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The terror trial of accused ISIL recruiter Awso Peshdary is adjourned after three days of hearings in which the court hears testimony about the path to jihad allegedly taken by two of his associates, Ottawa students John Maguire and Khadar Khalib. | The terror trial of Awso Peshdary was adjourned Wednesday following three days of hearings in which court heard testimony about the path to jihad allegedly taken by two of Peshdary’s associates, Ottawa students John Maguire and Khadar Khalib.
Both are presumed dead after travelling to Syria to join the ranks of ISIL.
The RCMP arrested Peshdary, now 28, in February 2015 and accused him of being a top ISIL recruiter and financier. International arrest warrants remain active for Maguire, 24, the Kemptville man who appeared in a notorious December 2014 ISIL recruitment video calling on Muslims to wage jihad on Canadian soil, and Khalib, 23, an Algonquin College student who left Ottawa in March 2014 and surfaced on social media in photos from an ISIL battlefield.
Peshdary has pleaded not guilty in a trial wrought with delays and covered by a sweeping publication ban on the names of the federal Crown witnesses.
Court was adjourned abruptly Wednesday when the travel agent who booked a flight to Syria told court he needed more time to produce “more complete” records of the transaction.
Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett adjourned the oft-delayed trial until mid-September.
In testimony Tuesday, court was told Khalib had once applied for admission to an Alberta aviation school, but was rejected.
“He dreamed of a job in aviation,” court heard, but Khalib did not have the grades required for admission. He then enrolled in an Algonquin College business program.
The identities of those who testified Tuesday are protected by a publication ban.
He had a job in Ottawa, paid no rent and had no living expenses, and saved his own money to pay tuition.
While at Algonquin, court heard that Khalib became involved with a “core group of friends” in the campus Muslim Students’ Association.
There were “no warning signs” of radicalization, court heard, before Khalib was dropped off at an Ottawa bus station one day in late March 2014 and was never seen again, except in photos circulated later on social media showing him dressed in mujahideen fatigues, holding an assault rifle in front of an ISIL flag.
He had told those close to him he was going to Toronto “to relax.”
Court was told Khalib instead used his own money, earmarked for college tuition, to pay for a flight to Syria.
When his loved ones checked his room back home, “Everything was gone,” court heard. “It was like a nightmare.”
When they finally reached him through Facebook, Khalib apparently told them he was in Syria for “humanitarian reasons.”
They urged him to come back home, with one recalling in court: “This is not your cause, it’s not your war. You shouldn’t be there.”
He ignored their pleas to return home.
On a request from Peshdary’s lawyer, Solomon Friedman, Parfett signed a recommendation to keep Peshdary incarcerated in Ottawa until his trial resumes. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2018 | ['(Ottawa Citizen)'] |
The roof of the renovated Hôtel Ritz in Paris is damaged by fire just weeks before the planned re–opening. | A fire on the top floor of the five-star Ritz hotel in Paris has been brought under control.
About 150 workers had to leave the building on Tuesday morning as the fire took hold. No injuries are reported.
The hotel - which is famously where Princess Diana spent her last evening - is currently closed for renovations and there are no guests staying there.
The operation will take "a long time" as the fire is difficult to access, a fire service spokesman said. The alert was raised at 07:00 local time (06:00 GMT) and about 60 firefighters and 15 fire engines were sent to the scene.
The blaze started on the seventh floor, took hold in the attic and spread to the roof.
Paris police tweeted that there was a "major fire", and advised motorists to avoid the Place Vendome area.
The area was blocked off at the height of the morning rush hour, while firefighters on cranes sprayed the flames.
Fire captain Yvon Bot said the fire was unusually difficult to access and control. "There is no longer any risk of it spreading, but the operation will still take a very long time," he said. "We are having to go metre by metre from the roof. It is too small to access from the interior." He said a "large" section of the building was affected.
The hotel is a historic building in central Paris.
Princess Diana dined there on 30 August 1997. Later that night she and her companion Dodi al-Fayed were killed in a car crash. He was the son of the hotel's owner, Egyptian billionaire and Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed.
It was also the hotel of choice for Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway.
The Ritz was due to re-open in March after a three-year closure for multi-million euro renovations.
The Ritz name, used for hotels around the world, comes from a Swiss hotelier called Cesar Ritz, who set up the Paris Ritz and the London Ritz more than a century ago.
Both hotels are now independently owned. The Barclay brothers - newspaper owners Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay - bought the London Ritz in 1995.
Fire hits Ritz hotel in Paris
| Fire | January 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Cabinet of Germany approves a third gender option for official identification records. The change will come into force by the end of the year. | Germany's Cabinet has approved a third gender option for official identification records, following a Supreme Court ruling. The option will be available by the end of the year.
The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft bill that would add a third gender option to official identity records.
The bill allows intersexual people to register their gender as "divers," which translates roughly to "miscellaneous" or "other," and would come into force by the end of the year. Until now, people in a similar situation could only register without a gender.
The draft law follows a Constitutional Court ruling last year that found the current system violated a person's individual rights and anti-discriminatory laws.
The court had ruled on a case in which a plaintiff with one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome had tried unsuccessfully to change their gender at a birth register from "female" to third category. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome.
The judges found that authorities must choose to either scrap gender identification altogether or allow people in a similar situation to choose "another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female."
SPD lawmakers hail decision
Wednesday's Cabinet decision still requires parliamentary approval before coming into force. However, Franziska Giffey, Germany's Social Democratic (SPD) minister for families, hailed the decision "an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female."
Justice Minister Katarina Barley (SPD) also welcomed the draft bill, saying "it is long overdue that we finally modernize the Personal Statute Act" and that "no one may be discriminated against because of their sexual identity."
The Justice Ministry also indicated that it would draw up further laws aiming to get rid of other discriminatory regulations against intersexuals.
An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 people in Germany identify as intersex. This means they do not possess gender traits that are generally described as belonging to "male" or "female" people. | Government Policy Changes | August 2018 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Burma's President Thein Sein halts controversial Myitsone Dam project after a rare public outcry. | In a letter read out in parliament on Friday, Thein Sein said the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) Myitsone dam was contrary to the will of the people.
The project fuelled fighting between the army and ethnic Kachin rebels.
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who recently joined the anti-dam campaign, welcomed the move, seen as a rare victory for social activists.
The BBC's South East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey says it appears to be further evidence of the new leadership's desire to seek legitimacy by being more open to public opinion.
The army handed over power to a civilian authority in March, although many of the new rulers are ex-military.
Our correspondent says lobby groups will still be wary because Thein Sein has said he is suspending the dam's construction only for the term of his office, which ends in 2015.
The Myitsone dam project was being developed jointly by Burma and China at the head of the Irrawaddy river in Burma's northern Kachin state.
Kachin rebels, who have been fighting government troops in a stop-start insurgency for years, were leading the opposition to the dam.
This year has been one of the most violent in Kachin state in more than a decade.
The dam, which was due for completion in 2019, would be one of the world's tallest at 152m (500ft) high.
The campaign against the project brought together conservationists, environmentalists, Kachin activists and the political opposition. Their objections ranged from the lack of public consultation to the potential environmental impact of the project.
The dam would create a reservoir of some 766 sq km (300 sq miles) - about the size of Singapore - and displace thousands of ethnic Kachin villagers, our correspondent says. "We have to respect the will of the people as our government is elected by the people," Thein Sein said.
"We have a responsibility to solve the worries of the people so we will stop construction of the Myitsone Dam during our current government."
The decision to suspend construction was unexpected.
Earlier this month, a report in the local Eleven journal said Electric Power Minister Zaw Min had declared that construction of the dam would proceed despite the objections. Last week, police arrested a man who staged a rare solo protest against the project outside a Chinese embassy building in Rangoon, AFP news agency reported, and a rally this week against the project was also blocked. After the decision, Aung San Suu Kyi said: "We understand the president in his memo to the national parliament has asked to suspend the Myitsone dam because of public concerns. "Since every government should listen carefully to people's voices and tackle the concerned problems, I welcome this move."
The decision to halt construction was "a welcome surprise for everybody, inside and outside of Burma", Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy News website, based in northern Thailand, told the BBC. "The people [are] really happy and welcome the decision made by President Thein Sein because it wasn't only [Aung San] Suu Kyi, let me remind you of that. "It's the population, the whole Burmese who feel they belong to the culture heritage of the Irrawaddy river. They welcome the news."
Maung Maung Than, from the BBC's Burmese service, points out that the effect of damming the Irrawaddy - which flows from the north of Burma into the massive delta in the south - would have been felt throughout the country.
The vast majority of the power produced on the dam was to be exported to China, and correspondents say the dam had served to inflame growing anti-Chinese sentiment in Burma.
Beijing is investing vast sums in a series of big infrastructure projects aimed at exploiting Burma's rich natural resources and geographic position in the region. There has as yet been no official reaction from China to the unusual step taken against it by its isolated ally. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Vatican summons all papal envoys in the nations of the Middle East to a special meeting in Rome this week, to discuss the crisis facing the Church in that region. , | The Vatican has summoned all papal representatives in the nations of the Middle East to a special meeting in Rome this week, to discuss the crisis facing the Church in that region. Greeting the Vatican representatives on October 2, as they began their three days of meetings, Pope Francis said that he had called them together to pray and to seek discernment about the crisis. He expressed his hope that this week’s session would produce ideas on how the Church can show solidarity with the Christians of the Middle East and how Catholics can encourage the international community to join in an effort to resolve the crisis. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, also spoke to the papal representatives during their first day of meetings. He provided a summary of the situation facing the Church in the Middle East and asked the Vatican diplomats to offer their thoughts on possible responses. The papal nuncios were also scheduled to hear talks by: Cardinal Robert Sarah, the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, on the humanitarian needs in the Middle East; Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, on relations with Islam; and Cardinal Fernando Filoni, the prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization, on his experiences acting as the Pope’s special envoy in Iraq and Syria, visiting with refugees in recent weeks.
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All of this is quite late. Figuring out "how the Church can show solidarity with the Christians of the Middle East and how Catholics can encourage the international community to join in an effort to resolve the crisis" should have been foreseen years ago (the Vatican's "intelligence" was once very highly thought of). Unfortunately, most of the bishops are not up to the task of dealing with the Muslims (including governments). The international community fears internal problems with Muslims, etc | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2013 | ['(Catholic World News)', '(Reuters)'] |
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler is arrested in Ingolstadt, Germany, over "clear signs that there was to be an effort to influence people and other suspects". Stadler is being investigated for suspected fraud and false advertising. |
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen's VOWG_p.DE supervisory boards suspended crisis talks to find a stand-in boss for its Audi brand which were convened after German authorities arrested current Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler as part of a probe into emissions test cheating. Stadler’s arrest on Monday threw Volkswagen (VW) into turmoil as it struggles to recover from cheating revelations, which emerged after regulators blew the whistle in September 2015 on the carmaker’s use of illegal software.
The directors of Audi and Volkswagen discussed how to run its more profitable division without Stadler, but failed to come to a conclusion, the carmaker said late on Monday.
“The supervisory boards of VW and Audi have not yet reached a decision and continue to assess the situation,” a spokesman for VW said.
The arrest has kicked off a new debate over VW’s governance which could raise tensions on its supervisory board, putting at risk a fragile truce between management, VW’s controlling Piech and Porsche families, as well as representatives from labor and the region of Lower Saxony.
VW has for years said only lower-level managers knew of the emissions cheating, but U.S. authorities filed criminal charges against former VW boss Martin Winterkorn earlier this year, and Munich prosecutors widened their probe into Audi this month.
Munich prosecutors said Stadler was being investigated for suspected fraud and false advertising and for his alleged role in helping to bring cars equipped with illegal software on to the European market.
Following his arrest, Munich prosecutors said Stadler, the most senior active VW official to be remanded in custody since the scandal broke, was being held on fears he might hinder their investigation.
“We need to find a solution for Audi’s leadership for the time when he is not here,” the source familiar with the talks said about Stadler’s position. “We will comment on this later.”
Stadler was given additional responsibilities for group sales in a revamp announced by VW’s new Chief Executive Herbert Diess in April.
On Monday, VW and Audi directors were discussing the leadership crisis in separate meetings, with one source saying Dutchman Bram Schot was the front runner to become interim Audi chief.
Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said VW’s supervisory board had already picked Schot for the job and only needed the formal approval of Audi’s directors. VW denied any such appointment had been made.
VW has set aside around $30 billion to cover fines, vehicle refits and lawsuits since its “dieselgate” scandal broke, and has announced plans to spend billions more on a shift to electric vehicles as it seeks to rebuild its reputation.
Whereas group CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned in the days after the cheating was disclosed, Stadler resisted requests to fall on his sword, and instead received backing from the Porsche and Piech families to remain in his post.
“His arrest is another low point in VW’s diesel saga,” said Evercore ISI analysts, who have criticized the group for a slow pace of reform. “Almost three years after the diesel scandal broke, it takes police to take action against the Audi CEO.”
The United States filed criminal charges against Winterkorn in May, but he is unlikely to face U.S. authorities because Germany does not extradite its nationals to countries outside the European Union.
The Munich prosecutors said the move against Stadler was not made at the behest of U.S. authorities. The 55-year-old was arrested at his home in Ingolstadt in the early hours on Monday, they said.
“The arrest warrant was made because of a risk that evidence might be suppressed,” Stephan Necknig, a spokesman for the Munich prosecutor’s office, told Reuters Television.
“During a search last week there were signs that the accused may tamper with evidence. To influence other suspects or witnesses, or people who could provide information to the investigating authorities,” he added.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, citing sources close to the investigation, said prosecutors had tapped Stadler’s phone just before searching his premises last week.
Audi and VW said Stadler was presumed innocent unless proved otherwise. Stadler himself was not immediately available for comment.
VW shares closed down 3 percent at 156.06 euros, one of the biggest falls by a European blue-chip stock .FTEU3. Asked whether U.S. authorities were also seeking to arrest Stadler, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said: “As a general matter, the department will neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation.”
Stadler has been under fire since Audi admitted in November 2015 - two months after parent VW - that it also installed illegal “defeat device” software to cheat U.S. emissions tests.
Munich prosecutors are investigating whether Stadler acted swiftly enough to stop deliveries of manipulated Audi models in Europe once emissions problems had emerged, a person familiar with the matter has told Reuters.
Stadler has held onto his post mainly thanks to the backing of members of VW’s controlling Porsche-Piech families. Before becoming Audi CEO in 2007, Stadler worked as chief of staff to VW’s former chairman and industry scion Ferdinand Piech.
Earlier this month, Munich prosecutors widened their probe at Audi to include Stadler and another member of Audi’s top management, investigating them for suspected fraud and false advertising.
Most of VW’s emissions problems have been in the United States, where a total of nine people have been charged and two former VW executives have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison terms.
But investigations are continuing elsewhere. Last week, German prosecutors fined VW 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) over the scandal.
Reporting by Jan Schwartz, Ilona Wissenbach, Edward Taylor, Joern Poltz. Irene Preisinger and Nick Carey; Editing by Maria Sheahan, Alexander Ratz and Mark Potter
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Portugal's António Guterres begins his term as United Nations Secretary-General, replacing South Korea's Ban Ki-moon. , , | Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday bid farewell to the United Nations where he has worked for 10 years.
Ban said "thank you" to UN staff here at UN headquarters before his departure and encouraged them to keep working hard on UN causes and never give up, Xinhua news agency reported.
A crowd of UN officials, staff members, diplomats gathered here to see him off.
Ban told the crowd that he will join the New Year celebration at the Times Square in New York City on Saturday.
He will push the button beginning the official 60-second countdown to the New Year, and call on people worldwide to take actions in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
"Millions of people will be watching as I lose my job," he quipped. "Now I feel a bit like Cinderella. Tomorrow at midnight, everything changes."
Ban's tenure as the eighth UN Secretary-General started on January 1, 2007 and will end on December 31, 2016.
Portugal's Antonio Guterres will succeed Ban on January 1, 2017.
Also readUN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges India, Pakistan to de-escalate tensions; offers to mediate
Ban Ki-Moon asks Sharif, Modi to address outstanding issues
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2017 | ['(India Today)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(AP)'] |
A suicide bomb attack kills 10 people, including two policemen, in the southern province in Helmand in Afghanistan. | A suicide attack has killed 10 people, including two policemen, in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.
The attack in Musa Qala district also wounded more than 20 people, provincial police chief Asadullah Shairzad said.
The suicide bomber targeted a police vehicle in a crowded market and detonated his explosives, he said.
Helmand is a Taleban stronghold. It is also the base for a large number of international and Afghan troops who are fighting the militants.
Overrun
Police said at least six children were among the wounded.
The chief of police told the BBC that the attackers were the enemies of Afghanistan. He accused them of hiding among civilians and killing innocent people. The Taleban said they carried out the attack but insisted all the dead were policemen.
Taleban militants overran Musa Qala in February 2007 and held it until a massive US-British-Afghan operation dislodged them in December last year.
The town remains surrounded by the Taleban and the Afghan government has little control over the area.
In a separate attack, gunmen shot dead a district governor in Ghazni province, south of the capital, Kabul. Officials said the governor, Abdul Rahim Desiwal, was shot as he left home. | Armed Conflict | December 2008 | ['(BBC)'] |
A court in Langfang, China, sentences former senior Chinese politician Liu Tienan to life imprisonment after having been found guilty of corruption. | Liu Tienan, a former top economic official, has been jailed for life in China for accepting millions of dollars in bribes, state media report.
Mr Liu was the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) deputy head until he was sacked in August 2013.
The court in Langfang found him guilty of accepting about 35.6m yuan (£3.5m; $5.8m) in return for granting favours to businesses.
China has been embarking on a drive to stamp out corruption among officials.
On Wednesday, the court north of Beijing ruled that Liu "took advantage of his post to seek gains for others, illegally took cash or gifts from others by himself or via his son Liu Decheng", AFP news agency reports. He had already confessed to the charges, with court reports saying he had "lost the trust of bosses and colleagues. I deeply regret my actions".
In addition to the life sentence he had lost political rights for life, with all personal property and wealth confiscated, said Xinhua news agency. His confession and his co-operation with the investigation meant he was spared the death penalty, said officials. Liu's case was unusual in that allegations against him first came from a Chinese journalist. Investigative journalism that directly leads to prosecution of suspects is rare in China.
He was at the time one of the most senior officials to be detained after President Xi Jinping launched an corruption crackdown after coming to power in 2012.
Last week criminal charges were brought against former security chief Zhou Yongkang, the most senior Chinese Communist Party official ever to face trial for corruption.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has been released by India. She was detained on 5 August last year, when the government stripped the region of its partial autonomy. She was in house arrest under a controversial law that allows detention without charge for up to two years. | Former chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has been freed by Indian authorities, more than a year after her detention.
She was detained on 5 August last year, when the Indian government stripped the region of its partial autonomy. She was put under house arrest under a controversial law that allows detention without charge for up to two years.
Her daughter had filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging her mother's detention. She tweeted from her mother's account late on Tuesday, saying: "As Ms Mufti's illegal detention finally comes to an end, I'd like to thank everybody who supported me in these tough times."
The Indian government is believed to have detained thousands of other people last year - including activists, local politicians and businessmen, after it moved to revoke the special status of Indian-administered Kashmir in August 2019. The government said the move, decried by critics as draconian, was necessary to maintain law and public order in the region. "None of us can forget the insult and humiliation we faced on that day. And now we all have to remember what the federal government did on 5 August - illegally and undemocratically. What they took away from us, we have to take it back," Ms Mufti said in an audio message posted on Twitter after her release. She also asked for the release of those who continue to be in jail. Two other former chief ministers, Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah, were also released in March. The government said politicians and activists were detained to try to contain unrest, but despite this, protests erupted in the region. And even though more than a year has passed since the government revoked its status, thousands of others charged with serious offences continue to languish in jails across India.
The Kashmir region had enjoyed a special status which allowed it to make its own rules about permanent residency, property ownership and fundamental rights. The decision to strip the region of this special status and instead split it into two federally-administered territories had sparked widespread protests.
The government had deployed tens of thousands of troops to quell the unrest and enforced a crackdown on communication - although phone connections and internet access have since been restored, access remains poor and speeds are below what is common in the rest of India.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | October 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Spain's Audiencia Nacional agrees to extradite former CEO of PEMEX Emilio Lozoya Austin to Mexico where he is wanted on charges of bribery and money laundering. He denies any wrongdoing. | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s National Administrative Tribunal agreed on Monday to extradite Emilio Lozoya, former chief executive of oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, to Mexico, the court said in a statement.
Lozoya, 45, is wanted in Mexico on charges including bribery and money laundering in cases involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht SA as well as a Mexican fertilizer firm. He denies any wrongdoing.
Lozoya, who ran the company better known as Pemex between 2012 and 2016 and was once a close confidant of former President Enrique Peña Nieto, had already agreed to be extradited, Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz said last week.
Lozoya was arrested in the Spanish city of Malaga in February, months after fleeing Mexico.
The cases against him raised questions about how much others in the previous administration in Mexico knew about his actions, and the extradition is widely expected to boost Pena Nieto’s successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in his contention that he is serious about cracking down on corruption.
Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Timothy Heritage
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Wanted MoroccanDutch criminal Ridouan Taghi has been arrested in Dubai. He was wanted by the Netherlands for large scale cocaine trafficking and multiple murders. | Police in Dubai have arrested the suspected head of a cocaine trafficking gang described as the most wanted man in the Netherlands.
Ridouan Taghi, 41, who was wanted on international arrest warrants for murder and drug trafficking, was held at a house in the Gulf emirate on Monday.
Taghi , who was born in Morocco, gained international notoriety in September when a Dutch lawyer for a state witness in a case against him was shot dead near his home in Amsterdam.
The Dutch police chief, Erik Akerboom, said Taghi’s arrest was of “great importance for the Netherlands”.
Dubai police said Taghi entered the city through its airport using a passport and a visa with a fake identity.
They said he was living in a residential area in Dubai where he was not engaged in any criminal activity and had assistants from various nationalities.
Dutch media said Taghi was accused of cocaine trafficking. The Netherlands and Dubai have no extradition treaty but authorities were working on transferring him, the broadcaster NOS said.
The killing of the lawyer, Derk Wiersum, in Amsterdam in September raised the pressure on Dutch authorities to act.
Wiersum was the lawyer for a state witness named Nabil B in a case against Taghi and another suspect wanted on similar charges, Said Razzouki.
The Netherlands has long been known for its tolerant attitude towards marijuana but a report commissioned by Amsterdam city council this year said it now had a big problem with drugs and the criminal underworld.
One of the main Dutch police unions said at the time that the lawyer’s shooting was “confirmation that we live in a narco-state”. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A general strike goes into its third day in Swaziland; strikers demand democratic elections and an end to absolute monarchy. (M&C) | Johannesburg - Thousands of workers marched through the capital of the southern African kingdom of Swaziland Thursday on the second day of a strike aimed at forcing one of the world's last absolute monarchs to allow multi-party elections. Riot police and water cannon were deployed for the demonstration after isolated acts of violence and looting by demonstrating workers in the second city of Manzini Wednesday, a journalist with the Times of Swaziland said. The workers, led by the Federation of Trade Unions, are demanding that the 2008 parliamentary elections be held under a multi-party system. They are also protesting the taxation of benefits. Swaziland, an impoverished country of around one million inhabitants, is one of the last places in the world to be ruled by royal decree. King Mswati III is known for his lavish tastes and for having 13 wives. Johannesburg - Thousands of workers marched through the capital of the southern African kingdom of Swaziland Thursday on the second day of a strike aimed at forcing one of the world's last absolute monarchs to allow multi-party elections. Riot police and water cannon were deployed for the demonstration after isolated acts of violence and looting by demonstrating workers in the second city of Manzini Wednesday, a journalist with the Times of Swaziland said.
| Strike | July 2007 | [] |
In France, police arrest serial impostor Frédéric Bourdin, who had taken a role of a schoolboy | Frederic Bourdin, nicknamed "the Chameleon", attended the Jean Monnet school in Pau posing as "Francisco Hernandez-Fernandez", a Spanish orphan.
A teacher unmasked him last week after having watched a television programme about his exploits.
Bourdin was jailed in the US in 1997 for posing as a couple's long-lost son.
The Texas couple's 14-year-old blue-eyed son had disappeared three years earlier and they travelled to the US embassy in Spain to meet "Nicholas Barclay".
Bourdin convinced them that he was their son, despite his brown eyes and strong French accent.
He lived with them for three months before his deception was exposed by a journalist and confirmed by a DNA test. He was jailed for six years.
Attention-seeking
Commenting on his latest exploit, Bourdin said that in Pau he got what he wanted.
"I loved the kids and the people looking after them, they treated me as one of them," he said.
Quoted by the French news agency AFP, he said he sought "love and affection" by assuming false identities.
The school head was quoted as saying Bourdin "appeared a bit older than his pals - two or three years at most". France's Le Figaro newspaper reports that Bourdin is an excellent actor who dresses as a teenager, uses depilatory face creams and adopts a convincing youthful walk.
He is said to have assumed numerous other identities.
He will appear in court in Pau in September.
As a youth he was placed in a children's home after being raised by his grandparents in a Paris suburb, Le Figaro reports. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Gene Wilder, known for his role as the title character in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and for his collaborations with Mel Brooks, dies at the age of 83. | Gene Wilder, who regularly stole the show in such comedic gems as “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Stir Crazy,” died Monday at his home in Stamford, Conn. His nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83.
His nephew said in a statement, “We understand for all the emotional and physical challenges this situation presented we have been among the lucky ones — this illness-pirate, unlike in so many cases, never stole his ability to recognize those that were closest to him, nor took command of his central-gentle-life affirming core personality. The decision to wait until this time to disclose his condition wasn’t vanity, but more so that the countless young children that would smile or call out to him “there’s Willy Wonka,” would not have to be then exposed to an adult referencing illness or trouble and causing delight to travel to worry, disappointment or confusion. He simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world.
He continued to enjoy art, music, and kissing with his leading lady of the last twenty-five years, Karen. He danced down a church aisle at a wedding as parent of the groom and ring bearer, held countless afternoon movie western marathons and delighted in the the company of beloved ones.”
He had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1989.
The comic actor, who was twice Oscar nominated, for his role in “The Producers” and for co-penning “Young Frankenstein” with Mel Brooks, usually portrayed a neurotic who veered between total hysteria and dewy-eyed tenderness. “My quiet exterior used to be a mask for hysteria,” he told Time magazine in 1970. “After seven years of analysis, it just became a habit.”
Habit or not, he got a great deal of mileage out of his persona in the 1970s for directors like Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, leading to a few less successful stints behind the camera, the best of which was “The Woman in Red,” co-starring then-wife Gilda Radner. Wilder was devastated by Radner’s death from ovarian cancer in 1989 and worked only intermittently after that. He tried his hand briefly at a sitcom in 1994, “Something Wilder,” and won an Emmy in 2003 for a guest role on “Will & Grace.”
His professional debut came in Off Broadway’s “Roots” in 1961, followed by a stint on Broadway in Graham Greene’s comedy “The Complaisant Lover,” which won him a Clarence Derwent Award as promising newcomer. His performance in the 1963 production of Brecht’s “Mother Courage” was seen by Mel Brooks, whose future wife, Anne Bancroft, was starring in the production; a friendship with Brooks would lead to some of Wilder’s most successful film work. For the time being, however, Wilder continued to work onstage, in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1963 and “Dynamite Tonight” and “The White House” the following year. He then understudied Alan Arkin and Gabriel Dell in “Luv,” eventually taking over the role.
Wilder also worked in television in 1962’s “The Sound of Hunting,” “The Interrogators,” “Windfall” and in the 1966 TV production of “Death of a Salesman” with Lee J. Cobb. He later starred in TV movies including “Thursday’s Game” and the comedy-variety special “Annie and the Hoods,” both in 1974.
In 1967 Wilder essayed his first memorable bigscreen neurotic, Eugene Grizzard, a kidnapped undertaker in Arthur Penn’s classic “Bonnie and Clyde.”
Then came “The Producers,” in which he played the hysterical Leo Bloom, an accountant lured into a money bilking scheme by a theatrical producer played by Zero Mostel. Directed and written by Brooks, the film brought Wilder an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. With that, his film career was born.
He next starred in a dual role with Donald Sutherland in “Start the Revolution Without Me,” in which he displayed his fencing abilities. It was followed by another middling comedy, “Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx,” also in 1970.
In 1971 he stepped into the shoes of Willy Wonka, one of his most beloved and gentle characters. Based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was not an immediate hit but became a children’s favorite over the years. The same cannot be said for the 1974 Stanley Donen-directed musical version of “The Little Prince,” in which Wilder appeared as the fox. He had somewhat better luck in Woody Allen’s spoof “Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex,” appearing in a hilarious segment in which he played a doctor who falls in love with a sheep named Daisy.
Full-fledged film stardom came with two other Brooks comedies, both in 1974: Western spoof “Blazing Saddles” and a wacko adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous book entitled “Young Frankenstein,” in which Wilder portrayed the mad scientist with his signature mixture of hysteria and sweetness.
Working with Brooks spurred Wilder to write and direct his own comedies, though none reached the heights of his collaborations with Brooks. The first of these was “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother” (1975), in which he included such Brooks regulars as Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman. It was followed by 1977’s “The World’s Greatest Lover,” which he also produced.
Wilder fared better, however, when he was working solely in front of the camera, particularly in a number of films in which he co-starred with Richard Pryor.
The first of these was 1976’s “Silver Streak,” a spoof of film thrillers set on trains; 1980’s “Stir Crazy” was an even bigger hit, grossing more than $100 million. Wilder and Pryor’s two other pairings, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” and “Another You,” provided diminishing returns, however.
While filming “Hanky Panky” in 1982, Wilder met “Saturday Night Live” comedienne Radner. She became his third wife shortly thereafter. Wilder and Radner co-starred in his most successful directing stint, “The Woman in Red” in 1984, and then “Haunted Honeymoon.” But Radner grew ill with cancer, and he devoted himself to her care, working sporadically after that and hardly at all after her death in 1989.
In the early ’90s he appeared in his last film with Pryor and another comedy, “Funny About Love.” In addition to the failed TV series “Something Wilder” in 1994, he wrote and starred in the A&E mystery telepics “The Lady in Question” and “Murder in a Small Town” in 1999. He also appeared as the Mock Turtle in a 1999 NBC adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”
He last acted in a couple of episodes of “Will and Grace” in 2002-03 as Mr. Stein, winning an Emmy.
He was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee and began studying acting at the age of 12. After getting his B.A. from the U. of Iowa in 1955, Wilder enrolled in the Old Vic Theater school in Bristol, where he learned acting technique and fencing. When he returned to the U.S. he taught fencing and did other odd jobs while studying with Herbert Berghof’s HB Studio and at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg.
Wilder’s memoir “Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art” was published in 2005. After that he wrote fiction: the 2007 novel “My French Whore”; 2008’s “The Woman Who Wouldn’t”; a collection of stories, “What Is This Thing Called Love?,” in 2010; and the novella “Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance” in 2013.
Wilder was interviewed by Alec Baldwin for the one-hour TCM documentary “Role Model: Gene Wilder” in 2008. The actor was also active in raising cancer awareness in the wake of Radner’s death.
He is survived by his fourth wife Karen Boyer, whom he married in 1991 and his nephew. His sister Corinne, predeceased him in January 2016.
Before Radner, Wilder was married to the actress-playwright Mary Mercier and Mary Joan Schutz (aka Jo Ayers). | Famous Person - Death | August 2016 | ['(Variety)'] |
Militants stage an overnight attack in Mosul, Iraq, taking control of the city while police and military flee. | BEIRUT Insurgents seized control of most of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday in a powerful demonstration of the threat posed by a rapidly expanding extremist army to the fragile stability of Iraq and the wider region.
Fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an al-Qaeda offshoot, overran the western bank of the city overnight after U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers and police officers abandoned their posts, in some instances discarding their uniforms as they sought to escape the advance of the militants.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians also fled the surprise onslaught, which exposed the inadequacies of Iraq’s security forces, risked aggravating the country’s already fraught sectarian divide and enabled the extremists to capture large quantities of weaponry, much of it American.
The speed with which the security forces lost control of one of Iraq’s biggest cities was striking, and it was a major humiliation for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The city of Fallujah was captured in January by ISIS and other insurgents, but Mosul is a bigger and more important prize, located at a strategically vital intersection on routes linking Iraq to Turkey and Syria.
In Baghdad, Maliki announced a “general mobilization” of the country’s security forces and asked parliament to declare a state of emergency, saying that the government would not allow Mosul to fall “under the shadow of terror and terrorists.”
But the Iraqi security forces have not succeeded in winning back Fallujah, suggesting that it may be even tougher to reclaim Mosul, a city of 1.5 million that was once held out as a success story for the U.S. counterinsurgency effort in Iraq.
Compounding the challenge, ISIS fighters seized large quantities of weaponry from the security forces when they overran their bases, including vehicles, arms and ammunition that will help the group to press further offensives. Much of the equipment was probably supplied by the United States, Iraq’s biggest provider of weapons.
A full accounting of what was seized was not immediately possible, but a photograph circulating on jihadi Twitter feeds showed what appeared to be the first U.S. Humvee in Syria being inspected by one of the country’s most famous foreign jihadis, the Chechen fighter Omar al-Shishani.
ISIS later said its forces were continuing to advance south and east from Mosul, overrunning several smaller towns that would enable its fighters to link up with their counterparts across the border in Syria. There, the organization controls what amounts to an unofficial state across swaths of the north and east from which government forces have been ejected.
[Read more: Iraqi army faces death and desertions as it struggles with Anbar offensive.] A rebranded version of the al-Qaeda in Iraq organization that the U.S. military said it had quelled before withdrawing its forces in 2011, ISIS has been expanding its reach for months in Iraq and in Syria in pursuit of its goal of creating an Islamic state. Al-Qaeda disowned the group this year, in part because al-Qaeda’s leadership considers its methods too harsh, but the two organizations share essentially the same goals and ideology.
