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Turkish police arrest a total of 41 people in connection with the Istanbul Atatürk Airport terrorist attack. | ISTANBUL, Turkey, July 2 (UPI) -- Turkish police arrested a total of 41 people in connection with a terrorist attack on Istanbul Ataturk Airport that killed 44 people, officials said.
An anti-terror raid of an Istanbul apartment Friday night netted 11 more suspects, ABC News reported. The news organization could not confirm whether each in a series of raids Friday were in connection with the airport bombing, where three men opened fire at a security checkpoint before blowing themselves up.
Turkish police told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat all 11 arrested Friday are foreign nationals, but did not identify from where.
Two of the bombers have been identified as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov. The men were identified after photocopies of their passports were provided by their landlord, police said. The identity of the third suicide bomber has yet to be confirmed.
No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though U.S. intelligence officials said it was organized by a known Chechen-born Islamic State commander, Akhmed Chatayev. Turkish police have not confirmed Chatayev's involvement. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2016 | ['(UPI.com)'] |
Eight people are injured, two seriously, when a car drives into several people in front of the Amsterdam Centraal station in the Netherlands. Police say the driver may have taken ill; they are not treating this as terrorism-related. | AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A car driver hit eight people outside Amsterdam Central Station on Saturday, injuring two seriously, after being warned about parking illegally, but police said there was no indication that the driver was carrying out an attack of any kind.
The police said on Twitter: “spoke to the suspect. Doesn’t appear to have been intentional.”
Two people were admitted to hospital with serious injuries, and others were treated at the scene.
The driver was arrested and taken for questioning.
Reporting By Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Hugh Lawson
| Road Crash | June 2017 | ['(DutchNews.NL)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Russian government of Dmitry Medvedev's Second Cabinet resigns after President Vladimir Putin delivers the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, in which he proposed several amendments to the constitution. Putin accepts the resignation. Medvedev says the constitutional changes would "significantly change Russia's balance of power". | Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev unexpectedly submitted both his and his government’s resignation on Wednesday, with reports suggesting disagreements with President Vladimir Putin precipitated the move. Mr Putin announced Mikhail Mishustin as his replacement a few hours later. An obscure technocrat, Mr Mishustin, 53, earned plaudits for his role revamping the country’s tax service, but is unlikely to be seen as a rival or potential successor. Approval of the appointment by the Duma, Russia’s lower parliament, on Thursday is virtually certain.
Mr Medvedev will now serve as deputy of the National Security Council, a newly created position.
The news came on the back of Mr Putin’s equally dramatic state-of-the-nation address. Over recent years, the showpiece event had become a predictable affair. But on Wednesday the president departed from the usual script of promises to the domestic audience and threats to the west by instead proposing a radical constitutional shakeup and referendum.
His proposals would see a redistribution of power away from the presidency and any potential successor towards parliament. In Mr Putin’s new vision, the Duma would be granted powers to choose a prime minister and cabinet. The Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber, would gain powers over the appointment of security officials. The constitutional position of the State Council, which Mr Putin currently heads, would also be strengthened. Mr Putin has been in power longer than any other Russian or Soviet leader since Josef Stalin, who led from 1924 until his death in 1953. Under the current law, Mr Putin must step down in 2024 after his term ends. The move appeared to be designed to enable him to retain informal power by switching to one of the said institutions after leaving the presidential post. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | January 2020 | ['(The Independent)', '(BBC News)'] |
Sixteen countries attend a two–day conference organised by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo to discuss the retrieval of old items which were pillaged by other nations, such as the Rosetta Stone (held by the British Museum, London) and Queen Nefertitti's bust (held by the Neues Museum, Berlin). | AFP - Antiquities officials from around the world gather in Cairo on Wednesday to map out a strategy to recover ancient loot they say has been pillaged from their countries and displayed abroad.
The two-day conference will be attended by antiquities officials, deputy culture ministers and museum directors from 16 countries that have seen some of their national heritage stolen over the centuries.
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said the forum will discuss "the protection and restitution of cultural heritage."
Delegates will also draw up lists of artefacts missing from their countries and displayed in museums abroad, treasures they have been demanding be returned, the SCA said.
The conference will also call on the United Nations cultural body UNESCO to amend a convention that bans export or ownership of stolen antiquities acquired after 1970.
The convention deals with the "means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property," but stipulates there will be no "retroactive" measure for artefacts acquired before the convention was signed in 1970.
Over the years, Egypt's antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass has made the return of looted Egyptian artefacts the hallmark of his tenure and won many battles to bring home Pharaonic items and other ancient relics.
In March, Egypt said it retrieved from Britain some 25,000 ancient artefacts, including a stone axe dating back 200,000 years and pottery from the seventh millenium BC.
But Hawass is still eyeing two high profile objects: the Rosetta stone held by the British Museum for more than 200 years and the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin.
The iconic Rosetta stone, which dates back to 196 BC, was found by French forces in Egypt in 1799 and given to the British under a treaty two years later.
Its discovery led to a breakthrough in deciphering hieroglyphics, as it gives the same text in the ancient Egyptian script, plus the demotic Egyptian that was the common language and Greek, which was the language of officialdom.
As for the Nefertiti bust, Germany has repeatedly rebuffed Egyptian claims to the rightful ownership of it and says the priceless sculpture was acquired legally nearly a century ago. Egypt says it was spirited out of the country.
Last year Egypt broke off relations with the Louvre Museum until France finally returns stolen steles chipped off a wall painting in the ancient tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings.
Greece, one of the countries attending the conference, will chair a session devoted to "problems facing the countries in their attempt to retrieve their antiquities," Hawass has said.
Athens has been locked in a 30-year antiquities "war" with London to retrieve the Elgin Marbles from the British Musuem.
Since becoming head of antiquities in 2002, Hawass has helped Egypt reclaim 31,000 relics from abroad. Last year he insisted that "what has been stolen from us must be returned."
Thirty countries were invited to attend but only 16 are sending representatives: Bolivia, China, Cyprus, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Iraq, Italy, Libya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korean, Spain, Sri Lanka and Syria.
Finders keepers losers weepers. To the victor goes the spoils.Too bad for you girlie mans.
These legal battles between museums and antiquities officials representing countries around the world have become too expensive. They have been dragging on for decades in most cases. I wonder who is paying the bill. Setting the expensive legal fees aside, countries who have refused to return artifacts to the countries from which they have been stolen, should be ashamed and embarrassed. But no, they instead have decided to show the whole world just how far they will go to steal and rob a country, and compound that theft by refusing to return the artifacts in light of the evidence that it was stolen. ELBaradie has already been returned to Egypt,thank God.
The taking of national treasures by anyone at any time whether by illegal purchase, stealth, or 'spoils of war' is theft. An amnesty could be called to enable the articles to be returned with immunity from prosecution. After a predetermined period, if the articles are not returned, then prosecution under international law should be effected. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(France24)'] |
American boxer Victor Ortiz is arrested for allegedly raping a woman in March, and is expected to be charged with three felonies. | Victor Ortiz, a champion boxer who also competed on Season 16 of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, turned himself in to authorities Tuesday for allegedly raping a woman in March, the Oxnard Police Department said. Ortiz surrendered at 2:55 p.m. at the Ventura County Sheriff Department's East Valley Station and was charged with three counts of felony sexual assault.
The 31-year-old athlete's bail was set at $100,000 after Ortiz was formally charged with suspicion of forcible digital penetration, forcible oral copulation and forcible rape. The police department added that if people have additional information regarding the alleged incident, they are encouraged to contact detective Kevin Adair at 805-385-7663; should anyone wish to remain anonymous, police said people can call their Violent Crimes Hotline at 805-982-7070.
Police began investigating Ortiz after his alleged victim contacted them March 19 and claimed he had sexually assaulted her "inside a residence in the city of Oxnard." The Family Protection Unit conducted an investigation for "several months," police said, and it was "presented to the Venture County District Attorney's Office for filing." A warrant for Ortiz's arrest was issued.
Ortiz's rep has not commented on the charges. He has a televised fight scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 30, at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif., against former world title challenger John Molina, Jr. Ortiz is out on bail, but it remains unclear of the fight will go ahead. Molina, for his part, is still ready for the fight and sharing photos of his meal prep on Instagram.
Since turning himself in, Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs) has gone silent on social media. The boxer, who has also appeared in movies like Expendables 3 and Southpaw, previously had a run in with the law in 2015 when he was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon—his foot—after allegedly beating up a fan during a Kenny Chesney concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and received three years of probation. A year later, Ortiz was arrested and charged with DUI; after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge in 2017, he was given three years' probation and sentenced to eight days in county jail.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2018 | ['(EOnline)'] |
The European Court of Human Rights rules that Khalid El–Masri, a German citizen, was an innocent victim of extraordinary rendition by the Central Intelligence Agency and orders Macedonia to pay him €60,000 after it arrested him and sent him to the CIA. CIA agents then transferred him to a detention facility in Afghanistan. | CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as Macedonian state police looked on, the European court of human rights said in a historic judgment released on Thursday.
In a unanimous ruling, it also found Macedonia guilty of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin allegedly linked to terrorist organisations.
Masri was seized in Macedonia in December 2003 and handed over to a CIA "rendition team" at Skopje airport and secretly flown to Afghanistan.
It is the first time the court has described CIA treatment meted out to terror suspects as torture.
"The grand chamber of the European court of human rights unanimously found that Mr el-Masri was subjected to forced disappearance, unlawful detention, extraordinary rendition outside any judicial process, and inhuman and degrading treatment," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative.
He described the judgment as "an authoritative condemnation of some of the most objectionable tactics employed in the post-9/11 war on terror". It should be a wake-up call for the Obama administration and US courts, he told the Guardian. For them to continue to avoid serious scrutiny of CIA activities was "simply unacceptable", he said.
Jamil Dakwar, of the American Civil Liberties Union, described the ruling as "a huge victory for justice and the rule of law".
The use of CIA interrogation methods widely denounced as torture during the Bush administration's "war on terror" also came under scrutiny in Congress on Thursday. The US Senate's select committee on intelligence was expected to vote on whether to approve a mammoth review it has undertaken into the controversial practices that included waterboarding, stress positions, forced nudity, beatings and sleep and sensory deprivation.
The report, that runs to almost 6,000 pages based on a three-year review of more than 6m pieces of information, is believed to conclude that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" adopted by the CIA during the Bush years did not produce any major breakthroughs in intelligence, contrary to previous claims. The committee, which is dominated by the Democrats, is likely to vote to approve the report, though opposition from the Republican members may prevent the report ever seeing the light of day.
The Strasbourg court said it found Masri's account of what happened to him "to be established beyond reasonable doubt" and that Macedonia had been "responsible for his torture and ill-treatment both in the country itself and after his transfer to the US authorities in the context of an extra-judicial 'rendition'".
In January 2004, Macedonian police took him to a hotel in Skopje, where he was kept locked in a room for 23 days and questioned in English, despite his limited proficiency in that language, about his alleged ties with terrorist organisations, the court said in its judgment. His requests to contact the German embassy were refused. At one point, when he said he intended to leave, he was threatened with being shot.
"Masri's treatment at Skopje airport at the hands of the CIA rendition team – being severely beaten, sodomised, shackled and hooded, and subjected to total sensory deprivation – had been carried out in the presence of state officials of [Macedonia] and within its jurisdiction," the court ruled.
It added: "Its government was consequently responsible for those acts performed by foreign officials. It had failed to submit any arguments explaining or justifying the degree of force used or the necessity of the invasive and potentially debasing measures. Those measures had been used with premeditation, the aim being to cause Mr Masri severe pain or suffering in order to obtain information. In the court's view, such treatment had amounted to torture, in violation of Article 3 [of the European human rights convention]."
In Afghanistan, Masri was incarcerated for more than four months in a small, dirty, dark concrete cell in a brick factory near the capital, Kabul, where he was repeatedly interrogated and was beaten, kicked and threatened. His repeated requests to meet with a representative of the German government were ignored, said the court.
Masri was released in April 2004. He was taken, blindfolded and handcuffed, by plane to Albania and subsequently to Germany, after the CIA admited he was wrongly detained. The Macedonian government, which the court ordered must pay Masri €60,000 (£49,000) in compensation, has denied involvement in kidnapping.
UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, described the ruling as "a key milestone in the long struggle to secure accountability of public officials implicated in human rights violations committed by the Bush administration CIA in its policy of secret detention, rendition and torture".
He said the US government must issue an apology for its "central role in a web of systematic crimes and human rights violations by the Bush-era CIA, and to pay voluntary compensation to Mr el-Masri".
Germany should ensure that the US officials involved in this case were now brought to trial. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2012 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The Guardian)', '(ECHR)'] |
Hovik Abrahamyan resigns as Prime Minister of Armenia citing civil unrest and a sharp economic downturn. | Move follows standoff in capital Yerevan between police and armed men, and could pave way for a coalition government
Last modified on Wed 12 Apr 2017 15.06 BST
The prime minister of Armenia has announced his resignation following weeks of civil unrest and a sharp economic downturn. Hovik Abrahamyan told a cabinet meeting on Thursday that the country needs “new approaches and a new beginning,” and his departure should lead the way towards a coalition government. Last month, Armenia’s president, Serzh Sargsyan, promised to create a government of national accord after a two-week standoff at a police compound in the capital, Yerevan, which left two police officers dead and shook the nation.
Several dozen armed men stormed the building and demanded the release of Zhirair Sefilyan, the leader of the New Armenia Public Salvation Front opposition group, who was arrested in June on suspicion of preparing to seize government buildings and telecoms facilities in Yerevan.
The standoff galvanised Armenia’s protest movement, triggering rallies in support of the gunmen and further clashes with police.
In recent months, there has been a flare-up of violence in Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. Karabakh is technically part of Azerbaijan, but it has been run by an ethnic Armenian government since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In April, the worst clashes since a 1994 ceasefire broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In comments reported by Russian news agencies, Abrahamyan said he was stepping down in order to “give a chance to a new government,” which would offer “new approaches in order to consolidate society”.
However, it was not clear from his statement who would lead the government.
Political analysts in Armenia have named the former mayor of Yerevan Karen Karapetyan, a top executive at Russian gas company Gazprom, as the likeliest successor to Abrahamyan. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Franz Josef Jung resigns as Germany's Minister of Labour and Social Affairs following allegations of covering up the Kunduz airstrike, during which he served as Minister of Defence. | Germany's Labour Minister Franz Josef Jung has resigned amid allegations of a cover-up relating to a deadly Nato air strike in Afghanistan.
Mr Jung was defence minister when a strike was ordered on 4 September by a German commander against two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants. But dozens of civilians were also killed in the attack, which happened in the northern province of Kunduz. Mr Jung had repeatedly denied civilians were killed in the attack. He moved to the labour ministry after Germany's general election in September. "I told Chancellor Angela Merkel this morning that I was handing in my position as federal labour minister," Mr Jung told reporters in Berlin on Friday. "I am therefore taking responsibility for the information policy of the defence ministry." Germany's parliament has been debating whether to extend the military mission in Afghanistan, amid growing domestic opposition to involvement in the conflict. Information withheld?
The death toll from the September strike remains unclear. The independent Afghanistan Rights Monitor group put the number of civilians deaths at 70, while the Afghan government later said that 30 of 100 casualties had been civilians. For several days after the attack, Mr Jung maintained that no civilians had been killed, and on Thursday he told parliament that he had correctly informed the public and deputies about the strike.
But Germany's top soldier Wolfgang Schneiderhan and senior Defence Ministry Peter Wichert resigned on Thursday, following reports that key information about the strike had been withheld. The German newspaper, Bild, alleged key information over the incident had been repressed. Citing a confidential army video and a military report, it said they showed that the German commander who ordered the strike, Col Georg Klein, had not been able to rule out the presence of civilians at the scene before he took action. The newspaper said the report proved the defence ministry had been told there were clear indications of civilian casualties by the evening of 4 September. It is not clear whether Mr Jung was aware of the report and the video. Germany has more than 4,000 troops in Afghanistan, the third largest contingent after the US and Britain. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2009 | ['(Deutsche Welle)', '(BBC)'] |
The freak weather system responsible for heavy rain and tornadoes in the U.S., and high winds and rainfall in the British Isles, also has impacted the Arctic where the average winter temperature is normally around −20 °F (−29 °C). Temperatures around the North Pole have surpassed the 32 °F (0 °C) threshold for a brief moment, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean Prediction Center, which is 50 °F (27.8 °C) higher than usual for December. | This story has been updated to include buoy measurements that confirm the North Pole temperature climbed above 32 degrees on Wednesday.
A powerful winter cyclone — the same storm that led to two tornado outbreaks in the United States and disastrous river flooding — has driven the North Pole to the freezing point this week, 50 degrees above average for this time of year.
From Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, a mind-boggling pressure drop was recorded in Iceland: 54 millibars in just 18 hours. This triples the criteria for “bomb” cyclogenesis, which meteorologists use to describe a rapidly intensifying mid-latitude storm. A “bomb” cyclone is defined as dropping one millibar per hour for 24 hours.
NOAA’s Ocean Prediction Center said the storm’s minimum pressure dropped to 928 millibars around 1 a.m. Eastern time, which likely places it in the top five strongest storms on record in this region.
“According to the center’s records, the all-time strongest storm in this area occurred on Dec. 15, 1986, and that had a minimum central pressure of 900 millibars,” Mashable’s Andrew Freedman reported on Tuesday. “The second-strongest storm occurred in January 1993, with a pressure of 916 millibars.”
As this storm churns north, it’s forcing warm air into the Arctic Circle. Over the North Sea, sustained winds from the south are blasting at 70 mph, and gusting to well above 100 mph, drawing heat from south to north.
Although there are no permanent weather stations at the North Pole (or really anywhere in the Arctic Ocean), we can use weather forecast models, which ingest data from satellites and surrounding surface observations, to estimate conditions at Earth’s most northern location.
On Wednesday morning, temperatures over a vast area around North Pole were somewhere between 30 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and for at least a brief moment, surpassed the 32-degree threshold at exactly 90 degrees North, according to data from the GFS forecast model.
Data from the International Arctic Buoy Programme confirms that temperatures very close to the North Pole surpassed the melting point on Wednesday. A buoy (WMO ID Buoy 6400476) at a latitude of 87.45 degrees North hit a high temperature of 0.7 degrees Celsius — or 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Consider the average winter temperature there is around 20 degrees below zero,” wrote the Capital Weather Gang’s Jason Samenow on Monday. A temperature around the freezing mark signifies a departure from normal of over 50 degrees, and close to typical mid-summer temperatures in this region.
In other words, the area around the North Pole was about as warm as Chicago on Wednesday, and quite a few degrees warmer than much of the Midwest.
Meanwhile in habitable areas around the North Atlantic, winds are howling and waves are rocking the coastline. In Britain, a week of excessive rainfall has pushed rivers and streams well beyond their banks, stranding vehicles and buckling bridges.
[Rivers are rising to record levels in the Midwest, flooding is ‘major to historic’]
In a blog post on Monday, the U.K. Met office said that December has been a record-breaking month for rainfall in parts of the United Kingdom. A Christmas weekend storm brought up to 8 inches of addition rainfall on saturated soil. The Met Office listed just a small portion of the December records that were set this weekend, in some cases blowing away the previous December records by 10 inches.
This post has been updated to include the WMO ID number of the buoy that recorded temperatures above 32 degrees on Wednesday.
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | December 2015 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(South China Morning Post)', '(Sputnik News)'] |
The impactor of NASA probe Deep Impact successfully strikes comet Tempel 1. | After 172 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles) of deep space stalking, Deep Impact successfully reached out and touched comet Tempel 1. The collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT.
"What a way to kick off America's Independence Day," said Deep Impact Project Manager Rick Grammier of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The challenges of this mission and teamwork that went into making it a success, should make all of us very proud."Image right: This image from the flyby's medium-resolution camera shows the initial ejecta that resulted when NASA's Deep Impact probe collided with comet Tempel 1. It was taken by the spacecraft's medium-resolution camera 16 seconds after impact.+ Full image and caption
"This mission is truly a smashing success," said Andy Dantzler, director of NASA's Solar System Division. "Tomorrow and in the days ahead we will know a lot more about the origins of our solar system."
Official word of the impact came 5 minutes after impact. At 1:57 a.m. EDT, an image from the spacecraft's medium resolution camera downlinked to the computer screens of the mission's science team showed the tell-tale signs of a high-speed impact.
"The image clearly shows a spectacular impact," said Deep Impact principal investigator Dr. Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, College Park. "With this much data we have a long night ahead of us, but that is what we were hoping for. There is so much here it is difficult to know where to begin."
The celestial collision and ensuing data collection by the nearby Deep Impact mothership was the climax of a very active 24 hour period for the mission which began with impactor release at 2:07 a.m. EDT on July 3. Deep space maneuvers by the flyby, final checkout of both spacecraft and comet imaging took up most of the next 22 hours. Then, the impactor got down to its last two hours of life.
"The impactor kicked into its autonomous navigation mode right on time," said Deep Impact navigator Shyam Bhaskaran, of JPL. "Our preliminary analysis indicates the three impactor targeting maneuvers occurred on time at 90, 35 and 12.5 minutes before impact."
At the moment the impactor was vaporizing itself in its 10 kilometers per second (6.3 miles per second) collision with comet Tempel 1, the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft was monitoring events from nearby. For the following14 minutes the flyby collected and downlinked data as the comet loomed ever closer. Then, as expected at 2:05 a.m. EDT, the flyby stopped collecting data and entered a defensive posture called shield mode where its dust shields protect the spacecraft's vital components during its closest passage through the comet's inner coma. Shield mode ended at 2:32 a.m. EDT when mission control re-established the link with the flyby spacecraft.
"The flyby surviving closest approach and shield mode has put the cap on an outstanding day," said Grammier. "Soon, we will begin the process of downlinking all the encounter information in one batch and hand it to the science team."
The goal of the Deep Impact mission is to provide a glimpse beneath the surface of a comet, where material from the solar system's formation remains relatively unchanged. Mission scientists expect the project will answer basic questions about the formation of the solar system, by offering a better look at the nature and composition of the frozen celestial travelers known as comets.
The University of Maryland is responsible for overall Deep Impact mission science, and project management is handled by JPL. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colo. | New achievements in aerospace | July 2005 | ['(NASA)'] |
Twin suicide bombings kill 31 and wound another 60 in al-Qahira, Baghdad. | At least 31 people have been killed in a double suicide bomb attack at a Shia mosque in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Two bombers blew themselves up inside the mosque in the eastern al-Qahira district.
Close to 60 people were also wounded in the attack, officials say.
The attack comes a day after bombings near Baghdad killed at least 10. There has been a surge in sectarian attacks in recent months on targets like mosques, restaurants and local markets. The two suicide bombers shot dead the guards standing outside the Habib ibn Mathaher mosque shortly after midday prayers, and then blew themselves up inside the mosque, eyewitnesses said.
The violence has rekindled fears the country is being dragged towards a wider conflict between the Shia majority and the Sunni minority. "The suicide bomber detonated himself among the worshippers, who were gathering after the call to prayer," policeman Furat Faleh, who was near the site of the blast, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Tuesday's attack comes a day after bombings near Baghdad killed at least 10 people in the cities of Taji and Fallujah, and included a blast in a roadside restaurant.
And two days ago, a string of bombings struck cities in southern, central and northern Iraq, but fewer people were killed in those attacks than in Tuesday's attack on the mosque, says the BBC's Rami Ruhayem in Baghdad. Last month was the bloodiest in Iraq since June 2008, with 1,045 civilians and security officials killed.
Tensions between the Shia Muslim majority, which leads the government, and minority Sunnis has been growing since last year.
Sunnis have accused the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of discriminating against them - a claim the government denies. | Riot | June 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Japan resumes economic and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian National Authority. | Aid was suspended after Hamas formed a government in 2006 but it was fired by Mr Abbas in June this year.
Japan wants to boost economic ties between Israel and the Palestinian government to revive the peace process.
Eleven million dollars (£5.5m) will be paid in direct aid, with a further $9m dollars (£4.5m) in humanitarian assistance.
Some of that money will go to Gaza where Hamas violently took control two months ago.
Mr Abbas now heads a Western-backed government led by his Fatah faction in the West Bank.
The BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem, Crispin Thorold, says the Palestinian economy has been in a desperate state for well over a year.
He says the $11m in direct aid which Japan has pledged is not a huge amount but does at least mark the resumption of Japanese financial support. Israeli and Palestinian officials have welcomed the Japanese government initiative to boost economic co-operation but warned that it was not a replacement for political dialogue.
Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat signed an agreement to build an industrial park to process Palestinian fruit and vegetables.
Under the plan, the products will be shipped to Jordan for sale in the Gulf and Israel will provide security and technical expertise. | Financial Aid | August 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake hits the Kuril Islands town Severo-Kurilsk in Russia's Far East. | A 7.5 magnitude earthquake has been recorded beneath the northern Pacific Ocean near Russia's Kuril Islands, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS.)
The quake struck at 2:49 a.m. UTC on Wednesday (10:49 p.m. ET Tuesday) at a depth of around 37 miles, USGS data shows.
The epicenter was located 136 miles south-southeast of Severo-Kurilsk on the island chain, and 870 miles northeast of the Japanese city of Sapporo.
Russian News agency RIA Novosti reported that residents in some areas of the Kamchatka Peninsula—located just north of the Kuril Island chain—felt the quake. However, at present, there have been no reports of any damage of casualties, Channel News Asia reported.
Initial estimates from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) indicated that the earthquake measured 7.8 magnitude, however, this figure was subsequently downgraded.
Following the quake, the PTWC warned that hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts located within 621 miles of the the epicenter, and a tsunami watch was in effect for the state of Hawaii for about an hour.
"Earthquakes of this size are known to generate tsunamis potentially dangerous to coasts outside the source region," the PTWC said in an alert.
However, the tsunami watch for Hawaii was cancelled about an hour later, with the PTWC concluding that "only very small tsunami waves were generated by this earthquake and there is no further threat."
In addition, the PTWC said there was no tsunami danger for the U.S. West Coast, British Columbia or Alaska, although the center noted that some of these areas may experience non-damaging sea level changes.
"Tsunami waves are forecast to be less than 0.3 meters above the tide level," the center
In an alert covering the coasts of Hawaii, Japan, Russia and the islands of Midway, the Northern Marianas and Wake Island.
The Japan Meteorological Association (JMA) said there may be some tidal changes in parts of the country's coastline but said there was no risk of tsunami damage. The JMA also noted that shaking was felt in Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Tokyo and Nagano prefectures.
The last major earthquake to hit the Kuril Islands region occurred in 2006. This quake—which measured magnitude 8.3—generated a small tsunami which affected the northern Japanese coast, as well as parts of California.
The Kuril Island chain is a volcanic archipelago which extends for more than 800 miles from the northeastern tip of Japan to bottom of the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula. In total, the archipelago consists of 56 main islands, the four southernmost of which have been disputed by Russia and Japan since the end of World War II.
| Earthquakes | March 2020 | ['(Newsweek)'] |
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili resigns following anti–government protests. | TBILISI -- Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili announced his resignation after a series of antigovernment protests shook the capital, Tbilisi.
Kvirikashvili made the announcement on June 13, citing "disagreements" with the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, as a reason for his decision.
"I think this is the moment now when the leader of the party should be given an opportunity to form a new cabinet," he also said in his televised statement.
Kvirikashvili, 50, has been prime minister since December 2015. He was nominated for the post by Georgia's parliamentary majority, dominated by tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream party.
Kvirikashvili's decision triggers the resignation of the whole cabinet.
Under the constitution, the ruling party will have to submit a new cabinet list to President Giorgi Margvelashvili within a week. Margvelashvili then will have a further seven days to submit the new cabinet to parliament for approval.
A wave of demonstrations started on May 31 to protest against what demonstrators said was a miscarriage of justice following the killing of two teenagers in December. The protests stopped after June 6, but resumed on June 10 and ended on June 11 with police dismantling protesters' tents and detaining opposition politicians and their supporters.
The demonstrations followed a series of rallies held in May by hundreds of people who took to Tbilisi streets and erected tent camps to protest an antidrug raid by police on two popular nightclubs, angered by what critics called an excessive use of force against club-goers.
They also came after mass street rallies in neighboring Armenia helped force the resignation of the prime minister and led to protest leader Nikol Pashinian being voted in by parliament as the new premier. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2018 | ['(RFE/RL)'] |
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks in prison by a judge in the United Kingdom for breaching bail in 2012. Assange still faces possible extradition to the United States on charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. | A struggle over the US request for Julian Assange’s extradition will open in court on Thursday morning, a day after the WikiLeaks founder was jailed for just under a year for breaching bail conditions to avoid being extradited to Sweden.
Wednesday’s sentence was decried as an “outrage” by Kristinn Hrafnsson, the editor-in-chief of the whistleblowing website, who said the hearing at Westminster magistrates court to oppose Assange’s extradition would be the start of the “big fight” – a process he said would be “a question of life and death for Mr Assange”.
A judge largely rejected the mitigating factors put forward by lawyers for Assange – who took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy to London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, which he has denied – and told the 47-year-old it was difficult to envisage a more serious example of the offence.
“You remained there for nearly seven years, exploiting your privileged position to flout the law and advertise internationally your disdain for the law of this country,” said Judge Deborah Taylor, as she sentenced him at Southwark crown court.
“Your actions undoubtedly affected the progress of the Swedish proceedings. Even though you did cooperate initially, it was not for you to decide the nature or extent of your cooperation with the investigations. They could not be effectively progressed, and were discontinued, not least because you remained in the embassy.”
Assange, who was arrested last month when Ecuador revoked his political asylum and invited Metropolitan police officers inside the country’s Knightsbridge diplomatic premises, had written a letter in which he expressed regret for his actions but claimed he had been left with no choice.
“I apologise unreservedly to those who consider that I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case. This is not what I wanted or intended,” he said in the letter read out by his lawyer, Mark Summers QC.
“I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances for which neither I nor those from whom I sought advice could work out any remedy. I did what I thought at the time was the best and perhaps the only thing that could be done – which I hoped might lead to a legal resolution being reached between Ecuador and Sweden that would protect me from the worst of my fears.”
A Swedish prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for Assange over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women. Assange denies the claims.
He turns himself in to police in London and is placed in custody. He is later released on bail and calls the Swedish allegations a smear campaign.
A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden. Assange fears Sweden will hand him over to US authorities who could prosecute him.
He takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He requests, and is later granted, political asylum.
Assange is questioned in a two-day interview over the allegations at the Ecuadorian embassy by Swedish authorities.
WikiLeaks says Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights are 'guaranteed'. It comes after one of the site's main sources of leaked documents, Chelsea Manning, is given clemency.
Swedish prosecutors say they have closed their seven-year sex assault investigation into Assange. British police say they would still arrest him if he leaves the embassy as he breached the terms of his bail in 2012.
Britain refuses Ecuador's request to accord Assange diplomatic status, which would allow him to leave the embassy without being arrested.
