States (US) judiciary will ensure they put forward the best defence against terrorism across the globe.
Judges across the country are convening at a special workshop here to exchange information and share experiences to combat terrorism financing from a judicial perspective.
The three-day East Malaysia Judicial Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) Workshop, which started today, is the first of its kind organised by the US Embassy in the state.
Sabah and Sarawak Chief Judge Tan Sri Richard Malanjum was present to launch the event. Also in attandance were US Department of Justice's resident legal advisor (US Embassy) Karyn Kenny and Former US Attorney John W. Vaudreuil.
Speaking to reporters, Kenny stressed that cooperation between the two countries was vital so they could send a strong message to would-be terrorists.
"The judge is the finer arbitrator and whether it is a US or Malaysian judge, the judiciary is such an integral part in our fight against terrorism.
"The knowledge a judge has is not only critical for them to make a final and fair decision but also to let terrorism organisations know that this is a strong, educated and active judiciary which will take action.
"So for myself as a prosecutor, when the judges are aware and informed of what's happening it makes the proceedings more powerful and fair," she said.
In sentencing financial terrorism cases , Kenny also stressed on the need to target "the gatekeepers" - individuals involved in handling money to fund acts of terror.
"As someone who writes the cheque, you pull the trigger. We need to look at these people and they are the accountants, insurance brokers, and money managers, who know what's happening and what they're doing with the funds.
"However, we usually don't get them because they are white collar...we need to target them," she said.
Meanwhile, Malanjum said the knowledge gained from US enforcement officers was crucial. "We don't want to be caught having cases and not knowing what to do. With this workshop, it will prepare us for any eventual case," he said.
To a question on the sentence against individuals convicted with terrorism financing in the country, Malanjum said in a case in Kota Kinabalu, a man was imprisoned for eight years.
In the US, Vaudreuil, who is also a Criminal Law and Trial Advocacy Specialist, said a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of travelling from US to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.
"That sentence is very consistent with the type of sentencing we've been seeing over the last two or three years. There are probably some 100 people convicted in the US and that sort of crime is either financing terrorism or providing material support or they want to go fight," he said.
Vaudreuil also noted the sentences reflect the danger posed by terrorists and the need to send a strong message to others to deter them from being radicalised. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2018 | ['(The New Straits Times)'] |
In road cycling, Britain's Chris Froome wins his third consecutive Tour de France and fourth in five years, finishing 54 seconds ahead of Colombian Rigoberto Urán. | PARIS -- Riding a bright yellow bike to match his shiny leader's jersey, defending champion Chris Froome won his fourth and most challenging Tour de France title on Sunday.
The Kenyan-born British rider finished 54 seconds ahead of Colombian Rigoberto Uran overall, the smallest margin of his wins.
This was the third straight win for the Team Sky rider. His first in 2013 came the year after former teammate Bradley Wiggins sparked a mini-era of British dominance.
Frenchman Romain Bardet, runner-up last year, placed 2 minutes, 20 seconds behind in third place, denying Spaniard Mikel Landa -- Froome's teammate -- a podium spot by just one second. Italian Fabio Aru finished fifth.
As per tradition, the 21st stage was reserved for sprinters and mostly a procession for Froome, 32, and the other overall leaders. | Sports Competition | July 2017 | ['(AP via ESPN)'] |
The U.S. Southern District of Alabama strikes down the state ban on same–sex marriage in Alabama, saying it has violated equal protection and due process rights. Alabama becomes the thirty–seventh state where such marriage is legalized. | MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A federal court Friday struck down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage, saying it violated gay and lesbian couples' equal protection and due process rights.
In a 10-page decision, Callie V.S. Granade, a district judge for the U.S. Southern District of Alabama, wrote that the state had failed to prove any "rational, much less compelling" link between prohibiting same-sex marriage and having more children raised in "the biological family structure the state wishes to promote."
"The Attorney General does not explain how allowing or recognizing same-sex marriage between two consenting adults will prevent heterosexual parents or other biological kin from caring for their biological children," wrote Granade.
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in a statement Friday he would seek a stay of the ruling.
Granade enjoined Strange from enforcing the laws and did not put a stay on the decision as has happened in other states.
Alabama is the latest of numerous states where federal judges have ruled the bans unconstitutional.
Gov. Robert Bentley said in a statement he was "disappointed" by the decision.
However, Democratic state Rep. Patricia Todd, the Legislature's only openly gay member, said she was "ecstatic" over the judge's decision.
"I guess I'm so used to so much bad news that's it's a little overwhelming," she said Friday evening.
The case, Searcy v. Strange, involved Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand, a same-sex couple who married in California and later moved to Alabama. The women wanted Searcy to adopt McKeand's 8-year-old son but were denied by the Mobile County Probate Court in 2011 under a 1998 law and 2006 constitutional amendment which banned both same-sex marriage ceremonies and recognition of out-of-state marriage between gay and lesbian couples.
Searcy and McKeand sued, saying the state provision violated their equal protection and due process rights under the 14th amendment. The state, citing a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a Minnesota ban on same-sex marriage, argued that their rights had not been violated and that the state had a compelling interest in ensuring ties between children and their biological parents.
Alabama banned same-sex marriage by statute in 1998. In 2006, 81 percent of voters statewide approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. However, support for marriage equality has been rising in Alabama -- though not near a majority -- as the nation itself has become receptive to legal rights for gay and lesbian couples. | Government Policy Changes | January 2015 | ['(USA Today)', '(The Guardian)'] |
The death toll following yesterday's clash between South African police and Lonmin striking miners in Marikana, Rustenburg, rises to 34. South African President Jacob Zuma announces an inquiry. | South African President Jacob Zuma has announced an inquiry into violence at a mine in the north-east of the country, calling the deaths there "tragic".
Thirty-four people were killed when police opened fire on striking platinum miners on Thursday.
At least 78 people were injured in the confrontation.
Mr Zuma, who cut short a visit to Mozambique to visit the scene, said he was "saddened and dismayed" at the "shocking" events.
"I am convinced that the Commission of Inquiry will uncover the truth and facts will emerge," he said in a statement after meeting police and injured workers.
Visibly distraught, he said it was not a time for finger-pointing but he would try to make sure such a loss of life never happened again.
The president said it was a "cornerstone of hard-won democracy" to allow for peaceful protests adding that it was now "a day for us to mourn together as a nation - a day to start rebuilding and healing".
The violence took place at a platinum mine in Marikana, owned by Lonmin.
The BBC's Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg says South Africans are shocked and bewildered by what happened - 18 years after the end of the brutal system of apartheid.
Wives of the missing miners have been frantically searching for their loved ones, he says.
Some of them were chanting on Friday an old song from the anti-apartheid struggle in the Xhosa language: "What have we done, what have we done to deserve this?"
They wanted to know why the police used such force against protesters who were mostly carrying machetes, spears and clubs.
A strike at the mine began a week ago and had claimed the lives of 10 people, including two police officers, before the incident on Thursday.
Police were then sent to break up 3,000 miners - some armed with clubs and machetes - who had gathered on a hillside overlooking Marikana to call for a pay rise of about $1,000 (£636) a month.
The circumstances that led police to open fire remain unclear, but reports from eyewitnesses suggest the shooting took place after a group of demonstrators rushed at a line of police officers. Police, armed with automatic rifles and pistols, fired dozens of shots, witnesses said.
Police chief Riah Phiyega said officers "were forced to use maximum force to defend themselves".
She said 259 people had been arrested on various charges.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) accused the police of carrying out a massacre.
"There was no need whatsoever for these people to be killed like that," General Secretary Jeffrey Mphahlele told Reuters news agency.
The miners, who are currently earning between 4,000 and 5,000 rand ($484-$605), say they want their salary increased to 12,500 rand ($1,512).
South Africa is the largest platinum producer in the world and the dispute has already affected production. Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer, has encountered similar labour disputes at the Marikana mine. In May 2011, the company sacked some 9,000 employees after what it described at the time as "unprotected industrial action". Lonmin and the NUM said all were later reinstated. In pictures: Mine clashes | Riot | August 2012 | ['(Mail and Guardian)', '(BBC)'] |
Armed residents of the Indian state of Nagaland burn down villages in the neighbouring state of Assam. | Two villagers were killed when hundreds of Nagaland residents crossed the border and torched four settlements in Geleki, in Sibsagar district.
More than 20 villagers have been injured in the attack, police said.
Nagaland claims part of Assam as its own territory, while Assam says some of its land has been occupied by Nagaland.
Assam police official DK Pathak told the BBC that nearly 100 houses were set on fire by armed villagers from Nagaland in Geleki early on Thursday.
Many villagers have fled the area of the attacks in panic.
Nagaland was created as a separate state by carving the former Naga Hills district out of Assam in 1963 after a rebellion broke out there in 1956.
The separatist National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) has been demanding integration of all Naga inhabited territories of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with the state of Nagaland to create a greater Naga state.
Nagaland claims thousands of square kilometres of territory in Assam as its own.
Assam alleges that Nagaland has forcibly occupied a huge area of its territory, declaring it an administrative sub-division of its own called Niuland. | Riot | July 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in the American state of Oregon have their mail-in ballots counted for a Democratic Party and Republican Party primary. Donald Trump is the projected winner on the Republican winner while Bernie Sanders is projected to win the Democratic Party race. , , | Bernie Sanders Wins Oregon Primary — -- Oregon holds its Democratic and Republican primaries on May 17, 2016. 74 delegates are at stake for the Democrats and 28 delegates for the Republicans.
Election results are refreshed automatically every 30 seconds after polls close. There is no need to refresh the page to see the latest data.
Why The State Is Significant:
• Oregon was at one time the most conservative state in the West, but starting in 1988 the state went Democratic.
• The Beaver State backed the Democratic nominees, who lost the race for president in 1988, 2000, and 2004. | Government Job change - Election | May 2016 | ['(ABC News America)', '(NBC News)', '(AP via Chicago Tribune)'] |
A fire severely damages the Baitul Futuh Mosque, London, United Kingdom. | The blaze at the Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden, which describes itself as the largest mosque in western Europe, was tackled by 70 firefighters.
The London Fire Brigade said the fire was contained to an administration building and the mosque itself was unaffected. It said the blaze was under control by about 17:30 BST.
A man was taken to hospital suffering the effects of smoke inhalation.
The brigade was called at just after 12:00 BST to the mosque, which also has a community centre attached.
Only a handful of worshippers were inside the mosque when the blaze started and they were evacuated from the site.
About 50% of the building's ground floor was damaged as well as part of the first floor and a section of the roof.
Fire crews were at the site into the evening, damping down and dealing with the aftermath of the blaze.
Earlier, station manager Philip Morton said: "This is a large fire and our crews are working hard to minimise fire spread to other parts of the mosque. "We are working closely with the local community to ensure our damage control operations take full regard of the religious significance of the building's contents."
Julian Roman, from Morden, told the BBC: "I saw it start from my window. There was a tiny bit of smoke, some alarms.
"Now there are firefighters, ambulances, hundreds of people."
The 5.2 acre (2.1 hectare) mosque serves the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and there is space for at least 10,500 worshippers, according to its website. Rafiq Hayat, national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK, said: "By the Grace of God the mosque is safe and unaffected and there were no injuries and no loss of life.
"The fire was contained to the hall at the front of the building and some adjacent offices.
"We are extremely grateful for the support of the local community and leaders."
Merton Council leader Stephen Alambritis described the mosque as a "beautiful building" and a "major landmark" in the area.
He said the mosque is manned by security staff and suggested the fire could have been caused by cooking preparations rather than an arson attack.
Lord Ahmad, a high-profile member of Ahmadiyya community and junior government minister, tweeted: "This is a beautiful mosque complex which has transcended barriers and been a beacon of peace - thoughts & prayers." | Fire | September 2015 | ['(BBC News Online)'] |
Leaders of the European Union meet in Brussels, Belgium with climate change and energy security dominating the agenda. | European leaders meeting in Brussels are set to endorse binding measures for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Slovenia's PM, who is chairing the summit, said the leaders had approved a timetable to implement an agreed 20% cut by 2020, compared with 1990 levels.
He likened the EU's plans to move to a low-carbon economy to a "third industrial revolution".
The summit is also discussing financial instability, as well as liberalisation of the bloc's energy markets.
Slovenian PM Janez Jansa said the leaders had taken note of a report by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana warning of potential security concerns arising from global warming.
The report says climate change will have a growing impact on global security, multiplying existing threats such as shortages of food and water. It warns that climate change could cause millions of people to migrate towards Europe as other parts of the world suffer environmental degradation.
Mr Solana's report "enjoyed a lot of support", Mr Jansa told reporters.
The EU leaders are considering specific targets put forward by the European Commission in January on how to achieve the agreed 20% cut in greenhouse emissions by 2020.
The BBC's Paul Kirby in Brussels says an important barometer for the success of the summit is how far the leaders are prepared to go in implementing those targets.
The liberalisation of energy markets is another contentious issue, our correspondent says.
Germany and France lead a group of countries hostile to calls for the break-up of big energy companies which run both power stations and the distribution networks. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said there was a general understanding that a European energy market was linked to having a secure supply and promoting renewable energy.
'Med club'
Meanwhile a UK proposal to cut sales tax on "green" goods is unlikely to succeed. The idea put forward by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown would cover such products as low-energy light bulbs.
Mr Barroso said some countries did not agree with the idea which he described as "a very sensitive issue". He went on to say that he did not want to dismiss the importance of positive discrimination for such products, but alternatives such as rebates might be more suitable.
EU leaders are also discussing the turmoil in financial markets.
They are expected to say that the European economy could ride out the current instability, as well as a downturn in the US.
Mr Barroso said it was clear that people felt it was yet "another reason not to allow complacency, but on the contrary to pursue the modernisation of the European economy".
French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at the talks having secured support from Germany for a watered-down proposal for a Mediterranean Union.
His aim is to forge closer ties between European countries bordering the Mediterranean and those beyond Europe, including Israel, Algeria and Tunisia.
The main objection to what some have dubbed "Club Med" was the cost, but there have also been complaints that a Euro-Mediterranean partnership already exists.
The compromise appears to be an "upgrade" on what already exists and hopes for its success have been carefully lowered. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | March 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
French Left wing activist Clement Meric dies after being attacked on Wednesday in Paris shopping district by a group of far–right skinheads. | FRENCH Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault ordered the "dissolution" of a far-right group allegedly linked to the death of a student in a street fight.
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 06: Flowers sit at the site where left-wing activist Clement Meric was allegedly attacked by skinheads on June 6, 2013 in Paris, France. Meric was reportedly left brain dead after a fight with skinheads thought to be associated with a small far-right group. (Photo by Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images)Source:Getty Images
FRENCH Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has ordered the "dissolution" of a far-right group allegedly linked to the death of a left-wing student in a Paris street brawl.
He asked his interior minister on Saturday to take steps "immediately" to ban the Revolutionary Nationalist Youth (JNR), his office said in a statement.
The JNR is the militant wing of a far-right group called the Third Way.
Its leader Serge Ayoub, who has been questioned by police but is not a suspect, on Saturday again denied the group had anything to do with the death of 18-year-old Clement Meric.
Meric, a student at the prestigious Sciences-Po university, died after a clash in a busy Paris shopping area on Wednesday between skinheads and left-wing activists.
Five people detained over the death went before a judge on Saturday and the main suspect, named Esteban, was charged with manslaughter, a judicial source said.
The magistrate threw out the murder charge sought by prosecutors, noting that the suspect did not intend to kill the left-wing activist.
The five suspects are aged between 19 and 32 and include one woman.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls on Friday vowed to crack down on far-right groups.
Meric's death on Thursday, the day after the incident, brought condemnation from across the political spectrum and prompted thousands of people to go out onto the streets in Paris and other major cities in protest.
As well as the five suspects held, three more were picked up and later released on Friday. Several of the suspects are known to have links to far-right groups, a police source said.
The man suspected of having dealt the fatal blow said he did not intend to kill, a police source said. The alleged attacker, who is in his 20s, is a known skinhead.
| Famous Person - Death | June 2013 | ['(News Limited)'] |
Red shirt protesters set up roadblocks to prevent police reinforcements from reaching the capital Bangkok. | Thailand's pro-government yellow-shirts have called for the government to act, as weeks-long red-shirt protests spread to provinces outside the Thai capital.
