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Iranian police arrest a number of users for posting illegal content on Instagram, including a famous blogger named Maedeh Hojabri.
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Iran has arrested a number of people over videos that were posted on Instagram, including a young woman who filmed herself dancing to music.
According to activists, Maedeh Hojabri was one of a number of users behind popular Instagram accounts who have been arrested. The identities of the other detainees have not been confirmed.
Her account, which has been suspended, was reported to have had more than 600,000 followers.
Hojabri has since appeared on a state television programme with other detainees, in which she and others made what activists say were forced confessions, a tactic often used by Iranian authorities.
State TV showed a young woman, her face blurred, crying and shaking while describing her motivation for producing the videos.
“It wasn’t for attracting attention,” she said. “I had some followers and these videos were for them. I did not have any intention to encourage others doing the same … I didn’t work with a team, I received no training. I only do gymnastics.”
Little is known about Hojabri’s personal life, or which city in Iran she is from, but since her arrest her videos have been shared by hundreds of people, giving her a reach beyond her account.
They appear to have often been taken using a camera in her bedroom while she danced to western pop and rap music without wearing a hijab, which is required in public.
Teenage dancer, Maedeh Hojabri, was arrested in Iran. She used to record dance videos in her bedroom and upload them to her instagram with 600K followers.#_ pic.twitter.com/3EDVR9veV3
In another video, she talked about the history of parkour, an outdoor sport popular in Iran, especially among women who practise it while wearing the headscarf.
Her name is Maeade Mahi. Recently she got arrested just because of uploading her dancing videos on her Instagram. If you are a woman in Iran and you dance or sing or show your hair then you are a criminal. If you want to enjoy your true self, you have to brake the laws every day. pic.twitter.com/0eIq5ld5x6
Hossein Ronaghi, a blogger, said: “People would laugh at you if you tell anyone in the world that [in Iran] they arrest 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds for dancing, being happy and being beautiful, for spreading indecency, and instead paedophiles are free.”
Many people think authorities will ban Instagram, which remains one of the few unblocked western apps. Facebook and Twitter are filtered.
The head of Tehran’s cyber-police, Touraj Kazemi, said his forces were identifying and would take action against popular accounts on Instagram. In 2012, Iran sacked the head of its cyber-police after the blogger Sattar Beheshti died in custody.
In 2014, a group of Pharrell Williams fans arrested for filming themselves dancing to the song Happy on the rooftops of Tehran received suspended sentences of imprisonment and lashes.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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July 2018
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['(The Guardian)']
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Four soldiers are killed and several sustain wounds in a rocket, rifle and grenade attack on a military outpost near Nazimiye in Turkey.
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Kurdish rebels have attacked a military outpost in eastern Turkey killing four soldiers and wounding several, officials sources say.
They say militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) used rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles in the attack near Nazimiye. The government has intensified efforts to end the insurgency in recent months. The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish south-east for more than two decades. Officials quoted by the semi-official Anatolia news agency said the rebels had staged the attack at about midnight on Friday, and that the fighting had continued until dawn. Several rebels are reported to have been killed. There have been a number of clashes between rebel and government forces since the Constitutional Court banned Turkey's pro-Kurdish DTP party in December, saying it had links with the rebels. What are these?
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Armed Conflict
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May 2010
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['(BBC)']
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Chinese authorities investigate four Japanese employees of Fujita Corp., suspected of entering a military zone and illegally videotaping military targets in northern Hebei Province.
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Four Japanese are being investigated in China on suspicion of illegally filming in a military area, state media report.
It is the latest incident in a heated diplomatic row between the two nations.
Xinhua news agency said security officials in Shijiazhuang in Hebei province were taking action against the four after receiving a report about illegal activities.
Japan's foreign ministry confirmed that four people were being investigated but did not give details.
Kyodo news agency in Japan reported that the four involved were in the construction industry and were believed to have been preparing to bid on a project to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese forces in China at the end of World War II.
The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says the detentions could further sour relations between Japan and China.
Tensions have been high since Japan detained a Chinese captain whose fishing boat collided with Japanese patrol boats earlier this month.
The trawler was sailing in an area claimed by both countries, near uninhabited islands which may have oil and gas deposits.
Japanese prosecutors suspect the captain may have rammed the patrol ships deliberately, and a court has given them until next Wednesday to decide whether or not to charge him.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said afterwards that Japan bore full responsibility for the situation, and demanded the immediate release of the captain.
A spokesman for the foreign ministry in Tokyo, Hidenobu Sobashima, said Japan's embassy in Beijing had received confirmation four Japanese were being held but did not want to speculate on whether it was linked to the detention of the Chinese boat captain.
The dispute was brought up by Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara during a meeting on Thursday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
A US State Department spokesman said Mrs Clinton had urged both sides to settle the issue quickly before it had a long term impact on the region.
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Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
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Bishops face clash with Biden over abortion
Tokyo Olympics: No fans is 'least risky' option
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Why residents of these paradise islands are furious
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Why doesn't North Korea have enough food?
Le Pen set for regional power with eye on presidency
How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate
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September 2010
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['(AP)', '(BBC)']
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Opposition candidate Adama Barrow defeats Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, bringing an end to Jammeh's 22-year-rule in the West African nation.
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A former security guard at an Argos catalogue store in London has defeated one of Africa's most feared strongman leaders to become the new president of Gambia.
Adama Barrow, 51, who spent his early years tackling shoplifters at Argos's store on London's Holloway Road, staged a shock victory over President Yahya Jammeh, who had vowed to rule "for a billion years if necessary".
Mr Jammeh, who styled himself "Excellency Sheikh Professor Doctor President", had been in office since a coup 22 years ago, ruling through a cult of fear that fused witchcraft with oppression.
He claimed to have invented his own herbal cure for HIV, and once "exorcised" an entire village of 1,000 people by force-feeding them hallucinogenic potions.
Such was his grip on power that many Gambians thought that even if Mr Barrow did well in the election, the contest would be rigged to deny him victory.
On Friday, though, Gambia's electoral commission declared Mr Barrow president with 45.5 percent of the vote to Mr Jammeh's 36.7 percent.
The result astonished Gambian exiles in London, who had been planning a protest outside the Gambian embassy in expectation of yet another Jammeh victory.
"We thought that Jammeh would rig the vote in his favour yet again, so we were planning a big demonstration outside the embassy this coming Monday," said Yanks Darboe, an editor with the London-based Kibaaro opposition newspaper.
"Now it's going to be a party instead." Mr Jammeh, also 51, had triumphed in four previous elections, most of them marred by accusations that he had either rigged votes or intimidated local media against giving the opposition airtime.
A self-declared "dictator of development and progress," he did enjoy some popular support, mainly for developing Gambia's infrastructure and beach tourism trade, which attracts 50,000 Britons a year. But he was also criticised for jailing and torturing thousands of critics, some of whom did not leave prison alive.
In 2012, when he executed nine prisoners by firing squad, rumours circulated that he done so as a "human sacrifice" to ward off a coup attempt.
Earlier this year, he also put several leading opposition figures in jail, after an unauthorised street protest was violently broken up.
But the tactic - believed to be an attempt to cow the opposition ahead of the elections - backfired by uniting the normally faction-riven opposition behind a single candidate in Mr Barrow.
Mr Barrow, who is married with two wives and five children, lived in London between around 1998 and 2002, studying property management and working in a variety of security jobs.
In his job at Argos, he once tackled a shoplifter who was later jailed for six months.
During the election campaign, Mr Jammeh's ministers tried to make fun of his past. Mr Barrow insists his time in Britain helped his political career by teaching him the importance of time-keeping and working long hours.
He has promised to reverse many of the controversial measures taken by his predecessor, who tried to take Gambia down a radically anti-Western path.
In 2013, Mr Jammeh pulled Gambia out of the Commonwealth in 2013, saying it was a "neo-colonial institution".
Last month, he also withdrew Gambia from the International Criminal Court, describing it as the "International Caucasian Court".
Last night, the only question that remained was whether Mr Jammeh would stick to his promise of going quietly.
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Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration
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December 2016
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['(The Telegraph)']
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Bob Loughman is elected Prime Minister of Vanuatu with 31 votes in Parliament. Loughman defeated former foreign minister Ralph Regenvanu, who received 21 votes.
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He defeated Ralph Regenvanu in a ballot in parliament this afternoon, with 31 votes to 21.
Vanuatu's newly elected prime minister Bob Loughman. April 2020 Photo: VBTC Livestream
Bob Loughman, a member of the Vanua'aku Pati, has been a member of parliament for Tanna since 2004.
He was nominated as a candidate by Ishmael Kalsakau, who has led the opposition bloc for the past four years.
In a twist, the previous prime minister, Charlot Salwai, put forward the Port Vila MP Ralph Regenvanu to take him on.
Mr Regenvanu leads the Graon mo Jastis Pati, which won the most seats in last month's election.
Mr Loughman has a daunting task ahead: swathes of the country lie in ruins after Cyclone Harold, while he also has to keep out a pandemic that has already shattered the fragile economy.
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Government Job change - Election
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April 2020
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['(RNZ)']
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Russia's Federal Security Service says it has thwarted two armed Ukrainian incursions into Crimea with at least two killed, including one FSB officer, following a "massive fire fight" with "sabotage-terrorist" groups. Ukraine denies the Russian claims.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Wednesday of using terrorist tactics to try to provoke a new conflict and destabilize annexed Crimea after Russia said it had thwarted two armed Ukrainian attempts to get saboteurs into the contested peninsula.
Russia’s FSB security service said two people were killed in clashes and its forces had dismantled a Ukrainian spy network inside Crimea. Kiev denied the assertions, calling them an attempt by Moscow to create an excuse to escalate towards a war.
The Russian president accused Kiev of playing a dangerous game and said he saw no point in holding a new round of talks about the troubled peace process in eastern Ukraine on the sidelines of a G20 summit in China next month.
“The people who seized power in Kiev ... have switched to terror tactics instead of searching for ways for a peaceful settlement,” Putin told a news conference, saying Russia would not let such actions pass without a response.
“The attempt to provoke an outbreak of violence, to provoke a conflict is nothing other than a desire to distract (Ukrainian) society from its problems,” he added, calling Ukraine’s actions “criminal.”
Putin’s comments stirred fears that Russia, which has been steadily reinforcing Crimea militarily, may be considering new military action.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the Russian accusations were a cynical pretext to make more military threats against Ukraine.
“Russian accusations towards Ukraine of terrorism in the occupied Crimea sound as preposterous and cynical as the statements of the Russian leadership about the absence of the Russian troops in Donbass (region of Ukraine),” Poroshenko said.
The Russian allegations follow an uptick in Russian military activity in northern Crimea and heavier fighting in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian government troops are battling pro-Russian separatists.
If true, the events - which the FSB said involved at least two armed clashes on the border between Crimea and Ukraine - would be the most serious escalation on the contested peninsula since Moscow annexed it from Ukraine in 2014.
U.S. and European Union sanctions to punish Russia for the land grab remain in place, though Moscow has made clear it has no intention of handing Crimea back.
Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko drew parallels between the current situation involving Russia and Ukraine and the lead-up to a 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.
“The scenario looks very similar and very familiar. That’s why we stand ready for any further provocative developments, the convening of the Security Council is being considered,” he told reporters at the United Nations. “We still hope that it will not bring the conflict to another level, but it seems that it is quite possible unfortunately.”
Ukraine, the United States and many western European governments say Moscow has armed and encouraged pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and covertly infiltrated Russian military personnel.
Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said that while it was impossible to know the Kremlin’s intentions based on Putin’s statements, “They’ve clearly set the stage for a crisis, and maybe a broad (military) movement.”
Herbst, now at the Atlantic Council think tank, said Ukrainian security forces have strengthened their military lines in eastern Ukraine and to the north of Crimea, meaning that while Russian proxies could grab additional territory, it would not be easy.
Herbst said it was possible that “testosterone-heavy Ukrainian volunteers” had staged a provocation, as Putin charged, but added, “The odds of it being Ukrainian are 5 percent, 8 percent … Certainly, Ukrainian authorities want no part of this.”
The FSB said it believed Ukrainian special forces had been planning attacks targeting critical infrastructure.
An FSB employee and a Russian soldier were killed in the clashes, it said.
“The aim of this subversive activity and terrorist acts was to destabilize the socio-political situation in the region ahead of preparations and the holding of elections,” the FSB said, referring to Russia-wide parliamentary elections next month.
The FSB said it had tackled one group of Ukrainian saboteurs in an operation that spanned late Saturday and early Sunday, smashing what it called a Ukrainian spy network.
Ukraine and Russian nationals were arrested and an arms cache, including 20 homemade explosive devices, ammunition, mines, grenades and specialized weapons commonly used by Ukrainian special forces, were recovered, it said.
The FSB said the situation escalated further late on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday.
“The attempts to break through were accompanied by massive covering fire from the neighboring state and from Ukrainian armored vehicles,” it said.
The U.S. State Department referred questions about the Russian claims to Ukraine’s government, and repeated Washington’s rejection of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“Crimea is and will always be part of Ukraine,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters
U.S. officials are monitoring the situation, but have yet to drawn any conclusion about Russia’s intentions, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Armed Conflict
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August 2016
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['(FSB)', '(Reuters)', '(The Guardian)']
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One person dies following an apparent grenade explosion at the Kuwait information office in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
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It is not clear how the grenade came to be at the office, but it appears to have detonated by accident.
Reports say the dead man, a Lebanese security guard, was playing with it when the explosion occurred. He died after being taken to hospital.
The office in west Beirut is attached to Kuwait's embassy in Lebanon.
Police initially said one of the victims had been opening a parcel which exploded as the other man stood beside him, but this version of events quickly changed.
"It was an accident," said Kuwaiti ambassador Suleiman al-Said after inspecting the scene of the blast. The dead man was identified Iyad al-Aleyli, a Lebanese citizen who was in charge of security at the office.
The two wounded employees - Hussam al-Jamal and Mirna Mugharbel - were rushed to hospital, the officials said.
"I was in the lift when I heard the blast and I helped evacuate one of the wounded," said Youssef Karyouti, a Kuwaiti who works in the same 16-storey building in the Saneya district.
It is the second fatal blast in Beirut in four days, but appears to have nothing to do with the string of unsolved bombings that have followed the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February.
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Armed Conflict
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September 2005
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['(BBC)']
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A Necessity and Urgency Decree reinstates currency controls in Argentina. (Buenos Aires Económico)
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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina’s government authorized currency controls on Sunday in an about-face by President Mauricio Macri, who had previously lifted many protectionist practices of his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
The central bank is now authorized to restrict purchases of dollars as it burns through its reserves in an effort to prop up the peso currency, the government said in a decree published in its official bulletin.
The measure means companies will need permission from the central bank to access the foreign exchange market to purchase foreign currency and make transfers abroad.
The government of Latin America’s third largest economy said in the decree that “the executive branch needed to adopt a series of extraordinary measures aimed at ensuring the normal functioning of the economy.”
Hours after the decree was published, a spokesman for the International Monetary Fund, with which Argentina has a $57-billion standby agreement, said its staff were analyzing Argentina’s “capital flow management measures with the aim of protecting exchange rate stability and the savers.”
“Staff will remain in close contact with the authorities in the period ahead and the Fund will continue to stand with Argentina during these challenging times,” the spokesman said.
After opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez and Fernandez de Kirchner, who is now his vice presidential candidate, pulled off a stunning upset in the Aug. 11 primary vote, bonds, stocks and the peso currency plummeted on market fears over a potential return to the interventionist policies of Fernandez de Kirchner’s previous government.
Macri’s government and the central bank are trying to stabilize the economy as the Oct. 27 presidential election looms, for which Fernandez is now the front-runner.
The central bank has burned through nearly $1 billion in reserves since Wednesday in an effort to prop up the peso. But the intervention did not have the desired impact and risk spreads blew out to levels not seen since 2005, while the local peso currency extended its year-to-date swoon to 36%.
The central bank said in a statement that the measure did not limit people from withdrawing dollars from their accounts. It does, however, restrict people from buying more than $10,000 a month, or making transfers exceeding that amount per month.
It also requires exporters to liquidate their foreign exchange earnings in the local market under deadlines. Companies will not be permitted to stockpile dollars, the bank said.
“(Foreign) trade is not restricted. There were restrictions before, but there are none now,” said a source familiar with the new central bank measure.
“All of this is to preserve the economy as well as possible in this circumstance,” said the source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Treasury Minister Hernan Lacunza called the measures “uncomfortable” in an interview with a local TV station on Sunday evening, but said they were necessary for avoiding a worse situation.
“They are not measures for a normal country,” the minister said.
“If we do not do it, the consequences would be serious.”
In another TV interview, Lacunza said an exchange rate of 61 pesos per U.S. dollar would be “excessive”.
The peso closed at 59.52 per dollar on Friday.
‘UNPALATABLE MEASURES’
The central bank announced on Friday that banks would need to seek prior authorization before distributing their earnings, in order to “avoid any lack of money” and safeguard the liquidity of Argentina’s financial system.
Last week, Lacunza said the government would negotiate with holders of its sovereign bonds and the IMF to extend the maturities of its debt obligations as a way of ensuring Argentina’s ability to pay.
A team from the IMF was in Argentina last week to meet with government and central bank officials, as well as Fernandez and his economic advisers.
The Fund’s next scheduled review of Argentina’s lending program is on Sept. 15.
Worries over Argentina’s ability to meet its dollar-denominated debt obligations have increased since the Aug. 11 primary.
“As Macri’s government runs out of options, it will most likely have to resort to very unpalatable measures that most adult Argentines hoped they would never experience again,” said Emilio Ocampo, an independent economist and consultant.
“We are in a gray area, and from Friday until today, it got darker. It may get even darker if confidence is not restored.”
Fernandez de Kirchner, in office from 2007 to 2015, clamped down on access to U.S. dollars in a bid to protect the central bank’s precarious reserves.
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Government Policy Changes
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September 2019
|
['(Reuters)']
|
In Malawi, President Bingu wa Mutharika quits the governing party, the United Democratic Front, stating he is fed up of criticism of his anti–corruption campaign. The party had debated whether to expel him for alleged misconduct. (IOL, SA)
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Blantyre - Plucked by his predecessor from relative obscurity, Malawi's president has fallen out with his former mentor in a power struggle that bodes ill for the country.
The governing United Democratic Front (UDF), already divided by the feud, had for some time been considering expelling Bingu wa Mutharika from its ranks.
Instead, on Saturday the president announced his resignation from the ruling party.
'Leave me alone to run this country'"I am no longer a member of the UDF, effective today," Mutharika told a public rally commemorating a national anti-corruption day in the administrative capital Lilongwe on Saturday.
Mutharika, who won presidential elections in May, had unleashed a fierce attack on former president Bikili Muluzi, accusing him of being power-hungry and even plotting to assassinate him.
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Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal
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February 2005
|
['(SABC)', '(BBC)']
|
Missouri governor Jay Nixon declares a state of emergency as widespread flash flooding continues to impact the midwestern state.
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JEFFERSON CITY, MO – A state of emergency has been declared by Governor Jay Nixon in response to widespread flooding in Missouri. At least eight deaths are connected to the high waters in the state. More rain and additional flooding is expected through Monday. River levels are expected to rise over the next few days.
The Governor’s office says that the Missouri State Highway Patrol has done dozens of water rescues, and assisted in the evacuation of residents from flooded areas. There are more than 180 roads closed across the state due to flooding. The Governor is urging Missourians in flood-affected areas to avoid travel if possible.
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A release from the Governor’s office has several tips to deal with high water:
Missourians who need disaster information, shelter information, and referrals are urged to call 211. The 211 service is now available throughout Missouri.
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Floods
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December 2015
|
['(Fox2Now)']
|
At least six people die and 39 are laid by bomb blasts in Assam, India, with the United Liberation Front of Asom believed to be responsible.
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GUWAHATI, India (AFP) At least six people were killed and 39 injured Sunday in two separate bomb blasts in India's insurgency-hit Assam state, police said.
The first attack took place in Kumarikata village, about 70 kilometres (42 miles) west of the state's main city of Guwahati.
"The market was teeming with people when the explosion took place, killing six people on the spot and wounding about 35 more," a senior police official told AFP.
Fifteen people were in a critical condition.
In the second attack, suspected militants on a motorcycle attacked a security patrol in Nagaon district, about 135 kilometres east of Guwahati, police official A. Das said by telephone.
"The militants lobbed a grenade at a police patrol team, injuring three security personnel and a civilian," he said.
Police said they suspected the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) carried out the attacks.
The ULFA is a rebel group which has been fighting for an independent homeland in Assam since 1979. More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the tea and timber-rich state during the past two decades.
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Armed Conflict
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June 2008
|
['(AFP via Google News)']
|
At least 70 drown when a migrant boat from Ethiopia sinks off the Red Sea coast of Yemen.
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A boat carrying African migrants has sunk off Yemen's western coast, killing 70 people, Yemeni officials say.
The boat, carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants, sank off Yemen's al-Makha port due to strong winds and rough waves, security officials said.
Tens of thousands attempt to cross the Red Sea into Yemen every year, often in rickety, overcrowded vessels. Hundreds have died making the journey.
Yemen is viewed by many migrants as a gateway to the Middle East or Europe.
The latest sinking occurred on Saturday, with reports of the incident emerging on Sunday.
The Red Sea crossing between the Horn of Africa and Yemen is one of the world's major migration routes, BBC Arab affairs editor Alan Johnston says.
Migrants dream of finding jobs and better lives in rich places like Saudi Arabia - but they are in the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers and, too often, never reach the Yemeni shore, our correspondent adds.
In October, the UN refugee agency said that more than 200 people had died at sea in 2014 while attempting to reach Yemen.
"There have been frequent reports of mistreatment, abuse, rape and torture, and the increasingly cruel measures being adopted by smuggling rings seem to account for the increase in deaths at sea," the UN said at the time.
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Shipwreck
|
December 2014
|
['(BBC)']
|
In Barcelona, 80,000 demonstrators take to the streets in protest of the Independent politics of the Catalan government and the violence of the last weeks' pro-independence protests, and for the unity and democracy of Spain.
|
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Huge crowds of Catalans supporting continued union with Spain marched through Barcelona on Sunday, a day after the city hosted two pro-independence protests - highlighting deep political faultlines within the region.
Police said Sunday’s peaceful rally drew 80,000 while organizers Societat Civil Catalana, a pro-unity umbrella group, put the turnout at 400,000.
“Unlike the separatists, we neither want nor need frontiers, or walls,” its leader Fernando Sanchez Costa said. Pro-independence regional government head Quim Torra should step down “if he can’t govern for all Catalans”, local newspaper La Vanguardia quoted Sanchez Costa as saying.
Some 350,000 had attended a separatist march on Saturday organized by civil rights groups, police said, hours before a second, smaller, pro-independence demonstration outside Spanish police headquarters turned violent.
Independence is highly divisive in Catalonia, with a poll in July showing 44% backing secession and 48.3% against it.
All Spain’s main political parties have rejected any moves towards Catalan independence, with only left-wing Podemos accepting the possibility of a second referendum, following one that was held in autumn 2017 despite being declared illegal.
Nine Catalan politicians and activists were this month sentenced to long prison terms over their roles in that failed independence bid..
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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October 2019
|
['(Reuters)']
|
New Zealand holds a two-minute silence in respect for the victims of the 2011 Canterbury earthquake.
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Flags fly at half mast on the Auckland Harbour Bridge in memory of those who died it the Christchurch earthquake. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Church bells will ring across the country at 12.51pm as New Zealanders observe two minutes' silence in respect of the victims of last Tueday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch.
As well as at a number of cathedral and church services throughout the country, people can gather in the public places to show their respects, one week on from the devastating earthquake.
Attendees are encouraged to wear red and black to show solidarity with Cantabrians.
Auckland Victoria Park, from 12.30pm.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, from 12.30pm.
Hamilton Garden Place, 200 hundred red and black balloons will be released in honour of the victims.
Waikato University, Village Green.
Rotorua Civic Centre, outside the Hinemaru St entrance, gather just before 12.51pm.
Taupo Great Lake Centre, at the cenotaph.
New Plymouth Taranaki Cathedral Church of St Mary, from 12.30pm.
Napier St John's Cathedral
Palmerston North All Saints' Church in Church St
Wellington Civic Square, Wakefield Street, from 12.45pm.
Parliament grounds, from 12.30pm.
Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, from 12.30pm
Nelson The 1903 Square, from 12.30pm.
Blenheim Seymour Square.
Greymouth Grey District Council, next to the fountain, Tainui Street, Greymouth. Just before 12.51pm.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker is advising people not to head into the central city, but rather to reflect for two minutes in their communities.
There will be a service at the Art Gallery at midday.
Queenstown Village Green, as part of the Kia Kaha Christchurch fundraising concert, from 12pm.
Dunedin The Octagon, followed by a short service of prayer St Paul's Cathedral at 1pm.
Invercargill Invercargill City Council, next to the flag pole on Esk St, Invercargill, just before 12.51pm.
|
Earthquakes
|
March 2011
|
['(New Zealand Herald)']
|
A roadside bomb kills five people in Bajaur, Pakistan.
|
Sunday Sep 17, 2017 BAJAUR: At least five government officials, including security personnel, were killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack in Bajaur Agency on Sunday.
Officials of the political administration said the bomb exploded on the roadside in Tangi area of Loi Mamond tehsil of the tribal agency.
The deceased include political tehsildar Fawad Ali and security personnel while a Levies official was also injured in the attack, said officials.
Security forces cordoned off the area after the incident and launched a search operation.
A resident of Bajaur and PML-N leader shared a post on Twitter stating that the deceased tehsildar was a gold medal winner from Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University.
Bajaur Agency, which borders Afghanistan's Kunar province,has seen intense fighting between militants and security forces in the past.
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Armed Conflict
|
September 2017
|
['(Geo TV)']
|
ISIL confirms that U.S. forces killed its number two leader, Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi, in an airstrike near Mosul back in August.
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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group’s spokesman confirmed on Tuesday the killing of the militant organization’s second in command in a U.S. air strike earlier this year. “America is rejoicing over the killing of Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi and considers this a great victory,” Abu Mohamed al-Adnani said in an audio recording posted on militant websites. “I will not mourn him... he whose only wish was to die in the name of Allah... he has raised men and left behind heroes who, God willing, are yet to harm America,” he added. Adnani did not say, however, in what circumstances Qurashi died. But the White House, in an announcement on August 22, said that Qurashi, whose real name is Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, was killed on August 18 in a U.S. air strike near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. It said the strike targeted a vehicle and also killed an IS “media operative” known as Abu Abdullah. The U.S. National Security Council said at the time that Hayali was IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s senior deputy. The White House described Hayali as a member of the ISIS ruling council, and “a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.”
In its August announcement the White House also said that Hayali “was in charge of ISIL operations in Iraq, where he was instrumental in planning operations over the past two years, including the ISIL offensive in Mosul in June 2014,” using another name for ISIS. Like many senior Iraqi militants, before joining the ISIS group, Hayali had been a member of Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi faction. He was reportedly a former Iraqi officer from the era of Saddam Hussein.
In the same audio message, al-Adnani called on Muslims to launch a “holy war” against Russians and Americans over what it called their “crusaders’ war” in the Middle East. “Islamic youth everywhere, ignite jihad against the Russians and the Americans in their crusaders’ war against Muslims,” al-Adnani said. ISIS militants launched a devastating offensive in Iraq in June 2014. Beginning in Mosul, the country’s second city and capital of Nineveh province, they swept security forces aside and eventually overran around a third of the country.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group’s spokesman confirmed on Tuesday the killing of the militant organization’s second in command in a U.S. air strike earlier this year. “America is rejoicing over the killing of Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi and considers this a great victory,” Abu Mohamed al-Adnani said in an audio recording posted on militant websites. “I will not mourn him... he whose only wish was to die in the name of Allah... he has raised men and left behind heroes who, God willing, are yet to harm America,” he added. Adnani did not say, however, in what circumstances Qurashi died. But the White House, in an announcement on August 22, said that Qurashi, whose real name is Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, was killed on August 18 in a U.S. air strike near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. It said the strike targeted a vehicle and also killed an IS “media operative” known as Abu Abdullah. The U.S. National Security Council said at the time that Hayali was IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s senior deputy. The White House described Hayali as a member of the ISIS ruling council, and “a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.”
In its August announcement the White House also said that Hayali “was in charge of ISIL operations in Iraq, where he was instrumental in planning operations over the past two years, including the ISIL offensive in Mosul in June 2014,” using another name for ISIS. Like many senior Iraqi militants, before joining the ISIS group, Hayali had been a member of Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi faction. He was reportedly a former Iraqi officer from the era of Saddam Hussein.
In the same audio message, al-Adnani called on Muslims to launch a “holy war” against Russians and Americans over what it called their “crusaders’ war” in the Middle East. “Islamic youth everywhere, ignite jihad against the Russians and the Americans in their crusaders’ war against Muslims,” al-Adnani said. ISIS militants launched a devastating offensive in Iraq in June 2014. Beginning in Mosul, the country’s second city and capital of Nineveh province, they swept security forces aside and eventually overran around a third of the country.