The capture of a major city such as Mosul marks an “extraordinary strategic and symbolic victory” for the militants, one that suggests they are more powerful than had been thought, said Charles Lister of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
“It shows they are capable of taking a strategically vital city ... and it all happened so fast,” he said.
Exact details of what happened in Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, were sketchy and impossible to independently confirm. It appeared that the insurgents had gained control of the area on the west bank of the Tigris River, the city’s commercial and historic heart. Among the facilities captured were the provincial government headquarters, two prisons, two television stations, numerous police stations, the central bank and the airport, a major military base that used to serve as a hub for U.S. operations in northern Iraq.
A video posted anonymously on social-media sites showed emptied streets, the smoking hulks of destroyed military vehicles and at least one Iraqi police van that was apparently being driven by insurgents. Other photographs showed piles of uniforms that had been stripped off by soldiers and police officers as they fled.
“When the battle got tough in the city of Mosul, the troops dropped their weapons and abandoned their posts, making it an easy prey for the terrorists,” said Iraq’s speaker of parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi, who is from Mosul, at a televised news conference in Baghdad.
“Everything is fallen. It’s a crisis,” he added, appealing for international and government help to retake the city. “Having these terrorist groups control a city in the heart of Iraq threatens not only Iraq but the entire region.”
Mosul is near the border of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, whose president, Massoud Barzani, is at odds with Maliki over unresolved issues of oil, money and power but has no wish to see Sunni insurgents on his doorstep. Most of the thousands of residents who fled the city were seeking refuge in the relatively stable region; among them was the governor of Nineveh province, Atheel al-Nujaifi, the brother of the parliament speaker.
The loss of Mosul could further polarize the country at a time when Maliki is seeking to secure enough votes in parliament to win a third term.
After the first reports that the city had fallen circulated overnight Monday, many hours passed before Maliki made a statement, appearing mid-afternoon on Tuesday to deliver a televised address in which he urged all Iraqis to rally behind the Shiite-led government.
He said he had created a special “crisis unit” to deal with the situation and warned that punishment would be meted out to “those who were reckless and those who did not rise to the challenge” of the attack, a reference to the security forces who fled.
Maliki also called on “all powers political, financial and popular” to help the government, raising concerns that he plans to further mobilize the Shiite militias that are reported to be helping beleaguered government forces in the battle against Sunni insurgents in the western province of Anbar. Those militias also played a key role in accelerating the country’s civil war from 2005 to 2007, raising fears that this latest insurgent victory will serve to further exacerbate the sectarian divide.
“Maliki calling on people to arm themselves to fight al-Qaeda is a real indictment of his own security policy and also an invitation for more chaos,” said Zaid al-Ali, an Iraq scholar and the author of a recent book on the challenges confronting Iraq.
The loss of Mosul is also an indictment of the efficiency of the Iraqi security forces, he said.
“There’s a lot of infiltration, a lack of training, a lack of motivation and a significant level of corruption,” he said.
The Tigris River divides Mosul into mostly Kurdish and mostly Sunni Arab neighborhoods, and it is the Sunni areas that ISIS has seized. Mosul has long served as a significant source of funding for ISIS, which has routinely extorted businessmen on both sides of the city for contributions since well before the U.S. departure.
At least some of the soldiers serving on the Sunni side of the city may have been infiltrated by ISIS, explaining why they did not present an effective challenge to the militants, said Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, who monitors jihadist activity for the Middle East Forum. More seriously, however, the Iraqi security forces have consistently failed to win the support of the people they serve, giving them little backing in local communities.
“Tactically and militarily, they are ineffectual,” Tamimi said. “It’s not a lack of manpower. But they haven’t built up local support that would enable them to fight.”
| Armed Conflict | June 2014 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Austrian MPs vote to demand a government veto on a proposed trade deal between the European Union and South American trade group Mercosur. The deal is the result of 20 years of negotiations. France and Ireland have previously threatened to also veto the deal unless Mercosur member Brazil increases efforts to fight ongoing Amazon rainforest wildfires. | MPs in Austria have dealt a blow to the EU's landmark trade deal with South America's economic bloc, by demanding a government veto on the deal.
The draft free trade agreement took 20 years to complete and the EU has described it as its biggest so far.
France and Ireland have already warned they will reject the deal if Brazil does not do more to curb fires in the Amazon rainforest.
Austrian groups say the deal must do more to tackle environment issues.
All but one of Austria's main parties rejected the deal in a parliamentary sub-committee, from the far right to the centre left. Mercosur includes four South American economies - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. A fifth member, Venezuela, is currently suspended.
Without backing from every government in the EU, the Mercosur deal cannot go through.
Jörg Leichtfried of the centre-left SPÖ hailed the decision as a "great success for consumers, the environment and animal welfare as well as human rights", warning that it would have been bad for climate protection and labour rights in South America.
Austria's trade union federation ÖGB had campaigned against the deal, arguing it had not sought binding rules on workers and the environment but focused on the interests of industry rather than people.
Green MEP Monika Vana praised the decision as "laying down a marker in Europe".
Austria's federation of industry, however, has backed the Mercosur deal, warning against "populist scaremongering and free-trade myths" and insisting that the deal includes a commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement and the fight against deforestation in the Amazon.
The liberal Neos party was alone in rejecting a veto, calling instead for the deal to be renegotiated.
Austrians are currently in the grip of an election campaign ahead of a 29 September vote. The centre-right alliance with the far-right Freedom Party fell apart in May amidst a corruption scandal.
The deal was announced amid great fanfare in June, but weeks later Europe's leaders were shocked by the spread of fires raging in the Amazon rainforest. Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, was accused by France's Emmanuel Macron of lying over his stance on climate change.
When Mr Macron pledged millions of dollars in aid to help reforest the Amazon, Mr Bolsonaro hit back by accusing him of treating it as a "colony or a no-man's land".
Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest - the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen - is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit, let's discuss this emergency first order in two days! #ActForTheAmazon pic.twitter.com/dogOJj9big
Ireland and Luxembourg also threatened to block the deal because of the far-right Brazilian leader's environmental policy.
The EU is already Mercosur's biggest trade partner, accounting last year for 20.1% of the bloc's trade in goods such as food, drink, farm products and tobacco. EU exports account for only 2.3% of the European bloc's total and tariffs on EU products are as high as 35% for cars and clothing.
The agreement, which would cover 780 million people, aims to remove trade barriers and promote high standards, with a commitment to sustainable management and conservation of forests and respect for labour rights.
European Council President Donald Tusk said last month it was difficult to see the accord getting through while fires were continuing in the Amazon rainforest.
The EU stands by the EU-Mercosur agreement but a harmonious ratification is hard to imagine as long as the Brazilian government allows for the destruction of the green lungs of Planet Earth.
| Tear Up Agreement | September 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ice hockey player Anže Kopitar and judoka Urška Žolnir are named as 2012 Slovenian Sportsperson of the Year. | Slovenian journalists named Anze Kopitar the country’s male athlete of 2012 according to RTV Slovenia (and his brother Gasper).
(One would assume that Kopitar is named Slovenia’s best hockey player every year, at the minimum.)
Kopitar edged hammer thrower Primož Kosmus, gaining 261 votes to Kozmus’ 182. Kozmus won a sliver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, but apparently Kopitar’s Stanley Cup achievement makes an argument that the silver chalice is superior to a silver medal.
(At least for hammer-throwing.)
Kopitar had 76 points in 82 regular season games and 20 points in 20 playoff contests last season. He’s currently playing on Swedish second division team Mora IK with his brother Gasper. | Awards ceremony | December 2012 | ['(NBC Sports)', '(RTV Slovenija)'] |
ASEAN requests that Myanmar hold free elections. | South East Asian foreign ministers have urged Burma's military-run government to hold free and fair elections - a rare stand by the cautious group often accused of overlooking rights abuses in member nations.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations began their annual meeting on Tuesday in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi to tackle a diverse agenda - from setting up a European-style economic community by 2015 to bolstering ties with the West and regional powerhouses China, Japan and India.
But at a dinner on the eve of the conference, Burma took centre stage as diplomats vented their concerns about planned elections, which the junta has said will be held this year, without giving a date.
Many ministers told their counterpart from Rangoon that the junta should hold "free, fair and inclusive" elections. Such straight talk is unusual given ASEAN members' bedrock policy of not interfering in one another's domestic affairs.
"Myanmar (Burma), I think, got an earful last night that ASEAN is very much concerned," ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters on the sidelines of Tuesday's meetings. The ministers also offered to send observers to the elections.
Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win, in keeping with his government's typical secrecy, did not give a date for the vote. "The responsibility is for the ... elections commissioner, not the foreign minister," he said.
Critics have dismissed the election - the first in two decades - as a sham designed to cement nearly 50 years of military rule in Burma, also known as Myanmar. Detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not be allowed to participate in the election, and her party has disbanded in order to boycott the vote.
"The way that the military regime is treating political prisoners led by Aung San Suu Kyi even makes the ASEAN countries embarrassed," said Trevor Wilson, a Burma expert at the Australian National University in Canberra. "And they're pretty good at treating political prisoners badly themselves."
On Monday, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya also raised concerns about allegations that Burma may be interested in developing a nuclear weapons program with help from North Korea. Burma has denied those claims.
In addition to Burma, the association is also expected to discuss North Korea's nuclear program. The Philippines has proposed that a group be formed to persuade the North to return to stalled talks aimed pressuring the regime into giving up its nukes, according to a diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to speak to the press.
Tensions between the Koreas are high following the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors in the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang earlier this year. The North has denied involvement.
Later this week the North's foreign minister is expected to attend a security forum in Hanoi with all members of the disarmament talks, including US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The last talks, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, were held in Beijing in 2008.
ASEAN, founded in 1967, includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. | Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2010 | ['(Arab News)', '(The Age)', '(BBC)', '(Philippine Daily Inquirer)'] |
Britain formally backs French politician Christine Lagarde to become the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund, following the resignation of Dominique Strauss–Kahn over his alleged rape of a hotel chambermaid in New York City. | Chancellor George Osborne is to formally nominate Christine Lagarde for the post of managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said the French economy minister was "the outstanding candidate". The position became vacant after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned so he could fight sexual assault charges.
PM David Cameron had suggested the IMF should look beyond Europe for its next chief after appearing to rule out his predecessor Gordon Brown for the job.
The IMF is described by many as the world's "lender of last resort" for countries facing bankruptcy. In a statement Mr Osborne said Ms Lagarde had "shown real international leadership as chair of the G20 finance ministers this year". "She has also been a strong advocate for countries tackling high budget deficits and living within their means," he said.
"We support her because she's the best person for the job, but I also personally think it would be a very good thing to see the first female managing director of the IMF in its 60-year history." Treasury sources told the BBC's business correspondent Joe Lynam that they were confident she would also get the backing of the Chinese and US governments.
She has already won praise for her credentials from the interim head of the IMF, John Lipsky, the Italian government, the Swedish finance minister and Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the eurozone committee of finance ministers.
Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag that "Europe would have the best chance to secure the post again with Christine Lagarde, if she decides to run".
Other contenders include former German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck; Axel Weber, the former head of the German central bank, the Bundesbank; and Trevor Manuel, former South Africa finance minister.
Even before Mr Strauss-Kahn's resignation there had been much speculation that Mr Brown could take on the job, which the Frenchman was expected to vacate anyway in order to run for his country's presidency.
The former PM's aides have reportedly been campaigning on his behalf, but in an interview with the BBC last month, Mr Cameron appeared to block his ambitions.
He said: "I haven't spent a huge amount of time thinking about this. But it does seem to me that, if you have someone who didn't think we had a debt problem in the UK, when we self-evidently do, they might not be the best person to work out whether other countries around the world have a debt and deficit problem".
The UK and other major economies have an effective veto on the appointment. During a visit to South Africa on Friday to promote international development, Mr Brown told the BBC he was not there to "pitch for a job" at the IMF.
The former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell said developing countries would be happy to see Mr Brown appointed as head of the IMF.
"Gordon has appealed directly to those countries - particularly developing countries - who were beneficiaries of his vision and Labour's investment in aid and development," she told Sky News's Murnaghan programme.
"If you want the IMF to be more than the rich countries' institution, then Gordon Brown has an incredibly important contribution to make."
Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC's Politics Show on Sunday: "I can certainly tell you we have never received any public or private communication in the government from Gordon Brown seeking to be a candidate for this position. "But in any case we regard Christine Lagarde as an outstanding candidate - as the outstanding candidate in the field."
Traditionally the head of the IMF comes from Europe, with America providing the boss of its sister organisation - the World Bank. With the recent emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China, many global figures - including the head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - had called for the IMF job to go to a non-European.
Mr Cameron had appeared to support that suggestion, telling the BBC the IMF could look to "another part of the world" for its next leader. "If you think about the general principle, you've got the rise of India and China and South Asia, a shift in the world's focus, and it may well be the time for the IMF to start thinking about that shift in focus," he said. Mr Strauss-Kahn was the fourth Frenchman to have held the IMF's top job. He is currently in New York on bail awaiting trial for sexual assault and attempted rape - charges he denies. Profile: IMF chief Christine Lagarde
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The European Union agrees to meet with Iran to discuss its nuclear program. | The European Union has agreed to meet Iran to begin long-stalled talks on its controversial nuclear programme, EU officials have said.
The EU has accepted the date of 5 December put forward by the Iranians earlier this week, but a venue has yet to be agreed.
Officials said the EU suggested holding the talks in Austria or Switzerland instead of Iran's proposal, Istanbul.
If Iran agrees, they would be the first formal talks in more than a year.
Western powers fear Iran is building capacity to produce a nuclear bomb.
Iran denies the charges, saying that it is pursuing a civilian atomic programme designed to meet its energy needs.
The EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton sent a letter proposing a date and venue for the talks in response to an offer from Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.
Lady Ashton - named EU foreign affairs chief last December - has been given a mandate by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, to lead the negotiations with Iran.
"The meeting would be somewhere in Europe, most probably in Switzerland. A second, subsequent meeting may also be proposed for Istanbul," an EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters news agency.
Tehran's suggestion of Istanbul as a venue was seen as potentially irritating to the US, as Turkey set up a nuclear-swap deal with Tehran earlier this year just as Washington was bolstering sanctions against Iran.
If the date and venue are agreed, the talks with representatives from each of the six world powers could last two days to have "sufficient time for a full and in-depth exchange of views", according to excerpts of the letter seen by news agencies.
Pressure on Iran to return to the negotiating table has strengthened since the UN, US and the EU began imposing tighter sanctions on the country in June.
Last month, the New York Times said the Western side was drawing up a tougher offer for Iran than the one rejected by the country last year, requiring it to send two-thirds more low-grade enriched uranium out of the country than the previous deal. Iran nuclear talks set to resume
IAEA reports on Iran
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani meets with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in Tokyo to discuss renewing the Iranian nuclear deal. Rouhani is the first Iranian president to visit Japan in over 19 years. | Iranian president holds talks with Japanese PM Abe in Tokyo on future of crumbling landmark 2015 agreement.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has renewed his condemnation of the United States for pulling out of a landmark nuclear agreement and asked for Japan‘s help in efforts to maintain the unravelling deal during a visit to Tokyo.
Rouhani, the first Iranian president to visit Japan in 19 years, told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the pair’s meeting on Friday that the nuclear accord signed in 2015 by Iran and several other world powers remained crucial despite the US’ unilateral withdrawal last year.
“The nuclear deal is an extremely important agreement, and that’s why I strongly condemn the United States’ one-sided and irrational withdrawal,” Rouhani said.
“We hope that Japan and other countries in the world will make efforts toward maintaining the agreement.”
The deal, which is formally known as the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has been on life support since the US withdrawal in May 2018 and its decision to reimpose punishing sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has since taken a number of steps away from the accord designed to pressure the remaining signatories – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia – to deliver on JCPOA’s promised economic benefits.
For his part, Abe urged Iran to honour the nuclear deal and expressed concern about rising tensions in the Middle East, the source of more than 80 percent of Japan’s oil.
“I strongly expect that Iran will fully comply with the nuclear agreement and play a constructive role for peace and stability in the region,” the Japanese prime minister said.
During closed-door talks held later on Friday, Abe expressed “grave concerns” over Iran’s resumption of nuclear activities and urged Rouhani “to stop such acts”, The Associated Press news agency quoted Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Naoki Okada as telling reporters. As a key US ally that also maintains close diplomatic and economic ties with Iran, Japan has tried to build bridges between the two rival powers under Abe’s leadership.
The Japanese leader travelled to Tehran in June, in an unsuccessful effort to encourage Iran and the US to hold talks to reduce tensions. Abe’s visit coincided with attacks on two oil tankers – one of which was operated by a Japanese shipping company – in the Gulf that the US blamed on Iran. Tehran denied it was behind the attacks.
US sanctions block Iran from selling crude oil abroad and have crippled the country’s economy, with surging fuel prices prompting tens of thousands of Iranians to take to the streets as part of bloody anti-government protests.
Japan had been a major buyer of Iranian crude but stopped purchases to comply with the US measures.
Japanese officials have said it would be difficult for Japan to resume purchases of Iranian oil if Rouhani asks because sanctions are still in place.
Abe’s government is expected to imminently announce a contentious plan to send its military to the Middle East to ensure Japanese oil tankers’ safety. Local media have said the operation will be approved by Abe’s cabinet as soon as next week.
The planned Japanese operation is set to cover high seas in the Gulf of Oman, the northern Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but not the Strait of Hormuz. It is not expected to be part of a US-led mission to protect shipping in the region. Sending warships to areas of military tension is a highly sensitive issue in Japan because its pacifist post-World War II constitution strictly limits the use of force by the military. Abe, however, has gradually expanded Japan’s military role in recent years.
| Diplomatic Visit | December 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda meets with UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, explaining to him that the islands are "Japan's inherent territory" and that "there is no territorial dispute as such". | NEW YORK--Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Wednesday afternoon he will not make any compromises with China in the recent row over the Senkaku Islands, such as retracting the nationalization of three of the islets.
Speaking at a press conference at a New York hotel, Noda also called on the Chinese government to resolve the problem peacefully.
Regarding the Japanese government's purchase of the three islands, Noda said: "The government decided to buy [islands] that were originally owned by a Japanese. It's simply a [domestic] transfer of ownership."
Noda also called on Beijing to engage in talks on the issue.
"We want to have dialogue [with China] at various levels and through various channels," the prime minister said. "We'll firmly maintain a rational and level-headed response to the issue so as not to negatively affect the overall [Japan-China] relationship."
The row between Japan and China over the Senkaku Islands in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, has intensified in recent weeks, with events marking the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries being postponed. The Japanese government is trying to ease the tensions as early as possible through a series of bilateral talks, observers said.
Earlier in the day, Noda delivered a speech at a U.N. General Assembly session in which he denounced unilateral action.
"Any attempt to realize a country's ideology or claim by unilateral use of force or threat is inconsistent with the fundamental spirit of the U.N. charter and is against the wisdom of humanity, thus absolutely unacceptable," Noda said. He was apparently referring to the Senkaku spat as well as a territorial row between and Japan and South Korea over the Takeshima islands in Shimane Prefecture.
Noda meets with U.N. chief
By Kentaro NakajimaPrime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sought understanding of Japan's stance on the Senkaku Islands from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at a meeting Wednesday morning.
"[The Senkaku Islands] are Japan's inherent territory, and there is no territorial dispute as such," Noda told Ban during their meeting at the U.N. headquarters.
Earlier in the day, Noda met with Vuk Jeremic, president of the U.N. General Assembly and former Serbian foreign minister, and explained the current state of Japan-China relations. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2012 | ['(Yomiuri Shimbun)'] |
Major world and Middle East powers discuss the future of Iraq on the second day of an International Compact for Iraq conference in Egypt. | Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was speaking in Egypt on the second day of a summit of world and regional powers, called to discuss Iraq's security.
The summit, now over, had been expected to see the first high-level US-Iran talks in almost three decades.
Those hopes were dashed, although ambassadors from the US and Iran did hold a face-to-face meeting.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari described the meeting - the second lower-level meeting in three months - as "a positive sign".
The United States must accept the responsibilities arising from the occupation of Iraq, and should not finger point or put the blame on others
Manouchehr MottakiIranian Foreign Minister
Press mixed on summit
But BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the meeting will be remembered more for what did not happen, rather than for what did.
Concern for the situation in Iraq but little real action seems to be a fair initial verdict, he says, adding that national reconciliation is, above all else, a job for the Iraqis themselves.
Egyptian organisers did make an effort to bring US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Mr Mottaki together, seating them opposite each other at a formal dinner on Thursday night.
Unfortunately for the Egyptians Mr Mottaki stayed away from the dinner. US officials said he excused himself over the apparently "un-Islamic" dress worn by a violinist entertaining diners.
He was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that a problem with "Islamic standards" was his only reason for not attending.
'Accept responsibility'
Iraq's neighbours, including Iran and Syria, had joined ministers from the G8 nations and the EU at the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Mr Mottaki said the US should issue a clear troop-withdrawal plan to return stability to Iraq.
IRAQ CONFERENCE KEY POINTS
Attended by Iraq's neighbours, permanent members of Security Council, EU and G8
International compact signed, aimed at achieving political and economic stability in five years
Iraq won pledges of US $30bn debt relief
US secretary of state talks with Syrian foreign minister
US and Iranian officials met at ambassador level
Q&A: Egypt conferences
"The continuation of, and increase in, terrorist acts in Iraq originates from the flawed approaches adopted by the foreign troops," he said.
"The United States must accept the responsibilities arising from the occupation of Iraq, and should not finger point or put the blame on others."
Mr Mottaki also called for the immediate release of five Iranians detained in northern Iraq by US troops in January.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki called for neighbouring countries to stop funding terrorists and to block their entry into the country.
"We will not allow terrorist organisations to use Iraqi territory as a safe haven," Mr Maliki said.
The US has previously accused Iran and Syria of allowing foreign fighters to enter Iraq and of fomenting unrest in the country.
Militants seized
More than $30bn (£15bn) in aid and debt relief was pledged by donors on the first day of the summit.
A five-year agreement was signed offering financial aid but insisting that Iraq pushes towards political reform and reconciliation.
Egypt agreed to write off about $800m owed to it by Iraq while Slovenia, Bulgaria and Poland would cancel 80% of Iraq's debts, the Iraqi finance minister said.
The UK and European Union each pledged $200m in grants.
Meanwhile, US forces in Iraq say they have detained 16 people suspected of smuggling armour-piercing bombs into the country from Iran.
The US army said the smugglers were arrested during military raids in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Clashes in Kashmir kill eight militants and a policeman. | Seven suspected militants have been killed in two separate gun battles with security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, authorities say.
The Indian army said four militants were shot dead in a clash in the state's Kupwara district on Sunday.
Another three rebels were killed after they tried to storm a government office in Poonch district.
A curfew has been in effect for over two months across Kashmir following an upsurge of violence since 9 July.
The protests were sparked by the killing of a popular militant leader. Burhan Wani, 22, died in a gunfight with the Indian army.
More than 70 people, mostly young men, have since been killed in clashes between protestors and security forces, and thousands more injured in the worst violence seen in the region for years.
On Sunday Indian soldiers killed four militants as they tried to cross the de-facto border that divides the disputed Himalayan region between India and Pakistan in Kupwara, an army official said.
"They tried to infiltrate into Nowgam sector (an area northwest of the main city of Srinagar) and were intercepted. Four militants were killed and their AK rifles were recovered," army spokesman NN Joshi told the AFP news agency.
Three other rebels were killed after they tried to enter a government office in Poonch. A policeman was also killed in the clash.
The clashes with militants came as stone-pelting residents protesting against Indian rule of the region clashed with security forces in Pulwana and two other places in the southern Kashmir valley, leaving many injured, police said. Disputed Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan and has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years, sparking two wars between the countries.
Within the disputed Muslim-majority territory, some militant groups have taken up arms to fight for independence from Indian rule or a merger with Pakistan.
Thirty killed in Kashmir street protests
| Riot | September 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(The Hindu)'] |
Voters in Indonesia go to the polls to elect members of the parliament, the President and Vice President. | Voters will decide between President Joko Widodo and former general Prabowo Subianto, and choose more than 20,000 legislators
Tens of millions of Indonesians have started voting for a new president and more than 20,000 legislative seats in the nation’s biggest – and one of the world’s most complicated – ballots.
In the world’s third-largest democracy and largest Muslim-majority nation, almost 193 million Indonesians are registered to vote across 17,000 islands. On Wednesday morning voting kicked off at 7am local time in restive Papua. It will end at 1pm in Sumatra.
Voters are flocking to more than 800,000 polling stations where they will punch holes in ballots – to make clear their candidate choice – and then dip a finger in halal ink, a measure to prevent double-voting.
It is the first time Indonesia is holding simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections – a hugely complex logistical undertaking – but it is the presidential race that has consumed much of the nation’s focus.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a former mayor and furniture salesman from central Java, is up against the fiery nationalist and former army general Prabowo Subianto.
Prabowo, the former son-in-law of Indonesia’s longtime ruler Suharto, is running with Sandiaga Uno, a former private equity manager, while the president controversially chose Ma’ruf Amin, 76, a conservative Islamic leader, as his vice-presidential running mate.
In an election campaign that has been marred by fake news, identity politics and attempts by the candidates to outdo each other in displays of religiosity, Jokowi has for months maintained a double-digit lead over his opponent – if the the country’s most credible polls are to be believed.
“I’m excited, we only get to do this once every five years,” said Neneng Kursiah, 37, after completing her ballot at a Jakarta polling booth.
“We are for Prabowo in this area, we think he will bring prices of staple foods down and work hard,” said Firman, 42, a voter in Jakarta’s south, chimed in, “But if people want to vote for someone else that’s okay too.”
“Should be tight, maybe 50-50 said Bambang Sukanto, a local council worker at a different voting station, “So we are going to watch and make see.”
Contemplating whether one of the only true remaining democracies in south-east Asia could be prone to a political upset akin to Brexit, Trump or Duterte, analysts predict Indonesia is likely to buck global trends.
“I think Indonesia was ahead of the curve in that aspect of democracy because the anti-establishment outsider, Joko Widodo, won in 2014 already,” says an Indonesia analyst, Kevin O’Rourke. “Ironically, the incumbent is the outsider in this race, meanwhile Prabowo Subianto is not the outsider, or anti-establishment figure, he is a quintessential member of the elite.”
Jokowi’s 2014 win against Prabowo was hailed as a victory for Indonesia’s young democracy – the first time a figure untethered to the military or political elite had been elected head of state.
As president, Jokowi has impressed voters with his commitment to building infrastructure and social welfare, but has drawn criticism for failing to address past human rights abuses and chronic corruption, and most recently for leveraging the state apparatus, including law enforcement agencies and Islamic groups, to solidify his support base.
Ayu Dyah Widarti, a volunteer for Jokowi, has spent her morning riding around on her bicycle, checking on the voting process at various polls in Jakarta’s south.
“People are enthusiastic, smiling, and it’s been smooth,” she says.
Ayu says she is strong supporter of the incumbent. “He has a vision, he in sincere, he works hard, hard, hard. He has high integrity and is honest. And he doesn’t have a problematic background, or any baggage,” she says, “There is already evidence of his leadership, from when he was Solo mayor, Jakarta governor and also a president. He has built a lot of infrastructure and not just for Jakarta, but all over Indonesia, for all Indonesians.”
Some voters, disillusioned with the president and also the alternative, a former special forces commander accused of various human rights abuses, have vowed to “golput”, or abstain, in protest.
In the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s vote, the opposition has claimed the integrity of the electoral list is undermined by the existence of millions of “ghost” voters – a move some analysts believe indicates they are laying the groundwork for a legal challenge if they lose.
There have been other hiccups, too. A video that circulated last week allegedly showed bags of ballot papers found in Malaysia that were pre-marked for Jokowi. There is also concern about rampant vote buying and the inundation of overseas polling stations in recent days, which have reportedly prevented hundreds from voting, have generated concern.
Indonesia’s electoral commission has pledged to investigate, and Wednesday’s election, a government-mandated national holiday, is expected to proceed peacefully and under the watchful eye of voters, thousands of whom plan to monitor the open-air count after the polls close.
The polls present a huge logistical challenge in a country stretching 4,800km across more than 17,000 islands, with a population of more than 260 million, home to hundreds of ethnic groups and languages.
Officials are moving cardboard ballot boxes by motorbikes, boats and planes – as well as elephants and horses – to reach mountaintop villages and communities deep in the jungle.
A series of so-called “quick counts” are expected to give a reliable indication of the presidential winner later on Wednesday. Official results are not expected until May. | Government Job change - Election | April 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter successfully performs the first powered flight of a helicopter from the surface of another planet. | by Marcia Dunn NASA's experimental helicopter Ingenuity rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars on Monday, achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet.
The triumph was hailed as a Wright brothers moment. The mini 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) copter even carried a bit of wing fabric from the Wright Flyer that made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.
It was a brief hop—just 39 seconds and 10 feet (3 meters)—but accomplished all the major milestones.
"Goosebumps. It looks just the way we had tested," project manager MiMi Aung said as she watched the flight video during a later briefing. "Absolutely beautiful flight. I don't think I can ever stop watching it over and over again."
Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California declared success after receiving the data and images via the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity hitched a ride to Mars on Perseverance, clinging to the rover's belly when it touched down in an ancient river delta in February.
The $85 million helicopter demo was considered high risk, yet high reward.
Scientists cheered the news from around the world, even from space, and the White House offered its congratulations.
"A whole new way to explore the alien terrain in our solar system is now at our disposal," Nottingham Trent University astronomer Daniel Brown said from England.
This first test flight—with more to come by Ingenuity, the next as soon as Thursday—holds great promise, Brown noted. Future helicopters could serve as scouts for rovers, and eventually astronauts, in difficult, dangerous places.
Ingenuity has provided a third dimension to planetary exploration and "freed us from the surface now forever," said JPL director, Michael Watkins.
Ground controllers had to wait more than three excruciating hours before learning whether the preprogrammed flight had succeeded 178 million miles (287 million kilometers) away. The first attempt had been delayed a week because of a software error.
When the news finally came, the operations center filled with applause, cheers and laughter. More followed when the first black and white photo from Ingenuity appeared, showing the helicopter's shadow as it hovered above the surface of Mars.
"The shadow of greatness, #MarsHelicopter first flight on another world complete!" NASA astronaut Victor Glover tweeted from the International Space Station.
Next came stunning color video of the copter's clean landing, taken by Perseverance, "the best host little Ingenuity could ever hope for," Aung said in thanking everyone.
The helicopter hovered for 30 seconds at its intended altitude of 10 feet (3 meters), and spent 39 seconds airborne, more than three times longer than the first successful flight of the Wright Flyer, which lasted a mere 12 seconds on Dec. 17, 1903.
To accomplish all this, the helicopter's twin, counter-rotating rotor blades needed to spin at 2,500 revolutions per minute—five times faster than on Earth. With an atmosphere just 1% the density of Earth's, engineers had to build a helicopter light enough—with blades spinning fast enough—to generate this otherworldly lift. The Martian wind was relatively gentle Monday: between 4 mph and 14 mph (7 kph to 22 kph).
More than six years in the making, Ingenuity is just 19 inches (49 centimeters) tall, a spindly four-legged chopper. Its fuselage, containing all the batteries, heaters and sensors, is the size of a tissue box. The carbon-fiber, foam-filled rotors are the biggest pieces: Each pair stretches 4 feet (1.2 meters) tip to tip.
Ingenuity also had to be sturdy enough to withstand the Martian wind, and is topped with a solar panel for recharging the batteries, crucial for surviving the minus-130 degree Fahrenheit (minus-90 degree-Celsius) Martian nights.
NASA chose a flat, relatively rock-free patch for Ingenuity's airfield. Following Monday's success, NASA named the area for the Wright brothers.
"While these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and ... million miles of space, they now will forever be linked," NASA's science missions chief Thomas Zurbuchen announced.
The little chopper with a giant job attracted attention from the moment it launched with Perseverance last July. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger joined in the fun, rooting for Ingenuity over the weekend. "Get to the chopper!" he shouted in a tweeted video, a line from his 1987 sci-fi film "Predator."
Up to five increasingly ambitious flights are planned, and they could lead the way to a fleet of Martian drones in decades to come, providing aerial views, transporting packages and serving as lookouts for human crews. On Earth, the technology could enable helicopters to reach new heights, doing things like more easily navigating the Himalayas.
Ingenuity's team has until the beginning of May to complete the test flights so that the rover can get on with its main mission: collecting rock samples that could hold evidence of past Martian life, for return to Earth a decade from now.
The team plans to test the helicopter's limits, possibly even wrecking the craft, leaving it to rest in place forever, having sent its data back home.
Until then, Perseverance will keep tabs on Ingenuity. Flight engineers affectionately call them Percy and Ginny.
"Big sister's watching," said Malin Space Science Systems' Elsa Jensen, the rover's lead camera operator. | New achievements in aerospace | April 2021 | ['(Phys.org)', '(Wired)'] |
Andrei Lugovoy, the former KGB agent accused by British authorities of murdering Alexander Litvinenko with a radioactive isotope in London last November, says he will run for parliament on the party list of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. | MOSCOW, Sept. 16 -- The Russian accused by British authorities of murdering a former KGB agent with a radioactive isotope in London last November said he plans to run for parliament in December on the slate of a radical nationalist party that generally follows the Kremlin's wishes.
Andrei Lugovoy will be No. 2 on the list of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, currently the fourth-largest grouping in parliament, Lugovoy and party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said in separate interviews with Russian news media Sunday.
"I have accepted the offer to be on the party's election list," Lugovoy said on state-run Russia Today television. "I was a businessman, but no longer, thanks to the disgusting policy of British prosecutors that led to this political hysteria. With the situation being highly politicized by British opponents, I find myself in the midst of a political wave of interest in me."
Members of parliament in Russia are immune from prosecution.
Russian officials have said that they might be willing to prosecute Lugovoy if the British produce evidence of his guilt, but say that none has been offered. British officials insist that Lugovoy be put on trial in London.
Lugovoy, also a former KGB officer, is accused of killing Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope, when the two met in London on Nov. 1. Britain has not released details of the evidence gathered against Lugovoy, and it is unclear how much material was forwarded to Moscow to press the extradition request.