He loses a bid to have his British arrest warrant cancelled on health grounds.
Ecuador cuts off Assange's internet access alleging he broke an agreement on interfering in other countries' affairs.
US prosecutors inadvertently disclose the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange.
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno says Assange has 'repeatedly violated' the conditions of his asylum at the embassy. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2019 | ['(NPR)', '(The Guardian)'] |
An Israeli couple are murdered in a shooting attack on their car in the northern West Bank; four of the couple's children are in the vehicle at the time but are not hit by the gunfire. Hamas praises the "heroic attack" and calls for "more highquality attacks." , , , | A Palestinian gunman has shot dead an Israeli couple traveling in a car with their four young children in the occupied West Bank.
Israel's military, which called the violence a "ruthless, heinous, barbaric attack,'' said forces were scouring the area, near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik. The military said the four children, aged between 4 months and 9 years, were slightly wounded.
The shooting came hours after Israel's prime minister said he was prepared to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.
Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly in New York he would restart negotiations "immediately" and "without preconditions," but that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was not interested.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas praised the attack as a "heroic operation carried out by resistance fighters in the West Bank." It was not clear, however, whether the group was behind the violence.
The attack came as tensions continued to flare between Israelis and Palestinians over the Jerusalem site known to Jews as the Temple Mount, home to the biblical Temples, and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, site of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the spot from where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven.
Over the past two weeks, Palestinian protesters have clashed with Israeli police at the hilltop compound, and unrest has spilled over to Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem and the West Bank. | Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(The Times of Israel)', '(Israel National News)', '(Breaking Israel News)', '(VOA News)'] |
A U.S. judge entered a plea of not guilty on the behalf of alleged Aurora theater gunman James Holmes, after his lawyers said they were not ready to enter a plea. | enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity at a later date, at Holmes's
arraignment for the killing of 12 people in the Colorado town of Aurora last
July.
Judge William Sylvester set a trial date for 5 August.
Defence attorney Daniel King said he would be ready to
make a plea by 1 May or 1 June. Prosecutors objected and said they had waited long
enough, to which the judge agreed and entered a standard not guilty plea.
Holmes is accused over the 20 July massacre at a midnight
screening of the Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, which revived
America's perennial debate about gun control.
Witnesses said Holmes threw smoke bomb-type devices
before opening fire randomly with weapons, including an AR-15 military-style
rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .40-caliber pistol.
Holmes' arraignment had initially been scheduled for
January, but the judge agreed at that time to delay it, triggering anger from
some of the victims' relatives.
The Weekly
Newsletter editor Alet Law guides you through our most interesting and insightful stories to give you a well-rounded view of the week that was. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2013 | ['(AFP via News24)'] |
President Alexander Lukashenko says he is "ready to share power in Belarus, although not under pressure from the streets". Meanwhile, opposition leader in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urges security forces to defect to her side and says she is prepared to lead the country. | MINSK (Reuters) - Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, said on Monday he would be ready to hold new elections and hand over power after a constitutional referendum, an attempt to pacify mass protests and strikes that pose the biggest challenge yet to his rule.
Belarus leader says new election to be held
He made the offer, which he insisted would not be delivered on while he was under pressure from protesters, after exiled opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she was willing to lead the country.
In a sign of his growing vulnerability, Lukashenko faced heckling and chants of “step down” during a speech to workers at one of the large state-run factories that are the pride of his Soviet-style economic model and core support base.
He faces the threat of European Union sanctions after a bloody crackdown on protests following what demonstrators say was his rigged re-election victory last week. He cites official results that gave him just over 80% of the vote.
Officials in Washington and the EU want Russia not to meddle in what President Donald Trump called a “terrible situation”, after Moscow told Lukashenko it was ready to provide military help against an external threat.
Russia is watching closely as Belarus hosts pipelines that carry Russian energy exports to the West and is viewed by Moscow as a buffer zone against NATO. Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke twice this weekend.
A burly former Soviet collective farm manager, Lukashenko used blunt language while speaking to workers on Monday.
“We’ve held elections,” he said. “Until you’ve killed me there won’t be any new elections.”
But he offered to change the constitution, an apparent concession that seems unlikely to satisfy protesters who say it’s something he has spoken about before.
“We’ll put the changes to a referendum, and I’ll hand over my constitutional powers. But not under pressure or because of the street,” Lukashenko said, in remarks quoted by the official Belta news agency.
“Yes, I’m not a saint. You know my harsh side. I’m not eternal. But if you drag down the first president you’ll drag down neighbouring countries and all the rest.”
He also said people could hold parliamentary and presidential elections after the referendum if that was what they wanted.
Speaking in a video address from Lithuania, opposition politician Tsikhanouskaya urged security and law enforcement officers to switch sides.
“I am ready to take responsibility and act as a national leader during this period,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
The first leader of independent Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich told Reuters the military and Lukashenko’s inner circle could stay loyal and were “handsomely paid”.
Tsikhanouskaya’s video was released as hundreds of employees from the state broadcaster BT went on strike, as several presenters and staff publicly resigned in solidarity with the protesters.
The strike came as protests spread to those normally seen as loyal to the 65-year-old president. Some police, a sitting ambassador, prominent athletes and a former prime minister have also voiced solidarity with the protesters.
The state broadcaster showed re-runs on Monday morning before issuing a fresh news bulletin. Videos on social media suggested BT had at one point aired footage of an empty studio with white sofas, and music playing.
Reuters could not independently confirm that and the broadcaster could not immediately be reached for comment.
Factory workers waving flags and posters joined protesters to rally outside the building, which was being guarded by security forces.
“We want to work honestly, we do not want to be forced to lie,” TV host Oleg Titkov told Reuters.
Thousands of protesters had earlier marched to a factory where Lukashenko flew by helicopter to speak to striking workers. He got a rough reception.
“Thanks, I’ve said everything. You can (continue to) shout ‘step down,’” he said, struggling to be heard.
He then walked away as the crowd chanted “Step down”.
Media outlet Tut.By showed footage of Lukashenko confronting one worker, saying “I will not beat you up” before adding “if somebody provokes something here, we will sort it out in a hard way. So, man up.”
Strike action hit Belaruskali, one of the world’s largest potash producers, partly shutting production, Russia’s TASS news agency cited a local trade union as saying. The state-owned firm, a key source of dollar revenue for Belarus, said its plant was still working.
In the evening, thousands marched to the Okrestina detention facility where protesters were kept last week and complained of beatings, cramped conditions and starvation rations. The government denies abuse.
Lukashenko said he had received a phone call from German Chancellor Angela Merkel: “Yesterday Merkel called, ‘I want to talk,’” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. However, the German government said no conversation had taken place between the two leaders since the Aug. 9 election.
Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky in Minsk, Vladimir Soldatkin, Maxim Rodionov and Tom Balmforth in Moscow and Kate Holton in London; writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Giles Elgood and Peter Graff
| Famous Person - Give a speech | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Typhoon Krosa later heads for the People's Republic of China, where 730,000 people are evacuated from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. |
Rescue workers search for survivors in a mudslide in the Yang Ming Shan mountain range above Taipei, Taiwan, 06 Oct 2007Chinese authorities have evacuated more than one-million people from eastern Zhejiang and Fujian provinces as Typhoon Krosa churns towards the coast.
Chinese media say tourists and residents of the coastal provinces were evacuated by Saturday evening as the storm approached with winds up to 180 kilometers-per-hour. The reports say the storm is expected to hit the coast early Sunday.
In Taiwan, where the storm passed over the north of the main island, authorities say 17 people were injured.
Typhoon Krosa (meaning "crane" in the Khmer language) lashed Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain Saturday, cutting power to thousands of homes and disrupting air and sea traffic.
Rescuers pulled six people from the ruins of a house. Two others are still missing after a mudslide swept away the house in Taipei, where streets were flooded. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2007 | ['(VOA)'] |
Lawyers in the UK accuse Egypt's military of committing crimes against humanity after July's ouster of President Mohamed Morsi. | Lawyers in the UK accuse the military of murder, torture and ‘disappearing’ people since Mohamed Morsi was toppled.
Lawyers in the UK have accused the Egyptian military and the country’s interim government of crimes against humanity for the aftermath of theclashes since deposed president Mohamed Morsi was ousted in July.
In a report released on Saturday, the high-profile legal team accused the military of a number of crimes and human rights abuses.
The report documented the findings oftheir investigation since August.
“Evidence we have collected in the course of our investigation shows a prima facie case that the following crimes occurred: murder, unlawful imprisonment, torture, persecution against an identifiable group, and forced disappearance of persons and other inhumane acts of a similar character, intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or mental and physical health,” said Tyab Ali, a lead lawyer on the case.
He added that the key suspectsincludetoparmy officersand soldiers.
The legal team, which includes UK-based human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield, and South African international law expert John Dugard, was appointed by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom of Justice Party (FJP) and members of the Shura Council and led by London-based human rights law firm, ITN Solicitors.
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Cairo, said that the legal team was examining what their next step with the case will be.
“The most likely avenues are either the International Court of Justice in The Hague or the International Criminal Court to try and find somewhere that they could actually turn this into a prosecution,” said our correspondent.
Egyptian state media reported on Saturday that a panel of Egyptian judges had made a non-binding recommendation to the administrative court that the FJP be dissolved, which is already deliberating a lawsuit to ban the party for its affiliation with the Brotherhood and contravening laws on the formation of religious parties.
Earlier on Saturday, a Muslim Brotherhood-led alliance said it was ready for a national dialogue to end the political standoff that has gripped the country and killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Morsi supporters, since July 3 after the army moved to disperse protesters.
The Brotherhood, for decades a non-violent underground movement, denies espousing the use of force and says the army staged a coup and undermined democratic gains made since a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
It remains to be seen whether either the government or the top Brotherhood leaders, who have rejected dialogue outright and insist that Morsi remains the legitimate president, might be ready to compromise.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2013 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
A court in Egypt sentences 75 supporters of former president Mohammed Morsi to death, as part of a trial of more than 700. | An Egyptian court has sentenced 75 people to death for their role in the violence that erupted after President Mohammed Morsi's removal in 2013.
The group, including leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, are part of a mass trial of more than 700 people.
Rights group Amnesty International has called the trial "grossly unfair" and a violation of Egypt's constitution.
Their cases will now be referred to the Grand Mufti, who must be consulted whenever the death sentence is applied.
But while Egyptian law requires the opinion of the Grand Mufti, the country's highest Islamic legal authority, it is non-binding - although rarely ignored.
The August 2013 clashes took place a month after the democratically-elected Mr Morsi was ousted, with hundreds of demonstrators and dozens of security personnel killed after the latter moved in to break up two sit-in protests.
Among those arrested that day was the award-winning photojournalist, Mahmoud Abou Zeid, better known as Shawkan.
He was detained while taking pictures of the dispersal of a protest. He has been held in prison ever since and faces a series charges.
A decision in his case was postponed by the judges on Saturday.
In the months that followed the clashes, there was a crackdown on the former president's supporters, and on the Muslim Brotherhood group to which he belongs, which Egypt later declared a "terrorist organisation".
In a statement, Amnesty International pointed out that, while many thousands of people have been arrested since, "Egyptian authorities have never questioned or prosecuted any of the security force personnel" who were involved in the clashes.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Matthew Centrowitz wins the men's 1,500 metres for the first American gold in the event since 1908. | Last updated on 21 August 201621 August 2016.From the section Olympics
American Matthew Centrowitz won Olympic 1500m gold in Rio as Great Britain's Charlie Grice finished 12th.
In a tight, tactical race, Centrowitz broke clear with 250m remaining to take victory in three minutes 50 seconds.
Algeria's Taoufik Makhloufi won silver in 3:50.11 and New Zealand's Nicholas Willis bronze in 3:50.24.
Kenya's Asbel Kiprop, the world champion, faded badly in the home straight to finish sixth, with Grice clocking 3:51.73.
Centrowitz, 26, whose father Matt competed at two Olympics, is the first American winner of the event since the London Games in 1908.
The first two laps were run at a relatively pedestrian 66 and 69.7 seconds respectively, but Kenya's Ronald Kwemoi tripped on the second to fall to the back of the pack.
Kiprop, the 2008 Olympic champion, made his move with about 400m left, but Centrowitz clocked a final lap of 50.62 to hold on for gold.
Find out how to get into athletics with our special guide.
Grice gave himself a chance, passing the bell in seventh, but didn't quite have the speed to contend for a medal in his first Olympic final.
"I'm very happy to be here but was hoping to perform a bit better than that," he said. "It was very pushy and 'shovey' as always and I think I kind of panicked a bit and was surging, but my legs just didn't have it. I think they're pretty tired from the qualification rounds."
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Joining several other Democrats in the race, Senator Kamala Harris of California announces her intention for running in the 2020 United States presidential election. | Sen. Kamala Harris has decided to run for president in 2020 and will announce her candidacy on or around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, probably at a campaign rally in Oakland, sources close to the freshman senator from California tell KCBS Radio.
Harris, 54, has been making the rounds of television talk shows and appearing at several events this week as part of a brief tour to promote her new book, "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey."
At every stop, when asked about running for president, Harris has answered with some variation of "I'm not ready yet" to announce her decision, citing family considerations. But several sources knowledgeable about her plans say she is ready, and has in fact decided to run, with the enthusiastic blessing of her husband and two stepchildren.
The debate within her camp is how, and where, to launch her campaign. The tentative plan is for Harris to enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination with a campaign rally, most likely in Oakland, where she was born and began her legal career.
Harris risks appearing indecisive, or worse, disingenuous, if she demurs about her plans much longer, warns veteran Democratic strategist Darry Sragow, the publisher of the nonpartisan California Target Book, who teaches political science at USC.
"If she really has decided to run," said Sragow, "my advice would be, announce. Don't drag this out."
Harris' team wants maximum exposure for her campaign kickoff, and has been scouting for a telegenic location that could give her a "Springfield moment" akin to Barack Obama's campaign launch in 2007 at the Old State Capitol in Illinois.
Harris' advisors want to avoid identifying her too closely with San Francisco, where she first made her political mark as a two-term district attorney.
"San Francisco is viewed as a very nutty place by people outside of California, and frankly, by a lot of people inside California," Sragow said.
Berkeley, where Harris was raised before her parents divorced and she moved with her mother and sister to Montreal, Canada, has also been dismissed by her strategists as not projecting the image they're looking for. That leaves Oakland, where Harris was born, and where she returned after law school to become a deputy district attorney for Alameda County.
"I'm not sure what Oakland's image is around the country these days," said Sragow, but the city, one of the nation's most diverse, is seen as on the rise. Launching her national campaign there would let Harris emphasize her roots and identify with the hardscrabble city's gritty energy, creativity and even the Golden State Warriors, who've won three NBA championships since 2015.
The sources caution that Harris' planned rollout is still being finalized. The location and timing could change. But the current plan is for Harris to throw her hat into the ring sometime over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, perhaps even on MLK Day itself, which is Monday, January 21.
Sragow notes that as a statewide official whose husband is a prominent Los Angeles attorney, Harris could announce her candidacy anywhere in the state, from L.A. to Sacramento to Silicon Valley.
But the sources tell KCBS Radio the Bay Area is the preferred backdrop. The next stop would probably be Iowa, where Harris would go on an introductory campaign swing to begin in earnest her quest for the White House. | Government Job change - Election | January 2019 | ['(KCBS Radio)'] |
Hundreds of people march in Hong Kong to demand the release of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo ahead of the Nobel Prize ceremony on Friday. | Hong Kong - Hundreds of people marched in Hong Kong on Sunday to demand China free dissident Liu Xiaobo, a week before the human rights activist is formally awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.
Holding banners reading “Free Liu Xiaobo” and singing for his release to the strumming of guitars, nearly one thousand marched to Beijing's liaison office in support of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is the first Chinese recipient of the accolade.
China denounced Liu's award as an “obscenity” and sparked a torrent of diplomatic scorn towards Norway, with Beijing pressuring diplomats to boycott the ceremony.
Sunday's protesters, closely watched by police, erected a net outside the building to which they tied ribbons symbolising their support for Liu while condemning “oppressive” Chinese authorities.
“Shame on the Chinese Communist Party,” shouted Hong Kong lawmaker and activist Leung Kwok-hung.
Many protesters also criticised China for imposing house arrest on Liu's wife, Liu Xia, and barring other prominent dissidents and rights campaigners from leaving the country in recent weeks, fearful they might attend the lavish awards ceremony which normally involves presentation of medals and an acceptance speech for laureates.
“The Chinese government is still very much oppressing the rights of Liu Xiaobo, his wife and other dissidents in China,” Hong Kong lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan told Reuters at the rally.
“China's international image will be damaged if it doesn't release Liu and his wife,” he added.
Liu, a 54-year-old activist, writer and poet, is believed to be the fifth laureate in the 109-year history of the prize not able to attend the award ceremony for political reasons, though a symbolic empty chair will be used to represent him instead.
Lee, the Hong Kong lawmaker, who will travel to Oslo for the ceremony, said he and around 100 prominent exiled Chinese dissidents and supporters from around the world, planned to hold protests outside the Chinese embassy and support rallies around the Norwegian capital in the run-up to the prize giving.
Liu is an intellectual and co-author of “Charter 08”, a petition calling for sweeping political reforms and freedoms, putting him at odds with stability-obsessed authorities who sentenced him to 11-years imprisonment last Christmas day on several charges, including subversion, that Liu has denied. - Reuters | Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2010 | ['(RTHK)', '(IOL South Africa)', '(Sify India)'] |
The Gippsland GA8 Airvan is grounded in Australia, New Zealand and the European Union following a fatal crash on July 14. | Sixty-three Victorian-made planes have been grounded in Australia after a fatal crash in Sweden that killed nine people.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has suspended operations of GippsAero GA8 aircraft after the accident in Umeo on 14 July. No one on board survived the crash.
The GA8 is manufactured in Australia by GippsAero, which is based in the Latrobe Valley.
CASA said in a statement it had temporarily suspended all flights pending the outcome of an investigation by Swedish and European authorities.
The suspension will be for up to 15 days from 20 July to midnight 3 August and affects all GA8 aircraft operating in Australia and all Australian-registered GA8 aircraft operating overseas. There are 63 GA8 aircraft registered in Australia out of a worldwide fleet of 228.
The GA8 is a single-engine high-wing aeroplane with fixed tricycle landing gear. In Australia, the GA8 is used in a range of operations including charter, aerial work and parachuting.
“CASA has written to all Australian operators of GA8 aircraft advising them of the temporary suspension and reminding them of their obligation to comply with all applicable GA8 airworthiness directives issued by CASA,” a spokesman said.
“CASA has also written to all national aviation authorities who have GA8 aircraft operating in their jurisdiction advising them that CASA has imposed a 15-day temporary operating suspension on these aircraft.”
CASA said the authority had been working closely with Sweden and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
It said in response to the temporary suspension of GA8 operations in Australia, EASA had issued an emergency airworthiness directive to European GA8 aircraft owners and operators to not operate the aeroplane except for ferry flights.
CASA has also sent an airworthiness engineer to Sweden to observe the accident investigation and collect safety information.
The authority said GippsAero held a production certificate issued by CASA to manufacture the GA8 and the company was subject to regular surveillance and safety checks by CASA. | Air crash | July 2019 | ['(The Guardian)', '(New Zealand Herald)'] |
Riots erupt in Malawi in protest against the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika. | Riots have broken out in cities in Malawi as opposition groups protest against President Bingu wa Mutharika's government.
At least one person has died in the northern city of Mzuzu and protesters are burning barricades and looting property in the capital.
The authorities have banned live broadcasts of the riots.
The trouble started after a court ruled on Tuesday the protests, called against the high cost of living, were illegal. Northern Region Police spokesperson Norah Chimwala told the BBC that one person had died in the unrest in Mzuzu, some 300km (185 miles) north of the capital, Lilongwe.
But she could not confirm if he had been killed by police.
A nurse at Mzuzu Central Hospital told the Associated Press news agency medical staff were treating people with gunshot wounds.
"We have more than 10 people in the hospital right now, some are in a serious condition," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
There have also been reports that the property of a government minister has been attacked by demonstrators in the city.
The BBC's Joel Nkoma in Lilongwe says the situation is also tense there, where angry crowds have been shouting, "Let him [Mr Mutharika] go".
He says police have fired teargas and have set up roadblocks to prevent protesters from entering the city centre, where all shops are closed and streets deserted. The riots are taking place in three townships near Lilongwe - Biwi, Kawale and Nchesi, our reporter says.
"There have been running battles between the police and demonstrators, Malawi Human Rights Commission spokesman Mike Chipalasa told the AFP news agency.
"People are angry. The situation is tense," he said. A shop owned by an MP from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and a warehouse belonging to a businessman allied with Mr Mutharika have been looted, our reporter says. AFP reports that the homes of three policemen have also been set alight in Lilongwe.
Police have also confiscated the camera of a photographer covering the protests, correspondents say. The owner of Malaw's private Capital Radio, Alaudin Osman, told the BBC the authorities had ordered the station to stop live broadcasts because they were allegedly aggravating the situation. "Rather than being shut down all together, we have decided to comply with the regulation," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. On Tuesday, DPP supporters, armed with machetes, smashed the vehicles of two private radio stations in the commercial capital, Blantyre. They roamed the streets of the city, threatening to deal with anyone who took part in the protests, correspondents say. But thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Blantyre on Wednesday, despite the threats. High Court judge Chifundo Kachale granted the injunction that the nationwide protests - organised by a coalition of civil society groups - were illegal in a late night ruling on Tuesday.
The demonstrations were called to protest against rising fuel prices, a shortage of foreign exchange reserves, alleged bad governance and poor international relations. Last week, the UK cut direct aid to Malawi after a diplomatic spat with Mr Mutharika's government. The UK accused Malawi of mishandling the economy and failing to uphold human rights.
The government recently passed an austerity budget, raising taxes to reduce dependence on aid. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 75% of the population living on less than $1 (60p) a day. | Riot | July 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 20 people drown in the southern Mediterranean Sea when a repurposed fishing boat sinks 35 nautical miles north of Zuwara, Libya. | Dozens of people are feared to have drowned in the second shipwreck in as many days in the southern Mediterranean, amid tentative signs that some Syrians may be trying once again to make for Europe from Libya.
At least 20 people drowned in a wreck 35 nautical miles north of the Libyan smuggling hub of Zuwara when a repurposed fishing boat sank on Thursday morning, the EU’s anti-smuggling operation said. Photographs taken from an EU reconnaissance plane showed groups of men desperately waving at the aircraft from a half-submerged blue trawler.
It followed another tragedy on Wednesday, when a boat of about 600 sank in nearby waters, drowning at least five.
Thursday’s death toll may be far higher, said a spokesman for the EU’s Operation Sophia, whose ships and planes were involved in the second rescue. “We can estimate that at least 20 or 30 have died, but we don’t know the final numbers,” said Captain Antonello de Renzis Sonnino. “The operation is still ongoing.”
The boat may be the same sinking vessel that was detected earlier in the day by Alarm Phone, a group of Europe-based activists who take calls from stricken asylum seekers and refer their coordinates to coastguards.
Alarm Phone took a call at 8.45am CET from a boat of refugees in waters north of Zuwara, reporting that a second boat was sinking nearby, though the group said: “It is difficult for us to know for sure that this is the same shipwreck.” Nevertheless, the group believes those they spoke to were Syrian – the first sign since the start of the EU-Turkey deal that Syrians are beginning to use Libya as springboard to Europe.
An activist with Alarm Phone said: “The guy we were speaking to was Syrian, and he said that most of the people on the boat were Syrians and Iraqis. The people around him were talking in a Syrian dialect, mostly north-eastern Syria. Additionally, we are monitoring Facebook pages in Arabic and we are witnessing lately that there are a lot of people arriving in Libya and willing to go to Europe.”
However, on Saturday the UN refugee agency announced that only one of the survivors was Syrian. Nevertheless, the news would suggest that Syrians have started to think of alternative ways to reach northern Europe after the EU-Turkey deal made it harder for people to get there via the Balkans.
Facebook posts seen by the Guardian suggest that smugglers are encouraging Syrians to make their way to Libya via Sudan. “Announcement to all Syrians and Sudanese,” reads one post on a secret group called Migration to Libya. “The Sudan–Libya desert route is back to business, costing US$1200 from Khartoum to Tripoli.” The smuggler left a Libyan phone number on the post, and said the onwards trip to Italy would cost $1000.
Syrians formed the largest proportion of people using the Libya-Italy migration route in 2014 but largely abandoned the route in 2015 when it became much easier to get to Europe via Greece.
Migration experts expected Syrians to shift back to Libya following the EU-Turkey deal in March, but until this week the flow to Italy has almost exclusively been driven by people from sub-Saharan Africa.
In a separate development, a leaking hull and the sudden movement of passengers were confirmed as the main causes of a shipwreck that left more than 550 people fighting for their lives in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, according to the navy captain who rescued them.
Dramatic photographs taken by an Italian naval crew showed the boat capsize on Wednesday, tossing hundreds of mainly sub-Saharan Africans into the sea.
The captain of the naval boat said the capsize happened once panicked passengers moved towards the side of their vessel, frightened of being stuck on a leaking boat, and hopeful of getting rescued first.
Captain Francesco Iavazzo said: “I tried to keep the people calm, saying: ‘Please sit down, do not stand, do not walk, because the boat isn’t stable.’ But fear is fear, so the people were not listening. The boat was already taking in water, so the stability was even worse.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Iavazzo added: “At a certain point it capsized. All I did was take my ship as close as possible to the wreck and order my crew to throw into the water everything that could float, to give people something to hold on to.”
An experienced captain, Iavazzo said the drama had shocked him and his crew. “I never saw myself in a situation of this magnitude,” he said. “When something like that happens, it touches you inside. You would like to save everybody, to magically push them out of the water at once. Then you crash with reality. But we did all that was possible to be done.”
At the final count, 562 people were saved from the wreck, with five bodies found. More may have drowned. “We can’t exclude the fact that more people were [trapped] inside the ship,” he said.
The rescued people were due to be brought to Porto Empedocle, a small port on the Sicilian coast, at 1pm BST on Thursday afternoon.
Their stricken ship was the latest of at least 38 smuggling missions to be rescued in the southern Mediterranean since the start of the week. More than 6,000 lives have been saved since Monday, 11,000 since the start of the month, and 39,000 since the start of the year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
This puts the rate of arrivals to Italy at roughly the same level as last year, when 39,000 had arrived by 26 May, and 47,000 by the end of the month. While the fragile EU-Turkey deportation deal has – for now – drastically reduced migration numbers to Greece, this has not yet sparked an increase in people trying to reach Europe via Libya and Italy.
After being rescued in the southern Mediterranean, people are taken to Italy and then usually told to leave within seven days. In order to stop their onward movement through Europe, Austria, Italy’s northern neighbour, recently changed its laws so that people can no longer apply for asylum at the border.
Other European politicians, including David Cameron, have suggested sending asylum seekers straight back to Libya – even though it is a warzone where many refugees are subject to what amounts to modern-day slavery. | Shipwreck | May 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The judge in the trial of two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar announces that he will deliver his verdict on August 27, in a test of press freedom in the country. The journalists were investigating mass graves at the village of Inn Din and the massacre that took place there when they were arrested for allegedly obtaining "secret documents". | YANGON (Reuters) - The judge in the trial of two Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar on accusations of obtaining secret state documents said on Monday he will deliver his verdict on Aug. 27, in a case seen as a test of press freedom in the fledgling democracy.
The judge set the date after hearing closing arguments from both sides, during which lawyers for the two journalists said they had been “trapped” by police in an effort to interfere with their reporting of a massacre of Rohingya Muslims.
“The duty of the reporter is to reveal the truth,” said lead defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw. “Some people may not be okay with that truth.”
Khin Maung Zaw said the prosecution had failed to establish that the documents at the heart of the case were sought out by the reporters or that they were a threat to national security, crucial components of the case against them.
The court in Yangon has been holding hearings since January to decide whether, Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, are guilty of breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
At the time of their arrest last year, the two reporters were working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, during an army crackdown that United Nations’ agencies say sent some 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.
Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung outlined the state’s case against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, whose actions, he said, showed they “intended to harm” the country. By acquiring documents that could pose a threat to the state if their contents were obtained by extremist groups, he said, the pair were working for the benefit of Reuters rather than for the national interest.
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“Reuters is a foreign news agency that pays its reporters in dollars,” he said. “It was found from the reporters that they sent their news to Reuters and their own evidence shows that Reuters sells news for money.”
Defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said it was obvious Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were reporters and the court had heard no testimony to suggest they were spies.
“The government has not designated Reuters an enemy of the nation,” he added.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay could not be reached for comment on Monday. He has mostly declined to comment throughout the proceedings, saying Myanmar’s courts are independent.
Reuters said in a statement there was no basis for a conviction and that it looked forward to the reporters’ acquittal, which it said would be an important step towards demonstrating Myanmar’s commitment to the rule of law, freedom of the press, and democracy.
“The evidence before the court is clear: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are two honest reporters who did not commit a crime,” said the new agency in the statement. “Imprisoning them for even one more day would be unlawful retribution for their truthful and important journalism.”
“BABY GIRL”
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have told the court they were entrapped by police officials who planted documents on them shortly before their arrest on Dec. 12. They say Police Lance Corporal Naing Lin and another officer handed them the documents in a rolled-up newspaper at a Yangon restaurant.
A police captain, Moe Yan Naing, testified that a superior officer had instructed his subordinates, including Naing Lin, to “trap” the reporters. Naing Lin has told the court he met the reporters, but denied giving them anything.
The reporters have said they were hooded, handcuffed, and deprived of sleep during days of interrogation.
The case has captured global attention and has come to be seen as a test of press freedom and reforms in Myanmar, where the military still wields considerable influence. Senior U.N officials, Western nations and press freedom advocates have called for the release of the two journalists. The courtroom on Monday was filled with foreign diplomats and observers.
Wa Lone’s wife, Pan Ei Mon, who earlier this month gave birth to the couple’s first child, was not present. After the hearing, Kyaw Soe Oo’s wife, Chit Su Win, carried their three-year-old daughter out of the court as she sobbed “papa”.
Speaking to reporters, Wa Lone said he hoped the court would rule in their favor.
“We firmly believe that the court will make a fair decision and will free us,” he said. “I firmly believe that, before long, I will be able to return to my baby girl.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Islamic State of Iraq posts a statement on the internet claiming responsibility for Sunday's triple bombings in Baghdad which killed at least 40 people and affected some foreign embassies but denies involvement in Tuesday's six bombings which killed 35 people in Shia areas. (People's Daily Online) | A militant group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq has said it was behind Sunday's triple bombings in Baghdad which killed 40 people near foreign embassies.
Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement posted on the internet that it had attacked the Iranian, German, and Egyptian missions. It said embassies and organisations working with Iraq's government would top its target list. But it denied involvement in six blasts killing 35 in Shia areas on Tuesday. The statement regarding Tuesday's attacks, which hit residential buildings, was posted on the internet separately, the monitoring group SITE said. Sunday's attacks shattered a period of relative calm after last month's parliamentary elections. 'Themed' bombings
The first two bombs went off within about a minute of one another, in Mansour - a fairly smart suburb on the western side of the city, housing many embassies. The Egyptian, German, Iranian and Syrian missions were all affected by the blasts. Another minute or so later, a third suicide bomber blew his car up near the Iranian embassy, closer to the city centre. With security tight around the embassies, many of the dead and injured were people in the nearby streets and buildings. A number of Iraqi guards working for foreign missions were among those killed. Egypt said several of its staff were wounded by shrapnel. Spain said its embassy and the adjacent German mission were also damaged. The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says a series of "themed" multiple bombings have hit Baghdad over the past year, clearly with the aim of conveying the message not only that the insurgents can strike several targets simultaneously, but that they can focus on a particular type of target each time. In August, October and December last year, they carried out co-ordinated attacks on government ministries, which together killed hundreds of people. In January, big hotels in central Baghdad were targeted. The attacks came at a sensitive moment, with politicians embroiled in trying to form a government which all agree should reach out to regional countries, especially Arab states which have been slow to restore full diplomatic ties with Baghdad. | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(France24)', '(Reuters)'] |
Nissan begins a US$90million lawsuit against its former chairman Carlos Ghosn. | Nissan is suing Carlos Ghosn for $90m (70m), stepping up the legal battle against its former chairman after his arrest and dramatic flight from Tokyo to Lebanon.
The Japanese carmaker said it was seeking to recover costs from Ghosn’s “corrupt” actions, including the personal use of private jets, using residential property without paying rent and making payments to his sister and personal lawyer using company accounts.
Nissan said on Wednesday it hoped to “recover a significant part of the monetary damages inflicted on the company by its former chairman as a result of years of his misconduct and fraudulent activity”.
The civil lawsuit, brought in a Yokohama court, comes on the eve of Nissan’s results announcement. Makoto Uchida, the new chief executive, wants to turn the struggling company around as it faces additional disruption from the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced it to shut a factory owing to a parts shortage. Reuters reported that the company could report its first quarterly loss in more than a decade on Thursday because of falling sales.
Ghosn remains in Lebanon after fleeing bail in Tokyo in December by private jet. After arriving in Lebanon, a country where he had been lionised as one of the most prominent citizens in business, Ghosn claimed he was a victim of a “rigged Japanese justice system”. Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan.
The Brazilian-born businessman, who also holds French citizenship, was previously the leader of French and Japanese firms Renault and Mitsubishi.
Ghosn’s complex escape, which involved him taking a bullet train before a private jet flew him to Turkey and then Lebanon, means he has forfeited about $14m in bail paid to Japanese authorities. However, it is unclear whether Nissan will be able to recover more money.
Nissan said it expected to increase the size of its claim after adding the bill for legal costs as well as fines from the Japanese Financial Services Agency and penalties in criminal proceedings, for which it blames Ghosn. Nissan is also taking action in the British Virgin Islands over allegations related to a luxury yacht.
A spokesman for Ghosn said: “Nissan’s manoeuvres continue. This complaint is made public on the eve of the Japanese group’s financial results. We note that after months of announcing damages of 35bn, Nissan is now claiming 10bn at the moment.
“Mr Ghosn’s lawyers will react on the merits of the case once the content of the claim has been brought to their attention.”
Nissan said it also may bring action on the basis of “groundless and defamatory remarks” made by Ghosn in a press conference in which he said “unscrupulous, vindictive individuals” at the carmaker had conspired to bring him down, as well as likening his case to the Pearl Harbor attacks. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Nine people go on trial charged with terrorism and links to al–Qaeda in Belgium. | AFP - Nine alleged members of an Al Qaeda terror cell, suspected of having recruited jihadists and prepared attacks, go on trial in Brussels Monday.
It comes 15 months after dramatic raids in Brussels and Liege when police arrested nine suspects ahead of what the security services feared was an imminent attack.
The arrests, in December 2008, came just days ahead of a European Union summit in the Belgian capital.
Seven of the suspects will be in court when the trial gets underway Monday morning, with an experienced terrorist case judge presiding. Two others, still on the run, will be judged in absentia.
While no details of an imminent terrorist attack or explosives were uncovered, the accused face a possible 10 years in jail for their alleged membership of a terrorist group.
The central figure in the trial is 50-year-old Belgian-Moroccan Malika El Aroud.
Aroud, who is being held under high security, is the widow of one of the killers of Ahmed Shah Massoud, head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
Massoud was assassinated in 2001 just days before the September 11 attacks against the United States.
According to the Belgian federal prosecutor Aroud, an admirer of Osama bin Laden, led the recruitment of jihad fighters in Belgium, sending young Muslims off to train on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
They were sometimes escorted by her second husband, Moez Garsalloui, who is one of those being tried in absentia. According to the prosecutor, he had ties with "important" Al Qaeda figures.
The prosecution evidence includes a farewell video, the kind of last testament left by suicide bombers.
In this case it was made by another of the accused: Hicham Beyayo, 24, according to press reports.
He had received the "green light to carry out an operation from which he wasn't expected to return," and "had said goodbye to his loved ones," Belgium's federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said.
Beyayo has denied intending to carry out a terror attack. Malika El Aroud has dismissed the prosecution case as "empty".
The terror probe got underway in late 2007, following information gleaned during investigations into an escape plan made by Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi.
He was serving a 10-year sentence in Belgium for planning an Al-Qaeda attack in September 2001.
Under that plan, a truck bomb was to have targetted a military base housing US troops. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | March 2010 | ['(The New York Times)', '(euronews)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(France24)'] |
In Nigeria, the Governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, is controversially re–elected. | The governor of Nigeria's south-eastern state of Anambra, Peter Obi, has been re-elected, the electoral commission has announced.
The result was rejected by all other parties, who said their supporters were disenfranchised because their names did not appear on the electoral register. The Nigerian government has admitted there were some irregularities during Saturday's election. A BBC reporter in Anambra says security is being stepped up across the state. Mr Obi represents an opposition party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance. Official results show his party won in 13 out of 21 local government councils. Earlier, the Nigerian Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili, admitted there had been some "hiccups" during the election. Many polling stations opened hours late and there were confrontations as voters discovered their names were not on the electoral register. Gangs of youths intimidated and harassed voters, and there were reports of ballot boxes being snatched from several polling stations, the BBC's Caroline Duffield reports from Lagos. The elections have been closely watched as an indicator of how general elections next year will be run, our correspondent adds. What are these? | Government Job change - Election | February 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters South Africa)'] |
According to survivors, at least 70 migrants are missing after their dinghy sank off the coast of Libya. 26 people were rescued by the Italian coast guard. | Eighty-four migrants are missing after their inflatable dinghy sank off the Libyan coast, the International Organization for Migration says.
The dinghy was found taking on water in rough seas after the Italian coast guard received a satellite phone call.
It diverted the merchant ship to rescue 26 survivors and bring them to Italy.
A spokesperson for the coastguard said similar boats used by people smugglers could hold 100-120 people, and were usually full. Rough seas and waves topping two metres (seven feet) hampered rescue efforts.
No details of the nationalities of the migrants, who were brought to the island of Lampedusa, were immediately available.
Around 27,000 refugees and other migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, most of them setting out from Libya. Officials expect the number attempting the illegal crossing to rise because countries in the Balkans have shut their land borders.
At least 800 migrants are feared to have drowned in the southern Mediterranean this year to date.
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.
| Shipwreck | April 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declares a sixty-day state of emergency. , , | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s opposition on Saturday slammed a state of emergency decreed by President Nicolas Maduro and vowed to press home efforts to remove the leftist leader this year amid a grim economic crisis.
Maduro threatens takeover of private companies
00:53
Maduro on Friday night declared a 60-day state of emergency due to what he called plots from Venezuela and the United States to subvert him. He did not provide specifics.
The measure shows Maduro is panicking as a push for a recall referendum against him gains traction with tired, frustrated Venezuelans, opposition leaders said during a protest in Caracas.
“We’re talking about a desperate president who is putting himself on the margin of legality and constitutionality,” said Democratic Unity coalition leader Jesus Torrealba, adding Maduro was losing support within his own bloc.
“If this state of emergency is issued without consulting the National Assembly, we would technically be talking about a self-coup,” he told hundreds of supporters who waved Venezuelan flags and chanted “he’s going to fall.”
The opposition won control of the National Assembly in a December election, propelled by voter anger over product shortages, raging inflation that has annihilated salaries, and rampant violent crime, but the legislature has been routinely undercut by the Supreme Court.
“A TIME BOMB”
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Protests are on the rise and a key poll shows nearly 70 percent of Venezuelans now say Maduro must go this year.
Maduro has vowed to see his term through, however, blasting opposition politicians as coup-mongering elitists seeking to emulate the impeachment of fellow leftist Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.
Saying trouble-makers were fomenting violence to justify a foreign invasion, Maduro on Saturday ordered military exercises for next weekend.
“We’re going to tell imperialism and the international right that the people are present, with their farm instruments in one hand and a gun in the other... to defend this sacred land,” he boomed at a rally.
He added the government would take over idled factories, without providing details.
Critics of Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver, say he should instead focus on people’s urgent needs.
“There will be a social explosion if Maduro doesn’t let the recall referendum happen,” said protester Marisol Dos Santos, 34, an office worker at a supermarket where she says some 800 people queue up daily.
But the opposition fear authorities are trying to delay a referendum until 2017, when the presidency would fall to the vice president, a post currently held by Socialist Party loyalist Aristobulo Isturiz.
“If you block this democratic path we don’t know what might happen in this country,” two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said at the demonstration.
“Venezuela is a time bomb that can explode at any given moment.”
| Government Policy Changes | May 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(Guardian)', '(Reuters)'] |
U.S. television personality Katie Couric announces that she will no longer host the CBS Evening News at the end of June. | Updated | It's official: After five years in the anchor chair, Katie Couric will be leaving the CBS Evening News, most likely at the end of her contract on June 3.
By George Lange for USA WEEKEND
Katie Couric, who will depart the CBS Evening News when her contract ends in June, could be hosting a daytime talk show by the fall of 2012.
By George Lange for USA WEEKEND
Katie Couric, who will depart the CBS Evening News when her contract ends in June, could be hosting a daytime talk show by the fall of 2012.
She chose People.com to confirm the widely expected news, saying, "I'm really proud of the talented team ... and the award-winning work we've been able to do in the past five years, in addition to the reporting I've done for 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning."
She tells People magazine in an exclusive interview to be published in editions out Friday, "In making the decision to move on, I know the Evening News will be in great hands, but I am excited about the future."
In a statement Tuesday, CBS News said, "There's a lot to be proud of during Katie Couric's time at Evening News," adding that "CBS News, like Katie herself, is looking forward to the next chapter."
No announcement was made about that chapter. But officials, who were not authorized to speak before the decision is made public, say CBS early next week will name 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, a 22-year network veteran, as her successor.
Couric, 54, is being courted by major networks to host a daytime talk show to start in fall 2012. Each would offer a continuing presence on affiliated newscasts, newsmagazines or specials, particularly during major news events and during the 15-month gap between the end of her tenure in CBS' anchor chair and the start of a new show.
She tells PBS' Tavis Smiley that her plans include "doing what I do best: interacting with people, interviewing people and having sort of more of extended conversations." A deal is likely in the next few weeks, and CBS and ABC — whose top stations will lose The Oprah Winfrey Show this fall — are front-runners. (Both networks would air her show on the big-city outlets they own and sell it to local stations elsewhere.)
Her success would depend heavily on the stations and time periods she commands, says Bill Carroll, who advises local stations on syndicated programming for Katz Television Group.
Despite a $15-million-a-year contract that her boss, CBS chief Leslie Moonves, last fall described as the last of its kind, Couric leaves the newscast mired in third place. Last week it drew 5.7 million viewers, compared with leader NBC's 8.4 million. Financially, her departure "helps CBS, because they were overpaying" her, says Andrew Tyndall, publisher of The Tyndall Report, which monitors network newscasts.
Tyndall describes CBS' Evening News as the most hard-edged of the major networks, noting Couric's "personality fights against the objective content of the newscast," whereas Pelley's background as a correspondent will be more in sync. "It's less about a big personality and more about the work that he does."
Anchor changes often lead loyal viewers to scope out rival newscasts. But some of CBS' ratings problems are caused by weak lead-ins from its local affiliates. And Couric, who was dismissed by some critics as a lightweight when she shifted from NBC's Today show, scored journalistic points, most notably in a combative 2008 interview with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
Just this week, she headed to London for the royal wedding, where she interviewed British Prime Minister David Cameron and Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2011 | ['(USA Today)'] |
A prison riot in Farafangana, Madagascar, leaves at least 20 inmates dead, while dozens of prisoners escape after overpowering the guards. The Justice Ministry says 31 prisoners remain on the loose, while 37 have been captured alive. | LONDON -- Twenty inmates were shot dead Sunday at a prison in Madagascar as authorities tried to stop a riot there.
The riot began Sunday afternoon at the prison in Farafagana, a city on the southeast coast of the African island nation. Inmates split into two groups, with one side attacking guards and the other forcing a passageway through the prison's toilets to escape. Some inmates threw stones at the guards and even seized one of their guns, according to a press release from Madagascar's Ministry of Justice.
The justice minister ordered authorities there to "take all necessary measures to control this movement." He also warned other prisons across the country to fortify their security systems, according to the press release.
A total of 88 inmates escaped the prison during the riot, and 31 remained on the loose as of Sunday evening local time, the justice ministry said.
Along with the 20 who were killed as authorities attempted to regain control, 37 inmates were captured alive, including eight who were "seriously injured" and had to be evacuated to a local hospital. The weapon stolen by the inmates has been recovered, according to the justice ministry. | Riot | August 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
A mass grave with more than 1,500 bodies is discovered in Osaka, Japan, that dates from the 1600s to the mid-1800s. | Plans for a massive skyscraper have been interrupted after archaeologists uncovered a mass grave, with bodies buried in circular holes.
Excavation of ‘Umeda Grave’, one of the seven graves of Osaka. Picture: Osaka City Cultural Properties AssociationSource:Supplied
An ancient and eerie mass grave has been uncovered in Japan, with archaeologists uncovering more than 1500 bodies squashed into circular holes.
The graveyard was found in the Japanese city of Osaka, however archaeologists have been painstakingly excavating the area since 1991.
The mass grave dates back to Japan’s Edo period, stretching from the start of the 1600s to the mid-1800s.
Excavation of the ‘Umeda Grave’, one of the seven graves of Osaka. Picture: Osaka City Cultural Properties AssociationSource:Supplied
The grave was found during plans for a skyscraper. Picture: Osaka City Cultural Properties AssociationSource:Supplied
In a statement, the City of Osaka said the Osaka City Board of Education and the Osaka City Cultural Heritage Association had been working on the Ofuka-cho ruins since September 1991.
The City of Osaka said it had uncovered more than 1500 burial bones including those of humans and animals.
“In addition to humans, animals are also buried in the cemetery, with more than four piglets in the northern part of the cemetery and two horses in the southern part. A cat bone contained in a skeleton has also been found,” the council said.
“We were able to clarify the concrete appearance of the ‘Umeda Tomb’ that was run from Edo to the Meiji era.
“The ‘Osaka Nana Grave’ was an important part of knowing the development of the city Osaka and the faith of the common people.
“Most of the surveyed areas have already been backfilled, but we are still investigating the southwestern part of the cemetery.”
Some of the bodies uncovered. Picture: Osaka City Cultural Properties AssociationSource:Supplied
Some pottery was found in the grave also. Picture: Osaka City Cultural Properties AssociationSource:Supplied
The excavated remains, including human bones, are being sorted and analysed.
The Osaka gravesite is next to a major train station in the busy Japanese city and was uncovered during early construction work for a skyscraper.
The developers said plans for the building will likely go ahead, with the skyscraper being built on top of the burial ground.
The bones are already in the process of being moved and it’s believed the bodies were likely those of poor people due to the lack of expensive goods in the graves.
The grave is in the middle of the city. | New archeological discoveries | August 2020 | ['(News AU)'] |
77% of Swiss voters reject the proposed basic income plan. | Final results from Sunday's referendum showed that nearly 77% opposed the plan, with only 23% backing it.
The proposal had called for adults to be paid an unconditional monthly income, whether they worked or not.
The supporters camp had suggested a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs (£1,755; $2,555) for adults and also SFr625 for each child.
The amounts reflected the high cost of living in Switzerland. It is not clear how the plan would have affected people on higher salaries.
The supporters had also argued that since work was increasingly automated, fewer jobs were available for workers. Switzerland is the first country to hold such a vote.
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There was little support among Swiss politicians for the idea and not a single parliamentary party came out in favour, but the proposal gathered more than 100,000 signatures and was therefore put to the vote under the Swiss popular initiative system.
Critics of the measure said that disconnecting the link between work done and money earned would have been bad for society.
But Che Wagner from the campaign group Basic Income Switzerland, argued before the vote that it would not be money for nothing.
"In Switzerland over 50% of total work that is done is unpaid. It's care work, it's at home, it's in different communities, so that work would be more valued with a basic income."
Meanwhile, Luzi Stamm, a member of parliament for the right-wing Swiss People's Party, opposed the idea. "Theoretically, if Switzerland were an island, the answer is yes. But with open borders, it's a total impossibility, especially for Switzerland, with a high living standard," he said.
"If you would offer every individual a Swiss amount of money, you would have billions of people who would try to move into Switzerland."
The wording on the initiative was vague, asking for a constitutional change to "guarantee the introduction of an unconditional basic income" but with no mention of amounts.
The idea is also under consideration elsewhere. In Finland, the government is considering a trial to give basic income to about 8,000 people from low-income groups. And the Dutch city of Utrecht is also developing a pilot project that will begin in January 2017.
| Government Policy Changes | June 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Mario Fernando Hernández, a Liberal Party member of the Honduran National Congress, is shot dead in San Pedro Sula. | Police in Honduras say that vice-president of the National Congress, Mario Fernando Hernandez, has been shot dead by unidentified attackers in the northern city of San Pedro Sula.
A political candidate accompanying him, Marcos Collier, was also killed and another man is reported to have been wounded, eight days before primary elections to choose candidates for the presidency and legislature.
Mr Hernandez was seeking re-election to the Congress.
He and Mr Collier both belonged to the governing Liberal Party.
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Famous Person - Death | November 2008 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
A 17-year-old is arrested for the killing of two people during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The teenager, who is originally from Antioch, Illinois, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide. | KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A white, 17-year-old police admirer was arrested Wednesday after two people were shot to death during a third straight night of protests in Kenosha over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.
Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, about 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) from Kenosha, was taken into custody in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide in the attack Tuesday that was largely captured on cellphone video. The shooting left a third person wounded.
“I just killed somebody,” the gunman, carrying a semi-automatic rifle, could be heard saying at one point.
In the wake of the killings, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers authorized the deployment of 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha, doubling the number of troops in the city of 100,000 midway between Milwaukee and Chicago. The governor’s office said he is working with other states to bring in additional National Guard members and law officers. Authorities also announced a 7 p.m. curfew, though protesters ignored it again Wednesday.
Protesters marched past the intersection where two people were shot Tuesday night, stopping to gather around the spot where one person was shot, and to pray and lay flowers. Daijon Spann said he decided to join the demonstration because one of those killed the night before was a friend.
“I couldn’t take it any more,” he said. “I couldn’t just sit there and watch my friend die.”
Evers, a Democrat, issued a statement asking those who wanted to exercise their First Amendment rights to “please do so peacefully and safely” and urging others to “please stay home and let local first responders, law enforcement and members of the Wisconsin National Guard do their jobs.”
“A senseless tragedy like this cannot happen again,” Evers said.
As of early Thursday, the protests were mostly peaceful, in contrast to the violent clashes that marked earlier nights of protests. There were no groups patrolling with long guns as they had on previous nights, and protesters stayed away from a courthouse that had been the site of standoffs with law enforcement.
In Washington, the Justice Department said it is sending in more than 200 federal agents from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The White House said up to 2,000 National Guard troops would be made available.
The dead were identified only as a 26-year-old Silver Lake, Wisconsin, resident and a 36-year-old from Kenosha. The wounded person, a 36-year-old from West Allis, Wisconsin, was expected to survive, police said.
“We were all chanting ‘Black lives matter’ at the gas station and then we heard, boom, boom, and I told my friend, `That’s not fireworks,’” 19-year-old protester Devin Scott told the Chicago Tribune. “And then this guy with this huge gun runs by us in the middle of the street and people are yelling, ‘He shot someone! He shot someone!’ And everyone is trying to fight the guy, chasing him, and then he started shooting again.”
Scott said he cradled a victim in his arms, and a woman started performing CPR, but “I don’t think he made it.”
According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the gunman walk past them and leave the scene with a rifle over his shoulder and his hands in the air as members of the crowd were yelling for him to be arrested because he had shot people. As for how the gunman managed to slip away, Sheriff David Beth described a chaotic, high-stress scene, with lots of radio traffic and people screaming, chanting and running — conditions he said can cause “tunnel vision” among law officers.
Rittenhouse was assigned a public defender in Illinois for a hearing Friday on his transfer to Wisconsin. The public defender’s office had no comment. Under Wisconsin law, anyone 17 or older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system.
Much of Rittenhouse’s Facebook page is devoted to praising law enforcement, with references to Blue Lives Matter, a movement that supports police. He also can be seen holding an assault rifle.
In a photograph posted by his mother, he is wearing what appears to be a blue law enforcement uniform as well as the kind of brimmed hat that state troopers wear.
The sheriff told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that militia members or armed vigilantes had been patrolling Kenosha’s streets in recent nights, but he did not know if the gunman was among them. However, video taken before the shooting shows police tossing bottled water from an armored vehicle to what appear to be armed civilians walking the streets. And one of them appears to be the gunman.
“We appreciate you being here,” an officer is heard saying to the group over a loudspeaker. Before the shooting, the conservative website The Daily Caller conducted a video interview with the suspected gunman in front of a boarded-up business.
“So people are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business,” the young man said. “And part of my job is to also help people. If there is somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle -- because I can protect myself, obviously. But I also have my med kit.”
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is Black, said in an interview with the news program “Democracy Now!” that the shootings were not surprising and white militias have been ignored for too long.
“How many times across this country do you see armed gunmen, protesting, walking into state Capitols, and everybody just thinks it’s OK?” Barnes said. “People treat that like it’s some kind of normal activity that people are walking around with assault rifles.”
In Wisconsin, it is legal for people 18 and over to openly carry a gun without a license.
Witness accounts and video indicate the gunman first shot someone at a car lot just before midnight, then jogged away, fell in the street, and opened fire again as members of the crowd closed in on him.
A witness, Julio Rosas, 24, said that when the gunman stumbled, “two people jumped onto him and there was a struggle for control of his rifle. At that point during the struggle, he just began to fire multiple rounds, and that dispersed people near him.”
“The rifle was being jerked around in all directions while it was being fired,” Rosas said. Blake, 29, was shot in the back seven times on Sunday as he leaned into his SUV, three of his children seated inside. Kenosha police have said little about what happened other than that they were responding to a domestic dispute. On Wednesday, three days after the shooting, state authorities identified the officer who shot Blake as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department. Sheskey shot Blake while holding onto his shirt after officers first unsuccessfully used a Taser, the Wisconsin Justice Department said. State agents later recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard of the vehicle, the department said.
The man who said he made the widely circulated cellphone video of Blake’s shooting has said he heard officers yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire erupted. He said he didn’t see a knife in Blake’s hands.
State authorities did not say Blake threatened anyone with the knife.
On Tuesday, Ben Crump, the lawyer for Blake’s family, said it would “take a miracle” for Blake to walk again. He called for the officer who opened fire to be arrested and for the others involved to lose their jobs. State officials have announced no charges.
Vice President Mike Pence, speaking on the third night of the Republican convention, called for an end to violence in Kenosha and “law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color.” But Pence made no direct mention of Blake or other Black Americans shot or killed by police this year.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden posted a video saying he had spoken with Blake’s parents and other family members.
“What I saw on that video makes me sick,” Biden said. “Once again, a Black man, Jacob Blake, has been shot by the police in broad daylight, with the whole world watching.”
Elsewhere, the Minnesota governor activated the National Guard on Wednesday night to help quell unrest that broke out in downtown Minneapolis following what authorities said was misinformation about the suicide death of a Black homicide suspect. The unrest comes three months after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer touched off a nationwide reckoning over racial injustice. ___
Associated Press reporters Mike Householder in Kenosha, Wisconsin; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee, Jeff Baenen and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis; Don Babwin in Chicago and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed, as did news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2020 | ['(AP)'] |
Thousands of people attend funeral events in Kyrgyzstan for people killed during recent events. | BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, April 10 (UPI) -- Thousands of mourners turned out Saturday for funerals for 15 of the people killed during the violent uprising in Kyrgyzstan.
Meantime, the provisional Health Ministry said the death toll from the Kyrgyzstan unrest had reached 79, while 45 others remained hospitalized, seven in critical condition, RIA Novosti reported.
The country's flag draped the 15 coffins as they were carried through the burial ground outside the capital, Bishkek, the Russian news agency said. The victims died in clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in Bishkek and other towns. The security forces fired on crowds as they overtook the headquarters of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has fled south.
Roza Otunbayeva, the opposition leader, called the victims heroes.
As the Central Asian country began its second day of mourning, the BBC reported tensions remained high. The United States has suspended troop flights to Afghanistan from its airbase in Kyrgyzstan indefinitely. U.S. forces will be transported to Afghanistan via Kuwait, U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. John Redfield said. Some 50,000 coalition troops passed through the U.S. base in March, the BBC said. Russia also has an airbase in Kyrgyzstan.
The violence erupted after mounting unrest over rising prices and allegations of corruption in Kyrgyzstan. Bakiyev, speaking from a secret location, told the BBC he still viewed himself as president but feared he'd be killed if he returned to Bishkek. | Famous Person - Death | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Financial Times)', '(UPI)', '(CNEWS)'] |
Slow-moving Koppu weakened after blowing ashore with fierce winds in the northeastern Philippines leaving at least two people dead and at least six missing, displacing 16,000 villagers, and knocking out power in entire provinces, according to authorities. , | MANILA, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- At least one person is dead and six are missing as Typhoon Koppu continues to pummel the northern Philippines.
Nearly 16,500 people were evacuated as the massive typhoon, with winds up to 125 mph, made landfall. The storm, locally named Lando, made landfall about 1 a.m. Sunday and has almost remained stationary, the country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.
The storm has washed out at least 14 roads and 10 bridges and power outages were reported across the region. A total of 5,580 passengers, 78 vessels and 48 motorized bancas, among other water vessls, are stranded due to rough sea condition, officials said. Dozens of flights were canceled, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at several local airports.
Uncertain of our flight back to Manila because of #lando #koppu stuck at Mactan International Airport.
Alexander Pama, head of the government disaster agency, said locals have fled from areas in the typhoon's path, including from towns prone to flash floods and landslides.
Authorities said local crops, including bananas, coconuts, rice and corn, have been destroyed. Roofs have been torn off businesses and residences have been flattened. Rain is expected to fall for at least the next 24 hours, heightening the chances for more damage. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2015 | ['(AP via NBC News)', '(UPI)'] |
At least 12 people die as a tourist boat capsizes in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay. | Vietnamese immigration police have released a list of those killed in this morning's sinking of a boat in the tourist haven of Halong Bay.
Local authorities still say one Australian man died, but immigration police say that at the moment they do not believe that is the case.
The list of 12 people is not final, but it includes two Americans, two Russians, two Swedes, one Japanese, one French, one Swiss and one British tourist. One Vietnamese tourist and a tour guide also died.
Up to 15 others were rescued and one survivor says he does not believe there were Australians on the boat.
American survivor Greg Fosmire, 23, managed to escape through a window but said he feared his girlfriend and another young woman in their cabin did not escape the rushing waters.
"The whole thing took between 30 seconds and a minute," he said."I had to put my face to the ceiling to suck any air."
All of the bodies are at the Bai Chay Hospital near Halong Bay.
A doctor there has told the ABC they are all young people without identification.
He says three people admitted and treated for shock have been discharged.
The Department of Foreign Affairs says people concerned about the welfare of their family and friends in the area should try to contact them directly.
If contact cannot be made, people can call DFAT's consular emergency centre on 1300 555 135.
The traditional junk sank just before dawn while its passengers were sleeping.
A possible leak in the engine room is being investigated as the cause of the sinking.
It is not the first time disaster has struck at the popular tourist attraction.
In September 2009 three foreign tourists - two from Britain and one from France - died along with their local guide when their vessel overturned during heavy rain on the bay.
Halong Bay, about 200 kilometres north-east of Hanoi, is one of Vietnam's top tourist attractions, drawing tens of thousands of domestic and overseas visitors each year, many of whom take overnight boat tours.
The bay, located in the Gulf of Tonkin east of Hanoi, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994.
Its 1,600 islands and islets form a spectacular seascape of mostly uninhabited limestone pillars made famous by the 1992 French movie Indochine.
| Shipwreck | February 2011 | ['(AP via Yahoo! News)', '(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
Renewed protests against the regime break out overnight with police firing tear gas and stun grenades at civilians. Chants of "Down with Hamad," calling for the King of Bahrain to be ousted from power, are reported by witnesses. | Renewed clashes broke out in Bahrain overnight between hundreds of anti-government protesters and police just a few hours before a Formula One race.
Police fired tear gas and stun grenades at Shia protesters who responded by hurling rocks and fire bombs while chanting "Down with Hamad," in reference to the country's Sunni King, witnesses said.
The race got under way as scheduled at 1pm.
Demonstrators also called for the release of prominent Shia activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike since early February and whose deteriorating health has raised fears he may die in prison.
In a message posted on Twitter, Bahrain's interior ministry said that Mr Khawaja was in "good health" and would meet Denmark's ambassador today.
Mr Khawaja is a dual citizen of Bahrain and Denmark.
Security around Bahrain's Shia villages was heavy late Saturday, in anticipation of demonstrations called for by the 14 February Youth Movement, who have boycotted the race and pledged "three days of rage" to coincide with the Grand Prix event.
The Sakhir circuit was under a total lockdown, but witnesses said protesters were briefly able to block some roads leading to the track, setting tyres and garbage on fire.
In some Shia villages, including Malkiya, Karzakan, Sadad and Damistan, protesters carried banners that read "No to the formula of blood," a key campaign slogan of the 14 February movement.
In the capital Manama, meanwhile, police prevented planned protests at a central market, residents and witnesses said.
The latest clashes come a day after a protester was found dead in the Shia village of Shakhura, where the opposition Al-Wefaq movement said security forces on Friday night "attacked peaceful protesters, brutally beating some of them with various tools and weapons."