The yellows said martial law was needed in Bangkok and a state of emergency in provinces dominated by the red-shirts. The reds began building roadblocks in several provinces on Sunday to prevent more police reaching the capital. The red-shirts have been camped out in Bangkok since 14 March. On Saturday the PM rejected a new offer of talks. Late on Monday, Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej made his first public comments since the protests began. Speaking to a group of judges from the hospital where he has been staying since September, the 82-year-old monarch did not directly address the political crisis. "Do your job with honesty," he told them. "In this country there may be some people who forget their duty. You should be an example by working honestly and properly, your job is very important." The BBC's Rachel Harvey says that as Thais look for guidance amid the current crisis, many will be searching for hidden meaning in the king's words. Regional protests
The stand-off began when red-shirt protesters occupied part of Bangkok's historic district. They have since moved to the commercial district and currently occupy a swathe of the city stretching south to the business district, living behind highly-fortified barricades. An attempt by the government to clear one area on 10 April left 25 people dead and hundreds injured. Grenade attacks last week that killed one person further raised tensions in the capital. Over the weekend, Mr Abhisit rejected a conditional offer of talks from the red-shirts, saying "intimidation" should not bring about political change. He promised that Bangkok's commercial district would be cleared of protesters but said "the process, the measures, how and when it will be done we cannot disclose because it depends on several things". The yellows - a group known as the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) who shut down Bangkok's two main airports in 2008 in a separate political protest - had given the government a deadline of 25 April to deal with the protesters. "There should be an announcement of martial law," said Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the yellows. "If the situation does not improve, PAD will consider intensifying its measures." But red-shirt leaders said that they were staying put - and escalating action around the country. "Reds everywhere will stop police and army from coming to Bangkok," said Nattawut Saikuar, a red leader. "We will step up our peaceful measures to stop the reinforcement. Our people will ask the police and army to return to their barracks." Around the country, several confrontations between police and protesters were reported. In Udon Thani, in the north-east, protesters blocked a major highway on Sunday and prevented a convoy of police from reaching Bangkok. Roadblocks were also set up in Nong Kai province and to the north of Bangkok, again aimed at police heading to the Thai capital. Several arrests were reported in one incident on Monday on Bangkok's northern outskirts. Late on Sunday in Bangkok a grenade was hurled at a guard post near the home of Banharn Silapa-Archa, a former prime minister whose Chart Thai Pattana party is part of the current governing coalition. At least 8 people were hurt. On Monday Bangkok was said to be calm. Many red-shirts changed into different clothes after leaders told them they would be less visible to security forces if a crackdown came. The red-shirts - many of whom back ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra - believe that the current government is illegitimate. They want Mr Abhisit to call fresh elections - something he has so far refused to do. What are these? | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Thai News Agency)'] |
The International Maritime Organisation announces agreements to reduce shipping emissions by 50% of 2008 levels by 2050, and to ban heavy fuel oil from the Arctic. | The United Nations shipping agency reached an agreement on Friday to cut carbon emissions, following years of slow progress.
The compromise plan, which will cut emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 compared with 2008 levels, fell short of more ambitious targets.
Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said the adoption of the strategy “would allow future IMO work on climate change to be rooted in a solid basis”.
The IMO said it would also be pursuing efforts toward phasing out CO2 emissions entirely.
Delegates said opposition from some countries - including the United States, Saudi Arabia and Panama - had limited what could be achieved at the IMO session this week in London.
“The IMO should and could have gone a lot further,” said Bill Hemmings, shipping director with green campaigners Transport & Environment.
“This decision puts shipping on a promising track.”
Greenpeace International political adviser Veronica Frank said the plan was “far from perfect but the direction is now clear - a phase-out of carbon emissions”.
“This decarbonisation must start now and targets improved along the way, because without concrete, urgent measures to cut emissions from shipping now, the Paris ambition to limit warming to 1.5 degrees will become swiftly out of reach,” Frank said.
Shipping association BIMCO in contrast described it as a “landmark achievement”.
Kathi Stanzel, managing director of tanker association INTERTANKO, added: “It is the culmination of international efforts to develop both ambitious and concrete plans to respond to the challenge of our century.”
The shipping sector, along with aviation, avoided specific emissions-cutting targets in a global climate pact agreed in Paris at the end of 2015, which aims to limit a global average rise in temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius from 2020.
European Union countries along with the Marshall Islands, the world’s second-biggest ship registry, had supported a goal of cutting emissions by 70 to 100 percent by 2050, compared with 2008 levels.
Europe’s transport commissioner Violeta Bulc and climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said in a joint statement while the EU had “sought a higher level of ambition, this is a good starting point that will allow for further review and improvements over time”.
British-based research group InfluenceMap said an emissions cut of 70 percent would have been “much closer to what is needed if shipping is to be in line with the goals of the Paris agreement”.
Shipping accounts for 2.2 percent of world CO2 emissions, according to the IMO, the U.N. agency responsible for regulating pollution from ships.
This is around the amount emitted by Germany, according to the latest EU data available, and is predicted to grow significantly if left unchecked.
The IMO has adopted mandatory rules for new vessels to boost fuel efficiency as a means of cutting CO2 from ship engines.
A final IMO plan is not expected until 2023.
According to the text produced by the IMO working group submitted to member states, the initial strategy would not be legally binding for member states.
The text separately pointed to possible medium-term measures to address emissions that could include low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels, improved energy efficiency for new and existing ships and possible market-based mechanisms to encourage the shift to lower-carbon fuels.
It also said its final strategy should be subject to a review in 2028.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said the country’s delegation had “fought hard” for the outcome.
“While it may not be enough to give my country the certainty it wanted, it makes it clear that international shipping will now urgently reduce emissions and play its part in giving my country a pathway to survival,” Heine said. | Sign Agreement | April 2018 | ['(CBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Germany's BASF SE, the largest chemical producer in the world, is pursuing a counterbid for DuPont that could short circuit the Delaware–based company's announced merger with fellow American firm, Dow Chemical Company. | Germany’s BASF SE (BFFAF) is planning to crash the merger plans of Dupont (DD) and Dow Chemical (DOW), Bloomberg reported at the weekend.
The German company, which is the world’s biggest producer of chemicals, declined to comment on “speculation” to FORTUNE Monday, but the move, if confirmed, would give investors a radical alternative to the strategy thrashed out by the two U.S. companies under pressure from activist investors Nelson Peltz and Dan Loeb.
Under the plan unveiled by Dow and Dupont in December, the two companies would merge before breaking up into three companies focused respectively on agriculture, materials and ‘specialty’ areas like nutrition and health. The logic is that more focused companies can react more quickly and effectively to their markets’ needs, and strip out unnecessary costs more easily. The deal has attracted some criticism for focusing too much on short-term cash generation at the expense of long-term research.
By contrast, BASF is a company that believes very much in the old-fashioned conglomerate model, where advances in one division are used to cross-fertilize research in others, and where the different dynamics of its businesses are tolerated as something that stabilizes earnings over the longer-term. It’s also a vertically-integrated company with billions of dollars of capital tied up in an oil and gas subsidiary, Wintershall, that guarantees the company’s input of feedstock for its downstream operations (although it sold its natural gas trading and storage operations last year).
The size of BASF’s oil and gas business (last year, it contributed €13 billion in revenues out of a total of €70 billion) has been a major drag on earnings since the oil price collapsed in the second half of 2014, and the company’s shares hit a four-year low last month after it issued a drop in underlying profits this year due to a “volatile and challenging macroeconomic environment.”
BASF chief executive Kurt Bock had told Bloomberg last month that he had considered a deal in agricultural chemicals before the announcement of the Dow-Dupont merger, but had decided against it. DuPont’s regulatory filings show its chairman and CEO met with “a large, publicly traded chemical company” in November, shortly before announcing its deal with Dow.
BASF’s shares fell in early trading in Europe Monday in reaction to the report, on the perception that a bidding war for DuPont could get expensive. For a start, a successful bid would force DuPont to pay a breakup fee of $1.9 billion to Dow, according to Bloomberg.
| Organization Merge | March 2016 | ['(Bloomberg)', '(Fortune)'] |
At least four people are killed and several injured in a car bombing in Dagestan in the North Caucasus. | At least three people have been killed by a car bomb in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, say reports.
Police say at least three other people were injured when the bomb went off by a cafe in the town of Khasavyurt.
Islamist separatists in Dagestan have been fighting the Moscow-backed authorities for years. The militants are suspected of being behind this week's attack on Moscow's Domodedovo airport which killed 35 people and injured more than 100. Police spokesman Magomed Tagirov said all those killed in Khasavyurt had been inside the Karavan cafe when the blast struck, the Associated Press news agency reports.
A spokesperson for the town's main hospital told Russia's Interfax news agency that the dead were all civilians.
The Ria-Novosti agency quoted a medical official as saying a fourth person had died while undergoing surgery.
Investigators were reported to be at the scene.
The Dagestan region experiences almost daily attacks from militants wanting to set up an independent Islamic state. The attacks mostly target security forces and police.
The militants have increasingly focused their operations on Dagestan, since neighbouring Chechnya - where Moscow has fought two bloody wars with separatists since the fall of the USSR - has been gradually pacified. | Armed Conflict | January 2011 | ['(RIA Novosti)', '(BBC)'] |
The Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull announces that a Royal Commission will be held into the Northern Territory youth justice system after the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Four Corners program shows footage of juvenile Aboriginal Australians being tortured at the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre. John Elferink has been sacked as the Northern Territory's Minister for Justice and Corrections following the report. , | Chief minister takes over portfolio and PM announces royal commission after ABC airs footage of teenagers being teargassed, hooded and restrained for hours. Follow all the reaction and developments
Calla Wahlquist (earlier) and Elle Hunt (later)
Tue 26 Jul 2016 08.18 BST
First published on Mon 25 Jul 2016 23.53 BST
26 Jul 2016
08:17
Elle Hunt
It’s time for me to wrap up our coverage of reaction to Four Corners’ program into youth detention in the Northern Territory, but here’s what the day has brought us.
Rest assured we will be continuing to cover this story in the coming days, weeks, and – as the royal commission gets under way – months. In the meantime, thanks for following along with today’s coverage.
Updated
at 8.18am BST
26 Jul 2016
08:00
Helen Davidson
Eight prisoners at the Alice Springs adult correctional facility have climbed on the roof to stage a protest. Both the Northern Territory police and the Department of Corrections have confirmed the incident, and I’ve been told there were no weapons or injuries involved, but a police negotiator has been called in.
It’s not known why they are there or if it’s connected to the juvenile detention story, but it’s worth remembering that the NT corrections system as a whole frequently sees incidents, escapes and disturbances. This New Matilda piece by Chris Graham raises the valid question: the Four Corners footage shows how authorities behave when they know they’re being recorded. “Can you imagine how they behave when they think they’re not?”
This is an interview from October last year, with the former NT corrections commissioner, Ken Middlebrook, on ABC Darwin. The interview took place just after the Children’s commissioner’s report was released.
Let’s cut to the chase. He seems to be misinformed, at the very least, about the level of teargassing.
Middlebrook tells ABC radio the incident needs to be “looked at in context”, and dismisses the preceding news report about the commissioner’s findings.
He accuses the report of being one-sided, unfair and unbalanced. He tells the radio host it was “very shallow and doesn’t really address the issues, and there are inaccuracies in that report”.
He defends the use of teargas against children locked in cells and again says “let’s get this into context”.
“It wasn’t tear gas canisters. There were two sprays from an aerosol into the area. That wasn’t overuse of gas.
“Nearly 38 years I’ve been a corrections officer, and I’ve used gas very few times in that 38 years … On the evening when I arrived there it was out of control.
“The picture that was painted by that grab a while ago, where there was someone running around in a common area and other kids were playing cards in a cell. Let me tell you, those other kids in those other cells, wrecked those cells to the point that they were inoperable.”
“These were fair dinkum young hoodlums,” he later said. “These young men were throwing shards of glass at staff.”
Updated
at 7.39am BST
26 Jul 2016
07:14
On Vita’s report, his description of the “serious incident” on the evening of 21 August 2014 in the Behavioural Management Unit of the former Don Dale facility is significantly at odds with that shown on the CCTV and handy-cam footage broadcast by Four Corners. (You can watch the clip here.)
I’ve highlighted the discrepancies between the two accounts in square brackets, but it’s important to take them in the context of what Vita was asked by the NT government to investigate, and the issues he said he encountered (such as footage being withheld) in the process.
“A detainee had managed to damage his room and ultimately was able to get out of that room and into the BMU open area. [His door had been left unlocked, which Vita later clarifies.] All available exits soon after became inaccessible and a dangerous situation existed if staff were to force entry.
“The other BMU detainees, who were still locked in their rooms, continued to damage their rooms and attempted to break out themselves as well as arming themselves with various stabbing and cutting implements, gained from damaging their rooms. [At least two could be seen on the CCTV footage calmly playing cards before the tear gas was deployed.] Other detainees in the main centre became excited after being incited.
“The threat to management was that other detainees, not directly associated with the five in the BMU, could become involved, possibly get out of their rooms and partake in a much larger disturbance.
“As a result of this, local staff and other more specialised staff from the adjoining correctional centre arrived at Don Dale BMU and began exploring different options to bring this incident under control. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the infrastructure and the inability to get inside without risking the safety of other staff, there only appeared to be two other options:
“Onsite during this incident was the Commissioner for Northern Territory Department of Correctional Services, the Director of YDCs and the Executive Director, Youth Justice. As a result of consultation during the course of the incident and after exploring all the options available, the Commissioner, Ken Middlebrook, made a decision to use CS gas to bring the situation to a halt after constant attempts to resolve the incident peacefully were met with defiance by the detainees.
“As a result two short sharp bursts of CS gas were used, the detainee R immediately succumbed. [The ABC reports that the CTV footage shows 10 bursts of tear gas were sprayed into the enclosed area over 90 seconds.] The area was made safe and staff, particularly local staff, then immediately decanted detainee R and the other four detainees held in the BMU rooms, decontaminated them and took them outside so as to receive relief from the effects of the gas. No further injury to staff or detainees occurred.
[Again from that ABC report: “One boy is left in his cell and exposed to tear gas for eight minutes. He is seen lying face down on the floor with his hands behind his back, before being handcuffed by two prison officers wearing gas masks and dragged out of his cell.”]”
Vita concluded his assessment of the incident by urging “those who seek to criticise these actions take into consideration” a number of factors, including the volatile situation, the poor infrastructure that limited staff’s options, and the refusal of the first detainee “to mediate”.
Some of the children in the BMU were among the five that had successfully escaped the Don Dale facility three weeks before the teargassing incident. “If this incident was not finalised quickly ... this could once again be a threat to the community,” wrote Vita.
“... The safest option to bring the disturbance to a halt and provide safety to all involved, including the community, was assessed to be to use two sharp bursts of gas.
“The review considers that the actions of the Northern Territory Commissioner in this aspect were justifiable.”
Figures from Save the Children estimate that incarcerating young Indigenous offenders – who comprise the majority of detained young offenders – costs the Australian taxpayer $240 million a year: nearly $1,400 per day, per detainee.
It’s from a different budget, but it’s a stark comparison nonetheless: $300m in funding for Indigenous programs was ripped out of the 2014 federal budget.
The detainment of young offenders was not only a broken system but “grotesquely wasteful”, said the organisation’s director of public affairs and policy, Mat Tinkler. “These astronomical figures are symbolic of so much of the disadvantage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face ... “It clearly makes moral and financial sense to dramatically reduce the number of young [people] locked up in youth detention. We want to see taxpayer funds invested in programs that prevent youth offending and help Indigenous young people build brighter futures, not paying for prison cells.
“And we never again want to see the horrific abuse of children disclosed at Don Dale.”
Let’s take a look at that Michael Vita report that has been cited several times today. The former Long Bay prison boss was tasked by the NT government in October last year with reviewing its youth detention system.
You can read the 65-page document here. Vita did “not find any evidence of a systemic culture of non-reporting”.
But he wrote that he and the former children’s commissioner, Dr Howard Bath, found that the detention staff’s failure to provide CCTV or video footage and “apparent untruthful comments made in a statutory declaration” were among the issues in both their investigations.
Some contributing factors were identified in incidents that were not managed well by staff, wrote Vita:“None of this was new at all,” Priscilla Collins, the chief executive of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, has told the media in Darwin.
Echoing the comments made by many today, she said the transcript of Four Corners’ footage was included in the report into the NT youth detention system by Michael Vita, released in January this year. She refuted the explanation given by the chief minister, Adam Giles, that there was a “culture of cover-up”.
“Those investigations have the full transcript of the video footage that everyone saw last night, so when you have the chief minister and the attorney general say that they are shocked, they can’t be shocked. They had access to this report and that footage years ago.”
She said ministers in power have been “lying directly to the public”.
Nigel Scullion said the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, rang him after the broadcast last night, “fairly agitated”, when he was out to dinner.
“The PM rang me, fairly agitated, and said, ‘Have you said it?’ And I said, ‘No, mate.’ He said, ‘You better go home and see it. Give me a ring.’ So when I did see it, it shocked me to the core.”
He said he had never seen the footage before: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” He did admit to being “disappointed” that he was not briefed by the NT government on inquiries into abuse within Don Dale.
“I cannot understand why apparently so many people knew and yet here we are today – until there is a Four Corners expose on the matter, we were unable to act in the way that we should have.”
He said it was important not to conflate the issues of Aboriginal deaths in custody, the subject of a royal commission 25 years ago, and the issue of juvenile detention in the NT today. “But some of the learnings are ... is that this is a closed shop, this is a prison, nothing is transparent, and yet we now know that there can be circumstances in that environment that are just unthinkably evil, so in the future we need to find ways that ensure that this is all transparent.
“Just because it has horrible walls and we can’t see in, it doesn’t mean that the level of transparency ... doesn’t need to be substantially increased and I think that’s one of the fundamentals of the royal commission.”
He said he had “utter confidence” in the royal commission process.
Updated
at 6.28am BST
26 Jul 2016
05:47
The Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, has conveyed his “sense of shock” at the Four Corners broadcast to the media from Canberra.
“It was some of the most disturbing footageI have ever seen, I have ever seen. And it beggars belief that the people that we put in charge of scaring for vulnerable children in detention and – that’s right – caring for them and looking after their welfare were in fact brutalising those children.”
