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In ice hockey, the United States defeats Canada to win the gold medal at the 2017 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. | MONTREAL — Troy Terry scored the lone shootout goal, Tyler Parsons stopped all five shots he faced in the tiebreaker, and the United States outlasted Canada, 5-4, on Thursday night to win the world junior hockey title.
The game was decided in the five-round shootout after a scoreless 20-minute overtime period.
On Wednesday in the semifinals, Terry scored on all three of his shootout attempts to give the United States a 4-3 victory over Russia. Terry, a University of Denver forward, is an Anaheim Ducks draft pick.
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This is an offer for a Basic Digital Access Subscription. The Basic Digital Access Subscription does not include e-reader editions (Kindle, Nook, etc.), NYT Games (the Crossword) or NYT Cooking. Mobile apps are not supported on all devices. These offers are not available for current subscribers. Other restrictions and taxes may apply. Offers and pricing are subject to change without notice. | Sports Competition | January 2017 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Turkmenistan has a presidential election; incumbent Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is re–elected with 97% of the vote. | The President of Turkmenistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has been re-elected for another term with a landslide majority.
Election officials said he had secured more than 97% of the vote.
He faced token opposition from seven other candidates in the presidential election on Sunday.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe did not send monitors to the poll after criticising the lack of democratic reform there. Turkmenistan, a Muslim-majority country of 5.5 million people, is ranked among the world's most repressive states.
An anchor on state television said on Sunday morning that the elections were "the clearest evidence of the irreversibility of the democratic process," according to the AFP news agency.
"Aware of their great responsibility for the future of the motherland, the people will choose the most worthy of the eight candidates," the anchor added.
However, few doubted that Mr Berdymukhamedov will emerge as the winner, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie said from neighbouring Kazakhstan.
All the other seven candidates praised the 54-year-old trained dentist in their election campaigns, prompting observers to conclude that the poll was a mere formality.
On Sunday, performers in national dress sang his praises at polling stations where food and gifts were reportedly given out to voters.
Mr Berdymukhamedov, the former health minister, promised political reform when he was elected with 89% of the vote in 2007 following the sudden death of his predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov. Mr Niyazov had one of the most bizarre cult personalities in the world, our correspondent says.
Months of the year were named after him and other family members; golden statues of him were erected across the country; and his book on Turkmen history and traditions was made compulsory reading in schools.
But, five years into his rule, Mr Berdymukhamedov appears to have followed in Mr Niyazov's footsteps, our correspondent adds. His portraits can be seen everywhere, he has written several books about herbal medicine and Turkmen horses, and a military unit has been named after his father.
And just like his predecessor, our correspondent notes, Mr Berdymukhamedov keeps spending billions of dollars of public money on grand construction projects, such as a resort of luxury marble-fronted hotels on the Caspian Sea, which are of little immediate benefit for the population. Turkmenistan has the world's fourth largest natural gas reserves and has signed billion dollar deals with China. The European Union is also keen to buy Turkmen gas. Human rights groups have criticised the EU for being willing to do business with one of the most repressive regimes in the world. Turkmenistan in presidential vote
| Government Job change - Election | February 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
A general strike continues in Bangladesh over a proposed change to the electoral system. | Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Riot police patrolled the streets to break up opposition protests in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh on Wednesday as opposition parties began a 48-hour general strike protesting a government move to change the electoral system
Sporadic clashes erupted in different parts of the country as police tried to break up protests against the government.
In a police attack in Dhaka, the opposition chief whip in parliament, Joynal Abedin Faruk, was wounded and was hospitalized, police and party leaders said.
Most offices, educational institutions and businesses remained shut and public transports were severely disrupted across the country because of the strike.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and its ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami called the strike in protest against the electoral system change. Last month, Bangladesh's parliament abolished the nonpartisan caretaker government system that oversees general elections.
Bangladesh has a long history of electoral violence. The caretaker system, which installs a nonparty government for an interim period between two elected governments, was instituted in 1996 amid bloody street violence over elections.
Under the system, the interim government looks after routine administration and is primarily responsible for holding free and fair general elections within 90 days.
The system came under fire in 2007 after a military-backed interim government stayed beyond its mandated three months and delayed the voting by about two years.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court recently pronounced the caretaker government provision illegal.
The next general elections are scheduled for early 2014.
Even before the current general strike began, protesters torched at least 10 buses and cars in Dhaka, the capital, Tuesday night.
Police said they had arrested nearly 450 people from different parts of the country on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
BNP chief Khaleda Zia blasted the government for police action that left the opposition chief whip in parliament hospitalized with serious injuries.
"It was an attempt to kill the opposition chief whip Faruk," Zia said, asking the government to take action against the policemen responsible for the assault.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament on Wednesday that the opposition strike was unjustified and asked citizens to be united and resist destructive activities in the name of strike. | Strike | July 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
A suicide bomber attacks a cultural center putting on a play critical of terrorist attacks, killing a German national and wounding 16 others. | A teenage suicide bomber has targeted a Kabul auditorium packed with people watching a drama condemning suicide attacks, killing a German national, officials say.
Witnesses said the blast, which struck a French cultural centre and wounded 16 people, was initially thought by some patrons to be part of the show. The attack was the second to strike the Afghan capital in a day, after six Afghan soldiers died when their bus was hit on the outskirts of the city as they rode into work.
The violence, part of a nationwide campaign by Islamist Taliban insurgents to strike at military and civilian targets, came less than three weeks before the year-end deadline for most foreign combat soldiers to withdraw from the country.
Afghan deputy interior minister General Ayoub Salangi said the suspected theatre bomber appeared to be about 17 years old and detonated his explosives inside the venue.
Sher Ahmad, an Afghan rights activist who was at the performance, said: "I heard a deafening explosion ... There were Afghans, foreigners, young girls and young boys watching the show." He said the blast came during a performance of a new play called Heartbeat: Silence After the Explosion, a condemnation of suicide attacks.
"Pieces of flesh were plastered on the wall," he said.
"There were children and women crying for help, some were running out, some were just screaming."
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the bomber targeted the event because it was staged "to insult Islamic values and spread propaganda about our jihad operations, especially on suicide attacks".
Amid the confusion immediately following the blast, one person could be heard saying "it's all part of the show" in a video posted on YouTube purporting to be of the attack.
French president Francois Hollande condemned the blast, saying it was an attack on "culture and creativity".
"I condemn the heinous attack that occurred at the French Institute in Afghanistan ... by targeting this place of dialogue, the terrorists are attacking culture and creativity," Mr Hollande said in a statement.
The venue was heavily guarded during the event in the auditorium, said Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi, who added that the bomber may have hidden explosives in his underwear to pass through security.
He said the bomber detonated the blast at the top of the auditorium's stairs, which may have prevented higher casualties.
Taliban militants have stepped up a campaign of violence this year to take advantage of uncertainty and weakness besetting Afghanistan's security forces as they prepare to take over the war on the insurgency, now in its 13th year.
Earlier on Thursday, a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Afghan army personnel, the defence ministry said, ending a near two-week lull in attacks in the capital.
As well as the six soldiers killed, 11 were wounded.
Dawlat Waziri, deputy spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, said a bomber on foot targeted the bus in the Tarakhil area of eastern Kabul when the army personnel were on their way to work.
Five Afghan school children were also reported killed in a foreign forces air strike in northern Parwan province, Afghan officials said.
The International Security Assistance Force confirmed an air strike in the area, but said five insurgents were killed.
Civilian casualties caused by air strikes have been one of the most contentious issues of the war, although there are often conflicting claims. Reuters/AFP
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Riot | December 2014 | ['(Reuters/AFP via ABC News Australia)'] |
The Obama administration, through the United States Environmental Protection Agency announces new regulations on emissions of the greenhouse gas methane. , , , | The agency wants to reduce emissions by 40 to 45 percent of 2012 levels over the next decade.
The rules would also amend existing regulations and be applicable throughout the oil and natural gas industry, including in production, processing, transmission and storage, the EPA said.
The rules, which would apply only to new and modified gas wells, were first outlined in January by the White House. They follow an announcement earlier this month of regulations forcing power plants to lower carbon-dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.
Both gases contribute to global warming, but methane’s global-warming potential (the amount of heat trapped by a specific amount of mass) is more than 25 times greater than that of CO2, the EPA says. The oil and gas industry was responsible for about 30 percent of methane emissions in the U.S. in 2012.
“Today, through our cost-effective proposed standards, we are underscoring our commitment to reducing the pollution fueling climate change and protecting public health while supporting responsible energy development, transparency and accountability," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement Tuesday.
The EPA says the proposed rule will reduce between 340,000 and 400,000 short tons of methane in 2025, as well as 170,000 to 180,000 tons of other volatile organic compounds and 1,900 to 2,500 tons of hazardous air pollutants. The announcement comes amid an increase in oil and gas output in the U.S., making the country one of the top energy producers in the world.
The energy industry opposes the regulations.
In a statement, Jack Gerard, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, called the new rules unnecessary. He said the industry reduced methane emissions by 79 percent since 2005. Carbon-dioxide emissions are at 27-year lows, he said.
“The oil and gas industry is leading the charge in reducing methane,” he said in a statement. “The last thing we need is more duplicative and costly regulation that could increase the cost of energy for Americans.”
Environmental groups welcomed the rules, and called for more action. Kate DeAngelis, who is with the environmental group Friends of the Earth, cheered the changes but added:
We have a serious problem with existing and abandoned wells, and the final rule needs to address them. The real solution to climate change is to leave fossil fuels in the ground and to clean up the abandoned wells that continue to poison our air.
The rules were unveiled a day after the Obama administration gave final approval to Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil off the coast of Alaska. Environmental groups criticized that move. | Government Policy Changes | August 2015 | ['(The New York Times)', '(NPR)', '(The Atlantic)', '(EPA)'] |
In Aberdeen, Scotland, one student has died of injuries, and another has been arrested, after a stabbing at Cults Academy | Police said they were called to the Cults Academy at 1.30pm on Wednesday afternoon, amid unverified reports the victim had been stabbed by another pupil at lunchtime. Another male, reportedly aged 16, has been detained.
The fifth-year pupil was taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, but died a short time later, according to Scottish media reports and Sky News.
In a statement, Police Scotland confirmed only that the victim had been taken to hospital, and that the boy's next of kin had been informed. NHS Grampian was unable to confirm that the boy had died.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: "One male pupil has been taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with serious injuries.
"A further male has been detained and is currently assisting officers with their inquiries.
"Inquiries into the circumstances of the incident are ongoing and officers will remain at the scene for the time being."
An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman said: "We are aware of a serious incident at Cults Academy today. Police are on site.
"Due to the nature of this incident, we will not be issuing further comment."
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Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. | Famous Person - Death | October 2015 | ['(Independent)'] |
Ansar al-Islam claims responsibility for an IED explosion that killed three soldiers in Iraq's Diyala Province. This was their first attack since 2013. | Ansar al Islam, a longstanding al Qaeda-linked jihadist group which now mainly operates in Syria, has claimed its first attack in its native Iraq in five years. Yesterday, Ansar al Islam released a statement of responsibility for an improvised explosive device targeting members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) in Iraq’s Diyala province on Tuesday.
“Lions of Jamaat Ansar al Islam in the area of Jalawla in Iraq’s Diyala province, placed two IEDs upon the criminals of the Hashd Shaabi [PMUs],” the claim reads. The statement further claims killing one PMU soldier, while wounding another. This claim appears to be backed up by local reporting. Local Iraqi media outlets reported that three people were indeed killed by an IED in the Jalawla area. Though, the Baghdad Post reported only a “farmer” was killed. The Islamic State, while claiming attacks near Baqubah and Miqdadiyah, did not claim the Jalawla blast. This gives more veracity to Ansar al Islam’s statement. Ansar al Islam’s last claimed operation in Iraq was in 2014. That year, the jihadist group took part in the renewed Sunni insurgency in Iraq just prior to the Islamic State’s rampage through large swaths of Iraq and Syria. The outfit reported a series of operations that summer, posting many photos of its victories in the process. Though in July 2014, the Iraqi wing of Ansar al Islam suffered mass defections to the Islamic State. Though, the entirety of the organization did not go to IS, as its Syrian wing has remained independent. And since 2014, the Syrian wing has taken part in numerous offensives and operations in northwestern Syria. Since late 2018, it has also been a member of the “Incite the Believers” operations room with various other al Qaeda-linked groups in Idlib. Now, however, it appears that Ansar al Islam’s forces in Iraq are signaling they are ready to restart operations in the country. It is so far unclear how well Ansar al Islam could rebound in Iraq; though, a weakened Islamic State could provide more operating spaces for other Sunni insurgent groups. Caleb Weiss is a contributor to FDD's Long War Journal.
| Armed Conflict | October 2019 | ['(Long War Journal)'] |
A suicide bomber injures six Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi, Anbar. The soldiers were combing a building hit by a separate bombing yesterday that killed five and injured seven including a politician. | by Mohammed Ebraheem Apr 8, 2018, 10:49 am Anbar (Iraqinews.com) Six Iraqi soldiers were wounded Sunday after a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up in Hit district, 70 km west of Ramadi, Anbar.
“The troops were combing a party headquarters that was hit by a bomb explosion Saturday, when the suicide bomber targeted them,” a security source told IKH News.
According to the source, the soldiers were transferred to Hit General Hospital for treatment.
Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber blew himself up at al-Hal (solution) party in Hit.
According to security reports, Saturday’s attack has left five people killed and seven others injured so far, including a parliamentary hopeful.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The surge in violence between armed groups and government forces has resulted in over 3 million internally displaced persons across Iraq and left more than 11 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq last November with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq. | Armed Conflict | April 2018 | ['(Iraqi News)'] |
Floods in South China kill at least 15 people over the last few days with tens of thousands more being relocated. More rain is forecast in future days. | BEIJING (Reuters) - Torrential rain lashed parts of central and south China on Monday, with floods damaging crops, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes and killing at least 33, while the north wilted in a heat wave and drought-like conditions.
Water levels in more than 60 rivers in southern China have risen above warning levels, the flood control authority said.
Thirty-three people are confirmed dead and 15 missing as of Monday morning after heavy rain and flooding engulfed provinces central and southern provinces including Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Sichuan and Guizhou, China’s civil affairs ministry said.
The annual rainy season, which arrived in the second half of June, has hit southern Hunan province the most. Weather forecasters predict the relentless downpours could start to ease in coming days.
Xiangjiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze river, has exceeded its record flood level in the Hunan capital of Changsha. Floods in the city have swamped houses, uprooted trees, damaged cars and submerged roads.
Across Hunan, the flooding has forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate, damaged crops and destroyed houses, causing a total direct economic loss of 8.26 billion yuan ($1.22 billion), the provincial civil affairs office said.
In Guangxi, 16 people have been confirmed dead and 10 are missing after a flood hit the southwestern region after a storm, the official Xinhua news agency cited authorities as saying.
Southern provinces produce some of China’s major crops.
Guangxi is China’s top sugarcane-growing region, while Hunan is its third-largest hog-farming province. Rice is grown south of the Yangtze.
China will take steps to ensure sugar reserves are safe during the rainy season, the Sugar Reserve Management Centre said.
China Southern Power Grid reported an extensive blackout in Guangxi. Electricity to half of the affected area was restored by Monday morning.
The state post bureau warned of courier delays in parts of the central, southern and southwestern provinces.
By contrast, stifling heat has settled over Beijing, Hebei, Henan and other northern provinces since last week, with temperatures forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius in some areas on Monday, the meteorological bureau said.
Cities in Shaanxi province issued alerts, saying temperatures could exceed 35C in coming three days.
Many residents in the province have ordered food to be delivered rather than cook at home in the heat, a Shaanxi newspaper reported.
In Beijing, many residents stayed indoors over the weekend due to the heat.
In the Inner Mongolia region, more than 200 firefighters are battling a grassland fire that has crossed over to northern China from Mongolia, Xinhua reported.
The blaze has spread quickly in the heat, dry conditions and strong winds.
The heat wave is expected to ease by mid-week.
Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Lusha Zhang; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel
| Floods | July 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A U.S. federal judge approves AT&T's $85 billion merger with Time Warner. | AT&T and Time Warner are not competitors; their proposed merger would be a "vertical integration" of complementary companies.
AT&T and Time Warner are not competitors; their proposed merger would be a "vertical integration" of complementary companies.
A federal judge on Tuesday gave his blessing to telecom giant AT&T's drive to take over the Time Warner media conglomerate. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon rejected arguments by Justice Department lawyers that the combined company would be too large and too powerful and that the $85 billion deal would harm competition and hurt consumers.
Time Warner owns CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. Entertainment and a passel of cable channels including TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network.
In seeking to unify, the two companies argued that a new crop of competitors cast an ominous shadow over their businesses: Netflix, Amazon and Apple in content and distribution; Google and Facebook in advertising.
Leon, based in Washington, D.C., said the evidence and testimony provided by the government were faulty and that it never proved the merged entity would have increased leverage over its competitors.
"Ultimately, I conclude that the Government has failed to meet its burden to establish that the proposed transaction is likely to lessen competition substantially," the judge wrote.
Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said the government was disappointed in Leon's ruling. "We will closely review the Court's opinion and consider next steps in light of our commitment to preserving competition for the benefit of American consumers," Delrahim added in a statement.
In its own statement, AT&T said, "We look forward to closing the merger on or before June 20 so we can begin to give consumers video entertainment that is more affordable, mobile, and innovative."
In his decision, Leon weighed in on a case that carried political overtones, scrambled typical ideological alignments and triggered close attention from corporate executives beyond media.
On the campaign trail in October 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump spoke in Gettysburg, Pa. He noted that Time Warner owned CNN, and then declared his opposition to the $85 billion proposed sale. It is, he said then, "a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in hands of too few."
Trump's call holds a populist appeal and won some support across the ideological divide. As Gigi Sohn, a former top aide to the Federal Communications Commission chairman under President Obama, put it during the trial, "If we return to a place where ... there's a presumption that big is bad — bad for democracy, bad for consumers — I think that's a good place for antitrust law and antitrust enforcement to be." Delrahim, Trump's appointment as the antitrust chief at the Justice Department, is widely well-regarded.
Yet Trump's antipathy for CNN is so strong and well-known that it colored public perception of the case. In those remarks at Gettysburg, Trump preceded his declaration about corporate ownership with a dig at the "corruption" of what he called "the dishonest mainstream media."
Trump's frequent attacks on CNN led to much speculation, including from AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, that the president's opposition stemmed from anger over the network's coverage rather than concern over greater corporate consolidation. AT&T lawyers initially sought email correspondence between Trump's White House and the Justice Department, but Leon declared that any communications were not relevant to the trial, and AT&T relented.
Even so, the case brought last year by the antitrust lawyers at Trump's Justice Department to block the AT&T and Time Warner marriage is an outlier.
AT&T and Time Warner are not competitors; theirs would be a "vertical integration" of complementary companies: Time Warner makes the TV shows (and movies and news programming and so forth), while AT&T offers the satellite and cable TV services and mobile phone systems on which people consume such content.
The case is commonly characterized as the first major "vertical" deal challenged by federal lawyers in court in more than four decades. Had Leon ruled in favor of the government, the consequences would have reached far beyond media, to tech, health care, finance and other major fields.
Trump's antitrust lawyers and regulators have not pursued a consistent line against increased consolidation; under newly elevated Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, the FCC has swept away many regulations limiting how many stations a single company can own.
That has worked to smooth the path of Sinclair Broadcast Group as it seeks to acquire Tribune Media. Sinclair owns more TV stations than any other broadcasting company; Tribune would give it several dozen more. While federal regulators did require the disposal of some properties to satisfy what they characterized as anti-competitive local market situations, Sinclair appears poised to sell some of them to owners with whom it has strong corporate history and ties.
Similarly, when the Walt Disney Co. announced it would acquire most of 21st Century Fox, Trump called Fox's controlling owner, Rupert Murdoch, not to bemoan but to congratulate him — and reportedly to make sure that Murdoch wasn't selling Fox News. (He's not.) Comcast is circling Fox as well, making it clear it plans to disrupt the Disney-Fox union, but did not want to make a formal offer until after Leon's ruling.
Trump has suggested he might want to reopen a review of an earlier deal that has many parallels to the AT&T takeover of Time Warner: Comcast's takeover of NBC Universal. Such suggestions have been accompanied by frequent denunciations of MSNBC and NBC journalists — who work within the Comcast empire. | Organization Merge | June 2018 | ['(NPR)'] |
Three British MPs – Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen – defect from the Conservative Party to The Independent Group, citing their opposition to Brexit and the party's adoption of UKIP policies. This brings the total number of The Independent Group MPs to eleven following recent defections from Labour. | Three Conservative MPs who resigned to join a new independent group on Wednesday said Theresa May had allowed their former party to fall prey to hardline Brexiters and declared that the Tory modernising project had been destroyed.
In the latest evidence that Brexit is reshaping the political landscape, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston, all outspoken critics of May’s stance on Europe, said the Conservative party as they had known it under David Cameron was dead.
“I’m not leaving the Conservative party – it has left us,” said Soubry at a hastily convened press conference around the corner from the House of Commons. “The modernising reforms that had taken years to achieve were destroyed.”
Allen was asked if she could ever return to the Conservatives and answered: “If we do our jobs properly, there won’t be a Tory party to go back to.” She added: “We’re about creating something better that is bang smack in the centre ground of British politics that people out there, I am convinced, we are convinced, want.”
The dramatic resignations – announced shortly before May confronted Jeremy Corbyn at prime minister’s questions – sent shockwaves through Westminster, where MPs had barely digested news of the Labour split.
The move reduces May’s already tenuous working majority to eight, raising still more questions over her authority amid rumours that there could be further Tory defections.
On Wednesday night, Allen told ITV’s Peston that “a third of the party” – around 100 of her former colleagues – shared her frustrations at its direction. The Tory former attorney general Dominic Grieve told the BBC: “The government which I am supporting implementing a no-deal Brexit - what would I do? I would not be able to maintain my support of the government. I would have to leave the party.”
The arrival of former Conservatives in the Independent Group, alongside breakaway Labour MPs including Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie, was immediately seized on by the Labour leadership, which stepped up attacks on the defectors.
“The fact is they have formed what is effectively an establishment coalition based on the failed and rejected policies of the past: austerity, corporate tax cuts, privatisation,” Corbyn’s spokesman said.
“It’s precisely because those policies were seen to have failed and were rejected that the direction under the Labour party has changed since Jeremy was elected. And we demonstrated at the general election that a different approach has mass electoral appeal.”
The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, a close ally of Corbyn, compared what he called “Chuka’s coalition” with the national government formed by the Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald in 1931, which implemented “deep cuts and attacks on working-class communities”.
'We can no longer act as bystanders. We are honour bound to put our constituents’ and country’s interests first.' Read the letter to the Prime Minister from @heidiallen75 @Anna_Soubry and @sarahwollaston #ChangePolitics pic.twitter.com/1HxHOULbft
Momentum, the grassroots campaign group set up to back Corbyn’s leadership, announced plans to unleash what it calls “mass canvassing events” in the constituencies of three of the Labour MPs – Umunna, Ann Coffey and Angela Smith – in the weeks ahead.
Laura Parker, Momentum’s national coordinator, said: “Their constituents voted for a Labour MP standing on a Labour manifesto. Now they’ve left the party and joined a Blairite-Tory coalition standing on a completely different platform.”
She said their decision to resign from Labour and sit as independents was “unfair, undemocratic and dishonest. If they care about their constituents rather than their own careers they should step down and fight a byelection.”
However, some senior Labour figures have taken a markedly more sympathetic tone towards the departing MPs. The shadow trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, said Luciana Berger, the MP for Liverpool Wavertree who blamed antisemitism for her decision to quit Labour, had suffered “disgraceful treatment”.
“I regret deeply that she has left our party, I regret most of all the antisemitic abuse which made her feel it was necessary to do so,” he told MPs in a Commons debate on antisemitism. He described her as a “kind and loving person” who has been “bullied by antisemites to a point that most of us would not have had the strength to bear”.
The Independent Group was formed on Monday by the erstwhile Labour MPs. Joan Ryan became the eighth MP to quit Labour and join the group on Tuesday night. The MPs claimed they felt it necessary to leave Labour because of the leadership’s Brexit policy and failure to tackle antisemitism in the party.
The 11-strong parliamentary grouping formed by the breakaway MPs is not yet a formal political party but its founders hope to swell their numbers further in the coming days. Several potential defectors told the Guardian they were not ready to join the group – “yet”.
Soubry said she and her Tory colleagues had picked up the baton handed to them by Umunna and were now holding it out to other “one-nation Conservatives” dismayed by May’s failure to take a no-deal Brexit off the table.
“Dear friends, now former colleagues, who share those one-nation values and principles will deny it, but I believe in their heads and in their hearts that they know it is over,” she said, adding: “The battle is over. The other side has won.”
“The right wing, the hardline, anti-EU awkward squad that have destroyed every leader for the last 40 years are now running the Conservative party from top to tail – they are the Conservative party.”
The group has not yet published any policy proposals, just a set of values, including supporting “a diverse, mixed social market economy” and removing the barriers of “poverty, prejudice and discrimination” to ensure inequalities can be “reduced through the extension of opportunity”.
The challenges of uniting them around a joint policy position were underlined at Wednesday’s press conference when Soubry was asked about the spending cuts of the 2010-15 coalition government, in which she was a minister.
“I think the things we did to the economy were absolutely necessary at the time. I don’t have a problem with that,” she said. Leslie, who as shadow chancellor criticised the 2015 Labour manifesto as too leftwing, later said the party was keen to be forward-looking.
Wollaston pointed out that after the prime minister lost the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal by an unprecedented margin of 230 votes last month, she promised to seek a cross-party solution – but the first group she consulted was the hard Brexit European Research Group.
In their joint resignation letter, the three MPs said: “We no longer feel we can remain in the party of a government whose policies and priorities are so firmly in the grip of the ERG and DUP. Brexit has redefined the Conservative party.”
But Allen, who represents South Cambridgeshire, said of the new grouping that she felt “so excited, in a way I haven’t felt since I was first elected … I, we, are prepared to dare to dream that this could be possible.”
The latest defections are unlikely to change the parliamentary arithmetic in next week’s crucial votes, because the 11 MPs were already confirmed Brexit rebels. But they underlined the sense that both May and Corbyn have struggled to contain the deep divisions in their parties, on Brexit and beyond.
A string of ministers are privately warning that they are prepared to vote against the government and back Yvette Cooper’s effort to force an extension to article 50, rather than allow May to continue using the threat of a no-deal Brexit as a bargaining chip.
Before flying to Brussels for talks with Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday, May said she was “saddened” by the decisions of Soubry, Allen and Wollaston to resign, saying they were “people who have given dedicated service to our party over many years, and I thank them for it”.
Despite the divisions over Brexit, she said: “I am determined that under my leadership the Conservative party will always offer the decent, moderate and patriotic politics that the people of this country deserve.”
The work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, tweeted that she was keen to continue to work with the departing Tory MPs on “a number of important issues”, including Brexit, in the future.
Soubry suggested she and her colleagues would support the prime minister in any future no-confidence vote in the government, because now was not the time for a general election. May survived a no-confidence vote with a majority of 19 last month.
Despite the extraordinary drama, neither party leader mentioned the resignations at prime minister’s questions, as the 11-strong Independent Group sat perched high up on the opposition benches.
| Join in an Organization | February 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A US army medic receives 9 months in jail after pleading guilty to shooting two unarmed Afghan farmers for "no apparent reason". | TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - A U.S. Army medic was sentenced to nine months in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to shooting at unarmed Afghan farmers and agreeing to testify against other soldiers accused of terrorizing civilians.
Five of the 12 soldiers are accused of premeditated murder in the most serious prosecution of alleged atrocities by U.S. military personnel since the war began in late 2001.
Several are alleged to have collected severed fingers and other human remains as war trophies in Afghanistan.
In the first court-martial in the case, Staff Sergeant Robert Stevens, 25, admitted opening fire on two Afghan men for no apparent reason, saying he and other soldiers were acting on orders from a squad leader during a patrol in March.
“I performed those actions and I did it,” he said when asked by the presiding officer why he pleaded guilty to charges that carried a maximum penalty of nearly 20 years in prison.
The charge of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon was the most serious of four offenses to which Stevens, an Army veteran of 7-1/2 years, pleaded guilty at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington.
The case began as an investigation into hashish use by members of what was then known as the 5th Stryker Brigade but grew into a probe of what prosecutors have described as an infantry unit run amok.
A potentially explosive aspect is the existence of dozens of grisly photos that four of the defendants are accused of having taken of war dead, some of them showing U.S. soldiers posing with the corpses.
The images, so far sealed from public view, have drawn comparisons with pictures of Iraqi prisoners taken by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004.
“THE RIGHT THING TO DO”
Stevens, though not regarded as one of the leading figures in the case, was court-martialed first because he waived his rights to a preliminary proceeding.
As part of the deal, military prosecutors said they would grant Stevens immunity from further charges in exchange for his testimony against the 11 other soldiers.
“It’s the right thing to do and I’m going to do it,” he said at the hearing.
The three other charges against Stevens were wrongfully tossing a grenade out of his vehicle during a convoy last spring, making false statements to military investigators and dereliction of duty.
He pleaded not guilty to a fifth charge, conspiracy to commit assault, stemming from the shooting incident involving the two Afghan farmers.
Prosecutors sought a prison term of at least 18 months.
Stevens will serve his nine months at a military brig on his home base. He will be demoted to E-1 private, the lowest rank in the Army, and forfeit his pay while in prison but will be allowed to stay in the military.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A Somali man, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, is charged in the US city of New York with assisting the terrorist groups Al Shaabab and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. | WASHINGTON The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it would prosecute in civilian court a Somali accused of ties to two Islamist militant groups. The decision to fly the man to New York for trial, after interrogating him for months aboard a United States naval vessel, is likely to reignite debate about the detention and prosecution of terrorism suspects.
In an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York, the Somali, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, was charged with nine counts related to accusations that he provided support to the Shabab in Somalia and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen. Mr. Warsame, believed to be in his mid-20s, was captured on April 19, and a plane carrying him arrived in New York City around midnight Monday night, officials said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2011 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen resigns as leader of the Democratic Progressives and refuses Prime Minister William Lai's offer to quit after a major defeat in local elections. | TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday she was resigning as chairwoman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party after mayoral election defeats.