Litvinenko, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin who fled Moscow in 2000, was a British citizen at the time of his death. His poisoning was slow and agonizing, and Londoners were unnerved when traces of polonium were found at locations across the city.
Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in June after Russia, citing a provision in its constitution that bars handing over its citizens for trial in other countries, refused to extradite Lugovoy. Russia retaliated with the expulsion of four British diplomats, and bilateral relations have deteriorated sharply.
Putin dismissed the British extradition request as an example of "colonial thinking."
The prospect of Lugovoy standing for a party that is widely believed to be in the Kremlin's pocket is likely to further damage relations and will be seen by some in London as an officially sanctioned snub. Zhirinovsky, the party leader, has long courted the reputation of an outrageous personality, but he and his party are generally docile when it comes to the Kremlin.
Zhirinovsky said Lugovoy's place on the party list will be confirmed Monday at a party congress in Moscow.
In Russia, voters in parliamentary elections cast ballots for national parties that put forward lists of candidates, rather than for nominees in individual constituencies. If the Liberal Democratic Party wins more than 7 percent of the vote on Dec. 2, it will be assured representation in the next parliament. And as No. 2 on the party list, Lugovoy, who runs a private security firm, would be guaranteed a seat.
"We have formed the top three to be confirmed by a party congress," Zhirinovsky told the Russian news agency Interfax on Sunday, saying he would be No. 1, Lugovoy would be No. 2 and Zhirinovsky's son, Igor Lebedev, No. 3.
"All of Lugovoy's story with Britain is an attempt to organize provocations against our citizens," Zhirinovsky said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2007 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
Macron wins the election, earning 66.1% of the vote to Le Pen's 33.9%, becoming the youngest French head of state since Napoleon. , | PARIS (Reuters) - It has taken only three years for Emmanuel Macron to rise from being an unknown government adviser to be elected France’s youngest head of state since Napoleon.
Elected on Sunday several months before his 40th birthday, the centrist has turned a stale establishment upside down while eschewing the wave of economic and political nationalism that helped Britain to vote for “Brexit” and Donald Trump to be elected U.S. president.
His election represents a long-awaited generational change in French politics where the same faces have dominated for years.
He will be the youngest leader in the current Group of Seven (G7) major nations and has elicited comparisons with youthful leaders past and present, from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to British ex-premier Tony Blair and even President John F. Kennedy in the United States.
Many attribute Macron’s stunning rise to a deep yearning for a fresh face, coupled with a rare message of optimism in a country that has long been obsessed with national decline.
“His campaign has been like group therapy - to convert the French to optimism,” said writer Michel Houellebecq.
The unexpected collapse of many mainstream opponents certainly played a part, but Macron had the tactical nous to seize his chance.
He seemed destined for a steady climb up the ranks of the French establishment when he decided to apply his skills as a deal-making investment banker to the world of politics.
But since striking out on his own in August 2016 after only two years as a minister, he has tapped into widespread disenchantment to broadcast a strong anti-establishment message.
Despite having attended France’s most prestigious schools, making a killing by brokering a $10 billion corporate acquisition, and serving in a Socialist government under President Francois Hollande, Macron has vowed to shake up the system that he comes from.
“France is blocked by the self-serving tendencies of its elite,” he told supporters at a rally in the southern town of Pau. “And I’ll tell you a little secret,” he added, lowering his voice: “I know it, I was part of it.”
“ALWAYS DOING SO MANY THINGS”
Born in Amiens, in the northern rustbelt, to a family of doctors, he describes in his campaign book “Revolution” an idyllic childhood spent “in books, a little removed from the world”.
There, at age 15, he met his future wife Brigitte, who was his drama teacher - 24 years his senior and married with children. Their unusual relationship has fueled intense coverage by the glossy boulevard magazines.
After school, he moved to Paris and attended the Sciences-Po and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) academies, the traditional training ground of the French elite. In parallel, he worked as a research assistant to the philosopher Paul Ricoeur.
“He was always doing so many things at the same time,” his Sciences-Po classmate Marc Ferracci told Reuters.
After finishing near the top of his class, he joined the civil service, before a four-year stint working in mergers and acquisitions for the investment bank Rothschild.
Helping to broker Nestle’s acquisition of Pfizer’s baby food division earned him a small fortune.
After Rothschild, he joined Hollande’s staff in the Elysee in 2012 and it was not long before he became economy minister.
“He always wanted to be in politics, be elected. He talked about it all the time,” said his ENA classmate Gaspard Gantzer, now Hollande’s spin doctor.
In government, Macron set about attacking some of the sacred cows of the French “social model” such as the 35-hour working week, iron-clad job protection, and the civil service’s culture of jobs-for-life.
These are messages that have earned him surprising popularity for an ex-banker in a country where many disdain the world of high finance - but also the contempt of many on the traditional left, as well as the nationalist right.
“You are already hated before you have even set foot in the Elysee,” left-wing film director Francois Ruffin wrote in an open letter to Macron published last week.
“UBER OF FRENCH POLITICS”
Macron, who sleeps little and can often be seen online on the Telegram messaging service at 2 a.m., says his ambition is to bridge the left-right divide that has long dominated French politics.
Yet when he quit the government last August to build up the political movement he had founded only four months earlier, many saw him as a shooting star - at best.
“He won’t last five minutes with the bad guys in the campaign,” one of his predecessors at the finance and economy ministry scoffed privately last November.
But with the ruling Socialists in disarray and the center-right’s candidate, Francois Fillon, mired in a financial scandal, Macron emerged in pole position.
“He did to French politics what Uber did to taxis,” said Laurent Bigorgne, a friend of Macron’s and head of the Institut Montaigne think-tank.
“It was clear from the start that Uber would make taxis obsolete; only the taxis didn’t see it coming.”
Macron has continued to confound opponents and pundits by building up huge grassroots support and winning endorsements from defecting center-left and center-right politicians.
Far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, whom he defeated after an acrimonious runoff campaign, scornfully dubbed him a “smirking banker” in a rancorous TV debate, painting him as the candidate of “globalization and Uberisation gone wild”.
In a final put-down, when Le Pen attempted to interrupt his summing-up, Macron told her: “You stay on TV. I want to be president of the country.”
| Government Job change - Election | May 2017 | ['(The New York Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
Police charge 47 out of the 55 arrested last month during a mass raid with "subversion". Those charged include Professor Benny Tai, former legislator James To, activist and district councilor Lester Shum and League of Social Democrats politicians and activists Leung Kwok-hung and Jimmy Sham, who was particularly defiant in court. | Police in Hong Kong have charged 47 activists with "subversion", in the largest use yet of the territory's controversial security law.
The 47, among a group of 55 arrested in dawn raids last month, were told to report to police stations for detention ahead of court appearances on Monday.
Beijing enforced the law criminalising "subversive" acts last year, saying it was needed to bring stability.
Critics say it has silenced dissent and stripped Hong Kong of its autonomy.
The law came into force after a series of mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, some of which turned violent.
On Monday, hundreds of protesters gathered to show support at the West Kowloon Magistrates Court in Hong Kong where the 47 pro-democracy activists were due to face charges of conspiracy to commit subversion.
As supporters queued for seats at the hearing, many dressed in black - the colour protesters have been wearing while demonstrating - some chanted slogans including "liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" and "fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong".
Police warned those gathered to split into groups of no more than four or face fines.
Those ordered to report to the police - 39 men and eight women, aged between 23 and 64 - are pro-democracy activists who had helped run an unofficial "primary" election last June to pick opposition candidates for 2020 legislative elections, which were then postponed.
Chinese and Hong Kong officials say the primary was an attempt to overthrow the government.
On Sunday, Hong Kong police said in a statement: "Police this afternoon laid a charge against 47 persons... with one count of 'conspiracy to commit subversion'."
They are some of the territory's best-known democracy campaigners.
They include veterans such as Benny Tai and Leung Kwok-hung, and younger protesters like Gwyneth Ho, Sam Cheung and Lester Shum.
Jimmy Sham, 33, a key organiser of the 2019 protests, remained defiant as he went to the police station.
"Democracy is never a gift from heaven. It must be earned by many with strong will," he said. "We will remain strong and fight for what we want."
Before turning herself in, Gwyneth Ho posted: "I hope everyone can find their road to peace of mind and then press forward with indomitable will."
Sam Cheung said: "I hope everyone won't give up on Hong Kong... fight on."
The charges carry a maximum term of life imprisonment. Bail is unlikely. Benny Tai said his chances were "not too great".
About 100 people have so far been arrested under the security law, including prominent China critic and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was denied bail and is in detention awaiting trial..
No trials have yet begun in full. The first is expected to be that of Tong Ying-kit, who is accused of riding a motorcycle into police officers last July. He appeared in court in November to enter a not guilty plea. He is expected to be tried by three judges rather than a jury.
Amnesty International described the January raids that detained the 55 as "the starkest demonstration yet of how the national security law has been weaponised to punish anyone who dares to challenge the establishment".
A former British colony, Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 but under the "one country, two systems" principle.
It was supposed to guarantee certain freedoms for the territory - including freedom of assembly and speech, an independent judiciary and some democratic rights - which mainland China does not have.
But the National Security Law has reduced Hong Kong's autonomy and made it easier to punish demonstrators.
The legislation introduced new crimes, including penalties of up to life in prison. Anyone found to have conspired with foreigners to provoke "hatred" of the Chinese government or the Hong Kong authorities may have committed a crime. Trials can be held in secret and without a jury, and cases can be taken over by the mainland authorities. Mainland security personnel can legally operate in Hong Kong with impunity.
After the law was introduced, a number of pro-democracy groups disbanded out of fears for their safety.
Responding on Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the latest charges demonstrated how the law was being used to "eliminate political dissent". "The National Security Law violates the Joint Declaration, and its use in this way contradicts the promises made by the Chinese government, and can only further undermine confidence that it will keep its word on such sensitive issues," he added in a statement.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
A senior Vatican bank cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, and two others are arrested on suspicion of smuggling 20 million into Italy from Switzerland. | A senior Italian cleric has been arrested in connection with an inquiry into a Vatican bank scandal over allegations of corruption and fraud.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano works in the Vatican's financial administration. A secret service agent and a financial broker have also been arrested.
They are suspected of trying to move 20m euros ($26m; 17m) illegally.
Pope Francis ordered an unprecedented internal investigation into the bank's affairs in the wake of recent scandals.
Monsignor Scarano, 61, worked for years as a senior accountant for a Vatican department known as Apsa (the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See).
He was suspended from that position "about a month ago, after his superiors learnt about an investigation into his activities", Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.
Monsignor Scarano has been under investigation by Italian police for a series of suspicious transactions involving the recycling through the Vatican bank of a series of cheques described as church donations. Nunzio Scarano is a priest from Salerno in southern Italy, who is called "monsignor" in recognition of his seniority at the Vatican.
He was arrested along with two other men suspected of plotting to move 20m euros illegally from Switzerland to Italy. One, Giovanni Maria Zito, is described as an Italian secret service agent, and the other, Giovanni Carenzio, a financial broker. Earlier this month, the Pope named a trusted cleric to oversee the management of the bank, which has been beset by allegations of money laundering.
Officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), the bank is one of the world's most secretive. It has 114 employees and 5.4bn euros of assets.
Pope Francis has given the commission carte blanche, bypassing normal secrecy rules, to try to get to the bottom of scandals which have plagued the bank for decades.
Traditionally, the Vatican Bank has refused to co-operate with Italian authorities investigating financial crime on the grounds of the sovereign independence of the Vatican city state, the BBC's David Willey reports from Rome. But Pope Francis has shown that he is now determined to get to the bottom of long-standing allegations of corruption and money laundering involving the bank, our correspondent adds.
The Institute for the Works of Religion was a major shareholder in the Banco Ambrosiano, a big Italian bank which collapsed in 1982 with losses of more than $3bn.
Its chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London - in a murder disguised as a suicide. Mr Calvi had close relations with the Vatican. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
The autonomous Aceh province in Indonesia is to ban women from wearing tight trousers under a new law, while a law authorising the stoning to death of adulterers and the whipping of homosexuals will be reviewed. | Last updated at 12:29 PM. Saturday 31 October 2009
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Aceh, Shariah law
Nurdin Hasan
Muslims offer Idul Fitri prayers at the Baiturrahman mosque in Banda Aceh. (Photo: Fanny Octavianus, Antara)
Banda Aceh. Beginning January, Muslim women in West Aceh district will
have to make sure their pants are not too tight lest they run afoul of
the province’s feared religious police. If caught violating
the new regulation, “their pants will be cut up on the spot and
replaced with a skirt provided free of charge by the government of West
Aceh,” district head Ramli Mansur said. In fact, he said the
government had already ordered 7,000 skirts of various sizes from
Jakarta to be distributed by Shariah police to women caught with
tight-fitting pants during raids. Ramli said the new
regulations, which will prevent Muslim women from wearing tight,
curve-revealing clothing and Muslim men from wearing shorts, was issued
at the behest of local clerics who asked the government to implement
Shariah law as thoroughly as possible in the district. “The
law does not prohibit women from wearing pants. What’s prohibited is
wearing tight-fitting pants or jeans,” he said. “If, for instance, they
have to wear pants, they have to cover their ankles and wear a loose
skirt over it.” Clothing vendors have also been urged not to sell tight-fitting pants to Muslim women. Ramli, a former guerilla fighter for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), said that the rules would only apply to Muslims. “We still honor the rights of non-Muslims, so they don’t need to fear,” he said. According to Ramli, the number of Muslim women who already dressed according to the regulation was about 20 percent. Over
the next two months, the West Aceh authorities will conduct
awareness-raising campaigns for the regulations. One such method, Ramli
said, would be to encourage government employees to refuse to serve
Muslims wearing “un-Islamic” clothing. “Government staff who
disobey the regulations themselves will be dismissed from their posts,”
he said, although he said that staff members would be given warnings
first. Ramli acknowledged that the regulation would stir public controversy. “If people disagree, don’t be mad at me — be angry at God, because what I impose is religious law,” he said. “In
the afterlife, I will be asked by God, what have I done for the people
of West Aceh during my term in office. What I am doing now is enforcing
thorough Islamic law.” Acehnese women’s rights activist,
Syarifah Rahmatillah, said in Banda Aceh that West Aceh’s decision
seemed hasty and without a legal foundation. “In the qanun on
Shariah, there is mention of Muslims having to dress according to
Islamic law, but there is no detail as to what constitutes Islamic
clothing — so we cannot just make up the rules,” said the executive
director of the Women’s Partnership forum (MISPI) in Aceh. Syarifah
said there were a number of other things the government could do
regarding the application of Shariah in Aceh, including public welfare,
sanitation and corruption. “Other regions in Indonesia want to
see Shariah succeed in Aceh, but since it was put in effect in 2001,
all we seem to be dealing with is women’s clothing,” she said. “There is a tendency to view Islamic law from just a very narrow perspective. “Just
look at the bathrooms at government offices in Aceh. Do they reflect
Islamic values, since many of them are dirty and the water sometimes
doesn’t run? And that’s just one example,” she added. Syarifah
suggested that before imposing the regulation, West Aceh take measures
to support the implementation of Shariah that does not merely focus on
the punitive aspects. “In his three years in office in West
Aceh, what has Ramli accomplished that he is now reduced to handling
such trifling issues,” she said. “Many of his people still
live below the poverty line; he should give his priority to people’s
welfare because that is an important issue endorsed by Islam.”
10:39 PM 29/10/2009
11:14 PM 16/09/2009
10:54 PM 16/09/2009
10:58 PM 15/09/2009
10:27 PM 18/09/2009
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I think women look better in skirts anyway ;)
what ? did we just go back to ancient age? Islam should be viewed just as one of Indonesia's building principles. We have many building principles here. With our prime principle, Pancasila.
to all Acehness women,there are some place in Indonesia where you can wear anykind of pants.so,whoever make this rules,they must be thingking about having sex with these girls.
I think the only place that i don't want to go in indonesia would be aceh.with all the rules that doesn't make any sense to me.
Ibu Syarifah should be the district head. At least somebody who understands what the people from Aceh need to improve their life.
in short, the idea is the same as banning clothes that shows belly button. But, men cant wear shorts are just too far, i suppose it is okay when doing sport activity (?). the idea of shariah police are already scary enough. | Government Policy Changes | October 2009 | ['(Jakarta Globe)', '(Straits Times)', '(Reuters South Africa)'] |
At least eight people die in an attack on an army base in South Sudan. | At least eight people have been killed when mutinous troops attacked an army base in south Sudan following this month's elections, officials say.
A southern army spokesman said the mutineers backed a former general who ran and lost in a Jonglei state poll. George Athor denied leading the troops but told the BBC he sympathised with them and said the polls were rigged. The ex-rebel SPLM party won a landslide victory to retain power in the south, amid widespread claims of intimidation. The 11-15 April elections were the first in 24 years - and the first since the end of a two-decade conflict between north and south. The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says there have been intense negotiations for several days to avoid just this sort of problem in Southern Sudan. Several senior southern soldiers contested the elections as independents and all but one lost. Mr Athor ran for governor of Jonglei state as an independent when he did not get the SPLM nomination. 'Weapons stolen'
The Delab Hill barracks, 12km (7 miles) south of Malakal, were attacked. The army spokesman said weapons were stolen.
"We managed to push back the attackers, but there are seven dead and nine injured among the troops," southern army spokesman Malaak Ayuen Ajok told AFP. "Several attackers also lost their lives." Malakal was the scene of fierce fighting between rival militias in 2009, and in 2006, which left at least 150 people dead. Our correspondent says it is too early to tell if this is an isolated incident, or the start of a much bigger problem. He says the voting process itself was largely peaceful, but tensions rose, particularly in the south, as accusations of electoral fraud began to multiply. SPLM leader Salvia Kiir won 93% of the vote in the southern presidential election. A referendum is due in January 2011 in the semi-autonomous south on whether the region should secede from the mainly Muslim and Arab-dominated north. | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A number of blasts hit Shi'a mosques in Baghdad, Iraq, leaving at least 27 dead and 60 wounded on day before the Shi'a holy festival of Ashura. | BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Explosions ripped through Iraq on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead and five dozen wounded as Shiite Muslims observed Ashura, authorities said.
Shiite mosques were the targets of three suicide bombings and a rocket strike, officials said, while another bomber targeted Iraqi security forces at a checkpoint.
Ashura is the commemoration of the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Hussein, who was killed and entombed more than 1,300 years ago in Karbala. Four civilians were killed in the crossfire of U.S. troops battling insurgents south of Baghdad. Seventeen civilians on their way to a holy site in Karbala were wounded. Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said the attacks were intended "to try to draw a rift, to dig a wedge between the Shia and Sunnis in this country."
He said the insurgents were "trying to portray themselves as defending Islam against the infidels and the foreigners."
"They are blowing up pilgrims; they are blowing up people who are attending the mosque to do their Friday prayers."
The bloodiest attack killed at least 15 and wounded more than 24 during an Ashura holiday procession to al-Khadimain mosque, according to Iraqi police and U.S. military sources. The bomber walked up to the group and detonated a suicide vest, a witness said. In Iskandariya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad in Babil province, seven people inside a mosque for evening prayers were killed, and 10 people were wounded when a car bomb exploded just outside the building, Iraqi police said. In the Iraqi capital's western sector, at least two suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque, wounding eight people, U.S. military officials said. Iraqi guards identified the two suicide attackers and shot and killed one of the men, whose bomb exploded. The other man was blown up as he fled, the military said.
Iraqi police said two people were killed, but it was unclear if the bombers were included in the death toll. In northwestern Baghdad, a rocket fired in the direction of the Husseiniyat al Thaqilan mosque killed one person and wounded three at a coffee shop, police said.
Two Iraqi security officers were killed and 19 people were wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad.
A car bomb attack also occurred at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Iskandariya, the U.S. military said. Three casualties -- no details were given -- were reported. Fearing this kind of violence, authorities closed Iraq's borders during the Shiite holy days. Attacks last year during Ashura killed more than 180 people in Baghdad and Karbalal. | Armed Conflict | February 2005 | ['(BBC News)', '(CNN)'] |
South Korean President Moon Jae-in urges incoming U.S. President Joe Biden to learn from the policies, both positive and negative, of Donald Trump towards North Korea and says that the North has a "clear willingness to denuclearize if Washington and Pyongyang could find mutually agreeable steps to decrease the nuclear threat and ensure the North's security". | SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president on Monday urged the incoming Biden administration to build upon the achievements and learn from the failures of President Donald Trump’s diplomatic engagement with North Korea.
A dovish liberal and the son of northern war refugees, Moon Jae-in had lobbied hard to help set up Trump’s three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but their diplomacy stalemated over disagreements over easing crippling U.S.-led sanctions for the North’s disarmament.
Biden has accused Trump of chasing the spectacle of summits rather than meaningful curbs on the North’s nuclear capabilities. North Korea has a history of staging weapons tests and other provocations to test new U.S. presidents, and Kim vowed to strengthen his nuclear weapons program in recent political speeches that were seen as aimed at pressuring the incoming Biden administration. The South Korean leader has been desperate to keep alive a positive atmosphere for dialogue in the face of Kim’s vows to further expand a nuclear and missile program that threatens Asian U.S. allies and the American homeland. And while Moon acknowledged that Biden is likely to try a different approach than Trump, he stressed that Biden could still learn from Trump’s successes and failures in dealing with North Korea. During a mostly virtual news conference in Seoul, Moon claimed that Kim still had a “clear willingness” to denuclearize if Washington and Pyongyang could find mutually agreeable steps to decrease the nuclear threat and ensure the North’s security. Most experts see Kim’s recent comments as further evidence he will maintain his weapons program to ensure his regime’s survival.
When asked about the North’s efforts to increase its ballistic capacity to strike targets throughout South Korea, including U.S. bases there, Moon said the South could sufficiently cope with such threats with its missile defense systems and other military assets.
“The start of the Biden administration provides a new opportunity to start over talks between North Korea and the United States and also between South and North Korea,” which have stalled amid the stalemate in nuclear negotiations, Moon said. “The North Korean efforts to expand its nuclear program and acquire more weapons systems are all because we have not succeeded yet in reaching an agreement over denuclearization and establishing peace. These are problems that could all be solved by success in dialogue,” he said. During an eight-day congress of North Korea’s Workers’ Party that ended last week, Kim described the United States as his country’s “foremost principal enemy.” He didn’t entirely rule out talks, but he said the fate of bilateral relations would depend on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy toward Pyongyang.
The erosion in inter-Korean relations have been a major setback to Moon, who met Kim three times in 2018 while expressing ambitions to reboot inter-Korean economic engagement when possible, voicing optimism that international sanctions could end and allow such projects. Moon said the South would continue to seek ways to improve relations with the North within the boundary of sanctions, such as pursuing humanitarian assistance and joint anti-virus efforts against COVID-19. But Kim during the ruling party congress already described such offers as “inessential” while slamming South Korea for its own efforts to strengthen defense capabilities and continuing annual military exercises with the United States, which were downsized under Trump to create space for diplomacy. Experts say Pyongyang is pressuring Seoul to break away from Washington by halting their joint drills and to defy sanctions and restart inter-Korean economic cooperation. During Trump’s first summit with Kim in June 2018, they pledged to improve bilateral relations and issued vague aspirational vows for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur. But the negotiations faltered after their second meeting in February 2019 when the Americans rejected the North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for the dismantling of an aging nuclear reactor, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities. Moon said that Trump and Kim’s agreement in their first meeting was still relevant and the Biden administration should take lessons from the failures of their second meeting,
“The declaration in Singapore under the Trump administration was a very important declaration for denuclearization and building peace in the Korean Peninsula,” Moon said. “Of course, it’s very lamentable that the (content of the) declaration remains theoretical because of the failures to back it up with concrete agreements,” he said. “But if we start over from the Singapore declaration and revive talks over concrete steps, it’s possible that diplomacy between North Korea and the United States and between South and North Korea would gain pace again.” Moon said he hopes to meet Biden as soon as possible and that South Korean officials were actively communicating with their American counterparts to ensure that the North Korea issue remains a priority for the new U.S. government, which inherits a horrendous coronavirus outbreak and domestic political turmoil. | Famous Person - Give a speech | January 2021 | ['(AP)'] |
Another series of bomb attacks in southern Iranian cities of Dezful and Abadan wounds at least six people. Eight people died when bombs exploded in the provincial capital Ahwaz a month ago. The Iranian government again accuses Britain of being behind the attacks, although a small Arab separatist group claimed responsibility on its website. | In both cities, the devices were planted in the governor's offices, the official Irna news agency says. No serious injuries were reported.
The attacks are the latest in a series to hit the southern Khuzestan province, at the heart of Iran's oil industry.
Eight people died when bombs exploded by a government office and bank in the provincial capital Ahwaz a month ago.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest explosions, according to reports.
"Hopefully, those behind the bombings will soon be found and punished," Dezful Governor-general Hamid Ghanaati told Irna.
'UK involvement'
The oil-rich Khuzestan province, which is home to about two million ethnic Arabs, has been rocked by a wave of unrest in recent months.
Iran accused British army forces across the border in southern Iraq of co-operating with bombers who carried out January's attacks in Ahwaz. The UK Foreign Office rejected the allegation.
A little-known ethnic Arab separatist group said in a website statement that it was responsible for the blasts, in which eight people were killed and 46 hurt.
The Iranian government also blamed attacks in June and October last year on the UK, but British officials again denied involvement. In November, protests erupted in Ahwaz after ethnic Arabs accused the authorities of discrimination. | Armed Conflict | February 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
France seeks United States and Russian support for a Security Council resolution to impose a new truce that will allow aid into Aleppo, which has experienced two weeks of heavy Syrian and Russian bombing of rebel-held areas. | PARIS/MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - France is to launch a new push for United Nations backing for a ceasefire in Syria that would allow aid into the city of Aleppo after some of the heaviest bombing of the war.
As diplomatic efforts resumed, the Syrian military said army commanders had decided to scale back air strikes and shelling in Aleppo to alleviate the humanitarian situation there.
It said civilians in rebel-held eastern Aleppo were being used as human shields and a reduced level of bombardment would allow people to leave for safer areas.
Intense Syrian and Russian bombing of rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo followed the collapse last month of a ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington, which backs some rebel groups. The United States broke off talks with Russia on Monday, accusing it of breaking its commitments.
France said Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault would travel to Russia and the United States on Thursday and Friday to try to persuade both sides to adopt a Security Council resolution to impose a new truce.
Ayrault has accused Syria, backed by Russia and Iran, of war crimes as part of an “all-out war” on its people. Damascus rejects the accusation, saying it is only fighting terrorists.
Speaking to French television channel LCI, Ayrault said: “If you’re complicit in war crimes then one day you will be held accountable, including legally. I think with the Russians you have to speak the truth and not try to please them.”
The former prime minister said he would also ask Washington to be “more efficient and engaged” and not allow a laissez-faire attitude to take over just because presidential elections were approaching in November.
“ALL THAT’S LEFT”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed Syria by telephone on Wednesday, but no details emerged. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Lavrov would meet Ayrault in Moscow on Thursday.
The two-week-old Russian-backed Syrian government offensive aims to capture eastern Aleppo and crush the last urban stronghold of a revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011.
Related Coverage
Half of the estimated 275,000 Syrians besieged in the rebel-held eastern part of the city want to leave, the United Nations said, with food supplies running short and people driven to burning plastic for fuel.
Mothers were reportedly tying ropes around their stomachs or drinking large amounts of water to reduce the feeling of hunger and prioritise food for their children, the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Geneva.
The Security Council began negotiations on Monday on a French and Spanish draft resolution that urges Russia and the United States to ensure an immediate truce in Aleppo and to “put an end to all military flights over the city”.
“This trip is in the framework of efforts by France to get a resolution adopted at the U.N. Security Council opening the path for a ceasefire in Aleppo and aid access for populations that need it so much,” the French foreign ministry said.
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Monday that Moscow was engaged in discussions on the draft text even if he was not especially enthusiastic about its language.
The draft text, seen by Reuters, urges Russia and the United States “to ensure the immediate implementation of the cessation of hostilities, starting with Aleppo, and, to that effect, to put an end to all military flights over the city.”
The draft also asks U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to propose options for U.N.-supervised monitoring of a truce and threatens to “take further measures” in the event of non-compliance by “any party to the Syrian domestic conflict”.
A senior Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “In the experts’ negotiations they (Russia) have opposed every single dot and comma of the resolution.”
French officials have said that if Moscow were to oppose the resolution they would be ready to put it forward anyway to force Moscow into a veto, underscoring its complicity with the Syrian government.
“It’s all that’s left,” said a French diplomatic source. “We’re not fools. The Russians aren’t going to begin respecting human rights from one day to the next, but it’s all we have to put pressure on them.”
Ayrault said in the television interview that the situation was unacceptable. “It is deeply shocking and shameful,” he said. “France will not close its eyes and do nothing. It’s cynicism that fools nobody.”
The collapse of the latest Syria ceasefire has heightened the possibility that Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar - backers of Syrian rebels - might arm the opposition with shoulder-fired missiles to defend themselves against Syrian and Russian warplanes, U.S. officials have said.
Qatar’s foreign minister said outside powers need to act fast to protect Syrians because foreign military backing for the government is “changing the equation” of the war.
A United Nations expert said that analysis of satellite imagery of a deadly and disputed attack on an aid convoy in Syria last month showed that it was an air strike.
Some 20 people were killed in the attack on the U.N. and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy at Urem Al-Kubra near Aleppo.
The United States blamed two Russian warplanes which it said were in the skies above the area at the time of the incident. Moscow denies this and says the convoy caught fire.
“With our analysis we determined it was an air strike and I think multiple other sources have said that as well,” Lars Bromley, research adviser at UNOSAT, told a news briefing.
In northern Syria, rebels were expecting stiff resistance from Islamic State in their attempt to capture a village that is of great symbolic significance to the jihadists, a rebel commander said.
With Turkish backing, rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner have advanced to within a few kilometres (miles) of Dabiq, the site of an apocalyptic prophecy central to the militant group’s ideology.
Writing by Giles Elgood and Philippa Fletcher, editing by Peter Millership
| Sign Agreement | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The central northern United States experiences record snow fall. | A record-shattering May snowstorm swept across the north-central U.S. on Thursday, causing travel headaches, canceling schools, and knocking out power to tens of thousands of winter-weary residents.
The National Weather Service reported that the storm will likely set the all-time record for biggest May snowfall in three states: Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. As much as 18 inches fell on parts of southeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin.
Omaha, Mason City, Iowa, and Rochester, Minn., were all clobbered by their biggest May snowfall on record, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. In many cases in the major cities in the Plains, weather records date back to the 1800s.
Snowflakes were reported Thursday afternoon as far south as Tulsa, the latest that snow has ever been seen there, according to the weather service. The average high temperature on May 2 in Tulsa is 76 degrees.
Earlier in the week, the storm dumped 28.2 inches of snow near Buckhorn Mountain, Colo., the top snow total from the storm, the weather service reported..
Students in more than 30 school districts enjoyed a rare snow day in May, while utility crews in Minnesota went to work early Thursday to restore power to more than 29,000 Xcel Energy customers.
Bobbi Howe's daughters, 10-year-old Emma and 7-year-old Averie, stayed home in the southeastern Minnesota city of Owatonna, where 15.5 inches of snow made it hard for the family to open their front door. "It's not cool," Emma said, adding that she was tired of winter and would rather be at school. "I don't like the snow right now."
Damage totals are being assessed after the roof on a former auto dealership in West Concord, Minn., collapsed Thursday morning, KARE-TV reported. At least half of the building's roof caved in, and roof panels and walls sagged under the weight of what the weather service said was more than a foot of heavy, wet spring snow.
In Denver, the city tied a record low temperature of 19 degrees early Thursday, just days after the city basked in an afternoon high temperature of 80 degrees.
On Wednesday, Denver native Chris Lujan said he has never worn a top coat, scarf and hat on May 1st before. Greg Notz just put his hood up and wasn't fazed. "I expect this. Yup. It's better than living where it's warm and dry and nice all the time. At least we get a variety," he said.
In Dodge City, Kan., the temperature Thursday morning fell to 32 degrees after recording a high of 91 degrees on Tuesday. And in southeastern Wyoming, Thursday morning wind chills approached 10 degrees below zero.
The Weather Channel named it Winter Storm Achilles as part of its new winter-storm naming system. The winter has been so full of storms that the Weather Channel has had to start a second alphabetical list of Latin and Greek names, as the first list ended with Zeus, according to Weather Channel spokeswoman Maureen Marshall.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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Greek voters go to the polls for the Greek legislative election, 2007. The ruling New Democracy Party wins the election, with 98% of the votes counted, gaining 41.9% of the vote and 152 seats over 38.1% and 102 seats for the socialist PASOK party. The Communist Party wins 8.1% and 22 seats, over 5% and 14 seats for Radical Left Coalition and 3.7% and 10 seats for Popular Orthodox Rally , a Far–Right party. | Greek Prime minister Costas Karamanlis and his wife Natasa celebrate after winning in Greece's general elections late 16 September 2007. Greek President Karolos Papoulias has asked Karamanlis to form a new government after the ruling conservative New Democracy party won weekend elections with a thin majority.
Sep 15, 2007
ATHENS (AFP) — Greek President Karolos Papoulias asked Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to form a new government Monday after the ruling conservative New Democracy party won weekend elections with a thin majority.
New Democracy (ND) and the main opposition socialist Pasok both lost support to the left and extreme right in Sunday's vote, following widespread public anger over the handling of deadly forest fires last month.
"We are fully aware of our responsibility and, we must go forward quickly and with determination to make the country progress," Karamanlis said after his meeting with Papoulias.
Under the constitution he has three days to form a government, which he has said would be smaller and contain "new blood."
Karamanlis looks certain to reshuffle the previous cabinet that had become increasingly unpopular in recent months.
Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis are expected to retain their posts.
But Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras, who is responsible for the fire department, was discredited after last month's infernos killed more than 60 people around the country.
Education Minister Marietta Yiannakou also looks out, failing to secure her place in the wake of a controversy over a history schoolbook deemed too soft on Greece's traditional rivals Turkey.