He also speculated that brutal treatment such as that documented at the Don Dale correctional facility was “in fact a part of the problem” of recidivism rates among youth who have entered in the justice system.
“Certainly I took away from the Four Corners report that we actually have a system that says if you’re going to self-harm ... somehow the most helpful thing to do is to tie you down and put a bag on your head, and if that is world’s best practice – well, I am just stunned.”
He also said it was “extremely distressing” to see how confident the officers filmed mistreating teenagers in detention were as they “went about their business”.
“There was no concern about cameras. There was no, ‘Oh, we need to be a bit cautious about that’, or a rule book or something.
“They knew that their behaviour was clearly not right, it was evil, but they also knew they had absolutely no chance of that being a problem to anyone, such was the culture of cover-up, such was the culture of brutality, and those sort of cultures push away people who want to help.”
Updated
at 5.57am BST
26 Jul 2016
05:40
The ABC has expressed concerns to Facebook over its removal of one clip over concerns it displays child nudity.
Facebook removed two clips posted to the Four Corners Facebook page showing the abuse of children in detention in the Northern Territory after they were reported by members of the public. One was subsequently reinstated on closer review by the platform, but the other contravenes its community standards – specifically, its policy about child nudity.
A Facebook spokesman said no nudity of minors could be shared on its platform, “even if they are shared with the purpose of condemning it”.
But the ABC’s director of news, Gaven Morris, said ABC News had given “careful consideration to publishing these images, which were evidence of the mistreatment of a child and not in any way gratuitious”.
He said he believed the images’ publication to be “strongly in the public interest ... We have expressed our concerns to Facebook about their handling of this matter.”
Updated
at 6.01am BST
26 Jul 2016
05:36
Tanya Plibersek, the acting leader of the opposition, told reporters in Melbourne that she found Four Corners’ report “shocking”.
“I think any Australian – any human being, anywhere would have been shocked by the footage. ... It is impossible to think that this has been happening in the Northern Territory for a number of years.”
She said Labor supported the royal commission and expected to be involved in setting its terms with the government. “It is absolutely vital that we get to the bottom of what was happening in this detention facility.”
But she hoped that in the coming days – weeks – that scrutiny would be applied far more broadly than Don Dale.
“I think we have a deeper responsibility as a society and as a community to ask ourselves how it is that 10, 11-year-old boys ended up in the juvenile justice system in the first place.
“How have they been let down by the broader community, by schools, by their families? What is it that has led them to the troubled lives and the behaviour that has taken them into contact with the juvenile justice system?”
Mark Dreyfus, the shadow attorney general, said, for this reason, Labor urged the government ensure the royal commission is a “full examination” of the NT’s juvenile justice system.
“It shouldn’t just be confined to the particular prison where these young boys were kept – in fact where these young boys were tortured. We need to make sure that it is a systemic inquiry.”
Labor’s Closing the Gap strategy sought to deliver a national solution to disproportionately high rates of Indigenous incarceration and victimisation rates, which it said had reached a “crisis point”.
Plibersek would not comment on whether NT officials knew enough to act before Four Corners publicised the footage: “I think that is exactly the sort of question a royal commission would look at.” | Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(ABC News)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Actress Natalie Portman, who was born in Jerusalem, pulls out of the upcoming Genesis Prize ceremony in Israel over "recent events in Israel". The Genesis Prize Foundation says it is worried the event will become politicised. | JERUSALEM -- U.S. actress Natalie Portman, this year's recipient of a prize dubbed the "Jewish Nobel," has pulled out of the June awards ceremony in Israel because of extreme distress over recent events in the country, the Genesis Prize Foundation said. The foundation said it was informed by Portman's representative that the Jerusalem-born Oscar winner "does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel."
Thursday's statement did not refer to specific events that would have prompted Portman's decision.
Israel has been criticized for its response to mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, in which 28 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded by Israeli fire since March 30. Israel says it is defending its border and accuses Gaza's rulers, the Islamic militant Hamas group, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of protests.
The Genesis foundation said it was "very saddened" by Portman's decision. "We fear that Ms. Portman's decision will cause our philanthropic initiative to be politicized, something we have worked hard for the past five years to avoid," it said.
The prize was launched in 2013 to recognize Jewish achievement and contributions to humanity. Previous recipients include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Anish Kapoor.
When Portman was announced late last year as the 2018 recipient, she said in a statement released by organizers at the time that she was "proud of my Israeli roots and Jewish heritage."
In Thursday's statement, the Genesis foundation quoted a representative for Portman as saying that "recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her" and that "she cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony."
First published on April 20, 2018 / 5:05 AM
© 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Awards ceremony | April 2018 | ['(worth 1 million USD)', '(CBS News)'] |
Authorities in Ecuador order the evacuation of people from the slopes of the Tungurahua volcano after it begins spewing ash. | The authorities in Ecuador have begun evacuating people from the slopes of the Tungurahua volcano after it started spewing ash. Scientists say fast-moving currents of extremely hot gas and rock could be seen flowing from the volcano's crater.
Tungurahua, some 135km (85 miles) southeast of the capital, Quito, has been in an active state since 1999.
But experts say there has been a rapid increase in its seismic activity since Saturday morning. Scientists with the Ecuadorean Institute for Geophysics say the number of explosions has increased. They say the ash cloud has reached 2km (1.2 miles) in height.
People living on the slopes reported the ground and buildings shaking, and a rumbling sound coming from the volcano. Hot gases and rocks started flowing down the western side of the mountain at mid-morning and ash has been raining down on the villages of Pondoa and Patate.
The authorities have put the region immediately around the volcano under red alert and the security forces are preventing people from entering the area. The tourist town of Banos is one of those being evacuated. In 1999, its 15,000 inhabitants were forced to evacuate when the Tungurahua had its last major eruption. Residents were not able to return to their homes for a year. | Volcano Eruption | December 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP via Google News)'] |
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen says on Twitter that there was a videoconference on Monday between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Taliban official Mullah Baradar to discuss the peace process. The group reiterated its commitments to not attack American personnel, to engage in intra-Afghan talks and "not let anyone to use its soil to attack other countries". The meeting was confirmed by the U.S. State Department. | The head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a video conference to discuss the Afghan peace process, the Islamist group and the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday, in a bid to remove hurdles in the path to peace talks.
Increasing violence and a contentious prisoner swap between the Afghan government and the Taliban have delayed talks that were to have begun in March between the insurgent group and a team mandated by Kabul.
On Twitter, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said Monday’s talks between the official, Mullah Baradar, and Pompeo discussed full implementation of the Doha accord and the withdrawal of foreign troops, as well as the release of prisoners, intra-Afghan talks and a reduction in fighting.
The Doha agreement, signed between the United States and Taliban in February, drew up plans for a withdrawal of foreign forces from the war-torn country in exchange for security guarantees from the insurgent group.
“Baradar once again reiterated that the Taliban are committed not to let anyone use Afghan soil (to launch attacks) against any country,” Shaheen said.
Pompeo acknowledged the insurgent group had “lowered the war graph by not attacking cities and major military bases” but said more needed to be done by all parties, the spokesman added.
“The Secretary made clear the expectation for the Taliban to live up to their commitments, which include not attacking Americans,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
The Baradar-Pompeo conference came amidst U.S. media reports that American intelligence had briefed President Donald Trump about Taliban-linked fighters collecting bounties from Russia to attack foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The White House has said Trump did not receive a personal briefing on the issue but has yet to squarely address whether he had received a written briefing, whether he had read it, and why he had not responded more aggressively if he had.
Shaheen said Baradar told Pompeo the delay in talks was because the Afghan government did not release the agreed number of prisoners.
Kabul and some foreign countries have raised concerns about the release of about 200 prisoners they say are involved in major attacks in Afghanistan.
Since the Doha pact, Taliban fighters have launched 44 attacks and killed or wounded an average of 24 civilians each day, Javid Faisal, the spokesman for the Afghan national security adviser, said on Tuesday.
Baradar told Pompeo the increased attacks were because of provocation by the government in areas under Taliban control, Shaheen added.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Russian airstrikes kill at least 14 civilians, including three children, as they cross the Euphrates river near the ISIL-held city of Mayadin in eastern Syria while fleeing the village of Mahkan. | Russian air strikes killed at least 14 civilians as they were crossing the Euphrates river near the militant-held town of Al Mayadeen in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Friday.
"They were crossing the river on makeshift rafts in a village south of Mayadeen," SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that three children were among those killed overnight.
Russia has in recent days intensified its air raids in support of Syrian regime forces battling militants across the country.
Abdel Rahman said the civilians were fleeing the village of Mahkan, south of Al Mayadeen, which lies about 420 km east of Damascus and is one of the Daesh's main remaining bastions.
Al Mayadeen has been under Daesh control since 2014, when the group swept across swathes of Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a "caliphate", but regime forces this week advanced to within five km of the town.
Poised for Al Mayadeen
A military media unit run by the Lebanese Hezbollah group says regime forces and its allies gained control of positions and heights parallel to the main road linking Deir Ezzor and Al Mayadeen, located on the Euphrates in eastern Syria.
SOHR said the forces were only six km away from the city.
Daesh becomes 'virtual caliphate'
Experts and officials say Daesh's "virtual caliphate" could be hard to conquer.
The militant propaganda machine will continue to exist in hidden corners of the dark web, inciting sympathisers to action, they say.
"Defeating ISIL (Daesh) on the physical battlefield is not enough," General Joseph Votel, the top commander for US military forces in the Middle East, warned earlier this year.
"Following even a decisive defeat in Iraq and Syria, ISIL (Daesh) will likely retreat to a virtual safe haven, a virtual caliphate, from which it will continue to coordinate and inspire external attacks as well as build a support base until the group has the capability to reclaim physical territory."
He described this online network as "a distorted version of the historic Islamic caliphate: it is a stratified community of Muslims who are led by a caliph (currently Abu Bakr al Baghdadi), aspire to participate in a state governed by sharia, and are located in the global territory of cyberspace."
Under pressure from public authorities, internet providers and major online players are beginning to put in place measures and procedures to disrupt Daesh's exploitation of the web.
| Armed Conflict | October 2017 | ['(TRT World)'] |
Sudan's ruling National Congress Party endorses South Sudan President Salva Kiir in upcoming elections. | January 27, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has made the surprise move and announced that it will not nominate any of its members to run against South Sudan president Salva Kiir in the upcoming elections scheduled for April and called on the Southern ex-rebels to return the favor. The NCP spokesperson Fathi Sheila was quoted by state media as saying that the Second Vice President Ali Osman Taha notified Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar of the decision in a telephonic conversation. Furthermore, Sheila said that the NCP will also not run in any constituency against any member of the government of national unity (GoNU) which would include senior presidential assistant and head of Sudan Liberation Movement Minni Arcua Minnawi. The state minister for information and communication Kamal Obeid said that the NCP attempted to reach similar arrangements with opposition parties but with no success citing their focused interest on the presidential race despite his party’s desire to have opposition voice in the legislative assembly. The position taken by the dominant party in the country signals concern that the elections may not turn out a ‘slam dunk’ requiring forging of alliances and reaching compromise to avoid the comfortable majority it currently enjoys. The NCP’s presidential adviser Ali Tamim Fartak told Reuters that the decision not to field a candidate for president of the south, which will vote on January 9, 2011 on independence, was to “maintain a good partnership” with the SPLM. “And we hope the SPLM will do the same by withdrawing their candidate for the president of the republic,” Fartak said. The SPLM deputy Secretary General for Northern sector Yasir Arman has been tapped by his party to run against Bashir in the elections, a step which could deny the Sudanese president millions of votes in the south. The head of the SPLM for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) Lam Akol, who backed Bashir for presidency this month, has been dealt a severe blow by NCP’s endorsement of Kiir, several observers in Khartoum told Sudan Tribune. He will run against the SPLM chief for the post of South Sudan president after winning the backing of an alliance of small Southern political parties. Akol, who defected from the SPLM party, has been a fierce critic of its leadership accusing it of lacking democracy and corruption. His close ties to Bashir’s party have alienated his colleagues at the ex-Southern rebel group. The former foreign minister has insisted at the time that the SPLM partnership with the NCP is particularly valuable and also campaigned in favor of the Sudanese President after the issuance by the International criminal Court (ICC) of an arrest warrant against him. The SPLM top officials quickly dismissed the NCP’s gesture and rejected any talk about withdrawing their candidates. The SPLM ridiculed the overture, saying it showed Bashir was worried by the challenge for the presidency. “They may be worried but that is normal ... they have mismanaged the country for the last 21 years,” SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum told Reuters. “Lam Akol is the NCP candidate ... the NCP was collecting signatures for Lam Akol in south Sudan,” Amum added. He said the SPLM would not withdraw Arman’s nomination. The SPLM along with opposition parties have threatened to boycott the elections the elections last year if a number of deliverables are not achieved including removing restrictions on political activities, press censorship and reigning in the powers of the security bureau. But later the coalition appeared to have a change of heart suggesting that they do not wish to allow the ruling NCP to automatically capture the votes if they were to boycott. The major opposition presidential runners include Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi (Umma Party); Hatem Al-Sir (Democratic Unionist Party); Yasir Arman (SPLM); Abdullah Deng Nhial (Popular Congress Party); Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud (Sudanese Communist Party); Mubarak Al-Fadil (Umma Reform and Renewal Party); Abdel-Aziz Khalid (Sudan Alliance Forces); Fatima Abdel-Mahmood (The Socialist Democratic Union). Observers say that under normal circumstances, it is all but certain that a second round will be needed for the presidential race given the weight enjoyed by the contestants. The NEC website says that if any one candidate could not achieve a 51% majority then a second round will be needed between the two top nominees. If this happens, this will open the door for coalition between the opposition parties to back one candidate to beat Bashir. (ST)
| Government Job change - Election | January 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Sudan Tribune)'] |
A federal jury orders DuPont to pay $2 million to a man with testicular cancer after finding the company liable for diseases linked to C8, a Teflon–making chemical. | (Reuters) - A U.S. jury in Ohio on Wednesday ordered DuPont DD.N to pay $2 million to a man who said he developed testicular cancer from exposure to a toxic chemical leaked from one of the company's plants, according to the plaintiff's lawyer Robert Bilott.
The federal jury also found DuPont acted with actual malice, raising the possibility of punitive damages, Bilott said. It is the third time jurors in Columbus, Ohio federal court have found DuPont liable for injuries linked to perfluorooctanoic acid, known as PFOA or C-8, which is used to make Teflon.
There are more than 3,400 lawsuits pending against DuPont over the chemical leak, which allegedly contaminated local water supplies. Chemours Co CC.N, the performance chemicals unit which was spun off from DuPont last year, has an agreement to cover the costs of such lawsuits.
Chemours spokeswoman Cynthia Salitsky stressed in a statement that Dupont was the named defendant in the cases and would be directly liable. She also noted that the litigation would likely continue for many years and the final outcomes could be different from the interim results.
DuPont declined to comment on the verdict, citing the pending punitive damages phase of the trial.
The plaintiff, Kenneth Vigneron, claimed he was exposed to C-8 from drinking the water in Washington County, Ohio, which is along the border with West Virginia, where the Dupont plant was located.
DuPont has lost two other recent trials over C-8. The first ended in October 2015 with an award of $1.6 million to a woman who claimed the chemical caused her to develop kidney cancer.
In July 2016, a jury in a case involving a plaintiff with testicular cancer also found Dupont acted with actual malice. The jury returned a verdict of $5.1 million, which was later bolstered with $500,000 in punitive damages.
Those two trials were test cases, or bellwethers, meant to determine the major issues and gauge the scale of liability for the remaining litigation. Wednesday’s verdict comes in the first non-bellwether trial, with 39 more cases slated to go to trial in Columbus in the next year.
| Organization Fine | December 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(CNBC)'] |
Roger Ailes is reported to be leaving Fox News after charges of sexual harassment are filed against him by former Fox and Friends host Gretchen Carlson. | Roger Ailes, who transformedFox News Channel from a start-up into one of the nation’s most influential news organizations in under two decades, is said to be in negotiations to leave the 21st Century Fox-owned cable outlet in the wake of a bevy of sexual-harassment allegations leveled at him, according to a person familiar with the situation.
In a statement, 21st Century Fox said Ailes remained an employee. “Roger is at work. The review is ongoing. And the only agreement that is in place is his existing employment agreement,” the company said in a statement released on Twitter.
Susan Estrich, an attorney for Ailes, echoed that statement in an interview. When asked if Ailes was negotiating his departure with 21st Century Fox, she said, “There are a lot of ideas floating around, but no final decision has been made by anybody.” When asked if Ailes wanted to stay at Fox News, she said, “Roger wants Fox News to be successful. The most important thing for Roger is that Fox News continues to be the number-one cable network.”
Ailes and 21st Century Fox may still be hammering out the terms of his departure, said the person familiar with the matter, but Ailes has not had much of a presence in the offices of Fox News and has not been contributing a great deal to meetings about news coverage. “Today is the day they reached the decision to part ways,” this person said. “Everyone there wants clarity, because you have the stars of the network in Cleveland.” Fox News has a strong presence at the Republican National Convention currently underway in Ohio.
