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MONUC peacekeeping forces are engaged in heavy fighting against rebels. | Refugees are fleeing as UN troops move north from Goma
UN peacekeeping forces are engaged in heavy fighting against rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The head of the UN mission, Alan Doss, told the BBC that helicopter gunships and armoured units were supporting the Congolese army north of Goma.
The clashes followed reports that hundreds of protesters had attacked the mission's headquarters, saying the UN was not doing enough to protect them.
At least 20,000 people are reported to be fleeing towards Goma.
The UN is trying to help government forces prevent rebel troops loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda from advancing on Goma, capital of North Kivu province.
"We can't allow population centres to be threatened," Mr Doss said. "We had to engage."
The muscular response from the UN shows how serious the rebel advance is, reports BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle.
Earlier, the UN had said it was considering using helicopter gunships against the rebels, but that government troops were also in the area and could be hit.
Goma threat
News of the UN's engagement came as it was confirmed the military commander of the UN mission in DRC - Spain's Lt Gen Vicente Diaz de Villegas y Herreria - had resigned for "personal reasons" after just seven weeks in the job.
The UN said it was working to "ensure continuity of command and to replace General Diaz as quickly as possible".
In Goma, a UN spokeswoman said that cars were being damaged and windows shattered in the regional capital as protesters attacked the UN base.
Demonstrators are angry that the 17,000-strong UN force has not better protected them against an offensive by rebel forces.
Over the weekend the rebels, who say they are protecting the area's Tutsi minority, captured a major army camp at Rumangabo and the headquarters of Virunga national park.
A BBC reporter in eastern DR Congo says the main Kibumba camp for displaced people near Rumangabo has emptied, as people flee towards the city.
Gen Nkunda has threatened to take control of Goma.
The UN accused his soldiers of firing rockets at two UN vehicles on Sunday, injuring several troops.
A spokesman for Gen Nkunda denied the rebels were involved.
His rebels attacked Goma last December. Hundreds of them died as the UN used helicopters under its mandate to protect civilians.
A peace deal was signed in Goma between the government and various rebel groups at the end of January.
Although he signed the deal, Gen Nkunda has always refused to disarm while Rwandan Hutu rebels still operate in the area.
About 200,000 people fled their homes after fighting resumed in the area in late August.
The United Nations says many refugees are malnourished and some are dying of hunger. What are these? | Armed Conflict | October 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Musician Prince dies at his home at Paisley Park in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen, Minnesota. | MUSIC icon Prince was reportedly rushed to hospital and treated for a drug overdose just days before he died.
Music icon 'Prince' has passed away at the age of 57.
US singer and musician Prince has passed away at the age of 57.Source:AFP
PRINCE has died suddenly at the age of 57, just days after his private jet was forced to make an emergency landing so he could be rushed to hospital. Paramedics found the singer unresponsive in the lift of his $13 million Paisley Park compound in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota after they were called to respond to a “male down not breathing”.
While the singer’s cause of death is not yet confirmed, TMZ, who broke the news of his death, say that multiple sources have confirmed he was treated for a drug overdose and not the flu - as his reps had said - when his plane was forced to make an emergency landing six days ago.
“Prince’s private jet made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois last Friday, hours after he performed in Atlanta,” the website wrote. “At the time his reps said he was battling the flu ... something we questioned because his plane was only 48 minutes from home before the unscheduled landing.
Prince, during his concert at the Sziget Festival on the Shipyard Island, northern Budapest, Hungary in 2011.Source:AAP
“Multiple sources in Moline tell us Prince was rushed to a hospital and doctors gave him a “save shot” ... typically administered to counteract the effects of an opiate.”
The website also reports Prince was advised to remain in hospital for 24 hours, but when he was denied a private room, he “decided to bail,” was released three hours later and flew home.
“We’re told when Prince left he “was not doing well,” the website added.
Prince made a surprise appearance at a dance party in Minnesota the following day, what is now believed to have been his final public appearance.
While he didn’t sing, it is believed he attended to quieten the speculation about his failing health, arriving two hours after the soiree had started.
“Wait a few days before you waste any prayers,” Prince reportedly told fans at the party near his home.
He was found dead five days later.
The star had been forced to postpone two of his Piano & a Microphone tour shows in Atlanta the week before his hospitalisation due to health concerns.
Prince is pictured here on Wednesday April 20, 2016. He was seen leaving a Walgreens pharmacy near his home in Minnesota. Picture: BackGridSource:Supplied
According to TMZ, Prince was also seen leaving a pharmacy near his suburban estate, which is also where his recording studio is, about 7pm the night before his death, in what was his fourth visit to the store this week.
One week ago, the superstar musician shared an ominous photo on Instagram of a blank white space.
Fans flooded his social media page with messages of concern for their idol.
Hear the chilling moment when emergency services were called to Prince's estate.
Stars react to Prince’s shock death
Prince’s turbulent personal life
What you didn’t know about Prince
Meanwhile, authorities have released the 911 call in which paramedics were called to attend to a “male down not breathing”.
He was found unresponsive in a lift at his home at 9.43am, CPR began at 9.49am, but by 10.07am, he was pronounced dead.
A fatality was reported by Carver County Sheriff’s Department but they did not immediately identify the deceased.
They have since released a statement.
“Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson reports that on April 21st, 2016, at about 9:43 am, sheriff’s deputies responded to a medical call at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen.
Prince mourners gather across the street from the singer’s home in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Picture: Splash News AustraliaSource:Splash News Australia
”When deputies and medical personnel arrived, they found an unresponsive adult male in the elevator. First responders attempted to provide lifesaving CPR, but were unable to revive the victim. He was pronounced deceased at 10:07 am.
“The Carver County Sheriff’s Office, with the assistance of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.”
Prince’s publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, subsequently confirmed his death.
“It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer, Prince Rogers Nelson, has died at his Paisley Park residence this morning at the age of 57,” the publicist said in a statement. “There are no further details as to the cause of death at this time.”
A forensics team and a medical examiner arrived at the scene shortly after.
Prince’s first wife Mayte Garcia, whom he married in 1996, has released a statement about his death, saying he was her “everything”.
Garcia, who was the inspiration behind his hit, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, gave birth to the singer’s first child in October that same year, but he died a week after birth from Pfeiffer syndrome, a rare genetic disorder.
“I can’t even think of the words of what I’m feeling,” she told People magazine.
“This man was my everything, we had a family. I am beyond deeply saddened and devastated.
“I loved him then, I love him now and will love him eternally,” she continued. “He’s with our son now.”
Second wife ... Musician Prince and ex-wife Manuela Testolini in 2005. Picture: GettySource:Getty Images
First wife ... Singer Prince with ex-wife Mayte. Picture: SuppliedSource:News Corp Australia
The pair divorced in 1999. Prince wed again in 2001 to Manuela Testolini. She filed for divorce in 2006.
In an interview in 2009, he revealed his wild stage presence and forward-thinking music was partly a result of childhood epilepsy.
The musician explained he had gone through a struggle with the condition when he was young, for which he felt he had to overcompensate.
He said: “I used to have seizures when I was young. My mother and father didn’t know what to do or how to handle it but they did the best they could with what little they had.”
He claimed at the time that divine intervention cured him of the condition, but he continued to struggle with the effects.
Prince explained: “My mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, ‘Mom, I’m not going to be sick anymore,’ and she said ‘Why?’ and I said ‘Because an angel told me so.’
“Now, I don’t remember saying it, that’s just what she told me.
“From that point on, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of things, getting teased a lot in school.
“And early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy as I could and as noisy as I could.”
The award-winning singer, songwriter and actor — born Prince Rogers Nelson — became an international superstar in 1982 after his breakthrough album 1999. He famously changed his stage name to a symbol in 1993.
In his lifetime, the Purple Rain singer won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.
He sold tens of millions of albums worldwide in a career that spanned several decades and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Tributes started flooding in almost immediately from musicians, actors and other celebrities - and even NASA - as the news of Prince’s death broke, all reacting to the loss of the music great with shock and anguish.
US President Barack Obama was among the first.
“Today, the world lost a creative icon,” Mr Obama wrote on Facebook. “Michelle and I join millions of fans from around the world in mourning the sudden death of Prince. Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent. As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performer.”
A purple nebula, in honor of Prince, who passed away today. https://t.co/7buFWWExMw pic.twitter.com/ONQDwSQwVa
Prince, NOTHING COMPARES... #RIPPrince... https://t.co/KAserIRfgD pic.twitter.com/6qyF7VqNtV
And just like that...the world lost a lot of magic ✨ Rest in peace Prince! Thanks for giving us so much...
This is what it sounds like when doves cry.. Prince R.I.P. Condolences to his family & 2 us all
He Changed The World!! A True Visionary. What a loss. I'm Devastated. This is Not A Love Song. | Famous Person - Death | April 2016 | ['(News Limited)'] |
Sudan releases its opposition leader Hassan al–Turabi after a month and a half. | Mr Turabi has spent a month and a half in detention after authorities arrested him in May and closed his party's newspaper. His wife alleged he had been apprehended after he repeated an allegation that the country's elections had been rigged.
President Omar al-Bashir was re-elected in April.
Critics say the elections - the first multi-party polls since 1986 - were marred by fraud and irregularities.
After his release, Mr Turabi said he would continue to oppose the government.
"We have to fight for democracy and the rule of law," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
Mr Turabi, a former ally of the president, has been detained on numerous occasions since he set up his Popular Congress Party.
He has been accused of links to rebels in Darfur - charges he denies.
He was detained for two months last year after calling on President Bashir to give himself up to The Hague, where he is facing war crimes charges over the conflict in Darfur.
Mr Bashir denies arming pro-government militias accused of ethnic cleansing against black African communities seen as sympathetic to the rebels.
Some 300,000 people have died in Darfur - most from disease - since the conflict began in 2003, according to the UN, although the government says these figures have been exaggerated.
Some 2.5 million have been forced from their homes.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | June 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Flash floods in northern Afghanistan kill at least 80 people. | At least 80 people have been killed and hundreds of villagers left stranded in devastating flash floods in northern Afghanistan, officials say.
The governor of Jowzjan province warned that the number of victims was likely to rise. People have been left trapped on the roofs of their homes and rescue helicopters have been deployed.
There are reports of flooding in other provinces in the north and west.
"Thousands of homes have been destroyed and thousands are suffering", Jowzjan's governor Boymurod Qoyinli told the BBC. He said that more than 80 people are missing and that 3,000 homes have been destroyed. BBC Uzbek's Navid Nazari, reporting from the flood-hit areas, was told by one woman that she was taken by surprise by the flash flood just after reading evening prayers. She lost two of her children. Heavy rain and storms on Thursday night created a perilous situation for villagers whose homes are largely built out of mud.
Three remote districts in the province were particularly badly affected, the governor told the BBC.
Our correspondent travelled on board one of the rescue helicopters deployed by the security forces.
He described a landscape where dozens of homes had been destroyed, many more submerged and villagers crouched on the roofs of their homes. Deadly flash floods hit Afghanistan
| Floods | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
A suicide attack kills two Afghans and one United States Army soldier and wounds 30 other people in Kabul, Afghanistan. | A maze of checkpoints and blast barriers failed to stop a suicide car bomber from setting off a thunderous blast Saturday in a heavily guarded part of Kabul, killing a U.S. soldier and at least four Afghan civilians.
Six American troops and a U.S. civilian were among at least 30 people injured in the rush-hour explosion on a street in the heart of the capital that runs between the German Embassy and an American base.
Hours later, a suicide bomber struck a North Atlantic Treaty Organization military convoy in the eastern province of Nangarhar, killing an Afghan civilian, Western military officials said.
Also Saturday, a U.S. serviceman was killed in a Chinook helicopter’s hard landing in Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan. It was not immediately clear whether the craft was shot down, though the U.S. military acknowledged there was insurgent fire in the area at the time.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the Kabul explosion, saying German diplomats and military personnel were the target. The blast shook the walled embassy compound, shattering windows and sending debris flying. An undisclosed number of people inside were hurt, German authorities said.
The Islamic insurgents sometimes try to exploit differences of opinion within the Western military alliance by targeting personnel from countries where public support for the Afghan mission is flagging. Germany generally takes one of the more cautious approaches to the fighting here, with many caveats attached to how and where it deploys its troops.
The U.S. military initially announced, mistakenly, that two U.S. soldiers had been killed in the blast. It later put the number at one. The nearby American base, known as Camp Eggers, mainly houses U.S. troops who help train the Afghan army.
Several cars and trucks, including a sewage tanker, were set afire in the explosion, sending plumes of foul-smelling smoke billowing into the air.
For Kabul residents, the blast underscored a persistent sense of insecurity, although the number of attacks in the capital has dropped in recent months. Slushy snow and chill winds had kept many people indoors for several days, but on Saturday the skies brightened a bit and the street where the attack took place was full of motorists and pedestrians.
Gul Agha, 28, who was driving past the embassy shortly before 10 a.m., was still having trouble speaking half an hour later. “I was in shock for a while. I couldn’t hear anything, and smoke was all around,” he said. He saw at least a dozen bloodied people, he said.
A spokesman for the Defense Ministry, Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, said 23 Afghan civilians were hurt. Most Taliban suicide bombings targeting highly fortified military and government installations kill and injure civilians instead.
“Militants . . . do not care who or what they target. This was a well-traveled civilian road,” said Army Col. Jerry O’Hara, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “This incident will only strengthen our collective resolve to aggressively pursue enemy networks before they can hurt innocent Afghans and coalition forces.”
The Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said by telephone from an undisclosed location that the embassy had been under surveillance by insurgents and that the car bomber was trying to hit vehicles carrying German military officers or diplomats. He warned that Germans would be targeted as long as the country’s soldiers remained in Afghanistan.
Most of the 3,200 German troops are stationed in Afghanistan’s north, where fighting is considerably less intense than in the south and in the east, the heartland of the insurgency. Many of the estimated 30,000 American troops expected to arrive this year are to be stationed in the south, and U.S. forces are currently concentrated in the east, along the border with Pakistan.
--
| Armed Conflict | January 2009 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
A suicide bombing inside a Sunni mosque in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala kills at least twenty people. | A suicide bomb blast inside a Sunni mosque in central Iraq has killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more, officials say.
The explosion hit the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Mosque in the town of Wajihiya in Diyala province, police said, wounding around 40 people.
A surge of violence in recent weeks has seen a number of mosques targeted.
More than 2,500 Iraqis have died in violent attacks since April, according to UN figures released this month.
Witnesses said the bomber in the latest attack had detonated his explosives as the imam was giving his sermon.
"I was sitting near the imam and the mosque was full of dozens of people when a big explosion happened, and the place went completely dark," said Omar Mundhir, who was injured in the leg.
"I found myself on the ground at the hospital later, with many other wounded," he told Agence France-Press.
Diyala is a religiously mixed province and saw some of the fiercest fighting sectarian fighting in the years after the US-led invasion in 2003.
Provincial official Sadiq al-Husseini said all the victims had been civilians, and called for people to show self-restraint.
"Terrorism is targeting all sects in Diyala mainly by attacking Sunni and Shiite mosques, funerals and football fields to draw the province into a sectarian conflict," he told the Associated Press.
The recent rise in violence comes amid heightened tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities, amid claims by the Sunnis that they are being marginalised by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shia-led government.
Although the violence is less deadly than that seen during the heights of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, it is the most widespread since the US military withdrawal in 2011. | Riot | July 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hundreds of people protest in Hong Kong over alleged beatings of its journalists in mainland China covering unrest in Xinjiang. | Journalists have led a march in Hong Kong protesting against alleged police beatings of three reporters covering recent unrest in western China.
Demonstrators held placards reading "respect press freedom" and "reporting the news is not crime". The three TV journalists say that they were punched, kicked and tied up before being detained for three hours. The alleged assaults took place during a protest in Urumqi in western China's Xinjiang province on 4 September. At the time, thousands of Han Chinese were protesting over a spate of stabbings with syringes blamed on attackers from the region's Uighur Muslims. Riot police used tear gas to quell the protests, which came amid heightened tensions between Han Chinese and Uighurs. Footage of the rough treatment endured by the journalists shocked officials and the general public in Hong Kong, reports the BBC's Vaudine England. In a subsequent news conference, a senior Xinjiang official Hou Hanmin expressed regret for the journalists' treatment - but blamed them for stirring unrest. She also accused the reporters - TVB senior reporter Lam Tsz-ho, his cameraman Lau Wing-chuen and Now TV cameraman Lam Chun-wai - of working without permits. 'Over the line'
Sunday's protest was called by the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) and was backed by several news outlets in the city - which enjoys relative press freedom compared to the Chinese mainland. Scores of protesters, many wearing black, marched on the local offices of Chinese central government. "This time the authorities are over the line," HKJA chairwoman Mak Yin-ting told the gathering, according to AP news agency. "They did not only beat reporters, but blamed them for inciting the public disorder." Democratic politician Lee Cheuk-yan said he believed Chinese security services wanted to intimidate the usually feisty Hong Kong press pack. "I think they are starting to squeeze the Hong Kong press and to harass Hong Kong reporters so in the future they will be more worried about reporting inside China," he said. The Chinese government has been struggling to restore calm in Xinjiang since riots in July, the worst ethnic unrest in the country for decades. On Saturday, a court sentenced three people to up to 15 years in jail in the first trials over the syringe attacks. The court did not give the defendants' ethnicity but their names suggested they were from the Muslim Uighur minority. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2009 | ['(RTHK)', '(BBC)', '(Straits Times)'] |
An ancient Egyptian sun temple has been discovered beneath a flea market in the Ein Shams suburb of Cairo, which is built on top of the ancient city of Heliopolis. | An ancient solar temple has been discovered beneath a flea market in a Cairo suburb, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announced. The temple was found on Thursday embedded in green shist rock beneath the market, said Zahi Hawass, the council's secretary-general. Royal statues in pink-coloured granite, probably from the time of Ramses II (13th century BC) and weighing five tonnes, were found in the temple and are now in the custody of the Council of Antiquities, Mr Hawass added. A statue, 1.5 metres in height, of the pharaoh sitting down and a three-tonne royal bust in pink granite were also discovered, the antiquities chief said. The suburb of Ein Shams (eye of the sun) was built on top of the ancient city of Heliopolis, meaning city of the sun in Greek, that was famed for its theology and philosophy schools. | New archeological discoveries | February 2006 | ['(Australian Broadcasting Corporation)', '(MSNBC)'] |
Google announces that it is setting aside $750 million in land and $250 million in financing to encourage developers in the San Francisco area to build and rehabilitate housing, in order to ease the homeless crisis in a region where Google has 45,000 employees. | (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google announced on Tuesday it would set aside $750 million in land and $250 million in financing to spur developers in the San Francisco Bay Area to build at least 20,000 homes and rehabilitate other housing over the next decade.
Google, which told Reuters it has 45,000 employees in the region, has been the target of local activists who for several years have said the company’s growth and high salaries have contributed to rising rents and housing shortages. They have called on Google and other Silicon Valley tech companies to invest in affordable housing and rethink expansions.
Google said housing had reached a “crisis point” in the Bay Area but declined to comment on whether its announcement in a blog post on Tuesday was a response to pressure from community activists, who plan to demonstrate Wednesday outside Alphabet’s annual shareholder meeting.
Activist group Silicon Valley Rising called Google’s announcement “a great step in the right direction.”
In January, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy in partnership with other groups said they planned to raise $500 million to build or preserve more than 8,000 homes in the Bay Area over 10 years. And Microsoft Corp pledged $500 million toward addressing homelessness and developing affordable housing in the Seattle region.
Google told Reuters it would lease land valued at $750 million, and largely zoned for offices or shops, to construct mostly apartments and some for-sale homes for a total of at least 15,000 units.
It declined to elaborate on why the space is no longer needed for offices.
The $250 million would go toward equity and debt investments in projects preserving existing affordable housing or constructing at least 5,000 new affordable units for people of various income levels. Google said it would prioritize developments near transportation hubs by its offices.
Google has already proposed 5,700 new homes at one of its developments in Mountain View, California adding that it is also in discussions with the cities of Sunnyvale and San Jose.
Reporting by Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel and Lisa Shumaker
| Financial Aid | June 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats Oscar De La Hoya in the highest grossing boxing match in history. | A few days after pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. took a split decision from Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, the staggering numbers rolled into HBO PPV and De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions like a tidal wave.
The junior middleweight title fight, with 2.15 million pay-per-view buys, $120 million in PPV revenue, a live gate just shy of $19 million at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and total gross receipts of about $150 million, had shattered every boxing box office record.
They'll need to break out the bubbly all over again now that HBO has revised the pay-per-view figures with a final tally that is even more mind-blowing than the original projections.
HBO said with the buys now fully accounted for, the fight actually generated 2.4 million buys and $134.4 million in domestic PPV revenue, bringing the total revenue for the event to approximately $165 million.
It is common for early pay-per-view tallies to rise once all the buys are counted, but the magnitude of the boost came as a surprise.
"When you're talking about a record, with numbers that are so big, you want to get it exactly right, and it takes a long time to count to 2.4 million," HBO PPV chief Mark Taffet told ESPN.com on Thursday.
The amended figures also vaulted De La Hoya into first place as the all-time pay-per-view sales king. His 18 PPV fights have sold 12.8 million units, sending him past Evander Holyfield's record of 12.6 million, which does not include the undisclosed total for his Oct. 13 PPV fight against Sultan Ibragimov. But that fight is not expected to reach even 100,000 buys.
The increase from $120 million to $134.4 million in PPV revenue means De La Hoya's events have generated $626.4 million, extending his revenue lead over second-place Mike Tyson ($545 million).
To put the revised De La Hoya-Mayweather numbers in perspective, De La Hoya's 1999 welterweight unification match against Felix Trinidad set the old record for a non-heavyweight fight with 1.4 million units sold. De La Hoya-Mayweather eclipsed that by 1 million, or the total of De La Hoya's 2004 HBO PPV fight with Bernard Hopkins.
The old all-time record for PPV buys was 1.99 million set by the 1997 heavyweight championship rematch between Holyfield and Tyson (the ear-bite fight). Now, De La Hoya-Mayweather is comfortably in first place all-time by 401,000 buys.
The De La Hoya-Mayweather increase to 2.4 million buys means that the total from the original tally rose by 250,000, or about 20,000 more than the total for the March fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Mayweather has a much-anticipated fight with Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand on Dec. 8 on HBO PPV. If it reaches the 1 million mark, which is possible with HBO committed to another batch of episodes of the hit reality series "24/7" that highlighted the buildup to De La Hoya-Mayweather, Mayweather would become the first non-heavyweight fighter to have back-to-back pay-per-view events reach seven figures. Even De La Hoya has never done that.
But De La Hoya is expected back in the ring May 3, 2008, for a fight that could easily reach seven figures regardless of his opponent. | Sports Competition | May 2007 | ['(ESPN)'] |
Ireland's government agrees to bank bailout number five, valued at €24 billion, and does not force senior bondholders into burden–sharing. | There was mixed reaction on the market today to the Government's plan for a €24 billion recapitalisation of the country's main lenders.
While bank shares were volatile, ratings agency Standard & Poors downgraded Ireland by one level, but said the outlook was now stable. Fitch also said it was reviewing its ratings, and indicated there would be a possible downgrade in the near term. | Financial Aid | April 2011 | ['(The Irish Times)'] |
Two Kashmiri civilians alleged to be Lashkar-e-Taiba militants are killed by Indian soldiers at Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, in a counter-terrorism operation. | Two terrorists were shot down by joint security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag on the wee hours of Saturday. An encounter took place in the Gund Baba Khalil region in the Sangam town of the Anantnag district in south Kashmir, at the end of which the terrorists were successfully gunned down.
There was a heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the militants at Sangam Bijbehara.
According to sources, the two terrorists that were shot down were affiliated with the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). They have been identified as Naveed Bhat and Aaqib Yaseen Bhat, bothresidents of Qaimoh in J&K's Kulgam.
The security forces have recovered one AK-47, one pistol, several magazines and other guns and ammunition from the scene of the encounter.
The J&K Police, the Army, and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel had launched a joint security operation late last night to flush out terrorists hidden in the region, which resulted in the encounter.
Giving more details about the incident, the Kashmir Zone Police on Twitter wrote, "Two LeT terrorists have been killed in this operation by Police, CRPF, and Army. Arms & ammunition recovered. Details shall follow."
Exchange of fire started between security forces & terrorists at Sangam #Bijbehara. Police, CRPF & Army are on the job. | Armed Conflict | February 2020 | ['(DNA India)', '(ARY News)'] |
Elections in Burundi for the National Assembly begin under tight security. The voters will elect the first democratic government after the civil war. The vote is expected to favor the Hutu group Forces for the Defence of Democracy. The Hutu Forces for National Liberation are the only group that have not laid down their arms. | Bujumbura - Burundians went to the polls on Monday in the second of a series of elections, with former Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) rebels tipped to win the first parliamentary poll since 1993 after sweeping last month's local elections.
Polling stations opened at 06:00 and were due to close at 16:00.
Monday's elections will see some 3 704 candidates from 25 political parties, of which six are former rebel groups, as well as 15 independents battle it out in the country's 100 constituencies.
The elections will be crucial in determining both the majority in the country's parliament and the eventual selection of Burundi's first post-transitional president on August 19.
"It is the most important step in the on-going electoral process because the party with a majority of seats will control the national assembly for the next five years," said Charles Ndayiziga, head of the Centre for Conflict Resolution and Prevention (Cenap). "But more so because it will control more than two-thirds of the senators and legislators who will select the next president," he added. Accepting the results
Carolyn McAskie, head of the United Nations mission in Burundi (Onub,) has called on Burundi's political parties to accept the results of the elections. >"In politics there are winners and losers," she said.
The selection of the president by both houses of parliament will be the culmination of an electoral process that began with the June 3 municipal polls. The members of the lower house of parliament elected on Monday will be joined by senators picked by municipal councillors on July 29. The FDD can already be sure of a majority in the upper house following its victory in the municipal elections, which it won with 57% of the vote. The FDD is Burundi's former main Hutu rebel group which renounced armed struggle to push for representation in the army. It joined the transitional government, where power is equally shared between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, in November 2003. Elections peaceful despite tension All of Burundi's former rebels groups are now part of the transitional government with the exception of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), which have continued to carry out armed raids in and around the capital Bujumbura despite having agreed a truce with the government in May. The election campaign has been peaceful despite continued tension between the government and the FNL rebels. Under Burundi's new constitution overwhelmingly endorsed in February, the National Assembly will comprise 60% Hutus and 40% Tutsis, who will lose the dominant position they have enjoyed since independence from Belgium in 1962. Hutus make up 85% of the population and Tutsis 15%. In the event the ethnic balance is not achieved after Monday's vote, the electoral panel will co-opt legislators from the under-represented community to redress the imbalance. | Government Job change - Election | July 2005 | ['(News24)', '(Reuters AlertNet)', '(BBC)'] |
Figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate the UK economy has returned to recession after shrinking by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012, bringing about a much–feared double–dip recession. | The UK economy has returned to recession, after shrinking by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012.
A sharp fall in construction output was behind the surprise contraction, the Office for National Statistics said.
A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction. The economy shrank by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders says it "adds to the picture that the economy is bumping along the bottom".
She said economic output was slightly smaller now than it was in the autumn of 2010.
Wednesday's figure is an early estimate and is subject to at least two further revisions in the coming months. It is compiled using 40% of the data gathered for later revisions. The UK economy was last in recession in 2009.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the figures were "very, very disappointing".
"I don't seek to excuse them, I don't seek to try to explain them away," he said at Prime Minister's Questions.
"There is no complacency at all in this government in dealing with what is a very tough situation, which frankly has just got tougher."
He said it was "painstaking, difficult" work, but the government would stick with its plans and do "everything we can" to generate growth.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the figures were "catastrophic" and asked Mr Cameron what his excuse was.
"This is a recession made by him and the chancellor in Downing Street. It is his catastrophic economic policy that has landed us back in recession," Mr Miliband said.
The ONS said output of the production industries decreased by 0.4%, construction decreased by 3%. Output of the services sector, which includes retail, increased by 0.1%, after falling a month earlier. It added that a fall in government spending had contributed to the particularly large fall in the construction sector. "The huge cuts to public spending - 25% in public sector housing and 24% in public non-housing and with a further 10% cuts to both anticipated for 2013 - have left a hole too big for other sectors to fill," said Judy Lowe, deputy chairman of industry body CITB-ConstructionSkills, said. Some have questioned the validity of the ONS's figures, particularly on the construction industry, which has been particularly volatile in recent quarters.
But Joe Grice, chief economic adviser to the ONS, said the construction data was based on a survey of 8,000 companies and had been carefully checked and double checked.
The latest figures supported the view that the economy had been "flattish" in the past few quarters, he added.
Over the last year and a half, the economy has fluctuated between quarters of growth and contraction.
Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King has previously warned that the economy will continue to "zig zag" this year.
He had forecast growth in the first quarter but then a contraction in the second quarter, when the extra bank holiday for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is expected to reduce output.
"It is clearly not good news, the missing link in the economy has been confidence," said Graeme Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors told BBC News.
"These are relatively small falls, so we shouldn't be too alarmist. "[But] regardless of the figures, it is the message that comes out to business - to be cautious - exactly when we want them to be a little more aggressive in terms of recruitment and investment."
However, some pointed to other recent business surveys, which painted a more positive picture of the economy.
"These figures are at odds with the experiences of many UK businesses, which continue to operate with guarded optimism," said David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce.
He added that he expected the preliminary estimate to be revised upwards when more information became available.
The estimate for construction output is based on published data for the first two months of the quarter, and an estimation for the third month.
But the ONS pointed out that, while there was "a tendency for upward revisions" to construction, March would need to be "exceptionally strong" in the construction sector to produce growth in the quarter.
The first estimate of GDP for the last three months of 2011 showed a contraction of 0.2%, which was later revised to a contraction of 0.3%.
. | Financial Crisis | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
United States v Bradley Manning: United States Army private Chelsea Manning is sentenced to 35 years in jail for providing classified material to WikiLeaks. | Aug. 21, 2013 — -- FT. MEADE, Md. -- Bradley Manning, the Army private convicted of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison today.
Pfc. Manning will also be reduced in rank to private, forfeit all pay and allowances and receive a dishonorable discharge. He will serve his prison sentence at the military's detention facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Manning, 25, expressed no emotion as a military judge announced the sentence. His defense attorney, David Coombs, later called Manning a "resilient young man" who comforted the weeping members of his defense team after the sentencing.
"You get this guy and he looks to me and he says, "It's OK. It's all right. Don't worry about it. I know you did your best. It's going to be OK. I'm going to be OK. I'm going to get through this,'" he said.
Bradley Manning Guilty on Most Charges, but Not Aiding Enemy
As is customary in the military justice system for prison sentences longer than 30 years, Manning will be eligible for his first parole review after serving 10 years of his sentence. But Coombs believes he could be eligible for parole after seven years because of the 1,294 days credited by the judge toward his sentence.
Manning has served 1,182 days during pre-trial confinement and was also credited with 112 days for the treatment he received at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va.
Coombs said he will ask the convening authority in the case to reduce the sentence. He also intends to submit a request to the secretary of the Army next week asking President Obama to pardon Manning or at least commute his sentence to the time he has already served.
"The time to end Brad's suffering is now," Coombs said at a news conference in Hanover, Md. "The time for the president to focus on protecting whistleblowers instead of punishing them is now. The time for the president to pardon PFC Manning is now."
Coombs read a statement from Manning that will be included in the request to the president.
"I understand that my actions violate the law. It was never my intent to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty for others," Manning said in the statement.
Manning also said that if he is denied a pardon, "I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society."
Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, was convicted July 30.
He was found guilty of 20 of the 22 charges he faced, mostly for espionage, theft and fraud. But the judge found him not guilty of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy, which carries a life sentence.
The 20 charges originally carried the possibility of 136 years in prison, but judge Col. Denise Lind later granted a defense motion that reduced the potential maximum sentence to 90 years.