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Armed Conflict
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October 2015
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['(Israel National News)', '(Al Arabiya)']
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Ford announces plans to cut 15,000 additional jobs and close several automotive plants, including a truck plant in Edison, New Jersey.
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The Ford Motor Company's board agreed on a plan tonight to cut its work force by up to 15,000 hourly workers, in addition to the 5,000 salaried workers it said it would cut last year, and also close several of its plants, including a truck plant in Edison, N.J., according to a person close to the deliberations.
The company will also reduce its worldwide capacity by one million vehicles, that person said.
Ford's stock fell sharply earlier in the day as analysts feared the company's restructuring plan, to be announced Friday, would fall short of expectations. The company's share price slid 6.3 percent, to $15.29. In Dearborn, Mich., at Ford's headquarters, the board and the company's new management team have spent the last few days debating over how many thousands of job cuts should be part of the turnaround plan.
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Organization Closed
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January 2002
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['(NYT)']
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Rioting erupts overnight in the Belgian capital Brussels following the death of a 23–year–old black man in police custody, who was reportedly arrested for violating local COVID–19 restrictions. A police station was set on fire in north of the city, and King Philippe's vehicle was attacked while travelling through the area.
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elgium authorities announced on Wednesday that a probe is to be launched into the death of a black man detained by police.
The 23-year-old, identified only with the initial I.B., died in Brussels on Saturday.
The Brussels prosecutor's office said on Wednesday that an investigative judge would be appointed to lead the probe.
The announcement came as some 400 people, holding Black Lives Matter signs, demonstrated in central Brussels asking for authorities to shed light on the incident.
The peaceful demonstrations turned into clashes with a number of demonstrators breaking off from the main group. There was some destruction to public property, as well as damage to police vehicles.
According to the prosecutors, I.B. was arrested after he allegedly tried to run away from officers checking a group of people gathered in central Brussels. They were there despite a ban on public gatherings imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.
He was then taken to a police station, where he fainted, prosecutors said. He was transferred to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Local media reported that I.B. had started to record the police with his smartphone on Saturday when officers decided to carry out an ID check on him. The prosecutor's office said it has seized video surveillance images, both from the police station and at the scene of the man's arrest.
Belgium's Comité P, an independent body overseeing police services, is investigating and a coroner has been appointed to perform an autopsy as well as toxicology tests, the prosecutor office's.
It added that I.B's family and lawyer had met with the chief prosecutor on Wednesday morning and that they were given guarantees that "all means are and will be implemented to shed light on what happened".
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Riot
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January 2021
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['(BBC)', '(Euronews)']
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Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh rejects U.S. assertion that ISIL are responsible for the attack on the maternity hospital this week and instead blames the Taliban. The Taliban previously denied the accusation and labeled the attack as "heinous".
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KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan officials on Friday blamed the Taliban for a bloody attack on a maternity hospital in the capital, Kabul, this week, rejecting a U.S. assertion that it was carried out by Islamic State militants.
Three gunmen disguised as police attacked the hospital on Tuesday, killing 24 people including two babies in a clinic run by the international humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
No group has claimed responsibility.
The Taliban, who struck a deal with the United States in February clearing the way for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the end of America’s longest war, denied responsibility.
U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of the pact with the Taliban, blamed Islamic State militants for the attack, saying they opposed any Taliban deal and sought to trigger an Iraq-style sectarian war in Afghanistan.
But Afghan officials in Kabul dismissed the Taliban denial.
“Neither the Taliban hands nor their stained consciousness can be washed of the blood of women, babies & other innocent in the latest senseless carnage,” Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh said on Twitter.
Saleh, a former intelligence chief, did not mention Khalilzad’s assertion but said earlier some people were naive for accepting Taliban lies and blaming the “fictional” Islamic State faction in Afghanistan for the attack.
The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, known as Islamic State Khorasan, after an old name for the region, first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in 2014, and has since made inroads into other areas.
The Islamic State militants, who battle government forces and the Taliban, and have claimed some of the deadliest attacks in urban centres in recent years, and will not be part of the deal between the United States and the Taliban.
The group did claim another attack on Tuesday, a suicide bomb attack on the funeral of a policeman in the eastern province of Nangarhar in which 32 people were killed.
‘EVIDENCE’
A senior Afghan government official said the patterns of recent attacks showed the involvement of the Taliban and the affiliated Haqqani Network, whose head, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the deputy chief of the Taliban, in the Kabul attack.
The official, who declined to be identified questioned Khalilzad’s assessment as “premature” adding that all the evidence suggested it was not Islamic State who carried out the raid on the hospital.
The Taliban, who condemned the hospital attack, said the Afghan government had attempted to pin the blame on them “without any expert investigation”.
A spokesman for the group called for a “transparent and impartial investigation” to find the perpetrators.
President Ashraf Ghani ordered the military to switch to “offensive mode” against the Taliban in response to Tuesday’s violence, presenting another setback to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to bring the troops home.
The comments by Khalilzad, who has already been criticised in Afghanistan for what some see as his rush to push the deal with the Taliban, angered parliamentarians, some of whom went as far as calling for him to be banned from entering the country.
“We will start collecting signatures and ask for a proper session in the parliament regarding the peace process and Khalilzad,” independent parliamentarian, Belqis Roshan, told Reuters.
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Armed Conflict
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May 2020
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['(Reuters)']
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China lodges a formal protest to North Korea after a North Korean soldier fatally shot three Chinese citizens at their mutual border.
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North Korean soldiers patrol along the banks of the Yalu River near North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite Chinese border town of Dandong, Liaoning Province.
Three residents of Dandong city in Liaoning Province were shot dead and one more injured by North Korea border guards, said Qin Gang, spokesman of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday.
China has lodged a formal complaint with North Korea over the shooting, which occurred "on suspicion of crossing the border for trade activities," Qin said in a regular news brief.
"China attaches great important to that and has immediately raised a solemn representation with the DPRK," he added.
The case was under investigation and no further details are given. Pyongyang has not commented on the accusations.
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Armed Conflict
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June 2010
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['(AP)', '(Global Times)', '(Chosun Ilbo)', '(Radio Television Hong Kong)']
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Three women, the Imatra Town Council chairwoman and two local reporters, are shot dead outside a restaurant in Imatra, Finland, a town east of the capital, Helsinki. A 23-year-old suspect is apprehended by police.
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A fatal shooting occurred at midnight on Saturday in the city of Imatra, where a 23-year-old assailant killed three women with a rifle, police say.
One of the victims was the chair of the Imatra City Council, and the two others were local print journalists. Police deny all rumours surrounding the motivation of the crime, which they are treating as murder.
The hunting rifle used in the murder had a permit, but did not belong to the attacker, police say.
The shooter has been apprehended and the scene of the crime, restaurant Vuoksenvahti, has been cordoned off.
"The persons were exiting the restaurant when they were fired upon," Yle reporter Jari Tanskanen said on site this morning. "People here are devastated."
Police received an alert at 00.00 on Saturday of a man with a gun in front of restaurant Vuoksenvahti. Police were some 300 metres from the scene at the time of the call.
As the patrol came nearer to the scene local people directed the police to the front of the restaurant, where the situation was described as hectic. A 23-year-old man was pointed out and allegedly identified as the shooter.
The man was standing in front of a parked car in front of the restaurant. He followed police orders and was apprehended without incident.
Three lifeless female bodies were found lying in front of the restaurant. The women had sustained gunshot wounds to the head and torso. No other victims are reported.
An ambulance and several police patrols also arrived at the scene. The suspect has not yet been interrogated.
Police say they do not yet know the alleged shooter's motive for the crime. The man is suspected to have used a rifle to carry out the shooting.
A local emergency crisis centre has been opened in Imatra for all those shocked by the crime.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest
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December 2016
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['(YLE)', '(AP)']
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Saudi Arabia issues final convictions for eight people for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
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Follow NBC News Final verdicts were issued Monday in Saudi Arabia for eight people in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in a judicial process slammed by a U.N. investigator as a “parody of justice.”
Five people were given 20 years in prison, another person received a 10-year sentence, and the two remaining people were ordered to serve seven years in prison, a spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's public prosecution bureau announced.
The trial has been criticized by a U.N. official and human rights campaigners who have said that the high-level architects of the murder remain free. Khashoggi’s fiancee said the Saudis were closing the case without the world knowing the truth of who is responsible for his murder.
Agnes Callamard, who investigated the killing for the United Nations, said the Saudi Prosecutor had Monday performed one more act in this “parody of justice.”
“But these verdicts carry no legal or moral legitimacy. They came at the end of a process which was neither fair, nor just, or transparent,” she tweeted, adding that the responsibility of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had never been meaningfully scrutinized in Saudi Arabia.
The CIA has found that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi's killing, which Riyadh has firmly rejected. Crown Prince Mohammed has said the murder was carried out without his knowledge but indicated some personal accountability when he told PBS' "Frontline” in September 2019 that "it happened under my watch."
The death of Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and permanent resident of the U.S., made international headlines in October 2018 when it emerged he had been slain in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by fellow Saudis. Khashoggi, who was living in exile, had been openly critical of Crown Prince Mohammed in his columns for the Washington Post.
Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2, 2018, after entering the Saudi Consulate to obtain paperwork for his divorce to go forth with his pending marriage. He previously tried to obtain this paperwork in Washington, D.C., but was directed to Istanbul, instead.
Turkish prosecutors concluded that Khashoggi had been strangled or suffocated before his body was dismembered.
A 101-page U.N. report concluded that while it may be unclear who issued the decisive order to kill Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia was ultimately responsible for his death. The report cited an audio recording from the Saudi Consulate in which a voice tells Khashoggi that there is an order from Interpol to send him back to Saudi Arabia.
Last year, Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death over his killing. However, in May Khashoggi’s family said it had forgiven his murderers, a move that paved the way for a reprieve for the five defendants sentenced to death, according to Reuters.
In May, Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, appeared to respond to the suggestion that his murderers should be forgiven by posting that “nobody has the right to pardon the killers.”
Cengiz, said in a statement on Monday that the rulings were a "complete mockery of justice" and a "farce" that the international community will not accept.
"The Saudi authorities are closing the case without the world knowing the truth of who is responsible for Jamal's murder," she wrote. "Who planned it, who ordered it, where is his body? These are the most basic and important questions that remain totally unanswered."
Saudi officials have offered varying accounts of what led to Khashoggi's death. Former Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in 2018 that Khashoggi's death was a result of a "rogue operation."
Prosecutors said after last year's convictions that there had been no premeditated plan to kill Khashoggi and that a group of men intended to kidnap the journalist but chose to kill him because of the difficulty of moving him.
But Saudi Arabia's attorney general said in 2018 that evidence provided by Turkish investigators indicated that the "suspects in the incident had committed their act with a premeditated intention."
Charlene Gubash reported from Cairo, Egypt. Doha Madani reported from New York City. Saphora Smith from London. Charlene Gubash is an NBC News producer based in Cairo. Gubash, a native Minnesotan, has lived and worked in the Egyptian capital since 1985.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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September 2020
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['(NBC News)']
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Cruise ship MSC Opera collides with a riverboat and the quayside at Venice, Italy: four people are injured, none seriously. The incident leads to renewed demands to ban large cruise ships from the Lagoon of Venice.
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A cruise ship crash in Venice has reignited calls for large vessels to be banned from the city's Giudecca canal.
Four people were injured on Sunday when the MSC Opera - a 275m long (900ft) ship - collided with a dock and a small tourist boat after losing control.
Critics say such ships pose a conservation risk to the lagoon city, pollute its waters and mar its beauty. Ministers said the crash proved the need for a ban on liners, and that they were working to resolve the problem. "What happened in the port of Venice is confirmation of what we have been saying for some time," Environment Minister Sergio Costa wrote on Twitter (in Italian).
"Cruise ships must not sail down the Giudecca. We have been working on moving them for months now... and are nearing a solution."
Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli agreed, writing on Twitter (in Italian) that the incident was proof that big ships should not travel on the Giudecca.
"After many years of inertia, we are finally close to a definitive solution to protect both the lagoon and tourism," he said. The Giudecca, which leads to the popular St Mark's Square, is one of Venice's major waterways. Critics say waves created by cruise ships on the canal erode the foundations of the city, which regularly suffers from flooding. Some have also complained that they detract from the beauty of Venice's historic sites and bring too many tourists. Venice's port authority called for action to resolve the issue of high cruise ship traffic. "Now is the time to handle the situation... to work to understand what happened and to find solution, once and for all," Pino Musolino, president of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority wrote on Twitter (in Italian). The government has previously tried to resolve the cruise ship debate. In 2013, it banned ships weighing more than 96,000 tonnes from the Giudecca canal but the legislation was later overturned. In 2017, the government announced that it would divert larger ships away from the historic centre.
However, the plans were expected to take four years to come into force. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro on Sunday urged immediate action to open the alternative channel, known as the Vittorio Emanuele.
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Shipwreck
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June 2019
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['(BBC)']
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The Minneapolis City Council passes a resolution to begin the process of abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department. Mayor Jacob Frey has publicly opposed the measure.
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Gallery: Community members gathered at "The Path Forward" meeting with Minneapolis City Council members on Sunday, June 7, in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis.
In their boldest statement since George Floyd’s killing, nine Minneapolis City Council members told a crowd Sunday that they will “begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department.”
“We recognize that we don’t have all the answers about what a police-free future looks like, but our community does,” they said, reading off a prepared statement. “We’re committed to engaging with every willing community member in the City of Minneapolis over the next year to identify what safety looks like for you.”
Their words — delivered one day after Mayor Jacob Frey told a crowd of protesters he does not support the full abolishment of the MPD — set off what is likely to be a long, complicated debate about the future of the state’s largest police force.
With the world watching, and the city’s leaders up for re-election next year, the stakes are particularly high. While Minneapolis has debated the issue in the past, Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police has added a sense of urgency, and the calls for police departments to be disbanded have echoed in other cities around the country.
Council members have noted repeatedly since Floyd’s death that Minneapolis has the chance to redefine policing. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, nine of them walked onto a stage at Powderhorn Park to support members of advocacy group Black Visions, who were calling for the end of the MPD. On stage were Council President Lisa Bender, Vice President Andrea Jenkins and Council Members Alondra Cano, Phillippe Cunningham, Jeremiah Ellison, Steve Fletcher, Cam Gordon, Andrew Johnson and Jeremy Schroeder.
“Decades of police reform efforts have proved that the Minneapolis Police Department cannot be reformed and will never be accountable for its actions,” they said. “We are here today to begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department and creating a new, transformative model for cultivating safety in Minneapolis.” While some council members have provided hints of what the changes might mean — sending mental health professionals or social workers to respond to certain emergencies, for example — the group did not present a single, unified vision for how they would replace policing in Minneapolis.
Organizers with Black Visions said they too don’t have all the answers about what would replace the police department, but they said police can’t be reformed through initiatives like training and body cameras. This is the beginning of the process of putting together a “police-free future,” they vowed, by investing in more community initiatives like mental health and having community members respond to public safety issues.
“We have never looked to the police for our safety,” said Kandace Montgomery, executive director of Black Visions.
The group called the council members’ statement “historic” and gave them a standing ovation.
It was a sharp contrast to the reception Frey received the day before, when Black Visions led a protest that ended outside his home. When the protesters reached his home, Frey came outside. The crowd chanted for him to come up to a stage where some had gathered. They asked if he would abolish the police department.
“I do not support the full abolition of the police department,” he said.
The crowd jeered. “Go home, Jacob. Go home.” As he walked away, they shouted, “Shame. Shame. Shame.”
Frey said in an interview Sunday that he supports a “new transformative model” but does not support eliminating the department entirely. “People continue to require service in many forms from our public safety offices, whether in times of domestic violence, or assistance in some of the most dire conditions,” he said.
On Friday, Frey and the council approved a tentative agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights that would ban chokeholds, strengthen the requirements for officers to intervene if they see a colleague using inappropriate force and increase public transparency on some officer disciplinary decisions. The agreement — which still requires a judge’s approval — is expected to be the first of many changes to come as the state investigates whether the Minneapolis Police Department engaged in racial discrimination over the past 10 years.
Frey said he would like to see additional changes to the police union contract, which is currently being negotiated, and to the arbitration process that allows some disciplinary decisions to be overturned.
“I have tremendous faith in the police chief, [Medaria] Arradondo, and by channeling all of this anger and energy toward a full restructuring, we can give him, our first black police chief, the opportunity to remake this department in his image,” Frey said. “He has my full support. This is an opportunity to do it right.”
Others in the city have said they want to make changes to the police department but are not ready to disband it entirely.
Council Member Linea Palmisano watched in Powderhorn Park as her colleagues delivered their statement. “I’m not here to sign a pledge,” she said, “I am here to talk about alternatives to policing. I took an oath of office. I pledged to uphold the safety of our city, and by that I mean, everybody in our city, and that means different things to different people.”
Signing the pledge, to her, would have meant making “a promise at all costs.”
“I think we need to have a lot of discussion before we take the next step here, and I’m really open to that discussion,” she said.
Council Members Lisa Goodman and Kevin Reich, who like Palmisano did not participate in the statement calling for the end of the MPD, could not immediately be reached. After the nine other council members made their joint statement, Jenkins, who did participate, sat by herself on the stage and said she felt conflicted about taking the pledge.
“There are 431,000 people in this city that call this city home,” she said. “Everyone has to have a voice in this conversation. This is a very beautiful, very gorgeous crowd out here right now, but this is not the entirety of Minneapolis.”
Asked why she took the pledge if she felt conflicted, Jenkins said: “This is the moment. This is the time. Because nothing has worked. We’ve got to change this. It’s possible to be conflicted and know what the right thing to do is.”
The effort to defund police departments has gained some momentum. Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would look to cut $100 million to $150 million from its nearly $2 billion annual police budget to redirect to black communities. Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged for the first time to cut New York City’s police funding following 10 nights of mass protests against police violence and mounting demands that he overhaul a department whose tactics have caused widespread consternation.
The mayor declined to say precisely how much funding he planned to divert to social services from the New York Police Department, which has an annual budget of $6 billion, representing more than 6% of de Blasio’s proposed $90 billion budget.
On Sunday, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said that calls to defund police were a “political statement.” He said that slashing police budgets would harm law enforcement oversight and leadership.
“If you’re concerned about the racial injustice, if you’re concerned about needing to reform different police departments or law enforcement agencies, you want to make sure that you are giving them the right training,” Wolf said.
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Government Policy Changes
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June 2020
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['(Star Tribune)']
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Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, the BBC's Tokyo correspondent, was detained in North Korea before being expelled by the government for "speaking very ill of the system".
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BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been expelled from North Korea after being detained over their reporting.
Our correspondent, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were stopped by officials on Friday as they were about to leave North Korea.
Wingfield-Hayes was questioned for eight hours by North Korean officials and made to sign a statement.
All three remained in Pyongyang before flying to Beijing on Monday. After arriving in Beijing, Byrne tweeted that they were "very happy" to be back but were not doing any interviews.
The BBC team was in North Korea ahead of the Workers' Party Congress, accompanying a delegation of Nobel prize laureates conducting a research trip. The North Korean leadership was displeased with their reports highlighting aspects of life in the capital.
At a news conference on Monday, a North Korean government spokesperson said Wingfield-Hayes and his colleagues had been "speaking very ill of the system". A BBC spokesman said: "We are very disappointed that our reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been deported from North Korea after the government took offence at material he had filed.
"Four BBC staff, who were invited to cover the Workers Party Congress, remain in North Korea and we expect them to be allowed to continue their reporting."
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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May 2016
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['(BBC)']
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Amnesty International condemns Sunday's execution, in Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya, of 18 people, some of whom were from Chad, Egypt and Nigeria.
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Human rights campaigner group Amnesty International has condemned the reported execution of 18 people in Libya.
The 18, some from Chad, Egypt and Nigeria, were executed on Sunday in Tripoli and Benghazi, Libyan media reported.
Amnesty International said they feared the accused had not had fair trials.
The people were convicted of murder and executed by firing squad, the Libyan Cerene newspaper said.
"In Libya we fear that death sentences are handed down after proceedings which fail to satisfy international standards for fair trial," a statement from the organisation said.
Foreign nationals are at a disadvantage in the Libyan legal system, Amnesty said.
They often do not have access to lawyers and do not understand the trial proceedings because they are not translated from Arabic.
Libya executes a disproportionately large number of foreigners, Amnesty said.
Each year thousands of African migrants travel cross the Sahara desert to Libya with the hope of one day reaching Europe .
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Armed Conflict
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June 2010
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['(AFP)', '(BBC)']
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Day's 20-under-par is the lowest score in relation to par at a major championship, beating Tiger Woods' previous record of 19-under at the 2000 Open Championship.
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Updated 17 Aug 2015, 11:43amMon 17 Aug 2015, 11:43am
Australian Jason Day has won the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
Look back on how the final day's play unfolded.
See the full scoreboard
Jason Day of Australia throws his club on the 13th hole during the final round of the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on August 16, 2015 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. (AFP/Getty Images: Richard Heathcote)
An emotional Jason Day with son Dash after winning the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on August 16, 2015. (Getty Images: Kevin C. Cox)
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Sports Competition
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August 2015
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['(ABC News Australia)']
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Spain tear through a feeble France team in their quarter-final meeting at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, with Xabi Alonso scoring two goals on his 100th international appearance.
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Last updated on 23 June 201223 June 2012.From the section Euro 2012
Spain waltzed past a feeble France side in Donetsk to set up a Euro 2012 semi-final meeting with Portugal.
Xabi Alonso, on his 100th appearance for his country, headed in a Jordi Alba cross after 20 minutes.
France struggled to make a mark and only conjured a rare threat when right-back Mathieu Debuchy headed a Franck Ribery cross over. Spain comfortably saw out a one-sided game and sealed the win with a 91st-minute Alonso penalty.
"You've got to say Spain look after the ball very, very well. They always do enough, they are the best team football-wise in the world. France can take a lot from this tournament. They've done OK."
Much had been expected of a game between two of Europe's heavyweights, but it proved a mismatch as Spain easily dispatched a France side lacking intensity and invention.
Victory gave Spain their first win over France in a competitive game and kept them on course for a third successive tournament triumph to follow Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.
Les Bleus had looked distinctly unconvincing in their final group match against Sweden in a defeat that had but this was supposed to be a new chapter. Instead, it was the same old story as they fielded a defensive line-up and conceded ground and possession to their opponents. For their part, Spain had chosen not to play a recognised striker, replacing forward Fernando Torres with midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who had a strong early claim for a penalty.
The Barcelona man, running on to a lofted Alonso pass, looked set to run through on goal before he was brought down by a clumsy Gael Clichy challenge but referee Nicola Rizzoli waved away the appeals. Spain, though, quickly went up a gear, Iniesta guiding a pass wide to overlapping left-back Jordi Alba who left Debuchy trailing before crossing to the far post where Alonso headed back across the keeper and into the net.
The forward forays of Alba and right-back Alvaro Arbeloa were causing France problems, while Andres Iniesta and Xavi's pressing and probing did likewise from the the centre of midfield.
For the French, midfielder Yohan Cabaye had a well struck free-kick tipped over by Iker Casillas but a side clearly set up to catch Spain on the counter-attack mustered precious few opportunities to do so.
Laurent Blanc's men improved marginally in the second half and Debuchy headed over a rare chance, but Spain's ability to hold possession with their metronomic passing style repeatedly drew the sting from France's attacks.
France did not look like they had either the belief or ability to equalise, a malaise epitomised by disappointing striker Karim Benzema, whose Euro 2012 campaign ended without his managing a goal.
As the game went into injury time, Anthony Reveillere brought down Spain substitute Pedro to concede a penalty that Alonso drove in to complete France's miserable evening.
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Sports Competition
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June 2012
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['(BBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)']
|
Authorities in Rwanda jail former politician Léon Mugesera for life. Mugesera was known for describing Tutsis as "cockroaches" and called for their extermination in a speech in 1992 and is said to be a precursor to the Rwandan genocide.
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A former politician who described Tutsis as "cockroaches" and called for their extermination has been jailed for life in Rwanda over the 1994 genocide.
Leon Mugesera, an academic, was extradited back to his home country from Canada four years ago.
He made his incendiary speech against the Tutsi minority in 1992. Some 800,000 people died in the genocide.
Mugesera later worked as a lecturer in Quebec province and lost a 12-year legal battle to avoid extradition.
In 1992, then an official in Rwanda's ruling Hutu party, Mugesera told more than 1,000 party members that they should kill Tutsis and dump their bodies in the river.
Mugesera later maintained his innocence, saying the speech had been taken out of context. The genocide ended when rebels, led by current Tutsi President Paul Kagame, seized power in July 1994. Militias from the majority Hutu ethnic group were blamed for the mass slaughter.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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April 2016
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['(BBC)']
|
The U.S. Treasury Department announces sanctions for a Malaysia-based sales agent for Mahan Air in connection with Iran's alleged support for international terrorism.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it had sanctioned a Malaysia-based sales agent for Mahan Air, an Iranian airline already under U.S. sanctions in connection with Iran’s alleged support for international terrorism.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of Mahan Travel and Tourism Sdn Bhd that are or come within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked,” the department said in a statement.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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July 2018
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['(Reuters)']
|
France's Air Force carries out their first cruise-missile strikes targeting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant installations in Iraq, including “a training center and logistical depot,” according to the French defence ministry.
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PARIS — The French air force used its first cruise missiles against Islamic State group targets in Iraq on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.
"Launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, the raid was made up of a dozen fighter planes equipped with cruise missiles and bombs," the French ministry said in a statement.
The jets targeted buildings in the Al-Qaim area of western Iraq, a civilian neighborhood that also serves as "a training centre and logistical depot," the ministry said.
The Scalp cruise missiles, which are guided by their own onboard computers, travel over longer distances and with greater precision than normal bombs, which the French ministry claimed was particularly useful in civilian areas.
France, which has been involved in the US-led coalition air strikes in Iraq since September 2014, expanded its strikes to Syria 12 months later.
French President Francois Hollande declared his country at war with the Islamic State group, which controls around a third of Iraq and half of Syria, after IS carried out attacks in Paris last month that killed 130 people.
France sent its aircraft carrier to the region, more than tripling its contingent of fighter jets engaged in strikes against IS, although its operations remain limited because of a lack of clear targets and intelligence on the ground.
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Military Exercise
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December 2015
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['(AFP via Defense News)']
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Pakistan's first domestically designed cruise missile, the Babur missile, is test launched.
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The Babur missile is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads and has a range of 500km (310 miles), a military spokesman said.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the launch was a birthday gift to President Pervez Musharraf.
Analysts say the launch is likely to cause concern in the region. Nuclear rival India had no comment.
QUICK GUIDE
Kashmir dispute
The launch comes days after Pakistan and India agreed to give each other advance notice of future nuclear ballistic missile tests.
India was not informed about Thursday's test because the agreement did not cover guided missiles, a Pakistan military spokesman said.
It is a gift of the scientists on the birthday of President Musharraf Sheikh Rashid Ahmed,information minister
Mr Ahmed said the "milestone" launch had been a success, adding: "The nation is proud of its team of scientists who have raised the country's prestige in the comity of nations."
He said it was a gift from scientists to Gen Musharraf, 62 on Thursday.
Cruise missiles are usually low-flying guided missiles.
"The technology enables the missile to avoid radar detection and penetrate undetected through any hostile defensive system," the Pakistan military said in a statement.
Pakistan has its own range of intermediate and short-range ballistic missiles which are test-fired quite regularly.
Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said Pakistan had now joined the few countries "that can design and make cruise missiles".
Reversal
Separately, the UK has said it will ease curbs on the export of nuclear technology to India.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw cited Delhi's improved relations with Islamabad, its commitment to nuclear non-proliferation standards and to tackling climate change as reasons for the decision.
Last month, US President George W Bush said he would seek congressional approval for a plan to help develop India's civilian nuclear programme, reversing existing US policy.
The UK Foreign Office said it was also discussing co-operation on nuclear issues with Pakistan.
Scrutiny
The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says Pakistan's cruise missile test is likely to ring alarm bells in many countries.
Pakistan already has intermediate-range nuclear missiles Pakistan has been under close scrutiny by the international community since its leading nuclear expert, AQ Khan, was found to have leaked nuclear secrets two years ago.
India and Pakistan routinely test-fire their missiles. In March, Pakistan successfully tested a long-range nuclear-capable missile - the Shaheen II, with a range of 2,000km (1,250 miles).
The two countries have twice veered close to war since their nuclear tests in 1998 - over Kashmir in 1999 and again in 2002. Both countries have limited command-and-control structures, and neither has developed the technology to recall a nuclear-tipped missile fired in error.
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Military Exercise
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August 2005
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['(BBC)']
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An elderly woman dies of suffocation while leaving a Brisbane, Queensland-originated Qantas plane at Canberra Airport. Canberra's air quality had been reported as the worst in the world because of heavy smoke from the bushfires in New South Wales.
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Bushfire smoke seen in Canberra airport. Canberra is shutting down. Posties and airline staff are stopping work and the city is running out of facemasks.Source:Supplied
An elderly woman has died in Canberra, reportedly going into respiratory distress after disembarking from a plane to the tarmac, thick with smoke from the bushfires.