The interior ministry said an investigation was under way into the death of 36-year-old Salah Abbas Habib, which was being treated as a murder.
Shia-led protests have intensified in Bahrain, site of a deadly month-long uprising that was crushed last year, but the kingdom's rulers have insisted the race go ahead as schedule. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2012 | ['(RTE)'] |
Protesters stage rallies, organized by ACT! for America, against sharia law in major and small cities across the United States. Counter protesters also assembled at these locations. | HARRISBURG, Pa./SEATTLE (Reuters) - Protesters held rallies across the United States on Saturday to denounce sharia law, the Islamic legal and moral code that organizers say poses a threat to American freedoms, but critics believe anti-Muslim hatred is behind the condemnation.
Seattle's anti-sharia rally ends with violence
00:51
ACT for America, a self-described grassroots organization focusing on national security, staged rallies in New York, Chicago, Boston, Denver and Seattle, as well as many smaller cities. Hundreds of people pledged on social media to attend an event that ACT billed as “March against Sharia.”
On the steps of the Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg, barricades and a heavy police presence, including officers mounted on horses, separated about 60 anti-sharia demonstrators from an equal number of counter-protesters. Many of the latter were dressed in black masks and hoods and chanting “No Trump, no KKK, no Fascist USA.”
The atmosphere was tense but the protest went off with no violence and only one arrest, police said.
More than a dozen men belonging to the anti-government Oath Keepers were on hand, invited by ACT to provide security. Most of them carried handguns.
Chris Achey, 47, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said he did not hate Muslims but believes that much of Islam is incompatible with Western culture.
“The Constitution is the law of the land,” he said. “We have to be careful with who we let in the country.”
On its website, ACT described sharia, which covers many aspects of Muslim life including religious obligations and financial dealings, as incompatible with human rights. It said sharia justifies the oppression of women and homosexuality, and advocates female genital mutilation.
But critics say the organization vilifies Muslims and has repeatedly equated Islam with extremism. In their view, the rallies are part of a wave of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by President Donald Trump, who called for a ban on Muslims entering the country during his election campaign.
Molly Freiburg, 33, of Philadelphia, was one of the counter-protesters but not part of the larger group clad in black.
“America is not in danger from sharia law,” she said. “This manifestation at the Capitol is actually a way to make our Muslim neighbors feel uncomfortable.”
A representative for ACT for America could not be reached for comment.
In Seattle, about 75 anti-sharia protesters were outnumbered by counter-protesters at a rally that was moved from Portland, Oregon. Tensions are running high in Portland after a man yelling religious and racial slurs at two teenage girls on a commuter train fatally stabbed two men who tried to stop him.
Talbot Sleater, a 62-year-old construction foreman, said that the Seattle protest was the first of the kind that he had attended. A Briton who moved to the United States, he said he had decided to go after recent attacks in his home country.
“People are being run over in the street with trucks and little kids are being blown up,” Sleater said, referring to recent attacks in London and Manchester. “I don’t want that to happen here.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim advocacy group, urged Americans to participate in one of several local educational events being organized in “a peaceful challenge to Saturday’s hate rallies.”
It also warned Muslims to take extra precautions against potential violence over the weekend.
Anti-Muslim incidents rose 57 percent last year, including a 44 percent jump in anti-Islamic hate crimes, CAIR said in a report released in early May.
Oath Keepers said on its website that it was “answering the call to defend free speech against those who would use terrorist violence or the threat of violence to shut it down.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center says Oath Keepers is “one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the United States,” organized around a “set of baseless conspiracy theories.”
Refuse Fascism, a coalition of activists advocating confrontational tactics to oppose what it calls the Trump “regime,” said it would show up at the rallies “to counter the xenophobic hatred and lies, defy intimidation and drown it out.”
| Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(AP via Time)'] |
Saudi Arabia arrests Samar Badawi, a human rights activist who received the International Women of Courage Award from the United States in 2012. Badawi is to appear in court on Wednesday, according to Amnesty International. Both her brother, Raif Badawi, publisher of the "Free Saudi Liberals" blog, and former husband, Waleed Sami Abulkhair, are currently imprisoned. | The arrest of Samar Badawi, a prominent human rights defender, as well as the sister of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi and the former spouse of imprisoned human rights lawyerWaleed Abu al-Khair,is the latest example of Saudi Arabia’s utter contempt for its human rights obligations and provides further damning proof of the authorities’ intent to suppress all signs of peaceful dissent, said Amnesty International.
According to local activists, Samar Badawi was arrested in the morning on January 12 in Jeddah and transferred along with her two-year-old daughter Joud to a police station. After four hours of questioning, she was transferred to Dhaban prison and is due to appear before a prosecutor tomorrow. She is believed to have been arrested at least partly in connection with her alleged role in managing a Twitter account campaigning for the release of her former husband.
“Samar Badawi’s arrest today is yet another alarming setback for human rights in Saudi Arabia and demonstrates the extreme lengths to which the authorities are prepared to go in their relentless campaign to harass and intimidate human rights defenders into silent submission,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program.
“Just weeks after Saudi Arabia shocked the world by executing 47 people in a single day, including the Shi’a Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, it has once again demonstrated its utter disregard for human rights. Samar Badawi has been arrested purely for peacefully exercising her right to freedom of expression, she must be immediately and unconditionally released.”
In December 2014 the Ministry of Interior issued a travel ban on Samar Badawi to prevent her from travelling to Brussels for a human rights event.
Samar Badawi’s former husband, Waleed Abu al-Khair, is serving a 15-year prison sentence also in connection with his work protecting and defending human rights in Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of thousands of Amnesty International’s supporters campaigned for his release during its December 2015 Write for Rights Campaign.
Her brother Raif was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for setting up a website for public debate. He received the first 50 lashes just over a year ago. They are both prisoners of conscience who must be immediately and unconditionally released. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2016 | ['(CNN)', '(Amnesty International)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Three labour activists are sentenced to up to nine years in prison in Vietnam for distributing anti–government leaflets and going on strike. | HANOI - A COURT in southern Vietnam sentenced three labour activists to up to nine years in prison for instigating labour strikes and distributing anti-government leaflets, a court official said on Wednesday. Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, 29, was convicted of disrupting security and sentenced to nine years in jail at the one-day trial Tuesday by Tra Vinh provincial People's Court, the court official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to speak to the media. Doan Huy Chuong and Do Thi Minh Hanh, both 25, were sentenced to seven years imprisonment on the same charges, she said. The three were accused of instigating labour strikes at a shoe factory in Tra Vinh province late last year and sending pictures of the strikes to an outlawed trade union based in Poland to post on the Internet, she said. The court official said the three were also convicted of distributing anti-government leaflets in Tra Vinh, in the southern Mekong Delta; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern commercial hub; and Dong Nai province, which is adjacent to Ho Chi Minh City. Chuong, one of the founders of the United Workers-Farmers Organisation of Vietnam, an unapproved union working on behalf of farmers whose land has been taken by the government for development, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in 2007 after being convicted of abusing freedom and democracy to infringe on the interests of the state. -- AP | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2010 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, who was recorded on video kneeling on George Floyd's neck for several minutes and eventually causing his death, is taken into custody by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and charged with third-degree murder and second degree manslaughter. | MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been arrested four days after George Floyd’s fatal arrest that sparked protests, rioting and outcry across the city and nation, and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced he has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
On Friday, John Harrington, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, announced that Chauvin, 44, of Oakdale, was taken into custody by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, who said that Chauvin was arrested in Minneapolis. There was some speculation that he had gone to a home in Florida.
“We have now been able to put together the evidence that we need. Even as late as yesterday afternoon, we did not have all that we needed,” Freeman said, before saying that he was unable to speak to specific pieces of evidence and which one specifically was needed to file charges.
“This is by far the fastest that we’ve ever charged a police officer,” Freeman said.
WHAT THE COMPLAINT SAYS
A criminal complaint released Friday afternoon details the events that unfolded on May 25:
Officers were dispatched to Cup Foods on the report of a man buying merchandise with a counterfeit $20 bill. Shortly after 8 p.m., Officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng arrived with their body cameras activate and recording. The officers learned from store workers that the man, later identified as Floyd, was parked in a car around the corner. Body camera footage shows the officers approaching the car with Lane on the driver’s side and Kueng on the passenger side. Three people were in the car: Floyd, another man and another woman. As Lane began speaking with Floyd, he pulled out his gun, pointed it at Floyd and ordered him to show his hands. Floyd then put his hands on the steering wheel and Lane holstered his firearm. Lane then ordered Floyd out of the car and handcuffed him, but Floyd “actively resisted being handcuffed,” the complaint states. Once handcuffed, however, police said Floyd did not resist and walked with Lane to the sidewalk. Floyd then sat on the ground at Lane’s direction. The complaint says Lane spoke with Floyd for under two minutes, asking Floyd for his identification and name. He also asked Floyd if he was “on anything” and told Floyd he was going to be arrested for passing counterfeit currency. Then, Lane and Keung stood Floyd up and attempted to take him to their squad car. Floyd then “stiffened up, fell to the ground and told the officers he was claustrophobic,” the complaint states. That’s when Officers Chauvin and Tou Thao arrived on the scene in a separate squad car. After making several attempts to get Floyd in the backseat from the driver’s side, the complaint says Floyd wouldn’t get in and would struggle with the officers by intentionally falling down. The complaint says that Floyd began saying and repeating he could not breathe while standing outside the car. Chauvin then went to the passenger side and tried to get Floyd in from that side, with Lane and Keung assisting. Chauvin then pulled Floyd out of the passenger side of the car at 8:19 p.m. and Floyd went to the ground face down while still handcuffed. While Keung and Lane held Floyd’s back and legs, Chauvin “placed his left knee in the area of Mr. Floyd’s head and neck.” Floyd could be heard repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe”, as well as “mama” and “please.” The officers, however, stayed in their positions. The officers told Floyd, “You are talking fine”, as he continued to struggle. At one point, Lane asked “should we roll him on his side?” To which Chauvin responded, “No, staying put where we got him,” the complaint states. Lane then said he was “worried about excited delirium or whatever” to which Chauvin responded, “That’s why we have him on his stomach.” They continued holding their positions. At 8:24 p.m., Floyd stopped moving. Kueng then checked Floyd’s right wrist for a pulse and said “I couldn’t find one.” The officers continued to hold their positions. At 8:27 p.m., Chauvin removed his knee from Floyd’s neck as medics arrived. Floyd was taken away in the ambulance. He was pronounced dead at Hennepin Healthcare. An autopsy report is pending, but the Hennepin County Medical Examiner did release these findings: There were no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation, and that Floyd had underlying health problems, including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. According to the medical examiner, “the combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death,” the complaint states.
The complaint determined that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of that time was after Floyd became unresponsive. “Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in prone position is inherently dangerous,” the complaint said. If convicted, Chauvin could face up to 25 years in prison on the murder charge and up to 10 years in prison on the manslaughter charge. No court appearance has been set. Click here for a link to the complaint (.PDF). MORE DETAILS/CHARGES EXPECTED IN GEORGE FLOYD CASE
Freeman says the other officers involved in the fatal arrest are under investigation and that charges are expected. “But I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “Today, we’re talking about former officer Chauvin.”
Mayor Jacob Frey called the decision to charge “an essential first step on a longer road toward justice and healing our city.”
“What’s happened in Minneapolis is bigger than any one city and any single event,” Frey said. “For our Black community who have, for centuries, been forced to endure injustice in a world simply unwilling to correct or acknowledge it: I know that whatever hope you feel today is tempered with skepticism and a righteous outrage.”
The FBI, meanwhile, is seeking photos/video from those who witnessed the incident to support the federal civil rights investigation into Floyd’s death. Witnesses with digital media can go here: FBI.gov/MinneapolisTips
Ben Crump, the attorney representing Floyd’s family, released a statement on their behalf, saying that they were expecting first-degree murder charges.
“We call on authorities to revise the charges to reflect the true culpability of this officer,” the statement said. FAMILY STATEMENT: The family of #GeorgeFloyd and I released the following statement in response to the arrest of Derek Chauvin, the officer videoed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. #JusticeForFloyd #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/BkSFRlYB6j
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) May 29, 2020
A first-degree murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence in Minnesota. Attorney General William Barr issued a statement Friday afternoon, saying:
The video images of the incident that ended with death of Mr. Floyd, while in custody of Minneapolis police officers, were harrowing to watch and deeply disturbing. The state prosecutor has been in the process of determining whether any criminal charges are appropriate under state law. On a separate and parallel track, the Department of Justice, including the FBI, are conducting an independent investigation to determine whether any federal civil rights laws were violated. Both state and federal officers are working diligently and collaboratively to ensure that any available evidence relevant to these decisions is obtained as quickly as possible. Under our system, charging decisions must be, and will be, based on the law and facts. This process is proceeding quickly. As is the typical practice, the state’s charging decisions will be made first. I am confident justice will be served.
BREAKING – MPD Officer Derek Chauvin has been arrested in the death of #GeorgeFloyd.I am at a news conference in Minneapolis City Hall with black leaders in Minnesota and friends of George Floyd. They found out the news in the moment and this is their response. #WCCO pic.twitter.com/JNOE2zm1IG
— Marielle Mohs (@MarielleMohs) May 29, 2020
Day 2 of a demonstration in front of the Hennepin County Government Center. This crowd heard the charges of #DerekChauvin all together and immediately began chanting “1 down, 3 to go” #GeorgeFloyd #WCCO pic.twitter.com/IatDHQra8v
— Marielle Mohs (@MarielleMohs) May 29, 2020
Chauvin is the former officer in the video seen around the world with his knee on Floyd’s neck for at least five minutes. He’d been with Minneapolis police for 19 years.
Police initially said Floyd was resisting arrest and had a medical incident. However, video obtained by CBS News shows Floyd cooperating with officers, at least in the initial moments of the encounter.
A bystander’s video showed Floyd pleading that he could not breathe as a white officer — identified as Chauvin — knelt on his neck and kept his knee there for several minutes after Floyd stopped moving and became unresponsive.
Related: Medics Worked On ‘Unresponsive, Pulseless’ George Floyd After Mpls. Arrest
All four officers were fired a day after Floyd’s death. As of yet, none of the other three officers have been reported as having been taken into custody.
The incident drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after being placed in a police chokehold. He also said the words “I can’t breathe” while being arrested. The phrase has become a rallying cry for protests over police brutality. The video circulated widely on social media, sparking protests in Minneapolis and cities across the country.
Related: Minneapolis Burns During 2nd Night Of Protests Over George Floyd’s Death
On both Tuesday and Wednesday, protests began with peaceful demonstrations near where Floyd was pinned to the ground, but violence later broke out near the 3rd Precinct police station. Wednesday evening’s protests involved more than 30 fires, destruction of businesses and looting.
Unrest was more widespread Thursday night, with destruction spreading to St. Paul, where more than 170 businesses were damaged. In Minneapolis, rioters burned the 3rd Precinct police station.
Earlier Friday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the looting and arson must come to an end so that state can address the problems that led to Floyd’s death.
“We cannot have the looting and recklessness that went on,” he said. “It’s time for us to clean our streets.”
At that same press conference, Harrington, the commissioner of public safety, called Floyd’s death a murder.
“That’s what it looked like to me,” he said. “I’ll call it as I see it.”
Floyd’s death is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI in Minneapolis and the Department of Justice Civil Rights division. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2020 | ['(KSTP)', '(WCCO)'] |
In boxing, Timothy Bradley defeats Juan Manuel Márquez to win the World Boxing Organization Welterweight Title. | Timothy Bradley and his trend of winning close scorecards continued Saturday night as he edged Juan Manuel Marquez, 10 years the elder at 40, by split decision.
Bradley, relying on his boxing skills, faster legs and strong jab, punctuated the performance with a big left hand that staggered Marquez in the final seconds of the 12th round.
Judge Robert Hoyle scored the World Boxing Organization welterweight title fight 115-113 for Bradley, while Patricia Morse Jarman had it 116-112 for Bradley. Glenn Feldman scored it 115-113 for Marquez.
The Mexican bitterly left the ring afterward, upset at the decision on the heels of his stunning sixth-round knockout of Manny Pacquiao. Marquez believes Nevada judges deprived him of a victory over Pacquiao for the same belt in 2011.
--Lance Pugmire
Here is the round-by-round recap of the fight (scoring listed is unofficial) by The Times’ John Cherwa.
Round 1: Both fighters came out tentative as the crowd shouted “Marquez, Marquez.” Marquez appeared to be slightly more active, landing upper cuts and left hooks, none of which hurt Bradley. Bradley connected late in the round with a body shot. But the first round was pretty tame and each fighter didn’t want to show their best stuff. Times card: Marquez 10, Bradley 9.
Round 2: Bradley came out strong at the start of the round but was warned by Byrd for a beltline shot about a minute into the round. Marquez showed some good counter punching but Bradley connected with a good left hook, the best shot of the fight. The round ended with a flurry of punches in the corner bringing the crowd to its feet. The fight is still razor close. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Fight even, 19-19.
Round 3: Both fighters started the round lacking the energy they displayed at the end of Round 2. In fact, no significant punches were thrown in the round with mostly a lot of counter punching, none of which did any damage. Bradley threw more punches and that might have done enough to give him a round that was basically even. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Bradley leads, 29-28.
Round 4: Little action to start the round but referee Byrd called timeout about a minute into it to have Marquez’s corner wipe excess vasoline off of their fighter. Marquez was able to land a strong right with about 50 seconds left in the round and a late flurry that might have been enough to give him the round. The fight has less action than the crowd expected. Times card: Marquez 10, Bradley 9. Fight is even, 38-38.
Round 5: Bradley seems to be controlling the pace of the fight, using his right to keep Marquez from going on the offensive. Neither fighter has landed a significant punch although there have been a few combinations that have excited the crowd but done little damage. Marquez is starting to look a shade more tired than Bradley. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Bradley leads, 48-47.
Round 6: Still no firepower from either fighter and the round went by with a slight resurgence from Marquez. The fight is open for either fighter to take, although Bradley has been more active and might have an edge on the cards of some judges. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Bradley leads, 58-56.
Round 7: The crowd has had little to get excited about so far. Marquez needs to be more active or the fight will start to slip away from him. Marquez lands a shot on the ropes late in the round but it’s clear that Bradley is the more active puncher and could be swaying the judges. It’s a close fight but Marquez, if he wants to win, has to get more active and connect on punches. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Bradley leads, 68-65.
Round 8: Bradley continued to control the pace of the fight but neither fighter has hurt the other. The crowd is trying to urge on Marquez but perhaps his 40-year-old body has caught up with him. It might be to the point where Marquez will have to go for the knockout if he hopes to win. But, since he hasn’t landed a significant punch that could be a tough task. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Bradley leads, 78-74.
Round 9: The fight is certainly a disappointment for fans who were expecting to see a war. Neither fighter has taken a risk. Late in the round Marquez landed a few shots that brought the crowd alive but did little to hurt Bradley. But it was likely enough to win the round. Times card: Marquez 10, Bradley 9. Bradley leads, 87-84.
Round 10: The best round so far. Bradley landed a right that hurt Marquez, who then countered in the best exchanges of the fight. Some of the rounds have been so lacking in action that the fight might be closer than people think. As the round finished Marquez slipped and his glove hit the canvas but it was clearly a slip. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Bradley leads, 97-93.
Round 11: Marquez seems to be fighting as if he knows he needs a knockout but he has been unable to penetrate Bradley’s defense. The crowd continues to back every punch by Marquez, even if they aren’t landing or doing much damage. Bradley is starting to look tired but there is only one round to go. Times card: Marquez 10, Bradley 9. Bradley leads, 106-103.
Round 12: Both fighters appear tired and there seems to be little desperation in this final round. Marquez lands a good right early in the round but it didn’t hurt Bradley. The fight ended with a flurry from each fighter and Bradley rocked Marquez with a left hook that staggered him and he almost went down. Marquez was able to right himself but it might have given Bradley the round that Marquez seemed to be winning. Times card: Bradley 10, Marquez 9. Bradley wins, 116-112 (unofficial).
The judges’ scorecards: Bradley wins the fight in a split decision. Glenn Feldman scored it 115-113 for Marquez. Robert Hoyle reversed it 115-113 for Bradley and Patricia Jarman scored it 116-112 for Bradley.
| Sports Competition | October 2013 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama dismisses four cabinet ministers, including Minister of Internal Affairs Saimir Tahiri and Minister of Health Ilir Beqaj, in a bid to make the government more technocratic following opposition Democratic Party protests. | TIRANA (Reuters) - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Sunday he would replace four of his ministers this week, a move which failed to satisfy opposition protesters who have been calling for a technocratic caretaker government to take over until free parliamentary elections are held on June 18.
The opposition Democratic Party’s three-week-long protest in a tent outside Rama’s office and its boycott of parliament have stalled the creation of bodies that would vet 750 judges and prosecutors. Reform of the judiciary is a key condition set by the EU for starting accession talks.
But in his weekly address Rama said the move to replace the four ministers was not due to pressure from either his coalition partner or the protests of the opposition Democratic Party.
Instead, “the government changes were made only to allow our electoral managers to focus with fresh energies on the campaign in order to cope with the huge volume of contacts,” Rama said.
Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri, Social Welfare Minister Blendi Klosi, Local Government Minister Bledi Cuci and Health Minister Ilir Beqa are also Socialist Party coordinators in key districts.
Rama hailed Tahiri, who critics have blamed for the rapid expansion of cannabis farms in the last two years, as a champion of Socialist Party reforms, turning a corrupt police force into a “trusted” institution for Albanians.
But the Democratic Party, which has accused the government of colluding with cannabis growers to steal the elections, said it would not be fooled by such “tricks” in replacing ministers.
“Our protest continues and will continue until Rama resigns, until free and fair elections are guaranteed by a technocrat government,” the Democrats’ leader Lulzim Basha told his backers in their tent blocking the main boulevard on Sunday.
The ministers are due to be formally replaced on Monday.
| Government Policy Changes | March 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Israel's Defense Forces launch a ground attack on the Gaza Strip. | JERUSALEM Israeli tanks and troops swept across the border into Gaza on Saturday night, opening a ground war against the militant group Hamas after a week of intense airstrikes.
Israel’s stated goal was to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza’s government, and the military warned that the campaign could take “many long days.” | Armed Conflict | January 2009 | ['(BBC News)', '(New York Times)'] |
In Pakistan, all parliament members from the Jamaat–e–Islami political movement resign over fighting between the army and terrorists in Waziristan and General Musharraf's support for the United States in an effort to force Musharraf to step down. | Members of parliament from Pakistan's main Islamic group on Sunday handed over their resignations to party chief as part of preparations for anti-President Musharraf movement, the party chief said.
"We have got resignations from all our members of parliament. We have asked members of opposition parties to collect resignations from their lawmakers," Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said.
All the opposition parties will make a collective decision to quit assemblies, Ahmed told a demonstration in Islamabad.
All members of parliament from Jamaat-e-Islami and its ministers in North West Frontier Province also participated in the rally.
A group of the party women parliamentarians, observing veil, also attended the rally.
The demonstrators were chanting slogans against President Musharraf and were demanding his resignation.
'Army is fighting with the people in Waziristan tribal region and Baluchistan province', 'Price-hike has broken the back of the poor', 'The people are fed up with lawlessness' were some of the slogans.
General Pervez Musharraf is responsible for all ills, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said.
He lashed out at General Musharraf for his statement that he will be impartial if the United States attacked Iran, adding that General Musharraf is siding with Americans in their war in Afghanistan.
"I appeal to all clerics and imams to ask for General Musharraf's resignation," he said.
Ahmed said that a mass movement will force General Musharraf to step down, saying that his party will not accept any other military general after General Musharraf's exit. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2006 | ['(IRNA)'] |
At least two people die and another three are missing after the remains of Tropical Storm Erin hit Oklahoma. | OKLAHOMA CITY - Heavy rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Erin drenched Oklahoma on Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and three missing, according to state officials and local media reports.
Authorities reported a woman drowned near Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, about 120km southwest of Oklahoma City, when she sought shelter in her cellar, which is the usual procedure for storms in tornado-prone Oklahoma.
"Evidently she went to her cellar due to the storming. She couldn't get the door back open," said Caddo County emergency management director Larry McDuffy.
Another person was confirmed drowned west of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, the Kingfisher County Sheriff's office told the Daily Oklahoman newspaper, according to its website.
As much as 23cm of rain has fallen across a wide swath of Oklahoma, leaving roadways under 1.5m of water.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol was searching for three women whose van was swept off a road near Carnegie, Oklahoma, 18km west of Fort Cobb, according to the Daily Oklahoman.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2007 | ['(Reuters via New Zealand Herald)'] |
Ehud Barak, the Defense Minister of Israel, approves a plan to cut off supplies of electricity to the Gaza Strip which has been recently declared as "hostile territory". | JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved a measure Thursday to begin cutting off electricity to Gaza, which Israel recently declared a "hostile territory," according to a spokeswoman for Barak.
"The recommendation is to begin gradually cutting the electricity supply without harming humanitarian sources like hospitals," Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said in an interview on Israel Army Radio.
Barak's spokeswoman would not say when the measure will begin, but the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that cuts to power and fuel supplies will begin in the coming days.
The move is part of a plan put together by Israeli security officials in response to ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel. The first step of the plan came when the Israeli Cabinet labeled Gaza a "hostile territory" last month.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticized that decision, saying it would "sabotage" his government's efforts to extend its mandate into Gaza.
Earlier this year, Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory of Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas' Fatah party, in what Abbas called a "coup."
That caused a split in the Palestinian leadership, with Fatah leaders consolidating their power in the West Bank.
"There should be no sanctions against the Palestinian people, neither individual nor collective punishment," he said days after the Cabinet's decision. "It will harm our bilateral relations, it will harm our discussions and negotiations, it will harm the atmosphere and even sabotage it."
Abbas has aligned himself with the United States and European Union, which restarted millions of dollars in aid that was frozen after Hamas won elections in January.
The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been under mounting pressure to do something about the rocket attacks.
According to figures compiled by the Israel Defense Forces, approximately 800 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel from June to September, compared with approximately 500 during the same period last year.
Hamas took over Gaza in mid-June of this year.
While Israeli officials insisted that humanitarian assistance to Gaza would not be hurt, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency said that will be the result if the new sanctions are imposed.
Speaking after last month's unanimous Cabinet decision, Chris Gunness of UNRWA said the impact of these Israeli measures would be "extremely detrimental" to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
"This would be just another tightening of the knot on Gaza." He said 1.2 million Gazans are already receiving emergency food rations and 860,000 people get fed there every day by UNRWA.
According to Gunness, the new Israeli action will "further radicalize the youth," as more are forced into unemployment, and will increase the population's aid dependency.
But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel must respond to the barrage of attacks.
"We've had a situation where day after day, week after week, month after month, we've had rockets fired from Gaza by extremists, designed to kill our people," Regev said. "The Israeli Cabinet has decided that this situation just can't go on and we will act to defend our citizens."
Meanwhile, Olmert played down expectations for an upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace conference, expressing doubts about whether it would even take place, according to The Associated Press. | Government Policy Changes | October 2007 | ['(CNN)'] |
Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps announces that the UK government is planning to introduce new legislation in the aftermath of Thomas Cook's collapse in order to allow "more orderly" bankruptcies by travel agencies and airlines. | The government will look at how to deal with future travel firm collapses - though a review was already carried out after Monarch.
By Sharon Marris, business reporter Wednesday 25 September 2019 17:50, UK
New laws will be introduced to prevent travellers being left in a "ridiculous situation" following the collapse of firms such as Thomas Cook, the transport secretary says.
Grant Shapps was speaking after the travel giant went into liquidation earlier this week, leaving 150,000 passengers having to be repatriated to the UK.
Mr Shapps told parliament that he hoped new laws would enable stricken travel firms to be wound down in a "more orderly" way.
The collapse has triggered the biggest-ever peacetime repatriation of British citizens
He said the government would examine the "reforms necessary to ensure passengers do not find themselves in this ridiculous situation ever again".
He added: "[Travel companies] need to be able to look after their customers and we need to be able to ensure their planes can keep flying in order that we don't have to set up a shadow airline.
"This is where we will focus our efforts in the next couple of weeks.
"We will require primary legislation and, dare I say it, a new session of parliament."
Mr Shapps used Germany as an example, where he said insolvency rules allow for administration to take place but for aircraft to keep flying and other buyers to come in.
He said such a law in the UK would "make repatriation massively easier because we could use those airlines".
A review launched after the collapse of Monarch Airlines in 2017 called for a new levy on tickets to pay for the repatriation of passengers when carriers go bust.
When the review was published in May this year, chairman Peter Bucks said: "We know passengers expect to be protected from being stranded overseas if their airline should collapse, but in practice, each year many people fly without such protection.
"Although airline insolvencies are relatively rare, as we have seen in recent months they do happen - and at times have required government to step in to repatriate passengers at great cost to the taxpayer."
Airlines rejected the levy proposal, however, saying industry costs were already too high, prompting then-transport secretary Chris Grayling to vow "swift" reforms to "secure the right balance between strong consumer protection and the interests of taxpayers".
Duncan Swift, president of insolvency and restructuring trade body R3, said that while there was a desire to "keep the fleet flying", there are practical reasons that make this difficult when an airline is insolvent.
He said: "During an airline or travel company insolvency, planes are vulnerable to being held hostage by overseas creditors and suppliers and other stakeholders, which puts aircraft, crew and passenger safety at risk. Using chartered flights avoids this scenario.
"Changing the law in the UK won't necessarily change the behaviour of creditors overseas. We're yet to see a convincing solution to this potential problem."
On Wednesday, it was announced that Thomas Cook's Polish division Neckermann Polska has been declared insolvent, intensifying the crisis over the group's collapse.
The Condor holiday flight operation in Germany is safe for now after the government there granted it a £350m six-month bridging loan. Thomas Cook's unit in Germany, however, has entered bankruptcy proceedings and says it is working with the government to get around 140,000 travellers home, a number reported by the DPA news agency.
Meanwhile, some 120,000 UK holidaymakers who are still stuck abroad have been advised to "enjoy the rest of their stay" amid continuing difficulties over payment demands by resorts.
The message came in an update from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which is leading the £100m UK repatriation effort. | Government Policy Changes | September 2019 | ['(Sky News)'] |
On the third anniversary of the execution of Timothy McVeigh for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, the penalty phase of his co–accomplice, Terry Nichols, ends in a deadlocked jury over the issue of handing out a death penalty verdict. By law, the judge in the case must sentence Nichols to life in prison . | McALESTER, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Convicted of 161 counts of murder in the Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols was spared the death penalty for a second time Friday.
The jury in his state trial said it was deadlocked over whether to execute Timothy McVeigh's accomplice.
Pittsburg County District Judge Steven Taylor will determine Nichols' sentence August 9. His options are limited to life in prison either with or without the chance for parole. It was the second time jurors were unable to reach a unanimous sentencing decision for Nichols, who was convicted for his role in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The bombing killed 168 people.