At the end of the sentencing phase of the trial, Army prosecutors said Manning should serve at least 60 years in prison. But Manning's defense attorney argued that he should not serve more than 25 years.
In his closing arguments during the two-week sentencing phase, Manning's defense attorney, David Coombs, continued to portray Manning as a naïve young soldier who believed he could change the world.
Coombs said Manning had "pure intentions" in releasing the documents to WikiLeaks. "At that time, Pfc. Manning really, truly, genuinely believed that this information could make a difference."
But in court documents released earlier this week that explained her verdicts, Lind said Manning's conduct "was both wanton and reckless." She added that it "was of a heedless nature that made it actually and imminently dangerous to others."
Manning last week apologized for his actions in a short statement he read during the trial's sentencing phase. "I'm sorry that my actions hurt people," Manning said. "I'm sorry that they hurt the United States.
"When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people."
He said he was sorry for the "unintended consequences" of his actions and offered that with hindsight, "I should have worked more aggressively inside the system."
Although he acknowledged that "I must pay a price for my decisions and actions" he also expressed the hope to "return to a productive place in society."
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said Manning's apology was a "forced decision" aimed at reducing his potential jail sentence. In a statement, he said the apology had been "extorted from him under the overbearing weight of the United States military justice system."
The court-martial began three years after Manning was first detained in Iraq for suspicion of having leaked the video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack that killed several Iraqi civilians. He was subsequently charged with the leak of 750,000 documents that were a mix of U.S. military battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic cables.
The release of the documents has been described as the most extensive leak of classified information in U.S. history.
During the nearly two-month court martial, prosecutors presented detailed computer forensics of Manning's computer activity during his deployment to Iraq in late-2009 to mid-2010. They said the evidence showed that within weeks of his arrival in Baghdad, Manning had begun searching classified military computer networks for materials that were of interest to WikiLeaks.
In their unsuccessful bid to show that Manning had aided the enemy, they said some of the battlefield reports were found on computers belonging to Osama bin Laden. The computers had been seized during the U.S. military raid that killed the al Qaeda leader.
Manning's initial detention at the Marine brig at Quantico, Va., became the subject of controversy after jailers deemed him a suicide risk.
Now being held at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Manning was forced to remain in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day and on a few occasions he was required to remain naked. His attorneys said the treatment merited dismissing the case against him because it amounted to cruel-and-unlawful punishment.
After a lengthy pre-trial hearing late last year, judge Lind found there was validity to some of the allegations and reduced any potential prison sentence by 112 days. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2013 | ['(legally Bradley Manning)', '(ABC News America)'] |
GlaxoSmithKline pleads guilty to intentionally manufacturing and distributing adulterated drugs, including Paxil, and will pay $750 million for committing the felony. | BOSTON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc has agreed to pay $750 million and plead guilty to manufacturing and distributing adulterated drugs from a now closed plant in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.
A GlaxoSmithKline logo is seen outside one of its buildings in west London, February 6, 2008. REUTERS/Toby Melville
The company had said in July it reached an agreement in principle relating to quality problems at its SB Pharmo Puerto Rico Inc’s plant and would pay about $750 million to resolve the allegations.
Of the $750 million, Glaxo will pay $600 million to settle allegations that, because the drugs were adulterated, false claims for reimbursement were submitted to government healthcare programs.
The drugs -- the anti-nausea medicine Kytril, skin ointment Bactroban, anti-depressant Paxil CR and diabetes drug Avandamet -- were made at the plant between 2001 and 2005.
The company was accused of failing to ensure the drugs were properly manufactured at the plant and thus effective, according to the Justice Department.
Under the plea agreement, SB Pharmco Puerto Rico will plead guilty to a felony of releasing adulterated medicines and pay a $150 million criminal fine that includes forfeiture of $10 million in assets.
Asked during a news conference if the actions by the company were intentional, Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, said that was the government’s contention.
“They received warning letters from the FDA and yet they went ignored,” she told reporters. Ortiz also said the investigation into individuals was “ongoing.”
A whistleblower who filed a lawsuit under the U.S. False Claims Act will receive about $96 million from the federal share of the settlement, the Justice Department said.
A federal judge must approve the plea agreement.
Glaxo expressed regret that its factory did not operate within the necessary standards and practices.
“GSK worked hard to resolve fully the manufacturing issues at the Cidra facility prior to its closure in 2009 and we are committed to continuous improvement in our manufacturing processes,” PD Villarreal, the company’s head of global litigation, said in a statement.
Villarreal said the plant was closed because of declining demand for the medicines made there, and that the company no longer owned the facility.
Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by Robert MacMillan, Gary Hill
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(Boston Globe)'] |
A sightseeing helicopter crashes on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, killing seven people on board. | Rescuers have found the remains of six people after a helicopter crashed at the top of a mountain on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, authorities said.
The helicopter was carrying seven people. Officials said there were no signs of survivors.
A search for the final passenger would resume in the morning, depending on the weather, authorities added.
Two of the passengers are believed to have been minors, the Coast Guard said.
The aircraft was touring Kauai's rugged Napali coast when it encountered showers and high gusts of wind, the agency said. It was reported missing by the operator, identified as Safari Helicopters, at 18:06 on Thursday (04:06 GMT Friday), 40 minutes after it was due to land.
Steep terrain, low visibility, choppy seas and rain hampered the search for the wreckage, the Coast Guard said.
Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Cox, of the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Command Centre in Honolulu, said that weather conditions had been challenging. Winds on Friday were reported to be about 28mph (45km/h).
No signals were recorded from the aircraft's electronic locator after it went missing.
An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and the Coast Guard Cutter William Hart took part in the search.
Several tour companies make such helicopter visits to Kauai, much of which is a state park and which is 80% uninhabited.
In April, a tour helicopter crashed into a residential neighbourhood in Kailua, 12 miles (19km) outside of Honolulu, killing all three people on board. Earlier in the month, a helicopter crash landed in the Sacred Falls State Park after suffering apparent engine failure.
| Air crash | December 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The upper house of the Indian parliament Rajya Sabha passes a bill providing reservations for Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes in government job promotions. | NEW DELHI: A Constitution amendment bill providing for quota for SCs and STs in government job promotions was today passed by Rajya Sabha with an overwhelming vote of 206 in the 245-member House.
10 votes were polled against the proposed legislation, which was strongly opposed by UPA ally Samajwadi Party but pushed by another supporter BSP creating a difficult situation for the government.
Those who voted against the contentious Constitution (117th Amendment) Bill, 2012, were nine members of Samajwadi Party and an independent Md Adeeb.
Being a Constitution amendment bill, there was a requirement of the two-third majority, which was easily surpassed as 206 voted in favour in the House, where 216 members were present.
All four members of Shiv Sena, which was also opposed to the Bill, were not present in the House. The bill, which provides for reservation proportionate to population of SCs and STs, was approved by the Union Cabinet on September 5 against the backdrop of Supreme Court quashing such a decision of the Uttar Pradesh government earlier this year.
Replying to the two-day debate, Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy said the bill seeks to correct the "inadequacy" in representation of SCs/STs in higher positions in government jobs.
Reacting to the passage of bill providing reservation in promotions in the Rajya Sabha, Dubey said their agitation will go on. "The bill may have been passed in Rajya Sabha, but we will continue our agitation," Dubey said.
| Government Policy Changes | December 2012 | ['(The Economic Times)'] |
China's National Development and Reform Commission announces that single-use plastic bags will be banned in major cities by the end of the year, and then nationwide by 2022. | China, one of the world's biggest users of plastic, has unveiled a major plan to reduce single-use plastics across the country. Non-degradable bags will be banned in major cities by the end of 2020 and in all cities and towns by 2022. The restaurant industry will also be banned from using single-use straws by the end of 2020.
China has for years been struggling to deal with the rubbish its 1.4 billion citizens generate.
The country's largest rubbish dump - the size of around 100 football fields - is already full, 25 years ahead of schedule.
In 2017 alone, China collected 215 million tonnes of urban household waste. But national figures for recycling are not available.
China produced 60 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2010, followed by the US at 38 million tonnes, according to online publication Our World in Data based at the University of Oxford.
The research was published in 2018 and said the "relative global picture is similar in projections up to 2025".
The National Development and Reform Commission on Sunday issued the new policy, which will be implemented over the next five years.
Plastic bags will be banned across all cities and towns in 2022, though markets selling fresh produce will be exempt until 2025.
The production and sale of plastic bags that are less than 0.025mm thick will also be banned. The restaurant industry must reduce the use of single-use plastic items by 30%. Hotels have been told that they must not offer free single-use plastic items by 2025. By Roger Harrabin, BBC environment analyst
The broadcaster David Attenborough has warned that the planet can't be protected unless China changes its polluting ways.
Suddenly that's just starting to happen. Following Beijing's clampdown on plastic, there's now to be a ban on illegally produced wood. For 20 years, China's demand for raw materials has been a massive driver of illegal logging, especially in South-East Asia and Africa.
It's said to be the single largest international consumer of illegally-felled wood.
Now Beijing has amended its law to help timber-producing countries trying to tackle corruption in forestry. It says it aims to protect forestry resources and supports a ban on the cutting of natural forests.
The UK-based Environmental Investigation Bureau said the news was thrilling, but critics will note that the central government tried to force provincial governors to stop building coal-fired power stations - but failed to impose its will.
This isn't China's first campaign against the use of plastics. In 2008, the country banned retailers from giving out free plastic bags, and banned the production of ultra-thin plastic bags.
And in 2017, China - once the world's largest importer of plastic waste - announced that it would ban the import of foreign plastic waste.
China is not the only country in Asia that has cracked down against single-use plastics. Thailand announced earlier this year that single-use plastic bags would be banned in major stores, with a complete ban across the entire country in 2021. Indonesia's capital Jakarta also is banning single-use plastic bags in department stores, supermarkets and traditional markets by June 2020. The Indonesian island of Bali has also banned single-use plastic.
Separately, Malaysia has sent back 150 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste back to their countries of origin.
"[We] will take the necessary steps to ensure that Malaysia does not become the garbage dump of the world," Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said on Monday. She added that there were plans to send back further containers in the near future.
Wealthier countries have been sending plastic waste to Malaysia since 2018, but officials say they are struggling to cope with the amount that is being brought in illegally. World 'losing battle against deforestation' | Government Policy Changes | January 2020 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Iraqi authorities say an unexplained explosion in Mutaibija, on the border of Diyala and Salahuddin, killed an alleged senior member of the Islamic State. | by Nehal Mostafa Apr 8, 2018, 8:42 pm Diyala (IraqiNews.com) A prominent Islamic State member has been killed in an explosion on the borders between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, an official announced on Sunday.
“We have information on a mysterious explosion inside a rest house on the outskirts of Mutaibija, on borders between Diyala and Salahuddin, which left one of the leaders, known as ‘the dwarf’, killed” Sadiq al-Husseini, head of the security committee of Diyala provincial council, told AlSumaria News.
“Mutaibija has become one of the shelters for many IS members and leaders recently,” Husseini said calling for a military operation to eliminate presence of the militant group there.
Last week, Islamic State members fell into a trap made by the militant group, which planted explosives at the outskirts of Mutaibija region, on borders between Diyala and Salahuddin. Some of them killed and injured.
Mutaibija has complicated terrain, with numerous hills that serve as a good hideout for militants. Occasional attacks have been witnessed there by Islamic State against government and paramilitary troops deployments since Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and PMUs, launched a major offensive to retake areas occupied by IS since 2014.
Thousands of IS militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.
| Armed Conflict | April 2018 | ['(Iraqi News)'] |
Iran releases Canadian-Iranian sociocultural anthropologist Homa Hoodfar, who had been held since June, as the countries begin talks on restoration of diplomatic ties. | DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it had freed a Canadian-Iranian academic detained since June, releasing her just a week after the two countries began talks on a potential restoration of diplomatic relations broken in 2012.
Homa Hoodfar, 65, is a teacher at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and an expert on gender and Islam.
“Homa Hoodfar, the retired professor of Canadian universities, who had been detained in Iran based on some accusations, was released this afternoon for humanitarian reasons including illness,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.
He said Hoodfar had left the Islamic Republic and was traveling to Canada via the Gulf Arab state of Oman.
Oman confirmed it had arranged for a royal air force plane to fly Hoodfar to Muscat on her way to Canada, heeding a Canadian request to help in her release, state news agency ONA quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least seven dual-nationality citizens or expatriates visiting the country over the past year, the highest such number in acknowledged detention in recent years.
Oman, an ally of the West that also maintains good relations with Tehran, has previously helped facilitate prisoner exchanges between Iran and the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that while his country had sought Hoodfar’s release “at the highest levels,” it had worked with Oman, Italy and Switzerland since Ottawa has no embassy in Iran.
“I would also like to recognize the cooperation of those Iranian authorities who facilitated her release and repatriation,” he said in a statement. “They understand that cases like these impede more productive relations.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Canadian counterpart Stephane Dion met last week during the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York for the first time since Tehran and Ottawa severed relations four years ago.
Canada shut its embassy in Iran and expelled all Iranian diplomats in Canada in 2012 after accusing Tehran of posing the biggest threat to global security, mainly over its nuclear program and military assistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Since striking a deal with world powers last year under which it curbed its nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief, pragmatist Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has sought to mend ties with the West to improve the economy.
However, the potential diplomatic opening to longtime Western adversaries has been resisted by powerful hardliners in the Iranian leadership, including the Revolutionary Guards. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The U.S. Southern District of Alabama strikes down the state ban on same–sex marriage in Alabama, saying it has violated equal protection and due process rights. Alabama becomes the thirty–seventh state where such marriage is legalized. | A federal judge struck down Alabama’s ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional on Friday, clearing the way for it to become the 37th state where gay marriage is legal.
Same-sex couples could be eligible to apply for marriage licenses as soon as clerks’ offices open on Saturday, gay rights groups said, after US district court Judge Callie Granade decided not to place a stay on her ruling.
Granade found that the ban does not further Alabama’s goal of protecting the ties between children and their biological parents, and that it is harmful to the children of same-sex parents. “Those children currently being raised by same-sex parents in Alabama are just as worthy of protection and recognition by the state as are the children being raised by opposite-sex parents,” she wrote. The ruling comes a week after the US supreme court agreed to decide whether states can ban gay marriage. The supreme court’s ruling, which will stem from cases concerning marriage restrictions in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, is due by the end of June. The Alabama case was brought by a lesbian couple legally married in California. The couple, Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand, sought for Searcy to be able to adopt McKeand’s biological son under a provision of Alabama law allowing for the adoption of a “spouse’s child.”
They lost their case in an Alabama probate court and a state appeals court before going to federal court.
“They are ecstatic. They are over-the-top happy about the ruling,” said Christine Cassie Hernandez, a lawyer representing the couple.
However, the Alabama attorney general’s office said in a statement that it plans to ask to have Granade’s ruling put on hold pending the supreme court’s decision. Alabama governor Robert Bentley’s office expressed disappointment with the ruling. “The people of Alabama voted in a constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman,” Jennifer Ardis, Bentley’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “The governor is disappointed with the ruling today, and we will review the decision to decide the next steps.” Gay rights advocates hailed the decision. “Judge Granade’s ruling today affirms what we already know to be true - that all loving, committed Alabama couples should have the right to marry,” said Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow in a statement. | Government Policy Changes | January 2015 | ['(USA Today)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Sri Lankan Army troopers opened fire on a group of minority Sri Lankan Tamil and Muslim students at an Agricultural College at Thandikulam close to Vavuniya in Sri Lanka. Five students were killed along with 10 injured. | COLOMBO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Nordic truce monitors said on Sunday Sri Lankan troops opened fire on a group of agriculture students at close range in the island's north on Saturday, killing five, after a deadly rebel ambush on government forces. A military spokesman said ground troops told him the civilians were killed in crossfire after a Tamil Tiger blast in the northern district of Vavuniya killed five soldiers on Saturday, and that police were investigating. "These soldiers fired indiscriminately at a group of students who had thrown themselves on the ground seeking safety after an LTTE (Tamil Tiger) Claymore mine blast nearby," Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that oversees the 2002 ceasefire, told Reuters. "Witnesses say that soldiers jumped over the fence, into the agricultural school premises, and opened fire," she added. "They shot from close range, five of the students were killed and at least 10 others were injured." The killings are the latest in a series of abuses monitors have pinned on both sides in a new chapter in the island's civil war, which has cause more than 67,000 deaths since 1983 -- more than 3,000 of them this year alone.
| Armed Conflict | November 2006 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declares states of emergency in Gladwin, Saginaw and Arenac counties due to the Edenville Dam failure and subsequent flooding of the Tittabawassee River earlier this week. | (5/22/2020) - Emergency declarations have been approved for three more counties affected by flooding from last weekend's heavy rains and Tuesday evening's dam failures.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer expanded the State of Emergency to include Arenac, Gladwin and Saginaw counties. That means more state resources are available to respond and help clean up flood damage.
Flooding resulted in the evacuations of more than 11,000 people in Midland County, 750 people in Saginaw County, 500 in Arenac County and 100 in Gladwin County.
“Thousands of residents in these communities have been impacted by the widespread damage this flooding has caused,” Whitmer said. Michigan State Police and other state agencies already have staff assisting with the flood response in all four counties.
“There are still people in desperate need across Gladwin and Arenac counties, but this declaration will provide the much needed support and additional boots on the ground from the state,” said Michigan House Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Jason Wentworth of Clare. Gladwin County officials were not happy Thursday after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared an emergency from flooding in Midland County and Trump approved the request for federal assistance.
Officials in Gladwin County pointed out they also received serious damage from flooding caused by heavy rains over the weekend and the Edenville Dam collapse on Tuesday.
All Gladwin County residents who received flood damage or suffered a direct impact from the floods is asked to call 211 and fill out report for emergency managers.
Anyone who needs emergency shelter should call The Springs at 616-894-0494. Emergency food and clothing can be obtained by calling 989-424-1689.
Bottled water is available for Gladwin County residents at the Billings Township fire station, which is located at 1050 Estey Road. The township's boil water advisory remains in effect until further notice. | Floods | May 2020 | ['(WJRT–TV)'] |
Clarence House confirms that Prince William has qualified as an RAF search and rescue captain, and will now command search and rescue operations in Sea King helicopters. | Prince William has qualified as a Royal Air Force search and rescue captain, Clarence House has said.
The Duke of Cambridge passed his tests on 29 May. A spokesman said he was "pleased to have passed the milestone".
The prince serves with No 22 Squadron at RAF Valley in Anglesey, north Wales. He had been serving as a co-pilot.
Clarence House said he would now "command search and rescue operations in RAF Sea King helicopters".
The prince completed two days of ground and air-based tests to achieve the qualification, following his two years of flying experience in the helicopter.
He joined C Flight, 22 Squadron after graduating training in September 2010.
Officer Commanding 22 Squadron, Wing Commander Mark Dunlop, said: "Flt Lt Wales demonstrated the required standards needed for the award of Operation Captaincy.
"Due to the nature of search-and-rescue operations, the required standards are always set at a very high level.
"Operational captaincy carries the overarching responsibility for the safety of the aircraft, its crew and any casualties."
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said his tests had been carried out in "the normal timescale".
Earlier this year the prince spent six weeks flying search-and-rescue missions from the Falkland Islands. The deployment came amid growing tensions between Argentina and the UK.
William's brother, Prince Harry, recently completed helicopter pilot training on Apache gunships, which are used by the Army Air Corps. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
A court in Pakistan sentences Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to five years in prison on terrorism financing charges. Lakhvi, a senior member of the group Lashkar–e–Taiba, is accused of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though he was convicted of unrelated charges. India and the United States welcome the verdict but ask that he be tried for the attacks. | LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistan court on Friday sentenced Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, a senior official of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to five years in jail for terrorism financing.
Lakhvi and the group are accused by India and the United States of being behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks - though the charges or sentence are not related to any specific incident.
He was sentenced to five years concurrently on three counts, with a fine of 100,000 rupees on each count, an order from the court seen by Reuters said.
India has long called on Pakistan to try Lakhvi for the Mumbai attack, in which over 160 people were killed, but Islamabad has said that Delhi has not given it concrete evidence that it can use in a court to try the LeT leader, which it had initially arrested in 2008 but was later released on bail.
He was arrested again on charges of terrorism financing on Saturday.
The United States welcomed his arrest but called for him to be tried for the Mumbai attacks, too.
“We will follow his prosecution & sentencing closely & urge that he be held accountable for his involvement in the Mumbai attacks,” the U.S. State Department said on Twitter.
According to Delhi, the lone surviving gunman of the attack, who was executed in 2012 after sentencing by an Indian court, told interrogators that the assailants were in touch with Pakistan-born Lakhvi, who is said to be LeT’s chief of operations
A U.N. Security Council sanctions committee says Lakhvi is involved in militant activity in a number of other regions and countries, including Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. .
Lakhvi’s lawyer did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
A spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Department said in a statement that Lakhvi had been sent to prison to serve the sentences.
Another man that India says was the mastermind of the Mumbai siege, Hafiz Saeed, was convicted by a Pakistani court on two charges of terrorism financing last year.
Saeed denies involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Nine people die as a boat carrying people to Italy capsizes off the coast of Libya. The Italian coast guard rescues 144 people. | (ANSA) - Rome, April 13 - At least nine people are dead after a migrant boat heading towards Italy capsized some 80 miles from the coast of Libya, ANSA sources said Monday. The Italian coast guard has rescued 144 people and recovered nine bodies. The incident is the latest in a long series of migrant disasters in Mediterranean waters south of Italy. The Italian coast guard said Monday that it rescued 5,629 migrants in three days between Friday and Sunday.
On Sunday alone the coast guard rescued 22 migrant boats. Italy has seen a sharp increase this year in the already big flow of migrants heading to its coast from North Africa. The authorities here are braced for arrivals to accelerate further now that weather and sea conditions have improved with spring. | Shipwreck | April 2015 | ['(ANSA)'] |
8 people are killed in a suicide attack at a Finest supermarket near the British embassy in the wealthy Wazir Akbar Khan suburb of Kabul. | At least eight people have been killed in a suicide attack at a supermarket popular with foreigners in the Afghan capital Kabul, officials say.
The bomber opened fire in the store before detonating his explosives, said police and witnesses. Afghans and foreigners, including two women and a child, were among the dead, say reports. The Taliban told the BBC they had carried out the attack.
The blast left the Finest store, not far from the British embassy, ablaze.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Kabul, says the supermarket is located next to a busy roundabout and a police checkpoint, and like many stores in the Afghan capital it has armed guards.
A police officer, Nazamuddin, told the BBC: "I was standing here when I suddenly heard a bang. After a few moments, I heard another bang. I didn't go inside to find out what's happened."
The explosion in the heavily guarded Wazir Akbar Khan area of the city, an area frequented by foreigners and affluent Afghans, scattered debris across the road.
A witness told the BBC: "I was napping at my shop when I heard gun shots. Then we heard a loud explosion. Everyone was running around on the main road.''
An officer with the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's spy agency, told the BBC that the guards had exchanged fire with the attacker for several minutes. Mary Hayden, a consultant who was in the shop, told the Associated Press news agency: "To my left, I heard a gunshot. A bomb went off. Everyone was running to the back of the building."
A Reuters news agency cameraman saw three dead bodies at the scene, including two women. "We claim responsibility for the attack, and it was carried out at a time when foreigners were shopping, including the head of a security company," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid was quoted as telling Reuters. A "ring of steel" erected around the capital before last September's parliamentary elections has failed to prevent militant attacks. Earlier this month in Kabul, at least four people died when a suicide attacker rammed his motorcycle into a bus carrying security forces. Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst level since the overthrow of the Taliban government in late 2001.
US forces are due to begin withdrawing from the country in the middle of this year. | Armed Conflict | January 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
A Ugandan lawmaker accuses the army of committing atrocities against civilians in the Karamoja region as part of a disarmament exercise. | A Uganda MP has accused soldiers of carrying out torture and killings in a campaign to disarm the arid north-eastern Karamoja region, where cattle-rustling is common.
Francis Adamson Kiyonga told the BBC an elite unit of troops was targeting civilians and at least 15 people have been killed since April.
He said some victims had had their teeth pulled or been nearly castrated.
Army spokesman Felix Kulaigye told the BBC the allegations were absurd.
Mr Kiyonga said local leaders were aware of the alleged abuses there needed to be an independent inquiry.
"The tortures are in the form of removing people's teeth, attempted castrations of men using hot metal like pangas [broad-blade knives] and severe beatings to people," Mr Kiyonga told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
The MP said of the 15 people killed in his constituency, three had had their necks broken and the others had been shot.
But Lieutenant Colonel Kulaigye denied there was any systematic targeting of the local population as part of the disarmament programme.
He said that similar accusations have been investigated in the past and found to be untrue.
However, he confirmed that three army officers are facing charges of extorting money from civilians.
Correspondents say Karamoja is the most underdeveloped and volatile region in Uganda. Successive governments have tried to pacify the Karamojong people, who are known to carry out violent cattle raids, made worse by the influx of guns into the region.
Over the last 10 years, President Yoweri Museveni has put considerable emphasis on bringing stability to the area through a combination of development projects and military operations.
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How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Armed Conflict | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Daily Monitor)', '(Reuters)'] |
Lebanon fatally shoots and kills AbdalRahman Awad, the suspected leader of Fatah alIslam. | Lebanese troops on Saturday killed two Islamist militants including a head of an Al-Qaeda-inspired group which fought a battle with the army in 2007 that cost hundreds of lives, a military spokesman said.
"Abdel Rahman Awad, one of the key leaders of Fatah al-Islam," was killed along with another militant known as Abu Bakr during clashes in the eastern Bekaa Valley region, the spokesman told AFP.
A judicial source said Abu Bakr was Awad's key deputy who provided military training to members of Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy group said to be inspired by Al-Qaeda.
In 2007, Fatah al-Islam fought a fierce battle against the army at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon that raged for more than three months and cost 400 lives, with 168 soldiers among the dead.
Judicial authorities accuse Awad of having "incited" militants to carry out attacks two years ago in the port city of Tripoli, near the Palestinian camp, that killed 21 people, including 13 soldiers.
Those found guilty of incitement to carry out deadly attacks can face the death penalty under Lebanese law.
Awad, one of the most wanted Islamists in Lebanon, opened fire at troops along with his comrade and the soldiers responded killing the pair, the spokesman said.
The clash broke out in the Bekaa Valley town of Chtaura and both men were travelling on false identities, the army said.
Earlier, the spokesman said the army had been pursuing the pair since they emerged from another Palestinian refugee camp, Ain al-Hilweh in south Lebanon, but he did not give a timing.
Several extremist groups are suspected of having taken refuge in the north and east of the country, and in the 12 Palestinian camps scattered across Lebanon of which Ain el-Hilweh is the largest.
Awad had been sheltering in Ain el-Hilweh for more than a year, according to the army, and is considered by some as the head of Fatah al-Islam.
Authorities also charge that the wanted Islamist was monitoring the movements of Lebanese army troops as well as of UN peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon.
Lebanese authorities suspected Awad of being to be the leader or "emir" (prince) of the shadowy Fatah al-Islam group.
Members of the group arrested in Syria said in testimony aired on Syrian state television two years ago that Awad took over the mantle from the group's former leader Shaker Abssi, whose whereabouts remain a mystery.
Abssi -- who appears to have fled Lebanon -- and a third member of the group, Lebanese citizen Abdel Ghani Jawhar, also figure among the top wanted Islamists.
Fatah al-Islam has been linked to deadly attacks that targeted top army and police officers in December 2007 and January 2008 respectively, as well as three UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon in June 2007.
In August 2007, the US State Department designated Fatah al-Islam, which denies formal links with al-Qaeda, as a "terrorist" group. | Armed Conflict | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Key housing bills pass in California, the U.S. state with the highest number of people suffering from homelessness and poverty. , | California lawmakers sped to the close of the legislative session on Friday, addressing one of their signature issues with a sweeping package of bills aiming to address the state’s crippling housing costs.
The bills expect to raise billions in funding to help finance the construction thousands of new homes for the state’s low-income residents. They also attempt to ease local regulations on home building — a necessary move, lawmakers said, to help middle-class Californians who are now overwhelmed by costs.
“I’ve read study after study after study outlining this crisis,” said Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), one of the leading legislators on housing issues. “We’re here to do something about it.”
Three measures, Senate Bills 2, 3 and 35, comprise the key parts of the housing deal. Under SB 2, those refinancing their homes or filing other real estate documents — aside from home and commercial property sales — will pay a starting fee of $75 with a maximum of $225 paid per transaction. The measure is expected to raise about $250 million a year to finance the construction of affordable housing.
SB 3 places a bond measure on the November 2018 statewide ballot with $3 billion set aside to also finance low-income development, and an additional $1 billion for veterans home loans. SB 35 would require cities and counties to limit environmental, planning and other reviews on land already zoned for a developer’s proposed amount of housing.
Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign the three bills.
“This comprehensive approach does what’s long been needed in California — build new homes and improve access to housing,” Brown said in a joint statement over the summer with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León.
Housing was one of many major issues lawmakers addressed before adjourning for the year, including legislation that would make California a so-called sanctuary state for immigrants here illegally and a bill to move up the 2018 presidential primary to the spring.
Growing housing costs have touched every part of California. The state’s median home value of $505,800 is more than 2½ times the national average, and nearly 2 million residents pay more than half their income on rent.
Just this week, the U.S. Census bureau revealed that one in five Californians is living in poverty — the nation’s highest rate — once accounting for housing and other costs of living.
“The poverty rate in California, everyone talks about it,” said state Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), author of SB 2. “Look at everything we do. For child care, for education, for minimum wage, for health care. All those things are significant. And because of housing costs, it negates all those good things.”
This year’s decision represents lawmakers’ largest attempt to address the problem in recent memory. In 2011, at the height of the state’s budget crisis, legislators ended an urban renewal program that contributed billions of dollars to finance low-income housing. Ever since, lawmakers introduced a version of SB 2 every year to no avail. Last year, other major housing legislation crumbled after Brown and lawmakers couldn’t agree to a final deal.
Even though lawmakers hailed Friday’s votes as historic, the bills won’t put much of a dent in California’s affordability problems. The state will remain billions of dollars short annually of the money needed to finance new homes for the neediest Californians, according to state and third-party estimates of the legislation. Similarly, tens of thousands of additional new homes will be needed each year simply to keep pace with population growth.
Opponents of the legislation noted that the state’s problems are so large that it would be prohibitively expensive to address them with new taxpayer spending.
“The numbers prove that this is simply not the case,” Assemblyman Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake) said during debate on SB 2 Thursday evening.
Despite the bills’ limited effects, the votes were far from assured. Rendon held the roll call vote on SB 2 open for nearly an hour Thursday evening as the measure was two votes short of a two-thirds supermajority threshold needed for passage. SB 2 passed after Rendon held beer-fueled lobbying efforts off the floor of the Assembly with two Democrats who were holding out, and thanks to a Republican assemblyman who unexpectedly voted in favor.
The lawmaker, Brian Maienschein of San Diego, said his decision was motivated by an outbreak of hepatitis A in his city, which has killed 16 homeless residents in recent months. Maienschein, who worked on homelessness issues at the United Way in San Diego prior to his election, said he didn’t like forcing homeowners to pay more, but the problem had reached emergency levels.
“This is a public health crisis,” Maienschein said. “Our economy is at risk. And everyone in San Diego’s quality of life is affected by this.”
Republican lawmakers also raised sharp objections to SB 3, the housing bond. GOP legislators who are military veterans argued that legislative leaders included $1 billion for veterans’ home loans only to engender sympathy from voters at the ballot box.
“We have taken the image of a veteran and wrapped this other item in the flag,” Assemblyman Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside) said during debate Thursday night. “Ladies and gentlemen, as a veteran I find that offensive.”
Atkins attributed part of the difficulty in securing the votes for a housing package to fatigue among Democrats, who voted earlier this year to increase the gas tax and extend cap and trade, the state’s primary program to combat climate change. Like SB 2, both those measures required two-thirds supermajorities, and Democrats vulnerable to reelection battles next year were wary of a third such decision. The lone Democrat who voted against SB 2, Sabrina Cervantes of Riverside, called the bill “a regressive tax that disproportionately affects the middle class.”