Tsai also told a news conference that she had not accepted the resignation of her premier, William Lai, who had offered to quit earlier in the evening. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2018 | ['(Reuters)', '(Associated Press)'] |
A 27–vehicle traffic collision on the M5 Motorway, near Taunton in the English county of Somerset, results in at least 7 deaths, 35 injuries and the closure of the motorway. | It is feared more than 10 people have died in a 27-vehicle crash on the M5 near Taunton, Somerset.
More than 40 people were injured in the crash, near junction 25 northbound at about 20:30 GMT on Friday, which police said led to a "massive fireball".
The cause of the crash is not yet clear but there had been heavy rain in the area earlier and there was patchy fog.
Avon and Somerset Police have released a helpline number for people concerned about relatives: 0800 092 0410.
The Highways Agency said the stretch of motorway between junctions 24 and 25 was not expected to reopen until 21:00 on Saturday evening.
On Friday night, drivers reported delays of up to five-and-a-half hours and motorists have been urged to avoid the area altogether.
Musgrove Park Hospital, in Taunton, said it was treating 16 casualties who had suffered "a range of trauma injuries", including broken bones and chest, abdominal and lung injuries.
Colin Close, the medical director at the hospital, said none of the casualties were in a critical condition and all were stable.
"I think it's fair to say we've never seen anything like this in this hospital before," he said.
A specialist surgeon from the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital was drafted in to help deal with the injured at the Taunton hospital.
Yeovil District Hospital said it dealt with 26 "walking wounded" and had discharged 24 of them by Saturday morning.
A man and a boy remain in the hospital but their conditions are not thought to be life-threatening.
"It was a very busy night for us and our staff did really well," said a spokesman.
Assistant Chief Constable Anthony Bangham, of Avon and Somerset Police, said "several people" had died but he could not yet be specific about numbers.
He said: "The incident was very, very challenging and on arrival crews were faced with literally one massive fireball.
"Most vehicles were well alight and most continued to burn for a considerable time. This made it very difficult to search the vehicles. Some of them have been burned to the ground."
Emergency crews said they believed the weather may have been a contributory factor in the crash, with witnesses describing having seen thick fog at the time.
Paul Slaven, of Devon and Somerset Fire Service, said crews were "damping down" at the scene of the crash, which he said was "the worst road traffic collision anyone can remember".
He said: "There is a large amount of debris covering the road and a couple of vehicles are still smouldering after being on fire so the police have said the road will be closed for at least 24 hours and possibly more for the carriageway to be cleared."
The fire service said there had been six articulated lorries involved in the accident, as well as lighter vehicles.
Motorist Steven Swift, who passed the accident scene while heading south about 30 minutes after the crash, said he had seen three lorries on fire and some injured people lying in the central reservation.
He added: "It was a horrific scene. The heat was intense."
Bev Davis, who had been in a field near the motorway looking after her horses, said: "There was this horrific sound of a horn. The horn was just permanent.
"You knew something had gone on and then the flames were just so high so quickly and the noise was horrific. And then there were explosions, I think probably of tyres going."
She added: "From where we were standing we could only see what was directly in front of us because the flames and smoke were smothering everything. There must have been 200m-worth of fire - plumes of smoke were going up and everything was red."
Coach driver Michael Wagner said he had "never seen anything like this".
He said: "There were lots of lorries on fire. There was a car underneath one of the lorries. "It looked like two lorries had jack-knifed at the front. In all, there must have been eight or nine lorries and 15 cars behind them. There was smoke and flames everywhere."
He said there was debris "everywhere, even on the southbound side".
Jaysen Sharpe, who had been at nearby Taunton Rugby Club which had been hosting a fireworks display at about the time of the crash, said he had seen "a number of explosions, petrol tanks that I believed were going up".
Motorist Steve Burge said he had seen two lorries on fire and a car which had been almost burnt out.
"It was something that you wouldn't want to see," he said. "It was an image that will stick with me forever."
Driver James Starkey, who was caught up in the tailbacks about 500 yards from the crash, said a "huge, billowing tower of smoke" began rising from the scene at about 21:00 GMT.
He said police had told him traffic would be turned round as soon as possible "but with the amount of vehicles to turn and get moving it could be a long time". "The atmosphere among people waiting on the motorway is one of shock," he added.
The Highways Agency said the motorway closure had affected people leaving the Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival.
North Petherton Carnival, which was due to be held on Saturday night, has been cancelled.
Andrea Day, from Trafficlink, said one of the busiest routes on Saturday would be the A38 through Taunton and warned of disruption throughout the weekend. Traffic is reported to be stop-start on the road.
A spokesman for frozen food retailer Iceland confirmed one of the firm's lorries had been involved in the crash.
"We are working closely with all of the authorities to ascertain the circumstances of the incident and to help in whatever way we can," he said.
Taunton Deane MP Jeremy Browne said it had been a "horrendous accident".
He said: "There has not been a crash on this scale for many years and the implications of it will be life-changing for many people."
| Road Crash | November 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from flooding in Japan caused by Tropical Storm Etau rises to seven. , | TOKYO - The death toll from floods which have devastated parts of Japan in recent days rose to seven Sunday, with thousands of homes submerged, as rescuers searched for 15 people still missing.
Police Sunday found the bodies of two men in rice paddies in Joso, the worst-hit city. Earlier in the day they discovered the body of a 68-year-old man inside a submerged car in a flooded ricefield in the town of Tochigi north of Tokyo.
Parts of Joso, a community of 65,000 residents, were washed away Thursday when a levee on the Kinugawa river gave way, flooding an area spanning 32 square kilometres (12 square miles) after the worst rains in decades.
Toru Takasugi, mayor of the city about 60 kilometres (37 miles) outside Tokyo, apologised at a press conference for not ordering residents to evacuate before the river burst its banks, local media reported.
"We thought it might break its banks but we couldn't predict where. We are deeply sorry for not handling the situation properly," he said.
Four days have passed since the flooding but a total of 1,800 rescuers including police, firefighters and military were still struggling Sunday to find 15 people still missing from Joso, public broadcaster NHK said.
The weather agency warned of the possibility of more heavy rain in the flood-hit area later in the evening.
A Japanese city was flooded Thursday when a raging river burst its banks
destroying homes and cars as desperate residents waited for help
and as thousands of people were ordered to evacuate.
Dramatic television footage showed a wall of muddy water gushing from the swollen Kinugawa river in Joso city, north of Tokyo, which is home to around 65,000 people.
Several people are reportedly missing across the country as waist-high floods in some areas left rescuers scrambling to pluck residents to safety
as a wide area was deluged in the wake of Typhoon Etau.
The huge rains also exacerbated a contaminated water problem at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant
as it overwhelmed the site’s drainage pumps, sending radiation-tainted water into the ocean.
“This is a scale of downpour that we have not experienced before,” forecaster Takuya Deshimaru told an emergency press conference.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government was on high alert.
“The government will stand united and do its best to deal with the disaster... by putting its highest priority on people’s lives,” he told reporters.
In Joso, houses and vehicles were washed away along with some power lines
as military personnel headed to the area to help with the rescue mission.
A solitary man clutched onto a concrete power pole, unable to move as raging water surged by him. He was later rescued.
Nearby, an emergency official was suspended from a helicopter to rescue a person from a submerged home.
Desperate residents waved towels at rescuers as they stood on second-floor balconies waiting for help.
“Please continue to ask for help. Please do not give up hope,” an NHK broadcaster said in an apparent message to helpless residents.
The city is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) outside the capital Tokyo, which has also been hit by flooding.
Joso is in Ibaraki prefecture, where the Japan Meteorological Agency had issued special warnings urging vigilance against mudslides and flooding. It had similar warnings for Tochigi prefecture.
“The prefecture has requested assistance from the Self-Defence Forces and police helicopters from the region. We are receiving their help,” a prefectural official told AFP.
“We do not have updated information about the damage, but we know it is extensive and affected wide areas,” he added.
Tochigi authorities ordered more than 90,000 residents to evacuate
while another 116,000 were advised to leave their homes, public broadcaster NHK said. In Ibaraki , at least 20,000 were ordered to evacuate for fears of floodings.
In Tochigi’s Kanuma city, a local official said rescuers were searching for a missing person believed to be buried in mudslides.
“We don’t know details of this person yet,” he said.
NHK reported it was a woman in her 60s buried after mudslides destroyed houses. Her husband was rescued soon after, it added.
Two men were missing in Nikko, a city known for its historical shrines, after possibly being buried by landslides, public broadcaster NHK said.
Two other men in Nikko were rescued after being swept into a drainage gutter, but one was unconscious, the broadcaster said.
Etau, which smashed into Japan on Wednesday, moved out into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) by the end of the day
but a wall of rain continued to lash the country.
Japanese farmer Teppei Takahashi inspects his damaged rice fields due to high winds and heavy rains of Typhoon Etau in Isumi city, Chiba prefecture, Japan, 09 September 2015. More than a dozen people were injured
including a 77-year-old woman who broke her leg after falling in strong winds, local reports said.
A protester (C) shouts slogans at a rally against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security bill and his administration in Tokyo, during heavy rain caused by typhoon Etau, September 9, 2015. A protester (C), with a placard and illumination lights hung around his neck, attends a rally against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security bill and his administration, during heavy rain caused by typhoon Etau in Tokyo September 9, 2015. Officials said more than 1,650 people were still at evacuation centres in Joso Sunday afternoon as over 4,000 houses were submerged and the water supply remained cut off.
The number of missing in Joso dropped from 22 to 15 Saturday after police found more victims alive, including a pair of eight-year-old children.
In Kanuma city north of Joso a 63-year-old woman was killed by a landslide, while a 48-year-old woman was found dead in the northern prefecture of Miyagi.
A 25-year-old man was killed while helping to clear blocked drains in the city of Nikko, known for its historic shrines.
Police also found the body of a man in a river in Miyagi.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2015 | ['(Straits Times)', '(Asia One)'] |
The University of Oxford has radiocarbon dated fragments, of what apparently is the world's oldest Quran, to between 568 A.D. and 645 A.D. The animal skin parchment was found hidden inside the pages of another book in England's University of Birmingham library. | Scientists in the UK say they have found fragments of one of the world's oldest surviving Koran parchments. Radiocarbon analysis dated the pages of the Muslim holy book close to the time of Muhammad.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham said Wednesday that new scientific testing had revealed the leaves of text were at least 1,370 years old, making it one of the earliest preserved versions of the Islamic holy book in existence.
"They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam," David Thomas, a professor of Christianity and Islam at the university, said.
Radiocarbon dating found the animal skin parchment came from between 568 and 645 A.D., meaning it could have been around at the time of Muhammad, who is generally believed to have lived between 570 and 632. The age of the ink used on the parchment was not tested.
According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad received the revelations of the Koran between 610 and 632, but it was not written down in book form immediately. Instead, divine messages were compiled on parchment, leaves and the shoulder blades of camels. It was the first leader of the community after Muhammad's death, Caliph Abu Bakr, who ordered the book to be written. The text was completed by the third leader, Caliph Uthman, in 650.
Thomas said the radiocarbon tests - carried out at a laboratory at the University of Oxford - showed that the animal from which the parchment was taken was alive during, or shortly after, Muhammad's lifetime.
"The person who actually wrote it may well have known the Prophet Muhammad. He would have seen him probably, he would maybe have heard him preach. He may have known him personally," Thomas told BBC TV.
The parchment had been in the university's library for decades
Thrilling discovery
The Koran manuscript consists of two parchment leaves, and contains parts of Suras (chapters) 18 to 20, written with ink in an early form of Arabic script known as Hijazi. The text had long been kept in the university's Cadbury Research Library, but hadn't been bound properly, and for many years had been attached to the pages of a similar Koran manuscript that was not as old.
Susan Worrall, director of the library's Special Collections unit, said she was "thrilled" by the discovery.
"By separating the two leaves and analyzing the parchment, we have brought to light an amazing find," she said.
The manuscript was part of the university's collection of 3,000 Middle Eastern documents. It was acquired in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest who was born near Mosul in Iraq.
Muhammad Isa Waley, the lead curator of Persian manuscripts at the British Library, said the "sheer beauty" and "surprisingly legible Hijazi hand" was reason to "rejoice Muslim hearts."
The parchment will be on display at the university's Barber Institute of Fine Arts in October. | New archeological discoveries | July 2015 | ['(Daily Mail)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Three cars are hijacked and burned in Newtownabbey and rioters attack a police vehicle as disturbances enter their sixth day. Police announce seven people aged from 25 to 13 have been charged with riot. | A burning car that was hijacked by Loyalists at the Cloughfern roundabout in Newtownabbey. Picture: PA Wire
Disturbances broke out on the streets of Newtownabbey in a weekend of trouble in Northern Ireland.
Three cars were hijacked and set on fire in the loyalist O’Neill/Doagh Road area on Saturday evening.
A large crowd of onlookers gathered to watch the unrest.
Police said on Saturday evening that they were responding following reports of disorder at the Cloughfern roundabout in the O’Neill’s Road area of Newtownabbey.
Video footage has emerged of cars being burned out and a police van being targeted.
The PSNI has appealed for calm in the area and asked anyone with any influence in the community to try to ensure young people do not get caught up in criminality.
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland has called for an end of the violence, saying people destroying their own communities is “not the way to protest or vent”.
It comes after eight people were arrested and 27 police officers injured during riots in Belfast and Derry on Friday night.
Fifteen officers were injured in Belfast, while 12 officers were hurt in Derry after being targeted by mainly young people.
Derry City and Strabane Area Commander Chief Superintendent Darrin Jones said police received reports on Friday night of youths gathering in the areas of Nelson Drive and Tullyally in the city.
“On their arrival, they came under sustained attack from a large group of youths and young adults throwing masonry, bottles, petrol bombs and fireworks,” he said.
“As a result 12 officers sustained injuries including head, leg and foot wounds.” Mr Jones also said a care home was damaged in the Nelson Drive area during the trouble causing “untold fear and distress” to residents.
He said it was “totally unacceptable” that Friday was the fifth successive night of disturbances in the unionist Waterside area of the city.
“It is vital that we all send out a message to those responsible that such behaviour will not be tolerated,” he said.
The people of Derry/Londonderry deserve to feel safe within their own homes and be able to walk the streets without fear.
“I would ask that anyone who has any influence in communities – whether parents, guardians, community or elected representatives – please, use that influence to ensure young people do not get caught up in criminality and that they are kept safe and away from harm.” In Belfast, two boys, aged 13 and 14, were among eight people arrested in connection with riots in a loyalist area of Belfast on Friday night.
Police said on Saturday night that seven people including three teenage boys have been charged with riot over the Sandy Row disturbances.
Four adults – three men, aged 25, 21 and 18 years old, and a woman, aged 19 – are due to appear at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on April 30.
Three teenagers, aged 17, 14 and 13, are due to appear at Belfast Youth Court on the same date.
Police said 15 officers were injured on Friday night after being targeted by a crowd of mainly young people in Sandy Row, throwing stones, fireworks, flares, manhole covers and petrol bombs.
Belfast District Commander, Chief Superintendent Simon Walls, said “a small local protest quickly developed into an attack on police officers” and that at points there were up to 300 people of all ages on the streets.
He called for calm, urging anyone with influence in the loyalist community to dissuade young people from causing violence and harm.
He said: “I’m not going to enter into dialogue about political commentary.
“What I would ask is that people with influence, people in local communities, would dissuade young people, or anyone else, intent on causing violence or intent on harming police officers.”
He described it as a “real tragedy” that children as young as 13 and 14 were among those arrested.
“I think it’s a tragedy that any child in Northern Ireland is sitting in a custody suite this morning and facing criminal investigation, possibility of being charged and possibility of facing a criminal conviction,” he said.
“It shouldn’t happen. And that’s why I’m very keen that people with influence try to ask anyone intent on violence to please step back. It’s not the way to resolve tensions or arguments.”
Political leaders have also called for calm over the Easter weekend following the riots.
Stormont’s First Minister Arlene Foster urged young people “not to get drawn into disorder”, saying violence “will not make things better”.
The DUP leader said: “I know that many of our young people are hugely frustrated by the events of this last week but causing injury to police officers will not make things better.
“And I send my strong support to all of the rank-and-file police officers that are on duty over this Easter weekend.
I appeal to our young people not to get drawn into disorder which will lead to them having criminal convictions and blighting their own lives.
“I also ask parents to play their part and be proactive in protecting their young adults.” Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis described the unrest as “completely unacceptable”.
Mr Lewis said: “Violence is never the answer. There is no place for it in society.
“It is unwanted, unwarranted and I fully support the PSNI appeal for calm.” He added that his thoughts were with the officers injured.
The disorder has flared amid ongoing tensions within loyalism across Northern Ireland.
Loyalists and unionists are angry about post-Brexit trading arrangements which they claim have created barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Tensions ramped up further this week following a controversial decision not to prosecute 24 Sinn Fein politicians for attending a large-scale republican funeral during Covid-19 restrictions.
All the main unionist parties have demanded the resignation of PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne, claiming he has lost the confidence of their community. | Riot | April 2021 | ['(The Irish Examiner)'] |
Giorgio Napolitano is sworn in as President of the Italian Republic, following his election held on May 10. | Mr Napolitano won an absolute majority of 543 votes out of a possible 1,009 after four rounds of voting last week.
The 80-year-old former communist was the chosen candidate of Mr Prodi, who narrowly defeated Silvio Berlusconi in the April general elections.
His first task will be to give Mr Prodi the mandate to form a government.
Both houses of parliament would then be expected to hold a vote of confidence the following week, correspondents say.
Mr Napolitano, a life senator, was interior minister in Mr Prodi's 1996 government. He is Italy's 11th post-war president. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
In Peshawar, an unknown assailant shoots and kills Pakistani lawyer Samiullah Afridi, who had defended Dr. Shakil Afridi , with two Pakistan militant groups, Jundullah and Jamaatul Ahrar, both claiming responsibility. | PESHAWAR, March 17 (Reuters) - A Pakistani lawyer under death threats for defending a doctor who helped CIA agents hunt al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead on Tuesday, police said, and a Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility.
Samiullah Afridi represented Dr Shakil Afridi, who was jailed in 2012 for 33 years for running a fake vaccination campaign believed to have helped the U.S. intelligence agency track down bin Laden. That sentence was overturned in 2013 and the doctor is now in jail awaiting a new trial.
Samiullah Afridi was shot dead on Tuesday as he was returning to his home in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. According to local media, he had recently returned there from abroad after leaving Pakistan for his safety.
The Pakistan militant group Jundullah, a splinter group of the Taliban, claimed responsibility. “We killed him because he was defending Shakil, who is our enemy,” spokesman Fahad Marwat told reporters.
U.S. officials have hailed Shakil Afridi as a hero for helping pinpoint bin Laden’s location before a 2011 raid by U.S. special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed the al Qaeda leader after more than a decade of searching for him.
Samiullah Afridi stopped representing the doctor last year, saying he had become a target. “I have been receiving threats from various organizations, and because of those threats I even went to Dubai some time back,” he told Reuters TV.
“Some organizations do not want us to continue defending this case ... Not only is my life in danger, my family is also in danger. I have therefore decided to quit this case.”
Shakil Afridi’s original sentence damaged ties between Pakistan and the United States that were already strained over the bin Laden raid. Angry U.S. senators withheld $33 million in aid from Pakistan in retaliation. | Armed Conflict | March 2015 | ['(in regards to assisting CIA agents hunt al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden)', '(Huffington Post)'] |
Galatasaray nearly overthrow Real Madrid 3–2 during a surprising second half in Istanbul. Galatasaray's goals fly in from Emmanuel Eboué, Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba, but Cristiano Ronaldo score twice and Real Madrid win 5–3 on aggregate in the end, progressing to the semi-final stage for a record 24th time. | Last updated on 9 April 20139 April 2013.From the section Footballcomments150
Real Madrid survived a second-half onslaught from Galatasaray in their Champions League quarter-final to reach the last four for a record 24th time.
Cristiano Ronaldo silenced the Turkish crowd with an early volley and Galatasaray rarely threatened until Emmanuel Eboue's thumping strike.
Wesley Sneijder steered in and Didier Drogba's backheel left Real rocking, before Ronaldo killed their hopes.
Real substitute Alvaro Arbeloa was sent off following two late bookings.
Jose Mourinho is bidding to become the first man to win three European Cup or Champions League titles with three different clubs.
Ottmar Hitzfeld (Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid) and Ernst Happel (Feyenoord and Hamburg) have also won the competition twice with different clubs.
The Spanish champions' comfortable 3-0 victory in the Bernabeu left Jose Mourinho's team within touching distance of the semi-finals and many expected the second leg to be a formality for the nine-time European champions.
For the opening hour it was exactly that, as Real played with a measure of confidence and assurance from the first whistle.
But Eboue's spectacular goal sparked a dramatic turnaround and set up a grandstand finish in Istanbul.
Mourinho, bidding to become the first man to win the Champions League with three different clubs, will be relieved that his team regained their composure in the final 10 minutes to put the tie to bed. Ronaldo finally put the tie beyond the Turkish champions as he drilled past Fernando Muslera in injury time - almost 90 minutes after seemingly ending their hopes with the opener.
A vociferous home crowd, often described as providing one of the most intimidating atmospheres in European football, were intent on unsettling the visitors in the opening stages.
But Real quickly found their rhythm and already had Galatasaray on the back foot before Ronaldo swept in Sami Khedira's low right-wing cross.
If Galatasaray's task was not difficult enough already, the away goal left the hosts needing to score five goals to advance.
However Real continued to control possession and were only denied a second goal in the first half by Uruguay international Muslera.
Ronaldo was the architect of a flowing move, flicking into the path of Angel Di Maria whose fierce shot was instinctively pushed over the crossbar by Muslera.
Galatasaray barely threatened in the opening 45 minutes, with Sneijder forcing Real goalkeeper Diego Lopez into his first save with a low 20-yard shot shortly before the half-time break.
Real continued to stroke the ball around in the early stages of the second half as they looked to further subdue their already-deflated opponents.
But the momentum swiftly, and surprisingly, swung in the home team's favour after Eboue's equaliser.
Cristiano Ronaldo's brace took his seasonal tally for Real Madrid to 46 goals in 45 games.
The Portuguese forward is the leading scorer in this season's Champions League with 11 goals.
Sneijder's pullback from the left channel picked out the on-rushing Ivorian defender who emphatically smashed an unstoppable 20-yard strike past Diego Lopez.
Galatasaray started to play with the vigour and optimism which they lacked in the previous hour and Sneijder, with the goal at his mercy, somehow pushed a left-foot shot wide after Fabio Coentrao's misplaced pass.
But the Dutch international made amends as he coolly converted the second after he was picked out inside the Real area by substitute Nordin Amrabat.
Amrabat provided the third as Drogba instinctively turned in the Moroccan international's right wing cross.
The home crowd erupted as they sensed a remarkable upset, but in truth Galatasaray failed to capitalise as Mourinho brought on Raul Albiol for midfielder Mesut Ozil to stifle the hosts.
Arbeloa was booked for fouling Sneijder in the 89th minute before receiving another yellow card within seconds for dissent.
The ex-Liverpool defender will be suspended for Real's semi-final first leg and the Spaniards will find out their last-four opponents when the draw is made on Friday. | Sports Competition | April 2013 | ['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)', '(UEFA)'] |
AOL purchases online publisher The Huffington Post in a $315 million deal. , | Acquisition Will Solidify AOL’s Strategy of Creating a Premier Content Network With Local, National and International Reach
Arianna Huffington To Lead Newly Formed The Huffington Post Media Group Which Will Integrate All Huffington Post and AOL Content, Including News, Tech, Women, Local, Multicultural, Entertainment, Video, Community, and More
The New Combined Media Group Will Reach 117 Million Americans and 270 Million Globally
Group Uniquely Positioned To Redefine the Future of Brand Advertising and Marketing For an Engaged and Influential Audience
New York, NY - February 7, 2011 - AOL Inc. [NYSE:AOL] announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Huffington Post, the influential and rapidly growing news, analysis, and lifestyle website founded in 2005, which now counts nearly 25 million unique monthly visitors*.
The transaction will create a premier global, national, local, and hyper-local content group for the digital age - leveraged across online, mobile, tablet, and video platforms. The combination of AOL’s infrastructure and scale with The Huffington Post’s pioneering approach to news and innovative community building among a broad and sophisticated audience will mark a seminal moment in the evolution of digital journalism and online engagement.
The new group will have a combined base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States and 270 million around the world**. Following the close of this transaction, AOL will accelerate its strategy to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, and entertainment produced by thousands of writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe.
As part of the transaction, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more.
“The acquisition of The Huffington Post will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community, and social experiences for consumers,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL. “Together, our companies will embrace the digital future and become a digital destination that delivers unmatched experiences for both consumers and advertisers.”
Armstrong continued, “Arianna is a singularly passionate and dedicated champion of innovative journalistic engagement, and a master of the art of using new media to illuminate, entertain and enhance the national conversation. Arianna is a remarkable person and she will continue to create remarkable outcomes for the combined company.”
“This is truly a merger of visions and a perfect fit for us,” said Huffington. “The Huffington Post will continue on the same path we have been on for the last six years - though now at light speed - by combining with AOL. Our readers will still be able to come to the Huffington Post at the same URL, and find all the same content they’ve grown to love, plus a lot more - more local, more tech, more entertainment, more finance, and lots more video. We are fusing a legendary and powerful new media brand with a vibrant, innovative news organization, known for its distinctive voice, a highly engaged audience, an expertise in community-building, and a track record for demystifying the news and putting flesh and blood on the data while drawing our audience into the conversation.”
Huffington continued, “By uniting AOL and The Huffington Post, we are creating one of the largest destinations for smart content and community on the Internet. And we intend to keep making it better and better.”
Kenneth Lerer, The Huffington Post’s Co-Founder and Chairman, said, “The Huffington Post team has created a potent brand with the proven track record of knowing how to grow traffic, inform and entertain its readers and build a one-of-a-kind online community. Add that to the powerful scale and resources of AOL and you have the perfect combination for today and the future. Together these two companies will be a premier online content provider. From local citizen reporting through AOL’s Patch, to The Huffington Post’s national reporting on politics, business and culture, consumers will have access to everything they want whenever they want it.”
AOL has agreed to purchase The Huffington Post for $315 million, approximately $300 million of which will be paid in cash funded from cash on hand. The Huffington Post is privately owned by its two cofounders, as well as a group of investors. The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of government approvals. The boards of directors of each company and shareholders of The Huffington Post have approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the late first- or early second-quarter 2011. The Huffington Post over-indexes on educated, affluent users, reaching the key decision makers in C-suites around the globe. The Huffington Post speaks to this influential audience via a host of prominent voices on its group blog. Among those who have blogged on The Huffington Post are: President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Larry Page, Diane Sawyer, Buzz Aldrin, Nora Ephron, Bill Maher, Madeleine Albright, Robert Redford, Katie Couric, Neil Young, Rahm Emanuel, Mia Farrow, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Al Franken, Ari Emanuel, Harry Shearer, Senator John Kerry, Representative Nancy Pelosi, Madonna, Lawrence Summers, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ryan Reynolds, Craig Newmark, Alec Baldwin, Aaron Sorkin, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Russell Simmons, Sean Penn, Bill Gates, Norman Lear, Charlie Rose, Elizabeth Warren, Tavis Smiley, Sheryl Sandberg, George Clooney, and former President Bill Clinton. And the audience speaks back, generating four million comments a month***. The Huffington Post’s affluent, influential audience, that is growing at a rate of 22 percent (December 2009 vs. December 2010)****, when combined with AOL’s massive scale, video offerings and local expertise, will represent an incredibly desirable demographic for a broad range of advertising partners across the board.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated benefits of the transaction, the expected closing date and other statements identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “estimate,” “should,” “expect” or similar expressions. These statements are based on the current expectations and beliefs of AOL’s management, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances, including, but not limited to, the approval of the transaction by antitrust authorities, the satisfaction of the closing conditions to the transaction, the competitiveness and quality of our combined content offerings and significant competition in the media and journalism industries generally, our ability to timely and successfully integrate The Huffington Post’s operations into our operations, our ability to retain, hire and develop skilled employees and the parties’ performance of their obligations under the agreements. Any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein, due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological, strategic and/or regulatory factors, as well as factors affecting The Huffington Post’s and AOL’s operations and businesses. More detailed information about these factors as they relate to AOL may be found in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in AOL’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, filed with the SEC. AOL is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About AOL AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a leading global Web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. AOL’s business spans online content, products and services that the company offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. AOL is focused on attracting and engaging consumers and providing valuable online advertising services on both AOL’s owned and operated properties and third-party websites. In addition, AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States, which serves as a valuable distribution channel for AOL’s consumer offerings. | Organization Merge | February 2011 | ['(Huffington Post)', '(New York Times)'] |
Popocatépetl, a stratovolcano that is part of the trans–Mexican volcanic belt, releases a large quantity of ash. | One of Mexico's most active volcanoes has sent a huge ash plume into the sky, the country's centre of disaster monitoring has reported.
Overnight video taken by the centre shows ash and incandescent material shooting from the Popocatépetl volcano 2,000m (6,500ft) into the air.
People have been warned to avoid the area inside the 12km security radius surrounding its crater. Ash has been falling on communities near the volcano.
| Volcano Eruption | July 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Tens of thousands of junior doctors rally in London near Pall Mall to protest contract changes that will reclassify their normal working week to include Saturdays and late evenings, and the government's threat to impose a new contract. , , | At London protest Dr Johann Malawana tells health secretary to stop lambasting junior medics, in bid to stop BMA strike
The leader of NHS junior doctors in England has urged Jeremy Hunt to stop treating them like “the enemy” and instead reopen negotiations in a bid to stop their threatened strike.
The chair of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, Dr Johann Malawana, told the health secretary he must stop lambasting junior doctors if he wants to settle a long-running dispute over his threat to introduce new NHS contracts.
“Stop attacking us. We are not the enemy. We are just health professionals who want to have a meaningful discussion. Talk to us, talk to us reasonably. Stop going to the press claiming that we are scaremongering”, said Malawana as he addressed a protest rally in central London attended by many thousands of junior doctors, their families and other health service personnel.
Talking to the Observer, Dr Malawana said junior doctors were still preparing to ballot for industrial action because they were so frustrated with Hunt’s handling of the dispute.
He said: “We feel that we are backed into a corner by the course of action that Jeremy Hunt has engaged in, which is effectively to say that he’s going to impose this contract and we have to agree with it. So we have no other way of stopping it, or expressing what our members feel, apart from balloting for industrial action.”
The BMA will reveal details of the ballot this week in an attempt to put further pressure on Hunt to compromise. The union is refusing to re-enter negotiations unless Hunt drops his threat to impose a new contract, which he has refused to do.
