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Fourteen Spanish Firefighters have died while attempting to battle a forest fire in the central province of Guadalajara. | Officials said they died after becoming encircled by the fire, following a sudden change in wind direction.
The blaze, which began in pine woodland at Cueva de los Casares on Saturday, has burned an estimated 8,000 hectares.
Police say the forest fire was started by a barbecue and fanned by blustery winds in very dry conditions.
Officials had suggested earlier that 14 had died in the blaze, but the figures were revised down after a visit to the scene by Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega.
French deaths
She is heading an emergency meeting with government colleagues on Monday, as the fires continue.
See the fires raging
In pictures: Deadly fires
The BBC's Marian Hens in Madrid says the deputy prime minister was met by angry locals when she visited the region. She says they voiced complaints about the delay and lack of resources to fight this kind of disaster.
France, which is also suffering a serious drought, has sent two firefighting aircraft to assist with the Spanish efforts. Three French firefighters were killed while tackling a blaze in the eastern region of Burgundy on Sunday.
The fires in Spain's central Guadalajara province have forced hundreds of homes to be evacuated.
The two trucks and three four-wheel-drive vehicles belonging to the 11 victims were found completely charred.
They had gone out in two groups to battle the blaze, but their efforts were hampered by strong winds and summer temperatures of up to 40 Celsius.
A crisis unit has been set up with civilian authorities and the military and police to combat the fire, which has still not been brought under control.
Water planes and helicopters have been drafted in to help the 150 firefighters on the ground.
Several other forest fires have been burning in other parts of Spain, which is suffering from one of its worst droughts in decades, leaving the countryside like a tinderbox. | Fire | July 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Seven tourists are injured after a section of cliff breaks away above Shipwreck Beach at Navagio, on the Greek island of Zakynthos, creating a minor tsunami that capsized several small boats in the cove. | At least seven people were injured when part of a cliff face broke away at the popular Navagio beach on the Greek island of Zakynthos, officials say.
"We haven't found any trapped people but we will continue searching," a spokesperson for the fire brigade said.
None of the injuries sustained in the incident on Thursday afternoon are believed to be life-threatening.
The beach, also known as "shipwreck beach", is popular with tourists and can be reached only by boat.
"There was a noise and a small piece of rock fell, then a second bigger and finally a third big piece of rock that during the fall created a sea whirlpool that overturned the boats," one eyewitness said. Greek authorities said they had received no reports of missing people but that search and rescue teams were continuing to operate by air and sea into the late afternoon as a precaution. Among those injured was a 34-year-old woman from the Czech Republic, who suffered a fractured vertebra. Her husband and two children were also treated for minor injuries by hospital staff, according to the Greek news website Kathimerini.
Three others were also hurt in the incident. Footage posted on social media showed people running in panic as a large section of the cliff peeled off and crashed down close to several bathers. The port of Zakynthos, which is also known as Zante in Western Europe, was evacuated as a precaution. It is one of the Ionian island's main attractions, in part because of the shipwreck on the shore and also because of its surrounding steep cliffs. | Shipwreck | September 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
In handball, Montenegro beats Norway 34–31 after double overtime in a thriller final of the 2012 European Women's Handball Championship in Belgrade, Serbia. | It must have been a nice situation for Montenegro to get their opportunity for revenge against Norway so soon after the Olympic final, which left some bad taste with controversy related to refereeing and bad luck. Today there was some of the same concern about tough decisions, but in the end it did not matter: Montenegro won the gold medals after a great surge at the very end!
The final started out just the way one ideally wants to see a final played: good technical quality with very few mistakes, a fast pace and good goalkeeping, accompanied with good refereeing, which all led to a game characterized by fair play and an absence of dirty methods. The Norwegians had some good periods, but Montenegro responded with determination and with nice attacking moves. The half-time result was 12-11 in favor or Montenegro.
In the second half, the trend continued where the successful early shooting by the Norwegians had become more hesitant, of course partly affected by the good form of Montenegrin goalie Barjaktarovic. But gradually, the Norwegians regained their composure, while at the same time the Montenegrins just perhaps were beginning to show tired legs and tired shooting arms, following the tough battle yesterday in the semifinal. Also, just as in the Olympic final, Norway escaped some of the 2-min penalties that Montenegro received, possibly because the methods of the Norwegians were a little less obvious. Understandably, coach Azdic was not too happy. And not surprisingly, the game was tied after 60 minutes, 24-24, following a Norwegian equalizer with just seconds to go.
The first overtime period was characterized by tentative shooting. However, mistakes by the Norwegians led to a 27-24 and 28-25 lead for Montenegro. But then came, to put it mildly, a disputed referee decision whereby Katarina Bulatovic was sent off for 2 minutes, accused of interfering with the throw-off after scoring a goal. This proved to be costly, and the Norwegians forced a second overtime by getting to 28-28. During that final overtime period, it seemed that the individual marking of Knezevic who had been the most successful shooter, and the sense that Bulatovic was a bit too tired, might decide the game in Norway’s favor. But in the end, it was the Norwegians who committed the costly mistakes and turnovers, so that in the last couple of minutes Montenegro could pull away and win by 34-31.
It should be added that Hungary won the bronze medal match after a considerable drama. At the end of the regular playing time, the game was tied at 33-33. Overtime periods tend to be tense and have relatively less goals scored. Here Serbia was ahead 37-36 at the half-way mark, but Hungary turned it around with some quick goals towards the end and managed to pull out a 41-38 win. So no medals for the home team, but their participation in the medal round contributed to a nice atmosphere with large crowds, after a disappointing spectator situation earlier in the competition. | Sports Competition | December 2012 | ['(EHF)', '(THN)'] |
At least eight people have been killed in violence across Iraq. | Gunmen shot dead a woman and her two daughters in Iraq on Saturday, and a city center roadside bomb killed a man and his son, officials said.
Iraq is witnessing its deadliest violence since 2008, when it was emerging from a prolonged and bloody sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
The woman and her two adult daughters were killed in their home near Baquba, north of the Iraqi capital.
A Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militiaman said the women may have been informants for the security forces.
In Tikrit, also north of Baghdad, a roadside bombing killed a man and his 11-year-old son as they walked in the city center.
Gunmen also killed a judge's two bodyguards in the northern province of Nineveh. The judge was not with them at the time.
And an explosion near a market in Baghdad killed one person and wounded five.
Militants frequently plant bombs in public areas in an attempt to sow fear and reduce confidence in the government.
Security forces are also often targeted.
Violence has increased markedly this year, especially since an April 23 security operation at a Sunni anti-government protest site that sparked clashes in which dozens died.
Protests that erupted in Sunni-majority areas in late 2012 are ongoing amid widespread discontent among Sunnis who accuse the Shiite-led government of marginalizing them.
Experts say Sunni anger is the main cause of the spike in violence this year.
Gunmen shot dead a woman and her two daughters in Iraq on Saturday, and a city center roadside bomb killed a man and his son, officials said.
Iraq is witnessing its deadliest violence since 2008, when it was emerging from a prolonged and bloody sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
The woman and her two adult daughters were killed in their home near Baquba, north of the Iraqi capital.
A Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militiaman said the women may have been informants for the security forces.
In Tikrit, also north of Baghdad, a roadside bombing killed a man and his 11-year-old son as they walked in the city center.
Gunmen also killed a judge's two bodyguards in the northern province of Nineveh. The judge was not with them at the time.
And an explosion near a market in Baghdad killed one person and wounded five.
Militants frequently plant bombs in public areas in an attempt to sow fear and reduce confidence in the government.
Security forces are also often targeted.
Violence has increased markedly this year, especially since an April 23 security operation at a Sunni anti-government protest site that sparked clashes in which dozens died.
Protests that erupted in Sunni-majority areas in late 2012 are ongoing amid widespread discontent among Sunnis who accuse the Shiite-led government of marginalizing them. | Riot | August 2013 | ['(AFP via Al-Aribya)'] |
The army is deployed in the Indian state of Rajasthan after 14 people are killed in violent clashes over the government's affirmative action plans. | Police fired on protesters from the nomadic Gujjar tribe who had blocked a key highway near Delhi on Tuesday. At least two of those killed are believed to be policemen.
The Gujjars are demanding that they be included in an affirmative action quota which would give them access to government jobs and other benefits.
Villagers in Peepalikheda, where some of the clashes took place, are still refusing to release the bodies of six people said to have died in the firing, and are demanding a meeting with government officials.
Soldiers have been deployed to maintain order in Dausa district and the town of Bundi, where some of the worst violence has taken place.
The police are stopping vehicles on the key national highway near Bharatpur, fearing fresh trouble on the route.
Influential
The BBC's Narayan Bareth in the state capital, Jaipur, says that there have been reports of protests by Gujjars spreading to other parts of the state. The state administration held an emergency meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the problem.
"Those who break the law will not be tolerated.. The Gujjar-dominated protest in these areas is taking the shape of an organised movement," Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia told reporters.
Police said they opened fire after tens of thousands of Gujjar protesters turned violent on Tuesday. Protesters said police shot at unarmed crowds. The Gujjars began their action on Monday night, blocking the highway which connects the city of Jaipur with the tourist destination of Agra where the Taj Mahal is located. A local official told reporters that protesters set fire to two police stations and two jeeps in the Jhalawar area.
In a separate incident, a mob cut off the hands of one policeman and the leg of another, according to Rajasthan interior minister Gulab Chand Kataria. A Gujjar community leader, Avinash Badana, told India's state-run Doordarshan channel that the police had fired on "unarmed people".
Cynical move
The Gujjars are a large and politically-influential nomadic tribe spread across north India. The issue of affirmative action is a sensitive one in India
They are demanding that they be categorised as an official tribe so that they may benefit from affirmative action quotas which will give them access to government jobs as well as places in state-supported schools and colleges. The issue of affirmative action is a sensitive one in India, with many poor communities arguing that it is the only way millions of under-privileged people can benefit from India's economic boom. But those opposed to it say it is a cynical move by politicians to gain more votes from politically influential communities who make up a large percentage of the country's population. | Riot | May 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan, and Villanova men's basketball head coach Jay Wright are expected to be assistants for the United States basketball team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. | Steve Kerr, Nate McMillan and Jay Wright will be Gregg Popovich‘s assistant coaches with the U.S. men’s basketball team for its Tokyo 2020 Olympic run.
Kerr, who coached the Golden State Warriors to three of the last four NBA titles, was cut from 1988 Olympic consideration when the tryout pool was cut to 21 players, the last team before the NBA began participating in the Olympics. Kerr had just finished his career at the University of Arizona and was about to start a 15-season NBA career that would include five titles (the last two playing for Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs).
He was also on the 1986 World Championship-winning team in Madrid, the last American men’s senior team composed strictly of amateur players to capture a gold medal.
McMillan, the Indiana Pacers head coach, was an assistant on Mike Krzyzewski‘s staff at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Wright, who coached Villanova to two of the last three NCAA titles, coached Team USA at the 2005 World University Games and 2007 Pan American Games.
The U.S. men’s basketball team, which has won 25 straight Olympic games and the last three gold medals. Its first opportunity to qualify for Tokyo 2020 at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, though it still must qualify for that world tournament.
The 2016 Olympic assistants for Krzyzewski were Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Tom Thibodeau and former New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2018 | ['(Los Angeles Times)', '(NBC Olympics)'] |
Weld County Tornado: One person is killed and at least 100 are injured in Weld County, Colorado after a tornado tears through the county. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter declares a state of emergency and activates the Colorado National Guard in the affected region. | Windsor was hit by a mile-wide tornado around lunch time, and at least one person died as the twister carved a swath of destruction through Weld County. Colorado State Trooper Ryan Sullivan said the tornado caused multiple crashes and multiple injuries on highways in Weld County. The Weld County coroner's office has confirmed at least one death. The man was a resident at a campground outside Greeley, the county said in a statement. Weld County Sheriff's Cmdr. Ken Poncelow said "dozens of houses and dozens of cars" were badly damaged and that several semis were rolled off U.S. 85 north of Gilcrest. There are no other reports of fatalities and relatively few injuries, mostly minor. He said all agencies have been mobilized Seven people were admitted to Medical Center of the Rockies with injuries, but their conditions weren't available, said spokesman Gary Kimsey. Poudre Valley Hospital, which is part of the same hospital system, received no casualties. Both facilities moved patients into hospital hallways as a safety precaution from 12:45 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. as the storm moved through. Poudre Valley Hospital also moved about 200 non-medical personnel and visitors into the basement. Patrick Love of the Poudre Valley Fire Authority, who is acting as spokesman in Windsor, said that Windsor was hit by "multiple tornadoes" on the southeast side of the town. "We have multiple structures damaged and multiple injuries," said Love. He said that by 4 p.m., about 70 percent of the area hit by the tornadoes had been searched. The heaviest damage was reported in Dacono, Windsor and Greeley, according to the weather service. A daycare center in Windsor was damaged, but the children had been evacuated to a nearby bank before the tornado hit. Hundreds of businesses and homes in the town of 18,670 were damaged. Trees and power lines were down throughout Windsor. Cars were smashed by falling On a farm just outside of Windsor, a corrugated metal barn was destroyed, and dead calves were strewn on the road nearby. The bodies of cattle littered a field nearby, and shredded metal was everywhere. Chris Schmachtenberger, a spokesman for Carestream Health, said the company's manufacturing plant in Windsor had minor damage. He said the company still is assessing the impact. Kodak and Carestream, which operate on the same campus in Windsor, lost power because of a downed transmission line but said no injuries were reported. The State Farm building in Greeley, the regional headquarters of the insurance agency, received a "direct hit." The weather service said the roof of the Swift The tornado was three-quarters of a mile to one mile wide when in moved through Greeley, according to the weather service. The Red Cross is setting up a shelter at the Windsor Community Center, 250 11th St., and the Denver chapter is sending people and supplies to help the Fort Collins chapter. Larimer County spokeswoman Deni La Rue said The Ranch (Budweiser Events Center & Fairgrounds) at Crossroads Boulevard and I-25, is also open as a shelter. The Ranch has canceled all events tonight and is preparing 200 meals to help. Approximately 500-1000 people will shelter there tonight, she said in a news release, and the center can house up to 300 livestock. Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of "We will be doing all we can to assist the people of Weld County as we assess the damage and determine how the state can provide the most effective aid," Ritter said in a news release. "My heart goes out to the people of Weld County during this very dangerous time." Large, golf-ball to quarter-sized hail and rain were reported as the large storm system moved northeast. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office said a spotter saw a funnel cloud in southwest Loveland at about 12:45 p.m. Others were spotted at the Fort Collins Emergency Operations Center, Fossil Creek Reservoir and north of Wellington, and 60 mph winds and quarter-sized hail were reported at Buckhorn Mountain. A Schools in affected areas were put on lockdown. By 3:30, the Poudre district was letting parents pick up their children. Larimer sheriff's spokesperson Eloise Campanella said residents in one home near County Road 54 were trapped inside by a fallen tree, and a home east of Interstate 25 on 5CR 6 appeared to have been hit. Wendy Forbes of the North Metro Fire Protection District said a call came in about 12:30 p.m. of a "microburst or possible tornado" near the intersection Weld County Road 11 and Weld County Road 6. A man was injured when the five-wheel trailer he was in flipped over, trapping him inside. He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Five outbuildings were leveled, she said, one home damaged and metal fencing also was destroyed. Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz said the tornado damaged three power transmission lines, including a pair of 230,000-volt lines at the utility's Fort St. Vrain power plant near Platteville. "We estimate that as many as 60,000 customers lost service as the storm passed through," Stutz said. About 15,000 Xcel customers in Windsor, Johnstown, Platteville and Gilcrest will remain without power until at least Friday, he said this evening. The company has restored power for about 45,000 other customers. More than 200 power poles were damaged by the tornadoes, including a half-dozen transmission poles. Stutz said Xcel will have to rebuild the system from scratch. "It's pretty bad," he said. "We've seen tornadoes before, but rarely do they strike in such a population center." He said the best-case scenario is that the company will spend several days on repairs. It has dispatched 25 crews to the affected areas and will send 10 more by tomorrow. Xcel also had reports of about a half-dozen natural gas leaks, but those are contained. To report outages or leaks, call Xcel at 800-895-4999. A Qwest crew was on site assessing the damage to service in the affected areas, said spokeswoman Jennifer Barton. "Additional crews have been dispatched," she said. "I don't have details on exact services impacted, number of customers potentially impacted, or any information on restoration yet." Jennifer Dimas of Windsor, manager of media relations for Colorado State University in Fort Collins, said the school sent a text message campus-wide about the tornado warning. Then she called her son's school, St. Joseph's in Fort Collins, to alert them. The school verified the information and put the school on lockdown, she said. Finally, she called her husband, Ted, who was working in Windsor. Earlier he had told her it was "hailing like crazy" and that he was outside with the video camera. She couldn't reach him on the phone, so she texted him to get home and into the basement quickly. Then she didn't hear from him for a while. "I was an absolute wreck for about an hour," Dimas recalled. "If you can't get a hold of someone, you can get in a panic." Her husband did call, telling her that he was OK and that their home had minor wind and hail damage. "I grew up in Colorado, so tornados usually don't rattle me too much," she said. "I wasn't that concerned, and then I started seeing what it had done to my town." Residents were advised to take tornado precautions, including taking shelter in basements or under sturdy furniture such as workbenches. In buildings without basements, interior hallways or closets are considered safest, according to the National Weather Service. Residents of mobile homes are advised to evacuate them for stronger shelters or to seek ditches and low spots if trapped outdoors. Severe thunderstorms could develop this afternoon around Fort Morgan, Byers and Limon, the weather service said, and large hail and heavy rain is possible. Winds on the plains associated with the storms could gust up to 45 mph. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory this afternoon that included northeastern Larimer County. A tornado watch for the area is in effect until 8 p.m. Staff writers Kieran Nicholson, Howard Pankratz, Bruce Finley, Cynthia Pasquale, Vikki Migoya, Kevin Simpson, Andy Voung and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2008 | ['(The Denver Post)', '(ABC 7)'] |
An improvised explosive device goes off prematurely in Wardaka, Baghlan, Afghanistan, killing nine insurgents and injuring five more. | Baghlan police said at least 14 armed insurgents were killed and wounded on Friday when their own explosive device detonated in Baghlan province.
Baghlan police chief Akramuddin Sare confirmed the incident and said that nine insurgents were killed and five others wounded in Wardaka village in Baghlan.
Sare said that the insurgents had been constructing the mine and were training when the device detonated.
No further details were given.
Baghlan police confirmed the explosion and said insurgents had been building it when it detonated.
Baghlan police said at least 14 armed insurgents were killed and wounded on Friday when their own explosive device detonated in Baghlan province.
Baghlan police chief Akramuddin Sare confirmed the incident and said that nine insurgents were killed and five others wounded in Wardaka village in Baghlan.
Sare said that the insurgents had been constructing the mine and were training when the device detonated.
No further details were given.
| Armed Conflict | April 2018 | ['(Tolo News)'] |
The International Atomic Energy Agency propose draft agreement for Iran and three world powers to agree, aimed at reducing international concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme. |
Iran and three world powers have been handed a draft agreement aimed at reducing international concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which proposed the plan after talks in Vienna, wants an answer by Friday. Details are yet to be confirmed, but the plan is believed to involve Iran exporting uranium to be enriched in France and Russia. Iran's chief negotiator has not commented on the uranium export plan. The negotiations have involved the UN, Iran, France, Russia and the US. IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters in Vienna that he was feeling "optimistic" after the talks, which he said had been "very constructive". The big advantage for the West is that the arrangement would neutralise most of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium. At the very least this would delay Iran's ability to make a nuclear bomb. But no Iranian official has yet publicly acknowledged that Iran's enriched uranium would be shipped out of the country. There must be doubts whether President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government is really willing to allow its hard-won enriched uranium out of its grasp, particularly as Mr Ahmadinejad has turned the nuclear programme into such a matter of national pride. But for the West, that key component of the agreement would surely be the deal-breaker.
"Everybody at the meeting was trying to help, trying to look to the future and not to the past, trying to heal the wounds that existed for many years," he said. "I have circulated a draft agreement that in my judgment reflects a balanced approach to how to move forward." Russian nuclear industry insiders told the BBC the process proposed would involve Iran sending its uranium to the IAEA, which would forward it to Russia for enriching. The enriched uranium would then be returned to the IAEA and sent to France, which has the technology to add the "cell elements" needed for Iran's reactor, they said. This process would enable Iran to obtain enough enriched uranium for its research reactor, but not enough to produce a weapon. Exporting uranium has been seen as a way for Iran to get the fuel it needs, while giving guarantees to the West that it will not be used for nuclear weapons. Iranian chief negotiator Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh talked positively about a deal, but did not mention uranium export. Confidence boost
Mr ElBaradei said there had been many technical, legal and policy issues to address in the Vienna talks, as well as "issues of confidence and trust". "That is why it has taken us some time and that is why we need to send the agreement to capitals for final approval," he added. "I very much hope that people see the big picture - that this agreement could pave the way for a complete normalisation of relations between Iran and the international community." US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Iran to act quickly, and said her country would continue "to discuss the full range of issues that have divided Iran and the United States for too long". She added: "The door is open to a better future for Iran, but the process of engagement cannot be open-ended. We are not prepared to talk just for the sake of talking." France said the plan was acceptable and would benefit Paris and its partners. Foreign ministry political director Jacques Audibert told France 24 television that the plan was "to remove this (uranium) from Iran, use it to make the fuel they need and thereby improve relations and lower the tensions over Iran's civilian nuclear programme." Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes and that it has the right to enrich uranium. Western states believe it is attempting to develop a nuclear weapons programme. | Sign Agreement | October 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former International Monetary Fund head Dominique StraussKahn is acquitted of pimping charges in France. | French court clears former International Monetary Fund chief of ‘aggravated pimping’ in multi-defendant trial over sex parties
Last modified on Wed 29 Nov 2017 16.27 GMT
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, has been cleared by a French court of “aggravated pimping”.
The one-time French presidential hopeful, who has described seeking “recreation” from the stress of world politics by having rough sex with strangers at orgies in Europe and the US, was found not to have promoted or profited from the prostitution of seven women. The judges said Strauss-Kahn was not the instigator of the orgies with prostitutes. Throughout his trial, he maintained he did not know that some of the women brought to him by businessmen friends at group-sex sessions were prostitutes, saying he thought they were merely swingers like himself. The businessmen had told the women not to say they had been paid. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, Henri Leclerc, said the case against him had been “totally empty”, accusing investigating magistrates of a moral crusade with no legal foundation. The wide-reaching trial in the northern French city of Lille revealed a saga of money, fame and women travelling to luxury locations for sex with powerful men against a backdrop of economic deprivation and social misery.
Known as the Carlton affair, the case began in 2011 as an investigation into an alleged prostitution network at Lille’s Hotel Carlton, where women described as “livestock” or “dossiers” had been offered up as the “dessert course” at business lunches. Strauss-Kahn was never involved in any alleged activity at the hotel, but when his name was mentioned by sex workers in interviews with investigators, the inquiry was widened.
Thirteen other men appeared in court on pimping charges, many with no connection to Strauss-Kahn, but the high-profile coverage of the case centred on the former IMF chief and how he sought to wind down from managing the fallout from the global financial crisis by having sex with strangers brought to him at orgies by businessmen keen to curry favour. The trial exposed not only Strauss-Kahn’s secret double life but also the harrowing accounts of some of the women with whom he had sex. Between 2009 and 2011, the years covered by the trial, Strauss-Kahn held the most senior economic job in the world in Washington, and he was convinced he would become the next Socialist president of France. He invited TV crews to document his cosy and high-profile marriage to Anne Sinclair, an influential French journalist and feminist, who has since divorced him.
During his working day, however, he would send text messages asking a businessman friend to join him at a “magnificent” swingers’ club in Madrid and bring him some “equipment”, a term he admitted meant women. While in Brussels for IMF meetings, he would be driven to the countryside at night for group sex with strangers on mattresses on the floor of a swingers’ club. Throughout the trial, he said he never knew or suspected that there were prostitutes among the many women brought to him at the sessions.
The trial was marked by the tearful accounts of two destitute and vulnerable prostitutes who were among the women brought to locations in Paris, Brussels and Washington to have sex with Strauss-Kahn. They likened the orgies to “slaughter”, “killing” and “butchery”. The former IMF chief told the trial that he had regrettably discovered during the court hearings that he had “a sexuality that was rougher than the average man” but that he believed “no means no”.
Mounia, a Lille sex worker whom court papers described as having been sexually abused as a child, broke down in tears as she told the court how, at an orgy in Paris, Strauss-Kahn had subjected her to anal penetration against her wishes. She said that when he saw she was crying and in pain he smiled and went ahead “with force”.
Asked by the judge whether he had noticed her crying, Strauss-Kahn said: “No, I would have found it chilling.” He said he did not have a precise memory of the woman, but that he had had no sense of refusal. “When someone says no, it’s no,” he said.
Another prostitute, Jade, who was also sexually abused as a child, described the atmosphere at one Paris hotel orgy. She said of Strauss-Kahn: “No one asked me my name, there was just a hand on my head to fellate him.” She later broke down in tears as she told the court how on a different occasion Strauss-Kahn had also subjected her to anal penetration against her wishes. “I didn’t have time to say no,” she said.
Strauss-Kahn told the court he did not view his sexual encounter with Jade in the same way that she did. “I didn’t realise,” he said. “I’m not for doing things that are disagreeable for partners.
“I had no way of knowing she didn’t want it … It wasn’t my intention, I’m sorry it happened like that.”
Throughout the trial, Strauss-Kahn maintained the suggestion that he had to be brought “fresh meat” by businessmen friends was a “disgrace”. He insisted he never had sex with prostitutes because “I prefer a party atmosphere before, during and after”. As he told one sexual partner: “I have a horror of whores.”
Prostitution involving people over the age of 18 is not illegal in France, but pimping and living off the benefits is. Just as the Strauss-Kahn verdict came through, however, the French parliament voted in a second reading to criminalise prostitutes’ clients, making payment for sex punishable by a fine. The bill must now return to the senate for a further reading.
Strauss-Kahn had told the court that group-sex sessions were rare “recreation” in his hectic schedule as IMF chief, taking place only four times a year because he had been very busy “saving the world from catastrophe” at the time of the US sub-prime crisis.
The two entrepreneurs from northern France who flew women to the US for orgies involving Strauss-Kahn ended their last visit on 13 May 2011, the day before he was arrested in New York over the alleged attempted rape of a hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo. Criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn in the Diallo case were dropped by prosecutors in New York, and he later settled a civil action with her out of court. The case marked the end of his political career in France, where he is now seen as a pariah, and his acquittal on pimping charges in the Carlton case is not expected to change that view.
Strauss-Kahn’s two businessmen friends and a police chief acquaintance were also cleared of pimping charges on Friday. Dominique Alderweireld, 65 known as Dodo la Saumure or Dodo the Pimp, and who runs brothels in Belgium was acquitted of sending prostitutes from his establishments to Paris and the US for Strauss-Kahn.
René Kojfer, 74, the former head of public relations at the Hotel Carlton in Lille, was the only man to be convicted. He was given a one-year suspended sentence for pimping charges which had no connection to Strauss-Kahn.
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If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers our journalism and sustains our future. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 it only takes a minute. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A Thai man in his 60s who was jailed for 20 years for sending text messages deemed offensive to the Thai royal family has died, his lawyer said. | A Thai man in his 60s who was jailed for 20 years for sending text messages deemed offensive to the royal family has died, his lawyer said.
Ampon Tangnoppakul was admitted to hospital last week for a pain in his stomach, the lawyer told the BBC.
His wife found out that he had died when she visited the jail in Bangkok this morning.
The cause of death is being investigated, said a doctor, and it is still not known when Ampon died.
He was convicted in November last year of sending four messages to an official working for then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
He denied the claims and said he did not know how to send a text.
The conviction - the heaviest for a lese majeste case - sparked outrage among rights groups, with Amnesty International describing Ampon as a political prisoner and the European Union expressing ''deep concern''.
Ampon, who became known as ''Uncle SMS'', had been hoping for a royal pardon, his lawyer Anon Numpa said.
He was charged under the Computer Crimes Act and lese majeste law, which is designed to protect the monarchy.
Critics say both laws have been increasingly politicised and used to curb free speech in Thailand. Activists have called for the laws to be reformed. A number of foreigners have been convicted of the offence in recent years, but they are often quickly pardoned and deported from the country.
Some Thai academics and writers have fled the country for fear of being denounced.
In one current high-profile case, the webmaster of a liberal news website has been put on trial for allegedly failing to remove offensive comments posted by readers quickly enough. The verdict for the case is due at the end of this month.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The World Health Organisation declares an end to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa with Liberia the last country to be declared free of the virus. | Monrovia (AFP) - The world breathed a sigh of relief Thursday as a two-year Ebola epidemic that killed 11,000 and triggered a global health alert was declared over, with Liberia the last country given the all-clear.
The deadliest outbreak in the history of the feared tropical virus wrecked the economies and health systems of the three worst-hit west African nations after it emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013.
At its peak, it devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week.
Rick Brennan, the World Health Organization's chief of emergency risk management, hailed an important milestone but told reporters in Geneva that "the job is still not done", pointing out that there had already been 10 small flare-ups because of the persistance of the virus in survivors.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned the region can expect sporadic cases in the coming year but added "we also expect the potential and frequency of those flare-ups to decrease over time".
Reaction to the announcement was muted in Monrovia, where locals have become accustomed to good news on Ebola being followed by setbacks, and there was no official programme of celebration.
Aminata Kanneh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, told AFP people were "no longer afraid" because recent flare-ups were dealt with quickly.
"The pronouncement today is a joy but does not call for celebration because we may experience another outbreak," she said.
- No celebration -
Liberia, the country worst hit by the outbreak with 4,800 deaths, discharged its last two patients from hospital -- the father and younger brother of a 15-year-old victim -- on December 3, 2015.
Africa's oldest republic was the last country still afflicted by the outbreak that infected almost 29,000 people and claimed 11,315 lives, according to official data.
The real toll is suspected to be much higher, with many Ebola deaths believed to have gone unreported.
After the last patient is declared in the clear, a 42-day countdown -- twice the incubation period of the virus -- begins before the country is proclaimed Ebola-free.
Ebola causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. In many cases it shuts down organs and causes unstoppable internal bleeding. Patients often succumb within days.
From a Guinean infant who was the first victim, the epidemic quickly spread into neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, notching up more deaths than all other Ebola outbreaks combined.
Liberia was first to be declared free of human-to-human Ebola transmission in May, only to see the virus resurface six weeks later.
It was officially credited with beating the epidemic for a second time in September before another small cluster of cases emerged.
- Economic ruin -
The WHO came under fire for its sluggish response to the epidemic, which local healthcare systems were woefully underequipped to handle. Over 500 healthcare workers died in three west African countries at the height of the outbreak.
Brennan acknowledged the WHO's initial inertia but said the organisation had "done a lot of soul-searching", pointing to a "major reform" it is undergoing.
While Cuba sent doctors, Western governments offered little until foreign aid workers started falling ill and returning home for treatment, sparking fears of a global pandemic.