Education will be a hotspot in the coming months with Karamanlis intent on promoting a university reform that sparked mass protests earlier in the year.
Earlier Monday, parliament speaker Anna Psarouda-Benaki gave the president the official make-up of the new 300-seat parliament, in which ND will have 152 seats, down from 165 in the last assembly.
Pasok has 102 seats, down from 117, under a new proportional representation system being used for the first time.
The communist KKE party made major gains, winning 10 more seats for a total of 22, the radical Left Coalition got 14 seats, up eight, while the new extreme-right Laos party entered parliament with 10 seats.
Despite his reduced majority, Karamanlis said in a televised address to the nation: "You have given a clear mandate to New Democracy to continue the changes and reforms which the country needs."
He added: "I will do my utmost to honour your confidence as prime minister of all Greeks."
"I asked you to vote for a stable government. This government exists today," Karamanlis said.
The prime minister, who turned 51 on Friday, has pledged to push forward with economic reforms, including overhauling the tottering pensions system.
The measures have proved unpopular with unions and leftist groups, causing mass demonstrations in recent months and promising more trouble for the new government.
Socialist leader George Papandreou, a former foreign minister, conceded a second straight defeat to his conservative rival as ND supporters danced in the streets of Athens and Salonika, Greece's second city, waving party flags, sounding car horns and setting off fireworks.
"Pasok gave a great battle but it could not win. We all had responsibilities in this battle, myself above all," he said.
Papandreou, 55, said he would put his leadership to a Pasok vote "to restore the party's trust" in him.
Former culture minister Evangelos Venizelos and former European commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou are expected to stand as candidates to replace him.
Karamanlis' party won a second term despite concerns that his government's credibility had been damaged by its handling of forest fires which killed more than 60 people.
He called early elections in August, six months before the end of his government's mandate.
Opposition party officials emphasized that the ND victory was a far cry from its triumph in 2004.
"This is a Pyrrhic victory for Karamanlis, whose government will be much weaker," said former finance minister Yiannos Papantoniou.
But Karamanlis has stressed that he intends to push his agenda through even with a small majority.
"It's not a matter of numbers, it's a matter of political will ... which I can guarantee," he said in his last interview ahead of the elections on Antenna TV.
Fears of a low turnout because of voter alienation from the fires were not realised. Around 74 percent of registered voters cast ballots compared to 76 percent in the last election. | Government Job change - Election | September 2007 | ['(LAOS)', '(ERT)', '[permanent dead link]', '(AFP)'] |
The Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert states that Israel has agreed to swap five prisoners with Hezbollah to provide the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006. | JERUSALEM (AFP) Israel said on Sunday it will release five Lebanese prisoners on Wednesday, including Samir Kantar jailed for a triple murder, in exchange for two soldiers captured by Hezbollah two years ago.
The Jewish state was also set to transfer to Lebanon the bodies of almost 200 fighters of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and release a number of Palestinians under the prisoner swap.
"Samir Kantar and four other Lebanese prisoners -- Khaled Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohammed Sarur and Hussein Suleiman -- will be taken on Wednesday from their centres of detention to a place to be decided by the Israeli army," Prison Service spokesman Ian Domnitz told AFP.
The prisons authority said the releases would begin on Wednesday, without giving details, in line with the government's decision of June 29 to go ahead with an exchange of prisoners with Hezbollah.
Under the deal, Hezbollah will hand Israel two reserve soldiers it captured in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006, sparking a devastating 34-day war that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
Israel believes that the two servicemen, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, are dead.
But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said earlier this month that "so far Hezbollah has not handed over any information about the fate of the two soldiers. Anything said in Israel is mere speculation."
As part of the UN-mediated deal, Hezbollah has also handed Israel a report it had drafted on the fate of Israeli airman Ron Arad who went missing in Lebanon in 1986, and whose fate remains unknown.
As part of the arrangement, Arad's family has received previously unseen photos and extracts of a diary he kept in captivity, Israel's Channel 10 television said.
One of the pictures, believed to date from 1987, shows Arad in pyjamas. His left arm appears to be wounded. According to the Channel 10 report, Hezbollah also transferred parts of Arad's diary which runs until 1987.
In its report, Hezbollah said Arab had died in captivity, but Israel remained sceptical over the validity of its findings.
"The report ... does not provide a clear answer over the fate of Ron Arad and does not solve the issue. We are committed to continue working to find out his fate," Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quoted saying by his ministry.
"Despite that, as defence minister, a former chief of staff and commander, I have a moral duty to continue promoting the return home of Eldad Regev and Udi (Ehud) Goldwasser," Barak said.
Israeli officials had made it clear the deal would would go ahead only after Israel received intelligence on the air force navigator missing since a mission over south Lebanon during the country's civil war.
Israel wanted the Shiite group to explain how it reached that conclusion and why it could not locate Arad's remains.
But although the deal still requires the final approval of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government on Tuesday, it is expected to be carried out as planned.
Hezbollah chief Nasrallah said early July that if the deal goes through, "Lebanon will be the first Arab state to close the file of its prisoners. There will be no more Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails."
A controversial part of the agreement is the release of Lebanese prisoner Samir Kantar, a Palestine Liberation Front militant serving five life sentences for killing Danny Haran, his daughter Einat, as well as an Israeli policeman in a 1979 raid on northern Israel.
The murders in the coastal town of Nahariya shocked Israel to the core by its brutality as Kantar and co-militants shot dead Danny, 28, and battered Einat's skull with rifle butts.
Kantar, who has earned the title of longest-serving Arab prisoner in Israel, was only 17 when he and three other members of the Palestinian organisation launched the deadly raid. | Armed Conflict | July 2008 | ['(AFP via Google News)'] |
The government of the Maldives, including President Mohamed Nasheed, holds the world's first underwater Cabinet meeting, to highlight the threat of global warming. | President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet met underwater
The government of the Maldives has held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat of global warming to the low-lying Indian Ocean nation.
President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. Ministers spent half an hour on the sea bed, communicating with white boards and hand signals. The president said the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December cannot be allowed to fail. At a later press conference while still in the water, President Nasheed was asked what would happen if the summit fails. "We are going to die," he replied. The Maldives stand an average of 2.1 metres (7ft) above sea level, and the government says they face being wiped out if oceans rise. "We're now actually trying to send our message, let the world know what is happening, and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change is not checked," President Nasheed said. "If the Maldives cannot be saved today we do not feel that there is much of a chance for the rest of the world," he added. Military minders
Three of the 14 cabinet ministers missed the underwater meeting, about 20 minutes by boat from the capital, Male, because two were not given medical permission and another was abroad, officials said. President Nasheed and other cabinet members taking part had been practising their slow breathing to get into the right mental frame for the meeting, a government source said.
About 5m underwater, in a blue-green lagoon on a small island used for military training, they were observed by a clutch of snorkelling journalists. Each minister was accompanied by a diving instructor and a military minder. While underwater, they signed a document ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, calling on all nations to cut their carbon emissions. World leaders at the summit aim to create a new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2009 | ['(Miadhu News)', '(BBC)'] |
Debenhams, one of the largest department stores in the United Kingdom which employs 25,000 people, collapses into administration. | Founder of Sports Direct had ploughed at least £150m into department store group Last modified on Mon 3 Feb 2020 17.49 GMT
Debenhams has been taken over by its lenders after the department store group fell into administration, wiping out shareholders including Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct and paving the way for store closures that will put thousands of jobs at risk.
The retailer’s 165 UK outlets will continue to trade under the pre-pack administration deal that affects its listed holding company only. Cost-cutting plans under consideration by the retailer’s new owners mean about 50 stores are under threat, although no sites are expected to shut until after Christmas.
Debenhams entered administration on Tuesday morning and the group’s two principal operating companies were sold immediately to a new company owned by its lenders.
Terry Duddy, the chairman of Debenhams, which employs 25,000 people in the UK, said it was “disappointing” shareholders in the business had been wiped out. The investors included Sports Direct group, of which Ashley is chief executive and founder. The group has taken a hit of at least £150m on its near 30% stake in Debenhams.
“This transaction will allow Debenhams to continue trading as normal, access the funding we need and proceed with executing our turnaround plans,” Duddy said.
“We remain focused on protecting as many stores and jobs as possible, consistent with establishing a sustainable store portfolio ...
“In the meantime, our customers, colleagues, pension holders, suppliers and landlords can be reassured that Debenhams will now be able to move forward on a stable footing. I would like to thank them all for their recent and continuing support.”
The pre-pack administration – under which a sale is lined up in advance – paves the way for the lenders to pump another £100m of urgently needed funds into the business.
But the banks and hedge funds that now own the group also want to close about 50 stores via an insolvency process known as a company voluntary arrangement. Details of the plan, which landlords must approve, are expected to be announced within weeks. Debenhams has struggled to adapt to the switch to online shopping and has spent millions of pounds on servicing its heavy debts. The company’s large stores are also on long leases, making it difficult to cut rents or move to better locations.
HMV, Maplin, Poundworld and LK Bennett are among the high street names that have called in administrators since 2018.
Tens of thousands of retail jobs have been lost since last year and even retail stalwarts such as Marks & Spencer have announced wide-ranging store closure plans.
Richard Lim, the chief executive of industry analysts Retail Economics, said Debenhams was the latest victim of a rapidly changing industry. “We should not understate the significance of this collapse, given the vast property portfolio, number of jobs impacted and the reverberations felt across many high streets,” he said.
“Debenhams has fallen victim to crippling levels of debt, which has paralysed its ability to pivot towards a more digital and experience-led retail model.
“Put simply, the business has been outmanoeuvred by more nimble competitors, failed to embrace change and was left with a tiring proposition. The industry is evolving fast and it paid the ultimate price.”
Sports Direct lost out on Debenhams after the company and its lenders rejected a last-ditch offer of a £200m cash injection, mainly because it was conditional on Ashley becoming chief executive of the department store chain.
The proposal made in the early hours of Tuesday morning came after an offer of £150m on Monday was rejected for the same reason. Sports Direct said on Tuesday it had ditched plans for a potential £61m takeover bid for Debenhams.
In a stock market statement issued on Tuesday, Sports Direct called for the administration of Debenhams to be reversed, claiming it had been stalled and misled during rescue talks.
“This is nothing short of a national scandal and one that could so easily have been avoided if Debenhams had chosen to engage with its largest shareholders constructively,” the company said.
The note flagged up the threat of potential legal action, saying it would “not stop in its quest to get to the bottom of this appallingly managed process”.
Ashley said: “As normal, politicians and regulators fiddled while Rome burned. These politicians and regulators have proven to be as effective as a chocolate teapot.
“I will go to the ends of the earth to save as many Debenhams stores and jobs as I can, similar to the promise I made with regards to House of Fraser.”
The Sports Direct chief executive was keen to put Debenhams together with House of Fraser, the struggling department store group he bought out of administration for £90m last year.
Ashley had wanted to protect his investment in Debenhams, which had a market value of more than £300m less than a year ago but was valued at less than £23m on Tuesday morning. There is virtually no chance of shareholders getting anything back.
Documents published on Tuesday showed Debenhams’ lenders paid £101.8m for the group and also took on £520m of debts and its pension obligations, taking the total cost of the deal to £621.81m. But that sum is in line with the total value of Debenhams’ debts at the time it fell into administration, leaving no spare cash for shareholders.
The letter said the business had been “sold for a price which in our opinion is the best price reasonably obtainable at the time of sale”.
… as you’re joining us today from Korea, we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s high-impact journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5 million readers, from 180 countries, have recently taken the step to support us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.
With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.
Unlike many others, Guardian journalism is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of global events, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action.
We aim to offer readers a comprehensive, international perspective on critical events shaping our world – from the Black Lives Matter movement, to the new American administration, Brexit, and the world's slow emergence from a global pandemic. We are committed to upholding our reputation for urgent, powerful reporting on the climate emergency, and made the decision to reject advertising from fossil fuel companies, divest from the oil and gas industries, and set a course to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.
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The Somalian Islamist group AlShabaab call for reinforcements after a U.S. raid killed its leader Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. | MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents called on Wednesday for more foreign militants to join them in the failed Horn of Africa state after U.S. forces killed one of the region’s most wanted al Qaeda suspects.
Somali government soldiers assist their colleague onto a pick-up truck along a street in Somalia's capital Mogadishu September 15, 2009. REUTERS/Ismail Taxta
The U.S. commando operation that killed Kenyan-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, 28, in remote southern Somalia on Monday has triggered an angry response from Islamist rebels fighting the nation’s U.N.-backed government.
The raid likely gained Washington valuable counter-terrorism intelligence, but it risked further inflaming anti-Western opinion in a country of growing concern to the West.
Nabhan, wanted over a 2002 truck bombing that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Kenya and a simultaneous failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner as it left nearby Mombasa, was allied with al Shabaab.
Washington says al Shabaab is al Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia.
“We call for all Muslim fighters in the world to come to Somalia,” Sheikh Mahad Abdikarim, commander of al Shabaab forces in Bay and Bakol regions, told a news conference in Baidoa town.
He also referred to an African Union peacekeeping mission that is backing President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s administration.
“If Burundians and Ugandans, who are not Muslims, are allowed to stay in Somalia, who can refuse our Muslim brothers to join us in the struggle?” Abdikarim asked.
Nabhan’s mother, Aisha Abdalla said her son was innocent of the accusations made against him.
“We categorically deny that my son was an Al-Qaeda leader or involved himself in terrorist activities. I gave birth to him,”
Speaking at a northern Mombasa suburb where Nabhan spent his childhood, she demand his body be handed to the family, if indeed he had been killed as reported.
Monday’s raid marked an apparent change in tactics for the U.S. military, which has previously targeted wanted militants in Somalia using missiles, as opposed to helicopter-borne troops.
Western security agencies say the country, where fighting has killed more than 18,000 civilians since the start of 2007, has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who use it to plot attacks in the region and beyond.
The U.S. military has launched several airstrikes inside Somalia in the past against individuals including those blamed for the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
In May last year, U.S. war planes killed the then-leader of al Shabaab and al Qaeda’s top man in the country, Afghan-trained Aden Hashi Ayro, in an attack on the central town of Dusamareb.
Under Ayro, al Shabaab had adopted Iraq-style tactics, including assassinations, roadside bombs and suicide bombings.
Abdikarim, the al Shabaab commander, denounced Washington.
“Anybody who believes that America has a veto ... is an infidel with no faith. We must prepare to liberate Afghanistan, Palestine and the al Aqsa mosque,” he told reporters.
Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.
That has triggered one of the world’s worst aid emergencies, with the number of people needing help leaping 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million or half the population.
| Armed Conflict | September 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The United States Senate votes 94–1 to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act with bipartisan changes. The bill, which would expedite anti-Asian hate crime reviews to the U.S. Justice Department, will next head to the United States House of Representatives. | WASHINGTON – The Senate passed with overwhelming bipartisan support a hate crimes bill to address a drastic increase in violence and discrimination directed at Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act cleared the chamber in a 94-1 vote Thursday. It would expedite the Justice Department's review of hate crimes andwould designate an official at the department to oversee the effort.
It also would task the department with coordinating with local law enforcement groups and community-based organizations to facilitate and raise awareness about hate crime reporting,including establishing an online hate crime reporting system in multiple languages.
The legislation, which now heads to the Democratic-led House, is one of the few bills to pass this Senate with support from both Republicans and Democrats. Many Democrats expected a legislative fight, but Republicans signaled early their willingness to compromise on the legislation, and senators from both parties have been negotiating for weeks.
Theexpanded legislation, spearheaded by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii,underwent several bipartisan changes before its final passage.
Speaking from the Senate floor Thursday, Hirono said that by passing the bill, "we will send a powerful message of solidarity to the AAPI community that the Senate won't be a bystander as anti-Asian violence surges in our country." AAPI refers to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
Both Senate leaders backed the bill.
"The vote today on the Anti-Asian Hate Crimes bill is proof that when the Senate is given the opportunity to work, the Senate can work to solve important issues," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
More:In bipartisan vote, Senate advances bill on hate crimes against Asian Americans
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said last week that as the “proud husband of an Asian American woman, I think this discrimination against Asian Americans is a real problem." McConnell is the husband of Elaine Chao, the former transportation secretary who was born in Taiwan.
One change to the bill from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, with the backing of Hirono, helped broker and “broaden support” for the legislation by adjusting the bill's language in references of “COVID-19 hate crimes."
The adjustment helped reel in GOP support. Republicans had raised concerns that the first text was too narrow in defining the types of hate crimes.
The amendment would also have the Justice Department issue guidance “aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
'Harsh reality': Asian leaders urge US to stop AAPI violence as citizens reexamine pro-American views
One other addition to the bill from Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., would establish grants to aid local and state governments to encourage more training on hate crimes for law enforcement, establish hate crime hotlines and allow for a "rehabilitation" effort for perpetrators of hate crimes.
The bill still needs to pass the House to make it to President Joe Biden's desk. It was going to be debated in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, but its chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., postponed that discussion until the Senate voted, meaning the legislation is unlikely to go to a full House vote for at least a few weeks.
“Addressing AAPI hate crimes remains a top priority for House Democrats. We are closely monitoring Senate deliberations, and we will take action on this issue soon,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
For more than a year, reports of hate incidents against Asian Americans have climbed.
Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy group tracking hate incidents, said it had received nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents across the country since March 2020, compared with roughly 100 incidents annually in previous years. It tracked 987 in the first two months of 2021.
After last month's mass shooting in Georgia that killed eight people – six of whom were women of Asian descent – lawmakers in both chambers of Congress pushed to expedite the legislation and called for quick action.
Another modification made to the legislation, as part of talks with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., includesadding the names of those eight people killed.
More:Democrats work behind the scenes — and in public eye — to push against anti-Asian hate
Asian American lawmakers had introduced anti-hate legislation in the last Congress, but other than the House passing a nonbinding resolution condemning anti-Asian bigotry and discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic, no legislation was signed into law.
Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., a co-author of the legislation, said at a rally with Schumer on Monday that "we are finally taking action in Congress” after a year of discrimination that has made many in the AAPI community afraid to use public transit or even leave their homes.
The legislation is supported by Biden and the White House. The president said in March, “It’s time for Congress to codify and expand upon these actions – because every person in our nation deserves to live their lives with safety, dignity and respect." | Government Policy Changes | April 2021 | ['(USA Today)'] |
U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner of New York resigns his office amidst pressure from Democratic leadership and President Barack Obama after admitting to sending lewd photos via Twitter. |
Anthony Weiner speaks to the media during a news conference in New York, Thursday, June 16, 2011.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who has seen his political career crater over the past two weeks due to an extramarital sexting scandal and his lies about what he did, has resigned from Congress.
We used this post to live-blog as he announced that decision. Be sure to hit your "refresh" button to get our latest updates.
Update at 3:55 p.m. ET. The Audio (our apologies if you're on a device that doesn't show our player):
Update at 2:56 p.m. ET. More from the statement:
We just listened to the audio of Weiner's remarks (and we'll add that audio to this post as soon as we can).
To recap:
-- He again apologized "for the personal mistakes I have made and the embarrassment I have caused." And he apologized in particular to his wife, Huma Abedin.
-- "The distraction that I have created," Weiner said, has made remaining in Congress "impossible. ... So today, I am announcing my resignation."
It was that moment when a male heckler shouted "bye, bye pervert!" The man would disrupt the congressman's four-minute statement several more times.
-- Weiner added that he needs to leave Congress "so my colleagues can get back to work, my neighbors can choose a new representative ... and most importantly, so that my wife and I can continue to heal from the damage I have caused."
-- Perhaps leaving open the possibility of a return to public life, he said he would be "looking for other ways to contribute my talents."
Update at 2:34 p.m. ET: The man who was heckling Weiner — and it sounded like he shouted several lewd questions — was eventually removed by police, CNN's reporter in the room says.
Update at 2:33 p.m. ET: New York's Daily News says the "scandal-scarred" congressman "finally agreed to step down after consulting the woman he betrayed - his wife, a top source said Thursday."
Update at 2:25 p.m. ET: Weiner said more than once that among those he apologizes to is his wife. As he concludes his statement, Weiner says she has stood by him and he owes her "very much."
As for his future, Weiner says "I'll be looking for other ways to contribute my talents."
Update at 2:24 p.m. ET: There's more shouting from the crowd, some of it lewd.
Update at 2:23 p.m. ET: He makes it official. Weiner resigns. There's shouting in the audience by some who want to disrupt — presumably not journalists.
Update at 2:23 p.m. ET: "I have never forgotten my neighbors because they represent the same middle class story as mine," Weiner says. And he's here today, he adds, to apologize.
Update at 2:22 p.m. ET: Weiner is at the microphone. "There is no higher honor in a democracy than being sent by your neighbors" to represent them in Congress, he says.
Update at 2:03 p.m. ET: Weiner admitted on June 6 that he had been lying. Before he got to the microphone at his news conference to confess, though, conservative activist Andrew Breitbart took questions from reporters. It was Breitbart's BigGovernment.com website that first posted the lewd photo that started Weiner's fall from grace.
This time, though, Breitbart won't be on hand. He just tweeted that he's "Going on @FoxNews via phone from Minneaplis Airport."
Update at 1:58 p.m. ET: The cable news networks just showed video of Weiner walking to his car — through a scrum of reporters. He's said to now be headed to the news conference. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2011 | ['(NPR)'] |
New EU laws declare lottery scams illegal | The legislation is targeted mainly at the UK, where the Office of Fair Trading has identified such scams as one of the country's top 10 frauds.
Until now, firms operating the scheme have dodged the law by basing themselves outside Britain.
The rules, passed unanimously by the European Parliament, are part of wider EU laws on unfair commercial practice.
There has been a recent explosion in the number of people receiving unwanted automated phone calls telling them they have won a prize if they return the call. These scams are a real headache - not only are the calls an unwanted nuisance, they can also end up costing a lot of money for vulnerable and unsuspecting people
Diana WallisBritish Liberal Democrat MEP
But before they can claim anything, people are told to send money to pay for administration fees and taxes - and all, of course, for a prize that does not exist. The Office of Fair Trading believes the practice is netting fraudsters up to £150m a year. Diana Wallis, a British Liberal Democrat MEP who helped oversee the new legislation, says the rules spell the end for the fraudsters.
Unfair commercial practices
"These scams are a real headache. Not only are the calls an unwanted nuisance, they can also end up costing a lot of money for vulnerable and unsuspecting people."
"All of us have experienced the problem of incessant and unwanted phone calls telling us we have won a prize," Ms Wallis said.
"The new legislation will help to get to grips with this at home and abroad."
She added that the changes will also cover the malpractice of "vendors posing as a private seller or a seller's agent when they actually are acting as a business or trade". All European Union governments must now make the changes part of their national law.
Have you been affected by one of these phone scams? Will the new laws help end such scams? This debate is now closed. Thank you for your comments.
Your comments:
International calling is getting cheaper and like spammers, the phone crooks hide in countries that really don't care or, worse, profit from fraud
Alain Chabot, Quebec, Canada
Someone hit the nail on the head: These things are just going to get worse. International calling is getting cheaper and like spammers, the phone crooks hide in countries that really don't care or, worse, profit from fraud. My solution is simple: We should cut off those countries from the international phone system and/or the internet until they get their act together. They'd do it fast, I bet. Alain Chabot, Quebec, Canada
Are you people mad? The "Prince of Nigeria" has assured me that I will receive £3,000,000!Robert Sutton, Halifax, England
Our telephone number is ex-directory, so how have this fraudsters got hold of it? It's bad enough when genuine cold callers ring us and we challenge them about the number, the lies they tell and they refuse point blank to remove our details from their lists! We get more unwanted cold calls than we do calls from friends and family!Cherry, Bracknell, UK
As a night shift worker I truly hate these people. I now pay for an anonymous caller rejection on my telephone line so any call withholding the number is blocked - that helps - but why should I have to go to these lengths and also pay? It also means that my brother (living in Germany) has to call me on my mobile and ask me to lift the barring before he can call me. My telephone company could help. I also work for them so I know there are things they do already do. Unfortunately, like the banks claiming cards are never cloned, the consequences of admitting a problem will result in a legal frenzy of claims.Martin, Kent, UK
I just started received these calls recently. Most of the calls do not leave a sender ID however one as far as I could tell is in Egypt. The only way that this problem can be reduced is by forcing telecoms providers to place a block on all calls coming into the country from a number once they are informed of the nature of the calls or recognise it as autodialer.Phil, Oxford, UK
I sense a new niche market for a device to block these calls - or does one exist already? We can already filter our emails to some degree so why can't we do the same with phone calls?KB, London, UK
I received a few of these calls and realised that if you hang up too quickly they call you back later, so I revised my approach. The next time I just put the telephone handset down and left it, off the hook, for half an hour or so after the call completed. I figured this probably ties up one of their phone lines until I put the handset back on the hook. Interestingly, I haven't had any more of these calls since I tried this.Simon, Knutsford, UK
Canned prize messages that are too good to be true are a source of annoyance that need to be dealt with. The telephone was invented to be a convenience, I'm sure Alexander Bell would turn in his grave if he knew what it was being used for now.Sam, Dunfermline, Scotland
These scams are operated by crooks - do you think that they will pay any attention to an EU directive?
Alan Addison, Glasgow, UK
These scams are operated by crooks. Do you think that they will pay any attention to an EU directive? As long as there are stupid people who will fall for these scams, the scams will operate. I do feel sorry for genuine businesses that lose custom because of these scammers. For instance, I was recently offered a free holiday as an inducement to buy something and I walked away from the sale because of this. It turns out it was a genuine offer, but the sale was lost. Alan Addison, Glasgow, UK
I have never had anybody phone me with regards to a lottery scam, but I have received literally hundreds of emails trying to pull the same sort of stunt, so I hope email scams have been included.John Dean, Mansfield, UK
Outlawing these calls won't help - my phone is already registered with the telephone preference service which legitimate cold callers are legally obliged to not call or face fines, but I still receive these automated calls. All the time these companies can base themselves somewhere else, they have a loophole that means they don't have to respect the laws of the country they're targeting.Steve, Oxford, UK
While the legislation is good at heart, these fraudsters obviously know that they are conning people - whatever makes people think that these same people are going to obey this law?Darryl LeCount, Paderborn, Germany
My wife and I are having a constant problem with her 80-year-old father who replies to every mailshot and phone call convinced he is the winner of one of these huge prizes. Our continuing attempts to stop him are always met with, "you won't be saying that when I get the money". Hopefully this will put a stop to his spending and the crooks gain.Jeff, Runcorn, UK
This is a welcome initiative. It's a good example of the EU taking necessary action which would be simply impossible without a degree of shared sovereignty. What does the EU do for us Brits? Well, this for starters!Jonathan Church, London, UK
I have experienced this type of call on holiday in England at my parent's home. In one night the phone rang nine times in two hours. My parents are in their 80's and are fed up with not knowing if the call is genuine or not. Sue Simpson, Germany
Laura has offered me the same holiday too! Generous lady. This crime only works because the caller receives money automatically. If you get a fraudulent charge on your credit card it is blocked and no money paid. It should be possible to do the same for telephone calls. Unfortunately, telephone companies have still not shaken off their "state enterprise" mentality so are happy to call us customers but do nothing to help when their service is used by criminals. The phone companies should be made liable for the charges, then watch them suddenly start to "assist their customers".Des, Kingston, UK
Recently I've been receiving calls from 'Laura' the computer telling me I've won a holiday to Orlando, Florida. For some reason I just don't believe her and I've never returned her calls. I don't understand why anyone can fall for these schemes. You never get anything for nothing in this world.Stephen Elliot, Ormskirk, Lancashire
Fraudsters will simply find some other way to con people out of their money
Matt, UK
Although it is a step in the right direction, phone scams represent just one type of fraud. Fraudsters will simply find some other way to con people out of their money until a coherent approach to targeting all forms of fraud is implemented. The EU needs to tackle root legislation rather than treating each type of fraud as a separate case.Matt, UK
Personally I think phone companies should be doing much more to screen these calls. They should have dedicated teams committed to tracing stopping these scams - blocking the calls before they get to the customer. Autodiallers on your pc are even worse. James, London, UK
Haven't heard of that in Holland yet, or at least not in my circle of family and friends. I can see where this is a major problem, caused by data (phone numbers and other personal data to go with these numbers) being purposely sold to third party companies, who then use it for these purposes. I myself only have a cellphone and explicitly told my provider I do not want my number in a phonebook. Once you're in the phonebook, your personal data are out in the open and thus free to pass on to everyone the phone company wants to.Johan, Haarlem, the Netherlands
This problem is only going to get worse as international call charges get forever cheaper. But maybe this would be a good thing, because it might actually force governments to finally address this issue and hopefully email spam too - at a global level, and in a way that actually works. Government initiatives so far to solve email spam are totally useless.Colin Manning, Cambridge, UK
As a ferry operator offering genuine low-priced mini-cruise holidays these scams have affected our core business by making consumers wary of genuine offers believing their must be a trick. Legitimate and genuine bonded and approved operators suffer from the actions of those who operate outside of the law with up to now apparent impunity.Michael Wood, Newcastle, England
These calls are the bane of my life!
George W, London, England
These calls are the bane of my life! I get at least two a week (often more). Particularly annoying are the ones for holidays, which are painful reminders of my disability and that I am unlikely ever to go on holiday again - very depressing as well as being a nuisance. I don't know if the new laws will help, I can't tell if the calls originate in the EU, but the accents seem to be American. I also resent the assumption that everyone is interested in lotteries etc. I have never entered a competition or put my name down for a lottery and never will (for religious/ethical reasons) - at least that makes it easier to resist these pests.George W, London, England
Every morning at around 10am I win a trip to the Bahamas. Sometimes, if it's a bad day, I also win a BMW "M" series car. The problem with the BMW is that the call comes at before 8am and I hate to be woken up! To claim my magnificent fortunes, all I have to do is dial a non-geographic (09) number, fork out some cash, and wait for hell to freeze over. I'm delighted if these prank calls are truly to stop.Nathan, Oxford, UK
I'm ashamed to say that I fell foul of a telephone scam. It was one of those automated messages that said if you pressed ¿1' you would win this prize. Instead I received a £6 charge on that call when the phone bill came in. Does this mean that these scams will move outside of the EU now? Maurice William, York, England
My mother has had several such calls from the US or Canada, so I cannot see how European legislation can make much of a difference.John, Inverness, Scotland
In order to attack phone and postal fraudsters you need a global agreement and that is also the case in order to destroy the constant flow of scams through our post and emails. Firstly it is not practical. Secondly it is now possible that we in the UK will soon be buried under two trillion pounds of personal debt, desperation being a good bait for scammers. Finally, to make a few examples of people will mean nothing to individuals operating from a computer in the middle of nowhere and with nothing to lose, as is the case with some email scams. This attempt at control is a practical dead end.Lance, Pulborough, Sussex, UK
We received a premium rate phone charge of $82 for something we never dialled. Our phone company washed their hands of the whole affair even though they are breaking existing law concerning making profits from the proceeds of crime, but what can the poor customer do?Daniel Walsh, Boothstown, England
I get, on average, two to three calls a week and a lot end up on my answerphone. What is really annoying is that some are recorded messages that click on when you answer the phone and you cannot cut them off. you click off or put the phone down and they are still talking when you pick it up againJohn, Essex, UK | Government Policy Changes | February 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Citibank notifies the Venezuelan government it will close the accounts of the Venezuelan Central Bank and the Bank of Venezuela in 30 days after conducting a "periodic risk management review." Venezuela relies on Citibank to conduct foreign currency transactions due to the country's strict currency controls. | CARACAS, Venezuela, July 13 (UPI) -- Citibank will close the accounts of the Venezuelan Central Bank and the Bank of Venezuela, a move President Nicolas Maduro called a "financial blockade."
On Tuesday, Maduro said his government received notification from Citibank that the Venezuelan government accounts will be closed in 30 days. The Venezuelan government relies on Citibank to conduct foreign currency transactions due to strict currency controls first imposed under President Hugo Chávez.
"Today, we received Citibank communication ... that although we made payments 48 hours ago that in 30 days they will close the Central Bank of Venezuela account," Maduro said during a televised conference. "Do you think they will stop us with a financial blockade? With or without Citibank, we will move forward."
Citibank on Tuesday released a statement in which it said it was closing the accounts after conducting a "periodic risk management review." The bank also said services will be suspended for the accounts of some Venezuelans living in the United States.
Citibank said it was not diminishing its commitment to Venezuela, where it has provided financial services for nearly 100 years, adding that it values dialogue with the Venezuelan government. Maduro said his government was given 24 hours to settle all the international accounts Venezuela needs to pay. | Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(UPI)'] |
Six people are killed and ten others injured in Shenzhen after a space shuttle simulator ride plunged to the ground at a popular amusement park. | A space shuttle simulator ride plunged to the ground at a popular amusement park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Tuesday. Six people were killed and ten others injured.
Witnesses say there was a loss of electricity and they heard a loud explosion moments before the drop.
[Mr. Lam, Witness]:
"All the cabins but the one we were sitting in were destroyed. Some people fell onto the rail and some fell on the ground. Some people died instantly and were just hanging dead in their seats."
A relative of an injured tourist saw the accident happen.
[Mr. Suen, Witness]: "After one compartment flew out, the other one crashed into it. There were some safety devices but they were jammed after the car failure, and after that the people could not get out. Some of the thinner people could crawl out."
Local media reported that five of those injured are still in a serious condition.
The "space flight" attraction gives riders the experience of a rocket launch, in 11 four-person cabins.
The cause of the accident is under investigation.
In 2006, one person was killed and another seriously injured by a Ferris wheel accident in the southwestern province of Guizhou.
| Air crash | July 2010 | ['(ntdtv)'] |
The Alor Setar High Court in Kedah State, Malaysia, suspends a caning sentence for 27 Rohingya refugees, citing their current status and no prior history of crime. They were sentenced with 13 other refugees to seven months in jail and caning last month for illegally entering the country. | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian high court spared 27 Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar from caning on Wednesday, their lawyer said, setting aside a lower court’s sentence following an outcry from human rights activists.