Any junior doctor – any doctor below the level of consultant – who is a member of the BMA by 23 October will be eligible to take part in the ballot, which is likely to produce an overwhelming mandate for action.
Malawana and a succession of other doctors issued pointed rebukes to Hunt’s assertion in interviews on Saturday that the doctors’ union had provoked the dispute by misrepresenting the government’s offer to England’s 45,000 trainee doctors.
The health secretary said hours before the protest was due to start that the British Medical Association (BMA) had misled doctors over the proposed reforms. Malawana argued in turn that doctors had made up their own minds and decided the new contract would cut their pay by up to 30% and force them to work even more antisocial shifts.
Malawana claimed that Hunt had angered junior doctors across England with his threat and baseless rhetoric. He spoke to a crowd containing thousands of doctors in their green or blue scrubs, or wearing their trademark white coats, while many hung stethoscopes around their necks.
At the rally a male doctor, still wearing his NHS-issue light blue hairnet for surgical staff, had turned a cardboard delivery box into a placard. On one side it said “Tired doctors make mistakes” and on the other “New contract – DNR.”
The mood at the rally, just off Pall Mall, was defiant, boisterous and determined, though interspersed with noisy chants of “Hunt must go, Hunt must go” and “BMA, BMA, BMA”, in support of the organisation Hunt is trying to separate them from. A police helicopter hovered noisily in the air above, but the event was very good-natured, though tinged with obvious and recurring anger.
Placards showed some had come from many parts of England – including Portsmouth, Birmingham and Sheffield – as well as Scotland, where the Holyrood government has decided to take a different tack to Hunt and not impose a new contract.
Harry Leslie Smith, 92-year-old author, activist and NHS campaigner, had doctors in tears at the end of his speech. He told the crowd that the NHS is “Britain’s greatest achievement” because it has freed millions from sickness. It must not be handed over to corporations, he said.
Applause greeted the display on a screen behind the speakers of a tweet in support of junior doctors by JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, as did an interview with the actor Martin Freeman, who also voiced his support.
Among a sea of placards, one – beside an Australian flag – said “Don’t make us go to a land down under”, a reference to the widespread fear voiced by both junior doctors and the profession’s medical royal colleges that if Hunt pushes ahead with his threat, many young doctors will quit the NHS to work abroad.
Another placard said: “Six years at medical school. £30,000 in student loans. Worked two in three weekends in A&E. (I already work seven days a week). Three Christmases without my family (but I had some orange juice on the surgical unit). I don’t leave on time – patient care comes first.” | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2015 | ['(UK)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Daily Mail)', '(The iFreePress)'] |
Fresh violence breaks out in Hackney, Lewisham, Peckham, Croydon and several other areas of London as Home Secretary Theresa May meets with police chiefs to discuss the crisis. | Rioting has spread across London on a third night of violence, with unrest flaring in other English cities.
An extra 1,700 police officers were deployed in London, where shops were looted and buildings were set alight.
Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol also saw violence.
The prime minister has returned early from his holiday to discuss the unrest, which first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of a man by police.
At least 400 people have been arrested following a wave of "copycat criminal activity" across London over the past three days, the Met Police said. More than 69 people have been charged with various offences. Three people are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder after a police officer was injured by a car in Wembley, north-west London, while trying to stop suspected looters. Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steven Kavanagh said it was a "shocking and appalling morning for London to wake up to".
"The Met was stretched beyond belief in a way that it has never experienced before," he told BBC Breakfast.
Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin ruled out bringing in the Army to help police tackle the violence, but said: "We will be out there in ever greater numbers tonight."
On Twitter, Scotland Yard said: "In the next 24 hours there will be 13,000 police officers on duty in London."
In other developments: Monday's violence started in Hackney after a man was stopped and searched by police but nothing was found.
Groups of people began attacking the police in Hackney at about 16:20 BST, throwing stones and a bin at officers.
Police cars were smashed by youths armed with wooden poles and metal bars. Looters also smashed their way into shops before being dispersed by police.
Nine police forces from other parts of the country have assisted in providing support to the capital city, as well as the City of London Police and British Transport Police.
However, eyewitnesses have reported that as trouble spread across the city, there were often few police officers around when violence flared.
Catherine Holmes, a resident in Hackney, said: "The common feeling in Hackney Central is that our community has been hurt and damaged by causeless violence. "We spoke to looters trying to get home - the only explanation they gave for their behaviour was that they had no money today. "It is sad to think that these people are thinking of only the next moment, and the moment they have created is a nightmare." Ealing resident Christian Potts, 29, was driving through the area when he witnessed the disturbances.
"It looks like a war zone - I have never seen anything like it in all my life," he said.
"There were about 25 to 30 masked youths on Haven Green and they just started tearing into a florist with bricks.
"It's a local family-run business so I can't see why they are doing this."
London's mayor Boris Johnson is cutting short his holiday to return to the city.
Home Secretary Theresa May also returned early from holiday, to meet Met chiefs to discuss their response to the violence.
"These have been the worst scenes of violence and disturbance on our streets for many, many years, and this sort of violence, this level of criminality, this thuggery, this looting, this theft, is completely unacceptable," Ms May told BBC Breakfast.
"We can deal with it. We can deal with it with robust policing, with good use of intelligence, but also with the help and support of local communities."
She added: "If there's anybody who knows somebody who was out on those streets last night and involved in this action then they should tell the police."
The trouble follows two nights of violence over the weekend which started after police shot a man dead in Tottenham.
A peaceful protest in Tottenham on Saturday over the death of Mark Duggan, 29, was followed by violence which spread into this week.
| Riot | August 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Dellen Millard is convicted of murdering his father Wayne Millard, who owned an aviation company. The death had initially been ruled a suicide. Dellen Millard has already been convicted of two other murders in Canadian court. | A former Canadian millionaire and twice-convicted murderer has been convicted of killing his father, whose death was initially ruled a suicide.
Dellen Millard wept when he heard the judge pronounce him guilty of murdering his father Wayne Millard.
Millard is already serving two life sentences for the murders of Laura Babcock and Tim Bosma.
He inherited the family fortune after his father was found shot in the head.
The 2012 death was originally ruled a suicide, but on Monday an Ontario Superior Court judge found him guilty of shooting his father while he slept. Millard had told police his father had been depressed and an alcoholic.
"He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew - he never wanted to share that with me," he said the day after his father died.
But employees at MillardAir, the family's aviation company, said there had been tensions between Millard and his father, according to a CBC investigation.
Six months later, the disappearance of Tim Bosma set off a chain of investigations that would eventually lead to Millard being charged with three murders.
The 32-year-old was trying to sell his vehicle when Millard responded to an ad online. Millard and his friend Mark Smich met Bosma at his family home outside Hamilton, Ontario.
Bosma agreed to go with the pair while they took it for a test drive in May 2013. He was never seen again.
"It was just a truck, a stupid truck," Bosma's wife said, before Smich and Millard's arrest. Bosma's truck was eventually found by police on a property owned by Millard's mother, and soon he and Smich became prime suspects in his murder. The truck had been stripped, but gunshot residue and traces of his blood were found inside.
Police also began digging around into Millard's past, his father's death, and the disappearance of his former partner Laura Babcock the year before. Three months before his father's death, Babcock had gone missing. Eventually, police would learn that she had been involved in a love triangle between Millard and his current girlfriend, and that Millard had promised to "remove her from our lives".
Her body was never found, but soon after her disappearance Millard purchased an incinerator. Police have never been able to identify Babcock's and Bosma's remains, but believe both were shot and their bodies burned.
Millard and Smich were found guilty of Bosma's murder in 2016; they were also found guilty of murdering Babcock in 2017.
Police then began to re-examine Wayne Millard's apparent suicide following the convictions,
Prosecutors alleged Millard wanted to kill his father to protect his inheritance, which was being used to fund a new aviation business. Millard said he was at Smich's house the night of his father's death, but phone records reveal he travelled back to his father's house in the early hours of the morning.
A gun purchased by Millard illegally was also found next to his father with Millard's DNA on it. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(The Globe and Mail)'] |
The Philadelphia Daily News reports that Cardinal Justin Rigali will resign five months after a U.S. grand jury accuses the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that he heads of failing to investigate claims of sexual abuse of children by clergy in the diocese. | The Archdiocese did not return calls yesterday seeking comment on Rigali's expected resignation. But sources close to the Archdiocese confirmed a report Thursday on the National Catholic Reporter's website that Rigali would resign. Blogger Michael Sean Winters, who authored that report, said last night that the announcement likely would be made tomorrow.
Sources told the Daily News yesterday that the front-runner to replace the embattled cardinal is Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, a Native American.
On his blog, Winters also named as a possible successor Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, who would be the first African-American archbishop to become a cardinal. Other candidates suggested by Winters are Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, of Louisville, Ky., and Bishop William Lori, of Bridgeport, Conn.
Rigali, 76, took over for Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua in 2003. He has been under fire following a grand-jury report, released in February, accusing the Archdiocese of a widespread cover-up of predatory priests over decades, and alleging that as many as 37 priests remained active in the ministry despite credible accusations against them. The report recommended that the Archdiocese revamp procedures for assisting victims and for removing priests accused of molesting children.
A high-ranking Archdiocesan official was charged with child-endangerment for allegedly transferring "predator priests" to other positions. Two priests, a former priest and a former Catholic schoolteacher were charged with sexually assaulting minors.
In response to the grand-jury report, Rigali initially said that no priests in active ministry "have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them."
But in March, Rigali announced the suspensions of 21 priests accused of sexual abuse. The suspensions were the most sweeping in the history of the sexual-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S.
Three other priests already had been placed on administrative leave after the grand-jury report. Five others would have been suspended, the church said in a statement, but three were no longer active and two were no longer in the Archdiocese. The church said that in eight cases, no further investigation was warranted.
With public pressure mounting, Catholic commentators say that a spotlight is shining on Philadelphia.
"This is the most high-stakes personnel move Pope Benedict is making as pope," said Rocco Palmo, of Philadelphia, author of the Catholic-oriented blog Whispers in the Loggia. "Every bishop in the country is watching. They know it will reflect on them and their archdiocese. The eyes of the Catholic world are on Philly right now."
Palmo said the pope decided two weeks ago who would become the city's next cardinal.
As a matter of Cardinal Law, Rigali turned in his letter of resignation when he turned 75 in April 2010. The pope can accept the resignation at any time, but Winters said Rigali hadn't planned to leave so soon.
"I don't think he was planning on leaving this year," Winters said. "He understood after the grand-jury report he could not dig them out of this mess."
The grand-jury investigation was released following the investigation into allegations that two priests and a teacher sexually abused a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish in Northeast Philadelphia, and that another priest assigned to St. Jerome raped a 14-year-old boy.
The Rev. Charles Engelhardt, former priest Edward Avery and former teacher Bernard Shero were charged with sodomizing the 10-year-old, and the Rev. James Brennan was accused of raping the 14-year-old in his apartment.
Monsignor William Lynn was charged with child endangerment for allegedly shielding and transferring known predatory priests. Lynn, who was responsible for investigating reports of rape and for recommending corrective action to prevent reoffending, also had been Bevilacqua's secretary for clergy.
The grand jury was the second empaneled in the past decade to examine sexual abuse among Philadelphia priests. In 2005, a grand jury accused the Archdiocesan leadership of mishandling abuse complaints and protecting pedophile priests. Those grand jurors complained that the statute of limitations prevented them from criminally charging higher-ups.
Two months ago, the Associated Press reported that the head of the church's own review board accused Rigali and his bishops of having "failed miserably at being open and transparent," and said that most cases of abuse had been kept from the board.
Yesterday, a leading advocate for victims of alleged priest sexual abuse said the church must address its existing culture.
"It's a culture in an establishment that puts the reputation of predators and enablers over the protection of children," Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said in a telephone interview from Chicago. "Rigali has fallen short of leadership. It is really important, whoever follows Rigali, that there's a new structure in place to prohibit the cardinal from covering up sex crimes."
Rigali's anticipated resignation and replacement come at a time of significant downsizing in the Archdiocese.
The Archdiocese announced in March that seven small parish elementary schools - four in Philadelphia and three in Bucks County - were to close at the end of the recent school year.
Parish elementary-school enrollment in the Archdiocese has fallen 18 percent during the past five years; high-school enrollment has dropped 20 percent.
Last year, 11 schools were closed, including two city high schools: Cardinal Dougherty and North Catholic. Parish schools closed in the city were Ascension of Our Lord and St. Anne, both in Kensington; St. Cyprian, in Cobbs Creek; and St. Hugh of Cluny, in Fairhill. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2011 | ['(Philly.com)'] |
Around 85 fires break out in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan, with at least 20 homes destroyed. Winds of 40 to 50 mph cause 113,000 customers to lose electricity. | Sept. 7, 2010— -- A rash of fires were blazing this evening in four separate Detroit neighborhoods, destroying at least 20 homes, according to witnesses and local reports.
The Detroit Fire Department's resources were stretched thin, and water pressure in hydrants at several of the fires was low or nonexistent, hampering efforts to get control the fires.
At the same time, strong winds gusting from 25 to 45 miles per hour fed the flames and spread the fires quickly from house to house and street to street.
ABC News Detroit affiliate WXYZ-TV reported that at least 20 homes, many of them unoccupied, already had been destroyed.
Detroit Fire Department spokeswoman Katrina Butler told ABC Radio that authorities don't believe the fires were deliberately set. Instead, she said, they believe the fires started because of dry conditions, and the high winds have quickly spread them.
It's really because of the winds that are 40 to 45 miles per hour just creating this increase in fires for us," Butler said.
"We're hoping that the wind conditions will calm down, because what's going on, the winds are blowing all the hot embers around," she said.
In one neighborhood, a resident said that her parents saw a small fire starting in a vacant home near where they live and called 911.
"When they were waiting on the fire truck, it spreaded from the garage to the vacant house next door and by the wind blowing so much it caught on my mother and father's garage across the street," Stacy Parks said. "It just spreaded."
Ben Hardaway, who owns a business near one of the areas that was engulfed in flames this evening, said the fire leapt from house to house.
"The fire started, looked like a garage about the second or third house off the corner," he said. "It spread quickly because of the wind, the wind whipping it going toward the east and it went from one, two, three, four houses, jumped across the street. There are seven houses on fire on the end of the block on the other end."
Detroit resident Cecil Newlin said when his daughter called about a fire she saw, the operator told her that firefighters were already tied up battling other blazes.
"Just absolutely not enough units," he said. "The response my daughter got was that there was too many other fires and they would be here as soon as they could." | Fire | September 2010 | ['(ABC News America)', '(WISN)'] |
A suicide bomb attack in southern Afghanistan kills 6 civilians. | Five civilians and one soldier from the US-led coalition in Afghanistan have been killed in a suicide attack in Helmand province, officials say.
The dead include three children, Helmand's police chief, Mohammad Hussain Andiwal, told the BBC. The attacker detonated his explosives as a convoy of foreign troops was passing through Gereshk district. The attack comes a day after Nato said the Taleban had been driven out of areas close to the city of Kandahar. Helmand has seen some of the worst violence of the Taleban-led insurgency. "The attacker walked up to a Nato convoy patrolling in a market... and detonated explosives strapped to his body," the Helmand police chief told the AFP news agency. The Taleban are reported to have claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier reports said 10 civilians were killed, but the Helmand police chief later said that figure was wrong. A spokesman for the US-led force in Afghanistan, Lt Col Paul Fanning, confirmed that one soldier had been killed, but did not reveal his nationality. On Thursday two soldiers from the US-led force were killed in a shooting incident in Helmand. Helmand, Afghanistan's main opium producing region, has been a hotbed for Taleban activity in recent years. In the eastern province of Khost, police say there was a suicide attack on a Nato convoy in the district of Yaquby. There are no reports of casualties. | Armed Conflict | June 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake off Japan's Fukushima Prefecture injures 15 people, and triggers a 1 meter tsunami that causes a temporary power disruption at Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant. |
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern coast of Japan on Tuesday, injuring several while also generating 4.6 foot tsunami waves that hit the coast.
The temblor struck at 5:59 a.m. local time Tuesday morning (3:59 p.m. EST) 23 miles east-southeast of Namie, Japan, at a depth of 7 miles, the USGS also reported. Several strong aftershocks, including at least three with a magnitude greater than 5 were reported in the wake of the 6.9 quake.
At least 14 people were injured by the quake, some with broken bones, the Associated Press reported, but otherwise widespread damage was averted. The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which leaked radiation after the 2011 Japanese quake, reported no issues or damage.
The powerful earthquake stoked fears in an area still reeling from the catastrophic 2011 earthquake and tsunami. By comparison, the 2011 disaster produced a 30 to 60 foot tsunami that, in addition to the 9.1 magnitude earthquake, killed more than 15,000 people and inundated the entire coastline. Tuesday's 6.9 magnitude earthquake only generated a 4.6 foot tsunami, with only minor damage reported.
According to NBC News, the quake produced a smaller tsunami because it moved along a lateral slip, which doesn't usually create the violent vertical movement needed to trigger a big tsunami.
| Earthquakes | November 2016 | ['(weather.com)', '(BBC)', '(News Corp via the West Australian)'] |
Yosemite National Park officials say the Ferguson Fire in California is now fully contained. | A huge, deadly wildfire that burned for weeks and threatened the Yosemite National Park in California has finally been contained.
The Ferguson Fire has burned through nearly 97,000 acres (39,250 hectares) of land to the south-west of the park since 13 July.
More than 3,000 firefighters have battled the blaze. Two have been killed and 19 injured.
Most of Yosemite's tourist areas have now reopened. Their closure, mainly due to smoke blowing into the park, damaged the local economy during peak tourist season.
The Ferguson Fire is one of several wildfires that have raged across California in recent weeks.
But cooler weather and calmer winds have helped give fire crews the upper hand, officials said.
"The weather is helping the fires to lay down and they [firefighters] are able to get better containment lines around them," said Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynnette Round.
Park authorities tweeted that the Ferguson Fire was at "100% containment".
"Thank you to all of the firefighters for their hard work and dedication," it added.
The centre of the national park has reopened after being shut for three weeks although lingering smoke meant a few main roads remained closed over the weekend.
Air quality in Yosemite Valley has been good the past couple of days; there is no danger from smoke at this time. The Ferguson Fire is at 100% containment and Yosemite Valley is open, including all Yosemite Valley campgrounds.
Park officials urged visitors to exercise caution, warning that sporadic fires still burned within containment lines.
Elsewhere in the state, the Mendocino Complex fire west of Sacramento is now 76% contained, authorities said. They expect to have full containment of it by 1 September.
The fire - the largest in the state's history - has burned about 335,000 acres.
Further north, the Carr Fire, which has killed at least seven people, is now 83% contained according to officials. The fire has destroyed more than 227,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 homes.
| Fire | August 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from anti-government protests in the Indian state rises to 36 with over a thousand more being treated for injuries. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has called for calm. | Officials in Indian-administered Kashmir say 36 people have now died during protests following the shooting of a well-known militant leader.
About 1,500 people are being treated for injuries after the clashes between pro-separatist protesters and police. Burhan Wani, 22, died in a gunfight with the Indian army on Friday.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti made a televised appeal for calm following days of clashes. The violence is the worst seen in the region for years. Disputed Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan and has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years, sparking two wars between the countries.
Within the disputed Muslim-majority territory, some militant groups have taken up arms to fight for independence from Indian rule or a merger with Pakistan. Some 800 extra troops were being sent to help restore order in the region, it was announced earlier in the week.
Most of those killed have been young men aged between 16 and 26.
Doctors fear that a severe lack of blood and life saving medicines could cause more deaths. They say more than 100 people who have been hit in the eyes by shotgun pellets may lose their sight. A curfew is still in force across much of the region and mobile internet and train services remain suspended. On Wednesday, Ms Mufti made a direct appeal to the parents of young people to keep their children at home, and prevent them from joining protests being "instigated" by those who "preferred bloodshed and violence".
The state government has said it will investigate reports of excessive police violence towards unarmed protesters. The last bout of serious violence in the region was in the summer of 2010, when more than 100 people died in anti-India protests, which broke out after police shot dead a teenager. Thirty killed in Kashmir street protests
| Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Joko Widodo is chosen as the nominee for the Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle for the upcoming presidential election. | A man sits by a poster urging Joko Widodo to run in the presidential race in Cipinang, North Jakarta, on Dec. 16, 2013. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)
Jakarta. Will Indonesia look back on Friday, March 14 as the day the 2014 presidential election was decided?
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) nominated the wildly popular Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as its presidential candidate on Friday, putting to an end months of speculation as to whether party chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri was readying her fourth bid for the highest office in the world’s fourth-largest country.
The governor took a break from an impromptu visit to subsidized housing in Marunda, North Jakarta to welcome the news on Friday. He told a crowd of reporters and local residents that he was prepared to mount a campaign for the July election.
“I have been given the blessing of PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri to be a presidential candidate,” Joko said before touching his head to the Indonesian flag in a show of respect. “Bismillahirrahmanirahim, I am ready.”
The PDI-P made the official announcement on Friday afternoon as Megawati read from a handwritten note at the party’s headquarters in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta. The one-time president made a direct appeal to Indonesian voters, asking them to support Joko in the coming presidential campaign.
“My command is, as the PDI-P chairwoman, to the people of Indonesia who have consciousness for justice and honesty wherever you are: support Bapak Joko Widodo as PDI-P presidential candidate,” Megawati read.
She also urged voters to keep a watchful eye for election fraud during this April’s hugely important legislative elections. Political observers expect the PDI-P, the country’s main opposition party, to receive a boost in the legislative race amid growing discontent with members of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s ruling coalition.
BREAKING NEWS : Megawati Soekarnoputri telah resmi memberi mandat Jokowi sbg Capres 2014 #JKW4P
— PDI Perjuangan (@PDI_Perjuangan) March 14, 2014
The PDI-P received 14 percent of the popular vote in the 2009 election, securing enough seats to control 19.69 percent of the House of Representatives. But the opposition party will have to convince a sizable percentage of new voters to mount a presidential campaign alone. Political parties need 25 percent of the vote or 20 percent of the House to nominate a presidential candidate without forming a coalition.
Yudhoyono tightened his grip on the House after the 2009 election, forming a six-party coalition that stands opposite the PDI-P. But a series of high-profile graft cases have all but destroyed the Democratic Party’s upper echelons and the president has struggled to keep the more unruly members, like the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), in check.
The outcome of April’s legislative race will set the tone for the coming election, narrowing the crowded playing field to a few candidates and kick off the official campaign season. With Joko’s presidential bid at least partially on the line, Megawati asked her supporters to do whatever they could to ensure a clean election.
“Protect and guard the 2014 legislative elections, especially at polling booths and during tallying of the votes, from any fraud and intimidation,” Megawati said. “Strengthen your heart in guarding the democracy in our beloved Republic of Indonesia.”
The timing of the announcement, which came after months of silence from both Joko and Megawati, will likely bode well for PDI-P candidates in the legislative elections. The official legislative campaign season begins on Sunday, March 16 — giving voters a weekend to digest the news of Joko’s run before the PDI-P takes to the streets.
“Making the announcement before the legislative elections will make the PDI-P’s electability the highest among all the parties,” said Wawan Ichwanudin, a political science lecturer at the University of Indonesia. “But there is still a possibility that Jokowi will lose the race.
“There are still undecided voters and other candidates. To date, Jokowi’s electability hasn’t surpassed 50 percent, so there is still a chance for any other candidate.”
If Joko fails to break the 50 percent threshold in the July election, the race will be decided with a run-off vote between the two most popular candidates. The governor was able to secure his position in Jakarta with a run-off, trouncing incumbent Fauzi Bowo, but a presidential race is an entirely different beast, Wawan warned.
“With less than 50 percent, there would have to be a second round of the election,” he explained. “This will give another chance for other candidates to team up against Jokowi and gather their votes. The possibility that this other team might win the race is still a reality.”
Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo speaks with reporters in Marunda, North Jakarta, after the official announcement of his candidacy in the presidential race. (SP Photo/Carlos Paath)
Poll position
Joko routinely tops electability polls, but contenders like the Great Indonesia Movement Party’s (Gerindra) Prabowo Subianto and the Golkar Party’s Aburizal Bakrie are still at his heels. Both men announced their candidacy early in the game and have been making the rounds to drum up support ahead of the campaign season.
Aburizal, a mining and property tycoon, is pushing for a protectionist stance on Indonesia’s natural resources and is banking on the emergence of New Order nostalgia to provide a push for the Golkar Party — the one-time election machine of Indonesian strongman Suharto.
He has repeatedly gone on the record to say that Joko’s candidacy is a non-issue as far as he is concerned. The only real threats, Aburizal said, were Megawati and Prabowo.
Prabowo, the former leader of the nation’s feared Kopassus Special Forces, has taken great pains to recast himself as populist leader with a firm grip. His Gerindra party has embarked on an aggressive social media campaign illustrating the party’s commitment to anti-corruption and nationalism ahead of the election.
But allegations of human rights offenses, including kidnapping and killings during the chaos that capped off Suharto’s reign, could prove to be a substantial hurdle for Prabowo’s popularity among the nation’s emerging middle class.
Gerindra supported Joko and his running mate Basuki Tjahaja Purnama in the Jakarta gubernatorial race. But while Basuki has remained loyal to the Gerindra party, Joko was always with the PDI-P. The pre-election rumor mill has swirled with suggestions of a Joko-Prabowo joint ticket, peaking after Basuki made a Chinese New Year visit to Prabowo’s mountain-side compound, but so far any mention of a coalition remain speculation.
One Gerindra official said the party was not concerned with Joko’s emergence as a contender in the race.
“We have no problem at all,” said Habiburohman, the head of advocacy at Gerindra. “We are ready to compete with anyone. Prabowo has his own qualities, so we’re welcome to any contenders.”
Deserting the Durian?
Joko will have to answer for attempting to leave behind his post as the head of Indonesia’s chaotic capital less than halfway through his term, Habiburohman said. The governor rode into office on a reform ticket and promised to clean up Jakarta’s glacial bureaucracy.
Plans to expand the capital’s public transportation system, including the much-delayed construction of a monorail and mass-rapid transit line, have begun in earnest but it will be years before Jakarta residents feel the impact on their daily lives. The governor has, in the past, promised that his attentions were on the capital, not Merdeka Palace, but Friday’s announcement has cemented Joko’s ambitions for higher office.
“How people see it, his unfinished responsibility in Jakarta and his commitment will be a question that Jokowi has to eventually answer,” Habiburohman said. “It’s his business, not ours.”
Jakarta’s deputy governor suggested Joko take a leave of absence during the campaign season instead of vacating his office. There was still a mountain of work to be done in the capital that needed Joko’s attention, Basuki said.
“All this time, the Governor has trusted me to lead meetings,” Basuki said. “I can make decisions. Or if there is anything Pak Jokowi wants to say, he can always call me during meetings.”
I guess that means that he is now eligible to fumble at a national level!
Wisdom comes with the years, hurrah for Mega!
Took a long time, however!
ha ha ha to the konvensi Partai Demokrat
fantastic news!
About time too….congratulations :)
Just the right timing. Well done PDI-P
Great decision! Now hopefully Prabowo’s lead is not so much of a lead anymore. I think his party still needs to get the 20% benchmark to even announce their candidate, isn’t it?
On second thought – who’s going to be the VP with Jokowi? Hopefully an able person as Ahok and not some political ghost of the past….
Who will fill in his place? Whoever will be President next will still have to reside in the Capital and face the same BS. There is still unfinished business to be made like the MRT and the Monorail projects in the the capital. Should Joko win the presidency, will he be able to deliver his inspirational ideas with the replacing Governor of Jakarta? Poor Ahok. Move him up a notch. for once i’m afraid i agree with hangman here…. there’s just no way they will let him change anything, if he tries they’ll pull a gus dur on him, they’ll think of something, i kind of pity him, his life is not his to live anymore, it’s like that metalica concert where he went a few months ago, sitting in the vip lounge with all the big shots, lamenting to journalists how he didn’t want to sit there, how he wanted to be downstairs with all the other real fans in the front, partying and singing the tunes of his favorite band….
I agree henk. Nothing much has changed or will change in Jakarta, even when he tried to get some new buses-something for the people – (a first) it was ruined by corruption.
Wondering that some or even most may have ADD. And no one has been tried to be diagnosed with it. Who would you pick?
As much as I will miss Rhoma Irama’s overall awesomeness, my heart soars like a hawk to hear of the great Mas joining the fray. He has Joyoboyo’s endorsement of course. The Kings of Dwipa are coming back, it is written.
So what makes him different than anyone else in indonesian politics. All SBY has done is talk. Jokowi is by far the best option. Name one leader who could have done a better job with Jakarta in this short of time. What has Prabowo done? Bakrie? Sorry you can say Jokowi is not the right guy for the job but then who do you suggest? I don’t really expect you to understand
If he gets elected you will then understand, when its to late, he is biting off way more than he can eat, for his on good, hopefully he will not get elected
he would be in way over his head for sure
LUWANTO
I believe that Pak Joko has the political will to do what it takes to lead the country. First
priority should be to review the judiciary, the existing laws (local & sharia), the Judges, Ministers and Ministries that have fallen behind its fiduciary obligations. Use the latest set of Laws meaningfully i.e. THE PUBLIC IS ABLE TO FILE LAWSUITS AGAINST CORRUPT POLITICAL PARTY MEMBERS. In which case Pak Joko has to safeguard his own party members too! Remember that when people start to sue, Dewan members will have to think twice before they start to ask for ‘holiday’ money or else they will lose their seat. This Law is SINE QUA NON – arguably the best elixir to teach corrupt officials to back off.
LUWANTO
15 March 2014
LUWANTO
To: PakLe
Your comment is excellent – almost sublime. Let’s face it, no Man is perfect, does not need to have a string of degrees, uses his amiable traits and common sense to reach out to one and all. Finally, he has a trusted team of civil servants that work and produce results – that’s what you want, don’t you?