The New Daily said tonight the Canberra woman was on a Qantas flight arriving from Brisbane.
She was reportedly alive after leaving the plane, but became distressed shortly afterwards. ACT police and ambulance attended the scene.
RELATED: Canberra’s air worst in the world
“ACT Policing was called to the Canberra Airport following the unsuspicious death of a woman at around 4.15pm today,” a spokeswoman told The New Daily. “A report will be prepared for the coroner.”
A Qantas spokesperson told news.com.au: “Qantas (has) not received any reports of passengers being unwell during the flight and that all passengers had disembarked the aircraft normally.”
Bushfire smoke seen in Canberra airport. Canberra is shutting down. Posties and airline staff are stopping work and the city is running out of facemasksSource:Supplied
The nation’s capital has suffered another day blanketed by thick smoke and currently has worse air quality than Delhi, Mumbai and Beijing.
Smoke has inundated Canberra Airport after the devastating New Year's Eve 2019 bushfires on the NSW South Coast..
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Fire
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January 2020
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['(News)']
|
Liverpool F.C. defeats Tottenham Hotspur F.C. by a score of 2–0 to win the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final.
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The Champions League trophy once again resides at Anfield. On Saturday in the Champions League final, the Reds beat Tottenham 2-0 to lift the trophy for the sixth time, the first since 2005. Mohamed Salah scored the winner just two minutes in thanks to a controversial penalty kick, while Divock Origi replaced Roberto Firmino in the second half and scored in the dying minutes to put it away.
A moment we'll never forget.#SixTimespic.twitter.com/7L5Xv1qstW
The loss sees Tottenham's Cinderella run fall just a game short of the ultimate European club glory, but it put Spurs on the map as a contender in all competitions for years to come.
Here are three takeaways from the match:
It took just 23 seconds for this one to get heated thanks to a handball from Moussa Sissoko, who saw the ball hit him near the armpit before touching his hand. The referee called the penalty kick.
Here's the handball:
A PENALTY CALL 23 SECONDS IN ? pic.twitter.com/4gAaYBhPFG
And here's the goal:
Liverpool 1-0. Minute 2. Mo Salah ? pic.twitter.com/G45zZCFWvR
It doesn't get much more controversial than that in the early going, as any penalty would be. Sure, it hits his hand, but that is after it hits the core of his body. I don't think that is a handball, as it didn't hit his hand first and was far from intentional or him trying to make himself bigger. The Reds took advantage, and the rest is history, but it feels harsh.
Kane returned from injury in what was expected to be a big boost for this team, but Mauricio Pochettino will be questioned as to if he should have played him. He wasn't his sharpest and didn't have a whole lot of chances, but he did had some solid build-up play. Tottenham actually outshot Liverpool on the night.
It's easy to say that they could have done better without him, but they needed Kane in this game to have a realistic shot. Spurs gave it their all, and there was little more they could do against a Liverpool defense that played cautiously and took care of business.
When Jurgen Klopp signed with Liverpool four years ago, he said he expected this team to have a title by his fourth season. But after losses in the Champions League final last year and both the Europa League and League Cup in years prior, the pressure was on here to deliver, and the Reds did just that. It wasn't an attacking outburst but it was a showing for the Reds that has characterized their season -- strong defensively and taking chances in the final third. They did it against Barcelona in the semifinals, they did it all year long in the Premier League and then on the biggest stage, they take two chances to win the title and produce the most memorable day in their careers.
Klopp saw the potential to revive Liverpool, and he did just that by lifting them to the summit.
Miss any of the action? You can find our live coverage of the Champions League final below. If you are unable to view the live updates below, please click here. For news, stories, results and more, follow us:
- @CBSSportsSoccer - @RGonzalezCBS - Facebook
Gianluigi Buffon has completed his emotional return to Parma Calcio 1913 after 20 years away from Stadio Ennio Tardini and the Serie B giants unveiled the 43-year-old's signing in style with a Superman-themed video.
Crociati owner Kyle Krause sat down with CBS Sports insider Fabrizio Romano to chat exclusively about Buffon's homecoming and the vision for the future under Enzo Maresca's leadership as Parma target an immediate return to the top-flight.
With Buffon now back in Emilia-Romagna, Krause was quick to recognize that this move is a dream from the very start of his time with the club coming true as it was something discussed from the very beginning.
"The day we bought Parma," the Italian-American told CBS Sports exclusively, "September last year is when this dream started. It is so logical, in a sense, to bring Gigi back -- why would you not try? So, we bought the club and started to think that it would be a great possibility. That is when it started."
Craving even more coverage of the beautiful game? Listen below and follow ¡Qué Golazo! A Daily CBS Soccer Podcast where our host Luis Miguel Echegaray and our insiders take you beyond the pitch and around the globe with non-stop coverage of the Euros, Copa America, transfers and much more.
Krause admitted that his first approach to Buffon was almost in gest before it turned into a much more serious idea for both the club and the decorated player 20 years on from his departure for Juventus.
"There are a lot of great, great perks to being the president of a Serie A club," said Krause. "One of those is getting to meet greats like Gigi. After our game in Turin, I had the chance to meet him. We talked and I made the joke and we laughed. "Again, maybe that is the beauty of this lucky position I am in, having gone to World Cups and watching Gigi at international level. We have arguably the greatest goalkeeper of all time and he is going to be ours. It feels fantastic. It is hard to believe, but also a fantastic story."
He is back where he belongs.He is back home.#SupermanReturns ???@gianluigibuffon @Kyle_J_Krause @ParmaCalcio_en pic.twitter.com/bh2FO6P8YX
Buffon won the UEFA Cup, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana in his first spell with his formative club before moving on to Juve, then to Paris Saint-Germain, and finally back to Turin with 10 Serie titles and one FIFA World Cup just part of his trophy collection.
"It is happening because Gigi wants it to happen," Krause said of the reunion. "As you know, he has his motivations, and that motivation is what makes him a world-class athlete and what keeps him going. There was also, I think, romance in the opportunity to return home.
"I also think that he sees what we are doing with Parma and can be an important part of that. He could go anywhere and get any salary that he wanted, so it really had to be driven by him. We just presented our opportunity to him."
Not only is the lure of a Parma return strong for Buffon, there is also the appeal of being a regular starter despite his veteran status and the possibility of an Italy recall for the 2020 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. "I think there are multiple things, such as coming back to Parma, being the No. 1 and certainly the national team standpoint," Krause explained to CBS. "For that to happen, he has to stay on top of his game for two more seasons. "With his leadership and talent, he seems to be a good choice as one of Italy's goalkeepers in Qatar for 2022. We want to do everything we can to put him in that position. It is then up to him and how he performs."
Ed ora continuiamo a divertirci... ??#SupermanReturns @1913parmacalcio pic.twitter.com/hWafnW1EpR
With a new man in charge in Maresca, two years younger than Buffon, Parma are looking to bring in more experienced heads to combine with the impressive array of young talent that they already have in their ranks.
"We are early in the transfer window right now," said Krause. "We will likely need some other experienced players as we need that mix of experience and youth for everybody to develop. Having that high level, experienced player brings both talent and an example. "As a young player, you watch guys like Gigi and see how hard they work and the examples they set. They bring that experience and leadership, but we will continue to invest in young players to develop."
However, Krause admitted that being named captain is not part of the deal to bring Buffon back and that such a decision can only be made by Maresca once the former Manchester City under-23 boss' squad has been formed.
"As president, I do not think it is my role to choose the captain," Krause added to CBS Sports. "Enzo will decide. However, I can say that I think Gigi definitely has captain characteristics."
Things have not necessarily gone according to plan for Krause with Parma after the Gialloblu were relegated in last place from Serie A after a difficult 2020-21 campaign, but he is determined to put it right and restore the club to Italy's top table.
"I am Italian-American with a long-held passion for Italian football and Serie A," he said. "The fans and citizens of Parma have been almost too nice in their reception -- they have been fantastic. There is nothing but positivity and I am surprised by that after last year's results."
Paramount+ is the home for Serie A, the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana, with coverage set to begin at the start of the 2021-22 season in August. Buffon and Krause, together with Maresca and new managing director Javier Ribalta, will be key to Parma's chances of an immediate return from the second tier.
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Sports Competition
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June 2019
|
['(CBS Sports)']
|
More than 25,000 people are evacuated from the city of Mackay, Queensland, ahead of Cyclone Debbie which is expected to make landfall in northern Queensland tomorrow. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology warns that Cyclone Debbie will be the worst storm to hit Queensland since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
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Updated 28 Mar 2017, 2:34amTue 28 Mar 2017, 2:34am
Tropical Cyclone Debbie has intensified to category four and is expected to hit the north Queensland coast on Tuesday morning, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned.
At 3:55am, the Bureau predicted Cyclone Debbie would make landfall as a category four tropical cyclone between Ayr and Cape Hillsborough, north of Mackay, late on Tuesday morning.
Destructive winds of more than 125 kilometres per hour were already occurring about the Whitsunday Islands, and thousands were without power in Cannonvale, Airlie Beach and parts of Mackay.
BOM forecaster Brett Harrison said Cyclone Debbie could reach category five. "At this stage we can't rule out a category five system during the coming hours," he said.
"But category four — it's a very intense system at the moment — we are expecting wind gusts near the centre of up to 275 kilometres per hour."
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was "going to be a tough night".
"My priority is for Queenslanders to be safe, right up and down the coastal communities that are in the zone," she said.
"Please now reassure your children, go to the safest place in your house — the most secure.
"We are in the stage now where some communities are already in lockdown, so they should not move.
"I want to reassure you that in the daybreak once the storm has passed, we have emergency response personnel there ready to assist you and your families."
Ms Palaszczuk said the BOM had advised it could take up to 18 hours for the cyclone's core to pass.
"This is a destructive cyclone," she said.
"Please do not go outside, don't risk it, please don't risk your life or risk the life of a loved one — stay indoors."
Bruce Gunn from Emergency Management Queensland said the situation was changing rapidly. "People in the path of the core of the cyclone can expect many, many hours of sheltering," he said.
"Remember that the lull in the winds may be the eye of the cyclone and the destructive winds will return from the opposite direction, so be very careful about going outside."
More than 25,000 people were advised to move from low-lying areas in Mackay by midnight, with fears incoming Cyclone Debbie could cause inundation of up to 2.5 metres above the high tide level.
The BOM has warned the storm will be the worst since Cyclone Yasi in 2011, and Ms Palaszczuk said it was "bigger than Marcia" — the category five system that hit Queensland in 2015.
Queensland Police Service Commissioner Ian Stewart said residents in Mackay's low-lying areas needed to be moved by midnight.
"The range of inundation may be as much as 0.8 metres above highest astronomical tide [HAT] or worst case scenario 2.5 metres above HAT," Commissioner Stewart said.
"We're asking people who can move out of those low-lying areas to move now.
"Don't wait till tomorrow [Tuesday], because you will not be able to move.
"We'll do everything we can through the emergency service to try and support and assist residents ... we will also be getting messages to help the vulnerable."
Mackay Regional Mayor Greg Williamson said 25,000 text messages were sent out on Monday to residents in low-lying areas.
"The text says 'based on the latest information we're advising you to seek refuge with friends and relatives on higher ground'," Cr Williamson said.
"This cyclone moves around a heck of a lot ... we're now well within the firing line. If you can possibly get to higher ground you should do that right now.
"As a community we've been here before. Now it's up to us as a community to come together to make sure we're looking after one another, to make sure we get through this severe weather event that's just about on our doorstep."
Mr Williamson said it was not a forced evacuation.
"If you get this text you should seek refuge. We can't forcibly evacuate you but we're advising you this needs to happen," he said.
On Monday evening an emergency alert was issued by Mackay Regional Council that advised residents in the areas of North Pioneer, South Pioneer, Louisa Creek, Armstrong's Beach, Dunrock, Ball Bay, Freshwater Point, Grasstree, Half Tide and Seaforth to evacuate immediately.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) Commissioner Katarina Carroll said although the latest cyclone tracking map indicated Cyclone Debbie had moved south, residents in Townsville, Ingham, Cardwell and surrounding areas should not be complacent.
"Conditions have now deteriorated in some of the cyclone warning areas and soon it will be too late to leave your home," she said.
"If an official evacuation order has not been issued for your area, the best option is to stay indoors and shelter in place until the cyclone has passed. "As the cyclone approaches, turn off all your electricity, gas and water and unplug all appliances, bring your family to the strongest part of the house and ensure your emergency kit is close by.
"If the building you're sheltering in begins to break up, immediately seek shelter under a strong table or bench or under a heavy mattress.
"Stay inside until you have received official advice that the cyclone has passed. Some people are not aware of the calm eye of the cyclone and mistakenly venture outside thinking that the threat has passed.
"
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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March 2017
|
['(ABC)']
|
Thousands of Russians take to the streets in Moscow, Voronezh, and Khabarovsk to protest internet restrictions.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow and two other cities on Sunday to rally against tighter internet restrictions, in some of the biggest protests in the Russian capital in years.
Lawmakers last month backed tighter internet controls contained in legislation they say is necessary to prevent foreign meddling in Russia’s affairs. But some Russian media likened it to an online “iron curtain” and critics say it can be used to stifle dissent.
People gathered in a cordoned off Prospekt Sakharova street in Moscow, made speeches on a stage and chanted slogans such as “hands off the internet” and “no to isolation, stop breaking the Russian internet”.
The rally gathered around 15,300 people, according to White Counter, an NGO that counts participants at rallies. Moscow police put the numbers at 6,500.
“If we do nothing it will get worse. The authorities will keep following their own way and the point of no return will be passed”, said 28-year-old protester Dmitry, who declined to give his full name.
Opposition activists said on Twitter that police had detained 15 people at the Moscow rally, confiscating their banners and balloons. Police have not announced any detentions.
The protests in Moscow, the southern city of Voronezh and Khabarovsk in the far east had all been officially authorized. A handful of activists in St. Petersburg took to the streets without the authorities’ consent.
Russia has in recent years attempted to curb internet freedoms by blocking access to certain websites and messaging services such as Telegram.
February’s bill passed in the Russian parliament on the first reading out of three.
It seeks to route Russian web traffic and data through points controlled by the state and proposes building a national Domain Name System to allow the internet to continue functioning even if the country is cut off from foreign infrastructure.
The second reading is planned in March after which, if passed, the bill will need to be signed by the upper house of the parliament and then by President Vladimir Putin.
The legislation is part of a drive by officials to increase Russian “sovereignty” over its Internet segment.
Russia has introduced tougher internet laws in recent years, requiring search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services and social networks to store Russian users’ personal data on servers within the country.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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March 2019
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['(Reuters)']
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A tornado hits the Uruguayan town of Dolores resulting in at least four deaths and seven injuries.
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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — A powerful tornado swept over a small city in Uruguay on Friday, ripping up houses, hurling cars into the air and killing at least four people, authorities said. Seven others were seriously injured.
Residents of Dolores, a city of 20,000 people about 165 miles (265 kilometers) west of Montevideo, shot images of their homes and cars being swept up by the tornado and posted them on social media.
"The president has ordered the deployment of all the resources in the state to attend to the situation in Dolores," said Juan Andres Roballo, an official with the Uruguayan president's office. The city was declared an emergency zone.
Roballo said a good part of the population had lost their homes and at least two children were seriously hurt and had been transferred to the capital for treatment.
Fire department spokeswoman Mariela Vivone told Channel 12 television that two of the dead were killed by flying cars carried by the winds.
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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April 2016
|
['(AP via Star Tribune)']
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North Korea test fires a ballistic missile over the Sea of Japan.
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North Korea has fired a ballistic missile in the first such test since Donald Trump took office as US president.
Mr Trump assured Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that "America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%".
The missile flew east towards the Sea of Japan for about 500km (300 miles), South Korean officials say.
Mr Abe said the test was "absolutely intolerable". Japanese officials say the missile did not reach its waters.
Speaking at a joint conference during a visit to the US, Mr Abe added that Mr Trump had also assured him that he was committed to "further enforcing our alliance". During his election campaign, Mr Trump said US defence commitments to Japan and South Korea were unfair and also called for Japan to pay the full cost of stationing US troops on its soil.
North Korea has conducted a number of nuclear and missile tests in the past year that continue to alarm and anger the region.
The tests are in contravention of UN resolutions designed to curb the North's nuclear activities. Sunday's launch took place at 07:55 local time (22:55 GMT Saturday) from the Banghyon air base in North Pyongan province on the west side of the Korean peninsula.
The missile reached an altitude of about 550km (350 miles), the South Korean military said. The military said it appeared to be a Musudan intermediate-range missile, capable of flying up to 4,000km and reaching the US territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned that his military was close to testing long-range missiles capable of reaching the United States mainland and carrying nuclear warheads. Mr Trump derided the claim in a tweet, saying: "It won't happen."
South Korea's foreign ministry said that "North Korea's repeated provocations show the Kim Jong-un regime's nature of irrationality, maniacally obsessed in its nuclear and missile development".
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga confirmed the missile had not reached Japanese territorial waters, adding that Tokyo would make a "strong protest" to North Korea over the incident.
There has so far been no comment from North Korea.
On a visit to South Korea last week, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said that any use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be met with an "effective and overwhelming" response.
He also reconfirmed plans to deploy a US missile defence system in South Korea later this year.
North Korea conducted its fifth test of a nuclear device last year, and claims it is capable of carrying out a nuclear attack on the US, though experts are still unconvinced that its technology has progressed that far.
US warns N Korea against nuclear attack
N Korea 'close to long-range missile test'
North Korea's missile programme
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Military Exercise
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February 2017
|
['(BBC)']
|
Takuma Sakuragi, a 76–year–old former Japanese assemblyman from Inazawa, Aichi, is sentenced to life in prison by the Guangzhou City First Intermediate Court in southern China for smuggling drugs hidden in his suitcase at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in October 2013. He had been detained by Chinese authorities since then.
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A court in southern China sentenced a 76-year-old former Japanese politician to life in prison Friday for smuggling drugs hidden in shoes inside a suitcase he was trying to take to his home country.
A Malian man was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and a man from Guinea received a life sentence for “packing and delivering” the suitcase, according to the Guangzhou City First Intermediate Court, which handled the case.
Takuma Sakuragi pleaded not guilty and plans to appeal, said his Guangzhou-based lawyer, Chen Weixiong, who argued there was insufficient evidence to prove Sakuragi was knowingly carrying the drugs.
According to Chen, a Nigerian acquaintance asked Sakuragi to bring what appeared to be a suitcase full of shoes with him back to Japan. The acquaintance claimed the suitcase was intended for a designer in Tokyo, Chen said, but in fact methamphetamine had been hidden in the heels of the shoes.
Sakuragi is a former city assemblyman from central Japan’s Aichi prefecture. Chinese law exempts people older than 75 from the death penalty, which is often imposed for drug-related offenses.
He was detained in 2013 when more than six pounds of methamphetamine was found in his luggage, the court said. Sakuragi planned to go to Shanghai for a connecting flight back to Japan, the court said.
The other two sentenced were identified by their Chinese names as Ali, a citizen of Mali, and Moxi from Guinea. Death sentences with two-year reprieves are almost always commuted to life in prison.
According to Chen, the Malian defendant who was sentenced to death had been spotted on camera filling the suitcase. The other defendant’s fingerprints were found in the suitcase and methamphetamine was found at their residence, according to the Sakuragi’s lawyer.
Japanese media reported the verdict in Sakuragi’s case was delayed while authorities tracked down others involved in the case.
The court said the three defendants violated Chinese customs regulations by knowingly trying to smuggle drugs out of the country. The court added, however, that they were given relatively lighter sentences because Sakuragi had failed to go through customs with the drugs at the time of his arrest.
Under Chinese law, Sakuragi will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 15 years. His fate could be affected by developments in China-Japan relations, which have been relatively stable in recent years. Many Chinese remain deeply bitter over Japan’s brutal occupation of parts of the country in the 1930s and 1940s, and the two countries have an ongoing dispute over ownership of a group of tiny uninhabited East China Sea islands.
Convicted drug traffickers are severely punished in China. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian national, was sentenced to death in January for involvement in an international methamphetamine-smuggling operation in the port city of Dalian.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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November 2019
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['(Kyodo News Plus)', '(Los Angeles Times)']
|
A train crash in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh leaves 15 people dead after the train collided with a vehicle.
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A train in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh has collided with a vehicle packed with passengers, killing at least 15 people, officials say.
The crash happened at an unmanned level crossing near Madu railway station in Hathras early on Tuesday.
The express train rammed into the jeep, which carried 17 passengers, dragging it along the track.
Train accidents are common in India, which has one of the world's busiest rail networks.
Railway officials said Tuesday's incident happened when the jeep tried to cross the track as an express train travelling between Mathura and Kasganj was approaching.
Last July at least 38 people were killed when a train hit a bus carrying wedding guests at a level crossing in Patiyali in Uttar Pradesh.
In May 2010 more than 100 people were killed when a Mumbai-bound express train jumped the tracks into the path of an oncoming goods train in West Bengal. The tracks had been apparently sabotaged by Maoist rebels.
And in July 2010, more than 60 people were killed when a speeding passenger express hit another train waiting at a station in West Bengal.
Announcing the budget for India's railways last week, Dinesh Trivedi - who has since been replaced as railways minister by Mukul Roy - said he aimed to eliminate fatalities on the busy network.
A recent official report revealed that nearly 15,000 people die every year crossing tracks - a figure that the government described as a "massacre".
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Train collisions
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March 2012
|
['(BBC)']
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Philippine Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Bureau of Corrections Director-General Nicanor Faeldon says that former Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez is ineligible under a 2013 law that credits good conduct time allowance for an early release from prison.
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Gomez’s 73-year-old mother, Iluminada speaks at a gathering of University of the Philippines Los Baños students opposing Sanchez’s release from prison —CHRIS QUINTANA
Rape-slay convict Antonio Sanchez may not walk free any time soon after all, and is not likely to do so, until he has served his full 40-year prison term, according to justice department officials amid public outrage over reports that the former mayor might be released early due to his “good conduct.”
In separate press conferences on Thursday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Nicanor Faeldon said Sanchez was not eligible under a 2013 law that credits good conduct time allowance (GCTA) for an early release.
The former mayor of Calauan, Laguna province, and six of his aides were each sentenced to serve seven 40-year prison terms for the rape-murder of Eileen Sarmenta and for the murder of Allan Gomez, both University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) students in 1993.
Under the Penal Code, no person should be imprisoned for more than 40 years even if convicted in multiple cases.
The family of Gomez clarified that the two students were not college sweethearts but were just close to each other, saying his fraternity was affiliated with Sarmenta’s sorority.
Heinous crimes
Guevarra said prisoners convicted of heinous crimes and those who have committed drug offenses while incarcerated should be excluded outright from benefiting from Republic Act No. 10592, which shaves years off a prisoner’s prison term for good behavior.
He said he had told Faeldon to conduct a “process of elimination” of prisoners not qualified for GCTA because the law excluded “recidivists, habitual delinquents, escapees and persons charged with heinous crimes.”
“I have given instructions to the BuCor chief that the review of GCTA for high-profile or heinous crimes be conducted with a lot of care, caution and circumspection,” Guevarra said.
“If a person is charged with heinous crime, not qualified at all,” he said.
He noted that Sanchez was found in possession of a sachet of “shabu”(crystal meth) and a bag of marijuana leaves in his cell in 2006.
In 2010, prison guards confiscated P1.5 million worth of shabu stashed in one of the former mayor’s Virgin Mary statues and in 2015, he was found illegally keeping appliances in his cell.
Drug possession alone, Guevarra said, “is not (a mere) infraction; that is a crime.”
‘Many violations’
“I am surmising the guidelines of the BuCor would make that person ineligible already,” he said.
Faeldon agreed with Guevarra, noting that based on a preliminary assessment, Sanchez had committed “many violations” since he walked into the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa after his conviction on March 14, 1995.
“He has many involvements in some not good behavior that maybe would disqualify him. That’s really the probability,” the BuCor chief told reporters.
“He may not be qualified to go home today or in the next few months. … It may take him several years,” he added.
Faeldon said the 2006 drug charges were dropped by the Muntinlupa court in 2011, but the dismissal would have no bearing on the BuCor’s review of Sanchez’s conduct.
“As far as the [BuCor] is concerned, his arrest was legal and he committed a violation of the prison rules,” he said.
The shabu discovered in his cell in 2010 and the appliances seized in 2015 were “clear antithesis of what good behavior should be,” Faeldon said. “These will be points to be raised against him to be qualified for the application of the good conduct time allowance.”
Disqualified
He said the period of incarceration of around 11,000 prisoners across the country would be recomputed for GCTA, but he estimated that only around 1,000 would qualify for reduced sentence.
Among those who would be disqualified were “high-profile” inmates, as well as drug lords and those who “provided sanctuary or supported drug peddlers while they were here,” he said.
To quash rumors that Sanchez had already been released and was seen in his hometown, journalists were allowed to take photos of the 73-year-old walking inside the maximum security compound.
BuCor spokesperson Eusebio del Rosario Jr. said Sanchez was doing fine inside his cell but had complained of cataract.
“He’s usually holed up in his cell, praying and kneeling before his Virgin Mary statue,” Del Rosario said.
Eileen’s family
Sarmenta’s mother, Maria Clara, who was shocked and angered by the prospect that Sanchez might soon walk out of prison, was thankful for the justice department’s clarifications.
“God is not sleeping. And we have complete trust and faith in the law,” she told the Inquirer.
She was indignant, however, over the former mayor’s prison lifestyle and suspected that some of the prison authorities could have been bribed to say that he showed “good conduct.”
“His lifestyle there shows that he lives like a king—he has aircon, TV, carpeted floor, two bedrooms and more than a million [pesos worth of] shabu in his possession. Aren’t those infractions? Show us proof that he behaved well in jail,” Sarmenta said.
“Did money talk so evaluators could vouch for his ‘good conduct’ in prison? Or is it a matter of whom you know in government? We can’t help thinking,” she said.
Even after 26 years since her daughter and her friend were brutalized, she still could not bear seeing the face of Sanchez, she said.
“After the promulgation I don’t want to see his face, not even in picture or in television. Now, whenever I see his face on TV, I want to throw something at it or shut it off,” she said.
The 74-year-old retired staff member of the House of Representatives lives with her husband and a grandson in their home in Las Piñas City.
Eileen would have been 48 on Sept. 16, her mother said. “He (Sanchez) is a monster. He is a menace to the society.”
She said that while the family was looking at courses of action, they wanted the government to be transparent.
“The law is the law. You cannot oppose the law but we just want it to be fair,” she said.
Allan’s family
At UP Los Baños on Thursday, Gomez’s 73-year-old mother, Iluminada, and her eldest son, OJ, joined around 200 students and teachers protesting the early release of Sanchez.
Carrying banners saying “No to release of Sanchez,” they carried lighted candles while marching around the sprawling campus.
Gomez told the Inquirer that releasing Sanchez would only put to waste the years spent on getting a conviction against an official who was also allegedly involved in other illegal activities in Calauan.
“Only our case had brought the end (to Sanchez), hopefully, and the awakening, hopefully. But people have short memory, no?” she said.
“Here came an event (Allan’s murder) that although painful had awakened people. We thought it would continue, but it did not simply because our government system is not protecting our people,” she said.
The retired UPLB professor’s family was still keeping the Tamaraw FX van that her son and Sarmenta had used on the night they were abducted by Sanchez’s men in June 1993.
Sarmenta’s body was found inside the van, which was recovered in Barangay Mabacan in Calauan. Gomez’s body was recovered about 5 kilometers away in Barangay Imok.
The young Gomez, who would have been 45 this year, was in his senior year as an agriculture student at the state university and had promised to buy his mother a farm that is now only a picture she has been keeping all these years.
“It’s pathetic, tragic,” his mother said.
The law that would allow prisoners to be released earlier than their prison term has good intentions, she said.
“But people have to understand that what’s shocking is [this could be] a political ploy,” she said, without elaborating.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release
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August 2019
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['(BuCor)', '(GCTA)', '(Philippine Daily Inquirer)']
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Israeli soldiers open fire on protesters who approached the Israeli border from Gaza, killing a 20-year-old Palestinian man. The Israeli military says the demonstrators were throwing stones at soldiers and setting fires.
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GAZA — A 20-year-old Palestinian demonstrator was shot dead in Gaza by Israeli security forces on Wednesday, and at least four other men who were smuggling fuel died in a tunnel after the Egyptian authorities blew up another tunnel nearby, officials here said. Mohamed al-Maidana, a civil defense officer, said that the Egyptian strike, which came late Tuesday, set a fire that spread to the neighboring tunnel and ignited the fuel. The fire used up all the oxygen in the tunnel, he said, and the men suffocated. In the face of a blockade by Israel and Egypt, such tunnels are a mainstay of the Gazan economy. The slain protester, Ahmad Salem, was part of a 30-person demonstration against Israel’s policy of barring anyone in Gaza from coming within several hundred yards of the border barrier, in order to prevent hostile activity there. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that the demonstrators hurled stones over the barrier at Israeli troops and set fires that could have damaged the barrier. An investigation had been ordered into the shooting, she said.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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April 2010
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['(Haaretz)', '(New York Times)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(Press TV)']
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Prime Minister Najib Razak gets emergency powers amid a widening scandal about corruption.