“It took a lot of effort,” Atkins said. “But it was time.”
| Government Policy Changes | September 2017 | ['(The Sacramento Bee)', '(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Qantas Flight 30 makes an emergency landing in Manila after an unknown event causes a hole in the plane. | MANILA (AFP) — A Qantas Boeing 747 flying to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after a dramatic mid-air rupture that left a "gaping hole" in its fuselage, officials and passengers said.
Stunned passengers reported how the jumbo, which originated in London and made a stop in Hong Kong, plunged 20,000 feet (6,000) metres in an "absolutely terrifying" ordeal.
A Qantas spokeswoman said the plane, carrying 346 passengers and 19 crew, diverted to Manila where it was now undergoing inspection on the ground.
"There was a terrific boom, and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down," June Kane, a passenger from Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"We were told that one of the rear doors, a hole had blown into it, but I've since looked at the plane and there's a gigantic gaping hole in the plane.
"It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm," she added, speaking from the Philippine capital.
Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon said initial inspections showed the aircraft had sustained a hole in its fuselage, and it was currently being inspected by engineers.
He said the flight crew performed emergency procedures after oxygen masks were deployed and there were no reports of any injuries.
Dixon said the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau and Civil Aviation Safety Authority had been notified.
Manila airport operations officer Ding Lima said the aircraft lost cabin pressure shortly after leaving Hong Kong bound for Melbourne.
"The captain of the aircraft immediately called the (Manila) control tower for an immediate landing," Lima told local radio.
"There is a big hole in the belly of the aircraft near the right wing about three metres in diameter," he added.
Flight QF30, which took off from Hong Kong at 9:00am (0100 GMT), had been due to arrive in Melbourne at 1145 GMT, according to the Qantas website.
Lorena Dimaya, a Qantas assistant supervisor in Manila, said the aircraft had landed safely just after 11:00am local time and the incident had not been "life threatening."
She said the plane had taken off from Hong Kong when it "encountered some technical problems and requested to be diverted to Manila, where it made an emergency landing."
Passenger June Kane said the problem seemed to centre on the baggage compartment of the plane.
"I'm looking at the plane now and on the left-hand side, just forward of the wing, there's a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody," she said.
"It's about two metres by four metres and there's baggage hanging out so you assume that there's a few bags that may have gone missing.
Passengers praised the crew for landing the plane safely.
"We heard a very large bang, the oxygen masks came out. But the crew was very calm and everything was fine," said Phil Rescall, a 40-year-old man from England travelling to Australia for work.
"I think we were all very lucky."
"The crew were terrific, they did a great job," another passenger, Brendan McClements, said. "Everyone gave them a round of applause as we landed." | Air crash | July 2008 | ['(AFP via Google News)'] |
The Syrian Army, along with what is believed to be Iranian-backed militias, took control villages east of the Euphrates river near the city of Deir ez-Zor that were under the control by Kurdish-led forces in a rare clash with the Syrian Democratic Forces. The territory was later recaptured by U.S.-backed forces in a counter-attack spearheaded by the YPG with help from U.S.-led coalition jets that took off from American bases in northern Syria. The U.S. military says in a statement that the "coalition used established deconfliction channels to de-escalate the situation". | AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said they expelled had Syrian troops that briefly took control of a string of villages in oil rich areas east of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border on Sunday.
SDF forces led by the Kurdish YPG militia said they had waged a counter-attack against Syrian troops it said were backed by Russian forces, adding they were driven “far away” from four villages they had seized earlier in the day.
“Our forces regained the initiative,” they said in a statement.
It did not say if the U.S. coalition took part in the operation. Washington has a strong military presence in the area in eastern Syria which holds the bulk of the country’s oil and gas reserves, according to regional diplomatic sources.
A U.S. army statement sent to Reuters confirmed the attack on SDF forces by what it called pro-regime forces near Deir al-Zor city and said the “coalition used established deconfliction channels to de-escalate the situation”, without elaborating.
“The coalition remains committed to our SDF partners in the campaign to defeat Daesh (Islamic State) in eastern Syria,” the statement added.
A Western diplomatic source earlier told Reuters U.S. coalition jets from bases in northern Syria hit the attacking forces which were believed to include Iranian-backed militias operating in Deir al-Zor area.
Iranian-backed forces led by Iraqi and Lebanese Hezbolah Shi’ite militias played a major role in defeating the militants last year in eastern Syria.
A source in the SDF also confirmed coalition forces had intervened.
Earlier, the Syrian army said it had captured a string of villages east of the Euphrates near the border with Iraq held by Kurdish-led forces, state television said. It gave no explanation for the move.
The U.S.-backed proxy forces spearheaded by the YPG since last year control much of the territory east of the Euphrates in Deir al-Zor province as part of a major aerial and ground campaign led by the Pentagon that drove Islamic State militants from eastern Syria and their former de facto capital Raqqa.
The Russian-backed Syrian army has rarely clashed with SDF forces in its campaign against Islamic State and had kept away from their areas east of the Euphrates, focusing on regaining territory from the militants west of the river.
There have been elaborate “deconfliction lines” separating the coalition forces on the eastern side of the river from the Russian and Iranian backed forces on the western side to prevent clashes, U.S army officials and defense analysts say.
In February, U.S. airstrikes killed and wounded hundreds of pro-government forces including Russian paramilitary contractors advancing near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor towards one of the largest gas fields in the hands of U.S.-backed forces.
Before the announcement that the Syrian army had taken control of the villages, the SDF said they were engaged in heavy clashes with Syrian army troops on the outskirts of the village of Janin near the Euphrates.
They accused Syrian authorities of seeking to disrupt preparations by the U.S.-led coalition to resume an imminent offensive against Islamic State in several pockets of territory along the middle Euphrates River Valley that they still control.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday he expected a “re-energized” effort against Islamic State militants in eastern Syria in the coming days.
U.S. officials have said that in recent days they have seen SDF fighters returning to the area of the Euphrates where the militants operate to relaunch new operations against them.
The Kurdish-led militia has blamed a Turkish offensive in Afrin against it for diverting efforts away from the fight against the militants.
Additional reporting by Rodi Said in northern Syria; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Robin Pomeroy
| Armed Conflict | April 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
China fires twelve officials for misconduct in the Sichuan earthquake relief effort. | Twelve officials have been fired by the Chinese government for their handling of the earthquake that struck the country last month.
They were sacked for dereliction of duty and misuse of relief supplies following the Sichuan quake on 12 May.
The anti-corruption department received 1,178 complaints explosing "misuse of tents, food and other relief supplies", said Supervision Minister Ma Wen.
A further 31 officials were reprimanded by the department.
"Some [complaints] revealed the slow reaction and poor ability of a few cadres," Ms Ma added.
Anti-corruption drive
The quake killed nearly 70,000 people and made millions homeless, leaving the government with the massive task of finding them temporary housing.
Engineers and parents of students killed have argued that weak cement and a lack of iron reinforcement may be signs that building funds were siphoned off.
The announcement comes as China's ruling Communist Party begins a campaign to implement a five-year plan aimed at building a policy framework for a clean and transparent government.
The central leadership has warned that their party's own survival depends on its ability to curb corruption. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Ingushetian President Yunus–bek Yevkurov confirms the death of Alexander Tikhomirov/Said Buryatsky. | A leading Islamist rebel in Ingushetia has been killed during a raid by Russian troops, Russia's Federal Security Service has said.
The death of Alexander Tikhomirov, also called Said Buryatsky, and seven rebels this week was confirmed by Ingushetia President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. Mr Tikhomirov was accused of involvement in the bombing of a train last year that killed 26 people. He was also linked to an assassination attempt on President Yevkurov. FSB head Alexander Bortnikov told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in televised comments: "Material evidence was found on the scene of the special operation directly connected to the train blast organised by this group of bandits in November last year." The November 2009 bomb attack was on the Nevksy Express between Moscow and Petersburg. A North Caucasus Islamist group, the "Causasian Mujahadeen", said it carried it out on the orders of its leader Doku Umarov. Mr Tikhomirov had never personally admitted involvement, and Mr Bortnikov's comments were the first time he had been directly linked, Reuters reported. Mr Tikhomirov did admit involvement in a suicide bomb attack at police headquarters in the republic's capital, Nazran, which killed 20 policemen in August 2009. Mr Yevkurov almost died in a suicide bomb attack in June last year, that Russian police suspected was organised by Mr Tikhomirov. | Famous Person - Death | March 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(The Star)'] |
The oil-rich nation of Qatar has offered the United States $100 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina. |
(CNN) -- The oil-rich nation of Qatar has offered the United States $100 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina.
The state-run Qatar News Agency said Saturday that Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, decided to contribute that amount for relief "and humanitarian supplies for the victims of this disaster."
The U.S. government has received offers of support from dozens of nations across the globe. As of Friday, the White House had not accepted any offers, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the State Department was "working very closely with the Department of Homeland Security to match up what is available with what is needed."
There was no immediate word whether the United States would take Qatar up on its offer. Other offers of aid and assistance have come in from countries around the world -- including from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, the four countries hardest-hit by the December 26 Asian tsunami.
The State Department said offers of help had been received from more than 50 countries, including:
Australia, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Greece, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
International organizations also offered help ranging from medical teams to tents to cash donations. They include NATO, the Organization of American States, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Health Organization.
The United Nations has offered to help coordinate international relief.
State Department officials have not yet said if any of these offers -- beyond specific offers of cash to humanitarian organization -- have been accepted. Following is a list of some of the aid offered by governments.
-- Sri Lanka has offered what it called a "token contribution" of $25,000 through the American Red Cross.
-- Mexico has offered $1 million and is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas. The Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.
-- Australia is giving A$10 million ($7.6 million), most of it to the American Red Cross. -- China has offered $5 million. -- India is making a $5 million donation to the American Red Cross, Ambassador Ronen Sen said Saturday. In addition, Sen said India was willing to donate essential medicines to the relief effort, noting that India has the largest number of Food and Drug Administration-recognized pharmaceutical companies outside the United States. -- -- Germany has offered a wide range of assistance including evacuation by air, medical services, transportation services, water treatment capabilities, assistance in searching for victims, vaccination teams and supplies, and emergency shelter. Germany has also said it is ready and willing to "dip into its own emergency oil reserves" to release some 2 million barrels a day for 30 days. -- France has offered mobile help from the French Antilles, which is relatively close to the affected regions, including a civil defense detachment of 35 people, tents, camp beds, generators, motor pumps, water treatment units and emergency kits, two CASA cargo aircraft, a ship (Batral Francis Garnier) and the frigate Ventose with its Panther helicopter, and a hurricane disaster unit (20 soldiers and 900 kg of specialized supplies and medical support).
-- France has also offered assistance from the French mainland including: one or two C-135 planes, one A-310 aircraft , and four C-160 Transalls, an airborne emergency unit. In addition, the NGO Telecoms Sans Frontieres, which specializes in restoring phone lines and Internet service in disasters, is ready to send a team of experts and equipment. Veolia Environment, which has facilities in Louisiana, has offered to make its local water management resources available to the American authorities or the Red Cross. It can also quickly send in a team of hydraulic experts. -- Japan has offered to provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross. The government of Japan will identify needs in the affected regions through the U.S. government and, upon request, is ready to provide necessary and available emergency assistance supply amounting to up to $300,000 worth of items such as tents, blankets, power generators, portable water tanks and more from a supply depot maintained by the Japanese government in Florida. -- Cuba's President Fidel Castro said on Friday his nation was ready to send 1,100 doctors and 26 tons of medicine and equipment. AUSTRALIA: "We're going to provide A$10 million ($7.6 million) and the bulk of that money, if not all of it, will go to the American Red Cross," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. The Australian government said there may be up to 24 Australians trapped in Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina.
CHINA: China offered $5 million in aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina which devastated the Gulf Coast ahead of President Hu Jintao's U.S. visit. If needed, the Chinese government is also prepared to send rescue workers, including medical experts, officials said.
JAPAN: Will provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Japan will also identify needs in affected regions via the U.S. government and will provide up to $300,000 in emergency supplies such as tents, blankets and power generators if it receives requests for such assistance, the ministry said.
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces, responding to requests by the United States Texas Army National Guard, has sent three Chinook helicopters to Fort Polk, Louisiana, to help in relief efforts. The government said the Chinooks will help to ferry supplies and undertake airlift missions.
SOUTH KOREA: Has pledged aid and is waiting for a U.S. response, a government official said. "We have sent our intention to offer recovery aid," a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.
SRI LANKA: Will donate $25,000 to the American Red Cross.
TAIWAN: Has pledged more than $3 million to the relief effort.
CANADA: Offered to help in any way it can and the navy is preparing a ship full of emergency disaster relief supplies to be sent when a request comes.
CUBA: Cuban President Fidel Castro offered to fly 1,100 doctors to Houston with 26 tonnes of medicine to treat disaster victims.
MEXICO: The country is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas and the Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.
VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.
EUROPEAN UNION: EU countries are ready to give the United States oil if it requests help, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Friday. But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said this was not what the EU had in mind when it discussed how to help.
FRANCE: Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said France was ready to offer support, telling TF1 television: "We have rescue teams based in the Caribbean and we are naturally ready to provide aid to the Americans, and that is what we have told them."
GERMANY: Has offered mobile units to provide clean water, military hospital facilities and medical aid.
ITALY: Has offered to "immediately" send aid and evacuation specialists, Italy's civil protection unit said. Authorities have prepared two military transport planes to fly amphibious vessels, pumps, generators, tents and personnel to New Orleans and other areas. They were awaiting word from U.S. officials, the unit said.
NETHERLANDS: Will provide teams for inspecting dykes and for identifying victims if there is a formal request from the United States. It will also send a frigate from Curacao to New Orleans shortly to provide emergency assistance, the government said.
RUSSIA: Has offered to help with rescue efforts, but is still awaiting a reply from Washington. "Above all with heavy transport planes, which can be loaded with helicopters and generators -- as there is no electricity in the area of the catastrophe," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
SPAIN: Expects to receive a formal request to release gasoline stocks to the United States and is prepared to grant it, an Industry Ministry spokesman said.
SWEDEN: The Rescue Authority said it was on stand-by to supply water purifying equipment, healthcare supplies and emergency shelters if needed.
UNITED KINGDOM: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said Britain stands ready to help the United States in whatever way it can. SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Refining, a Houston-based subsidiary of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, will donate $5 million to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina. | Financial Aid | September 2005 | ['(CNN)'] |
At least 20 people are killed and 24 others injured in a fire at a clothing factory in Cairo, Egypt. | Fifteen fire trucks were dispatched to extinguish the huge blaze as smoke billowed over the area.
At least 20 people were killed and 24 others injured on Thursday in a clothing factory fire on the eastern outskirts of the Egyptian capital.
The cause of the blaze, which ripped through the four-storey plant in Obour, an outlying district of the greater Cairo area, was not immediately known, according to a statement released by the government.
Fifteen fire trucks were dispatched to extinguish the huge blaze as smoke billowed over the area. Ambulances were ferrying the casualties to nearby hospitals.
The state prosecutor has tasked a team with investigating the fire, medical sources told AFP news agency.
Egypt has had a string of fires in recent years, as shoddy buildings have been constructed without safety standards amid a security vacuum following its 2011 revolution.
Last month, a fire in an unlicensed shoe warehouse in the capital’s twin city Giza engulfed a 13-storey building overlooking a major highway. Residents were evacuated but no casualties were reported.
In 2020, a major fire broke out next to a busy Cairo highway as a leak from an oil pipeline set ablaze by passing cars left 17 people hurt. | Fire | March 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
International filmmakers condemn the sentencing of Iranian director Jafar Panahi and a colleague to six–year sentences in jail and their being barred from writing–directing and producing films for 20–year, for opposition to the government. | Seoul, Dec 25 (PTI) Pusan International Film Festival has condemned the Iranian government''s recent sentencing of filmmaker Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof.The festival said that they were outraged by the sentence that leaves Panahi behind jail for six years and bars him from writing-directing and producing films for 20-years."We strongly believe that it is nothing but unjustified suppression to one of the greatest filmmakers in the world. Imprisonment for six years with banning them from making films for twenty years is same as taking their lives," read the statement on the festival website."It is a serious insult to the world of not just filmmaking but any other creative art forms and abandoning the valuable filmmaker in cinema history. In any circumstances, the right to freedom of expression has to be upheld because it is the important base for the better future for all mankind," the statement further added.Iranian government''s decision to sentence Panahi on vague charges of "propaganda against the regime" had shocked the world. European film bodies have already launched an online petition protesting the sentence.The festival urged the Iranian government to release Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof and annul the ban."We hope to continue sharing their new works and inspirations, and we are positive that we are speaking for everyone from around the world who loves cinema," it said.The 49-year-old filmmaker is one of the most celebrated names in international cinema with his movies like ''The Circle'', ''White Balloon'', ''The Mirror'' and ''Offside''.An outspoken supporter of Iran''s opposition movement, Panahi depicts the day-to-day difficulties of people in the country. Being critical of government policies, his films are banned in Iran despite being appreciated around the world. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2010 | ['(CBC)', '(MSN)'] |
The United Nations estimates that four million people have become homeless as a result of the 2010 Pakistan floods; Secretary–General of the United Nations Ban Ki–moon, speaking in New York, states that the floods are a "slow–motion tsunami" as he calls for more funds to assist those affected. | The UN has launched a special meeting of the General Assembly to try to boost the international aid commitment to flood-stricken Pakistan.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the session the floods were like "a slow-motion tsunami" that presented an ongoing crisis.
The UN says it has raised nearly half the $460m (£295m) wanted for initial relief but the response remains slow.
Large parts of the country remain submerged after weeks of heavy rain.
There are fears of more flooding as water continues to surge south down the Indus River.
At least 1,500 people have died in the floods, which have destroyed roads and bridges, flooded farmland and knocked out power stations.
More than four million people have no shelter, and millions more need immediate assistance, the UN says, yet only about half the $460m (£295m) wanted for initial relief has been committed.
Pakistani officials say 20 million people have been affected by the disaster. Tens of thousands of villages remain underwater.
After a slow start, more pledges of donations from the international community have come in but Mr Ban said the crisis was far from over.
"The rains could continue for weeks. And only now are we beginning to understand the true scope of this disaster.
"Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Pakistan is facing a slow-motion tsunami. Its destructive power can accumulate and grow with time," he said.
He called the flooding a "global disaster" that was "one of the greatest tests of global solidarity".
The BBC's Kim Ghattas at the UN says the resolution will not produce any concrete action plan but is a sign of how nervous the US and the UN are about the level of international assistance given to Pakistan so far. The session is a clear attempt to build a sense of urgency about a natural disaster that will have a lasting impact on a country that is key to the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, says our correspondent.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi warned that a failure to help his country in its hour of need could be exploited by extremists.
"If we fail, it could undermine the hard-won gains made by the government in our difficult and painful war against terrorism. We cannot allow this catastrophe to become an opportunity for the terrorists."
Urging greater action from the international community, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a $60m increase in American aid to $150m.
"We know we face a humanitarian disaster of monumental proportions... And here at the United Nations, we often speak of a desire to forge a more humane fellowship with humankind. And today we must match that aspiration with action."
After three weeks of heavy rains, some 4.6 million people are without shelter, UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said on Thursday. Most of them are in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh.
Some of them would be able to return to the homes they were forced to leave, he said, but many would have to rebuild houses destroyed by the force of the floods.
Officials and aid agencies in Pakistan say there are signs that the crisis is still deepening, as new flood waters continue to surge south along the Indus river and more flood defences collapse, forcing people to flee their homes. There are growing concerns for those surviving without proper shelter, food or clean drinking water and fears there could be a second waves of death from water-borne disease. | Floods | August 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Roger Federer beats Andy Murray to win the men's singles title at the 2010 Australian Open. | Roger Federer beat Andy Murray in three sets at the Australian Open to win his 16th Grand Slam title and end the Briton's hopes of a first major crown.
The Swiss star, 28, won 6-3 6-4 7-6 (13-11) at Melbourne Park to extend his lead at the head of the all-time Grand Slam winners' list. And Murray's defeat means that the 74-year-wait for a British male Grand Slam singles champion goes on. Fred Perry was the last British man to win a major at the 1936 US Open. Murray, 22, still looks likely to end that dismal run at some stage in his career but he will hope to avoid facing Federer if and when he makes another Grand Slam final. The Scot had said before Sunday's match that he would need to play at his very best to win, and while he fell some way below that level it was in large part due to his opponent.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Murray 'gutted' after Federer defeat
Federer showed again why he has built an increasingly unarguable case to be the greatest player of all time, his flowing style and vast array of attacking options proving too much for Murray. Both men went into the final with reason to be positive - Federer having beaten Murray easily in the Scot's first Grand Slam final at the 2008 US Open; Murray with the knowledge that he had won six of 10 meetings with Federer. It may have only been Murray's second Grand Slam final, compared to Federer's 22nd, but the Briton did not look too nervous when he opened the match with a sweetly-struck backhand winner before Federer came through a tight first game. With Murray seemingly happy to just keep the ball in play in the early moments, Federer then stepped in with aggressive winners off the backhand and forehand sides to break for 2-0. But Murray has made a habit of immediately recovering breaks during the fortnight in Melbourne and he did so once again.
A careful Federer volley gave Murray a half-chance and he pounced, firing a backhand down the line from well out of court to earn two break points and converting the first with an equally brilliant forehand pass down the opposite flank. Murray began to gain the edge in some lengthy baseline rallies, constantly changing pace, moving Federer around and tempting him to try for winners, but the Swiss managed to fend off three more break points in game five with some solid serving. In a closely-fought set it was the shot-making brilliance of Federer that proved decisive when he played a magnificent backhand winner down the line and followed up with an unstoppable forehand to break again for 5-3, before serving out the set with ease. Murray was serving at 45% and so could not win enough cheap points, allowing Federer to take control with his returns, and the Swiss broke again at the start of the second set - this time to love - after hitting one ferocious cross-court forehand winner.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Federer gives credit to Murray
The three-time champion was now in top form and there was little Murray could do as the winners began to flow past him, but the Scot did well to avoid falling a double-break behind with an ace and a backhand winner from 15-40 in game four. With Federer in such imperious form he did not need any good fortune to help him out, and Murray looked understandably deflated after the Swiss benefited from a net cord when serving at 30-30 in game six. It was a cruel blow and, despite saving four more break points in the following game, Murray - who showed signs of beginning to feel a thigh problem - could do nothing to stop Federer easing into a two-set lead as the world number one dominated on serve. Murray now faced a daunting task but he was up for the challenge, smacking his racquet into the court in anger after missing with a backhand on break point in game two before making up for that error with a sharp forehand to move 4-2 clear. Capitalising on that situation was another matter, though, and Murray could not serve out the set in a tense game, netting a forehand on the second break point. The set came down to a tie-break and it proved to be dramatic.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Henman and Becker on the Aussie Open final
Murray failed to convert five set points - twice when he should have made winners - and Federer missed his first match point with a forehand pass that flashed just wide, and his second when he inexplicably left a Murray shot that floated past his racquet and landed inside the baseline. But after two hours and 41 minutes, Federer finally brought the tension to an end and wrapped up a deserved victory when Murray put a backhand into the net. An emotional Murray was close to tears afterwards, saying: "I can cry like Roger, it's a shame I can't play like him." He added: "I'd like to congratulate Roger, his achievements in tennis are incredible. To keep doing it year after year is pretty special. He was much better than me tonight so well done to him for that." Federer responded: "Andy, well done for your incredible tournament. You're too good a player not to win a Grand Slam so don't worry about it. "I'm over the moon winning this again. I played some of the best tennis again of my life these last two weeks." | Sports Competition | January 2010 | ['(BBC Sport)'] |
South Africa's team manager Sipho Nkumane and commercial director Victor Nosi are suspended by the South African Football Association one month before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. | Two senior South African football officials have been suspended just a month before the World Cup starts.
The South African Football Association (Safa) said no further information about the allegations would be revealed until the matter had been investigated. A local newspaper on Sunday published an article alleging that a Johannesburg businessman owned half the rights in the national team's trademark. There has been no comment from either of the suspended officials. Team manager Sipho Nkumane and Safa commercial director Victor Nosi were suspended pending disciplinary proceedings, the organisation said in a statement. "It must be emphasized that at this stage it is only allegations that have been levelled against Messrs Nkumane and Nosi and any decisions as to whether these allegations are true or not will be left to external independent parties to determine," the statement said. Safa has long been split between two rival factions. The suspensions are not thought likely to affect coach Carlos Alberto Parreira or the players of the national team, known as Bafana Bafana. Untested facilities
The first match of the World Cup starts in Johannesburg on 11 June, when the hosts take on Mexico. The BBC's Jonah Fisher in South Africa says the logistics are in place. Five brand new stadiums have been been built and five others to various degrees renovated and reconstructed. Airports have been revamped and a new one built in Durban. But fewer international visitors than had originally been expected are likely to use them. Predictions over the last year have dropped to about 300,000 thanks in part to the global economic slowdown. Our correspondent says that will not mean empty seats - After initial complaints about the system used to sell the tickets, South Africans have eagerly snapped up those remaining. There are still some concerns, though, our correspondent says. The areas immediately around some of the stadiums are still construction sites, while transport systems are also untested, raising fears that fans may face lengthy delays travelling to and from the matches. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2010 | ['(SAFA)', '(BBC)', '(Bangkok Post)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
A tropical storm warning is issued for the coast of Long Island in New York as Hurricane Earl approaches the east coast of the United States. | HATTERAS ISLAND, North Carolina (Reuters) - Hurricane Earl began to strafe North Carolina’s barrier islands with dangerous winds and surf on Thursday as it spun parallel to the U.S. East Coast on a northward trek toward New England and Canada.
Earl was a massive Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity and had top sustained winds of 115 mph after weakening from its expected peak on Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
As oil refineries, exploration and drilling platforms, and nuclear power plants along the Atlantic seaboard monitored Earl’s path, EnCana Corp said it suspended drilling and pulled personnel from a Nova Scotia rig in Canada.
Exxon Mobil said it had pulled nonessential staff from its Sable field in offshore Nova Scotia.
At least 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate from North Carolina’s Outer Banks islands as Earl bore down on the Atlantic shore. It was about 185 miles south of Cape Hatteras at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT).
It was due to pass near the Outer Banks overnight, making its closest approach near Cape Hatteras around 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on Friday, before turning gradually northeast to sweep up the East Coast on Friday and into Canada on Saturday.
“Even if the center of Earl remains offshore, hurricane-force winds are expected to occur in the Outer Banks by tonight,” the hurricane center forecasters said. “Tropical-storm-force winds will likely reach the coast from Virginia northward to Massachusetts on Friday.”
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 26 million people in coastal counties from North Carolina to Maine could feel Earl’s effects in the next two days.
While a direct U.S. landfall was not forecast, Earl was due to deliver a stinging blow to the North Carolina coastline and farther northward before the Labor Day holiday weekend marking the end of the summer vacation season.
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Forecasters warned that hurricane-force winds from Earl extended out 70 miles from its center, so it would not need a direct landfall to inflict damage from strong wind and high seas.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said about 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil refining capacity lies in the likely U.S. affected area.
Breaking waves 15 feet or higher were expected along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, picturesque barrier islands that jut out into the Atlantic and are frequently smacked by hurricanes and storms. Earl was one of the biggest storms to menace the state since Hurricane Floyd killed more than 50 people in North Carolina in 1999.
On Ocracoke Island, charter boat captain Ryan O’Neal, 31, said he was staying put with his dog despite an evacuation order. He spoke as the last ferry off the island, accessible only by boat, left on Thursday morning.
“I’ve been here for every hurricane since I was born. This one may be bad, but I’m sure we’ve had worse. I’ve got to watch out for my house and boat,” O’Neal said.
Watches and warnings were posted along the Atlantic coast for North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine and parts of Canada’s Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provinces, alerting residents hurricane and tropical storm conditions were possible in the next day or so.
David Rauch, check-in office manager at a 146-unit time-shared resort near Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, said the establishment was nearly full on Thursday morning when employees started notifying residents of an evacuation order.
“We’ve never had a bad hurricane in all the years I’ve been here. But the fact is that this one is the closest I’ve seen to having that opportunity to very easily wobble over to the west and hit us real good,” said Rauch.
Forecasters said Earl’s center was expected to be very near southeastern New England on Friday night.
“Nantucket, the (Martha’s) Vineyard and the eastern half of the Cape (Cod) will experience hurricane-force winds,” National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said.
Few vacationers were visible along Main Street in Hyannis, normally one of the busiest towns in the beach community of Cape Cod, which is expected to feel the storm on Friday.
“We were tempted to leave, but I think we’ll stick it out,” said John Tracy, 58, of Newport, New York, who was in town to visit his daughter.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate urged coastal residents to stay alert and heed evacuation orders.
“People need to be rapidly completing their preparedness now,” Fugate said. “Don’t wait for the forecast every six hours and think it’s going to get better.”
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency, an administrative step that speeds storm relief.
Cars lined up to get off the island resort of Nantucket off Cape Cod and hundreds of boats were removed from its main harbor. Smaller ferry line back-ups were seem on Martha’s Vineyard, the island that recently hosted the Obama family’s summer vacation and is home to many celebrities.
No storm has threatened such a broad swath of the U.S. shoreline -- the densely populated coast from North Carolina to New England -- since Hurricane Bob in 1991.
Behind Earl, Tropical Storm Gaston dissipated in the central Atlantic. There was still a chance it could regenerate as it moved west toward the Caribbean Sea, but it was too early to tell whether it would enter the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2010 | ['(AP via Washington Post)', '(Reuters)'] |
127 people are killed and 2,000 missing in landslides in Gansu Province, China, due to ongoing flooding. | ZHOUQU, Gansu - 127 people have been confirmed dead, 76 others injured and 2,000 missing as of 4 pm on Sunday in landslides triggered by torrential rains in Zhouqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Northwest China's Gansu Province, said local authorities.
Over 300 houses collapsed in the landslides and about 45,000 people have been evacuated, according to a statement from the provincial civil affairs department.
Rescuers clear up the stones and mud on a road after a landslide destroyed a village of more than 300 families in Zhouqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province, August 8, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]
As of noon, more than 680 residents, had been rescued by local residents. And the water level in the county seat of Chengguan Township had declined by 40 cm, after floodwaters carrying mud and rocks submerged half the town in the small hours on Sunday, said Mao Shengwu, head of the prefecture.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived at Zhouqu County around 4:30 pm.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao instructed the government of Gansu Province and other related departments to spare no efforts to save lives. Wen arrived at Zhouqu County at 4:35 pm.
The China National Committee for Disaster Reduction, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have lifted the national disaster relief response level to grade II, the second highest level.
Rescue Efforts
More than 300 homes in Yueyuan Village in the county had been buried. The number of casualties in village were still not known, Mao said.
The mud-rock flow has leveled an area about 5 km long and 500 meters wide in the county seat, according to a statement posted on the website of the provincial government.
Local residents join soldiers in an effort of searching for survivors in a devastated building after a landslide in Zhouqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province, August 8, 2010. 28 trapped people had been rescued as of 19:30 on Sunday. [Photo/Xinhua]
The local rescue headquarters has also organized 1,000 more rescuers to search for the missing people in the area.
Sludge as thick as two meters was spread across some major roads in the county. Many trapped residents were waiting for rescuers atop buildings, said a statement from the general office of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China.
A primary school and some governmental offices in the county were damaged, said the statement.
The Bailong River, which runs through the county seat, has overflowed and a large body of slow moving water had engulfed Chengguan Township.
"Torrential rains began to fall at around 10 pm Saturday. Then there were landslides and many people were trapped. Now sludge has become the biggest hinderance to rescue operations. It's too thick to walk or drive through," said Diemujiangteng, head of the county.
"Since excavators can't reach the site, we can only use spades and our hands to rescue the buried." said He Youxin, an officer with the Gannan branch of the Gansu Headquarters of Chinese People's Armed Police Force.
