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An SUV and a bus collide in Marishda, East Midnapore, West Bengal, India, killing the SUV's six occupants. | NEW DELHI, June 27 (Xinhua) -- At least six people have been killed in a head-on collision between a bus and an SUV in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal Wednesday, police said.
The accident occurred near Marishda in the state's East Midnapore district, some 150 km from the state capital of Kolkata.
"The SUV carrying the six people collided with the bus coming from the opposite direction this morning. While five of them died on the spot, one succumbed to his injuries on the way to a hospital," local police official Indrajit Basu told the media.
Cops said the victims, who included four politicians of the state's ruling Trinamul Congress party, were traveling to the beach town of Digha.
Local TV channels reported that a few passengers of the bus also sustained minor injuries in the accident and taken to a nearby medical center for first aid.
"A probe has been ordered into the incident. A case has been registered and a manhunt launched to track down the bus driver who fled the spot after the accident leaving the vehicle behind," another police official said.
Road accidents in India occur mostly due to poor driving or badly maintained roads and vehicles.
| Road Crash | June 2018 | ['(Xinhua)'] |
One person is dead and another injured after Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo explodes and crashes in California's Mojave Desert during a test flight of the spaceplane. | — -- The crash of the Virgin Galactic spacecraft that killed one pilot and injured another scattered wreckage across a large area of the Mojave desert, but it also clearly rattled the “small” community of test pilots and technicians in the field.
"Space is hard and today was a tough day," said George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic. He added, "The future rests in many ways on hard days like this."
Stuart Witt, the CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port, said the death of the pilot was keenly felt.
"When we have a mishap from the test community, we find the test community is very small And we are human and it hurts," Witt said.
The officials confirmed that both people involved in the incident were test pilots from the Virgina Galactic partner, Scaled Composites. The pilots were not identified.
Sheriff Donnie Younblood said, "I flew around the crash site. It’s a large area. The aircraft is in several different pieces."
Virgin founder Richard Branson is expected to arrive in Mojave by Saturday morning. Also due at the site on Saturday is a team from the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB announced that they will send a full team of investigators, led by acting chairman Christopher Hart.
Witt said the exact cause of the "anomaly" that caused the crash remains unknown.
"From my eyes and my ears, I detected nothing," Witt said.
"I knew [something was wrong] when other things weren't happening. It wasn't cause something happened, it was something’s not happening," he said.
Whitesides said that a new fuel formulation was being used in this test flight, but said that it had been "proven and tested numerous times on the ground."
The craft dubbed SpaceShipTwo was destroyed after it separated from its mother ship, White Knight Two, the company said.
Kevin Mickey, president of Scale Composites, explained that the mother ship flies the spacecraft to 45,000 feet, "then it’s released. It's a glider in free fall. Then the rocket is lit and you are on your way."
Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team.— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) October 31, 2014
Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team.
Virgin Galactic, part of Branson's group of companies, has announced plans to operate a fleet of SpaceShipTwo vehicles for private sub-orbital flights.
This is the second private space mission to end catastrophically this week.
On Tuesday, an Antares rocket produced by Orbital Sciences exploded seconds after liftoff in Virginia while on a NASA-contracted supply mission to the International Space Station.
"This hasn't been an easy week. It certainly has been a challenge," Witt said. "But where I’m from this is where you find out your true character." | Air crash | October 2014 | ['(The Bakersfield Californian)', '(ABC News)', '(BBC)'] |
A suicide bomber detonates a bomb outside the French embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania, wounding two. The attack is the first suicide bombing in Mauritania's history. | Sunday 09 August 2009 Sunday 09 August 2009 AFP - A suicide bomber died Saturday after staging an explosion near the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, as two members of staff were jogging nearby, police and embassy staff said.
Two French nationals, security employees at the French embassy, were near the man at the moment of the blast," embassy official Marc Flattot told AFP.
"They are in hospital, they are unharmed, but in shock," he added.
"The Westerners are in hospital but their lives are not in danger," a police official said.
The bomber had a belt laden with explosives, police said, adding that he staged the explosion a little before 7:00 pm local time near the wall of the French embassy complex in Nouakchott.
The attack comes three days after the west African country's coup leader, who staged a widely condemned putsch a year ago, took power in the former French colony following contested elections.
On June 23, a US national working in Mauritania, 48-year-old Christopher Leggett, was shot dead in Nouakchott. A suspect was charged last Tuesday with his murder and with membership of Al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the terrorist group's north African branch, claimed responsibility for the murder.
Three suspects are in jail awaiting trial for the December 2007 killings of four French tourists at Aleg, in the south of the country. The three men are also suspected of being members of AQIM.
09/08/2009 09:20:45 Alert a moderator By Anonyme - I do not belive this is done by Al Qaeda. This is just done rise hatred and make sure French will remain in Afghanistan. Can some peasents and religiouse fanatics attack people who are jogging as Mr. Sarkozy did recently? They got idea from media.
09/08/2009 08:19:39 Alert a moderator By Mauritanian - One Mauritanian woman in her twenties was also injured. Her name is Salka Bint Cheikh.
| Armed Conflict | August 2009 | ['(France 24)', '(RFI)'] |
Amazon files a lawsuit against the United States Department of Defense for awarding a US$10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft. The company had previously accused the Department of bias in their decision, given CEO Jeff Bezos has been a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump. | (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc filed a lawsuit in a federal U.S. court on Friday contesting the U.S. Defense Department’s decision last month to award a Pentagon cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion to rival bidder Microsoft Corp.
The complaint and supplemental motion for discovery were filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims under seal, according to a spokesman for Amazon Web Services, a division of the online retail giant founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The company did not explain the basis for its complaint.
The filings contain “proprietary information, trade secrets, and confidential financial information” that could “cause either party severe competitive harm,” Amazon said in a court document seeking a protective order.
“The record in this bid protest likely will contain similarly sensitive information,” it said.
Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper rejected any suggestion of bias in the Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft the contract after Amazon announced plans to challenge it.
“We believe the facts will show they (DoD) ran a detailed, thorough and fair process in determining the needs of the warfighter were best met by Microsoft,” Microsoft said in an emailed statement.
Amazon had been considered a favorite for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract, part of a broader digital modernization project at the Pentagon, before software developer Microsoft emerged as the surprise winner.
Amazon has previously said that politics got in the way of a fair bidding process. Bezos, the chief executive officer of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, has been an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The United States and Iraq kill an al-Qaeda leader, Ahmed al-Obeidi, in Nineveh. | US and Iraqi forces have killed another al-Qaeda leader in the north of Iraq, army officials say.
The man identified as Ahmed al-Obeidi was killed in the northern province of Nineveh, Iraqi military spokesman Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi said. The news comes the day after the government announced two leading insurgents had been killed. Iraqi al-Qaeda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who led an affiliated group, died on Sunday. Gen Moussawi said Mr Obeidi, also known by the name Abu Suhaib, was in charge of al-Qaeda in Iraq's operations in the northern provinces of Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Nineveh. Gen Ray Odierno, commander of US forces in Iraq, said the man was "the military emir" of the region. "He was the guy in charge of operations from Tikrit all the way up to Mosul out to the Syrian border," he told AFP news agency. The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says the Iraqi government is now convinced they have al-Qaeda on the run, but says that in the past when leaders are killed others have just stepped in to fill their posts. The loose, cell-like structure of the organisation means that its decapitation does not necessarily lead to paralysis, our correspondent adds. Election appeal
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been blamed for some of the bloodiest insurgent attacks in the country since the US-led invasion of 2003. But since early 2007 the US has adopted a more proactive policy in confronting insurgents in Iraq and undermining their support within the Sunni community. The sectarian strife on which the Sunni insurgents thrived also died away as coalition and Iraqi government forces moved to curb Shia militias, analysts say. The US is hoping to begin a withdrawal of its forces in August this year. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is currently contesting the results of the 7 March election, which was narrowly won by former PM Iyad Allawi. Election officials have ordered a manual recount of votes cast in Baghdad after complaints from Mr Maliki that the electronic system of counting was unreliable. The recount could alter the final result of the poll. | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CBC)', '(The News International)'] |
The Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin warns Georgia against "acts of aggression" against South Ossetia and later declares that a "war has begun." In response, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili declares that Russia "is fighting a war with us in our own territory." | GORI, Georgia Russia conducted airstrikes on Georgian targets on Friday evening, escalating the conflict in a separatist area of Georgia that is shaping into a test of the power and military reach of an emboldened Kremlin. Earlier in the day, Russian troops and armored vehicles had rolled into South Ossetia, supporting the breakaway region in its bitter conflict with Georgia. The United States and other Western nations, joined by NATO, condemned the violence and demanded a cease-fire. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went a step further, calling on Russia to withdraw its forces. But the Russian soldiers remained, and Georgian officials reported at least one airstrike, on the Black Sea port of Poti, late on Friday night. | Armed Conflict | August 2008 | ['(AGI)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Conflict in Iraq: Six members of the same family of 14 have been confirmed killed following a U.S. airstrike in Northern Iraq. | There was confusion over the number of casualties, but local authorities in the town of Beiji, north of Tikrit, have confirmed at least six dead. US forces said they acted after seeing three men suspected of planting a roadside bomb enter the house.
The raid has prompted anger among some local political leaders.
US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson said the men, who ran into the house after digging a hole, were assesed as a threat to civilians and military forces.
"An unmanned aerial vehicle... observed the would-be attackers as they dug a hole following the common pattern of roadside bomb emplacement," he told the AFP news agency. Even if there had been, why didn't they surround the area and detain the terrorists instead?
Police Colonel Sufyan Mustafa
"The individuals left the road site and were followed from the air to a nearby building. Coalition forces employed precision guided munitions on the structure."
But he did not confirm the number of casualties or whether a roadside bomb has been found.
Local police chief Colonel Sufyan Mustafa said he believed there were no anti-US insurgents present in the house.
"Even if there had been, why didn't they surround the area and detain the terrorists instead?," he told the Reuters news agency.
'Historic crime'
Ghadban Nahd Hassan, 56, told AFP that 14 members of his family had been in the house when it was it bombed. "I was with some friends in a small shop 100m away from the house when I heard the bombing at around 2130 (1830 GMT)," he said.
"I rushed over to see. My house was destroyed and there was smoke everywhere."
So far, the bodies of a nine-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl, three women and three men have been found in the rubble, police said.
US forces frequently use air strikes in their battle against Iraqi insurgents, in an effort to minimise US casualties.
A local official of the biggest Sunni Arab political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, called for demonstrations.
"This is a historic crime and another catastrophe for the people of Baiji," he told Reuters. "If there were gunmen or criminals in that house, is it right to blow up the whole family?"
Hussein al-Falluji, a lawyer and a national leader of the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Accordance Front, said: "Once again the occupiers have shown their barbarism. They never learn from their mistakes... People's resentment is increasing." | Armed Conflict | January 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Rodchenkov Anti–Doping Act, a law that criminalizes international doping schemes, is signed into law in the United States. | A bill that will criminalize international doping conspiracies became law Friday with President Donald Trump’s signature, closing out a two-year legislative process during which the only true opposition to the bill came from outside the United States. The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act had earlier passed both houses of Congress on voice votes. It passed despite lobbying efforts from the World Anti-Doping Agency, which said it will “disrupt the global legal anti-doping framework.”
The bill is designed to allow U.S. prosecutors to go after doping schemes at international events in which Americans are involved as athletes, sponsors or broadcasters. It is named after Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow lab director who helped uncover widespread cheating directed by the Russian government to help the country’s athletes at the Sochi Olympics and other major events. It was the response to the Russian scandal from WADA, the IOC and other international sports federations that led the U.S. to pursue the law. Representatives from the U.S. drug-control office bristled at WADA’s efforts to lobby for extensive changes in the bill. Rodchenkov’s attorney, Jim Walden, said the law gives “the Department of Justice a powerful and unique set of tools to eradicate doping fraud and related criminal activities from international competitions.”
The law is in line with others that have helped U.S. authorities crack down on international corruption in different areas. It calls for fines of up to $1 million and prison sentences of up to 10 years for those who participate in schemes designed to influence international sports competitions through doping. It is not designed to go after individual athletes. Among WADA’s concerns is that this law will tempt other countries to consider similar legislation that could undermine the harmonization of the global anti-doping rules. | Government Policy Changes | December 2020 | ['(AP)'] |
Typhoon Koppu makes landfall in northern Luzon in the Philippines with forecasters warning it could stay in the area for several days. Thousands of people have been evacuated or are stranded. , | Powerful Typhoon Koppu hit the northern Philippines early Sunday, the country's weather agency said, battering the coast with powerful winds that forecasters warned could last up to three days. About 6,500 people were evacuated from their homes and taken to safer ground just before the typhoon struck, the civil defence office said. The eye of Koppu struck the remote coastal town of Casiguran, 215 kilometres (130 miles) northeast of Manila around 4:00 am (2000 GMT Sunday) with gusts of up to 210 kilometres an hour, the state weather service said. "It is nearly stationary.... We hope it will leave the country soon," Alexander Pama, head of the government's National Disaster Risk Reduction Council said over DZBB radio. Local radio stations said the typhoon downed trees and power pylons in Aurora province including Casiguran as well as nearby Isabela province and that power was cut in those areas. Pama said landslides and overflowing rivers caused by intense rains dumped by Koppu had cut several roads across the region, made up of mountainous areas with farmland along river valleys. Because of another nearby weather system, officials fear the typhoon could linger for days on the main island of Luzon, home to about half the country's 100 million people. Although the storm will not directly hit the capital, Manila, the weather service has warned it is so huge that even the southern regions were likely to be affected by strong winds and rain. The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms each year, many of them deadly.
F
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2015 | ['(Lando)', '(AFP via Yahoo)', '(The Inquirer)'] |
New Zealand environmental activist Peter Bethune is given a two year suspended sentence in a Tokyo District Court for his role in boarding a Japanese whaling ship. | A court in Tokyo has handed a suspended sentence to an environmental activist after finding him guilty of assaulting a Japanese whaler and obstructing the country's whaling fleet.
Peter Bethune, who was a member of Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation group, was given two years in prison, suspended for five years, amid tight security at the Tokyo district court.
He was also found guilty of trespassing, vandalism and possession of a knife. Bethune, who did not speak during today's hearing, is expected to be deported to his native New Zealand within days.
After the verdict, Bethune said he was relieved and thanked his legal team in Japan.
"I am truly sorry for all the trouble and worry this has caused my family and am desperate to get back home to see them," he said. "I also want to thank all the supporters worldwide who have been sending messages and signing petitions, and the media, who have been keeping this story in the public eye."
The 45-year-old was arrested after boarding the Shonan Maru 2, the fleet's security vessel, from a jet ski in darkness in February.
He had boarded the vessel to protest the sinking of his speedboat, the Ady Gil, in a collision the previous month.
He had intended to carry out a citizen's arrest of the captain and hand him a US$3m bill for damage to the protest boat, which sank. Instead Bethune was detained and then arrested when the ship returned to Japan in March.
Bethune accepted four of the charges but denied the most serious charge of assault. He had been accused of throwing bottles of butyric acid – rancid butter – at whalers last winter during one of several confrontations between the fleet and campaigners in the Antarctic.
Last month the victim of the assault told the court that the attack had left him with facial burns.
A small group of rightwing protesters demonstrated outside the court and labelled Bethune a terrorist, with some urging the court to give him the death penalty.
During his trial Sea Shepherd said Bethune would no longer take part in the group's campaigns because he had violated its principle of "aggressive but non-violent direct action" by taking a bow and arrows with him.
While in detention in Tokyo he indicated he no longer wished to take part in anti-whaling activities.
Sea Shepherd's founder, Paul Watson, is on an Interpol wanted list for ordering Bethune to board the Shonan Maru 2. There are Japanese allegations that the group's actions put whalers' lives at risk.
Japan launched a crackdown against anti-whaling protesters following a winter of bitter confrontation in the Southern Ocean that forced the fleet to return to port with barely half its intended catch of minke whales.
Despite the 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling Japan is permitted to kill nearly 1,000 whales each year for what it calls scientific research. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2010 | ['(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(The Guardian)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
Rustam Makhmudov, suspected of the 2006 shooting of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, is arrested overnight at the home of his parents in Chechnya. , | The man suspected of shooting Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 has been arrested in Chechnya and is due to be brought to Moscow. Rustam Makhmudov was arrested overnight at his parents' home, his lawyer told AFP news agency.
Two of the detainee's brothers and a third man are currently awaiting trial over the murder in Moscow.
Politkovskaya's murder in cold blood outside her home in the Russian capital caused shock and revulsion.
Rustam Makhmudov's brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim, have been accused of acting as drivers at the scene of the crime while former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov has been accused of providing logistical support.
All three men were tried and acquitted for lack of evidence in 2009 but the verdict was overturned by Russia's supreme court, which ordered them to be retried.
Rustam Makhmudov remained a fugitive through his brothers' first trial. Confirming the arrest, Russian prosecutors said the detainee would be transferred to Moscow "shortly" as part of the investigatory procedure. Mr Makhmudov's lawyer, Saidakhmet Arsamerzayev, said the defence would seek to disprove key video evidence which allegedly shows his client's face.
"I have always said that investigators don't really need to arrest Rustam because his arrest will not confirm that he is the killer," Mr Arsamerzayev added. "Right now it is clear that Rustam was not difficult to capture. He was hiding of course, but even so, he was taken at his house."
The suspect, 37, was born in Achkoi-Martan, Chechnya, according to his profile on Interpol's website.
Politkovskaya was a human rights campaigner and Russia's most famous investigative journalist, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.
Her reports were often highly critical not only of the Kremlin, but of the actions of the Russian military in Chechnya and of the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities, he notes.
A lawyer for Politkovskaya's family denied the arrest was a major breakthrough since investigators had yet to establish who it was that ordered the assassination. At the time of her death, aged 48, the journalist was working for a low-circulation Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, known for its fierce attacks on the country's authorities.
On 7 October 2006, she was found shot dead in a lift at her apartment block with a pistol and four bullets lying near her body.
Grainy CCTV footage from the building, which was broadcast on Russian television, showed a man in a baseball cap following her inside just before the shooting.
The arrest was welcomed by Novaya Gazeta. "We hope that the jury can see for themselves that the prosecution was right," editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was quoted as saying by AFP. New Politkovskaya probe ordered
Obituary: Anna Politkovskaya
Russian state prosecutor (in Russian)
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters via The Guardian)', '(RIA Novosti)', '(CNN)'] |
The Chinese government warns residents in Northern China to prepare for a wave of choking smog arriving over the weekend and lasting through Tuesday, with Beijing affected hardest. The capital city issues its second-ever "red alert" -- the first was announced on December 7, 2015. This alert triggers the odd-even license plate system to halve cars on the road, and recommends schools close. China's National Meteorological Center reports the pollution will stretch from Xi'an, across part of Central China, through Beijing and up into Shenyang and Harbin in China's frigid northeast. | BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned residents across a large part of its north on Friday to prepare for a wave of choking smog arriving over the weekend, the worst of which is expected over Beijing, prompting the capital to issue its second ever “red alert”.
The National Meteorological Centre said the smog would stretch from Xian, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, across part of central China, through Beijing and up into Shenyang and Harbin in the frigid northeast.
The air pollution would begin rolling in from about Saturday evening and last until Tuesday, with visibility in the worst affected areas such as Beijing likely to fall to less than 1 km (0.6 mile), it said.
The pollution index would probably exceed 500 in Beijing and parts of Hebei province, which surrounds the capital, it said. Residents are encouraged to remain indoors at levels higher than 300, according to government guidelines.
The Beijing city government issued its first “red alert” last week following criticism that previous bouts of smog had failed to trigger the highest warning level.
Beijing’s second red alert comes after a landmark climate agreement was reached in Paris earlier this month, setting a course to move away from a fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming.
A red alert is triggered when the government believes air quality will surpass a level of 200 on an air quality index that measures various pollutants for at least three days. The U.S. government deems a level of more than 200 “very unhealthy”.
In Beijing, a red alert means around half the vehicles are removed from the roads with an odd-even license plate system enforced. Schools are recommended to close and outdoor construction is banned.
“I’m very concerned about the pollution, I think the government needs to put more effort into solving this,” said Cheng Xianke, a 34-year-old Beijing software developer.
The Beijing environment bureau said the red alert would last from 7 a.m. Saturday to midnight on Tuesday. The official Xinhua news agency said the smog would be worse than last week.
“Parts of north China will see the worst smog so far this year from Saturday,” it said, citing the National Meteorological Centre.
Xinhua put blame for the smog on the over-reliance of much of northern China on coal for its energy needs and the heavy industries surrounding cities.
“From a long-term perspective, the improvement in air quality cannot just rely on temporary production suspensions or limitations for certain companies,” it said.
“Fundamentally it needs to come from an adjustment in industry and energy structure, as cutting emissions from the source is the permanent solution.”
Beijing is not the only city to have a colored alert system, and the restrictions rolled out in the most severe cases are broadly similar.
Hebei’s environment protection bureau said it was issuing an orange alert, the second-highest, starting from Friday. Schools will not close and there will be no vehicle restrictions but it recommends no outdoor activities and that people use public transport.
Hebei’s Baoding city has already begun enforcing rules even stricter than a red alert, an official surnamed Liu at the city’s environment protection bureau told Reuters, including a December-long enforcement of odd-even license plate restrictions and total ban on outdoor construction for the month.
After decades of unbridled economic growth, China’s leadership has vowed to crack down on severe levels of air, water and soil pollution, including the heavy smog that often blankets major cities.
City residents have previously criticized authorities for being too slow to issue red alerts for heavy smog.
Shanghai schools banned outdoor activities and authorities limited work at construction sites and factories earlier this week.
Environmental Protection Minister Chen Jining vowed this month to punish agencies and officials for any failure to implement a pollution emergency response plan quickly.
. | Environment Pollution | December 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(South China Morning Post)'] |
U.S. Department of Justice immigration Judge Jose A. Sanchez in Boston, Massachusetts, approves an extradition request from the government of Guatemala for Juan Alicio Samayoa Cabrera, who is wanted for trial for war crimes. | Accused Guatemalan war criminal Juan Alecio Samayoa Cabrera has been denied bail by an immigration judge in Boston.
Department of Homeland Security attorney Jennifer Mulcahy arguedJudge Jose Sanchez did not have the jurisdiction to release Samayoa, citing a law that strips judges of the power to grant bond if the detainee is accused of committing certain war crimes, like torture.
The accusations against the 67-year-old stem from the Guatemalan Civil War, which ran from 1960 to 1996.
“The documentary evidence," Mulcahy said, "shows [Samayoa] did in fact participate himself, order others, and incited extrajudicial killings, as well as acts that would satisfy the definition of torture.”
Authorities in Guatemala saySamayoa iswanted in connection with scores of murders, rapes and kidnappings in 1982 and 1983.
By his own admission, Samayoa led a paramilitary squad of 500 men, siding with the government in a war against guerrilla revolutionaries. He fled Guatemala a decade after taking up arms, entered the U.S. illegally and was denied asylum during the early 2000s.
Samayoa has lived in Providence since the early 1990s, and he was arrested for immigration violations in October. He has refused to comment on the case to WBUR.
On Thursdaymorning in immigration court, Samayoa’s attorney, Hans Bremer, painted his client as a reasonable actor during a horrible war.
The paramilitary unit "was basically a self-defense group that the neighborhood formed to avoid being slaughtered during the civil war,” Bremer said. “And they protected one another. It was a horrible time, we all know it was a horrible time, your honor."
Bremer claimed it's hard to imagine someone who has led a "wonderful life" absent of violent crime in the U.S., could be capable of the allegations Samayoa faces.
Though Samayoa has been in and out of immigration court since the 1990s, Bremer said this is the first mention of war crimes.
"At no point ... until very recently, did the government ever even insinuate that he had been involved in anything that they're now insinuating,"he said.
Judge Sanchez, however, agreed with the prosecution, ruling on Thursday that, due to the nature of the alleged crimes, he lacked the authority to grant Samayoa bond.
Sanchez will later decide whether Samayoa stays in the U.S., or if he leaves to face justice in Guatemala, where authorities say they await his arrival with an arrest warrant.
The next hearing in Samayoa's deportation proceedings is set for Jan. 9.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2018 | ['(WBUR News)'] |
Moments before he was due to be substituted, Mario Gómez's second-half header earns Germany a winning start against Portugal at the Arena Lviv in Lviv. | Last updated on 9 June 20129 June 2012.From the section Euro 2012
Mario Gomez's second-half header ensured Germany made a winning start to Euro 2012 after Portugal had threatened to frustrate Joachim Loew's side.
Germany dominated possession but struggled to create many chances until Gomez broke the deadlock from Sami Khedira's cross in the 72nd minute.
Portugal were disappointing and only came to life after Germany scored.
Pepe hit the bar with a rare first-half chance while Nani was also denied by the woodwork late on.
Portugal must bounce back against Denmark on 13 June, the same day Germany face Netherlands, who lost 1-0 to the Danes in their opening game. This match was billed as one of the most eagerly-awaited contests of the group stages.
"Portugal, for years and years, have not had a top centre forward. It's showed again. Nani does lovely things, Ronaldo does lovely things and the midfield is very creative. But, on the edge of the box, there is not one player who is a goal-hanger, and that is what they need. They need someone who's clever around the box."
But three-time world champions Germany and Euro 2004 runners-up Portugal struggled to entertain despite the wealth of talent on display.
The Germans included seven Bayern Munich players in the starting line-up and, judging by their first-half performance, they appeared to be suffering a hangover from their Champions League final defeat to Chelsea last month.
Portugal were unadventurous and clearly determined not to lose as they stifled Germany's attacking threat to such an extent that Loew's side only once seriously tested keeper Rui Patricio in the opening 45 minutes.
That came in the second minute when Gomez forced Patricio into a diving save after connecting with a cross by former Manchester City defender Jerome Boateng, playing despite Loew's threat to start Lars Bender at right-back after Boateng was pictured with a model in the early hours of last weekend.
New Arsenal recruit Lukas Podolski spurned a rare chance in the 31st minute when he blazed over from 15 yards after good work by Khedira, but it was Portugal, despite their defensive tactics, who went closest to breaking the deadlock before the interval.
With an average age of 25 years and 120 days, this was the youngest starting line-up for Germany at the European Championship finals.
With his club manager Jose Mourinho watching from the stand, Real Madrid's Pepe rattled the underside of the bar, after the German defence failed to deal with a corner, the ball bouncing on the line before being cleared.
Pepe thought he had scored but television replays showed the officials had made the right decision.
Nani struggled to make an impact, although his former Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo produced flashes of the form which saw him end the season with 62 goals for Real Madrid and Portugal.
Ronaldo summed up Portugal's performance in the space of a minute early in the second half. Having cut in off the left wing to force a save from Manuel Neuer, he delivered a dangerous cross which was headed behind by Mats Hummels. However, the resulting corner came to nothing. With the game drifting towards a draw, Boateng produced a goal-saving challenge to deny Ronaldo in the 64th minute before Gomez struck eight minutes later.
Gomez was seconds away from being replaced by Miroslav Klose when he headed home his 23rd international goal after Khedira's cross from the right.
Portugal produced a late rally - Nani hitting the woodwork with a cross-shot before Neuer came to Germany's rescue with a fine save to deny substitute Silvestre Varela - but it proved too little too late.
Germany: Neuer, Boateng, Hummels, Badstuber, Lahm, Khedira, Schweinsteiger, Muller (Bender 90), Ozil (Kroos 87), Podolski, Gomez (Klose 80).
Subs Not Used: Wiese, Gundogan, Schmelzer, Howedes, Schurrle, Mertesacker, Gotze, Reus, Zieler.
Booked: Badstuber, Boateng.
Goals: Gomez 72.
Portugal: Rui Patricio, Joao Pereira, Bruno Alves, Pepe, Fabio Coentrao, Meireles (Varela 80), Veloso, Joao Moutinho, Nani, Postiga (Nelson Oliveira 70), Ronaldo.
Subs Not Used: Eduardo, Custodio, Almeida, Quaresma, Ricardo Costa, Rolando, Ruben Micael, Miguel Lopes, Hugo Viana, Beto. | Sports Competition | June 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hits Lombok, Indonesia, destroying several houses. At least 16 people are killed and 160 others are injured. | Hundreds of hikers have been making their way down after spending a night trapped on an Indonesian volcano following an earthquake.
The 6.4 magnitude quake struck early on Sunday near Mount Rinjani on Lombok island, triggering landslides that cut off escape routes.
At least 16 people died and more than 330 were injured.
Rescue officials said many of the mostly foreign hikers were unlikely to reach the bottom before nightfall.
The national park authority said on Monday that a key route to the peak had been cleared and a helicopter was dropping supplies to hikers still on the slopes.
Rescue official Agus Hendra Sanjaya told AFP news agency that the hikers were believed to have enough supplies to last "another one to two days".
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, from the national disaster mitigation agency, said that when the quake struck there had been as many as 820 people on Mount Rinjani.
Among the foreigners climbing the volcano were 337 Thai tourists, with French, Dutch and Spanish making up the next-largest contingents.