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Laws will allow forces to conduct searches without a warrant and dispenses with need for inquests into killings by police
Last modified on Wed 17 Aug 2016 03.18 BST
Malaysia’s prime pinister Najib Razak is to get sweeping security powers amid planned protests calling for his resignation over allegations that millions of dollars from a state fund wound up in his personal bank account.
The new National Security Council act, which comes into force on Monday 1 August, allows Najib to designate any area as a “security area”, where he can deploy forces to search any individual, vehicle or premise without a warrant. It also allows investigators to dispense with formal inquests into killings by the police or armed forces in those areas.
Najib’s ruling coalition promoted the law as a means to counter threats to security in predominantly Muslim Malaysia, which has long dealt with a fringe element of radical Islamists.
But critics say the law’s expansive powers threaten human rights and democracy in the emerging nation and could now be used to silence critics of the One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund scandal.
“The concern among the civil society and others is because the NSC can be used against anything that the government is unhappy with,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, adding that it could extend to public rallies.
“It does give the PM a huge amount of power to declare emergency zones ...,” he said.
The law was passed on the last day of the legislation session in December, surprising the opposition, as Najib came under mounting criticism over the multi-billion dollar scandal surrounding the 1MDB fund, which he founded and whose advisory council he chaired until recently.
The law was enacted without the customary royal assent from Malaysia’s king, who had asked for some changes.
Pressure on Najib to step down mounted last week after the US justice department filed civil lawsuits alleging that over $3.5bn was misappropriated from 1MDB. The lawsuits seek to seize more than $1bn of assets allegedly siphoned from the fund, saying they were part of “an international conspiracy to launder money“.
The civil lawsuits do not name Najib, but refer to a high-ranking government official who received over $700m of the misappropriated funds. A source familiar with the investigations told Reuters the official, named as “Malaysian Official 1” in the lawsuits, was Najib.
Najib, who has denied any wrongdoing, has said Malaysia will cooperate in international investigations into 1MDB.
The ruling party suffered unprecedented losses in the 2008 general elections and then lost the popular vote in 2013 under Najib’s leadership. The next general election must be called by 2018.
The NSC is coming into force amid growing complaints about assaults on civil liberties in Malaysia.
Najib has in recent months used the colonial era Sedition Act and other draconian laws to arrest government critics, jail opposition leaders and stifle free speech by suspending media groups and blogs.
“The likelihood of the NSC being utilised in order to crack down against any act of civil movement is likely to steadily increase as maneuvering space for the PM decreases,” said Sevan Doraisamy, executive director at Suaram, a human rights NGO.
Malaysia’s opposition coalition is planning an anti-Najib rally on July 30. Pro-democracy group Bersih, whose street protests last year drew a 200,000-strong crowd, is also planning a separate rally, but has not set a date.
While rallies can still be organised under the Peaceful Assembly Act, the NSC can declare any area – a building, a street or a city – a “security area”, where protests would be disallowed.
Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector-general of police, said on Monday he would shut down rallies that demand Najib step down from power.
“Red Shirt” supporters from Najib’s ruling United Malays National Organisation have vowed to hold a counter-rally. They did so last September and it turned rowdy when participants breached security barricades and clashed with riot police.
“I think the government are getting nervous about 1MDB and the reaction of the people,” said civil rights activist and lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan, adding that the public was also “very nervous” about the new security law.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is being sued by a shareholder of a Malaysian bank it once advised, and which accused the Wall Street bank of fraudulently shortchanging it in a merger to curry favor with Razak. In a complaint filed with the New York state supreme court in Manhattan on Tuesday, Primus Pacific Partners said it was seeking $510m in damages from Goldman and former managing director Tim Leissner after the bank concealed its conflicts of interest with Razak and 1MDB. Goldman called the lawsuit “misguided” and said it would defend against it. A lawyer for Leissner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Government Policy Changes
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July 2016
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['(The Guardian)']
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A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been arrested in the state of Texas on suspicion of killing four women.
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A US Border Patrol agent has been arrested in the state of Texas on suspicion of killing four women.
Officers began looking for Juan David Ortiz in the city of Laredo after a fifth woman allegedly escaped from him and got help from local police.
Mr Ortiz, who has worked for the force for a decade, initially fled but was later arrested in a hotel parking lot.
The names of the four victims have not been revealed. Police said they had been working as prostitutes.
Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said police believed Mr Ortiz had acted alone.
"The county, the city can rest assured we have the serial killer in custody," Sheriff Cuellar said, in quotes reported by the Laredo Times newspaper.
Two of the victims were found earlier this month in a rural area by the Interstate 35 road, and the third and fourth victims were found in the same area in recent days, according to local reports. A 42-year-old woman had been found injured on Thursday but died in hospital.
District Attorney Isidro Alaniz described the killings as a "horrific case" and confirmed Mr Ortiz was set to face four charges of murder and one of aggravated kidnapping.
He said the cause of death was similar for all four women who, authorities believe, were killed over two weeks. He said all of the victims had worked as prostitutes and that investigators were trying to find a motive for the killings. Two of the victims were US citizens and one was a transgender woman, he added. Few other details have been released. The Texas Tribune reports the fifth woman fled from a petrol station after Mr Ortiz allegedly pointed a gun at her when she tried to get out of his vehicle.
Andrew Meehan, assistant commissioner for public affairs for US Customs and Border Protection, confirmed in a statement that the agency was co-operating with police. "Our sincerest condolences go out to the victims' family and friends," he said.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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September 2018
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['(BBC)']
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The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant bans burqas in northern Iraq after a series of fatal attacks on its members by veiled women.
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In a seeming U-turn, the Islamic State (Isis) has reportedly banned women wearing the burka in northern Iraq after claiming that its fighters have been targeted by a veiled female. The hard-line faction has previously beaten and killed women for not wearing a veil covering their face and hair in public.
Now, IS (Daesh) has outlawed women wearing veils entering their security centres near their stronghold of Mosul after a number of commanders were killed by an unknown assailant. In neighbouring Syria, the feared IS al-Hisbah or 'religious police' have meted out punishments to woman who left their face uncovered.
Last week, in the occupied Saladin Governorate south of Mosul, IS put out a warning to members to beware of a veiled woman who killed two of their fighters. The attacks happened in Al-Shirqat, which has been under IS control since the extremists overran the region in June 2014.
An IS fighter was also attacked in Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, prompting the terrorists to take precautionary measures, according to a source in the province who informed the Iraqi News network. However, claims that the extremists were "surprised" by an attack could not be verified by IBTimes UK.
Sharing details, the source said, "A veiled woman carrying a pistol killed two members of ISIS who were standing in a checkpoint in Sharqat, north of Salah al-Din. The incident surprised the organisation and forced them to issue an alert of similar attacks."
In August, the Syrian city of Manbij was liberated from IS control and scenes of women burning the black clothes they were forced to wear and men shaving off their beards were witnessed. Around 550 women are believed to have entered IS's self-declared caliphate.
Often thought of as "jihadi brides" some have even been used as fighters in the 'Al-Khansaa Brigade', an all-female police force. According to reports from Syria, the Al-Khansaa Brigade was formed "in early 2014 and charged with policing the public morality of women in Raqqa city."
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Armed Conflict
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September 2016
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['(International Business Times)']
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Indian player Viswanathan Anand wins the World Chess Championship 2007 at Mexico City to become the new world champion.
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Anand, the world’s top-ranked player, won the World Chess Championship in Mexico City that ended yesterday. He dominated the 14-round event, winning four of them and losing none through Round 13.
This is the second time Anand has been world champion. In 2000, he won the World Chess Federation’s championship, held in Tehran and New Delhi. At the time, however, there was a rival claim for the title, and Anand was not universally acknowledged as champion. This time is different. The title was unified last year, and there is only one champion.
In Mexico City, Anand was in deep trouble only once, in Round 13 against Alexander Grischuk of Russia, but he squeaked through. Throughout the tournament, Anand demonstrated superior preparation and resourcefulness compared with his competitors.
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Typical of Anand’s performance was his win against Levon Aronian of Armenia in Round 2.
•
The opening was the Semi-Slav, a solid defense that is difficult for White to crack.
With 5 Bg5 h6 6 Bh4, the game veered into the double-edged Moscow variation, in which White often sacrifices a pawn. In return for the pawn, White gets rapid development and a more compact position.
The opening is such a mainstay of modern tournament practice that the game followed a known path through White’s 17th move. Anand’s 17 ... c5 was a new and, as it turned out, strong idea.
It attacked White’s center, but it was surprising because it created a pin on the d file against Black’s knight. Anand’s next move, which he played instantly, added to the surprise, as it seemed to allow White to win an exchange with 19 Bd6. To do so, however, would have been a mistake. After 19 ...Qh4, Black had a tremendous attack against White’s king.
Clearly, Black’s moves had been worked out before the tournament began.
White’s 21 Nd5 was an interesting idea, but Anand rebuffed it with 21 ... ed 22 ed Be5. The point was that White could not play 23 Be5 because of 23 ... Ne5, after which White does not have time for 24 dc because of 24 ... Qh4 25 Kg1 g3 and White is lost. So Aronian entombed his bishop with 23 f4, leaving Black with the better position.
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With 27 Rh5, Aronian misplaced his rook, but he was already in trouble.
In the final position, White can avoid checkmate by 42 Kg2 Qf7 43 Qh6 Kg8 44 Qf6 Qf6 45 gf, but the resulting position is hopeless, so Aronian gave up.
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Sports Competition
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September 2007
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['(NYT)']
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The second round of voting takes place to elect either Norbert Hofer or Alexander Van der Bellen as President of Austria. ,
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Austrians have begun voting in a presidential run-off poll that could elect the European Union's first far-right head of state.
Norbert Hofer, of the Freedom Party, faces independent Alexander Van der Bellen, backed by the Greens.
Mr Hofer topped the first vote but fell well short of an outright majority. The run-off is expected to be close.
For the first time since World War Two, both the main centrist parties were knocked out in the first round.
The migrant crisis has become the key issue.
Ninety-thousand people claimed asylum in Austria last year, equivalent to about 1% of the Austrian population, and the Freedom Party has run a campaign against immigration.
The presidency is a largely ceremonial post but a Hofer victory could be the springboard for Freedom Party success in the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2018.
Austria is faced with a stark choice for its head of state: a Green Party professor, Alexander Van der Bellen, or Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party - a soft-spoken, charismatic gun enthusiast who won a decisive victory in the first round of voting in April. For the first time since the Second World War, the traditional parties of the centre left and centre right were knocked out of the race. Support for the Freedom Party has risen because of deep frustration with the established parties and, more recently, because of fears about the migrant crisis.
Right-wing parties are gaining strength in a number of EU countries. European leaders will be watching the result closely.
Europe's nationalist surge, country by country
Polls opened at 07:00 (05:00 GMT) and close at 17:00, with projected results expected shortly afterwards.
However, postal ballots, which could be crucial if the result is close, will only be tallied on Monday.
In the first round, Mr Hofer, 45, secured 35% of the votes, while Mr Van der Belle polled 21%.
At his final election rally on Friday in Vienna, Mr Hofer, 45, sought to hammer home his message that immigrants needed to integrate.
"Those people who respect and love Austria and have found a new home here are warmly welcome," he said to applause.
"But those, it has to be said, those who do not value our country, who fight for Islamic State, or who rape women, I say to these people: this is not your homeland. You cannot stay in Austria."
The presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, have both expressed concern that Mr Hofer could win. "I say to them very politely but firmly: we don't take orders from Brussels or Berlin," Mr Hofer said at the rally.
Mr Van der Bellen told his final rally in Vienna that it was likely to be a close race.
"I think it could be on a knife edge - 50-50 who will win, so this time, as with previous votes, but more than ever for this important election, every vote will count," he said.
At a news conference, he reflected: "As you know, I am 72 years old and I've experienced how Austria rose from the ruins of World War Two, caused by the madness of nationalism."
The two rivals had engaged in an angry TV debate earlier in the week, described as "political mud-wrestling" by commentators.
Such was the political shock at the far right's first-round win that the Chancellor (prime minister), Werner Faymann, resigned after losing the support of his Social Democratic party colleagues.
The Social Democrats and the People's Party have governed Austria for decades, either alone or in coalition.
At the last general election in 2013, they together won just enough votes to govern in a "grand coalition".
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Government Job change - Election
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May 2016
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['(USA Today)', '(BBC)']
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The World Bank launches its Lighting Africa initiative, aiming to provide modern lighting by renewable or mechanical means to 250 million people in sub–Saharan Africa who lack access to electricity.
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The logo of the World Bank is seen at the entrance to the building in Washington, DC. The World Bank on Wednesday announced an initiative to provide modern lighting to an estimated 250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to electricity.
Sep 5, 2007
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The World Bank on Wednesday announced an initiative to provide modern lighting to an estimated 250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to electricity.
The "Lighting Africa" program aims to develop new products for lighting powered by renewable or mechanical sources for people not connected to the electricity grid.
"Modern lighting will mean improved air quality and safety for millions of people in Africa," said S. Vijay Iyer, World Bank energy sector manager for Africa.
"It will mean longer reading hours for students and longer business hours for small shops. Lighting Africa will directly contribute to the Millennium Development Goals" to reduce poverty worldwide.
The World Bank said the so-called "energy poor" in Africa spend about 17 billion dollars a year on fuel-based lighting sources, such as kerosene lamps, that are "costly, inefficient, and provide poor quality light while polluting and posing fire hazards."
This means there is "a potentially huge market for modern lighting products that are safe and reliable, that provide higher-quality light, and that are cost-competitive with fuel-based lamps, and powered by renewable energy or mechanical sources," according to a Bank statement.
The initiative, which is supported by a number of donors, seeks to attract the international lighting industry, as well as local suppliers and service providers.
More than 350 companies have expressed interest in the initiative, according to the Bank.
The first phase of the program is a competition for the design and delivery of innovative, low-cost, high-quality, nonfossil lighting products. Ten to 20 winners will receive grants of up to 200,000 dollars.
The Bank also plans market research in some countries including Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia to understand consumer demand.
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Sign Agreement
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September 2007
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['(AFP via Google)']
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The United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice questions the legitimacy of the upcoming presidential election and calls for relevant bodies such as the African Union and the United Nations Security Council to consider the issue.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It will be impossible for Zimbabwe to hold a free and fair run-off election on Friday amid violent assaults on the opposition and such a poll will not legitimize the government of President Robert Mugabe, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday.
“Yet another vicious assault on the opposition and its supporters for exercising their right to assemble and their right to free speech has reinforced that it is impossible for there to be a free, fair or peaceful election in Zimbabwe on June 27,” Rice said in a statement.
“The Mugabe regime cannot be considered legitimate in the absence of a run-off,” said the statement, which added that Mugabe’s government must be held accountable for the attacks that prompted Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday to pull out of the presidential election.
Zimbabwe’s government says the run-off will proceed anyway, with Mugabe virtually guaranteed to win the contest. The 84-year-old Zimbabwean leader would then be sworn in for another five-year term.
Rice urged the Southern African Development Community, the African Union Peace and Security Council, and the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue of Zimbabwe immediately.
“What we would like to see is a halt to the violence and a political resolution to this crisis,” said State Department spokesman Tom Casey, who said the United States was looking to the Security Council and Zimbabwe’s neighbors but had not exhausted its means to assert unilateral pressure on Mugabe.
At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Zimbabwe faced not just a political but a humanitarian crisis. “The government, criminally in my view, is impeding assistance to those who are in need. So we have a serious situation to deal with,” he told reporters.
He said the Security Council had to see “what we can do to be helpful to the situation there.”
Khalilzad and other diplomats said the U.N. council was considering a British-drafted official council policy statement ahead of a meeting on Zimbabwe later on Monday.
South Africa, a council member, has long sought to fend off action on Zimbabwe by the 15-nation body, but South African officials said Pretoria could accept a statement. “Nobody disagrees with the concept (of a statement), it’s what goes into it,” one said.
U.S. officials had no input in Tsvangirai decision to pull out from Friday’s vote, Casey said.
“We certainly understand and support his decision to withdraw from the run-off in the face of what has been an absolutely reprehensible campaign of violence,” he told reporters.
Reporting by Paul Eckert and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations, editing by Jackie Frank
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Government Job change - Election
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June 2008
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['(Reuters)']
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U.S. president Barack Obama appoints James Comey, a former member of the Bush administration, as the new director of the FBI.
|
President Obama is expected to nominate James Comey, a widely respected former federal prosecutor and deputy Attorney General during the George W Bush administration, as the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country’s most important law enforcement agency.
A formal announcement is expected in the next few days, officials say. Mr Comey, 52, would succeed Robert Mueller, who will have served 12 years in the job when he retires later this summer – the longest tenure since that of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s legendary and all-powerful founder.
After taking a law degree in 1985, Mr Comey spent six years as a federal prosecutor in the high profile Manhattan office, handling drug, mafia and white collar crime cases, before becoming US Attorney in Richmond, Virginia, and then Deputy Attorney General, the second-ranking post at the Justice Department, between 2003 and 2005.
His most famous moment – and the one that made him a hero to many Democrats – came in 2004 when the White House tried to have John Ashcroft, the then Attorney General who was in hospital after emergency gall bladder surgery, sign off on a controversial warrantless phone-tapping programme, as part of the ‘war on terror.’
As White House officials descended on the hospital, so too did his deputy Mr Comey, who like his boss thought the programme was illegal. Not only did Mr Ashcroft refuse to go along, but he, Mr Comey and Mr Mueller all threatened to resign if changes were not made. “I was angry,” Mr Comey told a Congressional committee later, “ I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man.”
Having previously served in a Republican administration but also much admired by Democrats, Mr Comey was widely seen in Washington as a deliberately bipartisan choice by President Obama, in the hope of securing swift confirmation from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But with Republicans in their present cantankerous mood, determined to block Mr Obama at every turn, nothing is certain. A dozen years as a Republican senator on Capitol Hill did nothing to help Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as Defence Secretary earlier this year – indeed it may have made it harder, as several of his former colleagues accused him of betraying the party cause. Republicans are currently holding up confirmation of at least two other Obama cabinet nominees, even though neutrals consider both of them eminently qualified.
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Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration
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May 2013
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['(The Guardian)', '(The Independent)']
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Michael Behenna, an American soldier convicted of killing an Iraqi prisoner in 2008, is pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump and invited to dinner.
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Former 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, seen here in 2008, has received a presidential pardon for his 2009 conviction in the killing of an Iraqi detainee.
Former 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, seen here in 2008, has received a presidential pardon for his 2009 conviction in the killing of an Iraqi detainee.
President Trump has granted a full pardon to former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who was convicted by a military court in 2009 for killing an Iraqi prisoner suspected of being part of al-Qaida. Behenna was initially sentenced to 25 years; he was released on parole in 2014.
Behenna, 35, was found guilty of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone for shooting Ali Mansur Mohamed in 2008. He said he acted in self-defense, and as the White House announced his pardon, it also said a U.S. Army appellate court had "noted concern about how the trial court had handled Mr. Behenna's claim of self-defense."
Mansur was killed during questioning about a roadside explosion that had killed members of a platoon under Behenna's command. In military court and in an interview last year, Behenna acknowledged that he had decided to question Mansur on his own, weeks after the Iraqi was initially released because of a lack of direct evidence that could tie him to the explosion.
Mansur was naked when he was shot; Behenna said the prisoner had tried to take his weapon. In his legal appeal, he also said that during the trial, prosecutors had withheld evidence from his defense attorneys.
The push to pardon Behenna, an Oklahoma native, was taken up by the most powerful politicians in his home state. Members of Congress offered their support, as did former Gov. Mary Fallin and state Attorney General Mike Hunter — who repeatedly asked Trump to pardon Behenna.
Hunter welcomed news of the pardon, issuing a statement that read, "Behenna served his country with distinction, honor and sacrifice. He has admitted to his mistakes, has learned from them and deserves to move on from this incident without living under its cloud for the rest of his life."
Behenna's family has worked vigorously on his behalf — and they are well-positioned to do so, with deep ties to law enforcement and the legal system. His father, Scott Behenna, has worked for both the FBI and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. His mother, Vicki Behenna, is an attorney and former longtime federal prosecutor in Oklahoma City who has led the charge to help her son — first to win parole and then to gain a presidential pardon.
When that pardon finally came, Michael Behenna missed the White House's initial call to him because he was speaking to his father on the phone, according to The Oklahoman. Then he called the White House to speak to the president.
"My heart was beating fast," he told the newspaper. "I had big ol' tears in my eyes. He said he'd heard about my case, and 'you have a lot of support behind you. Your case came highly recommended.' I'm choked up and I'm trying to say, 'Thank you very much.' "
With his record cleared, Behenna no longer faces the restrictions that would have come with being on parole through 2024.
In addition to support within Oklahoma, the White House statement about Behenna's pardon mentioned other factors, from the Army Clemency and Parole Board reducing his sentence and granting him parole to some 37 military officers and others signing a brief supporting his claims.
The White House statement about his pardon added, "Further, while serving his sentence, Mr. Behenna was a model prisoner. In light of these facts, Mr. Behenna is entirely deserving of this Grant of Executive Clemency."
|
Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release
|
May 2019
|
['(NPR)']
|
Houthi rebels take control in Yemen and dissolve the parliament.
|
Houthi rebels on Friday seized power in Yemen and dissolved the country’s parliament as they announced a series of constitutional decrees drafted by the powerful shiite militia, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
One of the decrees mandated the establishment of a transitional national council that would replace Yemen's parliament. Supporters convening in the capital Sanaa also announced that that the new body would be tasked with electing a presidential council.
An amended version of an already drafted constitution will be put to a vote, supporters and members of the Shiite militias told a gathering in Sanaa.
The rebels, backed by Iran and influential members of the former regime of President Abdullah Saleh, have also set a two-year period in which the transition of power would be complete, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
The Houthi rebels also announced the formation of a so-called “supreme revolutionary committee” to appoint local committees that will administer local provincial affairs.
The decrees have been met with resistance from a number of factions in Yemen. Activists accused political parties and Jamal Benomar, the United Nations Special Adviser on Yemen, of colluding with the Houthi rebels, the Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
In the southern city of Taiz, protestors gathered to denounce the Houthi takeover and Yemen’s Council of Revolutionary Youth refused to accept the decrees and called to resist it.
The U.S. State Department has condemned the Houthi move to dissolve the parliament, spokeswoman Marie Harf said, but added that Washington will continue to work with Yemen's counterterrorism forces. The United Nations, meanwhile, said it is alarmed by what it described as a power vacuum in Yemen. “This power vacuum is of great concern to us,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “The Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) and all of those who are concerned with Yemen here are following the situation very closely.” He added that U.N. special envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar was now returning to the Yemeni capital Sanaa because of the escalating crisis.
Iranian hands
Speaking to Al Arabiya News Channel, a delegate of the National Dialogue conference and political activist Hamza al-Kamali described the Houthi takeover of power as “reminiscent of the Iranian revolutionary declaration.”
“This is an extension of the Iranian project,” Kamali said. “This is a move supported and pushed by Iran, but the Houthis while they can control Sanaa by force, they will not be able to control Taaz or the south. This is a militia, a terrorist group that wants to control Yemen, but this is impossible.”
“I am confident that the Houthis will not be able to control more than five provinces. They will have to confront the people and tribes all over the country.”
Manuel Almeida, a London-based expert on Yemen told Al Arabiya News: “It is also about time for Yemen’s Western backers, especially the U.S. and Britain, to recognize that Iran’s multifaceted support for the Houthis is far more than a conspiracy theory. Yemen has now become another Lebanon, another Iraq, where an armed militia seems to be more powerful than the army.
The country’s defense and interior ministers, along with head of security, attended the gathering held in the Republican Palace in Sanaa. But Al Arabiya News Channel quoted sources in Sanaa as saying that Defense Minister Mahmoud Mahmoud al-Subaihi was forced by the Houthis to attend the gathering and that he actually rejects their move.
It is also about time for Yemen’s Western backers, especially the U.S. and Britain, to recognize that Iran’s multifaceted support for the Houthis is far more than a conspiracy theory.
Almeida highlighted the importance of the military attendance saying: “An open but important question is the role of the military.”
“When the movement took over the capital in September, they met very little resistance, which cannot be explained only by the dire state of Yemen’s armed forces. There was a deliberate intention,” Almeida wrote in an email statement.
“Another related and key question is where former President [Ali Abdullah] Saleh, who still has plenty of influence within the army, really stands in relation to all this,” Almeida noted.
A report by Al Arabiya News in October 2014 had suggested that the ousted Saleh was “actively helping the Houthi rebels take over the country as part of his plan to return to power.”
Citing a “trusted source close” to Saleh, the report pointed to close coordination between Saleh and the Houthis to design the action plan for an eventual takeover of power.
“It is clear that there was some collaboration between pro-Saleh factions and the Houthis but there were some signs lately that that collaboration could be giving way to a divorce. The way this relationship goes could prove decisive,” Almeida added.
Yemen has been embroiled in confrontations between the Houthis and demonstrators who opposed their takeover of the capital Sanaa in 2014. After what he described as a deadlock in negotiations with the Houthis, Yemen’s President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi resigned his post in January and his cabinet followed in suit. Main decisions issued by Houthi rebels:
- Dissolution of parliament, to be replaced by 551- member transitional national assembly
- Establishment of five-member presidential council, to be elected by transitional national assembly - To amend/re-word draft constitution before putting it to a national vote - Setting a time frame of two years for transitional phase
- Forming “supreme revolutionary committee” to administer provincial affairs
Al Arabiya’s bureau chief in Sanaa, Hamoud Munassar, says Saleh is “still observing” the unfolding the situation in Yemen.
“The scene is still explosive, and still not clear. The scene is still mysterious regardless of the announcement.”
Munassar said that while the Houthis enjoy support in some areas, they have strong rejection in others, such as the western province of Maareb, where tribal gunmen have not allowed them to enter.
Munassar said the latest development could escalate violence, which could lead to halt of oil production.
“The country is about to face serious issues because the state that has been announced, after 20 years of diversity and coexistence, seems to be controlled by one side that pushes the other parties toward confrontation.”
“We expect more aggressive attacks from al-Qaeda and other players.”
Houthi rebels on Friday seized power in Yemen and dissolved the country’s parliament as they announced a series of constitutional decrees drafted by the powerful shiite militia, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
One of the decrees mandated the establishment of a transitional national council that would replace Yemen's parliament. Supporters convening in the capital Sanaa also announced that that the new body would be tasked with electing a presidential council.
An amended version of an already drafted constitution will be put to a vote, supporters and members of the Shiite militias told a gathering in Sanaa.
The rebels, backed by Iran and influential members of the former regime of President Abdullah Saleh, have also set a two-year period in which the transition of power would be complete, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
The Houthi rebels also announced the formation of a so-called “supreme revolutionary committee” to appoint local committees that will administer local provincial affairs.
The decrees have been met with resistance from a number of factions in Yemen. Activists accused political parties and Jamal Benomar, the United Nations Special Adviser on Yemen, of colluding with the Houthi rebels, the Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
In the southern city of Taiz, protestors gathered to denounce the Houthi takeover and Yemen’s Council of Revolutionary Youth refused to accept the decrees and called to resist it.
The U.S. State Department has condemned the Houthi move to dissolve the parliament, spokeswoman Marie Harf said, but added that Washington will continue to work with Yemen's counterterrorism forces. The United Nations, meanwhile, said it is alarmed by what it described as a power vacuum in Yemen. “This power vacuum is of great concern to us,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “The Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) and all of those who are concerned with Yemen here are following the situation very closely.” He added that U.N. special envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar was now returning to the Yemeni capital Sanaa because of the escalating crisis.
Iranian hands
Speaking to Al Arabiya News Channel, a delegate of the National Dialogue conference and political activist Hamza al-Kamali described the Houthi takeover of power as “reminiscent of the Iranian revolutionary declaration.”
“This is an extension of the Iranian project,” Kamali said. “This is a move supported and pushed by Iran, but the Houthis while they can control Sanaa by force, they will not be able to control Taaz or the south. This is a militia, a terrorist group that wants to control Yemen, but this is impossible.”
“I am confident that the Houthis will not be able to control more than five provinces. They will have to confront the people and tribes all over the country.”
Manuel Almeida, a London-based expert on Yemen told Al Arabiya News: “It is also about time for Yemen’s Western backers, especially the U.S. and Britain, to recognize that Iran’s multifaceted support for the Houthis is far more than a conspiracy theory. Yemen has now become another Lebanon, another Iraq, where an armed militia seems to be more powerful than the army.
The country’s defense and interior ministers, along with head of security, attended the gathering held in the Republican Palace in Sanaa. But Al Arabiya News Channel quoted sources in Sanaa as saying that Defense Minister Mahmoud Mahmoud al-Subaihi was forced by the Houthis to attend the gathering and that he actually rejects their move.
It is also about time for Yemen’s Western backers, especially the U.S. and Britain, to recognize that Iran’s multifaceted support for the Houthis is far more than a conspiracy theory.
Almeida highlighted the importance of the military attendance saying: “An open but important question is the role of the military.”