His rescue team has saved 23 people and recovered 15 bodies. But, "It's very hard to locate the people washed away by floods. It's hard to say what their chances of survival are," he said.
More than 600 soldiers sent by the PLA Lanzhou Military Area Command arrived at the county. "We haven't found any trapped people," said Pu Junli, head of a 60-strong advance force.
More armed policemen, fire fighters and PLA soldiers to help with the rescue are bringing heavy machines from Gansu, neighboring Sichuan Province and Beijing.
Small mud-rock flows still were occurring in the county, according to a report from a 10-strong rescue team sent by the fire department of Sichuan.
A Xinhua reporter learned from the Gansu Electric Power Corporation that two thirds of county's power was out. And some communications links were also down because of the electricity cuts.
The corporation has sent more than 40 people with electricity generators to the site. But they were blocked about 68 km away from the county seat by landslides covering the roads.
The provincial civil affairs department has sent 1,800 tents, 20,000 boxes of instant noodles and 20,000 boxes of bottled drinking water to the county.
This photo taken by a cell phone shows soldiers remove mud and stones in search of victims' bodies survivors after a landslide destroyed a village of more than 300 families in Zhouqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province, August 8, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua] | Floods | August 2010 | ['(China Daily)', '(The Times of India)', '(Aljazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
The fleeing Islamists set on fire the Timbuktu library containing the Timbuktu Manuscripts. The extent of the damage is still unknown. | Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, according to the Saharan town's mayor, in an incident he described as a "devastating blow" to world heritage.
Hallé Ousmani Cissé told the Guardian that al-Qaida-allied fighters on Saturday torched two buildings that held the manuscripts, some of which dated back to the 13th century. They also burned down the town hall, the governor's office and an MP's residence, and shot dead a man who was celebrating the arrival of the French military.
French troops and the Malian army reached the gates of Timbuktu on Saturday and secured the town's airport. But they appear to have got there too late to rescue the leather-bound manuscripts that were a unique record of sub-Saharan Africa's rich medieval history. The rebels attacked the airport on Sunday, the mayor said.
"It's true. They have burned the manuscripts," Cissé said in a phone interview from Mali's capital, Bamako. "They also burned down several buildings. There was one guy who was celebrating in the street and they killed him."
He added: "This is terrible news. The manuscripts were a part not only of Mali's heritage but the world's heritage. By destroying them they threaten the world. We have to kill all of the rebels in the north."
On Monday French army officers said French-led forces had entered Timbuktu and secured the town without a shot being fired. A team of French paratroopers crept into the town by moonlight, advancing from the airport, they said. Residents took to the streets to celebrate.
The manuscripts were held in two separate locations: an ageing library and a new South African-funded research centre, the Ahmad Babu Institute, less than a mile away. Completed in 2009 and named after a 17th-century Timbuktu scholar, the centre used state-of-the-art techniques to study and conserve the crumbling scrolls.
Both buildings were burned down, according to the mayor, who said the information came from an informer who had just left the town. Asked whether any of the manuscripts might have survived, Cissé replied: "I don't know."
The manuscripts had survived for centuries in Timbuktu, on the remote south-west fringe of the Sahara desert. They were hidden in wooden trunks, buried in boxes under the sand and in caves. When French colonial rule ended in 1960, Timbuktu residents held preserved manuscripts in 60-80 private libraries.
The vast majority of the texts were written in Arabic. A few were in African languages, such as Songhai, Tamashek and Bambara. There was even one in Hebrew. They covered a diverse range of topics including astronomy, poetry, music, medicine and women's rights. The oldest dated from 1204.
Seydou Traoré, who has worked at the Ahmed Baba Institute since 2003, and fled shortly before the rebels arrived, said only a fraction of the manuscripts had been digitised. "They cover geography, history and religion. We had one in Turkish. We don't know what it said."
He said the manuscripts were important because they exploded the myth that "black Africa" had only an oral history. "You just need to look at the manuscripts to realise how wrong this is."
Some of the most fascinating scrolls included an ancient history of west Africa, the Tarikh al-Soudan, letters of recommendation for the intrepid 19th-century German explorer Heinrich Barth, and a text dealing with erectile dysfunction.
A large number dated from Timbuktu's intellectual heyday in the 14th and 15th centuries, Traoré said. By the late 1500s the town, north of the Niger river, was a wealthy and successful trading centre, attracting scholars and curious travellers from across the Middle East. Some brought books to sell.
Typically, manuscripts were not numbered, Traoré said, but repeated the last word of a previous page on each new one. Scholars had painstakingly numbered several of the manuscripts, but not all, under the direction of an international team of experts.
Mali government forces that had been guarding Timbuktu left the town in late March, as Islamist fighters advanced rapidly across the north. Fighters from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – the group responsible for the attack on the Algerian gas facility – then swept in and seized the town, pushing out rival militia groups including secular Tuareg nationalists.
Traoré told the Guardian that he decided to leave Timbuktu in January 2012 amid ominous reports of shootings in the area, and after the kidnapping of three European tourists from a Timbuktu hotel. A fourth tourist, a German, resisted and was shot dead. Months later AQIM arrived, he said.
Four or five rebels had been sleeping in the institute, which had comparatively luxurious facilities for staff, he said. As well as the manuscripts, the fighters destroyed almost all of the 333 Sufi shrines dotted around Timbuktu, believing them to be idolatrous. They smashed a civic statue of a man sitting on a winged horse. "They were the masters of the place," Traoré said.
Other residents who fled Timbuktu said the fighters adorned the town with their black flag. Written on it in Arabic were the words "God is great". The rebels enforced their own brutal and arbitrary version of Islam, residents said, with offenders flogged for talking to women and other supposed crimes. The floggings took place in the square outside the 15th-century Sankoré mosque, a Unesco world heritage site.
"They weren't religious men. They were criminals," said Maha Madu, a Timbuktu boatman, now in the Niger river town of Mopti. Madu said the fighters grew enraged if residents wore trousers down to their ankles, which they believed to be western and decadent. He alleged that some fighters kidnapped and raped local women, keeping them as virtual sex slaves. "They were hypocrites. They told us they couldn't smoke. But they smoked themselves," he said.
The rebels took several other towns south of Timbuktu, he said, including nearby Diré. If the rebels spotted a boat flying the Malian national flag, they ripped the flag off and replaced it with their own black one, he said.
The precise fate of the manuscripts was difficult to verify. All phone communication with Timbuktu was cut off. The town was said to be without electricity, water or fuel. According to Traoré, who was in contact with friends there until two weeks ago, many of the rebels left town following France's military intervention.
He added: "My friend [in Timbuktu] told me they were diminishing in number. He doesn't know where they went. But he said they were trying to hide their cars by painting and disguising them with mud."
The recapture of Timbuktu is another success for the French military, which has now secured two out of three of Mali's key rebel-held sites, including the city of Gao on Saturday. The French have yet to reach the third, Kidal. Local Tuareg militia leaders said on Monday they had taken control of Kidal after the abrupt departure of the Islamist fighters who ran the town.
Essop Pahad, who was chairman of the Timbuktu manuscripts projectfor the South African government, said: "I'm absolutely devastated, as everybody else should be. I can't imagine how anybody, whatever their political or ideological leanings, could destroy some of the most precious heritage of our continent. They could not be in their right minds.
"The manuscripts gave you such a fantastic feeling of the history of this continent. They made you proud to be African. Especially in a context where you're told that Africa has no history because of colonialism and all that. Some are in private hands but the fact is these have been destroyed and it's an absolute tragedy."
He added: "It's one of our greatest cultural treasure houses. It's also one of the great treasure houses of Islamic history. The writings are so forward-looking on marriage, on trade, on all sorts of things. If the libraries are destroyed then a very important part of African and world history are gone. I'm so terribly upset at hearing what's happened. I can't think of anything more terrible."
Riason Naidoo, who directed the Timbuktu manuscripts project, said he is still awaiting confirmation of the extent of the damage. "It would be a catastrophe if the reports are true," he said. "I just hope certain parts of the building are unharmed and the manuscripts are safe."
The then South African president, Thabo Mbeki, was inspired by the "intellectual treasure" while visiting Timbuktu in 2001, and initiated a joint project between the two countries. He attended the opening of the Ahmad Babu Institute in 2009. A spokeswoman for the Thabo Mbeki Foundation said on Monday: "We haven't yet heard anything concrete as to what the real story is, so at the moment we can't really comment. We're getting mixed stories." | Fire | January 2013 | ['(Sky News)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Acting on a request from Brazil's top prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki suspends President of the Deputies Chamber Eduardo Cunha for obstructing the Petrobras corruption investigation. The full court confirms this action, Cunha is eliminated from the line of succession to President Dilma Rousseff, who may be suspended from office next week. | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s Supreme Court removed the speaker of the lower house of Congress on Thursday on charges of obstructing a corruption investigation, days before an impeachment process that he engineered was expected to oust President Dilma Rousseff.
The removal of Eduardo Cunha, a bitter rival of Rousseff and one of Brazil’s most divisive public figures, was the latest in a series of political earthquakes in South America’s largest country as it struggles with a sweeping corruption scandal and the worst recession in decades.
The Supreme Court voted unanimously to approve a request by Brazil’s top prosecutor to strip Cunha of his influential post for allegedly intimidating lawmakers and obstructing an investigation into accusations that he held undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland. Cunha said he would appeal.
An evangelical Christian with strong support from the religious right in Congress, Cunha has for months fended off ethics committee hearings in the lower house about whether he lied about the accounts, using every trick in the procedural book.
The bespectacled speaker with slicked-back hair has remained unflappable, calmly denying prosecutors’ accusations he had used the Swiss accounts to stash millions of dollars in bribe money.
Cunha is the only sitting lawmaker so far officially charged by the Supreme Court with corruption in the sweeping kickbacks scandal focused on state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, commonly known as Petrobras PETR4.SA.
Deputy speaker Waldir Maranhao, a member of the Progressive Party who is also being investigated in the Petrobras scandal, became acting head of the lower chamber with Cunha’s suspension.
As speaker, Cunha stood third in the line of presidential succession and would have become second if the Senate decides next week, as expected, to try Rousseff for alleged budget irregularities.
If the Senate puts her on trial, as expected in a vote next Wednesday, she would be immediately suspended from office for up to six months during the trial and replaced by Michel Temer, her 75-year-old vice president. Temer is already forming his cabinet.
Cunha launched impeachment proceedings against Rousseff in December on charges she broke budget laws. His suspension could have helped Rousseff had it come earlier.
Now, it could work against Rousseff by weakening her argument that she is being impeached by corrupt politicians. It may instead help Temer by eliminating a tainted ally with whom the new president would have had to negotiate legislation.
A Temer government would desperately need to pass reforms to revive confidence in Brazil’s ailing economy and plug a budget deficit that exceeded 10 percent of gross domestic product last year. Fitch Ratings downgraded Brazil’s sovereign debt further into junk territory on Thursday, to BB with a negative outlook, citing a very challenging political environment.
“Temer could inherit the presidency because of a process started by Cunha,” said Rafael Cortez, a political analyst with Tendencias, a consultancy in Sao Paulo. “Any agreements they would have made could have looked like payback for enabling him to become president.”
‘FRANK UNDERWOOD’
A wily backroom dealmaker, Cunha has been dubbed the Frank Underwood of Brazilian politics by the country’s media, a reference to the ruthless president in “The House of Cards” television series.
A familiar voice to many Brazilians as an evangelical radio commentator, Cunha has sparked protests with his plans to tighten abortion rules.
More recently, details of lavish spending on foreign trips with his young wife, including classes at a top Miami tennis academy, stirred outrage in the midst of the deep recession.
Cunha is accused of taking $5 million in bribes on contracts for two drill-ships in the corruption scheme that engulfed Petrobras two years ago.
Though Rousseff herself has not been accused of any wrongdoing directly related to the scandal, it has ensnared her allies and raised pressure for her ouster.
The leftist president has been fighting for her political survival since the lower house commanded by Cunha voted on April 17 to charge her with manipulating government accounts. Her opponents say this allowed her to boost public spending before her 2014 re-election.
Rousseff denies any wrongdoing and has accused Temer of orchestrating a ‘coup’ to end 13 years of Workers Party rule. She has accused Cunha of starting the impeachment proceedings against her because the Workers Party did not help him avoid the ethics probe.
“It’s a clear abuse of power. He used his position for revenge,” Rousseff said.
Cunha said he hoped she will be convicted by the Senate. “On Wednesday we will be able to say, better late than never, that Brazil will be free of the Workers Party,” he told reporters.
Should Temer become president, Senate leader Renan Calheiros, another politician who is under investigation for corruption, would become the next in line to lead the nation.
Temer would serve out the remainder of Rousseff’s term through 2018, and would not be able to run for president. The Sao Paulo state electoral court ruled this week that he exceeded the limits of campaign donations in 2014 and cannot run for elected office for eight years.
Writing by Anthony Boadle and Daniel Flynn; Editing by James Dalgleish and Andrew Hay
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Globo)'] |
Amnesty International asks Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to intervene in the case of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery". | (CNN) -- Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery."
In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based satellite TV channel.
According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.
The attorney, May El Khansa, who is in Lebanon, tells CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra.
Sibat was then put on trial. In November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found Sibat guilty and sentenced him to death.
According to El Khansa, Sibat appealed the verdict. The case was taken up by the Court of Appeal in the Saudi city of Mecca on the grounds that the initial verdict was "premature."
El Khansa tells CNN that the Mecca appeals court then sent the case back to the original court for reconsideration, stipulating that all charges made against Sibat needed to be verified and that he should be given a chance to repent.
On March 10, judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed.
"The Medina court refused the sentence of the appeals court," said El Khansa, adding her client will appeal the verdict once more.
Sibat's wife, Samira Rahmoon told CNN she has not seen her husband and has no idea of his health.
"I haven't seen my husband in two years. I don't know if he's eating. I don't know if he's healthy. I don't know how he looks. This has been very difficult. I don't even have enough money to be able to travel to Saudi Arabia to see him," she said.
"I don't have anything against the Saudi government. I just want to see my husband again."
The case has been covered extensively by local media. According to Arab News, an English language Saudi daily newspaper, after the most recent verdict was issued, the judges in Medina issued a statement expressing that Sibat deserved to be executed for having continually practiced black magic on his show, adding that this sentence would deter others from practicing sorcery. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
The ULA launch of a Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the NROL–71 mission is called off 7 seconds before liftoff time. | United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket launched Saturday with the mysterious NROL-71 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from SLC-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A series of technical and weather-related scrubs hampered the launch attempts, prior to a lengthy stand down to fix a hydrogen leak that scrubbed the final attempt of 2017 with just seconds remaining in the count. With the issue fixed, the launch was realigned for January 19, with the window opening at 11:05 AM local time (19:05 UTC). Launch occurred slightly into the window at 11:10 AM local time.
Like most activities conducted by the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), specifics of the NRO Launch 71 (NROL-71) mission were classified. The NRO is the organization that operates America’s fleet of reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering satellites, using a variety of spacecraft types and surveillance techniques to support national defense and security.
Despite the classified nature of their operations, a combination of information published by the NRO itself and other government sources, leaks and observation of the satellites’ orbits and behavior has allowed different groups of satellites to be characterized and their purpose determined. Analysis of hazard areas published for maritime and aviation safety in advance of every launch, combined with a comparison of the type of rocket to be used to those that have orbited previous satellites, allows most NRO satellites to be identified before they even leave the ground – although occasionally a mission will throw a curveball.
NROL-71 has proven one such mission. Before the launch time and hazard areas were published it was a safe bet that this launch would add a new member to the NRO’s fleet of KH-11, or Crystal, imaging satellites. Also formerly codenamed Kennen, Key Hole 11 (KH-11) spacecraft collect incredibly high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface and transmit them back to the ground for analysis. Originally developed in the 1970s, but upgraded over time, the KH-11 is among the largest satellites that the NRO operates and requires one of America’s most powerful rockets, the Delta IV Heavy, to place it into orbit.
Delta IV-Heavy ahead of this mission – via ULA
The near-polar sun-synchronous orbits used by Crystal satellites dictate that they must be launched from California, as to launch from Florida would either require the rocket to fly – and potentially drop debris – over land, or to avoid this by making a dogleg maneuver which would affect its performance.
As Crystal is the only type of satellite to have launched aboard a Delta IV Heavy from the West Coast, the launch was widely expected to carry a replacement for the oldest satellite in the constellation. But instead of the south-westerly trajectory required to reach Crystal’s sun-synchronous orbit, hazard areas for the NROL-71 mission show that the rocket will follow a south-easterly track towards an orbit inclined at about 74 degrees. Aside from a 2010 technology demonstration mission, no US military satellite has operated in an orbit close to this inclination since 1971.
That 2010 mission was STPSat-2, which was flown in a 72-degree orbit by the Space Test Program to test sensors and data relay systems in space. It is unlikely to be related to the NROL-71 mission. Before 1971 a 75-degree orbit was used for a small proportion of the NRO’s fleet of KH-4 Corona imaging satellites as well as seven “heavy ferret” electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) satellites and two photoreconnaissance satellites of the short-lived KH-6 Lanyard project. The Soviet Union operated Zenit photoreconnaissance satellites in 73-degree orbits from 1966 until 1989, along with ELINT, calibration, communications and geodesy satellites in similarly-inclined orbits whose launches were continued by Russia until the early 2000s.
The use of a Delta IV Heavy means that the NROL-71 payload must either by too heavy to be deployed by any of the other rockets qualified to carry out the NRO’s most expensive and critical missions or destined for a sufficiently high orbit as to require the services of this behemoth rocket.
The only high orbits typically of value for reconnaissance are an elliptical Molniya orbit, which allows eavesdropping satellites to loiter over high latitudes for much of their time, and geostationary orbit. NROL-71 will target neither of these – Molniya orbits require a precise inclination of 63.4 degrees, while geostationary trajectories require that the rocket launch almost due East which is not practical from Vandenberg – meaning that its payload is likely a heavy satellite.
Despite the unusual orbit, a KH-11 is still a likely candidate for the identity of the NROL-71 payload. The less-inclined orbit could allow the satellite to spend more time over lower latitudes instead of passing over the polar oceans and icecaps. Not having the satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit would also allow it to view areas of interest at different times of the day with objects on the surface casting shadows in different directions. A Crystal in such an orbit could be intended to compliment the sun-synchronous element of the constellation, or may signal a move away from SSO for this program.
NROL patch on the fairing – via ULA
If NROL-71 does deploy a Crystal satellite, it will be the seventeenth such spacecraft to launch. The KH-11 was developed as a continuation to the long-running series of Key Hole satellites that had begun with early Corona imaging spacecraft in the 1950s. It was the first Key Hole not to use film capsules, downlinking images electronically instead of physically sending them back to Earth for processing.
The first KH-11, OPS 5705, was deployed by a Titan rocket in December 1976. Initially KH-11 operated alongside the film-return KH-8 Gambit and KH-9 Hexagon satellites, which provided high-resolution and wide-area imaging capabilities respectively, but eventually the new satellites assumed both of these roles.
The design of the Hubble Space Telescope was reportedly influenced by Crystal, with Hubble’s mirrors being designed to take advantage of production techniques – and possibly hardware – developed for the reconnaissance programme. The KH-11 satellites are also said to have similar proportions and appearance to Hubble.
Four distinct “blocks” of KH-11 satellites have been identified. The first two blocks consisted of five and four satellites respectively, launched aboard Titan III(34)D rockets. Block III was designed to be launched by the Space Shuttle, however following the loss of Challenger polar-orbit Shuttle missions were abandoned and the Titan IV rocket was developed instead. The most recent upgrade, Block IV, was first flown in 2001.
The fourteenth Crystal mission, NROL-20 or USA-186, was launched by the final Titan IV rocket and was expected to be the last KH-11 to fly. The National Reconnaissance Office had intended to procure a next-generation optical imaging satellite through its Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) program, but after this collapsed the agency purchased two additional KH-11s, built in part from leftover spares, to serve as a stopgap until a new system could be developed. When the first of these launched, aboard a Delta IV Heavy in 2011, its mission patch bore the Latin inscription “melior diabolus quem scies” – better the devil you know.
More recent rumors have suggested that the NRO has opted to buy a fifth generation of Crystal satellites instead of developing a replacement from scratch. These could incorporate more modern technologies and benefit from the increased performance of Delta IV over Titan IV to carry more fuel, which would allow them to maintain lower orbits than their predecessors. If NROL-71 is a KH-11, it will certainly be the first member of this new generation.
Another possibility is that NROL-71 may be a successor to the stealthy Misty imaging satellites that were launched in 1990 and 1999. Believed to be an offshoot of the Crystal series, the first Misty satellite was USA-53, deployed from Space Shuttle Atlantis during 1990’s STS-36 mission.
Atlantis and her STS-36 crew – via L2 Historical
After deployment, USA-53 shed debris – leading to reports that it had failed – and maneuvered to a different orbit. During its lifetime, amateur observers lost track of – and subsequently rediscovered – Misty several times with the last sighting in 1997.
A second Misty, USA-144, was launched in May 1999 aboard a Titan IV(404)B. After deployment the satellite released a decoy and then disappeared – despite the efforts of the amateur satellite watching community, USA-144 was never found. It is unclear whether this spacecraft is still in orbit.
The Misty satellites operated in orbits with significantly lower inclination than Crystal: USA-53 used a 65-degree orbit and USA-144 was deployed into a 63-degree orbit, although its final destination is unknown. They are believed to be among the most expensive satellites ever launched, and development of a third Misty satellite was canceled in the mid-2000s due to the project’s cost.
A released drawing of a MISTY satellite in STS-36 materials – via L2 Historical
Observations of the NROL-71 payload, which is expected to be named USA-289 once it reaches orbit, will likely reveal more about its identity and mission. A lack of observations could point towards it being another Misty satellite.
The Delta IV Heavy that was used for the NROL-71 mission is the heaviest rocket currently certified to carry out national security launches of this nature.
A two-stage vehicle, Delta IV consists of a Common Booster Core (CBC) first stage and a Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS), which both burn cryogenic propellant: liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
It’s a beautiful day for remote camera setup here at historic SLC-6 (designed as a shuttle pad!). Delta IV Heavy is sitting ready to muscle NRO-71 into orbit tonight. @NASASpaceflight @ulalaunch @torybruno @NatReconOfc pic.twitter.com/OExMQ03CTz
— Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer) December 7, 2018
The rocket can be flown in five different configurations depending on the mass and dimensions of its payload and the target orbit. The smallest of these, the Delta IV Medium, used a four-meter diameter upper stage and no boosters, while three Medium+ versions – M+(4,2), M+(5,2) and M+(5,4) added two or four solid rocket motors and in the latter two cases a five-meter upper stage.
The Delta IV Heavy uses three Common Booster Cores strapped together, with the center core operating at partial thrust for much of its flight to extend its burn beyond that of the two outboard cores. It is the only version of the Delta that is expected to continue flying past the end of next year, as the Medium configuration has already been retired and the Medium+ versions of the rocket are being phased out. United Launch Alliance will instead focus on offering launch services in these classes with its Atlas V rocket, before introducing a new rocket – Vulcan – to replace both Atlas and Delta in the family.
The launch used the west-coast Delta IV launch pad, Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg Air Force Base. SLC-6 was originally developed in the 1960s for the Titan family of rockets, specifically to support the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) military space station. When MOL was canceled, SLC-6 was mothballed. It would later be reconstructed to support Space Shuttle missions to polar orbits, however risk reduction following the Challenger accident eliminated these plans and the complex once again went unused.
SLC-6 during its short-lived Shuttle era – via large L2 collection
The first launch from SLC-6 finally came in August 1995, when Lockheed launched the first flight of the Lockheed Launch Vehicle 1 (LLV-1), which would later be named Athena. This launch failed, and while the next launch from the pad successfully placed NASA’s Lewis satellite into orbit the payload suffered an unrecoverable malfunction three days later. This, along with another launch failing in April 1999, led to a myth that the launch pad was cursed. The fourth and final Athena mission from SLC-6, in August 1999, successfully delivered a healthy satellite to orbit.
Boeing began converting SLC-6 for its Delta IV rocket in the early 2000s. Delta first used the complex in June 2006 and has made seven launches from Vandenberg prior to this mission, two of which have been in the Heavy configuration. This will be the first west-coast launch for a Delta IV Heavy with RS-68A engines, an upgraded version of the RS-68 Overall, this launch will be the thirty-eighth flight of Delta IV and the eleventh Heavy.
The NROL-71 launch began with the ignition of the RS-68A engines that power the three Common Booster Cores.
Delta IV-Heavy powers up – photo by Nathan Barker for NSF/L2
The starboard core ignited seven seconds before the scheduled liftoff, with the port and center boosters igniting two seconds later at T-5. This staggered ignition is intended to mitigate a fireball that can form around the rocket on startup as a result of hydrogen boiling off the rocket. Liftoff occurred at the zero mark in the countdown.
After pitching over onto a south-easterly azimuth of about 168 degrees, Delta IV passed through the area of maximum dynamic pressure – Max-Q – shortly before it reaches Mach 1 – the speed of sound – 82 seconds into the flight.
The three CBCs powered the rocket for the first three minutes and fifty-six seconds of the flight, with the port and starboard boosters burning at full thrust and the center core at partial thrust. When the two outboard cores depleted their propellant, their engines shut down, and the spent cores separated two seconds later.
Once the port and starboard boosters separated, the center core throttled up and burned at full power for most of the remaining two minutes of first-stage flight. Seven seconds after main engine cutoff (MECO), the first stage was jettisoned and the second stage entered its prestart sequence. The RL10B-2 engine ignited twelve seconds after stage separation. Eleven seconds later, Delta IV’s payload fairing separated from the nose of the rocket, exposing the payload to space for the first time.
Owing to the classified nature of this mission, United Launch Alliance has not published a timeline for mission events following fairing separation and as is normal for NRO flights all official coverage of the mission is expected to conclude at this point other than a press release confirming a successful launch some time after spacecraft separation.
The second stage will likely make a single burn, lasting around 12 minutes, before separating its payload into low Earth orbit. An additional launch hazard area to the northwest of Vandenberg suggests that the second stage will be deorbited into the Pacific shortly after separation.
The next launch for both United Launch Alliance and the Delta IV will be the Medium+(5,4) configuration will be used for the last time to loft a Wideband Global Satcom communications satellite for the US Air Force. The next Delta IV Heavy mission is expected to fly from Vandenberg in mid-2020. | New achievements in aerospace | December 2018 | ['(NBC San Diego)', '(NASA Spaceflight)'] |
The leaders of the recent bloodless Coup in Mauritania name Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, former national police chief, as the new president of the country | The military council that overthrew Mauritania's president on Wednesday has named the longtime chief of national police force as the country's new leader.
A statement by the coup leaders published by the state news agency said Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was "president" of the military council which toppled President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya. The Military Council for Justice and Democracy had earlier announced the coup in a statement run by the state news agency.
"The armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put an end to the totalitarian practices of the deposed regime under which our people have suffered much over the last several years," the statement said.
The council said it would exercise power for two years to allow time to put in place democratic institutions.
Vall, 55, had served as the national police chief since 1987. Known for being calm and tight-lipped, he was considered a close confident of Taya for more than two decades.
The military statement also identified 16 other army officers who were members of the council.
It pledged to "establish favourable conditions for an open and transparent democratic system on which civil society and political players will be able to give their opinions freely".
"This council pledges before the Mauritanian people to create favourable circumstances for an open and transparent democracy," it said. Top establishment involvedAn opposition leader and a military source said they believed the head of the presidential guard, Colonel Mohamed Ould Abdel-Aziz, was involved in the coup d'etat.
There were reports that some senior members of the military had been arrested but it was not possible to confirm them. Hundreds of people took to the streets of capital Nouakchott, shouting and honking car horns in celebration after the coup announcement, witnesses said. Convoys of cars with people hanging out of them shouting "praise be to God" and making victory signs paraded down one of the main sand-blanketed avenues. Freedom from dictatorship"There was no democracy here, there was just slavery. We have been freed from a dictatorship," said one man, Bilal, aged around 45, watching from a side street. Taya (R) was greeted by the Nigerpresident at Niamey airport "It's like we've been imprisoned for decades. I'm so happy. Change is good. We've been disappointed by the regime," shouted Mohammed, in his early 20s, as he ran down the street. Taya (R) was greeted by the Nigerpresident at Niamey airport Police armed with batons patrolled other parts of the city but appeared to be maintaining a low profile, while some streets around key buildings were still sealed off by soldiers, residents said.
Seizing powerEarlier on Wednesday, troops led by the presidential guard took over key buildings in Nouakchott, including the military headquarters, the state radio and television offices, the presidential palace and ministries. They acted while Taya was in Saudi Arabia for the funeral of King Fahd. He was later reported to have landed in Niamey, capital of Niger and was received by Niger's President Tandja Mamadou and government ministers. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2005 | ['(Al–Jazeera)'] |
Senior Kurdish and Shi'ite Muslim leaders agree to withdraw from Tuz Khurmato, Iraq, where recent violence has killed more than 10 people. | ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Senior Kurdish and Shi’ite Muslim leaders agreed on Wednesday to withdraw their forces from a northern Iraqi town in a bid to end violence that has killed more than 10 people in recent days.
The clashes in Tuz Khurmato, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, marked the latest violence in the town since Islamic State militants were driven back in 2014 by Kurdish peshmerga and Shi’ite militia, nominal allies against the Sunni militants.
Mayor Shalal Abdul said that under the deal, local police would take control of Tuz Khurmato - home to Kurds, Shi’ite Turkmen and Sunni Arabs.
A Kurdish official in the town, Kareem Shkur, said the peshmerga and Shi’ite militias would pull out once the police forces achieved a balance between the town’s various ethnic and sectarian groups, estimating that would take around one month.
In the meantime, Tuz Khurmato will be secured by a unit from each force coordinated through a joint operations room.
Previous agreements have broken down and residents of Tuz Khurmato were skeptical the deal would be implemented.
Fighting began several days ago after members of a Shi’ite militia threw a grenade into the house of a Kurdish leader. A ceasefire was declared on Sunday, but sporadic mortar and gunfire continued until Wednesday.
Tensions in towns like Tuz Khurmatu risk further fragmenting Iraq, a major OPEC oil exporter, as it struggles to contain Islamic State, the gravest security threat since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Efforts to push back the Sunni insurgents have been complicated by sectarian and ethnic rivalries, including a contest for territory which the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad claims but the Kurds want as part of their autonomous region in the north of the country.
| Riot | April 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At least 29 people, all German tourists, are killed in a bus crash in Caniço, Madeira Islands. | At least 29 people have died after a bus carrying German tourists plunged off a road and overturned on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Another 27 were injured in the accident near the town of Caniço.
The accident happened at 18:30 (17:30 GMT) when the driver lost control of the bus at a junction and went off the road, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa. Pictures show how the vehicle stopped just short of destroying a house.
"I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," the mayor of Caniço, Filipe Sousa, told broadcaster SIC TV.
He said all the tourists on the bus were German but some local people could also be among the casualties. Eleven of the fatalities were men and 17 women, Mr Sousa added. The bus was reported to be carrying 55 passengers, as well as the driver and a tour guide.
Another woman later died of her injuries in hospital.
The vice-president of Madeira's regional government Pedro Calado said the bus met safety standards and so it was "premature to talk about what caused the crash". An investigation into the crash has been launched, with the bus company, Madeira Automobile Society (SAM), saying it has a "deep commitment" to finding out exactly what happened, local newspaper Diario de Noticias Madeira reported.
According to reports, the vehicle was only five or six years old and the driver was experienced.
The scene of the crash has been sealed off and the injured transferred to a hospital in the island's capital, Funchal, Lusa said. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is flying to the island to visit the scene, the agency said.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa has sent a message of condolence to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Reuters reported.
The German government spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted: "Our deep sorrow goes to all those who lost their lives in the bus accident, our thoughts are with the injured."