The volcano, which rises 3,726m (12,224ft) above sea level and is the second-highest volcano in the country, is a favourite among sightseers.
A Malaysian tourist on a hiking trip to Mount Rinjani was among those killed. Another young Indonesian hiker was also killed by falling rocks.
US tourist John Robyn Buenavista described seeing people pinned to the ground by fallen debris.
"At one point, I saw people with half of their bodies stuck in the rocks and I just couldn't move. I felt paralysed and stopped moving. The guides were screaming, 'Don't die, don't die'," he told Reuters.
"One of the guides had to shake me and take me by the hand. He told me that I had to go, and that they would be OK."
A group of Malaysian tourists, who have now reached safety, had earlier appealed for help on Facebook.
Thousands of homes have been damaged and hundreds have been left homeless as substantial aftershocks rocked Lombok and neighbouring Bali island.
More than 5,000 villagers have been left in camps and the buildings destroyed included a health centre.
Mr Sutopo told local media they were in need of fresh water.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has been visiting survivors.
Rebecca Henschke, BBC Indonesian, Lombok
The only health centre in Sembalun at the foothills of Mount Rinjani was damaged in the earthquake, so tents have been set up to treat the injured until ambulances arrive to take them to the nearest hospital. Indonesians are no strangers to earthquakes but the power of the latest one has put people on edge. After each aftershock people run out into the open. Clouds are gathering over Mount Rinjani where rescue workers are slowly bringing down the remaining hikers via alternative routes not affected by landslides. In the tents among the injured is a porter who rushed down the mountain when the earthquake struck and is being treated for dehydration. Videos filmed by guides on mobile phones captured the terrifying moment when the quake hit with people yelling for everyone to come down. Yes. Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because it lies on the Ring of Fire - the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific rim.
More than half of the world's active volcanoes above sea level are part of the ring.
In 2004, a huge undersea earthquake off the coast of Aceh triggered a tsunami and killed more than 160,000 people in Indonesia alone. | Earthquakes | July 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Neptune Collonges ridden by Daryl Jacob wins the 2012 Grand National, but the race is tinged with sadness following the deaths of this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Synchronised and Yorkshire horse According To Pete. | Neptune Collonges, an unfancied 33-1 shot, won a thrilling renewal of the John Smith's Grand National at Aintree on Saturday – but the race was marred by the death of the Gold Cup winner Synchronised who fell at Becher's Brook.
According To Pete was a second fatality at the same fence.
Heavily-backed 8-1 joint-favourite Seabass led over the final fence under Katie Walsh, but tired on the run to the Elbow and it was Sunnyhillboy (16-1) who took up the running under Richie McLernon.
Sunnyhillboy looked to have the race in the bag when two lengths clear with just 100 yards left to run, but Neptune Collonges, under a determined Daryl Jacob, gradually closed in and grabbed the verdict by a nose right on the winning post in one of the closest finishes in the history of the race.
Seabass held on for third, five lengths adrift, with Cappa Bleu (16-1) fourth for each-way backers.
For the second time in three years, Ruby Walsh had been forced to miss the ride in the National after an earlier fall in the Aintree Hurdle. Two years ago, a tumble from Celestial Halo forced him on to the sidelines and history repeated itself as favourite Zarkandar came down heavily at the sixth flight.
Walsh was able to walk back to the weighing room but was signed off by the doctor for the rest of the day. Paul Townend replaced him aboard On His Own, who fell when in contention at halfway.
Victory effectively sealed the jump trainers' championship for Nicholls, but it had looked only an hour earlier as if rival Nicky Henderson had stolen a march when Oscar Whisky (9-4) took advantage of Zarkandar's fall to complete a lucrative treble for the stable who had also landed the first two contests.
Oscar Whisky had previously finished well held in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham but appreciated the step back in trip and showed plenty of determination under Barry Geraghty to deny Thousand Stars by a neck – the same one-two as in the race 12 months earlier.
Sprinter Sacre (1-7 favourite) outclassed his three rivals in the Maghull Novices' Chase, coasting home by 13 lengths from Toubab.
"Anything but perfection is going to be disappointing from him," said Henderson.
"He's growing up all the time and he can only get stronger. He's getting very sensible, his scope and swagger is quite extraordinary. He has this aura about him.
"We've always said he knows he's very, very good looking, but just because they are beautiful it doesn't always make them the best, but with him it does - everything fits, he has the athleticism and attitude."
The treble for Henderson and Geraghty had begun with Simonsig (4-9 favourite), another to follow up a Cheltenham Festival success when taking the opening Mersey Novice Hurdle. In victory, he earned a quote of 3-1 from Paddy Power for next year's Arkle Chase. | Sports Competition | April 2012 | ['(The Telegraph)', '(The Guardian)'] |
A helicopter with only the pilot onboard crashes into the Hudson River shortly after taking off from the West 30th Street Heliport in New York City injuring the pilot and the dockworker on the ground. | NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A helicopter went into the water of the Hudson River around 1:20 p.m. on Wednesday, near 30th Street and the Lincoln Tunnel.
Eric Morales, the 35-year-old pilot, was the only person on the helicopter when it went down. Shortly after the crash, he was rescued out of the water by a NY Waterway ferry crew.
A helicopter crashed into the Hudson River on May 15, 2019. (credit: NYPD Special Ops)
Morales did not appear to have suffered any serious injuries beyond a cut on his hand.
A second person at the helipad suffered injuries, possibly from debris from the crash, and was treated at the scene.
Morales said was coming in to land when he felt something wrong. He tried to pull up, but after that failed, he did his best not to hit the helipad where people were standing and the highway beyond.
WEB EXTRA – Chopper 2’s Dan Rice Shares Helicopter Safety Tips And Explains How Pilots Train For Crashes Like This: Witnesses say the chopper was coming into the West 30th Street helipad and fell short about 50 feet of the landing area. The helicopter had just taken off from the helipad before attempting to return.
A helicopter crashed into the Hudson River on May 15, 2019. (credit: NY Waterways)
According the helicopter’s operator, the chopper was re-positioning and was not on a flight at the time.
“I was recording the helicopter taking off and it did like a spin,” said Jack Lincoln from Middletown, N.J. “I guess the wind caught it and it just went right into the river. It happened so quickly we couldn’t believe what happened, but everybody turned around and said a helicopter crashed.”
Morales deployed floats along the helicopter’s landing skids which, when inflated, kept the helicopter from sinking in the water.
SEE IT: Video Of Helicopter Into Hudson
The chopper is operated by Zip Avation chopper service, which flies shuttle service between Manhattan and local airports for companies from Manhattan to local airports.
Eyewitness Talks On Chopper Crash Into Hudson River, Part 1
Additional Eyewitness Reports Of Chopper Crash Into Hudson River, Part 2
Eyewitness Talks On Chopper Crash Into Hudson River, Part 3
The NY Waterway ferry crew aboard the Gov. Thomas Kean boat that rescued the pilot was carrying passengers between West 39th Street in Manhattan and 14th Street in Hoboken when they saw the helicopter go down.
This incident was the second rescue in 10 years for Ferry Capt. Adam Sciaino. Deckhand Edwin Montoya deployed the Jason’s Cradle rescue device off the bow of the ferry to pull the pilot aboard.
There are currently 2 non-life-threatening injuries reported on scene of a helicopter crash into the Hudson River – the pilot and one heliport worker injured by debris. #FDNY operations continue. pic.twitter.com/Z1hA2PBKMC
— FDNY (@FDNY) May 15, 2019
The southbound lane of FDR Drive was closed for about three hours as authorities investigated the crash, but reopened to traffic around 4:00 p.m.
The FAA responded to the scene and has launched an investigation. There was no indication drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash. | Air crash | May 2019 | ['(CBS New York)'] |
The Israeli military announces it will charge an army sniper with the killing of two Palestinian women during the Gaza offensive. | Jerusalem (CNN) -- An Israeli soldier faces a manslaughter charge in the death of a Palestinian waving a white flag during a three-week incursion into Gaza, the Israeli military said Tuesday.
The criminal indictment is one of three legal actions taken by the Israeli military for incidents that occurred during Operation Cast Lead. More than 1,100 Palestinians died during the operation, which began late in 2008 and ended early in 2009. It was intended to halt the firing of missiles from Gaza into Israel.
The manslaughter charge was filed after an investigation into the shooting, the Israel Defense Forces said in a news release.
"This decision is based on evidence that the soldier, who was serving as a designated marksman, deliberately targeted an individual walking with a group of people waving a white flag without being ordered or authorized to do so," the IDF said.
Conflict between the testimonies of Palestinian witnesses and military personnel made it "impossible to make a criminal connection" between this incident and an incident described by those Palestinian witnesses in which Israeli soldiers allegedly fired at people waving white flags, the IDF said.
In another incident, a battalion commander authorized sending a Palestinian man into a house sheltering terrorists next to his own house in order to persuade them to leave, the news release said. The commander was indicted "because he deviated from authorized and appropriate IDF behavior" and ignored rules on the use of civilians in military operations, it said.
But the release did not appear to say what charges he faces, and the IDF did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking clarification.
Tuesday's news release also said a criminal investigation has been ordered into an incident in which a residence holding about 100 members of a family was struck from the air.
In a separate case, an investigation into an assertion that the Ibrahim Al-Makadma mosque had been attacked concluded that that did not happen, but that an aerial strike near the mosque had occurred.
"The aerial strike targeted a terror operative involved in the launching of rockets toward Israel who was standing outside of the mosque," the news release said. "Injuries caused to civilians inside were unintentional and caused by shrapnel that penetrated the mosque."
But the investigation concluded that the officer who ordered the attack had "failed to exercise appropriate judgment" and, as a result, will not be allowed to serve in similar positions of command.
Legal measures were deemed unnecessary, however. "The military advocate general decided that the attack did not violate international laws of warfare because the attack did not target the mosque, rather it targeted a terror operative, and when the attack was authorized, no possibility of harming civilians was identified," it said.
Israeli investigators looked into more than 150 reports and conducted nearly 50 probes of incidents during Operation Cast Lead.
Earlier this year, the Israeli military disciplined two officers -- a brigadier general and a colonel -- for allowing artillery shells to be fired into a populated area of Gaza.
But Palestinians said Israel's actions were unsatisfactory.
"I think Israel should take all responsibility for all the war crimes that it is responsible for during its unjustified war in Gaza, and what they just announced is too little too late," Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib told CNN.
The IDF news release said that Israel carried out the operation after enduring eight years of rocket attacks from Gaza. Israel, it said, had "practiced a policy of restraint for a long period of time."
It accused the Palestinian movement Hamas of terrorizing the population and said the crowded urban centers of Gaza created a complex security situation.
More than 1,400 Palestinians died in Israel's incursion, according to officials in Gaza. The Israeli military said 1,166 people were killed, 60 percent of whom were "terror operatives."
The 575-page Goldstone report -- approved by the U.N. Council for Human Rights in 2009 -- accused both Israel and Hamas of "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during the three-week offensive that ended in January 2009.
The report, known for its author, South African jurist Richard Goldstone, called on both Israel and Hamas to independently investigate the alleged human rights violations cited in the report. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(The Guardian)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
The United States Senate approves a motion giving President Barack Obama fast track authority to complete trade negotiations with 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. | The Senate voted Wednesday to give President Barack Obama “fast track” authority to negotiate trade deals—one of the final steps in a long political battle that pitted the White House against House Democrats.
The bill—which passed 60-38 in the Senate—will be sent to the president’s desk later this afternoon, but it was not immediately clear when he would sign it.
Unions and most congressional Democrats say free-trade deals cost U.S. jobs and reward countries that pollute and mistreat workers. Obama and most Republican leaders say U.S. products must reach broader markets.
After killing one version of fast track (also known as Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA), the House eventually voted last week to pass the measure.
The Senate plans to vote on three other trade-related bills. One would extend a job retraining program for workers displaced by international trade. That program requires House approval, too.
Read MorePacific trade: Why DC is fighting about ‘fast-track’
On Tuesday, Senators voted 60-37 to streamline the debate process—a key victory for the Obama-backed measure.
Senate passage Wednesday of fast-track authority boosts Obama’s hopes for a 12-nation Pacific-rim trade agreement. Members include Japan, Malaysia, Mexico and Canada.
In addition to the traditional arguments for trade deals, administration officials and many Republicans contend that the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would help underscore the U.S. pivot toward Asia—and establish Washington’s system in a part of the world increasingly influenced by Chinese interests.
Read MoreSenators rake in big money from pro-trade donors
TPA means that the White House can present its finalized trade deals to Congress, and the legislature is only given the option of voting for or against the agreement—not amending the terms.
Most trade experts interviewed by CNBC say that would-be trade partners are unwilling to sign onto an agreement if the president isn’t given fast track status: They fear that Congress would otherwise disassemble any hard-fought terms. Administration officials, however, have said they would not be wholly stymied if TPA fails.
The TPP, potentially a legacy-defining achievement for Obama, would be the biggest free trade agreement in a generation. It would cover 40 percent of the world economy and raise annual global economic output by nearly $300 billion.
Negotiators say a deal on the TPP, which would open new markets for U.S. exporters such as Caterpillar and Microsoft, could be wrapped up within weeks once countries are sure U.S. lawmakers will not pick the deal apart afterward. | Government Policy Changes | June 2015 | ['(CNBC)'] |
Bomb attacks on a Shia mosque and pilgrims at Shreikhan village near Mosul kill at least 36 people as Iraq's largest Muslim community marks one of its biggest feasts, gathering in Karbala to mark the birth of Muhammad alMahdi. |
Iraqi police say 36 people have been killed in bomb attacks targeting Shia Muslims.
In one attack, 30 people died near the northern city of Mosul when a car bomb exploded outside a mosque during a funeral service. In Baghdad three bombs killed six people returning from a pilgrimage. The attacks come as Shia Muslims across the country are marking one of their biggest religious holidays. Iraq has seen frequent sectarian strife between its Shia and Sunni Muslims. The mosque attack near Mosul - which is about 400km (250 miles) north-west of Baghdad - took place in a village named by Reuters news agency as Shreikhan. It killed 30 people and wounded at least 61, and police said the number of casualties was likely to rise. Mosul is still one of the most troubled cities in Iraq, a place where Sunni insurgency is still believed to be strong. US and Iraqi officials have described the city as al-Qaeda in Iraq's last major urban stronghold in Iraq. City authorities have urged citizens to donate blood and appealed for construction vehicles to lift debris trapping victims of the attack, according to Reuters. "I was in the house when this explosion happened," said eyewitness Khalil Qasim, 19, speaking through his tears. "I hurried to the mosque to search for my father in the ruins... I found him seriously wounded, and took him to hospital, but he died." News agencies report that most people in the village are from Iraq's ethnic Turkmen community and Shia by religion. Turkmens, who also count Sunnis and Christians among their number, are a minority in Mosul, a city of about 1.8 million people which is mainly populated by Sunni Arabs. Pilgrims
In Baghdad, six Shia pilgrims were killed in roadside bomb explosions. They were returning from Karbala, a holy city south of Baghdad. They had been among hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims who gather in Karbala to mark the birth of Mohammed al-Mehdi - the 12th and last Shia Imam, known as the Hidden Imam. These pilgrims have often been targeted by attacks in the past. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Iraqi pilgrims gather in Karbala
More than 20,000 Iraqi police have been deployed to protect them. Many Iraqis say the government has yet to prove it is in full control of security. The BBC's Natalya Antelava in Baghdad says the government is accusing Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda of trying to reignite sectarian tensions in the country. But while the majority of attacks in recent days have been aimed at Shia communities, some Sunnis have also been targeted, our correspondent says. Last Friday, a series of apparently co-ordinated bombs outside five Shia mosques in Baghdad killed at least 29 people and injured more than 130. But just two days ago a bomb killed three and wounded many more in one of Baghdad's predominantly Sunni neighbourhoods. | Armed Conflict | August 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-il on December 17 is announced by Korean Central Television. | Secretive nation’s “Dear Leader” dies after massive heart attack, prompting outpouring of national grief on state media.
North Korea has declared a period of national mourning following the death of leader Kim Jong-il, who died at the age of 69 after suffering a heart attack, North Korean state media announced.
Kim, known in the communist country as the “Dear Leader”, died on Saturday aboard a train during a trip out of Pyongyang, the state-run KCNA news agency said on Monday.
“Obviously there will be a long period of public mourning in the country, but the sense is that at least he organised his succession with [his son] Kim Jong-un taking over.”
– Don Kirk, Christian Science Monitor
“It is the biggest loss for the party … and it is our people and nation’s biggest sadness,” a tearful presenter said as she announced the death on state television.
The presenter also urged the country, people and military to “faithfully revere respectable comrade Kim Jong-un” – Kim’s third son and apparent heir.
“At the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un, we have to change sadness to strength and courage and overcome today’s difficulties,” she said.
Kim Jong-il last year appointed Kim Jong-un to a number of high-ranking posts in moves seen as positioning him as his assumed successor after years of speculation about the elder Kim’s fading health.
Footage broadcast on CCTV, China’s main news agency, showed interviews with North Koreans barely able to contain their grief, while the tightly government-controlled KCNA described the entire nation as being in “indescribable sorrow”.
“I can’t believe it. How can he go like this? What are we supposed to do?” one woman in Pyongyang was quoted as saying.
The announcement of Kim’s death prompted South Korea to place its military on emergency alert, while shares on the stock market in Seoul fell amid uncertainty over the stability of the secretive nuclear-armed nation.
North Korea was later reported to have test-fired a short-range missile off its east coast, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
China, considered North Korea’s closest ally, said it was shocked to learn of Kim’s death.
“We hereby express our deep condolences on his demise and send sincere regards to the North Korean people,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.
A White House spokesman said it was closely monitoring reports of Kim’s death, while Russia said it expected that Kim’s death would not affect “friendly relations” between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Reclusive ‘Dear Leader’
Kim was believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media.
But the leader, reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine, was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.
“Just a couple of days ago, it was publicised that he was visiting a military installation,” Don Kirk of the Christian Science Monitor told Al Jazeera.
“Obviously there will be a long period of public mourning in the country, but the sense is that at least he organised his succession with [his son] Kim Jong-un taking over,” he said.
An autopsy was performed on Sunday, and the North said the period of national mourning would be in effect from December 17 to 29. KCNA said that Kim’s funeral would take place on December 28.
‘Axis of evil’
Kim took power in 1994 upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, who had led North Korea since the Korean peninsula was split in half by the Korean War. Although the two sides signed a ceasefire in 1953 they remain technically at war.
While Kim Il-sung retained the title of “Eternal President”, Kim took the posts of chairman of the national defence commission, commander of the Korean People’s Army and head of the ruling Worker’s Party.
Kim Jong-un to lead reclusive North Korea
He continued his father’s policy of “military first”, devoting much of the country’s scarce resources to its troops and building the world’s fifth largest military even as many of his country’s 23 million population suffered from a prolonged famine.
Kim also sought to develop the country’s nuclear arms arsenal, which culminated in North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion, an underground blast conducted in October 2006. Another test followed in 2009.
Alarmed, regional leaders negotiated a disarmament-for-aid pact that the North signed in 2007 and began implementing later that year. However, the process continues to be stalled, even as diplomats work to restart negotiations.
North Korea, long hampered by sanctions and unable to feed its own people, is desperate for aid.
Flooding in the 1990s that destroyed the largely mountainous country’s arable land left millions hungry.
Following the famine, the number of North Koreans fleeing the country through China rose dramatically, with many telling tales of hunger, political persecution and rights abuses that officials in Pyongyang emphatically denied.
Kim often blamed the US for his country’s troubles and his regime routinely derides Washington-allied South Korea as a “puppet” of the Western superpower.
George W Bush, the former US president, in 2002 denounced North Korea as a member of an “axis of evil” that also included Iran and Iraq. He later described Kim as a “tyrant” who starved his people so he could build nuclear weapons.
Death of North Korean leader and succession concerns cast doubt on future of fragile nuclear disarmament negotiations.
Governments and diplomats extend condolences and caution during what one official calls the “sad suffering of a people”.
Made a general in 2010 despite no military experience, life of Kim Jong-il’s youngest son has been shrouded in mystery.
North Korea state media built an elaborate cult of personality around the leader’s skills and accomplishments. | Famous Person - Death | December 2011 | ['(CNN)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Protests against President Patrice Talon's re-election bid in the city of Savè result in the death of one person, as troops attempt to disperse protesters with the use of weapons. Six people are also injured by gunfire. | 2 months ago Thu 08th April 2021 | 06:33 PM Save, Benin, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Apr, 2021 ) :One person was killed and six were wounded by gunfire on Thursday, a local health official said, after troops in Benin cleared protesters in a flashpoint town three days before President Patrice Talon seeks re-election. Protests have erupted in opposition bastions ahead of Sunday's vote, which critics say is skewed in Talon's favour after the main opposition leaders were sidelined in a crackdown. A column of military vehicles arrived early Thursday to disperse demonstrators in the central city of Save, a flarepoint of protests two years ago, where makeshift barricades of trees and tyres blocked a major road. Troops initially fired tear gas, an AFP correspondent at the scene said, and then more detonations were heard as a soldier fired in the air from an armoured vehicle. It was not clear if they were live or anti-riot rounds. The director of a local dispensary in Save said he had taken in one dead and six wounded by gunshots. "We admitted them at our clinic... | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2021 | ['(UrduPoint)'] |
Fernando Torres scores twice, while David Silva and Cesc Fàbregas also score, to knock the Republic of Ireland out of the tournament in Gdańsk. | Last updated on 14 June 201214 June 2012.From the section Euro 2012
Fernando Torres scored twice as Spain knocked Republic of Ireland out of Euro 2012 with a dominant display.
Torres' powerful finish from 10 yards opened the scoring inside four minutes.
David Silva's composed effort just after the restart doubled the advantage, Torres poked in a third after a quick break and substitute Cesc Fabregas drove in a fourth.
The victory was enough to move Spain above Croatia, who they face on Monday, at the top of Group C.
The Republic's previous successes in major competitions had been based on organisation and discipline.
But their performance in their first major tournament in a decade can be summed up by the fact that, including their 3-1 defeat to Croatia, they have conceded a goal inside four minutes at the start of each half they have played.
Before their sobering loss to Croatia, the Irish had never conceded three goals in a major competition but they have now done so twice in five days on the way to losing consecutive matches in a major tournament for the first time. For Spain, who drew their opening game 1-1 with Italy, this was a ruthless reminder of their ambition to become the first team to win three consecutive major tournaments, 24 hours after Germany drew the focus with a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands.
"Players like Given, Duff, Dunne, Keane - I gave them their debuts. I've been involved with them for a long time. They won't want to retire on the back of that performance, that's for sure. I would be worried if I was Italy, because Ireland are going into the last game with nothing to play for except pride. So we've got nothing to worry about. We can go and hunt them down and have a go at Italy. If any of the lads are thinking of packing it in they will want to do better than tonight."
Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque was also boosted by the performance of Torres, who replaced Fabregas in the starting line-up and scored his first competitive international goals since September 2010.
For all the pre-match rhetoric, and a history of battling performances by the Republic, the concession of a yet another early goal left Giovanni Trapattoni's game-plan looking redundant. Simon Cox, drafted in to replace Kevin Doyle up front only to be withdrawn for Jonathan Walters at the interval, forced an early save from Iker Casillas but the defending champions took just three minutes to move in front.
Richard Dunne did well to block Silva after Andres Iniesta had guided in an intelligent pass, but Torres drifted around Stephen Ward before thumping a shot over Shay Given.
From that point on, Spain were able to strangle the game, controlling possession deep inside the opposition half.
When the Irish did manage to win the ball back, wingers Damien Duff and Aidan McGeady were generally too deep to contribute in attack and Robbie Keane was invariably too isolated to be picked out.
Silva had a low shot held by Given and Torres prodded wide at the near post before Keith Andrews had a shot deflected wide and Dunne missed with a header at the other end.
Iniesta had a powerful effort pushed away by Given, Silva headed over and Gerard Pique failed to make the most of a free header from Silva's corner.
When Cox finally picked out Keane in a dangerous area, the Irish captain's effort was easily blocked by Pique.
The pattern was never likely to change and after Given palmed away an Iniesta shot three minutes after half-time, Silva calmly waited for the room to guide a shot into the bottom corner.
With just over 20 minutes remaining, Silva clipped a ball in behind the defence for Torres and the Chelsea striker prodded past Given.
And there was still time for substitute Fabregas, who had come on for Torres, to drive in a powerful cross-shot to add a fourth and further underline Spanish superiority. | Sports Competition | June 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
China executes serial killer Gao Chengyong, who murdered eleven girls and women between 1988 and 2002. | A Chinese serial killer convicted of murdering 11 girls and women between 1988 and 2002 has been executed. Gao Chengyong, dubbed "Jack the Ripper" by Chinese media, followed his victims home before robbing, raping and murdering them. He cut their throats and mutilated their bodies. Gao, a married father of two, was arrested in 2016 at the grocery store he ran in Baiyin, Gansu province. Police managed to trace the 53-year-old through a series of DNA tests.
Gao's first murder was in May 1988, the year his son was born.
A 23-year-old woman was found in Baiyin with 26 stab wounds to her body.
Subsequent murders followed a similar pattern, with the killer often targeting young women who lived alone.
Gao also cut off parts of his victim's reproductive organs, according to the Beijing Youth Daily. His youngest victim was eight years old.
Women in Baiyin would not walk alone in the streets without being accompanied by male relatives or friends after the spate of attacks. The killings stopped in 2002 but it was only years later that a breakthrough came, when Gao's uncle was arrested for a minor crime.
He gave a DNA sample which police then linked to the crimes, determining they must have been committed by a relative - which was later confirmed to be Gao.
He was sentenced to death last year. The court in Baiyin called his actions "despicable". His execution on Thursday was announced on the court's Weibo account.
It is not clear how the execution was carried out, though death sentences in China are mostly carried out by lethal injection or a firing squad.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò accuses Pope Francis of covering up sexual abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick. Pope Francis declines to comment on Viganò's accusations. | In the midst of an already contentious visit to a country ripe with anger over neglected abuses within the Catholic church, Pope Francis declined to address the contents of a letter released Sunday morning alleging that he knew about sex abuse allegations against former Washington, D.C., archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for years and didn’t take proper action.
The 11-page letter, penned by former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, was published on two conservative websites often critical of the pope. It alleges that both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict knew that McCarrick -- who resigned from his D.C. post in July after he was accused of abusing adults and minors -- was a “serial predator.”
ABC News could not independently confirm the letter’s claims.
On the papal plane after his second day in Ireland, Pope Francis declined to refute or confirm the allegations mentioned in the letter, urging the journalists aboard the plane only to consider the source and make their own judgment.
“I will not say a single word about this,” Pope Francis said, adding that it “speaks for itself.”
In it, Viganò alleges that he told Pope Francis in 2013, “I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the Congregation for Bishops there is a dossier this thick about him. He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.”
Viganò alleges that McCarrick was sanctioned at one point by Pope Benedict -- though he admits it was after “incredible delay” -- but was “rehabilitated” under Pope Francis.
“[Pope Francis] must honestly state when he first learned about the crimes committed by McCarrick, who abused his authority with seminarians and priests,” wrote Viganò, a well-known conservative official who is critical of the pope’s more-liberal approaches on social issues.
He asserted that the pope only took action to discipline McCarrick after media reports began to circulate this summer and, in order to "tear down the conspiracy of silence ... not so dissimilar from the one that prevails in the mafia." Viganò called for Pope Francis to resign.
“Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them,” wrote Viganò.
McCarrick, 88, held his position as archbishop until an accusation that he molested a 16-year-old altar boy while serving at the Archdiocese of New York was found credible by the church and a July report from The New York Times found that McCarrick coerced seminarians into sexual relationships.
The Archdiocese of Washington rejected the idea that McCarrick's successor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, ever received reports about McCarrick.
"In spite of what Archbishop Vigano’s memo indicates, Cardinal Wuerl did not receive any documentation or information during his time in Washington regarding any actions taken against Archbishop McCarrick," Chieko Noguchi, director of Media and Public Relations at the Archdiocese of Washington, said in a statement.
Reached for comment, McCarrick’s attorney Barry Coburn called Viganò’s words “serious allegations.”
“Archbishop McCarrick, like any other person, has a right to due process. He looks forward to invoking that right at the appropriate time,” Coburn said in a statement.
Just hours before addressing the letter, the pope made an unprecedented plea for forgiveness at his open air mass in Dublin, giving a detailed list of sins committed by the Church, including abuses of power, conscience, and sexual abuse.
McCarrick was the first cardinal in history to resign over sex abuse allegations, and did so a few weeks before a grand jury report in Pennsylvania found that over 300 “predator priests” statewide had abused nearly 1,000 victims over eight decades -- all of which contributed to the sentiment of anger Pope Francis confronted in Ireland over the weekend, a country that has also been rocked by revelations of wrongdoing in the Church.
Max Krzyzanowski, a protester and organizer of "Nope to the Pope," a protest in Dublin pinned to the papal visit, said he expects it to get messier before the system cleans up.
