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The Ugandan army captures Caesar Achellam, a senior commander of the militant Lord's Resistance Army, in the Central African Republic.
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A senior commander in the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has been captured by the Ugandan army, a spokesman has said.
Caesar Achellam was seized on Saturday following a struggle between Ugandan soldiers and a group of 30 rebels.
The commander, whom Ugandan officials say is a top rebel military strategist, was captured in the Central African Republic, one of several nations where the Ugandan-led LRA operates.
The most notorious wanted LRA leader is war crimes suspect Joseph Kony.
Following his arrest, Achellam told reporters: "The general of the division, Caesar Achellam, who has fought in the jungle since 1984, is from now on in the hands of the Ugandan Army."
"My coming out will have a big impact for the people still in the bush to come out and end this war soon," he said.
Ugandan army spokesman Felix Kulaigye, meanwhile, said: "The arrest of Major General Caesar Achellam is big progress because he is a big fish. "His capture is definitely going to cause an opinion shift within LRA."
The commander's wife, his young daughter and a helper were also held.
Kony's global notoriety has increased in recent months because of the internet video Kony 2012, which has been watched tens of millions of times since it was posted online by the US advocacy group Invisible Children.
He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for rape, mutilation and murder of civilians, as well as forcibly recruiting children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves.
The UN's special representative for Central Africa said on Saturday that Kony was having to move constantly in order to evade capture.
Abou Moussa said: "Contrary to what Kony used to do - that he would stay one month, two months on the ground - he is now moving almost every other day which means the pressure is mounting on him."
The Ugandan army is being assisted in its hunt for Kony by soldiers from other African nations, as well as US special forces.
The strength of his LRA is estimated at between 200 and 500 fighters.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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May 2012
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['(BBC)']
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Saudi Arabian, Emirati, and Qatari leaders emphasizing that unity among Arab partners is essential for regional stability and for countering Iran's threat.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on September 8 urged Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to resolve their differences with Qatar and present a united front against Iran, the White House said.
Trump spoke separately with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) Crown Prince Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Trump told them that unity among Washington's Arab partners was essential to promoting regional stability and countering the threat of Iran, the White House said.
The leaders "discussed the continued threat Iran poses to regional stability," it said.
"The president also emphasized that all countries must follow through on commitments from the Riyadh Summit to defeat terrorism, cut off funding for terrorist groups, and combat extremist ideology." Trump said on September 7 that he was willing to step in and mediate the dispute between Qatar and other Gulf Arab states, and he thought a deal could come quickly.
Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Egypt, and Bahrain in June cut diplomatic, trade, air, and shipping ties with Qatar, which is home to the Persian Gulf's biggest U.S. military base.
The Saudi-led group of Arab states said Qatar was too close to Saudi archrival Iran and too lenient on Islamic extremists -- accusations that Doha denies.
The leaders of Qatar and Saudi Arabia for the first time since the dispute broke out spoke by phone on September 8 and Qatar's Thani subsequently expressed willingness to negotiate a settlement of their dispute, media reported.
However, Saudi Arabia early on September 9 said it was suspending any dialogue because Qatar's state news agency, which had portrayed the call as a breakthrough coordinated by Trump, had "distorted facts." As Kuwaiti officials visited Washington during the week, Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also endorsed an effort to mediate the Gulf Arab dispute by Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah.
"We support his efforts to help bring about a settlement," Tillerson said on September 8. "The United States and Kuwait both recognize the important of [Gulf Cooperation Council] unity to meet the challenges of the region that we all face together, not the least of which is the threats from Iran."
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Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting
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September 2017
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['(The Hill)', '(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)']
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The Government of India deploys the Army to the state of Gujarat after two days of casterelated violence results in seven deaths.
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By Reuters Published: 06:45 BST, 27 August 2015 | Updated: 06:45 BST, 27 August 2015 By Amit Dave
AHMEDABAD, India, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The Indian army patrolled riot-hit areas of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat on Thursday after the death toll rose to seven in two days of caste-related violence.
Clashes spread after police arrested a young leader of the influential Patel clan who led a huge rally on Tuesday to demand more government jobs and college places for members of his community.
The breakdown of law and order revived memories of serious rioting in 2002 in which more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, died. Modi, chief minister of Gujarat at the time, has faced criticism for doing too little to halt the bloodshed.
"Six protesters and a police officer have lost their lives and 18 people are critically injured," said Keshav Shah, a senior police officer in the state capital Gandhinagar.
"Schools, business and private offices will not open today. The mood is tense and no one should venture out," he said, adding that a curfew would remain in force.
Modi has called for calm in the state that he ran for more than a decade before leading his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to victory in last year's general election.
The Patels, or Patidar community, make up 14 percent of the population in Gujarat. A relatively affluent group of land- and business-owners, they had been a bulwark of support for Modi.
Members of the Patel community said they will continue to demand changes to policies that, they argue, unfairly favour groups at the lower end of India's social order.
"We will not let the government suppress our demands. They can kill as many Patels as they want," said 21-year-old activist Hardik Patel.
The young leader drew a crowd of half a million to a rally on Tuesday in the city of Ahmedabad. His detention there led to clashes between police and protesters across the state, forcing authorities to release him. (Writing by Rupam Jain Nair; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Robert Birsel)
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Armed Conflict
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August 2015
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['(Reuters via The Daily Mail)']
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In boxing, Filipino Manny Pacquiao defeats American Brandon Rios to win the World Boxing Organization International Welterweight title.
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Manny Pacquiao (left) shook off an 11-month layoff to defeat Brandon Rios in a unanimous decision. (Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images)
After a lay-off of 11 months, Manny Pacquiao got back in the ring Saturday in Macau, where he won a unanimous decision over American Brandon Rios and captured the WBO international welterweight title.
The judges scored the bout 120-108, 119-109, 118-110 for Pacquiao, who moved deftly while scoring well-executed combinations in winning round after round. Rios found few opportunities to unleash the power that gave rise to his nickname, Bam Bam.
“Manny Pacquiao is very fast. He’s fast, very awkward. His speed got me a little bit,” Rios said in a ring interview after the fight.
The victory snaps a two-bout losing streak for Pacquiao, who had not stepped in a ring since being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao has won 10 world titles in eight different weight classes and improved his career mark to 55-5-2 with the win over Rios.
After the fight, Pacquiao indicated reports that he was considering retirement were premature, telling the crowd, “My time is not over.”
The humble Pacquiao,. Never talks trash or bad againts his opponent,thts why God bless him always..WE ARE REALLY PROUD OF U MANNY!!
Manny is an amazing fighter, and person. I hope he quits while he's on top and doesn't hang on too long.
I'd hate to see him look bad in a fight, which could eventually happen. After all, we all get OLDER!
"His speed got me a little bit”-Brandon Rios"A little bit?!?!"-Brandon Rios' Face
Is it just me or did Rios let Pacquiao win? seriously he just stood there!! what a sh**** fight! I guess Jinkee must be happy to see Manny win again, I can still remember her face when Marquez defeated last time or when those the name of Manny's mistresses were reveal
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Sports Competition
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November 2013
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['(Sports Illustrated via CNN)']
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A United Nations expert panel finds "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicate that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
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A United Nations panel has called for setting up of an “independent international mechanism” into what it called “credible” allegations that Sri Lankan military committed war crimes in its final decisive offensive against Tamil Tigers in 2009, a charge described by Colombo as “unsubstantiated.”
The three-member panel, appointed by U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon submitted its report last week without making it public. But leaked excerpts were published here in Island newspaper.
According to the paper the report has described as “credible” allegations that Sri Lankan military systematically targeted hospitals in the Tamil dominated Vanni area and executed some of the captured LTTE cadres after the war.
The panel has also alleged that LTTE had held Vanni population hostage and executed those trying to escape in beginning of February 2009.
The paper said, the U.N. panel had dismissed the findings and process of the ‘Sri Lankan Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee’ and demand that Colombo should launch a “genuine” investigations into the war crimes charges and other alleged violations of international and human rights law, committed by both sides.
The panel report was handed over to the Sri Lankan government on the eve of Sinhala new year.
Reacting to the report Sri Lankan government called it “fundamentally flawed” and “biased”. Colombo had vehemently protested the creation of an U.N. panel and refused entry to the members of the body.
The Island quoted an authoritative government spokesman as saying that the U.N. panel had repeated unsubstantiated allegations made by the LTTE and its hired agents during the war and its aftermath.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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April 2011
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['(PTI/The Hindu)', '(AFP/France 24)']
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At least 12 people are dead following the eruption of Mount Merapi in Central Java. Thousands of people are evacuating the area.
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At least 13 people have been killed in Indonesia after the country's most volatile volcano erupted.
Mount Merapi, in central Java, began erupting just before dusk on Tuesday, spewing plumes of hot ash and rocks.
Officials say the volcano victims, including a small baby, were killed by the heat and burning ash.
Thousands of people have been evacuated amid fears pressure building up beneath Merapi's lava dome could lead to one of the most powerful blasts in years.
But a further 13,000 people need to be evacuated from within a 10-mile (16km) radius of the volcano, officials say.
It is thought that 5,000 people live on or near the volcano.
Television footage showed thousands of people fleeing the area, some covered in the volcano's white ash which rained from the sky.
People with severe burns were seen being taken away on stretchers.
An eyewitness said he went to help a family trapped in their home but could not reach them.
"I was 10 metres away from the family but couldn't get any closer because the ash was very hot, so we couldn't handle it," the Associated Press (AP) news agency quoted him as saying. "To get out of the area, I had to hold on to trees to avoid the hot tarmac. That is why I survived, otherwise I don't think I would have made it."
Emergency teams have found at least 12 bodies in the area close to the mountain, local media report.
"There are likely to be more victims as the terrain is difficult, roads are damaged and trees uprooted, it's dark and the condition of the volcano is still unstable," said Yogyakarta search and rescue official Taufiq.
Meanwhile, a doctor at Muntilan hospital confirmed to Metro TV that a small baby had died there on Tuesday.
"The baby had severe breathing difficulties from inhaling volcanic materials and we could not help it," said Sasongko, who uses only one name.
Dr Adi Mulyo at Panti Nugroho hospital said 18 people were being treated there for severe burns - some were suffering burns to 90% of their bodies.
He said the hospital did not have enough equipment to treat all the injured, so some were being sent to a larger hospital in Sarjito.
Thousands of people living near the volcano have been ordered to move to safer ground, but many are still refusing to leave. Some are refusing to heed the warnings because they do not want to leave their livestock and properties behind.
Ponco Sumarto, 65, who arrived at a makeshift camp with her two grandchildren, said her children had stayed behind to look after their crops. "I just have to follow orders to take shelter here for safety, even though I'd rather stay at home," AP quoted her as saying.
The head of one village near the volcano said that many residents were stranded. He said rain loaded with volcanic ash had reduced visibility to just 5m (16ft).
"We are evacuating to the village square, around 14km from Mount Merapi slope. Some of the villagers are still stranded but we received text messages from them, saying that they are OK," Heri Suprapto told the BBC.
BBC Indonesia correspondent Karishma Vaswani says that for many Javanese, Mt Merapi is a sacred site. Officials say some of the villagers are waiting for the local "gatekeeper" of the volcano to tell them that the increased activity at Mt Merapi is dangerous.
Described as a medicine man, he is believed by many villagers to have a spiritual connection to the volcano.
He has reportedly said he will not leave yet, but is urging villagers to make their way to government shelters, our correspondent says.
On Monday, officials monitoring the volcano raised the alert for Mount Merapi to the highest possible level. Since then, more than 600 volcanic earthquakes have been recorded around the mountain. "We heard three explosions around 1800 (1100 GMT) spewing volcanic material as high as 1.5km (one mile) and sending heat clouds down the slopes," government vulcanologist Surono told AFP news agency.
He warned that pressure was building up behind a lava dome near the crater.
"We hope it will release slowly," he said. "Otherwise, we're looking at a potentially huge eruption, bigger than anything we've seen in years."
He said this eruption was more powerful than the volcano's last blast, in 2006, which killed two people. In 1930 another powerful eruption wiped out 13 villages, killing more than 1,000 people.
In pictures: Mt Merapi erupts
Merapi more than just a mountain
Merapi mystic defies Java volcano alert
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer.
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Volcano Eruption
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October 2010
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['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)']
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A local politician and provincial Bayan Muna party leader in Aklan, Fernando Baldomero, is shot dead bringing the total number of political and human rights activists killed in the Philippines since the return of democracy in 1986 to over 1,200.
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(CNN) -- A Filipino politician and party leader was shot to death in front of his house Monday, party officials said.
Fernando Baldomero, councilman and provincial coordinator for the Bayan Muna party, was killed while he was preparing to take his child to school, according to a Bayan Muna statement.
Baldomero, 61, was a second-term councilman and an official of the Makabayan Coalition, which brings together leftist groups.
"He is the 145th Bayan Muna member to fall victim to extrajudicial killings in the country and the first activist and elected local government official slain under the (Benigno) Aquino administration," the party said in a statement. Aquino took office last week.
"We demand an immediate and thorough investigation on the possible involvement of military and military-backed death squads in this continuing climate of impunity against government critics. Baldomero is the first and should be the last victim of extrajudicial killing under the Aquino government," said Teodoro Casiño, a Bayan Muna representative and friend of Baldomero's.
Citing media reports, the party said two people waited outside of Baldomero's home and shot him with .45-caliber pistols. Four shells were found at the scene, the party said.
Monday was not the first attempt on the politician's life.
On March 19, two men riding a motorbike with no plates threw two grenades at his house, one which exploded in his kitchen, the party said. No one was injured.
"The death toll of activists must be stopped. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, President Aquino should rein in the military and their death squads to put an end to the impunity that was nurtured by his despised predecessor," Bayan Muna President Satur Ocampo said.
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Famous Person - Death
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July 2010
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['(New York Times)', '(CNN)']
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The European Court of Human Rights rules that Turkey's government violated the property rights of a Greek Orthodox foundation by seizing its land and fines it €105,000.
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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights Tuesday ruled Turkey had violated the property rights of a Greek Orthodox foundation by seizing its land and ordered the government to pay damages.
Judges said Turkey had breached the European Convention on Human Rights by barring the foundation from registering its title to a church and surrounding lands on the Aegean island of Bozcaada, a statement from the court said.
It is the latest ruling by the Strasbourg-based court against Turkey for violating the property rights of its ethnic Greek minority. The European Union, which Turkey seeks to join, has called on the government to return seized properties to minorities and expand their religious and cultural freedoms.
The European Court of Human Rights fined Turkey 105,000 euros ($131,880) for damages and expenses after it ruled authorities had illegally prevented the rightful owner of the Kimisis Teodoku Greek Orthodox Church from registering its property, the statement said.
The foundation was denied the right to register its title to three pieces of land and a building on the island after the state land registry was reorganized in 1991, the statement said.
Turkish courts had ruled against the foundation because it had missed an initial deadline to re-register its deed and had ordered the property be turned over to the state Treasury.
The Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, spiritual leader of 250 million faithful worldwide, has filed more than two dozen cases with the European Court of Human Rights to recover some of the thousands of properties it says it has lost.
In September, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in a separate case that Turkey had violated the property rights of the patriarchate by seizing a 100-year-old orphanage on an island off of Istanbul and ordered its return.
It has also ruled that Turkey illegally took control of other properties in Istanbul owned by Greek foundations.
About 25 mostly elderly ethnic Greeks live on Bozcaada, part of a community of 2,500 Greeks in Turkey, which is 99 percent Muslim. Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, is also home to about 15,000 Jews and 60,000 Armenians.
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Organization Fine
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March 2009
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['(Reuters)']
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Fourteen people are killed by gunmen at a soccer field in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
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(CNN) -- Fourteen people were shot and killed at a soccer field in northern Honduras, a police spokesman said Saturday.
Juan Lopez, a police spokesman in the industrial city of San Pedro Sula, said 10 people died on the scene, while four more were transported to an area medical center for treatment. They died of their wounds, he added.
"We're investigating to see what sort of organization could be behind this. The most likely (scenario) is that the attack was directed at one or some of the men on the field and that the others were caught in the crossfire," Lopez said.
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Armed Conflict
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October 2010
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['(CNN)']
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A suicide bombing at a UN patrol base in Mali results in the deaths of 2 UN peacekeepers and the injury of at least 7 others.
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Two UN peacekeepers have been killed and seven others were injured in a suicide attack on a UN patrol base in northern Mali.
A pick-up truck laden with explosives drove into the UN camp in Ber, 50km (30 miles) east of Timbuktu, on Saturday.
A suicide attacker was among the dead, which included two soldiers from Burkina Faso serving with the UN.
It is not yet clear who was behind the attack, which has been condemned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. France intervened militarily in Mali last year in a bid to drive out Islamists who had taken advantage of an uprising by Tuareg rebels in the north of the country.
The attack took place at 11:30 GMT, the UN Multidimensional Stabilisation Mission in Mali (Minusma) said.
One eyewitness, who saw the aftermath of the blast, said Burkinabe troops had set up camp in Ber after the town was taken over by rebels last month.
"There was no checkpoint. The bomber was able to drive the vehicle right into the camp, among the tents, before blowing himself up," he added.
Two peacekeepers, who were also from Burkina Faso, were seriously injured in the attack.
It comes after three other international peacekeepers - two Bangladeshi, one Chadian - were injured when their vehicles drove over mines in two separate incidents at the end of last week.
Acting director of Minusma David Gressly said his force was "paying too heavy a price in Mali given that the peacekeepers are here precisely to ensure a return to peace and stability". Militants belonging to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are known to use similar tactics such as the ones used in Saturday's attack, says the BBC's Alex Duval Smith in Mali. Peace talks aimed at drawing up a road map for peace between the Malian government and Tuareg separatist rebels are due to resume in September.
It comes after three weeks of talks in July and August, which were mediated by the Algerian government.
But these talks do not include al-Qaeda or other Islamist elements involved in the conflict, our reporter says.
One of the separatist groups involved in talks, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), issued a statement on Saturday condemning the Ber attack and offering its condolences to the people and government of Burkina Faso.
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Armed Conflict
|
August 2014
|
['(BBC)', '(CNN)']
|
During a rally in support of German comedian Jan Böhmermann, outside the Turkish embassy in Berlin, Bruno Kramm, head of the Berlin branch of Germany's Pirate Party, is arrested for “insulting a representative of a foreign state” by quoting a line from the comic’s satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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German police arrested Kramm while he was conducting a “literary analysis” of the German comedian’s satirical poem in front of the Turkish embassy in Berlin during a protest held under the slogan “No Power for Erdowahn, Freedom Instead of Erdogan” [Keine Macht dem Erdowahn, Freiheit statt Erdogan], the Morgenpost newspaper reported.
The politician cited a couple of lines from the now-infamous piece that landed Boehmermann in hot water, namely, “Kicking Kurds, beating Christians,” which refer to the Turkish authorities’ reported crackdown on minorities.
Kramm was approached by several police officers as he was reciting the lines and taken into custody. The police dispersed the gathering shortly thereafter.
One of the activists, Franz-Josef Schmitt, posted a photo of a police van, saying that nobody is allowed to visit Kramm.
According to the newspaper, police have accused Kramm of violating a rarely used section of the German criminal code, namely section 103, that prohibits insulting “organs and representatives of foreign states.”
“When people slightly criticize the government in Turkey, they are persecuted, beaten or disappear. In contrast to this, the dictator Erdogan is allowed to significantly restrict the right of assembly and the freedom of expression in Germany merely for a statement, that he beats Kurds and Christians,” Kramm had written in a statement published on the German Pirate Party’s official website.
“Who makes such people agents of inhumane refugee policy, should not be surprised when fundamental rights disappear also in Europe,” he added, referring to the heavily criticized EU-Turkey migrant deal recently praised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The police had reportedly sanctioned the rally on condition that the activists would not quote any lines from Boehmermann’s poem, because “it may constitute a criminal offense of defamation,” said police spokesman Stefan Redlich, as cited by Morgenpost.
Ahead of the rally, Schmitt wrote that “police have explicitly banned us from performing critical dialectical analysis of the Boehmermann’s poem…otherwise they will bring criminal charges and remove a microphone.”
The party says it has been staging weekly demonstrations in front of the Turkish embassy on Fridays to protest the “systemic terror of censorship, oppression, despotism and killings of the dictator Erdogan.”
Earlier on Friday, Merkel admitted that it had been a mistake to express her personal opinion of the German comedian’s poem, which she condemned for being “deliberately insulting.”
READ MORE: Focus on cat videos’: German comic targeted in free speech row with Erdogan suspends TV
“In hindsight, that was an error,” Merkel said in Berlin on Friday, adding that she feared that her comments might be taken to mean that “freedom of opinion is not important, that freedom of the press is not important.”
However, she didn’t backtrack on authorizing the prosecution of the disrespectful comedian under section 103, despite the public outcry.
“I believe [allowing the investigation] to be correct, same as before,” she stressed, as cited by DW.
Boehmermann suspended his show last week after Merkel heeded Turkish President Erdogan’s calls to begin the proceedings.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest
|
April 2016
|
['(RT)']
|
Three car bombs explode outside police stations in Basra, killing 68 people and wounding over 100 more. Iraqi officials blame suicide bombers for the terrorism. 23 of the casualties are school children. A fourth car bomb explodes in Zubeir, south of Basra, killing three and wounding four. British soldiers assisting the wounded are pelted with stones, injuring four, two seriously.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 21 The suicide attacks in Basra on Wednesday shattered a week of relative calm in Iraq, bringing anger, mourning and upheaval to a mostly Shiite southern city that has been spared the worst of the violence in the yearlong American occupation. Local officials in Basra said the death toll from the attacks rose to 68 by afternoon, including as many as 23 children on their way to school. More than 100 people, among them four British soldiers, were wounded in five explosions.
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Armed Conflict
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April 2004
|
['(BBC)', '(NYT)']
|
A blast in a brothel in the northeastern city of Bauchi kills at least 11 people and injures 28.
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KADUNA: An explosion overnight in a brothel in the northeastern Nigerian city of Bauchi killed 11 people and wounded 28, police said on Saturday, with suspicion likely to fall on the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.The initial statement sent by text message said the cause of the blast was unknown. Boko Haram has targeted several cities across north and central Nigeria in a bombing campaign in the past few months, killing hundreds of people.Police on Saturday arrested one suspect in connection with the blast in the People’s Hotel brothel, Bauchi state police spokesman Haruna Mohammed said. He gave no further details.A military operation in the northeast has so far failed to quell the rebellion and has triggered a string of reprisal attacks on officials and civilians. Boko Haram’s targets often include places it considers sinful according to its austere brand of Sunni Islam, such as bars, schools or churches.The insurgents say they are fighting to carve an Islamic state out of religiously-mixed Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, biggest economy and leading energy producer.
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Armed Conflict
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June 2014
|
['(Reuters via Daily Times)']
|
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko names former Interior Minister Yury Karayeu and Health Minister Vladimir Karanik as possible successors to lead the country.
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MINSK, March 19. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko named former Minister of the Interior, presidential aide Yuri Karayev and former Health Minister Vladimir Karanik as two worthy candidates who can potentially lead the republic in the future.
He underscored that the transition of power can happen only via elections, reiterating that his children will not become presidents after him.
"I have two people standing here, they might participate in the presidential elections, they will be strong candidates. One is a general [Yuri Karayev - TASS], and the other one is a governor [Vladimir Karanik - TASS]. They’re young, they are smart, and they know what this country is worth," Lukashenko said, pointing to the members of his inspection delegation.
The head of state stated his certainty that "there are worthy people, who know the country" in Belarus, and they will compete.
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Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration
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March 2021
|
['(TASS)']
|
A 7.6–magnitude earthquake 87 miles west of the Costa Rican capital of San José triggers a tsunami alert for the coastlines of Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.
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The September 5, 2012, M 7.6 earthquake beneath the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, occurred as the result of shallow thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone interface between the Cocos and Caribbean plates. At the location of this earthquake, the Cocos plate moves north-northeast with respect to the Caribbean plate at a velocity of about 77 mm/yr, and subducts beneath Central America at the Middle America Trench west of the September 5th earthquake. While commonly plotted as points on maps, earthquakes of this size are more appropriately described as slip over a larger fault area. Thrust-faulting events of the size of the August 31, 2012, earthquake are typically about 90x45 km (length x width); modeling of this earthquake implies dimensions of about 80x90 km, predominantly surrounding and up-dip of the hypocenter.
Over the past 40 years, the region within 250 km of the September 5th earthquake has experienced approximately 30 M 6+ earthquakes; two of these were larger than M 7, neither of which caused documented fatalities. The first of these two historic M 7+ events was a M 7.2 earthquake in August 1978, 9 km to the north-northeast of the September 5th event; the second had a magnitude of 7.3 and struck a region just over 50 km to the east-southeast in March 1990. The M 7.8 earthquake of October 5, 1950, occurred in the general area of the September 5th earthquake, although the hypocenter of the earlier earthquake is not known to high precision. The 1950 earthquake caused damage in northwestern Costa Rica and in the Valle Central of Costa Rica, but no casualties were reported. The nearest earthquake to cause fatalities in recent history was the M 6.5 April 1973 earthquake, which occurred at shallow depth approximately 80 km to the northeast; the 1973 event resulted in 26 fatalities and more that 100 injuries.
Hayes et al. (2016) Tectonic summaries of magnitude 7 and greater earthquakes from 2000 to 2015, USGS Open-File Report 2016-1192. (5.2 MB PDF)
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Earthquakes
|
September 2012
|
['(CNN)', '(USGS)']
|
Thousands of "red shirt" anti–government protesters demonstrate in Bangkok, Thailand, calling for new elections.
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BANGKOK, Dec 10 (TNA) - Thousands of anti-government demonstrators from the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) on Thursday massed at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument to mark Constitution Day amid tight security, but the movement’s leader promised the rally will end, as scheduled, by midnight if it is not disrupted.
The so-called Red Shirt mass rally began Thursday noon at Ratchadamnoen Avenue's Democracy Monument, even as the government's grand celebrations to mark His Majesty the King's birthday was being held at the nearby Royal Plaza.
Some 1,500 riot police are on standby at Metropolitan Police Bureau, while local police in the protest areas have been overseeing security during the rally to prevent third party or groups from ‘creating a situation’.
Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will address his supporters via video link in the evening and lead them in a mass candle-lit ceremony to bless His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the occasion of his 82th birthday.
Key UDD leader Jatuporn Prompan said the Thursday rally is not aimed at toppling the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, but if any clash occurs, the movement will prolong its rally indefinitely.
If there is no disruption, the rally will end by midnight and the UDD leaders will meet again Tuesday December 15 to discuss the group's position in the current political atmosphere, according to Mr Jatuporn.
The UDD leader said he was informed that four busloads of bogus Red Shirt supports recruited in the northeastern province of Buri Ram are heading toward the capital to join the demonstration.
Mr Jatuporn claimed that a ‘real’ Red Shirt supporter was by chance in one of the buses and witnessed that red T-shirts were distributed to the travellers, while some carried metal pipes.
The UDD leader said he asked Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Phatthraprasit, assigned to coordinate with key Red Shirt leaders, to warn Newin Chidchob, de facto leader of the Bhumjai Thai Party, the key coalition partner, not to bring imposters to the rally, otherwise possible violence could not be avoided.
Mr Newin however denied the accusation.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Thursday urged the Red Shirts to rally peacefully, saying he believes the demonstration will not be prolonged.
The government will not set any conditions that will lead to a prolonged rally, he said. Instead it decided to suspend the celebrations marking the king's birthday at Ratchadamnoen Klang Avenue Thursday to avoid any clash and the festive event will begin again Friday.
"I don't know why some people are trying to spoil the atmosphere," said the premier. "Everyone wants this month to be auspicious and full of happiness, while the government has been obviously flexible to the matter and wants the demonstrators to bear in mind about this too." (TNA)
Political News : Last Update : 18:18:15 10 December 2009 (GMT+7:00) Archives
• PAD signature campaign to impeach 102 MPs • Hun Sen to visit disputed border: Thai Deputy PM • PM chairs security meeting as Cambodian premier plans border visit • Government braces for security threat • Thailand's Red Shirts rally against coup at military camps • Red Shirts plan nationwide rallies at military barracks • Five coalition parties announce go-ahead to amend Constitution
BANGKOK, Dec 10 (TNA) - Thousands of anti-government demonstrators from the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) on Thursday massed at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument to mark Constitution Day amid tight security, but the movement’s leader promised the rally will end, as scheduled, by midnight if it is not disrupted.
The so-called Red Shirt mass rally began Thursday noon at Ratchadamnoen Avenue's Democracy Monument, even as the government's grand celebrations to mark His Majesty the King's birthday was being held at the nearby Royal Plaza.
Some 1,500 riot police are on standby at Metropolitan Police Bureau, while local police in the protest areas have been overseeing security during the rally to prevent third party or groups from ‘creating a situation’.
Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will address his supporters via video link in the evening and lead them in a mass candle-lit ceremony to bless His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the occasion of his 82th birthday.
Key UDD leader Jatuporn Prompan said the Thursday rally is not aimed at toppling the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, but if any clash occurs, the movement will prolong its rally indefinitely.
If there is no disruption, the rally will end by midnight and the UDD leaders will meet again Tuesday December 15 to discuss the group's position in the current political atmosphere, according to Mr Jatuporn.
The UDD leader said he was informed that four busloads of bogus Red Shirt supports recruited in the northeastern province of Buri Ram are heading toward the capital to join the demonstration.
Mr Jatuporn claimed that a ‘real’ Red Shirt supporter was by chance in one of the buses and witnessed that red T-shirts were distributed to the travellers, while some carried metal pipes.
The UDD leader said he asked Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Phatthraprasit, assigned to coordinate with key Red Shirt leaders, to warn Newin Chidchob, de facto leader of the Bhumjai Thai Party, the key coalition partner, not to bring imposters to the rally, otherwise possible violence could not be avoided.
Mr Newin however denied the accusation.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Thursday urged the Red Shirts to rally peacefully, saying he believes the demonstration will not be prolonged.
The government will not set any conditions that will lead to a prolonged rally, he said. Instead it decided to suspend the celebrations marking the king's birthday at Ratchadamnoen Klang Avenue Thursday to avoid any clash and the festive event will begin again Friday.
"I don't know why some people are trying to spoil the atmosphere," said the premier. "Everyone wants this month to be auspicious and full of happiness, while the government has been obviously flexible to the matter and wants the demonstrators to bear in mind about this too." (TNA)
Political News : Last Update : 18:18:15 10 December 2009 (GMT+7:00) • PAD signature campaign to impeach 102 MPs • Hun Sen to visit disputed border: Thai Deputy PM • PM chairs security meeting as Cambodian premier plans border visit • Government braces for security threat • Thailand's Red Shirts rally against coup at military camps • Red Shirts plan nationwide rallies at military barracks • Five coalition parties announce go-ahead to amend Constitution
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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December 2009
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['(Thai News Agency)', '(AFP)', '(Xinhua)']
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Major midwestern cities, including Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee, are under severe wind chill advisories with wind chills approaching −55 °F (−48 °C) at night. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declare states of emergency due to the record low windchill temperatures.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed, and first thing Tuesday morning will file with the Secretary of State, an order declaring a state of emergency in Michigan to help address threats to public health and safety related to forecast sub-zero temperatures over the next few days. “Keeping Michiganders safe during this stretch of dangerously cold temperatures is our priority,” said Gov. Whitmer. “Such widespread, extreme conditions have not occurred in Michigan for many years and it is imperative that we are proactive with record-low temperatures being predicted by the National Weather Service. Wind chills are predicted as low as 50 degrees below zero in many places, such as metro Detroit which is especially unaccustomed to these temps.” With a winter storm impacting much of the Lower Peninsula and statewide temperatures forecast to hover around 0 degrees with wind chills at 50 below or colder in some areas, the state is actively working with local communities and emergency management partners to ensure they have all the resources they need to respond. Conditions and needs will be continually assessed, and appropriate action will be taken as warranted to protect public health and safety. In addition to the emergency declaration, Gov. Whitmer has activated the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC). Located at Michigan State Police (MSP) Headquarters in Dimondale, the center is overseen by the Michigan State Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division (MSP/EMHSD) and coordinates response and recovery efforts by state agencies and local government. The SEOC is staffed by members of state agencies and other partners for decision making and information coordination during disasters or emergencies in the state of Michigan.