The Rohingya men were among 40 refugees convicted last month by a magistrates court on the northwestern island of Langkawi for entering Malaysia by boat without a valid permit. All 40 were also sentenced to seven months’ jail.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has long been a favoured destination for Rohingya seeking a better life after escaping a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar and, more recently, refugee camps in Bangladesh.
But Malaysia, which does not recognise refugees, has recently turned away boats and detained hundreds of Rohingya, saying it cannot take in more migrants because of a struggling economy as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Alor Setar High Court, in Kedah state, set aside the caning penalty after reviewing the cases against 27 Rohingya men, said Collin Andrew, the refugees’ lawyer.
In its review, the court decided caning would be inhumane as the men were refugees and did not have any prior history of crime or violence, Andrew said in a statement.
“Today’s decision is laudable as it demonstrates the promotion and protection of human rights by the High Court,” he said.
Under Malaysia’s Immigration Act, anyone who illegally enters the country can face a 10,000 ringgit ($2,345) fine, up to five years’ jail as well as six strokes of a cane.
In the past, courts have normally opted for caning when accused had committed an act of violence, a repeat offence, or threatened public order, Andrew said.
Several rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had urged Malaysia not to cane the refugees.
The court also ordered for six Rohingya teenagers, who had been convicted as adults and sentenced to seven months’ jail, to be released to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR following the completion of their detention on Monday, Andrew said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A small plane carrying Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki crashes into the sea near the tourist town of Paraty in the state of Rio de Janeiro, killing the magistrate and two other people. Zavascki had been handling the politically-charged Operation Car Wash corruption trials. | SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki, who was overseeing a graft investigation into scores of powerful politicians, was killed in a plane crash on Thursday, raising questions about who will take over the country’s biggest ever corruption case.
Rescuers found three bodies in the wreckage of the small, twin-prop plane that crashed off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state amid heavy rains, firefighters said. Federal prosecutors and police said they would immediately open an investigation in addition to that of aviation authorities.
Zavascki, 68, had in recent weeks been reviewing explosive testimony from executives at engineering group Odebrecht, expected to implicate an array of politicians in a vast kickback scandal centering on state-run oil company Petrobras and other enterprises.
The Hawker Beechcraft C90GT carrying Zavascki left a Sao Paulo airport around 1 p.m. (1500 GMT).
The plane crashed into the sea about 80 minutes later, roughly 3 km (2 miles) from the airport near the colonial tourist town of Paraty, according to air force and civil aviation authorities.
A witness to the accident, Lauro Koehler, who was on a boat near the site of the crash, told TV station GloboNews that visibility was near zero because of the rain, but that he saw the plane banking sharply and losing altitude on its approach.
“The curve the pilot was making seemed too severe,” Koehler said. “But the plane kept curving, to the point that my wife screamed, ‘It’s going to crash!’ Then the plane dropped into the sea.”
Koehler said the tip of the right wing clipped the water first and then its nose plunged into the ocean “with an incredible blow.”
The boat Koehler was on immediately went to the wreckage.
Related Coverage
“We saw there was a woman alive inside the plane,” he said. “We tried to open the plane, but it was too late, and she sunk down into the wreckage.”
Luxury hotel chain Emiliano, which holds the license for the aircraft, confirmed the deaths of the pilot Osmar Rodrigues, whom family said had been flying for 20 years, and Carlos Alberto Fernandes Filgueiras, owner of the hotel chain, but gave no information about a fourth female passenger.
Condolences poured in from federal prosecutors and senior politicians, including some named in the sweeping graft probe - known as Operation Car Wash - that has shaken Brazil’s political establishment over the past three years.
Crusading anti-graft Judge Sergio Moro, who has spearheaded the graft investigation at the grassroots level for nearly three years, said in an emailed statement that he “was stunned” by Zavascki’s death, whom he called a “Brazilian hero.”
“Without him, there would be no Operation Car Wash,” Moro wrote. “I hope that his legacy, of serenity, seriousness and firmness in enforcing the law, regardless of the interests of those involved, even the powerful, will not be forgotten.”
The investigation, involving at least 6.4 billion reais ($2.0 billion) in bribes for contracts with state-run enterprises, has led to the jailing of dozens of senior executives and has battered the ruling coalition of President Michel Temer.
Under Supreme Court rules, Zavascki’s case load would normally fall to the justice named by Temer to replace him, but an exception can be made for urgent matters, according to a court representative.
Several of Temer’s ministers have fallen because of corruption allegations, and the president himself has been named by at least one Odebrecht executive in leaked plea bargain testimony.
Carlos Pereira, a professor of public administration at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro and a leading expert on corruption, said Zavascki’s death was a serious blow but he was confident it would not derail the graft investigation.
“The death of Teori is unquestionably a stress test for Brazilian institutions, but there is no question that President Temer will be under tremendous pressure to nominate a replacement who has absolutely no hint of wanting to slow or halt the Car Wash investigation,” Pereira said.
Pereira said that close attention from judges, prosecutors, police and Brazilian civil society would safeguard the case.
“If there is any sign that anyone would use Teori’s death in an opportunistic manner to put up obstacles ... I have no doubt they will be severely punished by many sectors of society,” Pereira said.
The incident recalled the crash of another small aircraft in a storm along the same coastline that killed presidential candidate Eduardo Campos in the heat of the 2014 race. An investigation attributed that crash to pilot error.
Reporting by Raquel Stenzel, Brad Brooks and Bruno Federowski and Lais Martins in Sao Paulo, Anthony Boadle and Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia, writing by Brad Haynes; editing by Daniel Flynn and Cynthia Osterman
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 | Air crash | January 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Swedish Royal Court confirms that Princess Estelle of Sweden, second–in–line to the Swedish throne, is injured in a skiing accident in the Alps where the Crown Princess Family is on vacation. | Princess Estelle of Sweden has been injured in a skiing accident in the Alps where the Crown Princess Family was holidaying over the New Year holiday.
The seven-year-old has broken her leg, the Royal Court has confirmed to Aftonbladet. The Princess is now in a cast but said to be doing well. She was taken to the hospital for an x-ray and given a cast and crutches. The injury is not believed to be serious as the family did not cancel their holiday.
Head of the Information Department at the Royal Court, Margareta Thorgen, explained, “The court can confirm that Princess Estelle has suffered a fracture of the limb in connection with skiing. She is plastered and otherwise well.”
As a result, Crown Princess Victoria will no longer travel to Ari Behn’s funeral in Norway tomorrow. Prince Daniel will go alone, according to the publication. The second-in-line to the Swedish throne has been skiing for years and learned the sport before she was even two-years-old.
The Royal Court has said they will not comment further on the accident, which happened a couple of days ago and asked for Princess Estelle’s privacy to be respected. Royal Central will keep you updated as this is a breaking news story. Please keep checking back for updates. | Famous Person - Sick | January 2020 | ['(Royal Central)'] |
The European Union and United States restore foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority. | (GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip) — The emergency government that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas installed after Islamic militants seized control of Gaza reaped its first windfall on Monday, with the European Union promising to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in crucial aid.
An assassination and continued unrest focus scrutiny on the country's Palestinian refugees
Tensions raised by the standoff with radical Islamist gunmen has
raised concerns over the fate of the country's 400,000 Palestinians
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister tells TIME why the Palestinian clashes are 'catastrophic' for Arab-Israeli peace
To the alarm of Washington, Hamas has seized the advantage in the increasingly vicious war between Palestinian factions
The EU traditionally has been the Palestinian Authority's largest donor, and the reinstatement of aid, cut off after the Islamic Hamas movement took power 15 months ago, could signal the beginning of the end to a crippling international boycott.
On Sunday, Abbas hurriedly swore in the new Cabinet, days after dissolving the unity government in response to the Islamic group's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip.
The rift has left the Palestinians with two rival governments — a Fatah-allied government in the West Bank and the Hamas leadership in Gaza. Abbas seeks peace with Israel, whereas Hamas is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction.
Underscoring the convoluted political solution, the dueling Palestinian Cabinets were holding separate meetings in the West Bank and Gaza on Monday. The dispute has endangered the Palestinians' goal of forming an independent state in the two territories, which are located on opposite sides of Israel.
The international community has largely rallied behind Abbas' government, led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist.
In a major boost to Abbas, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana announced in Luxembourg on Monday that the 27-nation bloc would resume direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority now that Hamas is no longer part of the government. "We absolutely have to back" the new government in the West Bank, said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn. "The question of today is: How can we help the 1.4 million people in Gaza?"
Riyad al-Malki, the new Palestinian minister of information and justice, welcomed the announcement. "There are encouraging steps. We hope that these steps will be carried out quickly," he said.
Both the Haniyeh and Fayyad governments profess to represent Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza. To drive home that point, al-Malki said the EU aid also would go to pay salaries for government employees in Gaza. "We will work to secure all basic needs for our people in Gaza," he said before the Cabinet meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The United States, another major donor to the Palestinians, has said it will end its financial embargo, while Israel has signaled that it too will ease sanctions on the Palestinians. Israel collects some $55 million a month in customs duties on behalf of the Palestinians, but has withheld the funds since Hamas took power.
The stark division between Gaza and the West Bank since Hamas' lightning takeover of Gaza has raised grave questions about the ability to stave off a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Both Israel and Egypt have sealed off the area's borders.
In Gaza, panicked residents continued to stock up on basic supplies, fearing growing shortages of food, fuel and other staples.
Some of those fears were alleviated after the sole provider of gasoline to Gaza, Israeli company Dor Alon, renewed shipments cut off last week during the heavy fighting.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel was aware of the humanitarian dangers facing the Gaza Strip. But he said Israel had not yet figured out a way to deal with the Hamas rulers of Gaza.
Both Israel and the United States already have said they would work to bolster Abbas, while isolating Hamas. The U.S., EU and Israel consider Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, a terrorist group. | Government Policy Changes | June 2007 | ['(AP via Time)'] |
Ghana–born doctor Peter Bossman becomes Mayor of Piran , the first black mayor of a town in the so–called former Eastern Bloc of Europe. | A Ghana-born doctor nicknamed "the Obama of Piran" became the first black mayor in eastern Europe yesterday after he was elected in Piran, south-western Slovenia.
Peter Bossman, 54, said he was "happy and proud" to have been elected to the post after winning a second round runoff in the town with just over half the votes.
Bossman settled in Slovenia, then still part of Yugoslavia, in the 1970s after arriving in the country to study medicine. He decided to stay after marrying a fellow student from Croatia.
Speaking about his campaign, in which he said he would introduce electric cars to the town, Bossman said: "I based my campaign on a dialogue, and I think the dialogue has won."
But Bossman was criticised during the campaign for not speaking fluent Slovene, the country's official language, prompting him to say in an interview with Delo, one of Slovenia's leading newspapers, that a friend and professor of Slovenian had "offered to give me additional lessons".
However the new mayor, who runs his own private medical practice and is a member of Slovenia's governing centre-left Social Democrat party, said he had not suffered racial discrimination.
"In the first months after coming to Slovenia I felt that some people did not want to be with us [African immigrants]. But for the last 10 or 15 years … I have no problems at all and I think people no longer see the colour of my skin when they look at me," he said.
Slovenia has a population of around 2 million, the majority of whom are native Slovene, and immigration is more common from ex-Yugoslavian countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. There are very few black people living there. The town of Piran, which lies on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea, has a population of around 17,000.
Vlado Miheljak, a political analyst, said the vote in Piran was a test of whether Slovenia was "mature enough to elect a non-white political representative." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2010 | ['(Slovenia)', '(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
In baseball, the San Francisco Giants defeat the Kansas City Royals 5–0 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, taking a 3–2 lead in the World Series. | SAN FRANCISCO -- With every pitch, Madison Bumgarner etched his place among the World Series greats.
The long, tall lefty kept slinging away and put the San Francisco Giants just one win from yet another championship, throwing a four-hitter to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-0 Sunday night for a 3-2 Series edge.
Hardly menacing on the mound, Bumgarner was simply untouchable -- again. As "MVP! MVP!" chants broke out from each packed corner of AT&T Park, Bumgarner finished off the first World Series shutout in 11 years.
"You know what? For some reason, I keep getting really lucky this time of year, so I'll take it," Bumgarner said.
It must be more than luck.
Because by the time the 25-year-old from Hickory, North Carolina, outdid his own winning performance in Game 1, he had evoked memories of Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Curt Schilling and the top October aces of all time.
"Very humbling," Bumgarner said.
He certainly joined those names, and maybe even exceeded them.
Who else has gone 4-0 in four World Series starts with a 0.29 ERA? Throw in only 12 hits in 31 innings, along with 27 strikeouts, and that math makes him the very definition of Big Game Pitcher.
"He's special, isn't he?" manager Bruce Bochy said during a quiet moment in his office eating dinner. "What a stud."
Giants Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal mingled in the clubhouse, too, waiting his turn to congratulate the guy with the curly, stringy hair.
"He's so smooth. I say that he's cold-blooded. When he's on the mound, he dominates everybody. Everybody," Marichal said.
On this evening, Bumgarner fanned eight without a walk and never was in trouble as he constantly changed speeds, with no runners reaching third base. There hadn't been a shutout in the Series since Josh Beckett's clinching gem for the Florida Marlins in 2003 at Yankee Stadium.
The Giants' work isn't done. To add to the crowns Bumgarner helped them take in 2010 and 2012, they'll need to win in Kansas City.
"We're looking forward to getting back to our home crowd, where it's going to be absolutely wild and crazy," Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Jake Peavy gets the first chance to seal it for San Francisco when he starts Game 6 at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night against rookie Yordano Ventura.
Madison Bumgarner has turned an already-impressive postseason ERA into a historic stat against the Royals.
Madison Bumgarner ERA
MLB Career
If the Giants don't win then, there is always this possibility: Bumgarner said he's ready to come out of the bullpen in Game 7.
Hunter Pence once again was in the middle of things for the Giants. He singled off James Shields in the second and scored on a groundout by Brandon Crawford, who had three RBIs.
Later, the enigmatic Pence accidentally threw his bat past the mound while striking out, and appeared to apologize to Shields. Pence added another hit in a three-run eighth, making him 9-for-19 in the five games.
Postseason star Pablo Sandoval also singled twice. Juan Perez broke it open with a two-run double off the top of the center-field fence in the eighth against Wade Davis and scored on a single by Crawford.
Since trailing 4-1 in Game 4, the Giants have responded with 15 straight runs. San Francisco won that game, putting aside concern that Bumgarner should've been moved up to pitch on short rest.
Bumgarner won for the fourth time against one loss in this postseason, and this blanking bookended the four-hit shutout he threw at Pittsburgh in the NL wild-card game. Durable, he's thrown 47⅔ innings this October, trailing just Schilling's 48⅓ in 2001 for the most in a single postseason, with a 1.13 ERA.
As Bumgarner wrapped up the win, his name echoed around the ballpark.
"That was pretty cool, actually. It was really neat to hear," he said.
Toward the late innings, it appeared that only a lightning strike could rescue the Royals, perhaps a home run out of nowhere. Not happening -- this was the third straight game without either team hitting a homer, the longest streak in the World Series since 1948 when the Boston Braves and Cleveland began with a three-game drought, STATS said.
The last time the Royals won the World Series they trailed 3-2 after Game 5, only to come back and win Games 6 and 7 at home.
Royals' Past 2 World Series Appearances
Exactly why the man nicknamed MadBum is so dominant isn't easily apparent. Royals cleanup hitter Eric Hosmer said before the game that Bumgarner's "cross-body" delivery is tough to pick up.
The 6-foot-5 Bumgarner definitely has an impressive whip, along with an imposing WHIP in the World Series. His walks-plus-hits ratio per inning is incredible.
About the only thing Bumgarner didn't do well was get a hit. He takes pride in his plate prowess and launched four home runs this season, including two grand slams. Bumgarner went 0-for-4, leaving him hitless in 22 postseason at-bats.
Yep, he's still got some work to do.
UP NEXT
Royals: Ventura will become the fourth rookie to start twice in a Series since 2000, joining John Lackey, Justin Verlander and Michael Wacha.
Giants: Peavy started in the World Series last year for the champion Boston Red Sox. He took the loss last week in Game 2, and is 1-4 with a 7.05 ERA in eight career postseason starts.
STATS
Of the 41 previous instances the World Series was tied at 2 in the best-of-seven format, the Game 5 winner won the title 27 times. ... Bumgarner's ERA is the lowest in World Series history for pitchers with at least 25 innings. Jack Billingham is next at 0.36. Among the leaders are Babe Ruth (0.87) and Mariano Rivera (0.99). ... Since 1982, teams down 3-2 going home for Games 6 and 7 have won eight of 10 World Series -- including the Royals in 1985.
New York Mets (35-26, first in the NL East) vs. Washington Nationals (30-35, fourth in the NL East)
Miami Marlins (29-39, fifth in the NL East) vs. Chicago Cubs (39-30, first in the NL Central)
Los Angeles Dodgers (41-27, second in the NL West) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (20-50, fifth in the NL West)
Boston Red Sox (42-27, second in the AL East) vs. Kansas City Royals (30-37, third in the AL Central)
Chicago White Sox (43-26, first in the AL Central) vs. Houston Astros (40-28, second in the AL West)
St. Louis Cardinals (35-34, fourth in the NL Central) vs. Atlanta Braves (31-35, third in the NL East) | Sports Competition | October 2014 | ['(AP via ESPN)'] |
China executes Wen Qiang, Chongqing's top justice official, in its crackdown on corruption. | China today executed the former leading justice official in the Chongqing municipality after he became the highest-ranking person to be caught in a huge crackdown on violent gangs and the corrupt officials who protect them.
Wen Qiang, the 55-year-old ex-director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, was convicted of corruption charges involving organised crime in April, according to the Chongqing court website.
Wen took bribes, shielded criminal gangs, hid his financial assets and raped a university student, China's official Xinhua news agency cited court documents as saying.
The supreme people's court, which reviews all death penalty cases, rejected Wen's appeal and upheld the sentence in May.
"The facts are quite clear, the evidence is concrete and abundant, the conviction is accurate and the punishment is proper," a court statement said.
Wen served as the deputy police chief of Chongqing from 1992-2008 and then as the director of the judicial bureau until being arrested in September 2009, Xinhua said.
He was also the brother-in-law of the so-called "godmother" of Chongqing's criminal underworld, 46-year-old Xie Caiping, who was sentenced to 18 years for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials.
The high-profile crackdown on organised crime was set in motion by the Chongqing's communist party boss, Bo Xilai, who gained a national following with the campaign.
Nearly 100 local officials and police were prosecuted, with 42 found guilty of sheltering criminal gangs, Xinhua said. Hundreds of gang members were also arrested and tried. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Standard)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Official figures indicate economic output in the United Kingdom fell by 0.7% between April and June, meaning the recession has deepened in the country. | The UK recession has deepened, latest official figures have shown, after the output of the economy fell by 0.7% between April and June. The contraction was much bigger than expected and follows a 0.3% drop in the first three months of the year. The Office for National Statistics said
the fall was largely due to a sharp slowdown in the construction sector. It said it was not yet sure of the size of the effect of the poor weather and the extra June bank holiday. This means that these figures, which are the first estimate for what happened in the economy between April and June, are more uncertain than usual. "The bottom line from all this is that the underlying performance of the economy was probably somewhat better than the headline figure of -0.7% would suggest, having regard to the extra bank holiday and to the poor weather," said Joe Grice from the ONS. "How much that effect might be is something we won't be able to say or to quantify until we have further experience against which to judge."
The figures could be revised in the coming months as more information comes in. The first estimate is largely based on information the first two months of the three-month period. "Nevertheless, the overall picture is of an economy that remains fragile," the ONS said in its latest analysis of the economy. Prime Minister David Cameron said the figures were disappointing: "They show the extent of the economic difficulties that we're grappling with, not least the situation right across the eurozone where our neighbours are also really struggling. "Clearly we've got to keep doing everything we can to get out of this difficult situation and provide the growth and jobs that our people and our economy needs."
Chancellor George Osborne said the country faced "big challenges". "But given what's happening in the world, we need a relentless focus on the economy and recent announcements on infrastructure and lending show that's exactly what we're doing," he said.
In response, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the "truly shocking" figures showed the government's economic plans had failed. "If these figures don't make the chancellor wake up and change course, then I don't know what will," he said. "Thank goodness the Olympics will give our economy a much-needed shot in the arm. But this short-term boost is not enough - we need a plan B now to get the economy moving again and radical reforms to set Britain on a new course for jobs, growth and long-term prosperity."
The ONS did point to some more positive signs for the economy. Employment is growing "modestly", it said, with 181,000 jobs created in the past three months.
With prices rising at a slower rate, the squeeze is also easing on household incomes. However the output of the economy is still 4.5% lower than it was during its peak before the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. Output in the building sector fell 5.2% in the second quarter compared with the first. It is continuing to feel the effects of the economic slowdown and a sharp drop in public spending on social housing and infrastructure projects. The ONS said the end of major Olympics projects could also be having an effect. "This is a disaster for UK growth," said Alan Clarke, economist at Scotiabank. "It looks like construction has done a lot of the damage," he said. "On average for the year, it's looking very unlikely that we'll be on the right side of zero growth. More likely we'll be contracting."
Production industries, which include manufacturing, decreased by 1.3%, due in part to weak demand from the eurozone, one of the UK's biggest trading partners. The fall in services output by 0.1% surprised some, including RBS economist Ross Walker, who said he had expected the retail sector to grow during the quarter. "We thought even with the drag from the Jubilee that we would probably just about squeeze some growth out of that sector, [but] it's contracted."
However, John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said many firms were faring better than the statistics suggested.
"We're not completely convinced about the accuracy of the figures," he said. "Our business surveys and other business surveys and also the employment figures all belie what the ONS are saying about GDP and it wouldn't be the first time in history that two successive quarters have been revised upwards from negative to positive."
But he added: "Nonetheless, there's no question that the economy is, at best, stagnating."
An economy is considered to be in recession when its output has declined for two consecutive three-month periods. The UK economy is in a double-dip recession as after a period of recession, it briefly starting growing again before a second bout of falls. Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund said that the UK faced "significant challenges" from a stalling recovery, high unemployment and threats from the eurozone. | Financial Crisis | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Jat protesters shut down 70% of Delhi's water supply meaning the Indian city could run out of water by the end of the weekend. At least nine people are killed in fighting. , | The Indian capital Delhi is on the brink of a severe water crisis after a key supply was cut during protests over jobs in a neighbouring state. Demonstrators from the Jat community damaged equipment in the Munak canal, a major source of water to Delhi. The city has introduced strict water rationing. Some areas could run dry on Sunday, officials warned, and schools will not open on Monday.
Protesters want guaranteed jobs under India's caste quota system.
Why India needs a new debate on caste quotas
The land-owning Jat community is relatively affluent and has traditionally been seen as upper caste.
But in March 2014 the Congress-led national government said that it would re-categorise Jats as Other Backward Castes (OBC) opening the way to government job quotas. This was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2015. It ruled that Jats should not be entitled to OBC status as they were not a backward community.
Jats argue this ruling put them at a disadvantage - they insist job quotas should be similar to those granted to lower caste people.
They also say they are disappointed that India's BJP government has not pushed for their OBC status to be restored.
At least nine people were killed as violence continued on Saturday. Protesters went on the rampage despite a curfew and the deployment of the army, which is reported to have opened fire on them in the districts of Rohtak and Jhajjar.
The violence has forced the closure of several key roads and national highways, and paralysed the railway system in north India. The bus service between India and Pakistan has been affected, too, with passengers left stranded.
On Friday protesters in Rohtak hurled rocks at security forces while blocking traffic, attacking vehicles and attempting to set the finance minister's home on fire.
The Delhi government has approached the Supreme Court seeking its intervention in the water crisis.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has said that the government is ready to agree to the demands of the protesters "within the ambit of the constitution".
Opposition parties have called for Mr Khattar's government to be sacked by the central government and for presidential rule to be imposed on the state.
India's constitution, adopted in 1950, inaugurated the world's oldest and farthest-reaching affirmative action programme, guaranteeing scheduled castes and tribes - the most disadvantaged groups in Hinduism's hierarchy - not only equality of opportunity but guaranteed outcomes, with reserved places in educational institutions, government jobs and even seats in parliament and the state assemblies.
The logic was simple: they were justified as a means of making up for millennia of discrimination based on birth.
In 1989, the government decided to extend their benefits to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) - those hailing from the lower and intermediate castes who were deemed backward because they lacked "upper caste" status.
As more and more people sought fewer available government and university positions, we witnessed the unedifying spectacle of castes fighting with each other to be declared backward.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2016 | ['(The Times of India)', '(BBX)'] |
The 33 miners involved in the 2010 Copiapó mining accident are permitted to smoke cigarettes after one month of underground entrapment. | COPIAPO, Chile: The 33 men trapped deep inside a northern Chilean mine have been given permission to smoke after improvements were made in the air ventilation.
The miners will receive two cigarette packs a day, the regional Atacama governor, Ximena Matas, said.
''We have sent a number of cigarettes … to a person who will distribute them, and there should be no difficulties,'' Ms Matas said.
The trapped miners have become national heroes since they were found alive on August 22, 17 days after a mine cave-in in the remote Atacama desert. The miners are trapped about 700 metres below the surface.
The miners have been receiving supplies - food, water and now cigarettes - through a metal shaft to the surface.
Nicotine patches sent down to help smokers among the trapped miners deal with the lack of cigarettes had not worked, officials said.
The miners were given permission to light up after rescuers installed a multi-functional plastic tube that lets them get water and air, and have permanent telephone communication with the surface.
''We are not going to give a pack of cigarettes to each of them, but rather a reasonable amount,'' said Jorge Diaz, a medical doctor on the rescue team.
Requests for wine have so far not been agreed to.
Meanwhile, rescuers continued drilling a shaft to pull out the miners. The Australian-built Strata 950 drill, part of the ''Plan A'' rescue scheme, reached a depth of 260 metres on Saturday, officials said.
Another drill, part of ''Plan B'', reached 268 metres before a drill bit broke off inside the shaft. A third giant drill, part of ''Plan C'', is still being assembled. | Mine Collapses | September 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Scientists exhume the remains of 16th century astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague to try to solve the mystery of his sudden death. | The body of a 16th Century Danish astronomer is being exhumed in Prague to confirm the cause of his death. Tycho Brahe was a Danish nobleman who served as royal mathematician to the Bohemian Emperor Rudolf II.
He was thought to have died of a bladder infection, but a previous exhumation found traces of mercury in his hair.
A team of Danish and Czech scientists hope to solve the mystery by analysing bone, hair and clothing samples.
Tycho was born Tyge Ottesen Brahe in 1546 in Scania, which at the time was a Danish province, and studied astronomy at the University of Copenhagen, as well as German academic institutions.
He catalogued more than 1,000 new stars and his stellar and planetary observations helped lay the foundations of early modern astronomy.
But the astronomer's fame is partly also due to his personal life. Our correspondent in Prague, Rob Cameron, says that to describe Tycho Brahe as a colourful character is something of an understatement.
He lost the bridge of his nose in a duel, while at the University of Rostock in 1566, and wore a metal prosthetic for the rest of his life. Another story widely told about Brahe was that his bladder exploded at a royal banquet.
He was long thought to have died of a bladder infection, which legend suggests was contracted 11 days previously - when he had been too polite to leave the royal banquet table to go to the toilet.
He died in 1601 and was buried at Tyn Church near Prague's Old Town Square.
His body has been exhumed before, in 1901. Tests on a sample of hair from his moustache, taken at that time, have been conducted as recently as the 1990s and indicated unusually high levels of mercury. Brahe was also an alchemist and some have suggested that he would have handled mercury and may have administered it to himself as medicine. Others have suggested he was poisoned. In the past, the finger of suspicion has fallen on his assistant, Johannes Kepler, who later became a renowned astronomer himself.
More recently a theory has surfaced that the astronomer was killed on the orders of the Danish king, Christian IV, because Brahe had allegedly had an affair with the king's mother. Professor Jens Vellev, from Aarhus University, is leading the team of scientists and archaeologists which opened the tomb in Tyn Church on Monday.
He says he hopes to get better samples of hair and bones than were taken in 1901. The use of the latest technology to test the samples may also help shed more light on the mystery of the astronomer's death, although Professor Vellev is not promising anything. "Perhaps, we will be able to come close to an answer, but I don't think we will get a final answer to that question," he said.
The scientists also hope to determine what kind of metal Brahe's prosthesis was made of - it was commonly believed to have been gold and silver, but others suggested it might have contained copper.
The team has until Thursday to take the samples needed from the remains of Brahe and his wife, who was buried by his side three years later. On Friday, their bodies will be reburied after a special mass at the church. | New archeological discoveries | November 2010 | ['(AP)', '(BBC)'] |
Two senior leaders of the Tehrik-i-Taliban and three other militants are killed during two separate security operations in North Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. | Military says two senior members of different factions of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group killed in North Waziristan district.
Pakistan’s military says it has killed five members of the Pakistan Taliban group in two separate security operations in the northwestern North Waziristan district, including two senior members of different factions of the armed group.
In a statement released late on Sunday, the military said it had conducted security operations in the Mir Ali and Kaisoor areas of the district, which was once the headquarters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or Pakistan Taliban).
“During IBOs [five] terrorists including two terrorist commanders Syed Raheem [also known as] Abid of TTP (AKK Group) and Saifullah Noor of TTP (Gohar Group) were killed,” said the statement.
According to the statement, Raheem had been directly involved in 17 attacks against Pakistani security forces since 2007 and had been involved in a recent spate of targeted killings in the district.
Since last year, more than 50 people have been killed in targeted gun and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in North Waziristan, according to media reports.
“[Raheem] was tasked by hostile agencies for target killing, recruiting new terrorists and organizing them,” said the Pakistani military statement.
“He was involved in killing of four [tribal elders] in Mir Ali area, three engineers working in a company in North Waziristan and many IEDs attacks.”
Raheem was also said to have been running two suicide bomber training centres in Mir Ali and the Wana region of neighbouring South Waziristan district.
Noor was said to be “directly involved in different IED attacks on Security Forces in Khaisoor”.
Pakistan’s military launched a major set of military operations in North Waziristan and its adjoining districts in 2014, successfully displacing the TTP from its erstwhile stronghold into neighbouring Afghanistan.
Violence and large-scale attacks have dropped significantly since 2017, but sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces by the TTP do still take place across the country.
Last year saw a particular spike in the number of targeted attacks on civilians and security forces in North Waziristan, prompting renewed security operations.
Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim.
The merger was announced days after the army said operations against armed groups had brought ‘hard-earned success’.
Pakistan FM tells Al Jazeera the country has hopes for greater engagement with the new Biden administration.
Khumariyaan’s distinctive sound reinvigorates a rich and varied music genre, with special focus on the rubab instrument.
| Armed Conflict | January 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
The United States House of Representatives passes an energy bill which aims to expand the use of renewable energy and reduce tax concessions to oil companies. | The US House of Representatives has passed a radical new energy bill, which aims to expand the use of renewable fuels and cut tax breaks to oil firms. The draft law details support for "clean" energy sources like biofuels, wind, solar and geothermal resources.
It would withdraw some $16bn (£8bn) in annual subsidies from the oil industry.
But the bill is opposed by President George Bush, and still has to be merged with other energy measures passed by the Senate before it can become law.
If it passes in its current form, the bill will require all American utility companies to generate 15% of their energy from renewable sources by the year 2020. It also calls for more stringent efficiency standards for lighting and electrical appliances. And it would do away with tax concessions long enjoyed by the major oil companies such as Exxon-Mobil, Conoco and Chevron.
Powerful lobby
But there is a long way to go yet.
The bill has to be married up with a very different approach taken by the Senate. The Democrats, who now control Congress, are taking on one of America's most powerful lobbies. The oil industry has friends in very high places - not least inside the Bush administration. | Government Policy Changes | August 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The President of the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes, resigns after the discovery of a video of her stealing anti-aging cream in a supermarket and after several weeks of controversy after it came to light that she obtained her master's degree fraudulently. | The head of Spain's Madrid region has stepped down amid shoplifting allegations, weeks after being accused of faking a master's degree.
Cristina Cifuentes condemned as a personal attack the publication of a video from 2011 showing her handing items to a supermarket security guard. It is claimed she had taken two pots of anti-ageing cream worth €40 (£35; $50).
Ms Cifuentes, 53, gave up her master's last week when it emerged that two signatures on the document were forged.
A prominent figure in Spain's ruling centre-right PP (Partido Popular), Ms Cifuentes had already come under pressure from political opponents to resign because of the degree affair. She told a press conference on Wednesday that she had planned to announce her resignation next week but had brought it forward in response to the latest allegations.
Her resignation is a blow to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose party has faced a succession of corruption scandals. By stepping down she averted a motion of no confidence which she said would have brought Madrid under the control of the left-wing socialist and Podemos parties.
Mr Rajoy said the president of Madrid's regional government had done the right thing in stepping down.
Ms Cifuentes condemned the video that appeared on the OK Diario website on Wednesday as part of a "campaign of harassment aimed at bringing me down". At the time the video was recorded, she was number two in the Madrid assembly.
However, she went on to admit the recording was genuine. "It was an involuntary mistake and it's being used to go beyond political issues, it's personal," she said. "I was already the target of blackmail two years ago for that video, but this time I tell you a red line has been crossed."
The erupting scandal surrounding Ms Cifuentes has also hit King Juan Carlos University, from which she received the fake master's degree. The head of its law institute has been suspended after initially supporting the Madrid region's president. The institute's deputy director earlier had resigned in protest at her signature being forged.
The region of Madrid is home to 6.5m people and Spain's capital city.
Madrid leader in 'shoplifting video'
The patient man of Spanish politics
Uni official suspended over fake degrees | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A jury in a U.S. federal court in Scranton, Pennsylvania says that Cabot Oil must pay plaintiffs $4.2 million in damages that resulted from Cabot's fracking operations in the northeast part of that state. | HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A federal jury ruled on Thursday that Cabot Oil & Gas Co must pay more than $4.2 million in damages to two families in northeastern Pennsylvania who said the company’s fracking operations contaminated their ground water.
Six jurors in federal court in Scranton awarded $1.3 million each to Scott Ely and Monica Marta-Ely, a married couple in Dimock. Each of their three children received an award of $50,000.