Madeira was the scene of another fatal bus crash in 2005 when five Italian tourists died in São Vicente, on the northern coast.
| Road Crash | April 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announces that its leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi was killed in a US drone strike last Friday. | Al-Qaeda has confirmed that Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of its offshoot in the Arabian Peninsula, has been killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
His death was announced by the AQAP group in an online video. His successor was named as military chief Qasim al-Raymi.
Wuhayshi was seen as al-Qaeda's second-in-command and was a former personal assistant to Osama Bin Laden. He built one of the most active al-Qaeda branches, say US officials.
Does killing militant leaders work?
In Yemen, resurgent al-Qaeda militants have seized territory and infrastructure - indirectly assisted by Saudi-led air strikes on the rebel Houthi movement, their Shia Muslim foes. But the deaths of a number of leading figures in AQAP in recent months have reportedly fuelled rumours among supporters that it has been successfully targeted by intelligence agencies.
Nasser al-Wuhayshi was a major global figure among jihadists - even supporters of al-Qaeda's rival Islamic State viewed Wuhayshi with respect.
According to reports, in August 2013 Wuhayshi was appointed deputy of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, a sign of the extent of his influence.
As well as creating AQAP itself, Wuhayshi also played a major role in forming the AQAP off-shoot, Ansar al-Sharia, in 2011, to appeal to disaffected youth in Yemen at the time of the Arab Spring.
AQAP's leader cultivated good relations with local tribes, which helped his group advance in various places in the south of the country.
His death is no doubt a big blow for AQAP - but it seems to have been prepared for this moment, swiftly naming another highly influential figure, Qasim al-Raymi, to succeed him.
Obituary: Nasser al-Wuhayshi
"We in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula mourn to our Muslim nation... that Abu Baseer Nasser bin Abdul Karim al-Wuhayshi, may God have mercy on his soul, passed away in an American strike which targeted him along with two of his mujahideen brothers," Khaled Batarfi, a senior member of the group, said in the video.
The US confirmed his death on Tuesday. National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said that Wuhayshi's death had struck a "major blow" to al-Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate. He added that the killing had removed an "experienced terrorist leader" from the battlefield. Wuhayshi is thought to be the highest ranking al-Qaeda leader killed since Bin Laden's death in Pakistan in 2011.
Yemeni officials said Wuhayshi was believed to have been killed in a raid in al-Qaeda-held Mukalla, in south-eastern Yemen's Hadramawt province.
Witnesses were quoted as saying an explosion had killed three men on the seafront last Friday - and that al-Qaeda gunmen had quickly cordoned off the area and gathered the remains, leading them to believe a leader was among those killed.
The US State Department had offered a $10m (£6.4m) reward for anyone who could help bring Wuhayshi - who is believed to have been in his 30s - to justice.
Wuhayshi, himself a Yemeni, travelled to Afghanistan in the late 1990s where he trained, fighting alongside and becoming a close confidant of Bin Laden.
As US forces closed in at the battle of Tora Bora in late 2001, he escaped into Iran.
There he was arrested and extradited to Yemen, where he was jailed until he escaped in 2006. He became head of al-Qaeda in Yemen and then head of AQAP when the Yemeni and Saudi branches of al-Qaeda merged in 2009.
Since late January 2015, AQAP has lost a number of high-profile figures in US drone strikes - including religious official Harith al-Nadhari, ideologue and spokesman Ibrahim al-Rubaish, and religious and military official Nasser al-Ansi, along with lower ranking figures.
The proximity and precision of these assassinations has given rise to rumours in jihadist circles that AQAP has been infiltrated by spies, BBC Monitoring reports. The US use of drones - in Yemen and elsewhere - has long been a source of controversy. Last week the families of two Yemeni citizens killed in a US drone strike launched a lawsuit in Washington DC, demanding that the US admit the strike was unlawful. | Famous Person - Death | June 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
An 8.2 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Pacific Ocean near Chile causing landslides and killing at least five people. A tsunami warning is issued. , , | The April 1, 2014, M 8.2 earthquake off the west coast of northern Chile occurred as the result of thrust faulting at shallow depths near the Chilean coast. At the location of the earthquake, the Nazca plate subducts eastward beneath the South America plate at a velocity of 72 mm/yr. The location and mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with slip on the primary plate boundary interface, or megathrust, between these two major plates. Subduction along the Peru-Chile Trench to the west of Chile has led to uplift of the Andes Mountain Range and has produced some of the largest earthquakes in the world, including the damaging 2010 M 8.8 Maule earthquake in central Chile, and the largest earthquake on record, the 1960 M 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile. The April 1st earthquake occurred in a region of historic seismic quiescence, which is termed the northern Chile or Iquique seismic gap. Historical records indicate that an earthquake of about M 8.8 occurred within the Iquique gap in 1877, which was preceded immediately to the north by an earthquake of about M 8.8 in 1868.
A recent increase in seismicity rates has occurred in the vicinity of the April 1st earthquake. A M 6.7 earthquake with similar faulting mechanism occurred on March 16, 2014, and was followed by more than 60 earthquakes of M 4+ and 26 earthquakes of M 5+. The March 16th earthquake was also followed by three M 6.2 events on March 17, March 22, and March 23. The spatial distribution of seismicity following the March 16th event migrated spatially to the north through time, starting near 20 degrees south and moving to about 19.5 degrees south. The initial location of the April 1st earthquake places the event near the northern end of this seismic sequence. While commonly plotted as points on maps, earthquakes of this size are more appropriately described as slip over a larger fault area. Thrust-faulting events of the size of the April 1, 2014, earthquake are typically about 200x80 km (length x width); modeling of this earthquake implies dimensions of about 80x80 km, predominantly down-dip of the hypocenter. This indicates there is a substantial section of the seismic gap that remains unruptured.
Other recent large plate boundary ruptures bound the seismic gap in which the April 1st event occurred, including the 2001 M 8.4 Peru earthquake adjacent to the south coast of Peru to the north and the 2007 M 7.7 Tocopilla, Chile, and 1995 M 8.1 Antofagasta, Chile, earthquakes to the south, all of which had many associated fatalities and damages. Other nearby events along the plate boundary interface include a M 7.4 earthquake in 1967 as well as a M 7.7 earthquake in 2005 in the deeper portion of the subduction zone beneath inland Chile. Hayes et al. (2016) Tectonic summaries of magnitude 7 and greater earthquakes from 2000 to 2015, USGS Open-File Report 2016-1192. (5.2 MB PDF) | Earthquakes | April 2014 | ['(USGS)', '(AP via The Australian)', '(Fox News)'] |
A passenger train derails in central Cameroon, killing at least 53 people and injuring 575 others. , | ESEKA, Cameroon (Reuters) - Fourteen people remained trapped on Friday under the wreckage of a packed passenger train that derailed en route between Cameroon’s two largest cities, killing at least 55 and injuring 575, the government said in a communique read on state television.
The Camrail inter-city train was traveling from the capital, Yaounde, to the port city of Douala when the accident occurred around 11 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) near the train station in the town of Eseka, around 120 km (75 miles) west of the capital.
“There was a loud noise. I looked back and the wagons behind us left the rails and started rolling over and over. There was a lot of smoke,” said a Reuters journalist traveling in a wagon near the front of the train.
Before its departure from Yaounde, he said that a railway employee said additional wagons had been added to the train to accommodate extra passengers, though it was unclear if that played a role in the accident.
The collapse of a section of the main highway between the capital and Douala had prompted increased numbers of passengers to undertake the journey by rail. The two incidents, which occurred on the same day, have now effectively cut the main transportation axis in the Central African country of over 22 million.
“There are the bodies of women, children. There are many,” said one employee of Camrail, which is operated by France’s Bollore, speaking from the scene of the accident. He said three of his colleagues were among the victims.
Joel Bineli, a passenger on the derailed train, told Reuters he saw dismembered bodies on the tracks at the accident site.
Social media users posted photos taken at the scene of the accident which showed several wagons overturned on a slope beside the rail line.
“Rescue workers arrived and they are pulling bodies from the wagon. I’ve already counted around 40 bodies they’ve removed,” said Rachelle Paden, another passenger.
Camrail said it had sent teams to the site and the injured were being transported to a local hospital. Others were driven to Douala. It expressed its condolences to victims’ families in a post on its official Facebook page.
A Bollore spokesman confirmed that an accident had occurred, but offered no further details.
Many rail lines in West and Central Africa have a reputation for poor maintenance and failing to respect safety norms. Derailments are relatively common.
Though Bollore is generally viewed as a reliable operator, it experienced another major incident last month when part of a bridge along a line it controls in Ivory Coast collapsed under the weight of a freight train.
| Train collisions | October 2016 | ['(Africa News)', '(Reuters)'] |
Hanif Kureishi is awarded the PEN/Pinter prize. | Novelist Hanif Kureishi has been awarded a literary prize set up in honour of playwright Harold Pinter.
The Buddha of Suburbia author won the Pen/Pinter prize as he "courageously... speaks the truth about life in our multicultural world".
Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho will receive the international writer of courage prize, which is awarded to writers persecuted for their beliefs.
Both writers will receive their awards at the British Library on 20 October.
Cacho was arrested, charged with libel and received death threats after publishing a book about a child sex abuse ring involving business figures in Cancun in 2005.
Pinter's widow Lady Antonia Fraser, who helped judge the prize, said: "Hanif Kureishi courageously and irreverently speaks the truth about life in our multicultural world, beyond any platitudes of political correctness. "Harold Pinter would have been proud that Hanif was chosen for the prize in his name and that of Pen."
The Pen/Pinter prize is given to a British writer who, in the words of Pinter's Nobel Prize winning speech, casts an "unflinching, unswerving" gaze upon the world.
Last year, poet and playwright Tony Harrison won the award, worth £1,000.
| Awards ceremony | September 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Michael van Gerwen wins the 2014 PDC World Darts Championship by defeating Peter Wright. | From the section Darts
Michael van Gerwen beat Peter Wright 7-4 to win the PDC World Championship at London's Alexandra Palace on Wednesday.
The Dutchman, 24, lost only two legs in taking the first four sets and then survived a strong fightback from Scot Wright, who is 19 years his senior.
"I got nervous after going 4-0 up but it doesn't matter how you win a final as long as you win," said Van Gerwen.
His first world title takes him to number one in the rankings, ahead of 16-time world champion Phil Taylor.
Odds-on favourite Van Gerwen was beaten in the 2013 final by Taylor, who suffered a second-round defeat by fellow Englishman Michael Smith in his quest for a 17th crown.
"It's so difficult to win this title and there was more pressure on me this year than last year," said Van Gerwen, who claimed a record purse of £250,000.
"It means so much for me. It's unbelievable; a dream come true. I'm so glad I won but all credit to Peter. He did well and put me under pressure."
Wright, the 16th seed, was spurred on by the 2,500 capacity crowd.
He said: "I never give up, that's my game. The crowd got behind me and made me play, but well done Michael."
2010 Phil Taylor
2011 Adrian Lewis
2012 Adrian Lewis
2013 Phil Taylor 2014 Michael van Gerwen
Aided by 13 treble 19s, Van Gerwen took the first set 3-1 and won the next two without dropping a leg.
But Wright, who had so far failed to make the most of his chances, hit back to take the fifth set 3-1.
He took the next by the same margin with some consistent scoring, while Van Gerwen looked like a different player with some poor combinations.
With the seventh set locked at 2-2, Wright then had a dart to reduce the deficit to one set but missed and the Dutchman made the most of it for a 5-2 lead.
The Scot, who lives in Mendham in Suffolk, then had three darts for double seven to level the next set at 2-2 but could not complete the finish, with Van Gerwen moving within a set of his first world title.
The man known as 'Snakebite' was far from out of it and punished some poor finishing from Van Gerwen to take the next two sets 3-1.
Wright had the chance to make it 6-5 but missed double top at 2-2 and Van Gerwen stepped up to lift the title. | Sports Competition | January 2014 | ['(BBC Sports)'] |
Former Vice President of Zimbabwe Joice Mujuru is expelled from the ruling party for allegedly planning a coup against President Robert Mugabe. | A former vice president of Zimbabwe, Joyce Mujuru, has been expelled from the ruling party, Zanu-PF.
The party said she had plotted to remove President Robert Mugabe from office and brought the party into disrepute. She had been been seen as a likely successor to President Mugabe but was sacked at the end of last year. She was accused of corruption and plotting to kill the president - allegations she denied.
Mr Mugabe, 91, will have been in power for 35 years when Zimbabwe marks its independence from the UK later this month.
The first lady, Grace Mugabe - who is now a senior figure in the Zanu-PF Party - has been very vocal against Mrs Mujuru in public. Mrs Mujuru fought alongside Mr Mugabe in the 1970s guerrilla war against white minority rule and was known as "Spill Blood".
Zanu-PF spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo said in a statement that the ruling party's top decision-makers had agreed to her dismissal citing 10 reasons.
These included plotting to remove Mr Mugabe from office, alleged corruption and bringing the party into disrepute - charges she has previously denied.
"The politburo felt that she lacked the quality of strong moral principles, honesty and decency and therefore ceases to be a member of Zanu-PF," Mr Moyo said.
Mr Mugabe has not publicly indicated a preferred candidate to take over his presidency.
But in December he purged the government of several ministers, including Mrs Mujuru, and appointed Emmerson Mnangagwa as his deputy, making the former justice minister the favourite to succeed him.
Didymus Mutasa, one of the sacked ministers and a former confidante of President Mugabe, was expelled from Zanu-PF earlier this year.
He has told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that he now fears for his life.
"You see people disappearing… so will they spare my life or send a sniper to shoot at me?" he said.
He said the fighting in Zanu-PF was worse than the situation under former white minority leader Ian Smith. "The Smith regime was not as bad as the current regime - it's really terrible," Mr Mutasa said.
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One Covid vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75%
But the number of Delta variant cases recorded in the UK has risen by 79% in a week, figures show. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(Herald)', '(NewZimbabwe)'] |
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano disrupts flights to and from Tonga. | Ash and smoke from a volcanic eruption in Tonga are causing some flight cancellations in the region.
The Hunga Ha'apai in March 2009, when it last erupted. Photo: AFP
Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia say ash billowing out of the Hunga Ha'apai volcano has forced them to cancel flights in and out of Tonga, stranding hundreds of people.
Air New Zealand says about 300 people were booked yesterday and today to travel on two flights from Tonga to Auckland.
Air New Zealand had to divert its Auckland to Tonga flight yesterday to Samoa, and cancelled the same service to the country today.
Virgin Australia says it cancelled a Sydney to Tonga flight yesterday, and a Tonga to Auckland flight early this morning.
The general manager of the Scenic Hotel in Nuku'alofa, Graeme Horsley, whose flights to Auckland was cancelled, says ash has only recently been blown across the country.
"Over the last couple of days the weather pattern has changed and the wind is actually blowing the ash and smoke across the island." New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority meteorologist Peter Lechner said the Hunga Ha'apai volcano was sending volcanic ash more than 9,000 metres in the air.
"The plume is stretching up to about 30,000 feet and moving off in an east to south east direction. If there's no further eruption by later this evening, there's no further ash expected, it will have dissipated in the strong westerly winds."
GNS Science in New Zealand is sending vulcanologists to Tonga to help authorities observe the eruption.
The volcano, about 62 kilometres from the capital Nuku'alofa, has been erupting since late December and has today grounded international and local flights to and from Tonga.
A GNS Science vulcanologist, Geoff Kilgour, says as long as air traffic is possible, the two scientists will make observation flights close to the vent to determine the amount of ash in the plume.
He says they will also help the Tongan authorities with ongoing monitoring.
"We're hoping to help in any way possible with any suggestions for improved monitoring of the volcano or procedures in dealing with ash such as how they would advise the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres."
Geoff Kilgour the Tongan government requested the scientists' assistance through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hunga Ha'apai last erupted in 2009, creating an island.
Copyright © 2015, Radio New Zealand
Authorities in Tonga are monitoring activity around an underwater vent which is creating a plume of steam over 3000 metres high.
One of the few people to have set foot on land created by an eruption off the coast of Tonga says it is perfect for golf.
The eruption of the tiny volcanic island of Hunga Ha'apai, 62 kilometres away from the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa, has become a tourist attraction today, with charter boats and flights taking... | Volcano Eruption | January 2015 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
Italian airline Alitalia is purchased by a consortium of Air France and KLM for €138 million. | The Italian government, which holds 49.9% of Alitalia, failed to sell the company by auction in 2007. Alitalia has lost money for five years, and has struggled to clinch a buyout.
Air France-KLM offered one share per 160 Alitalia shares, valuing Alitalia at a low-value 0.10 euros a share.
That is a 81% reduction on Alitalia's current share price.
The offer includes plans for a 1bn euro capital injection by the Franco-Dutch airline, which says it will also pay 608m euros to buy back Alitalia bonds.
The proposed purchase could become a hot topic in Italy's general election, being held on 13 and 14 April.
'National leader'
Alitalia, which is struggling under 1.2bn euros of debt, is hoping the tie-up will generate significant savings.
There are a number of hurdles to be overcome before the deal is sealed. Air France-KLM are seeking support for the move from Italian trade unions.
The Italian government must also agree to sell its shares, and the country's stock market and European Union competition regulators must also give their backing.
Air France-KLM has a restructuring plan for Alitalia to enable it "to rediscover the means of its development and to consolidate its status as a national leader".
And it said Alitalia will maintain its national identity within the Air France-KLM group after the takeover, which could be completed by mid-2008. | Organization Merge | March 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
At least 5 people are killed in an attack on the Lahore hospital in Pakistan where many of the injured in Friday's attack on members of the Ahmadis sect, as well as one of the captured militants, are undergoing treatment. | The gunmen managed to escape but left without securing the release of the militant, who was part of a group of gunmen who attacked a minority sect in Lahore on Friday and killed 93 people, said Rana Sanaullah, the law minister of Punjab province, where Lahore is the capital.
The gunmen stormed Jinnah Hospital in a hail of gunfire shortly before midnight Monday and briefly took several patients hostage, Sanaullah said. One of the gunmen climbed on the roof to shoot at police who surrounded the building, he said.
Four of the six people killed in the attack were policemen, said the Punjab police chief, Tariq Saleem. Another seven people were wounded, he said.
Lahore has experienced a string of deadly attacks in the past year by militants who have declared war on both the government and minority groups in the country.
Friday's attacks against two mosques in Lahore targeted the Ahmadi sect, a minority reviled as heretics by mainstream Muslims. Seven gunmen attacked the mosques with assault rifles, grenades and suicide vests. At least two of the attackers were captured, while some died in the standoff or by detonating their explosives.
Police have said the men who attacked the mosques in Lahore were part of the Pakistani Taliban and trained in the North Waziristan tribal region. Authorities have arrested at least seven other men allegedly linked to the attacks who were members of a variety of banned militant groups. | Armed Conflict | June 2010 | ['(Geotv)', '(The Hindu)', '(USA Today)', '(CNN)'] |
Turkish security forces kill 23 suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in operations in the Kurdish-majority cities of Cizre and Silopi. | Security forces in Turkey have killed 23 suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in two days of operations in Cizre and Silopi, authorities say.
Twenty-two were killed in Cizre while one was killed in Silopi, state-run Anatolia news agency said. Curfews have been imposed and tanks deployed in some areas. Cizre was placed under curfew in September, with Turkey describing the town as a hotbed of PKK activity.
Up to 10,000 police and army members have been deployed in the two towns, in south-east Turkey, since operations began earlier this week.
Grim reports from Turkish town under curfew
Inside Turkey's battle-scarred Kurdish town
Turkey-PKK conflict: Why are clashes escalating?
PKK supporters have erected barricades and dug trenches, reports say. Residents have been urged to leave their homes, with Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu saying operations would continue until "every home is cleared" of militants. Conditions for families in Silopi and Cizre are hard. Semsettin, 45, said his family in Silopi woke up on Wednesday to the sound of gunfire and went down to their basement to hide. As their house is the only one in the area with a basement, 25 neighbours have joined them in the 3-4 sq m room. "There is no electricity, it's cold and the children are suffering. There is no baby food or milk," he says. The violence has prompted around 3,000 teachers and a large number of doctors to leave the area and a trade union representative in Silopi told me that deserted schools had been turned into barracks.
Some residents say they don't want to leave but they fear that continuing operations and curfews will force them to go.
Some government supporters and Turkish nationalists say the operations are needed to prevent the PKK youth from taking over the towns, with some accusing civilians who stay behind of either being, or harbouring, terrorists.
Turkey has seen a string of curfews in the past few months after a two-year ceasefire collapsed in July.
Hundreds have been killed in attacks from both sides since then, with the PKK targeting Turkish security forces and Turkey's military bombing PKK positions, cutting off towns in the south-east. Around 200,000 people have been displaced.
On Monday, two protesters died in a clash between police and Kurdish demonstrators over a curfew imposed in Diyarbakir.
The city was placed under curfew in November after a pro-Kurdish lawyer, Tahir Elci, was shot dead in a fight between police and unidentified gunmen. Two policemen also died.
| Armed Conflict | December 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Boston Latin School and two other local schools in Massachusetts are closed for at least seven days due to the swine flu. | Boston Latin and two other local schools will be closed for seven days after a number of students fell ill in what public health officials have described as suspected clusters of swine or seasonal flu. Boston health and school authorities decided to close Boston Latin, the largest high school in the city, after more than 250 students called in sick today out of nearly 2,400 pupils in grades 7 through 12. "This is not a time to panic, but it is a time to be cautious," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said this afternoon at a press conference at City Hall. "I understand this is an inconvenience for students, parents, faculty, and staff. We didn't make this decision lightly, but we are doing this for their well being." Boston public health authorities announced later this afternoon that classes were also being cancelled for a week at the Winsor School, a private girls' school in the city's Longwood area. Authorities watched with increasing concern as an unusually high number of students reported flu-like symptoms and, today, 34 students were absent from a student body of 430. This morning the Dana Hall School in Wellesley announced it was closing for the next week after nearly 100 students and staff called in sick with fevers, sore throats, and other flu-like systems. There have not yet been any confirmed swine flu cases at the private, all-girls boarding school, according to town health officials. At the City Hill press conference, Boston Schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said that she expects state officials will not require Boston Latin students to make up the missed classes. Johnson sent a letter to students and staff saying that the school building will be completely closed on Wednesday and will re-open on May 27. All on-site athletic events and extra-curricular activities have been canceled. MCAS math tests scheduled for Wednesday for 10th graders at Boston Latin have been rescheduled until next week as have advanced placement tests. "The school has experienced unusually high levels of influenza-like illness in recent days, and we hope that this temporary closure will prevent new infections and avoid unnecessary illness," Johnson wrote in the letter, which can be found here. "Because the safety of students and staff is our highest priority, we have taken this step with the guidance of the Boston Public Health Commission." Since swine flu emerged in Massachusetts late last month, there have been 171 confirmed cases of the disease, including 19 in Suffolk County. At Boston Latin, freshman Eddie Lui said swine flu dominated the hallway buzz this morning. "Everyone was worried about getting it," said Lui, who lives in the South End. The closing surprised freshman Wilhelmina Moen, who noted it was nice that authorities were concerned about the student's health. "I'm not that worried," said Moen, who lives in Brighton. "It's the same thing as the other kind of flu. That flu kills too." Are they sure this isn't just senior skip day? That would make them look a little idiotic
it's called senior skip day
How many of these students ride the Green Line or the Orange Line on a regular basis? Every day there are a ton of young people coughing and sneezing on the T and every MBTA commuter could be at risk for the H1N1 virus. YUP ITS THE FLU GET OVER IT ITS THE FLU...HOW MANY KIDS ARE SICK RIGHT NOW? I DEMAND A COUNT SO WE CAN GO CRAZY AND SCARE EVERYONE EVEN MORE.....ITS THE FLU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes mbta riders and shutle riders could be at risk now b/c of this and also it is proabably senior skip day...duhhhh
I agree with Michell. It's late may and BLS students are overworked. They just need a vacation. You look idiotic Michelle for writing that. It's not senior skip day because all seniors need to complete the 3 days missed. Revere Beach, May 5, 2009 Version 2.0
Is this like the vampire flu they had earlier this year? :-)
NATION WIDE PANIC!!! I didn't know vampires could get the flu...
Nope--not senior skip by any means. It's a mild flu--fever, coughing, aches and pains--but it's real. We know dozens of kids affected and apparently 200+ kids called in sick yesterday or were sent home sick in the middle of the day. It's a pain in the butt, but probably a wise precaution. Wasn't Latin the official language of the Roman Catholic Church back when the Black Plague ravaged Europe? I think that this is a surreptitious conspiracy within the Church, after having lain dormant for over a millennium, to impose their supremacy through a secret cabal of The Invisible Order of the Hand. "The secret cabal is back, this I know. For Ron Howard and Tom Hanks told me so." mummbles is a dope
VP Joe
What are you suggesting? We should close the Green and Orange lines? Everyone is at risk for H1N1. Everywhere. Did you touch a handrail today? How about a bathroom door? Your Dunkin's coffee cup? Wash your hands, get lots of sleep and hope for the best. What does the weather look like outside,. It is right before a holiday. :) We call it just playin hooky. "More than 250 students were absent from classes today out of nearly 2,400 pupils in grades 7 through 12" is for Boston Latin school only? I heard a rumor that swine victims have been seen rising from the dead. Can this be confirmed? The leadership of this World Class City will be under the gun. The taxpayers have seen how well this same issue is being handled in NYC by Mayor Bloomberg. I wonder if Mayor Menino can hold his own against him. NECN is reporting the Mayor will be making a statement TOMORROW afternoon regarding the outbreak and if that 's the case he's already behind the 8 ball. Sounds fishy.....think this is a well planned bag job of school. Right in the middle of MCAS testing. If it is a bag day, pretty stupid, they will be going to school until July. Boston latin is not a private boarding school, it is open only to Boston residents and is well known as one of the best public school in the country. it's not only seniors. im in 7th grade and there were 5 kids missing from one class
Genious kids instead of senior skip day they get senior skip week. Are they going to shut down any other schools like Boston Latin Academy because of these suspected cases? -crosses fingers and mumbles- please please please please please! What if the kids came in contact with Boston Latin kids? What would happen to us then? There could be TONS of kids in Boston Latin Academy with swine flu and they haven't developed the symptoms yet or are passing it off for a cold or strep... Convenient considering the weather forecast for the rest of the week. I can't speak for Latin, but I do know that Dana was closed when about 120 students and staff called in sick on the same day... yuck. Additionally, they're probably going to have to make up all of those missed days... what a bummer. Novavax should have a vaccine within a few weeks supposedly........... I don't know...I'm thinking vampire flu...
uhh...half the school rides the green line
Ridiculous. So a few kids have perfectly ordinary, mild, self-limiting illnesses such as people get all the time, and we suddenly need mayoral press conferences because of the media feeding frenzy over the perfectly ordinary non-event of "swine flu." This is the shark attack/missing white woman story of public health. I agree..the MBTA is a breeding ground for this stuff..then they take it to school. everyone stay outside and breathe fresh air please. How very ignorant of you for dismissing this as senior skip day. A ton of kids are sick and you are calling our administration "a little idiotic". This situation is actually pretty scary because over the weekend the virus spread so quickly and now many of my friends are really sick. Most BLS students DO take all sorts of forms of the MBTA (the red, green, blue and orange line, and also buses), so maybe there should be some sort of precautions made, I'm not sure how that could be done. Mostly everyone has the same sort of symptoms: high fevers, body aches, head aches, coughing, chills, etc. mostly everyone has the same sort of symptoms: fevers, body aches, massive head aches, coughing, etc. Do teachers skip on "Senior Skip Day?" LMAO, I wish we had thought of that senior year!! BL's administrators are fools
I heard it began in the bio dept...from a pig delivered last Monday for dissection. Meat is murder. BLS will most likely not have to make up these school days due to the fact that they are apart of the Boston Public School system. Dana Hall is it's own private institution so they can dictate their own extended school year schedule. All of the know -it -alls here think they're so smart - there is a very real chance of this virus becoming a lot more dangerous before a vaccine is approved. My daughter's school is closed - and I work in an office with two women in the early stages of pregnancy - this can be dangerous if they get it. There is nothing wrong with being careful - also, the schools are preparing for final exams and with large numbers of students out it makes no sense to review or hold finals. It's scary some people aren't taking this seriously. Any type of influenza is something to worry about. Even the influenza that goes around every year that they track on the news and on maps. The issue at hand, is this can mutate and when it comes back it can kill A LOT more people then the seasonal influenza does now. That is what out breaks have done in the past. Aside from that do you seriously think people don't mind being sick? People cancel vacations, can't attend graduation, camps, family functions, etc. Let's just take this seriously now and have enough respect for others that people who are ill stay away from those who are healthy and stop the spread of this as soon as possible, before people see what it can really do then complain they didn't do enough. When it is your loved one whose life it has taken you won't be snuffing. You will e complaining wondering why they didn't do all they could, all they should. DUHHHH!!!!! Can ANYONE read the writing on the wall???? They will not have to make up the days. They have gotten a waiver from the state. It will be a free week off for the "lucky" kids at Boston Latin. There is a good chance a zoonotic pathogen was released in Mexico in April 2009 to control people and to distract media coverage of the Mexican drug wars? Disease as a tool or Trust not thy government H1N1 oh boy theyre at it again. Swine Flu took the lead story slot and the Situation Room soon had half of us in the grave or close to kicking dirt onto someone else already in the grave. I believe that Swine Flu was used to end the drug war headlines. Because the Mexican drug wars conveniently dropped from the headlines as the Swine Flu was pushed to the forefront by network media. Its a known fact that a Cultivated pandemic or zoonosis conflict could be started and used at any time by state enemies or even used by a state to control and divert public scrutiny. This seems to me to have taken place. Not a soul I spoke to even mentioned the Drug Wars after the Swine Flu/H1N1 Flu hit the media blitz. MHL BLS has CONFIRMED cases of Swine Flu and others symptomatic which is why the school is closed. How soon you all forget poor Hunter Pope that died from the flu during February vacation, a BLA student. | Disease Outbreaks | May 2009 | ['(Boston)'] |
Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine declares martial law and asks Russia to send peacekeeping troops to protect civilians. | Editor’s Note: On May 11, the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk declared their independence from Ukraine after holding dubious separatist referendums on the same day. Since then, the Ukrainian military has attempted to wrestle control of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts from Kremlin-backed rebels. The Ukrainian government in Kyiv is attempting to stablilize its eastern regions in anticipation of the May 25 presidential election, the country’s first since the EuroMaidan Revolution toppled former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Health Ministry reports 16 dead in Donetsk Oblast Breaking news about Ukraine
Web links to Kyiv Post material are allowed provided that they contain a hyperlink to the stories and only a brief extract (not more than 10 percent) of the text. © 1995-2021 BIZNESGRUPP TOV | Government Policy Changes | May 2014 | ['(Kyiv Post)'] |
Parisian metro workers launch a general strike, the largest of its kind since 2007, in protest at Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms. Ten of the sixteen metro lines and two major regional train lines are shut down during morning rush hour. | PARIS (Reuters) - Parisian commuters faced travel misery on Friday as metro workers went on strike over plans to reduce their retirement privileges under President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms.
Ten out of the 16 metro lines in Paris and two major regional train lines were totally shut as the morning rush hour got under way, leaving commuters scrambling to find alternatives to get to work.
At the Gare Saint-Lazare in central Paris, commuters swarmed off trains operated by the state-run SNCF before stopping in their tracks to consult bus routes on the cell phones.
Long queues backed up at bus stops as traffic was snarled at busy intersections. At the Gare du Nord train station, Europe’s busiest, commuters suffered crowded platforms and long waits on the few metro lines running a reduced service.
“I am walking to work today and will be on the streets for at least four hours,” Anthony, 21, who works in a restaurant in West Paris, told Reuters on his way to start a shift running nearly to midnight.
Unions want the strike, expected to be the largest since 2007 in Paris, to send a warning to Macron’s government as it launches one of the most perilous reforms of his presidency -- to merge France’s 42 different pension systems into a single points-based system.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised on Thursday to take the time to listen to unions and broader public opinion after criticism in the past for turning a deaf ear.