LUWANTO
15 March 2014
Thanks, that’s very kind of you. You think Indonesia can really afford four more years heading in the section it’s currently going? And “many people have no idea what they’re talking about” is a wonderful way to start a discussion. it is. Many people here so clueless that gets blinded by Jokowi Mania or whatever. The fact is, jokowi is unproven yet in Jakarta. And no, Indonesia is doing decent with the leadership of SBY, it just need someone with vast experience and quality leadership
The other day much to my horror I noticed the container of strawberries I bought the night before had already gone moldy. There was one clean, seemingly perfect looking one on top. I ignored it and went to work. A few hours later I came back and the good strawberry also had turned a vile, stinky shade of blue. I threw the whole lot to the stray dogs outside who also turned up their nose at them in disgust – too gross even for a bunch of mangy, trash-eating, diseased mutts. Grim stuff.
lol you must be joking, what he accomplished? the MRT is already there since Fauzi bowo term and about to start when he left and the jokowow was delaying the project for some nonsense inquiry yet he finally agreed and continue with the project (after 6 months of delay) and dont start with the Monorail, busway and floods | Government Job change - Election | March 2014 | ['(The Jakarta Globe)'] |
United States soldier Bowe Bergdahl is convicted of desertion and dishonorably discharged, but is not imprisoned. | FORT BRAGG, N.C. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his Army base in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held captive by the Taliban for five years, received no prison time for desertion or endangering troops, but was ordered by a military judge on Friday to be dishonorably discharged from the Army.
The sentencing took only minutes in a case where prosecutors had sought 14 years in a military prison.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2017 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Baghdad's primary morgue says that the death toll resulting from violence after the Al Askari Mosque bombing has surpassed 1,300, contrary to earlier information from most news media and the United States military. | BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.
Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies were sprawled with their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"After he came back from the evening prayer, the Mahdi Army broke into his house and asked him, 'Are you Khalid the Sunni infidel?' " one man at the morgue said, relating what were the last hours of his cousin, according to other relatives. "He replied yes and then they took him away."
Aides to Sadr denied the allegations, calling them part of a smear campaign by unspecified political rivals.
By Monday, violence between Sunni Arabs and Shiites appeared to have eased. As Iraqi security forces patrolled, American troops offered measured support, in hopes of allowing the Iraqis to take charge and prevent further carnage.
But at the morgue, where the floor was crusted with dried blood, the evidence of the damage already done was clear. Iraqis arrived throughout the day, seeking family members and neighbors among the contorted bodies.
"And they say there is no sectarian war?" demanded one man. "What do you call this?"
The brothers of one missing man arrived, searching for a body. Their hunt ended on the concrete floor, provoking sobs of mourning: "Why did you kill him?" "He was unarmed!" "Oh, my brother! Oh, my brother!"
Morgue officials said they had logged more than 1,300 dead since Wednesday -- the day the Shiites' gold-domed Askariya shrine was bombed -- photographing, numbering and tagging the bodies as they came in over the nights and days of retaliatory raids.
The Statistics Department of the Iraqi police put the nationwide toll at 1,020 since Wednesday, but that figure was based on paperwork that is sometimes delayed before reaching police headquarters. The majority of the dead had been killed after being taken away by armed men, police said.
The disclosure of the death tolls followed accusations by the U.S. military and later Iraqi officials that the news media had exaggerated the violence between Shiites and Sunnis over the past few days.
The bulk of the previously known deaths were caused by bombings and other large-scale attacks. But the scene at the morgue and accounts related by relatives indicated that most of the bloodletting came at the hands of self-styled executioners.
"They killed him just because he was a Sunni," one young man at the morgue said of his 32-year-old neighbor, whose body he was retrieving.
Much of the violence has centered on mosques, many of which were taken over by Shiite gunmen, bombed or burned.
In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, aides to Sadr denied any role in the killings.
"These groups wore black clothes like the Mahdi Army to make the people say that the Shiites kidnapped and killed them," said Riyadh al-Nouri, a close aide to Sadr.
Sahib al-Amiri, another close aide, said: "Some political party accused [Sadr's political party] and the Mahdi Army because they considered us as competitive to them. So they recruited criminals to kill Shiites and Sunnis."
After Wednesday's mosque attack in Samarra, Sadr and other Shiite clerics called on their armed followers to deploy to protect shrines across Iraq.
Clutching rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic rifles, the militias rolled out of their Baghdad base of Sadr City. Residents of several neighborhoods reported them on patrol or in control of mosques. U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces did not appear to challenge the militias, which are officially outlawed.
Sunni leaders charged that more than 100 Sunni mosques were burned, fired upon or bombed in the retaliatory violence after the attack on the Samarra mosque.
Iraqi officials, at the urging of Sunni leaders, imposed what became a round-the-clock curfew in Baghdad to try to quell the violence.
Sunnis speaking at the morgue said many of the dead had been taken away at night, when security forces were supposed to have been enforcing the curfew.
By Monday, the reported violence had subsided. Four mortar rounds hit a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, killing four people, news agencies reported. More mortar attacks boomed in other parts of the capital.
Also Monday, Iraq's interim government lifted the round-the-clock curfew in Baghdad. The new curfew orders residents inside from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Residents rushed out of their homes to refill gas tanks and kitchen shelves. Lines at gas stations stretched for miles and sometimes clogged both sides of highways. One motorist in the line was seen clutching a blanket and pillow, apparently anticipating an overnight wait for gas.
Making their way through the traffic were a few cars with plastic-wrapped corpses in crude wooden coffins strapped to the roofs.
During two hours at the morgue on Monday, families brought in two more victims of the violence to receive death certificates. Other families carried away 10 dead. Most of the victims were Sunni.
At the blue steel doors of the morgue, dozens more bloody bodies could be seen on the floor or on gurneys. Two hundred were still unidentified and unclaimed, morgue workers said.
Claiming the dead has become automated. Morgue workers directed families to a barred window in the narrow courtyard outside the main entrance. A computer screen angled to face the window flashed the contorted, staring faces of the dead: men shot in the mouth, men shot in the head, men covered with blood, men with bindings twisted around their necks.
Men and a few women in black abayas pressed up to the window's black bars as the reek of the bodies inside spilled out.
"What neighborhood?'' a morgue worker asked one waiting man.
"Adhamiyah,'' the man said, naming a predominantly Sunni neighborhood.
Tapping at the keyboard, the morgue worker fast-forwarded through the scores of tortured faces.
"Criminals. How can you kill another human for nothing?" someone clutching the bars asked.
"Good news, we found the body," another man called out. "We found him."
Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf, staff writer Nelson Hernandez and other Washington Post staff contributed to this report. | Armed Conflict | February 2006 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Mubarak al-Ajji, named on a Qatari official list of wanted terrorists, wins second place at a government-sponsored triathlon and is photographed at the medal ceremony. | Qatari officials have come under fire after a man named on a list of wanted terrorists finished second in a government-sponsored triathlon. Mubarak al-Ajji was photographed on the podium receiving a silver medal and prize money just a week after Qatari officials promised the US they would crack down on terrorists. | Awards ceremony | March 2018 | ['(The Week)'] |
France's National Assembly votes to adopt a non-binding resolution to lift European Union sanctions against Russia, applied after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy's Republicans, as well as center-right and far-left groups voted in favor of lifting the sanctions, while the ruling Socialist Party and The Greens voted against the resolution. | PARIS (Reuters) - France’s lower house of parliament voted in favor of lifting European Union sanctions against Russia on Thursday, in a non-binding vote that went against the Socialist government’s recommendation.
French deputies voted by 55-44 in favor of the resolution to lift the sanctions slapped on Moscow by the 28-member EU after Russia annexed Crimea and tension escalated with Ukraine.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s Republicans party, as well as center-right and far-left groups voted for lifting the sanctions. The Socialists and Greens voted against the resolution put forward by conservative lawmaker Thierry Mariani.
“(The sanctions are) totally ineffective today to solve this international crisis and are dangerous for France’s interests,” Mariani, who represents French residents in eastern Europe and Russia, said.
The European Union, along with the United States, imposed economic sanctions on Russia in July 2014, targeting its energy, banking and defense sectors. Sanctions expire in July and can be extended.
“The purpose of these sanctions is to have leverage to get back to negotiations,” said Junior Minister for Europe Harlem Desir, who had called on the National Assembly to dismiss the resolution.
| Government Policy Changes | April 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Gambian President Adama Barrow returns to the Gambia after being sworn in as president in Senegal, bringing an end to the country's political crisis. | The Gambia’s new president, Adama Barrow, returned to his country on Thursday afternoon, prompting a noisy and joyous wave of hope and excitement at the prospect of a brighter future for the small, poor west African state.
By late afternoon, thousands of people had lined the streets of Banjul, the capital, blowing whistles, dancing, banging drums and singing “We welcome you, our president, our hope, our solution” in the local Fula language.
Hundreds more thronged the airport, cheering when Barrow emerged from the plane that had brought him from neighbouring Senegal in a flowing white robe, accompanied by his wife and children. He walked slowly along a red carpet, greeted by military officials and members of his coalition government.
“I am a happy man … I think the bad part is finished now,” the 51-year-old former property developer told reporters at the airport.
The arrival of Barrow brings to an end a prolonged political crisis in the Gambia.
Fatou Jagne Senghor, the west Africa director of Article 19, a pro-freedom of expression organisation, said the development was very welcome. “The Gambia has been waiting for this. Everyone has been ... looking forward to the new era where people’s voices are heard,” said Senghor, who is from Gambia.
Ebrima Bah, who was waiting at the airport, said: “The arrival is long overdue. His arrival is raising my confidence in the new government.”
The former British colony was thrown into chaos in December when the autocratic president, Yahya Jammeh, refused to step down after unexpectedly losing elections to an alliance of opposition parties, despite repeated efforts at mediation by powerful regional states including Nigeria.
Jammeh eventually left the Gambia, which he had ruled for 22 years, at the weekend after thousands of troops from other west African nations entered the country and he secured a deal that allowed him to escape prosecution and keep much of his assets.
Low-flying fighter jets and the presence of Nigerian and Senegalese troops at the airport on Thursday were a reminder of the turbulent transition and of the major challenges which face Barrow.
“The transformation will not be easy,” said Senghor. “To bring security, stability and fundamental freedoms when institutions are broken, the judiciary is not functioning, is going to be a major challenge.”
A senior government official in Banjul said people were “very happy” and that Barrow’s priority would be to put into place “the pillars of reform and human rights”. During the election campaign, Barrow promised wide-ranging reforms to overturn many of the authoritarian policies of Jammeh, who was accused of imprisoning, torturing and killing his political opponents.
Last year, a series of protests led to the detention of more than 90 opposition activists and supporters. One prominent opposition politician, a father of nine, was beaten to death in custody.
Kanamo Sansou, who was sitting with his friends in a market in Serrekunda, near Banjul, said: “I’m 100% a Barrow supporter and I’m more happy than I can say.”
Ibrahima Gaye, a pensioner, added: “He will be different in all aspects … we have been living under dictatorship for 22 years. You can go home at night and sleep without worrying you will be arrested before daybreak.”
Earlier in the day, Swiss prosecutors confirmed they had detained the former Gambian interior minister after allegations that he must have been aware of grave human rights abuses.
Ousman Sonko, described as one of Jammeh’s top aides, fled the Gambia for Europe after being sacked by the authoritarian ruler in September.
Barrow has asked the force of about 7,000 west Africa troops to remain in his country for six months.
Diplomats had urged him to return quickly to curb the impact of the political crisis on the tourist-reliant economy, which is already in a fragile state.
After languishing in geopolitical obscurity for decades, the Gambia has produced a wave of refugees, focusing more attention on the country. The combination of repression and poverty has driven tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of young people out of the country in recent years, many of whom have head across the Sahara to the Mediterranean coast in a desperate attempt to start new lives in Europe.
The route, known locally as “the back way”, is extremely dangerous, with many perishing in the Sahara or during the hazardous sea crossing.
Aid agencies have spoken of significant humanitarian need in poor areas of the Gambia.
Barrow, who will be staying at his own residence until the State House, Jammeh’s former seat of power, is declared safe, will have to overcome years of economic isolation and lack of investment.
His first job is to deal with an internal crisis after it emerged his pick for vice-president, Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang, may be too old for the role under the country’s constitution.
Barrow must also deal with latent ethnic tensions between Jammeh’s minority Jola people and the majority Mandinkas, to whom the new president belongs. Many of the upper ranks of the military are Jola.
There is some controversy over the relatively lenient terms under which Jammeh left the Gambia for exile in Equatorial Guinea. Barrow has reportedly assured the former ruler he will have all the legal rights given to a former president, which includes immunity from prosecution barring a vote by two-thirds of the national assembly.
The new government has confirmed Jammeh will be permitted to keep a fleet of luxury cars, despite the accusation by authorities that he looted $11.4m (£9m) from state coffers before his departure.
A witness told Agence France-Press that two Rolls-Royces and one Mercedes Benz were loaded on to a Chadian cargo plane, while others await shipment. The source said 10 cars were earmarked for future shipment. Diplomats and others familiar with the matter confirmed the collection included a Bentley, Land Rovers, a red Mini Cooper and another Mercedes.
Jammeh’s entourage struggled to choose between the two larger Bentleys or three smaller cars, according to the source, before eventually opting for the Mercedes and the Rolls-Royces on the night he left the country. “They were trying to check which one fits. If they took the bigger cars, they could only take two,” he said.
Alex Vines, the head of the Africa Programme at London thinktank Chatham House, said a key lesson was the importance in west Africa of “youth and civil society pushing for change”. He added: “This played a role in Nigeria and Ghana and now Gambia ... technology has helped.” | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
German prosecutors say, based on CCTV images, that most of AfD politician Frank Magnitz's injuries yesterday may have been sustained as he hit the ground after having been elbowed once by three people and falling over. Magnitz says the attack may have been an attempted robbery. | Frank Magnitz has said he was beaten unconscious after his assailants had already knocked him to the ground. However, prosecutors now say that CCTV footage may contradict this version of events.
Frank Magnitz, a member of the Bundestag from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), had said that he was brutally attacked by political opponents in his home base of Bremen. However, prosecutors said on Wednesday that footage of the attack casts doubt on the lawmaker's version of events.
According to AfD politicians, Magnitz, 66, he was attacked from behind with a piece of wood around 5:30 p.m. while taking a shortcut behind the Bremen City Theater to his car in a nearby parking garage. He said he was kicked after he had fallen down, and then blacked out.
Read more: Opinion: A plea for calm after AfD's Frank Magnitz attacked
Frank Passade, a spokesman with the Bremen prosecutor's office, said the video shows that Magnitz was attacked by three people, but he added that it looks likely that most of Magnitz's injuries were sustained as he hit the ground.
Magnitz checked himself out of the hospital on Wednesday and is recovering well, according to fellow Bremen AfD member Thomas Jürgewitz.
On Tuesday, the lawmaker spent most of the day talking to the press, inviting journalists to his sick bed to see the wounds on his face, covered with thick layers of gauze, and drawing their attention to the wheelchair he was using in hospital.
Frank Magnitz addresses the Bundestag
The attack drew condemnation across Germany, with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas saying that violence "should never be a means of expressing political disagreements," and Steffen Seibert, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, expressing the hope that the assailants would quickly be found and face justice.
Magnitz's AfD colleagues have used the incident as a call to action, blaming the far-left Antifa group, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), and "left-wing terrorists," for the parliamentarian's wounds.
CCTV may contradict Magnitz
On Wednesday, however, prosecutors in Bremen questioned whether Magnitz was assaulted in exactly the manner he described. A spokesman told German news agency DPA that CCTV footage of the attack showed Magnitz being elbowed once, then falling over as his attackers ran away.
Bremen police have said that the attack was "lightning quick," and that they were investigating charges of grievous bodily harm, saying they had no photographic evidence that Magnitz was kicked while already down.
Magnitz himself on Wednesday conceded that the attack may not have been politically motivated and may in fact have been an attempted robbery.
Police detained three people after a blast damaged the office of the far-right AfD party in the German city of Döbeln. Anti-terror investigators see the blast as an escalation following other acts of anti-AfD vandalism. (04.01.2019) | Famous Person - Sick | January 2019 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
NBA team owners and players reach an agreement to end the 149–day NBA lockout and to begin the current NBA season on Christmas Day. | NEW YORK -- NBA owners and players reached a tentative agreement early Saturday to end the 149-day lockout and hope to begin the delayed season on Christmas Day.
Neither side provided many specifics but said the only words players and fans wanted to hear.
"We want to play basketball," NBA commissioner David Stern said.
After a secret meeting earlier this week, the sides met for more than 15 hours Friday, working to try to save the season. This handshake deal, however, still must be ratified by both owners and players.
Stern said it was "subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we're optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25."
Barring a change in scheduling, the 2011-12 season will open with the Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, followed by Miami at Dallas in an NBA Finals rematch before MVP Derrick Rose and Chicago close the tripleheader against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
President Barack Obama gave a thumbs-up when told about the tentative settlement after he finished playing basketball at Fort McNair in Washington on Saturday morning.
The league plans a 66-game season and aims to open training camps Dec. 9. Stern has said it would take about 30 days from an agreement to playing the first game.
"All I feel right now is 'finally,' " Dwyane Wade told The Associated Press.
Multiple league sources confirmed to ESPNLosAngeles.com's Dave McMenamin that the NBA All-Star Game would be held in Orlando as scheduled, though a date has yet to be finalized.
Just 12 days after talks broke down and Stern declared the NBA could be headed to a "nuclear winter," he sat next to union executive director Billy Hunter to announce the deal.
"We thought it was in both of our interest to try to reach a resolution and save the game and to be able to provide the kind of superb entertainment the NBA historically has provided," Hunter said.
A majority on each side is needed to approve the agreement. The NBA needs votes from 15 of 29 owners. (The league owns the New Orleans Hornets.)
Stern said the labor committee plans to discuss the agreement later Saturday and expects them to endorse it and recommend to the full board.
The union needs a simple majority of its 430-plus members. That process is a bit more complicated after the players dissolved the union Nov. 14. Now, they must drop their antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota and re-form the union before voting on the deal.
Because the union disbanded, a new collective bargaining agreement can be completed only once the union has re-formed. Drug testing and other issues still must be negotiated between the league and the players.
"We're very pleased we've come this far," Stern said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."
Participating in the talks for the league were Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube.
The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.
Owners locked out the players July 1, and the sides spent most of the summer and fall battling over the division of revenues and other changes owners wanted in a new collective bargaining agreement.
They said they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in each year of the former deal, ratified in 2005, and they wanted a system where the big-market teams wouldn't have the ability to outspend their smaller counterparts.
Players fought against those changes, not wanting to see any teams taken out of the market when they became free agents.
"This was not an easy agreement for anyone. The owners came in having suffered substantial losses and feeling the system wasn't working fairly across all teams," Silver said. "I certainly know the players had strong views about expectations in terms of what they should be getting from the system. It required a lot of compromise from both parties' part, and I think that's what we saw today."
But it was never easy. The day required multiple calls with the owners' labor relations committee, all the while knowing another breakdown in talks would mean not only the loss of the Christmas schedule, but also throw the entire season in jeopardy.
Stern said that despite some "bumps" Friday evening, "the greater good required us to knock ourselves out and come to this tentative understanding."
He denied the litigation was a factor in accelerating a deal, but things happened relatively quickly after the players filed a suit that could have won them some $6 billion in damages if the court ruled the lockout was illegal.
"For us the litigation is something that just has to be dealt with," Stern said. "It was not the reason for the settlement. The reason for the settlement was we've got fans, we've got players who would like to play and we've got others who are dependent on us.
"And it's always been our goal to reach a deal that was fair to both sides and get us playing as soon as possible, but that took a little time."
And led to the second shortened season in NBA history, joining the 1998-99 lockout that reduced the schedule to 50 games. This time the league will miss 16 games off the normal schedule. | Sports Competition | November 2011 | ['(ESPN)'] |
Voters in the Australian state of Victoria go to the polls for the state election. | The 2010 Victorian election began on Melbourne Cup day surrounded by horse racing metaphors, and perhaps it should end that way too.
It's often said the position of a horse around the last bend means nothing, so long as its nose crosses the finish line first.
And like a stallion known for its strong final sprint, the Coalition has trailed Labor in all credible opinion polls for months - until now.
Four separate polls over the past 24 hours point to either a narrow Coalition victory, or a dead heat with both major parties receiving 50 per cent of the two-party vote.
While the gap in each poll is within that survey's particular margin for error, their consistency gives weight to the results.
The upside for the Coalition is obvious. It could win.
If the anti-Labor swing is uniform, it might pick up the 13 extra seats required to end 11 years of Labor rule.
How these poll results benefit Labor may not be clear initially, but there is a silver lining.
Like many long-term government seeking re-election, the ALP has been trying to combat the dreaded 'expectation factor'.
That is, the assumption among voters that Labor will win the election, and it's therefore safe to register a protest vote without risking a change of government.
Much of the swing to Labor in Victoria's 1999 state election (which tore down the seemingly unassailable Liberal premier, Jeff Kennett), is attributed to this phenomenon.
If traditional Labor voters had been planning to vote Green or Coalition to make a point, the past day's polls may give them pause.
This may result in a small amount of support 'coming home' to Labor. Possibly even enough for the ALP to be re-elected, albeit with a substantially reduced majority.
That being said, both parties would obviously rather be playing down expectations of a thumping victory than playing mind-games ahead of a tight result.
But it seems neither side has that luxury today.
Ryan Sheales is the ABC's Victorian Political Reporter. You can follow his election tweets through @ryansheales.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2010 | ['(ABC News)'] |
US President Barack Obama announces a $5 billion "terrorism partnership fund" to help other countries tackle extremists. | President Barack Obama has promised a new US foreign policy based on "collective action" with allies abroad.
The US would still lead, he told graduates at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, but would avoid the "costly mistakes" of the past.
He announced a $5bn (£3bn) fund to fight global terror and promised the US "must not create more enemies than we take off the battlefield".
Under attack for a weak foreign policy, he hailed progress in Ukraine and Iran.
"Sceptics often downplay the effectiveness of multilateral action. For them, working through international institutions, or respecting international law, is a sign of weakness. I think they're wrong."
The end of the combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of the year would free up resources to tackle emerging threats elsewhere, such as a new $5bn "terrorism partnership fund" to help other countries fight extremists. | Financial Aid | May 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Brazil beats Cuba 3–0 to win the 2010 FIVB Men's World Championship held in Italy. | The 25-22, 25-14, 25-22 victory solidified Brazil's status as the top-ranked team in the sport, following its victories in 2002 and 2006. The South Americans also won the Olympic tournament in 2004, then took silver behind the United States in Beijing two years ago.
"We were united as a team and united like a family," said Brazil captain Gilberto Godoy Filho, who added tht it was his last worlds. "Now we've got to focus on the World Cup next season and then the Olympics, which is the high point of this sport."
Brazil becomes the second team to win three straight world titles after Italy won in 1990, 1994 and 1998. The Soviet Union won a record six titles but never more than two in a row.
Earlier, Serbia beat host Italy 3-1 for third place, while Russia beat the United States in the fifth-place game Saturday.
Brazil standout Leandro Vissotto Neves closed out the final with a spike on the South Americans' fourth match point, then dropped to the floor <emdash /> all 2.12 meters (6 feet, 11 inches) of him <emdash /> and was mobbed by celebrating teammates.
Brazil's youngest player, 24-year-old Bruno Mossa Rezende, climbed the umpire's ladder and gestured to the crowd to share in his celebration.
Vissotto led Brazil with 19 points and alongside 2.01-meter (6-foot-7) Dante Guimaraes Amaral, Brazil's wall proved too tough to breach. In addition, 29-year-old Murilo Endres used his skills to break apart the Cuban defense, earning him the tournament's top player award.
"We were able to control our pressure and exploit their mistakes and simply played better," Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende said. "I was happy with the way several of our guys dealt with physical problems. Vissotto had a great game."
Wilfredo Leon Venero, at 17 the youngest player in the tournament, showed his nerves with a series of early errors, including missed serves, and failed to carry Cuba like he had in earlier games <emdash /> despite scoring a team-high 15 points.
Still, Cuba should be pleased with its performance. With an average age of 22.5, it was a sharp improvement from its 15th-place finish at the last worlds in 2006.
Also, Cuba beat Brazil 3-2 in the preliminary rounds.
"It was tough for us against such a physical squad, having so little experience in finals," said Cuba coach Orlando Samuels Blackwood, who also coached Cuba to the final in 1990.
"The Cuban league only lasts three weeks, so we've got to work on the physical aspect more and hopefully get our season to last longer. It's very tough to improve tactics in such a short period."
The final was played before a mixed crowd of 11,605 at the Palalottomatica, including several Brazilian footballers who play in Italy's Serie A <emdash /> Lucio, Juan, Alexander Doni and Rodrigo Taddei. | Sports Competition | October 2010 | ['(AP via USA Today)', '(Reuters)'] |
Hundreds of French police are brought in as reinforcements to the city of Dijon, as over 150 Chechens from around France have gathered to avenge the alleged assault of a Chechen teenager by local drug dealers. During the violence, several people are reported injured and one person suffered gunshot wounds. | Police reinforcements have been sent to the French city of Dijon following a spate of violence from Chechen groups. More than 150 people, some hooded and armed, gathered on Monday to avenge the alleged assault of a Chechen teenager by a drug dealer. It comes after a number of incidents in the city over the weekend.
One man, who claimed to be Chechen, told local media he was part of the group and said others had joined from across France, Belgium and Germany. A prosecutor said several people were hurt, some seriously, on Friday night and one person suffered gunshot wounds on Saturday. On Sunday, more than 200 people entered the district of Gresilles with violent intent, police said. The violence began again on Monday, with people setting fire to rubbish bins and a car, AFP news agency reports. About 37 riot police have already arrived in the city and 110 additional police officers were due to be deployed on Monday. Bernard Schmeltz, the top state official in the region, said in a statement that the violence "appeared to be part of a settling of scores between members of the Chechen community in France and residents" of Dijon. In an interview with daily paper Le Bien Public, a man claiming to be Chechen said the incidents were in retaliation following an assault on a 16-year-old by local drug dealers. "We never intended to ransack the city of take it out on the people," he said. A probe has been opened into attempted murder by a criminal gang, Dijon prosecutor Eric Mathais said. French police clash with anti-racism activists | Riot | June 2020 | ['(BBC)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
Lamine Diack, who is provisionally suspended as an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee in connection with suspected involvement in the Russian doping scandal cited in yesterday's World Anti–Doping Agency report, resigns as president of the Monaco–based International Athletics Foundation , according to the International Association of Athletics Federations . Diack stepped down as president of the IAAF in August. The 82–year–old native of Senegal is under investigation in France on suspicion of corruption and money–laundering. | Last updated on 11 November 201511 November 2015.From the section Athletics
Former International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack has resigned from his position as an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee.
Diack is provisionally suspended by the IOC while he is investigated by French police over allegations he took bribes to cover up positive drugs tests when in charge of the IAAF.
He had already resigned as president of the International Athletics Foundation, the charitable arm of the IAAF, which the 82-year-old headed for 16 years.
On Monday, the IAAF was implicated in a World Anti-Doping Agency report that accused Russia of widespread doping.
Diack's son Papa Massata, advisor Habib Cisse and the former IAAF anti-doping chief Gabriel Dolle are also being investigated by French police. The French financial prosecutor said in a statement last week: "Diack is suspected of receiving money in exchange for deferring sanctions for several Russian athletes who were found guilty of doping in 2011, ahead of the Olympic Games.
"Diack and Cisse were arrested on Sunday and released on Tuesday, after being interrogated by police officers and judges.
"They were presented to a judge on Tuesday who informed them that they had been put under a formal investigation. The investigation also continues into whether other persons were involved in suspected corruption."
The IOC said on Tuesday: "The executive board decided this afternoon to confirm the proposal of the IOC ethics commission to provisionally suspend Mr. Lamine Diack, the former president of IAAF, from his honorary membership of the IOC."
The statement went on to urge the IAAF to take action against Olympic athletes accused of doping in Wada's report.
Diack ended his 16-year reign as IAAF president in August, when Briton Coe, a double Olympic 1500m winner, was elected as his replacement. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2015 | ['(IOC)', '(IAF)', '(IAFF)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
A ceasefire deal, brokered by Egypt, is accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas. | Israel has accepted an Egyptian proposal to end the week-long conflict in Gaza, suggesting that an end to the violence, which has killed more than 180 Palestinians, could be in sight.
But, in a sign of the animosity between the Cairo regime and Hamas, the Islamic movement in Gaza rejected the plan, saying it had not been consulted and terms for an end to the conflict had not been reached.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, warned that Israel would step up its offensive in Gaza if Hamas rejected the Egyptian proposal. "If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease, and that appears to be the case, we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation," he said.
Israel said 24 rockets had been fired from Gaza since 9am local time, when Egypt called for "de-escalation".
Diplomatic pressure on Hamas to end rocket attacks on Israeli is likely to mount following Israel's indication of a readiness to bring the fighting to an close. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, is closely involved, along with Middle East envoy Tony Blair.
The Arab League welcomed the Cairo initiative "to protect the lives of the innocent", further increasing pressure on Hamas.
President Barack Obama said: "We are encouraged that Egypt has made a proposal to accomplish this (truce) goal which we hope can restore a calm that we've been seeking." In a speech, he stressed US support for Israel in the face of Hamas's "inexcusable" attacks and voiced concern for Palestinian civilian casualties.
The Egyptian deal proposes a full ceasefire to come into effect 12 hours after the start of "de-escalation", which should be followed within 48 hours by separate talks between the two parties and neutral mediators on terms for an agreement.
A spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry said the proposal was still in play, despite Hamas's rejection.
"Israel has announced its acceptance of the initiative, the Arab League has accepted it and called on the concerned parties to abide by it, we are in touch with Abu Mazen [Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas] so we're still waiting for [an official response from] the other side," said Badr Abdellaty.
The Israeli security cabinet accepted the Egyptian deal shortly before 9am local time "The cabinet has decided to accept the Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire starting 9am today," Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Netanyahu, said on Twitter.
Hamas's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, rejected the truce deal, saying: "Our battle with the enemy continues and will increase in ferocity and intensity." It described the proposal as a "surrender".
Hamas's spokesmen in Gaza said the Islamist group had not received an official ceasefire proposal, and its demands must be met before it lays down its weapons. Hamas has specifically called for the lifting of Israel's eight-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the release of Palestinian prisoners Israel rearrested after freeing them in exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
Hamas's suspicions are likely to have been exacerbated by Blair's apparent involvement in mediating between the Egyptian president, Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, and Netanyahu. According to diplomatic sources, Blair has been a key interlocutor in recent days.
But the Middle East envoy has little credibility among most Palestinians as he is seen as a staunch defender of Israel's interest and an enthusiast for the Cairo regime and its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological parent of Hamas. Since Sisi came to power a year ago, the Brotherhood has been outlawed and attitudes towards Gaza, and Hamas in particular, have hardened.