The concerns inched higher when three cases of infections came to light outside Africa -- two in the United States and one in Spain.
The US, Britain and other countries eventually rallied to the cause, sending thousands of troops and medics to Africa in 2014 and developing a number of promising potential vaccines and treatments.
But the economic ravages of the epidemic are still being felt.
The World Bank estimates the economic damage of the outbreak, which devastated the mining, agriculture and tourism industries in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, at $2.2 billion over 2014-15.
WHO director Margaret Chan described the next three months as "the most critical," as foreign medical groups shut down operations in west Africa and national health ministries take over.
The scientific community echoed the WHO's cautious tone, noting that much research still had to be carried out on Ebola, despite claims by Russia on Wednesday, with little accompanying detail, that it had come up with a vaccine.
"Mass travel, development, habitat encroachment, large-scale global trade and war and civil unrest mean that future outbreaks of deadly diseases like Ebola are inevitable," said Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Nottingham in Britain.
"Whilst we can try to develop vaccines and treatments for some, it won't be possible to mitigate against all threats with these types of intervention. We can't simply think job done, move on."
| Disease Outbreaks | January 2016 | ['(AFP via Yahoo!)'] |
A natural gas explosion damages several buildings and injures eight people in downtown Portland, Oregon. | A powerful natural gas explosion rocked a busy Portland, Oregon, shopping district Wednesday, injuring eight people and igniting a fire that sent a huge plume of smoke over the heart of the city.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A powerful natural gas explosion rocked a busy Portland, Oregon, shopping district Wednesday, injuring eight people and igniting a fire that sent a huge plume of smoke over the heart of the city.
Three firefighters, two police officers and three civilians were hurt and one of the firefighters was in surgery Wednesday afternoon for a broken leg, authorities said. None of the injuries appeared life-threatening.
A building that housed a bagel shop and a beauty salon in the popular NW 23rd Street shopping district was reduced to rubble and its smoldering roof was splayed across the road.
The exterior of a building next door also was ripped off. Its windows were blown out, exposing the insides of what appeared to be high-end apartments, and debris was everywhere.
Firefighters swarmed the scene and dumped water from ladder trucks onto the smoking wreckage.
Structural engineers were asked to assess the building’s integrity, and neighbors were told to shelter in place.
The situation could have been much worse.
Portland’s NW 23rd Street — nicknamed “Trendy Third” — is packed with boutiques, bars and restaurants. Many of the businesses are on the street level with pricey apartments on the upper levels, and there’s a day care in the vicinity.
But the explosion happened before 10 a.m. when many businesses were still closed, and first responders also had warning.
The utility that serves the area got a call saying that a construction crew had hit a gas line and authorities and utility workers who investigated had evacuated the building, said Melissa Moore, a spokeswoman for NW Natural.
People in the neighborhood reported smelling gas as they were evacuated and later felt the explosion.
An employee at a nearby kitchen accessories store said he was in the washroom when he felt a huge explosion and emerged to find thick smoke and haze. Scott Bergler said 15 windows in the first-floor store were blown out.
As he evacuated the Kitchen Kaboodle shop, Bergler saw a firefighter on the ground who had been knocked flat by the blast.
“He was obviously in shock and crawling and having a hard time standing up,” said Bergler, who was still visibly shaken by the ordeal as he gathered with co-workers in a parking lot.
Nicole Christiansen climbed exterior stairs to a rooftop of a nearby building so her 2-year-old son, Theo, could see everyone was safe.
The child had been evacuated from his day care center just before the blast but heard the explosion and was scared, she said. He looked on with wide eyes and clutched a crumpled napkin from an unfinished snack as firefighters poured water on the building.
“I saw the smoke from way down the hill, and I realized he was impacted,” she said. “He has to go home.”
| Gas explosion | October 2016 | ['(The Las Vegas Review–Journal)'] |
Lebanese protesters attempt to block a confidence vote, and 400 people are injured. The Lebanese Cabinet wins the vote. | Follow NBC News BEIRUT— Lebanon's new Cabinet won a vote of confidence from Parliament on Tuesday, paving the way for it to try and tackle the country's crippling economic and financial crisis, despite a day of protests and riots that left nearly 400 people injured.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab's Cabinet, which is supported by Hezbollah and its allies, won votes from the majority of parliament members present in the 128-member legislature. At the end of the day, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said 63 legislators voted in favor, 20 did not give a vote of confidence and one abstained.
Speaking ahead of the vote, Diab said he fully realized the massive task ahead but was confident it was still possible to rescue Lebanon's economy from complete collapse — and that his government would get to work immediately.
“The ball of fire is spiraling quickly and if the flame is not controlled by this government then it will burn everyone,” Diab said. “We will do all we can to put Lebanon on track of reforms.”
Earlier in the day, Lebanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters near the parliament building in Beirut, where the new Cabinet presented a policy statement on reforms.
Protesters threw stones at security forces and tried to block the lawmakers' path, delaying the start of the meeting. A group of rioters later set fire to a bank in the downtown area. Nearly 400 people, including a legislator and a journalist, were injured in the riots, some of whom were rushed to a hospital for treatment.
The meeting was held amid a crippling economic and financial crisis, Lebanon's worst in decades, and an ongoing protest movement against the country's hated political class. Amid a spiraling financial crisis, Lebanese banks have imposed informal withdrawal limits and halted transfers abroad.
"No confidence," chanted some of the protesters.
Lebanon has been gripped by anti-government protests since October. Demonstrators are calling for sweeping reforms and an end to a political class they deem as corrupt and incompetent, blaming it for the rapidly worsening financial crisis. The protests forced the resignation in October of the former prime minister, Saad Hariri.
Diab, a former professor at the American University of Beirut, was picked by the militant group Hezbollah and its allies after negotiations to bring back Hariri, who was insisting on a government of technocrats, failed.
That will make it difficult for him to gain the international community's trust and unlock badly needed assistance for the country. Friendly nations, including France, have made clear they will not support the heavily indebted nation before a reform-minded Cabinet is formed.
Diab urged the international community, and local opponents, to give his government a chance.
“Lebanon is passing through a very difficult and unprecedented time. Overcoming this period peacefully is close to impossible without assistance from abroad, as well as from the inside," he said.
Earlier in the day, a group of protesters surrounded the car of one Cabinet minister, Demianos Kattar, as he was on his way to the nearby government headquarters, pelting it with eggs and pounding it with their fists before soldiers and police pushed them away.
The protesters also attacked legislator Salim Saadeh in his car. “Thank God I am good. I thank everyone for their love,” Saadeh said in a video posted on his Twitter account, his shirt tainted with blood and his left eye blue and swollen.
“Does the protest movement approve of the attack on colleague Salim Saadeh?” parliament speaker Berri said during the parliament session.
Saadeh later went to parliament with a bandaged head and gave a speech in which he criticized widespread corruption in the country.
Protesters also attacked a cameraman working for the local OTV TV station run by loyalists to President Michel Aoun. Since the protests began nearly four months ago, journalists have been attacked by both government supporters as well as opponents.
Security forces fired tear gas in several streets leading to parliament, where protesters tried to remove parts of a giant concrete wall. In other streets, troops forced protesters from the middle of the road to allow for traffic to pass.
The protesters later smashed the front of a Beirut hotel close to parliament causing significant damage.
Near one of the entrances to parliament government supporters attacked some protesters to force them to open the way. Security forces separated the two sides. The Lebanese Red Cross said 45 injured people were taken to hospitals, while 328 others were treated on the spot.
The parliament session began with Diab reading the 16-page government statement on a rescue plan to get Lebanon out of its economic and financial crisis, the worst since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
The plan includes reforms in the judicial, financial and administrative fields, as well as plans fighting corruption and fixing the country's finances.
Lebanon has one of the highest debt ratios in the world, standing at more than 150% of GDP and worsening over recent years with no economic growth and high unemployment.
In the statement read by Diab, the prime minister said “painful” measures are needed. He asked that his government be given a chance, noting it would be difficult to extricate Lebanon from the crisis once “we reach total collapse.” He said slashing interest rates were among measures that needed to be taken in order to revive the economy and reduce the debt. | Government Job change - Election | February 2020 | ['(MSN)', '(NBC)'] |
The campaign of Jill Stein files for a recount in Pennsylvania and plans to do so in Michigan. | Recount requests filed by the Green Party’s Jill Stein continue to gain momentum in key swing states as her campaign raises millions in a matter of days.
Stein said she plans to request a recount in Michigan over its 16 electoral votes as similar cases progress in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Donald Trump was the apparent winner in all three states, defeating Hillary Clinton by margins in the range of tens of thousands of votes.
While the effort has raised more than $6 million, Stein’s campaign said in a statement the average donation was about $46. The recounts would not change the election outcome for Stein, who finished fourth behind Libertarian Gary Johnson, but there is a very small chance they could flip the states for Clinton. That result remains highly unlikely, as the Democrat would need to overcome Trump’s winning margins in all three states to wrest the Electoral College majority from him. Clinton currently leads Trump by more than 2 million in the popular vote, according to an ongoing count by the Cook Political Report.
Clinton’s campaign has said it will participate in the recount in Wisconsin while Trump claims the process is a “scam.”
@realDonaldTrump: The Green Party scam to fill up their coffers by asking for impossible recounts is now being joined by the badly defeated & demoralized Dems
In a Monday statement, Stein’s campaign said, “The recount funds are being held in a dedicated account, separate from Stein’s Presidential campaign treasury, and will be used to pay for all costs associated with the recounts, including required payments to states, lawyers, volunteer recruitment and other technical assistance.”
Below is the latest on the recounts:
On Monday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously approved a timeline and steps for a presidential election recount, following petitions from Stein and Reform Party presidential nominee Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente. Trump was the apparent winner of the state’s 10 electoral votes.
The commission said a recount order is contingent on a full payment for the process due Tuesday. If that payment is received, the recount in Wisconsin would begin on Thursday. The commission said Monday that it estimates the recount to cost $3.5 million, more than half of what Stein’s campaign has raised.
Stein initially requested a statewide recount by hand, but the Wisconsin Elections Commission said that the campaign would need a court order for that to occur.
Legal representation for the Stein campaign filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of 100 voters in Pennsylvania requesting a statewide recount. The case says a “primary purpose of the recounts” is to “determine if computer intrusions or hacking of electronic systems impacted the results” and includes an affidavit from a computer science professor.
NBC News reported that the deadline to request a precinct-by-precinct recount has already passed, but the lawsuit filed today requests a statewide recount.
The Keystone State’s 20 electoral votes pushed Trump beyond the 270 needed to win the presidency.
The Republican Party of Pennsylvania responded, saying the petition is “totally and completely without any merit.”
“It does not even allege any facts to support its wild claim that the ‘discontinuity’ of pre-election polls reported by the media showing that Hillary Clinton would win and the actual results could only have occurred through computer hacking originated by a foreign government,” Rob Gleason, chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “This desperate act by Jill Stein and those supporting her is a sad commentary on the failure of some to accept the results of the will of the people as reflected by their votes.”
On Monday, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers certified that Trump won the Great Lakes State and its 16 electoral votes, besting Clinton by 10,704 votes. Monday’s results brings Trump’s total electoral vote count to 306 versus Clinton’s 228, according to NBC News’ ongoing tally.
Stein’s campaign said in a statement it plans to demand a statewide hand-count of the results in Michigan on Wednesday. | Government Job change - Election | November 2016 | ['(CNBC)'] |
Citizens of Fiji head to the polls, electing all members of their Parliament and the consequent Prime Minister. | When it comes to a country's global standing, it's not a great look to have a coup listed on your record — let alone four in less than 20 years.
But Fiji has been trying to leave behind its reputation as a "coup-prone state", and it has the chance to do so again when it stages its national elections on Wednesday.
It's been 12 years since a Fiji government was taken over by the military. The most recent coup saw the Pacific nation become a pariah state in the eyes of Australia and much of the world.
Fast-forward to 2018 and Australia has all but put Fiji's coup history behind it. Relations between the two countries are strong, which observers say is important, given the changing geostrategic environment and China's growing influence in the Pacific region.
Over the past four years under Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama — the former military commander who staged the 2006 coup — Fiji has been raising its voice internationally, especially on climate change.
But many argue Fiji's questionable human rights record, which is largely linked to that coup history, is not entirely behind it.
ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser
When Fijians cast their votes this Wednesday, some of the names on the ballots will belong to people who played crucial roles in one or more of Fiji's four coups.
"All the parties have people associated with past coups, either directly or supporters," Steven Ratuva, the director of the MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, told the ABC's Pacific Beat program.
"They're distributed in all the parties, in different ways, in different guises."
None are more obvious than the two men vying to be Prime Minister.
ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser
The 2018 election pits the current Prime Minister, Mr Bainimarama, against another former coup leader, retired major-general Sitiveni Rabuka — a polarising figure in Fiji who instigated two coups in 1987, and the man often accused of sparking Fiji's coup culture.
But both men claim the coups are a thing of the past.
Fijian voters certainly want to believe that, and will likely be focussed on the basics when they cast their votes: jobs, the cost of living, and wages.
"We all want to believe … there will be no more coups in future," Professor Ratuva said.
"Certainly the average person on the street, the average citizen of Fiji wouldn't want any more."
Reuters: David Gray
But a climate of fear persists, with many Fijians worried about what could happen if the election results don't please certain individuals.
Fiji police commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho — himself a former military commander — has had to hose down rumours of a possible coup taking place after the November 14 poll.
"I can assure the people we are postured for any security situation that will arise, and we have been in close contact with military counterparts … They have responsibility as well," he told Fiji media.
The military has, for its part, made statements saying it will respect the outcome of the election, whoever wins.
Multinational Observer Group, file
But Jon Fraenkel, a close observer of Fiji politics at the University of Wellington, said Fiji citizens were entitled to be wary, even paranoid.
"One has to be concerned about the military, given that it's overthrown the government numerous times," he said.
"It has all sorts of immunities that are effectively written into the constitution."
The 2013 constitution is described by its backers as the first truly democratic constitution Fiji's ever had, but critics point out it grants immunity to anyone involved in the country's coups.
It also includes a clause that gives the military the "overall responsibility" to ensure security, defence and the "well-being" of Fiji and all Fijians.
"The role of military has been redefined by the new constitution," Professor Ratuva said.
"The same way as the constitution of Turkey and Thailand have been designed for the purpose of maintaining security, which gives [the military] particular power to intervene when they find it necessary."
ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser
However Fijians won't even know until tomorrow, less than two days before the poll, whether Sitiveni Rabuka will be allowed to contest the election. His fate lies in the hands of the courts.
Fiji's Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) has appealed a Suva Magistrates Court decision to acquit Mr Rabuka on charges of failing to declare tax liabilities with the electoral office.
The lawyers for FICAC have pushed for Mr Rabuka to be convicted rather than face a re-trial. If he was to be convicted, that would disqualify him from contesting the election.
"The whole election's been thrown into a kind of chaos already with the charges pursued against the leader of opposition, Sitiveni Rabuka," Professor Fraenkel said.
A former top Fijian diplomat has warned that their trip could influence the crucial vote.
Tens of thousands of people have already voted in pre-polling.
Fiji's Electoral Office has been seeking legal advice on what would happen to votes cast for Mr Rabuka during early polling in the past week.
Under Fiji laws, votes cast for candidates who are disqualified before the polling date would not be counted.
But votes cast for candidates like Mr Rabuka are important under Fiji's relatively new and radically altered electoral system, introduced in 2013, which has just one electorate.
Parties are allocated seats in parliament according to the total percentage of votes they win.
In 2014, Mr Bainimarama personally won just over 200,000 votes, about 40 per cent of all votes cast.
ABC: Jemima Garrett
The Bainimarama Government has been intent on introducing major reforms that would reduce simmering racial tensions, which have long been linked to Fijian politics, and fix its economy which was damaged by political instability.
"The economy's been chugging along domestically, which is why the regime has been able to get some domestic stability," Professor Fraenkel said.
A key contributor has been Australia's re-engagement following the 2014 election, when then-foreign minister Julie Bishop announced the Government had lifted the last remaining sanctions it had slapped on Fiji following the 2006 coup.
At the time she described it as a "new era" in diplomatic relations, and Canberra now describes its relationship with Fiji as "strong".
Two-way trade between the countries has been increasing and was worth $2.13 billion in 2016-17.
Australia has also moved to re-engage with the Fiji military after years of sanctions, and recently announced it would help Fiji to redevelop its Blackrock military base into a regional hub for police and peacekeeping training.
"The relationship has grown from strength to strength," Australia's new Assistant Minister for the Pacific Anne Ruston said.
"We would certainly look forward to continuing to work with the Government of Fiji, the current one and whoever that government might be after the 14th of November, to make sure that the processes and the electoral model in Fiji is one that reflects the will of the people."
But Professor Ratuva said that while relations have normalised as a result of Fiji's move to democracy, this should be viewed in light of the changing geostrategic landscape.
Xinhua
When Fiji was left out in the cold by Australia and its allies — and even prior to the 2006 coup — Fiji had adopted a "Look North" policy that included strengthening ties with China and Russia.
"Australia is keen to have Fiji on board as a friend, because at the time of its suspension, it's been able to leverage its power to link up [with] the Chinese and become a significant player in the global scene and also within the Pacific," Professor Ratuva said.
"For Australia, dealing with Fiji in a mutually engaging way is a good way of moving forward and maintaining Australia's interest and strategic value in the Pacific." | Government Job change - Election | November 2018 | ['(Australian Broadcasting Corporation)'] |
A Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a market in Al Hudaydah Governorate, Yemen, kills at least 20 civilians and six Houthi militants. | By Afp Published: 20:13 BST, 10 March 2017 | Updated: 20:48 BST, 10 March 2017 A Saudi-led Arab coalition air strike tried to target rebels on the southern outskirts of the Red Sea port of Khoukha
An air strike by a Saudi-led Arab coalition on a market in Yemen killed 20 civilians and six rebels on Friday, medical and military sources said.
The aircraft tried to target rebels at a roadblock on the southern outskirts of the Red Sea port of Khokha, but the fighters fled to a market where they were attacked, the sources said.
The raid took place at the entrance to the market that sells the mild narcotic leaf qat, which is very popular among Yemeni men.
A military source close to Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi said that by fleeing to the market, the rebels had used civilians as "human shields".
The rebel television channel Al-Masirah also reported the air strike, but give a slightly higher toll of 27 killed and said dozens more were wounded.
The Saudi-led coalition which has been battling Shiite Huthi rebels opposed to Hadi was not immediately available for comment.
The Arab force has come under repeated criticism over civilian casualties in Yemen.
In December, it acknowledged that it had made "limited use" of British-made cluster bombs but said it had stopped using them.
On Thursday, Amnesty International accused the coalition of using banned Brazilian-manufactured cluster munitions in raids on residential areas in northern Saada province, a Shiite stronghold.
In mid-February, a coalition air strike killed eight women and a child at a funeral reception near the rebel-held Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
Meanwhile, the rebel news agency Sabanews.net reported Friday that a coalition boat hit a mine off the coast of Yemen's historic port of Mokha on Thursday and exploded, causing casualties.
Pro-Hadi forces took Mokha from the insurgents on February 10 and said they aimed to push north to retake the country's main Red Sea port of Hodeida next.
On Monday, at least 16 Huthis were killed in a coalition air strike northeast of Hodeida and 23 others were wounded, medical and military sources said.
Khokha is south of Hodeida.
The conflict in Yemen has left more than 7,400 people dead and 40,000 wounded since the coalition intervened on the government's side in March 2015, the United Nations says. | Armed Conflict | March 2017 | ['(AFP via Daily Mail)'] |
BP is accused by Transocean of trying to keep secret data required to investigate the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. | Energy giant BP has been accused of hiding key data needed to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
Transocean, the company that owned the oil rig, alleged that BP is refusing to hand over information it needs about the explosion.
The claim is made in a letter from one of Transocean's lawyers sent to members of President Barack Obama's cabinet.
BP rejected the allegation, saying the letter contained "misguided and misleading assertions".
Nevertheless, the claim risks piling further pressure on BP, which has borne the brunt of political and public criticism for the disaster on 20 April which killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in US history.
In the letter, Steven L Roberts, lawyer for Transocean, writes: "BP has continued to demonstrate its unwillingness, if not outright refusal, to deliver even the most basic information to Transocean.
"This is troubling, both in light of BP's frequently stated public commitment to openness and a fair investigation and because it appears that BP is withholding evidence in an attempt to prevent any other entity other than BP from investigating," he wrote.
According to a report by the AFP news agency, the letter was sent to members of Mr Obama's team and leading Members of Congress. Transocean is facing 249 lawsuits for damages over the disaster. The company has asked a court to limit its liabilities to $27m (17.3m), saying it was not responsible.
Toxic plume
A scientific study of the effects of the spill, meanwhile, has confirmed the continued presence of a toxic chemical residue one kilometre below the sea surface.
The investigation, carried out in June by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, shows a plume of crude oil-based chemicals up to 200m high and 2km wide, extending 35km from the spill site.
In a statement, BP said it was "unequivocal and steadfast" in its commitment to discover why the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded.
"We are disappointed that Transocean has opted to write a letter with so many misguided and misleading assertions, including the assertion that BP is 'withholding evidence'" on the explosion and spill.
"We have been at the forefront of co-operating with various investigations commissioned by the US government and others into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy," BP said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP via France24)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
At least 12 million people are now affected by the worst floods in the history of Pakistan with 1,600 people being killed and 650,000 homes being destroyed. | PAKISTAN LAST night braced itself for further torrential rains as aid agencies struggled to cope with the growing scale of what officials now believe is the biggest disaster in the history of the state.
“We’re forecasting widespread rains in the country, especially in flood-affected areas,” Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director general of the country’s meteorological department, said.
Some 12 million people have now been affected by the worst flooding in memory, according to Pakistani officials, and more than 650,000 houses have been destroyed.
Gen Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, said those figures applied only to the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and central Punjab provinces, with figures from the southern Sindh province not yet available.
By comparison, the earthquake that hit Pakistan in 2005 affected 3.2 million people and damaged or destroyed 611,000 homes.
At least 1,600 people have been killed by the floods, which started last week when heavy rains struck the northwest of Pakistan. Villages have been swept away and vast swathes of agricultural land are under water. Food supplies are running low in some areas and health experts warn conditions are ripe for the spread of disease.
As swollen rivers flow south, fears of further large-scale destruction have prompted mass evacuations. In the Sindh province, half a million people have been evacuated from low-lying areas of the Indus river.
The cost of rebuilding roads and other infrastructure damaged so far is estimated in excess of €1 billion.
“In my opinion, when assessments are complete, this will be the biggest disaster in the history of Pakistan,” Gen Ahmed said yesterday.
Similar remarks were made by prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in a televised address. He called on the international community and Pakistanis living abroad to contribute towards relief efforts. Aid agencies, including Concern and Trócaire, have launched emergency appeals.
Cecil Dunne, Trócaire’s emergency officer in Pakistan, noted the situation in the country’s northwestern region was already acute following a military offensive against home-grown Taliban last summer that drove entire communities from their homes. “Now people are on the run again, their homes, crops and livestock destroyed for a second time.
“People . . . desperately need our support not only in the coming weeks but in the years that it will take to rebuild communities.”
Meanwhile, criticism of Pakistan’s government has intensified as the scale of the disaster becomes apparent, with particular anger directed at president Asif Ali Zardari, who went ahead with state visits to Britain and France this week.
Zardari’s absence at the height of the disaster has stirred resentment in the most affected regions.
“This trip seems to have been the litmus test, and any benefit of the doubt that the president had remaining in his favour has now entirely ceased to exist in the eyes of the public,” said Fasi Zaka, a radio presenter and columnist.
The relief effort includes Islamic charities, among them the Falah- e-Insaniat Foundation, a banned group that has been linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. There are fears militants may exploit growing anger felt in the worst-hit regions.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power said his department was in close contact with the UN and aid agencies to determine the best way Ireland could assist in relief efforts. | Floods | August 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(BBC)', '(Sky News)', '(The Irish Times)'] |
US Airways Express Flight 4560, with 34 people aboard is forced to make a belly landing at Newark International Airport after experiencing landing gear trouble. No injuries are reported | US Airways spokesperson Davien Anderson tells The Associated Press that a turboprop plane that left Philadelphia shortly before 23:00 on Friday landed safely at Newark with its landing gear retracted at about 01:00 on Saturday.
Anderson said the flight, being operated by Piedmont Airlines, was carrying 31 passengers and three crew members. He says the plane circled Newark in a holding pattern while working to get the gear down. After several failed attempts to get the gear down, the plane landed on its belly.
Anderson says the passengers were evacuated to the terminal by bus. He says US Airways is co-operating with the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.
| Air crash | May 2013 | ['(AP via News24)', '(CNN)'] |
Bernie Sanders concedes the Missouri primary to Hillary Clinton, who led by 1,531 votes, 0.2 percent of those counted. Sanders says he will not ask for a recount, an option he had because the result is under the state's requirement, 0.5 percent — one-half of one percent. The Republican contest is too close to call as Donald Trump leads Ted Cruz by a similar 0.2 percent. | WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders said Thursday he will not seek a recount of results in Missouri's Democratic presidential primary, conceding defeat to Hillary Clinton.
"I think it's unlikely the results will impact at all the number of delegates the candidate gets and I would prefer to save the taxpayers of Missouri some money," Sanders said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Whether we win by 200 votes or lose by 500, it's not going to impact the delegate selection," the Vermont senator added. "It's going to be evenly divided." Clinton ended Tuesday night with a narrow lead of 1,531 votes, but under state law, Sanders could have sought a recount because the margin was less than one-half of one percent. Clinton will get an extra two delegates from Missouri for winning the statewide vote. The win in Missouri means Clinton won all five of Tuesday's Democratic primary contests. She also beat Sanders in Florida, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina. The Republican race in Missouri remains too close to call between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz | Government Job change - Election | March 2016 | ['(AP via MSN.com)'] |
A vehicle is driven into a group of people on a street in Stockholm, Sweden, killing four people. | STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A truck ploughed into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing four people and wounding 15 in what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist attack.
Police said they had detained one person in a northern Stockholm suburb after earlier circulating a picture of a man wearing a grey hoodie in connection with the investigation into the attack on Drottninggatan (Queen Street) using a hijacked beer truck.
Prosecutors ordered the man arrested on suspicion of terror crime through the act of murder. He was arrested on the highest level of suspicion in the Swedish legal system.
Swedish public service radio, citing a source at an unidentified German authority, reported that the suspect in custody was Uzbek. A police spokesperson declined to comment on the information.
Local authorities in the capital said early Saturday that six of the injured had been able to leave hospital while eight adults and one child remained hospitalized.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported police had detained a second man and that he had a connection to the previously arrested person, citing police sources. The police declined to comment on whether it had arrested any additional suspects.
“Our message will always be clear: you will not defeat us, you will not govern our lives, you will never, ever win,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who had earlier described the assault as a terrorist attack, told a news conference.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Police said security at Swedish borders had been heightened. They did not rule out the possibility other attackers were involved.
“I turned around and saw a big truck coming towards me. It swerved from side to side. It didn’t look out of control. It was trying to hit people,” Glen Foran, an Australian tourist in his 40s, told Reuters.
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“It hit people; it was terrible. It hit a pram with a kid in it, demolished it,” he said.
“It took a long time for police to get here. I suppose from their view it was quick, but it felt like forever.”
The area of the attack in central Stockholm was evacuated, including the main rail station, and remained cordoned off late on Friday. All subway traffic was halted on police orders and government offices were closed.
A Reuters witness at the scene saw police officers put what appeared to be two bodies into body bags.
Bloody tyre tracks showed the path of the truck, which was stolen by a masked hijacker while making a beer delivery to a tapas bar further up Drottninggatan, according to Spendrups Brewery spokesman Marten Lyth.
“We were standing by the traffic lights at Drottninggatan and then we heard some screaming and saw a truck coming,” a witness who declined to be named told Reuters.
“Then it drove into a pillar at (department store) Ahlens City, where the hood started burning. When it stopped we saw a man lying under the tyre. It was terrible to see,” said the man, who saw the incident from his car.
Police said four people had died and 15 were injured. National news agency TT said those hurt included the delivery driver, who had tried to stop the hijack.
Several attacks in which trucks or cars have driven into crowds have taken place in Europe in the past year. Al Qaeda in 2010 urged its followers to use trucks as a weapon.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in Nice, France, last July, when a truck killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day, and one in Berlin in December, when a truck smashed through a Christmas market, killing 12 people.
“Hijacking a truck, that has happened before,” Magnus Ranstorp, head of terrorism research at the Swedish Defence University, told Reuters.
“And this is a pretty cunning modus operandi. To drive to Ahlens and stop ... There is a way down to the subway just a few metres away from there, and then you ... can jump on any train you want and quickly disappear.”
Stockholmers opened up their homes and offered lifts to people who were unable to get home or needed a place to stay.
“Our thoughts are going out to those that were affected, and to their families,” Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf said in a statement, while European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said an attack on any of the bloc’s member states “is an attack on us all”.
The attack was the latest to hit the Nordic region after shootings in Danish capital Copenhagen in 2015 that killed three people and the 2011 bombing and shooting by far right extremist Anders Behring Breivik that killed 77 people in Norway.
Sweden has not seen a large-scale attack, although in December 2010 a failed suicide bombing killed the attacker only a few hundred yards from the site of Friday’s incident.
In February U.S. President Donald Trump falsely suggested there had been an immigration-related security incident in Sweden, to the bafflement of Swedes.
Swedish authorities raised the national security threat level to four on a scale of five in October 2010 but lowered the level to three, indicating a “raised threat”, in March 2016.
Police in Norway’s largest cities and at Oslo airport will carry weapons until further notice following the attack. Denmark has been on high alert since the February 2015 shootings. Traffic was restricted on the Oresund Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden at the request of Swedish police.
Neutral Sweden has not fought a war in more than 200 years, but its military has taken part in U.N. peacekeeping missions in a number of conflict zones in recent years, including Iraq, Mali and Afghanistan.
The Sapo security police said in its annual report it was impossible to say how big a risk there was that Sweden would be targeted like other European cities, but that, if so “it is most likely that it would be undertaken by a lone attacker”.
Reporting by Stockholm newsroom; Writing by Gwladys Fouche, Johan Ahlander and Niklas Pollard; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Richard Pullin
| Road Crash | April 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
French judges clear the Tarnac Nine, accused of performing an anarchist terror sabotage in a controversial trial, of wrongdoing and describe the existence of a terror group as a "fiction". Defence lawyers had accused ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy's government of misusing counterterror law. | French judges have acquitted eight people accused of being part of an anarchist group that attempted to sabotage part of France’s high-speed rail network a decade ago, ruling that the group itself had been a “fiction”.
Defence lawyers had accused the government and authorities under the former rightwing president Nicolas Sarkozy of wrongly claiming there was a hotbed of leftwing anarchist terrorists in a sleepy village in central France and manipulating the case in order to look tough. The notorious case, known as the Tarnac affair, began in November 2008 when more than a hundred French police officers swooped on the tiny rural village of Tarnac, arresting anti-capitalists who were living on a communal farm and running a village shop. In a vast media operation, the then rightwing government and French authorities alleged that the so-called Tarnac Nine were a cell of dangerous subversives intent on anarchist armed insurrection to overthrow the state.