“The prime minister’s announcements will not have any impact. The strike has been launched and participation will be massive,” Frederic Ruiz, who heads the CFE-CGC union at the Paris public transport company, RATP, told Reuters.
‘TREADING CAREFULLY’
The government did not waver in the face of rolling strikes last year over a reform of the state rail company, but Macron has since been weakened politically by anti-government protests at the end of 2018 and early this year.
Those protests, which shocked the nation with some of the worst street violence in decades, were triggered by anger over falling living standards and also concerns Macron was pushing his reform agenda too hard.
“When you start messing with the pension system, it’s better to tread carefully,” Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin told Europe 1 radio.
While promising to be open to external input on the pension reform, Philippe said that he was determined to see through the pension reform plan.
“The country’s got to change. It’s a global world now and we can’t work in France like we used to,” said commuter Etienne Leblanc, a sales director in the finance sector.
The pension regime specific to RATP workers allows train drivers and other staff that work underground to retire at 52, a decade earlier than the normal legal retirement age for a full public pension.
Junior budget minister Olivier Dussopt said that RATP workers’ pension contributions covered only 40% of payouts, leaving the state on the hook for the rest.
“If the state stopped paying, the system would explode,” he added.
Previous reforms have already rolled back some of RATP workers rights and increased how long they have to pay into the system, but workers are worried they will have to make further sacrifices.
An Odoxa-Dentsu poll found that nearly three out of four people surveyed did not think that Macron’s government would come up with a good reform.
| Strike | September 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
President of South Africa Jacob Zuma goes to India on his first state visit to Asia, launching a bilateral trade forum in Mumbai. | South African President Jacob Zuma is in India on his first state visit to Asia since he took office in May last year. The two countries want to boost their trade and investment ties. India's trade with South Africa - one of Africa's fastest growing economies - is worth $7bn (£4.8bn). Reforms to the UN Security Council and climate change are also expected to be on the agenda during Mr Zuma's three-day visit. Mr Zuma is reportedly accompanied by a 200-member business delegation.
"We are negotiating a bilateral investment and promotion agreement to boost our economic relationship further," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
On Thursday, Mr Zuma is set to launch a bilateral trade forum in India's financial capital, Mumbai.
He is due to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the capital, Delhi, on Friday. | Diplomatic Visit | June 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
President Biden, in a reversal of the Trump administration's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, says that the United States will contribute up to $4 billion to COVAX. | In a reversal of his predecessor's U.S.-centric approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic, President Biden is ramping up pressure on America's wealthiest allies Friday to get COVID-19 vaccine doses into poor and developing countries. Mr. Biden told his fellow G7 leaders during a virtual summit that the U.S. would contribute up to $4 billion to COVAX, the World Health Organization-backed initiative aimed at ensuring equitable access to vaccines around the world.
A senior administration official said on Thursday that Mr. Biden's announcement was aimed at least in part at leveraging U.S. partners around the world to bolster their own support for the initiative.
President Biden was committing $2 billion to COVAX up front — which is $2 billion more than the U.S. had offered under his predecessor — and then another $2 billion over the coming two years, provided other nations fulfill their own commitments to the program. Officials said on Thursday that the money was earmarked by Congress in the December 2020 spending bill, so it would have no impact on domestic vaccination efforts in the U.S.
The senior official said the White House recognized that ensuring health security everywhere around the world was in the direct interest of the U.S., too.
That's a point that global health experts have been stressing for months: If rich nations focus only on protecting their own populations from the disease it will be more than a moral failure — it will allow the virus to mutate unchecked, and that could come back to haunt even well-vaccinated countries.
United Nations officials have repeatedly urged rich countries not to leave poorer ones to fend for themselves, and vaccine makers not to base their vaccine distribution on profit margins. In an article published earlier this month, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, the U.N. agency created in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic that tore across the world in the 1980s, decried, "a vaccine apartheid that is only serving the interests of powerful and profitable pharmaceutical corporations while costing each one of us the quickest and least harmful exit route from this crisis."
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had already chastised vaccine makers for targeting locations where "profits are highest."
Those arguments were largely on moral grounds, but Byanyima also warned that pandemic narcissism could put rich nations' own populations — even if vaccinated — at risk of new COVID-19 outbreaks. "The longer the virus is allowed to continue in a context of patchy immunity, the greater the chance of mutations that could render the vaccines we have and the vaccines some people in rich countries have already received, less effective or ineffective," she said.
Byanyima also cited research carried out for the International Chamber of Commerce, which suggests that delaying poor countries access to vaccines will cost money, to the tune of, "an estimated $9 trillion, with nearly half of this absorbed in wealthy countries like the United States, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom."
As CBS News' Debora Patta reported this week, there is already real-world evidence of the risks of leaving COVID-19 to spread and mutate in virus "reservoirs" around the world.
South Africa's government, facing a serious wave of infections and delayed for a number of reasons, only started its mass-vaccination program a week ago. By that time, the now-well-known variant first discovered in that country had spread like wildfire through its cities. It's been documented in dozens of other countries, too, including more than 150 cases in the United States.
Health experts have said the variant, like the one discovered in southern England, is far more easily transmitted between people, but vaccine studies have shown the South African variant also appears to render the current vaccines at least somewhat less effective. Most pharmaceutical companies have said that while they may need to add booster shots, their vaccines should still work well enough to prevent serious illness with all the known variants. The real risk is the strains we don't know about yet, or that may emerge in the future in areas where vaccines aren't rolled out efficiently. "The virus is mutating, we are going to get more dangerous forms of this virus and we will be running behind it slowly as people die," Byanyima told CBS News this week. "We need to move faster by increasing production and vaccinating the world as quickly as possible."
The current goal of COVAX is to get 2 billion vaccine doses distributed by the end of this year, fairly, to the countries most in need. In a statement released on Friday, WHO Director-General Tedros noted the new pledges of support from the Biden administration and other nations as a "growing movement behind vaccine equity."
"I welcome that world leaders are stepping up to the challenge by making new commitments to effectively end this pandemic by sharing doses and increasing funds to COVAX," he said, adding that, "to prevent virus variants from undermining our health technologies and hampering an already sluggish global economic recovery, it is critical that leaders continue to step up to ensure that we end this pandemic as quickly as possible." | Financial Aid | February 2021 | ['(CBS News)'] |
Lord Hill resigns as European Commissioner after the United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union. | The UK's European Commissioner Lord Hill is to stand down, saying "what is done cannot be undone" after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
He said he did not believe it was right for him to carry on with his work as the commissioner in charge of financial services. But he will stay on for a period of weeks to ensure an "orderly handover".
A close ally of Prime Minister David Cameron, Lord Hill had argued for the UK to remain in the EU.
He will be replaced by Latvian politician Valdis Dombrovskis, currently European Commissioner for the euro.
Asked whether the UK would be sending anyone to Brussels to take Lord Hill's place on the Commission, Downing Street said: "It will be for the next prime minister to decide, following discussions with European partners, what role the UK plays in the European Commission, given we remain a full member of the EU until we have left."
Lord Hill's announcement comes as EU foreign ministers urged Britain to hold speedy talks on leaving the bloc, after it voted to end its membership on Thursday.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was not in favour of pushing for a hasty withdrawal, adding there was "no need to be particularly nasty in any way" in the negotiations with Britain about its exit.
In another development, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would be seeking "immediate discussions" with Brussels to "protect Scotland's place in the EU" following the so-called Brexit vote.
Ms Sturgeon has said a new Scottish independence referendum is "highly likely".
European Commissioners are among the most powerful officials in Brussels, with the ability to propose laws across a range of policy areas, but the UK will cease to have one when it leaves the EU.
Conservative peer Lord Hill told the BBC: "When something as huge as the decision in the British referendum takes place, actions have consequences.
"It's not possible for me to carry on properly. "You have to listen to the will of the British people. The right thing to do is to stand down and that's what today I am announcing."
In a statement, he said he was "obviously very disappointed" about the result of the referendum, adding: "I wanted it to end differently and had hoped that Britain would want to play a role in arguing for an outward-looking, flexible, competitive, free trade Europe. But the British people took a different decision, and that is the way that democracy works."
He said he did not believe it was right for him to continue as commissioner "as though nothing had happened", but that there needed to be "an orderly handover" in the weeks ahead. European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said he had accepted Lord Hill's resignation "with great regret," hailing him as a "true European".
He said he had put the Conservative peer in charge of financial services "as a sign of my confidence in the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union" - but "to my great regret, this situation is now changing". By James Landale, diplomatic correspondent
There is lots to discuss with our EU colleagues: what to do with half-used EU budgets and EU citizens living in the UK and British citizens living in the EU. There is also, of course, the thorny issue of Britain's future trading relationship with the EU once we leave.
So you might imagine everyone will want to crack on as quickly as possible.
And certainly that is the view of many EU leaders. They want to end the uncertainty for the markets and begin formal talks.
The only problem is that David Cameron wants to delay the start of exit talks until a new Conservative leader has been elected in October.
Read more here.
Earlier, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said negotiations on the UK's exit from the EU should begin as "soon as possible".
He made the comments after an urgent meeting of the six EU founder members to discuss the decision.
David Cameron has said he will step down by October to allow his successor to conduct talks and trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which will formally take the UK out of the EU after two years of exit negotiations.
Chief executive of Vote Leave, Matthew Elliott, told Reuters news agency there was no need to "swiftly invoke" Article 50, adding it was "best for the dust to settle over the summer, and during that time for there to be informal negotiations with other states". BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale said one expert believed the European Council - representing the 27 other member states - could trigger the negotiating process as soon as the prime minister discusses Brexit with other EU leaders.
But a European Council spokesman said triggering Article 50 was a formal act which must be "done by the British government to the European Council". In other developments:
Earlier, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon hit back at claims the UK government had been left rudderless following Mr Cameron's resignation statement.
He said: "The prime minister goes on, the government goes on until the autumn, until there's a new leader and a new government.
"We'll remain at our posts and we have a big agenda. We were elected only a year ago and we've set out fresh legislation which we're taking through Parliament at the moment."
A timetable for a Conservative leadership election is to be announced on Monday, with former London mayor Boris Johnson - who spearheaded the campaign to get Britain out of the EU - the favourite to get the job.
MPs will select two candidates to go forward to a vote of Conservative Party members, with the winner becoming the UK's next prime minister, as well as party leader.
Pro-EU Conservative MP Sir Alan Duncan warned that MPs must not be "railroaded" into choosing Mr Johnson.
He said party members liked the "excitement and notoriety" of Mr Johnson but electing him would be a "permanent ride on the big dipper".
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Thousands of people protest in the German city of Hanover against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal. They say the deal would drive down wages, and weaken environmental protection and labour rights. | Thousands of people have marched in the German city of Hannover against a proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal.
They say the deal would drive down wages, and weaken environmental protection and labour rights.
US President Barack Obama - who is pushing hard for the agreement - says it would create millions of jobs and increase trade by lowering tariffs.
On Sunday, he will visit the northern city to open a huge trade fair.
German police estimate that more than 30,000 took part in the peaceful protest rally in Hannover.
Many carried placards with slogans that read: "Stop TTIP!"
The demonstrators have also been voicing their anger over the secrecy surrounding the ongoing TTIP negotiations. "The TTIP between the American continent and Europe is very dangerous for the democracy, for our nature and for the rights of the workers," protester Florian Rohrich told the BBC. "The rights in America for workers are much lower. It's like the Trojan horse. They can't change our whole system. But they will - because TTIP is written by the groups, by the companies, not by the politicians," he added.
The negotiations were launched three years ago, and the next round is due to open on Monday in New York.
Defending the TTIP, President Obama has said that the agreement would mean "new growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic".
The TTIP aims to cut tariffs and regulatory barriers to trade between the US and EU countries, making it easier for companies on both sides of the Atlantic to access each other's markets. Industries it would affect include pharmaceuticals, cars, energy, finance, chemicals, clothing and food and drink.
The aim is to boost the economies of the EU and the US by removing or reducing barriers to trade and foreign investment.
By eliminating almost all tariffs (taxes applied only to imported goods) on trade between the US and the EU.
Much of the concern is about the regulatory aspect: that it would lead to lower standards of consumer and environmental protection and safety at work.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa Fiame Naomi Mata'afa resigns over three proposed constitutional amendments, which would alter the power of the land and titles court. She also leaves the Human Rights Protection Party. Other MPs have already left the party over the issue and formed a new opposition party. | Samoan deputy prime minister has quit Cabinet and the country's Human Rights Protection Party, in a defection over controversial proposals to amend the constitution.
Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, who is also natural resources minister, quit on Friday after meeting with constituents over the three bills, which would alter the power of the land and titles court.
Fiame Naomi Mata'afa became Samoa's first woman deputy prime minister in 2016. Photo: RNZ/Daniela Maoate-Cox
She said she could not bring herself to support them, which prompted the prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, to last night tell state radio she would no longer be welcome in the party.
"I don't mind is [she] doesn't approve [of the bills]," Tuilaepa told radio 2AP. "That is her decision which means she is no longer with the party."
Several MPs had already quit the party over the bills, including the former speaker of Parliament La'auli Leauatea Polataivao, who has since formed his own political party.
That party, the Fa'atuatua i Le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST), has since consolidated with two other opposition parties to form one of the most significant challenges to the HRPP in decades.
Fiame, who was Samoa's first woman minister and deputy prime minister, would stay in parliament as an independent MP until next year's election, said Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia, RNZ Pacific's correspondent in Apia.
He said to lose a deputy prime minister is a significant defection from the HRPP, which has ruled Samoa for nearly 40 years, and an embarrassing blow for prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who has been in charge since 1998 but is under sustained pressure over the bills.
"Now we see the result of all this controversy," he said. "The deputy prime minister stepping down from a party she was loyal to for so many years."
Copyright © 2020, Radio New Zealand
Pacific women leaders have urged governments and communities to ensure that women and girls are protected from violence related to strains caused by the pandemic.
A former Speaker and Cabinet Minister is continuing to fight to stay a member of the ruling Human Rights Protection Party even though the Prime Minister says he's sacked.
Three controversial bills before Samoa's parliament may finally be receiving the public consultation required to proceed to a third reading. Audio
An attack on Samoa's deputy prime minister by her boss was a breach of almost every Fa'a Samoa protocol, according to a lawyer and former Attorney General. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2020 | ['(RNZ)'] |
At Luxembourg's general election, Jean–Claude Juncker's Christian Social People's Party loses three seats, but remain the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies with 23 of the 60 seats. | The centre-right Christian Democrat party of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has won snap elections but has lost three seats.
His CSV party polled 33.7% of the votes, a fall of 5% since the last elections in 2009.
The CSV appeared to lose most ground to the third-placed Liberal DP opposition which gained four seats.
Mr Juncker's coalition collapsed in July amid claims he had failed to stop illegal security agency activities.
The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Juncker is the longest-serving elected leader in Europe, having headed the government since 1995.
Final results from Sunday's poll gave the CSV 33.68%, meaning 23 seats in the 60-seat parliament, down from 26.
The next two parties - each taking 13 seats - were Mr Juncker's socialist LSAP coalition partners with 20.28% of the vote and the Liberals (DP) 18.25%. The Greens took 6 seats.
"I am satisfied with the results as far as my party remains the number one party in Luxembourg, with a huge distance between my party and the two other main political parties," Mr Juncker said. "We should be entitled to form the next government."
But he said it was too early to begin coalition talks.
DP President and Luxembourg City Mayor Xavier Bettel said the party was ready to take on responsibility: "There is one party of the main parties that is the big winner tonight and that is the Democratic Party."
Socialist supporter Lores Spene told the Associated Press: "We were expecting a bigger change but unfortunately not everybody was thinking like we do."
The coalition government of Mr Juncker's centre-right Christian Social People's Party and the Socialists unravelled in July. It followed claims that he failed to stop illegal security agency activity such as phone-taps and corruption.
Critics at home also accused him of failing to focus on pressing domestic issues.
Earlier this year, the parliament reviewed a report alleging the allegations against the SREL security agency, which Mr Juncker oversees. It included claims of illegal bugging of politicians, the purchase of cars for private use and payments in exchange for access to local officials. | Government Job change - Election | October 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Around 3,700 people aboard a cruise ship named Diamond Princess are quarantined after ten passengers test positive for the illness at the port of Yokohama, Japan. | TOKYO (Reuters) - Around 3,700 people are facing at least two weeks locked away on a cruise liner anchored off Japan after health officials confirmed on Wednesday that 10 people on the ship had tested positive for coronavirus and more cases were possible.
While the infected patients were transferred by Japan's coastguard to hospitals on the mainland, the rest of the passengers and crew on board the Carnival Corp CCL.N ship were placed in quarantine and given health screenings. The 10 cases were among 31 results received so far from 273 people tested.
Passengers on Carnivals Diamond Princess, which had arrived in Yokohama on Monday after a 14-day round trip, will now spend another two weeks on the ship off Yokohama port near Tokyo.
They took to social media to detail their predicament, posting photos of officials in masks and gowns conducting health checks, room service meals and empty corridors and decks.
British passenger David Abel said passengers were confined to their cabins on Wednesday morning, with staff delivering food room-by-room.
The challenging situation for me is that Im an insulin dependent diabetic, Abel said in a video taken in his cabin and posted to his Facebook page, adding that regular and timed food intake was a key part of managing his condition.
We dont have a choice in what we can eat, the announcement recently was that theyre starting on the bottom deck and working their way up - Im on the ninth deck.
A 43-year-old Hong Kong resident on the ship with six family members said they had been given coffee and water, but no food, by lunchtime on Wednesday. They were hungry but had snacks of their own, he said.
I am not looking forward to the range of emotions in the next two weeks, he told Reuters from his familys windowless room, declining to be named. Will deal as they come.
Another passenger, using the handle @daxa_tw, tweeted that he was hearing from many sides that people are troubled and uneasy.
Separately, public broadcaster NHK said an additional two people had tested positive in Japan. One was a man in his 40s who was visiting Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, from Chinas Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus.
The other was a man in his 20s who lives in Kyoto. He had not been to China but had contacts with Chinese tourists as he worked in hospitality industry, NHK said. That brought the total number of people infected in Japan to 35.
Carnivals Princess Cruises said quarantined passengers would get free internet and telephone services and the crew was working to keep them comfortable.
The ship was caught up in the global coronavirus epidemic after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man tested positive for the virus after disembarking in Hong Kong on Jan. 25. The man had joined a shore excursion in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, on Jan. 22, local media reported.
He was believed to have been in close contact with 36 passengers, Kyodo news reported, citing Japans health ministry. Two of those people are among the 10 who have already tested positive, Kyodo said.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said officials would continue to monitor the remaining passengers and crew for the potential development of symptoms.
None of the 10 infected people - three each from Japan and Hong Kong, two Australians, one American and one Filipino crew member - had severe symptoms, NHK reported.
Carnival said quarantined passengers would get a full refund and a future cruise credit.
The ship would go out to sea to perform normal marine operations, it added, including the production of fresh water, before receiving food and other supplies from Yokohama.
Not all passengers were overly concerned about their situation. American Ashley Rhodes-Courter posted a text message exchange on Instagram with her parents, Gay and Phil Courter, who are on board the ship.
The food is great, the staff is in good spirits and were all in the same boat, the couple said. Plus, they have not run out of some great Pinot noir.
Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Chris Gallagher, Linda Sieg, Ju-min Park, Ritsuko Ando, David Dolan, Elaine Lies and Junko Fujita; Editing by Jane Wardell, Gerry Doyle, Philippa Fletcher and Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Disease Outbreaks | February 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Police shoot dead at least four civilians, including two teenagers, demonstrating against the government in Indianadministered Kashmir; protesters say they were unarmed. | At least four protesters have been killed in clashes between police and demonstrators in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say. The protesters say that the dead were unarmed but police said they were forced to open fire after they were pelted with stones.
Two of those killed were teenagers taking part in protests in the town of Sopore, north of Srinagar.
Other demonstrators were killed in the towns of Trehhgam and Pattan.
More than 50 civilians have been killed by police in the Kashmir Valley in the past two months. Kashmiris are angry over what is seen as an excessive use of force against unarmed protesters. The BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says in most cases the police have fired live ammunition while the protesters have thrown stones. A prominent separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, recently asked the demonstrators to stop hurling missiles. His advice has been heeded by many, our correspondent adds.
Last week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for "the cycle of violence" to end. In a TV address to Kashmiris, his first since recent public protests began, he said the bloodshed had caused him "great pain". Hundreds of thousands of troops are based in Kashmir to fight a two-decade-long insurgency against Indian rule. The mainly Muslim territory has been the centre point of two of India's three wars against Pakistan since both countries won independence in 1947.
Indian prime minister's office
Jammu and Kashmir government
Hardliner Raisi set to win Iran election
Vote-counting shows Ebrahim Raisi - Iran's top judge - has so far received 62% of the vote.
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
Tokyo Olympics: No fans is 'least risky' option
Asia's Covid stars struggle with exit strategies
Why residents of these paradise islands are furious
The Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care. VideoThe Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care
Troubled US teens left traumatised by tough love camps
Why doesn't North Korea have enough food?
Le Pen set for regional power with eye on presidency
How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Armed Conflict | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(IOL)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
Floods hit the states of Karnataka and Kerala in India, resulting in 11 dead and 43,000 people being evacuated. | At least 16 people have been killed, including four in Kolhapur and 12 in Sangli, as rains wreaked havoc in these districts for the past over one week, Chief Minister Scores Devendra Fadnavis said here on Thursday.
Along with his cabinet colleagues Chandrakanat Patil, Girish Mahajan and Eknath Shinde, Fadnavis today made an aerial survey of the flood-ravaged areas which also include Satara and Pune districts.
While four deaths are recorded in Kolhapur due to the rains in the past few days, at least 12 persons on Thursday drowned when a rescue boat capsized in Brahamnal village this morning. Fifteen people were saved and a search is on to trace bodies of others still missing, said Konkan Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaiskar.
Earlier in the day, authorities put out the death toll as 26.
Fadnavis said as per preliminary information, the boat was deployed by the village panchayat to rescue people, but a branch of a submerged tree got entangle in its engine, causing it to lose balance, leading to the tragedy.
#WATCH A house collapsed in Kalpetta in Kerala following heavy rainfall in the region, earlier today. The house was empty when the incident occurred. pic.twitter.com/n6gi024VR3
He said rescue efforts were continuing on a war footing. Fadnavis said over 10,000 rescue officials from 13 teams of NDRF from Punjab, Gujarat, Odisha, Goa, one State DRF, one column of Indian Army, 14 Navy teams, Coast Guard team and Air Force and local agencies are engaged in rescuing people trapped in the flood waters in the two districts.
Another two Coast Guard teams are on their way to Kolhapur today, five Navy teams and two SDRF teams, while the state has sought five more NDRF teams, Fadnavis said.
"We are reaching out to the people. They should not panic. Wherever helicopters can go, they are being sent and more than 60 boats are deployed in all the affected regions," Fadnavis said.
The CM said rescue works are hampered as water levels are not receding in most areas, he told mediapersons after the aerial survey.
"I spoke with Home Minister Amit Shah and also Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, and the latter has agreed to release 500,000 cusecs water from the Almatty Dam which will bring relief to waterlogging in Sangli," Fadnavis said.
He said as per available information, 223 villages are still flooded and 18 villages are completely submerged in the affected areas.
Plus, another around 29,000 people are still marooned in different parts, 9,000 have been rescued so far, and another 97,000 moved out on their own to rescue camps. Around 38,000 flood victims have taken refuge in 152 relief camps set up by the government.
Around 3,900 homes have been damaged or destroyed, over 200,000 people are still without electricity and 390 water supply schemes are shut due to flood, and 67,000 hectares of farmlands have been ravaged, though the complete extent of the damage will be known only after the flood waters recede, he said.
Efforts are also being made to supply petrol-diesel in the affected areas, and if the national highways re-open by Friday, the work will be taken up in consultation with the oil marketing companies.
So far, over 1.35 lakh people have been rescued and shifted to safer locations in the affected regions and thousands more continued to remain marooned without food, drinking water, medicines, electricity, and other essentials.
People were also saved from several government and private hospitals where they were trapped due to water all around.
Fadnavis said medical teams are kept ready in Mumbai and will be dispatched to the affected areas as demanded by the local authorities as incessant rains have submerged large areas of land, fields, villages, towns and cities, hitting both road and rail traffic badly.
Efforts are on to clear the Pune-Bengaluru Highway to enable quicker movement of relief supplies to the regions, he added.
Nearly 43,000 people have so far been evacuated from flood-hit and rain-affected areas of Karnataka, where the rain fury has left nine people dead, authorities said on Thursday.
The worst-hit was Belagavi district, where six persons have lost their lives, while 40,180 people have been evacuated.
Two persons lost their lives in rain-related incidents in Uttara Kannada district, from where 3,088 people have been evacuated till date, and one in Shivamogga, according to official figures.
Mysuru: There has been an increase in water level in the Kabini Dam with 46,000 cusecs of water. 40,000 cusecs of water released from the dam. Water level in Kabini Dam is currently 2281.5 feet and maximum level is 2284 feet. #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/rbHyhy9Uyp
Nearly 17,000 people are taking shelter in relief camps.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is currently camping in Belagavi supervising relief and rescue operations.
On Thursday, he visited rain-affected Shivajinagar and Gandhinagar areas of Belagavi.
"Releases from reservoirs are well coordinated and as per protocol to prevent inundation of downstream areas. The villages likely to be affected due to heavy discharge have been identified and necessary precautions taken", an official statement said.
A total of 43,858 people from affected districts in northern, coastal and Malnad regions have so far been evacuated by joint rescue teams comprising Fire and Emergency department, State Disaster Response Force, National Disaster Response Force and Army, official sources said.
District administrations are on high alert and are prepared to tackle any emergency arising out of heavy discharge from reservoirs, the statement said.
"The flood situation is under control", it said.
Eight people, including a one-year-old child, were killed and over 3,000 evacuated to over 60 relief camps after rains battered several parts of Kerala, officials said here on Thursday.
State Revenue Minister E. Chandrashekeran said Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, Wayanad, Kasargode and Idukki districts were the worst affected areas.
"Three NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) teams have been deployed in Malappuram, Wayanad and Idukki. We have requested 10 more teams," he said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rains in the state till August 14. Red alerts have been issued in Idukki, Malappuram, Wayanad and Kozhikode districts.
In the morning, a 50-year-old woman died after a tree fell over her house at Attapady in the Palakkad district. A 24-year-old woman died after her house at Panamaram village in the Wayanad district got flooded.
Residents of the Wayanad district said such heavy rains had never been witnessed, even during last year's floods.
Over 700 people were evacuated in the Nilambur area of the Malappuram district. A.P. Sunil, a police officer, said some people had refused to leave their houses. "If they don't shift on their own, they will be forced to leave," he said.
Kozhikode District Collector Sambhasiva Rao said situation was under control. "If people cooperate, rescue becomes easy. But we are ready for any eventualities," said Rao.
Barring the state capital district and neighbouring Kollam, the remaining 12 districts have been affected by rains.
Fishermen have been asked not to venture out because winds were blowing at 40-50 km per hour.
University examinations in all the affected districts have been postponed.
Kerala: Flooding in Idukki following heavy rainfall in the region. pic.twitter.com/h4nMxmF15l
Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rains in the state till August 14. Red alerts have been issued for the day at Idukki, Malappuram, Wayanad and Kozhikode districts.
Barring the state capital district and neighbouring Kollam, the remaining 12 districts have been affected by the rains.
Kanataka: Holiday announced in schools & colleges by respective District Administrations in rain-affected districts- Kodagu, Dharwad, Mangaluru, Hassan, Belagavi, Mysore, Karwar and Udupi pic.twitter.com/1c05qWKYMg
Fishermen have also been warned not to visit the beaches because of the winds blowing at the speed of 40-50 km per hour.
Traffic on the Kannur-Kozhikode national highway and Kottayam-Kumili route have been badly affected.
Inbound tourists to Idukki district have been warned not to come till August 15 as the hilly district have been witnessing landslides at a few places.
The third warning signal has been raised in Srikakulam district as the flood level at Gotta Barrage on River Vamsadhara crossed 1.11 lakh cusecs on Thursday morning.
The second warning signal was continuing at Thotapalli Barrage on River Nagavali with an inflow of 43,479 cusecs.
Kerala: Water logging on National Highway near Muthanga check post in Wayanad following heavy rainfall in the area. pic.twitter.com/UvhHy6xCcd
Heavy downpour in the upper catchment area in Odisha is resulting in copious inflows into Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers, the AP State Disaster Management Authority said.
At Kasinagar in Odisha, Vamsadhara was flowing at the danger level but has been steady at Gotta Barrage.
A 60-member team of NDRF and 35-member SDRF and 60 personnel of Fire Services Department have been deployed in Srikakulam district for rescue and relief operation in view of the flood situation.
Another team of SDRF personnel has been kept on standby at the AP Special Police Battalion at Chintavalasa in neighbouring Vizianagaram district to attend to any emergency.
About 13 boats have also been deployed in Srikakulam to evacuate people to safety in case of need.
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We’ll send you latest news updates through the day. You can manage them any time by clicking on the notification icon. | Floods | August 2019 | ['(Gulf News)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu to start the withdrawal of Russian Armed Forces from Syria, saying during a meeting with Shoygu, "I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow.” | “I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow,” Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"In a short period of time Russia has created a small but very effective military group [in Syria]... the effective work of our military allowed the peace process to begin," Putin said, adding that with the assistance of the Russian Air Force "Syrian government troops and patriotic forces have changed the situation in the fight with international terrorism and have ceased the initiative."
To control the observation of ceasefire agreements in the region, Moscow will keep its Khmeimim airbase in Latakia province and a base at the port of Tartus, Putin said.
The bases "must be effectively secured from onshore, offshore and from the air," Putin said, adding that Russia has had this military group in Syria for many years.
At Moscow's initiative, a phone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Syria's President Bashar Assad was held on Monday evening, the Kremlin reported.
The two leaders agreed that the actions of Russia's Air Force in Syria have allowed them to "profoundly reverse the situation" in connection to fighting terrorists in the region, having "disorganized militants' infrastructure and inflicted fundamental damage upon them."
Bashar Assad has recognized the “professionalism, courage and heroism” of Russian Army soldiers and officers, who have taken part in the military action, thanking Russia not only for extensive help in the fight against terrorism, but also for providing humanitarian aid and assistance to the Syrian civilian population.
The Syrian leader also stressed its readiness to engage in the political process in Syria as soon as possible, the Kremlin said.
Russia's president also addressed his foreign minister. He had tasked Lavrov with intensifying Russia's participation in the peace process to solve the Syrian crisis, the Kremlin reported.
"I hope that today's decision will be a good signal for all sides of the conflict [and that] it will significantly increase the level of trust for all participants of the peace process in Syria and provide for peaceful means to solve the Syrian issue," Putin concluded.
Moscow launched its anti-terror campaign in Syria on September 30 last year. Russia’s participation in the operation, according to a previous statement by Putin, has its basis in international law and has been conducted “in accordance with an official request from the president of the Syrian Arab Republic [Bashar Assad].”
The Russian Air Force has been carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other terrorist targets in the region, eliminating military equipment, communication centers, vehicles, arms and fuel depots. | Government Policy Changes | March 2016 | ['(RT)', '(BBC)'] |
Peruvian director Claudia Llosa's The Milk of Sorrow wins the Golden Bear at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. | The Berlin Film Festival wrapped up Sunday (local time) after handing its Golden Bear top prize to a Peruvian director for The Milk Of Sorrow.
The moving drama by Claudia Llosa, 32, was the first competition entry from Peru in the 59-year history of the Berlinale.
"This is for Peru, this is for our country," she said, hoisting the statue in the air and joined on stage by her lead actress Magaly Solier.
The Spanish-Peruvian production is Llosa's second feature.
She later told reporters that she hoped the prize would ensure its distribution in cinemas around the world.