Israel may have calculated that its bombardment of Gaza over the past eight days has achieved its goal of punishing Hamas and the people of the coastal enclave. It may be reluctant to escalate the offensive further, with a ground invasion, for fear of risking Israeli lives and fatally crippling Hamas a move that would allow more radical groups to fill a power vacuum in Gaza.
Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defence official, said Hamas had been weakened by the air and sea assault on Gaza.
"Look at the balance, and you see that Hamas tried every possible means of striking at Israel while bringing great and terrible damage on its people, from their perspective," Gilad told Israel's Army Radio.
"The Egyptian proposal includes a halt to all kind of [military] activity. What this proposal, if it is accepted, means is that, willy-nilly, Hamas did not manage to make good on its intentions."
Previous military confrontations between Israel and Hamas Operation Pillar of Defence in November 2012, and Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09 ended in ceasefire and negotiated agreements that eventually broke down. Most diplomats believe the cycle will continue unless the fundamental underlying causes of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict are addressed and resolved.
Three rockets were launched from the Egyptian Sinai at the southern Israeli resort of Eilat, wounding four people, according to Israeli officials. They said the salvo was likely fired by Islamist fighters hostile to Israel and the Egyptian government. | Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Haaretz)'] |
The California State Legislature approves legislation allowing for assisted suicide. | SACRAMENTO — In a landmark victory for supporters of assisted suicide, the California State Legislature on Friday gave its final approval to a bill that would allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives.
Four states — Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont — already allow physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to some patients. The California bill, which passed Friday in the State Senate by a vote of 23 to 14, will now go to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will roughly triple access to doctor-assisted suicide across the country if he signs it. Mr. Brown has given little indication of his intentions.
| Government Policy Changes | September 2015 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
150,000 Venezuelan troops begin exercises along the Colombian border. Nicolás Maduro's Venezuelan government says it is to intercept an attack from the other country, despite no indications there will be one. | LA FRIA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela’s armed forces carried out military drills along the Colombian border on Tuesday which it said were to prepare to intercept a foreign invasion, though neighboring countries have not threatened to do so.
The armed forces’ Strategic Operational Commander, Remigio Ceballos, said 150,000 troops were conducting activities “related to security, exploration and the interception of any invasion of Venezuelan territory.”
“It’s an operation to guarantee the defense,” Ceballos said, speaking to reporters at an airport by the city of La Fria in the border state of Tachira. The exercises are expected to continue for several weeks.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly warned of an invasion from Colombia, coordinated by the U.S. government, but there is no evidence one is forthcoming.
The U.S. government has said it wants to resolve Venezuela’s crisis peacefully, either via negotiations or by forcing Maduro out of power through the use of crippling sanctions.
Most western nations consider Maduro illegitimate after he secured a second term last year in a vote widely viewed as fraudulent. The United States instead recognizes as Venezuela’s rightful head-of-state opposition leader Juan Guaido, who Maduro claims is fomenting a coup.
Reporting by Anggy Polanco; Editing by Marguerita Choy
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 | Military Exercise | September 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Army raids a Taliban military base in Swat, Pakistan. | Pakistan's army says it has dropped troops by helicopter to tackle a Taleban stronghold as part of a broadening offensive in the north-west.
The troops were landed in the sparsely populated Peochar valley in Swat. A BBC correspondent says Peochar is one of the bases of Swat Taleban chief Maulana Fazlullah. Hundreds of thousands have fled the fighting and Human Rights Watch has urged the army and Taleban to avoid civilian casualties. One resident in the main town of Mingora in Swat described the situation there as dire. The man, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC that food supplies were running out, and electricity and gas had been cut off. "Thousands of people are still trapped in Mingora, but the town is like a ghost city as no one dares to come out in the streets." Mountain retreat
Up to 15,000 troops have now been deployed in the Swat valley and neighbouring areas to take on up to 5,000 militants. An army spokesman confirmed to the BBC that troops airlifted by army helicopters had landed in Peochar but refused to reveal any more operational details. Peochar is about 65km (40 miles) north-west of Swat's main town of Mingora. The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the area has camps both for combat training of militants and for training suicide bombers. He says Maulana Fazlullah is normally based in his native village of Imamdheri in Matta but retreats to Peochar when under army pressure and is reported to be there now. Our correspondent says there are also reports of the army blocking exit routes out of Peochar and if the area has been adequately cordoned off, the battle there may be fierce. The BBC Urdu service managed to reach a civilian in Mingora by telephone and was told of "intermittent gunfire". The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "Thousands of people are still trapped in Mingora, but the town is like a ghost city as no-one dares come out on the streets. "Everybody wants to leave with no gas and food stocks running very low but the strict curfew by the government has given us no choice but to stay put." Human Rights Watch has meanwhile urged the army and Taleban to do all they can to avoid civilian casualties in Swat. Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "Beheadings and use of human shields by Taleban forces are not a blank cheque for the Pakistani army. "Winning the war, but also the peace, in Swat can only be achieved by minimising civilian suffering." Human Rights Watch said it had reports of the Taleban mining parts of the Swat valley and preventing people leaving Mingora. The UN has expressed fears for the 360,000 Pakistanis who have fled and has said it will deliver emergency humanitarian aid. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said: "This is a huge and rapidly unfolding emergency which is going to require considerable resources beyond those that currently exist in the region." Pakistan's military says it has killed hundreds of militants so far. Pakistan's government signed a peace agreement with the Swat Taleban in February, allowing Sharia law there, a move sharply criticised by Washington. The militants then moved out into neighbouring districts, causing further alarm. Have you been affected by the fighting in the region? Have you been displaced? Send us your comments and stories using the form below.
| Armed Conflict | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Some United Kingdom Border Agency staff begin industrial action ahead of tomorrow's strike involving several hundred thousand civil servants in protest at changes to their pensions. | Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers have gone on strike across the UK over planned pension changes.
Teachers from three unions walked out, with at least 40% of state schools in England and Wales disrupted.
Workers in numerous government departments and agencies also did not turn up for work, and their union said turnout was strong throughout the UK.
However, the government disputed union claims, saying fewer than 100,000 civil servants were on strike at midday.
The government said the public sector pension plans were "fair to taxpayers" and the other 25 public sector unions not on strike on Thursday were continuing with negotiations.
The Public and Commercial Services union said early indications from pickets suggested about 210,000 of its members participated in the strike.
However, the government said figures gathered "from every government department" indicated that just under 100,000 civil servants went on strike, meaning 75% were at work.
With three teachers' unions taking action, the government said about 40% of state schools in England and Wales have been closed or partially shut.
It has condemned the strike as has the opposition, although Labour leader Ed Miliband has accused ministers of mishandling negotiations with the unions.
The action by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the University and College Union (UCU) affected England and Wales.
Department for Education data suggests that 11,114 of the 21,500 state schools in England were hit by the walkouts. It said in total, 5,679 schools were shut, and another 4,999 were partially closed. Some 201 academies and city technology colleges were also shut, while 235 remained partially open. In Wales, according to local authority figures, 1,100 out of 1,800 schools were either closed or partially closed.
Both the ATL and NUT said the figure was a lot higher - with 85% disrupted
The impact of the co-ordinated industrial action began to be felt at ports and airports on Wednesday evening, when some UK Border Agency staff walked out from 1800 BST. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said his members were left with no choice but to take action as the government was not prepared to "compromise on any of the central issues of the strike". He said he hoped the government would "change direction and engage with us, but if they don't the unions are talking about further action like this in the autumn".
The walkouts by the PCS, which has around 285,000 members, were staged across the UK.
There were 30 arrests in London in connection with the march, including 24 people arrested for a variety of offences including possession of drugs, criminal damage and breach of the peace. They remain in custody at various London police stations, while six were released.
One police officer and six members of the public were injured during the London march.
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said: "What today has shown is that the vast majority of hard working public sector employees do not support today's premature strike...
"Reform of public sector pensions is inevitable, but we will ensure that public sector pensions will still be among the very best, with a guaranteed pension which very few private sector staff now enjoy. But they will be paid later because people live longer."
Earlier, he told BBC One's Breakfast: "People are going to be scratching their heads, wondering why teachers and some civil servants are going on strike while discussions are still going."
Writing on Twitter, Mr Miliband said: "These strikes are wrong at a time when negotiations are going on. People have been let down by both sides - the Govt has acted recklessly".
Meanwhile, Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, said: "We realise that it's very disruptive for parents and we do regret that. We had hoped to reach a settlement before the industrial action, but the government isn't serious about talks."
Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors told the BBC he believes the strikes have the potential to damage the UK economy.
He said: "We want to be seen as the best country for people to invest in - these sort of messages send something very different.
"The private sector has had to wake up to the tough realities of pension provision in a rapidly changing world, and the public sector must do the same."
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said that people on both sides of the negotiations, as well as Labour Party figures with good union connections, "continue to believe that a deal is the only way that will see the resolution of this - and that a deal is possible".
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told a rally in Exeter: "The living standards of low and medium-paid public sector workers are being hammered in the name of reducing the deficit... Meanwhile those who caused the crisis are getting off scot free."
| Strike | June 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Egypt's military says that 15 of its members were killed or wounded in recent operations in Sinai and that 126 suspected militants had been killed. | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s military said on Sunday that 15 of its men had died or been wounded in operations in the Sinai Peninsula recently, and that 126 suspected militants had been killed.
The military publishes updates on its operations in Sinai every few months, without giving a specific time frame.
The statement came three days after the military said 10 personnel were killed or wounded in an attack near Bir al-Abd in North Sinai. Islamic State claimed the attack.
The Interior Ministry later said 18 suspected militants had been killed in a shootout near Bir al-Abd.
Militants loyal to Islamic State are active in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, where Egypt has been battling an insurgency for years.
Human rights organisations accuse Egypt of carrying out extrajudicial executions, forced evictions and collective punishment as part of the crackdown.
The military has denied such accusations, saying it takes the lives of civilians into consideration during operations.
| Armed Conflict | May 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The first clashes between Mossos d'Esquadra, Boixos Nois and protestors occur outside the stadium, leaving 9 arrested and 70 injured. (El País) | There were clashes between Catalan protesters outside the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening as Barcelona and Real Madrid prepared to face off instead the stadium.
Some 30 members of the Boixos Nois, a Barcelona ultras group, fought with pro-independence protestors of the Tsunami Democratic movement.
This is according to Europa Press, who say the two opposing groups came to blows at around 19:45 CET - 15 minutes before El Clasico kicked off.
"Leave our neighbourhoods, fascists," was chanted by protestors, while beer bottles were also thrown.
The Mossos d'Esquadra, the autonomous police force of Catalonia, intervened in the fighting and separated the two groups. | Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2019 | ['(Marca)', '(BBC)', '(El Mundo)'] |
News Corporation says it will buy IGN Entertainment for $650 million. IGN is one of the largest multimedia sites on the Internet and also owns the GameSpy Network and AskMen.com. | News Corp is looking to increase its online interests and earlier this year spent $580m buying Intermix Media. The acquisition is further proof that Mr Murdoch has abandoned any aversion to the internet and online companies. California-based IGN runs a number of websites including gamespy.com and film review site rottentomatoes.com.
After the acquisition, News Corp estimates that the traffic at its US sites will be close to 70 million unique users and more than 12 billion page impressions every month. San Francisco-based IGN will become part of News Corp's Fox Interactive Media unit. | Organization Merge | September 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
The European Union proposes a €200 billion stimulus package that will include already–spent money | A bigger stimulus package than many had been predicting, totalling 200 billion euros (£168.4bn) or 1.5% of the total output of the EU economy. But just because that is what is proposed, it's not certain to actually happen.
The EU commission now has to persuade its 27 members to start pumping the money into their own economies. Of the 200 billion euro figure, the EU will only be putting in 30 billion while 170 billion must come from individual nations' own budgets. Many, like the UK and Germany, will argue they have already done their bit with initiatives announced in the past few weeks.
Poland meanwhile is making reluctant noises about the advisability of the scheme, pointing out that it will involve large scale borrowing at a time when credit markets are very tight. No one will be surprised if other disharmonious voices are raised in the next few weeks as the focus shifts to an EU summit on the 11 December where leaders from all the member states will hammer out the final form of the recovery plan. Helping neighbours
If the plan emerges looking similar to how it was presented today, Commission officials will not only be very happy, but also a little surprised.
The argument in favour of all acting together is that a boost in one country leads to a so called "positive overspill". In other words, all that extra cash intended to pay for building projects, research into greener cars and tax cuts eventually ends up crossing borders and helping neighbouring countries.
It sounds plausible. But it s worth noting the discrepancies between different member states.
Poland and Slovakia for instance are growing strongly, but look at Ireland or Germany and the picture is quite grim. 'Glamour of pessimism'
So can "positive overspill" really work when there are such imbalances?
Won't some states have to take on a greater burden than others? For the plan to work, some governments may find they come under pressure to contribute more to help those that are suffering. But at the beginning of Wednesday's press conference Mr Barroso set out his stall. He attacked what he described as the "glamour of pessimism", and made clear he believed that a deep and painful recession can be avoided.
For him the EU plan fits into a growing consensus that in order to weather the financial storm, countries must spend their way out of trouble. The thinking comes from the hard lessons of the great depression. But Mr Barroso also mentioned the seventies, when huge debts and high inflation crippled many economies. Whether the lessons of that era have been learned is yet to be seen. | Financial Aid | November 2008 | ['(BBC News)', '(WSJ)', '(IHT)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Spanish police raid Catalan government offices and arrest Catalan officials as part of the effort to halt a banned referendum on independence. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont says, "The Spanish state has by all rights intervened in Catalonia’s government and has established emergency rule." | MADRID — The Spanish police detained more than a dozen people in the region of Catalonia on Wednesday, drastically escalating tensions between the national government and Catalan separatists. The episode occurred less than two weeks before a highly contentious referendum on independence that the government in Madrid has vowed to block.
With the backing of the constitutional court, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been stepping up efforts to prevent the referendum, scheduled for Oct. 1.. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Sixteen Naxalite Maoist insurgents are killed by Central Reserve Police Force in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. | In a major crackdown by CRPF, at least 20 Maoists, including a woman, were killed in a fierce overnight encounter in the dense jungles of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh that left six jawans wounded.
The encounter, which took place in the forests of Silger, an uncharted Maoist zone between hotbed Jagargunda and Basaguda in Bijapur district of Bastar region, was launched last night in a joint operation by over 300 CRPF and state police personnel from three directions.
Seventeen bodies of the ultras have been recovered from the spot, Chhattisgarh ADG (Naxal Operations) Ram Nivas said, adding the combing operations were underway and the toll may rise. There were reports of three more Maoists being killed.
Two Maoists, who were injured in the encounter, were apprehended and have been air-lifted for medical treatment to state capital Raipur, a senior CRPF official said.
This is the biggest offensive by the security agencies in the Maoist stronghold in Chhattisgarh this year, the official said.
CRPF officials said two "prominent" Maoists, operating in the Bijapur-Dantewada axis, were also killed in the encounter.
Six CRPF men, including two CoBRA commandos, sustained bullet injuries and have been air-lifted for medical aid to Raipur. Two of them are critical, he said.
This is the same area, close to Chintalnar, where Maoists had carried out an audacious attack on security forces killing 75 CRPF men and one state police personnel in April 2010.
Keeping in view the tough terrain and presence of a big Maoist squad in mind, the CRPF had deputed a deputy inspector general (DIG) and two commandant rank officers, supported by an additional SP of state police, to lead the operation.
The CRPF has mobilised three units of commandos and regular troops, aided by two helicopters for the encounter from three directions Jagargunda, Chintalnar and Basaguda.
Heavy exchange of gunfire took place between the two sides which continued till early morning, sources said.
The encounter comes over a month after Maoists had abducted and subsequently released the Collector of Sukma district Alex Paul Menon, in Bastar region.
The CRPF has deployed about 20 battalions (20,000 personnel) for undertaking anti-Maoist operations in the state. | Armed Conflict | June 2012 | ['(DNA)'] |
A triple truck-bomb attack on the Kurdish YPG militia-controlled town of Tell Tamer in Syria's northeast Al-Hasakah Governorate leaves as many as 50 people dead and 80 others wounded. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attacks, saying in an online statement that three of its fighters driving three separate vehicles had detonated the suicide bombs targeting "bases" belonging to Kurdish fighters. | Follow NBC News BEIRUT A triple truck bomb attack claimed by ISIS killed at least 50 people and wounded 80 others in Syria, a spokesman for the Kurdish militia that controls the area said on Friday.
The town in the northeastern province of Hasaka is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, which has been battling ISIS with the support of U.S.-led airstrikes.
Kurdish fighters have advanced against the militants in the last few weeks in Hasaka, notably taking over the town of al Houl.
The three blasts, carried out by at least two suicide bombers, struck outside a hospital, at a market and in a residential area in the town of Tel Tamer late on Thursday, the YPG's Redur Xelil said via an Internet messaging service.
"There is massive destruction in the town and the number killed is between 50 and 60, all of them civilians," he said.
ISIS later said in an online statement that three of its fighters driving three separate vehicles had detonated the suicide bombs targeting "bases" belonging to Kurdish fighters. | Armed Conflict | December 2015 | ['(Reuters via NBC News)'] |
The official death toll from the major winter storms that struck Texas and triggered statewide blackouts last month rises to at least 111, more than double the previous reported numbers. It is also believed that the storms could become the costliest weather disaster in the state's history. | Follow NBC News Last month's crippling winter storm and massive power blackouts killed more than 100 people in Texas, state health officials said Thursday.
The revised death toll is almost double an initial count and could grow even more as information comes in, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.
Most of the 111 deaths were associated with hypothermia, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in an update.
Other causes of death include carbon monoxide poisoning, vehicle crashes, fires and medical equipment failure, the department said.
More than 4 million people in Texas lost power as generation facilities froze and demand for electricity overwhelmed the system. People were without heat for days. Freezing temperatures caused pipes and water mains to burst, and millions were told to boil water if they had access to heat or running water.
The National Weather Service says that damages from the winter weather could surpass that from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and could be the most costly weather disaster in state history.
The February storm was deadliest in Harris County, home to Houston, which saw 31 deaths, according to the Department of State Health Services.
Houston officials estimate the city had 50,000 homes and 400 apartment complexes with burst pipes, according to Mayor Sylvester Turner.
The deaths considered storm-related began Feb. 11, the day six people were killed in a 130-vehicle pileup in Fort Worth.
Earlier this month, the department tied 57 deaths to the weather disaster. In some cases, medical staff report weather-related causes of death or flag cases, and in others, department epidemiologists use public reports of deaths and match those to death certificates, it said.
The power blackout in Texas has been called one of the worst in the nation's history.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's power grid, was sharply criticized. Board members resigned, the CEO was fired and the chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission also resigned.
ERCOT officials have said that the decision to shut off power during the winter weather prevented a larger, uncontrolled blackout that would have taken weeks to recover from. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | March 2021 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Two people are killed and eight others injured in a mass shooting at a post-funeral gathering in Greenwood, Mississippi. Police believe the shooter used an AR-15 style rifle, but no suspects are in custody. | GREENWOOD, Miss. Ten people were shot, two fatally, during a post-funeral gathering in Mississippi over the weekend, police said.
Jonathan Pitts, 42, and his sister Katrina Pitts, 41, died at the scene of the shooting late Saturday in Greenwood, theGreenwood Commonwealth reported.
The siblings and other relatives from Chicago were in Greenwood to attend their grandmother’s funeral, investigators said. A gathering with family from both cities was held after the services.
Greenwood Deputy Police Chief Marvin Hammond said he could not immediately provide an age range of the other shooting victims or their conditions.
Eyewitnesses told police a semiautomatic rifle was used, and officers picked up shell casings from an AR-15. Hammond said the assailant was gone by the time officers arrived. No arrests had been made as of Sunday. | Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(USA Today)'] |
The former President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, is sentenced to seven years in prison, two years probation and payment of compensation to his victims on charges of rape, indecent assault, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice. Current President Shimon Peres says that "this is a sad day but everyone is equal before the law." | Katsav also receives two years probation and is ordered to pay NIS 125,000 compensation to his victims; judges: No man is above the law.
Former President of the State of Israel Moshe Katsav was sentenced to seven years in jail Tuesday, for after he had previously been found guilty of rape and other sexual offenses.
The court also ruled that Katsav must also serve two years of probation and pay NIS 100,000 to his rape victim, a former employee of the Tourism Ministry known as A., and to pay NIS 25,000 to L., a former employee of the President's Residence, whom he had sexually harrased and abused.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2011 | ['(Haaretz)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
The state funeral in Libreville of former President of Gabon Omar Bongo is attended by dignitaries from 40 nations. | LIBREVILLE, June 16 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and a dozen heads of state from around Africa gathered in Gabon on Tuesday to mark the death of President Omar Bongo after more than four decades in power.
Around 40 heads of state or their representatives paid their last respects to Bongo ahead of a military parade in honour of the veteran president, who was Africa’s longest serving leader when he died in a Spanish clinic just over a week ago. [ID:nL8571346]
Bongo’s body was due to be flown to Franceville, the main town in the southeastern province of Haut-Ogooue where he was born, for burial on Thursday.
“It is very emotional. It is a farewell ceremony so I am sad,” said Libreville resident Daniel Mba, as he waited for the parade in the oceanside capital’s Independence Square.
France’s former President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner joined leaders filing up to Bongo’s flag-draped coffin. Religious leaders led them in prayer.
French radio reported that Chirac was cheered but Sarkozy was booed by some in the crowd outside the presidential palace, highlighting the tight but complicated relationship Paris maintains with its former colonies.
Bongo enjoyed a very close relationship with Chirac but relations with France thawed somewhat under Sarkozy. Since Sarkozy came to power, a French magistrate has been probing the source of Bongo’s wealth in France.
“You leave a peaceful, free and fair Gabon,” Ali Ben Bongo, the late president’s son and defence minister, said in a eulogy.
Although Gabon’s oil wealth has largely failed to trickle down to benefit most Gabonese, the diminutive leader’s personality so dominated politics after he took power in 1967 that his death has left a void in the central African nation.
Senate leader Rose Francine Rogombe was sworn in as interim leader last Wednesday and the government has pledged to respect the constitution, under which fresh elections should be organised within 45 days.
But once the formal ceremonies and period of official mourning are out of the way, divisions within the ruling elite could emerge over who should succeed Bongo, despite his son’s vows on Tuesday to keep the family united.
Analysts expect the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), of which Rogombe is a member, to manage the transition tightly, with Ali Ben Bongo seen as a likely successor. But Ali could be challenged by his brother-in-law, Foreign Minister Paul Toungui.
Meanwhile African Union Chairman Jean Ping, a long-time Bongo ally, and Vice-President Didjob Divungi Di Ndinge have also been cited as possible successors.
“It is very complex,” Mba said, when asked about the future of his country. “I can’t say much but, the way I see things, it will get complicated in the future.”
Through Bongo’s strong bonds with various presidents in Paris and a French military base in Libreville, Gabon has epitomised the relationship France maintained with her former colonies in a policy that became known as “la Francafrique”.
Despite criticism that this has involved propping up dictators and promises from Sarkozy for a more honest relationship with the continent, analysts say France is likely to push for continuity and the protection of energy interests.
Civil society groups in Gabon have called for the formation of a transitional government, none of whose members should be allowed to stand in the elections, and for the electoral process -- which they say favoured Bongo's ruling elite over four decades -- to be reviewed. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by David Lewis)
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Death | June 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Mario Vargas Llosa, last year's recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, speaks out against authoritarian governments and calls on all citizens to participate in political life while addressing students at Shanghai International Studies University. | The writer told an audience at Shanghai International Studies University that politics "should not be left only in the hands of politicians".
"Dictatorial and authoritarian" governments corrupt society, he added.
The writer did not refer to China directly, however, and state-controlled media did not carry his comments.
Reports instead focussed on Vargas Llosa's sentiments on literature and how endless media interviews after winning the Nobel Prize for literature last October had disrupted his work and life.
The author is on an academic tour of China after being named an honorary professor at the university.
Vargas Llosa said he wanted his 1969 novel Conversation in the Cathedral to show "how a dictatorial and authoritarian government corrupts all the society".
He added it "effectively poisons the less political activities, those activities that are further from politics, corrupting and degrading them".
"Every single citizen should participate in the political life of his time. And from that participation the best choices can result," he said.
Last year, Vargas Llosa spoke out against the Chinese government in support of jailed Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo, who China says is a criminal.
The author called Liu "a Chinese fighter, who is a champion of democracy in his country" after he was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment in 2009 on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power. | Famous Person - Give a speech | June 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Citing "inappropriate behavior", Michael Oreskes resigns from his position as senior vice president of news at NPR after three journalists accuse him of sexual harassment. | NPR CEO Jarl Mohn said he asked Oreskes "for his resignation because of inappropriate behavior." Oreskes admitted to wrongdoing in an internal memo obtained by CNN. "I am deeply sorry to the people I hurt. My behavior was wrong and inexcusable, and I accept full responsibility," Oreskes wrote. "To my colleagues, I am grateful for every minute I've had to work with each of you," he wrote. "NPR has an important job to do. Public radio matters so much and I will always be your supporter." Oreskes is a nationally recognized leader in the journalism profession. Before joining NPR in 2015, he was a vice president and senior managing editor at the Associated Press. His departure is the latest example of the "Weinstein effect" -- with newfound attention on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. In the four weeks since The New York Times published its investigation into movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's misconduct, prominent men in other industries have also come under scrutiny. Oreskes came under pressure to step down after The Washington Post reported that he allegedly made unwanted sexual advances toward two journalists who were seeking jobs at The New York Times two decades ago. At least one of the accusers came forward in the wake of the Weinstein scandal. Both accusers told the Post that Oreskes unexpectedly kissed them during career-oriented business meetings while he was working as the Times' Washington bureau chief. After the Post story came out, a third accuser, who currently works at NPR, said she filed a complaint about him to NPR's human resources department in October 2015, according to NPR's own reporting. The employee's complaint said Oreskes "hijacked a career counseling session into a three-hour-long dinner that delved into deeply personal territory" and included mentions of sex with a former girlfriend. The network, at the time, rebuked Oreskes and informed other executives at the company after the complaint was filed, according to NPR's reporting. After the Post story was published on Tuesday, NPR placed Oreskes on "administrative leave." In a Wednesday morning memo to staff, hours before Oreskes stepped down, NPR CEO Jarl Mohn stressed that the company was taking the allegations seriously. "I'm writing to share that I've asked Vice President of News Programming and Operations Chris Turpin to take on interim leadership of the newsroom," Mohn said. "Starting today, Chris will serve in the capacity of the Senior Vice President of News for NPR and oversee both strategic direction and day to day operations related to our journalism." Mohn also urged staff to contact human resources, the legal department, or his office directly "if you believe you have experienced or are aware of any incidence of harassment or other inappropriate behavior." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2017 | ['(CNN)'] |
Aogan O' Fearghail is elected as the 38th President of the GAA, and the first from Cavan in the organisation's 130–year history. | Last updated on 21 February 201421 February 2014.From the section Gaelic Games
Aogán Ó Fearghaíl has been appointed as the 38th President of the GAA after being elected at Croke Park on Friday.
Ó Fearghaíl became the first Cavan native and seventh Ulster man to take on the role.
The Drumgoon Éire Óg clubman earned 170 votes, with Wexford's Sean Walsh second with 83 and Kerry's Sean Walsh third with 57 votes from the delegates.
Aogán Ó Fearghaíl has previously served in a variety of roles and was Ulster Council President. He is the first Ulsterman to assume the role of president since Monaghan's Sean McCague occupied the post between 2000 and 2003.
Ó Fearghaíl has served in a variety of roles at club, county and provincial level and the Dernakesh national schoolteacher will take up his post following GAA Congress 2015.
In the interim period, he will serve as President-elect for one year, before taking over from Liam O'Neill.
School principal Ó Fearghaíl , who served as Ulster Council President from 2010 to 2013, has vowed to focus on 'the four F's' during his time in office.
"I would have at the core of everything I stand for the four F's of finance, fixtures, facilities and family, and they are interchangeable," he said prior to his election.
"We are a games organisation and we must always have games and lots of games. "In anything you do in life you remain firmly focused on your core beliefs and what you're about, and we're about games.
"We're about football and hurling and camogie and handball and many many other things, but I would bring a firm focus about what we do as a games organisation."
Ó Fearghaíl has indicated he is not in favour of a 'Team Ulster' in hurling and would instead prefer to develop the game in the weaker counties.
"Personally I wouldn't be a strong advocate of it and I have no doubt that the people who have advocated it for ten years or more feel it would be a way of putting out a strong team.
"Anything that adds to the debate is welcome. I'm not sure about it myself, however. I think 'Team Ulster' would still be 'Team Antrim' with one or two players from other counties.
"We can never improve quality in hurling in Ulster until we improve quantity and we are doing that now.
"There are more children and more adults playing the game than ever before and with the numbers playing, I believe quality will follow." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | February 2014 | ['(The Score)', '(BBC)'] |
Thomas S. Monson is chosen as the 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints. | By JENNIFER DOBNER – 2 days ago SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Thomas S. Monson, a leader who became known for his folksy storytelling as he ascended through church ranks, was introduced Monday as the 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Monson, 80, succeeds Gordon B. Hinckley, who died last month at age 97. Out of respect for the deceased president, the Mormon church never names a successor until after funeral services. Hinckley was buried Saturday.
The church relies on a pattern of apostolic succession in selecting a new president. Since the early part of the 20th century, the position has always passed to the most-senior member of its Council of Twelve Apostles, the second-tier of church leadership. Monson was formally chosen Sunday.
Monson said he was prepared to follow Hinckley.
"It's not difficult because he blazed the trail," Monson said at a news conference. "I worked with him for so long — 44 years. We knew each other so well. I knew and testify afresh that he was the Lord's prophet."
Latter-day Saints know Monson as a compassionate storyteller whose parables recount the stories of individuals resolving their struggles through faith.
As a senior church leader, Monson has served as an international envoy for the church and supervised the expansion of humanitarian programs. He's also known for forming ecumenical partnership with other faiths.
Monson was named to the Council of Twelve Apostles in October 1963 at the age of 36, after serving as a local church bishop and as director of the church's Canadian missionary activities in Toronto.
He went on to serve as counselor to Hinckley and two previous presidents in the church's highest leadership circle, the First Presidency.
He is the youngest man to hold the presidency since Spencer W. Kimball, who was 78 when named president in 1973. Mormon presidents serve for life.
As president, Monson will shepherd a growing church with 13 million members in 160 countries. Of those, about 5.7 million are in the United States. One-third of church members live in Utah.