In Denver in 1998, a federal jury deliberated 13 hours over two days on the sentencing verdict after convicting Nichols in the deaths of eight federal officers, but could not break a deadlock. The judge in that case sentenced Nichols to life without parole.
Nichols sat straight in his chair Friday as the jury foreman handed a note to Taylor that said, "We will not be able to reach a unanimous verdict."
"Sometimes this is how trials end up," Taylor said.
Nichols' mother, sister and ex-wife sat in the front row on one side of the courtroom, while bombing victims and their families sat on the other side of the aisle.
"This is unbelievable to me," said the relative of one of the bombing victims, pointing to all the evidence presented by prosecutors.
The jury returned to the courtroom twice Friday so its foreman could tell the judge the panel appeared hopelessly divided. The second time, Taylor told the jurors they could resume their talks or give up. After deliberating another hour, jurors returned to the courtroom with their final decision.
Two weeks ago, the same jury convicted Nichols, 49, on 161 counts of first-degree murder for his role in the bombing. Of the 161 counts, 160 were eligible for the death penalty.
The remaining charge involved the death of a fetus, for which Nichols has already been sentenced to life in prison without parole -- the maximum sentence on that count.
Friday is the third anniversary of the execution of Nichol's bombing partner, McVeigh. He was convicted by a federal jury and put to death by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001.
The state of Oklahoma put Nichols on trial to try to seek a death sentence for him. During his trial, Nichols has been held at a nearby state prison that houses Oklahoma's death row.
Nichols was accused of helping bombing mastermind McVeigh assemble the bomb and obtain the ammonium nitrate fertilizer used to build it. The bombing took place on the second anniversary of the deadly FBI raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas -- the focus of McVeigh's anger at the federal government.
"Each and every one of these people died so [Nichols and McVeigh] could make a political statement," prosecutor Sandra Elliott told the jury Wednesday in her closing arguments.
Defense lawyers described Nichols as the pawn of a "dominant, manipulative and controlling" McVeigh.
The prosecution and defense called 87 witnesses over five days of testimony in the penalty phase of the trial, many of them relatives still grieving over their losses nine years ago. Nichols' attorney, Creekmore Wallace, urged jurors not to be swayed by "that flood of tears, that flood of pain" related by victims who testified. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2004 | ['(a term he is already serving)', '(CNN)'] |
Mauritania extradites former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, who was arrested in the capital Nouakchott in March after fleeing Libya during the civil war in 2011. The United States insist on a fair trial for the suspect, a "milestone in (Libya's) democratic transition". | Deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief is being held in Tripoli after being deported from Mauritania.
Pictures on social media appeared to show Abdullah al-Senussi stepping down from a helicopter in the capital.
Libya has promised a fair trial for Mr Senussi, accused of crimes allegedly committed during Col Gaddafi's rule. He fled Libya after last year's uprising. He is also wanted by France and the International Criminal Court.
"Abdullah al-Senussi will have a fair trial according to international standards for human rights, the rights from which Libyans were deprived," Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib told reporters in Tripoli.
A spokesman for Libya's attorney general said Mr Senussi had undergone a routine medical check-up and was in good health. He added that the prosecutors would begin questioning him as soon as possible.
BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says a key question is what he might reveal about extraordinary rendition - the process under which jihadist enemies of Col Gaddafi's Libya were sent back to Libya by the US and Britain.
Mr Senussi was arrested on his arrival in Mauritania in March, sparking repeated requests to the west African nation from the Libyan government for his return.
"He was extradited to Libya on the basis of guarantees given by Libyan authorities," a Mauritanian government source told Reuters news agency, without giving details.
According to reports, Mr Senussi was delivered to an official Libyan delegation headed by the minister of justice.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says Mr Senussi's extradition to Libya is a blow for the ICC.
Not only has the court been trying to win custody of Mr Senussi, he says, it is also arguing that Col Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam should also be brought to justice at the court. In March, Mr Senussi was arrested at Nouakchott airport in Mauritania after flying in from Morocco. He was disguised as a Tuareg chieftain and was carrying a fake passport.
He was later charged with illegally entering the country and using forged documents, and transferred to the civilian prison in Nouakchott. However, it is believed he has spent most of his time in Mauritania under house arrest at a private villa.
In June 2011, the ICC issued a warrant for Mr Senussi for crimes against humanity alleged to have been carried out in Benghazi, the main base of the Libyan opposition during the revolt last year.
France has already sentenced Mr Senussi to life imprisonment for his involvement in the bombing of a French airliner over Niger in 1989 in which 170 people were killed.
He has been accused of various human rights abuses including his alleged role in the 1996 massacre of more than 1,000 inmates at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. He is alleged to have ordered guards standing on grated ceilings above the inmates to fire down on them, after riots broke out over demands for better food and conditions.
Mr Senussi is also believed to have information about Libyans kidnapped and assassinated abroad during Gaddafi's rule, and the financing of terrorist organisations, especially in Africa.
Investigators in the US and UK believe he may have further knowledge about the 1988 airliner bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland in which 270 people died.
Earlier this year, US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who led a delegation to the region, said Washington had a "particular interest" in seeing Mr Senussi arrested "because of his role with the Lockerbie bombing".
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for illegally taking money out of the Chaibasa treasury. | Ranchi, Oct 3 — Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad was Thursday jailed for five years for his role in the Rs.950 crore fodder scam that surfaced 17 years ago, effectively ending the electoral career of one of India's best known politicians.
The sentencing -- the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founder was also fined Rs.25 lakh -- takes away Lalu Prasad's membership of the Lok Sabha, where he was a familiar face, occupying one of the front benches. Lalu Prasad's lawyers vowed to appeal in a higher court.
"When I have not done any crime, how have I been punished?" a dazed Lalu Prasad, 67, asked at the Birsa Munda Central Jail here when the special CBI court announced the sentence. Judge Pravas Kumar Singh retorted: "You can appeal in the higher court."
Lalu Prasad's lawyer earlier pleaded for a lenient sentence, citing his age and health issues. The judge was also told how the Indian Railways had performed profitably when he headed the ministry.
CBI lawyer B.M.P. Singh demanded deterrent punishment.
Among a total of 37 convicts who were sentenced Thursday, former chief minister Jagannath Mishra and Janata Dal-United leader Jagdish Sharma were jailed for four years each.
While Mishra, who was admitted to a hospital Wednesday after injuring himself in the bathroom, was fined Rs.2 lakh, Sharma was fined Rs.5 lakh.
There was a hushed silence as the judge sentenced Lalu Prasad for conspiracy. With only lawyers allowed in the court, an army of journalists and some Lalu Prasad supporters were massed outside.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which for years was a favourite target of Lalu Prasad, was elated. BJP's M. Venkaiah Naidu remarked: "Though justice has been delayed, it has not been denied."
In Patna, Lalu Prasad's wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi alleged "a conspiracy" against her husband for which she blamed both the BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Although RJD leaders claimed that Lalu Prasad would continue to guide them even from prison, he would not be able to contest elections for six years from the date of his release.
Lalu Prasad was the Bihar chief minister when the CBI filed a charge sheet June 23, 1997 accusing 56 people of fraudulently withdrawing Rs.37.70 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in 1994-95 on the strength of forged and fabricated documents.
Of the accused, seven died and two were pardoned after they turned approvers. Another man confessed while the then deputy commissioner of West Singhbhum district was discharged for his role in another case.
A former RJD legislator, R.K. Rana, got five years' jail and was fined Rs.30 lakh.
B.N. Sharma, who supplied fodder to the Bihar government's animal husbandry department, was asked to cough up Rs.1.5 crore -- the maximum fine imposed on anyone in the case.
On Sep 30, the CBI court held all 45 accused guilty. It sentenced eight of them to three years in prison and slapped them with fines up to Rs.50 lakh.
Lalu Prasad became the second politician this week to lose membership of parliament in line with a Supreme Court ruling. On Tuesday, Congress MP Rasheed Masood was jailed for four years for his role in illegally giving MBBS seats to undeserving medical students.
Lalu Prasad stepped down as chief minister in 1997 when his name figured in the CBI investigation in the fodder scam.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2013 | ['(New York Daily News)'] |
In Spain, Alfredo Galán, a serial killer who left playing cards on the bodies of some of his victims, is sentenced to jail for 142 years | Former soldier Alfredo Galan, 26, was convicted of six murders and three attempted murders, in shooting attacks around Madrid in 2003.
His killing spree lasted from January until March before he turned himself in to police in July that year.
Galan, dubbed the "playing card killer" by the Spanish press, may appeal.
Most of his sentences will run concurrently as the maximum
jail term under Spanish law is 20 years for non-terrorism
cases.
'Polite'
Galan, who served as a Spanish peacekeeper in the Balkans, is reported to have told police he wanted "to know what it felt like to kill". In the event, he had felt only indifference, the court heard.
He had initially confessed to the killings but later withdrew the statement and tried to implicate two other men, claiming he had sold them the murder weapon.
According to a police witness during the trial, Galan always said hello to his victims and asked them if they could "please" kneel down before he shot them, as he thought "politeness is most important in life", El Mundo newspaper reported.
The paper says the court ordered Galan to pay 609,182 euros (£422,983) to his victims' families. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Foreign ministers from the European Union say they would recognise a Palestinian state "when appropriate". | Foreign ministers from the European Union have said they would recognise a Palestinian state "when appropriate".
The ministers' statement followed a call from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for the EU to recognise Palestine based on the 1967 borders.
The EU ministers emphasised the need for a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Brazil and Argentina recently joined the growing number of countries to recognise Palestine.
More than 100 states around the world recognise Palestine, their mission at the United Nations says.
The Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Mr Abbas spoke to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton earlier on Monday.
"[Catherine] Ashton spoke today with President Abbas who called on the EU to take a step towards recognition of the state of Palestine based on the 1967 borders," Mr Erekat said.
Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 war. It withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005.
Direct talks aimed at finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict collapsed in late September after just a few weeks over the issue of Israeli settlement building in occupied Palestinian territories.
The Palestinians have said there is no point in direct negotiations without a freeze in settlement building. They have been making behind-the-scenes diplomatic moves to secure unilateral recognition since the talks stalled.
The EU foreign policy council "reiterates its readiness, when appropriate, to recognise a Palestinian state", the European foreign ministers' statement said.
They added: "Urgent progress is needed towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
The statement also said the ministers were disappointed that Israel did not extend its settlement freeze.
"Our views on settlements, including in East Jerusalem, are clear: they are illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace."
PLO Negotiations Affairs Department
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United States Senate accuses seven US banks of complicity of allowing Augusto Pinochet to set up 100 bank accounts to hide money total to US$15 million. | The allegations are contained in a report by a senate sub-committee, which names Citigroup, Bank of America and seven other institutions.
Bank officials say the accounts were opened under false names, and have vowed to co-operate with investigators.
Thousands died under Gen Pinochet's military regime in the 1970s and 1980s.
He is also being investigated in Chile over allegations of both human rights abuses and embezzlement of state funds.
The Senate report found that some of the banks allowed Gen Pinochet to use assumed names on accounts, arranged international wire transfers and set up offshore companies.
It says the purpose was to hide an estimated $30m from US investigators as well as international prosecutors who were trying to seize his assets.
'Tawdry'
Some of the banks, including Riggs and Citigroup, had a relationship with Gen Pinochet going back 25 years, the report says.
All of the accounts have since been closed.
Senator Carl Levin said the report illuminated "another chapter in a very tawdry episode in American banking".
In January Riggs Bank pleaded guilty to failing to report suspicious activity relating to accounts held by Gen Pinochet and the government of Equatorial Guinea.
The bank later agreed to pay $8m to victims of crimes committed during his regime.
The BBC's Ian Pannell in Washington says there will now be pressure on the others to do likewise.
In a statement, Citigroup said its accounts for the general were opened "with false documentation using pseudonyms".
Bank of America, for its part, said it had "cooperated fully with the subcommittee in its investigation, conducted a thorough internal investigation and submitted documents as requested". | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
Bills banning homosexual "propaganda" pass through Russia's parliament; gay people are hit with eggs by anti–gay extremists and then dragged off by police near the Duma. | Gay activists attacked and arrested for protesting against bill that will ban ‘homosexual propaganda’ aimed at young people
Gay activists were attacked and then arrested outside Russia’s parliament as lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill that will ban “gay propaganda” aimed at under-18s. The Duma passed the bill, which outlaws the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”, by 436 votes to zero, with one abstention.
The bill will now become law if it is approved by Russia’s upper house of parliament and then signed by President Vladimir Putin, who has already expressed his support for it. The bill is the most criticised element of a series of measures that activists say makes a difficult situation for gay people in Russia even worse. Individuals who violate the law can be fined up to £100, while the penalty for organisations can be up to £20,000. Foreigners found to be promoting gay equality in violation of the law will be arrested and immediately deported.
More than 20 of the protesters who gathered outside parliament were attacked by extremist Orthodox Christians and pelted with eggs, stinging nettles and urine as they attempted to stage a “kissing protest”.
The law is modelled on regional legislation that outlaws “homosexual propaganda” in a number of Russian regions. Faced with criticism that the terminology of the law was so vague that it could be interpreted in many different ways, the organisers clarified the language before sending it back to parliament for its second and third readings.
The document now states that “propaganda” of gay relationships includes, “spreading information aimed at forming non- traditional sexual behaviour among children, suggesting this behaviour is attractive and making a false statement about the socially equal nature of traditional and non-traditional relationships”.
Gay-rights rallies and gay-pride marches have been banned in Russia as a matter of policy and the former Moscow Mayor famously referred to gay rallies as “a place for Satanists”. Surveys frequently show that many Russians feel gay people should be “treated” and there are almost no openly gay public figures. A television presenter, Anton Krasovsky, was fired earlier this year shortly after announcing his homosexuality on television. Mr Putin said recently that Russian laws do not discriminate against gay people in any way, but when the new bill comes into force it will be illegal to suggest that homosexuality is a normal life choice.
“The law is wrong from the start,” wrote Elena Kostyuchenko, a Russian investigative journalist who is a lesbian and was detained by police for taking part in the protest outside the Duma. “It states that to be gay or lesbian is not normal and divides people into two groups – first-class and second-class citizens… This law forbids us to talk openly about ourselves… and it prevents psychologists and teachers from defending gay teenagers from bullying and persuading them that they are normal.”
Peter Tatchell, who was beaten and arrested four times for participating in Moscow’s gay-pride parades, said: “This new law is symptomatic of Putin’s increasing authoritarianism and his crackdown on civil society. It violates the Russian constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, and the European Convention on Human Rights, which Russian has signed and pledged to uphold. Although the law is ostensibly aimed at prohibiting the dissemination of so-called gay propaganda to young persons under 18, in reality it will criminalise any public advocacy of gay equality, HIV education or welfare provision where a young person could see it. ”
The gay-rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev wrote on his Twitter page that he planned to appeal to the General Prosecutor’s office, asking it to investigate Elena Mizulina, one of the MPs behind the law, of inciting hatred against a social group.
| Government Policy Changes | June 2013 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The Independent)', '(The Guardian)', '(USA Today)'] |
A general strike begins in Myanmar despite warnings by the Tatmadaw that further confrontations could cost lives. | Protesters against the military rule have refused to let up as the movement to bring back the country's democratically elected leader dismisses threats of violence.
Protests in Myanmar have gradually increased in size since the military took power at the beginning of February
Protesters gathered in cities and towns across Myanmar on Monday as they answered the call for a general strike.
The industrial action brought large parts of the country to a standstill even as the military junta warned that confrontation could cost lives.
Despite the veiled threat from the military, people came out onto the streets as part of the "Spring Revolution" in support of the Civil Disobedience Movement — a nebulous organization that is pushing for open resistance to the junta in an effort to reinstate the civilian government under the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi.
The military leadership had warned against Monday's general strike on Sunday in a statement broadcast over the state-controlled television channel MRTV.
"It is found that the protesters have raised their incitement towards riot and anarchy mob on the day of 22 February. Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life,'' the onscreen text said in broken English, replicating the spoken announcement in Burmese.
The statement also justified the use of deadly force against protesters, saying that criminals had initiated the violence and that "the security forces had to fire back."
Three protesters have been killed so far in the military government's crackdown.
The junta made attempts on Sunday to more strictly enforce its ban on gatherings of more than five people. They also attempted to block key roads with barriers and demobilized vehicles.
The non-violent protesters were nonetheless able to pass through the roadblocks undeterred.
The military deployed security forces in the capital of Naypyitaw and the main city of Yangon, where thousands of protesters congregated on Monday.
People shared images from the capital on social media which showed police vehicles, including a water cannon truck, moving on a protest march in an attempt to break it up, Reuters reported. Police on foot also chased down the demonstrators as they fled.
Protests have erupted across Myanmar against the February 1 military coup. On February 18, people living near Inle Lake, a popular tourist destination in southern Shan state, demonstrated against the military junta and demanded that democracy be restored in the Southeast Asian country.
People from all walks of life participated in the unique boat protests. They were seen carrying megaphones and placards while chanting revolutionary songs.
Senior military figures seized power earlier this month, claiming widespread voter fraud in November's elections, where Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide. They arrested elected officials and quickly stacked political offices and the court system with loyalists.
Since the coup, people have protested in the tens of thousands and established a civil disobedience campaign. This was met with military violence, harsh crackdowns and widespread arrests.
Western countries have imposed sanctions on the coup leaders and demanded that Suu Kyi and other political prisoners be released. Inle Lake protesters welcome the sanctions and say that their goal is to end the military's dominance for good. They are, however, not in favor of a reconciliation with the generals, a policy pursued by Suu Kyi.
Shan state is populated by the Intha people, who are also known as "sons of the lake." "The only way to protect the traditions of the minorities is through a democratic and decentralized system. That is why we need federal democracy in Myanmar," Ko Su, an ethnic Intha activist, told DW.
Although Suu Kyi's NLD did not deliver its democratic promises, the townships around Inle Lake remained loyal to the party. Thursday's protests, however, should not be considered a political rally in favor of the NLD, but rather a call for the restoration of democracy.
The ethnic Intha people say that they have not been able to fully capitalize on tourism because most hotels and businesses in the area are owned by people with connections to the military. Before the coup, local people say they could at least get some benefits from a booming tourism industry.
Author: Robert Bociaga (Nyaung Shwe) "They're chasing and arresting us. We're just protesting peacefully," one woman said in a video posted to Facebook.
A 22-year-old protester, Htet Htet Hlaing, told Reuters that she had been scared about Monday's protest, but would not be discouraged by the junta's threats.
"We don't want the junta, we want democracy. We want to create our own future," she said.
External pressure against the military's rule also continued overnight with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tweeting support for the protesters in Myanmar.
"The United States will continue to take firm action against those who perpetrate violence against the people of Burma as they demand the restoration of their democratically elected government. We stand with the people of Burma," he tweeted.
Protests in the country have been growing since the military ousted the democratically-elected Suu Kyi at the beginning of February under charges of fraud. Although early public defiance of the military was more subdued, protesters have shown an increasing willingness to openly call for the junta to step down.
The military ruled the south Asian country for 50 years until 2015 when they allowed elections to go ahead for the first time. | Strike | February 2021 | ['(DW)'] |
A school charter bus traveling illegally on a parkway on Long Island, New York, collides with a bridge. Dozens of students are injured. | Either the driver or a chaperone yelled "duck" before a charter bus carrying mostly high school students struck an overpass in Long Island, New York, state police said today.
The top of the bus was sheared off from the impact of the crash, which injured dozens of students. The bus was carrying high school students and traveling eastbound on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview Sunday evening when it slammed into the overpass, police said.
Commercial vehicles such as buses are not allowed on New York state parkways because the bridges are so low in certain areas.
Two 17-year-old girls suffered serious injuries and are hospitalized in "stable" condition, police said.
They are expected to be discharged in 24 to 48 hours, the hospital said.
The various injuries ranged from broken bones to cuts and scrapes, New York State Police Maj. David Candelaria said.
Besides the two girls, five people suffered moderate injuries while the remainder were minor, police said in a news release.
"I think the entire incident could have been a whole lot worse," Dr. Joshua Kugler, South Nassau Communities Hospital director of emergency services, told ABC New York City station WABC.
The hospital’s emergency room doctors expressed surprise that everyone survived the crash, authorities said.
"Fate has a lot to do with it," Kugler told WABC. "People, if they were standing on the bus at any particular time and someone became an airborne projectile, could have had a different outcome."
Forty-four people were aboard the bus: the driver, five adult chaperones and 38 students.
"Everybody was able to walk out except one, which we extricated," Lakeview Fire Department Chief Patrick McNeill said, according to WABC. "There was glass everywhere. The roof of the bus is down to the top of the seat covers."
The teens, all between ages 16 and 18, were returning from John F. Kennedy Airport after a trip to Europe and heading to meet their parents at a nearby mall when the accident happened, authorities said.
“This was treated as a mass-casualty incident,” Candelaria, the state police major, said at a news conference at the scene. “I give credit the Nassau County police ambulance bureau’s emergency services unit and the Lakeview Volunteer Fire Department. They set up a mass-casualty treatment triage and probably saved lives.
“We’re very lucky. This could have been tragic," he added.
The bus was operated by New Jersey-based Journey Bus Lines and, in a statement, the company told WABC, said, "We're not making any comments at the moment. Our greatest concern is for is for the passengers and their families."
Police said the driver was unaware of the parkway system and the lower overpasses, adding there were no calls warning them about the presence of the bus on a road where it should not have been.
The driver was using a non-commercially issued GPS device and state police still need to verify the actual route through a forensic analysis of the device and passenger interviews.
The driver did have a commercial vehicle driver's license, police said.
"I don't think he had any awareness because if you look at the damage, it's a high-impact strike," Candelaria said.
The bridge is one of the lowest, if not the lowest, on the entire system, according to WABC.
Every on-ramp to the Southern State has a warning sign about the clearance restrictions, police said.
The New York State Police Department said Gaston had a blood-alcohol level of zero and a drug evaluation is still pending.
This was not a school-sanctioned field trip, WABC reported.
Many of the high school students in the area attend Huntington High School, according to the list of victims released by police.
"While injuries apparently ranged in severity, preliminary reports indicate that all have been treated and released, or remain under treatment,” Huntington Union Free School District Superintendent James Polansky said in a statement to WABC. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with all families involved. Student support staff remain on hand at Huntington High School for those in need.”
The students traveled to Eastern Europe through Education First, a tour company that sells and coordinates travel tours for students and educators, the company confirmed in a statement regarding the bus crash.
"All of us are shocked and saddened by the serious bus accident that occurred on Southern State Parkway in New York last night; our thoughts are with those who were injured. The tour had just returned from Europe and was traveling on a chartered bus to an arranged pickup point at the time of the accident," a spokesman for Education First told ABC News. "We are doing everything we can to support the students, chaperones, and their families. We are also working with public safety officials as they conduct their investigation."
Education First also said it is conducting its own review.
The crash is under investigation by state police.
The crash does not meet the criteria for a response from the National Transportation Safety Board but the agency is monitoring the case.
ABC News' Darren Reynolds contributed to this report. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events | Road Crash | April 2018 | ['(ABC News)'] |
In Ethiopia, police arrest more than 500 students who protest against the parliamentary elections. The ruling EPRDF party claims victory but official results have been delayed until July 8 due to complaints of electoral fraud and opposition protests | Addis Ababa - Police surrounded the country's largest university on Monday and arrested hundreds of students who defied a government ban and protested against the results of Ethiopia's disputed legislative elections. Police charged into crowds at Addis Ababa University to grab protesters and beat others with batons during the first public protest against the May 15 elections. The army's special forces troops stood by, armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Riot police with tear gas and a water cannon also stood by as regular police quelled the demonstration. Demonstrations had been banned since election day, when the capital police were put under the control of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Meles's authoritarian regime
Meles's party retained control of parliament according to official election results that had not yet been ratified, but opposition parties alleged there was widespread election fraud. The elections had been seen as a test of Meles's commitment to reform his sometimes authoritarian regime. Before questions surfaced about the count, European Union observers had called the campaign and voting "the most genuinely competitive elections the country has experienced". Police detained an estimated 500 protesters. Minister of Information Bereket Simon said they arrested between 200 and 300 protesters who were barring students from entering the university on Monday.
'Cops fire tear gas at students'
Simon was also a spokesperson for the ruling Ethiopia People's Revolutionary Front. Hundreds of police had sealed main roads leading into the capital's university. Clashes spread to other city campuses later on Monday, and police fired tear gas at students at a teacher's college. The capital's university campuses had about 20000 students. The ruling party spokesperson said the main opposition, Coalition for Unity and Democracy, was behind the protests. Simon said: "They have been preaching violence and now they are instigating it. The responsibility for what has happened falls on their shoulders", adding that authorities were considering taking legal action against the party. Ruling party 'to use protests'
Berhanu Nega, vice-chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, denied the charges, saying the party had urged students to hold off protests. Berhanu said: "Our worry is that the ruling party will use these protests as an excuse to crackdown and resort to force." Berhanu said the party was getting reports that protests also happened in Awassa, southern Ethiopia and Gonder, in the north. Bereket said not a single police officer or student had been injured, but pictures taken by an Associated Press photographer and others showed officers hitting students with the butts of assault rifles, and bloodstains on the ground. Electoral chief Kemal Bedri said on Monday, Ethiopia's political parties were challenging the results of 55% of the races. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2005 | ['(News24)', '(Reuters AlertNet)', '(BBC)'] |
Protests continue at a Chinese co–owned copper mine in the Sagaing Region of Burma over alleged land grabbing and environmental concerns. | Hundreds of Myanmar villagers protesting a Chinese co-owned copper mine vowed to continue their fight against the project last week despite arrests of demonstrators and orders for the rally to move.
In a show of defiance unthinkable just last year when military rule was replaced by a quasi-civilian government, locals in Monywa in Sagaing Region have staged weeks of protest over alleged land grabbing and fears of environmental pollution from the mine.
“The main thing they want is an end to the Letpadaung copper mine project,” said U Han Win Aung, an activist helping the villages, adding that between 300 and 600 people had been demonstrating around the project.
He said some 8000 acres (3200 hectares) of land had been confiscated from local farmers without consultation and in some cases without compensation.
“It is like destroying the lives of these villagers who relied on the land since they were born,” he said.
Households from four entire villages will need to move to make way for the project, which will affect people from 26 villages.
The copper mine, which is a joint venture between military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL) and China’s Wanbao company, a subsidiary of arms manufacturer Norinco, has been the subject of controversy for several months after local media reports of corruption in connection with the project.
The Ministry of Mines is suing The Voice over an article that cited an Auditor General’s Office report that apparently found evidence of misappropriation at the mine.
Meanwhile, three local women remain in custody after police arrested 12 villagers at a prayer ceremony in Monywa pagoda on September 10. Another activist was arrested on August 31 and also remains in detention.
“At noon the township police inspector locked the door from outside when about 15 female villagers were saying prayers inside the pagoda. About one hour later, the door was unlocked but all the women were arrested and forced to get into a car,” said resident Ko Thaw Zin, who witnessed the scene. “One of the women was even refused permission to go and see her sister, who is ill and in the hospital.”
Following the arrests, members of the Monywa branch of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions demonstrated in front of the main police station in Monywa, holding placards that read, “Immediately release 12 women from Wathmay and Shwehlay villages,” “The rule of law” and “Students cannot ignore the concerns of the people”.
Police tore up the placards and threatened demonstrators verbally and by brandishing batons.
“We asked for permission 15 minutes before the demonstration. We went ahead with demonstration because they didn’t respond. At first, no slogans were shouted. At about 5pm, we shouted for the women to be released within 15 minutes. Afterwards, we demonstrated by hoisting the student union flag and shouting slogans,” said student union member Ko Ye Yint Kyaw.
At about 9pm, roads were blocked with about 10 fire engines and a large number of police deployed at the city hall, he said. Nine of the women were then released.
Another demonstration took place on September 11 as troops watched on from City Hall, their weapons in the firing position.
That evening, police combed the houses of the students but most of the students had already dispersed and no arrests were made, Ko Ye Tint Kyaw said, adding that earlier on September 11, one student union member from Monywa, U Aung Myint Oo, was taken from his home by police.
“We have heard that arrest warrants have been issued against student union members. But the students are determined to proceed until those who have been arrested are released,” Ko Ye Yint Kyaw told The Myanmar Times.
Last week’s arrests come after farmers who have been displaced by the copper mine expansion protested on September 5, calling for their land to be returned.
Thousands of farmers from the 26 villages took part in the protest, beside the Monywa-Pathein Road near the copper mine, and burnt coffins representing UMEHL, Chinese investors and the section 144 order put in place in the area to quell dissent.
“We burnt three empty coffins as we believe it will help us get back our land … it will make those who confiscate our lands fail,” a farmer at the protest was quoted as saying in local media reports.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2012 | ['(Myanmar Times)'] |
Abdelkader Belliraj, accused of leading an Islamist militant group and committing six murders in Belgium, is sentenced to life imprisonment in Morocco. | A Moroccan-born Belgian man accused of leading an Islamist militant group and committing six murders in Belgium has been imprisoned for life in Morocco.
Abdelkader Belliraj was also convicted by the court in Sale of arms smuggling and threatening state security. Belliraj was one of more than 30 people, including six Islamist politicians, arrested in February 2008. During the trial, his lawyer argued he had made visits to militant groups for Belgium's intelligence services. But Mohammed Ziane accepted that his client had been found with weapons originally sent to Islamists in Algeria, and that these had later returned to Morocco. "We cannot argue with court's decision but it was only the first stage in this trial and we still have to go to the appeal court," Mr Ziane said after the verdict on Monday. "What we expect is that the court will be more fair, take their conditions into consideration and base its verdict on concrete and proven facts," he added. Belliraj repeatedly told the court: "I never brought weapons into Morocco and deny making any attempts to overthrow the regime." State prosecutors had initially sought the death penalty for Belliraj. The case divided Morocco with some political parties and human rights groups springing to the defence of the arrested politicians. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard announces her new Cabinet, with former PM Kevin Rudd named as the Minister for Foreign Affairs. | Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced her new-look Cabinet after earlier confirming that former prime minister Kevin Rudd would be given the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
Former foreign affairs minister Stephen Smith has moved aside to allow Ms Gillard to fulfil her promise to Mr Rudd, the man she deposed as prime minister and Labor leader.
Ms Gillard confirmed that Wayne Swan will remain Treasurer, former climate change minister Penny Wong will take over from Lindsay Tanner as Finance Minister and Greg Combet has been promoted to Climate Change Minister.
There are four new ministers, with Bill Shorten given the role of Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Superannuation and Financial Services. Mark Butler will focus on Ageing and Mental Health, Gary Gray is the new Special Minister of State and Jason Clare will focus on Defence Procurement.
Mr Rudd says it is a great honour to be Foreign Minister and says he can work with Ms Gillard even though she replaced him as Prime Minister.