At the time, villagers and the accused denied the charges, rights groups said the case was a misuse of anti-terrorism laws and lawyers said the case was deliberately being manipulated to make the government look tough against a supposed “enemy within”. After 10 years of investigation in which terrorist charges were dropped and a three week trial, the two main accused Julien Coupat, a business and sociology graduate, and his archeologist girlfriend, Yildune Lévy were cleared of sabotage or belonging to any group. “The hearing has allowed it to be demonstrated that the Tarnac group was a fiction,” the leading judge said. Coupat and Lévy were found guilty of refusing to consent to a biological DNA test, but weren’t given a sentence. Of eight defendants five men and three women, aged between 31 and 43 the rest were also cleared of belonging to a subversive group. But one was convicted of handling stolen goods and attempting to falsify administrative documents. “This is a humiliation for the anti-terrorism services of the time, for the magistrate who instructed the case, as well as for the anti-terrorist prosecutor,” said the lawyer Jérémie Assous, who defended several of those acquitted.
It emerged during the investigation that a former British police spy had infiltrated the group and made claims against them. French authorities did not pursue charges on those elements and Coupat had described the spy as “insignificant”. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Raif Badawi, the editor of a Saudi Arabian website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, is sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for founding an Internet forum that "violates Islamic values and propagates liberal thought." | RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The editor of a Saudi Arabian social website has been sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for founding an Internet forum that violates Islamic values and propagates liberal thought, Saudi media reported on Tuesday.
Raif Badawi, who started the "Free Saudi Liberals" website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, has been held since June 2012 on charges of cyber crime and disobeying his father - a crime in the conservative kingdom and top U.S. ally.
Al-Watan newspaper said the judge had also ordered the closure of the website.
France was concerned by the sentence and remained committed to "freedom of opinion and of expression", the foreign ministry said in a statement. Officials from the Saudi National Society for Human Rights could not be reached for comment.
Badawi's website included articles that were critical of senior religious figures such as the Grand Mufti, according to Human Rights Watch.
The watchdog said in December that Badawi faced a possible death sentence after a judge cited him for apostasy, but Al-Watan said the judge dropped the apostasy charges.
Apostasy, the act of changing religious affiliation, carries an automatic death sentence in Saudi Arabia, along with other crimes including blasphemy.
Badawi's wife denied her husband had expressed repentance before the judge on Monday at a court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. "The judge asked Raif 'Are you a Muslim?' and he said 'Yes, and I don't accept anyone to cast doubt on (my belief)'," she wrote on Twitter.
The world's top oil exporter follows the strict Wahhabi school of Islam and applies Islamic law, or sharia.
Judges base their decisions on their own interpretation of religious law rather than on a written legal code or on precedent.
King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's ruler, has pushed for reforms to the legal system, including improved training for judges and the introduction of precedent to standardize verdicts and make courts more transparent.
However, Saudi lawyers say that conservatives in the Justice Ministry and the judiciary have resisted implementing many of the changes announced in 20 | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2013 | ['(Reuters via New York Daily News)'] |
The trial of Catalonia independence leaders starts at the Spanish Supreme Court. | A little less than 16 months ago, the nine men and three women sitting on the plush burgundy benches of Madrid’s supreme court were ministers in the Catalan regional government and high-profile civic leaders.
On Tuesday morning, however, they stepped out of prison vans to take their places as the defendants in landmark proceedings variously described as the trial of the century, a “stress test for Spanish democracy”, and the single most important judicial event the country has seen since the end of the Franco dictatorship.
The dozen are standing trial over their alleged roles in the regional independence crisis that pitched Spain into its worst political turmoil for four decades.
During the next three months, seven supreme court judges will investigate the roles the accused played in the run-up to the independence referendum in October 2017 and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence.
Nine of the defendants – who include the former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, the former speaker of the Catalan parliament Carme Forcadell and two influential grassroots activists, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez – are accused of rebellion, which carries a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
Other charges include sedition and the misuse of public funds.
The tone for the trial was quickly set by the heavy police and media presence, the protesters outside the court who greeted the arrival of Catalonia’s pro-independence president, Quim Torra, with cries of “Coup perpetrator!”, and by the first defence lawyer to speak.
Junqueras’ advocate, Andreu Van den Eynde, dismissed the case as a politically motivated exercise and told the court that prosecutors were trying to criminalise displays of free expression and curtail the defendants’ right to argue for self-determination.
“No international or EU law blocks the secession of a regional entity; self-determination is synonymous with peace and not war,” he said.
Van den Eynde, who is also representing the former Catalan foreign minister Raül Romeva, said his clients’ freedom of expression had been violated.
“The political arena is a free space,” he said. “Freedom of expression extends even to those ideas that shock and offend.”
He described the complicated legal process as a “procedural vaudeville” and said it was intended to put Catalan independence itself on trial.
Jordi Pina, a lawyer representing the Catalan MP and former civil society leader Jordi Sànchez, called for the court to allow testimony from King Felipe, arguing that the Spanish monarch’s controversial speech two days after the referendum had been cited in prosecution documents.
The king had accused Catalan authorities of attempting to break “the unity of Spain” and warned that their push for independence could risk the country’s social and economic stability.
Pina also urged the court to reconsider its decision not to allow testimony from the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont via videolink from Brussels.
The trial – which began shortly after 10.20am on Tuesday and is being broadcast on television – will focus on the Puigdemont government’s decision to hold the referendum despite repeated warnings that it would violate the constitution, which stresses the “indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation”.
Although Catalan pro-independence parties have never managed to win 50% of the vote in the regional parliament, and although polls consistently show Catalonia is roughly evenly split over the independence issue, Puigdemont’s administration chose to press ahead with the vote.
Pro-independence parties managed to get a law paving the way for the referendum passed in the regional parliament in early September 2017, despite furious objections from opposition MPs, who complained that usual procedures had been disregarded.
The law was subsequently suspended and eventually struck down by Spain’s constitutional court.
But the Catalan government opted to hold the referendum, which was marred by violence. Spanish police officers raided polling stations, charged crowds with batons and fired rubber bullets in their attempts to stop the vote.
According to the Catalan government, about 2.3 million of Catalonia’s 5.3 million registered voters – 43% – took part in the referendum, and about 90% of participants backed independence. The vote was largely boycotted by unionist Catalans.
On 27 October, shortly after secessionist Catalan MPs voted to declare independence, the Spanish government of the then prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, won senate backing to sack Puigdemont and his cabinet and assume direct control of Catalonia.
Defence lawyers will seek to undermine the rebellion charges. They will point out that, under Spanish law, rebellion consists of “revolting violently and publicly”, and argue that none of those charged with the offence engaged in violence.
Speaking to the Guardian and a small group of other European reporters in Madrid on the eve of the trial, the Catalan president, Quim Torra, criticised the charges.
“The only violence we saw throughout September and October [2017] was from the Spanish police,” he said. “They tried to stop citizens from going to vote peacefully on 1 October. But this has all been turned on its head. There was no violence, everyone saw there was no violence.”
The case will once again bring international attention to the enduring tensions between the Madrid government and the pro-independence regional government of Catalonia.
The president of the supreme court, Carlos Lesmes, has described the proceedings as “the most important trial that we’ve held since democracy [returned]”.
But on Monday night, Torra said: “As far as we’re concerned, Spanish justice has pretty much zero credibility.”
His sacked predecessor, meanwhile, called the trial a “stress test for Spanish democracy” and a test for the country’s judiciary.
Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, Puigdemont described his former colleagues on trial as “honourable, innocent, democratic people,” and insisted there were “no criminal violations of the Spanish criminal law”.
The start of the trial led some Catalan pro-independence protesters to briefly block several roads before dawn, setting fire to tyres and holding up traffic. Protests were called in Barcelona for 7pm. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2019 | ['(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Ten decapitated bodies are discovered inside an abandoned vehicle along a roadside in the Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila. Reportedly, a written message was left behind by the perpetrators. | The decapitated bodies of three women and seven men have been found in an abandoned lorry in the northern Mexican city of Torreon, police say.
One head was found on the windscreen. The others were dumped by the roadside, along with threatening messages.
They were found after a night of violence across northern Mexico.
National Security Spokesman Alejandro Poire attributed the beheadings to a battle between two drugs gangs, the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel.
Police said the 10 had probably been killed a few days back, as the bodies were showing signs of decomposition. During the previous night at least 40 people were killed in suspected drug-related violence. Mr Poire said the government was not letting up in its fight against the drug cartels. "The violence won't stop if we stop battling criminals," he said. In January, the government of President Felipe Calderon said more than 34,000 people had been killed in a four-year offensive against drug gangs.
| Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the only person to have won both an Academy Award and a Booker Prize, dies at the age of 85. | Writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, whose scripts for Howards End and A Room With A View earned her two Oscars, has died.
The 85-year-old made more than 20 films with producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory over 40 years.
She also won the Booker Prize for her 1975 novel Heat and Dust, meaning she was the only person to have won an Oscar and the Booker.
Born in Germany, she fled the Nazis as a schoolgirl and spent much of her life in India. She died at home in New York.
She had been suffering from a pulmonary disorder and is survived by husband Cyrus and daughters Renana, Ava and Firoza-Bibi.
Born into a Jewish family, she fled Nazi Germany in 1939 with her parents and brother to begin a new life in Britain. After meeting her future husband in London, Jhabvala moved with him to his native India in the 1950s, where she was visited by Merchant and Ivory to ask if they could make a film of her 1960 novel The Householder.
She agreed to write the screenplay and it was to mark the beginning of a fruitful partnership. The trio's films included A Room With a View and Howards End, for which Jhabvala collected the Academy Award in 1987 and 1993 respectively. Both were adapted from novels by EM Forster.
She was nominated for a third Oscar in 1994 for the script for The Remains of the Day.
Jhabvala's former publisher Nick Perren paid tribute to the author, telling the BBC: "She gave the impression of being quite withdrawn but she was extraordinarily interested in people.
"She was an accurate commentator on the world around her.
"She had the rare gift of observation that comes from people born into a completely different culture who have had to learn a new language."
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1999, Jhabvala said: "Film, for me is in two stages.
"One is when I write the script more or less on my own, that's the nice bit. And then comes for me the unpleasant bit when they all go off, 100 people - actors and camera people and film and sound - and I stay away.
"When they go into the editing room, I come in again and that's the bit I like."
When asked whether it was akin to handing one's baby over, she added: "Film is not like a book, it's not a writer's baby at all. "So many people have put in their talent by that time that you feel grateful for what they've done, you don't feel possessive about it in any way."
Actress Emma Thompson, who starred in The Remains of the Day and Howards End, said of Jhabvala in 1993: "She's a novelist, so she understands the art of adapting novels better than most anyone else.
"She understands the process, the 'buzz of implication' that surrounds words… Ruth understands it completely."
| Famous Person - Death | April 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
JAXA's Hayabusa2 space probe makes its second successful and final landing on Apollo asteroid 162173 Ryugu. | Unmanned craft – about the size of a large refrigerator – plans to collect ground samples, some 300 million kilometres from Earth
Last modified on Thu 11 Jul 2019 18.20 BST
A Japanese spacecraft has successfully landed on a distant asteroid where it hopes to collect samples that could shed light on the evolution of the solar system.
Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) observing the landing from a control room on the southern island of Tanegashima applauded and made “V” for victory signs after the Hayabusa2 probe landed on the asteroid on Thursday morning local time.
“The touchdown is successful,” Jaxa spokesman Takayuki Tomobe said.
The agency said the probe had been working normally above Ryugu asteroid, some 300m km (185m miles) from Earth.
Its landing is the second time the probe has touched down on the desolate asteroid as part of a complex mission that has also involved sending rovers and robots.
[PPTD] July 11 at 10:51 JST: Gate 5 check. The state of the spacecraft is normal and the touchdown sequence was performed as scheduled. Project Manager Tsuda has declared that the 2nd touchdown was a success!
The mission hopes to collect pristine materials from beneath the surface of the asteroid that could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth 4.6bn years ago. The agency said it would be the first time a probe has taken particles from below the surface of an asteroid.
To get at those crucial materials, in April an “impactor” was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid’s surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.
Jaxa said the samples could contain organic materials and water.
“This is the second touchdown, but doing a touchdown is a challenge whether it’s the first or the second,” Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager, told reporters ahead of the mission.
“The whole team will do our best so that we’ll be able to complete the operation,” he said.
Hayabusa2’s first touchdown was in February, when it landed briefly on Ryugu and fired 5g pellet at more than 1,050km per hour (650mph) into the asteroid’s surface to puff up dust for collection, before blasting back to its holding position.
Thursday’s second touchdown required special preparations because any problems could have meant the probe lost the precious materials already gathered during its first landing.
The probe began its descent on Wednesday from its usual stationary position 20km above the asteroid, and is believed to have touched down on a targeted area located about 20 metres from the artificial crater’s centre.
During its brief time on the asteroid, Hayabusa2 collected samples from the crater formed in February via a tube that retrieved the unidentified “ejecta” as it floated up.
A photo of the crater taken by Hayabusa2’s camera showed that parts of the asteroid’s surface are covered with materials that are “obviously different” from the rest of the surface, mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters. “I’m really looking forward to analysing these materials.”
Tsuda said: “It would be safe to say that extremely attractive materials are near the crater.”
The probe will return to Earth next year, when scientists hope to learn more about the history of the solar system and even the origin of life from its samples.
At about the size of a large refrigerator and powered by solar panels, Hayabusa2 is the successor to Jaxa’s first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa – Japanese for falcon.
That probe returned with dust samples from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010, despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey and was hailed as a scientific triumph.
Hayabusa2’s photos of Ryugu, which means “Dragon Palace” in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale, show the asteroid has a rough surface full of boulders.
The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014 at a cost of around 30bn yen ($270m). It reached its stationary position above Ryugu in June last year after travelling 3.2bn km on an elliptical orbit around the sun for more than three years, according to Kyodo news agency.
If the rest of its historical mission goes to plan, Hayabusa2 will return to its landing site in Woomera, South Australia, at the end of 2020.
In 2005, NASA’s Deep Impact project succeeded in creating an artificial crater on a comet but only for observation purposes. | New achievements in aerospace | July 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A rally of war veterans in Kiev calls for Ukraine to abandon the Minsk II ceasefire agreement and to declare war on pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region. Despite two ceasefire agreements since September, combat operations, including the use of heavy artillery and ballistic missiles, never stopped. | About 1,000 Ukrainian pro-government fighters and far-right supporters have marched through the centre of the capital, Kiev.
Many burned tyres and wore balaclavas; some carried white supremacist flags.
They called on the government to end the Minsk ceasefire accord and declare war on pro-Russian rebels in the east.
The demonstrators say the Russian government is bringing troops and equipment into Ukraine, a claim that Russia has always denied.
Many in the rally were from volunteer battalions and were dressed in their battle fatigues.
They said they had returned from fighting Russian forces and demanded an end to all diplomatic relations with Russia.
The ultra-nationalist Right Sector group called the march. Protesters also demanded the nationalisation of Russian-owned businesses. More than 6,400 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine that began in April 2014 when rebels seized large parts of the two eastern regions. This followed Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula.
The BBC's David Stern in Kiev says Friday's rally was a show of strength in the heart of Ukrainian officialdom. But above all, our correspondent says, the demonstrators were calling for change. Both in the way that the conflict is being fought in the east and in the way that the country is being run. Central to their demands is an end to the Minsk ceasefire agreement signed in February which they say is a charade because of Russia's activities in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government, Western leaders and Nato all say there is clear evidence that Russia is helping the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions with heavy weapons and soldiers. Independent experts echo that accusation.
But Moscow denies it, insisting that any Russians serving with the rebels are volunteers.
Clashes between government troops and rebels have recently intensified. Fierce fighting took place in June outside the rebel-held city of Donetsk, with Ukraine accusing the rebels of launching a full-scale offensive in violation of a truce. The separatists denied this and accused Ukrainian troops stationed nearby of repeatedly shelling the city - a claim in turn denied by the Ukrainian military. | Armed Conflict | July 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Eleven people are killed and 19 others are injured after a truck and a passenger bus collide on the G15 Shenyang–Haikou Expressway in Jiangsu province, China. | Eleven people were killed and 19 people injured after a truck and a passenger bus collided in eastern China on Sunday, authorities said.
The accident happened in the early hours of Sunday, with the truck crossing the central divider in the middle of a highway in the eastern province of Jiangsu and colliding with a bus traveling in the opposite direction, causing the bus to overturn.
The crash also caused two other trucks driving behind the bus to roll over as they attempted to avoid the accident, according to a statement by the traffic management bureau of China’s Ministry of Public Security, which is investigating the crash.
The passenger bus was travelling between Shanghai and Jiangsu, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Speeding, dangerous passing, poorly maintained vehicles and fatigued drivers are most often the cause of serious traffic accidents in China. In 2019, there were nearly 248,000 traffic accidents with nearly 63,000 deaths, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. | Road Crash | April 2021 | ['(South China Morning Post)', '(USA Today)'] |
The Attorney General of Mexico issues an arrest warrant for the former Governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, for suspected involvement in organized crime and money laundering. | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has ordered the arrest of an outgoing state governor in the ruling party suspected of corruption, as well as one of his opposition contemporaries, the government said on Wednesday, as it seeks to quell public discontent about its record on graft.
Attorney General Arely Gomez said an arrest warrant was issued for outgoing Veracruz governor Javier Duarte on suspicion of involvement in organized crime and money laundering, just a few days after he took a leave of absence from the job.
The government also said it was seeking the arrest of Guillermo Padres, a member of the opposition center-right National Action Party battling allegations of corruption who governed the northwestern state of Sonora until last year.
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s credibility has been damaged by accusations he has been soft on corruption and he himself became embroiled in an embarrassing conflict-of-interest scandal in 2014 that included his wife and then-finance minister.
Duarte, a member of Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has become the most public face of the government’s inability to silence its critics over graft, and party insiders have for weeks said that his arrest was imminent.
Duarte’s whereabouts are currently unknown, and Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong stressed he would be caught.
“It’s down to us to capture (him) now,” he told local radio. “We’ve done it with others, and we’ll do it with the two they’re looking for now, the one from Sonora and the one from Veracruz.”
Attorney General Gomez was speaking at a news conference in the city of Acapulco when she announced the arrest order for Duarte, adding that warrants were also issued for nine of his associates. Two of them were arrested on Tuesday, she said.
Duarte, who presided over a spike in gang violence and kidnappings in Veracruz, as well a doubling of state debt, has denied any wrongdoing. He could not be reached for comment.
Duarte has not appeared in public since giving an interview on Mexican television last week. On Wednesday evening, the PRI said it would proceed with the process of expelling Duarte, calling him to testify before its justice committee next week.
Two government officials said the attorney general’s office was seeking Padres’ arrest, but could not specify the charges.
This month, the PAN provisionally stripped Padres of his party rights, citing outstanding investigations into suspected corruption. Padres could not immediately be reached for comment.
Reporting by Anahi Rama and Natalie Schachar; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Dave Graham and Richard Chang
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At a hearing in New York City, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who aided him with a search in Ukraine for detrimental information on President Trump's political opponents, plead not guilty to charges that they funneled $350,000 in illegal donations to a pro-Trump political committee and another $20,000 to former Republican Congressman Pete Sessions while acting on behalf of at least one Ukrainian government official. | Two associates of Rudy Giuliani linked to the Ukraine scandal pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of funneling money from foreign entities to U.S. candidates in a plot to buy political influence.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were carrying one-way tickets to Vienna when they were arrested at Dulles Airport outside of Washington D.C. on Oct. 9.
The foreign-born Florida men were charged with making $325,000 in illegal straw donations to a Trump super PAC, according to the indictment, as well as giving $15,000 to a second committee among a flurry of political donations intended to help them gain access to politicians.
New York federal prosecutors say Parnas and Fruman engaged in a scheme with a Ukrainian official, identified by NBC News as former chief prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, to oust the then-U.S. ambassador in Ukraine.
The removal of the former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in May is now at the center of the impeachment inquiry by House Democrats, who accuse President Donald Trump of abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation of Joe Biden, his political rival, and Biden's son.
Giuliani is not named in the court documents but he has previously said Parnas and Fruman assisted him in the Ukrainian plot.
The Giuliani team saw Yovanovitch as an obstacle to their objectives digging up derogatory information on former vice president Biden and smoothing the way for a possible natural gas deal in Ukraine, former officials previously told NBC News.
Parnas and Fruman are also accused of participating in a separate scheme that involved making political donations funded by an unidentified foreign national who was nervous about his "his Russian roots and current political paranoia about it,” according to the indictment.
The purpose of those donations was to help gain access to recreational marijuana licenses so that they could form a marijuana business in Nevada, the indictment said. The venture never came to fruition, according to prosecutors.
In May 2018, the two men gave $325,000 to the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action through an LLC, Global Energy Producers, the group confirmed to NBC News. That same month, Parnas posted photos on Facebook showing he and Fruman with Trump and the president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
The Belarus-born Fruman and Ukraine-born Parnas' co-defendants, David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin, were arraigned last week and pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2019 | ['(AOL)'] |
Ombudsman of the Philippines Merceditas Gutierrez resigns. Politicians previously voted to impeach her. | The top anti-corruption official in the Philippines has resigned weeks after politicians voted to impeach her. Merceditas Gutierrez said she was stepping down to save the country from a lengthy impeachment process. Her political rivals accuse her of protecting former President Gloria Arroyo from corruption allegations. Ms Gutierrez, who was due to face an impeachment hearing in two weeks' time, denies any wrongdoing.
Last month, the House of Representatives voted to impeach her after she was accused of betraying public trust by failing to act on corruption claims made against Mrs Arroyo and her family. Current President Benigno Aquino had described her as an obstacle to his anti-corruption campaign. Ms Gutierrez said she could prove the allegations were false, but had decided to step down for the good of the nation. "At a time when the present administration is in its infancy and beset with more urgent problems, the last thing that the nation needs is for the House and the Senate to be embroiled in a long drawn-out impeachment proceeding against a single public official," she said.
Mrs Arroyo, who was president between 2001 and 2010, denies the corruption claims. Philippines to impeach ombudsman | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Four people die following a Cessna Citation crash on Misima Island in Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay Province. | Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has confirmed three Australians were among those killed in a plane crash on a remote island in Papua New Guinea.
Mr Smith says a Cessna Citation jet was carrying three Australians and two New Zealand citizens when it crashed on Misima Island on Tuesday.
Locals say the Trans Air flight overshot the runway in wet and windy weather, crashed into trees and burst into flames killing four of those on board.
Mr Smith says one of the New Zealanders, an Australian permanent resident who is believed to be one of the pilots, survived the accident with only heavy bruising.
Among the dead is a 61-year-old marine pilot from Sydney who was working for the Brisbane-based company Australian Reef Pilots.
The man was due to guide a boat into Australian waters.
Officials from the Australian High Commission left Port Moresby for Misima Island early this morning.
Meanwhile there is a heavy security presence outside Trans Air, with at least 10 guards are patrolling its entrance at Jacksons airport near Port Moresby.
Trans Air PNG is an offshoot of the company that was involved in the Lockhart River air crash that killed 15 people in far north Queensland in 2005.
Trans Air PNG operates in Australia on a foreign aircraft operators certificate.
Last year the Civil Aviation Safety Authority refused the company permission to fly in Australia, but that decision was overturned on appeal.
The company operates charter and medivac flights in Australia.
This is the third fatal plane crash in Papua New Guinea in just over 12 months.
Six people died in light plane crash in January. Nine Australians were among 13 killed when a plane crashed into a mountain near Kokoda in August last year.
| Air crash | August 2010 | ['(AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)', '(ABC Online)'] |
In football, host nation Australia defeats South Korea 2–1 in the final of the Asian Cup. , | Australia has won its first Asian Cup title with a historic 2-1 extra-time victory over South Korea in Sydney.
| Sports Competition | January 2015 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(ABC News)'] |
Cécilia Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, flies to Libya and visits the Bulgarian medics condemned to death for allegedly infecting children with HIV and also the families of the infected children. She will also meet Colonel Muammar al–Gaddafi, the President of Libya. | An aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Claude Gueant, told AFP the government was "reasonably optimistic".
Mr Gueant's statement came after he and Mr Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia, visited the medics, the families of the children, and the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
On Wednesday, Libya's Supreme Court upheld the sentences imposed in 2004.
However, the death penalties will not be implemented unless they are approved by the country's High Judicial Council, which is due to meet on Monday.
The BBC's Rana Jawad says a financial settlement was recently reached with the families of the HIV-infected children, a deal which makes it is highly unlikely the death penalty verdicts will be enforced.
'Non-official' trip
Mrs Sarkozy's visit came one day after the death sentences were handed down on the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, who recently acquired Bulgarian citizenship.
She said her visit was "not official" - she had been sent by the French president "as a mother" to affirm the support of France for the children.
In an interview with the AFP news agency after the trip, Mr Gueant said: "We can be reasonably optimistic."
TRIAL IN DATES
1999: 19 Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor are arrested at a Benghazi hospital after an outbreak of HIV/Aids among children. 13 are later freed
May 2004: Libya convicts and sentences five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor for infecting children with HIV. A Bulgarian doctor is freed
Dec 2005: Libyan Supreme Court overturns the convictions and orders a retrial
Dec 2006: Medics sentenced to death a second time
Feb 2007: Medics appeal to the Libyan Supreme Court
June 2007: Top EU officials hold talks in Libya to try to secure medics' release
11 July 2007: Libya's Supreme Court upholds death sentences
Timeline: Medics trial Profiles of the medics
He said Col Gaddafi had also told them the families were ready to grant forgiveness.
"The nurses are also ready to meet a condition stipulated by Libya - not to engage in any additional appeal against Libya through international judicial proceedings."
The six medics have been in detention in Libya since 1999, when they were accused of having deliberately infected hundreds of children in the city of Benghazi with HIV-contaminated blood products.
They have consistently protested their innocence and have retracted confessions they say were made under torture.
Mrs Sarkozy met the medics in the prison where they are being held in Tripoli, and then flew to Benghazi to visit some of the HIV-infected children and their families.
A spokesman for the families, Idriss Lagha, welcomed the visit, describing it as warm and friendly.
The world must show humanity towards our children, as we are doing towards the nurses
Idriss LaghaSpokesman for the families of the infected children
Mr Lagha said they had discussed simplifying France's visa application process to allow the children to get treatment there.
She reportedly promised to raise their demands and hoped the entire case would end soon.
Mr Lagha also said the families were open to a settlement which would see the medics freed in accordance with what he called the Islamic principles of forgiveness and clemency.
"The world must show humanity towards our children, as we are doing towards the nurses. It must express a humane interest for our children, in ensuring their treatment for the rest of their lives." | Diplomatic Visit | July 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Nabi Tajima, the world's oldest person, dies at age 117 in southern Japan. | The century of Lincoln, Darwin and Van Gogh has quietly passed into history with the death of the world's oldest known person and last survivor of the 19th century.
Nabi Tajima, 117, died in a hospital Saturday in Kikai, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan's Kyodo News reported. Tajima had been mostly bedridden at a nursing home in recent years. She was hospitalized about a month ago, family members told the news service.
"She passed away as if falling asleep. As she had been a hard worker, I want to tell her 'rest well,' " Tajima's 65-year-old grandson Hiroyuki said.
Tajima was born Aug. 4, 1900. The new oldest person is another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, according to the U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group. Miyako, 116, was born on May 2, 1901.
Determining who can lay claim to the title of world's oldest can be a bit dicey. A chain-smoking Indonesian man known as Sodimejo died last May without ever gaining the moniker, despite a government-issued ID card listing Sodimejo's date of birth as Dec. 31, 1870.
Indonesia didn't start formally recording birth dates until decades later, and thus Sodimejo's claims failed the gerontology litmus test. Acclaimed genetics researcher Jan Vijg was among the non-believers. Vijg, a genetics professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, compared the claim to someone saying he had met an extraterrestrial.
"I would probably listen politely but not believe a word of it," Vijg told USA TODAY.
Tajima, who became the world's oldest known person with the death of Jamaican Violet Brown on Sept. 15, seems to have paperwork on her side. She was born on Aug. 4, 1900, in Araki, then known as Wan Village, in Kikaijima Island.
She raised seven sons and two daughters, and as of 2017 had more than 160 descendants, including great-great-great-grandchildren, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Tajima claimed her secret to longevity was eating delicious food and getting plenty of sleep. She enjoyed hand-dancing to the music of a shamisen, a traditional Japanese musical instrument.
Now comes Miyako, who lives south of Tokyo.
"She can eat by herself and spends every day in good health," her family said in a statement. "We, as her family members, are very happy about her longevity."
The gerontology group lists the world’s oldest man as Masazo Nonaka, 112, of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four major islands. But women — and residents of Japan — dominate the list. The 22 oldest are women, and 13 of the 24 oldest people reside in Japan.
The World Health Organization studied longevity in Japan in 2011. Longevity "is thought to be associated with psychosocial factors such as sense of coherence, social support and social capital," the study found. However, it acknowledged that the actual factors responsible and the extent of their contribution to individual health were not known. | Famous Person - Death | April 2018 | ['(USA Today)'] |
The Wildlife Protection Society of India announces that the wild population of tigers in India has increased by a third since 2015 following a comprehensive survey. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi describes the news as a "historic achievement". | India’s wild tiger population has increased by more than 30% in four years, raising hopes for the survival of the endangered species.
A census found there were 2,967 tigers, up from 2,226 four years ago. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, called the figures a “historic achievement” and said India was one of the biggest and safest habitats for tigers around the world.
The comprehensive survey is conducted every four years and is based on information collected by wildlife officials across 146,000 sq miles (380,000 sq km) of land. It also draws on data collected from almost 350,000 images taken by 26,000 camera traps in known tiger habitats. Conservation experts said the rise in the tiger population was promising but the figures should be treated with some caution. The rise may indicate better counting. Neha Sinha, a wildlife conservationist, said the census may suggest more tigers are breeding in protected areas but there were worrying signs tigers are not able to safely disperse and find their own territory.
“Every adult tiger needs to create his or her own territory, and this territory is sometimes almost 200 sq km, so they need quite a bit of space,” she said. “If you want our numbers to be stable then tigers need to disperse.”
Habitats are increasingly being encroached upon by development projects such as roads, canals and railways. Conflict between humans and tigers is also a continued threat, conservationists say. Animosity towards tigers, provoked by attacks on humans or the killing of cattle, has led some communities to leave poison or to attack the animals.
Last week Indian police arrested four people in Uttar Pradesh after a group of villagers beat a tiger to death. The tiger had attacked people after straying out of the Pilibhit tiger reserve.
According to government data, on average tigers or elephants kill one person a day.
Sinha said the concerns of communities should be listened to and compensation should always be provided where tigers kill livestock. “The burden of tiger conservation should not lie on the poorest,” she said.