"We need this prize," Llosa said. "It is important for us that people get to know our film."
The picture tells the story of Fausta, who drinks "the milk of sorrow" as an infant after her mother's brutal rape during the 1980 to 2000 war between the Peruvian army and Shining Path guerrillas.
As a grown woman, Fausta must face the fears that bloody period left behind, symbolised by her struggle to give her mother a proper burial after she dies early in the film.
"I have to thank my mother to no end, all the women and all of you - I dedicate this prize to my mother and all of Peru," Solier said, before singing a song from the movie in her native Quechua language.
A truth and reconciliation commission established in 2001 in Peru recorded nearly 70,000 murders and countless rapes and abductions during the government's battle with the Maoist rebels.
Oscar-winning Scottish actress Tilda Swinton said the jury's decision had been unanimous.
The German press hailed the choice.
"They not only honoured explorations of the human soul that were as sensual as they were painful, but also their unostentatious social relevance," the daily Tagesspiegel said.
The Milk Of Sorrow beat out favourites including The Messenger starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster as GIs tasked with notifying loved ones of soldiers who have fallen in battle in Iraq.
The film picked up a screenwriting prize for its Israeli-born director Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon.
The Silver Bear prize for best actor went to Sotigui Kouyate of Mali for his role in London River.
The 72-year-old thanked the festival, saying that "every organisation like the Berlinale that allows people to meet and encounter each other's cultures does a good deed for the world today."
Austria's Birgit Minichmayr captured the prize for best actress as a woman in a doomed relationship in the German drama Everyone Else, which also shared a runner-up prize for best picture with Gigante by Argentina's Adrian Biniez.
Iran's Asghar Farhadi won the Silver Bear for best director for his drama About Elly, about a woman who vanishes on a beach getaway with friends.
In an incisive look at relations between the sexes in the Islamic republic, the disappearance leaves a group of chic urbanites weaving an intricate web of lies to keep up the appearance of maintaining traditional social mores.
Eighteen pictures were in competition for the Golden and Silver Bear prizes in what critics said was a lacklustre year at the festival.
Swedish arthouse hero Lukas Moodysson garnered boos with his flat, incoherent Mammoth, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams.
Critics savaged British director Sally Potter's Rage, a send-up of the fashion industry featuring Jude Law in drag as a supermodel called Minx.
But Festival director Dieter Kosslick, who has just extended his contract until 2013, defended his choices against the howling critics.
"One of the duties of a film festival is to follow a director on his or her career," Kosslick told the Hollywood Reporter this week.
"They don't only make masterpieces."
The 11-day festival ranks second only to Cannes in size and prestige.
The Golden Bear last year also went to a Latin American film: Elite Squad, a Brazilian drama about police brutality.
- AFP
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Awards ceremony | February 2009 | ['(ABC/Reuters)'] |
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Théoneste Bagosora guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentences him to life imprisonment. | Theoneste Bagosora, a cabinet minister in the former Rwandan government, is brought to court in Tanzania in a 1997 file photo.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A U.N. court convicted former army colonel Theoneste Bagosora Thursday of genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and sentenced him to jail for life.
“Colonel Bagosora is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes,” the court said.
The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had accused Bagosora, 67, of being in charge of the troops and Interahamwe Hutu militia who butchered some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Cuban government evacuates between 800,000 and 1.3 million people from coastal cities and developed areas. Cubans have begun calling the hurricane "Ivan the Terrible". | HAVANA, Sept. 12 - Hurricane Ivan hammered the Cayman Islands on Sunday with winds that moved like bulldozers at 155 miles per hour, as thousands of people in Cuba and Florida braced for one of the most powerful storms to boil up out of the Atlantic.
Ahead of the storm, Cuba, the most populated island in the Caribbean, evacuated nearly one million people to shelters and moved truckloads of food into fortified warehouses.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2004 | ['(Reuters)', '(New York Times)', '(NOAA/NHC)'] |
An Iranian and a Tajik are jailed for 25 years in Dubai over the 2009 killing of a Chechen militant commander. (People's Daily Online) | DUBAI (Reuters) - A Dubai court convicted two men Monday of involvement in the 2009 assassination of Chechen military commander Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai, and handed them a life sentence.
The men, Makhsood Jan Asmatov of Tajikistan and Iranian Mehdi Taqi Dahuria, were charged with aiding and abetting in the murder of Yamadayev, who was shot dead in the car park of a luxury seaside apartment block with a Russian-made handgun.
Yamadayev fought against Russia in the first Chechen war of 1994-96 when Moscow suffered a humiliating defeat and had to pull out of the separatist southern province.
But like some other leading rebels, he switched to the Russian side after then-President Vladimir Putin sent troops in 1999 to retake mainly Muslim Chechnya.
Yamadayev became the commander of the Vostok battalion, a unit of battle-hardened former rebels which played a key role in subduing large-scale separatist resistance in Chechnya. In 2005 he was named a “Hero of Russia,” the top national honour.
Sulim Yamadayev, a foe of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, had challenged Kadyrov for control of local security forces until 2008, when he was dismissed from command of an elite battalion and forced to flee.
Dubai police named Adam Delimkhanov, an adviser to Kadyrov, as the person who masterminded the murder. Delimkhanov has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Writing by Tamara Walid; Editing by Matthew Jones | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Washington Post)', '(Miami Herald)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Reuters)', '(The Star)'] |
The sect Iglesia ni Cristo is suing supporters of Rodrigo Duterte for spreading a fake endorsement by the denomination. | IGLESIA ni Cristo would press charges against individuals behind a dubious INC letter endorsing the presidential candidacy of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the religious sect’s spokesperson said on Monday.
The letter, purportedly signed by INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo and marked with the INC logo, began circulating online a few hours after President Aquino made an unscheduled visit to Manalo.
INC spokesperson Edwil Zabala said the letter did not come from their executive minister. Inquirer.net sent Zabala a copy of the document.
“The moment we identify the person/s responsible for this fraudulent ‘letter’ containing the forged signature of Bro. Eduardo Manalo, we will charge them in court,” Zabala told Inquirer.net.
A member of Duterte’s camp forwarded to reporters a photo of the document, dated May 2, via instant messaging.
“Through this letter, I am announcing that our organization is endorsing Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” the letter quoted Manalo as saying in Filipino.
“We’ve seen that Rodrigo Duterte is a good example, God-fearing and a spring of hope for our countrymen,” it added.
Duterte, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Grace Poe and Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago also met with INC officials in the hopes of clinching the endorsement of the group, whose voters are estimated to reach 1.7 million this year.
Zabala said INC members would be the first to know once the INC leadership announced its choices for the May 9 elections.
He said the announcement would be “very near (election) day itself.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2016 | ['(Philippine Daily Inquirer)'] |
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, during a visit to the Gambia, announces that the West African nation is to rejoin the Commonwealth of Nations following talks with Gambian President Adama Barrow. The Gambia withdrew from the Commonwealth in 2013 under Yahya Jammeh, who considered it a "neo-colonial institution". | Adama Barrow, the new president of The Gambia, says he wants to rekindle ties with the United Kingdom.
By Sharon Marris, News Reporter Tuesday 14 February 2017 08:51, UK
The Gambia is to rejoin The Commonwealth within months - after four years outside the group of 52 states.
The Gambian government withdrew in 2013 under its then leader Yahya Jammeh, who called it a "neo-colonial institution".
But Adama Barrow, who was sworn in as president in January, lived in Britain for three years when he was younger and has said he wants to rekindle ties.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is to visit the West African nation on Tuesday, where he will meet Mr Barrow and visit the British-funded Medical Research Council.
Mr Johnson said he was "delighted" to be the first British foreign secretary to visit The Gambia since the country won its independence from Britain in 1965.
"I am also very pleased that Gambia wants to rejoin the Commonwealth and we will ensure this happens in the coming months," he added.
Mr Barrow's path to the presidency was not smooth.
He had been a political unknown but was thrust into the limelight when eight opposition parties put him forward as a unifying figure.
The former Argos security guard defeated hardline ruler Yahya Jammeh in December, but Mr Jammeh clung to power, saying there had been irregularities in the election.
Troops from other West African countries prepared to cross the border to force him to cede power and Britons in the country were warned to get out amid safety concerns.
After a lengthy stalemate, Mr Jammeh finally went into exile and Mr Barrow returned from Senegal, where he had taken refuge.
Mr Jammeh, who had been in power for 22 years, has been accused of emptying the country's banks of 500m Gambian dalasis (£9.2m) in the last two weeks of his reign. | Join in an Organization | February 2017 | ['(Sky News)'] |
Ezzedine Salim, head of the Iraqi Governing Council, is killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. | Ezzedine Salim was near a checkpoint outside the compound when the bomb went off, killing him and several others. It is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was the target of the suicide attack.
A US military spokesman said it bore all the hallmarks of attacks carried out by supporters of Jordanian-born al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, condemned the killing and vowed to defeat those responsible. "The terrorists who are seeking to destroy Iraq have struck a cruel blow with this vile act," Mr Bremer said in a statement. But they would be defeated and Mr Salim's vision of a "democratic, free and prosperous Iraq" would become a reality, he said. The IGC also condemned the killing of their leader.
Our enemies are still there and will do anything
to intimidate Iraqis to derail the political process
Hoshyar ZebariIraqi Foreign Minister
In pictures: Bomb attack
In quotes: Killing condemned
Ghazi Ajil al-Yawer - a Sunni Muslim from the northern city of Mosul appointed as Mr Salim's successor - said he would continue the march towards freedom and democracy despite the bomb attack. "This is a terrorist act that will not dissuade the Governing Council from continuing its work to build a federal, united Iraq," he said. Mr Yawer will serve as IGC head until the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis, scheduled for 30 June. In other developments:
Debris
The explosion in which Mr Salim was killed happened at 0500GMT at a checkpoint outside the Green Zone - the sealed-off area where the coalition and the IGC both have their offices. Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast, which melted the asphalt of the road and sent debris flying over a large area. The blast at the IGC followed an attack on coalition HQ in January
"There was a huge crowd at the checkpoint," a security guard at a nearby residential compound told the Reuters news agency.
"There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there and then this massive explosion. I saw body parts everywhere."
A previously unknown Iraqi group said it had carried out the attack.
The Arab Resistance Movement al-Rashid Brigades posted a statement on the internet saying two suicide bombers had been used to carry out "a qualitative heroic operation, which led to the killing of the traitor and mercenary" Ezzedine Salim.
"The Brigades pledges to the masses of our nation to pursue struggle until the liberation of glorious Iraq and dear Palestine," the statement on al-Anbar website said.
US military spokesman Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said they were investigating the statement of the group that could be a cover for the Zarqawi network.
Gen Kimmitt said the bombing that killed the IGC president had all the hallmarks of Zarqawi - the use of suicide bombers, going after spectacular and symbolic targets, and killing large numbers of civilians.
Swift condemnation
Mr Salim, a Shia Muslim and member of the Daawa Islamic Party, was the current holder of the rotating IGC presidency. He is the second council member to be killed since it was set up last July.
IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL
Set up July 2003; due to be abolished at end of June
Members from Iraq's different religious, ethnic groups
Many members were exiles under Saddam Hussein
Presidency rotates monthly
Signed interim constitution in March
Aquila al-Hasimi, one of three women on the IGC, was shot dead last September.
International condemnation was also swift.
The killers of Ezzedine Salim are "enemies of the Iraqi people", British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Monday in Brussels.
French President Jacques Chirac said he was "as convinced as ever that there is no military solution" in Iraq. | Armed Conflict | May 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
14 people die as a bomb explodes near a shrine in Islamabad, Pakistan. | Pakistan's information minister has confirmed that the blast in a shrine that killed at least17 people and left scores wounded was the work of a bomber.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said it was a "suicide bomber" and blamedthe attack onthe "enemies of Pakistan and Islam".
Earlier reports had indicated that the cause of the explosion could have been a device planted in the mosque.
President General Pervez Musharraf condemned the attack as the worst in the capital for years and appealed for his countrymen to unite against "religious terrorism, sectarianism and extremism".
According to witnesses most of the victims were Shia Muslims.
Security stepped up
The federal government instructed all four provinces to provide more protection to places of worship.
Many of the bodies were in pieces making them hard to count The blast occurred at 11.20am (0620 GMT) on Friday at the Bari Imam shrine, which is close to Pakistan's main government buildings and the diplomatic enclave, where many embassies and diplomatic residences are. Many of the bodies were in pieces making them hard to count
The shrine was seen as a symbol of harmony between the two communities.
An AP photographer at the scene counted at least 20 bodies, many of them in pieces, making it hard to give an exact figure. An intelligence official said at least 20 were killed and 150 wounded.
Shia leader unharmed
The blast ripped through a congregation of hundreds of Shia worshippers under a canvas tent put up to shade them from the sun.
Musharraf condemned the attack and appealed for unityThey were preparing for the arrival of Shia leader Hamid Moasvi, a vehement critic of the US-led war on terrorism, who was about to deliver a sermon.
Musharraf condemned the attack and appealed for unity
"There was an announcement that Hamid Moasvi is coming. Everybody stood up and then there was the explosion," said Mohammed Ali, who was among the congregation.
"Afterward, you couldn't identify anyone," said Ali. "Some had their legs blown off, some had their hands blown off. I lifted so many of the people and my clothes were soaked with blood." Moasvi was not hurt, witnesses said.
Varying figures
Eyewitnesses told Aljazeera's Pakistan correspondent Ahmad Zaidan that at least30 people were killed and 100 others injured. Zaidan saidmost of the casualties were Shia.
The toll of the attack could be as high as 30Police officer Mohammed Sadique said the bomb exploded inside the shrine, where many Muslims have beencongregating this week for a five-day festival ending on Friday. The toll of the attack could be as high as 30
He said mutilated bodies and body parts were scattered inside.
"There is blood all around," Mohammad Javed, who lives nearby, told AFP by telephone.
Mukhtar Kazmi, who was running a clinic at the shrine, said they treated about 200 people.
Police cordoned off the shrine and blocked access roads after the blast.
Clashes
Ahmed confirmed the blast was triggered by a bomberHundreds of worshippers staged protests at the shrine and clashed with police after officers baton-charged the crowd to clear the way for ambulances. Ahmed confirmed the blast was triggered by a bomber
Many of the protesters also chanted, "Down with America".
"Our initial information suggests it was a suicide attack," Islamabad police chief Talat Mehmood Tariq said.
"A man came into the congregation and apparently blew himself up," a witness said.
Sectarian attacks
Sectarian attacks are common in Pakistan. Sunnis make up about 80% of its 150 million people, and Shia about 17%. Most live peacefully together, buthardline elements on both sides have a violent agenda.
The schism dates back to a 7th-century dispute over who was the true heir to the Prophet Muhammad.
The Sunni custodian of the shrine and two other people were shot dead near the compound in February. Early this month, police said they had killed the suspects in custodian Raja Akram's death.
Both sects claim the shrine is theirs, but it has been controlled by Sunnis for the past two decades. | Armed Conflict | May 2005 | ['(AlJazeera)', '(BBC)', '(Bloomberg)'] |
Bradley John Murdoch, convicted murderer of British backpacker Peter Falconio, is sentenced to a non–parole period of 28 years in prison in Australia. | Appeal court judges have begun considering whether to grant a fresh trial to Bradley John Murdoch, the man convicted of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio.
Three judges in Darwin on Thursday reserved their decision in the appeal by the 48-year-old Broome mechanic, convicted in December last year of shooting dead the construction engineer beside an outback road in July 2001.
The jury also found Murdoch guilty of abducting and assaulting Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees near Barrow Creek, about 300km north of Alice Springs.
After listening to three days of legal argument, the panel of judges in the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal will consider whether Murdoch was wrongly convicted or if his mandatory life sentence and minimum 28 years non-parole period was excessive.
Among arguments put forward by Murdoch's lawyer Ian Barker, QC, was that an unrecognised expert should not have been allowed to give evidence in the eight-week trial.
Dr Meiya Sutisno, a proponent of body and face mapping, identified Murdoch from a video taken in an Alice Springs truck stop four hours and 40 minutes after the killing.
"I respectfully submit this should not be the first superior court in Australia to give respect to Ms Sutisno's unproven, unestablished and unaccepted theories," Mr Barker said.
He also argued that some of Ms Lees' evidence was tainted because she saw Murdoch's picture on the internet a month before formally identifying him for police.
There were six other separate grounds on which the defence appealed, and Mr Barker said if the judges conceded any of them there "ought to be a new trial".
"If all of it or some of it goes it would be unfair to Murdoch to dismiss the appeal," he said.
Crown prosecutor Rex Wild, QC, conceded there were some speculative aspects to the case, but said it was important to put forward a theory that would provide the jury with "a possible explanation".
"The crown had to confront this situation: there was a missing body, there was blood on the road, there was no cartridge, there was no weapon, there was no blood brain matter, there was no gun shot residue on the back of the Kombi...
"How do we explain it when there is the hearing of a gun shot by the witness and the siting of a gun and the disappearance of a body."
Circumstantial evidence backed by scientific theory and reliable experts allowed the Crown to make its case, Mr Wild said.
"This is a man who was travelling on the road, with a dog in his car, in a four-wheel drive, with a moustache and a gun, and the evidence is such a man shot and killed Peter Falconio." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2005 | ['(NineMSN)'] |
Archaeologists in Israel discover a rare early Christian church, dating to circa AD 300. The church was uncovered near the prison at Megiddo. | The discovery sent joyous waves among archeologists working on the project who soon realized the magnitude of the discovery.
Ornaments paved the foundations of the church where inscriptions and biblical citations in old Greek were found.
One of the inscriptions read that the building was dedicated to “the memory of the Lord Jesus Cristos.”
Yotam Tefer, the dig’s supervisor, said that “Christian religious buildings from that period are rare archeological findings in the Land of Israel. Mosaics in general and mosaics with inscriptions from the third and fourth centuries CE are the rarest. This is a unique building which important for an initial understanding of Christianity as a well-known and official religion,” Tefer said.
In the center of the building the ruins of an altar were found. Archeologists noted that the ruins date from a period that preceded the crucifix as the official ecclesiastical emblem, which explains why fish-shaped decorations were found on most of the mosaic. The fish symbol is known to be the symbol of early Christianity.
Digs in the western parts of the prison discovered residential structures of communities dating to the Byzantine epoch of the fourth and sixth centuries CE.
A Jewish cleansing bath from the Roman period was found in archeological rubble retrieved from that area.
Shoka Dorfman of the Israel Antiquities Authority said that consultations with leading archeologists will be launched next week to discuss the future of the findings.
The Israel Prisons Authority told Ynet: “We are waiting for the decisions of the Antiquities Authority to see whether the rare findings will be taken to another location or will remain in place. We will build another two buildings to complete the compound, yet in the wake of the discoveries we will decide how to proceed with constructions at a later date.” | New archeological discoveries | November 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(Ynetnews)'] |
The spacecraft Dawn is launched by NASA on a mission to explore mainbelt asteroids Vesta and Ceres. | Seeking to explore the uncharted worlds of Vesta and Ceres in the heart of the asteroid belt, NASA's Dawn space probe rocketed off planet Earth at sunrise Thursday to begin the three-billion-mile adventure that is counting on the craft's exotic ion engines to drive the eight-year trek.
A hotrod United Launch Alliance Delta 2-Heavy rocket, souped up with bigger solid-fuel boosters for added thrust, roared from Cape Canaveral's pad 17B at 7:34 a.m. EDT (1134 GMT).
Credit: Chris Miller/Spaceflight NowSEE MORE LAUNCH IMAGES HERE
The 12-story blue and white rocket raced to space, achieving an initial orbit 100 miles above the planet just nine minutes after liftoff.
After coasting for 40 minutes over Africa and the Indian Ocean, the second stage re-ignited its engine for a two-and-a-half-minute boost, then dropped away to enable the third stage to propel Dawn out of Earth orbit high over Australia.
Sixty-two minutes into the $425 million mission, the 2,685-pound spacecraft was cast free from the Delta vehicle, marking the 76th consecutive successful launch for the workhorse rocket.
Dawn unfurled its giant solar wings, stretching 65 feet tip-to-tip, and then phoned home to mission controllers at 9:44 a.m. EDT.
"Dawn has risen, and the spacecraft is healthy," said the mission's project manager Keyur Patel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Built by Orbital Sciences and equipped with U.S., German and Italian science instruments, Dawn is headed out into the solar system on a reconnaissance mission to visit a massive asteroid and a "dwarf planet" believed to harbor water.
Picking up a gravity sling-shot from Mars in February 2009 to bend its trajectory, Dawn will venture into the asteroid belt to rendezvous with Vesta in August 2011 and orbit around the rocky body for nine months. Then it will break away from that asteroid and travel further to the small world called Ceres and also orbit that tantalizing object beginning in February 2015.
"Dawn will be history's first mission to go out into the solar system, orbit and explore a distant body, and then go on to a totally different celestial body and explore that one," Patel said. "To do all that you need a spacecraft with a lot under the hood." Dawn's ion thrusters, derived from the engine successfully demonstrated on NASA's Deep Space 1 technology pathfinder craft, enables the unprecedented science project to be attempted.
"In the end it is about the science," said Patel. "What we find when Dawn gets to Vesta and Ceres will re-write the history books on the beginning of our solar system. But how we get there is almost as remarkable, 1.8 billion miles to Vesta, months flying around it performing science adjusting our orbits as we go. Then we travel another billion miles to Ceres where we do it all over again. That is a lot to ask of a beam of blue light." "It really is the key to why we can undertake such an ambitious and potentially rewarding journey in which we're going to be visiting some of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system," said Marc Rayman, Dawn project systems engineer. "The ion propulsion system is 10 times more efficient than conventional propulsion, so it allows us to undertake missions that are really far beyond the capability of conventional systems.
"It works by ionizing, or giving an electric charge, to atoms of xenon gas and then it uses a high voltage to shoot these ions through this metal grid at very high speed, up to almost 90,000 miles per hour. And the action of the ions leaving the thruster causes a reaction that pushes the spacecraft in the other direction. ... It really does emit this cool, blue glow like in the science fiction movies."
An artist's concept of the Dawn mission. Credit: NASA
Dawn's ion propulsion system has many remarkable traits, but producing quick bursts of speed is not one of them. In fact, it would take Dawn four days to accelerate from zero to 60 mph. The thrusters will fire continuously for days, weeks and even months, accumulating over 2,000 days of operations during the eight-year mission and allow the whisper-like thrust to gradually build over time to generate high speeds. "Hold a piece of notebook paper in your hand. The weight of that paper pushing against your hand is the same as the thrust provided by one of Dawn's ion engines -- at full throttle I might add," said John Brophy, Dawn's ion propulsion systems manager. "If you had an ion engine firing here on Earth, it would not be able to push a skateboard across a sidewalk!" "Ultimately we can achieve fantastically high speed," Rayman said. "Over the course of its mission, Dawn will change its own speed by the same amount as the entire Delta 2-Heavy launch vehicle with its nine solid motors, it's first stage, plus its second stage, plus its third stage. It's what I like to call 'acceleration with patience.'"
The three basketball-size ion engines weigh 20 pounds each, and Dawn is carrying 937 pounds of xenon fuel to feed the thrusters during the mission. The fuel efficiency promised by the revolutionary propellant system means Dawn can increase its speed by 5,500 mph over the course of a year but burn only 15 gallons of propellant.
"From such a little engine you can get this blue beam of rocket exhaust that shoots out at 89,000 miles per hour. The fuel efficiency of an ion engine is an order of a magnitude higher than chemical rockets and can reduce the mass of fuel onboard a spacecraft up to 90 percent. It is a remarkable system," said Patel. Getting the spacecraft built and launched has been beleaguered by setbacks. The mission experienced a number of hurdles, including outright cancellation of the project in March 2006. After a heated controversy, NASA restarted the mission less than a month later. And even this summer encountered several launch delays.
"It has been quite an emotional roller coaster," said Dawn principal investigator Christopher Russell, who began designing the project more than a decade ago. "There were some days I didn't think we were going to make it. But we never stopped trying." Scientists want up-close studies of Vesta and Ceres to learn more about the processes and conditions during the solar system's formation four-and-a-half-billion years ago. The spacecraft will orbit at increasingly lower altitudes above the two diverse objects during multi-month visits to determine the composition, internal structure and evolutionary history of the bodies. "Visiting both Vesta and Ceres enables a study in extraterrestrial contrasts," said Russell. "One is rocky and is representative of the building blocks that constructed the planets of the inner solar system. The other may very well be icy and represents the outer planets. Yet, these two very diverse bodies reside in essentially the same neighborhood. It is one of the mysteries Dawn hopes to solve." Vesta is believed to be solid rock. The oval-shaped object has an average diameter of approximately 320 miles. On the other hand, Ceres could have water or ice beneath its rocky crust. This "baby planet" has an average diameter of about 600 miles. "This is comparative planetology at its best," said Dawn program scientist David Lindstrom. "We are going to the two largest asteroids, but they are very different. Vesta is a very dense, igneous object from which we get plentiful meteorites. About 5 percent of the meteorites that fall on Earth come from the asteroid Vesta.
"We know that some of these rocks are (lava-like) basalts that crystallized 4.5 or (4.6) billion years ago, within a few million years of the earliest dated materials in the solar system. So we truly are going back in time, back to the dawn of the solar system.
"In contrast, Ceres, which is the largest asteroid and makes up about a quarter of the total mass in the asteroid belt, has much lower density indicating substantial amounts of ice. We have no known meteorites from Ceres so there's even more to learn by going to Ceres." | New achievements in aerospace | September 2007 | ['(Spaceflightnow.com)'] |
Irish citizens vote in a referendum on the proposed Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018 to repeal the 1983 Eighth Amendment constitutional ban on abortion by 66.4% to 33.6%. | The Republic of Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to overturn the abortion ban by 66.4% to 33.6%.
A referendum held on Friday resulted in a landslide win for the repeal side. Currently, abortion is only allowed when a woman's life is at risk, but not in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality.
The Eighth Amendment, which grants an equal right to life to the mother and unborn, will be replaced. The declaration was made at Dublin Castle at 18:13 local time.
The only constituency to vote against repealing the Eighth amendment was Donegal, with 51.9% voting against the change.
A vote in favour of repeal paves the way for the Dáil (Irish Parliament) to legislate for change which would see the introduction of a much more liberal regime.
In 2015 the country voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage in a historic referendum.
Reacting to the result, the taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar, who campaigned in favour of liberalisation, said it was "a historic day for Ireland," and that a "quiet revolution" had taken place. Mr Varadkar told crowds at Dublin Castle the result showed the Irish public "trust and respect women to make their own decision and choices."
He added: "It's also a day when we say no more. No more to doctors telling their patients there's nothing can be done for them in their own country, no more lonely journeys across the Irish Sea, no more stigma as the veil of secrecy is lifted and no more isolation as the burden of shame is gone."
He said that some had voted yes with "pride", but many had voted yes with "sorrowful acceptance and heavy hearts".
Mr Varadkar said he understood that those who had voted against repeal would be unhappy. He said he had a message for them: "I know today is not welcome and you may feel this country has taken the wrong turn, that this country is one you no longer recognise. "I want to reassure you that Ireland today is the same as it was last week, but more tolerant, open and respectful."
He said by and large it had been a respectful campaign.
He added: "We voted to look reality in the eye and we did not blink.
"We choose to provide companionship where there was once a cold shoulder and medical care where we once turned a blind eye".
Mr Varadkar said he hoped to have a new abortion law enacted by the end of this year. By Shane Harrison, BBC News NI Dublin Correspondent
In three months time, Pope Francis will travel to Ireland and find a country undoing part of the legacy of a previous papal visit.
In 1983, four years after the triumphal visit of Pope John Paul II, the Irish people put the Eighth Amendment into their constitution.
The amendment gave equal rights to life to both the mother and the unborn.
Friday's vote, which paves the way for parliamentarians to liberalise abortion law, represents a seismic shift.
It also represents another sign of the societal change that has taken place in the Republic, coming just three years after the country officially passed the same sex marriage referendum with 62% in favour.
Counting began at 09:00.
After the polls were published, one of the main anti-abortion campaigns conceded it had lost the vote.
The 8th campaign described the result as a "tragedy of historic proportions".
"The unborn child no longer has a right to life recognised by the Irish state," said its spokesman John McGuirk.
However, he vowed that No campaigners would continue to protest, "if and when abortion clinics are opened in Ireland".
The leader of the main Irish opposition party, Micheál Martin of Fianna Fáil, said the vote was the "dawn of a new era".
He said he had wrestled with the issue, but added the people had made the right decision and it would mean better care for women in Irish hospitals.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald, whose party campaigned in favour of a Yes vote, said: "We have without doubt done right by Irish women for this generation and many to come."
Amnesty International hailed the result as a "momentous win for women's rights" that "marks the beginning of a new Ireland".
The vote will have repercussions for women north of the border, as Northern Ireland has the strictest abortion laws in the UK.
Cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality are not considered grounds for a legal termination.
The UK's Women and Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt said the predicted landslide vote gave "hope" to Northern Ireland.
Grainne Teggart of Amnesty International UK said the people of Ireland have "given hope to women around the world". But she added Northern Ireland is still subject to restrictive abortion laws.
"It's hypocritical, degrading and insulting to Northern Irish women that we are forced to travel for vital healthcare services but cannot access them at home," Ms Teggart said.
"We cannot be left behind in a corner of the UK and on the island of Ireland as second-class citizens." Former Northern Ireland health minister Jim Wells said the expected result was a "grave threat" to the unborn child in Northern Ireland. Mr Wells, a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician, claimed it was "inevitable" that abortion clinics would be set up in border towns to "promote their services to Northern Ireland women".
"It will be much easier to terminate a child's life if this can be done at a clinic in Dundalk or Letterkenny rather than flying to London or Manchester," he added. | Government Policy Changes | May 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announces the selection of two new Discovery Program space exploration missions: Lucy, a mission to several Jupiter trojan asteroids, and Psyche, a mission to the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is believed to be the exposed core of an early protoplanet. Both missions are scheduled for launch in the early 2020s. | NASA has selected two missions that have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system – a time less than 10 million years after the birth of our sun. The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation, with the goal of launching in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
“Lucy will visit a target-rich environment of Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids, while Psyche will study a unique metal asteroid that’s never been visited before,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is what Discovery Program missions are all about – boldly going to places we’ve never been to enable groundbreaking science.”
Lucy, a robotic spacecraft, is scheduled to launch in October 2021. It’s slated to arrive at its first destination, a main belt asteroid, in 2025. From 2027 to 2033, Lucy will explore six Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are trapped by Jupiter’s gravity in two swarms that share the planet’s orbit, one leading and one trailing Jupiter in its 12-year circuit around the sun. The Trojans are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system, and may have formed far beyond Jupiter’s current orbit.
“This is a unique opportunity,” said Harold F. Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins.”
Lucy will build on the success of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, using newer versions of the RALPH and LORRI science instruments that helped enable the mission’s achievements. Several members of the Lucy mission team also are veterans of the New Horizons mission. Lucy also will build on the success of the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu, with the OTES instrument and several members of the OSIRIS-REx team.
The Psyche mission will explore one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt – a giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, about three times farther away from the sun than is the Earth. This asteroid measures about 130 miles (210 kilometers) in diameter and, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, is thought to be comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core. Scientists wonder whether Psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet that could have been as large as Mars, but which lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago.
The mission will help scientists understand how planets and other bodies separated into their layers – including cores, mantles and crusts – early in their histories.
“This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world – not one of rock or ice, but of metal,” said Psyche Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. “16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space.”
Psyche, also a robotic mission, is targeted to launch in October of 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, following an Earth gravity assist spacecraft maneuver in 2024 and a Mars flyby in 2025.
In addition to selecting the Lucy and Psyche missions for formulation, the agency will extend funding for the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) project for an additional year. The NEOCam space telescope is designed to survey regions of space closest to Earth’s orbit, where potentially hazardous asteroids may be found.