Monson, a Navy World War II veteran, is a graduate of the University of Utah and holds a master's degree in business administration from the church-owned Brigham Young University in Provo.
Professionally, he worked for the church's secular businesses, including the Deseret Morning News and the Deseret News Press. He was also the representative who served on the boards of other church-owned businesses, including KSL-TV and Beneficial Life Insurance Co.
He has been married to Frances Beverly Johnson since 1948. The couple has three children. eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. | Government Job change - Election | February 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
Russia, Iran and Turkey reach an agreement, effective this midnight, to establish four "safe zones" in Syria over which all military aircraft, including Turkish, Russian, and American aircraft, will be barred from flying. |
MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - A de-escalation agreement in Syria takes effect at midnight but Russia’s air force will continue strikes against Islamic State elsewhere in the country, Russian news agencies cited the Defense Ministry as saying on Friday.
The largest of the four de-escalation zones is in northern Syria and includes Idlib province and adjoining districts of Latakia, Aleppo and Hama with a total population of over 1 million, the ministry said.
Iran and Turkey agreed on Thursday to Russia’s proposal to establish the de-escalation zones.
But details of the memorandum the three guarantors signed were sketchy, while the main Syrian opposition group said it lacked all legitimacy.
The zones appear intended to halt conflict in specific areas between government forces and rebels, and would potentially be policed by foreign troops.
The fact that the de-escalation agreement was supported by the United Nations, the United States and Saudi Arabia guaranteed its implementation, the RIA and Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin as saying.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters the U.S.-led coalition in Syria had not altered its operations, but declined to comment on the de-escalation zones.
With the help of Russia and Iranian-backed militias, the Syrian government has gained the military upper hand against rebel groups, including some supported by Turkey, the U.S. and Gulf monarchies.
| Sign Agreement | May 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(Fox News)'] |
The Law Society of England and Wales issues a report claiming that Turkey has prosecuted 1,539 lawyers since the 2016 coup d'état attempt. The report states that 580 people still remain incarcerated with 103 more having received prison sentences. | Disturbing new details have emerged of the scale of the Turkish government's clamp-down on the independent legal profession following the failed coup in 2016. According to the Arrested Lawyers campaign group, 1,539 lawyers have been prosecuted, 103 sentenced to prison terms of up to 11 years and 580 remain in custody.
Lawyers have been detained in 77 of the country's 81 provinces, the report, Incarceration of Turkish Lawyers, states. Victims include 14 presidents or former presidents of provincial bar associations. Among them is the former president of the Konya Bar Association, Fevzi Kayacan, who was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison last year.
Like others, Kayacan was sentenced by first instance courts under articles of the Turkish Penal Code relating to membership and activities in support of an armed terrorist organisation. Arrested Laywers says the law's lack of legal definitions make it prone to arbitrary application.
'Vague formulation of the criminal provisions on the security of the state and terrorism and their overly broad interpretation by Turkish judges and prosecutors make all lawyers and other human rights defenders a prospective victim of judicial harassment,' the report states.
The campaign group says that lawyers are being persecuted for acting with integrity on behalf of their clients.
The Law Society of England and Wales is among the legal bodies around the world to have condemned the arrests and jailings, the group says, appealing for international solidarity. 'Arrested lawyers and human rights defenders who have to suffer inhumane treatment at the hands of Turkish officials desperately need such action from European organizations.
'Any effort in support of arrested lawyers, human rights defenders and other victims of the Turkish government’s unlawful actions is highly appreciated.'
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2018 | ['(The Law Gazette)'] |
Voters in Chile head to the polls to elect a president, as well as positions in the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, as well as regional boards. | Eight candidates are standing, with conservative billionaire Sebastián Piñera seen as favourite to return to the post he held from 2010-14.
Socialist contender Alejandro Guillier, a former journalist, is regarded as the most realistic challenger to Mr Piñera.
On Sunday, voters are also electing all 155 members of the lower house and half of the senate.
Mr Piñera, 67, has been leading in recent opinion polls. However, analysts say he may fail to get 50% of the votes needed to avoid a run-off in December.
In 2010, he became Chile's first conservative leader since the country's return to democracy, ending two decades of uninterrupted centre-left rule.
During the current presidential campaign Mr Piñera has managed to unite Chile's conservative wing, and enjoys backing of the business community.
He represents the right-wing Chile Vamos coalition.
His victory would represent another shift to the right in South America after the rise of conservative leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Peru.
Meanwhile, Mr Guillier, 64, is a candidate from Ms Bachelet's left-wing Nueva Mayoria coalition.
He has pledged to continue a series of liberal reforms launched by Ms Bachelet, who is unable to seek immediate re-election under Chile's constitution. | Government Job change - Election | November 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel wins Outstanding Comedy series and Game of Thrones wins Outstanding Drama series. | The Amazon TV series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" led the field with five honors at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards – including wins for best comedy and lead actress (Rachel Brosnahan) – while HBO fantasy powerhouse "Game of Thrones" took the night's big prize, outstanding drama, its third win in the category.
Other highlights included Claire Foy ("The Crown") winning for lead drama actress, Bill Hader ("Barry") for comedic actor and three trophies for "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story," including best limited series.
Here's a minute-by-minute breakdown (EDT) of the night's festivities and winners:
10:59: The big prize of the night goes to the one with the dragons, of course: "Game of Thrones" wins best drama. Co-creator D.B. Weiss paid tribute to the show's literary mastermind, George R.R. Martin: "The show cannot be without the mad genius of George."
10:50: "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is named best comedy, its fifth Emmy of the night.
10:41: "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" snags its third win – and biggest – of the night: outstanding limited series. "It's about homophobia, it's about a country that allows hatred to grow unfettered," creator Ryan Murphy says, dedicating the award to Versace and "all those taken too soon."
10:38: HBO's "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver wins back-to-back-to-back trophies for variety talk series. Oliver's son "hates our show and loves 'Paw Patrol,' " he says. "If anything, our show is the exact opposite of 'Paw Patrol.' "
More:The best and worst of the 2018 Emmys, from the winners to the live TV proposal
More:Are stars at the Emmys optimistic about #MeToo? Not exactly
10:32: "Saturday Night Live" gets its second consecutive Emmy for variety sketch show. "I love my job and I love the people I work with," creator Lorne Michaels says. With the win, "SNL" breaks its own record for most Emmys with 72 total.
10:28: "RuPaul's Drag Race" is named outstanding reality show. Naturally, RuPaul accepts: "This is so lovely!"
10:13: "The Crown" star Claire Foy wins lead actress in a drama. "This wasn't supposed to happen!" she says. "I had the most extraordinary 2½ years of my life. I was given a role I never thought I'd be given a chance to play. ... I dedicate this to the next cast, the next generation and (co-star) Matt Smith."
10:09: "The Americans" star Matthew Rhys goes out on a high note, winning lead actor in a drama. "It's just like my last birthday," he says, thanking co-star Keri Russell. "She said, 'If you propose to me, I will punch you in the mouth.' "
10:03: Best directing for a drama goes to Stephen Daldry for "The Crown."
9:59: "The Americans" wins for best drama writing for Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, a feather in the cap for the FX spy show's final season.
Related:First-ever Emmy Award marriage proposal sends Twitter into a frenzy: 'Best speech ever!'
More:Jessica Biel, Kristen Bell and more best-dressed stars stun at the 2018 Emmys
9:52: HBO snags its second win in a row as "Westworld" star Thandie Newton is named outstanding supporting actress in a drama. "I don't even believe in God, but I'm going to thank Her tonight," she says.
9:49: "Game of Thrones" finally strikes! Peter Dinklage conquers the land as supporting actor in a drama – his third win in the category – and thanks show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss "for changing my life. I can't walk down the street anymore."
9:38: The "In Memoriam" segment features Aretha Franklin singing amid tributes to luminaries such as Anthony Bourdain, Della Reese, John Mahoney, Charlotte Rae, Robert Guillaume, Monty Hall, Neil Simon, Burt Reynolds and John McCain.
9:30: Glenn Weiss takes best directing for a variety special for the Oscars and, because he hasn't won enough for the night, proposes to girlfriend Jan Svendsen during his acceptance speech. She seals the deal with a kiss, and he closes with a "Thank you to the Academy!"
9:27: John Mulaney wins variety special writing for "John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City." He thanks his wife, who told him "I just can’t fly across the country to watch you lose."
9:23: Michael Che gives out "Reparation Emmys" to African-American sitcom stars such as Marla Gibbs, Kadeem Hardison, Jaleel White, Jimmie Walker and John Witherspoon – with a guest appearance from Bryan Cranston.
9:17: "The Assassination of Gianni Versace" takes a second Emmy with Darren Criss winning lead actor in a limited series. "You guys are witnessing the greatest moment of my career," Criss says.
9:13: Presenter Leslie Jones goes nuts and screams as Regina King wins for lead actress in a limited series for "Seven Seconds." "Really? I have nothing to say because I really wasn't expecting this," she says. "I want to curse right now but thank you, Jesus."
9:10: Ryan Murphy nabs the limited series directing award for "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story." "I just want to thank all the women in my life who've supported me my whole life," he says. "I love you and don't deserve you."
9:06: Betty White, 96 and still awesome, comes out and charms everybody: "It’s incredible I'm still in this business and you’re still putting up with me."
8:57: The "Black Mirror" episode "USS Callister" wins for best limited series writing for William Bridges and Charlie Brooker. "What a delightful but horrifying out-of-body experience," quips writer/creator Charlie Brooker, who feels it necessary to thanks his young kids, even though "it turns out they're not really into 'Black Mirror.' "
8:53: And just like that, "Godless" snags a second limited series trophy as Jeff Daniels conquers the supporting actor field. He thanks his horse Apollo: "He was Jeff Bridges' horse on 'True Grit' and I feel he was making unfair comparisons." (Daniels was thrown off three times, breaking his left wrist.)
8:48: Netflix gets on the board with Merritt Wever winning supporting actress in a limited series for "Godless." "I hope you don’t mistake my fear for a lack of gratitude," a clearly shaken Wever says. "I’m still shocked you made space for me and a space for Mary Agnes."
8:40: Bill Hader is victorious! He wins lead actor in a comedy for "Barry," admitting that "I didn't think this was going to happen."
8:36: And the “Maisel” massacre continues, with No. 4 going to star Rachel Brosnahan for lead actress in a comedy. Her show is "about a woman finding her voice anew, and it’s something that's happening across the country right now," she says, asking the crowd to vote.
8:29: Let's make that three for "Maisel," as Amy Sherman-Palladino snags best directing, too. "My panic room's going to be so pretty!"
8:27: "Maisel" takes a second award quickly, with creator Amy Sherman-Palladino winning best comedy writing and having some issues getting on stage. "Whoever put that carpet down hates women. Time's up!" she jokes.
8:24: Alex Borstein from Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” takes supporting actress in a comedy and thanks her boss, Amy Sherman-Palladino: “I love you and I hate you.”
8:15: "Happy Days" icon Henry Winkler wins the first award of the night: supporting actor in a comedy for HBO's "Barry." "I only have 30 seconds but I wrote this 40 years ago," Winkler says of his acceptance speech, which ended with a shout-out to his kids: "You can go to bed now. Daddy won!"
8:06: Hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che arrive, and Jost gets in the first zinger, about the alcohol flowing at the event: "The one thing Hollywood needs right now is people losing their inhibitions at a work function." Che title-drops "Black-ish" and quips "that's how I'm supposed to act tonight," before joking that "The Handmaid's Tale" is " 'Roots' for white women." Jost mentions that Netflix has "700 shows" now and laments the streaming service didn't pick up his pitch: "It's like being turned down for a CVS rewards card." Jost also tosses out an idea for an all-white reboot of "Atlanta": "15 Miles Outside of Atlanta."
8:00: “SNL’s” Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson come out to celebrate diversity. “One step closer to a black Sheldon,” Thompson said. They then launch into a number called “We Solved It.” Sandra Oh chimes in, “It’s an honor just to be Asian,” and then other stars get involved including Sterling K. Brown, Tituss Burgess, Kristen Bell and Ricky Martin, who steals the performance with one line: “You haven’t solved it: This song is too white.” At least until John Legend comes out to croon at the end. | Awards ceremony | September 2018 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Russian authorities discover and deactivate an explosive device in a Saint Petersburg flat, during ongoing raids occurring in response to the bombing. | Eight people are being held in connection with the bombing on St Petersburg metro, Russian investigators have confirmed. The arrests - six in Moscow, two in St Petersburg - came three days after 13 people were killed in the attack. Earlier on Thursday, an explosive device was made safe in a flat in St Petersburg by Russian police.
Neighbours were moved away and witnesses told local media they saw men led out in handcuffs.
The main suspect in the metro bombing, Akbarzhon Jalilov, also died in the explosion. He was aged 22 and from the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. His remains were identified by his parents on Wednesday, and by DNA testing. Russian investigators are examining tape, tin foil and some other suspicious items found at Jalilov's St Petersburg flat. Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) says they appear similar to components found in a device left at Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station on the day of the bombing.
The flat raided at around 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Thursday was in Tovarishchesky Prospekt in the east of St Petersburg. "An explosive device found in the flat has been made safe. Several suspects have been arrested; they didn't resist and there's now no threat to local people," the head of the local authority Konstantin Serov was quoted as saying.
Sources told Interfax news agency that investigators were examining possible links between the men and the alleged bomber. Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) said on Thursday they had established that "several citizens of Central Asian republics were in contact with Jalilov". Eight people from Central Asia were also arrested in the city on Wednesday as part of the metro bomb investigation. The SK said they were held for allegedly recruiting for Islamist militant groups such as so-called Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra since 2015, and "committing crimes of a terrorist nature".
The SK has named the 13 people who died, aside from Jalilov, on Monday afternoon after the train had left Sennaya Ploshchad station. About 50 injured are being treated in hospital. | Armed Conflict | April 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United States Supreme Court, in ruling on United States v. Stevens, strikes down a law outlawing videos that depict animal cruelty. | The Supreme Court on Tuesday forcefully struck down a federal law aimed at banning depictions of dog fighting and other violence against animals, saying it violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and created a "criminal prohibition of alarming breadth."
The 8 to 1 ruling, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was a ringing endorsement of the First Amendment's protection of even distasteful expression. Roberts called "startling and dangerous" the government's argument that the value of certain categories of speech should be weighed against their societal costs when protecting free speech.
"The First Amendment itself reflects a judgment by the American people that the benefits of its restrictions on the government outweigh the costs," Roberts wrote. "Our Constitution forecloses any attempt to revise that judgment simply on the basis that some speech is not worth it."
The decision was the second major First Amendment ruling of the term, and far more unified than the first. In January, a divided court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations and unions have a right to use their general treasuries and profits to spend freely on political ads for and against specific candidates.
Paul M. Smith, a Washington lawyer who had filed an amicus brief in the animal cruelty case on behalf of civil libertarians who opposed the law, called it "quite a strong decision" and said it was more evidence of a "court that is moving in the direction of strong enforcement of the First Amendment."
The law was enacted in 1999 to forbid sales of so-called crush videos. They appeal to a certain sexual fetish by depicting the torture of animals -- cats, dogs, monkeys, mice and hamsters, according to Congress -- or showing them being crushed to death by women wearing stiletto heels or with their bare feet. While dog-fighting and other forms of animal cruelty are already illegal, Congress said the legislation was necessary to stop the production of videos for commercial gain.
But the government has not used the law to prosecute any producer of a crush video. Instead, the case before the court, United States v. Stevens, involves Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., who was sentenced to three years in prison for making videos of pit bulls fighting. An appeals court overturned the conviction when it ruled the law was unconstitutional.
Roberts' opinion said the court was not passing judgment about whether a narrower statute limited just to crush videos and "other depictions of extreme animal cruelty" might be constitutional.
But the court said the legislation passed by Congress was far too broad. Anyone who "creates, sells or possesses a depiction of animal cruelty" for commercial gain can be imprisoned for up to five years. A depiction of cruelty was defined as one in which "a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed."
Roberts wrote that the definition was so loose that it could include all depictions of wounding or killing animals, even hunting videos or magazines. He said the law's exemption for works of "serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical or artistic value" was not enough protection, and the court was not reassured by the government's argument that prosecutions were rare.
"We would not uphold an unconstitutional statute merely because the government promised to use it responsibly," he wrote.
Besides, he added, when President Bill Clinton signed the measure into law, he said the Justice Department would limit prosecutions to "wanton cruelty to animals designed to appeal to a prurient interest in sex." That was not the case in the Stevens prosecution.
The court has identified only certain categories of speech as outside the First Amendment's protection: obscenity, fraud, incitement, defamation and speech integral to criminal conduct. The last time the court decided speech was so unredeeming it did not deserve such protection was 25 years ago, and the subject was child pornography.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was the lone dissenter in Tuesday's opinion.
He said the law was enacted "not to suppress speech, but to prevent horrific acts of animal cruelty." He said that the entire law need not be found unconstitutional, and that the "practical effect" of the ruling would be to spur production of crush videos, which opponents such as the Humane Society of the United States said had decreased with passage of the 1999 law.
Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle said his organization was prepared for the court's ruling given the tough questioning of justices at oral arguments last fall. "We're hopeful that a more narrowly tailored law aimed at vicious and illegal acts of cruelty" would pass constitutional muster, he said, adding that work already is underway with supportive members of Congress.
David Horowitz, executive director of the Media Coalition, said in a statement that the court rightly decided that if the First Amendment were rewritten "every time an unpopular or distasteful subject was at issue, we wouldn't have any free speech left."
Horowitz -- whose organization represents publishers, booksellers and producers, and retailers of movies, videos and video games -- said that "animal cruelty is wrong and should be vigorously prosecuted, but as the court today found, sending people to prison for making videos is not the answer." | Government Policy Changes | April 2010 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
The European Commission confirms that Bulgaria and Romania are set to join the European Union on 1 January 2007, in what may be the last EU expansion before a European constitution is established. | Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said both countries had made enough progress to join the union.
But they will be checked for progress in curbing organised crime and corruption, and ensuring food safety and the proper use of EU funds.
Bulgaria's PM said the move was the fall of the Berlin Wall for his nation.
Romanian Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said his people should be proud of themselves, but should not make the mistake of thinking that accession would mean all the country's problems would be solved.
The conditions are tougher than those imposed on previous new members, observers say.
The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Strasbourg says they are intended both as a reassurance for EU citizens, only half of whom support further enlargement, and as a warning to Turkey and the Balkan nations still lobbying for EU membership. Concerns remain
The commission's report confirms that after seven years of talks, Bulgaria and Romania are able to take on the rights and obligations of EU membership.
Bulgaria and Romania have made further progress... demonstrating their capacity to apply EU principles and legislation from 1 January 2007
Commission report on Bulgaria and RomaniaMr Barroso said the two nations' entry would be a "historic achievement".
"Bulgaria and Romania have carried out an extraordinary reform process and they have gone through a remarkable transformation," he said.
The two countries missed out on the EU's big eastward expansion in 2004.
Correspondents say they will be delighted that they can get in on schedule before Mr Barroso puts a block on further expansion.
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Poland
Slovakia
"This is the genuine and final fall of the Berlin Wall for Bulgaria," said Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.
But the commission president said there were a number of areas where further progress was needed in the months leading to accession and beyond.
Unless Bulgaria cracks down on organised crime, legal decisions taken by its courts could be disregarded in the rest of Europe.
Both countries will have to report every six months on progress in fighting corruption.
By March, they also need to set up agencies to handle millions of euros worth of EU farm aid, or risk losing a quarter of the cash.
Both will face food export bans due to outbreaks of animal diseases like swine fever, while Bulgarian planes could be banned from flying into EU airspace until the country improves its air safety standards.
There could also be restrictions on migration to other EU countries for up to three years.
Streamlining needed
An EU official said the commission did not want to punish Bulgaria and Romania, but to make them work harder to carry out reforms.
I think Romania is certainly ready for the EU - it's like any other European country and has some great qualities...
John Gearing, Liverpool
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Mr Barroso said on Monday the EU could not go on with further expansion until it decided what to do about its stalled constitution.
The rules of the European club can currently cope to 27 members at most, though experts say they could be tinkered with to squeeze Croatia in before a major treaty change.
"It would be unwise to bring in other member states apart from Romania and Bulgaria," he said on Monday. "There are some limits to our absorption capacity." | Join in an Organization | September 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in Uganda go to the polls for a general election to elect a new President of Uganda as well as for parliamentary and local elections. The Presidential race with eight candidates including incumbent Yoweri Museveni and seven challengers is tipped to be the closest in the nation's history. | Social media has been blocked in Uganda on the day of presidential elections to stop people "telling lies", President Yoweri Museveni has said.
Mr Museveni, 71, is seeking to extend his 30-year rule, in a race widely seen as the tightest in the East African state's history.
His main rival Kizza Besigye was briefly detained by police.
A foreign observer group condemned the blockage of social media and lengthy delays in opening voting booths.
Interviewed on TV about social media, Mr Museveni said: "Some people misuse those pathways. You know how they misuse them - telling lies. "If you want a right then use it properly." Many people found a way around the controversial restrictions, including opposition candidate Amama Mbabazi who tweeted advice on how to do it: A VPN - a Virtual Private Network - gets round government censorship by redirecting your internet activity to a computer in a different country.
Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and mobile money services were blocked.
Despite this, #UgandaDecides was trending on Twitter. Commonwealth election observer mission head Olusegun Obasanjo said: "It is ill advised if anyone has blocked social media."
Condemning the failure of voting stations to open on time, he said: "Delays of three, four, five and even six hours, especially in Kampala, are absolutely inexcusable and will not inspire trust and confidence in the system and the process".
The electoral commission said difficulties in transporting electoral materials caused the delays, and voting at some polling stations would continue on Friday.
The BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga in the capital, Kampala, reports that crowds were angry after waiting several hours to vote and police fired tear gas to disperse them. Voting was cancelled at at least two polling stations in the city after clashes with police and accusations of fake ballots being distributed.
Some voters in Kampala, traditionally an opposition stronghold, accused the authorities of deliberately stalling the vote, AFP news agency reports.
"People are quite angry and everybody is believing that there is something wrong behind this because of the way they are delaying things," Moses Omony, a motorbike taxi driver, is quoted as saying.
Mr Besigye was arrested for demanding access to a house in Kampala where he believed vote rigging was taking place following the closure of polling stations, said Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, spokesman for his FDC party.
He was taken to a police station before being released. Mr Besigye is among seven opposition candidates hoping to end Mr Museveni's 30-year rule. A candidate needs to secure more than 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off with the second-ranked contender.
Ugandans also voted in parliamentary elections. Counting is under way and official results are expected by Saturday. | Government Job change - Election | February 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
A court in the United Kingdom sentences 36–year–old Indonesian national Reynhard Sinaga to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting at least 48 young men in Manchester. Sinaga was convicted of a total of 159 sex offences, and is said to be Britain's most prolific serial rapist. | LONDON (Reuters) - A student from Indonesia was identified as Britain’s most prolific rapist on Monday after being convicted of more than 150 offences, including 136 rapes.
In four separate trials, Reynhard Sinaga, 36, was found guilty of assaulting 48 men whom he drugged after taking them back to his apartment from outside bars and clubs in the city of Manchester.
Many of the victims were lured by the offer of a place to sleep or more drink, and Sinaga filmed the assaults on his mobile phone, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
At a court in Manchester, a judge ruled that Sinaga must serve at least 30 years in prison for 159 offences committed between between January 2015 and May 2017, and lifted reporting restrictions.
Ian Rushton, a government prosecutor, described Sinaga as the “most prolific rapist in British legal history”.
Sinaga, who has lived in the United Kingdom since 2007, targeted young men who looked drunk or vulnerable and rendered them unconscious with a sedative, probably the party drug gamma-hydroxybutyric acid that is known as GHB, the court was told.
The victims were mainly heterosexual and had little or no memory of the attacks. But Sinaga was arrested after one of his victims woke up during an attack, fought him off and went to the police with one of his phones.
Police discovered graphic material – equivalent to 250 DVDs or 300,000 photos – depicting sexual assaults on Sinaga’s digital devices. Sinaga had said his victims were acting out sexual fantasies.
The court was told Sinaga kept men’s belongings as trophies and looked them up on Facebook.
The rape investigation is the largest in British legal history. It is the first time prosecutors have split charges across four separate trials.
Police said there could be many more victims and are appealing for others who may have been targeted to come forward.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2020 | ['(BBC News)', '(Reuters)'] |
Former Indonesian leader Suharto is taken to hospital in critical condition for anemia and low blood pressure. | Mr Suharto, 86, was taken to hospital on Friday with symptoms of anaemia and low blood pressure. He deteriorated that night but has since stabilised.
He has been put on kidney dialysis and needs a second pacemaker operation.
Mr Suharto took power in 1966 and ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for a total of 32 years.
He and his family deny reports that they stole billions of dollars while he was in power. | Famous Person - Sick | January 2008 | ['(BBC)'] |
Over 2,000 Israelis protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of endangering democracy in the country and using the coronavirus crisis to escape prosecution on corruption charges. |
TEL AVIV, Israel -- More than 2,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday, demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to form an “emergency” government with his chief rival and accusing him of using the coronavirus crisis to escape prosecution on corruption charges.
Demonstrators wore face masks and largely kept their distance from one another, in line with social-distancing rules, as speakers criticized Netanyahu's possible partnership with rival Benny Gantz. Some held black flags, which have become the symbol of their campaign in recent weeks.
Gantz, who during three bitter election campaigns over the past year vowed never to sit in a government with Netanyahu due to his legal problems, announced last month that he had accepted the prime minister's suggestion to form an “emergency” government to deal with the coronavirus crisis. The announcement infuriated many of Gantz's supporters and caused his Blue and White party to fracture.
“You don't fight corruption from within. If you're inside, you're part of it,” said Yair Lapid, Gantz's former political partner, who withdrew from the Blue and White alliance last month.
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of justice and accepting bribes. He denies the charges and says he is the victim of a hostile media and aggressive police and prosecutors.
Protesters on Sunday accused Netanyahu of exploiting the crisis to evade his looming trial and cement his lengthy rule.
Citing the pandemic, Netanyahu's hand-picked justice minister delayed the prime minister's trial just two days before it was to begin until late May.
Since then, Netanyahu's coalition talks with Gantz have reportedly stalled due to demands by the prime minister to gain more control over judicial appointments and assurances that he can remain in office even if he gives up the prime minister's job in a proposed power-sharing arrangement with Gantz. Under Israeli law, public officials, with the exception of the prime minister, must resign if charged with a crime.
Demonstrators repeatedly chanted “democracy” and accused the prime minister of endangering the country's democratic institutions. “Corona equals virus in the service of a dictator," said one sign. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
The death toll from a Malawi cholera epidemic reaches 30. | LILONGWE (Reuters) - The death toll from cholera in Malawi has risen to 30 from the 26 recorded last month, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The number of infections has risen to 893 from 844 in March, the ministry said.
Cases in the capital, Lilongwe, rose to 352 from 305 and deaths from 14 to 18 during the period of March 26 to April 11, said Joshua Malango, a spokesman for the ministry.
Parts of Lilongwe have experienced flash flooding, and heavy rain continues in most parts of the country.
The cholera outbreak has been blamed on drinking water from shallow, contaminated sources.
| Disease Outbreaks | April 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Bill Shorten is elected as the head of the federal Australian Labor Party, defeating Anthony Albanese in a leadership ballot. | Shorten won 52.02 percent of the overall vote, comprising 63.9 percent of the caucus vote and 40 percent of the Party members' vote.
"The branch members will be disappointed that their candidate didn't win," outgoing interim leader Chris Bown admitted. "[But] they'll be grateful that they had a say, and they'll have a say in future."
The grassroots effect
Under reforms introduced by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, caucus and party members were given a 50-50 say in determining who will lead the fight against the Abbott government from opposition.
This morning Mr Shorten said he was "quietly confident" grassroots members would back him, while Mr Albanese was hoping his popularity among the rank and file would get him over the line.
Labor president Jenny McAllister said whatever the outcome, the party would rally behind the new opposition leader.
She played down the prospect of the winner's leadership being weakened because of the split between the caucus and rank and file results.
"It's probably been the toughest process faced by any of the previous men or women who have led the Labor Party on their journey to leadership," she told Sky News on Sunday.
"It's actually not two votes but one large vote."
The party will look at how the process worked once it's over, she said.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison mocked the Labor party's new leadership ballot process.
"They seem to have forgotten the fact that they've lost an election and the reasons for losing that election," he told Network Ten on Sunday.
"They think it was all about personalities but remain in complete denial about the policy failures that led to their loss."
Labor political strategist Bruce Hawker said he'd be surprised if Kevin Rudd made another tilt for the party's leadership.
"I don't think it's advisable, frankly," Mr Hawker told Network Ten.
"I think those days are behind us."
Mr Hawker said the party would be well served by both Mr Albanese and Mr Shorten.
Mr Albanese was a "pugnacious performer", he said, while Mr Shorten was "smoother in presentation".
Mr Albanese arrived at Parliament House in Canberra on Sunday morning flanked by his wife Carmel Tebbutt, a former NSW deputy premier.
He told reporters that whoever wins the ballot will be "more legitimate than any political leader in a major political party in Australia's history".
Mr Albanese pointed out that Prime Minister Tony Abbott won the Liberal Party leadership by one vote in its party room, whereas 30,000 Labor members have had a say in the ALP's leadership ballot. | Government Job change - Election | October 2013 | ['(Yahoo! News)'] |
In Brazil, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, speaks to a group of World Youth Day delegates from 75 countries and 40 movements. He hopes World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro will have a lasting effect on the hundreds of thousands of young people slated to attend. | The president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity said he hopes World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro will have a lasting effect on the hundreds of thousands of young people slated to attend.
Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko made his remarks in Brazil before a group of delegates from 75 countries and 40 movements in preparation for the global youth event which will take place July 23-28 next summer.
“Let us live this time of preparation with joy and enthusiasm, despite the difficulties,” so that World Youth Day will not be “a fire lasting only a few days,” but instead “a long-term sowing that bears fruit for life,” the cardinal said.
Cardinal Rylko noted that Pope Benedict is following preparations “with particular attention,” and told the delegates that remain joyful in confronting their challenges, “in order to bring young people to Christ and to bring Christ to young people.”
During remarks to open the preparatory meetings on Nov. 26, Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta of Rio cited the words of Pope Paul VI at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council and invited the delegates “to take up the flame of the faith and pass it on to your contemporaries.”
“Be missionaries yourselves first. Evangelize your friends,” he told them.