Ailes, who built a business that throws off millions of dollars in revenue, could depart under a cloud.Gretchen Carlson, the former “Fox & Friends” anchor who left the network in June, filed a lawsuit in New Jersey earlier this month alleging Ailes had harassed her and derailed her career. Ailes had in a previous statement denied the charges. More women came forward alleging similar treatment by Ailes during his time as a producer in the decades before he set up shop at Fox News.
Afinal blow seemed to come on Tuesday: a report in New York magazine alleging that Megyn Kelly, one of the network’s primetime stars, had been the victim of unwanted sexual advances in her earlier days at the network. Those claims have not been independently verified, but the report seems to have played a role in determining the viability of Ailes’ tenure.
In a prepared statement, Estrich disputedthe New York report. “Roger Ailes has never sexually harassed Megyn Kelly. In fact, he has spent much of the last decade promoting and helping her to achieve the stardom she earned, for which she has repeatedly and publicly thanked him,” said Estrich, a partner at the Quinn Emanuel law firm, in a prepared statement.
Ailes is believed to be working under a contract with a term that expires in 2018.
The parent company faces a risk: Fox News has in its time become an influence on everything from the daily news cycle to the U.S. presidential election. Donald Trump’s willingness to spar verbally with veteran politiciansfirst became evident at a Republican debate broadcast by Fox News last year. Anchor Bill O’Reilly continues to snare some of the biggest audiences in cable, even though hehas been on the air in one form or another since 1996.
There are questions as to whether some of the network’s top stars would stay at a Fox News led by someone other than Ailes. Both Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly have contracts that expire in 2017. The Financial Times reported earlier today that Kelly, O’Reilly and Sean Hannity have clauses in their contracts that would allow them to leave the network if Ailes did as well. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2016 | ['(Variety)'] |
Italy approves a new $4.7 billion stimulus package in its 2021 budget to foster an economic rebound from the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. | A government statement said on Sunday that the $4.7-billion package was approved at a late-night cabinet meeting.
The ruling coalition, led by the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement and centre-left PD party, agreed on a preliminary version
of the stimulus package, a government source said, leaving final
details to be hammered out.
Among measures to support the health and education system,
the government will set up a $4.7 billion (4 billion euro) fund
to compensate companies worst hit by coronavirus lockdowns.
The budget also extends temporary layoff schemes for
companies with workers on furlough and offers tax breaks to
support employment in the poor south of the country.
One of the European countries worst hit by the pandemic,
Italy has forecast a 9 percent economic contraction for 2020 and a
budget deficit equating to 10.8 percent of gross domestic product.
The expansionary package is expected to keep Italy's deficit
next year to 7 percent of economic output, up from a 5.7 percent forecast in
April, reflecting the additional spending.
Italy has forecast economic growth of 6 percent in 2021.
Expansionary measures next year will total 40 billion euros,
including cheap loans and grants from the European Union's
Recovery Fund, Gualtieri told lawmakers this month.
| Government Policy Changes | October 2020 | ['(TRT World)'] |
Former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik is jailed for four years on tax fraud. | Former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik, hailed as a hero after the 9/11 attacks, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Kerik pleaded guilty in November to eight charges, including lying to the White House and tax evasion. He lied while being vetted for the post of homeland security chief in 2004. Federal judge Stephen Robinson said the fact that Kerik, 54, used the attacks for "personal gain and aggrandisement" was "a dark place in the soul for me". Kerik's admissions in November were part of a plea bargain which helped him avoid a maximum potential sentence of up to 61 years in jail. But the judge still went beyond the sentence of between 27 and 33 months recommended by prosecutors. Jacuzzi
Kerik has already agreed to file amended tax returns and pay $188,000 (£120,600) in restitution. As well as making false statements to the White House and other federal officials, Kerik admitted accepting a $250,000 payback in the form of house renovations from a company to which he gave a city contract. The company installed marble bathrooms, a jacuzzi and a new kitchen in Kerik's apartment in the upmarket New York suburb of Riverdale. He also admitted tax crimes including failing to report more than $500,000 in taxable income between 1999 and 2004. Mr Kerik had been hailed as a national hero following the 9/11 terror attacks and was nominated for the post of the head of the Department of Homeland Security under the Bush administration in 2004. But he withdrew his name from consideration for the role after he was accused of failing to pay taxes, and of having extramarital affairs. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Boston Globe)', '(The Daily Telegraph)'] |
Two suicide bombers attack a police station in the Al-Midan neighbourhood of Damascus, killing at least 15 people. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers struck a police station in Damascus on Monday, with at least 10 people reported dead, in the first such attack to hit the Syrian capital since July.
The interior minister said the blasts killed “a number of policemen and civilians” in the al-Midan neighborhood, but did not say how many.
At least 10 people were killed and 20 more injured when four armed men assaulted the station, the pro-Damascus television channel al-Mayadeen reported. Russian news agency RIA put the toll at 15.
Militants targeted the al-Midan police station and clashed with police officers there, Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar said on state television from the station.
One man blew himself up at the main entrance and another detonated his explosive device on the first floor, he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Footage on state TV showed bodies in shrouds on the floor of the station and fire fighters putting out flames.
The capital has enjoyed relative security as Syria’s six-year civil war has raged on nearby and across the country. But several such attacks have hit Damascus in recent years, including a car bomb that killed 20 people in July.
Related Coverage
A bomb blast had also hit the same police station in al-Midan late last year.
Islamic State and the Tahrir al-Sham alliance - led by fighters formerly linked to al-Qaeda - have each claimed separate suicide attacks that killed scores of people in Damascus in the past.
Monday’s attack came as a response to “the major victories that our armed forces are achieving on Syrian land,” the interior minister said.
With the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, the government has pushed back rebels in western Syria, shoring up its rule over the main urban centres. In recent months, it has also marched eastwards against Islamic State.
“It’s natural to expect that the terrorists will resort to acts like this ... but they are all desperate acts,” Shaar said. “Such operations are thwarted on a daily basis.”
Syrian troops and allied forces have captured several suburbs of Damascus from rebel factions over the past year. The army and its allies are currently fighting insurgents in the Jobar and Ain Tarma districts on the capital’s eastern outskirts. | Armed Conflict | October 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Malians go to the polls to elect a president. | This article was published more than 2 years ago. Some information in it may no longer be current.
Thousands of Malians voted in presidential elections Sunday in the capital, but others struggled in parts of the country’s north where some ballot boxes were burned and in the central region where voters feared threats by extremist groups.
Polls closed Sunday and officials began counting the votes. Results are expected within the week. If no candidate wins more than 50 per cent in the first round, Malians will vote in a second round on Aug. 12.
Voters have expressed concern about being targeted after al Qaeda’s Mali branch warned for months against going to the polls. Deadly communal clashes between ethnic groups and accusations of heavy-handed counterterror operations have complicated what President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita hopes will be an election victory leading him to a second term.
The 73-year-old, who was elected in 2013, faces 23 candidates in the first round.
As he voted in Bamako, Keita commended Malians on a successful and peaceful day of voting.
“It is a real pleasure for me to perform this citizen act, and it is the start of victory for the people of Mali, who have voted in calm and serenity,” he said. “This vote will have demonstrated our democratic maturity and our status as a great people.”
His main challenger is 68-year-old Soumaila Cisse, his rival in 2013, who has criticized the president for not addressing Mali’s rising insecurity.
No polling stations opened in some central Mali Fulani villages under the control of jihadists, including Yamassadiou and Onde. And despite the presence of Mali’s army in Boulikessi, stations didn’t open there, said a security official in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t permitted to speak to the press.
Only a few stations were closed in Douentza district in Mali’s central Mopti region, where armed men kidnapped the head of a polling station in Gandamia village, the official said. Though that particular station reopened, people fear going to the polls.
Opposition leader Cisse, who voted in his village, Niafounke in the Timbuktu region, said that in Dianke, ballot boxes were taken away. He also said that ballot materials for another village Berre, remained in Timbuktu.
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“Despite the difficulties of insecurity and transport, it was a duty for me to come and vote here with the people who trust me,” Cisse said. “Malians must vote, it is very important. Each Malian must also be vigilant against attempts of electoral fraud. There must be transparency.”
Several political parties have expressed doubts about a valid election after duplicate and fictitious polling stations were listed on the electoral commission’s website.
More than 8 million voters are registered.
The government and the electoral commission have promised a smooth vote, but many in Mali are still worried about postelection violence should Keita win in the first round.
“I voted, but all that people are saying is worrying me. I do hope there won’t be an election crisis,” said 67-year-old Ibrahim Traore.
Experts say Mali is less secure than in 2013, when French-backed forces pushed extremists in the north from their strongholds.
A more assertive response by Mali’s security forces to the attacks has led to accusations by human rights groups of extrajudicial killings. In some areas neighbours have turned on each other, amid suspicions of influence by extremist groups.
Oumar Toure, a leader of a local civic association in Mopti, said things have shifted there.
“The current president IBK considers Mopti region his enemy, and he left it ... that’s why all the insecurity of the north has come to settle here,” said Toure. “In Mopti, it’s the law of the strongest.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Malians to maintain a peaceful course and said in a statement Saturday he was encouraged by a peaceful campaigning period, despite security challenges in the north and centre.
“The Secretary-General urges all political actors in Mali to commit to making this poll a peaceful, free and transparent process, and to resolve any possible dispute through the appropriate institutions in accordance with the law,” his statement said.
Meanwhile, Iyad Ag Ghaley, the leader of al Qaeda’s Mali branch known by its French acronym JNIM, sent a message on Telegram and Twitter saying that his organization opposes the elections.
Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. | Government Job change - Election | July 2018 | ['(The Globe and Mail)'] |
Violence in Nigeria continues as troops shell the home of Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf in Maiduguri, Borno State. | . The aftermath of gun battles in Bauchi on Sunday and suspected militants
Nigerian troops have been shelling the home of a radical Islamist leader in the northern city of Maiduguri after at least 140 deaths in three days.
Followers of Mohammed Yusuf barricaded themselves in and around the house after heavy fighting with security forces sent to contain rioting. President Umaru Yar'Adua said the army had acted to nip a potentially dangerous problem in the bud. A BBC correspondent says gunfire can be heard across Maiduguri. Nigeria's security services have been flooding Maiduguri, the city worst affected by the violence, the BBC's Caroline Duffield reports. They surrounded the area housing the headquarters of Mohammed Yusuf's group, known as Boko Haram. The group is also referred to locally as the "Taliban", though it has no known links to the Afghan militants. The group is being blamed for violent attacks on police stations, government buildings and civilians across four states in Nigeria. It is against Western education, believes Nigeria's government is being corrupted by Western ideas and wants to see Islamic law imposed across Nigeria. In another development, Nigerian Christian leaders said they had received no reports of Christians being targeted in the wave of Islamist violence. "As things stand, there is no report of Christians being killed or churches being attacked, but religious leaders have called on the government to protect law-abiding citizens and religious structures," said Bishop Emmanuel Badejo, chairman of the Social Communications Commission of the Nigerian bishops' conference. State of alert
Explosions and gunshots could be heard from the Doidamgari area of the city, where Mohammed Yusuf's home is situated and the Boko Haram have their spiritual headquarters. Tensions are never far from the surface in northern Nigeria. Poverty and competition for scarce resources, along with ethnic, cultural and religious differences have all fuelled sudden violence. But the latest violence is not between communities, it involves young men from religious groups, arming themselves and attacking local police. Fringe religious groups in Nigeria have claimed links to the Taliban before - individuals have also been accused of links to al-Qaeda. But Nigeria is very different to countries like Mali or Algeria, where groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operate. The idea of radical Islamist militants gaining a serious foothold in Nigeria is usually dismissed, because of the strength of local identities and traditions.
President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered Nigeria's national security agencies to take all necessary action to contain and repel attacks by the extremists. "It is the government that has moved to nip a potentially dangerous problem in the bud," he said before leaving on a visit to Brazil. "These people have been organising, penetrating our societies, procuring arms, learning how to make explosives and bombs to disturb the peace and force abuse on the rest of Nigerians. "And I believe the operation we have launched now will be an operation that will contain them once and for all." The Doidamgari area is full of schools, homes, shops and a mosque, our correspondent says. Residents and civilians have been told to leave and there are reports of armed men shooting from inside the area. Military aircraft filled with soldiers have been seen taking off from Jos in the neighbouring Plateau state. It is thought the troops are meant to provide support for the armoured vehicles and police already on the ground. Outside Maiduguri, there is a heightened state of alert across the northern states: In the city of Kano, police arrested 53 people after an attack on a police station outside the city on Monday; police also shot and killed three suspected militants as they tried to reach Maiduguri In Sokoto, in the far north-west, police arrested five men said to have been caught in the act of planning an attack In Bauchi, scene of the first bloodshed on Sunday, 176 people remain under arrest Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. President Yar'Adua said 'a potentially dangerous problem' had been tackled
A BBC reporter counted about 100 bodies of residents and militants in the streets of Maiduguri on Monday. Maiduguri police said 103 had died in the violence in the city, including 90 members of Boko Haram, eight police officers, three prison officials and two soldiers. At least 39 people were killed in the violence in Bauchi. Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria, but there is no history of al-Qaeda-linked violence in the country. The country's 150 million people are split almost equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Are you in Nigeria? Have you been affected by the clashes? Send us your comments.
| Armed Conflict | July 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(The Miami Herald)'] |
Hawaiian Airlines warns that the eruption of Kīlauea may hurt bookings and trim revenues. | Shares of Hawaiian Airlines’ parent company tumbled Tuesday after the airline warned a volcanic eruption in Hawaii has dented bookings and revenue in the second quarter.
A powerful eruption at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano started early last month, forcing evacuations of nearby residents. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed.
Late Monday, Hawaiian warned second-quarter revenue for each seat it flies a mile, a key industry metric, will come in 0.5 percent lower to 1.5 percent higher than it did a year ago. The airline previously estimated revenue would be flat to up as much as 3 percent.
Hawaiian Holdings shares were down nearly 5 percent in early afternoon trading Tuesday, more than the carrier’s peers. The airline also said it is facing higher-than-expected fuel costs, an issue that has hit the airline industry broadly. | Volcano Eruption | June 2018 | ['(CNBC)'] |
The United Nations Human Rights Council appoints Sir Desmond de Silva of Britain, Karl Hudson–Phillips of Trinidad and Tobago, and Mary Shanth Dairiam of Malaysia to investigate the Gaza flotilla raid. | The UN Human Rights Council has appointed a three-member panel to investigate alleged violations of international law during Israel's raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza two months ago.
The UN team is expected to travel to Israel, Turkey and Gaza in August to interview witnesses about the circumstances which led to the killing of nine activists on one of the ships.
The Israeli navy stormed the flotilla on 31 May, killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American on board a Turkish ship.
Israel said its commandos acted in self-defence and has rejected calls for an international inquiry into the raid.
But Pakistan and Sudan led a move by Muslim countries at the UN human rights body, where they hold an effective majority, to condemn the raid and demand an independent inquiry.The council voted to set up the independent inquiry on 2 June.
A separate Israeli military inquiry released on 12 July found intelligence and operational errors in the raid but defended the use of force.
The fact-finding team comprises three independent experts; Sir Desmond de Silva, is a former war crimes prosecutor, Karl Hudson-Phillips is a former judge at the International Criminal Court and Mary Shanthi Dairiam, a Malaysian women's rights activist.
Meanwhile, two Spanish activists and a journalist arrested in the raid are filing charges against Israel's prime minister, the BBC reports.
The three accuse Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, six cabinet ministers and the navy commander of illegal detention, torture and deportation. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | July 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(Radio New Zealand)'] |
Pakistan pulls out of an international summit of Muslim nations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, scheduled to start this Thursday. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said it was done after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates expressed concern that the summit was to establish a rival bloc to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. | Pakistan’s Gulf allies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, had expressed reservations over Islamabad joining the summit.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has pulled out of an international summit for leaders of Muslim countries to be held in Malaysia over concerns it could “divide” the Muslim world, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said
Pakistan’s Gulf allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had expressed reservations over Islamabad joining the summit, hosted by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur.
Speaking to reporters in the capital on Tuesday, Qureshi confirmed that neither he nor Prime Minister Imran Khan would be attending the summit.
The four-day Kuala Lumpur Summit begins on Thursday and will include dozens of world leaders, intellectuals and scholars “to discuss and exchange ideas about the issues revolving in the Muslim world”.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mohamed’s office confirmed that his Pakistani counterpart had pulled out of the event. Khan also spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a major backer of the summit, on the sidelines of the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Tuesday, a statement from Khan’s office said.
In Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi said Pakistan had pulled out of the summit due to concerns by Saudi Arabia that the meeting could create a new bloc that would rival the existing 57-member state Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), its headquarters in Riyadh.
Pakistan’s pulling out from the summit came days after Prime Minister Khan visited Riyadh for talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on a range of issues. Officials statements from the visit did not, however, mention the Kuala Lumpur summit.
Malaysia denies the summit is intended to rival the OIC.
“The KL Summit which is into its fifth edition is a Non-Governmental Organisation initiative, supported by the Malaysian Government and is not intended to create a new bloc as alluded to by some of its critics,” said Prime Minister Mohamad in a statement released on Tuesday.
“In addition, the Summit is not a platform to discuss about religion or religious affairs but specifically to address the state of affairs of the Muslim Ummah.”
The Malaysian prime minister said he explained this position to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud during a videoconference call on Tuesday.