"There are national interests in this country which extend far beyond the personal interests of any individual; that applies to me as well," he said.
But Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop says Ms Gillard should not have appointed Mr Rudd to Foreign Affairs.
"The leader that was sacked by his own party because he led the Government off course and caused the Government to lose its way, is now expected to navigate Australia through our foreign policies," she said.
"The leader who was sacked by his own party because he couldn't get along with people is now Australia's number one diplomat."
Mr Smith will replace John Faulkner as Defence Minister, with responsibility for Australia's involvement in the war in Afghanistan.
Of his new role, Mr Smith earlier said he was committed to holding discussions on Australia's role in Afghanistan.
"One thing I am looking forward to, so far as Afghanistan is concerned, is a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan that of course has come out of discussions with the independents and Mr Wilkie and the Greens," he said.
"My colleague, Defence Minister Faulkner, very strongly supports that notion and I think that is important."
Former environment minister Peter Garrett will now take on the Schools, Early Childhood and Youth portfolio.
"Making sure that we focus on education is vital, giving every child a chance of a great school education," Ms Gillard said.
"That's why I have asked Peter Garrett to be the Minister for Schools, Early Childhood and Youth to continue a key focus on the education reforms that this Government has started to deliver and will continue to deliver."
Chris Bowen will take over the Immigration Portfolio from Chris Evans, who will be the new Minister for Employment, Skills and Workplace Relations.
Ms Gillard says she is keeping her promise to create a new department to look after regional Australia and has given Simon Crean the new Regional Affairs portfolio. He will also look after Local Government and the Arts.
"Simon Crean will work with a team of ministers and parliamentary secretaries who will seek to represent regional Australia to the Government," she said.
"This is delivering on the focus that I agreed with the independents in the House of Representatives, it's delivering on a promise to regional Australia to focus on their needs."
Craig Emerson is the new Trade Minister, while Tony Burke will be Minister for a Sustainable Australia, Communities, Environment and Water.
Joe Ludwig will take over Mr Burke's Agriculture portfolio and Nick Sherry will take Small Business from Dr Emerson and will also be Assistant Tourism Minister.
Kate Ellis has been moved from her Sport portfolio to Employment Participation and Childcare while Mark Arbib has been given Indigenous Employment, Social Housing, Homelessness and Sport.
Tanya Plibersek will become Human Services and Social Inclusion Minister when she returns from maternity leave.
Warren Snowdon will be Defence Science and Veterans Affairs Minister after Allan Griffin retired this week.
Kate Lundy has been given the role of Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Justine Elliot has voluntarily stepped aside from the Ageing portfolio to become Parliamentary Secretary for Trade.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon, Community and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin, Resources, Energy and Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson and Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Kim Carr will all remain in their portfolios.
Anthony Albanese is staying on as Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Stephen Conroy will keep his Communications portfolio, Brendan O'Connor remains Home Affairs Minister and Robert McClellend will remain Attorney-General.
Yesterday independent MP Rob Oakeshott declined Ms Gillard's offer for a role in the ministry because he did not want the regional development package to be derailed by forces in Parliament
The new ministry will be sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce on Monday.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2010 | ['(ABC Online)'] |
At least eight unidentified militants and one security officer are killed in ongoing clashes in rural Dagestan, Russia. | Eight members of an armed group and one law enforcement officer have been killed in clashes in the volatile North Caucasus region of Daghestan, Russian officials say.
The National Counterterrorism Committee said that three officers of the Federal Security Service were also injured in the ongoing clashes in a rural area south of the regional capital, Makhachkala.
Interfax news agency quoted security officials as saying a police operation continued in a nearby area of forests and mountains on July 8 to root out any remaining militants.
It said the armed group was responsible for attacks on police, civilians, and for what it said were terrorist acts.
Daghestan has been at the epicenter of a wave of violence by armed criminal groups and militants seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate in the North Caucasus.
Organized crime, business turf wars, political disputes, and clan rivalry also contribute to the bloodshed in the region. | Riot | July 2016 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
The European Union warns Switzerland that it will lose access to its single market if it goes through with its plan to impose restrictions on the free movement of EU citizens. In a referendum held back on February 9, 2014, Swiss voters approved limiting the movement of economic migrants from the EU in the country. Current laws allow migrants to enter Switzerland without visas. | The European Union is to show its determination to make no concessions to the UK on Brexit terms by telling Switzerland it will lose access to the single market if it goes ahead with plans to impose controls on the free movement of EU citizens.
The Swiss-EU talks, under way for two years but now needing a solution possibly within weeks, throws up the exact same issues that will be raised in the UK’s exit talks – the degree to which the UK must accept free movement of the EU’s citizens as a price for access to the single market.
The Swiss are desperate to strike a deal in order to give its politicians time to pass the necessary laws to meet a February 2017 deadline imposed by a legally binding referendum in 2014.
The former president of the FDP-Liberal Radicals, Philipp Müller, on Sunday said the Brexit threat should serve as a warning to the Swiss, amid suggestions in Brussels the prospect of UK-EU exit talks meant there was less willingness to give ground on freedom of movement.
Müller suggested that the Swiss may unilaterally have to prepare a solution in which it suggests migration can be controlled in certain sectors if the Swiss and the EU jointly conclude unemployment is too high above the national average. He admitted the EU and the Swiss were currently miles apart in the talks.
It is not known if the proposal would be acceptable to an EU determined to protect free movement principles. Other Swiss politicians are suggesting the government should rerun the referendum.
The Swiss only narrowly voted to restrict immigration in the original 2014 referendum, with 50.3% in favour, and have been in unfruitful talks to implement the measure with the EU ever since. The Swiss are far more dependent on the EU for markets than the EU is on Switzerland, making the Swiss negotiating hand relatively weak. An impasse on the immigration issue threatens hundreds of other EU-Swiss bilateral agreements, as well as the imposition of tariffs.
Further talks were due a week ago, but were postponed by the commission claiming they were too distracted by Brexit.
The president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, said the talks will not get easier, because “free movement of people now plays a bigger role, in light of the imminent Brexit negotiations”.
He added: “We have to find a solution with Switzerland because we need each other. I believe Switzerland [needs] the EU a bit more than the other way round.”
Switzerland exports 56% of its goods to the EU. Switzerland is thrashing around for a compromise but Johann Schneider-Ammann, the Swiss president, has said a safeguard clause containing a national ceiling on EU migration has no chance. He has suggested action could be taken “when difficulties arise in a particular industry and in a specific region”.
This solution “could be an acceptable basis for discussion in Brussels”.
The Swiss president responded to the EU’s postponement of key talks last week by insisting Brussels address the Swiss question before it goes on holiday for the summer.
He said the EU commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, had told him: “If there is Brexit there would be no more time to deal with Switzerland. But we insist even now the commission and the president listen to us.”
An internal Swiss commission studying the issue admits that quotas, ceilings, native priority in hiring, are not compatible with the bilateral agreement on the free movement of persons, whatever the studied variant.
One idea is for the Swiss to be entitled to impose quotas in industries when the unemployment rate in a particular trade, occupation or region rises strongly above the Swiss average. This would be overseen by a joint committee, in which representatives of Switzerland and the EU would sit.
Leading Swiss newspapers are arguing that the Swiss and the UK make common cause to reach a solution, saying the two countries are in the same boat. The UK is the home to 1.5 million EU residents, and Switzerland to 1.2 million.
The EU has previously shown its negotiating muscle by freezing research grants for Swiss universities worth hundreds of millions of euros and suspending the involvement of the Swiss in the Erasmus student exchange programme. The EU acted after the Swiss refused to sign a free labour market access deal signed by the EU in Croatia.
Although Switzerland is not in the EU it has more than 100 bilateral deals. Swiss academics are worried that the Brexit vote means the EU will take a tougher line with the Swiss. “I don’t see any possibility for the EU to give anything to Switzerland,” said René Schwok, a professor at the University of Geneva and author of books on Swiss-EU relations.
Geneva University’s rector, Yves Flückiger, said he now feared the deadline would not be met. He said: “I think Europe will be less inclined to make an agreement that is favourable to the Swiss since that would open the way for disguised retention of the UK with particularly clauses.”
Flückiger also warned science contracts in Switzerland were already being lost due to the uncertainty about the future status of free movement. He said that before the 2014 vote each Swiss science contract had two or three times the chance of being retained than other European projects. He said: “We had this success because we are capable of attracting the best researchers in the world.” | Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch receives the verdict in his trial in Phnom Penh – the first of five surviving senior figures to do so. He is sentenced to 35 years in prison with 16 years off for time served. | Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has been found guilty of crimes against humanity by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal.
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He had admitted overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, and asked for forgiveness.
This is the tribunal's first verdict.
Prosecutors had asked the judges for a 40-year prison sentence. However, Duch will not serve the full 35 allotted years as judges reduced the sentence by five years because he had been held illegally, and reduced it by a further 11 years for time already served behind bars. Wearing a blue shirt, the former Khmer Rouge jailer looked pensive and slumped in his chair as proceedings were held behind a floor-to-ceiling bullet-proof screen which separated the public gallery from the rest of the court.
Reading out the sentence, the president of the five-judge panel said it reflected the "shocking and heinous" nature of the offences.
Crowds of Cambodians attended the specially built court on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, to hear the verdict, which was also broadcast live across the country.
Some said they wanted a tougher sentence. "There is no justice. I wanted life imprisonment for Duch," said Hong Sovath, whose father was killed in Tuol Sleng. "I can't accept this," Saodi Ouch, 46, told the Associated Press news agency. "My family died... my older sister, my older brother. I'm the only one left."
But Chea Leang, one of the co-prosecutors, said the sentence showed that those who committed crimes during the Khmer Rouge era would be punished. "Those who have taken many lives cannot avoid justice," she said.
Duch ran Tuol Sleng prison, where "enemies" of the Khmer Rouge regime were sent.
Up to two million people died because of the policies of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979. Their policies included the evacuation of cities, forced labour in the rice fields and the summary execution of those considered enemies of the revolution.
The group's top leader, "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Duch, the first of five surviving senior figures of the Khmer Rouge to go on trial, was widely expected to be found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the court.
Despite acknowledging the role he played at Tuol Sleng, codenamed "S-21", he insisted that he had only been following orders from his superiors, and on the trial's final day in November shocked many by asking to be acquitted.
But prosecutors said the former maths teacher ordered the use of brutal torture methods to extract "confessions" from detainees - including pulling out toenails and administering electric shocks - and approved all the executions. A meticulous record-keeper, Duch built up a huge archive of photos, confessions and other evidence documenting those held at Tuol Sleng.
In one memo he kept, a guard asked him what to do with six boys and three girls accused of being traitors. He replied: "Kill every last one."
After the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, Duch disappeared for almost two decades, living under various aliases in north-western Cambodia and converting to Christianity. His chance discovery by an Irish journalist led to his arrest in 1999.
Only about a dozen people who were held at Tuol Sleng are thought to have survived, three of whom are still alive. Up to 17,000 people are believed to have died there. The other Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting trial are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, the minister of social affairs.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
A law recognising a third gender that can be administered for intersex people takes effect in Germany. | Intersex people in Germany can now legally identify themselves as such under a new law adopted in December. People who do not fit the biological definition of male or female can now choose the category "diverse" on official documents.
Those choosing the option will need a doctor's certificate to register. Intersex people are born with both male and female sex characteristics, which can appear at birth or later in life. Other countries have approved laws in recent years to help recognise intersex people. Austria's constitutional court made a similar ruling to Germany's in June, while Australia, New Zealand, Malta, India and Canada have all passed measures to redress issues facing intersex citizens. The UN says up to 1.7% of the world's population are born with intersex traits - about the same number of people with red hair.
This is separate from a person's gender identity or sexual orientation.
But many face stigma, legal discrimination or even forced surgery because of these characteristics.
Germany previously allowed intersex people to opt out of choosing either male or female as a gender in 2013.
But in 2017 the country's top court ruled it was discrimination to deny people a gender, after a person registered as female had a chromosome test confirming they were neither sex.
| Government Policy Changes | January 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The President of the United States George W. Bush nominates James Peake as the next United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. | President Bush on Tuesday named a retired Army lieutenant general and executive of a firm that earns most of its revenue from federal veterans programs to head the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs.
The nomination of Dr. James B. Peake, 63, a decorated Vietnam veteran who was the Army’s chief medical officer for four years, was announced by Bush in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. If confirmed by the Senate, Peake will replace James Nicholson, who stepped down Oct. 1.
Peake will insist on “the highest level of care” for veterans, Bush said, adding that the retired lieutenant general, thanks to injuries suffered in Vietnam, “understands the view from both sides of the hospital bed.” He said Peake would be the first physician and the first general to be named to the cabinet post. Peake’s mother and father served in the military medical system.
Peake is the medical director, chief operating officer and a director of QTC Management, a Diamond Bar company that under two current contracts with the VA performs thousands of physical exams per year on veterans seeking disability assistance. Under one contract alone, QTC could earn more than $1 billion in fees for performing those exams through 2008.
Recently, QTC won a smaller contract for $4.6 million per year to examine veterans in Louisiana and New Mexico. Bids for yet another contract covering six cities, including St. Louis, were due by Monday.
Emily A. Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said Peake would “sever all ties to QTC to avoid any conflict of interest.”
Anthony J. Principi, who preceded Nicholson as VA secretary, serves as QTC’s chairman and previously was its president. He also recused himself from any actions relating to QTC during his tenure, which ended with his resignation in early 2005. Principi, who also is senior vice president for Pfizer, the drug company, sent letters of endorsement for Peake’s nomination to leaders of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, which will be voting on his nomination.
In addition to the contracts with the VA, QTC has won contracts with the state of California and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The VA contracts, however, account for more than half of its revenues.
Peake’s appointment comes as the veterans agency is trying to recover from widespread criticism for poor care provided to some veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Peake’s predecessor also faced an outcry over the theft of an agency laptop computer containing personal records of thousands of veterans. The computer was later recovered, its contents apparently untapped.
“Fundamentally, I am a soldier,” Peake said in brief remarks. He added that “there’s a lot of work to be done” and referred to the VA’s current disability system as a relic from 1945.
A West Point graduate, Peake was awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam, where he was wounded twice. After attending medical school he continued his career in the Army, serving at military hospitals in Washington, Texas and Hawaii.
He was named the Army’s surgeon general in 2000 and retired in 2004 to serve as vice president of Project Hope, a nonprofit international health foundation. He joined QTC last November.
Though Peake stepped down from his post more than two years before the current controversy, his role as the Army’s chief medical officer for four years is not likely to escape scrutiny, as a member of the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee made note.
In a statement following the announcement, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said, “Given Dr. Peake’s past posts running the Army healthcare system, he will have serious and significant questions to answer about failed preparations for our returning wounded warriors.”
Noting recent “horror stories” about poor care of returning veterans, Murray said, “I will want to know what role, if any, Dr. Peake played in the failures of the system.”
As to whether he bore any responsibility for conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Lawrimore, the White House spokeswoman, said that the Army’s 187 medical facilities “performed superbly” while he was surgeon general.
A spokesman for Murray said the senator also will be questioning Peake about his involvement with QTC.
“Given the senator’s concern about the privatization of VA services, Gen. Peake’s history at QTC is certainly something she will be asking questions about as the confirmation process moves forward,” said Murray’s press secretary, Matt McAlvanah.
Dr. James B. Peake
Age: 63
Experience: Chief medical director and chief operating officer, QTC Management Inc., 2006-present; chief operating officer and executive vice president, Project Hope, 2005-06; Army surgeon general and commander, U.S. Army Medical Command, 2000-04, when he retired with rank of lieutenant general.
Education: B.S., United States Military Academy, 1966; M.D., Cornell University, 1972; graduate, U.S. Army War College, 1988.
Source: Associated Press
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2007 | ['(LA Times)'] |
Google will pay a $7 million penalty to settle an investigation into the collection of e–mails, passwords and other sensitive information sent over wireless networks from 2007–2010 in the United States. Google company cars taking street–level photos for its online mapping service also had been vacuuming up personal data transmitted over wireless networks that weren't protected by passwords. | San Francisco - Google will pay a $7m million penalty to settle an investigation into the internet search leader's collection of e-mails, passwords and other sensitive information sent over wireless networks several years ago in neighborhoods scattered around America.
The resolution will close a joint investigation by attorneys general in about 30 US states, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person asked not to be identified because the settlement isn't expected to be announced until early next week.
The $7m will be shared among all the states, the person said. Google's revenue this year is expected to surpass $61bn. At that pace, Google brings in an average of $7m in revenue per hour. | Organization Fine | March 2013 | ['(SAPA via News24)'] |
A NATO airstrike kills 7 members of the Afghan security force in the western province of Badghis. | KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- NATO forces in Afghanistan are investigating a report that a NATO airstrike killed Afghan security forces in a region rife with arms smuggling and narcotics trafficking.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry issued a statement saying seven Afghan security forces died and Afghan and international forces were injured in the Saturday incident, which occurred in Badghis province -- a swath of territory in western Afghanistan bordering Turkmenistan.
This is where NATO forces have launched a search for two American paratroopers who went missing Wednesday during a "routine resupply mission." The pair -- from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division -- are operating under NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The service members disappeared near Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan, in the Badghis town of Bala Morghab, said Sayed Ahmad Sami, the provincial police chief. ISAF and Afghan security forces personnel casualties were reported on Friday in several incidents during the search operation, a statement from ISAF said. Four Afghan soldiers, three police and an Afghan civilian working with the army were killed. Fifteen Afghan soldiers, two Afghan police, five U.S. service members under ISAF, and a civilian working with Afghan troops were wounded, the statement said. In another incident in Badghis nearly two weeks ago, seven U.S. service members and three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers were killed in a helicopter crash in the province. Low visibility was cited as the cause of the crash. | Armed Conflict | November 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(Bangkok Post)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
Farrah Fawcett dies at approximately 9:28 a.m. in the intensive care unit of Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, with Ryan O'Neal and Alana Stewart by her side. | Farrah Fawcett, who soared to fame as a national sex symbol in the late 1970s on television’s campy “Charlie’s Angels” and in a swimsuit poster that showcased her feathery mane and made her a generation’s favorite pinup, died Thursday. She was 62.
Fawcett, whose celebrity overshadowed her ability as a serious actress, was diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2006. She died at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said Paul Bloch, her publicist.
Three months after she was declared cancer-free in 2007, doctors at UCLA Medical Center told her the cancer had returned and spread to her liver, and she repeatedly sought experimental treatment in Germany.
Actor Ryan O’Neal, her longtime companion, called her cancer fight “long and brave” and said her family and friends took comfort in “the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world.”
Kate Jackson called her “Charlie’s Angels” costar “an inspiration” who “showed immense courage and grace throughout her illness.”
“When I think of Farrah, I will remember her kindness, her cutting dry wit and, of course, her beautiful smile,” Jackson said in a statement.
Another “Charlie’s Angels” costar, Jaclyn Smith, said in a statement, “Farrah had courage, she had strength, and she had faith. And now she has peace as she rests with the real angels.”
As an actress, Fawcett was initially dismissed for her role as Jill Munroe in “Charlie’s Angels,” one of the “jiggle” series on ABC-TV in the late 1970s.
But she transformed her career and some popular perceptions in 1984 with “The Burning Bed,” a television movie about a battered wife that brought her the first of three Emmy nominations. She further established herself as an actress in the play and later feature film “Extremities,” about a rape victim who takes revenge on her attacker.
Robert Greenwald, who directed “The Burning Bed,” told The Times on Thursday, “She was incredibly gutsy, courageous and a risk-taker. She had this wonderful beauty, this very successful career and, unlike many people, she used it to open doors and take big chances.”
Yet for many, the poster of her wearing a wet, one-piece swimsuit and a blinding smile endured.
“If you were to list 10 images that are evocative of American pop culture, Farrah Fawcett would be one of them,” Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, told The Times. “That poster became one of the defining images of the 1970s.”
Fawcett was part of a new generation of celebrities whose fame was fueled by heightened coverage of their ongoing personal dramas, Thompson said.
She had many: a failed marriage to actor Lee Majors; a stormy, long-term relationship with O’Neal; a son who fought drug addiction; a writer-director boyfriend, James Orr, who was convicted of assaulting her; a Playboy video that featured her using her naked body as a paintbrush; and a spacey 1997 appearance on David Letterman’s late-night TV show that caused critics to question her mental state.
For her part, Fawcett once said all she had to do to get on the cover of People was to “have a new boyfriend or even a new dog,” Texas Monthly reported in 1997.
At first, her mane nearly eclipsed her fame.
“Charlie’s Angels” showcased the long, feathered tresses that framed her face, launching a national fad of copycat haircuts. Many Fawcettphiles believed the hair had as much to do with the poster’s sales as anything, The Times reported in 1977.
Within six months, the poster sold five million copies, outstripping the records of such previous sex symbols as Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. It wound up selling a reported 12 million copies.
“You were a real man if you had her poster. She was our pinup girl,” Mike O’Meara, a radio show host who was in high school when it came out, told the Baltimore Sun in 2006.
Fawcett quit the series that brought her initial fame in 1977 after a single season, saying producers were preventing her from growing as an actress. With Jackson and Smith, Fawcett had played a private investigator whose main talent seemed to be the ability to wield a gun while going braless and shouting, “Freeze, turkey!”
“Charlie’s Angels” was so popular that 59% of the television audience tuned in, according to Time magazine, and the Los Angeles Times’ review of the series premiere pointed out why: The show dripped with sexuality and “good-natured but quite intentional teasing.”
Along with “Three’s Company” -- a double-entendre-filled ABC sitcom that debuted six months after “Charlie’s Angels” in fall 1976 -- the show is credited with helping to launch television’s “jiggle” era. Still, the show was seen as empowering women, even if they did take their orders from an unseen male boss named Charlie.
“In an odd way, even with all that Lycra and bralessness, the show was a feminist statement,” Thompson said. “This was an hourlong drama with women as action heroes. They were working in areas of power that generally we didn’t see women in much.”
Fawcett, who had appeared in shampoo ads, would triumph over critics who dismissed “Charlie’s Angels” as little more than a commercial for hair products. But first she appeared in two lightweight feature films: “Somebody Killed Her Husband” (1978) and “Sunburn” (1979).
She surprised critics with her intense portrayal of the battered wife who immolates her husband in the TV movie “The Burning Bed.” The 1984 Times review noted her “growing acting skill” and “deeply moving performance.”
The phrase “Burning Bed” entered Hollywood’s lexicon as shorthand for actresses who wanted to be taken seriously. “Managers would call and say, ‘She’d like to do her ‘Burning Bed,’ ” Greenwald, the film’s director, said Thursday.
The off-Broadway play “Extremities” provided another dramatically taxing showcase in 1983. Following Susan Sarandon in the starring role, Fawcett broke her wrist during a fight scene and lost weight because the part was so physically demanding. She also earned respectable reviews.
When the film of “Extremities” followed in 1986, The Times’ Charles Champlin called her performance “further declaration of her arrival as a serious and intelligent actress who happens to be beautiful.”
Robert Duvall cast Fawcett as his wife in his 1997 independent film “The Apostle,” about a Texas Pentecostal preacher who escapes to Louisiana after accidentally killing his wife’s lover. Again, she won praise.
“That woman’s work has been very underrated,” Duvall told Texas Monthly, citing her Emmy-nominated performance in “Small Sacrifices,” a 1989 TV movie in which her character kills her children. “That woman knows how to act.”
With O’Neal, with whom she had a son, she starred in “Good Sports,” a short-lived 1991 CBS sitcom that was her last network television series. She received her final Emmy nomination in 2003 for guest-starring on “The Guardian” on CBS.
Farrah Leni Fawcett was born Feb. 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to James Fawcett, who founded a pipeline construction company, and his wife, Pauline. Her older sister, Diane, died of lung cancer in 2001.
While studying painting and sculpture at the University of Texas at Austin, Fawcett was used to being judged by her looks. College men lined up to meet the freshman at her sorority in 1965, her college boyfriend told Texas Monthly. After she was voted one of the 10 most beautiful women on campus, a Hollywood publicist came calling.
Her parents wanted her to finish college before coming west, but they gave in after her junior year. Within two weeks of arriving, Fawcett had an agent and a significant other -- Majors, who had arranged an introduction after seeing her photograph, she often said. She signed a contract with Screen Gems, Columbia’s television subsidiary, and got bit parts on shows such as “The Flying Nun” and “The Partridge Family.”
Majors married Fawcett in 1973 and became “The Six Million Dollar Man” on ABC a year later. She sometimes appeared on the series.
Her contract for “Charlie’s Angels” stipulated that she had to be home every night by 6:30 to make Majors’ dinner at their Bel-Air home, but the domesticity didn’t last. While on location in 1979, Majors arranged for his dashing buddy O’Neal to look in on Fawcett. By fall, she had moved into O’Neal’s Malibu beachfront home, Time magazine reported in 1997.
They had a tumultuous relationship that lasted for many years but they never married, although O’Neal said this week that the seriously ill Fawcett had said yes to his latest marriage proposal.
“As chaotic and crazy as their relationship is, I don’t know who could put up with the two of them better than each other,” her close friend Alana Stewart said in the Time article.
In 1985, Fawcett and O’Neal became the parents of a son, Redmond, whose teenage exploits were tabloid staples. From age 13, he had been in and out of drug treatment programs and has admitted abusing heroin, the London Daily Express reported in 2007. He has had several drug-related arrests in the last year.
Redmond, now 24, was allowed to temporarily leave jail April 25 to visit his mother at her home. He had been arrested earlier that month on charges of trying to smuggle drugs into a jail facility in Castaic and recently was admitted to a court-ordered rehabilitation program.
When Fawcett and O’Neal broke up in 1997 -- she attributed it to conflicts over parenting -- it was the beginning of a troubled time for her.
First, another actress accused her of stealing $72,000 worth of clothes. Then Fawcett appeared on Letterman’s show to promote the video that showed her hurling her gold-painted naked body against a canvas. Chatting with the host, she looked disoriented and sounded incoherent. She repeatedly claimed it had been an act.
Orr, a sometime boyfriend, was convicted of slamming Fawcett’s head to the ground and choking her during a fight. She admitted smashing windows at his Bel-Air mansion with a baseball bat. The couple got back together but broke up for good before he was sentenced to three years’ probation, The Times reported in 1999.
For years, Fawcett lived in the Bel-Air home she bought with Majors in 1976; it was sold for $2.7 million in 1999. More recently, she called a Beverly Hills condo home.
Fawcett’s relationship with O’Neal was on-again, off-again after their breakup. She helped nurse him back to health after he was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 2001, and he was there for her soon after she was diagnosed with anal cancer.
Two breast cancer survivors also rallied to her side: her “Charlie’s Angels” costars, Smith and Jackson.
When tabloids quickly reported her cancer recurrence in 2007, Fawcett suspected that details of her medical care were being leaked. Her complaints led UCLA Medical Center to dismiss an employee who had surreptitiously reviewed Fawcett’s medical records and those of more than 30 other high-profile patients. A new state law aimed at protecting patient privacy also grew out of the records violations
Forced to battle her cancer publicly, Fawcett made “Farrah’s Story,” a video diary that unsparingly chronicled her struggle to fight the disease and efforts to protect her privacy. It aired on NBC in mid-May.
Throughout the documentary, O’Neal is a steady presence, and he was with her when she died. In May, O’Neal told People magazine: “I won’t know this world without her.”
In addition to her son, Fawcett is survived by her father.
Instead of flowers, the family suggests donating to cancer research through the Farrah Fawcett Foundation, P.O. Box 6478, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.
valerie.nelson@latimes.com
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Valerie J. Nelson is a deputy Op-Ed editor at the Los Angeles Times. She has been a reporter and editor at the newspaper for nearly 25 years.
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Using his wealth from his hit TV shows, Cramer became one of L.A.'s most visible and aggressive art collectors. | Famous Person - Death | June 2009 | ['(The Los Angeles Times)'] |
In Haiti, former prime minister Yvon Neptune is formally charged with political killings in 2004. He has been in a hunger strike. | PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Haitian authorities took former prime minister Yvon Neptune before a judge yesterday to hear charges of orchestrating political killings, more than a month after he started a hunger strike to protest his nearly year-long incarceration without charge.
Neptune went before a judge in a close-door session in the western town of St Marc.The former premier is accused of masterminding the killings of political opponents during the February 2004 rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said Pierre Esperance, whose National Network for the Defence of Human Rights has been monitoring Neptune's case.
International pressure had been mounting on the interim government to either charge or free Neptune, who denies wrongdoing and started a hunger strike April 17 to demand his unconditional release.
UN officials said Neptune had been taken to St Marc in a UN vehicle, but declined to comment on his health.Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has denied claims from family members and others that Neptune was nearing death, saying the former premier has been drinking water with sugar, salt and vitamins and was in stable condition.
The judge was expected to read Neptune the charges and evaluate the evidence to determine how to proceed with the case.
It was unclear whether Neptune was accompanied by a lawyer. Mario Joseph, an attorney who has been representing Neptune, said the government had not notified him about the hearing.
The interim government accuses Neptune of being behind the killings of at least 25 Aristide opponents in St Marc several weeks before Aristide was ousted on February 29, 2004.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2005 | ['(Caribbean Net News)', '(Jamaica Observer)', '(BBC)'] |
2013 Lushan earthquake: An earthquake of 7.0 magnitude strikes Lushan County, Sichuan province, China, with the latest estimate showing 193 people dead, 24 missing and 11,826 injured. | The Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee has earmarked 3 million yuan ($480,800) to the quake-stricken area. The money will be used for rescue work in the quake zone and relief for CPC members affected by the quake, the department said in a statement on Sunday.
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Update on damages in the Lushan April 20 earthquake:
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17:05
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China thanks int'l community for assistances
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Mother loses two children in two earthquakes
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"God treats me too harsh, it is too harsh," she said.
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Temperatures in the quake zone will see small fluctuations in the next few days to stay between 14 and 24 degrees Celsius, the NMC forecast.
16:27
16:24
The Ministry of Justice has ordered judiciary departments to ensure stability of prisons in areas ravaged by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Minister of Justice Wu Aiying said at an emergency meeting held on Saturday that swift measures should be taken to ensure the safety and stability of prisons and other correctional facilities.
Judiciary departments in disaster areas should try and save injured police officers and other personnel, and ensure they have daily necessities and supplies, she said.
Wu ordered strengthened internal administration in prisons and improved education of inmates as well as those in reeducation programs, so as to maintain normal order.
The ministry has dispatched working groups to quake-hit areas to direct relief work in prisons and other correctional facilities.
16:06
Rescue forces have started a comprehensive relief operation in southwest China's Sichuan Province, which was hit by Saturday's strong earthquake, trying to reach every household.
Armed forces involved in the relief mission are required to reach every village and all households in the affected areas to rescue survivors and treat the injured. They are also required to help in re-opening roads, transport materials, build shelters and providing supplies, according to a joint command of the Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC) on Sunday.