Mayor Eduardo da Costa Paes of Rio added that the vigil and final Mass for World Youth Day will be held at Guaratiba, which is west of the city and has room for two and half million people.
Organizers also announced that the event will include a vocations fair where over 158 movements and lay associations will introduce young people to their charisms. There will also be 200 stations for confessions, as well as a Eucharistic adoration tent.
The John Paul II Foundation for Young People, in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Rio, will also organize an art expo June 11 - Sept. 15 at the National Museum of Fine Art.
At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith. We provide news about the Church and the world, as seen through the teachings of the Catholic Church. | Famous Person - Give a speech | December 2012 | ['(Catholic News Agency)'] |
Opposition leader Juan Guaidó swears himself in as President of Venezuela, with de facto President Nicolás Maduro not recognizing this. | Our live coverage of the protests in Venezuela has ended. You can read more about it here or scroll through the posts below to see how it unfolded.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Wednesday responding to Nicolás Maduro's demand that US diplomats to depart Venezuela in the next 72 hours.
Pompeo said the US will maintain diplomatic relations with Venezuela despite Maduro's order. He went on to say the US has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president.
Pompeo also issued this firm warning:
"The United States will take appropriate actions to hold accountable anyone who endangers the safety and security of our mission and its personnel."
Juan Guaido, who declared himself acting president of Venezuela, thanked President Trump for his support.
“On behalf of all #Venezuela I thank your commitment to support the Venezuelan’s people’s will," Guaido tweeted.
Guaido was responding to Trump's earlier tweet recognizing him as Venezuela's acting president.
From CNN's Michelle Kosinski
A senior Trump administration official told CNN that Nicolás Maduro’s order for US diplomats to depart Venezuela “is meaningless.”
President Trump announced today that he is recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Following Trump's announcement, Maduro said he was officially breaking relations with the United States and said US diplomatic staff in Venezuela had 72 hours to leave.
From CNN’S Flora Charner
National Assembly President Juan Guaido, who swore himself in as acting president of Venezuela earlier Wednesday, asking all embassies to “maintain their diplomatic presence in the country.”
Guaido issued a statement on his official Twitter account shortly after Nicolás Maduro ordered all consular staff to leave the country within the next 72 hours.
The statement, printed on National Assembly letterhead, was addressed to “all Embassies with presence in Venezuela."
Here's what Guaido wrote in the statement:
Many foreign governments, including the United States, have expressed their support for Guaido assuming the role as acting president of Venezuela.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, responding to Nicolás Maduro order to expel all US diplomats from Venezuela, tweeted that they shouldn't leave the country.
The Republican lawmaker said Maduro wasn't authorized to make such a demand since he wasn't the country's legitimate president. (Earlier today, National Assembly President Juan Guaido swore himself in as President of Venezuela today before a massive crowd of supporters in Caracas.)
Read the senator's tweet:
From CNN's Liz Stark
In a background call about Venezuela Wednesday, a senior Trump administration official said that “all options are on the table” with regards to possible future actions, including sanctions against the country. The remarks comes as President Trump announced earlier that he is recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
“In regards to the options, frankly in our sanctions, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what actually the United States can take from an economic sanctions front,” the senior administration official said.
CNN reported that depending on the severity of Nicolás Maduro's response, Trump is also prepared to take a range of actions to punish him, including possible oil sanctions, two sources familiar with White House deliberations said.
Later when asked about possible actions that the United States could take, the senior official reiterated: “Now if they choose the route of violence and seek to usurp the constitutional order and democracy, let us be clear, that we have a host of options. We will take every single one of those options seriously,” the official cautioned.
“The message to Maduro and his cronies will be that — if that is the route they choose — it will be very clear to them … they will have no immediate future. They will have no immediate livelihood. And therefore, one way or another, have their days counted.”
From CNN's Flora Charner
Nicolás Maduro spoke from the balcony of Venezuela’s presidential palace Wednesday, where he announced he was officially breaking political and diplomatic relations with the US and ordered all consular staff to leave the country within the next 72 hours.
“The imperial government of the United States is leading a coup attempt against us in order to install a puppet presidency that they can control in Venezuela,” Maduro said during the speech, which was live on state broadcaster VTV. From CNN’s Flora Charner
Organization of American States president Luis Almagro tweeted Wednesday his support for National Assembly President Juan Guaido moments after he swore himself in as president of Venezuela.
“We congratulate @jguaido as President in charge of #Venezuela. He has our full support and recognition to push the return of his country to democracy #23Jan #OaswithVenezuela," he tweeted.
The Organization of American States voted not to recognize President Nicolás Maduro’s second term as president of Venezuela during an extraordinary session on Jan. 10. The vote was 19 to 6, with eight abstentions and one absence. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2019 | ['(CNN)'] |
Seven Russian soldiers die from an explosion in breakaway South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali. | Seven Russian soldiers were killedin an explosion in theSouth Ossetian capital ofTskhinvali on October 3, officials in the breakaway region said.
Initial reports by the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee suggested that a car bombexploded outside Russian military headquarters,a building that formerly served as the Joint Peacekeeping Forces HQ in the region.
Six soldiers died immediatelyand one died in hospital later on the same day, according to the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee. About sevenother people werereportedlyinjured.
Marat Kulakhmetov,the Russian military commander on the ground, said the vehiclehad beenseized earlier bya Russian patrolclose to Tskhinvali, following the discovery of firearms and hand-grenadesin the vehicle. The car was then brought to Tskhinvali andas an additional search was being carried out inside the car, Kulakhmetov said, the explosion occured, according to Interfax news agency.
In another incident, an explosive went off in the Akhalgori district on the same day, slightly injuringat least one person. The breakaway region’s Interior Ministrysaid that Anatoli Margiev, the head of the local administration in Akhalgori, was the target of “the terrorist act.” Margiev has held his position since South Ossetian militias, backed byRussian troops,overran the Akhlagori district following the August war.
South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity has accused the Georgian side of being behind both incidents. “We have no doubt that these terrorist acts were masterminded byGeorgian special troops,” Kokoity told Interfax news agency.
Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said on October 3 thatprovocations were possible in and around South Ossetia, as the deadline October 10 for the withdrawal ofRussian troops fromareas adjacent to the breakaway regionapproached.
“Provocations are possible,” he told journalists. “Already there have been some minor provocations; we hope that they will not grow into large-scale confrontation.”
He saidTbilisi would not yield to provocations. “It is important to avoid military confrontation,” Iakobashvili said.
Meanwhile, Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the New Rights opposition party, said he expected incidents would be staged in the conflict areas. Heclaimedthe Georgian leadership was interested in keepingthe situation tense.
“He [President Saakasvhili] understands that his power is under threat and he will do anything to maintain power, includingthe staging of provocations to keep the situation tense there,” he saidon aKavkasia TV talk show late on October 2. HesuggestedEU observers monitoring areas adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia may be the target of such attacks. | Armed Conflict | October 2008 | ['(Bloomberg)', '(Civil Georgia)', '(CNN)'] |
Cyclone Harold hits Fiji. | April 8 -- Despite being spared a direct hit from Tropical Cyclone Harold, the island of Fiji has suffered extensive damage from high winds, rain and a battering storm surge, officials said.
The monster storm lashed the Vanuatu Islands on Tuesday as it charged eastward, battering the small islands, which are situated about 1,500 miles east of Australia's northeast coast, with fierce winds and heavy rains as it made landfall.
Harold, which AccuWeather meteorologists have been monitoring for over a week, formed a week ago in the Coral Sea before heading east toward the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The Solomon Islands were the first to be blasted by the strengthening cyclone over the weekend.
The Solomon Island Herald reported Monday that at least six people were killed, and their bodies recovered, after a ferry with 27 people on board encountered dangerous seas stirred by the cyclone.
The Royal Solomon Island Police Force was urging that all small craft remain out of the water as the dangerous seas persisted on Monday.
On Monday, Harold reached its peak intensity with wind speeds of 165 mph as it crossed the northern islands of Vanuatu. Winds of this speed made Harold a Category 5 cyclone on the Fiji scale and equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic and East Pacific oceans.
Harold was downgraded to a Category 4 cyclone on Tuesday, but remained a dangerous storm.
"Communications to Santo and Malekula [Vanuatu's two largest islands] are cut now, so we don't know what's happening," said Eric Durpaire, the chief of Vanuatu's field office for UNICEF Pacific, over the phone from the country's capital of Port Vila. He added that the roof of the municipality building on Santo collapsed, and there was also flooding damage.
No deaths have been reported so far from Harold in Vanuatu. However, with communication down in some of the hardest hit areas, it may be days before the public is made aware of the extent of the damage.
Farther away from the eye of the cyclone, outer rain bands pounded the southern islands of Vanuatu. Rainfall on the island of Aneityum reached 6.5 inches on Monday night.
The International Federation of the Red Cross shared "devastating images" from parts of Vanuatu that were walloped by Harold.
The Guardian reported that Vanuatu is one of the few countries in the world that still had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 early this week. The country, however, is closed to international travelers and has also enacted curfews and banned gatherings of more than five people. In order for residents to evacuate and receive help following Harold, some of these restrictions have been temporarily lifted.
On Tuesday, Vanuatu revoked their domestic travel ban, and Air Vanuatu announced that domestic passenger flights would resume on Friday.
After battering Vanuatu, Harold passed just south of Fiji at midweek. Ahead of the cyclone, Fiji Airways moved several aircraft overseas to avoid damage, according to the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation.
Fiji's National Disaster Management Office announced evacuation orders on Tuesday afternoon, asking those in low-lying areas to move to higher ground ahead of Harold.
Popular tourist destinations on the island have suffered heavy damage from the cyclone's storm surge and high winds and power outages and road closures have also been reported.
The Fiji National Disaster Management Office is urging residents to stay indoors for their own safety. The Fiji Times reported that around nine homes were damaged by a possible tornado within the cyclone's rain bands.
The National Disaster Management Office in Fiji activated more than 250 evacuation centers in preparation of the cyclone, Radio New Zealand reported.
Conditions will rapidly improve across Fiji into late week as Harold tracks to the southeast toward Tonga, where the government declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm's arrival.
These islands in the South Pacific are no stranger to influences from tropical cyclones, with a cyclone season that runs from November to April each year. The 2015-2016 season was the deadliest on record, with 50 deaths attributed to cyclones that impacted islands of the region, including Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Tropical Cyclone Pam was the last Severe Tropical Cyclone to hit Vanuatu, in 2015, according to Steven Bowen, a meteorologist who works for risk management firm Aon. The storm caused more than $380 million in damage. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | April 2020 | ['(UPI)'] |
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wraps up a landmark visit to Greece. Both sides pledge cooperation—Erdogan visits the Turkish minority in Thrace and urges reconciliation, and his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis says Greece will support Turkey's EU bid, marking a high point in Greco–Turkish relations. | The announcement came during a landmark visit to Greece by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the first of its kind in 16 years.
The EU is scheduled to make a decision at the end of the year on whether to begin accession talks with Ankara.
At a joint news conference on Friday, the Greek and Turkish leaders spoke of establishing a strategic partnership.
Mr Karamanlis said mutual relations had entered what he called a new orbit, reaffirming his support for Turkey's bid to enter the EU. Relations have acquired a directness, which is very important
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
Analysts say Athens believes it would be in its own long term interest to have Turkey as an EU member.
Mr Karamanlis told the press conference: "We confirmed that the views of our two countries on the new road taken by Greek-Turkish relations coincide, and we noted with satisfaction the progress made."
Mr Erdogan said he wanted the two countries to build a future together. He offered to provide any assistance requested by the Greek government in the final preparations for this summer's Olympic Games, which are struggling to meet deadlines.
"A rapprochement between Greece and Turkey began five years ago, and it continues very satisfactorily," he said. "Relations have acquired a directness, which is very important."
Thrace visit
Mr Erdogan's visit is not expected to bring progress on the issue of Cyprus. Last month Greek Cypriots rejected a United Nations plan to reunify the island, whose Turkish and Greek communities remain divided. But the fact that the vote did not affect relations between Athens and Ankara is significant, says the BBC's Athens correspondent Richard Galpin.
He says the trip has been highly symbolic, coming at what could have been a difficult time in relations between the two countries. He says the division of Cyprus is one of the most delicate issues between Greece and Turkey and the rejection of the UN plan could have triggered a crisis in relations. On Saturday Mr Erdogan will visit Thrace, in eastern Greece - home to about 100,000 Turkish speakers, remnants of a population exchange in the 1920s.
Many of them call for their Turkish identity to be acknowledged, something Greece refuses to do. | Diplomatic Visit | May 2004 | ['(BBC)', '(BBC)', '(BBC)'] |
A court in Paris finds International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde guilty of negligence in a 404 million euro "misuse of public funds" case. The court ruled that Lagarde won't be fined, won't serve any jail time, or receive a criminal record. The IMF Executive Board "looks forward to continuing to work with" her. | The International Monetary Fund threw its support behind its leader, Christine Lagarde, on Monday despite her conviction in a French court on charges of misusing public funds.
With international elites and their institutions facing populist criticism amid political and social change in the United States and Europe, the 24 directors of the fund decided that this was not the time to leave the I.M.F. rudderless.
Earlier on Monday, the Cour de Justice de la République, a French court that considers cases against current and former government ministers, found Ms. Lagarde guilty of criminal charges linked to the misuse of public funds when she was France’s finance minister nearly a decade ago. But the court did not impose a fine or a sentence.
In a statement, the directors of the I.M.F. said they had considered the court’s decisions and had “full confidence in the managing director’s ability to continue to effectively carry out her duties.”
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Yet the verdict with its potential to tarnish Ms. Lagarde as a leader came at a critical juncture for the I.M.F.
Founded and largely managed by Europeans and Americans, the fund oversees a global economy in which faster-growing countries like China are seeking a greater role.
Ms. Lagarde is the fourth of the last six leaders to come from France, and the difficult time the I.M.F. has had in anticipating, as well as reacting to, the European debt crisis has caused some to wonder whether the time has come to appoint a non-European leader.
I.M.F. doctrine, which advocates free trade and austerity for countries in financial difficulties, has been criticized as elitist and not sufficiently in tune with the populist movements sweeping the globe.
For now, the fund must confront more immediate challenges. With Britain leaving the European Union, Italy’s future in the eurozone perhaps in doubt and the possibility of global trade wars being set off by President-elect Donald J. Trump, some have said the steady, experienced hand of Ms. Lagarde was needed more than ever.
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“She has been a very effective leader,” said Edwin M. Truman, a specialist in international finance formerly at the Federal Reserve and the United States Treasury. “Yes, there are big questions about the fund’s future. But for her to have to step down now well, that would be complicated.”
Jacob J. Lew, the Treasury secretary, expressed the Obama administration’s support for Ms. Lagarde, saying that “she is a strong leader of the I.M.F., and we have every confidence in her ability to guide the fund at a critical time for the global economy.”
For the Trump administration, “I don’t think this kind of ethical question is likely to be the highest priority,” Mr. Truman said. While the I.M.F. and other global institutions did not figure in the presidential debate, Mr. Trump repeatedly criticized a “global power structure” that fixed the economy against workers.
“At bottom, it’s all about French politics,” Mr. Truman said.
Members of the I.M.F. board were well aware that Ms. Lagarde was facing trial in her native France over allegations that occurred when she was the finance minister in the administration of Nicolas Sarkozy.
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The consensus among the directors was that Ms. Lagarde’s transgressions occurred when she was not at the fund in contrast to those of her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and since taking charge in 2011, she had proved to be a leader capable of presenting a softer side of the fund while fighting hard to bolster its legitimacy in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
More so than her predecessors, Ms. Lagarde has pushed the fund to be more aggressive in taking up the cause of women and focusing attention on growing issues of inequality around the world.
Over the last year and a half, she has also led a forceful public critique of Europe’s refusal to offer Greece debt relief in return for the difficult economic changes the country has been making.
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Nevertheless, while Ms. Lagarde may have retained the backing of her board for the moment, over the longer term, her French legal problems may have hurt her most valuable asset her carefully constructed public persona.
“She was a breath of fresh air, someone representing true change from the past,” said Peter Doyle, a former economist at the fund and now an outspoken critic. “Now she is just another tainted European leader.”
Those are tough words. But economists note that the fund’s core mission of requiring financially ailing countries to reform their economies and fight corruption demands credibility and reputation of the highest order.
And that starts at the top, with its leader especially one who is as widely known as Ms. Lagarde.
“It would be complacent if not delusional to say there will be no impact on the institution,” said Nicolas Véron, a specialist on international economics at the Bruegel Institute in Brussels. “The only question is how big is the impact and how does it compare with the need for stability.”
Ms. Lagarde’s legal issues in France have dogged her work at the fund since she was appointed in 2011. She took over as managing director after Mr. Strauss-Kahn resigned following accusations that he sexually assaulted a maid in a New York City hotel.
The case against Ms. Lagarde centered on Bernard Tapie, a former entertainer and owner of Adidas who had previously been jailed on corruption charges. Mr. Tapie accused the lender Crédit Lyonnais, in which the French state had a stake at the time, of cheating him when it oversaw the sale of his share in the sportswear empire in 1993. Years of costly legal battles ensued.
In 2007, Ms. Lagarde sent the dispute to a three-person private arbitration authority that awarded Mr. Tapie more than 400 million euros, or $420 million at current exchange rates, in damages and interest, to be paid by the state.
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The court did not fault Ms. Lagarde for approving the arbitration, but it ruled that she had been negligent for not appealing the decision. The court, noting that a judge had previously invalidated the payout in a 2015 ruling and that she had “national and international” stature, decided not to punish Ms. Lagarde and spared her a criminal record.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Ms. Lagarde’s lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, said he had a “mixed” reaction to the verdict.
“On the one hand, she is found responsible, but given the circumstances, given the responsibilities that Ms. Lagarde had at the time in 2008, we were in a major economic crisis the court decided that it would not sentence Ms. Lagarde to anything,” he said.
Ms. Lagarde’s lawyers can appeal the verdict before France’s highest criminal court, the Cour de Cassation, on procedural grounds. But Mr. Maisonneuve suggested she might not, because no punishment was meted out.
Ms. Lagarde did not attend the latest hearing on Monday, but was in Paris last week for the case.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2016 | ['(The New York Times)', '(CNN)', '(Fortune)', '(The Daily Telegraph)'] |
The UK–US air travel ban on laptops and other electronic devices in the passenger cabin comes into effect. | A ban on laptops and tablets in cabin baggage on flights from Turkey and some countries in the Middle East and North Africa to the US and UK has come into effect.
Officials say devices "larger than a smartphone" must travel in the hold because of an increased risk that they could contain explosives.
At least one airline is allowing devices to be used up until boarding.
The US ban covers eight countries, while the UK restrictions apply to six.
Nine airlines from eight countries - Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - are affected by the US ban. They operate about 50 flights a day to the US. Laptop ban: What about the parents?
Will new US and UK flight rules affect me?
Somali plane bomb: What happened?
UAE airline Emirates is offering complimentary packing and shipping services at gates to enable passengers to use their electronic devices after check-in and until boarding.
That also means passengers flying on two-leg trips from other countries to the US through Dubai can use their laptops on the first leg of their flights.
The UK ban meanwhile affects all flights out of Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Lebanon.
The British ban applies to any device, including smartphones, larger than 16cm (6.3in) long, 9.3cm (3.7in) wide or 1.5cm (0.6in) deep. However, most phones will be smaller than the limit. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the US and UK to lift the bans as soon as possible.
The US Department for Homeland Security has cited attacks on planes and airports over the past two years as the reason for the ban,
Bombs, it said, had been hidden in such items as a soft drink can, used in the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt in October 2015 with the loss of 224 lives, and the laptop used in the unsuccessful Somali attack last year.
European security experts are to meet next week to discuss the US and UK bans, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Royal Jordanian Airlines has tweeted suggestions of things to do during a long flight instead of using an electronic device.
It followed up with another tweet suggesting that passengers "do what we Jordanians do best - stare at each other!"
Aviation experts say the ban could hit airline profits as risks include a fall in passenger numbers, decreasing customer satisfaction and higher costs linked to screening baggage. | Government Policy Changes | March 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom awards Sir Tim Berners–Lee the Order of Merit for his pioneering work on the worldwide web. | Sir Tim Berners-Lee joins an elite group who have received the honour from the Queen for exceptional contributions in arts, sciences and other areas.
The British academic invented the web's address system and layout in Switzerland in 1991, ultimately revolutionising global communication.
Previously, he was named Greatest Briton at a ceremony in 2004.
Information sharing
Sir Tim was given the honour along with the President of the Royal Society, Lord Rees of Ludlow, and the Rt Rev Lord Eames, ex-Anglican Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh.
In 1991, Sir Tim came up with a system to organise, link and browse pages on the net. He created his hypertext program while he was at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva. The code he crafted made it far easier for scientists to share their research and information across a fledgling computer network. He is now director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, where he is based as an academic. The Order of Merit is in the Queen's personal gift, meaning that ministerial advice is not needed.
It is restricted to 24 living members, who are entitled to use the initials OM after their name.
Past recipients have included Florence Nightingale, Sir Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell, Graham Greene, Sir Edward Elgar, Mother Teresa and Baroness Thatcher. | Awards ceremony | June 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
On the eve of People's Republic of China President Hu Jintao's first visit to North America next week, a PRC foreign ministry spokesman warned against any government providing Taiwan with missile defense systems. Hu Jintao arrives in Washington, D.C. on Monday, then visits Canada and Mexico before visiting the United Nations General Assembly. | In a broad policy document on arms control, China also says it is against any government providing Taiwan with missile defences. The statements comes ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington next week, for talks with US President George W Bush. The summit will be a very significant meeting, testing the diplomatic waters between the two nations.
On Thursday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman again called on the US to stop selling advanced weapons to Taiwan. Beijing has also come out with a broad policy document that looks like a direct answer to the recent drumbeat of warnings from Washington over China's military modernisation plans. It insists Beijing is pursuing what it calls "moderate" increases in defence spending, reiterates a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, and says essentially that the outside world has nothing to fear - China will never seek hegemony, as it puts it. Warning
But here, too, there is a warning over Taiwan - that governments, again by implication the US, should not include it in any missile defence plans. Washington has justified its offer to upgrade Taiwan's defences, in part because of what it sees as a threatening build-up of missile forces on China's side of the Taiwan Straits. And the Pentagon's latest report on China's military modernisation described it not only as a potential threat to Taiwan, but also as a threat to other major powers in the region, and the US presence there as well. The military and strategic tensions between the two are, of course, just one element in what is a hugely complex, developing, and potentially antagonistic relationship between an emerging giant and the world's only current superpower - one which each side appears still to be grappling to contend with. | Diplomatic Visit | September 2005 | ['(ROC)', '(BBC)'] |
Arif Wazir, a prominent PTM leader, dies of injuries from an attack that was carried out in a drive–by shooting in Wanna, Pakistan, a day earlier. | A prominent ethnic Pashtun rights activist has died after being critically injured in a gun attack in Pakistan’s western South Waziristan tribal district.
Sardar Arif Wazir, a senior leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) and former parliamentary candidate, succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in the capital, Islamabad, on early on May 2. He was critically injured in the city of Wana in a drive-by shooting a day earlier.
“It is with a heavy heart that I report that our comrade Arif Wazir has succumbed to his injuries,” lawmaker Mohsin Dawar, a top PTM leader, tweeted. “Arif Wazir’s father and brother were also killed by militants years ago,” he added, alluding to the long history of Wazir’s family being targeted by militants, many of whom used to operate as pro-government peace committees in Wana.
“Arif was murdered by ‘good’ terrorists,” Dawar wrote. “Our struggle against their masters will continue.”
Global rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on the Pakistani authorities to carry out an “independent and effective investigation” into the attack on Arif Wazir. “The suspected perpetrators must be held accountable,” the organization said.
The attack follows Wazir’s April 17 arrest for allegedly delivering an "anti-Pakistan" speech during a recent visit to Afghanistan. He was released from a prison in the nearby city of Dera Ismail Khan earlier this week.
Police in Wana said they are investigating the attack and are looking for a car the gunmen had used to target Wazir. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Wazir’s family has been repeatedly targeted by since 2003. He was the 18th male member of his extended family to be killed by gunmen. In June 2018, his cousin, lawmaker Ali Wazir, was also attacked in Wana.
Authorities have so far failed to resolve any of the attacks or murders on Wazir’s family or other leaders in South Waziristan. The region is part of predominantly Pashtun-populated former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Now merged into the northwestern province of Khyber Pahtunkhwa, tens of thousands of civilians were killed and millions were displaced in militant attacks and military operations since 2003. Activists estimate that more than 2,000 tribal leaders were killed in targeted assassination campaigns in the region.
In 2018, the PTM emerged as a nonviolent civil rights campaign to demand peace in former FATA and other Pashtun regions of Pakistan. With its leadership’s sharp criticism of the Pakistani Army’s alleged heavy-handedness, the group has attracted tens of thousands to its rallies across Pakistan.
The movement’s criticism of the army and holding it responsible for grave abuses such as illegal killings and forced disappearances have also attracted the wrath of the authorities.
Scores of PTM supporters have been killed in militant attacks or firing by the security forces. Most of its leaders, including Ali Wazir, Dawar, and Manzoor Pashteen, have been detained. They and others have been arbitrarily barred from traveling abroad or within Pakistan, according to rights groups.
As senior officials accused them of operating on foreign intelligence services’ behest, many PTM activists have faced sedition charges. Some are still facing court cases or have been imprisoned for alleged cybercrimes.
| Famous Person - Death | May 2020 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Suicide bombers detonate two bombs at Moscow Metro stations Lubyanka and Park Kultury, killing at least 36 with the death toll expected to rise. | Two explosions have rocked the Moscow Metro this morning, claiming dozens of dead and injured. According to preliminary data, the blasts were carried out by suicide bombers.
The first explosion happened in a carriage at the central Lubyanka underground station at around 8 am. The second blast happened at the Park Kultury Metro station also in a carriage of a train a little more than half an hour later. Both stations are in the very center of Moscow.
According to the latest information by the news agencies, the overall death toll has risen to 39 with more than 70 injured.
Read more
The explosions happened during rush hour. Both Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations are very busy interchange stations, with many people there at any given time, particularly on Monday morning.
Also, mobile telephone networks in Moscow were overloaded with people trying to reach their loved ones.
RT presenter Yulia Shapovalova was leaving the RT office, which is very close to Park Kultury station, and she was an eyewitness to the scene. She reported that escalators were not working and were crammed with people being evacuated from the station.
“People were very nervous, but there was no panic,” she said, adding that people were calling each other to be sure those they know were not affected by the blasts.
RT Director General Aleksey Nikolov said he himself missed the blast on Park Kultury station by 10 minutes and that “most people are aware that there is a terrorism and this can happen.”
Watch the full interview with Aleksey Nikolov
RT presenter Rory Suchet, who was walking past Park Kultury Metro station shortly after the blast, pointed out that “those people behind these attacks as pleased as they may be with bringing the Moscow Metro to a standstill they have not brought Russia’s capital to a standstill."
Watch Rory Suchet on RT
A criminal investigation into a terrorist act has been initiated.
The Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Aleksandr Bortnikov has briefed President Dmitry Medvedev about the explosions in the Moscow Metro.
RT’s political commentator Peter Lavelle labeled the events “a coordinated terrorist attack, as simple as that.”
“Whoever is behind this, whatever groups are behind this they are sending a message. Their war is far from being over,” he said.
Watch the full interview with Peter Lavelle
“Russia is under a terrorist attack and authorities should pay more attention to combat it,” he said. “Authorities need to demonstrate what they can do.”
Watch the full interview with Aleksandr Pikaev
He called on the all forces inside and outside Russia “not to incite any so-called separatists. They are not freedom fighters, they are subversive elements.”
Watch the full interview with Vladimir Kozin
Viktor Linnik, Editor-in-Chief of Slovo newspaper, told RT that “this is obviously a planned action.”
“Probably there have been leaks on terror acts being planned in Moscow because there have been very strong armed patrols in Moscow for the past five or six days,” he said.
“What has happened is a shock, but not a cause for panic. We have seen it before,” Linnik added.
Watch full interview with Viktor Linnik
Aleksandr Konovalov from the Institute of Strategic Assessment commented to RT that “terrorists [have] reminded us that they are alive, active and are going to continue their job.” | Armed Conflict | March 2010 | ['(RIA)', '(AP)', '(Russia Today)', '(RIAN)'] |
Egyptian prosecutors begin investigating yesterday's incident where an Italian cruise liner smashed into a dock at Sharm el–Sheikh during severe weather conditions, killing sailors from Brazil, Honduras and India and injuring several passengers. | Egyptian prosecutors started to interrogate the crew of an Italian cruise liner, which had smashed into a dock during bad weather at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm Al Shaikh Cairo/Dubai: Egyptian prosecutors on Saturday started to interrogate the crew of an Italian cruise liner, which had smashed into a dock during bad weather at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm Al Shaikh early on Friday. The accident left three members of the Costa Europa crew dead.
"The pier will be repaired at the expense of the shipping company," said Mamdouh Deraz, the chairman of the Red Sea Ports Authority on Saturday. The official had formed a team to investigate the accident and compile a final report. No oficial charges have been filed against the crew.
"The cause of the crash is a 100 per cent human error," said a maritime official, who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak to the media. "And responsibility falls on the captain for this error," he added. "The three dead crewmen [an Indian, a Honduran, and a Brazilian] were working on the lower part of the ship when the smashing occurred and they were submerged by water," he added.
However, in Dubai, Costa Crociere Chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi said: "Preliminary and ongoing investigations revealed that exceptional bad weather conditions and an unexpected wind blow caused the impact of the ship on the pier."
In a press statement he regretted the deaths of the crew members and extended his condolences to their family members. He said all guests have been disembarked and accommodated in hotels. The company is making arrangements of their flights backs to their respective destinations, the release added.
The Costa Europa, a luxury cruise liner, was on an 18-day voyage from Dubai to Savona in Italy and was sailing in Sharm Al Shaikh, which had been battered by fierce winds, when it crashed into the pier early Friday. There were around 1,437 passengers on board and were moved to hotels in the town. No date has yet been set for them to resume the cruise.
"The people injured - three British women and an Italian woman — were discharged from hospital after receiving medical treatment. Meanwhile, the authorities contacted the embassies of the three dead crew to take their bodies," added the official.