"I think he knows a great deal more than is in the public domain. I think that many things, many secrets are going to be revealed over the next years," Krzyzanowski said.
Viganò’s letter also makes clear he differs sharply from the pope on homosexuality and the church. More than once, he blamed the widespread sexual abuse in dioceses across the world on the “homosexual networks” that “strangle innocent victims and priestly vocations, and are strangling the entire Church.”
“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” Viganò wrote in the letter.
Pope Francis -- who famously said of gay priests, “Who am I to judge?” -- was caught up in a public confrontation with Viganò once before during a trip to the U.S. in 2015, when Viganò arranged for him to meet with Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who refused to give same-sex couples their marriage licenses after the Supreme Court declared it legal.
Francis also addressed the issue of gay parents in the same interview Sunday while he was leaving Ireland. He gave his advice to parents of a child who comes out as gay, saying, "There are many things one can do with psychiatry, to understand things. Another thing is when it shows itself after 20 years of age or so. But I’ll never say that silence is a remedy." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2018 | ['(ABC News)'] |
SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to supersynchronous orbit an Airbus-built communications satellite SES-11 for Luxembourg-based SES, and EchoStar 105 for U.S.-headquartered EchoStar. It's the third time when a Falcon 9 first stage is re-used. | Maintaining a brisk flight rate three days after its last launch, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 booster powered by a reused first stage into orbit Wednesday evening from Florida with an Airbus-built communications satellite for SES and EchoStar.
The successful launch placed the 5.7-ton (5.2-metric ton) satellite in a “supersynchronous” orbit arcing thousands of miles above Earth, and the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to landing on a football field-sized barge holding position around 200 miles (300 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral.
Wednesday’s mission was the 15th Falcon 9 flight of the year, and the second in three days, coming on the heels of a launch Monday from California’s Central Coast.
Owned by SES, the payload carried into orbit Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center will broadcast television programming, relay video for cable outlets, and support data services over the Americas during a mission expected to last at least 15 years.
Luxembourg-based SES and Colorado-headquartered EchoStar Corp. will share the satellite’s communications capacity in a “condosat” arrangement announced in 2014. SES calls its portion of the spacecraft SES 11, and EchoStar named the mission EchoStar 105.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 39A at the Florida spaceport at 6:53 p.m. EDT (2253 GMT) Wednesday after a textbook countdown, climbed into a clear evening sky just before sunset and turned on an easterly heading as it soared into the stratosphere.
Nine Merlin 1D engines generated 1.7 million pounds of window-rattling thrust as the Falcon 9 rocket departed the Kennedy Space Center, chugging a super-chilled, densified mixture of RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen.
The first stage’s nine main engines shut down around two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. Moments later, the 14-story booster dropped away from the Falcon 9’s second stage, then flipped around to fly tail first, setting up for a scorching re-entry from an altitude of 74 miles (119 kilometers).
Grid fins unfurled from the cigar-shaped booster to help guide it back to Earth, and three of the first stage engines reignited for an entry burn, followed by a final braking maneuver with one of the Merlin engines as it approached SpaceX’s drone ship, dubbed “Of Course I Still Love You.”
Four landing legs made of carbon fiber and aluminum honeycomb extended just before the rocket touched down on the floating barge in rough seas, notching the 18th intact recovery of a Falcon 9 first stage booster in 23 tries.
The landing at sea completed a seemingly flawless re-flight for the first stage booster, which logged its first mission in February sending a Dragon supply ship on a trajectory toward the International Space Station, then returned to Cape Canaveral for recovery.
Going into Wednesday’s flight, SES had experience launching a satellite on a previously-flown Falcon 9 booster. The global satellite operator put one of its payloads on the first Falcon 9 launch with a reused first stage March 30, making history and going far in demonstrating SpaceX’s concept for reusing rocket hardware, a capability the company says will slash the cost of spaceflight.
Another reused booster launched June 23 with the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite, and the SES 11/EchoStar 105 spacecraft launched Wednesday was the third payload to fly on a previously-launched Falcon 9.
A camera affixed to the Falcon 9’s upper stage continued streaming live views from space as a vacuum-rated Merlin engine ignited two times to propel the SES 11/EchoStar 105 satellite into orbit.
The spacecraft deployed from the launcher around 36 minutes into the mission as it flew off the east coast of Africa. Ground controllers received the first signals from the SES 11/EchoStar 105 satellite a few minutes later, and engineers confirmed it was operating normally.
Publicly-available U.S. military tracking data indicated the satellite was released in an elliptical transfer orbit ranging in altitude between 195 miles (314 kilometers) and 25,181 miles (40,526 kilometers). The military’s space surveillance network reported the satellite was orbiting at a tilt of 27.9 degrees to the equator.
Over the next couple of weeks, the spacecraft’s own liquid-fueled engine will conduct three apogee burns and one perigee burn at the high and low points of its orbit, eventually settling in a circular geostationary orbit 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) directly over the equator.
The satellite’s speed at that altitude will match the rate of Earth’s rotation, and it will hover over an operating post at 105 degrees west longitude, entering commercial service by late November.
SES will take charge of the satellite’s 24 C-band transponders, and EchoStar will control 24 Ku-band transponders.
“From our point-of-view, it’s basically for the U.S. video neighborhood, and specifically for the delivery of HD and Ultra HD,” said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer, in an interview before the launch.
“We’re trying to utilize this for the development of Ultra HD, trying to encourage the usage and distribution of that. We’re covering the whole of (the continental United States), plus Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean as well, so it has very good coverage.”
SES will primarily use the satellite to relay video programming for cable channels.
EchoStar says it will employ the relay station’s Ku-band instruments for video distribution and data services for media companies, corporate customers, and the U.S. government and military over the United States, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
The newest member of the SES and EchoStar fleets will replace the AMC 15 and AMC 18 satellites launched in 2004 and 2006.
Halliwell has been one of SpaceX’s most loyal proponents in the commercial satellite business.
He said SES did not receive a significant financial discount from SpaceX in switching the SES 11/EchoStar 105 launch to a reused booster, but the agreement did result in an earlier launch date.
The roughly 11,500-pound (5,200-kilogram) satellite, built by Airbus Defense and Space, was originally supposed to launch about one year ago, according to Halliwell. But a Falcon 9 rocket explosion on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in September 2016 grounded SpaceX missions more than four months, and re-shuffled the company’s manifest.
So SES jumped at the the availability of a recovered rocket in SpaceX’s inventory to ensure its next satellite could launch as soon as possible.
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said earlier this year the company wants to recoup a $1 billion investment in making the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage recoverable and reusable, so prices will not drop significantly in the short-term. In future years, Musk said Falcon 9s could be landed and re-launched within 24 hours, cutting costs to little more than the price of propellant.
Karim Michel Sabbagh, CEO of SES, is pushing for a 50 percent reduction in Falcon 9 prices, and he is not alone. A Falcon 9 launch currently sells for around $61 million commercially, according to SpaceX’s website.
“Obviously, we’d love to see that,” Halliwell said, sharing his personal prediction on future launch price movement. “I would love to, but I think we’re going to have about the sort of numbers that we’ve got … Will demand increase? Will demand drive the pricing associated with it? I don’t know. What does the cost need to be to be self-sustaining? I don’t know the answer to any of this. Will it come down to $30 million? I don’t think so.”
While many space industry officials and observers have called attention to the impact of reused rockets on launch prices, Halliwell said there is another, less discussed benefit: launch availability.
“I think, in the long term, they’ve got so much hardware which is coming back, it has to help,” he said. “It has to make the cadence improve, and the fact they’ve got two (launch sites), and maybe in the future four — between pad 40, 39A, Vandenberg and Texas — wow, that should be good. For us, it gives us a better chance to get into space on time.”
According to Halliwell, most satellites spend months in storage between the end of construction and shipment to their launch base. Such delays come with financial pitfalls for satellite owners, who have already paid for the spacecraft and launch services, but are not earning revenue with their new asset.
SES is considering launching its next satellite — SES 16 developed in partnership with the government of Luxembourg — with a reused Falcon 9 booster in January.
SpaceX plans approximately five more missions before the end of the year — four from Florida and one from California — potentially including the inaugural test flight of the company’s huge Falcon Heavy rocket.
Next on the company’s manifest is the launch of the Koreasat 5A commercial communications satellite for direct-to-home television broadcasting in the Asia-Pacific region, and maritime relay services across Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.
The Koreasat 5A mission is set for liftoff no earlier than Oct. 30 from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. | New achievements in aerospace | October 2017 | ['(Space Flight Now)'] |
Shots are fired into the air in a confrontation between US and Pakistani forces; US forces retreat; Pakistan denies involvement of their forces. | Pakistani troops have fired shots into the air to stop US troops crossing into the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, local officials say.
Reports say nine US helicopters landed on the Afghan side of the border and US troops then tried to cross the border.
South Waziristan is one of the main areas from which Islamist militants launch attacks into Afghanistan.
The incident comes amid growing anger in Pakistan over increasingly aggressive US attacks along the border.
The latest confrontation began at around midnight, local people say.
They say seven US helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range.
US troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local Pakistani officials say.
Reports say the firing lasted for several hours. Local people evacuated their homes and tribesmen took up defensive positions in the mountains.
The incident happened close to the town of Angoor Adda, some 30km (20 miles) from Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.
A Pakistani military spokesman in Islamabad confirmed that there was firing but denied that Pakistani troops were involved.
Diplomatic fury
It emerged last week that US President George W Bush has in recent months authorised military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad.
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is a growing American conviction that Pakistan is either unwilling or unable to eliminate militant sanctuaries in its border area.
There have been a number of missile attacks aimed at militants in Pakistan territory in recent weeks.
Pakistan reacted with diplomatic fury when US helicopters landed troops in South Waziristan on 3 September. It was the first ground assault by US troops in Pakistan.
Locals in the Musa Nikeh area said American soldiers attacked a target with gunfire and bombs, and said women and children were among some 20 civilians who died in the attack.
In the latest incident, the tribesmen say they grabbed their guns and took up defensive positions after placing their women and children out of harm's way.
Pakistan's army has warned that the aggressive US policy will widen the insurgency by uniting the tribesmen with the Taleban. Last week the army chief declared that Pakistan would defend the country's territorial integrity at all cost, although the prime minister has since said this would have to be through diplomatic channels rather than military retaliation. What are these? | Armed Conflict | September 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Two trains are involved in a head–on collision near Sloterdijk, west of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, injuring at least 117, with 56 serious injuries. | About 125 people have been injured, at least 13 of them seriously, when two passenger trains collided in the Amsterdam area, Dutch officials say. They say the accident happened near Sloterdijk, to the west of the capital. Neither train was derailed, and footage from the scene appeared to show minor damage.
The injured were taken to hospital by ambulance. It was not immediately known what caused the head-on collision on Saturday evening. The crash involving an inter-city train and a local stopping service happened at about 18:30 local time (16:30 GMT). "We assume many people were thrown around the train by the crash: against walls, seats and other people," police spokesman Ed Kraszewski told Amsterdam's AT5 news station.
He added that some of the victims had broken bones and also sustained neck injuries. All the passengers were later helped out of the carriages. One of the trains was serving the cities of Den Helder and Nijmegen, while the other ran between Amsterdam and Uitgeest, railway official said. The accident happened at a busy part of the Dutch rail network, disrupting services between Amsterdam and The Hague and also to Schiphol airport.
An investigation into the cause of the collision is now under way.
| Train collisions | April 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Channel Asia News)'] |
Federal district judge Tanya S. Chutkan blocks the four federal executions scheduled for July and August including that of Daniel Lewis Lee, whose execution was scheduled for later today per the Chicago U.S. Court of Appeals' ruling Sunday. Judge Chutkan said this will allow continuation of the condemned men’s legal challenges to the new lethal injection protocol. She stated scientific evidence before the court overwhelmingly indicates the 2019 protocol is very likely to cause extreme pain and needless suffering during their executions. The federal government is likely to appeal her ruling. | Three executions are scheduled this week at the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., but legal challenges make it unclear when — or if — they'll go forward.
Michael Conroy/AP
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Three executions are scheduled this week at the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., but legal challenges make it unclear when — or if — they'll go forward.
Updated at 12:30 pm ET
A federal judge in Washington has blocked federal executions scheduled for this week, citing concerns that the lethal injection protocol involved is "very likely to cause extreme pain and needless suffering."
Judge Tanya Chutkan said the last-minute ruling only hours before executions were set to resume for the first time in 17 years was "unfortunate," but she blamed the Justice Department for racing ahead before legal challenges had been fully aired.
The judge said the prison's plan to use a single drug, pentobarbital, could cause pulmonary edema, producing a sense that the condemned men were drowning. That would violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, she said. The federal government has appealed her ruling. The decision came amid a wave of litigation involving family members of victims and religious advisers to the men on federal death row. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court may have the final word.
Three deaths scheduled this week
Authorities had been on track for the execution of Daniel Lee on Monday afternoon.
Lee, 47, had been sentenced to death after the brutal 1996 killings of three people in a robbery to finance a white supremacist cause. Relatives of his victims had petitioned a court to delay the execution, citing the difficulty of traveling to the federal death chamber in Terre Haute, Ind., during the coronavirus pandemic.
A lower court judge agreed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit overruled the district judge and paved the way for the lethal injection process to proceed. The appeals court panel said family members of his victims do not have a statutory right to attend the execution. The court wrote their claim "lacks any arguable legal basis and is therefore frivolous."
The victims' relatives, including 81-year-old Earlene Peterson, who suffers from congestive heart failure, have asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
"The federal government has put this family in the untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee's execution and their own health and safety," said Baker Kurrus, a lawyer for the relatives. "My clients hope the Supreme Court and the federal government will respect their right to be present at the execution and delay it until travel is safe enough to make that possible."
The legal tug of war is happening even as authorities disclosed a worker at the prison who helped plan this week's executions had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Justice Department said that worker had not visited the death chamber. But lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union described the news as "the worst-case scenario," given the rapid spread of the infection inside prisons and the revelation that the worker had not worn a mask.
The ACLU filed court papers from a medical expert who insisted the government should identify people who had close contact with that worker.
Lee's execution is the first of three scheduled for this week. Wesley Purkey is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday, and Dustin Honken's execution is scheduled for Friday.
Courts have not yet ruled on religious-based challenges by priests for Purkey and Honken, who argue the government has put them in the untenable position of walking into the prison in Terre Haute to administer last rights and also exposing themselves to the virus. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(NPR)'] |
One British soldier is killed and nine are wounded by Taliban insurgents in an attack on a patrol base with a truck bomb and small arms fire in Helmand Province, Nad Ali District, Afghanistan. | One British soldier has died and at least nine have been wounded by Taliban insurgents who attacked a patrol base in Afghanistan’s Helmand province with a truck bomb and small arms fire.
The assault happened on Monday night in Nad-e Ali, an area where British forces have faced stiff resistance since arriving in 2006. Security for the region, notorious for its poppy cultivation, was handed over to the Afghan National Army last year but British troops remain in an advisory and training role. Hours later eight suicide bombers attacked a police station in the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing at least five officers.
The bloody period coincided with the visit of John Kerry, US Secretary of State, who was in Kabul to build bridges with President Hamid Karzai and keep relations on track as American forces prepare to leave next year. Whether by design or accident the two attacks illustrate the challenges faced by Afghan security forces as they take more and more responsibility for security. The attack in Nad-e Ali began with the detonation of a minivan loaded with explosives, according to local officials, and was followed by a firefight as insurgents tried to force their way inside the base. One British soldier was severely wounded and flown to Camp Bastion, the British military headquarters in Helmand. He later died. Afghan forces were also among the wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the movement, said: “There was a suicide bomber in a van who blew himself up and 10 Taliban entered the base.”
The troops are part of Nato’s International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf), which earlier in the day said: “We can confirm that last night in Nad-e Ali district, Helmand province, insurgents attacked a combined Afghan and Isaf patrol base with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device and small arms fire. A number of insurgents were killed. “Several Isaf service members were wounded in the attack, one seriously. The base is currently secure and fully operational.”
Soldiers from several regiments led by the 1st Battalion, The Mercian Regiment, are serving in the area The bold attack on a base comes at the end of the winter’s lull in fighting. Eight suicide bombers struck a police headquarters in Jalalabad, about 75 miles east of Kabul, on Tuesday killing at least five officers, a security official said. First, an insurgent in an explosives-laden car detonated his vehicle in front of the Jalalabad Police Quick Reaction Force. Then, seven other attackers wearing vests rigged with explosives stormed the compound in the sort of combined commando attack. John Kerry held a further meeting with President Karzai, following their show of unity a day earlier. He also met civic leaders and a group of businesswomen to hear their concerns for women’s rights after international forces leave at the end of next year. He arrived on a surprise visit amid concerns that President Karzai was putting the transition at risk with a series of anti-American rants. | Armed Conflict | March 2013 | ['(The Daily Telegraph)'] |
Egyptian news site Masr al-Arabia says its offices were raided and a journalist arrested in response to the republication of an article by The New York Times alleging irregularities in the nation's recent Presidential election. | Masr al-Arabia journalists say raid on its offices prompted by decision to run New York Times piece on alleged election irregularities
First published on Wed 4 Apr 2018 06.46 BST
Egyptian police have raided the office of a news website and arrested its editor-in-chief as part of a wider crack down on media that reported allegations of vote buying during last month’s presidential election.
The raid late on Tuesday came two days after the supreme council for media regulation, an official oversight body, told the Masr al-Arabia website to pay 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,849) as a fine for republishing a New York Times article on alleged irregularities during the presidential election. The website is one of over 500to have been blocked within Egypt since May 2017.
Two journalists at the website quoted the site’s lawyers as saying that police said they had acted because the website did not have a permit to operate. The journalists said the raid was prompted by the republishing of the New York Times article.
A statement from the council, which was based on a complaint from the national election authority, on Sunday had accused the website of publishing false news.
“The website should have checked the authenticity of the news or commented on it with an opinion,” the council statement said, referring to the New York Times article, which said some voters were offered payments and other inducements to vote.
The New York Times defended its reporting. “We stand by the accuracy of our reporting and strongly condemn any arrests meant to intimidate journalists and stifle freedom of the press,” Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman said.
Adel Sabry, the website’s editor-in-chief, was arrested and was still being held at Dokki police station in greater Cairo on Wednesday.
A security source at the police station said Sabry was being held prior to appearing before a prosecutor. Sabry is accused of running a news website without a permit, the source added.
The office of the website was closed and sealed with red wax, the three journalists said.
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, swept to a second term with 97% of the vote. His win came after five opposition candidates were prevented from getting on the ballot. The editor-in-chief of private newspaper Al Masry Al Youm was recently fined 150,000 Egyptian pounds and forced to apologise for the headline of an article published on its front page detailing official offers of financial incentives to voters, and threats of fines for those who did not get to the ballot box. Some voters have said they were offered incentives to cast their ballots, including money and food, local and international media reported, without saying who had made the offers. Officials said that if any such incidents took place they were not state sponsored and had been extremely limited.
Authorities say curbing fictitious news is necessary for national security.
Officials at the state information service previously declared they would summon international journalists who published election coverage “written in a non-professional manner”. Sherif Mansour, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, described continued efforts to crack down on the press as “a witch-hunt”.
“The authorities have also continued to blur the red lines journalists have known for years under Sisi,” he said. “This doesn’t bode well for the post-election era, as many thought those censorship measures were enacted temporarily to secure Sisi’s second term. But it seems like they’re here to stay and more are coming.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Typhoon Jongdari hits central and western Japan, injuring at least 21 people and cutting power to tens of thousands of homes. The typhoon is the latest in the series of weather events to affect the country, following devastating floods and a fatal heat wave earlier in the month. | A powerful storm has hit central and western Japan, injuring at least 21 people and cutting power to tens of thousands of homes.
Typhoon Jongdari (or "skylark" in Korean) brought torrential rain and winds of up to 180km/h (110mph).
It made landfall on the country's main island, Honshu, at 01:00 (16:00 GMT Saturday) on Sunday.
Weather officials have since downgraded it to a tropical storm, but warn that heavy rain could trigger landslides.
The severe tropical storm Jongdari continues to move westward. Weather officials say heavy rainfall could trigger landslides and other disasters.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK reports that 150,000 homes are without power.
As of midday local time, the storm was moving westwards and tens of thousands had been urged to leave their homes.
On Saturday, evacuation orders were issued to 36,400 people in the western city of Shobara, and 6,300 in the city of Kure.
"We are afraid that people may not be able to evacuate due to strong wind or floods blocking evacuation routes," said Hiroshima's governor, Hidehiko Yuzaki.
"I would like people to evacuate in advance so that they can save their lives."
Images have shown huge waves crashing on to rocks off the coast south-west of Tokyo, and ferry services have been suspended. Late on Saturday, the rough seas smashed through the window of a hotel restaurant in the tourist town of Atami, injuring five people.
"We didn't expect this could happen... Waves gushed into the restaurant as the window glass broke but we are grateful that customers followed evacuation instructions," a hotel employee told AFP.
Hundreds of flights were also cancelled over the weekend as the storm neared the coast.
Japan is still reeling from one of its worst flooding disasters in decades earlier this month, which saw more than eight million people ordered to leave their homes. More than 4,000 survivors are still living in temporary shelters.
The floods were swiftly followed by an unprecedented heatwave which was declared a natural disaster.
At least 80 people have been killed by the temperature, and more than 22,000 hospitalised with heat stroke.
The country is now in the grip of typhoon season, which sees tropical storms barrel across the Pacific throughout the summer months.
Japan declares heatwave a natural disaster
Japan recovers from floods after rainfall
Japan floods and landslides kills scores
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | July 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A roadside blast in the Balochistan Province kills two policemen and injures eight people. | A roadside bomb killed two policemen and injured eight other people on Tuesday, police and rescue officials said.
“A bomb planted on Sariab Road went off just as a police van passed by,” Geo News quoted Superintendent Police Abdullah Afridi as saying. It was not immediately clear whether all the injured were policemen, Afridi said.
The injured were moved to Civil Hospital Quetta, where at least one of them is said to be in critical condition.
Rescue officials said two policemen were killed and five others injured in the attack that apparently targeted their van. Two passers by are said to have sustained injuries in the attack. The police suspect that the attack was carried out through a remote-controlled device.
Earlier in the day, at least three policemen were injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives while trying to enter Khanpur Imambargah in Shikarpur district of SIindh province as worshipers were offering Eid prayers.
Worshippers overpowered the second would-be suicide bomber as the police were reeling from their injuries inflicted in the first blast. | Armed Conflict | September 2016 | ['(The News International)', '(First Post)'] |
Ipswich murder case: Suffolk police announce that Steven Wright has been charged with all five murders. | Michael Crimp, Senior Prosecutor
for Suffolk Crown Prosecution Service, today made the following
statement in relation to the murders of five women in
Ipswich:
“Working as part of a team of lawyers overseen by
the Chief Crown Prosecutor for Suffolk I was briefed on this case
prior to any arrests being made and the entire team has kept in
close contact with the police throughout.
“We have been working with officers from Suffolk
Constabulary for the last 8 days advising on a number of
preliminary legal issues both before and after
arrest.
“As this case has developed we have been
carefully examining and assessing the evidence in order to come to
a charging decision at the earliest possible
opportunity.
“This evening we have made the decision that
there is sufficient evidence and authorised that Steven Wright born
on the 24th of April 1958 of London road Ipswich should be charged
with the murder of Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton
Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell. We will continue to keep this
case under constant review as it develops.
“Mr Wright will be kept in custody to appear
before Ipswich Magistrates’ court tomorrow.
“At this time I would like to remind you of the need to take care
in reporting the events surrounding this case. Steven Wright
stands accused of these offences and has the right to a fair trial
before a jury.
“It is extremely important that there should be
responsible media reporting which should not prejudice the due
process of law.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2006 | ['(Suffolk Constabulary statement)'] |
British foreign secretary William Hague urged negotiatiors to "seize the moment" on talks about Iran's nuclear program. | UK Foreign Secretary William Hague urged negotiators to "seize the moment", on a third, unscheduled day of talks on Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Hague hailed "good progress" in Geneva but said there was uncertainty about whether a deal could be reached.
An Iranian official said if a deal was not reached on Saturday, outstanding issues would carry over to a new round.
Under a possible deal, Iran could freeze expansion of nuclear activity for limited sanctions relief.
The Geneva talks involve Iran and the P5+1: the US, Russia, Britain, France and China as permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany.
All are represented by their foreign ministers.
The talks have continued all day Saturday.
Michael Mann, a spokesman for top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton, said: "There has clearly been progress but like in all these things it's always a bit more complicated than people think, so we're working very hard and intensively to try and move things forward."
Speaking to the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he was more cautious about a deal than a couple of days ago, but that a deal was coming.
Mr Zarif also said he had a message for US President Barack Obama - that a deal was attainable but that the window of opportunity would not be open indefinitely.
Mr Hague said that momentum had built up in the negotiations and there was a very different atmosphere from that of just a few months ago.
"There is now a real concentration on these negotiations so we have to do everything we can to seize the moment and seize the opportunity to reach a deal that has eluded the world," he said.
But he added that it was too early to say whether the talks would reach a successful conclusion.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also said there was "no certainty" of a deal as there were "some points with which we are not satisfied".
One sticking point was whether Iran should suspend operations at its Arak research reactor - a possible producer of weapons-grade plutonium - during negotiations, Mr Fabius told French radio.
Tehran was also resisting demands to downgrade its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20%. "How can we bring that stock down to 5%, which is a lot less dangerous?" the French foreign minister asked.
Iranian media cited "splits" in the world powers.
"French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has obstructed the reaching of a deal," said Tabnak news agency, while Isna news agency quoted Mr Zarif as saying there were "differences of opinion" among the P5+1.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is at the negotiations, said Tehran and the world powers remained divided.
"The negotiations will not go on tomorrow. Either they end tonight or there is another round."
US Secretary of State John Kerry had met Mr Zarif and Lady Ashton for five hours on Friday evening.
Mr Kerry, who interrupted the itinerary of his tour to the Middle East and North Africa to join the talks, had earlier said that there were still "important gaps" between Iran and world powers.
Although details of the suggested deal have not been disclosed, it is thought to offer Iran a gradual easing of sanctions in return for a freeze on expansion of nuclear activities.
The West suspects Iran's uranium enrichment programme is a step towards building nuclear weapons - a charge Iran strongly denies.
Mr Obama telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to allay fears about any deal.
A White House statement said Mr Obama had updated the Israeli leader on the talks in Geneva, and repeated his commitment to stopping Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.
Mr Netanyahu had earlier said he "utterly rejected" such a deal with Iran, its long-time enemy, and that his country would not be obliged to abide by it.
Defence analysts have speculated the Israelis may take military action to disrupt Iran's programme. Since 2006 the UN Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions - including asset freezes and travel bans - on entities and people involved in Iran's nuclear programme.
Separate US and EU sanctions have targeted Iran's energy and banking sectors, crippling its oil-based economy. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
After much speculation British Prime Minister Theresa May announces that the United Kingdom will be leaving the European Single Market. | LONDON — Theresa May just confirmed that Britain will be leaving the single market as part of its withdrawal from the European Union.
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The prime minister told an audience of foreign diplomats and ambassadors that she will terminate Britain’s membership of the free-trade area in order to have full control over immigration from the EU.
This was also confirmed by Chancellor Phillip Hammond, who told the House of Commons on Tuesday morning that Britain will no longer be in the single market once Brexit is finalised.
May assured her European counterparts that Britain will remain a “best friend” to the continent but added that she will not seek a Brexit deal that leaves the country “half-in, half out” of the European Union.
Speaking at Lancaster House, Westminster this morning, the Conservative Party leader also confirmed that Britain will be breaking away from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), meaning EU law will no longer apply once Brexit is formally completed.
The prime minister also confirmed that both houses of parliament will get a final vote on the deal that her government reaches with the EU before it is put into effect.
The prime minister said: “I want this UK to emerge from this period of change stronger, fairer and more outward -looking than ever before… Our vote to leave the European Union was no rejection of the values we share. The decision to leave the EU represents no desire to become more distant to you, our friends and neighbours.”
May’s speech was the first clear signal that Britain under her leadership will pursue a clean break from the European Union once exit talks officially get underway, commonly referred to as “hard Brexit.” It represents a victory for staunch Brexiteers in the Tory party, like Brexit ministers David Davis and Liam Fox, who have long advocated a complete break away from the 28-nation bloc and its multilateral institutions.
Remainers fear leaving the single market will inflict serious damage to the economy and personal finances of working-class people nationwide. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “This speech could have been written by Peter Bone, delivered by Nigel Farage and will no doubt be cheered on by Jeremy Corbyn.
“You can call this Brexit clean, red, white and blue, or whatever you want. But this doesn’t disguise the fact that it will be a destructive, Hard Brexit and the consequences will be felt by millions of people through higher prices, greater instability and rising fuel costs.”
A YouGov poll published this week found that controlling EU immigration to the UK was more important to Brits than remaining a member of the single market, suggesting that although unpopular with numerous pro-Remain MPs, May’s “hard” approach to leaving the EU is in step with the desires of the general public.