Modi said the number of protected areas in the country rose to 860 last year, from 692 in 2014. The number of community reserves has more than doubled, to 100.
In 1900 more than 100,000 tigers roamed the planet, but by 2010 the figure had fallen to a record low of 3,200. The decline prompted India and 12 other countries with tiger populations to sign an agreement to double their numbers by 2022 . Modi said India had achieved this goal four years ahead of schedule. | Famous Person - Give a speech | July 2019 | ['(Sky News)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Twelve nations, including the United States, sign the deal at SkyCity Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand. | The Trans Pacific Partnership, one of the biggest multinational trade deals ever, has been signed by ministers from its 12 member nations in New Zealand. The ceremony in Auckland brings the huge trade pact, which has been five years in the making, another step towards to becoming a reality.
But the TPP continues to face opposition.
The 12 nations account for some 40% of the world's economy - they now have two years to ratify or reject the pact.
Australia's minister for trade Andrew Robb was the first to sign the pact. Those attending the ceremony cheered as his counterpart, New Zealand trade minister Todd McClay, added the last signature.
The TPP involves the US, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru.
Those against the deal, particularly some Americans, fear it could mean jobs will move from the US to developing countries.
However, US President Barack Obama said the agreement was a new type of trade deal "that puts American workers first".
"Partnership would give the United States an advantage over other leading economies, namely China," he said in a statement on Wednesday. "TPP allows America - and not countries like China - to write the rules of the road in the 21st Century, which is especially important in a region as dynamic as the Asia-Pacific," he said. "We should get TPP done this year and give more American workers the shot at success they deserve and help more American businesses compete and win around the world."
In Auckland and in the US, among other countries, protestors have voiced their anger about the trade pact over the past several months. In the lead up to Thursday's signing, the streets around Auckland's central business district were disrupted by groups blocking access to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Police clashed with some protestors, who have widely claimed the deal will benefit big business rather than workers. The trade deal looks to facilitate investment between 12 countries across the Pacific Rim, which together account for about 40% of the global economy.
It was agreed in October last year after years of negotiations and multiple missed deadlines.
The US-led initiative is a key part of Mr Obama's so-called pivot to Asia but has proved to be a controversial issue ahead of the US elections in November.
Mr Obama has barely a year left on his term and his administration warns that the US economy will suffer if politicians don't ratify the agreement.
US Trade Representative Michael Froman said the deal could add $100bn (£68.5bn) a year to US growth.
"After five years of negotiation, signing the TPP is an important milestone in our efforts to set high-standard rules of the road in the Asia Pacific region and more generally, and to deliver an agreement that will benefit American workers, farmers and businesses," he said.
| Sign Agreement | February 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(UPI)'] |
A boat sinking on Lake Mai–Ndombe in western Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 45 people with 200 passengers still missing. The vessel was carrying more than 400 people, the majority of whom were teachers going to collect their salaries. | At least 45 people have died after a boat sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe in western Democratic Republic of Congo.
The provincial governor, Antoine Masamba, said the vessel was carrying more than 400 people, with reports that about 200 passengers are still missing.
The majority of those on board were teachers going to collect their salaries, a local mayor told the BBC.
He said 11 children were among those who died when the old and overcrowded boat went down in strong waves.
The vessel, bound for Boliangwa, sank on Saturday evening almost 30km (18 miles) from the town of Inongo, its point of departure and capital of Mai-Ndombe Province.
The mayor of Inongo, Simon Mboo Wemba, said police had arrested the captain of the boat and the investigation was ongoing. Officials warn the search and recovery operations on the lake could take between two and three weeks.
The BBC's Gaius Kowene in the capital, Kinshasa, says boat accidents are frequent in DR Congo because of overloading and poor maintenance
DR Congo, which is about the size of mainland western Europe, has a poor road network and many areas are inaccessible unless by air or boat - and the country's only super-highway is the Congo River.
| Shipwreck | May 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
In Togo, opposition resistance against election victory of Faure Gnassingbé escalates into violence. At least 33 have died in the clashes. Opposition leader Bob Akitani declares himself president. | Lome Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, an opposition candidate in the presidential election held Sunday in Togo, declared himself winner of the poll Wednesday. This came a day after the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that Faure Gnassingbe, son of deceased head of state Gnassingbe Eyadema, was the provisional winner.
Tuesday's announcement was greeted with outrage by opposition supporters, who erected barricades and burned tires in the Togolese capital, Lome, to protest the outcome of the poll.
Although police responded by firing teargas and attempting to dismantle the barricades, this only served to spur on the supporters. "We're going to put up even more barricades, and make this country ungovernable," Celestin Soke, a 28-year-old apprentice tailor, told IPS.
Similar scenes could be viewed in the city Wednesday, when fresh protests broke out. A dozen demonstrators are said to have been killed by gunfire, while several others were injured.
Thousands of Gnassingbe supporters also demonstrated in the capital, many arriving by bus from northern Togo, a Gnassingbe stronghold, armed with clubs and machetes.
According to CENI Chairperson Kissem Tchangai Walla, Gnassingbe garnered 60.22 percent of the vote, and Akitani-Bob 38.19 percent.
Harry Olympio, considered a more moderate opposition candidate, won 0.55 percent of the vote - in which almost two-thirds of those eligible to cast ballots did so. However, the commission noted that the count did not reflect votes placed in ballot boxes that had been destroyed by demonstrators.
"I'm very happy about the outcome," Komi Selom Klassou, director of Gnassingbe's campaign, told journalists. "The president said that his victory would be a victory for all the Togolese people. You can be sure that he plans to reach out to all citizens in order to build a stable Togo."
For its part, the opposition swiftly claimed that "massive fraud" had taken place, not only during the election itself, but also in the verification of voter lists, and the distribution of voting cards.
Youths who gathered in the streets could be heard chanting "They stole our victory."
Concerns about these matters had led Akitani-Bob, Olympio and another presidential candidate, Nicolas Lawson, to call for a postponement of the vote, (Lawson later withdrew from the race). Interior Minister Francois Boko called for the poll to be suspended - an appeal which resulted in him being sacked. The minister is since reported to have taken refuge in the German embassy.
The electoral campaign was also punctuated by incidents of violence, with rival militants clashing in several neighborhoods of the capital over the weekend of Apr. 16-17. Six ruling party members and one opposition supporter are said to have died in these incidents.
"We refuse to accept that for the umpteenth time, they are stealing the election out from under us," Jean Pierre Fabre, general secretary of the Union of Forces of Change (UFC), told IPS. This group forms part of a six-party coalition represented at the polls by Akitani-Bob.
UFC is also the party of exiled opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio, a long-time opponent of Eyadema until the latter's death in February this year.
Gnassingbe took over as head of state after his father's death with the support of Togo's military - but agreed to hold elections after global leaders denounced the move as unconstitutional. He stood as the candidate for the ruling Rally of the Togolese People.
Many Togolese opponents of Gnassingbe, who came across the border from Ghana and now occupy part of the capital, are calling for mass resistance to the new regime. The opposition is also calling on its supporters to "mobilize, and resist" the government.
Cheick Oumar Diarra, assistant executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which deployed 150 election observers to Togo, said that several irregularities had been noted in Sunday's poll. However, these were not sufficiently serious to cast doubt on the election's credibility.
Adote Ghandi Akwe, president of the Togolese League for Human Rights, disagreed with this assessment - citing the absence of monitors during vote counting. This, he noted, was in violation of electoral law.
Another non-governmental organisation, Initiative 150, issued a statement claiming that numerous attempts had been made to stuff ballot boxes in polling stations where opposition representatives were denied access.
"After the election, hooded militiamen grabbed away ballot boxes by force, which, according to law, are supposed to be opened in public," the group added.
Gnassingbe has said he intends forming a government of national unity to calm the situation in Togo.
However, Gilchrist Olympio rejected this offer, describing Sunday's poll as a "charade". Instead, he is calling for a revision of Togolese law to allow for fresh elections within the next two years.
Attacks against French expatriates in Lome have also been reported. Many Togolese believe France played a key part in helping Eyadema hold on to power for 38 years, (the former leader seized control of the country during a 1967 coup).
In addition, more than 1,000 Togolese fleeing violence caused by the contested election sought refuge Tuesday in Benin, according to the mayor's office in the border town of Grand-Popo, contacted by IPS Wednesday. | Armed Conflict | April 2005 | ['(AllAfrica)', '(News24)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds a meeting with leaders of FARC in a sign of encouragement in ending Colombia's half-century old conflict. | US secretary of state says meetings in Havana with guerrillas still on Washington’s list of terrorist groups and Colombian government ‘encouraging’
Last modified on Fri 14 Jul 2017 20.45 BST
US secretary of state John Kerry held an unprecedented meeting on Monday with leaders of a Colombian leftist rebel group on Washington’s list of international terrorist organisations.
The rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, have been engaged in peace talks with the Colombian government in Havana to end the South American country’s half-century of war.
In closed-door meetings, Kerry first spoke with the members of the Colombian government team seeking a peace deal with Farc, Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group. He then met separately with rebel negotiators in the Laguito neighbourhood, where peace talks have been held since 2012.
"En fecha no lejana le daremos la buena nueva al país y al mundo que Colombia ha llegado a la paz" #VamosPorLaPaz pic.twitter.com/36QHzW2XzP
Members of Farc’s ruling secretariat, including rebel leader Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono, gave Kerry an signed copy of the Spanish-language book Resistance of a People in Arms, a compilation of the personal diaries and letters of Farc founder Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda, who died in 2008 at age 78.
The inscription in Spanish says the book tells part of the story of an “insurgent organisation that today is preparing to transition to a legal political movement”.
"Resistencia de un pueblo en armas" libro que @FARC_EPaz le lleva de regalo a @JohnKerry #VamosPorLaPaz pic.twitter.com/9g3M4YlfDe
Kerry told both sides he was “encouraged that the ‘end of conflict’ issues are now front and centre in the negotiations, including a formal bilateral ceasefire monitored by the UN security council, a timetable for disarmament, and security guarantees post-conflict for all lawful political actors”, according to a statement released by the US state department.
Chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said the government’s meeting with Kerry was “very productive” and they had discussed in detail the progress of the talks and the “immediate challenges” facing the negotiations.
Those challenges include guaranteeing the security of demobilised fighters, defining the terms of their disarmament and how to ratify the accords in Colombia.
De la Calle said Kerry expressed US commitment to help in the security of demobilised rebels, one of the guerrillas’ main concerns as they move toward setting aside their weapons to pursue politics through the ballot box. He did not provide details of what shape that help could take.
A previous foray into electoral politics in the 1980s and 90s ended with as many as 3,000 members of the political movement dead at the hands of rightwing paramilitary forces working in collusion with members of the military.
“Mr Kerry, we ask through you that the United States help stop paramilitary violence,” Farc said in an open letter published on the group’s website. At least six leftist activists and social leaders have been killed this month alone in Colombia.
The White House portrayed the meeting between Kerry and Farc leaders as one of several regional dividends stemming from its strategy of normalising relations with the Cuban government.
“This Cuba policy is also our Latin American policy,” national security adviser Ben Rhodes told US reporters at a briefing on Monday evening. “It’s why we are at the peace table with the Colombians here in Havana.”
The Farc leaders said they hoped to be considered Washington’s partner in that regional effort. “We have reasons to believe that the United States can come to see in the Farc a trustworthy partner in the construction of a continent-wide peace,” the group said in its letter.
Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and Farc leader Timochenko had set 23 March as a deadline to reach a final peace agreement, hoping to coincide with President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba.
However the two sides remain far apart on the mechanics of ending the war, which has claimed more than 220,000 lives and displaced more than 6 million Colombians. Analysts expect a comprehensive agreement could take several more months to finalise.
The United States has expressed overwhelming support for the Colombia peace talks and Obama has asked Congress to support post-conflict peace efforts with $450m in US aid.
Monday’s meeting was the first time the secretary of state has met with Farc rebels, who have been on the US list of terrorist groups since 1997. US officials have said Washington would consider dropping the group from the terror list once it disarms and stops posing a risk to US interests.
Washington has also said it would not insist on the extradition of Farc members indicted in the US on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.
Last year, Washington named a special envoy, Bernard Aronson, to the talks as a private citizen, and he has a special dispensation to engage with the Farc while the group negotiates an end to its 52-year war against the Colombian state.
Former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, a strong critic of the peace talks, condemned Kerry’s meeting with the Farc. “Many Colombians feel offended by the meeting between the US government and the Farc, the world, largest drug cartel, terrorist group,” Uribe wrote on Twitter.
On Tuesday, both Colombian government and rebel negotiators are expected to be present at an exhibition game between Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba’s national team, which will be attended by Obama and Cuban president Raúl Castro. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | March 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A four–alarm fire destroys a warehouse at Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California. More than 150 firefighters are able to contain the blaze and save both the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, a World War II Liberty ship that saw action on D–Day at Normandy Beach in northwest France; and the USS Pampanito submarine, which had six war patrols from March 1944 through early 1945 in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. | SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A massive four-alarm fire erupted at a warehouse on the San Francisco waterfront at Fisherman’s Wharf early Saturday which threatened to engulf the historic U.S. liberty ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien and destroyed historic Shed C at Pier 45.
San Francisco fire department spokesman Jonathan Baxter said a firefighter who sustained a hand injury while battling the blaze is in stable condition. No other injuries were reported.
Photo, courtesy of Dan Whaley, @dwhly, shows a warehouse fire burning on Pier 45 at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf May 23, 2020. The fire tore through a warehouse, sending thick smoke over the waterfront (Dan Whaley, @dwhly via AP)
The firefighters began responding to 911 calls of a fire on the waterfront at Taylor and Jones streets around 4:15 a.m. Arriving crews were confronted with towering flames engulfing building, forcing them to take a defensive stance.
The fire tore through Shed C, near the north end of the concrete Pier 45, causing its walls to collapse, Baxter said. The flames singed the first fire truck to respond to the scene, forcing firefighters to turn their hoses on the vehicle to save it, he added.
“The flames were huge, shooting out of the roof! I mean it was big and it was hot,” said Mitch Gronner, owner of Aloha Seafood.
The structure was being used primarily for storage for fish-processing equipment and held a few offices, including for the Red & White Fleet of sightseeing boats.
Shortly after firefighters arrived, San Francisco’s Fireboat 3 came on the scene, battling the blaze next to the O’Brien but fire had spread underneath the pier. Baxter said the fireboat crew saved the historic liberty ship that participated in the Allies invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944.
“When firefighters arrived, the flames were literally lapping over the Jeremiah O’Brien,” he said. “They literally saved the O’Brien.”
“The Jeremiah O’Brien has been known as the lucky ship,” said ship captain Cevan Lesieur. “She survived the North Atlantic and D-Day and that’s the first reaction — it’s a miracle!” Crews were also able to prevent the blaze from spreading to the USS Pampanito, which is also docked at the pier.
By 2 p.m., the fire was under control, fire officials said. Streets around the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood were closed off.
Baxter said rescue crews searched the smoldering remains as best they could to make sure there were no victims of the blaze.
Aerial view of the fire on Pier 45 at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, May 23, 2020. (CBS)
He said at the height of the battle with the flames there were 130 firefighters and 50 apparatus on the scene. The Coast Guard was on the scene helping to police the waters.
Building inspectors will determine how badly the pier has been damaged.
Musée Mécanique, a popular interactive museum housing 20th-century penny arcade games and artifacts at the south end of the pier was not damaged.
The fire could be seen for miles. A large plume of smoke covered much of the San Francisco Bay, stretching from Sausalito to Oakland. Several residents have reported on social media being able to smell the smoke.
Fire hoses cross the intersection of Taylor and Jefferson streets after a blaze broke out before dawn on Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco May 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Fishing companies that have been operating out of Pier 45 said the fire exacerbated an already tough business climate caused by the pandemic.
Kenny Belov, owner of the seafood wholesaler TwoXSea, told the Chronicle his building near the warehouse was not damaged but he worried a power outage on the pier could ruin the fish in his freezer.
“Not that it would ever need this but the seafood industry didn’t need this now,” Belov said. “It’s surreal. We’ve obviously had a tough go the last couple months, with restaurants (closed) … Of all the problems in the world, this is not a big one but it’s frustrating.”
Fire crews plan to monitor for hot spots through the evening. Motorists and boaters are advised to avoid the area.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Workers at nearby buildings told KPIX that homeless people often sleep in the warehouse.
“It could’ve been some homeless folks being careless with, you know, making their breakfast,” Gronner said. | Fire | May 2020 | ['(KPIX)', '(The Guardian)'] |
A 6.6 magnitude earthquake strikes off the eastern coast of Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East. Shaking was felt throughout large parts of the peninsula, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. | A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has struck off the east coast of Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, seismologists say. No tsunami warnings have been issued. (more) The earthquake, which struck at 6:50 a.m. local time on Monday, was centered about 235 kilometers (146 miles) west-southwest of Nikol'skoye, or 318 kilometers (198 miles) northeast of Yelizovo, a town in Kamchatka Krai.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center put the preliminary magnitude of Monday's earthquake at 6.6 and said it was centered at a depth of roughly 65 kilometers (40 miles). It said there was no threat of a tsunami.
Shaking was felt throughout large parts of the peninsula, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. Other details were not immediately available. | Earthquakes | March 2016 | ['(BNO News)'] |
Hurricane Rick strengthens to a Category 5 storm, becoming the strongest hurricane in a decade in the eastern Pacific Ocean. | MIAMI - HURRICANE Rick strengthened further late on Saturday, becoming what forecaster described as the second-strongest storm on record to hit the eastern north Pacific Ocean.
Rick reached top Category 5 status on Saturday as it barreled up Mexico's Pacific coast with winds roiling at 180 miles (285 kilometres) per hour, US forecasters said.
The storm roared to the top of the Saffir-Simpson scale after warm waters prompted Rick's precipitous rise from a Category 1 to a Category 5 system in less than 36 hours.
'With 180 mph winds, Rick becomes the second-strongest eastern north Pacific hurricane on record after Linda of 1997,' the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
At 0300 GMT Sunday, Rick was around 605 miles (975 km) south-southeast of the resort town of Cabo San Lucas as it headed west-northwest at 14 miles (22 km) per hour, parallel to Mexico's southern coast, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. It was also 295 miles (475 km) south southwest of Manzanillo, one of the largest ports in the Americas.
The 'extremely dangerous' storm, the Miami-based monitoring center said, was expected to remain offshore of Mexico's southern coast over the weekend. Rick was expected to pass near Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula on Wednesday and make landfall in northwestern Mexico on Thursday. -- AFP | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2009 | ['(Associated Press)', '(Straits Times)', '(CNN)'] |
Warplanes of an unknown nationality bomb Islamist forces, killing ten fighters. | Tripoli (AFP) - Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said on Saturday they have captured Tripoli's battered international airport after many days of clashes with nationalist militiamen.
The claim followed a setback the previous night when a warplane raided Islamist positions, killing 13 fighters, a Fajr Libya spokesman said.
If independent sources confirm the airport has changed hands, it would be a major defeat for the nationalist fighters from Zintan west of Tripoli who have held the airport since the fall of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
A statement shown on screen on An-Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: "Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport."
Later a spokesman for the Islamist coalition, partly comprising men from Misrata, east of Tripoli, said its fighters "have entered the airport and are mopping up pockets of resistance".
On the political front, Libya's outgoing provisional General National Congress (GNC), which was dominated by Islamists, will resume operations despite being superseded by an elected national parliament, its spokesman said on Saturday.
The strategic airport 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the Libyan capital, has been shut since July 13 amid clashes between the Islamists and the Zintan force, allies of rogue general Khalifa Haftar, based at Benghazi in eastern Libya and hostile to the Islamists.
The Islamist coalition, which repeatedly claims successes against the nationalists, on Thursday organised a visit by Libyan journalists to an army base on the way to the airport, to prove they had taken it.
- Congress to meet again -
Fajr Libya on Saturday accused the United Arab Emirates and Egypt of involvement in the Friday night air raid and an earlier strike when two unidentified aircraft bombarded Islamist positions on Monday night.
"The Emirates and Egypt are involved in this cowardly aggression," the coalition said in a statement read out to Libyan journalists in Tripoli.
In the wake of the raids, the GNC will convene again despite being a national parliament being elected in June, its spokesman said.
Friday night's air strike killed 13 Islamists and left 20 wounded, Ahmed Hadia, a Fajr Libya spokesman, said, updating an earlier toll.
"We reserve the right to respond at the opportune moment," Hadia said.
The Islamist fighters believe Libya's provisional government and newly elected parliament "are accomplices to these raids and in doing so have committed an act of treason that removes their legitimacy to govern the people", he said.
The spokesman called on the GNC, whose mandate expired when the new parliament was sworn in earlier this month, to meet again to "defend the sovereignty of the Libyan state".
The Islamists were well represented in the GNC but non-Islamist blocs dominate the new parliament, which is holed up along with the provisional government in Tobruk 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) east of Tripoli, to avoid the violence in the capital.
GNC spokesman Omar Ahmidan said on a local television station: "The General National Congress will hold an emergency meeting in Tripoli to save the country's sovereignty."
The latest deadly air strike targeted an army base to the south of Tripoli and a nearby warehouse, Fajr Libya said earlier.
The drawn-out battle for the airport has sparked the worst violence in the Libyan capital since the 2011 uprising.
Fajr Libya's allegation that the UAE and Egypt were behind the raids followed days of wild speculation about the provenance of the warplanes that swooped over the airport on Monday.
Haftar claimed to be behind the first raid, but specialists doubted his ability to carry out such an attack.
The Islamists suspected foreign aircraft acting at the behest of the Libyan government after the new parliament elected on June 25 called for foreign intervention to protect civilians.
In neighbouring Egypt, new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is hostile towards Islamists, though authorities in Cairo have refused to comment.
On their way to the airport, Fajr Libya fighters seized from Zintan militiamen a Tiger armoured car developed by the UAE, television pictures showed.
The Islamists claimed the vehicle was proof of UAE support for the Zintan fighters.
| Armed Conflict | August 2014 | ['(AFP via Yahoo! News)'] |
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, troops from the United Kingdom are accorded the honour of leading France's parade on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. | They were guests of honour for the march as part of a series of events marking the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale with France.
The Ministry of Defence says almost 200 personnel from four military units were at the parade along the Champs Elysees.
The parade commemorates the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which started the French Revolution.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir Michael Walker, and the three service chiefs of staff were in Paris for the parade, alongside French President Jacques Chirac and his Cabinet.
Relationship 'recognised'
Mr Hoon said it was an honour for British personnel to be involved in the parade.
He said it was important that the military aspect of the two countries' relationship had been recognised.
"It is a real and vital part of what has brought our two countries together over the last 100 years," he said.
Air force flyovers opened and closed the parade
French Air Force jets performed a flyover to open the parade, while the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force's aerobatic team, performed one to close it.
The Grenadier Guards - who fought in the battle of Waterloo - marched at the head of the parade.
The focus this year has been on friendlier times, beginning with the Entente Cordiale.
The Queen visited Paris in April, starting a year of special events to celebrate the centenary of the agreement signed in London in 1904.
Its aim was to settle disputes between the two colonial powers in countries from Morocco to Newfoundland, but it also led to their alliance during the First World War.
Last month Mr Hoon signed agreements with his French counterpart, Michele Alliot-Marie, designed to foster closer military planning between the two countries. | Sign Agreement | July 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
Workers on the London Underground commence a 48–hour strike, which is expected to cause disruption for millions of commuters in Greater London. | Thousands of Tube passengers have endured delays because of strike action over planned job cuts and ticket office closures. The first of two planned 48-hour strikes by the RMT and TSSA unions means there is a limited Tube service until Friday morning.
Unions have said they will take part in talks on Friday aimed at resolving the dispute.
But London Underground (LU) urged them to meet earlier and suspend the strike.
A second 48-hour walkout is due to begin at 21:00 GMT on 11 February.
RMT leader Bob Crow said: "Our negotiators are geared up and ready to enter the exploratory talks on Friday. "In the meantime, the current action continues with the rock solid support of our members and we will be back out on the picket lines early in the morning as the strike heads into its third day." LU managing director Mike Brown said he welcomed the unions' decision to return to conciliation service Acas, but added: "Why wait till Friday?
"I call on the leaderships of the RMT and TSSA to meet us on Thursday and to suspend the strike so we can get on with talks to resolve this issue and avoid any more unnecessary disruption to Londoners."
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has added his condemnation to the industrial action. He said he did not think there was "any justification for the vast disruption". Transport for London (TfL) said services on Wednesday were running on most lines. Transport commissioner Sir Peter Hendy said 86% of Londoners who usually paid for travel using their Oyster cards had done so as normal.
But the TSSA disputed this claim, arguing the service had been reduced by 70%.
TfL says its proposed changes, which will lead to 960 job losses - but none compulsory - will modernise systems and save £50m a year.
Mr Hendy added that many of the jobs, such as those in booking offices "were not worth doing" because of other payment options.
If staff adapted and changed they would have a "job for life", he said.
The industrial action, which began at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday, comes as the government said it was considering plans to declare London Underground an essential service in order to curb the threat of future strikes.
Were it to happen, London Underground would be subject to a "minimum service agreement" under which staff would be required to keep a core level of trains going regardless of any industrial action.
Government sources have told the BBC that the Conservative Party is considering including the proposal in its manifesto for the next general election.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn called on the mayor of London to ensure there was "real engagement" with the unions before next week's planned strikes.
Mr Corbyn said the Boris Johnson and the government were more interested in pursuing an "anti-union" agenda.
The two sides have traded accusations over the negotiation process.
TfL's Mike Brown told the BBC: "It's difficult to consult with an empty chair, which is the situation we've faced over the last several weeks."
But Mr Crow rejected the claim, saying: "It's nonsense to say TfL have been negotiating with an empty chair. There have been two weeks of talks and RMT has attended every session, as Acas will confirm.
"We have always had job cuts, it is the way you go about it", he said, before asking the mayor to "do the honourable thing and meet with us".
Mr Johnson described the industrial action as "pointless and unnecessary" and reiterated his call for a ban on strikes affecting London transport, unless it was supported by more than 50% of union members eligible to be balloted.
"That would be reasonable for vital transport functions, such as the London Underground, which has to keep the greatest city on earth moving and on which millions of people will depend for their livelihoods," he said.
He later met staff and commuters at London Bridge station.
In the Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron "unreservedly condemned" the strike and said Labour leader Ed Miliband ought to do the same.
"We need a modernised Tube line working for the millions of Londoners who use it every day.
"The fact is only 3% of transactions now involve ticket offices so it makes sense to have fewer people in those offices but more people on the platforms and the stations.
"So I unreservedly condemn this strike."
But when Mr Miliband did not comment, Mr Cameron said: "Isn't it interesting that with six questions and an invitation to condemn the strike, not a word?"
On Tuesday, Mr Miliband said it was "deeply regrettable" that no negotiations or meetings with the mayor and TfL seemed to have happened.
.
| Strike | February 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Taliban truck bomb in eastern Afghanistan kills three police officers and injures 36 other people, including twenty children. | Three security officers dead, 20 children wounded as truck bomb detonates near police building in Laghman province.
At least three security officers have been killed and dozens wounded, mostly children, after the Taliban set off explosives in a truck near a police headquarters building in eastern Afghanistan, officials have said.
The spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs, Nasrat Rahimi, said Wednesday’s attack in Alishang district, in Laghman province, wounded 36 people, mainly civilians.
Asadullah Daulatzai, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said 20 children, studying inside a nearby religious school, were among those wounded. The building was also damaged.
“The students were wounded by flying glass,” he said. “The explosion was huge.”
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid,confirmed in a statement that fighters used a large truck packed with explosives in the attack, leaving dozens of Afghan security forces dead and wounded.
Rescuers searched through the ruins of buildings destroyed by the blast.
“We, with the rescue teams, are still looking for bodies under the rubble,” Obaidullah, a resident, told Reuters news agency.
In a statement on Wednesday, UK-based charity Save the Children urged all armed groups in Afghanistan “to protect the next generation by agreeing to binding commitments to protect children at all costs”.
“It is extremely worrying to see so many children being killed and wounded in Afghanistan on a near-daily basis as the security situation doesn’t show signs of improvement,” Onno van Manen, Save the Children’s director for Afghanistan said.
“It is becoming more and more dangerous for children to go about their daily lives. They risk death or injury on their way to school, while playing outside or visiting the local markets. This is unacceptable.”
The statement noted that children are much more vulnerable to the effects of explosive weapons, with evidence suggesting they are far more likely than adults to suffer serious blast injuries, with potentially life-long consequences.
“The physical injuries children suffer can pale in comparison to the emotional scars many may carry with them for years after experiencing a traumatic event like this,” Onno van Manen said.
The attack came during a relative lull in violence after a presidential election last month that saw a surge in attacks by the Taliban, who denounced the vote as a sham. | Armed Conflict | October 2019 | ['(al-Jazeera)'] |
Xenophobic mob blocks a refugee bus in Clausnitz, German state of Saxony. | Police in the German state of Saxony are facing demands from opposition politicians to explain their handling of an anti-migrant incident. On Thursday, a mob delayed the arrival of refugees at a new hostel.
Greens federal parliamentarian Irene Mihalic said video footage indicated that police had been "absolutely overwhelmed" as a hundred demonstrators tried to block the refugees' arrival in Clausnitz, a town near the Czech border.
Greens party member Irene Mihalic wants the police to answer to the Bundestag
The question must be clarified, "whether and how the extreme right-wing scene had mobilized [protestors] for this demonstration of hate," Mihalic said, adding police and intelligence service officials should report to the interior committee of the federal parliament next Wednesday.
Regional police chief Uwe Reissmann on Saturday said he saw no "consequences whatsoever" over the handling of the incident by a combined unit of between 20 and 30 officers belonging to Saxony state and Germany's federal police.
Reissmann said the use by officers of "simply direct force" on three migrants, including a 14-year-old boy, who was dragged from the bus, had been "absolutely necessary" and "proportionate" during the migrants' transfer into the shelter. He admitted that police had been outnumbered.
Police outnumbered, says Reissmann
He said some bus occupants had made provocative gestures. Reissmann added that police were following up 14 charges, including breach of assembly rules and use of duress. He confirmed that the majority of the 100 demonstrators who confronted the refugees were locals from Clausnitz, a town in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in Saxony.
A solidarity rally in Clausnitz later on Saturday in support of the refugees passed off "without incident," police said. One hundred supporters had taken part.
Refugees blocked for two hours
On Thursday evening, anti-migrant demonstrators first blocked the bus using three cars, and then yelled xenophobic slogans for two hours until it reached the hostel. The video footage showed migrants, including children, anxious and crying inside the bus.
The German news agency DPA said it had been told by the refugees that they were from Iran, Syria and Lebanon, and had previously been accommodated in Dresden and Chemnitz, another Saxon city, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Clausnitz.
Saxony's Interior Minister Markus Ulbig
Saxony's Interior Minister Markus Ulbig said he could "only condemn" the demonstrators' actions, adding that "the pictures speak their language."
Ulbig, who belongs to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said his ministry based in Dresden - north of Clausnitz - was analyzing the incident.