“When the movement took over the capital in September, they met very little resistance, which cannot be explained only by the dire state of Yemen’s armed forces. There was a deliberate intention,” Almeida wrote in an email statement.
“Another related and key question is where former President [Ali Abdullah] Saleh, who still has plenty of influence within the army, really stands in relation to all this,” Almeida noted.
A report by Al Arabiya News in October 2014 had suggested that the ousted Saleh was “actively helping the Houthi rebels take over the country as part of his plan to return to power.”
Citing a “trusted source close” to Saleh, the report pointed to close coordination between Saleh and the Houthis to design the action plan for an eventual takeover of power.
“It is clear that there was some collaboration between pro-Saleh factions and the Houthis but there were some signs lately that that collaboration could be giving way to a divorce. The way this relationship goes could prove decisive,” Almeida added.
Yemen has been embroiled in confrontations between the Houthis and demonstrators who opposed their takeover of the capital Sanaa in 2014. After what he described as a deadlock in negotiations with the Houthis, Yemen’s President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi resigned his post in January and his cabinet followed in suit. Main decisions issued by Houthi rebels:
- Dissolution of parliament, to be replaced by 551- member transitional national assembly
- Establishment of five-member presidential council, to be elected by transitional national assembly - To amend/re-word draft constitution before putting it to a national vote - Setting a time frame of two years for transitional phase
- Forming “supreme revolutionary committee” to administer provincial affairs
Al Arabiya’s bureau chief in Sanaa, Hamoud Munassar, says Saleh is “still observing” the unfolding the situation in Yemen.
“The scene is still explosive, and still not clear. The scene is still mysterious regardless of the announcement.”
Munassar said that while the Houthis enjoy support in some areas, they have strong rejection in others, such as the western province of Maareb, where tribal gunmen have not allowed them to enter.
Munassar said the latest development could escalate violence, which could lead to halt of oil production.
“The country is about to face serious issues because the state that has been announced, after 20 years of diversity and coexistence, seems to be controlled by one side that pushes the other parties toward confrontation.”
|
Armed Conflict
|
February 2015
|
['(Al-Arabiyah)']
|
U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke is hospitalised in a critically ill state in Washington, D.C., after gasping at a meeting with Hillary Clinton.
|
Special U.S. Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke was hospitalised today after he fell ill while at work at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.
Mr. Holbrooke was admitted to the intensive care unit of the nearby George Washington University and was being treated for blood clot, the ABC news reported.
He was meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when he gasped and clearly was undergoing some sort of medical situation, it added.
“All I can tell you is that the Ambassador is at the hospital at the present time,” State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said.
Mr. Holbrooke has fallen ill when the annual Af-Pak policy review of White House is being carried out. He is the Obama Administration’s point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The same day, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was also admitted to George Washington University Hospital for treatment for a kidney stone.
“He will have a minor surgical procedure this afternoon to remove the kidney stone, and his physician expects that he will be discharged tomorrow with orders to rest this weekend. He has been told that he should be able to return to work on Monday,” a Treasury statement said.
|
Famous Person - Sick
|
December 2010
|
['(BBC)', '(The Hindu)']
|
Two Russian military planes, an Ilyushin Il-62 and an Antonov An-124, land at Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, carrying senior Defence Ministry official Vasily Tonkoshkurov , a large amount of equipment and about 100 troops. Russia, which three months earlier held joint military exercises on Venezuelan soil, condemned other countries for backing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó against embattled President Nicolás Maduro.
|
CARACAS (Reuters) - Two Russian air force planes landed at Venezuela’s main airport on Saturday carrying a Russian defense official and nearly 100 troops, according to media reports, amid strengthening ties between Caracas and Moscow.
A flight-tracking website showed that two planes left from a Russian military airport bound for Caracas on Friday, and another flight-tracking site showed that one plane left Caracas on Sunday.
That comes three months after the two nations held military exercises on Venezuelan soil that President Nicolas Maduro called a sign of strengthening relations, but which Washington criticized as Russian encroachment in the region.
Reporter Javier Mayorca wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the first plane carried Vasily Tonkoshkurov, chief of staff of the ground forces, adding the second was a cargo plane carrying 35 tonnes of material.
An Ilyushin IL-62 passenger jet and an Antonov AN-124 military cargo plane left for Caracas on Friday from Russian military airport Chkalovsky, stopping along the way in Syria, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The cargo plane left Caracas on Sunday afternoon, according to Adsbexchange, another flight-tracking site.
The flights carried officials who arrived to “exchange consultations,” wrote Russian government-owned news agency Sputnik, which quoted an unnamed source at the Russian embassy.
“Russia has various contracts that are in the process of being fulfilled, contracts of a technical military character,” Sputnik quoted the source as saying.
A Reuters witness saw what appeared to be the passenger jet at the Maiquetia airport on Sunday.
Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Russia’s Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry did not reply to messages seeking comment. The Kremlin spokesman also did not reply to a request for comment.
The Trump administration has levied crippling sanctions on the OPEC nation’s oil industry in efforts to push Maduro from power and has called on Venezuelan military leaders to abandon him. Maduro has denounced the sanctions as U.S. interventionism and has won diplomatic backing from Russia and China.
In December, two Russian strategic bomber aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons landed in Venezuela in a show of support for Maduro’s socialist government that infuriated Washington.
Maduro on Wednesday said Russia would send medicine “next week” to Venezuela, without describing how it would arrive, adding that Moscow in February had sent some 300 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
Venezuela in February had blocked a convoy carrying humanitarian aid for the crisis-stricken country that was coordinated with the team of opposition leader Juan Guaido, including supplies provided by the United States, from entering via the border with Colombia.
Reporting by Carlos Garcia, Carlos Jasso, Diego Ore and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas, and Maria Tsvetkova and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber in Moscow; Editing by Leslie Adler and Chris Reese
|
Military Exercise
|
March 2019
|
['[ru]', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)']
|
Police in South Korea use water cannons to disperse thousands of people protesting in Seoul about the resumption of beef imports from the United States.
|
South Korean police have used water cannon to disperse thousands of people in the capital Seoul protesting against the resumption of US beef imports.
The protests took place as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted in Seoul that US beef was safe to eat. South Korea suspended US beef imports in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease, or BSE, was identified there. Earlier this week, it formally lifted the ban, allowing shipments of meat from young US cattle.
An agreement on ending the ban was reached in April and it was due to be lifted in May, but this was twice postponed as protests continued, despite reassurances that US meat was safe. Anger
At least 13,000 people demonstrated in Seoul on Saturday, police said Police use water cannon on the protesters
The police erected barricades, using buses to prevent the protesters from marching towards the presidential office. "We don't need US troops, we don't need US mad cows," read some of the slogans. Public anger in South Korea remains high at what is perceived by many as the government's readiness to cave into Washington and ignore health concerns. The latest protest came as Ms Rice was visiting Seoul. "I can only say that American beef is safe and that we hope in time the South Korean people will listen to that, and will be willing to listen to what their government is saying and what we are saying," Ms Rice said.
|
Protest_Online Condemnation
|
June 2008
|
['(BBC News)']
|
Voters in Nigeria go to the polls for a general election. Gunmen kill at least 15 voters including an opposition house of assembly candidate for Dukku in Gombe. ,
|
ABUJA (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least 15 people including an opposition politician near polling stations in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, casting an ominous shadow over the closest electoral contest since the end of military rule in 1999.
The tense race pits President Goodluck Jonathan against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari for the favor of an electorate divided along a complex mix of ethnic, regional and in some cases religious lines.
The poll is seen as the first election in Africa's most populous nation in which an opposition candidate has a serious chance of unseating the incumbent, and widespread fears it could trigger violence are already becoming reality.
Islamist Boko Haram insurgents launched several attacks on voters in the northeast, killing three in Yobe state and three more in Gombe state, police said.
Shortly afterwards, at least eight people, including the opposition parliamentary candidate for Dukku in Gombe, were killed by unidentified gunmen, a spokesman for Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) said.
Boko Haram militants, who are trying to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in religiously-mixed Nigeria, reject democracy, and their leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened to kill Nigerians who go to vote.
A string of victories against the militants by Nigeria and neighbors Chad, Cameroon and Niger has reclaimed much of the territory the Islamists controlled earlier this year, but they retain the ability to mount deadly attacks on civilians.
Separately, gunmen shot dead a soldier in an ambush in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt, a hotbed of Jonathan support but a city with a long history of political thuggery.
"EXTRAORDINARILY PATIENT"
Voting at the 120,000 stations nationwide was beset with problems as officials turned up late and high-tech biometric card readers, introduced to prevent the vote-rigging that has marred previous polls, failed to work.
Even Jonathan suffered a 40-minute delay as officials vainly tried to get four different machines to recognize the president's fingerprint.
"I'm very hopeful," he said of his chances after voting.
With up to 56.7 million voters to process, the election commission said it would extend voting into Sunday in districts that had suffered technical problems. It was not clear what impact this would have on the timing of the result.
A credible and relatively calm poll would open a new chapter in the chequered history of Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer, whose five decades of independence have been tarnished by military coups and secessionist movements.
Voters queued for hours just to get accredited.
"They are extraordinarily patient," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters TV at a polling station in central Abuja. "We have to commend the Nigerian people for being so patient."
The vote is seen as a referendum on the record of Jonathan, a former zoology professor whose time in office has been blighted by massive corruption scandals and the Boko Haram insurgency in which thousands have died.
"These elections are a defining moment for Nigeria. ... People have a real choice," former Malawian President Bakili Muluzi, who is leading a Commonwealth observer mission, said.
"The danger is post-election. We've been assured by the peace accord between the leaders but how that trickles down is the danger," he told Reuters, referring to a second pact signed between Jonathan and Buhari on Friday not to whip up violence.
Yet the poisonous rhetoric emanating from both sides during the campaign, as well as some scuffles and shootings, have raised doubts over whether such agreements will be respected.
When Buhari, a northern Muslim, lost to Jonathan, a southern Christian, in 2011, it triggered rioting in the mostly Muslim north that killed 800 people and destroyed the homes of 65,000.
Before voting started, two bombs exploded at polling stations in the east, causing no deaths, while police destroyed a third. Hackers also shut the electoral commission website.
"DEVILISH MOVES"
On Friday Jonathan told anyone planning violence to think again, yet many Nigerians queued up en masse on Friday to withdraw cash, buy fuel supplies and stock up at supermarkets.
In a climate of mutual suspicion, Buhari's APC also warned against any "devilish moves."
Buhari's top selling point is a belief he never stole during his 1983-85 rule, a rare feat for a top Nigerian politician, and his reputation as a military leader plays well with voters critical of the government's failure to quell Boko Haram.
However, his 18 months in charge, during which opponents were jailed and drug dealers executed, are not fondly remembered by all.
And as always in the nation of 170 million people, ethnic and regional sentiments remain paramount -- Buhari is hugely popular in the north, Jonathan, in the south and east.
That could leave the southwest as the kingmakers. The region, which centres around the commercial capital Lagos, is mostly ethnic Yoruba but religiously mixed. They voted for Jonathan last time but since then Yoruba elite have rallied decisively around Buhari.
|
Government Job change - Election
|
March 2015
|
['(CNN)', '(Reuters via MSN)']
|
Libya releases 214 Islamist inmates in what is described as "a historic event".
|
Libya has freed more than 200 Islamist inmates as part of its programme of rehabilitation of militant groups.
It was "an historic event", said Col Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, whose Gaddafi Foundation has tried to engage with Islamists in recent years. Some 34 of the 214 freed inmates are from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which has suspected links to al-Qaeda but has reportedly renounced violence. In the past, the group has been accused of trying to oust Col Gaddafi. Three of the group's leaders were among those released. "With the release of these leaders, we have brought to a conclusion our programme of dialogue and reconciliation," Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was quoted as saying by AFP news agency. Dozens of the group's members went free last year after talks with Tripoli to reach a deal to renounce violence. "We are at the point of bringing to an end a tragic period," Mr Gaddafi said. He said that 165 security officers had been killed in clashes with the Islamists over the years, while 177 insurgents had also died. 'Return home'
The rehabilitation programme had led to the release of 705 Islamists, he said. Some 409 remained in prison. A further 232 would be set free soon, Mr Gaddafi added. In a news conference, Mr Gaddafi called on Libyans currently fighting in Algeria and in the deserts of Mali to lay down their arms, saying they could come back to Libya as free people and reintegrate as productive citizens. The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says there are still many unanswered questions - not least about what guarantees there are that former militants will not simply take up arms once again.
|
Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release
|
March 2010
|
['(BBC)']
|
A looter who started a fire at a House of Reeves store during last year's riots in London is jailed for eleven and a half years.
|
A looter has been jailed for 11-and-a-half years for starting a fire which destroyed a family-run furniture shop in south London in the summer riots.
Gordon Thompson, 34, stole a laptop from the House of Reeves in Croydon on 8 August before setting fire to a sofa.
The Old Bailey trial in February heard that he told another man "it was me" as he walked away from the blaze.
Thompson, of Waddon Road, Croydon, changed his plea to guilty at the end of the prosecution case.
He had previously looted two other stores, Iceland and House of Fraser, before turning on the Reeves furniture store, the court heard.
Following Thompson's guilty plea jurors were ordered to find him not guilty of charges of violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the sentence given to Thompson was the longest to date in connection with the riots.
The fire caused an estimated loss to the 144-year-old Reeves business of £3m, the court heard.
The blaze was so fierce buildings on the opposite side of the road caught fire and tram lines in the road were damaged. One woman, Monika Konczyk, who lived opposite the Reeves store, was forced to jump from the building where she lived to escape the flames.
The burnt-out store has since been demolished but the company - which has been in the Reeves family for five generations - is still trading from refurbished premises across the street.
In a victim impact statement, Trevor Reeves said: "The total destruction of the site has been a bereavement to me, I just can't understand what I have done to make someone do this to me.
"I wonder with despair what my father and grandfather would make of the situation."
He added that the sentence "will not bring it back" and added: "My father built that store up. That store was his baby.
"I lived there as a child, played there as a child, I lived there as an adult, I worked there for most of my adult life, and when you lose something like that it's like a bereavement."
After sentencing, owner of the store, Maurice Reeves, 80, said: "He's [Thompson] done tremendous harm for everybody, but we have to fight back and that's what we will do. That's the typical Reeves family.
"He has apologised and it is accepted by the Reeves family and me."
The court heard Maurice Reeves had worked at the store since the age of 16.
Judge Peter Thornton told Thompson: "This day was a bad day for Croydon and the people of Croydon.
"Perhaps the most shocking event was that the House of Reeves was set alight and burned to the ground, putting lives at risk."
He said the shop "had stood on the site for over 140 years, proudly giving its name to its location, Reeves Corner. You were about to bring all that to an end".
The judge added: "This was a deliberate, wilful act of shocking, dangerous vandalism.
"The Reeves family lost their historic business, something they and generations before had lived and worked for all their lives. Their loss is priceless."
In mitigation, Adam Davis QC, for Thompson, said the defendant had been depressed following his divorce and had not intended to cause the damage.
He said Thompson wanted to apologise "to all those involved and in particular the Reeves family for what happened as a result of his reckless actions and apologise for the loss that he has caused them".
Following the sentencing Jenny Hopkins from the Crown Prosecution Service said Thompson's "callous actions had recklessly endangered the lives of many innocent people".
"Few will forget the terrifying ordeal of Monika Konczyk, whose flat overlooked the store. "She had to throw herself from her blazing flat into the arms of those same firefighters after she had become trapped by the flames.
"Members of the public, both in Croydon and elsewhere, were shocked at the television footage which showed the extent of the damage caused by Thompson's actions."
Thompson, who has 20 previous convictions, including one for violent robbery, was filmed on mobile phones and by CCTV cameras during the arson, the court heard.
|
Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
|
April 2012
|
['(BBC)']
|
After an emergency summit, eleven nations of Latin America (including Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru) announce that they will all admit Venezuelan migrants without the required travel documents.
|
Eleven Latin American countries say that they have agreed to allow Venezuelans leaving their homeland to enter their countries even if their travel documents have expired. More than 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the country's hyperinflation and severe shortages.
But many do not have valid passports because renewing them can take years.
The move will come as a relief to those who say they were trapped in Venezuela due to their lack of papers.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly mocked those who leave, saying they "fall for propaganda only to leave and clean toilets in Miami".
The announcement was made after a two-day meeting of migration officials from Latin America in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito.
Eleven of the countries represented signed a joint declaration in which they also called on the Venezuelan government to speed up the process of issuing passports.
Venezuelans have long complained about how difficult it is to get hold of passports and other official documents such as birth and marriage certificates and ID cards.
Many have reported being asked for bribes up to $1,000 (£780) for a passport which could rise to $5,000 if the applicant had urgent reasons to leave, such as wanting to visit a sick family member abroad. The government has blamed shortages of paper and "mafias" inside the registry service, known as Saime, for the delays. In June, four Saime officials were arrested for extortion and a new director of the service was named in July. But with tens of thousands of Venezuelans wanting to leave, the queues remain long.
The countries which will allow Venezuelans to enter with expired papers are: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The Latin American countries which have seen the biggest influx say they have been struggling to deal with the high numbers of Venezuelans crossing into their territory. Last month, Ecuador started demanding Venezuelans show valid passports at the border, a measure which was later overturned by a court because it contravened a regional agreement on free travel.
Peru followed suit but children, pregnant women and children remained exempt from the requirement. Thousands of Venezuelans rushed to Peru's northern border to enter the country before the measure came into effect.
The Venezuelan government has denied there is a migration crisis and said "enemy countries" had inflated the number of those leaving to justify an invasion.
|
Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting
|
September 2018
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['(BBC)']
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The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland rules that Romanian footballer Adrian Mutu has lost his final appeal in a five–year legal battle meaning he has to pay a record €17 million in damages for breaching his contract.
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(CNN) -- Romanian striker Adrian Mutu has been ordered to pay English Premier League champions Chelsea a record $20.7 million after losing his final appeal in a five-year case relating to his positive cocaine test.
The Swiss Federal Court upheld the decision of FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in ruling that the player must compensate his former club for breach of contract.
Mutu, 31, who now plays for Fiorentina, was sacked by the London team in 2004 after testing positive for the drug.
He was given a seven-month worldwide ban from football before resurrecting his career in Italy with Juventus and then Fiorentina.
Chelsea's legal case was based on the fact that they paid £15 million to sign the player from Parma in 2003 and he had four years remaining on his contract when he was banned.
A statement from the Swiss court said:"The Swiss Federal Tribunal has rejected the appeal filed by Adrian Mutu against a sentence by Cas. "The Cas had sentenced the professional Romanian footballer to paying a sum of more than 17 million euros to his previous employer, Chelsea Football Club Limited."
Mutu is currently serving a nine-month drug ban after testing positive for an anti-obesity drug in January.
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Organization Fine
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June 2010
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['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)', '(AsiaOne)', '(The Hindu)', '(CNN)']
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Australian State and Territory leaders agree to implement the Commonwealth Government's tough new anti–terrorism laws with a sunset clause. The new laws allow police to detain terrorism "suspects" without charge for up to two weeks, and electronically tag them for up to a year. The measures have been attacked by civil libertarians and Muslim groups.
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Rights concerns: Civil libertarians say the laws are appalling. Civil libertarians and lawyers say the anti-terrorism laws agreed upon by the Commonwealth and the states today are appalling.
Under the laws, which Prime Minister John Howard describes as "unusual", state and territory police will be given extra tracking powers and will be able to detain terrorism suspects for up to two weeks without charge.
The laws will also make provisions for a review after five years and a sunset clause at 10 years.
Terry O'Gorman, of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, says the agreement is an appalling state of affairs. "I think it just shows what a sorry state civil liberties have reached in this country that someone will now be able to be held for 14 days without charge on the basis that the premiers have been secretly briefed by ASIO," he said.
Patrick Emerton, who is an assistant law lecturer at Monash University, says the definition of terrorism under Australia law is too broad.
"If someone sent money to Aceh to help with tsunami relief and that money ended up in the hands of the rebels in Aceh who control significant parts of Aceh, the person who sent the money could be a terrorist," Mr Emerton said.
"If someone went there and taught those rebels how to rebuild houses that person would be training with terrorists and so are criminals under Australian law."
Australian Lawyers Alliance president Richard Faulks says the laws are totalitarian and un-Australian.
"Depending on what the final version is, I think it is a retrograde step, and one that we didn't need," Mr Faulks said.
"Australians value their freedom and even though everyone is concerned about terrorism and rightly so, there are steps that can be taken that are still consistent with proper safeguards which are part of our everyday life."
However, the state and territory leaders say the laws strike a balance between security and personal freedoms.
New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma says he is satisfied the new laws will better protect the community from terrorism without harming civil liberties.
"We've proven that it is possible to get tougher laws on terror and at the same time protect individual liberties," Mr Iemma said.
"The protections the safeguards that are part of this package are important to ... our way of life."
Some state leaders, such as ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, went to today's Council of Australian Government meeting unconvinced of the need for the laws.
But a briefing from the Australian Security and Intelligence Agency (ASIO) and the Office of National Assessments (ONA) has changed their minds.
Mr Stanhope says his fears over the impact of the laws on civil liberties have changed.
"Faced with blunt advice from the head of ASIO, from the head of the Office of National Assessments and from the head of the Australian Federal Police that we do indeed face grave circumstances in Australia, it really isn't possible for any head of government to turn away," he said.
"There are people within Australia that our officials have grave concerns about in relation to their intentions.
"The situation is serious."
The legislation will be drafted within weeks.
Despite assurances from the Prime Minister, the Police Federation says certain groups, including Muslims, may be singled out under the new anti-terrorism legislation.
The heads of government of Australia have agreed to sweeping counter-terrorism powers at a summit in Canberra.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has called tough new counter-terrorism laws draconian, but that did not stop him, or the other premiers and chief ministers, from reaching unanimous agreement to pass them at their meeting with John Howard today.
The new counter-terrorism laws have drawn a wide range of reactions.
On the day when state and federal governments decided to toughen up the security laws even further, one of the existing laws has hit a major obstacle.
Former foreign minister Gareth Evans has warned against putting too much trust in intelligence and security agencies in Australia.
© 2005 ABC | Privacy Policy
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Government Policy Changes
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September 2005
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['(ABC)', '(ABC)']
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Expresident Chen ShuiBian is barred from leaving Taiwan over corruption charges.
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TAIPEI (AFP) Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian has been barred from leaving the island and his office raided on money-laundering allegations implicating him and his family, officials said Sunday.
The coast guard confirmed that Chen on Saturday had been barred by prosecutors from leaving the territory which he led for eight years.
"We received the order from the special investigation unit around 9:20 pm last night saying former president Chen was barred from leaving the country," Coast Guard Administration spokesman Hsieh Ching-chin told AFP.
The move came after prosecutors separately searched Chen's office and residence in Taipei.
"We took away accounting books and computers which could help with clarifying the case," Chu Chao-liang, spokesman for the special investigation unit, told reporters.
Chen and his wife Wu Shu-chen were questioned Saturday by prosecutors over the money laundering charges against their family.
Chu said prosecutors did not use warrants as they were cooperative while the wheelchair-bound Wu wore a cast and appeared to be in poor health.
Wu claimed that the overseas funds came from her family, Chen's past income as a lawyer, his political donations and their investment proceeds, local newspapers said.
Taiwan launched a probe into the money laundering claims following similar moves by Swiss authorities.
Copies of Swiss documents obtained by Kuomintang lawmaker Hung Hsiu-chu showed that Chen's son Chen Chih-chung and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching transferred 31 million US dollars to her Swiss bank accounts in 2007.
The ex-leader had already been questioned on Friday but requested "leaves of absence" for the young couple, whom he said were in the US for academic studies, Chu said.
Chen admitted that his wife had wired abroad 20 million US dollars from his past campaign funds, saying she had done so without his knowledge.
He has denied money laundering.
However, nearly 68 percent of 1,012 people polled Saturday by the China Times said they did not trust Chen's arguments.
As many respondents said the image of the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had been severely tarnished although Chen quit the party one day after the scandal surfaced. The party was still reeling from its crushing defeat in the March presidential election and January parliamentary polls.
In an interview with a local cable news network Saturday, a heart-broken Ng Chiau-tong, a former advisor to Chen, called his former boss the "shame of Taiwan."
Chen, who rose to power with the nickname "Son of Taiwan" is already under investigation for allegedly embezzling 14.8 million Taiwan dollars (480,500 US) in special expenses from the government while he was president, and his wife is on trial for corruption and document forgery in the same case.
Chen has admitted using false receipts to claim money from the state, but insisted those funds were used for "secret diplomatic missions" and not his personal benefit.
Nevertheless, prosecutors found that at least 1.5 million Taiwan dollars had been spent on diamond rings and other luxury items for his wife.
A string of corruption scandals implicating Chen, his family and top DPP officials has tarnished the party's image and played a part in its defeat in the March presidential vote.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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August 2008
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['(AFP via Google News)']
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Fourteen people are killed at a fake security checkpoint manned by gunmen in western Iraq.
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At least 14 people have been killed at a fake security checkpoint manned by gunmen in western Iraq, officials say.
The checkpoint was reportedly set up along the main highway to Saudi Arabia, near the town of al-Nukhaib, in the predominantly Sunni province of Anbar.
One report said those killed were all policemen; another identified them as soldiers and civilians from Karbala.
They were stopped by the gunmen and appeared to have been executed, officials told the Associated Press.
The sectarian violence in Iraq has escalated in recent weeks, raising fears of a more sustained period of violence between Iraq's Shia Arab majority and the minority Sunni community. More than 1,000 people were killed in the nationwide unrest in May, according to the United Nations, the highest monthly death toll since the height of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007.
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Armed Conflict
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June 2013
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['(BBC)']
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The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation locates Stanford Financial Group Chairman Allen Stanford in Virginia and serves him with a fraud complaint on behalf of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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FBI agents in the US state of Virginia have served Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford with civil legal papers from the US financial watchdog, the SEC.
Sir Allen, who disappeared from public view on Tuesday when he was accused by the SEC of an $8bn (5.6bn) fraud, is believed to be in the Richmond area.
The SEC filed a civil case in court describing the case as a "fraud of shocking magnitude".
He is not in custody and has not been charged with any criminal violations.
But officials from the US justice department, which handles criminal prosecutions, have made clear they are proceeding with their own investigation.
The Texan cricket impresario is accused of luring investors with promises of improbable and unsubstantiated high returns on certificates of deposit and other investments.
The SEC needed to serve the papers to ensure that he turned in his passport and was made aware of the proceedings against him, the BBC's Richard Lister reports from Washington.
'Very depressed'
Stressing that Sir Allen had not been arrested, Mr Kolko said he did not know if he had actually surrendered his passport.
The papers were served about 1345 local time (1845 GMT) on Thursday as Sir Allen sat in a car, and the authorities do not believe he had been purposely hiding from them, an unnamed law enforcement source told the Associated Press.
ABC News quoted one of the billionaire's lobbyists, Ben Barnes, as saying that Sir Allen had been "very depressed".
He had sought to end a federal manhunt for him by directly approaching officials at the US justice department, Mr Barnes added.
Sir Allen's father, James Stanford, told AP in Mexia, Texas, that he hoped the allegations against his son were untrue.
"I have no earthly knowledge of it," said the 81-year-old, listed as chairman emeritus and a director for Stanford Financial Group.
"I would be totally surprised if there would be truth to it. And disappointed, heartbroken."
Asked what advice he would give his son, he said: "Do the right thing."
States intervene
Earlier, Peru and Venezuela became the latest countries to intervene in local banks controlled by the Stanford group.
Stanford father believes in son
Peru's securities regulator suspended local operations of the Stanford Financial Group for 30 days and Venezuela said it would take control of Stanford Bank Venezuela.
Panama, Ecuador and Antigua also took action after the accusations against Sir Allen were reported.
Regulators were hoping to calm customers worried about investments as queues of worried investors have formed at banks associated with him in the US, the Caribbean and Latin America.
A civil court judge in the US has frozen the assets of Sir Allen and those of the Stanford Group, its Antigua-based subsidiary Stanford International Bank (SIB), and another subsidiary, investment adviser Stanford Capital Management.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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February 2009
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['(BBC)']
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A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off the southern coast of Japan's Ryukyu Island.
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Update at 5:35 p.m. ET: Japanese officials have canceled all tsunami warnings and advisories. There have been no reports of injuries and only minor reports of damage so far, mostly ruptured water pipes.
Our original post follows:
Just minutes ago a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off Japan in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.
Here are the technical details so far.
No word yet regarding a possible tsunami.
Update at 3:50 p.m. ET: The epicenter is the Ryukyu Islands, about 50 miles off Naha, in Okinawa. The quake was 6.2 miles deep, relatively shallow.
No reports yet of damage or injuries.
Update at 3:54 p.m. ET: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says "no destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data."
However, "earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within 100 kilometers of the earthquake epicenter."
Update at 3:57 p.m. ET: The USGS has lowered the magnitude to 7.0, equal to the quake that struck Haiti.
The depth has also changed -- 13.7 miles, more than double the preliminary estimate.
Update at 4:08 p.m. ET: Japan's meteorological agency has issued a tsunami warning for coastal regions of Okinawa and has urged residents to evacuate "to the safe places near the above coasts." The height is expected to be between 1 and 2 feet.