The prime minister confirmed that Britain will be abandoning the single market in the same venue that former Tory premier Margaret Thatcher delivered a speech endorsing the values of the same free-trade area 28 years ago.
May dismissed the possibility of Britain adopting an existing model — like the Norway-style model — as its Brexit strategy. “We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave,” she said.
She also said that “preserving” the United Kingdom will be a priority as Britain enters exit negotiations with the EU. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has threatened to call a second independence referendum if Scotland’s demands for a unique relationship with the 28-nation bloc aren’t met.
| Withdraw from an Organization | January 2017 | ['(Business Insider)'] |
Violence surrounding various protests against Charlie Hebdo leaves five protesters dead as well as some churches set ablaze in Niger. , | At least three people have been killed and six churches attacked in Niger amid fresh protests against French magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Protests began outside Niamey's grand mosque and reportedly spread to other parts of the country, a day after five were killed in Niger's second city.
Niger's president condemned the violence and appealed for calm.
Last week, Islamist gunmen killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo's offices.
The cover of the magazine's latest edition, published after the attack, featured a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad weeping while holding a sign saying "I am Charlie". Seven million copies of the edition are being printed in view of extraordinary demand, distributors announced on Saturday. The magazine's print run before the attack was 60,000.
Many Muslims see any depiction of Islam's prophet as offensive.
In Niger, a former French colony, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Niamey's grand mosque, shouting "God is Great" in Arabic. At least six churches were set on fire or looted in Niamey and regional towns. Bars, hotels and businesses under non-Muslim ownership were also targeted. Two charred bodies were recovered from a church on the outskirts of Niamey, and the body of a woman was found in a bar, Reuters reported.
Pastor Zakaria Jadi, whose church was burnt down in the capital Niamey, said he was in a meeting with church elders when he heard of the attacks.
"I just rushed and told my colleagues in the church to take away their families from the place," he told the BBC World Service. "I took my family to take them out from the place. When I came back I just discovered that everything has gone. There's nothing in my house and also in the church."
Niger's President, Mahamadou Issoufou, was one of six African heads of state to attend a unity march in Paris after the attacks against Charlie Hebdo.
"Those who loot these places of worship, who desecrate them and kill their Christian compatriots... have understood nothing of Islam," he said after Saturday's violence.
During Friday's demonstration in Niger's second city, Zinder, protesters raided shops run by Christians and attacked the French cultural centre. The centre's director, Kaoumi Bawa, said an angry crowd of around 50 people had smashed the building's door and set fire to the cafeteria, library and offices.
The death toll in Zinder rose from four to five when emergency services found a burned body inside a Catholic Church.
Protests against the Charlie Hebdo cartoon were also seen on Friday in Pakistan, where protests turned violent in Karachi, the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and the Algerian capital, Algiers. People in Somalia took to the streets on Saturday.
| Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP via The Telegraph)'] |
Pakistan issues a red alert as the worst floods in its history move south towards Sindh, with hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated, at least 10,000 cows killed and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani appealing on television for help from the international community. | Pakistan has issued a red alert as floods that have devastated northern areas sweep south into Sindh province.
Authorities have evacuated more than half a million people living near the Indus river as hundreds of villages have been inundated by floodwaters.
The worst floods in the region for 80 years have killed at least 1,600 people and affected about 12 million others.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari has rejected criticism that he should return from an extended foreign trip. In a BBC interview, Mr Zardari said the cabinet was directing relief efforts, and he was being kept up to date about the situation. "I'm the one who's given all the powers from the presidency to the parliament. The parliament is in session - the Senate is in session. It's the prime minister's responsibility, and he's fulfilling his responsibility."
The president said he had secured promises of assistance from the countries he had visited - the UAE, France and the UK.
'Critical period'
Pakistan's meteorological office has warned that at least two more days of rain are expected in Sindh, where a red alert is in place because of the "imminent" and "extreme" flood threat.
Further downpours are also forecast in the badly-hit north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The continued bad weather has grounded all the helicopters working to deliver aid and rescue stranded survivors, according to Amal Masud of the National Disaster Management Authority.
Prime Minister Gilani called the flooding the worst in Pakistan's 63-year history and appealed for help.
"I would ask the international community to support and help Pakistan alleviate the sufferings of its flood-affected people," he said.
"The next two days are very critical. Our top priority is to rescue people, to save their lives. But we will also provide them all facilities, and we will work for their rehabilitation."
The authorities have so far evacuated hundreds of thousands of people from low-lying areas along the Indus river, much of which is already submerged.
Engineers have also warned that the huge Tarbela and Mangla dams are dangerously close to their maximum levels.
Earlier, a dam in northern Sindh's Kashmore district was breached, inundating large parts of the surrounding area with floodwater and forcing thousands of residents to take shelter on rooftops or in trees. One man told the BBC said his entire village had been destroyed and all its livestock washed away. The BBC's Shoaib Hasan in Karachi say the authorities are now trying to prevent a breach in another dam downstream, close to the cities of Kandhkot and Kashmore, where nearly half a million people live. A breach would also threaten the Qadirpur gas field, one of Pakistan's largest.
But despite the threat of further deluges, many people have refused to leave their land, crops and homes.
"We are compelling them to evacuate because there is massive danger to their lives," Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo said.
Officials say 650,000 homes have so far been destroyed, 1.4m acres (557,000 hectares) of agricultural land has been flooded and 10,000 cows have died.
The UN earlier said the disaster was "on a par" with the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, which killed about 73,000 people, in terms of the damage to infrastructure and the numbers of people needing assistance.
Many of those affected by the flooding have been critical of the government's response.
"Floods killed our people, they have ruined our homes and even washed away the graves of our loved ones," Mai Sahat told the Associated Press near Sukkur, Sindh. "Yet we are here without help from the government."
Correspondents say that with victims bitterly accusing the authorities of failing to come to their aid, the disaster has piled yet more pressure on an administration struggling to contain the Taliban and an economic crisis.
Meanwhile in Indian-administered Kashmir, rescue workers are recovering more bodies after the mountainous region of Ladakh was hit by flash floods on Friday. One-hundred-and twenty people are known to have died and hundreds more are missing. Many buildings were damaged.
'
| Floods | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Aljazeera)'] |
U.S. President George W. Bush commutes Scooter Libby's prison sentence with a Grant of Executive Clemency for his role in the Plame Affair. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday spared former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby a prison term, enraging Democrats who accused Bush of abusing power in a case that has fueled debate over the Iraq war.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby arrives for a sentence hearing at a federal courthouse in Washington, June 5, 2007. President Bush on Monday spared former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from going to prison for 2 1/2 years for obstructing a CIA leak investigation. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Stalwart conservatives in Bush’s Republican party had pressured him to pardon Libby -- Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff -- and saw him as the victim of an overly zealous prosecutor when he was sentenced last month to 2-1/2 years in prison for obstructing a CIA leak probe.
Bush stopped short of an outright pardon, leaving intact a $250,000 fine and Libby’s two-years’ probation. A senior White House official said Bush felt it was important to respect the jury process that convicted Libby of perjury.
“I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive,” Bush said in a statement. “Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.”
The announcement came at the start of the Independence Day holiday week with Congress in recess and at the end of a day in which the news was dominated by Bush’s high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Democrats who have launched several investigations into Bush administration actions immediately blasted the decision.
‘DISGRACEFUL’
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called Bush’s action “disgraceful.” He said Libby’s conviction was “the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war.”
He said the president had the power to commute Libby’s sentence but “history will judge him harshly for using that power to benefit his own Vice President’s chief of staff who was convicted of such a serious violation of law.”
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“As Independence Day nears, we are reminded that one of the principles our forefathers fought for was equal justice under the law. This commutation completely tramples on that principle,” said a frequent Bush critic, New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer.
Cheney, who was distressed by Libby’s conviction, was described by a spokeswoman as supporting the president’s decision.
A federal judge ruled last month that Libby would have to report to prison in six to eight weeks. An appeals court on Monday rejected Libby’s request to remain free while he appealed his conviction.
Libby was sentenced to prison for lying and obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, whose husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had criticized the Iraq war.
Plame said the unmasking destroyed her career and was retaliation after her husband accused the administration of manipulating intelligence to build its case for the Iraq war.
Bush’s decision left in place an order that Libby pay a $250,000 fine and spend two years on probation.
“He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect,” Bush said. “The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2007 | ['(Reuters)', '(Whitehouse.gov)'] |
In Malawi, parliament speaker Rodwell Munyenyembe dies, four days after he collapsed during a heated parliamentary debate. | Blantyre - Malawi's speaker Rodwell Munyenyembe has died four days after collapsing in parliament during a heated debate about the possible impeachment of President Bingu wa Mutharika, says the health minister. Munyenyembe, 69, died late on Monday in a South African hospital, where he was airlifted after he fell ill. Health minister Hetherwick Ntaba said: "Doctors could not resuscitate him because blood flooded his brain", giving the cause of death itself as cardiac arrest. Pandemonium broke out in parliament on Thursday when an opposition lawmaker tabled a bill to amend the rules and allow for the impeachment of Mutharika for violating the constitution. A shouting match broke out between Mutharika's supporters and the opposition lawmakers that nearly turned into a brawl. 'Appetite for power'
Amid the upheaval, Munyenyembe rose to his feet, shouting for order and using his gavel to no avail. He was seen losing his balance and tumbling to the floor. Malawi had been in the throes of a bitter power struggle between Mutharika and his former mentor turned political foe, Bakili Muzuli, who held the presidency from 1994 to May 2004. Mutharika had accused the former leader of causing the rift because of his "appetite for power". The death of the speaker came as parliament was preparing to adopt a budget that international creditors and donors would use to gauge the poor southern African country's commitment to get its finances in order. The adoption of the budget could pave the way for the resumption of aid suspended in 2002 due to concerns about corruption and overspending during Muluzi's administration. Discussion Forums | | Famous Person - Death | June 2005 | ['(News24)', '(Reuters AlertNet)', '(BBC)'] |
An Egyptian court sentences Al Jazeera journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Baher Mohamed each to three years jail for "aiding a terrorist organization" and falsifying news. Greste, who earlier was deported to Australia, was tried in absentia. Mohamed, an Egyptian, was sentenced to an additional six months for possession of a spent bullet casing; Fahmy is a Canadian national. , | .
A court in Egypt has sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists to three years in jail after finding them guilty of "aiding a terrorist organization."
Egyptian Baher Mohamed, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Australian Peter Greste were all handed three-year jail sentences when the court in Cairo delivered the verdict on Saturday, sparking worldwide condemnation of the decision.
Mohamed was sentenced to an additional six months for possession of a spent bullet casing. An appeal against the verdicts is planned.
Judge Hassan Farid, in his ruling, said he sentenced the men to prison because they had not registered with the country's journalist syndicate.
He also said the men brought in equipment without security officials' approval, had broadcast "false news" on Al Jazeera and used a hotel as a broadcasting point without permission. Following the sentence hearing, both Mohamed and Fahmy were escorted to Tora prison in southern Cairo, according to Egyptian media.
Governments, news groups and the general public have condemned an Egyptian court's decision to jail Al Jazeera staff
The verdict was immediately slammed by Al Jazeera Media Network's Acting Director General Dr. Mostefa Souag, who said: "Today's verdict defies logic and common sense. Our colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy will now have to return to prison, and Peter Greste is sentenced in absentia.
"The whole case has been heavily politicized and has not been conducted in a free and fair manner."
Souag continued: "There is no evidence proving that our colleagues in any way fabricated news or aided and abetted terrorist organizations and at no point during the long drawn out retrial did any of the unfounded allegations stand up to scrutiny.
"A report issued by a technical committee assigned by the court in Egypt contradicted the accusations made by the public prosecutor and stated in its report that the seized videos were not fabricated.
"Baher, Peter and Mohamed have been sentenced despite the fact that not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them.
"Today's verdict is yet another deliberate attack on press freedom. It is a dark day for the Egyptian judiciary; rather than defend liberties and a free and fair media they have compromised their independence for political reasons."
Speaking from Sydney, Greste called the verdict "outrageous."
“We did nothing wrong. The court presented no evidence. For us to be convicted as terrorists is outrageous. It can only be a political verdict. This is unethical," Greste said.
Amnesty International condemned the sentences, calling them a "death knell for freedom of expression in Egypt."
Philip Luther, the director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said: "The fact that two of these journalists are now facing time in jail following two grossly unfair trials makes a mockery of justice in Egypt. Today's verdict must be overturned immediately. Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed should be allowed to walk free without conditions. We consider them to be prisoners of conscience, jailed solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression."
Fahmy's lawyer Amal Clooney said an appeal was planned: "We are now going to be holding a series of meetings with government officials where we will be asking for Mr. Fahmy's immediate deportation to Canada."
Canada's minister of state for consular affairs, Lynne Yelich, demanded Fahmy's "immediate" release. Likewise Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was "dismayed" by the sentenced handed to the three men, including Australian citizen Greste.
The journalists were initially found guilty in June 2014 of aiding a "terrorist organization," a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was outlawed in Egypt after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Greste and Fahmy received seven years, while Mohamed was given 10 years.
In January, an appeals court ordered a retrial, saying the initial verdict lacked evidence against the three journalists working for the Doha-based network's English channel.
The journalists and Al Jazeera have vigorously denied the accusations during the trial.
Ten previous sessions in the court had all been adjourned.
Greste has already been deported to his native Australia under a law allowing the transfer of foreigners on trial to their home countries, but he was retried in absentia.
Fahmy and Mohamed were on bail ahead of the verdict after spending more than 400 days in detention.
Fahmy renounced his Egyptian nationality hoping he too would be deported.
The three men have received support from governments, media organizations and rights groups from around the world.
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Press rights organizations decry growing violence, intimidation and surveillance targeting journalists
Security forces hold some 16,000 political prisoners, perhaps hundreds more held in secret, writes Al Jazeera reporter
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2015 | ['(ABC Australia)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt appears at the Leveson Inquiry into media practices in the UK. The inquiry hears that he congratulated James Murdoch on the progress of News Corporation's takeover bid for BSkyB just hours before he was charged with overseeing it, but acted impartially once he took on the role. Prime Minister David Cameron says he will not order an inquiry into Hunt's ministerial conduct. | David Cameron has decided not to order an inquiry into whether Jeremy Hunt broke the ministerial code after he was grilled at the Leveson Inquiry.
Mr Cameron believes the culture secretary acted properly when he was responsible for Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB takeover bid, Downing Street said.
No 10 added the prime minister would not refer the case to Sir Alex Allen, his adviser on the ministerial code.
Mr Hunt admitted he considered resigning over the BSkyB controversy.
Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman called the decision not to refer Mr Hunt's case "disgraceful".
Mr Hunt faced more than six hours of questioning on every aspect of his conduct during the bid process.
He was also challenged about text messages between himself and News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel, who he described as "pushy" and "cheeky", and his special adviser Adam Smith, who was forced to quit over his alleged closeness to the Murdoch empire.
The inquiry also heard Mr Hunt congratulated James Murdoch on the progress of News Corp's bid - just hours before he was given the power to decide on it. Mr Hunt admitted he was sympathetic towards News Corp's takeover bid for BSkyB, but said he acted impartially once he was given responsibility for it.
He told the inquiry: "I did think about my own position, but I had conducted the bid scrupulously, and I believed it was possible to demonstrate that, and I decided it wouldn't be appropriate for me to go."
Labour has accused Mr Hunt of misleading Parliament and said he broke the ministerial code, which states that ministers are responsible for the conduct of their special advisers - both reasons, they say, why he should be sacked.
Ms Harman told BBC News: "I think it's frankly deplorable that he should keep in his cabinet someone who has broken the ministerial code, who has misled Parliament, and of course David Cameron should never have given the decision to Jeremy Hunt in the first place. "He was clearly already biased and I think that not only saying that he's going to stay in the cabinet, but he's not even going to refer him to the independent investigator on ministerial interests for breach of the ministerial code is, frankly, disgraceful."
The current phase of the Leveson inquiry into media ethics is examining the relationship between the press and politicians.
The decision to ask Mr Hunt to oversee the BSkyB bid came in December 2010 after Business Secretary Vince Cable was stripped of responsibilities after telling undercover journalists he had "declared war" on News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch.
The culture secretary told the inquiry he would not have sent the text to Mr Murdoch, which said "Great and congrats on Brussels. Just [regulator] Ofcom to go", had he known he would be given responsibility for the bid later the same day. The "great and congrats" message was one of a number Mr Hunt exchanged with Mr Murdoch on the afternoon of 21 December 2010 after the executive had tried to contact him by phone.
Mr Hunt also sent a text to Chancellor George Osborne expressing fears the government would "screw up" over its handling of the BSkyB bid as a result of Mr Cable's comments. He also admitted he had a mobile phone conversation with James Murdoch on 16 November 2010 to hear what was "on his mind at that time" and considered that "appropriate" behaviour.
But referring to a memo on the bid that he sent to Prime Minister David Cameron that month, Mr Hunt said that "apart from informing the prime minister of my views I wasn't actually doing anything about it". "It was widely known that I was broadly sympathetic towards the bid," he added. He also admitted he had a mobile phone conversation with James Murdoch on 16 November 2010 to hear what was "on his mind at that time" and considered that "appropriate" behaviour, despite legal advice not to have external discussions about the bid. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
China's unmanned lunar rover Yutu shuts down after exploring the Moon for 31 months. | China's Jade Rabbit has bid its final farewell and shut down after 31 months exploring the Moon, far outliving its expected lifespan.
Jade Rabbit arrived on the Moon in December 2013 in the Chang'e-3 space mission, and has been exploring the surface in search of natural resources.
It made China the third country to reach the Moon after Russia and the US. It has also been an active social media. Its final message said: "The Moon has prepared a long dream for me."
The rover is named after Yutu, the pet rabbit of the Chinese Moon goddess Chang'e, in turn the namesake of the lunar mission. Designed to survive just three months, it had been operating for more than two years, lasting longer than Russia's 1970 Moon rover Lunokhod 1, which lived a total of 11 months. The Jade Rabbit's main objective was to achieve China's first soft-landing on the moon, as well as to explore the surface.
On micro-blogging site Weibo, the rover's official first-person account has a following of over 600,000 fans. It has kept them updated with news of its discoveries, as well as cute cartoons about its antics. In February 2014, it briefly went quiet during a lunar night, but after recovering from mechanical difficulties posted the message: "Hi, anybody there?"
But in a message sent on Sunday it said: "This time it really is goodnight," the rover said "There are still many questions I would like answers to, but I'm the rabbit that has seen the most stars."
"The Moon has prepared a long dream for me, I don't know what it will be like - will I be a Mars explorer, or be sent back to Earth?"
China's space agency confirmed Jade Rabbit's demise on Wednesday and netizens have been mourning his loss.
"Good night Jade Rabbit, I hope you have beautiful carrot-filled dreams. We are all proud of you," said one user on Weibo. "I'll fly to the Moon to bring you home!" said one another. "You'll be able to sleep comfortably in a museum then."
"Sweet dreams. One day we will be reunited in a dream filled with a million stars and beautiful scenery. But for now, your dream has already been achieved," was another Weibo user's parting note. "Goodnight, sleep well," another user simply said. "I don't know why I'm so heartbroken. It's just a machine after all," said another netizen. Jade Rabbit joins 60 American and Russian space vehicles, three Apollo buggies and two golf balls - hit by astronaut Alan Shepard - left behind on the Moon. China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and since then has taken huge advancements, including the deployment of an experimental space station. It will next year attempt to land an unmanned spaceship on the moon that would return to Earth with samples. When will China get to Mars? | New achievements in aerospace | August 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
An anti–tank mine explodes under a truck in Battambang province of Cambodia, killing all 14 people aboard. | Phnom Penh: An anti-tank mine exploded under a truck in western Cambodia killing all 14 people aboard, a de-mining official said on Wednesday.
Chhiv Lim, project manager at the Cambodia Mines/ERW Victim Information System, said details of Tuesday`s incident in Battambang province were still unclear.
"The people were coming back from farming to their village in the truck when it ran over the anti-tank mine," he said.
"Among the 14 killed were some children, but we don`t know how many," he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the de-mining project said 53 people were killed and 181 injured by mines and unexploded ordnance during the first 10 months of the year, up 13 per cent from a year earlier.
More than 60 per cent of this year`s casualties were men. Boys comprise around a quarter of victims, mostly from playing with unexploded ordnance.
Cambodia was one of the most heavily mined nations in the world. Over half of this year`s accidents took place in the far western region.
More than 63,700 people have been killed or injured in Cambodia by explosives since the ouster of the Khmer Rouge government in 1979. | Riot | November 2010 | ['(Zee)'] |
ISIL claims that the American female hostage Kayla Jean Mueller has been killed by Jordanian airstrikes at the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria. The White House says that they have no proof of her death. , | The parents of a US hostage who Islamic State (IS) militants say was killed by a Jordanian air strike in Syria say they are "hopeful" she is still alive.
The parents of captured aid worker Kayla Jean Mueller urged IS to make contact with them, and to treat Ms Mueller as a "guest". White House officials say they have seen no proof she was killed. IS released images of a ruined building where it says she died, but no images of the aid worker herself. It said that Jordanian jets had bombed the building on the outskirts of their Syrian stronghold, Raqqa.
Jordan, which carried out air strikes on IS targets in Syria on Thursday, dismissed the reports as propaganda.
Mentioning previous communications with IS in their statement, Ms Mueller's parents said they had decided to break their public silence at news of reports of their daughter's death.
"This news leaves us concerned, yet, we are still hopeful that Kayla is alive," they said. "We have sent you a private message and ask that you respond to us privately. You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest, as your guest her safety and wellbeing remains your responsibility."
A graduate of Northern Arizona University, Ms Mueller, 26, first came to the Turkish and Syrian border in 2012 to work with refugees.
She was abducted while working in Aleppo, Syria, the following year.
If her death is confirmed, she would be the fourth American to die while being held by IS. Journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid worker Peter Kassig were beheaded by the group.
A spokeswoman for US President Barack Obama's National Security Council said the US was "deeply concerned" by the reports of her death but added that officials had seen no evidence to confirm the IS report. | Armed Conflict | February 2015 | ['(AP)', '(AP via Twitter)', '(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
110 people are injured and 200 people are arrested as anti–gay protesters and police clash in Belgrade at Serbia's first gay pride parade event since 2001. | Anti-gay protesters have fought running battles with police in an effort to disrupt a Gay Pride march in Belgrade - the first in the city since 2001.
Rioters threw petrol bombs and stones at armed police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. The office of the ruling Democratic Party was briefly set on fire, and at least one shot was fired.
Calm was eventually restored but more than 100 people, mostly police, were injured, with another 100 arrested.
Sunday's march was the first Gay Pride parade in Serbia since a 2001 event was broken up in violent clashes provoked by far-right extremists.
Before the march, the head of the EU mission in Serbia, Vincent Degert, addressed around 1,000 gay activists and their supporters who gathered at a park in downtown Belgrade surrounded by riot police and armoured vehicles.
"We are here to celebrate the values of tolerance, freedom of expression and assembly," Mr Degert told the crowd.
While the Gay Pride parade was moving though the city, several hundred protesters began chanting at those taking part as they tried to get close to the march. "The hunt has begun," the AFP news agency reported them as saying. "Death to homosexuals."
Reports told of gangs of skinheads roaming the streets, throwing petrol bombs and setting off firecrackers as police battled to hold them back.
Thousands of police had sealed off central Belgrade to protect the event. While the march took place in a heavily-protected area in and around Manjez park, violence flared at several points further afield in central Belgrade.
The Terazije boulevard was littered with rocks and debris by the time the rioting was quelled. Several cars were overturned and had been set on fire.
Democratic Party spokesperson Jelana Trivan said the violence had nothing to do with moral values. "These are hooligan gangs which must be punished severely," Ms Trivan said.
The mayor of Belgrade, Dragan Djilas, said the rioters had used Gay Pride as an excuse for a brawl.
"What's going on now has nothing to do with the Pride parade. Unfortunately there are always people who will use every opportunity to destroy their own city. Fortunately no lives were lost - this is the most important thing."
Marchers also bemoaned the continued evidence of agressive homophobia among some sections of Serbian society.
"It is a shame for me to march, to stand for what I am, and to have thousands of cops protect me from hysteric [sic] nationalists," lesbian activist Milena, 36, told Reuters.
A gay pride march planned last year was cancelled amid fears of violence. On Saturday, several thousand people had protested against the march. Right-wing groups say that homosexuality is contrary to Serbian religious and family values. The Serbian Orthodox Church condemned the parade on Friday but also warned against violence against participants.
The BBC's Mark Lowen says homosexuality is still largely a taboo in Serbia, a conservative and religious nation.
This year's event was being seen as a test of how far the country has come from the ultra-nationalism and violence of the 1990s and on its path to EU membership. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(B92)', '(CNN)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Serena Williams of the United States beats Agnieszka Radwańska of Poland in the final of the Women's Singles. | Last updated on 7 July 20127 July 2012.From the section Tenniscomments292
Serena Williams overcame a resurgent Agnieszka Radwanska to clinch a hard-fought 6-1 5-7 6-2 victory and earn her fifth Wimbledon singles title.
The American had eased through the opening set before Radwanska regrouped to win a rain-delayed second set.
But Williams broke twice in the decider to kill off Radwanska's challenge.
The 30-year-old then followed up her success to claim the doubles title with sister Venus, defeating Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-5 6-4.
Her singles victory is Williams's 14th Grand Slam title and follows Wimbledon singles victories in 2002, 2003, 2009 and 2010.
But it is also her first since spending almost a year out of action between summer 2010 and 2011 with a leg injury and subsequent pulmonary embolism.
"I can't even describe it. I almost didn't make it a few years ago," she said after her win, referring to her health problems. "I was in hospital but now I'm here again and it was so worth it. I'm so happy. "Aggie played so well and that's why she's had such a great career and she's so young."
"I've seen them all, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert was a machine... Monica Seles, Steffi Graf but I believe we're watching the greatest female player that's ever played this game in Serena Williams."
John McEnroe on Serena Williamsexternal-link
Such an absorbing finish seemed highly unlikely as Williams demolished Radwanska in the opening set, raising the fear that her opponent was struggling with a respiratory illness that forced her to call off a news conference on Friday.
The world number three seemed to lack the energy to realise her hopes of countering Williams's clubbing baseline power with guile and touch.
A brief rain shower appeared to have opposite effects on the pair however, as Radwanska emerged revitalised and Williams's forehand grew increasingly erratic.
Williams broke to love in the third game with a walloped return winner, but her nerves tightened and Radwanska raised her game just in time to avert a seemingly inevitable straight-sets win.
Radwanska forced break point for the first time in the match to level at 4-4 and the crowd threw their support behind her renaissance.
Suddenly Radwanska's scurrying and fetching was asking questions and Williams, apparently beset by mental demons, crashed into the net from midcourt to send the match into a decider.
The American had lost only four of the previous 194 Grand Slam matches in which she won the opening set however, and reasserted her authority to protect that record and accelerate away from Radwanska.
Radwanska saw off two break points to hold for a 2-1 lead, but Williams served out in less than a minute in the following game and was not to be denied in the next.
A cute drop shot moved her a double break and 5-2 clear and Williams kept any lingering jitters at bay to serve out before dropping to the turf in delight.
Her victory is the first time the title has been won by a woman over 30 since Martina Navratilova's triumph in 1990 and restores Victoria Azarenka, the Belarussian she beat in the semi-final, to the world number one spot.
Williams also served a total of 102 aces en route to lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish - more than any other woman has managed in a single Wimbledon campaign.
Radwanska admitted she was at a loss as to how to deal with the Williams serve.
"She was really serving well. This is the thing I can't do anything about it," said the Pole.
"Second set I think was a little bit more windy, she didn't put that much first serves in and I could have my chances to break her back which I did.
"But it's her weapon and that's why she's won the tournament five times. "These have been the best two weeks of my life. Of course it's always disappointing to lose, especially after a tough and good match but I'm very happy about my final."
Serena Williams then made it two titles in a day as she partnered sister Venus, 32, to victory in the women's doubles.
They beat the Czech sixth seeds Hlavackova and Hradecka to claim what was their fifth Wimbledon doubles title together, and 13th combined Grand Slam. | Sports Competition | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Four people are killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of Netanya in northern Israel. | Three British tourists and a pilot were killed on Tuesday afternoon when a civilian helicopter crashed into the waters off the coast of Netanya, a city in northern Israel, local daily Ha'aretz cited rescue workers as reporting.
The bodies were recovered by divers from the Zaka emergency services and the Magen David Adom emergency services, said the report.
Earlier report put the death doll at two. It was not immediately clear what caused the aircraft to tumble 300 meters into the sea near Sironit Beach, Xinhua reported.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post cited local police as reporting that they are still investigating the cause of the crash.
Upon news of the crash, the Israel Air Force immediately checked that all its aircraft were accounted for, added the report.
In late 2008, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Israel's aviation safety standing to category two -- meaning from first-world to third-world standards, according to Ha 'aretz.