Thursday evening's incident was reminiscent of August last year, when a large mob tried to prevent the arrival of refugees in Heidenau, near Dresden.
Nadia Khalaf, the deputy chairwomen of a pro-migration network within Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), said police handling of young refugees in Clausnitz amounted to a breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
"State exercise of violence against traumatized children is not tolerable," she said.
Questions on use of force
The Greens' parliamentary leader in the federal Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, asked on Saturday "whether Saxony's regional government is not in the process of losing its [state] monopoly over the use of force?"
She said "even worse" were recent statements by the premier of the neighboring state of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, and associates within his Christian Social Union (CSU) that had made the mob "feel encouraged."
The Greens' parliamentary leader in the federal Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt
"The irresponsible anxiety-making by individual Union [CSU) politicians creates the situation against which they then warn," Göring-Eckardt said.
'Homemade racism'
The Social Democrat's regional youth wing declared Saturday that Saxony had a "homemade" racism problem and demanded that politicians did not "surf" on the formation of public opinion using bar-room slogans.
The head of the opposition Left Party in Saxony's assembly in Dresden, Rico Gebhardt, said: "I can only describe people who block buses and scream at children, women and men as racists."
He also demanded inquiries into claims that the director of Clausnitz's hostel for asylum seekers was a member of the anti-mass-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, as reported by German public ZDF television. | Riot | February 2016 | ['(Deutsche Welle)', '(Deutsche Welle)', '(Deutsche Welle)', '(The New York Times)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Nuclear program of Iran: The United States is drafting a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for sanctions against Iran prior to discussions amongst the five permanent members. |
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States is drafting a new sanctions resolution against Tehran, the State Department said Tuesday, just days before a meeting of major powers regarding Iran's controversial atomic aims.
"What we're doing is working on the elements of a resolution ... We put down on paper some of those ideas, what it might -- what a resolution might look like," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"And we're having ongoing discussions on that with" the five permanent members of the Security Council (United States, Russia, China, Britain and France) as well as Germany.
The meeting is to take place Friday in Washington, hosted by the State Department's third top ranking diplomat Nicholas Burns, and the countries will be represented by their foreign ministries' political directors.
"This is going to be topic A. And we're going to talk about the elements of a resolution, as well as the timing of a resolution," McCormack said, adding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to have a meeting in New York on September 28 with her counterparts from the same group.
"We hope that these meetings and any intervening discussions will move the ball forward. The process hasn't moved as quickly as we would have liked, but that is par for the course with the Security Council resolutions," he said.
The UN Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran. Two of them include sanctions due to the Islamic republic's refusal to halt sensitive uranium enrichment activities amid US suspicions it may be covertly working on a nuclear bomb. | Famous Person - Give a speech | September 2007 | ['(AFP)'] |
Golfer Rory McIlroy ties the record for lowest score at a major championship. (RTÉ) | Rory McIlroy equalled the lowest round in a major with a nine-under-par 63 in the first round of the Open at St Andrews.
The 21-year-old Northern Irishman took advantage of a defenceless Old Course to card seven birdies and an eagle, playing the last 10 holes in eight under for a three-shot clubhouse lead over the 1995 champion, John Daly, and Scotland's Andrew Coltart.
McIlroy said he had been inspired by seeing his fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell win the US Open at Pebble Beach last month.
"It's given me a lot of belief knowing a good friend of mine could go out and win a major, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to do the same as well," he said. "Hopefully I can keep it going over the next few days. You really needed to take advantage of the conditions this morning and thankfully I was able to do that. We will see what the weather does tomorrow."
The early starters made the most of the change in weather from the strong wind and rain which forced the cancellation of yesterday's Champions Challenge. Daly's 66 could have been much better, the 44-year-old lying seven under with seven to play only to see four birdie putts catch the edge of the hole.
"I'm not too disappointed but I hit four putts coming in which I thought I had made. I left some out there," said Daly, who had missed the cut in eight of his 12 Open appearances since lifting the Claret Jug 15 years ago. "This is only the seventh or eighth tournament I've been healthy to play in the last three years and I'm starting to get some confidence back in my game."
Coltart, one of Daly's playing partners, birdied the 18th to match Daly's 66. The Scot is playing his first Open since 2002 after coming through qualifying at Sunningdale.
The 21-year-old's round means there have now been 24 rounds of 63 in major-championship history – McIlroy is the 22nd player to achieve the feat and the first in the Open since Nick Faldo and Payne Stewart 17 years ago.
Those rounds were seven under par at Royal St George's. McIlroy and England's Paul Broadhurst (St Andrews, 1990) are the only players to shoot rounds of nine under in the Open.
The world No1, Tiger Woods, showed no signs of his recent poor form as he carded a five-under-par 67, while Lee Westwood made an impressive start to his round in more difficult conditions late in the afternoon. | Sports Competition | July 2010 | ['(9–under par)', '(The Belfast Telegraph)', '(The Guardian)', '(Irish Independent)'] |
A 37-year-old man is arrested for allegedly planning a terrorist bombing against a Covid-19 vaccination site in Den Helder. | Police have arrested a man who they say was planning to attack a coronavirus vaccination location with a firework bomb in the naval town of Den Helder.
The man, who is 37, comes from Den Helder himself and is suspected of planning a terrorist attack on the former town hall, which is now used as a vaccination centre, the public prosecution department said in a statement.
He was arrested on March 18 but the news has only just become public. Officials declined to say how far advanced his plans were.
The man’s aim, the public prosecution department says, was to ‘terrify the population and disrupt the country’s economic and social structures.’ The vaccination programme is a crucial government process which the man was planning to sabotage in a violent way, the department said.
This is not the first time that a vaccination centre or test location has been a target. A month ago, an explosive went off outside a coronavirus test centre in Bovenkarspel and there have also been incidents in Breda, Beek en Donk, Urk and Hilversum.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2021 | ['(NLTimes)', '(Dutch News)'] |
Ghana–born doctor Peter Bossman becomes Mayor of Piran , the first black mayor of a town in the so–called former Eastern Bloc of Europe. | A Ghana-born doctor has been elected the first black mayor in Slovenia - and probably the first in old Yugoslavia.
Peter Bossman, a candidate of the centre-left Social Democrats (SD), narrowly won a municipal election in the Slovenian coastal town of Piran.
He said people no longer saw the colour of his skin and his election showed the "high level of democracy in Slovenia".
Mr Bossman came to the country in the 1980s, when it was still part of the former Yugoslavia, to study medicine.
He won a narrow victory over the previous mayor, Tomaz Gantar, with 51.4% of the vote.
Mr Bossmann said he was "happy and proud".
"I based my campaign on a dialogue, and I think the dialogue has won," he said.
His campaign pledges include the introduction of electric cars in Piran. He also hopes to develop an airport and a golf course to boost tourism. 'No problems at all'
The 54-year-old had aimed to return to Ghana after his studies, but changed his mind after marrying a fellow doctor of Croatian origin.
About 12% of the population of Slovenia, which declared independence in 1991 and became the only former Yugoslav state to join the European Union in 2004, were born abroad, but only a fraction come from Africa.
Mr Bossman told the Reuters news agency that he had faced no discrimination because of his skin colour or origins in recent years.
"There are always small groups of people not accepting people who are different and in the first months after coming to Slovenia I felt that some people did not want to be with us," he said.
"But for the last 10 or 15 years, I experienced nothing like that any more. I have no problems at all and I think people no longer see the colour of my skin when they look at me," he added.
Slovenians reject minority rights
Slovenia country profile
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2010 | ['(Slovenia)', '(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Former Guatemalan Economic Minister Acisclo Valladares Urruela is charged by American prosecutors for laundering US$10 million on behalf of drug traffickers, and using the profits to bribe officials back home. | GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors charged Guatemalan former Economy Minister Asisclo Valladares on Wednesday with helping launder nearly $10 million in cash from drug traffickers and a corrupt politician.
Valladares, a prominent official in the administration of former President Jimmy Morales that ended in January, used the proceeds of the laundering scheme to bribe politicians in Guatemala, U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida, in Miami, said in a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Valladares’ lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Valladares’ father, who is Guatemala’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, said they both had full confidence in the U.S. legal system and that his son would appear in court when required.
The charges against Valladares are partly based on the testimony of cooperating witnesses, including convicted drug traffickers and a bank employee.
“I see this as an act of revenge by drug traffickers,” the ambassador said, adding that he had combated traffickers when he worked as a prosecutor in the 1990s and that he believed they were targeting his son to hurt him.
Valladares, the former minister, has so far evaded a warrant issued in Guatemala for his arrest, despite an Interpol Red Notice for his capture.
Both of the Valladares were prominent opponents to the U.N.-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, (CICIG) which uncovered corruption in the highest reaches of Guatemalan society.
CICIG was driven from the country last year after an intense lobbying campaign by the government and allies. Valladares was named in two CICIG investigations.
The U.S. case against him details alleged cash deliveries that arrived in sports bags, or, during the festive season, hidden in boxes of liquor. The cash was passed on to lawmakers in Guatemala, the case alleges.
Initially, the origin of the money was another politician, but when his illicit funds ran out, Valladares turned to drug money to keep up the bribe payments to lawmakers, the case alleges. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Complaints are raised against a Saudi Arabian writer for allegedly describing a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad as "barbaric" during a program presented by Nadeen Al-Badr on Al-Hurra Channel. |
JEDDAH: The Summary Court in Jeddah is expected to look into complaints raised by a number of people against a Saudi writer for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The Saudi writer had allegedly described a Hadith of the Prophet as barbaric, during a program on Al-Hurra Channel, which is presented by Nadeen Al-Badr.
Sources told Arab News that the court had sent a copy of the lawsuit filed against the man to Justice Minister Muhammad Al-Eissa in order to seek his opinion on the issue.
The plaintiffs have presented audio and visual evidence to prove their argument. They want the court to give the writer a strong punishment in accordance with the Shariah law.
The Saudi plaintiffs said the writer’s action would not be accepted by any Muslim who is proud of his religion. They said such actions would not be tolerated in the land of the Two Holy Mosques.
The plaintiffs have presented a copy of the writer’s interview with the television channel to the court along with their complaint in which they accused the writer of attacking the prophet’s personality.
This is the second lawsuit filed against media organizations and media persons for allegedly insulting the Hadith or Sayings of the Prophet.
Previously a group of Saudis filed a lawsuit against Al Arabiya Channel and one of its program presenters. A verdict has not yet been issued on the case.
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Othaim, chief justice at the summary court in Jeddah, said in a previous statement that the case had been passed to the Justice Ministry to look into it or transfer it to the Ministry of Culture and Information.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2010 | ['(Arabian Business News)', '(Arab News)'] |
About 5,000 people attend a rally in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Motzkin in support of the captured soldier on the second day of cross-country march | About 5,000 people attended a rally Monday organized by the family of captive soldier Gilad Shalit in the northern town of Kiryat Motzkin.
The rally was held following the second day of the Shalit cross-country march headed to Jerusalem.
"We are standing here and are touched to see all the masses here," Gilad's father Noam Shalit said at the rally. "I hope this movement, these masses…will keep on arriving and continue to support us, while growing even more."
The crowd on hand responded to the remarks with loud applause.
"We expected hundreds of people yet thousands arrived, and we're still not done," Shalit's father said, while reiterating his call for more people to join the march. Gilad Shalit's grandfather, Zvi, told Ynet he too was touched by the number of participants at the rally.
"I think the prime minister will not be able to ignore the influence of such crowd, and we still have some surprises up our sleeve," he said.
However, rally attendants included Israelis who do not endorse a prisoner swap for Shalit under the terms proposed by Hamas. Yossi Zur, whose son Asaf was murdered in a Haifa bus attack seven years ago, told Ynet: "This conflict is terrible and my stomach aches. I know better than anyone what it means to live without my child on a daily basis, but we must not make a deal that exchanges Gilad's life for the lives of other Israelis."
Aerial view of Shalit march (Photo: Ilan Arad Aviation)
"We need to come up with a different solution that would bring back Gilad," he said.
The thousands of Israelis who have joined the Shalit family on their march to Jerusalem have already walked from their home in Mitzpe Hila to Akko in the two days since theythe latest campaign got underway.
On Monday morning, the marchers held a rally in Akko, with close to 3,000 participating arriving at the event. Many were students from the city's various schools.
The captive solderi's mother, Aviva Shalit, thanked all those present and said she hoped their support would spur her son's release. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2010 | ['(Ynet)'] |
Warren Truss, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, announces his resignation as the leader of the National Party of Australia. Barnaby Joyce is elected as the new leader with Fiona Nash elected as the new deputy leader. , | Barnaby Joyce has been elected unopposed as leader of the Nationals, following a party-room meeting at Parliament House in Canberra.
He will take over the position of Deputy Prime Minister from Warren Truss, who has announced he will not recontest the next election.
Senator Fiona Nash has been elected as deputy leader of the Nationals.
"Within the next few years we will continue to build on the exceptional work that has been done by the most recent giant of our party, Warren Truss," Mr Joyce said.
"It is going to be a slightly different National Party, quite a different National Party," Senator Nash said.
"And we would be doing the same things we have always done, focusing on those people outside the major capital cities, who need us to fight for them."
MP George Christensen, the returning officer for the partyroom ballot, told reporters seven MPs put their hands up for the deputy position.
"Barnaby will be the new Deputy Prime Minister and we look forward to having Fiona in the Cabinet. I can assure you that both of them will be fierce advocates and fighters for rural and regional Australia," Mr Christensen said.
"If there is one great legacy that Warren Truss has left the National Party, it is a sense of unity and loyalty and that will continue under this new leadership.
"We are all very good mates and we're going to continue to be, even though some people missed out tonight."
The vote was a secret ballot.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull congratulated Mr Joyce and Senator Nash in a brief meeting at Parliament House in front of the media. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2016 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(ABC News)'] |
Palau becomes the first country in the world to ban sun cream that is harmful to corals and sea life. The ban comes into effect immediately after an announcement by President Thomas Remengesau Jr. | The Pacific nation of Palau has become the first country to ban sun cream that is harmful to corals and sea life.
From Wednesday, sun cream that includes common ingredients, including oxybenzone, is not allowed to be worn or sold in the country.
Palau's President Tommy Remengesau said: "We have to live and respect the environment because the environment is the nest of life."
The island nation markets itself as a "pristine paradise" for divers.
A lagoon in Palau's Rock Islands is a Unesco World Heritage site. The country has a population of around 20,000 dotted across hundreds of islands.
The ban - which was announced in 2018 - prohibits sun cream containing any of 10 ingredients. The list includes oxybenzone and octinoxate, which absorb ultraviolet light.
The International Coral Reef Foundation said the banned chemicals were "known environmental pollutants - most of them are... incredibly toxic to juvenile stages of many wildlife species".
Mr Remengesau told the AFP news agency: "When science tells us that a practice is damaging to coral reefs, to fish populations, or to the ocean itself, our people take note and our visitors do too.
"Toxic sunscreen chemicals have been found throughout Palau's critical habitats, and in the tissues of our most famous creatures. "We don't mind being the first nation to ban these chemicals, and we will do our part to spread the word."
The number of sun creams containing the harmful chemicals is declining. In 2018, experts said it was found in about half of creams and lotions.
When the US state of Hawaii announced a similar ban - which comes into effect in 2021 - major brands were quick to say their products were "reef bill compliant".
Other places to announce bans include the US Virgin Islands - where the law takes effect in March - and the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire.
| Government Policy Changes | January 2020 | ['(BBC News)'] |
The United States advises that a counterterrorism operation on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan has killed American and Italian al-Qaeda hostages Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto. | -- President Obama said today that he takes "full responsibility" for a U.S. government counterterrorism operation that killed two innocent hostages held by al Qaeda.
Dr. Warren Weinstein, an American held by the terror group since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian national who had been an al Qaeda hostage since 2012, were "accidentally" killed in a U.S. operation in January, the president acknowledged.
"I want to express our grief and condolences for the families of two hostages," Obama said from the White House briefing room, noting that at the time, the U.S. believed no civilians were present at the operation site.
"Since 9/11, our counterterrorism efforts have prevented terrorism attacks and saved innocent lives, both here in America and around the world, and that determination to protect innocent life only makes the loss of these two men especially painful for all of us," he added. "It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally and our fight terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur. But one of the things that sets America apart from many other nations, one of the things that makes us exceptional is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes."
A U.S. government official told ABC News that the drone strike that killed Weinstein and LoPorto occurred on January 14 and targeted a compound in Pakistan’s tribal area suspected of being used by al Qaeda.
The official said there was “near certainty” that there were no non-combatants at the location.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today that the compound had received hundreds of hours of overhead surveillance prior to the drone strike. The U.S. official said Weinstein and LoPorto were likely “hidden and well concealed” which is why the surveillance did not indicate they were there.
According to Earnest, just weeks after the strike, initial indications emerged that Weinstein may have been killed. It was not until a few days ago that the U.S. intelligence community assessed with a high degree of confidence that Weinstein and LoPorto had been killed in the strikes.
The official said that the strikes did not receive Presidential approval as they were conducted within the bounds of existing legal guidelines for such strikes.
Though the administration asserted in a statement that the drone operation was “lawful and conducted consistent with our counter-terrorism policies,” President Obama promised a thorough independent review, saying he declassified the mission "because the Weinstein and Lo Porto families deserve to know the truth."
In a video released by al Qaeda in 2012, Weinstein, a former peace corps and U.S. aid official abducted from his home in Lahore, Pakistan, pleaded with Obama to comply with the terrorists’ demands.
“My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” he said. “If you accept the demands, I live. If you don’t accept the demands, then I die.”
“I've done a lot of service for my country, and I would hope that my country will now look after me and take care of me and meet the demands of the mujahedeen,” he added.
Since Weinstein's abduction, government officials had worked "tirelessly" to bring him home safely, Obama said today.
"For decades, Warren lived the ideals of our country," he said. "He was a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who willingly left the comforts of home to help the people of Pakistan."
"We are devastated by this news and the knowledge that my husband will never safely return home," Weinstein's wife, Elaine, said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the assistance we received from other elements of the U.S. Government was inconsistent and disappointing over the course of three and a half years. We hope that my husband’s death and the others who have faced similar tragedies in recent months will finally prompt the U.S. Government to take its responsibilities seriously and establish a coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their families,” she said.
While the family looks forward to the results of the U.S. government's investigation into the operation, "those who took Warren captive over three years ago bear ultimate responsibility," she added. "The cowardly actions of those who took Warren captive and ultimately to the place and time of his death are not in keeping with Islam and they will have to face their God to answer for their actions."
According to a White House statement, “two other Americans were recently killed in U.S. Government counter-terrorism operations in the same region.”
Ahmed Farouq and Adam Gadahn were both American members of al Qaeda, but neither was “specifically targeted,” the White House says.
Farouq was killed in the January 14 strike that killed Weinstein and LoPorto. Gadahn, a well-known al-Qaeda spokesman was killed in a drone strike on January 19.
ABC News' Mary Bruce, Karen Travers and Cindy Smith contributed to this report.
| Armed Conflict | April 2015 | ['(AP via ABC News)'] |
Chávez's death triggers a presidential election to be held within thirty days. | Venezuelans began seven days of painful and public mourning on Tuesday night after the announcement that their president, Hugo Chávez, had died aged 58 after a long battle against cancer.
The country's vice-president, Nicolás Maduro – tipped as a likely successor – broke the news on Tuesday night, prompting a wave of grief in the nation's streets.
"We have just received the most tragic and awful information. At 4.25pm, President Hugo Chávez Frias died," Maduro announced in a televised address, his voice choking. "It's a moment of deep pain," he said.
Chávez died at a military hospital in Caracas, the capital of the country he has ruled since 1999. As soon as the news was announced, supporters gathered at the city's main square, Plaza Bolivar, and began chanting: "Chávez vive, la lucha sigue" – "Chávez lives, the battle continues."
People wearing the red beret the president was known for sang a popular folk song with the words: "Those who die for life cannot be called dead."
As messages of condolence came from many world leaders, perhaps the most significant was from Barack Obama. He said: "At this challenging time of President Hugo Chávez's passing, the United States reaffirms its support for the Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government. As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the US remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law and respect for human rights."
Chávez, the symbol of Latin American socialism, succumbed to a respiratory infection on Tuesday evening, 21 months after he first revealed he had a tumour. He had not been seen in public for three months since emergency surgery in Cuba on 11 December.
He will be given a state funeral in Caracas on Friday, likely to be attended by millions of supporters and leftwing leaders from across the globe who have been inspired by Chávez's doctrine of "Bolivarian 21st-century socialism", grateful for the subsidised energy he provided or simply impressed by his charisma. His death will also trigger a presidential election, to be held within 30 days, to decide who controls the world's greatest untapped reserves of oil.
His designated successor, Maduro, is likely to face Henrique Capriles, the losing opposition candidate in the presidential election held a few months ago in October 2012. Until then, according to the constitution, the interim president should be the head of the national assembly, Diosdado Cabello. However on Tuesday night the Venezuelan foreign minister, Elias Jaua, said Maduro was the interim president. It was not clear whether this would only apply until the official calling of the election and beginning of the campaign, or whether Maduro would remain in charge until the election result was determined.
Robert Menendez, chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee, called for free and fair elections to replace Chávez. "Hugo Chavez ruled Venezuela with an iron hand and his passing has left a political void that we hope will be filled peacefully and through a constitutional and democratic process, grounded in the Venezuelan constitution and adhering to the Inter-American Democratic Charter."
Replacing one of most colourful figures on the global political landscape will be an immense challenge. Born to a poor family on the plains, Chávez became a tank commander and a devotee of South America's liberator, Simón Bolívar. A failed coup in 1992 propelled him into the limelight but it was his ballot box triumphs that made him an inspiration for the resurgent Latin American left and the most outspoken – and often humorous – critic of the US, the war in Iraq and George Bush, whom he described as a "donkey" and a "devil". Formerly one of the most dynamic political leaders in the world with a globe-trotting schedule and a weekly, unscripted TV broadcast – often hours long – Chávez shocked his countrymen in June 2011 when he revealed that Cuban surgeons had removed a baseball-sized tumour from his pelvic region.
After that, he underwent several rounds of chemotherapy and two more operations in what he described as a "battle for health and for life". His medical records were never made public, prompting widespread speculation about his imminent demise, but he and his supporters insisted he was recovering. Before the presidential election in October 2012, aides claimed he was well enough to complete a full term. During that campaign, Chávez was clearly affected by his illness. But although he made fewer and shorter appearances, he won more votes than in any of his earlier elections battles, prompting him to proclaim victory in a "perfect battle".
Fears about his health escalated after he rushed to Cuba for hyperbaric oxygen treatment on 27 November. Less than a fortnight later, he made a televised address in which he said that doctors had discovered malignant cells that required surgery and urged Venezuelans to vote for Maduro if he was incapacitated.
Since his operation in December, Chávez has been visited by family members and several of his closest political allies, including Fidel and Raul Castro of Cuba, Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa and Bolivian president Evo Morales.
Beyond a set of four photographs released last month that showed a remarkably hearty looking Chávez smiling in a hospital bed and flanked by his daughters, the president has not been seen or heard for three months. This prompted frequent rumours that the president was dead or on life support. The government denied this and said he continued to run the country by writing down his orders.
But officials acknowledged that Chávez suffered multiple complications after his surgery including respiratory infections and bleeding. He had to undergo more chemotherapy and drug treatments and could only breathe through a tracheal tube. He returned from Cuba on 18 February at his own request, said officials. Since then he has been treated at Carlos Arvelo military hospital in Caracas.
Hopes for a recovery dimmed on Monday, when minister of communications, Ernesto Villegas, said the president's condition had declined due to a "new and serious respiratory infection."
Constitutional questions have been raised by his long hospitalisation and absence from public life, which he formerly dominated with dynamic and provocative appearances on his weekly television address, Hello Mr President.
When he failed to attend his scheduled inauguration on 10 January, the opposition asked who is running the country. The ruling party responded with a rally of more than 100,000 supporters, many carrying banners declaring "We are Chávez." | Government Job change - Election | March 2013 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Sajid Javid becomes the United Kingdom's Home Secretary following the resignation of Amber Rudd over the Windrush scandal. He is the first Home Secretary from an ethnic minority background. | Sajid Javid has promised to "do whatever it takes" to put right problems faced by the Windrush generation after he succeeded Amber Rudd as home secretary.
Mr Javid said as a second generation migrant he was "angry" at the treatment of those caught up in the saga.
He also disowned the "hostile environment" tag attached to the government's migration policy.
Labour said he would be judged on getting "justice" for people affected.
Facing MPs' questions for the first time as home secretary, just a few hours after getting the job, Mr Javid said the difficulties faced by "longstanding pillars of the community" should never have happened, adding: "I thought that it could be my mum, my brother, my uncle or even me."
He told MPs: "I want to start by making a pledge, a pledge to those from the Windrush generation who have been in this country for decades and yet have struggled to navigate through the immigration system. This never should have been the case and I will do whatever it takes to put it right."
And he said he would not be using the phrase "hostile environment" to describe immigration laws introduced by Theresa May when she was home secretary.
He told MPs: "I think the terminology is incorrect, I think it's a phrase that is unhelpful and does not represent the values as a country."
Mr Javid was appointed after Ms Rudd quit on Sunday evening, saying she "inadvertently" misled MPs over immigration removal targets.
Ms Rudd told MPs last week the Home Office did not have targets for removing illegal immigrants, but on Sunday the Guardian published a letter in which Ms Rudd set out her "ambitious but deliverable" aim to deport 10% more illegal immigrants over the "next few years" to Theresa May.
When asked if she should take some personal responsibility for her home secretary's resignation, Mrs May said: "When I was home secretary, yes, there were targets in terms of removing people from the country who were here illegally.
"If you talk to members of the public they want to ensure we are dealing with people who are here illegally."
She said she was "very sorry" to see Ms Rudd go, adding: "I think she can look back with pride as home secretary."
Mr Javid, a former investment banker and MP for Bromsgrove since 2010, has been communities secretary for about 18 months.
The 48-year old, who previously served as business and culture secretaries, led the government's response to last year's Grenfell Tower fire disaster.
Politically neat, generally welcomed by colleagues - In the recent canon of Tory events the relatively smooth landing of this appointment is an achievement in itself.
But moving Sajid Javid in, after Amber Rudd took herself out, does not end the prime minister's problems. She and Mr Javid need to move fast to cauterise the political wounds from Windrush.
He can, and did, make a more compelling and personal case in the House of Commons, showing what seems real anger about what has happened to those caught up in Windrush, and unafraid to use his own family story to display it too.
Colleagues have called him a "good operator", and "compassionate and empathetic". Many in Westminster are pointing to his own family history as the ultimate Tory dream - the boy whose dad arrived in Britain with £1 in his pocket, who through hard work ended up in the cabinet, with a portrait of Margaret Thatcher on his wall.
His appointment is also a landmark, he is the first politician from an ethnic minority to take on one of the great offices of state - the biggest jobs in cabinet.
But whatever the presentation and the political messaging, the realities of the Windrush fiasco affect real lives. It's not going to be fixed with a new face or a more sympathetic soundbite.
Ms Rudd's departure came after she faced mounting criticism over her handling of the Windrush scandal and immigration policy.
The Windrush generation settled legally in post-war Britain and automatically got the right-to-remain in the UK - but the UK government did not keep a record of everyone in that position.
Some people who do not have the paperwork to prove they are in the UK legally have been detained, lost their jobs and denied access to medical care.
This has prompted calls for the government to abandon its "hostile environment" policy on illegal immigration, which Ms Rudd and Mrs May continued to defend, although Mr Javid told MPs he preferred the phrase "compliant environment".
He told MPs Windrush cases were being investigated "as a matter of urgency", with more than 100 processed so far and 500 appointments scheduled.
Responding for Labour, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: "The Windrush generation was my parents' generation. I believe - and most British people believe - that they have been treated appallingly.
She added that Mr Javid "will be judged not on the statements he makes this afternoon: he will be judged on what he does to put the situation right and get justice for the Windrush generation".
To anger from Labour benches, the home secretary replied that Ms Abbott did not "have a monopoly" on anger at the situation. Please upgrade your browser to view this content.
The new home secretary faces a massive task. And none of it - from terrorism through to the Windrush crisis - is easy to fix, writes BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani.
The Home Office sits at the heart of some of the most complex and challenging decisions in government - and, if his predecessors' experiences are any guide, Sajid Javid should probably give up now on the hope of having much of a life beyond his red ministerial boxes.
First on the list for any incoming home secretary is appreciating the scale of the security threat.
Every day, he will see a dozen dossiers from the police and intelligence agencies asking for permission to intercept the communications of people who are a threat to the UK. This is his first responsibility: keeping the UK safe.
Opposition parties have targeted Mrs May - under whose Home Office tenure the "hostile environment" policy was introduced - over the Windrush row.
Ms Abbott said "all roads lead back" to the prime minister who, as the "architect of this crisis" - must come before the Commons to explain "whether she knew that Amber Rudd was misleading Parliament and the public last week".
"Many of the elements of this hostile environment originated under Theresa May and, most important of all, it was in 2014 that she passed legislation which removed the protection from deportation which up until then had applied to Commonwealth citizens," Ms Abbott told BBC One's Breakfast.
The SNP's home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry said: "It is the prime minister who has created the fundamental reasons for the Windrush scandal."
Following Mr Javid's promotion, No 10 also announced former Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire was returning to the cabinet as housing, communities and local government secretary while International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt would take Ms Rudd's other role as women's and equalities minister. When Ms Rudd was being grilled by a committee of MPs on Wednesday about the Windrush saga she told them there were no removals targets for illegal immigrants - comments subsequently contradicted by a 2015 inspection report. She later admitted "local" targets for voluntary removals had been set but she told the Commons on Thursday she had not been aware of them.
But the Guardian reported a June 2017 memo from an official, copied to Ms Rudd, that referred to targets. The newspaper also published a letter at the weekend, from January 2017, where Ms Rudd told Theresa May about plans to restructure her department and increase removals "over the next few years".
Sources told the BBC that on Saturday and Sunday Ms Rudd and her officials did a thorough search of all documents and found other references to operational targets which she felt she should have been aware of.
Some of the people who have been caught up in the migration saga that led to Ms Rudd's resignation have been giving their views.
Winston Walker, who came to the UK from Jamaica as a toddler in 1966, said the home secretary had been "a bit of a scapegoat for something that her predecessor created".
"We have to wait and see if anything changes," he said.
"I don't know. It's us that are sat in limbo waiting."
Tanya Simms, who was born in the UK to parents who came from Jamaica in the 1960s and had her passport application rejected, said the situation "still needs to be handled".
"Until we've got an outcome and something has actually changed, it's not a victory. It's not a victory until everybody is out of this situation," she said.
"It's not fair. People have been kept prisoner in the country they are born in. Their lives have stopped."
Whitfield Francis, who came to England aged nine and has been unable to work for four years because he does not have the necessary documentation, added: "Unfortunately Rudd's lost her job but she'll probably be able to find a new job quicker than I can."