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Earthquakes
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February 2010
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['(USA Today)']
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As many as 412 people have died in the last 23 days due to smog in Tehran, according to Iran's Health Ministry. All schools in the city have also been ordered to close as part of emergency measures.
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By Julian Robinson for MailOnline and Afp Published: 09:00 BST, 16 November 2016 | Updated: 19:57 BST, 16 November 2016 33
View comments
More than 400 people have been killed by smog in under a month after a lethal blanket of pollution smothered the capital of Iran, it has emerged.
Schools have been shut while millions have been forced to wear face masks or retreat indoors after choking levels of pollution descended on Tehran.
As many as 412 citizens have died in the past 23 days and authorities have rolled out a series of unprecedented emergency measures.
More than 400 people have been killed by smog in under a month after a lethal blanket of pollution smothered the capital of Iran, it has emerged
Exhaust fumes from millions of cars and motorcycles that ply Tehran's roads account for 80 percent of its pollution, which increases in winter as emissions fail to rise above cold air
All of the city's schools were due to have been shut today while tourism bosses have even apologised to foreign visitors for the pollution.
A blanket of brown-white smog descended on the capital on Sunday, blocking views of the mountains that line its northern edge and forcing many of its 14 million residents to stay indoors.
The pollution in Tehran hit 156 on the Air Quality Index of deadly airborne particles, over the 150 considered 'unhealthy' for the general public. In tourist hotspot Isfahan the level hit 167.
Officials apologised to foreign visitors for the bleak conditions.
'We hope our people's hospitality wipes the grey image of Tehran's beautiful attractions from their minds,' the capital's tourism boss Rajab Ali Khosroabadi told the ISNA news agency.
Kindergartens and primary schools in Tehran were ordered to stay closed Monday and Tuesday, and traffic restrictions were tightened.
A blanket of brown-white smog descended on the capital on Sunday, blocking views of the mountains that line its northern edge and forcing many of its 14 million residents to stay indoors
Schools have been shut while millions have been forced to wear face masks or retreat indoors after choking levels of pollution descended on Tehran
Ambulances were deployed to wait in the busiest and dirtiest areas amid warnings that children, the elderly and those with existing health conditions were at particular risk.
'Since no one does anything, every year the problem gets worse. The government should block old cars. We must improve public transport,' Zeynab Nazari, a first-year sociology student, told AFP.
Every year, Tehran suffers some of the worst pollution in the world when cool autumn temperatures cause an effect known as 'temperature inversion'.
The phenomenon creates a layer of warm air above the city that traps pollution from some 10 million cars and motorbikes.
The latest smog cloud is expected to hang over the city until today when forecasters hope winds will move the stagnant air, an official told state television.
Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf rode the metro to work Sunday in a bid to encourage people to use public transport.
The pollution in Tehran hit 156 on the Air Quality Index of deadly airborne particles, over the 150 considered 'unhealthy' for the general public. In tourist hotspot Isfahan the level hit 167
The phenomenon creates a layer of warm air above the city that traps pollution from some 10 million cars and motorbikes
Despite having around 100 stations, Ghalibaf says the metro is not sufficiently funded by central government, forcing millions to rely on cars.
Pollution has become a political football in recent years, with conservatives and reformists blaming each other for the problem.
Hardliners accuse reformist vice-president Massoumeh Ebtekar, who heads the environmental protection agency, of not doing enough.
Ultra-conservative daily Vatane Emrooz said Monday that 70 percent of deaths in Tehran were linked to pollution.
Ebtekar, in an Instagram post, said various measures to reduce factory pollution and provide cleaner petrol had led to 'significant' improvement.
Still, weather conditions and heavy congestion remain a blight.
Two traffic restriction zones -- introduced in 1979 and 2005 -- have done little to solve the problem.
Local carmakers have been reluctant to introduce cleaner engines, while foreign firms have been kept out by international sanctions.
In 2014, almost 400 people were hospitalised with heart and respiratory problems caused by pollution in Tehran. Nearly 1,500 others required treatment.
The health ministry estimated that pollution in 2012 contributed to the premature deaths of 4,500 people in Tehran and about 80,000 across the country.
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Organization Closed
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November 2016
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['(AFP via Daily Mail)']
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Officials report the casualties from yesterday's spring-like storm that triggered more than 20 tornadoes, destroyed homes, delayed and cancelled air flights, and caused power outages in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast have risen to at least 11 people killed with dozens injured. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant declares a state of emergency in areas affected by the storm.
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Follow NBC News Authorities raised the death toll Thursday night to 14 people, including a young boy, after a spring-like storm system swept across the Southeast.
The storms mixed with unseasonably warm weather, spawning tornadoes that killed people in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Dozens more people were injured.
The Tennessee Health Department said Thursday night that it had confirmed three additional deaths in Maury County, where the storm system created heavy rain and dangerous wind gusts Wednesday night. It said no further details were available.
The storms — which the National Weather Service called a "particularly dangerous situation" for an area that spanned eastern Arkansas, northwest Mississippi, northeast Louisiana and western Tennessee — destroyed homes and caused power failures Wednesday.
Three other people were killed in Tennessee, where heavy rain continued to soak the eastern border but was expected to move out of the state late Thursday. A 22-year-old man who wasn't identified died in Rhea County. In Perry County, Annie Yzaguirre, 69, and Antonio Gomez Yzaguirre, 70, died, interim Sheriff Nick Weems told NBC News.
The youngest of the victims was a 7-year-old boy in Holly Springs, Mississippi, who was killed in a van on Highway 7 as storms swept through the town, according to Marshall County Coroner James Anderson. Tree limbs and debris covered the highway Thursday, and emergency crews worked to restore downed power lines.
At least six other people died in Mississippi. Four of the deaths were in Benton County, where another person was unaccounted for, officials said. Two were in Marshall County, and the other was in Tippah County.
"It is difficult, particularly this time of year, to see such damage and know that heartbreaks go along with that damage, that families have lost loved ones," Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "There's no good side to this, but at least the storm was not in highly populated areas, like a downtown."
In Atkins, Arkansas, 18-year-old Michaela Remus was killed when a tree crashed into the bedroom she was sharing with her 18-month-old sister. The toddler was taken to a hospital after being safely pulled out of the home by rescuers.
Rusty Russell, 34, a friend of Remus', told NBC News that "she is one of those people that you would never hear a bad word about her. Just a true joy to be around."
Remus died protecting her sister, he said.
"She was laying in bed with her 18-month-old sister. The way that she was laying actually shielded her sister," he said.
More than a dozen tornadoes were reported in Mississippi, and in the town of Clarkdale, hundreds woke up Thursday without homes for the holidays. Planes at a small airport were overturned by wind gusts. There were an unknown number of injuries, Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett told the Associated Press, but he said the only reported casualty in his town was a dog killed by storm debris.
"I'm looking at some horrific damage right now," Luckett said. "Sheet metal is wrapped around trees; there are overturned airplanes; a building is just destroyed."
Related: 'Spring' Storms Spawn Twisters, Kill 7 in Southeast, Snarl Holiday Travel
Mulestor Johnson, 67, told the AP that a brutal storm tore his Holly Springs house from its foundation Wednesday. His belongings were strewn everywhere, and trees had crashed through trucks on his property, but no one was hurt.
"This right here is a mess, but I can't complain because we're blessed," he said.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said at least 40 people were injured as the storms moved swiftly across the state. Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said some of the injuries included amputations.
"It's terrible that this happened, especially at Christmas," Pope County Sheriff Shane Jones told the AP.
The storm system was just one of many examples of unseasonable weather happening across the country. Along the Eastern Seaboard, many states were experiencing a balmy Christmas Eve, with temperatures in the 70s.
Meanwhile, in parts of Georgia, including Atlanta, a flood watch was posted through Friday evening. Portions of southeast Alabama received rainfall that totaled 10 inches or more.
The rainy, gusty conditions — more reminiscent of June than December — spread north into the Midwest. Indiana emergency officials warned that outdoor Christmas decorations could turn into dangerous missiles and advised residents not to bother putting up inflatable decorations.
The strange weather is yet another manifestation of the unusually strong El Niño setting up shop off the West Coast, meteorologists told NBC News. Much of the eastern half of the country will spend a Christmas Day with temperatures in the 70s.
And it couldn't come at a worse time, with nearly 1 in 3 of all Americans traveling this week for Christmas.
"We are seeing more than 100 million people will be traveling overall," Robert Sinclair, a spokesman for AAA, told NBC News. "That's the first time we've ever hit that record."
According to airline tracker FlightAware.com, more than 2,700 U.S. flights were delayed as of Thursday afternoon, and nearly 750 had been canceled.
Elizabeth Chuck is a reporter for NBC News who focuses on health and mental health, particularly issues that affect women and children.
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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December 2015
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['(NBC News)', '(Reuters)']
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After seven hours of debate, the joint special session of the Congress of the Philippines votes 261–18 in favour of the motion to extend Proclamation No. 216 , that was set to expire 10 PM Philippine Standard Time, until the end of the year.
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Manila (AFP) - The Philippine Congress opened a special session Saturday to vote on President Rodrigo Duterte's bid for an extension of martial law in the south to defeat Islamist gunmen.
Duterte is widely expected to win approval for martial law in the region until the end of the year, with troops having failed to wrest back Marawi city following two months of fighting.
A slide presentation accompanying Duterte's request, seen by AFP, compared the Marawi crisis to the Islamic State takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Marawi itself could now become a magnet for foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, it said.
Most of the militants' leaders remain at large, the presentation added, while about 90 of the gunmen have slipped past security cordons and can link up with other armed groups in the region to mount similar widescale attacks.
At the hearing, defence and security officials justified the need for martial law, saying that aside from Marawi, Islamist militants were planning attacks in other parts of the southern Philippines.
They said almost a thousand pro-IS militants, holding 23 hostages, were still active elsewhere in the south.
In Marawi, the military said only about 60 gunmen were left in a 49-hectare (121-acre) area of Marawi, but Duterte said he needed martial law powers to rebuild the city and ensure the war did not spread elsewhere.
"I cannot afford to be complacent," Duterte told reporters Friday, adding the military would be conducting further "mopping up operations" even after they recapture Marawi.
"If there is a spillage it will not be as bad if you have this stopgap," he added.
Duterte imposed 60-day martial rule -- the maximum period allowed by the constitution -- over the Mindanao region on May 23 within hours of the gunmen beginning their rampage.
On Monday he asked Congress to extend it until the end of the year, along with the continued suspension of a constitutional safeguard against warrantless arrests.
In an unprecedented move, both the House and the Senate met jointly on a weekend to vote on Duterte's request.
- 'Nationwide martial law' -
Martial law allows the military to establish control with measures such as curfews, checkpoints and gun controls in a country where civilians are authorised to keep licensed firearms in their homes.
However, any martial law extension must be approved by Congress.
The subject remains sensitive in the Philippines, decades after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos put the country under military rule for part of his 20-year term.
Thousands of critics, political opponents as well as communist guerrillas were killed, detained or arrested during the period, according to historians.
About a dozen protesters in the gallery interrupted Saturday's hearing, chanting "never again, never again to martial law" before being escorted out.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has said previously he sees no roadblock to the swift approval of the extension by both chambers of Congress.
Duterte had already beaten back a Supreme Court petition to declare martial law in Mindanao illegal.
But opposition politicians have criticised Duterte's proposal for an extension, with some alleging it is part of a Duterte plot to eventually bring the country under a military-backed dictatorship.
"Once he feels that there is not enough opposition to a nationwide martial law declaration, he will go for it," Senator Antonio Trillanes told AFP on Tuesday.
After this he could declare a revolutionary government to allow him to stay in office beyond his six-year electoral term in mid-2022, Trillanes says.
Duterte, 72, insists he has no plan to stay in office beyond his term.
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Government Job change - Election
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July 2017
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['(martial law on the whole of Mindanao in response to the Marawi crisis)', '(CNN Philippines)', '(AFP via Yahoo News)']
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The United States Senate settles with a payment of $4.6 billion to black farmers and at least 300,000 Native Americans who objected to government discrimination and cheating in Cobell v. Salazar.
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The US Senate has approved a $4.6bn (£2.9bn) payment to Native Americans and black farmers who complained of government discrimination.
The legal settlement would benefit black farmers who sued for alleged bias by US agriculture officials.
It would also settle a 15 year-old suit by Native Americans who said the government cheated them out of of oil, gas and grazing royalties.
The legislation now needs approval by the House of Representatives.
"While these legislative achievements reflect important progress, they also serve to remind us that much work remains to be done," President Barack Obama said in a statement.
Many of the claims date back to the 19th century. At least 300,000 Native Americans claimed that since 1887, the US interior department swindled them out of royalties. The suit, called the Cobell lawsuit for lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell, dragged on for 15 years and encompassed 3,600 court filings and 80 judicial rulings, the Associated Press reported.
"Personally I still think we're owed $100bn, but how long do you drag this thing out?" said Ms Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Browning in the state of Montana. "Do you drag it out until every beneficiary is dead? You just can't do that."
The US government settled the suit last year, agreeing to pay $3.4bn; the Senate bill would fund the settlement.
The black farmers would receive $1.2bn to settle the so-called Pigford suit in which they said local US agriculture department officials discriminated against blacks in awarding loans and other aid.
"Twenty-six years' justice is in sight for our nation's black farmers," said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association.
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Government Policy Changes
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November 2010
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['(BBC)']
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A gas attack occurs at an outlet of the Maksidom chain on Moskovsky Prospect in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and leads to the hospitalization of numerous victims.
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Gas capsules with timers were found in three other Maksidom shops in the northern city, officials said.
Security officials said the incidents were most likely caused by criminals, rather than terrorists.
"The security services are inclined to believe this is an act of hooliganism because so far there is no information that this could be a terrorist act," a spokesman for the Federal Security Service said.
Criminal attacks on businesses are common in Russia. Twenty people died in an arson attack on a shop in the northern city of Ukhta in July.
No serious cases
A police spokesman told AP news agency that the Maksidom chain, which sells furnishings and hardware, had received letters threatening to disrupt sales during the holiday period.
Officials said 78 people sought medical care as a result of the gas, 66 of whom were taken to hospital. More than 50 were released soon afterwards.
No serious cases have been reported.
Victims of the attack reported an unusual, garlicky smell. Preliminary reports said the substance used was methyl mercaptan, a compound of carbon, hydrogen and sulphur.
The substance is added to natural gas to give it its odour and is poisonous in large quantities.
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Mass Poisoning
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December 2005
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['(BBC)']
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Four Islamist militants are killed in a raid by security forces in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.
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Reports from Kyrgyzstan say four Islamist militants have been killed in a raid on a hide-out in the southern city of Osh.
Police shot dead three members of a banned Islamist group and a fourth died after detonating a grenade, said the head of Kyrgyzstan's Security Council.
Two officers were injured in a gun battle during the raid, he said.
Osh was the scene of inter-ethnic violence in June during which nearly 400 mostly minority Uzbeks were killed.
The riots followed weeks of political turmoil after the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in a mass uprising in April.
The new authorities, led by President Roza Otunbayeva, are attempting to create the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia, after elections last month.
However, critics of the new leadership say it lacks authority in the volatile south.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit Kyrgyzstan on Friday.
"The operation has been concluded and a sweep of the area is under way," Marat Imankulov told reporters in the capital, Bishkek.
Mr Imankulov said initial reports suggested the militants may have belonged to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
The IMU is an al-Qaeda-affiliated Central Asian group that now fights alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan.
A local police spokesman told Reuters that the raid could have targeted members of another banned Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants to establish an Islamic state across the Middle East and Central Asia.
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Armed Conflict
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November 2010
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['(BBC)', '(24.kg News Agency)']
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The death toll from the derailment rises to eight, with 43 of the more than 200 injured remaining hospitalised.
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Philadelphia mayor says all 243 passengers and crew accounted for as engineer who drove the train during fatal crash named as Brandon Bostian, 32
First published on Thu 14 May 2015 18.06 BST
Search teams recovered a body from the mangled wreckage of an Amtrak derailment in north Philadelphia on Thursday morning, bringing to eight the number of people killed when train 188 to New York from Washington DC went off the rails on Tuesday night.
Philadelphia’s mayor, Michael Nutter, confirmed the new death toll at a press conference early on Thursday afternoon and, for the first time, said the authorities and agencies working on the emergency now believed that all 243 individuals aboard the passenger services had been accounted for.
“Unfortunately we must now report that we have confirmed eight deceased from this horrible tragedy,” he said.
Six of the eight fatalities had been identified by Thursday morning, Nutter said. Forty-three of the more than 200 people injured in the crash remain in hospitals. The fire commissioner, Derrick Sawyer, said a search dog found the eighth body on Thursday morning in the mangled first passenger car, one of two that remains at the scene. The engine and five other cars have been taken to a secure location for 3D scans, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said.
Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman issued a statement on Thursday afternoon calling the derailment “a terrible tragedy that we are responding to with every resource we have available”.
“On behalf of the entire Amtrak family, I offer our sincere sympathies and prayers for them and their loved ones. Amtrak takes full responsibility and deeply apologizes for our role in this tragic event,” he said.
The train was moving at 106mph before it ran off the rails along a sharp curve where the speed limit drops to just 50mph, federal investigators have said. Robert Sumwalt of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that the train sped up in the last minute or so before the wreck, going from 70mph to over 100mph.
He said it is not clear yet whether the speed was increased manually. So far, he said, investigators have found no problems with the track or the signals.
A lawyer for the train’s engineer said his client could not remember the crash or his actions as the train approached the curve in the tracks just north of Philadelphia. ABC reported the engineer had “no explanation” for what happened.
He was named as Brandon Bostian, 32, from New York City, by Reuters and a number of media outlets on Wednesday. Official confirmation of his identity was not immediately forthcoming.
Safety officials, however, planned to give the Amtrak engineer who was driving the train more time to recuperate from the head injuries he sustained before interviewing him.
The derailment happened along the country’s busiest rail corridor, where the national passenger railway carries 11.6 million passengers a year. Amtrak has suspended all service until further notice along the Philadelphia-to-New York stretch, forcing thousands of people to find other ways to travel.
Boardman, Amtrak’s chief executive, said the company didn’t expect to return to full service until Tuesday next week. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), investigating the crash, said on Wednesday that the train drove through the curve at up to 106mph, despite the 50mph speed limit that applies to that tight bend.
Nutter had earlier spoken of a criminal investigation but on Thursday afternoon he attempted to clarify that the investigation was not at that point yet. “You have to have probable cause,” he said.
He said the engineer had been questioned briefly by Philadelphia police on Wednesday but had responded only that he declined to be interviewed at that point, which Nutter acknowledged was permitted under the investigation system.
“The engineer was injured. The car, we believe, tumbled over and over and over numerous times and that the engineer survived,” said Nutter.
However, he criticized his actions in relation to driving a train at 106mph towards a curve with a 50mph speed limit, adding: “I don’t think any rational person would think it was OK to travel at that speed.”
Contradicting earlier reports, Nutter said that the train left Washington, DC, on time at 7.10pm and was also punctual leaving Philadelphia, and was not trying to “make up time”.
The engineer has not yet sat down with the National Transportation Safety Board, Sumwalt said at a press conference on Wednesday evening.
“This person has gone through a very traumatic event, and we want to give him an opportunity to convalesce for a day or so before we interview him,” Sumwalt told the press conference, describing an interview with the engineer as a “high priority”.
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Train collisions
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May 2015
|
['(The Guardian)']
|
Twenty–nine coal miners and officials are feared trapped following an explosion at the Pike River Coal Processing Plant at Atarau in the Grey District of the South Island of New Zealand.
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Twenty-seven miners are missing after an explosion at a remote coal mine on New Zealand's South Island.
The mayor of Greymouth, 46km (29 miles) south-west of the Pike River mine, said the situation was "pretty serious" but that rescuers were on hand.
However, concerns about the possibility of another explosion have delayed attempts to enter the mineshaft.
There has so far been no contact with the missing miners, whose friends and relatives have gathered at the scene.
Earlier, two workers walked out of the mine with moderate injuries.
The explosion at the Pike River mine is believed to have happened at around 1530 local time (0230 GMT).
An electrician went into the mine at 1550 to investigate a power failure, and 1,500m (4,920ft) into the shaft he discovered the driver of a loader who had been blown off his machine. He then raised the alarm.
They and one other miner later emerged safely from the mine and told officials that three others were also making their way to the surface. They came out sometime later.
The operator of the mine, Pike River Coal, said that 27 workers remained unaccounted for - 15 of its staff and 12 local contractors.
Its chief executive, Peter Whittall, also denied that a body had been found.
"I've not had any reports of that at all," he said. "We've had two miners who've walked out of the mine and they're currently being spoken to and treated on the surface. We've had no communication with anyone else underground at this stage."
The two miners who emerged earlier had moderate injuries, Mr Whittall said. They are being treated at the hospital in Greymouth.
Mining experts said it could have been a methane gas explosion, a coal dust explosion, or a combination of both.
Television footage showed charred trees and light smoke billowing from the top of the mineshaft. A nearby cabin had been blown away, suggesting there had been a powerful blast.
Specialist mine rescue crews, ambulances and helicopters rushed to the mine as soon as the blast was reported. However, the helicopters were later sent back to their bases, when it became apparent that the rescue effort might take days.
Police spokeswoman Barbara Dunn said rescuers were still assessing the safety conditions inside the mine, and making sure the ventilation system was functioning as there was a potential for a build-up of gas.
Until that happened, it was unsafe for rescuers to enter the mine, she added.
"They're itching to get in there and start looking for other people and a bit frustrated at having to stand and wait," Ms Dunn told reporters. "There is concern that ventilation inside the mine shaft may be compromised by the power outage."
Mr Whittall said every worker at Pike River carried a "safety rescue device at all times including a breathing apparatus with oxygen".
"The men are between 2 and 2.5km inside, but because the mine drills into the side of the mountain they are probably only 120m below the surface," he said.
"The issue for the rescue team will be to ensure that the ventilation underground is adequate for them to go in and find the men."
Mr Whittall added that the men might not be trapped, because they were trained to find oxygen stores and a place of safety, and then await rescue. The oxygen stores would allow them to survive for "several days".
Prime Minister John Key said the government would put whatever resources were needed into the operation, and stood ready to support the miners' families.
"Our hearts and thoughts go out to them at this time. It will be a very worrying time for them," he said. "We will do anything humanly possible to aid the miners and to rescue them." Greymouth's Mayor, Tony Kokshoorn, told the BBC that the friends and relatives of the missing miners were "hanging on to hope".
"The rescue crews are doing a magnificent job. They are well trained for this and are doing everything they can. But this is going to be a very slow recovery," he said.
"Everybody knows what they are doing, but it's just a patience game. We've got support people everywhere. We've got families starting to arrive at the scene. We're just consoling them at the moment. We're setting up places for them to go.
"We're all hoping that everything will turn out all right, but it's looking pretty serious at the moment," Mr Kokshoorn added.
The Pike River mine, which employs some 150 people, has been operational since 2008 and runs deep under the Paparoa Ranges on the rugged western coast of the South Island.
It accesses the Brunner and Paparoa coal seams via a 2.3km (1.4-mile) tunnel under the mountains, which then branches out into sub-areas. The 5.5m-wide (18ft), 4.5m-high (15ft) shaft slopes uphill near the top of the Paparoa Ranges, and bisects the Hawera fault, through which a large quantity of methane gas is known to leak.
In 2008, the former head of Pike River Coal said that because the tunnel passed through the fault, flameproof mining equipment had to be used.
Pike River is on the opposite side of the Paparoa Ranges from the former Strongman mine, where an explosion killed 19 miners in 1967.
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Mine Collapses
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November 2010
|
['(Stuff.co.nz)', '(Sydney Morning Herald)', '(The Australian)', '(AFP via Yahoo! News)', '(BBC)']
|
British Prime Minister David Cameron makes a historic visit to Burma , becoming the first British Prime Minister to visit that country.
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The Prime Minister David Cameron today called for sanctions against Burma to be eased as he made a historic visit to the country.
Mr Cameron is visiting Burma on the first part of his tour of South East Asia promoting United Kingdom interests abroad.
This morning Mr Cameron met with President Thein Sein and stressed that the Burmese government had to make their moves towards democracy 'irreversible'.
Later, Mr Cameron met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon.
He met the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in the garden of the villa where she spent 15 years under house arrest.
Speaking afterwards Mr Cameron said, "I think it is right to suspend sanctions that there are against Burma," he said.
"To suspend them, not to lift them."
Mr Cameron continued, "(Burma) shouldn't be as poor as it is, it shouldn't have suffered under dictatorship for as long as it has and things don't have to be that way.
"There is the real prospect of change and I'm very much committed to working with you in trying to help make sure that your country makes those changes.
"I met with President Thien Sein today and there are prospects for change in Burma and I think it is right for the rest of the world to respond to those changes.
"Of course we must respond with care, we must always be sceptical and questioning because we want to know those changes are irreversible, but as we have discussed, I think it is right to suspend the sanctions that there are against Burma - to suspend them, not to lift them - and obviously not to include the arms embargo.
"I do think it is important to send a signal that we want to help see the changes that can bring the growth of freedom of human rights and democracy in your country."
Aung San Suu Kyi said: “We still have a long way to go but we believe we can get there.
"I believe President Thien Sein is genuine about democratic reforms and I am very happy that Prime Minister Cameron thinks that the suspension of sanctions is the right way to respond to this.
"I support the lifting, rather than the suspension, of sanctions because this would be an acknowledgement of the role of the president and other reformers.
"This suspension will have taken place because of the steps taken by the president and other reformers.
"It would also make it quite clear to those who are against reform that should they try to obstruct the way of the reformers, then sanctions could come back."
The first Burmese general election in 20 years was held in 2010, it was followed by the establishment of a civilian government in 2011 - which was followed by a host of reforms, including the release of political prisoners.
Mr Cameron's visit to the country follows a trip by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in December of last year.
The British Prime Minister also told reporters that he had asked Miss Suu Kyi to visit Britain.
She responded by saying, “Two years ago, I would have said thank you for the invitation but sorry.
"Now I am able to say perhaps. That is great progress."
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Diplomatic Visit
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April 2012
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['(Myanmar)', '(The Independent)']
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Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange loses his appeal in England's High Court against extradition to Sweden to face questioning over sexual assault allegations.
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The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has lost his high court appeal against extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations.
Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Ouseley on Wednesday handed down their judgment in the 40-year-old Australian's appeal against a European arrest warrant issued by Swedish prosecutors after rape and sexual assault accusations made by two Swedish women following his visit to Stockholm in August 2010.
Assange, who was wearing a navy blue suit, pale blue tie and a Remembrance Day poppy, remains on bail pending a decision on a further appeal. The judges ruled the issuing of the warrant and subsequent proceedings were "proportionate" and dismissed arguments that the warrant had been invalid and descriptions of the alleged offences unfair and inaccurate.
Assange gave no sign of emotion as the judges gave reasons for the decision.
Assange's lawyers said they would take 14 days to decide whether to seek the right to appeal to the supreme court and said they would challenge the 19,000 costs against him, indicating he might not have the means to pay.
After the hearing, Assange made a short statement on the steps of the court, saying: "We will be considering our next step." He urged people to turn to a website set up in his support.
"No doubt there will be many attempts made to try to spin these proceedings as they occured today but they were merely technical. So please go to swedenversusassange.com if you wish to know what is really going on in this case."
Assange refused to answer shouted media questions as he left.
The judges rejected the appeal on all four grounds made by his legal team, opening up the possibility that Assange could be removed to Sweden by the end of the month.
Lord Justice Thomas said a date would be fixed in three weeks' time to hear any case by Assange that he should be allowed to take the case to the supreme court.
To appeal again, Assange must persuade the judges there is a wider issue of "public importance" at stake in the latest decision. If he is successful in persuading the high court of that, he is likely to remain on conditional bail until a hearing in front of the supreme court. This is unlikely to take place until next year.
If he is denied the right to appeal then British law enforcement officers will be responsible for arranging his removal to Sweden within 10 days.
Earlier Assange was surrounded by a melee of photographers as he arrived to hear the decision. Supporters had fixed banners to railings saying: "Free Assange! Free Manning! End the wars."
Bradley Manning is the detained American soldier alleged to have leaked hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.
After the decision, supporters outside the court said they were outraged. Ciaron O'Reilly, 51, said: "Assange is probably the most amazing person in recent history who's upset so many powerful people in such a short space of time so it's obviously not a level playing field." The decision comes three and a half months after the end of an appeal hearing in July, when lawyers for Assange argued the arrest warrant was invalid because of significant discrepancies between its allegations of sexual assault and rape and the testimonies of the two women he allegedly had sex with.
Ben Emmerson QC, for Assange, had claimed the warrant "misstates the conduct and is, by that reason alone, an invalid warrant".
He recounted evidence of the encounter on the night of 13 August 2010 between Assange and a woman known as AA, who was hosting Assange at her apartment, during which AA said Assange tried to have sex with her without a condom.
Emmerson said there was no evidence of a lack of consent sufficient for the unlawful coercion allegation contained in the arrest warrant.