Not long after that, the Israel Airports Authority decided to allocate an unprecedented funding for a training program for flight controllers. | Air crash | November 2009 | ['(Jerusalem Post)', '(RTT News)', '(Trend News Agency)'] |
A Pemex petrochemical manufacturing refinery in Minatitlán, Veracruz, Mexico, suffers a large explosion followed by a fire. No deaths are reported, but seven people, including five firefighters, are injured. | A massive fire erupted on Wednesday evening at an oil refinery operated by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in the city of Minatitlan in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, reported Reuters.
"Specialized staff of Pemex attends a fire in the transfer pump house of the Gral. Lázaro Cárdenas from Minatitlán," Pemex tweeted.
Pemex went on to say that "seven were injured with minor injuries: a worker for burns and one for poisoning; and five firefighters who participated in controlling the incident."
According to Mexican newspaper Reforma, the fire began around 5 pm and was "caused by a leak in the plant's charge pump."
Reforma continued: "the pumps have a mechanical seal that in this case failed and there was a leak, which caused the fire. The plant receives gasoline to produce benzene, toluene, and xylenes, products known as aromatics."
Allegedly, someone snapped a picture of a Pemex oil worker closing values during the explosion. The picture has an unknown author and yet to be confirmed.
The executive director of Mexico's safety, energy, and environment regulator ASEA, Angel Carrizales, tweeted:
"The ASEA agency is tackling the incident that is currently ongoing at the Lazaro Cardenas oil refinery in Minatitlan, the state of Veracruz. The incident is associated with the inflammation of a fuel pump."
Footage posted on Twitter showed a massive column of black smoke rising from the refinery. Reuters notes the refinery is one of six operated by Pemex and has a capacity of around 285,000 barrels per day.
By Zerohedge.com
| Fire | April 2021 | ['(Oil Price)'] |
Israeli Air Force jets and helicopters strike Hamas-linked targets in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for earlier rocket fire targeting southern Israel. The IDF says that an armaments production facility and a tunnel used to smuggle weapons were hit. | The Israeli military struck targets in the Gaza Strip early Friday, hours after Palestinian terrorists in the coastal enclave fired a rocket at southern Israel.
An Israel Defense Forces statement said fighter jets and other aircraft hit a number of sites linked to Hamas, the Islamist terror organization that rules Gaza. The targets included an armaments production facility, a tunnel for smuggling weaponry and a Hamas military post, according to the IDF.
“The attack was carried out as a response to the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory earlier this evening,” the statement said.
The military did not specifically blame Hamas for Thursday evening’s rocket fire, but Israel has stressed it holds the terror group responsible for all violence emanating from Gaza.
The rocket, which was fired as Israel’s Independence Day came to an end, struck a field northeast of Gaza, causing neither injury nor damage. | Armed Conflict | April 2021 | ['(The Times of Israel)'] |
Havana's Roman Catholic Church says Cuba is to release 3 more political prisoners who will be allowed leave for Spain. | The Cuban government is to release three more political prisoners, the Roman Catholic Church in Havana says. This would be in addition to the 52 prisoners whom Cuba agreed to release in a deal brokered by the church and the Spanish government in July. Sixteen of that group have yet to be freed.
All three prisoners have agreed to leave Cuba for Spain, the church said. Human rights groups believe that between 40 and 100 dissidents remain in jail on the island. Human rights activists hope that the move to free the three men is the first in a big new round of political prisoner releases. Earlier in the week there were reports that human rights and dissident groups in Cuba had been asked by the Catholic Church to help identify all remaining political prisoners on the island. The move raised speculation that the government was considering to free all political prisoners. Of the 52 men included in the July deal, 36 have been released and sent to Spain with their families. Cuba 'may release more prisoners' | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | October 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Egyptians mourn the death of Marwa ElSherbini, called the "hijab martyr" after she was killed in a German courtroom by a man convicted of insulting her religion. | The body of a Muslim woman, killed in a German courtroom by a man convicted of insulting her religion, has been taken back to her native Egypt for burial.
Marwa Sherbini,
31, was stabbed 18 times by Alex W, who is now under arrest in Dresden for suspected murder. Husband Elwi Okaz is also in a critical condition in hospital, after being injured as he tried to save his wife. Ms Sherbini had sued her killer after he called her a "terrorist" because of her headscarf. The case has attracted much attention in Egypt and the Muslim world. German prosecutors have said the 28-year-old attacker, identified only as Alex W, was driven by a deep hatred of foreigners and Muslims. 'Martyr'
Medics were unable to save Ms Sherbini who was three months pregnant with her second child. Her three-year-old son was with the family in court when she was killed. Alex W and Ms Sherbini and family were in court for his appeal against a fine of 750 euros ($1,050) for insulting her in 2008, apparently because she was wearing the Muslim headscarf or Hijab.
Newspapers in Egypt have expressed outrage at the case, asking how it was allowed to happen and dubbing Ms Sherbini "the martyr of the Hijab". Senior Egyptian officials and German diplomatic staff attended the funeral in Alexandria along with hundreds of mourners. Media reports say Mr Okaz was injured both by the attacker and when a policeman opened fire in the courtroom. | Armed Conflict | July 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Boeing 707 cargo plane crashes into a building in Karaj, Iran, after overshooting the runway during its landing. Officials confirm that of 16 people on board, 15 are killed and one is injured. No casualties are reported on the ground. | A cargo plane crash near the Iranian capital, Tehran, has killed 15 people, Iran's army says.
The Boeing 707 came off the runway and hit a residential area while trying to land at Fath airport in Karaj, 40km (25 miles) west of Tehran, in poor weather.
Only a flight engineer of the 16 people on board was found alive, with no-one reportedly killed on the ground.
The plane's "black box" voice recorder has been found at the crash site, local media reported.
An army spokesman confirmed to state TV that the plane belonged to Iran, and that all those on board were Iranian citizens.
Fath airport belongs to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, and is located in the central Iranian province of Alborz.
The cargo aircraft was transporting meat from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
Its wreckage was found smouldering among houses in a residential area between Fath and another airport, Payam International Airport.
Local media report that the houses were empty at the time of the crash.
This is the latest in a series of Iranian plane crashes in recent years.
In February last year, Iran's Aseman Airlines was ordered to ground its fleet of ATR planes after one of them crashed into the Zagros mountains. All 66 people on board died.
And in August 2014, a Sepahan Airlines' Antonov plane crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran, killing 39 of the 40 people on board. It is believed engine failure was the cause
Years of tough US sanctions have prevented officials from purchasing new planes and critical spare parts.
A landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and Washington brought renewed hope that the situation would change - but this was dashed last May when the US pulled out, reinstating sanctions that had been lifted.
| Air crash | January 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
American student Otto Warmbier, who returned to the United States after serving 17 months in the North Korean prison system dies after returning from North Korea last week in a comatose state. His family has accused the Government of North Korea of torturing him. | United States student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months before being returned home in a coma less than a week ago, has died in an Ohio hospital, his family said in a statement.
The 22-year-old was detained in North Korea for allegedly stealing a propaganda sign, and was only returned home to the US last week after his health deteriorated.
North Korea said he fell into a coma after taking a sleeping pill; however, this is disputed by US doctors.
"Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today," the family said in a statement.
They said they were choosing to focus on the time they were given with their "warm, engaging, brilliant" son instead of focusing on what they had lost.
Mr Warmbier, who was arrested in North Korea while visiting as a tourist in December 2015, had been described by doctors who examined him last week as having suffered extensive brain damage that left him in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness".
Mr Warmbier was sentenced in North Korea to 15 years in prison with hard labour, convicted of subversion after he tearfully confessed he had tried to steal a propaganda banner.
Reuters: Kyodo, file
The University of Virginia student had been in a coma since March 2016, shortly after he was sentenced, the family said.
The US has accused North Korea of murdering Otto Warmbier, effectively labelling their explanation for his death as bullshit, writes Conor Duffy.
Doctors said he returned with severe brain damage, but it was not clear what caused it.
President Donald Trump condemned North Korea's brutality after Mr Warmbier's death, saying the US mourned its latest victim.
"Melania and I offer our deepest condolences to the family of Otto Warmbier on his untimely passing," he said in a statement.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Otto's family and friends, and all who loved him.
"Otto's fate deepens my administration's determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency."
AP: The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mr Warmbier's parents Fred and Cindy said on the day of his release they wanted "the world to know how we and our son have been brutalised and terrorised by the pariah regime", and expressed relief he had been returned to "finally be with people who love him".
AP: John Minchillo
Mr Warmbier was freed after the US State Department's special envoy on North Korea, Joseph Yun, travelled to Pyongyang and demanded the student's release on humanitarian grounds, capping a flurry of secret diplomatic contacts, a US official said last week.
North Korea's official KCNA news agency said in a one-line report the student was "sent back home on June 13, 2017 on humanitarian grounds, according to the adjudication made on the same day by the Central Court of the DPRK".
Tensions between the US and North Korea have been heightened by dozens of North Korean missile launches and two nuclear bomb tests since the beginning of last year.
Pyongyang has also vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
Susan Thornton, the US acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said earlier on Monday that the US was concerned for the welfare of the three other US citizens still held in North Korea.
The organisers of the North Korea tour that Mr Warmbier was travelling on meanwhile said they will no longer take US citizens to the country.
Young Pioneer Tours said on its Facebook page that the death of Mr Warmbier showed that the risk American tourists face in visiting North Korea "has become too high".
Other well-known North Korea tour operators, including Koryo Tours, founded by British expatriates in Beijing, and Uri Tours, with offices in New Jersey and Shanghai, said they were "reviewing" their policies for American citizens ahead of a possible travel ban that has been mooted by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
China, North Korea's longtime communist ally and biggest source of economic and diplomatic assistance, provides the largest numbers of tourists to the country by far.
Mr Warmbier was among the estimated 5,000 non-Chinese who visit North Korea every year on packages that often include trips to Pyongyang as well as the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, Mount Paektu and sometimes the Masik ski resort.
Reuters: Kyodo
ABC/wires
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This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Famous Person - Death | June 2017 | ['(AP via Aus. Broadcasting Corp.)', '(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
In Vietnam, dissident pro–democracy activist Dr Nguyen Dan Que is sentenced by the Ho Chi Minh People's Court for "abusing democratic rights to jeopardise the interests of the state, and the legitimate rights and interests of social organisations and citizens". Que is the third dissident this month to be jailed after using the Internet to criticise the ruling Communist government. , . | HCM City, July 29 (VNA) - Ho Chi Minh City People's Court on Thursday handed down a 30-month imprisonment penalty to Nguyen Dan Que, alias Nguyen Chau, on charge of abusing democratic freedom rights to violate the State's interests.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy's indictment, in 1998, at his own residential place at Nguyen Trai road, ward 3, district 5 of Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Dan Que, who had a record of previous convictions and offences, contacted without permit members of foreign offices to provide fabricated, groundless and distorted information on the democratic and human rights situation in Viet Nam. Que, born in 1942, and his brother, who is residing in the US, emailed documents containing fabricated information to foreign newspapers. In March 2003, he gathered and sent groundless information and articles to recipients overseas. The latter used Que's information to slander and smear the prestige of the State of Viet Nam. Que was caught red-handed by the local police during the course of distributing distorted information. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2004 | ['(Vietnam News Agency)', '(note the Agency is state–controlled)', '(Miami Herald)'] |
The regional coalition of Christian–Democrats and Free Democrats are voted out of office in North Rhine–Westphalia , which may lead to the federal government of Chancellor Angela Merkel losing its majority in the upper house. | Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition was seriously weakened last night after her party suffered a humiliating defeat in a key regional state election which was certain to deprive her government of its crucial working majority in Germany's upper house of parliament.
The vote in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine Westphalia was overshadowed by the Greek debt crisis. Support for Ms Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats dropped by a record 10.3 per cent, ousting her party's coalition with the liberal Free Democrats in the state. Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior conservative, described the result as a " great disappointment" for the Christian Democrats, who had been hoping to maintain control of Germany's most economically powerful state which is home to 18 million of the country's 80 million inhabitants. Hermann Gröhe, a top conservative official, admitted that "worry about Greece" had influenced the vote.
The defeat for Ms Merkel's party was its worst ever drubbing in the state. The result was widely attributed to her government's decision last Friday to approve a hugely unpopular €22.4bn German bailout for Greece. Opinion polls suggest that up to 80 per cent of Germans remain opposed to the idea. Ms Merkel's own popularity rating has dropped from 70 to 48 percent in recent weeks.
Initial projections suggested that the opposition Social Democrats, who polled just over 34 per cent of the vote, emerged as the state's strongest party by only a hair's breadth with the environmentalist Greens polling over 12 percent – their best result in the state. The liberal Free Democrats and the former Communist The Left Party won seats in the state parliament with 6.5 and six per cent respectively.
The result left open which constellation of parties would form a government in the state. The necessary overall majority of 91 seats appeared only feasible through a grand coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats or with a so-called red-red-green coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and The Left Party. The conservative share of the vote, which dropped from 44 per cent to 34 in the state, amounted to a grave blow to Ms Merkel's Berlin coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats only six months after it was swept to power in Germany's September election.
Her government will now lose its majority in Germany's upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. As a result her administration will be forced to bargain with other parties in the upper chamber if it is to implement its election promises which include tax cuts, an extension of the country's nuclear power programme and health reform.
Claudia Roth, a leading Greens party MP described the outcome as a major defeat for Ms Merkel: "The majority situation in the upper house will now change. That's the bill for her party's defeat," she told Germany's ARD television channel.
The state election had become increasingly dominated by the German bailout for Greece. Despite its unpopularity Ms Merkel had toured the state insisting that the rescue package was essential to shore up Greece, the Euro and Germany.
| Government Job change - Election | May 2010 | ['(CDU)', '(FDP)', '(NRW)', '(BBC)', '(Financial Times)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Independent)'] |
A suicide bombing at a mosque in Mohmand Agency kills at least 28 people and injures 31 others. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claims the responsibility. | At least 25 people have been killed in a suicide bombing claimed by a Taliban splinter group at a mosque in Pakistan.
The blast struck as Muslims gathered for Friday prayers in the village of Payee Khan in Mohmand Agency district.
“The suicide bomber was in crowded mosque, he shouted 'Allahu Akbar', and then there was a huge blast,” Naveed Akbar, deputy administrator of the region, told Reuters.
Officials said at least 25 people were killed and 30 injured and there were fears the death toll could rise as rescue operations continued.
Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attack, with local tribal elder Haji Subhanullah Mohmand suggesting it may have been revenge for the killing of a militant by tribal volunteers.
“It seems to have enraged the militants and they got their revenge by carrying out a suicide attack in a mosque today,” he said.
Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, condemned the bombing and said “attacks by terrorists cannot shatter the government's resolve to eliminate terrorism from the country.”
The military says security is improving, with recorded “terrorist incidents” dropping from 128 in 2013 to 74 last year - but Islamist extremists continue to stage major attacks.
Friday's bombing came a day after a woman was killed by a grenade in Lower Mohmand Agency when militants attacked a pro-government tribal elder's home.
Mohmand lies in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Largely deeply conservative, the territory is remote and hard to access, providing sanctuary for extremist fighters targeted in decades of military operations and drone strikes.
Tehrik-i-Taliban (Pakistani Taliban) militants are waging an Islamist insurgency in the area and have launched a series of bombing attacks and assaults on security services.
Its Jamaat ul-Ahrar faction claimed responsibility for a bombing targeting lawyers that killed 74 people in the city of Quetta last month, as well as the the Easter Sunday blasts in Lahore that killed 72 people, many of them children.
Al-Qaeda fighters are also present in Pakistan, while Isis has recently bene seeking to increase its presence in the country and neighbouring Afghanistan, where it has founded an affiliate called Khorasan Province.
| Armed Conflict | September 2016 | ['(The Independent)', '(The Express Tribune)'] |
A gunman kills five people in the Trolley Square shopping center in Salt Lake City, Utah, before being shot by police. , , , , | .
KSL Team Coverage/AP The winding hallways of Salt Lake City's Trolley Square became a shooting gallery for an 18-year-old gunman in a trench coat who fired a shotgun randomly at customers, killing five and wounding four before being killed by police, authorities and witnesses said.
The shooter also was armed with a handgun and had several rounds of ammunition, Salt Lake City police Detective Robin Snyder said early Tuesday. It was not clear if he fired the handgun, nor had a motive been determined, she said.
The man's name was not released. He was a Salt Lake City resident.
"I was working and all of a sudden I heard a shot, and I saw security run by. I didn't really know what was going on. People just started running," a witness named Maya said.
Marie Smith, 23, a Bath & Body Works manager, saw the gunman through the store window. She watched as he raised his gun and fired at a young woman approaching him from behind.
"His expression stayed totally calm. He didn't seem upset, or like he was on a rampage," said Smith, who crawled to safety in an employee restroom to hide with others. She said the gunman looked like "an average Joe."
Killed were two 28-year-old women, a 52-year-old man, a 24-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl, Snyder said.
The surviving victims were transported to several area hospitals.
Surviving Victim Information
53-year-old male, critical condition
44-year-old female, critical condition
34-year-old male, serious condition
16-year-old boy, serious condition
Pregnant woman treated for psychological trauma
As of this morning, we know a 53-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman are in critical condition. Two other men are in serious condition. A woman who is 32 weeks pregnant was taken to Salt Lake Regional Hospital for severe psychological trauma.
The chaos at the mall erupted at 6:45 p.m. Witnesses told us they saw the gunman, heard the shots and screaming and saw the wounded.
Salt Lake police are encouraging anyone who was inside the mall at the time of the shooting, who may need counseling, to call Valley Mental Health at 261-1442.
"We have six fatalities (including the gunman) and multiple victims at hospitals," Snyder said. "They were found throughout the mall."
Barbara Lund was working in a store. "We heard the gunshots. They were pretty loud. Then one of my friends came out and told me there were gunshots there."
Matt Lund, Barbara's husband, said he saw a woman's body face-down at the entrance to Pottery Barn Kids. He locked himself and four others inside a storage room for about 40 minutes, isolated but still able to hear the violence.
The terror seemed to begin in the parking lot near the Williams Sonoma store. Two brothers leaving the mall saw a wounded youth taking shelter in a car.
"The young boy, he ran and jumped in a car. He'd been shot on this side, and his ear looked like meatloaf."
As the gunman entered the mall, he started blasting away with a shotgun. Fear and confusion spread. Police arrived within a few minutes. Hundreds of shoppers and workers took cover, hiding wherever they could. Some heard the final confrontation.
"We heard them say, 'Police! Drop your weapon!' Then we heard shotgun fire. Then there was a barrage of gunfire," Matt Lund, 44, said. "It was hard to believe."
Witnesses reported dozens of shots, perhaps 50 or more. And then silence. As some were cleared to leave by police, they saw the gunman's shotgun shells scattered around in front of shops.
"As we were running towards the north side of the building, we looked to our left, and there was glass shattered all over the floor next to the escalators. And maybe, it was so quick, but maybe 10 bodies lying on the ground," said witness Clifton Black.
Melinda Gurr added, "We were rushed out pretty quickly. We saw a bunch of bodies heaped on the floor, and there was glass everywhere. A pretty gory sight."
"It was really just scary. I wanted to get out of there," Black said.
Salt Lake City police Detective Robin Snyder said many employees and shoppers -- "a lot of scared people" -- still were inside at 9 p.m. MST, hunkered down and waiting for a police escort. "This is a huge area to cover," she said.
It's not known how many people were in the mall when the shots were fired, but Snyder said investigators had between 100 and 200 witnesses to interview.
By dawn Tuesday, two memorial sites with lighted candles and flowers were set up outside Trolley Square.
Some say officers treated everyone like suspects -- ordering those hiding in storerooms, bathrooms or under stairwells, to lie on the floor with their hands on their heads until police were sure no one posed a threat.
An antique-store owner, Barrett Dodds, 29, said he saw a man in a trench coat exchanging gunfire with a police officer outside a card store. The gunman was backed into a children's clothing store.
"I saw the cops go in the store. I saw the shooter go down," said Dodds, who watched from the second floor.
Four police officers -- one an off-duty officer from Ogden and three Salt Lake City officers -- were involved in the shootout with the gunman, Snyder said. She provided no other details.
She said she didn't believe there had been a shooting in Salt Lake City where so many people were killed.
"I don't know that we've ever had one that even compares to this," she said. "We had some incidents in the past here in Salt Lake City, but nothing of this nature."
Barb McKeown, 60, of Washington, D.C., was in another antique shop when two frantic women ran in and reported gunshots.
"Then we heard shot after shot after shot -- loud, loud, loud," said McKeown, who believes she heard approximately 20 shots.
She and three other people hid under a store staircase until it was safe to leave.
When one of our KSL crews arrived at Trolley Square, groups of people were huddled on the corners. They'd been evacuated and were waiting in the cold to be reunited with family, or to get their cars out of the parking lot, or their personal belongings.
We talked to a lot of those people. All were in different stores at the time of the shooting, but all heard the same thing.
"I heard the gunshot, and I saw the security guards run."
"Just heard this bang. Bang, bang, bang. It was just like random shots going off."
"We heard what sounded like big balloons, boxes being stamped on. You never expect gunshots. Then heard the glass doors being shot out and the gunman coming through there. We all screamed and ran and hid in the store."
"So we said to the owner of the store, 'Lock the doors. Lock the doors.' She did, and she turned the lights out so it looked like the store was closed."
Police eventually gathered all the witness inside Hard Rock Cafe to question them about what they saw.
As people ran from the mall for their lives, people also flocked to Trolley Square to see for themselves what was happening.
As KSL's Sam Penrod walked up to the scene, less than an hour after the shooting started, people were in tears and in shock, just wondering if this was really happening. They were also waiting for some kind of an indication that it was safe again. The victims who were inside the mall at the time of the shooting and ran for their lives just stood around, almost in disbelief. Many of them witnessed the shooting, they heard the shots, they saw people running and screaming to get out.
They told us they waited for the police to get here. The sight of the police cars was a huge relief, knowing that something could be done to end this nightmare.
With all the commotion, neighbors started coming out of their houses to see what was happening. Soon, fire trucks and ambulance after ambulance came to the scene. So did police officers. More than an hour after the shooting, reinforcements continued to arrive.
For those who were there Monday night, it's been terrifying and traumatizing. People are going to need time to heal emotionally, to recover from such a terrible night. | Armed Conflict | February 2007 | ['(Salt Lake Tribune)', '(KSLNBC)', '(KUTVCBS)', '(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
The Initiative Group of Independent Rights Defenders in Uzbekistan demands the Karimov administration release political opposition leader Sanjar Umarov, calling the case against him "entirely fabricated." Uzbek authorities arrested Umarov in 2005. | October 23, 2006 -- Uzbekistan's Initiative Group of Independent Rights Defenders today called for the liberation of opposition businessman Sanjar Umarov, who was arrested a year ago and is serving a sentence for alleged financial crimes.
In a letter posted on an independent Uzbek website, the group urges international organizations to secure the release of Umarov, who is serving a prison sentence on charges it says are "entirely fabricated."
Umarov is the leader of the Sunshine Uzbekistan opposition coalition. He was arrested in Tashkent on October 23, 2005.
A court in March sentenced him to at least 10 1/2 years in jail on charges of tax evasion, money laundering, and embezzlement. His sentence was subsequently reduced by three years.
The Initiative Group of Independent Rights Defenders says that Umarov is serving his sentence in the central town of Kizil-Tepe, that his health is deteriorating, and that no one is allowed to visit him. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | October 2006 | ['(RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)'] |
Police in Zimbabwe arrest Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, the principal opposition party. | The lawyer for Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai say police took him away in the middle of the night for questioning about a demonstration planned for later today.
"The police are saying they want to know what he is planning to do today," lawyer Alec Muchadehama told Reuters.
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) planned the march to press veteran President Robert Mugabe for a new constitution to guarantee parliamentary and presidential elections due in March are free and fair.
The MDC launched a legal challenge on Tuesday (local time) to a police ban on the march.
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti told Reuters that Mr Tsvangirai was picked up from his home in a suburb of the capital Harare by plain-clothes officers.
"He was picked up at around 4am (local time) in respect of the intended demonstration. His mobile phone is now off and we are really worried," he said.
The lawyer says police also detained another MDC leader, Dennis Murira.
Mr Mugabe has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980.
Mr Tsvangirai was last arrested in March 2007 along with dozens of opposition officials ahead of another planned march. He says police beat him up in custody. They deny this.
Police had initially granted permission for the march, which the MDC called to protest against a crumbling economy blamed on government mismanagement as well as to press for a new constitution.
On Tuesday, Mr Muchadehama said the Harare Magistrates Court would hear an application today on overturning the ban, which police say was prompted by fears the demonstration would degenerate into violence and looting.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2008 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch farright political party Party for Freedom, goes on trial again for making antiIslam remarks. He is being accused of inciting hatred against the MoroccanDutch minority. | Politician in court over comments he made about Dutch Moroccans, but insists he will not be silenced
Geert Wilders, the far-right politician who was acquitted five years ago of making anti-Islam remarks, has gone on trial again for allegedly inciting hatred against the Dutch Moroccan minority.
The case comes as Wilders and other populist politicians including Donald Trump in the US and Marine le Pen in France have won support by calling for a ban on Muslim immigration.
Wilders, with his trademark peroxide blond hair, joked with reporters at the start of the hearing and listened calmly as prosecutors detailed the charges. He says the trial is politically motivated and that his comments are protected by his right to free speech. “Freedom of expression is not absolute, it is paired with obligations and responsibilities,” said the lead prosecutor, Wouter Bos, “the responsibility not to set groups of people against each other.” “Racism and hatred of foreigners constitute a direct violation of the basis of freedom, democracy and the rule of law,” he added.
State prosecutors say Wilders asked a crowd of supporters in March 2014 whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands, triggering the chant “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!”, to which a smiling Wilders responded: “We’ll take care of that.”
The politician, whose decade-old Freedom party holds a commanding lead in Dutch opinion polls but has never been in power, denies any wrongdoing. “Nobody will silence me. Not about Moroccans either,” he tweeted last week. “No terrorist threats … no judge. Nobody.”
Wilders has lived under 24-hour protection since the 2004 murder of Theo van Gogh, who like Wilders made films criticising Islam.
The case against Wilders in 2011 centred on his call for a “towel-head” tax and equating the Qur’an with Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He said “Muslim criminals” should be stripped of their Dutch nationality and deported.
Although Wilders’ remarks are offensive to many, he insists he has no grudge against immigrants who accept Dutch laws and customs and has never advocated violence.
Judges have previously concluded that Wilders’ remarks may have been rude, but he was cleared because they targeted a religion, not a race. Prosecution spokeswoman Ilse de Heer said the difference now was that his remarks “targeted a specific race, which is considered a crime”.
Wilders faces one charge of discrimination and a second for inciting hatred of Moroccans, who make up about 2% of the Netherlands’ population of roughly 17 million.
In addition to the “fewer” comment, Wilders referred to Moroccans as “scum” in a television broadcast. He may go to jail for as long as a year and could be fined a maximum of 7,400 (5,770).
The hearing, at a high-security courtroom next to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, is frequently used for cases involving organised crime and the trials of Islamist radicals.
In France in December, Le Pen was acquitted of charges of inciting hatred against French Muslims for comparing Muslims praying in the street to the German occupation of France during the second world war. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Syrian Opposition agree to attend peace talks with the Syrian government in Astana, Kazakhstan, in order to press for a ceasefire to the conflict. | Boost for talks backed by Russia and Turkey as opposition groups consent to send delegation to press for ceasefire
First published on Mon 16 Jan 2017 08.03 GMT
The Syrian opposition says it will attend peace talks sponsored by Turkey and Russia in Kazakhstan next week, in a key step in the latest attempt to end the six-year civil war in Syria.
It is set to decide the makeup of its delegation on Monday. The negotiations in Astana will bring together representatives of the opposition and the regime of Bashar al-Assad, as well Russia, Turkey and Iran. Donald Trump’s incoming administration has also been invited.
The talks, which are expected to begin on 23 January, come weeks into a ceasefire negotiated by Ankara and Moscow that has largely held across the country. The opposition’s High Negotiations Committee said it would back the talks, and Mohammed Alloush, its lead negotiator, confirmed that a delegation would be attending.
“All the rebel groups are going to Astana. Everyone has agreed,” said Alloush, a leading figure in the Jaish al-Islam rebel group, in an interview with AFP. “Astana is a process to end the bloodletting by the regime and its allies. We want to end this series of crimes.”
A senior Turkish official said the opposition was committed to the talks. “As we get ready for the Astana talks, we are trying our best to make sure that the ceasefire holds, and so we’re talking to the Russians to keep the regime in check, because most of the violations so far have been made by the regime in certain parts of Syria,” said İbrahim Kalın, a spokesman for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “But we are also talking to the opposition to remain committed to the Astana process, and they’ve been very helpful and cooperative so far.”
The talks are the first serious effort in months to put a stop to the carnage in Syria, which has killed nearly half a million people, displaced half its population and left much of the country in ruins.
Russia, whose intervention was crucial in rescuing the Assad regime and turning the tide of the war in its favour, and Turkey, a stalwart backer of the opposition, normalised their relations last summer. That rapprochement bore fruit in December when the two nations brokered a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo, allowing the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians who were besieged in a shrinking patch of rebel-held territory.