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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January 2019
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['(Chicago Tribune)', '(Chicago Sun-Times)', '(WDJT-TV)', '(WBBM-TV)', '(WILX-TV)', '(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)']
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Notable propositions are passed in several states including legal recreational marijuana in California, Massachusetts, and Nevada; medical marijuana in Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota; tougher firearms restrictions in California and Washington state; physician assisted suicide in Colorado, and the reimposition of capital punishment in Nebraska.
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The votes, which took place alongside the presidential election, legalise the growth and consumption of cannabis for those over 21 years old.
Arizona rejected legalising recreational use. Florida and North Dakota legalised medicinal use. The drug will be an option in the management of conditions including cancer, Aids and hepatitis C.
California said the taxes on the sale and farming of cannabis would support youth programmes, environmental protection and law enforcement. In other ballot initiatives across the US on election night:
Legal marijuana is among the fastest growing industries in America, with some analysts suggesting sales could reach $22bn (£17.6bn) by 2020.
Opponents, however, had said the proposition opened the way for promotion of the drug on shows watched by young people, exhibiting "reckless disregard for child health and safety".
In Massachusetts, the legislation is set to take effect in December, with similar taxation measures to those in California.
California was one of the first states to legalise the drug for medicinal purposes in 1996.
On Tuesday, voters in Florida and North Dakota followed suit, making medicinal use legal in a majority of US states.
Many states used the general election as an opportunity to put a range of questions to the public on matters such as tax, the minimum wage or the death penalty.
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Government Policy Changes
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November 2016
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['(BBC)', '(The Chicago Tribune)']
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A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits coastal Albania, bringing down many buildings and leaving people trapped under rubble. The Defense Ministry confirms 30 people killed and 650 others injured, mostly in Durrës County.
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Rescuers from several countries are scrambling to find survivors of the earthquake which hit Albania, killing 30 people and injuring hundreds more.
Using sniffer dogs, they are sifting through rubble, 36 hours after the magnitude-6.4 tremor.
Whole families have perished - and thousands are staying out in the open as powerful aftershocks hit. Most of the deaths occurred in the coastal city of Durres and the town of Thumane, close to the epicentre.
Tuesday's earthquake was the strongest to hit Albania in decades. A tearful defence minister said three children were among those killed, and while homes could be rebuilt the 28 people killed could not be brought back.
The quake struck 34km (21 miles) north-west of the capital, Tirana, as people slept in their beds during the early hours.
The latest aftershock - a magnitude 5.6 - is said to have damaged a building in Durres next to one where intense rescue efforts are under way.
More than 45 people have been pulled from the rubble and Prime Minister Edi Rama has promised that rescuers will "continue to search patiently and thoroughly to the end". He said all those affected would be sheltered in hotels until the government rebuilds their homes.
A day of mourning is being observed in Albania and neighbouring Kosovo.
Tuesday's quake caused considerable damage in Thumane and Durres, where entire blocks of flats collapsed. Local media report that at least 20 people are buried under the rubble.
Teams from Italy, Greece, Romania, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Israel are helping with the search efforts.
Italian firefighters said they were working "relentlessly" at the site of a collapsed four-storey building in the Knet district of Durres, where six people are reported missing.
The largest deployment has come from the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF). Pictures show a large column of KSF vehicles arriving. The troops are specially trained to help with natural disasters.
Kosovo has also sent police to Albania to help maintain law and order. In Thumane, rescuers are combing the rubble of a five-storey building.
And in Durres, two three-year-old twin sisters are at the centre of one rescue effort - they are part of an extended family with many members missing.
Hundreds of people spent the night in tents or cars, fearing another tremor. In Durres, a woman called Bukuri Morina and her family of 10 joined thousands of others to spend the night at the football stadium.
"We are afraid to go back to our apartment," she said. "There are cracks all over and we are afraid that we will have the same destiny as people in Thumane."
All festivities coinciding with Albania's independence day on Thursday have been cancelled. The government has introduced a state of emergency - enabling more funds and security - in the worst affected areas.
Thirty-year-old painter Diena Mecaj was pulled out alive from a six-storey block of flats in Durres, but could not survive her injuries. Two hours later the body of her daughter, aged eight, was brought out of the rubble.
Mecaj lost her husband in 2015, reports say. In Facebook posts she had described life without him as a challenge.
Three members of the Gregu family perished in Thumane. Pellumb and Celike Gregu's bodies were recovered early on Wednesday, hours after their son, Saimir, died in hospital.
Kristi Reci's body was recovered alongside that of her father, Eduart, in their collapsed apartment in Durres. She was a 25-year-old medical student in Tirana. Rescuers were still looking for her mother and brother.
Two brothers from Kosovo are among the victims.
Shemsedin Abazi, 32, and his 29-year-old brother Isa were staying Hotel Tropikal in Durres. When the earthquake struck, they phoned for help, but by the time rescuers pulled them out - some 15 hours later - they were already dead.
The brothers had arrived in Durres only hours before the earthquake on a regular trip to put in a few days' work as mechanics. Like Albania, Kosovo was observing a day of mourning on Wednesday.
Among the tragedies that took place as the quake struck, one man died in a car accident when the quake tore open parts of a road. Another man leapt from his balcony in panic but did not survive.
As the rescue effort continued, a 31-year-old man from Thumane died in hospital on Wednesday and two other bodies were found in the rubble.
The Balkans is in an area prone to seismic activity, lying close to a fault line between the Eurasian and African tectonic plates. Albania sits on a smaller, Adriatic tectonic plate. Tuesday's quake was Albania's worst for decades.
In April 1979, a magnitude-6.9 quake hit Albania and northern neighbour Montenegro, leaving 136 dead and more than 1,000 injured.
That was described as the strongest ever recorded in the Balkans, more powerful than a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in July 1963 that killed more than 1,000 people in the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. Three-quarters of the capital Skopje was destroyed and 200,000 people left homeless.
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Earthquakes
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November 2019
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['(BBC)']
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Three Tibetan writers, detained earlier this year by Chinese authorities, are sentenced to jail terms of three to four years for "inciting activities to split the nation”
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Three Tibetan writers detained earlier this year by Chinese authorities have been handed jail terms of three to four years for "inciting activities to split the nation," according to sources in the region.The three writers—Jangtse Donkho, Buddha, and Kalsang Jinpa—were tried on Oct. 28 by the Aba [in Tibetan, Ngaba] Intermediate People's Court, but the sentences were not handed down until Thursday."The three Tibetan writers were sentenced for three-to-four years in jail by the Ngaba Intermediate Court on Dec. 30, 2010," said a source from inside Tibet."Jangtse Donkho and Buddha were given four years and Kalsang Jinpa was sentenced to three years in prison," the source said.Clapped hands
The sentences were handed down without any representations by the defendants or their family or legal counsel, the source added."None of the Tibetan writers or their lawyers or family members were allowed to speak in the court at the time of verdict," the source said."When the judge ordered all in the court to rise for the verdict, all three did not comply and remained seated."When the judge announced that Jangste Donkho would receive a jail term of four years, he clapped his hands, the source added."This could be a sarcastic gesture against the judgement," the source said. "The other two remained silent."The three men have 15 days to appeal the sentence.They were first detained in June and July, and were charged primarily because of articles they wrote about the 2008 Tibetan protest movement in a local newsletter, Shar Dungri ("Eastern Snow Mountain").Each of the men pleaded not guilty during the trial, which lasted half a day.Buddha had earlier spoken in court in fluent Chinese to say that articles of the kind that he and the other men were accused of writing were also published by Han Chinese.He said the punishment handed down to the three writers was biased because of their ethnicity, accusing the authorities of perpetrating "injustice among different nationalities."Hampered
The other men spoke in Tibetan in their own defense, but witnesses said they were hampered by poor interpreting.China has jailed scores of Tibetan writers, artists, singers, and educators for asserting Tibetan national identity and civil rights in the two years since widespread protests swept the region, according to a report released earlier this year by the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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December 2010
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['(RFA)']
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Hurricane Rosa strengthens to a category 4 hurricane in the Pacific Ocean and is expected to affect parts of the coastlines of southwestern Mexico, the Baja California Peninsula, and Southern California.
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Follow NBC News Hurricane Rosa intensified into a major storm in the Pacific Ocean, with maximum sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said late Thursday.
Swells generated by Rosa are forecast to affect parts of the coastlines of southwestern Mexico, the southern Baja California Peninsula, and Southern California later this week and .
"These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions," the Miami-based center said.
At 8 PM PDT...Rosa was moving west at 8 Knots. She is now a CAT 4 hurricane, the 7th of the EastPac 2018 season. Maximum sustained winds are 145 mph. Slight strengthening is possible overnight before weakening and turning north Fri into Sat. Large swells are headed
The Category 4 storm was moving west at around 7 mph at 2 a.m. ET on Friday.
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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September 2018
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['(NBC News)']
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Two 'highvalue' alQaida targets are arrested in Pakistan.
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Among those detained in the past two days were a policeman accused of passing information to al-Qaida militants, a Syrian arrested at a bus stop, and a man carrying suspicious documents who was seized trying to fly out of the country.
Officials said the suspects are believed to be linked to a militant already in custody who provided crucial intelligence leading to the arrest of a top fugitive last week and to Washington's issuing a warning Sunday of terror threats to U.S. financial institutions.
Pakistan's interior minister said the arrest of the high-ranking targets in eastern Punjab province was a major break only days after intelligence agents caught Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the Tanzanian sought by U.S. officials for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.
"In addition to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, whose bounty was $25 million, we have captured another most-wanted suspect with a bounty on him running into the millions of dollars," Faisal Saleh Hayyat told reporters in the capital.
He said both men were of African origin but refused to identify them or their nationalities.
Four Egyptians and a Libyan on the FBI's list of 22 most-wanted terrorists are believed to be in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Each has a $5 million bounty on his head in connection with the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people, including 12 Americans. There are two Kenyans on the list, though they were not believed to be hiding in the region.
Osama bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, is from Egypt. He and the al-Qaida chief are believed to be hiding along the Pakistan-Afghan border, far from Punjab province.
The arrests have come with stunning swiftness since the capture in Karachi on July 13 of an al-Qaida computer expert identified as Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was allegedly sending coded e-mails to other operatives. An intelligence official said Khan led authorities to Ghailani, who was captured after a 12-hour gunbattle in the eastern city of Gujrat.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Ghailani's home computers contained e-mails with instructions for attacks in the United States and Britain.
Intelligence gained from Khan's and other arrests was a major factor in U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's decision to issue a warning Sunday about a possible al-Qaida attack on prominent financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J.
Pakistani officials are also pointing to the arrest in June of Masrab Arochi, the nephew of former al-Qaida No. 3 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, as providing useful intelligence. Arochi was arrested along with nine others in raids in Karachi.
An intelligence official in the capital, Islamabad, said Arochi led police to a network of other operatives and that several as yet undisclosed arrests have been made. He said Arochi has been made available to U.S. intelligence agents, though Pakistan has promised not to turn him over to the United States.
Meanwhile, the police chief who led the raid that caught Ghailani told The Associated Press he received several threatening calls in on his cell phone warning him not to take action against the al-Qaida suspect - even as his men were storming the building.
"They said 'The people inside the house are serving Islam and any harm to them will be dangerous for you,'" Police Chief Raja Munawar Hussain said the caller warned. "They were highly organized terrorists. They were so well informed that they remained in touch with their men (on the outside) during the raid."
Hussain said police also arrested a Pakistani who acted as a front man for Ghailani, leasing a car and opening a bank account for him.
The announcement that two top terror operatives were in custody came within hours of news that at least six al-Qaida suspects have been arrested in separate raids:
-Two Pakistanis and a foreigner were arrested on a road near Lahore. Police found five grenades and two AK-47 rifles in their sports utility vehicle, a high-ranking intelligence official told AP.
-Mohammed Salman Eisa, alias Ibrahim, was captured at Lahore airport Monday night while boarding a flight to the United Arab Emirates, a senior intelligence official in the eastern city told AP. The official said Eisa was believed to be Nigerian, but it was not clear if he was one of the top suspects. There are no Nigerians on the FBI most-wanted list.
-Raja Waqar, a policeman assigned to the office of Punjab province's top politician, is suspected of passing al-Qaida linked groups information on the whereabouts of top government officials, Lahore police chief Tariq Salim Dogar told the AP.
"The previous record of the policeman shows that he has been involved in jihadi activities and had links with al-Qaida. We have initiated a probe to find out how he managed to get posted to such a sensitive place," Dogar said.
-Another suspect, arrested Sunday at a bus station in a town near Lahore, identified himself as Juma Ibrahim, a Syrian, said district police chief Aslam Ghauri. He said Ibrahim was turned over to Pakistan's spy agency.
It was not immediately clear if any of the six militants described by Pakistani officials included the two senior al-Qaida men that Hayyat said were wanted by the United States.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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August 2004
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['(Tampa Bay Online)']
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The Mexican Navy recaptures escaped drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, also known as "El Chapo", in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.
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Guzman was arrested on Friday in the town of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced in a news conference. He said the capture of the 58-year-old infamous drug lord should restore faith in the government and security forces.
“Today Mexico confirms that their institutions have the capacity to overcome the threats. Mexico has the ability to deal with situations like these,” he said, adding that the arrest is “important” for state institutions as it shows that people “can rely on them.”
Earlier on Friday the president took to Twitter to break the news.
Misión cumplida: lo tenemos. Quiero informar a los mexicanos que Joaquín Guzmán Loera ha sido detenido.
“Mission completed: we've got him. I’d like to inform the Mexicans that Joaquin Guzman Loera has been detained,” Enrique Pena Nieto wrote. Niento also expressed his appreciation to the Secretariat of Public Security for the capture.
Five people were killed and one marine was wounded in a shootout which occurred during an operation to capture the kingpin in the city of Los Mochis, in his home state of Sinaloa, an official told AP on condition of anonymity.
Benjamin Bergman, a spokesman for the Mexican marines said that Guzman was in "good condition."
MORE: First Photos Emerge Of 'El Chapo' Since Capture In Mexico - https://t.co/MYtMXtFnb5pic.twitter.com/rgjZF2x8VX
Mexican marines raided El Chapo’s home, acting on a tipoff, before dawn, the navy said in a statement adding that five suspects had been killed and six arrested. Two armored vehicles, eight long guns, one handgun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher were seized in the operation.
Among the seized arms were .50-caliber sniper guns capable of penetrating most bullet-proof vests and cars, AP reported. The assault rifle had a .40 mm grenade launcher, and at least one grenade, and another grenade launcher was found loaded, with an extra round nearby.
“This ends the impunity that seemed to exist when the second escape of this criminal took place…” said the president of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, as quoted by local media.
Trasciende primera imagen de la captura del Chapo Guzmán, en Los Mochis, Sinaloa pic.twitter.com/2cc89wdvLd
El Chapo (aka “Shorty”) is considered to be Mexico’s top drug lord and head of the Sinaloa cartel. The US Drug Enforcement Administration has called El Chapo the biggest drug lord of all time. In 2011 he reportedly surpassed the infamous “cocaine king” Pablo Escobar. He was wanted by Mexico, Interpol and the US, which had offered a $5 million reward for any information leading to his capture.
Washington has called the capture of Guzman a victory and triumph for the rule of law.
El Chapo's arrest is "a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States, and a vindication of the rule of law in our countries," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.
Guzman also faces charges in the US. She said he "will now have to answer for his alleged crimes," but stopped short of asking Mexico for the drug lord to be extradited.
READ MORE: RT team relives infamous El Chapo drug lord’s tunnel escape from prison (VIDEO)
He was first arrested in 1993 and spent almost a decade in a maximum-security prison near Mexico City before escaping in 2001. After 13 years on the run he was recaptured in 2014.
However, last July a new prison break made the headlines again. He escaped through a 1.5-kilometer long, 10-meter deep tunnel dug from within his cell, despite being incarcerated in the country’s highest-security federal prison.
The tunnel from the facility led to a half-constructed empty house in nearby fields. Chapo reportedly paid as much as $50 million in bribes to facilitate his escape.
His latest jail break sparked one of the largest manhunts in the country’s history and spurred major criticism about the government’s ability to safeguard the drug lord.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest
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January 2016
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['(RT)']
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At least six people are killed and 37 injured in a bomb blast in Cagayan De Oro City, Philippines.
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MANILA -- The death toll from the explosion in Cagayan de Oro city has risen to 6.
Among the fatalities is Misamis Oriental board member Roldan Lagbas and some medical representatives attending the convention of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians in the city.
The blast occurred in front of a bistro and cafe in Limketkai Center. Several customers were watching a live band when the incident happened.
Twenty-seven people were injured.
The Cagayan de Oro Police has formed a special investigation task force. Authorities have also intensified checkpoints across the city.
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Riot
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July 2013
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['(ABS–CBN News Online)']
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A major British influenza vaccine company, Chiron, has its manufacturing license revoked due to an outbreak of bacteria. Chiron had been expected to supply half of this season's flu vaccines in the United States.
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The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said the three month suspension would take place with immediate effect.
The suspension means the Oxford-based company, which makes Fluvirin, will not be able to supply flu vaccines to anyone, including the major US market.
There are concerns about the way the vaccine is manufactured.
Those practices affected by the shortage will have to cancel flu immunisation clinics until doses come through.
Dr Hamish Meldrum
The MHRA decision could have a particularly severe impact in the US, as Chiron is responsible for half of the flu vaccines distributed in the country.
In the UK doctors have been advised to prioritise the most vulnerable patients until supplies return to normal.
Despite government assurances that the suspension will have a minimal impact in the UK, the British Medical Association insists it could cause serious problems.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA's GPs committee, said: "This will have a significant impact on the flu immunisation programme in this country and the impact will be patchy.
"This is because practices tend to get their whole flu vaccine supply from one supplier.
"Those practices affected by the shortage will have to cancel flu immunisation clinics until doses come through."
Contaminated supplies
In August, Chiron announced that millions of flu vaccines made in Liverpool were contaminated, and delayed shipment to the US until October.
A company spokesman said extensive tests and safety checks had subsequently been carried out, and the company was confident that its products now met the highest standards. He said the MHRA decision was unexpected, but he also said Chiron would immediately begin discussions to determine what further action was required to meet UK safety standards.
In a statement, the company said the MHRA suspension would mean that it would be unable to release any of its products during the 2004-05 flu season.
Chiron is one of six suppliers of the flu vaccine in the UK.
The Department of Health said of the 14 million doses of flu vaccine they had ordered, Chiron had only been due to supply 2.4 million.
Contingency measures
Contingency plans had been made to ensure adequate stocks would be available to meet any potential shortfall.
I am confident that we will have enough vaccine for the winter.
Dr Douglas Fleming
However, it admitted some people might experience a delay in getting their regular innoculation. It is recommended that flu vaccines should be administered in the UK by early November, before cases start to mount.
A spokesperson said: "We are confident that we have sufficient vaccines for this winters campaign and contingency supplies will be available as soon as possible.
"We have arranged for an extra 1.2 million doses to be available to doctors' surgeries by the end of October and a further 1 million by mid-November."
Dr Douglas Fleming, director of the Royal College of GPs' Birmingham Research Unit, said: "I am confident that we will have enough vaccine for the winter.
"In the case of delays I would advise all Healthcare Professionals administering flu vaccines to concentrate on the most at-risk until supplies have returned to normal."
Significant impact
The fact that the US will potentially only have 50m doses is a public health nightmare.
Geoffrey Porges
The World Health Organization said the suspension could have a major impact elsewhere - particularly as the flu season is just beginning in the northern hemisphere.
Dr Klaus Stohr, the WHO's flu chief, said: "The implications may be significant. There could be a shortage.
"It may be resolvable but that would require a lot of adjustment on the part of the other
companies."
Chiron makes a total of four flu vaccines: Agrippal, Begrivac, Fluad and Fluvirin.
The last of these is the number two flu vaccine in the US, which accounts for the majority of supplies, although 20% go to the UK and Europe.
Geoffrey Porges, a market analyst with US firm Bernstein & Co said: "The fact that the US will potentially only have 50m doses is a public health nightmare."
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Organization Closed
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October 2004
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['(BBC)']
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A ferry ran into trouble in rough seas off the coast of Indonesia's island of Sulawesi, with at least three killed, including two children, 39 rescued, and 77 missing. The New Marina, a fiberglass boat, was reported to be carrying 109 passengers with a crew of 10. The National Search and Rescue Agency says the boat sank 22.5 km off the coast of the Wajo Regency in South Sulawesi. Rescue teams expect to resume their search for the missing, Monday.
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Updated at 4:52 p.m. ET on 2015-12-20
Indonesian rescue teams expected to resume their search on Monday for 77 people still missing at sea, after their ferry ran into bad conditions, took on water and sank near Sulawesi island on Saturday night, officials said.
As of late Sunday afternoon (local time), rescuers had pulled 39 people out of the water alive, but the official death toll stood at three. By day’s end, search teams had recovered the bodies of two children and a woman.
Bad weather, rough conditions and poor visibility in Bone Bay prevented rescuers from carrying on Sunday night with the search for more survivors, according to officials.
The New Marina, a fiberglass boat, was carrying 109 passengers and 10 crew members as crossed the bay on Saturday afternoon, from Kolaka, in Southeast Sulawesi province to Siwa, in South Sulawesi province. Nineteen children, including 14 babies, were on board.
“Because the currents are so strong toward the waters of north Kolaka, we are focusing on north Kolaka, searching it from the sea to the coast, as the victims could have drifted toward the coast,” Poki Azikin, who heads the Makassar office of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told BenarNews.
The boat sank 22.5 km (24 miles) off the coast of Wajo district in South Sulawesi, officials said.
“From 42 people evacuated, three of them were dead,” Adjunct Commissioner M. Guntur, who serves as the chief of police in Wajo, told BenarNews.
The 39 survivors were rushed to area hospitals.
The search operation, Poki said, consisted of military and police units, government agencies and members of the community.
"We also involve fishermen in this search operation. We sent two large ships, six rubber boats and a helicopter to facilitate the search at the site," Poki said.
In fact, before dawn broke on Sunday, a local fisherman rescued four people from the boat who were lost at sea, including a boy.
Fisherman Amiruddin told reporters that he heard a woman crying for help at around 2 a.m. while he was fishing on the bay.
“I went to where the voice came from and I saw a woman laying on her back in her safety float with a little boy on the top of her. I directly helped them and took them to my boat,” Amiruddin said.
Then he spotted two more survivors and pulled them into his boat. He said all four looked weak, so he gave them some food.
“Their condition is very weak. They have been evacuated to a hospital in Siwa to be treated. Hopefully they are fine,” Guntur, the police chief for Wajo, told BenarNews earlier on Sunday, referring to the one group of four survivors.
Doomed voyage
It remained unclear whether mechanical failure played a role in the accident. Late Saturday, local media reports conflicted as to whether the boat had sunk or was adrift at sea after its engine broke down, as the vessel encountered strong winds and high waves.
The ferry was scheduled to arrive at Siwa at 3 p.m. Saturday (local time). The boat reportedly sent out a distress signal before radio contact with it was lost at around 2:30 p.m., Ridwan, a port official in Palopo, South Sulawesi, told BenarNews.
After departing from Kolaka, the captain informed the harbor master about the bad weather and rough waters, said Andi Salahatu Lani, head of the port authority in Bangsalee.
After radio contact was lost, the port authority launched an operation to reach the stranded boat, but bad conditions hampered the effort, and the ferry sank around 9:30 p.m., officials said.
"The ship’s captain and the crew had contacted us in Siwa. They requested us to send another ship to evacuate the passengers because the waves were reaching a height of 6 meters [19.6 feet], "Andi told BenarNews.
String of accidents
Saturday’s sinking of the ferry off Sulawesi was at least the third maritime accident reported since mid-November in or near Indonesian waters.
Just two days earlier, six Philippine crew members of the Danish cargo ship Thorco Cloud were declared missing after it collided with a chemical tanker, the Stolt Commitment, approximately 13 km (8 miles) off Batam island in western Indonesian, the Associated Press reported.
On Nov. 16, more than 100 passengers were evacuated safely or rescued when the ship Wihan Sejahtera sand in Lamong Bay, in Surabaya, according to AFP.
And in early September, 64 people drowned when a boat full of Indonesian workers bound from Malaysia to Aceh province, on Sumatra, sank off the Malaysian coast.
|
Shipwreck
|
December 2015
|
['(24 miles)', '(BenarNews)', '(Muscat Daily)']
|
Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse at a London hospital, who took a hoax call from 2Day FM prankers about the Duchess of Cambridge, is found dead in a suspected suicide.
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Jacintha Saldanha is understood to be the first person heard during the hoax call from presenters pretending to be the Queen
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A nurse who was duped into transferring a prank call from two Australian radio presenters at the hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge for severe morning sickness was found dead yesterday in a suspected suicide.
Jacintha Saldanha, 46, a nurse at the King Edward VII's Hospital in central London, answered the call at 5.30am on Tuesday from the Sydney-based 2Day FM station, whose DJs pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles. Ms Saldanha put them through to a colleague who provided details of the Duchess's condition.
Ms Saldanha was found unconscious at a nurses' residence close to the private hospital in Marylebone at about 9.35am and despite the efforts of paramedics could not be revived. Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious, and a source said officers were investigating whether she had taken her own life. Mental health experts cautioned against any assumptions about factors contributing to her death. The nurse, a mother of two children, who started working at the hospital in 2008, is the first member of staff heard to answer on a recording of the hoax call from presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian.
Ms Greig, seeking to impersonate the Queen, asked to be put through to "my grand-daughter", prompting Ms Saldanha to reply: "Oh yes, just hold on ma'am."
The hospital, which is rated as one of London's best private medical establishments and has a reputation for closely guarding the privacy of its patients, spoke of its shock and "very deep sadness" at the death of Ms Saldanha, whose partner and two sons live in Bristol. Her family said last night: "We as a family are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved Jacintha."
In a statement, the hospital said: "She was an excellent nurse and well-respected and popular with all of her colleagues.
"We can confirm Jacintha was the victim of a hoax call to the hospital. The hospital had been supporting her throughout this difficult time."
Lord Glenarthur, the hospital's chairman, added: "This is a tragic event. Jacintha was a first-class nurse who cared diligently for hundreds of patients during her time with us."
The radio prank, which was pre-recorded and vetted by lawyers from the radio station before it was broadcast, was picked up by media worldwide and was acutely embarrassing for the hospital, which has a long history as the hospital of choice for the Royal Family.
In a statement earlier this week, the hospital's chief executive John Lofthouse condemned the prank, adding: "We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols."
Mr Lofthouse added: "I think this whole thing is pretty deplorable; our nurses are caring, professional people trained to look after patients, not to cope with journalistic trickery of this sort."
The hospital offers its VIP patients private lines that are connected directly to their rooms, but the Australian DJs were able to reach the Duchess's personal nurse via the switchboard in an apparent breach of procedure.
It is understood that Ms Saldanha, who was registered to practice in Britain in July 2003, had not been disciplined or suspended by the hospital.
She answered the hospital's phone line in her role as duty nurse because there was no receptionist manning the switchboard at the time of the call.
St James's Palace said that neither Prince William and his wife nor any royal staff had complained to the hospital about the prank, adding that they had offered their "full and heartfelt support" to staff and to the nurses involved.
The couple, who had to announce that they were expecting their first child sooner than planned after Kate was admitted to hospital with acute morning sickness on Monday, said they were "deeply saddened" by Ms Saldanha's death. A spokesman at St James's Palace said: "Their Royal Highnesses were looked after so wonderfully well at all times by everybody at King Edward VII's Hospital, and their thoughts and prayers are with Jacintha Saldanha's family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time."
While little information about Ms Saldanha's mental health was available, nurses' leaders last night suggested that there could be a link between her death and the prank.
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "It is deeply saddening that a simple human error due to a cruel hoax could lead to the death of a dedicated and caring member of the nursing profession."
In a statement, the ambulance service said: "We were called at 9.25am this morning to an address on Weymouth Street. We sent two ambulance crews and a duty officer. Sadly the patient, a woman, was dead at the scene."
The owners of the Sydney radio station said last night that the two presenters were "deeply shocked" at the nurse's death and had agreed to stop broadcasting until further notice.
The Samaritans can be contacted on 08457 90 90 90.
King Edward VII: The hospital where it happened
King Edward VII's Hospital, one of London's premier private hospitals, is used to hosting VIP patients for Rolls-Royce medical care in conditions of high security. It has at various times accommodated the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and Prince of Wales as well as other members of the Royal Family.
It has 58 en-suite rooms with flatscreen televisions and wi-fi and three operating theatres. It boasts on its website of a "strong tradition of excellence in nursing" and says unlike many hospitals "most are permanently employed by us". It claims never to have had a case of the hospital infections MRSA or Clostridium difficile and has won awards for the cleanliness of its wards and standard of food hygiene. The hospital was founded in 1899 and started life in a house belonging to Agnes Keyser who, with her sister, nursed sick and wounded officers returning from the Boer War.
It continues to offer subsidised care to people in the services and their spouses: its full name is the King Edward VII 's Hospital Sister Agnes. It has been treating the Royal Family since it opened and its patron is the Queen.
Jeremy Laurance
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Famous Person - Death
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December 2012
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['(BBC)', '(The Independent)', '(Daily Mail)']
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A gunman opens fire at a movie premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, killing at least 12 people and injuring 59 others.
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At least 12 people have been killed and 59 wounded in a shooting at a midnight cinema showing of the new Batman film near Denver, Colorado.
Witnesses said a man wearing a gas mask opened fire after tossing a tear gas canister in the auditorium as movie-goers watched The Dark Knight Rises.
A 24-year-old former neuroscience student was arrested in a car park outside the theatre in Aurora city.
He was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, said officials. Police revised down the death toll from 14 earlier. They said 71 people, including the deceased, had been shot in the incident at the Century 16 multiplex cinema.
FBI sources named the gunman as Aurora resident James Holmes, a white American. They said no terrorism link had been established.
Police said he had been in the process of withdrawing from his PhD studies at the University of Colorado-Denver. In a written statement, the Holmes family in San Diego said they were co-operating with police in San Diego and Aurora, and asked for the media to respect their privacy. "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved."
US President Barack Obama cut short a campaign trip to Florida and returned to the White House to address the situation.
Acting on information from the suspect, the authorities said they had discovered that his home in the north of Aurora has been booby-trapped. Incendiary devices with chemical elements and trip wires are in the property, police said. The apartment complex and five buildings nearby were evacuated as FBI agents and police used a fire engine ladder to reach the property, and put a camera on the end of pole to look inside. Police chief Dan Oates said the massacre was "a horrific event". "The shooting apparently went on for some time," he added.
Cinemas in New York tightened security at Batman showings following the attack, and the French premiere of the film in Paris was cancelled.
Witnesses said the gunman opened fire during an action scene in the summer blockbuster, at about 00:30 local time (06:30 GMT). There was chaos as movie-goers, some dressed in costume as heroes and villains, fled.
Ten people were killed at the cinema and two others died later in hospital of their wounds.
Many ambulances attended the scene. Scores of people, some in a critical condition, were taken to four hospitals. The casualties included a four-month-old baby, who was released from hospital after treatment, and a six-year-old child.
The Pentagon said members of the military were among the casualties.
One witness said the gunman had been "slowly making his way up the stairs and just firing - picking random people".
Another witness, Chayyiel Jackson, told the BBC: "During the first action scene in the movie, on the right side a dude came in all blacked out, with a black mask. At first we thought it was part of the movie event.