He argued the court had to decide only on whether the arrest warrant in connection with the events was valid on "strict and narrow" legal grounds.
Acting for the Swedish director of public prosecutions, Clare Montgomery QC said the charges detailed in the warrant were valid allegations and said AA, and another woman, known as SW, had described "circumstances in which they did not freely consent without coercion".
She said the definition of an extradition offence "means the conduct complained of. It has nothing to do with the evidence."
In February, when Assange challenged the extradition moves at Westminster magistrates court, his legal team warned their client could be at "real risk" of the death penalty of detention in Guantánamo Bay because they feared the US authorities would request his extradition from Sweden to face charges relating to WikiLeaks obtaining and publishing hundreds of thousands of classified US government documents.
The senior district judge threw out the appeal and ordered his extradition, and a week later Assange appealed to the high court.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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November 2011
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['(The Guardian)']
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China's Ministry of Commerce says that it is restricting trade with North Korea, in line with the recent sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council last March. China will be banning the export of jet fuel and import of gold, some coal and "rare earth metals" used in high-tech goods.
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China has said is restricting trade with North Korea, announcing bans on gold and some coal imports and jet fuel exports, in line with UN sanctions.
The commerce ministry is also banning the importation of so-called "rare earth metals" used in high-tech goods.
The UN Security Council voted in March to increase the sanctions.
The unanimous decision came after North Korea carried out a fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket the following month.
The BBC's Robin Brant in Shanghai says this is a step closer to fully implementing the UN sanctions which China backed. Some doubt Beijing has been fully adhering to them.
The Chinese ban on exports is linked to any fuel or oil products that could be associated with North Korea's nuclear programme.
Our correspondent says these restrictions are likely to hurt as China accounts for the vast majority of trade with North Korea and mining is a key source of currency for the North.
According to AFP news agency, quoting Chinese customs figures, the coal trade between the neighbours was worth $1bn (£704m) last year.
But China's commerce ministry said the trade in coal would still be permitted as long as the revenue was intended for "people's well-being", Reuters news agency reports.
Some critics have likened this to a de facto loophole which could give China wiggle room to maintain trade, our correspondent says.
North Korea is China's third biggest supplier of coal, delivering 20m tonnes last year, Reuter reports.
Previous UN sanctions imposed after North Korean tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 did little to dispel its nuclear ambitions.
The nuclear test on 6 January and a satellite launch on 7 February were violations of existing UN sanctions.
Last week, the US and Chinese leaders met on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in Washington about the situation in North Korea.
President Barack Obama said that he and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had agreed to work together to try to prevent further missile tests by North Korea.
Testing times
Much of the burden of making sure the sanctions are implemented falls on China.
Under the new measures, any North Korean ships arriving in China must be inspected for contraband and imports halted if there is proof profits from those exchanges go towards the North's nuclear programme.
Washington has long pushed for Beijing to put more pressure on North Korea, saying in February that China's "unique influence over the North Korean regime" gave it the chance to do so.
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Government Policy Changes
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April 2016
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['(BBC)']
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French prosecutors launch an investigation into alleged illegal campaign funding for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
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Prosecutors have launched an investigation into claims of illegal campaign funding for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The move follows allegations by a former accountant for France's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt.
Claire Thibout reportedly told police she was involved in channelling 150,000 euros (£124,000) to Mr Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007.
Campaign treasurer Eric Woerth denies the claim and is suing for slander.
Mr Sarkozy has dismissed claims surrounding the case as a "smear".
Ms Thibout reportedly said the money was to be handed over to Mr Woerth, who is now both treasurer for Mr Sarkozy's UMP party and also France's labour minister.
Her allegations were reported by the French website Mediapart after she made a statement to police on Monday.
The limit for donations to political parties is set at 7,500 euros in France.
Mr Sarkozy has been facing growing pressure over the affair, which is linked to a trial over the estimated 17bn euro fortune of Mrs Bettencourt, 87. The trial opened briefly last week before being adjourned.
Liliane Bettencourt is the daughter of Eugene Schueller, who founded cosmetics giant L'Oreal in 1909. Mr Woerth is leading efforts to push through a major pension reform, and has rejected calls for his resignation. In a television interview on Tuesday he dismissed what he called "a political plot orchestrated by the Socialist Party".
Earlier that day, opposition MPs had walked out of the French parliament after a minister accused them of extreme-right tactics for repeatedly asking about the allegations.
The comments were a reference to extreme-right newspapers that denounced the French political class in the 1930s. Mr Woerth has also come under scrutiny because his wife worked for the company that managed Mrs Bettencourt's fortune, and their names emerged in tapes secretly recorded by Mrs Bettencourt's butler.
The tapes suggest that Mrs Bettencourt had been making cash donations to members of the UMP including Mr Woerth, and that she had been avoiding taxes. Mrs Woerth recently resigned from her position, and the couple have denied any conflict of interests.
The recordings have been offered as evidence in the trial that opened last week.
In the trial, Mrs Bettencourt's daughter Francoise is suing celebrity photographer Francois-Marie Banier, a close friend of her mother's, for allegedly exploiting her mental fragility to gain access to her fortune.
In her allegations, Ms Thibout told Mediapart that she had been ordered to withdraw the 150,000 euros in March 2007 but only withdrew 50,000 euros, her authorised limit.
Police said on Wednesday they had confiscated records from the BNP Paribas Bank where Mrs Bettencourt's account is held and confirmed the withdrawal, Le Monde newspaper reported. Ms Thibout has said another employee then went to Switzerland to collect the rest of the money.
She also claimed that Mr Sarkozy was one of a number of centre-right politicians who received regular envelopes of cash after dinners at a house where Mrs Bettencourt and her husband lived in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where Mr Sarkozy used to be mayor.
An aide to Mr Sarkozy dismissed the claim as "totally false".
L'Oreal heiress case: Key players
Sarkozy rejects donation 'smears'
L'Oreal fortune trial brings whiff of scandal
French ministers quit over perks
France rattled by official jets
Trial over L'Oreal heiress gifts
French presidency
Mediapart
Hardliner Raisi set to be new Iran president
Cleric Ebrahim Raisi
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate
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July 2010
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['(BBC News)']
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Tens of thousands of people line the streets of Manchester in celebration of Manchester City's victory in the Premier League season finale – the team's first Premier League win since 1968.
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About 100,000 Manchester City fans lined the streets for a victory parade for the Premier League champions.
City clinched the title - their first since 1968 - with a dramatic 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers on Sunday.
The players' arrival at Manchester Town Hall, where the parade started, was met by rapturous applause from City fans.
However, the club issued an apology to rivals Manchester United after striker Carlos Tevez was seen carrying a banner with the message "RIP Fergie".
Tevez also apologised for the message, directed at United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, saying he "didn't mean any disrespect".
The squad followed the Albert Square gathering with a 1.8-mile open-top bus parade through the city centre.
Before boarding the bus, the players thanked the supporters before the team held the Premier League trophy aloft to the crowd, accompanied by Queen's We are the Champions.
Captain Vincent Kompany told the fans in Albert Square: "We want to say thank you to you guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you." England winger Adam Johnson said: "Everything we did was for the fans. It's good we can repay them with trophies." City manager Mancini, wearing his trademark blue and white City scarf, described the final minutes of the decisive match with Queens Park Rangers as "the best and worst five minutes" of his and his players' lives.
He then told the supporters: "I think we should be proud of these players because they did everything for you [the fans] - they wanted to win this championship for you." The bus meandered slowly from Albert Square through Princess Street, Portland Street, Deansgate, then St Mary's Gate before finishing in Corporation Street at 20:04 BST - almost 20 minutes behind schedule - to constant cheers and the chorus of Championes.
Fans, many with their faces painted in the club's colours, awaited the arrival of the players in Albert Square by watching highlights of the nail-biting win over QPR - and celebrating the goals with as much jubilation as when they were scored.
Craig Smith, 21, of Colwyn Bay in north Wales, said it was an "amazing feeling" to be part of the celebrations.
He said: "I've come to Manchester to see the champions of England.
"It would have been a massive day anyway but after the drama it's even better."
Andrew Hyland was with his daughter Isabelle, eight, to cheer on the newly crowned champions. Mr Hyland admitted shedding tears during Sunday's match.
"It was unbelievable, typical City. "My emotions were all over the place there were tears of desperation then so much relief when the final goal went in."
Greater Manchester Police estimated 100,000 fans had attended the parade, with 12,000 in Albert Square alone. There was just one arrest.
Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney praised the supporters. He said: "There was a friendly, carnival atmosphere throughout the parade which passed off without incident and was a great showcase for Manchester." Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, said: "City fans have waited a long time for this - as can be seen from the thousands of people on the streets celebrating their victory, and suddenly the last 40 years of chasing the championship doesn't seem to matter. "The fans have done us proud tonight as Manchester takes centre stage across the world once again." City had led the league for much of the season but were overtaken by United, who were eight points clear with six games to go. But the Old Trafford side dropped points in their last few games and City went into the final day knowing a win would make them champions.
But QPR led 2-1 after 90 minutes and Manchester City needed two injury-time goals to win the game and clinch the title.
Over the years City have been mocked by United fans, who, until City's FA Cup win last year, had documented their wait for a trophy with a banner at Old Trafford's Stretford End.
When Manchester United were eight points clear in early April, leading High Street bookmaker Betfred, founded by United fan Fred Done, paid out more than £500,000 to punters who had backed the Red Devils.
Mr Done said on Twitter the lead "was just too much for City" and "I've not got it wrong this time".
Meanwhile, United players drowned their sorrows two miles away at the club's annual player of the year awards night at Old Trafford. Man City squad praise supporters
In pictures: City's victory tour
Sea of blue on Manchester's streets
Manchester City fans celebrate title win
City win title after 44-year wait
Man City 3-2 QPR
Man City deserved title - Mancini
How the Premier League was won
Manchester City Council
Manchester City FC
Manchester United FC
Patricia Burke
Bridge destroyed in devastating floods finally reopens - more than five years on
Victoria Theatre, Salford
The progress of town’s jab programme as more than half of residents fully vaccinated
MP hosts call with minister over prison contraband fears
Bolton urges everyone to get their vaccination in a Weekend of Walk-ins
Information about BBC links to other news sites
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
In a rare move, the UN condemns the overthrowing of Aung San Suu Kyi and calls for an arms embargo.
The ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters. VideoThe ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters
Tokyo Olympics: No fans is 'least risky' option
Asia's Covid stars struggle with exit strategies
Why residents of these paradise islands are furious
The Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care. VideoThe Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care
Troubled US teens left traumatised by tough love camps
Why doesn't North Korea have enough food?
Le Pen set for regional power with eye on presidency
How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK
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Sports Competition
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May 2012
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['(BBC)']
|
Polling stations open for the Belarusian presidential election, 2006. The main opposition candidate Alaksandar Milinkievič calls for a re–run of the presidential election within hours of polls closing.
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A Belarusian elderly man gets out a polling-booth at a polling station in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, March 19, 2006Voters in the former Soviet republic of Belarus are casting ballots in a presidential election widely expected to hand a third term to Alexander Lukashenko. The opposition is accusing the president of rigging the vote in an election process criticized by Western nations. The voting atmosphere in Belarus is one of unease with many expecting possible violence if the opposition takes to the streets after polls close Sunday night protesting election fraud.
The main opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, has already predicted he will lose the vote to President Alexander Lukashenko - who is seeking a third consecutive term.
Mr. Milinkevich says he's had no means to get his message out through the state-controlled media.
He says people only see one man, who is always talking on television about how he is going to save the nation, to make it prosper and the like - so naturally people think there is only one candidate. Lukashenko supporters control the electoral apparatus and the media. Electoral monitors will not be able to observe vote counting. Some foreign observers and journalists have been barred from entering the country. Dozens of opposition leaders have been arrested in recent weeks, including associates of Mr. Milinkevich. He has called on supporters to hold peaceful protest rallies after the polls close Sunday evening. Mr. Lukashenko has vowed that police will "break the neck" of anyone who takes to the streets. And the Belarus security service is warning protesters may even face the death penalty as such actions would be considered "terrorism".
Top government officials have charged repeatedly that foreign countries, including the United States and European Union nations, are seeking to "mount a coup" against Mr. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand since 1994.
The former state-farm boss does enjoy certain support, especially among rural voters who fear economic hardship if the Soviet-style economy is changed.
In recent days U.S. and EU officials have criticized the election process and warn that Belarus could face new sanctions if the voting is deemed not fair.
The Belarus election pits the West and Russia in a new test of wills after the downfall of pro-Russian governments in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan in recent years.
Belarus and Russia have long talked about merging the two countries, and the Kremlin is angered by what it sees as Western "meddling" in Russia's traditional sphere of influence.
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Government Job change - Election
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March 2006
|
['(VOA)', '(BBC)']
|
A Rutan VariEze experimental aircraft crashes north of Ventura, California, killing the two people aboard.
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VENTURA, Calif., May 28 (UPI) -- Two people are dead after an experimental aircraft crashed in Ventura County, Calif., emergency responders said.
The incident happened at 3:17 p.m. local time Saturday, when witnesses reported seeing the aircraft crash into an orchard off Aliso Canyon Road just north of the city of Ventura, the Ventura County Star reported.
KABC-TV, Los Angeles, reports the plane has been identified as a single-engine Vari-Eze, a small type of homebuilt aircraft first popularized in the 1970s.
The plane crashed into the orchard, taking down power lines and bursting into flames.
The two individuals aboard, neither of whom have been identified, were pronounced dead at the scene.
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Air crash
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May 2016
|
['(UPI)']
|
An Ethiopian military crackdown on protests in Oromia Region leaves 81 protesters dead, while several prominent politicians, such as Jawar Mohammed, have been detained. The protests began following the death of Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa.
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At least 81 people have been killed in Ethiopia after the death of a popular singer sparked huge protests in the Oromia region, a police chief said.
Thousands of fans had gathered to mourn Hachalu Hundessa, who was shot dead on Monday night while driving.
Police say 35 people, including prominent politician Jawar Mohammed, have been arrested. The motive for Hachalu's killing remains unclear. But police say they have arrested two people in connection with the killing.
Hachalu, 34, recently said that he had received death threats. He will be buried on Thursday. His songs focused on the rights of the country's Oromo ethnic group and became anthems in a wave of protests that led to the downfall of the previous prime minister in 2018.
"So far 81 people have been killed, including three Oromia special police force members," Ararsa Merdasa, the Oromia police chief, said in a televised press briefing.
Many people were injured in Tuesday's protests and there was "significant destruction to property," Getachew Balcha, the spokesperson for the Oromia regional government, told the BBC.
The authorities shut down the internet on Tuesday in parts of the country as the protests against his killing spread across Oromia region - there are reports of more unrest on Wednesday.
The military was deployed in the capital, Addis Ababa, while armed gangs roamed the streets, reports the Reuters news agency.
Trouble started when Hachalu's body was being transported to his native town of Ambo, west of Addis Ababa for burial, but Mr Jawar and his supporters intercepted it and tried to return it to the capital. Federal Police commissioner, Endeshaw Tassew, said on Tuesday that a stand-off ensued. "There was a disturbance between federal security forces and others, and in the process one member of the Oromia special police force was killed," Mr Endeshaw said.
"Thirty-five people including Jawar Mohammed have been put under arrest. The security forces have taken eight Kalashnikovs, five pistols and nine radio transmitters from Jawar Mohammed's bodygaurds," he added. Tiruneh Gemta, an official from Mr Jawar's Oromo Federalist Congress party, told the BBC Afaan Oromoo service they were "concerned" about his arrest and that they hadn't visited "those who've been arrested due to the security situation".
Mr Jawar, a media mogul, has led calls for more rights for the Oromo, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, who have been politically marginalised by previous governments. He supported reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, himself an Oromo, but has since become an ardent critic. By Bekele Atoma, BBC Afaan Oromo
Hachalu was more than just a singer and entertainer. He was a symbol for the Oromo people who spoke up about the political and economic marginalisation that they had suffered under consecutive Ethiopian regimes.
In one of his most famous songs, he sang: "Do not wait for help to come from outside, a dream that doesn't come true. Rise, make your horse ready and fight, you are the one close to the palace."
The musician had also been imprisoned for five years when he was 17 for taking part in protests.
Many like him fled into exile fearing persecution but he remained in the country and encouraged the youth to struggle.
In Adama, 90km (56 miles) south-east of Addis Ababa, five people died on Tuesday after being shot during demonstrations and 75 others were injured, hospital chief executive Dr Mekonnin Feyisa told BBC Afaan Aromo.
In the eastern town of Chiro, two people were shot dead during protests, a medic at the local hospital told the BBC.
In the eastern city of Harar, protesters pulled down a statue of a royal prince - Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael - who was the father of Haile Selassie, Ethiopia's last emperor.
The statue shows Ras Makonnen, an important military figure and former governor of Harar province in the 19th Century under then-Emperor Menelik II, sitting on a horse.
Following the murder of a famous Oromo singer in Addis Abeba by unknown forces, Oromo protesters removed and burned the statue of Ras Mekonnen, the father of HIM Haile Selassie, in Harrar. pic.twitter.com/XuIBvS2hOq
In a recent interview with local TV station Oromia Media Network, owned by Mr Jawar, Hachalu had said that people should remember that all the horses seen mounted by old leaders belonged to the people.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed expressed his condolences saying in a tweet that Ethiopia "lost a precious life today" and describing the singer as "marvellous".
The musician's death and the protests come as political tensions rise following the indefinite postponement of elections due in August, on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
They would have been the first electoral test for Mr Abiy after he came to power in April 2018.
The Oromo, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, have long complained of being sidelined.
Demonstrations erupted in 2016 and pressure built on the government. The ruling coalition eventually replaced then-Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn with Mr Abiy.
He has brought in a series of reforms, which have transformed what was considered a very oppressive state.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 primarily for making peace with long-time foe Eritrea, but his efforts in transforming Ethiopia were also recognised.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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July 2020
|
['(BBC)']
|
Marco Rubio wins the Puerto Rican Republican Party primary.
|
Bernie Sanders has beaten Hillary Clinton in the Maine caucuses, the latest contest in the battle to be the Democratic presidential candidate.
With 91% of the vote counted, Vermont Senator Mr Sanders is polling 64%, while former Secretary of State Mrs Clinton has 36%. In the Republican race, Marco Rubio easily won Puerto Rico's primary, beating billionaire Donald Trump.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump remain overall leaders in the nomination campaigns.
Sunday night saw Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders clash on a number of issues in a CNN-hosted debate in Michigan.
They traded accusations on economy and trade, with Mrs Clinton saying her rival voted against a bailout of the US car industry in 2009.
"I went with them. You did not. If everybody had voted the way he [Sanders] did, I believe the auto industry would have collapsed, taking four million jobs with it," Mrs Clinton said.
Mr Sanders countered by saying: "I will be damned if it was the working people of this country who have to bail out the crooks on Wall Street." Bernie Sanders has rarely been so aggressive, losing his calm a few times on the debate stage. He attacked Hillary Clinton as a long-term supporter of free trade and talked about her friends in Wall Street who destroyed the economy. She criticised him for not supporting the bailout that helped save the automobile industry, describing him as a one-issue candidate. The debate took place in Flint, Michigan, which is facing a public health emergency because of lead-tainted water. The state will hold its primary on Tuesday. Mr Sanders described the measures taken at the time as "the Wall Street bailout where some of your [Mrs Clinton's] friends destroyed this economy".
In Saturday's round of voting, Mr Sanders took two states - Kansas and Nebraska - but Mrs Clinton maintained her Democratic front-runner status after a big victory in Louisiana.
While the win in Puerto Rico - a US territory - will boost Florida Senator Mr Rubio's campaign, it sends just 23 delegates to the Republican convention which nominates a presidential candidate. Republican hopefuls need the votes of 1,237 delegates to get the nod for the presidential race proper.
Mr Rubio still trails well behind Mr Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Speaking after wins in the Republican Kentucky caucuses and Louisiana primary vote on Saturday, Mr Trump told a news conference: "I would love to take on Ted Cruz one on one."
"Marco Rubio had a very very bad night and personally I call for him to drop out of the race. I think it's time now that he dropped out of the race. I really think so."
Meanwhile, Texas Senator Mr Cruz - who won Republican caucuses in Kansas and Maine - said he believed that "as long as the field remains divided, it gives Donald an advantage".
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Government Job change - Election
|
March 2016
|
['(BBC)']
|
A truck overturns on a highway in Chiapas, Mexico, killing 25 Central American migrants who were hiding inside.
|
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A cargo truck without license plates careened off a road in southern Mexico and turned over, killing at least 25 people inside, state officials said Thursday night.
Nearly 30 people were reported injured in the accident involving an approximately three-ton Ford Super Duty pick-up truck attached to a cargo container, according to a statement from the Chiapas attorney general’s office.
The crash happened around dusk on a highway about 25 miles (41 km) northeast of Tuxtla-Gutierrez, the capital of southern Chiapas state which borders Guatemala.
Officials did not give a breakdown of the victims’ nationalities but said they were Central Americans. Chiapas is a major transit point for migrants, especially from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as many trek through Mexico on their way to the U.S. border.
Media reported that investigators are considering the possibility that the driver of the truck lost control due to a mechanical failure, citing other state authorities.
Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Nick Macfie
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Road Crash
|
March 2019
|
['(Reuters)']
|
Nepal begins discharging child soldiers who fought for the Maoists as part of a process of national reconciliation.
|
DUDHAULI, Nepal (Reuters) - Teary-eyed but hopeful of a bright future, more than 200 former Maoist child soldiers began leaving their jungle camp on Thursday as part of a peace deal that ended a bloody insurrection four years ago.
Rodan Rai talks to the media outside his camp in Dudhauli, 100 km (62 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, January 6, 2010. Rai and other underaged soldiers like him, who fought for the Maoists during Nepal's decade-long civil war, will be demobilised and released from the Maoist camps under an agreement with the government. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
The group is the first of nearly 4,000 former Maoist soldiers, most of whom were under 18 when the peace deal was signed in 2006, to leave remote jungle camps across Nepal over the next month and try to begin a new life.
The release is a move forward in the fragile peace process that has been stalled since last May after the Maoists walked out of the government in conflict with the president over their attempt to fire the army chief.
Wearing marigold garlands, the former child fighters left the camp, waving at former Maoist army commander Pasang, who goes by one name, at the riverside camp about 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, capital of the Himalayan nation.
The former child fighters, many in their 20s now, left in five buses for their villages, some seated on roof tops with bags in their laps and crying.
“I am very sad to leave other colleagues with whom we stayed for so long,” said 22-year-old Laxmi Gautam, who joined the Maoist organization five years ago.
Others said they were proud that the monarchy has been abolished and Nepal was now a republic.
“Without struggle, that would not have been possible. I am proud of it,” said Suhana Rana, also 22, as she left the camp.
The Maoists were demanding financial aid for the children but the government has so far refused.
Authorities said the United Nations would support schooling for children for up to grade 12, or vocational training, micro-enterprises and training as junior health workers.
“Today marks the first step in the return to civilian life for thousands of Nepalis who have been living in cantonment since 2006,” said Robert Piper, a UN resident representative in Nepal.
“It is a tearful and proud departure.”
The Maoists had agreed to free the children last year but the process stalled as they squabbled with political rivals on how to rehabilitate them.
The Maoists say the discharge is part of their commitment to peace, but have alleged that the government has so far failed to rehabilitate them and the former child rebels were returning to their villages empty handed.
“Since the government is letting them go from the camps without any concrete assurances for their future, they could engage in any coercive activities and create new problems,” said Bishnu Raj Upreti, who teaches conflict management at Kathmandu University’s Human and Natural Resources Study Center.
The Maoists had been under constant U.N. pressure to release their “army elements disqualified as minors” from the camps.
In 2008, the Maoists scored a surprise victory in the election for a special assembly meant to prepare a new constitution, the first after Nepal abolished the monarchy and turned into a republic, a major condition in the peace deal.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release
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January 2010
|
['(Reuters)', '(The Rising Nepal)', '(The Guardian)']
|
Speaking in the House of Commons, UK prime minister David Cameron says he is "deeply sorry" over British involvement in Finucane's murder but opposes a public inquiry into the killing.
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BRITISH State employees actively facilitated and furthered the loyalist murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane but there was no over-arching conspiracy, a new report commissioned by David Cameron has found.
Desmond de Silva's review of the 1989 murder of the Catholic father of three found that collusion by the state went beyond a failure to prevent the crime.
Sir Desmond examined the role of two British agents in the murder and found that another man involved was later also recruited as an agent even though he was suspected in the UDA murder of Mr Finucane.
While the QC accused successive UK Governments of a "wilful and abject failure" to implement an appropriate legal framework for running agents within paramilitary groups, he said no minister was aware of the plot to kill the solicitor.
Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons the murder was "an appalling crime" and said the degree of collusion exposed was "unacceptable".
And he said, in a message to the family: "I am deeply sorry."
Outlining the findings of the report, Mr Cameron continued: "Sir Desmond says on the balance of probabilities, an RUC officer or officers did propose Patrick Finucane as a UDA target when speaking to a loyalist paramilitary."
Mr Cameron said there was a further failure to investigate and arrest members of the West Belfast UDA over a long period.
And he said it was all part of a "wider, relentless attempt to defeat the ends of justice" following the murder. Mr Cameron said the De Silva review found senior Army officers deliberately lied to criminal investigators and that RUC Special Branch were "responsible for seriously obstructing the investigation".
And he added: "While Sir Desmond finds no political conspiracy he is clear ministers were misled.
"He finds that, and I quote, Army and MoD officials provided the Secretary of State for Defence with highly misleading and in parts factually inaccurate advice about the Force Research Unit's handling of Nelson (a British agent who played a role in selecting targets)."
Mr Cameron said he acknowledged the Finucane family had continued to call for a public inquiry in order to establish the facts surrounding the murder.
He said: "I know they opposed this review process and I respect their views. However, I do respectfully disagree a public inquiry would produce a fuller picture of what happened and what went wrong.
"The history of public inquiries in Northern Ireland would suggest had we gone down this route, we would not know now what we know today."
Mr Cameron told MPs the de Silva report highlights "shocking" levels of state collusion.
The Army and Special Branch had advance notice of a series of planned UDA assassinations, but nothing was done, he said.
Mr Cameron said De Silva found that employees of the state and state agents played "key roles" in the Finucane murder, adding: "It cannot be argued that these were rogue agents."
The review found that the British Army must take a degree of responsibility for targeting activities carried out by the UDA's Brian Nelson, said Mr Cameron.
There was a "relentless" effort to defeat the ends of justice after the killing and Army officials provided the MoD with highly misleading and inaccurate information, Mr Cameron said.
But the review found no evidence that any Government was informed in advance of Mr Finucane's murder or knew about the subsequent cover-up, he said.
Mr Cameron said the Finucane family suffered "the most grievous wrongs" and he respected their view that the de Silva review was not the right response.
But he said he disagreed with them, and said a public inquiry might not have uncovered so much information about the killing.
In his report Sir Desmond said he was in no doubt that state employees were involved in collusion with terrorist killers.
He said: "The real importance in my view is that a series of positive actions by employees of the State actively furthered and facilitated his murder and that, in the aftermath of the murder, there was a relentless attempt to defeat the ends of justice.
"My review of the evidence relating to Patrick Finucane's case has left me in no doubt that agents of the State were involved in carrying out serious violations of human rights up to and including murder.
"However, despite the different strands of involvement by elements of the State, I am satisfied that they were not linked to an over-arching State conspiracy to murder Patrick Finucane."
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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December 2012
|
['(Irish Independent)']
|
Hurricane Rita is forecast to become a major storm in the Gulf of Mexico this week. Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered an evacuation of New Orleans. , ,
|
He said that, with a new tropical storm menacing the southern US coast, the "conditions have changed". The city's Algiers section has already opened and Mayor Nagin had plans to open three more district shortly.
But President Bush and top officials have voiced concern at the stricken city's ability to cope with the influx.
Mayor Nagin told a press conference that "all re-entry" to the city was being suspended immediately.
Whatever population goes into New Orleans... there has to be an evacuation plan to get them out Vice-Admiral Thad Allen
Oil prices rises
"The conditions have changed. We have another hurricane approaching us," he said.
Tropical Storm Rita is building in strength as it heads towards the Florida Keys and could become a hurricane.
Its predicted path would take it to Texas - where many of Hurricane Katrina's victims have sought refuge - at the weekend, and some maps suggest it may hit parts of Louisiana.
On Monday, the number of confirmed deaths in Louisiana as a result of the storm climbed by 90 to 736, taking the death toll across the region to 973.
'Matter of timing'
Earlier, Coast Guard Vice-Admiral Thad Allen, head of the recovery effort, warned that the threat of more storms complicated plans to re-open the city.
"Whatever population goes into New Orleans right now, there has to be an evacuation plan on how to get them out in the event of another hurricane," he said, speaking on US television station CBS.
Gulf opportunity zone Immediate incentives for job-creating investment
Recovery accounts Up to $5,000 help for job-seekers, for training, childcare etc
Urban homesteading act Federal-owned land handed out in a lottery for new homebuilding
Bush fights back
Clinton: Katrina troubles US
Speaking after a meeting with his Homeland Security Council, President George W Bush said his administration was "cautious about encouraging people to return at this moment of history".