Now both are pushing the peace talks, with Moscow working to anchor its position as a global superpower and limit the costs of its intervention in the war, and Ankara hoping to stem an influx of refugees, 2 million of whom have fled to Turkey.
The opposition’s participation is a boost to the talks, but key issues remain that could derail them, including disagreements over the future of Assad, the shape of a transitional government, and rivalries within both camps – particularly the competing interests of Russia and the other key backer of the Syrian regime, Iran.
Although the talks are being launched without any preconditions, the rebels are keen to demand that Assad is ousted, and that a transitional government is appointed, a key sticking point that Assad’s representatives will not agree to without significant pressure. The regime has been emboldened by recent battlefield victories that have left the opposition without any major urban centres under its control.
“Our position on Assad is clear,” said Kalin. “We don’t believe that a united, peaceful Syria will be possible with Assad remaining in power. But as I said, we will see how Astana talks go. We want to go step by step at this point.”
Osama Abu Zeid, an opposition negotiator and a legal adviser to the Free Syrian Army, told the Guardian the talks in Astana had a limited aim – to ensure that the ceasefire continues.
“The participation in Astana is supported by all the factions and the High Negotiations Committee, and we want through it to reaffirm the ceasefire,” he said. “We decided to go to Astana primarily to reaffirm the ceasefire after the Russians promised to look into practical ways to enforce it.”
He added: “There won’t be political negotiations, so we have created a military delegation [for the Astana talks].”
Abu Zeid said the first round of talks would be short and will help determine whether the Russians were serious about putting a halt to all the fighting in the country, particularly in areas besieged by the Assad regime. If the first round succeeds, the opposition was prepared to proceed to a second round of discussions, he said.
Some rebel groups have refused to attend the talks, saying they do not believe the Russians are honest brokers.
“We have decided not to attend these negotiations because we still doubt the seriousness of the Russians and their ability to instil an atmosphere conducive to a political solution,” said Bassam Mustafa, a member of the political office of Noureddine al-Zinki, a rebel group influential in Aleppo and its countryside, who cited numerous ceasefire violations by the regime and its allied militias.
Still, sources with knowledge of the negotiations have said they could not have succeeded without Moscow’s dogged insistence in the face of objections by Tehran, which appears to be less willing to compromise on Assad’s fate.
A source with knowledge of the Aleppo negotiations in December said the Russians often worked around the clock to ensure their success, and made sure that fighters leaving the city in private cars during the evacuation were not hindered. Their intervention prevented a final assault by the regime and its militias on the rebel enclave, the source added.
Meanwhile, the Iranians raised additional issues to derail the evacuation, presenting what one rebel official at the time described as a “Christmas list” of demands that included the full evacuation of two Shia villages besieged by fighters linked to al-Qaida.
“This perennial ambiguity of the Iranians always pops up in these talks and negotiations,” said one official. “The Russians I think are more pragmatic when it comes to the future of Assad. Iranians seem to have a more ideological commitment to him staying.”
Tehran has deployed thousands of Shia militia fighters from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon in an effort to shore up the regime and to maintain a supply route through the country and into neighboring Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy Hezbollah holds sway. Much of the rhetoric of the militias’ leaders in publicly available recordings has sectarian undertones, and the Islamic Republic is seeking to cement its influence in a regional tussle with its Sunni rivals, Saudi Arabia and its allies.
The Iranians have also been accused of abetting demographic change in Syria, reportedly clearing areas reclaimed by the regime from their Sunni inhabitants and settling Shia residents there instead. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | January 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
At least 14 Indian Army soldiers and four civilians are killed in a series of avalanches near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. | Seven soldiers died on Thursday when their patrol was hit near the Line of Control, the de facto border with Pakistan. Rescuers found four more bodies on Friday morning.
In a separate incident, a nearby army post was buried by snow, killing three soldiers. Indian and Pakistani troops die in Kashmir avalanches most winters. Heavy snow has caused chaos across the region, blocking roads and railways.
The two avalanches that killed the soldiers happened in the remote Gurez area. Seven soldiers were saved but army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told reporters that bad weather, including heavy snowfall, had hampered rescue efforts. The AFP news agency quoted him as saying that no one else was missing.
On Wednesday, four members of the same family were also killed by snowfall in the same area.
Last year, 10 Indian soldiers were killed in an avalanche on Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield.
One of them was rescued after being buried in snow for six days but later died in hospital.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | January 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
The number of confirmed worldwide COVID-19 cases surpasses 50 million. The United States remains the country with the most confirmed cases, accounting for 20% of all cases worldwide. | The total of confirmed coronavirus cases has surged past 50 million following record numbers of new cases in several countries.
More than 1.25 million people have now died after contracting the virus, according to Johns Hopkins university.
But the numbers are thought to be higher because of insufficient testing in many countries.
A second wave of the virus has accounted for a quarter of all cases, Reuters reported.
Europe, with more than 12.5 million cases and 305,700 deaths, is again a hotspot after being the first epicentre of the pandemic earlier this year.
In the US just under 10 million have tested positive. It has seen more than 125,000 cases per day three days in a row.
The states of North and South Dakota have the highest rates of death per capita.
US President-elect Joe Biden has vowed a much more aggressive approach to the pandemic, after Mr Trump repeatedly downplayed its gravity and resisted public health measures including wearing masks and social distancing.
Mr Biden has vowed to name a group of top scientists to his coronavirus task force as early as Monday, wants more testing and plans to call on every American to wear a mask when they are around people outside their own household.
He is likely to take charge when the pandemic is at its peak in the country, former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb says.
Dr Gottlieb told US media that the rate of new infections would probably be starting to decrease by late January, and "the only question is going to be how many people have died in the course of this and how many people have been infected".
In Europe, France on Sunday recorded 38,619 new cases - many less than Saturday's record increase of 86,852 cases. However the health ministry said it had problems collecting data and there would be a correction on Monday.
France also registered 271 deaths, bringing the total to 40,439. The country is just over a week into a second lockdown with the aim of curbing the spread of the virus.
Under the lockdown restrictions, expected to be in place until 1 December, people can only leave their homes to go to work if they cannot work from home, to buy essential goods, seek medical help or to exercise for one hour a day.
In the UK - which has seen the highest number of deaths in Europe - there were 20,572 new cases and 156 new deaths, bringing the total to 49,044 deaths.
However the latest figures from the UK's Office for National Statistics suggest the increase in infections may be stabilising around the UK, with the rate of increase slower than in recent weeks.
India and Brazil have also been hard hit.
| Disease Outbreaks | November 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from the recent eruption of Mount Merapi in Indonesia rises to 32 as it erupts again. , | (CNN) -- Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupted again Friday, sending a plume about 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) above the mountaintop, an extreme weather chaser said.
Ash drifted to the south after the eruption about 10 a.m. local time, weather chaser James Reynolds said.
Residents started streaming down the mountain, heading for safer ground. Some were being evacuated after having already returned home following eruptions earlier in the week, observers from the Volcanology Agency near Merapi said.
No injuries or deaths were immediately reported Friday.
The volcano killed at least 32 people when it exploded earlier in the week, medical officials said.
Rescue and recovery efforts continue to unfold, with the Indonesian government scrambling to help tens of thousands of residents displaced by the eruption.
Mount Merapi, which looms on the horizon north of the major city of Yogyakarta, is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes and lies in one of the world's most densely populated areas. The volcano has a summit elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).
Hundreds of displaced residents have crammed a small government building in Yogyakarta. Many had fled with only the clothes on their backs.
Some residents refused to flee, holding out to watch over their crops and livestock. Some residents awaited word from the traditional gatekeeper of Mount Merapi. But Maradjin, the gatekeeper, fell victim to the volcano as well.
He was buried Thursday. He died in his 80s, after being appointed about two decades ago by the last Sultan of Java.
Hundreds paid their respects as Maradjin was buried in the volcano's shadow, along with two other people who died with him.
The revered elder had refused to leave the mountain, even as it rumbled.
Maradjin, whose father was gatekeeper before him, spent decades guarding the volcano and trying to appease its spirits with offerings.
"Merapi is a house of spirits, which also means a living mountain," Maradjin told CNN in a 2006 interview. "When Merapi emits smoke, we have to be respectful." | Volcano Eruption | October 2010 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
Sri Lankan opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka receives the support of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga in the 2010 presidential election. | Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has suffered a blow ahead of Tuesday's election, with ex-President Chandrika Kumaratunga vowing to back his rival.
Mrs Kumaratunga, a senior member of Mr Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Freedom Party, said she supported Gen Sarath Fonseka. She said she was deeply concerned about violence, intimidation and corruption in the fiercely-contested poll. In an increasingly bitter campaign, the opposition accused the ruling party of planning a coup to hang on to power. The ruling party said the accusations were "baseless" and an attempt to cover for an inevitable defeat. 'Comfortably ahead'
Mrs Kumaratunga is the daughter of the founder of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the dynasty still has big support in the country. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is now part of theUnited People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) which is currently the ruling coalition. Mrs Kumaratunga herself served as president from 1994 to 2005. In endorsing Gen Fonseka, she said: "I took the decision to end four years of silence as I am deeply concerned about the violence, intimidation and corruption." She said: "Our party has deteriorated in recent years and I see an opportunity to revive it through a change of the present culture." President Rajapaksa and Gen Fonseka are closely associated with the government's defeat of the Tamil Tigers last May but the pair fell out bitterly soon after. Saturday was the final day of campaigning, with both of the main candidates holding their last election rallies. Election clashes have so far left four dead and hundreds wounded. The opposition on Sunday stepped up its accusations against the ruling party. It said the party was planning to disrupt the media, prevent a declaration of the result and deploy troops to back a coup. Mr Rajapaksa's party insists the president is behind a free and fair election. His spokesman, Chandrapala Liyanage, told Agence France-Presse news agency: "The opposition is making baseless allegations to justify their defeat. "We will have a peaceful election and all indications are that the president is comfortably ahead." The result of the election is expected on Wednesday. | Government Job change - Election | January 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The European Union accuses Google of abusing the dominance of its Android by preloading its own apps. | The accusation that Google is abusing the dominant market position of its Android operating system is the latest in a series of clampdowns by the European Commission on US multinational companies.
The European Union opened the latest front in its battle against US internet giant Google on Wednesday, as it charged the company with abusing the dominance of its operating system, Android. “Based on our investigation thus far, we believe that Google’s behaviour denies consumers a wider choice of mobile apps and services and stands in the way of innovation by other players,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday as she announced the charge. The Commission has been investigating Google for the past year, amid suspicions that the company is giving its own applications prominence on devices running the Android system by pre-installing certain Apps. Announcing the decision in Brussels, Commissioner Vestager said that Google imposed “unjustified restrictions and conditions on manufacturers of devices running its Android mobile operating system as well as on mobile network operators”. While Google’s dominance of the EU market was not a problem under EU competition law, dominant companies have a responsibility “not to abuse their powerful market position by restricting competition”, she said. Google controls over 90 per cent of the internet search market and of the licensable smart mobile operating systems in Europe, according to the European Commission. About 80 per cent of mobile smart devices globally and within Europe run on Android, it estimates. Technically, the Commission could impose a fine of up to 10 per cent of the previous year’s earnings on Google, which could leave the tech giant facing billions of euro in fines. Microsoft’s long battle with the EU’s competition arm a decade ago resulted in cumulative costs of more than 2 billion to the company. Google, which rejected claims that it had abused the dominant position of its Android system, has 12 weeks in which to respond to the charge. In a statement on Wednesday, senior vice president and general counsel for Google, Kent Walker, defended the Android system as “good for competition and consumers”. “We take these concerns seriously, but we also believe that our business model keeps manufacturers’ costs low and their flexibility high, while giving consumers unprecedented control of their mobile devices,” he said. Wednesday’s move follows a separate competition investigation into whether Google is favouring its own shopping services through the dominance of its search engine. That investigation is still ongoing,
The accusation that Google is abusing the dominant market position of its Android operating system is the latest in a series of clampdowns by the European Commission on US multinational companies, particularly those operating in the digital space, prompting accusations from US officials that the EU is unfairly targeting American businesses. The Commission’s powerful competition arm has already opened state aid cases against Amazon, Starbucks and Apple, which it suspects of benefiting from unfair tax deals with EU countries. A ruling on its investigation into Apple’s tax arrangements with Ireland is expected in the next few months. Google has also found itself the target of data protection and privacy concerns. The company was forced to remove certain search queries from its site, following the landmark ‘right to be forgotten’ case of November 2014 in which the European Court of Justice backed the request of a Spanish citizen for the removal of a link to an article which included information about him. The Luxembourg court also last year rejected the ‘Safe Harbour’ agreement which governed transatlantic data transfers following a case taken by an Austrian privacy campaigner against Facebook Ireland. The successor agreement known as the ‘Privacy Shield’ has yet to be endorsed by the data protection officers in the EU’s 28 member states. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2016 | ['(Irish Times)'] |
In basketball, the Toronto Raptors defeat the Golden State Warriors four games to two to win their first NBA championship. The Toronto Raptors are also the first NBA team outside of the United States and the first from Canada to win the NBA Finals. | It’s why you miss birthdays and anniversaries, why you know hotel beds better than your own. It’s why it feels like you spend more time in the air than on the ground, why you have to settle for Facetime calls instead of hugs and kisses.
It’s the back-to-backs, the late nights in cities across the country. It’s never knowing what day of the week it is. It’s taking photos of your hotel room number because they all jumble together.
It’s why you grind through 82 games, why you put up with the sprains and strains, the bruises and the breaks. It’s why you deal with the internet trolls and the trade rumors.
You do all of that because when things break just right, when you get moments like this. The journey can end here, the smell of champagne following your every step because you’ve just bathed in it.
It’s worth it because now you get to call yourself champions.
The Toronto Raptors capped their journey Thursday, slamming the door on Oracle Arena — and maybe on the Golden State dynasty — clinching their first NBA title with a 114-110 victory in Game 6.
Their journeys began all over the globe — the executive from Nigeria, the coach who worked in England, the players from three different continents. None were picked in the top 14 of the NBA draft.
As soon as the final horn echoed, Kawhi Leonard lifted his hands to the sky while he opened the NBA’s most closed mouth, a howl of celebration and vindication.
A year ago, he was an unhappy member of the San Antonio Spurs, someone who wanted to be traded, preferably to Los Angeles. He had a reputation to rebuild, a mysterious calf injury limiting him to only nine games in his last year with the Spurs.
“Last year, a lot of people were doubting me,” Leonard said, his second NBA Finals MVP trophy nearby. “They thought I was either faking an injury or didn’t want to play for a team. That was disappointing to me that that was out in the media, because I love the game of basketball. Like I always say, if we’re not playing this game, if we’re hurt, I mean you’re down.
“So me just going through that, and I just knew that I would have to make myself happy and no one else. And I have to trust myself.”
Leonard, fittingly, iced the championship from the free-throw line, scoring the final points in this Raptors’ season. His 732 points this postseason were the third most, trailing only Michael Jordan (759 in 1992) and LeBron James (748 in 2018).
In Game 6, though, it was Leonard’s teammates that did the most damage.
Kyle Lowry, who had his potential series-winner blocked in final seconds of Game 5, opened the game by hitting four three-point shots in the first quarter. And Pascal Siakam, whom coach Nick Nurse benched at the end of Game 5, responded with 26 points and 10 rebounds, playing all but 110 seconds of Game 6.
The Raptors’ proficiency just pounded and pounded on the Warriors, who couldn’t handle all of the obstacles put in their way.
Just like Kevin Durant one game earlier, Klay Thompson had to leave the arena early on crutches, a left knee injury late in the third quarter putting an abrupt end to his 30-point night.
Despite being down two starters, the Warriors still had a chance to win Game 6, but Stephen Curry’s missed the potential game-winner between the rim and the backboard, allowing the Raptors to escape and make history.
“How? How has this group of guys put themselves in position to do it?” Warriors coach Steve Kerr asked himself. “And then when Klay goes down and is out for the game, it’s just sort of, ‘You got to be kidding me.’ Like this has to stop. But it’s just the way it’s gone.”
And it might be the way it ends. Thompson, like Durant, is a free agent this summer. Durant has already undergone surgery. Thompson, who tore his ACL, will undergo surgery soon.
But as he walked past the party in the visiting locker room, Kerr, who just had his bid for a third-straight title extinguished, stopped and answered a question with the most obvious answer. | Sports Competition | June 2019 | ['(Los Angeles Times)', '(Business Insider)'] |
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, after failing to achieve support from the Unidas Podemos alliance, announces the calling for a snap election on 10 November, which would be the fourth general election in 4 years. , | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will hold its fourth election in four years on Nov. 10 after rival parties failed to break a months-long impasse in a deeply fragmented parliament, with no guarantee the repeat vote will make it any easier for them to form a government.
Spain, with the fourth-largest economy in the European Union’s euro currency zone, has been in political limbo since the Socialists emerged as the biggest party in a parliamentary election in April without enough seats to govern on their own.
Party leaders have spent more time blaming one another for the impasse than negotiating to put together a government, and a flurry of last-minute calls and initiatives on Monday and Tuesday failed to achieve a breakthrough.
“There is no majority (in parliament) that guarantees the formation of a government, which pushes us into a repeat election on Nov. 10,” Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez told an evening news conference.
Sanchez, who became prime minister in June 2018 when the conservatives were ousted over a corruption scandal, stayed on as acting premier after the April snap election
Opinion polls show a new election might not end the impasse, with the Socialists winning more seats but still unable to win enough seats in the 350-member parliament to secure a majority on their own.
Although Spain’s economy has not suffered greatly, financial analysts say further delays in implementing reforms in areas such as labor and pensions could finally start to bite.
The blame game among main party leaders hit full speed as soon as the snap election was announced, with Sanchez pinning the blame squarely on the opposition and the opposition saying it was all his fault.
“Pedro Sanchez had a mandate to form a government. But he didn’t want to. Arrogance and disdain for the basic rules of parliamentary democracy have come before common sense,” the leader of far-left Unidas Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, tweeted.
Podemos and the Socialists tried and failed for five months to agree on a government deal.
The leaders of the right-wing People’s Party (PP) and Ciudadanos also slammed Sanchez.
“He wanted elections from the beginning and that’s why he hasn’t tried to form a government,” PP chief Pablo Casado said, echoing similar comments from Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera.
Spain has been struggling to put governments together since new parties including Podemos, Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox started appearing five years ago. Before that, PP and the Socialists dominated the country’s political landscape for decades.
Spain was forced to repeat the December 2015 election in June 2016 after no single party succeeded in forming a government and repeated attempts to agree on a coalition failed.
There have been no major fiscal reforms since 2015, when then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s majority PP government framed the 2016 budget. After that, budgets were rolled over or approved late for just half a year.
With voters weary of being called so often to the ballot box, the level of abstentions will be key on Nov. 10.
Asked why they had not been willing to make more compromises, Socialist officials have repeatedly pointed to a lack of trust between themselves and Podemos.
Podemos officials, in return, have said the Socialists simply wanted to “humiliate” them and never negotiated seriously.
“Neither the Socialists nor Podemos were sufficiently afraid of new elections,” said Pablo Simon, a political science professor at Madrid’s Carlos III university. “There hasn’t been a serious negotiating process.”
One aide close to Sanchez told Reuters recently that a repeat election, however inconclusive, could encourage centre-right parties, and in particular PP, to allow Sanchez to be voted in as premier to avoid the uncertainty of yet another repeat vote.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2019 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Two people died and 25 more were injured, four seriously, in a fire at the ski resort of Courchevel in the French Alps. | Two people died today and 25 more were injured, four seriously, in a fire at the ski resort of Courchevel in the French Alps, officials said.
The pre-dawn blaze forced the evacuation of some 60 resort workers from a three-storey accommodation building.
Firefighters found the two unidentified bodies in a burnt-out area of the building in the upmarket Courchevel 1850 ski station.
Three of the four badly injured were flown to hospital by helicopter, the local officials said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
"Some young people escaped down the facade of the building using the balustrades. Some of them were in their underwear," said one witness, who identified himself as Victor, 27.
The blaze had already devoured the top two floors of the building by the time firefighters arrived, fire service spokesman Emmanuel Clavaud said.
Around 70 firemen working at the scene brought it under control by daybreak.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner tweeted condolences to the families and friends of the dead and paid tribute to the firemen who tackled the blaze.
Courchevel is one of the most chic resorts in the French Alps, with numerous Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury chalets. | Fire | January 2019 | ['(RTE)'] |
Kader Arif, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the Anti–Counterfeiting Trade Agreement , resigns amid protests against the treaty. | Negotiations over a controversial anti-piracy agreement have been described as a "masquerade" by a key Euro MP.
Kader Arif, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), resigned from the post over the issue on Friday.
He said he had witnessed "never-before-seen manoeuvres" by officials preparing the treaty.
On Thursday, 22 EU member states including the UK signed the agreement.
The treaty still needs to be ratified by the European Parliament before it can be enacted. A debate is scheduled to take place in June.
Mr Arif criticised the efforts to push forward with the measures ahead of those discussions taking place.
"I condemn the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation given, reject of Parliament's recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly."
Mr Arif's decision to stand down as rapporteur - he remains an MEP - follows protests by campaigners in Poland. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets after the agreement was signed.
Crowds of mostly young people held banners with slogans such as "no to censorship" and "a free internet".
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | January 2012 | ['(ACTA)', '(BBC)'] |
A 6th century mosaic dated from the rule of Justinian I is discovered while installing communication cables in Jerusalem's Old City. | A 1,500-year-old mosaic floor with a Greek inscription has been uncovered during works to install communications cables in Jerusalem's Old City — a rare discovery of an ancient relic and an historic document in one.
The inscription cites sixth-century Roman emperor Justinian, under whose rule the Roman Empire finished converting to Christianity, as well as Constantine, who served as abbot of a church founded by Justinian in Jerusalem. Archaeologists believe it will help them to understand Justinian's building projects in the city.
The full inscription reads: "The most pious Roman emperor Flavius Justinian and the most God-loving priest and abbot, Constantine, erected the building in which (this mosaic) sat during the 14th indiction."
Indiction is an ancient method of counting years that was used for taxation purposes.
Archaeologists said the inscription suggests the mosaic dated to the year AD 550/551.
Justinian was one of the most important rulers of the Byzantine era.
In AD 543 he established the Nea Church in Jerusalem — one of the biggest Christian churches in the eastern Roman Empire and the largest in Jerusalem at the time.
The Nea Church was partially excavated in 1970, and contains an inscription similar to the newly discovered mosaic.
Reuters: Ronen Zvulun
"The fact that the inscription survived is an archaeological miracle," David Gellman, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement.
"The excavation, in a relatively small area, exposed ancient remains that were severely damaged by infrastructure groundwork over the last few decades.
"We were about to close the excavation, when all of a sudden a corner of the mosaic inscription peeked out between the pipes and cables."
Wikimedia Commons: Deror Avi
He said every archaeologist dreams of finding an inscription, "especially one so well preserved and almost entirely intact".
Researchers believe that the building of which the mosaic was once part, located beside the Old City's Damascus Gate, was used as a hostel for pilgrims.
The Damascus Gate was the main northern entrance to Jerusalem for hundreds of years, Dr Gellman said, and the area become one of the most important and active areas of the city with the emergence of Christianity in the Byzantine period.
The mosaic was discovered earlier this (northern) summer.
Conservation experts have removed the mosaic and are treating it in a specialist workshop.
Reuters: Ronen Zvulun
ABC/Reuters
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. | New archeological discoveries | August 2017 | ['(Reuters via ABC Australia)'] |
Anti-violence protesters take to the streets of Chicago to draw attention to the problem of gun violence in Chicago, which briefly shuts down Lake Shore Drive. Protesters also call for Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down for their handling of racial incidents in communities of color. | Anti-violence protestors took to the streets of Chicago to march for the “forgotten” people as tensions continue to rise in the troubled city.
Also at issue, protestors have called for Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to step down for their handling of racial incidents in communities of color.
Hundreds of protestors rallied to bring attention to the prolific gun violence in the city and marched through the city’s South and West sides, shutting down traffic before taking up residence outside of Wrigley as fans filed in to the stadium for a Cubs game.
The march took place outside of the baseball field, “bringing the pain of so many forgotten residents to the affluent areas,” said organizer Rev. Gregory Livingston, the Chicago-Sun-Times reports.
“We came here to redistribute the pain in Chicago. People in this neighborhood don’t feel the pain we feel every day, so we brought it to their doorstep,” said activist and organizer Tio Hardiman.
Last month, thousands of anti-gun violence protesters, led by Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church, crammed onto the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago and shut it down, carrying signs and chanting “Stop the killing” to protest the city’s gun violence epidemic and demand change.
This time, the protestors are trying to send a message that wasn’t quite delivered during last month’s march, said former CPS Principal Troy LaRaviere, who is running against Emanuel for Mayor.
“We need to remove this administration.”
Chicago had 650 homicides in 2017, the most in the nation, according to USA Today. And as the weather gets warmer, gun violence has reportedly been on the rise in the city. So far, Chicago has had 252 homicides and 1,100 shootings in the first six months of this year. | Riot | August 2018 | ['(The Grio)', '(VOA News)'] |
In motorsport, Greg Biffle wins the Quicken Loans 400 earning Ford its 1000th NASCAR victory. | BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Greg Biffle gave Ford a milestone victory -- right down the road from company headquarters.
Biffle raced to his second straight Sprint Cup win at Michigan International Speedway, easily holding off Kevin Harvick after points leader Jimmie Johnson smacked the wall in the final laps Sunday. It was the 1,000th victory for Ford Motor Company across NASCAR's three national series -- Cup, Nationwide and Truck.
"What a great moment this is," said Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing. "We couldn't be prouder to have this moment come here today at Michigan in front of so many of our Ford friends. What a great race and a great day for Ford."
It was Biffle's first win since he overtook Johnson to win at MIS in August. Johnson's engine faltered with six laps left in that race. This time, he was about a second behind Biffle with three laps to go -- but a tire give way, and he dropped all the way to 28th.
"I don't want to see anybody wreck," Biffle said. "It makes you feel good when you push the guy over the edge. He made a mistake, and that's what makes you feel good. You outsmarted him, or you beat him at his game."
Harvick was second, 3 seconds behind Biffle. Martin Truex Jr. was next, followed by Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart.
Johnson wasn't the only big name who ran into trouble. Jeff Gordon was out of contention almost immediately when he hit a spinning Bobby Labonte less than 10 laps into the 200-lap, 400-mile race. Gordon finished 39th, one spot behind Kasey Kahne, who led at the halfway point but appeared to blow a tire and went sliding into the wall.
Kahne's car caught fire, but he was able to climb out quickly.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won at MIS last June, finished 37th Sunday. He led for 34 laps, but his engine acted up about two-thirds of the way through the race.
There were eight cautions for 38 laps.
Biffle cruised to the finish in his No. 16 Ford. He finished second to Johnson the previous weekend at Pocono, but this time there was nobody left to challenge him at the end.
It was Ford's third Cup victory of the year -- Carl Edwards and David Ragan won at Phoenix and Talladega, respectively. Sunday was Ford Motor Company's 110th birthday.
"There have been a lot of great teams and a lot of great drivers, a lot of great engine builders that have contributed to Ford's success," Roush Fenway Racing owner Jack Roush said. "I'm just proud and honored to be part of that."
This was the second Cup win of the year for Roush Fenway.
It's been an emotional week for the racing community after the death of driver Jason Leffler on Wednesday at a dirt-track race in New Jersey. Biffle was quick to acknowledge Leffler while he celebrated his Father's Day victory.
"We are thinking about little Charlie Leffler that doesn't have a father today," he said.
Biffle earned his 19th career victory and boosted his chances to reach the Chase for the Sprint Cup, moving from 10th to eighth in the standings. Biffle finished in the top 10 for the 13th time in 21 races at MIS, which is about 60 miles from Ford headquarters in Dearborn.
Edwards finished eighth. Kurt Busch qualified second but went into an early spin and finished 35th.
Johnson still has a comfortable lead in standings, although Edwards closed the gap at the top from 51 points to 31. Johnson had a chance at his fourth victory of the year before scraping the wall late.
Johnson has still never won a Cup race at MIS.
"I thought this would be the year," he said. "Most of the time we're leading and something happens, but I thought, 'OK, maybe coming from behind would be the difference.' But something happened."
Johnson's late mishap in his No. 48 Chevrolet did not result in a caution, so Biffle maintained his comfortable lead over Harvick.
"I wasn't catching the 16 and didn't really feel it necessary to have a tire failure or an issue at that particular point," Harvick said. "So our best bet at that point was the 48 catches the 16 and something happening as those two guys were racing. But we just maintained and managed our gap between us and (Truex) to just hold that track position and not have anything silly happen."
Harvick moved up one spot to fourth in the standings. Earnhardt fell from fourth to seventh. | Sports Competition | June 2013 | ['(AP via ESPN)'] |
The Australian airline Qantas is fined NZ$6.5 million for breaches of the Commerce Act in New Zealand, the biggest penalty for price fixing in the history of that country. | File photo
The High Court in Auckland has ordered Qantas Airways to pay a $6.5 million penalty for breaches of the Commerce Act, the highest penalty to date in New Zealand for price fixing.