A second couple, Ray and Victoria Hubert, also of Dimock, about 32 miles (50 km) south of Binghamton, New York, each received $720,000, and their daughter Hope was awarded $50,000.
“This has been an exhausting 6-1/2 years,” Scott Ely said after the verdict.
He said Cabot fought hard and “boxed them in,” limiting the evidence his pro bono attorney, Leslie Lewis, could introduce, or what Ely could say in testimony.
“They are an arrogant company that bullies their way to what they want,” Ely said. “If they had just done the right thing, it would have been so much easier for them.”
Cabot spokesman George Stark said the company was surprised by the verdict, and again asserted there was no evidence linking contamination of the Ely and Hubert wells to their fracking operations.
“Cabot will be filing motions with the court to set the verdict aside based on the lack of evidence as well as conduct of plaintiff’s counsel calculated to deprive Cabot of a fair trial,” he said.
The Elys and Huberts were the last of more than 40 families who had sued Cabot. They alleged that their water was contaminated with methane gas after the company began using the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract gas from underground shale formations near Dimock in 2008.
The other families settled with the company in 2012.
“We haven’t had clean water since he was in kindergarten,” said Monica Marta-Ely, referring to her 13-year-old son, Jared, before the trial began.
The family’s lawyer, Lewis, accused Cabot of “reckless disregard” for the families’ safety.
Dimock gained notoriety in the 2010 documentary “Gasland” by Josh Fox. It showed local residents lighting their tap water on fire because of the high amount of methane it contained.
Stephen Dillard, a lawyer for Cabot, argued in court that the methane occurred naturally and was not caused by the company’s drilling operations. He contended that the ground water, while aesthetically displeasing, was safe to drink.
| Organization Fine | March 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Delegation of Statistics Canada on Environment Statistics Project visited NBS. | According to the arrangement of Sino-Canadian Statistical Information Management Project, a seven-person Delegation of Statistics Canada on Environment Statistics Project, headed by Mr. Robert Smith, Director of Environment Accounts and Statistics Division of Statistics Canada, visited NBS on October 28 to November 3 and made a week's conversation on the project. This visit aimed at examining China’s classification on environmental protection expenditure, questionnaire filling of the pilot survey, revision of pilot survey program, questionnaire and filling introductions, as well as the next phase plan of the project. During the visit, both sides made a review about the progress on the SIMPII environment statistics. China introduced the new progress on environmental protection expenditure classification and explanation, development and verification on pilot survey sample frame, pilot questionnaire filling and revising, as well as pilot survey program revising and other concerns to Canadian experts and made a deep discussion and communication on these topics.
Canadian experts introduced the process and steps on environment survey, and application of compilation, examination, interpolation, quality indicators and other methods used in the survey. Both sides discussed on the works in the next phase and activities in the future, and signed an agreement on bilateral visits.
Messers. Cha Zhimin, Deputy Director-General, Department of Social, Science and Technology Statistics, and Zhang Jun, Deputy Director-General, Department of International Cooperation of NBS, members of the Group of Environmental Protection Expenditure Statistics Program, and related officials from Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, State Forestry Administration, State Oceanic Administration, and the Divisions of Social, Science and Technology Statistics of Beijing and Chongqing Municipal Bureaux of Statistics and the Provincial Bureaux of Statistics of Jilin and Guangdong, attended the meeting. | Diplomatic Visit | November 2010 | ['(stats.gov.cn)'] |
Astronomers report, via The Astronomer's Telegram, that comet C/2019 Y4 appears to have disintegrated. | A comet that is hurtling towards Earth, prompting hopes for a blazing flyby, appears to have disintegrated, according to astronomers tracking it.
Comet Atlas had been forecast to become "really, really stunning" within weeks, as it got closer to Earth.
Astronomers expected that it could be seen moving among the stars before reaching its closest point to us, in May.
They spoke hopefully of spotting its greenish hue as it blazed through the solar system, though noted that much was still mysterious about the object, which was first spotted in May.
Now, however, the object appears to have broken up and will not make for such a beautiful – or even visible – sight once it actually arrives.
Astronomers tracking the journey of the comet, which is officially known as C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), show that it appears to have broken up.
Recent images show that there appears to be an "elongated pseudo-nucleus" that is lined up with the tail. That shape is in line with "a major disruption" of the comet, astronomers Quanzhi Ye and Qicheng Zhang wrote in a message to colleagues.
Those observations were confirmed in follow-up observations taken over the first week of April, confirming the shape and the indication that it seems to have broken apart.
Images taken by amateur astronomers showed that the comet may have broken into pieces in ways that could already be visible from Earth.
The Atlas Comet is still relatively new to astronomers, and so little is still known about it and how it could have broken up. As such, it could still be visible from Earth – either as a whole object or broken into pieces – but scientists are unlikely to know for sure until it gets closer to Earth.
| New wonders in nature | April 2020 | ['(ATLAS)', '(The Independent)'] |
40 Indians working for a Turkish construction company are abducted by militants in Mosul. | New Delhi: India said Wednesday that 40 Indians working for a Turkish construction company have been abducted from violence-hit Iraq.
The external affairs ministry did not say who had seized the workers although earlier media reports blamed it on the Sunni insurgents who have seized key cities in Iraq.
A ministry spokesman said the workers mostly belonged to the country’s northern states such as Punjab and worked for Tariq Noor al Huda company.
He said no ransom call had been received and the Iraq Red Crescent had “indicated to us that they were kidnapped”. He said their current location was not known.
Also Read: India fails to make contacts with kidnapped Indian workers in Mosul, Iraq
As the situation in Iraq worsened, the Indian government had yesterday called in the Iraqi envoyin New Delhi to discuss ways of helping Indian nationals trapped in the affected areas of Mosul and Tikrit and also held a crisis management meeting.
The external affairs ministry Tuesday evening announced the setting up of a 24-hour control room to provide information to all concerned. The Indian embassy in Baghdad has also set up a 24-hour helpline.
Also Read: Indians In Iraq are Topmost On Priority List: Syed Akbaruddin
There are 46 Indian nurses most of them from Kerala stranded in Tikrit and 41 construction workers are in Mosul.
Al Qaeda-linked Sunni militants have overrun large swathes of area in northern Iraq and taken over Mosul and Tikrit, killing hundreds of Shia troops.
On Tuesday, Baquba capital of Diyala province, 60 km from Baghdad saw Sunni militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) take control of several districts before government troops and allied Shia militia regained control, according to reports.
The US and Iran are actively considering ways to help the Iraqi government tackle the situation, including through military air strikes.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been monitoring and reviewing the situation on a regular basis and in accordance with her instructions, the Indian embassy in Baghdad is providing updated reports on the Indian nationals in the affected areas, said ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.
Anil Wadhwa, secretary (East) in the ministry, met Iraqi Ambassador Ahmed Derwari in South Block Tuesday.
Wadhwa also chaired a crisis management meeting on the Iraq situation to discuss possible ways to provide ground level help to the Indians there, said the spokesperson.
The Indian government is also keeping its options open for possible evacuation if the situation demands, a source added.
According to R. Dayakar, who retired as Indian ambassador in Iraq, while the situation in Iraq is cause for “enormous anxiety”, the need of the hour is to “keep cool” and let the Indian embassy in Baghdad handle the affairs.
“The Indian mission is doing the best job it can,” he said.
Dayakar, who was envoy for eight years in two stints, said the areas that have been taken over by the Sunni militants do not have a large Indian populace. Most of the Indians in Iraq are in Basra and Kurdistan, which are relatively safer places.
What makes providing safety to the Indians in Tikrit difficult is that there is no flight service from the city to Baghdad.
“The only way to the Iraqi capital is over land. There are chances of encountering jihadists at the fake check points they set up on the road,” Dayakar told IANS.
The former envoy, who was also joint secretary in charge of the Gulf in the ministry, said the fighting in Iraq is mainly political and, barring an incident where they took the Turkish envoy hostage, they have not harmed foreigners so far.
He also said the jihadists have not so far indulged in any kidnapping incidents either.
“The foreigners are not the targets (of the jihadists),” he said.
Dayakar said the Iraqi Red Crescent went and looked up the Indian nurses in Tikrit at the request of the Indian government.
Besides the Indian nationals, there are workers from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal working in the affected areas.
There are hundreds of Bangladeshi blue-collar workers in Iraq, including in Mosul and Tikrit, following an agreement between the two countries.
However, the 46 nurses from Kerala working in Iraq’s Tikrit city have been struck a double blow as not only have they been affected by the strife there, but their salaries have also been cut drastically.
A nurse told IANS over phone from Tikrit that 46 nurses were working at a government hospital in Tikrit.
“Thirty of them reached here last August, while 16 came this February. They were all promised a monthly salary of $750. But today (Tuesday), a new manager told us that the government that hired us has changed and now the new government can only pay $200,” said the nurse, whose identity has been withheld.
She said the nurses want to return home at the earliest, and were in touch with the Indian embassy in Iraq and the Red Crescent and asked them for jobs in other hospitals.
“We are all praying that something works out,” she said.
On Monday, India voiced its strong condemnation of attacks by terrorist outfits in Iraq, saying that the takeover of cities such as Mosul and Tikrit was a direct threat to security and territorial integrity of the West Asian country.
The external affairs ministry control room nos are: +91 11 2301 2113, +91 11 2301 7905, +91 11 2301 4104. Email: controlroom@mea.gov.in.
In addition, the Indian embassy in Baghdad has set up a 24-hour helpline which can be accessed for information or assistance. The numbers are: | Armed Conflict | June 2014 | ['(IANS via Biharprabha)'] |
The 2012 Rugby League Challenge Cup is won by Warrington Wolves, defeating Leeds Rhinos by 35 points to 18. | Last updated on 25 August 201225 August 2012.From the section Rugby League
Warrington Wolves won the Challenge Cup for a third time in four years, beating Leeds to inflict more Wembley misery on the Rhinos.
Joel Monaghan and Trent Waterhouse put Warrington 12-10 up at half-time, with Ian Kirke replying for Leeds.
Chris Riley, Tyrone McCarthy and Ryan Atkins then added further Wire scores.
Two late tries from Kallum Watkins proved academic as Lance Todd Trophy winner Brett Hodgson crossed to seal Warrington's victory.
Wolves full-back Hodgson also kicked five goals to be named as man of the match.
Leeds, Wembley runners-up three years on the trot, have now lost in each of their last six final appearances and their 13-year wait for Challenge Cup victory continues.
Just eight days earlier, Warrington, having rested only a handful of their Wembley line-up, were embarrassingly battered 62-18 by London Broncos at The Stoop.
But, on their return to the capital, Tony Smith's men showed their class on the big day.
Smith twice coached Leeds to Grand Final glory in 2004 and 2007, but although that honour has so far eluded him in his three attempts to date with Warrington, he has at least been able to earn success in rugby league's other major domestic competition, by adding to the Wolves' victories over Huddersfield in 2009 and Leeds in 2010.
Leeds looked to have the edge in the early skirmishes, yet it was Warrington who went ahead on seven minutes.
Ben Westwood's offload kept the ball alive from a scrum near the halfway line, Richie Myler cashing in on the space to unleash a precisely-placed bomb to the right corner.
Winger Monaghan caught it at full stretch before diving for the line in one movement to claim his 54th try in 52 appearances for Wire, Hodgson making light of being so close to the touchline by smoothly adding the extras.
The thunderclouds over Wembley seemed to warn that the Wolves were on the rampage - and their continued pressure looked likely to earn more reward. But, when the heavens finally opened in north-west London 10 minutes later, it was to mark a Leeds try.
Kirke powered his way over from Sinfield's pass to snake his arm over the line to score from close range, his first try of the season, the Leeds captain duly converting.
And, as both teams soldiered gamely under an untimely August Bank Holiday weekend deluge, when Wire substitute Paul Wood's straight right caught Leeds centre Carl Ablett squarely on the jaw on 23 minutes, the resulting punishment was Sinfield adding another two points with a penalty to earn the Rhinos an 8-6 lead.
But, on 29 minutes, Warrington were back in front, Australian forward Waterhouse charging over after quick hands from Michael Monaghan and Myler, Hodgson routinely converting to make it 12-8.
It looked another try might be on the cards two minutes from the break when Monaghan gathered Sinfield's crossfield bomb to the left corner, eluded the Rhinos' cover and set off in pursuit of the try-line. But, on the intervention of the touch judge, play was brought back to where, in trying to gather Sinfield's kick, Ryan Hall had been obstructed by Lee Briers.
And the penalty gave Sinfield the chance to reduce the half-time deficit to just 12-10.
Although the rainstorm came to an end during the interval, there was no let-up in the pounding of the tackles - as demonstrated by Leeds prop Kylie Leuluai's hit on a dazed Hodgson three minutes after the restart.
The ball ran loose, allowing Brett Delaney to gallop for the line, but video referee Phil Bentham eventually ruled 'no try' for Leuluai's unwitting knock-on, rather than for the challenge itself or Delaney being in an offside position. It proved to be a match-turning moment. Rather than Leeds recapturing the lead, Wire stretched further clear on 49 minutes when Hodgson and Ryan Atkins created the space for winger Riley to nip in at the right corner.
Hodgson pulled the conversion left of the posts but, just six minutes later, it looked like 'game over' when, from another stunning Hodgson pass, Warrington top scorer Atkins also went in at the right corner.
Having missed the first of those two touchline kicks, Hodgson succeeded with the second to earn Smith's men a 22-10 lead. And, when Tyrone McCarthy dived over for the last of three Wire tries in 10 minutes, Hodgson added another.
Briers landed a drop goal before centre Kallum Watkins raced clear to claim the first of two late consolation tries. But, in between, man of the match Hodgson stole the show, charging over for a try of his own before adding the goal to complete an individual 14-point haul. | Sports Competition | August 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Police in Anchorage, Alaska charge Brian Steven Smith, who was arrested on October 8 for the murder of Kathleen Jo Henry, with a second murder, that of Veronica Abouchuk. Smith reportedly confessed to killing Abouchuk and told authorities where her body could be found. | A man accused of killing a woman who was seen strangled in videos on a digital memory card was charged Thursday with the death of another woman, authorities in Alaska said.
Brian Steven Smith acknowledged to detectives that he was the man in the images and videos recovered from the card, according to a document filed by the state Department of Law. Smith, 48, also said he shot another woman and told police where he disposed of her body, the document states.
Anchorage police identified that woman as Veronica Abouchuk. Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll told reporters Abouchuk’s family reported her missing in February, but he said she had last been seen by them in July 2018.
A grand jury indicted Smith on Thursday on murder and evidence tampering charges in the death of Abouchuk. According to the bail memo, Alaska State Troopers earlier this year recovered a skull with a gunshot wound in an area near the location Smith later provided.
It was identified as Abouchuk, who was referred to by initials in the document.
Smith previously pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, sexual assault and tampering in the death of 30-year-old Kathleen Henry. According to police and court documents, a memory card found on the ground in Anchorage contained videos showing her being strangled and pictures of her lying face down in the back of a truck.
Smith’s attorney, Dan Lowery, an assistant public defender, said earlier this week he does not comment on pending cases.
The Department of Law has asked that bond be set at $2 million.
The department said Smith poses a “significant public safety risk” and it considers him a flight risk. “After he committed each murder, he dumped the body along the side of a road like unwanted trash,” the document states.
Smith came to Alaska from South Africa about five years ago and became a naturalized U.S. citizen last month, according to the bail memo. Police were tipped off to Smith after investigators recognized his unique accent on the videos from another investigation.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2019 | ['(KTLA Los Angeles)'] |
Campaigning ends and voting begins in the suburbs of Atlanta in the U.S. state of Georgia between Republican Karen Handel and Democratic Jon Ossoff, where Republican Handel wins the election by a narrow margin. , | Republican Karen Handel staved off a furious challenge from Democrat Jon Ossoff on Tuesday in a race to represent a suburban Atlanta seat in Congress, as the GOP and President Donald Trump avoided an embarrassing defeat in the most expensive U.S. House contest in history.
A former Georgia secretary of state, Handel emphasized her experience and roots in Georgia's 6th Congressional District to defeat Ossoff and keep a seat that's long been held by Republicans in GOP hands. She becomes Georgia's first female Republican member of the U.S. House.
Her victory will be cast as a win for Trump, who campaigned for Handel and hurled a string of antagonizing tweets at Ossoff. And it could buoy jittery GOP incumbents who worry that allying with Trump in competitive districts could doom them.
She overcame stiff opposition from Ossoff, a 30-year-old investigative filmmaker who fast became a rising Democratic star. With a carefully calibrated message, Ossoff shattered fundraising records as he appealed to liberals infuriated by Trump and GOP voters frustrated at Washington gridlock.
His huge fundraising hauls – he raised at least $23 million – kept his message on metro Atlanta’s airwaves and allowed him to target irregular voters and others who rarely cast ballots for Democrats. And a legion of more than 12,000 Ossoff volunteers inundated the district with appeals to vote. But in the end, the money and Democratic energy wasn’t enough to overcome the district’s Republican underpinning.
Once a fervent anti-establishment candidate, Handel ran in this contest as a traditional conservative voice who backed Trump and his top priorities while saying she won’t be an “extension” of the White House.
She also relentlessly attacked Ossoff as an inexperienced stooge of national Democrats funded by out-of-state interlopers. At every turn, she sought to remind voters that Ossoff lived outside the district and that his values were “3,000 miles away.”
Handel won the conservative-leaning district, which stretches from the outskirts of Marietta to north DeKalb County, by running up big margins in GOP strongholds in places such as east Cobb County and Milton where Republicans have long thrived.
She also was able to overcome concerns with Trump across the territory. The president only narrowly carried the district in November, and polls showed him with weak approval ratings. But after keeping him at arm’s length early in the race, she aggressively embraced him after she landed a spot in the runoff in April.
The race - which cost more than $50 million – was over little more than a short-term lease to fill the remainder of former U.S. Rep. Tom Price’s term. She’s likely to face another tough Democratic challenger in November 2018, although Ossoff has said he hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll run again. | Government Job change - Election | June 2017 | ['(Atlanta Journal Constitution)', '(The New York Times)'] |
The Indian state of Gujarat seeks the death penalty for ten people involved in the Naroda Patiya massacre in 2002 including former minister Maya Kodnani who had been earlier sentenced to prison sentences. | The Gujarat Government has decided to seek death penalty for Maya Kodnani, a former minister in Narendra Modi government, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Patel and eight others in connection with the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case. Zee Media Bureau
Ahmedabad: In an unexpected turn of events, the Gujarat Government has decided to seek death penalty for Maya Kodnani, a former minister in Narendra Modi government, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Patel alias Bajrangi and eight others in connection with the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case. The Gujarat government is soon expected to file an appeal in the state High Court challenging the Special Court`s judgement awarding life sentence to the convicts, it was reported on Wednesday.
"The legal department has formed a panel of three advocates who have been asked to prepare an appeal to be filed in the High Court and seek death sentence for 10 convicts in the case, including Kodnani and Bajrangi, who were awarded life sentence by the trial court," Assistant Public Prosecutor Gaurang Vyas said late on Tuesday.
Government will be filing the appeal after a gap of seven months, whereas stipulated time for challenging a lower court`s order is three months. The state will have to seek approval from the High Court to file the appeal due to lapse of time.
Vyas has been appointed Assistant Public Prosecutor along with advocate Alpesh Kogje, while senior counsel Prashant Desai will represent the State Government as Special Public Prosecutor in the high-profile post-Godhra riot case.
Apart from seeking death sentence for 10 convicts, the appeal, likely to be filed next week, will press for enhancement of 24-year jail term to 30 years for 22 convicts given life sentence by the trial court, Vyas said.
The prosecution will also challenge designated court`s order to acquit 29 accused. In August last year, trial court Judge Jyostna Yagnik sentenced Kodnani to 28 years jail, while Bajrangi was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison. Eight others were awarded 31-year imprisonment, while 22 convicts got 24 years prison term. As many as 97 people were brutally killed in Naroda Patiya locality of the city by a violent mob on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train carnage triggered communal riots in Gujarat. With PTI Inputs | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2013 | ['(Zee News)'] |
The Egyptian military takes control of state TV studios and places a travel ban on Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders as a military coup d'etat unfolds, following a week of anti-government unrest. | Mohamed Morsi rejected a military ultimatum to strike a deal with his opponents tonight and declared himself Egypt’s legitimate leader – despite the eruption in Cairo of deadly gun battles during rallies to shore up his teetering position.
In a televised address to the nation, the Egyptian leader vowed to defend his “constitutional legitimacy” and refused to heed the millions of protesters who have called for him to step down since Sunday.
““The price of preserving legitimacy is my life,” he said. “Legitimacy is the only guarantee to preserve the country.”
Mr Morsi’s defiant comments set the stage for a coming confrontation. Political opponents who have spearheaded a nationwide insurrection want him to stand aside immediately and call early presidential elections.
The military meanwhile have given him a deadline of 48 hours in which to come to terms with the opposition. At around 4pm this afternoon, that deadline will expire.
Mohamed Morsi will wake up this morning as President of the Arab Republic of Egypt. By nightfall, if the opposition have their way, he may have been toppled in a coup d'etat.
In Egypt’s capital last night there were growing signs of the tensions which some Egyptians fear may be pulling the country apart.
At Cairo University gun battles erupted during a mass rally which had been called by the Muslim Brotherhood in response to the military’s ultimatum.
Hundreds of Morsi supporters and their opponents battled for hours in the streets alongside the university. The clashes started with rock throwing and exchanges of Molotov cocktails. But as the fighting intensified, sustained bursts of pistol and automatic weapon fire could be heard echoing down the streets.
At one point a pro-Morsi supporter strode down the main road next to the university, took aim with his shotgun and fired several rounds off down the street. Shortly afterwards the opposition attackers charged them back down the main avenue, sending rounds of birdshot ricocheting into the walls and bullets fizzing overhead.
Further north in the Kitkat neighbourhood of Cairo, local media reports said another Brotherhood rally came under attack from residents firing birdshot pellets. At least seven people were killed during the violent clashes in the capital, according to the Associated Press.
Elsewhere in Cairo and across the country there were several mass rallies which remained entirely peaceful – though activists again reported at least 25 cases of sexual assault in the centre of the capital.
Opposition protesters continued their vigil in Tahrir Square and outside Heliopolis Palace, the seat of Mr Morsi. There was also a march on Qubba Palace, the residence currently being used by the President.
In the east Cairo suburb of Nasr City, where pro-Morsi supporters have been staging a sit-in since Sunday, thousands gathered to pledge their allegiance to the Egyptian leader. Speaking to the Independent amid the rumble of drums and buoyant chanting, many seemed unperturbed about the impending threat of military intervention.
“The Egyptian army is a national army,” said one protester. “Even if all the people here die first, Mohamed Morsi will not fall. The legitimacy of the people is stronger than the power of the army.”
But others were more wary. “Mohamed Morsi is the legitimately elected President of Egypt,” said Ibrahim Youssef, 35. “If there are clashes we are ready and we will die for our cause.”
Many among the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies consider the current uprising to be a betrayal of democracy. After winning a series of elections which culminated in last year’s Presidential poll, they feel cheated and disenchanted.
Some analysts have warned of an “Algeria scenario”, with a violent Islamist backlash tearing the state apart. But according to Egypt expert Khalil al-Anani, such an eventuality is unlikely.
Whereas in Algeria the military cancelled elections because of its fears about Islamism, he said, in Egypt the generals have their sights on Morsi because of his perceived incompetence.
“The current opposition is not because he is an Islamist but because he has failed on economic issues,” he said. The army will also try to keep the Brotherhood on side, argued Dr al-Anani, making polarisation less likely.
Of far greater risk, according to Maha Azzam, a Brotherhood expert from Chatham House, is the threat of long-term radicalisation.
“Moderate Islamists felt they wanted to go down the democratic route,” she said. “Like others before them, having achieved power they were then denied power. For them this is undermining the whole idea of democracy.
“The opposition have said the results of the ballot box are not enough. Democracy is not about the ballot box.”
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
| Riot | July 2013 | ['(The Independent)'] |
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have pulled back to take up new positions defending the town of Musa Qala during a battle with the Afghan National Army and the International Security Assistance Force. | Afghan and Nato forces are trying to recapture the town, the only major Afghan centre in Taleban hands.
Twelve Taleban fighters, two children and a British soldier are reported killed in the battle. A second Nato soldier died in the area on Sunday. The Taleban still control the town but have been forced back, reports say.
A statement from the Afghan defence ministry identified the two local Taleban leaders as Mullah Mateen Akhond and Mullah Rahim Akhond.
A defence ministry spokesman said the battle was going well so far.
"The reports which we have received from the site so far indicate that most of the enemy personnel have laid down their weapons and are leaving the area in civilian clothes," said the spokesman, Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi.
The Defence Ministry's claims could not be independently confirmed. Heavy bombardments
The joint force of Afghan, British and US troops is reported to have Musa Qala surrounded from all sides and is edging closer to the town itself.
The assault was launched late on Friday and there have been fierce fire fights and heavy bombardments since then.
Afghan troops are playing a key part in the operation
Exchanges of gunfire on Sunday morning were later reported to have died down.
A British military spokesman said Nato forces were helping to pave the way for Afghan troops to seize and hold the town.
"Once the door is kicked in, the Afghan army will enter," said Lt Col Richard Eaton.
The Afghan defence ministry called on the Taleban fighters to lay down their weapons "or face waves of attacks".
'Iconic town'
The Taleban have held the town since February, when they retook it after British troops pulled out last year.
It is the only major town held by the Taleban and is at the centre of a major opium poppy growing area.
The heavy blows from the ground and the air seem to have forced the Taleban to pull back closer to the centre of Musa Qala, but they say they withdrew from two frontline villages because of civilian casualties there.
Nonetheless, Taleban commanders have said they will defend the town from fortified positions covered by minefields.
Musa Qala is believed to be mostly empty of civilians, many of whom fled after tribal elders were told of the attack and warning leaflets were dropped from the air, says the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul.
UK Defence Minister Des Browne, who is in Kabul, said the town had taken on iconic importance.
The Taleban took it over in February, in contravention of a controversial deal brokered with tribal elders when British troops withdrew.
It has since become the main centre of drugs trading in Afghanistan, our correspondent says.
The assault is the first major operation where the new Afghan army is playing a leading role. | Armed Conflict | December 2007 | ['(BBC News)'] |
U.S. actor Jack Klugman, who starred in the 1970s hit TV series The Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E., dies at the age of 90. | US actor Jack Klugman, who starred in hit TV series in the 1970s and 80s, has died at the age of 90.
He passed away in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, his son Adam said, without giving further details.
Klugman played a no-nonsense medical investigator in Quincy M.E. and a sloppy sports writer in The Odd Couple. The actor lost his voice to throat cancer in the 1980s but later trained himself to speak again. He returned to acting in the 1990s.
In his later years, he guest-starred on TV series including Third Watch and Crossing Jordan.
Off-screen, he owned racehorses and enjoyed gambling.
"The only really stupid thing I ever did in my life was to start smoking," he said in 1996. He said seeing people smoking on television and films "disgusts me, it makes me so angry - kids are watching".
Klugman's first wife, actress-comedian Brett Somers, played his ex-wife, Blanche, in the Odd Couple series. They married in 1953 and had two sons, Adam and David, but had been estranged for years by the time of her death in 2007.
In February 2008, aged 85, Klugman married long-term partner Peggy Crosby, who was with him when he died Monday.
"He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
His brother David added: "His sons loved him very much. We'll carry on in his spirit."
"RIP Jack Klugman. You made my whole family laugh together," actor-director Jon Favreau wrote on Twitter.
"He was a wonderful man and supremely talented actor," wrote actor Max Greenfield. "He will be missed."
| Famous Person - Death | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
More than 408 people are confirmed dead and at least 540 injured after a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake which hit Palu and Donggala, Indonesia, on Friday. | Rescuers have been digging by hand in the frantic search for survivors in the Indonesian city of Palu, which is reeling from an earthquake and tsunami.
At least 408 people have been killed but there are fears the death toll could rise significantly as workers reach areas closer to the epicentre. Search efforts are being hampered by blocked roads and a collapsed bridge.
The Red Cross estimates that more than 1.6 million people have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
There are particular concerns about the town of Donggala, where the impact is still unclear.
"This is already a tragedy, but it could get much worse," the Red Cross said in a statement.
Yenni Suryani, the Indonesia country manager for the aid agency Catholic Relief Services, said Donggala appears to be inaccessible by road or air and that help may have to come by sea. Strong aftershocks have continued to hit the island since Friday's earthquake.
Rescue teams dug by hand to free 24 people trapped in the rubble of the Roa-Roa hotel in the city of Palu. The hotel's owner told local media people could still be heard crying out for help, but said that no heavy lifting equipment was available to rescue them.
Dozens remain missing in the city of 335,000, some thought to be trapped in the debris of collapsed buildings.
Bodies have been lying in city streets and the injured are being treated in tents because of damage to hospitals. Anxious survivors in Palu bedded down in the open air on Saturday night, heeding advice by officials not to return to their homes as a precaution. By Rebecca Henschke, in Poso
In Poso, a four-hour drive from Palu, supplies are running out. State-owned petrol stations have closed as they have run dry. People are queuing up at roadside stalls, buying petrol in bottles to take into the affected area and to find missing loved ones. Supermarkets have limited food left and it is difficult to find bottled water. Ermi Liana, who is travelling with our BBC team, doesn't know if her parents are alive. "They live close to the bridge that collapsed. I can't reach them by phone," she says. "I can only pray they are alive."
We haven't seen any aid heading in and there is still no communication link to the town of Donggala.
The 7.5 magnitude quake occurred at a shallow depth of 10km (6.2 miles) just off the central island of Sulawesi at 18:03 (10:03 GMT), triggering a tsunami, US monitors say. Many people were on the beach in Palu, preparing for a festival, and were caught when waves up to 3m (10ft) in height swept in.
Video shows people screaming and fleeing in panic. "The tsunami... dragged cars, logs, houses," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster agency, told Reuters news agency. "It hit everything on land." As well as destroying homes, the quake wrecked a shopping centre, a mosque, a hotel and a road bridge.
An air traffic controller at Palu airport died ensuring a plane took off safely after Friday's quake. When the quake hit, "we all panicked and ran out of the house," Anser Bachmid, 39, told AFP news agency. "People here need aid - food, drink, clean water. We don't know what to eat for dinner tonight." "I just ran when I saw the waves hitting homes on the coastline," Palu resident Rusidanto said.
Dwi Haris, who was in the city for a wedding, was staying in a hotel with his wife and daughter when the quake struck.
"There was no time to save ourselves," he told the Associated Press news agency. "I was squeezed into the ruins of the wall... I heard my wife cry for help but then silence. I don't know what happened to her and my child. I hope they are safe."
With back and shoulder injuries, he is being treated outdoors at Palu's Army Hospital.
Aid is being flown from the capital Jakarta into Palu airport, using the part of its runway still intact.
Patients are being treated in the open outside city hospitals and at least one military field hospital has been erected.
The regional head of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI), Komang, asked the authorities for immediate help. "We need tents, medicines, medical personnel, tarpaulins, blankets and more of other things," he said.
The UK-based charity Save the Children is sending an assessment team to the disaster zone.
"Unfortunately the more information that we're getting, the worse the situation appears to be," charity spokesman Tom Howells told the BBC from Jakarta. Have you been affected by the earthquake? If it is safe to do so, share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk | Tsunamis | September 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Six people die and 20 are injured in two bomb blasts in the Pakistani city of Lahore. | Many of the injured are in critical condition and doctors fear the death toll may rise.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Police say the blasts were not targeted against a particular person or community, but were aimed at creating panic in the country.
A home-made explosive device fitted to a bicycle exploded on Thursday morning near the inter-city bus terminal and just outside a busy public park.
The two blasts look quite similar to each other, and we fear that there may be more blasts
Shafqaat Ahmad, Senior Superintendent of Police in Lahore
One passer-by was killed instantly and several others injured in the blast which police say was triggered by a timing device.
A second, more powerful, explosion occurred an hour later in the commercial area of Icchra.
Two people died immediately in the explosion and three others died later in hospital.
Police fears
Authorities have not blamed any particular group for the blast, but they say similar tactics were used to detonate both bombs.
Senior Superintendent of Police in Lahore Chaudhry Shafqaat Ahmad told Reuters: "The two blasts look quite similar to each other, and we fear that there may be more blasts."
Shopkeeper Mohammed Aslam, an eyewitness at the second blast, said "Something exploded with a big bang."
"People were running for help and at the site of the blast, I saw many injured people who were bleeding. I saw blood, flesh and dust everywhere," he told Associated Press.
Four people have been arrested in the last two weeks for possessing explosive materials near inter-city bus terminals in two towns in Punjab province.
But it is not clear whether these arrests were linked to the group that carried out Thursday's attacks. | Armed Conflict | September 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
A foreign exchange trader, Rohan Ramchandani, has filed a lawsuit against Citigroup. Ramchandani won acquittal last year after criminal charges of market manipulation. He claims that the charges were instigated by his former employer in order to mitigate the regulatory consequences for its own misbehavior. . | LONDON (Reuters) - A London-based former Citigroup C.N trader is suing the U.S. bank for more than $112 million, alleging it made materially false and malicious statements to U.S. prosecutors that led to his trial in New York on foreign exchange-rigging charges.
Rohan Ramchandani, the former European head of Citigroup’s forex spot market trading desk, alleges in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday that Citigroup made false and “gravely derogatory” assertions against him to government investigators and the media after firing him in 2014 without cause.
“Ultimately, Citi quite literally fabricated an antitrust case for the United States Department of Justice against Ramchandani based upon knowingly false allegations that he engaged in market ‘manipulation’ and ‘collusion’,” read the complaint filed in the federal court in Manhattan.
A spokeswoman for Citigroup in London said the bank rejected the allegations and would fight the case.
“Mr. Ramchandani’s claims of malicious prosecution are without merit and we will contest them vigorously,” she said.
A New York jury last year cleared Ramchandani, alongside two other London-based currency traders, of scheming to rig benchmark exchange rates in the $5.3 trillion-per-day foreign exchange markets after just hours of deliberation.