16:01
Two medical teams of 20 members from Chengdu’s two hospitals will take helicopter to the quake-hit Baoxing county, which was inaccessible for damaged road.
15:55
Liming Water Plant in Lushan county, which was hit by a magnitude-7 earthquake on Saturday, resumed operation at 1 pm on Sunday, after two hours’ repair by 15 workers, making it the first water plant to resume water supply in the quake-hit areas, according to Sichuan Economics Daily. The water plant can provide water for 100,000 people in the county, the report said.
15:45
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said domestic relief supplies are currently sufficient for the rescues in earthquake-stricken areas in Sichuan province on Sunday.
Qin Gang, the spokesman said the traffic and communication situation in these areas make it unnecessary for foreign rescue teams and relief goods.
China will request for help when necessary, Qin said.
15:43
A woman was killed and a man injured in a mountain slide in Hanzhong, Shaanxi province, caused by the quake in Ya'an, Sichuan province.
15:27
The highway to Baoxing county, one of the badly-hit counties by the quake, was restored after 26 hours of repairing, People's Daily reproted citing Sichuan Provincial Transport Department.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang returned to Beijing Sunday afternoon after visiting the earthquake-hit areas and deploying relief work.
15:18
A strong quake in Southwest China's Sichuan province has left 181 people dead and 24 missing up to date, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) announced Sunday.
Of the dead, 164 deaths were reported in Ya'an City and eight in Chengdu City, the CEA said.
At least 6,700 were injured, including 494 in serious condition, it said.
15:05
A woman donates blood for victims of Ya'an earthquake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 21, 2013. [Photo/Icpress]
15:02
The highway from Lushan county to Baoxing county has been restored, China Central Television reported.
14:50
Monks offer free congee in front of Lushan County People’s Hospital, April 21, 2013. [Photo/CFP]
14:48
Some 2100 rescuers deployed to Lushan county have rescued 93 people and evacuated more than 2,000. Chen Fei, commander of the efforts said rescue efforts cannot yet reach some townships due to roads damaged, CCTV reported.
14:31
Twenty-five people have been confirmed dead and another 25 are missing in Baoxing. 2,500 people are injured in the county, China Central Television reported. Food reserve in the county can only last for two days. | Earthquakes | April 2013 | ['(China Daily)', '(Reuters)', '(RT)'] |
The head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya Ghassan Salamé resigns citing stress and health concerns. In a statement on Twitter, Salamé says he has been frustrated with foreign powers, particularly France and Russia for covertly backing Khalifa Haftar's forces in the civil war. | Move follows Ghassan Salamé’s failure to get nations to use their leverage to end civil war
Last modified on Mon 2 Mar 2020 20.02 GMT
International efforts to broker a Libyan ceasefire have been plunged further into chaos by the unexpected resignation of Ghassan Salamé, the UN special envoy to the country.
Salamé’s move, amid UN-led talks in Geneva, is an admission that he has been unable to persuade major powers to use their leverage to end the civil war between Khalifa Haftar, the leader of so-called Libyan National Army forces in the country’s east, and the UN-recognised government of Fayez al-Sarraj, based in the capital, Tripoli.
Last week Salamé said powerful nations had not stuck to commitments made at a peace conference in Berlin in January, to use their influence to end interventions by external powers. His decision to quit is likely to by followed by a further rise in political violence, and the continuation of an oil depot blockade that has led Libya’s oil production to grind to a halt.
A United Nations arms embargo, recently endorsed again by the UN security council, has been flagrantly violated, with no attempt to hold the major culprits, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, in any way accountable.
UN reports repeatedly identified the sources of breaches of the arms embargo but then held back from naming the relevant country.
Salamé, in post for two years, has been frustrated by the willingness of European powers including France to covertly back Haftar along with Russia. Posting his resignation statement on his personal Twitter account, Salamé said he had spent two years trying to reunite the country and curb the influence of outsiders, but that he could no longer continue because of health reasons.
“My health no longer allows this rate of stress,” Salamé wrote, adding that he had asked the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to relieve him of his post. A former diplomat and academic, Salamé cut a desolate figure at the end of political talks in Geneva, admitting he had made little practical progress in persuading the two sides to end hostilities that started when Haftar launched an assault on Tripoli last April. He also hit out at the performance of major powers since the Berlin conference, saying: “Did I get the kind of support needed since then? My answer is: no. I need much more support. They have many ways of putting pressure on those who violate the ceasefire, on those who violate the arms embargo, on those who do not come to Geneva political talks, on those who give orders to sabotage the military or political talks. They could be doing all this. Did they do it the way they committed to do it? My answer is no.” | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Soyuz–MS spacecraft Sarmat successfully docks with the International Space Station, with the first Emirati astronaut, Hazza Al Mansouri, and Expedition 61 astronauts Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka joining the crew of Expedition 60 aboard the station. | Dubai - The spacecraft carrying Hazzaa Al Mansoori successfully docked at ISS in about 6 hours after blast off from Baikonur, and the Emirati austronaut and other crew members entered International Space Station during the early hours of the morning [UAE time] on Thursday.
September 25 marks the date when Hazza Al Mansouri became the first Emirati in space and the first Arab to travel to the International Space Station.
Mansoori, a 35-year-old former military pilot, will spend eight days at the International Space Station doing scientific experiments with other international astronauts.
As the event is a historical one, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center provided Al Mansoori with a 10 kilograms bag, which includes important elements of Emirati heritage, culture and history, which will be placed in museums upon his return.
In the bag Hazzaa carried one 100 per cent silk UAE Flag, 30 seeds of the symbolic Al Ghaf tree, a copy of the Quran, a picture of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and a copy of 'Qissati' of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The bag also includes three traditional dishes from the UAE, which were developed for this space trip, madrooba, saloona, and balaleet. Hazzaa is set to host an Emirati night for his fellow astronauts, where he will be wearing a kandora.
Also in Hazzaa's bag are some personal items, including pictures of his family.
| New achievements in aerospace | September 2019 | ['(Gulf News)'] |
American boxer Victor Ortiz is arrested for allegedly raping a woman in March, and is expected to be charged with three felonies. | Victor Ortiz, a champion boxer who also competed on Season 16 of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, turned himself in to authorities Tuesday for allegedly raping a woman in March, the Oxnard Police Department said. Ortiz surrendered at 2:55 p.m. at the Ventura County Sheriff Department's East Valley Station and was charged with three counts of felony sexual assault.
The 31-year-old athlete's bail was set at $100,000 after Ortiz was formally charged with suspicion of forcible digital penetration, forcible oral copulation and forcible rape. The police department added that if people have additional information regarding the alleged incident, they are encouraged to contact detective Kevin Adair at 805-385-7663; should anyone wish to remain anonymous, police said people can call their Violent Crimes Hotline at 805-982-7070.
Police began investigating Ortiz after his alleged victim contacted them March 19 and claimed he had sexually assaulted her "inside a residence in the city of Oxnard." The Family Protection Unit conducted an investigation for "several months," police said, and it was "presented to the Venture County District Attorney's Office for filing." A warrant for Ortiz's arrest was issued.
Ortiz's rep has not commented on the charges. He has a televised fight scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 30, at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif., against former world title challenger John Molina, Jr. Ortiz is out on bail, but it remains unclear of the fight will go ahead. Molina, for his part, is still ready for the fight and sharing photos of his meal prep on Instagram.
Since turning himself in, Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs) has gone silent on social media. The boxer, who has also appeared in movies like Expendables 3 and Southpaw, previously had a run in with the law in 2015 when he was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weaponhis footafter allegedly beating up a fan during a Kenny Chesney concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and received three years of probation. A year later, Ortiz was arrested and charged with DUI; after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge in 2017, he was given three years' probation and sentenced to eight days in county jail.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2018 | ['(EOnline)'] |
Police and demonstrators clash for a second night in Wisconsin in the aftermath of Blake's shooting. Blake is still in intensive care, said attorney Ben Crump who is representing him and his family. | It's now past curfew in Kenosha, but about 100 to 150 protesters are still at the park across from the county courthouse.
About 75 police in riot gear also remain in a long line stretching one block in front of the Courthouse, protecting the front door and building facade directly across from Civic Center Park.
About half an hour ago, tensions spiked as protesters hurled bottles at the police line, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “F*** the police”.
Police threw tear gas into the crowd, dispersing many of the protesters. The smell of tear gas still permeates the air now.
Other fireworks are being set off every few minutes. Protesters have resumed throwing bottles, now hidden behind one of the burned-out dump trucks from last night.
All the while, an open bed SUV or pickup loaded with massive speakers plays anti-police themed music, including classics from the group NWA.
Michael Graveley, the district attorney of Kenosha County, said on Monday that he hopes the US Attorney's Office and federal prosecutors would conduct a parallel investigation into the shooting of Jacob Blake.
"And so I'm hoping they will do an investigation that takes place at the same time, which will allow this community to heal sooner because independent prosecuting agencies will be able to make determinations at the same time about whether any criminal charges will be produced," he added. He added that the Attorney General's office and their prosecuting agency had also reached out to offer assistance.
Protests are underway in New York after a Black man was shot multiple times in the back Sunday by Wisconsin police.
Jacob Blake, the man who was shot multiple times in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is in stable condition in an intensive care unit, his attorney Ben Crump told CNN.
Footage of the shooting has spread across social media, sparking protests and leading county officials to institute a curfew that ended Monday morning. Another curfew will be instituted from 8 p.m. Monday until 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department.
Two Wisconsin police officers have been place on administrative leave as state authorities investigate the shooting.
Reporting from CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin and Amir Vera contributed to this report.
Update: Since this item posted, Jacob Blake has confirmed in interviews that he did have a knife.
Hear more:
From CNN's Gisela Crespo
Jacob Blake, the man who was shot multiple times in the back on Sunday by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is still in intensive care, the attorney representing him and his family told CNN Monday.
During an interview on CNN's "The Situation Room," attorney Ben Crump said that while Blake is stable, "they cannot tell at this moment what his prognosis would be."
Crump added Blake's children — who were in the car Blake was trying to enter when he was shot — will have to deal with the psychological issues from "seeing their father shot these many times in the back from the people who were supposed to protect and serve him."
"We are still waiting for the facts to be confirmed but what it does tell us — whether is George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks — there is an issue with the culture and the behavior of policing in America," Crump told Blitzer. "If we don't have the systematic reform that this moment in America is crying out for, then we are going to continue to see hashtag after hashtag, protest after protest, and cities burning all across America."
Crump said he doesn't know of additional footage of the shooting, but he has heard from people who said witnessed the incident and he's hoping to learn more. "The family wants these police officers to be held accountable and the one who shot [Blake] — they want him terminated," he said.
From CNN's Raja Razek
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a news conference Monday that the state's Department of Justice will not "make the prosecution decision" in the Kenosha shooting case.
"We don't make the prosecution decision in this case. That's a decision that will be made ultimately by District Attorney [Michael] Graveley," Kaul said. "But we will be working closely with his office as additional facts and evidence are uncovered."
From CNN's Raja Razek
Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley discussed in a news conference Monday the process "to get justice for all the parties who are involved" in the case, including Jacob Blake and the officers at the scene.
Graveley said the investigation has started, but it is at its "earliest stages."
"The Kenosha Police Department has asked for the Division of Criminal Investigation, DCI, to be the investigating agency," he said. "They are a completely independent agency."
Once the investigation is completed, the investigation results and the materials gathered will be given to the Kenosha District Attorney's Office.
At which point, the district attorney's office will review "those things."
"If those two things are concluded as a yes, then criminal charges would be brought at the end of that process," he added.
From CNN's Raja Razek
The Kenosha, Wisconsin, Mayor John Antaramian said in a news conference Monday that the Kenosha Police Department does not have body cameras.
Antaramian did confirm police cars do have dashcams.
Asked if there is dashcam video of last night's incident, the mayor said he could not confirm and would have to check.
From CNN's Cesar Marin
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James had a strong, passionate response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, the Black man shot and critically injured by an officer with the Kenosha Police Department Sunday afternoon.
James called for justice in a Twitter post which links to video showing the incident.
“And y’all wonder why we say what we say about the Police!! Someone please tell me WTF is this???!!! Exactly another black man being targeted. This sh*t is so wrong and so sad!! Feel so sorry for him, his family and OUR PEOPLE!! We want JUSTICE," he tweeted.
From CNN’s Jennifer Selva
The Kenosha County Sheriff's Department has ordered all residents in the Wisconsin county to stay inside starting at 8 p.m. CT tonight.
"The public needs to be off the streets for their safety. The curfew will be enforced until 7:00 AM," the sheriff's department said in a Facebook post.
The curfew comes after a night of unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Kenosha is a city of 100,000 located on the Lake Michigan coastline between Chicago and Milwaukee.
Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian also confirmed in a news conference Monday that the National Guard has been called into the city.
Update: Since this item posted, Jacob Blake has confirmed in interviews that he did have a knife. | Riot | August 2020 | ['(CNN)'] |
Jueves negro: Violent rioting follows on from political demonstrations in Guatemala City. | A journalist is reported to have died of a heart attack after being chased by protestors.
President Alfonso Portillo has ordered the army to restore order.
Mr Rios Montt - who ruled in the early 1980s, following a military coup - is appealing against a court ruling banning him from seeking the presidency in November's election. Thousands of his supporters - some waving machetes and clubs - surrounded the United States embassy and the country's two highest courts on Thursday.
Demonstrators smashed windows, burned cars, blocked traffic and chased reporters covering the protest.
I will not permit any political movement to disrupt public order
President Alfonso Portillo
Television reporter Hector Ramirez, 65, is said to have collapsed and died while fleeing a crowd at the start of the demonstration.
The violence prompted President Portillo to order soldiers onto the streets of Guatemala city.
"I will not permit any political movement to disrupt public order," Mr Portillo said.
Many of the protesters demonstrated outside the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court - which have both upheld a ban on his candidacy in November's election.
"From now on, we will not rest until the general is allowed to run for president," a protester said.
Controversial candidate
Mr Rios Montt, 77, was banned from standing in 1990 and 1995 because Guatemala's 1985 constitution bars former coup leaders from seeking the presidency. The retired general insists he should be allowed to stand
However Mr Rios Montt's lawyers have argued that the 1985 constitution cannot be applied retroactively.
A retired brigadier general, he took power in a military coup in March 1982 and was overthrown 18 months later.
He founded the Guatemalan Republican Front, which controls the presidency and dominates Congress.
Human rights groups say thousands of civilians died under his rule.
The US State Department has said it would be difficult for Washington to have a normal relationship with Guatemala if Mr Rios Montt was elected. | Riot | July 2003 | ['(BBC)'] |
Talks on forming a coalition government are suspended in Iraq. (Mail & Guardian) | Iraq’s two main political blocs, led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and ex-premier Iyad Allawi, broke off coalition talks on Monday, dampening hopes of an end to a five-month-long post-election impasse.
A dozen civic groups, meanwhile, launched an audacious court action in a bid to break the deadlock over forming a new government, in the latest sign of growing popular discontent with Iraq’s political elite.
Maysoon al-Damaluji, a spokesperson for Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc, which narrowly won the March 7 poll, said the secular group objected to al-Maliki’s labelling of them as a “Sunni bloc”, in a television interview to be broadcast on Monday.
“We ceased negotiations with [al-Maliki’s] State of Law,” she said. “We are not a Sunni bloc, we are a nationalist project.”
However, Allawi’s party left the door open for a return to talks. “We have asked him to apologise. Without an apology, we are not going to negotiate with him anymore,” she said.
While Allawi is a Shi’ite, like al-Maliki and the majority of Iraq’s population, his bloc claimed most of its electoral support from the predominantly Sunni regions of western and northern Iraq.
Iraqiya won the poll with 91 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives, while State of Law finished with 89.
Neither bloc, nor two other major political groups that won substantial numbers of seats in the poll, has yet managed to form a governing coalition with the required majority, more than five months on from the vote.
Also on Monday, 12 charities and pressure groups brought a legal appeal to Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court against caretaker Parliament speaker Fuad Massum, accusing him of violating the war-wracked country’s Constitution.
They allege that by never formally closing the Council of Representatives’ first session, which was originally held on June 14, progress on the naming of a new speaker, the country’s president and prime minister has been impeded.
“We call on the Federal Court to require the defendant … to end the open session as it violates the Constitution … or call on the Federal Court to dissolve the Council of Representatives and carry out new elections,” the groups said in a news release. While the Constitution stipulates that a speaker, president and premier must be elected in that order, analysts note the posts will likely be decided on jointly by Iraq’s main political groups as part of a grand bargain.
Massum, who holds his post by virtue of being Parliament’s oldest lawmaker, conceded that leaving the house’s first session open “was a violation of the Constitution, and … I will stand before the court to defend my stance, and I will accept any ruling the court will make”.
The impasse comes as Washington withdraws thousands of troops ahead of a August 31 declaration of an end to combat operations, by which time 50 000 US soldiers will be left in Iraq, down from the current figure of around 64 000. — AFP
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(BBC)', '(France24)'] |
A gunbattle breaks out near Choix, Sinaloa, after alleged drug traffickers ambushed and killed seven police officers; upon the aggression, the officers gunned down four cartel members. The area is a stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel, a powerful drug trafficking organization. | Seven police officers and four alleged gunmen have been killed in a shootout in north-western Mexico.
Officials said the officers were ambushed by a group of gunmen on a road in Sinaloa state. The officers were returning from Choix, a town which has seen a steep rise in violence, including the murder of the police chief last month. Sinaloa is the stronghold of the drugs cartel of the same name, one of the most powerful in the country. The attack came three days after Sinaloa Governor Mario Lopez Valdez announced that federal police forces would take over security duties in Choix. Police under fire
Mr Lopez Valdez said that after Municipal Police Chief Hector Echaverria Islas was shot dead on 29 June, no-one from the municipal force had been willing to replace him.
Local officials recommended that residents avoid going out after nightfall and take refuge in their homes "to avoid being hit by a bullet".
In May, 21 people were killed in Choix during clashes between the army and several rival drug gangs. Analysts say members of the Beltran Leyva gang are trying to wrest control of the area from the Sinaloa cartel, whose traditional stronghold it is.
More than 55,000 people are estimated to have been killed as a result of drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon came to power in December 2006. The confirmed winner of Mexico's presidential election on 1 July, Enrique Pena Nieto, has hired the former director of Colombia's police force, Gen Oscar Naranjo, to help him fight the cartels. | Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in Ecuador return to the polls for the second round of a presidential election, which Lenín Moreno of the socialist PAIS Alliance is predicted to narrowly win over the center-right Creating Opportunities's Guillermo Lasso. With 94.18% of the votes counted, Moreno leads with 51.07%. According to the national election commission, it was a transparent and successful election. , |
Ecuador votes in a crucial presidential election runoff on Sunday. Here’s why the race matters.
Rafael Correa has led a socialist movement in Ecuador since becoming president in 2007 and winning three consecutive elections.
Poverty has been slashed as a result, but reliance on the extraction of natural resources remains a key issue.
Now the country must decide between Correa’s successor, Lenin Moreno from the PAIS Alliance, and a challenger from the centre-right CREO-SUMA Alliance, Guillermo Lasso.
Moreno plans to advance Correa’s citizens' revolution, campaigning on the basis of “a government for all”.
His proposals include the immediate creation of 40 technical universities and 325,000 new houses for the country’s poorest families.
His final campaign speech stressed the importance of taxes on the rich in the name of social solidarity.
Lasso, a former banker, has a neoliberal agenda and promises to generate a million new jobs within four years.
He has proposed the privatisation of public services, cuts to government spending and the removal of 14 taxes in order to attract foreign investment.
Latin America has been riding a wave of leftist populism known as the ‘pink tide’, but recent events indicate a change of direction.
In 2015 Argentina voted in the centre-right Mauricio Macri after 12 years of government by the Kirchners.
Then in 2016, Michael Temer took power in Brazil, ushering in a new right-leaning agenda.
Meanwhile the deterioration of Venezuela has been generating a distrust of leftist economies.
The outcome of this election will be a defining moment in the history of Latin America’s twenty-first century socialism.
Moreno came out ahead of Lasso in the first round but 33% of the population didn’t vote for either of them.
Now those people will have to choose between the two. If more than two-thirds of them vote for Lasso, he will have the majority he needs to win.
Opinion polls place Moreno in the lead but only by a small margin. In the most recent poll by CEDATOS, 45.7% chose Moreno and 41.5% chose Lasso.
At least 12% of Ecuador’s population lives abroad. In Spain, voting is about to begin at polling places across the country to accommodate the 170,000 Ecuadorians eligible to vote there.
Australia’s Ecuadorian community is much smaller - around 2,000 people at last count.
Of those, 336 are eligible to vote in Sydney and 59 in Canberra.
Today they gathered at Redfern Town Hall and the Ecuadorian embassy in Canberra to have their say in the country’s future.
Lenin Moreno was shot in the back during a robbery in the country’s capital 19 years ago.
The attack left him suffering from paraplegia and bedridden for four years in what he describes as a slow and painful recovery.
After taking office as vice president in 2007 he implemented policies and programs that radically transformed the lives of people living with a disability.
His work on disability rights earned him global recognition, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.
In an interview with The Guardian, Lasso said that if elected he would ask Julian Assange to leave Ecuador’s London embassy within 30 days.
He later confirmed this position in an exchange with the Miami Herald but said he would try to arrange refuge in another country’s embassy so that Assange’s rights are protected.
How such a transfer would happen is unclear though, and Assange could be apprehended and extradited as soon as he leaves the building.
| Government Job change - Election | April 2017 | ['(SBS News)', '(TeleSUR)'] |
Tens of thousands of Algerians take to streets to protest President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid to seek re-election in 2019 presidential election in what is Algeria's biggest anti-government protests since the 2011 protests. 183 people have been injured. | ALGIERS (Reuters) - A total of 183 people were injured during protests across Algeria on Friday against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for election to a fifth term, the state news agency APS said on Saturday, citing the health ministry.
One person died of a heart attack, officials said earlier.
Tens of thousands of protesters called on the ailing, 82-year-old Bouteflika to abandon plans to seek re-election in an April presidential vote -- Algeria’s biggest anti-government rallies since the Arab Spring eight years ago.
He has not formally confirmed he will stand, although representatives have indicated he will do so. APS reported on Saturday that Bouteflika had named Abdelghani Zaalane as his campaign director.
Friday’s protests were mostly peaceful but scuffles between police and protesters broke out in the evening near the presidential place in the capital Algiers.
Algiers was quiet on Saturday.
Large-scale demonstrations -- rarely seen in Algeria with its ubiquitous security services -- against Bouteflika’s re-election move began a week ago, but Friday saw the biggest turnout yet.
Related Coverage
Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been seen in public only a few times since. His re-election bid stoked resentment among Algerians who believe he is not fit to run the major oil- and gas-producing country.
Bouteflika’s campaign manager had said on Tuesday he would submit his official application on Sunday, the deadline for candidates. Bouteflika, who turned 82 on Saturday, has not directly addressed the protests.
Authorities said last week he would travel to Geneva for unspecified medical checks. Swiss television said on Friday Bouteflika was at Geneva University Hospital. There was no official confirmation that Bouteflika was in the Swiss city.
Many Algerians for years avoided politics in public, fearing trouble from the security services or disillusioned as the country has been run by the same group of veterans since the 1954-1962 independence war with France.
Bouteflika has ruled since 1999 and stamped out a decade-long Islamist insurgency early in his rule. Algerians have long tolerated a political system with little space for dissent as a price to pay for peace and stability.
A weak and divided opposition faces high hurdles in mounting an electoral challenge. Since the FLN party again picked Bouteflika as its presidential candidate, several parties, trade unions and business groups have endorsed him.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Syrian rebels attack the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights and capture 42 Fijian peacekeepers while surrounding a base manned by 75 Filipino soldiers. | Syrian rebels surrounded dozens of defiant Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights on Friday and demanded they give up their weapons, hours after taking 43 Fijian soldiers hostage, authorities said.
Seventy-five Filipino members of a United Nations peacekeeping force were defending two posts on the Syrian side of Golan Heights, and were prepared to fight back rather than surrender, their commander in Manila said.
"We can use deadly force in defence of the UN facilities," Colonel Roberto Ancan told reporters.
"I [would] just like to emphasise our troops are well-armed, they are well-trained … they are well-disciplined warrior peacekeepers."
Syrian rebels, including fighters from the al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front, stormed a Golan Heights crossing at Quneitra on Wednesday, sparking an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops.
Quneitra is the only crossing between the Syrian- and the Israeli-controlled side of the strategic plateau.
The rebels captured 43 Fijian members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on Thursday, forcing them to surrender their weapons then taking them hostage.
Ancan said the rebels then used an English-speaking Fijian hostage to relay their demand to the Filipino peacekeepers to give up their weapons.
The Fijian prime minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, said on Friday that talks were under way to release the hostages, and they were believed to be safe.
"I want to assure the families of the soldiers we are doing everything possible to secure their safe return," he said.
"The latest information we have is that they are safe and I can say now that the negotiations for their release have already begun."
Bainimarama said Fiji was "united as a nation in praying for their safe return".
The UN security council strongly condemned the assaults against the peacekeepers, which it said were carried out by "terrorist groups and by members of non-state armed groups".
The council demanded the "unconditional and immediate release of all the detained United Nations peacekeepers" and urged countries with influence to help win their release.
The Philippine military said the soldiers were occupying two UNDOF posts about 2.5 miles apart.
The United Nations initially said 81 Filipinos were involved in the stand-off. However, Ancan said there were 75.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it was unclear which group had staged the attacks.
"Some groups are self-identified as affiliated to al-Nusra but we are not able to confirm," he said. However, the US state department said al-Nusra was definitely involved.
"The United States strongly condemns the detention of UN peacekeepers and ongoing violence targeting the UN Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights by non-state armed groups, including UN security council-designated terrorist group al-Nusra Front," US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
The United States demanded the "unconditional and immediate release" of the Fijian peacekeepers, the statement said.
The UNDOF has been stationed in the buffer zone of the Golan Heights since 1974 to monitor a ceasefire between Syria and Israel.
Israel initially seized 460 square miles of the Golan Heights during the 1967 six-day war, then annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.
There are currently 1,200 peacekeepers from the Philippines, Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal and the Netherlands.
Since the Syrian war erupted in 2011, the plateau has been tense, with a growing number of mostly stray rockets and mortar rounds hitting the Israeli side, prompting occasional armed responses.
The Philippines, which has 331 troops serving in UNDOF, announced on Saturday that it would pull out of the peace force because of security concerns.
Filipino defence officials said no fresh troops would be sent once the current batch of soldiers had returned from duty in October.
Last year, the Philippines said it was considering pulling its Golan peacekeepers out after 25 of them were kidnapped but later freed by Syrian rebels in two separate incidents.
In assessing the latest crisis, UN officials noted the safe release of the Filipino peacekeepers last year.
The Philippine president, Benigno Aquino, described the situation in the Golan Heights as tense but also sought to calm fears about the fate of the Filipino troops.
"So far, we should not worry. The news is that the situation looks stable," he said. | Armed Conflict | August 2014 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
An Olympics aerial camera and its cables fall sixty–five feet, injuring seven people. | RIO DE JANEIRO — Seven people suffered minor injuries when an aerial camera and its cables fell about 65 feet in the Olympic Park on Monday afternoon.
Flavio Oliveira was just getting out of a handball match with his nephew when he heard the wires come crashing to the ground. He said the cable whipped against two girls, hitting one of them in the neck.
"There was no blood. But she was crying, crying, crying," said Oliveira, 40, a medical interpreter and nursing student from Cape Cod.
A statement from the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), which provides TV feeds for countries around the world outside NBC, said, "According to local medical authorities, there were seven minor injuries that have received medical attention. A full investigation has been launched."
The camera is operated by the OBS, a not-for-profit arm of the International Olympic Committee.
Pollyanna Padua, an Olympic worker who was working nearby, said the cable fell and injured two adult women.
She said they were given first aid at the site of the crash but described the injuries as "light." Padua said the women were transported to a local hospital.
Games officials placed barricades around the crash site, which is at the entrance of Arena Carioca 2, which hosts wrestling and judo.
People crowded around the scene and stopped along an elevated walkway to take pictures.
The incident occurred at about 2:30 p.m. local time.
Weather in Olympic Park was sunny and hot on Monday, though there were strong gusts of wind that knocked over chairs near the Main Press Center.
The OBS statement described how accident happened:
"This afternoon at approximately 13.30 the pulling rope of the Olympic Park cable camera, which is responsible for its movement, was down in the Olympic Park. At that time OBS dispatched a unit to investigate the situation.
"Adetermination was made to clear the area and start recovering the pulling rope. At that time the camera was at the height of 10 meters above the concourse, supported by the two independent guide ropes, each one of which could carry the full load of the camera. Immediately OBS requested a cherry picker to arrive at the area to access the camera. A few minutes later, both ropes simultaneously broke. This resulted in the camera falling from a height of 20 meters onto a lower concourse. Rio 2016 Security and National Forces mobilised immediately and provided assistance. | Famous Person - Sick | August 2016 | ['(USA Today)'] |
News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower Sean Hoare is found dead at his home. | Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead .
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, was said to have been found at his Watford home.
Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but said in a statement: "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.
"The death is currently being treated as unexplained but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."
There was an unexplained delay in the arrival of forensics officers at the scene.
Neighbours said three police cars and two ambulances arrived at the property shortly before 11am. They left around four hours later, around 3pm, shortly after a man and a woman, believed to be grieving relatives, arrived at the premises. There was no police presence at the scene at all for several hours.
The curtains were drawn at the first-floor apartment in a new-build block of flats.
At about 9.15pm, three hours after the Guardian revealed Hoare had been found dead a police van marked "Scientific Services Unit" pulled up at the address, where a police car was already parked. Two officers emerged carrying evidence bags, clipboards, torches and laptop-style bags and entered the building. Three officers carrying cameras and wearing white forensic suits went into the flat at around 9.30pm.
Hoare was in his mid-40s. He first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World. He told the newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the hacking, but he also actively encouraged his staff to intercept the calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.
In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged he was personally asked by his editor at the time, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM programme he said Coulson's insistence he did not know of the practice was "a lie, it is simply a lie". At the time a Downing Street spokeswoman said Coulson totally and utterly denied the allegations; he had "never condoned the use of phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where hacking took place".
Hoare said he was once a close friend of Coulson's, and told the New York Times the two first worked together at the Sun, where, Hoare said, he played recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At the News of the World, Hoare said, he continued to inform Coulson of his activities. He "actively encouraged me to do it", Hoare said. In September last year he was interviewed under caution by police over his claim the former Tory communications chief asked him to hack into phones when editor of the paper, but declined to make any comment.
Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the NoW were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals, in exchange for payments to police officers. He said journalists were able to use "pinging", which measured the distance between a mobile handset and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.
Hoare gave further details about "pinging" to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say 'Right, that's where they are.'"
He said: "You'd just go to the news desk and they'd come back to you. You don't ask any questions. You'd consider it a job done.