Amber Rudd resigns
Amber Rudd's political highs and lows
Rudd's exit gives May headaches
What is the 'hostile environment' policy?
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two lorry drivers receive prison terms, one of 14 years, for killing eight people when their vehicles collided with a bus on the M1 in Buckinghamshire, England, in 2017. | Two lorry drivers have been jailed over a crash on the M1 in Buckinghamshire that killed eight people last year.
Ryszard Masierak, 31, was jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.
David Wagstaff, 54, was sentenced to 40 months in prison after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.
Eight people died when the minibus they were travelling in was hit by Wagstaff and shunted into Masierak's lorry, which had stopped on the inside lane.
Judge Francis Sheridan said the crash was the most serious in the UK for more than 26 years.
Sentencing the pair at Aylesbury Crown Court, Judge Sheridan described Masierak as a "persistent, unmitigated, if not very accomplished liar" who had shown "no remorse".
"What you have tried to do is blame everyone and everybody except yourself," he told him.
The trial heard Masierak, of Barnards Close, Evesham, Worcestershire, was twice the drink-drive limit and had stopped on the inside lane near Newport Pagnell for 12 minutes before the crash on 26 August.
The AIM Logistics driver admitted he had consumed alcohol but said he stopped because he was sweating, felt weak and had a headache.
After the verdicts, it was revealed Masierak's professional driving licence had been revoked prior to the crash.
At today's sentencing, the Polish national was told he could face deportation on his release from prison.
Minibus driver Cyriac Joseph was waiting with his hazard lights on to go around Masierak's lorry when Fed Ex driver Wagstaff ploughed into the back of the van forcing it into and under Masierak's vehicle.
Wagstaff, of Derwent Street, Stoke-on-Trent, had been on a hands-free call for an hour at the time of impact and the trial heard he did not brake before crashing into the minibus at 56mph.
Judge Sheridan said Wagstaff had between nine and 11 seconds to see the vehicles ahead had he "not been so distracted by using the phone".
"You took no action whatsoever because you weren't concentrating on what was in front of you - they were there to be seen and you didn't see them."
A jury had cleared Wagstaff of causing death by dangerous driving.
Despite Judge Sheridan acknowledging that Wagstaff had not broken the law by using a bluetooth headset, he said: "It would be wrong of me not to take the opportunity to urge the public to download the app that deactivates your phone when you are on the move."
The eight people killed were all travelling in the minibus, which was carrying 11 Indian tourists from Nottingham to London ahead of a trip to Disneyland Paris.
The six men and two women who died were driver Cyriac Joseph, Panneerselvam Annamalai, Rishi Ranjeev Kumar, Vivek Baskaran, Lavanyalakshmi Seetharaman, Karthikeyan Pugalur Ramasubramanian, Subramaniyan Arachelvan and Tamilmani Arachelvan.
Four other passengers - including a four-year-old girl orphaned by the crash - were seriously injured and spent weeks in hospital afterwards.
Masierak was also disqualified from driving for 17 years after he was convicted of eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving and four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Wagstaff admitted eight counts of causing death by careless driving and four counts of causing serious injury by careless driving. He was banned from driving for three years.
At the sentencing, Judge Sheridan took the opportunity to thank the victims' families who he said had "conducted themselves with utmost dignity which was utterly humbling".
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'Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time' - Motorcyclist, 24, dies in accident | Road Crash | March 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Fabrice Muamba is discharged from hospital after his cardiac arrest during an FA Cup match. | Last updated on 16 April 201216 April 2012.From the section Football
Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba has paid tribute to the London Chest Hospital staff after being discharged.
The 24-year-old was technically "dead" for 78 minutes after suffering a cardiac arrest and collapsing in a game against Tottenham on 17 March and had been in hospital since then.
"I am naturally very pleased to be discharged from hospital," he said.
"I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to every single member of staff who played a part in my care."
"It's remarkable when you consider that his heart stopped beating for 78 minutes. "I understand that he had a relatively minor procedure to be fitted with a defibrillator, a pacemaker, because of the risk that he can suffer a cardiac arrest again in the future. "There's a long way to go in terms of recovering fully. We don't know what the defibrillator means for his playing career." Muamba, pictured with Dr Andrew Deaner and Dr Sam Mohiddin of the Barts Health NHS Trust on his discharge, said: "Their dedication, professionalism and expertise is simply amazing and I will forever be in their debt. I also wish to say thank you to all the many well-wishers who have sent thousands of messages of support."
And in a joint press release issued by the Trust and his club, the midfielder continued: "Now I am out of hospital, I am looking forward to continuing my recovery and spending precious time with my family."
Bolton Wanderers manager Owen Coyle said: "It is absolutely fantastic news that Fabrice has been discharged from hospital and everyone at the club is delighted.
"We would also like to add our thanks to the staff at The London Chest Hospital for their care and treatment of Fabrice, which has been outstanding.
"It is important that Fabrice and his family are now given time and space to be together, and we would ask the media to continue to respect their privacy."
A spokesman for the Trust said: "Barts Health can confirm that Fabrice Muamba has now been discharged following several weeks of treatment. All our staff wish him the very best in his ongoing recovery."
Muamba collapsed after 41 minutes of the FA Cup quarter-final tie with Spurs and was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and 15 defibrillator shocks before he arrived at the intensive care unit of the heart attack centre at the London Chest Hospital.
The former England Under-21 international was helped on the pitch by Deaner, consultant cardiologist at London Chest Hospital, who was at the game as a fan, and ran out of the stands to lend his expertise.
Last month, Trotters club doctor Jonathan Tobin said: "It was 48 minutes when he collapsed to reaching hospital and a further 30 minutes after that. He was, in effect, dead at that time.
"We were fearing the worst and didn't think we would get the recovery we had. It's incredible." | Famous Person - Recovered | April 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(East African Standard)'] |
A massive fire burns parts of the boardwalk in Seaside Park, New Jersey. Numerous decades–old buildings are destroyed. (ABC News} | ASBURY PARK, N.J. -- A fire that started at a frozen custard shop Thursday ripped along the boardwalks of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights, N.J., and damaging nearly two dozen businesses along the way.
Much of the iconic boardwalk just rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy was destroyed.
No serious injuries were reported, but of the roughly 400 firefighters who responded to the blaze, 12 suffered smoke inhalation, Seaside Heights Police Chief Thomas Boyd said.
Not since the Long Branch Amusement Pier fire of 1987, has there been a more disastrous beachfront fire on the Jersey Shore.
Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency Thursday.
Christie recalled his initial words to his staff as they briefed him of the barrier island's latest disaster: "I feel like I want to throw up."
An Ocean County official said it was too early to speculate about what caused the fire.
An emergency call reporting smoke at the Kohr's custard shop came in around 2:30 p.m. Thursday. The smoke spread out across the boardwalk as local firefighters arrived on the scene. Then the smoke "got huge," said Kevin Ogden, of Bridgewater.
Firefighters appeared to have little chance from the start, said Charlie O'Connor, a borough lifeguard who was surfing when he noticed flames being driven by wind. The New Jersey Weather and Climate Network reported southwest winds of 16 mph in Seaside Heights, with gusts of up to 29 mph. The winds blew embers that started other fires.
"A combination of the worst elements at one time," Seaside Park Mayor Robert Matthies said.
Within an hour, most of the boardwalk block between Stockton and Farragut was engulfed in flames. Within two hours, by 4 p.m., the fire jumped another block and was burning buildings between Farragut and Porter.
By 4 p.m. it was a six-alarm fire.
Firefighters on the ground and on ladders poured streams of water into the roaring flames and thickening black smoke in an effort to keep the fire from spreading.
Onlookers gathered to watch the devastation unfold. Many had figured out what was burning by the color of the smoke rising — the boardwalk burned off a light-brown smoke, while burning buildings emitted black.
A little before 5 p.m., a fire break was created in an effort to get ahead of the fire and stop it. Heavy machinery was brought in to smash the wood and create a gap between the fire and the rest of the boardwalk. It didn't work.
Flames jumped across Ocean Avenue and burned condominium units and threatened homes. Firefighters drew water from Barnegat Bay as the water pressure in the fire hydrants dropped.
"They're trying to contain it as best as they can," Matthies said.
Around 5:30 p.m. the flames had moved to the FunTown Pier area, enveloping the main building in a yellow flame until it collapsed. Some people groaned as it fell.
By then, Christie was on his way to the scene and the authorities had closed off roads leading into the area.
With lowering water pressure, firefighters from several counties battled the blaze. Meanwhile, crews used construction equipment tore up about 70 feet of boardwalk in Seaside Heights. That rebuilt section of boardwalk was unveiled around Memorial Day after being destroyed by Sandy.
"It's going to stop for sure," said Seaside Park Police Chief Francis Larkin, "but where, I don't know."
A second break held up, and firefighters doused the flames with water.
Christie declared a state of emergency at around 7 p.m. and addressed the community, which 10 months ago was battered by Sandy and was in many ways just getting back on its feet.
"It's like a one-two punch," said David DeLuca, of Keansburg. "These people just got done rebuilding."
Of the eight blocks consumed by fire, just one had been rebuilt after Sandy. Unlike Seaside Heights, Seaside Park's boardwalk and business were largely spared of devastation.
Still, Christie said, "It's unthinkable."
The fire was locally reported under control around 7:45 p.m., but some county officials disagreed. They said at 10 p.m. they were still tending to hot spots and smoldering piles.
Seaside Heights Mayor William Akers said that some of the buildings that are still standing will likely have to be demolished. He estimates that 30 businesses were damaged between the two towns.
Looking on the bright side, Akers said, "We've had two of the worst things happen to Seaside Heights in I don't know how many years and we didn't lose one life."
He said officials will be out in the daylight for a further assessment of the damage.
Bob Stewart, a firefighter in Seaside Heights, was among those trying to stop the fire from the north end. He couldn't stop it from consuming Carousel Arcade, his business of five years. He just reopened the arcade, home to one of two historic carousels in town, in May, after Sandy flooded it.
"It would have been nice if it was a block that way," he said of the firebreak while pointing south past Dupont. "That way I wouldn't have lost everything God left me. | Fire | September 2013 | ['(USA Today)'] |
In Spain, FC Barcelona defeat Athletic Bilbao 3-1 in the 2014–15 Copa del Rey final meaning they complete a domestic double after winning La Liga. Lionel Messi scored a brace in the victory. | A magical Lionel Messi goal, the first of a brace, set treble-chasing Barcelona up for a 3-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao to lift the King's Cup on Saturday and complete a domestic double.
The Argentina forward skipped past four Bilbao players on a mazy run before shooting low into the corner past keeper Iago Herrerin after 20 minutes for his 33rd goal in his 50th appearance for Barca in the Cup.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi adds another mesmerising goal to his impressive collection, as he weaves past four defenders to score in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao.
Messi has been in blistering form in the second half of the season and once again provided the inspiration for Barca, who went further ahead through Neymar when he slotted into an open goal having been set up by Luis Suarez after 36 minutes.
With the Bilbao defence dozing, Messi nipped in to clip home a Dani Alves cross after 74 minutes and then a flicked Inaki Williams header gave the Basque side a consolation before tempers frayed near the end following an incident involving Neymar.
No holding him back: Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona competes for the ball with Mikel Balenziaga. | Sports Competition | May 2015 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Reuters via Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Safaa Boular, a teenager, goes on trial at the Old Bailey accused of two counts of planning terrorism after allegedly planning to attack the British Museum in London after failing to travel to Syria to marry an Islamic extremist fighter. | A teenage girl plotted a gun and grenade attack at the British Museum after her attempts to become a jihadi bride were thwarted, a court has heard.
Safaa Boular was 17 when she allegedly decided to be a "martyr" after her Islamic State fighter fiancé was killed in Syria, the Old Bailey was told.
Ms Boular, now 18, denies two counts of preparing acts of terrorism.
Her sister Rizlaine Boular, 21, has admitted planning an attack with knives in Westminster. She was given assistance and support by her mother, Mina Dich, the jury was told. Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said Safaa Boular, who lived with her mother in Vauxhall, London, wanted to "unleash violence and terror in the heart of London".
But Joel Bennathan QC, representing Ms Boular, said the teenager had been "sexually groomed" and "groomed to be radicalised" online by IS fighter Naweed Hussain.
He said her family had "encouraged" and "celebrated" it.
Mr Atkinson said she declared her love for Hussain in August 2016 after three months of chatting on social media.
The prosecutor told jurors she wanted to join Hussain in Syria where they would wear suicide belts and, in Hussain's words, "depart the world holding hands and taking others with them".
The court heard Rizlaine Boular had also tried to go to Syria two years before.
After Safaa Boular's plan was uncovered, she allegedly switched her attention to Britain, contacting Hussain by phone through encrypted Telegram chat.
But British security services had deployed officers to engage in online communication with the pair, jurors heard.
Mr Atkinson said: "It was clear that Hussain had been planning an act of terrorism with Safaa Boular in which she could engage if she remained in this country. Both Hussain and Safaa Boular talked of a planned ambush involving grenades and or firearms."
She also told an officer posing as an IS fighter that all she needed was a "car and a knife to get what I want to achieve", the court heard.
Mr Atkinson said: "Based on her preparation and discussion, it appears she planned to launch an attack against members of the public selected largely at random in the environs of that cultural jewel and most popular of tourist attractions, the British Museum in central London."
An attack would have created at least "widespread panic" and was intended to cause injury and death, it was claimed.
When she learned Hussain had been killed in April 2017, Ms Boular's determination was strengthened, the court heard.
But within days, she was charged with planning to go to Syria so was unable to carry out her "chilling intentions", the prosecutor said.
He said: "That those intentions were not just chilling but sincere and determined is demonstrated by the fact that she did not abandon them even when she was unable to put them into effect herself. "Rather, she sought to encourage her sister Rizlaine to carry the torch forward in her stead."
In calls to her sister from jail, Safaa Boular referenced an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party which was code for an attack, the court heard.
Mr Atkinson told jurors the older sibling had admitted preparing acts of terrorism.
Rizlaine Boular spent three days carrying out reconnaissance of major landmarks in Westminster and bought knives and a rucksack, the court heard.
Based on her reconnaissance and discussion, it appears she planned a knife attack in Westminster, Mr Atkinson said.
She was arrested on 27 April last year, the day of the planned attack, the court heard.
Safaa Boular's trial continues. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A U.S. federal judge in Hawaii, finding the revised federal immigration/refugee executive order violates the U.S. Constitution's religious establishment clause, grants the state of Hawaii's motion for a nationwide temporary restraining order on these rules that were set to become effective at midnight. President Donald Trump vows to appeal this ruling. Two other federal courts held hearings on similar requests filed by the states of Maryland and Washington; neither of these judges issued a ruling. | HONOLULU/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Just hours before President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban was set to go into effect, a U.S. federal judge in Hawaii on Wednesday issued an emergency halt to the order’s implementation.
The action was the latest legal blow to the administration’s efforts to temporarily ban refugees as well as travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries, which the President has said is needed for national security. Trump lashed out at the judge’s ruling, saying it “makes us look weak.”
Trump signed the new ban on March 6 in a bid to overcome legal problems with a January executive order that caused chaos at airports and sparked mass protests before a Washington judge stopped its enforcement in February.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson put an emergency stop to the new order in response to a lawsuit filed by the state of Hawaii, which argued that the order discriminated against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Judge Watson concluded in his ruling that while the order did not mention Islam by name, “a reasonable, objective observer ... would conclude that the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion.” Watson was appointed to the bench by former Democratic President Barack Obama.
Speaking at a rally in Nashville, Trump called his revised executive order a “watered-down version” of his first. “I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place,” Trump said.
Trump called the judge’s block “unprecedented judicial overreach” and said he will take the case “as far as it needs to go,” including to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Department of Justice called the ruling “flawed both in reasoning and in scope,” adding that the president has broad authority in national security matters. “The Department will continue to defend this Executive Order in the courts,” it said a statement.
The nation’s highest court is currently split 4-4 between liberals and conservatives with Trump’s pick - appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch - still awaiting confirmation.
Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said the ban was needed to improve vetting of people entering the United States in order to prevent attacks and said he had no doubt that it would be upheld by higher courts.
Watson’s order is only temporary until the broader arguments in the case can be heard. He set an expedited hearing schedule to determine if his ruling should be extended.
Trump’s first travel order was more sweeping than the second revised order. Like the current one, it barred citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days, but it also included Iraq, which was subsequently taken off the list.
Refugees were blocked from entering the country for 120 days in both orders, but an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria was dropped in the new one.
The revised ban also excluded legal permanent residents and existing visa holders. It provided a series of waivers for various categories of immigrants with ties to the United States.
Hawaii and other opponents of the ban claimed that the motivation behind it was Trump’s campaign promise of “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
The government, in its court filings cautioned the court against looking for secret motives in the executive order and against performing “judicial psychoanalysis of a drafter’s heart of heart.”
Watson said he did not need to do that, because evidence of motive could be found in the president’s public statements. He said he did not give credence to the government’s argument that the order was not anti-Muslim because it targeted only a small percentage of Muslim-majority countries.
“The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed,” the judge wrote.
The case was one of several moving through U.S. courts on Wednesday that were brought by states’ attorneys general and immigrant advocacy groups.
In Maryland, refugee resettlement agencies represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center argued in court for a restraining order.
In Washington state, a group of plaintiffs applying for immigrant visas asked U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle - who suspended the first ban - to stop the new order. Robart was appointed to the bench by Republican former President George W. Bush.
Both Judge Robart and U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland said they would issue written rulings in their cases, but did not specify a time line.
Washington state, joined by California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon, said in court filings they supported the plaintiffs in Seattle.
If more judges side with Watson, the government’s case may be harder to make at higher courts. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Robart’s ruling against the first ban and Watson referenced that decision in his order.
Various groups and companies said they would be harmed by the travel restrictions.
A group of 58 technology companies, including Airbnb Inc, Lyft Inc and Dropbox Inc, filed a “friend of the court” brief in the case saying the order hurt their ability to recruit the best talent from around the world.
A longer list of companies, including Apple Inc , Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google - filed a brief opposing the first ban in a different court challenge brought by Washington state, which is ongoing.
It was not immediately clear why fewer tech companies signed on to the brief this time around.
| Government Policy Changes | March 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(Hoinolulu Star-Advertiser)'] |
A 13-year-old girl is killed when a car is deliberately driven into a pizza restaurant's sidewalk cafe in Sept-Sorts, France. At least 12 other people are injured, four critically. The driver is arrested. Police do not believe the incident was terrorism-related. | The public prosecutor's office said this was 'a deliberate act'which seems 'to have nothing to do with a terror attack'
A young girl has been killed and at least 12 people injured after a car deliberately drove into a pizzeria in a small village to the east of Paris. The car ploughed into the busy terrace of the restaurant in Sept-Sorts, a village of about 450 inhabitants in Seine et Marne. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said the young girl killed was 13-years-old. He added four people were in a critical condition and eight suffered from less serious injuries. According to local media, the driver has been arrested. He reportedly attempted to commit suicide last week. French police authorities have confirmed on Twitter that an operation is ongoing in Sept-Sorts and urged people to stay away from the area. The public prosecutor's office in Meaux said this was "a deliberate act" which seems "to have nothing to do with a terror attack", Le Parisien reports.
One witness told BFMTV: "I had just paid and was about to leave the restaurant when a car drove straight into the terrace, it hit the bar and became wedged inside the restaurant. "The driver wanted to reverse but some people who were nearby prevented him from doing by standing behind the car. The police was quick to arrive and they arrested him there and then. "For me this was deliberate and it was a terror attack. There were about 20 people on the terrace of the restaurant and they were all mowed down by the car." France has been rocked by a recent series of terror attacks, and anti-terrorist officers were quickly at the scene of the crash.
| Armed Conflict | August 2017 | ['(CBS News)', '(The Independent)'] |
Riot police clash with protesters armed with firecrackers and petrol bombs outside the parliament building, in Kiev, Ukraine, leaving one national guardsman dead and around 100 people injured. , , | One national guard member has been killed and over 100 injured in violent protests outside Ukraine's parliament, the interior ministry said.
Clashes between nationalists and riot police erupted after MPs gave initial backing to reforms for more autonomy in the rebel-held east.
Some in the crowd lobbed what police said were live grenades at officers protecting parliament.
The reforms are part of a peace plan to end fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, said the violence was "a stab in the back".
Protesters led by the populist Radical Party and the ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party - who oppose any concession to the Russian-backed separatists - gathered outside parliament early on Monday.
After a rowdy debate, 265 MPs out of 450 backed the first reading of the decentralisation bill, granting more powers to areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. Initially, there were only minor clashes but a BBC correspondent then heard small explosions followed by a much larger one - apparently from a grenade. The demonstrators numbered barely more than a few dozen - mainly young men, most of them masked. They started the fights with police, but others supported them.
The protesters tried to pull the policemen away from their lines. They beat them and took their shields and helmets. Soon about a dozen young men were almost as well-equipped as the police.
Several times the atmosphere near the building seemed to calm down for a while, with clashes starting up again. And then the explosions began. I saw some people - policemen and firemen - falling to the ground, and some running away from the site, limping. I saw pools of blood just near the wall of parliament.
Violent clashes outside Kiev's parliament The Ukrainian Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, said some 30 people have been detained, including a Svoboda member who confessed to throwing a grenade.
Of the 122 people hospitalised, more than 11 were in a critical condition, the minister added.
He bitterly criticised Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok, writing on Facebook that several explosive devices had been thrown by people wearing Svoboda T-shirts. A policeman's leg was torn off below the knee in the blast, Interfax Ukraine reported, while journalists at the scene were also reported injured. Almost 7,000 people have died since the conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in March 2014, after Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
Pushing through greater autonomy for the rebel-held areas is a key part of the Minsk peace deal, originally signed in February.
During the summer, fighting between Ukrainian army forces and the rebels has escalated. But the two sides agreed last week to halt the violence on 1 September, the day children in the region return to school.
Although the number of ceasefire violations appears to have fallen in recent days, OSCE monitors have warned that neither side was respecting the truce.
Under the draft constitutional changes going through parliament, there will be a special law covering local government in rebel-held areas. However, parliament speaker Volodymyr Hroysman was adamant that would not mean special status for Donetsk and Luhansk, which rebel leaders have declared republics.
In a national address late on Monday, President Poroshenko said if the proposals had been voted down, Ukraine would have been left "one-to-one against the aggressor".
| Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2015 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The News Hub)', '[permanent dead link]', '(BBC)'] |
Sri Lankan Civil War: a claymore mine explodes in northern Jaffna, killing five soldiers on patrol and two civilians working for the Caritas Internationalis aid agency. | The troops were on patrol when the claymore mine exploded, army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.
Tamil Tiger rebels are suspected to be behind the attack, he said. The rebels have denied being involved.
The government and the rebels are due to meet in Geneva later this month for a second round of peace talks.
The violence comes as ambassadors from the European Union (EU), Japan and Norway met rebel political leaders in their headquarters in the northern town of Kilinochchi.
'Violations'
Brig Samarasinghe said two soldiers were injured in the blast, which took place at Mirusuvil in Jaffna peninsula. Army says the rebel attacks are violations of the truce
The civilian victims were Tamil humanitarian workers with an international Catholic aid agency - Caritas' Human Development Centre - who were travelling in another vehicle coming from the opposite direction, he said. "These are clear violations of the ceasefire as well as agreements reached in Geneva. the Tigers promised in Geneva to stop all attacks against the troops", Brig Samarasinghe said.
Denying involvement, the rebels have condemned the attack. "We really sympathise with the people who were injured and who died," rebel spokesperson Daya Master told Reuters news agency.
Hours earlier, a grenade exploded near the newly-opened office of a breakaway rebel faction in the eastern town of Batticaloa, Brig Samarasinghe said. No-one is reported to have been injured in the blast.
The visiting EU ambassador Julian Wilson told Reuters that the death of the aid workers was "particularly horrific".
"The fact there is an attack and deaths on the same day we are actually speaking rather colours the issue," he said.
There has been a string of attacks since both sides held a round of talks in Geneva in February.
About two weeks ago, the army reported that six rebels had blown themselves up off the north-western coast near a navy vessel. Eight sailors have been missing since the incident. The rebels denied any involvement in the incident.
A Tamil activist was also killed last week in the eastern town of Trincomalee. It is not clear who carried out the killing.
Previous such attacks have been blamed by the rebels on armed paramilitary forces allegedly backed by government forces, a charge which the military denies.
Fragile ceasefire
More than 120 people - including about 80 soldiers and sailors, and many civilians - were killed in the months of December and January, raising fears of the ceasefire breaking down.
Attacks are routinely blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels but they usually deny any involvement in it, describing them as a "popular uprising" of the Tamil people. But BBC correspondents say that few believe that such attacks can take place in rebel-held territory without their knowledge.
Tamil Tiger supporters say more than 40 Tamils have been killed by the security forces in a series of attacks since the start of December. Others blame some of those deaths on the rebels or other armed groups.
The government and the rebels are scheduled to hold the second round of talks in Geneva between 19 and 21 April to salvage the ceasefire.
More than 60,000 people have died during two decades of conflict in Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers want autonomy for minority Tamils in the north and east. | Armed Conflict | April 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
An Israeli archaeologist working in East Jerusalem reports that she has discovered a palace dating from the 10th century BC, which may have belonged to King David. , , , , | JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 - An Israeli archaeologist says she has uncovered in East Jerusalem what may be the fabled palace of the biblical King David. Her work has been sponsored by a conservative Israeli research institute and financed by an American Jewish investment banker who would like to prove that Jerusalem was indeed the capital of the Jewish kingdom described in the Bible.
Other scholars are skeptical that the foundation walls discovered by the archaeologist, Eilat Mazar, are David's palace. But they acknowledge that what she has uncovered is rare and important: a major public building from around the 10th century B.C., with pottery shards that date to the time of David and Solomon and a government seal of an official mentioned in the book of Jeremiah.
The discovery is likely to be a new salvo in a major dispute in biblical archaeology: whether the kingdom of David was of some historical magnitude, or whether the kings were more like small tribal chieftains, reigning over another dusty hilltop.
The find will also be used in the broad political battle over Jerusalem -- whether the Jews have their origins here and thus have some special hold on the place, or whether, as many Palestinians have said, including the late Yasir Arafat, the idea of a Jewish origin in Jerusalem is a myth used to justify conquest and occupation.
Hani Nur el-Din, a Palestinian professor of archaeology at Al Quds University, said he and his colleagues considered biblical archaeology an effort by Israelis "to fit historical evidence into a biblical context." He added: "The link between the historical evidence and the biblical narration, written much later, is largely missing. There's a kind of fiction about the 10th century. They try to link whatever they find to the biblical narration. They have a button, and they want to make a suit out of it."
Even Israeli archaeologists are not so sure that Ms. Mazar has found the palace -- the house that Hiram, king of Tyre, built for the victorious king, at least as Samuel 2:5 describes it. It may also be the Fortress of Zion that David conquered from the Jebusites, who ruled Jerusalem before him, or some other structure about which the Bible is silent.
Either way, they are impressed by its likely importance. "This is a very significant discovery, given that Jerusalem as the capital of the united kingdom is very much unknown," said Gabriel Barkay, an archaeologist from Bar-Ilan University. "This is one of the first greetings we have from the Jerusalem of David and Solomon, a period which has played a kind of hide-and-seek with archaeologists for the last century."
Based on the Bible and a century of archaeology in this spot, Ms. Mazar, 48, speculated that a famous stepped-stone structure excavated previously was part of the fortress David conquered, and that his palace would have been built just outside the original walls of the cramped city, on the way to what his son, Solomon, built as the Temple Mount.
"When the Philistines came to fight, the Bible said that David went down from his house to the fortress," she said, her eyes bright. "I wondered, down from where? Presumably from where he lived, his palace."
"So I said, maybe there's something here," she added, referring to East Jerusalem.
David's palace was the topic of a last conversation Ms. Mazar had with her grandfather, Benjamin Mazar, a famous archaeologist who helped to train her and who died 10 years ago. Five months ago, with money and permission from the Ir David Foundation, which controls the site (and supports Jews moving into East Jerusalem), she finally began to dig.
Amihai Mazar, a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University, calls the find "something of a miracle." He says he believes that the building may be the Fortress of Zion that David is said to have conquered, which he renamed the City of David. "What she found is fascinating, whatever it is," he said.
Mr. Mazar is Ms. Mazar's second cousin, but he has his own reputation to protect.
Archaeologists debate "to what extent Jerusalem was an important city or even a city in the time of David and Samuel," he said. "Some believe it was tiny and the kingdom unimportant." The site of ancient Jerusalem, stuck between two valleys on a ridge south of the Temple Mount, is very small, less than 10 acres.
Israel Finkelstein, another renowned archaeologist, has suggested that without significant evidence, Jerusalem in this period was "perhaps not more than a typical hill-country village."
In his book, "The Bible Unearthed," Mr. Finkelstein writes with Neil Silberman, "Not only was any sign of monumental architecture missing, but so were even simple pottery shards."
Ms. Mazar believes she has found a riposte: a large public building, with at least some pottery of the time, and a bulla, or governmental seal, of an official -- Jehucal (or Jucal), son of Shelemiah, son of Shevi -- who is mentioned at least twice in the Book of Jeremiah.
The building can be reasonably dated by the pottery found above and below it. Ms. Mazar found on the bedrock a large floor of crushed limestone, indicating a large public space. The floor and fill above it contain pottery from Iron Age I of the 12th to 11th centuries B.C., just before David conquered Jerusalem.
Above that, Ms. Mazar found the foundations for this monumental building, with large boulders for walls that are about 2 yards thick and extend at least 30 yards. In one corner was pottery of Iron Age II, the 10th to 9th centuries, roughly the time of the united kingdom.
Unfortunately, Mr. Mazar said, she found no floor. It is clear the building was constructed after the pottery underneath it, but less clear exactly how much later.
The archaeological debate is also partly a debate over the roots of Zionism and the effort to find Jewish origins deep in the land. Ms. Mazar's latest dig, which has cost about $500,000, has been sponsored by Roger Hertog, a New York financier who is vice chairman of Alliance Capital Management. Mr. Hertog, who owns a piece of The New York Sun and The New Republic, is also chairman of the board of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, where Ms. Mazar is a senior fellow.
The Shalem Center was founded as Israel's first "neoconservative think-tank," said William Kristol, who is also on the board, in an effort to give the Israeli right a better foundation in history, economics, archaeology and other topics.
Mr. Hertog calls his investment in Ms. Mazar "venture philanthropy -- you have the opportunity for intellectual speculation, to fund something that is a work of great consequence." He said he hoped to show "that the Bible reflects Jewish history."
Ms. Mazar continues to dig, but right now, three families are living in houses where she would most like to explore. One family is Muslim, one Christian and one Jewish. | New archeological discoveries | August 2005 | ['(NY Times)', '(International Herald Tribune)', '(Washington Times)', '(Houston Chronicle)', '(Taipei Times)'] |
At least 50 people have died in a mutiny of the Sudan People's Armed Forces in southern Sudan. | At least 30 soldiers have been killed in southern Sudan during internal fighting among troops of the national army, state officials said.