The verdict was a blow for U.S. authorities, which alongside Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had fined some of the world’s most powerful banks -- including Citigroup -- a total of around $10 billion over the foreign exchange scandal.
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) abandoned its own criminal investigation into currency rigging allegations in 2016, saying it lacked sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution.
Ramchandani alleges that a Citigroup lawyer, who is not named in the filings but who he said had “full knowledge” of the facts, had recognized that he had not engaged in intentional wrongful conduct or violated any law or regulation.
He also alleges his manager at Citigroup, an experienced forex spot market trader tasked with reviewing and evaluating Ramchandani’s communications, had volunteered that Ramchandani had not engaged in “collusion or price fixing” and there was “nothing criminal” in his intent or actions.
Citigroup only pleaded guilty in May 2015 to conspiring to manipulate currencies in order to pin the blame on Ramchandani and to limit the regulatory consequences for their senior managers and officers, the former trader alleged.
Ramchandani alleged that although he had been acquitted, Citigroup’s conduct had cost him tens of millions of dollars, damaged his reputation and ended his successful and well-paid professional career.
He is demanding a trial by jury.
Reporting by Kirstin Ridley and C Nivedita; Editing by Alexandra Hudson
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Singaporean swimmer Joseph Schooling defeats American swimmer Michael Phelps in the 100 m butterfly event, attaining Singapore's first-ever Olympic gold; Schooling's winning time of 50.39 seconds is an Olympic, Asian, and national record. | RIO DE JANEIRO — What the vault is to the United States gymnast Simone Biles, the 100-meter butterfly is to the five-time Olympian Michael Phelps. The shortest individual race in Phelps’s Olympic program has always been his toughest. His three consecutive victories, starting at the 2004 Games in Athens, came by a total margin of 28-hundredths of a second.
In his previous three finals, Phelps had never been better than fifth after the first 50. In Friday night’s final, he turned sixth, more than a half-second behind the leader, Joseph Schooling of Singapore, a rising junior and all-American swimmer at Texas. | Sports Competition | August 2016 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
During a visit to Baghdad, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces that the United States will be sending more troops to the country to help in the fight against ISIL. The U.S. also plans to give Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which are fighting ISIL on the ground, more than $400m (£280m; €350m) in assistance. | The US is to send 200 extra troops to Iraq to help fight so-called Islamic State (IS), officials say.
The deployment will increase the number of US personnel in Iraq to about 4,100.
Alongside the additional troops, Apache attack helicopters will be deployed for the first time against IS in Iraq.
US Defence Secretary Ash Carter made the announcement during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, where he met with US military officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
The US also plans to give Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which are fighting IS on the ground, more than $400m (£280m; €350m) in assistance. Co-operation between the two forces was evident on Monday when Kurdish officials said they had killed a senior IS commander in the south of Mosul in a joint raid with US special forces.
According to the officials, the operation in Hamam Alil resulted in the death of Salman Abu Shabib al-Jebouri, a leading member of the IS military council, and two of his aides.
Most of the additional 200 US troops will be special forces, according to the Associated Press. The remainder will include trainers, security forces for the advisers, and maintenance crews for the Apaches. The Apaches would help Iraqi forces to recapture the country's second city of Mosul from IS, Mr Carter said.
The US is leading an international coalition that has been bombing IS targets since August 2014.
IS seized large areas of Iraq, north and west of Baghdad, in 2014, but Iraqi forces have recaptured significant ground from the jihadists in recent months.
The Pentagon has been arguing for some time that it should increase the numbers of troops and in particular special forces in Iraq. It now seems that Defence Secretary Ash Carter has got the White House to agree. The enlarged presence is likely to see the numbers of US troops close to the front line rise, as the advise and assist role they undertake means they work closely with their Iraqi counterparts involved in the fighting. Just last month, a US marine was killed in combat when the Islamic State Group fired Katyusha rockets at a base close to Mosul. This stepping up comes as the battle for Mosul starts to become a reality. Iraq's second largest city is seen as key in the war to squeeze IS out of Iraq and Syria.
| Diplomatic Visit | April 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
A 37-year-old man is arrested for allegedly planning a terrorist bombing against a Covid-19 vaccination site in Den Helder. | Police have arrested a man who they say was planning to attack a coronavirus vaccination location with a firework bomb in the naval town of Den Helder.
The man, who is 37, comes from Den Helder himself and is suspected of planning a terrorist attack on the former town hall, which is now used as a vaccination centre, the public prosecution department said in a statement.
He was arrested on March 18 but the news has only just become public. Officials declined to say how far advanced his plans were.
The man’s aim, the public prosecution department says, was to ‘terrify the population and disrupt the country’s economic and social structures.’ The vaccination programme is a crucial government process which the man was planning to sabotage in a violent way, the department said.
This is not the first time that a vaccination centre or test location has been a target. A month ago, an explosive went off outside a coronavirus test centre in Bovenkarspel and there have also been incidents in Breda, Beek en Donk, Urk and Hilversum.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2021 | ['(NLTimes)', '(Dutch News)'] |
The government of Vietnam reports that it has culled more than 100,000 poultry in 14 provinces so far this year in a bid to contain the spread of highly pathogenic H5N1 and H5N6 bird flu strains. | HANOI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Vietnam has culled more 100,000 poultry so far this year in a bid to contain the spread of bird flu in the Southeast Asian country, the government said on Monday. The country has reported outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 and H5N6 bird flu strains in 14 provinces, the government said in a statement on its website.
"The risk for the outbreaks to spread on a larger scale is very high," the statement said.
Vietnam has a poultry flock of around 460 million birds, and small-scale bird flu outbreaks have occurred sporadically in the country during the past few years. | Disease Outbreaks | February 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A light aircraft crashes in the Ghatkopar district of Mumbai, India, killing all four occupants and one person on the ground. | Five people were killed after a small plane crashed into a construction site in a thickly populated suburb of Mumbai this afternoon. The plane was about to land at the Mumbai airport when it crashed some distance away in Ghatkopar, killing all four on board - two pilots and two maintenance engineers.
One man was also killed as the plane crashed at a spot that sits next to several high-rise residential buildings.
The plane, a Beechcraft King Air C 90 turboprop, was sold by the Uttar Pradesh government to a Mumbai-based UY aviation company in 2014. "The deal was done after the plane had met with an accident in Allahabad," UP official Avnish Awasthi was quoted as telling ANI.
Former civil aviation minister Praful Patel tweeted that the pilot saved many lives at the cost of her own, by swerving to avoid crashing in a busy area.
Saddened to hear about the unfortunate incident at #ghatkopar as Charter plane crashes in an open area. Salute to the pilot who showed presence of mind to avoid a big mishap, saving many lives at the cost of her own life. #RIP to all the 5 Dead. My deepest condolences.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA, the 12-seater plane had taken off from the Juhu airstrip on a test flight.
In visuals on TV and social media, flames and black smoke were seen rising from the wreckage. A large crowd gathered around the debris, many carrying umbrellas in the rain, as firemen sifted through the debris.
"There was a huge explosion and the adjacent tree caught fire and the fire spilled on the streets," a man told NDTV.
The plane crashed through the boundary wall of the under construction residential complex and burst into flames leaving a strong smell of aviation fuel all over the area. Aircraft parts like the engines, propellers and landing gear were completely burnt even before the fire brigade could reach the spot.
"Initially we assumed an electric box in the under construction building must have caught fire but when we checked out the spot, we found the charred body of a man who apparently was on bike when the plane crashed," he added.
Firefighters at the site of the plane crash in Mumbai's Ghatkopar
It took over an hour to put out the fire. The black box of the aircraft has been recovered and the DGCA has already started a preliminary probe into what caused the crash. Teams from the DGCA and Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting or ARFF have already begun collecting evidence from the crash site.
"There was a loud bang and then we saw the plane," said a teenager who lives in the neighbourhood.
A resident of an apartment complex, Patel Niwas, added: "We are used to planes flying overhead. We thought there was an explosion at the construction site. Only later we realized that a plane had crashed."
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world. Watch Live News: | Air crash | June 2018 | ['(NDTV)', '(BBC)'] |
Abdurrahim El–Keib is named as the new interim Prime Minister of Libya by the country's National Transitional Council. | The National Transitional Council (NTC) made the announcement days after declaring the country "liberated" following the death of Colonel Gaddafi.
It also coincides with the official end of the Nato air campaign that helped overthrow the long-time leader.
The NTC wants a national congress to be elected within eight months, and multi-party elections in Libya in 2013. Mr Keib, an academic specialising in electrical engineering and based in Tripoli, beat eight other candidates to receive 26 of the 51 votes from members of the NTC.
The BBC's Katya Adler in Tripoli says he is seen as a consensus candidate who could smooth over rivalries within the NTC.
Mr Keib is expected to appoint a cabinet in the coming days. The new interim government will run Libya until elections are held.
He replaces Mahmoud Jibril, who said he would stand down once Libya was declared officially "liberated" - which happened on 23 October, after the death of Col Gaddafi and the fall of his hometown of Sirte.
Spokesman Jalal el-Gallal said the NTC wanted to form an interim government after the fall of Col Gaddafi because its initial members started out as an impromptu group, the Associated Press news agency reports.
"This vote proves that Libyans are able to build their future," NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil was quoted as saying after he voted.
A National Transitional Council was formed in February to act as "the political face of the revolution".
In March, it declared itself to be the "sole representative of all Libya" and chose Mr Jalil as its chairman.
France was the first country to recognise the council as Libya's legitimate government.
By the time rebel forces entered Tripoli on 21 August, 35 countries had recognised the NTC government. More than 100 nations now do so.
The announcement of the new prime minister came just a few hours before Nato's mission in Libya was formally due to end, at one minute to midnight Libyan time (21:59 GMT) on Monday.
Nato forces, acting under a UN Security Council mandate to protect civilians, began operations on 19 March as Gaddafi forces moved towards the eastern city of Benghazi to crush the uprising.
Earlier, Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen paid a visit to Tripoli and said the organisation was proud to have played its part during the uprising.
"At midnight tonight, a successful chapter in Nato's history is coming to an end," he said at a news conference. "But you have also started writing a new chapter in Libya's history." He said Nato could continue to help with "defence and security reform", but that it was time for the United Nations to take the lead in international assistance for Libya | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
A U.S. television reporter and her cameraman, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, are shot dead during a live broadcast in Moneta, Virginia; the woman they were interviewing, Vicki Gardner, is wounded. The alleged shooter, Vester Lee Flanagan II, later uploads a video of the murder and commits suicide. | Moneta, Va. -24-year-old reporter Alison Parker and 27-year-old photographer Adam Ward from local news station WDBJ in Roanoke werekilled Wednesday morning during a live news broadcast.
Police say the suspect was 41-year-oldVester Lee Flanagan. He is a former reporter at WDBJ that went by the name Bryce Williams.
The shooting occurred at Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta, Virginia.
Flanagan was pursued for several hours before reportedly shooting himself on I-66 in Fauquier County.He was taken to the hospital before being pronounced dead several hours later.
A timeline of the events are detailed below:
Screengrab of shooter, believed to be Vester Flanagan, aka Bryce Williams
During a live interview at 6:45 a.m. from Bridgewater Plaza at Smith Mountain Lake, approximately eight gunshots wereheard as reporter Alison Parker is seen interviewing someone on screen. The camera, held by photographer Adam Ward, then drops to the ground and the broadcast cuts back to the anchor desk.
The video captures an image of the what's believed to be the suspected shooter before it cuts away.
A short time later, WDBJ confirmed that Parker and Ward were killed in the shooting.Parker was 24. Ward was 27.
Both grew up in Southwest Virginia.Parkerwas a 2012 graduate of James Madison University and was dating a anchor Chris Hurst at WDBJ. He described her in an interview with NewsChannel 3's Gabriella Deluca
"She is inside and out the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, and I was lucky enough to call her mygirlfriend,” says Hurst who announced that the two had been dating for the past nine months.
Ward was a2011 graduate of Virginia Tech and engaged to a morning show producer at WDBJ.
The woman being interviewed, Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, was shot in the back and was taken via ambulance to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital where she is currently in good condition.
In a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said Flanagan left the scene of the crime and drove his 2009 Ford Mustang to the Roanoke Regional Airport. He then left the airport in a Chevrolet Sonic that he rented earlier in the month. The Mustang has been recovered as evidence.
Virginia State Police report they spotted Flanagan's vehicle traveling eastbound on I-66 just before 11:30 a.m.
Flanagan then led them on a pursuit for several minutes before he ran off the road and crashed into the median.
When troopers approached the vehicle, they found Flanagan suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was flown to a Inova Fairfax Hospital where he died around 1:30 p.m.,the Franklin County Sheriff's Office said in a news conference.
He appears to have posted several times to Twitter and Facebook accounts under the name Bryce Williams as hewasbeing pursued. He made a series of tweets alleging several work-relatedissues with Parker and Ward and also included a graphic video showing the shooting from his perspective. The Twitter account and Facebook account were quickly removed.
The WDBJ station manager says Flanagan had previously sued the station for discrimination in 2014. He also filed a discrimination lawsuit against an NBC affiliate in Tallahassee in 2000.
ABC News reports sometime overnight, theyreceived a 23-page fax from someone who says he is Bryce Williams that they have turned over to authorities.
They also report that someone claiming to be Bryce Williams called ABC News around 10:00 a.m. and said that his real name was Vester Lee Flanagan, that he shot two people, and that he was being pursued.
ABC News has released some of the details in the 23-page fax. The writer claims that the shooting was triggered by the Charleston church shooting that occurred in June.
“Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15. The Church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15…”
“What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims’ initials on them."
In this document, Flanagan also says "I've been human powder keg for a while just waiting to go BOOM."
He says he was influenced by other mass shooters.
WDBJ held a news conference about the incident on Wednesday evening. General Manager Jeff Marks, Flanagan complained to Human Resources while he was there. He says they went though internal investigations and staff members saw him around town but did not know if he'd landed a job.
"We are people with feelings. People are around the newsroom hugging and taking care of each other. I don't tell journalists how to do their jobs," says Marks.
WDBJ also says they tried to put programs in place to help Flanagan, but that did not help the situation.
"It has been very difficult. Our viewers got to see. Our anchors got to see it. The producer kept working after seeing her fiance shot. It's tough. I've never dealt with anything like this," says News Director Kelly Zuber.
Flanagan's family membersreleased a statement saying that their thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, and with the news station, CNN affiliate KRON reported. "Words cannot express the hurt that we feel for the victims. Our family is asking that the media respect our privacy," the statement read.
| Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(WTKR)'] |
The National Weather Service states that tornadoes hit Suffolk, Virginia, Colonial Heights, Virginia and Brunswick County, Virginia. | Meteorologist Bryan Jackson says the twisters hit Suffolk, Colonial Heights and Brunswick County on Monday afternoon. Authorities say at least 200 people were injured. Property damage was widespread.
Jackson says the Brunswick County tornado was estimated at 86 mph to 110 mph, and cut a 300-yard path of destruction. Assessments of the other twisters were planned for Tuesday, but Jackson described Suffolk's as a "major tornado."
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Apparent tornadoes swept through central and southeastern Virginia on Monday afternoon, damaging multiple homes and buildings and injuring more than 200 people, authorities said.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency for the damaged areas of southeastern Virginia.
Two apparent tornadoes struck the city of Suffolk, city spokeswoman Dana Woodson said. Bob Spieldenner from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said at least 200 people were injured there.
At least 18 more people were injured when the storm hit Colonial Heights, Spieldenner said. Three of those were taken to hospitals. Woodson initially said one person died in Suffolk but later said the death was not connected to the storm.
Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk was damaged, but remained operational, Spieldenner said. Another hospital in the city also was treating the injured, Woodson said.
Sentara spokesman Dale Gauding said about 60 people were being treated, and he expected most to be released.
"We have lots of cuts and bruises," plus leg and arm injuries, he said. Some of the hospital's windows were cracked, apparently by flying debris.
"Multiple buildings have been destroyed, homes have been destroyed," Woodson said. She said the areas around the hospital and in the community of Driver were hardest hit.
The storm in Colonial Heights overturned cars and blew out vehicle windows in the Southpark Mall area. Some buildings also were damaged.
Southside Regional Medical Center treated one storm victim with minor injuries and was poised to receive more, hospital spokeswoman Terry Tysinger said. John Randolph Hospital in Hopewell was put on "high alert."
Property damage also was reported in Brunswick County, one of several localities where the National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning. Sgt. Michelle Cotten of the Virginia State Police said an apparent twister destroyed two homes. Trees and power lines were down, and some flooding was reported.
The National Weather Service had not confirmed any of the tornado reports, system forecaster Rick Curry of the Wakefield office said. However, he said the service was reasonably certain that a tornado hit Colonial Heights based on televised images and an eyewitness account from a weather service employee.
About 18,000 Virginia Dominion Power customers were without service.
The storm also damaged some homes in North Carolina, but the damage was not widespread or severe. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | April 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
A motorway bridge near Ancona, Italy, collapses killing two Italians and injuring two Romanian workers. The Italian highway agency links the collapse with a temporary structure that was designed to support it. | A motorway bridge has collapsed near the north-east Italian city of Ancona, killing two, Italian officials say.
The victims were in a car below the bridge when it fell down onto the A14 road, which runs between Loreto and Ancona South.
The collapse involved a temporary structure which was supporting the bridge, Autostrade, the Italian highways agency said.
Two Romanian workers were also injured, Italian media reported.
The two people who died were a husband and wife, originally from the province of Ascoli Piceno, whose white Nissan Qashqai was crushed as the bridge came down, Ansa news agency reported.
The bridge had been closed to traffic for maintenance work, it said.
Ansa quoted a witness named Francesco as saying the collapse "happened suddenly" and a female driver in front of him braked and stopped just 10m (33ft) from the collapsed bridge.
"We were saved by a miracle," he said.
The affected road is now closed in both directions. | Road Crash | March 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Three plainclothes Chinese police officers beat up, bruise and concuss a provincial official's wife by accident; the police are punished, while the woman is hospitalised. | BEIJING (Reuters) - Plainclothes police severely beat the wife of a provincial official, mistaking her for one of many Chinese who petition government offices in the hope of redressing wrongs, the China Daily reported on Wednesday.
The case of mistaken identity has become a hot topic among Chinese Internet users, highlighting the abuse that China’s armies of petitioners routinely suffer at the hands of police and hired thugs who wish to silence them.
Six public security officers set on Chen Yulian, the wife of a provincial law enforcement officer, last month when she tried to enter her husband’s office building, which houses the Hubei provincial party headquarters, the China Daily said.
“This incident is a total misunderstanding,” the Communist Party chief of the district bureau explained, according the newspaper. “Our police officers never realized that they beat the wife of a senior leader.”
China’s leaders are obsessed with maintaining social stability and “building a harmonious society” has been their chief concern in the recent years.
Thousands of petitioners take their grievances to Beijing every day. Many of their complaints stem from land seizures, while others seek redress for lay-offs dating from massive bankruptcies in China’s state sector in the 1990s.
The men who beat Chen were later identified as public security officers from Wuhan, the provincial capital, who had been assigned to guard the office building and “subdue” petitioners.
“A strong wave of fists rained down on her for more than 16 minutes,” the report said.
Chen was knocked to the ground despite her attempt to explain that her husband worked in the office building. She was then transported to a police station and yelled at when she requested medical attention, according to the paper’s account.
The attack left her with a concussion, and damaged brain and nerve tissues. Chen was released and sent to hospital after she reached her husband by phone, and ranking police officers apologized profusely.
“Does this mean the police are not supposed to beat leaders’ wives, but the ordinary people can be battered?” the China Daily quoted an anonymous visitor to Chen’s ward as saying.
Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Lucy Hornby and Ken Wills
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Sick | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(China Daily)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(Reuters)', '(News24)'] |
Roger Stone, a former adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, is indicted by a federal grand jury and arrested on charges of obstruction, giving false statements, and witness tampering as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. | Follow NBC News Roger Stone, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, was arrested Friday on charges of obstruction, giving false statements and witness tampering as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election interference.
Stone, a longtime Republican operative and self-described "dirty trickster," has been under the microscope over his alleged connection to WikiLeaks and hacked Democratic emails released by the site during the 2016 presidential campaign. He has repeatedly denied any collusion with WikiLeaks.
Stone, 66, was arrested before dawn by a team of federal agents at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a day after a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia indicted him on one count of "obstruction of proceeding," five counts of making false statements and one count of witness tampering.
Stone, known as a fancy dresser, appeared in federal court late Friday morning in wrist shackles and wearing a dark blue polo shirt and jeans. The judge allowed him to be released on a $250,000 signature bond.
Stone was an official with the Trump campaign before leaving in August 2015, although he "maintained regular contact with and publicly supported" the campaign through the 2016 election, according to the indictment.
Stone, who started his career working for Richard Nixon and has a tattoo of Nixon on his back, came out of the courthouse flashing a Nixon-style double-V for victory to cheers from supporters and boos from others in the massive crowd that had gathered outside.
"I will plead not guilty to these charges. I will defeat them in court," he told reporters over the heckling and chants of "Lock him up!" from some in the crowd. He said he would not "bear false witness" against the president in Mueller's "politically motivated investigation."
"I am falsely accused of making false statements," he said.
"I will not testify against the president because I would have to bear false witness against him."
In a phone interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on InfoWars before he spoke to reporters, Stone vowed to "fight," and said he was being "persecuted for being a 40-year friend and supporter" of Trump's.
The indictment does not accuse Stone of personally coordinating with the Russians. Mueller was appointed in May of 2017 to investigate Russian election interference and whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Moscow.
Stone lawyer Grant Smith criticized the feds for how his client was arrested.
"There was no need to have the FBI show up with a SWAT team this morning. He’s been very public for the last two years about where he was and what he was doing," Smith said when reached by phone, adding, "If they’d found any collusion they would have charged him with it."
"He will fight vigorously because these were things he did not recall and were immaterial to the scope of the investigation," Smith said.
Trump tweeted in support of Stone as his court hearing got underway, and questioned how CNN, which had staked out Stone's house, got footage of his arrest.
"Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?" the tweet said.
A CNN reporter had tweeted earlier Friday that the network had staked out Stone's house after their reporters "noticed unusual grand jury activity in DC on Thursday."
What an irresponsible thing to tweet with no evidence. The reporter who was there, @davidgshortell, said on CNN that the crew was staked out at Stone’s house this morning after CNN reporters noticed unusual grand jury activity in DC on Thursday & thought something could happen. https://t.co/E7KtkUjY1R
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow was more measured than his client. "The indictment today does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else. Rather, the indictment focuses on alleged false statements Mr. Stone made to Congress," he said.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders stressed that the charges did not personally involve Trump.
"This has nothing to do with the president, certainly nothing to do with the White House. This is something that has to do solely with that individual, not something that affects us in this building," Sanders said on CNN Friday morning.
"The president did nothing wrong. There was no collusion on his part," she added, responding to a question about Mueller's investigation.
The indictment lays out a timeline of how Stone's actions aligned with what was going on in the 2016 campaign.
Around May 2016, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee became aware that their computers had been compromised and hired a security company to identify the extent of the intrusions, according to the indictment. About a month later, the DNC announced that it had been hacked by Russian government cyber operations.
The indictment then described how an unnamed “Organization 1” known publicly to be WikiLeaks posted tens of thousands of documents stolen from the DNC and the personal email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.
In the summer of 2016, according to the indictment, Stone spoke with senior Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks and “information it might have had that would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign.” Senior campaign officials later asked Stone about any future releases from WikiLeaks, the indictment alleges.
After WikiLeaks dumped stolen DNC documents in July, a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about future releases on the Clinton campaign, the indictment alleges. Stone allegedly later told campaign officials about future WikiLeaks releases.
In early August of that year, Stone was claiming both publicly and privately to have communicated with Organization 1, while the organization made a public statement denying direct talks, the indictment said.
After a WikiLeaks release on or about Oct. 7, 2016, an associate of a high-ranking Trump campaign official texted Stone "well done," according to the indictment.
The indictment also says Stone received an email in early October from "the high-ranking Trump Campaign official asking about the status of future releases by" WikiLeaks. That official is Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who was the Trump campaign CEO at the time, a source with direct knowledge of the special counsel's probe and the indictment told NBC News. According to the source, Bannon is referred to at least one other time in the indictment.
"Bannon cooperated with Mueller and Mueller considers him only a witness," the source said.
After the presidential election, Congress and the FBI announced investigations into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, including Stone’s claimed contact with WikiLeaks. The indictment alleges that Stone obstructed the investigations by making multiple false statements to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about his interactions with WikiLeaks and attempted to persuade a witness to provide false testimony and withhold information.
Stone testified before the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017 about Russia and Trump. He had supplemented his testimony with documents, including ones that named Randy Credico, a New York radio host, as his backchannel to WikiLeaks.
Stone during his testimony denied having any emails or texts with anyone regarding allegations of hacked documents, but in actuality, the indictment alleges, Stone had sent and received numerous emails and texts during the 2016 campaign in which he discussed WikiLeaks, its founder, Julian Assange, and its possession of hacked emails.
Stone later told an unidentified "person 2" believed to be Credico in December 2017 that Corsi should do a "Frank Pentangeli" before the House committee to prevent contradicting Stone's earlier testimony, according to the indictment. Pentangeli was a character in "The Godfather: Part II" who, the filing notes, "testifies before a congressional committee and in that testimony claims not to know critical information that he does in fact know."
Stone also told "person 2" that "I'm not talking to the FBI and if your(sic) smart you won't either."
The indictment also details repeated conversations Stone had with "person 1," an individual believed to be right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, an associate of Stone. The pair communicated at length about document leaks, and Corsi encouraged Stone on potential campaign messaging.
“Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus, setting stage for Foundation debacle,” Corsi told Stone, according to an email dated Aug. 2, 2016 referenced in the court document.
Corsi told NBC News that the charges were "a shock" and that "I'm praying for Roger," but "I stand firm everything in the indictment about me is accurate and coincides with everything I've said."
Corsi who has previously claimed he rejected a proposed perjury plea deal with Mueller's team of "thugs" said Friday that "the special counsel in my case has been fair and accurate," and that he believed his old friend is in trouble.
“If I were going into a casino, and Mueller said he had the evidence I’d bet on Mueller,” he said.
A lawyer for Assange was critical of Stone's arrest.
"The dawn military-style arrest of Mr. Stone, a 66 year old political consultant, was wholly unnecessary and served no purpose other than intimidation. The charges against Mr. Stone do not allege that Mr. Stone lied about his contacts with Julian Assange, but rather about his contacts with others and about documents reflecting those communications," said the attorney, Barry Pollack.
A court filing unsealed Friday shows prosecutors told the judge they did not want to give Stone advance notice of his arrest for fear it would "increase the risk of the defendant fleeing and destroying (or tampering with) evidence."
In a statement, the DNC predicted there was more trouble to come for the campaign. "The Trump campaign was a willing and active participant in a conspiracy with Russia and WikiLeaks to influence the 2016 election. There are more conspirators yet to be held accountable and at least one of them is named Donald Trump," the statement said.
Stone is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in federal court in Washington, D.C, on Tuesday, Jan. 29.
Former prosecutor Joyce Vance told NBC News that if convicted, Stone could face up to 24 to 30 months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines if the “offense resulted in substantial interference with the administration of justice."
"Judges have the discretion to depart upwards or downwards,” she added.
Nearly a dozen Stone associates have been summoned by Mueller to appear before his Washington grand jury, sources told NBC News in November.
Trump in December tweeted his support of Stone, quoting his longtime ally as saying he would never testify against him.
Trump wrote that Stone was "essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about 'President Trump.' Nice to know that some people still have 'guts!'" | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2019 | ['(NBC News)'] |
At least 11 people, all belonging to the same family, are killed in a grenade attack on their home in Laghman Province, according to provincial officials. | Provincial officials in eastern Afghanistan say 11 members of an Afghan family have been killed by a grenade attack on their home.
Authorities say the dead were all civilians and the victims included women and children.
Sarhadi Zwak, the spokesman for the governor of Laghman Province, told RFE/RL that unknown gunman late at night on February 19 threw two hand grenades into the family's home in the province's Baad Pakh district.
Zwak said 10 of the family members were killed inside their home.
Health official Abdul Latif Qayyomi said the 11th family member died while being rushed to a hospital in neighboring Nangarhar province.
Three other relatives were wounded by the blasts.
The attack took place in an area known as Marwat Kace, which is to the north of the main highway between Kabul and Jalalabad.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
| Armed Conflict | February 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
2007 Writers Guild of America strike: Screenwriters announce they will resume negotiations with movie studios on November 26. | They will be the first contract talks since the writers went on strike on 5 November, demanding a bigger share of profits from DVD and internet sales.
The strike has crippled US TV, forcing talk shows to be suspended and threatening favourite primetime series.
Writers said they would stay on the picket line until a deal was reached.
But one, Sean Jablonski, who pens the cosmetic surgery series Nip/Tuck, was glad to hear that negotiations were back on.
"That's fabulous, that's great. You can't get a deal until two sides sit down and talk about it," he told the Associated Press.
Shows like Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey's Anatomy are reported to be on the verge of shutting down production, with no lines for their actors to learn.
The rapid impact of the strike highlights the pivotal role played by writers, not only in writing original stories, but on the set, says the BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles.
Many shows operate on a tight schedule. Once it has been interrupted, a production can be affected for months.
But the employers, represented by The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, have made it known, through newspaper ads, that they believe writers are already paid well enough for their work. | Strike | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Assembly of Madrid holds a snap election after the ruling coalition of the People's Party and Ciudadanos breaks down. The People's Party, led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, receives a landslide win in the election, doubling their number of seats, though falling four seats short of an absolute majority. | The conservative leader of Spain's Madrid region has won a resounding victory after a bitter election battle.
Despite more than doubling the Popular Party (PP) seats, Isabel Díaz Ayuso still fell short of a majority and may end up in alliance with the far right. She defied the Socialist-led central government by keeping Madrid's bars and shops open throughout the pandemic. There was high security following death threats against several candidates. The acrimonious campaign highlighted the polarisation in Spanish politics.
Ms Ayuso won 44.7% of the vote, taking 65 seats in Madrid's 136-seat assembly. The three-party left bloc could only muster 58 seats between them.
While she initially described the vote as a choice between "socialism or freedom", her opponent Pablo Iglesias, from the left-wing Unidos Podemos (United We Can), spoke of a choice between "democracy or fascism", highlighting the potential involvement of the far-right Vox party in a future Madrid government.
Mr Iglesias had resigned as deputy to Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to take on Ms Ayuso as his party's candidate. After Tuesday's vote result, he said he would quit politics altogether.
More than five million people were eligible to vote in Tuesday's election and turnout during the day was high as long queues formed outside polling stations.
Ms Ayuso, 42, has been an outspoken critic of the central government's handling of the pandemic, under the mantra of freedom, and she has fought against a number of its lockdown restrictions.
She is a rising star in the PP, which has governed Madrid for 26 years. Having studied journalism and political communication, she first joined the Madrid Assembly in 2011 before becoming its president in 2019.
Madrid's bars and restaurants were allowed to stay open while other regions continued to clamp down. No-one wanted curfews or states of emergency, she complained recently. And yet the region around the capital still has Spain's second-highest infection rate and the highest number of patients in intensive care.
"Madrid is freedom and they don't understand our way of living, that's why Sánchez and his colleagues do not enter in Madrid," Ms Ayuso said in a speech after the result on Tuesday. "Because it can't be directed, can't be controlled and things can't be imposed here. Because freedom means a person can start again a thousand times, give opportunities for young people and security for the elderly. That's freedom, and they wanted to take it away from us."
Spain has reported more than 3.5 million coronavirus infections and 78,399 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Ms Ayuso has been in power alongside the Ciudadanos (Citizens) party since 2019 but called early elections in March after their regional government collapsed.
Despite saying during the campaign that her party hoped to govern alone, without an absolute majority an alliance with Vox is a real possibility.
In an interview with El Mundo newspaper last month, she said her party and Vox were "different parties but have agreed on fundamental issues, and that will continue to be the case".
Even without a formal coalition her party could still rely on Vox's votes in the Madrid assembly to pass legislation.
But any agreement is likely to prove controversial outside the capital.
Ahead of the election, Prime Minister Sánchez warned that any pact between the PP and Vox "could be the beginning of the end of democracy". In 2019, Vox became the first significant far-right force to enter Spain's parliament in decades. During the campaign ahead of Tuesday's vote, threatening letters containing bullets were sent to a number of candidates, including Ms Ayuso and Pablo Iglesias. However, Vox leader Rocío Monasterio said during the campaign that she did not believe Mr Iglesias' account.
Guy Hedgecoe, Madrid
Isabel Díaz Ayuso has taken a relatively relaxed approach to management of the pandemic. She has allowed bars and restaurants in Madrid to remain open in recent months, and Covid infection rates have been higher than in most other regions.
This strategy paid off at the ballot box as she more than doubled her party's seats. However, she has fallen short of a majority and will need the support of the far-right Vox party in order to govern.
It was a bad night for the Socialists of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who suffered their worst-ever result in Madrid.
Meanwhile, the leader of the leftist Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, announced his resignation, after his party made only modest gains. | Government Job change - Election | May 2021 | ['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)'] |
Governor Antonio Fazio of Bank of Italy resigns, after having been officially put under investigation for insider trading, and following heavy pressure from both government and opposition. | Pressure had been mounting on Mr Fazio to quit following a scandal over the sale of Italy's Banca Antonveneta.
Mr Fazio is facing an investigation into suspected insider trading and abuse of office relating to his handling of the bank takeover battle.
He is accused of favouring an Italian buyer in the takeover of Banca Antonveneta earlier this year.
Mr Fazio has strenuously denied the accusations and repeatedly stated that he behaved properly when deciding to recommend Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI) over Dutch rival ABN Amro. Untenable position
Allegations first emerged in July when leaked transcripts of a phone-tapped conversation suggested that Mr Fazio had favoured BPI over its Dutch rival in the battle for control of Banca Antonveneta.
Despite calls for his resignation from many of Italy's political elite, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the 69-year-old career central banker refused to resign.