Pakistani FM Qureshi said Pakistan’s pulling out of the summit demonstrated its “neutrality” in the dispute between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia over the issue.
Pakistan remains an active member of the OIC, where it has recently lobbied for the bloc to call for independent investigations into alleged rights abuses in Indian-administered Kashmir.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
El Salvador arrests former congressman Raúl Mijango for allegedly attempting to smuggle banned items into prison and allegedly associating with gang members. | SAN SALVADOR, May 3 (Reuters) - El Salvador has arrested former congressman Raul Mijango, who brokered a controversial gang truce in 2012 that reduced murders in the violent Central American nation by half.
Mijango, a former guerilla commander and lawmaker with the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, was arrested on allegations of bringing banned objects into prisons and being an associate of gang members, police said on Twitter.
The truce, mediated by Mijango in 2012, lasted until 2014, and won approval from former leftist President Mauricio Funes and the Organization of American States.
The pact was broken by public criticism that the deal was too beneficial to the gangs, which took advantage of less police pressure to rearm.
The breakdown led to a record escalation of violence last year, with homicide rates skyrocketing to 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, the world's highest, because of fighting between the Mara Salvatrucha 13 and rival Barrio 18, authorities said.
At the time of his arrest, Mijango was trying to promote a new truce.
El Salvador's president, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a 71-year-old former communist guerrilla, has taken a tough line on crime, deploying anti-gang army battalions and toughening up legislation to fight the Maras and their associates. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Enrique Pretel; Editing by Peter Cooney)
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2016 | ['(Reuters via Trust)'] |
The 2008 Zimbabwean cholera outbreak has claimed 425 lives and affected 10,000 people since August 2008. | Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is spiralling out of control, the United Nations has indicated after reporting a suspected 10,000 cases nationwide.
More than 425 people have died since the outbreak in August and the number is expected to rise due to poor sanitation worsted by the onset of the rainy season.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has accused the government of under-reporting the deaths, saying that he believed more than 500 people had died and half a million were affected by cholera.
Zimbabwe's dilapidated infrastructure has made clean water a luxury, with many people relying on shallow wells and latrines in their yards.
Cholera spreads through dirty water causing vomiting and diahhreoa and while cholera has long posed a sporadic problem in rural Zimbabwe, the current epidemic is hitting the nation's cities.
An anti-President Robert Mugabe protester has become the highest profile victim of the disease. Julia Chapeyama, 44, was repeatedly arrested and harassed by Mr Mugabe's regime when riot police swooped on protests by Women of Zimbabwe Arise, of which Muss Chapeyama was a founding member.
She won an Amnesty International prize earlier this month for her pro-democracy campaigns.
Mr Mugabe has blamed western sanctions for the unprecented cholera epidemic.
The last significant cholera outbreak was in 1992 when 2 000 were infected.
Britain made 3 million available last week as part of a 10 million package for the unprecedented epidemic which has spread from Zimbabwe to South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.
Hopes for easing the humanitarian crisis have dimmed as President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai have been locked in a protracted dispute over how to form a unity government after controversial elections earlier this year.
Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed under the weight of the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million per cent in July but believed to be much higher.
Once a food exporter, nearly half the population needs international food aid, while 80 per cent of Zimbabweans are living in poverty.
Meanwhile, a 74-year-old British woman was beaten to death and her husband left in a critical condition after a violent attack on the couple's farm in Zimbabwe.
The body of Mary Austen was discovered two days after she was murdered in Kwekwe, in the country's centre. | Disease Outbreaks | December 2008 | ['(Telegraph.co.uk)'] |
President of China Hu Jintao accepts an invitation for a state visit from President of the United States Barack Obama. | China's President Hu Jintao has accepted an invitation for a state visit from US President Barack Obama, the White House has said.
The invitation was made on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Canada.
Officials from the two countries are to set a date for the state visit, Mr Hu's first to the US under President Obama.
The two countries have disagreed recently on currency exchange rates, trade and how to deal with Iran's nuclear programme.
China has agreed recently to let its currency float more freely from its previous peg to the US dollar, but many in the US say it is undervalued, giving China an unfair trade advantage.
"The president extended an invitation to President Hu to visit the United States on a state visit. President Hu accepted and the two sides will work out the timing," White House aide Jeffrey Bader said.
Mr Obama told Mr Hu that China's move to greater flexibility on its currency exchange was welcome and that "implementation of it was very important," Mr Bader said.
"The president stressed the need for balanced and sustainable growth and the role that China can play in achieving balanced and sustainable growth," he added.
| Diplomatic Visit | June 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff is hospitalised with pneumonia in São Paulo. | Ms Rousseff had been admitted to a hospital in Sao Paulo on Saturday after suffering from severe flu symptoms for several days, he said. He added that the president would stay a second night for further tests.
Ms Rousseff, 63, had to cancel her participation at the World Economic Forum in Rio de Janeiro on Friday because she felt ill.
Ms Rousseff underwent treatment for a cancer in the lymphatic system in 2009. She is said to have recovered well.
The first female president of Brazil, she was elected as the Workers' Party candidate in 2010 and inaugurated on 1 January 2011. During the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva she was energy minister and chief of staff. | Famous Person - Sick | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
A coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo fails. | The men - some of whom were wounded - were paraded in front of reporters at a government news conference.
Border police have been put on high alert following attacks on military bases and a television station.
Some officials say members of the former guard of late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko are behind the attacks.
Two government soldiers were killed and several injured in the fighting, which broke out in various parts of Kinshasa early on Sunday.
Foreign hand?
"Rocket-propelled grenades were fired from the direction of the Palais de la Nation [Presidential Palace] in the direction of the president's house and fire returned," said UK Ambassador in Kinshasa Jim Atkinson.
He said the incident was an apparent coup attempt.
The government says armed groups simultaneously attacked two army posts, a naval base, and Ndolo military airport.
Shells also fell on densely populated parts of town, and a private television station came under attack.
There is no official word on who the attackers were.
However unnamed police officers quoted by AFP news agency said the attackers were former members of the personal guard of Mobutu - who was ousted in 1997.
One officer said some of the assailants came overnight from Brazzaville, the capital of the neighbouring Congo Republic across the Congo river.
After the shooting the attackers retreated to an area near the ferry landing point outside Kinshasa, they added.
Weapons
More than 3,000 members of the former guard are currently housed in Brazzaville.
The authorities displayed a cache of arms and ammunition
However the information minister of the Congo Republic, Alain Akouala, told the BBC's Focus of Africa programme that none of the attackers had come from his country.
DR Congo Information Minister Vital Kamerhe told journalists a total 20 assailants had been arrested, and another 15 remained at large. Only 15 prisoners were paraded.
Weapons, including guns and grenades, have been seized, he added.
The BBC's Arnaud Zajtman in Kinshasa says the city is now calm and government soldiers have taken up position at strategic points - notably near
the headquarters of the UN mission in Congo.
DR Congo - formerly known as Zaire - is emerging from five years of war in which it is thought more than three million people died.
President Joseph Kabila heads a power-sharing government under peace deals that ended the fighting in December 2002. | Regime Change | March 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who replaced German Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic Union, threatens to stand down as a chancellor candidate if her centre-right party continues to disagree over support. | Angela Merkel's would-be successor as German chancellor has threatened to stand down as leader of the CDU if her centre-right party fails to back her.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as AKK, urged critics to support her vision for Germany at the party's annual congress in Leipzig.
She has faced mounting criticism since replacing Mrs Merkel as CDU leader.
However, her threat to resign prompted a lengthy ovation and a pledge of loyalty from her main critic.
Poor election results and her low popularity have led to discontent within the CDU. But in a speech on Friday, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, 57, issued an ultimatum to her opponents.
"If you are of the opinion that the Germany I want is not the one you want... then let's end it. Here, now and today," Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer told delegates.
"But, dear friends, if you want this Germany, if you want to take this path together... then let's roll up our sleeves here and now and make a start."
At the end of the speech, delegates gave the party leader a standing ovation that lasted at least three minutes.
Mrs Merkel, who also gave a speech at the congress, struck a more conciliatory tone, calling for party unity.
As leader of the Christian Democratic Union - Germany's largest party - Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer is favourite to succeed Mrs Merkel when she stands down in 2021.
She was also given the role of defence minister during the summer, but shocked colleagues when she suggested sending German soldiers to northern Syria as part of a an international security zone.
Friedrich Merz, a millionaire lawyer who narrowly lost out to Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer in last year's leadership vote, recently described the CDU-led government as "abysmal".
He remains one of Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer's most vociferous critics but applauded her speech and promised loyalty. "We are loyal, to our chairwoman, and to the government," he said.
The warm, savoury smell of lunch began to waft into the conference centre. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had been speaking for an hour and, as stomachs rumbled, her audience began to look a little restless. But Angela Merkel looked on approvingly as the woman she backs as her successor as party leader and, potentially, chancellor, suddenly delivered a defiant challenge to her critics and the man who's been snapping at her heels for months. The powerful - and lengthy - standing ovation which followed suggests she has the backing of her party - for now. But privately delegates confide that they're still not sure. AKK is seen as a continuity candidate, her greatest strength or her greatest weakness, depending on who you ask. Polls also suggest she doesn't have the public's confidence.
It's clear Friedrich Merz, who later gave a confident and rousing speech, still considers himself to be in the running. AKK will have to tread carefully. There are two years before Mrs Merkel is due to stand down and, besides Mr Merz, a number of others nurture ambitions for the top job. They're just waiting, some more quietly than others, for the right moment to make their move.
Mrs Merkel has been chancellor since 2005 but with her fourth consecutive term due to end in December 2021, party turmoil has thrown AKK's candidacy into doubt.
Earlier this year, she was forced to dismiss a report that she believed Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer was not up to the job.
Since then, a fractious debate about the political direction of the party has escalated.
In the European Parliament elections in May, the conservative bloc had its worse result since World War Two. The CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union, finished on top but support fell to 28.9% - down more than 7% from the last election four years ago.
Then, in October, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) beat the CDU into third place in the eastern German state of Thuringia.
Popular in Berlin and her home state of Saarland in the south-west, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has a reputation for calm analysis and political acumen.
She joined the party as a student in 1981 and quickly rose up the ranks of state politics, becoming the first woman to serve as a state minister for internal affairs in 2000, and the first woman to serve as prime minister of Saarland.Merkel successor threatens to quit as party leader
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | November 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Telegraph)'] |
Six people are killed by a gas explosion in an abandoned coal mine in Middelburg, South Africa. | Six people have been killed by a gas explosion in an abandoned coal mine in South Africa, the national broadcaster is reporting.
About 20 others are still trapped at the Gloria coal mine in Middelburg, east of the capital, Pretoria. A police spokesman said some people had gone into the mine to steal copper wires when a gas pipe exploded. Local media said rescue efforts were being hampered by dangerously high levels of toxic gas. "We're still waiting for engines and generators to arrive to start putting oxygen into the ground", local government official Speedy Mashilo told South Africa's national broadcaster SABC.
He said that engineers would join the rescue efforts by rigging up lighting in the mine shafts.
The mine was closed after its owners, the Gupta brothers, found it difficult to continue doing business in South Africa following corruption allegations against them. South Africa's former President Jacob Zuma has become embroiled in the allegations. Both parties have denied any wrongdoing.
Mining accidents are common in South Africa. More than 80 fatalities were recorded in mines across the country in 2017.
Last year, a power cut left 955 gold miners trapped underground for two days before they were eventually freed. | Gas explosion | February 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in Argentina went to the polls Sunday to select a new President and legislature. The race to be Argentina's next president heads for a November 22 runoff. With 80 percent of polling places reporting, opposition, Republican Proposal candidate Mauricio Macri, and ruling party, Justicialist Party candidate Daniel Scioli each have 35 percent of the votes. | Voters are due to go to the polls in Argentina to choose a new president, to replace Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who has governed for the last eight years.
While all the candidates seeking to replace her agree on foreign policy, including applying more diplomatic pressure over the Falkland Islands, there is sharp disagreement on economic policy. Wyre Davies reports from Buenos Aires.
Argentines to choose new president. | Government Job change - Election | October 2015 | ['(PRO)', '(PJ)', '(BBC)', '(AP via Washington Post)', '(CNN)'] |
A car bomb explodes beside a shopping centre in Derry, Northern Ireland. | Dissident republican group the Real IRA has said it carried out Monday night's car bomb attack in Londonderry.
The bomb was left close to the Ulster Bank and a row of shops in front of Da Vinci's hotel on the Culmore Road in the city.
It exploded shortly after midnight - about an hour after the warning was given. Dozens of homes were evacuated in the alert. No-one was injured. However, the bank and several shops were damaged.
The area had been cleared when the bomb exploded. However, a police officer, who was standing close to the cordon, was blown off his feet by the blast.
Masonry and glass from smashed windows were strewn across the Culmore Road.
Throughout the night, army bomb experts examined the wreckage of the Vauxhall Corsa car that contained the bomb.
The bank is badly damaged. The Real IRA contacted the office of a newspaper on Tuesday morning to say it was responsible for the attack. It is not the first time it has targeted the Culmore Road branch of the Ulster Bank.
Last year, it said it was responsible for sending bullets to relatives of police officers working in the branch.
There have been a number of attacks in recent months which have been blamed on dissident republicans. In August, a car containing 200lb of explosives went off outside Strand Road police station in the city, causing substantial damage.
Two men hijacked a taxi in the Bogside, loaded the bomb into the driver's car and ordered him at gunpoint to leave it at the station.
The area around the explosion remains cordoned off.
There has been severe traffic disruption to traffic in Derry City Centre, Pennyburn Roundabout and the Waterside on Tuesday morning as a result of the bomb.
The following roads are closed: Culmore Road from Culmore Roundabout to Pennyburn Roundabout; Strand Road between Pennyburn Roundabout and Duncreggan Road and Buncrana Road between Pennyburn Roundabout and Pennyburn Pass. They are likely to remain closed until the early evening.
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson said the government would "not allow these people to achieve their aim". He said the authorities would tackle those responsible and would "smoke them out" and "bear down on them". The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he condemned "the futile activities of these conflict junkies".
Speaking from Birmingham, where he is attending the Conservative Party Conference, he said: "The objectives of these people are to destroy the peace process; to break the unity of the Executive; to turn back the clock on policing and to embarrass Sinn Fein.
"On all four counts they have been failing miserably."
DUP MP Gregory Campbell said the bomb would cause "massive inconvenience" to schools, work and tourists.
"There is unanimous support across the political divide for condemnation of this," he said.
"We need information from local people, translated into evidence before a court and a conviction.
"Let's get beyond condemnation and get these people behind bars."
Mayor of Derry Colum Eastwood was at the scene when the device exploded.
"I saw the bomb go off. We were not far away," he said.
"It is just shocking that someone would put a bomb anywhere, but especially at a commercial centre.
"I do not know what these people are hoping to achieve. They say they love their country but they spend their time trying to destroy it. The people of this city will be very angry."
Businessman Garvan O'Doherty, the owner of Da Vinci's Hotel, said the focus should remain on peace.
"The vast majority are focused on the partnership approach to peace. This will not detract those of us who want a stable society," he said.
He said young people who followed the bombers would "pay a high price in the future".
| Riot | October 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
48 people are rescued from a boat which was taking on water after it collided with a rock off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. | A total of 48 passengers, including children, have been rescued from a boat after it struck a rock and was in danger of sinking off Pembrokeshire.
The Lady Helen had been sailing from Martin's Haven to nearby Skomer Island.
A mayday was sent out and passengers were transferred to rescue vessels after the boat started taking in water as she was towed back to the mainland.
Milford Haven coastguard said all 48 passengers were "safely ashore with no injuries".
Boat trips are popular to Skomer, a wildlife sanctuary and home to colonies of thousands of sea birds just off the Pembrokeshire coast.
Lady Helen was heading from Martin's Haven to Skomer when she ran aground on a rock at Little Sound, said the coastguard.
A mayday alert was issued at 12:55 BST and the RNLI lifeboats from Angle and St David's were scrambled, along with a Dyfed-Powys Police rib and an RAF helicopter from Chivenor in Devon.
Sister boat the Dale Princess managed to drag the Lady Helen off the rock using a line but she began taking in water as they headed back to shore.
Milford Haven Coastguard watch manager Barrie Yelland told BBC Wales: "Several vessels in the area also responded and went to the assistance of Lady Helen.
"They started to tow her back to Martin's Haven but unfortunately she started to sink and they decided to transfer all the passengers to the other vessels. "It's something we try not to do unless we have to because there's a danger in transferring people at sea but it came apparent there was no option."
All 48 passengers were reported to be safely ashore with no injuries.
"Everyone has done an excellent job carrying out this rescue, including all the various vessels that responded," said Mr Yelland.
"Special thanks must also go out to the boat Over Dale," said the watch manager.
One of those helping passengers was diver Dr Pauline Crossland, on board Over Dale.
"We were a group of divers who were on our way out and a mayday call was put out," she said.
"A number of boats had to go to its rescue.
"We had quite a few children and elderly ladies on our boat. The children were initially a bit scared. They said the boat had been listing. But once we gave them a Twix each they were fine."