"He threw tear gas across the crowd and after that people started to panic. He pulled out a rifle and started shooting. "I was wondering if this was real life or a dream."
At least one person in an adjacent auditorium was injured when a bullet went through the wall, police said.
Another eyewitness, identified only as Pam, told the BBC: "He fired a canister into the air. It shot it right into the air, then I started to hear the bang, bang, bang of a gun.
"I crawled my way through the row. Luckily the exit was close to where I was sitting so I got out pretty fast. I heard more shots as I left."
Another eyewitness, Salina Jordan, 19, told the Denver Post
she had seen one girl shot in the cheek, and a girl who appeared to be about nine years old with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly - who previously worked with Aurora police chief Dan Oates and spoke with him on Friday - said in a news conference said the suspect "had his hair painted red" and claimed to be The Joker, a villain in the last Batman film. Aurora officials declined to comment on Mr Kelly's statement.
A witness in the next-door theatre told 9News he initially thought live special effects had been laid on by the cinema after hearing loud bangs and seeing smoke.
President Obama told a sombre crowd in Florida: "Such violence, such evil, is senseless. But, while we will never know fully what causes somebody to take the live of another, we do know what makes life worth living.
"The people we lost in Aurora loved and they were loved."
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Armed Conflict
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July 2012
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['(BBC)', '(CNN)']
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Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court upholds the death sentence of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al–Nimr, who was found guilty of sedition and other charges following his involvement in the 2011 Arab Spring Movement.
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[JURIST] Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Shiite Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was found guilty of sedition and other charges following his involvement in the 2011 Arab Spring Movement. Nimr’s brother made the announcement via Twitter [Twitter page, in Arabic] on Sunday, telling Reuters that his family and lawyers were not given notice of the hearing [Reuters report]. King Salman must still sign off on the death sentence and could decide to issue a royal pardon. Nimr is one of six Shiites that have been sentenced to beheading and public display of their bodies.
Saudi Arabia has been criticized for many of its judicial procedures and treatment of human rights activists. Last week a Saudi activist was sentenced to 10 years in prison and banned from traveling abroad for an additional 10 years [JURIST report]. Last month a group of UN human rights experts urged authorities [JURIST report] in Saudi Arabia to block the execution of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was convicted of involvement in the Arab Spring protests when he was 17. In August Amnesty International (AI) reported that Saudi Arabia’s flawed judicial system has resulted in a surge of executions [JURIST report] following unfair trials. According to AI, 175 people have been executed over the past 12 months with an average of one person put to death every two days. In June a Saudi court upheld [JURIST report] blogger Raif Badawi’s sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam through electronic channels.” In January a Saudi judge sentenced [JURIST report] prominent human rights lawyer Walid Abu al-Khair to an additional five years in jail after he refused to show remorse for “showing disrespect” to authorities and creating an unauthorized association.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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October 2015
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['(Jurist)']
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A hotel where Vice President of Yemen and Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was staying in Aden which was also being used as a de facto military base by Arab coalition forces is hit by multiple explosions killing at least 15 coalition soldiers. Although the Houthis were first suspected and accused of being behind the attack, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has since claimed responsibility, marking the first attack on Arab coalition forces in Yemen by the extremist group.
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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group said it was behind the deadly attacks Tuesday on the government headquarters and positions of the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni city of Aden that killed at least 15.
Four suicide bombings hit the targets, the extremist group said in an online statement.
ISIS said two attacks targeting the government headquarters at Al-Qasr hotel were carried out using bomb-laden vehicles driven by members it identified as Abu Saad al-Adani and Abu Mohammed al-Sahli.
The jihadist group, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and has affiliates elsewhere in the region, said soldiers were killed in these attacks, without specifying how many.
At least 15 soldiers from the Saudi-led Arab coalition and its Yemeni allies have been killed in several attacks in Aden on Tuesday, the official WAM news agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported on its Twitter feed. Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, who escaped the attack on the Al-Qasr, wrote on his Facebook page that two rockets had hit the hotel while other rockets fell elsewhere. ISIS said a third suicide bomber, Aws al-Adani, drove a bomb-laden armored vehicle into a “central operations headquarters of Saudi and Emirati forces, killing dozens.” Meanwhile, Abu Hamza al-Sanaani blew up a UAE-held military position using another armored vehicle, the group said. The Emirati WAM news agency has reported that the attacks were carried out by the Iran-backed Houthi militia and their allies. The rebels "targeted the government headquarters and several military positions (and) left 15 Arab coalition and Yemeni resistance martyrs," said WAM. The news agency said four Emirati soldiers were among the coalition forces that were killed and that several others were wounded. The coalition said, in a statement published on the Saudi SPA news agency, that the attacks killed three Emiratis and one Saudi soldier. It said Katyusha rockets had been used, and that coalition forces “responded to the source of fire and destroyed the vehicles” used to launch the assaults. Tuesday’s claim is the first from ISIS for an attack against the Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing Iran-backed Shiite rebels since March. Previously it only claimed attacks against Shiite mosques in Yemen. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are among other Arab states taking part in a U.S.-led coalition pounding ISIS in Syria and Iraq. On Sep. 4, a rebel missile attack in the eastern Yemeni province of Marib killed 67 coalition troops, including 52 Emirati soldiers.
The explosions hit a hotel housing Yemeni officials and a Gulf military base in Aden, a government spokesman and residents said, in the biggest attack on the government since it retook the city from its Houthi foes in July.
Earlier in the day, a hotel where Yemen’s Vice President had been staying at in Aden was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades early Tuesday morning, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
Yemen’s Vice President Khaled Bahah, who is also the country’s Prime Minister, was staying at al-Qasr Hotel since his return to the liberated city of Aden on September 16 along with several members of his cabinet. Officials reported that Bahah had survived the attack unhurt.
Bahah’s return from exile in Saudi Arabia follows that of several other Yemeni ministers who relocated to Aden from the kingdom in the weeks after the city’s recapture. Bahah made a brief visit to Aden on Aug. 1.
(With AFP) The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group said it was behind the deadly attacks Tuesday on the government headquarters and positions of the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni city of Aden that killed at least 15.
Four suicide bombings hit the targets, the extremist group said in an online statement.
ISIS said two attacks targeting the government headquarters at Al-Qasr hotel were carried out using bomb-laden vehicles driven by members it identified as Abu Saad al-Adani and Abu Mohammed al-Sahli.
The jihadist group, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and has affiliates elsewhere in the region, said soldiers were killed in these attacks, without specifying how many.
At least 15 soldiers from the Saudi-led Arab coalition and its Yemeni allies have been killed in several attacks in Aden on Tuesday, the official WAM news agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported on its Twitter feed. Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, who escaped the attack on the Al-Qasr, wrote on his Facebook page that two rockets had hit the hotel while other rockets fell elsewhere. ISIS said a third suicide bomber, Aws al-Adani, drove a bomb-laden armored vehicle into a “central operations headquarters of Saudi and Emirati forces, killing dozens.” Meanwhile, Abu Hamza al-Sanaani blew up a UAE-held military position using another armored vehicle, the group said. The Emirati WAM news agency has reported that the attacks were carried out by the Iran-backed Houthi militia and their allies. The rebels "targeted the government headquarters and several military positions (and) left 15 Arab coalition and Yemeni resistance martyrs," said WAM. The news agency said four Emirati soldiers were among the coalition forces that were killed and that several others were wounded. The coalition said, in a statement published on the Saudi SPA news agency, that the attacks killed three Emiratis and one Saudi soldier. It said Katyusha rockets had been used, and that coalition forces “responded to the source of fire and destroyed the vehicles” used to launch the assaults. Tuesday’s claim is the first from ISIS for an attack against the Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing Iran-backed Shiite rebels since March. Previously it only claimed attacks against Shiite mosques in Yemen. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are among other Arab states taking part in a U.S.-led coalition pounding ISIS in Syria and Iraq. On Sep. 4, a rebel missile attack in the eastern Yemeni province of Marib killed 67 coalition troops, including 52 Emirati soldiers.
The explosions hit a hotel housing Yemeni officials and a Gulf military base in Aden, a government spokesman and residents said, in the biggest attack on the government since it retook the city from its Houthi foes in July.
Earlier in the day, a hotel where Yemen’s Vice President had been staying at in Aden was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades early Tuesday morning, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
Yemen’s Vice President Khaled Bahah, who is also the country’s Prime Minister, was staying at al-Qasr Hotel since his return to the liberated city of Aden on September 16 along with several members of his cabinet. Officials reported that Bahah had survived the attack unhurt.
Bahah’s return from exile in Saudi Arabia follows that of several other Yemeni ministers who relocated to Aden from the kingdom in the weeks after the city’s recapture. Bahah made a brief visit to Aden on Aug. 1.
|
Armed Conflict
|
October 2015
|
['(CNN)', '(Al-Arabiyah News)']
|
Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is charged with two counts of willful neglect of duty in connection with the Flint water crisis, which left residents with contaminated water and a Legionnaires outbreak.
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Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has been criminally charged by the Michigan attorney general's office with two counts of willful neglect of duty in connection with the Flint water crisis, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday night.
The misdemeanor charges could carry penalties of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for Snyder, the AP said.
The AP had previously reported on Tuesday that in addition to Snyder, Nick Lyon, the former director of Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services and other health officials are expected to be charged as a result of an ongoing investigation by the Michigan attorney general's office.
Lyon and seven other officials, including the state's former Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells were charged with involuntary manslaughter by a special prosecutor in 2018, but Attorney General Dana Nessel's office dropped the charges before they could stand trial and then started a completely new investigation in 2019, the Detroit News reported at the time.
Snyder and other officials have been accused of downplaying the severity of the crisis, misleading residents about the safety of their water supply, and failing to take appropriate action to address the problem and make the water safe to drink.
The Flint water crisis started in 2014, when the cash-strapped city decided to switch to a new water supply provider to save costs, according to NPR's timeline of the crisis.
That year, when the city was in the process of building a pipe to its new water source out of Lake Huron, it decided to rely on the Flint River for water in the intermediate time without properly treating the water supply to ensure that it wouldn't corrode the pipes and lead to the water being toxic.
By May of that year, residents began to pick up that something was amiss with the color and taste of the water, and by August, E. Coli and coliform bacteria were identified in the water. Studies later found that the water had elevated levels of lead.
The contaminated water had serious health consequences for the city's residents, particularly its predominately Black and low-income communities. The community suffered an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, which causes a severe form of pneumonia and exposed thousands of people, including an estimated 9,000 children under 6, to lead poisoning.
The state reported that 90 Genesse County residents were sickened and 12 died as a result of the Legionnaires' outbreak, but a PBS Frontline investigation found that the real number of cases and deaths were likely higher than the official totals, citing the heightened number of pneumonia cases reported in the county at the time.
An in-depth Vice News investigation published in April of 2020 reviewing thousands of emails and documents pointed to "a coordinated, five-year cover-up overseen by Snyder and his top officials to prevent news of Flint's deadly water from going public."
Snyder apologized for his role in the crisis in his 2016 state of the state address.
"I'm sorry most of all that I let you down," Snyder said, according to The New York Times. "You deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. Most of all, you deserve to know the truth, and I have a responsibility to tell the truth."
|
Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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January 2021
|
['(AP)', '(Business Insider)']
|
The United States announces a tariff of 10% on European-made Airbus planes and 25% on a range of goods, set to take effect on 18 October.
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LONDON/BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday said it would slap 10% tariffs on European-made Airbus AIR.PA planes and 25% duties on French wine, Scotch and Irish whiskies, and cheese from across the continent as punishment for illegal EU aircraft subsidies.
U.S. wins backing for tariffs on Europe
02:11
The announcement came after the World Trade Organization gave Washington a green light to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of EU goods annually in the long-running case, a move that threatens to ignite a tit-for-tat transatlantic trade war.
The measures would follow tariffs levied by the United States and China on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods in their more than year-old trade war.
The U.S. trade representative's target list for EU tariffs, set to take effect on Oct. 18, includes large Airbus planes made in France, Britain, Germany and Spain - the four Airbus consortium countries. But no tariffs will be imposed on EU-made aircraft parts used in Airbus' Alabama assembly operations or those used by rival U.S. planemaker Boeing Co BA.N, safeguarding U.S. manufacturing jobs.
“Finally, after 15 years of litigation, the WTO has confirmed that the United States is entitled to impose countermeasures in response to the EU’s illegal subsidies,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.
“We expect to enter into negotiations with the European Union aimed at resolving this issue in a way that will benefit American workers,” Lighthizer added.
The tariffs heavily target the four Airbus consortium countries, including Spanish olives, British sweaters and woollens, and German tools and coffee, as well as British whisky and French wine. Cheese from nearly every EU country will be hit with the 25% tariffs, but Italian wine and olive oil were spared, along with European chocolate.
The size and scope of the tariffs were reduced considerably from a $25 billion list floated by Washington earlier this year that included helicopters, major aircraft components, seafood, luxury goods and other big-ticket categories that were excluded from Wednesday’s announcement.
One person familiar with the case said the USTR was deliberately not using the full extent of WTO-approved retaliation to coax the EU to the negotiating table.
Related Coverage
See more stories
But it came with an explicit warning.
“The U.S. has the authority to increase the tariffs at any time, or change the products affected. USTR will continually re-evaluate these tariffs based on our discussions with the EU,” the USTR said.
The USTR has sought WTO ratification of its tariff list by Oct. 14. The duties could come into force just three days after a scheduled Oct. 15 tariff increase on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, to 30% from 25%.
As Washington and Beijing try to ease their bitter 15-month trade war, the U.S.-EU trade spat looks set to worsen.
Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell said the France-based planemaker was evaluating the list and its possible consequences in “close collaboration with the European Commission.”
The WTO, he said, in coming months would grant the EU authority to impose tariffs on U.S. goods over its findings of illegal subsidies for Boeing from Washington state that could equal or exceed the U.S. tariffs.
“Airbus considers that the only way to prevent the negative effects that these countermeasures would create will be for the U.S. and EU to find a resolution to this long-running dispute through a negotiated settlement before the tariffs become effective,” he said.
In their decision, WTO arbitrators said Boeing had lost the equivalent of $7.5 billion a year in sales and disruption to deliveries of some of its largest aircraft because of cheap European government loans to Airbus.
The decision, confirming a figure reported by Reuters last week, allows Washington to target the same value of EU goods but bars any retaliation against European financial services.
At list prices from $92 million for an A319 jetliner to some $366.5 million for an A350-1000 widebody, the 10% Airbus tariff could impose severe financial burdens on U.S. airline customers. Delta Air Lines DAL.N said it has about 170 Airbus planes on order that could be affected.
“Aircraft are significant purchases requiring long-lead times for production - often years in advance,” Delta said in a statement. “Imposing tariffs on aircraft that U.S. companies have already committed to will inflict serious harm on U.S. airlines, the millions of Americans they employ and the traveling public.”
Broad selling amid worries over slowing global growth that punished European stocks earlier on Wednesday accelerated as the ruling revived worries about damage to the already-ailing European economy. The pan European STOXX 600 index .STOXX finished down 2.7%, its worst day since December 2018. Airbus shares closed down 2%.
Wall Street’s main indexes suffered their sharpest one-day declines in nearly six weeks on Wednesday after employment and manufacturing data suggested the U.S.-China trade war is taking an increasing toll on the U.S. economy.
Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two largest planemakers, have waged a war of attrition over subsidies at the WTO since 2004 in a dispute that has tested the trade policeman’s influence and is expected to set the tone for competition from would-be rivals from China.
The WTO had already found that both Airbus and Boeing received billions of dollars of illegal subsidies in the world’s largest corporate trade dispute. The global trade body is due to decide early next year on the level of annual tariffs the EU can impose on U.S. imports.
While the level of tariffs amounts to less than three days’ worth of trade between Europe and the United States, importers led by U.S. airlines that buy Airbus jets have urged Washington to be selective when choosing industries to hit in order to avoid causing collateral damage to the U.S. economy.
EU manufacturers are already facing U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum and a threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to penalize EU cars and car parts. The EU has in turn retaliated.
The Trump administration believes tariffs were effective in bringing China to the negotiating table over trade and in convincing Japan to open its agricultural market to U.S. products.
(For a graphic on U.S.-EU trade - )
Reporting by Tim Hepher in London, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebahay in Geneva, Josephine Mason and Danilo Masoni in London, Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Andrea Shalal, Heather Timmons and David Lawder in Washington; Writing by Tim Hepher and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Pravin Char, Lisa Shumaker and Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Government Policy Changes
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October 2019
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['(Reuters)']
|
Moldovan President Igor Dodon, during his first state visit to Russia, says Moldova could scrap the 2014 Moldova–European Union Association Agreement after the country's next parliamentary election.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moldova may scrap a trade agreement with the European Union after the country’s next parliamentary election, President Igor Dodon said on Tuesday during his first state visit to Russia.
Speaking in Moscow at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dodon said it was “curious” that Moldova’s trade turnover with the EU had wilted since signing a political and trade pact with the bloc in 2014.
“We gained nothing from this agreement,” he told reporters.
“We are not against the EU, we have common borders, but you cannot build a relationship on anti-Russia rhetoric,” news agencies quoted Dodon as saying after meeting with Putin.
Dodon was elected in November with just over 50 percent of the vote after calling in his campaign for a referendum on Moldova’s relationship with the EU, which came at the expense of ties with Russia. No referendum has yet been announced.
Moscow imposed retaliatory trade restrictions on Moldovan farming exports in response to Chisinau’s signing of an association agreement with the EU in 2014. Dodon’s vow to improve relations with the country’s former Soviet master found favor with many Moldovans who have been hit financially by Russia’s bans and a broader economic downturn.
Dodon’s win and move away from the EU reflects a loss of trust in pro-European leaders in Moldova and Russia’s increasingly assertive influence over ex-Soviet states.
The coordinator of the pro-European ruling coalition in Moldova, Vlad Plahotniuc, said the country would not be pulled out of closer integration with the EU, criticizing Dodon for his comments to Putin.
“Our country does not have the right to send contradictory messages on foreign policy,” he said in an online statement.
“The Moldovan authorities will not allow the EU association agreement to be annulled. We will not only block any attempts to denounce the agreement, but will speed up the process of its implementation,” he said.
In Moscow, Putin struck a both conciliatory and sharp tone with Dodon, saying Russia’s neighbors were free to make their own decisions and even court the EU, but Moscow would want its interests to be respected.
“It needs to be recognized that mutually beneficial ties with Russia deteriorated against the background of attempts to force a closer relationship with the European Union,” he said.
Dodon’s promise to side with Russia over the EU is in direct conflict with the stance of Moldova’s current government and his stance on the issue has been mixed since taking office.
He has called for early parliamentary elections this year to force out the government, but also said the president “should be neither pro-European nor pro-Russian”.
On Tuesday, he said Chisinau did not intend to build an “iron curtain” with the bloc.
Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, is expected to return to growth in the near future after contracting 0.5 percent in 2015. But its exports have yet to recover to pre-crisis levels, falling 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2016.
Ukraine, another ex-Soviet republic, also played with the idea of closer ties with the EU but abruptly pulled out of a trade deal in late 2013.
The move prompted mass street protests in Kiev, forcing then-President Viktor Yanukovich from office and paving the road to Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
Additional reporting by Andrey Ostroukh in Moscow and Alexander Tanas in Chisinau; writing by Jack Stubbs and Alessandra Prentice; editing by Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish
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Diplomatic Visit
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January 2017
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['(Reuters)']
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In the Maldives, parliament members support move to multi party democracy. Before the parliamentary debate, government arrested number of dissidents
|
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who came to power in 1978, says he wants the system in place by December.
Ahead of the sitting, four leading dissidents had been arrested.
The government said the arrests were made to prevent a planned disruption but the Maldivian Democratic Party said its gathering was going to be peaceful.
'Temporary' arrests
Political parties have been banned until now, with critics of President Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving leader, accusing him of running an autocratic state.
His spokesman, Ahmed Shaheed, said on Thursday the nation could "look forward to an exciting political future".
Dissidents have lobbied for democratic reform in the Maldives
Political parties can now register and fight elections in the 300,000-strong Indian Ocean nation.
"The president will now issue a proclamation passing the new legislation into law at the next working day on Sunday," Mr Shaheed told the AFP news agency.
The Maldivian Democratic Party welcomed the decision by parliament but expressed concern about the detention of some of its members.
Ahmed Mausoom, MDP treasurer, told the BBC: "We are very happy about the decision, but are unable to celebrate because of the arrest of our leader, Mohammed Nasheed."
Soon after the parliament vote, however, the dissidents were reported to have been released.
Nizin Sattar, a senior MDP member who is in exile in Sri Lanka, said uniformed policemen had stormed Mr Nasheed's home and bundled him into a jeep.
The Friends of Maldives group expressed concern at the arrests, stressing that the planned parliamentary gathering was intended to be peaceful.
However, the Maldives government said it had "information about plans to gather a mob of people outside the parliament building, intimidate members of parliament and disrupt the work of parliament".
The MDP has welcomed the democracy moves but has cast doubt on the process.
Mr Nasheed, the MDP chairman, returned from exile to take part in the reforms but says he has been under government surveillance and has had his phone tapped.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest
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June 2005
|
['(Dhivehi Observer)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)']
|
Fifteen people are killed after two buses collide in Mwanza Province, northern Tanzania.
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Arusha - Two buses collided in northern Tanzania, leaving 15 people dead and 58 injured, police said on Wednesday.
The buses slammed into each other in Mwanza Province on Tuesday when one of them was trying to overtake a lorry, regional police said.
“Fifteen people are dead while 58 were lightly injured. Of the 58 injured, 28 have already left hospital,” regional police commander Simon Sirro told AFP from the city of Arusha. - Sapa-AFP
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Road Crash
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May 2011
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['(IOL)']
|
The Obama Administration says it wants to phase out the use of privately owned federal prisons. The move would affect private prisons which house 22,660 federal inmates, out of a total of nearly 200,000.
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Contracts with 13 private prisons will be reviewed and allowed to expire over the next five years.
"They do not save substantially on costs and ... they do not maintain the same level of safety and security," Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said explaining the decision.
The majority of US prisoners are held in state-run prisons. On Wall Street, the stocks of private prison companies declined sharply after the news was announced.
By Thursday afternoon, Corrections Corporation of America stock had plunged by nearly 50%.
An Inspector General's report released this month found that private prisons saw higher rates of violent incidents and rule infractions in comparison with government-run institutions. Jonathan Burns, a spokesman for the Corrections Corporation of America, told BBC News that the report contained "significant flaws" and that other studies have shown their facilities "to be equal or better with regard to safety and quality".
David Fathi, who directs the National Prison Project for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told BBC News that the decision could have a trickle-down effect on state and local prisons, where more than 90% of US prisoners are held.
In prison systems "nobody ever wants to be the first" to make changes to policy, Mr Fathi says, so the states will be watching closely to see if the change in federal policy successfully cuts back on violence - and costs. There were 94,365 prisoners being held in private facilities overseen by states in 2010, according to the Sentencing Project group.
During the Democratic presidential primary race, Hillary Clinton's main rival Senator Bernie Sanders made a campaign promise to end the "private, for-profit prison racket".
Senator Sanders sponsored a bill during his campaign attempting to end the use of private prisons in September 2015 saying "we cannot fix our criminal justice system if corporations are allowed to profit from mass incarceration".
In a statement after the decision, Senator Sanders called the move "an important step in the right direction", and that it is "an international embarrassment that we put more people behind bars than any other country on Earth... due in large part to private prisons". Mrs Clinton's website states that she will "end the era of mass incarceration, reform mandatory minimum sentences, and end private prisons".
Mother Jones magazine published an expose earlier this month after one of their reporters took a job as a guard at a private prison in Louisiana for four months.
The magazine found the wide scale use of violence by prisoners and guards alike.
The federal government began to rely on private prisons in the 1990's during a period of overcrowding, with the inmate population peaking in 2013. The decline in prisoner population over the past three years contributed to the Justice Department's decision, Ms Yates said.
President Barack Obama had made criminal justice reform a priority for his administration, and in July 2015 he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison.
The Obama administration has pushed for shorter sentences for non-violent crimes, while separately Mr Obama has regularly reduced the prison sentences of large groups of non-violent inmates. "Mass incarceration makes our entire country worse off, and we need to do something about it," Mr Obama said last year.
Earlier this month, Mr Obama commuted the sentences of 214 federal inmates, meaning he has now authorised more prisoner releases than the last nine previous presidents combined, accounting to analysts. As of December, private prisons housed 22,660 federal inmates, out of a total of nearly 200,000.
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Government Policy Changes
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August 2016
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['(BBC)']
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Residents of Goulburn Island off the coast of the Northern Territory are evacuated ahead of Cyclone Lam.
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LIVE UPDATES: Cyclone Marcia has damaged homes in Yeppoon and torn iron from buildings in Rockhampton to the south. And it’s not over yet. Cyclone Marcia Destroyed house in Yeppoon - Pic Jack TranSource:Supplied
Cyclone Marcia has damaged homes in Yeppoon and torn iron from buildings in Rockhampton to the south. And it’s not over yet. As the tropical cyclone continues to makes its way south we’re beginning to see the trail of destruction its left in its wake. WHAT WE KNOW:
* Cyclone Marcia has been downgraded to a category 1 system but many residents are facing a damp and dark night with thousands without electricity. * Power is expected to be cut for several days and emergency services are calling on residents to use water only when absolutely necessary. * The severe tropical cyclone made landfall as a category 5 cyclone and has left a trail of destruction over Yeppoon and Rockhampton. *The cyclone was at category 5 when it grazed Yeppoon battering the coastal town with 285km/h winds. It was downgraded to category 3 when it hit Rockhampton in the afternoon. * Marcia’s destructive core with gusts to 155km/h continued southwards towards Biloela. * In the Northern Territory, Cyclone Lam made landfall as a category 4 system and has now been downgraded to a tropical low. LIVE UPDATES:
12.30am
One Rockhampton man has told the ABC about the frightening moment when his roof was ripped off his house and support beams started crashing down on him and his flatmate. “Everything just went,” Phil Tout said. “I got belted across the back of the head with bits of timber and Christ knows what else.”
10.50pm
A State of Emergency has been declared for parts of the Top End hardest hit by Cyclone Lam. Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services, Peter Chandler says the declared area includes the communities of Milingimbi, Ramingining, Galiwinku, Gapuwiyak and Mapuru Outstation. “I’ve taken this step to re-establish the normal pattern of life for residents and communities affected by Cyclone Lam,” Mr Chandler said. “It assists with restoring facilities and services necessary for the normal functioning of communities.”
Ramingining residents venture out after Tropical Cyclone Lam passed the remote community. Picture: Carli MerkelSource:Supplied
Nhulunbuy locals navigate the flooded roads.Source:News Corp Australia
10.40pm
Rockhampton Regional Council says the Rockhampton Airport will remain closed until further notice. A serviceability inspection will be undertaken early Saturday morning. There is a possibility that the airport will re-open with a reduced runway length due to wet conditions. Flooding at Rockhampton airport after Cyclone Marcia. Nate Sinclair surveys the damage. Picture: Geoff SinclairSource:Supplied
10.20pm
#BREAKING: The Callide Dam’s automatic gates near Biloela have been opened and a massive amount of water is heading towards Jambin. Locals have been asked to evacuate. Gladstone Regional Council has also warned residents that Awoonga Dam is about to overflow and could flood Pikes Crossing. 9.10pm
Thousands of people are without power in Queensland and are looking at a dark and wet evening. More than 1000 people have no electricity in Gladstone, where a flood warning has also been issued, and there are also outages in Brisbane, on the Sunshine Coast and other Queensland areas including Biloela, which is in the path of Cyclone Marcia. Alan from Biloela: Windy, but not too dangerous. Power is out, so a dark and damp night ahead. #CycloneMarcia
8.50pm
Cyclone Marcia has been downgraded to a category one storm. Gales with gusts to 120 km/h between Rockhampton and Double Island Point tonight, including Biloela, Monto, and Mundubbera. Abnormally high tides will be experienced between Gladstone and Double Island Point. Dangerous surf is also expected. There is heavy rainfall between Gladstone and Double Island Point, and is expected to continue tonight and Saturday morning as the cyclone moves south. A Flood Watch is current for the area. 8.40pm
Amateur footage has emerged of the moment the roof of Yeppoon home is torn off by strong winds. 8.20pm
So many surfers in the water at Snapper Rocks in the Gold Coast today. Cyclone conditions no deterrent to surfers today. Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
8pm
The Australian Defence Force will support Queensland emergency officials with post-disaster assessment in the aftermath of Cyclone Marcia. Defence has tasked the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to dispatch an AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and a KA350 King Air tactical mobility aircraft to central Queensland to help with wide area surveillance, and to provide high-resolution imagery and analysis of the area impacted by the cyclone. 7.45pm
Rockhamption Airport is under water after heavy rain, which has also closed the Bruce Highway north of the regional city. Nate Sinclair surveys the flooding at Rockhampton Airport
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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February 2015
|
['(News Limited)']
|
Referendum voters in Colombia narrowly fail to ratify a peace deal between the Government of Colombia and FARC. , ,
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Voters in Colombia have rejected a landmark peace deal with Farc rebels in a shock referendum result, with 50.2% voting against it.
The deal was signed last week by President Juan Manuel Santos and Farc leader Timoleon Jimenez after nearly four years of negotiations. But it needed to be ratified by Colombians in order to come into force.
Addressing the nation, President Santos said he accepted the result but would continue working to achieve peace.
Colombians were asked to endorse or reject the peace agreement in a popular vote on Sunday. The "yes" campaign had the backing not just of President Santos but of a wide array of politicians both in Colombia and abroad, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But there was also a vocal campaign for a "no" vote, led by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Polls conducted ahead of Sunday's vote suggested a comfortable win for the "yes" campaign.
But in a surprise result, 50.2% of voters rejected the agreement compared with 49.8% who voted for it. The difference with 98.98% of the votes counted was less than 54,000 votes out of almost 13 million ballots. Turnout was low with fewer than 38% of voters casting their votes.
Colombia was divided regionally with most of the outlying provinces voting in favour of the agreement and those nearer the capital and inland voting against it.
In Choco, one of the provinces hardest hit by the conflict, 80% of voters backed the deal. In the town of Bojaya, where at least 119 people were killed when a church was hit by Farc mortar bombs, 96% of residents voted "yes".
Colombia's capital, Bogota, also voted "yes" with 56%.
The province of Vaupes, in the east of the country, also registered strong support for the deal, with 78% voting in favour. Vaupes has also seen its share of conflict, including the attack on the town of Mitu, which the rebels seized control of in 1998 after taking a large number of police officers hostage. Some of the officers were held hostage by the Farc for 12 years before being freed by the army in 2010.
In the eastern province of Casanare on the other hand, 71.1 % voted against the deal.
It is an area where farmers and landowners have for years been extorted by the Farc and other illegal groups. In Antioquia, the home state of ex-President Uribe, 62% rejected the deal. Most of those who voted "no" said they thought the peace agreement was letting the rebels "get away with murder".
Under the agreement, special courts would have been created to try crimes committed during the conflict.
Those who confessed to their crimes would have been given more lenient sentences and would have avoided serving any time in conventional prisons. This, for many Colombians, was one step too far. They also balked at the government's plan to pay demobilised Farc rebels a monthly stipend and to offer those wanting to start a business financial help.
"No" voters said this amounted to a reward for criminal behaviour while honest citizens were left to struggle financially.
Many also said that they simply did not trust the rebels to keep their promise to lay down arms for good. They pointed to previous failed peace negotiations when the rebels took advantage of a lull in fighting to regroup and rearm as evidence that the Farc had broken their word before.
Others were unhappy that under the agreement, the Farc would be guaranteed 10 seats in the Colombian Congress in the 2018 and 2022 elections.
They said this would give the newly created party an unfair advantage.