"The chain of command is one of absolute discipline, and that's why I never bought into it, like with Andy saying he wasn't aware of it and all that. That's bollocks."
He said he stood by everything he told the New York Times of "pinging". "I don't know how often it happened. That would be wrong of me. But if I had access, as a humble reporter … "
He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs, and had been in rehab. "But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to go away."
Hoare named a private investigator who he said had links with the News of the World, adding: "He may want to talk now, because I think what you'll find now is a lot of people are going to want to cover their arse." Speaking to another Guardian journalist last week, Hoare repeatedly expressed the hope that the hacking scandal would lead to journalism in general being cleaned up, and said he had decided to blow the whistle on the activities of some of his former NoW colleagues with that aim in mind.
He also said he had been injured the previous weekend while taking down a marquee erected for a children's party. He said he broke his nose and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a pole from the marquee. Hoare also emphasised that he was not making any money from telling his story.
Having been treated for drug and alcohol problems, Hoare reminisced about his partying with former pop stars and said that he missed the days when he was able to go out on the town.
On Monday evening the curtains were drawn at his home, a first-floor apartment in a new-build block of flats.
A neighbour living opposite, Nicky Dormer, said three police cars and two ambulances arrived at the property at 11am; police left at 3pm, shortly after a man and a woman, believed to be grieving relatives, arrived at the premises.
She and another neighbour described Hoare as a jovial man who would often sit on his balcony, overlooking the block entrance, and talk to residents. They said he lived in the block with his partner, a woman called Jo, who they believed had been away on holiday. Neither had seen Hoare for a few days.
Paul Pritchard, 30, another neighbour, said Sean Hoare was "the most sociable" resident, and they would regularly see him watering the communal front lawn.
"It is just such a shock. About a month ago he said he felt unwell and he said he went to the doctors for a checkup. Then I saw him again and he seemed well." | Famous Person - Death | July 2011 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A suicide bombing kills at least 24 people at a mosque in Mubi, Nigeria. Boko Haram are suspected of being behind the attack. | At least 27 people have been killed in suicide bomb blasts in the north-east Nigerian town of Mubi.
Some reports suggest the death toll could be as high as 42, with dozens more injured.
The explosions happened in and around a mosque as Muslims were preparing for afternoon prayers.
No-one has yet said they were behind the bombings, but the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has launched previous attacks in Mubi. Boko Haram has waged a campaign of violence since 2009 to try to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
The violence has killed about 20,000 people and displaced more than two million.
Reuters new agency quotes Mubi General Hospital's chief medical director Ezra Sakawa as saying 27 people were killed and 56 injured. Other sources at the same hospital give higher casualty figures. State police commissioner Abdullahi Yerima said the first blast took place at the mosque at about 13:00 (12:00 GMT) and a second bomber detonated a device nearby as worshippers fled.
Witness Abdullahi Labaran said the first bomber had mingled with worshippers and detonated his explosives shortly before prayers began.
He said people in the mosque then fled towards a market where the second bomber struck.
Mubi has suffered regular attacks by Boko Haram. Last November more than 50 people were killed when suspected militants detonated a suicide bomb inside a mosque in the same town.
And in April, the militants killed more than a dozen people in the nearby northern town of Maiduguri in Borno state. The group is known to target mosques whose preachers disagree with its views.
The latest attacks come as President Muhammadu Buhari visits Washington for talks with his US counterpart Donald Trump.
The Nigerian government is buying 12 fighter aircraft from the US, and President Trump has indicated that a further order for attack helicopters is in the pipeline.
"These new aircraft will improve Nigeria's ability to target terrorists and protect civilians," Mr Trump told a joint news conference on Monday.
| Armed Conflict | May 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
French police raid the Basque Homeland and Freedom's "bomb factory" in Grenoble, Isère. | French police have seized hundreds of kilos of bomb-making ingredients in a garage in the south-eastern city of Grenoble, officials have said.
Police suspect the cache of at least 300kg (660lb) of ammonium nitrate and other explosive substances may belong to the Basque separatist group, Eta. The chemicals were found by chance on Sunday by the owner of the garage. Eta is blamed for the deaths of more than 820 people in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque nation. Last week, a court in Paris sentenced a Spanish woman to 14 years in prison after finding her guilty of running a cell based in France that identified targets for the group. The owner of the garage in Grenoble said he had decided to break open its lock at the weekend because he had not received any rent in three months. "I found some bags, I opened one of them which contained white powder and straight away I informed the police," he told the AFP news agency. He said he had advertised the garage on the internet and that he had met the tenant only once, when he signed the lease in December. Police said they believe the tenant gave a false name. In 2007, a similar cache of potentially explosive substances were discovered in an Eta base in the southern French town of Cahors. | Armed Conflict | April 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
A man is sentenced to death for murdering a doctor in Beijing on New Year's Eve. The murder was the latest in a string of attacks on medical staff in China by angry relatives blaming them for the lack of medical resources and services. | China's legislature has passed a law designed to improve the country's basic health care services amid an ongoing public outcry over the murder of a doctor.
The fatal stabbing was the latest in a string of attacks on medical staff by angry patients and their relatives, with tensions being fuelled by a lack of resources and limited services at many medical facilities.
In the latest incident, the doctor Yang Wen was stabbed in the neck on Christmas Eve following a row with the relatives of a 95-year-old stroke victim at the Civil Aviation General Hospital in Beijing. She died the following day.
State television reported that doctors had said the patient's family had dismissed repeated suggestions that the woman should undergo additional checks after she suffered a stroke.
But they became angry when the patient's condition continued to deteriorate and questioned if she was being treated properly.
The woman's son, Sun Wenbin, has since been arrested on suspicion of intentional homicide.
Despite an outpouring of public anger over the attack and public sympathy for Yang, the patient's family was reported to have shown little remorse but has transferred the patient to another hospital.
The tragedy overshadowed the passage of the country's first fundamental and comprehensive law on basic medical and health care services, which was approved on Saturday and will take effect from June 1 next year.
State news agency Xinhua reported that the law is designed to promote medical and health care development in China, ensure citizens have access to services and build a "healthy China."
The new legislation is intended to empower grass-roots medical institutions by channelling more resources to them.
It mandates that the government should give priority to developing community-level health care facilities and better support medical workers in local communities and poor remote areas.
The law also emphasises the importance of the safety and dignity of medical staff, saying they are entitled to legal protection and should not be threatened or harmed.
Wang Zhenyu, a Beijing lawyer who has worked on high-profile civil and criminal cases, said the law alone could not protect medical staff and prevent conflict with patients.
"There are many elements to the protection, such as government investment to improve conditions for patients," he said.
"The doctors need to have better working conditions, dignity and respect and there should be a credible third party to solve doctor-patient conflicts."
A 2018 report from the Chinese Medical Doctor Association found that 66 per cent of doctors in China have reported conflicts with patients, with more than 30 per cent experiencing violence.
According to an analysis from Renmin University's journalism school in March, the media has published 295 reports of attacks on medical staff over the past 10 years.
In total 362 people were injured in these attacks and 24 killed, with the attacker using a weapon in 99 of these incidents. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2020 | ['(AsiaOne)'] |
The Employee Free Choice Act is introduced into the U.S. Congress. | WASHINGTON Business and organized labor unleashed what each called its biggest lobbying effort in history on Tuesday as Democrats in the House and Senate introduced legislation that would make it far easier for workers to unionize. Their target: a handful of moderate Democrats and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and one of the bill’s chief sponsors in the Senate, said it was not clear the measure had enough support to overcome a Republican filibuster there. Labor leaders hoped a two-pronged strategy would get at least every Senate Democrat to back the bill: President Obama’s full-throated support and letters, e-mail messages, phone calls and visits to inundate lawmakers.
If passed, the law would make the biggest changes in the nation’s labor laws since 1935. Organized labor has called it the No. 1 legislative priority. Corporate America has vowed to defeat it.
The United States Chamber of Commerce and other business groups worry that if passed the legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, would lead to unions adding millions of workers. Labor sees the bill as vital to reversing decades of declining membership and power.
The lobbying battle reached new heights on Tuesday as 180 business owners and executives descended on Capitol Hill to meet with swing senators, and more than 250 union leaders and members met with Senate and House members. At a news conference, Senator Harkin and George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced that they were introducing the bill in their respective chambers, saying it would help rebuild the middle class.
Mr. Miller, Democrat of California, said he had 223 co-sponsors, including three Republicans, meaning the bill had majority support in the House. Mr. Harkin said the bill had 40 co-sponsors in the Senate, down from 46 in the previous Congress. Republican and business strategists said some former co-sponsors felt they had a free pass to back the bill when President Bush appeared likely to veto it. But now that the bill appears to have a real chance of passage, they said, some moderate senators, heavily lobbied by business, are backing off the bill, worried that it might hurt or anger their business constituents.
The lobbying is focusing on eight or so Senate Democrats and Senator Specter, whose votes are seen as up for grabs. The Democrats include Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Warner of Virginia.
“I don’t notice shrinking support,” Mr. Harkin said when asked about the declining number of co-sponsors. “I think the votes are there. I think the support is there.” He said minor modifications might be needed to ensure enough support.
The Democrats have 56 Senate seats and can usually count on two independents, and if Al Franken of Minnesota is seated, that would give Democrats 59 seats. So if just one or two Democrats oppose the bill, labor would have a hard time mustering the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. To reach 60, the Democrats are counting on Mr. Specter, who once co-sponsored the bill, but no longer does. If he backs the bill, he risks angering Republicans, which could hurt him if he faces a conservative in a primary. But opposing the bill in his union-friendly Democratic state could jeopardize his re-election in the general campaign. “I’m hearing a lot of lobbying both ways,” Mr. Specter said in an interview. “I’m going to give everybody a chance to be heard before I vote.” Like other Republicans, Mr. Specter has voiced concern that the bill would mean unions would generally bypass secret ballot elections in organizing drives. The bill would let workers choose whether to unionize through secret ballot votes or card checks in which workers obtain union recognition as soon as a majority of employees at a workplace sign union cards. Current law permits management to insist on a secret ballot, which often lets companies campaign for a month or more against unionization.
Congressional Democrats and union leaders refused to discuss what modifications or compromises they might accept to win passage if the current version does not overcome a filibuster.
“I don’t know that anybody is in the mood to compromise,” Mr. Specter said.
Each side predicted victory.
“We’re seeing flagging support for card check against rapidly building intensity against the bill,” said Steven J. Law, the Chamber of Commerce’s general counsel “We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll defeat it, but no one is hanging up the Mission Accomplished banner.”
Bill Samuel, the A.F.L.-C.I.O’s legislative director, said, “We’re confident it will pass the Senate and be signed by the president.”
He added: “I’m not surprised that some senators are saying they’re undecided because they’re getting attacked back home. It’s not unusual for a senator to say they’re undecided leading to a key vote.” | Government Policy Changes | March 2009 | ['(New York Times)'] |
In tennis, Roger Federer of Switzerland defeats Andy Murray of the United Kingdom three sets to one at the men's singles final of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships in England. | Last updated on 8 July 20128 July 2012.From the section Tenniscomments705
Andy Murray's bid to win Wimbledon was ended by Roger Federer as the Swiss claimed a record-equalling seventh SW19 triumph and 17th Grand Slam title.
Murray, 25, was aiming to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to lift a major singles trophy.
But 30-year-old Federer won 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-4 on Centre Court to match the mark set by Pete Sampras and reclaim the world number one ranking.
A tearful Murray has now lost all four of his Grand Slam finals.
He was the first Briton to contest the Wimbledon men's singles final since Bunny Austin in 1938, but fell just short of the ultimate goal.
"Everybody always talks about the pressure of playing at Wimbledon, but it's not the people watching - they make it incredible," said a tearful Murray in the wake of his defeat.
"There are mixed emotions. Most of them are negative. The reaction from the crowd was great. I felt like I was playing for the nation and I couldn't quite do it."
"I have been in the same position as Murray at the Australian Open. I couldn't make a speech and it's really tough. Andy played great tennis. The match was played at an unbelievably high standard. Murray will win this title. I said it might not be this year but I wouldn't put money against him next year. He is improving all the time."
Federer fully deserved his victory, which not only sees him level Sampras on seven Wimbledon titles, but also secures him a record 286th week as world number one.
He is the second-oldest man to occupy top spot, goes away with a cheque for £1.15m and will head to the Olympics - also being staged at the All England Club - as clear favourite.
Murray, who collects the £575,000 runner-up prize, now shares his coach Ivan Lendl's unenviable record of losing his first four Grand Slam finals.
Having made poor starts in each of the previous three - all of which ended in straight-sets defeats - Murray knew it was vital to secure the early momentum.
All was going to plan as a couple of pummelling backhands down the line, helped Murray break in the opening game and then consolidate the advantage for a 2-0 lead.
Federer looked uneasy with the pace his opponent was setting and began deploying sliced groundstrokes to slow things down.
A backhand landed on the baseline to engineer a break-back point in game four, and he converted it when Murray found the net.
Both men needed to serve their way out of trouble as the pressure mounted and, crucially, Murray produced a sensational volley at his feet to save the second of two break points in a 13-minute game eight.
He then struck with the help of a forehand pass that Federer ducked to avoid being hit - reminiscent of the aggression shown by Lendl during his career - and comfortably served out the first set.
Statistically, Murray actually improved in almost every area during the second, but the key difference was that he could not take his chances.
Whereas the 25-year-old converted both break points that came his way in the first set, he let two slip at 2-2 and another two at 4-4.
Federer held for 6-5 before going on the attack, and he came from 40-15 down to level the match with a sensational backhand drop volley. Heavy rain arrived at at 16:14 BST with Federer 40-0 up in game three of set three, and the prospect of further downpours saw the roof closed. Murray, having had a shot at sporting immortality, will be haunted by this one for a while. But while it will be of little comfort to him now, another rather different battle might finally have been won.
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When play resumed 35 minutes later the Swiss, who was vastly superior and put Murray under the cosh in a marathon game five.
Murray was reeled in from 40-0, Federer moving to deuce when the Scot took a heavy tumble at the net, and he slipped again before finally succumbing on a sixth break point.
Federer served out with a crunching ace and averted danger early in the fourth set before striking for 4-2 with a cross-court backhand pass.
He wrapped up his first Grand Slam title since the 2010 Australian Open when Murray hooked a forehand into the tramlines.
"This fortnight was a step in the right direction. I won't go back on the court until my mind is right and I am over the loss," added Murray of his future plans.
"The Olympics is a special event and I want to make sure I am ready. If I play like I did this week I have a good chance of winning a medal." | Sports Competition | July 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(The Telegraph)', '(ESPN)'] |
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, and orders it to be implemented subject to certain conditions. The letter states the United States and European Union should clearly announce the elimination of sanctions against Iran. The imposition of sanctions at any level and under any pretext from any of the negotiating countries would violate the JCPOA. | By Afp Published: 16:16 BST, 21 October 2015 | Updated: 16:16 BST, 21 October 2015 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei explicitly endorsed a nuclear deal with world powers for the first time Wednesday, but warned his president it contained weaknesses that must be guarded against.
Despite years of negotiations that culminated in a July 14 accord, Khamenei had never before said openly that he backed the diplomacy. Nor had he said he was against talks.
The agreement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany will see a raft of trade sanctions against Iran lifted in return for curbs lasting up to 15 years on its atomic activities.
Iran insists the Bushehr reactor and its other nuclear facilities are purely for peaceful energy purposes ©Majid Asgaripour (Mehr News/AFP/File)
After years of tension and Western sanctions, which have ravaged Iran's economy, Khamenei permitted secret talks on the nuclear issue with the United States, which commenced in Oman in 2012.
But the process only gained momentum and became official, involving Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany, after Iranians elected President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, in June 2013.
The supreme leader's remarks on the final nuclear deal came in a letter to Rouhani a week after Iran's parliament approved it, after months of often fierce opposition from hardliners angered by what they said were too many concessions.
Khamenei, who has the last word for Iran on all policy matters, said he had approved the decision of the country's top security committee, the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), to implement the agreement.
However he told Rouhani the deal had "many ambiguities and structural weak points" which must be closely monitored.
- Warning on breaches -
"In the absence of tight control these could bring significant damage for the present and the future of the country," Khamenei said of such shortcomings, repeating his long-held stance that the United States cannot be trusted.
A committee, controlled by the SNSC, will be formed to monitor "possible breaches and deception by the other parties, in particular the US" he said in the letter, which was published on his website.
Iran has always denied pursuing an atomic weapon but Western intelligence agencies alleged that work to develop a bomb had taken place.
The lifting of sanctions is conditional on Iran putting stringent curbs on its nuclear programme, including on its enrichment of uranium, the processing of which at high purity can produce bomb material.
The main provisions of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), extend for between eight to 15 years.
- IAEA probe due December 15 -
Khamenei said any new sanctions against Iran would be a fatal breach.
If such occurred "under any pretext by any country engaged in negotiations, it will be a violation of the JCPOA and the government will be obligated to stop the agreement," the 76-year-old leader said.
On Sunday, US President Barack Obama and the European Union announced measures to ensure the lifting of sanctions, including those on Iran's banks and energy sector, as soon as international monitors complete a probe into possible military dimensions of Tehran's past nuclear activities.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to submit that report by December 15. The deal's crucial "implementation day" can only happen after.
Khamenei said the IAEA investigation must be closed before Iranian officials will take steps to ensure its Arak reactor cannot produce plutonium -- another potential route to an atomic weapon.
China has agreed to work with Iran and the United States to alter the Arak reactor, officials have said.
Another condition of the deal -- that Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium be exported out of the country -- also cannot go ahead until the IAEA has completed its investigation, Khamenei stipulated.
Iran has also agreed to disable more than two-thirds of its 19,000 centrifuges -- fast-spinning machines that enrich uranium -- with just over 6,000 being left in place.
The nuclear agreement, which has brought Iran out of the diplomatic cold after years of high tension on the nuclear issue, raised expectations of further detente.
However, Khamenei has since banned other negotiations with the United States, Iran's main adversary since the Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed shah in 1979.
The supreme leader's letter to Rouhani reiterated the point.
"You know the US government had an attitude of hostility. They are unlikely to change their attitude in the future," Khamenei wrote.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ©- (Khamenei.Ir/AFP/File)
Iran has agreed to remove Iran more than two-thirds of its 19,000 centrifuges as part of an agreement to lift a raft of trade sanctions which have crippled the economy | Government Policy Changes | October 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(Mehr News Agency)', '(Daily Mail)'] |
The death toll from Tropical Storm Ketsana rises to 73, with more than 300,000 people displaced. | MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 2) At least 73 persons were killed and nearly 70,000 families were displaced by massive flooding after tropical storm Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) dumped the heaviest rainfall on Metro Manila in more than four decades, officials said Sunday.
As of 6p.m. Sunday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council also reported 69,513 families displaced and 337, 216 persons affected in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
In the province of Rizal, 23 persons were reported dead in Tanay; 10 in Angono, five in Baras and three from Montana. Nine people were reported killed in Bulacan and seven more in Metro Manila, according to the NDCC.
The provinces of Pampanga, Apayao, Batangas, Quezon, and Teresa town in Rizal also reported casualties.
The nine-hour deluge across Manila on Saturday submerged houses, washed away shanties and turned roads into raging rivers, forcing terrified residents to seek refuge on top of homes or cars where they waited for more than 24 hours.
"I am calling on our countrymen... to please stay calm," President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, as she set a deadline of nightfall on Sunday for the military and other rescuers to save those who remained stranded.
The frantic rescue efforts saw military helicopters and rubber boats fan out across the sprawling city of 12 million residents to pluck people off houses and car roofs.
Meanwhile, a total of 9,601 families or 47,261 persons are taking shelter in 101 evacuations sites in affected areas, the NDCC said.
As of 11 a.m., a total of 5,146 stranded persons have been rescued by forces of the Philippine Coast Guard, the Metro Manila Development Authority, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, and the Philippine National Red Cross.
In Bulacan, 36 barangays (villages) in Marilao, Mecauayan, San Miguel, Bocaue, Sta. Maria, Calumpit, Bustos, and Norzagaray are heavily flooded while 33 villages in the municipalities of Guagua, Masantol, Ampalit, Lubao, Porac, Sto. Tomas, San Fernando, and San Simon in Pampanga were also reported to be flooded.
In Metro Manila, 45 barangays in the cities of Marikina, Malabon, Muntinlupa, Quezon, Makati, Pasay, Pasig, Valenzuela, and San Juan are still flooded, from under two feet to waist-deep, the NDCC said.
The Calabarzon region (composed of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) suffered P95 million in crop damage due to typhoon Ondoy. Initial reports said P85 million was the damage to rice and P10 million to high-value commercial crops like coffee, pineapple, and sugarcane, according to Agriculture Undersecretary Emmanuel Paras.
Manila and surrounding areas were lashed with heavy rains for nine hours Saturday, leading to flash floods that inundated about 80 percent of the capital of more than 12 million inhabitants.
The deluge left some areas under up to 20 feet of water, stranding entire families on rooftops and forcing the government to declare a "state of calamity."
Highways were turned into raging rivers that swept away shanties and cars. Video footage from military helicopters showed desperate residents marooned on rooftops pleading for food and help.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, heading the rescue efforts, said 52 people had so far been killed with at least 21 still missing.
Teodoro said the storm had displaced nearly 300,000 people in Manila and five outlying provinces, with more than 41,000 people in 92 evacuation centers.
"We are continuing with our rescue operations for those who are still in need, coupled with a massive relief operation," said Teodoro.
While the rains have temporarily ceased, Teodoro said more flooding may hit northern provinces as reservoirs and dams could overflow.
"I am appealing on those in the path of the storm to follow our local officials," he said, adding that troops will forcibly evacuate those who refuse to leave their homes being threatened by floods.
He said the floodwaters and the large numbers of stranded vehicles were giving rescue units "a hard time" in reaching those affected.
And even though the rain eased on Sunday, rescuers said they feared the death toll may rise because receding flood waters could expose more bodies.
By Sunday afternoon, the helicopters and boats had rescued more than 5,000 people, but many others were frantically waiting for help while battling thirst and hunger.
"If you are on the roof, don't try to leave. Just remain there and we will do everything to rescue you," Teodoro said in a radio broadcast.
However many could not wait.
In Pasig City, one of the worst hit areas in eastern Manila, panicked residents were seen wading dangerously through neck-deep waters hoisting their children and belongings above their heads.
Others were left shocked and thankful just to have survived.
"We thought we were going to die," Rachelle Solis, 35, a banking executive who was with her two young children at a day-care center when the floods hit.
"The current was strong and we were nearly swept away. We held onto a rope... for dear life. I kept thinking this couldn't happen to me, not in Manila."
Adding to the chaos, telephone and power services were cut off in the worst-hit areas and patchy for other parts of Manila.
Some hospitals in the eastern part of the city had also been evacuated, while the international airport was closed during the worst of the storm on Saturday.
Power and communication lines went down in many areas but those who managed to get through to public radio stations told of their plight.
"Please come and get us. We have been marooned here since the afternoon," appealed Cristine Reyes, a resident in Marikina district late Saturday, who was marooned with her two young nephews and her mother on the second floor of the family home. "The water continues to go up, and soon we will be under water."
Local Red Cross executive director Gwendolyn Pang said rescuers struggled to reach many areas Saturday, with many highways rendered impassable.
"This has never happened before. Almost 80 percent of metropolitan Manila is under water," Pang told AFP.
The government's chief weather forecaster Prisco Nilo blamed "climate change" for the extreme weather but said he expected the weather to ease when the storm dies down Monday.
"The amount of rainfall in nine hours yesterday was more than the average monthly rainfall," Nilo told reporters.
He said that total rainfall for the period reached 410.6 millimeters (16 inches), breaking the previous single-day record of 334 millimeters in July 1967.
In Marikina Sunday, many residents remained on rooftops, as rescuers waded in muddy floodwaters, Red Cross official Dave Barnuevo said.
"The water is taking a long time to go down. The water is muddy and thick, and we have had to push our rubber boats in neck-deep flood (waters) in some areas," Barnuevo told AFP.
"We have rescued entire families marooned in their homes. They have not eaten and begged for food and water," he said.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2009 | ['(Philippine Inquirer)', '(BBC)', '(China Daily)'] |
Former Chinese political leader Bo Xilai's wife, Gu Kailai, and their employee Zhang Xiaojun are charged with murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. | The wife of disgraced Chinese political leader Bo Xilai has been charged with the murder of UK businessman Neil Heywood, state news agency Xinhua says.
Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, employed at Mr Bo's home, were "recently" prosecuted by a Chinese court, Xinhua said, without giving further details.
Mr Heywood was found dead in a hotel in Chongqing on 15 November 2011. The apparent murder of Mr Heywood triggered Mr Bo's downfall in a scandal that has rocked Chinese politics. Local officials initially said Mr Heywood died of excessive drinking, but the government announced in April it was investigating Mr Bo's wife in connection with the case.
The two accused have been charged with intentional homicide by the Hefei Municipal Procuratorate (state prosecutor's office) in the eastern province of Anhui.
Britain welcomed the news, saying it was "glad to see" China is continuing the investigation into Mr Heywood's death.
The timing of the announcement is significant, as is the fact that Ms Gu is being prosecuted in Anhui, some distance from Chongqing, where the crime allegedly took place, says BBC Chinese.com editor Yuwen Wu. Legal experts told BBC Chinese that authorities would have had concerns about the political influence Bo Xilai and his family may still exert in Chongqing and whether that would affect a fair trial. Analysts also say the authorities are keen to resolve the case quickly before China undergoes its politically sensitive once-in-a-decade party leadership change at the Communist Party congress this autumn. Users of China's Sina Weibo website - the equivalent of Twitter- were quick to express their shock at the abrupt announcement, but "Gu Kailai" remains a censored keyword. A number of users criticised the timing of the report, alleging that the authorities wanted to divert attention from recent deadly floods in Beijing. Investigators have concluded that Ms Gu and her son had conflicts with Mr Heywood over economic interests, and that worries about a possible threat posed by Mr Heywood to her son's personal security may have led Ms Gu, along with Mr Zhang, to poison Mr Heywood to death, according to Xinhua.
"The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial," said the agency's report, which was also read out on state television.
The exact nature of Mr Heywood's role and his relations with the Bo family are unclear, and have been the subject of much speculation inside and outside China. At the very least, there were close business contacts between the Bo family and Mr Heywood.
Mr Bo, the former high-flying leader of the south-western Chinese mega-city of Chongqing, was sacked in March and is under investigation for allegedly flouting Communist Party rules.
He made his name tackling corruption in the sprawling city of Chongqing and had been expected to be elected to an important position during this year's leadership change. Mr Bo also implemented a drive to promote China's communist past, which included public performances of Mao-era songs in Chongqing. There have been claims that his anti-crime drive involved cases of torture.
One of China's most charismatic politicians, his status as the son of former party elder Bo Yibo made him one of the "princelings" of Chinese politics - a term used to describe the descendants of senior party figures in the early years of communist rule.
His downfall was triggered when his police chief, Wang Lijun, fled to the US consulate, reportedly to seek asylum after falling out with Mr Bo over his investigation into the death of Mr Heywood.
The Xinhua report about Ms Gu's prosecution made no reference to Mr Bo or any investigation into him.
Earlier this month, French architect Patrick Devillers, who is alleged to have links to Mr Bo and Ms Gu, was arrested in Cambodia before voluntarily flying to China. A Chinese official said he was wanted as a witness.
On Tuesday, he was reported to be in "good shape" after meeting French diplomats earlier in the week. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Tennessee state senator and former Army flight surgeon Mark E. Green withdraws his name from consideration as Secretary of the Army because of political opposition. Green was the Trump Administration's second nominee for this position. (AP via U.S. News & World Report) | WASHINGTON — Mark E. Green, President Trump’s second nominee to be secretary of the Army, withdrew from consideration on Friday, saying in a statement that his nomination had become a distraction because of “false and misleading attacks against me.”
Mr. Green, a Tennessee state senator who was an Army flight surgeon, has criticized federal attempts to bar discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender people in workplaces and businesses.
“Tragically, my life of public service and my Christian beliefs have been mischaracterized and attacked by a few on the other side of the aisle for political gain,” Mr. Green said in the statement. “While these false attacks have no bearing on the needs of the Army or my qualifications to serve, I believe it is critical to give the president the ability to move forward with his vision to restore our military to its rightful place in the world.”
Mr. Trump’s first pick for Army secretary, Vincent Viola, pulled out of consideration in February, saying he could not disentangle himself from his business ties. Mr. Viola is the owner of the N.H.L.’s Florida Panthers.
Mr. Green was accused by the American Military Partner Association and other gay-rights advocacy groups of discriminating against gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, particularly given the military’s circuitous history of treatment of gays in the military.
He had made a number of contentious assertions, particularly in an appearance before the Chattanooga Tea Party last year, when he suggested that President Barack Obama’s opposition to laws meant to prevent transgender people from using the bathrooms of their stated gender was the kind of government action from which armed citizens should protect themselves.
“We are back to where the country was at its beginning, and it’s the armed citizen who will defend this nation,” Mr. Green said. “And there’s something else that we’ve got to protect ourselves from, and it is an overreaching federal government. The notion that Mr. Obama thinks that he can tell the state of Tennessee who can go into a men’s bathroom or a women’s bathroom is absurd.”
Asked during that appearance what military rank and file thought about “the social revolutions being imposed upon them by this government,” Mr. Green responded that “if you poll the psychiatrists, they’re going to tell you that transgender is a disease.” And he implied that same-sex marriage was as unthinkable 30 years ago as government-sponsored infanticide is today.
Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said on Friday that Mr. Green’s “dangerous views and hateful comments are disqualifying for any public servant, let alone someone wishing to serve as secretary of the Army.”
The job of Army secretary must be confirmed by the Senate, and several senators, including Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, had vowed to vote against Mr. Green. The last Army secretary, Eric Fanning, was the first openly gay leader of a military branch.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, on Friday called Mr. Green “not fit to lead the Army” and praised his decision to withdraw his nomination.
“It should not matter what religion you are or what your sexual orientation is when you join the military, only that you care deeply about this country and want to serve and defend it,” Ms. Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost her legs in the Iraq war, said in a statement.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2017 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Russian billionaire and businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky is sentenced to 9 years in prison in his tax evasion trial. (Spiegel online, German) | The Meshchansky District Court on Tuesday convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced them both to nine years in a prison camp, ending the biggest trial in the country's post-Soviet history.
Defense lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, and Khodorkovsky, who was once one of the nation's most powerful men until a growing clash with the Kremlin ended in his arrest, remained defiant and signaled that he thought the fight was far from over. "My sentence has been decided in the Kremlin," he said in a statement read out to reporters by his lawyer Anton Drel after the trial. "I do not consider myself guilty and consider my innocence proven. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2005 | ['(Moscow Times)', '(Mosnews)', '(Bloomberg)', '(BBC)'] |
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