“These are true missions of discovery that integrate into NASA’s larger strategy of investigating how the solar system formed and evolved,” said NASA’s Planetary Science Director Jim Green. “We’ve explored terrestrial planets, gas giants, and a range of other bodies orbiting the sun. Lucy will observe primitive remnants from farther out in the solar system, while Psyche will directly observe the interior of a planetary body. These additional pieces of the puzzle will help us understand how the sun and its family of planets formed, changed over time, and became places where life could develop and be sustained – and what the future may hold.”
Discovery Program class missions like these are relatively low-cost, their development capped at about $450 million. They are managed for NASA’s Planetary Science Division by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The missions are designed and led by a principal investigator, who assembles a team of scientists and engineers, to address key science questions about the solar system.
The Discovery Program portfolio includes 12 prior selections such as the MESSENGER mission to study Mercury, the Dawn mission to explore asteroids Vesta and Ceres, and the InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch in May 2018.
NASA’s other missions to asteroids began with the NEAR orbiter of asteroid Eros, which arrived in 2000, and continues with Dawn, which orbited Vesta and now is in an extended mission phase at Ceres. The OSIRIS-REx mission, which launched on Sept. 8, 2016, is speeding toward a 2018 rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu, and will deliver a sample back to Earth in 2023. Each mission focuses on a different aspect of asteroid science to give scientists the broader picture of solar system formation and evolution. | New achievements in aerospace | January 2017 | ['(NASA)', '(NASA)', '(Spaceflight101)'] |
Four third–party U.S. presidential election candidates—representing the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Justice parties, who were excluded from the high–profile televised encounters between Mitt Romney or Barack Obama—attend their own presidential debate hosted in Chicago by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, which hopes for a more transparent and open electoral system. Romney and Obama refuse invitations to attend the debate, televised on international news channels but on no major U.S. network. | Representatives of the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Justice parties have held a presidential debate in Chicago.
Four third-party candidates, who were not invited to the presidential debates between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, have faced eachother in Chicago.
Tuesday’s debate was hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, a group promoting a more open electoral process, and moderated by talk show host Larry King.
“It’s a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law,” King said. Obama and Romney were also invited, but declined to attend.
The participants included former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, former Virginia congressman Virgil Goode, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, who ran against Romney in Massachusetts in 2002.
When asked about the Pentagon’s budget, during the debate, all four candidates agreed that military spending should be cut. Goode was perhaps the most circumspect; the other candidates called for big cuts. For instance, Johnson said military spending should be cut by 43 per cent.
Goode, who voted to authorise the war in Iraq in 2003, said: “If I’m elected president … part of the cuts have to be in the Deparmtent of Defence. We cannot do as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan suggest. I support a strong defence but we need to retrench rather than being the policeman of the world.”
In response, Johnson said: “The biggest threat to our national security is the fact that we’re bankrupt.” He supports a 43 per cent reduction in military spending – 2003 spending levels, he pointed out.
Stein, the Green Party nominee, said: “A foreign policy based on militarism … is making us less secure, not more secure. We need to cut the budget and bring the troops home.”
Since 1988, candidates have only been invited by the Commission on Presidential Debates to participate if polls find they have more than 15 per cent support.
So far, only one candidate has met that criterion, the billionaire Ross Perot, who debated Bill Clinton and George H W Bush in 1992.
Alternative presidential debates for third-party candidates have been held since 1996, but George Farah, author of No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates, says he “[doesn’t] remember one getting this much attention, having Larry King moderate it.”
A second third-party match-up will be held on October 30.
Farah describes the 15 per cent threshold as “just substantially too high”.
He notes that in order to receive federal matching funds, parties only have to have received five per cent of the vote in the previous election. “It doesn’t make any sense. It’s an arbitrary figure,” he told Al Jazeera.
Farah says third-party or independent candidates face “Herculean structural barriers”, arguing they face a fundraising disadvantage compared to Republican and Democratic candidates, and have to collect huge numbers of signatures in some states to get their names printed on the ballot.
Another hurdle is the structure of the US winner-take-all electoral system. Research shows third-party candidates perform better in countries that have proportional representation or instant runoff voting systems.
Although most public opinion polls of the presidential race do not ask whether voters support third-party candidates, one Gallup survey released in September found that three per cent nationally say they will vote for either Stein, Johnson, or Goode.
In many states, citizens will not be able to vote for third-party candidates even if they want to.
“It’s a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law.“
– Larry King
The US has a highly complex patchwork of ballot access laws, and all 50 states have somewhat different requirements for candidates’ names to be printed on the ballot.
Candidates not affiliated with either major party must collect a certain number of signatures from voters in order for their names to be automatically printed on ballots.
If they fail to meet this threshold, some states allow third-party candidates’ names to be manually written in by voters instead.
Certain states, like North Carolina and Oklahoma, are notoriously difficult for third-party candidates to gain access; others, like Louisiana, are much easier.
Only Obama and Romney are on the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, although Johnson is close, with 48 state ballots listing his name.
Richard Winger, who runs the website Ballot Access News, thinks third-party candidates are likely to receive a higher share of the vote this year than in 2008.
He attributes this partly to the high enthusiasm for Barack Obama in 2008.
“There was so much optimism and happiness” about Obama and about electing the country’s first black president, he told Al Jazeera. As a result, less than 1.5 per cent of the vote went to minor parties.
Winger said the state which will deliver the highest share of its vote to third-party candidates “may very well be Alaska”. Because it is four time zones behind the East Coast, many voters already know who will win, explains Winger.
He notes that Ralph Nader, who ran in every presidential election from 1992 to 2008, received a greater share of the vote there in 2004 than in any other state.
Farah also predicts a higher share of voters in New Mexico than in other states will choose third-party candidates as Johnson used to govern the state and “remains quite popular” there.
Third-party candidates have already broken one record this year: Winger says that there are 27 individuals this year whose names are on the ballot in at least one state. The previous record was 23, set in the 1992 election.
The debate was broadcast by Al Jazeera and Russia Today but on no major US cable news networks.
From the conventions to election night, we bring you the latest developments on the road to the White House.
They stand no chance of winning, but third-party candidates could sway US election result in tight battleground states.
Although there are dozens of candidates running for president, most voters have only heard of the top two.
It’s not just Democrat or Republican – dozens of third-party candidates are also running for president this fall.
| Government Job change - Election | October 2012 | ['(with the Republican Party)', '(with the Democratic Party)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(VOR)', '(The Washington Post)', '(Press TV)', '(The Sacramento Bee)'] |
A U.S. federal judge overturns a ban on same–sex marriage in Virginia. | A federal judge on Thursday evening declared that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in the strongest legal reversal yet of restrictive marriage amendments that exist throughout the South.
“Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal,” wrote Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Norfolk. “Surely this means all of us.”
| Government Policy Changes | February 2014 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Gunmen open fire on a bus containing members of the Ismaili Shia Muslim community in the Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least 44 people and injuring a dozen. , | At least 45 people have been killed and 13 injured in a gun attack on a bus carrying Ismaili Shia Muslims in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police say.
Police said six gunmen on motorcycles had stopped the bus and fired indiscriminately at passengers.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the attack and ordered an investigation.
Pakistani Taliban splinter group Jundullah and Islamic State (IS) both said they had carried out the attack.
Later, the militant group Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also said it was behind the shooting.
Analysts say Pakistan's fragmented militant movements have previously competed to claim responsibility for attacks.
Wednesday's attack was the second deadliest in Pakistan this year after 62 Shia Muslims were killed in a suicide bombing in January.
This is the first such attack on the Ismaili community in Pakistan, and it is shocking even by the standards of Karachi. The sheer numbers of casualties and the manner in which they were killed provide an uneasy contrast with the peaceful image of this Shia sect, which makes up a tiny proportion of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population. We are not likely to find out for sure who did it because Karachi is in the throes of an armed struggle between the military and a confusing array of political, religious and sectarian militants.
Ismailis consider the Aga Khan their hereditary spiritual guide. They mostly inhabit the Himalayan region of northern Pakistan, but also have a significant presence in Karachi where they run businesses and charities, and tend to use community-built accommodation and transport.
The attack is likely to cause some diplomatic tensions for Islamabad as the Aga Khan has been a major source of development funds. This may be one reason why both the prime minister and the army chief have set aside other engagements to head for Karachi.
About 60 people were on the bus when it was stopped in the Safoora Chowk area on its way to the Ayesha Manzil Ismaili centre, police said.
Relatives of some survivors said the gunmen were dressed as policemen.
"As the gunmen climbed on to the bus, one of them shouted, 'kill them all!'," a survivor told Pakistani TV.
"Then they started indiscriminately firing."
They said the bus driver was killed and an injured passenger drove the bus to Memon Hospital Institute.
BBC Urdu service editor Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi said the bus was making one of five daily scheduled trips between a gated community housing mainly Ismailis on the north-eastern outskirts and the main city.
Who are the Ismailis?
One man at the hospital told AFP news agency: "I have come to collect the body of my young son. He was a student preparing for his first year exams at college."
Ismaili spiritual leader Prince Karim Aga Khan said in a statement the "attack represented a senseless act of violence against a peaceful community".
Amnesty International said the attack marked "a new low in a campaign of sectarian violence that has left Pakistan's religious minorities fearing for their lives".
It said extremists in the country were operating with impunity.
Mr Sharif described the killings as "a deplorable attempt to spread chaos".
A Jundullah spokesman said the group had carried out the attack because it considered the victims to be infidels. He threatened more attacks against Ismailis, Shias and Christians. A statement purportedly from IS posted on jihadist Twitter accounts also claimed the attack.
Pakistan's army chief Gen Raheel Sharif has cancelled a trip to Sri Lanka and is leading the investigation, the BBC's Urdu editor said.
Pakistan is about 20% Shia and 70% Sunni, with the remainder made up by other minorities. Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital, has long had a reputation for sectarian violence.
Dozens killed in Pakistan bus attack
| Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(Pakistan Tribune)', '(BBC)'] |
A bomb in Baghdad's Sadr City market kills 12 Iraqis. In a separate incident, five US soldiers are killed in a rocket attack on a military base north of Baghdad. | BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. Marines in charge of Fallujah have no plans for an imminent strike on insurgents in the Iraqi city, and want to give the negotiation process "more time," according to a Marine official.
Speaking after a Marine command meeting in Fallujah Saturday, Col. John Coleman said the Marines had the power to take the city at any time, however military action could hurt the rebuilding process.
Coleman also said military action could greatly harm Fallujah and its residents.
Elsewhere, two U.S. sailors died Saturday after a small boat they boarded off Basra, Iraq, exploded, a U.S. Navy spokeswoman said.
The two were part of a seven-member boarding team. Four others were wounded.
The explosion was the first of three at Iraq's main oil terminal in the Persian Gulf. The blasts occurred shortly before 6:20 p.m. (10:20 a.m. ET).
Twenty minutes after the blast flipped the small boat and tossed the sailors into the water, security officers intercepted two other boats as they approached the terminal.
Each exploded near moored ships, the Navy said. The coalition believes the boat attacks were coordinated.
Tensions remained high in Fallujah Saturday as U.S. top civilian administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer went to the city as part of the discussions to bring peace to the town.
Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor would not disclose who Bremer met with during his visit.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said that the progress in Fallujah so far has been "one-sided" as city leaders have failed to deliver on a number of promises.
"We had an expectation that the leadership would stand up and condemn those responsible for the violence inside Fallujah," Kimmitt said. "It has not happened."
He said the insurgents facing U.S. Marines in and around the city have failed to surrender their heavy weapons, as negotiators promised, and have continued to shoot at the American troops despite the cease-fire. Nor have officials begun to probe the March 31 attack on four American security contractors, whose slaying and mutilation prompted the U.S. move against the insurgents there earlier this month, he said.
The Marines have continued to observe the cease-fire, shooting only when fired upon, Kimmitt said.
Friday night, the Marines and coalition forces launched a rare mortar strike and a gunship attack on insurgent positions south of Fallujah, Coleman said.
The Marine colonel estimated as many as 30 insurgents were killed in the AC-130 gunship strike.
Earlier Saturday, a mortar attack killed at least 12 Iraqis in a crowded market in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.
It was the first of the day's series of attacks that left at least 28 people dead, including five U.S. soldiers and the two sailors. The market attack, which also wounded at least 25 people, prompted a mass demonstration in the streets of the largely Shiite neighborhood, a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Video from the scene showed a mangled vehicle, surrounded by mobs of angry men shouting at the photographer. Other Iraqis collected body parts from pools of blood on the street. A dead horse lay on the curb beside a street vendor. Elsewhere, five U.S. soldiers were killed and six others wounded Saturday morning in a rocket attack north of Baghdad, a senior coalition official told CNN. In the Sunni stronghold of Tikrit, a roadside bomb detonated outside the 1st Infantry Division base, killing four Iraqis -- two police and two civilians -- and wounding 16 others, according to Master Sgt. Robert Powell.
Farther south in Karbala, coalition forces killed five attackers Saturday morning after they fired at the coalition base camp with mortars, AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. There were no coalition casualties.
Counting the deaths reported Saturday, 714 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq war -- 516 from hostile fire, 198 in nonhostile incidents. Of those, 575 died after President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1 -- 405 in hostile fire, 170 in nonhostile incidents.
| Armed Conflict | April 2004 | ['(CNN)', '(AP)'] |
Clashes between anti-government protestors, and Hezbollah and Amal Movement supporters break out when the former group blocked a main bridge in downtown Beirut. At least five people are injured. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Clashes broke out between anti-government demonstrators and supporters of the Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, early on Monday, as tensions escalated when demonstrators blocked a main bridge.
Lebanon has faced five weeks of anti-government protests, fueled by anger at corruption among the sectarian politicians who have governed Lebanon for decades. Demonstrators want to see the entire ruling class gone from power.
Hezbollah and Amal were both represented in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who quit on Oct. 29 after the protests began. The heavily armed Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, had opposed Hariri’s resignation.
Army soldiers and riot police formed a barrier separating the protesters from the supporters of the Shi’ite groups on a main road known as the Ring Bridge as rocks were thrown by both sides, television footage broadcast by Lebanese media showed.
Security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, three local television stations reported.
Supporters of Hezbollah and Amal waved the groups’ flags. Earlier, they had chanted: “Shia, Shia” and slogans in support of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. On the other side, demonstrators chanted: “Revolution, revolution”.
Lebanese broadcaster al-Jadeed reported that fighting apparently broke out when Hezbollah and Amal supporters blamed other demonstrators for making offensive comments about Nasrallah. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
The ground was strewn with rocks. A motorcycle was set on fire.
The Lebanese civil defense said on its Twitter account that it was administering first aid to five people suffering from “various injuries.”
It was the worst tension in Beirut since a mob loyal to Hezbollah and Amal attacked and destroyed the main protest camp in central Beirut last month. The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
North Korean leader Kim Jong–un is given two posts in the Workers' Party of Korea previously held by his father Kim Jong–Il, including chairman of the party's Central Military Commission and a standing member of the Politburo. | North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un has been given two posts previously occupied by his late father. State media said the younger Kim had been named chairman of the party's Central Military Commission and a standing member of the Politburo. The announcement came after North Korea held a rare party conference widely expected to see more power formally transferred to Kim Jong-un. The country is due to launch a rocket, set to go between Thursday and Monday. North Korea says the rocket will put a satellite into orbit but the US says the launch is a disguised test of long-range missile technology. The launch path will take the rocket south between the Philippines and Japan. Both South Korea and Japan have said that they will shoot it down if it threatens their territory. The news of Kim Jong-un's new titles came after the ruling Korean Workers' Party held a conference on Wednesday.
At the meeting, the party also promoted the younger Mr Kim to "first secretary" and named his late father as its "general secretary for eternity", state media said. The country's rubber-stamp parliament is also meeting on Friday and the two meetings have been seen as forums for advancing the transition of power to Kim Jong-un following the death of his father in December 2011.
Then on Sunday North Korea will mark the 100th anniversary of the birthday of national founder Kim Il-sung - the younger Kim's grandfather - with mass celebrations. North Korea says that the rocket launch is to commemorate Kim Il-sung. It says that the satellite will send back weather and other data. But critics say that the launch constitutes a test of long-range missile technology banned under UN resolutions. The rocket is due to launch any day between 12 and 16 April from the Tongchang-ri site on the country's north-west coast.
A number of airlines have altered flight paths and the US has sent a ship-mounted radar to monitor the launch.
Japan said it was on alert ahead of the launch. "We want to be fully prepared for any possible contingency," Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.
Pyongyang agreed in February to a partial freeze in nuclear activities and a missile test moratorium in return for US food aid. But that deal was put on hold last month after the North announced its rocket launch plans.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
In the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League quarter–finals, Paris Saint–Germain secures a 2–2 draw against Barcelona while Bayern Munich beats Juventus 2–0. | Last updated on 2 April 20132 April 2013.From the section Football
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored one goal and set up the other as he inspired Paris St-Germain against former club Barcelona in a thrilling Champions League quarter-final first leg match.
The Swede stabbed home from an apparently offside position to cancel out Lionel Messi's well-made opener.
Xavi's 89th-minute penalty after Salvatore Sirigu fouled Alexis Sanchez seemed to have secured Barca's win.
But Ibrahimovic's 94th-minute knock-down was swept home by Blaise Matuidi.
It was a disappointing end for Barcelona, who had lost Messi to a hamstring strain at half-time and Javier Mascherano to another injury in the second half.
Those injuries combined with Ibrahimovic's performance against a team where he had an unhappy 2009-10 season may have dominated the post-match discussion, but it was the inclusion of 37-year-old David Beckham in PSG's starting line-up that caught the eye before kick-off.
The selection of the former England captain, ahead of the 20-year-old Marco Verratti, looked questionable as Barcelona monopolised possession in an ominous opening, but Beckham went on to have a solid 70 minutes in a deep-lying midfield role.
Despite their early dominance, Barca looked vulnerable at the back and almost conceded from PSG's first attack as a flustered Sergio Busquets poked the ball against the frame of his own goal.
The home side's game plan initially confounded Barca with Beckham and the industrious Matuidi sitting deep and launching swift counter-attacks towards a dangerous front quartet of Ibrahimovic, the impressive Lucas Moura, and Argentine pair Ezequiel Lavezzi and Javier Pastore.
Barcelona were limited to wayward long-range efforts from Andres Iniesta and Alexis Sanchez, before a moment of brilliance converted their time on the ball to a score on the board.
Despite Messi's neat finish for his 57th goal of the season, Dani Alves's delicious pass, off the outside of his right foot, to slice open the defence stole the show.
Messi escaped the attentions of the excellent Thiago Silva once more to curl narrowly over but it was to be his final contribution as he hobbled out of the action with a right hamstring strain that will be assessed over the next 24 hours.
Former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas came on in place of Messi, but without the Argentine's attacking menace on the pitch Matuidi was able to push forward.
Ibrahimovic almost scooped the ball cleverly into the path of the PSG midfielder, who will miss the return leg after picking up a booking, but Gerard Pique was quick enough to make up the ground.
Sanchez had wasted two openings for Barca before Ibrahimovic, coming from an offside position, poked in after Thiago Silva's header hit the post.
With a minute of normal time left, Xavi coolly converted from 12 yards after Sanchez had been felled by Sirigu's needless charge from goal.
But Ibrahimovic, whose flick-on had almost played in Kevin Gamiero minutes before, had the final word as he nodded the ball into the path of Matuidi whose shot squirmed past Victor Valdes after going through the legs of Barca substitute Marc Bartra. | Sports Competition | April 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(UEFA)'] |
Authorities announce the arrest of a 48yearold man two days earlier in San Antonio, Texas, US, for threatening to commit a mass shooting at Fort Hood in retaliation for the killing of Vanessa Guillén there in April. He is being charged with making terroristic threats. | Mario Pena, 48, was arrested in connection with a Facebook post, threatening to shoot up Fort Hood in retaliation for Vanessa Guillen's death, an arrest affidavit said.
A 48-year-old man was arrested Saturday for threatening to shoot up Fort Hood in a Facebook post, according to an arrest affidavit.
Police arrested Mario Eloy Pea at his San Antonio home after they were alerted by his wife, who lives in Texas, of the social media post, the affidavit said.
Pea is accused of making the threat in retaliation for Vanessa Guillen's death. According to the affidavit, Pea wrote that he was going to Fort Hood to "be an active shooter" because he was upset about the soldier's death.
Guillen, a 20-year-old Army soldier stationed in Fort Hood, was found dead in June. It is believed that she was killed by another soldier on the base in April, when she was reported missing.
Pea said that he had no "respect for the military" and that he hated white people, the affidavit said. His wife was concerned about the post because Pea has a violent criminal history, involving assault charges, harassment and discharging a firearm with bodily injury, the affidavit continued.
Pena was charged with suspicion of making terroristic threats.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2020 | ['(San Antonio ExpressNews)'] |
United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates flies to China for a four–day trip after expressing American worries that the Chinese "clearly have potential to put some of our capabilities at risk", adding that America has "to pay attention to them" and "respond appropriately with our own programmes". | China's defence minister has sought to play down the country's military build-up, after talks with US counterpart Robert Gates in Beijing.
Liang Guanglie insisted China posed no threat and was decades behind nations with more advanced technology.
Mr Gates is on a four-day trip to China to cool tensions before President Hu Jintao visits the US next week.
Military ties between the two countries were briefly suspended early last year over a US sale of arms to Taiwan.
Mr Liang and Mr Gates both told journalists after their meeting that they agreed strong military co-operation should continue and should not be affected by politics.
Mr Liang said Beijing remained concerned about US dealings in Taiwan, before seeking to reassure the US about China's military ambitions.
"The efforts that we place on the research and development of weapons systems are by no means targeted at any third country," he said.
He said China's military development was "entirely appropriate and consistent with China's rise as an economic and political power".
Mr Gates said both US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao "clearly believe that a more robust military-to-military relationship is important".
He said he was convinced that the Chinese military leaders were "as committed to fulfilling the mandate of our two presidents" as he was.
Mr Gates will travel to South Korea and Japan later in the week, with the issue of North Korea high on the agenda.
Days before Mr Gates landed in Beijing, websites published pictures apparently showing a working prototype of a Chinese stealth aircraft, invisible to radar.
China has not officially commented on the photos, but they have once again put the spotlight on China's military modernisation.
The US has the world's only operational stealth fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
In the run-up to the talks, Mr Gates said that the Chinese "clearly have potential to put some of our capabilities at risk".
"We have to pay attention to them, we have to respond appropriately with our own programmes."
The US has been watching closely as China increases its military capacity - in particular, its development of a so-called "carrier killer" missile, a land-based system which could sink an aircraft carrier from up to 1,800 miles (2,900km) away.
US battle groups - including aircraft carriers - are stationed in the South China Sea.
The US defence budget is still the biggest in the world at around $700bn, but China's is the second largest and the rate of increase may well go up this year.
China's official military budget quadrupled between 1999 and 2009 as the country's economy grew. Last year, China announced a smaller-than-usual 7.5% increase to $76.3bn. The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says there is concern in China that the US is trying to encircle it by strengthening its military alliances around the region.
In February last year, Beijing cut military ties with the US, after Washington sold $6.4bn (£4.1bn) of arms to Taiwan. The Beijing considers the self-governed island a breakaway province - it has hundreds of missiles pointed at Taiwan and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control if it moved towards declaring formal independence. | Diplomatic Visit | January 2011 | ['[military]', '(BBC)'] |
The Vatican appoints Francesca Di Giovanni undersecretary for multilateral affairs in the Secretariat of State, the first woman to hold a management position in this office. | Pope Francis has made an Italian lawyer the first woman to hold a management position in the Vatican's most important office. Francesca Di Giovanni, 66, will serve as undersecretary for multilateral affairs in the Secretariat of State.
She will be responsible for co-ordinating the Holy See's relations with groups including the UN.
Pope Francis has been vocal in his support for women holding greater positions of authority in the Vatican.
"I hope that my being a woman might reflect itself positively in this task, even if they are gifts that I certainly find in my male colleagues as well," she told Vatican media. Ms Di Giovanni has worked for the Vatican for 27 years and holds a law degree.
She has specialised in areas including migration and refugees, the status of women, intellectual property and tourism.
"The Holy Father has made an unprecedented decision, certainly, which, beyond myself personally, represents an indication of an attention towards women," she said. "But the responsibility is connected to the job, rather than to the fact of being a woman."
The appointment comes as Pope Francis - who is considered a progressive - considers easing a ban on married men serving as priests.
His predecessor Pope Benedict XVI made an appeal to defend celibacy in a new book.
For many, celibacy is a key part of being a Catholic priest, one who is supposed to devote himself to the Church and not be distracted by what some consider to be worldly concerns like a wife or a family.
Many traditionalists are concerned about the direction in which Pope Francis is taking the Church.
This has included his push for a "healthy decentralisation" of the Church, which some worry could lead to a break up its universal message and sow confusion among the faithful. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2020 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Ahmed Ali Ahmed, one of the leaders of al–Qaeda in Iraq, is sentenced to death for killing Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho. | BAGHDAD, May 18 (Reuters) - A leader of al Qaeda in Iraq has been sentenced to death for the killing of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, whose murder in March drew worldwide condemnation, the Iraqi government said on Sunday.
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court imposed the death sentence on Ahmed Ali Ahmed, known as Abu Omar, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
Rahho, the archbishop of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, was abducted on Feb. 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards. His body was found in a shallow grave two weeks later.
At the time, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed al Qaeda and vowed to bring the bishop's killers to justice.
His Shi'ite Muslim-led government has been accused by members of Iraq's dwindling Christian minority of not doing enough to protect them from violent persecution.
Chaldeans belong to a branch of the Roman Catholic Church that practices an ancient Eastern rite and form the biggest Christian community in Iraq.
Dabbagh said Ahmed was a leader of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and had been sought for his involvement in a number of "terror crimes against the people of Iraq".
He described Rahho as an advocate of peace and tolerance among Iraqis.
When Rahho's body was found on March 13, police said it was not clear whether the 65-year-old clergyman, known to be in poor health, had been killed or died of other causes.
A number of Christian clergy have been kidnapped and killed and churches bombed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. A former archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa, was kidnapped in 2005 but later released after a day in captivity. (Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Former Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa is indicted in a bribery case. | The Argentine Federal Appeals court has confirmed the indictment of ex-president Fernando de la Rúa in a case linking the former Radical president to the payment of bribes at the Senate in 2000 and which ended with a major political crisis.
The Appeals court confirmed a ruling of Federal Magistrate Daniel Rafecas, who held De la Rúa responsible for the payment of bribes to Radical lawmakers in return for passing the controversial “Labour Flexibilization Law” in April 2000, which was openly opposed by Argentina’s strong trade union confederation. Allegedly the bill was part of a package of reforms demanded by the IMF.
That law loosened restrictions in the labour market in a move to improve the flexibility of the market amid a sharp economic contraction in Argentina. The decision of the Federal Court clears the way for the start of the trial against the ex-president. The ruling described the bribes' scandal as “an action of the government led by Fernando de la Rúa as a president,” who resigned to his post in 2001 amid a deepening economic and political crisis. Former senators Emilio Cantarero, Alberto Tell, Augusto Alasino, Ricardo Branda and Remo Costanzo, as well as Radical José Genoud have been prosecuted for allegedly accepting bribes. The “Senate Scandal” came to the public eye after Mario Pontaquarto, an advisor at the Upper House of Congress reported the incident to the judiciary and unveiled details on the bribes paid to senators during the 1999-2001 administration. Pontaquarto said during an interview last week that he was disappointed over the lack of advances in the case, and told reporters that he had considered killing himself. The “Senate scandal” led to the resignation of Vice-president Carlos “Chacho” Alvarez in October 2000, signalling the beginning of the end of the ruling Alianza coalition. In effect a year later unable to address mounting problems and without political support De la Rúa resigned to the presidency. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2009 | ['(MercoPress)'] |
At least 14 people die as a result of severe storms in Argentina, with Buenos Aires Province being the hardest hit. | Most of the victims died in the province of Buenos Aires, where winds reached speeds of more than 100km (60 miles) an hour, toppling trees and causing roofs to cave in.
A teenager was electrocuted in the city of Santa Fe, in the north-east, when he stepped on a downed power cable.
Many neighbourhoods in the capital, Buenos Aires, were left without power as cables snapped in the strong winds.
Residents said unseasonably hot and humid weather gave way to the violent storm.
Some local media reported squalls of up to 120km (75 miles) an hour.
City streets were blocked by fallen trees and masonry blown off roofs.
Ten people were injured when the roof of a church was lifted by the strong winds and fell onto passengers waiting for a bus some 40m (40 yards) along the road.
Most of the casualties were crushed by fallen trees and masonry, while others were electrocuted by downed power cables.
Buenos Aires city official Diego Santilli said the storm felt like a tornado and described it as "an inferno".
He said clean-up crews were clearing the streets of the debris and restoring power to cut-off areas.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The center–left candidate Michelle Bachelet is elected as president of Chile for the second time. She is the first leader in Chile to be elected to serve two terms since military rule ended in 1990. | Left-wing candidate Michelle Bachelet has been elected Chilean president for a second time by a wide margin.
With almost all the votes counted, Ms Bachelet had 62% against 38% for Evelyn Matthei, a former minister from the governing centre-right coalition.
Ms Bachelet first served from 2006 to 2010, but under Chile's constitution she could not stand for a second consecutive term. She narrowly missed out on outright victory in the first round last month.
BBC Mundo's Ignacio de los Reyes said that hundreds of people applauded Ms Bachelet when she took to the stage outside the headquarters of her coalition in the centre of Santiago, some even cried with joy.
Many of them were women, members of the gay and lesbian community and environmentalists - some of the core groups that supported Ms Bachelet throughout her campaign.
In her victory speech, Ms Bachelet, 62, said she would carry out "deep reforms needed in Chile", but she assured voters she would do so "responsibly".
"Today in Chile we're in the majority and it's time we moved forward to fulfil the dream we all have, to again believe in ourselves, and to believe that there's strength in unity," she said.
"I am proud to be your president-elect today. I am proud of the country we've built but I am even more proud of the country we will build."
Ms Bachelet is now set to become the first leader in Chile to serve two terms since the military rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990. Upon hearing the news, her supporters took to the streets to celebrate, waving flags and sounding car horns in the capital, Santiago.
Her rival, Evelyn Matthei, 60, conceded defeat and congratulated Ms Bachelet in person. Coming close to tears, Ms Matthei told her supporters that her "deepest and honest desire is that things go well for her [Michelle Bachelet]".
"No one who loves Chile can want anything else," Ms Matthei said.
Ms Bachelet thanked Ms Matthei for her good wishes and said that both shared a love for their homeland and a willingness to serve its people.
A paediatrician by training, Ms Bachelet won 47% of the vote in the first round on 17 November. Ms Matthei secured 25%.
Ms Bachelet leads an alliance of her Socialist Party, Christian Democrats and Communists and has campaigned on policies designed to reduce the gap between rich and poor.
Chile is one of the richest countries in Latin America, but millions have staged protests over the past few years to push for a wider distribution of wealth and better education. Ms Bachelet wants to increase taxes to offer free university education and reform political and economic structures dating from the dictatorship of Gen Pinochet.
Her manifesto this time is much more radical than before, the BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago reports.
Ms Bachelet was constitutionally barred from serving a second successive term but was very popular when she left office.
Ms Matthei entered the race after two candidates of the centre-right alliance resigned earlier this year - one for alleged financial irregularities, the other one after struggling with depression.
She called for a continuation of the policies of outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, asserting that Chileans are "better off" now than when he came to power four years ago. As children in the 1950s, the current rivals were neighbours and used to play together on the airbase where their fathers, both air force generals, worked. Ms Matthei's father, Fernando, rose through the ranks to run a military school. Michelle Bachelet's father, Alberto, had a job in the Socialist administration overthrown by Gen Pinochet in the 1973 coup.
He died in 1974 of a heart attack while in custody. An investigation concluded that the 51-year-old general had probably died of heart problems aggravated by torture at the military academy.
A judge ruled earlier this year that Gen Matthei had no knowledge of or involvement in the torture.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
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