Read more about the deal's most contentious points
President Santos said that the bilateral ceasefire between government forces and the Farc would remain in place. He has told government negotiators to travel to to Cuba to consult Farc leaders on the next move.
President Santos has promised to "continue the search for peace until the last moment of my mandate because that's the way to leave a better country to our children".
"I won't give up," he said. The Farc leader known as Timochenko also said that the rebels remained committed to securing an end to the conflict. "The Farc reiterates its disposition to use only words as a weapon to build toward the future," he said after the result. "Count on us, peace will triumph."
But before the vote, President Santos had told the BBC that there was "no Plan B" for ending the conflict, which has killed an estimated 260,000 people. He said he would meet all political parties on Monday to discuss the next steps and "open space for dialogue".
Read more: Viewpoint: What next for Colombia after 'no' vote?
The main proponent of the vote against the agreement was former President Alvaro Uribe. Following the "no" vote, Mr Uribe insisted that he was not opposed to peace but that he wanted to renegotiate some of the agreement, which he said needed "corrections".
Among the "corrections" he has demanded are, among others:
He said he wanted "political pluralism which can't be perceived as a reward for crimes committed, social justice without risk to honest enterprise".
"We want to contribute to a national accord and be heard," he said.
However, it is not clear whether the Farc would agree to the "corrections" Mr Uribe wants or if they would even consider renegotiating the deal which took four years of formal negotiations and two years of secret talks to reach. One of surprise, as even Mr Uribe, the main backer of the "no" vote, had predicted that the "yes" vote would win. Some of those who had gathered to watch the result on giant screens expressed their disappointment.
One woman in Medellin told Caracol radio: "I never thought I could be this sad. I haven't got any victims in my family, nor any siblings who've joined the guerrilla, but I think of my country, of the young people and my heart breaks into a thousand pieces."
Farc leader Timochenko expressed his disappointment with the result which he blamed on "the destructive power of those who sow hatred and revenge" and "have influenced the Colombian people's opinion".
Opponents of the agreement, however, took to the streets to celebrate their unexpected win. Many said that "justice has won" and expressed their relief at the result.
One Colombian woman told BBC Mundo that Colombians had not forgotten that the path of the Farc was "paved with kidnappings, killings and drug trafficking".
|
Sign Agreement
|
October 2016
|
['(Reuters)', '(Deutsche Welle)', '(BBC)']
|
A tanker truck carrying fuel overturns after swerving to avoid a motorcycle in Bamako, Mali. A subsequent explosion kills six and seriously injures 46 more. Dozens of vehicles burn.
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BAMAKO (Reuters) - A fuel tanker exploded during a traffic accident in the center of Mali’s capital Bamako on Tuesday, killing six people and badly wounding 46 others, an emergency response official said.
The tanker swerved out of the way of a motorcycle, lost control, crashed on its side and exploded, a witness told Reuters. The flames engulfed onlookers who ran to put themselves out in nearby gutters, he said.
Photos of the scene circulating online showed a wide column of black smoke rising high into the sky. On the roadside, photos showed a line of charred motorcycles and cars.
“We found several people burned and the tank was knocked down when we arrived on the scene. At the moment, we have 46 seriously injured and six killed, over 30 motorcycles, a pick-up and a goods vehicle burned,” said Lieutenant General Diarra, the director general of civil protection of Bamako District.
There was no immediate suggestion that the accident had any link with Islamist groups who frequently carry out violent attacks in the north and center of the restive West African country.
Reporting by Paul Lorgerie; Editing by Lisa Shumaker; Writing by Edward McAllister
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Road Crash
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September 2019
|
['(Reuters)']
|
China warns the U.S. against performing any military acts within their exclusive economic zone, ahead of joint South Korean–U.S. military exercises aimed at threatening North Korea.
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BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday warned against any military acts in its exclusive economic zone, in response to Washington’s decision to send an aircraft carrier near a South Korean island recently shelled by North Korea.
“We oppose any unilateral military act conducted in China’s exclusive economic zone without approval,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in an online response to a question regarding China’s position on the U.S. carrier George Washington participating in joint naval exercises in the region.
The exclusive economic zone is a sea zone up to 200 nautical miles from a country’s coast.
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Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting
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November 2010
|
['(Reuters)']
|
Anon Nampha, a leading lawyer who gave a speech on monarchy reforms, is arrested for "creating chaos" and "spreading untrue matters".
|
updated:
7 Aug 2020 at 21:32
writer: Online Reporters
Two anti-government activists were brought before a court on Friday evening following their arrest earlier in the day, and at least five more were being sought as authorities began a crackdown on the growing movement.
Human rights lawyer Anon Nampa and Panupong Jaadnok, a leader of recent rallies, face charges of sedition, violating the emergency decree and other offences.
Mr Anon made a speech on Monday that touched on some highly sensitive matters related to the monarchy. However, police said on Friday that the charges had nothing to do with that event and stemmed instead from a rally held on July 18 in Bangkok.
Supporters of the two men gathered on Friday night outside the Criminal Court, where police had brought them to seek their detention.
Another 200 people rallied outside the Bang Khen police station, where they vowed not to disperse until the two men were freed. Among them was Parit “Penguin” Cheewarak, a student activist at Thammasat University, who said he was also the subject of a warrant. He said he intended to use peaceful disobedience because he views his arrest as illegitimate.
At the court, local media reported that some sympathetic opposition MPs had offered to use their positions as surety to obtain the two suspects’ temporary release. However, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) tweeted on Friday night that the pair had changed their minds about seeking bail, which could result in them being held in jail over the weekend.
In a letter posted on the TLHR Twitter account, Mr Anon called on his supporters to continue their rallies. “I am willing to sacrifice my freedom to stand by my principles,” he wrote. “Don’t waste your time on freeing Anon. Use your time to fight for the goals we are fighting for.”
The Free People group had called earlier for a rally to be held at the Bang Khen police station to protest against the lawyer’s detention.
Mr Anon, who has represented several pro-democracy activists in the past, was the first to be whisked away by police on Friday afternoon to the Samran Rat station in Bangkok. After he signed documents acknowledging the charges, he was sent to the Bang Khen station.
He posted a picture of the arrest warrant on his Facebook page after police confronted him around 2pm in front of his condominium in Bangkok.
The 34-year-old lawyer faces seven charges: inciting unrest or sedition (Section 116 of the Criminal Code); illegal assembly of more than 10 people (Section 215 of the Criminal Code); holding activities at risk of spreading contagious diseases (emergency decree); obstructing public space (Section 385 of the Criminal Code); obstructing traffic (Section 114 of the Land Traffic Act); violating the cleanliness law (Section 19) and using loudspeakers without prior approval (Section 4).
The charge under Section 116 carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
Minutes later, Mr Panupong, known as “Mike Rayong”, one of the young people who held posters denouncing Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha visited the eastern province recently, was taken by police from the Ramkhamhaeng area to the same police station. He is named as the fifth suspect in the same case and faces the same charges as Mr Anon, who was listed seventh on the warrant. The names of the others are not known yet.
Local media reports said law enforcement officials could be targeting as many as 30 people in connection with rallies that have taken place at numerous sites around the country.
The arrests come just days after the inauguration of the Free People group, which grew out of the Free Youth group that began staging the protests three weeks ago.
The protesters, mainly university and high school studnts mobilised via Twitter and other social media, have been demanding the resignation of the current government led by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, an end to state harassment of government critics, and a new constitution.
Gen Prayut has said that efforts to change the charter will go ahead but he has also asked the protesters to tread carefully.
The Free People group has called for another rally on Aug 16. Mr Anon said earlier that he was planning to speak at a related rally on Sunday in Chiang Mai.
Mr Anon created a stir when he gave a speech at a rally near the Democracy Monument on Tuesday. In it, he touched on the relationship between the monarchy and the constitution.
As the first person to have spoken in public about the highly sensitive issue in several years, he insisted he meant well for the high institution, which he thinks needs to be within the framework of democracy with the King as head of state.
He made three proposals: abolish or amend laws expanding royal power which may infringe on the principles of democracy with the king as head of state; amend the lese majeste law in line with democracy and human rights; listen to the voice of rallying students and the public in order to arrive at solutions to social problems based on democratic principles.
LONDON: England's ambitions to be crowned kings of Europe got a cold dose of reality as they were held to a 0-0 draw by a gutsy Scotland side in a Euro 2020 'Battle of Britain' on Friday.
The government has abandoned a plan for a 16-week gap between doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and will opt for a shorter interval of 10 to 12 weeks instead, a senior health official said on Friday.
Prawit Wongsuwon tightens his grip on the Palang Pracharath Party with right-hand man Thamanat Prompow on his side as the new party secretary-general.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest
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August 2020
|
['(Khaosod)', '(Bangkok Post)']
|
Michael McDowell wins the 63rd running of the Daytona 500. It is McDowell's first career victory in the Cup Series.
|
In a stunning upset at the end of an action-filled, rain-interrupted Daytona 500, Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell claimed his first NASCAR Cup Series victory after charging into the lead during a brutal multi-car wreck in Turn 3 on the final lap.
“I can’t believe it,” McDowell said. “I’ve got to thank God. So many years of just grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. I’ve got to thank (team owner) Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. I’m so thankful.
“What a great way to get a first victory — in the Daytona 500!”
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Daytona
In fact, McDowell, who led only the final lap at 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, is the eighth driver to get his first Cup win in The Great American Race. His victory is the third for Front Row Motorsports — all coming in the No. 34 Ford with three different drivers: David Ragan at Talladega Superspeedway, Chris Buescher at Pocono Raceway and McDowell at Daytona. And according to Racing Insights, McDowell’s 358 starts before his first win is the second-longest streak to Michael Waltrip’s 463, which also ended with a Daytona 500 victory.
Reigning series champion Chase Elliott finished second after contact between the Team Penske Fords of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano ignited the final wreck, sending the Toyota of Kyle Busch rocketing into the outside wall. When NASCAR illuminated the caution lights, McDowell was in the lead over Elliott by a car length.
“I saw the lights come on (for the caution), and I knew it was over right then,” Elliott said. “We had a fast car. We weren’t as good as I thought we were on Thursday (in the Duel 150-mile qualifying race). I thought we did a really good job of executing today, staying out of trouble.
“That’s not something I’ve done a very good job of here in this race, so I’m glad we could at least finish this race and have something to build on for when we come back and try to do better.”
RELATED: Chase Elliott comes up just short | Teammates tangle ends Penske’s Daytona 500 bid
Austin Dillon ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, who fell short in his attempt to win a record third straight Daytona 500. Hamlin won the first two stages but lost the lead during the final cycle of green-flag pit stops when the small contingent of Toyotas got separated while exiting pit road.
Hamlin took the lead in the second stage after a cycle of green-flag pit stops and held it through the fifth caution of the race, which waved when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell cut a left-rear tire and spun into the Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
At that point, Hamlin had led 58 laps, bringing his total of laps led in the Daytona 500 to 434, fifth all time and one ahead of Bobby Allison. Hamlin had led 34 consecutive laps to win Stage 1 after racing resumed Sunday night. He finished with a race-high 98 laps led.
On Lap 14, before a long rain delay, off-center contact from Bell’s Toyota to the rear bumper of Aric Almirola’s Ford sent Almirola spinning near the front of the field, triggering a massive 16-car pile-up that inexorably altered the complexion of the race.
“We were just getting pushed too hard too early,” Almirola said. “It’s a long, long race. Man, we were in a fine position, just sitting there riding around in the top two, three, and the 20 (Bell) just came with a big run and hit me really hard in a bad spot and it turned me to the right and tore up our race car and ended our Daytona 500 way too early.”
Collected in the wreck were: Ryan Newman, making his first Daytona 500 start since the devastating last-lap wreck that put him in the hospital a year ago; Erik Jones, in his first start in a points race for his new team, Richard Petty Motorsports; Daniel Suarez, in his first run with newly formed Trackhouse Racing, a joint venture between Justin Marks and rapper Pitbull; and pole-sitter Alex Bowman, whose No. 48 Chevrolet was wiped out when Almirola shot up the track into the side of his car and rammed it into the wall.
“It looks like the No. 10 (Almirola) kind of got turned sideways there, and I was the guy that got ran into,” Bowman said after an obligatory trip to the infield care center. “Bummer – I hate it for (sponsor) Ally. Obviously, we had a really fast Camaro. The Chevrolets were working good together; hopefully, a Chevy still ends up in Victory Lane.
MORE: Early stack-up sidelines contenders
“Hats off to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports; they built some really fast race cars. Hate that superspeedway racing works out that way sometimes, but that’s just part of the game.”
Also heavily damaged in the melee were the cars of William Byron, Kurt Busch, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, David Ragan, Jamie McMurray and Matt DiBenedetto. To add insult to injury, nearby lightning strikes delayed the restart of the race and heavy rains followed shortly thereafter.
Five hours and 40 minutes later, after the rain abated and the track dried, engines were re-fired at 9:07 p.m. ET, and the race resumed with 24 cars on the lead lap. The NASCAR Cup Series’ next race is scheduled Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) at Daytona’s 3.61-mile road-course layout.
Notes: In his first points race for the new 23XI Racing team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, Bubba Wallace ran near the front of the pack throughout the race but lost a lap with an unscheduled pit stop for a vibration on Lap 178 of 200. Wallace was caught up in the last-lap wreck and finished 17th… Kyle Larson ran 10th in his first trip in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet… Austin Cindric’s strong Cup debut ended in the last-lap wreck that claimed three Team Penske cars… Ryan Preece, Ross Chastain, Jamie McMurray and Corey LaJoie claimed the sixth through ninth finishing positions, respectively… .
NOTE: The No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Michael McDowell passed post-race technical inspection early Monday morning after winning the NASCAR Cup Series’ Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway. There were no other issues.
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Sports Competition
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February 2021
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['(NASCAR.com)']
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Violence breaks out in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, following a fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old male criminal armed with a handgun earlier in the day. The Milwaukee Police Department says an officer was injured after being struck in the head by a brick, while a police car and gas station were set on fire.
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Follow NBC News Violence and protests erupted in Milwaukee overnight after a man was fatally shot by police during a foot chase.
Police said the victim, 23, was armed with a handgun and shot dead by an officer after fleeing a traffic stop on Milwaukee's north side Saturday afternoon.
Hours later angry crowds took to the streets, smashing a police car and setting fire to another. One officer was injured by a flying brick; a gas station and auto-parts store were set alight. Police said gunshots were heard.
Gas station at Sherman and Burleigh set on fire. MFD cannot extinguish fire as gunshots are being fired.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett pleaded for calm at an early morning news conference, asking residents to "do everything" to help restore order.
"If you love your son, if you love your daughter, text them, call them, pull them by the ears and get 'em home," he said.
Police said at least three people had been arrested as of early Sunday.
The initial crowd — estimated at around 100 people — had thinned early Sunday but there were still "a lot of people out," Milwaukee Assistant Police Chief James Harpole told reporters.
"It is still a very tense situation for us," Harpole added.
The man who was killed has not been publicly identified.
Milwaukee's mayor said the man was struck twice — in the chest and the arm — and that he believes the officer involved had a body camera on at the time of the shooting.
Milwaukee Police Assistant Chief Bill Jessup told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper it wasn’t clear if the gun was pointed at the officer.
"Those additional facts will come out in the coming days," Jessup said.
Police said the man shot had a "lengthy arrest record" and was carrying a semiautomatic handgun reported stolen in a burglary in Waukesha in March.
The name of the officer involved in the shooting has not been released. The races of the officer and the man shot also have not been released.
Police said the officer — a 24-year-old man who has been with the police department for six years and has been an officer for three years — was placed on administrative duty following the incident.
Local officials echoed Barrett's appeal for calm, with Milwaukee Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton asking for locals to help restore order.
Crowd breaks widows of unoccupied squad near Sherman and Auer. Other squad set afire and broken windows on another. pic.twitter.com/Jux2mJZYyQ
"We understand the frustration people feel with the police community nationally. ... We have to go through the process of finding justice, but we have to be able to restore order to these neighborhoods," Hamilton said.
Aerial video shot by NBC station WTMJ showed a building at a gas station burning to the ground. A second fire broke out at an O'Reilly Auto Parts store less than a little less than mile away from the shooting.
WTMJ said it pulled its reporters from the scene due to threats of physical violence from some in the crowd. The Journal-Sentinel reported that one of its journalists was thrown to the ground and punched.
As the gas station burned, the founder of a local non-profit called "The Spread Love Initiative," Terrell Johnnies, went out to try to talk to people on the street and urge non-violence.
"I do not want my city to turn into a war zone," Johnnies told NBC News. "I was thinking hopefully they can see me and recognize me and stop the violence."
But after gunfire was heard, Johnnies said it was too dangerous to stay. "Once there were gun shots, that's when I decided I mostly definitely had to remove myself ... There was only one of me."
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Riot
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August 2016
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['(NBC News)']
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Al-Shabaab, an ally of Al-Qaeda, claims responsibility for the suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, that killed nearly 90 people.
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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist group al Shabaab on Monday claimed responsibility for a bomb blast in Mogadishu that killed at least 90 people over the weekend while Somalia said a foreign government that it did not identify helped plan the attack.
Al Shabaab claims responsibility for deadly Somalia blast
01:13
The bombing was the deadliest in more than two years in a country wrecked by nearly three decades of Islamist violence and clan warfare.
In an audio message, al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bombing at the busy Ex-Control checkpoint northwest of Mogadishu.
“The blast targeted a convoy of Turkish and Somali forces and they suffered great loss,” Ali Mohamud Rage, al Shabaab’s spokesman said in the message.
The National Intelligence and Security Agency did not name the country that it said was involved in the blast. “A foreign country planned the massacre of the Somalis in Mogadishu on 28 Dec 2019,” it said in a tweet.
NISA also said it would use assistance from an unnamed foreign intelligence organization in its investigation.
Rage accused Turkey of “taking all resources of Somalia” and vowed to continue targeting their personnel in the country.
“We shall always fight...the Turkish who work with the
apostate government of Turkey. We are not against innocent
Turkish Muslim citizens,” he said.
Two of those killed were Turkish nationals. A small team of Turkish engineers was present at the time of the blast, constructing a road into the city.
In recent years, Somalia has become an arena for military and diplomatic rivalry between Turkey and Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on the other.
Al Shabaab frequently carries out bombings to try to undermine Somalia’s central government, which is backed by the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping troops.
The most deadly attack blamed on al Shabaab was in 2017 when a truck bomb exploded next to a fuel tanker in Mogadishu, killing nearly 600.
Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; writing by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Giles Elgood and Cynthia Osterman
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Armed Conflict
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December 2019
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['(Reuters)']
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Rafael Nadal of Spain wins his ninth title in the French Open after a double fault from Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4. He becomes the first man to win nine titles in one Grand Slam championship.
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Rafael Nadal now has 14 Grand Slam titles — tied for second with Pete Sampras on the all-time list. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
PARIS — Rafael Nadal came back from a set down to defeat Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 and capture his record ninth French Open title. With the victory, Nadal, who will retain the No. 1 ATP ranking, snapped a four-match losing streak to Djokovic and maintained his dominance over his No. 2 rival at the Grand Slam, having now won nine of their twelve meetings at the majors. Nadal’s win moved him into second place with Pete Sampras for most major titles amongst the men with 14 — just three titles behind Roger Federer’s mark of 17. He also extended the record he set last year to become the first man to win nine titles at any Slam. It was an emotional match for both men, as the two held back tears during the trophy celebration. Djokovic was playing in his second French Open final and was trying to complete his career Grand Slam. He started out well to take the first set and was the better player for a set and a half. However, he appeared to struggle physically under the Parisian sun, and a poor service game at 5-6 in the second set allowed Nadal to break and level the match. “It was a great start, [but Nadal] came back in the second. Could have gone to the tiebreak and was quite even,” Djokovic said. “I lost that service game, and then the momentums went his side. I started playing quite bad, you know, and didn’t move as well. Struggled a little bit physically throughout that third set.”
Neither man was able to play their best tennis for the next two sets, but Nadal remained steady. With the pressure of match point for Nadal on his shoulders, Djokovic double-faulted to hand over the trophy. These kind of big matches obviously take the best out of players, and of course it’s a huge challenge,” Djokovic said. “I tried to do my best. My best wasn’t as the best against him in Rome a couple weeks ago. But, you know, it’s how it is. Congratulations to him. He was a better player in the crucial moments. Of course it’s disappointing for me, but life goes on. It’s not the first time or last time that I lost a match.”
Game-by-game analysis below. 12:50 p.m. ET | Rafael Nadal defeats Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 to win his ninth French Open title. What a disappointing end for Djokovic, who falls behind on his service game and double-faults on Championship Point. Nadal falls to his knees in celebration. #DREAMIN9
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) June 8, 2014
Djokovic is sitting in his chair in disbelief, shaking his head and staring off into space. As he’s presented with his runner-up trophy the crowd gives him a big cheer and Djokovic is smiling but fighting back tears. Here’s Nadal’s first reaction after winning the title:
12:40 p.m. ET | Nadal holds, leads 5-4*. Big hold for Nadal in a deuce game to come within a game of the title. He hasn’t played great today but he’s been good enough. The backhand has really let him down in this set and Djokovic is trying to find it. The sun is out in full force at Roland Garros for the men’s final. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
12:31 p.m. ET | Nadal breaks and Djokovic breaks back, trails 4-3*. Could that be the match? Nadal secures the break thanks to a string of unforced errors from the Djokovic racket. Djokovic has done well to hang in the rallies but when he gets the shot he wants he’s missing. But Nadal throws in a horrible service game and Djokovic breaks back. Is Nadal feeling some back pain? Over the last 20 minutes he’s been bending over at the waist with his elbow on his knees as he towels off. He hits the worst shot I’ve ever seen from him, missing an overhead from the baseline softly into the net. That miss gave up two break points and Djokovic converts on the second. Giving new zest to the phrase boot-and-rally….Djokovic hangs in there and we’re on serve in the fourth set — Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) 8 Juin 2014
12:14 p.m. ET | Nadal holds, leads 3-2*. Nadal still hitting enough errors to keep Djokovic in the match but Djokovic is just not hitting the ball well. The two trade holds. Very flat match, this. Not one for the memory books quite yet. 12:05 p.m. ET | Nadal holds, leads 2-1*. Both men hold to start the fourth set. And this happened in the first game:
MMMMMMM https://t.co/hjvH8fVfmZ
— Seth Rosenthal (@seth_rosenthal) June 8, 2014
So yeah. Djokovic isn’t feeling that great. Nadal follows up with a hold. Shocking return game from Djokovic there as he sends in three straight return errors. Poor. Rafael Nadal celebrates winning the set. (PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/Getty Images)
11:50 a.m. ET | Rafael Nadal wins the third set and leads 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Nadal finishes up the set with a break. Both men head to the bathroom for a break. Does Djokovic have an extra gear to mount a comeback? The first few games of the fourth set are key. Rafa looking strong but Novak will come roaring back. Can’t wait to watch this play out
— Ryan Harrison (@ryanharrison92) 8 Juin 2014
11:45 a.m. ET | Nadal holds, leads 5-2*. Djokovic holds and once again Nadal gives him a chance to break back. Djokovic earns two break points but can’t convert in either of them. It’s first strike tennis for both men now but after over 10 minutes, Nadal holds when Djokovic puts a midcourt backhand into the net. He stands and stares at his box for a good 10 seconds in pure disbelief and frustration. The white cap isn’t enough to protect Djokovic from the heat. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
11:30 a.m. ET | Nadal holds, leads 4-1*. Djokovic gets on the board with a hold and actually earns a break point on Nadal’s serve. Again, just as a player seems to be taking control he lets off the gas pedal. Djokovic can’t convert on break point though, and Nadal does hold. Djokovic is clearly feeling the heat and the fatigue and he’s not doing a very good job disguising it. On the last change of ends he collapses awkwardly onto his bench. Not sure if that was just dramatics or real. 11:17 a.m. ET | Nadal breaks and holds, leads 3-0*. Nadal falls to 30-all but holds off Djokovic to hold. But Djokovic seems to be flagging under the heat. He’s spent the changeovers under an ice towel and he’s hurting. He falls to 30-30 on his serve and a long 22 shot rally goes Nadal’s way. A tired Djokovic tries to serve and volley on break point and puts a lazy volley into the net. Nadal then consolidates. Eight French Open finals, eight French Open titles for Nadal. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
11:02 a.m. ET | Rafael Nadal takes the second set 7-5. There’s the break! A bad service game from Djokovic and Nadal breaks. Was Djokovic put off by a screaming baby? At 15-15 a baby starts crying and Djokovic double-faults. He then loses three straight points to drop the set. Game on. 10:55 a.m. ET | Nadal holds, leads 6-5*. Good clean hold from Djokovic to settle things down. Nadal responds with a love hold. Djokovic will serve to force a tiebreak. 10:45 a.m. ET | Nadal holds, leads 5-4*. Nadal lets Djokovic off the hook as he earns break point but can’t convert. This has been a sub-par 20 minutes of tennis from both men and without so many long rallies you just feel like neither man has been able to get enough hits on the ball to get into a rhythm. Boris Becker acknowledges Novak Djokovic’s first-set victory. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
10:38 a.m. ET | Nadal breaks and Djokovic breaks back, trails 4-3*. Nadal breaks! The forehand is the weapon and it’s finally firing. He gets a bad bit of luck in his first break point of the game, as he fires forehand after forehand that clip the lines but then barely misses on the baseline. The ball was called in but Djokovic and Pascal Maria take a look and it’s out. But Nadal earns a second break point and this time there’s no mistake. He converts for a 4-2 lead. But he can’t consolidate!
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Sports Competition
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June 2014
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['(The Telegraph)', '(SI)']
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Cuban President Miguel Díaz–Canel is officially named First Secretary of the Communist Party following the resignation of Raúl Castro. He is the first person not of the Castro family to hold the position since the 1959 Cuban revolution.
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Cuba's Communist Party has announced Miguel Díaz-Canel will succeed Raúl Castro as the party's first secretary.
Mr Díaz-Canel, who in 2018 succeeded Mr Castro as Cuba's president, had been widely tipped for the arguably more influential post of party leader.
The transition means that the island will be governed by someone other than Fidel or Raúl Castro for the first time since the Cuban revolution in 1959. Mr Díaz-Canel is seen as loyal to the Castros and their economic model.
Speaking on Friday, when Mr Díaz-Canel had not been officially named yet as first secretary, Raúl Castro said that he would hand over the leadership to a younger generation "full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit".
At 60, Mr Díaz-Canel is almost 30 years younger than his predecessor.
It follows the announcement on Friday - on the first day of the party's four-day congress - that Raúl Castro was stepping down from the key position of first secretary. The 89-year-old had been in the post since 2011, when he took over from his older brother, Fidel Castro. Between them, the two brothers have ruled Cuba since the 1959 revolution which overthrew the authoritarian ruler Gen Fulgencio Batista. By Will Grant, BBC Cuba correspondent
Miguel Díaz-Canel represents a logical choice to succeed Raúl Castro. President Diaz-Canel has shown himself as loyal to the Castro-model of state socialism in Cuba and - as Cuba's president - has only allowed a very limited expansion of the private sector, in line with his predecessor's wishes.
Politically, there is no likelihood of any sudden changes and it is clear that Mr Castro sees Mr Díaz-Canel as a safe pair of hands. Raúl Castro wants to leave his final official role in the Cuban revolution with a sense of continuity, of passing the torch to a younger leader who holds the same values. Given the bleak economic outlook, however, Mr Diaz-Canel may well have to further liberalise the centrally controlled economy in the very near future.
Fidel Castro was the country's leader from 1959. He fell ill in 2006 and two years later he formally handed over the presidency to his brother. Fidel Castro died in 2016 but his brother Raúl maintained the grip of Cuba's Communist Party on power on the island.
Even though Miguel Díaz-Canel was born after the Cuban revolution, he is seen as one of its staunchest defenders and a close ally to the Castros.
He began his political career in his early 20s as a member of the Young Communist League in Santa Clara, a city dominated by the mausoleum of Che Guevara, who fought alongside the Castros in the Cuban revolution. He worked his way up through the ranks and became minister of higher education in 2009. In 2013, he became vice-president of the powerful council of state. Five years later, in 2018, he was elected Cuba's president by the country's National Assembly with 99.83% of the vote in a process which was fully overseen by the ruling Communist Party.
Under Mr Díaz-Canel's leadership, Cuba has maintained good relations with North Korea, China, Russia, Bolivia and Venezuela. And while he has vowed to protect Cuba's sovereignty and the Castros' ideals, he faces a country mired in its most serious economic crisis in decades. Cuba's economy shrank by 11% last year as the Covid-19 pandemic as well as sanctions and tighter financial restrictions imposed by the US government under former President Donald Trump hit the island hard. Mr Díaz-Canel welcomed the election of President Joe Biden and said that he believed "constructive bilateral relations respecting another's differences" were possible under the new president. In his final address to the Communist Party on Friday, Mr Castro echoes that sentiment, saying that there was a "willingness to conduct a respectful dialogue and build a new kind of relationship with the United States". However, with the White House saying that a shift in its policy towards Cuba was not among President Joe Biden's top foreign policy priorities, any possible changes in the two countries' relationship still appear to be far off. Raúl Castro steps down as Cuban communist leader
Cuba's new constitution: What's in and what's out
Miguel Díaz-Canel: The man succeeding the Castros
In pictures: Raúl Castro's career over six decades
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
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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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Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration
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April 2021
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['(BBC)']
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A XPT train derails in Victoria, Australia, killing two people.
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Country Fire Authority says five carriages derailed near Wallan station, 45km north of Melbourne, about 8pm on Thursday
First published on Thu 20 Feb 2020 10.25 GMT
Two people were killed and several injured after the Sydney to Melbourne XPT derailed in Victoria on Thursday night.
The diesel locomotive and five carriages derailed near Wallan station, 45km north of Melbourne, on the North East line at about 8pm.
Video and images posted to social media showed carriages lying on their side next to the tracks.
The day got worse. The train crashed.
Ambulance Victoria said one person had been airlifted to Melbourne for medical treatment and four others were taken to hospital in a stable condition. It is believed the two deceased were travelling in the drivers’ carriage.
The train, which left Central station in Sydney at 7.40am, had been due to arrive at Southern Cross station in Melbourne at 6.30pm. It was running more than two hours late at the time of the crash.
About 160 passengers were on board when it derailed. The rail lines between Melbourne and Sydney were closed following the incident.
Shocking scenes at Wallan. I’ve been sent this video that shows the aftermath of the passenger train derailment
All passengers who were able to walk from the train were taken to the Wallan McDonald’s and BP station area, which was being used as a triage centre. By 9pm, the CFA said the rescue had been completed.
Speaking from the triage centre, a Sydney couple who had taken the train to visit their son in Melbourne said the derailment had been terrifying.
“You just hang on for grim death. You’re being thrown around, the things going along tilting over and all, you can look out the window and just see dirt and debris and stuff flying up past the windows and the track itself is just twisted and bent,” the man said.
“It probably went about 150 metres before it stopped. There were carriages going sideways – pretty horrifying.”
The woman said her thoughts were with those who had died. “We’re very sad about that. Two people who went off to work this morning and never went home,” she said.
James Ashburner, 69, from Canberra, told the Herald Sun he was sitting in the first passenger carriage when the train derailed.
The train was travelling “at 100-odd km/h and then things went strange”.
“There was a lot of noise and suddenly there was dust, the train was swaying a lot,” he said. “I didn’t realise that we had derailed until we came to a stop.“Initially we were all just stunned, people went flying, stuff went flying. A couple of people had been standing in the aisle and they really went flying. For some minutes we were just milling about seeing who needed assistance and what sort of assistance.”
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Train collisions
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February 2020
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['(The Guardian)']
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Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces sentences on seven verdicts of misusing billions of dollars in government funds while in office, the Supreme Audit Court public prosecutor said. If confirmed, Ahmadinejad will be barred from public office for seven years.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faces sentences on seven verdicts of misusing billions of dollars in government funds while in office, the public prosecutor at Iran’s Supreme Audit Court said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.