Lady Helen was beached at Martin's Haven and there are three salvage pumps on board and she was being pulled further up the shore. | Shipwreck | May 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
American musician R. Kelly is indicted for raping a minor. A judge in Cook County, Illinois, issues an arrest warrant for Kelly in regard to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. | Follow NBC News R&B singer R. Kelly turned himself in to Chicago police Friday night, hours after he was charged with multiple criminal counts of sexual abuse of several underage victims, police said.
Kelly took a van from his recording studio to a Chicago police precinct at about 8:15 p.m. CST, according to NBC Chicago. He was put under arrest about 15 minutes later, and was expected to appear in court for a bond hearing Saturday afternoon, said Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Kelly, 52, faces 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in Chicago.
A bond hearing for Kelly is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, and his arraignment is set for March 8.
Steve Greenberg, R. Kelly’s attorney, told reporters late Friday, “Kelly is strong. He’s got a lot of support. And he’s going to be vindicated on all these charges.”
He said that he believed one of the accusers in the latest case was the same one involved in a previous acquittal, and that the artist shouldn't have to face similar charges. "Double jeopardy should apply," he said.
Greenberg alleged that the star's accusers were trying to get on a "gravy train" to profit from his client.
The indictment released on Friday listed four victims, at least three of whom were under 17 at the time they were allegedly victimized by Kelly. They were identified only by initials in the court papers.
The alleged sex acts occurred between May 1998 and January 2010, prosecutors said.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx read Kelly's indictment during a brief news conference but left without answering any questions.
Kelly's arraignment is set for March 8.
He faces up to three to seven years in prison for each charge if convicted.
California attorney Michael Avenatti said at a news conference Friday that he is representing a victim named in Friday’s indictment.
He also claimed to have uncovered a tape of Kelly allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. The 40-minute-long videotape, turned over to Foxx earlier this month, allegedly shows Kelly engaging in various illegal sex acts in two separate occasions in the late 90s with a victim named in Friday’s indictment, the lawyer said.
He declined to say whether his client and the girl on the tape are one in the same.
“This tape leaves no question as to whether R. Kelly is guilty of multiple sexual, illegal acts against a 14-year-old girl,” he told reporters. “Repeatedly in the video, both the victim and Mr. Kelly, refer to the victim’s age as being 14.”
"I am highly confident that at the end of this journey, R. Kelly will be convicted on multiple counts," Avenatti said.
Greenberg said he has not seen the video: "They're walking around saying a tape exists. They can say whatever they want."
Kelly, whose real name is Robert Kelly, was criminally accused of sexual misconduct in 2002, eventually tried on child pornography charges in the same case and cleared by a jury in 2008 on all counts.
But allegations of sexual misconduct against the singer gained renewed attention this year with the airing of a Lifetime docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly" in early January.
The six-part show contains interviews with numerous women who accuse Kelly of mental, physical and sexual abuse. Sony Music parted ways with the Grammy-winning artist in the wake of "Surviving."
The singer and his lawyers have consistently denied any wrongdoing in previous allegations made against him over the years.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2019 | ['(CNN)', '(NBC News)'] |
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrests two suspects in Ottawa for alleged terrorism offences. | Two Ottawa residents have been arrested in relation to terrorism offences, the RCMP announced Wednesday, adding that more arrests are expected. The arrests took place when police swooped in on two separate west-end residences after an apparent year-long investigation. The Mounties issued a press release Wednesday announcing the early-morning arrests, but did not provide any further information on the identity of the suspects or the allegations. "Search warrants are being executed in order to secure additional evidence," the tersely worded press release stated. First, police raided a townhouse in a quiet neighbourhood at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Officers spent most of the morning removing computer equipment from inside the home. RCMP also took photos of an automobile, which was later towed away. The car is registered to Misbahuddin Ahmed, a 36-year-old x-ray technician at The Ottawa Hospital. Officials there said he began working at the hospital two years ago after arriving from Montreal. Neighbour Janice Burtt told reporters at the scene that the couple who live in the home are in their early 40s or "possibly younger." She added that the couple moved into the "quiet neighbourhood" more than six months ago. The Canadian Press spoke to a neighbour who said that the couple may have a baby. Matthew Weiler, who lives next door to the raided home, said that eight or nine police cruisers were on the scene during the arrest. Weiler added that the male neighbour had a beard and his wife appeared in public wearing a veil. Meanwhile, RCMP also raided a sixth-floor apartment in a west-end highrise Wednesday morning, but they have released very little information about the second raid. It is expected that the RCMP will release more details during a press conference scheduled for Thursday afternoon. CTV's Roger Smith reported that the RCMP were assisted by officers from both CSIS and the Ottawa Police Service. "So far, the police are giving no details on the names of those arrested," he said. However, Smith said the arrests may be linked to a suspected bomb plot that was in a "very formative stage." He added that police have been tracking the suspects for about a year. The arrests were made out of concern that a suspect was about to leave the country. "One of the suspects that was arrested was apparently planning to travel abroad," Smith reported. There are also reports that the suspects had travelled to al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan. Smith tempered those reports, saying that rumours may continue to surface in the hours before police release additional information. The arrests come mere weeks after the so-called Toronto 18 case wrapped up with two final guilty convictions. The Toronto 18 case centred upon Canadian citizens who had plotted to mount terror attacks on Canadian soil. The arrests also follow recent comments by CSIS Director Dick Fadden, who predicted that more homegrown terror arrests would be forthcoming. "We have had very clear evidence in this country that there have been terrorists seeking to do harm. The Toronto 18 are a clear example. We're monitoring a number of other cases in which we think there may be similar circumstances," Fadden told the Commons public safety committee last month. "I think if Canadians know about this kind of threat they will be inclined to let us know if they find anything that's worrisome." With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV Ottawa
RCMP officers conduct a raid as part of a terror investigation in Esterlawn Private in Ottawa's west end, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(CTV)'] |
Senior Indian Army officer Major A. K. Thinge is killed in battle in Kashmir. (People's Daily) | A senior Indian army officer has been killed in an ongoing gun battle with militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Major AK Thinge died after he and his men came "under heavy fire" in Poonch, an army spokesman said.
Seven other soldiers, including a colonel, were injured.
Despite a decline in violence in Kashmir in recent years, there are fears that militants are trying to regroup in the region. Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops are based in Kashmir to fight a two decade-old insurgency against Indian rule. An army spokesman said it was not clear whether the militants had crossed the Line of Control which divides Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and is close to the Beri Rakh region where the gunbattle is going on.
"The operation will continue. We have tightened the security cordon in the area."
He said the troops had come under heavy fire from the militants as they were preparing to launch an operation to flush them out. | Famous Person - Death | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Times of India)', '(Indian Express)'] |
Hurricane Matthew hits the southeastern United States as the death toll in Haiti rises to at least 877. , , , | "Devastation is everywhere," says one official, as the number of lives lost keeps rising and medics fear an outbreak of cholera.
Friday 7 October 2016 15:00, UK
The number of people killed by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti has risen to 572, as medics on the island prepare for a surge in cholera cases.
The nation is left with flooded roads, collapsed bridges and power outages in the wake of the hurricane, which has battered the Caribbean and is now near the US east coast.
According to a tally by the Reuters news agency on the basis of numbers reported by local officials, 572 people have been killed and another 61,500 remain in shelters.
More than 3,200 homes have been destroyed.
"Devastation is everywhere," said Pilus Enor, mayor of a town called Camp Perrin on the peninsula's south shore.
"Every house has lost its roof. All the plantations have been destroyed," he said.
"This is the first time we see something like this."
Four people have also been killed in the Dominican Republic, one in Colombia and one in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
But it is Haiti, already the hemisphere's least-developed and most aid-dependent nation, that has suffered the most.
Most deaths are believed to have occurred in the southwest region, and officials fear the toll might rise even further as information from remote areas trickles in.
The southern city of Jeremie is said to have suffered "complete destruction", while a bridge over the La Digue river in Petit Goave has been destroyed.
In Les Cayes, home to a major port, a cathedral roof has been completely blown off, and banana and mango crops have been ravaged in fields.
Officials say at least 350,000 people will need some sort of assistance, in what will likely become the country's worst humanitarian crisis since a devastating earthquake in January 2010.
With crops destroyed, wells inundated by seawater and some water treatment facilities ruined, officials said that food and water were urgently needed.
The Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal to provide immediate relief to 50,000 Haitians. It is aiming to raise more than £5m for medical relief, shelter and sanitation over the next year.
Health officials are bracing themselves for an increase in cases of cholera.
"Due to massive flooding and its impact on water and sanitation infrastructure, cholera cases are expected to surge after Hurricane Matthew and through the normal rainy season until the start of 2017," the Pan American Health Organisation said.
Even before the storm hit this week, the impoverished nation was struggling to stem the waterborne disease.
International aid groups are already appealing for donations for a lengthy recovery effort.
The UK is sending a team of humanitarian experts, International Development Secretary Priti Patel said.
In the coming days, the US military expects to help deliver food and water to hard-hit areas via helicopter. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Sky News)', '(AP)', '(ITV)'] |
M23 Movement leader Bosco Ntaganda surrenders himself at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, having been wanted by the ICC since 2006 on war crimes charges. | NAIROBI, Kenya — Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese rebel general accused of massacring civilians and building an army of child soldiers — considered one of Africa’s most wanted men — surprisingly turned himself in to the American Embassy in Rwanda on Monday, saying he wanted to be sent to the International Criminal Court.
Mr. Ntaganda, a boyish-looking rebel commander who was nicknamed the Terminator, has been wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges for more than six years, sometimes hiding out in the thickly forested hills of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo or other times appearing in public, as when he would cavalierly play tennis at a fancy hotel in one of Congo’s bigger towns.. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2013 | ['(AP via USA Today)', '(The Guardian)', '(The New York Times)'] |
2010 Commonwealth Games: Nigerian athlete Folashade Abugan tests positive for testosterone prohormone and is stripped of two silver medals in the 400 metres and 4×400 metres. | Nigeria's Folashade Abugan has been stripped of her 400metres silver medal after failing a drug test at the Commonwealth Games.
Abugan thus becomes the third Nigerian to fail a drugs test after 110m hurdler Samuel Okon and Damola Osayemi, who claimed gold in the women's 100m.
Abugan's A sample showed traces of testosterone prohormone, which is prohibited under the current World Anti-Doping Agency list and she subsequently waived the right to have her B sample analysed.
Abugan's silver medal in women's 400 metres will now be awarded to Aliann Tabitha Pompey of Guyana.
Besides this, Nigeria's silver medal in women's 4x400 metre relay, of which Abugan was a part, now be awarded to England, the Commonwealth Games Federation informed on Friday. | Sports Competition | October 2010 | ['(Rediff)'] |
Nepal releases 61 political prisoners, including the former deputy prime minister. , Amnesty International states that human rights violations have escalated under the state of emergency. , | Kathmandu: Nepal has set free 61 people, including a former deputy premier, held under house arrest since King Gyanendra sacked his government and seized absolute power on February 1, police said on Friday. Editor's ChoiceUp to 200 anti-king protestors arrested in Nepal to allow UN rights monitors into countryIndian ambassador meets King Gyanendra The releases came just hours after Amnesty International reported on Thursday that 3,000 people had been detained.
"The government released 61 political prisoners including former deputy premier Bharat Mohan Adhikari Thursday evening," the police official said, asking not to be named.
After the king grabbed power and declared emergency rule, "widespread arrests" took place, the London-based group Amnesty said basing its figure of 3,000 on reports by local human rights groups.
The monarch, who was due to address the Asian-African summit in Jakarta on Friday, said he sacked the government and suspended civil liberties because squabbling parties were unable to end a raging Maoist insurgency which has already claimed some 11,200 lives.
Adhikari, leader of the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) was one of those released from house arrest at his Kathmandu residence, a party official said.
The NCP-UML was one of four coalition partners of the dismissed government headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The Kathmandu District Administration Office set free a total of 61 people held under house arrest and banned from watching television, reading newspapers or listening to the radio.
Media reports said Adhikari had immediately demanded that political parties forge an alliance to fight for democracy.
He also demanded the release of all other political detainees, including NCP-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Nepali Congress leader Trailokya Pratap Sen was also among those freed from house arrest Thursday evening.
Amnesty said political and human rights activists, trade unionists, journalists and others had been rounded up "with the apparent aim of preventing protest against the king's takeover".
The group also said it had "detailed reports of torture".
World powers, apart from China and Pakistan which have alled the upheaval in Nepal an internal matter, have largely cold-shouldered Gyanendra since his takeover, demanding a restoration of democracy. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | April 2005 | ['(Sify)', '(BBC)', '(Indian Express)', '(ReliefWeb)'] |
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declares Sunday, 24 July 2016, a day of national mourning. | So-called Islamic State has said it was behind an attack on a protest march in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that killed 80 people and wounded 230.
The IS-linked Amaq news agency said two fighters "detonated explosive belts at a gathering of Shia" in Kabul.
The attack in Deh Mazang square targeted thousands from the Shia Hazara minority who were protesting over a new power line, saying its route bypasses provinces where many of them live.
The Taliban have condemned the attack.
Spokesperson Zabiullah Mujaheed sent an e-mail to the media saying they were not behind it.
Self-styled IS has a presence in eastern Afghanistan but has not previously admitted carrying out assaults in the capital.
An Afghan intelligence source told the BBC that an IS commander named Abo Ali had sent three jihadists from the Achen district of Nangarhar province to carry out the Kabul attack.
The interior ministry said only one attacker had successfully detonated an explosives belt. The belt of the second failed to explode and the third attacker was killed by security forces.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani addressed the nation on TV, declaring Sunday a day of national mourning.
"I promise you I will take revenge against the culprits," he said.
He had earlier issued a statement saying: "Peaceful protest is the right of every citizen, but opportunist terrorists infiltrated the crowds and carried out the attack."
A freelance journalist working for BBC Afghan said blood and body parts were everywhere, with debris strewn around.
A large part of Kabul's city centre had been sealed off for the protest march.
The demonstrators had waved banners and chanted "death to discrimination", angry that the 500kV power transmission line from Turkmenistan to Kabul would not pass through Bamyan and Wardak provinces, which have large Hazara populations.
The Hazaras - mostly Shia Muslims - live mainly in the centre of the country.
They complain of persistent discrimination, especially during Taliban rule in the late 1990s, when many of them fled to Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan. The Taliban and Islamic State have been locked in frequent battles in Afghanistan since January 2015.
The Taliban's dominance in a region home to numerous local and foreign militant groups is facing a serious challenge from IS, which has been gaining some support. There has also been evidence that IS is trying to recruit Taliban fighters, with several
| Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
2006 European floods: The Danube rises to its highest level in more than a century. | BUCHAREST, Romania (Reuters) -- The Danube rose to its highest level in more than a century on Saturday, but the breaching of a dam in Romania eased pressure on towns and villages struggling to hold back the floods, officials said.
Rivers fed by heavy rain and melting snow crept higher across the Balkans for the fourth straight day, driving people from their homes and swamping low-lying farmland and ports.
Waters rose to an 111-year high in the Romanian town of Bazias, near the Serbian border, flooding around 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres) of farmland on the Danube's northern bank.
The river also flooded the small port of Bechet, while soldiers and civil defense workers scrambled to reinforce dykes and build sandbag barriers on both sides of the river.
Romania's government started controlled flooding to divert water, flowing near a record 15,800 cubic meters per second, away from low-lying villages and was helped by the collapse of a dam in southwestern Romania which flooded farmland.
"The water flow has fallen by 200 cubic meters per second. This is a success," Beatrice Popescu, of the Environment Ministry, told Reuters.
In all, Romania plans to submerge about 90,000 hectares of fertile soil on a 250 mile (400 kilometer) stretch on the Danube's northern bank, a major area for wheat and maize farming.
The Balkans are still recovering from devastating floods last summer, which killed scores of people and caused hundreds of millions of euros in damage to farmland and infrastructure.
This time, floods have submerged hundreds of houses, leaving thousands homeless and leaving tens of thousands more at risk.
Officials said the Danube's level should remain high until Wednesday and Thursday, but the controlled flooding in Romania appeared to keep its level steady in many places, giving a reprieve to some towns that had been partially submerged.
In the Bulgarian port city of Lom, 120 soldiers came to reinforce civil defense workers, but water levels were unchanged at a record 29 feet (9.45 meters).
"There is no reason to panic," Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told reporters. "We are ready to evacuate people if there's a need, but I hope it will not happen."
In Serbia, the floods killed their first victim in the village of Stari Kostolac on Friday where water reached the roofs of 200 houses. The Danube's level dropped in the city of Novi Sad, but authorities braced downstream in Belgrade for a eastern-moving floodwave, which originated in central Europe.
At the village of Mosorin on the Tisa river, 250 people worked to shore up dykes at critical spots. Agriculture Minister Ivana Dulic Markovic said the berms could fail and told officials to prepare for evacuation, Beta news agency reported.
"We are all mobilized and what is left now is for us to trust in God that all will end well," she was quoted as saying.
Hundreds of citizens and soldiers also worked overnight to build an embankment in the eastern town of Smederevo after water inundated its ancient fortress, port and train station.
The Agriculture Ministry said 223,000 hectares of farmland were under water but could not estimate damages until later.
Back in Romania's western county of Timis, the country's worst hit region in last year's floods, some who were displaced last year were again visited by disaster.