The clashes in Melut and Paloich, in Upper Nile state, were sparked when soldiers of one unit refused to redeploy with their weapons to the north.
Southern Sudan is waiting for the final results of its independence referendum.
Provisional results say 99% of voters opted to secede from the north.
The mutiny in Sudan's army first broke out on Thursday in the politically sensitive southern town of Makalal.
Twenty people were killed during heavy fighting, including two children and a Sudanese driver working for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, who were caught in the crossfire.
The fighting then spread to both Melut and the oil-rich settlement of Paloich on Friday and Saturday.
At least 30 people were killed, all of them soldiers, according to state officials.
Malakal is currently patrolled by a combined military unit made up of the north's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
The mutiny began when southern soldiers in the SAF unit who resisted redeployment to the north began exchanging fire with other members of the same SAF unit.
Southern Sudan is set to become the world's newest nation on 9 July 2011.
Its referendum was part of a deal to end decades of conflicts between north and south, driven by religious and ethnic divides.
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| Armed Conflict | February 2011 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Servant of the People, President Zelensky’s party, wins most of the seats with a comfortable majority. | Ukraine’s comedian-turned-president is on course for full domination of the country’s political scene after results from Sunday’s parliamentary elections indicated his newly founded Servant of the People party would win a majority of seats.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political neophyte whose only previous experience was playing the president in a television sitcom also called Servant of the People, won presidential elections in April and called for early parliamentary elections soon after his inauguration.
With 70% of the votes counted on Monday, Servant of the People was projected to win 43% of the vote. Combined with a strong showing in single-mandate districts, Zelenskiy was on course to win an absolute majority in the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. If confirmed, it would be the first time in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history that a single party commands an outright majority.
Four other parties were set to clear the 5% threshold required for getting into parliament through the party list seats. The pro-Russian businessman Viktor Medvedchuk, who visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow days before the election, came second in the vote with 13%, gaining the majority of his support from the Russian-speaking east of the country.
The party of former president Petro Poroshenko, who was trounced by Zelenskiy in the presidential elections, came third, while parties led by veteran politician Yulia Tymoshenko and the country’s best-known rock star, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, were also set to gain seats.
Prior to the vote there had been suggestions that Servant of the People could form a coalition with Vakarchuk’s Voice party, given that both parties ran on a platform of reforms and political changes. With an absolute majority, that will not be necessary.
Speaking on Sunday night at his campaign headquarters, Zelenskiy said his main priorities were “to end the war, return our prisoners and defeat the corruption that persists in Ukraine”. He said he wanted a “new face and a specialist in the economy” to become the next prime minister.
Zelenskiy’s popularity has come amid widespread disillusionment with politics in Ukraine, five years after the Maidan revolution brought a change of the political guard. Most Ukrainians were disappointed with Poroshenko’s tenure, believing he did not do enough to tackle entrenched corruption and the grip over politics of powerful oligarchs.
Poroshenko’s time in office was made more difficult by Russia’s backing for a separatist movement in east Ukraine. The separatist territories, funded and armed by Russia, are not under the control of Kyiv and the war has cost more than 13,000 lives.
Now, Zelenskiy will face the same challenges, and could see his popularity fall fast if he does not make progress. He has already faced questions about his closeness to controversial oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskiy, who returned to Ukraine from exile shortly after Zelenskiy’s victory.
In the east, occasional fighting continues, and four Ukrainian soldiers were killed by sniper fire and mine blasts over the weekend. Zelenskiy has used the language of compromise and dialogue, discarding Poroshenko’s more divisive nationalist rhetoric, but how much progress he can make will depend in part upon the will of the Kremlin. Zelenskiy held his first telephone conversation with Putin recently, but the two have yet to meet. | Government Job change - Election | July 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Brazilian police detain fugitive Italian former left-wing guerrilla and convicted murderer Cesare Battisti, as he was attempting to flee across the border into Bolivia to avoid extradition back to Italy and facing his life sentence prison term for four murders in the 1970s. | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian highway police on Wednesday detained Cesare Battisti, an Italian former left-wing guerrilla convicted of murder in his country, as he was attempting to cross the border into Bolivia in a taxi, federal police said.
Battisti was apparently trying to leave Brazil after Italy reportedly asked Brazil’s government to revoke his asylum status and extradite him to serve his prison sentence.
He was stopped by highway police as he was about to cross the border in a Bolivian taxi and was held for possession of a “significant” quantity of undeclared foreign currency, the federal police said in a statement.
Battisti faced life in prison in Italy, where he was convicted of four murders committed in the 1970s, when he belonged to a guerilla group called Armed Proletarians for Communism. He escaped from prison in 1981 and lived in France before fleeing to Brazil to avoid being extradited to Italy.
Battisti’s lawyer, Igor Sant’Anna, told Reuters that he had sought a habeas corpus injunction last week due to the risk that President Michel Temer’s government could agree to Italy’s request. Habeas corpus is a legal procedure that keeps a government from holding a person without showing cause.
The police statement said he was being held for breaking currency rules.
O Globo newspaper reported last week that Italy had asked the Temer government to review the status of Battisti, who was granted refugee status by former leftist President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on his last day in office in 2010.
Lula had refused an Italian extradition request, a decision that upset relations between the two countries.
Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Susan Thomas and Sandra Maler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | October 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos announces the start of preliminary peace talks with the FARC–EP guerrilla group. | BOGOTA, Colombia — The Colombian government says it has embarked on “exploratory talks” with rebel commanders to end one of the world’s oldest armed conflicts, a hit-and-run guerrilla war that is fueled by the cocaine trade and leaves hundreds dead every year.
President Juan Manuel Santos’s brief announcement in a nationally televised address prompted cautious optimism Tuesday in a country where polls show that 74 percent of people support talks to end the conflict. Though in recent years Colombia has become more peaceful and attracted record levels of foreign investment, terrorist attacks and combat are not uncommon in the countryside far from the biggest cities.
“Any process has to bring the end of the conflict, not prolong it,” Santos told his countrymen Monday night, stressing that military operations will continue.
The president did not reveal details of the talks. But RCN Radio in Bogota and Venezuela’s state-run television network, Telesur, reported that Santos and negotiators from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had agreed to begin official peace negotiations in Oslo in October. Colombian media had also reported that discussions between the two sides had been secretly taking place in Cuba.
Sen. Roy Barreras, the president of Colombia’s congress, told reporters that the government should proceed with “prudence and caution,” though he said he supports the talks.
“What needs to be done is to find a path so all Colombians can put their faith in the construction of a new country,” said Barreras, who warned about “interminable” talks that go nowhere. “For the violent Colombians, this is also an opportunity for social and political reintegration.”
In Washington, Cynthia Arnson, a Woodrow Wilson Center scholar who has closely followed Colombia’s conflict, called the developments a “really promising moment.”
“It looks like a lot of Colombians of diverse political stripes are cautiously in favor of a process like this,” Arnson said.
This is not the first time the government has embarked on talks with the FARC, a group founded in 1964 by armed peasants in the rugged, nearly impenetrable mountains of southwestern Colombia. As the ragtag group of fighters slowly became a rebel army with several thousand members, presidents and their envoys began to appeal to FARC commanders to end the conflict through negotiations.
But talks in Mexico and Venezuela in the 1980s and in the plains state of Meta in the 1990s ended in acrimony. Under President Andres Pastrana, the government ceded a swath of cattle pastures and forests the size of Switzerland to the FARC in exchange for talks. But troops were sent in to seize back the territory in 2002 after the rebels were accused of stockpiling weapons, cultivating the crop used to make cocaine and hiding hostages.
The past decade, though, has not been kind to the rebels, who fund their way by taxing all aspects of the drug trade.
An increasingly modern and professional army, which has received U.S. helicopters, intelligence assistance and training valued at hundreds of millions of dollars a year, has struck decisive blows that have killed many of the FARC’s most legendary commanders. Last November, an elite commando force killed the group’s supreme commander, Guillermo Saenz Vargas, better known by the alias Alfonso Cano, in a shootout.
A government program designed to spur desertions has led thousands to abandon the group, dozens of them experienced, battle-hardened rebels who have provided the army with intelligence information used in military operations. The FARC is still thought to have 8,000 to 9,000 fighters, but that is less than half what it had a decade ago.
“Seeking a negotiated solution is a reflection of the setbacks the FARC has suffered,” Arnson said. “And it’s an attempt to achieve some social transformation at the bargaining table that they have not been able to achieve on the battlefield.”
The FARC is engaging in talks with an adversary its commanders appear increasingly open to trusting: Santos, scion of a politically influential family that once ran Colombia’s most important newspaper. Though Santos was a hard-line defense minister in the government of his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, he has shown that as president, he can be politically flexible in order to bring the rebels to the negotiating table.
His government repaired broken relations with Venezuela’s leftist president, Hugo Chavez, whom the FARC views favorably. Santos also pushed through reforms designed to compensate victims of political violence and return land to thousands of people displaced by armed groups, including the right-wing militias that collaborated closely with military units. The FARC leadership viewed all those gestures positively.
Carlos Lozano, editor of the communist newspaper Voz and an activist who has had contacts with FARC commanders, said the guerrillas will need the state to protect them from reprisal killings as the group engages in negotiations. In the 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of members of the Patriotic Union, a leftist political party partly created by FARC leaders, were gunned down by death squads.
“The state must ensure safety, that they’re not killed,” Lozano said, referring to the FARC leadership. “But the state also has to guarantee them political space in which to operate.”
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2012 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Italian police arrest two Pakistani nationals suspected of providing logistical support to the group responsible for the attacks in Mumbai in 2008. | MILAN (Reuters) - Italian anti-terrorist police have arrested two Pakistanis suspected of helping to finance the Islamic militant group responsible for the attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, that killed 166 people.
Police said in a statement on Saturday the men, identified using leads from Indian authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sent funds overseas using the money transfer business they owned in the north Italian town of Brescia.
Shortly before the Mumbai attacks, the two men transferred money to pay the Internet phone calls of individuals in direct contact with the militants, the statement said.
The 10 gunmen attacked several targets in the western Indian city last year including two plush hotels and a Jewish center. The incident frayed already tense ties between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan.
Two other Pakistani citizens were arrested in the investigation, accused of links to illegal people trafficking.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2009 | ['(The Hindu)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC News)'] |
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announces the six–month closure of the island of Boracay in the Philippines, starting April 26. | MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the closure of Boracay, a world-famous tourist destination, for 6 months, starting on April 26.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told this to reporters on Wednesday, April 4, as a Cabinet meeting was ongoing.
Duterte made his decision during the meeting.
The recommendation to close Boracay from tourists for 6 months – or until October – came from the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The Department of Tourism and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources had also called for a "total" closure, according to Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
It was the suggestion of these 3 departments that finally got Duterte's nod.
"DENR/DOT/DILG proposal approved after an exhaustive discussion," Guevarra told Rappler.
Duterte wants funds devoted to assisting residents in Boracay whose livelihood would be affected by the closure.
"Calamity funds will be activated to tide affected workers over," said Guevarra.
What does Boracay's "closure" actually mean on the ground?
Guevarra had previously said this could mean non-residents would be physically barred from entering the island.
Upon Boracay's closure, Duterte said during the meeting that there should be "validation" of which among the establishments in the island are complying with environmental rules and regulations.
It is not clear, however, how these establishments would be treated differently from those found violating environmental policies.
Other suggestions
But the Department of Trade and Industry had suggested implementing the closure in phases.
Financial advisers in the Cabinet had also been concerned about the timing of the closure. April 26 is in the middle of the summer season, the busiest time of the year for Boracay.
But from June to August, tourism arrivals wind down because of the rainy season. This low season would thus be covered by the 6-month closure period.
Duterte announced his intention to "close" Boracay last February 10, angered by environmental violations by commercial establishments that he thinks turned the popular tourist destination into a "cesspool."
Boracay stakeholders had said that closing the island for a year would take away the jobs of 36,000 people and would mean foregone revenues of P56 billion.
The National Economic and Development Authority, however, said a 6-month closure of the tourist area would have minimal impact on the economy. | Government Policy Changes | April 2018 | ['(Rappler)'] |
Two people are killed, the pilot and the passenger, when a floatplane crashes into Metlakatla harbor near Ketchikan, Alaska. The pilot and passenger were the only people on board. | A pilot and a passenger are dead after the float plane they were in crashed in a harbor near Ketchikan, Alaska, on Monday, authorities said.
They were the only people on board the Taquan Beaver Floatplane when it crashed in Metlakatla Harbor around 4 p.m., Ketchikan Gateway Borough officials said in a statement. Metlakatla is south of Ketchikan.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday's flight was a commuter flight.
Police identified the pilot as Ron Rash, 51, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His passenger was a 31-year-old epidemiologist Sarah Luna, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) confirmed Tuesday. Luna was an epidemiologist working with the ANTCH.
The circumstances of the crash were not immediately released by the joint information center, which a spokeswoman said is made up of Ketchikan Rescue Squad, The Metlakatla Volunteer Fire Department and the Coast Guard.
A week ago, another Taquan Air float plane was involved in a deadly crash. A mid-air collision on May 13 killed six people near Ketchikan, in the far southeastern part of the state.
The planes were carrying passengers from a cruise ship, officials have said. The Taquan Air plane had 10 passengers and a pilot on board, and one passenger died, the company has said.
The other plane was a Mountain Air plane with five people aboard, including the pilot, officials have said.
Ten people were rescued after that collision.
The NTSB said it will investigate Monday's crash. The agency had already launched a team to investigate last week's mid-air collision. | Air crash | May 2019 | ['(CBS News)', '(NBC News)'] |
The death toll from heavy floods in Vietnam rises to 27, while seven other people are missing. | HANOI (Reuters) - The death toll from floods and landslides triggered by tropical storm Son Tinh rose to 27 on Tuesday, and seven people are still missing, the government’s Disaster Management Authority said.
With a long coastline, Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding, with 389 people killed last year in natural disasters such as floods and landslides, according to government statistics.
Though tropical storm Son Tinh weakened to a tropical depression by the time it reached Vietnam last week, the torrential rains it brought caused heavy flooding and landslides in many parts of northern Vietnam. Some areas in the outskirts of the capital Hanoi remain submerged.
The remote mountainous province of Yen Bai has suffered the heaviest casualties in the latest floods and landslides, with 13 people reportedly killed, 18 injured and four missing, the disaster management agency said in a statement.
The floods and landslides have also damaged and submerged more than 12,000 houses, more than 90,000 hectares (222,395 acres) of crops, mostly paddy, and cut off traffic to several parts of northern Vietnam, the agency said.
Last month, heavy rains triggered flash floods and landslides which killed 24 people in the remote and mountainous northern provinces of Lai Chau and Ha Giang.
The agency urged the authorities and people to keep vigilant for more floods and landslides over the coming days.
According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, heavy rain is forecast to continue in the northern part of the country until early August.
Reporting by Mai Nguyen and Khanh Vu; Editing by Jacqueline Wong | Floods | July 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Hunters discover a 1000–year–old sword in Iceland. | A group of Icelandic goose hunters got more than they bargained for during a recent outing - they didn't catch a single bird, but stumbled upon a Viking sword thought to be more than 1,000 years old.
The five men were in Skaftarhreppur in southern Iceland when they found the sword, which they think may have washed up during a recent flood, the Visir news website reports. One of the men, Arni Bjorn Valdimarsson, shared a photo of it on his Facebook page and swiftly received a call from Iceland's Cultural Heritage Agency, which took possession of the artefact on Monday morning. The agency's director, Kristin Huld Sigurdardottir, says only 20 swords of this age have been discovered in Iceland before, making it a significant find. It didn't take much effort on the hunters' part, though. "It was just lying there, waiting to be picked up - it was obvious and just lying there on the ground," one of them, Runar Stanley Sighvatsson, tells Iceland Monitor. It's believed the sword dates back to at least the 10th Century, and may have been placed in a pagan grave, the website says.
The exact area where the sword was found hasn't been revealed, as the agency wants to do a little digging of its own to see what else is lying around there. | New archeological discoveries | September 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from yesterday's flash floods in the American towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, rises to 12 with one person still missing. , | The latest on deadly flash flooding in a small polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border and in nearby Zion National Park (all times local):
7 p.m.
Officials at Zion National Park in southern Utah say a fourth person has been found dead and three people are still missing after heavy rains sent flash floods coursing through a narrow slot canyon.
Park spokeswoman Holly Baker says the bodies of three men and one woman were found Tuesday.
She says the group left before park officials closed slot canyons due to flooding Monday evening.
Baker says the members of the group were from California and Nevada, and they were all in their 40s and 50s. She didn't have further details.
Rescuers are waiting for flood danger to pass before recovering the bodies.
The deaths come after 12 people died when fast-moving floodwaters on Monday swept away two vehicles on the Utah-Arizona border, about 20 miles south of the park.
———
3:43 p.m.
Authorities have confirmed that 12 people have died in flash flooding that swept away two vehicles in a town on the Utah-Arizona border.
Sgt. Brock Bentley of the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Utah confirmed Tuesday that three additional bodies have been found. One person remains missing in the floodwaters, while three children survived.
The wall of water washed the vehicles several hundred yards downstream Monday afternoon. Authorities say the victims are as young as 4 years old. It's unclear if they're all from the same family.
The floods came after heavy rains fell in the canyons just north of the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, sending waves of water barreling through the streets. The community is known as the home base for a polygamous sect.
———
1:45 p.m.
Authorities in a Utah-Arizona border community say floodwaters hemmed in two vehicles in a canyon before they were swept away by a surge of water.
Hildale, Utah, Mayor Philip Barlow said during a news conference Tuesday water blocked the only way in and out of the canyon and there was no way the 16 people in the vehicles could have gotten out.
Nine people in the vehicle died, and one adult and three children remain missing. Three children survived.
One of the bodies, that of a child who was roughly 10 years old, was found 5 miles from where the vehicles were recovered.
Authorities say the victims are as young as four years old. It's unclear if they're all from the same family. Residents say people sometimes go to the canyon with jugs to collect water
———
12:30 p.m.
Authorities have confirmed a ninth person has died in flash flooding that swept away two vehicles in a town on the Utah-Arizona border.
Sgt. Brock Bentley of the Washington County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday confirmed another body had been found. Several people were also missing in the floodwaters.
The wall of water washed the vehicles several hundred yards downstream Monday afternoon. Officials say the bodies of two people were recovered in Arizona about 2 1/2 miles downstream, while the bodies of six others were recovered in Utah.
The floods came after heavy rains fell in the canyons just north of the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, sending waves of water barreling through the streets. The community is known as the home base for a polygamous sect.
———
11 a.m.
One Colorado City, Arizona, resident says the search for five people missing in deadly flash flooding helped temporarily heal a major divide in the community on the Utah-Arizona border.
The sister cities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, are the home base for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, and the towns are split by those who still follow Jeffs and those who do not, like resident Ross Chatwin.
Chatwin says he was among the hundreds of people helping dig through a massive pile of tree branches, sand, mud and other debris left behind by the biggest flood he's seen in the community. He says people on both sides of the divide were working together toward a common purpose.
By Tuesday morning, rescue crews were discouraging residents from joining the search.
———
10 a.m.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says he's heartbroken to hear about flash flooding that killed eight people and left five others missing in towns on the Utah-Arizona border. Herbert said in a statement Tuesday morning that Utah was offering all state resources to help the towns with the search and rescue effort.
Herbert said he and first lady Jeanette Herbert are offering their condolences to the families of the victims, and the governor's office and Utah Department of Public Safety would work with local officials and emergency workers in the towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.
———
9:30 a.m.
Officials say the bodies of two people killed in flash flooding in southern Utah were recovered in Arizona about two and a half miles downstream, while the bodies of six others were recovered in Utah.
The Washington County Emergency Services Department said Tuesday morning rescue crews were still searching for five others who were missing after a wall of water swept away two vehicles carrying women and children Monday evening.
One survivor of the flooding in the Utah-Arizona border community remained hospitalized overnight. Two other people survived. Officials did not release further details Tuesday about the victims or survivors.
Crews worked Tuesday morning to clear thousands of tons of mud and debris from the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the towns through noon Tuesday.
———
9 a.m.
Chris and Lydia Wyler of Hildale, Utah, say heavy rainfall usually draws out spectators in the community that served as a home base for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, but they've never seen anything like the flash flooding that swept away two vehicles, killing at least eight people and leaving five others missing.
The couple said Tuesday that residents love to splash in the water and watch as it surges through creeks.
Lydia Wyler was out with her 7-year-old daughter Monday afternoon when their SUV was hemmed in by the floodwaters. She filmed women in braids and long skirts being pulled from a car in the path of a torrent of water. | Floods | September 2015 | ['(AP via ABC News)', '(NBC News)'] |
Clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel files for bankruptcy. The company says that its 200+ retail stores will continue to operate without any interruptions. , | American Apparel, the onetime arbiter of made-in-America cool, filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday, its business crippled by huge debts, a precipitous fall in sales, employee strife and a drawn-out legal battle with the retailer’s ousted founder, Dov Charney.
The Chapter 11 petition, approved by the board, was filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. The filing followed a deal struck with most of American Apparel’s secured lenders to reduce the retailer’s debt through a process known as a debt-for-equity conversion, where bondholders swap their debt for shares in the company.
| Organization Closed | October 2015 | ['(The New York Times)', '(Forbes)'] |
Two suicide bombers belonging to the TehreekiTaliban Pakistan splinter group JamaatulAhrar blow themselves up in twin bomb attacks on two churches in the Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least fourteen people with 70 more injured. | LAHORE: Twin blasts targeted the Roman Catholic Church and Christ Church during Sunday mass in Youhanabad area of the provincial capital, killing 15 people including two policemen and injuring at least 70 others.
According to initial reports, two suicide bombers attacked the churches located in the Christian locality. Eye witnesses told Geo News that a man blew himself up outside one of the churches as a police guard stopped him from entering, while the other blast took place inside the church during Sunday mass.
However, police have yet to confirm the nature of the blast. Two suspected men were caught from the venue but the enraged mob burnt them alive after subjecting them to severe torture in the presence of police. The explosions caused a stampede at the Church as panicked worshipers ran to save their lives. Windowpanes of the nearby buildings were shattered due to the explosions. Doctor Haider Ashraf, DIG Operations, said seven policemen were deployed for security. He said two constables identified as Asghar and Yawar Ali were killed while four others sustained injuries. Forensic experts are gathering evidence from the blast scene. The dead and injured were taken to Lahore's General Hospital. MS General Hospital confirmed that 15 people lost their lives. The hospital has made an appeal for blood donation. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the attack and have sought a report into the incident. A large number of protesters took to Ferozpur Road to protest the attack, prompting provincial authorities to suspend Metro Bus Service. They also stopped federal minister Kamran Micheal from visiting the blast scene.
Sadiq Daniel, Bishop of Pakistan, condemned the blasts and termed them an attack on Pakistan. He said that all the missionary schools will remain closed on Monday against the attack.
A large number of people from Christian community took to the streets in Karachi in protest against the Lahore blasts.
Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif announced Rs500,000 each for the family members of the deceased and Rs75,000 for each the injured. | Armed Conflict | March 2015 | ['(The News Pakistan)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Voters in the American state of South Carolina go to the polls for the South Carolina primary for the Republican Party with Donald Trump winning and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in a close race for second. , , | COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential election and two crucial contests Saturday: South Carolina’s Republican primary and Nevada’s Democratic caucuses (all times are Eastern Standard Time):
10:10 p.m.
Donald Trump won at least 44 of the 50 delegates at stake in the South Carolina primary while Hillary Clinton won a majority of the delegates in Nevada caucuses. Trump and Marco Rubio were in a tight race in two congressional districts for the remaining six delegates. Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 61. Ted Cruz has 11 delegates and Rubio has 10. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president
In Nevada, Clinton won at least 19 delegates and Bernie Sanders won at least 15. Clinton is far ahead in the overall delegate count because of early endorsements from superdelegates, the party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice. Including superdelegates, Clinton has 503 delegates and Sanders has 70. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination. ___
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid says he will make an endorsement in the Democratic presidential race when he returns to Washington. Reid caucused in Nevada on Saturday and says he voted ‘‘uncommitted.’’
He says he’s taken pains to remain neutral in the competition between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders so he would not be accused of rigging the contest. ___
9:50 p.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is highlighting his Iowa win over Donald Trump on Feb. 1 as he urges conservatives to unite behind him against the Republican front-runner. Speaking to supporters in South Carolina following the state’s Republican primary, Cruz said that there is ‘‘only one strong conservative is in a position to win this race,’’ adding that it’s why Donald Trump ‘‘relentlessly attacks us and ignores the other candidates.’’
___
9:40 p.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says his campaign is the only one that ‘‘has beaten and can beat’’ billionaire Donald Trump, who won the South Carolina primary. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Columbia, South Carolina at the close of the state’s Republican primary day, Cruz warned that the ‘‘Washington cartel’’ is growing nervous with the successes of the conservative movement. Cruz says he is ‘‘effectively tied for second place’’ with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in a finish that he said defied expectations. Cruz is praising Jeb Bush, who ended his bid for the White House Saturday, as ‘‘a man who didn’t go to the gutter’’ and engage in insults and attacks. ___
9:30 p.m.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Sen. Ted Cruz is ‘‘standing tall’’ despite losing the South Carolina primary to Donald Trump. Patrick told Cruz backers Saturday night that Cruz has ‘‘taken every punch they've thrown, and he’s standing tall.’’
Cruz was battling with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for second place in South Carolina. Patrick says ‘‘regardless of what the pundits say, it’s a two-man race’’ between Cruz and Trump. And Patrick says Cruz is the only candidate in the race with a proven conservative record ‘‘who will take on the Washington cartel.’’
Patrick predicted a Cruz win in Texas, which votes on March 1. ___
9:18 p.m.
Donald Trump is thanking his supporters for delivering a commanding first-place finish in South Carolina Saturday, cementing his status as the Republican presidential front-runner. And he’s predicted big wins in the races ahead. Advertisement
‘‘Folks, let’s go, let’s have a big win in Nevada...Let’s put this thing away,’’ he tells hundreds of screaming supporters at a victory party in a Spartanburg. ‘‘And let’s make America great again.’’
Trump also offered his congratulations to rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who are in a tight race for second place, drawing boos from the crowd. ‘‘Just one minute, come on, one second, alright?’’ he urged them, as he explained how tough it is to run. But Trump notably made no mention of Jeb Bush, who announced he is suspending his campaign earlier in the evening. Trump has hammered Bush throughout the campaign. ___
9:15 p.m.
Marco Rubio says the Republican presidential primary has become a three-person race between himself, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. The Florida senator is predicting that he will win the GOP nomination after performing well in the South Carolina primary. As results stream in, Rubio and Cruz are fighting for second place behind winner Trump. Rubio is congratulating Trump for his victory in South Carolina’s primary. He’s also praising former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who dropped out after a disappointing finish in South Carolina. Rubio is returning to his central campaign themes of a strong U.S. military and a new generation of conservatism. He says tonight he’s a step closer to being the next president. ___
9:10 p.m.
Donald Trump’s wife is breaking her usual silence and talking up his candidacy after he won the South Carolina Republican primary.
Melania Trump tells Trump supporters that ‘‘he loves you.’’ She says they are going ahead to the next contest in Nevada and will see what happens. She says her husband will ‘‘be the best president.’’
The Slovenian-born former model is occasionally spotted with her husband on the campaign trail but rarely gives any lengthy remarks. ___
8:59 p.m.
Donald Trump is telling supporters after his victory in the South Carolina Republican primary that ‘‘when you win, it’s beautiful.’’
The billionaire businessman says running for president is tough, nasty and mean. But he also says it’s beautiful, too. Trump is also congratulating his rivals, especially Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as they battle for second place. But despite the kind words, Trump says he goes ‘‘back to war tomorrow.’’ He’s predicting he will do ‘‘very, very well’’ in the next Republican contest in Nevada. Trump predicts that as Jeb Bush and other Republican candidates eventually drop out, many of their supporters will switch to his side. ___
8:45 p.m.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he is ending his bid for the White House. A teary-eyed Bush says he’s proud of the campaign he ran to unify the country and advocate conservative solutions. The son and brother of former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush entered the race to huge expectations in June, and quickly fueled them with fundraising. But he quickly slid in the polls behind some of his more outspoken Republican rivals such as billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who have billed themselves as anti-establishment alternatives to the early front-runner. Advertisement
Following disappointing performances in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Bush pinned his hopes on South Carolina, a state where the Bush name has maintained some clout. But Bush was unable to break into the top three in South Carolina. He would likely have faced pressure from GOP leaders and donors to drop out had he stayed in the race. ___
8:30 p.m. The final results aren’t in, but John Kasich’s campaign is already claiming victory in the so-called ‘‘governor’s bracket.’’
Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver says in a statement that the race will now be a four-man contest between Kasich, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. His comments are similar to ones he made this morning on a conference call with reporters. Despite Weaver’s declarations of victory, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush remains in the race and it’s still unclear whether Kasich will beat him in the South Carolina contest. Kasich’s supporters are gathered at a hotel in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the state where Kasich spent Saturday campaigning rather than remaining in South Carolina. ___
8:15 p.m.
It’s been a night mostly lacking of cheers or applause at the Ted Cruz South Carolina victory party. The room remained only about half-full Saturday as results came in showing their candidate locked in a tight battle for second place in the state’s Republican primary with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Cruz backers stood quietly and watched footage being broadcast on two large screens from Rubio’s party, where his supporters were shown chanting ‘‘Marco! Marco!’’
The only brief moment of awakening for the otherwise cautious Cruz supporters came when Fox News broadcast a live shot from his party, prompting cheers from the crowd. ___
7:55 p.m.
Donald Trump has won a majority of the delegates in the South Carolina primary — and he has a chance to take them all. Trump will win at least 38 of the 50 delegates at stake. South Carolina Republicans award delegates for being the statewide winner as well as for winning individual congressional districts. More votes are needed in individual congressional districts to award the final 12 delegates. Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55. Ted Cruz has 11 delegates, Marco Rubio has 10, John Kasich has five, Jeb Bush has 4 and Ben Carson has three. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president. __
7:45 p.m.
Donald Trump’s supporters erupted into cheers as they learned their candidate had won South Carolina’s GOP primary. Supporters gave each other high-fives and held Trump signs high above their heads as they celebrated. Some chanted ‘‘USA! USA!’’
Hundreds of people are gathered in a ballroom at the Spartanburg Marriott for Trump’s watch party, where they’re snacking on cubed cheese and crudité, and sipping beers from plastic cups. Trump is expected to deliver a victory speech later tonight. ___
7:25 p.m.
Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary, a second-straight victory for the billionaire real estate mogul after his first-place finish in New Hampshire. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are in close race for second. Exit polls taken in South Carolina found that about three-quarters of Republican voters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the United States. That’s one of Trump’s signature proposals. A majority of voters looking for an outsider candidate supported Trump, providing a boost to the first-time candidate for office. ___
7:00 p.m.