In one case, dating back to Ahmadinejad’s second term in office between 2009 and 2013, the misused funds amounted to more than two billion dollars, the prosecutor, Fayaz Shojaie, said in his interview with the newspaper Etemaad.
The verdicts have been announced to the parliament, Shojaie said. The Supreme Audit Court operates under the supervision of the Iranian parliament.
It is not clear whether Ahmadinejad was formally tried by the court and is facing sentencing, or whether the Iranian parliament must now follow up on the court’s verdicts.
Ahmadinejad gained support among poor and working class Iranians by promising to share the country’s oil wealth with them. Subsidy reforms implemented in his second term were aimed at delivering subsidies to the most needy while cutting their overall cost to the government.
Shojaie said that he did not believe the funds Ahmadinejad allegedly misused could be recovered.
“In the effort of fixing the damages the decision has been issued and finalized. But the damages and harm from his decisions are so big that we don’t have a way to carry it out,” Shojaie said. “So what can we do? He in no way has the assets that would cover this amount.”
He did not say what would happen if the money could not be recovered from Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad could not immediately be reached for comment.
Despite his popularity among some segments of the Iranian population, Ahmadinejad angered hardliners by clashing publicly with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on a handful of issues during his second term.
Ahmadinejad submitted his name to run as a candidate in the Iranian presidential election in May, but he was disqualified by the Guardian Council, a governmental body that vets candidates.
Half of the members of the Council are appointed by Khamenei who, without naming Ahmadinejad, hinted that he had advised him not to run.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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July 2017
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['(Reuters)']
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Hurricane Walaka becomes a category 5 hurricane. It is expected to hit the Johnston Atoll.
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Hurricane Walaka, a dangerous Category 5 storm, maintained its intensity as it continued on a course toward Johnston Atoll, far southwest of the main Hawaiian islands.
At 11 p.m. Monday, Walaka was 210 miles south of Johnston Island, the largest of the four islands of Johnston Atoll. Walaka had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph and was moving north-northwest at 8 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Hurricane-force winds of 75 mph or more extend out 45 miles from the center while tropical storm-force winds of more than 39 mph extend out 185 miles.
The storm was centered 955 miles west-southwest of Honolulu and is not expected to threaten the main Hawaiian islands.
Johnston Atoll is under a hurricane warning, while Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — from Nihoa to French Frigate Shoals to Maro Reef — is under a hurricane watch.
Walaka is expected to pass just to the west of Johnston Island on Tuesday.
5 p.m.
Massive Hurricane Walaka is expected to pass dangerously close to the tiny Johnston Atoll Tuesday as a Category 5 storm.
At 5 p.m., Walaka had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph and was centered 240 miles south of Johnston Island, the largest of the atoll’s four islands, and about 965 miles southwest of Honolulu. The storm was moving northwest at 7 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
Some strengthening is expected tonight before Walaka starts weakening, forecasters said. Hurricane-force winds extend out 50 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extend out 185 miles.
Johnston Atoll remains under a hurricane warning, and Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — from Nihoa to French Frigate Shoals to Maro Reef — is now under a hurricane watch. Walaka is expected still be a major hurricane when it reaches the monument, northwest of the main Hawaiian islands, by Wednesday night.
Four members of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biology field crew are working on Johnston Island, a wildlife refuge. A spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service said the “on-island staff are sheltering in place at a steel and concrete structure built to withstand hurricanes.”
2:25 p.m.
Hurricane Walaka is now a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, and is expected to intensify further as it threatens tiny Johnston Atoll, far southwest of Hawaii.
Johnston Atoll is one of the most isolated atolls in the world, located between Hawaii and the Line Islands.
Four members of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biology field crew are working on Johnston Island — one of four islands that make up Johnston Atoll, home to the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
“In preparation for any possible impacts from Hurricane Walaka, the field biology crew secured the year-round field camp,” Megan Nagel, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Pacific Region, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email. “Currently, on-island staff are sheltering in place at a steel and concrete structure built to withstand hurricanes.”
The refuge is within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument; its boundary includes Johnston Island and extends 12 miles from the shorelines.
The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said this afternoon that Walaka was centered 265 miles south of Johnston Island and 965 miles southwest of Honolulu, moving west-northwest at 9 mph.
The storm is expected to make a turn to the north and pass just to the west of Johnston Island on Tuesday. Some strengthening is expected through early Tuesday before Walaka starts a gradual weakening trend.
Hurricane-force winds extend out 50 miles from Walaka’s center while tropical storm-force winds extend 185 miles.
Tropical storm-force winds, of more than 39 mph, are expected to reach Johnston Island starting late tonight or early Tuesday, with hurricane conditions expected by Tuesday afternoon, forecasters said. Large surf and heavy rain is also expected to start hitting the island tonight.
The storm is expected to peak Tuesday with 165 mph maximum sustained winds, which would make it the strongest Central Pacific storm since Hurricane Ioke in 2006.
Johnston Island is a U.S. possession located 825 miles southwest of Honolulu. The atoll is a wildlife refuge that was had been used by the U.S. military to store chemical weapons.
Johnston Atoll, which is now under a hurricane warning, has been hit several times by hurricanes, including Ioke in 2006, Dora in 1999 and John in 1994.
Hurricane center forecasters also said that “interests in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (northwest of the main Hawaiian islands) should monitor the progress of Walaka.”
11:50 a.m.
Hurricane Walaka is bearing down on Johnston Atoll as a powerful Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph that are expected to continue strengthening.
By late this morning, the storm was 950 miles southwest of Honolulu and 265 miles south of Johnston Island, moving northwest at 10 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Hawaii.
Johnston Atoll is under a hurricane warning and Walaka is expected to approach the island Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds up to 165 mph.
“A turn toward the north is expected late tonight through Tuesday with a gradual increase in forward speed,” forecasters said late this morning. “On the forecast track, the center of Walaka is expected to pass just to the west of Johnston Island on Tuesday.”
Hurricane-force winds extend out 50 miles from Walaka’s center and tropical storm-force winds extend out up to 160 miles.
“The northeastward track after Tuesday is also expected to take the hurricane across the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument between French Frigate Shoals and Laysan Island on Thursday, and a hurricane watch may be needed for these locations later today or tonight,” forecasters said.
8 a.m.
Now a Category 4 storm, Hurricane Walaka is continuing to strengthen southwest of the Hawaiian islands.
Located about 940 miles southwest of Honolulu and 290 miles south of Johnston Atoll at 8 a.m., Walaka was packing maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and is headed west-northwest at 10 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Johnston Atoll. A turn toward the northwest is expected to begin later today, followed by a turn toward the north late tonight through Tuesday night with a gradual increase in forward speed, weather officials said.
Rapid intensification is expected to continue today into tonight, with little change in intensity forecast Tuesday and Tuesday night.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles.
5 a.m.
Hurricane Walaka continued to strengthen overnight and is now a Category 3 storm southwest of the Hawaiian Islands.
Located about 925 miles southwest of Honolulu and 315 miles south-southeast of Johnston Atoll at 5 a.m., Walaka was packing maximum sustained winds of 125 mph and is headed west-northwest at 10 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Johnston Atoll. A turn toward the northwest is expected to begin later today, followed by a turn toward the north late tonight through Tuesday night with a gradual increase in forward speed, weather officials said.
Rapid intensification is expected to continue today into tonight, with little change in intensity forecast Tuesday and Tuesday night.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles.
11:20 p.m Sunday
Hurricane Walaka grew to a powerful Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, and while it poses no threat to the main Hawaiian islands, Johnston Atoll is under a hurricane warning.
As of 11 p.m. Sunday, Walaka was 905 miles southwest of Honolulu and 355 miles south-southeast of Johnston Island, moving west at 12 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 30 miles from the storm’s center while tropical storm-force winds of more than 39 mph extend out up to 125 miles, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu.
Walaka is expected to grow to a major Category 4 hurricane — with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph — by Tuesday, as it moves northward and passes near Johnston Atoll, forecasters said.
The warning for Johnston Atoll calls for tropical storm-force winds late Monday night or early Tuesday, and hurricane conditions by Tuesday afternoon. High surf and heavy rainfall may reach the atoll starting Monday night.
In addition, forecasters warn that “interests in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (northwest of the main Hawaiian islands) should monitor the progress of Walaka.”
By the end of the week, Walaka is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it moves north over cooler water far from the main Hawaiian islands.
5:20 p.m.
Walaka has strengthened into a hurricane, centered 860 miles southwest of Honolulu but moving away from the islands.
At 5 p.m., the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and was moving west, further away from the state, at 12 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds of more than 39 mph extend out up to 90 miles.
A turn to the north is expected in the next two days, putting Johnston Atoll in Walaka’s path, prompting a hurricane warning for the tiny northwestern islands.
“A warning is typically issued 36 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm force winds, conditions that make outside preparations difficult or dangerous,” forecasters with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu said. “Interests in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument should monitor the progress of Walaka.”
Johnston Island can expect tropical storm-force winds starting early Tuesday, and hurricane conditions by Tuesday afternoon. Large surf will reach the Johnston Atoll reefs and shorelines starting Tuesday, forecasters said.
2:30 p.m.
Walaka’s maximum sustained winds continue to strengthen as the tropical storm keeps moving further away from the islands.
As of 2 p.m., Walaka was 845 southwest of Honolulu and had sustained winds of 65 mph as the storm moved west at 18 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
Forecasters expect Walaka to become a hurricane as early as tonight and be a major hurricane Monday through Wednesday when it is projected to be hundreds of miles west of Kauai.
“With the official forecast track bringing the center of Walaka very near Johnston Atoll on Tuesday, a hurricane watch remains in effect there,” forecasters said today.
Walaka is expected to weaken back to a Category 1 hurricane later in the week as it moves north over cooler water.
12:30 p.m.
Walaka remains a tropical storm as it moves on a western track that keeps it well south of Hawaii.
At 11 a.m. today, Walaka was about 810 miles southwest of Honolulu and 410 miles southeast of Johnston Atoll and moving west near 18 mph with sustained winds of 65 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds extend up to 70 miles from the center.
National Weather Service forecasters based at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu expect the storm to slow and turn nortwest on Monday, followed by a more northernly turn on Tuesday.
Walaka is forecast to become a hurricane later today and continue to rapidly intensify through Monday night. Wind shear will begin to affect the storm starting late Tuesday or Wednesday, and it will begin to weaken by the end of the week.
Johnston Atoll is currently under a hurricane watch.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Tropical Storm Walaka intensified overnight, but remains well southwest of the main Hawaiian Islands.
As of 5 a.m. Sunday, Walaka was located about 770 miles south-southwest of Honolulu and 510 miles southeast of Johnston Atoll, where a hurricane watch is now in effect. The storm is moving west near 16 mph and is expected to continue in that direction through the evening with a decrease in forward speed; maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph, with higher gusts.
Walaka is expected to take a turn toward the northwest on Monday, then make another turn northward on Tuesday, bringing it very close to Johnston Atoll. Tropical-storm-force winds extend 70 miles from the center.
According to the National Weather Service’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, Walaka is expected to rapidly intensify through Monday night and become a major hurricane. Wind shear will begin to affect the storm starting late Tuesday or Wednesday, and it will begin to weaken by the end of the week
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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October 2018
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['(Star-Advertiser)']
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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.#مائده_هژبرى 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 - Arrest
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July 2018
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['(The Guardian)']
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Citizens of Greece go to the polls to vote for the next members of the Hellenic Parliament.
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Greeks are going to the polls to elect a new parliament, with the centre-right opposition mounting a strong challenge to the leftist government.
The New Democracy party of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is hoping to end more than four years of rule by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's Syriza party.
Mr Tsipras called snap elections soon after suffering an electoral defeat in May's European elections.
Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT).
It is Greece's sixth election since the global financial crisis in 2008. The crisis triggered a succession of financial bailouts, with the Greek economy shrinking by 28% between 2008 and 2016, and increasing unemployment has thrown many Greeks into poverty.
Greece exited the bailout programme in August of last year and growth has returned. But with temperatures hitting 35C in much of the country, many politicians are concerned on the impact the weather may have on turnout, as voters stay cool at home - or head to the beach.
Mr Mitsotakis is promising lower taxes, greater privatisation of public services and plans to renegotiate a deal with Greece's creditors that would allow more money to be reinvested in the country. Mr Tsipras, who came to power in 2015, has promised more investment and recently boosted pensions. His own investment policies would also have to be renegotiated with creditors as the country remains under eurozone supervision.
Each of the country's numerous parties needs to gain at least 3% of the vote to get into the parliament and as many as seven of them could win seats.
The winning party gets a 50-seat bonus and needs 151 seats in the 300-seat parliament to have a majority.
At the European elections, New Democracy won 33.11% of the vote against 23.78% for Syriza.
The highest percentage of 18-to-24 year olds (30.5%) at that election backed New Democracy.
.
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Government Job change - Election
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July 2019
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['(BBC News)']
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Sierra Negra erupts on the island of Isabela, the largest island of the Galápagos archipelago. Authorities have arranged evacuations and banned tourists from the area.
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The Sierra Negra volcano on the Galapagos island of Isabela is spewing fountains of lava and plumes of ash.
Fifty people have been evacuated from the surrounding area and tourists have been barred from visiting it.
The eruption started after two strong earthquakes opened up fissures in the 1,124m-high (3688ft) volcano. It comes 11 days after the Cumbre volcano, the most active on the Galapagos, erupted on the uninhabited island of Fernandina.
The Sierra Negra volcano is located on the south-eastern tip of Isabela, the largest of the 18 main islands which make up the Galapagos Archipelago.
The Galapagos which are located about 1,000km (621 miles) off the coast of Ecuador are one of the most volcanically active regions in the world.
Sierra Negra last erupted in 2005. Night-time photos showed lava flowing down to the sea.
The Galapagos National Park authorities said tourists would not be allowed near the volcano or the area of El Cura, but said they were welcome to visit the rest of the island.
Thousands of tourists visit the Galapagos Islands every year, drawn by its unique biodiversity and its pristine environment.
The variety of wildlife on the island famously inspired Charles Darwin to conceive the theory of evolution.
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Volcano Eruption
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June 2018
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['(BBC)']
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Somali politicians gather inside a high-security compound at Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu to elect a President for the country, with current president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud running for a second term.
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Politicians meet in compound in capital to vote in process hailed by some as important step towards democracyPoliticians are voting in a high-security compound at an airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu to elect a president for the unstable east African state.
Growing evidence of the systematic purchase of votes risks undermining Wednesday’s long-awaited poll, which has been described as a “way station” to political stability and full democracy.
Critics say the election – the most extensive democratic exercise for decades – has entrenched divides between the country’s many traditional clans and encouraged graft, some fuelled by Middle Eastern and regional powers seeking to secure the election of candidates seen as favourable to their interests.
Somalia, which faces a tenacious insurgency by Islamic militants and a looming famine, was among seven Muslim-majority states named in Donald Trump’s contentious executive order suspending immigration last week. It is a big recipient of international humanitarian aid.
Some involved in the vote remain confident, calling it an important step for the nation. “We are well-prepared to elect a new president. It’s a test for a maturing democracy,” said Ahmed Ali, a Somali parliamentarian.
Michael Keating, the UN special representative for Somalia, described the poll as a “political process with electoral features” that was “pretty brave to do”.
The complex process of selecting a president began months ago with 14,000 elders and prominent regional figures choosing 275 MPs and 54 senators. These will now choose whether to back President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for a second five-year term or one of 21 rivals. It is likely to take several rounds before a winner is declared.
“Though it doesn’t solve Somalia’s many challenges, it’s an expression of some political progress … and does highlight a vibrant electoral and political engagement,” said Ahmed Soliman, an east Africa expert at Chatham House.
“What we are seeing is the selection of a president to take the country forward … If you look at the region, and countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti or Eritrea, there is a clear contrast. The election is impressive in the context.”
In Mogadishu, the capital, streets were deserted with many residents following the voting on television. Ali Abdi Haji, a 23-year-old student, said he had never experienced an election.
“Today is great day for me and for people in Somalia. All I can do today is just watch TV and pray for the country so we can have a good leader who is committed to make this country peaceful and democratic,” said Haji, watching the broadcast with his family in their home in the Hodan district of Mogadishu.
Waris Nur, 34, a businesswoman, said she wanted a leader who “can make the country peaceful and without terrorism”.
Al-Shabaab, the Islamic militant movement that has fought for power in Somalia since 2009 and is affiliated with al-Qaida, has been slowly driven out of its key strongholds in a campaign by regional and Somali troops but still launches frequent attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.
An attack on a military base 10 miles (15km) south of Mogadishu on Tuesday was repulsed while several mortar bombs in Mogadishu on the same day caused no casualties. On Wednesday morning, the group stormed a hotel in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, further north up the coast, killing four guards.
The threat from al-Shabaab forced the government and its western backers to scrap a plan to give each adult a vote. Officials decided that the challenge of securing polling stations across the country of 10 million people was insurmountable.
Keating, the UN official, said reports that al-Shabaab had allowed the poll to go ahead were wrong. “They are not shrugging their shoulders and ignoring the election. That is rubbish,” he said. “Al-Shabaab have tried repeatedly to disrupt it. They have targeted MPs and electoral sites. They do not like this. It goes against everything they stand for.”
However, the biggest problem for the polls may be allegations of systematic corruption. Rival presidential candidates have accused each other of buying the loyalty of lawmakers, and local anti-corruption campaigners say tens of thousands of dollars have been handed to individuals to secure support in the vote.
“This is probably the most expensive election, per vote, in history,” the Mogadishu-based anti-corruption group Marqaati said in a report released on Tuesday.
Hasan Abdurahman Mohamed, 56, a university lecturer in Mogadishu, described being shown a cheque for $10,000 (£8,000) by one new MP who asked him to lobby other MPs in favour of a particular candidate. Hashi Siad, 67, a clan elder, said presidential candidates were “in a hurry to pay bribes to MPs and elders and even lobbyists who can have some kind of influence”. Some of the candidates will pay as much as $50,000, he said.
Hours before voting was due to start, the chairman of the presidential election committee, Abdirahman Beyle, told MPs they would not be allowed to enter the voting hall with their mobile phones. Beyle said the measure was to prevent politicians taking pictures of their ballot papers to prove to those who had given them money that they had voted as instructed.
Mohamed Omar, an MP, said, as a devout Muslim he had rejected a series of bribes but knew of other new parliamentarians “who were paid big money”.
Western donors, who have often criticised Mohamud’s government for corruption, say the vote is far from perfect but marks a modest step forward from 2012 when just 135 elders picked the lawmakers, who chose the president.
They also point to the levels of female participation: almost a quarter of elected MPs are women. Waris, the businesswoman, said she also hoped for “a leader who can protect our women rights because women are the largest population in our country and they are not given equal rights”.
Fadumo Dayib, a Somali politician who briefly campaigned as a presidential candidate last year, said female MPs would “not stand a chance” if they tried to assert themselves. “They could have had women associations as voters. Instead the vote was given to clan elders who just selected the women to represent their interests. If [the women] do not do what they are told they will be ostracised … The international community could have asked for much, much more. It has lost a great opportunity,” Dayib said.
Mohamud, who has led the country since 2012 in the effort to rebuild Somalia after more than two decades of war and chaos, has the support of about a third of lawmakers, analysts say, giving him an edge but not a guarantee of victory.
A win for the incumbent would not please western powers. British parliamentarians reported last year that “there is a tangible sense amongst western donors that President Mohamud’s government has not been the fresh start that Somalia needed”.
A key rival is Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a conservative who was a leader of the Union of Islamic Courts, a hardline grassroots clerical movement that took control of much of Somalia 10 years ago.
The election, which has been largely paid for by the US and EU states, has provoked fierce interest from rival Middle Eastern powers keen to extend their influence in a strategically important part of the world. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have all been accused of funding the campaigns of specific candidates and thus indirectly fuelling corruption.
The US and other international powers have pressed Somalia to move ahead with elections as an important symbol of recovery. In the past decade, the US has given $1.5bn in humanitarian aid and another $240m to support Somalia’s political and economic recovery, and $196m in overall funding is planned for 2017.
“There are a lot of problems [in Somalia] of course, but it is not a place falling apart, it is a place coming together,” said Keating.
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Government Job change - Election
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February 2017
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['(The Guardian)']
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In motor sport, the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix is held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal with Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-Benz winning the race ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg.
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Lewis Hamilton will already have counted the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as a happy hunting ground, but it has been confirmed with his latest win here in a dominant run from pole to flag. He now has four victories in Canada – one more than his number of retirements – but, more importantly, he has reasserted his dominant position in the championship after the disappointment of losing the win to a poor strategy call at the previous race in Monaco.
Having taken pole he dutifully took the lead into the first corner and, with the exception of a single lap during which he made a pit stop, did not relinquish it for the rest of the race. He now leads his team-mate Nico Rosberg by 17 points in the title race and has ended the German’s brief bid to come back at him in emphatic fashion with his fourth win of the season, his first since Bahrain, all of which have come from pole position.
“I love Montreal,” he said. “I love the track, I love the city. A fantastic weekend, it’s great to get back on the top step.”
He had not, however, enjoyed the perfect setup but it had not affected his performance, nor his confidence. “I didn’t feel happy or the most comfortable. I generally had a lot of understeer but I never really felt too much under pressure. Nico was quick but I felt like I always had it under control, I had a bit of time in my pocket to be able to pull it out when I needed it,” he said.
The team, too, were pleased to have put Monaco behind them with a one-two.
The Mercedes head, Toto Wolff, said: “We were exposed to massive criticism, it looked like all the victories and the world championship was forgotten and suddenly a bunch of idiots were managing the team. The result is a satisfying result considering what happened in Monaco and after Monaco.”
Hamilton, always strong in braking, made the most of a circuit where five of the seven braking zones are heavy on the anchors to maintain a lead that fluctuated between one and three seconds throughout and bore remarkable similarity to the control he had in Monaco before the poor pit call. Both drivers stopped only once, Hamilton to take on the soft tyres on lap 30 and Rosberg the same a lap later, but what slim chance he had of making the undercut were gone when he went wide at the hairpin on his in-lap.
As the race progressed Rosberg was warned that his brakes were overheating and Hamilton that he had to lift and coast to conserve fuel, but ultimately neither had an effect on the outcome. “Brake wear now critical, manage it for 10 laps before you attack Lewis,” Rosberg was told over the team radio, but although he managed the situation by dropping out of the dirty air behind Hamilton’s car, the attack did not materialise. With metronomic efficiency, every time Rosberg closed to within 1.1 or 1.2 seconds of his team-mate, Hamilton would extend the gap again the following lap.
His problem seems to be that he can get close to Hamilton but only enough to upset his car’s balance rather than pass. “It was a good race,” he said. “I was pushing like mad to try and put the pressure on but he didn’t make any mistakes.” He added: “It was just that tiny bit I lost out qualifying in the end, because the race pace was there and just that qualifying position makes that big difference.”
Valtteri Bottas took Williams’ first podium of the season with a very solid run to third place although it should be noted that, while talk persists of teams catching Mercedes, he was a full 33 seconds behind Rosberg. Taking advantage of Kimi Raikkonen spinning on cold tyres at the hairpin and passing him through the pit stop on lap 29, Bottas hammered it to the finish and although Raikkonen attempted to come back he could not make the ground on the Mercedes-powered car.
Power issues of the other kind beset McLaren, however, as their season lurches from bad to worse. Despite showing a united front up until now, behind the power and reliability of their new Honda engine the cracks were beginning to show.
Told that he would have to watch his fuel consumption, Fernando Alonso replied: “Already I have big problems now. Driving with this … looking like an amateur. So I race and then I concentrate on the fuel.” Which promptly went from bad to worse for the Spaniard as he suffered a terminal lack of power and retired on lap 47.
His team-mate Jenson Button fared little better. Having started at the back after not setting a time in qualifying due to an ERS failure, he had a further setback with a drive-through penalty that he took at the end of the first lap for replacing the turbo and the MGU-H for the fifth time. Then, to add insult to injury, he was lapped by Hamilton on lap 23, before he too had to retire on lap 58.
In a race that usually throws up considerable incident this was, to an extent, a tame affair but there was plenty to watch. Sebastian Vettel’s charge through the pack from his grid position of 18th was a fine drive, particularly when vying with Alonso, who was in no mood to make things easy.
Equally Felipe Massa, who started in 15th and began the race on the soft tyre, went through the field with aplomb, including coming perilously close to the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz. He switched to the supersofts on lap 38 and made it to the end to take sixth place.
But it had been Mercedes’ day, the first time the marque has won in Canada and the perfect riposte to the debacle in Monaco. “Did I need this?” said Hamilton. “I think so. The team did an amazing job, I am proud to be up here.”
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Sports Competition
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June 2015
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['(PA via The Guardian)']
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At least 21 are killed and more than 500,000 are displaced by cyclone Roanu in Bangladesh. ,
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DHAKA (Reuters) - A cyclone battered coastal Bangladesh on Saturday, killing at least 21 people and injuring many more, but has now weakened into a depression that the weather office said could still bring brief periods of violent wind or rain.
Authorities in low-lying Bangladesh have moved about 500,000 people into 3,500 shelters, the disaster minister said. Cyclone Roanu has killed people in house collapses, landslides and a storm surge that broke embankments at two places in the Chittagong port city in the southeast.
“We’ve shifted most of the people who are vulnerable,” said Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, adding that people were working “all-out” to contain and tackle the damage.
Several people were injured after gusty winds damaged houses and shops and uprooted trees and electric poles. Some places were inundated by a storm surge of 3 to 4 feet (a meter or more) above normal tide height, officials said.
Authorities were also evacuating people from hilly parts of Chittagong in case persistent rain triggers more landslides.
Officials suspended flights at Chittagong airport while the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority restricted movement of all ships and ferries.
The weather office, in its final update for the day, advised fishing boats and trawlers to remain in shelter until Sunday noon.
Bangladesh is frequently battered by such storms. More than 3,000 people were killed by Cyclone Sidr in 2007 and around 200 lives were lost to Cyclone Aila in 2009.
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Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard
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May 2016
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['(Reuters)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(The Daily Star)']
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Northern Ireland Police have charged Marian Price with encouraging support for an illegal organisation following a recent dissident republican rally in Derry. Price, who is secretary of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, was jailed for her part in the bombing of the Old Bailey in the 1970s.
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A woman has been charged with encouraging support for an illegal organisation following a dissident rally in Londonderry. Marian Price, 57, is secretary of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, a political group linked to the Real IRA.
At the rally a man read a statement saying dissident republicans would target more police officers.
Ms Price was jailed for the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in the 1970s, and is due in court on Monday.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
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May 2011
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['(BBC)']
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Thousands of protesters demonstrate in Venezuela for and against the polices of President Hugo Chávez amid a currency revaluation and energy shortages in the country.
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CARACAS (Reuters) - Thousands of Venezuelans marched for and against President Hugo Chavez on Saturday amid political and economic tensions fueled by a currency devaluation and shortages of water and power.
An opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds a placard that reads "Chavez, you are striked out" during a rally in Caracas January 23, 2010.
The marches were the first since Chavez sharply devalued the bolivar currency and deployed soldiers to stop retailers hiking prices and the start of water rationing and electricity outages stemming from a drought that has drained dams.
They come as the country gears up for heavy campaigning for legislative elections in which Chavez faces losing his near-total control over the OPEC nation’s Congress.
“This march shows we are tired of bad management by the government,” said Erik Marteau, 26, a businessman. “This country is filled with riches but bad administration has left us with corruption and waste.”
A group of thousands of opposition sympathizers marched toward the Caracas slum of Petare, once a stronghold of Chavez support where an opposition mayor took power in 2008.
One demonstrator carried a sign saying: “If they take your water and they take your electricity, they take your life.”
Chavez launched four-hour blackouts in Caracas in an effort to save power but quickly scrapped them after his supporters protested, though many in the capital and around the country still complain of patchy access to power.
Facing financial pressure from falling oil prices, Chavez devalued the bolivar currency by as much as 50 percent in a two-tiered system that was praised by Wall St. for easing some economic distortions -- but also risks worsening inflation.
The marches officially commemorate the anniversary of the 1958 collapse of Venezuela’s last dictatorship, but the festive spirit of the demonstrations has been overshadowed by the partisan politics of a polarized society under Chavez.
On the other side of town, Chavez rode in caravan through a sea of thousands of supporters dressed in signature red T-shirts and dancing to salsa tunes honoring the anti-U.S. stalwart’s self-styled socialist revolution.
“Tremble, you oligarchs -- this is the joy of the patriotic revolution,” Chavez thundered from a stage downtown. “The streets no longer belong to the oligarchs.”
Chavez still commands strong support within the country’s sprawling shanty-towns and in isolated rural hamlets where millions have benefited from oil-financed health and education initiatives.
“Chavez is the leader who defends our democracy and helps us participate in all the decisions that help the people,” said Maberlyn Duran, a housewife who participates in a social program for poor mothers that Chavez created.
He also has strong control over key state institutions including state oil company PDVSA and the judicial system.
Chavez took complete control over the legislature in 2005 after opposition candidates boycotted the elections, giving him effectively a rubber stamp Congress for laws that including a strong bill that makes it easier to nationalize businesses.
This would make it more difficult for him to win Congressional approval to pass laws via decree, a tactic he has used to advance his most aggressive legal overhauls.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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January 2010
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['(Reuters)', '(Al Jazeera)']
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At least seven people die and at least 40 others are injured after a bomb explodes before a performance in Stavropol.
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A bomb blast has rocked a southern Russian city, claiming at least seven lives and hospitalizing dozens more. Emergency services say many victims remain in a critical condition.
Rescue Services worked throughout the night
At least seven people have been killed and dozens more critically injured in a bomb attack in the southern Russian of Stavropol. The blast struck a Chechen cultural center late Wednesday.
"Seven people are dead," a Stavropol Rescue Service official said. "Thirty three remain hospitalized."
The bomb was reportedly packed with steel pellets hidden in a juice carton. Officials said that many of those receiving treatment were in a critical condition.
Yekaterina Denilova, who works with the regional investigative committee, told news agency AFP that around 70 people have already been questioned in connection with the attack, for which no groups have so far claimed responsibility. Stavropol is located on the northern rim of the Caucasus, in areas Russia has been battling a Muslim insurgency and terror attacks in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. However the city has rarely seen the sort of violence experience in other areas in the region.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called the Caucasus unrest the worst domestic problem facing the country.
Editor: Rob Turner
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Armed Conflict
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May 2010
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['(CBC)', '(CNN)', '(Deutsche Welle)', '(RIA Novosti)']
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The latest presidential election in Guinea-Bissau has to go into a second round on December 29 as no candidate managed to win more than 50% of the votes during the first round. The second round will be a run-off between Domingos Simões Pereira and Umaro Sissoco Embaló while incumbent president José Mário Vaz was eliminated from the race.
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Incumbent President Jose Mario Vaz is officially out of the race, with Domingos Simoes Pereira and Umaro Cissoko Embalo due to face-off on December 29. Guinea-Bissau has long been plagued by political instability.
Two of Guinea-Bissau's former prime ministers are set to participate in a presidential election run-off after winning the majority of the votes in the first-round poll held on November 24.
The country's electoral commission announced on Wednesday that Domingos Simoes Pereira and Umaro Sissoco Embalo will face off in a second round on December 29. Pereira finished first with 40% of the vote representing the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), while Embalo, who represents Madem — an opposition party composed of PAIGC rebels — came second with 28%.
Incumbent President Jose Mario Vaz was eliminated from the race after receiving just 12% of the vote. His five-year tenure was marred by corruption, high-level dismissals and frequent political infighting, having worked with seven different prime ministers. However, he is the first president in 25 years to reach the end of his mandate without being ousted in a military coup or assassinated.