"If the government expected floods again this year, why did they move us here?" Ioan Subulescu, whose new house has been partially flooded, told the Evenimentul Zilei paper. | Floods | April 2006 | ['(CNN)'] |
Volkswagen agrees to pay its U.S. dealers up to US$1.2 billion to compensate them for their losses resulting from the company's emissions cheating scandal. | Volkswagen has agreed to pay its U.S. dealers up to $1.2 billion to compensate them for losses suffered as a result of the company’s emissions cheating scandal, according to a settlement agreement filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco. The dealers are expected to receive about $1.85 million each, but they can choose to opt out of the deal and pursue their own lawsuits against Volkswagen. A judge still has to approve the settlement before it can go into effect. Volkswagen’s U.S. sales have fallen since the scandal first came to light a year ago, and the agreement will help compensate dealers for what they said was a loss in value of their dealerships.
Several Los Angeles-area Volkswagen dealerships declined to comment about the settlement, with some referring questions to their attorneys.
“The Volkswagen-branded franchise dealer class action settlement filed today represents an outstanding result for Volkswagen’s 652 franchise dealers as of Sept. 18, 2015,” said the dealers’ lead counsel Steve Berman, in a statement.
Volkswagen declined comment beyond a statement it issued Friday noting that the settlement “is not intended to apply to or affect Volkswagen’s obligations under the laws or regulations of any jurisdiction outside the United States.”
The automaker previously reached an agreement with attorneys for U.S. vehicle owners. That deal calls for it to spend up to $10 billion buying back or repairing about 475,000 vehicles involved in its scandal and paying their owners an additional $5,100 to $10,000 each. That settlement also includes more than $2.5 billion for unspecified environmental mitigation and an additional $2 billion to promote zero-emissions vehicles. The dealer payout is yet another financial hit for Volkswagen, which disclosed in April that the scandal had cost the company $18.2 billion in 2015 alone.
Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book, said the billions Volkswagen is paying related to the emissions scandal sends a strong message to the industry about sidestepping regulations.
“This is a massive tab,” Brauer said. “Does this represent a strong enough message to Volkswagen and all other manufacturers? I think it does.”
While the dealers’ cut is a fraction of the overall payout, Brauer said they are receiving a substantial benefit from the agreement, which will be disbursed over 18 months.
“It’s hard to have but so much sympathy for the dealers when they’re going to get $100,000 a month for a year and a half,” Brauer said.
Also on Friday, attorneys for vehicle owners said in a court filing that more than 311,000 people have registered for compensation under automaker’s vehicle-owner deal and less than 3,300 people have opted out.
“There is resounding support for this consumer class settlement and the substantial benefits it provides,” Elizabeth Cabraser, lead attorney for Volkswagen owners, said in a statement. U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer gave the vehicle owners’ deal preliminary approval in July, and he is expected to make a final decision on Oct. 18. It does not cover about 85,000 more-powerful Volkswagens and Audis with 3-liter engines also caught up in the emissions scandal. The scandal erupted in September 2015 when the California Air Resources Board and the EPA said they had discovered software in certain 2-liter VW diesel vehicles that made the engines run more cleanly during emissions testings. In regular driving, the vehicles were found to spew up to 40 times the legally allowed amount of nitrogen oxide.
Regulators later said the software, called a defeat device, also was installed in some Volkswagen and Audi 3.0-liter diesel vehicles. Last month, more details about the scandal emerged when a longtime Volkswagen engineer from Southern California pleaded guilty in federal court to charges he helped design and implement the software.
James Robert Liang, 62, a Newbury Park resident, pleaded guilty in federal court in Detroit to a single charge of conspiring to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud and violate the Clean Air Act. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Liang had worked in Volkswagen’s diesel development department in Wolfsburg, Germany, starting in 1983, before transferring to the company’s test facility in Oxnard. In 2006, he and other VW employees started work on a new diesel engine for U.S. vehicles, the plea agreement said.
When they realized they could not design an engine that would adhere to the strict U.S. standards while also delivering solid road performance, they created the defeat devices, according to court papers.
If the software detected the vehicle was undergoing a test, it told the car to emit only enough nitrogen oxide to pass the inspection. Otherwise, court papers said, it permitted the cars to pump substantially more nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. Liang said he and his co-conspirators “misrepresented” that the VW diesel vehicles met U.S. emissions standards during certification meetings for new cars with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board and “hid the existence of the defeat device from regulators,” according to the plea agreement. Liang is cooperating with the government in an ongoing criminal investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice said last month. Such cooperation is generally a sign that federal prosecutors are seeking to charge others in a case.
| Organization Fine | October 2016 | ['(The Los Angeles Times)'] |
Lamar Odom, who had been hospitalized in grave condition after ingesting, in a binge, herbal Viagra, alcohol, and other substances in a 3–day, $75,000 stay at a legal brothel in Nevada, comes out of his coma, improves, and is able to have conversations, though he is still on dialysis to deal with the renal damage he suffered. He is released from intensive care and Sunrise Hospital, to a hospital closer to his Los Angeles home. | E! reported that doctors wanted to be sure Odom was stable enough to be moved. Odom, who played 14 seasons in the NBA — 12 years between the Clippers and Lakers — collapsed last week while at a Nevada brothel following a suspected binge of alcohol and drugs over the course of four days. He spent the next couple of days in a drug-induced coma and the worst was feared.
While still unable to stand on his own, Odom steadily improved over the weekend. He is still on dialysis because of failing kidneys, but passed a swallowing test and is breathing on his own. There may still be some cognitive issues, but he is able to communicate using hand signals, according to E!.
Once at the hospital in Southern California, the 35-year-old will continue to receive treatment and will require "a lot of rehab" to regain full function of his arms and legs. | Famous Person - Sick | October 2015 | ['(MSN via Sporting News)'] |
More than 2,000 tourists have been airlifted by the Mexican Army after floods caused by Hurricane Manuel isolate the resort city of Acapulco with many tourists and residents stranded. | More than 2,000 tourists have been airlifted by the army from the Mexican resort of Acapulco following deadly floods caused by Tropical Storm Manuel.
But many more tourists and local residents remain stranded in the city and along the west coast after landslides blocked main roads.
Manuel was almost immediately followed by Hurricane Ingrid, causing widespread devastation in the east of the country.
At least 57 people are now known to have died in flooding and landslides.
It was the first time since 1958 that two powerful storms hit Mexico within 24 hours.
In Acapulco, the army - helped by local airlines - is continuing to fly stranded tourists, Mexicans and foreigners, to the capital Mexico City.
Passengers are being taken directly from shelters to the runway because the main airport terminal remains closed. "I see everybody helping," said Canadian tourist Michael Paliti, adding that he was "trying to get home as best as possible". More than 2,000 tourists have already been evacuated, but another 40,000 are believed to have been marooned in Acapulco. "We're desperate because we cannot return to our city or jobs. But for now, there's still no hope of returning," Isabel Duarte, another tourist, said.
Dozens of other towns in the south-western Guerrero state have also been hit by Manuel since it made landfall on Sunday. There are fears that remote hillside communities may be particularly affected. Manuel has now dissipated over south-western Mexico.
In the east, Hurricane Ingrid was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly before it made landfall on Monday near the town of La Pesca.
More than 20,000 people have since been evacuated in the state of Veracruz.
Mexicans are now hoping for a break in the weather to give them a chance to regroup and allow rescuers to operate more freely, the BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City reports.
But there seems to be no let up in the rain and powerful winds for the time being, our correspondent adds.
Mexico battered by two deadly storms
Mexico mudslides and floods kill 14
Storm Ernesto hits Mexico again
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
An explosion in a coal mine in Zasyadko, Ukraine, kills at least 63 people and leaves many more trapped below ground. | The blast, caused by a build-up of methane gas, occurred more than 1,000m (3,280ft) below ground in the Zasyadko mine in the eastern Donetsk region.
A massive rescue operation is under way, but fire and damage to ventilation systems are hampering rescuers.
Hundreds of frantic relatives rushed to the mine in search of their loved ones.
At least 350 of the more than 450 miners who were below ground when the explosion happened at 0300 (0100 GMT) have been rescued, emergency officials said.
About 25 of those rescued have been taken to hospital, many suffering from methane inhalation.
Ukraine's emergencies situations ministry says 63 bodies have been found.
The chances of finding alive many more of those missing are "small", the head of the mine's trade union, Yuriy Zayats, said.
PM 'grieves'
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is at the scene of the accident, one of Ukraine's worst mining disasters in several years.
In pictures: Deadly blast
"I am grieving with all of Ukraine," he said in a statement, according to AFP news agency.
Earlier he told reporters there had been a cave-in at the accident site, and that fire and smoke were also obstructing rescuers.
Miners' family members gathered at the mine entrance, trying to find news of their men. "I detest them, these mines," a middle-aged woman searching for a relative told AFP.
Periodically an official has been reading aloud the surnames of those confirmed dead, to the anguished cries of relatives.
One miner, Vitali Kvitkovski, told the BBC that just before the explosion, he had checked his instruments and the methane levels seemed normal. "I was walking to the coal layer. There was a bang, the temperature surged, and [there was] thick dust. You could see absolutely nothing," Mr Kvitkovski said.
A criminal case has been opened into the accident, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office told news agency Itar-Tass. It said the Donetsk regional prosecutor was visiting the scene.
Three days of mourning have reportedly been declared by the head of the regional administration.
Safety 'ignored'
The country's coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world with a high number of fatalities from accidents.
Miners' pay varies according to the volume of coal produced, giving them an incentive to ignore safety procedures that would slow production, a union official said.
"Everyone tries not to pay attention to small problems in the safety equipment," Anatoly Akimochkin told AFP.
"The pay system is one of the biggest causes of our accidents." One miner was killed on Saturday in a cave-in at the Lenin mine, also in the Donetsk region.
A gas leak at the Zasyadko coal mine, one of Ukraine's largest, killed 13 miners and injured dozens more in September 2006.
Twenty miners were killed in an explosion at the same mine in 2002.
And 80 people were killed in another explosion at the Barakova coal mine in Luhansk in 2000. | Gas explosion | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
French police arrest a man in relation to a killing of a British family in the French Alps. | French police investigating the killing of a British family in the Alps in 2012 have arrested a 48-year-old man.
AFP is reporting that the man, from the Haute-Savoie region, strongly resembles an identikit image of a motorcyclist seen near the murder scene. Officers are using metal detectors to search a garden 10km (6 miles) away.
Saad al-Hilli, 50, an Iraqi-born British citizen, was found dead in his BMW car; his wife Iqbal, her mother and a French cyclist were also killed.
AFP is also reporting that sources close to the inquiry say the man arrested, who is in formal custody, is a former police officer.
It reports the man, described as a quiet type who liked guns, was dismissed from the police in June last year.
Meanwhile, a garden in Talloires, a small town on the east shore of Lake Annecy, is being searched by police.
Mr and Mrs al-Hilli's two young daughters, aged seven and four at the time, survived the attack, which took place in a car park near Lake Annecy. The older daughter, Zainab, was shot and beaten. Her sister, Zeena, was found traumatised but physically unscathed after hiding under bodies in the car.
The body of the cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was found nearby. The identikit image of the motorcyclist was issued last November after French police said they wanted to speak to a man seen riding in the area between 3.15pm and 3.40pm shortly before the murders took place. This followed a BBC Panorama programme broadcast in October in which a key witness - a forestry worker - was interviewed for the first time.
He described seeing a BMW 4x4 car close to the murder scene and told Panorama two of his co-workers saw a man on a motorbike near the scene. The biker lifted up his helmet and they saw he had "a bit of a beard".
The man's helmet was said by prosecutors to be "very particular", one of only a few thousand such models worldwide. Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud was quoted by AFP as saying the arrest was the result of witness statements that came in after the image was released. He said there was no "direct link" apparent between the man and the victims.
Under French law, police can hold suspects in criminal cases for up to 48 hours without charge. Mr al-Hilli and his family lived in Claygate, Surrey, and were on holiday at the time of the attack, along with Mrs al-Hilli's mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, who lived in Sweden. More than 100 police officers in France and the UK have been involved in investigating the case and about 800 people have been interviewed.
Surrey Police said the arrest was prompted by a line of inquiry in France and was not as a result of investigation carried out in the UK.
French prosecutors previously said the "reasons and causes" for the killings had their "origins" in the UK and they investigated an alleged feud between Mr al-Hilli and his brother Zaid over inheritance. Zaid al-Hilli, 54 and also from Surrey, denied involvement in the murders and accused French police of "covering up" the real target of the killings. He was released from bail last month after being arrested last year on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Surrey Police said there was not enough evidence to charge him.
The motive for the shootings has remained elusive. Speculation has focused on possible links to Iraq or Saad al-Hilli's work as a satellite engineer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | February 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Protests erupt across Spain, especially in Barcelona, against Puigdemont's detention. | Protests broke out across the Spanish region of Catalonia on Sunday after former leader Carles Puigdemont was taken into custody in Germany.
At least 89 people were injured in clashes with police and four arrests were made. Mr Puigdemont, who is wanted in Spain for sedition and rebellion, was detained by German police acting on a European arrest warrant. He appeared before a German judge on Monday and was remanded in custody.
Prosecutor Georg-Friedrich Guentge said Mr Puigdemont "appeared calm and composed".
Mr Puigdemont was detained while crossing from Denmark on his way to Belgium, where he has been living in self-imposed exile since Catalonia's parliament unilaterally declared independence from Spain in October.
A European warrant for his arrest was reissued on Friday.
In central Barcelona, protesters chanted "Freedom for the political prisoners" and "This Europe is shameful!" as they headed to the offices of the European Commission and the German consulate. Spanish news agency Efe estimated crowds of 55,000 in the centre of the city.
Smaller demonstrations were held in Girona, where Mr Puigdemont once served as mayor, Tarragona and Lleida. Some protesters also formed road blocks in various locations. Tensions in Catalonia are very high and its separatist leaders abandoned plans to name a new president after the arrest on Friday of the latest candidate, Jordi Turull, sparked protests in Barcelona. Spain's Supreme Court has ruled 25 that Catalan leaders should be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state. They all deny the allegations.
German police said that Mr Puigdemont was detained by a highway patrol in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark.
He had been on a trip to Finland to meet lawmakers and attend a conference last week when the arrest warrant against him was reissued, taking him by surprise.
He slipped out of Finland before the authorities could arrest him but only got as far as Germany before being intercepted. His spokesman, Joan Maria Pique, said he had been heading to Belgium "to put himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian justice". International warrants for Mr Puigdemont and other Catalan leaders were withdrawn in December by a Spanish judge, who said they had shown a willingness to return to the country.
Mr Puigdemont spent Sunday night in a prison in the north German town of Neumünster.
His court appearance there on Monday was a formality to confirm his identity. The court remanded him in custody pending extradition proceedings.
Mr Puigdemont faces charges of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of public funds in Spain as a result of his role in last year's Catalan banned independence referendum. The charges in Spain could result in up to 30 years in prison.
Five roads across #Catalonia blocked as protests erupts after Puigdemont arrested in Germany. pic.twitter.com/4mr3iMKubr
Germany has 60 days to decide whether to return him.
In order to do so, its judges need to assess whether the Spanish charges are punishable under German law.
Criminal lawyer Martin Heger told Germany's Spiegel website (in German) that the lesser charge of misappropriation of public funds was also a crime under German law, and therefore it was clear that the exiled ex-leader would have to be extradited.
However, if he is extradited on that charge, he can only be tried on that offence. It is unclear whether the alleged crimes of rebellion and sedition are punishable in Germany. The extradition procedure can last about two months.
Mt Puigdemont also has the right to oppose the warrant and apply for asylum in Germany.
Spain's latest move is considered the most serious challenge to date to the Catalan independence movement. Almost the entire leadership now faces a major legal fight.
Various other Catalan politicians have been subjected to new warrants, including Catalonia's former education minister, Clara Ponsati. She is in Scotland, where she has a position at the University of St Andrews, and is preparing to hand herself in. The number of European arrest warrants issued has increased since 2005, according to EU figures. In 2015, about 16,000 warrants were issued and about 5,000 executed.
1 October 2017: The independence referendum takes place in Catalonia; it is deemed illegal by Spain and boycotted by many potential voters 27 October: Catalonia's leaders declare independence, which leads to the Spanish government imposing direct rule on the region and dissolving its parliament 30 October: Charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds are brought against various sacked members of the Catalan government, including Mr Puigdemont
2 November: Several former Catalan ministers are taken into custody in Spain 3 November: European arrest warrants are issued against Mr Puigdemont and four of his allies, who have all fled to Belgium 5 December: A Spanish judge withdraws the European arrest warrants but says the group still face possible charges for sedition and rebellion
21 December: Carles Puigdemont is re-elected to parliament during Catalan's regional elections - which Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy had called to "restore democracy"
1 March 2018: Mr Puigdemont says he is stepping aside and he backs detained activist Jordi Sanchez to run as Catalonia's president 21 March: Mr Sanchez drops his leadership bid and instead the candidacy is passed to Jordi Turull, who the following day is rejected by hardline separatists
23 March: Mr Turull and various others are arrested in Spain, and the European arrest warrants are reissued | Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
8 bomb blasts rock the city of Patna in the Indian state of Bihar killing 5 and injuring over 70 people. | Updates for 29 October end
12.15 pm: One more bomb recovered in Patna
Police have found another live bomb in Patna, near the Gandhi Maidan police station. Police are reportedly trying to defuse the bomb. Preliminary reports coming in said that the discovered bomb was similar to the devices that exploded across Patna on the day of Narendra Modi's rally. The bombs, which are believed to have been planted by the Indian Mujahideen, reportedly have the same kind of timer device as the Bodhgaya blasts. "The only similarity between the IEDs used in Bodhgaya and those in Patna was the timer device - a Lotus brand watch. The make of the bombs was different, as the Patna bombs were not very neatly prepared", a senior officer told the Indian Express. | Armed Conflict | October 2013 | ['(Firstpost)'] |
Cristiano Ronaldo scores the match-winning goal as Portugal defeat the Czech Republic and continue into the semi-finals. | Last updated on 21 June 201221 June 2012.From the section Euro 2012comments47
Cristiano Ronaldo capped a magnificent display with the match-winning goal as Portugal powered past Czech Republic and into the semi-finals of Euro 2012.