The ship is still at the dock pending repair, which officials refused to say how long it will take. The Costa Europa, owned by the Italian company Costa Cruises, had damaged the starboard side of its hull due to the collision, which had left a two-metre-wide hole in the hull.
| Shipwreck | February 2010 | ['(Gulfnews)', '(ABC News)', '(Herald Sun)'] |
Scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences announce the discovery of a "well-preserved" woolly rhinoceros carcass in Abyysky District, Sakha, Russia, which was revealed by melting permafrost in August. The Russian Academy of Sciences says that the woolly rhinoceros was likely 3 or 4 years old when it died by drowning in the river, and could be anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 years old. | A well-preserved Ice Age woolly rhino with many of its internal organs still intact has been recovered from permafrost in Russia’s extreme north
On Location: June 18, 2021
MOSCOW -- A well-preserved Ice Age woolly rhino with many of its internal organs still intact has been recovered from permafrost in Russia's extreme north.
Russian media reported Wednesday that the carcass was revealed by melting permafrost in Yakutia in August. Scientists are waiting for ice roads in the Arctic region to become passable to deliver it to a lab for studies next month.
It’s among the best-preserved specimens of the Ice Age animal found to date. The carcass has most of its soft tissues still intact, including part of the intestines, thick hair and a lump of fat. Its horn was found next to it.
Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, Ice Age foal, and cave lion cubs as the permafrost increasingly melts across vast areas of Siberia because of global warming.
Yakutia 24 TV quoted Valery Plotnikov, a paleontologist with the regional branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying the woolly rhino was likely 3- or 4-years-old when it died.
Plotnikov said the young rhino likely drowned.
Scientists dated the carcass as anywhere from 20,000- to 50,000-years-old. More precise dating will be possible once it is delivered to a lab for radiocarbon studies.
The carcass was found on the bank of the Tirekhtyakh river in the Abyisk district, close to the area where another young woolly rhino was recovered in 2014. Researchers dated that specimen, which they called Sasha, at 34,000 years old. | New archeological discoveries | December 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Osvaldo Rivera is the suspect jailed in Camden County, New Jersey for the stabbing to death of a 6yearold boy and the attempted murder of the boy's 12yearold sister. Authorities say he was high on PCPlaced marijuana. | TRENTON, N.J. (AP) A man high on PCP-laced marijuana stabbed two neighborhood children in their home while they slept, killing a 6-year-old boy and critically wounding his 12-year-old sister, authorities said.
Osvaldo Rivera was found hiding between a mattress and a bedroom wall Sunday afternoon inside a Camden apartment and was charged Monday with murder and attempted murder, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor's office.
The attack was the second recent one in Camden, an impoverished city across the river from Philadelphia, involving a child and a suspect said to be high on PCP and marijuana.
Rivera, 31, was being held in jail awaiting arraignment, which Laughlin said will likely be held Tuesday. Laughlin didn't know if Rivera had an attorney.
Police found blood-stained sneakers inside the apartment where Rivera was arrested that matched bloody footprints in the home where Dominick Andujor was stabbed to death, Laughlin said. The boy's 12-year-old sister had her throat slit while she slept in the same room. She remained hospitalized Monday at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. The hospital, though, has declined to discuss her condition, citing privacy reasons.
While being questioned by investigators, Rivera said he had smoked a combination of marijuana and the hallucinogenic drug PCP before the attack, Laughlin said.
On Aug. 22, 33-year-old Chevonne Thomas of Camden allegedly decapitated her 2-year-old toddler and then fatally stabbed herself after smoking a similar combination, known as "wet."
Laughlin said there have been several other murders in recent years in which PCP-laced marijuana has apparently played a role. He said the drug combination makes people incoherent, hallucinatory and, in some cases, violent, adding that authorities plan to take steps to curb the drug's market.
The children stabbed Sunday were being watched by a 14-year-old girl, authorities said. The teen, who was unharmed, was caring for them because their mother recently underwent surgery and was still in the hospital.
Laughlin said the 12-year-old, whose name wasn't released, fled the home after the attack and was found at a neighbor's home a few doors down. Police soon went to the girl's home and were met by another child who ran outside, screaming for help for her brother. The 6-year-old boy was found lying on the floor.
While Rivera was still being sought on Sunday, a woman who lives nearby said he was well-known around the neighborhood and seemed to be a peaceful person. He also was often seen playing with the local children.
"People would never think he would do something like this," Nakyta McCray said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2012 | ['(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Council approves the closure of the U.S. Air Force's Manas Air Base. | BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to close the last remaining U.S. air base in Central Asia, which serves as a transit point for U.S. troops fighting in nearby Afghanistan.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev attends a parliament session on a proposal to close a U.S. air base in Bishkek February 19, 2009. REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov
The planned closure of the Manas air base poses a challenge to new President Barack Obama who plans to send more troops to Afghanistan to boost efforts to defeat Taliban insurgents.
It also comes at a time of heightened rivalry between Moscow and Washington for control of Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region still seen by Russia as part of its sphere of interest.
The 90-seat parliament, dominated by the ruling party, voted by 78 to one to approve a government proposal on closing the base. One lawmaker voted against and two abstained. The rest were absent.
“Once all the procedures are over, an official eviction vote will be sent and after that the United States will be given 180 days to wrap up operations at the air base,” Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev said after the vote.
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s press service said the Kyrgyz leader was due to sign the approved decision into law some time within the next month under Kyrgyz law, but gave no details.
U.S. forces at the base, nestling in the bare steppes outside the capital Bishkek, said its operations would continue as normal in the meantime.
“We are saddened by the decision made today. We have enjoyed our ability to serve here in Kyrgyzstan,” Major Damien Pickart, the air base spokesman, said by telephone.
“We will await official notification but it remains to be seen what the final decision would be.”
Related Coverage
Bakiyev announced the closure plans this month after accepting more than $2 billion in aid and credit from traditional ally Russia. He has accused Washington of refusing to pay a higher rent for use of the base.
Russia has an air base of its own in Kyrgyzstan. It pays no rent as its use is part of a joint security pact.
The United States and its allies already fly troops and supplies to Afghanistan from bases in Europe and the Gulf and could increase this traffic to make up for the loss of Manas.
The United States is also looking at other land routes through Central Asia as alternatives to Pakistan, where supply convoys have been attacked by Taliban militants.
U.S. regional military chief General David Petraeus visited Uzbekistan this week as part of these efforts.
One of the routes, through Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, will soon be tested when a first shipment of non-military goods leaves NATO member Latvia for Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan’s opposition has accused Bakiyev of selling out to Russia. Moscow and Kyrgyzstan have denied any connection between the Russian financial package and Bakiyev’s decision.
Some critics said closing the base could breed instability in Kyrgyzstan when the threat of radical Islam is on the rise in Central Asia, a vast region wedged between Russia in the north, Iran and Afghanistan in the south and China in the east.
“At this difficult time, the weakening of the regional security system paves the way for extremism and terrorism,” said Bakyt Beshimov, an opposition politician. “Therefore, we believe the decision (to close the U.S. base) is premature.”
Additional reporting by Olga Dzyubenko, Dmitry Solovyov and Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Andrew Roche
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. | Organization Closed | February 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A suicide bomber attacks a police station in Kunduz, Afghanistan. At least six police officers are killed and another seventeen wounded. | KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- At least six police officers were killed and 17 people wounded in a suicide bomb blast in northern embattled Afghan Kunduz city on Monday, an Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed.
"A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest outside a Highway Police Station. The latest information found six security personnel were martyred and 17 people were wounded in the incident," Nasrat Rahimi told Xinhua.
The incident occurred roughly at 3:00 p.m. local time in Bandar-e-Kabul locality.
Those among the injured were seven security personnel and 10 civilian passersby, the official added.
Taliban militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Saturday, Taliban briefly captured parts of the city, capital of northern Kunduz province and security forces launched a counter-attack evicting militants after heavy clashes.
At least 38 militants, five civilians and 20 security forces were killed and 85 civilians and security forces were wounded during Saturday's clashes in the city. Xi calls on Red Cross Society of China to make new contributions | Armed Conflict | September 2019 | ['(Xinhua)'] |
An explosion near a civilian trolleybus in the city of Donetsk kills at least thirteen people. Separatists and pro-government forces blame each other for the incident. | Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from Donetsk airport's main terminal, scene of bitter fighting in recent weeks.
The government said the military still retained control of parts of the airport, but six soldiers had died and 16 had been wounded.
In the centre of the rebel-held city, shelling hit a bus, killing 13 people.
A spokesman for the president said he had called an emergency meeting to discuss the rebel attacks, which Kiev believes are backed by Russia.
It was the second such meeting of the day. "The plan how we will secure the end of operation of terrorist troops with the participation of regular troops of the Russian Federation... how to regroup forces and stop the aggression" will be adopted on Wednesday evening, Reuters news agency quoted President Petro Poroshenko as saying.
Earlier rebels paraded captured Ukrainian soldiers at the scene of the bus shelling, as onlookers shouted abuse and pelted them with debris from the blast site.
The rebels and the government traded blame for the attack, which comes nine days after a shell also killed 13 people on a bus in the village of Buhas outside Volnovakha, 35km (22 miles) south-west of Donetsk.
Ukraine: the human cost
Source: UN report of 9 January for refugee figures; news reports for casualty estimates Donetsk airport: Ukraine's coveted prize
Fighting between the army and Russian-backed separatists has intensified in and around Donetsk as well as further east in Luhansk region.
The deaths come after Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany issued a joint call to end fighting in the east. They also agreed on a line of demarcation between separatists and government forces from which both sides are meant to withdraw their forces, but so far this has not been carried out.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine flared up last week shortly before a supposed "peace summit". Both sides seemed to be battling for new ground, keen to strengthen their negotiating positions. Instead, the violence derailed the talks.
This conflict is costing Ukraine dearly, financially and in lives lost. But Ukrainian President Poroshenko has called up more troops, vowing to "get Donbass back".
Russia is also paying a high price for supporting the insurgents, under Western sanctions. Perhaps that is why this week Moscow said it had persuaded the rebels to pull back from the original ceasefire line. But events on the ground move fast. And beyond the politics, this fight has become deeply personal. So much blood has now been spilled that whatever sparked the latest violence, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stop.
The airport just outside Donetsk, which has been reduced to rubble, has taken on symbolic value for both separatists and the government over the winter.
Ukraine's defence ministry said 20 Ukrainian soldiers had withdrawn from the main terminal because their positions had been destroyed and they were under direct shelling.
The loss of the main terminal is a major blow to pro-Kiev forces and will send political shockwaves back to the capital, the BBC's David Stern reports from Kiev.
The defence ministry blamed separatists for the shelling of the trolleybus in the city centre, saying their own forces were 15km away. But the rebels blamed pro-government "saboteurs" in the city.
Captured Ukrainian soldiers were led to the blast site by rebels who appeared to do little to stop people hitting them.
"They have to be punished, like Saddam Hussein," pensioner and local resident Zina told AFP news agency. "They are killers. They killed our children. Our children cry every day."
But another pensioner, Lyuda, said she was "ashamed of what is happening". "I have pity for them," she said, weeping. They are victims of [Ukrainian President ] Poroshenko. They are not guilty, they were sent here."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed Ukrainian forces for what he called a "monstrous new crime" and a "coarse provocation".
More than 4,800 people have been killed and some 1.2 million displaced since pro-Russian rebels seized parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions in April.
The insurrection began after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March - weeks after Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych had been ousted.
There have been reports of fighting in recent days near the town of Slovyanoserbsk, north-west of Luhansk - an indication that violence is spreading beyond the Donetsk region.
Ukraine says Russia has more than 9,000 soldiers fighting alongside the rebels, a claim that Moscow denies.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday there had been a recent build-up in the numbers of Russian tanks and other heavy military equipment in eastern Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich repeated Russian denials of intervention in Ukraine. "We know that there are some Russians that fight on the side of those regions in Ukraine - some people that are coming on their own and fight," he told the BBC.
"We're trying to make sure that those people [in eastern Ukraine] are protected and to preserve their rights," he said. "We need a peaceful Ukraine." | Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
After negotiations, Maoist rebels in Nepal agree to work with opposition politicians in a common front against the rule of King Gyanendra. The Nepalese Civil War has killed more than 12,000 people since 1996. | Leaders of the movement to restore democracy in Nepal met the Maoists to discuss a common front in tackling the direct rule of King Gyanendra.
The king assumed control in February saying politicians were corrupt and had failed to tackle the Maoist insurgency.
India has remained tight-lipped about the talks as it officially deems the Maoists terrorists.
'Common fight'
The meeting, which reportedly took place in an Indian government guest house, was an attempt to broker a political deal and step up the campaign against the monarchy in Nepal.
Mr Singh (R) has urged King Gyanendra to restore democracy
The leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), Madhav Kumar Nepal, confirmed to the BBC that the dialogue with the Maoists had opened in recent days.
Mr Nepal declined to give any details of the talks but said from now on the seven-party opposition alliance and the Maoists would have a common target of "fighting the monarchy".
Mr Nepal said the mainstream political parties continued to differ with the Maoist strategy of violence, but that would not come in the way of the common fight for democracy. He said the political parties would continue to try to persuade the Maoists to give up violence. The Indian government has not wanted to appear to be hosting the Maoist rebels.
Foreign ministry spokesman, Navtej Sarna, said: "At the moment we have no information about any such meeting. We will let you know when we have any information." Political parties from Nepal and Maoist representatives have also been separately meeting Indian political leaders in recent months to try to work out a political solution. The latest talks involved former Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, in India for medical treatment, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.
The talks come hard on the heels of Mr Singh's meeting with King Gyanendra at a key regional summit in Dhaka last weekend, where India again stressed the need to restore multi-party democracy in Nepal. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2005 | ['(Times of India)', '(BBC)'] |
Politicians in Nepal fail to elect a new Prime Minister for the third time after no candidate secured a majority. | Nepals Constituent Assembly on Monday,in a futile round of voting,failed to elect a Prime Minister in its third attempt in a month.
Both candidates Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) chairman Prachanda and Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress were declared defeated by Speaker Subhash Chandra Nembang as neither of the two could secure simple majority in the House with an effective strength of 599.
Prachanda,who secured 259 votes on favour and 114 against with 208 remaining neutral,seemed to have improved his position compared to the second round of voting held a week ago. The Nepal Peasants and Workers Party as well as the Pro-Monarchist Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N),with five votes each,are said to have voted for the Maoist party.
Poudel could secure only 124 votes in favour and 246 against,while 186 abstained.
The United Democratic Madhesh Front an alliance of four Madhesh-based parties and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) with 108 members remained neutral. The Front,which had been negotiating with both contestants,said it had received some positive response from the UCPN-M,but since there is some clarification that it needs from the party,it will remain neutral in todays voting.
The CPN-UML has decided to remain neutral since it says only a consensus government can take the peace and constitution-making process to a logical conclusion.
While the Nepali Congress chose not to respond to the two crucial demands of the UDMF, mass recruitment of Madhesis into the Nepal Army in proportion to its population and recognition of the Madhesh region as a single province the Maoists had categorically opposed them. Since the Maoists have positively responded to our other demands,we would like to sit together against and settle the differences and take a clear decision before the House goes again for voting, said Front leader Upendra Yadav.
Meanwhile,the Nepal Army has advertised for 3,400 lying vacant,including at the officer level.
The initiation of the recruitment process follows dismissal of a writ petition by the Supreme Court that had stated any Army recruitment was a violation of the peace accord. We have advertised for recruitment in the existing vacancies,and that is not going to raise the strength of the Army beyond what it was at the time of signing the peace accord, spokesperson Ramindra Chhetri told The Indian Express.
The UCPN-M and the two UN agencies Office of the Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Mission to Nepal that had opposed the earlier recruitment drive are quite on the issue. | Government Job change - Election | August 2010 | ['(Kantipur)', '(BBC)', '(Indian Express)'] |
Australians Andrew Chan, 21, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24, are sentenced to death by firing squad by an Indonesian court for their role in the Bali Nine heroin smuggling attempt. Fellow accused Martin Stephens, 29, and Michael Czugaj, 20, both receive life prison sentences. | Prosecutors requested the death penalty for Chan. (Reuters) A mastermind of the Bali nine heroin smuggling operation, Andrew Chan, has been found guilty and sentenced to death by an Indonesian court.
Chan, 22, from Sydney, was accused along with 24-year-old Myuran Sukumaran of having provided the money, the airline tickets and the hotels to the drug mules.
Judge Arief Supratman, reading out the verdict, said Chan was "guilty of illegally exporting first-class narcotics in an organised way". It is the first time the Denpasar District Court has handed down the death sentence for drug trafficking. The sentence was in line with prosecutors' recommendations. The defendant, he added, was also "the person who made the travel arrangements for several people from and to Australia". "According to the teachings of various religions, the death penalty can be justified," Mr Supratman said.
Activists from an Indonesian anti-narcotics group inside the courtroom shouted "Hooray! Long live the judges!" when the verdict was read. Dressed in a white shirt and dark pants, Chan accepted the sentence quietly and shared a brief exchange with his lawyer before being led away. The head judge said Chan's refusal to cooperate throughout the investigation was taken into account.
"There are no mitigating factors. His statements throughout the trial were convoluted and he did not own up to his actions," Mr Supratman told the court. His lawyer, Mohammad Rifan, said he was shocked at the decision and is yet to discuss the option of an appeal with Chan.
In a separate judgement, Michael Czugaj, from Brisbane, has been found guilty of attempting to smuggle heroin from Bali to Australia and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Bali court.
Judge Putu Wignya told the court Czugaj was guilty of exporting first class narcotics. The sentence was recommended by the prosecutors.
He is the third Bali nine courier to receive a life sentence.
Indonesian prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty for Sukumaran, who is also accused of masterminding an attempt to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia.
It is judgement day too for Martin Stephens another of the alleged drug couriers.
Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence in his case.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has told Parliament he has written to the Indonesian Government asking that the death sentence not be imposed on the Bali nine.
Mr Downer says Australia has a long-standing policy of opposing the death penalty.
"On the 18th of December last year, I wrote to the Indonesian Attorney-General reminding him that the Australian Government was opposed to the death sentence and we didn't want to see, in the context of the Bali nine, any of the Australians sentenced to death," he said.
Lawyers for two other Australians given life imprisonment sentences yesterday for heroin trafficking have indicated they will appeal.
Renae Lawrence's sentence was a surprise move, as the prosecutors had asked for leniency and 20 years in jail for the 28-year-old woman from Newcastle.
Scott Rush, from Brisbane, received the life sentence prosecutors had asked for.
In both cases, the judge in Denpasar District Court said there was no evidence that 20-year-old Rush and Lawrence were forced to carry the drugs because of threats made to their families' lives. The remaining three members of the Bali nine will have their verdicts handed down on Wednesday.
Sydneysiders Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen and Tan Van Nguyen from Brisbane are all under the age of 24 and face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in an Indonesian prison.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2006 | ['(ABC)'] |
Oil prices rise in anticipation of Harvey's impact on production in the Gulf of Mexico. | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose nearly 1 percent on Friday as the dollar fell and the U.S. Gulf Coast braced for Hurricane Harvey, on track to become the biggest storm to hit the United States mainland in more than a decade.
The dollar .DXY, in which oil is priced, fell after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made no reference to U.S. monetary policy in her speech at the annual central bank research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Harvey strengthened into a powerful Category 3 storm, last located about 75 miles (120 km) east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico and packing top sustained winds of 120 miles per hour (195 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.
Refineries, terminals, onshore and offshore production operations and other infrastructure have shut or begun storm preparations with Harvey set to make landfall on the Texas coast on Friday night or early on Saturday.
The NHC, which has warned that catastrophic flooding was expected across portions of southern and southeastern Texas, expects Harvey to move slowly and linger over Texas for days.
Some tracking models show the storm could circle back out over Gulf waters after making landfall, and then take aim at Houston midweek, giving the nation’s four most populous city a double dose of rain and wind.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 settled up 44 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $47.87 a barrel but down 1.3 percent on the week.
Brent crude LCOc1 ended 37 cents, or 0.7 percent, higher at $52.41 and down 0.6 percent on the week.
U.S. gasoline futures RBc1 pared gains and ended a shade firmer after hitting their strongest levels in four months and the highest in three years for this time of year as traders booked profits and worries over supply shortages have already been priced in, market participants said.
Gasoline crack spreads RBc1-CLc1, an indicator of refining profits, plunged 6 percent after it had surged about 12 percent on Thursday and hit the highest level seasonally in five years earlier on Friday. Gulf Coast conventional cash gasoline prices RU-DIFF-USG for shipment on the Colonial Pipeline were seen hitting a near three-year high. “The initial loss of refining capacity would tighten the availability of petroleum products, consistent with the rally in product prices, cracks, timespreads and differentials observed this week and historically,” Goldman Sachs said in a note.
“On the demand side, gasoline typically suffers most during and after a hurricane with distillate demand supported instead by rebuilding activity.”
The U.S. Department of Energy said it was ready to release crude oil from the nation’s emergency stockpile if needed due to the impacts of Harvey.
Energy companies have pulled workers from offshore oil platforms and halted onshore drilling in south Texas.
A little less than 10 percent of offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude output capacity and nearly 15 percent of natural gas production had been halted by midday on Thursday, government data showed.
Three refineries in Corpus Christi and one farther inland at Three Rivers were shutting down ahead of the storm. Two others reduced output as ports were closed.
Texas is home to 5.6 million barrels per day of refining capacity, and Louisiana has 3.3 million barrels.
Beyond the storm’s potential impact on the oil industry, crude remains in ample supply globally despite efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to hold back production to prop up prices.
A joint OPEC and non-OPEC monitoring committee said an extension to the supply pact beyond March was possible, though not yet decided.
Part of the reason for the crude glut has been a 13 percent jump in U.S. output since mid-2016 to 9.53 million bpd, close to the record 9.61 million bpd hit in June 2015.C-OUT-T-EIA
U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a second week in a row according to Friday data from Baker Hughes. Drillers cut four oil rigs in the week to Aug. 25, bringing the total count down to 759.
Hedge funds and money managers, meanwhile, trimmed their bullish bets on U.S. crude futures and options positions for the third straight week in the week to Aug. 22, data showed. [CFTC/]
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Demonstrations across Egypt gather about 15 million people nationwide calling for the resignation of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. | On June 29, 2012, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi stood before millions crowding Tahrir Square on the eve of his inauguration, telling them "you are the source of power and legitimacy. There is no person, party, institution or authority over or above the will of the people."
A year later, millions of Egyptians have gathered in cities across the country demanding his resignation. Morsi won the country's first free elections, but since then he and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, have alienated one segment of Egyptians after another.
Late Sunday night, clashes were reported as hundreds of opposition protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, which were set on fire. At least five people were killed and 35 others injured.
At a late-night press conference, a spokesman repeated the president's viewpoint, laid out in a speech in the past week, acknowledged some mistakes, and invited the opposition to a dialogue, but refused to entertain any "unconstitutional" measures like the removal of Morsi.
But a coalition of opposition groups -- dubbed Tamarod, or "rebel" -- says it has collected more than 22 million signatures from Egyptian voters who want to see Morsi gone. If verified, the petitioners would far exceed the 13 million that voted Morsi into office.
"As far as they can see, Morsi had one year, but he has not doing anything," says Khaled Fahmy, a professor at the American University in Cairo. "They didn't accomplish the aims of the revolution."
The opposition is calling for the military or the country' top court to take power and oversee fresh parliamentary elections and the drafting of a new constitution that is more inclusive of minority rights and distributes power more equally between the government branches.
Both sides have held rival protests, and many confrontations have turned deadly.
At least eight people were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes north and east of Cairo in the past week. Most of the victims have been Muslim Brotherhood members, and opposition forces have attacked the party's offices in several cities. This morning, Egyptian police announced they seized more than 142 grenades and 440 rockets from two apartments in Cairo near Tahrir Square.
Three opposition protesters were killed today in Asyut in a confrontation near a Muslim Brotherhood office. A member of Al Gamaa al-Islamiya -- a group allied with the Muslim Brotherhood -- was killed in Beni Suef, south of Cairo.
But the largest opposition protests of the day remained peaceful. Egyptians came out to more than 18 locations throughout Cairo, assembling by the tens of thousands and marching on the presidential palace.
Just as those marches got underway, supporters of Morsi staged their own rallies.
Inside the Raba'a Al-Adawiya mosque in the conservative suburb of Nasr City, an old woman made rounds poking young men with a large stick, imploring them to get up and assemble in the streets. "Go to the street!," she said, "You are not here to sleep!"
Thousands of Morsi supporters have been camped out in front of the mosque, which is situated next to the Ministry of Defense, since Friday, hoping to show that Morsi is able to mobilize as many people as the opposition. But their numbers were few, and many seemed tired from the days-long stakeout.
Egyptian soldiers stood on the Ministry of Defense's balcony as hundreds of armed Muslim Brotherhood members below marched in formation.
Facing repeated attacks across the country, Morsi's supporters have developed a siege mentality.
"We will defend ourselves, but only if we are attacked," said Muhammad Zaki, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. More than half the men at the pro-Morsi rally carried large sticks and batons, and Zaki was one of a few hundred that also sported a helmet and a shield. A former conscripted soldier himself, Zaki said he expects the military to side with Morsi. "We voted for Morsi, he should stay for four years. Is there any democracy in the world where they change the president every year?" He said Morsi made some mistakes, but he prefers to keep him in office so that the country remains stable.
"The constitution says the President stays for 4 years," said Akram Elkot, a 27-year-old physician and a Morsi supporter from Alexandria. "If you don't agree with the president, then wait for new elections."
Largely denied any political role for more than 80 years in Egypt, the group focused on building networks of professional Muslims and teaching them the Brotherhood's Islamic curriculum. Each Brotherhood member in turn pays dues to the organization, and in ran a massive charity in Egypt's poor areas.
Brotherhood members were systematically targeted by former leader Hosni Mubarak's regime after the group was implicated in the assassination of his predecessor, President Anwar Sadat. Those wounds are still fresh for many of the Islamists that support Morsi.
Medhat el-Husry, a doctor in Kefr Sheikh, a rural area north of Cairo, says he went to jail several times in the 1990s for things like praying in a congregation at his university. Thousands of Brotherhood members like el-Husry met in secret for decades, fearing the Mubarak regime. They used code words to communicate and frequently changed meeting locations in an attempt to avoid drawing the attention of Mubarak's security forces.
"They're like the Free Masons," says Magdi, an anti-Morsi protester in Tahrir Square. "They control everything and only help each other."
Conspiracy theories aside, the Brotherhood has used its massive charity network to mobilize voters, and Morsi seems to be concerned foremost with scoring points in foreign policy and shoring up his own party's influence.
"They used poor people," says Bassam Abbas, a 38-year-old real estate agent camping out in Tahrir Square. Abbas says the Brotherhood is not focused on Egypt, and instead seems to be following an international agenda, as evidenced by its recent statements against Syria's Bashar al-Assad and its alliance with Hamas. "You live in Egypt, your family lives in Egypt. Take care of Egypt first, then worry about the rest of the world."
In June, Morsi appointed 17 new governors, 11 of them from Islamist parties. Seven were members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Opposition protesters responded at the time by surrounding the governors' offices, refusing to let them in and sparking violent clashes.
When Morsi appointed a Muslim Brotherhood member to the Ministry of Culture, hundreds of artists and intellectuals descended on the ministry's offices in Zamalek, a posh neighborhood west of Tahrir Square. For several weeks now, they have been occupying the building, refusing to let the Brotherhood take over because they fear its Islamist stance. Along with promoting Egyptian culture and arts, the ministry has the power to censor films and theater performances.
Morsi's supporters see themselves as the true protectors of the 2011 revolution. The opposition, they chanted at the Nasr City rally, is "fulool," or composed of remnants from Mubarak's regime.
Last year, Morsi pushed through a new constitution for Egypt despite objections and a boycott by liberal, leftist, and minority groups. He then issued a statement granting himself powers beyond the courts' reach, a move that drew sharp criticism from opponents. But Morsi said the declaration was necessary because the country needed a constitution and the courts were standing in the way.
What is seen by Brotherhood members as necessary in a post-revolution Egypt is viewed as an attempt to co-opt the revolution by the opposition. They point out that Morsi has allowed the prosecution and arrest of journalists and politicians that have spoken out against him, like the popular comedian Bassem Yousuf.
"He betrayed the revolution, betrayed Egyptians, and arrested everyone who opposed him," said Amal Sharaf, one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement, one of the earliest revolutionary groups in Egypt. In last year's elections, it supported Morsi, but it's now one of his most vocal critics.
"He thinks only he can write the constitution, only he can safeguard the Parliament, and he appoints governors from his party only...everything is his," Sharaf said.
*** Sunday's protests were not the first against Morsi. Anger over Morsi's attempt to grant himself new powers simmered over into large protests last December, which resulted in at least five deaths.
The difference this time, though, is that Morsi's failures have hit every Egyptian, and hit them hard. "The electricity used to not go out for a whole year," said Ali Shinawi, in the village of Damas, north of Cairo. "Now it goes out two hours every day." The power cuts have hit everywhere, even Cairo.
For the last three weeks, Egyptians have also been dealing with a severe gasoline shortage. Lines stretching for several kilometers are a common sight, tying up traffic on roads and highways and sparking violence between drivers. The Morsi government says the problem is being caused by smugglers who sell the fuel on the black market and deplete the supply for everyone else. But critics say the Brotherhood insists on keeping fuel prices extremely low. Egyptians pay only about $0.50 per gallon for gasoline, which is heavily subsidized. To pay for the difference, the government takes out loans, and in the past few months, Egypt's creditors have come asking for payments.
"Without the fuel shortage, we would not have this much support against Morsi,"
said Hashim, a volunteer from the opposition camp in the square. "We see completely new faces here this time, people that never even came to the [2011] revolution."
At the opposition protest in front of the presidential palace, Apache helicopters flew low, circling around. Each time they swooped down, the crowd erupted into cheers.
"See that, that is the Egyptian Army!" Mustafa proudly exclaimed, pointing to a massive parking lot that is housing dozens of armored cars and tanks. It's a staging ground for the military to quickly respond to unrest during the protests, but for opposition protesters like Mustafa, it's a sign that the army is on their side.
Back at the pro-Morsi rally, an announcer asks the supporters to "purify your intentions, purify your intentions for jihad." If the Army steps into the fray on the side of the opposition, there is a very real possibility some groups will respond with violence. "Legitimacy is the red line," one sign said at the pro-Morsi rally. Many Morsi supporters see it as their right and duty to protect a democratic constitution.
"They have to talk," said Abbas, the opposition protester in Tahrir. "We are revolutionaries, we can push the political leadership, but they have to talk. We just want them to take us back to the zero-point, to the point we were at during the [2011] revolution." | Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2013 | ['(The Atlantic)'] |
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