He stressed that the city needed to re-emerge, but it was "a matter of timing".
"The mayor has got this dream about having his city up and running," said Mr Bush. "We share that dream, but we also want to be realistic about some of the hurdles and obstacles."
Mayor Nagin had said he wanted to allow residents to return to New Orleans one postcode at a time.
He had announced plans for the Uptown neighbourhood, the Garden District and the historic French Quarter to be re-settled over the next week - bringing a third of New Orleans' evacuated inhabitants back to the city.
Residents of Algiers, a district of 57,000 people which escaped the worst of the damage, became the first to be able to return on Monday. The BBC's Oliver Conway described how they were returning to homes with running water and electricity - although food and water was being supplied by a relief station run by the army and volunteers.
Mayor Nagin has now urged those who returned to Algiers to be ready to evacuate as early as Wednesday.
|
Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
|
September 2005
|
['(KHON.com)', '(BBC)', '(CTV)']
|
The Pakistan Army protests, saying NATO "violated Pakistan airspace".
|
The Pakistan army has protested after two of its soldiers were injured in a clash with Nato helicopters in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan.
An army spokesman said Nato "violated Pakistan airspace" and demanded a meeting with Nato officials.
In a statement Nato said its helicopters responded after being fired up on. It says the aircraft were in Afghan airspace at the time. But local witnesses say the aircraft fired first.
But they also supported Nato's claim that the helicopters which targeted the post on Tuesday were flying in Afghanistan. A Pakistani army spokesman insisted that the aircraft intruded into Pakistani territory when the exchange took place. The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Pakistan says that the latest incident underlines the tensions in what is an increasingly unstable alliance between Pakistan and the West.
The clash in North Waziristan's Datakhel area comes two weeks after al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was killed by US commandos in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad - prompting Pakistani condemnation.
Two helicopters had been sent to support a coalition base which was under intermittent fire in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, an unnamed Western military official told the BBC. The helicopters came under fire twice from across the border, and only returned fire when they were attacked a second time, the official said.
At least seven people, including the commander of an al-Qaeda splinter group, were killed in a strike by US drones in the same region on Monday.
Pakistan's Express 24/7 television channel quoted officials saying that the helicopters were about to enter Pakistani territory when gunshots were fired. They moved back and fired retaliatory gunshots which dislodged rubble on nearby mountains, injuring the Pakistani soldiers, the channel said.
A Pakistan army statement said: "Two Nato helicopters violated Pakistan air space today at Admi Kot Post North Waziristan Agency in the early hours of the morning.
"The troops at the post fired upon the helicopters and, as a result of [the] exchange of fire, two of our soldiers received injuries. "Pakistan army has lodged strong protest and demanded a flag meeting."
A spokeswoman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said: "Isaf is aware of the incident and is assessing it to determine what happened. This effort will be pursued in a co-operative manner using the border co-ordination centre partnership."
The injured soldiers were rushed to military hospitals - at least one is said to be in a serious condition.
Last September, Nato aircraft crossed the border from Afghanistan in an attack which Pakistan says killed three soldiers. Subsequently Pakistan temporarily blocked a key Nato supply route from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Nato says that only joint operations with Pakistan can help control the insurgents in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say they are doing their best to prevent militant recruits from gaining access to the training camps in the tribal regions. But Nato officials say nothing short of a major military operation in North Waziristan can stop this trend. US drones frequently target the tribal areas along the Afghan border, which are considered to be a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who launch attacks in Afghanistan.
|
Protest_Online Condemnation
|
May 2011
|
['(BBC)']
|
More than 20 people are killed and 100 injured in a suicide attack at a mosque in southeastern Iran.
|
At least 21 people, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, were killed and 100 wounded in suicide attack at a Shiite mosque in the southeast Iranian city of Zahedan on Thursday, Iranian media reported.
A late night broadcast by Al Arabiya television said the Sunni Muslim rebel group Jundollah claimed responsibility for the attack on the Zahedan's Grand Mosque.
The group said the attacks were in response to the execution by Iran of the group's leader Abdolmalek Rigi in June, the Dubai-based channel said.
In an e-mail to the station, the group said the bombings targeted a gathering of the Revolutionary Guards in the southeastern city of Zahedan, Arabiya said.
"In the two explosions in Zahedan more than 20 people were killed and over 100 were injured," Fariborz Rashedi, head of the emergency unit at Sistan-Baluchestan province told IRNA.
It later quoted Zahedan prosecutor Mohammad Marzieh as saying that 21 people had died.
Iran's deputy Interior Minister said "a number of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed and injured," the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Zahedan's MP Hoseinali Shahriari told Fars that he believed Sunni rebel group Jundollah was behind the explosions.
Iran hanged Jundollah's leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, last month for his involvement in earlier deadly attacks in Iran.
Predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran arrested Rigi in February, four months after his Jundollah group claimed a bombing which killed dozens of people, including 15 members of the Guards. It was the deadliest attack in Iran since the 1980s.
Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province which shares a border with Pakistan. The province faces serious security problems and there are frequent clashes between police and drug dealers and bandits.
In 2009, the group detonated a bomb in a Shiite mosque in Zahedan, killing 30 people and wounding more than 120.
Jundallah says it is fighting for the rights of the Sunni Baluch minority, and accuses Iran's Shiite-dominated government of persecution. Tehran claims Jundallah is behind an insurgency in its southeast that has destabilized the border region with Pakistan.
In June, Iran hanged the group's leader, Abdulhamid Rigi, in Zahedan after he was found guilty of carrying out attacks against civilians, armed robbery, and engaging in a disinformation campaign against Iran.
His younger brother, Abdulhamid, was executed in May in Iran after being captured in Pakistan in 2008 and extradited to Iran.
The group gained attention six years ago after it launched a campaign of sporadic kidnappings and bombings that killed dozens. The group claims minority Sunni tribes in southeastern Iran suffer discrimination at the hands of Iran's Shiite leadership.
Iran has accused the US and Britain of supporting Jundallah in an effort to weaken the Iranian government, a charge they deny. Iran also claims the group is linked to Al-Qaeda, but experts say no evidence of such a link has been found.
|
Riot
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July 2010
|
['(BBC)', '(Press TV)', '(Aljazeera)', '(Arab News)']
|
Same–sex marriage in Oregon becomes legal as a U.S. federal district court judge rules that the state's ban on such marriages violates equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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Oregon's ban on same-sex marriages was struck down Monday by U.S. District Judge Michael McShane, who ruled that the prohibition violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians.
Jubilant couples who anticipated a favorable decision from the judge began the rush to officially wed at locations around the state. McShane ordered that his ruling take immediate effect.
"Because Oregon's marriage laws discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without a rational relationship to any legitimate government interest," McShane wrote in his decision, "the laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution."
Deanna Geiger and Janine Nelson, two of the plaintiffs in the case, were the first couple to marry in Multnomah County following the ruling.
Oregon becomes the seventh state where a federal judge has struck down a gay marriage ban since the U.S. Supreme Court last year invalidated key sections of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Unlike in the other states -- Idaho, Utah, Michigan, Virginia, Oklahoma and Texas -- there was no one with the immediate standing to appeal the decision.
"Limiting civil marriage to opposite-gender couples based only on the traditional definition of marriage is simply not a legitimate purpose, he added.
McShane, one of only a few openly gay federal judges in the country, said during a hearing last week that he could rule without bias in the case and that he had no personal or political interest in the issue of same-sex marriage.
He ended his opinion by talking about how Americans of his generation -- he is 53 -- grew up "in a world in which homosexuality was believed to be a moral perversion, a mental disorder, or a mortal sin."
As a result, he said, it is not surprising that "many of us raised with such a world view" would seek to "enshrine in law those traditions we have come to value. But just as the Constitution protects the expression of these moral viewpoints, it equally protects the minority from being diminished by them."
He concluded:
I know that many suggest we are going down a slippery slope that will have no moral boundaries. To those who truly harbor such fears, I can only say this: Let us look less to the sky to see what might fall; rather, let us look to each other ... and rise.
Return to this story for updates and go to oregonlive.com for more stories, photos and other coverage.
-- Jeff Mapes
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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Government Policy Changes
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May 2014
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['(The Oregonian)']
|
The United States Education and Justice Departments advise U.S. public school districts across the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity, rather than their gender at birth. The new guidance comes as Justice and North Carolina battle in federal court over the state's new so–called bathroom bill.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration told U.S. public schools on Friday that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and raising the likelihood of fights over federal funding and legal authority.
Conservatives pushed back against the administration’s non-binding guidance to schools, the latest battleground in the issue of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the guidance “must be challenged.”
“If President Obama thinks he can bully Texas schools into allowing men to have open access to girls in bathrooms, he better prepare for yet another legal fight,” Paxton, a Tea Party champion, said in a statement.
Other Republican-led states joined calls to disregard the White House’s directive and accused the administration of overstepping its role. In North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory labeled the move a “massive executive branch overreach” and called on federal courts and the U.S. Congress to intercede, while Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said it was “offensive, intrusive and totally lacking in common sense.”
The U.S. Education and Justice Departments, in a letter, told school districts nationwide that while the guidance carries no legal weight, they must not discriminate against students, including based on their gender identity.
The guidance contained an implicit threat that school districts defying the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or be deprived of federal aid.
The White House defended its actions, saying the guidance should not be viewed as a threat but instead as a set of “specific, tangible, real-world advice and suggestions” that many schools had sought and will welcome.
“That’s what we’re looking for: solutions that protect the safety and dignity of every single student in school,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily briefing, adding that the idea was to prevent discrimination against a range of groups extending beyond the transgender community.
The directive came as the Justice Department and North Carolina are battling in federal court over a North Carolina state law approved in March that prohibits people from using public restrooms not corresponding to their gender assigned at birth, while other states weigh similar measures.
North Carolina’s law was the first to ban people from restrooms in public buildings and schools not matching the sex on their birth certificate. Mississippi has enacted legislation similarly viewed as discriminatory by civil and gay rights groups, and Tennessee and Missouri considered similar measures.
The letter to the schools from Washington said that, to get federal funding under existing rules, a school has to agree not to treat students or activities differently on the basis of sex. That includes not treating a transgender student differently from other students of the same gender identity, officials said.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the guidance would help make students “free to bring their whole selves to school.”
In a sign of what defiant states may face, the Justice Department this week asked a U.S. District Court in North Carolina to declare the state in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and order it to stop enforcing the ban.
Americans are divided over which public restrooms should be used by transgender people, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed, with 44 percent saying people should use them according to their biological sex and 39 percent saying they should be used according to the gender with which they identify.
A group representing U.S. school boards called the guidance “unsettled law.”
“A dispute about the intent of the federal law must ultimately be resolved by the courts and the Congress,” the National School Boards Association said in a statement.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was less critical than many of his party in several television interviews, saying the issue should be left up to individual states.
“Everybody has to be protected ... but it’s a tiny, tiny portion of the population,” Trump told Fox News.
Reporting by Megan Cassella and Susan Heavey;
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Government Policy Changes
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May 2016
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['(AP)', '(Reuters)']
|
German prosecutors launch an investigation into a retired Bavarian police officer and his wife for sending several threatening emails to politicians of Turkish background, including the head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, signing them with "NSU 2.0".
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BERLIN (Reuters) - German prosecutors said on Monday they were investigating a retired police officer suspected of sending threatening emails, signed with the name of a gang of neo-Nazi killers, to prominent figures of immigrant background.
Concern is growing in Germany that potentially violent anti-immigrant nationalists may be gaining footholds in the uniformed services - a matter of huge sensitivity in a country still acutely aware of the World War Two genocide of millions of Jews and others by Hitler’s Nazis.
The man and his wife were detained on Friday but then released while police searched seized computer storage devices.
The emails, including some sent to legislators of Turkish background, were signed “NSU 2.0”, a reference to the “National Socialist Underground” neo-Nazi gang, which murdered 10 people, mainly immigrants, between 2000 and 2007.
“The suspects, a former Bavarian police officer, 63, and his wife, 55, had previously come to the attention of police in connection with racially motivated crimes,” prosecutors in the city of Frankfurt said. “They are suspected of having sent emails with offensive, inflammatory and threatening contents to legislators and others.”
Last week, the interior minister of the state of Hesse said he was aware of 69 such emails. One of the recipients was Aiman Mazyek, chair of the Central Council of Muslims, who published the text on Twitter: “Heil Hitler. Yours, NSU 2.0”.
There have been reports that some emails contained restricted information about public figures, implying that the perpetrators may have had access to police databases.
Last month, the government announced it was disbanding a company of an elite commando unit in a effort to purge it of persistent far-right extremism.
Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate
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July 2020
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['(Reuters)']
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Accused drug lord Walid Makled Garcia is extradited from Colombia to Venezuela.
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(CNN) -- Walid Makled Garcia, accused of being one of the world's top drug lords, was extradited from Colombia to Venezuela on Monday, Venezuelan state media said.
Makled arrived at a military base in Caracas late Monday morning, the state-run AVN news agency reported. Colombian authorities arrested him in August. In Venezuela, Makled is accused of drug trafficking and killing a journalist who was investigating his family. The United States designated Makled as one of the world's most significant drug kingpins in May 2009 and had also requested his extradition. Colombian authorities said they received Venezuela's extradition request first, and noted that he faces more charges there.
"The American government made its request for crimes related to drug trafficking. The Venezuelan government accuses him of money laundering, drug trafficking, homicide and conspiracy," Colombian Justice Minister German Vargas Lleras said last month.
Makled, also known as "El Turco" and "El Arabe," has said he paid bribes of more than $1 million a month to Venezuelan government authorities and military officials. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has denied those allegations.
"Even among global narcotics traffickers, Makled Garcia is a king among kingpins," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said last year when an indictment against him was unsealed.
U.S. officials say Makled operated and controlled airstrips in Venezuela from 2006 until the time of his arrest.
"He used them to facilitate the shipment of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Venezuela to Central America and Mexico by numerous drug-trafficking organizations, knowing a portion were destined for the United States," the Justice Department said. "To secure the safe passage of these cocaine shipments, Makled Garcia bribed Venezuelan officials with fees he extracted from the drug-trafficking organizations."
Makled, who denies U.S. accusations of drug trafficking, said in an October interview with Venezuela's El Nacional newspaper that he paid millions of dollars to government officials and top military brass and has the vouchers and bank account numbers to prove it.
Makled, whose family owned a shipping business, has said he made the payments to be allowed to operate at some of the nation's largest ports.
"On my payroll I had (government) ministers, the siblings of ministers, generals, admirals, rear admirals, colonels and five deputies from the National Assembly, each of whom I gave a late-model car to," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
"If I am a narcotrafficker, the whole Chavez government is a narcotrafficker."
Makled also has said he contributed $2 million to Chavez for a political campaign.
Chavez has strongly denied those accusations and stood up for his government officials.
Makled is wanted in Venezuela on charges that he killed journalist Orel Zambrano, who had been investigating the Makled family businesses, and veterinarian Francisco Larrazabal, linked to horse racing. He is also wanted on drug trafficking charges.
Venezuela's government has seized 11 businesses from Makled, including the airline Aeropostal, one airplane, two boats, 77 trucks and three properties, according to a report from the U.S. State Department last year.
Makled has said the Venezuelan government confiscated many of his businesses after a raid in late 2008, when authorities say they found large quantities of cocaine on a family farm. Makled escaped across the border to Colombia, but three of his brothers were arrested.
The extradition comes amid improving relations between the neighboring South American countries.
Tensions had flared between the two nations after Colombia accused Venezuela of harboring members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftist rebel group that has been at war with the Colombian government for years.
But shortly after his inauguration last year, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met with Chavez and pledged to wipe the slate clean.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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May 2011
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['(CNN)']
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Progressive Slovakia candidate Zuzana Čaputová, who ran on an anti-corruption campaign against the backdrop of Ján Kuciak's murder, wins the first round of Slovakia's presidential election with 40.5% of the vote while the ruling Direction – Social Democracy Party's candidate Maroš Šefčovič receives 18.6% of the vote. As no candidate reached 50%+1 votes in the first round, Čaputová and Šefčovič will take part in a second round on March 30, 2019. The ruling Direction – Social Democracy Party suffers its worst result since its founding in 1999. (Slovakia's Election Commission)
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An anti-corruption campaigner with no experience of public office has won the first round of Slovakia’s presidential election, as voters spurned the ruling Smer party a year after the murder of an investigative journalist.
Environmental lawyer Zuzana Čaputová won 40.5% of the vote, with 99.4 of the ballots counted on Sunday, far ahead of the Smer candidate, Maroš Šefčovič, who had 18.7%. The pair will now contest a second-round run-off on 30 March.
The 45-year-old Čaputová, a pro-European liberal who belongs to the small, non-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia party, would stand out among the populist nationalist politicians on the rise across much of Europe.
Slovakia’s president does not wield day-to-day power but has veto power over the appointments of senior prosecutors and judges, pivotal in the fight against corruption.
“I see a strong call for change in this election following the tragic events last spring and a very strong public reaction,” Čaputová said on Saturday. “We stand at a crossroads between the loss and renewal of public trust, also in terms of Slovakia’s foreign policy orientation.”
The killing in February 2018 of Ján Kuciak, who reported on fraud cases involving politically connected businessmen, triggered the biggest anti-government protests in Slovakia since communism ended three decades earlier. It also led to the resignation of then-prime minister and Smer leader Robert Fico.
Fico’s government remains in power, but Smer’s popularity has slumped. On the first anniversary of Kuciak’s murder, thousands of Slovaks rallied to protest against what they see as a lack of government action on the corruption he uncovered.
The murder of Kuciak and his fiancee is still under investigation. The biggest breakthrough to date came just two days before the vote, when special prosecutors said they had charged businessman Marián Kočner, a subject of Kuciak’s reporting , with ordering the murder.
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Government Job change - Election
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March 2019
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['(Reuters)', '(The Guardian)', '(BBC)']
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Rene Boucher is sentenced to an additional eight months in prison for assaulting United States Senator Rand Paul in 2017.
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Follow NBC News The neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul who in 2017 attacked the Kentucky Republican during a dispute about their yards was sentenced Monday to an additional eight months in prison for the assault.
Rene Boucher must also serve six months in home confinement, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Leitman said Monday. Boucher will receive credit for the 30 days in prison he has already served.
Boucher had initially been sentenced to 30 days in jail for the attack, as well as 100 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine, but prosecutors said that sentence was too lenient and won the right to argue for a harsher sentence.
In a separate civil case, Boucher was also ordered to pay Paul more than $580,000 in damages.
Prosecutors were seeking a prison term of 21 to 27 months for Boucher.
During the virtual hearing, Paul, who suffered broken ribs in the November 2017 attack, said he flew 10 feet in the air from the force of the attack and was left with a “significant injury that I have lifelong symptoms from.”
“I don't know what a night without pain is like or what a day without pain is like, so I do suffer from this,” Paul said. “This was no routine altercation. This was no sort of face-to-face, man-to-man thing."
Paul testified that he suffered several bouts of pneumonia following the attack and eventually had to have hernia surgery because of all of his chronic coughing.
After he completes his sentence, Boucher will be on supervised release for 18 months with no contact with Paul or Paul’s family.
The attack stemmed from a dispute the two men had over yard waste.
Boucher, who according to court documents "had enough" of Paul’s yard maintenance habits after he saw him stacking brush into a pile on his own lawn that was near Boucher's property. Boucher then ran onto Paul's property and tackled him. Boucher was charged with assaulting a member of Congress as part of a federal plea agreement.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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July 2020
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['(NBC News)']
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Japan has halted the import of U.S. beef after an animal spine was found in a beef shipment at Tokyo International Airport. A ban has now been reinstated.
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TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan has halted the import of U.S. beef after an animal spine was found in a shipment at Tokyo International Airport, sparking new concerns over possible tainted meat less than two months after a previous ban was lifted.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters Friday that it was "extremely important to secure the food safety for the Japanese people."
In December, Japan lifted a two-year ban on U.S. beef, saying new safety measures would decrease the public's risk of contamination due to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, from U.S. beef. Under the regulations announced at the time, only cows younger than 20 months could be exported to Japan, and all brain, spinal cord and other material must be removed.
It is unclear how long the current stoppage will last.
The U.S. beef industry suffered a devastating economic blow after Japan and several other countries banned U.S. beef because of fears of tainted meat entering the food chain. Two cows in the United States had tested positive for BSE but neither were processed as food. In Washington, U.S. officials responded to Friday's new ban by delisting a meat processing plant and vowing action against the inspector responsible for approving the beef shipment.
"Our agreement with Japan is to export beef with no vertebral column and we have failed to meet the terms of that agreement," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement. He noted that because the beef was from a cow less than 30 months old, it was not "a specified risk material" but is still a violation of the export agreement.
The U.S. is taking the matter "very seriously" and the department plans to take "appropriate personnel action" against the food safety inspector who approved the shipment to Japan. By delisting the meat processing plant, it will no longer be allowed to export beef to Japan, Johanns said. A thorough investigation is under way and the USDA has dispatched a team of inspectors to help their Japanese counterparts reexamine all U.S. beef exports awaiting approval, Johanns said. Japan, which has had its own cases of BSE, tests every cow sold and previously had demanded the United States do the same. U.S. producers, however, said such steps were not necessary or economical.
Before the ban, Japan was the most lucrative market in the world for American beef, importing than $1.7 billion worth in 2003, according to the U.S. government.
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Government Policy Changes
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January 2006
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['(CNN)']
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The state of Louisiana reports 162 cases of oil-spill related illnesses to date, 128 of those among workers in the Gulf of Mexico, as concern over petroleum-related air pollution also grows.
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Public outrage over the BP oil spill fouling the Gulf of Mexico has focused on water pollution. But an air pollution health threat may also be serious, according to UCI researchers.
A team of UCI scientists, including Nobel laureate F. Sherwood Rowland and Chemistry department Chairman Donald Blake, has detected concentrations of toxic chemicals such as alkyl nitrates, methane, hexane and butane compounds that can irritate or burn skin and eyes or cause dizziness, according to studies.
So far, air samples from about 400 canisters the group collected on a recent trip to the oil spill do not show levels above government safety thresholds. But the concentrations are higher than those found over heavily polluted urban areas, such as Los Angeles, Mexico City or Oklahoma oil tank farms.
The blown-out well is 50 miles off Louisiana and is gushing oil into the gulf at a rate between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels a day. Several cleanup workers have been hospitalized with respiratory complaints.
UCI researchers say it is unclear whether the noxious gases in the air around the spill are the result of oil, of chemical dispersants or of other sources. More funding and government coordination are needed, they said. The scientists have submitted their findings to the Environmental Protection Agency and to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA followed up with a monitoring flight, but the results have not yet been released.
The UCI team is collecting more samples with an eye toward publishing a peer-reviewed paper in the near future. --Margot Roosevelt
Photo: A dispersant-carrying plane passes over an oil skimmer as it cleans oil from the explosion and collapse of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit:Patrick Semansky/Associated Press
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Environment Pollution
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June 2010
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['(Los Angeles Times)', '(CNN)']
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Albert Pahimi Padacké is appointed Prime Minister of Chad, replacing Kalzeubet Pahimi Deubet.
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N’DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad has appointed MP Albert Pahimi Padacke as prime minister of the Central African country following the resignation of his predecessor, state television said on Saturday, heralding a Cabinet reshuffle just two months ahead of presidential elections.
No reason was given for the departure of Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet earlier on Saturday. He had served as prime minister for more than two years.
President Idriss Deby, a key Western military ally in power for more than a quarter of a century, is set to bid for a fifth term as leader of the oil-producing country in April.
He has pledged to reintroduce term limits thereafter. Attempts by other African leaders to abolish them in order to extend their rules have led to violence, such as in Burundi, Burkina Faso and Congo Republic.
Pahimi Padacke, a former minister of justice, is seen as a close ally of Deby despite having run against him in the last presidential polls in 2011.
A political observer who asked not to be named said the appointment might help Deby lure supporters from opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo who comes from the same region as the new prime minister.
More From Reuters
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Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration
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February 2016
|
['(Reuters)']
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Turkish police shoot two attackers outside Istanbul’s central police headquarters, killing one of them. The exchange of fire wounds two officers.
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Istanbul’s governor said a female attacker carrying a bomb and a gun was killed and her male accomplice was injured. The accomplice was reportedly arrested after fleeing the scene. A policeman was also injured.
Footage on the website of the Dogan news agency showed one person lying on the ground as police vehicles sealed off the street in the Aksaray neighbourhood of central Istanbul.
An official at the police headquarters said there had been an attack and that gunfire was heard outside the building but declined to comment on any casualties, saying a statement would be made later. The attack comes a day after two leftist militants took an Istanbul prosecutor hostage in his office. All three died late on Tuesday after police special forces stormed the building in an effort to release him. Separately, police detained a gunman on Wednesday who entered a suburban Istanbul office of the ruling AK party and hung from its window a Turkish flag with the emblem of a sword added to it. Turkey’s justice minister said the two militants who seized the prosecutor on Tuesday had “held a gun to the nation” and vowed to find the “dark forces” behind them. Two members of the extreme leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, 46, hostage in his Istanbul office. Kiraz had been leading an investigation into the death of Berkin Elvan, 15, last March, nine months after he fell into a coma after being hit by a police teargas canister during anti-government protests in 2013.
The hostage-taking was in revenge for his death, the DHKP-C said on its website. “We don’t see this as an attack on our deceased prosecutor, but on the whole justice system. It is a gun directed at our nation,” said the justice minister, Kenan Ipek, at a ceremony attended by hundreds of lawyers and judges. “Our state is powerful enough to track down those behind these lowlifes ... The fact these assassins are dead shouldn’t put those nefarious and dark forces at ease,” he said as Kiraz’s coffin stood on display in the courthouse foyer. One mourner, a 49-year-old lawyer who gave his name as Serpil, said the prosecutor should have had better security. “Perhaps the police could have negotiated with them longer,” he added. DHKP-C sympathisers clashed with police in two Istanbul neighbourhoods overnight, local media reported. Counter-terrorism police have raided homes of suspected members and detained more than two dozen people in three provincial cities. Riot police detained 36 students at Istanbul University after posters referring to one of the dead hostage-takers were displayed in the law faculty, a leftist union said on its website. The deputy prime minister, Emrullah Isler, accused the hostage-takers on Twitter of links to groups that incited violence during the 2013 unrest in which Elvan was injured. Last month newspapers reported that the prosecutor Kiraz had identified three police officers involved in Elvan’s death and was close to finishing his investigation. The DHKP-C is a Marxist group that has been behind a series of assassinations and suicide bombings, including fatal attacks on the US embassy. Turkish police have also been a frequent target. The US, EU and Turkey list it as a terrorist organisation.
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Armed Conflict
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April 2015
|
['(The Guardian)']
|
A bulldozer damages a gas line with a subsequent explosion at a construction site in al–Jalala mountain, Egypt, killing two people and wounding nine more.
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Two workers died and nine others were injured Saturday in an explosion caused by a gas leak at a site under construction in al-Jalala mountain.
Ambulances rushed to transport the injured to the Suez General Hospital, and fire engines moved to control the fire and the gas line was closed.
Director of the Suez Civil Protection Department moved to the scene accompanied by three fire engines and a Gasco company fire truck and put out the fire.
A security source confirmed that the accident was caused by a gas leak when a bulldozer broke the natural gas line of Gasco.
As a result of a heat source, most likely from a worker who lit a cigarette, fire broke out at the site.
A medical source, who declined to be named, said that 19 ambulances moved to the scene of the fire. Six injured workers were transferred to the burns department at Suez General Hospital, including one who suffered from suffocation.
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Gas explosion
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March 2018
|
['(The Egypt Independent)']
|
Hundreds of small investors engage in protest activities in Dhaka following the steepest daily fall in the stock exchange.
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Hundreds of investors went on the rampage in the commercial heart of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka after the stock exchange suffered its steepest ever fall.
The benchmark DSE general index (DGEN) lost 552 points or 6.72 per cent by the close of trade on Sunday as panic gripped investors following last week's policy rate hike by the central bank and a series of recent volatile market swings.
Local police chief Tofazzal Hossain said at least 500 investors hurled bricks at law enforcement officers near the Dhaka Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) offices.
"They chanted slogans against the government and the regulators, and marched through the busy roads in the Motijheel Commercial area, halting traffic. They also staged a sit-in at the SEC building," he said.
The plunge pulled the DGEN down to 7,654.40.
The index hit a record high on December 5 of 8,918.51 points, up around 80 per cent since the start of the year.
On December 8, the market also nosedived, prompting protests by at least 2,000 investors in Dhaka and several other district towns.
Dealers said the central bank's move to contain inflation hit the market at a time when investors were already rattled by instability.
The Bangladesh Bank raised the cash reserve requirement (CRR) in commercial banks by 50 basis points to six per cent, sending financial institutions scrambling for funds.
"The CRR has created a liquidity crunch in the market and forced some banks to sell their stocks to meet the reserve requirement," said Arif Khan, head of IDLC Securities, a merchant bank.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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December 2010
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['(BBC)', '(AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)']
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