Ronaldo, who scored twice against the Netherlands, hit the woodwork in each half with fine strikes.
"It is a result for football. Czech Republic did not do enough. You can't play knock-out games like that.
"Ronaldo is world class, he is exceptional. He is in the top three with Lionel Messi and maybe Xavi and Andres Iniesta. Can his team-mates step it up and pull themselves to Ronaldo's level? If they do, then there is a team that can win the Euros. Ronaldo has the class and leadership and is the difference maker."
And he finally found the net with 12 minutes remaining, thumping a header into the ground and beyond Petr Cech.
Czech Republic failed to muster a shot on target as they rarely threatened throughout a tense evening.
Portugal will now face Spain or France for a place in the final, and with surely Europe's best player beginning to show his very best form, they could take some stopping.
The Real Madrid forward was instrumental in guiding Portugal through Group B, putting a sloppy display against Denmark behind him to score both goals against the Netherlands on Sunday.
And after a slow start to this quarter-final in Warsaw, the world's most expensive player grew in stature to dominate the action in impressive fashion.
Czech Republic enjoyed a strong opening 15 minutes, with right-back Theodor Gebre Selassie initially effective in a man-marking role on Ronaldo, but once the former Manchester United man threw off his shackles and began to roam in a free role he lit up proceedings.
He had already been harshly penalised by referee Howard Webb when running through the middle of the defence before striking the post after a moment of genius.
Ronaldo controlled Raul Meireles's long pass on his chest, turned defender Michal Kadlec effortlessly and beat Cech with a shot that thundered against the base of the post and rebounded to safety.
He hit the post again - the fourth time in four games he had struck the woodwork - after the break with a trademark dipping free-kick from 30 yards as Paulo Bento's side mounted a siege on Cech's goal.
Substitute Hugo Almeida then saw a header correctly ruled out for offside and also wasted two further efforts before the breakthrough came - inevitably - from Ronaldo.
The impressive Joao Moutinho broke from midfield down the right before standing up a cross to the back post.
Ronaldo met the cross with a fierce header which bounced down and then into the roof of the net for his third goal of the tournament.
It was his 66th goal for club and country in an incredible season.
Michal Bilek's Czech side had shrugged off in their opener to reach the last eight, but, again shorn of injured captain Tomas Rosicky, they looked limited going forward and never tested Rui Patricio in the Portuguese net on their way to a limp exit.
In contrast, Portugal will move on confident of reaching a second European Championship final in three tournaments, knowing that in Ronaldo they unquestionably possess the most potent weapon in European football. | Sports Competition | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The World Bank agrees to fund a controversial hydroelectric dam project in Laos. | The World Bank has agreed to back a controversial hydroelectric dam project in Laos, one of the poorest countries in South East Asia. At its board meeting in Washington, the bank said it would provide loans and guarantees for the $1.2bn project.
The decision comes after nearly 10 years of discussions with the Laos government. But critics say the environmental and social costs of the dam, called Nam Theun 2, are far too high.
Laos is a poor, landlocked country which has few viable industries. But it does have plenty of mountains and rivers, and that is why it is pinning its hopes for the future on hydroelectric power. Nam Theun 2 is the country's largest dam project, on a tributary of the mighty Mekong. It is designed to produce electricity for export to neighbouring Thailand, earning valuable foreign currency that Laos says it will use to alleviate poverty. But critics are not convinced. They say the dam will damage the environment and undermine the livelihoods of tens of thousands of local villagers. For the World Bank, the dam is also risky. In the past, it has faced a massive outcry after backing similar dams in other developing countries. The bank says this time it is confident that the dam's benefits will outweigh the negative impacts. | Financial Aid | April 2005 | ['(Planet Ark)', '(BBC)'] |
A gold mining operation is investigated by Chinese authorities after allegations it has damaged part of the Great Wall of China in Inner Mongolia. | The firm in Inner Mongolia is alleged to have knocked several holes through a section of the wall from the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC) while looking for gold, Wang Dafang, head of the northern region’s cultural relics office, told AFP. Hohhot Kekao Mining ignored five orders to stop operations and continued to dig the holes, forcing the office to report the case to regional police, Wang said. “For now, the case is under police investigation — around 100 metres of the wall have been damaged,” he said. The official Xinhua news agency reported that China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage had also sent a team to investigate the case. The Qin Emperor, who unified China in 221 BC, began construction of the Great Wall as a defence against northern tribes, and it was subsequently re-built or extended by later emperors. The wall currently stretches for more than 8,850 kilometres, but it is under threat from climate change and China’s massive infrastructure building, state media reported earlier this year. In Inner Mongolia, miners, road construction workers and villagers collecting building materials have contributed to the ongoing destruction of the wall, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Those guilty of damaging the World Heritage-listed site can be fined up to 500,000 yuan (73,000 dollars) or jailed for up to 10 years, Xinhua said. Five miners were jailed for terms of one to three years last year in Inner Mongolia for damaging a section of the wall dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) while using heavy machinery. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | November 2009 | ['(Xinhua)', '(BBC)', '(Times of South Africa)'] |
Presidential elections, legislative elections and local elections start today in the Philippines. |
For the first time since the establishment of the Philippine democratic republic in 1946, Filipinos go to the polls on Monday faced with two daunting tasks to reinvigorate their faltering and unstable democracy.
The first task is to elect a new president to replace the most reviled administration since the hated 14-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos that was overthrown by the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution.
The second is precedent-setting. Some 41 million people (equivalent to an 80-percent turnout of the 50.7 million registered voters) will cast their ballots for the first time in a fully automated general election. The new voting system replaces the manual method in use since the first national parliamentary election for the Philippine Assembly in 1907.
In Monday’s elections, expectations of change and leadership renewal are high. But doubts lingered up to last week over whether flaws in the final test runs would be corrected in time for Monday’s polls to ensure that the machines would deliver results that would inspire public confidence in the integrity of the new vote-counting system and give legitimacy to the next administration.
On the eve of the polls, Filipinos felt they were participating in a transcendental moment of renovating the voting system so that official results could be published within a week of the elections.
Under the manual system, it took 43 days before official results were announced. The automated system is intended to minimize opportunities for cheating, alteration and rigging of results, during the period when results are not officially confirmed.
Success or snafu
Within days of the close of polling stations on Monday, we shall know whether this historic and hugely expensive renovation is a success or a colossal snafu.
Some critics have expressed fears that if results are not known within a few days, this would provoke protests over failed elections from an outraged public feeling they have been cheated of their right to vote.
This year’s elections are unique because they offer an opportunity to correct the distortions of our electoral system since the 1986 People Power Revolution.
Edsa I replaced Marcos through street action, not through election. Edsa II deposed President Joseph Estrada also through street action in 2001.
Fidel Ramos, Estrada’s predecessor became president through the ballot, restoring election as the normal process of change. The 2004 presidential election was won by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo amid charges of rigging of results. The charges have undermined the legitimacy of her presidency for six years.
Correcting distortions
This is the chance to correct these distortions and infuse legitimacy into elections as a mechanism of renewal and leadership change.
This is why, at the close of the campaign period on Saturday, Filipinos appeared more concerned about the success of the automated system than about who will be the next elected president in a free and honest balloting.
Reputable surveys over the month of April and up to May 2-3 showed that Liberal Party presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III was leading his rivals by a wide margin.
The May survey, conducted by Social Weather Stations, the last one before Election Day, saw Aquino widening his lead with 42 percent, 22 percentage points ahead of the runner-up. Former President Estrada got 20 percent and Sen. Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party garnered 19 percent. The startling result was that Estrada raced past Villar.
Unless the surveys are grossly inaccurate and a cataclysmic event occurs to derail the Aquino momentum, there is little to indicate that either Estrada or Villar can catch up with Aquino’s wide margin.
Uncommitted voters
By last week, 6 percent of the 41 million people expected to vote were uncommitted. A last-minute shift of uncommitted voters to either Estrada or Villar, or the rest of the contenders, is an unrealistic expectation.
The Supreme Court on Friday knocked down petitions seeking to postpone the elections after technical defects appeared in the test runs of the counting machines. The petitions sought a return to the manual system until the technical flaws had been corrected.
With the dismissal, the high court removed all legal obstacles to the automated elections. “It’s all systems go,” said the court administrator.
Following the court’s decision, the Comelec said it was “98-percent ready” to push the switch of the automation on Monday. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said, “There is no conspiracy” to postpone the elections.
By the close of the campaign period, public debate over the public messages of the candidates came down to the grass-roots, where the summation of the arguments is not expected to change the outcome.
The “miting de avance” were the assembly of the converted. Debates on policy issues had been worked over at numerous forums attended by most of the candidates.
Most useful medium
At these forums, newspapers proved to be the most useful medium for discussion of serious issues. They will continue to render this useful function in public enlightenment despite the depredations and competition of broadcast media.
The latest predators in information dissemination, the tweeters and bloggers, are no more than scavengers of gossips, rumors and unverified information.
| Government Job change - Election | May 2010 | ['(Philippine Inquirer)', '(BBC)'] |
New Jersey's Secretary of State rejects former Olympic medallist Carl Lewis's bid to run for the state Senate due to eligibility requirements. | A top election official in the US state of New Jersey has ruled that nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis fails to meet the four-year residency requirement to run for elected office.
Secretary of State Kim Guadagno rejected the 49-year-old's bid to run for state Senate as a Democrat.
Ms Guadagno ordered that Mr Lewis's name be taken off the primary ballot.
Mr Lewis, a former sprinter and long-jumper, is considered one of the greatest athletes of all time. Mr Lewis had said he wanted to give something back to the southern New Jersey district where he grew up by running for the state Senate as a Democrat.
But Republicans challenged Mr Lewis's run, saying he had voted in California until recently.
Ms Guadagno, a Republican who also serves as the state's lieutenant governor, overturned an earlier decision by an administrative law judge that said Mr Lewis should be allowed to run because Republicans had not proved Mr Lewis failed to meet the requirements.
"[Mr Lewis] did not yet own his home in New Jersey, did not otherwise live in New Jersey, did not file his taxes in New Jersey, was not registered to vote in New Jersey and did not have his business in New Jersey," Ms Guadagno said in her decision.
The former athlete, who had planned to run in the 8th legislative district now represented by Republican Dawn Addiego, will now have the opportunity to appeal Ms Guadagno's decision.
Mr Lewis told The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had attempted to talk him out of running for Senate. Mr Christie's office later said Mr Lewis had misunderstood the conversation.
On the track, Mr Lewis's greatest triumph was the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, where he won gold in the 100 and 200 metres, the long jump and the 4x100-metre relay.
He won two golds at each of the next two Olympic Games, and took his final Olympic title - his fourth straight Olympic gold in the long jump - at the Atlanta Games of 1996. | Government Job change - Election | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Muammar Gaddafi is among three Libyans facing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity including the killing of unarmed protesters, forced displacement, illegal detentions and airstrikes on civilians. | Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Moammar Gadhafi is among three Libyans facing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, an official with direct knowledge of the case told CNN Saturday.
The court's Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who said in early March that he planned to investigate the embattled Libyan leader, will announce Monday that he's seeking the arrest warrants.
This was the first time the court investigated allegations as a conflict unfolded. The allegations include security forces killing unarmed protesters, forced displacement, illegal detentions and airstrikes on civilians.
Investigators looked at the most serious accusations in Libya since February 15, Moreno-Ocampo said, when demonstrations against Gadhafi ramped up. Since then, war has erupted in Libya as the strongman has tried to stay firm on his grip on power.
Moreno-Campo has to present all his evidence to a panel of judges before the court in The Hague, Netherlands, can decide whether to issue arrest warrants, which can take time.
In the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, hundreds of protesters marched in the streets Saturday demanding justice be meted out against Gadhafi, his family and senior officials for alleged crimes they committed against humanity.
"We want to pressure the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest Gadhafi," Najla Hakim, an event organizer with Libya's February 17th Youth group, told CNN.
"We want Gadhafi to be arrested and then possibly executed," said Noha Salem, a protester who marched along Amr ibn Alas street near the old section of Benghazi.
"All Libyans have been affected by those crimes, even little kids," she added. "He has been committing atrocities since 1969, not just since the start of this revolution."
Saturday's march started in the historic Omar al-Mokhtar square in Libya's second biggest city. Protesters chanted "Gadhafi, you have to go!" and "Libyans, lift your heads up high with pride."
The International Criminal Court's actions come after speculation this week about whether the combative Gadhafi had been injured in NATO airtstrikes on his compound. However, the embattled leader's voice was heard on Libyan state-run television Friday in an attempt to assure his people that he is alive and in a place where "you cannot kill me." The audio message was broadcast several times over the course of the day and expressed gratitude to people around the world who were concerned for his safety.
"Tell the crusader cowards that I live in a place you cannot reach me," Gadhafi said.
Meanwhile, United Nations envoy for Libya Abdul Ilah al-Khatib was expected to visit Tripoli on Sunday to negotiate a ceasefire between Gadhafi's forces and rebel fighters.
It's unclear whether or how the International Criminal Court's actions would affect any negotiations. A spokesman for the Transitional National Council declined to comment on the ICC action, noting that it has not yet been officially announced.
As the war rages with little evidence of a decisive victory for either side, rebel leaders have been trying to drum up international support, dispatching top leaders of the Transitional National Council to Europe and Washington.
Mahmoud Jibril, the top representative of the council, met with French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Francois Fillon in Paris Saturday. France has been the strongest backer for the Libyan rebels and the NATO air campaign.
Jibril had tried to secure formal recognition for the interim council from the White House in meetings in Washington on Friday, but fell short of getting one. However, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said the U.S. views the group "as a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people," according to a White House statement released after the Friday meeting.
NATO continued airstrikes Saturday. A Libyan government official said NATO jets struck a military site in al-Aziziya, west of Tripoli. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticizes the United States for its "almost uncontained" use of force around the world during his speech at the 43rd annual Munich Conference on Security Policy. (Transcript of Putin's speech in English, 10 February.) | Washington's "very dangerous" approach to global relations was fuelling a nuclear arms race, he told a security summit in Munich.
Correspondents say the strident speech may signal a more assertive Russia.
The White House said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the Russian president's comments.
"We expect to continue co-operation with Russia in areas important to the international community such as counter-terrorism and reducing the spread and threat of weapons of mass destruction," said Gordon Johndroe, press secretary for the White House National Security Council.
Mr Putin told senior security officials from around the world that nations were "witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations".
What we are talking about here is a very, very sensitive technology, and for that reason we need a high degree of transparency...
Angela Merkel
Q&A: Sanctions on Iran
"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way," he said, speaking through a translator.
"This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.
"This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons."
BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson, in Munich, said Mr Putin's speech was a strident performance which may well be remembered as a turning point in international relations.
Iran says it wants nuclear power, not nuclear weapons
US defence secretary Robert Gates, also attending the summit in Munich, said only that the Russian leader had been "very candid". Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman said Mr Putin's speech was "provocative", adding that its rhetoric "sounded more like the Cold War".
And Republican Senator John McCain added: "Moscow must understand that it cannot enjoy a genuine partnership with the West so long as its actions at home and abroad conflict fundamentally with the core values of the Euro-Atlantic democracies. In today's multi-polar world there is no place for needless confrontation." Mr Putin's spokesman Dimitry Peskov said the speech was "not about confrontation, it's an invitation to think".
"Until we get rid of unilateralism in international affairs, until we exclude the possibility of imposing one country's views on others, we will not have stability," he said.
'Power not weapons'
The conference, founded in 1962, has become an annual opportunity for world leaders to discuss the most pressing issues of the day.
Earlier, German chancellor Angela Merkel told delegates the international community was determined to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons.
There was "no way around" the need for Tehran to accept demands from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), she said.
"What we are talking about here is a very, very sensitive technology, and for that reason we need a high degree of transparency, which Iran has failed to provide, and if Iran does not do so then the alternative for Iran is to slip further into isolation," she said.
Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, also at the conference, has been repeating Iran's position that it wants nuclear power, not nuclear weapons.
"We believe the Iranian nuclear dossier is resolvable by negotiation," Mr Larijani was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying on the sidelines of the conference.
European diplomats are hoping to hold informal talks with Mr Larijani at the two-day summit.
It would be their first meeting since the collapse of talks last year and the imposition of limited UN sanctions on Tehran for its failure to stop the enrichment of uranium. | Famous Person - Give a speech | February 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
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