His critics have accused him of failing to tackle rampant corruption and stem the flow of cocaine through the country from South America to Europe during his tenure as president.
Poll workers count the votes following the first round of the 2019 presidential election
Political instability the norm in Guinea-Bissau
Guinea Bissau has long been marred by a divisive political culture. The run up to the election was overshadowed by a years-long confrontation between Vaz and the government which began when he sacked Pereira as prime minister back in 2015. For almost two years parliament did not sit until Aristides Gomes was appointed as a 'consensus prime minister' in April 2018.
The PAIGC went on to win legislative elections in March this year, but Vaz refused to name Pereira as prime minister and reappointed Gomes instead. Only a few months later in October he attempted to sack Gomes and his government, however they refused to step down. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has since extended its stabilizing military mission in the country until March 2020.
Incumbent Jose Mario Vaz is out of the presidential race
Despite the political chaos, which sparked rigging fears, sociologist Miguel de Barros told DW the election process went smoothly.
"There is no indication there was any manipulation or violation of the rules in the electoral process, nor was there any complaint from the electoral commission that could justify non-recognition of the outcome," he said. "In light of this, it's not expected that any of the candidates will publically question the result or even legally challenge it."
Speaking to reporters at his party's headquarters Pereira appeared to affirm this prediction: "We are satisfied with the results. I salute Umaro Embalo Cissoko, my second round opponent, whom I respect."
'They could not be more different'
Political analyst Augusto Nhaga says Pereira and Embalo represent opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of their political appeal.
"They could not be more different," he told DW. "Domingos Simoes Pereira's [leadership] style is cosmopolitan and western, while his opponent is much more eccentric in his appearance and much closer to the people."
Pereira — also known simply by his initials as DSP — served as prime minister from 2014 until August 2015 when he was sacked by President Vaz. But he retained his political influence as the current chair of the dominant PAIGC party and can still count on the support of its powerful members. Pereira also has closer relations with the Portuguese-speaking international community: From 2008 to 2012, he was the Secretary-General of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. However, he has been criticized for allegedly using drug money to help fund the PAIGC's elaborate campaign.
PAIGC party candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira came out on top in the first round of voting
Read more: Guinea-Bissau's political crisis deepens
Embalo — often referred to as Sissoco (his maternal family name) — also served as prime minister as a member of the PAIGC party from November 2016 until January 2018. The businessman and former general then split from the party along with 14 other MPs to form the Movement for a Democratic Alternative (Madem). As a Muslim and a member of the Fulani ethnic group, the issue of religion was often at the forefront of his campaign, drawing criticism from some in the religiously and ethnically diverse country.
"Sissoco was accused by his opponents of being an Islamist and having financed his campaign from obscure Arab-based sources," said Nhaga. "[He] wore a turban so that he would have a distinguishing feature compared to the other candidates, so he would immediately be recognized on the ballot paper. But the accusation that he is a fundamentalist is not correct. He is a Muslim but he is also married to a Christian."
Umaro Sissoco Embalo made sure he was easy for voters to recognize during the campaign
With both candidates hit by serious allegations during their campaigns relating to the sources of their funds, Nhaga says it's difficult to predict who will win the second round.
"It depends on the recommendations of the unsuccessful candidates," he told DW. "Many still have not decided and in the next few days negotiations will begin. And as past experience shows, most of those who voted for the losing candidates will follow their recommendations."
'We are tired of the eternal chaos'
Citizens who have long been caught up in the relentless power plays hope these elections will bring the change they have been waiting for.
"We hope there will be finally be some political clarity," one young man told DW. "We are tired of the eternal chaos in our country. We have no salaries…the children have no schools, there is nothing. We just want all the citizens of Guinea-Bissau to finally start working together for a better country, and soon we'll need a new president to form a government."
Observers pronounced round one of the presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau free and fair
Sociologist De Barros told DW that citizens — many of whom were voting for the first time — were watching the election closely to ensure it was free and fair.
"The people have shown that they didn't just want to vote and otherwise stand aside, but they also wanted to go to the polling station an make sure that all the rules and laws regarding the count were observed," he said. "As far as we can tell there were no restrictions on the electoral rights of all citizens. There were also no restrictions on citizens who wanted to stand for election."
The former Portuguese colony achieved independence in 1974 following an 11-year armed struggle led by PAIGC. It has been through four successful coups — most recently in 2012 — as well as 16 attempted coups. It has long struggled with corruption and in 2018 ranked 172 out of 180 states on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index.
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Government Job change - Election
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November 2019
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['(DW)']
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57,000 people are made homeless by heavy floods near Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal in southern Sudan.
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Some 57,000 people have been forced from their homes because of dramatic floods in south-western Sudan over the past month, health officials say.
Heavy rains have left Aweil, the main town of Northern Bahr al-Ghazal province, largely under water.
A BBC correspondent says the floods pose another challenge to the already delayed voter registration.
Southern Sudan is voting on whether to secede from the north in a referendum in January.
The BBC's Peter Martell in Southern Sudan says the floods add to the woes of a grossly under-developed region still struggling to rebuild itself after the brutal two-decade war with the north.
"The rains are going to continue up until October, so the situation may get worse," Southern Sudan's Health Minister Luka Monoja warned.
"A serious situation has developed in Aweil - more than three quarters of the town is flooded and so many houses collapsed.
"We saw that all the people were chased out of their houses, and were now living on the road, because the road is the only area in the town that is raised."
Our reporter says the southern government and aid agencies have been working to support those displaced, but the challenge is enormous.
The United Nations has already provided some kind of food assistance to almost half the population of the south this year, he says.
Government of Southern Sudan
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Floods
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September 2010
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['(BBC)']
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At least 23 people die in an attack on the South Sudan town of Malakal.
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JUBA, Sudan, March 12 (Reuters) - At least 23 militia fighters were killed when they attacked the capital of south Sudan's oil-producing Upper Nile state on Saturday and clashed with southern soldiers, the military said.
The pre-dawn attack on Malakal, one of the south's main settlements, marked an escalation in clashes between the south's army and militias which has aroused fears over the stability of the region in the countdown to its secession, due on July 9.
"Twenty three bodies have been collected from the attackers. One was taken alive," said southern army spokesman Philip Aguer. He said civilians also died in the attack but could not confirm a number. (Reporting by Jeremy Clarke in Juba, Writing by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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Armed Conflict
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March 2011
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['(Alert Net)']
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Four people die after two tractor trailers collide crossing the Pharr–Reynosa International Bridge on the Mexico–United States border.
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(CNN) -- Two tractor-trailer trucks crashed and burst into flames Thursday on a bridge between the United States and Mexico, shutting a key border crossing and killing four people, police said.
Police look at the aftermath of a fiery crash on a bridge linking Reynosa, Mexico, and Pharr, Texas.
The collision on the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in Texas triggered a chain-reaction accident with three other vehicles, said Lt. Lupe Salinas with the Pharr Police Department. A pickup flipped off the bridge, killing three people. Another person died in a vehicle that struck one of the tractor-trailers. Six others were injured.
Pharr Emergency Management Coordinator Elsa Sanchez told The Associated Press the pickup truck had Texas license plates, and the two 18-wheelers and a minivan involved in the wreck appeared to have Mexican plates. Watch aftermath of fiery crash »
The accident happened around 7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET). The bridge was closed for the rest of the evening.
The bridge reopened on Friday morning after Texas Department of Trnasportation engineers inspected it, according to CNN affiliate KRGV.
The bridge is normally open from 6 a.m. until midnight and is closed overnight.
The 3.2-mile-long bridge connects U.S. 281 in Pharr, Texas, to the city of Reynosa in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, according to the city of Pharr's Web site. On an average day, the site says, 5,800 vehicles cross it. E-mail to a friend CNN's Ed Payne and Jessica Jordan contributed to this story.
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Road Crash
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January 2008
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['(CNN)']
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The Guardian reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has postponed his visit to the United Kingdom, according to a U.K. adviser who said Mr. Trump recently telephoned 10 Downing Street with this information. Both Prime Minister Theresa May's office and the White House deny this report.
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US president told Theresa May he did not want trip to go ahead if there were large-scale public protests Support our journalism by becoming a Guardian supporter or making a contribution
First published on Sun 11 Jun 2017 13.27 BST
Donald Trump has told Theresa May in a phone call he does not want to go ahead with a state visit to Britain until the British public supports him coming. The US president said he did not want to come if there were large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time.
The call was made in recent weeks, according to a Downing Street adviser who was in the room. The statement surprised May, according to those present.
The conversation in part explains why there has been little public discussion about a visit.
May invited Trump to Britain seven days after his inauguration when she became the first foreign leader to visit him in the White House. She told a joint press conference she had extended an invitation from the Queen to Trump and his wife Melania to make a state visit later in the year and was “delighted that the president has accepted that invitation”.
Many senior diplomats, including Lord Ricketts, the former national security adviser, said the invitation was premature, but impossible to rescind once made.
Trump has named Woody Johnson, a Republican donor and owner of the New York Jets, as the new ambassador to the UK but has yet to nominate him formally. A large number of US ambassadorial positions remain unfilled worldwide largely due to the Trump team failing to make any formal nominations.
The acting US ambassador to the UK, Lewis Lukens, a career diplomat, clashed with Trump last week by praising Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, for his strong leadership over the London Bridge and Borough Market terror attack.
His remarks came just days after Trump criticised Khan for his response to the attack, misquoting the mayor’s message to Londoners not to be alarmed by the increased presence of armed police.
Khan’s office pointed out Trump’s error later but the president responded by accusing London’s mayor of making a “pathetic excuse”. Khan then called on the UK government to cancel Trump’s invitation. No date had been fixed for the visit.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Twitter that Trump’s decision was “welcome, especially after his attack on London’s mayor & withdrawal from #ParisClimateDeal.”
A Downing Street spokeswoman said it would not comment. “We aren’t going to comment on speculation about the contents of private phone conversations. The Queen extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.” The White House said in statement: “The President has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call.”
Jenna Johnson, a Washington Post reporter tweeted to say that the White House press secretary had told her the Guardian’s report was “false” but added that the White House “won’t say when Trump plans to go to the UK”.
Later, The New York Times, citing two unnamed administration officials, reported that Trump was considering scrapping or postponing the trip. The officials stressed that he might yet “warm to the idea” but that keeping it off the schedule was the best approach. The UK’s traditional effort to act as a bridge between the US and Europe has become more complex since the vote last year to leave the European Union and Trump’s support for policies that have angered European allies.
The Foreign Office was disappointed when against its pleading Trump went ahead earlier this month with his plan to pull the US out of the Paris climate accord. The UK had lobbied hard for Trump not to take the decision, which has led to a wider break between the EU and the US.
Trump had been an advocate of Brexit, and at one point seemed to want the EU to break up, but confidence has since returned to the bloc with pro-European Emmanuel Macron’s victory over far-right Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election.
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Diplomatic Visit
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June 2017
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['(The Guardian)', '(Geo TV)']
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Israel decides to deport 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, whom it has kept locked up in a detention facility since last Tuesday when she arrived to attend a conference with 5 other Nobel peace laureates. An Israeli court orders her to keep "her propaganda to herself". Israel claims it has banned her from entering its land but she says she is unaware of such a ban.
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THE ISRAELI supreme court yesterday rejected an appeal by Mairead Maguire against her deportation from Israel.
During the hearing an Israeli supreme court judge told Ms Maguire to keep “her propaganda to herself” after she called Israel an “apartheid state”.
Ms Maguire (66) urged Israel to end its “apartheid policy” against the Palestinians and end the siege on Gaza, but she was silenced by one of the judges who told her that the courtroom was no place for propaganda.
The justices told the Nobel peace laureate that they did not believe her claim that she was unaware that Israel has placed a 10-year ban on her entering the country. Ms Maguire has been held at a detention facility at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv since last Tuesday, when she flew in as a part of a women’s peace delegation to attend a conference along with five other Nobel peace laureates.
Prosecution lawyers rejected a court-proposed compromise under which Ms Maguire would be allowed to join the peace delegation for two days and then leave the country.
Ms Maguire had been aboard the Rachel Corrie, which was intercepted by Israeli naval commandos in June and escorted to the port of Ashdod. She was deported after being held for two days. The incident took place five days after nine Turkish activists were killed in clashes when Israeli soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of the boats in an international aid flotilla to Gaza.
According to the Israeli authorities Ms Maguire signed a document before she was deported in June stating that she was banned from entering Israel for 10 years.
But her lawyer, Orna Cohen, claimed that after the activists aboard the Rachel Corrie were taken to Ashdod, it was agreed that a permanent order barring their entry to Israel would not be issued. She said no such order was presented to her client when she arrived in Israel and she was informed by the Israeli airport authorities that the order appears on the airport’s computer system.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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October 2010
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['(The Irish Times)', '(BBC)', '(Haaretz)']
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78% of the voters approve the process to draft a new Constitution, replacing the one established during the Pinochet dictatorship.
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There have been jubilant scenes in Chile after an overwhelming majority voted in support of rewriting Chile's constitution, which dates to the military rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet.
With almost all the ballots counted, 78% had voted "yes" in a referendum that was called after mass protests against inequality.
President Sebastián Piñera praised the peaceful vote. He said it was "the beginning of a path that we must all walk together".
Right-wing President Piñera agreed in November 2019 to hold the referendum after a month of huge and almost daily protests across Chile which saw more than a million people take to the streets in the capital, Santiago.
The protests, which had originally been triggered by a fare hike on the Santiago metro, drew a wide variety of Chileans who shared an anger about the high levels of inequality in Chile onto the streets. One of their key demands was to reform the old dictatorship-era constitution, which they argued entrenched inequalities by putting the private sector in control of health, education, housing and pensions. The referendum, which was originally due to be held in April, was postponed to October due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The referendum asked Chileans two questions: firstly, if they wanted a new constitution, and secondly, what kind of body they would want to draw it up.
Election officials said almost 7.5m Chileans turned out to cast their vote. With almost all the votes counted, more than 78% voted in favour of a new constitution. An overwhelming majority of 79% also voted in favour of the new constitution being drawn up by a body which will be 100% elected by a popular vote rather than one which would have been made up by 50% of members of Congress.
President Piñera acknowledged that the current constitution had been "divisive" and urged Chileans to "work together so that the new constitution is the great framework of unity, stability and the future".
He also praised the democratic nature of the vote: "Today citizens and democracy have triumphed, today unity has prevailed over division and peace over violence. And this is a triumph for all Chileans who love democracy, unity and peace, without a doubt."
As the results came in, the word REBIRTH was projected onto a building in downtown Santiago.
For so many Chileans, this is exactly what this vote represents: goodbye to a dictatorship-era constitution, and hello to a new beginning that people feel is more fitting for a modern democracy. Sunday's vote caps a turbulent year for Chile - and this vote is the result of months of mass protests, calling for meaningful change. But in a way, the hard work has only just begun, because it kickstarts a whole new process whereby Chileans now have to choose who will draft the constitution and what it will say. This evening's jubilation is uplifting but the demands are many and the expectations are high. Those who had campaigned in favour of the "yes" vote took to the streets en masse to celebrate.
One of those celebrating, Juan Pablo Naranjo, told Reuters news agency that he was grateful to the youth who had started the protest: "If it were not for the brave young people who fought for us, no one would have gone out on to the streets. I had wanted this to happen for a long time and it happened and thanks to them, today we have won."
Another said that "we are giving birth to a new constitution and we are leaving behind the constitution of Pinochet and his entourage."
Senator Juan Antonio Coloma, who led the campaign for the "no" vote, admitted defeat, saying that the referendum had "clearly taken a different turn from what we'd hoped".
Voters will return to the ballot boxes on 11 April 2021 to choose the 155 people who will make up the convention which will draw up the new constitution. The convention will have nine months, with the option of a one-time extension of three months, to come up with a new text.
The new constitution will then be put to the Chilean people in another referendum in 2022.
Poverty levels have dropped dramatically in Chile over the last 20 years; it is now the richest country in South America on a per capita basis. But it remains one of the world's most unequal nations and many Chileans want to see the country's wealth distributed more equally. Fernanda Namur told the BBC that she wanted the new constitution to "represent our lower class and give them a fighting chance in this seemingly rigged game through decent education and accessible medical care".
Meanwhile, Mario Bustos Mansilla told the BBC: "I want there to be a written record of our basic rights, which for me are education, healthcare, housing." Mr Bustos' demands were echoed by Pamela Charad who said that she wanted "better healthcare and education for everyone". "The country is like a pressure cooker that's exploded," Ms Charad said of the months of protests in 2019 and early 2020 in which more than 30 people died. "This is our chance to make things right."
The overwhelming "yes" vote is a clear victory for those who joined the anti-inequality protests last year even in the face of police repression.
While many constitutional experts say that this is only the first step towards change, it is not the first time that Chileans have achieved change through means of a referendum. In October 1988, Chileans voted "no" to Gen Pinochet extending his military rule for another eight years. Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin won the presidential election in 1989 and Gen Pinochet stepped down as president in 1990.
.
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Government Policy Changes
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October 2020
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['(BBC)']
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A fire in a Bangkok apartment building kills three and injures 60.
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updated:
3 Apr 2018 at 13:22
writer: Online Reporters
Fire swept through a 14-storey Rajtevee Apartment building on Soi Phetchaburi 18 in Bangkok early Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring about 60.
Two of the victims survived the fire but succumbed at hospitals. Two of the dead were Thai men aged 18 and 46 years.
Police said many people were inside the 30-year-old building during the fire, and around 30 people were sent to local hospitals for to treat smoke inhalation. Four of them were in intensive care units.
Firemen on the scene said the fire started about 2.30am in an electric wiring duct on the fifth floor and spread inside the shaft upward through to the top floor. It sent smoke billowing throughout the building, which has about 180 units and about 300 residents. The combined burnt area was estimated at about 30 square metres.
Firefighters said they managed to put out the blaze and would continue to ventilate the building to get rid of smoke and heat that built up and threatened the trapped people.
Petchaburi Road was closed between Pratunam and Ratchathewi intersections.
JS100 quoted an 11th-floor resident identified only as Setthawat as saying there was a blackout about 2am and he then heard people shouting fire.
He opened his door and billowing black smoke filled his room within about 10 seconds. He could not see the corridor despite using the flashlight on his mobile phone.
He then tried to seal his room by stuffing the door frame with cloths and covered his nose with a water-soaked cloth. Smoke also entered his room through the balcony.
FM91 Trafficpro quoted another resident, Thanya Temchamnan, as saying people could not use fire escapes. Some residents trapped in their rooms tried to jump down but others persuaded them not to.
She also said the fire alarm was delayed.
Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang said a temporary relief centre was set up for victims and the building would be cordoned off temporarily while its structural integrity was checked.
Representatives from the Engineering Institute of Thailand later inspected the building and said its structure was intact.
Firefighters are rescuing a resident.
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Fire
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April 2018
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['(The Bangkok Post)']
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A shipwreck discovered in the Norwegian trench in April 2017 is confirmed to be that of the German cruiser Karlsruhe, according to Norwegian power grid operator Statnett and a maritime archaeologist. The cruiser was sunk by a British Royal Navy submarine on April 9, 1940, during the opening stages of Operation Weserübung.
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OSLO (Reuters) - The wreckage of a major German warship has been discovered off the coast of Norway some 80 years after it was sunk in a World War Two battle, Norwegian power grid operator Statnett and a maritime archaeologist said.
Identified this year from images and sonar scans of its hull and of details such as the position of gun turrets, the cruiser Karlsruhe was first detected in 2017 just 15 meters (50 feet) from a subsea power cable that has been operating since 1977.
Built in the 1920s, the ship was later fitted with a Nazi-era swastika that was also captured in subsea images taken by Statnett and its partners, and first televised by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
The 174-metre vessel, part of the German force that invaded Norway in April 1940, was struck by a British submarine torpedo shortly after starting its return voyage from the southern Norwegian port of Kristiansand.
The ship’s crew subsequently evacuated and the vessel was finally sunk by the Germans themselves, resting upright on the seabed at a depth of 490 meters, some 13 nautical miles (24 kilometers) off the coast.
“You can find Karlsruhe’s fate in history books, but no one has known exactly where the ship sunk,” Norwegian Maritime Museum archaeologist and researcher Frode Kvaloe said.
Statnett said its subsea power cable, which connects Norway with Denmark, would have been laid further away from the wreckage if its location had been known at the time of construction.
The Apr. 9, 1940, attack marked the start of the Nazi invasion of Norway, forcing the government and the king to flee to Britain, where they were exiled until Germany’s capitulation in 1945.
(This story corrects headline to remove reference to “battleship”. The ship is a cruiser.)
Editing by Terje Solsvik and Peter Graff
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
More From Reuters
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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New archeological discoveries
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September 2020
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['(Reuters)']
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Trump is projected as the winner in the Republican primary in West Virginia while Bernie Sanders is projected to win the Democratic Primary. ,
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Bernie Sanders has won the West Virginia primary in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, US media project.
The Vermont senator still trails Hillary Clinton in the overall contest for delegates but this win keeps his slim hopes alive.
"We are going to fight for every last vote," he said in a victory speech that also attacked Republican Donald Trump. Mr Trump was declared the winner in West Virginia and in Nebraska.
His last remaining rivals dropped out last week but remained on the ballot.
But Mr Trump faces a huge task in trying to get the Republican party behind him, as doubts persist about his substance and style.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, the party's highest-ranking elected official, has said he is unable to endorse the New York businessman because he lacks conservative principles.
With victories in Indiana and now West Virginia, Bernie Sanders has started another winning streak against Hillary Clinton. Like his five-state run in April, however, it will do little to slow her steady march to the Democratic nomination.
Exit polls show the West Virginia vote was particularly quirky. Almost 40% of Democratic voters there said they wanted a president less liberal than Barack Obama - and that group favoured avowed socialist Sanders by more than a two-to-one margin.
Mr Sanders also overwhelmingly carried the 27% who want a president more liberal than Mr Obama.
Such a result makes sense if some of Sanders's support is, in fact, an anyone-but-Clinton vote.
At this point the Vermont senator will likely take help wherever he can get it. He should be competitive in the next four contests, but could hit a wall in the June mega-prize, California. Its diverse electorate favours Mrs Clinton, and anything but an unprecedented Sanders win there would seal his fate. Until then, however, Mr Sanders will continue to be a constant and unpleasant reminder to Mrs Clinton that there are Democratic voters still unwilling to fully get on board her campaign.
With Mr Trump now the Republican presumptive nominee, it was the Democratic race that provided the focus for Tuesday's primaries.
Mr Sanders's victory in West Virginia, where Mrs Clinton convincingly beat Barack Obama in 2008, will prolong the Democratic contest.
In a speech delivered in Salem, Oregon, which holds its primary next week, Mr Sanders vowed to fight on.
"We have now won primaries and caucuses in 19 states and let me be as clear as I can be - we are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination."
He pointed to polls as evidence that he remained the best Democratic candidate to beat Donald Trump.
And he turned his fire on the billionaire property developer for insulting women, Hispanics, Muslims, African Americans and veterans.
Despite his differences with the former secretary of state Mrs Clinton, Mr Sanders said, they had one common goal - defeating Mr Trump.
Exit polls in West Virginia suggested one-third of those who voted for Mr Sanders would switch to Mr Trump in a general election between the two men.
The New York Times said Mrs Clinton had a "nearly insurmountable lead in delegates… but by staying in the race… Mr Sanders continues to tug Mrs Clinton to the left".
The Washington Post said that the more delegates Mr Sanders can collect over the coming months, "the more leverage" his aides say he will have "in shaping the party's platform". In particular, "he would like to push Clinton to adopt his position on issues including universal health care and raising the minimum wage."
West Virginia's local newspaper, the Charleston Gazette, says Mr Sanders won the state because his "core message about the economy resonated" with the voters, who largely voted for Mrs Clinton in 2008. But, the paper notes, "West Virginians have been drawn to Mr Trump from the beginning of his campaign, largely because of his business experience and pledges to bring back jobs, particularly coal jobs."
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Government Job change - Election
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May 2016
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['(New York Times)', '(BBC)']
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Israeli Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn signs an extradition order to Australia for accused child sex abuser Malka Leifer, after she was convicted of faking mental illness to avoid extradition earlier this year.
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Israel’s justice minister has signed an extradition order for Malka Leifer, giving government backing to a decade-long effort by accusers of the alleged child abuser to have her brought back to Melbourne.
“I have now signed Malka Leifer’s extradition order to Australia,” Avi Nissenkorn wrote on Twitter. “After many years, after a shameful attempt to present herself as mentally ill, and in light of the supreme court ruling, it is our moral duty to allow for Leifer to stand trial.”
The announcement came just a day after Israel’s supreme court rejected an appeal by Leifer to block her extradition, effectively ending a legal saga that has tested relations between Israel and Australia.
Nissenkorn had previously said he would sign the order “without delay”. Israel has been under pressure to show it takes the case seriously after repeated court deferrals, including more than 70 hearings, and allegations of interference at the highest levels of government.
The order means Leifer could be back in Australia within the next two months. While she could contest the move in court, all her previous legal challenges have failed.
One of Leifer’s main lawyers said she would not seek to block the extradition order.
“Ms Leifer will not be seeking judicial review of this administrative act,” said Nick Kaufman in a statement.
However, he criticised the justice minister for his “hasty signature”.
“The minister of justice was meant to exercise his discretion in a considered manner after hearing submissions from the defence and not impetuously in a flagrant attempt to appeal to popular sentiment,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman added that his client, if convicted in Australia, would seek to serve any prison term in Israel.
Leifer, 52, is accused of sexually assaulting female students during her time as principal of the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel school in Melbourne’s south-east. Her legal team has denied the charges.
The Israeli citizen has been charged with faking mental illness to avoid extradition. Israel’s supreme court earlier this year upheld a district court decision that she was fit to face trial.
Meanwhile, the former health minister Ya’acov Litzman, who comes from the same sect of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, has faced accusations of hindering the case. Litzman has denied any wrongdoing.
After the allegations were first levelled against Leifer in Australia, she travelled to Israel in 2008. Australian police lodged an extradition request in 2014.
Australia’s attorney general, Christian Porter, said on Thursday the allegations against Leifer were very serious.
“Ms Leifer is wanted to stand trial in Victoria on 74 counts of child sexual abuse,” Porter said in a statement. “These are extremely serious allegations which should be heard within the Victorian judicial system. After many years, it now appears that is close to becoming a reality.”
The Ministers said that while there are still potential legal steps open to Ms Leifer’s legal team in Israel, they were heartened by reports that they would not be challenging the extradition order. However, it is important that be formally confirmed.
Porter and the foreign minister, Marise Payne, said once all the processes in Israel were concluded the two countries would work together to organise Leifer’s surrender to Australian authorities for her return to Melbourne. “Surrender is required within 60 days of the conclusion of all formal Israeli processes,” the pair said in a joint statement.
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Sign Agreement
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December 2020
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['(The Guardian)']
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Major General Waheed Arshad announces the Pakistan Army has killed 40 pro-Taliban militants in the Shangla District in the last two days.
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The insurgents were killed in Shangla district in Swat valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, army spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said.
There has been no comment from the militants yet and there was no independent confirmation of the claim.
The Swat valley, next to Pakistan's tribal areas, has been in the grip of an insurgency since October.
Last week, the army said they had killed 16 pro-Taleban militants in the same area.
Situation worsens
Troops "have cleared a hub of resistance of militants from a prominent height" overlooking a road leading to Alpurai, Shangla's main town, Maj Gen Waheed was quoted by news agency Associated Press as saying.
"The operation is continuing today in several parts of Swat."
Militants in the Swat valley maintain a high profile
The situation in Swat valley has worsened since October after a pro-Taleban cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, and his supporters sought to enforce his brand of Islamic law. The militants have since taken over large parts of the outlying areas of the valley, as well as at least four small towns in the district. Observers say the security forces' largely inhibited movements have increasingly emboldened the militants. Heavy fighting has caused damage to civilian areas, forcing large numbers of residents to flee. Gen Musharraf says worsening security in Swat and other parts of Pakistan is one of the main reasons for his declaring a state of emergency on 3 November.
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Armed Conflict
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November 2007
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['(BBC)']
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President of China Hu Jintao visits survivors in the earthquake zone as the death toll climbs to more than 1,700 people.
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Chinese President Hu Jintao has visited survivors of last week's earthquake on a remote Tibetan plateau, as the death toll rose to more than 1,700 people.
A few people are being found alive four days after the quake, including a 68-year-man trapped beneath the rubble. The Dalai Lama has appealed to China to allow him to make a similar visit. Officials say people now have basic shelter, food and water, but it is not easy to get supplies to the quake-zone 4,000m (13,000ft) above sea-level. Also on Sunday, the death toll from Wednesday's 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Qinghai province was raised to 1,706 and 256 missing, the official Xinhua news agency said. President Hu, cutting short a summit in South America, arrived at Jiegu township, high in the Qinghai mountains, and encouraged rescuers to keep working. "Rescuing those people who are trapped is still the main task. We must treasure each life," Mr Hu said in Datong Village, state media reported. One elderly man who had spent 100 hours under the rubble was pulled to safety. His condition is now stable, Xinhua said. But the emphasis has shifted, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing, as locals and monks have been cremating the dead. In this Buddhist part of China, the dead are usually left to the elements and vultures, but because so many were killed by the earthquake, traditional ceremonies were not possible and huge funeral pyres were built. The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who was born in Qinghai province, appealed on Saturday to the Chinese authorities to allow him to visit the quake zone, where another 12,000 people were injured and 100,000 made homeless. It is thought highly unlikely that the Chinese government will agree to his request. Loved by the people there, he is hated by Beijing, who says his requests for freedom for Tibetans are ploy to achieve independence, our correspondent adds.
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Earthquakes
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April 2010
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['(BBC)']
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Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who criticised the country's leader and who is, according to Amnesty International, a "prisoner of conscience", loses his appeal against a six–month prison sentence for assault.
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A Tunisian journalist critical of the country's leader has lost his appeal against a controversial six-month prison sentence, his lawyer said.
Taoufik Ben Brik was convicted in November of assaulting a woman in public, but rights activists say the charges were fabricated to silence him. Amnesty International has described Mr Ben Brik as a "prisoner of conscience" and condemned his sentence. Tunisia has been ruled for 23 years by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Officials deny fabricating the case against the journalist. Mr Ben Brik is said by his family to be in poor health. He has been in custody since October. He was convicted of knocking a woman to the floor, punching and kicking her, swearing at her and deliberately damaging her car. "The judge... has confirmed the six-month sentence on Ben Brik," defence lawyer Radhia Nasraoui told Reuters news agency outside the court in the capital, Tunis.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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January 2010
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['(BBC)', '(France 24)', '(Taiwan News)']
|
Voters in Venezuela go to the polls for gubernatorial elections with Hugo Chávez's Socialist Party winning in at least 19 of 23 states.
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President Hugo Chavez's allies have won a sweeping victory in Venezuela's gubernatorial elections, capturing a large majority of states and showing that the socialist party still has huge sway despite the president being seriously ill with cancer.
The ruling party won at least 19 of 23 states, according to preliminary results. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles held on for a re-election win in Miranda state, one of three opposition candidates declared winners
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Government Job change - Election
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December 2012
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['(The Telegraph)']
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Opposition in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia takes over the government headquarters, forcing President Alexander Ankvab to flee the capital, Sukhumi.
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Unrest has erupted in one of the least understood conflict zones of the former USSR: the tiny, impoverished Black Sea territory of Abkhazia.
It broke away from Georgia after a ferocious war two decades ago and has since been supported mainly by Russia. Here Michael Cecire, an expert on the region at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, answers questions for BBC News. The frustration is likely to be real. Russia, and the de facto Abkhazian government, promised that the 2014 Sochi Olympics would be a boon to the Abkhazian economy, but it was anything but. The Olympics were billed as a way of boosting the economy by bringing tourism to Abkhazia or sourcing materials for construction, but the most noticeable effect was actually a source of frustration: the expanded security cordon that penetrated beyond the Russia-Abkhazia border.