Nevada’s Democratic party’s initial estimates are showing that 80,000 Democrats caucused on Saturday, about 10,000 more than most party insiders expected. Still, it was well below the nearly 120,000 who showed up in 2008 for Hillary Clinton’s contest against Barack Obama. Clinton beat rival Bernie Sanders in the state’s Democratic caucuses Saturday, earning her a second win in the nomination process. ___
6:50 p.m.
With her husband, former President Bill Clinton, standing by her side, Hillary Clinton has told her supporters that ‘‘we’re in this together.’’
‘‘This is your campaign and it is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re going to build ladders of opportunity in their place so every American can go as far as your hard work can take you.’’
Though she never mentioned Sanders by name, Clinton cast her rival as offering a narrow economic message that wouldn’t tackle the full range of problems facing the country. Rattling off promises to lower student debt, reform the immigration system, combat systemic racism and improve education, Clinton promised a country of new opportunities. ‘‘There’s so much more to be done,’’ she said. ‘‘The truth is we aren’t a single issue country. We need more than a plan for the big banks.’’
___
6:45 p.m.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says ‘‘the wind is at our backs’’ despite his loss to Hillary Clinton in the Nevada caucuses. Sanders says Clinton ran a very aggressive and effective campaign in Nevada that led to her victory in the Democratic caucuses Saturday. He congratulated her for her victory and praised her effort. But Sanders is suggesting he beat expectations because he started far behind Clinton and gained significant ground. Sanders said he’s heading now to South Carolina and that he has an ‘‘excellent chance’’ to win many of the states voting on Super Tuesday. Sanders said the election will result in one of the greatest political upsets in U.S. history. 6:20 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says Americans are ‘‘right to be angry,’’ but also hungry for what she calls ‘‘real solutions.’’
Clinton is using her victory speech after the Nevada caucuses to draw contrasts with Bernie Sanders. She says the truth is that the U.S. isn’t a single-issue country. Clinton spent much of the run-up to the Nevada caucuses portraying Sanders as singularly focused on economic issues. Clinton says many doubted her in Nevada but that she and her supporters never doubted each other. She says to Nevadans: ‘‘This one is for you.’’
___
6:10 p.m.
About four in 10 South Carolina Republican primary voters say that an important quality in a candidate is that they ‘‘shares my values.’’
A poll conducted by voters in Saturday’s primary showed that being an instrument of change and electability in November are also important qualities. The voters are split on whether the next president should be an outsider or a member of the political establishment. Nearly half said they prefer someone who has experience in politics and about the same numbers would rather see someone from outside the political establishment. Four in 10 voters see the campaign of Donald Trump as most unfair, and a third said that of Texas Sen. Cruz’s campaign. Less than 10 percent selected Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or John Kasich. The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research with voters leaving 35 randomly selected precincts throughout South Carolina. ___
6:05 p.m.
For South Carolina Republican primary voters, terrorism is the top issue that mattered — selected by about a third. The economy and government spending were each picked by nearly three in 10. Even so, three-quarters of the voters said they were very worried about the direction of the nation’s economy, and more than 4 in 10 said billionaire Donald Trump would be best at handling the economy. However, Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are both seen as candidates who would best handle an international crisis by about a quarter of voters. Only about 10 percent selected immigration as the most important issue. Asked specifically what should be done with illegal immigrants working in the United States, the voters were evenly divided. Republican voters were far less divided on the issue of allowing Muslims into the country. About three-quarters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the United States. The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research with voters leaving 35 randomly selected precincts throughout South Carolina. 5:55 p.m.
John Kasich says if he spent the day in South Carolina he'd be doing nothing more than yelling at people on their way into the polls saying ‘‘Hey, vote for me.’’
With that in mind, he’s campaigning in Massachusetts and Vermont instead. The two states hold primaries on March 1. ‘‘If somebody yelled at me as I was going to the polls, I'd vote against them,’’ he joked with reporters after a town hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. He says he wishes he could have spent more time in South Carolina, but that he and his team ‘‘did everything we could do.’’
___
5:50 p.m.
Bernie Sanders is conceding the race in Nevada in a phone call with Hillary Clinton. The Vermont senator said in a statement Saturday that he congratulated Clinton on her victory. He says he’s proud of his campaign and expects to leave Nevada with a ‘‘solid share of the delegates.’’
Sanders is touting his campaign’s work to bring working people and young voters into the process. He says he believes his campaign has ‘‘the wind at ours backs’’ heading to the Super Tuesday contests. | Government Job change - Election | February 2016 | ['(2016 Election Central)', '(CNN)', '(AP via Boston Globe)'] |
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashal meet together in Syria to try to end violence between the two factions. However, differences remain and talks will resume possibly next week. | However they said progress had been made and that talks on the issue would resume within two weeks.
Mr Abbas and Khaled Meshaal said although differences remained they would be resolved through dialogue.
The talks came amid a power struggle between their factions in Gaza, in which dozens of people have died.
Mr Abbas has threatened to call fresh elections unless a deal on forming a national unity government is reached.
The BBC's Rachel Harvey in Damascus says the official line is that progress has been made and negotiations will continue back in Gaza. But she says after all the diplomatic pressure to get these two men in the same room - not least from their Syrian hosts - many here are left wondering what has really been achieved.
'Need for dialogue'
Following three hours of talks, Mr Abbas and Mr Meshaal said efforts to form a national unity government had "covered a great distance" and negotiations would resume within two weeks.
It is not normal to fight
Khaled MeshaalHamas political chief
"There are still points of disagreement between us but we will sort it through dialogue," Mr Meshaal said.
"We stress that dialogue is the only language allowed for solving our differences... It is not normal to fight."
Mr Meshaal said there was agreement between the two sides on rejecting the idea of temporary borders for a transitional Palestinian state.
"We assure people that we are not taking anything away from our national rights as Palestinians", he said. For his part, Mr Abbas described the discussions as "fruitful".
The two men repeated their call for an end to the internal fighting which has left more than 30 Palestinians dead. Hamas roundly defeated Mr Abbas' Fatah faction in parliamentary elections a year ago, but their victory prompted an international aid boycott which has crippled the Palestinian economy.
Fatah advocates negotiations with the Israelis on a future Palestinian state, while Hamas refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | January 2007 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via ABC News)'] |
Two sources with direct knowledge tell Yahoo! News that Senator Bernie Sanders plans to announce his intention to run for the presidency in the 2020 presidential election. |
WASHINGTON—Three years after fighting a surprisingly competitive Democratic primary race against Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, is making another run for the White House.
Two sources with direct knowledge of his plans told Yahoo News that Sanders, an independent and self-described “democratic socialist,” plans to announce his presidential bid imminently. While Sanders has been considering a bid for months, one of the sources said he was emboldened by early polls of the race that have consistently showed him as one of the top candidates in a crowded Democratic primary field. In particular, the source said Sanders was heartened to see numbers indicating he is one of the leading candidates among African American and Latino voters, two groups he was perceived as struggling with in 2016.
The source also alluded to a spate of recent polls that show Sanders as the most popular politician in the country. They attributed Sanders’ strength in the polls to the base and name recognition he built with the prior presidential bid.
“What the senator has this time that he didn’t have last time is he is the most popular elected official in the country right now,” the source said. “That’s light years away from 2016, when very few people knew who he was.”
A third source said Sanders’ bid will begin with an exploratory committee. Sanders’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
In addition to these two sources, a former Sanders staffer who had not been briefed on the imminent announcement plans nevertheless said many recent signs suggest he is set to pull the trigger on a presidential campaign. Specifically, the former staffer said Sanders has been building out the infrastructure he would need for a White House bid.
“He’s already talking to staff and there are people he’s hiring. They’re nailing down contracts with vendors. … All the movement is there for him to run,” the ex-staffer said.
Although Sanders was ultimately defeated by Clinton last time around, his upstart campaign reshaped the Democratic Party. Sanders ran on a progressive platform that included a focus on eliminating income inequality, on campaign finance reform and an ambitious “Medicare for All” health care proposal. Those principles have become centerpieces for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and several Sanders-backed candidates won elections last year.
But Sanders’ impact on the Democratic Party went beyond his political vision. The primary battle between Sanders and Clinton was contentious, with Sanders allies contending that Clinton’s campaign was working in conjunction with the Democratic Party establishment to prevent a Sanders victory. These battles cemented divisions in this party that linger on as the 2020 election approaches.
After President Trump’s victory over Clinton in 2016, Sanders and his allies pressed for reforms to the Democratic National Committee that would make the party’s primary process more open and inclusive of what Sanders termed “the working people and young people of our country.”
Amid Sanders’ push for reform, the DNC assembled a “unity commission” to recommend changes that included members chosen by both Sanders and Clinton. Ultimately, the DNC made rules changes that included one of the main items on Sanders’ agenda, curbing the role of unelected superdelegates in choosing the party’s presidential nominee. At the same time, the DNC also adopted a rules change that would make it more difficult for independents like Sanders to seek the party’s presidential nomination.
In spite of this, Sanders’ allies consider that this new rule does not hurt his chances, because the Vermont Democratic Party passed a resolution last year recognizing him as a full member. A source who discussed Sanders’ 2020 plans with Yahoo News confirmed that he will be running as a Democrat.
Although he will be entering an extremely crowded Democratic field, Sanders is starting from a formidable position. Early polls of the race have consistently showed him to be one of the top candidates, probably due to the base of support he established in 2016. Sanders allies also believe his prior run could give him a head start organizing in key early primary states. Last October, Pete D’Alessandro, Sanders’s Iowa state coordinator for the 2016 race, told Yahoo News he was confident the senator would be able to build on the grassroots support and infrastructure he established in 2016 if he made another run.
“This was a movement. It still is a movement,” D’Alessandro said.
Nothing is more important for our democracy than ensuring that Trump does not escape justice forever simply because he was once elected president.
| Government Job change - Election | January 2019 | ['(Yahoo! News)'] |
Authorities in France and French Polynesia meet to discuss rescue plans for MV Thorco Lineage, a freighter hauling zinc that is grounded with eighteen people on board on a coral reef near Raroia, Tuamotus. | French and French Polynesian authorities have held an urgent meeting as plans are being drawn up to rescue a large cargo ship stuck on a reef of Raroia in the Tuamotus.
It has been revealed that the Philippines-registered vessel is carrying 20,000 tonnes of zinc and was on a trip from the United States to Australia when it developed engine problems last week.
The 132-metre long ship made no appeal for help and was discovered by locals after it hit the reef.
There is no sign of any marine pollution.
Eighteen people who are reportedly on the ship, Thorco Lineage, will for the time being remain on board.
Reports say the ship's owner and the insurance company are likely to dispatch a powerful tug from California to try to dislodge the ship. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2018 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
A United States federal district judge rules unconstitutional a provision in an Alabama state law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. A Florida law enacted today contains a comparable provision to Alabama's. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments a few weeks ago on the constitutionality of similar abortion restrictions in Texas. | (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday struck down an Alabama law that required abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.
The ruling comes amid a wave of new abortion laws in states where conservatives are aiming to chip away at the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in Alabama issued the 53-page ruling, saying the provision in the state’s so-called Women’s Health and Safety Act would effectively close the only abortion clinics in Alabama’s three largest cities: Montgomery, Mobile and Birmingham.
“The staff-privileges requirement would make it impossible for a woman to obtain an abortion in much of the state,” Thompson wrote. “It is certain that thousands of women per year - approximately 40 percent of those seeking abortions in the state - would be unduly burdened.”
Representatives for the Alabama Attorney General’s Office could not be immediately reached on Friday.
Susan Watson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, applauded Friday’s order.
“This ruling protects Alabama women and ensures access to safe and legal abortion,” she said in an interview. She added that similar laws being pushed in other states appeared to be a “a concerted effort nationwide,” to scale back abortion rights.
A comparable provision to Alabama’s was part of a law signed in Florida by Republican Governor Rick Scott on Friday, and the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a challenge to an abortion law in Texas, where several clinics have closed due to new restrictions.
| Government Policy Changes | March 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Alabama Media Group)', '(AP via Bristol Herald Courier)'] |
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement , an important trade pact, comes into force between China and Taiwan. Hundreds of thousands of people protested against it in Taiwan but it was unanimously approved by the island's parliament. | A trade pact between China and Taiwan, widely seen as the most significant agreement since civil war divided them in 1949, has come into effect.
The Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) cuts tariffs on 539 Taiwanese exports to China and 267 Chinese products entering Taiwan. The majority of people in Taiwan expect the deal to bring economic benefits. But opponents fear it will make the island too dependent on China, which still considers it a renegade province.
The deal is seen as the culmination of efforts by Taiwan's President, Ma Ying-jeou, who has vowed to reduce tension.
Last month, the island's parliament approved it without a single dissenting vote, despite protests from hundreds of thousands of people and an ugly scuffle between MPs from the ruling and opposition parties.
It is hoped that the ECFA, signed by Chinese and Taiwanese leaders in June, will boost bilateral trade that already totals $110bn (£73bn) a year.
Almost $14bn of Taiwanese goods exported to China will have their tariffs reduced or removed. Chinese exports worth just under $3bn will enjoy lower or zero tariffs. Beijing agreed to tariff cuts on half as many products to appease opponents to the agreement who said it might lead to Taiwan being flooded by cheap Chinese products, damaging local industries and leading to job losses.
The Taiwanese government has said it believes the ECFA will help create 260,000 jobs and boost economic growth by as much as 1.7%.
"This will not only have a wide-ranging influence on the future development of ties between China and Taiwan," Lo Chih-chiang, a spokesman for President Ma told Taiwan's Central News Agency. "It will also help further consolidate peace and prosperity."
China's commerce ministry said it was pleased the ECFA had taken effect.
"We believe the implementation of the pact will further promote exchanges and co-operation in cross-strait trade and help the economies develop together," spokesman Yao Jian said in a statement.
The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says the Chinese and Taiwanese governments are shortly expected to begin negotiations on further trade deals which could allow even greater access to each other's markets. Analysts believe this trend could help reduce tensions between the two sides, which have yet to sign a peace treaty. | Sign Agreement | September 2010 | ['(ECFA)', '(BBC)'] |
Nigerian police open fire on protestors in Lekki, Lagos State, killing several people; Amnesty International puts the death toll at "at least 12". | Demonstrators were braced for a confrontation but hail of bullets still left them and the world reeling
Last modified on Thu 22 Oct 2020 04.37 BST
In the minutes before the shooting began, hundreds of mostly young protesters at a toll gate in Lagos, were sitting on the hot ground on a Tuesday evening, waving Nigerian flags, singing the national anthem and defying the government.
Protesters had braced themselves, prepared for when security forces would surely arrive, said 21-year-old Shola Abdul, a kitchen assistant, to enforce a 24-hour curfew across the state that effectively banned mass protests against police brutality.
“We thought if they came and saw we were with our flags, trying to move our country forward, that they would see that,” he said. “But then when they came they just acted like animals.”
The protests began earlier this month, over rampant abuses perpetrated by the notorious special anti-robbery squad (Sars), a police unit with a reputation for corruption and torture, capturing global attention.
According to witnesses, dozens of soldiers disembarked from at least four trucks, flanked by police officers. They approached the scene of a major protest site where more than a thousand people had taken over a toll gate in Lekki, a large district in Lagos Island.
Almost instantly, hundreds were forced to flee as a rain of bullets rang out. First into the air, and then towards the crowds, Shola said. Bodies collapsed to the ground around him as he ran away, he said. “They killed so many innocent souls. I was running away and they were chasing after us. People were dying instantly, as if it was a game.”
Amnesty International said at least 12 people were killed by soldiers and police in the shootings that left many in Nigeria and across the world reeling. Graphic footage of soldiers spraying bullets into fleeing crowds have been shared across social media. Some broadcasted from the scene live on Instagram, watched by more than 150,000 viewers.
The visibility of the carnage, which has since been widely described as the “Lekki Massacre”, has fuelled outrage at the Nigerian government and security forces for clamping down on one of the most striking protest movements in decades in Nigeria. Compounding the shock was footage of other abuses and shootings by security forces at protest locations across Nigeria.
Democratic US presidential nominee, Joe Biden, and the UK’s archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, were among many around the world to condemn the violence and call for Nigerian authorities to investigate.
Lagos’ governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the episode was among the “darkest hours from our history as a people,” on Wednesday morning, promising an investigation. Yet he fuelled further outrage by claiming that there were no casualties.
Nigeria’s army, which has also long been accused of rights abuses and mass killings, posted a series of tweets on Wednesday, claimed that reports which accused soldiers of shooting at the scene were false.
Yet on Wednesday, at the scene of the Lekki toll gate, the events of the night before were glaring. Dried pools of blood dotted the ground. Flags, some bloodied, dragged along in the breeze.
A protest site that for almost two weeks was a scene of youthful anger at police brutality and hope at the prospect of change was littered and burnt, with smoke still rising from torched tyres and young men ripping scraps of metal and plastic sheets from the toll gate booths.
Emmanuel Edet, 28, pointed to where he sat on Wednesday before the shooting began. “It was soldiers. Do they think we don’t know what the army look like again?” he said.
He slept in a nearby bush after he fled, too afraid to move, hearing gunshots ring all around until early in the morning. The authorities had completely failed he said and were complicit. “Is this a government that we have? We don’t have a government.”
An Amnesty spokesman, Isa Sanusi, corroborated the claims. “Several people were killed by security forces. We are working on verifying how many.”
At the nearby Reddington hospital, almost 30 men and women, camped outside the hospital gates in the glaring sun, were told to wait for information about loved ones who had been rushed there overnight.
Gloria Nnachi, 28, said her 30-year-old sister, Mabel, was shot in the melee. “I was running and I suddenly realised she wasn’t with me.”
They had gone to the protests together for the first time on Wednesday, finally convinced this was a moment for change in Nigeria that often felt hard to believe in. “Someone found me and told me she was here, so I rushed here. She was shot, they say in the side. I’m just praying she’s alive.”
Thousands have taken to the streets in Nigeria, many for the first time, in what has felt like a seminal moment for a generation bent on change. Many of the protests had become microcosms of a functional state driven by volunteers: couriers provided free water, medics administered aid and case workers helped take details from protesters who had been suffered police brutality.
Emmanuella Fortte, a 23-year-old poet, said the protests had been a place of inspiration. “It shows us what we can achieve together, our generation, pooling our own resources and gifts,” she said. She fled on Tuesday as the shooting began.
Despite the shootings, the protests were just the beginning of a long-term quest for change, she said. “I’m just glad to be home and to rest but soon, we go again. We cannot afford to back down now. Nigeria will never ever move forward if we back down.”
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| Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(The New York Post)', '(The Guardian)'] |
A Venezuelan court sentences two former United States Army Special Forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their role in the failed coup d'état against President Nicolás Maduro. | CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan court sentenced two former U.S. soldiers to 20 years in prison for their role in a failed incursion aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro in early May, chief prosecutor Tarek Saab said late on Friday.
Former Green Berets Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, admitted to participating in the May 4 operation, Saab wrote on his Twitter account.
“Said gentlemen ADMITTED to having committed the crimes,” he wrote, adding that the trials were ongoing for dozens of others captured.
Denman and Berry were charged with conspiracy, terrorism and illicit weapons trafficking, Saab wrote.
Alfonso Medina, a lawyer for the two, said their legal team was not allowed into the courtroom. The two men were not available for comment.
The sea incursion launched from Colombia, known as Operation Gideon, left at least eight dead.
Maduro’s government said it arrested a group of conspirators that included Denman and Berry near the isolated coastal town of Chuao.
U.S. special forces veteran Jordan Goudreau, who ran Silvercorp USA, a private Florida-based security firm, has claimed responsibility for the raid.
Denman appeared in a video on Venezuelan state TV days after their capture, saying they had been contracted by Silvercorp USA to train 50 to 60 Venezuelans in Colombia, seize control of Caracas’ airport and bring in a plane to fly Maduro to the United States.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido’s office said Guaido had known about the operation since October, but did not finance or order it.
Maduro, who describes Guaido as a Washington puppet, has said that President Donald Trump’s government backed the operation.
The Trump administration has denied any direct involvement. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the U.S. government would use “every tool” to secure the U.S. citizens’ return.
Reporting by Sarah Kinosian; Editing by Nick Macfie
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Five men arrested in 2004 as part of Operation Crevice are convicted at the Old Bailey of a plot to explode fertiliser bombs in the UK. | A judge jailed five Britons for life for plotting to carry out al-Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain at targets ranging from nightclubs to trains and a shopping centre.
"The sentences are for life. Release is not a foregone conclusion. Some or all of you may never be released," judge Michael Astill told the court.
"You are considered cruel, ruthless misfits by society."
The gang planned to use 600 kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support for the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.
Court papers, which could only be detailed after the trial, showed police observing the gang had established links between them and two of four British Islamists who later carried out suicide bombings in London on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people.
Spies had seen Mohammed Sidique Khan, the suspected ringleader of the July 7 bombings, and accomplice Shehzad Tanweer with the men in the days leading up to their arrest but discounted them because they were not involved in the plot.
Opposition parties and survivors of the bombings demanded a public inquiry into the July 7 attacks in response to the news.
The government praised the police for their work.
"Five dangerous terrorists are now behind bars thanks to the hard work of our police and security services," Home Secretary (Interior Minister) John Reid told reporters.
"It's not the first time they have averted a very serious threat to life in this country. This is an endless task, it is a continuing one."
Counter-terrorism experts said the gang could have produced a "formidable weapon" more powerful than some of the devices used in recent devastating attacks around the world.
"It was the first time since 9/11 that British people were attempting to commit mass murder in the UK," said one senior detective. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2007 | ['(BBC)', '(Guardian)', '(CNN)', '(SMH)'] |
Former President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is found guilty of corruption in his 6–year trial and sentenced to Life Imprisonment. | The former film star was accused of embezzling about $80m (£42m) before he was forced from office in an army-backed revolt in 2001. Estrada denounced the verdict as a "political move" and said he had been tried in a "kangaroo court".
Security was high in the capital Manila but fears that the verdict would spark mass protests appeared to be unfounded.
A few hundred pro-Estrada demonstrators had gathered for the verdict, but the protests were reported to be low-key and peaceful. Appeal expected
Following a six-year trial, the special anti-corruption court ruled that Estrada was guilty of plunder. He had been accused of receiving around four billion pesos ($85m) from illegal gambling, tax kickbacks and bribes while in power.
ESTRADA ON TRIAL
May 1998: Joseph Estrada is elected president by the Philippines' biggest ever margin
Nov 2000: Senate opens impeachment trial of president
Jan 16 2001:Trial collapses
Jan 20 2001: Estrada quits and flees amid huge protests Oct 2001: Estrada goes on trial for plundering state funds
September 2007: Found guilty of plunder and given a life sentence
He was found not guilty of a separate charge of perjury. His son Jinggoy was acquitted of the charge of plunder.
Estrada was ordered to remain under house arrest on his country estate "until further orders". He is expected to appeal.
After hearing the verdict, the former president hugged his family and walked from court surrounded by family and well-wishers.
"This is the only forum where I could tell the Filipino people my innocence," he told reporters.
"That's why I took a gamble. I thought the rule of law will prevail over here. This is really a kangaroo court. This is a political decision."
Corruption allegations
A successful movie star with populist appeal, Joseph Estrada was elected president in 1998 by the biggest margin ever. He was seen as a refreshing change from the wealthy elite that had previously dominated political life.
Pro-Estrada protests are being held but are said to be peaceful
But it was not long before his presidency ran into trouble amid allegations of corruption.
He was accused of making crucial policy decisions with late-night drinking buddies at the presidential palace, and he admitted fathering a number of children by different mistresses.
One former gambling partner claimed he had delivered briefcases containing millions of dollars of cash bribes to the president's office.
He was ousted three years after coming to power in a revolt backed by the army and the church. His vice-president Gloria Arroyo took over.
His removal led to mass street protests in which four people died and more than 100 were arrested. Mr Estrada has always denied the allegations, and accused Mrs Arroyo and church leaders of conspiring against him. The government, clearly worried about the prospect of protests from Estrada's supporters in the wake of the verdict, made sure there was a high police presence around key buildings in Manila on Wednesday. Mr Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye appealed for calm.
"We have a country to run, an economy to grow and a peace to win. We hope that this sad episode in our history will not permanently distract us from this goal," he told the Associated Press. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Soul singer Aretha Franklin is reported to have pancreatic cancer. | Soul singer Aretha Franklin, who recently underwent surgery for an undisclosed health issue, is reportedly suffering from pancreatic cancer, the Detroit News says on its website.
Publicists for the 68-year-old could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Detroit News report cites a source familiar with the situation for the cancer diagnosis, an illness which the report pointed out has a poor prognosis.
Separately, the Fox television station in Detroit reports the same diagnosis for the Queen of Soul, citing a close relative as the source.
The report says she was doing "OK".
Franklin released a statement on December 2 saying that she had undergone "highly successful surgery" but did not disclose the nature of her illness.
Earlier, she cancelled all her appearances through May 2011.
The legendary singer of 1960s hits like Chain Of Fools and Respect had continued a busy schedule of touring and recording until late October.
In January 2009, she sang at the inauguration of US president Barack Obama.
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Famous Person - Sick | December 2010 | ['(Reuters via ABC News)'] |
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and urges him to immediately end the violent crackdown against anti-government protesters in Syria, as Syrian tanks and armored vehicles deployed around the town of Rastan, witnesses said, raising fears of another deadly attack on protesters challenging Assad's rule. | UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday reiterated his call for an "immediate end" to violence against peaceful demonstrators in Syria during a telephone conversation with President Bashar al-Assad.
"The Secretary-General reiterated his calls for an immediate end to violence against and mass arrests of peaceful demonstrators in Syria, and for an independent investigation of all killings that happened during the protests, including the alleged killing of military and security officers," a statement released by UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said. Ban also emphasized the urgency of meeting the humanitarian needs of the population and called on President Assad to grant access to the UN.
"The Secretary-General also encouraged full and early implementation of all the reform measures announced by the Syrian Government, and emphasized the importance of engaging a genuine inclusive dialogue and a comprehensive reform process," the statement added. The UN Human Rights Council on Friday voted for sending a mission to the Middle East country to investigate the reported violations of international law after hundreds of people have been killed during weeks of unrest.
Kyung-wha Kang, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that over 450 people have reportedly been killed and three times that number injured due to the widespread use of live fire ammunition against protesters. | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(The Jerusalem Post)', '(Channel 6 News)'] |
Politicians in Nepal fail to elect a new Prime Minister for the third time after no candidate secured a majority. | Politicians in Nepal have failed for a third time to elect a new prime minister after neither of the two candidates was able to secure a majority in parliament.
Maoist chief Prachanda and Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress will face a fourth round of voting on Friday.
The eventual winner will form the third government in less than two years.
In 2008, Nepal changed from a monarchy to a republic as part of the peace deal which ended a decade-long civil war.
The previous Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, resigned last month.
Despite last-minute negotiations with smaller and regional parties, neither candidate was able to muster the votes needed for an outright majority.
Out of 601 MPs, Prachanda secured 259 votes, while Mr Paudel received 124. A further 186 MPs abstained.
Prachanda, whose full name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, previously served as prime minister for eight months until May 2009. There are deep divisions and mistrust between Nepal's political factions, and no side has been able to put forward a candidate who can unite the parties, says the BBC's Joanna Jolly in Kathmandu.
There are fears that a prolonged period of political uncertainty could threaten Nepal's already fragile peace process, our correspondent says. The peace deal two years ago brought the former Maoist rebels into the political mainstream, but Nepal has been troubled by continuing instability. The drafting of a new constitution has been delayed, and the Nepalese economy has also been hit hard. Nepal PM quits in live TV address
| Government Job change - Election | August 2010 | ['(Kantipur)', '(BBC)', '(Indian Express)'] |
Voting in Egypt continues for an unscheduled third day due to concerns about low turnout. Official results show former military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi headed for a massive victory with 92% of the vote. | Polling in Egypt's presidential election has been extended for a third day after low turnout. Polls were due to close at 22:00 (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, but have now been extended to Wednesday, the Egyptian election commission said. The scale of turnout is seen as key to legitimising the winner. Former military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is the clear frontrunner.
He is standing against only one other candidate, left-winger Hamdeen Sabahi.
It is the second presidential election since the 2011 revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak.
The previous elected President, Islamist Mohammed Morsi, was deposed by Mr Sisi in July 2012 following massive opposition protests.
Voting was extended for an extra hour on Tuesday, which was also declared a public holiday, in an effort to boost turnout. | Government Job change - Election | May 2014 | ['(BBC)', '(BBC)', '(AP)'] |
In Norway, Mullah Krekar, Kurdish founder of Ansar al–Islam, goes to court to resist deportation to Iraq. | Laywer Brynjar Meling (right) and mullah Krekar during a pause in proceedings at Oslo's Court of Appeals.
On Thursday morning mullah Krekar began his explanation of why he should not be sent out of the country.
Before beginning his testimony the mullah kissed the Koran and said that Norwegian authorities were justified in their investigation but explained that he felt a victim of religious persecution.
"I perceive this as being due to my faith. Sixty years ago it was the Jews in this situation, 27 years ago it was the Shia Muslims. Today they all have power in their countries," mullah Krekar said.
Norwegian authorities have decided to return mullah Krekar, born Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, to his native Iraq, on the grounds that he poses a threat to national security and has violated the terms of his residency permit.
Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling argues that Norwegian authorities have consistently attempted to construct a false image of the former leader of the militant Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2005 | ['(Aftenposten)', '(Kurdishmedia)', '(Al–Jazeera)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
10 people are reported shot dead around the Israel-Lebanon border , as a crowd try to enter Israel through a border fence. Protesters also pelt Lebanese security forces and Israeli soldiers with stones. Over a hundred enter the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, with 4 shot dead, after Palestinians and Syrians crossed the de facto Israel-Syria border. Over 45 are injured in total. | Palestinian camps across Lebanon declared a day of mourning on Monday as the families of 10 people killed when Israeli troops opened fire on protesters at the border prepare to bury their dead.
"Today is a day of general strikes in the camps in mourning for the victims who were killed by the enemy," Fatah commander in Lebanon Munir Maqdah, based in the refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, told AFP.
Funerals will be held Monday in the Palestinian refugee camps of al-Bass, Burj al-Shemali, Mieh Mieh and Ain al-Hilweh, all located in South Lebanon.
Maqdah said talks were underway for a "Martyrs' Friday" to honour the victims.
"This will not end here," he said. "We may hold a 'Martyrs' Friday' but what the program will entail has not been finalized and we are still holding talks with our comrades here and abroad."
The 1948 formation of Israel is known in Arabic as the "nakba," or "catastrophe". Israeli troops shot dead 12 people on Sunday and wounded hundreds more as Palestinians marking the "nakba" marched on Israel’s borders with Gaza as well as Lebanon and Syria. These regions are home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out in 1948.
The Lebanese army said that 10 of those killed were approaching a barbed wire fence at Lebanon's border with the Jewish state. More than 100 more were wounded when the crowd of thousands of refugees, who were throwing rocks at Israeli troops from the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras, came under fire. | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(near Maroun al-Ras in Lebanon)', '(Christian Science Monitor)', '(Voice of America)', '(The Jerusalem Post)', '(Nowlebanon)', '(Haaretz)'] |
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