The penalty was recommended to the court by the Commerce Commission and Qantas as part of a pre-trial settlement in the air cargo cartel case, in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.
"When parties admit breaches of the Act early and co-operate with the Commission's investigation there are significant benefits for them, and it is in the public interest, since court hearings can be a costly and drawn-out way of resolving matters," said Commerce Commission General Counsel for Enforcement, Mary-Anne Borrowdale.
The news came as Qantas pilots earlier threatened industrial action next week if there was no progress in negotiations on job security, prompting Qantas to say it was cancelling 31 flights and delaying 46 others on Friday.
Qantas now says those flights will be reinstated after the union cancelled the planned strike action.
Today's judgement also includes information about Air New Zealand, saying it backed out of fixing prices on outbound cargo in 2002.
Air New Zealand is one of a number of airlines which are defending the charges.
In the judgement, Justice Allan said Air NZ, which is fighting the charges, "ceased to impose a separate fuel surcharge" in January 2002, which ended the viability of the cartel involving Qantas in relation to outbound cargo from New Zealand by making the understanding "unworkable." Price-fixing on in-bound cargo continued until 2006. The Qantas penalty brings the amount achieved in settlements of the cartel case to $14.1 million. "It is appropriate to recognise that Qantas admitted its price fixing at the very earliest opportunity, and is providing genuine assistance with the Commission's case against the defending airlines."
The Commission has also settled with British Airways plc and Cargolux International Airlines S.A.
The Commerce Commission yesterday opened its case in the High Court in Auckland against a group of major international airlines, alleging the airlines colluded to raise the price of freighting cargo by imposing fuel surcharges on shipments in and out of the country. | Organization Fine | May 2011 | ['(The New Zealand Herald)'] |
New Zealand and Australian researchers identify a new species of penguin, the Waitaha penguin , which lived in New Zealand until its extinction 500 years ago. | The arrival of humans in New Zealand may have led to the extinction of one penguin species - to the advantage of another.
Writing in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, researchers say the extinct species lived in areas now home to New Zealand's rare yellow eyed penguin.
The extinction is thought to have occurred as recently as 500 years ago.
Early settlers wiped out many of New Zealand's unique animal species.
Scientists from the University of Otago, New Zealand, say they discovered the new species unintentionally when researching the genetic history of the yellow eyed penguin.
Although there are only around 7,000 yellow eyed penguins they have a wide range, being found on the sub Antarctic Campbell and Auckland islands as well as 700 km (435 miles) further north on the South-East coast of New Zealand's South Island. DNA evidence
The discovery of the new species was something of a mystery according to Sanne Boessenkool, who led the research. "They were around 10% smaller [than the yellow eyed penguin] they were very closely related, but we can't say if they had a yellow crown. There are no records of their existence from the local Maori people," she told BBC News. DNA analysis compared modern penguins with samples from the feet of 100-year-old museum specimens and 500-year-old bones from both the sub-Antarctic islands and early Polynesian settlements on New Zealand's South Island. The older bones found in South Island were smaller than those from the modern yellow eyed penguins and contained different DNA.
The DNA from the sub-Antarctic islands matched that of the modern birds. This geographic variation and subtle differences in the structure and shape of the bones led the researchers to conclude that New Zealand's South Island had been home to a different, now extinct penguin and to designate this as a new species.
Hunting Penguins
Sanne Boessenkool says it's hard to pinpoint exactly why the penguins became extinct but its likely they were eaten by Polynesian settlers who arrived from about 1280AD.
"The fact we find these bones in archaeological sites, villages or settlements, suggests hunting played a role. The birds were an easy target, easy to take and there were never very many of them," The new species has been named Megadyptes Waitaha. The Waitaha were the first Polynesian tribe to occupy South Island. M. waitaha's rapid replacement by its close relative the yellow eyed penguin, Megadyptes antipodies, raises questions about current dating techniques and extinction theories, says Sanne Boessenkool.
"Often when we look back in time and date bones we don't think a couple of hundred years is important, but here you get a complete shift in just a couple of hundred years. These patterns might be more common, a view we don't consider when looking at large scale extinction events,"she explained. Shy and secretive
By the time Europeans arrived in South Island in the 1800s, the yellow eyed penguins had already taken over the sites left by its relative. The bird's breeding behaviour makes it an unlikely coloniser. Sanne BoessenKool has studied them in the field for many years.
"They are very secretive, shy and difficult to monitor, they don't live in big colonies, but build their own nest perhaps under some bushes," she commented.
Despite their fragile foothold the researchers say these incoming penguins probably survived on New Zealand's South Island due to a change in human behaviour.
Either the human settlers moved further north due to a lack of food following the extinction of the earlier penguins and other species, or they had begun to develop some of the conservation principles found in contemporary Maori culture and so saw a need to allow these penguins to survive. Sanne Boessenkool is now investigating how and when the penguins moved across from the sub-Antarctic Auckland and Campbell islands.
"It is a mystery, were now looking at the ways it may have colonised, if its a small group or if they are still coming," she said. | New wonders in nature | November 2008 | ['(Megadyptes waitaha)', '(AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)', '(Science Daily)', '(BBC)'] |
United Nations Secretary–General Ban Ki–moon holds talks with Lebanese political leaders, trying to break an impasse over the election of the next President. | The secretary general is to meet members of the pro-Western government, and officials from Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran.
On Thursday he met the head of the Maronite Church, Nasrallah Sfeir. Parliament is scheduled to convene by the end of next week to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud whose term ends on 23 November.
The vote has already been postponed three times to give rival leaders more time to agree on a candidate.
This deadlock has caused the worse internal political crisis in Lebanon since its 1975-90 civil war.
There are fears that the government could split into rival administrations if a candidate cannot be agreed.
Constitutional procedures
Under Lebanon's power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian. Mr Ban is bolstering a French-led initiative to break the deadlock. "The election of the new president should take place on time and in accordance with constitutional procedures," Mr Ban said.
"In this endeavour, it is imperative that the parliament convenes in order to elect a new president. The new Lebanese president should enjoy the broadest possible acceptance so that he or she can represent all Lebanese people."
Parliament is scheduled to meet again on 21 November. Mr Lahoud says he will appoint an interim administration, headed by the army chief, if his successor is not in place. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former Atlanta Police officer Garrett Rolfe is charged with murder and 10 other crimes in the death of Rayshard Brooks. Brooks was shot twice in the back after he fled from an attempted DUI arrest and stole another officer's taser. This officer, Devin Brosnan, has been charged with aggravated assault and two other crimes in the case. | This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant on June 12 in Atlanta. Rolfe has been fired following the fatal shooting of Brooks, and a second officer has been placed on administrative duty.
Atlanta Police Department via AP
hide caption
This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant on June 12 in Atlanta. Rolfe has been fired following the fatal shooting of Brooks, and a second officer has been placed on administrative duty.
Updated 3:50 a.m. ET Thursday
The white Atlanta police officer who shot a 27-year-old black man in the back last week in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant will face a charge of felony murder and 10 other charges, a Georgia county prosecutor announced Wednesday.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots at Rayshard Brooks, could face a possible sentence of life without parole or the death penalty.
Rolfe, who has since been fired from the police department, was also charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violations of office.
The other officer, Devin Brosnan, who remains with the Atlanta Police Department and has been placed on administrative desk duty, is also facing charges. Among them is aggravated assault, which carries a possible sentence of one to 20 years in prison.
Arrest warrants have been issued for both men.
The decision to bring charges comes five days after the officers were called to a Wendy's fast-food restaurant. They found Brooks asleep in his car, and he admitted to officers that he had been drinking earlier.
The Atlanta Police Department later said a "higher than usual" number of officers had not come to work Wednesday night, following the announcement of the charges. The department refuted claims that officers from each zone in the city had walked off the job and assured the public that the city had "enough resources to maintain operations and remain able to respond to incidents."
Earlier suggestions that multiple officers from each zone had walked off the job were inaccurate. The department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift. We have enough resources to maintain operations & remain able to respond to incidents.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN that some officers were staying on past their scheduled shifts to make up the difference, and the city could call on partners in other departments across the area for assistance if needed.
Video released by police over the weekend shows that Brooks was speaking with officers for nearly a half-hour. It includes him doing a field sobriety test, which he failed.
Things took a turn when the officers attempted to put handcuffs on Brooks. He was able to grab the stun gun of one of the officers. As Brooks starts to run off, he points and fires it in the officers' direction.
Moments later, Rolfe pulls his service weapon and fires, striking Brooks. Howard, the Fulton County district attorney, said during a news briefing that Brooks "never presented himself as a threat."
"At the very beginning, he was peacefully sleeping in his car; after he was awakened by the officer, he was cooperative; and he was directed to move his car to another location. He calmly moved his car," Howard said.
"Mr. Brooks never displayed any aggressive behavior," he added.
He also noted that for a period of more than two minutes after he was shot, "there was no medical attention applied to Mr. Brooks."
Georgia officials also said that Rolfe kicked Brooks while he was on the ground.
In filing charges, Howard said, prosecutors relied in part on a statement made on the video by Rolfe, "I got him."
Officials said Brosnan, the other officer, stood on Brooks' shoulder after he was shot. According to Howard, Brosnan has cooperated with the investigation.
Tomika Miller, Brooks' widow, said at a separate briefing Wednesday evening she was "very grateful" the district attorney was providing "the truth" of what happened to her husband that night.
"I was very hurt," Miller said through tears when asked what was going through her mind about what officers did to Brooks before medical aid was called.
"I can't imagine being there because I don't know what I would have done if I would have seen that for myself," Miller said. "I felt everything that he felt just by hearing what he went through."
An attorney for Brooks' family said it would be a long journey before justice could be served.
"This is not the finish line, this is the starting point," attorney Justin Miller said. "Step two is convictions on all charges. And then after that, we have to find a way to try to make things right for the Brooks family."
Brooks' killing comes as protests continue across many U.S. cities to call attention to systemic racism and social injustice, including police brutality on communities of color.
Those protests coincide with the recent high-profile killings of black Americans by law enforcement, including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor and David McAtee in Louisville, Ky. A former police officer is among those accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in February in Glynn County, Ga.
In the case of McAtee, Kentucky officials said last week that the investigation is ongoing. Officials also determined that the fatal shot, on June 1, came from the Kentucky National Guard, which was working with police.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a Monday news conference that Brooks' death "angered me and it saddened me beyond words."
"Friday evening we saw the murder of Rayshard Brooks," Bottoms said. "It is clear that we do not have another day, another minute, another hour to waste."
She also announced administrative orders aimed at reforming the Atlanta Police Department's use-of-force rules and de-escalation protocols.
Over the weekend, the mayor accepted the resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields. As Georgia Public Broadcasting reported, a nationwide search for her replacement is underway, and the mayor has said that Shields will serve in a role that is "to be determined."
There is also reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Guardian indicating that Rolfe, the officer who killed Brooks, was previously reprimanded for his use of force.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Rolfe received a written reprimand in 2017 for using his firearm. His file, according to the paper, included a dozen other incidents ranging from vehicular accidents to complaints from citizens.
"He was exonerated in nine of those internal investigations," the newspaper reported.
The Guardian reported on a 2015 incident in which Rolfe and two other officers shot at Jackie Jermaine Harris, who was caught driving a stolen vehicle. Harris rammed a law enforcement vehicle, the paper reported, and the officers shot at him multiple times.
"However, the shooting was not reported by the police involved," The Guardian added. "Harris, like Brooks, is African American." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2020 | ['(NPR)'] |
Japan announces that Shinichi Nishimiya will succeed Uichiro Niwa. | Japan plans to replace Uichiro Niwa, the ambassador to China who was criticized for his comments about the Senkaku Islands, ending the tenure of the nation’s first envoy to China from the private sector.
The move in autumn will deal a setback to the government’s efforts to break the bureaucrat-led style of governance. Shinichi Nishimiya, 60, deputy minister for foreign affairs, is expected to succeed Niwa, 73.
The government also plans to replace its ambassadors to the United States and South Korea.
A personnel reshuffle of top Foreign Ministry officials and key ambassadors is scheduled for mid-September.
But the replacement of Niwa is expected in October or later because Sept. 29 will mark the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, and a leadership reshuffle in the Chinese Communist Party will take place in fall.
Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada was foreign minister in the Naoto Kan administration and was largely behind the June 2010 appointment of Niwa, previously an adviser for trading house Itochu Corp.
The government expected the former businessman to promote economic diplomacy with China. But Niwa got caught up in the contentious diplomatic feud between the two countries after a Chinese fishing boat rammed Japan Coast Guard vessels off the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in September 2010.
In June this year, Niwa, who is known for his pro-China stance, said the Tokyo metropolitan government’s plan to buy some of the Senkaku Islands would cause a “grave crisis” in Japan-China relations.
The Japanese government ordered Niwa to accurately reflect its stance--that the islands the Chinese call Diaoyu are Japanese territory. But calls persisted inside and outside the government for Niwa’s ouster.
Nishimiya was North American affairs bureau chief at the Foreign Ministry and held other ministry posts before taking his current position in January last year. Although Nishimiya is not an expert in Chinese affairs, he served as an envoy to China from August 2005.
Japan’s relations with its neighbors have rapidly deteriorated recently over territorial disputes and Cabinet members’ visit to war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
To improve ties, including those with Washington, the Noda administration plans to promote more experienced people in diplomacy.
Kenichiro Sasae, 60, vice minister for foreign affairs, will take over from Ichiro Fujisaki, 65, as ambassador to the United States. Ambassador to South Korea Masatoshi Muto, 63, will be replaced by Koro Bessho, 59, deputy minister for foreign affairs.
The government is expected to officially decide on the personnel changes at a Cabinet meeting after the current Diet session closes on Sept. 8.
Chikao Kawai, 59, assistant chief Cabinet secretary, who has wide connections in political circles, is expected to take over Sasae's post as vice minister.
After serving as assistant chief Cabinet secretary in the government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and then deputy vice foreign minister, Kawai was reappointed as assistant chief Cabinet secretary in the Yukio Hatoyama administration in January 2010.
Uichiro Niwa, the ambassador to China, left, and Shinichi Nishimiya, deputy foreign minister, who is expected to succeed Niwa (Provided by Foreign Ministry)
.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2012 | ['(Daily Yomiuri)', '(Asahi Shimbun)'] |
The Kenyan electoral commission announces that President Uhuru Kenyatta has won re-election. Kenyatta leads ODM candidate Raila Odinga by more than 1.4 million votes. The opposition National Super Alliance rejects this finding as fraudulent. | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s main domestic poll monitoring organization, ELOG, said on Saturday it had found no evidence to suggest this week’s election was manipulated or inaccurate, as the opposition have attested.
ELOG’s parallel vote tally projected a victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta with 54 percent of ballots cast, compared to an official count of 54.3 percent. This was well within ELOG’s 1.9 percent margin of error, the group said.
| Government Job change - Election | August 2017 | ['(NPR)', '(Reuters)'] |
Ten people are killed and over 100 injured after a suicide bombing and reprisal attacks close to a Catholic church in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria. | At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured in a suicide bombing during Mass at a Catholic church in northern Nigeria, officials say.
An explosive-laden vehicle drove into the church and detonated its load, ripping a hole in the wall and roof.
The attack happened in Kaduna, which has been targeted by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in the recent past.
President Goodluck Jonathan promised to "redouble" his government's efforts to tackle terrorism and violence.
He called the attack part of an "unfortunate and unacceptable trend that threatens the peace and stability of our nation".
A spokesman for the local governor has called for calm, pleading with people on local radio not to retaliate.
The Nigerian Emergency Management Agency told the BBC that Christian youths attacked a vehicle that had come to rescue survivors after the attack, smashing one of the windows.
Unconfirmed reports said at least two people were killed in reprisal attacks by Christians after the bombing.
No group has said it carried out the bombing.
The attack happened at St Rita's church in the Malali neighbourhood of the city.
The vehicle had been stopped at the security gate outside the church. The driver initially reversed, but then careered straight through the church wall and detonated the bomb.
Members of the choir are thought to be among the dead and injured.
The church was surrounded by soldiers and police after the blast, and ambulances were taking the injured to hospital.
Nigeria's north has a large Muslim majority whereas the south is most populated by Christians and those who follow traditional religions. Kaduna is on the dividing line between the two areas. The BBC's Will Ross in Kaduna says many people have come to the city in recent months in search of sanctuary from violence in other parts of northern Nigeria.
Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow the government and impose an extreme form of Islamic law.
The group has said it carried out previous attacks on churches in Kaduna state in June.
At least 50 people were killed in the bombings and the reprisals that followed.
| Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Police fire tear gas and stun grenades at an anti–government protest in Kuwait; protesters were demonstrating against changes to voting laws. | Police in Kuwait have fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters staging a march to denounce changes in voting laws, which were announced by the government ahead of December 1 parliamentary elections, witnesses said.
The protests in the capital, Kuwait City, were launched on Sunday after opposition groups said they will boycott the upcoming election, calling amendments to the voting system a “coup against the constitution”.
“Any act of violence, riots, instigation of violence… and undermining national security will be dealt with forcefully and firmly“
– Kuwait interior ministry
The processions were staged through the city in defiance of authorities’ orders to limit their protests to areas outside parliament.
The December snap polls are the second this year and the fifth since mid-2006 as parliament has repeatedly been dissolved because of political disputes.
The government, at an extraordinary meeting in Kuwait City on Saturday, ordered elections to be held on December 1, and decided to amended the election law to allow each voter to choose only one candidate instead of four.
Kuwait has been torn by a power struggle between the government, controlled by the ruling al-Sabah family, and theelected parliament. The turmoil has blocked development plans and paralysed the political system.
Opposition leaders, meeting at a guest house owned by former parliament speaker Ahmed al-Saadoun, blamed the government for the political crisis and warned it was driving the country towards “oppressive autocratic rule”.
“We call on the proud and free people of Kuwait to … boycott the upcoming election, both by [refraining] from runningin it or casting ballots,” a statement after the meeting on Saturday said.
It asked Kuwaitis to join the protest march on Sunday, and warned the interior minister against committing “aggression” against it.
The interior ministry said it would not allow any “sit-ins, gatherings, processions, rallies… in any place other than the square facing parliament”.
“Any act of violence, riots, instigation of violence… and undermining national security will be dealt with forcefully and firmly,” the ministry said.
Political turmoil
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Kuwait’s emir, dissolved parliament on October 7, and under Kuwait’s constitution elections are supposed to be held within 60 days.
It was the sixth dissolution of parliament since early 2006 in the state.
Sabah, in a televised speech on Friday night, instructed the government to change the election law in what hesaid was a move to stem recurring crisis.
He also said the constitutional court had issued a ruling that allowed for any necessary changes to be made to the country’s electoral system.
Sabah warned in his speech that recent political turmoil in Kuwait could lead to “strife that could be about to erupt and destroy our unity, disfigure our identity and tear apart our society into fragmented groups”.
He said he had instructed the government to establish a national electoral committee and to organise election campaigns “to guarantee the integrity of the electoral process.”
Kuwaiti authorities arrested two opposition politicians on Thursday and interrogated a third after they made comments seen as criticising the emir.
The former members of parliament spoke at an opposition-led rally of about 5,000 people on Monday, at which Kuwaitis later clashed with riot police close to parliament.
The arrests have prompted protests in Kuwait, including one late on Friday, when about 1,000 people gathered in thecentre of the capital to demand the release of the detainees.
. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2012 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
In the general election in the Netherlands, Prime Minister Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy gains 10 seats to win 41 of the 150 in the House of Representatives and Diederik Samsom's Labour Party, gains 8. | Voters in the Netherlands have backed two pro-European centrist parties, while the anti-immigrant Geert Wilders' Eurosceptic party took heavy losses.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte claimed victory for his liberal VVD party. Centre-left Labour came a close second.
Both parties performed better than predicted, seeking a pan-European solution to the eurozone crisis.
Mr Rutte said he was working hard to form a coalition but would not be drawn on whether he would approach Labour.
The two leading parties have enough seats between for a workable coalition - but would have to reconcile very different views on austerity.
The VVD took 41 seats in the 150-member lower house, three more than Labour.
Dutch voters returned to parties of the centre, following recent elections which produced highly fragmented results and multi-party coalitions.
The Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, which is known for being fiercely anti-Islam, and campaigned on a Eurosceptic platform, won 15 seats, well down on its previous 24.
The Socialist Party, which briefly led in opinion polls, came joint third with 15 seats, the same result as at the 2010 election.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the election outcome strengthened Europe and weakened populists and nationalists. "As leader of the largest party I feel a particular sense of responsibility and therefore I don't want to comment [on coalition deals]," said Mr Rutte after meeting his party's MPs on Thursday. "I'm calling for radio silence."
Formal talks on forming a new government cannot start until next week, after the election result is officially confirmed.
Labour Party leader Diederik Samsom, who has advocated spending on job-creation programmes, indicated he would bargain hard in coalition talks. "Nobody knows exactly what will happen tomorrow, but one thing is certain: the course can be changed," he said.
"The course must be changed because the right-wing policies of the past two years cannot continue."
Mr Samsom's approach has been broadly seen as a nod to the policies of France's recently elected Socialist President, Francois Hollande, who wants to increase spending and raise taxes on the rich.
Mr Rutte's policy echoes German Chancellor Angel Merkel's plans of strictly adhering to austerity measures that are designed to force down the country's deficit.
Analysts say the outcome will be significant for Germany's campaign for fiscal discipline in the eurozone.
The election was called after the Freedom Party withdrew its support for Mr Rutte's budget cuts six months ago.
Mr Wilders, best known outside the Netherlands for his anti-immigrant rhetoric, told his supporters on Wednesday night: "I would have rather stood here with good news, but the voter has spoken. We have lost badly."
| Government Job change - Election | September 2012 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(BBC)', '(AP)'] |
The High Negotiations Committee, Syria's main opposition group, will attend Monday's U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, a day shy of the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict, and two-plus weeks into the ceasefire agreement. Although fighting continues, a significant drop in violence has been seen during the truce. The first round of Geneva talks collapsed on Feb. 3 during a government offensive against rebels in Aleppo. | The United Nations's Syria envoy has said delegates are in Geneva for "substantive, deeper" talks between the Syrian government and opposition. Formal talks are set to begin March 14 with an aim to keep ceasefire intact.
The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said Wednesday that this week's talks between lower-level diplomats ahead of next week's peace summit will be "proximity" talks - meaning indirect talks with the warring factions in separate rooms and the envoy shuttling between them.
Since February 27, a ceasefire between President Bashar Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebels is part of the biggest diplomatic effort yet to curb Syria's conflict, which has killed more than 270,000 people, displaced millions and helped fuel Europe's refugee crisis.
De Mistura says the goal is to launch substantive peace talks on Monday, and said they will focus on the core issues of governance, elections within 18 months and a new constitution.
Already, the Syrian government signaled its willingness to attend. The main opposition umbrella groups say they are still mulling whether to participate in the talks which organizers say won't be allowed to run past March 24.
Syrian solders pose for a picture in Maarzaf, Syria on March 2, 2016 following signing a truce document earlier this month. The Russian military helped mediate the agreement and there are hopes the truce will hold.
Western diplomats to meet in Paris as guns remain quiet
Diplomats from five western powers will be holding pre-talks of their own, France's foreign ministry said. The top diplomats from Germany, France, Britain, Italy and the United States are set to meet Sunday in Paris.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said European ministers intend to ensure that the Russian air strikes in Syria are aimed only at jihadist groups such as the self-styled "Islamic State" and the Nusra Front, and not against the more moderate opposition fighters favored by some western powers.
"We must remain vigilant," Ayrault told reporters during a visit to Cairo.
The Paris meeting, which will be attended by European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, will also be used to discuss fighting in Libya, Yemen and eastern Ukraine.
The Syrian ceasefire has led to a "huge drop" in civilian casualties, according to a human rights watchdog. But the UN envoy noted that "success is not guaranteed," signaling uncertainty ahead of scheduled peace talks. (03.03.2016) | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | March 2016 | ['(CBS News)', '(Reuters)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Australians vote tomorrow in what is being called the closest election in 50 years, with some polls predicting a 50–50 draw. | Australians vote tomorrow in the country's closest election for 50 years, with some polls predicting a hung parliament.
On the final day of campaigning, one poll put the parties at 50-50, and another said it was 51-49 in favour of Labor. Across the country, commentators say the result is too close to call.
The Greens are almost certain to hold the balance of power in the country's powerful upper house, the Senate, for the first time in their history and may win their first seat at a general election in the lower house.
The closeness of the contest is a huge turnaround from a year ago when the then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, had a 70% approval rating. His decision in April to shelve the centrepiece of his climate change policy, the emissions trading scheme, dealt his popularity a heavy blow, and a fight with the country's big mining companies over tax finished him off.
When Julia Gillard took over on 24 June, Labor party officials breathed a sigh of relief. She was a fresh face, while Rudd was left as the scapegoat for the party's woes. But the respite didn't last long and Gillard's campaign was dogged by leaks against her, party infighting and the presence of Rudd himself. Now she is fighting for her political life. No first-term government has been thrown out in Australia for 80 years.
On the final day of campaigning, Gillard focused on marginal seats around Sydney. At a pub in Raymond Terrace, about two hours north of the city, she ditched her usual tailored suit for a pair of jeans and a large glass of bitter. In what Labor voters will hope is a good sign, she had a spot of luck and managed to pick her own ticket as the winner in the pub's meat raffle. The prize: a juicy tray of steak, sausages and lamb chops.
In what has become an overtly negative campaign, she warned people of a stark choice on offer. "There's a real risk that Tony Abbott could become prime minister on Saturday," she said. "That's a real risk to the future of Australian families."
Labor has painted Abbott throughout the campaign as untrustworthy and weak on economic management. Gillard has repeatedly warned voters that he would bring back unpopular industrial relations policies.
Abbott, the Liberal party leader, went on a 36-hour marathon across Sydney, trying to convert as many undecided voters as possible. It was reminiscent of David Cameron's 24-hour stint before this year's UK election.
Abbott began his last-minute campaign blitz playing tennis with a former professional player turned Liberal party candidate. He finished the day throwing a football around with professional rugby league players in his home electorate. In between he managed a shandy in a local bar, but – fitting of his action-man image – called it the "wussiest drink of all time".
In the final hours he returned to his negative message, as he has done so often during the campaign. He said voters should not give what he called a bad government a second chance. "They [Labor] have let us down, they have broken promises and they've wasted money," he said. "The new taxes that they've got planned are a real and present danger to our economy."
The Liberal party has focused heavily throughout the campaign on border protection. Its slogan has been "stop the boats", a reference to asylum seekers arriving in northern Australia. Fears about asylum seekers resonate strongly in marginal electorates, despite the fact that refugees make up less than 5% of immigrants to Australia.
| Government Job change - Election | August 2010 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The government sets June 5 as the date for the 2021 parliamentary elections. The elections were delayed to 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the delay being a cause of the ongoing Tigray conflict. | ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election on June 5, the electoral board said on Friday, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed seeks to quell political and ethnic violence in several regions.
Abiy’s Prosperity Party, a pan-Ethiopian movement he founded a year ago, faces challenges from increasingly strident ethnically-based parties seeking more power for their regions.
Africa’s second most populous nation has a federal system with 10 regional governments, many of which have boundary disputes with neighbouring areas or face low-level unrest.
In the northern Tigray region, thousands of people are believed to have died and 950,000 have fled their homes since fighting between regional and federal forces erupted on Nov. 4. Tigray held its own elections in September in defiance of the federal government, which declared the polls illegal.
The National Electoral Board said next year’s calendar for polls did not include an election in Tigray. It said the date for a Tigray vote would be set once an interim government, which was established during the conflict, opened election offices.
The national vote was postponed from August this year due to the coronavirus crisis. The head of the winning party becomes prime minister.
For nearly three decades until Abiy’s appointment, Ethiopia was ruled by a coalition of four ethnically-based movements dominated by the party from Tigray. That administration ruled in an increasingly autocratic fashion until Abiy took power in 2018 following years of bloody anti-government street protests.
The initial months after Abiy’s appointment saw a rush of political and economic reforms, including the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners.
Abiy merged three of the main regional parties last year to form the Prosperity Party. The fourth, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), refused to join.
Voter registration for the June vote would take place from March 1 to 30, the electoral board said.
Abiy’s peace deal with Eritrea, which won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after years of conflict, helped earn him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. But his moves to loosen the Ethiopian government’s iron grip was followed by outbreaks of violence as regional politicians and groups jostled for resources and power.
Abiy ordered troops to the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, which borders Sudan, on Thursday after attackers torched homes and killed more than 200 people in a village.
The prime minister is also grappling with a long-running insurgency in Ethiopia’s most populous region Oromiya.
The opposition Oromo Liberation Front, deemed a terrorist movement until Abiy lifted a ban on the group, had said on Dec. 12 that the government wanted to hold elections to divert attention from Ethiopia’s security problems.