Some of Abkhazia's economic problems can certainly be attributed to the de facto government, but it is Russia that has the real power to improve conditions. For example, the Moscow-financed building boom in Chechnya has improved material conditions (even if human rights remain a deep problem), but nothing comparable has happened in Abkhazia.
However, even this is only a part of the story. The opposition has certainly cited economic conditions as a major grievance, but the chief point of contention is President Alexander Ankvab's more liberal (relatively speaking) policy towards ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia, primarily concentrated in the Gali region. Mr Ankvab has advocated more fully integrating them into Abkhazian society, which includes giving them passports and Abkhazian "citizenship". The opposition, led by Raul Khadzhimba, has painted this as a purely political ploy by Mr Ankvab to expand his electoral base (they accused the late former President, Sergei Bagapsh, of the same) and say these policies could endanger Abkhazia's ethnic Abkhazian identity. Mr Khadzhimba has also accused the Ankvab government of kowtowing to Moscow. Though there is a political consensus in favour of a security alliance with Russia, Mr Khadzhimba's opposition does not wish to allow Russians to buy Abkhazian property or to see Sukhumi integrate too closely within Russia. It is unclear just how much of a believer Mr Khadzhimba is - he is a former KGB officer and was once seen as Moscow's favoured politician. His political transformation suggests that his ideals are rather pliable, but he also may feel spurned by his former patrons. All we really know is that Mr Khadzhimba truly believes he should be in power. As for Mr Ankvab, his political longevity depends largely on Russia. If they see abandoning him as politically expedient, he will face a much more difficult time regaining power.
He is an ethno-nationalist. He is not anti-Russia, as there is little room in the political landscape for anti-Moscow sentiments, but he has campaigned strongly against further integration with Russia at the expense of Abkhazian independence. His platform is to preserve the ethnic Abkhazian character of the state versus Mr Ankvab's broader view of citizenship. By all indications, he was actively backed by the Russians in his electoral contest against Bagapsh in 2004. Russian President Vladimir Putin even reportedly campaigned for him and, after he lost, there was a chilly period between Moscow and Abkhazia until a compromise was found.
It was not a surprise. The opposition actually submitted a 5 May ultimatum to Mr Ankvab in late April for him to dismiss his government and make radical reforms. His response was essentially a shrug, so it was really only a matter of time until the opposition launched protests. The opposition's ability to quickly rally and force Mr Ankvab and his government to vacate is a more surprising development, but it was never unimaginable. I do not see the Kremlin or the Georgians involved in this. However, Russia may go with the more politically expedient choice if it becomes clear that Mr Ankvab cannot maintain stability.
If Mr Khadzhimba gains power, the likelihood that Gali Georgians will see large-scale re-enfranchisement will strongly diminish, but the relationship with Russia is not likely to change appreciably. There may be a slowdown, or even some reversal, in Abkhazia's integration with Russia, but Mr Khadzhimba has not given any indication that he is willing to turn to Georgia or the West as an alternative. That means Sukhumi will continue to be reliant on Moscow for its budget and economy. Not especially, other than popular anger against an incumbent who is accused of presiding over a diminishing, corrupt economy.
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Regime Change
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May 2014
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['(BBC News)', '(Financial Times)']
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A Libyan helicopter carrying cash for a local bank on the way out and returning to Tripoli with passengers is shot down near the coastal Almaya area west of the capital city, killing at least 14 of its 23 passengers including senior officers Hosein Bodaya and Duhain Al-Rammah, officials with Libya’s Dawn militias.
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A helicopter carrying two senior officers allied to Libya's Islamist-backed Tripoli government was shot down Tuesday near the capitol, killing at least 14 of its 23 passengers, a Tripoli military official said.
Tripoli Chief of Staff spokesman Col. Ali al-Sheikhi said the helicopter departed at noon to transport salaries to the town of Surman and was shot down near the coastal Almaya area west of Tripoli. He added that 14 bodies had been retrieved so far but no survivors had been found.
Tripoli-allied navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim said his forces were still looking through the wreckage, parts of which had bullet holes in it. The area is rife with an assortment of rogue militias, armed human trafficking gangs and Islamist fighters.
"When we first went by boat to retrieve the bodies, we were attacked from the coast near the Almaya area," he said, adding that Tripoli-allied forces then moved in and stopped the fire.
The two spokesmen said the senior officers were Col. Salem Saqr, military commander of Libya's western region, and Col. Hussein Abudaia, head of the same region's operations room, who had been accompanied by civilian staff and soldiers.
Libya has fallen into chaos since the 2011 toppling and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The internationally recognized government is confined to the country's east, while a rival Islamist-led government holds the capital, Tripoli.
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Armed Conflict
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October 2015
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['(AP via ABC News)', '(BBC)', '(UPI)']
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Sheik Khalid bin Khalifa, aide of the Emir, is appointed Prime Minister, succeeding Abdullah bin Nasser.
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DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar’s ruler has appointed a new prime minister, the office of Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said on Tuesday, choosing a close associate for an influential role that seeks to ensure the emir’s writ runs throughout the Gulf State’s administration.
The change comes as Qatar gears up to host the 2022 World Cup, which it hopes will boost its economy and international influence, and coincides with surging U.S.-Iran tensions and a lingering quarrel between Qatar and some Gulf Arab neighbors.
Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdelaziz Al Thani will take on the role of prime minister after Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, who was also Qatar’s interior minister, submitted his resignation to the emir.
The new premier Sheikh Khalid, aged around 51, who will also take on the post of interior minister, had been the head of the Amiri Diwan, the emir’s office.
Key cabinet positions such as foreign, energy, finance, defense and trade ministries remained unchanged.
Analysts said the change was not unexpected.
“This is a new generation taking the reins,” said Majed al-Ansari, an analyst and professor of political sociology at Qatar University, referring to the relative youth of some of the officials working with Sheikh Tamim, who is in his late 30s.
Ansari added that the move does not seem to signal any major shift in Qatar’s direction.
“The new prime minister is very close to his highness the emir, part of his inner circle,” Ansari said.
Sheikh Abdullah, thought to be around 60 years old, on Twitter thanked the emir for his guidance during his time as prime minister.
The emir also appointed a new commander of the internal security forces, Abdulaziz bin Faisal bin Muhammad Al Thani, state news agency QNA said.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of backing terrorism. Doha denies the charge and accuses its neighbors of seeking to curtail its sovereignty.
Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Eric Knecht; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir and Lisa Barrington; Editing by Alison Williams, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
More From Reuters
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Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration
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January 2020
|
['(Reuters)']
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A fire in Peru destroys half a million textbooks and other education materials.
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A fire at an educational materials warehouse in Peru has destroyed around 500,000 school textbooks and 60,000 laptop computers, officials say. Firefighters battled for hours to control the blaze in the capital Lima. Much of the lost material was intended for primary school children in poor rural areas. The fire struck a week after the start of the new school year in Peru, but the books had not yet been distributed because of floods in some areas. The losses amount to around 60% of the material for primary school children across Peru this year, officials said.
Most of the computers were low-cost models purchased from the US-based programme, One Laptop per Child. The cause of the fire has not yet been established. "I am absolutely furious over what has happened and I hope we get to the bottom of how this happened," Education Minister Patricia Salas said. "The worst affected are the children in the rainforest regions of Peru, as we had delayed the distribution of textbooks there because of the rains," she added. The lost materials were valued at more than $100m (£63m).
President Ollanta Humala said he would make sure that replacement books reached school children as soon as possible. "We are going to solve this problem," he said.
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Fire
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March 2012
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['(BBC)']
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2011 Jordanian protests: The motorcade of King Abdullah II of Jordan is attacked by bottles and stones thrown by protesters in Tafilah.
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Nervousness about the spread of "Arab spring" protests hit Jordan on Monday when the government moved to quash reports that demonstrators had attacked King Abdullah's motorcade.
Jordanian and western media quoted eyewitness accounts of vehicles in the royal convoy being hit twice by stones and bottles during a visit to the southern town of Tafila, scene of demonstrations demanding the resignation of the government because of its failure to introduce reforms and fight corruption.
Reports from the scene described clashes between crowds and the security forces, but the government quickly denied the story, saying the king had been warmly received. "This news is totally baseless," said spokesman Taher Adwan. "There was no attack whatsoever with empty bottles and stones. What happened is that a group of young Jordanians thronged the monarch's motorcade to shake hands with him. When police pushed them away, there was a lot of shoving."
The Amonnews website reported that at least 25 people had been injured by security forces.
It was not in dispute that Abdullah had been on a fact-finding mission to inspect infrastructure projects and, according to the official Petra news agency, announce the creation of a £12.9m fund for job creation, infrastructure projects and the provision of free medical services.
Tafila has seen regular protests in recent weeks, including last Friday. The incident came as opposition groups reacted coolly to Sunday's pledge by Abdullah to allow government minsters to be elected rather than appointed, at some unspecified point in the future.
The Jordanian monarch became the latest Arab ruler to signal a readiness to implement reforms but gave no timetable for what would be a significant change.
Abdullah said future cabinets would be formed according to the results of parliamentary elections. Currently he has the power to appoint the prime minister.
Jordan saw unrest at the start of the Arab spring earlier this year but nothing on the scale of protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen or neighbouring Syria. Still, thousands took to the streets demanding better employment prospects, cuts in foods and fuel costs and an end to corruption.
"We seek a state of democracy, pluralism and participation through political reforms ... away from the dictates of the street and the absence of the voice of reason," the king said in a televised speech.
New legislation should "guarantee the fairness and transparency of the electoral process through a mechanism that will lead to a parliament with active political party representation", he added. It should allow "the formation of governments based on parliamentary majority and political party manifestos in the future". But he warned that sudden change could lead to "chaos and unrest".
The opposition, particularly the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, has demanded sweeping reforms that would lead to a parliamentary system of government in which the premier would be elected rather than named by the king. In February the king sacked the prime minister, Samir al-Rifai, over the slow pace of reform and appointed Marouf al-Bakhit.
Bakhit was asked to take "practical, swift and tangible steps to launch a real political reform process, in line with the king's vision of comprehensive reform, modernisation and development".
In March, two protesters were killed and more than 100 injured when security forces intervened to end a clash between pro-monarchy and pro-reform protesters.
"There was nothing new in the speech," said Zaki Bani Rsheid, the head of the IAF political office. "The king has expressed hopes, as we have heard several times in the past, but he did not give specifics and there were no guarantees."
Labib Kamhzai, a political analyst, said: "The speech was positive on critical issues like electing a prime minister in the future. But we want to see more being done for wider civil liberties and less security interference in the affairs of the state.''
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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June 2011
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['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)']
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In a news conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it's "too early to draw definitive conclusions" that the downing of the plane was an "act of war". Trudeau also condemns Iran's attack on U.S. bases in Iraq.
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When Trudeau was asked whether he was 'not ruling out that this was intentional,' the prime minister said, 'It is really too early to draw any conclusions' OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the nation Thursday afternoon amid multiple reports pointing the finger at Iran for the downing of a Ukraine International Airlines flight. The crash killed all on board, including 63 Canadian citizens and 138 people who were headed to Canada.
Addressing assembled media in Ottawa, Trudeau said Canada has intelligence that indicates the plane was shot down by an Iranian missile.
“We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence, the intelligence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. This may well have been unintentional,” he said.
When Trudeau was asked whether he was “not ruling out that this was intentional,” the prime minister said, ‘It is really too early to draw any conclusions.”
Asked if the downing could be seen as an act of war, Trudeau said: “It is too early to draw definitive conclusions like that one, that is why we need a complete and credible investigation.”
Bloomberg, citing two intelligence sources familiar with evidence in U.S. hands, reported Thursday that two surface-to-air missiles were launched from an Iranian battery minutes after the jet carrying the Canadians took off.
Then came a blast near the plane, one source said, before the jet rapidly fell and exploded into the ground. Evidence indicates the crash was not due to mechanical faults or pilot error, sources told Bloomberg. Separately, two U.S. officials told the Associated Press it was “highly likely” that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile was to blame.
Trudeau said, “there have been important developments on potential causes of the crash — developments of which Canadians should be made aware.”
“The families of the victims and all Canadians want answers,” he said. “I want answers. That means closure, accountability and justice. We will not rest until we get that.”
Trudeau was asked how he could trust an Iranian investigation into the crash, and replied:
“We recognize that this is a situation where we are going to need to get more clarity, more answers, that’s why we are calling for a complete and credible investigation. We recognize that this may have been done accidentally,” he added. “But that makes it even more important to clarify what happened.”
Trudeau was asked several times what Canada’s response would be in the light of the new information. However, the prime minister refused to be drawn on details, reiterating that what was needed first was a complete understanding of what happened.
Canada severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012, when it labelled the country a state sponsor of terrorism.
Asked about strained Iran-Canada relations and how they might hamper Canadian efforts to find answers to the disaster, he said Canadian consular officials were en-route to Ankara, Turkey, and that Iranian authorities indicate they are open to providing visas, so that consular assistance can be provided on the ground.
“The majority of victims on that plane were Iranians,” Trudeau said. “That is something that binds us together in our grief.”
Asked whether Canada could apply the Magnitsky Act — which financially targets officials implicated in human rights abuses — against Iran, the prime minister said, “I think it is too early to say what tools could eventually be used depending on the final assessment, the final conclusion.”
“Our focus right now is giving immediate support to the families, working with them to ensure the remains of their loved ones are brought home to Canada, if that is their wishes.”
He said Canada would then, “move forward on the full and complete investigation so that we can then look at next steps in the healing, accountability and justice process.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Trudeau had told a press conference on Parliament Hill that the government couldn’t rule out that the plane had been shot down, but he also cautioned it was too early to speculate.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he believes Iran was responsible, without laying direct blame.
“Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side,” Trump said in a Washington news conference, noting the plane was flying in a “pretty rough neighbourhood.”
“Some people say it was mechanical,” Trump added. “I personally don’t think that’s even a question.”
Iran’s civil aviation authority is in charge of the investigation, under international rules for probes of such crashes. The organization said Thursday it had invited Canadian investigators from the Transportation Safety Board to join a growing team probing the crash.
Trudeau had said Wednesday that Canada had pushed to be part of the Iranian-led investigation.
It wasn’t clear from the Iranian statement if the plane’s manufacturer, American-based Boeing, had been invited to take part in the investigation under International Civil Aviation Organization rules that are guiding the probe.
The announcement that Canadians will be involved in the examination came as Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne spoke to his Iranian counterpart about Wednesday’s crash.
A summary of the phone call released Thursday morning by Global Affairs Canada said Champagne stressed to Mohammad Javad Zarif the need for Canadian officials to be allowed into Iran to provide consular services, help with identification of the deceased and to take part in the investigation.
The summary said Champagne insisted that Canada and Canadians have “many questions which will need to be answered.”
The summary did not provide any details about Zarif’s reaction to Champagne’s demands and Champagne’s office declined to provide any further information. A brief summary on the Iranian foreign ministry website only said the two “conferred on the recent crash of a Ukrainian plane in Tehran as well as other issues of mutual interest.”
The crash came after a week of soaring tensions in the Middle East, occurring just hours after Iran launched missile attacks on bases in Iraq where American and allied troops are stationed. Iran said the attacks were retaliation for the American killing of a top general near Baghdad last week.
Champagne also told Zarif that Canada condemned Iran’s missile attacks against military bases in Iraq.
Canadian soldiers were present in one of those bases.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
|
January 2020
|
['(National Post)']
|
The Syrian Army captures the entire northern Hama-southern Idlib rebel pocket, asserting control over the strategic towns of Kafr Zita, Al-Lataminah and Murak, as well as numerous villages and an archaeological site, following the withdrawal of rebel forces.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops on Friday reclaimed a cluster of towns they had lost early in the eight-year-old war, pressing their offensive in the northwest, the country’s last big rebel stronghold.
The army drove out the last rebel fighters from the Hama countryside - the latest in a string of crushing blows across Syria - and advanced on a Turkish military post there.
Government forces have pounded the south of Idlib province and nearby Hama from the air and the ground this week, prompting a new civilian exodus. Hundreds of people have been killed in the campaign since late April, the United Nations says.
Rebel officials did not respond to requests for comment.
President Bashar al-Assad turned towards Idlib after shoring up his rule in most of Syria with Russian and Iranian help.
Still, the prospect of more advances in parts of Syria that remain outside his control is obstructed: in the northwest by Turkey’s interests near its border, and in the northeast by the presence of U.S. forces alongside Kurdish fighters.
Ankara backs rebel forces that control swathes of territory north of Idlib under its sphere of influence, and some that have a presence in Idlib.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday that Syrian army attacks were causing a humanitarian crisis and threatening Turkey’s national security.
In a phone call, Erdogan said the attacks violated a ceasefire in Idlib and damaged efforts for a solution in Syria, the Turkish presidency said.
Related Coverage
The latest army gains have put Turkish troops in Idlib in the firing line and threaten Ankara’s hopes of preventing a new wave of refugees on its border.
Many of the 500,000 people uprooted by the latest fighting in the northwest have fled towards the Turkish border.
Under its deals with Moscow and Tehran, Ankara has forces at a dozen military posts in the Idlib region, including one in the town of Morek, which the Syrian army pushed into on Friday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the forces were not trapped.
“We are discussing this issue with Russia and Iran,” he told a news conference in Beirut. “We are there not because we cannot get out, but because we do not want to get out.”
A series of Russian-Turkish negotiations, including a truce deal brokered last year to set up a “demilitarized” buffer zone, have failed to end fighting in Idlib.
The Syrian army said on Friday that it had seized control of a handful of towns and their environs in south Idlib and northern Hama, including Khan Sheikhoun, Kfar Zita and Morek.
“After heavy strikes in recent days and a full siege ... our brave soldiers managed to cleanse the towns and villages,” its statement said. “The advance is still continuing at a high pace.”
The latest push expands state control of a highway that stretches from the capital Damascus to the city of Aleppo, state TV said.
A live broadcast from Kfar Zita, which insurgents had controlled since 2012, showed deserted streets lined with buildings pockmarked by shellfire.
Moscow and Damascus say they are responding to militant attacks by the former Nusra Front, a jihadist alliance now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that is the dominant force in Idlib.
Reporting by Ellen Francis, by Khalil Ashawi in Turkey, Ezgi Erkoyun and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo,; Editing by Angus MacSwan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Armed Conflict
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August 2019
|
['(Reuters)', '(Al Masdar)']
|
Following his October 5 arrest, U.S. federal prosecutors in Baltimore charge Harold T. Martin III, a former National Security Agency contractor, for violating the Espionage Act, specifically, with felony theft of government property. Prosecutors state that, over a 20year time period, Martin stole at least 50 terabytes of data and "six full bankers boxes" of classified and other documents. The prosecutors state that Martin had an “arsenal” of weapons in his home.
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Federal prosecutors in Baltimore on Thursday said they will charge a former National Security Agency contractor with violating the Espionage Act, alleging that he made off with “an astonishing quantity” of classified digital and other data over 20years in what is thought to be the largest theft of classified government material ever.
In a 12-page memo, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein and two other prosecutors laid out a much more far-reaching case against Harold T. Martin III than was previously outlined. They say he took at least 50terabytes of data and “six full banker’s boxes worth of documents,” with many lying open in his home office or kept on his car’s back seat and in the trunk. Other material was stored in a shed on his property.
One terabyte is the equivalent of 500hours’ worth of movies.
Martin, who will appear at a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Friday, also took personal information about government employees as well as dozens of computers, thumb drives and other digital storage devices, the government memo said.
The government has not alleged that Martin passed any material to a foreign government, but contends that if he is released on bail he could do so.
Though he lacks a valid U.S. passport, the government said Martin could still flee to a foreign government that might wish to help him. Prosecutors said he has communicated with unnamed people in Russian and in June downloaded information on Russian and other languages.
The prosecutors also said Martin had an “arsenal” of weapons in his home and car, including an assault-rifle-style tactical weapon and a pistol-grip shotgun with a flash suppressor.
In a complaint unsealed earlier this month, the government charged him with felony theft of government property and the unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials, a misdemeanor. The prosecutors said that when an indictment is filed, they expect charges to include “violations of the Espionage Act,” offenses that carry a prison term of up to 10years for each count.
[NSA contractor thought to have taken classified material the old-fashioned way] Prosecutors will argue Friday that Martin, 51, of Glen Burnie, Md., presents “a high risk of flight, a risk to the nation and to the physical safety of others,” and that he should not be released from jail.
“The case against the defendant thus far is overwhelming, and the investigation is ongoing,” said Rosenstein, Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Myers and trial attorney David Aaron. “The defendant knows, and, if no longer detained, may have access to a substantial amount of highly classified information, which he has flagrantly mishandled and could easily disseminate to others.”
Continued detention without bail is necessary, prosecutors said, because of “the grave and severe danger that pretrial release of the defendant would pose to the national security of the United States.” Martin’s attorneys argued in a memo filed Thursday that their client is not a flight risk and should be released under court-approved conditions pending trial. “The government concocts fantastical scenarios in which Mr. Martin who, by the government’s own admission, does not possess a valid passport would attempt to flee the country,” wrote public defenders James Wyda and Deborah L. Boardman.
[Read Harold Martin’s arguments to be released from detention] Martin’s wife and home are in Maryland, they said. He has served in the U.S. Navy. “There is no evidence he intended to betray his country,” they said. “The government simply does not meet its burden of showing that no conditions of release would reasonably assure Mr. Martin’s future appearance in court.”
The government also alleged that Martin took a top-secret document detailing “specific operational plans against a known enemy of the United States.” Prosecutors did not name the enemy. The document, prosecutors said, contained a warning, in capital letters, that said: “This conop [concept of operations] contains information concerning extremely sensitive U.S. planning and operations that will be discussed and disseminated only on an absolute need to know basis.”
Martin was not involved in the operation, the government said, and had no need to have the document or know its specifics.
[Read the government argument to keep former NSA contractor Harold Martin in jail ] Another document found in his car contained handwritten notes describing NSA’s classified computer systems and detailed descriptions of classified technical operations, the prosecutors said. In an interview before his arrest, Martin denied having taken classified material and only admitted to it when confronted with specific documents, prosecutors said. He had access to classified data beginning in 1996, when he was with the Navy Reserve, and that access continued through his employment with seven private government contractors.
The government alleged that Martin was able to defeat “myriad, expensive controls placed” on classified information.
They said the devices seized show he made extensive use of sophisticated encryption. He also used a sophisticated software tool that runs without being installed on a computer and provides anonymous Internet access, “leaving no digital footprint on the machine,” they said.
In August, a cache of highly sensitive NSA hacking tools mysteriously appeared online. Although investigators have not found conclusive evidence that he was responsible for that, he is the prime suspect, said U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. That is the event that set off the search that turned up Martin, the officials said.
In July, according to the prosecutors’ memo, he watched a video about how law enforcement authorities catch computer users who wish to remain anonymous on the Internet. “He has a demonstrated ability to conceal his online communications and his access to the Internet,” the prosecutors said.
To support their argument that Martin poses a danger to the community, they noted that in late July, he went to Connecticut to buy a “Detective Special” police-package Chevrolet Caprice. While searching his house, the FBI also recovered 10 firearms, only two of which were registered, the government said. Prosecutors said a loaded handgun was found in a case on the floorboard of the Caprice, in violation of Maryland law.
Martin’s wife, Deborah Vinson, was “very upset” to learn about his arsenal, prosecutors said, and asked the FBI to take custody of the firearms because she was afraid that he would kill himself if he “thought it was all over.”
If Martin had taken the classified material “for his own edification, as he has claimed, there would be no reason to keep some of it in his car, and arm himself as though he were trafficking in dangerous contraband,” prosecutors said.
|
Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
|
October 2016
|
['(The Washington Post)']
|
Members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation meet to discuss trade, terrorism, and poverty. Tensions between India and Pakistan threaten to overshadow the eight–nation gathering.
|
COLOMBO (Reuters) - The leaders of South Asia called for fighting terrorism together as a regional summit overshadowed by worsening ties between India and Pakistan, its biggest members, opened on Saturday.
The leaders of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) plan to sign four agreements, including one on legal cooperation to combat terrorism at the summit in the Sri Lankan capital.
The two-day summit will also frame a declaration on food security for a region which is home to a fifth of humanity and remains one of the poorest in the world.
But concern about terrorism dominated the summit as speaker after speaker underscored the need to fight terrorism unitedly, alongside securing food and energy security.
“The challenges of terrorism must be overcome in order for us to realise the potential of greater regional integration... greater economic integration,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.
India and Pakistan’s prime ministers too called for defending the value of pluralism from terrorism, and said a united fight was needed against violence if the region was to grow.
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Bangladesh make up the rest of SAARC, formed 23 years ago to boost economic growth -- an agenda held back by old rivalries among members.
SAARC summits have often failed to rise above the squabbles of India and Pakistan, mainly over the disputed Kashmir region, hurting progress on issues central to the bloc.
The summit’s atmosphere is tense with India saying the four-year-old peace talks with Pakistan were at their lowest point after it suffered a spate of bomb attacks last month.
“This (terrorism) is certainly one of the issues which for us is a very important part of the issues in the summit,” Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said.
“If we want to carry the SAARC’s economic and social agenda forward it’s essential that we manage to do this in an atmosphere free of violence.”
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani were due to meet later on Saturday to try and salvage the peace process.
Security problems are roiling other SAARC nations too.
While Afghanistan battles a resurgent Taliban and its effects singe Pakistan’s western borders, a long conflict drags in Sri Lanka. Nepal still does not have a government and Bangladesh’s army-backed administration struggles to hold elections.
The meeting is also being held in a country fighting a 25-year civil war, with the government pursuing a strategy to gradually retake rebel strongholds amid an almost daily barrage of land, sea and air attacks. The conflict has killed over 70,000 people.
A thick security blanket drapes Colombo with most parts of the city locked down. Leaders were brought from the airport in helicopters, while roads below were guarded by more than 19,000 police and military guards armed with automatic weapons.
Trains were emptied while sniffer dogs looked for explosives. Sri Lankan authorities also cancelled all flights for a week from a northern town, once a stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels, who are credited with perfecting the suicide bomb.
Progress at SAARC has been stymied due to domestic politics such as Pakistan refusing to give India special trade preferences.
Intra-SAARC trade remains at just over five percent of South Asian nations’ total trade, compared to other regional forums such as Asean’s internal trade at 26 percent and EU’s 55 percent.
|
Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting
|
August 2008
|
['(AFP via Google News)', '(Reuters)']
|
A large fire sweeps through Hatibagan market, one of the oldest in the Indian city of Calcutta, destroying most of the buildings.
|
A massive fire has swept through one of the oldest markets in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, destroying most of its shops.
No casualties have been reported in the blaze at the Hatibagan market, which broke out early on Thursday, police said.
Some people who were trapped inside the burning market have been rescued by the fire brigade, reports said.
Last December, some 90 people died in a blaze at a hospital in Calcutta.
The police said 30 fire engines fought the blaze at the market located in the north of the city for over four hours before bringing it under control.
Scores of shops selling meat, fish, fruits and vegetables were gutted.
The cause of the blaze is unknown and investigators are looking for clues at the site.
"This is a conspiracy. Somebody set this market on fire," a shopowner told a TV channel.
Correspondents say Calcutta appears to be emerging as India's fire capital.
In 2010, 43 people died in a fire at the historic St Stephen's Court building on the city's Park Street.
In 2008 more than 2,500 shops were destroyed in a huge fire at one of the city's largest markets.
|
Fire
|
March 2012
|
['(BBC)']
|
At least 11 Egyptian Army soldiers are reported killed and 37 are injured following a suicide bomb attack in the city of al-Arish.
|
A car bomb attack in Egypt has killed at least 10 soldiers and wounded 35 others, a security official told Reuters. The attack happened near the North Sinai city of El-Arish.
Ten Egyptian soldiers were killed and 35 wounded in a car bomb near the North Sinai city of El-Arish, a security official has said.
The soldiers were travelling in a convoy ahead of the attack.
The attack is one of the deadliest in the Sinai Peninsula since al Qaeda-inspired militants began stepping up assaults following the army's ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July. The Democratic presidential candidate may also have shown his cards on his choice of running mate.
The US president also shared a post on Twitter accusing Dr Anthony Fauci of misleading the public over hydroxychloroquine.
|
Armed Conflict
|
November 2013
|
['(BBC)', '(ITV)']
|
American stage and screen actor Eli Wallach dies in New York City, aged 98.
|
Eli Wallach was born on Dec. 7, 1915, and grew up in Brooklyn. He attended college in Texas, earned a master’s degree in education at City College and studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse until World War II. After the war he became a founding member of the Actors Studio and studied method acting with Lee Strasberg. He made his Broadway debut in “Skydrift,” in 1945.
Mr. Wallach and his wife, Anne Jackson, in her dressing room at Circle in the Square in 1973. They became one of the best-known acting couples in the American theater.
Six years after his Broadway debut, he was cast opposite Maureen Stapleton in Tennessee Williams’s “The Rose Tattoo.” Both Ms. Stapleton and Mr. Wallach won Tony Awards for their work in the play.
Mr. Wallach and Ms. Jackson had three children, all of whom survive him. They arrived in New York with their 3-year-old son, Peter, on the ocean liner Ile de France after appearing in the London production of “The Teahouse” in 1955.
Mr. Wallach and Carroll Baker in a scene from his first movie, “Baby Doll” (1956). He played Silva Vacarro, a Sicilian immigrant and the owner of a cotton gin that he believes has been burned down deliberately.
One of Mr. Wallach’s most famous roles was as a Mexican bandit in the 1960 western “The Magnificent Seven.”
Mr. Wallach gets a hug from Marilyn Monroe on the set of the 1961 film “The Misfits.”
In a 1961 production of “Rhinoceros” that also starred Zero Mostel, Mr. Wallach gave a low-key performance as a nondescript clerk in a city where people are being transformed into rhinoceroses.
Mr. Wallach played a rapacious Mexican pitted against Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef in Sergio Leone’s so-called spaghetti western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” in 1966.
Mr. Wallach took advantage of the studio lights on the set of “MacKenna’s Gold” to take some stills of one of his co-stars, Edward G. Robinson, in 1967.
Mr. Wallach and Ms. Jackson appeared in a revival of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in 1978, in a production that also featured their daughters Roberta as Anne Frank and Katherine as her onstage sister.
Mr. Wallach and John Rubinstein in a scene from the 1981 CBS movie “Skokie.”
In an interview, Mr. Wallach and Ms. Jackson said they had sought out opportunities to work together. In 2000, they appeared with John Shea in Anne Meara’s Off Broadway play “Down the Garden Paths.”
Mr. Wallach continued his film work well into his 90s. In Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” (2010), with Ewan McGregor, he played a mysterious old man living on fog-shrouded Martha’s Vineyard.
Despite his many years of film work, Mr. Wallach was never nominated for an Academy Award. But in November 2010, less than a month before his 95th birthday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him an honorary Oscar, saluting him as “the quintessential chameleon, effortlessly inhabiting a wide range of characters, while putting his inimitable stamp on every role.”
By Robert Berkvist
Eli Wallach, who was one of his generation’s most prominent and prolific character actors in film, onstage and on television for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 98.
His death was confirmed by his daughter Katherine.
A self-styled journeyman actor, the versatile Mr. Wallach appeared in scores of roles, often with his wife, Anne Jackson. No matter the part, he always seemed at ease and in control, whether playing a Mexican bandit in the 1960 western “The Magnificent Seven,” a bumbling clerk in Ionesco’s allegorical play “Rhinoceros,” a henpecked French general in Jean Anouilh’s “Waltz of the Toreadors,” Clark Gable’s sidekick in “The Misfits” or a Mafia don in “The Godfather: Part III.”
|
Famous Person - Death
|
June 2014
|
['(New York Times)']
|
21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, announces the firing of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly.
|
Presenter Bill O'Reilly has been dropped from Fox News over sexual harassment claims, the company says.