FAZIO FACTFILE
Antonio Fazio joined the Bank of Italy in 1960, aged 24, and became governor in 1993
Fazio attends mass every day and has been on a pilgrimmage to Lourdes. He is an authority on the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the 13th Century religious philosopher
Fazio was the best paid central bank boss in the G7, earning $743,000 a year in 2003
Despite helping to take Italy into the euro, Fazio was seen as a eurosceptic
Under current Italian law, the governor of the Bank of Italy is entitled to remain in office for life.
However, Mr Fazio's position became increasingly untenable after prosecutors in Milan revealed they were investigating him for alleged insider trading.
The pressure increased on Monday when Italy's Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said he wanted parliament to change the laws governing the Bank of Italy, paving the way for Mr Fazio to be replaced. Former BPI boss Gianpiero Fiorani - a close associate of Mr Fazio's - was arrested last week on suspicion of embezzlement and market rigging.
Devout catholic
The European Central Bank (ECB) said its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, had been informed by Mr Fazio that he had intended to resign.
"The ECB fully respects this decision," the bank said in statement. The scandal surrounding the takeover of Banca Antonveneta had threatened to damage international confidence in Italy's banking sector.
The country's fragmented industry is widely seen as an attractive proposition for many investors because of the high profit margins and potential for restructuring at many Italian banks.
Until the scandal surrounding Mr Fazio blew up in July, he had been regarded as a safe pair of hands at Italy's central bank.
For years he projected an image of the Bank of Italy as an incorruptible institution. He also ensured Italy was ready to ditch the lira and adopt the euro in 1999.
Although the subsequent banking scandal saw much of the political establishment turn against him, Mr Fazio - a devout catholic - still received support from the Roman Catholic Church and the right-wing Northern League.
A spokeswoman for the Bank of Italy said Mr Fazio had handed in his resignation to a member of the bank's Superior Council earlier on Monday. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | December 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
North Korea and South Korea officials begin high-level negotiations, with reports suggesting that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in could be planning for a summit in Pyongyang later this month. | SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea agreed on Monday to hold a summit in the North in September, another step towards boosting cooperation between the old rivals, even as doubts grow over efforts to end the North’s nuclear weapons program.
Officials from both sides meeting in the truce village of Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, reached an agreement on a September summit between the countries’ leaders in the North’s capital of Pyongyang.
No date was announced for what will be the third meeting this year between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
They first met in April in Panmunjom, a remarkable thaw in ties after more than a year of rising tension and fears of war over the North’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
There they agreed that Moon would visit the North’s capital in the autumn, though the pair met again in May in an unannounced meeting at Panmunjom.
No details on an agenda for next month’s talks were announced, but the two Koreas have been discussing a range of issues, from a possible peace declaration to joint economic and infrastructure projects.
The progress between the two Koreas comes as North Korea and the United States are struggling to agree on how to bring about the North’s denuclearization, after Kim vowed to work toward that goal at a landmark summit in June in Singapore with U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. officials have told Reuters that North Korea had yet to agree to a timeline for eliminating its nuclear arsenal or to disclose its size, which U.S. estimates have put at between 30 and 60 warheads.
After Monday’s talks, Ri Son Gwon, the chairman of a North Korean committee aiming for the “peaceful reunification” of the peninsula, told his South Korean counterpart, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, it was important to clear “obstacles” preventing inter-Korean relations from moving forward.
“If the issues that were raised at the talks aren’t resolved, unexpected problems could emerge and the issues that are already on the schedule may face difficulties,” Ri said, without giving details.
One issue that has angered North Korea recently has been the case of a dozen North Korean restaurant workers who came to the South in 2016 via China.
The North says they were abducted by the South and should be returned, and has raised the possibility of the issue creating an obstacle to the reunion of some families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War, planned for next week.
Cho did not say if North Korea had raised the case of the restaurant workers on Monday, merely saying it had not brought up new issues.
“There were mentions that if there are problems to be resolved by both sides, on humanitarian issues or for the development of inter-Korean relations, we should do it,” the minister told reporters.
Cho said the two sides had exchanged views on the North’s denuclearization and on a peace mechanism to replace the armistice that ended fighting during the Korean War.
Moon and Kim agreed during their first summit to push for a declaration of an end to the Korean War together with the United States this year, but Washington has said it would only be possible after the North abandons its nuclear program.
Last month, the North’s state media criticized the South accusing it of only caring only about the views of the United States and failing to take practical steps to advance inter-Korean relations.
South Korea hopes to restart efforts on a cross-peninsula railway and a joint industrial park but has been cautious about major projects due to international sanctions chiefly engineered by Washington over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
The North has urged the United States to end the sanctions, saying it had made goodwill gestures, including a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, the dismantling of a nuclear site, and the return of the remains of some U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War.
“The North is asking the South to play a bridging role as they want the United States to speed up progress in declaring an end to the war officially,” said Seo Yu-seok, a researcher at the Institute of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
Christopher Green, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said the North could try to increase pressure on the South to deliver on economic promises made at the April summit, while widening the distance between Seoul and Washington.
Ri said the two sides had agreed on a date for the summit, but he declined to elaborate.
Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman of South Korea’s presidential office, said it would be difficult for the summit to happen before the Sept. 9 anniversary of North Korea’s founding, a major holiday there. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Florida Governor Rick Scott, and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant each declare a state of emergency as Subtropical Storm Alberto, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph , approaches the Southeastern United States. The National Hurricane Center predicts the storm will make landfall over the northern Gulf Coast late Monday afternoon or Monday night, with heavy rainfall and tropical storm conditions preceding actual landfall. | Governors in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama have declared a state of emergency ahead of Subtropical Storm Alberto as it makes its way toward the Gulf of Mexico on a path that meteorologists say could strengthen the storm.
Alberto, currently northwest of Cuba, is heading north toward the Gulf and is expected to bring days of heavy rainfall and possible flooding to the coast over the weekend. On its current track, the storm would make landfall along the Gulf Coast near the Florida-Alabama border late Monday or early Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Parts of the Alabama and Florida coast were placed under a tropical storm warning Saturday afternoon with Mississippi still under a watch.
To prepare, all three states in the storm's current path declared a state of emergency. The executive orders in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama will help free up resources and allow for the activation of the National Guard.
"Whether you’re a resident of this state or just visiting, you need to stay updated on this evolving tropical system," Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement. "Coastal and inland flooding could be a serious issue in the coming days. I ask everyone to please make final preparations to your family emergency plan, especially those that live in mobile homes and low-lying areas."
Alberto is the first named storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season according to the National Hurricane Center. It follows the deadly and disastrous 2017 hurricane season that destroyed large parts of Puerto Rico and left coastal areas of Texas under water.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott's emergency order affected all 67 counties in the state. Scott said "it is critically important that all Florida counties have every available resource to keep families safe and prepare for the torrential rain and severe flooding this storm will bring."
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey signed an order Saturday evening to declare a state of emergency. The order covers 40 southern counties, which currently would feel the brunt of the storm.
Ivey’s said residents should be "prepared for the potential of significant flooding."
Meteorologists say Alberto is currently packing sustained winds near 40 mph but strengthening is expected as it moves through warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico. For the storm to reach hurricane strength, it would need to have at least 74 mph winds.
"Alberto could bring tropical storm conditions and storm surge to portions of the central and eastern Gulf Coast later this weekend and early next week," the hurricane center said.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2018 | ['(65 km/h)', '(USA Today)', '(National Hurricane Center)'] |
British Prime Minister David Cameron announces plans for every household in the UK to automatically have pornography blocked by their internet service provider, unless they choose otherwise. | Most households in the UK will have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it, David Cameron has announced.
In addition, the prime minister said possessing online pornography depicting rape would become illegal in England and Wales - in line with Scotland.
Mr Cameron warned in a speech that access to online pornography was "corroding childhood".
The new measures will apply to both existing and new customers.
Mr Cameron also called for some "horrific" internet search terms to be "blacklisted", meaning they would automatically bring up no results on websites such as Google or Bing.
He told the BBC he expected a "row" with service providers who, he said in his speech, were "not doing enough to take responsibility" despite having a "moral duty" to do so.
He also warned he could have to "force action" by changing the law and that, if there were "technical obstacles", firms should use their "greatest brains" to overcome them.
In his speech, Mr Cameron said family-friendly filters would be automatically selected for all new customers by the end of the year - although they could choose to switch them off. And millions of existing computer users would be contacted by their internet providers and told they must decide whether to use or not use "family-friendly filters" to restrict adult material.
The filters would apply to all devices linked to the affected home Wi-Fi network and across the public Wi-Fi network "wherever children are likely to be present".
Customers who do not click on either option - accepting or declining - will have filters activated by default, Tory MP Claire Perry, Mr Cameron's adviser on the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, told the BBC.
The UK's biggest internet service providers have agreed to the filters scheme meaning it should cover 95% of homes.
Other measures announced by the prime minister included:
Mr Cameron also called for warning pages to pop up with helpline numbers when people try to search for illegal content.
He said: "I want to talk about the internet, the impact it is having on the innocence of our children, how online pornography is corroding childhood.
"And how, in the darkest corners of the internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out.
"I'm not making this speech because I want to moralise or scaremonger, but because I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come. This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence."
But former Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre boss Jim Gamble told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was important to "get to the root cause" of illegal pornography, by catching those responsible for creating it.
He added: "You need a real deterrent, not a pop-up that paedophiles will laugh at."
But Ms Perry argued filters would make a difference, saying that the killers of schoolgirls April Jones and Tia Sharp had accessed legal pornography before moving on to images of child abuse.
She added: "It's impossible to buy this material in a sex shop... but it's possible to have it served up on a computer every day."
In his speech, Mr Cameron said possession of online pornography depicting rape would be made illegal.
Existing legislation only covers publication of pornographic portrayals of rape, as opposed to possession.
"Possession of such material is already an offence in Scotland but because of a loophole in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, it is not an offence south of the border," Mr Cameron said. "Well I can tell you today we are changing that. We are closing the loophole - making it a criminal offence to possess internet pornography that depicts rape."
The move has been welcomed by women's groups and academics who had campaigned to have "rape porn" banned.
Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the group was "delighted".
"The coalition government has pledged to prevent abuse of women and girls, so tackling a culture that glorifies abuse is critical for achieving this," she said.
"The next step is working with experts to ensure careful drafting of the law and proper resourcing to ensure the law is enforced fully."
Mr Cameron, who has faced criticism from Labour over cuts to Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's funding, insisted the centre's experts and police would be given the powers needed to keep pace with technological changes on the internet.
"Let me be clear to any offender who might think otherwise: there is no such thing as a safe place on the internet to access child abuse material," he said.
A spokesman for Google said: "We have a zero tolerance attitude to child sexual abuse imagery. Whenever we discover it, we respond quickly to remove and report it.
"We recently donated $5m (£3.3m) to help combat this problem and are committed to continuing the dialogue with the government on these issues."
According to some experts, "default on" can create a dangerous sense of complacency, says BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones. He says internet service providers would dispute Mr Cameron's interpretation of the new measures, insisting they did not want to be seen as censors.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Governor of Iraq's Anbar Governorate estimates that 500 people were killed and 8000 fled as ISIS captured the strategically important city of Ramadi. | Shiite forces join fight against ISIS in Ramadi A column of 3,000 Shi'ite militia fighters arrived at a military base near Ramadi on Monday as Baghdad moved to retake the western Iraqi city that fell to Islamic State militants at the weekend in the biggest defeat for the government since mid-2014. Setting the stage for renewed fighting over the city, Islamic State militants advanced in armoured vehicles from Ramadi towards the base where the Shi'ite paramilitaries were massing for a counter-offensive, witnesses and a military officer said. Warplanes in the U.S.-led coalition stepped up raids against the Islamists, conducting 19 strikes near Ramadi over the past 72 hours at the request of the Iraqi security forces, a coalition spokesman said. The United States, which has mounted air strikes on Islamic State positions since last August and sent advisers and arms to rebuild the shattered Iraqi army, acknowledged the fall of Ramadi was “a setback” but said its strategy would not change.
“To read too much into this single fight (over Ramadi) is simply a mistake,” said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “What this means for our strategy, what this means for today, is simply that we, meaning the coalition and our Iraqi partners, now have to go back and retake Ramadi,” he said. The Shi'ite militia, known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation, was ordered to mobilise after the city, the capital of Anbar province, was overrun on Sunday. The militiamen give the government far more capability to launch a counterattack, but their arrival could add to sectarian animosity in one of the most violent parts of Iraq. “Hashid Shaabi forces reached the Habbaniya base and are now on standby,” said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout.
An eyewitness described a long line of armoured vehicles and trucks mounted with machine guns and rockets, flying the yellow flags of Kataib Hezbollah, one of the militia factions, heading towards the base about 30 km (20 miles) from Ramadi. Spokesmen for militia groups said reconnaissance and planning were under way for the upcoming “battle of Anbar”, the vast Euphrates River valley province bordered by Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia where Islamic State forces have taken key towns and roads. Ramadi is dominated by Sunni Muslims. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is a Shi'ite, signed off on the deployment of Shi'ite militias to try to take back the area, a move he had resisted for fear of provoking a sectarian backlash.
About 500 people have been killed in the fighting for Ramadi in recent days and up to 8,000 have fled, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. Islamic State said it had seized tanks and killed “dozens of apostates”, its description for members of the Iraqi security forces. An eyewitness in Ramadi said bodies of policemen and soldiers lay in almost every street, with burnt-out military vehicles nearby.
The city's fall marked a major setback for the forces ranged against Islamic State: the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi security forces, which have been propped up by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias It was also a harsh return to reality for Washington, which at the weekend had mounted a special forces raid in Syria in which it said it killed an Islamic State leader in charge of the group's black market oil and gas sales, and captured his wife.
The Iraqi government and Shi'ite paramilitaries recaptured Saddam Hussein's Tigris river home city of Tikrit from Islamic State six weeks ago, the biggest advance since the militants swept through northern Iraq last year. But government forces have had less success in the valley of Iraq's other great river, the Euphrates, west of Baghdad. An army major who fought his way out of Ramadi said government forces in the area had been ordered to regroup, but soldiers were exhausted and morale was at rock bottom. To some analysts, the fall of Ramadi shows the limits of the U.S. strategy of attacking from the air but leaving ground fighting to Iraq's military and its Iran-backed militia allies. “The Americans said that they have carried out air strikes against ISIS but then the group went in and defeated the local forces,” said Hassan Hassan, author of a book on Islamic State. “So they really need to come up with a whole new strategy ... and really take the fight to them.”
U.S. officials said there would be no strategy change and Iraqi forces were ultimately responsible for defeating Islamic State. “We will retake (Ramadi) in the same way that we are slowly but surely retaking other parts of Iraq, and that is with Iraqi ground forces and coalition air power,” Warren, the Pentagon spokesman, said.
Qassim al Fahdawi, an Iraqi government minister, said Iraqi forces lacked the professionalism, training and discipline to withstand a smaller number of skilled Islamic State fighters.
While the government in Baghdad has urged Sunni tribes in Anbar to accept help from Shi'ite militia against Islamic State, many Sunnis view the Shi'ite militiamen as a worse threat than the jihadists. Islamic State portrays itself as a defender of Sunnis against sectarian attacks by the Iran-backed fighters. But some Anbar tribes are so fearful of Islamic State's harsh rule that they may be open to a role even for the hated Shi'ite militias. One tribal leader, Sheikh Abu Majid al-Zoyan, said he was suspicious of the militias, but “at this stage, we welcome any force that will come and liberate us from the chokehold” of Islamic State. Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior Iranian official, said Tehran was ready to help confront Islamic State, and he was certain the city would be “liberated”.
Islamic State, which emerged as an offshoot of al Qaeda, controls large parts of Iraq and Syria in a self-proclaimed caliphate where it has carried out mass killings of members of religious minorities and beheaded hostages. A column of 3,000 Shi'ite militia fighters arrived at a military base near Ramadi on Monday as Baghdad moved to retake the western Iraqi city that fell to Islamic State militants at the weekend in the biggest defeat for the government since mid-2014. Setting the stage for renewed fighting over the city, Islamic State militants advanced in armoured vehicles from Ramadi towards the base where the Shi'ite paramilitaries were massing for a counter-offensive, witnesses and a military officer said. Warplanes in the U.S.-led coalition stepped up raids against the Islamists, conducting 19 strikes near Ramadi over the past 72 hours at the request of the Iraqi security forces, a coalition spokesman said. The United States, which has mounted air strikes on Islamic State positions since last August and sent advisers and arms to rebuild the shattered Iraqi army, acknowledged the fall of Ramadi was “a setback” but said its strategy would not change.
“To read too much into this single fight (over Ramadi) is simply a mistake,” said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “What this means for our strategy, what this means for today, is simply that we, meaning the coalition and our Iraqi partners, now have to go back and retake Ramadi,” he said. The Shi'ite militia, known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation, was ordered to mobilise after the city, the capital of Anbar province, was overrun on Sunday. The militiamen give the government far more capability to launch a counterattack, but their arrival could add to sectarian animosity in one of the most violent parts of Iraq. “Hashid Shaabi forces reached the Habbaniya base and are now on standby,” said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout.
An eyewitness described a long line of armoured vehicles and trucks mounted with machine guns and rockets, flying the yellow flags of Kataib Hezbollah, one of the militia factions, heading towards the base about 30 km (20 miles) from Ramadi. Spokesmen for militia groups said reconnaissance and planning were under way for the upcoming “battle of Anbar”, the vast Euphrates River valley province bordered by Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia where Islamic State forces have taken key towns and roads. Ramadi is dominated by Sunni Muslims. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is a Shi'ite, signed off on the deployment of Shi'ite militias to try to take back the area, a move he had resisted for fear of provoking a sectarian backlash.
About 500 people have been killed in the fighting for Ramadi in recent days and up to 8,000 have fled, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. Islamic State said it had seized tanks and killed “dozens of apostates”, its description for members of the Iraqi security forces. An eyewitness in Ramadi said bodies of policemen and soldiers lay in almost every street, with burnt-out military vehicles nearby.
The city's fall marked a major setback for the forces ranged against Islamic State: the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi security forces, which have been propped up by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias It was also a harsh return to reality for Washington, which at the weekend had mounted a special forces raid in Syria in which it said it killed an Islamic State leader in charge of the group's black market oil and gas sales, and captured his wife.
The Iraqi government and Shi'ite paramilitaries recaptured Saddam Hussein's Tigris river home city of Tikrit from Islamic State six weeks ago, the biggest advance since the militants swept through northern Iraq last year. But government forces have had less success in the valley of Iraq's other great river, the Euphrates, west of Baghdad. An army major who fought his way out of Ramadi said government forces in the area had been ordered to regroup, but soldiers were exhausted and morale was at rock bottom. To some analysts, the fall of Ramadi shows the limits of the U.S. strategy of attacking from the air but leaving ground fighting to Iraq's military and its Iran-backed militia allies. “The Americans said that they have carried out air strikes against ISIS but then the group went in and defeated the local forces,” said Hassan Hassan, author of a book on Islamic State. “So they really need to come up with a whole new strategy ... and really take the fight to them.”
U.S. officials said there would be no strategy change and Iraqi forces were ultimately responsible for defeating Islamic State. “We will retake (Ramadi) in the same way that we are slowly but surely retaking other parts of Iraq, and that is with Iraqi ground forces and coalition air power,” Warren, the Pentagon spokesman, said.
Qassim al Fahdawi, an Iraqi government minister, said Iraqi forces lacked the professionalism, training and discipline to withstand a smaller number of skilled Islamic State fighters.
While the government in Baghdad has urged Sunni tribes in Anbar to accept help from Shi'ite militia against Islamic State, many Sunnis view the Shi'ite militiamen as a worse threat than the jihadists. Islamic State portrays itself as a defender of Sunnis against sectarian attacks by the Iran-backed fighters. But some Anbar tribes are so fearful of Islamic State's harsh rule that they may be open to a role even for the hated Shi'ite militias. One tribal leader, Sheikh Abu Majid al-Zoyan, said he was suspicious of the militias, but “at this stage, we welcome any force that will come and liberate us from the chokehold” of Islamic State. Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior Iranian official, said Tehran was ready to help confront Islamic State, and he was certain the city would be “liberated”. | Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(Al-Arabiya)'] |
Thirty-seven passengers on a bus over RioNiterói Bridge, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are held hostage before police fatally shoot the armed hijacker. After closer inspection, police discover that the hijacker used a fake plastic gun. | Military police say they have "neutralised" a man who held dozens of passengers hostage for more than three hours on a commuter bus in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
In a tweet, police said all hostages had been freed after a sniper shot the man dead.
Police had surrounded the bus which came to a standstill on a bridge linking Rio with Niterói.
None of the hostages were injured, police said. A spokesman for the military police, Col Mauro Fliess, told a local TV programme that the sniper opened fire when the hijacker appeared at the door of the bus pointing what looked like a weapon at the head of one of the hostages. Col Fliess told TV programme Bom Dia Rio that the weapon the man was carrying turned out to be a toy gun. Col Fliess praised the force. "This is the police force we want to see. The sniper shot was necessary to neutralise the outlaw and to save the people on the bus," the colonel said. At least six passengers had been freed before the sharp shooter took aim. Footage showed one of the released hostages fainting as she got off the bus. At one point the hostage-taker could be seen leaning out of the open door with something resembling a petrol bomb in his hand. Brazilian media said it was not clear if he had made any demands. He reportedly boarded the bus at 05:30 (0830 GMT) and threatened passengers. He reportedly told the passengers he was a military police officer. Col Fliess said it had not yet been confirmed if he was an officer or just claimed to be. One news site released a WhatsApp message reportedly written by one of the passengers, saying that the gunman had tied the passengers' hands and had a petrol can as well as a gun. Traffic on the bridge has been blocked completely.
Military police had earlier tweeted (in Portuguese) that the special operations team was negotiating with the hostage taker: "Our officers are trained and have great practical experience in these types of situations." They had also asked people to remain calm.
It is not the first time a bus has been hijacked in Rio. In 2006, a gunman held passengers hostage for 10 hours before surrendering.
In that case, one of those on board was the gunman's wife, whom he threatened to kill for leaving him. The man eventually surrendered after relatives were brought in to calm him down.
| Armed Conflict | August 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(Extra)'] |
At least 18 people are dead after Cyclone Cleopatra hits the Italian island of Sardinia, causing heavy floods. | At least 18 people, including four children, have been killed in flooding on the Italian island of Sardinia after a cyclone and heavy rain.
A number of people are reported missing after rivers burst their banks. Cars were swept away and bridges collapsed.
The area around the north-eastern city of Olbia was worst-hit - in some places the water was up to 3m (10ft) deep. Prime Minister Enrico Letta has declared a state of emergency, speaking of a "national tragedy".
Mr Letta announced that 20 million euros (£16.8m, $27m) would be allocated immediately to emergency relief efforts, with soldiers deployed in the region.
"We are focusing on essential operations: saving human lives, assisting displaced people and clearing road access," he said after an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
More than 440mm (17.3in) of rain fell in 90 minutes overnight into Tuesday morning. A Brazilian family of four drowned when their basement flat in the town of Arzachena, in the northern part of the island, filled with water. Two children were among the dead.
Three people died when a road bridge collapsed on to their car near Olbia, according to local media.
In a separate incident, a mother and her daughter were found dead in their car after it was swept away by floods. Among the victims was a police officer who died after a bridge collapsed as he tried to escort an ambulance. Hundreds of people across the Mediterranean island have been moved from their homes because of the flash flooding caused by Cyclone Cleopatra.
"We're at maximum alert," Giorgio Cicalo, an official from Sardinia's civil protection authority, told Italy's Rai TV.
"We haven't seen a situation as extreme as this, perhaps for decades - especially because it's been across the whole island."
Sardinian Governor Ugo Cappellacci told Italian TV that the situation on the island was "dramatic". Meanwhile Olbia Mayor Gianni Giovanelli was quoted by Sky TG24 as saying that the city had been hit by an "apocalyptic"' storm.
Some city residents used social media to offer shelter to those forced out of their homes. The BBC Weather Centre says the flooding was caused by a deep area of low pressure that has been sitting over the Mediterranean, bringing sustained heavy rain.
The unstable conditions are expected to move across Italy and further east, bringing further downpours and the threat of flooding, particularly in Venice.
The storm caused extensive damage to farms in Sardinia and disrupted a number of flights to and from mainland Italy.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has expressed "solidarity with the communities involved" and "heartfelt sympathy to the families of the many victims". | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Cassini–Huygens probe approaches within 2,000 km (1,200 mi) of Phoebe, the outermost moon of the planet Saturn. | The US-European spacecraft made its closest approach to the moon on Friday at 2156 BST at a distance of 2,078km.
Images show a scarred moon pounded by massive impacts that tossed building-sized rocks out on to its surface.
The pictures have already revealed exciting clues to Phoebe's history, including alternating layers of bright and dark material around its craters.
CASSINI'S VOYAGE TO SATURN
1. October 1997: Cassini blasts off from Cape Canaveral
2. April 1998: Venus fly-by, planet's gravity boosts ship's momentum
3. June 1999: Second Venus fly-by, used to calibrate instruments
4. Aug 1999: Passes Earth, studying the planet's magnetic field
5. Dec 2000: Passes Jupiter, studying the planet's stormy atmosphere
6. June 2004: Cassini approaches Saturn, taking striking images
The evidence so far points to an ice-rich cosmic body overlain with a thin layer of dark material. One sharply defined crater exhibits two or more layers of alternating bright (icy) and dark material. Mission scientists think space impacts heaved out debris over an existing surface, to create the alternating layers.
CASSINI'S KEY PARTS
1. Antennas enabling communication with Earth
2. Boom carrying instrument to measure magnetic fields
3. Two cameras will take 300,000 pictures of the planet
4. Infra-red spectrometer analyses Saturn's temperature and composition
5. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators supply 750W of power
6. Cassini has two engines - one is a back-up
7. Thrusters used for small changes of direction or speed
8. Huygens probe will land on Saturn's largest moon, Titan
9. Plasma spectrometer measures charged particles and solar winds
Researchers do not know how the dark material forms, but one theory is that exposure to cosmic rays can blacken the original surface.
Phoebe orbits Saturn in a direction opposite to that of the larger, and closer, Saturn moons. This has led some scientists to suggest that it may be the parent body to other, smaller moons that circle Saturn in a retograde orbit.
These tiny satellites could be debris ejected into space during the bombardment of Phoebe. The presence of a huge 50km-wide crater on Phoebe would seem to support this view.
Scientists also want to know where Phoebe came from in the first place.
Its darkness and retrograde orbit have led some scientists to wonder if Phoebe is a Centaur: an object that migrated from the outer Solar System. Objects of this type - from the region known as the Kuiper Belt - are thought to have served as the building blocks of the outer planets.
"The scenario is probably that this is an object captured early on in the history of the Solar System," imaging scientist Dr Carl Murray, of Queen Mary, University of London, UK, told BBC News Online.
Taken from less than 100,000km (Nasa/JPL/SSI)
"What's usually invoked to explain this is a drag process in the early Solar System, when there is gas and dust left over from the formation of the planets."
If this is the case then observations of Phoebe will provide valuable information about how the various worlds that inhabit the cold, outer reaches of our planetary system were formed.
By determining the mass and volume of the 220km-wide Saturnian satellite, its density can also be determined, telling the researchers whether the body is predominantly rocky or icy.
"By measuring the sizes and numbers of [craters] you can try to work out an age for the surface," said Dr Murray.
Long-distance images were obtained by the Voyager 2 flyby in 1981, but Cassini's images - with a resolution of a few tens of metres - are far superior.
Cassini is a joint mission of the US and European space agencies and the Italian space agency. The probe will enter orbit around Saturn on 1 July. Next year, it will deliver the Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Saturn's major moon, Titan. | New achievements in aerospace | June 2004 | ['(Wired News)', '(BBC)'] |
A winter storm warning is in place for Washington, D.C. and the American states of Virginia and Maryland with schools closed and transport advisories in place. | Roads and sidewalks will refreeze overnight, and several D.C. area school districts have already decided to stay closed Wednesday.
The majority of public schools in the D.C. area, along with the federal government, closed Tuesday after a wintry storm dumped several inches of snow onto the region. The storm dropped at least 4 inches of snow on the metro area; 6 inches piled up in some areas south of D.C. Winter storm warnings are effect until noon Tuesday.
Untreated roads and sidewalks will remain hazardous with an overnight refreeze.
Then Wednesday, another arctic front could bring more snow. A 15-30 minute burst between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. is expected to leave a trace to a half inch of snow, which will stick because of the cold.
Then wind chills will drop to zero and below into Thursday.
Friday could set a record low of 4 degrees for Feb. 20.
The federal government's closure, the first of the winter, was expected to keep tens of thousands of commuters off the roads and rails Tuesday. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said non-emergency personnel in the Washington area had excused absences, while emergency employees and telework-ready employees were to follow their agencies' policies.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the city government's closure early Tuesday morning ahead of a snow emergency that went into effect at 7 a.m. and continued until 2 p.m. More than 130 cars were ticketed and towed.
Violators of snow emergency parking restrictions face a $250 ticket, a $100 tow and a $20-per-day storage fee until they pick up their vehicles.
The snow emergency is designed to allow transportation workers to clear snow emergency routes curb to curb. Property owners are asked to clear their sidewalks and help their neighbors clear theirs if needed.
WMATA suspended Metro Access service, while Metrorail is running on a Saturday schedule. Metrobus service was suspended overnight and operated under a severe snow plan Tuesday until transitioning to a moderate snow plan at 1:30 p.m., meaning more routes were in service with detours to keep buses off hills, narrow side streets and other problem areas. Rail and bus service are expected to return to normal Wednesday, but delays and detours are possible as road conditions require.
The D.C. Taxi Commission began a $15 surcharge at 7 a.m. Tuesday. It is set to expire at 7 p.m.
In advance of the storm, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in the commonwealth.
"This could be the worst storm we've had in Virginia in five years," the governor told News4.
Snow stuck to roads across the area, reducing visibility to one half-mile or less at times as the snow fell. The combination of snow-covered roads and low visibility made traveling dangerous.
Virginia State Police responded to thousands of accidents across the commonwealth.
In Loudoun County, officers were called to the scene of a fatal accident at the intersection of Route 15 and Route 50 just after 10 p.m. Monday. The road reopened by 2 a.m. Tuesday.
A state trooper was also injured while responding to a call in the northbound lanes of I-495 just after 6 a.m. Tuesday. Police say the trooper was invetigating an accident near Exit 45 when his patrol car was rear ended by another vehicle.
The trooper was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
One fatal crash was reported in Maryland Tuesday morning. A southbound driver apparently took a curve too fast on Route 97 at the Howard-Montgomery county line, hit a patch of slush on the right shoulder, and swerved sideway in to northbound traffic where he was struck by a pickup truck. Zeyu Zhang, 26, was pronounced dead at the scene, and three teenagers in the pickup were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The road had been plowed.
Transportation officials asked people to stay off the roads. Pre-treatment chemicals are less effective when the temperature is below 20 degrees.
Due to the subfreezing temps, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) added sand to its normal mixture to give cars a little more traction.
"When the temperatures are going to be as low as they are [Tuesday], in the teens and 20s and even below, the chemicals don't work well on the roads," said Steve Shannon of VDOT on Monday. "There's no chemical that really does."
McAuliffe said up to 2,500 VDOT workers and contractors were prepared to work in shifts to treat roads and haul off snow statewide. Almost 12,000 pieces of equipment were prepared Monday, as well as more than 550,000 tons of salt, sand and other abrasives and 565,000 gallons of calcium chloride and brine.
VDOT said its goal is to have all state-maintained roads passable within 48 hours after a winter storm ends.
Montgomery County offered free parking in county-owned lots and garages to encourage residents to park vehicles off roadways and to ease Montgomery County's snow removal efforts, according to a press release. Parking fees were suspended in lots, garages and metered spaces.
Hundreds of flights have been canceled at the three major airports in the Washington-Baltimore region. The flight tracking service FlightAware.com shows that more than 215 flights in and out of Reagan National Airport were canceled Tuesday. At BWI-Marshall Airport, about 60 flights had been canceled. And at Dulles International Airport, more than 50 flights were canceled.
Amtrak will continue operating under a modified schedule Wednesday.
RT @MDSHA: Snow falls in Southern Md. (MD 5 at MD 243) [PHOTO] #MdSnow #MdWx #MdTraffic pic.twitter.com/4AIc2pfmdU
Grocery stores turned a brisk business Monday, as shoppers loaded up on staples in advance of the severe weather. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2015 | ['(NBC Washington)'] |
Myanmarese students on a march to Yangon to protest an academic bill defy a police order to disperse in Letpadan Township. | Hundreds of students protesting against an education bill in Myanmar have defied an order to disperse.
Riot police in the town of Letpadan formed a human chain to prevent 300 students from continuing their march to Yangon, the country's main city.
The students began their march in Mandalay in January, in protest of a bill they say curbs academic freedom. The authorities have promised changes to the education bill, but students say their protest will continue.
Tensions rose on Monday after police surrounded a monastery overnight in Letpadan, about 130km (80 miles) north of Yangon, where the students were camping.
The group had paused there last week following negotiations with the government but had planned to continue their march on Monday. Police said they would act to "restore law and order" if the students tried to reach Yangon.
The Associated Press reported that three water cannon vehicles arrived on Tuesday, along with several trucks filled with riot gear. The police had given the protesters an order to disperse by Tuesday afternoon but the deadline passed without incident. Earlier, local media reported that Myanmar's security and border affairs minister, Col Thet Tun, spoke at the monastery gate with student leaders but that the negotiations were unsuccessful.
Student leader Min Thwe Thit told AFP news agency that some protesters had decided to go on hunger strike until they were allowed to continue their march. "The police are still blocking our way. We will not move from here until we get our demands," he said. The students believe the new education bill is undemocratic and centralises control over higher education institutes.
The military controlled Myanmar (also known as Burma) for decades, until the generals announced a transition in 2010 and handed power to a largely civilian government.
During military rule, student activists were at the forefront of several major uprisings. Police surround Myanmar students | Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
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