“We recommend that repairing the fractured administrative regions and restoring peace and security must be undertaken before the election takes place,” it had said.
Many Oromo politicians are in jail, such as Jawar Mohammed, a prominent media mogul and member of the Oromo Federalist Congress party.
He and other party leaders were charged in September with terrorism offences after the killing of popular Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, whose death sparked protests that killed at least 178 people in Oromiya and the capital Addis Ababa.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
UK Prime Minister Theresa May says that she will detail the timetable for her resignation after the Brexit vote in June. , , | LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain promised on Thursday that she would set a date to step down as the country’s leader, starting the countdown to the end of one of the most troubled premierships in recent British history.
For months she had shrugged off parliamentary defeats, negotiation failures and calls from her own lawmakers to resign.
. | Famous Person - Give a speech | May 2019 | ['(FT)', '(The New York Times)', '(Time)'] |
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri submits his resignation to President Michel Aoun. | PM heading to presidential palace to tender gov’t resignation amid mass protests demanding departure of ruling elite.
Lebanon‘s Prime Minister Saad Hariri has turned in his resignation to President Michel Aoun, satisfying one of the main demands of the country’s protest movement.
The announcement on Tuesday came on the back of 13 days of mass protests demanding the departure of the country’s entire political elite amid growing anger over official corruption, poor public services and years of economic mismanagement.
“We have reached a deadlock and we need a shock in order to brave through the crisis,” Hariri said in a televised statement from the capital, Beirut.
“I’m heading to the presidential palace to tender the resignation of the government … This is in response to the will and demand of the thousands of Lebanese demanding change,” he added.
His address came after a group of people loyal to the Shia Hezbollah and Amal movements attacked and destroyed a protest camp set up by anti-government demonstrators in Beirut.
Aoun could now either accept Hariri’s resignation and begin consultations towards forming a new government, or ask him to rethink. It took nine months to form the Hariri coalition cabinet that took office in January.
Hariri’s resignation defied the powerful Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah has twice said he was against such a step, citing the risk of a dangerous void.
The two-week crisis has paralysed Lebanon, closing banks, schools and some businesses.
Lebanon’s banking association said banks would remain shut on Tuesday for a tenth straight working day, but added that the central bank had provided the liquidity necessary to pay out salaries for public sector workers, including members of security forces.
Rami Khouri, a senior public policy fellow and journalism professor at the American University of Beirut, described Hariri’s move as a “huge victory” for the protest movement and a “critical turning point”.
He added, however, that the prime minister was the “weakest link” in the country’s coalition government, which grouped nearly all of Lebanon’s main parties, including Hezbollah.
“He was the low-hanging fruit who was likely to resign,” Khouri said.
“The question now is will this trigger a process by which Hezbollah, which is the critical player in the background, as well as the president and his party … will those people agree to a technocratic government, which goes on to the next step of the demands of the protesters?”
Naim Salem, a professor at Notre Dame University, said the next step was for Aoun to appoint a replacement for Hariri.
“This is a very difficult task, and most likely I expect that Hariri will be reappointed again as prime minister, designated to form a new cabinet,” he told Al Jazeera from Beirut.
“The need now is to put [together] this new cabinet, [with] people that have the highest level of integrity … there will be much give and take, much pulling of strings between the major political parties in the country.”
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Prime Minister Saad Hariri to submit government resignation after two weeks of mass protests against ruling elite.
Tens of thousands gather to hold hands across the country on the eleventh day of anti-government protests.
Hezbollah is a major political force, having won 13 seats in the May 2018 elections and securing three cabinet posts. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Patti Smith performs in place of Bob Dylan in the Nobel Prize for Literature ceremony. | Representing the Nobel laureate at the prize-giving, the US singer admitted nerves in performance at Swedish academy
Last modified on Tue 14 Feb 2017 17.30 GMT
A very nervous Patti Smith initially stumbled through A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall in Stockholm on Saturday in a performance given to mark Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize for literature. Making the award, Horace Engdahl, a Swedish literary historian and critic and member of the Swedish academy that awards the prize, responded to international criticism of the choice of a popular lyricist as recipient.
Engdahl said that when Dylan’s songs were heard first in the 1960s, “all of a sudden much of the bookish poetry in our world felt anaemic”.
The academy’s choice of Dylan, Engdahl said in Swedish, “seemed daring only beforehand and already seems obvious”.
And it was an unconventional prize-giving night in more ways than one. Dylan’s failure to attend the august gathering in Stockholm meant that Smith, the American singer most famous for her 1975 album, Horses, and the hit song Because the Night, was attending as his proxy. The occasion proved too much for the singer, 69, who faltered after a few verses. Forgetting the lyric “I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’”, she apologised quietly but profusely to the jewel-bedecked audience and asked if she could start that section of the song again. “I am so nervous,” she explained. Smith was encouraged by applause from the gathered dignatories and members of the Swedish royal family.
Her performance followed Engdahl’s justificatory speech, which opened with the question: “What brings about the great shifts in the world of literature? Often it is when someone seizes upon a simple, overlooked form, discounted as art in the high sense, and makes it mutate.”
In this way, Engdahl argued, the novel had once emerged from anecdote and letters, while drama had eventually derived from games and performance.
“In the distant past all poetry was sung or tunefully recited,” he said. Dylan had dedicated himself to music played for ordinary people and tried to copy it.
“But when he started to write songs they came out differently,” Engdahl said. “He panned poetry gold, whether on purpose or by accident is irrelevant … he gave back to poetry its elevated style, lost since the romantics.”
The award, announced in October, was the first to be given to a songwriter. Dylan took two weeks to return the academy’s phone calls or publicly acknowledge the award – which comes with prize money of $870,000 (£734,000) – leading to one member calling him “impolite and arrogant”.
Dylan, 75, wrote to the academy last month to say he had been left “speechless” by the honour, but that other commitments had made it “unfortunately impossible” for him to attend the ceremony.
However, the foundation said that the folk singer would be presented with his prize some time next year, either in Sweden or abroad.
The no-show has created a stir in Sweden, where it has been perceived as a slight towards the Swedish academy, which awards the literature prize, and the Nobel Foundation. | Awards ceremony | December 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Officials of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine announce the successful extinguishment of all open fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. | Firefighters worked for 10 days to extinguish fires that broke out in the forest around the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Ukrainian officials say they've tracked down two men who are believed to be behind the blazes.
Large fires that ripped through forest surrounding the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear plant have been extinguished, Ukrainian emergency officials said on Tuesday.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the blazes over the past 10 days, using planes and helicopters to put out the flames.
Recent rain helped emergency crews put out the larger blazes, preventing the fire from spreading to either the defunct nuclear plant or other facilities in the area, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said in a statement.
Officials acknowledged that some grassy areas were still smoldering, but said no large open fires remained.
Radiation levels in 'normal limits'
On Monday, environmental activists warned that the fires in the forest posed a radiation risk to surrounding areas and that they were getting dangerously close to radioactive waste storage facilities.
Mykola Chechetkin, the head of the Emergencies Service, said the fires were put out before they reached radioactive waste storage facilities.
"Background radiation in the exclusion zone remains within normal limits and is not increasing," Chechetkin told the president during a conference call.
He added that radiation levels were normal in the capital Kyiv — located around 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Chernobyl — and that no additional protective measures were necessary.
Suspected arson
Ukrainian authorities say at least one person is believed to have deliberately started the fires.
Last week, police tracked down a 27-year-old man who told authorities he set fire to dry grass near the forest "for fun" and then did not put out the blaze when it began to spread.
On Monday, police said they spoke with another local resident who accidentally set the dry grass on fire. Unusually dry conditions caused the fires to spread rapidly.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster when the No. 4 reactor exploded in April 1986, causing large quantities of radioactive material to disperse in the atmosphere. The cloud of radioactive dust was sent over much of Europe.
A 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) exclusion zone was established following the disaster, and continues to log dangerous levels of radiation from the accident. | Fire | April 2020 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
A fire breaks out at the 50th floor of the New York Trump Tower, killing one resident and injuring four firefighters. According to the New York City Fire Department, the building had no sprinklers. | New York: A 67-year-old man died after being injured in a fire at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan on Saturday, the police said.
The man, identified by The Associated Press as Todd Brassner, was in an apartment on the 50th floor at the time of the fire, which was reported about 5.30pm local time, the police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Property records obtained by The Associated Press indicate Brassner was an art dealer who had purchased his 50th-floor unit in 1996.
A firefighter inside Trump Tower.
Four firefighters suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a news conference.
He said the apartment, a large unit that was heavily furnished, was "virtually entirely on fire." Video footage showed flames bursting through broken windows.
Neither President Donald Trump nor his family was in the building, a Fifth Avenue skyscraper that is the calling card of his real estate business.
The commissioner said firefighters went with the Secret Service to inspect the President's residence.
More than 200 firefighters responded to the fire, the cause of which was unknown, the commissioner said.
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One person has died and four firefighters have suffered injuries in a blaze that broke out at Trump Tower in New York.
Trump, who was in Washington at the time, said on Twitter that the tower's construction helped confine the fire. He did not mention the fatality.
The commissioner said the upper floors that are home to residences do not have fire sprinklers. "It's a well-built building," he said. "The building sure stood up quite well."
While the building is subject around the clock to extra security by law enforcement, extra fire protection happens only when the president is there, Nigro said.
Fire damage can be seen at Trump Tower after a fire broke out on the 50th floor. Credit:AP
Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City high-rises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983. Subsequent updates to the building code required commercial skyscrapers to install the sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential high-rises are not required to install sprinklers unless the building undergoes major renovations.
Some fire-safety advocates pushed for a requirement that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers when New York City passed a law requiring them in new residential highrises in 1999, but officials in the administration of then-mayor Rudy Giuliani said that would be too expensive.
Nigro noted that no member of the Trump family was in the 664-foot tower Saturday.
Trump's family has an apartment on the top floors of the 58-storey building, but he has spent little time in New York since taking office. The headquarters of the Trump Organisation is on the 26th floor.
Authorities restricted passers-by from the area directly in front of the tower, keeping them out of the street and on the sidewalk on the opposite side of Fifth Avenue.
Lalitha Masson, a 76-year-old resident, called it "a very, very terrifying experience."
"When I saw the television, I thought we were finished," said Masson, who lives on the 36th floor with her husband, Narinder, who is 79 and has Parkinson's disease. "I called my oldest son and said goodbye to him because the way it looked everything was falling out of the window, and it reminded me of 9/11."
She said that she did not get any announcement about leaving and that when she called the front desk no one answered.
Dennis Shields, who said he lived on the 42nd floor, described the scene.
Firefighters outside Trump Tower on Saturday evening. Credit:AP
"You could smell the smoke, and you could hear things falling like through the vents," he said. "It just smelled like sulfur."
He said there were no orders to evacuate but he received a text message from Trump's lawyer, Michael D. Cohen.
Shields, who said he grew up with Cohen, continued: "He said, 'Are you in the building?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'You better get out ASAP.' That's how I knew to get out, otherwise I'd still be in there."
In January, a small electrical fire broke out near the top of the building. Officials at the time indicated it was in the building's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system. A firefighter was hurt by falling debris, and two civilians were injured. | Fire | April 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Two strong aftershocks strike tsunami–devastated Aceh, Indonesia, leading to some panic. | Two consecutive aftershocks measuring 6.0 and 5.9 on the Richter scale rattled Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province but there are no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The meteorology and geophysics office in Jakarta says the first offshore quake occurred at 12:21pm local time in the Indian Ocean 108 kilometres south-west of Banda Aceh.
The second aftershock took place 12 seconds after the first and had an epicentre 38 kilometres south-west of Banda Aceh. More than 230,000 people are believed to have died in the province when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake unleashed a tsunami that devastated the coastline in December. Aceh has been hit by more than 200 aftershocks in the seven weeks since the disaster, although most have registered under five on the Richter scale. Indonesia is regularly jolted by earthquakes, caused by massive friction between tectonic plates shifting deep below the archipelago. - AFP | Earthquakes | February 2005 | ['(ABC News Online Australia)'] |
Large blasts occur in Cairo and Giza, Egypt, targeting the State Security agency and leaving six police officers injured. , , | CAIRO The Islamic State claimed Thursday it carried out a massive car bombing that targeted Egyptian security forces in Cairo, calling the operation revenge for the deaths of some of its members earlier this year. Six policemen were injured in the predawn attack on a branch of the National Security Agency, the country’s domestic spy service, in the Cairo suburb of Shubra al-Kheima, the Interior Ministry said.
The powerful blast which could be heard across several Cairo districts has raised fears of stepped up insurgent attacks in the Egyptian capital. Islamists and other militants have waged an increasingly deadly campaign against Egyptian security forces since a military coup ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Among the factions is a group, based in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, that has pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.
[Islamic State-linked group in Egypt released beheading video] In a message posted online, the Islamic State said its “soldiers of the caliphate were able to strike the state security building in the area of Shubra al-Kheima with a car full of explosives.”
A bomb-rigged vehicle was parked outside the security offices, about six miles from the central Tahrir Square. The driver fled on a motorcycle before the explosion, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Egyptian insurgents have frequently targeted security installations. The Islamic State said Thursday’s attack was in retaliation for “Arab Sharkas,” a reference to the site of a deadly shootout between militants and security forces in a village close to Shubra al-Kheima in 2014.
The hours-long gunbattle was touched off by a raid on a timber workshop believed linked to militants who later forged ties with the Islamic State. Militants and senior army officers were among those killed. In May, Egypt executed six men it said belonged to the cell in Arab Sharkas. Human Rights Watch has said that three of those men were already in custody when the gun battle took place. Early Thursday, the private Egyptian television channel CBC aired video showing extensive damage to buildings in the Shubra district.
In January 2014, jihadists now loyal to the Islamic State claimed a car bomb attack outside a security directorate in Cairo, causing extensive damage.
In June, a powerful car bomb exploded and killed Egypt’s top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, in the heart of Cairo. A new group calling itself the “Tahrir Brigades” claimed responsibility for that operation earlier this month. The claim, which said the group was made up of defected Egyptian army officers, could not be verified.
Read more: Syria says Islamic State militants beheaded a noted archaeologist Map: The world according to the Islamic State This town has resisted Islamic State for 18 months. But food is running low. n. | Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(Al Jazeera via Twitter)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
West Ham return to the Premier League by defeating Blackpool in the 2012 Football League Championship play-off Final. | Last updated on 19 May 201219 May 2012.From the section Football
Ricardo Vaz Te struck a late winner as West Ham defeated Blackpool in an absorbing Championship play-off final to seal their return to the Premier League at the first attempt.
The result ensured that manager Sam Allardyce made good on his promise to take the Hammers back into the top flight after his team narrowly missed out on automatic promotion at the end of the regular season.
"The keeper was magnificent but the ball slipped out of his hands. Vaz Te was in the right place at the right time to smash the ball into the net. But Gilks could have been a bit stronger."
Allardyce's side had led at the break through a Carlton Cole strike but after Thomas Ince - son of former Hammers midfielder Paul - levelled shortly after the restart, the match became increasingly stretched and ragged.
Both teams wasted good opportunities to score but it was the London side who did grab what proved to be the decisive third when the unmarked Vaz Te, a January signing from Barnsley, drilled the ball into the net from 12 yards. It was a goal that meant West Ham won on their first appearance at Wembley in 31 years, in doing so becoming the first team since Leicester in 1996 to bounce straight back to the Premier League through the play-offs.
But it ensured that the unfortunate Blackpool, relegated along with West Ham last season, did not seal a fairytale return to the top flight. The Seasiders had been in excellent form during the closing weeks of the season and in their play-off semi-final.
"Even if some think Allardyce's team are the equivalent of a backstreet bruiser, nobody can argue that he has not made good on his promise to win promotion."
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Several times during the final it looked as though Ian Holloway's team would shake off the loss of key striker Gary Taylor-Fletcher to an injury picked up in training and overcome the odds by defeating the heavily fancied Hammers.
Holloway's team spurned several good opportunities to take the lead, with Stephen Dobbie the first into action, drawing a decent save from Robert Green after Hammers left-back Matt Taylor failed to clear a diagonal ball.
Matt Phillips shot tamely from 20 yards after he had been played clean through and the former Wycombe wide man later missed from 14 yards after a terrible botched clearance from Guy Demel created the opening.
Hammers boss Allardyce had opted for a solid team formation for the final even though his team had won and in their two meetings with Blackpool in the Championship.
West Ham started with Vaz Te on the left and Cole often isolated ahead of a packed Hammers midfield. Vaz Te was a constant menace but it was from the otherwise disappointing Taylor that the London team created the opening goal.
Taylor surged forward down the left flank and, after Angel Martinez wasted a chance to snuff out the move, delivered a teasing cross that Cole controlled before drilling the ball across goal from 10 yards.
The goal seemed to temporarily derail Blackpool, who rather limped through the final 15 minutes of the first half before levelling shortly after the restart.
The Hammers had looked comfortable in the lead, playing a high line and squeezing the space in midfield. But after Taylor was caught out by another raking diagonal pass, Ince showed excellent composure in allowing the ball to bounce before shooting low across Green's goal.
Allardyce had clearly seen enough and brought on George McCartney to slot in at left-back to try to nullify the threat posed by Ince.
But although that was probably an effective decision the match in general nonetheless became stretched as both teams pushed in search of what would probably be the game's decisive goal.
Dobbie, missed a brilliant chance, scuffing his shot from 14 yards when completely unmarked, while West Ham skipper Kevin Nolan was unlucky to see his technically superb volley crash against the woodwork.
The final seemed to be heading for extra-time before Vaz Te struck after Matt Gilks parried at the feet of Cole to justify his team's billing as favourites and leave supporters looking forward to a return to the Premier League when the new season starts in August. | Sports Competition | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Storm Filomena causes the death of two people from heavy rains in the province of Málaga and another two from hypothermia after a blizzard hits central Spain. The Mayor of Madrid requests the assistance of the Army as he considers the situation in the capital to be of "extreme gravity". | Storm Filomena has blanketed parts of Spain in heavy snow, with half of the country on red alert for more on Saturday. Road, rail and air travel has been disrupted and interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the country was facing "the most intense storm in the last 50 years". Madrid, one of the worst affected areas, is set to see up to 20cm (eight inches) of snow in the next 24 hours. Further south the storm caused rivers to burst their banks. Four deaths have been reported so far as a result of Filomena. Officials said two people had been found frozen to death - one in the town of Zarzalejo, north-west of Madrid, and the other in the eastern city of Calatayud. Two people travelling in a car were swept away by floods near the southern city of Malaga.
As snow fell on Madrid on Friday evening, a number of vehicles became stranded on a motorway near the capital.
The city's Barajas airport has closed, along with a number of roads, and all trains to and from Madrid have been cancelled. Firefighters were called in to assist drivers who had become stuck. In some areas the military were called in to help clear roads. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged people to stay at home and to follow the instructions of emergency services. King Felipe and Queen Letizia took to Twitter to urge "extreme caution against the risks of accumulation of ice and snow".
The country's AEMET weather agency said the snowfall was "exceptional and most likely historic". A number of people were seen making the most of the snowy scenery, walking through Madrid's Puerta del Sol square.
Large parks in Madrid have since been closed as a precaution, AFP news agency reports. One man was pictured skiing along the Gran Via, the capital's famous shopping street. In Cañada Real, the largest shanty town in western Europe, residents were seen creating a bonfire to keep warm. The cold weather is set to continue beyond the weekend with temperatures in Madrid predicted to hit -12C on Thursday. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | January 2021 | ['(BBC)', '(Europa Press)'] |
The European Union withdraws a trade concessions deal with Sri Lanka after the former accused the latter of not improving its human rights record. | The European Union has decided to withdraw Sri Lanka's preferential trade access to EU markets after it failed to improve its human rights record.
The concessions will be stopped on 15 August on a temporary basis after Sri Lanka refused to implement human right conventions.
The deal, known as GSP Plus, gives 16 developing countries trade benefits in return for set commitments.
Sri Lankan officials say the demands amount to interference in its affairs.
Last month, the government said the request was an insult to Sri Lankans and should be placed "in the dustbin".
The Sri Lankan government has faced repeated accusations of human rights violations carried out during its civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, which the military won in 2009.
The EU was particularly critical of alleged human rights abuses during the last stage of the war.
The move comes after the government failed to make a written promise of progress on three human rights conventions, which deal with torture, children's rights, and civil and political rights.
"We very much regret the choice of Sri Lanka not to take up an offer made in good faith and in line with the EU commitment to a global human rights agenda," EU foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.
Correspondents say the move may not necessarily be a huge blow to the government, but could hit business hard.
Sri Lanka's garments industry will likely be impacted the most, as it enjoys tax breaks to sell to retailers in Europe.
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that there are fears for the jobs of textile workers, although some clothing companies say the industry is so buoyant that they will not be affected.
The EU says it is open to talks in the future, but that it would depend on the island nation's commitment to the charters and to working with the EU, our correspondent adds.
President Mahinda Rajaspaksa, who has often denounced foreign criticism, has shrugged off the decision, saying that they do not need the concessions.
"If the EU doesn't want to give it, let them keep it. I don't want it. We have gone and explained what we have done," he said.
In 2008, Sri Lankan exports to the EU totalled 1.24bn euros (£1bn; $1.55bn). | Tear Up Agreement | July 2010 | ['(BBC News)', '(Hindustan Times)'] |
Astronomers announce that the newly discovered double star system WISE 1049–5319 is the third–closest neighbor to the Solar System. | Today, an astronomer announced that by scanning archival images dating back to 1978, he has located a binary star system only 6.5 light years from Earth. This is close enough that it qualifies as the third-closest star system to our Solar System. The system is composed of two brown dwarfs orbiting each other with a period of about 25 years.
The stars were first noted in the WISE survey, which cataloged objects in the infrared. Because the mission lasted longer than planned, it was able to complete two scans of the sky. Astronomer Kevin Luhman spotted the system, which is going by the name of WISE J104915.57-531906, because it moved significantly between the two scans. Going back to earlier surveys, he was able to spot the same object moving across the sky for decades. (His home institution, Penn State, is hosting a nice animated GIF of its progress.)
Since these observations were obtained at different locations (some of them in orbit), it was possible to calculate a distance to the object using a method called parallax. This produced a result of 6.5 light years with an error of less than half a light year, which places it just beyond Barnard's Star, the second closest star to Earth after the members of the Centauri system. Luhman also turned a telescope toward the new object to get its spectroscopy. This revealed that the item wasn't a single object, but two—based on the low apparent temperature, they appear to both be brown dwarfs and too cool to ignite hydrogen fusion.
How did we miss this all for so long? Luhman suggests that it's because it is located near the galactic plane from our perspective, a bright, busy area that can obscure a dim system like this. Plus there's the fact that it's dim to begin with. That, however, could become a big advantage once the James Webb Space Telescope is put into orbit. It will do its imaging in the infrared and should be able to easily resolve the two objects, along with any planets that may be orbiting them.
The paper describing these results will appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters, but Penn State is hosting a copy. | New achievements in aerospace | March 2013 | ['(Ars Technica)'] |
Taiwan is to reduce the length of compulsory military service from one year to four months. | TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan will reduce compulsory military service from one year to four months, the defence ministry said on Wednesday, in what is widely seen as a first step towards scrapping conscription altogether. Benefiting from improved ties with mainland China, the island's young men will have to spend shorter time in uniform beginning from early 2015, after parliament passed an amendment to the conscription law late on Tuesday, it said. 'We are gradually introducing a professional military, so there will be no holes in our defence capabilities,' said David Lo, the defence ministry's spokesman. The ministry plans to eventually maintain a permanent professional military of 215,000 soldiers, down from 275,000 conscripted and professional soldiers at present, he said. | Government Policy Changes | December 2011 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
The U.S. Senate votes 50–49 to confirm Jim Bridenstine as administrator of NASA. | Jim Bridenstine, an Oklahoma Republican, was confirmed Thursday as NASA's 13th administrator after months of partisan wrangling over his lack of experience in the space arena and prior statements questioning human contributions to climate change.
In an extremely close party-line vote, Bridenstine was confirmed 50-49, seven-and-a-half months after President Trump picked him to lead the civilian space agency. It was the most contentious nomination process in recent NASA history with most previous administrators confirmed unanimously or with little opposition.
"It is an honor to be confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as NASA administrator," Bridenstine said in a statement. "I am humbled by this opportunity, and I once again thank President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for their confidence.
"I look forward to working with the outstanding team at NASA to achieve the President's vision for American leadership in space."
Bridenstine will take over from acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, who has been leading the civilian space agency since its previous administrator, former shuttle commander Charles Bolden, retired in the wake of the 2016 elections. Lightfoot's retirement is effective at the end of the month.
Pence, who chairs the National Space Council, tweeted his congratulations:
Congrats Rep Bridenstine on being confirmed as the next @NASA Administrator! Under @POTUS, America will lead in space once again. We look forward to working with Jim Bridenstine to restore America’s proud legacy of leadership in space- essential to our nat'l security & prosperity
As might be expected, Bridenstine supports President Trump's space policy, which calls for ending full government support of the International Space Station in 2025 and encouraging development of more commercial activity in low-Earth orbit, freeing NASA up to pursue a return to the moon and eventual piloted missions to Mars.
"I've been talking to Jim, and I know he's eager to begin leading this team," said Lightfoot. "He joins our great agency at a time when we are poised to accomplish historic milestones across the full spectrum of our work.
"I know first-hand how talented and dedicated our workforce is, and that all of you stand ready to work with our new administrator to accomplish our exciting goals, including returning Americans to the moon."
A former Navy combat pilot, Bridenstine was elected to represent Oklahoma's first congressional district in 2012, serving on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.
He accumulated 1,900 hours flying time and 333 carrier landings flying E-2C Hawkeyes and, later, F-18 Hornets before leaving active duty to serve as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium. He majored in economics psychology and business at Rice University and holds an MBA from Cornell University.
He is the first politician to be named NASA administrator and his lack of professional space experience and technical education prompted strong criticism from Democrats, including Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, who has long worked on space-related issues and who flew in orbit aboard the shuttle Columbia as a guest astronaut in January 1986.
"The NASA administrator should be a consummate space professional ... not a politician," Nelson said earlier this week. "More importantly, the administrator must be a leader who has the ability to bring us together to unite scientists and engineers and commercial space interests and policymakers and the public on a shared vision for future space exploration."
Nelson described Bridenstine's congressional behavior as "divisive as any in Washington," and said the nominee was "not prepared to be the last in line to make that fateful decision on go or no-go for launch."
During Bridenstine's confirmation hearing, critics also challenged past comments about climate change. In a 2016 interview with Aerospace America, he questioned human contributions to climate change, saying "it has always changed."
"There were periods of time long before the internal combustion engine when the Earth was much warmer than it is today," he said. "Going back to the 1600s, we have had mini ice ages from then to now."
"That's why we need to continue studying it," he said when asked if humans might, in fact, be playing a role. "Again, I am not opposed to studying it. What you'll find though is that the space-based assets that are studying climate change are not in agreement with the terrestrial assets that are studying climate change."
Many experts disagree with that assertion and during his confirmation hearing, Bridenstine said he believes human activity contributes to the buildup of greenhouse gases but would not say how significant that contribution might be. He did, however, promised that "science would drive the mission at NASA," Politico reported.
"Should I be confirmed, it will be my intention to build off the work done by the great people at NASA during the last administration," he said. "We must all do this together."
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation applauded the confirmation, saying in a statement that "NASA needs dedicated and inspired leadership, and Representative Bridenstine is an outstanding choice to provide precisely that."
The Coalition for Deep Space Exploration agreed. President and CEO Mary Lynne Dittmar said the "coalition and its member companies stand ready to support Administrator Bridenstine as we take the next steps in the exploration of deep space, returning to the Moon and going on to Mars.
| Government Job change - Election | April 2018 | ['(CBS News)'] |
A Palestinian cell affiliated with Hamas and named after the perpetrators of the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers claims responsibility for an ambush style attack in which one Israeli was killed and another seriously injured. | An Israeli man who was critically injured Friday afternoon in a shooting attack in the West Bank succumbed to his wounds later Friday. He was named as Danny Gonen, 25, from the central city of Lod.
Gonen was shot in the upper body near the settlement of Dolev, northwest of Jerusalem. He was found unconscious and transferred to Tel Hashomer Hospital by IDF helicopter where he died over an hour after the attack.
Gonen was an electrical engineering student and the eldest of five siblings.
A second man, whose identity was not immediately made public, was moderately hurt in the attack and was being treated at Tel Hashomer.
The two men were traveling in their car after visiting a spring near Dolev, when they were flagged down by a Palestinian man, seemingly asking them for assistance. He then pulled a gun out of a bag he was carrying and opened fire on them at point-blank range, mortally wounding Gonen.
“The Palestinian asked for information regarding a nearby spring moments before drawing a gun and shooting the passengers at close range,” according to a statement released by the IDF.
The fatal incident took place in a West Bank area that Israelis are barred from entering without prior coordination with the security authorities, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.
The IDF and Israel Police forces launched a manhunt for the gunman in nearby Palestinian villages. | Armed Conflict | June 2015 | ['(Times of Israel)'] |
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