"After a thorough and careful review of the allegations... Bill O'Reilly will not be returning," the network said in a one-sentence statement.
He has been on holiday since 12 April, and was seen shaking hands with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday.
O'Reilly said it was "tremendously disheartening" to leave over "completely unfounded claims".
More than 50 sponsors have withdrawn ads from his show, The O'Reilly Factor.
Pressure on Fox has mounted since recent reports that five women had received $13m (£10m) in payouts because of O'Reilly's behaviour.
The prime-time presenter, who has been with the US network almost since its inception, has denied all of the allegations.
"It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims," he said in a statement released after his dismissal.
"But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today."
Fox broadcaster Tucker Carlson will be taking over Mr O'Reilly's slot, the company said in a follow-up statement.
Trump defends Fox host amid sex claims
In an internal memo sent to 21st Century Fox employees, the company wrote that the decision had been made after "extensive review done in collaboration with outside counsel".
The letter - signed by Rupert Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James - praised Mr O'Reilly as "one of the the most accomplished TV personalities in the history of cable news".
It added that the network was committed to "fostering a work environment built on the values of trust and respect".
Analysis: Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington The sexual harassment charges against Bill O'Reilly aren't new. They've bubbled up before and have been quietly ushered from view, thanks to multimillion-dollar legal settlements.
Now, however, they have brought down the top-rated conservative talk show on cable news. So what changed? Was it lurid details of his alleged behaviour? The protests? Commercial sponsors abandoning his show? The impact the scandal could have on 21st Century Fox's attempts to purchase European broadcaster Sky?
All probably contributed to O'Reilly's exit. The crack in the proverbial dam, however, came when Fox News head Roger Ailes was sacked for his own sexual harassment scandal. If Mr Ailes, who built the conservative television empire, could be laid low by his tawdry behaviour, no one was untouchable - even Mr O'Reilly.
Welcome to Fox News in the Donald Trump era. Mr Ailes is out. Mr O'Reilly is gone. Presenter Megyn Kelly has bolted to NBC. The only giant left standing is Trump super-fan Sean Hannity. A network that defined itself by blanket opposition to Barack Obama now appears adrift, challenged by more aggressive conservative media outlets and toxic to the left. It's a tricky position to occupy - a victim of its own success… and hubris.
The O'Reilly Factor drew nearly four million viewers per night.
The most recent allegation came on Tuesday evening when lawyer for a former African-American clerical worker at Fox alleged her client had been harassed by Mr O'Reilly in 2008.
Lawyer Lisa Bloom said the Fox News host had referred to the unidentified woman as "hot chocolate".
"He would leer at her," said Ms Bloom. "He would always do this when no-one else was around, and she was scared." Media-watchers say the allegations had become too much of a liability for 21st Century Fox.
A concern for the Murdoch family is their pending $14bn (£11bn) deal to buy out satellite provider Sky, which is being scrutinised by British regulators.
Earlier this month authorities with the European Commission cleared 21st Century Fox to acquire the remaining 61% of Sky that it does not yet own.
Sources at the company tell US media that Rupert Murdoch was in favour of keeping Mr O'Reilly in his post.
But James Murdoch, chief executive officer of 21st Century Fox, reportedly argued that Mr O'Reilly should go.
The company reputation has taken a hit after sexual harassment allegations were also levelled at Roger Ailes, the former head of Fox News.
Mr Ailes resigned in 2016 after being sued by a former Fox News presenter, Gretchen Carlson.
|
Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal
|
April 2017
|
['(CNN)', '(BBC)']
|
David Paterson, Governor of New York, is fined $62,125 for accepting free gifts from a registered lobbyist—the New York Yankees.
|
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Outgoing New York Governor David Paterson was handed a $62,000 fine on Monday by the state’s ethics watchdog for unlawfully taking free baseball tickets to the 2009 World Series.
The state’s Commission on Public Integrity found the governor had solicited five tickets from the Yankees to the first World Series game for himself, his son, his son’s friend and two aides.
Paterson violated the public officer’s law by accepting free gifts from a registered lobbyist, the Yankees, the commission found. The penalty was $62,125.
Paterson claimed he had attended the game as a public official in a ceremonial capacity, and that he had subsequently paid for his son and his son’s friend. But the commission said “the evidence demonstrates that the governor did not pay and had no intention to pay for any of the tickets for Game One.”
A spokeswoman for Ted Wells, Paterson’s attorney, was not immediately available to comment on the fine.
The allegations of the free tickets surfaced in March just after the governor abandoned a short-lived campaign for a new term in office. He had quit the campaign following revelations that he and state police had spoken with a woman who accused a top governor’s aide, David Johnson, of assault.
Paterson, the state’s first black governor, took over in 2008 when former Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will take Paterson’s place in Albany next month.
“The Governor set a totally inappropriate tone by his dishonest and unethical conduct,” commission chairman Michael Cherkasky said in a statement. “Such conduct cannot be tolerated by any New York State employee, particularly our Governor.”
|
Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
|
December 2010
|
['(Reuters)']
|
Governor of Texas Rick Perry, the longest serving governor in his home state, announces he will not seek a fourth term.
|
Texas Governor Rick Perry has announced he will not seek a fourth term in office next year.
The 63-year-old Republican, who is the state's longest-serving governor, said at a news conference in San Antonio that he planned to retire.
He has built a reputation as a job creator, and as a defender of Christian conservative values and states' rights.
But he will also be remembered for forgetting one of his own policies at a 2011 presidential debate.
Gov Perry was briefly the front-runner in the Republican race for the White House when he entered the fray in August that year.
But his candidacy disintegrated spectacularly after he muttered "oops" as he forgot the third of three federal departments he had pledged to close, while debating with his rivals live on television.
Gov Perry later endorsed the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney, who failed in his attempt to derail Democratic President Barack Obama's bid for a second term.
Gov Perry's announcment on Monday that he would retire has sparked speculation that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott may run to replace him.
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Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal
|
July 2013
|
['(BBC)']
|
Soldiers directing traffic and at least six APCs have been spotted around Harare, a day after General Constantino Chiwenga intervened in attempt to prevent a purge within the ruling ZANU-PF party. The party has accused the general of treason.
|
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe’s ruling party accused the head of the armed forces of treason on Tuesday as troops took up positions around the capital in an escalation of a dispute with 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe over political succession.
Just 24 hours after military chief General Constantino Chiwenga threatened to intervene to end a purge in the ruling party, a Reuters reporter saw six armored personnel carriers on major thoroughfares on the outskirts of the capital.
Aggressive soldiers directing traffic told passing cars to keep moving through the darkness.
“Don’t try anything funny. Just go,” one soldier said on Harare Drive.
The presence of troops, including the movement of at least six armored personnel carriers from a barracks northwest of Harare, sparked rumors of coup against Mugabe, although there was no evidence to suggest Zimbabwe’s leader of the last 37 years had been toppled.
The lead item on the ZBC state broadcaster’s evening news bulletin was an anti-military rally by the youth wing of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.
The Southern African nation has been on edge since Monday when Chiwenga, Commander of Zimbabwe Defence Forces, said he was prepared to “step in” to end a purge of supporters of a sacked vice president.
The unprecedented statement represents an escalation of a rumbling political struggle over who will succeed Mugabe, who has been in power since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980.
Mugabe chaired a weekly cabinet meeting in the capital on Tuesday. Afterwards, ZANU-PF said it stood by the “primacy of politics over the gun” and accused Chiwenga of “treasonable conduct... meant to incite insurrection.”
Mugabe fired Vice President Emerson Mnangagwa last week. The veteran of the 1970s liberation war was popular with the military and had been seen as a likely successor to Mugabe.
The army views his removal as part of a purge of independence-era figures to pave the way for Mugabe to hand power to his wife Grace Mugabe.
A Reuters witness saw two armored vehicles parked beside the main road from Harare to Chinhoyi, about 20 km (14 miles) from the city. One, which was pointed in the direction of the capital, had come off its tracks.
Witnesses said they saw four armored vehicles turn before reaching Harare and head towards the Presidential Guard compound in a suburb on the outskirts of Harare.
“There were about four tanks and they turned right here, you can see markings on the road,” one witness on the Chinhoyi highway said, referring to the armored vehicles. He pointed to a road that links to the guard compound.
The troop movements raise tension on a continent where for decades armies regularly overthrew civilian governments.
“DEFENDING OUR REVOLUTION”
Neither the president nor his wife responded in public to the general’s remarks and state media did not publish Chiwenga’s statement. The Herald newspaper posted some of the comments on its Twitter page but deleted them.
The head of ZANU-PF’s youth wing accused the army chief of subverting the constitution. Grace Mugabe has developed a strong following in the powerful youth wing.
“Defending the revolution and our leader and president is an ideal we live for and if need be it is a principle we are prepared to die for,” Kudzai Chipanga, who leads the ZANU-PF Youth League, said at the party’s headquarters in Harare.
Grace Mugabe’s rise has brought her into conflict with the independence-era war veterans, who once enjoyed a privileged role in the ruling party under Mugabe, but who have in recent years been banished from senior government and party roles.
Decades ago, Zimbabwe had one of Africa’s promising economies due in part to its agricultural exports.
The country is currently struggling to pay for imports due to a dollar crunch, which is also sparking rampant inflation only 10 years after it suffered a financial implosion caused when the central bank began to print money.
Martin Rupiya, an expert on Zimbabwe military affairs at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, said the army appeared to be putting the squeeze on Mugabe.
“There’s a rupture between the executive and the armed forces,” Rupiya said.
Alex Magaisa, a British-based Zimbabwean academic said it was premature to talk about a coup.
“A military coup is the nuclear option. A coup would be a very hard sell at home and in the international community. They will want to avoid that,” Magaisa said.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse
|
November 2017
|
['(Reuters)']
|
Mitt Romney is projected as the winner of primaries in Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio and Vermont as well as the Idaho and Alaska caucuses.
|
Mitt Romney has been declared the Massachusetts GOP primary winner. As The Fix team wrote: Mitt Romney easily won the state he used to govern and where he still votes. The former governor would have been the heavy favorite even if he didn’t have the home-state advantage. He’s more popular in the state now than he was four years ago.
In 2008, Romney beat John McCain in Massachusetts by only 10 points. In that race, he positioned himself as the conservative alternative to the moderate front-runner. Now Romney is considered the most moderate candidate in...
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Government Job change - Election
|
March 2012
|
['(Chicago Tribune)', '(Los Angeles Times)', '(Washington Post)', '(Chicago Tribune)', '(AP via Washington Post)']
|
French labor unions, led by the CGT, implement a strike in protest of proposed reforms to labor laws.
|
Strike action over labour law reforms gripped France on Thursday, with oil refineries, nuclear power stations and transport hubs disrupted.
Riot police battled protesters in Paris and other cities, making 77 arrests, while 15 officers were injured and cars and shops were vandalised.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls insists the reforms will not be withdrawn but has suggested they could be "modified".
France is due to host the Euro 2016 football championships next month.
A state of emergency imposed after November's deadly attack by militants from the so-called Islamic State group in Paris remains in place. The CGT union is leading the action, supported by six other unions including Force Ouvriere and Unef, whereas the more moderate CFDT union backs the labour reforms.
Tear gas filled the air as police in Paris struggled to contain a march which set off from Place de la Bastille. Of the arrests, 36 were made in the capital while other cities like Lyon and Bordeaux saw similar confrontations.
Officials say 153,000 people took part across France though union leaders put the number at nearly twice that.
Flights to and from Paris, Nantes and Toulouse were affected, and a rolling strike by train drivers brought further disruption to regional and commuter rail services. RTE, the body overseeing France's national power network, said stoppages at nuclear power stations were not having an immediate effect on electricity supply but warned, "If it worsens, it will have an impact on the management of the network."
A third of petrol stations were dry or dangerously low on fuel after days of blockades at refineries by union activists.
Five of the country's eight refineries remained at standstill or were operating at reduced capacity on Thursday.
Mr Valls indicated there might "still be changes, improvements" made to the labour reform laws.
But he rejected Finance Minister Michel Sapin's suggestion that Article 2 of the bill could be rewritten. Article 2 gives individual companies the power to opt out of national obligations on labour protection if they feel they need to - something the CGT union fiercely opposes. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble backed the reform, saying: "France can live with such disputes."
"A certain dissatisfaction of voters with their respective rulers isn't such a bad thing in principle," he added.
Unions were enraged by the government's decision to use a constitutional device to allow its watered-down labour reforms to be made into law without parliamentary approval.
The government says the reforms, which make it easier for companies to hire and fire staff, are needed to bring down unemployment.
The CGT has called for another day of action on 14 June, four days after Euro 2016 opens.
"The government has the time to say 'let's stop the clock' and everything will be OK," CGT chief Philippe Martinez told Reuters news agency when asked if his union was willing to disrupt the tournament.
|
Strike
|
May 2016
|
['(BBC)']
|
Australia wins the final played at Old Trafford, defeating New Zealand 34-2.
|
There’s not really much you can say about that one. New Zealand were well below their capabilities, and Australia were close to perfect.
The forwards made fantastic metres on every set, and the backline players were deadly every time they got a bit of space. Hayne, Thurston, Morris and Slater were all brilliant.
Sonny Bill Williams won’t be happy with his performance, but perhaps the expectations of the World Player of the Year were higher than on all his team mates, as to a man, they were underwhelming.
But when Australia, with the talent they have, are that clinical in their execution, it’s tough to see how ANY team could keep up with them. Matt King just said that Australia were “on another level tonight” and that’s a very succinct way of putting it.
|
Sports Competition
|
November 2013
|
['(Sydney Morning Herald)']
|
New Zealand's Mount Tongariro erupts for the first time in a century, spreading volcanic ash across the central North Island and affecting airports.
|
The volcano rumbled into life at 11.50 last night, sending ash and rock a kilometre into the air, prompting a potential threat warning for central North Island regions.
The "small scale" eruption was a total surprise, with the volcano last erupting in 1897, GNS Science said.
Though there had been no escalation in background seismicity today, the mountain could blow its top again depending on what is causing the unrest, GNS scientist Brad Scott said at a press conference in Taupo this afternoon.
''If it is steam driven ... it's unlikely to do much more because once the initial pressure drops occurred you'll just get smaller activity.
''If it is being driven by a longer term magmatic process with molten material being intruded into the volcano it may take days to weeks before that sort of shows itself.''
Ash samples will determine what is driving the activity, he said. ''It's really just a watch this space scenario.''
There was some seismicity detected at 10.30am, which ''may have been some further small scale eruptions or activity, Mr Scott said.
However, there were no visual observations to confirm or deny whether anything happened.
''The only thing that's really come to light that's a little bit exciting is a photograph on a Facebook page taken by some alpine guides on the Tongariro Crossing this morning just on dawn and that shows three vents active in the Te Mari crater area.
''They all appear at this time ... to be new vents. So we're not dealing with a single vent that's been in eruption.''
No one was found injured or dead during a police search of all huts and tracks around Mt Tongariro, Conservation Department Ruapehu-Whanganui area manager Nic Peet.
However, the Ketetahi hut was significantly damaged.
''The track into the hut has got boulders of up to a metre in cross section that have landed on the track and caused impact craters and the hut itself has holes through the roof, the floor and the bunks inside it.''
People could have been injured or killed had they been inside it, Mr Peet said.
It's within 1.5 kilometres of the crater.
Three men who were at the Mangatepopo hut, which was not in the volcanoes firing line, walked out safely this morning.
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, the Tongariro Northern Circuit and the four huts on the mountain were now closed for public safety reasons, Mr Peet said.
The rest of the national park remains open, including the Whakapapa and Turoa skfields on Mt Ruapehu.
In the next 24 to 72 hours the department will be working with GNS on a risk assessment of the Tongariro National Park facilities and access to tracks.
Inspector Brett Crowe of Taupo police said it will work closely with the experts to determine what assistance they can provide.
Eruptions had occurred on Tongariro intermittently from 1855 through to 1897, and it could not be ruled out that this was the start of a prolonged period of activity in the area, GNS vulcanologist Michael Rosenberg said.
"We have to expect the unexpected. We really can't predict what this will lead to."
Recent volcanic unrest at White Island was unrelated and coincidental to last night's eruption at Tongariro.
CLOUD MOVING OFFSHORE
The ash cloud born from the eruption is moving east and out of New Zealand at speed.
Niwa has created infrared maps showing the movement of the cloud, with the first taken just 39 minutes after the eruption, showing ash bursting into the atmosphere.
Niwa principal scientist Michael Uddstrom said it showed the eruption cloud from the event, which was 25km long and 15km wide.
"The temperature at the top of the cloud (associated with the eruption) is minus 54 degrees centigrade and it's about 12km high at its highest point in the atmosphere."
The second map was taken 113 minutes after the eruption and showed the cloud as it extended toward the east coast of the North Island.
Uddstrom said at 1.45am the highest cloud was just over the coast, south of Wairoa, in the central Hawke’s Bay.
A third map was taken 214 minutes after the eruption showing the cloud which had moved to the south of Mahia.
The cloud has travelled 250km in four hours at an average speed of 18 metres per second, Uddstrom said.
It was rapidly blowing out to the east of New Zealand, Niwa said.
WITNESS ACCOUNTS
Truck driver Tama Coker was heading across the Desert Road while the eruption was happening and said the noise was like a train."There was a big flash," he said."I thought it was lightning and then it started raining sand. It was pretty thick. I heard it rumbling like a train."Coker said that when he drove through the Desert Road he could not see the white lines on the road."I could just see the yellow glare on the mountain. I only had visibility of about 10 to 15 feet in front of me. It was a bit scary."It's something I'll probably never see again in my lifetime."He said the sand-like ash had covered his truck, and the sign writing on the trailer was barely visible.
Local resident David Bennett who lives on the southern shores of Lake Rotoaira, about 6km away from the eruption, said he heard and saw the mountain erupt just before midnight last night. He considered himself fortunate no rocks landed on his house last night. "There were rocks being thrown out. It was like thunder and lightning and fireworks," Bennett said.
"It was spectacular. There were rumbling sounds and thunder and lightning coming out from the base of the eruption," Bennett said. A few locals did drive to the Hirangi Marae in Turangi but most just stood and watched the spectacular show. "It's a volcano. If it goes. It will go. We'll all be vapourised. Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe have erupted regularly over the years. Now it is Tongariro's turn."
Bennett's wife Robyn said she had not been able to sleep last night following the spectacular eruption. "It looked like a huge mushroom cloud. There's a very strong sulphur smell in the air and it was very hard to breathe last night."Robyn Bennett said she and her husband could still hear the mountain rumbling from their home this morning. "The ash plume is rolling down the side of the mountain. I feel safe and I am not leaving."Robyn Bennett said if the mountain did blow "our house will be in the middle of it. The lava flow will come down the valley towards us."She could see three new vents from her home. "They each look to be the size of the Ketetahi Springs."Adventure HQ employee Kerry Wakelin said she took her dogs for a walk about 11.50pm last night. "I saw flashes and lightning and a big black cloud. I thought it was a big storm," Wakelin said.She had worked at the Whakapapa Ski Field during the major eruptions on Mt Ruapehu in the mid-1990s. "When Ruapehu blew back then I had my bags packed and was freaking out. Last night I went to bed and had a good night's sleep," Wakelin said. "The latest eruption is like a big old giant who has woken up, farted, rolled over and gone back to sleep," Wakelin said.
FLIGHTS AFFECTED
Flights to and from Gisborne, Taupo and Rotorua airports have resumed after earlier flights were cancelled this morning.
However, Hawke's Bay Airport appears to remain closed and flights in and out of Palmerston North continue to be disrupted.
Some flights to and from Gisborne, Rotorua, Taupo and Palmerston North were delayed or cancelled due to the eruption.
All flights in and out of Hawke's Bay Airport have been suspended. Check flight information for Napier airport here: http://www.hawkesbay-airport.co.nz/Flight_Information_14.aspx
|
Volcano Eruption
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August 2012
|
['(New Zealand Herald)', '(Stuff.co.nz)']
|
Daryoush Rezaei, an Iranian scientist, is shot dead outside his home in Tehran. It was reported that the scientist had links to the country's nuclear programme.
|
Isna news agency named him as Daryoush Rezaei, 35, adding that his wife was wounded and rushed to hospital. In 2010, nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in Tehran.
Iran blamed that attack on Israeli secret service Mossad. Israel has long warned about Iran's nuclear programme.
It was reported earlier that the scientist had links to the country's nuclear programme. This was later denied Some reports said the latest attack involved assailants on a motorcycle, who shot him in the neck in front of his house.
Mr Rezaei was said to be a physicist at a Tehran university, where media reports described him variously as a teacher, researcher and student.
The US, Israel and many Western nations have opposed Iran's atomic programme, fearing it may be a front to creating a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes.
This week, Iran said it was installing newer and faster centrifuges at its nuclear plants, with the goal of speeding up its uranium enrichment process.
Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to build atomic bombs. The French government condemned the move as a "new provocation".
Update: This report was updated on Monday 25 July to reflect the later denials by officials that the scientist had no connection to Iran's nuclear programme.
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Famous Person - Death
|
July 2011
|
['(BBC)']
|
Russian police with assault rifles in an early morning raid swoop on the homes of opposition political activists, including Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Sergei Udaltsov, intent on attending a mass opposition rally in Moscow tomorrow; they are summoned to appear in court instead.
|
Russian authorities have searched the homes of leading opposition activists. Human rights groups have accused the government of using the raids to intimidate activists ahead of a planned protest.
Russian police and investigators said on Monday they were searching the residences of opposition leaders ahead of a planned demonstration against President Vladimir Putin.
The Federal Investigative Committee said the search operations were being conducted in connection with a criminal investigation into a rally last month that "ended in mass disturbances."
The May 6 rally drew an estimated 20,000 people onto the streets of Moscow to protest against Putin's rule. The rally ended with hundreds of people being arrested after some of the demonstrators clashed with police.
'Intimidation' tactics
The statement released by the committee said the homes of Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Sergei Udaltsov were among the 10 residences searched on Monday. Navalny and Udaltsov were among the protesters arrested on May 6.
Human rights groups have accused the authorities of using the raids as a means of intimidation ahead of a planned demonstration on Tuesday, which organizers hope will bring tens of thousands onto the streets.
"They are trying to disrupt the "March of Millions" and make sure fewer people come," rights activist Lev Ponomaryov told the Interfax news agency.
Tuesday's rally is being seen as the first major test of a new Russian law that dramatically increased the penalties for people breaching regulations on organizing and participating in demonstrations
Fines increased dramatically
The new legislation, which President Vladimir Putin signed into law last week, allows the authorities to impose fines of up to 300,000 rubles (7,400 euros, $9,100), which is more than the average annual salary in Russia. The previous maximum fine had been 5,000 rubles.
The new law has been sharply criticized not only by human rights organizations but also the European Union. Putin has defended the legislation as being in line with European norms.
|
Armed Conflict
|
June 2012
|
['(Al Jazeera)', '(Associated Press)', '(Reuters)', '(Deutsche Welle)']
|
Brazil hosts its first presidential debate online, ahead of elections in October.
|
Brazil has held its first presidential online debate, with the three main candidates answering questions from each other and from the public. Dilma Rousseff, Jose Serra and Marina Silva tackled a range of subjects during the two-hour debate. Live streaming of the event was carried by dozens of websites and also could be followed on Twitter and Facebook.
Campaigning has moved up a gear for the 3 October election, with daily election advertising on TV and radio. The debate, organised by Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper and the UOL web portal, was held in Sao Paulo in front of an audience of several hundred people. It was made possible after Brazil amended its electoral law in 2009 to allow a debate to take place without being transmitted on TV. It was split into six blocs, with the candidates responding to questions from each other, then to selected video questions from members of the public and finally to questions from journalists. The candidates, Dilma Rousseff from the governing Workers Party (PT), Jose Serra from the Social Democratic Party (PSDB) and the Green Party's Marina Silva tackled subjects ranging from abortion, to political alliances, to campaign donations from private companies. Health and education also emerged as key themes. Internet use has grown rapidly in Brazil in recent years. Earlier this month market research firm Comscore said Brazil, along with Indonesia and Venezuela, led the surge in global use of Twitter.
However, television remains the key tool to reach voters, above all in rural regions, analysts say. The online debate came a day after election advertising began on free-to-air radio and TV networks in Brazil. Election adverts begin in Brazil
|
Government Job change - Election
|
August 2010
|
['(BBC)']
|
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency extends the federal disaster declaration for Flint, Michigan, so water deliveries can continue through mid-August.
|
FLINT, Mich., March 26 (UPI) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended the federal disaster declaration in Flint so water deliveries can continue through mid-August after the city's lead-tainted water crisis was discovered last year.
FEMA granted the request made by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. It will allow for federal funding to continue bottled water deliveries, along with water filters, replacement cartridges and test kits to continue for another four months.
The disaster declaration includes the city of Flint and extends to all of surrounding Genesee County.
The Flint water crisis began when state officials switched the city's water supply from the Great Lakes to the heavily polluted Flint River in a bid to save money. The polluted river water corroded lead pipes, exposing residents to dangerously high levels of lead in their drinking water.
Lead exposure is especially harmful to children, in whom it can create nervous system and developmental disorders. About 12,000 children in Flint are believed to have been exposed to the tainted water.
FEMA said in a letter to the state's emergency management department the extension, which runs through Aug. 16, would be the final one granted, meaning FEMA money will no longer be available to help address the crisis after that point.
Snyder released a detailed plan this week to address the short- and long-term problems with Flint's water supply. He has faced calls for his resignation over the scandal after it became clear his administration knew about the potential problems and ignored them, all while assuring residents wary of foul-smelling, discolored water that it was safe to drink.
Snyder's plan stops short of what many Flint residents have demanded, which is the total removal of all lead pipes in the city. Under Snyder's plan, some pipes would be removed as part of a pilot program. He has advocated continued water testing and other measures to combat the problem.
State officials have said they expect to be able to declare the city's drinking water safe again sometime in May.
|
Government Policy Changes
|
March 2016
|
['(UPI)']
|
Vital Kamerhe, chief of staff of the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, denies all charges of embezzling more than $50 million in public funds. Kamerhe, who appeared before a court for two hours wearing prison fatigues and a surgical mask, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
|
KINSHASA (Reuters) - The chief of staff to Democratic Republic of Congo’s president denied all wrongdoing on Monday as his trial on charges of embezzling more than $50 million in public funds opened live on national television.
Vital Kamerhe, who appeared at a two-hour hearing wearing prison fatigues and a surgical mask as protection against the coronavirus, is the most senior politician to face trial for graft in Congo, where high-level corruption is endemic.
Kamerhe backed President Felix Tshisekedi in his successful 2018 election campaign in return for Tshisekedi’s support the next time around in 2023. The veteran power-broker’s arrest on April 8 sent shock waves through the country’s ruling coalition.
If convicted, Kamerhe could serve up to 20 years in prison and would be ineligible to contest the next election.
Kamerhe, 61, told the court he never touched money earmarked for social housing under Tshisekedi’s flagship 100-day building programme that prosecutors say was stolen. Kamerhe and several other senior government figures oversaw the public works drive.
“I intervened on behalf of the President of the Republic to ensure that this work is carried out and that we can meet the pressing needs of the Congolese people in the sectors of education, health and roads,” he said.
Kamerhe is charged alongside two others, Lebanese businessman Jammal Samih and Jeannot Muhima, a senior aide to Tshisekedi. They also pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial will resume on May 25. The court has 48 hours to rule on Kamerhe’s request to be released on bail.
The arrest of Kamerhe, a former president of the national assembly, exposed deep fractures in his coalition with Tshisekedi. Some of Kamerhe’s supporters say he is being targeted to remove a potential rival to Tshisekedi. The presidency has declined to comment on the affair.
Transparency advocates see the trial as a litmus test case for Tshisekedi’s commitment to addressing corruption, which they say was rampant under former president Joseph Kabila.
Congo is one of the world’s poorest countries despite vast reserves of copper, cobalt and gold, and investigative reports by domestic and international organisations have repeatedly accused senior government officials of graft.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish
|
Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
|
May 2020
|
['(Reuters)']
|
The United States Congress reaches a deal on the 2011 United States federal budget an hour before the deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
|
Republicans and Democrats have reached a deal on the US budget, an hour before a deadline that would have forced the government to close many services.
They have passed a stop-gap spending bill which will allow the government to keep running while the wider budget plan is finalised.
The parties have agreed to slash about $38bn (£23bn) from spending for the year until 30 September.
President Barack Obama said the cuts would be difficult but necessary.
"Some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful," he said.
"Programmes people rely on will be cut back. Needed infrastructure projects will be delayed. And I would not have made these cuts in better circumstances."
He said it was the "the biggest annual spending cut in history".
Mr Obama used his weekly radio address on Saturday to reinforce his message, saying that "beginning to live within our means is the only way to protect the investments that will help America compete for new jobs".
The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says Mr Obama has put a gloss on the measures, but they are a victory for the Republicans.
Our correspondent says the battles yet to come over the 2012 budget and long-term plans to cut the deficit are likely to be much more difficult.
Announcing the deal, House Speaker John Boehner, a leading Republican, said it had been a "long fight".
"We fought to keep government spending down because it really will create a better situation for job creators," he said.
But in the Saturday Republican radio address, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan said a crisis could be looming.
"Unless we act soon, government spending on health and retirement programmes will crowd out spending on everything else, including national security. It will literally take every cent of every federal tax dollar just to pay for these programmes."
Without an agreement by midnight on Friday, the government would have been forced to shut down, barring some 800,000 government employees from working.
The last US government shutdown came in 1995 amid a dispute between the Republican Congress and Democratic President Bill Clinton's White House.
The shutdown lasted for 20 days and was estimated to have shaved one percentage point off US economic growth for one quarter of the year.
During the current stand-off, talks were stalled for days as Republicans - urged on by the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement - pushed for larger budget cuts than Democrats were willing to concede.
As it happened: Battle over US budget
Obama: 'Both sides gave ground'
Federal workers stage protest
What is a 'government shutdown'?
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
|
Government Policy Changes
|
April 2011
|
['(BBC)']
|
Jorge Rafael Videla, who served as President of Argentina after the 1976 Argentine coup d'état, dies at the age of 87 in a jail of Marcos Paz, Buenos Aires.
|
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, who took power in a 1976 coup and led a military junta that killed thousands of his fellow Argentines in a war to eliminate "subversives," died Friday while serving life sentences in prison for crimes against humanity.
Federal Prison Service Director Victor Hortel said he died of natural causes in the Marcos Paz prison.
Videla ran one of the bloodiest military governments in an era of South American dictatorships, and sought to take full responsibility for kidnappings, tortures, deaths and disappearances when he was tried again and again for those crimes in recent years. He said he knew about everything that happened under his rule because "I was on top of everyone."
Videla had a low profile before the March 24, 1976, coup, but quickly became the architect of a repressive system that killed about 9,000 people according to an official accounting after democracy returned to Argentina in 1983. Human rights activists believe the real number was as high as 30,000.
This "dirty war" introduced two frightening terms to the global lexicon of terror: "disappeareds" — people kidnapped and never seen or heard from again — and "death flights," in which political prisoners were thrown, drugged but alive, from navy planes into the sea.
"The disappeareds aren't there, they don't exist," Videla told a news conference in 1977, when the complaints of families looking for their missing loved ones were raising concern internationally.
Videla's dictatorship also stood out from others in Latin America for its policy of holding pregnant prisoners until they gave birth, and then killing the women and arranging for illegal adoptions of their babies, usually by military or police families. This happened hundreds of times, and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo rights group has relentlessly sought to reunite these children, now in their 30s, with their biological families. Last year, Videla was convicted and sentenced again to life without parole for the thefts of these babies.
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Famous Person - Death
|
May 2013
|
['(USA Today)']
|
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